Chapter 2:
Beacon Hills, California
"What do mean keep you out?"
"But I've seen you in the sun, Stiles, how is it your enemy?" Several questions came from everywhere, abruptly stopping when Kaja raised a hand.
"Keep us out, as in a vampire needs a spoken invitation to enter a private home by the owner, anything public like school or a library is open to us. So is anything like a warehouse or basically any property that does not belong to a living breathing human is free for us to enter, otherwise we have to be invited in. A person does have to be living there. It's also not the direct words 'come in', you can say anything that just implies the words 'come in' but it has to be verbal, a gesture won't do it."
"The reason you've seen me out in the sun is because after weeks of being kept indoors, Mother found a solution. Daylight rings. She spelled the stone, a Lapis Lazuli stone, to protect us from the sun. So long as we wear a piece of it on us like in a ring or necklace, bracelet, really anything then we can be out in the sun. But it has to be spelled by a witch first. Its also a close kept secret that not many people know about so keep it quiet please." That last statement was said looking directly at Christopher, who gave a jerky nod.
"What happens when you step out into the sun. You said it kept you guys indoors but not why?" Allison questioned
"We burn. Without the protection of daylight jewelry, a vampire will burn in the sun. If you stay in the sun long enough, prolonged exposure, then you catch fire and die. Watch." With that, Kaja stood ignoring the quizzical sounds behind her and stood directly to the side of the large window in the loft, in the shade, and slipped her daylight ring of her finger. Warily sticking her hand out towards the sunlight, she winced when her flesh began to sizzle and burn. Grinding her teeth, she kept it there until the appendage caught on fire, quickly yanking her hand back into her chest and doubling over it.
Derek appeared in front of her, thrusting the daylight ring on the finger of her other hand then pulling her burnt hand out towards himself and the pack gathered around them, all of them wearing alarmed expressions but the Hales turning particularly ghost like. They all made noises of relief and wonder as they watched the skin knit itself back together faster than even their own healing.
"Don't do that again." It was the first thing Derek had asked her or said to her since the Alpha Pack attacked an hour ago.
"I won't, believe me it's not exactly an experience I wish to relive anytime soon, even if I won't die from it."
"What do mean 'won't die from it', I thought you just said..." Derek scrunched his eyebrows in confusion as he stared at her.
"A regular vampire will spontaneously combust and die, so will an Original. The difference is that an Original will not stay dead, as soon as our body is brought back into the shade or is wearing a piece of daylight jewelry on us then we regenerate or heal."
"Why does he want you dead?" Derek softly asked, both of them now ignoring the rest of the pack despite knowing they were there and listening in.
"At the time we turned into vampires, none of us had actually killed anyone, only animals for food. But after, the bloodlust was too much for us to control. All of us killed while learning how to get to get a handle on everything. After we learnt, we, particularly Nik, Kol and myself, didn't see a reason why we should have to. Vampires are a predatory species, humans to us are simply food. You hunt and kill animals for meat, we do the same for blood. With that attitude, let's just say we got on quite a few people's bad sides." Kaja smiled self-depreciatingly, only to wipe the look off of her face and smile reassuringly when she felt the pinch on the hand still being held by the Alpha.
"Who's Nik? Boyfriend, perhaps." Erica smile, full of mischief, only grew wider at the growl let out by Derek, as did the smiles on everyone else's faces.
"Oh Gods No! That's disgusting, EW, NO! Nik's my older brother." Kaja's face grew green at the thought. "Nik and Klaus are nicknames for the same person. My brother's full name is Niklaus."
"So, Nik-" Erica started only to be interrupted.
"Klaus." Kaja interjected, looking sternly at the blonde "Don't call him Nik, that name is something only his siblings have complete freedom to use, otherwise he only lets close friends call him that; friends that he has known and trusted for centuries, even then it depends on his mood. If you do ever meet him, it's better to be in the habit of calling him Klaus until he lets you call him Nik, otherwise it's a sure-fire way to piss him off."
"Got it. So, Klaus isn't your boyfriend, anyone who is?"
"No" she replied shortly
"An all powerful vampire, and you still can't get a guy to look twice at you?" Snorted Jackson
"Depends on if I want them dead or not." She smirked back "Interested, Jackson?"
"Dead!?" Scott's exclamation drowned out the sound of snickering and Jackson's vehement refusal.
"I have three overprotective big brothers and an even more protective twin brother. If you think anyone my sister or I date ever has the fortune, or misfortune depending on how you look at it, live then you are very much so mistaken." Kaja deadpanned
"But-"
"We are vampires, a predatory species. It is not in our nature to be nice, kind and compassionate. While we can be those things, yes, we have a natural predisposition to violence and death. The life of a supernatural being always is filled with death but for vampires, even more so. Before you ask, Yes, I have killed people before. When you've lived as long as I have then a body count is inevitable. Find the nicest most compassionate vampire on earth and threaten them or someone they love, then see how how nice and compassionate they are." There was a hardened glint in her eye that the pack had never seen before.
"Killing people is wrong." Scott flexed his jaw angrily. "This isn't you, Stiles."
Kaja gave up being nice and instead rose to her full height of 6"1 in 6 inch heels, and sped straight in front of Scott, who yelped and backed away both at the sudden movement and her true face. "My name is Kaja Mikaelson and this is exactly who I am. What part of 'I'm a vampire', do you not understand? We enjoy the hunt, the feed, the kill; and if, if not when, if the guilt gets to bad then flick that handy little humanity switch and turn it off. We revel in it."
"Whenever Nik and I have any type of disagreement then he kills my friends and/or lovers after which I repay the favor and kill his. It is a never-ending cycle between us. We will fight, he will get angry and storm off, come back covered in the blood of which ever friends or lovers of mine that he killed then it's my turn to storm off and do the same. At that point, one of our other siblings, usually Elijah or Rebekah will intervene and stop us before we can go further, Kol usually took my side unless it was about a lover of mine, then I would have Rebekah on my side."
Hearing all the hearts beating furiously in the background, she backed away slowly not taking her eyes off Scott but getting her true face under control. "When you feel bad about killing animals to get their meat, the next time you can't stomach a burger, then come and lecture me on what's right or wrong. There are humans out there that just kill because they like it, they're called serial killers and psychopaths. I kill humans, but I do it for food, survival of the fittest if you will. I'd loose that the black and white outlook thing you got going on, Scott McCall, before it gets you killed, and in this world, it will."
"Scott, shut up!" Melissa hissed, staring angrily at her son along with the rest of the pack.
"Mom!" Scott sounded indigent, not understanding why she wasn't on his side.
"No! You are wrong about this!" Her heart didn't skip a beat, she was telling the truth. Melissa truly didn't see anything wrong with it, different species meant different rules, besides Stiles or Kaja was a hell of a lot older than her, the nurse wasn't in a position to judge, neither was anyone else in the pack. Kaja had moved to the open kitchen, still in view of everyone else as she grabbed the bottle of bourbon she knew Derek kept in the cupboard, opening the bottle and taking a deep swing.
"Why didn't you run before?" Malia interrupted the awkward silence, not being to grasp the concept of staying with someone who kept stabbing you in the back by killing people you loved.
"He's still my brother, what am I supposed to do? Hate him for all of eternity? My siblings and I swore a vow to each-other when we buried Mother. We argue and bicker, fight and attack each other, sabotage each other, stab each other in the back, plot to kill each other, but at the end of it all we are still family and we will stand together against any threat that comes forward. I may have run, but have no doubt, I will go back to them, in about a century or a couple decades, if Nik doesn't find me first. Always and Forever."
The words nearly hurt to say, especially after so long when she wasn't saying it to her siblings. The pack may be close, but she and her siblings had a little over a millennium of memories together, both good and bad. More than that the pack understood; they were the same, just not so violent in their actions against each other.
"How come we remember seeing you around when we were kids?" Erica asked, changing the subject.
"I have a lot of contacts throughout the supernatural world, a witch I knew had a ritual to de-age me and make me temporarily human. There were a lot of fail safes written into the spell, but I got my memories back slowly from age of 8 onwards. The full vampire powers would have come back as well, the latest being when I was 19 while the earliest being any time I was reintroduced to the supernatural world, which happened when I was 16 and Scott was bit."
"I was coming back from my meeting with your mother," she said, turning to Derek, "when I came across John and Claudia on a hiking trail leading into the preserve. John had a nasty fall and ended up with a branch in his abdomen, he was bleeding out and dying when I stumbled across them. I healed him and we made a deal, in exchange fore keeping my secret and allowing me to hide out here with them, I would pretend to be their daughter. Claudia just a miscarriage so I changed everyone's memories and far as anyone was aware it never happened and a healthy baby girl was born."
"That's why?" Melissa asked, realization dawning on her and Peter's face.
"Yes, Claudia had to stay out of sight for a few weeks while the spell was being prepared and performed."
"Why did you keep it hidden for so long? You could've beaten Gerard in an instant in that basement." Boyd asked, Erica's head snapping up as she stared intently for an answer, only for another question to rise up instead.
"What basement?" growled out the Alpha, eyes flashing red as everyone else wondered the same thing. Kaja, Erica Boyd and the Argents winced, looking at each other.
"Sorry." Erica meekly spoke up.
"Don't ever be sorry for asking questions. I told you, full disclosure, whatever you want to know, if I don't tell you, or its not clear then ask. If I don't want to answer anything then I'll say so but don't hold the questions back." Waiting until she got affirmations from the entire pack, Kaja sighed and answered when another impatient growl filled the air. She had already told the Sherriff the truth.
"Gerard kidnapped me from the lacrosse game that Friday. I woke up in the basement, enjoyed their accommodations a bit before breaking Erica and Boyd out of there. They were supposed to go straight to you, but got caught by the Alpha Pack along the way. After that, he beat me up some more, before dumping on the side of the road as a message. I ran home and told John what happened, we decided to tell everyone that the other team grabbed me and roughed me up a bit. The bruises only last so long because a witch cast a glamour. And I kept it hidden because if one hunter knew then the news would spread, I couldn't take that risk."
"You were tortured!?" that particular exclamation came from Lydia; clearly, she was remembering the help she gave her afterwards with driving her jeep into the Kanima/Jackson.
"If you can call it torture, though personally I wouldn't." the original shrugged.
"What do you mean? Stiles, I know he broke at least four of your ribs and cracked your skull, at least. He did more too. How is that not torture?" several gasps, growls and exclamations rang out at Boyd's words.
"I don't call that torture because I've tortured people worse than that. I was raised as a Viking, remember. What Gerard did was not torture, it was an amateur trying to play with the big boys, and failing, badly at that."
"Damn, that means we can't watch Derek should down so many of your plans anymore. You can fight better than us." Isaac pouted. The rest of the pack snorted and snickered.
"Come clean about being a vampire and all they care about is their entertainment. I'm surrounded with toddlers, swear to the Gods." Kaja rolled her eyes, ignoring how the laughter got louder at her words.
"And speaking of that, Derek if you ever happen to meet my siblings, might I suggest you not interrupt them while their speaking and especially not slamming them into the nearest surface. Unlike me, they won't control their temper and I would hate to see you dead." Slightly pale, he nodded while everyone else snickered.
"How come you didn't tell us?" Allison asked, the curiosity in her eyes in full effect, she hadn't looked at Scott once since their small argument, neither had the others.
"I would have come clean about it earlier if you were in any danger of getting actually getting killed otherwise it probably would been if something came after me. Telling people about this goes against the in hiding side of things and while I know you never tell someone, there are ways to get answers out of people in other ways that don't require you being co-operative or willing. Keeping you quite was just as much keeping you safe as it was myself."
There was a silence in the loft as they all processed the information and Kaja stood, only to be bombarded with questions. Raising a hand, she reassured them she was going to go for a run to get food and give them time to think things over, see if they wanted her in the pack after all and speeding out of the loft before they could say anything else.
"It explains why she always knew so much about everything." Lydia finally said, raising an eyebrow when all eyes turned her way.
"It certainly does explain a lot." Peter agreed with a smirk, but his eyes were fixed on Scott, who clenched his jaw and stared back defiantly. The rest of pack and fellow adults followed the elder Hale's line of sight; Melissa and John sighed in recognition at the look.
"Scott-" Melissa started only to get interrupted.
"Your wrong, killing people is never right!" Scott interjected.
"Do not interrupt me Scott McCall!" Melissa's eyes flared in anger, instantly making her son fall quiet. "Yes, killing people is wrong but it depends on circumstances. If they are threatening you, if you are in danger or you are protecting someone then it counts as self defense. If you are a soldier or an officer of the law then it is alright. The only time killing someone is wrong is if they are doing it out of their own pleasure but that is for humans. Stiles is not human, she is a vampire and that means she follows different laws and a different culture that we don't know so we cannot judge."
"It's more than that." Chris sighed, elaborating when everyone looked to him curiously. "The Originals are considered vampire royalty. They are the first, the strongest and fastest, the most feared; all vampires originate from them which gives them both the right and responsibility to rule over vampires and make their laws. If someone breaks those laws then the Originals are responsible for punishing them. The Originals are royalty."
"When she told Deucalion to call her Lady Mikaelson, she was not joking." Peter took over the explanation. "She really is a lady though technically her real title in the vampire world would be Queen Kaja. Just like her sister would be Queen Rebekah or her brothers would be Kings. It's their job to rule over the vampire species and make sure they don't expose the supernatural world to the humans. That does mean passing out punishments and killing people when necessary."
"But she said-" Scott tried to say
"She said that her brothers killed her friends or lovers, she said that she did the same, but we don't know why. For all we know, they might have been a threat, they might have done something. We don't know the full story so we can't judge." This time it was John who spoke up, not that it did much to change Scott's opinion.
"Besides, you were ready to kill Peter without much thought." Derek interjected, seeing the lack of understanding in the teen.
"That's different!" Scott tried to defend him self but was drowned out by everyone else's reaction.
"WHAT!" The word rang through the loft, nobody besides Scott, Derek and Peter knew that little piece of information.
"It was when Peter was crazy," Derek started to explain, "there was no other way to stop him but to kill him but I could do it alone. I didn't even know that it was Peter. Stiles was human, I was a beta without a pack, and Scott was the only other wolf. I needed his help to stop Peter so I told him that there was this old myth that said if you kill the alpha wolf that bit you then you would be cured. I told Scott that I didn't know if it was true but that if he helped me find the alpha then I would help him kill it." The next sentence was said looking straight at the bull headed teen. "You jumped on the opportunity, what happened to killing is never right back then?"
"Way to be a hypocrite, McCall." Jackson sneered.
"That's-" Scott said weakly.
"That is not different, it's the same thing." Erica snapped back.
"Even if it's not the same thing, it doesn't matter. You said that killing is never right, so it doesn't matter what reasons you have or that's it's different, by your own philosophy, it's never right." Melissa took over the conversation again. "And don't think for a second we will not talk more about this, or why you seemed to have forget to mention it the first time around." Scott winced at his mother's words, while the other pack members smirked and snickered.
"Perhaps, you'd like to share your thoughts with the class," Peter prompted his nephew, who looked away but all eyes were on Derek now. Besides shoving the ring on Kaja's finger, the alpha had been silent, only saying three things and it set them all on edge. "We're all just dying to know your opinion on Kaja's secret."
"She's a vampire." Derek bit out, and all the betas visibly flinched. Derek sighed before softening his tone, realizing he had the entire pack on edge.
"A vampire who only revealed herself to save my life, again." Erica pointed out, and Derek looked towards his beta, softening some more. "I know, I am thankful she saved you, my wolf is just a bit on edge right now, since I didn't see it before. I keep thinking its Stiles then my wolf reminds me that he might be threat to the pack." Peter calmed down a bit, seeing the struggle and having experienced it himself; on one hand, Derek was been his nephew and on the other hand, he had been a threat.
"But, she's still pack, right?" Allsion asked tentatively, looking nervous and puppy eyes in full effect as he looked to the Alpha. The others quickly copied her, all looking to their alpha for reassurance.
"Yes, she is still pack. We already have a resurrected wolf, a hunter, a banshee, and a kanima turned wolf, we can have a vampire as well." Derek commented dryly, looking around at his make shift pack, watching them all relax at his words.
"Does that mean Stiles is going to help train us now?" Isaac spoke up, continuing when everyone looked at him. "No offence, but the Alpha Pack kicked our asses and Stiles dealt with them without breaking a sweat."
"I'll think about it." Derek replied, lips twitching when the other betas let out groans. He knew he was hard on them but as evidenced, the Alpha Pack was a lot stronger and had wiped the floor with them. The young Hale was sure Stiles would be even harder on all of them, but at least it would make sure they could stay alive in a fight, even if it was just to stall someone long enough for the others to come. He took out his phone, texting Stiles to come back over as the others cracked jokes and gently shoved Isaac for the harder training regime, ignoring the smug smile on Peter's face.