Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Diaries in any shape or form. But I do own my OC.
A/N: This is the chapter where Aliyah tells her story to Caroline and Bonnie. Some more Bonliyah and Caroliyah bonding as well. Hope you enjoy!
Okay, so this is the last chapter I'll post before I go back to university tomorrow. I'm going to try my hardest to update every week but that only works if I write a chapter a week. I will try my hardest, but updates might be a little slower than usual. Sorry about that.
Reviews:
Slytherin Studios: Thank you so much!
Practically Charmed: I'm so glad you liked the chapter! I loved writing Tonnie in this episode because Tyler was really there for her, especially when she found out that Caroline and Elena forgot about her eighteenth birthday. I just thought that sucked so much. Season 3 had two birthday episodes for Elena and Caroline and Bonnie had to wait six seasons for hers and it was a suicide-themed episode in the end. They missed Bonnie's birthday like twice and I felt like I had to correct that. I felt really bad for Caroline in Brave New World because I felt like she was completely alone. At least Aliyah was there to correct that. And I did enjoy writing Damon getting his arse kicked by both Aliyah and Bonnie, especially Aliyah. I think Stefan's can be saved, but I think Damon is unredeemable and Elena get worse as the seasons go by. I was actually playing with the idea of Stebekah in this story. Caroliyah will begin with this chapter and will stretch out for awhile. The fight-training scene will happen in a couple of chapters, I promise. Thank you so much, and don't worry about it. I think it's a Yosemite problem, so I've been using Google Chrome to edit all of my chapters for the time being.
NicoleR85: That's my problem with Elena, Stefan and Damon. I liked Elena in Season 1 and then I started to see all of the flaws in her personality and I felt like they were trying to make her seem perfect, when she's not. Stefan was okay, but I got annoyed when I saw the how he'd sell out everyone if it meant saving Elena. I hated Damon in Seasons 1, 2 and 3 and some of the things he's done in Season 5 and 6 started to make me like him, but I can't forget about some of the stuff he pulled in the earlier seasons. I think Damon and Stefan are better without a doppelganger and I think it's better for Elena to be with someone who hasn't slept with her exact copy. She deserves a less all-consuming love. She needs something fun and gentle and not devastating like her love triangle with Stefan and Damon is. I think she gets sucked into their toxic three-way and she loses herself. She could be a lot better if she would just leave them.
Guest: Oh, my God, thank you so much! Unfortunately, I couldn't manage a second update for Valentine's Day, but I hope this update is good enough. It's got plenty of juicy bits in it.
Skyeward MusicLover: Thank you so much! The relationship between Aliyah and Katherine is so much more complicated than that scene in particular. You'll have to wait and see to find out what happened between them.
Calliope's Scribe: I hope the Elena bashing hasn't been too strong. I've been trying to dial it down, because I'm a little scared I'm offending someone. Thank you so much!
Guest: Thank you so much!
Aiphira: Thank you so much! Expect so much more Caronliyah to come!
Guest: I'm not saying a word about what I plan to do in The Originals. You'll just have to wait and see.
RaeSage: Bonnie's outlook on the world has changed since Aliyah came into her life which means the plotline will be changing very soon. I do find that Bonnie and Caroline are the more well-rounded characters and they can be very under-appreciated. Hopefully, you like this chapter!
UntiedHeartbeat: I'm sorry if the Elena bashing offends you, but I'm intending it that way. Aliyah just doesn't like Elena. She's pretty much like Rebekah in that aspect. And Bonnie and Caroline are angry at Elena, so they're visibly showing it. I'm sorry if it offends you, I can't tell you whether it'll be over soon or not.
LadyDV011: Thank you so much!
Guest: Thank you so much!
Guest: Unfortunately, I don't really ship Bamon and Tonnie's going to be there for awhile. I really want to see Klaus and Aliyah together, but we'll have to wait and see what happens between them.
BeaAdriana: Thank you so much! I thought it would be interesting to change Caroline's sire so that I could change the dynamic between Caroline's sire and her. This way, Caroline and Aliyah have this bond set in stone between them already. I am not telling anyone whom I've paired with Caroline, because it's a big surprise. I'm not really focusing on Elena's story unless in intersects with Aliyah's, Bonnie's or Caroline's story because I'm writing this story around Aliyah, Bonnie and Caroline. Bonnie's reaction to Original Vampires will come out in this story and the werewolf revelation happens here as well. This is a very important chapter to understanding Aliyah.
Katherine Sparrow: Thank you so much!
tate4eva: Thank you so much!
Timer: I've got a bunch of ideas for what happens in The Originals. And Bonnie definitely has a part to play in the events of the spin-off. Marcel's role is... confusing... to me, because Aliyah's pretty much like his mother. I don't know if he'd flirt with Bonnie, maybe Caroline? Um, I have plans for Hayley, but they're not set in stone because I want her to show up in Season 4.
AK: Thank you!
Guest: Thank you so much! I'm really waiting for more present day Klaus, there's some more coming up, I promise.
Dime: Thank you so much!
Game: I'm glad you liked it!
PrincessMagic: Thank you so much!
lovetolongago: Thank you so much! I know, I miss Klaus too, but seeing as we get Aliyah's story in this chapter, I hope it makes up for the lack of Klausness. I didn't want to go down the sire bond road because that has its own slave issues to it and I didn't want to spoil their relationship. I actually wrote a bunch of paragraphs on how I've actually characterised Caroline and Aliyah's bond (which makes me sound like an absolute tool) but it more has to do with Caroline's tendency to please everyone else and her desire not to disappoint Aliyah, which has been heightened by her transition to a vampire. The lack of Bonnie's birthday really shocked me, because they've done it like two or three times before they did it in that Season 6 episode, and even that was like a suicide-themed episode. This chapter has some of the major revelations in it, so you'll definitely get to see Bonnie's reaction to the whole 'Tyler is a werewolf thing'. I feel like the Originals could've just killed them all if they wanted to and they were just screwing with them. I'm almost tempted to have Aliyah kill Damon for what he did to Caroline or maybe whoever ends up as her love interest do it, before they leave to New Orleans. Damon was entirely too cocky around vampires who were a good eight-hundred years older than him. But he was like that around Katherine as well. He's just either stupid or he thinks everything's a game. The Originals storyline has been slightly changed as you'll see in these chapters and I will be changing quite a bit by the time we get to Season 3 and 4 and The Originals. Oh, don't worry about the length of your review. I love reading long ones because it gives me a chance to talk about my story and TVD in general. Thank you so much for your review!
LokiLova: Thank you so much! I think Bonnie is the more under-appreciated of the series. Sometimes, Caroline is a bit more, because it does come out that Bonnie gets screwed over by a bunch of people and she does get her payback, but I always felt like Caroline always got the raw deal. Anyway, I love them both, so I wanted to see how their personality changed if someone like Aliyah was in their lives.
randomlittleme: Oh, I love replying to reviews! I love long reviews because they give me a chance to talk about TVD and Stormdancer. I'm glad you like Tonnie and I'm really eager to rewrite some of those Forwood moments in Season 2 with Tonnie instead. I'm experimenting with a darker Caroline and Bonnie in this story, both of them influenced by Aliyah, so Caroline's control over her bloodlust will be interesting. I don't really ship Maroline because I feel like Caroline deserves better than someone who's still in love with Elena and someone who's never going to accept Caroline as a vampire. I think Matt has serious issues which make him not good enough for Caroline. He was quite mean to her in early Season 2. Who breaks up with a girl days after she's just been in a car accident for being jealous? And in Season 1, he blamed her for being jealous of his relationship with Elena, but if they're on a double date and Matt's paying more attention to Elena than Caroline, then there's something seriously wrong with their relationship and it's not Caroline's fault. Matt just kind of screwed with Caroline. He never had a nice thing to say about her and he used her insecurities against her. Sorry, I just don't think Matt and Caroline are good together. Especially, since Caroline wasn't good enough for Matt, but Rebekah was. And then, he kind of screwed with Rebekah as well. Like he and his friends have clear consciences. I mean, Matt helped kill one of Rebekah's brothers. He acted as if he were so much better than her, because he didn't kill people. And he walked away from her because she was just trying to save the remaining brothers she had. I don't know, I'm just not a huge fan of Matt. He really did treat Caroline and Rebekah like crap and I can't get over that. So, I'm tempted to have Aliyah do something to him so they don't get back together. I like Jenna and Alaric together, and I think Aliyah needs a friend her own age. Yeah, Aliyah's going to have a bunch of those moments where she gets to go off at Elena. And I agree, Bonnie deserves an episode entirely dedicated to herself. It's too bad they made the one Bonnie birthday episode one about her suicide because she deserved better. And no problem, I love reading long reviews!
CrystalVixen93: I'm so glad you liked it and thank you so much!
cla: Thank you so much!
Stormdancer
Chapter 11
Enjoy the Silence
It was late the next morning when Caroline and Bonnie woke up. Caroline snuggled into the covers and turned around the bed, her eyes peeking out when the sunlight assaulted her face. Her eyes widened and she screamed bloody murder. In a single moment, Aliyah had rushed over to Caroline's side of the bed and Bonnie's eyes snapped open as she hurtled forwards in the bed, casting worried and frantic eyes everywhere, until they settled on a cowering Caroline in Aliyah's soothing embrace.
"It's okay, pretty girl," Aliyah crooned, smoothing the hair back from Caroline's damp forehead. "See," She slipped the daylight ring off her finger and held her hand up to the glass, where the sunlight shone on her smooth skin. "See, doesn't hurt, darling. I promise, the glass will protect you." She said, rocking Caroline.
"In the hospital… the sun… it…" Caroline stammered, feeling tears sting her eyes.
"I know, darling." Aliyah murmured. "The sun burns a vampire's skin, but if they have one of these rings," She held up her gold ring with the lapis lazuli stone. "You can be protected from it."
"Why isn't it burning me now?" Caroline hurriedly wiped the tears away from her eyes, quickly.
"I had the windows installed with a protective film that protects us from the sun's ray. The tempered glass protects us from UV rays, so we're safe until we can get you a daylight ring like me." Aliyah explained, allowing Caroline to relax on the bed.
"What's a daylight ring?" Caroline asked, quietly, burrowing the back of her head into the pillow.
"It's a ring with a lapis lazuli gemstone which is enchanted by a witch. The ring allows vampires to walk freely in the sunlight." Aliyah murmured. She looked at Bonnie, who determinedly looked away. "We'll get you one." She said, reassuringly.
Bonnie swallowed hard and slipped out of the covers, moving around the bed to the side where Aliyah and Caroline were, taking a seat beside Aliyah and placing a hand on Caroline's hand, squeezing gently, letting her best friend know that she was here for her. It took her a few seconds to push away the nausea that assaulted her at fist touch – at first, Aliyah putting her hands on her had given her the same reaction, but prolonged exposure to the older woman and her growing affection towards her had all but removed the feeling; she just hoped the same would be for Caroline as well – but she took in a deep breath and let herself remember the human Caroline. Just because Caroline had to be a vampire didn't mean she would let go of everything that made her who she was. She just had to look at Aliyah for proof. Sure, she had a dark side, but she tried her hardest to be good and decent. She may have many problems with Stefan Salvatore, but even he had the capability of acting human.
She wondered with dread what she would have done if she hadn't met Aliyah and Caroline had been turned into a vampire. Would she have turned her back on her best friend? She thought it was interesting to think about, to see how much knowing Aliyah had changed her mindset. She guessed that she would have turned her back on Caroline, but she also may have let go of her anger towards Elena and Stefan. She probably would have still tried to kill Damon, but Elena would have been the one to stop her and she probably would have agreed.
She wondered just how much of her morals she was willing to dismiss for Elena Gilbert.
"I'll look through Emily's grimoires and the ones that Aliyah gave me to find the spell to make you a daylight ring, Care." Bonnie said, reassuringly.
Aliyah looked at her, gratefully and proudly, one of arms coming around to wrap around her shoulder.
"I thought-I thought you were mad at me." Caroline stammered, running her hands over her face, the rush of emotion blinding her control momentarily. "I thought you hated me. Because of all of this." She looked down at her in disgust.
Aliyah growled. "Now, don't go self-hating, darling. It'll give you wrinkles." She said, firmly.
"I don't hate you, Caroline." Bonnie whispered, feeling all of a sudden ashamed at the way she had reacted last night. "I hate that it happened to you." She tucked a few strands of her hair behind her ear and bit her lip. "You deserved better than to be brought into all of this, Care."
Aliyah, quietly, slid out of her position in the middle and moved back over to the couch, resolving to let the two best friends have their chat.
"Why didn't you tell me any of this, Bon?" Caroline asked, weakly, her lower lip quivering.
"I tried, Care, I told you that I was a witch and you didn't believe me." Bonnie said, helplessly. "Elena convinced me that you not knowing was the best thing for you."
"Who the hell died and made Elena in charge?" Caroline snarled, throwing her hands up in the air, using every shred of her self-control to stop her vampire features from slipping out and scaring Bonnie.
"I don't know." Bonnie confessed, slowly. "I shouldn't have listened to her."
"But, after Damon… you didn't think I should know?" Caroline whispered.
Bonnie swallowed hard. "I'm so sorry, Care." She whispered, the tears falling.
"Bonnie, he raped me." Caroline sobbed. "I remember everything he did to me. The memories keep returning." She cried.
Bonnie threw her arms around Caroline and allowed her to cry in her shoulder, Aliyah coming up beside them and placing a firm hand on Caroline's shoulder, keeping her face blank of all emotion, but Bonnie stared into Aliyah's eyes and she could see the burning anger in her brown eyes.
"Caroline." Aliyah said, softly, and Caroline broke away from Bonnie to look at Aliyah, her cheeks damp from tears. "I'm going to teach you how to be strong." She said, firmly. "So that nothing like what happened to you ever happens again."
"How?" Caroline whispered.
"Well, first, I'm going to teach you how to control your hunger. So, we'll hunt." Aliyah said, cheerfully, a bright smile forming on her face.
"Wait, Aliyah-" Bonnie began to protest, shooting her with a nervous look that spoke volumes.
"Calm down, Bonnie girl," Aliyah waved off. "No one will die, I promise." She said, reassuringly. "That's all part of the lesson. I'm going to teach her how to hunt without having to kill someone." She said, sweetly.
"No one dies?" Bonnie said, nervously.
"No one dies." Aliyah said, determinedly.
"Okay, then." Bonnie said, quietly. "Do you have to go now, though?" She asked, slowly.
Aliyah frowned and looked at Caroline. "How hungry are you?"
"Not much." Caroline shrugged. "I kinda gorged myself yesterday. I had a few blood bags and I bit a nurse, but then I did this kind of hypnosis thing and she just repeated what I said and walked away."
"You compelled her." Aliyah explained. "Mind compulsion is an ability possessed by vampires. It allows the vampire to control another person's mind by making eye contact."
"So, wait, I can control peoples' minds?" Caroline breathed.
"Well, yes," Aliyah nodded. "But don't misuse it." She said, warningly. "It'll alert people to the existence of vampires if humans go around without
Caroline nodded, emphatically.
"So, if you guys don't have to go now," Bonnie began, hesitantly. "I was wondering, Aliyah, if you would tell us your story… now that everything's a bit calmer."
Caroline frowned, her brow furrowing. "What do you mean?"
Aliyah's shoulders slumped. She sighed. "Okay, fine." She licked her lips, nervously. "Why don't you both get dressed and we'll go and sit near the fire pit?" She said, lightly, her eyes betraying her anxiety.
Bonnie and Caroline looked at each other and nodded.
"Aliyah." Bonnie called out and grabbed Aliyah by the arm just before they entered Caroline's room. "Can I talk to you for a second?" She asked, quietly.
Aliyah blinked. "Yes, of course, darling," She pulled Bonnie into an empty room. "What's the matter, Bonnie?" She asked, gently.
Bonnie looked up at her, vulnerability shining in her eyes. "Is it bad that I feel slightly uncomfortable doing this?" She asked, quietly. "I mean, I don't want to feel like this, but-"
"You can't help it." Aliyah finished and sighed. "Look, it's in your instincts not to trust vampires, Bonnie girl. We've had three months to get over your problems with me." She murmured. "Give it some time. You'll realise that Caroline is still Caroline… just with a different kind of appetite than yours."
"She killed someone, Aliyah." Bonnie said, quietly. "If I make her a daylight ring, I'm just making it easier for her to kill again."
"She did kill someone." Aliyah nodded. "But she did it because she was hungry. When I first turned into a vampire, the need to feed was so great that I killed a few people too." She confessed. She placed a hand on Bonnie's shoulder. "I understand your misgivings, but you don't understand what the bloodlust feels like. It's the worst mixture of hunger and thirst a person it can have. It's as if you haven't eaten for a hundred years and there it is, flowing through veins, right under the surface of the skin. It takes a while to control yourself, Bonnie, and Caroline was just turned last night."
"How do you know she won't hurt anyone else?" Bonnie asked, nervously.
"I don't." Aliyah said, honestly. "She may very well kill someone else. But she needs to know that her friends will support her. Bonnie," Aliyah leaned in, her voice a hushed a whisper. "Her mother is on the Founders' Council. There is a very good chance that Liz Forbes may turn her back on her own daughter. She needs to know that she has people who love her even if she does slip up once in awhile. By giving her this daylight ring, we are not making this easier for her; we're just giving a chance to survive with what's happened to her. To learn and to grow."
"Bonnie, Caroline is so very young. She's not even eighteen yet." Aliyah sighed and ran her hands through her hair. "She hasn't even begun to live her life. Listen, every single day that she is isolated from her old life: from you, from Elena, from Matt, it will make it that much harder for her to hold on to her humanity. Then, she'll turn it off and she really won't care how many humans she kills to fill her stomach." She said, grimly. "This is where you prove just how much Caroline means to you. Do you love her enough to let go of your misgivings – like you did with me – or are you willing to let her go?"
"Okay, so I found it." Bonnie declared, storming into the entrance hall, where Aliyah and Caroline were waiting for her, ready to go outside and test the ring once she had finished spelling it.
In her hands was one of the grimoires that she had found in Aliyah's collection, the pages swept to the side until the book parted on the page which held the spell to make daylight rings.
"So, wait, I don't even get to choose the ring I have to wear for the rest of my life." Caroline complained, turning the sterling silver ring with the set lapis lazuli stone around in her palm.
"Well, if you'd much rather like to go outside into the sun – which would cause you unbelievable pain, by the way – and go ring shopping, by all means." Aliyah said, sarcastically, her face lighting up with a beaming smile as she gestured to the door.
"But, hey, if you don't want it…" Bonnie shrugged, playfully, moving to snatch the ring off Caroline.
Caroline pulled her hand away before Bonnie could reach, her eyes widening with alarm. "No, no," She exclaimed, remembering how her skin had blistered and burnt yesterday in the hospital. "I want it." She pouted.
Aliyah and Bonnie laughed at the put-out expression of Caroline's face.
"So, now what?" Caroline looked between Aliyah and Bonnie.
"Now is the part where I explain the rules." Bonnie began, seriously. "The witch who spells the ring has the power to dispel it, so I need you to at least try and not hurt anyone, Caroline." She pleaded.
Caroline nodded, firmly. "I'm not gonna hurt anyone." She swore.
Bonnie sighed. "I understand that you are a vampire, which means the urge to kill is a part of who you are. But, I need you to listen to Aliyah and go to her if you start having problems." Her shoulders slumped. "I am trying, Caroline. Give me some time." She said, softly.
Caroline swallowed hard and realised how different this Bonnie was to the one who had been in the parking lot last night. Bonnie may be her best friend but she had to overcome all of her concerns about vampires before she could begin to properly trust Caroline.
She had seen the way that Bonnie had looked at the Salvatores and the way Bonnie had viciously attacked Damon, and she guessed that there was no love lost between the two. She wondered if that was the strain in Bonnie's and Elena's relationship. Elena's continued relationship with Stefan and her so-called friendship with Damon – which, by the way, makes me angry as hell; Elena is my best friend and she's hanging out with my abuser/rapist. Bonnie just needed some time to get over it. She had done it with Aliyah, she could do it with Caroline.
"Now, give the ring to Bonnie." Aliyah instructed.
Bonnie took the ring off Caroline and waited for Caroline to move over to a secluded part of the entrance hall, so that the sunlight wouldn't burn her, before Bonnie threw the door open, allowing the sunlight to filter through the canopy of trees that surrounded them and land on the lapis lazuli stone of the ring. Bonnie stared at the ring and looked at it, her eyes flashing as her magic welled up inside of her and flared, brightly, closing her eyes for a moment and muttering something under her breath.
She sighed and opened her eyes, her lips stilling, and she handed the ring back to Caroline. "All done." She said, smiling, gently.
Caroline took the ring from her and slid it on her finger, admiring the way it looked on her skin.
"So, that's it? I mean nothing witchy happened. You know, no flickering lights, no gust of wind. Have you ever done this before?" She asked, hesitantly.
Bonnie threw open the door and the sunlight hit Caroline, illuminating her face and reflecting off the golden hue of her hair. Caroline's skin stayed perfectly smooth and she let out a breath of relief, feeling the sudden urge to cry. Aliyah wrapped her arm around Caroline's shoulder and the younger vampire leaned her head on her shoulder.
"If you really want, and Bonnie's not too objectionable, maybe later we could go and buy you a different ring and cast the spell on that?" Aliyah offered.
Caroline frowned, suddenly. "Why do you have two rings?" She asked, curiously, gesturing to the lapis lazuli stone on her silver necklace, beside her silver pentagram pendant, and to the other ring on her finger.
Aliyah smiled and ducked her head, rocking back on her heels. She pointed at the ring on her necklace. "This was the first piece of jewellery that my husband ever bought me. It was my very first daylight ring." She held up her hand and flashed the second lapis lazuli ring at Caroline and Bonnie. "I bought this to commemorate my stay in New Orleans back in 1919." She smiled, sadly. "It was one of the more happier times of my life." She explained, softly.
Aliyah stilled, suddenly, and her eyes widened. She turned to Caroline. "We actually have a bit of an issue with you, Caroline." She began, slowly.
Caroline's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?" She asked, confused.
"You see, there was actually certain reasons I invited you to stay here with us last night. One, I wanted you to be near me, so that if you had any issues with your transition, I would be close by. I'd rather it be me you came to rather than the Salvatore brothers, because Stefan isn't exactly the poster-boy for contentment with vampirism and Damon… well, you can imagine." She said, sarcastically. "The second reason actually has to do with your mother."
Caroline raised an eyebrow, suspiciously. "What do you mean? What does my mom have to do with this?"
"You're aware that your mother is on the Founders' Council?" Aliyah said, slowly.
Caroline nodded. "Yeah, they're in charge of commemorating the foundation of the town. They're the ones in charge of all of the Founders' Events like Founders' Day, Miss Mystic Falls and everything else that's happened in the last few weeks."
"Yes, officially." Aliyah nodded. "But when I first came to town, Damon informed me that their unofficial goal is to protect the town from vampires." She explained.
Caroline laughed. She stopped when she saw the grim looks on Bonnie's and Aliyah's faces. "You're joking." She chuckled. She stopped. "You've got to be joking. You're telling me that the Town Council are a bunch of vampire hunters? My mom included?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Your mother wears vervain." Aliyah said, quietly. "I can smell it on her."
Caroline shook her head. "My mom's a workaholic, sure, and she's a bit judgemental. But she's not a vampire hunter." She protested.
"Care, I'm so sorry." Bonnie said, sadly. "But Aliyah's telling the truth."
"My mom… hates vampires." Caroline whispered, stunned. "And now I'm one." The words felt like ash on her tongue. "She'll hate me." She whimpered.
"You don't know that." Aliyah said, firmly.
Caroline looked at Aliyah, helplessly. "What did your mom do when she found out you were a vampire?"
Aliyah licked her lips. "My mother… turned her back on me, true." She confessed. "But, my mother was a witch, Caroline. A very powerful witch and she had never encountered something like a vampire before in her very long years. A vampire is an abomination of nature, according to witches. And that is what my mother saw. My mother saw a dead woman when she looked at me. A daughter that she had once loved, but she had lost." She placed a warm hand on Caroline's shoulder. "But even while disowning me, she sought to protect me. She placed a protection spell on me that would protect me from the magic of any witch who would try and harm me. My mother hated what I became but she still saw fit to protect me with all she had." She said, earnestly. "Your mother doesn't know enough to hate vampires completely. It's just the prejudice that's been instilled her in from a young age because she was part of a Founding Family. She will learn to love you as a vampire because you are her daughter is human and she has more of a chance than my mother did to change her mind about what she believes."
Caroline's lower lip started to quiver and the tears began to slide down her cheeks. Aliyah bit her lip and ran her tongue over her teeth. She held out her arm and Caroline threw herself into her sire's embrace, the physical contact calming her somewhat.
Bonnie pursed her lips and approached the two vampires, feeling slightly jealous and heartened at the same time that Caroline had formed such a quick bond with Aliyah. She couldn't even say which one she felt jealous of, whether she was jealous that Caroline sought comfort from Aliyah instead of her best friend or whether Aliyah had so much more in common with Caroline now than she had with Bonnie. She was afraid she'd be replaced by two of the most important people in her life. She had already been replaced in Elena's life by the Salvatore brothers. All Elena saw in her was a witch who would bend over backwards to protect her. Bonnie licked her lips and rubbed Caroline's back, comfortingly.
Caroline reached behind her and grabbed Bonnie's arm and draped it over her shoulder. One of Aliyah's hands slipped out of the hug and intertwined with Bonnie's fingers.
Bonnie smiled, suddenly. Maybe she wouldn't be so easily replaced in Caroline's and Aliyah's life.
Caroline took a deep breath and pulled away. "So, who else is on this mysterious vampire-hunting council?" She asked, slowly.
"Damon is a member." Aliyah admitted and watched as Caroline's face flashed with fear she would much rather hide. "They aren't aware that he is a vampire. He just showed up one day with a stash of vervain-"
"Wait," Caroline's brow furrowed. "Vervain? What's that?"
"Okay, this is good. You need to know about vervain. It could be the reason you get caught out. It's an herb and any physical contact between a vampire and vervain will burn the vampire. Humans wear vervain on them to protect them from vampire compulsion."
"But what about Bonnie?" Caroline chanced a look at her best friend, a stricken look forming on her face at the thought of Bonnie being used as she once was.
"No, witches are immune to compulsion." Aliyah shook her head. "Bonnie can't be compelled by a vampire. Imagine what would happen if vampires could compel witches. It would be a nuclear war every single day." She said, grimly. "The Founders' Council… they were the ones responsible for that fire at the Founder's Day celebrations last week." She explained. "John Gilbert, Elena's uncle and biological father-"
"Wait," Caroline's eyes widened, comically. "Biological father?"
"Elena was adopted by the Grayson and Miranda Gilbert, Care." Bonnie told her.
Caroline looked hurt. "Why didn't she tell me any of this?" She asked, slowly.
Bonnie shook her head. "Don't feel bad, Care, Elena didn't tell me that she was adopted either. Aliyah was the one who told me."
Caroline looked at Aliyah, incredulously. "How the hell do you know all of this? You've only been in Mystic Falls a couple of months." She said, disbelievingly.
Aliyah shrugged. "Well, I make it a point to know everything that happens in this town." She explained. "I was actually the first one to figure out that John was Elena's biological father."
"How'd you figure that out?" Caroline asked, curiously.
"Well, he had a connection to Katherine." Aliyah murmured. "He had to have that through someone and we already knew he had a relationship with Isobel Flemming, Elena's birth mother. So, I thought that it wasn't a far leap from that to say that John was Elena's father, especially since Elena was adopted by the Gilberts." She said, quickly. "Anyway, John found this device that belonged to his ancestor who lived here in 1864, a device that was made by Emily Bennett, Bonnie's ancestor, to get rid of the vampires in town. He set off the device with Mayor Lockwood's okay and every vampire in Mystic Falls went down, were dragged into Grayson Gilbert's old office and staked and set fire to."
"Wait, I thought Stefan and Damon were the only vampires in Mystic Falls?" Caroline said, confused.
"Back in 1864, the Founding Families led a hunt for all of the vampires in Mystic Falls and managed to trap all of them in the tomb under Fell's Church." Aliyah explained. "Damon thought that Katherine was one of the vampires trapped in the tomb. She came to Mystic Falls in 1864 and made both of the Salvatore brothers fall in love with her. She fed them her blood, they died trying to 'save' her and they came back as vampires, and Katherine ran away. The tomb was opened by Sheila and Bonnie and the spell was too much for Sheila and she died." Aliyah chanced a nervous look at Bonnie, whose face had shuttered.
Caroline gasped and rushed over to Bonnie, placing a comforting hand on Bonnie's arm. "Oh, my God, Bonnie. I'm so sorry." She said, softly.
Bonnie cracked a shaky smile and covered Caroline's hand with hers. "Thanks, Care."
"Anyway, since the tomb was opened, the other twenty-seven vampires were let out and they plotted to make a move against the Founding Families for trapping them in the tomb at Founder's Day. That's when John Gilbert and Mayor Lockwood activated the Gilbert device. It emitted a very high sonic pitch that caused extreme pain on vampires." Aliyah explained.
Caroline frowned. "Founder's Day. But…" She looked at Bonnie and Aliyah with alarm. "That's what Tyler said when he was driving the car. He said he could hear this really loud ringing in his ears. It's what caused the accident. Does that mean… is Tyler Lockwood a vampire?"
"No." Aliyah said, firmly. "He's not. He and his family are something else and I will explain what they are in due time. I promise." She looked at Bonnie, who had sunk her teeth into her lip. "I promise, Bonnie. Nothing will happen to Tyler." She said, earnestly.
"Aliyah," Caroline began, hesitantly. "Do you know why Katherine turned me? I know I asked you last night, but-"
"I didn't want to tell you the truth last night, Caroline, because I was afraid that it would overwhelm you." Aliyah admitted. "But, yes, I am aware of why Katherine turned you." She turned to Bonnie, who straightened. "I am also aware of why Mason Lockwood has just recently returned to town. I give you my word that I will explain everything when I tell you my story." She said, soberly.
"So, what does all of this have to do with why I needed to stay here last night?" Caroline asked, hoarsely, rubbing the back of her neck as she attempted to take in all of the information that Aliyah had just explained.
"Well, actually it's not just last night." Aliyah said, hesitantly.
Caroline's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?" She asked, carefully.
"Do you remember last night when we arrived home and Bonnie said 'Caroline, you can come inside'?" Aliyah asked, quietly.
"Yes." Caroline bit her lip. "I just thought she was being polite." She said, quickly.
"I was, Care, but there was something else as well." Bonnie said, quietly.
"In order to enter any house, a vampire must be invited in by the owners of the home." Aliyah explained to Caroline. "You wouldn't have been able to enter into your house unless your mother invited you inside." She said, softly.
Caroline trembled. "So, what now? I either have to hide out here or I can go and tell my vampire-hating, workaholic mother that her only kid is a blood-sucking vampire." She muttered. "Great." She threw her hands up in the air.
"Can you tell us that story now, Aliyah?" Bonnie asked, softly, her moss green eyes earnest. "We really want to know. We need to know."
Aliyah's eyes closed and she nodded. "Yes, I will."
Bonnie and Caroline each curled up in the white-cushioned, brown-framed accent chairs surrounding the fire pit, which Aliyah was currently lighting up, before she took her own seat, the three of them curling around the flames.
"How old are you, Aliyah?" Caroline asked, suddenly. "I mean, I know you're 24."
"Physically." Aliyah corrected.
Caroline nodded. "But how long have you been a vampire for?"
Bonnie straightened in her chair, eager to hear the answer. Aliyah had been very tight-lipped about exactly how old she was. She was definitely older than Stefan and Damon, and she was older than Katherine, as she had mentioned knowing Katherine when she was human. So, Bonnie was guessing that would put her just over five hundred years old.
Aliyah shifted in the chair, bringing her legs up to curl under her knees. She tucked a few curls and smoothed down her yellow, abstract-pattered dress that reached the middle of her thighs, her bright red, peep-toe platform pumps scraping across the cement floor of the fire pit.
"Okay, you look nervous." Bonnie murmured, raising an eyebrow. "Why are you so shy to tell us, Lee-Lee?"
Aliyah scowled at her and sent Caroline an uncertain look. "You promised to never call me that in public." She hissed.
Caroline grinned, wickedly. "Oh, my God!" She squealed. "She calls you 'Lee-Lee'. How adorable is that?" She crooned.
"Watch it, pretty girl." Aliyah said, warningly.
"Hey, you gave me a nickname." Caroline smirked. "I think I'll call you Lee-Lee too." She smiled, smugly.
Aliyah groaned and her head tipped back. "Bloody hell," She hissed. "How did I end up with, not one, but two irritating teenagers living with me?" She shook her head in disbelief.
"Because you absolutely adore us." Bonnie grinned.
Aliyah smiled, suddenly. "You know what this chat needs? Alcohol. Just wait." She flashed inside and grabbed a bottle of out of the liquor cabinet and three glasses, as well as a blood bag, and was just as quickly settling them on the table in the middle of them, in front of the fire.
Caroline leaned forward, observing the bottle of alcohol with interest. "What is that?" She asked, her eyes lighting up at the thought of drinking alcohol. After the last couple of days she had, she thought she deserved it. She narrowed her eyes at the blood bag, resolving to wait awhile before drinking it. If she had it a bit too quickly, Bonnie may get suspicious.
"This…" Aliyah declared with a dramatic flourish towards the sleek, silver bottle. "This is Clase Azul Extra Anejo." She purred. "A bottle of tequila worth $1700 dollars. Only one hundred bottles manufactured a year. I thought it would be appropriate for this conversation." She twisted the top of the bottle and poured a generous serving of tequila into each of the three glasses and handed one to both Bonnie and Caroline, before sipping at hers.
"Wow." Caroline murmured, running her finger over the glass. "I get into a car accident, some psychotic bitch murders me, I get turned into a vampire and now I'm drinking two-thousand dollar tequila." She said, incredulously.
Aliyah laughed. "Welcome to my life." She raised her glass.
"So." Bonnie said, suddenly, taking a quick sip of the tequila. Her eyes widened and her face twisted as she shook her head, the heady taste of the tequila almost making her cry out. "How old are you?"
Aliyah sighed and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. "Fine." She muttered. "As of March 25, I will be… 1062."
Bonnie stilled. "Wait, what did you say?" She asked, hoarsely.
"No freaking way." Caroline breathed.
"I am currently a month away from being 1062. I was born in the year 948 AD. I was turned in the year 972 AD." Aliyah explained, calmly.
Bonnie shook her head. "That's not possible. Vampires are older than a thousand years?" She whispered, horrified.
"No." Aliyah said, firmly. "My family and I are the first vampires in existence." She confessed. "We were turned in the year 972 AD. All seven of us."
Caroline and Bonnie both gasped, their faces paling with shock and awe.
"I lived here in Mystic Falls a thousand years ago, long before it was called Mystic Falls, back when there was only fields and forests as far as the eye could see. My mother, Ayanna, along with my ten-year-brother, while she was pregnant with me, with my future in-laws, Esther and Mikael, with their sons Elijah and Finn and Niklaus, came to the New World from Europe."
"Niklaus." Bonnie murmured, suddenly. "The letter you got from your husband after Founder's Day. That was from him. Niklaus is your husband."
Aliyah nodded. "Yes, Niklaus is my second husband." She smiled in reminiscence. "He was my first love. I fell in love with him when I was human, just a teenage girl." She murmured.
Caroline shook her head. "You can't have lived here in Mystic Falls a thousand years ago." She said, sceptically. "Mystic Falls was only founded in the 1860s. I should know, my family's a Founding Family." She said, pointedly.
Aliyah nodded to herself. "Mystic Falls High School was built on a neighbouring Indian village to where we lived. The town square was where the natives used to worship their gods." Bonnie and Caroline swallowed hard. "And, even if I wasn't telling the truth, the Bennett family did migrate to Mystic Falls from Salem, Massachusetts after the witch trials of 1692. So, I'm afraid that Mystic Falls was founded even before the 1860s. But, I am telling the truth. I honestly lived here a thousand years ago. Maybe, once I've finished telling you my story, I can prove it."
Caroline and Bonnie frowned in confusion.
"How would you prove it?" Bonnie asked, carefully.
"Well, a witch can sense where powerful magic has been done." Aliyah explained. "And, actually, where your grandmother's house is, Bonnie, is where my mother and I used to live when we were human."
Bonnie pursed her lips.
"It's very close to the Lockwood mansion, isn't it?" Aliyah said, knowingly. "That's how you and Tyler know each other so well. You used to spend a lot of time at your grandmother's place… because you felt at home there."
"How did you know that?" Bonnie asked in a small voice.
"It's because your family has lived there." Aliyah said, licking her lips. "I was born on that land, I lived there my entire human life. My mother spent twenty-five years living in a hut on that land." She explained, quietly. "Sheila Bennett lived most of her life in that house. Your mother, Abby, also grew up there. You met Tyler there, didn't you?" She asked, deliberately.
Bonnie swallowed hard and nodded, quickly. She looked at Caroline, who was watching the two interact with interest. "My Grams' place is near the Lockwood mansion. Carol Lockwood isn't exactly the most motherly type, so Grams used to tell me that she used to bring Tyler over to her whenever he wouldn't stop crying."
"That sounds like Tyler." Caroline muttered under breath.
"Anyway," Bonnie glared at Caroline, warningly. "My mom…" She swallowed hard at the slightest mention of the woman who had abandoned her at the young age of five. "She used to bring me over to Grams when I was a baby. That's how I met Tyler." She said, with a fond smile on her face.
Bonnie suddenly snapped out of her daze and glared at Aliyah, who smirked. "You're trying to change the subject." She accused.
Aliyah shrugged. "You can't hate me for trying." She said, sweetly. "Anyway, you feel calm at Sheila's house because you feel at home there. You're surrounded by some of the most powerful magic that has ever been done. And it's all on Mystic Falls soil. Mystic Falls is a dreary, Podunk town," Caroline glared at her and she looked at her, apologetically. "But it's where the more powerful witches of our line lived their lives. My mother, myself, Emily, Sheila, your mother, you." She ran her hands through her hair. "I know the land that surrounds the Lockwood Mansion very well." She explained. "There is a large network of tunnels and caverns that lie beneath Mystic Falls. There's an entrance to it through the cellar under the Lockwood Mansion." Aliyah said, simply.
"How do you know that?" Bonnie threw her hands up in the air.
"Because, just how I used to live on the land that is now occupied by your Grams' place, Bonnie, my husband and his family used to live on the area that makes a part of the Lockwood estate." Aliyah said, sharply. "Those caves under the Lockwood mansion… I used to spend much of my free time there with my sister-in-law and husband. After I finished telling you my story, I will take you down there and prove it to you."
"Why?" Caroline frowned. "What's there that would prove it to us?"
Aliyah smiled a secretive smile. She wagged her eyebrows. "You'll just have to wait and see."
"Can we get back to how you're one of the oldest vampires there is?" Bonnie asked, impatiently.
"Hush, Bonnie." Aliyah chided, gently. "My mother was known as the village healer and I was training alongside her. The villagers, the mundane ones, also used to call us prophets, due to our dealings with the Spirits."
"Sorry, spirits?" Bonnie frowned in confusion.
"Remember how I told you there were different types of magic. You practice something called Traditional Magic, which is the same type of magic that I used to practice when I was human. Traditional magic draws energy from the Earth itself and it is up to the witch's discretion how to use her magic. The pentagram represents traditional magic." Aliyah held up her necklace, showing Bonnie and Caroline her pentagram pendant. "But Spirit Magic is a form of witchcraft that allows for a witch to draw upon the power of deceased witches who exist on the Other Side. The Spirits dictate how the magic is used."
"That must suck." Caroline commented and both Aliyah and Bonnie looked at her. "I mean, you're this badass witch, but you have to listen to a bunch of dead witches that tell you what to do."
Aliyah chuckled. "Well, when you put it that way, it does constrict what we are allowed to do with our own magic."
"So, what's the Other Side?" Bonnie asked, interestedly, eager to know about her heritage. Who better to teach her than Aliyah?
"It's a dimension in which the spirits of dead supernatural beings reside in a state of purgatory. My mother told me that two millennia ago, our ancestor, Qetsiyah, was the one to create the Other Side to imprison the man she loved after he basically cheated on her with her handmaiden." She explained and rolled her eyes. "I'm still a bit sceptical on the whole love-story-gone-wrong, but my mother seemed to believe it. Anyway, I'd rather get back to the story. Actually, I wouldn't, but something tells me that neither of you are going to let me go, so I might as well go ahead." She rolled her eyes.
"We were quite happy here." She murmured and stilled, suddenly. She slid forwards in her chair and held her hands out. "Actually, I can tell this story just slightly better. Take my hands." She ordered.
Caroline and Bonnie looked at each other with confusion, but did as she asked, stretching their hands out and taking Aliyah's in their own. They startled and reared back in shock as a flash of images appeared in their head, much like a movie inside their mind. They blinked, seeing a much younger Aliyah, her body propped up against the muscled shoulder of a handsome, blonde man, a young, adolescent boy resting his head in her lap, gazing up at her and the blonde man, adoringly. She was sweet-faced, her cheeks rounded and smooth, a beautiful, bright smile on her red lips, dark eyes glinting. She was surrounded by four other people: a blonde girl, around the age of seventeen, two men who looked to be in their late twenties, long, braided dark hair, and a younger man in his early twenties.
"So, who's who?" Caroline asked, curiously, her eyes falling on a dark-haired, older man in particular, a goatee marring his chin. He looked like a pirate to her. A very hot pirate. Stop that, you're with Matt. Remember, sweet, unassuming Matt… who's going to hate you once he finds out you're a vampire. She shook her head.
"The man I'm leaning on is my husband, Niklaus. But everyone calls him Klaus." Aliyah rolled her eyes. "He thinks it makes him sound more threatening… the moron." She muttered under her breath and Bonnie and Caroline cracked a smile at the fond admonishment in her voice. They could both easily see that, while she may have left Klaus, it was clear that she still loved him dearly. "The boy in my lap is my youngest brother-in-law Henrik. The girl is my sister-in-law, Rebekah. The younger looking boy is Kol and the two dark-haired men are Elijah and Finn."
"They're… really handsome, Aliyah. Like really good looking." Caroline said, thoughtfully. "All of you are. Rebekah and yourself included. It's like something out of Twilight." She shook her head.
Aliyah groaned and tipped her head back. "Never mention that monstrosity of a book to me ever again. Honestly, vampire sparkling? I've never heard of anything stupider than that. I don't sparkle, I kill." She said, definitively. "If I could, I would take a bite out of Stephanie Meyer just to show her what real vampires are capable off." She shook her head. "But it would draw entirely too much attention."
Bonnie and Caroline looked at each other and grinned. "Tell us if you ever end up doing that. We wanna see it." Caroline smirked.
"But, anyway, Lee-Lee, you guys looked really happy in that memory." Bonnie murmured, stroking Aliyah's hand, comfortingly.
"Oh, we were very happy." Aliyah murmured, remembering how she had ran her fingers through Henrik's growing hair as he looked up at her with a shy smile. "Things were both simpler and harder back then, but we managed."
"While we were quite happy in the village and we tried our best to survive in a time where it was quite hard to survive, our village faced a threat: men in the neighbouring village who turned into a wolf with every full moon." Aliyah explained, soberly.
Caroline and Bonnie bit back shrieks when the image of a snarling wolf made its way into their head, feeling the hairs on the back of their neck stand up when the wolf bared its very sharp, elongated teeth.
"So, wait," Caroline stammered. "Werewolves are real? Seriously?" She said, disbelievingly. "I mean, even vampires is pushing it a bit. But werewolves too?"
"They are very much real. There aren't that many of them nowadays. But the neighbouring village to ours had quite a few of them." Aliyah explained. Her shoulders slumped and she looked towards Bonnie, her dark, almost black eyes boring into Bonnie's moss green ones. "This is where the Lockwoods come in." She said, grimly.
Bonnie swallowed hard and her fingers tightened around the arm of the chair. "Please don't say what I think you're going to say." She begged, tears coming to her eyes.
Please, not Tyler. Not my Stray.
"The Lockwoods definitely have the werewolf gene in their family, Bonnie." Aliyah said, quietly. "When I was here in 1864, I pulled George Lockwood off Emily and I could sense it. He was werewolf who had already triggered his curse."
Bonnie's brow furrowed. "What do you mean 'triggered his curse'?" She asked, confused.
"A person transforming into a werewolf must break every single bone in their body to become a wolf on the full moon, which is why it is generally described as a sort of curse. Due to the constant pain of shifting ever month, it is called the werewolf 'curse'. However, it is also described as a 'curse' as not every werewolf born with the gene becomes a werewolf." She explained. "To trigger the curse, a person with the werewolf gene must kill someone, either intentionally or by accident." She said, bluntly.
"Aliyah," Bonnie started to tremble, her limbs seizing up as fear struck her bones. "Tyler-" His name felt like ash on her tongue
"He will not trigger his curse." Aliyah said, firmly, feeling Bonnie's magic pulse around them as she lost control of her emotions for a brief second. "You – and therefore, I – will not allow him to trigger the curse. There's a reason why Mason Lockwood is back in town, Bonnie. Let me finish my story and you'll understand."
"Lee-Lee," Caroline had to crack a smile when she first said the nickname and Aliyah rolled her eyes, wondering how exactly the two young girls managed to have her wrapped around their little fingers. "Tyler Lockwood's a lot of things, a perpetual jackass maybe," Bonnie glared at her and Caroline ignored her, clearly having been through the same argument many times prior. Tyler Lockwood was a hot button issue between them. Anyone and everyone could see that Tyler was in love with Bonnie and Bonnie was in love with Tyler, except for Tyler and Bonnie, and Caroline didn't approve because, in her eyes, Bonnie could do better. "But he's no killer." She said, sceptically.
Aliyah shook her head. "To trigger the werewolf curse, the death does not need to be intentionally caused. It may just be an accident, but any death, directly caused, will result in the curse being triggered. It's because werewolves tend to be angrier than normal humans. They lose their temper, quickly, and they do something that leads to them activating their curse."
"Tyler told me that he feels angry all the time." Bonnie whispered.
"Bonnie, Mason Lockwood has triggered the curse. I can smell it on him stronger than I can on Tyler. That's why Mayor Lockwood and Tyler both went down when the Gilbert device was activated, they could hear that same sonic pitch that the vampires could." Aliyah explained. Her voice was deadly serious. "Your Tyler is very close to activating his curse, Bonnie. You will have to keep a very close eye on him."
Bonnie nodded, quickly, swallowing past the dryness in her throat.
"Anyway, I was very close to my husband's family." Aliyah murmured, showing them another image of the seven children sitting in Aliyah's hut, sharing a meal together in front of the fire, laughing and chatting, while Ayanna had been a few villages over, healing someone. "However, there was always some tension between Niklaus and my father-in-law, Mikael. Mikael… he was a bastard." She shook her head. "He was violent and cruel and I hate him more than anyone in the world, I truly do." She snarled.
"Wait, so your father-in-law's alive?" Caroline asked, her eyes wide with shock.
Aliyah nodded. "Well, it's complicated, actually. But he was turned into a vampire at the same time we all were. Anyway, Niklaus and I began our courtship many years before we were all turned into vampires. I must have been around fifteen or sixteen." She mused. "We kept our relationship secret from everyone, because neither of us wanted to have the village gossip turn to us, and Niklaus was always a little afraid of how Mikael would react if he found out. But, then I turned seventeen, and then eighteen, and nineteen and twenty. I had managed to convince my mother to wait to arrange my marriage until I had completed my training as an healer and had learnt as much of magic as I possibly could." She explained. "I wanted to marry a man who wouldn't look at me as if I were the devil's personal slut for being a witch, a man who would accept my magic, much as Mikael did for Esther." She pursed her lips. "I never asked her, but sometimes I fear that my father left my mother because he was not able to accept being married to a woman inherently more powerful than him." She confessed.
"But, everything changed when I turned twenty-three. My mother had finally had enough of my excuses. And, then, Mikael came to our home." She sighed.
"Why?" Bonnie's brow furrowed. "What did he do?"
"Mikael had always respected my mother a great deal. Esther and my mother were the greatest of friends, they came to the village that would be known as Mystic Falls together, from the Old World. I had grown up with the Mikaelsons and I considered them to be my family. I had an older brother that ignored me for much of my life, and it was pretty much written in stone that I would marry one of the Mikaelson boys. Everyone thought it would happen, sooner or later." Aliyah jumped to her feet and started to pace around the fire, her limbs tense and her eyes wild. "So, Mikael came to my home and proposed to my mother that I marry his son." She said, darkly.
Caroline and Bonnie looked at each with confusion.
"But, that's what you wanted, right?" Caroline said, slowly. "You were in love with Klaus and Mikael arranged your marriage to his son."
"Yes, he did." Aliyah nodded, a slow, deadly smile curling on her lips. "But he arranged my marriage to the wrong son." She chuckled.
"Think of me, hellcat, when you spread your sweet thighs for my brother on your wedding night." Niklaus hissed, his blue eyes flashing with fury and his hand snapping away from hers, the touch of her hand making him feel momentarily sick.
She wasn't his anymore. She would never be his again.
But she had to be his.
If there was one thing in this world he was sure of, he was sure that Aliyah belonged to him.
All she could hear was the telltale footsteps of him walking away from her. The sight made her feel as if he had just stabbed her in the stomach and left her to die, bleeding on the forest floor.
"Wait," Bonnie raised an eyebrow, disbelievingly. "Your first husband… he was one of Klaus' brothers?"
Aliyah could tell by the way that Bonnie was looking at her that the young witch was judging her. She knew what it sounded like. She sounded like some whore who had cast-off the man she loved and become weak when faced with the possibility of her mother's disappointment if she found out that her 'little dove' had abandoned every single fragment of her integrity and virtue and allowed a man to make love to her before she was married, like some common slut in a brothel. But Bonnie didn't understand. It wasn't like that. She hadn't heard the full story and she didn't know how much this had torn at her every single day of her very long existence.
Aliyah held up her hands, defensively. "Before you both start looking at me like Katherine or even Elena, I am not what you think I am."
Caroline shook her head, her eyes wide. "I didn't think-"
Bonnie was suddenly afraid she had offended the older vampire. "Aliyah, I-"
"It's fine." Aliyah said, reassuringly, smiling sadly. "You're both looking at me like I'm some woman who purposely went around, screwing with brothers, or at the very least, I was cheating on my husband with Niklaus. But I didn't and I wasn't." She said, honestly. "I swear to you, the second I was married to my husband, I kept my distance from Niklaus."
Bonnie suddenly felt a pang of guilt settle in her stomach and she regretted what she had originally thought. "Aliyah, I'm really sorry."
"It's fine, Bonnie." Aliyah said, softly. "You think you're the first one to have this reaction when I've told my story? Or do you think I've never heard those words before: whore, slut, harlot, strumpet, trollop, adulteress. I've been called them all. By everyone. Even those I love the most." She smiled, bitterly. "But, you have to understand what a woman's place was back in those days. I mean, we were Vikings. And Viking women kept their mouth shut about things like love. The men talked a good game about making sure the woman's heart was completely in the marriage, but it was pretty much expected that if your father or your mother arranged a marriage for you, it wouldn't be good for you to refuse the offer." She explained, wryly.
"So, which one of his brothers did you marry?" Caroline finally snatched the blood bag off the table and ripped open the top, sucking at the red, heady liquid that fell onto her lips.
Aliyah cracked a smile and looked down at her feet.
"Elijah. I married Elijah."
A/N: Okay, so I ended on somewhat of a cliffhanger here. I hope you all enjoyed the talk and found some of Aliyah's backstory interesting. I mention a lot of things here, but I will expand on a lot of those flashbacks later on in the story and show exactly what Aliyah did in some of the Viking scenes we all know and love. And I wouldn't be too afraid. After all, we still haven't got to the good stuff yet. Aliyah may not explain exactly what happened between her and Klaus, we may have to wait and see for Elijah to appear for Aliyah to talk about it, but we will see how they turned into vampires and how Klaus was cursed.
And it was Elijah whom she was married to. I am aware that Finn is the eldest, but I thought it would be interesting to have Elijah as the eldest in this story. He always seemed more of the head of the family than Finn.
I decided to split the dreaded explanation into a few chapters, otherwise it would just get too long and I didn't want to wait too long before I updated the story.
I hope you liked the Tonnie moments and the Caroliyah and Bonliyah bonding.
Anyway, hope you all liked the chapter and don't forget to review.