Happy Monday everyone! Hope you are all doing okay :)
Thank you all for your reviews, I'm glad you liked and found "ill get my bat" line funny, I wanted a bit of fun before the heartbreak and slight drama coming up in future chapters and Kol fits that bill!
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This is my longest chapter for Letters to Hope so far! Hope you love it :)
Today was Hope Mikaelson's 16th Birthday which called for a ball- Rebekah Mikaelson style.
Hope invited her close friends as she did every birthday which included some classmates from her private school. She did, however, wish her father would stop giving her male friends death stares so they could enjoy the party at ease.
But there was absolutely no chance of that happening.
He was her father.
Any time she was seen with a member of the opposite sex, they always were suddenly scared off. Rumor was that her father was weird and had strange amber eyes, some swearing they'd seen fangs on him. It was through the grapevine at school that her father would kill whomever dated her.
It wasn't too far from the truth.
Hope really just wished her father would trust her to make her own decisions and that she could defend herself against any guy who hurt her, physically and emotionally. She didn't want him to butt into her romantic life, not that there really was one, but there was always potential.
Thanks to her letters she received each year, Hope was trained in hand-to-hand combat, a few martial arts practices, and she also went to the shooting range once a month to perfect her aim. Archery continued to be her definite favourite over firearms. The whole family agreed that there could be a time her magic let her down, or disabled by an outside force and that it was better to be prepared than not.
Hope also knew to keep her heart guarded for someone who deserved it, her other half. She needed and wanted her parents to trust and have faith that she could do it herself.
She spent all morning of her birthday trying to relax and open her gifts before the strenuous process of hair and makeup that her aunt drug her through every time they had a party. She was so excited to see her mother and Jackson's present. She knew about the ball for months and saw a beautiful gown that caught her eye in Baton Rouge while shopping with her mum a while back and instantly fell in love with it. The dress was a stunning deep purple silk dress with crystals decoratively dotted on the bodice.
She was gutted the next day when she went to buy it and found out it was already sold, but Freya mentioned that Rebekah had a special surprise dress for her instead that perked Hope up a little. Her aunt had the best taste in dresses and fashion in general, so she did not mind as much. And she totally forgot about that day since then.
Her family worried her lately with whispered meetings that they didn't think she noticed. She was very concerned about what was going on, especially when her father and Kol had arguments that led to some tension between the two.
She just wished she knew what was going on so she could help fix it.
Elijah brought Hope out of her reverie by handing her the usual pink polka dotted gift box which excited her. The family instantly stopped their conversations with one another, and sat down to wait for the gift to be opened.
She pulled two books out of the box that were written by Sun Tzu, The Art of War and The Art of Strategy.
Hope could barely contain her excitement to read her new gifts and nearly jumped out of her seat. She loved her books from her guardian angel. She dove back into the box to grab the accompanying letter and tried to calm herself so that she could read it out.
Miss Hope Mikaelson,
Become a true leader. Trust your gut, your instincts will not fail you.
Gain loyalty through respect, trust. Be kind and fair.
Ignore your father; fear will only cause revolts and war. Maybe you could teach him a thing or two.
You bear the Mikaelson name so you may want to be prepared in the art of war as an insurance policy.
All my love.
"I must say Niklaus, whomever keep sending these really does know you. Maybe they should have made themselves known centuries ago," Elijah jested towards his brother. "They certainly know what they are speaking about."
"Oh big brother, if I couldn't take your advice back then there wouldn't be anyone else that I would listen too. We all know I can be stuck in my ways and stubborn as hell," Klaus waved his hand dismissively.
"You still don't listen to us now," Kol mumbled.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Klaus instantly on the defence, not liking being criticised.
"It means that if we say something other than what you want to hear, you always play with the dagger threats," Kol shot back at his brother, glaring at him mutinously.
"I'm going up to my room to start my new books, I don't like listening to you two arguing, especially on my birthday," Hope sighed before standing up and leaving the room, once again upset at her uncle and father's bickering.
"She does have a point. You both need to sort this out before it gets worse," Freya advised softly.
"You can't deny he has been acting suspicious, Freya. He either killed them himself, or knows who did. Just admit it, Kol!" Klaus burst out, frustrations over recent news turning into anger at his brother.
"Fine! I admit I killed Antonio a few years ago, but it had nothing to with the family. He had it coming I swear!" Kol defended, walking to the bar and poured himself a drink.
"And what possible reason was there to kill him then?" Elijah asked calmly.
"Did he steal your new toy?" Rebekah teased, trying to uplift the tension in the room and failed.
"He went after the wrong witch and lost his heart okay, end of story. I even made sure nothing could be traced back to me. I do know how to cover my tracks from time to time, Nik!" he snarked before vamping out of the house, looking for a drink of a different type.
Klaus heard from vampire grapevine and through witches that alarming, sudden deaths had began to occur to some older vampires. Vampires who were centuries old had been dying out with no connections between them. It wasn't like when Kol and Finn had died, triggering the entire sire line to go with them shortly afterwards. No, these new deaths had been going on for the past few years, not even a full decade. A few suicides here, disappearances there. Nothing too heavy to raise suspicions, but enough to filter through the vampire community and make some witches very happy that there seemed to be some vampire purge.
The only people that could see a connection were the Mikaelsons.
The majority of the dead had been their enemies and some of their enemies' associates. Well, mainly Klaus' enemies which kept the whole family on edge and him demanding answers.
Klaus' first thought was Kol to be the one behind the killings since he was the only one travelling around the world, and he didn't know whether to thank his brother, or kill him for raising suspicion. The only reason he didn't put Kol in his place was because most of the deaths were when Kol was present with the family. Not even he could be in two places at the same time.
He couldn't deny that having his enemies perish and the revolts against his family and mainly Hope around the world diminished helped him out greatly. Especially when he had no idea of the trouble in the community had come to. His paranoia craved for answers and he was restless, wondering who stopped these incidents against his family decades ago before they came for his little girl.
A few witch lines has also been wiped out as well, during this supernatural cleanse. He hadn't heard anything about wolf clans, but they were sparse in the world and kept to themselves.
He had been so focused on his kingdom at the time, that he forgot about what would happen if news of Hope's birth travelled out all those years ago; which made him extremely thankful for someone there having his back, intentionally or not.
Klaus didn't want Hope to learn about the deaths of the organisations and groups who had planned to harm her. He didn't want her to live life looking over her shoulder and wondering if the next supernatural threat was out to get her. He was proud, she was always vigilante with new vampires and defended herself very well.
He wanted to protect her.