Add some days, a week maybe, between 3x01 and 3x02, and there is this chapter.
Because I like to imagine gruesome murders...
No, I don't. But I do it nonetheless, and I guess this is the best way to get them out of my head. And frankly, it could be worst.
Each a monster, part 14: Your cousin
When Andie Star was reported missing the next day, Alaric turned off the tv and looked at Damon who only shook his head. They talked about it a bit, and the hunter took a look at the mirror.
Days passed.
Somehow, Theodoric behaved, even if his cousin was less than pleased each time they met at the Mystic Grill or somewhere else in town. He was either drinking a beer, or hanging out with the oldest students who were all curious over his eyepatch. The girls seemed to think he was really gorgeous, and mysterious, and rich, and, in a word, totally to their liking. Sometimes, Damon had the feeling he was looking at himself.
Elena was being difficult about Stefan, searching for him in every way she could think of. Damon had to warn Elizabeth Forbes not to tell the doppelganger anything unless she wanted the girl dead, and the vampire and Ric had been forced to move their notes to the teacher's now unused loft.
But all in all, life was going on.
Alaric should have known it couldn't possibly continue this way for long.
One night he woke up on the Gilberts' couch to find a memo on the coffee table. He still couldn't bring himself to sleep in either Jenna's, or the parents' room.
The hunter reached for the memo, thinking it was surely something he had forgotten to put away the day before, a note about his next class, or an appointment with some student's parents.
But it wasn't.
This was definitely not his handwriting.
Ric froze when he realized that the only two people who were likely able to sneak upon him during his sleep were Damon... and Theo. Damon, because he was used to his presence, and because the vampire could be damn quiet when he wanted to, and Theodoric because he was a Saltzman too. A locked door wasn't going to stop him if he wanted to come in.
And this was definitely not Damon's handwriting.
Alaric rushed upstairs, and was relieved to see Jeremy and Elena asleep and alive. He knew he wouldn't have stayed asleep himself if anything had happened during the night, but he couldn't help the fear that had rushed to his head when he had realized his cousin had been in the house, and he wouldn't have known if not for the memo.
He closed the doors of the youngsters' rooms quietly, and went back to the sitting room. There, he took the time to actually read the memo. His face darkened as he did so.
Some guy I have never met before tried to hurt me yesterday evening. Something about giving back his girl. As you can guess, he didn't even get to hurt me a little. At first, I was a bit worried and didn't know what to do. But you know what, cousin? Turns out the guy had a drinking problem. Why not use him to deepen the Sobriety Merchant's fame? Since, after all, he had to die anyway.
P.S.: you'll find him behind the grocery store.
Your cousin.
Alaric almost choked when he finished reading.
What the hell was wrong with Theodoric? Aside from being a Falkenback, aside from having some issues with his seal, this was pure madness. No Satzman was supposed to act like that, so reckless, completely out of any boundary, and that rule was not only to protect themselves, but also the whole family!
But Theo had lost most of his feelings when he hadn't been sealed in time.
The hunter sneered blankly. So much for Landyn and her delusions about keeping the young man under surveillance and control.
Well. Maybe it was because of him. In a way. Not much. But still a little bit. He had piqued the interest and the curiosity of his cousin by antagonizing him instead of staying silent despise the man's black deeds, and now he reaped what he had sown.
So he'd need to deal with the inhumane human being that was supposed to be his cousin. Supposed, because Alaric wasn't willing to recognize they were of the same blood. If anything, he'd rather admit being part of the Saltzman Family over not admitting it and still considering Theo his cousin as an individual.
One last warning.
One last warning, and after that he'd take Theodoric down. No matter what he'd have to do for that to happen. He had been lenient enough until now, but this couldn't continue anymore.
So the hunter hid a knife in his left shirtsleeve, two syringes filled with sedatives in his right one, and he was on his way.
When he arrived at the still closed grocery store, he felt relieved the carnage had yet to be found. No one needed to see this, and not having the police to deal with was good. He went behind the building, and finally saw the Sobriety Merchant's masterwork. It was disgusting.
The dead body was hardly recognizable. Once killed, Theodoric had made sure its face had been disfigured with the shards of a glass bottle. The body was positioned as if the man had passed out drinking against the nearest wall, and three empty bottles of wine had been displayed near his head. Another one, now marred with blood, had been broken and pushed into the poor guy's stomach. Finally, Theodoric had thought it funny, when he had created the Sobriety Merchant, that the fictional serial killer was to break another bottle and put it on his victim's head as if it was a hat.
Alaric didn't need to look, and he certainly didn't want to, but he knew his cousin had stuffed the man's throat with smashed glass.
And he also knew Theo was here, not far, and watching him with a sickening smile. There was no point in doing this if he didn't get to see the hunter's anger.
So he walked away, sat down on a bench, and waited.
Theodoric came to him on his own after one minute only. Ric greeted him as if nothing wrong was going on, and didn't bother to look at his cousin after that. Theo did the same. They stayed this way for a while, staring in opposing directions.
"Landyn won't like this stunt."
Theodoric snorted in disdain. What did he care about their aunt's opinion?
"More like you don't like it, not her."
"I don't like that you come here and mess with my life."
"Try and stop me, then. Oh, I forgot, you didn't do it back then, and you won't do it now."
Alaric would have arched an eyebrow, if he hadn't wanted to keep any hint of what he was going to do to himself. Instead, he threw his left arm to his cousin's face, releasing the knife at the same time. Left or right, he didn't care much. A Saltzman was born almost ambidextrous, and little training was needed to really become it.
Of course, Theo was expecting something of the sort. The man grabbed Ric's arm and twisted it in a way that the hunter could only let go of the blade.
"I'm ashamed for you, Alaric, if that's all you can do. Where does your confidence that you can beat me anytime come from? Or have you gone soft since you left, hum?"
The younger man almost sniggered as he finished his sentence, looking at his cousin's angry face.
He should have known better.
Theodoric felt dizzy all of a sudden, and looked at the now smiling Alaric. It was a cold smile, very, very cold, very ominous, too. Three seconds later, he was falling on the ground.
Alaric took out the syringes from his cousin's side. He had thought it better to knock out Theo for as long as he could, and he knew two syringes of sedatives weren't going to be the end of a Saltzman. On top of being highly skilled in combat and assassination, the Falkenbachs were hard to kill.
Ric looked at the still form and sighed.
"I'm ashamed for you, Theodoric, if that's all you expected from me."
The hunter dragged his cousin to his car, and transported him into his apartment. Once there, he roughly tied the man to a chair and called the police with a cellphone he had bought under an alias. He tipped them off on the slaughter scene they'd find behind the town's grocery store and hung up as soon as he could. Then he called Damon, asking him to get his ass over here quickly.
Finally he went back to restraining Theodoric. He had promised the man a last warning, and the man would get it. By being tied to a chair in his cousin's apartment for one or two days if needed.
Thirty minutes later, Damon knocked on the door and Ric told him to come in.
"What, you won't open your door to greet your estimed guest anymore?"
The hunter rolled his eyes.
"I'm kind of busy right now, convincing my cousin not to kill anyone else before lunchtime."
Damon looked at the said cousin and noticed the man was dozing with a lot of ropes and chains restraining his body. If that was what Alaric considered "convincing", the vampire hoped he'd never need to be convinced. Although, if the "convincing" involved a bed and sexual activities, he could very well reconsider.
Still, there was something wrong with the scene he had before his eyes.
"What the hell... wait, anyone else?"
Ric nodded, stern face on.
"Liz and the deputies must be busy at the crime scene by now. So I'm teaching him a lesson. Can you hand me his jacket, please? I'd like to see if there is any hint about what else he planned to do."
Damon blinked once or twice, but did as he was told. The Saltzmans were an odd bunch, he knew that already, but well, he was a vampire so he could hardly criticize – though he suspected this Theodoric fellow was a whole new thing to deal with.
The hunter went through the jacket's pockets, and as he did this, he found two switchblades, one of them with dried blood on it. He frowned, seemingly disapproving of his cousin's lack of professionalism. Then he found a flyer about an exhibition not far away from Mystic Falls about World War II with the words "For Ric" written on it. He stared at it for a minute, then stared at his sleeping cousin in obvious disbelief, then rubbed his temples and sat on his bed.
After a minute he looked at his boyfriend and asked if the vampire would come with him. Damon smirked as the history lover was making himself known in Alaric and said, with a hint of mockery, that it would be an honor.
They ate breakfast together, keeping a wary eye on their tied-up guest, then left for their improvised date. Alaric made sure to lock the apartment's door and windows, yet he clearly believed that if Theodoric managed to get rid of the ropes and chains and handcuffs and adhesive tape, he'd succeed in getting out of the loft too.
On their way out of Mystic Falls, they drove near the grocery store, and Damon stared in disbelief at what was a real investigation in the vampires infested city that usually hid the bodies from the public. He saw Liz Forbes looking utterly sick at the sight of Theodoric's murder and wondered what else the man had come up with after Mobile Maker.
They spent a pleasant day out of Mystic Falls, ending it with the exhibition. Everything was perfect, Damon laughed at some "beliefs" of the modern historians, and Alaric asked him what he knew of the truth with the genuine interest of a history teacher.
But at some point of the tour, Ric froze and stared intently at a picture of nazi officers. Damon, intrigued, took a closer look at the photograph, and was surprised to see a man who resembled someone he knew... Who exactly, he had no id... Well, no, the man looked a lot like Alaric.
"You.. look quite alike."
The hunter responded in an angry voice.
"I know. Genetics seems to love to mock me. You'd think that after two centuries of separation, our families would never have anything in common physically speaking, but here I am, with the almost same face as a nazi executioner."
Damon could understand that he didn't like it at all. He looked at the caption: Werner Falkenbach.
"You're from the same family?"
"Hildegard Falkenbach eloped with Karl Saltzman to America without telling anyone in 1755."
"And that's why the Falkenbach Curse is considered extinct..."
Ric said nothing on the way back. Damon followed him to his loft, where Theodoric was waiting for them, humming, still tied to his chair. His cousin waved the flyer before the man's eyes.
"You did it on purpose, didn't you?! You knew he would be on the pictures!"
Theo smirked at Alaric's anger.
"You're still playing the good man, but you are no better than the rest of us, Alaric. Saltzman is the name of a bloodstained family, whether you like it or not."
The hunter slammed the door, leaving his cousin confined in his apartment.
