Erm, of course, the note was about AO3, because people can't stop reviewing here when they haven't even began, can they? *Evil and saddening voice* And they won't ever do it, you sorry excuse for a human being!
So. Someone stopped commenting, and now I can't find the desire to write this anymore. I'm sad. It's all your fault.
This story is now discontinued.
And that was a joke.
Seriously, though, last week I was being lazy, and this week I didn't have access to the Internet.
Each a monster, part 17: Death, betrayal, and solitude
Without warning, Alaric's glass broke in his hand. Damon thought it'd be best if the hunter could control his strength, for it was already the second time it happened. Though he could understand that the mention of Klaus, the Original Bastard, would anger his boyfriend. He was even surprised anything of the sort hadn't happened sooner.
The vampire sighed, looked around for prying eyes, and was highly displeased to see that they had gotten the attention of the two agents. As if they didn't have enough problems without them.
"If you don't mind, it'd be better if we leave."
Hans was a bit reluctant, but he followed them outside nonetheless. Whether it was out of good will or because it'd be easier to ask for information if he didn't do something unadvised, Damon had no idea. But at least they were outside. If the Falkenbach vampire was still on a repressed rampage, he'd have less potential victims out of the Mystic Grill than inside.
Or Damon hoped so. After all, a group of teenagers could very well be dumb enough to leave the Grill just when there was an unstable vampire killing machine ready to do anything to get Klaus' location – and that was exactly what such a group did. Granted, they didn't know about the unstable-vampire-killing-machine-ready-to-do-anything-to-get-Klaus'-location bit, so they couldn't be called dumb. Unlucky was more like it.
Watching out for the bunch of high schoolers – and since when was Damon Salvatore the thoughtful one? – the vampire led the two Falkenbachs away from the Grill's front door. No precaution was unnecessary right now.
"Right, so, Klaus."
Alaric's teeth gnashed once more, while Hans' features became even more full of hate.
Damon ignored them, wondering how in hell he was to avoid a killing spree. The fact that Hans had been desiccating for years thanks to the Original Bastard and one of his brothers, if what Gal had told him was right, couldn't be good. If Damon had been left to desiccate for so long, and several times at that, he'd be out for blood. So it was totally understandable, if Hans Falkenbach wanted to take a few lives out of anger, and, presumably, out of madness.
It being understandable didn't make the thing more acceptable. The ones who would perish under the older vampire's hand and, quite possibly, teeth, surely wouldn't be happy with dying. The fact that Hans was more than likely half-crazy wasn't reassuring, at all. The vampire was something like the epitome of dangerous, in the same league as the Original Bastard and his Original siblings – and that considering he wasn't even almost immortal like the Originals Douchebags.
And Damon wouldn't put it past him to kill even his own blood – that is, Ric – in a fit of rage.
That was crazyness for you.
"First of all, we don't have any idea where the Original Bastard currently is; and believe me when I say that we'd want to know, since he kind of enslaved my little brother three months ago. All I can say is, East Coast. Also, we're not trying to delay you in any way. Klaus got many people we cared about killed, including Ric's girlfriend, and he's still a threat for some of us. Last thing but not least, you might want to know that he finally broke the curse."
Hans had become colder and colder as Damon had said his tirade, but at the last sentence, the older vampire froze, looking more thoughtful than menacing all of a sudden.
"You're saying that Klaus is finally a hybrid?"
The younger vampire nodded, keeping an eye on his boyfriend who still had to talk. Alaric looked pale beyond what was humanly possible, but he seemed to have calmed down a bit.
Hans sighed loudly, and let himself rest against the closest wall. He almost seemed happy.
"So he killed the Petrova Doppelganger... and now, he's the only one of his kind."
No, Damon corrected his thoughts. The older Falkenbach didn't look happy. He looked thrilled.
Why, the younger vampire had no idea.
"Excuse me, but why is it so important?"
Ric's voice startled his boyfriend.
Hans looked at his umpteenth-times grandson, a delighted smile on his lips. It was as if he had finally gotten something he had waited for for centuries. As if there couldn't be a better gift than to know that Klaus was the only hybrid ever, despite the fact that he was even more unkillable now, and twice as deadly.
If it was such great news, such a sweet revenge on the original hybrid, Alaric wanted to know why, and, if possible, to be delighted as well. He had too much to blame Klaus for, even the slightest hint of revenge would be great.
His ancestor's eyes locked on his own, and the man was surprised to find this much hatred in the vampire's eyes. But it was only normal. After all, the Falkenbach had had centuries to nurture his anger towards Klaus.
"The thing is, there are three things only that Klaus fears: death, betrayal, and solitude. Now, death is still within our grasp, though it has only become more difficult to kill him. Becoming a hybrid, for him, was a way to keep death as far away as he could. But it wasn't the only goal. Klaus is terrified by betrayal, always fearing that his siblings will abandon him, and so he is unsufferable and not willing to allow them any freedom, thus causing them to dislike him and abandon him. It's pretty ironic, actually, and he can't even see that. Being a hybrid, the one and only original hybrid, is a way for him to gain servants more loyal than any vampire could be, because if Klaus manage to free other werewolves from the grip of the moon, they would surely become so grateful that a sire bond would be created. Now, the only thing left, solitude..."
The older vampire smiled, and this smile gave the younger vampire chills so cold and marked that Damon felt like his skin was trying to get the hell out of here without him. Last time he had seen this kind of heartless, humanity-deprived smile, it was on a Saltzman. He wasn't sure whether it had been Ric or Theo, but it was definitely a Saltzman.
Even a switched-off vampire couldn't equal this level of inhumanity. With a switched-off vampire, there was humanity, somewhere deep in their heart, not much, but there was some. They showed the obnoxious, greedy, hateful side of humanity. But it was still humanity.
A Falkenbach, a Saltzman, couldn't switch on and off. It simply wasn't there, as Alaric had told him one day. No guilt, no sick pleasure, nothing behind the kill, behind the smile. They could hurt, torture someone... and they were still empty.
But because they were human, though cursed, their mind reminded them that it wasn't right. The part of their heart that knew what a feeling was like sent it to the mind. Of course, it could only be by cold, heartless, awfully logical means; but it was better than nothing.
Hans Falkenbach wasn't human, though. He was a vampire.
A mad, bloodthirsty in the most literal way, not bothered by human ethics, vampire, who, because he was a Falkenbach, didn't have any feelings to oppose the lack of ethics.
Why the freaking hell Klaus had made an enemy of this guy, Damon had no idea. What he knew, was that he himself would never have made this mistake. He didn't have a death wish, after all.
Hans, even though he had freaked the hell out of Damon, wasn't finished.
"Solitude. Something any immortal being can rightfully fear. Something that Klaus, because he has such a temper that no one wants to stick with him for long, fears more than death and betrayal. His family has been at a breaking point for centuries, and last time I was around, Elijah had finally decided it was too much, while their two brothers and their sister had been dealed with by Klaus. The original hybrid is as alone as one can be, even if he sometimes takes a liking to some vampire, witch or even werewolf. If he can make others like him, though, and if they are, as he believes they will be, sired to him, Klaus will never ever be alone anymore. He won't be the one and only hybrid out there, and the others will never leave him unless they are killed."
Damon glanced at Ric, wondering what the hunter thought of all that, and not exactly sure of what to think of it himself, but his boyfriend had his poker face on.
"The thing is, the witch who cursed him put a security measure on the curse. Hybrids such as Klaus are beings that shall never be according to the balance of nature. Yet, Klaus is. Now that he has unleashed his werewolf side with the ritual, the only way for him to make other hybrids would be by feeding his blood to werewolves, killing them, then feeding them the doppelganger's blood to finish the transition. And since he had to kill the Petrova doppelganger in order to finish the ritual..."
And the older vampire laughed a cold and heartless smile.
Klaus had himself destroyed his only hope to ever get what he wanted.
The thing was, Damon thought while doing his best not to exchange a panicked look with Ric, that Elena was alive thanks to John's sacrifice. If Klaus discovered this little secret...
As for him, Alaric wasn't pleased at all.
If he hadn't known Elena, if he hadn't known she was alive, he'd have been despicably happy at the piece of news. But the girl was alive, and certainly bound to be sought after by the Original Bastard if what his ancestor was saying was true.
Yes, the hunter could go and finish what Klaus had started by killing Elena, but he was sure the human part of his soul wouldn't have liked that at all.
"Does Klaus know about the security measure?"
Certainly not, or he wouldn't have tried to turn the pack in the Smoky Mountains. But since Hans knew, it couldn't hurt to be sure.
The vampire waved the question away.
"He doesn't. Even if I had wanted to tell him, he wouldn't have believed me. And even if he knew, it's not like the girl is alive anymore, is it? He'll have to wait for the next doppelganger, to whom I'll happily spare the life of a blood bag as soon as I'll find her, and the next one, and the next one, and the next one. He and his brother took away my reason for living, I don't see why I shouldn't do the same to them."
Ric, poker face still on, looked at his boyfriend, internally praying that the younger vampire wouldn't give Elena's survival away.
At that precise moment, he would have given everything that was his, and maybe even what wasn't, so that Hans' "reason for living" would just think it the best time to come around and surprise her husband, because, you know, she was alive, and had been searching for her half-definitely-crazed Falkenbach vampire since forever.
To the man's utter surprise, his wish came true.
But in the worst way possible.
Alaric's cellphone rang, catching the hunter's and both vampires' attention.
He took it out of his pocket, half-aware that it was Elena's phone calling him, and so, surely, Elena calling him. Picking up the call, he hoped that Hans wouldn't recognize the doppelganger's voice. Freaking vampires and their super-hearing.
"What's up?"
The hunter really tried to sound as normal as he could.
It didn't work well, if Damon's wince was anything to go by.
He was fortunate to be a Saltzman, or he'd have been ever more obvious, Alaric mused.
"Ric, there's a woman who's asking about you. I tjink I saw her once or twice at the Mystic Grill, lately. Blond, in her twenties, thirties at most."
Hans squinted his eyes as he tried to remember where and when he had heard this voice.
Damon's eyes grew wide and round as plates. The hunter took it that it'd be better if he shortened the call as much as he could, before his ancestor managed to identify the caller as the Petrova doppelganger whom he had so eagerly said it'd be a pleasure to dispose off only minutes before.
"She said her name was Gal, and that you knew each other..."
The small hope that Hans would notice his wife's diminutive was short-lived, since the vampire didn't react at all, still frowning as he tried to remember. Ric guessed he had believed his wife to be dead for too long to actually be able to believe otherwise without seeing her eye to eye.
"Listen, tell her I'm coming, and go back home, Elena. Where are you right now?"
The answer made the man's guts roll on themselves.
"Not far away from the Grill. Wait, I can see you."
The call ended, and Alaric spun on his heels to see Elena walking towards him, waving to a figure too far away to distinguish their features. Galswinthe, the man thought.
Too late, though.
Hans had seen the doppelganger, and recognized her, and his gaze had completely ignored Gal.
