Here comes a new update! (And this time it's really one ;))

As always a huge THANK YOU to my loyal readers ChocolateBeth, Someone, FlowerAngelxoxo and Isabella Marie Cullen!

Chapter 3

Splitting your soul

Riddle awoke a few hours later to see that he was lying in the bed in his room at the inn. In a chair next to the fireplace sat Katherine, her dark waves spilling over a black silk robe which displayed her long legs and read a book. As Tom pushed himself up into a sitting position her gaze shifted to him and she elegantly stood up and walked over to the king sized bed. With a laugh she threw herself onto the mattress next to him. "How are you feeling?"

Riddle could hear a little bit concern in her voice which made him smirk. "Surprisingly quite good…" "And to whom do you owe it?" Katherine ran one hand through his slightly sweaty hair. A look of confusion appeared on Tom's face. "What have you done?" The vampire crawled over to him and sat on his lap and kissed him passionately. When she broke away Riddle emitted a low growl of disapproval and as he was just about to pull her to him again she giggled a bit. "No no no, you have to regain your strength and while you recover I will tell you what I did to shorten your state of unconsciousness…"

She flung her legs out of bed and stood up to walk around the room. "I fed you a few drops of my blood. I don't know how much you know about my kind but vampire blood has special healing powers." A silence fell over the room and Katherine, who felt a bit uncomfortable, sighed and turned around to face Tom again. "Congrats by the way! You now officially own three Horcruxes!"

Suddenly Tom's brain snapped to full attention and he reached over to the bedside table where the locket was lying. His eyes danced between the gold medallion and Katherine until he gestured for her to come to his side. While she did so he opened the clasp of the necklace. "You will be the guardian for this Horcrux, my love!"

As the cold material of the locket touched her skin Katherine shuddered a little. She could immediately feel a dark force radiating off the spot where it lay on her skin. After he had closed the clasp of the necklace Tom planted a light kiss on her neck. "I want you to wear this all the time from now on…", he murmured against her skin. Katherine turned her head to look at him and for a second they shared a deep eye contact during which some sort of connection formed between them. This had happened a lot lately and they both found that they understood each other without words.

From that day on Tom Riddle and Katherine Pierce were inseparable. While they were in Albania Riddle was able to recruit more and more Death Eaters and he also found a symbol which he would use to call his followers and mark places where they had killed. One day he had asked Katherine for her wand and he had looked very closely at the handle – the skull with the snake in a swirl around it.

A few days later he had come up with an altered version of that skull and he had given it the name 'The Dark Mark'. After Katherine had given her approval she had suggested that they would burn the mark into their follower's skin and everytime they would be called it would burn as it to remind them of their oath of loyalty towards Tom.

Although they didn't find Rovena Ravenclaw's diadem to turn it into another Horcrux Riddle did split his soul again. When he and Katherine were wandering around the forest they encountered a man who was hunting snakes to use their skin as potion ingredients. He was just about to kill a huge black-greenish snake when the two intervened. After a short fight with Tom the man was killed by an Avada Kedavra and a bite from the snake. Because of that incident the snake was now a Horcrux of Tom's and after a little conversation with him in Parseltongue Katherine was informed that the serpent's name was Nagini and that she wanted to stay with them.

Many years had gone by since then and now in 1948 Tom had a whole army of Death Eaters and other demons and creatures of the night under his control. Riddle and Katherine now owned a huge mansion which sat upon a hill and was surrounded by a forest and you could easily reach the shore of a small lake from the doors of the old manor.

One day Riddle had called all of his followers into one of the three dining halls which he had transformed into sort of an assembly hall. Normally she would attend such meetings but today she was looking through the documents she had received from their insider at the Azkaban prison. She was writing down all names which were loyal Death Eaters onto a piece of parchment. Suddenly Katherine sensed a presence behind her. And it was not Riddle!

She could tell by now when he was near and he clearly was not right now. But this aura was familiar to her too… With a start Katherine turned around to see Kiril leaning against the doorframe behind her. "Long time no see, Katerina…" Katherine blinked a few times before she studdered: "Oh, y-yes… Indeed. Well, what brings you here Kiril?" The blonde vampire pushed himself from the doorframe and walked towards her, hands in pockets.

"We haven't heard anything from you for the last few years so I thought I'd come and check on you… So, how's the progress?" Katherine blankly stared at him, her brows furrowed. Slowly the task the 'Inner Circle' had set her came to her mind again but other than a few years ago she didn't feel the same hatred towards Riddle like she had back then. Instead she felt the sudden urge to protect him. Him and his plans. Their plans.

And with a start Katherine was on her feet and pinned Kiril to a nearby wall. He hadn't seemed to expect this because the look on his face was somewhat surprised. "I won't give you any information about Tom Riddle anymore! I won't!" Katherine was boiling with rage. "You simply want to bring him down because he is a threat to the whole wizarding world in your eyes. But he is not! You and the Circle are just too narrow minded and prejudiced to actually take a look at his intentions. What Tom is about to do is going to be the greatest thing the world has ever seen! And I thought you were smarter than simply judging books by their covers!"

After that speech Katherine lifted Kiril a few feet in the air and – thanks to being an original and therefore being stronger than ordinary vampires – threw him across the hallway in direction of the Entrance Hall, her eyes almost as red as Tom's were occasionally. "Get the hell out of my house and if I ever see you or anyone from the Circle near us I swear to the devil himself that I will do anything to make your eternal lives even more miserable!"

At that moment Kiril knew that one of the Circle's biggest fears had come true. They had lost the Chosen One to the dark side. Oh Katerina… , Kiril thought later, What have you done?

Yeah, what have you done?