Chapter Fourteen: The end of the millennium
Fairytales
We left California in the late Seventies and headed up north to Washington. Klaus had decided that we should live in Seattle. He liked to be near the water and the mountains that surrounded the city were beautiful. It was the early Eighties, the age of computers was still in his infancy and Klaus grew excited. He went to several seminars and bought stock in a company called Apple Computers that was based in Silicon Valley. I thought it was funny that they named the company after a fruit. But it was new and had plenty of buzz surrounding it. Klaus also invested in a company named Microsoft. Its founder was a young college drop out who had decided that Washington was a much better headquarters than California.
Nothing really happened in the Eighties, at least personally in our lives. Reagan was President which made Klaus happy. He didn't like paying so much taxes, which I thought was of no consequence since he still kept his British citizenship, his peerage, title and the lands. And of course, Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister in the UK. Klaus was still a proud member of the Tories and contributed quite a small fortune to the party. The fashion in the Eighties was horrendous. The shoulder pads and weird shapes on clothes and the big hair people were sporting. The only thing I liked about the Eighties was, well nothing. I did not even like the music, except maybe for Belinda Carlisle.
In 1988, we had decided to move out of the city and into our new house in the mountains, north of Seattle. Klaus wanted to surprise me, so I had to wear a blindfold the entire trip up. I didn't like it of course, not one partial to surprises of any kind. He carried me in his arms when he got out of the car and then set me down.
"I don't see why we have to go through all this trouble…It's just a house." I grumbled. Klaus laughed hearing that. "Trust me Darling…you're going to love it."
He twirled me around and I was dizzy and then blindfold fell on the ground and I saw it. It was huge. I've never seen a house that huge, bigger than even Cambrian Hall, the chateau in France and maybe even the Original's castle in Romania combined. I was flabbergasted. It was beautiful, magnificent even.
"Home sweet home Sweetheart," Klaus said cheerfully. My eyes widened. Was he joking? This gargantuan palace couldn't possibly be our new home. It was just too big.
"Do you love it Darling?" Klaus smiled, he pulled me in his arms and kissed me sweetly.
"It's huge…" I said in disbelief as I pulled my lips away from his. "Niklaus, have you gone insane?" I asked him. "What possessed you to buy this?"
"I didn't buy it Elly," Klaus sighed. "I build it or had it built. It was all forest here and I had to bribe and compel a few zoning officials to permit the trees to be cut, the forest cleared…It is a nature reserve after all…Took about four years for the whole thing to be complete."
"So we're the only ones living here?" I asked Klaus.
He shrugged. "Except for the occasional hikers and campers…there's a bed and breakfast a few miles down near the lake."
Klaus took my hand and brought me into the house, mansion or maybe it should be called a palace, my fairytale castle that my golden haired vampire Prince had build for me. I was amazed and stunned by the beauty of it. The artwork that was put in. Marble floors and Greek columns, painted ceilings done by artisans. Klaus wanted it to be like Fontainebleau castle. It was an exact replica scaled down ninety percent. And then he had another surprise.
Klaus brought me to the large courtyard, down the steps I saw hedgerows of what looked like a giant maze and in the middle of it, if one were to find the path to it, was a beautiful antique carousel. I always wanted one and he got one for me. I smiled as I lied in his arms that night. We were out in the courtyard, lying on the large daybed they would have in cabanas. I wanted to see the stars.
"There's Castor and Pollux…" I pointed to Klaus. He chuckled and held me close. "Ah…I remember that night," Klaus smiled. "Anthony was telling you silly fairytales…"
"It's not silly…and they were not fairytales Klaus but Greek mythology" I frowned at Klaus. So it was true then. That he had been spying on us in his wolf form. "I think it's sweet."
"He's such a dreamer Elly…" Klaus sighed. "Just like you. You're too much alike the both of you…That's why it would never work out. He'll never protect you like I do. Anthony is too weak."
"He did love me." I said softly. I wondered about Anthony and hoped he was happy wherever he was.
"And you loved him too…" Klaus spoke and looked at me. I only sighed and snuggled close, the cashmere blanket covering us. "Except you love me more…" Klaus said.
"Always…" I said to him and kissed his lips.
"I never loved any woman but you…" Klaus smiled at me. He then shrugged. "Well other than my mother and sisters of course…"
"Promise me you won't try to burn the house down Elly," Klaus spoke and looked at me, I just stared blankly back at him. I couldn't make any promises. When I grew angry especially whenever I was furious or distressed, I just had this unexplained urge to burn things. It was very cathartic and stress relieving. It was my way of dealing with things
"I'll try…" I finally whispered. Klaus gave a small nod and kissed my lips. "Happy Anniversary Darling…"
We had been together nine hundred and fifty years. It was nine and half centuries ago that he had kidnapped and forced me to wed him in the beautiful church by the lake. Klaus hummed that tune again and I had grown sleepy. I looked up at the stars seeing how beautiful and timeless they were.
I looked at the courtyard. I saw my sister standing there. Karina smiled at me. My Darling sister… Always there, never leaving my side. She was my Castor and I was the immortal Pollux. Oh how I wished I could share my immortality with her. Then maybe we'd be like the stars, Karina and I, shining brightly in the twilight sky forever.
"The house is just too big…" Karina commented one day. I was having one of my walks in the gardens when I saw Karina sitting on one of the iron wrought benches.
"He bought it for me," I smiled happily. Karina only sighed. "I don't think you need that many rooms Elly…"
"We made love in every single one of them." I told her with a knowing smile. Klaus wanted to christen each room. I think it took quite a while though. But we were both too drunk with alcohol and too horny to care.
Karina gave a look of disgust but I didn't care. I touched the wreath of flowers in her hair. How perfect and fresh they looked. "Did you ever haunt Elijah?" I asked my sister. i was suddenly curious. She gave a casual shrug.
"I can't haunt people who hasn't let me go Elly…"
"What do you mean?"
"See you feel guilty about what had happened Sister, which is why I'm here. I'm like part of your guilty feelings. Feelings that you haven't let go"
"So you're trying to say that I imagined you here…" I said and looked at Karina closely. Was she just a figment of my imagination? A product of my deranged, guilty mind? "Does it mean that I'm really mad Karina?"
"Oh Elly…you're just a sweet, poor little thing. Like an orphan little birdie. Lost in this dreadful eternal abyss…"
I grew annoyed with my sister and frowned. "Don't feel sorry for me Karina." I said sharply. "I'm happy. I have Klaus."
"If you say so Elly…" Karina spoke and gave a sympathetic smile. She stared up the sky and saw a bald eagle flying. "Oh look what a beautiful creature…" She said in wonder. I looked up too and saw the eagle, its large wings spanning as it swoop down, probably to catch its prey.
"Yes it is…" I said and dragged my words. My sister wasn't there anymore. She had disappeared again.
So much for my happy ending…
Of course, my life in that huge palatial mansion wasn't all that fairytale happy endings were supposed to be. Far from that really, we started to get into fights. I didn't even know what we were fighting about. I was angry and furious that he'd head out to the city and spent weekends there. Klaus would not bring me with him despite me telling him to. He said he needed space, his time alone, except he wasn't alone of course. His minions were there. Vampires eager to please him and win his favors. Klaus was an Original, the most feared. A legend in vampire circles, some even thought that he was a mythical creature, something vampires talked about but many had never really seen or met.
There was one time when Klaus went off to Las Vegas with Bishop and spent two months there, gambling, getting drunk, bedding whores and strippers. Klaus showed me his brand new Gulfstream jet. He was awfully proud of it. He had won it in a poker game and beat some Arab prince from one of the oil rich Gulf States. I was enraged when he almost gambled the house away.
It wasn't just the jet that he had won, Klaus also won the prince's entire harem of women. Beautiful, gorgeous women who were at the prince's beck and call. Klaus had turned them all into vampires and brought all twelve of them back to the mansion, along with Bishop. What's the point of being a vampire and living forever if you can't enjoy? He was such a hedonist.
I was furious when I heard from one of Klaus' vampire guards that he had been rather drunk during the game and almost pawned me off to the prince.
"Are you crazy Niklaus!" I shrieked. "You would gamble me away! What am I to you?"
"God Elly!" Klaus hollered back. "It was just a poker game! I was never going to lose…I could compel the man anytime!"
"How could you!" I cried. I felt betrayed. Klaus had told me I was his most precious possession and yet he was willing to pawn me off in a poker game. I never felt so cheap in all my life. And it made my hatred for him grew stronger.
"The prince offered his harem of beauties. I needed to put something of great beauty up and I thought of you…" Klaus sighed wearily.
"You showed him this!" I screamed again and took out the photo Klaus had in his wallet. It was of me naked. He had taken it once, when I wasn't myself, tipsy with alcohol that I would pose so brazenly like a Playboy centerpiece. Of course it was all done in the privacy and intimacy of our bedroom. It was only for Klaus' eyes. I never expected him to show it to anyone.
"Elly. I was drunk." He explained weakly. Klaus walked to his bar and poured himself a drink. I immediately tore the photographs into pieces and threw the bits away.
"Am I one of common whores Niklaus?" I asked him bitterly. "Is this how you treat me? Your own wife?"
"Elly…You're making a big deal out of it. I was only having fun…" Klaus shook his head, smiling and drank his bourbon. he then smiled slyly at me. "You need to lighten up Darling. You're getting old."
I grew angrier hearing that and ran to the bar. I took the bottle of aged Scotch whiskey and threw it at him, Klaus dodged it of course and it went smashing to the floor. I started flinging the bottles of vodka, bourbon, tequila. Whatever I could find and whatever my hand had grabbed. It all came down shattering into pieces. Klaus glared angrily at me as he caught the bottle of Grey Goose and decided that he had enough. He rushed towards me and carried me away. He pinned me down on the Aubusson carpet.
"Enough Elly…" Klaus growled in my ear. "Stop it."
I didn't know why but his voice sounded husky and gravelly and especially with the dominating way he was holding me. I felt this strange sense of arousal creeping up. Either that or I had truly gone mad, off the rockers as they'd say.
"I hate you!" I cried and stared angrily right into his pale blue eyes. Klaus laughed haughtily and shook his head.
"God…you're so beautiful when you're angry Sweetheart. Your heart is beating fast and your cheeks are all red…Hmmm…" He looked down and me and sniffed.
"I think you're aroused Darling…I can smell you…" Klaus smiled.
"Let me go…" I said sharply and struggled in his grasp. I would not give him the satisfaction.
"No…Never Darling," Klaus grinned, a rather sexy, seductive grin and I knew I had lost. Too late…I was already weak with desire. He bent down and kissed me and I whimpered when he touched me. I hated myself for being so weak. So susceptible to Klaus and his sexual charms. Aargh… He had strummed me up like I was a guitar and he, a talented rockstar.
I was resting in his arms later that night when Klaus told me what Bishop had told him. Elijah was in New York. One of the Penn Dutch vampires had spotted him in the Russian Tea Room. Bishop had his men watch Elijah but of course the Original was smart enough to realize that he was being spied on. He managed to escape their eyes and left under their radar. Klaus hadn't seen his brother in more than two hundred years. It was obvious that Klaus was rather affected by it. He tried to sound all casual though but I knew he had probably wanted to see his brother, maybe even reconcile with Elijah.
"What are you going to do now?" I asked Klaus softly.
"Have him hunted down maybe…" He replied lazily and stifled a yawn. Klaus stretched his arms and leaned against the soft duvet. I only looked at him doubtfully. Klaus sighed.
"He betrayed me Elly. He helped Katerina escape…The bitch is dead and there goes any hope for a cure." Klaus said. I didn't say anything back. What could I say? Oh No…Niklaus. It wasn't your brother. It was me. I planned Katerina's escape. And by the way I was the bitch who got you cursed in the first place…
I took his hand and held over my left breast where my heart was beating. "You still have me Niklaus. If you want to break the curse…You know I would do it for you."
"No…" He shook his head. "I'll wait Elly. The doppelganger is bound to appear anytime soon." Klaus smiled at me. "Every five hundred years the witches say. It's like a comet returning to Earth after its long orbit…Anytime now…"
The Nineties…
Things got worse as the new decade came. I ran away several times and of course Klaus and his legion of loyal minions would catch me eventually. I managed to run away in 1993 when Klaus went back to Eastern Europe. The Communist Era was over and he could travel with ease in the Eastern Bloc, Iron Curtain countries. I went down South to New Orleans and met up with Aidan. He had promised to help me find a powerful Voodoo witch doctor and we went to see him. We went deep in the bayous of Louisiana and met the witch doctor. The old man gave me a strange looking bottle with a powerful potion he said that could weaken an Original. I needed something to incapacitate Klaus, just in case he pissed me off.
Aidan had a falling out with his Maker, Bishop. It happened in the Seventies when Aidan lived in Montreal. I didn't know the details but Aidan told me he wasn't going back to Bishop, he had enough being the older vampire's errand boy and so he was on his own. It was Mardi Gras in New Orleans and I was having a ball of a time. I wore a short black minidress, and strings of beads on my neck for the carnival. I was even a little drunk but Aidan was with me and I knew I'd be safe. We came across one of the old curio shops in the French Quarter and I thought I'd have my fortune read just for fun. Aidan came along too.
The lady was dressed in Gypsy clothes, I wondered if she was a quack. She had the peasant skirt, the white off shoulder blouse and even a silk scarf tied over her auburn hair. She shuffled the tarot cards and placed them on the table and then she started arranging them in some shape. The fortune teller turned the cards and looked at it. She then looked at me strangely.
"What's wrong?" I asked her. She shook her head. "It's really strange…"
"Well what is it?" I frowned and asked impatiently.
"Something's wrong with the cards…" The fortune teller told me. She sighed. I looked at Aidan curiously and he only gave a small shrug.
"Never mind," The fortune teller said. "Give me your hands…"
I held out both hands and she took them. I watched as she closed her eyes and started murmuring softly. It sounded like soft chants. She then opened her eyes. "There's someone else in this room…"
"Umm…" Aidan chirped awkwardly and raised his hand. "Me…" I could tell he was trying to control his laughter.
"Silence!" The fortune teller said sharply. Aidan kept quiet and gave me a quizzical look. "She's someone very close to you," The fortune teller said and looked at me. I stared back at her. "A family member…"
"Yes." I nodded. I smiled. Karina…Of course… "She's my sister."
"She's been gone a very long time…" The fortune teller said. I kept quiet. "She says she won't be visiting you anymore…"
"Why?" I was surprised to hear that.
"She says you don't need her…you'll have someone else coming into your life soon. Another family member that you will love…you won't be alone."
"No…" I uttered. I couldn't lose my sister again. "Tell her I still need her."
"She says she has to go…" The fortune teller told me. "Wait…She says you'll meet her again soon, in her next life and that you'll always be one half of her."
"No. She can't go. She can't leave me. She promised me. My sister made an oath." I was furious and I panicked.
"Your sister also want me to tell you that the darkness in you isn't real…It is all a lie. You can choose not to go into it…" The fortune teller then paused.
"What happened?" I asked her.
"She's gone. I can't hear her anymore. She left."
I cried. I really did, tears flowed down. The thought of never seeing Karina again terrified me. No. Karina…You can't go. You can't leave me. Aidan was shocked by it and just held me close. I spent the entire night in the hotel room, staring out the window. I heard the click and the door opened. I never even bothered to turn and look. Nothing seemed to matter. I lost my sister again. If it was true what the fortune teller said, Karina's spirit would stop haunting me. I felt his arms circling me from behind and he pulled me in his embrace. I just sighed and leaned against his chest.
"I've missed you…" Klaus whispered and kissed the back of my head. I guessed it was just me and Klaus. I really had no one else.
Pregnancy
It was all a ploy. Klaus had planned everything from the get go. My easy escape to New Orleans, the witch doctor who gave me the potion was one of his loyal witches. He even roped Aidan in for help. I was angry with Aidan McCollin and wrote him a rather long, furious letter, lambasting him for being a traitorous bastard and one who deserved to be disemboweled and castrated in the worst way possible.
I received gifts from Aidan. There was a big bouquet of pink roses and hydrangeas, a pink Hermes ostrich leather Birkin bag, the same one I was eyeing when we passed by the boutique in New Orleans and a note that simply said. "I'm Sorry". I smiled to myself when I took the gorgeous bag out of the orange Hermes box. Guessed I couldn't really be angry with Aidan. He did get me a bag that cost almost 30 grand.
Then one day I had started vomiting and Klaus had a doctor to see me. It was official. I was pregnant. I was horrified, learning it. How could it even be possible? After everything we had tried for centuries. Klaus however was grinning widely like a child on Christmas Day. It was what he had wanted for so long. A child, of his own blood and mine. I was miserable. A child? What would I do with one? I barely raised Lexie when she was still a little human girl. I was more like big sister to her. We had nannies and governesses for that and Lexie had never been a baby when we had her.
It was so strange to have some organic, living thing growing inside me. But I didn't want the child. My feelings for Klaus had been volatile and capricious. I loved him desperately but I also hated him with such passion. Maybe it was my hormones gone askew by pregnancy. I even went to an abortion clinic to have the pregnancy terminated but of course Klaus had burst into the operating room just in time and killed the startled doctor and anesthetist. He was furious with me and had me imprisoned in my room for weeks. Klaus also had a staff of doctors and nurses in the compound just in case.
"Maybe I should die in childbirth…" I said breathlessly one evening. Klaus looked up from reading a pregnancy manual and shot me a dangerous look.
"That would be a noble death don't you think Niklaus? To die while giving life…" I said to him and rubbed my five month bump.
A boy… That was what the witches say and the doctor. I would have a son. That made Klaus overjoyed. His firstborn and a son! He had it planned, the things he would teach his boy. And it wasn't typical things Dads would teach their sons, such as riding a bicycle or playing baseball. Klaus would teach Junior the best way to rip hearts out without much hemorrhage and which blood was the sweetest, children naturally, and how to compel. Klaus was excited about it. He would finally be a father.
"It would be even better if the baby decides to come out on a full moon…" I sighed. "Then you can perform the ritual soon afterwards and rip my heart out. Two birds with one stone Darling…"
I smiled at him. "You'll have your son and the curse will be broken."
"I'm just going to forget that you say that." Klaus spoke and gave a cheerful grin. "It's your hormones Darling. They're making you a little out of sorts."
"Our son will be cursed Niklaus." I told him angrily. "He'll have an Original vampire for a father and a crazy woman for a mother. He does not deserve this!"
"Elly…" Klaus sighed. He put down his book and stood up. Klaus then walked to me and pulled me into his arms. "What's wrong Darling?"
"Our son will be cursed Klaus…" I said again and broke down in his arms, crying. I was so upset. I had been having nightmares the past few nights. Seeing my baby boy being sacrificed by the bald, black eyed witches that had killed my sister centuries ago.
"The darkness I have inside me will be passed onto him." I sobbed. I didn't want my child to have my flaws and weaknesses. What toxicity I had inside me, I had read somewhere that the child will inherit it somehow. It was natural and therefore inevitable.
"Oh Darling…" Klaus said softly and stroked my hair, trying his best to comfort me.
He had been surprisingly patient with me during the pregnancy. Klaus would entertain my weird cravings of pickled mangoes and Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby. I would suddenly want Strawberry cheesecake and he'd have his minions get truckloads for me. Klaus would eat them too with a drizzle of human blood on top. He didn't leave home as much to meet with his coven of witches, instead they came to the mansion. He would be with me through out it all.
Sin City
When I was seven months along, Klaus said that we'd go for a short trip somewhere. We took the Gulfstream jet. It was really nice with walnut and gold interiors and comfortable large leather seats that could recline 180 degrees in cream and beige tones. Guessed it wasn't all that bad for a win in some poker game. I was hoping that we'd go to Paris or maybe even Italy. Instead he brought me to Las Vegas and I was most definitely not impressed, scowling the entire time as the limousine rolled down the Strip. Las Vegas was Klaus' favorite playground, Sin City as it was known in popular culture.
I didn't like Las Vegas, with its tacky neon lit streets, the casinos and women all dressed in such provocative clothes but Klaus loved it. He said it was like Paradise on Earth. A vampires' heaven, except that Kael and his Lycanthropes owned a few of the large hotels and casinos. So well technically it was vampire heaven on Lycanthropes' turf. I hadn't seen Kael in decades and suddenly entertained the thought of perhaps, maybe escaping for a little while and meet up with Kael. I never got the chance though not with the large entourage of security detail Klaus had brought along.
Klaus and I stayed in a large suite in the Bellagio. It was on the top floor and it was a duplex with a spiral staircase. It had a grand piano and an indoor fountain and all the luxurious amenities one would have. But I was heavily pregnant and in a rather foul mood to enjoy any of that. Klaus had brought me to Las Vegas so he could spend the time gambling with his vampire boys. So much for romantic getaway…
"What am I supposed to do while you go to the casino!" I screamed at Klaus. He was leaving me again and I was furious. Did he really expect me to sit in the hotel room and wait for him all day?
"You can go to the spa Darling," Klaus replied nonchalantly as he had his coffee mixed with blood. Klaus had grown used to my fits that it did not bother him anymore. He treated it as if it was just a trivial nuisance, as if I was a fly that buzzed irritably around. Klaus would swat me away if he could.
"Get your hair done or something Elly and maybe even a facial…your pores are showing," Klaus remarked snidely that made me stare daggers at him. He ignored me and sat on the armchair.
"You said that we would spend time together! You said that Niklaus! You and me!" I cried out in anger. "How can you just leave me here to rot while you go out and have fun!"
Klaus gave a smile and just shrugged his shoulders as he leaned against the armchair. He didn't seem to care and that angered me more. I was filled to the brim with his child and he was indifferent to me and my needs.
What a bastard! A cold hearted bastard who I was married to! I was so irritated that I stormed off into the bedroom and lied down on the large oversized bed. Klaus came in soon after and crept into the bed. He pulled me into his arms and cuddled close as his palms spanned my bulging belly. The baby kicked and I heard Klaus chuckling softly.
"Let's name him Alexander after your father…" He whispered as we lied there on the bed. I smiled hearing it. It would be better than calling him Gregory or Lucas. I still could not believe that Klaus had considered naming his son after Lord Lucas. The evil, sniveling vampire king that I had vanquished. Gregory was Klaus' Lycanthrope father's name.
"I want his middle name to be yours," I turned and looked at Klaus. "Alexander Niklaus…"
"It sounds rather odd Elly…" Klaus mused aloud. "We have to anglicize it to Nicholas."
"But it's your name Niklaus," I pouted. I sighed and caressed his cheek gently. "I wonder if he looks like you," I smiled. "He probably will…"
"He'll be a beautiful baby my Love, just like his mother…" Klaus said before leaning to kiss me sweetly. It would always be like that. We'd fight heatedly and then made up lovingly soon afterwards. Our marriage had always been rather tumultous. Passionate and stormy. Maybe that was why we lasted so long. It was never boring. You never knew what to expect.
Later that evening, I found myself wearing a white maternity bridal gown. One that was simple, strapless empire cut gown made of beautiful French lace, silk chiffon and Duchess Satin. Klaus had on his suit and we were standing at the chapel of love, ready to be legally wed, with Elvis performing the ceremony. Bishop was there as witness and he took the photographs. It was so quintessentially Las Vegas and so extremely tacky. Klaus thought it would be fun but I was scowling in every single photograph because I knew Klaus lost a bet while playing poker with Bishop and the other vampires, which was the reason why we got married in a tacky Las Vegas style.
The Precious One…
Alexander was a large baby, weighing almost eight pounds at birth. He was chubby, healthy and big. The labor was long, arduous and I had probably passed out several times. He looked like his father with his thick mop of light blonde hair and pale blue eyes. My son was such an adorable baby who always seemed to be smiling even when asleep. He was calm and he didn't cry much just like when he was in my womb and I grew to love him, like I never loved before. I loved him even more than I did Klaus. Sheila was right, having a child changes everything. My heart felt like it could burst every single time I held Alexander in my arms. I was rather possessive of him and hated anyone who wanted to hold him. He was mine.
Klaus did not share the same sentiment. He said I shouldn't be too attached to Alexander. "Let the boy cry", he would say. "You'll only make him weak…" It was nonsense of course. I couldn't leave Alexander alone in his crib, crying his lungs out. I was his mother. I'd carry him and cuddled him close, hummed that song that Klaus would hum, which words I never knew. Then I would start singing all the common lullabies. Like Mockingbird or Rock a By Baby.
Klaus felt neglected. I didn't pay much attention to him and he was annoyed. Why should I? Klaus was big boy. An alpha male, a thousand five hundred year Original vampire, while my son was a helpless human baby. Alexander needed me like no one else did and I loved him as much as a mother could ever love her child. I would die for him and I would do anything to protect him.
I was nursing Alexander one evening while Klaus watched. My husband didn't look pleased. I never even talk to Klaus or paid him any attention the entire time. It was just Alexander. He had my undivided attention.
"We should get a nursing maid." Klaus commented.
"Don't be silly," I said and stared at him. "It's 1994, there's no such thing…"
"There is if you're willing to pay the premium price…" Klaus said and gave an almost sinister grin. I only frowned. I didn't want Alexander to be drinking some strange woman's milk.
"I am his mother, the only milk he should drink is mine…"
"It's been six months Elly…" Klaus spoke and looked at me. His eyes seemed to smoulder. "Since we've shared a bed."
"What are you talking about?" I asked him, a little annoyed. "You've slept with me most of the time."
"I'm not talking about sleeping next to you Elly." Klaus rolled his eyes. "We haven't made love."
My eyes widened and I stared at Klaus, shocked he would bring it up. He hadn't touched me intimately since I was eight months pregnant and of course then Alexander was born. I really didn't feel like having sex at all. I wanted to be a mother not some sexed up doll. I no longer wanted to wear anything that showed skin. Long cotton white night gowns and nothing sheer or lacy. Everytime Klaus tried to touch me sexually I would just push his hands away.
"Elly…" Klaus called me. I looked at him and cradled Alexander close to me, hoping that seeing me in my maternal self would turn Klaus off. "I haven't fully recovered…" I spoke, almost stammered. I didn't want to be intimate with Klaus. Not anymore.
"Don't be ridiculous. You drank my blood. You're perfectly healthy." Klaus said irritably.
"I mean mentally…" I grounded.
"I've been very patient Darling," Klaus said and gave a rather terse smile.
"You have your women Niklaus." I almost shouted but didn't because Alexander was sleeping in my arms. "Seek pleasure from them. I don't want it. I don't want you."
Hearing that Klaus abruptly stood up and left the room in a fit of rage but it did not bother me. I couldn't care less about Klaus. I shrugged and smiled as I looked at my precious little angel. Alexander had opened his eyes and yawned. He looked so perfect that I forgot I was angry with his father.
"Well…looks like Daddy's angry Darling…" I said to my son.
It was insensitive of me to say that to Klaus but at the time I didn't really care that I had hurt him by my rejection. Klaus wasn't the center of my world anymore. It was Alexander. He was everything. My son brought me such joy and I spent every waking moment with him. I'd put Alexander in a pram and we'd go for walks in the estate's garden. We'd have picnics by the large pond. Alexander was only six months old. He couldn't walk yet. So he lied there on the red and white gingham cloth and stared at the clouds.
"Oh look…" I said and pointed to a cloud. "It looks like a huge sausage…"
The baby only gurgled and laughed. I smiled at him. "We'll have hotdogs one day when you're older Alex. We'd have big barbecue in the courtyard and invite everyone…" I sighed. "Hopefully your father and his minions don't drain their blood dry of course…"
I carried Alexander into his white and blue nursery and placed him in his crib. It was a beautiful wooden cradle, shaped like a small boat and it could be rocked. I smiled watching as he slept and bent to kiss his forehead. Alexander looked like a baby cherub. I loved to feed him as he sat on the high baby chair, seeing the mess he made. I took Polaroid photographs of that to put in my scrapbook. Klaus only watched and drank his espresso. He never said anything and let me be.
When Alexander was almost a year old, Klaus had gotten a nanny. He came snatching my son away from me when I was nursing him. I was screaming and Alexander cried. One of Klaus' vampire guards held me back as I struggled. I watched as Klaus handed him over to a middle aged woman. Her name was Mrs. Altman and she would be Alexander's primary caretaker from then on. I was devastated and tears flowed while Mrs. Altman carried a crying Alexander out of the room, away from me. I would never forgive Klaus for that. He took my precious son from me.
"It is not right Elly!" Klaus snapped. "The way you are so obsessed with him. You coddle him too much. You spent copious amount of time with him. You forget you are my wife!"
"He is my son! He is just a baby Niklaus!" I cried horribly and just stared incredulously at him. "What is wrong with you?"
"Then what about me?" Klaus screamed. "What am I to you? You just cast me aside and act as though I don't exist. Never sparing a thought or time of day for me."
I clenched my jaw and gritted angrily as I folded my arms. I didn't really care about Klaus and his feelings. He was behaving like a spoilt, petulant child, wanting attention. It was getting old and I was getting sick of his endless demands.
"You will get to spend a few hours with him during the day," Klaus told me coldly. "Mrs. Altman will bring Alexander to you in the morning and after lunch."
"You can't take my son away from me." I said to Klaus. "I won't stand for it."
"He is my son too…" Klaus responded and stared at me. "I am the head of this household Elly. I will decide how Alexander is to be raised."
"I hate you." I told him vehemently. "I will never forgive you for this Niklaus. Never!"
My eyes glared sharply at him. I would not let Klaus win. Alexander is mine. My son. I carried him for nine months. I gave birth to him. How dare Klaus think that he could just take Alexander away from me? What gave him the right? Everything started to sour from then on. My heart had turned hard and cold towards Klaus. It didn't have room for him anymore. I focused all the love I had for Alexander. One day, Alexander would grow old enough and I will tell him what a cruel monster his father was. My son will know the truth.
But as Alexander grew older and started walking and talking, he became closer to Klaus than he was to me and I hated it. He would want his father to feed him and play with him and bathe him. It was so obvious that he loved Klaus more. He adored his Old Man. It was all Klaus. He was Alexander's whole world. "I want Father to feed me. Can I go play with Father?" Father says this and Father says that. "I want to grow up and be strong like Father." Klaus didn't want Alexander to call him Daddy or Dad. He didn't like the way it sounded.
"Father says that vampires are way stronger than humans Mom," Alexander told me one afternoon. He was drawing on the paper with his crayons. It looked like a house and four people in front. Klaus, myself, Alexander and Mrs. Altman.
He was only five but he was so intelligent and such a handsome boy. His speech sounded very English thanks to Klaus and Mrs. Altman's influence. He was also a little mischievous and spoilt rotten of course. Alexander had all the toys he would ever want. Klaus treated him like a prince, buying him the entire boy's catalogue from Toys r' us.
"But they are not as smart," I said and smiled at my son. "See humans invent many things and they even went to the moon…"
Alexander shook his head stubbornly and folded his arms. "No. Father says that Buzz Aldrin was a vampire."
"That is a lie Alexander. Your Father lied." I scowled. I was angry at Klaus for making things up. "Father says so!" Alexander said sharply.
"He lies Alexander. Your father is nothing but a liar!"
Alexander kept shaking his head and screamed. "No! No! No!"
"Alexander stop it." I said to him.
"No! No! No! No!" Alexander continued rambling.
"Stop it!" I screamed but Alexander didn't. I even shook his small shoulders and that shocked me that I would be so rough with my own son. I stopped and stared at him. Alexander glared at me. The cold way he stared at me, so much like Klaus. I was stumped. Did I hurt him with my shaking?
I started to cry and ran straight to my room. What has happened? Klaus had poisoned his mind. He took Alexander away from me. Klaus took everything away from me. He wanted me to depend only him. The only person you will ever need is me Elly. No one else!
I lied in my bed and cried and then I heard the sound of the door opened. I grew even more upset, thinking it was Klaus. What did he want now? Couldn't he just leave me be?
"Mommy…" I heard his soft childish voice. I turned and looked. Alexander stood at the door way. He stared at me and looked a little terrified.
"Mommy… Are you crying?" He asked and walked in, almost threading in silence. I then brushed away my tears and sat up on the bed. "Come here Alex," I smiled and beckoned him in. Alexander rushed right into my arms and I hugged him close.
"I'm sorry Mommy…" He whispered. "I'm sorry I made you cry."
I smiled sadly when I heard that. No. He was not his father's son. Klaus would never apologize. But Alexander did. I still had my precious baby boy with me. Alexander was mine, all mine. I pulled away and kissed his forehead.
"Oh Baby…I didn't cry because of you…" I told him and looked into his big blue eyes. I gently stroked his golden hair and kissed both his cheeks. "Mommy's not feeling well Alex." I sighed.
"Did Father make you sick?" He asked curiously. I shrugged. "Guess he did." Might as well tell him some truths about Klaus. Sooner or later, Alexander would figure things out by himself.
"I'll make you feel better Mommy," Alexander said. "We can go watch Power Rangers and cheer you up."
His little face looked so serious that I had to smile. I hugged him tightly again. I had Alexander and nothing really mattered. He was the one precious thing in my life. A mother's love is a powerful thing. More powerful than a father's will. Klaus could not take Alexander away from me. Alexander would always be mine. Klaus no longer took priority from the moment Alexander was born. I would dare to say that I had learned to love Klaus a little less. I would protect my son with everything in me.
School Days & Family vacation.
Fall 1999
We sent Alexander to a public elementary school. Klaus had decided to let his son go through the US public school system which honestly I did not agree. I'd rather have him home schooled. But Klaus said that Alexander needed to be socialized, be put in the wild so to speak, where his survivor skills could somehow be unleashed. I just stood there, staring as my son walked to his homeroom carrying his Power Ranger backpack. He looked at me and waved.
"This is a bad idea…" I told Klaus.
"He'll be fine…" Klaus shrugged. I frowned and Klaus pulled me in his arms and kissed my head. "He's my son Elly. Alexander will rule the school. Just watch my words…"
By lunch time on the second week, we were called into the school's principal's office. Alexander had bitten a few of the kids on their necks and wrists and the school was horrified. It was such a mess. They showed us the pictures Alexander had drawn with his crayons during Art classes. It was terrifying to the teachers and his other classmates. Nothing but blood and bodies and people with sharp pointy teeth. Klaus only laughed.
"Such talent…" He said as he looked at the drawings. Klaus was beaming brightly with a father's pride.
"Mr. Wulfenberg. This is a serious matter. Two of the children your son had bitten had to go to the emergency room. Ten stitches on one of them! Their parents want compensation and they want Alexander to be transferred out."
"We will pay whatever is necessary…" I told the principal. He only shook his head and looked sternly at me.
"We cannot have your son here Mrs. Wulfenberg. He is a danger to the other students…I'm sorry."
Alexander was sitting patiently on the bench outside when we left the principal's office. He looked at us and I saw how crestfallen he looked. "Did I do something wrong?" He asked his father.
"No Sport," Klaus laughed. He went and picked his son up in his arms and kissed Alexander's cheek. "You did splendid Alexander. I am so very proud of you."
"They were laughing at me Father…" Alexander said. "They said my name sounded funny. Wolf berg…That's why I bit them."
"Humans Son…Silly creatures…" Klaus sighed and ruffled Alexander's hair. I smiled and kissed Alexander's cheek. We went into the Range Rover and Klaus drove out of the school's car park.
"Are we going home?" Alexander asked.
"No Alexander. Let's do something special since you've been such a good boy," Klaus smiled. "We're going to Disneyworld. It's time for a family vacation."
I pressed on the car stereo system and the NSync was playing. Alexander started singing the lyrics to "Bye Bye Bye". Klaus groaned and pressed the stop button. He took out the CD player and both Alexander and I watched in horror as Klaus threw the disc out the window. "Say bye bye to bad music." Klaus snickered.
"Niklaus…" I cried softly. It was Alexander's CD that I bought for him and one of his favorites. I turned and looked at Alexander who seemed pretty upset but he learned not to cry. Klaus had told him that tears were for weaklings and that Alexander was not weak.
"I'm going to teach you to listen to real music Alexander," He turned and grinned at his son. Klaus put his Metalicca disc in. The guitar beats for Mr. Sandman started playing and Alexander bobbed and shook his head as his father did. I scowled and folded my arms. He was just too young to listen to rock music. My son never listened to Pop music after that.
Klaus drove us to the airport and we took the Gulfstream jet and flew straight to Orlando. We spent a week there, going to Disneyworld and Seaworld. Alexander had a blast. Klaus got a huge Mickey Mouse stuffed toy for him and many other treats. We spent days on the beach in Miami and Klaus decided to buy a summer house at Palm Beach and the one week stretched to months. Klaus got a brand new yacht and had this ridiculous idea to sail down to the Caribbean during Christmas Eve right through Panama and the canal and then up the Pacific to Baja, Mexico and the Californian coastline and back home to Seattle.
He brought Alexander snorkeling and rode on a banana boat with him in the Bahamas. It was a nice, wonderful family vacation and we wouldn't have another one quite like it in a long time to come. Because Klaus would later be too obsessed in breaking his curse again that family would come second. I watched as Alexander slept peacefully in his bed in the one of the yacht's cabins. I had tucked him in and kissed him good night. I couldn't find Klaus in the master cabin and went up to the deck.
Klaus was there, dressed in a long sleeved dark grey cable knit sweater. He was sitting there staring up in the night sky. He looked so deep in thought and I wondered if I should just let him be. I turned and decided to head to bed but Klaus had managed to speed his way to me and held me in his arms. He stared at me and I grew afraid. I didn't want Klaus to have any hold on me. I couldn't bear it. Not anymore. I would not allow myself be emotionally dependent on anyone. Not even my husband.
"Let me go…" I whispered. It sounded like a plea.
"I can't Darling," Klaus spoke. His voice smooth like velvet, gliding seductively in the silent night air. He gently stroked my cheek and tucked the stray strands of my wind swept hair behind my ear.
"I love you so much Eleanna…" Klaus whispered as he leaned close. He bent to kiss me but I pulled away. I didn't want to be touched by him. Klaus wasn't deterred and pulled me close against him.
"No Niklaus…" I said and struggled but I couldn't pull myself away from him.
"Don't Elly." Klaus spoke and kissed my lips.
As soon as his lips touched mine, I responded hungrily back. I kissed him as if my life depended on it. Klaus smiled and brought me to the soft cushioned seats. We shed our clothes and made love with such hunger and need, while our little boy lied asleep in the cabin downstairs.
"Tell me you love me Elly," Klaus urged as he moved in and out of me. I only stared at him as I bucked my hips and rose to meet his urgent thrusts. I love you Niklaus… So very much…
I never said the words aloud though. I just moaned and held him close to me as I reach the crest of my climax. Klaus came right after me and he was breathing heavily as he slumped on top of me. We made love several times that night. We woke up in each other's arms as the sun started to rise. It was first January in the year 2000. Klaus and I had been together almost nine hundred and sixty two years. It was just way too long to be in any relationship with anyone.