AN: Hey everyone! So here's chapter ten! Thank you so much to everyone for your support, I wouldn't have been able to get this far without you. A big thanks to all who have followed or favourited it means so much to me.
To Lady Syndra: Thank you so much for reviewing again. Honestly it means a lot to me that you continue to follow this story and let me know your opinions on it! : )
To Mary VA: Omg you don't know how happy your review made me! : ) It is such a compliment to me that you got so engrossed in the story that you became emotional about it! Honestly your review made me smile for like a whole day and made me so much more confident in my writing. I cannot tell you how much it means to me that you not only took the time to read my story and review but that you told me how it made you feel! : ) Thank you so much it means the world! : )
I hope you all like this next chapter!
Mystic Falls
1864
The old Millbrook farm mansion house stood picturesquely at the outskirts of Mystic falls, uniquely situated so that it was close to both Coven's Wake and Mystic Falls. Kol sat in the carriage and watched the landscape pass by as it made its way up the long entranceway to the mansion.
"Happy to be home?" Tahlia asked him with a smile albeit a little more tentatively after what had happened on the train.
Kol turned from the window to face her sitting across from him
"It's not home yet".
He turned to Natalie who was sitting beside him and staring out the other window in overwhelming awe.
"Anymore visions I should know about little seer?"
"She's in this town" she said tapping Kol's hand comfortingly "Do not worry"
The carriage stopped outside of the large white colonial stately home and Kol got out first. The couch driver was already descending from the reigns to collect the luggage and the staff of the house had already emerged to great their new lord.
"Is it done?" Kol asked Tahlia as she descended the steps of the carriage next.
"Of course" she said studying each of the staff as she spoke "Each of them have been compelled by Andrew and Samuel to obey your every command without asking any questions. They finally got the house in proper working order last week"
Kol nodded in approval thinking it had been a good idea to send the two newbie vampires here two weeks ago to set up the estate so it would be in order for his arrival, even though Andrew had complained that the traveling back and forth had been tedious.
"As much as I had wished you had killed that bastard I do admit that Andrew comes in handy from time to time"
"He knows where he stands now; he just needed a little discipline that's all"
It was then when Sam and Andrew walked over, the daylight rings Tahlia had made them clearly coming in useful as the midday sun beat down on them.
"What would you have me do with the Delacroix's Sir?" Andrew asked not making eye contact with Kol.
"Sir?" Kol repeated looking at Tahlia in humorous astonishment "He's improved already"
Tahlia responded with a small smile.
"Put them in their rooms" Kol finally said before turning to Tahlia and grabbing her by the arm "Put a boundary spell on them won't you".
Tahlia nodded and waited for Sam to remove Noah and Andrew to remove Natalie from the carriage. Natalie came quietly; almost eager to see her new abode, her airy nature refusing to see the danger in the situation however Noah was the opposite. Sam had to walk him to the house with his hands restrained behind his back and his upper torso straining to get away. Kol followed them into the house, dismissing the staff to get on with their jobs.
The entrance was large and airy with tiled mosaic floors, cream panelling and a clear view to the first floor landing over the curved staircase. It was far from being similar to the house he had used to live in when he had last been in this town over eight-hundred years ago. It had been called something else then and looked extremely different but it was still the same land he and Kara had grown up on. It seemed kind of poetic to him that out of all of the places in the world she could have turned up in that it was her home that she returned to. A small smile played on his face at the thought of her living here in this very house with him.
A maid passed him, a small brunette with what looked like a basket full of kindling.
"You there" Kol said suddenly making the maid turn to him "What is your name?"
"Anna Sir, Anna Collins" she said with a curtsy.
"Well Anna, Anna Collins, I'm hungry so what do you think you could do about that?"
Anna turned around on the spot and deposited the basket of kindling on the rounded marble table in the centre of the room which also housed a flowering plant. She then looked at him straight in the eyes and held out her wrist to him.
Kol smirked. It seemed Andrew had thought of everything and really did want to make amends.
Without thinking twice he bit into the young lady, who didn't even let out a whimper. He drank deeply and watched as Anna became paler and less steady on her feet. He stopped, his craving diminished and fed her a little of his own blood in order to heal her wound.
"Now you can get back to whatever you were doing Anna"
She curtsied to him again and picked up the basket and continued on to the drawing room where she was obviously attending to the fire.
Andrew descended the stairs as Kol wiped his mouth with the handkerchief in his pocket.
"I must say Andrew you have done a good job with compelling this household, you seem to have a talent for such things"
"Thank you Sir" Andrew replied.
Kol laughed and put his arm around the man's shoulders who in turn looked simply terrified of the gesture.
"I appreciate you are trying to show me some respect but calling me sir isn't the way to do it" He stopped and faced him fully, the grasp on his shoulder intensifying "In fact I find it quite patronising"
Andrew gulped a little and just watched Kol carefully.
"So just do your job and find my Kara and we shouldn't have any problems, alright?"
Andrew just nodded.
"Good" Kol smiled clapping him on the back.
Andrew waited a few beats before speaking up again.
"I've actually had an idea about that" he said a small tremble lining his voice.
Kol turned back to him.
"Oh?" he said curious "Well by all means speak up"
"Well we know her name, Kara Salvatore; well that's what the Delacroix girl said anyway"
"Yes, yes continue" Kol snapped urging the man to continue with his plan.
"Well often they have files in the library archives, especially in small towns like this one. We could find a copy of her birth certificate and get her address from it"
Kol studied him for a moment, his eyes narrowing.
"That might actually be a usable plan" Kol said finally his uncertain smirk turning to a smile.
"Head there now" Kol continued "I'll send Tahlia and Sam to you once they have finished the boundary spell"
Andrew nodded and went to speed away before Kol grabbed his arm to delay him.
"You find it you bring it straight here, understand?"
Andrew nodded and waited for Kol to continue and when he didn't he went on his way once more.
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TVD
The library was deserted when Kara entered which was normal for this time of the day. Only the old widowed librarian Mrs Walcott sitting at her desk in front of a large shelf full of hand-written books populated the building. The structure was old, one of the oldest in the town that was still in use and once acted as the mayor's office and even the sheriff's station for a short period of time. The town archives and records were carefully locked away in the basement and had been since written documentation of the town began years ago.
She walked the lines of the stalls of shelves finding nothing of help on the ground floor and making her way up to the balcony area on the second level. She checked the time on the large clock that ticked quietly above the librarian's desk and noted she had already been here for over two hours. She had hoped to be back home with something useful before this to prevent her father from finding out she had left the house but she knew that by now that he would be awake and wondering at her absence at the breakfast table. Sally would make some excuse for her for sure but it would only be a matter of time before he will discover the truth. Only a couple of books sat on the desk she was using and she was fairly sure she would find nothing of value in either of them. She felt lost. If she wasn't to know what this Katherine beast was then how would she know how to stop her and save her family? She already felt guilty enough about leaving them alone with her today but she hoped that her attendance at the library would be worth it.
She sighed frustrated and ran her hands through her hair slightly wishing that she had taken the time this morning to tie it up.
"Are you in need of any assistance?" a voice asked suddenly behind her making Kara almost jump out of her skin in fright. She had been so lost in her own thoughts that she hadn't heard Mrs Walcott walk up behind her.
"My apologies Miss" she said concerned, her voice naturally rattling with age "I didn't mean to startle you".
Kara shook her head.
"It's alright; I just didn't hear you approach".
"Are you looking for anything in particular?" she asked again "The literature and the ladies novels are situated downstairs if you are searching for those"
Kara paused for a moment, debating whether to ask the woman for help or not. She knew without her she probably would leave here today without any success.
"Actually I do need assistance in finding something" she said slowly. Mrs Walcott looked at her expectantly as if urging her to continue.
Kara suddenly felt awkward and embarrassed. How was she supposed to illustrate to this woman what she was in need of when anything she would say on the subject would make her sound mad.
"I actually was reading about a beast that can mimic human form and I was just trying to enquire of the name of such a creature" Kara laughed as if trying to make the whole situation seem light-hearted.
Mrs Walcott narrowed her eyes in confusion.
"What do you mean a beast?" she asked.
Kara gulped inwardly. Right now she didn't know if the aged librarian was being inquisitive to help the investigation or whether she was trying to gauge Kara's sanity, or lack of. Deciding she really didn't have an alternative plan she chose to hope it was the former and began to answer the curios woman's questions.
"A beast with elongated front teeth, like fangs, and definition of the veins around the eyes" Kara tried to act nonchalant and calm throughout this "With speed and strength far greater than a normal person but looks normal when unprovoked"
Mrs Walcott looked studious and unreadable for the next long minute while Kara just squirmed under the woman's glare.
Finally the woman smiled.
"You have been reading your brother's books again have you not?"
Kara looked perplexed at the woman.
Mrs Walcott laughed.
"Your mother used to come here when you were children and insisted on choosing books from the boys section for you. She claimed that you were made of stronger stuff than the other little girls and found great joy in reading them".
Kara smiled distracted from her other thoughts and became lost in learning something new of her mother.
"She was right; I did find great joy in reading them"
"But this story has you troubled?"
Kara thought for a moment before answering.
"I just want to make the character clear in my head, that's all"
Mrs Walcott nodded in understanding.
"Well there is only one book I can think of that depicts a creature like you describe but I am afraid it will be of no use to you"
"Why not?" Kara asked a little more severely and on-edge than what she had planned to. She couldn't help it. If there was only one book in the whole library that could help her then she would have it, end of story.
If Mrs Walcott seemed startled at her outburst she didn't show it, she just folded her hands together and replied courteously to Kara's question.
"Well because it's not in English"
Kara looked flabbergasted.
"It's a copy, a very good copy in fact of a very old book found long ago in northern Europe".
"I could translate it" Kara said hoping beyond hope that Mrs Walcott would take her to this book "I know Latin and I am quite good at French"
Mrs Walcott shook her head.
"I am afraid it's in an old Viking dialect, even the experts found too hard to interpret"
Kara sighed feeling the failure of her quest. What was she to do now?
Mrs Walcott could obviously see the despair in the young girls face. For some strange reason, she had and inkling that Kara wanted that book for more than a character study.
"I can show you the book" she said making Kara's head shoot from looking at her shoes to looking at the woman in the face "If you wish to view the pictures".
Kara nodded enthusiastically.
"That would be wonderful, thank you"
Kara followed the woman, who moved with more ease than Kara expected for her age through the shelves and stacks of books on the upper level until they reached a row titled 'Historical Manuscripts' a section Kara had neglected to search.
She pulled up an old wooden ladder that swung across the shelves on a metal track for the purpose of reaching books stationed up high and climbed up half-way in the middle of the section.
Kara was surprised when the woman produced a large, old, dust-laden book with strange symbols adorning the dark brown cover.
"I thought you said there was a copy?" she asked assisting the librarian with lifting it from her height on the ladder.
"This is the copy" Mrs Walcott replied descending the steps and instructing Kara to place the book on a desk at the corner of the room.
"A man in Italy during the renaissance dedicated five years of his life to get the duplicate to be almost an exact twin of the original, and this book here is the product of that".
"But why?" Kara asked unsure to why a man would spend so long copying something when the subject of that was not his own.
Mrs Walcott shrugged.
"Nobody truly knows for sure. Some say he was planning to sell it as the original and make his fortune, some say that he was an artist and he wanted the illustrations of the book to live on and so he recreated them in what he would of called 'modern stationary' and some, well some say it was the renaissance and he was just bored".
Kara couldn't help the small laugh she emitted.
"But I'm sure that's not the case" Mrs Walcott clarified with a smirk and wink.
Kara had just opened the book to the front page when a small bell pinged from downstairs clearly alerting Mrs Walcott to another patron awaiting her attention.
"Excuse me a moment dear" she said walking back the way she and Kara had come moments before.
Kara only smiled in acknowledging the older woman, her attention fully and completely on the book in front of her. The parchment was rough and of a canvas texture with a hue of a more yellow colour than what she was used to. Mrs Walcott was right in saying that the writing was illegible, Kara couldn't make sense of where a sentence ended or begun. Her attention however was drawn to the sides of the pages where the author had illustrated various pictures. Some were nonsensical designs; some were of animals Kara had never seen before. The fourth page depicted a diagram of a man becoming a wolf, a legend Kara knew of called a werewolf. She felt her heart pounding in her chest at the possibilities of all of these mythical creatures being real. However, she knew straight away just by looking at the picture that this was not what Katherine was.
Turning the pages she spied a number of star charts and pages that frustratingly just contained words. She wished so much that she could read them, to discover the secrets that the book hid within its bound pages.
It was when she was nearing the end of the book when she saw it. It was a sketch taking up almost three-quarters of the page with illegible writing obviously describing the picture beneath it. The figure depicted was a male and besides his clothes he looked exactly as Katherine did the night before. Elongated fangs, defined veins, eyes blood-red and his face feral and animal-like. A symbol sat beside the picture and looked inconspicuous until Kara remembered the grimoire. This symbol was in the grimoire that Emily had in the attic, right next to the fable of the vampire. It took Kara a few moments to put together what she had just seen. She knew it to be true now, but how could she believe it? Katherine was a vampire and knowing this gave Kara a fear that was incomparable to anything she had ever felt before.
She shut the book with an almighty slam making dust particles fly into the air.
She coughed a little and picked up the large heavy book under her arm and made to follow Mrs Walcott to the reception. She didn't know how, but she was going to try and convince her to let her borrow the book. Descending the stairs she noticed it was eerily quiet, no voices not even the shuffling of papers could be heard.
"Mrs Walcott?" she called out halfway down the stairs from over the banister to the reception area. Her voice echoed on the stone floor into the emptiness of the library. She descended the stairs and walked over to the reception desk to find it more or less how she had seen it when she had first entered the building.
"Hello! Mrs Walcott?" she called again hoping her position now would make it easier for the old woman to hear her. Deciding calling her wasn't doing much she opted to ring the bell on the desk that Mrs Walcott's newest patron, who was also out of sight had elected to do.
After several rings, and after the noise had become an irritant to her she ceased her actions, deciding if Mrs Walcott was going to emerge from somewhere in the stacks she would have done it by now. Kara didn't have time for this, the longer she was out of the house then the longer her father and brother were at the mercy of Katherine and even though she was small and had a limited capacity to make much impact on the woman at least it was for her own peace of mind that she could be there and keep an eye on them. Who knew, now that she was aware of what Katherine was and knew of the location of Emily's grimoire then maybe she could find something that could stop her.
Deciding that she could wait no longer she made her way to the desk to leave Mrs Walcott a small note.
Mrs Walcott,
I have taken the book we discussed and shall return it promptly. Thank you for your assistance in finding the manuscript.
-Kara Salvatore
It was just when she had placed the quill back into the ink pot that she heard it. A loud crash coming from the archive room in which the town documents were stored. The loudness of it made her almost jump out of her skin with fright. It was only now that she saw that the iron gate of the stairs to the room was open, leaving in a little light to the reception room.
"Mrs Walcott!" Kara yelled running to the gated area fearing Mrs Walcott had had some terrible accident and was in need of aid.
When Kara reached the door she peered down into the room inside. The scene was chaotic; papers and files were streamed all over the floor and cabinets were tilted or lying horizontal on their sides.
Her shoes echoed on the stone steps as she descended further into the disordered room.
Several lanterns stood on top of various cabinets making the room bright with light, yet Kara still couldn't seem to find where Mrs Walcott was.
She turned to make her way out of the room but was stopped. A man, tall with sandy blond hair and an unreadable expression stood at the top of the stairs just peering at her. Something about his demeanour made her somewhat uneasy of him she took a step backwards but he was next to her in a flash. He was like Katherine and her heart started thundering in her chest.
"My, aren't you a cutie" he said teasingly twirling a strand of her hair.
She shrugged him off looking at him with both fear and fire in her eyes.
A woman suddenly appeared in the gateway, walking halfway down the stairs. She was tall, dressed immaculately and had long black hair.
"Andrew!" she reprimanded obviously talking to the blond man.
He ceased his actions immediately and looked to the woman at the door, fear shining in his eyes.
"That is not what we are here for and you know it" she said her voice strict and commanding "Now take care of it". She left the room and Kara found herself willing her to come back.
"Another time perhaps" Andrew said smiling eerily at her. Next he grabbed her face with both hands and forced her to look at him directly.
"You will forget all you have seen here. You will wake up, and think that you merely passed out and banged your head".
'Passed out?' Kara had begun to think just before Andrew hit her hard sending her to the cold floor fast where she walloped the back of her head off of the hard granite. She moved to get up but dark spots spurred her vision and slowly she gave into the darkness finally losing consciousness.
So there's chapter ten! Sorry about the cliffhanger but yay now Kol is in Mystic Falls! Do you think he'll be very forgiving when he finds out that Andrew attacked Kara? :O So I have been looking at chapter ten as like a turning point. Basically it's about to get more dramatic! : ) As always any suggestions/ideas/questions are completely welcome. Thanks for reading!