"Wait!" Damon cried following Misha through the kitchen door, "Is that some sort of master plan? Klaus turning into a—"
Kaspar immediately stood from where he sat at the kitchen table with his coffee mug and phone now in front of him, audibly pushing back his chair and threw his hand out.
Damon immediately felt his voice cut off and his throat close up, causing him to gasp audibly as an invisible force started to lift him off his feet.
"Kaspar! Stop!" Misha chided his brother over his shoulder, "He didn't realize—Damn it! Release him!"
At Misha's words, Kaspar quickly retracted his hand and released his hold on the vampire, causing Damon to immediately fall to his knees on the floor, coughing, grunting and sucking in a large amount of air he didn't even need.
"I'm sorry," Kaspar lamented, looking only to his older brother as he spoke in a soft voice, "But, his loud mouth could give us away if we are not careful. Dominic could still be listening."
"I know…" Misha conceded, walking over and putting a hand on his brother's shoulder, "It's been a stressful day for everyone."
Kaspar exhaled another breath as Misha suddenly squeezed his brother's shoulder, "Leave us, okay? I think Damon and I need to talk. Go check on the others."
Kaspar gave a small smirk and nodded before shifting a knowing gaze out of the corner of his eye to a small pile of coins still resting on the kitchen table.
Misha gave a return nod as he released his hold on his brother and watched him push his chair back in toward the table , then grab his mug and cell phone before leaving the room.
Damon winced as brought himself slowly back to his feet and Misha walked back toward him.
Just as Damon opened his mouth to speak, Misha raised a hand to silence him then motioned for him to follow him.
As they passed the table, Misha signaled for Damon to pick up the coins on the surface and the vampire did so silently, without protest.
When they crossed the kitchen and passed through the cellar door, Misha stood aside so that Damon entered first, descending the stairs quickly.
After looking around, Misha soon followed, closing the large oak door behind them.
When they reached the bottom of the stairwell, Damon switched on the light and opened his mouth again, but Misha held up another hand to silence him, then pointed at the coins.
Damon rolled his eyes and immediately separated the coins into two piles, one in each fist, then quickly began dropping the coins from one hand to the other, creating a waterfall effect.
"So, I first of all…" Damon started, "I gotta say, why the hell didn't Kaspar use that choker hold thingy on Dominic when he had the chance?"
"Because it wouldn't have worked on Dominic, Damon," Misha countered as he walked past Damon into the center of the room, "You seem to forget that my brother isn't just any ordinary vampire hunter—he's the original vampire hunter and more than that—he not only has superhuman strength, speed, senses and agility the could out-match any vampire or werewolf, he is also imbued with the power of a demon—"
"Then why the hell would you just let Klaus leave with him?" Damon replied in a worried tone, "What chance does he have?"
"Not much," Misha stated blunty as he took a seat in a nearby chair, "Besides, I don't think Dominic wants to harm him just yet…"
"Well, what if he does?" Damon urged
"Then we'll have to hope that the moon holds its sway or that—"
"So you are counting on that…" Damon mused, taking a step forward as he continued to move the coins through his fingers
"What? On him turning into a werewolf tonight in Dominic's presence?" Misha asked with a raised eyebrow, "Yes."
"Well… he can't," Damon stated, stepping closer, "Can he? I mean, he's a hybrid now. The moon no longer holds its sway. To our knowledge, he only turned one time…after he broke the curse. From then on he's only brought out his hybrid side…he's never turned into a full-blown werewolf again—"
Suddenly, Damon stopped, a look of surprised awe crossing his face
"But, that's what you meant when you mentioned his new body and what it was capable of…"
"Gotta say, you're smarter that than pretty boy smolder, aren't you Damon?" Misha mused, crossing his arms over his chest as he propped his legs up on a nearby wine crate.
"Esther put the hybrid curse on Klaus," Damon continued, "But, she never put one on his brother, did she?"
Misha nodded, "No, Ioan died long before all that."
"So, his new body could still turn by the moon," Damon smirked
"At least, I'm hoping…" Misha said with a small smile, eyeing Damon as the vampire moved closer and took a seat in a chair not far from the warlock, "If Klaus turns it may be the only way for him to get free from my brother. The white oak stake Dominic surely has in his possession won't work on him if he can stay in werewolf form—"
"So we are hoping now?" Damon asked in a defeated voice, sitting forward and still moving the coins through his hands, "That sounds drab and pessimistic."
"Sorry," Misha replied, "It's just that Ioan has been dead for a very long time and Klaus' essence in his brother's body may—well, it may just mess with the natural order of things. I don't know if he can turn or do anything else Ioan could for that matter."
"Lovely…if he doesn't turn, then what?" Damon mocked, "Charm Dominic to death with his sparkling personality—"
Suddenly, Damon stopped again, eyeing the warlock curiously, "Wait, hold on…what do you mean by 'anything else'?"
# # # # #
NEW WORLD 1044 A.D
"Steady, boys…" Mikael said as watched Kol lift the upper body of one of the fallen villagers from the previous night's vampire hunter massacre, Finn taking hold of the dead man's feet as they started off toward the edge of the woods and their destination—the large funeral pire on which the survivors had started stacking the bodies of the slain.
Mikael watched them set off then turned back to the small group of men nearby all working to clear the bodies from the town square.
"Mikael!" one of the men called, waiving the vampire patriarch over, "We need your help."
Mikael quickly strode over to where three men now stood around the body of a tall, muscular figure.
"Eivan…" Mikael whispered, then closed his eyes in sorrow, "Poor bastard."
"We're going to need your help to move him. He's too heavy otherwise."
"Alright, then," Mikael nodded as he and two of the men knelt down beside the body and reached forward to take hold of it.
But, just as the first man's hand made contact, it went through Eivan Lochvud's arm like smoke and they all soon realized that what they were looking at was a mirage, not solid flesh.
"What the hell?!" one of the men cried, quickly jumping to his feet.
Suddenly, a familiar voice sounded nearby.
"Forgive me my brothers," Eivan said, stepping forward from the brush of one of the nearby houses, his figure as tall and commanding as ever with his long blond hair and pale blue ocean colored eyes now focusing intently on the four men, "When I was attacked last night, I fooled the enemy to escape…"
He immediately gave a quick wave of his right hand and the body on the ground before them evaporated into thin air.
"I didn't realize that my rouse would fool you as well when morning came."
"What are you?" one of the men suddenly choked out, his eyes wide with curiosity, "What is this trickery?"
It was then that Eivan's eyes wrinkled and a slight smile crossed his lips as eyes scanned the men's faces then locked onto Mikael's.
The other three men seemed baffled, but not him.
If anything there was…recognition?
And, suddenly, Eivan couldn't help but wonder if, after nearly twenty years, Esther's husband had finally figured it out…if he had finally given himself away and exposed himself as he had promised Esther he never would.
Surely, Mikael may have had thoughts or even doubts as his sons grew—facial feature differences or dissimilar eye color may have aroused suspicion, but after what happened just now, Eivan realized he couldn't take what he had just revealed about himself and any genealogical heritage back.
And it might be his undoing.
He could see that by the anger that now began to surface in Mikael's face.
"It seems that Mikael knows who and what I am…" Eivan whispered, swallowing audibly as he took a step back, " I can tell by his face, he's had suspicion for some time. There is another he knows with this same gift."
"Who?" one of the men asked now stepping forward and grasping the older vampire's shoulder, "Who else has this abominable talent?"
"My son," Mikael said in a defeated voice, his nostrils flaring
# # # # # #
"As you are probably aware, Niklaus and his twin brother, Ioan, were the result of an affair that Esther had with a werewolf villager," Misha said, "She and my mother, upon discovering the boys' true parentage, cast a spell on them as infants that would prevent them from turning into werewolves. But, when they died alongside their siblings and were turned into vampires, that basically rendered the spell null and void—Klaus and Ioan turned during the full moon following their first human kill and the rest is history…But, what you don't know is that Esther's original spell, may have suppressed the werewolf gene, but it couldn't suppress another gene that Eivan Lochvud passed down—"
"Whoa! Hold up!" Damon cried, throwing a hand up in the air, his eyes widening, "Lochvud…you mean the Lockwoods?"
"One and the same," Misha acknowledged, then signaled for Damon to keep moving in his hands and the vampire immediately complied, lowering his raised hand and continuing the waterfall effect with the coins.
"Klaus is a Lockwood?" the vampire mused in shocked tone, "Well, I certainly didn't see that one coming. I thought the Lockwood family didn't settle here until the 1860's with the other founding families."
"No, the Lockwoods were originally surnamed Lochvud. They came over with the Vikings when they discovered the new world. After Mikael's massacre—you know about that, right?"
"Yeah…Elena said Rebekah told her that Mikael went on a rampage after he discovered Esther's affair and killed Klaus' real father and his entire family—"
"Not all of them. The Lochvuds were a large family, some of the younger men and women and children escaped. Basically, they left the area, many of them moved to other new world settlements, while others moved back to their homeland until their new found curse and curiosity and desire for greater understanding about themselves brought them back here to the newly founded town of Mystic Falls."
"So they weren't cursed when they originally arrived?" Damon asked
"No," Misha replied, "When our families first settled on these shores, long before Elijah, Klaus and I were even born, the village elders including Mikael and Eivan Lochvud had to fight for this land and eventually make peace with its original inhabitants."
"Let me guess…" Damon interjected, "natives?"
"Not just any natives," Misha countered, "Spirit warriors who could transform themselves into the powerful wolf—shape shifters—not exactly the werewolves we know today."
"So how did the werewolf curse start among the Lochvuds, then?"
"From the way my mother tells it, Eivan Lochvud and his five brothers, Hagar, Hammer, Ingvar, Dracos and Gunnar all came to these shores with our parents and all fought against the natives. Hagar, Dracos and Gunner lost their lives in the ensuing years, but legend has it that Eivan, Hammer and Ingvar were either scratched or bitten by the beasts at one time or another. This was not uncommon, many of the older residing villagers had such injuries, but when the first full moon rose and the Lochvuds, one by one, began to turn into wolves, it quickly became apparent to the villagers that their neighbors were now inflicted with the same curse as the natives."
"But, surely other men were injured or bitten by the natives?" Damon added, "Why just the Lochvuds?"
"Because the Lochvuds…" Misha countered, pulling out his cell phone from his pocket and setting to work unlocking the screen and ferociously pressing buttons, "It is said, have always had magic in their veins."
He suddenly turned the phone out face Damon and extended his arm so that the vampire could see the image that now appeared on the screen.
It was an ancient painting of a large black wolf, devouring a village in central Europe, blood dripping from its fangs and bodies stacked beneath its enormous paws.
"Oh…okay…" Damon mused, swallowing, then raising an eyebrow, "That's gruesome."
"It's the Norse wolf, Fenrir, depicted in a painting from the 12th century. Vikings, like many ancient cultures had beliefs in Gods and Goddesses—some higher being to pray to, a lineage to their ancestors—"
"Like our saints in the Catholic Church," Damon acknowledged
"Only you don't incur wrath from your 'saints'," Misha replied, "Norse Gods and Goddesses, on the other hand, were not to be trifled with on their worst day…but they could also be benevolent, for it was said that they often offered themselves to humans and therefor bore legitimate lines of powerful human decedents here on earth."
"So you're saying the Lochvuds are decedents of the this wolf God thingy?" Damon inquired
"If by 'wolf God thingy' you mean Fenrir?" Misha replied, typing on the phone screen, "then yes. But it's not the wolf magic that we need to concern ourselves with at the present. I hinted to you that Ioan had other capabilities, right?"
Damon nodded
"And that is because the wolf God Fenrir, who the Lochvuds claim direct ancestry to, is the son of…"
Suddenly, Misha turned his phone out to face Damon again
"Meet Loki—also known as the Shadow God or the Trickster."
"You mean, Thor's brother?" Damon quipped, "That Loki?"
Misha chuckled, amused and a little surprised Damon knew who the trickster God was, "Yes, that Loki."
"What? I've picked up a comic book in the last century," Damon quipped in his defense, then cocked his head to one side as he studied the picture then flashed a smile, "I can definitely see some resemblance to Klaus, especially around the eyes..."
"Ha…Ha…" Misha deadpanned, bringing the phone back to him, "But this is serious and as fantastical as it sounds, the hereditary magic the Lochvuds possessed was very real. It was rare, though, as it was said that only one male per generation inherited the gift."
"So, what kind of gift are we talking about?" Damon asked, sitting forward
"Nothing too powerful, mainly showy Gypsy stuff—the manipulation of fire and water, the ability to transfigure one's self to be in multiple places at once and shape shift into anything, human or animal-"
"Um…excuse me?" Damon mused, wide eyed, "I'd say that's more than 'showy Gyspy stuff'. That's awesome!"