𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐄━︎━︎H. Mikaelson ✓︎

𝐓𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲-𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:
REPAY THE FAVOR

SHE THOUGHT SHE HAD MISHEARD him. Not only was she surprised that her brother was standing there, pointing a gun to their mother's head, but she was also surprised by the words that had flown from his mouth as soon as he had made his presence known. Lilianna stared at Grayson for a moment, eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she cocked her head slightly to the side. She could feel the betrayal start to sink in the more that she replayed the words in her head.

     Lilianna swallowed thickly. "What?" She turned her head to look at her mother, tears coming to her eyes. "Mom, is that true?"

     Talia looked at her daughter with a clenched jaw, forcing herself to hold her head up high as Grayson took a step closer to her. "Yes, it is."

     Lilianna recoiled, pure horror falling on her face. "Why?"

     Talia didn't answer. Grayson, tempted to pull the trigger right then and there, forced the words from his clenched teeth. "Tell her or I will."

     Talia sighed. "Because he didn't follow the code."

     Lilianna shook her head, a tear falling down her cheek. "What do you mean he didn't follow the code? Dad always followed the code because he knew that if he didn't you would shun him for it. I didn't think you'd go so far as to kill the father of your children, but you never fail to surprise me, do you?" Lilianna could feel the pain slowly morph into that of anger. The desire to rip her mother's throat out was growing stronger and stronger the more that she heard her mother speak. She just wished that her brother would pull the trigger, end it all.

     "What part of the code didn't he follow?" Grayson asked, already knowing the answer. He was pissed. He was angry that their mother had killed their father. He was angry that his mother went to kill his baby sister. He was angry that Lilianna hadn't told him so that he could have gotten here sooner. They were supposed to trust each other. They told each other everything. So why had she kept this from him? Had she feared that he would react the same as their mother was reacting now? The thought made his heart squeeze with pain.

     Talia, the gun now on the ground, looked at her son for a moment as she glared at him, eyes focused on the gun that was still being pointed at her. "You shouldn't be pointing that at me." Her voice was filled with venom, she almost sounded like a snake as she hissed the words at him. She nodded her head over towards her daughter turned vampire. "You should be pointing it at that thing and killing it! You were raised better than this Grayson, do the right thing, follow the rules. You have to do what you have to do in order to survive."

     Grayson was close. He was so incredibly close to accidentally letting his finger slip and pull the trigger. If there was one thing you didn't do around Grayson Stark, above everything else, you never ever attacked his little sister. Lilianna meant more to him than anyone else. He was supposed to protect her and hearing his mother speak as if she wasn't a person and she wasn't standing right there pissed that Stark boy off. He clenched his jaw. "That thing is my sister. Your daughter. You sent her on this mission. Don't blame her for turning, blame yourself for being such a shitty mother that you sent your seventeen year old across the states alone to kill a tribrid―︎also known as the unkillable creature."

     "I'm right here!" Lilianna cried. "I'm right fucking here. Don't pretend that I don't exist to you!" Another tear slipped down Lilianna's cheek as she stared at her mother with such heartbreak it made Hope want to snap Talia's neck. The tribrid felt useless, but she knew that she couldn't get into the middle of a family dispute, but she also refused to leave Lilianna's side incase Talia tried something stupid.

     Lilianna took a step closer to her mother. "You spent so long trying to perfect me. Ever since I could learn how to walk you have been doing everything you possibly could to make sure I was the best. That I lived up to my legacy. Well, guess what, Mom. This is my legacy. The best hunter of them all falls for the enemy and gets turned by the one thing that supposedly killed her father. That's my legacy. I never had a life. It was always training, hunting, killing. Over and over again. You never let me be a teenager and guess what, now I'm one forever."

     Lilianna took another step. "I'm sorry that I didn't live up to you expectations. But to be fair, you didn't live up to mine either."

     Talia shook her head. "I did my job. I made sure that you never made a mistake. Now here you are, disappointing me once again."

     "Me? Disappointing you? God, what a surprise! Tell me, when have I ever not disappointed you, huh? If I breathed wrong you would reprimand me. I was never good enough for you. I will never be good enough for you." She shrugged. "Quite frankly, I don't want to be good enough for you. I'm good enough for me, that's what matters."

     Talia laughed in amusement. "This is what killed your father. He said the wrong thing."

     "You killed him because he pissed you off?" Grayson scoffed.

     "No." Talia disagreed. "I killed him because he was turned and he didn't kill himself. So, no, I didn't kill your father. Your father got himself killed."

     Lilianna snarled in anger, the veins appearing under her eyes. Fangs replaced her teeth as she narrowed her eyes at her mother. "I'm going to repay the favor. And I'm going to kill you." Lilianna sped forwards before Hope could grab her, clamping her hand around her mother's throat and just as she went to make the fatal blow, a gunshot went off.