Singing Blood

Klaus

"It got better after we got older and started our own families," Elijah continued, a painful expression flashing across his face. "But then the plague arrived and took more than half of our village's population, our spouses and children included."

"You had children?" I asked.

He nodded.

"A son, Bram. He was around your daughters' age when..."

He swallowed hard, not finishing the sentence.

"Oh Elijah! I'm so sorry!"

He looked at me, smiling faintly.

"It's alright, elskan. It has been over a millennium." His eyes traveled back to the window and into the distance.

"It was a difficult time for our family. Our eldest brother, Finn, lost all three of his children. He had already been a widower at that time, his wife had died during childbirth a few years ago. I had to sent off my wife and my son, Niklaus his wife and three month old daughter and our younger sister Rebekah had to bury her husband while carrying his child under her heart. Our remaining two brothers Kol and Henrik were the only ones without family of their own and thus had gotten off the lightest. This tragedy marked the beginning of the end of our human lives."

He paused and we sat together in silence for a while, Elijah and Klaus lost in thoughts (or memories) and Jenna and I nipped on our wine glasses, silently processing everything Elijah had told us this far.

Klaus was the one who continued the story.

"In close proximity to our village, a pack of werewolves were housing in caves. Ever since we were little, our mother had warned us not to get too close to those beasts. She was a powerful witch you must know."

He grimaced slightly at the mention of his mother.

"We could hear them howling in the woods every month at full moon and I, well, got curious. Something had always drawn me to them and after the plague had taken my wife and my sweet little girl from me, I was more than ever in need of a distraction. So at the next full moon, I decided to sneak out of the village to watch them transform into wolves. Our youngest brother Henrik convinced me to take him with me."

"Can't imagine that having gone particularly well," Jenna mumbled darkly, bristling.

Klaus looked at her, a sadness and guilt flashing across his face.

"It didn't. That night I had to pay a high price for my curiosity and foolishness. The werewolves discovered us and took Henrik's life."

Jenna and I stared at him in shock.

"Mother tried to save him with her magic but it was already too late. At sunrise, we buried our youngest brother, barely a lad of fourteen years. His whole life in front of him and then he had been gone, taken from this world due to my own foolish curiosity. I had killed my own brother."

I shook my head.

"Klaus, no, you didn't kill your brother. Those werewolves did," I said . "Yes, getting so close to them had been an incredibly stupid idea, but Henrik didn't die at your hands and I won't allow you to continue thinking that."

He gave me a pained smile.

"Your kind words are very touching, love, but Henrik's death is a burden I will carry forever with me."

He downed his bourbon.

"After Henrik's death, mother was worried she would lose the rest of her children as well, so she went to the witch Ayana to ask her for help. Ayana gave her a spell, a powerful spell that would protect us from death and make us invincible. She warned mother that this spell would have consequences, terrible ones, but mother was desperate and thus ignored her warnings. One night, father brought us all out of our beds and herded us together. He and mother forced us to drink the blood of the first Petrova-Doppelgänger, Tatia, and then father used his sword to slit our throats, killing us one by one."