The Apprentice (The Originals/The Vampire Diaries)

Chapter Fourteen

 Annette lay silently on the bed, her eyes focused on the ceiling above. She didn't know what to do. She was afraid to do anything.

 She had liked Lucien. She had wanted to be friends with him. And he had planned to do this to her.

 She had no idea what Mikael was planning to do. If he thought he could save her, he couldn't. She had to become a vampire or die.

 She had no idea how long she was left waited, but Mikael returned with a body.

 "You have to feed," he said. "Please do it, Annette."

 Annette didn't know what to do. She didn't want to be a vampire, but she didn't want to die. And she could smell the blood. So she got down on her knees and drank.
 
 "I know you don't want to be a vampire," said Mikael, "but I know a way you can still keep your werewolf powers."

 Annette looked up at him. "You do? How?"

 "Just trust me. I convinced Tristan to have his witches help me with a plan. Keep drinking. It will be over soon enough."

~~~~~~

 Mikael's solution was not as great as Annette hoped it would be.

 It involved murder, a moonstone, a full moon, and drinking the blood of a young man whom Mikael claimed was a doppelganger. Annette hated having to do all of it. And just when she thought it was all over, there was the pain of having to turn again, something she thought she would not have to experience again.

 She awoke the next morning in a forest. Next to her was a neat pile of her clothes. She quickly dressed and called, "Mikael?"

 "Up here."

 Mikael was sitting up in a nearby tree, staring off somewhere in the distance.

 "What did you do to me last night?" Annette demanded. "I let you convince me to go along with your mad plans, and now this has happened!"

 "If you would give me the chance, I would explain," Mikael said calmly. He climbed down from his perch. "I knew what to do because of the curse Esther put on Niklaus centuries ago, that kept his werewolf side dormant." He scoffed. "I don't think she realized how closely I paid attention to her magic tricks. With some help from the Strix witches, who seem to know how to make anything happen, we were able to complete the ritual that would turn you into a hybrid."

 "A...a what?"

 "You are a hybrid, Annette. It is a cross between a vampire and a werewolf. I thought it may give you comfort to still have your werewolf side."

 "But what sort of powers do I have now?" Annette asked. "Will I still have to turn on the full moon?" 

 "I don't know. You are the first hybrid of your kind. You must test yourself. You should still have all of your vampire abilities."

 "But I still have to drink blood." Annette sat down on the ground. "This wasn't the life I wanted. I didn't want to be a vampire."

 "I know." Mikael knelt down next to her. "But I can help you make it less of a struggle. Let me help you, Annette."

 "I think you're better at destroying than saving," Annette said flatly.

 "I saved you once, didn't I? I can help you now. Please, Annette. I did all of this because I didn't want you to die. Don't let me have wasted my time."

 Annette silently stared at the ground for a long moment.

 "Fine," she said. "I would have stayed with you, anyway. If we're being honest, I'm afraid of being alone." 

 Mikael nodded. "That's good, because now that you're here, I'm afraid of being alone again."

~~~~~~

 Mikael was at a loss as to what to do.

 They travelled quietly further south through Europe. Annette spoke very little and refused to feed on people or animals. Mikael couldn't even convince her to feed from vampires. It was as if the Annette he knew was disappearing, and a quiet, miserable woman had taken her place. Thankfully, blood transfusions had become more necessary during the war, and blood banks were beginning, so Mikael was able to convince Annette to drink the blood he stole from those.

 Eventually, they ended up back in Paris, the city where it all began. Mikael had found them some suitable rooms for them to stay in while he reacquainted himself with the city and the goings-on in it. Annette's mood, however, did not lighten by the return to her home city.

 After a few nights in Paris, Mikael marched into her room and said, "I want you to feed on me."

 Annette looked up from her book. "What?"

 "Feed on me," he repeated. "Drink my blood. It will give you the strength you need, since you have been refusing to join me in looking for food."

 Annette slowly shook her head. "I don't know, Mikael." 

 "You listen to me, Annette Chevalier. I will not allow this behavior." Mikael flung off his jacket and unbuttoned the top of his shirt, fully exposing his neck. He sat down next to her on the bed. "I know you. And I know you can handle being a hybrid." He tilted his head to the side. "Go on. Drink. I won't stop you." 

 Annette moved closer. She realized now just how badly she wanted to feed. "But my venom-"

 "Doesn't matter. You need to feed to stay strong." 

 So Annette leaned over and bit into Mikael's neck. As soon as she tasted his blood, she felt the urge to keep drinking, and she did until Mikael said, "That's enough. I do need that blood, you know."

 Annette pulled away and looked Mikael in the eyes. "I have never been sure how I felt about vampires. One killed my parents, took away the only family I had. But there's you. You're something different. You aren't like other vampires."

 "All vampires are different, Annette," Mikael said softly, brushing the tangles of hair out of her face. "Unfortunately, many of them are like the one that murdered your parents. But there are decent ones, and there are ones like you, with good souls, because I know you have one."

 Then they hugged, something neither of them could remember ever doing in the past, yet seemed like the right thing now.

 "We'll get through this, won't we?"  Annette whispered.

 "Of course we will," Mikael whispered back. "We wouldn't be warriors if we didn't." 

 It hit him then, how much had changed. There was no more 'I' anymore. Now there was 'we'.

~~~~~~

 Time passed. After a few more months on the continent, they decided to return to their old haunts in London, see if anything had changed. But things were not much different there. The war had affected all of Europe, whether battles had been fought there or not.

 It was on a perfectly ordinary day that the entire outlook of their mission changed.

 Annette had been having nightmares again, something that she hadn't had since her early days with Mikael. She got out of bed that morning hoping she could just have an ordinary day. She prepared breakfast and had just started eating when Mikael burst in, his blood-covered clothes hidden underneath his coat.

 "What have you been doing?" she asked.

 "Long story. I'll tell you later." Mikael took off his coat and flung it onto the settee. "I'm just going to change these, and then I'll tell you about it."

 After he had left the room, she realized a little piece of paper had fallen out of his coat and had landed near her feet. She picked and smoothed it out, and was surprised to see it was a newspaper clipping from an American paper, a city called New Orleans.

 She looked at the faces in the photograph, her eyes stopping on a man who looked eerily similar to a sketch drawing Niklaus that Mikael had shown her ages ago...

 When Mikael returned in clean clothes, he noted Annette's sudden uneasiness.

 "Have I done something?" he asked.

 She held up the newspaper clipping. "What is this? It fell out of your coat. Where did you get it?"

 Mikael frowned. "I didn't put any papers in my pocket." He took the paper and studied it. Annette saw his eyes widen slightly. Then he sighed and laid it down on the table. "I've been an absolute idiot, Annette." He walked to the window. "Do you remember when you suggested we go to America, and I so stubbornly refused to set foot there again? It was my past. That was where it all began. I couldn't being myself to step foot there again, and Niklaus must have known it."

 "But we know now that he's there," Annette pointed out. "Mikael, this is the first real lead you have had since before we met. If you want to end Klaus, we have to go to this New Orleans."

 Mikael nodded. "You're right. Finish your breakfast, Annette. We're taking a train to the coast, and then we have a ocean to cross."

~~~~~~

 So. Anyone remember, all the way back in season 2 of The Vampire Diaries, when Klaus did that weird ritual thing that made him a hybrid? Well, that's what I tried to do here, but it seems stupid now. However, I'm just going to roll with it because I feel like I wasted too much time with Lucien and the Strix and that we're finally getting somewhere now. This is the first time Annette and Mikael have had an actual clue as to Klaus' whereabouts, so it's a big deal for them.