News from Mystic Falls bored her.
Her suspicions were confirmed within a day. Klaus was not dead. By some miracle, the Bennett witch, Bonnie, had saved him to keep her friends alive.
Despite how miserable Rebekah was when she thought Klaus had died, she'd flipped a switch the moment she found out he still walked among them. Vivalda had to mute herself to enjoy a conversation with Aurora about Antonella's company while Rebekah ranted about how she'd been kidnapped and Klaus had rescued his little vampire Caroline instead of her.
"Are you or are you not alive?" said Vivalda after Rebekah finally tired herself out, and Aurora had gone out for dinner with Tristan.
"Yes, but–"
"Didn't your kidnappers die already? Blown up in their own house?"
"Yes, but–"
"Didn't you already destroy all the remaining bags of doppelgänger blood and ensure Nik can't replace our family with those weak little hybrids?"
"Yes, but–"
"Then I see the matter through, Rebekah. Of course he chose Caroline over you if he was in Tyler's body. And even then, our brother is an idiot. I don't know what else you expected."
"I wish to hurt him."
"Are you really more inclined to get revenge against Nik than against your little boy toy and his friends after they killed Finn and led to this predicament in the first place?" The woman was silent. "There is a simple solution if this has irritated you. Elena Gilbert risen as a vampire ensures they will be preoccupied with her. Teaching her, coddling her. If you really wish to stop suffering this way, you will let it be and leave. Let them be someone else's problem, not yours. There is no need for you to keep playing out this high school fantasy and staying with Klaus when all he does is cast you aside. There are better things to do. We control the white oak and you are no longer in danger. Get going, live anywhere else. Let Nik rot with his hybrids if he wants to. He does not care about you, Rebekah. It's time you started caring enough about yourself to realize that."
As always, her sister was stubborn. Vivalda decided there was no point in continuing to argue. If Rebekah wanted to be a fool, then she could deal with the consequences.
"I don't see why Nik bothers with those hybrids," said Kol as Vivalda cut his hair the following afternoon. "He isn't teaching them, he's only keeping them as servants. Any old human or vampire will serve that purpose. Why make hybrids if he isn't going to turn them into an army?"
"Would you want him to?" she asked with a scoff.
"Not exactly, but I see no point in having them and not giving them purpose. The first one, Tyler, he was attacked yesterday while Rebekah was sulking. Some vampire hunter, it seems."
Vivalda snorted. "Well, that's humiliating. A vampire hunter, likely human, who is able to cause harm to a hybrid? Embarrassing. The boy is weak, he does not even know how to use his heightened senses."
"Then perhaps you should train them."
"I won't train them if they're beginners. Nik knows more about their senses, and until he shows them how to use them, I won't take on pupils who will just stare at me like idiots. I can teach them to fight, to kill, but if they cannot first detect an attack, if they cannot first channel their wolf strength to prepare, if they cannot hone their unique advantages... then it will all be for nothing." She set the scissors down, fluffing out his hair, then styling it. "There, you are ready for tonight."
"Of course I am," said Kol. "We'll start with dinner at a bought-out restaurant to ensure privacy. You said Antonella likes a spot of competition and archery... so I've already prepared a field for us. Technology is a wonder nowadays. Electronic obstacles that will move and give us quite the show. To freshen up, a feast of blood before we enter a gazebo, alone, with compelled musicians who will let us dance together."
"Sweet," said Vivalda. "And hopefully it will be the first of many dates for the two of you. Go on, get dressed. My big brother has finally learned to talk to girls."
"Shut up, that's not true."
"Is so."
While Kol was on his date, Vivalda spent the evening with Tristan, only because Lucien had business in France. She didn't mind the break from parties, in fact, she enjoyed it. Tristan had given her wine and blood, and had played the violin for her while she explained how she made swords, how she would modify them for modern times, what suggestions she had for the weapons The Strix were currently using, such as their knives, their poisoned rings, and the ornate stakes made to look like a thickened stem from a rose, with barbs around the edges.
She took a break from her explanations to enjoy his music, meditating after learning that Rebekah was still antagonizing Elena, and that somehow, the little brat had tried to use the white oak stake against Rebekah.
Why was she still alive? Rebekah had argued that Elena was too weak to do it anyway. Vivalda didn't care– Elena had still helped kill Finn and Sage. Her hatred was now magnified, and there was no telling what she might try to do if Rebekah and Klaus kept letting her go. They'd be fools to think that after so many close attempts, they wouldn't actually manage it one of those days. Weak as they were, the determination to kill gave them an advantage no one could compete against.
"You're troubled," said Tristan, setting the violin down as she sat up, stretching her arms and cracking her neck.
"A bit," she admitted. "My siblings are fools. But I will sleep it off and in the morning all will be well. I plan to make us Belgian waffles."
He got to his feet, walking closer to her and leaning over her chair, hands on the armrests. "Tell me, my dear, do you wish to go to bed angry?"
"No," she admitted. "But it is difficult to focus on anything else while their stupidity continues to grow, as does the stain on my family come from their weakness." She sighed, tilting her head up to look in his eyes. She smiled, "Perhaps you've a way to relieve me of my anger?"
"I would offer a session with swords," said Tristan, knuckles caressing her cheek and drifting his thumb over her lips. "But I do not think myself the right person to help you in relieving it."
"And why is that?"
"I want to dance with you, kiss you sweetly, and give you a distraction. Ways to soothe you that only I can manage. That relief, I know, you can only find with Lucien, who will dance with you in a much different way. That will remove the anger."
She held the back of his head, bringing his mouth to hers. It was as gentle as he wanted it to be, as sweet as honey. He lifted her up, turning their bodies so he could sit on the chair, she on top of him and straddling his lap.
"My beautiful, beautiful Vivalda," he whispered against her mouth, cupping her cheek.
I don't deserve this.
He cuddled up to her in the bed when her hair had been let down and brushed, one arm wrapped around her waist, the other propping his head up so he could watch her sleep. At one point he'd dipped down to kiss her neck, holding his head there to inhale the perfect scent of strawberries and roses that he swore was coming from her hair. He'd fallen asleep in its comfort, and Vivalda had awoken with her body tangled in his. A perfect morning that had certainly helped her think a little less about her anger.
She didn't hear back from Kol and Antonella until the afternoon, and they were both rather secretive, which told her all she needed to know. Kol was in a mood too good to be spoiled by any minor inconvenience that might usually set him off. Antonella had joined in on Strix training, something she only ever did when she was feeling guilty.
"You're allowed to have fun, you know," said Vivalda as she walked past Antonella and Aya, the two practicing with staffs. "You don't need to punish yourself for it."
"An old habit," said Antonella, twirling the staff and blocking a hit. "One I don't quite mind."
"You mind it enough to be here," said Aya, hitting low, then high, and headbutting Antonella. "It makes you slow."
"Fine, perhaps I do notice I am more easily distracted afterward and training helps sharpen my mind."
"Then train with him," said Vivalda, swiping her sword between their staffs and sending the two away from each other. "Not with Aya."
Aya made a face, as if she'd already given this advice and Antonella hadn't listened. "It happened to me, with Elijah," said Aya with a shrug. "I used Vivalda as my way to clear my head but it did nothing."
"Train with the one who leaves you cloudy," said Vivalda. "If you can keep your wits about you while dueling Kol, no one can overpower you no matter what your partner recently said or did– and this goes for good things and bad things. Master your emotions and it will ensure that being in love does not weaken you."
Antonella wiggled her eyebrows. "Do you mean, dear friend, that loving someone makes you weak?"
"It can. Not because only weak people can care for others, but because caring for someone after having put up walls makes you vulnerable. You let your guard down in more ways than one without realizing it. It happens to the greatest of warriors. First, they are vicious, they make no mistakes, they kill all their enemies. Next, they have someone they care about, someone that can be used to hurt them, and they become sloppy. Overcome it, and no one will be able to hurt you. Conquer your fleeting moments of guilt and you will remain strong and be able to love without bounds. We need love to be whole but we cannot let it be our downfall, either."
Antonella tried to surprise her, hurling the staff at her head. Vivalda caught it and kicked her to the ground, holding the staff up and slamming it into her chest, what would've been a fatal blow if she had dared to let it pierce her skin.
"I said it happens to the greatest warriors," said Vivalda smugly. "But not to me. For I am not simply one of the greatest. I am the best."
"That high horse is looking taller than usual," chided Antonella as she got to her feet. "It's only a matter of time before your brothers make a fuss about it."
"And that's why I am here. Staying strong and keeping out of my family's drama."
"They are all as strong as you and they have fallen. Mikael, Finn..."
"They may have been older than me, they may have transitioned before me, but the siblings that remain are not stronger than me. Strength comes in many facets. Mikael was the strongest among us because he had a grip on his emotions. He didn't succumb to fear or pain, he was driven by anger and had nothing left he cared about that might make him vulnerable. I have modified his teachings because I do not wish to be loveless but even then I know how to approach a fight without being distracted. Elijah had Klaus's heart in the palm of his hand and he wavered. And while they've been doing god-knows-what throughout a thousand years, painting and adopting kids only to be terrible parental figures... I trained. I spent every waking moment looking at how I could make myself better. How I could be more precise and knowledgeable, how I could make weapons so perfect they would do the majority of my job for me. I am the strongest Original alive, I don't care that Nik is a hybrid, he cannot beat me because I've already grown accustomed to wolf venom, and I don't let him manipulate me."
Antonella let out an exasperated sigh. "There is white oak out there, Vivalda," she warned. "A stake that cannot be destroyed. The doppelgänger girl already has her hands on it. You are not as unkillable as you thought you were. Surely you realize that."
"No, I am not as unkillable as I once was, you're right. But I am not afraid of white oak. I've encountered it many times before. Anything can be destroyed. You, me, Aya, even that stake. Don't be afraid, Toni. I won't let anything happen to us. Mark my words, anyone who dares use that stake against one of my siblings will bleed and burn on it until it is thought to be made of redwood."
Aya gestured to Antonella, as if telling her that they had nothing to fear.
To her surprise, the one that updated her that day about the happenings in Mystic Falls was Klaus, and not Rebekah.
She had to admit, his news was a bit more concerning. The possibility of the Brotherhood of the Five rising again troubled her. Why, after nine hundred years? Klaus had killed them all in one fell swoop in Tuscany. It was impossible for them to be rising again so suddenly, unless they'd existed the entire time and they simply hadn't known. What business did they have in Mystic Falls unless they were trying to kill the Originals?
Rebekah seemed to think there was something else afoot. Vivalda had enjoyed the company of one of the Hunters, too, but had not been told about the supposed 'cure' the way Alexander had revealed it to Rebekah. She hadn't believed it possible. Only her parents would've called that supposed serum a 'cure,' seeing as they believed vampirism to be a disease despite being the ones who created it. Why would it be out there? Why not just hunt vampires? Mass spreading a 'cure' hardly sounded effective. Not all would take it. To subdue a vampire just for them to drink some strange concoction sounded ridiculous.
Jeremy Gilbert was, according to the Hunter that Klaus kidnapped, a 'potential.' Able to see the incomplete tattoo on the man, which would apparently lead them to a cure. It didn't take a genius to realize why they might want it. Jeremy, Stefan, that entire little friend group. Elena wasn't cut out for vampirism. She hated it.
"To decode the map, Nik will need the sword," said Vivalda, leaning back and getting her nails done while Rebekah brainstormed over the phone. "Only you know where it is. Do not tell him."
"I don't know why he really wants it in the first place," said Rebekah. "I bet it has to do with Elena. Ugh, the fool! He wishes to make her mortal, to take more of her precious doppelgänger blood to make hybrids again."
"Perhaps. Why do you want it?"
"You know, Val!"
"Yes, I understood it nine hundred years ago when we were still newly turned and adjusting, but why now? Why give up all the resources you've gained in a thousand years, why toss aside your strength and unchanging beauty? Mark my words, you won't be happy."
"I haven't been happy as I am! You made vampirism a competition, Val, one I always lost. My sirelings aren't fierce like yours. None of us were loved or respected the way you were. I have sought love and not found it. All I want is to settle down. I wanted to be a mother, to have children. That was taken from me. I want the cure to be freed of this."
"Okay. Then tell me where to find the sword."
"But you've practically just said you think me stupid for wanting it."
"I'd rather you get it than Nik. If someone has to. And besides, if you give him a chance to get near the sword, he will obtain it and you will never see a human life. Tell me where to find the sword and I will retrieve it. I've been meaning to add another sword to my collection anyway... Flame is lonely."
"You speak of that stupid sword as if it's your pet."
"It's an extension of me. And I want a friend for it. Call me stupid, I don't care. I can keep the Hunter's Sword from falling into Nik's hands if you expect to gain anything out of this. Where is it? It disappeared before we left Italy, so I imagine it's somewhere there. I have the advantage, I'm close by. I can get it tomorrow and keep it here, with me. Nik won't make it near Germany without me being alerted. Time is of the essence, Bex."
"The church, san Vittore in Brienno. Where Alexander and I wished to be married. I buried him with his sword."
"Well, that does complicate things. He could be far below the surface and whatever marker you used, it would be long gone. I'll have a team go out to get it for me."
It took two days for them to locate the sword, but in the end, it was hand-delivered to Vivalda while she drove with Lucien to a cocktail party with one of his company partners. She hung it up on her wall in the mansion beside Flame, and decided to name it 'Bloodhound,' because it was one of her favorite types of dog (properly used for the hunt) and had the word 'blood' in it.
"I think I look better with two swords," said Vivalda, twirling them behind her back as Tristan walked up to her with only one. "Let's see how much I can improve in one day of training with two blades."
"My dear, I think you will show a great deal of improvement within an hour," he praised, attacking unexpectedly.
Lucien had come to see Vivalda when they still weren't done, sitting at the corner and letting them fight until at last he grew bored, beginning to clap slowly. "Good show, good show," he said, a somewhat pleased smirk on his face as he eyed Tristan. "If you're applying to work at Medieval Times."
Tristan pointed his sword at him. "I'd like to see you do any better. You may talk a great game, Lucien, but you don't actually know anything."
"I'm sure he knows how to swordfight," said Vivalda, trying to ease the tension. "And Lucien, I take offense to that. Medieval Times was made in my honor, I've no doubt."
He shrugged. "That, I'd believe, love. What I can't believe is that Tristan seems so haughty... as if I couldn't beat him."
"You can't," called Tristan.
"Au contraire," crooned Lucien, motioning for Vivalda to offer him one of her swords. She let him hold Flame. "I think–" he tossed it up and caught it, aiming it at Tristan's groin, "I am the better swordsman."
"Oh, boys," sighed Vivalda, sinking down against the wall. "You both know a lot about sword fighting, I don't doubt that. This isn't necessary, someone's pride may be wounded, and the already difficult-to-maintain peace will be marred. For me, please?" She tucked her hands together, batting her eyelashes. "Let it be?"
Lucien hummed, using the sword as a cane to walk over to her, abruptly tucking it under Vivalda's chin and having it guide her back to her feet. "How you work to protect his fragile ego," he said, leaning closer and letting the sword be the only thing that kept them from kissing. "Aren't you an angel?"
"And you are a devil, aren't you?" she quipped back. "It's why you come picking fights."
"If the devil were as ill-mannered as him," said Tristan, coming closer and poking the tip of his sword to Lucien's neck. "I do believe the sun is still out, old friend."
Lucien wiggled his eyebrows, as if mocking Tristan's use of the word 'friend.' "This room is rather dark," he said, pressing the blunt end of the blade against Vivalda's throat to elicit a small gasp. "And my love here craves excitement your swords can't provide."
"Don't be mean," Vivalda chided. "We're already going out tonight. It is technically his turn. The probationary period is still too fresh for there to be changes made."
"And what is he going to do if I take what is mine?" said Lucien, cupping her face. "Take my share of what is ours?" He pushed the sword down, eliminating the space between them and kissing her fervently. Vivalda could already sense Tristan scoffing, and decided to have a bit of fun, pulling away from Lucien and reaching out to hold Tristan's collar, kissing him back more gently, as he preferred it.
She heard Lucien scoff, but he also didn't push between them, perhaps enjoying the sight of it, perhaps wanting to lure Tristan into a false sense of security before he ripped Vivalda away. Oh, how she loved it.
Without words, they took turns. The two men switching who got to kiss Vivalda, who got to watch it all happen. Lucien groped her with the intention of making Tristan mad, while Tristan made sure to keep his kisses soft enough that Vivalda kept leaning in for more, the two almost appearing to dance. She knew that they were enjoying it, and she almost hated herself for liking that this was what their squabble culminated to. Kisses she didn't deserve but wanted and needed so badly.
"I hope you're happy."
"Very," she chirped to Klaus over the phone, supervising the vampires as they fought blindfolded.
She had a training regimen that spanned a week involving the loss of the senses. Loss of sight meant fighting blindfolded, relying on visualizing three-dimensional space without the benefit of their eyes. Loss of hearing meant spelled noise-canceling earbuds, relying on that tingle that told them an attack was coming. Taste and smell were rolled together, a test to see how in-tune with their bodies they were to detect airborne pathogens and poisons slipped in before and after a battle. And last came touch. Hands tied behind their backs to see how long it took to break out of a bind yet still manage to gain points; Shen Min was best at this one.
Klaus didn't care about The Strix or the fact she was so pleased training them. "How dare you?" he muttered.
"How dare I what? What did I do? Something you need to file a complaint about, big brother?"
"Rebekah wouldn't tell me where the Hunter's Sword was but I did manage to find out that she told you. And you stole it."
"Stealing? Me? Never. You must have me confused with someone who gives a crap about your opinions, Nik."
"Our sister has already been daggered for her behavior. Do you wish to–"
"Ah, but you can't dagger me, because I have my dagger for safekeeping and if you use someone else's, you won't be able to put them down when they tick you off. Give up, Nik, you're not getting what you want. Why do you want the cure, huh? For your hybrids? Or just so Rebekah can't have it? Oh, I bet it's the latter, deep down, because she'll become mortal, come to her senses, and leave you. Poor Nik, poor, poor Nik. Face it, you're not getting the sword and you're never going to get the cure."
"You'd side with her on this?"
"Um, yes, because she expressed unhappiness."
"And you think she'll be happy as a human?"
"No, but I'd rather she becomes human and later realizes she doesn't like it but at least she tried than for her to always want what she can't have and be near us, bitter and sulking. If she doesn't like it, she can just be a vampire again, I imagine. No harm, no foul. Despite all our fights, I want my sister to be happy and if she actually likes this, it will mean more to me that she have it. Maybe that's why we bicker so much, because she hates being a vampire."
"You are not at all bothered by the thought of losing her?"
"Not at all. I'd rather bury my sister when she is old and wrinkled knowing she lived the life of her dreams than force her to stick around just so I can keep having her braid my hair and tell me stories. If we lost her, I would miss her, but I would be in more pain knowing that in a thousand years, she's never gotten what she really wants. It's a lesson only she can learn, Nik. Let it be."
He continued to complain about the Hunter's Sword, but his whines fell on deaf ears. Vivalda had already grown fond of Bloodhound and didn't plan to give it up to anyone. When the time came for Rebekah to go find the cure, she'd loan it to her. But that sword was now hers. And anyone who tried to take it would lose their hands.
She had it in her hands as she learned how the people in Mystic Falls were still struggling to find the cure for sweet little Elena, who had made her first kill and murdered the Hunter that Klaus had kidnapped. Though Vivalda didn't like her, she wouldn't wish that torment on her worst enemy.
She still remembered how Klaus had suffered, how Vivalda herself had to subdue him to keep him from his madness-induced suicide attempts. Only Antonella knew how much Vivalda had cried in frustration during that time, hating that she couldn't free her brother of his pain. She considered that was probably the closest she and her siblings had been. Those fifty-two years, four months, and nine days that they desperately tried to help Klaus, all to no avail.
It seemed that despite her liberation from the curse, Elena was not having a good time. It made Vivalda wonder why they bothered to keep trying, when according to Rebekah, Elena didn't even want the cure. Though, she supposed if the stubborn Salvatores were in charge, they'd keep trying even when it meant Jeremy would nearly kill his sister in one of his vampire-hating Hunter fits. The best thing to come out of it, in Klaus's opinion, was finding out that Elena was somehow sired to Damon. That was another thing Vivalda didn't celebrate– it just sounded miserable.
Her sympathies didn't extend much further than that, not to the people in that friend group, at least. Around Christmastime, her brother had had an incident with his hybrids that ended with him dead and Tyler Lockwood's mother drowned in a fountain. Klaus hadn't appreciated Kol's jokes about how now, Vivalda didn't have to worry about training them.
"You're going to Mystic Falls?" she snorted to Kol the day after, when he'd gifted her a new shelf for her swords and she'd given him a basket of dark objects that she'd retrieved from their time in Spain. "What for? Christmas spirit got you wanting to be with the family?"
"It's been weeks since we've seen them," he said with a shrug. "It's about time. Besides, some idiot human girl awoke Bekah and now she's nagging about wanting help finding the cure. I'm bored! Antonella is traveling for work and I couldn't go, or she won't get anything done. Would you like to tag along?"
"No, I'd rather not get involved in that cure business. Besides, my probationary period with Tristan and Lucien has ended, according to them. They're still trying to be nice to each other– a few snide remarks left here and there– but it's improved enough that I think the arrangement can solidify now. They said they have a surprise for me this weekend and I need to be here to receive it."
"Your loss. I bet it'll be fun."
It wasn't fun. It was terrible, horrible, just as Vivalda expected from an angry Rebekah, a frustrated Klaus, and a Kol all-too-willing to become part of their mess because he wanted attention.
She grew concerned when Kol admitted he'd snatched the white oak stake from Rebekah after some professor involved name-dropped Silas, a warlock Vivalda had heard her brother speak of before. Klaus's yells made it worse, demanding she come there and convince Kol that he was being stupid, that he couldn't stop them from going after the cure just because he was afraid of a bedtime story. She thought he was being childish, that he should just sit down with Kol and talk to him after the youngest brother had been crazy enough to compel Damon Salvatore to kill Jeremy. Surely, with hearing him out, they could come to an understanding. It had to be simple, it had to be.
She was wrong. So wrong. And by the time she realized that the situation had escalated too much and made her way there, she was already too late.
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A/N: Happy 100 pages! Comment for more :)