>Natalia's POV<
I moved through the forest with a speed and grace that I had never known before. My senses sharper, more attuned to the world around me. I could smell the damp earth, the scent of the trees, the faint rustle of leaves in the wind. But more than that, I could smell them. My grandparents. Their scent was familiar. A mix of herbs and the subtle tang of magic, and it let me straight to them.
They were in their home, the same house where I had spent so many happy moments as a child. The sight of it filled me with a bitter anger, a reminder of everything I had lost. But I didn't hesitate. I moved to the front door, my body a blur as I crossed the threshold.
The door slammed open with a force that shook the walls, and I stepped inside and my eyes burning with the fury that consumed me. My grandparents were there, sitting at the kitchen table, their faces pale as they looked up at me in shock.
"Natalia? Is it really you? But you were dead." My grandmother whispered, her voice trembling in fear.
But I didn't answer. I couldn't. The anger was too overwhelming, drowning out any other thought or feeling. I lunged at them, faster than I had ever moved before and my eyes turned black, with dark veins around my eyes, and my fangs bares, ready to sink into their flesh.
They barely had time to react. My grandparents tried to raise a hand, to cast some spell that might stop me, but it was too late. I was on him in an instant. My fangs sinking into his neck, the taste of his blood filling my stomach. It was bitter, tainted with the magic that had once been his strength, but I didn't care. I drank deeply, feeling his life force ebbing away with every drop I consumed.
My grandmother screamed, but I barely heard her. My focus was solely on my grandfather, on draining him of every last ounce of blood. It wasn't just the hunger, it was about vengeance, about making him suffer for what he had done to me, to my family.
When he was finally drained, his body slumped to the floor, lifeless and pale. I turned to my grandmother, my mouth still stained with blood, my eyes blazing with fury.
"You are a monster. A vampire!" My grandmother screamed her heart out.
"Why?" I demanded, my voice a low growl that barely sounded human.
But she couldn't answer. She was too terrified. Her body shaking as she backed away from me, her hands trembling as she tried to cast a spell, any spell, to protect herself.
It was futile. I was too strong, too fast. I was on her in an instant. My hands gripping her shoulders as I stared into her eyes.
"You killed them. You killed my parents. And now, I am going to kill you." I hissed. My voice was dripping with venom.
I didn't give her a chance to respond. I sank my fangs into her neck, just as I had with my grandfather and began to drink. Her blood was different, sweeter somehow, but it did nothing to quell the rage inside me. I drank until there was nothing left, until her body was just as lifeless as my grandfather's.
But, even as I stood over their bodies, the taste of their blood still fresh on my lips, I felt no satisfaction. The rage that had driven me here was still burning within me, but now it was joined by something else, guilt.
I turned to leave, but as I did, I noticed something that made my heart stop. Lying on the floor, just a few feet away, was the body of my little brother, Daniel. His small, lifeless form was crumpled on the ground, his eyes wide open in a frozen expression of terror.
"No." I whispered. My voice trembling as I stumbled towards him.
"No, no, no...."
I fell to my knees beside him. My hands shaking as I reached out to touch him, to see if there was any life left in his tiny body. But it was no use. He was gone.
The realization hit me like a ton of bricks, crushing the air from my lungs. I had killed him. I had killed my own brother. I's either my grandfather or my grandmother has linked their life with my brother's, making him also harmed if something was to happen to them. I didn't know when they did the linking spell but in my rage, in my need of vengeance, I completely lost in wanting nothing but killing them. That made me forget to stop and think what they could possibly do if things didn't turn the way they planned. I forgot to think using my head of the possibilities, in result I had destroyed the one person who had always looked up to me, who had loved me unconditionally.
I let out a scream of pure agony, the sound of my scream tearing through the night as I cradled Daniel's lifeless body in my arms. The pain of losing him was unbearable, a wound that would never heal.
But even as I wept, the darkness inside me remained as a constant reminder of the monster I had become. I had sought vengeance, but in doing so, and in achieving my vengeance, I had destroyed the only family I had left. I had become the very thing the prophecy had warned about, a creature of death and destruction.
The years that followed were a blur of pain and sorrow. I tried to run from what I had become. I tried to deny the darkness and the hunger that lived within me, but it was no use. The hunger was always there, lurking just beneath the surface. It was waiting for the moment when I would lose control again.
I traveled from place to place. I never stayed anywhere for long. Always moving, always running from the witched that wanted me dead. I became the creature of the night that could walk out in the sun without using any charm or spell, thank stop to my witch blood that is still running inside me.
Throughout the years, I have fall in love once and got betrayed deeply. Since then, I have been running away not just from the witches but also from him. I don't want and have no intentions of reconciling what he wishes to reconcile, nit wanting to be used the way he has once used me. The epic love that I had, has gifted me with a family that loves me beyond measure. His siblings has accepted me, protect me and love me unconditionally. For 713 years, we walked the earth together, as a family, but that was all before I choose to leave after the betrayal that I have receive.
I stood at the window of the small, rundown motel, staring out into the darkness. The night was eerily quiet. The kind of silence that settled over a place like a heavy blanket, smothering everything beneath it. The only sound was the occasional rustle of leaves as a light breeze swept through the trees, but even that did little to break the silence.
I was used to nights like this. They had been my constant companion for centuries. A reminder of the solitude that had become my existence. But tonight, something felt different, like the air was charged with a tension I couldn't quite place.
My eyes drifted across the street to the old bar that stood opposite of the motel. Its neon sign flickered, casting an eerie glow over the cracked pavement. It was the kind of place where people went to drown their sorrows, to forge their troubles, if only for a little while. I had seen countless places like this in my time, watched as people came and went. Their lives as fleeting as the wind.
Just then, a car turned the corner and pulled up in front of the bar, catching my attention. I narrowed my eyes, focusing on the vehicle. It was sleek, black car. The kind that was meant to blend into the night, unnoticed by most. But not by me.
The car idled for a moment before the driver's side door opened, and a man stepped out. He was tall, with a dark hair and confident stride. I didn't need to see his face to know who he was.
Damon Salvatore.
I had heard of him, of course. And we had crossed path before, eventhough we never truly met face to face. He is a vampire who had turned 134 years ago, by a vampire named Katherine. Someone that had bad blood with me for what she has done in the past, and she already paid for it.
Damon Salvatore and his brother, Stefan Salvatore was Katherine's play things. Damon is known for his notorious charm and his ruthless way of dealing with his blood hunger. He rarely killed his victims. He preferred to feed and then erase their memories, but he wasn't above taking a life when it suited him.
But it wasn't Damon who held my attention. My gaze shifted to the passenger side of the car as the door slowly opened. A woman stepped out, and for a moment, my breath caught in my throat. She was familiar. Too familiar.
"Katherine." I whispered to myself, my voice barely more than a breath.
The resemblance was uncanny. The same long, dark hair. The same sharp features. The same confident way of moving. It was like seeing a ghost. A specter from my past that I had thought was long gone.
Katherine Pierce. My descendant. She had been a thorn in my side for years. A woman who had always been manipulative, cunning, and she used her beauty and charm to get what she wanted, no matter who she had to hurt. Katherine had paid the price of her actions when she was caught by the villagers of a small town, who had discovered her secret, she was a vampire. Thanks to my info to the council members, she was caught and burned with her people.
I had never forgiven her or forgotten the pain and suffering she had caused to the people that I knew. In some twisted way, I had always believed that Katherine deserved every bit of the hardship she had gone through, every ounce of pain she had suffered.
But as I continue to watch her, something about the woman standing in front of the bar felt...off. There was a subtle difference, something in the way she moved, in the way she carried herself. Katherine has always been bold, unafraid, but this woman, despite seemed confident, she seemed more hesitant, more uncertain. It was as if she was trying to blend in, to avoid drawing attention to herself, something Katherine had never cared to do.
Katherine loved attention.
The woman glanced around the street before turning and walking towards the bar's entrance and Damon following closely behind. My eyes narrowed. She looked like Katherine, but there was something different, something that didn't quite add up.
Without thinking, I grabbed my jacket and slipped out of the motel room. The night air was cool against my skin as I crossed the street, my senses on high alert. I moved silently, blending into the shadows as I approached the bar. Years of practice has taught me how to go unnoticed, how to become invisible when I needed to.
As I entered the bar, the smell of alcohol and sweat hit me, mingling with the low hum of conversation and the clinking of glasses. The dim lightning cast long shadows across the room, but it didn't take long for me to spot them. Damon and the woman were sitting at a table in the far corner. Their heads close together as the converse with the bartender.
I moved through the crowd with ease, slipping between the tables until I found a spot near the bar where I could listen in without being noticed. I focused, tuning out the other noises in the room until I could clearly hear their conversation.
"Ok. So how did you two meet?" The woman asks.
"College." The bartender answer with a smile.
"You went to college?" The woman asks with a frown.
"I have been on a college campus, yes." Damon said.
"About 20 years ago, when I was just a sweet, young freshman, I met this beautiful man, and fell in love. And then he told me about his little secret, made me love him more. Because, you see, I had a little secret of my own that I was dying to share with somebody." The bartender said.
"She's a witch." Damon whisper to Elena.
I tuned in more into their conversation, and learned that her name is Elena. I then heard the woman excusing herself. I watch as she walk out from the bar and walk straight to the car she came with Damon. I see her take her cellphone out and answer a call.
"Elena, is that you?" I could hear a man's voice from the other side.
"I'm here." Elena said.
"Where are you?" He asks.
"You lied." Elena said and judging by her voice, she seemed upset and hurt.
"Not until I explain, please."
"So you don't lie?" She asked.
"Just tell me where are you. So that I can go meet you."
"How am I connected to Katherine, Stefan?" Elana asks.
My eyes widened as I listened. This woman wasn't Katherine. She is human, yet she looked exactly like her. The realization hit me like a bolt of lightning. Elena is a doppelganger, a human copy of Katherine, but with a different soul, a different destiny.
A doppelganger? It cant be.
A doppelganger need to be born from the same bloodline. If she is a doppelganger of Katherine, she must be related by blood to Katherine, but the Petrova's bloodline stop at Katherine.
Katherine real name is Katerina Petrova. She is my bloodline. I do not know from which family of mine Katherine is born from, but I am her ancestor. When Katherine is burned with her people, the only Petrova alive is me but now, there is Elena.
I take a deep breath as I leave the bar, slipping back into the night. Elena existence is danger not just towards supernatural being but also to Elena herself. There will be people coming for her. People who want to use her blood for their own gain. The Petrova's blood has always been powerful and now a Petrova who is a doppelganger?
Elena's blood is priceless.
Elena's blood is considered as a holy water to all supernatural being.
And I know one person that will not stop at nothing to have Elena's blood for him to use.
I need to do something.
Its either I killed or protect Elena is depend on who she is in the inside. If she is the same as Katherine, I do not have any other choice but to kill her.
I cannot afford to have another Katherine walking the earth and cause more damage.