16 Betrayal

"My sincere gratitude to you and your family for inviting me here. I am unaccustomed to such luxury.", Alexander spoke as a manservant poured him wine.

Alexander was the 'hunter' who Rebekah had become quite fond of lately.

So Niklaus, Astrid and Elijah decided to invite him for dinner to learn more about this enemy of theirs.

Since these 'hunters' were looking for the creatures of the night and seemed to possess no knowledge of the existence of Daylight rings, the Mikaelson family felt quite safe around him.

"Well, it's the least we could do to repay you, for opening our eyes to the truth. We're curious to hear more about your Order. Your crusade!", Elijah replied back as he folded his arms in his chest and leaned back, appearing attentive.

Currently, they were in the garden of their castle, having dinner in the early evening.

At the dinner table, Niklaus was sitting at the head, Elijah to his right, Astrid to his left, and Alexander was sitting directly opposite to Niklaus, while Rebekah on his left.

Rebekah wasn't even paying attention to this conversation. She was looking at this 'hunter' with a dreamy look on her face. Her eyes were only filled with affection and lovefor this man that she had just met a few days ago.

Alexander replied with a tone filled with confidence, "We are but five men! Bound by fire and the last breath of a dying witch to a single cause. The destruction of all Vampires.", while simultaneously raising his glass to cheer.

Hearing this, everyone here except for Alexander shared eye contacts with each other.

They were more or less all vampires or vampire Hybrids, so this revelation and this sheer confidence with which he spoke, made everyone develop ambivalent opinions about the man.

"And how do you hope to achieve this?", Niklaus asked as he leaned forward.

"Tap!", Alexander put his empty glass down on the table.

Then he leaned forward and replied, "We have the ultimate weapon. Which no vampire can survive.", in a proud tone.

But the atmosphere turned heavy, full of suspense. Everyone was waiting for him to continue, and reveal what this weapon was, or provide some sort of clue as to where to find it.

But Alexander wasn't going to speak any further.

At this point, Astrid broke the uncomfortable silence, "Oh! It's so much like those stories that we have all read as children. A young heroic knight come across a legendary magic sword by pure luck, and goes out on a crusade to slay the evil dragon. Then after many ups and downs, and a long, tiresome journey, he finds the dragon hiding in its cave. After a glorious, but life-threatening battle, he pierces the evil dragon in the heart with his legendary sword and rewrites history by actually slaying it. Leaving his legend to be told for ages to come.", she spoke as if reciting an actual legend.

While simultaneously leaving much room to hunter's own imagination.

Since he seemed so confidence, might as well boost it even further and turn it into overconfidence.

She wanted him to fantasize about his own legend being sung among the masses for slaying the vampires.

Astrid looked at Alexander's happy expression, and continued, "Your weapon wouldn't happen to be a sword as well, would it? Perhaps that same sword you carry? Or is it in possession of one of your friends? You know, I used to love these kind of stories while growing up, and now for them to be actually real, not to mention a living legend sitting before me, I cannot resist. Even If it's vampires instead of dragons, I just have to know.", speaking in a tone that depicted her a young girl fascinated with legends. Daydreaming about fantasies.

On the other hand, Rebekah looked very happy that her boyfriend was being called a living legend.

Alexander laughed with slight embarrassment, and replied with a smile, "Ha! Ha! Ha! No. Even though it may have some semblance to such fantasies, I assure you, it is anything but. Creatures of the night may pose as anyone. Our neighbours, our close friends, or even loved ones. Anyone may even turn into a monster anyday, without our knowledge.", his eyes lingered a bit on Rebekah as he spoke that last part.

"And my brothers even speak of a special kind of vampire that has none of the weaknesses of normal ones. It cannot be killed by any normal means. Be it a stake to the heart or cutting off its head. Much less a mere sword. Even one that is magically imbued.", he continued with a serious tone.

"Ah I see. Speaking of your friends however, you mentioned earlier that there were five of you? We have not yet had the pleasure to meet any of your brothers beside yourself. When, may I ask could we all be introduced?", Astrid continued, still in that curious tone.

If they could find all five of these 'hunters' in the same place at same time, then perhaps they could finally stop this masquerade and just send these fools to the afterlife already.

With the appearance of this 'hunter' a month ago, Astrid had refrained from going on her occasional trips to the Kingdom until putting an end to all five of these nuisances.

For Astrid, it would be a blessing to finally be able to get this thing over with and just go back home for good.

Alexander replied, "Yes. We are men tasked with a great responsibility. My brothers are all very committed to accomplishing our purpose someplace else. I only stayed back because I happened to come across a very special someone here.", while glancing at Rebekah with eyes filled with love.

Then Elijah interjected, "Alexander, we do understand the weight of your responsibilities, however, I believe it to be a necessity to rewind sometimes, and relieve stress. Since you appreciate our company, then perhaps you could forward our invite to your brothers to come visit us for a dinner?", with a small and merry smile on his face.

Niklaus interjected, "Yes. As you so modestly seemed "unaccustomed to such luxury". I assure you that this dinner is but very general. If you were to invite your mates, Elijah would merrily throw a spectacular feast for all of us to very much enjoy.", speaking sarcastically as both Elijah and Astrid nodded on his sides.

But Rebekah seemed downhearted. She knew exactly what this "feast" entailed. Most likely, it would be the last feast her boyfriend and his friends would ever have.

Alexander replied happily, "Considering their firm character and dutiful nature, it is difficult to determine whether they might accept, but I will surely try my best to invite them for you on our next rendezvous.".

This was the second time that Mikaelson family had invited Alexander to their residence.

Until now, they had only been sussing him out. Trying to learn more and more about his abilities. Specially those racial ones that all five of them possessed.

Alexander had a strange tattoo on his arm.

According to Rebekah, the more vampires he killed, the more complete this tattoo would become.

It was like some sort of a treasure map. Only, this treasure that it led to, was the "ultimate weapon" that could presumably put an end to vampire species.

On the other hand, no form of compulsion or mind control worked on Alexander.

There was a very powerful magic spell protecting his brain. Even Astrid, with her telepathy much superior to vampire's compulsion, could not penetrate this magic barrier that protected Alexander's mind.

At this point, only Kol would be able to mind-control him. But she had already tried that approach, and he appeared to be too busy working on something else.

So instead, the Mikaelson siblings came up with this little act of 'playing nicely', like regular humans, to get Alexander to reveal more information about himself.

All told, with occasional few friendly sparring, they had determined this 'hunter' to be only slightly more physically superior to normal human beings.

On the same level as werewolves when in their human forms.

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.

Qetsiyah looked at Kol in the eyes, and spoke softly with love in her tone, "My beloved, are you absolutely sure about this? Because under no circumstance do I wish to loose my magic.", finishing her sentence with concern in her tone.

Currently, she and Kol were standing in the middle of a battle arena that looked straight out of the movie, Gladiator.

Except, there were no audience here, just a hundred witches dressed in all-black robes with hoods covering their heads.

They were here to help Kol resurrect Qetsiyah. After all, he was the king of a country now. He didn't need to do everything himself.

If one looked closely at these witches, they would find a symbol drawn at the back of their robes. This was Kol's personal insignia.

It was drawn mostly in orange, or in red for those few standing closer to Kol and Qetsiyah. It was evident that those in red symbols had better status, or power.

Superman had his "S", Batman had his bat symbol, Green Lantern had his lantern symbol. All these people represented something more than just themselves.

They were not just individuals, but symbols. Their names represented greatness.

And Kol had a dream. He wished to see, wished to experience more than just life and the passage of time. He wished to travel through the multiverse and discover what it had to offer.

But at the same time, he wished to be remembered. To leave a mark everywhere he went. So he needed more than just a name to represent himself, and to identify himself with.

Kol's symbol was the 'Nordic symbol of heavenly power'. Considering his domain, it was quite appropriate too.

A symmetrical 2D shape. Three rhombus, one on top, and two on the left and right respectively. Connected to each other in the middle by one of their vertices.

[[Image Here]]

Kol wore this symbol in purple, his wives wore it in white, while their subjects wore it in yellow, green, orange, red, or black, depending on their position, status, station, or assignments.

Kol reassured her in a light tone, "You checked the formula yourself. Don't worry! It has already been tested. Not to mention the backup plan just in case. Everything is alright. So bottom's up!", then he brought the silver wine glass he was holding to her lips.

"Hmm.", she tried to say something, but Kol held her in place by hugging one arm around her neck, and made her drink the Elixir of Life with his other hand.

After drinking the Elixir, she pushed his hand away, backed up a few steps, "Huff! Huff!! Huff!! Huff!! Huff!!", and started sweating and breathing heavily.

It seemed like she was having trouble breathing.

But Kol was not alarmed. This Elixir of Life was completely different from Qetsiyah's previous Elixir of immortality. This was the normal reaction.

Kol walked forward and held her shoulders to support her, "It's alright honey. This is the normal process. Your body is changing from a quantum level. It will pass. Just take deep breaths and..."

But he was interrupted.

She clenched her fists, "I KNOW!!", and yelled loudly in a husky voice that clearly contained pain and struggle.

"Ok!", he replied awkwardly and stopped talking.

As time passed, changes started to happen in her body. It was evident from outside too, as her age slowly regressed back to her prime.

According to the original TV show plot, Qetsiyah was supposed to be in her early twenties, but she was played by an actress who was in her mid thirties, so the original plot wasn't accurate.

Now as the Elixir started to take effect, her age regressed back to what it was originally supposed to be. In her early twenties. And her beauty, was breathtaking.

[[Image Here]] - (AUTHOR:- It was difficult to find a picture of this actress that was taken in her twenties.)

After about half an hour, "Huh! Huh! Huh!", she took deep breaths, and stood up.

Kol spoke, "It's over my love. Now we will never have to part. Ever.".

Qetsiyah looked at him with eyes filled with relief and love, then grabbed his collar and pulled him closer, and kissed him passionately.

Kol hugged her tightly and kissed her back, feeling her perfect, slim waist, and getting lost in the lust of her hot and sweaty body rubbing against his own.

When she felt his erection, she pushed him back, and spoke loudly, "I had forgotten how it felt. TO LIVE! Ha! Ha! Ha!", yelling and smiling in excitement while spreading her arms wide open.

And continued, "Passion, excitement, PAIN, pleasure. BREATHING!! Kol, I love you SO MUCH!", then she grabbed his collar again, and started kissing him.

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.

Currently, this was night time.

In Rebekah's bed, in her bedroom.

Rebekah was wearing nothing but a thin night gown as she sat on top of Alexander's naked body, and kissed him passionately.

After a while, she looked down at the strange tattoo on his chest, ran her fingers crossed it, and asked curiously, "How do you read these symbols?", with eyes filled with love.

He replied, "The map took my brothers and I years to translate.", while simultaneously reaching out for the sword that was on the table by the bedside.

He continued, "This sword", while pointing at the hilt of the sword, "It is the key to reading it.".

The leather grip on the hilt of the sword was loosely tied to it. If one were to remove the leather, they would find a Cryptex in Aramaic, instead of a regular metal hilt.

Alexander then put back the sword, "Have you considered my offer? To come with me when I leave to follow the map?", and asked Rebekah.

She smiled and replied, "I have. And I would like that very much.".

Then they once again started kissing each other. But not long after, Rebekah noticed something else on the table.

It was a pointy silver dagger, placed next to a small transparent glass bottle that contained some kind of powder.

For some reason, Rebekah felt danger from this bottle, or whatever it contained inside it.

So she sat up again, and asked, "What is that?".

Alexander replied, "Oh that?", while simultaneously picking up the dagger and dipping its blade inside the bottle.

"That is a very special weapon. For a very special kind of vampire.", he continued.

But Rebekah had realised what he meant by "very special vampire", so an expression of fear flashed for a moment before returning to normal.

Alexander had seemingly failed to notice anything, so he continued, "When my brotherhood has achieved its destiny those monsters will cease to exist. Until then, we have these daggers. They can put them to temporary death.".

Then Rebekah asked hopefully, "Do you truly believe they are all so evil they must be put down?".

Alexander shook his head, seemingly dismissing her question, and replied, "Let us not talk of such evil.".

Then he moved closer to her and started kissing her, "Let us do this.".

"And this.", he spoke while still kissing.

"He! He! He!", Rebekah smiled happily. Completely forgetting about the dagger that can put her in a temporary state of death.

"And this.", Alexander spoke again, but at this point Rebekah was completely lost in pleasure.

Unknowingly to her, his left hand had stopped grabbing her arse and was reaching for that dagger.

As they were still kissing, Rebekah had closed her eyes and failed to notice Alexander picking up the dagger, and shifting it to his right hand from behind her back.

"And this", and with that final time, "Haaggh! Cough! Hu!", he impaled her between her ribcage with the dagger.

It seemed like it successfully pierced her heart as she stopped moving and just looked at Alexander will an expression of grief, distress, and heartbreak.

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Apologies for the delay.