Forever Original | Alaric Saltzman

Chapter 11

"Kol?" said Jeremy in disbelief. "Hilda?"

She waved her fingers at him with a cheeky grin. "Good to see you, darling," she said with a wink. "Sorry about the mess..."

"It was a little crowded when we arrived," Kol said. "We prefer more intimate gatherings."

"We four need to have a little chat," added Hilda as Kol took a sip of the new bourbon bottle he'd gotten.

Kol held the bottle toward Jeremy. "Care for a drink?"

Damon stepped in front of him. "He's underage, and I don't like you, so let's just cut to it."

The twins shrugged. "Our brother bragged about his plan to complete Jeremy's Hunter's Mark."

"It was easy to get them to kill each other," Hilda chimed in. "Killing young vampires is simple..."

"...and so is killing old ones," said Kol, glaring at Damon.

Damon scoffed. "Why? What's it to you either way?"

Kol's jaw twitched. "Because, you fools, in your zeal to find the cure, you risk waking someone very dangerous."

Damon seemed amused. "Oh...You must be talking about Silas."

Hilda stepped forward. "What do you know of him?"

"Nothing," said Damon. "Don't want to. Not our problem."

"Isn't it?" asked the twins in unison.

Damon shook his head, and Hilda crossed her arms. "A few hundred years back, Kol and I came across a group that worshipped Silas."

"His followers told us that he would rise again," said Kol, "and when he did, he would trigger the end of time."

"As immortals, you can see why we're opposed to time's ending," Hilda added.

"So we murdered the lot of them."

"Tore out their intestines little by little."

"One by one."

"It was quite fun."

"And now," said Kol, "here you are, willing to risk raising him in your search for the cure. We can't exactly sit back and let that happen, can we?"

Damon snorted. "We're not going to back off the cure 'cause you were told one too many scary bedtime stories, you idiot."

Growling, Kol pushed Damon aside. "Jeremy, we were mates in Colorado. You're a smart lad. Why don't you call off this imbecilic treasure hunt?"

"I'm not calling anything off, mate," said Jeremy coldly, pointing the bow at Hilda.

She took a step back, and Kol followed suit. "We could kill you," she suggested. "But then... whichever one of us does it will have to deal with the Hunter's Curse while the other one suffers as a bystander. And neither of us particularly feel like being haunted for the next century."

"Better idea," proposed Kol. "We'll rip your arms off."

The twins moved forward, but Damon shoved Kol back, causing Hilda to crash to the floor. "Jeremy, run!"

The twins could have easily pursued him, but they risked being incapacitated and accidentally killing him, therefore they let him go, and instead, focused on subduing Damon, which was quite simple.

They put him into a headlock, and Hilda ripped a strip of wood from one of the empty beer kegs and shoved it into Damon's side, making him yell out. Kol released him from his hold and Hilda held Damon's arms behind his back as her twin punched the younger vampire in the face a good three times.