Hellfire

Chapter 5: Her

Bored. So bored.

I'll certainly be having words with Death later. I mean seriously? "Go slither around a bit" are not adequate instructions after randomly teleporting me to some forest in the middle of the night. What exactly am I supposed to so with that?

I transformed into my hybrid basilisk-black widow snake form after grumbling for several minutes about stupid pushy God's disrespecting my quiet reading time. I was in the middle of researching a very important spell that would turn my enemies to toast. Like, a literal conscious piece of toast. What a great prank, ruined.

I slithered around a bit on the damp ground, recognizing the fauna as native to somewhere in the wilderness of upper North America, likely Canada.

A lot of werewolf packs resided up here since they could handle the colder weather and difficult landscape, plus it kept them away from humans when they turn.

Some nomad vamps are often scurrying around here too, but usually they are just passing through, careful not to stick around anytime near the full moon. Besides, there's not much human blood to drink out in the middle of nowhere.

After slithering around for over an hour and wondering why in hell Death would send me here, I felt a shift in the air. Sensing the tiny glimmer of Death's magic, I knew a vampire must be nearby. They are one of the few creatures who are sustained by that dark of a force, and the others wouldn't be found outside of the magical world and forests.

Heading in that direction, I made sure to add additional cloaking spells to my form, just in case the vamp sensed my movement and ran off. Not because they would know who or what I am, obviously, but even vampires can be scared of snakes. Especially obviously venomous ones like myself.

Although my venom wouldn't kill them, it would hurt like hell (not actual hell but... you know what I mean). They also wouldn't know about my Basilisk side, as I keep my protractive eyelids shut to keep from accidentally paralyzing anyone.

To them, I would just look like a scary rare hybrid snake to try and keep away from.

Getting closer, I hear a group of snarls and the heavy breathing and hissing of a single vamp.

The clearing opened up to show a lone female vampire surrounded by a werewolf pack. Not shifted, obviously, but she must have wandered into their territory, and even werewolves in their human form can still be incredible strong and fast, and could certainly catch a vampire if they took them by surprise.

She would not likely get out of this without getting bitten, and werewolf venom is toxic to vampires. The smallest dose in their bloodstream is fatal.

It was obvious the vampire knew this as she frantically looked for a way out with minimal contact.

There was none.

At first I was just going to observe, I usually don't interfere unless there is an important reason, and it's not my job to save every life and resolve every confrontation I come across. Things happen for a reason.

But when she turned, her hair whipping around her as she frantically searched for a way out of this seemingly hopeless mess, I caught a glimpse of her face and froze.

Well shit, I guess I'm getting involved after all.

Katerina Petrova, or Katherine Pierce as she goes by now, was backed into a rather compromising corner. Unfortunately for the wolves, I can't just let them kill the latest known doppelganger.

Although I didn't know exactly why, her survival felt important, and Death had let me know to keep an eye on the doppelgangers affairs for the time being. To do that, she had to actually have affairs for me to keep an eye on. Which required a lack of her demise.

If a part of me admired and was amused by her aptitude for chaos, I wouldn't admit it. I also had a bit of a soft spot for this particular doppelganger. She was constantly on the run from Niklaus Mikaelson for the simple crime of surviving, and the tragedy involving the young birth her daughter and denouncement by her family all added to my sympathy for the woman, regardless of her manipulative and selfish tendencies.

Selfishness is necessary for survival if the only one truly looking out for you is yourself.

Letting out a loud hiss, I grew my serpent form to the length of about 10 feet, meaning when I lifted myself up into an upright stance, I would come up to a height of about 6 feet with the remaining 4 holding my weight from the ground.

I slowly slithered between two of the wolves in the circle, their eyes widening as they automatically jumped away, one letting out a high pitched yelp before going red in embarrassment.

The vampire doppelganger's form was frozen as I slithered to form a circle around her, lifting the length of my form off the ground to meet the eyes of the largest and obvious leader of the pack.

After a moment of silence, the wolves broke out in growls at the protective stance of the strange creature between them and their current prey.

Although her eyes were still flitting around for a way out, Katherine was wise enough to remain still within the circle of my body, realizing, though not understanding, that the oddly-acting serpent was not after her, and in fact seemed to be defending her from the wolves. At this point, she really didn't have much more to lose by going along with it.

The alpha stepped forward, flashing his fangs as he slowly approached.

He paused when I let out a more menacing hiss, but after looking at the vampire behind me, obviously made up his mind that attacking me would be worth it to get to their enemy.

Rushing forward, he went to reach for me, likely attempting to throw me aside or even tear off my head when I swiftly and efficiently lunged, biting his shoulder and injecting a lethal dose of my venom before immediately recoiling back to my protective stance.

As he was a strong werewolf, I had to eject almost double the usual amount of venom to completely kill his supernatural body. But as I had an unlimited supply (thanks magic), that was no problem for me.

He screamed before falling and writhing around on the ground. Foam silenced him as it bubbled out from his mouth, while his eyes, ears and nose filled with blood, dripping down his face and body. It was a horrific sight that had even Katherine shivering and automatically leaning away from the pair of fangs that caused it.

Less than a full minute later the wolf stilled, eyes wide open and heart unbeating.

Although it was clear that this creature was not one to be messed with, especially as it had just taken down a full grown werewolf which was thought to be impossible from any non-supernatural being, werewolves were loyal and temperamental creatures. With their leader dead, they quickly lost any form of plan or organization, blindly launching themselves at both the serpent and vampire with wild, anger-clouded minds.

Katherine didn't even have the opportunity to move before the serpent had acted at an unnatural speed, twisting and turning to bite any wolf that came too close.

In the end, only two wolves remained, having stumbled backwards out of reach. They were obviously new to the pack and without the same sense of loyalty to the others, as they considered running.

I couldn't let that happen, however. Although I had remained in my serpent form and likely no-one would believe them if they did tell of a giant supernatural snake attacking and killing a werewolf pack in defense of a vampire, I didn't want to take any chances of my existence getting out.

I am not afraid of something happening to me. Of course not, I am the Mistress of Death, and as such I am unkillable. But it would certainly be a nuisance, especially when it came to using some of my animagus forms as covert ways to gather information and get the jump on people.

It is always best to be underestimated.

Before the last surviving pack-members could turn and run, I opened up my protective second eyelid and used the power most known of basilisks. The deadly gaze.

Both werewolves dropped dead the instant they glanced into my eyes.