[9] Queen

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Two dark-haired, burly men stared back at Niklaus and I as soon as our eyes glanced behind us to look out the window of Herelda's shop. Their faces were worn and bloodied from the fight that they had been in with Niklaus earlier in the day. I focused on the heartbeats settling in the middle of their chests, ruling out the chance of them being vampires. The taller of the two men rolled his neck side-to-side, eager to show that he was ready for any other fight that came towards him.

The shorter man held a sly smile across his face as he pointed straight towards Niklaus and pretended to use his finger to slice his throat. "Is he implying that he would like to kill me?" Niklaus asked, a stifled laugh escaping his lips with the question. I narrowed my eyes and watched as the men made their way towards the door of the shop. "I do believe that is what he was implying...." I nodded as I buried my hands in the pockets of my coat.

I could feel Herelda's presence slowly escaping us as she slowly moved to the back of her shop. I could still hear her quiet breaths, drawing in air carefully. Caleb and Isaac slammed the door behind them, causing the walls of the shop to rattle gently. "Caleb," Niklaus said softly as he looked towards the taller man, "and Isaac." I assumed that Caleb was in fact the taller man since Niklaus had looked towards him first in acknowledgement.

"If it isn't the Mikaelson rat again...." Caleb said as he clenched his fists beside him. Niklaus chuckled quietly, tilting his head to one side as he inspected Caleb and Isaac. "Did you two want me to kill you the second time that I had to lay eyes on your beastly faces?" Caleb shifted slightly, revealing his aggression towards Niklaus.

"Gentlemen," I whispered, removing my hands from my coat, "what my brother, Niklaus, here is trying to say is....perhaps we should settle our differences and move on." The shorter one, Isaac, chuckled devilishly as he wagged a finger towards me. He took a step forward, sliding his hands behind his back.

"We came for the girl...." he whispered as he glared up at me, "and we want her now." I felt my body immediately tense up as Abigail was mentioned. I could feel the anger soar through my body as it warmed the veins throughout my cold, lifeless body. It was as if an ounce of anger would bring my entire body back to life again.

I could feel the warm, stuffy air of the shop sharply release from my nose as I clenched my jaw. The hands that I had removed from my coat pockets stiffened beside me. I smiled at the men, as if to fool them with a slight bit of silent happiness. "I'm afraid that, that's not going to happen...." I whispered, carefully buttoning up the side buttons of my coat as I adjusted it across my shoulders.

"We're not afraid of your kind...." Isaac laughed, punching his friend Caleb playfully across the arm. I could see that the two men had already sealed their fates. They saw this interaction, and their order to retrieve Abigail as a game, and to Niklaus, a game much like this one was far more than just allowing a person to one-up you once in awhile.

Niklaus always had a competitive nature, one that he had used in it's entirety in his past. He saw everything, including the seriousness of life as a game. Because of this, he was able to remove life from a person without even blinking. This game of life had slowly turned him into a monster, and he made sure that he would always win.

"Why are you here for Abigail anyways?" I asked, attempting to be kind enough to tack an extra few minutes of time onto their short lives. Honestly, I didn't care about their answer. I didn't care about hearing the story that they would tell me. The only story that mattered by this point was Abigail's, and it was my job to ensure that her story would continue on for a much longer time.

"Well," Caleb smiled as he slowly began to walk around Niklaus and I, "she killed one of our men." I raised an eyebrow, turning to watch him as he inspected me carefully. "Killed one of your men?" I asked, "She didn't tell us that she had killed anyone recently...." Caleb nodded his head gently. I turned to look back towards Issac, to find Isaac holding a staring contest with Niklaus.

"Of course she didn't...." Caleb whispered as he stopped back at where he had stood beside Isaac only moments before. "Let me guess...." Niklaus quipped beside me, "she killed your friend because he was as God awfully ugly as the two of you?" Isaac took a step towards Niklaus, snarling with the movement. Niklaus began to move back towards him as well before I could hold him back into place.

"Why did she kill one of your men?" I asked calmly, releasing Niklaus from my tight grip. Isaac ran his bloodied fingers towards his black hair, waiting for Caleb to explain the story that I was waiting to hear. "We're not sure exactly why...." Caleb shrugged, "but we do know she's dangerous. More dangerous than the original family."

"I'm sorry mate," Niklaus laughed beside me, "but if you don't quite remember, I'm the original that nearly put a hole in your head only hours ago...." Caleb and Isaac stood quietly, glancing over at one another. "Yeah, you could kill us...." Isaac said calmly as he nodded his head slowly, "you could rip our veins from our throats, you could snap our necks....but what this girl does...." I could hear as Caleb's heartbeat slowed and watches as a patch of sweat had risen on his neck, "she's more terrifying than any childhood monster that I was afraid of as a child."

The anger that once filled my body was replaced with fear, a feeling that I wasn't quite used to. I never really had a reason to fear anything or anyone. I had lived my life without worrying about dying or without worrying about pain. The only fear that I would ever carry was for someone that I loved, and that came rarely.

I loved my family but I didn't ever have to fear for them as they were immortal as I was. When I feared for someone that I loved, it was generally because I was afraid of them finding out what I was. Since I learned to leave in the middle of the night, that fear hadn't swept through me in centuries. That was until Caleb spoke of Abigail, his voice shaking with the thought of her.

I was afraid that Abigail was more of a monster than I was. I was afraid that she was already something that I couldn't save. But what scared me more than anything, was that I wasn't saving Abigail from me. I would have to save her from herself. A feat that was hopeless, impossible.

"What is she?" I asked, my voice so low that it was nearly inaudible. Caleb took in a deep breath, clearing his throat as if to prepare for a long story. "She's a modern-day valkyrie...." A familiar voice said behind Niklaus and I. The voice stunned the both of us, immediately causing us to turn around. "Abigail is a modern-day valkyrie...." Herelda whispered as she slowly nodded her head, a smile appearing on her face.

"A what?" Caleb and Isaac said behind us in unison. Herelda shook her head in disbelief, a quiet laugh stemming from her. "My great-grandparents told me of her kind but they were believed to have gone extinct centuries ago...." Herelda quickly said, maneuvering around her shop, searching it up and down for something.

"Ah, here it is...." she whispered as she slammed a dusty book onto her counter top. She eagerly flipped through the pages of the book, skimming the pages carefully. Niklaus and I stepped up to the counter top, watching as Herelda looked for something in the old, thick book. While quickly flipping through the pages, Herelda stopped on a single page.

"She's a queen...." Herelda whispered as she pointed towards an old ink drawing on the page. The drawing shows a woman that looks much like Abigail sitting on a throne, a crown high on her head as two dragons sit on either side of her. "She gets to choose who deserves life and who doesn't...." Herelda whispers again as she stares down at the page in amazement.

"Abigail...." Herelda laughs as she slowly looks up, her eyes meeting mine, "she's our supernatural queen."


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Her Name Was Abigail {Elijah Mikaelson}Where stories live. Discover now