CENTURIES, stefan salvatore [1]

Bloodlines

CHAPTER 3: BLOODLINES

Flashback

A Few Years Ago

It was only a few years prior Natalie and Alaric's decision that was going to change their lives forever was made that they had to get through a huge emotional loss that didn't really shape them into the people they thought they'd be.

Alaric figured that a few years after this he'd have a good job and him, Isobel and Natalie would be living in harmony and they may even have gotten a kid or two more as they all knew that Isobel had matured since her teenage pregnancy with Natalie (and co.). Instead, he became an obsessive with keeping the people he had left (well, more like "person") close to him and finding out what ripped him apart from the woman he loved. He quite literally became a stalker ex-boyfriend, although he was so sure that his wife was dead, and all he wanted was to find the one who did it and bring them to justice.

Natalie thought that by the time she turned seventeen she'd had a boy or two to mess around with (well, that happened once but you'll learn about that later) and she'd have good grades and stay with her two best friends and keep being as happy as she could. Instead she became a cold person who put all her energy into training and training and even more training. The only one who could even get her out of the cycle was her ex-boyfriend, and Alaric kept trying but he accepted that he would find out where their next lead went and Natalie would always be the better hunter. She shut herself in so that she could come out with a bang and kick ass.

But back when Natalie was only a young fourteen year old, she was as nice and sweet as a fourteen year old could be (that wasn't really saying much, though) and her hobbies included homework (involuntarily, of course), being bored and hanging out with her besties. And that's where Alaric picked her up, at one of the girls's house as they were hanging out and and it got a little out of hand.

"So, she quite literally poured a whole bowl of popcorn at her. It was hilarious." Natalie laughed as her and Alaric took a step over the threshold. 

"Yeah, probably," Alaric chuckled before keeping a straight face as he remembered that his wife was most likely sleeping at the moment. "But you know what's not hilarious? Your mom when she's woken up from her deep, deep sleep." he said in a jokingly poetic voice.

Natalie made a mocking grimace that involved scrunching her nose up, pursing her lips together and narrowing her eyes. It kinda scared some people. "Yeah, I just borrowed a jacket from her that I need to put in your room, no biggie, I'll be outta there in a jiffy."

Alaric shook her head at Natalie's attempt at rhyming, although that was never her strong suit. "Sure, sure."

The two walked up the creaky stairs as carefully as possible, making sure that they wouldn't make too much noise, so that they hopefully wouldn't wake Isobel.

They just didn't know that Isobel wasn't sleeping.

Natalie still had a smile on her face from her conversation with Alaric, but that smile faded as she saw an unfamiliar face of one of the creatures her mother would tell her about since she was young. She noticed his features, including the veins coming out under his eyes and the fangs that replaced a pair of teeth. Teeth that were in her mother's neck.

And it turned out that it was this moment that would keep Natalie Saltzman from ever having a normal life again.

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Present Day

The Mystic Grill

And three years later, so much had happened, yet it was the first time Natalie had seen that exact same face, although the fangs weren't out and there weren't veins under his eyes, plus his lips weren't coated with her mother's blood. But she recognized the face, as that was the exact face that she had nightmares about for about a year.

And the vampire noticed her staring, and finding an unfamiliar, attractive girl looking at him with that much of a shocked expression was always something he took as a good sign. So he smirked in return, expecting her to swoon.

Instead, she had a little daydream about cutting that smirk straight off of his murderous face.