Rebekah's Daughter-Natalia Mikaelson (The Vampire Diaries)

Chapter 21

I can't remember the last time I ran this fast. I pushed my legs as hard as they would go until my destination finally rose up in front of me. I burst through the front door, "Uncle Nik!" When he didn't immediately appear in front of me I screamed into the house again.

Within the next second he was there. His eyes were wide, wondering what could have caused me to run into the house in such a state. "What? What is it? What happened?"

I choked on a sob that got stuck in my throat and he firmly put his hands on my shoulders and gave me a light shake. "Natalia, tell me what happened."

"It happened again, I lost control," I managed to gasp out. All he did in response was stare at me, at a loss for words and this made me uneasy. "Uncle Nik, I'm scared."

At this he came back to life, putting his arm around my shoulders as he began to lead me upstairs where my room was. "Come on, Love. Let's get you calmed down."

When we got to my room he laid me down in my bed and went to take a seat in the chair beside my bed, but when I clutched on to him he sat beside me instead. I wasn't quite sure why I was behaving like this, I hadn't acted this way since I was a child, many many centuries ago.

"Uncle Nik, what's happening to me?" I asked him as a couple of tears fell from my eyes, getting on his shirt.

"I'm not sure... but I don't think it's a good idea for you to use magic for a while, at least not until you get a handle on this."

It felt like something moved inside of me at his words. I wanted to be angry at him for telling me that I couldn't use magic, that I wasn't strong enough to stay in control; but now I was able to identify this feeling as the dark magic trying to find it's way back. I took a deep, shaky breath and said, "I think that might be a good idea."

We sat in silence for several minutes, Uncle Nik rubbing my shoulders in a soothing way, another thing that hadn't been done since my childhood, to help me calm down. When I felt a little more put together, I plucked up the courage to say, "I'm sorry about what I said before."

"Natalia-" he started to say, trying to brush off my apology.

"No, please just let me say this," I said as I sat up to look him in the eyes. "I never should have said what I did. It was the dark magic trying to take over again but it doesn't make it excusable. Whatever this is that's happening is not because of you asking me to use dark magic. I would have done it eventually and we're stupid for not seeing this as a possible outcome. You were also never the nuisance in my life, you've been my father. You're the single most important man in my life and no matter how angry I get, no matter what hurtful things I say or how much I want to rip your head off sometimes... I want you to always remember that."

When I was finished I felt awkward and embarrassed for laying my feelings out like that but after what I said last night, it needed to be done. He stared at me for a few moments until his eyes started to shine, then he pulled me into a hug. "I love you, too," he said quietly. I let out a breath of relief, glad he understood what I was really trying to say.

For the next couple of days I laid low, not going out and not talking to anyone other than Uncle Nik. My temper still wasn't fully under control and I had been avoiding any form of magic, which made me realize how lazy I was.

I had been spending a lot of time in the room we turned into a gym at my request. Running, weightlifting, kickboxing, yoga; I spent hours in there using up as much of my energy as I could, whatever kept me active and my adrenaline up rather than going insane from sitting around. Uncle Nik even sparred with me in hand-to-hand combat to brush up on my fighting skills, which ended up not being a bad idea. When you have magic to back you up you forget how rusty you are...