Between practicing her shifts and trying to coax another small breeze through the living room, Lexi took a breather, leaning against the window frame.
Curiosity got the better of her, and she looked over at Aleksander.
“Are there really other abilities out there for vampires? Beyond compulsion and illusions?”
Aleksander nodded, watching her with a calm smile.
“Multiple, actually. Shapeshifting, elemental manipulation, and weather control are all entirely possible for vampires even without my blood. The magic is already in your nature. But none of the vampires in this world—not even the Originals—have ever bothered to tap into them.”
Lexi raised her eyebrows, genuinely surprised.
The idea of vampires holding that kind of untapped power was wild to wrap her head around, and she definitely wanted to learn every single one of them.
Then his choice of words caught her attention.
“Wait… you actually know about the Original family?” Lexi asked, crossing her arms.
“I mean, I know they aren’t a myth. But every story I’ve ever heard over the last three centuries is just rumors, folklore, and mostly fake gossip.”
“They’re very real,” Aleksander said smoothly.
“A family of siblings who have walked this earth for a thousand years. The first of your kind. And technically, one of them is a hybrid.”
Lexi frowned, leaning forward.
“A hybrid?”
Aleksander nodded.
“The Mikaelson family. In order of the living siblings: Finn, Elijah, Niklaus, Kol, and Rebekah. They were human once, living in a settlement in the New World a millennium ago. Their mother was a powerful witch named Esther, and their father, Mikael, was a brutal warrior.”
He poured himself a glass of water, speaking with the steady tone of someone recounting familiar history.
“When their youngest brother Henrik was killed by werewolves on a full moon, their parents grew desperate. Mikael demanded Esther use her magic to make their children stronger, faster, and immortal so they would never be prey again. Esther used dark magic, calling on the sun for life, the white oak tree for immortality, and the blood of a Petrova doppelgänger. But Nature demanded balance: the sun burned them, the wood that gave them life could kill them, and the blood they were created with became an unquenchable hunger.”
Lexi listened intently, piecing together the true origin of her own species. Find the original chapter at g.com.
“And Niklaus?” she asked.
“Niklaus was Esther’s secret,” Aleksander explained, his voice turning quieter.
“He wasn’t Mikael’s biological son. Esther had an affair with an alpha from a neighboring werewolf pack. When Klaus made his first kill as a vampire, the curse triggered, awakening his dormant werewolf side. A creature with the bloodlust and immortality of an Original vampire, combined with the raw power, venom, and bite of a werewolf. The first true hybrid.”
Lexi let out a low whistle, shaking her head.
“I’m guessing Mikael didn’t take that well.”
Aleksander nodded grimly.
“That is an understatement. Mikael never liked Niklaus from the start. He despised the boy for having a softer, gentler nature—which was actually Esther’s doing, as she secretly weakened Klaus with an amulet to protect him. To make matters worse, Klaus was an artist, sensitive and creative, things a brutal Viking chieftain considered pathetic weaknesses. Now add the revelation that Klaus wasn’t his biological son, but the bastard child of a werewolf—the very species that had just mauled their youngest son Henrik to death.”
Aleksander walked over, leaning against the counter as he continued.
“Mikael demanded Esther bind Klaus’s werewolf side. Esther complied, using dark magic to place a binding curse on him, forcing his inner wolf to lie dormant. Worse than the spell itself, she emotionally rejected and abandoned him. Mikael then tracked down Klaus’s biological father, Ansel, and slaughtered his entire bloodline, completely ignorant of the fact that wiping out that pack would spark a vicious, endless war between vampires and werewolves across centuries.”
Lexi grimaced.
“And Klaus just accepted that?”
“Hardly,” Aleksander said, a faint edge to his voice.
“Enraged by the curse, the betrayal, and the total abandonment, Klaus ripped Esther’s heart out of her chest. He then framed Mikael for the murder to keep his siblings united by his side. For the next thousand years, the Original siblings ran across the globe, believing their monstrous father was hunting all of them down. In reality, Mikael’s singular, obsessive target was always Klaus.”
Lexi stared at him, letting out a dry, exasperated breath.
“God. That is an insane amount of family drama. It honestly ranks way higher than the Salvatore brothers’ petty grudges.”
Aleksander chuckled, though his expression soon settled into something far more contemplative.
“The Salvatores were just two brothers fighting over the same girl,” Aleksander remarked softly.
“Klaus is a different story entirely. A boy abused by the man he thought was his father, weakened and betrayed by his mother, and then hunted like an animal the moment his true nature emerged. It doesn’t excuse the thousands of lives he’s taken, but it explains the monster he became. He wasn’t born evil, Lexi. He was forged in cruelty and abandonment, lashing out at a world that told him he was an abomination from the start.”
Lexi stretched her arms over her head with a wicked, radiant grin, completely cutting through the heavy thousand-year history lesson.
“Alright, enough ancient family trauma for one morning. It’s New York, we’ve had a wild few days, and we need club time.”
Aleksander smiled, shaking his head with an amused chuckle. Follow the newest chapters on novelping.com.
“Club time in broad daylight?”
”It’s the city that never sleeps, big guy—there’s always somewhere with the bass turned up and the shades pulled down,” she fired back, already blurring across the hardwood in a flash of vampire speed.
Within minutes, she sauntered back out of the bedroom, thoroughly transformed.
She wore a sharp, gunmetal-grey leather biker jacket zipped halfway over a fitted dark scoop-neck top, paired with dark slim-cut jeans and heeled boots that clicked with purpose against the floorboards.
Her blonde curls were tousled just right, framing a face glowing with pure mischief.
She grabbed Aleksander by the forearms, physically tugging him toward the bedroom.
“Move it, Avatar. Less brooding, more getting ready. Black shirt, dark jeans, and leave the god robes at home.”
Aleksander chuckled, letting himself be pushed into the room.
He swapped into a clean black button-down with the top few buttons open and dark denim, rolling the sleeves up to his forearms.
When he stepped back out, Lexi gave him an appreciative once-over, hooked her arm through his with a proprietary grin, and pulled him out the front door.
A quick cab ride downtown deposited them in the pulsing heart of the Meatpacking District.
Lexi led him straight past the velvet rope outside an underground club, flashing a knowing smile at the bouncer, who waved her inside without a second thought.
The heavy steel door sealed shut behind them, cutting off the city street and plunging them into the subterranean heartbeat of the club.
Low red and violet lights swept over the crowded dance floor, bass reverberating through the concrete floorboards, and the thick, electric scent of alcohol, sweat, and adrenaline filled the air.
Lexi didn’t wait.
She turned, caught Aleksander by the lapel of his shirt, and tugged him toward the edge of the crowd with her eyes flashing bright in the neon haze.
”First round’s on you,” she teased over the roar of the music, already swaying to the beat.
“Then you’re dancing with me.”