Chapter 20: What Remains of the Monsters
The forest was silent… not the silence of peace, but the silence of fear.
The ground was soaked in the blood of the dead, and the ashes of vampires drifted through the air like gray snow falling after a bloody storm.
And at the heart of it all… stood Alexander, unmoving, his rage and power clinging to his body like a second skin.
His body trembled… not from weakness, but from immense restraint.
His breaths were deep… slow… measured.
Ash was still inside him, coiled and restless, whispering from the shadows of his soul:
"More… give me more…"
But Alexander refused.
Not now.
Not with Stefan lying just a few steps away, the wooden stake still embedded near his heart.
Not with Damon kneeling beside him, his face swollen and bloodstained, his eyes still glowing with unquenched rage.
Not with Bonnie, exhausted, standing behind him, trembling from the horror of what she'd witnessed… yet still hoping that everything that happened had meaning.
Klaus approached his side.
He remained silent for a long moment.
At last, he said:
"You held yourself back."
Alexander clenched his jaw. "Barely."
"You could've killed them all."
"I didn't come here to become the monster everyone fears."
Klaus let out a low chuckle.
"Maybe you no longer have a choice, my friend."
Behind them, Bonnie placed her trembling hand on Stefan's chest and began murmuring her spells in a soft voice, summoning her magic.
Damon helped hold his brother steady, whispering words only exchanged between brothers when they think no one else is listening.
Klaus and Alexander watched silently.
Then Alexander said quietly, without looking at him:
"You're not afraid of me."
Klaus replied:
"I've seen worse… I am the worst."
Finally, Alexander turned toward him.
"Then why didn't you stop me?"
Klaus gave a faint smile.
"Because part of me wanted to see what you'd become. And maybe… because you remind me of what I could've been, if I'd had brothers who truly cared."
Alexander looked away, his hands trembling with the force of his clenched fists.
Klaus said:
"Kol won't stop. He'll run, but he'll return with something darker… and more dangerous."
Alexander replied with a steady tone:
"I know… and I'll be ready."
Bonnie exhaled in relief.
"He's okay…" she whispered.
Stefan groaned as he slowly pulled out the stake, his wounds beginning to heal.
Damon crouched beside him, breathing hard and relieved.
Alexander walked toward them, his steps slow and cautious.
Bonnie stepped in his path for a moment.
"Are you… still you?"
He didn't answer.
Instead, he looked directly at Stefan—his brother—bloodied, pale… but alive.
Alexander said in a rough voice:
"I saw you… when you fought the witch. You could've let Rebekah die. You could've taken her blood and fled. But you stayed."
Stefan looked up at him.
"I don't leave anyone behind… not anymore."
Something tightened in Alexander's throat.
He knelt beside him and said:
"I didn't know I needed saving… until I saw you bleeding for me."
Stefan whispered:
"I've always believed in you, brother."
Alexander turned to Damon, who looked away tensely.
"…Don't get all sentimental now," Damon muttered. "We've had our brotherly moment, haven't we?"
Alexander gave a faint smirk.
"You're the worst."
"And I work very hard to stay that way."
Klaus moved away toward the edge of the clearing, watching the stillness.
His phone rang.
He frowned.
"It's Kol…" he muttered. "He left a message."
He played it.
Kol's voice came through—calm… but cold as ice:
> "The game isn't over yet, brother. You and your little project… you declared war on me. And war… never ends cleanly. I'll see you soon. Don't sleep too peacefully."
Klaus crushed the phone in his hand.
Bonnie looked toward Alexander.
"What now?"
Alexander narrowed his eyes.
And his voice, calm like a storm, said:
"We end it. The next time Kol comes to us… we won't just respond."
"We'll finish it."
---
The sun had not yet risen, but at the Salvatore house, a war council had already begun.
Maps were spread across the dining table, black circles and red Xs hastily drawn across Mystic Falls and beyond. Coffee cups, shattered glass, and empty blood bags littered the place like remnants of a party that had long turned into a wake.
Alexander stood at the head of the table, arms crossed, his eyes still burning with the madness of the night before. The anger hadn't faded… it had become quieter, colder, and sharper.
He spoke in a low voice that allowed no argument:
"We won't wait for Kol to make his next move. We strike first."
Klaus sat across from him, pretending to relax, but his eyes were sharp as knives.
"Kol is clever… and vindictive. He'll hide behind layers of magic, counter-magic, and veiled threats. If we attack without knowing where he is…"
Elijah finished from the window, his voice calm as always, but heavy with concern:
"He'll vanish. And next time he returns, it won't be for revenge… it'll be for blood."
Stefan leaned against the wall, arms folded, his wounds still healing slowly, though the memory of the stake driven into his chest still throbbed deep.
"We need to find him first. We know how he thinks. We know what he values."
Damon muttered as he sipped from a small flask:
"He doesn't value anything… except maybe that witch he lost."
Alexander looked up quickly.
"Then we use that."
Bonnie entered the room, flipping through an old spell book, its pages yellowed and worn.
"If Kol is driven by grief and anger, that makes him fragile. There are rituals—very old ones—that allow us to track vampires through the echo of their emotions. I can try to sense where his sorrow is most concentrated."
Damon looked at her skeptically:
"You plan to track an original vampire killer through his broken heart?"
Bonnie raised an eyebrow:
"Do you have a better plan?"
He smirked:
"No. I just admire the level of crazy."
Klaus finally stood, his tone serious:
"He'll think we're searching Mystic Falls… maybe even wants us to believe he went back to New Orleans. But Kol is too smart for familiar paths. He'll go where none of us dares to look."
"Where?" Alexander asked.
Klaus clenched his jaw.
"The one place I never dared to touch: the Cursed Lands. Ancient magic… deep magic. Black forests scorched from rituals even my mother feared."
Bonnie's face paled.
"That place is cursed… no witch has ever returned from it."
Alexander stepped forward.
"Then… it's time someone did."
Damon exhaled:
"Why is it always a creepy forest?"
Elijah moved toward a shelf, pulled out a hidden drawer, and retrieved a map, weathered by time.
"These are the last recorded ley lines connected to the Cursed Lands' magic. If Kol went underground, there's a chance he passed through here."
He pointed to a spot in the northern mountains beyond Mystic Falls.
A dense forest.
Isolated.
Deadly.
Klaus looked at Alexander:
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
Alexander answered firmly:
"I didn't come this far to lose everything now."
Klaus nodded slowly, a faint glimmer of pride in his eyes.
"Then we do it together… one last hunt."
Stefan stepped forward:
"Five of us won't be enough. Kol won't be alone."
Bonnie slammed her book shut:
"Leave the magic to me. I'll prepare charms to shield you from whatever he throws your way."
Damon poured the last of his bourbon into a glass.
"Great. A forest full of cursed magic, an original mourning his past, and us idiots walking willingly to our deaths."
He raised his glass.
"To bad ideas."
Alexander smiled and clinked his glass with Damon's.
"To family."
---
Far away…
Kol stood at the edge of a blood-covered altar, with Kai behind him, whispering spells, his fingers stained crimson.
Dozens of vampires knelt around them—loyal… and hungry.
Kol looked up at the dark sky and whispered:
"Come find me, brother. Let's finish what we started."
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