CHAPTER SEVEN !

THE BETRAYAL

————✩ ————

"SO? DID YOU MANAGE TO FIND ANYTHING or was this all for nothing?" Derek asked from his spot inside the abandoned subway. He was standing against the wall, with his arms crossed in front of him, as if he had been waiting for the beta to come back.

"I'm not useless," Isaac muttered in a whisper, "I found multiple things." Upon walking toward the alpha, Isaac discovered that Erica was there too and that she seemed curious about his discoveries as well.

When Isaac didn't immediately keep going, Derek rolled his eyes, "Which are?"

"Yes, well, first of all, she's clearly not unknown to the supernatural, quite the contrary. She has already met werewolves before and seemed to recognize the wolfsbane." He started.

"Still think this was a stupid idea," Erica said with a cough. Derek shot her a deadly glance for interrupting. Of course, there had been some debate over the 'peace offering' among the pack but Isaac needed a better reason than just apologizing to be able to go inside Astrid's house.

"Apparently, it wasn't difficult to discover we were werewolves. Though she refused to help us, she says she wants to stay away from the supernatural. She didn't want to say what she was exactly either but I discovered some things about her past. Maybe if we learn more about her, we'll get to find out what she is too. Well, anyway, she told me about a younger brother who died when she was younger. She said he was called Henry."

"That's it?" Derek wasn't surprised that Astrid didn't reveal what creature she was right away but had expected a little more than a tragic backstory and the fact she knew about werewolves, which they already knew. All the while, he wondered how Isaac managed to get her to reveal that she had a dead brother.

"Not exactly." Isaac reached for his back pocket and got something out. Derek took a step closer and frowned when he saw that it was an old, beat-up photograph that seemed to have yellowed over the years. "She had a few pictures hung up on her walls but nothing interesting but then, in one of her drawers, she had all these old photographs. I only managed to catch one before she came back."

The picture in question looked straight out of the 19th century. Derek took it to get a closer look, Erica was leaning above his shoulder to see it too. In the picture were five people, three men and two women. All of them were wearing old-fashioned clothes but the most surprising part of it was that, in the center of it, the girl looked exactly like Astrid, wearing a corset and a long dress.

Erica pointed to one of the three men. "Hey! I recognize him too, he was hanging out with Astrid like a week or two ago. They went to the lacrosse game together." Derek glanced at her. That was interesting. How come they appeared in such an old-looking photograph? He knew some people were interested in dressing like they were in another century but, oddly enough, he felt like it wasn't the case here.

"I remember her talking about it in chemistry class, the day we tested her. She said his name was... Colin, I think? But I'm not sure, she seemed to hesitate a little when she said his name." Derek nodded, absorbing all the information he could about this mysterious girl. Then, he noticed something else on the photograph. In the corner of it, in cursive handwriting, he could read the name "Mikaelson". Was that the photographer's name? He had to look into it to be sure. Maybe he could still link it back to her.

"It doesn't seem to be fake. Not to mention that her drawers were full of old pictures, some of them older than this one, I think. But, she doesn't seem to have aged a day. Or maybe it's her ancestor who looks exactly like her? That doesn't sound very likely, though." Isaac wondered, out loud. A hundred questions were bouncing in his head. As soon as he had left Astrid's house, he had taken the photograph out of his pocket and had stared at it for God knows when. But still, after thinking about it on the way back to the station, he couldn't understand what this meant and how it could be possible.

Would this mean that Astrid was immortal? Or maybe she was a time traveler. Both options seemed crazier than the other. Maybe Derek would know more about it since he was more experienced on the matter. "You think you know what she is?" It was Erica who had asked what the two betas seemed to be thinking at the same time.

"Well, if this picture is really of age then Astrid is either immortal, or she just doesn't age. Thinking about it, multiple creatures don't age. One of them being a vampire. But I thought vampires didn't appear in pictures but this one proves the contrary. Also, even if this wasn't the case, there's still the issue of the sun which supposedly burns vampires but Astrid doesn't seem to be bothered by it, not in the slightest." Derek explained to the two betas who were drinking in his words.

It was Isaac's turn to give in to his curiosity. "If she's not a vampire, what could she be?"

"I'm thinking of sirens, or maybe a faerie but I'm not even sure if the last one exists. But the information you gathered will most certainly help us, Isaac. Who knows? We might be able to track her down using the names and her backstory." Derek sighed, having to deal with this and the kanima was going to be a tenuous task. "In the meantime, we're going to need all the help we can get from Scott and his pack."

The two betas looked at him with wide eyes. This information came as a total surprise and didn't seem to please either of them. Isaac wasn't afraid to say it. "Why would we need them?" he asked with disdain.

Derek got up from the wall he had been leaning against, he took a few steps down the abandoned car in which the pack had taken refuge. "Because the kanima is harder to kill than I thought, and I still don't know who it is," Derek answered annoyingly.

"And they do?" Isaac grunted, apparently outraged by the proposition.

"They might, which is why I need one of you to get on their good side." Derek left the wagon and started walking towards the space they usually used to train, Erica and Isaac on his trail. "And if you can, try and learn as much as possible about our dear friend Astrid, it can always be useful."

————✩ ————

Something felt wrong. Astrid thought as she was walking down the school's hallway. Going back to school had been awkward. Scott, Stiles and Allison appeared as if nothing happened but it seemed too suspicious while Erica, Isaac and who she learned was called Boyd didn't hide the fact that they were clearly scraping for any more indication over what she was. She was thankful to have Lukas. And Lydia, who was still as oblivious, though becoming annoyed at that, too.

But this, this was something else. Her vampire hearing caught on a seemingly tense conversation, and then noises of people fighting, but she couldn't track where it was coming from.

Unconsciously, with probably her interest in gossip taking over, she headed toward the source of all that noise. She turned left in the hallway which led to the boys' locker room, only to find Erica and Stiles staring at a puddle on the floor. What the hell had happened?

"What's going on?" she asked them both, who only looked at her in confusion. No one had the time to answer before Scott was hurled out of the locker room, followed closely by Jackson who grabbed him by the collar. Hadn't Jackson got a restraining order from him?

For a reason unknown to Astrid, Jackson was soaked and only in his sports shorts and looked pissed at Scott. Immediately, Stiles and Erica jumped on the two teenage boys to keep them apart and Astrid decided to help Stiles hold Scott back as she guessed a werewolf wouldn't have too much problem getting off a human's grip.

"What the hell's going on?" Astrid looked at the voice with wide eyes. It was none other than her favorite teacher, Mr. Harris. "Hey! Enough! Enough!" he added when the two boys didn't show signs of stopping struggling against the people holding them down. "What do you idiots think you're doing?"

The two concerned boys finally calmed down a little at the teacher's shouts but didn't stop giving each other death stares. "Jackson! Calm down! Mr. McCall, you wanna explain yourself? Stilinski?" All three of them remained silent and, in the corner of her eyes, Astrid saw Allison get out of the boys' locker room as well. What was she doing in there? Astrid thought in confusion. Then, she realized she might have been looking at the reason why the two boys were fighting.

"You dropped this." Astrid turned her head to find a boy who she believed was called Matt handing a tablet to Mr. Harris who appeared to be fuming. She had never talked to the boy but had seen him take pictures of people. A little creepy, if you'd ask her.

"You, and you-- actually, all of you-- detention. Three o'clock." Mr. Harris finally said, first pointing at Scott and Jackson and then to all the people there. Astrid rolled her eyes. Wonderful, that was just what she had needed...

————✩ ————

When the clock hit three o'clock, Astrid had no other choice but to head to the library where the detention was taking place. She didn't even know how she had managed to get herself into this mess. All she had done was keep Scott and Jackson from murdering each other and know she had to pay the price. She was starting to hate Mr. Harris more and more each day. She would have been better off ignoring Scott's business.

Of course, she hadn't been the only one who got detention, rightfully so, she thought, even if only two of the group had really deserved it and the rest of them were just collateral damage. Once all seven of them got to the library, Mr. Harris greeted them with a huge smile, as if torturing teenagers was his greatest hobby.

Astrid sat at an empty table and soon enough, she was joined by Erica, Stiles, and Scott. She mentally rolled her eyes as it was obvious why they had joined her. Even if Stiles and Scott were being more discreet about it, all of them longed to discover what she was. That wasn't going to happen anytime soon, though, she hesitated to tell them. Jackson was about to sit as well when, suddenly, he smiled largely and looked at Mr. Harris. "Oh, uh, we can't be in detention together. I have a restraining order against these tools."

Astrid stared at him, did he really think he was going to get out of detention like that? As if it wasn't his fault all of them were trapped here in the first place. "All of these tools?" Mr. Harris simply asked, unfazed by the fact that Jackson had a restraining order. It didn't particularly seem like it was common to have one against classmates...

Stiles sighed tiredly and pointed at himself and Scott. "No, just us tools..." Astrid thought she had to ask them how they even managed to get a restraining order.

"Fine. You two, over there." Mr. Harris instructed, pointing at the next table. Jackson opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something but held back, probably not wanting to attract Mr. Harris' fury again. Astrid silently chuckled. Jackson had really believed the restraining order would have gotten him out of detention. As if Mr. Harris had enough empathy for such a thing. It was Mr. Harris they were talking about, not some sort of carebear. Sometimes, Astrid wondered if he wasn't a demon in disguise.

Stiles and Scott finally had to move over to the next table, leaving Erica and Astrid alone. It was a little ironic, they were supposed to have a restraining order from Jackson but that didn't keep them from being trapped in the same room as him, only hours after Scott and Jackson had a fight, thus broking this so-called restraining order.

For a while, nothing happened, Erica was writing in a textbook while Allison, Jackson and Matt were silent at the other table as well, apparently studying or killing time. Stiles and Scott were chatting at the corner table, not really caring about the fact they were supposed to be in detention. Astrid, on the other hand, was trying to study. Her chosen subject had been history. Something she quite enjoyed and didn't have much trouble with. She hadn't wanted to inflict herself with something tedious. Being in detention was bad enough.

The fun thing about history was that she could project herself onto some of the periods mentioned or remember the people the history book described. Not always, of course, but it made the subject more enjoyable. After some time, she started to get bored and ended up staring at the wall, lost in thought. She thought about her family and Mystic Falls. She realized Kol hadn't replied to her text yet, which was odd. She was afraid Klaus had already decided to use his dagger on him.

She had a weird feeling about this but all she hoped was that her family was safe. The only idea of a cure existing still sent chills down her spine. If the cure was found, she didn't know what that could entail for her family.

Suddenly, Erica broke the silence, wary of waiting around. "I know Isaac already tried and didn't find anything about you but you're sure you don't want to tell us what you are? It would allow you to unburden yourself, I promise you'll feel lighter after that." She tried to convince Astrid. In response, Astrid sighed, it felt like people were never going to stop trying to discover what she was. She thought her cover had been blown at Scott's house when she had revealed her true face but they were seemingly not familiar with vampires as no one had recognized her.

Astrid only smiled sarcastically at Erica and shook her head no before looking back at her book. She heard Erica sigh and mumble "Well, I tried..." Then, after some time, after she could still feel Erica's gaze on her, Astrid turned her head to look at her. "I like your ring." She finally announced.

Hearing that, Astrid glanced at her daylight ring and fidgeted with it, making spinning around her finger. "Thanks," she simply answered. If only Erica knew the power of this ring. Some vampires would have killed to have such a ring.

"It seems old, where did you get it?" Erica pressed on.

"Family heirloom." Astrid sternly answered, not even looking at her. Erica was clearly snooping, hoping to find something of value about her, but Astrid was having none of that.

Astrid focused back on her work. The room was silent again, everyone going about their business. Then, out of the blue, Jackson stood up, snapping Astrid out of her trance. "I have to go to the bathroom," he announced while rubbing his temple, looking a little sickly. Was it another excuse to get out of detention or was he really feeling unwell? Astrid wondered.

Mr. Harris, on the contrary, seemed worried, "Are you all right? Hey, you don't look so good..." he asked Jackson, favoritism glowing off of him.

"I just need to get some water," Jackson answered. Funnily enough, if it had been anyone other than Jackson, Astrid doubted Mr. Harris would have been as concerned or nice.

"No one leaves their seats," he threatened, pointing at each and every student to prove he was serious. He stood up and followed Jackson in the hallways, to make sure he was alright and not going to bail on the detention. However, as soon as Harris had left the room, Scott and Stiles practically ran to the table where Erica and Astrid were sitting.

"Stiles says you know how Jackson's parents died." Scott immediately asked, not even bothering to be discreet. Astrid shouldn't even be surprised by their weird questions anymore but knowing about how someone's parents had died was a whole other level. She didn't even know Jackson was an orphan.

"Maybe," Erica answered teasingly, proud to know something they didn't.

"What the hell," Astrid muttered under her breath, but apparently not low enough that it went unheard as Scott and Stiles who were both previously concentrating solely on Erica snapped their head in her direction, nearly in unison.

Stiles gaped at her. He looked like a fish that had just been taken out of its tank. Astrid would have laughed if the previous conversation hadn't been so morbid. "You! How did you even know about all this? And when we were at Scott's... you did something with your face, how? Are you a were-something? he asked in a rant. Astrid sighed, she shouldn't have even opened her mouth. It seemed like she had become the new town's freak and the only thing about her that mattered anymore was what she was.

She wasn't planning on answering their questions any time soon. It wasn't like vampires and werewolves went particularly well together and if they knew what she had done in the past, Astrid wasn't sure any of the people in the room would be pleased to find out she was a blood-sucking killer.

"No, I'm not a were-something, Stiles. And, for your interest, you guys aren't exactly what you would call discreet. I mean, on my first day in school I heard you guys talk about Lydia getting bitten and Derek trying to get more betas. Maybe don't talk about that in class, surrounded by everyone else? Just a thought." Astrid told them, getting exasperated by their behavior.

"Don't waste your breath, boys, she doesn't want to tell us what she is," Erica intervened when she saw Stiles was about to respond with a hundred other questions.

"That's why you smelled weird..." Scott let out, and Astrid stared at him in disbelief. Was he serious? She was getting seriously annoyed and maybe a little offended, too. Seeing the look she gave him, Scott blushed and hastened to add, "Not in a bad way! I mean... you didn't smell like a human, but.. don't take it the wrong way." Erica chuckled, behind him, seeing how Scott was making a fool of himself.

"Well, at least we don't have to leave you out of all of this," Stiles shrugged before looking back at Erica. "So, Erica, what do you know about Jackson's parents?"

What made them think Astrid even wanted to be a part of this? She wasn't glad to be in on their little secret. Quite the contrary.

Erica sighed, having thought the sudden shift of conversation meant she was off the hook. She put her textbook down. "It was a car accident. My dad was the insurance investigator, and every time he sees Jackson drive by in his Porsche, he makes some comment about the huge settlement he'll be getting when he's eighteen." Wasn't Jackson rich already?

On cue, Stiles asked, "So, not only is Jackson rich now, but he's getting even richer at eighteen?" Erica nodded. "There's something so deeply wrong with that," he said with resentment.

"You know what? I could try to find the insurance report on my dad's inbox. He keeps everything," Erica proposed, suddenly opening her laptop. Impatient to know more, Scott and Stiles scooted together over Erica's shoulder to see the screen. Astrid was still listening, not having much better to do of her time, anyway.

Suddenly, the sizzling sound of the school's speaker echoed in the library. "Scott McCall, please report to the principal's office." Stiles looked at Scott as if wondering what he had done this time. This friend group really had a way of always getting in trouble. Scott seemed as confused as Stiles, though. He got up slowly and left the library, not without glancing at the table Allison was sitting at on his way out.

Then again, Stiles looked back at Erica's laptop, following what she was doing. Jackson suddenly came back but he seemed even worse than when he had left. That was odd. Maybe he was just sick.

"Whoa, look at the dates!" Stiles suddenly exclaimed while pointing at the laptop. Astrid glanced in their direction.

"Passengers arrived at the hospital DOA. The estimated time of death, 9:26 PM, June fourteenth, 1995." Erica read at loud. Stiles looked at her with wide eyes, suddenly realizing something.

"Jackson's birthday is June fifteenth," he finally said. Gosh, how morbid. Astrid thought, and she was a vampire so she knew what she was talking about. Stiles and Erica kept on reading the hospital report, trying to read between the lines and find any worthy information about Jackson but Astrid quickly became bored of their search and turned her attention back to her book. She began doodling on the pages of her textbook and unconsciously drew the small violet flower that had been sitting on her desk since Isaac's visit. Wolfsbane. Had she meant to do that?

When the sound of someone's books being closed and put back into a bag, Astrid's head snapped back up, relieved this nightmare was finally over. She was getting close to dying of boredom. Well, she was immortal but you get the gist. She and the others started getting up and putting their stuff away as well before Mr. Harris laughed nearly demonically.

"Oh, no, I'm sorry. Uh, yes, I'm leaving, but none of you are. You may go when you're done with the re-shelving." He put his hand on top of two carts full of library books. God, this man was truly evil. Looking around, Astrid realized everyone was fuming at what their teacher had just told them. Couldn't he have given them that task at the beginning of the detention so that they would have been over sooner? Apparently not, it wouldn't have been sadistic enough...

"Enjoy the rest of your evening." Mr. Harris told them smugly before leaving the library with a big smile. Astrid wanted to strangle him. If she could, she would have sped over him with her enhanced speed and snapped his neck quicker than he could say, manic chemistry teacher. Frustrated, she practically shoved her bag back on the table and headed over to the carts, quickly joined by everyone else.

In the beginning, everyone was sorting the books while fuming in silence. Or maybe it was just Astrid who wanted to murder the man. The stack was progressively getting smaller but it felt like they wouldn't be over before it got dark outside.

Soon enough, Scott came back from the principal's office, looking visibly disheveled from what he had been told. Astrid kept on sorting books. This was not her business. She had to stop being brought into all of their problems. Suddenly, she felt someone creep behind her and turned just in time to see Erica walking toward her, arms full of books.

With a sigh, she dramatically put them all on the nearest table before looking back at Astrid. "Alright, I got it, you're not going to tell us anything about yourself. But you should still consider Derek's proposition. He's not your enemy, on the contrary. And Jackson is a threat to all of us. You included." On that, she turned around and left Astrid alone, not even waiting for an answer.

Astrid scoffed. As if a kanima could do any harm to her. She wasn't stupid enough to consider Derek's pack as an enemy. Going after them wouldn't be wise if she wanted to avoid them... She was still intrigued by the fact Derek was even considering an alliance with her. Was he that desperate? Or maybe he just understood it was better to have her as a friend than an enemy.

A few rows over, Astrid heard hushes and turned her head to have a glimpse of Stiles, Allison, and Scott talking. Slowly, she put a strand of hair behind her ear to hear them more clearly. They were still talking about Jackson, apparently. "-falls in line with the Kanima myth, you know? It seeks out and kills murderers."

Since the infamous night at Scott's place, she could recall more distinctly how she had met a kanima once, ages ago. She could faintly remember her brother Klaus and Elijah having an encounter with another one when she had been staked, as well. The event seemed far away in her mind, something about a man going after his family's murderers as Stiles had mentioned, but it had gone further than that. She would have to ask Kol about it but, if she remembered correctly, the ending of it all had been quite gory.

Astrid put another book on a shelf, still deep in thought, when a loud noise echoed through the library. Astrid was quick enough to notice a huge figure jumping from one shelf to the other, making books and shelves fall as well as parts from the ceiling. A few electric cables fell from a piece of the ceiling in sparkles of electricity.

"Erica!" someone shouted. In seconds, the library turned into utter chaos and Jackson suddenly appeared in Astrid's field of view. He seemed to have only partly transformed, with scales appearing on one side of his face like a character from a comic she couldn't quite remember the name of.

Kanima-Jackson didn't seem to even notice Astrid and only went on his way and lunged at Scott who had also partly transformed and now had his claws and fangs out while his eyes had turned bright yellow. Astrid nearly jumped from the intensity with which the kanima hurled Scott against one of the carts. She thought he would jump back on him and hesitated on intervening but, instead, he turned toward one of the library's blackboards and grabbed a chalk.

However, Astrid didn't pay attention to what he was going to write because, behind her, she heard moans of pain and rushed to come to Erica's side. She was surprised to find that, in addition to laying on the ground, Erica was writhing in pain and violently shaking. Right away, Astrid recognized what was going on. Erica was having a seizure.

Without thinking, she knelt down beside her. The problem was that she wasn't a doctor, she didn't know what she was supposed to do when someone was having a seizure. A few centuries back, people would have thought you were being possessed by a demon.

"Guys! Come here!" she called out, for help. Hoping Scott, Stiles, or Allison would come to her aid. Stiles was the first to rush to her and, as soon as he saw Erica, he cradled her into his arms. "She's having a seizure!" he screamed, stating the obvious while Astrid bit her lip, trying to come up with a solution. "You know what to do with seizures?" She tried to ask him.

"No, I'm not epileptic," he answered. Astrid rolled her eyes. Of course, she knew he wasn't epileptic! But that didn't solve the problem at hand.

"He's alive," Astrid heard Allison say. She turned her head to find that Matt was lying on the floor too. She was ashamed to say she had completely forgotten about him. That hadn't really been her priority when she saw Erica convulsing.

"Hey, we need to get her to a hospital," Stiles interjected. Astrid wondered, how exactly were they supposed to explain to doctors that Erica was an ex-epileptic, turned werewolf?

"Derek..." Erica mumbled weakly in between shakes, "only to Derek..."

"When we get her to the hospital—" Scott started to say, before being cut off by Erica, speaking again, barely audible.

"To Derek... to Derek..." she managed to say, again. Astrid huffed, if these idiots would continue sitting around, like that, Erica might as well die on the way, wherever they would decide to go. She debated for a few seconds but still decided to bite into her wrist to make her bleed, before tilting Erica's head and making her drink the blood coming out her wrist, ignoring Scott and Stiles' distraught look.

"Drink this, Erica," she reassured her, "I don't know if that'll make you heal completely but at least it will buy us some time before we get you to Derek." Too weak to refuse, Erica started to drink the blood slowly.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Stiles exclaimed with bewilderment. His reaction wasn't too surprising, it wasn't every day you saw someone forcing someone else to drink their blood.

"I'm saving her life, dumbass! Now help me get her to Derek. I don't think we have much else to do." Astrid replied with frustration. When Erica seemed done, Astrid got up and scooped Erica up, her arms below the crook of her knees and below her back. Stiles' eyes only widened, seeing Astrid carry Erica with such ease. She looked so tiny, carrying Erica like that when Erica was probably taller than her.

Astrid gave Stiles and Scott a sign with her head, telling them to hurry along. She didn't even know where Derek lived. They quickly left the school, got into Stiles' jeep, and began driving.

Scott and Stiles were sitting up front while Astrid was in the back seat with Erica. She was grateful the roads didn't seem too crowded because, else, they probably would have had a car accident. Scott was giving Stiles directions and, every now and then, Stiles sent worried glances to the back seat.

Once they arrived at the old station, a place Astrid didn't recognize, Scott carried Erica out of the car and practically ran inside, followed by Astrid and Stiles. As soon as Derek saw them, he rushed to Erica's side and took her back in his arms. "Hold her up!" he instructed to no one in particular.

"Is she gonna die?" Stiles asked anxiously.

"She might," Derek only answered solemnly. How had they gone from a simple scratch from a kanima, only supposed to paralyze someone, to being inches away from death? Astrid wondered. "Which is why this is gonna hurt," he said before snapping her arm in two, with ease.

"You broke her arm!" Stiles exclaimed while Erica was howling in pain. As if they hadn't all seen that, too.

"It'll trigger the healing process. I still gotta get the venom out-- this is where it's really gonna hurt." Then, Derek proceeded to dig his claws dip into Erica's forearm and squeezed it, making her blood trickle to the floor. Fortunately, Astrid wasn't a new vampire and the sight of blood didn't immediately make her vamp out anymore. She still felt a tingle inside of her. The desire for blood was still strong.

Erica was, once again, screaming, or maybe more howling to death, while Derek finished the process of extracting the venom. Once he was finally over, Erica's screams died down and she fell into Stiles' arms in exhaustion. "Stiles... you make a good Batman..." she smiled weakly at him.

"You did the right thing, bringing her here right away. She would have died otherwise. I'm surprised she even survived the trip." Derek informed the three others. Stiles, who was still focused on Erica until then, looked at Astrid.

"It's because of you, isn't it?" Astrid frowned but he went on. "You... you gave her your blood. You said it would buy us time, didn't you?"

Astrid was thinking of what she could probably answer to that. Then, Derek grabbed her arm quickly. She managed to get away from his grip pretty quickly but not quickly enough to avoid him from seeing her healed wrist and the dried blood.

"You healed..." he said, more to himself than to anyone in the room. He lifted his head to look Astrid in the eyes. It was probably the first time he was even talking to her, she thought. Each time before, he had sent one of his minions instead. "You and I need to talk, I think," he told her slowly with a placid face.

Were his low, menacing voice and his icy stare supposed to impress her? She wanted to tell him his whole act didn't scare her one bit but refrained herself. "Why should I listen to you? Your whole pack did try to kill me not too long ago." She crossed her arms. His alpha side seemed to be rubbing off on his whole personality but he wasn't the boss of her. She was much more powerful than him, anyway.

"Because I think you'll want to hear what I have to say, Astrid Mikaelson."

As if in slow motion, Astrid's arms fell to her side and her eyes widened at him. How the hell did he know that? "Mikaelson? I thought your last name was Greene," Scott asked her, confused.

Astrid forced herself to close her mouth, which had opened in surprise upon hearing her last name. If looks could kill, Derek would have been buried 6 feet deep for a while, now. "Oh but that's what she wanted us to believe, right Astrid? But it was all an act."

Scott turned to Astrid, "You lied to us?" he asked, ironically looking like a hurt puppy. At first, Astrid remained silent, still glaring at Derek. She would have thought it would have taken longer for anyone to discover her secret origins. She had been wrong, oh so wrong.

"What makes you say that?" she asked, in hopes of salvaging her secret. She hadn't much faith in it but she had to try.

"Well, first of all, you're still listening so that says a lot. But the proof I have is too big for you to deny." Derek got up and left the wagon where Erica and Stiles still lay on the floor. She and Scott followed him with curiosity.

Derek walked up to a closed laptop, opened it, and typed in his password before turning it to Scott and Astrid. " 'The Mikaelson family consists of Mikael, the father, Finn, Elijah, Niklaus, Kol, Rebekah, and Astrid, in order of age. They are the first bloodline of vampires in History. They are more powerful than any vampires created ever since and are called the Originals. They were created by Mikael's wife, Esther, after the youngest sibling, Henrik, was killed in an accident.' Shall I continue? The story matches, doesn't it? Well, you changed a few names here and there, Kol became Colin, your 'friend' who came to visit you not so long ago, and Henrik became Henry. But the story is the same, right?"

Astrid glared at him. How had he found all of that? Even if the names she had chosen to hide her siblings' identities were similar, they wouldn't have been enough to discover anything. She knew they were probably websites mentioning the Originals but how had he found them with so little information? Most people who had heard of the Originals only knew of Elijah and Klaus, too. Not her. He seemed to have too little information, to begin with, to be able to uncover all of this.

As if he had heard her thoughts, Derek took something out of his pocket. "I have to admit, this helped quite a bit," he handed a yellowed paper to Astrid who grabbed it immediately. Was it what she thought it was? "How did you-" she began, after looking at an old family portrait, a few centuries old. Then, she realized where the picture came from. "It was Isaac, wasn't it? He took this.." she paused, pointing at the picture with anger, "from my room, right?"

Derek didn't answer but his silence only confirmed her doubts. The bastard. Isaac had, indeed, stolen something from her, after they had both opened up about their difficult past. She had grown to find Isaac not too bad after the visit, but had that all been a ploy to get to her?

"Wait, wait, wait... you're a vampire ?" Scott asked in disbelief after having heard the whole thing. He had to have needed time to process all of that as his question came minutes after Derek had revealed it.

"Not only," Derek answered with a sly smile, "she's one of the first to have ever existed."

Astrid stared at Derek and then at Scott. Derek appeared to be pretty proud of his discovery, still smiling in satisfaction at her. Scott, on the other hand, seemed too astonished to even speak, as if he could not believe what he had just heard.

As if to rub salt over the wound, Derek took a step closer to Astrid, who still had the old photograph in her hand. "That's Kol over there, right?" he asked rhetorically pointing at Kol on the picture, of course he knew it was Kol, he moved his finger by a few inches, "and I guess that's Rebekah here. While the other two are your brothers Elijah and Niklaus," he announced more than he asked her.

For only response, Astrid glared at Derek once more. Of course, he was right. This was her family for goodness sake. They were odd, twisted, and mentally unstable but she loved every single one of them. "I have to admit I never encountered any vampires in my existence, that I know of, at least," he added, "but I guess it's not so different from all the myths. A wooden stake through the heart, burnt by the sun... well, I'm not quite sure about this one actually, or maybe you found a way around it."

Astrid kept herself from glancing at her daylight ring, not wanting to draw any suspicion to it. Of course, sunlight wouldn't kill her but it would probably hurt like hell. She left Derek with the idea that he knew all about her, including how to kill her. She thought of the satisfaction she would get once he realized she wasn't an 'ordinary' vampire. He didn't know that if the stake hadn't been made of white oak, it wouldn't kill her, or a least only temporarily, and that the last one still existing (which would always exist, thanks to her dear mother) was under Klaus' heavy protection.

"Oh well," he continued, unfazed by her silence, "I know you won't respond to any question I have about vampires but just know that, once again, I'm not your enemy. On the contrary. But if you would want to become mine, just know that I know how to kill you."

Kill her? she kept herself from laughing in his face. How pretentious this petty werewolf was. He barely knew anything about vampires and suddenly he thought he was able to kill an original? Try again. Suddenly, Scott, who Astrid had briefly forgotten about, seemed to wake up, still processing all of this.

"Why lie? I mean, of course, you weren't going to tell everyone you were a... vampire... but why change your name? And the Greenes? I bet they're not your real parents..."

Astrid sighed, her own siblings had a little difficulty getting over this part of her plan too. It's not like she hadn't thought this through time and time again.

"Well, for all of our existence, the Mikaelsons have made quite a lot of enemies. I didn't want to risk it. All I wanted to was to live a quiet life. If people were to link me back to the Originals..." with that, she shot a glare at Derek, "I would have to say goodbye to this quiet life. And, apparently, I was right. Also, I'm supposed to be sixteen so it seemed better to fake living with my parents."

Of course, she took care not to mention how she had made those fake parents believe she was her real daughter. Or why her parents wouldn't have fit such a position even if they had been alive.

Unfortunately, this seemed to bother Scott. "But... my mom knows the Greenes... how did you convince them to fake being your parents? You arrived completely out of the blue as if everything was normal!" he asked. After a few seconds of silence, he added, "wait, if you're a vampire, then do you have to drink... blood?"

Astrid rolled her eyes. As if she was under any obligation to tell him everything. "I don't owe you anything, especially you," she said, pointing at Derek who just stood, looking right back at her, still with his smug smile. Oh, how she wanted to hit him. "Unless you guys want to snoop in my personal life again? I don't advise it, if I were you, you annoyed me enough, and, believe me, you really don't want to see me angry."

With that last threat, Astrid turned around, ready to leave the abandoned station and get home. But fate had apparently decided it wasn't done with her because, not even after walking three feet away from them, she saw Isaac walk toward her.

He frowned, surprised to see her there, "Astrid? What are you-"

"Oh, don't even start, or believe me, it'll hurt," she spat at Isaac before walking right past him. She wanted nothing to do with this traitor. Isaac stopped in his track and only stared at her in disbelief as she left.

————✩ ————

【 NOTES ! 】 

here it is! the pack finally knows that astrid is a vampire

bear in mind that, like in tvd, they don't necessarily know all the differences between regular vampires and an original yet

as always, i'd be glad to have your feedback! lots of love :)