Chapter 2: First Blood After Forever
The moon was setting when I finally moved from the beach house steps.
I'd spent hours processing. Free. Alive. And completely lost in a world that had abandoned me a thousand years ago.
The memories were settling now. Less chaotic. More organized.
Memory Set One: The entity. The deal. Dying at nineteen and being offered reincarnation with one wish. Asking to be an Original before the Originals. Then nothing until—
Memory Set Two: Being born as Roy Stark. Normal childhood in Viking-age settlements. No knowledge of my previous life. Living, growing, surviving. Then at eighteen, the golden light falling from the sky. The bottle. Drinking liquid starlight and becoming... something. Powerful. Immortal. Not understanding what it meant until Esther found me.
The bottle had been the wish fulfilled. The entity had granted my request—made me an Original vampire before the Originals existed. But without my transmigrator memories, I'd just been confused. Scared. Easy prey for someone like Esther.
She'd figured it out. Somehow realized I was something unprecedented. And she'd used me.
Five years of torture. Draining my blood. Using it to create the spell that would turn her children into vampires. Klaus. Elijah. Rebekah. Kol. Finn. All of them made from my stolen power.
Then the dagger. The ocean. The millennium of consciousness.
And my memories had only returned when the silver pierced my heart. As if dying a second time—or experiencing something close to death—had shaken loose what should have been there from the start.
"Power without wisdom is burden," the entity had said. "Immortality without purpose is curse."
It had been right. I'd gotten exactly what I'd asked for. And look where it had led me.
I stood, testing my legs. Still weak. Still recovering. But functional enough to move.
The beach house had resources. I'd found $200 in cash. Car keys. Clothes. And that strange glowing device that spoke when touched.
I needed to understand this world. A thousand years of history I'd missed. Technology I didn't recognize. A completely changed civilization.
But first: blood. Real blood. Human blood.
Animal blood was keeping me alive, but I needed more to truly recover. To build my strength back to what it had been before the imprisonment.
The car in the driveway started when I turned the key. Muscle memory from... somewhere. Maybe my first life? Or had Roy Stark known how to drive carts and translated that instinct?
Didn't matter. The car worked. I pulled onto a dirt road and drove.
The first town was small. Rural. A diner, a gas station, a handful of houses.
I parked behind the diner and waited. Watched people move through their normal lives. Completely unaware that monsters were real.
The cook stepped out for a smoke break. I approached carefully.
"Excuse me—"
He looked at me. I caught his eyes.
Compulsion rolled out instinctively. The power I'd had since drinking the golden bottle, refined during Esther's experiments, dormant for a millennium but still there.
"You won't remember seeing me. But first—what year is it?"
His eyes glazed. "2011. October."
"What's the nearest city?"
"Bangor. Two hours northeast."
"Thank you."
I released him. He blinked, confused, then went back inside.
It still works. The compulsion works.
That changed everything. If I could compel people, I could get what I needed. Money. Information. Blood, carefully taken.
I drove toward Bangor.
The city was bigger. Real buildings. Crowds. Anonymity.
I found a thrift store and compelled my way into clothes that fit. Found a library with public computers and spent hours learning.
The internet was... overwhelming. Information at my fingertips about everything. History. Technology. Current events.
I learned the world had changed in ways I could barely comprehend. Machines that flew. Devices that let you talk to anyone anywhere. Medicine that cured diseases that used to kill millions.
And magic... magic was hidden. A secret. Most humans didn't even believe it existed.
Good. Easier to hide.
I searched for information about vampires. Found mostly fiction. Stories. Myths. Nothing concrete about the Originals or what had happened to them.
But I knew they existed. Could feel them through the bloodline connection when I focused. Dozens of vampires scattered across the world. And a few presences that burned brighter than the others.
The Originals. Esther's children. Still alive. Still powerful.
Klaus. That name surfaced from the bloodline connection. The hybrid who'd broken his curse and inadvertently freed me. I could feel him strongest—vampire and werewolf combined, closer to what I was than any of his siblings.
Where was he? The connection didn't give me location, just... presence. Awareness that he existed.
I'd find him. Eventually. Once I was strong enough.
Because if Klaus existed, then Esther might still be out there too. And Mikael.
My torturers. The ones who'd stolen my blood and sealed me away for a millennium.
They'd answer for that. Soon.
I found a cheap hotel that took cash. Compelled the clerk to forget my face. Locked the door and finally let myself rest.
Tomorrow I'd continue building strength. Learning this new world. Preparing.
But tonight, I just needed to accept that I'd survived.
The entity had given me what I'd asked for—immortality, power, the strength of an Original before the Originals.
Esther had stolen it. Perverted it. Used me as a battery to create her family.
And now I was free. Weak, but recovering. Lost, but learning.
The revenge would come. I'd make sure of it.
But first, I needed to become what I was always meant to be.
Not a victim. Not a power source.
An Original. The first Original.
And when I found Esther and Mikael, they'd learn exactly what they'd created.
Power without wisdom is burden, the entity had warned.
I was about to prove I'd learned wisdom the hard way.
Through a thousand years of suffering that would fuel the revenge they'd earned.