1760

The roar of the fire engulfed the darkened room, it was their source of light and heat as the sun had disappeared beneath the earth and the moon glistened dimly in replacement.

Elijah sat in isolation, his hand clapped together and rested on his knees as he just stared down at them. He thought and that seemed to be loud enough for himself. The Mikaelson's were in mourning for one of their fellow vampires had fallen at the hands of a mysterious force.

Elijah thought back to the first body of his vampires that he found; it was a week ago, in the woods. Her name was Florence, she was a young vampire with fresh eyes, her skin matched that of snow and her smile could light up a room, she was too innocent to be a vampire; maybe that was why she was the first to fall. Elijah didn't know her well, but he did have a soft spot for her, her death was not welcomed.

He stumbled upon her body in the bayou, far from the city, far from any civilisation. Her fair skin had turned a sickly white colour, as if she was a porcelain doll. But that wasn't the reason the thought of these mysterious deaths bring shivers down their spines, it was what he found on her neck.

It was a bite mark, hidden behind the flowing blonde hair that she usually tied up in a neat bun. But it wasn't a usual vampire bite mark, he knew it was possible for vampires to feed from each other, but these weren't any vampire

Marks. Vampire marks are unique, usually they would leave puncture wounds; two or four dots on the area they chose.

No, these weren't vampire markings. Florence had multiple wounds on her neck that formed a curved line, like someone had just bit into her. A human, for example. But whoever this was obviously had a taste for it, they wanted more and they took it. This man or woman had the hunger of a vampire; but they weren't.

"Have you seen this one?" Rebekah emerged in the doorway, fiddling with her fingers nervously. "I'm convinced that there isn't just one, but I feel that there are many now"

"For our sake, sister" Elijah spoke softly, his voice almost disappearing under the crackling of the wooden fire in the middle of the wall, he turned his head slightly so he was only able to see the blurred vision of the blonde haired vampire in the corner of his eye "I hope there is just one"

"But we need to prepare for the worst; for all we know, there are millions of these little creatures out there, sucking the life out of vampires" Rebekah drew a picture in her mind of an over exaggerated hunch back creature with grey skin and wide eyes "they pose a threat to us, they pose a threat to those who protect us from father"

Elijah stood from his chair, he turned and fully faced Rebekah; who was leaning against the glossed door frame. "Then we'll issue a curfew for all vampires, they need to be under shelter before the sun sets" he demanded "under no circumstances do any vampire venture into the bayou alone and no vampire should travel further than the last cottage"

"I'll alert the rest, call a meeting to make sure everyone knows" Rebekah agreed "I'll urge that whoever disobeys the rules will not return to feel our wrath"

"And make sure you tell them if they know any information, if they have seen anything out of the ordinary, they need to report it to us, without hesitation" he carried on, nodding his head to Rebekah's words "anyone caught on the verge of breaking these rules will be punished"

"I'll get right on that, first thing tomorrow" Rebekah agreed

"As for Niklaus" Elijah carried on, finding the best way he could get around all of this fuss, it had turned from an annoying niggle just in the corner of the town to a huge parasite that was eating away at his people "he'll converse with the wolves, form some sort of an agreement, and I will visit the witches tomorrow"

"The witches might know more about this than they would care to admit" Rebekah replied "or they at least have more knowledge on what type of creature this is"

"I intend to find out any shred of information that could be linked to this" Elijah mentioned "hopefully the witches will look past our differences this once"

"they won't help unless something was in it for them; they hate us, they hate our kind and it wouldn't surprise me if they have had something to do with it" she said, making that her last statement on the subject before she adjourned to her chambers for the night "let's just hope that no other vampires are stupid enough to follow in the footsteps of the others tonight"

"One can hope, dear sister"