Josie had driven a short distance until they had reached the school. Before getting out of the car she turned around and faced the children. She smiled, then whispered, "We're heading straight to the headmaster's office. After we have a chat with him and a couple of teachers, you'll be given a tour of the school."
The siblings nodded, grabbed their bags and followed Josie into the school. The halls were mostly empty, as they figured because it was a school day. But the few students sitting, in what Charity assumed was the lounge, were laughing, talking, or doing work. Lucas' eyes traveled everywhere as they made their way to the headmasters office. The school was very well organized and decorated inside. They stopped at a door and Josie knocked. From the other side, a muffled voice could be heard, inviting them.
The three entered and a rather old man stood up from his desk. He walked over to the two children and smiled. "My name is Alaric Saltzman, the students here call me Dr. Saltzman. I see you've met my daughter, Josie." Dr. Saltzman turned and smiled at Josie, before turning back to the children. "Charity and Lucas Mikaelson?"
Lucas quickly smiled at the man and stuck his hand out. The two shook hands and Dr. Saltzman smiled. Charity just gave a weak smile, not moving her hands from her side, where they played with the hem of her shirt.
Dr. Saltzman continued speaking, "Please, take a seat." He took a brief pause as he pointed to two chairs in front of his desk. Once they sat down, he began to talk again as he made his way around his desk and sat in his chair.
"I am the headmaster here at the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young and Gifted. My daughter, Josie, is the school's counselor. She also teaches one or two classes. Some of the other teachers will make their way into this office shortly after this class period is over." Dr. Saltzman paused as he looked at his watch. "Which should be in 10 minutes."
Charity took a deep breath as she tried to gather her nerves. "Why are we here? Mom never told us about this place? So why are we being enrolled here?" Lucas looked at her, his expression softening, he knew she was just as confused and uncomfortable as he was, he just had a better way of acting like it didn't bother him.
The two adults in the room glanced at each other, not knowing where to start. They were unsure if they should wait for the others to arrive, or to start explaining so they didn't have to explain it all later. Dr. Saltzman looked at Josie and she nodded. Silently telling him he should start to explain. He sighed as he looked at the children. They're expressions not phasing to anything other than confusion.
"It was the emergency plan that your mother created. If something happened, if anyone were to ever find you-"
Charity cut off Dr. Saltzman "Why are we being hunted?"
Dr. Saltzman looked back at Josie. "Because of the power you have."
Both children looked at each other. Then Charity looked back at Dr. Saltzman. "Power? What do you mean by power?"
He opened his mouth to speak but before he could, the office door opened. Three more adults walked in, one woman, and two men. The woman was tall, had light skin, light blonde hair, and blue eyes like the headmaster. One of the men was slightly taller than the woman, dark skin, short dark brown, buzz cut hair, and dark brown eyes. The other man was shorter than the first, had the same dark skin tone as the other man, had brown, bushy hair, and brown eyes. Once they entered they closed the door and went to stand by Josie.
Dr. Saltzman spoke after about a minute of silence. "uh, em," He cleared his throat, actually managing to get words out after. "You two met Josie. This is Lizzie, her twin sister," Dr. Satlzman gestured to the blonde woman. "Rafael Waithe," He then motioned to the taller man. "And Milton Greasley."
The shorter man groaned, "Dr. S."
"Right, sorry, MG." The two children glanced at the adults. Charity began to fidget with her fingers even more, as adults made her nervous. "These four, were your mother's closest friends." These words grabbed Charity's attention as she stopped fidgeting and looked at Dr. Saltzman. Dr. Saltzman looked away and at the four adults. "Can you guys explain what you are, and what makes this place special?"
What they are? What does he mean by that? Charity and Lucas had the same questions running through their minds.
"Josie and I are witches." Lizzie, the blonde woman started.
"A special kind. We're siphoners." Josie continued.
"Meaning we do have magic of our own."
"We have to siphon it from other sources." Lucas found It interesting that the two sisters were switching between who explained.
"I'm a werewolf." The taller man, Rafael spoke.
"I'm a vampire." The bushy haired man, MG, said with a smile.
"And you two are all three." Dr. Saltzman stated as he looked at the two children. "Your mother, Hope Mikaelson, was the daughter of the original vampire-werewolf hybrid, Niklaus Mikaelson, your grandfather, and a werewolf alpha, Haley Marshall, your grandmother. Klaus Mikaelson was the son of the original witch. All those things passed down to your mother, making her a hybrid of three creatures. A tribrid. The only one of her kind. And those three things passed down to the two of you." Dr. Saltzman looked Charity and Lucas in the eye.
His eyes showed complete honesty and truth. He wasn't lying and Lucas knew it. Charity didn't want to believe him, but she couldn't bring herself not to. Somehow, she knew he was telling the truth. Everything that happened the day before, she knew this was the only explanation.
"So we're what? Tribrids? Like our mother?" Charity's tone was a bit more snarky than she meant it to be, which caused her to get nervous.
Josie looked from the two siblings and then to her father. She could see he was at a loss of words, so she took over. "Not quite," The two siblings turned their gaze to her. "Your father, Landon Kirby, was a phoenix. But we're not sure if you two inherited his phoenix side. We won't know for sure until you- until the two of you-" Josie stuttered, Lucas could tell she was nervous about what she was going to say next.
Charity thought for a moment. Kirby? Our father's last name is Kenner, not Kirby?
"You die. We won't know if the two of you are part phoenix, until you die." Rafael spoke.
"And hopefully, the both of you will live long happy lives before that happens." MG added.
"But, the fact that you are both potentially part phoenix is why we believe people went after Charity when she was a baby." Lizzie said calmly.
"If you two are part phoenix, you'd be hybrids of four creatures, or quadbrids, as I like to say. And you'd be the only ones of your kind." Dr. Saltzman finished.
"Having power unlike any other." Josie added.
"But Charity's power is different from Lucas'. It's more powerful, more dangerous." Lizzie pointed out.
Lucas furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. If we are the same species, why would she be more powerful? More dangerous?
As if Charity were reading his mind, she questioned what Lizzie said. "Why?"
The four adults turned their gaze to Dr. Saltzman. In that moment both children realized that only he could give them the answer they were searching for. He opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it a second later. After a moment of silence and thinking, he was finally able to give them an answer. "It's a very long story, but to sum it up, its because you are a first born Mikaelson." Dr. Saltzman directed the sentence to Charity. "Every first born of the Mikaelson bloodline inherits great power. But the power is unstable and it will damage and, ultimately, kill the witch if they are not taught to control it."
Lucas looked at Charity as this scared him. Charity continued to stare at Dr. Saltzman, with her mouth slightly ajar.
Dr. Saltzman continued with his explanation. "Both of your magic is tainted by the vampire blood that your body produces, which you inherited from your mother, who inherited it from your grandfather. The aggressive werewolf temperament also taints both of your magic. And because her magic is tainted by the dark magic of vampire blood and the aggressive werewolf temperament, it will make it more difficult to contain her unstable magic, but not impossible."
Josie felt bad for the girl as she could see she was nervous about this new information, and she so dearly wanted to comfort the girl, so she tried to think of the best thing to say. "That's why I will be working with you, Charity. Privately of course, to help you contain your magic so you'll have better control." I don't think that was as comforting as I had hoped it to be.
"And I will be working with you, Lucas. To help you achieve the skill of magic that most students of your age and grade possess." Lizzie spoke directly to Lucas.
The room was silent. Charity still had many questions and took this silence as the chance for the questions to be answered. "If we were part werewolf and part vampire, why don't we turn under every full moon, or drink blood?"
"Those questions have rather simple answers. Rafael, MG, would you two like to give Charity the answers she searches for?" Dr. Saltzman asked the two men.
Rafael cleared his throat. "You haven't turned under every full moon because you haven't triggered the werewolf curse. Everyone who is a werewolf carries, what we call, the werewolf gene. The gene stays dormant until the carrier takes a life. The immediate sign of the carrier activating his or her werewolf gene is their eyes will glow a golden yellow moments after the gene is activated. This only lasts for a few seconds, but are then followed by outbursts of anger and aggression." Rafael then turned his attention to Dr. Saltzman and began speaking directly towards him. "That's all I got Dr. Saltzman, but I think you should tell them about the crescent pack."
Dr. Saltzman took a deep breath. "Right, of course." Dr. Saltzman began to speak directly to the children, but he looked at everyone in the room. "The crescent pack is a pack of werewolves that live in New Orleans, to be exact, the French Quarter. Because of a unification ritual between your grandmother and step-grandfather, the crescent pack can control when they turn. Meaning they don't have to turn if they don't want to, except on their first full moon. All werewolves are forced to turn on their first full moon after activating their werewolf curse. Because of Hope, you and your brother were born into the crescent pack. You are also descendants of the Labonair bloodline. And because of that, you both should have a crescent birthmark on your right shoulder, just like your mother. In a way, it also makes you two werewolf royalty."
There was a pause of silence. During that silence Charity rubbed her right shoulder. Mom always told Lucas and I to keep our birthmark covered whenever we were in public. But she never gave us a reason why. Suddenly Dr. Saltzman cleared his throat as he looked at MG.
"Right, I suppose it's my turn to explain." MG was rubbing his hands together as he talked. "You don't have to drink blood because you are still technically human. You won't ever need to drink blood unless you become a full vampire. But because vampire blood runs through your veins, you can both heal yourself and others. Your blood can also create new vampires, meaning when you die, you both have the possibility of becoming vampires."
"It's only a possibility, because if you are both part phoenix, we are unsure if it will prevent you from turning into a vampire after you've experienced death. And like your mother and grandfather, your blood can sire new hybrids, uh vampire-werewolf hybrids, and it can heal a vampire from a werewolf bite." Dr. Saltzman added.
"So, you said the carrier's eyes glow a golden yellow after they take a life? So even if the kill was accidental, the carrier will have activated its curse?" Charity asked, looking at Rafael.
"Charity, is there something we should know?"
It was Josie who asked the question. Charity glanced at the adults. Lucas stared at the floor. He kicked her foot causing her to look at him. He shook his head telling her not to say anything. His thoughts were screaming for her to shut up. They'll think I'm a murderer. They'll hate me.
Charity took Lucas' hand and squeezed it gently. "It'll be okay." She whispered this so quietly so only he could hear.
She turned to face the five adults. "There was a fight. One thing led to another, and Lucas killed my ex boyfriend. But it wasn't on purpose, it was a complete accident. He was only defending himself. If he didn't kill Liam, Liam would have killed him. He didn't do it on purpose, I promise. He would never kill anyone on purpose."
"Charity, it's okay. We believe it was an accident." Dr. Saltzman said with a sincere expression.
Lucas let out a breath he wasn't aware he was holding. They don't think I'm a killer. They don't hate me.
Dr. Saltzman cleared his throat. "We should discuss the classes you two will take." He began flipping through the children's files. "Charity, you will continue taking Trigonometry and Algebra Two Honors, AP Chemistry, AP World II, and Honors English. Lucas, you will continue taking Geometry Honors, AP Biology, AP World I, and Honors English. I see you are both very bright students." Dr. Saltzman smiled at both children and they smiled in return. He then continued speaking, "Both of you will take Intro to Magical History, Chemistry of Magic and Spell lab. Charity, you will have two free periods a day, Lucas, you will only have one, because you will also take Intro to Lycanthropy."
"I have one final question. You said our father's name was Lucas Kirby. But mom always told us our father's name was Lucas Kenner. That's why all our school files said Kenner. Because she registered us under our father's last name at school." Charity's voice grew shaky at the thought that her mother lied to her about her father's name her entire life. She wouldn't do that. Mom wouldn't lie about that.
Dr. Saltzman sighed heavily. "Kenner is not your father's last name. Kenner was your mother's late step-father's last name, your step-grandfather's last name. I think she told you it was your father's last name so you wouldn't ask questions when your school files said a random last name. You have to trust that she only lied to you two to protect you. I would think that keeping all these secrets, killed her inside as much as it killed the two of you today, after finding out she's been keeping them from you all these years. But please, do not be mad at her because of it."
Charity and Lucas both nodded their heads in understanding. But Charity couldn't help but feel betrayed. How could she have kept all these secrets from us our whole lives. Did she not trust us? Charity slightly shook her head, shaking the thought from her head. No, of course she trusts us. She just didn't trust the world. She didn't trust that this part of who we are was the safest life for us. She loves us. She just wanted us to have the best life she could give us. Not a life where we were constantly being hunted.
Then there was a ring. And another. And another. The office telephone was ringing. It was not a modern looking office telephone, it appeared to be an older style of a phone. Not one that was plugged into the wall, but the ones that rested on a stand, on the desk. Lizzie walked across the room to answer the call.
"Hello? This Elizabeth Saltzman-Russell speaking."
After a few moments of intense silence, Lizzie looked at the two children. Then she turned her gaze to her friends, and lastly her father. Her mouth opened and closed as she struggled to find the right words. Finally she managed to get two, very simple, words out.
"It's Hope."