Forever Original | Alaric Saltzman

Chapter 52

It seemed that the world had waited until the day after Christmas to make everything go to shit.

The day had been going decently alright— Hilda had felt significantly happier and she'd fed from Alaric less than usual, which likely meant her cravings were getting under control. She had made a point to only rest, meaning she hadn't moved from the couch more than a few times.

But in the evening when they'd both received some very disturbing phone calls.

Alaric's phone had rang first. He had answered, and his face had quickly gone pale. "What?" he said quietly, making Hilda sit up and listen in.

"They stabbed them with that stupid Phoenix Stone Sword!" sobbed Caroline in distress. "J-Julian got Damon and w-when Stefan and I were trying to contact Valerie and Bonnie— Nora stabbed Stefan! They're both trapped in there and we don't know what to do and I know that you don't want Hilda anywhere near Mystic Falls but d-do you think you could ask her i-if she knows anything... if there's a spell B-Bonnie can try..."

Hilda held her belly as she sped over, taking the phone. "I'll write a spell," she told her, setting the phone onto her shoulder to go look for a piece of paper. "I don't know how accurate it will be, but I think it might work. It's going to take a lot of power, though, I think Bonnie might need to channel something. It might take several attempts to get close— she won't be familiar with this sort of magic. I'd offer for her to channel me but I don't know what adverse effects that might have on the babies."

"T-Thank you," sniffled Caroline.

Hilda had gotten to writing the spell as soon as she handed the phone back to Alaric, who tried to calm Caroline down, since it seemed neither Valerie nor Bonnie was available. She scribbled and crossed lines, biting her lip hard and concentrating as she hunched over the table, doing her best to make it as accurate as possible.

"Absolutely not, Caroline," she heard Alaric say, which made her perk up.

"She's an Original!" said Caroline. "None of us stand a chance against Julian because he's so much older, but if Valerie and Bonnie were to do a spell to protect the twins—"

"It's too risky. Hilda's not in any condition to fight, even if she's stronger than Julian."

"Alright... fine. I just hope the spell works."

"Done," said Hilda just after Alaric ended the call, leaving a worried Caroline to try to contact Valerie and Bonnie once again. "Here— send her a picture of this. If it's really not working, I might need to try and refine it. Damn it... I wish Kol were here... he knows more about the Phoenix Stone... he had an affair with a girl who knew a lot about it, and that Rayna Cruz bit—" she stopped and gripped the counter tightly, nearly collapsing when she stepped out of the chair.

"Woah—" Alaric dove forward and caught her before she crumpled to the ground, holding her head. "Hilda— are you okay? Maybe you need more blood—"

"Just felt lightheaded," she said quietly, scrunching up her face as he set her back in the chair. "Really random..."

"Are you sure you don't need to feed more?" he said, offering her his wrist.

She shook her head, pushing his hand away. "No. I just—" she coughed, and covered her mouth before speeding to the bathroom, falling in front of the toilet and beginning to vomit again.

Alaric ran over immediately, tugging the strands of her hair back as she gripped the bowl tightly, gagging and spitting, her eyes watery. She seemed to have thrown up some blood, from what she'd eaten earlier.

"What do you feel?" he asked, offering her some toilet paper to wipe her mouth. "Is it just nausea, or is something wrong?"

"Nausea... I think," she murmured, sinking back and leaning against the wall, her face pale and sweaty as she reached a shaky hand over to flush the toilet. She closed her eyes and felt over her belly. "I can hear their heartbeats... they're fine. I think I just got too excited and it was too overwhelming of a jump after being so inactive today."