BLOODBORN

Chapter 2

Nicks POV

There’s a reason I’m here in this new city… and that I shall accomplish

The city smelled different.

Not of ash and ruin…yet, but of something ripe. Breeding with secrets. Pulsing with heartbeats too loud, too fast, too easy. The kind of city that dressed itself in steel and glass and thought it was untouchable.

But I could hear it, beneath the noise.

The heartbeat of fear. Old blood in new veins. The whispers of monsters trying to blend in.

My enemies were here. Hiding behind mortal masks. Breathing borrowed time.

London had always had history. But West London? It had power. A polished, privileged kind of arrogance. Gated estates, expensive silence, and ancient bloodlines pretending they were extinct. The perfect hiding place for cowards. For traitors.

I walked its streets like I owned them, because I would. Soon.

The humans moved past me, oblivious. Of course they were. I looked like them, enough. Dressed in black, coat sharp, eyes colder than they could comprehend.

They saw a man.

They never saw the storm behind his smile.

They think they’ve buried me.

Forgotten who I am. What I am.

But cities burn.

Thrones fall.

And I didn’t come to knock. I came to reclaim.

West London was mine for the taking…. Let the games begin !

I had heard whispers from my spies I had set around the world, well they were more sires than spies, their allegiance was not a thing of freight or loyalty it was something much bigger much deep rooted, a sire line. It was BLOODBORN.

My spies in Manchester had heard news that the Benett witches had just arrived London and were headed for the west. West London.

The irony of it all , they were headed for my birthplace, the birthplace of my family. They think they can destroy me!

Well they mustn’t have heard of what the ones before them have suffered at my hands. For centuries and centuries past I have walked the earth as a ruler, my head held strong as I defeated every enemy that has come before them.

I am NICKLAUS MICHEALSON and I will destroy my enemies, every last one of them.

Well the Benett witches had already arrived, it was only a matter of time before the Donavans do same.

Never in my million years on the planet were vampires, wolves, witches despised each other have I ever heard of a union of the vampires and witches, even the wolves, atleast the unsired ones I hadn’t yet gotten my hands on.

What they didnt know was I am always one step ahead but not to worry they’ll all find out in due time what their father’s before them had suffered at my peril. It was only a matter of time…

I stood near the edge of the rooftop, licking crimson from my wrist. Fresh. Still warm. The girl hadn’t even screamed, just whimpered as I drained her behind the alley’s neon haze.

Elijah arrived before I could savor it.

Of course he did. Like clockwork. Always two steps behind me and five steps ahead of his next lecture.

“Nicklaus!! What on earth do you think you’re doing littering the city with bodies and blood?” my brother Elijah yelled out, like my senses weren’t heightened enough. Elijah was the kind of man people trusted too quickly and feared too late.

There was a nobility to him, a polished sort of grace that made him look more like a king than a killer. Always in suits, always calm. As if the blood on his hands had been wiped clean with centuries of good intentions.

But I knew better.

He wasn’t just my brother, he was my shadow. The eternal tether to everything I’d tried to sever: duty, guilt, mercy. Redemption.

He chased it like a fool, dragged it behind him like a rusted crown. And for reasons I still didn’t understand, he thought I deserved to wear it too.

Elijah had spent a millennium trying to save me from myself.

Even when I bared my fangs at him. Even when I slaughtered what he tried to build. He’d look at me like I was the broken one, the fallen prince worth fixing. He saw the boy I used to be. The brother I used to love.

And that’s what made him dangerous.

Because while I relished the dark, he’d kill for the light.

He’d tear out throats to protect the idea of family. He’d burn cities to keep us together—even if it meant lying to himself about what I’d become.

There was rage beneath his righteousness. Controlled, yes but only just. Elijah was a storm in still water. People underestimated him because he spoke softly. Because he always played the peacekeeper.

But I’ve seen him angry.

And I’ve seen what’s left after he’s done.

He’s not my enemy. But he’s not my savior either.

He’s just the last man still holding on

to a version of me that died centuries ago…

“You said we’d be discreet.”His voice was quiet, but it carried like thunder before the storm.

I turned slowly, blood still wet on my fingertips. “She was unforgettable.”

“She’s dead,” he snapped. “Like the last four. You’re not being careful, Nick.”

“Careful?” I laughed, low and dangerous. “Our enemies are threading themselves through this city like roaches and you want caution?”

“Yes.” He stepped closer, jaw tight. “Because drawing attention to ourselves before we know where they’re hiding is reckless. Because there are rules to surviving, rules you used to understand.”

“Don’t preach to me about survival, brother.” The almost lifeless body still on my lap. “You survive by making them afraid to sleep. You send a message.”

Elijah looked down at the girl, then at me, eyes heavy with that same damn disappointment that had followed me through centuries.

“This wasn’t the plan,” he said, voice low. “We had a strategy, strike from the shadows. Cripple them before they ever see our faces. And now there’s a body count, and you’re painting the streets red like it’s Paris all over again.” He’s strong British accent creeping through every word . He was angered

I stepped closer, smile gone now. “They after us, after Our blood. After ME!!. And you want me to sit and wait while they plot?”

“I want you to think, Nick,” Elijah said, fierce now, his control cracking at the edges. “Because family comes first and I’m here to protect our family and destroy our enemies just as much as you and frankly even more so, but I won’t watch you destroy yourself just to feel powerful again.”

There it was.

The truth buried beneath the argument. He didn’t care about the girl. Or even the bodies. He cared about me.

As he always did.

“I’m not the one who needs saving,” I said, voice low and lethal. “I never asked for it.”

“No,” he murmured, stepping back. “But you’ve needed it for a very long time.”

Silence stretched between us. Two immortals on a rooftop, centuries of blood and betrayal burning in our eyes.

He turned, coat billowing behind him. “Clean it up. We move at dawn.”

I fed her my blood and she gasped back into life “ well there you have it big brother she isn’t dead afterall, I think I kinda like this one, I’ll hold on to her just a little longer “ I grinned knowing my every word annoyed him.

And just like that, he vanished into the dark.

But the thing about Elijah?

He always came back.

And I always gave him a reason to.