Aiken quietly slipped into History class.
Fortunately, Mr. Tanner was too busy talking to notice.
He glanced around the room before spotting the only free seat.
Last row.
Perfect.
He sat down.
A moment later, someone turned around in the desk in front of him.
The guy was tall and athletic, with blond hair and striking ocean-blue eyes.
"Hey, dude," he said with a friendly smile. "Haven't seen you around. Are you new?"
"Yeah."
The answer came out cold and short.
Aiken... didn't exactly have the best interactions with people.
The blond guy seemed a little caught off guard but quickly recovered.
"Well, I'm Matt. Matt Donovan."
He extended a hand.
Aiken stared at it for a moment.
"Sorry."
Matt blinked.
"I don't like being touched."
"Oh."
Matt awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.
"Sorry then."
"I am Aiken. Aiken Hill."
"Well then, welcome to Mystic Falls."
Matt smiled despite the somewhat uncomfortable introduction.
"It's a beautiful town. I'm sure you'll come to love it."
Aiken gave a small nod.
Matt eventually turned around and the lesson began.
For the next hour, Aiken listened in silence.
Unlike most students, he wasn't taking notes.
He didn't need to.
Every word that left Mr. Tanner's mouth was immediately committed to memory.
The Founding Families of Mystic Falls.
The Civil War.
The town's early history.
Names.
Dates.
Events.
Everything.
Time passed quickly.
Soon enough, the bell rang.
Students immediately began gathering their belongings.
Aiken stood and prepared to head toward his Math class.
Then he noticed someone.
A guy.
Tall.
Dark-haired.
Sharp jawline.
Green eyes.
And... a strange energy surrounding him.
Aiken froze.
Cold.
Ancient.
Wrong.
An aura he had encountered before.
Enough times to recognize it instantly.
Death.
The supernatural stain left behind by something that should not exist.
A vampire.
Aiken narrowed his eyes.
A vampire? Here?
For a moment, he genuinely couldn't believe it.
What the hell is a vampire doing in a high school?
His gaze remained fixed on the stranger.
Mystic Falls is getting more and more interesting.
Still, assumptions were dangerous.
He needed confirmation.
Casually walking past the boy, Aiken slipped a hand into a hidden pocket inside his jacket.
His fingers closed around a tiny glass vial.
Vervain powder.
A precaution Alan had drilled into him years ago.
He loosened the cap.
Immediately, the reaction came.
The dark-haired boy stiffened.
His eyes widened ever so slightly.
His posture weakened.
Only for a moment.
But Aiken saw it.
Got you.
The vial disappeared back into his pocket.
The boy slowly recovered.
Aiken immediately approached him.
Concern appeared on his face.
"Are you alright?"
The stranger looked at him.
"Y-Yeah."
His voice sounded weaker than before.
Aiken tilted his head.
"Sorry, are you perhaps allergic to vervain?"
The boy's eyes widened.
"Vervain?"
"Ah."
Aiken gave an apologetic smile.
"You probably don't know what that is then."
The boy remained silent.
"It's a flower my father found somewhere in the mountains."
Aiken shrugged.
"He makes me wear a stupid necklace infused with it because he believes it keeps away bad spirits."
The stranger's gaze immediately shifted toward his neck.
Aiken continued smiling.
"He has Native American ancestry, you know."
Every word was a lie.
Well.
Almost.
Aiken had basically told him the truth, just... masked.
Alan had taught him something important.
The best lies always contained pieces of the truth.
Especially when dealing with vampires.
According to everything Aiken knew, vampires could often pick up signs of deception through heartbeat changes and body language.
Mixing truth with lies made both much harder to detect.
As if remembering something, Aiken pulled the necklace from beneath his shirt.
The vampire visibly recoiled.
Not much.
But enough.
While speaking, Aiken had discreetly dusted the pendant with a tiny amount of vervain powder.
The effect was immediate.
The boy weakened again.
Only slightly.
Yet it was enough.
Definitely a vampire.
"Ah, sorry. It seems you really are allergic."
Aiken immediately tucked the necklace back beneath his shirt.
The stranger's strength slowly returned.
Even so, suspicion remained in his eyes.
Then he suddenly looked directly into Aiken's gaze.
His expression changed.
Aiken immediately understood.
Compulsion.
Interesting.
The vampire wasn't convinced.
"Tell me something."
His voice became strangely compelling.
Aiken internally rolled his eyes.
Really?
"Was everything you just told me the truth?"
Aiken allowed his eyes to unfocus.
His posture relaxed.
As if he'd fallen into a trance.
"Yes..."
He spoke slowly.
"It's all true."
The vampire studied him for several seconds.
Finally, he nodded.
"I see."
A pause.
Then he stepped aside.
"You can leave now."
Aiken obediently turned and walked toward the door.
Only once he was outside the classroom did the blank look disappear from his face.
A faint smile appeared.
Compulsion didn't work on him.
He'd simply played along.
Now, as far as the vampire was concerned, everything had been explained.
If Aiken had just poured down his vervain powder sneakily, the vampire wouldn't have known it was him, but it would made him suspect everyone that was on that room.
As he headed toward Math class, Aiken shoved his hands into his pockets.
His smile widened slightly.
His first day in Mystic Falls had just become far more interesting.
...
Aiken returned home shortly after sunset.
The moment he stepped through the front door, he headed straight for his laptop.
His backpack landed on the couch.
His jacket followed.
Within seconds, dozens of tabs were open on the screen.
Mystic Falls.
Founding Families.
Civil War records.
Property registries.
Old newspaper archives.
Anything remotely connected to the town.
Mr. Tanner's lesson had given him information.
But information wasn't knowledge.
There were always details people left out.
Details hidden between the lines.
His fingers danced across the keyboard as article after article disappeared into his memory.
Eventually, a familiar name appeared.
Salvatore.
Aiken's eyes narrowed.
"Salvatore..."
His mind immediately drifted back to school.
The vampire.
Stefan Salvatore.
By the end of the day, Aiken had quietly accessed the school's student records and learned his name.
Now the same surname was appearing throughout Mystic Falls' history.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
He continued digging.
The Salvatore family appeared repeatedly.
Land ownership.
Founding events.
Historical records.
Then, suddenly...
Nothing.
A dead end.
Aiken leaned back in his chair.
"That's strange."
The family appeared important enough to leave a mark on the town.
Yet large portions of information seemed missing.
Or perhaps deliberately hidden.
Hours passed.
Aiken barely noticed.
His fingers tapped against the desk.
"Vampires have been a myth in this town for generations..."
The thought lingered.
"Did Alan come here because of that?"
Silence answered him.
His gaze drifted toward the photograph sitting beside his laptop.
"Does Stefan Salvatore have something to do with your disappearance?"
Another question.
No answer.
Too many possibilities.
Too little evidence.
Aiken closed his laptop.
"Too many things at once."
He stood.
There was only one thing he did when he needed to think.
He worked.
Crossing the room, he entered what had once been a storage room.
Now it looked more like a workshop.
Tools covered the walls.
Sheets of paper filled with calculations were pinned everywhere.
Complex diagrams occupied an entire corkboard.
At the center stood a large workbench.
Aiken approached it.
His eyes settled on a wooden pendant resting atop a folded cloth.
The necklace.
The same necklace he had shown Stefan earlier.
A faint smile appeared.
A hobby he had recently taken an interest in.
Creating enchanted objects.
Slowly, he picked up the pendant.
The wood was dark and polished smooth.
Thin symbols had been carved into its surface with microscopic precision.
To an ordinary person, it looked completely normal.
To Aiken, it represented nearly a month of work.
Because Aiken wasn't a normal witch.
He was a siphoner.
A witch without its own magic.
Everything he used had to come from somewhere else.
Every day for the past month, he had siphoned tiny traces of magic from plants, herbs, and naturally magical materials.
Tiny amounts.
Almost insignificant individually.
Together, however...
They added up.
Little by little.
Day after day.
Piece by piece.
Until eventually, he had created this.
A magical battery.
A storage vessel.
A reservoir of power that belonged entirely to him.
And tonight, after a month of work...
The necklace was finally going to be complete.
To be continued...
***
***
How was this chapter? Liked it?
Am I doing a good job in rewriting it so far?