lost boys like me are free

Valerie shrugged after hearing his first comment. Honestly she had no problem in being about her eating habits, especially since she didn’t really use the eat, snatch, erase method as much as she used to. Once Kai mentioned the picture she returned being the only one he had of his sister an involuntary scoff sound left her mouth. “You could’ve easily found any other picture and yet, you chose that one,” she shook her head. “I don’t know, I ask myself the same question about you.”

Valerie wasn’t really looking for anything in particular, or at least that’s what she now believed. She was certain she’d been looking for something but once she felt the other’s presence her focus went to them. The heretic turned around to face them, her brows rising up a little, “Can I help you?”

“So, if I were to drop this object now would you be able to catch it?” her brows rose as she kept the book floating in the air. She freely moved her attention between the book and the other person. It was easy to split her focus losing control of the spell due to how often she’d done the spell. “I was thinking of teaching this as a spell to some of my students.”

Oh great, she thought to herself as she wiped the rest of the blood from her face. Despite the school’s rules of animal blood she chose to feed on human blood but with her own supply instead. However, when she felt the presence of the other approach her she’d been glad to have finished her meal. “You know, if you’re hoping to get that picture back, I already returned it to its rightful owner.” 

She nodded as the other remembered who she was, thankful for the remembrance. “You and Nora, I found the aftermath,” she sighed. The image saddened her now, but certainly left with anger when she’d first seen it all those years ago. “But I was able to live and get away. I’ve only just recently returned back to Mystic Falls.”

Valerie chose to be cautious towards the other man, but for the time being chose to believe him. He seemed oddly familiar, but she couldn’t place it. “So you only just found them like this and not what happened?” she had to be sure. She was still being a little cautious. 

Valerie knew enough about him and his actions that she could never truly support him. His nieces deserved to be able to live even if there is a possibility they could have to merge. The heretic returned her attention to the original vampire before she sighed. “Kai is dangerous and I believe he could be a threat to anyone here. But simple threats won’t work against him.”

Valerie was tempted to open up about her own struggles, but she chose to set them aside. After all she didn’t enjoy talking about them and she only wanted to talk about the other and the coven in general. Her kids were lucky and even with her small issues towards Caroline, she knew the other blonde could be kind and good with children. “She definitely cares for them, but,” she paused, sighing. “I’m sure they’d still love to have you around, however long that may be.”

Valerie had heard little snippets about the girl, but mostly after the time she siphoned the hex from her aunt Rebekah. Plus her family was already infamous that she only wanted to know more about her. The books could say enough, as could any files, but face to face interaction was more meaningful. “I’d like to think of it as a friendly run in as I have no quarrel with you,” she shrugged. “I’m going to be a teacher here and I know you’re a student here,” she shook hands with the girl. 

As soon as she heard that voice she sped over to where it was coming from. At first she hadn’t been sure that she’d find her old friend and sister. Yet once her eyes fell upon the familiar blonde an feeling of ease swept over her. “Mary Louise, you’re back too,” she told the blonde as she approached her. 

At first Valerie had been upset at what the other two heretics had done. Their actions to destroy the phoenix stone had made her briefly lose Stefan. She eventually was able to get his soul back to his body even if the spell had been taxing on her. Then as the years went by she grew past her grudges and accepted what had happened. Once Nora asked if she was sure that it wasn’t Rayna Cruz, the heretic nodded. However, once she began to ask about the twins from Caroline she sighed. “Yes, they were both born as siphoners. They’re both lucky to not have the kind of families we had,” she shrugged. “As for me, uh, I traveled around the world a lot. I wrote in journals and learned about more magic. But I returned here because I got a job.”

Valerie realized that she’d be coming on strong to the other woman, but she couldn’t just dial back anything anymore. She knew who the woman was and what had sadly happened to her. It was something that resonated within her because of what had been done against her too. “I, uh, I know what happened to you and to your kids. I’m sorry.”

"I know, I’ve had a couple run-ins with him,” she sighed, the last one she was particularly not proud of. Him and her only shared the same species and hardly much of anything else apart from that. Of course with other people returning she knew anyone could come back since she’d found her former sister Nora and even Stefan. “Perhaps some of those Parkers deserve a second chance, at least from what I remember reading about that family,” she sighed once more. “But what Kai did still remains and if a lot of former Gemini coven members are returning it doesn’t mean they can restart anything.” Valerie still remembered the images from that wedding video and what he’d done after they left the prison world. “I think you just need to work with Alaric on protecting them, but also warning them. They deserve to live their lives however they please.”

Valerie had gone out to run some errands, mostly feeding since she wasn’t going to put herself on the school’s animal blood diet. However, as she was wondering about her ears picked up on a commotion in the distance. The heretic sped over to where she believed the sounds came from and soon found the sight of the body on the ground. Not long after spotting the body did she find the one she believed responsible. “That’s enough!” she threatened as faced the other.

“I suppose so. Although I did find happiness here once before, perhaps I’m destined to find it again,” she allowed a grin to briefly appear. After about five or six seconds passed by it disappeared into a serious expression. Once he mentioned her deserving happiness though she shrugged. As much as she wanted to find it she wasn’t always sure she was deserving of it. “You’ve returned, Stefan. I think you deserve it more than I do,” she spoke sincerely. 

As soon as the other person stopped her and asked that question an immediate sigh escaped past her lips. Of course she knew who he was and now Kai knew quite a bit about her as well. “Unfortunately I do,” she nodded. After recent events she was even more ashamed to know who the other heretic was. “Have you met him yet?”

“If I hadn’t done what I did in the prison world I wouldn’t have survived. And without you being there and even meeting Lily you might’ve never found out what becoming part vampire means,” she shrugged. Valerie had pretty much taken out most of her anger in ways that today she’d disapprove of. However, she wouldn’t take any of it back because she had to learn from those mistakes. The time she spent in the prison world and the time out of it helped her reflect on why her murderous ways were wrong. “You see, Kai Parker. It felt good to enact revenge on the gemini coven, sure. But what you did to your sister and failed to do to her children was horrendous,” she felt the anger bubbling back up. “I don’t feel bad that you got sent to another prison world after what you did. You want to know why, right?” her brows rose, even though it wasn’t really a question. “Because I know what it feels like to have that done to me and I may not have died from it, but it was the most horrible experience of my life.”