Alaric Saltzman

When hunting it was rare that supernaturals would use your own weapons against you, if it was done it was usually as a taunt just to prove that they could unarm you and then use your own gun or cross bow against you. A power trip if Ric ever saw one and he had seen it a time or two. Being hunted by other hunters because he was willing to stand in the way of his students being in danger wasn’t much different to him so when the gun pointed at him went off he full expected that pain to hit but when opening his eyes he found Heather on the ground in front of him. “Jesus, what are you thinking?” Scooping up the woman, “We have to get you out of here.”

Ric shakes his head at the other, “What? Come on, I’m not twenty anymore. I can’t-” He laughs with a small scoff, “I have to be up in crack of dawn for the kids, catching up is more of a after school kind of thing between the hours of like 7pm and 10 and that’s if the girls don’t need something.”

Having a knock at the door so late at night, Alaric had to assume that it was only an emergency. He didn’t have time to check his cell before he rolled himself out of bed rubbing his eyes as he made his way to the door, “Yeah, yeah, one second.” He grabs a hand gun from the drawer of the side table near the door holding it down low and out of sight while unlocking the door opening it slightly. Frowning he tilts his head, “Heather? God, I’m surprised to see you here. Its ah- well its late is everything okay?”

After the sparring session Ric was getting most of the sweat from himself with a towel when the other’s hand touched a scar on his abdomen, “Ah yeah surgery from an accident at one of the college events, car accident had some debris hit me.” He explained, the scar wasn’t as bad as some of the others but this was an important one. It was the first scar he got after becoming human once more after being an enhanced original, something he never thought he could get himself out of.

"I get it, this is boring and you'd like to be doing a billion other things right now but trust me. This is the best thing for you right now, with the schools blood bags depleted it will do you some good to get a hunt in." The boarding school allowed no consumption of human blood for a number of reasons the greatest being it was just safer for everyone. It also gave their students with the rare ripper effects less issue, everyone was to remain on some form of animal blood diet that was usually locally and humanely sourced. "I wanted to go over the events of the attack with you, touch base, if there was any struggles for you and how you handled them if there were any."

"Its the risk that I am willing to take, I have to be sure the girls are safe as well as any of our students." Ric answers gently knowing full well this wasn't going to be the last time they go over this. He was human and therefore seen as the most in danger at the school but he was a man who had been hunting longer than Caroline had been a vampire and than the girls had been alive. "But no matter what our agreement still stands." He warns her, under no circumstances was Ric to be brought back as a vampire.

It all started with birth, ignorant bliss, grief leading to reckless behavior before getting my life together and ends with more grief and holding on best I can for my family.

The words coming from the headmasters lips were meant to be reassuring that much Jasper was sure off but even still the current influx of monsters that came bursting through the Boarding School doors pulled his attention away from the male, a deep breath hitching in the back of his throat. “Yeah I don’t think we’ve got a little more time, Saltzman,” he retorted preparing himself for a fight. “Opening that armory sounds like a real good move right about now. I can handle ‘em off but I don’t know how long for.”

-

“Anytime is better than no time.” Alaric answers moving down the hall to open the armory and pulling out a few guns to put in his belt and the crossbow that he had been so comfortable with for so long. “Just keep these things pinned here, all students take any townsfolk to the gym and I expect the advance witches to put up a boundary spell. Remember to work together as one coven, no stopping on the way.” Loading the crossbow Ric points it to the main halls front doors just as they burst open.

“Some spell” Tyler groaned, running his thumb across his dampened brow, “is this the reassuring part where you tell me things like this happen all the time here?” he questioned hopefully, as his brow piqued. He could already anticipate the response that was coming, but even so he chose to remain optimistic. As Alaric began to question Tyler’s words, he gave a stern nod, motioning to his head as he murmured, “snakes, man. As in – medusa… although I can’t say I’ve seen anybody turned to stone, but I guess everyone knows the story.” As he readjusted his stance, getting used to the feel of the weapon in his hands, the wolf gave a soft chuckle, accompanied by a shake of his head, “crossbows and stakes? yes - shotguns, rarely. Guess he didn’t trust me with em’” he teased. With a nod of agreement, Tyler responded to Ric’s plan of taking everyone to the gym and spelling it to protect them. “Anyone I see in the halls, I’ll send them that way.”

-

Alaric could only shrug and give a nod of his head, it wasn’t something he enjoyed but they both knew how troublesome magic could be if in the wrong hands and sometimes the power of magic had the ability to change people. Even Bonnie struggled with the power she got from expression and being warned not to push her abilities. “Have you see anyone look at it?” He asks Tyler stopping in his tracks unable to hold off the fact he was curious about the creature, “It looking directly at them too?” He wondered if the creature had the ability to turn people and wasn’t doing so for a reason or if the myths had gotten something wrong. “Its getting to be disparate times, trusting any of you with weapons.” Alaric jokes but in all honesty he rather them guns in their hands than he would have left the twins alone with either of them. “We shouldn’t go too far from one another, You take the east end of the main hall, I’ll take the west and we meet up in the middle again.”

While Freya didn’t appreciate his tone, she did understand his point.  Her life had been one conflict after another, from her captivity with Dahlia to finding her family and everything that happened afterward, and there was no doubt it colored her perception in a thousand little ways.  She might have countered that after her experience in New Orleans she had a hard time believing there was such a thing as a relatively normal life for someone like the kids of the school, but that was another thing that might have been chalked up to her point of view.  “Fair enough,” she conceded as they looked through the weapons.  “I’m sure she’s very effective at what she does.”  There was no sarcasm in her words, even if she wondered.  “That’s our assumption at the moment; she vanished from her bedroom, and nothing else was gone.  Not her phone, not anything.”  Freya had no idea what might have been capable of taking her niece, but she intended to find out.

“A gorgon and a harpy,” she repeated, shaking her head in disbelief.  “If the legends of the gorgon are true we’d better start using a mirror to check our corners.  Don’t want to risk anyone turning to stone.”

-

Hope being gone presented a great many of issues, Alaric had grown close to the girl over the years, he invested a lot of time, energy and affection in the girl to ensure that she had a better upbringing than the family drama might have provided. He tried to include her in as much as he possibly could and the idea that she vanished had him worried. She was an innocent girl who despite him believing she made a great many mistakes in the last few months she didn’t deserve any sort of harm to come her way. 

“No, really don’t want to be making those kinds of calls home.” Alaric already had parents up in arms, with the loose of magic many wanted to pull their former vampire children from the school, many glad at the idea of having their children back. Now that magic was back there were a mixture of disappoints and relief. “I wish we had more time to dive into research, I don’t like the idea of dealing with things blindly.”

Jo willingly followed as Alaric lead her down the hall and into the armory, nodding with each of his statements. “I mean, my training is probably more than a little rusty. But it’s better than nothing at this point.” She stood in the doorway of the armory as he opened the door, shocked at just about many weapons there were. Though she had to know that an ex-hunter would know his way around more than a few weapons. Jo looked down at the gun he handed her and took a breath before taking it and moving over to the ammunition to grab a few rounds and shoving them in her pockets before grabbing a few more and handing them to him. “We’re going to get through this.” she commented softly, noticing his tone difference. Once  the ammunition was out of her hand, she moved to place at against his cheek, thumb caressing softly against his skin. “You, me, all of the kids. We’re going to get through this.”

-

Alaric could understand that to an extent it had been awhile since she was in the service but he knew full well that knowing how to shoot was like riding a bike you muscles just remembered how to do it. “You’ll be fine, we’re not looking for marksmanship.” Hopefully any kind of fire power would be able to hold back any of these creatures. They were unprepared for this kind of thing and there was nothing that could have prepared them for these things that weren’t supposed to be real, which the more he thought of it the more silly it sounded. Werewolves, witches and vampires weren’t meant to be any bit more real. Grabbing a few more weapons and a sticking them into his pockets or handing them off to Jo to hand off to a few of the other adults in the school who didn’t have supernatural means of protecting themselves or others. “I wanted a place that the girls could grow up safe, looks like that was a far reach.” He offers a small smile that didn’t really reach his eyes, “Come on, we need to get back to the main hall and round everyone up.” Just as the left the armory and the door slides closed with a lock there was a chirping sound waiting a few doors down in the hall. With a small human like creature standing there with large black eyes and a small bird in its hands, Alaric would have thought it a child in green Halloween makeup it hadn’t been for the fact her eyes told a different story, they were full of knowing and the breaking point was when she brought the bird to her mouth and took a bite, taking the head clean off. 

“Perhaps not,” Freya nodded agreement.  “But when they leave this school they’ll be walking into a world that doesn’t understand them, with other supernatural beings who are more than willing to do them harm.  I’m not saying you teach them death spells, but some basic offensive magic isn’t likely to kill anyone.  I’m sure the wolves already do a number on each other.”  She could teach it herself, if she really wanted to.  Alaric’s question pulled her gaze to him and she frowned.  “You don’t know…no, of course you don’t know.  Hope is missing.  She disappeared from the house not long before these attacks started and no one’s seen her since.  Which is one more mark in the “this was a plot” column.”  Freya sighed.  “Have you seen anything you recognized?  Any creature that’s come up in your classes?”

-

“It might seem like a strange concept but not everyone who is supernatural lives dangerous lives. A lot of these kids will go home to their supernatural parents, join the ranks of their coven or pack. Many will go out into the world knowing how to control themselves and live relatively normal lives.” Not everyone was a Mikaelson with enemies around each corner, not everyone was friends with doppelgangers who needed protection or living among a city of supernatural with near war breaking out. “Control comes first, anything after that is extra credit and many have enough issues with the control aspect.” He didn’t the point in piling on more when students had enough issues with standard school work and keeping a lid on their anger and other emotions that led to magic going haywire. “Some fist fights between wolves is one thing, its why we have a school pack alpha to keep them in line, vampires attacking wolf students in human form or witches using any kind of magic against fellow classmates...it opens another can of worms. Its why we have Emma do sessions with any and all students who get into an altercation.” Not that it always did wonders but they couldn’t allow students to harm one another, they still had an obligation to keep their students safe and the parents happy.  “Missing? What do you mean missing? Someone took her?” Alaric couldn’t see Hope willingly leaving after going through the trouble of bringing back her parents. He tried to focus his thoughts and tally what he had seen with what he knew from books. “At first glance I think I saw some Gorgon and a Harpy but I would have to double check before I say that with certainty.”

Matthias had to say being in a school full of people he didn’t know but being in a position where they needed to fight gave him a thrill. He listened to the male who appeared to be in charge as he spoke while others looked worried and anxious. As the male mentioned theprotection spells, his ear perked up. Now magic had returned he was back as a heretic and had access to power which could be of use. Moving forward once the male seemed to have stopped his announcement, Matthias gave a small smile to him. “Um, Hello…if there is something I can do please don’t hesitiate to ask… I have access to magic… and vampire strength..” he explained to the male. He knew that at this moment it was all hands on deck and he would not be happy to see any kids hurt.

-

Heretics left a bad taste in Alaric’s mouth after the whole thing with Lily and he had assumed all had died around the same time. In fact the only heretics that Ric could see himself welcoming into the school with any hint of a smile was Nora and Val, they had been at the forefront of making sure that his twins came into the world safely and lord knows they had no reason to aide the last two Gemini witches after the coven imprisoned them. “You can stay out of the way of Salvatore staff putting up wards, hold off anything trying to get in but I wouldn’t get too comfortable. Once this is over you’re headed out those doors too.” He informs the other male side stepping around him, “If you’ll excuse me, I have a school of scared students to tend to.”

Tyler wasn’t going to turn down the chance to acquire a weapon and so he was quick to follow on as directed. He moved swiftly and quietly as Ric led him towards the Armoury and was sure to keep watch whilst the other permitted them entrance. “No, they shouldn’t” he agreed as he attempted to comprehend the bizarre sights he had seen. “Which, leads me to my next question of how the hell do they exist? – There’s a chick running around with snakes for hair, dude.” The irony was, whilst they were obviously accepting of the supernatural world, mythical creatures, felt a little far too fetched even for Tyler to accept. With ease, he grabbed the shotgun, preparing to load it up with shells. “Guess these bullshit hunting parties my dad used to host for his asshole friends are finally gonna be paying off.” He gave an assured nod, narrowing his gaze back towards the doorway as he questioned, “we gotta find somewhere that we can we start taking people? somewhere secure.”

-

Alaric could only shake his head, “I don’t know, it could be some kind of spell gone wrong for all we know. The period where magic was gone could have been the start of this. I can’t say for sure though.” It bugged him to no end that he didn’t have answers and when he had the time to sit down and comb over thousands of books trying to find it, he certainly would. “I just hope they die the same old fashioned ways or else we better be quick on our feet in figuring out how to stop them. Wait- snakes? Like old Greek myth?” Sirens were from old stories as well and if they were around, rare as they were and hidden by the armory Ric had to assume that perhaps there were more things they didn’t understand out there. “What hanging out on the road with Jeremy didn’t prep you?” He asks with a soft smile, in a way he wished his pseudo son was around but Jeremy was better off where ever he was now, the kid deserved a bit of a break. “The gym might be the best place, its large enough to keep everyone safely and the witches can put a boarder spell around it, the school’s pack is likely there anyway and bringing people in.”

Freya wasn’t sure anyone had a game plan for the scale of threat they seemed to be facing, but she wasn’t going to argue that with Alaric in front of other people - for now she needed to go along with him, and make sure that everyone had faith in their headmaster to get them out of the situation alive and unharmed.  “Hope has mentioned that,” she nodded, “and said a few times that she thought it was a mistake.  But yes, of course, I’m here to help however you need me.”  It was hardly the time to debate school policy.  Following him toward the armory, she did him the courtesy of averting her eyes as he entered the combination to the armory.  “Which makes this either unfortunate timing or very well planned timing, and I have no idea which.”

-

Alaric could only offer a scoff in response to Hope disagreeing, “We’re not here to teach these kids violence, if anything we’re here to teach them ways to avoid it. The very last thing anyone needs is there to be rumors of a school making a child army.” It wasn’t what the boarding school was ever supposed to be, it was meant to be a safe haven for children like his own. A place they didn’t need to hide who or what they were but that would be in a perfect world. “Can you imagine hormonal teenagers with the knowledge to harm one another on purpose?” He had seen enough fighting in normal schools without the use to super speed, strength or magic. “Yeah well I’m not one to think there’s plots out there to get me but this is a little too on the nose even for me. We’re at an even greater disadvantage not knowing what they are, where they are from or if we even have the means to take them down.” He pauses grabbing his crossbow, “Where is Hope, I expect her to be the one following me around asking plans.”

Jo couldn’t help but curse herself for staying a little later than normal; sure, she was taking care of a child, but had she left when she normally did, she wouldn’t be face to face with monsters that she had only known of in storybooks. “What can I do to help?” she asked, knowing that she may be of very little help without her magic in a school filled with supernatural beings; but she wasn’t about to stand idly by and let everyone else fight this battle. “Is there somewhere that I can take the little ones to shelter or…? What do you need from me?”

-

Alaric hated the fact that his students were in danger, but more importantly that anything that his daughters, Jo and Caroline were as well, they were his family and they were people he was willing to lay his life on the line to protect no matter what. He wanted to be able to take them out of this situation but he knew that he needed the help, “The daycare wing is the most secure, we had trouble with a disgruntled parent who lost custody of the kids years ago. Emma will bring most of the younger kids and whatever humans ended up here there and seal them in.” He explains as he grabs Jo’s arm gently leading her with him down the hall way, “You have combat training.” She might have been a medic in the army but she still had to go through the same training as everyone else, “I know you know how to handle a gun.” He had firsthand experience with her pointing one at him. “And right now we need all the abled people who can have one, holding one.” Opening the door to the armory, there was a number of weapons lining the walls, some old swords, axes, with other historic weapons and magical objects too dangerous to be out in the library. Coming to a wall of guns, crossbows and the like he picks up a hand gun offering it out to her. “You stay with me.” It came out more so like a plea than an order.

Having been caught out by one the creatures, it had taken everything within him to fight it off, before he had managed to escape into the room where Ric was attempting to deliver his speech. He was grateful for the familiar face and appearing rather dishevelled, Tyler hurried towards Ric and placed a hand on his shoulder. “All due respect Ric, I’d suggest doing it sooner rather than later. How the hell did these things get inside?”

-

Ric was surprised given the mess that Tyler looked and it made a shiver run up his spine, he could only hope his girls were safe. They were capable and smart but no father could go without worry. “Come on, you’re gonna need a weapon too.” He waved the wolf to follow as moved quickly through the hall and unlocked the entrance to the armory. “The magic wards we placed around the school were gone when magic was, as you might expect we were frazzled and taken off guard. These creatures, have you noticed anything about them? They shouldn’t exist.” Some of the creatures vaguely reminded Alaric of old Myths and lore that he had come across in many kinds of literature. Alaric opens the large door to the armory and grabs a gun tucking it in his belt and tosses Tyler a shot gun. “I don’t know what will kill these things or stop them but shot gun should at least slow some down so the witches can get to work. These kids need protecting.”