Mystic Falls, Virginia, is surrounded by dense forests and mountains. With its long history and beautiful scenery, the small town has kept a steady population of about ten thousand, and tourists pour in year after year.
Several cars on the highway were headed there.
Hawk and Gwen were in one of them.
Sitting in the passenger seat of the car Hawk had rented after landing early, Gwen was brimming with excitement, rattling off attractions in Mystic Falls to the man at the wheel.
Like the town's clock tower.
Like the mysterious waterfall that gave Mystic Falls its name.
And the cemetery said to hold countless vampires, along with the Founders' Museum that preserves the town's history and showcases many tools that, according to local lore, were used to fight vampires.
Hawk drove along, following the navigation prompts and smiling as he listened to his fiancée spin through the town's legends.
There were stories of vampires, werewolves, hunters, and witches.
Gwen said whatever popped into her head.
Hawk simply smiled and listened.
After a while of monologuing to a man who didn't interject even once, Gwen blinked. "Hawk, I'm telling you, there really are vampires in town. The Forbes family were once famous vampire hunters."
Hawk glanced at her mysterious, proud expression and nodded with a smile.
"Very cool."
"…"
Gwen rolled her eyes at Hawk's doting face that might as well have said Whatever you say is right. "Hawk, I'm being serious."
Hawk shrugged. "I didn't say you were lying. Besides, you literally know a witch. And not just any witch—the Salem kind. And as for sorcerers, you know the strongest one on Earth."
Carrie—the Hell-witch who once showed up at his place asking for help. He'd taken her in, brought her home, and asked Gwen to help clean up the girl, who had been drenched head to toe in pig's blood.
And the Ancient One—the undisputed most powerful sorcerer on Earth.
Gwen heard that and, as if something occurred to her, looked over. "Hawk, who's stronger, a vampire or Carrie?"
Hawk thought for a moment.
"It depends."
"For example?"
"Neither is stronger than me."
He shot Gwen a sideways look and smiled again.
It was the simple truth.
Whether it was vampires, werewolves, Grimm-style hunters, or witches—none of it counted for much in Hawk's eyes these days.
Put it this way:
He didn't even need his Phoenix Beam. A single ocular blast, with the force of hundreds of supersonic punches, would do it. How many so-called supernaturals could survive that?
Gwen had expected Hawk to give a serious breakdown; the answer made the corner of her mouth twitch.
"I meant between vampires and witches."
"All right."
Hawk chuckled and, seeing they still had about half an hour to go, glanced over again. "Then what do you think?"
Kicking off her sneakers and folding her legs up on the seat, Gwen shrugged.
"I'd say witches. Carrie is pretty scary. Didn't she tear up an entire town street when she awakened?"
"True."
Hawk nodded. "Carrie's a powerful witch—and a Salem witch at that. Even an original vampire wouldn't fare well against a witch who's lived long enough."
Like sorcerers, witches scale with age.
The older they are, the stronger their magic.
Of course—
The Scarlet Witch is an exception.
Come to think of it…
He'd gone to Sokovia this time, and Strucker had already fled. Hopefully he hadn't messed with the timeline and erased the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
The thought made Hawk curious.
Gwen, meanwhile, latched onto a keyword in what he'd said.
"Original vampire?"
"The progenitor of a vampire bloodline—the source of a given clan."
"Dracula!"
Gwen's first thought went to the most famous vampire count of all.
Hawk smiled.
"He's one of them."
"One… of them?"
Gwen's eyes widened. "There are multiple vampire progenitors?"
Hawk laughed. "Witches have different kinds too—Hell witches, Salem witches, dream witches, wicked witches. Vampires also come in distinct bloodlines."
Gwen blinked and turned in her seat to face him.
"Tell me?"
"Sure."
Hawk picked up his phone from the holder, glanced at the remaining route, then closed the navigation and tossed the phone to Gwen. "Email. Natasha sent it—see for yourself."
He had zero qualms about letting his fiancée use his phone.
He barely used it anyway; if Gwen didn't remind him, he often forgot to bring it. That's why Sharon and Tony had both defaulted to calling Gwen when they needed Hawk—calling his number was a coin toss at best.
Gwen opened the mail app and checked the timestamp on Natasha's message.
"This morning?"
"Yup."
Hawk smiled. "You said Mystic Falls has vampires. Just in case, I figured I should brush up."
Gwen laughed and shook her head. "I was joking. Mystic Falls doesn't actually have vampires."
Hawk glanced over and smiled. "Never hurts to be prepared."
Yeah, right.
This was Mystic Falls.
Say there might not be demons, and he'd maybe pinch his nose and accept it.
But no vampires? To be blunt, on a good night, if you dropped a brick from the clock tower, you'd hit a vampire seven times out of ten.
Sure enough—
Twenty-five minutes later—
As Hawk took the last forest road into Mystic Falls and the town's bridge came into view, his brows lifted. He shot a sidelong glance at Gwen, who—having just finished S.H.I.E.L.D.'s dossier on supernatural vampire groups—had rolled down the window to breathe some mountain air and rest her eyes.
More precisely, his gaze slid through the car door and into the dense trees off the roadside.
He didn't slow, though; he drove on toward town.
Feeling that look, Gwen met Hawk's eyes, then peered out into the treeline herself.
She didn't see anything.
But—
She was sure Hawk had.
"What did you see?"
"If I said 'vampires,' would you believe me?"
Hawk chuckled.
Gwen arched a brow. "Dracula line, Cain line, or Blood-God line?"
Those were the three major vampire groups S.H.I.E.L.D. classified on Earth.
Dracula, Cain, and the Blood God were the cited progenitors of those lines. Though the bloodlines differed in some traits, the supernatural world lumped them under the broad category of vampires.
That's what Gwen had gathered from Natasha's file.
After reading it, she had only one feeling:
It was a miracle she'd survived this long. The file said there were vampires in New York—quite a lot of them. Only S.H.I.E.L.D.'s operations center being in New York kept a permanent deterrent in place.
Jesus.
She was a lifelong New Yorker and had never known there were so many vampires in her city.
So when Hawk mentioned seeing vampires, Gwen instinctively thought of those three archetypal bloodlines.
But—
Hawk shook his head.
"None of those."
"What?"
"The vampires here…"
Hawk thought back to the file. "S.H.I.E.L.D. tags them as the Mikaelson line."
Gwen's mind jumped to the entry on the progenitors of the Mikaelson vampires. "Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah, the three siblings?"
Unlike the Dracula, Cain, and Blood-God entries—which carried a mythic air—
The Mikaelsons weren't couched in myth.
According to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s notes, the Mikaelson progenitors could be traced to the family led by Niklaus Mikaelson, Elijah Mikaelson, and Rebekah Mikaelson.
Because the three originals moved around constantly and kept to themselves—as if running from something—S.H.I.E.L.D.'s records on them were sparse.
On the rest of the Mikaelson-line vampires—the ones they'd turned—there was more.
For example: Mikaelson vampires can't enter a home without an invitation; a wooden stake through the heart reduces them to a wash of blood, and so on.
Gwen replayed those details in her head.
Even so—
She looked at Hawk, a little helpless. "So Mystic Falls really does have vampires? I was only kidding, and I never noticed anything when I visited before."
Hawk laughed. "New York has vampires too. We never see them, do we?"
"Fair point."
Gwen, who had nearly twenty years of New York life without seeing a single vampire, nodded unconsciously. Then curiosity sparked. "Hey, Hawk—do you think we'll actually see one this trip?"
Hawk looked at her.
"You want to?"
"I've never seen one. I'm curious."
She was being honest.
She'd met a witch. She'd visited the person Hawk called the strongest sorcerer on Earth.
So—
If she had the chance, she did want to see a vampire.
And Hawk was right beside her.
Watching her eyes light with curiosity, Hawk lifted his gaze to the little town now coming into view and let the corner of his mouth curl up.
"If nothing unexpected happens, we'll get our chance."
"…"
(End of Chapter)
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