Chapter 05
[Mystic Falls, VA. Former Salvatore Boarding House. January 24th, 2311. 10:31 am.]
The plan to go to New Orleans had been great, but when morning came, and they were about to leave, Klaus realized that his army was mostly an army of nightwalkers. They would obviously perish in the sun and, therefore, they had to wait until the sun had set to go ahead with the plan. While Bella felt fine, he and Kol still wanted her to take it easy for the day and spend the day on the couch, much to her dismay.
To make Bella feel better, or he thought that it would make her feel better, Klaus had invited KJ inside the house. KJ had proven to be a great vampire, loyal and diligent, primarily climbing the ranks and became the first in command after Klaus and Sam. As it happened, Kol Jasper Mikaelson had been the last of the brood that Bella had seen born and Klaus wanted him as a vampire, so he had something to remember Bella and his brother by. KJ didn’t even remember his great-great-grandparents and called Kol just that, but Bella remembered him as a baby. It would matter to her.
KJ, on the other hand, didn’t want to do what Klaus told him to do. He and this girl had nothing in common but a bloodline, and it was simply ridiculous of his sire – great-great-great-uncle if you had to be precise – to ask him to talk to her. Whispers had gone through the ranks about this girl, saying that the girl was inhabited by the greatest witch ever, but one look at the tiny human on the couch made him think otherwise. Most Celebrated witch ever? How about no?
“You look just like your father,” Bella snorted as the vampire awkwardly looked at her. “Although you seem to have your mother’s eyes.”
“I’m not fucking Harry Potter,” KJ grumbled as he shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at the floor.
Bella looked up to Kol with a grin. “And he’s got your potty mouth.”
“I don’t know, Darling, yours wasn’t exactly rainbows and sunshine either,” he smirked at her and nodded towards KJ. “Look at that, he has the Swan ‘ignoring the world’ trait.”
“We should stop embarrassing the kid,” she said as she looked at the boyish-looking vampire. “I’m sorry. It just had to be done.”
KJ huffed.
“Do you like being a vampire?”
He shrugged for an answer and then nodded as he kept his eyes fixed on the floor. He didn’t want this. He wanted out. Just mind his own business. There was this human girl in Mystic Falls that had enthralled him, and he wanted to stalk her some more before quite possibly ending up as werewolf food.
“You don’t have to be here if you don’t want to,” Bella smiled at him, noticing his unease, his impatience. “I know Klaus made you come in. You can leave if you want to, no harm done.”
KJ nodded before turning on his heels and spat out of the house, causing Bella to laugh. “Oh, he’s cute.”
“Of course he’s cute, he’s one of ours.”
Grinning, Bella pulled Kol onto the couch with her and softly kissed him as she crawled into his lap. “I love you, you know that, right?” She said after she had broken off the kiss and ran her hand through his hair as she looked at him.
“And I love you, Cuddles,” he grinned as he kissed her forehead. “Is this another cheese session?”
“Depends,” she said with a shrug and sighed as she looked at him. “I just want you to know that in whatever body I’m in, that I’ll always love you.”
“Are you thinking about jumping into someone else or have someone cast that spell on you?”
She slowly nodded as she bit her lip. “I doubt that this one is a keeper seeing as your blood made me vomit. You won’t be able to turn me.”
“Well, let’s call that a plan B, alright? I don’t want to interrupt another person’s life just so that my wife can stay with me forever. As much as I like the idea, I also know what it’s like to be human. It’s too precious for tricks like these.” He then scrunched up his nose and shuddered. “I can’t believe I just said that. I’m not supposed to care about humans. They’re food.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” A small smile on her face for Kol’s internal debate with himself. “I want to stay with you and I believe that’s the only option, how wrong it may be. I deserve to be selfish about this. I don’t want to go.”
“We’ll figure it out. Once you have access to your books again and our things in our crypt, we’ll figure it out. It’s likely that the witches use magic to limit your options. We’ll have to find out what and who, and we’ll fix it, I promise. I’m selfish like that too, you know. I want you to stay.”
“Cheese.”
“You started it,” he stuck out his tongue to her.
“Speaking of our crypt, I made a little trip there when I was in New Orleans. I needed to pick something up for us,” she said as she fumbled something out of her pocket and held it up with a big smile on her face.
“Oh, you are fucking brilliant, I felt naked without it!” he said in awe as he gently took her ring and smirked. “Give me your hand Cuddles, let’s do this properly.”
[Mystic Falls, VA. Former Salvatore Boarding House. January 24th, 2311. 3:11 pm.]
She had been dozing in Kol’s arms on the couch when fighting awoke them. Bella sat up and rubbed her eyes and saw that Sam was attacking both Elijah and Rebekah, who had decided to return with Caroline. Klaus was standing at a safe distance with a self-absorbed smirk on his face and Caroline looked enthralled as if she was watching the fight of the century.
“Oh,” Kol cooed as he got off the couch and put the blankets around Bella. “We’re in trouble now; Elijah and Rebekah are back.”
“Hardly,” Klaus huffed as he watched how his Sameen landed a few good punches against Elijah’s jaw. “Sameen, love, don’t piss him off, I’d like to keep you alive.”
Sam growled as her vampire visage had bled out, and she was positioned ready for another attack. “Oh I don’t think I’m the one that has to worry right now considering how pissed off I’ve been at this fucker for the last three centuries…”
Elijah dramatically sighed as he grabbed Sam’s throat and pushed her away from him, holding her at arm’s length. “Brother, glad to see nothing has changed.”
She smirked at him, raising an eyebrow. “You don’t know anything dickhead. It would be wise to let go about now.”
Smirking, Elijah kept hold of her as he eyed his brother Kol, who had naturally secured himself a whore. “I see you’ve managed to resurrect our brother too, welcome back, brother.”
Rebekah squealed as she ran to Kol and hugged him tightly. “Oh, this is fantastic, the whole family reunited.”
Bella got up from the couch and just looked at the scene before her. Rebekah was hugging Kol, Sam dangling from Elijah’s hold on her neck and Klaus as if nothing was going on, leaning against the wall with that egotistical smirk on his face. What was worse was that Kol didn’t even flinch as he hugged his sister, welcoming her back with open arms. Scowling, Bella looked at Klaus. “Hey, asshole, your mate is about to get killed by your brother. Do something about it or I will.”
Sameen’s smirk grew into a broad grin. “Time is up Dick. It has been fun,” she purred as she used her strength, unusual even for a vampire of her caliber, but not for her training, to break his wrist and kicked him in the gut. Swiftly, she grabbed the stakes she kept hidden in her boot and threw them at him, catching them in his chest, just missing his heart. “Guess the cat is out of the bag. Don’t you dare lay a hand on me again and I’ll break more than your wrist. Original dick face,” she muttered and moved to stand beside Klaus.
Elijah sighed as he pulled out the stakes. “Mate?” He blinked at his brother as he gently placed the stakes on the dresser next to him before cleaning his hand with his handkerchief before his eye fell upon Bella again. “Excuse me, but this is a family matter, could you leave?”
“She is family,” Sameen sneered before anyone could. “Could you say the same?”
“Now, love, be nice to my brother,” Klaus said as he caressed her back. “He’s more than welcome to stay, as long as he stays out of our business.”
“He hasn’t earned my kindness,” she muttered as she narrowed her eyes. “I will be watching him. And the bitch.”
“I can’t believe you’re just welcoming them back like that,” Bella spat at Klaus before giving Kol a shove to get him away from Rebekah. “They’ve abandoned you for centuries and because of that, you fucked things up! That was not part of the deal, and it was undoubtedly unfair towards Sam. You need to kick them out.”
“It’s fine, love,” Klaus smirked, deliberately not calling her Bella. He knew that he was in the wrong with accepting their return, but family was family. “Always and Forever, remember?”
“More like…Only when it suits them and Never,” She growled as she moved herself between Kol and Rebekah.
“Whores, always such a big mouth,” Rebekah said as she grabbed Bella by her shoulders, lifted her up and set her outside the door. She then closed the door in her face before returning to her family. “You sure know how to pick them, Kol.”
Sam tsked the Original vampire and shook her head. “That was not a smart move Barbie. You have no idea who the hell you just kicked out. I really do not wish to be in your shoes right now,” she smiled as she leaned her head against her mate’s shoulder.
Kol scowled at his sister. “She’s not a whore and well…” he then smirked as he moved so he was standing next to Klaus and mirrored his stance. “This is going to be quite entertaining.”
Bella was fuming after Rebekah closed the door on her and didn’t even bother to open the door normally. She blasted it off it’s hinges as she walked back into the house and shot her hands out towards Elijah and Rebekah to cause them severe pain as she kept advancing. “You are not family, not after what you’ve two haven’t done. You know how volatile your brother is, and you know the effect you have on them. Yes, I understand your need for freedom and a breather but to leave for nearly 300 years without so much of an attempt a follow-up? You should know better than that!”
“Oh, of course,” Elijah groaned as he had fallen to the floor as pain shot through his body, unable to stay upright. “My brother loves his witches, didn’t know they came as prostitutes.”
“Really should stop while you’re ahead, Dick,” Sam sang.
Klaus had sighed before he growled out with irritation at the insult. “There only ever was one witch for Kol. You know this Elijah.”
“Refer to her as something other than a woman again, I will find the daggers and dagger you both,” Kol evenly replied as he looked at Bella, loving the fire in her eyes. She looked so hot; maybe she could be talked into having sex when she was done playing with his siblings.
Sam looked up at Nik thoughtfully. “Isn’t there one white oak stake left? We can play eeny meeny miney moe. Though right now my money is on Dick.”
“Now now, we do not kill family, love,” Klaus said as he gently rubbed her arm. “Daggering is an option though. Shame all the daggers are in New Orleans.”
“Well fuck me,” she pouted.
“Gladly,” he smirked.
Bella released Rebekah and Elijah and then slammed both of them against the wall and kept them there so she could look at them. “You’re no family of mine and you haven’t been family to Klaus either. We’ll forgive Kol because he’s only been back for thirty years, but you are no family. You should have come back and stayed back as soon as I died.” She released them again before giving them one last smack against the wall and walked to Kol. “You can stay for as long as we need you, then you can fuck off again.”
“That was so hot,” Kol said with a big, stupid grin on his face. “Do it again.”
“I’m not that cruel.”
“I might be willing to switch teams for another show,” Sam agreed with Kol, grinning. Klaus and his brother both looked to one another, their interest raised significantly at the possibilities in the statement.
Bella sighed. “Okay then,” she shrugged and flung the two Originals across the room. “You ask, I’ll do it.”
As the two vampires laid groaning on the other end of the room, Sam made her way over to Bella with a smile. She winked as she lifted her chin and leaned in, kissing her.
Bella had not expected that Sam would actually go for it, but decided to play along with it, just to fuck with Kol’s head, she knew he liked this kind of stuff.
“Fuck,” Kol breathed out as he watched his wife answer the kiss of Klaus’ mate. “Fuck…”
Klaus canted his head as he stared along with his brother, too mesmerized by the sight. It wasn’t the first time he had witnessed his mate seduce a woman but to see her with his sister-in-law; that was another story. “We shall never speak of this again, but I think from now on, if Sameen desires the companionship of a woman, I will only allow Isabella.”
“Your bloody mate is insane Nik,” Rebekah moaned as she pushed herself up from the floor.
“Oh Bex, you haven’t even tipped that iceberg,” Kol cheered. “Still, I have to admit, Nik chose a bloody hot nut although I prefer mine.”
“Impossible,” Elijah breathed as he straightened himself up and looked at the young woman, who looked nothing like the Isabella he once knew. Was this a descendant from Kol and their Isabella? “You married your own blood simply because her name is similar to your dead wife’s?”
Bella growled as she slammed a chair against Elijah. “Three hundred years, and still oblivious to what’s right in front of you.”
“Bella?” Rebekah blinked. “Who in their right mind would resurrect you?”
She shrugged. “I’m here to make sure your asses can enter New Orleans again and then help out the coven.” She leaned against Kol and sighed. “But I meant what I said, you can stay for as long as we need you. Then you can fuck off again.”
[New Orleans, LA. Obama Street. January 25th, 2311. 3:23 am.]
The taxi she had wanted to take to the landfill refused to take her there, a computer voice citing that that area was known for violence and the lack of respect of everyone else’s property. The company had lost many taxis there and wasn’t planning on losing another. Besides, it was in the middle of the night, who in their right mind would want to venture into that area?
It felt strange for her to walk in this area of New Orleans. Not so much due to the threat of violence or whatever, but more because this part hadn’t existed yet in its current incarnation. It had been an industrial area and some marshlands along the waterway, and now it was one solid landmass. They had filled it all up with sand to create more space to live before they had raised New Orleans to protect it from the floods.
The Eastern part of New Orleans had been hit by Katrina and had been underdeveloped in the past, but now that there was more land, they needed to fill it up. However, the years hadn’t been kind; the houses looked shabby, especially under the cover of night and she had to admit, she didn’t quite like the atmosphere. Sure, it felt warm and cozy and friendly, but she could also notice that she was someone new in the area, everyone she met looked at her with suspicion. She didn’t want to ask them why they were up this late. She knew that she was in a bad neighborhood, she had expected it to be, but there were simply too many people on the streets for this to be a coincidence.
Did the Bennett witches have a seer on their side? They were working with the wolves, weren’t they?
She could have gone the easy way and cast the invisibility spell she had used earlier this week with Mandy, but she had to walk quite the distance and she had a big spell to cast. She wanted to save her energy. Walking around with her shield up cost a minimum amount of energy, and it would give her enough time to respond should she get into trouble. She had spent a lot of energy during the day when Elijah and Rebekah returned home, courtesy of Caroline Forbes, who went out and found them, and she needed to preserve the rest of her strength.
Bella felt like shit but hadn’t told anyone. She needed to do this for them and didn’t want them to worry. On top of that, Kol would come and get her as soon as the barrier was down. She was going to help them take back the city from the wolves and then assist the witches with their problem.
Sameen had given her a small device, ‘the new way of communicating’, she had said. Her and Klaus’ friend kept telling Bella to maintain a low profile but other than keeping her head down and continue walking; she didn’t quite know how. But at least their friend could tell them when the barrier was down, and that was comforting.
When she turned the corner to get closer to her destination, an entire pack of wolves was on the street, and they saw her coming. Bella inwardly groaned. “Is there another way?” She asked softly and looked at her device for an answer, but it stayed quiet. “Figures,” she muttered as she shoved it in her pocket and straightened herself up, expanding her shield just a little as she continued to walk.
Bella wasn’t afraid of those wolves. She could easily take them, it was just that she didn’t want to take them, only because they’d alert more of them. They would chase her all over the Ninth Ward or at least until she arrived at her destination if luck weren’t on her side. She didn’t want that to happen. Besides, if any one of them would realize what she was and what she had planned, they would come after her anyway.
“Where are you going, little girl?”
Bella deeply sighed as she kept on walking, getting off the sidewalk and onto the street because the group wasn’t scattering. It was tempting to do something, at least but counted quietly to ten in her head as she focussed on her breathing. Could she chance to fight them off? Should she? She told herself to breathe but the wolves, youngsters, came after her and kept catcalling her for a good ten minutes before she exploded. “Where the fuck are your manners? Were you raised with the wolves?”
This caused the youngsters to laugh maniacally, and she kept on walking. She had to keep on walking because that was the best way to do it. But, of course, it was dark, and it was inevitable that she’d eventually trip over something, which she did; a damn loose tile on the sidewalk she got on after crossing the road. She fell on the ground, hearing something break but wasn’t quite sure what yet and how her shield collapsed in on herself.
With her defenses down, it didn’t take long for one of the wolves getting the jump on her. He grabbed her by her shoulders and pressed her down to the ground. “Get off me,” she said as she was suddenly aware that her ankle had snapped as the pain radiated through her leg before it died down again. Breaks were the suckiest because they prevented things from happening. She’d cast a tiny spell later to allow herself to continue walking properly as a temporary fix, but even that would wear off.
“Ah, no,” the boy said as he used his strength to keep her down. “You have the smell of witch all over you,” he moved his face closer to hers and sniffed her before licking her cheek. “You smell different.”
Bella tried hard not to shudder as she felt how he licked her cheek, that was just rancid and attempted to squirm out of his hold. He retaliated by grabbing both wrists and pin them over her head with one hand, the strength he had in his body keeping them in place. When he started to unzip his pants, her eyes widened in surprise and panic and decided that she needed to stop being such an energy conserving wuss.
This was unbecoming behavior and so unlike her. She was going to do the big spell later, drained or not, because it’s what she’d promised her husband and Klaus, and she needed to be alive for that. And she needed at least one hand free to use her magic. Growling, she sucked in a deep breath and kneed the wolf in his private parts before using the surprise to kick him off of her. She scrambled to her feet, noticing once again that her ankle was truly broken and froze him, and all the other wolves, in place as she limped away. The spell would break eventually but by then, she hoped to be done.
Klaus was going to owe her big time.
[New Orleans, LA. Old Gentilly Landfill. January 25th, 2311. 4:01 am.]
She had cast a minor spell to diffuse her scent as she continued her way to the landfill, even a minor one to temporarily fix her ankle. By the time she got to the point where she would cast her spell, she was exhausted. Bella sat down in the dirt and unpacked her bag with all the herbs and items she was going to need. After switching on her light, she started to assemble the spell.
[Message: I’ve informed Shaw about your location.]
Growling, she set the device on the floor next to her after it started to vibrate in her pocket. “Oh yeah? What else did you say?”
[Message: There’s no other information to discuss.]
“Good, let’s keep it that way,” she said as she poured the first ingredient into the bowl. “Now shut up.” She didn’t know how Sam’s friend could hear her when it was only communicating by text messages, but she figured it was some hacker who had hacked into cameras and things like that. Right now, she was grateful that the friend hadn’t told them about her little misadventure. The vampires needed to stay focused and take out as many werewolves as they could on their trip to the French Quarter where they had to fight off some more.
Once she had assembled all the essentials, she spoke again. “Tell them to get in the car, I’m going to cast the spell now.”
[Message: Affirmative. ETA: 5 minutes.]
“What? Those cars go that fast?”
[Message: Correct.]
“Tell them three minutes from now,” she huffed as she rolled her shoulders and neck, trying to relax some. She put up her shield again and took a deep breath. She could do this. She was Bella Freaking Swan. Kick ass witch. People were depending on her. She was going to do this spell even if it would kill her. “Now shut up again.”
[New Orleans, LA. Old Gentilly Landfill. January 25th, 2311. 4:12 am.]
He had feared this would happen. While he was grateful that he was back in New Orleans, thanks to his beloved wife, he knew that it was going to take its toll on her. It probably already had, and he hoped she was going to be fine. But when he came to the spot, he saw her unconscious body lying in the middle of what looked like a puppy pile.
Kol was just in time to stop one of them from defiling her unconscious state as he mowed through the group. He sent them flying as he hit them with the baseball bat he had found on the streets on the way to her. He listened for her heartbeat as he whacked a few wolves in the head with his metal bat and was relieved to hear her heart still beating. Slow and steady. At least she was still alive.
Once he was sure he had fought most of them off, surprisingly he didn’t get bit, he grabbed the one on top of his love and sunk his teeth into him. Showing everyone what he was, if the exceptional strength and speed hadn’t given it away, before draining the body and dropping it to the ground. The others who were still standing had decided not to fight him, which was preferable.
Kol grabbed some of Bella’s belongings and put them in her bag before lifting her up and continued heading towards the French Quarter where his brother was headed too. They had agreed to reconvene at the statue of Joan of Arc, as it was a spot they all knew, and it was right on the edge of werewolf territory.
Of course, Bella’s presence in the Ninth Ward hadn’t stayed unnoticed. As he ran with her across Obama Street, he had to dodge several werewolves or smack them with his bat to keep them out of his way. It was late, what the hell were they doing up this late? Had they been alerted that something was going on? By whom? Well, that was a question he could quickly answer; it were the Bennett witches. No one ever said that taking back New Orleans would be easy but he wished it was, and he wished that his wife was in good health.
[City of the Dead, LaFayette Cemetery 1, New Orleans, LA. February 20th, 2020. 11:31 pm.]
Because the locator spell was cast by three powerful witches, it was fast and accurate, and it showed the children to be the deep in the Bayou. It was fairly obvious why they had been taken there, whoever took the children, wanted the protection from the werewolves.
“Let’s go,” Klaus growled as he started to barge out of the building followed by Bella and Kol.
“I can help, let me help, please,” Davina said as she ran after the group. “I— I think I am responsible for this. I should have put an end to it before—”
“What?” Klaus turned around as he sneered at her. “What did you do, little witch?”
Her eyes shifted between the three faces in front of her as she rubbed her neck. “I uh… some witches and I had a brainstorming session on how to hurt you the most and um…” Davina stammered as she looked at the floor, ready for whatever came her way. “Some of my witches are quite fanatic and… they might have suggested taking the girls and…” her eyes flickered up, and she defensively held up her hands. “I shot them down, immediately. It’s not what I do. They don’t have anything to do with my beef with you.”
“Who are they?” Kol asked as he narrowed his eyes on her.
“Ahvitahl and Aixa, but I swear, I told them to stop it!” She replied with a squeaky voice, panicked, but slightly relieved when Klaus’ expression turned less hostile. At this point, she was happy that the hybrid could tell if someone was lying to him.
“You’re staying here, Davina,” Bella finally spoke up, her fists clenched so tightly that her knuckles had turned white. “You have done enough, but I’m not done with you yet,” she then turned around and followed Klaus and Kol out of the building. She was going to give her a piece of her mind later, what was more important that they were going to get the girls back.
He knew of Ahvitahl and Aixa, two members of the Ninth Ward Coven, who tended to be a bit more radical than other covens. His least favourite coven as well. Sure, they had balls and talent, but they needed to be controlled, every witch in that coven and Davina clearly didn’t have the respect to exert that control. Kol was going to make sure that once this was over, once they had the kids back, he was going to end the entire coven. It would make Davina’s life easier and the threat to Klaus even less.
Kol drove his and Bella’s rental car towards the Bayou while Klaus fumed in the backseat, angered by Davina and frustrated that Kol and Bella weren’t vampires so they couldn’t get to the Bayou faster. Ahvitahl and Aixa were present at the wedding, and Klaus knew something was off and he didn’t do anything about it because they had been invited as a courtesy towards the entirety of the New Orleans Coven. He should have sent them away. Hope and Nina being taken was his fault as much as it was Davina’s.
Witches. He hated witches. They couldn’t be trusted. The only witches he did trust were his brother and his wife. The rest of them could burn for eternity.
It took them 30 minutes to get to the Bayou; luckily there wasn’t any traffic otherwise it would have taken them longer. As soon as they were out of the car, Klaus caught a scent and started to walk off. Sighing, Bella looped her arm through Kol’s and followed the hybrid quietly. Once this was over, and once they had pleased Klaus with days of celebrating the wedding, she and Kol were definitely going to take Nina and go away again.
Five minutes into their walk, Klaus stopped walking and sighed. “We have company,” he said with a smirk on his face. “Wolves.”
“Keep walking,” Bella said as she put up a shield around them. “They can’t touch us.”
“Aw, you’re spoiling my fun, little Swan.”
“We’re not here for fun, Klaus. We’re here to get our girls back. Keep walking,” she demanded angrily.
He pouted. “And once we have the girls?”
“And when we get our girls, you get to kill a witch. I’ll kill the other. And then, while we’re walking back to the car, you can go after the wolves, how does that sound?”
An even wider grin appeared on Klaus’ face. “You’re my new favourite sibling, Isabella,” he approved as he continued to walk.
“Hey!” Kol whined. “That was my idea too!”
“I didn’t hear you speak up, brother.”
As they continued their hunt for the girls and the witches who took them, the wolves tried to advance on them and kept bouncing off the shield. “I thought the wolves were on our side?” Bella asked with a frown on her face.
“Witchcraft, they probably used some magic to have the wolves protect them. It’s easy. Once the werewolves are in their wolf form, their minds are easier to manipulate,” Klaus replied as he watched another wolf bounce off the shield. “For instance, they should realize by now that they can’t get through but yet, they keep coming. It’s fascinating.”
After a good twenty minutes, they came upon a cottage that was surrounded by werewolves. “Oh, can I please?” Kol grinned as he stretched out his arm and made a scattering movement with his hand, causing the wolves to run away in fear when something invisible hit them.
“I’ll probably won’t be able to enter that cabin, but please do throw out one of the witches holding our girls so I can snack?” Klaus asked playfully, thirsty for blood and revenge.
“I promised you a witch, didn’t I?” Bella replied as they continued towards the cabin, and she swung open the door with her magic before setting foot inside, followed quickly by Kol. The cabin was a one room cabin, sparsely decorated with a table, a couch and a bed. There was also a small kitchenette and a burning fireplace and two witches, she assumed Ahvitahl and Aixa, who looked dumbstruck.
“Mommy!” Nina cheered as she ran over to her mother and clung to her for life. “Bad people.”
“I know sweetie,” Bella protectively put her arm around her daughter and created a shield around her and Hope while she looked at the two frightened witches. “You have no idea what you got yourself into, ladies,” she said in a low, threatening voice. “Going after my child? My niece?”
Kol took hold of Hope and held her close, as he worryingly looked at Bella. She was pissed off, so was he, but there were kids present, she would not like it if Klaus would shed blood in front of the children. He wanted to shed blood, but Bella would not appreciate it and it wasn’t his desire to spend his wedding night on the couch.
“We have no business with you,” Ahvitahl piped up, readying herself to cast a spell to shoot at the fuming hybrid outside. “Our deal is with the hybrid.”
“No, your deal is with me!” Bella said as she used her magic to push Aixa into Klaus’ waiting arms. Klaus caught her as if he was a dog with a treat and turned round the corner to sink his teeth into her, out of sight from the children. “You took my child; it made it my business!”
“Bella, calm down,” Kol gently said as he looked at his wife. “Why don’t you take the girls outside?”
“Why don’t you take the girls outside?” Bella shot at Kol before focusing her attention on Ahvitahl, casting a spell at the witch that would make her feel as if she was burning up from the inside, much like she’d hurt a vampire. The girl collapsed on the floor as she screamed in agony, her hands were in her hair, almost as if she was trying to contain the fire within. It was all an illusion, of course, but it felt real and Bella had to admit, she loved seeing the young witch struggle so much.
“Bella, stop, you don’t want Nina to see this,” Kol said as he muttered a tiny spell to temporarily blind the girls. He was angry too, livid, even, but what about the girls? They were too young to witness this; even Klaus went out of sight to feed on the other witch.
“I can’t see!” Nina cried out as she stomped her feet. “Mommy! I can’t see!”
Thinking that the squirming witch had blinded her daughter, Bella stopped the spell currently affecting her and slammed her into the wall. “Why the fuck did you think that going after kids was a good idea?” She spat. “Yes, you can hurt Klaus the most by going after his family but the kids are fucking off limits!”
“Mommy! I can’t see! Daddy!”
“Stop that,” Bella growled at the witch as she slumped to the floor. “Don’t ever cast a spell on my child.”
“I’m not doing it! I swear!” Ahvitahl said defensively, rubbing her head as she got to her feet. This caused Bella to snap her head towards Kol and narrowed her eyes at him.
“Stop,” Kol said calmly.
“You stop.”
“No, you stop.”
“Don’t make me fight you.”
“I don’t even want to fight you, but you have to stop, what will Nina say to people? ‘Mommy killed a person’?”
“I don’t care!”
“Well, I do. Stop this now.”
With the two newlyweds bickering, Ahvitahl tried to make it out of the cabin but the hybrid blocked her way, Aixa’s blood was all over his face and his clothes as he smirked at her. “I could go for seconds,” he said playfully.
“Unun!” Nina cried out. “I can’t see!”
“Don’t worry, love,” Klaus spoke gently. “I’m sure your father will remove the spell soon enough.”
“You did that?” Bella fumed at Kol. “You put a spell on our daughter?” She said as she pushed him with her free hand. “You fucker! Cancel the spell now!”
“No.”
“I’ll do it,” Hope said shrugging and waved her hand, smiling when she could see again. She let go of her uncle Kol and ran to her father, hugging him tightly. “Thank you for coming for us, daddy.”
Nina blinked as she got used to seeing again and could now see her parents fight. She let out a deep breath and noticed that no one was keeping an eye on the evil woman who had taken her and Hopey. The woman had a jar in her hands and was ready to throw it at them, and she wasn’t sure what would happen, but it could be bad. She let go of her mother and put up her hands, just as she had seen her mother and father do often enough. “No!” the little girl screamed from the top of her lungs causing the adults look at her.
The jar in Ahvitahl’s hands shattered but the contents did not fall to the floor. Instead, the shards and the things in it flew up into the face of the witch. The glass sliced her face and the contents of the jar settled inside the cuts. It took a few seconds, but the herbs exploded in tiny little sparks before igniting a fire. The witch stumbled backwards against the drapes as she screamed, the flames already licking the walls of the small cabin.
Bella had been too enthralled with what was happening to notice that the fire was actually spreading quite fast and only moved when Kol was pulling her and Nina out of the cabin. Nina giggled as she saw the cabin go up in flames. “Cool!”
Klaus checked the girls over as Bella and Kol were still calming down from their fight. For a moment there, he had feared for his brother’s life, Bella had been consumed by her anger and if he had, to be honest, he was so proud of her. She was a Mikaelson alright; she was going to fit right in with the rest of them. Here he and Kol were, trying to save their children from seeing their parents shed blood. Only because Bella would not like it and she wanted to do shed it instead, there had been absolutely no control, and that was fantastic.
Nina was still giggling as her uncle pat her down and checked her for any cuts or bruises. “That was fun, Unun.”
“Was it, love?” he smiled at her.
She nodded as she pulled off her shirt and pushed it against his face to clean up the blood a little, or at least make an attempt to as she nearly fell over. “Again?”
“Again what, love?” Klaus smiled at her as he took her shirt and cleaned his face. She was like her mother in that, always wanting to clean up the blood, and he didn’t mind humoring the little girl.
“Find new bad people. Make them fiery angels.”
He wanted to reply with ‘maybe when you’re older’ but Kol had overheard the conversation. “Absolutely not, Nina,” he said as he lifted the girl in his arms. “However, daddy is so proud of you! How about we go back home and get a nice long sleep?”
Nina shook her head. “They ruined the day!”
“That’s okay,” he said soothingly. “What’s important is that we have you two back, all right?”
“Okay.”
[Accessing current feeds]
[New Orleans, LA. Decatur Street. January 25th, 2311. 5:01 am.]
They had been waiting a good fifteen minutes for the arrival of Klaus and most of his army at the Joan of Arc statue. Kol had insisted that he would be going off on his own to get to Bella. It was faster and more under the radar, but to wait for the cavalry to arrive in the middle – that’s right, not on the edge but right in the middle – of werewolf territory and try to stay unnoticed, was quite the task with an unconscious witch in his arms.
Her heartbeat had started to pick up a little bit, which delighted him as that meant that she was perking up. Her broken ankle wasn’t difficult to miss, he had observed it swell even further while they were resting out of sight. Kol was going to kill the witches who were interfering with his wife’s health. He couldn’t give her his blood to heal, and he wouldn’t want to risk anyone else’s blood either because having her go through another round of vomiting all day was out of the question.
It was fortunate that it didn’t seem like the werewolf population had reached the French Quarter just yet. Or at least, the streets were quiet, and it was rather safe for Bella at the moment. He didn’t care much for himself; he’d survive a wolf attack, but one wrong move made by him could cause him to lose Bella.
When he heard some noise, he popped up to see what was going on and was glad to see his siblings accompanied by surprisingly a still large quantity of vampires. If Kol had to be honest, he hadn’t expected much from their rush job in creating as many as possible, but he was impressed. “Well done, brother, you managed to keep most of them alive.”
Klaus huffed. “I don’t know what they’re teaching the wolves these days, but they were easy.”
“They haven’t had a challenge for fifty years, of course they think that certain things require not a lot of effort,” Elijah quietly replied as he was cleaning his hands with his faithful white handkerchief. Kol wondered if his brother would still use a cloth to clean his hands if the cloth weren’t white, or would it send him into a mild panic attack?
Kol huffed as he twirled his baseball bat that was now covered with werewolf blood. “Tell that to the wolves in the Ninth Ward, it’s mental out there.”
“How is she?”
“She’ll be fine,” Kol replied as he gently lifted Bella into his arms again, holding her safely with him as she served as a bat holder. “Give her a little more time.”
Rebekah growled as she took a few steps towards Kol and his wife as she bit into her hand. “Just feed her your blood, you idiot.”
“No!” Klaus pulled his sister back as Kol turned Bella away from her. “We do not feed her our blood if we want her at least somewhat capable of doing spells. We have been down this road before.”
Sam eyed the exchange and impatiently started to go ahead. She had so much adrenaline surging through her body from the fights, and she wanted more. The Machine had helped them navigate through most of the area, and Klaus had been right, they hadn’t been met with much resistance. Sam couldn’t help but think that the Machine looked out for most of the vampires, still that preservative nature of hers. Most of the vampires had been created for the sole purpose to not survive. What were they going to do with them once this was all over? Send them off to live happily ever after?
“Where do you think you’re going?” Rebekah questioned his brother’s mate.
“Home,” Sam muttered. “What else? You want to stick around here? We’re in a vast open space, everyone can see us. We’re going home.” she absentmindedly waved in the direction of Bella. “The girl will be fine.”
Rebekah huffed as she looked at her brother, confused as he followed his mate’s lead. “Nik?”
“Sameen’s right, let’s go home.”
[New Orleans, LA. Royal Street. January 25th, 2311. 5:13 am.]
“Heads up,” Sam said as she rounded the corner onto Royal Street. “They’ve been alerted to our presence.”
Klaus huffed as he saw the row of werewolves standing in front of the Abattoir. “They don’t want to give us our home back, what a pity.”
“I guess we’ll have to make them,” Kol smirked, itching for another fight but realized that he still had Bella in his arms. Then there was the case of an excessive amount of vampires behind them to do the fighting for them. “Eh. Send in the calvary, I think she’s coming to.”
“Good,” Klaus said approvingly.
The group made quick work of the werewolves. These were a little bit tougher than the ones they had encountered before. The probable reason was that the other wolves had become too domestic; these were trained and harder to kill, but more fun to kill too. He stayed out of range of flying limbs and bodies as he gently caressed Bella’s cheek. “We’re about to take our home back, are you going to help us, Cuddles?”
Bella let out a soft groan as she slowly opened her eyes.
“Hello,” he smiled at her. “I promise I won’t put you down on your feet but once we’re done, we’re going to set that ankle of yours.”
She shook her head almost as if she was in slow motion and sighed. “Doctor. Hospital. Anything.”
“We’ll see what we can do,” Kol said as he brushed her hair out of her face. “Seeing as we’re in the middle of taking back New Orleans, I doubt there’ll be—”
“We’ll get her the help she needs, Kol,” Klaus’ voice could be heard. “Don’t be such a twat.”
Bella managed to get a victorious smile on her face as she looked at Kol. “He likes me better than you.”
“No, you’re ridiculously helpless right now, that’s all.”
Klaus watched as his siblings ran towards the entrance of their home and hung back, just like Sameen. Both were watching in fascination as they managed to get a few feet inside before getting ejected from the building again, causing both of them to land flat on their ass in the street. The look on their faces was quite entertaining. “Niklaus, what is this?” Elijah demanded as he got up and dusted himself off as if nothing had happened. “We’ve never had a problem entering our home before after you put the deed back into your name.”
“Did I?”
“Don’t play games, brother, we are very close to regaining our home. All we need is to round up the witches and werewolves inside that building, and we’re home,” Elijah pointed at the Compound to make his words count.
“If you’d taken a good look first, brother,” Klaus sneered as he nodded towards the entrance. “You’d see that the witches have boobytrapped the entire place. Going in without thinking straight would certainly end up in more casualties and damage to the building.”
Sam pulled a device out of her pocket and shook it with a smile on her face before activating it and threw it through the entrance to the courtyard before it set off a small charge. “All technological traps have now been deactivated. Most of their personal devices won’t work either so they can’t call for more backup.” She walked over to Kol and started to pull Bella out of his arms. “Come on, Super Witch, time to do your thing. Kick them out and get us inside.”
“Don’t let her walk!”
Sam smirked at Kol as he handed her over and pretended to drop her, causing Bella to giggle as she put her arms around Sam’s neck. “Are you up for this?” she asked as she brought Bella to the entrance. “I’ll be right here to catch you should you pass out again.”
“I’ll try not to,” Bella promised and looked over Sam’s shoulder to see Klaus. “Be ready for whatever comes out of this place, okay?”
“Don’t worry, love, we’re ready,” he said with a hungry smile on his face. “Simply round them up and kick them out.”
She had done the spell a few times over the years after Klaus insisted that she’d learn it by heart for situations like these. Granted, she had been on full power back then, and she was currently only a little charged, but she could do the spell. Clean the entire place out of supernatural messes, people and spells protecting the compound. It had been a thing of beauty to develop together with Kol, making the spell elegant and thorough.
“Sam, could you get me up on the first-floor balcony? You’re invited to come in, of course,” Bella whispered in her ear, loving the confused faces of Rebekah and Elijah. She then cast a small spell that allowed the both of them to remain undetected for a short period.
“Of course,” Sam said as she threw Bella over her shoulder and ran around the corner before climbing the drain. Once having reached the balcony, she quietly opened the door and checked to see if the room was empty before walking Bella towards the walkway and hid her behind a pillar. “Will you be okay?” she whispered. “I don’t want to get a headache when you revoke my access again.”
Bella smiled at her and nodded. “Thanks, have fun.”
“Oh, I will.” Sam grinned before making her way out the same way as she got in.
As Bella was holding on to the pillar, she could feel her own energy buzz through the stone, it was a pleasant feeling that some of her old spells were still active. They had been minor repair spells, but it would be enough for her to tap into it to do the spell. She didn’t want to move because she refused to cast a spell to temporarily heal her ankle again. It was useless, she had only made it worse by using it to full control as she was running from the wolves earlier.
She put up her shield for protection as the spell she cast earlier wore off and had started to alert the witches and wolves. She retrieved a small plastic bag filled with ground up Wolfsbane and Lobelia flower and scattered it on the balustrade, careful not to touch the Lobelia flower herself as it’d weaken her even further.
Next was lighting a match; she needed the fire to purify the building of all witchcraft, including her old spells. It would be as if they’d begin with a clean slate, which wasn’t always that bad. Bella started to mutter the spell, creating a dust cloud of her herbs and sent it on its way. It was supposed to weave through every room and affect every wolf and witch in the building. She then lit a match and dropped it to create a fireball, safe for furniture, but it’d go after every supernatural being inside the home, except for her. Everyone had it programmed inside of their genetic makeup; fire bad. Run.
She thought she’d be more under attack from the witches by now, but they were freaking out as the fire kept growing, and Bella heard some spells being cast to try and kill the fire, but it didn’t work. She couldn’t help but let out a maniacal cackle before she started on the next portion of the spell, which wasn’t much of a spell. “My name is Isabella Marie Mikaelson-Swan. My name is on the deed of this building, and I hereby revoke all access to all supernatural beings not having my name. Get the fuck out of my house!” She could feel how her shield expanded outward and started pushing people out, they didn’t have a choice anymore. They had to leave.
Once everyone was out, Bella had to focus, she needed to invite people back in, but it sounded like they were too busy snacking downstairs for them to hear the invitation. When it stopped, she spoke again. “Kol, Klaus and Sam, please come inside. If Stefan and Damon are with you, they can come too. The rest just has to find a different place to rest up.”
“Hey!” Rebekah whined. “What about me?”
“Maybe tomorrow! Payback for calling me a whore!” Bella yelled as she slid down the pillar and sighed happily. She was home, and she could nap now.
