Chapter 13
He was overlooking the devastation from his window and how everyone bonded together in clearing up the mess. Jeri had sealed Bella and him into his chambers. He wasn’t even able to go out to his balcony and Klaus felt as if he was being punished for Bella’s indiscretions. Sighing, he turned to her as she stripped out of her clothes in the middle of the room and dumped the bloody clothes in the wastebasket.
“I’m going to take a shower, do you want to join me?”
“Shouldn’t you go to bed, love? You’ve had an exciting day, and the sun’s about to come up.”
Bella shrugged. “Shower first and then sex, maybe?” She winked at him before walking towards the bathroom. She turned on the faucet, broke through the protection and set it for a little bit warmer and stepped underneath it, washing the day off her as she happily sighed before letting out a scream of agony.
Within a second, Klaus was standing in the bathroom, a frightened look on his face and ready to do whatever was needed to help her. Bella couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, your face! The look on your face! It’s hilarious!” She hiccuped. “Oh, so funny!”
“That’s not funny.”
“Oh, stop being such a sour puss. Get undressed and join me. The water is nice,” she grinned as she held out her hand for him. “Let’s have some fun, Klaus. You and I, we can’t go anywhere. Let’s kill time before we go to France.”
“We’re not going to France, love,” he said as he got out of his clothes and joined her, not really wanting to reward her for her trick to startle him – but there wasn’t much else he could do at the moment. He could get angry with her, wait for her, give her the silent treatment, but that wasn’t ideal. There was no doubt that Bella would become a handful.
“Why not?” She pouted as she stood on her tiptoes and put her arms around his neck. “You said we could.”
“I would love to take you to France, but not like this.”
“Not like this?” she blinked at him as she let go and crossed her arms over her chest as the water fell on them. “Not like what? There’s nothing wrong with me. In fact, I feel normal. I’m doing great! I feel great! Do you like the version of me who feels too much? Who’s afraid? Who panics easily?” She huffed as she grabbed the shampoo and started to wash her hair. “Such a whiney little bitch, that was me.”
“Bella.”
“What? Do you honestly like me more when I’m like that?”
Klaus sucked in a breath and put a strand of her wet hair behind her ear. “What makes you think that I don’t love that side of you? I love all of you, Bella. All your little adorable quirks. I never pushed you to do things against your will but merely encouraged you to try new things and if you didn’t want to do them, it’s fine by me. I don’t care if you don’t set a foot outside this compound. In fact, it eases my mind to know that you’re never far away.”
“That’s bull, how can someone as strong as you love something as weak as that?”
“Let’s not have this conversation under the shower.”
“I don’t care, let’s!” she said as she rinsed out her shampoo. “You deserve so much more than a broken doll, Klaus.”
“You’re not weak, Bella,” he muttered as he looked at her, watching the soap move down her body, making it slightly difficult for him to concentrate. “If anything, you’re the strongest person I know. You don’t mind showing everyone that you have your weaknesses and in turn, exposing those weaknesses to other people. That requires strength.”
“That’s stupidity.”
He smiled at that and nodded. “In some cases it is, but in your case? No. Absolutely not.”
“You’re being ridiculous now. This is a better version of me, and it’s here to stay so if you don’t want this, tough.”
“Now who’s being ridiculous? As I said, I love all of you.”
Bella huffed. “Clearly you don’t.” she pushed passed Klaus and started to dry herself off. “I’m not in the mood anymore, for any of it. We’re going to France.”
“We can’t, love. Jeri sealed us in.”
“Yeah, just until everyone’s had a good night’s sleep, yes?”
“No. Until you’re back to your normal self.”
Bella growled at Klaus as her eyes flashed amber and then red. “Sucks to be you then.”
~o.O.o~
On day two there was barely anything left of his study and his liquor. She hadn’t said much. She was much behaving like a bored cat, seeing if he responded if she broke his things, but he’d just watched her. They were just things, after all, and if she felt as if she needed to do this, then so be it. Trinkets could be replaced.
Bella was on a drunken tirade as she was spewing lies about herself, perhaps she believed them. It hurt him more to hear that she had such a low opinion about herself than to see his hundreds of years old table get smashed into pieces. He made sure he was in her line of vision at all times. She needed to see that he wasn’t going anywhere and that he wasn’t stopping her because that’s what she wanted. She wanted to be stopped.
Whenever Jeri or Kol threw in a few bags of blood, Klaus let her have as much as she wanted, he took whatever she left. The same with alcohol. She had polished off the bottles quite easily, and she was teetotal, but he hadn’t stopped her. Nor had he taken a drink himself, even though he could use one.
In turn, she didn’t turn violent against him but continued to smash his belongings instead. She had so much anger inside of her, and even though she switched off her humanity, deep down, she needed to rage. Killing her tormentors hadn’t been enough. No wonder. “Let’s break the bed,” Bella said, turning on her heels, barely able to stand on her own feet. “Break the bed with me, Klaus.”
“Are you sure?”
“I need to break the bed with you. I need it,” she walked over to Klaus and pulled him down for a kiss. “Don’t you want to?”
“Not while you’re drunk.”
“But I want you. I want you now, and I want us to break the bed. It’s easy like that.”
“No.”
Growling, Bella’s hands became claws, and she ripped up his shirt, drawing blood as her nails scratched his skin. “Please,” she said as she started to open his pants.
“No,” he said more forcefully. “You’re drunk, and I’m not. Something has to change. Either you sober up, or I get drunk.”
“Klaus!”
He dodged another attempt of her undressing him and watched her walk to the bed that she started to demolish. Leaning against the doorpost for a moment, he could see how unhappy she was, and at the moment, he didn’t care. Just because she had her humanity switch off, didn’t mean he had to do what she wanted.
He left her to destroy the bedroom to paint. She had tried to throw his easel out of the window, but it had bounced back and hit her straight in the head, causing her to throw it in the fireplace. It was quite the funny sight, but he was sure that Bella would think otherwise if she’d care about it.
She settled down somewhat on day three, giving up on her situation of being locked in. She had turned quiet and was sitting mostly with her back turned to him as she watched her handiwork with a proud look on her face. She had proven she was strong enough to destroy things. Would her old self do something like this? Nope. And it felt good.
There was a knock on the door before it opened, and Klaus turned around to see who it was. “Brother,” he acknowledged him.
“Niklaus, Katerina has sent word through her contacts that she requires our assistance. I’m taking Kol to see what she needs,” Elijah spoke quietly.
He growled in his hatred for the woman. “You will do no such thing.”
“Niklaus, please,” Elijah slightly smiled. “We’ve all buried the hatchet with her a long time ago. You released her from your anger towards her. If she requires our assistance, something has gone awry.” Elijah paused then and almost snickered. “It’s not as if you can stop me.”
“Elijah!” Klaus called after his brother as he closed the door. Bella was on him the moment the door clicked in the lock. She had jumped into his arms and had put her arms around his neck.
“Who is Katerina?” Her voice sounded playful, but her face said otherwise.
“You’re supposed not to care, you switched off your humanity,” he said with a tease.
“Look around, Klaus. I destroyed your chambers out of boredom. I’d rather have had a dozen of people to sink my teeth into, but you, and your family, are pretty adamant about keeping me here. So, who’s Katerina?” She dug her hands into his hair and scratched his scalp with her nails.
“An old friend,” Klaus replied as evenly as he could. “She used to be a witch before she turned.”
She looked at him for a moment and huffed. “That’s not all, the way Elijah spoke about her, she means something to you. And him.”
“She used to, a long time ago.”
“Did you have sex with her?”
“Didn’t we already discuss this, love?”
She pushed herself off of him and pushed him after landing on her feet. “We never finished discussing this.”
Klaus sighed as he tiredly rubbed his eyes. “Love, we’ve been talking about this, of course, I’ve bedded other women, I’m an old vampire, I do have my needs. I don’t understand why this angers you so.”
“I am angry because you should have told me! You. Not your brother but you!”
“But it’s irrelevant! Especially since you’re you and—”
Bella growled as she advanced on him. She didn’t want to hurt him, but she was getting very close to losing it. “Because I’m innocent?” She let out a huff. “I’m far from it, Klaus, and you know it. I don’t even want to start counting the many men who have used my body for pleasure because it simply disgusts me, and I’d rather not think about it. But you know all about that, I told you!”
“Then what difference does it make?” His feet got caught on the mattress that was now on the floor, and he tripped backward, Bella immediately launched herself on top of him, straddling his waist.
“You didn’t tell me.”
“Kol told you.”
“You didn’t tell me,” she growled as she ripped off his shirt and then sat up again, almost as if she thought of something. “This Katerina… it’s not Katherine, is it?” When she saw the look on Klaus’ face, she gasped. She got off of him and walked away from him, mood gone. “I’m going to kill Elijah! And Kol! They’re not going to help her out, are they? She was one of them, Klaus!”
“I know that,” he growled and walked after her. “That’s why I wanted to come with so I could bring you her head, but you had to switch off your humanity and have us get locked up in here.”
“Oh sure, blame me.”
“I’m not blaming you! I’ve chased her for 500 years because she ruined my chance of breaking my curse sooner and even though I reluctantly forgave her after finding another doppelganger; I have no feelings for her.”
She grabbed a piece of wood and threw it at one of the paintings on the wall, impaling the canvas on the wood. She winced when she saw what she had done; it had been a beautiful picture, and she now ruined it.
“You’re acting very much like a spoiled brat right now. Or an angry cat.”
“It’s Katherine!”
“What did she do to you that’s so worse than what they put you through?” He leaned against the doorpost as he saw her getting angrier. It was interesting to see how her turning off her humanity made her angry. Her walls, her defenses, were down because she didn’t care, but there was so much anger. If there was one thing he could understand, was anger. She didn’t get angry about him having a history with Katherine; she was focused on her so much that something must have transpired between them.
“Oh, no, you got it all wrong,” she said with a dark, humorless laugh as she started to pace the room. “You had a chance to kill her, but you didn’t. Instead, you gave her time to do whatever the fuck she wanted and up until Kol showed up, she was a regular in tormenting me!”
He sucked in a breath. He was wrong. So very wrong. Her anger wasn’t driven at Katherine per say. It was about him and what he had failed to accomplish so long ago. “What would you like me to do about it?”
She let out a frustrated cry and headed for his latest creation that was standing near the open French doors for more access of sunlight and kicked against it. The painting bounced off the invisible wall that Jeri had put up and hit her straight in the face. “Nothing! You’re stuck with me in here!”
“Exactly! Now let me look at that forehead of yours.”
She allowed him to approach, but once he was close enough, she growled and bit his arm when he reached for her.
“Cute.” He grabbed her tightly and pulled her against him. “Katherine won’t ever hurt you again, Bella,” he said, looking into her eyes as he tightened his hold on her. “If you desire to punish me for my hand in your torment, then do so.”
“No,” she murmured. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Why is that? You shouldn’t be caring about hurting me or not.”
“I bit you, didn’t I?”
He smiled a bit at her attempt at nonchalance, eying her curiously. His fingers still tight around her arm, unyielding in his willingness to let her go. “And unlike everyone else, I am unable to be driven mad by the venom of your bite. We share the same gift in that. I wonder what you were truly attempting… what was going through your mind love…”
“I don’t know, Klaus,” she struggled against him.
“Are you jealous?”
Bella huffed. “I don’t know what that is.”
“Oh, I’m sure you do,” he said with a smirk. “You’re afraid of me leaving you, the thought of me having had intimate relations with other women over the course of my life. It angers you; it makes you wonder if I’ll ever stray from you, and you do not want that.” He grinned. “You’re jealous.”
She growled at him, her vampire visage bleeding out as she tried to pull away from him again. “Fix me.”
“I thought you weren’t broken love,” he taunted, his eyes following hers. “You wanted to be stronger. Now you are.”
“Fix me,” she had her hands on his arms now, squeezing him as hard as he was squeezing her. “I don’t want to feel this jealousy. Fix me.”
Klaus frowned as he reached up to cup her chin to bring her face up to his. “You are not broken. You never were in my eyes Bella,” he told her. “I don’t know how to fix you the way you want me to. Remember? Kol was unable to compel you?”
“I am broken, I don’t feel anything but anger and rage, and I don’t want to feel like this. I want to go back to what I used to feel before they came. Fix me,” she begged as she almost crawled into him, her lips on his skin, desperate. “Please.”
He cupped her chin again and looked her in her eyes. “All you have to do is switch your humanity back on, Bella. Switch it on,” he knew he couldn’t compel her but he could try.
~o.O.o~
“Ugh, this place is a dump,” Katherine’s voice sounded. She was in the courtyard, Bella could tell that much. “It could use more color… and what the hell did you do to those tiles?”
Bella’s eyes grew large in surprise before wanting to get up, but Klaus pushed her back with a knowing smile on his face with a finger pressed to his lips. Time to shut up and see what happens.
“We had the pleasure to entertain some rivals a couple nights ago,” Elijah explained as he lead her to the breakfast room. “Come, Katerina, let’s have some breakfast. It’s not an easy task to negotiate with Niklaus on an empty stomach.”
“Where is Prince Charming, anyway?” Katherine said, boredom apparent in her voice. “Usually he’s the first one to greet me with an empty threat.”
“He has his hands full at the moment, but you can join him shortly,” Kol replied chipper. “In the meantime, I want you to meet Jeri.”
“What’s up?” Jeri smirked before kissing Kol. “You should have heard the ruckus last night. If there’s anything not broken up there, it’s a miracle.”
“Someone had a bit of a tantrum?” Kol asked playfully before sitting down and taking a bread roll from the plate. “Do they require a nappy change?”
“That’s enough, Kol,” Elijah said soothingly as he helped Katherine sit down. “I’m certain Katerina does not want to hear about Niklaus’ exploits.”
“Oh, but I do!” Katherine said with a smirk. “He always chooses his miserable conquests so well; it’s like watching a trainwreck happening.”
“And what would your excuse be?” Jeri said, raising an eyebrow as she watched her from across the table. She was in on the plan that Kol and Elijah had concocted, but that didn’t mean she had to be nice about it. “He did have a thing for you, as did stick-in-the-mud over here.”
“And who are you?” Katherine pleasantly smiled at her. “One of Kol’s whores?”
“Ladies, let’s not insult each other over breakfast. There is plenty of time to do that later.”
“I suggest we throw her into the pit now. See what Niklaus has to say about all of this,” Jeri said, her eyes firmly fixed on the pocket-sized vampire. She wasn’t much taller than Bella, but apart from the story they all knew, something about Katherine’s appearance grated on her. “Let her have her negotiation with him on an empty stomach, I just lost my appetite for breakfast. Oh, hey!” she smiled brightly at Peter as he sauntered in. “Now is not the time.”
Peter stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Katherine. “I can see that, my apologies,” he wanted to turn to make his escape, but Katherine spoke up.
“Wait, you’re not supposed to be here.”
“Why not?” Peter replied, suddenly getting a hint of what the traditional vampires had been planning. It was not too late to save their plan. “Everywhere the prince goes, I go.”
“Nah, he wouldn’t be so stupid to come here.”
“Why not? Everyone knows that the Mikaelsons have power, and the Prince is afraid.”
Katherine was quiet for a moment before placing her napkin on her plate. “Does he have it with him?”
“Of course, Lady Katherine.”
She smirked before getting to her feet. “I will negotiate with Klaus now, and then I’ll want to meet Prince Edward. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen him.”
“I must say, Elijah, I’m surprised that you allow Edward Cullen to hideout in your vicinity,” Katherine purred as she had put her arm through his while walking up the stairs. “Did he offer his money?”
“You know as much as I do that we do not require money, nor anything else he may have offered, Katerina,” he said pleasantly. “But what I don’t understand is why you call the girl, it.”
“Oh, surely you have been graced with Edward’s tendency to share it?”
Elijah sucked in a breath. “Fortunately, I can’t say that I have.”
“Fortunately? Oh, Elijah,” she snickered. “It’s absolutely fun. The best way to spend your time. Surely you need to unleash your inner beast every now and then?”
“I have my methods.” He stopped when they stood in front of his brother’s door. “Now, tell me, are you certain you wish to negotiate with my brother at this moment?”
“Yes, the sooner I get it over with, the quicker I can get to see my favourite past time.”
“Have you never wished a better life for the girl? Or regretted your actions towards her?”
Katherine huffed. “Of course, but when in Rome…”
Elijah smiled at that and opened the door, revealing the devastation of Klaus’ study. “Oh, Niklaus. What have you done?” He muttered, holding Katherine back for a moment. “Are you certain?”
“What’s wrong with him? Is the moon acting up?”
“I am alright, Katherine,” Klaus said as he stepped into their vision, fully dressed and spotless. Hands clasped behind his back. “What is it that you wish?” He looked over her shoulder towards his brother and smirked. It was incredible how Katherine believed his brother’s ploy, she must be desperate.
“Oh, Klaus, I’m so scared,” she said as Elijah let her go and allowed her to walk into the study. “There’s a powerful vampire hunting for me, apparently I wronged him or someone he deeply cares about, and I seek your protection.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. I’m scared. You need to help me.”
“I don’t need to do anything, Katherine,” Klaus spoke as he walked towards the door leading to his bedroom. “I released you from everything you owed me. I promised you that I would not pursuit you anymore for those indiscretions,” he leaned against the doorpost and was surprised that his guest was quiet in the other room, probably biding her time. “Tell me, what have you done that has made you the target of someone?”
“I don’t know.”
“Poppycock.”
“I don’t know. It may have to do something with my dealings with your guest, Edward Cullen?”
Klaus raised an eyebrow. “Who said anything about me entertaining the Cullens?”
“But Peter… I saw him downstairs.”
“Oh, of course. Yes, I’m entertaining a pair of Cullens and a Cold One. How could I forget?”
“I aligned myself with them for a while, until Kol showed up.”
Klaus merely smiled at her, waiting for Katherine to dig her own grave even further. “And what did you do with them?”
“Oh, you know… they offered me protection from you… and from the crazy bitch from Mystic Falls… entertainment…”
He blinked at her. “I offered you your freedom, what have you been doing that might anger me?”
“I might have killed Lucien and Aurora… Granted, I didn’t do it all by myself, but I wanted to take my revenge on you. For having murdered my family and ruin my life.”
Klaus let out a low growl. Did she touch his first vampires? He now thought it was a bad idea to leave Katherine to Bella, he wanted her blood on his hands, now.
Bella moved to the ajar door and gently took Klaus’ hand to calm him. She hadn’t liked the idea that Klaus proposed, but this was going to be so much fun, that she went along with it.
“What was that?” Katherine’s eyes shot to the door. “What are you hiding in there?”
“My entertainment,” Klaus deadpanned and gently pulled a naked Bella from behind him. “Isn’t she gorgeous?”
“Oh, so he does share!” Katherine said giddily. “You’re not mad at me?”
“Of course I am, but I’m a changed man,” he gently brushed a strand of hair out of Bella’s face and sniffed her neck. “She smells delicious.”
“She does, I remember,” Katherine was almost salivating.
Bella looked up to Klaus with admiration in her eyes and then looked at Katherine, her expression shifting from loving to deadly.
“Bella, be a dear and welcome our guest,” Klaus said as his gaze on Katherine now matched Bella’s.
She sauntered over to Katherine, swaying her hips and licking her lips as she’d been taught. From the corner of her eye she saw Kol, Peter and Jeri pop up on the balcony, sharing a bucket of popcorn, and it was hard not to break character, this was fun. Looking at Katherine through her lashes, she dropped to her knees without breaking her gaze, her face morphing quickly as she sprung forward and then bit her leg.
“What the hell!” Katherine cried out, pushing Bella away before lifting her pants leg to see the bite mark. “Those are not human teeth!”
Grinning, Bella rose to her feet and grabbed Katherine’s hair, pulling her back, so she had access to her neck to give her another bite. “Surprise!” Releasing her, she pushed Katherine to the other side of the room and looped her arm through Klaus’ who had joined her side. “Can we please watch how she slowly goes insane? Please?”
“No, no, no!” Katherine screeched, seething in anger. “This is not happening! Edward!”
“He’s not coming,” Bella said as she picked a piece of meat out from between her teeth. “He was such a lovely bonfire. All that was missing were some marshmallows.” Bella sighed as she looked up to Klaus. “I knew I forgot something!”
“And here I thought you had switched your humanity back on, love.”
“Nah, your compulsion didn’t stick either,” she said with a shrug before letting go of Klaus and picking up a piece of wood. She quickly moved to Katherine, cornering her, and used the wood to nail her to the wall before pulling off Katherine’s pants. “Oh, fancy underwear!”
“Bella, what are you doing?”
She fell to her knees and grabbed another piece of wood before looking over her shoulder. “She once thought it was funny to push a stick covered with barbed wire up my hole. Granted, Carlisle wasn’t too happy about it, but I thought I’d return the favor.”
Katherine let out a cry as she pushed herself off the wall. The wooden beam going through her body and she tried to make it to the nearest exit, only to be surprised that she couldn’t leave. “Let me go!”
“Elijah? Did you forget to mention that Jeri made Klaus’ chambers a supernatural playpen?” Kol asked disapprovingly.
“It may have slipped my mind, yes,” Elijah replied, standing in the doorway with Jessica at his side. “My apologies, Katerina. You are beyond help and at the mercy of Niklaus and his mate, who, as it turns out, still has her humanity switched off.” He had to admit, it hurt his heart to see his once beloved Katerina half undressed and in a right state. But she had it coming, and Elijah did not want to stop his brother this time. “I do wish you the best of luck.”
“Elijah, please,” Katherine begged. “Don’t let them do this to me.”
“You’ve made your bed, Katerina. It’s time you’ve finally slept in it.”
Klaus pulled Katherine back into the room and bit the other side of her neck. “Oh, we’re going to enjoy watching you suffer.”
“Hand me some popcorn,” Bella, still naked, walked over to the window and looked at Kol, Jeri and Peter. “You get to share; we want some too.”
“Shouldn’t you cover yourself up, kitten?” Peter asked.
Bella looked down at herself and then looked him straight in the eye. “What? Don’t you like what you see? Then turn around or avert your eyes, like Kol’s doing. Popcorn.” She held out her hand for some. “Or throw a human in here. We’re hungry.”
Kol smirked as he waved his bucket out of her reach. “You should turn your humanity back on, Mooner.”
“Shut up, Kol.”
“Klaus, please,” Katherine was clinging on to him. “Don’t do this, I’ll be good! I promise! I’ll be good, please, just give me your blood.” She was about to take a bite when Klaus pushed her off of him. “Klaus!”
“You’re pathetic,” Klaus said as he turned around to fetch Bella a robe. She didn’t mind her nudity much, but he didn’t want his brothers ogling her either. Bella was still in front of the window when he returned and covered her before turning to Katherine. “You will suffer in silence, or I will feed you my blood, heal you and we’ll do this all over again until you get the message, do you understand?”
“Fine,” Katherine muttered, crossing her arms and sat down against the wall.
“Alright, I’ve had enough,” Kol said as he jumped into the room from the balcony and grabbed Bella by her shoulders. “Poppet, you’ve had your fun. Now turn your humanity back on because frankly, I’m missing you.”
“Are you mad!” Elijah cried out.
“Brother, I know what I’m doing.”
“I sincerely doubt that,” Jeri muttered. “Kol, you are an idiot every single day of the week. Couldn’t you have taken one day off?!”
“Nope,” Kol grinned as he looked at Bella. “Come on, poppet. I miss fooling around with you.”
“Kol!” Klaus warned him.
Bella noticed Klaus’ uneasiness with Kol’s attention to her and bit Kol so he would let go of her. “Get away from me.”
“Ah, come on!” Kol whined as he rubbed his arm. “We’ll need to buy you a muzzle if you continue to do this.”
She growled as her eyes flashed amber and Kol took a step back, holding his hands up in defense. They changed to red before she bit the palm of her hand and offered it to him. “Welcome to the nuthouse, we’re so glad to have you.”
He had blinked at her before he looked at Klaus for permission. Klaus gave a slight nod as he watched his brother drink his mate’s blood. His brother was an idiot, but he hoped that he had a plan. Frankly, he welcomed the help. He was at a wit’s end; he wanted Bella back too. And hopefully, she’d retain some of the things she discovered during her time without any fear.
“Hey, Klaus,” Cami’s voice sounded before the door opened, and she stepped inside. “Bella, Kol and… a loser for a vampire.”
“Cami, this may not be the best time for a visit,” he said, quickly moving between the fragile human and Bella.
“I think this is the best time for a visit, I’m starving!” Bella said, taking her hand away from Kol, pat him on the head as if he was a puppy and made her way over to Klaus and Cami. “You smell delicious, fresh,” she licked her lips. “And your heart beats so fast… oh my, you’re scared!”
“No, I’m not,” Cami said as she looked up to Klaus. “As your therapist, I was shocked to hear Rebekah retelling the story of Elena and how she got her groove back.”
Bella’s smile that she had on the woman slowly fell as her eyes shifted into a displeased expression. “Who the fuck is Elena and why is this the first time I’m hearing about this bitch now?”
“Oh, Elena,” Kol cooed, watching Bella’s bitemark disappear. “Oh yeah, Klaus had it in for her alright. Just like Katerina here, he wooed her to break the curse of the sun and the moon, making him the biggest and baddest hybrid out there.”
“Stop your lying Kol. You were boxed for that event,” Klaus snapped at him.
“Elijah told me the story,” Kol said nonchalantly. “Apparently, it was very cute.”
“And you twist the facts to stir up more drama and make her more angry at me!”
“Oh get off it, brother,” Rebekah’s voice sounded as she leaned against the door. “We all know you have a special place in your heart for the little bitch of Mystic Falls. Or wait, was that the Hayley girl? Or maybe Caroline? I’m sorry, I could never tell your teenagers apart.”
Bella began to growl deeply as she looked over her shoulder at him. “Hayley?”
“And then there was me,” Cami spoke up, taking a step forward. “For a while, Klaus and I had a passionate relationship.”
Not only Bella, but Klaus’ head spun around to stare at her in shock. She considered Cami a friend before she was turned, and her eyes began to darken as the veins grew outwards. “You what?” she questioned lowly.
“Yeah, it mostly involved a lot of yelling from his side. But that doesn’t matter now. All I wanted to say to Klaus that we needed to talk about how Elena got her groove back.”
He was so overwhelmed with what was going on that it didn’t actually click inside his mind yet. “Cami, what have you done?” He asked in a whisper, holding Bella’s arm.
“She got her groove back with Matt, wasn’t it, brother?” Rebekah coached him.
His eyes narrowed at his sister through the open doors, still slow to follow as his mate’s growls grew with her anger as she started to pull away from him. “Are you seriously suggesting that I willingly allow Bella to be with someone else?! Are you out of your bloody mind?! No!! Absolutely not!!”
“He’s quite slow, isn’t he, sister?” Kol smirked. “Let’s see… after Hayley and Caroline there was Cami… spending hours and hours on end in Klaus’ presence, talking, painting, drinking. According to Marcel, there was some sexual tension between them.”
“He was absolutely enamoured by Vivianne the last time we lived in New Orleans,” Rebekah shared.
“He even raised her from the dead and married her. Didn’t turn out so well for New Orleans or him, for that matter.”
Bella managed to get free from Klaus’ hold by breaking his arm and lunged for Cami, snapping her neck without flinching. She watched how Cami’s body dropped to the floor and didn’t know what to quite think about that.
“Congratulations, poppet. You just killed your human friend. Are you happy now?” Kol said from his spot away from Bella. “No more Cami for you. No more girls nights with Cami and the rest of the girls because Cami is gone.” He moved over to Klaus to hold him back as he saw that it finally dawned on his brother what was going on.
“No…” Bella murmured as she looked at the heap on the floor. “I didn’t— I didn’t do this. I can’t have…”
“But you did. You and your cold heart.”
“Cami,” Bella said as she started to sob and fell on her knees, pulling the lifeless body into her arms. “Oh no, I killed Cami!” She started to cry as she cradled Cami’s body. “I’m so sorry; I’m so sorry!”
“Good job, Bella.” Kol shot at her.
“No! This is unforgivable!” Bella pleadingly looked at Jeri. “My life for hers, please, please, can you do that?”
“No,” Jeri said as she, too, hopped into the room and made her way over to her, showing Bella the ring that Cami was wearing. “You didn’t kill her, Bella,” she said kindly. “Well, you did, but she’ll come back.”
“Promise?” Bella turned into Jeri and put her arms around her. “Promise?”
“I promise,” she said gently as she helped Bella to her feet. “Kol will make sure she’ll be comfortable when she gets back on her feet, in her body. But first, we all are going to leave this room, apart from Katherine and then you and Klaus can talk in your room, okay?”
Bella nodded and watched as Kol scooped Cami up from the floor and walked out the door. It was then that Bella noticed the destruction of the room and knew that she had done that. She shot Klaus a fearful look, wondering if he was mad at her, but she couldn’t see anything on his face that indicated that he was. Letting out a sigh of relief, she allowed Jeri to take her out of the room.
There were fresh clothes and food in her room and waiting for Klaus to come in was agonizing. She could hear him yell at his siblings before he simmered down and thanked them, and all she could do was wait. She felt too nauseous to eat now. She had killed Cami in her rage. She had taken care of Edward, killed him proper. Actually killed him. It wasn’t that he didn’t have it coming, but she had done it without hesitation, and that scared her. She had ruined some of Klaus’ paintings. She had been mean. Angry. Jealous.
She looked out the window onto the street and smiled. She had learned, though, that the outside wasn’t that scary and that she wanted to go on a new adventure, have Klaus show her, New Orleans. There weren’t monsters in the sewers or behind the bushes. She was the monster, and she had proven to herself that she was strong enough to be on top of the food chain, like Klaus. As an equal.
When the door opened, she didn’t hesitate to run into Klaus’ arms and put her arms around him. “My behaviour over the last few days is unforgivable.”
He held her close for a moment before pulling back to look into her eyes, to assure himself that it was indeed his Bella that was inside her. Smiling, he shook his head. “Nonsense. What you’ve done is something that many vampires have done at one point or another. There has been periods that I’ve let my temper go unchecked for a decade and blood ran in the streets like glorious rain. You have done nothing to be ashamed of Love.”
“I didn’t mean to do it; it just happened when I panicked.”
“We realized that soon after, especially since we had yet to explain that it was an option to you. For you to discover it accidentally, was a shock to all of us, but you are back now, and that is what matters,” he assured her as he pressed his lips to her hairline.
“My behaviour has been appalling. I am really sorry; I didn’t mean to be jealous or angry for things that happened in your past. It’s the past.”
Klaus smiled at her. “I’d be upset if you weren’t. I admit I’ve made questionable choices in the past, and many are still walking the earth. I promise you, Bella, that none of them hold a candle to how I see you. I am yours, and you are mine. In fact, I believe that this little mark that you have gifted me this week indicates as much,” he said smugly as he pulled at the collar of his shirt to reveal the scar she left on him.
She smiled as she breathed in his scent. “Yes,” she said with a slight giggle when the memory resurfaced of that night. “That was incredible.” She looked up to him, adoration in her eyes. “Will you take me out to dinner tomorrow night? Have we deserved that?”
He raised an eyebrow as he reared back in surprise. “Out? Beyond the doors?” he clarified.
“Out,” she nodded in confirmation. “You can show me New Orleans and if I’m doing well, well… you promised me sex on top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris so…”
“That I did, didn’t I? Well then, dinner tomorrow it is. I think I have just the place in mind…” he started to say.
“Oh! I passed a great smelling restaurant when I was dragging Edward with me. He had to read the signs, and he wasn’t happy about it. Fucker should have taught me to read. But it’s called Alfredo’s.”
Klaus couldn’t help but to laugh heartily as he pulled her closer. “If that is where you wish to go, then I will be pleased to accompany you there…” His ears picked up light discussions in Kol and Jeri’s room, where they had taken Camille. “Cami has woken up.”
“I’ll apologize to her later,” she said as she kicked against the door to have it closed and pulled Klaus towards the table that was set with goblets of blood and all of Bella’s favourite food. “I’m starving, what about you?”
He looked over the arrangement and let out a sigh before turning his eyes to her. “I don’t see anything on the table that particularly fancies my taste, but there is something underneath that robe that satisfies my hunger much more…”
Bella let out a sigh of relief. “Oh good, because I was in the mood for something long and salty and… spunky.”
~The End~