Chapter 15
Bella didn’t see much of Klaus the next few days as he was moving heaven and hell to make sure that the Strix didn’t have anything in their possession that could kill him. Even went as far as destroying everything that Aurora had done, going through her things and avoiding Tristan as he went.
A part of her wanted to leave the compound, avoid Klaus, but she knew that if she’d set one foot out of the compound that she’d be scooped up by a Cold One. The air in New Orleans felt riddled with them, and it was still strange that she just knew it. She didn’t have any idea where they were, just that they were close. She couldn’t get warm either when she was sitting on the balcony; front or back, it was even worse.
She also didn’t want to leave the compound, because that meant leaving him, and that was something she wouldn’t do unless he’d tell her to leave. And despite his paranoia, he still hadn’t done so.
Instead, she had found another book on the Cold Ones and their lore in Elijah’s library which he generously had shared with her, knowing that Bella loved history and that she wanted to kill some time. The book wasn’t a treasure trove like Kol’s book had been, but it made her understand her current feelings.
The Cold Ones were quite scared of singers, despite their attraction to them; it started with one vampire, but the longer the singer lived, the more vampires liked the scent of the singer’s blood; causing the vampires to fight amongst themselves, often to the death, until there was one winner.
While singers were generally women, they had encountered a male one once or twice when a family wasn’t blessed with girls as children. There was one story where a coven of female vampires fought for the attentions of their male singer; ending up killing him in the melee.
It was a given that singers were created by the Travelers to end the Cold Ones, to hunt them down and rid the world of the plague and this book had several eyewitness accounts of the first supercharged singer called Carmen, with a note that all singers worked differently. Carmen’s voice was her weapon – coming from her career and passion for singing. Bella thought it would be interesting to figure out what she’d be, seeing as she loved history and books. Was she going to pelt the Cold Ones to death with books? Bore them to death?
Granted, she had to give herself a pat on the back for her quick thinking to lure the Denali’s to the Strix’ lair and have those vampires kill them off. It had been smart. Intelligent. However, seeing as she didn’t want other vampires to fight her battles for her, she would have to think of other things. Maybe Elijah had books on how to make a bomb? She could lure the Cold Ones to an empty space and blow them to smithereens.
It didn’t sound too exciting. Maybe, once Klaus would turn her, her teeth would be able to cut through marble and steel so she could take a bite out of Edward and his family. Which meant she’d have to come close. While she had learned some self-defense, she wasn’t quite sure if it’d measure up to what she needed to be. It wasn’t as if becoming a vampire would bless her with ninja fighting skills, would it?
She should turn, but she wanted Klaus to turn her because they’d been talking about it for so long and she now felt that she was ready. Willing to do her part, because despite Klaus’ anger the morning after he lost his sire line, he was right. She was a mere mortal, and if she was going to hang around longer, she needed to become sturdy like a vampire. Less easy to kill. Like a vampire.
She loved Klaus, she actually loved him, and knowing what happened to most of his exes, she wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to be left alone because she died. If he still wanted her. Best thing, for now, was to keep her distance and let him rage. Elijah and Freya were keeping an eye on him, and she was there for him when he needed her.
Bella was grateful that Klaus stopped for a moment to participate in Cami’s wake. It was beautiful, and alcohol flowed nicely – at least that was what she was told; she didn’t want to risk a Cold One attack to rain down upon the wake. On top of that, Bella didn’t know Cami that well, only through the stories Klaus told her about her and through the brief interaction she had with her.
She was sitting in the study now and nearly got herself, and her chair, knocked over by Klaus, who stormed in, half drunk. “Where have you been?”
“Out. Drinking. Rousseau’s,” he muttered. “Pretending to talk to a ghost.” He looked at his siblings who joined Klaus in the study. He looked lost. Sad. Scared. “It was him. It was Gaspar Cortez.” He said knowingly, affirming his suspicions that people were coming after him now.
Freya sighed as she looked away from her brother. “I assume this is someone from your box of letters?” She sounded as if she didn’t want to believe him. Bella knew that even the older sibling was fed up with Klaus’ antics, but for the sake of family, they were entertaining his fear.
“The youngest son of a particularly vile family of warlords I dealt with in the 17th century,” Klaus said dismissively.
Elijah frowned. “Didn’t they burn that philistine pigsty into the ground?”
A smile appeared on Bella’s lips when Klaus scoffed. This was turning into a typical sibling conversation, wasn’t it? One filled with memories. Sure, brought on by someone who was going to try to kill Klaus, but still. She loved stories like these. Because it was history, and Klaus and his siblings had lived it.
“Pigsty?” Klaus was appalled. His siblings never had any taste. “Belaga was my favorite artist retreat! Someone had to pay for that, so I murdered Gaspar’s brute of a father.” Oh, he saw Elijah sigh, yes, his brother never appreciated the finer things in life.
“And?” Freya coached him.
“And one or two—”
“Five,” Elijah interrupted him, annoyance evident in his voice.
“Five of his bloodthirsty brothers.”
“Don’t forget the mistress,” Elijah reminded his brother, a playful note in his voice.
“Ah!” The hybrid took offense to that. “That was an accident!”
Elijah rolled his eyes and looked at his sister to explain. “The point is that Gaspar was but a footnote.”
“Until he became a vampire, hell-bent on hunting me,” Klaus added.
“I still don’t understand why you’re so scared, Klaus. You can easily take him on,” Bella said from her position behind the desk. “I know you told me about the possibilities of a new White Oak somewhere, but do you honestly believe he’d have tracked it down if he was just a footnote to you?”
“He’s a cunning deviant, known to compel hoards of the helpless to aid him with his tasks,” Klaus started. “You see, this is exactly what I was concerned about. Devils of all kinds, crawling out of their crevices to strike at me,” he paused then, straining his hearing and heard some intelligent muttering and footsteps that he recognized all too well. “Speaking of which…”
Bella blinked and watched Klaus rush out of the study. Exchanging a look with Elijah and Freya, they all went after him to see what was going on. Much to all of their surprises, Klaus was stunned, looking at someone. Kol. “Now, Nik, you did go after my girl,” Kol spoke as he approached his brother.
“It can’t be…” Klaus said stunned as he took a few steps towards Kol.
She stayed near the door; she already felt as if she was intruding on a private family matter, which was ridiculous. She was a part of the family, wasn’t she? Why else had everyone been so concerned with her safety? Out of fear for Klaus? Were his siblings even still afraid of Klaus now that his sire line was lost? Was this going to affect her in any way?
Davina stepped forward, afraid that something would happen to Kol. “It’s Kol. When I broke your sire link, it created a surge of power.”
Freya was disgusted as she fell in line next to Klaus. “You stole the Nexus Vorti,” she said coldly. Bella added the words ‘You bitch’ silently in her head.
Bella couldn’t help but feel proud of Davina. She had actually managed to bring Kol back from the dead. Something Klaus had thought possible but thought Davina wouldn’t do. Or at least die trying. She thought that Freya and Klaus could be a little more grateful towards Davina, and apparently, Davina thought the same.
Davina rolled her eyes at the siblings. “And brought your brother back from the dead!”
Bella wasn’t sure if Kol was pretending to love Davina still, or that he was just with her out of loyalty, as a thank you for bringing him back, but he once again came to her defense. Telling his siblings that they should be thanking her. She watched Klaus hug his brother and then decided that she was, indeed, intruding on something and quietly backed towards the open door. It didn’t take long for Bella to realize that Klaus wanted to be alone with his family to discuss things as she could hear him tell Davina to get the hell out.
This was ridiculous. She was hiding again. Again. She had made so much progress and yet, not so much. But it wasn’t up to her if she was going to be included in family business, it was Klaus’. She was going to hear all about this when they were in bed anyway. Or maybe not. It depended on whether or not Klaus was in a sharing mood.
He sent Peter, a Cold One, away. Was he going to send her, an almost Cold One hunter, away too? Nah. He wouldn’t, would he?
“Nik, you don’t have to worry about your bloody prophecy anymore, didn’t the Cold One take care of that for you?” Kol’s voice sounded annoyed. “Peter’s a decent Cold One, you know. He knows his stuff.”
“Fine then—”
“No, brother,” Kol smirked as he walked into his brother’s bedroom, finding the human girl sitting cross-legged on the bed with a big book in her lap. “You’re still human?” He looked at his brother. “Why is she still human and not turned into the Cold One hunter?” Kol skipped his way to the bed and sat down next to Bella with a big, goofy grin on his face. “You do smell delicious, want me to turn you instead?”
“Aw, and here I thought you were going to behave yourself for Davina,” Bella countered playfully. “Good to see you not covered in bruises, Kol.”
“Oh, that’s right, I forgot you two had already met and forged a bond of some sort,” Klaus huffed, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest.
“You know,” Kol said as he kept his eyes on Bella. “You’d think that for someone who’s afraid of the big bad prophecy that he’d take it more into account. What was it… hmm… something about losing everything but siring the Singer would make him more powerful?”
“Oh, is that what it meant?”
“Of course, darling. He’s the audience, you’re the performer,” Kol smirked. “Although… I assume you’ve read my notes by now and told Nik about the prophecy about you.”
“I have,” she said with a slow nod. “But to be honest, I have no idea what it means.”
“It’s not important, Kol. She can wait a little longer while we sort out our more immediate problems,” Klaus said a little patronizing.
“What about her immediate problems, brother? New Orleans is crawling with Cold Ones at the moment, and while the witches and some of the vampires are trying to fight them, Bella can end them in one fell sweep. Doesn’t she deserve to feel safe? Don’t you want to be reassured of your strength?”
“Kol, I lost my entire sire line, they’re coming for me.”
“Exactly, Nik, and you’re going to need all the help you can get. Turn her already or I will, and it’s likely I will get the strength she’ll add on because like yourself, I’ve lost everything. In fact, I’ve died so many times now that I’ve earned it to turn her and become stronger than you.”
“You will do no such thing!” Klaus growled, pointing at his brother. “She’s mine!”
“Is she? When’s the last time you’ve fed her your blood?”
Bella quickly made her way off the bed as Klaus lunged at his brother and they fought on the bed. What was going on? Was Kol deliberately provoking his brother into turning her or was he serious? If she had to believe the notes, he was probably serious, but this was ridiculous.
“Enough!” Elijah’s voice sounded angrily from the door. “Are you two quite done?”
“Oh, look, daddy’s home from the quick errand he had to run,” Kol quipped, earning him another punch to the face from Klaus before Elijah pulled the two of them apart.
“As much as it pains for me to say this, Niklaus, but Kol is right. We’ve allowed you to be selfish for too long; it’s time you concern yourself with others. Especially with your neglected girlfriend, who, if I may add, has been nothing but flexible and accommodating to you.” Bella opened her mouth to say that it was all right, but Elijah held up his hand for her to stop talking. “It’s not alright, Bella. Freya and I have watched you tread ever so lightly, but enough is enough. It’s time that Niklaus helps you with your problem. It is more immediate seeing as they’re about to overrun the city, and I don’t see Niklaus go after them to take care of them for you in his current state.”
“I would!” Klaus huffed.
“You’ve busied yourself by chasing after possible splinters of White Oak, brother, fuelling your own paranoia while you have nothing to be afraid of, it’s time to end your pity party and turn her.”
“Fine,” Klaus sped over to Bella, bit his hand for her to drink from and forced it upon her before sinking his teeth into her neck and draining her dry. He was angry; his siblings were bullying him, and he was just going to take care of this to satisfy them before he’d resume tracking Gaspar and killing him. Maybe have Freya find a way to track his enemies so he can surprise them and take them down first.
He had taken her by surprise; she had struggled, but only briefly. Once her heart stopped, he lifted her limp body into his arms and gently placed her upon the bed. “Now, back to the order of the day. Cortez.”
“You’re such a brute, Nik,” Kol scowled as he checked her over. “She’s meant to be giving you power and turn into something powerful herself, and you treat her like dirt. She’s your girlfriend.”
“Who understands that I–”
Freya sighed deeply and flicked her wrist, snapping Klaus’ neck and dropping his body to the floor. “I am sorry,” she said coldly. “But he needs a timeout.”
Elijah let out a relieved sigh. “Thank you, Freya. Is she comfortable, Kol?”
“Yes,” he replied as he tucked her in. “She’s going to be extremely ticked off when she wakes.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Freya said with a shrug. “We’ll have to track Cortez and take care of him for Klaus.”
Kol huffed. “Who was he again?”
“Gaspar Cortez’ family decimated Belaga,” Elijah explained with a playful smile on his face, knowing what was coming next, Kol had had an even bigger distaste to the place than he did.
“Ugh, Belaga! That place was hideous!”
“Oh yes, and I can hear Klaus already scold us for having no taste,” he agreed.
“Nik had a way of saving letters, does he still have them?” Kol asked carefully, lifting his brother’s limp body and placed him on the end of the bed. “Because if he does, I could teach you a spell to actively track his enemies.”
“Yes, he was looking at them earlier,” Elijah said, following his siblings out of the room. “They’re in the study.”
~o.O.o~
When Klaus was awake, he wasn’t happy at all. How dare Freya snap his neck? Yes, he may have lashed out a little bit, and he may not have given Bella an easy and painless death, but he had his reasons. In the case of Bella, he was angry; he was sure she’d forgive him. “What am I looking at?” He asked, looking at a map with blobs of blood everywhere, but New Orleans was clean.
“Your greatest hits,” Elijah remarked. “As you can see, we’ve taken care of Cortez while you were taking your nap, but Kol and Freya have created this map.”
Some dots were moving towards New Orleans, and it was troubling. “I have to apologize for my behavior, it was—”
“You. And you’re forgiven, Niklaus,” Elijah replied calmly, clapping his brother on the back. “So this may only be a fraction of our potential enemies.”
Kol chuckled and shook his head. “In hindsight, we could’ve been nicer to people. Or at least left fewer survivors.”
Ignoring his brother, Klaus turned to his other sibling. “We don’t know all their motivations. Half of these people could want to put the bullet in your heart! End the sire war with the pull of a trigger.”
“I have an army devoted to keeping me alive. The only people that care to protect you are standing in this very room,” Elijah said seriously. “And in your bedroom and your beloved club,” he paused then, almost as if he was weighing the gravity of his next sentence. “As you well know, Niklaus, there is another way.”
The other way was undesirable. It meant he’d have to run and disappear. Something he was good at. Something his entire family was good at, but mainly him. Going away would be easy. Especially to save his own skin. He wouldn’t go alone, either. Elijah had told him about Hayley’s revenge of killing the Strix vampires involved with Jackson’s death, and if he’d run, he’d have to take her and Hope with him. Hope was half his, something his enemies could use against him. They didn’t know about Bella, so she’d be safe at the compound, but he had to run. To disappear.
“You’re going to run?” Freya said incredulously. The mighty Klaus Mikaelson, running away?
Klaus chuckled. “There was a time when the name Klaus Mikaelson was little more than a rumor. A shadowy figure who cast fear into the very bones of any who heard whisper of him. I don’t run, sister. I disappear. And tonight, the three of you are going to make that possible.”
She hadn’t dreamed it, had she? Without warning, Klaus had killed her. Squeezed her like a Capri-Sun packet and drained her dry. It had been nothing like she’d imagined; when she had hoped as a teenager with Edward on romantically biting her and turning her, she’d lost that idea, but she had believed that Klaus would at least talk to her first.
Granted, they had talked about her turning quite a few times, but this sucked. Pun intended. Her mouth felt dry like cotton, she felt icky and a little bit weak, as if she was recovering from the flu or something. Making her way out of bed towards the bathroom, she decided to have a quick shower to freshen herself up, drink some water and find Klaus. He deserved a fist to his face.
When she returned, she found Kol sitting on her bed, a compelled chef standing next to him and Kol had the biggest smile on his face. “How are you feeling? Did the downside of transitioning already set in? Or do you still feel a little bit like a human?”
Bella realized why Kol was smiling so widely. She was naked, not having bothered to get a clean change of clothes with her to the bathroom as it was her and Klaus’ bedroom and not expecting someone else. Shrugging, she dropped her towel and walked to the closet. A lot of men had seen her naked before; this wasn’t any different. If Klaus didn’t agree with this, then he’d have to battle it out with his brother himself. “Where’s Klaus?”
He looked as if he was debating something and looked at the cook before watching the letter in his hand. “Eh, you should read this. I think it’s safer for all of us if you read it before you fully turn…”
Bella scowled as she pulled a shirt over her head and took the letter from Kol. “What did the asshole do now?”
“Just read the letter, darling, he’ll explain it himself.”
“Good Morning, love.
First, I sincerely want to apologize for my behavior. For neglecting you and most of all, for giving you a horrible death. Please forgive me, I was behaving uncharacteristically.
Secondly; I wish I could be with you when you awake. I know how frightening a transition can be, and you deserve better than waking up alone, ready to proceed with the next chapter in your life as a vampire. I hope that whoever is with you, will treat you well.
As for my reason for not being with you, I have to disappear. With my enemies fast approaching New Orleans, it’s best if I’m not there. Yes, this leaves my siblings cleaning up the mess that I’m in but this is how I, how we, survived for many years. I’m not alone. I have Hope and Hayley with me; my enemies could know about my daughter and use her against me. I have hope that they don’t know about you, and you’ll be safe at the compound under the protection of my siblings. They assured me that no harm will come upon you whether inflicted by one of our own or the Cold Ones.
There’s no doubt you’d like to give me an earful. I’ve instructed my brother to buy you a mobile phone so you can do just that.
Please know that I wished I could have taken you with me, but you’re safer at home.
Forgive me.
Yours, always, Klaus.”
“Seriously?” Bella said as she looked at Kol. She could feel her anger make her blood boil. “The asshole leaves, just like that? And you let him?”
“Yes. When you’ve lived as long as he has, there are periods of time where he just simply disappears. His name nothing but a rumor, a whisper, a reminder of the big evil monster that he projects to be. In this situation, it’s best for him to leave.”
“And what do I do? Knit booties for Hope? I can’t knit, Kol. Give me your phone; I want to call him.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Kol watched her carefully. “Have some blood first.”
“Oh, no, I want to call him now. Give me your phone or I’ll go to Elijah.” Sighing, Kol handed her his phone. Bella dialed Klaus’ number and put him on speaker.
“Hello, Kol.”
“Think again, asshole.”
“Love, I can explain, no doubt Kol has given you—”
“Yeah, well, you know that thing I do with my tongue that you love so much? Don’t even think about asking me to do that to you for the rest of this century, dickhead,” she said before disconnecting the call and handed Kol his phone back.
“Feel better?”
“Yes, thank you,” Bella sighed relieved. She didn’t feel that much better, but at least she had given Klaus an answer. One that hurt him the most.
A mischievous spark appeared in Kol’s eyes. “So, what’s that thing with the tongue you do?”
“Oh, I promised Klaus I wouldn’t take clients anymore, Kol,” Bella said playfully as she sat down on the bed next to him, still only wearing a shirt. “But since he’s not here, I suppose that you can find out for $250.”
“And where, pray tell, am I going to get such money? I’ve been dead for months! Elijah hasn’t given me access to the family money yet!”
“Well then,” Bella said as she pat his shoulder. “I guess you’ll never know.”
“Doesn’t matter anyway, I’m taken. Although I don’t know for how long.”
“Why’s that?”
“I promised Davina I could control my bloodlust but… when I’m around her, I can’t. I want to rip out her beautiful little throat and drink her blood. The urge to kill her is so strong, and I don’t know what’s going on.”
“That sucks.”
He let out a chuckle and nodded. “Yes. I might have to lose the love of my life because all I want is to sink my teeth into her. I was never one to control my bloodlust, but this is different.”
“I’m sorry,” Bella replied, genuinely feeling for him. “You’ve been through so much; you deserve some happiness.”
“Yes, but here I am, looking after a transitioning vampire singer. Any symptoms yet?”
She smiled at him and then looked around. “No, you’ve been kind to me with the curtains closed and noise kept to a minimum… I’m still thirsty but… yeah… I doubt a glass of water would do.”
“Well, how about you just drink a little from this fine man here before you start experiencing the nasty side effects of being in transition?” Kol thumbed over to the chef.
“I don’t have to kill him, do I?”
“No, but that’s up to you. Restraint is not easy to learn for a new vampire. Hell, I never bothered learning control.”
“Can’t you just pour something in a cup? I mean, I would have been fine with a blood bag…” she looked at the chef. It was Klaus’ favorite, what if she ended up killing him? Right now, she didn’t mind, but she’d eventually regret it. “I mean, I don’t want to be a princess vampire, I know what you’re thinking, but he’s a good chef. He’s a good man. I don’t mind going after the bad guys and eat them but…”
“Ugh. Morals,” Kol sighed as he got up from the bed, grabbed a glass from the side table and had the man bleed into the glass before handing it over to Bella. “We’ll have to go bad guy hunting then for a proper feed. Luckily for you, the Quarter has its seedy places, you’ll never go hungry.”
“Yay.” She took the glass and threw it back in one go. She wasn’t new to drinking blood, but vampire blood tasted differently than that of a human, and this was so damn good. Bella could feel how her face changed and licked her lips.
Kol frowned as he looked at her wrists. She was fully healed. He grabbed her wrist, getting a little resistance from Bella and looked at it, gently running his thumb over where there used to be the Cold One scar. “Huh. Interesting.”
She pulled her hand back as she wanted more blood, Kol’s remark not hitting home. She put her finger inside of the glass to get the remaining blood out and licked her fingers as she looked at Kol through her lashes. “So so so so good,” she said with a moan.
“No, no, you can’t do this to me, Bella,” Kol groaned, feeling the blood rush to places he didn’t want to have it rush to. That was supposed to be for Davina and Davina only. It didn’t help that he had seen Bella naked just minutes before and that she was only wearing a shirt to cover herself. He quickly snatched the glass and refilled it with the chef’s blood before ordering him to leave. Kol then gave Bella the glass back and headed to the door. “Put some clothes on, darling; I’ll come back to check up on you in a minute.”
“Need a hand?” Bella teased him.
“I’ll just quickly pop over to Davina’s.”
“Aw, that’s no fun,” Bella said with a pout, getting off the bed and drinking from the glass as she walked towards Kol. “I’m fun,” she added with a sultry smile dancing on her lips. “I mean, really. I’m so much fun… you have no idea.”
“Bella, you’re going to have to entertain yourself,” Kol pushed her back into the room. “Get dressed; I’ll be back shortly.”
“And here I thought you were supposed to be the fun brother!” Bella said with a scowl, turning her back on him and drained the glass again before getting dressed. She was going for the hot, but comfortable look. Tight fitting jeans, because her favorite pair of boots fit so nicely underneath it, and a crop top. It was cropped maybe a little too much to be considered to be a fitting crop top, but it was hot outside, and she wanted her skin to breathe. She wanted to feel what it was like to feel everything, absorb everything.
And she was hungry. She needed more blood. It was time to find a villain.
~o.O.o~
“Something’s not right,” Klaus muttered as he sat in the car next to Hayley. It was a good thing that she was driving because he could feel a sudden burst of power igniting inside of him, something he had felt leave only a couple of days before, tickling the inside of his veins. But he also felt hyper vigilant, on the prowl, and seeing as he was enjoying a somewhat relaxed car ride with Hayley and their daughter, this sensation was out of the ordinary.
“What do you mean?” Hayley asked concerned, quickly looking at Klaus, scanning his face, before looking back at the road.
“I don’t know,” Klaus said as he took his phone and called Kol. “Brother.”
“She’s fine.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” he replied cautiously. “Tell me, where is she? With you?”
“I had to take care of something, Nik; I left her alone in her room to get dressed.”
“What?”
“What? She was naked when she came out of the bathroom while I was waiting for her, how was I supposed to know that she hadn’t brought any clothes with her?”
“Bella has plenty of clothes in our bedroom, Kol.”
“Nik, she went into the bathroom without a change of clothes, so when I waited for her in the room…”
Klaus let out a low growl. “She’s mine.”
“Oh, I know. Don’t you worry about that, I know, but she’s definitely related to the Petrova’s. Anyway, what can I do for you?”
“Where is she now?”
“I told you, the bedroom.”
“And where are you?”
“In the courtyard?”
“Go check on her, now.” Klaus hit his face with the flat palm of his hand while Hayley let out a chuckle. His brother was quite tiresome, he had specifically asked for Elijah to introduce Bella to her new status, but instead, the idiot brother was doing it.
“I swear, she was just here… Nik, she can’t go out without a daylight ring.”
There was panic in Kol’s voice. Good. “If anything happens to her, I will tear out your heart and shove it down your throat until it comes out the other end! Find her! Now!” Kol was right; she couldn’t go out without a daylight ring if she didn’t want to end up like a piece of crispy bacon. But this was Bella they were talking about; something special by herself, a singer, and she survived the Cold Ones. Surely she could escape the sun?
“Sure thing, Nik, I’ll also have Freya do a spell to figure out what’s going on with you, how’s that?”
Klaus merely growled in response and disconnected the call. “We have to go back.”
“Klaus, I’m sure they have it under control,” Hayley laughed. “She’s a newborn vampire, what could go wrong?”
He looked at her and rolled his eyes at her. “Do you really wish for me to answer that?”
~o.O.o~
She had dumped the rapist she’d caught in the act – and then eaten – into a dumpster before resuming her hunt. They were close, but not that close. They’d retreated because of the sun, not even their cloaks would be able to protect them that well against it. Not that they’d be that much of a spectacle in New Orleans. There were crazier things in the street.
She was glad that she didn’t sparkle in the sunlight, in all honesty, when she finally realized that she was out in the sun, she’d already been far away from the compound. And she didn’t combust, either. Klaus turned her, as a vampire, not as a werewolf, she should be burning in the sun, but she didn’t. And she didn’t have a daylight ring.
Was it because of her job description as the Cold One killer? That because of that she didn’t burn? Maybe it would be helpful to find Peter and ask him. Or talk to Kol about this.
Nah. Right now she couldn’t even be bothered. She existed, and that was good enough. Speaking of Kol, just like on the Ancestral Plane, she could feel a certain pull to him, and she was sure she’d overstepped her boundaries with him. Made him feel uncomfortable and… but on the other hand, she didn’t feel guilty about it, either.
And she should be. She knew she should be feeling guilty about this pull she felt towards the youngest Mikaelson brother and Bella knew she needed to tell Klaus about this, but she wasn’t going to. She was angry; there was so much rage and resentment towards Klaus inside of her, and she was going to enjoy every single bit of the pull towards Kol and play with him. Fuck with his mind a little, see how far she could go before the puppy would break.
Bella smirked as she ducked behind the bushes in the Bayou and continued her hunt. The wind was blowing at her so the Cold Ones she’d find wouldn’t be able to smell her and she’d surprise them. Oh, this was going to be fun!
~o.O.o~
“Niklaus just sent me a message,” Elijah remarked calmly as Freya was doing a locator spell on Bella, but was thus far, unsuccessful. “He’s wondering what we’re doing.”
“Just tell him that we’re attempting to locate his troublesome newborn girlfriend seeing as he decided to take off after turning her and leaving us to babysit,” Freya countered angrily. “But the little bitch doesn’t want to be found.”
“That leaves two options; either St. James’ Infirmary or Débauche,” Elijah said as he dialed Myriam’s number. “We’ll have her found in less than five minutes.”
“Elijah?”
“Bella woke up,” Elijah greeted her with a smile on his face. “She came through her transition quite beautifully.”
“Good. When Klaus comes back in town, I’m going to crush his balls in my hands for leaving her alone like that.”
He winced at that. “So I take it she’s not with you?”
“What do you mean, she’s not with me? I thought she was with you? You just said she was doing well with her transition! How can you lose her, Elijah?”
“For the record, I didn’t lose her. It was Kol.”
“Hey!” Kol objected. “I needed to get out of there because she was—”
“How many times does your brother have to die to learn a lesson? And she was what?? I dare you to say it…”
“I heard that!” Kol huffed. “Naked and coming on to me! Quite successfully too!”
“And you gave her a daylight ring?”
“That’s just it, she doesn’t have one,” Elijah said calmly. “But no matter, we’ll find her, don’t worry about it.” Before he knew it, he was knocked off his feet by Myriam, who had rushed over to the compound at top speed. “You didn’t have to come,” he said as he got back to his feet and looked at her. “We have it under control.”
“Oh yeah, it certainly looks like you’ve got it under control.”
“Allow me to call Marcel; he’s at St. James’.”
Myriam looked at Freya for an answer.
“I can’t track her. She’s either there or …”
“Don’t say it,” Myriam hissed. “And if we find her, I’m taking her back to the club until Klaus gets back. The Original family is obviously not equipped to look after a newborn vampire as stubborn and intelligent as Bella.”
“In our defense, the last newborn we’ve raised by ourselves was Marcel,” Kol objected. “And how was I supposed to know that she’d take off?”
“Casse-toi ta Connard!” Myriam rolled her eyes at him. “You shut up, you lost her, you have no say in this!”
“Just calm down,” Freya said calmly as she continued her spell. “Call Marcel; not all is lost.”
She growled and walked to one of the end tables to pour herself a bourbon. “What else aren’t you telling me?”
Elijah sighed and tiredly rubbed his eyes as he called Marcel. “She and Niklaus might be connected on a different level, but we’re not certain of that yet. We figured it was more important to find her first.”
“Of course they’re connected on a different level, they’re fucking each other, aren’t they?”
“Not like that, differently. We don’t know yet. It’s just an idea, a theory. Yes, Marcel, is Bella with you? Ah, I see. Well, thank you. No, everything’s fine. Thank you,” Elijah disconnected the call and sighed, looking at Freya. “Are you certain she’s not dead?”
“I’m pretty sure our brother would be calling and throw insults and threats to our head if that was the case,” she replied as she sat down and thought for a moment. “What if we can’t track her because she’s a hunter? Not like any of the Five or anything, but she’s a special kind of breed of vampire. Or perhaps all the protection spells we’ve bombarded her with over the last two weeks have somehow been absorbed into her body making her even untraceable to my own magic?”
It was almost as if a lightbulb went on over Kol’s head. “I know why she doesn’t need a daylight ring to walk about in the sun.”
