Chapter 08
“What happened to my little girl?”
Klaus sighed as he poured himself a drink as he watched Myriam on his bed, her venom seeping into the mattress. He was going to need to replace that. “She served her purpose in stopping Bella from going nuclear and killing people.”
“She’s dead?”
“Not quite,” Klaus replied as he took a swig of his drink. “We can save her. Turn her into a traditional vampire, but I can’t make my mind up. Does she want to be turned? She hated being a Cold One, I understood that much. However, as a traditional vampire she can have human food again, sit in the sun and not sparkle.”
“Plus, she would want to spend more time with her sister. Is Bella still alive?”
“Yes.”
“Then what are you doubting for, Klaus? You always have your doubts when you want to turn someone you care about,” Peter said as he sighed. “You had it with Marcel too, you told me. Let me tell you, Klaus. Yes, you’ve made mistakes in the past. Yes, you’re an evil mastermind, a monster, but all in the name of love and preservation. Family. Myriam is my family. She’s Bella’s only family. Myriam deserves another chance, and so do you.”
“What if I ruin her?”
“Well, then she has the choice to walk away and never look back. She’s a strong, independent young woman that one. But you promised me you were going to keep her safe. I don’t call this safe.”
“She saved a lot of people by absorbing Bella’s power,” Klaus snarled. “What would you have had me do? Allow Bella to destroy the waterfront, kill half of New Orleans? I’d have an extremely angry, and overly strengthened Cold One on my hands now!”
“If you can save her, do that. It’ll turn out alright. For everyone. She might need some additional help adjusting, just like Bella, but the girls will be fine. And I hope that Myriam will change her mind about forgiving me soon. I want to come and visit. See Bella for myself, do a pub crawl with you.”
“Alright.”
“And for God’s sake, Klaus, take it easy on her. No doubt after what Jasper pulled, she’s having some trust issues.”
“I know that. Bella had her spill the beans on her feelings towards me when she was making up her mind whether to go with Edward or to remain,” he replied. “Who, by the way, is in or near the city. We’re expecting to round them up in the next few days so that we can take care of them.”
“Good. Then get crackin’ and save my daughter.” Peter then disconnected, leaving Klaus waiting for Freya to return from breakfast while he watched Myriam’s still body.
~o.O.o~
Bella woke up the next day. Kol had wanted to give her more of his blood, but it wouldn’t speed up the process of her healing. “Why am I on the bed?” Bella muttered as she rubbed her eyes. Everything hurt, even her eyelashes. “What hap—”
Mushrooms. Wine. Spinach. Chicken breasts. Pasta. Cream cheese. That whore was fantastic. 10/10 would do her again. I’ve drunk too much…. Oh the wife’s going to be pissed. Did I feed my budgies? The wheels on the bus go round and round. Fuck. Did I drop the baby off at the daycare or is he still in the car? Where’s my dealer? Ooh eeh ooh ahh ahh ting tang walla walla bing bang.
With all the thoughts coming from seemingly everywhere came the emotions, and they were overwhelming, flooding her with everything and she couldn’t focus. “No…” she whined as she pulled the pillow over her head, trying to drown out everything. She felt hungry, hot, drunk and something that made her feel even hotter at the same time. “It’s gotten worse… I can’t…”
“Freya is working on a trinket to help you cope, darling, but she can’t help you specifically without you telling her how you work,” Kol said softly as he gently caressed her hair as she writhed on the bed with the pillow covering her ears. “I do have something quite clunky that could help short term, but I can tell you from experience that they’re not comfortable and my siblings will definitely make a remark or two…”
Bella let out a breath as she tried to focus and block everyone out. “Help.” He fastened the anti-magic cuffs around her wrists and she let out a sigh of relief before pushing the pillow off of her and looked at her wrists. “Uhm.”
“I told you, clunky,” He laughed as he helped her sit up. “Welcome back, how are you feeling?”
“I like these!” Bella said as she looked at the cuffs. “I can’t hear anyone! Or… feel what they’re feeling! Well I can, but it’s dulled and so much easier to be!” She hugged Kol tightly. “Oh, thank you so so much.”
He liked this Bella. She almost seemed… normal. “Hungry?”
She nodded before sighing. “What happened? Is Myriam okay? I remember Edward and… he… he released me. He could have destroyed me. And the people in New Orleans! And… Myriam! She saved everyone, didn’t she? Is she alright?”
“Yes,” Kol laughed. “Myriam is alright, you can visit her later, when she’s woken up herself and adjusted to her new situation.”
“What did I do?”
“Like you said, you could have destroyed a fair part of the waterfront and a handful of people,” he smiled at her. “But Myriam made sure that that didn’t happen, you were testing her theoretical powers, right?”
Bella nodded. “Absorption and deflection…” she said and then continued to think. “Oh… it kept bouncing until she absorbed it all, didn’t it? She got hurt, didn’t she? How bad?”
She was better. Smarter. Sharper. “Not bad, don’t worry about it, she just needs a bit longer to recover,” Kol helped her off the bed. “You want to take a shower first? Get into some clean clothes?”
“Do I have to take these off?” Bella pouted as she rattled her shackles. “I’ll have to, don’t I? To get undressed.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll do that after breakfast then,” Bella sighed. “Not sure if I want to hear all of that in my head again. And do I really have to wait to see Myriam?”
“Yes, for your own safety,” Kol said as he lead her out of her room to join the rest of the family, bar Klaus and Myriam, at the breakfast table. “Look who’s awake!”
Rebekah quickly covered Hope’s ears. “Kinky,” she winked at Kol, referring to the shackles, before releasing Hope again and handed her another waffle. “Good morning, Bella, so good to see you back on your feet,” Rebekah smiled at her. “You must be famished.”
“So these work for you?” Freya asked after Bella sat down. “How well do they work for you? I already suspected that your powers would have become stronger, how bad is it?”
“Sister, allow Bella to eat something first, she just woke up,” Kol let out a snort as he saw Bella trying to get something but the shackles were in the way. “These things are a pain, I know,” he said. “What would you like?”
“Pancakes and some tea, please,” she smiled at him before turning to Freya. “They work well enough. I can control what’s remaining of the voices and feelings. And it’s pretty bad, I don’t want it. If I have to, I’ll wear these shackles for the rest of my life.”
“Surely with some practise you’ll manage to handle your abilities,” Freya assured her. “I should teach you some meditation techniques I use to strengthen my magic and the necklace I’m creating will help you with teaching you some control over it as well.”
“Can you make it go away? Entirely?”
“No, it’s a part of you. A true part of you that’s infused within your DNA.”
Bella scowled as she angrily bit off a piece of her pancake. “And why can’t I go and see Myriam again?”
“She’s going through some changes, and when she wakes up she might want to take a bite out of you, since you’re now so deliciously human, it’s best if you wait until she’s used to her changes herself, or discovered her changes herself,” Freya replied when her siblings didn’t. Bella was inquisitive, there was no need to mince their words.
“But she’s already a vampire, I don’t see the big deal? Did I hurt her that bad?”
“No,” Kol gently squeezed her arm to reassure her. “Your powerful abilities merely created some unforeseen side-effects and Nik and Freya had to get creative. Don’t worry, Myriam’s fine. I promise.”
Bella sighed as she continued to eat after taking a sip of her tea, slowly nodding, resigning from pressing on about Myriam. As long as she was fine, it was okay, wasn’t it? She was supposed to be grateful that the both of them were still around after what Bella was told to do, but the Cullens were still around and they were going to kill them all anyway.
Myriam trusted Klaus in keeping them safe, but she hadn’t seen what Bella had saw, or heard what Bella had heard, the things that Edward envisioned were terrible. And they were still in New Orleans. Somewhere. Would Edward even know she’d survived her hard reset? She wanted to tell the Mikaelsons all about what she’d seen and heard, even with little Hope sitting at the table, but refrained from doing so. It already seemed that right now, Myriam was a priority to get back on her feet and they didn’t seem to be worried about the Cold Ones, which meant that Bella shouldn’t be worried.
But it did mean that she had to get herself under control as soon as possible so she could seek out Edward and locate him at all times. Because she did feel as if she had a wider area of effect with her abilities. She hated them because of the intrusion but also because people were mean and inconsiderate, but she could use it to keep an eye on the Cold Ones. All it needed was focus and the strength to push everything else aside.
She gratefully took a piece of toast from Kol that he had buttered with jam after her pancake was finished and wondered if it was even possible for her not to get overwhelmed by everything as soon as Kol would remove those shackles so that Bella could freshen up underneath the shower. Oh, Bella would definitely be overwhelmed. She needed to master her strength. Fast.
You did not wake up today to be mediocre. Y’all need Jesus. What if our phobias are what killed us in a previous life? One monkey, two monkeys, three monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell out and bumped his head. If anyone asks, I’m fine. I could do with a po-boy. Or chowder. What the hell is taking them so long for breakfast? Is this spell working or not? Shouldn’t she have been awake by now? Oh sweetie, you’re not ugly, society is. It was my worst nightmare; a house filled with creepy looking dolls and clowns. There’s no way I’m going back in there, Aaron will be going back in. Fuck dolls. Fuck clowns. Weeee! Ghosts! For God’s sake, why isn’t she awake yet? Her sister is!
Bella whimpered as she had managed to undress herself and crawled underneath the warm water. She had heard Klaus’ voice in her head now, twice, or someone who definitely sounded like him. Why was his mind open? He was the one of the family who kept his mind closed at all times and he had a tough mind to get into. While the water cascaded down her back, she decided to try and focus. Focus on Klaus.
I can’t believe I’ve already finished this book! I want to go to Korea. Goddamnit, King, you’re doing it again! Lord, please save my soul… Come on, Freya… you’re stalling. You just love stalling and making me freak out. Everybody was kung-fu fighting! I should not have made a joke about her insecurities… I should apologize. I look like a sack of potatoes. It shouldn’t be taking this long, but at least she’s breathing. Come on, don’t make me go down there to come and get you. If this goes wrong, in any way, we’ll have an angry adopted father on our hands and a Bella to console… not to mention I might have to kill someone. Myriam deserves to live.
Bella scrambled to her feet and reached for her towel before going into the den area of her room. “Kol! Myriam’s worse than you’re telling me she is! How could you lie to me!” She yelled as she tried to drown out the voices in her head. “Klaus thinks she’s going to die! I will not have her die!”
“Inside voice, darling,” he shushed her, wanting to put the shackles on her, but she pushed him away. She was dripping wet and her towel was only staying up because she was hugging it to her chest. “Myriam’s fine. Nik has his healthy dose of anxiety and paranoia, but Myriam’s fine. Don’t believe everything you hear.”
“His heart is aching, for Myriam! He truly likes her! And he’s afraid! Let me go to him, and Myriam!”
He managed to get the shackles on and made her look at him. “Darling, Myriam’s fine. I assure you. Don’t listen to Nik because he’s always thinking the worst about situations he can’t control. The thoughts you hear may not be always the truth,” he said kindly. “Now, I’m going to take these off again so you can finish your shower and get dressed. Stay out of Nik’s head.”
“Quieten your thoughts, brother,” Freya muttered as she walked into his bedroom. They had changed the mattress and burned the other one after Myriam had stopped leaking venom. “Bella’s quite upset.”
“She can’t get inside my head, I have it closed,” Klaus fumed as he pointed at Myriam. “It’s taking too long!”
Freya smiled then, crossing her arms over her chest. “Really? Your mind is closed? You should work harder to keep her out then because she’s mentally quite the force to be reckoned with. Kol even had to put the anti-magic shackles on her to make sure she could form a coherent thought.”
“Well, how convenient,” Klaus shot at his sister. “Is she waking up? If not, when is she waking up?”
“Relax, Klaus, her body has gone through a lot of changes, it hasn’t been easy on her, it could be another day, it could be another hour,” Freya then cast a spell to see if Myriam was truly doing fine. “And she’s fine. Go get yourself something to eat, relax.”
“No.”
“Very well, I shall bring you something instead,” Freya sighed as she got up and left the bedroom, a content smile on her face.
Klaus kept pacing around the bed, his eyes firmly locked on Myriam’s resting body and a few minutes later, she woke up with a loud gasp, sitting up and looking at Klaus, confused. “Welcome back, love,” he greeted her as he sat down on the edge of the bed. “How are you feeling?”
“You’ve already asked me that,” Myriam said confused as she blinked at him. “No, you didn’t, I just woke up.” She started to check herself over, surprised by seeing human skin. It felt like human skin, bouncy and there were hairs on them. “Okay, so the downside is that I’m not a human, but I’m a hybrid, like you?”
He blinked at her, not having said a word. “Are you alright, Myriam?”
“Yes, yes, you’ve already asked me that,” she said, slightly annoyed.
“Because I haven’t told you anything about your current condition yet.”
“Freya and Hope did a spell and you turned me, you even asked Peter if you should turn me,” she smiled at him then. “You’re stupid, but thank you for saving my life. And yes, I should go to my room and take a shower or something. I don’t burn in sunlight, do I? That’s great! Oh, can I eat human food? Are there pancakes downstairs? Waffles? Cakes? Sandwiches?”
“You can use my shower, Myriam,” he suggested. “Freya’s returning shortly with some breakfast, and I’m sure she’ll be more than delighted to get your clothes.”
“Can we go to the store? I want cereal. Apple Jacks. And Hershey twizzlers,” she said as she walked into Klaus’ bathroom and stripped herself out of her clothes. “Oh, this looks so good… hi body! I missed you! Oh, rocky road ice cream! Oh… yes…” Myriam let out a moan as she turned on the shower.
“Of all the food in the world and the first thing you’d like to eat is cereal and junkfood?”
“Yes. Share it with Bella and see what she thinks of it,” she stepped underneath the shower and loved the warm water on her skin, letting out a slight moan, she thought of something else. “Oh, and barbeque ribs. There’s this great place in Texas. Peter knows where.”
Myriam was like a whirlwind, and Klaus wasn’t sure if he needed to be worried or amused. She was naked, in his shower, and he tried hard not to peek into it as the door had remained open. She was letting out these moans of pleasure, of joy and his dick was happy. He needed to calm himself, fast.
“I’m not going to give you a hand with that!” Myriam called out. “I appreciate that I can use your shower but I’m so not giving you a hand with that! Hi Freya!”
“Hi…” Freya said confused as she looked at her brother, then down a little and back up again. “What’s going on?”
“Her brain is firing on all synapses, it seems. Did you miss anything during your magical assessments?”
Freya put down the tray of food and blood and scratched herself behind her ear. “Uhm… I could have? I don’t know, I wasn’t looking for magic, is there’s something magical going on?”
“Let me save you the trouble,” Myriam said from underneath the shower, slightly annoyed. “I can fucking see the future, and relevant parts of the past, so it seems. I didn’t noticed it at first because I just woke up and all but my mind is making like spinny motions.”
“That makes sense,” Freya replied. “Seeing as a embryo and unborn child, you were being genetically manipulated with the DNA of a witch with precognition, correct?”
“Yeah, Alice. But after turning she could only see the future based on decisions other people made,” Myriam replied, still loving the feeling of the hot water on her skin though. “It’s hard to keep my thoughts linear, to slow everything down. And I don’t want this shit. Give it to Bella.”
Freya chuckled. “Trust me, she’s having her own issues at the moment. I sincerely doubt she’d like to have your ability on top of hers. However, I could make you a little piece of jewelry that could help you focus more. Yoga and mediation would work wonders for you as well.”
“Ugh, hippy shit.”
“Hippy stuff that actually works,” Freya let out a snort. “Then again, sex often does wonders as well. It’s all about aligning your energy and focus. Orgasms are a fantastic way of doing that.”
Myriam walked out of the bathroom with a towel around her and smirked. “Then I’m going to need a vibrator too. You smell great, Freya, wow… so intense… so… beautiful… delicious— yeah, I know,” she said as she ducked from underneath Klaus’ arms, making him fall flat on his face. “No nipping on the sisters, jeez! I’ve been a vampire before, you know!”
She picked up a glass of blood and knocked it back, before she immediately threw it back up, spitting it out. “Ow, ouch, that hurts! What’s in this shit!”
“Nothing,” Klaus said surprised as he took another glass and took a sip from it. “It’s actually from one of our healthiest donors, delicious.” He handed her his glass for her to try.
She reluctantly tried his glass and the same thing happened. “I can’t even swallow this before my throat closes up, this is … not good.”
“I’m a crappy vampire,” Myriam muttered as she, now fully dressed, hugged Bella. “Blood is not good for me.”
Bella was glad to see her sister not being a Cold One anymore, but she hated it that she had been the catalyst for that. From what she could pick up, Myriam was now a vampire hybrid with a werewolf side, like Klaus and Hope’s mother Hayley. She then had a thought. “Have you tried mine?”
“Bella!”
“No, I’m serious,” Bella said as she looked at her sister. “You helped me with making sure I wouldn’t hurt anyone, what if I can help you?”
“You’re still a human,” Myriam pouted. “And I had some human blood, it wasn’t pretty.”
“I’m sorry,” Bella put her arms around her sister as well as she could with the shackles still around her wrists. “I wish there was anything I could do to help.”
“Are you kidding me? You’re helping me,” Myriam smiled as she playfully tugged on Bella’s shackles. “You and Kol already taking things to the next step? Kinky stuff?”
Bella opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again when she didn’t have an answer. Despite her being whole now, she wasn’t quite sure what it still meant. However, since she mentioned Kol, Bella’s grin grew wider. “Weren’t you just sharing a shower with Klaus? He was very… happy.”
“Bella!” Klaus scowled. “Now is not the time. Or place!”
“Something I said?” Bella said innocently as Rebekah started to laugh. Bella then grabbed a handful of strawberries from the table and handed one to Myriam. “You should be able to have human food now, I know you’d still need blood, but this should taste good.”
Myriam sighed as she took a bite off her strawberry. “I already gave Freya a list of what I’d like, maybe you and I could go to Walmart together instead.”
“Wearing these?” Bella let out a snort as she jingled her shackles.
“Why not?” Myriam shrugged as she sat down at the table. “So… has this happened before? A vampire not being able to have human blood?”
“Actually, yes,” Klaus replied as he took a sip of his bourbon. “There was an incident, two incidents, actually, when it came to a young vampire called Damon Salvatore.”
“Oh, that name sounds familiar,” Myriam muttered. “Brother named Stefan. Screwed with them and screwed them both. Stupid fucks. Seriously need to work on their stamina and stop obsessing about the same girl. It was easy to fuck with them, all I needed to do was to change into the object of their affection and I could get my rocks off.”
Oh, Klaus knew about Damon and Stefan, he had suspected as much when their names dropped only a few weeks earlier. Then again, his sister had had sex with Damon as well and Elijah was quite interested in the doppelganger… But he wanted to rip out their hearts for having had sex with Myriam. “Damon has a habit of when he sires vampires, that there’s a sire bond between him and his vampire. There’s still one of his accidents roaming the streets of New Orleans, counting bricks. But for a long time, Elena couldn’t have anything but human blood as Damon had told her that animal blood wasn’t good for her and that she shouldn’t have it.”
“You think she’s sired to you?” Freya wondered. “I have found no evidence of that.”
“Because it’s not something you can magically detect, sister. It’s all about trusting your sire and having an emotional bond with them,” Elijah replied calmly. “Tell me, Niklaus, have you given Myriam an order yet to rule out this sire bond?”
“No, of course not,” Klaus replied. “Because I haven’t even told her that human blood is bad, I would never say such a thing. We need blood to survive, any kind of blood. There was a time when I was on the run from Mikael where I had to live off of rats, because there was nothing else available.”
“Our father didn’t drink from humans, either. By choice, but he could live off of vampires,” Elijah added. “So that was an option.”
“Speaking of Damon… he was once an Augustine vampire, wasn’t he?” Kol piped up. “You told me that once, Elijah, when you were catching me up. To be honest, I wouldn’t be too surprised if our good doctor Carlisle had a hand in that organisation and kept the virus to himself, not to share it with others. The virus in Damon and Elena were created much later.”
“You don’t think—”
“Keelin went over Myriam’s DNA. There was something she couldn’t identify,” Freya added and nodded to Klaus. “Fork over some of your blood, let’s see if Myriam can keep it inside.” When Klaus wasn’t budging, Freya kicked his shins. “It’s just putting some of your blood inside a glass, you’re not sharing anything in an intimate way. Give me some or I will ask Elijah, Kol or Rebekah to donate.”
Klaus scowled as he bit in his hand and looked at his siblings, a hint of warning in his eyes to stay away from Myriam. He poured some of his blood in an empty cup and handed it to Myriam. “There you go.”
For the love of god, I hope this works. If it works, we’ll have to figure something out because there is no way I’m letting —-
Bella shook her head, it was almost as if Klaus was sitting right next to her. She shouldn’t be able to hear him so clearly, even with the shackles on. Klaus’ mouth wasn’t moving when she heard his words. She looked back at her shackles which seemed to be still intact for such an old pair of metal. Klaus felt possessive over Myriam, was that a good thing? Or incredibly bad? Did Bella need to speak up about this? Or let it go?
This is going to be a disaster if she becomes dependent on his blood and doesn’t accept his interest.
Rebekah. Not too pleased when Myriam was taking a sip from Klaus’ blood. Very protective over her brother. Bella looked at her shackles again, they were still in one piece. She then looked at her sister and was relieved when she was able to keep it down. “See? Not a crappy vampire, just marching to a different drum,” she smiled widely. “Like me!”
Myriam smiled back at her, and slowly nodded. Well, this is going to suck. Keep smiling, your sister is so proud of you. I really should give him a shot, he’s trying really hard and he’s doing everything he can to help us. No reason to it other than the goodness of his heart. Damnit. Fucker. Can’t go on a fucking feeding spree now, unless I eat his vampires. Gross.
Klaus was relieved to see that Myriam took well to his blood. He was surprised to see Bella look at her as if she was something foreign and then a bright smile appeared on the girl’s face. ‘Bella, sweetheart?’ Bella’s head snapped to Klaus, looking like the kid who got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. In turn, Klaus eyed her shackles. ‘Is everything okay there?’
‘You have nothing to worry about,’ Bella replied as she glanced at Myriam, finding it strange how natural talking inside her mind still felt. She then looked at Klaus, a slight panic flashing across her face. ‘But uhm… I shouldn’t be able to do this with these on.’
‘We have another set of those, but I wish to keep them in one piece in case we’d ever run into an unruly witch again.’
Bella nodded slowly, understanding the conflicting thoughts in Klaus’ head. These shackles were a blessing to her, a tool for them. He already ruled out Freya’s new trinket, because that would break just as easily as the shackles, if not sooner, seeing as these shackles were created as a dark object by his brother. He was thinking about other options though, she took solace in that.
‘For now, I think you should discuss this with Kol. You seem to be able to follow a singular voice right now, you should focus on his. Perhaps that will make it easier for you to learn control. But you do need to accept this gift of yours, don’t fight it, it’ll make it easier when you simply accept that you can do this. Keep the shackles on, use them as a barrier for now, until they give up. You see the bad side of it, I see them too, mainly because you’re intruding, but the good side of this is that you can help people. Help your sister. Help us when we’re in trouble. You’re a delicate presence, Bella, and not many telepathically gifted can say that.’
Bella nodded again. ‘Thank you.’ She then turned to Kol and gently tugged on his shirt. “We need to talk,” she said softly and nodded towards her room.
“Okay,” he helped her to her feet and put an arm around her as they walked back towards her room. “Is everything okay?”
“Not here,” she smiled as they walked inside and closed the door. “Now we can talk,” she said as she sat down at the table, her hands in her lap because the shackles made them heavy. She then put them on the table. “Do you see anything wrong with these shackles? I’ve been wearing them since this morning, only a few hours ago, after I took my shower.”
He gently took her hand and pulled it closer to him before carefully checking the shackle over. “They’re cracking, but how’s that possible? These should be indestructible! I mean, even I couldn’t get out of them, nor Finn!”
“I cracked a Cold One’s skin to the point where she had to be turned into a regular vampire,” Bella countered, a small smile on her face. “Must be something with the mental vibrations or something, I don’t know, but I do know that they’re not going to hold up for much longer. I can already get into Klaus’ mind, and hold conversations with him.”
“But he’s the strongest of us all.”
“I know, but I have been focussing on him because of Myriam. I needed to know she was alright, and she is. She will be,” she sighed, shaking her head. “But I do need to focus on one singular thought and Klaus doesn’t want it to be him. I don’t want it to be him because he needs to focus on Myriam.”
“His thoughts are a lot more in order than mine, Bella,” Kol said, a little hesitant but understanding where she was coming from. “What if you hear or see something you don’t like?”
“Depending on what it is, I’ll ask you about it, I guess,” Bella shrugged. “It’s alright if you don’t want to do this. I can ask Myriam. Or Freya, but I trust you.”
“I’m not that big on trust, Bella…” he said, almost as if he was ashamed of himself.
“You don’t trust me?”
“I don’t trust myself,” he replied, looking at her, trying to meet her eyes. “I don’t trust myself. With you. You’re…” Kol sighed then as he was still holding her hand. “You’re quite something.”
“I’m not broken anymore, Kol,” she gently squeezed his hand. “You took some distance because I was broken and it’s not right to have feelings for a broken person because they don’t know what they’re talking about or doing. But the main thing here is that I trust you. I trust you with me. I may have a few things to learn still but I understand now.”
“But is it right, though?” Kol wondered as he looked at her.
“You’ve killed thousands of people. You’ve tried to kill your brother a handful of times and you have control issues. Your life hasn’t been easy either, and you have come out strong. I trust you. With me.”
“But Bella, I care more about you than I’m willing to admit, and I’m afraid that—”
“Like Klaus fancies Myriam?”
He let out a laugh then. “I’m not sure what his feelings for Myriam are at this point, but if they’re very positive… then yes.”
Bella blushed furiously. “I’d like that, though, I’ve never had someone care for me that deeply.”
“It’s relationship stuff. You know… kissing, touching…”
“Sex?” Bella asked hopeful.
“So you do know about it all! Were you playing it down, all your knowledge?” He laughed. “You minx.”
“No, but I learn fast, and I’ve seen enough minds to know what it’s like for others, and how beautiful it can be when it’s with the right person. Klaus and Myriam, for example, have so much potential to be something so beautiful,” she squeezed his hand again. “And I think, that if we give it some time, we can be too. On top of that, your thoughts are safe with me. I am discreet, it’ll between you and me, but I do need you for that. To anchor me.”
Oh, she was brilliant. And brave. And insane. But it was a good thing that she didn’t dismiss him, that she understood where he was coming from. He didn’t need to trust himself with her, she trusted him with her. It was enlightening, to say the least. “Alright darling, I’m giving you permission to shift your focus from Klaus to me.”
“Thank you,” Bella let out a sigh of relief as she let go of Klaus and looked for Kol’s voice. “I need to find you… and focus.”
It’s not possible for Wolverine to get circumcised. Why is Chewbacca’s name Chewbacca when he can’t do anything but roar? Where’s that fucking ferris wheel? Plain flour… nutella… I still have baking powder… Bella, how can you find me? Nothing’s actually on fire, fire is on things. Let’s put fire on that car tonight. It’s fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A. Bella, did you find me yet? You know when you came out the bathroom this morning, in a panic, and wearing nothing but that towel…
“Kol!” she laughed, shaking her head at the mental image she received and looked at him. “That’s…”
“Not wrong,” he winked at her. “So you found me?”
Bella nodded and she put her free hand on top of his as he wanted to remove her shackles. “Not yet. Just let them break… I have a bit of control now, it’s okay. Maybe when it breaks I won’t have it that terrible… I know how to control the way that I had it.”
“But if you broke through Nik’s defenses, and you’re breaking these things…”
“I can’t hurt people anymore,” she assured him. “I don’t know why this is happening, why it’s become stronger after what happened, but my best guess is that Edward removed every safety precaution with his command.”
“And also any restriction to you as a person,” he reminded her. “I like that. Getting to know the real you.”
“Nothing different, just a better version,” she replied as she squeezed his hand again. “Free.”
“Well, you and I have learned a lot of things just now, what are we going to do next?”
“Talk some more? It distracts me.”
He got to his feet and lifted her up, bringing her over to the sofa and sat her down before sitting down himself, putting an arm around her and pulled her closer. “Yes, but let’s be more comfortable while we talk, in all honesty, those chairs need replacing. Something softer.”
Bella relaxed into him and put her head against his shoulder. “There’s nothing wrong with those chairs, but this is better, yes,” she let out a breath. “I don’t have my shield anymore, I tried putting it up but it’s not there anymore.”
“That’s alright, darling, we’ll protect you. I’ll protect you.”
“But you didn’t see what Edward wanted to do. It was… a massacre, everyone was dead, and Myriam was mutilated, there wasn’t anything recognizable left. And he was so… cold. Angry. Vicious.”
“I don’t need to see what Edward wanted to do, it’s what we’ve done for a very long time when we were in Europe. Whenever someone wronged us, or when we felt we were wronged, we went on a rampage,” Kol told her. “I can get where he’s coming from. You cost them a lot of money, then Nik went on a rampage, Myriam went on a rampage… the Cullens were taken a peg or two down. No doubt the Volturi are breathing down their necks. I’m not saying that what the Cullens, and the Cold Ones in general, are doing is right. Because it’s not. But I do understand. And still, we’re going to kill them all. And should the Volturi come, or that newborn army, we’re going to kill those too. Because their actions, their hobbies, are not right, and the both of you need to get some revenge, too.”
“Save the children.”
“Save the children, indeed,” Kol agreed. “Something you started, yes?”
Bella sighed. “I may have started it but with Jasper’s duality and backstabbing, I doubt if I ever truly saved a child. They may have just transferred it to a different facility, come to think of it.”
“But your intentions were the right one, Bella, you can still help people, just differently now. In a different capacity, with your heart, and perhaps even with your gift. I know, I know, you hate what you can do, and I understand. But you know, darling? It’s magic. And all magic is fun. You can have so much fun with your gift, I promise.”
“Reading someone’s thoughts and feelings isn’t fun.”
“Unless you do it to fuck with their heads,” Kol winked at her. “Like tease Nik or your sister. Give it some time.”
“Everything needs some time,” Bella sighed as she relaxed some more in his arms. “But Marcel’s vampires are keeping a better eye out now?”
“There are more vampires now, Marcel and Nik called in some favors. Don’t worry, Bella, you’re safe, I don’t know how many times I have to tell you, but I will continue to tell you that you’re safe. Allow us to worry about your and your sister’s safety, you and Myriam now need to work on healing and learning how to deal with your new, or stronger, abilities,” he kissed the top of her head. “You’re not thinking of leaving again, are you?”
“Are you?”
“Only if you come with me.”
“Only if we’re taking Myriam with us.”
Kol groaned. “But that means we’ll have to bring Nik too!”
Bella laughed. “So no leaving then?”
