Chapter 13
Later that day, after dinner, Scott rose from the dead. No longer a werewolf, but a vampire/werewolf hybrid. Freya had explained that the spell she’d cast helped Derek to become an Alpha, but because of her siblings wanting Scott as a pet, they’d have to get creative and needed magic to bind his werewolf side to Klaus’ vampirism. There was a long list of ingredients and Bella was mostly surprised to hear that they kept a small vial of Hope’s blood at hand for powerful spells now that Hope was older.
All the Mikaelsons had him surrounded as Kol force fed Scott some human blood, taken from his best friend Stiles, who had been under compulsion for hours now, seeing as he was annoying and had been on the phone to his dad and talking about killing everyone for killing his best friend, it was highly unpleasant, but quite entertaining.
“Oh, gross,” Scott said as he wiped his mouth. “What the hell did you do to me?”
“We made you better,” Klaus smiled at him.
“Oh, okay,” Scott said with a nod. “Didn’t know I was defective. Thank you.”
“Well that’s brilliant, I won’t even have to compel you to do my bidding, will I?”
“No, of course not,” Scott replied as a matter of factly. “I’d do anything for you.”
Rebekah stood to the side, arms crossed in front of her with a frown. “Another little pet for you, brother. I thought you would have learned your lesson after the last lot was sacrificed.”
“We all agreed that this pet would be a good idea, don’t worry, love, I’ll tell him he has to play with everyone.”
“I was not here for this conversation and I have to say that I don’t particularly like it,” she protested. “Another hybrid. Aside from Hayley, we also have Marcel – who’s barely an acquaintance at this point to keep him from trying to kill us, and you are making new pets when we are supposed to be preparing for an invasion to protect the girl!”
“Ah, but this would not have happened if he hadn’t shown up, now, would it?” Klaus smiled, amused by his sister, knowing that she was right. But still. Scott was to be enjoyed by everyone. “Listen to me, Scott, you’re going to do whatever my siblings and I wish for you to do, is that understood?”
“Of course,” he smiled widely as he looked around. “Who are you guys?”
Stiles sat off to the side, compelled in silence as he watched his friend, who he thought was killed, following everything said as if they were the words of a god. He could do nothing to beat some sense into him and glared at Derek and the guy’s sister, unable to do anything.
“Wait, what’s going on here?” Derek said confused. “I thought he’d still have some free will left, and that you would compel him if need be.”
“Oh, they didn’t tell you?” Rebekah looked at Derek. “Whenever my brother creates a hybrid, they’re immediately sired to him, worshipping the ground he walks on and they don’t even realize that they’re doing it. Oh, we can still compel him, if we’d like to, but Scott’s now insanely loyal towards my brother.”
“No I’m not,” Scott huffed before he spotted Stiles and went over to him. “Hey!”
Stiles merely smiled at him.
“What? No hug?”
Stiles narrowed his eyes on his friend. This wasn’t Scott. At all.
Scott walked back to Klaus as he ran his hand through his hair. “Uh, what did you do with Stiles?”
“Oh, we compelled him to stay and to shut up, nothing to worry about, your friend is fine.”
“Oh, okay,” Scott nodded. “Are you sure?”
“Of course. Now, be a good little pup and make sure he stays where he is. And do be quiet, the adults have some things to discus,” Klaus said as he pushed Scott towards Stiles. “This is going to be fun,” he grinned at Myriam. “And whenever we get bored with him, we just put him in the dungeons.”
“Unbelievable,” Rebekah shook her head. There was nothing more that she wanted than to compel the boy to run, but if she’d do that, she’d be in trouble with her family and she really didn’t want that. She was just going to have to make sure that he was well taken care of.
Did Bella feel guilty about Scott’s predicament? Absolutely not. She wanted him dead for what he had done, but she supposed this was a better way. Scott would now be under the full control of the Mikaelsons. Of Klaus. As a toy. She doubted that Scott would be used for anything else. It was like… prison. But not. Or something. Myriam had assured her that when they’d send Stiles back to Beacon Hills, he’d be fully compelled to forget and instructed what to say when people would ask about Scott.
The only thing that needed to be easier explained was Derek’s new Alpha status because Chris Argent and Deaton weren’t dumb. With Scott gone, and Derek now an Alpha again, they’d know that something was up. Perhaps Myriam was going to travel back with Derek and Stiles to Beacon Hills to compel everyone, it would be a whole lot easier. Maybe even have everyone forget about Scott.
Wouldn’t that be something?
Or would they understand the situation and believe that Derek got his spark back through magic? It wasn’t anything Bella was going to be worried about. Scott got what he deserved, end of. The fall out was for those who went back to Beacon Hills, and it surely wasn’t going to be her or Isaac.
The following day, Stiles and Scott were put in the dungeons for their own safety as Peter knew that the Cold Ones were coming that day. It was a rare overcast day for New Orleans, thick clouds were in front of the sun and there was no doubt that they had a witch on their side who could control the weather.
They all quickly made their way to the Bayou; not wanting the French Quarter to get caught up in the mayhem because the Cullens would find them there, anyway. No matter where they’d go. “Are you ready for this?” Derek asked his sister.
Bella let out a breath and nodded. “Yeah, this needs to end.”
“Now, remember, we go for the Volturi Guard first, then for the Cullens. And Edward is Bella’s,” Peter reminded everyone of the game plan. “And you can help hold him down when needed, of course,” he smiled at Isaac.
Hayley’s werewolves sprinted forward then, when the leaves rustled and it was followed by some yelling and the sound of steel breaking. Other Cold Ones came from the surrounding area, but no Cullens so far. Marcel and his vampires took one side and the Mikaelsons the other. In the midst of the battle that was going on, there was a clear space where the Cullens stopped, right in front of Bella, Isaac, Derek, Jeremy, Peter, Charlotte, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie.
“Seriously,” Bella said calmly at the display. In front of her were Edward, Carlisle, Alice, Esme, their cousins and someone else she didn’t recognize.
“Garrett, why make the wrong decision, man? I liked you!” Peter said disappointed. “The other day Char here thought it’d be nice to invite you over for a threesome!”
Garrett smirked as he walked over to Peter and hugged him before kissing Char. “I’d be honored. So how good of an idea was it to put me with them lot, huh?”
“Kinda reckless, but good thing you’re a great liar,” Charlotte grinned up at him before putting her arms around him and looked at the dumbfounded looks of the Cullens and the Denali. “Yeah, as if. You know that Garrett never liked you, why would he, all of a sudden, join you on your own mission to hell for some girl?”
“Bella, this has gone on for long enough,” Carlisle said kindly. “Come home.”
Bella took Isaac’s hand out of instinct and looked at her boyfriend. “Are they high on their own pheromones or something? Delusional? Dropped on the head too much? Mentally ill?”
“Obsessed,” Isaac nodded with a smile as he looked at her. Bella felt as if she could melt. There was so much love and adoration in his eyes for her that it was beautiful. He, was beautiful. “But who wouldn’t be obsessed with you? You’re amazing.”
“She’s mine!” Edward’s vampire visage bled out. “She’s my fiancé and you took her from me!”
“It’s always the same line, isn’t it?” Peter asked Bella. “She’s mine! Give her back! You took her from me! You’re sick! This isn’t right!” he added in a whiny voice.
Bella smiled widely then as she turned back to face Edward, her own werewolf face now coming out, her eyes glowing red, her hands turning into claws. “I am not yours, Edward Cullen. I have never been and I never will be.”
When Edward lunged for Isaac, she intercepted him and slammed his cold, hard body on the ground, denting the soil in the process. The others ran past her to take care of the rest, but her focus was solely on Edward. The amount of rage towards him and his family contained inside of her was unhealthy and she needed to let it out. Isaac was close by, helping Jasper destroy Alice, but for now, she had time alone with Edward.
Bella quickly managed to get rid of one leg that Edward wasn’t going to need anymore and threw it away in a general direction before she heard Kol laugh. “Thank you for my bat, Bella darling!” The sound of steel hitting steel could be heard soon after that.
Edward rolled away from her then and managed to get her in a choke hold, she quickly had difficulty breathing and she couldn’t move. “You’re coming back with me, Bella, whether you like it or not.”
Bella managed to let out a loud roar then, causing both Isaac and Derek to stop what they were doing and quickly made their way over to Bella to free her from Edward’s arms. Derek ripped off one arm while Isaac tugged on the other so that Bella could roll away from Edward. He then planted his foot firmly on Edward’s torso and pulled on his arm, leaving Edward limbless and only with one leg.
Once she had caught her breath, she leapt on top of Edward and started to tug on his head. “You mother fucker! I am not ever coming back with you! I should have never ignored my own feelings about you so you could manipulate me, you fucking asshole!” One big tug and with a pop, his head separated from his torso. She placed the head next to her as she slid down his body and opened his chest cavity before grabbing his head again and pushed it right in the hole that she had created.
She was so tempted to grab his dick and shove it up his ass, but her rage was satisfied now. All that she needed to do now was to set the fucker on fire and be done with it. She looked up to Isaac who held out his hand to pull her up. “What do you think of the remodelling of the statue?” She asked as she put her arms around her boyfriend.
“I think it’s… better than the original, for sure,” Isaac let out a chuckle and handed Bella a lighter. “I know that we’re supposed to collect them all and make one big bonfire out of them but I think you deserve to have your own little one.”
Derek pulled a small bag of marshmallows out of his pocket. “I brought these.”
“Brilliant!” Bella smiled widely.
He handed her the small bag and kissed the top of her head. “Proud of you sis,” he said proudly. “Now, excuse me, there are more Cold Ones to kill.”
“Oh, yes, let’s do that first!” Bella said excitedly as she handed the marshmallows to Isaac and ran to the next available Cold One to tear apart.
The gigantic bonfire was spectacular, and everyone looked pleased with their work. Jasper had left briefly to get the bottles of alcohol he had promised Bella, and she was happily sharing her bottle with Isaac. Even Derek was shocked by the fact that he felt the buzz of the alcohol. “I want to thank you all for helping me. You didn’t have to, but thanks to you, the world is a whole lot safer to live in. You truly freed me. Even with my new life, with Isaac, the idea of the Cullens finding me and wanting to take me back always lingered in the back of my mind and I don’t have that anymore, so really, thank you so much.”
“You are very welcome, little Swan,” Klaus saud, quite enjoying the fact that he felt buzzed from Peter and Jasper’s concoction already. “But we are not done yet.”
“We’re not?”
The hybrid shook his head. “If I’m not mistaken, the Volturi still believe you’re a human and they’ll come after you again. And again. Because no human is allowed to know about who they truly are. Perhaps a diplomatic trip to Volterra is in order to convince them otherwise?”
“He’s right,” Jasper replied. “They’d need to have proof that your status has changed, besides you were never human to begin with. They’re not impossible or unfair, just a big bunch of dicks.”
That was the last thing she wanted to hear; and she knew she couldn’t ask of anyone else to go, either, because the Volturi would want to see for themselves. “If you’d like to, Myriam and I could accompany you and your boyfriend. We have a family home in Rome where we could stay,” Klaus said kindly. “The Volturi aren’t unreasonable, but they’re not very fond of wolves, either.”
“God, I hope not,” Bella muttered as she leaned into Isaac and looked up at him. “Italy?”
“You’re going to love the food,” he grinned and planted a kiss on her head. “And the history, I mean, Rome is beautiful.”
“Very well… once more to Volterra it is.”
~o.O.o~
A couple of days later they landed in Rome and Bella was wearing one of the dresses she had bought in New Orleans. While she had felt free, truly free after destroying the Cullens and their family, the thought of having to face the Volturi again filled her with dread. The least she could do was to dress pretty. For herself and Isaac.
Derek had taken Stiles back to Beacon Hills, fully compelled and Elijah had come along to have a chat with Argent and Deaton about Scott and Derek’s transformation. If needed, Elijah would compel anyone necessary when it came to Scott.
She wanted to get it over with and head to Volterra after they’d landed, but Klaus and Myriam insisted in staying in Rome for the night. After all, there was enough time in the world and life was all about enjoyment, according to Myriam. Bella couldn’t sleep, so she dragged Isaac into Rome with her to explore in the dark and with the pretty lights.
“You’re right, Rome is pretty,” Bella said as they had climbed on top of the Colosseum, granting them a spectacular view of the city by night. “Did you live around here for long?”
“Long enough,” he replied with a smile. “It was more fun to travel through Italy, through the small villages and talk to the nonna’s, and learn from them. The nature and the environment is simply stunning and once you really involve yourself in the culture, live amongst them Italians, it’s the best thing ever.”
“Nerd,” Bella barked out a laugh.
“It’s the same for every country though, and you, as a history lover, should be intrigued. You learn a lot from the history of a country or a place by talking to the locals and to befriend them,” he smiled then as he tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and kissed her tenderly. “Maybe, once our B&B is fully running with all the staff we could possibly need and make us obsolete, we could do some travelling.”
“Warm countries only.”
“Indonesia… Suriname… Curaçao, Aruba…”
“Sounds great. I’ve always wanted to backpack through Europe, too, so maybe we can do that too?” she sighed happily. “I just hope that after we’ve gone to the Volturi that that’s it for my personal hell and that all I need to worry about is us, our friends and the people we’re going to help.”
Isaac let out a breath and nodded. “You know… what Derek and the Mikaelsons did to Scott… it’s weird.”
“It’s better than him dying, isn’t it?”
He shrugged then. “I honestly don’t know if it’s better or not. Sure, now I’m certain he’s not going to do anything anymore and all… and he got what he deserved, but it’s kinda cruel.”
“He hurt you, deeply.”
“As did Derek, and yet, he’s back to being an Alpha now.”
“But you said it yourself, Derek has changed. Scott hasn’t, and he likely never will because he doesn’t see the bigger picture like Derek does,” she gently rubbed his arm. “You can always tell Klaus that Scott could return to Beacon Hills, you know, I’m sure he’d do that.”
“No, Scott needs to stop doing what he does.”
“Then this is the best solution,” she smiled at him and kissed him. “Don’t feel guilty about it, the pup stuck his nose where it didn’t belong. It has consequences. He doesn’t treat people the way they should be treated, either. This is a good solution,” she assured him. “Trust me. If it were up to me, I would have killed him.”
They were quiet for some time before Isaac spoke again. “Freedom from your demons does feel good, doesn’t it?”
Bella laughed. “Yeah. Yeah it does!”
The Volturi agreed to have an audience with Klaus Mikaelson, who had brought young Bella Swan with him. Aro was delighted, if Klaus Mikaelson had Edward’s lover, then the Cullens surely were dead! Caius wasn’t entirely sure if he had to be happy with Klaus Mikaelson’s return to Volterra, as all encounters with the Mikaelsons usually lead to leaving them empty handed.
Everything was as Bella remembered it to be, only now with less of the guard, which filled her with immense joy and she could hardly contain herself. She was nervous, though. What if despite her telling Aro that she wasn’t human to begin with that he’d ordered her to die, anyway? She couldn’t leave Isaac and she surely didn’t want to abandon their mission.
Klaus had told her she had nothing to worry about, that this was a mere courtesy call to tell them to accept what she was and to back off, or there would be consequences. Myriam then said that nobody liked having a fight with the Mikaelsons because they always won.
“Mr. Mikaelson, such a surprise! And you brought others?” Aro greeted Klaus as he got up from his throne to approach him and Bella. “And Miss Swan, so deliciously young as always.”
“Aro,” Klaus greeted him with a nod. “My condolences, I had to take care of your guard when they came to New Orleans to aid the Cullens, I’m afraid that they crossed into my city and you won’t ever see them again.”
Aro sneered then. “We had a deal!”
“The deal was that I’d stay out of your business, and you’d stay out of mine. Miss Swan is under my protection, not that she needs it,” he said as he narrowed his eyes on Aro. “The Cullens are dead. Those who are still alive are victims themselves of the elder and younger Cullen’s manipulation and also under my protection. Now, I understand you had an agreement with Bella about her needing to turn or die because of her knowledge of the Cold Ones?”
“That still stands, despite the losses. It’s law that no human can know about our kind. No matter if she’s under your protection. Our law.”
“Of course,” Klaus smiled courteously.
“It’s foolish of you to have brought another human to this meeting,” Aro said as he looked at Isaac. “Such a fine specimen as well. I’d hate having to kill you.”
“Go on, pups, show them why the both of you are hands off,” Myriam encouraged them, Aro was pissing her off, and she could tell that Bella was about to snap.
Aro took a few steps back when Bella and Isaac put their game faces on, Bella’s eyes flashing red, Isaac’s yellow. “Do know that it takes a tremendous amount of restraint for me not to rip your head off your shoulders,” Bella threatened Aro. “You knew about the Cullens and what they did and you should have stopped them years ago.”
Aro blinked before looking over his shoulder to see if he wasn’t the only one seeing this. From the look of disgust on Caius’ face, this was real. Turning back around, he saw that Bella and her friend had turned their faces back to normal. “My apologies, Ms. Swan, we didn’t know.”
“Neither did I,” Bella said calmly as she took Isaac’s hand. “As it turned out, my werewolf side was suppressed for years by poison, perhaps Wolf Lichen blocks your gifts as well. Does this mean I won’t be killed now?”
“Now why would we want to do that? You’re a fascinating creature, even when we believed you were human! It would have been a shame to kill you, that’s why we hoped that Edward would turn you! But… we’d rather not taint the gene pool, so to speak. We also don’t believe it’s possible to turn a creature such as yourself.”
“Will you call off anyone else who is after me?”
“Of course! You’re free to live a happy and fruitful life. Enjoy your freedom, Miss Swan.”
“I know I’m not in the position to make demands, but I do have a request. I do believe that you owe me one.”
“And what’s your request?”
“I request the freedom of Emmett and Rosalie Cullen and Jasper, Peter and Charlotte Whitlock. Rosalie and Emmett, as Jasper, had been victims of Carlisle as well. And Peter and Charlotte have done enough to stay out of your way over the years and not to cause any ripples in their existence. They deserve the same freedom as you’ve now granted me.”
Aro scowled then. “But I want Jasper and Peter to work for the Volturi.”
“They have their own lives and they’re doing something good with their longevity,” Bella smiled kindly. “Your existence is not in any danger and they’re living under the radar. Besides, Peter is a friend of mine, but a good friend of Isaac’s. He’d really hate it if something happened to his friend.”
“Or perhaps you’d like it if I put those five under my protection, too?” Klaus mused, loving the fact how strong Bella was. Underneath all those nerves she truly was an Alpha. And likely a bit more diplomatic than he was.
“Fine,” Aro replied with a nod. “Anything else?”
Bella thought for a moment before curiosity got the better of her. “How are you dealing with the supernatural hunters? Are there any casualties on your side?”
“Of course not, although we’ve snacked on plenty of them,” Aro seemed entertained. “It’s very difficult for a human, a trained hunter or not, to kill us. It doesn’t stop them from trying though. From what I’ve gathered is that our kind is merely entertained by them.”
“Please don’t allow them to be turned for shits and giggles? If I come across a hunter that’s of your kind, I won’t hesitate to dismember them and burn their remains.”
“Pity. Since you’ve destroyed most of my guard, I could use new soldiers.”
“No,” Bella said sternly. “And don’t make me find out that you did, either.”
Marcus stifled a chuckle and Caius was still not amused. “Very well, Miss Swan, I owe you that much,” Aro nodded. “Now, any more demands? Because if so, I might have to start demanding things of my own.”
She smiled then. “No, that’s it. Thank you so much, Aro.”
~o.O.o~
“Oh, home, sweet home!” Bella exclaimed as she dropped herself onto the couch in their apartment in their Bed and Breakfast in Mystic Falls. It had been a few days since they’d been in Italy and a week since she got her revenge on Edward and she was glad to be home.
Myriam would arrive back in a few days and until then, it was just her and Isaac at the Bed and Breakfast, ready for reopening and resuming their daily lives. While they had some good food in New Orleans, and in Italy, Bella had to admit that she’d missed Isaac’s cooking.
She’d missed their little breakfast routine.
“Shit!” Bella sat up and looked at Isaac who had just come inside as he carried their bags. “Shit!”
He looked at her in confusion. “What?”
She then pointed at their two bedrooms. “What bedroom are we going to sleep in together?” She’d realized that since the last time they were inside this apartment, they had changed their relationship status and since then hadn’t slept apart either. Two bedrooms seemed excessive now. “And what are we going to do with the spare one? Because, should Kol choose to come, he’s going to stay somewhere else in the building. Not with us.”
“Or we could take down that wall and make it one big bedroom,” he said as he put the bags aside and joined her on the couch. “Or use it as storage, you never know what the future might bring,” he shrugged. “And I don’t mind moving my stuff into your bedroom.”
“Our bedroom.”
He laughed then. “Yes, our bedroom. Everything is ours now.”
She crawled into his lap and straddled his waist as she put her arms around his neck. “Shall we break in our new bed?” She teased him before she kissed him, hard.
Bella didn’t have to say that twice! It had been quite challenging to stay away from her at night and in the morning as they had shared the space with sensitive vampire ears and now they were once again free to do whatever they wanted. Answering her kiss, he got to his feet and held her as he walked them towards her bedroom. Their bedroom.
~o.O.o~
“Love birds, we have arrived!” Myriam announced loudly as she and Kol walked into the reception area of the Bed and Breakfast where Bella was just about to sign in a regular couple wanting to stay at their on the books facility. “Oh, guests!”
“Careful now, Myriam, don’t want to scare them off!” Bella warned her playfully before turning her attention back to her guests. Isaac wasn’t particularly happy about them as he had to clean out an entire section of the kitchen to cater to these guests’ special dietary needs and had been scrubbing the place clean for the last day, making sure that absolutely nothing would cross contaminate.
Once everything was in order and the credit card checked out, Bella took her guests’ bags and took them to the first floor and showed them to their room. When she was done, she got tackled by Myriam. “Okay, I missed you too,” Bella laughed as she hugged her friend and looked at Kol. “Hey you! Change of heart?”
“She wouldn’t allow me not to go,” Kol sighed with a shrug. “But I do have to admit, I love what you’ve done to what once was the Mystic Grill.”
“We tore it all down, rebuilt. I’ll give you the grand tour once you guys settle. You can have one of the suites on the top floor, it’s where Myriam sleeps and Isaac and I’s apartment is there too,” Bella explained. “And do try to be quiet, I just rented out the last room available for paying customers.”
“Do we have some non-paying customers downstairs?” Myriam asked knowingly.
Bella nodded. “Yeah, they’re scheduled to be picked up by Peter in a few hours. Now, go settle in, I’ll drag Isaac from the kitchen so we can bring you up to speed.” She watched as Myriam and Kol went upstairs before heading to the kitchen once the receptionist they’d hired came back from break.
“Don’t come in!”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Bella huffed as she looked at the spotless kitchen. Just as she had thought, Isaac had decided to decontaminate the entire kitchen for their food allergic guests. That is, if they were even allergic to the foods they had described as it was the latest fad still in dieting. “It’s time for a break. You’ve cleaned enough and I’m pretty sure that if health inspection comes over they’ll give you like a gold star.”
“Are you mocking me?”
“I might be,” she smirked as she leaned against the door. “Myriam and Kol have arrived.”
Isaac smiled at her then. “Can I use him as my little helper in the kitchen?”
Bella thought for a moment and shrugged. “We’ll see. You really need to find people to help you out, Isaac, we’re full and you can’t do everything by yourself!”
“I can try?” Oh, he knew. But all the people he tried out weren’t what he was looking for. Either they were under qualified or they believed that they didn’t have to do anything seeing as it was merely a Bed and Breakfast and that during the day nothing happened. And maybe it was because he was a perfectionist, but he needed the right people for the job and not doing a job half assed. Maybe Kol and or Myriam could find him some decent cooks and compel them to his needs or something.
“Do you have a fresh pot of coffee?”
“Yep.” Isaac put his cleaning utensils away and grabbed a tray to fill it with cups, the coffee, sugar and milk and added some cookies that he had baked that morning for their guests.
Bella waited until he had his hands full and started to walk towards the restaurant to meet up with Myriam and Kol. “Is something wrong, Isaac?” she asked quietly. “Because you’re being…”
“Neurotic?” He let out a snort as he put the tray on the table. “No, I just don’t want our food allergy guests get sick or give us a low rating on Yelp or TripAdvisor. Hi guys!”
“You shouldn’t bother with all that kinds of stuff. You now have two vampires back under your roof. If they get sick, we’ll feed them our blood and compel them,” Myriam shrugged.
Bella grabbed a paper and rolled it up before hitting Myriam over the head with it. “Three weeks away from this place and you forgot the number one rule already?”
“No, of course not. As human as possible, but… who cares about this shit? They’re probably lying about it anyway.”
“And if they’re not they could get seriously ill from my food. No compelling humans and no feeding them blood. No snacking on the guests.”
“Rule two,” Myriam said to Kol as she nodded. “Don’t worry, Mystic Falls is off limits but there’s a fridge full of blood bags downstairs.”
“I regret coming here. I’m bored already!” Kol exclaimed as he bit down on a cookie.
“Oh, that’s easily fixed. What are your talents?” Bella smiled kindly as she poured him a coffee.
“Murder, mayhem, torture… rule breaker…”
“Did you have a job during the last thousand years?”
“Darling, my siblings kept me boxed for the most part because I used to be so unpredictable and violent and annoying. And when I was out for a long time, I made sure I wasn’t in their vicinity at all and hang out with witches,” Kol sighed. “Niklaus is a painter. Elijah is a great pianist and politician. Rebekah trained to be a nurse. Me? Nothing. Even Myriam has more degrees and work experience than I do, I’ve got none!”
“You’re an Alchemist,” Myriam pointed out. “You may not be a witch anymore, but you know exactly what to do with herbs and other ingredients. You know the exact measurements. You know how to teach, because you love teaching witches the things you’ve learned on your travels.”
Kol looked at her and blinked. “Huh. I never thought of it that way.”
“So, what? You want him to teach witches here?” Bella looked at her friend. “I don’t think this place is the best place for that, you know.”
“No, you idiot,” Myriam rolled her eyes. “There’s magic school where Kol could occasionally pop in to help out, but they have enough witches there already to teach the children. No, I think that he’ll be a great help for Isaac in the kitchen.”
“What?” Isaac nearly choked on his coffee. “Him? In my kitchen? No way!” Okay, fine, he had suggested it only moments earlier, but he had been joking.
“Actually, I think it’s a great idea,” Bella smiled as she ran her hand through Isaac’s hair. “You’d need to be able to measure the right amounts when doing alchemy and or witchcraft, Kol’s a vampire, I’m sure he has excellent feeling in his hands when it comes to weight and measurements. He can do the work for like what? Five cooks at the same time?”
“Easy,” Myriam huffed. “Just try it for a while, Isaac. Like Bella said, the place is packed and you still haven’t found the right cooks to work with you. Train him.” She then looked at Kol, a stern look on her face. “And you don’t get any say in this, you do as what they want you to do, got it?”
“I’m not afraid of you, Myriam,” Kol rolled his eyes.
“Or we could just box you, Klaus did give me a dagger…”
Kol’s eyes widened out of sheer panic. “What! He wouldn’t!”
Myriam let out a snort. The mention of the dagger was always something to freak out Kol with. But unknown to him, all daggers were either lost or safely put away. “You really think that my boyfriend would allow me, a regular vampire, a breakable vampire, to go somewhere alone, with you the happy homicidal maniac?”
“Fuck you, Myriam! You’re not going to dagger me!”
“Hey, knock it off!” Bella shot at the two. “Kol is not going to get daggered or hurt, leave him alone, Myriam,” she said as she rounded the table and ruffled Kol’s hair, feeling him instantly relax under her touch. “Don’t worry, if the kitchen doesn’t work out for you, we’ll find you something else to do. But to stay here, you need to do something, you understand that, right? And yeah, sure, Peter may call upon you, and Jeremy, to go on some rescue mission, but you need a proper job, too.”
“Whatever you think is best, Bella,” Kol smiled up to her. “As long as you keep Myriam and that blasted dagger away from me.”
“If Myriam daggers you, she’ll be in big trouble,” Bella said as she leveled her gaze on Myriam. “We don’t dagger people who are in need of aid. Anyway, when are you going to talk to the major about your plans with Freya and Rebekah?” Bella kept running her hand through Kol’s hair and to massage his scalp, she could feel him relax more and more and that’s what she wanted.
“Next week,” Myriam replied. “I want to walk around the city a bit more to find the best place to make the area into a gated community that Freya can protect with spells. Each house will be individually spelled as well.”
“Nice, I like it!” Bella approved.
Isaac got to his feet as he took another cookie from the plate. “Alright, we’d better go to the kitchen and start our meal prep, Kol. It’s going to be dinner time soon and we have 50 mouths to feed. Guests and reservations together.”
“Oh great, you’re not even going to take it easy on me!”
“You have no idea,” Isaac laughed, shaking his head as he lead the way towards the kitchen.
