Chapter 04
[The Abattoir, French Quarter, New Orleans. February 19th, 2020. 5:49 pm]
She felt grateful for Elijah having spoken to her parents about how she choose to live, that she was responsible and that she had a good influence on Kol, for which he was grateful. They weren’t too pleased, however, that they had to wait until their rehearsal dinner for Bella to explain to them that life was different now. How different it truly was.
Kol had returned after arranging some last minute details for the wedding tomorrow, and he wasn’t too pleased with how Bella’s parents had criticized her for her being ‘irresponsible’. He apologized to them for not telling them they had a baby and taking away their ‘first grandchild joy’, without any prompting from Bella. “In all honesty, we’re quite confident now that you’ll be safe around our daughter. Maybe it was a good thing we didn’t inform you,” he said as he took a bite off his food.
“Excuse me?” Charlie stammered as he put down his fork and looked at Kol. “How can we not be safe around your daughter, Ka– Kol?”
Bella had to smile at that. It had been a slow process, but after telling her father that it had been a prank; that Kol had originally thought it would be funny to change his name because he was bored of it; Charlie had finally started to break the habit of calling him Kaleb. It made things so much easier. “Because our daughter is the product of two powerful witches, Dad,” Bella said with a big smile on her face. “Anything could have happened while she was just a baby.”
“It’s not like I would have dropped her or anything,” he grumbled as he took a sip of his wine. His ex-wife startled him by saying ‘Aha!’ maybe a little bit too loud. “What?”
“I knew it,” Reneé said as she looked at Bella. “You said it was just a story, the one of us being descended from a long line of witches. But it’s not, is it?”
“No,” Bella smiled at her, glad that her mother at least remembered the story.
“Oh my god, I knew it! I knew that I was something special, you know how I can get, oh, that is amazing! What can I do?”
Bella watched in amusement as Klaus’ face turned sour and her mother getting more excited about the possibilities. She let her ramble on for a little longer as she polished off her place and then decided to burst her mother’s bubble. “Mom, you’ve always been flighty and awesome. You’re my mom; your superpower was raising me. You were the vault.”
“I thought your grandmother was,” Reneé felt a little bit disappointed.
“No, it was grandpa’s line.”
“Oh drat,” she sighed and then looked at Bella. “You’re a witch?”
“Yeah,” she smiled at her mother. “And so are Kol and Nina. And Hope, but she’s also a part vampire and part werewolf.”
Reneé’s eyes grew big. “Vampires and werewolves are real too?”
“Yep, watch this,” she said as she moved her hand to lift up her glass without touching it.
“Bella,” she gasped before following the glass as it flew towards Klaus, who caught it so fast, that Reneé thought she was watching the scene unfold on fast forward. “Uhh…”
The color had drained out of Charlie’s face as a sudden realization came over him. “There’s something up with the Quileutes too, isn’t there?”
“Yes, dad.”
“Oh, I don’t want to know,” he groaned as he rubbed his eyes. “Why did you tell me?”
“Because, there will be a lot of supernatural guests at our wedding tomorrow. They know that it’ll be safe for them to be out in the open within these walls. It’s better for you to freak out now than tomorrow,” Bella smiled at her father as the server poured him something stronger than wine.
“Also, I think that knowing all this, Bella’s life makes a little bit more sense now,” Phil added as he pat Charlie on the back before looking at Bella. “But the next time you’re pregnant or have a baby, you inform us right away, got that?”
“Yes, Phil.”
[The Abattoir, French Quarter, New Orleans. February 19th, 2020. 10:30 pm]
Nina was having a sleepover with Hope and Uncle Klaus as Bella and Kol had decided to go along with Rebekah’s ‘crazy’ ideas about having a traditional wedding, no matter how insane they were. This also meant that Kol was not supposed to sleep in the same room as Bella and that he could not see her before tomorrow. But that didn’t mean that she was surprised when she walked out of the shower, naked and ready for bed, and saw Kol sitting on the bed with a big smile on his face.
“What if Rebekah finds you here?” She teasingly said as she picked up her robe and wrapped it around her before kissing him.
“I don’t care,” he grinned as he caressed her damp hair. “Because we need to talk and I think now is a good time.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yep,” he said with a nod before kissing her cheek. “And you’ll probably believe that it’s stupid that I want to tell you this, especially now, but I think you deserve to know how insanely happy you’re making me.”
“Would you have asked me to marry you if you didn’t?” She smiled at him and ruffled his hair.
“I’m just really glad I have had the opportunity to fall in love and get married. Hell, even to have a kid,” he smiled widely and for a moment, Bella feared for his health. He looked delirious. She didn’t say anything but just kept caressing his hair as she looked up at him, waiting for him to be done talking. “While I know that Rebekah has already told you this, maybe you’d be interested in hearing my side. You see, before all of this, I was considered to be a wild card in the eyes of my siblings, especially when I was a vampire.”
“You said you hated it.”
“Oh, I did. And I loved it too. You see, while I wasn’t able to practice magic anymore, I was invincible. I could do whatever I pleased. I traveled a lot, much like you and I have been doing for the last few years. But I was also not afraid to tell my brothers and sister what kind of jerks they were. The terrible trio with their stupid motto ‘always and forever’ and I was never included. I didn’t feel involved. I acted out, raised some hell, got daggered a few times. Until Niklaus decided he needed more fun in his life, and it was just this cycle of love before it all came crashing down into hatred and the dagger yet again.”
She nodded. She had heard the stories, and she was so glad that Kol had shown his siblings that he was just like them, redeemed himself in his human life.
“It was bittersweet when they finally included me into their pact of ‘always and forever’ when I was dying from the hex that my brother Finn put on me. Hexes are horrible. It only stops when the witch who cast it dies. Finn was a real mummy’s boy. No one liked him, which is why he was in his box for so long.” Kol sighed as he absent-mindedly toyed with a strand of her damp hair.
“My siblings don’t know, they might suspect though, but I remember everything that happened when I was dead and joined the ancestors of the witches of New Orleans. I told them, repeatedly how unfair it was that Finn got to live on, for a while longer, at least, and I was stuck with them. I had so much more to live for and to make things better and just enjoy life as a human again. There wasn’t a day that went passed where I begged them to return me; it didn’t even have to be the same body. And they kept refusing because dead is dead, and I got angrier and angrier. I just wanted another chance after having those opportunities taken away from me all the time.”
“You’re right, it was unfair.”
Kol nodded while he took another deep breath. “Davina and Rebekah’s meddling didn’t go unnoticed by the Ancestors either. While I was grateful for their efforts, they weren’t delicate about it. They tried spell after spell after spell to get me back, and the Ancestors became aggravated, especially when they contacted Bonnie Bennett, the witch from Mystic Falls. Bonnie wisely stayed out of it, but Davina and Rebekah only became more determined. When they eventually started casting a spell that would ensure the destruction of the Ancestors, they realized that keeping me with them was more trouble than I was worth. They decided I had to live with the consequences of me being brought back to life.”
“That is not fair.”
“It certainly wasn’t. My sister, of course, got the better part of the deal by having her returned to her original body even though like me, she enjoyed being human so much. The Ancestors erased every single feeling Davina and I had shared with each other while we were going out. Saying that we both should start over and that I was doomed never to love anyone again, they made sure of it.”
“Well, that obviously didn’t work,” she remarked with a slight chuckle, causing Kol to smile as well.
“They told me that I could only date or fall in love with girls from the Claire family line. Seeing as Davina was the only surviving member of her family… I was pissed. How could I live a full, normal life without someone to love? And sure, I know that one could lead a normal life without ever falling in love again but that’s not me. I want it all or nothing. I was angry with my sister and Davina and decided to disappear for a few months, just to get my ducks back in a row and simmer down,” Kol put his arms around Bella and pulled them down to the bed where he snuggled up against her, putting his head on her shoulder.
“After a while, I realized that what Davina and Rebekah had done was out of love. That it probably wasn’t so bad that I wouldn’t ever be able to fall in love again because I got what I wanted most; my family. And then,” he looked up at her with a smile. “A few months after I got back, I was taking care of some business for my brother and this stupid girl walks into the store, thinking it was a coffee shop. This awkward looking, too skinny looking girl who didn’t seem to notice the world around her and ordered coffee while she did her own thing.”
Bella giggled as Kol bopped her nose with his index finger.
“If this girl had been more aware of her surroundings, she would have seen two surprised witches trying to contain a malevolent spirit who had been killing and scaring innocent humans for weeks,” he laughed and settled against her again. “So the gas leak was born because we could not risk the spirit going after the human girl. Little did I know, I was sending her back to her abusers and when my brother called to help him out, I could have kicked myself when I saw the beautiful girl again.”
“That girl sounds like trouble.”
“Oh yeah, she was,” Kol grinned as he snuck his hand inside her robe and gently started to massage her breast. “I had been so scared when we found out you’re a Claire witch because I already liked you, and I was so afraid that we wouldn’t work out. You’ve brought hope back into my life, Bella Swan, and for that, I’m eternally grateful.”
“I would have fallen for you anyway and it sounds to me, that I’m the lucky one. Hadn’t I been a Claire witch, even though many many times removed, you wouldn’t be able to return the feelings,” she said as she ran her hand through his hair. “I’m sorry you went through all that, Kol,” she added softly. “But I’m glad we have an incredible life together and it’ll continue to grow in its awesomeness.”
“You’re such a cheesecake,” he snorted.
“Says the Alpha Cheesecake.”
[The Abattoir, French Quarter, New Orleans. February 20th, 2020. 10:34 am]
Rebekah had been none too pleased when she came to bring the bride breakfast in bed that morning and discovered Kol had been with Bella all night. They’d just been talking and had fallen asleep around 5 am, but she didn’t want to hear anything about that. Part of Bella felt sorry for allowing Rebekah to do what she wanted to do, but, on the other hand, this was as much as Rebekah and Klaus’ day as it was Kol and Bella’s.
They had allowed them to take care of everything, in their taste, to make them happy, but Bella and Kol had plans of their own, and that was going to be so much better. It already made her feel giddy thinking about it while Rebekah was trying to style Bella’s hair into something that fitted with the beautiful dress. She had to hand it to Rebekah; she had a nose for fashion, and the dress was absolutely stunning. One thing though; it wasn’t Bella’s idea of being comfortable, she could hardly move in it, but it’d change.
Bella and Kol wanted to give Rebekah and Klaus seemingly the perfect wedding for them. She wanted to see her parents see them in this fairytale appearance. But not for long. She was getting restless, and not just because of the wedding jitters; no, it was all about being back home for an extended period of time. She couldn’t wait until she, Kol and Nina would go back to traveling and see the world.
“Mama, look!” Nina burst through the door in her lovely flower girl dress, stomping around as fast as she possibly could to get to her mother. “Pretty!”
“Oh, you look beautiful!” Bella lifted Nina up on her lap and kissed her on her cheek, much to Rebekah’s dismay as Bella moved while she was still trying to make Bella’s hair behave. “You look like a real princess.”
“I am!” Nina’s gaze fell upon Bella’s half eaten toast with jam and reached for it while Bella made sure she wouldn’t fall off her lap. She had to stretch a little bit further and sighed before leaning against Bella and looked up to her. “Bread?”
She gently took Nina’s hand and turned it, so it was palm up as she stretched out her arm. “Look,” Bella whispered in her ear as the toast started to float right into Nina’s hand. It was funny when she was born that Kol panicked a little seeing as Nina would be a first born Mikaelson witch and incredibly powerful, but she was doing great. “Try not to spill anything on your beautiful dress, okay?”
“Okay.”
No major accidents happened so far, apart from the time where she threw a toddler tantrum a couple of months back and blew out the tires of the car they were in. Maybe the lack of extreme power had to do something with that technically, by blood, she wasn’t a Mikaelson seeing as Kol was in someone else’s body. But Nina was a Mikaelson, and nothing else. She was still Kol’s daughter. And more importantly; she was a Swan.
[The Abattoir, New Orleans. February 20th, 2020. 2:20 pm]
Rebekah had brought her up to the second floor, on top of the stairs and out of sight, with her vampire speed. She was now correcting every bit of Bella’s gorgeous dress that was out of place due to the velocity.
She was wearing a strapless cream-coloured wedding dress with a huge tulle skirt and she was glad she was going to be able to hang on to her father as she’d descend the stairs because she couldn’t even see her own feet. Yes, her balance had improved significantly but tripping over a skirt in front of so many people was not a good impression.
“Relax,” Rebekah calmly said as she adjusted Bella’s hair. “They’re just people and they’re not important.”
Bella huffed as she looked at the people in the courtyard. She recognized some of them, but she didn’t have a clue who 90% of all those people were. If it hadn’t been for Klaus wanting to invite all of them for ‘political reasons’, they wouldn’t have been there, and the wedding would have been a lot smaller. She was glad to see Paula there, the midwife who helped deliver Nina.
Her old friends from Forks were there as well. Angela, married to Ben and mother to twins who were six months older than Nina. Mike and Jessica C, a girl who was a grade below them when they were in school. What set her apart from Jessica Stanley was that she was incorruptible, she was an excellent cook and a mean drinking buddy. She and Mike weren’t married and were definitely not going to get married, really. Absolutely not, oh, what’s that? A bird!
What surprised her though was that Jacob was sitting next to Charlie. She hadn’t seen him in a very long time, and he had changed a lot. He had long hair again; he was tall and bulky and handsome. A real Chief in the making. She was surprised he was wearing a suit. It didn’t suit him at all.
Her gaze then fell on the Mikaelson brothers, all ridiculously handsome in their suits. Even Elijah, who always wore suits in the first place, but had opted for a more expensive one for the wedding. When she looked at Kol, her eyes met his, and the biggest, goofiest grin appeared on his face. It made her insides melt, and if it hadn’t been for Rebekah holding on to her, she would have tumbled right off the stairs. Talk about making an entrance at your own wedding!
“Mama pretty princess,” Nina giggled as she tried to get under Bella’s skirt.
“Oh, no, we’re having none of that, little lady,” Rebekah gently pulled the toddler away from her mother. “Come on, let’s lay down some beautiful rose petals on the stairs so your mum can walk over them.”
“Bella, you look…”
She looked at her dad, and he had the same look on his face as when he saw her in her prom dress. “Dad, don’t start,” she said as she hugged him. “It’s just a dress.” Bella could hear Rebekah huff a ‘hardly’ as she helped Nina and Hope walk down the stairs as the little girls threw flowers all over the stairs.
“Are you sure you want to go through with this, Bells?” Charlie asked huskily as he gently put his arm around hers and took her hand. “I mean, you don’t have to get married if you don’t want to, no one will judge you if you’re unmarried for the rest of your life.”
“I want this,” she smiled at him and gently squeezed his hand. “I want him. He’s the best thing that has ever happened to me and makes my life so much brighter. Why wouldn’t I go through with this? There’s no reason for me not to.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” she laughed and kissed her father on his cheek. “Come on, let’s go downstairs, let’s not keep them waiting any longer.”
The music started playing when they were halfway down the stairs, and it was weird that everyone was standing up for her and looking at her, at that. When she reached the end of the rows, it was just one straight line to Kol and grinned as her eyes met his. When he nodded, they both cast a spell or two to transform everything in the courtyard to what they thought was nice to get married in.
Gone were the white curtains draped entirely to one side creating arches as they exploded into multicolored confetti, spraying all over the guests. Bella’s dress turned into something she really liked, a pastel red-colored gown with no tule but satin and embroidery on the bottom of her knee-length skirt. The gates flew open, and at least a hundred puppies came running in, creating havoc as they ran through people’s legs.
Elijah’s expensive suit turned into a suit of toilet paper and Rebekah’s hair turned as red as the dress she was now wearing. With a tiny additional spell, Kol made sure his sister’s hair was no longer done up perfectly. Instead, it was a mohawk. The music switched from the classical wedding tune to “Addicted to you” by Avicii. Bella looked at her father; he had turned pale, and his jaw had dropped to the floor because of the chaos that ensued after Bella and Kol released their spells into the wild.
Smirking, Bella dragged her father along towards the front, towards Kol, under cheering and clapping from the wedding guests. Elijah looked bemused, and Rebekah had a look of sheer terror on her face, but Klaus’ reaction cut the cake. “You had to bring in the puppies?”
[The Abattoir, New Orleans. February 20th, 2020. 10:21 pm]
After the wedding ceremony and drinks and a big feast, they had a party to celebrate Kol and Bella’s union. The look on everyone’s faces when this old song from a musical called Avenue Q started playing called “The Internet For Porn” was just brilliant before it changed into Halestorm’s “Freak Like Me” for their first dance together. It had them jumping around like the insane people they were while Nina joined them.
The party was great, and even Davina was having a great time, even though she was watched closely by Marcel and Rebekah. Some tourists had wanted to join the party but were being shown out by some of Marcel’s nightwalkers and for the rest of the party, it had been fun. Brainless fun with good music and a spell here and there to play with the lights.
Around nine thirty pm, Bella had been looking around the compound for Nina, to put her to bed, but hadn’t been able to find her anywhere by the time she had looked in every room. Most of the guests had left already when she quietly made her way down the stairs towards Kol. As she bumped into Klaus on the way over, she pulled him along with her because she hadn’t been able to find Hope either.
“What’s going on, Bella?” Klaus noticed the panicked look on her face, and he was instantly worried.
“I can’t find Nina or Hope.”
“What!” Klaus breezed as he spat off to look in every room himself but even with using his vampire speed, vision, and enhanced smell, he couldn’t find a trace of the children. Growling, he returned to Kol and Bella. “Get changed, we’re going hunting,” he said to her, but she shook her head. “Okay, let’s go. I might have an idea where they went, or at least who took them.”
“Who?”
“Davina.”
“Oh, come on Nik,” Kol said as he followed his brother. “Davina might be slightly off her rocker these days, but she wouldn’t go after children just to get to the person behind them.”
“Don’t let your previous relationship cloud your judgment, brother,” Klaus said, his voice had a hint of anger, but he sounded in control as they kept marching towards the City of the Dead.
“You forget that we—”
“Kol, I know you still remember it. Davina might not, but I know you do so don’t try to bullshit me,” he replied as he looked at Bella. “You okay on those high heels, love, or do you want us to carry you?”
Bella muttered a spell to make her heels into flats. “Pick up the pace, Klaus, if she has our children, she’s going to die.”
Klaus shot her a look of surprise and she smirked in return. Yeah, Kol had told her everything alright, it didn’t bother her. She knew Kol was hers and it filled her with some sort of twisted glee that Davina could no longer have Kol, even if at some point in her life the feelings would return.
“Don’t make me into the bad guy here, it’s not my fault!” Kol replied angrily. “But I’m telling you, it’s not Davina who took them!”
[City of the Dead, LaFayette Cemetery 1, New Orleans, LA. February 20th, 2020. 10:54 pm.]
He was ready to sink his teeth into the little witch. Ever since he returned to New Orleans, she had been nothing but trouble. She had made questionable decisions at every turn, and he couldn’t remember one single good, profitable, thing that she’s ever done. Davina Claire was this tiny little pest who had everyone wrapped around her finger. She was Hellbent on destroying him, foiling every plan Elijah had to make New Orleans a better place, to create peace and maintain the balance of power.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to make a power hungry witch even more powerful by making her regent of all nine covens in New Orleans had been right out of their minds. Fortunately, he had killed Vincent the first chance that he had once they had extracted Klaus’ brother Finn from his body. He had corrupted Davina even further. Klaus had to admit, despite Kol’s penchant for wreaking havoc and his desire to kill him in the past, Kol had been a real influence on Davina. Right until he died the first time, and the Ancestors took away their relationship upon his return. Marcel, whom Klaus had tasked with to keep an eye on her, was mere minutes away from getting his heart ripped out for his treason. Marcel would have stopped her if he’d truly been on Klaus’ side.
However, Klaus felt euphoric that Bella came into their lives. Under her influence, Kol had mellowed somewhat, and Klaus didn’t even have to think about keeping an eye on the former happy homicidal maniac. Kol was still a happy lunatic but no longer out for blood – much. But right now, Klaus imagined that both his brother and sister-in-law were seeing red, their daughter had been taken. Their family. And yet, Kol wanted to defend the little witch, saying she would never stoop this low. Idiot.
Hope had been taken as well and while Klaus was extremely pissed about that too, Nina was an innocent bystander. Bella and Kol had done nothing to deserve Davina’s wrath. Maybe it was stupid that he felt more angry about that than on the kidnapping of his own daughter, but he didn’t care. It also gave him some peace of mind that his daughter was with his niece, she’d look after her. Precious little Nina, just a toddler.
He kicked in the door of Davina’s hideout. “Where are they!” He demanded as he made his way through the building, followed closely by Kol and Bella.
Davina looked up from writing something down with a look on her face that was a mix between confused and sheer terror. Bella could feel how she put up her defenses as she addressed the angry hybrid. “What are you talking about?” She then looked at Kol and Bella and cocked her head. “Shouldn’t you two be consuming your marriage by now?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Davina Claire,” Klaus sneered. “Where are Nina and Hope?”
“What do you mean?”
Klaus launched himself at the small witch but immediately fell to the floor, writhing in agony before she looked at the happy couple.
“Hope and Nina are gone, Davina,” Kol spoke calmly, not wanting to suffer her wrath as Klaus was currently doing.
“Oh. That sucks,” she evenly replied as she released Klaus from the spell and saw the look on the faces of the Mikaelsons. She couldn’t help but laugh. “You really think I have something to do with it? Oh, wow, that’s just…”
“No, I don’t,” Kol spoke as he gently squeezed Bella’s hand. He could feel her fear for the children radiate off of her. She wasn’t angry either, just scared. “Neither does Bella.”
She turned to Klaus, who had been smart and had stayed down on the floor. “But you do. I’m hurt, Klaus. Do you think that I would take your children to get to you? Innocent children who have nothing to do with my business with you? I have to admit, it’s something I briefly considered, but I realized that you would do something like that, and I am nothing like you.”
“Then where are they, Davina? If they’re not here, where are they?”
“Not here, obviously!” She shot at Klaus. “Even if I had them, do you think I would be so stupid to bring them here?” Davina rolled her eyes at the hybrid before looking at the couple. “I’ll help you. I doubt a locator spell would work, but with the three of us we surely have enough power to push through whatever magic is protecting them, if it’s magic in the first place.”
Bella wasn’t quite sure what to think. She couldn’t believe that Davina was that good of an actress, and she was still angry about this whole situation. She was supposed to be celebrating her union with Kol, have wild sex in every corner of their room, the bath tub and whatever and this was not how she thought their day would end. She did know that whoever took Nina and Hope, they were going to die. Either Klaus would tear them apart or Bella would make their deaths agony by slowly pulling them apart.
Either way, they were going to pay for what they’ve done. No one was touching her baby girl and her niece and get away with it.
[Accessing current feeds]
[Mystic Falls, VA. Former Salvatore Boarding House. January 23rd, 2311. 11:23 am.]
Bella had had a rough night; she had kept vomiting and eventually had retreated to the bathroom and locked the door because Kol and Klaus kept hovering. When morning finally came, she lay curled up on the couch, sleeping, with a blanket over her while the other Mikaelsons watched over her.
“How is this possible?” Klaus breezed. “I thought the food we got her was clean, something that agreed with her. Did Damon undercook something?”
“No, the food was excellent,” Kol sneered at his brother. “I checked.” Something else had to be going on, and he hoped it wasn’t because of what he had done. He had felt awful about how his wife was doing so poorly after her return from the dead. He had watched her suffer for a few days, and despite him offering to feed her some of his blood – she didn’t want it.
She had been so human about it, that whatever she was suffering from was going to go away eventually, and she didn’t need any magic or blood to help her get over it. So, he did what he did best; he became impatient and had put some of his blood in her hot cocoa the night before and had her drink it all.
It made him feel sick to his stomach knowing that he could have caused this. He’d promised her not ever to hurt her, and he had. Luckily, the tiny bit of blood that he had given her should have gone through her system by now, and she’d get better again. Hopefully. She had to get better. He wasn’t sure that he would want to go on without her now that she was back. Kol’d get his brother to dagger him for eternity, or he’d find the remains of the White Oak Tree and kill himself. For sure.
No, maybe not.
“It must be the damn chip in her head,” Klaus muttered as he looked at Bella. “Does our friend know if it’s safe for her to keep it in her head?”
“It’s not the chip, Klaus,” Sam gently said as she stood behind him and massaged his shoulders, he looked like he needed it. “I think it’s something else.”
“What, love?” Klaus looked up to Sameen, who nodded towards Kol. She had seen the slight change in expression on his face when he spoke about the food and thought it was shifty. Sure, she thought something else was going on too, but at least she knew for a fact that Kol had done something. “Kol?”
“Nik?”
“What did you do?”
Klaus sounded too calm, too calm for Kol’s liking and quickly thought if his brother had anything on him that could severely hurt him. “Nothing,” he replied as he got up and moved closer to Bella. If needed, he’d wake her up but before he realized it, his brother had pushed him across the room and up against a wall.
“What. Did. You. Do, Kol?” Klaus breezed as he had put his arm against his brother’s throat and kept him there. “Are you really that dimwitted to harm your wife?” He pulled Kol away from the wall before slamming him into it again. “Have you lost your bloody mind?”
Letting out a growl, Kol pushed Klaus off of him, launching him through the air into another wall, the painting crashing right on top of his brother. He was on top of him in seconds, grabbing Klaus by his shoulders before hoisting him up and threw him across the room again.
“Guys!” Sam’s voice sounded calm, but there was a warning underneath it. “Stop it. Right now. We’re not going to do this again.”
“If you want to live, stay out of this,” Kol spat at his brother’s mate, causing Klaus to knock him over and stab him with a broken bottle. “You bloody tosser!” he growled, kicking his brother off of him, again, and pulled the bottle out of him before launching it at Klaus.
“Hey! Redirect your anger towards something else before you end up destroying this house,” Sam knew that she could only throw idle threats at the boys. The only reason their fights ended in the past was because she got herself into harm’s way trying to diffuse the fight, nearly killing her once or twice.
Bella had woken up from the ruckus and looked around, seeing the destruction and finding Sam somewhere out of the brothers’ way. “What’s going on?” She watched how Kol got flattened to the ground by Klaus sitting on top of him before Kol kicked him off of him. When Klaus hit the ceiling, Kol was already on the other end of the room, his smile matching his brother’s. “Boys?”
“See, this is what I was talking about,” Sam said as she sat down on the couch next to Bella. “Amongst other things.”
“They’re just fighting.”
“They’re destroying the house,” Sam pointed out. “And while I love a good fight, I don’t fancy meddling with two Originals. Again.”
“But why though? Why are they fighting?”
“Kol did something to you to make you this sick,” she replied as she winced at the sight of Kol slamming Klaus into the fireplace, leaving an enormous dent in the shaft. “He’s not saying what.”
“Oh,” Bella huffed. “It’s fine. I know.” She got to her feet, a little bit unsteady at first but managed to stay upright and pulled the two fighting brothers away from each other with her magic. “Calm the fuck down, both of you.” When both brothers opened their mouth to say something, she pushed them against the opposite walls. “Calm down.”
“He started it!” Kol said as he pointed at his brother, unable to move from his position.
“No, Kol, you started it!” Klaus sneered, frustrated that Bella kept him dangling from the wall.
“Look, I don’t mind you two having a fight, but don’t do it inside the house because it’s not your house. It belongs to Damon and Stefan,” Bella spoke calmly and lowered both brothers down. “But so that you know, I know that Kol fed me his blood and now we know it won’t work. I’m surprised his patience lasted this long.”
“Hey!” Kol complained as Bella put both siblings down on the ground. “Am I that transparent?”
“No,” she smiled sweetly at him and made her way over to him to kiss him. “But you love me and don’t like to see me suffer. Vampire blood should be healing anything, and it didn’t. What I don’t like is that you went against my wishes.”
“Against your wishes or not, you are going to visit a doctor today to have your blood tested,” Klaus growled, still angry that Kol had given Bella his blood. He could understand why, Klaus would probably have done the same to Sameen had they been in similar situations, but the girl had reacted so violently that something must have been wrong.
If anything, Bella’s response to Kol’s blood was what he had expected what would happen. He and Sameen hadn’t said anything about it to the newly reunited couple as not to worry them, but Bella’s blood smelled off. She smelled off, unlike any other human being. Sameen had told him on the day that Bella had come home after having spent time together on the train and in the car.
Klaus had smelled it. At first, he had shrugged it off due to Bella just having been resurrected, but the smell had persisted. If anything, it had gotten worse since she had returned from her solo trip to New Orleans. She wasn’t affected by a witches’ curse. If she were, she would have noticed that herself. Something more subtle was going on, and he was determined to get to the bottom of it.
“Fine,” Bella said with a shrug. “I’m going to take a shower, get into some comfortable, warm clothes and drag Kol off with me while you clean up the mess you two have created.”
“Your health is the reason for this mess.”
She angrily muttered a spell to cast an illusion over the fireplace so that it appeared fixed as she walked up the stairs. “The rest is up to you!”
[Mystic Falls, VA. Doctor’s office. January 23rd, 2311. 2:13 pm.]
“Oh God, that does smell horrid…” Kol scrunched his nose upon smelling Bella’s blood as the doctor, heavily under compulsion, had made a tiny incision for some of his nanobots to get inside of Bella to analyze her body.
Bella had ignored him as she was fascinated by how modern medicine had made giant leaps in the last 300 years. The doctor had explained to her that the nanobots could see everything, test for anything and, when programmed for it, could fix damage like broken bones or whatever, making the patient load on hospitals non-existent. There were even kits you could use at home to test yourself for cancer or even cure it. It was all very mind boggling to her, and it kind of freaked her out; surely there were still malevolent hackers about? What if such nanobot would get stuck somewhere? Or not come out of her body?
“Hmm,” the doctor said as he observed what his bots were gathering. “Oh, oh, dear.”
“What?” Kol demanded as he eyed the doctor. “You’re under compulsion, remember? Tell it like it is.”
“Ah, well, for one, I haven’t seen this in a very long time. My hobby is rare herbs and all but the results that they are showing me… You ah… you’re a vampire and your wife is a witch, correct?”
“Yes, we’ve told you that ten minutes ago,” Kol spat.
“Kol, calm down.”
“There’s no calming down, Bella, he’s worried, which makes me worried and when I get worried, I get angry so he’d better tell me what’s going on before I snap his neck.”
“It seems like a week ago; you’ve ingested a large amount of a mixture of a wild variety of hemlock combined with vervain, wolfsbane, lobelia flower and yellow chrysanthemum laced with arsenic. In the old days, you’d have been dead instantly from the hemlock and arsenic alone, but with the climate change and all, the potency of these herbs have diminished,” the doctor continued happily, almost as if he was fangirling over the herbs. “These bots can’t tell if magic has been used, so you’re on your own with that. There’s some damage to the anterior section of your hypothalamus, specifically the part that regulates your body temperature. Unfortunately, we can do a lot with medicine these days but I can’t fix this. Especially if there’s magic involved. I could end up making you feel worse.”
Bella felt the color drain out of her face and had set up a barrier around the doctor to save him from Kol’s anger. If it were possible, there would be fumes coming out of his ears right now. “It makes sense now,” she said softly before getting up and started pacing around, her own anger now coming to the surface. “Those stupid, conniving witches! I’m going to kill them!”
“That’s the spirit, Cuddles,” Kol smirked. “Now, would you please lower down the shield so I can snack on the good old doctor?” It didn’t seem like Kol had been adequately listening to the doctor’s words. If she had to guess, he tuned the doctor out after listing the herbs, probably trying to make sense of them himself instead of trying to hear the doctor out. Kol knew his herbs alright, always boasting about his extensive knowledge, but the look on his face told her that he realized that it was a miracle that Bella was still walking around on two feet. And at the same time he was probably trying to force the negativity to the back of his head.
Bella scowled as she did what he asked of her before using that special wand the doctor used to get the nanobots out of her body before looking around for a band-aid. She watched in fascination as Kol drained the doctor from all his blood, finding it strangely arousing.
So what she was being poisoned by the witches? She was going to kill them and if she weren’t going to be able to, Kol definitely would. Now that she knew that her troubles were magical, she was going to find out before they’d go to New Orleans and lower the barrier to take it back. She felt betrayed, angry and found the entirety of it all so unfair.
It wasn’t fair.
But she was certainly going to have sex with Kol on the examination table once her husband was done snacking. They both needed to redirect their anger towards something mutually beneficial for the town’s safety. Then, they’d go home and inform the others, find the right location to do the spell to drop the barrier and get it done. Then maybe, just maybe, when she wasn’t dead yet, she was going to kill those witches and find herself a cure. Getting turned into a vampire was impossible now, seeing as she couldn’t hold down Kol’s blood.
Fucking witches. They were going to die.
[Mystic Falls, VA. Former Salvatore Boarding House. January 23rd, 2311. 5:43 pm.]
Bella was hungrily eating her chicken legs that they had picked up from the shop as Kol informed his brother what they had discovered. She was still a bit floaty because of the incredible sex they had had; who knew that shared anger sex was so amazing? She was now once again cold and sitting in front of the fireplace while enjoying her food. She should feel too angry to even be able to eat, but she had to have something. Unlike the vampires in the house, she actually needed human food to sustain herself.
While Kol was talking to Klaus and Sameen, Bella was also thinking about what the doctor had said. If magic had been involved, he couldn’t have done anything, but surely there was a way for Bella to find out if magic had been used? She had used a spell like that, once and had written it down somewhere. What had Klaus done with their grimoires or were they still in the Crypt? She couldn’t remember if she’d given them to Klaus to protect.
She shifted a little to see if her bones had warmed up yet but let out a deep breath when that hadn’t happened yet. Had she given Nina access to her and Kol’s books? Why couldn’t she remember? Had it been that long ago or that unimportant? Sighing, Bella looked up from the flames and looked at Klaus. “Klaus, where did our grimoires end up?”
“They’re in a safe place. They hold a lot of powerful magic, I couldn’t allow for it to be passed down to your descendants.”
Bella nodded. “I need them, can you get to them?”
“What, now?”
“Please?” She smiled at him. “Unless they’re far away, then no.”
“What do you need the books for, Cuddles?” Kol asked as he sat down next to her and gently rubbed her arms over the thick blanket she had already over her. He was worried that their extracurricular activity of today was the cause of her feeling this cold again. He certainly hoped not as it was something they could for sure repeat one day. “You have a talent for remembering all your spells, everything you’ve done. You know them.”
“I do, I just want to be sure. It would also give me an opportunity to look for the other spell to help me bring down the barrier around New Orleans.” Well, that was half a lie, and she hoped that Klaus hadn’t picked up on that; werewolves could always tell when someone was lying. She had been so relieved that Kol’s mind hadn’t shifted into overdrive after realising that it had been a miracle that Bella was still walking around, breathing.
Maybe even thinking that the herbs would work their way out of her system on their own because she didn’t seem to be suffering much from their effects and up until today she had been doing fine. She just couldn’t remember her spells, almost as if her brain had started to develop dementia within the last twelve hours. When she heard Klaus huff, she knew she had been caught. She sweetly smiled at Kol and caressed his face. “Besides, wouldn’t it be fun to see our books again?” Hell, maybe she could find something that would get the poison out of her system.
“Sure,” he smiled and kissed the top of her head. “But let’s focus on the barrier spell first, alright? We can worry about other things later.”
Or maybe, she thought, he knew quite well what was going on and didn’t want to upset her, make her last days count. Or something.
“There’s a slight problem with getting those books,” Sam replied and shrugged when Klaus shot her angry look, willing her to shut up. “They’re in New Orleans.”
“Oh, well, that’s okay,” Bella shrugged and pushed her food away from her as she settled against Kol before sitting up again and scribbled something on a piece of paper before handing it to him. “I can drop the barrier tomorrow if you have enough cannon fodder for the werewolves. I need these herbs to help me.”
“Don’t you need a particular location?”
Bella shrugged. “I’ll wing it and I guess that he cast the spell at a central spot in New Orleans. Which is around the old Gentilly landfill in its current state. Should be close enough,” she spoke before drawing the current state of New Orleans onto a piece of paper. “There are two cable cars – or things that look like them anyway but they’re a lot faster – going up to New Orleans. One takes you to Downman Road, and the other takes you closer to the French Quarter. If I time it right, you could use them to get into New Orleans without a scratch.”
“Isn’t there another way?” Klaus tiredly rubbed his face.
“Uhm, not that I know of. You could, of course, get off the vactrain and hop on the next one when I’ve lowered the barrier but yeah, those cars give me a little bit more time to get there.”
“I don’t like this plan,” Kol said as he playfully poked Bella’s shoulder. “Because you’re going into werewolf territory all by yourself.”
“I’m a big witch, Kol, I can take care of myself,” she said with a grin on her face.
“Who says she’s going to be on her own?” Sam said with a knowing smirk on her face. “We’ll discuss the details later. For now, you’re going to relax your ass off, and we’re going to take care of your shopping list.”
“But…”
“Yes, and a nice butt you have, Cuddles,” Kol grinned as he scooped her up from the floor and took her upstairs. “A nice, hot bath.”
“Will you be in it?”
“Oh, I don’t know if I could keep my hands to myself…”
