Chapter 16
Elijah blinked at his brother. “You do?” All vampires needed to wear a daylight ring, Original or not, to protect them from the fire. Niklaus didn’t have to wear one anymore due to his hybrid nature now unbound, but that was quite special and rare these days.
Kol nodded. “For the same reason Nik doesn’t have to. Bella’s a hybrid. Or a tribrid, even, like Hope.”
“Explain yourself.”
“It makes sense, really,” Kol sighed, not believing how dimwitted his brother was. “Think, Elijah. I’m pretty sure even your lovely lady would know the answer,” he said as he winked at Myriam. “Hi, darling, allow me to properly introduce myself—”
“No need,” Myriam said curtly. “I know who you are. Now speak.”
Kol held up one finger. “One. She’s not a witch, but she’s from a line of Travelers, imbued by their magic to be a singer to the Cold Ones, which makes her a supernatural being,” he said as he held up another finger. “Two. She survived a Cold One’s venom, leaving a scar on her wrist. No doubt there was still a little bit of venom in there, but in my book, this happening makes her pretty special as well. Which brings us to three; we all know that physical ailments get healed when a person turns. I believe that when she turned into a vampire, her body absorbed the magic, the venom, that was in that scar because this morning, the scar wasn’t there anymore.”
“And you believe that this venom ensured Bella’s safety in the sun?” Elijah asked, curious.
“It must be. I mean, I don’t know for sure until Freya can perform a spell to check her over, but that’s my theory, yes. We’re all in uncharted territory with her. I’ve never encountered something like her before,” he shrugged. “Not to mention, all singers had a special thing about them. Their own strength, their own ability. For instance, Carmen, who was responsible for the initial culling of the Cold Ones way back when, used her voice to destroy them. Bella’s mind is a fortress, nobody can get in, or get a proper read on her. Now, this could be because of the Traveler spell, of course, but there’s no denying that she is very smart and cunning.”
“All nice and all, but shouldn’t we focus on finding her first?” Myriam said as she poured herself another glass of alcohol.
“If she’s truly a huntress, she’d go where the Cold Ones are hiding out. It’s likely the Bayou, due to its copious amount of shade that the trees provide,” Elijah offered.
“Go,” Freya said tiredly. “I’ll hold down the fort.”
“Yeah, hold on, I need to get something out of Nik’s and Bella’s bedroom first,” Kol said after being overwhelmed by the smell of marshmallows for some reason.
~o.O.o~
Bella was sitting in a discarded lawn chair that she had found, watching the fire crackle in front of her. She was proud of herself, she felt accomplished and elated. She felt how the fire warmed her bones and she wished she were a cat, lazily yawn and curl up enjoying the heat. Get her belly rubbed. Purr like a kitten. Perhaps offer Myriam to go work for her again now that Klaus was gone because like a cat in heat, Bella needed to fuck someone’s brains out.
That someone would likely be Kol, though. She’d already felt the pull towards him on the Ancestral Plane, as if she needed to look after him, take care of him, fuck him mercilessly and make sure that he didn’t do anything stupid. He was hot. He was delicious and he was so adorably cute when he saw her naked.
Perhaps Klaus would forgive her if she’d accidentally fall onto Kol’s dick while she was naked. Revenge. Kol would be a better idea than to go back to Débauche, wouldn’t it? Sure, he was Klaus’ brother, but at least Klaus knew him? And Klaus couldn’t kill Kol, not as long as Bella had the last remaining White Oak in her possession and Klaus would never be able to find it. She hid it well.
She licked her lips as she stretched herself and slipped her hand inside her pants. Hell yeah, she was going to satisfy herself while watching the bonfire. She earned it. And it didn’t take her long to get to the point of no return, she could feel her fingers touch every nerve, every cell, in her body and it set her on fire like the fire in front of her and she came hard, her moan echoing through the Bayou. Bella was so proud of herself.
With a big grin on her face, she licked her fingers as she watched Kol and Elijah approach the bonfire. “Well, that took you long enough,” she commented.
“Are you alright?” Elijah asked worried. “Was that you just now?”
“Oh, Elijah, don’t go there,” Kol said in a hushed voice, admiring the bonfire instead. “What’s this, Bella? Four Cold Ones?”
“Five!” She replied with a wide grin. “Or six, I don’t know. Wasn’t paying that much attention. But I should have brought marshmallows, I mean, this is a great purple bonfire.”
Kol tossed the bag into her lap. “Would you please tell one of us where you’re going next time? You had us all scared. Even Nik called—”
“Screw Klaus,” she said angrily as she tore open the bag and popped a marshmallow in her mouth. “He’s not here and he doesn’t have a say in what I can and can’t do. He left and took his floozy of a one night stand with him and his daughter, the most important things in the world.”
Kol quickly glanced over to Elijah, both knowing that she was right. Despite the heightened emotions she was probably – likely – experiencing, she was right. “But he did it to protect you.”
Bella huffed. “If he wanted to protect me, he would have taken me along or stayed. Not this and now he needs to be taught a lesson.”
“But you love him, don’t you?” Elijah asked, feeling his phone violently vibrate in his pocket, no doubt Niklaus was trying to get his attention.
She let out a long, drawn out sigh and rubbed her head. “I do, but that doesn’t mean that what he’s done is right. Or what he’s done in the last few weeks is right. Wow, I’m such a pushover.” She wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Oh, I’m such a rubbish person, that’s just… wow. But hey, look, burning Cold Ones!”
“Want to hunt down some more?” Kol asked as he walked around to see if she was doing alright. “Or would you like to do something else?” Like Elijah, he was ignoring the phone in his pocket. His brother shouldn’t complain, he told them to find her and now they had.
“Nah, I’m tired. I want to curl up and die. Or take a bath. Or get annoyed by Hope’s crying, oh wait,” Bella scratched her head in confusion. “What the fuck is going on?” She growled as she looked at Elijah and Kol. “Am I experiencing Klaus’ feelings?”
“I don’t know, are you?” Kol was intrigued as he squatted down in front of her. “You feel his annoyance at Hope?”
“And me. And I don’t know, I can’t differentiate right now. Oh, bloody hell, this is just grand,” she popped a marshmallow into her mouth. “Take me to Freya, because even I know that this isn’t normal,” she sighed as she got up from the deck chair. “I will kill her if she can’t do a spell to check me over, just so you know.”
“No, you won’t,” Kol snorted. “Wait!” He got his phone out and smirked. “Strike a pose next to the bonfire, we’ll send Nik a picture.”
Bella raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? You want me to vogue? I’d need my cone bra, and last time I checked, Myriam had borrowed it from me and never returned it.”
Elijah made a mental note of hunting that thing down and destroying it as he absentmindedly read his brother’s messages. They went from patient to impatient to even all caps. “Perhaps we should risk it to bring Niklaus back, at least until we’ve sorted this out.”
“No!” Bella picked up a burning finger and threw it at Elijah with excellent aim. “He can go fuck himself. And I swear, if he puts his dick into Hayley, I will cut off his dick and feed it to him.”
“Okay,” Kol said patronizingly as he put an arm around her. “Let’s get you home and in a calm, serene state before you do something you’ll regret.”
“I’m hungry.”
“We’ll find you a bad guy.”
“I ate a rapist earlier,” she smirked as she put her arm around his waist and followed him with a bounce in her step. “Don’t worry, I was discreet and they’ll find his body in a dumpster… I might have done some overkill by bashing in his face but… he was raping this girl, you see and…”
“No need to justify sticking up for other women, darling, you’ve done great.”
Elijah watched as Kol dragged Bella off, away from the fire and hopefully back to the compound and once he was certain they were out of earshot, he decided to return his brother’s messages by calling him. “Niklaus, we have her.”
“Don’t lose her again!”
He sighed as he ran a hand over his face. “We won’t, but tell me, are you experiencing mood swings?”
“We’re currently at a car dealership because I became so frustrated that I accidentally ruined the car when I kicked against the tire, breaking the chassis. I’m experiencing surges of power I cannot begin to understand and mood swings cannot even begin to describe, variating from being disgusted with myself for what I’ve put Bella through to…”
“What?”
“Wanting to fuck my bloody brother, what the hell is going on, Elijah?”
“We’re going to find that out, don’t you fret,” he replied. One part of him was amused, but the rational part of him was clearly not. It wasn’t as if they could use another complication to their lives. “Oh, Niklaus, what have you done?”
“What have I done?! Wasn’t it your pestering that caused me to turn her?”
His brother was right about that. “Clearly we shouldn’t have allowed Bella to trust Kol so blindly on the prophecy and should have looked into it more.”
“Clearly. Fix it.”
“Of course.”
“And Elijah, please, if what I’m feeling is coming off of Bella, keep her away from Kol.”
“Don’t you trust her to stay faithful to you, brother?”
“She IS from the Petrova bloodline, Elijah, and she’s bloody pissed at me for what I’ve put her through. I do trust her, and I trust her instincts, and right now, she seems to have formed a bond with our newly resurrected brother and I do not wish to entertain the idea that she’ll soon be screwing him.”
“Do have some faith in Kol, Niklaus. He’s trying his best to deflect her,” Elijah said soothingly. “This is only day one of her turning and as Kol had said before we found her, we’re in new territory here.”
“I do have faith in our brother, Elijah, but you know as well as I do what kind of effect Petrova’s tend to have on us. Do I need to remind you of Tatia? Katherine? Even young Elena struck a chord with us even if we do not wish to entertain that idea.”
“They’re distant cousins. Your paranoia is getting the better of you.”
“Mark my words, Elijah, before this week is over, Kol and Bella will have had sex and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”
“Myriam suggested that Bella should stay at Débauche for the time being.”
“Yes.”
“Unfortunately, Bella’s a grown woman who can make her own decisions, I sincerely doubt she’ll tolerate it if we’d tell her to go back to the club.”
“Fix this, Elijah.”
“What if there’s no fixing?” The silence on the other end of the line said enough. “We’ll try our best, Niklaus, now, be safe and don’t try to murder people. And don’t send us messages all the time. The whole point of disappearing is less contact.”
With a growl, Klaus disconnected the call and looked at Hayley. “We shouldn’t have left.”
“Yeah well, it’s too late now. You wanted your siblings to clean up your mess, now they’re going to. Let’s go, I found us a new car.”
~o.O.o~
Kol made sure that Bella was well fed before going back to compound, and even he joined in on the festivities. She had quite the appetite for a new vampire and she knew what to do. She had explained that when living with vampires for a couple of years, you’re bound to pick up a thing or to. She was probably right. At least she wasn’t much on edge anymore after their feeding frenzy and she promised to behave. Much like an overfed baby, she was tired and would do whatever.
It was likely that she’d gone out on her own doing her hunting part too soon, that it had drained her before she could fully recharge her batteries. He tucked her into bed when they returned and once she was asleep, he let Freya perform a couple of spells to see if she could detect what was going on, but it was likely that they’d have to find their answers somewhere else. Italy, perhaps. In the midst of all the evil. Oh, nobody but Bella was going to like that idea; to go to the source of all evil. Their kings.
Kol trusted Elijah and Freya to keep an eye on Bella while he popped in with Davina for a little. Davina was, of course, his girlfriend. Yes, he had said to Bella on the Ancestral Plane that he was likely going to kill her but now that he was with her in the flesh, it was different. He had thought Davina would refuse him anyway, no matter what she had said when she came to see him, but she hadn’t. And her heart was simply beautiful.
And honestly, a sleeping Bella couldn’t do any harm.
~o.O.o~
Myriam watched anxiously as Freya prepared for her spells to perform on Bella. She couldn’t believe that there was something wrong with her friend – her daughter, in a way – and that whatever was going on was only temporary. That was her hope.
But Elijah was right, too. Bella was something special. It was something that she and Klaus had already known when Bella came knocking for help, to hide from the Cold Ones but now that it was actually happening, it was frightening. There wasn’t much known about what Bella was, and that bothered her. What if nobody could learn how to live with whatever power was released when she turned and Bella had to leave New Orleans? Myriam didn’t want that.
“Relax,” Elijah said as he watched Myriam pace the bedroom. “You’re making Freya nervous.”
“I don’t get nervous, brother,” Freya remarked playfully. “But I do appreciate the sentiment.”
“How could he do this, Elijah? Why did you allow Niklaus to leave? Bella is his to take care of, not you and your family’s.”
“Myriam, she is family. And she knows that when you’re a part of our family, you’d have to make certain sacrifices.”
“Yes, but not like this,” she growled in response. “When she wakes up, I’m going to talk to her and see if she wishes to come to the club in Klaus’ absence. You simply do not abandon family. If Niklaus truly cared about her—”
“He does.”
“Well, he has an awful way of showing that!”
Freya frowned at that. “I thought you and Klaus know each other for a very long time, Myriam. Aren’t you supposed to be friends and business partners?”
“All the more reason why I’m allowed to cut off his balls and serve them on a platter for him to eat,” she replied. “Yes, we’re friends. We were lovers, we were…” she looked at Elijah. “We were, we’re not now. No. But it does give me an excellent insight in Klaus’ psyche and even for him, leaving his gorgeous girlfriend to transition without him, this is pretty low.”
“You have to understand, he needed to disappear.”
“He could have waited a couple more days,” she replied grumpily and crossed her arms over her chest. “And don’t you even dare asking me if I want to have a date night soon. You’re not getting any either.”
“What did I do?”
“You’re the brother of the asshole who left my girl all by herself with a bunch of idiots who can’t even track her.”
“Sorry, brother, seems like we’re all guilty by association,” Freya said amused. “Now, quiet and give me a few minutes to see if I can detect anything without getting a headache from that shield of hers.” She started to cast a spell. “There’s definitely some extra magic around her after her turning,” she said calmly. “Ties to—”
Freya couldn’t finish her sentence as she was knocked back by a magical barrier and before anyone could react, Bella was awake and on top of Freya, her hands around Freya’s neck and squeezing her throat shut. “Stop putting your nose into things that don’t concern you!” Bella spat as she could feel Freya trying to push her away with her magic. “Oh, that doesn’t work on me, you stupid little cunt.”
“Enough!” Kol rushed in, half dressed and pulled Bella off of his sister, throwing Bella against the wall across the room. When Bella didn’t even flinch and started to charge again, he intercepted her and wrapped his arms around her, tightly, lifting her off her feet so she couldn’t gain traction. “You need to calm down, darling,” he said calmly to the wriggling little vampire in his arms. “She’s only doing what we wanted her to do, remember?”
“I don’t want it! Let me go!”
“No.”
Elijah fed his sister some of his blood to heal her bruised throat and helped her to her feet. “Are you alright, Freya?”
“Let me go, Kol! I have your brother’s White Oak toy, let me go or I’ll find it and shove it into your chest cavity when you’re asleep!”
“Aw, that’s cute, darling,” Kol purred with a grin on his face. “I’m still not letting you go. Now, if the three of you could just leave, I can work on calming her down.”
Freya immediately walked over to the bar once they were downstairs in the courtyard. She was a little shaken and aggravated at the same time. “Klaus has created a monster.”
Myriam poured herself a large glass of alcohol as well before deciding on taking the entire bottle with her to the couch and left the glass on the bar. She’d never seen Bella like that before. She knew that Bella could be temperamental, but as a new vampire with her emotions still all over the place? “I doubt that the club’s magic will be able to contain her,” she said, still a little bit shell shocked. “Who is that in that bedroom? Is that truly Bella?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Elijah sighed and tiredly rubbed his eyes. “And so far, only Kol managed to get through to her. It appears that that part of her prophecy was more literal than we thought it’d be. More… linked. We’re not certain, of course, that’s why Freya did the spell.”
“You had one hell of a day.”
“It’s not over yet. Her rage reminds me of newborn Cold Ones. They’re stronger, faster and more relentless than older vampires. It eventually wears off, but until it does, they’re pretty much untouchable.”
“Can’t Peter help out?”
“He’s a Cold One. Bella might actually end up killing him,” Freya groaned as she knocked back another glass. “Trust me, if he thought he’d be of any help, he’d be here. He likes to feel wanted and appreciated.”
“All we need to do is endure her for a little longer, take care of Tristan to make sure he won’t be able to throw a wrench in our plans and take care of any enemy of Niklaus coming our way.”
Myriam eyed her lover. “The temper tantrums of a newborn Cold One usually last for about a year. Are you sure you want to endure her that long, Elijah? Who knows how long Niklaus will be gone for?”
“Seriously?” Freya shot at her brother.
“You know what, Elijah? For the entire duration of you having to endure Bella’s temper tantrums, you and I will not have intercourse.”
“What!”
“You heard me, Cherie,” Myriam said with a playful smile on her lips.
Elijah’s head snapped to the entrance to the courtyard after hearing footsteps. “Davina,” he let out a breath and got to his feet. “What are you doing here?” He was still not happy with her, for what she’d done to him and most importantly, to Niklaus. But she’d also reunited his family by resurrecting his brother Kol, so his feelings for her were a little mixed. “What can we do for you?”
“Is Kol here?”
“He’s upstairs in Niklaus’ bedroom,” he replied calmly and pointed upstairs.
“Good,” she said as she continued to march deeper into the compound and went up the stairs.
“Should we at least tell her what he’s doing?” Myriam offered, a little bit concerned for the young witch’ safety.
“No,” Freya smirked. “Although I wouldn’t mind having a front row seat to whatever is going to happen up there.”
“Yes, however, I do believe we’ll be safer down here,” Elijah added as he took the glass that Myriam left on the bar and took a sip from it. “The things we do for family.”
“Have you calmed down yet?” Kol asked Bella, who was still locked in his arms and her feet off the ground. He made sure to stay away from chairs and the bed so she couldn’t push herself off of him. “Do you still wish to kill my sister?”
“Yes,” Bella replied with a sigh. “But I also know that she’s only doing what we’ve asked and that I’m completely overreacting.”
“That’s progress, I like it,” he agreed. “However, if I’d let you go would you go and kill her anyway?”
“Yeah, pretty much. My impulse control is severely lacking.”
He was glad to hear that at least her brain was still able to rationalize things and just kept holding her. “Well then, I’ll just have to hold you indefinitely. I’ll have you know that you ruined a perfect opportunity to have some great sex with my girlfriend, you know.”
She finally gave up struggling against his hold and was now hanging in his arms; her knees bent, and she was resting on his arms for support. “I did offer.”
“And we’re both in a relationship, it’s not going to happen, Bella,” Kol said sternly before his ears picked up the sound of Davina’s feet walking towards the bedroom. He could feel the want, the drive, to kill Davina again. He did all he could not to kill her, and he was fine when he was on his own with her, but he could feel it rise to the surface yet again. On top of that, Bella would want to take a bite out of her, too. “Oh shit,” he turned around, with Bella still in his arms, her legs swinging everywhere causing her to giggle. “Davina, it’s not what it looks like!”
“What it looks like is that you’re half dressed and having the person who used me to get to you in your arms with torn clothes. Klaus’ whore,” Davina said as she crossed her arms. “You left me for her?”
“As I said, it’s not what it looks like.”
“Then what is it?” she sounded impatient. “And I swear, if you’re going to say it’s a long story, I will make you regret it.”
“Can I say it?” Bella grinned at Kol before narrowing her eyes on Davina. “It’s a long story. Like… very long. You should leave before he bites you.”
“Kol wouldn’t hurt me.”
“Yeah, he would,” Bella countered. “He’s a vampire with control issues.”
“Says the baby vampire who just admitted not to have any impulse control herself,” Kol said with a snort. “Good job, Bella.”
“Fine, if you’re not going to kill her, can I?”
“No, you will not touch Davina.”
Davina sneered and with a flick of her wrist, snapped Bella’s neck, causing her to go limp in Kol’s arms. “You’d better start explaining things now, or else. If you two are together, we’re done.”
“Now why didn’t I think of that?” Kol said with a chuckle and unceremoniously threw Bella onto the bed. “Davina, I believe we need to talk,” he said, taking a step closer to his girlfriend, feeling the urge to kill her in him rise. “However, we should probably do that in the presence of my siblings.”
“Kol, I’m not afraid of you,” Davina sighed as she walked up to him and put her hand on his cheek. “But I am angry with you for leaving as you did. For her. What’s up with that? What’s going on?”
“It’s Bella, she’s… special. Nik just turned her, and she’s… adjusting,” he tried to breathe through his mouth as not to catch Davina’s delicious scent as much. “I’m not sure if should tell you more about her…”
“You are,” Davina demanded. “You are going to tell me everything.”
“I can’t, but what I can say is that for some reason, I can feel what she feels, mostly her anger and rage. And it’s not my fault, I swear. Nor Freya’s. It’s just… I don’t know. We connected somehow. We’re still in the process of figuring things out ourselves, and I had to leave you earlier because I felt that Bella was losing her cool. She wanted to kill Freya and of course, I can’t allow that to happen.”
She huffed. “I could understand the link between her and Klaus if he’s the one who turned her, the connection between you and her is ridiculous.”
“It could have something to do with her being a part of the family of Travelers. While her line wasn’t practicing magic, the root of their family did. We don’t know. There’s too many unknowns to be certain, and we need to figure things out,” Kol explained as calm as he could, taking a deep breath when he looked away from her. Damn, the urge to kill Davina was so strong. “On top of that, it’s entirely possible that the Ancestors did something to me when you brought me back, I wouldn’t put it past them, to be honest. They hate you and really hate me…”
“Kol, whatever it is, we’ll figure it out, okay?” Davina smiled at him. “Maybe you should hang out at St. James’ Infirmary for a while, no magic can reach you there.”
“I doubt it’ll stop me from wanting to rip out your throat, darling,” he said, giving her a slight push back and took a few steps back.
“Don’t push me away. We can fix this. I promise.”
“And what if it’ll only get worse, Davina? What if I lose my control and kill you? I wouldn’t be able to live with myself and Marcel would kill me.”
She laughed. “Marcel can’t kill you, Kol. Not anymore.”
“Well, at least he’d find numerous of ways to make my life miserable, not taking in account the torture he’ll try on top of that, no.” He took another step back as she kept walking towards him. Soon, he wouldn’t have any place to go. “I told you that as a vampire, I’m a psychotic maniac.”
“Yes, but you promised me you’d do better. For me.”
“I did, and I am, but I can’t fight this, Davina.”
“I can protect myself; you shouldn’t be afraid of being who you are, Kol. As long as we can be together,” she said, standing toe to toe now, Kol was standing against the wall. “You won’t hurt me. What has changed since you left me and arrived here? You were doing fine.”
“I drowned myself in blood before I came to you and I really don’t want to hurt you, Davina, but that doesn’t mean that I will,” he said as his true face came out. Oh, he wanted to rip her throat out with his teeth, dig his hand into her chest cavity and crush her heart in his hand, feeling it crumble into nothingness. Tear off her limbs one at a time. But mainly, he just wanted her dead.
Davina reached out to touch his cheek again, not bothered in the slightest with the fact that his game face was on. “And you’ve already sprung a leak? Where did it all go?”
“Davina,” he said pained. “Please…” It was hard to resist the urge now. He didn’t want to push her away either as he’d promised not to hurt her but as a last resort… Oh, why couldn’t she take ‘no’ for an answer? Why didn’t she listen to him? Did she see him as a broken little bird that needed to be fixed? What if this couldn’t be fixed until he’d actually kill her?
Before Kol knew it, he was lunging for Davina, unable to stop himself and tried to push her away at the same time. His teeth then sank into skin, tasting blood, drinking greedily and he closed his eyes. This wasn’t happening, this wasn’t happening, he repeated to himself inside his mind. The initial panic subsided and he was surprised to hear a moan coming from Davina’s lips. Opening his eyes, he saw Davina watch in horror from the other end of the room and felt confused for a moment. Who was he biting and draining from all her blood?
“How’s that for a Snickers bar?” Bella quipped, gently patting the feeding vampire on his shoulder. “Feeling better?”
“Bella?” he said confused as he felt he’d had enough. He then looked at Davina and didn’t feel the murderous urge to kill her anymore, either. “What? You… huh?”
“It’s okay,” she said soothingly. “No killing your girlfriend, I got it, remember?” Bella looked at Davina with a smile. “Although she did say she didn’t want to see me again so… I don’t know…”
“No, you did good,” Kol let out a breath. “Thank you.”
Bella nodded and ruffled his hair before walking towards the door. “Don’t worry! I’m merely going to sit with Elijah, Myriam and Freya to give you the illusion of privacy while you two chat!”
~o.O.o~
A couple of days later, they received word from Klaus that he and Hayley were destroying every Kingmaker facility they could get their hands on; destroying all of Lucien’s work. Lucien was dead now, but he’d been up to no good, and it had been a good thing that Peter had killed him when he did.
It set something off within Bella, after behaving much better than the first day she’d turned, but to hear that her boyfriend and his fucking ex were dismantling everything belonging to Lucien and having fun with it was just wrong and painful.
Trashing Lucien’s apartment with Kol and salvaging important things that could help them or the family didn’t quite hit the mark. The Cullens had retreated out of New Orleans, but Bella still found a few newborns hiding in the Bayou, no doubt having been left there by someone and she took care of them instead. But it was still itching. She wanted more.
“Do you think the Volturi may have more information about what’s going on with me?” Bella asked Elijah during family breakfast. “I mean, not in specifics, of course, I know that I’m completely different from Carmen, but…”
“I wouldn’t put it past them to collect all of their history in their extensive library instead of destroying it,” Elijah replied curiously. “Imagine what knowledge must be in their possession.”
“Or what their witches, their scientists, may have discovered. For all we know they’ve done an experiment with both vampire species,” Kol added with a big smile on his face. Was his brother going to offer to go to Italy? How would he react if Bella would jump at the chance to go there instead? “I wouldn’t put it past them to try to enhance themselves somehow. Or see what our weaknesses are.”
“I want to go to Italy. Take on the Volturi before I kill the rest of them. Without their leaders, it’s likely they’ll run around like headless chickens,” Bella said as she took a sip from her glass of blood. It was Klaus’ chef again, was it his week or something?
“I’m sure Niklaus would love to accompany you once he’s returned,” Elijah said, perhaps a little too patronizing, which angered her to no end. She took hold of her knife and threw it at him, but he caught it before it could cut him. “There’s no need for violence, Isabella. I do believe that an undertaking such as going to Europe to gather information and fulfill your destiny should be with Niklaus, not by yourself.”
“Kol can come with me,” she said easily, shrugging off whatever he’d just said. “I mean, you’ve got your hands full with trying to do the horizontal tango with Tristan instead of killing him, and look at it this way; if I take Kol to Italy with me, you won’t have two unstable vampires around, and you can do whatever you please.”
“It also leaves the both of you unchecked.”
“Fine,” Bella said defiantly. “I understand you don’t trust us, then I’ll ask Myriam if she wants to chaperone us, would you like that? Your girlfriend away from you?”
“What would Niklaus say about you two going off together?”
“I don’t give a fuck,” she said bluntly, draining her glass of blood and stuffed a croissant in her mouth. “So, let’s pack light, Kol. We’ll buy whatever’s necessary when we get to Italy.” Bella got to her feet with a big grin on her face. “Unless you don’t want to leave Davina… risk wanting to bite her again… Perhaps killing her…”
“Oh, I’m going and not because of Davina. I have a score to settle with Marcus, and I want all the dark objects they’ve stolen from me.”
“They have some of your dark objects in their possession?” Elijah fumed. “How did we not know this?”
“Because it doesn’t matter, brother, I recreated them when I found them missing after they sent this idiot to steal them from me. I’m going with Bella and fine; Myriam can come as well, but frankly, we can take care of ourselves, Elijah.”
“You’re an excitable puppy, brother,” Freya said amused. “I would have loved to accompany you, but I need to help Elijah.”
Elijah already was dialing Myriam’s number. “My dear, how would you like to go on a trip?”
~o.O.o~
“Couldn’t you have picked a less conspicuous car to get us to the airport?” Myriam asked as she got into the backseat of the convertible. Unlike Bella and Kol, she hadn’t packed light. Whatever the youngsters – okay, fine, Kol was older than she was but he was still a child – were up to, she was sure she wasn’t going to like it.
“Pretty car is pretty. We’re going to kill things in style,” Kol smirked as he helped Bella into the car and took his seat behind the wheel. “Besides, it’s lovely weather out. Let’s get a tan!”
“Kol, we can’t get tans.”
“Party pooper,” Kol said as he started the engine and let it roar for a little bit, seemingly enjoying the sound of it. He then looked over to Bella. “Is she always like this? I thought she used to have something with Klaus?”
“Well… maybe she’s infected with the stick-in-the-mud-virus that Elijah has. I hear it’s contagious,” she deadpanned as she looked over her shoulder to Myriam. “Mom, it’s okay to have some fun. This is your first holiday in years.”
“I don’t understand why you can’t wait for Klaus to return, that’s all.”
“Because he’s an asshole,” Bella said grumpily, turning back to face forward when Kol drove off. “I mean, I understand everything, his reasoning behind it all, ignoring me, leaving with Hayley and Hope, turning me like he did, but that doesn’t mean that it’s okay. Besides, I want to know what the hell I’m doing before he returns, I don’t want to make his life harder than it already is.”
“And taking off the heads of the Cold One leaders will help a lot,” Kol smirked. “We’re going to have so much fun!”
The drive to the airport was swift, and after getting their boarding passes and going through security, Bella started to get anxious. She needed to feed but to feed on people in an airport would be a little… no, she wouldn’t feed on innocent people. Instead, she bought a large bottle of bourbon in the liquor store and took it to the bathroom with her to drown herself in alcohol.
A good thing about being a vampire was that it took a lot of alcohol to get you drunk. Well, it was also a bad thing, but for now, it was good. But the whole bottle wasn’t enough, and this didn’t bode well. When she exited the stall, Myriam was there with a compelled security guard. “No,” she shook her head. “Not going to feed on him.”
Myriam merely shrugged before slicing the artery in the man’s wrist with her sharp nails and Bella was on him in a split second, drinking from him, paying attention to his heartbeat so he wouldn’t die. She hated Myriam but right now, she also kinda loved her for bringing the guy in. She released him just in time and Myriam compelled him to take a break and drink some orange juice, or whatever and Bella wiped her mouth clean with her sleeve. “I needed that,” she muttered, slightly embarrassed, before a slight feeling of panic washed over her. “I’m going to be on a plane for ten hours. How the fuck am I going to survive that?!”
“Kol and I will make sure you’ll be alright, Cherie; there’ll be at least a hundred other people aboard the flight.”
“But they’re innocents!”
“Yes, and with a little compulsion and a little bit of vampire blood in their system they’ll be okay. As will you,” she rubbed the girl’s back. “I know it’s a difficult thing to get under control, your blood lust, so does Kol. He never quite wanted to learn, but he’s able to do so,” Myriam then let out a chuckle. “And you know how I can get when I have ingested a little bit too much blood.”
“Oh, you’re a hoot when you’re high on blood,” Bella snorted. “But you have excellent control.”
“Most of the time, and that’s only because I make sure I don’t get tempted.”
Bella smiled at that. “Just promise me that we’ll go and make a party on the way to Volterra, I’m dying for a real party with dancing and booze and eye fucking people and shit like that.”
“Deal.”
~o.O.o~
“I compelled the stewardess on the way in,” Kol grinned as they found their seats. “She’ll make sure we get plenty of alcohol our way. For free.”
“I want to learn how to compel people,” Bella said as she sat down between Myriam, who was sitting at the window, and Kol, who had taken the aisle seat. “Is it easy?”
“Of course, it is, darling,” Kol smirked. “Just wait until everyone’s seated and the plane’s in the air, and then we shall begin your lessons. We have ten hours to kill anyway.”
“Oh merde,” Myriam muttered as she covered her face with her hands. “This isn’t going to go well.”
Kol huffed. “It’s better that she learns in a controlled environment.”
“We’re on a plane.”
“Don’t worry, darling, we’re leaving the pilots alone, we won’t crash,” he grinned and settled in his seat. Oh yeah, this was going to be fun. He was going to teach Bella everything he knew, away from his family. Niklaus had no reason to get angry with him because it was him who had left his girlfriend behind to take care of herself.
She hadn’t spoken to Klaus after making the threat a couple of days ago and sighed, looking at Kol. “It’s obvious that you’re merriment of the prophecy and Klaus is the officer. You reckon he feels stronger after turning me?”
“I suppose, he does seem to be having fun with Hayley taking out those Kingmaker facilities,” Kol replied, resulting in Bella scowling. “He does seem to pick up on your stronger emotions as I do. But, aside from that, there’s nothing he can do about it because he left and now we’re off to Europe.”
“Even you telling him that didn’t bring him back,” she said with a pout as she lay her head on his shoulder. “I understand the whole idea of disappearing, but I could have gone to him, you know.”
“And what? Miss out on killing Cold Ones?”
“No, but I miss him. I hate him, I understand him, and I miss him. On top of that, I haven’t had sex for a couple of days, and I’m on edge.”
Kol let out a breath. “We’re fortunate that you got your emotions under control so fast, I don’t know what I’d have done if you’d—”
“It’s simple, just have sex with me,” Bella shrugged. “Sex is sex.”
“So when you and Nik… that’s… what?”
“More than sex,” Bella said with a wide grin, still with her head on Kol’s shoulder. “Perfection, oh, I can’t wait to do it with him now everything is so… heightened. But sex? You and I can have sex. Non-committed sex.”
Kol blinked at that. “I thought you said you have yourself under control?”
“I do. And who are you to lecture me on sexuality? No doubt you’ve had your fair share of whores and other… conquests in your day?” She sat up again once the plane started to move. Looking at him with a big grin on her face she shrugged. “Why do you care, anyway?”
“Because I know my brother, and he’ll dagger me if I’d sleep with you.”
“Oh, sleeping with me is fine. That’s just us in bed together, doing nothing. Sex, however, will be the death of you,” she grinned. “He’s not here, is he? I told him that I wouldn’t have sex with other men for money anymore, but you’re not just any man, and you won’t be paying me for my services.”
Kol let out a strangled sound and looked at Myriam. “Say something.”
“Honestly, I can’t,” she replied with a small smile on her face. “If anything, I’m the least qualified to say something about this seeing as Klaus and I have been friends with benefits for so long, and I’m now with Elijah.” She then let out a deep breath as the plane started to taxi to the runway. “But, if I should say something about this… I think it’s in both of your best interests if you’d just don’t have sex with each other. Control your hormones, Bella; you’ll see Klaus again soon enough.”
She grumpily crossed her arms over her chest and decided to focus on the feeling of killing Cold Ones instead. It worked, it made her feel all warm and tingly inside while she imagined what she’d do with them. Would a bat work on them? Like, swing hard enough that their heads get severed from their torsos? Or maybe fishing wire? Chase them into running into it, would that slice them open so much that their venom would pour out of their bodies and all she had to do was ignite it?
She was jostled out of her thoughts when Kol gripped her arm, hard, his face changing into his true face and his breathing was labored. “Hungry and I can’t stop, Bella… I…” The plane took off then, the sheer force knocking the air out of her lungs as she kept an eye on him. With him not pulling her arm to his face, she wasn’t sure what to do now.
As the plane rose, they went out of the city limits and Kol started to whimper in pain, at first, before it became a loud cry for help. His skin turned gray, his veins purple and Bella pulled him towards her with her other arm, his face in the crook of her neck. “Drink, asshole,” she whispered. “Stop scaring the locals…”
“It won’t work; it won’t work… Ahhh!”
