Chapter 10
Bella awoke with her teeth sunk into someone’s neck. She loved the taste of blood, to hear the life slowly leave her victim’s body. Bella found this strange; this immense like of blood. It wasn’t merely a like, it felt like a need, almost as if she needed more to prevent herself from dying.
“Kol, are you quite done?”
Bella sighed exasperatedly, wondering why she was being referred to as Kol. She released her meal and sat up, looking up at Elijah, who was wearing the funniest of clothes. “Oh, bother, Elijah! Is this truly necessary?” It was as if she didn’t have any control over her actions but as if she was in someone else’s body – Kol’s. What was going on?
“Brother, the road is a major thoroughfare– if the bodies are found, word of our presence will spread to Mikael,” Elijah sounded spooked and impatient. Come to think of it, there was a feeling of fear inside of her – Kol – , as well.
“We have run through autumn and winter, through sleet and snow… Are we cursed to forever live in fear of our father?” Rebekah was fed up.
“I should say yes, sadly.” Bella found it humorous that Finn sounded like a boring stick in the mud even back then, nothing had changed. She nearly applauded when Elijah pointed at Finn in annoyance. The pointing thing hadn’t disappeared at all. Deciding to ignore the rest of the siblings, Bella could feel her move back to drinking the man Kol had been feeding off of.
“Finn, please. Niklaus–” Elijah looked back at his brother who was petting the horse, trying to find some backup in the argument he was having with his siblings.
“Do we have any idea where we’re running to next?”
Once the man was fully drained of his blood, the body was dropped on the floor and Bella could feel herself standing up and walking towards the rest of the Mikaelsons, letting out a deep sigh. “Why not just do what we’ve all thought of doing? Split up!”
“We swore a vow!”
“Your vows haunt me more than Father himself, Nik! At least he can’t chase us all. I say we take our chances.” Kol felt alone, even with his siblings. Finn, Rebekah and Elijah did everything in their power to protect their brother Nik and Kol hated that. What about him? He didn’t want to do everything in his power to protect Nik as he was more than capable of doing himself. Nobody listened to him anyway. What was his role in this family?
“Perhaps Kol is right–”
Really? Finn stood up for him? Oh, he was hopeful now. “Thank you, Finn! Yeah, I’ve always said, ‘Oldest is the most intelligent–’”
“Stop talking.”
The rejection hit hard. Bella could tell this wasn’t the first time Kol had felt rejected by his family, but this broke her heart. Finn was a jerk and he made her angry. And hungry. Oh, maybe there was a dead body left with some blood in them.
What happened next was she was hit by rejection upon rejection upon rejection in the various moments of Kol’s life, all the way to France, where they hid as nobility, to Italy, where they lived together for awhile. She loved how Kol felt when he was alone with Klaus; causing chaos and mayhem all over, feeding indiscreetly and partying as if they had nothing to lose. Elijah was often the one reminding them to be more careful, but Kol always managed to pull Klaus along with him.
To stave off boredom, and to protect themselves from the so-called “Five”, they pretended to be mortals and Kol grew incredibly bored. It was no fun to play hide and seek with his victims and the many whores he bedded weren’t enough either. Oh, he was a gluttonous pig, alright, but at least his temporary bedmates gave him the attention he so desperately craved from his siblings.
After being daggered the first time by a member of the Five and thankfully rescued by his brothers, Kol decided he had had enough and left his family behind. What followed were years of fun, enlightenment and intelligence; soaking up all the information of the witches; learning from them and teaching others.
Revisiting their Viking roots, he joined his siblings in Copenhagen for awhile before following them to Spain, despite being hit again and again by rejection and pain. Kol drew comfort from the fact that at least Finn was still daggered and unable to pester him.
~o.O.o~
“Wow, I had no idea that it would actually work,” Kol said surprised. “I mean, traditional magic didn’t work, but dark objects?”
“Well, you’ve been contemplating on it for the last two years on how to bring her down,” Damon shot at Kol. “Now you’ve got your answers. Congratulations,” he added sarcastically. “And you had to use me, seriously? Dude, she’s going to be so mightily pissed with you.”
“You were the only one who could get close enough and you haven’t been back on vervain due to your vacation to that prison world so,” Kol shrugged. “Means to an end.”
“Oh, I could get close,” Klaus said casually. “But I refused. I prefer to stay on her good side.”
“So, where do you think she is now?”
Kol looked at Damon and shrugged. “Could be Copenhagen… could be Spain… or somewhere in between.”
“I still think it’s appalling that you created a dark object to put us through your misery, Kol,” Elijah said disapprovingly as he watched the last compelled waiter take away the extra chairs and tables they had used for their dinner surprise. “If anything, you made your own life miserable.”
“Sure, Elijah, remind me to use it on you next, then,” Kol retorted angrily. “Because admit it, the only reason I’m currently still out of my box is because of her, and because of the spell that was put upon us.”
“He has a point,” Rebekah said from her spot in one of the comfortable chairs Bella’s room offered. “Maybe forcing her to live through Kol’s misery isn’t the best solution to our problems, but it’s all we’ve got. It likely won’t fix anything.”
Kol toyed with Bella’s hair to stop himself from lashing out. “Probably not, but she needed the time out before she’d do something stupid. She may not like us very much for our betrayal, but there was no point reasoning with her.”
“Yeah, she pretty much wants your balls on a silver platter,” Damon snorted.
“That’s only because she’s inside her head. She’s good at making the decision to listen to her head or her heart instead of having them work in harmony. She’s done this before,” Myriam took a sip of her glass of wine. “But it wasn’t as bad as this and we could talk her out of it all. Perhaps learning a bit more about the history of the Mikaelsons will jolt her back to using both.” She let out a breath then and took another sip. “Her heart got broken, maybe seeing Kol persevere through his misery and achieve things will warm her heart a little and coax it to mend itself a little.”
“Wouldn’t it be simpler to call out to Hades and have him instruct her again?” Elijah asked, but already knew the answer when Kol, Myriam and Damon narrowed their eyes on him in anger.
“You would like that, wouldn’t you?” Kol snapped. “If it were possible, you would run off to Hades or any Greek God and tell them about Bella and how she’s misbehaving. That she’s wrong. There’s nothing more that you want. You want them to take her away from us. From me.”
“She doesn’t even want you anymore, Kol.”
“Because I wronged her!”
“Oh, that gives me a shot, doesn’t it?” Damon smirked as he sat down on the floor. “Oh, me and Bella, the possibilities…”
“Hardly, mate,” Klaus finally spoke up, an amused smile on his face. “Bella’s biological father was Zach Salvatore.”
“Then again,” Myriam added playfully. “She’s a demi-goddess of the Greek variety, the gods are known to sleep with their relatives.”
“Oh, no. No, no, no, no,” Damon shook his head. “You’re messing with me!” Oh god, what if somehow Zach’s baby with Gail survived all these years ago and grew up to be Bella? Talk about epic guilt trip.
“Ask her yourself when she comes to,” Klaus laughed and looked over to his brother, who still had his eyes firmly fixed on his other brother. “Kol,” he warned him.
“Do you still carry a dagger on you, Nik?” Kol questioned, slowly rising to his feet. “Because I’m just itching to put one into Elijah.”
Elijah blinked as he got his handkerchief and started to toy with it. “What did I do?”
“Your suggestion of returning her to Hades doesn’t sit well with me, brother,” Kol could feel his anger echo through his body, he needed to kill something or dagger his brother, or likely both. “Because if you’ve been paying attention, that would mean she won’t ever return at all.”
“Would her absence be such a bad thing?”
He lunged at Elijah then, wanting to throttle him, but Klaus interjected and blocked Kol’s path to his brother. “Nik!”
“As much as I would like to kill our brother for that remark, let’s not,” Klaus said calmly, pushing his younger brother away from their oldest. “Need I to remind you he’s still spelled?”
“Spelled or not, he’s never liked her,” Kol said, venom dripping from his words. “But even Rebekah wouldn’t go as far as wanting Bella to permanently leave!”
Elijah huffed as he tucked away his handkerchief. “Very well, then allow me to finish what she started. I shall go to the Regent and broker a deal with her so she’ll leave us, and Bella, alone.”
Damon objected. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Stay out of this, Damon, you’re not part of this.”
“You made me a part of this! You compelled me to be all buddy buddy with Bella and give her that stupid stone and thus I should have a say in things. You don’t want to interfere with Bella’s plans when it comes to the Regent. Trust her.”
“That’s the problem, he doesn’t,” Rebekah replied, bored. “Fact of the matter is that I don’t, either, but she seems to be able to work miracles. If Elijah wishes to speak to the Regent, who are we to stop him? He always gets results.”
“You people are unbelievable,” Damon threw his hands up in defeat.
~o.O.o~
Oh, Kol sensed the arrival of his brothers long before they started to shout his name to come forward and have a ‘chat’. He’d seen the fires of Cadiz, it wasn’t his problem. Kol was bored and had thrown himself a party. He could only imagine the look on his siblings’ faces once they’d enter the cottage. Elijah would be severely appalled and disgusted, and Nik would be somewhere between amused and disgusted, unless there was something else going on. Then Nik would be absolutely pissed off.
Kol wasn’t scared of Nik. Or Elijah.
“All of my efforts to keep this family concealed, yet debauchery like this has led Father directly to us,” Elijah sounded aggravated, just as Kol had suspected. The high and mighty Elijah didn’t like baby brother making a mess.
“Kol! Show yourself! This is no time for games!” Klaus shouted at nothing in particular.
Oh, perhaps it was time to see what his brothers wanted from him. Dragging the woman he was feeding of with him, he stumbled back into the cottage for the shock effect and it worked. Draining the woman to death, he dropped her to the floor and smiled widely at his siblings. “Come, come, brother! It’s always time for games!” He reached for the nearest mug filled with alcohol and lifted it towards Klaus in a toast.
“We must leave. Mikael is very nearly upon us.”
Sighing, Kol sat down and put his feet on the table, relaxing in his seat. “Elijah, if Mikael were upon us, I imagine Niklaus would be quite dead.”
“I barely escaped! Father left the head of my horse on a pike in the town square!”
“Aw, he killed poor Theo? What a beast! But then, Father’s always hated you most. Surely he’ll chase you if you flee, leaving me here. Perhaps I’ll make myself mayor?”
“Rebekah and Finn have already boarded the ship. It is imperative we remain together.”
Bella could already see the rest of the scene unfold; Kol was going to be even more uncooperative and his brothers would dagger him. It was his biggest fear. He wasn’t afraid of his siblings; he was afraid of the dagger.
“No! I swear to you, the day will come when I’m not so easily subdued! And on that day, I will make you suffer!” Kol objected as he struggled against Elijah’s hold on him.
“Perhaps! But, today is not that day,” Klaus replied as he shoved the dagger into Kol’s heart. The pain of the dagger entering his body, piercing his skin, flesh and bones and his heart was too much. Then the desiccation began; his skin contracting and drying out, freezing him in place. It didn’t feel as bad as when he was daggered by one of the Five. No, this was worse. Elijah and Klaus manhandled him, throwing him over a horse so they could ride to safety; there was no doubt another coffin was waiting for him at the ship. With every bump, it felt as if the dagger slipped in further and further. It felt as if his veins were breaking and anything else in his body shifting from one side to the other. The motion made him sick.
Bella wanted to scream but couldn’t. As she had already proven once, being desiccated didn’t mean you didn’t feel, hear, anything anymore. Kol heard and felt everything. The motion of the ship. The rats scurrying around in the hold over his coffin. The feeling of fire underneath his skin, slowly burning and never gaining intensity.
It seemed like an eternity until Kol felt hope again from being daggered. Klaus’ voice was faint, but getting closer by the second. “If only there was someone with whom I could share a bit of roguery. Oh, yes! That’s right! There is!” Kol could feel how Klaus pulled the dagger from his chest and for the first time in a very long time, Kol’s body slowly returned back to normal and he was freaking hungry.
Elijah sounded horrified. “You didn’t!” Kol couldn’t find himself to care for poor Elijah, he was thankful Nik allowed him his freedom, but where were they? As his brother laughed like a madman and ran off to distract Elijah, Kol willed himself to wake up fully and stumble out of the coffin, looking for blood.
Kol applauded his brother for having such nice tasting servants and clapped after he finished the last one. “Bravo! That was delectable. But make no mistake, Nik– I’m still cross that you daggered me. But, as far as apologies go, it’s a start!”
“So, this is your idea of fun?” Elijah was angry with Nik. This was fascinating.
“Well, you and Marcellus have grown thick as thieves… why should I be alone?”
A flash of regret washed over him before he quickly dismissed it. If he had to believe Nik’s words, and his own feelings, it meant that the only reason Kol was out of the box was that his brother was bored. Who was this Marcellus, anyway? Where were they on the planet? What year was it? How long had he been out for?
Over the course of a couple of days, Kol discovered who Marcellus truly was; some slave boy Nik had saved from his masters and wanted to raise as his own. Great, one more person to fight for for attention. Apparently, Elijah had stepped in at some point and the boy had now become Elijah’s little toy.
New Orleans was a blast; having fun with Nik was just amazing. Especially when they went to that tenement building and slaughtered all those people. Because it was fun and because they could. Elijah, of course, wasn’t happy. He was going off again about keeping a low profile and Niklaus being amused by the fact that Elijah had time to keep an eye on his younger brothers seeing as he was taking care of Marcellus all the time.
Kol should have listened to his own fears. Disappointment and rejection were once again the main feelings he was having right now; and hunger. He always got hungry when getting too emotional about stuff.
“You would punish the boy for Kol’s antics? I would just as soon put him in a box!”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. “You’d choose that little whelp over your own family?” That was offensive. That is offensive. Kol was offended. Just as he thought, he was going to have to fight this little whelp for his brother’s attention.
“That “little whelp” is our family!”
That was it. The boy, family? Very well. Kol was going to teach the boy something of his own; what it’s like to be a vampire, what things you’d do as a vampire. He was going to scare the boy shitless and perhaps the boy would run away. For good. Out of their lives. The easier thing would just to kill him, but that was the easy way out.
Wasn’t Elijah teaching him Hamlet? Oh, he knew that there was a daggering hanging over his head, why not go out with a little bit more fun?
As expected, his real life teachings of Hamlet to Marcellus was perhaps a little bit too much fun, but he got his revenge on his brothers in the end despite being daggered. Oh, Kol had plans, and he was going to make them all come true once Nik would undagger him again.
Kol wasn’t Finn. Kol was fun and smart and someone his brother Niklaus occasionally liked to have fun with. Kol wasn’t going to be daggered for long, he knew that now. He wasn’t happy about it and one day he wasn’t going to be daggered anymore. No, it would be Niklaus who would be in this situation.
Kemiya taught him to make Dark Objects. If only he could find a couple of witches to work with him…
It took eighty long years for Nik to finally undagger him again, with a request for help. Seeing as Kol liked the witches so much, maybe he could help bring some sort of balance in the supernatural community of New Orleans. Kol was surprised they were still in New Orleans. His family must truly like it here.
Instead of acting out, Kol went to work like the good little drone that he was, hopefully gaining the respect of his siblings, some inclusion, but he was kept out of the holy trinity, as always. He kept his head down and occasion acted out, but nothing that would warrant another daggering. No, he needed to bide his time to construct a weapon that would subdue his brother.
Funnily enough, the first task he had his witches do was to make a Dark Object filled with his suffering, a means to show his brothers how badly they’ve treated him. It was a simple rock, but oh so much more. Once he was certain his witches were ready for more, he taught them everything he knew and made sure they worked round the clock as they also tried to figure out a way to have a weapon against Niklaus.
He feared he was going to be daggered after the glorious mass murder at St. Anne’s Church where Kol used a Dark Object to kill Dowager Fauline so he could gain access to her home. Presumably, she was in possession of a diamond that could help Kol and his witches construct that weapon – now a dagger – a lot faster and make it a lot more powerful. They got caught, obviously, and Klaus had his witches spell the cottage to lock up Kol’s witches.
And there wasn’t a dagger for him. Citing that it was nearly Christmas, Elijah and Niklaus told him it was an early Christmas present; to allow him to walk among the living. Kol, believing every word they said, loved Christmas and hoped that the spirit of forgiveness would stay around a bit longer.
At their annual Christmas party, Kol told Rebekah about his plans against his brother, despite their supposed peace treaty, and later that evening, he regretted that decision. The always ever so loyal Rebekah betrayed him and Kol found himself daggered yet again. This time in front of a party full of witnesses.
So much rage and anger. It only seemed to grow over the years. It broke Bella’s heart to know Kol had suffered so much at the hands of his family, that they rejected him time and again. That they never took him seriously, that he was always looking in from the outside.
The rage and anger reminded her of her own, but then magnified by the vampire senses and magnified by years and years of being treated like shit.
And then, she heard her own voice, and Kol’s anger and rage quieted down, listening intently to the words spoken to him. How her voice and her words warmed his soul and how much he wanted to be undaggered so he could meet her.
But Bella was still raging. If this experience had been the result of Kol’s Dark Object – which it likely was seeing as Damon gave her a stone – he did the one thing to her that he hated himself; giving her a timeout. The thing he had spoken to ‘Davina’ about, something that had been two years in the making and she felt betrayed. Again.
When she finally snapped out of the hold the Dark Object had on her, she flung everyone away from her but Klaus as she sat up with a scowl on her face. Pulling Klaus down to her level, she snapped his neck and retrieved the dagger he kept on him at all times before using her gift to drive it through Kol’s heart, causing him to collapse onto the floor.
“Uhoh,” Damon said in a singsong voice. “Someone’s in trouble…”
“Shut up,” Bella growled. “Shut up! How long have I been out for?”
Damon shrugged.
“Damon!”
“What? You told me to shut up!” Damon retorted as he blinked at her. “Fine, you were out for a week.”
“I was out for a week!” Bella was clearly annoyed as she started to pace around the room. “I was out for a fucking week?! How dare you do that to me!”
“Well, you were kinda difficult to reason with…” Damon shrugged.
“Oh, that’s the solution to everything, isn’t it? Snap necks, daggering, oh, and dark objects! Just use ‘em whenever someone becomes too difficult!” She fumed. “I wasn’t difficult to reason with, I have every right to feel what I’m feeling and for refusing their help or attentions. You’re all a bunch of stupid assholes!”
“Hey, they thought you were out of control, alright?”
“I am not!” Bella growled. “I’m fucking pissed off now. I didn’t need to know what Kol’s been through with the multiple daggerings, with the adjusting to new situations every time he woke up. I didn’t need to be given a fucking time out!”
“Alright, potty mouth, go rinse your mouth with soap!”
“Fuck you, Damon.”
Damon groaned as he shifted uncomfortably, moving his hands to his groin area as he was still up against the wall. “You really need to stop swearing because damn, I’m so turned on right now.”
Bella dropped him to the floor in disgust. “Ew!” Seeing as it was just her, Damon, Klaus and Kol in the room at the moment, Bella went to her clothes and grabbed a clean pair – although she was certain someone had redressed her at least a couple of times during her week of Kol’s life – before heading into the bathroom and locking herself in.
She had every right to be angry with the Mikaelsons and with the Ancestors. Every fucking right. However, she had the idea that even in her hotel room, she wasn’t safe from the Ancestors despite Hades’ gift and needed to fix this mess and disappear.
She only hoped Elijah hadn’t gone to the Regent himself as that might have complicated things.
Oh, she wanted to go back to being normal. Look at things from the outside, but this was a mess that was related to her and she couldn’t back down. Bella also needed to make sure Hades didn’t have to intervene anymore. Just the sheer thought of having only one more chance to prove herself not to fuck up was anxiety inducing. Didn’t Helios tell her that Psyche thought she was a good egg? What was up Hades’ ass to think differently?
By the time she was done soaking in the bath, she could hear people shuffling around on the other side of the door. She figured that Klaus wouldn’t stay down that long, and hell was going to be paid if he’d undaggered Kol. Bella got dressed and pulled her damp hair back into a ponytail before leaving the room. Myriam had returned and Klaus was looking severely annoyed, but at least Kol was still daggered, now resting comfortably on the bed in the space she had just vacated. “Sup?”
“You better explain yourself,” Klaus shot at her. “Daggering my brother?”
“Oh, so now it’s an issue?” Bella retorted, raising an eyebrow before moving to the mini fridge in the hotel room to find herself something to snack on. “You haven’t had any problems with him daggered in the past.”
“That’s irrelevant!” Klaus huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.
Bella settled for a chocolate bar and turned to face him. “The way I see it, you daggered him as soon as he became a handful. Even chose that kid over him, your own flesh and blood. Now, I daggered him out of retaliation for having spent the last two years thinking of ways to neutralize me. He knows what it’s like, he should have known better. I daggered him because he compelled Damon to give me that Dark Object. I daggered him because I really don’t want to deal with him right now because I have other things to think about.” Sitting down next to Kol on the bed, she gently poked his cheek. “And seeing that I know he hears everything, he’ll agree that this is the right thing to do. Eye for an eye and all that.”
“You’re such a Mikaelson,” Myriam laughed.
“He doesn’t like me very much right now,” Bella said as she pushed Kol’s hair out of his face. “Already thinking of ways to get even with me, but let me tell you something, we’re far from being even. Despite your shitty relationship with Klaus in the past, it doesn’t make up for the fact you rejected me and broke my heart by not waiting for me. So, suck it up, cupcake. You’re mine now.”
Klaus sucked in a breath as he uncomfortably balanced on his feet. “Love, if you wish for Kol to remain daggered, I’d appreciate it if he’d come home with me, in his coffin.”
“The hell he is,” Bella retorted angrily. “He doesn’t like the coffin and I’m not that cruel. He’s going to stay in this bed for as long as I see fit. Nice and comfortable.”
“What about house keeping?”
Rolling her eyes at the hybrid, she got off the bed, grabbed the ‘do not disturb’ sign and hung it outside the door. “Fixed. What else?”
“Why won’t you come back and stay with us at the compound?”
“It’s not safe,” Bella replied as she took a bite off her chocolate bar. “For any of us but I don’t want you to stay here either. Kol stays. You go,” she continued before realizing something. “Please tell me you haven’t gone to the Regent.”
“Elijah paid her a visit and it was all courteous,” Klaus replied as he watched Bella munch on her chocolate. “Perhaps you should have some proper food, love.”
“Later,” she replied. “Courteous, you say? Are you sure they haven’t done anything else? Like… used more spells but not the one that tells you to hate me?”
“We wouldn’t know, love, Myriam still carries around that coin and I seem to be left alone,” Klaus replied truthfully. “Whenever someone came to watch over you, we made sure they’d touch your arm or hand before being left alone with you. Hopefully to cleanse them of new things.”
Bella hummed as she made her way over to Damon. “Do you dislike me?”
“No, I like you very much. Very grateful you didn’t snap my neck after you woke up.”
“Feeling extra hungry lately?”
“Yes. And Kol’s been worse. Rebekah and Elijah have resorted to blood bags but they’re running out.”
“As it happens, the hospitals and blood banks in New Orleans had to destroy the entire lot for all the batches were infected with something,” Myriam offered worriedly.
“What about the other vampires in town?”
“You don’t think that the Ancestors would play with the lives of innocent humans or their own witches, do you?” Klaus said shocked. “Deliberately have vampires draw attention to themselves?”
“Chaos, mayhem. Of course. They want you to keep busy to control your vampires so you’re not with me,” Bella ruffled Damon’s hair and saw the black halo around his head disappear before she hopped back onto the bed with Kol, his desiccated body bouncing on the mattress. Sighing, she settled against the headrest and felt an uneasiness creep over her. “This room used to be safe, but I have a feeling it’s no longer that way due to whatever the Ancestors have been doing. Go home, take Damon with you. Kol’s safe with me.”
“I’m not going anywhere without my brother,” Klaus pointed out.
“Yeah and I’m not leaving you,” Damon added defiantly.
Bella looked at Damon, Klaus and eventually settled on Myriam, who now also had her arms crossed over each other. Bella knew she was trying to fight a losing battle. “Fine. You guys stay here. I’m heading out.”
“Good, where we going?” Damon rose to his feet as Bella got off the bed.
“Damon.”
“Bella,” he replied in the same tone of voice she’d used. “I was obviously brought here for a reason and if that reason is to die with you, so be it. I’m going where you’re going and no turning me into an animal shenanigans; I’ll shut up and be the muscle.”
“I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Yes you do. You’ve always have and you always will, so, let’s go sweet cheeks,” Damon winked at her.
Bella scowled and looked at Kol’s dessicated body on the bed. A feeling of regret and guilt washed over her and she just couldn’t leave him like this. Kol hated to be daggered and she had promised she’d never allow him to be daggered ever again. On the other hand, he deserved it for betraying her, not once, but twice. Then again, she couldn’t blame him for the betrayal and she feared that if she was going to hold on to that anger, it would only grow and grow until it spiralled out of control.
Just like it had. She could still feel it bubble underneath her skin, her own, but also his, as the memories put in that Dark Object were still fresh in the back of her mind. She had to control her anger, because she could damage so many people with it – she had to find a way to deal with it, later. For now, she just had to ignore it.
Climbing back onto the bed, she cupped Kol’s chin. “Listen to me,” she said sternly. “I am sorry for daggering you and I will remove it, but don’t think for one second that it means there’s nothing wrong between us. We’re broken and I don’t even know if I want it fixed yet. Got it?” When she felt something positive return from him, Bella let out a breath. “Again, I am so sorry I broke my word about the dagger. It won’t happen again.”
Pulling the dagger out of Kol’s body was harder than she thought. Granted, she had used her powers to get it inside in the first place, but it had pierced his sternum and it felt like it had gotten stuck. She didn’t want to hurt him as she tugged on it.
“Allow me,” Klaus offered as he stood next to the bed.
“No,” Bella replied as she imagined the dagger easing out of Kol’s chest before it actually did that. Grabbing it after it had gotten free, she put it in her bag and headed out the door with Damon, carrying the bag with her.
“You’re not giving Klaus the dagger?” Damon said surprised.
“I’ll give it to Kol when he earned it,” she replied with a shrug. The further she was from the hotel room, the calmer she felt and, as she stood outside, she cursed loudly. “Those freaking witches know where I was the entire time and spelled the freaking room.”
“Time to move?” Damon laughed. “Seriously, now you’re back, you should go and live with them in their compound.”
“Hell no,” Bella shook her head. “Not until this is over and not until I’ve earned my place back. Despite everything, I did leave for two years and it hurt them. I’ll just have to move hotels.”
“Bella…”
“Damon,” she replied as she tried to ignore them being looked at. At least that hadn’t changed in the last week. “Maybe everything that happened was a sign or something. Kol and I moved way too fast – he’s been with Davina longer than he has been with me! And sure, it felt good, great, even, but what if I was only drawn to him because of his extensive knowledge of things and everything else was just a result of excitement and hormones?”
“That’s a load of crap and you know it, Bella,” Damon chided her. “You love being with Kol and travel around. You love the Mikaelsons and consider them family, as they do you.”
She stopped walking and turned around to face him. “I do. I care for all of them, deeply. Well, maybe Elijah can go to hell, but yeah, I care for them deeply. And what happens when I care deeply? I can get so scarily angry that I lose control over myself. Last week I was this close to kill someone in order for the Ancestors to stop what they’re doing.”
“That’s only natural.”
“Yeah, it is. But I am too young to spend the rest of eternity not on Earth. I have one more chance, Damon. If I go out of line again because I’m unable to control myself, then it’s no more Bella. If this means I’ll have to surround myself with people I don’t care this much about, then so be it. The Mikaelsons will move on without me, they’ve already proven that they can. Especially Kol,” she sighed as she continued to walk towards the best pastry shop that she knew of. “It’s better to leave them now than to be ripped out of their lives because I fucked up again.”
“I thought Hades taught you control?”
“Yes, he did.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about, Bella.”
Bella pushed the door to the shop open. “Easy for you to say,” she muttered before ordering some pastries and then headed to the liquor store where she bought her favourite bottle of wine and the next stop was a chocolaterie to get some nice chocolates. She bought a beautiful basket from the market and put her gifts in there before she continued her way to the regent.
“All I’m saying is they’re big boys and girls and if they didn’t want you back into their lives, they wouldn’t have gone as far as they have in the last week,” Damon was puzzled as to why Bella bought all these goodies and didn’t taste some herself. He seriously thought she would go on a food binge after not having had anything to eat for the last week and he’d been wrong. “Shouldn’t you have like a sandwich?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“But—”
“I’ll be fine, now what was that what you said back at the hotel? You’d shut up,” she countered before picking up the pace. “The sooner this is over, the sooner you can go back to Mystic Falls.”
“What if I don’t want to go back?”
“And leave Stefan?”
“Yeah well, I might stay here. I’ve always liked New Orleans,” Damon mused as he put his hands in his pockets. “Did I ever tell you about Charlotte?”
“You’re still talking.” She hopped onto a train cart and Damon followed her. Through her initial observations she had found the home of the Regent somewhere in the Garden District; which made sense as Josephine LaRue was originally a Garden District witch and Elder of that coven. She had a pretty snazzy house, too.
Josephine LaRue knew Bella was coming. That was the sole purpose of Bella not turning invisible once she stepped outside the hotel. Bella made sure she didn’t do anything out of anger or malice, which was easier once she was away from the hotel room; it was freaking spelled and it sucked; she had liked that hotel room. Bella was going to approach this as if she was going to make an acquaintance with a new neighbor. And then demand her to back the fuck off.
Damon followed her silently as they got off the cart, and after a few minutes, they arrived at the house. She wasn’t surprised by the gaggle of witches in the yard, it was likely there were a couple of them inside as well; Bella was still perceived as a threat. “No vampires allowed.”
“Good, then you won’t mind him because he’s my uncle.”
“He’s a vampire.”
“Or, I could turn him into a big, cuddly St. Bernard if you wish. He’s with me,” Bella said determined as she pulled Damon with her towards the door. They were reluctantly shown to the library, where the regent was waiting for them, nervously. Damon stayed near the door as Bella continued to walk in. “Madame LaRue, such an honor to finally meet you,” Bella smiled at her as she held out her basket filled with goodies. “This is for you.”
This gesture seemed to surprise the woman as she reluctantly took it and set it aside, likely to inspect its contents on poison later. The woman pointed to an empty chair. “Please, sit,” she eventually said and Bella obeyed. “What can I do for you, Ms. Swan?”
“Oh, you know the answer to that,” she replied with a smile. “But I didn’t come here for just that, I’m here to ease your worries and your fears. To offer my condolences because you’ve lost a very powerful witch recently.”
“I’m not afraid,” the woman huffed.
“Of course not,” Bella replied calmly. “Just like the Ancestors aren’t afraid. I’m being watched all day, every step I do gets documented. You’ve spelled my family against me and now that you know where I’ve been hiding, you’ve been spelling my room. And I completely understand why you did all that.”
This baffled the old witch.
“When I crossed the bridge over the lake two years ago, I wasn’t in control over my powers and I think that event must have scared you and your Ancestors deeply. If I could do that to regular spirits, then I could certainly take out the Ancestors and remove a large portion of the power of the New Orleans witches, am I correct?” When the witch remained quiet, Bella continued. “You’re afraid with my presence here, the balance of power will be disrupted, or tilted in favor of the vampires or whomever I pledge my allegiance to. So in order to try to get me out of New Orleans, you’ve decided to spell my family to work against me. Have your witch Davina dig her claws deep into my now ex-boyfriend and just make the overall experience of being in New Orleans be as much of a pain as possible for me so I’d leave.”
“I’m not denying that, no.”
“The first thing I did after I was released from my punishment for sending so many ghosts to Hades was to remove the power surge that the werewolves were having. Hadn’t it been for me, and the Mikaelsons, the supernatural community of New Orleans would now be under werewolf law. By doing this, I preserved your precious balance and yet, that wasn’t good enough.”
“You did it to save Niklaus Mikaelson, to restore his power.”
“So he could fight the werewolves,” Bella pointed out. “I don’t fight. To be honest with you, when I crossed all of those spirits over to the realm of Hades, it freaked me out. I had him dial that ability way down because I want to experience this city the way it’s supposed to be experienced, and not to be overwhelmed by dead people. I know I hold more power than any of you and, yes, I could mean the end of Ancestral magic. You’ve certainly given me more than enough reason to do so. But I won’t. Because that’s not who I am. All I ask is that you leave me and my family alone. Remove the spells and the influences so we can all go back to living our lives.”
“And what will we get in return?”
“A not-pissed off Demi-Goddess whom you might need to ask a favor of in the future when something so bad comes to New Orleans you can’t fix on your own,” Bella replied swiftly, half shrugging. “I don’t want to be the big bad. The new threat in town. I just want to live. The Mikaelsons came back to New Orleans to live their lives. They have their own businesses, they’re working, doing good for the community. You and the Ancestors are hampering them in their daily routines and you’re stopping me from living my life with my family. Again, if you don’t accept my proposal, I will have to end this myself and that would mean you and your witches won’t have access to Ancestral Magic anymore.”
“Your proposal is absurd,” Madame LaRue said angrily. “You’d still be here.”
“Yes, and as I said, I’d owe you a favor.” Bella countered. “How about this? You and the Ancestors drop everything you’re doing right now to disrupt me and my family and allow us to live our lives in peace. The moment I step out of line, you can do whatever you want. However, should a wolf or a witch come after my family, I will protect them and that does not count towards this deal because after all, we’re all still part human and there’s laws that allow self defense. Give me time to prove we’re not a threat. That I’m not a threat. Allow us to remain having a dialogue about this and not do things out of precaution or out of fear.”
“What of Kol Mikaelson? He still needs to be punished for killing Davina Claire.”
“Her death is on you,” Bella countered again. “You had her insert herself into the family and manipulate them from the inside, you should have seen it coming that she’d end up getting herself killed. You can’t blame Kol for wanting revenge for what she’s done; ruining the relationship between two people who were madly in love with each other without hurting anyone. Destroying a happiness for him that he hadn’t known in a very long time.”
“Even if Bella hadn’t returned, Davina would have ended up dead for it,” Damon pointed out. “You decided to poke the proverbial bear. If not for Kol, it would have been Klaus because you had a damn hard time to keep him under your spell. Believe me, I’ve been dealing with the Mikaelsons for a very long time and while they’re not my bestest friends, I do appreciate how the Mikaelsons protect each other; family above all, no hesitation.”
“And you are?”
“Damon Salvatore,” he replied. “Bella’s great great great uncle or something. My half-brother started the line where she’s descendant of, which is still kinda creepy because I wanted to get into her pants.”
Bella wanted to stay respectful in this house, as a woman as old and gifted as the Regent would demand it and deserved it, and there he went, throwing that all out of the window. “Damon!”
Josephine smiled then. “That’s alright, Ms. Swan, I appreciate that at least one of you doesn’t pretend to be someone else.”
“Ha!”
Bella narrowed her eyes on the woman. “Who says I was pretending? I’m merely treating you with the respect you deserve as a woman in your position, as I was taught to do by my parents. I doubt you would have wanted to speak with me if I walked in in anger, disrespecting you and your witches but I’m not. Because I do have a brain and common sense, something he severely lacks.”
“Hey!” Damon said hurt. “You know I have a problem with authority figures.”
Josephine LaRue sighed. “Very well, I shall take your proposal under consideration and discuss it with the Ancestors.”
“No,” Bella said as she got to her feet. “You end this now. By the time I get back to the hotel, I want all the spells and everything related to that lifted. If not, I will come back and I won’t be as respectful as I am now.”
“Very well,” the woman said, defeated. Likely because she was scared, still. Bella didn’t care. Enough was enough. “Does your proposal still stand then?”
“It does. I always keep my word if I can help it, just like the Mikaelsons, and just like Damon here.”
“Then I shall start lifting the spells immediately. Thank you for stopping by, Ms. Swan, Mr. Salvatore. It has been… enlightening.”
The first thing she noticed as they walked down the street was that everybody had stopped looking at her and Bella felt so relieved. She took a deep breath and smiled at Damon. “Elijah’s so going to be pissed that I did something he couldn’t.”
“Still early days, Bella,” Damon chuckled and shook his head. “So, what’s next?”
The need to move to another hotel was gone now that she seemingly resolved the issue with the Regent and Ancestors. However, she knew that if she wanted to get a handle back on her own life and create a little distance between her and the Mikaelsons, Kol in particular, she’d have to have an apartment or a privately owned home much like the guest house on the Salvatore property in Mystic Falls. Hotels were public property and vampires wouldn’t need invitations to walk in.
Bella hadn’t spent her invisible time to just watch the comings of goings of everyone involved in this mess; she had also taken the opportunity to look at some realtor listings for apartments for rent. Granted, this would make it a little harder for her to make her home fully vampire proof because she wouldn’t actually own her little thing, but there were ways around that, wouldn’t there? She had enough in her bank account still to make a small deposit on something to buy, a mortgage, and maybe she could go back to waitressing to pay for the rest.
She had seen a few in her price range.
“I’m going to grab a bite to eat, why won’t you go back to the hotel and tell everyone what happened?” Bella suggested as they hopped on the street car. “I’ll follow you in a bit.”
“Are you sure? I could come with you?”
Bella let out a breath and shook her head. “Bella needs her alone time for just a little bit, Damon. She hasn’t been able to be alone for quite some time and she’ll be fine.”
“Okay,” Damon shrugged. “Bring me back a beignet.”
“Do find yourself some vervain before you go back? I don’t want them to take advantage out of you.”
“Good idea, I’ll stop by a witch shop.”
“There’s a teashop in the Seamen’s Quarter near the old church run by a girl named Ann. Just go there, she’s less likely to show you the door.” Bella watched as Damon walked off and waited for a good ten minutes before she headed on her own journey. She bought herself the biggest sandwich she could find and munched on it as she headed to the realtor’s office through a back alley.
She nearly dropped her sandwich when she was hit in the head by something and blinked when she saw a large brown envelope on the ground behind her with her name on it. Curious, she picked up the envelope and walked to the nearest bench, just outside the alley, to put her sandwich down on and investigate the contents of the envelope.
My dearest Bella,
My sincere apologies for what Hades has put you through, tearing you away from your friends like that for nearly two whole years? I hope you don’t mind, but I took a peek into your life like I usually do, have done in the past, and it’s a mess. That’s on Hades. Not on you.
Our Olympian cousins are jerks and uptight. Don’t worry, I managed to get you out of the ‘one more fuck up’ kinda deal he had with you; you’ve only just recently started to get some control and he helped you to get rid of the ones that were bugging you so much. You deserve a life, Bella.
Now, I wouldn’t be your magical grandfather if I didn’t have something up my sleeve. I noticed you wanted some private space from your vampire friends like in Mystic Falls. If I’m wrong, then let this be me telling you that you need some space from your vampire friends.
In this envelope there are the keys to an apartment I purchased for you in your name. You own it and therefor, no vampire can cross your threshold unless you want them to. I’ve been told it’s quite a cute little place above a shop which you can access through a door next to it. Get up the stairs and you’ll be in the living area and kitchen. There’s a spiral stairs leading to the next floor where the bedroom and bathroom is. I’m fairly certain you’re going to like it.
Call your mother. She hasn’t heard from you in years. Now, granted, you couldn’t help the last two years, but she misses you. Invite her over to New Orleans, perhaps?
I’ll be out of this plane of existence for a bit but I’ll call you when I get back.
I love you.
Helios.
“God damnit, this is too much,” she muttered with a smile on her face. At least it would save her the hassle of figuring things out for an apartment, but it was really too much. But maybe Helios was right in needing to sincerely apologize for what she’d been through. There was a deed to the apartment in her name, with the keys and she could feel the color drain from her face. How could she get some distance from the Mikaelsons when the new apartment was across the street from their Compound? They could easily leap out the window and into her apartment or look into her apartment from the room that looked out over it.
She then realized that this could also be quite devious on her part; they couldn’t enter the house. Bella could tease Kol mercilessly if his room was indeed looking right into hers. Bella let out a snort as she put the important papers into her bag and checked to see if all the important things to her, such as her laptop, were inside before making the decision not to go to the hotel but straight to her new home. Fuck all those vampires.
Turning invisible, she went to her new apartment and finished her sandwich before she opened the door and climbed the stairs. She found the place fully furnished and it looked a lot like the wood paneling she had at the guest house in Mystic Falls. Bella giggled madly as she explored the house, the kitchen was amazing and so was the upstairs bedroom and bathroom. It had a big bathtub where she could just float around in.
Her grandfather H always spoiled her rotten and made her feel like a princess but now he had really outdone himself. Bella was now a real life princess in her own little castle. Feeling all giddy, she left her bag on the couch and only pocketed some money and her keys and went out to get some groceries. And fairy lights. The only thing the apartment was missing was a lot of fairy lights but that was easily fixed.
When she returned home a few hours later, her phone had exploded with messages and missed calls from Kol, Klaus and Myriam, asking her where she was and if she was alright and when she was coming back. Opening a bag of popcorn and throwing a handful into her mouth, she made a group chat and replied: Damon can have the hotel room for as long as he wishes to stay in New Orleans. I’m good. X
Bella opened her laptop and started to play some music the loudest her laptop could go at without it being too obnoxious for her own ears and started to put away the things she bought. She felt a sense of freedom she hadn’t felt for a very long time, she had nothing to worry about, nothing to think about, just to be. And party. Oh boy, was she going to party, but likely first just to pass out for the night.
It had been a long day. It had been a long week even though she’d spent most of it unconscious. It still infuriated her she’d been rendered unconscious by the people she trusted and she could feel that anger bubble inside of her. She needed to find a way to deal with that, something other than having great sex with Kol. If she’d do that, she’d betray herself and signal to him that it’s alright to look at other girls and have sex with them and… oh, she felt disgusted then. Davina and Kol had had sex. Kol’s mouth had been on Davina’s. They had kissed. They—
Bella shuddered as she took her popcorn and a bottle of beer with her to the bathroom. Thinking of how Kol would have expertly disrobed Davina was the stuff of nightmares. Maybe Bella could use this experience in one of her stories, to try to make sense of it all. In all honesty, Bella didn’t feel like it should affect her this much. She’d been with Kol for just over six months before she fucked up and had to join Hades.
Granted, their relationship had been intense in every sense, but still, she felt that it shouldn’t affect her this much. It hurt. Kol’s whimsical nature and following his dick hurt, even though she should have anticipated that. Vampires sucked even if she believed they had changed for the better.
Now that the whole ordeal with the Ancestors was over and her family rid of all the spells that were thrown at them, Bella could relax. She had her own place now and nobody could disturb her. She didn’t have to be strong. She didn’t quite like the beer, but downed it on one go anyway before getting into the bath tub filled with water and an artisan orange bath bomb smelling like tangerines, bergamot and something other kind of citrussy. It smelled amazing and she should have felt energized by it, but instead she felt tired and so incredibly sad.
She was allowed one pity party, right?
~o.O.o~
“This is unacceptable,” Kol fumed as he paced across the courtyard. After Bella’s text, they all realized she wasn’t coming back and there was no telling where she was. She could have gone back to Mystic Falls or been taken by Hades. “She goes through all this trouble to help us and herself and then disappears?”
Klaus just watched his brother pace around like a maniac while Klaus enjoyed the peace and quiet as he nursed a glass of bourbon. For the first time in a very long time, home felt like home again and he wasn’t allowing anything, not even his ranting brother, to spoil that. The werewolves were taken care of. The Ancestors off their backs. Life was good.
“What about me, Nik? What am I going to do now? I thought she’d come back to me.”
“You really haven’t paid attention to everything, have you, dear brother?” Rebekah said as she took a seat on the sofa and joined Nik in having a glass of alcohol. “The girl is hurt and she needs some time.”
“She’s hurt? I understand that she feels that way because of Davina, but it wasn’t as if I could do anything about it!”
“Rebekah,” Klaus interrupted her before she could explain what was happening. “He needs to figure it out on his own. We can’t very well keep telling him what to do and what to think. It’s not what she’d want.”
“It would be a lot easier if she hadn’t skipped town,” Rebekah muttered.
“Who says she did? For all we know she’s staying in New Orleans. With her ability to change into someone else or even turn invisible, we’d never know,” Klaus took a sip of his glass. “Like you said, she needs some time. She’ll send us a message when she’s good and ready.”
“We’ll need some code word or something to prove that we are who we say we are,” Rebekah said after a moment of silence, causing both brothers to look at her. “She can be whomever she wants to be, what if she’ll pose as one of us? As Myriam? Just to keep an eye on us?”
“I doubt she’ll do that and if she does wants to keep an eye on us, she’ll be invisible,” Klaus mused. “Mainly because if she’s Myriam, I’ll find out the moment she and I are alone.”
“Or, she could be posing as one of us right now!” Rebekah said shocked. “Oh, this is going to be a nightmare. I’d rather know where she is than to live in uncertainty.”
“Are we still talking about this girl?” Elijah sighed tiredly as he walked onto the courtyard. “We’re home. It’s time to look forward.”
Rebekah narrowed her eyes on her brother. “This girl is called Bella and she’s one of us, Elijah. I thought the spell was lifted?”
“It has,” Elijah replied, pouring himself a drink before rolling his eyes at his youngest brother, who was still pacing around. “For God’s Sake, Kol, find something better to do than to damage the floor tiles.”
“Or what? You’ll dagger me?”
Reminded of his brother’s need for attention, Klaus sighed as he took another sip of his drink. “Elijah’s never liked Bella, so there’s no change there,” he said as he got to his feet. “Come on, Kol, let’s have some fun with the locals.”
Elijah’s eyes grew wide. “Brothers, I implore you, do not kill the locals!”
“Not to worry, brother,” Klaus replied playfully. “If and when we decide to eat our way through an apartment complex, you’ll be the first to know.”
~o.O.o~
One of the best things about New Orleans, or the state of Louisiana in general, was that the temperatures were nice enough for her to have her window open at all times or the front balcony with the French doors open wide without it causing her home to get really cold.
She hadn’t mustered the confidence just yet to sit on her balcony in sight of the Mikaelsons, but once she would have, she was definitely sit on that balcony and read a book while sipping on a glass of wine. That just seemed pretty damn epic to her. Apart from the occasional fighting she heard coming from the room of the Mikaelsons across the street. At some point during the middle of the night when she was asleep and the roads not that busy, she could feel the earth tremble because someone got smashed into a wall. Bella tried not to worry.
No, in the last three weeks since she’d dealt with the Ancestors, Bella had truly been hiding from her family by going out the door looking like someone she’d seen on the streets and with that, she could live a pretty undisturbed life. After spending a week in the hotel, Damon had gone back to Mystic Falls to help his brother. Bella caught up with her stories, left messages on her website about her life in New Orleans – granted, she left out the part where she lived just in case. She knew Myriam frequented the website and no doubt she’d relay whatever bit of information she could scrape up with the rest of the family and caught up on movies and TV shows. Books. Oh, definitely the books.
New Orleans had so many cute and very cool book shops, like one in the French Quarter; it specialized in rare, antique and out of print books and she felt all nerdy when she found a book on torture. The book was quite explicit, but it was going to help with the new story she was writing.
There was also a shop like that for kitchen books. Bella had rediscovered her love for cooking and had bought a cooking book or two to try out some of the local cuisine herself, but found she still needed a lot of improvement cooking wise, local cuisine was best tasted from a local chef or person, not from someone trying to copy them.
Life. Live. And she was loving it.
However, no matter how much she had gotten her life back on track over the last few weeks, she missed being around the Mikaelsons. Around Kol. Myriam. Now she didn’t have to fear to be taken away from them if she’d screw up royally again, she felt a little safer to rebuild her social life. She’d hold herself accountable and she’d punish herself, but at least she’d be able to stick around on Earth. Bella wondered what Helios had to give up himself to get this deal going and she feared that he gave up his own existence on Earth so she could be free.
She didn’t have issues with Klaus and Myriam. Their friendship wasn’t in any danger because it had always been there – and Bella was grateful for the space they were giving her.
But she was so torn about Kol. He was her first real boyfriend. Her first real relationship. Sure, there had been Moritz, but that was high school stuff. Kol… so wasn’t high school. It had been an intense six months and it felt like they’d been together for longer. They did so much together, so many experiences, and she missed him. She was aware of his attention span and yes, she did leave and opened the door for Davina and the witches to manipulate him and the rest of his family.
Bella shouldn’t fault him for falling for Davina. Or at least be mildly interested in her to start with. He had no way of knowing when Bella would return – if she’d return. Bella knew this and she had taken her revenge by briefly daggering Kol and not talking to him for a few weeks. But he had still used a Dark Object on her to ‘subdue’ her. Asshole.
Maybe it was time to start mending what they had, to reach out to him. To talk things over and hopefully have him live with her at her apartment.
She smiled at that, then. While she had loved being with all the Mikaelsons in one place, it was simply too crowded, too much. Too… unhealthy, in a way. The months she and Kol spent travelling together had been amazing and Kol had been so likeable – she felt that with them staying with the rest of his family he was getting undermined a lot and that wasn’t fair.
While it was easy to just go across the street and talk to Kol, she wasn’t sure if she was quite ready for that yet, either. What if he didn’t feel the same anymore? What if the space that Klaus and Myriam were giving her was something other than space? What if she wasn’t good enough anymore? But then again, she wouldn’t have anything to worry about because Klaus had always been in her corner. Bella wasn’t too sure about Myriam and that was going to be a problem because Bella had been a shitty friend.
She really needed to think about all of this some more.
