Chapter 02
The man came back with a bowl of her water and oats and had something to eat for himself, too. He handed her the bowl and a spoon while he sat down on the cot and started to eat. “Now, what’s your name, darling?”
“No one, sir,” she replied as she brought the bowl to her lips and took a swallow of it. It didn’t taste like home, but she had to eat it. She had requested it and there wasn’t anything else that she ate. She needed to get used to this. Or perhaps her punishment would be death, too, then it was alright not to get used to this.
“I call shenanigans. Tell me your name,” the man said as he took a bite off his bread and sighed happily. “Are you sure you don’t want anything else for food? This sandwich is pretty decent!”
“Bella, sir,” she replied softly before shaking her head. “No sir, water and oats,” she took another swallow from her food. She hadn’t had any in days, perhaps even weeks, and the last time Sam had taken it from her. She needed to take it easy or she’d throw up and then be punished for that, too.
“Well, Bella, pleased to meet you, I am Kol Mikaelson.”
Mikaelson. Klaus had called himself that. Were they a family like the Cullens? She hadn’t seen any medical equipment around and she didn’t smell antibacterial soap, either. Not that her room was clean and free from bacteria, that was hard to achieve with a wolf in there and the occasional dead vampire. And of course, whenever she had to pee or do her stool. Just like the wolf. Which is why she was usually hosed down before her examinations. Before the experiments, before everything. Her current situation was a lot cleaner, though she had spotted some rats.
“Are you a victim of those Cold Ones too?”
Victim? No. Nobody was a victim. The children weren’t victims either, they were helped. Bella helped just the extreme sad ones to leave. She shook her head. “Renée is the birthgiver, Doctor Carlisle and his family and scientists helped me grow. Trained me. I am one of them.” Bella liked Kol’s energy, while she sensed that his emotions could get all over the place, she had a feeling he had a better handle on them than Klaus, his brother. “I was supposed to keep Hope with me.” And the more she talked, the more they’d believe that she’d be the leader of them, wouldn’t they? They’d punish her and leave her family alone.
“And instead she kept you with her,” Kol grinned. “Us Mikaelsons are a crafty bunch and that little devil might be worse than all of us combined.”
“Hope would have a good life with us, sir,” Bella replied, not understanding his reason to grin or to be joyful. “She would have been trained and well taken care of.”
“Children need their family, Bella, taking them away from them is a bad thing.”
“Is it? Doctor Carlisle made them better. Stronger. Flourish,” Bella countered as she took another swallow from her food. “And when they’re of age, they get sent to other places to serve.”
“What about you, then? You’re no longer a child, are you?”
“I am defective, sir. It was safer for everyone if I remained where I was. Even the big bosses are afraid of me,” she said sadly. “I would have gladly served and on occasion I can.” She put her bowl down then, only half empty. “But I failed. Again. Hope was too strong for me, I wasn’t my best. Had Klaus returned me to Edward, I would have been punished severely, perhaps even destroyed. But he didn’t want to return me.”
“And you’re here so Nik can interrogate you.”
“And punish me.” Yes. She had resigned herself to the idea that death was imminent. Perfect.
Kol nodded then. “Knowing my brother, he’d likely kill you, but he doesn’t know your story, does he now? You told me. Why did you tell me?”
Bella thought for a moment, eyeing her bowl, wondering if she should eat more of that, too. “You truly wish to know why I am here. What happened. You are curious and not angry. Or sad. Or filled with hate. Your behaviour is strange, sir.”
“Do you wish me to be angry?” The moment he realized she’d been telepathic he had shut down his mind and made sure he had at least some control over his emotions. Despite what she was saying, she was a victim in all of this as well, but that she was raised to believe otherwise. That what the Cullens were doing was alright. Nik needed to know this, badly, or this girl could end up dead, and it would be a shame. She was innocent.
“I don’t wish for anything, sir.” She quickly replied, slightly spooked. “But you asked and I gave you an answer.”
“Bella, do you know what kindness is?”
She nodded then. “Doctor Carlisle calls his experiments kindness. He prides himself to be kind. Emmett says that kindness is when they don’t have to punish me and Jasper says I’m being kind whenever I help a child escape.”
“Why would you do that?”
“They were extremely sad and hurting my head, they didn’t belong with us. I would release them in Jasper’s custody and he’d find their people for them.”
Highly unlikely. “So you know what they were doing to those children was wrong.”
“Not wrong, sir.”
She wasn’t tripping up. She truly believed that what she had been taught was the truth. Was this girl even salvageable? “Kindness is what you did, releasing those children,” he said as he looked at her. “Kindness is me asking you what you want to eat and then bring it to you. Kindness shouldn’t ever hurt. As a human, it should make you feel all warm inside when you experience kindness.”
“I don’t feel anything, sir.”
“Yes you do. I can tell you’re sad because Nik is hunting down your family.”
“My people. The Cullens are a family, but not to me,” she quickly said and shook her head. “And I am not sad. They have abandoned me and I’m alone. Should my people die, I’ll be truly alone. It’s my punishment, sir. Should Klaus return and choose to kill me, then I welcome it.”
“Why? Because you fear what will be next in your life? The future is exciting, Bella. The world is a big place, so much to see, so much to do.”
“I am dangerous. Defective, sir. I’m a good girl.” She then thought for a moment and pushed her bowl of food away. “I don’t deserve more. I failed. I should not have vocalized my thoughts. Exposed my people. I should not have done that. I’m a bad girl.”
His heart broke then as he nudged the bowl back with his foot. “But wouldn’t that be my fault, then? I’m asking you questions and you feel like you can answer them with me. So basically I have made you fail.”
“No sir.” She had a feeling that her people would escape Klaus Mikaelson’s clutches and they’d come for her knowing that she was with him. She couldn’t allow herself to get complacent and form thoughts, let alone speak them out loud. Her food had been good, but it had been wrong. She hadn’t earned it. She should have resisted Kol’s line of questioning, but somehow couldn’t. She hadn’t slept in a while, perhaps that was it. But had she deserved sleep? No. Not anymore.
He let out a cry of frustration and squatted down in front of her, moving the bowl into her lap. “Bella, I want you to finish this food, do you understand?”
“Yes sir,” she whispered.
“And when chef brings you another bowl in a few hours, you will eat that too.”
“Yes sir…” More food? She was going to explode! If Sam had been with her, she could have allowed him to eat her food.
“Good. Now, I’m going to wait for Niklaus to return and have a chat with him to see if we can move you to some warmer accommodations. You don’t deserve to be down here. You deserve kindness,” he said as he made sure she was eating before he left, leaving the door open again. Bella was her own prison, why need a door?
~o.O.o~
It was hard watching the Forks center burn to the ground, and she sincerely hoped that the two traditional vampires had freed all those children in there, first. She wasn’t worried about her, due to her vampire hearing she heard the two men talking about her, the younger admitting that he brought something home with him. To interrogate.
They were burning the place to the ground because the Cold Ones came after his daughter and the other’s niece, so the two men must be brothers, Myriam concluded. If someone loved someone this passionately, she would be safe, for now. Myriam had other things on her mind, such as tracking down the Cold Ones who escaped and pay a visit to the Phoenix center, because she realized that these guys didn’t know about it.
Niklaus and Elijah were all joyful in deciding to go and kill some wolves. Good, that meant that Myriam could leave and catch up with the Cullens. Kill them all, extract Jasper. And ruin the Phoenix center, the least important one of the two here in America, but still worth destroying. It’s what Myriam wanted, it’s what she had been training for and it was her fucking duty. But first, she needed to make sure that these two vampires killed Renée and Charlie. If not, Myriam was going to take them with her so that her parents could handle the sorry excuses for humans.
It wasn’t that Myriam hated Cold Ones. No, absolutely not. She hated the bad ones, which was about 75%, or perhaps more, of the Cold One population, including the all mighty Volturi. They were the ones who had set this in motion centuries ago, and it was Carlisle Cullen who revolutionized everything within the organisation and took things a few steps further.
In the beginning, Aro Volturi wanted the gifted children. Not to break his own law of creating immortal children, he instructed a few of his vampires to raise the children and then they’d turn them upon coming of age, to go and work for the Volturi.
In the middle, gifted children were drying up, or, were better hidden, and the Volturi had a dry spell until Carlisle Cullen joined the Volturi. He had been a promising young doctor when he was turned, and he found that with his immortality he could learn more, do more and perhaps create more. It all started off with employing alchemists, snatching regular children and trying to make them special. Then, witches joined him, dark witches and warlocks. Werewolves. Traditional vampires. Despite the dry spell, the organisation grew.
Partially to the end, about 22 years ago, Carlisle and his coven met Renée and Charlie Swan, not the best kind of people despite one being the town’s sheriff and the other a deranged hippie, but then again, who expected a sheriff and a hippie of child abduction? Murder was never proven, either. The Forks center was filled with normal children who were getting treatments, but Renée and Charlie came with a great offer; Carlisle was allowed to create and modify embryos using Renée’s eggs and Charlie’s sperm. And, after many tries, 2 years later, Renée was pregnant with a souped up baby.
The last twenty years were the golden age. Believing the child had been a mistake, they reverted back to child snatching and went all over the world in search for special children.
Up until now. Myriam had wanted to burn the center herself; it was what she came here to do and to get her and Jasper out, but she’d been too late. Myriam had finally been ready to do this on her own, and others took it out of her hands. She had been dismantling similar centers all across the world, killing the Cold Ones attached to them as she went along, looking like someone who couldn’t possibly be in two places at the same time.
Her parents, a lovely set of Cold Ones, thought it’d be poetic to appear as a victim of the Cold Ones as she slaughtered them, and she always choose her. Whenever Jasper managed to get her a picture, she used her, as a reminder that she hadn’t been lucky, and Myriam had been.
Myriam’s parents were fantastic. They were funny, loving and they didn’t mind to train hard, something Myriam had demanded the moment she could speak. For a human, she’d been extraordinary strong and she’d wanted to be a warrior like Xena: Warrior Princess or Robin Hood, to help those who couldn’t help themselves and this was even without knowing her own story.
When Myriam turned 18, she asked to be turned. She didn’t want anything else for her birthday, she simply wanted to be turned. To become stronger. Faster. To help more people, and that was what she had done for the last two years or so. Free the children. Kill the Cold Ones. The only thing that she missed about being human was the food. Human food was good, so good, especially ice cream and pancakes, but her tastebuds were dead now. All she could taste was sand.
She was going to need an army to defeat the Volturi, but it was fun to make serious dents in their organisation.
It was likely that the Cullens were going to Alaska to lick their wounds and to regroup before going to Phoenix. While the need to kill them was strong, she couldn’t help but wonder if she would want to help killing them. Take her revenge and take her life back. Sighing, she sent Jasper a text to come home, and headed to Phoenix. And after that? She was going to track down the traditional vampires to get her back, no matter the costs.
~o.O.o~
“Nik, we need to talk,” Kol said as he watched his brothers walk into the courtyard.
“Not now, Kol,” Klaus shot at him, annoyed, as he marched to his study. “Now is not the bloody time!”
“Well, then you’ll have to make time,” Kol followed him and blocked his path. “Why didn’t you tell me about the girl in the dungeons? See, I thought I was going mad when I heard an extra heartbeat in the Courtyard, thinking it’d be likely a rat of some sort. Until Chef came to me telling me that the girl hadn’t touched his food. You should have told me, before you left.”
“She’s not your problem, Kol, she is a means to an end and I will release her once I’m done.”
“She tried to take Hope. Your release will be her death.”
“Nonsense,” Klaus huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. “I will not lay a finger on her if she tells me what I want to know, but she was uncooperative two days ago so I decided to put her in the dungeon, talk to Elijah, and he mentioned he knew about some Cold Ones up in Washington, you know the rest of the story.”
“Seems like you’ve already taken care of the problem, why not release her now?”
Klaus sighed then. “It’s true, I could have gone down to release her immediately upon my return, if it hadn’t been for this,” he pulled a folder from underneath his shirt and handed it to his brother. “Before Elijah and I tore the place apart, I wanted to know about her and we went looking for information. I found more than I bargained for.”
Kol only had to look at the first page knowing that this was Bella’s file, every detail of her life and how to take care of her written down as if she was some sort of labrat. “Good,” Kol said as he handed the file back. “Now I don’t have to convince you she’s another victim.”
“How would you know?”
“She and I talked, quite happily, until she realized she was talking too much and shut down.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not. Her name is Bella, she knows how to use her words and she loves water and oats. I doubt she’d ever had anything else, to be honest. The way she looks makes me think she’s a victim of war, of concentration camps or our experimental period in France. Oh, and her worldview is skewed, that’s a lot of fun.”
Klaus handed Kol the file back. “Well, seems like you found yourself a project, brother,” he smiled. “Now I can truly focus on finding the Cold Ones as they’ve absconded once Elijah and I arrived.”
“No! Nik, I have things to do, whores to see… I was going to join Rebekah in France!”
“And now you have a little bird in need of your help. Help her, or kill her, it’s your choice,” Klaus shrugged, already knowing what his brother would choose. Ever since Kol had been a human and then returned as a vampire, he had changed. He saw the world differently and enjoyed it more. He had gone through the pain of losing Davina – Klaus thought that Kol was overreacting, but who was he to judge? – and came out stronger. Klaus had always thought to put a dagger into Kol and forget about him for centuries, again, but family was important. Hope deserved to know all of her aunts and uncles.
Kol narrowed his eyes on his brother. He couldn’t believe this, he was supposed to party, go out, have fun, not worry about Nik’s problems and now he was responsible for Bella. Well fuck. “Fine. But she’s getting her own room, she’s not staying down in the dungeons.”
“What room would you think is suitable? The one next to yours, perhaps?”
He sighed as he made his way down to the dungeons, he wasn’t surprised that in the last 24 hours, Bella hadn’t tried to escape through the open door. A stink of vomit and excrement wafted in his face as soon as he opened the door and he took a step back to clear the air a little. There was no way he was going down there. “Darling, it’s Kol, are you okay down there?”
“Y-yes sir,” Bella didn’t sound okay. The smell wasn’t okay.
“Be a dear and come to me, just follow my voice.”
“I-I’d need to be hosed down first, sir… I’m afraid that my body failed to keep everything on the inside…”
Hosed down? Seriously? He fought the urge to look through the file, he’d rather not know. Stuffing it inside his trousers, he sighed. “Just come to me, it’s alright if you’re a little smelly.” He sure hoped she knew how to use the shower or how to take a bath. She was even paler than the day before, he noticed as she emerged from the dungeons, hesitating, not daring to look at him. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up,” he said as he gently pushed her with his finger on her shoulder.
His room was on the ground floor, right off the Courtyard. Annoying when there was a party, but it was the only place where he wouldn’t disturb his siblings. The room next door to him was free, and while he didn’t fancy having Bella so close to him, it was for the best. This way, she was out of everyone’s way too.
He opened the door and smiled at her. “Welcome to your room,” he said as he lead her inside. There was a mini den with a sofa and a table, a small kitchenette, a bedroom and a bathroom. Like all the other rooms in the compound it was a mini apartment, this happened to be the smallest. “If there’s anything not to your liking, tell me and I will have someone change it for you,” he said as he nudged her towards the bathroom. “Go take a shower and clean up, I’m going to see if I can find some clothes you can wear.”
When he returned, he was surprised not to see any water damp coming out of the open door of the bathroom, but he could hear the shower running. When he peeked around the corner to check and to grab Bella’s dirty clothes to burn them, he was shocked to find out that she was standing under the cold water alone, still fully clothed, standing still.
He needed his sister. There was no way that he was going to instruct Bella on how to take a shower or a bath, and have her undress in front of him. No. Absolutely no way, that would be perverted and disrespectful. If his sister would help out, she could quickly check Bella over for cuts and bruises that needed to be tend to, or do a quick magic spell to see about her health.
“Freya!”
Freya helped. It took Kol to tell Bella to cooperate with Freya, but Freya helped her to take a nice, warm shower. She showed Bella how to wash her hair, and use the body gel, and left her alone for a couple of minutes while she went out to talk to Kol.
“Is it normal of Klaus to bring a charity case home?” She wondered out loud. She, too, had no idea that Bella had been down in the dungeons for two days. “Because this girl… wow. What a mess.”
Kol sighed as he leaned against the doorpost. “How bad is she?”
“She needs to gain a lot of weight. Get her strength back. Detox. Seriously detox from whatever they were giving her for years and years. It’s all layered. I did a quick magical sweep, but it’s not just magic, it’s something else they used on her,” Freya sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “Klaus said you have her file that he brought back… can I see it? Maybe if they listed all the ingredients I can start whipping up some antidote to help her get rid of everything faster.”
He pointed at the table. “Feel free to take it with you after she’s done taking a shower, the more help, the better.”
“I can ask Keelin if she’s willing to check Bella’s blood?” Freya suggested before going back into the bathroom, Bella was still standing still underneath the warm water. “What do you think? Better?”
Bella wasn’t sure. The warmth reminded her of Sam, though, so it was nice. But to undress to be hosed down with water? That was silly. She watched as Freya – Kol’s sister – turned off the water and then handed her something big and fluffy, and she couldn’t help but stare at it. “How am I to wear this, ma’am?”
“You’re not. You’re going to use it to dry your hair and your body,” Freya said as she grabbed another towel and used it on herself. “Like this, see?”
Bella started to mimic Freya’s movements and ended up scrubbing herself raw with the towel on her arm.
“No, no,” Freya quickly grabbed Bella’s hand and gently moved it with the towel over her skin. “Gentle. The towel is a tool to soak up all the water on your skin.”
“But how do I wear this, ma’am?”
“You don’t. I brought you some comfy clothes, nice and fluffy and warm. I’m afraid your clothes will be incinerated seeing as my brothers have an intense sense of smell that even washing powder won’t be able to cover up the things on your clothes.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, I truly am… I didn’t want to offend… but my body rejected the food and I— I failed.”
“Hey,” Freya dropped the towel and made Bella look at her. “It’s not your fault. You have a different diet than we’re used to, and you likely haven’t had any food for a very long time. It’s only natural that your body rejected what we made you. Don’t worry about it, okay? We’ll find some sort of a balance.”
“But water and oats, ma’am…”
“Not healthy, you need vitamins. Sunlight. Comfort food… but baby steps,” Freya handed Bella her underwear and her clothes. “Get dressed and explore your room. The bed is extremely comfortable,” Freya smiled at her before leaving the bathroom again and headed straight for the file folder. “Definitely more testing and then we need to sit down to make a schedule for her,” she told Kol. “Because without one, this girl is lost.”
“We?”
“Well… I’ll help you with setting things up,” Freya smiled at her brother. “Even have Keelin come in for Bella’s blood, but once we’ve done it all, you’re on your own. I’m not going to be some grown woman’s caregiver and I’m sorry, Kol, but it’s about time you men do something out of your comfort zone.” She then laughed. “And you know what? I want to bet Rebekah will say the same!”
“Freya…”
“Have fun, I’m going to do some ‘light’ reading!” Freya waved at him when Bella exited the bathroom and headed out.
“Look at you!” Kol smiled at Bella as she was dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a fuzzy sweater, both a few sizes too big, but it looked adorable. “How was your shower? Did you enjoy yourself?”
“It was needed, sir,” Bella responded. “But a hose would have been sufficient and less instructional. You shouldn’t invest time in me, sir.” The clothes were itching.
Kol shrugged as he motioned for her to sit down at the table, on a chair and then smiled at her when he sat across from her. “I have spoken to my brother and he’s decided to be lenient. Yes, it was wrong of you to work with the Cold Ones and the werewolves to take his daughter, he also realized that you didn’t have a choice in the matter and he is more proud of his daughter for catching you instead.” When Bella didn’t respond, he continued. “He’s burned your former home to the ground and killed some werewolves in the process. The Cullens got away.”
There was a glimmer of hope still. They were still alive, surely they’d come to take her back. She needed to be on her best behavior, be a good girl. Have her thoughts as loud as she could make them and make decisions. It was likely that the Cullens were in Alaska by now, but that didn’t matter. They would come for her and take her to the other home where it was warmer. Yes.
“Nik will of course, do everything in his power to find them, and he’s left me in charge over you,” Kol said as he kept looking at her, wondering what was going on in her mind. “What are you thinking of, darling?”
“Nothing, sir.”
Kol hummed then as he grabbed a banana off the table and peeled it before taking a bite. “I think I know. You’re probably thinking that with your people having escaped my brother, they will come for you and take you back with them,” he guessed, a knowing smile on his face. “But, you see, Nik told me that your friends backed off at the mention of his name, so even in that circle of vampires, they know that he’s not one to mess with. I sincerely doubt they’ll come for you and I’m not going to release you so you can go back to them.”
Bella blinked at that. “You’re going to keep me, sir?”
He nodded and carefully chose his next words. “I’m going to use your words. I’m keeping you here. I’m going to take care of you and make sure that you’ll become stronger, and happy. Just like the children you and your people took.”
“What if I want to leave, sir?”
“I’d like to see you try.”
Bella liked to hear that. If she was stronger, on full strength and not in her weakened state, she would be able to walk out of this building and seek help. Go back to her people. It was going to take some time, and it was going to be a challenge, but she was going to take herself back. They would be proud of her, because she was a good girl. The question remained, however, how was she going to get stronger without the syringes with things in them, or her real oats and water? Or the bottle of water with things in them that her birth giver gave her on occasion?
He saw a look of sheer determination come across her face before it slightly faltered. Good, she had accepted the challenge and he couldn’t wait to see what she’d try. He finished eating his banana before peeling another and handed it to her. “Here, eat this. It’ll help you with your stomach aches. It’s really good, and sweet. You’ll like it.”
Another instruction. She gently took the banana and nibbled on it. The texture was that of her oats, but better. She didn’t have to use her teeth much to chew it and could almost swallow it immediately. And the taste, it was unlike anything she had tasted before and before she knew it, she had finished it and had to fight the instinct to lick her fingers. It wasn’t food she was supposed to eat, it wouldn’t make her strong, but this family was different. They had different instructions and different ways. Bella needed to learn them quickly, to make sure that they’d like her and then, when she could use her shield again, she’d go. “Thank you, sir.”
“If you need to use the toilet, it’s right in there,” he said as he pointed at the closed door. “Don’t throw up or have your bowel movements in your room, but in there. And after you’re done, you push the button and it’ll disappear from the toilet bowl,” he said as he looked at her, wanting to feed her something else but if she was feeling poorly, it was best not. “When was the last time you got some sleep?”
“A few nights ago, sir. I had my eyes closed for a while while Sam kept me warm.”
“Who’s Sam?”
“A defective wolf, sir. He wasn’t aware of his own actions anymore nor could he turn back to his human self.”
“They had you in one room with an unstable werewolf? How did you survive? That’s insane!”
“Not really, sir, he was my responsibility. My failure,” she replied solemnly. “If Klaus did burn my home to the ground, Sam is no longer with us.”
Why would she say that? It was likely that he was going to find out the moment Freya had read Bella’s file, but why would she say that? She looked like she couldn’t even push someone out of her way at the moment, let alone hurt someone. “Does that make you feel sad?”
“It’s probably for the best, sir. Sam wouldn’t be able to survive on his own and he was already abandoned by his pack.”
Interesting, and it made him curious. “Would you be able to survive on your own?”
“Yes sir,” she replied confidently.
She had to be able to, if she had been roommates with an out of control wolf. Of course. “Very well,” Kol smiled at her and got to his feet. “This is your room now. Feel free to walk around or do whatever you want within these walls. If someone wants to come inside, they will knock on the door first before opening it, alright?”
“Yes sir,” Bella replied and watched him leave, closing the door behind him. She took the time to really look around in her new confinement and she wasn’t sure what to make of it. She sat down on the floor instead, never having liked chairs that much anyway, and she was wondering if she was going to share her space with someone else. It was far too big for her punishment and it looked strange.
She had found the shower to be an adventure, but had quickly learned that this family did things differently than her people. Feeling the water on her naked body was a strange thing, and then the water, it was special, it wasn’t the right temperature, but her body seemed to like it, her aching bones responding positively to it. It was a step in the right direction to become strong again. And then the cloth! The towel! She had to dry herself off before getting into clothes? And while the clothes she’d been provided with were really warm and itchy, she found it strange, did they punish people with items that were actually pleasant?
Bella knew that she shouldn’t think of warm water and warm clothes as something pleasant. She couldn’t get used to it because she was still going home. Just like the banana, she wasn’t allowing herself to get used to it. She was going to get strong and push everyone out of the way. Not scrambling anyone’s brains, because nobody deserved that.
She hated being the one who’d been taken and who had her people still out there. She now understood why some children felt the way that they did upon arriving in Bella’s home. It was foreign and unpleasant, and different. She started to yawn, the room was getting warmer now, and it felt as if Sam was with her. Nice and warm. She laid down on the floor and curled herself up, before giving in to the sleep that her mind and body so desperately needed.
~o.O.o~
It was a pleasant surprise that Jasper joined her in Phoenix, and of course, their reunion needed to be celebrated to the fullest, binging on some lowlives, getting high on blood before having a good romp for a day or two. Something they both had needed for different reasons. Myriam loved blood and sex, Jasper needed Myriam to reclaim him, make him smell like her again and not like the squeaky clean Cullens. It had been one of his toughest jobs, especially since he’d been involved in the not so pretty side of the whole organisation, but he’d been the only one capable of doing this. His skillset was what had made him perfect for this.
It just sucked that he had to pretend to love someone else, to have sex with someone else, while Myriam had to make do with random sex every now and then to scratch an itch.
Jasper was Peter’s brother, but not even by blood, simply because they had been in the war together, Jasper had sired Peter. Had they all been relatives by blood, this whole situation would be so fucked up, but the moment that Myriam and Jasper felt that they couldn’t stay away from each other anymore was the moment that they told Peter and Charlotte, and surprisingly, they had been okay with it. In their eyes it was better that she’d be with someone they knew rather than some random stranger.
They went to town on the Phoenix center. Completely nuts. They freed the children held there, although there weren’t many, killed all the Cold Ones and remaining wolves, and then smashed everything to pieces before setting the place alight. Overkill, but it was so satisfying to let out the rage. And then fuck again. And again.
It never crossed her mind to ask him about her, but as their emotions wound down over the next few days, she could finally think straight again. “Why is she with traditionals?”
Jasper let out a groan as he put his arms around her as they were enjoying the jacuzzi in their hotel room. “Botched extraction, although I’m fairly certain it wasn’t her fault. From what I could piece together was that she hadn’t been given food for over a week, and when they wanted her, they gave her food and the mutt ate it. She got her injections on the way to the location and one of the wolves brought one of the children to her to protect.”
“What went wrong?”
“Magic school. The child was a powerful witch and likely weakened her shield, weakening her in the process and well, the child took her instead.”
“What?”
“I know,” Jasper started to laugh. “As it turns out, the child’s father is none other than Klaus Mikaelson, the hybrid, quite the scary one if you have to believe the stories.”
“I saw him in Forks after they burned the place down.”
“Yeah? What’s your opinion of him?”
“I don’t know,” Myriam said thoughtfully. “I mean, it was obvious that the act was a retaliation of some sort, and if someone cares about someone that deeply, then he’s an alright guy in my book. If she’s in his custody, which she likely is, she needs to be extracted, but he could possibly become an ally for us against the Cold Ones, help us to take down the Volturi perhaps, seeing as we’ll need an army for that, and it’s just the four of us now.”
“Oh, I don’t know, sugar,” Jasper purred in her ear as his hand traveled down her torso under the water. “The Mikaelsons are quite scary, they are the patriarchs of the traditional line, the so-called Originals. Rumor is that they can’t be killed and you can’t make deals with them because while one may give his word that nothing happens, another member might break that word because they never made that agreement. Klaus Mikaelson is the monster underneath the beds of the traditionals, although another rumor is is that with the birth of his daughter, he has mellowed somewhat.”
“But I’m still going to get her back. I can kill other Cold Ones, so why wouldn’t I be able to kill them if I have to?”
“You could try, but I doubt you’d want him as our enemy. Diplomacy is the way to go… if you don’t get killed on sight for being a Cold One yourself.”
Myriam sighed as she rested her head against his shoulder, enjoying his fingers playing with her underneath the water. “Well, I suppose I’ll have to look like her to get a shot at it.”
“Or perhaps visit a few traditionals to ask what’s the best course of action, you know very well that the Cullens don’t like it when someone shows up to talk them directly when they don’t know the person. You may not be able to kill them, but they can kill you. No matter how strong or fast you are. You’re still vulnerable. She has a shield and is able to protect you, though.”
“Yeah, but she doesn’t even know who I am to her because nobody bothered to tell her!” Myriam said frustrated. “Not even you!”
“By not giving the information she needed, I kept her safe, Myriam. She kept asking me questions, yes, she has a curious mind. But she’s not allowed to form a thought of her own or have her own opinion. Or questions, you know this. If I had told her about you, she would have been confused, which would have resulted in more sessions with Doctor Carlisle and his tools and concoctions created by the shaman or witches.” He nuzzled her earlobe. “Your reunion won’t be easy with her, you two are far too different and she might think you’re going to take her back to the Cullens. Because you’re a Cold One.”
“Then come with me. She knows you. She trusts you and you can help me with the Mikaelsons.”
“I’ll be close by. Again, if she sees me, she’ll truly believe we’re going to take her back to Forks or take her to Alaska, and that’s not going to happen.”
“Okay,” Myriam let out a breath. “We can do this. Let’s go and find some traditionals.”
“What, now? I’m trying to have sex with you here!”
“Yes, now.”
