Chapter 04
“I-I don’t know,” she said hesitating a little, a sense of guilt washing over her because she didn’t know. She should know this, but she didn’t. “Jasper helped me to return children who didn’t want to be at our home at times. And I would get into trouble and get punished.”
“Try again, Mr. Whitlock, as it sounds to me that you were part of the problem,” Elijah replied as he took a sip from his tea.
While Jasper was grateful that they allowed Bella to speak her mind, in this case, it wasn’t a good thing as indeed, her observations would work against them. They already had a difficult entrance due to Myriam’s uncontrolled slaughter of the vampires the other night. “Myriam and I are a part of a tiny organisation… just the four of us, who travel the world to kill Cold Ones who are exploiting children. I was put with the Cullens, undercover, to keep an eye on Bella and of course, I had to go along with some procedures otherwise they’d find me out,” Jasper calmly replied. “I am well aware of the fact that the Cullens abandoned Bella into your care, Mr. Mikaelson. Or perhaps due to your reputation they believed you’d kill her, but it’s time for Bella to come home with us.”
“Even if I’d believe you about the first part of your story, why do you think we’d hand Bella back to you? She’s not an object, she’s a person. She’s a broken person, but human nonetheless. Corrupted by your kind, starved, experimented on, brainwashed.” Elijah kept using his calm voice. Bella could feel Klaus’s rage seeping through the cracks, he was more than ready to kill Jasper and she wasn’t sure if she’d try to stop him from doing so. Jasper felt strange. Off, but other than that, she couldn’t quite get inside his mind.
“It’s because she was trained by the Cullens, and experimented on, that she’d be better off with us. We know how to handle her and her malfunctions.”
Myriam growled and hit Jasper’s arm. “Quirks. He meant quirks,” she said quickly. This wasn’t right. Seeing Bella sitting at the table with the traditional vampires, eating like a human… the food that Myriam had gotten while she was still a human, sucked. Bella hadn’t been raised on this food and it would be a bitch to wean her off of it, too, unless they’d turn her, but Bella was too unstable to be turned. And Bella seemed to be comfortable with these traditionals as well. It wasn’t right. Bella’s mind was too fragile to have to go through another major shift in way of life again. This wasn’t going to end well. “How are you arranging and managing her care?”
“We’re slowly introducing her to new foods to eat as she became sick after having too much water and oats,” Freya replied. “I’m giving her a magical cleanse on a semi-regular basis to undo some of the things that have been done to her. She’s getting juice with a detox in it for anything that I’m missing. My brother Kol spends as much time with her as he possibly can, showing her that it’s alright to speak your mind and talk about your feelings. That she’s allowed to have an original thought. And so far, she’s surprised us all by how well she’s doing.”
“You do realize that there was a reason for the low energy diet that Bella had been put on?” Jasper questioned as he looked at the various foods on the table, seeing nothing but fruit juices, sugar, carbohydrates. “And at the intervals she was fed at? Don’t get me wrong, it’s amazing to see her doing much better since I last saw her two weeks ago, but it’s not right.”
“No, starving her is not right,” Freya said venomously. “She’s a human, like me, and we need our nourishment. She fought us hard on the food thing when we first started it, but food is something to be enjoyed, she sees that now.”
These traditionals were playing with fire. They believed they knew everything about Bella, but they were wrong. The file that they had in their possession and been placed there, by Jasper, for them to find. But it were only the cliffnotes. “She needs to be with her people. With us. Trust that we are as liberal as you, as passionate as you, something completely different from the Cullens themselves. We have a farm in Texas with nothing around us for miles where she’ll be safe and won’t be able to harm anyone. Keeping her here in the city is a big mistake. She’s a Cold One. Human, sure, but she’s a Cold One.”
“Are you sure?” Kol said playfully as he looked at Bella, who had rosy cheeks. “She looks pretty warm to me!”
“Bella, you know you can’t stay here,” Jasper told her, his voice kind, warm. “I appreciate how these traditionals are allowing you to use your own thoughts and opinions, you must know better now.”
“I was abandoned,” Bella replied, a hint of bitterness in her voice. “Alone. They are taking care of me. No punishments, but kindness. I did scare them the other day when I hurt twenty people… but I’m not a bad girl, you see. Kol said that they used to do far worse and kill people and he’s not a bad person, either. I’m still a good girl.”
Jasper sighed and nodded before sharing a look with Myriam, causing her to scowl and turn away. “We won’t forcibly take you away from your friends, Bella. But Myriam and I will remain in New Orleans to keep an eye on you so should there be something going on, we can come and help you.”
“This is ridiculous,” Myriam muttered as she crossed her arms over her chest. She hadn’t liked Jasper’s plan, but she had decided to go along with it. Mostly because they hadn’t been sure how Bella would be. The next visit, Myriam might tell Bella who she was. But Jasper had been nothing but an annoying asshole for the last few days, despite their amazing sex. Whatever it was, it was likely the Cullens fault for ruining him.
Elijah pursed his lips as he observed the two Cold Ones and their sudden animosity between them. “Ms. Jenkins, you are not agreeing with your companion?”
Myriam sucked in a breath, she was still angry that they couldn’t get to her in time before she had her meltdown and then Jasper had stopped her from grabbing Bella in the first place. She could still do that. She was fast, she was strong and she could take these sorry excuses for vampires. “No,” she started as she carefully chose her words as not to sound too much like a gigantic bitch. “Bella’s not one of you, nor will she ever be. She’s a Cold One. Her destiny lies with me. I’ll be able to make sure she won’t hurt anyone else due to my special skill set. She is dangerous and needs to be managed. By me. As Jasper said, we’re quite liberal in our beliefs and we won’t treat her as poorly as the Cullens did, but you need to release her to me for the safety of your coven, and of this city. I don’t want to sit around and wait for a catastrophe to happen. That’s not who I am and that’s not what I’m supposed to do. I have Cold Ones to kill.”
As poorly. Kol picked up on that and he could tell that his brother did as well. There was no way in hell that he was going to allow these two Cold Ones to take Bella away from them. From him. There was no telling what they’d do to her.
Klaus let out a dark chuckle. “Now see, I can applaud that sentiment. I have a few Cold Ones on my shit list, too. They attempted to take my daughter!”
“They’re in Alaska, I’ll tell you exactly where if you relinquish your custody of my— Bella,” Myriam replied kindly. “I’ll even join you for the fun of it. I’ve seen your work in Forks. You beat me right to it, unfortunately.”
“No, love,” Klaus shook his head. “Despite my healthy dose of fear for this girl, she’s not going anywhere. You lot abandoned her, and my siblings have taken a liking to her. She’s responding well to my siblings.”
“I did not abandon my sister!” Myriam blurted angrily. “We’ve been trying to get her out for years! I even turned so that I could be even stronger and faster to get her out! And you ruined it by allowing your daughter to take her instead! I was supposed to break her out when you were tearing the fucking place down!” She slammed her hand on the table, sending breakfast flying through the air. “She’s mine! Not yours.”
Bella noticed it, and no doubt Jasper noticed it too, but there was a flutter of something in Klaus’ rage as the Cold One ran her mouth. She was going to have to ask Kol later what that feeling meant, because she didn’t understand it at all. Jasper wasn’t liking that feeling Klaus had, at all, and now Bella was all confused. Had she belonged to someone else all this time?
“You’re her sister?” Freya blinked as she looked at the Cold One and then Bella. Granted, there was some similarity in the Cold One’s face, but she couldn’t see it.
“Twin, actually,” Myriam didn’t sit back down as she let out a breath. “Fraternal. Whatever. Mom took me after the birth giver gave birth to me, I was the first one out, and she told everyone that I had died. Mom knew that birth giver and sperm donor were doing icky things with the Cullens and werewolves and that it was wrong. She was supposed to go back for Bella, but she was too late, already under the protection of the shifter wolves and moved into the facility. That’s why they sent Jasper in.”
Klaus couldn’t tell if she was lying, but the story was so insane that it was a possibility that it was the truth. And there was no doubt that her transition from being human to a Cold One added some years to her life, from what he had heard, those transitions were brutal and painful. “Love, why won’t you sit back down in case you break something other than our table?” He suggested calmly. “I now understand your need to have Bella with you, family is important, after all, but as you can see, she’s already become a part of ours in the short time she’s been here.”
“Mom had definitive proof that my DNA, our DNA, had been messed with in the petri dish, but also our embryos had been manipulated while we grew in the birth giver’s birthing chamber. When I was five years old, I could lift a car with my pinkie and with the strength, I had anger issues. So dad decided to train me to fight, and how to kill Cold Ones. I took my first Cold One down when I was ten years old. But I wasn’t fast enough. I wasn’t strong enough. I asked to be turned when I celebrated my 18th birthday, giving up on all the human things. Hot showers. Nice food. Coffee. Fuck, coffee… I was a newborn, but never acted out, I always kept my head. And I started to go after more Cold Ones. Preparing me for the fight with the Cullens. Which you ruined for me.”
“I ruined it for you?” Klaus mused, challenging the Cold One. “Love, you seem to know where they are, why come to New Orleans first?”
“Because I wanted to give Bella the satisfaction of killing them, too,” she said angrily. “And to ask for your help to go after the Volturi to end this for once and for all. Just because we are stronger than humans and have the ability to live longer, doesn’t mean we, as a species, should treat them like the Cullens have.”
“I hate to break it to you, darling, but Bella’s not a killer,” Kol finally spoke as he looked at the Cold One. She did look like Bella, and while she may have had a better life than her sister, Myriam looked lost. Incomplete. “If you were going to take her to the Cullens now, she’d be on their side, not yours.”
“No, I-I wouldn’t.”
“Yes, darling, you would,” Kol said as he smiled at her. “I told you, baby steps, and their training of you will take a long time to get rid of.”
“I-I wouldn’t! I swear!”
He smirked then before looking at Jasper. “Give her an order, or an instruction, whatever you used to call them.”
Jasper realized what Kol was trying to prove to both Myriam and Bella, and nodded. “Bella, I want you to clean up the mess that Myriam made because of you.”
“No,” Bella said defiantly, crossing her arms over her chest. See? She could refuse.
“Bella, you failed in keeping this place spotless, clean it up, now, and your punishment won’t be as bad as I want it to be. You’re a bad girl for allowing this to happen.”
She tried to fight it. This was a set up, and she knew it, but she couldn’t fight it and soon enough found herself on the floor, picking up the broken pieces of the plates as quickly as she could. It was her mess. Myriam had been angry because of her. She truly was a bad girl.
“Bella, stop,” Jasper said as he felt Myriam’s heart break. He may have neglected to inform Myriam just how bad Bella’s life had been, merely for the sake of her own sanity. “That’s enough, Bella. You can stop now.”
She stopped and remained on her knees, her hands resting on top of her knees and sighed. She was a bad girl and she wasn’t even cleaning up properly.
“What the fuck.” Myriam breathed out as she looked at Jasper. “What the actual fuck!”
“There is no doubt that Bella has your temper, Myriam. The Cullens wanted her to be quiet and cooperative. They trained her like this. Like a drone. Mindless and not allowing her to think. It made Bella safe to be around,” Jasper explained, a guilty look on his face. “However, I do have to admit that these traditional vampires have been handling her correctly in regards to trying to make her life better. I still recommend taking her out of the city, though.”
Well that Cold One turned around quickly. Klaus didn’t like it. “Nonsense,” he said as he made the call right there and then. “Miss Jenkins, Myriam, you are welcome to stay here at the compound to get to know your sister, to keep an eye on her, but you will not take her with you.”
“Niklaus, since when do we take in strays?” Elijah asked exasperatedly.
“Myriam is Bella’s sister. Or so she claims. There is no doubt in my mind that this woman will allow us to run tests on her to make sure of it. If it’s the truth, we need to allow her to get to know Bella. You know as well as I do, family is important.”
“I can’t believe this,” Elijah huffed, shaking his head.
“I’m with Niklaus. I mean, if she is Bella’s sister and she’s telling the truth about her origins, then there’s no doubt that she’ll have been messed with, too. I could have Keelin compare their DNA strands on abnormalities and go from there,” Freya said hopeful before looking at Myriam with a smile. “Believe me, there’s nothing better to get to know your family after having been on your own all this time.”
“I wasn’t on my own. I had my parents and Jasper,” Myriam said as she still had her eye on the kneeling Bella, contemplating her thoughts. “Very well, I’ll stay. What the hell. Why not.”
“And my apologies to your companion, but Bella doesn’t seem to respond well to him. He can’t stay,” Klaus said, a playful smile on his lips as he looked at Jasper. “You understand.”
Jasper hadn’t anticipated this outcome. However, for now it was the best decision. Myriam could keep an eye on Bella while he’d stick around in the city. He nodded politely.
“And please, refrain from feeding off of the humans in this city, your kind kills them and it’ll draw attention.”
At that, Bella’s head snapped up. “I don’t die when he feeds on me, sir.”
“Nobody’s going to feed on you, darling,” Kol said as he helped her to her feet and handed her a pancake that had been saved from hitting the floor when Myriam smashed the table. “We’re only going to feed you,” he helped her to sit down to eat.
She slightly snickered. “That was funny.”
“Yeah, it was,” he grinned.
“You’re not going to hurt any of these girls,” Jasper said as a counter demand. “And you’re going to keep your hands off of my Myriam.”
Both Kol and Elijah sucked in a breath and Bella wasn’t sure why. It was a normal request, wasn’t it? Myriam belonged to Jasper, like Bella had belonged to the Cullens… and to Jasper. And she had belonged to Myriam in the first place? But wasn’t Jasper Alice’s? Didn’t he belong to Alice? Did Alice know that Myriam belonged to him? Jasper felt angry and anxious. Worried, maybe, and Klaus’s anger had dissolved and it had changed to something else, something she couldn’t place. Yet another emotion she’d have to talk to Kol about.
“I’m an honorable man, Mr. Whitlock,” Klaus spoke calmly. “Miss Jenkins will be my guest for as long as she wishes to stay and to connect with her sister, the one she’s worked so hard for to free from the Cullens. To assume that I’m anything less than honorable because you’re picking up on my emotions is frankly an intrusion on my privacy. Another reason why I do not want you in my house.”
Myriam stared at Jasper with an open mouth. “You fucker! Who gave you the right to claim me as your own? That never fucking happened and if you believe that I’m going to fuck the person who’s responsible for delaying my reunion with my sister, you’re fucking mistaken!”
“Okay, time for the humans to leave,” Freya said with a singsong voice and looped her arm around Bella. “Come on, we’re going to leave this cesspit of testosterone.”
“W-what?”
“Oh Bella,” she sighed as she ruffled the girl’s hair. “Here you are, twenty years old and you know nothing about the pleasures in life…”
“And you’re not going to inform her either!” Kol called after his sister. That would be a complete disaster with Bella not understanding feelings and emotions as well as she should. On top of that, she still didn’t feel free enough to do things on her own. No, teaching Bella about the birds and the bees was going to have to wait. For a very long time.
The moment Freya and Bella were safe inside Bella’s room, with no doubt Freya have cast a spell so that Bella wouldn’t hear anything, all three brothers rose to their feet and started to walk towards Jasper. There was no way that they’d allow him to leave and tell his family all about Bella. On top of that, the way he was treating his friend was deplorable. “On the subject of killing Cold Ones, Miss Jenkins, what do you wish us to do with this one?” Klaus asked. Perhaps it was dangerous to allow Myriam to enrage, but if there was one thing they all had issues with was self control. And Myriam would fit right in with the lot of them.
“You’re not going to do anything,” Myriam replied as she rubbed her hands in glee. “He’s been different ever since he returned from the Cullens, I don’t trust him anymore than you do. He’s mine to deal with.”
Freya had wanted her to take a nap and when Bella woke up, she was alone. The sun was high in the sky and she had liked the feeling of it on her skin that morning. She opened the door of her space and wondered if it was alright if she’d left it to walk around a little, to be in the sun for a little while.
She found it strange, however, to see people walking around in plastic suits with brooms and buckets of water. Kol hadn’t told her that that would happen. Curious, Bella decided to be bold and have a look, but she didn’t have to venture out far to realize what was going on as she stepped into a puddle. Looking down at her bare feet, she noticed that it was Cold One venom and it was likely that these people who worked for Klaus were wearing plastic so they wouldn’t get hurt. But it was still acidic; it could still hurt them.
“Please, stop,” Bella called out. “It’ll bite through your plastic!”
The people weren’t even listening to her, it was as if they were under some sort of spell… mind control… was this compulsion? She ran into the courtyard and pushed the people to the sides, away from the carnage. She saw some blonde locks somewhere, and she didn’t know what to think about this. It was obvious it was Jasper, and while he had been her friend, he had also been one of them. He had abandoned her.
She started to pick up pieces of his body while she kept the workers at bay, and put them into the wheelbarrow. For Jasper to be truly dead, his remains needed to be burned, and Cold One venom was flammable. Jasper could still be salvaged if people wanted to, his brain wasn’t scrambled.
“Bella, what are you doing?” Kol asked panicked as he jumped down from the first floor, right next to another puddle of venom. “Don’t do that, darling, we have people who do that for us. You’ll get hurt.”
Bella pointed at the workers she was keeping cornered. “This stuff eats through everything, their protection won’t hold,” she said as she continued to scoop up Jasper. It looked as if he was mauled by a wolf, or worse. “You’re going to need a hose for the things high up and the venom here on the ground,” she noted.
“Bella, stop it.”
She walked over to Kol and showed him her venom covered hands and feet, there were no burn marks on her, nor were there holes. “I’m not hurt. It itches, a little, but I’ve seen worse than this. I don’t want your people to get hurt.”
“You’re cleaning up the remains of Jasper.”
“I know,” she said lightly before resuming her task. The sun felt great on her skin. She had always believed that the sun was the biggest invention made by someone. She’d rarely seen the sun, only on occasion when she was allowed to go outside, but she had always liked it. And she was outside now, but still inside. Safe. “Have you determined if Myriam was speaking the truth about being my sister?”
“Not yet, but that’s what we’re working on right now… she’s very cooperative, please stop cleaning him up, it’s not your job.”
“Kol, I’ve already hurt twenty people this week, I don’t want your people to get damage that you can’t repair because of me,” she replied stubbornly as she slung Jasper’s arm into the wheelbarrow. It had already begun to heal, she saw the fractures, but they were closing. “He’s already healing, if you truly wish him dead, his remains need to be burned.”
“His death isn’t on you, Bella.”
“Sure it is,” she replied as a matter of factly. “If it hadn’t been for me, he’d never have come here.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Myriam said as she jumped down and started to help Bella with cleaning up Jasper’s parts. “I killed him, Bella, that’s what I do. I kill Cold Ones. Bad Cold Ones. Like Jasper and the Cullens. Jasper had it coming for several reasons.”
“But—”
“No, I’m not having that. Not everything that happens is your fault, and if it makes you feel any better, it did me well to kill him. The lying fucker who liked to mess with other people’s heads. Including mine. While he knew to stay out of it. Fucker. If I could kill him again, I would.”
“You’re using that word a lot.”
“What? Fuck? Fucker? Yeah, it’s normal language, you should try to use it sometimes.”
“Is it a bad word?”
“Hell no,” Myriam laughed as she scooped up some venom and dumped it in the wheelbarrow. “People use the word fuck or fucker to emphasize how shitty, bad, something or someone is. Jasper’s a fucker. The Cullens are even bigger fuckers. You could call them fucking fucks.”
Bella looked at Kol for confirmation and he simply shrugged. “What your sister has is called a potty-mouth. She uses foul language to get a message across that Jasper was bad and that the Cullens are even worse. She likely picked it up during her excessive training.”
“Fuck yeah,” Myriam grinned as she tossed a foot into the wheelbarrow. “I’m quite loud, too. I speak my mind and don’t hold anything back, except for maybe you, really. Because girl, you look like you shouldn’t even be doing this. You might break your back or something when you lift up parts of his body.”
Bella huffed as she threw a part of Jasper’s skull into the wheelbarrow. “I’m stronger than I look. I’m also keeping the workers from doing this because I don’t want them to get hurt.”
“Would you like to see a neat trick?” Myriam asked Bella as she shook her hands to get rid of the venom and the moment Bella looked at her, Myriam created the illusion of Bella, turning Myriam into her. “This is what you look like at this moment,” she said, a bit smile on her face. “I’ve been killing Cold Ones, looking like you.”
Kol blinked at what he saw. Two Bella’s. Identical, albeit Myriam’s version of Bella looked slightly healthier than the original. “Holy—”
“Down boy,” Myriam grinned. “I can already see you imagining the possibilities but you’re really not my type,” she said teasingly before looking back at Bella, who now looked furious. “What?”
“I got punished for what you did. They believed I could teleport out of my space and go places to kill vampires,” Bella replied. “And I didn’t understand, because I’d never leave them or kill and it was you!” Bella’s fists were balled as her arms hung from her body, she was ready to give her a big push into one of the pillars. Yes. Revenge.
Myriam quickly switched back to herself and swallowed hard. She had never thought about the repercussions to kill Cold Ones looking like her twin sister. She had always believed that Bella would be with her in spirit when she’d do that. “I-I’m sorry… I didn’t know… Jasper never told me, either.”
“Don’t feel guilty,” Bella said, releasing her fists and relaxing a bit as she identified the feeling that Myriam had upfront in her mind. She wasn’t invading her, per sé, but she had put light telepathic tabs on all the vampires in the compound because of Klaus ever since she hurt twenty people. In case she needed to protect herself. Or Kol. “The punishments were my treatments or not being allowed to leave my room. It’s wasn’t bad, it was part of my day.”
“Bella, that’s not normal,” Myriam said baffled. “Even compared to how I live, that’s not normal. That’s twisted. That’s fucking twisted and wrong. Mom and Dad would never do that to me – I call them mom and dad. They’re called Peter and Charlotte. I suppose I have to call them to tell them that I killed dad’s brother…”
“You were sleeping with your uncle?” Kol blinked.
“We weren’t blood related or anything,” Myriam shrugged. “Besides, we’re dead. Even if we were, we wouldn’t get mutant babies. He was a good fuck, though. Shame about his personality change.” She picked up another part of Jasper’s skull and tossed it in the wheelbarrow. Then another piece caught her eye. It was lodged in one of the columns and it took her a jump to get to it. She had believed it had been a finger, but no. It was bigger than a finger and it was fucking fully erect still too. What the hell! Making a face, she quickly headed to the wheelbarrow and tucked it underneath something so Bella didn’t have to see Jasper’s penis. Jasper’s once oh so beloved penis. Asshole.
“Did I hear you say Peter and Charlotte?” Klaus asked as he looked over the balcony, observing the two ‘sisters’ and his brother, who didn’t dare to move amongst the Cold One venom. “Peter and Charlotte Whitlock? I knew I recognized Jasper’s name.”
“Peter and Charlotte Jenkins,” Myriam said as she looked up, a smile on her face. “They changed their last name for safety. If Carlisle would have known I was still alive, they would have come for me. Do you know them?”
“As a matter of fact, I do,” Klaus said surprised. “For a while, I was on the run from my tyrant of a father and disappeared, I needed places to hide and I met Peter and Charlotte in a bar, they offered their place for me to stay in for some time.”
“Yep, sounds like them,” Myriam nodded. “The amount of stray dogs and cats when I was little… it was insane!”
“I’m liking you more and more, Miss Jenkins, you’d better be who you say you are.”
Myriam huffed as she tossed Klaus her phone. “Call them. Verify my story with them, it’s easier than to wait for the results of your doctor’s tests on me.”
Klaus smiled then, jumping down like Myriam and Kol had, and landing right next to Myriam and Bella as he thumbed through Myriam’s phone to get the right number and put it on speaker. “Since our Bella doesn’t have vampire hearing and all… I don’t want her to feel left out as we talk to daddy dearest.”
“Myriam Jenkins, why have you absconded from your mission to kill the Cullens? They’re not dead yet, you know? Where the fuck are you? Are you in trouble? Do you require backup?”
“Well, that explains where she got her gutter mouth from,” Klaus remarked playfully. “You kiss your wife with that mouth?”
“Who the fuck— Klaus? What are you doing with my daughter’s phone?!”
“She tossed it to me, actually, after confiding in us who her parents are,” Klaus smirked as Myriam rolled her eyes. “She was telling me a fantastical story about how she and the girl I left my brother in charge of are sisters. Now, mind you, the information we have on our girl is very slim and didn’t say anything about a sister.”
“Bella? You have Bella? How? Why? What? The Fuck!”
“Your friends abandoned her into my custody, what else was I supposed to do, kill the girl? You taught me the value of helping others and helping others to help others. I was feeling charitable, forgive me.”
“Where’s my daughter? Are you fucking her?”
“Woah, woah, woah!” Myriam said defensively. “Dad! I only got here, you know! It’s not as if I fool around with everyone!”
“Austin… Ian… Iain… oh, what was the other one? Joel! And Stefan, was it? Or was it Damon?”
“Dad, stop,” Myriam groaned as she heard her mother whisper ‘both’. “Mom, don’t… you know that I had to scratch my itches while Jasper was away…”
“I still can’t believe you’re seeing him.”
“Well, I’m not. Bella and I are currently picking up his pieces from the floor of the Mikaelsons’ beautiful courtyard because Bella didn’t want their staff to get hurt,” Myriam shot at her parents before dunking an elbow into the wheelbarrow.
“Oh good, if you find his dick, send it over so we can use it as a candle,” Charlotte’s voice sounded. “He got in too deep, didn’t he? That stupid fuck got in too deep and manipulated by those fucking Cullens.”
“Yeah… I guess…” Myriam sighed. “He was different when we met up in Phoenix, and I swear, he was influencing me the entire time we were in New Orleans. The rage, the passiveness…”
“Well good on you, Myriam.”
“Thanks mom.”
“So, does that mean you’re going to sleep with Klaus Mikaelson now?” Peter asked before he was quiet for a little while. “Well, I suppose it’s an upgrade. Can’t exactly kill him… or scare him into submission… Can’t you pick some normal guy next time?”
“We’re not going to sleep together, for fuck’s sake!” Myriam said aggravated. “I’m not that easy! I’m here for Bella and not for anything else, you hear me?!”
“Okay, enough with the fucking here,” Kol said, objecting. “Sensitive ears and all that!”
“Fuck, you two are the worst! This is why I rarely call in!” Myriam said frustrated before using her vampire speed to clean every little piece of Jasper off the floor and walls and then tossed a lighter into the wheelbarrow, causing Jasper to burn.
“I didn’t call to hear about Myriam’s conquests, Peter,” Klaus reminded him, a cheeky smile on his face as he watched the Cold One in question. It was a shame that that breed of vampires had lost everything that made humans beautiful; the flushing of skin when they were embarrassed. “Is what she said about being Bella’s sister true?”
“Yeah man,” Peter replied, laughing his ass off for no doubt embarrassing his daughter in front of her new friends. “We wanted to go back for Bella, but then it was too late. We never were able to get close until Myriam decided she wanted to be turned and became even stronger than the strong man of the Cullens.”
“See, Bella?” Kol smiled at her. “You’re not alone. You have a sister! Family! Isn’t that great?”
“But I have you,” she said confused. “How would I be alone when I have you?”
“Because family makes you stronger and will never abandon you,” Kol said, avoiding thinking about the times that he’d been abandoned or stabbed in the back by his siblings. “Myriam spent her entire life trying to find you, that requires determination and a whole lot of love.”
“Love?”
Kol scratched himself behind his ear. “Uhh… kindness. Myriam has a lot of kindness to give to you because you missed out on so much of it.”
“Was that all the information you needed, Klaus? I could send you all the research we have on the two girls that we managed to scrape together if you want a better picture. Hell, Charlotte and I could make a trip down to good old New Orleans and have some fun while we’re at it!”
“Please don’t come,” Myriam said quickly as she stared into the flames. “Send the stuff over, sure, but seriously, don’t come.”
“You sure, darlin’? It’s possible that the information will have things you don’t even know about yourself yet.”
“That’s fine. I think it’s time now. I found her.”
“I’ll send one of my trusted vampires to come and pick it up. Please, Peter, don’t kill him,” Klaus said, shaking his head. “And I do look forward to meeting up with you sometime in the future for an old fashioned pub crawl.”
“You’d better take real good care of my girl, Klaus Mikaelson, or I will find a way to kill you.”
“Dad! Stop it! I’m a grown woman!” Myriam snatched her phone out of Klaus’ hands, disconnected the call and tossed her phone in the fire. “There. No more harassment.”
“That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?” Klaus laughed.
“Nah, it was time for a new phone anyway. You know, in case I get tracked or something,” Myriam shrugged. “Anyway, your courtyard has been thoroughly cleaned. What’s next?”
“Do you still sparkle when you change your appearance, if only slightly?” Klaus was curious. “Because darling, you are a walking, talking, disco ball.”
Myriam huffed as she changed her hair color and put a mole on her cheek at will. “No sparkle.”
“Good,” he smiled at her. “Despite how you were created, you must admit, this is one ability that is nice to have.”
“Eh,” Myriam shrugged as she looked at Bella with a guilty look on her face. “Apparently not so much. I can actually get people hurt.”
“Let’s not dwell on past things,” he said as he offered his arm to her. “Let me show you my city, and then I’ll take you to a splendid place to have a snack.”
“I don’t eat normal food, Klaus, different breed of vampire.”
“Oh, but I wasn’t talking about human food, love, I was talking about an all you can eat buffet right here in the city, filled with miscreants that won’t be missed if they end up dead.”
“Oh, now you’re talking,” Myriam grinned as she gladly took his arm. “Lead the way, good sir.”
“Oh, they’ll definitely be shagging by the end of the night,” Kol muttered as he looked at Bella. “So, do you have ideas of what you want to do today? Rest? You’ve been through a lot today, new experiences, new information…” He hoped she wouldn’t mind spending a few hours by herself. Seeing Nik interact with Myriam, the fight with Jasper and everything else had made him horny and hungry. He needed a release for both.
“I’m never going to be curious again,” Bella said as she pointed at the wheelbarrow. “I’ll stay in my confinement. I have learned my lesson.”
“It’s good to be curious, darling,” he smiled at her. “Why won’t you take a nice bath and rest a little?”
She nodded slowly, liking the idea. “The bath is where I put the plug in and fill it with water, yes?”
“Warm water. Not cold,” he reminded her.
She nodded again. “I can do that!”
“Good girl,” he grinned as he watched her walk back to her room. After listening for the bath to be running, he was satisfied that she was actually doing just that. He informed Freya that he was heading out for a few hours and headed straight for Débauche, one of the best brothels that New Orleans had.
Bella took a quick dip in her bath to wash off the Cold One venom and got back into her clothes. She wasn’t sure how to process all the new information she had learned today. What she had experienced. Perhaps it was better to store it away and not to think about it too hard. She had to accept that her sister was a Cold One, but a good one. And if she weren’t, Kol would kill her. She didn’t have to be scared, because she could protect herself when needed. She could protect Kol when needed. And Myriam had parents. Like the children had when Bella was still at home. Those children who were crying for their mom and dad. Myriam was strong and everything that Bella wasn’t. Myriam was free. Myriam could take care of herself, feed herself. Bella— wasn’t sure if she could. Myriam was the good girl. Bella was defective and the bad girl.
There was something about Jasper’s words that morning that had scared her. That she wasn’t safe in the city and that she had a strict regime for another reason. That perhaps he knew more about her than she did. Than Klaus and Kol did. Not knowing what it was was frightening. What if it was a really bad thing and she’d do a really bad thing? And how? When? Or did he say those things to make everyone even more afraid of her?
