The Witches Bennett
Summary:
The world is full of secrets. For two cousins on the run from just about everyone secrets are all they have besides each other. But when push comes to shove and the darkness starts beating back the light will the cousins hold on to their secrets at the expense of everything else? Even at the cost of each other?
Notes:
Completely AU. Bennett centered. Main perspective is Ollie's. Ollie/Stefan, Ollie/Kol, ultimately Ollie/Stefan. Bonnie/Matt, Bonnie/Damon, Bonnie/Klaus, ultimately Bonnie/Damon.
Warnings:
Violence, language, MiCD, MCD, Smut, mentions of Rape (non-main character), Abuse, Angst
Rated M Romance/Fantasy
Chapter One
This wasn't Ollie Bennett's first time in a tavern. She, unbeknownst to her cousin and grandmother, had actually been in quite a few. The Sunken Oar wasn't even the crappiest one she'd grace with her presence, but it sure did come in at a close second for that dubious honor. Her button nose wrinkled in disgust at the smell of the place. It was clear that personal hygiene had never been heard of by any of the patrons here. The entire place smelled like urine, beer, salt water, and sweat. Sighing Ollie tried to close of her sense of smell as she stalked over to the bar and swept some sleeping drunk of his seat none too gently. He grumbled, but was too far gone to even get up from the floor.
Ollie hopped up onto the stool and gave a vague wave in the barkeep's direction. He nodded and held up three fingers to signal how long she'd have to wait. Ollie didn't mind and swirled on her seat to face the rest of the tavern. The place wasn't too big which she supposed was a good thing. She could see her cousin off in a dark corner with some man. Ollie tossed a grin in her cousin's direction and ignored the quick glare she'd received in return. She'd told her that it would be easy to sweep some poor sod of his feet and out of his money here. Ollie had quickly noticed that there were hardly any females in Dawn's Crest, the small port town they'd stumbled upon, to begin with and none of them compared to the beauty of herself or her cousin. Completely sure of her cousin's success with her chosen mark Ollie's attention left them shortly and she began take notice of other things about The Sunken Oar.
The music wasn't too bad here. There were a couple of old heads up on the small stage with their instruments. They played well enough that people were kicking up their feet and adding more scuff marks to the already scarred wooden planks of floor. Ollie wasn't entirely immune to the groove herself as she tapped her black lacquered nails on the bar. She wondered a little on how the dancers found room to dance as she eyed the various wooden tables and benches cluttered together around the place. As small, dirty, and smelly as the place was it actually had the nerve to have a stellar view of the docks. The entire back wall of the place was comprised of floor to ceiling glass planes; something she knew had cost the owners a fortune, and showed off the docks of the port town beautifully.
Even from here Ollie could see the tops of at least a dozen warehouses, the brilliant gold blaze at the top of the lighthouse, and numerous ships of various sizes and models bobbing on the smooth waves of the ocean. Even at this late hour, with the sun already tucked beneath the horizon, she could make out a few dock hands loading and unloading cargo. Sighing Ollie wondered at where some of the shipments had come from and where the rest were going. If there was anything she'd learned over the last crazy few weeks it was that the world was so much larger than what she could have imagined. Of course she never would have experienced any of this if the Circle had remained unbroken.
"What are you having?"
Ollie blinked before she shook herself and swirled around to face the bartender with a flirty smile on her pretty lips. "Rum and juice."
The bartender eyed her like he wasn't entirely sure that she was good for the coin. Rolling her eyes Ollie dug her purse out of her in coat pocket and shook it so that the man could hear the coins chime. And just like that the tall, potbellied jackass was smiling and bustling to put together her drink. Ollie tossed a bronze five piece on the counter after he slid a small shot glass her way. The man frowned, but Ollie ignored him. She and he both knew that the watered down drink wasn't worth more than that. Eventually he shoved off mumbling about stingy bitches.
Drink in hand Ollie turned back around to check on her cousin… who was now nowhere to be found. Shrugging Ollie told herself that she'd give her cousin ten minutes. Later she'd wish she hadn't.
...:::...:::...
The man was dead.
Ollie had never consciously regretted anything she'd done, but found that there really was a first time for everything as she lamented over the fact that she'd waited so long to go after her cousin when she'd notice her missing from the tavern. She blinked as she stared at the corpse and wondered how it was that even dead the man was entirely too beautiful to behold. His alabaster skin had grown paler with death, but if anything the unnatural colorless tone of his skin enhanced the depth of the blackness of his hair and the brilliant blue of his now sightless eyes. The longer she stared at him the more Ollie couldn't shake the feeling that the man's looks mingled with death perfectly, as if the reaper had claimed him long before his unfortunate run in with the Bennett witches. The feeling made her uncomfortable and she was more than ready to leave the dirty, slightly flooded alleyway in between the small town's only whorehouse and tavern. Sighing Ollie tugged the brim of her hat lower over her unnatural gold eyes, shifted her feet, and finally pulled her eyes away from the man to her eerily silent cousin.
"What happened?" She asked because the last time Ollie had seen her cousin everything had looked like it was going according to plan.
Bonnie Bennett shrugged silently without much, if any, emotion on her beautiful face. Ollie frowned, shifted again, and eyed her cousin closely. Bonnie's emerald gaze was clear and firm, her long eyelashes were not trembling with suppressed emotions, and her full bow shaped lips were neutral. If Ollie hadn't noticed her cousin's caramel hands fisted into her skirt she might've thought that Bonnie didn't care at all about the pretty corpse in front of them. As it was she stepped forward and crouched down in front of Bonnie, taking her cousin's clenched fist in her own hands. Ollie tilted her head until gold and emerald met and asked her again.
"What happened, Bon Bon?"
Bonnie exhaled so heavily that Ollie felt as if her cousin was trying to expel more than just her breath. "I-I'm not sure," Bonnie began. "I was following the plan. He looked like money," Ollie nodded in agreement as she glanced again at the man over her shoulder. He was draped in expensive finery. His clothes were obviously tailored to fit his muscled, if slightly short, frame. Gold eyes also made note of the diamonds in the man's tie pin, cufflinks, and even on the buckles of his sleek polished shoes. "Looked like money," was clearly an understatement in her opinion. The man clearly had been money and also just as clearly had not belonged in Dawn's Crest. Her cousin regained her attention as she continued. "And he was interested, so I figured that it couldn't hurt to try. After all the sooner we get the money the quicker we can leave this hellhole." Bonnie murmured.
Ollie sensed a 'but' coming, so she provided the vocal for it, "But?"
"Once we were alone he started getting rough. He dragged me out here and began questioning me," Bonnie tensed and suddenly clamped her lips shut. Ollie frowned sensing something foreboding on the horizon.
"What Bon Bon? What did he say?"
"He knew," she whispered and Ollie froze in horror. "He knew, Ollie. He knew what I am, what we are, because he also knew that I wasn't alone. He knew," Bonnie pressed urgently as she began to run her fingers through her long wavy mink colored hair. Her mouth trembled as if there was more to say, but Ollie had heard enough. She shot up and loomed over the man's corpse.
How did he know? She wondered before shaking her head annoyed at herself. How he knew didn't matter. Nothing mattered now except getting rid of the body and leaving this town tonight. Ollie bit her full bottom lip as she pondered over the best way. Her brain was moving sluggishly, whether it was with fear or anxiety she didn't know, and either way it wasn't helping her now. Mother Nature ended up providing the answer with a flash of lightning and as the sky opened up to release another bout of torrential downpour for the day Ollie motioned to her cousin to step back.
With Bonnie out of the way Ollie allowed her body to do as it pleased. Senses that she usually kept dull and muted expanded and exploded into awareness. Her body thrummed with energy as her magic called to the lightning in the air. She became a conduit for it and as the power of it built up within her she only had one thought in mind - to obliterate the corpse of a dead man who had known too much.
Bonnie stood off to the side near the mouth of the alley splitting her attention between watching her cousin work her element and keeping an eye out. They'd been in the alley longer than was wise and it was only a matter of time before they were spotted. As if to prove her right a drunken couple suddenly teetered out of The Sunken Oar on the right and tumbled their way directly towards the alley. From their groping hands, lip locked lips, and muttered suggestive words it was clear what they'd planned for their evening. Bonnie closed her eyes and muttered a spell under her breath, or tried, but between her nerves and the fact that illusion had never been her strong suit the couple continued on ambling towards the alley until the lightning sparks jumping off of Ollie's skin finally snagged their attention. At which point the woman screamed.
Bonnie cursed and turned. Her cousin was still in the throes of her casting, but there simply was no time to extract her correctly. So Bonnie threw out her hands and winced in sympathy when her cousin went flying forward deeper into the darkness of the alley before following at a run. She found Ollie sputtering and trembling yards ahead on the wet ground as blue and yellow sparks continued to jump off her sienna colored skin sporadically until they finally puttered out.
"What. The. Fuck. Bonnie!" Ollie growled as she shoved her wet curly hair off her face.
Bonnie shook her head urgently. "We have to go. Now. We've been seen," she hissed as she tugged Ollie up and that was all the motivation Ollie really needed in order to move her ass.
The cousins shot out of the back end of the alley like the lightning streaking across the sky overhead. Ollie took the lead with her long legs leaping over barrels and crates as the she headed towards the sprawling docks, the only thing the crap town could really boast, fully intending to stowaway on some merchant ship. Bonnie wasn't far behind her cousin and what she lacked in height and speed she made up for in greater flexibility as she flipped and rolled her way away from the sound of pounding feet behind them.
"Witches! Witches! There's witches!"
The cry rang out through the night and a flash of lightning caught the identical looks of horror and fear on the cousins' faces.
The hollering from the growing mob behind them was gathering even more attention ahead and Ollie winced as the unmistakable orange glow of torch lights began to fill the docks.
"We're not going to make it!" Bonnie's words caused a chill to ripple down Ollie's back.
"No! We are," she shouted and flung out her hands. Lightning answered her and struck down on the docks. She tried to ignore the screams and shouts of those unlucky enough to get hit and instead focused on clearing a path. She spotted a small fishing boat to the east, it was just a bobbing spec among the dark blue waves of the ocean, but it was the easiest route. She paused just long enough to reach behind and grab Bonnie's arm before she tapped into those repressed senses again and forced her body into inhuman speeds. Bonnie yelped and protested, but Ollie who was working off of base instincts now ignored her.
The dock was a chaotic blur that they passed. And although Ollie ignored the mayhem as she shot across the ground Bonnie's green gaze caught it all. Ollie's lightning had caused a lot of damage. A good many of the warehouses that lined the area were burning. Blacken circles marked the areas where the lightning had struck the hardest. Among the visible debris there were strips of clothing and an unmistaken able stench of burnt of hair and skin permeated the air.
"Jump!"
Bonnie barely heard the order, preoccupied as she was, luckily her body responded on auto pilot and leaped without any conscious thought on her part.
Ollie released a shaky laugh as she and her cousin landed in the fishing boat. It was small, wooden, and required oar paddles, but she didn't care. They'd made it. Now all they had to do was leave. She nudged Bonnie to pick up a paddle and blinked in shock when she received a stinging slap in return.
"What the hell?" She hissed as sparks began to jump off her skin in her anger.
Bonnie stood toe to toe with her cousin on the small boat. She pointed behind her at the raging flames and cries of the docks and fixed Ollie with a steely glare. "Help them," She growled back.
"Help them?" Ollie snorted flicking her golden eyes towards the docks and away dismissively. "Why should I? Do you know what they would have done to us if they'd caught us?"
Bonnie frowned, because of course she did, but that didn't excuse anything that had happened tonight. She'd learned of magic from her grandmother, they'd both had, and the first thing that the woman had taught them was that magic should never be used to hurt the Ordinary. She'd messed up tonight, her magic had been uncontrollable in her panic and fear. There was nothing she could do for the man she'd killed, but Ollie didn't have to let the docks burn just for them to escape her mistake. She wouldn't allow it.
"Help them," she ordered.
Ollie baulked. She hated to be told to do anything. She hated her cousin's and her grandmother's protective nature towards Ordinaries who would love to see them all dead. But more than anything she hated to see the disappointed look in Bonnie's eyes whenever she felt that Ollie wasn't living up to her moral standards. So she turned back towards the port town, muttered some words, and watched as the rain increased and the flames sputtered out. She slumped over once it was done. Blood trickled down her nose and as she swiped it with the sleeve of her coat she ignored the relieved look on Bonnie's face.
"You know, you're going to have to row by yourself now." She muttered.
Bonnie plopped down and grabbed both of the oars without a fuss. She began to row in long leisurely strokes.
"God, what a fucked up this was," Ollie sighed as she shifted on her bench. Of course now that the adrenaline was starting to leave her body it ached all over. In fact her eyebrow began to twitch as she remembered that most of her injuries were Bonnie's fault.
"Language, Ollie," Bonnie reprimanded. To which Ollie flipped her off.
A stiff breeze swept through the air and the cousins shivered suddenly reminded that their clothes were soaked through. They frowned as they looked down at the battered articles.
Ollie couldn't remember what it felt like to be dry; it had been raining heavily for days before they'd even reached Dawn's Crest. Sighing she plucked at her once white frilly shirt which was now soaked and mud streaked; the linen was not only clinging to her chest, but was also showing off the outline her nude colored bodice underneath. 'Simply scandalous,' she thought as she tugged on her dark red overcoat to try and cover her indecency. Although she couldn't help but wonder at the point of it all when her black breeches were torn and clinging to her thighs and ass worst than that overly friendly drunk at The Sunken Oar she'd met while waiting for Bonnie to reappear. Huffing she slumped back against the side of the boat and took to inspecting her leather boots, which were thankfully only a little scoffed. She really didn't want to think about what a replacement pair would have cost.
The dress Bonnie wore was completely ruined. The elaborate beading that had decorated the edge of the full skirt had been torn and most of the beads were gone. It wasn't entirely noticeable since the entire bottom half of the dress was covered in mud. More than ready to take the heavy, dirty thing off Bonnie stood and motioned to Ollie to help her. Her cousin huffed, but eventually stood up and help Bonnie tossed the gown over the side of the boat. Bonnie felt a little bad as she watched the once beautiful garment sink beneath the waves of the ocean. She and Ollie had stolen that from a travelling merchant cart with the sole purpose of using it for the seduction of their marks and it seemed such a waste for it to end up at the bottom of the ocean when she knew that the merchant could have used the money.
At least it had served as a sort of protective covering for her clothes. Her tan breeches were wet, but fine. Her dark green blouse was actually dry. Fairly happy Bonnie shifted until she was able to grab and open her leather knapsack. She pulled out her dark brown overcoat and gratefully sunk into its warmth while ignoring Ollie's sullen look. However her cousin was persistent.
"What?" She finally snapped.
"You owe me new clothes, Bon Bon." Ollie growled eyeing Bonnie's undamaged threads with envy.
"How do you figure?"
"You pushed me in the alley! I landed yards away, face down in the mud." Ollie hissed.
Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Stop being such a drama queen."
"My hair is ruined."
Bonnie bit her lip as she eyed her cousin's hair. The other eighteen year old had a point there. Ollie's hair was a venerable nightmare. Her inky black hair was usually a perfectly soft and curly halo around her head and shoulders, but now it resemble a wrecked nest that a pair of rats had fought over and completely destroyed in the process. She started to feel a little bad.
"Fine, but we really don't have any money. So I'll help you mend your clothes until I can buy you another outfit, okay?"
"And you'll help me detangle my hair," Ollie pressed.
"Fine," Bonnie agreed with another eye roll.
"Good," Ollie muttered as she ran her fingers through her hair already wincing at the nightmare she knew that chore was going to be. "So where are we headed now?"
"Nesadonia," Bonnie answered easily.
"We'll have to go north."
"Yeah," she agreed.
Ollie sighed as she reached over and plucked an oar out of her cousin's hand. She ignored Bonnie's protest and simply said, "There's no way we can row that far even with magic. We should stop at Evergreen, the northern capital of Ceres. Maybe in a city we can lift enough money to finally purchase tickets on a real boat."
"I don't want to do that anymore," Bonnie muttered.
Ollie rolled her eyes. Of course she didn't. Well, whatever. Ollie had planned for this since she knew her cousin's moral compass would allow their illegal actions for only so long. "Fine. We'll see if a company will take us on. I know that there are a few of them based in Evergreen."
"Company?" Bonnie questioned. Sometimes she wondered how Ollie knew as much about the world as she did. They'd both grown up sheltered, but it the few weeks that they'd been on their own Ollie had somehow gained a lot of useful knowledge.
"Yeah, mercenaries. It'll be a little tricky convincing them to take us on, probably," Ollie answered with a shrug. "But by the time we get there I should be good for a little illusion magic, so I'll convince them. Do you still remember what Alita showed us?"
Bonnie nodded. Alita had been a witch of the Circle, the coven of witches the cousins had grown up in, who had excelled in martial combat. She'd taught anyone who wanted to learn how to fight. Bonnie had never really been interested until Ollie had pressed her. She'd never thought that she'd need combat skills with her magic. But Alita had shown her how wrong that assumption was when she'd sealed Bonnie's magic and the teen had realized that she was defenseless without it. She still remembered how Ollie had howled with laughter when Bonnie had quickly found herself knocked on her ass.
"Good. We'll brush up a bit once we hit land and that'll be that," Ollie tossed a grin at Bonnie as she finished.
Bonnie soon found herself grinning back. Ollie was infectious like that.