A/N: I'm sorry it's been so long since I've updated, my muse disappeared, but seeing the Kat/Nate pic from DragonCon helped get my creative juices flowing again. I hope this chapter was worth the wait!
Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. I am not profiting in any way from their use. The only thing I own is my plot.
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Previously in this story...
"Jeremy?"
Elena was stunned to see her younger brother standing there. The last time she'd seen him had been after she'd had Damon compel him, and she'd sent him to Denver to live with some distant relations of her adoptive mother's. She didn't know what could have brought him back to Mystic Falls, back into the heart of danger.
Once the surprise wore off, Elena stepped forward and hugged Jeremy, only belatedly realizing that her brother wasn't hugging her back. She stepped back and looked up at his face.
"What's wrong?" she asked, studying the expression on his face. It was stony and sober, and, if she wasn't imagining it, she thought she saw a touch of anger in his eyes. His words made everything clear.
"I remember, Elena," Jeremy said. "I remember everything."
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CHAPTER FIVE - A Walk in the Woods
"What do you mean, you remember everything?" Elena asked, stunned by her brother's outburst. That wasn't possible. People didn't just suddenly remember things after they were compelled. Unless...her heart skipped a beat. Unless the vampire who compelled them was dead. She remembered how Elijah had compelled Katherine to stay inside the tomb after his witch had lifted the spell that imprisoned Stefan inside. Katherine had been able to escape when Elijah had died, even though his death hadn't been permanent. She exchanged a quick look with Alaric. She hoped that whatever had happened to Damon wasn't permanent, either.
Jeremy's lips pursed, increasing his scowl. "You had Damon compel me again. Send me to Denver for my own good."
"It was for your own good, Jeremy," Alaric said, stepping forward, hoping to defuse the situation.
"Stay out of it, Alaric," Jeremy said, turning his angry gaze on his lone father figure. He felt betrayed by both Elena and Alaric, because they'd made the choice for him, against his will. "You were there too. You thought it was a good idea to take away my free will." It had been Elena, Alaric, and Damon. He trusted, or at least, he had trusted, two of them. "And everyone just went along with it."
"Not everyone," Elena said, thinking about what Bonnie had said to her after learning she'd had Damon compel her brother. You can't control what everyone does all the time...I just feel it's really wrong that you compelled Jeremy to leave town...He should be able to choose how he wants to live his life, you're taking his choices away.
Jeremy lifted an eyebrow. "Who?" When Elena hesitated, he snapped, "No, don't tell me. I know who it was." And thank goodness for Bonnie, the only person who was loyal to him, even when he no longer deserved her loyalty.
"Jer-"
"No," he said, cutting Elena off. "You always talk about how important it is that no one takes away your choices, Elena, but you have no trouble doing that to me. That's twice now."
"Jeremy-"
The younger Gilbert glared at Alaric, who stopped speaking.
"It's not going to happen again. I'm the only one of us who has killed a hybrid," Jeremy pointed out. "I'm not a baby, so stop treating me like one."
Elena sighed and stared up at her brother's face. He was right. She hadn't been any older than he was now when she'd begun dating Stefan and becoming immersed in the world of the supernatural. "I can't guarantee anything, Jer-"
"Elena."
"I can't guarantee anything," she continued. "But I will try."
Jeremy nodded and took a step back, giving them an opening to exit the house. "I'm going to grab a quick shower. I'll meet you guys at the school."
"Why don't you just take the day off?" Alaric suggested. Jeremy must have been tired, since it was a long flight from Denver, and he'd have to go through the process of re-enrolling.
Jeremy shook his head. "Right now, it's better if I keep moving." He nodded and slipped past them into the house.
He wasn't going to tell them he was going to school not because he needed to keep moving, but because of the one person who'd objected to his compulsion. Despite Damon compelling him to meet other girls in Denver, he hadn't been able to stop thinking about Bonnie the whole time he'd been away. He'd hurt her deeply, and despite that, she still came to say goodbye to him before he left. He missed her. He loved her, even if he'd never told her, even if he had feelings for Anna as well. Anna was lost to him, but Bonnie was still alive. And no matter how long it took, he was going to make things right between them again.
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Kol's first day at Mystic Falls High School was certain to be anything but uneventful. He'd compelled the guidance counsellor into putting him into all of Bonnie's classes, and as he sauntered into her homeroom, he saw her eyes widen in surprise. He smirked, pleased by her reaction. She was sitting in the middle of the room, surrounded by people. The only empty seats were at the front edge of the room, a few rows away from Bonnie. That would never do. He walked up to the guy sitting behind her, and he felt her eyes on him the entire way.
"Move," he said, making eye contact with the teenager. The boy grabbed his things and hopped up, racing over to one of the empty desks as Kol slid into the seat behind Bonnie. He leaned forward until he was only a couple of inches away from her. "Good morning, Beautiful," he said, inhaling her scent. She smelled of lilacs and magnolias. He heard her heart speed up, and he reached forward and caught one of her curls in his fingers, gently tugging it as he ran the strand between the pads of his fingers.
"Stop that," she hissed, keeping her voice low so as not to earn the ire of her homeroom teacher. She jerked her hair out of Kol's fingers. He shrugged, biding his time as he slid back in his seat and stared at her back. Her heartrate didn't diminish, and he knew she was well aware that he was watching her every move, listening to her every breath.
Homeroom only lasted a few more minutes, and the minute the first bell rang, Kol watched as Bonnie almost ran from the room in her haste to get away from him. That'll change soon enough, he thought as he stretched and climbed to his feet. For now, the hunt was just beginning.
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Bonnie's day had been nothing but miserable. She didn't have Caroline or Elena in her first two classes of the day, but somehow, her stalker had found his way into both of those classes. He'd compelled the people sitting behind her to give up their seats, and so he'd been brushing her shoulders or playing in her hair all morning. She'd managed to keep her temper, but only barely. She had no idea how she was going to manage pretending to like him, but as her best friend had reminded her, play it cool or he'll get suspicious. She texted Caroline before history, and her vampire friend was waiting for her outside of her second period class after the bell.
"You'll take an outside corner seat," Caroline instructed as she escorted Bonnie to history. "I'll sit behind you," which would work because Caroline had regularly been ingesting vervain to build up her tolerance and to keep the Originals from being able to compel her, "and Elena will sit beside you. He won't be able to bother you as much from a distance, and you'll have us and Alaric as backup."
Bonnie nodded as the girls walked into their history classroom. Alaric stood at the front of the room, erasing the blackboard as they chose their seats, the ones nearest the door. The rest of the class began straggling in, and Caroline directed Elena to the seat next to Bonnie as soon as she walked in the door. Kol had pretty much been taking his time, usually the last to enter the classes, so Bonnie wasn't worried he'd beat the girls to their seats.
"Bonnie," Elena said as she took the seat to Bonnie's left. With no seats to her right, she was as secure as Caroline could make her. She hadn't gotten a chance to tell her friend about her brother's return just yet, but she wanted to do so before Bonnie saw Jeremy without having been warned first. "Jeremy's-"
"Hello, Beautiful," Kol said, finally strolling into the classroom as a couple of other stragglers followed him in. His eyes met Bonnie's, and she looked away. Most of the class had arrived. There were a couple of open seats across the room, but there was still an open seat behind Elena. It wasn't right behind Bonnie, but it was better than the other options, and it wasn't that far from her.
"Bonnie," he whispered as he walked past, leaning down to address the witch. "Don't you know, you can't escape me?" He headed for the desk behind Elena.
"You planning to sit on my lap?"
Kol looked startled as he stood up, and Bonnie was just as startled. Elena, however, couldn't take her eyes off the person now seated behind her, the person she'd spotted the moment he'd entered the room, while Bonnie and Caroline had been distracted by Kol.
"Salvatore," Kol hissed, clearly not amused by Stefan's unexpected arrival in the class. But it didn't matter. He was just another vampire, and vampires posed no problems for Kol. "Move."
Stefan grinned, unaffected by the compulsion. "No thanks. I like this seat."
"Mr. Mikaelson, take your seat," Alaric said, his loud voice carrying across the classroom.
If looks could kill, Bonnie thought, Stefan would have been dead in that instant. Kol turned his glare first on Caroline and Elena, then on Alaric, before he all but stomped across the room and took one of the empty seats.
As Alaric began speaking, Bonnie tried to focus, but she found herself thinking about Kol and, to her surprise, Stefan. He was the last person she expected to have defending her. He hadn't been to class since he and Damon had turned her mother into a vampire, and she'd only seen him once since, the day he'd tried to apologize to her and she'd sent him away. She didn't think it was a coincidence that he had appeared just in time to keep Kol away from her. But who would have gotten in touch with him? Caroline? Doubtful. Elena? Possibly. Alaric? Another strong contender.
Bonnie glanced across the room at Kol. She wasn't surprised to find his eyes locked on her, and she glanced away, her eyes only vaguely seeing the paper on the desk in front of her. She sucked in a deep breath, wishing she had never agreed to Esther and Elijah's ridiculous plan. How on earth was she ever going to pull this off? She couldn't even stand to be in the same room with him, let alone get close enough to him to convince him to let her into the Mikaelson mansion so she could go looking around for a tool to help curse his beloved brother.
And what had Elena been going to say about Jeremy?
The bell rang, signaling the end of the period. Bonnie glanced up at the clock in surprise. Had the class really gone that quickly? She grabbed her textbook and stood up, and Caroline and Elena were immediately flanking her. Behind them, she caught a glimpse of Stefan standing up. Kol was stuck behind the crowd of students leaving before him. With a relieved sigh, she and her friends slipped out of the room and headed towards the cafeteria.
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Stefan stepped outside of Alaric's classroom and stopped. He didn't have to wait long. He could sense Kol before the Original was within ten feet of him, and he stepped in front of him.
"You know," Stefan said as Kol stopped walking and met his eyes. The Original was impatient, and he'd been noticeably annoyed by Stefan snaking his chosen seat before he'd been able to reach it. He watched as a muscle jumped in Kol's cheek. "You're expending an awful lot of effort in pursuing a girl who will never be interested in you."
"All the thrill is in the chase, Salvatore," Kol answered. Stefan noticed that he was no longer in any hurry to chase after Bonnie. He was spoiling for a fight, and Stefan was more than willing to oblige. He had more history with the Mikaelsons than any of them, had lost the most because of them, and he wanted them out of his life, out of the lives of the people he cared about. And despite what Bonnie thought, he did care about her, and he was determined to prove it to her.
"You're a thousand year old vampire, Kol," Stefan pointed out. "Don't you have something better to do with your time?"
"I have nothing but time," Kol answered. "I will have her, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."
Kol's words sank into Stefan's skin like barbs. Before he knew what he was doing, he grabbed Kol's shirt and slammed the vampire into the lockers behind him.
"Leave Bonnie alone," Stefan growled. He hadn't been able to protect her or her mother from himself and his brother, but there was no hesitation in him this time. Kol Mikaelson was a narcissistic sociopathic monster, and Stefan wasn't going to let him hurt Bonnie.
As the warning bell rang, Kol simply laughed. With a simple gesture, he knocked Stefan's hands away from him. A few dozen stragglers raced through, and as a couple cut between the vampires, Kol sped off, leaving Stefan standing alone in the hall.
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Bonnie had just left the crowded cafeteria, watching behind her to make sure Kol hadn't followed from his table in the corner, when she slammed hard into someone.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said quickly, turning to see who it was she'd run into.
"Bonnie," the guy said, and her eyes quickly flew to his face as she recognized the voice. Jeremy Gilbert.
"Jeremy?" she asked, surprised to see him. He was home from Denver? That must have been what Elena had been trying to tell her earlier. She smiled hesitantly, not sure how she felt about his return, and then Jeremy pulled her into a hug. She couldn't speak as her emotions got the best of her. She was happy to see him again, but seeing him again reminded her that it hadn't been that long ago he'd broken her heart. "What are you doing here? Did Elena send for you?"
A frown crossed Jeremy's face as he released Bonnie and took a step back. "No. Damon's compulsion must have been broken."
The mental image of Damon, laying lifeless on Grams' porch, flashed through her mind. "Oh my god."
"Did someone finally kill that jackass?" Jeremy asked, reading Bonnie's expression and realizing she knew what had happened.
Bonnie shook her head. "Or at least, not permanently." Leaving out the details about Kol, she briefly explained about finding Damon's body on the porch. "That must have triggered the return of your memories."
"So, why is someone leaving Damon's body on your porch anyway?" Jeremy asked.
Bonnie looked up into his confused face and remembered that he left Mystic Falls before all the shit with the Salvatores and her mother went down.
"It's a long story," she answered, glancing back toward the lunch room She really didn't want to explain what had happened with vampires sitting around the lunch room. She could see Stefan sitting across the cafeteria, his eyes on Kol, but she knew he was listening to every word she said, and it wouldn't surprise her if Kol was listening as well.
"I have lots of time," Jeremy said, never taking his eyes off her face.
Bonnie turned back to face him. "I'm not sure this is the best place to-"
"Listen, Bonnie," Jeremy said. "I know you're the only person around here who objected to what my sister and Damon did to me." He swallowed, fighting back his anger over being sent away. "You're the only person I can trust. If you need something, anything, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."
The way Jeremy's eyes and voice softened made Bonnie take a step back. She could sense the change in him the minute that happened, and she knew what he was going to say next. While she still loved him, he'd broken the trust she'd placed in him, and she wasn't sure she could ever go back. "Jer-"
"I missed you, Bon," Jeremy said, stepping closer. He reached out and touched one of the curls next to her cheek. "Even standing here, I miss you." Before she could interrupt him, he raced on. "I had a lot of time in Denver to think, and all I could think about was you. I screwed things up royally, I know that, and you have every right to hate me forever."
Bonnie shook her head. "I don't hate you."
"But I love you, Bonnie, and I'll do anything to fix things between us."
Bonnie was stunned by his confession. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to find some sort of balance. Why now? Why couldn't he have realized that before he kissed Anna's ghost? Before she'd become involved in a plot to seduce Kol? His timing couldn't be worse.
"I...I can't do this right now," she told him, backing away. She wondered if the vampires had heard the exchange. Caroline and Stefan would take it in stride, but Kol? She wasn't sure what he'd do with the information, and beyond that, she wasn't prepared to sort out her feelings for Jeremy just that instant. It was all too much. "I'd better get going, I'm going to be late for class."
Jeremy nodded and stepped back. "I'll see you later." He watched as she half-walked, half-ran, off. He could be patient. He wasn't going anywhere, and he sure as hell wasn't going to give her up without a fight.
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Bonnie plunked her book bag down on the bleachers as Caroline called the cheerleaders together down on the grass in front of her. She pulled her history book out of her bag, sighing with relief that she was free from her bodyguards temporarily. Not that Caroline wasn't nearby, but she wasn't breathing down her neck like Stefan had been doing.
Technically, he hadn't been that close, but he was still close enough to make her want to cry every time she saw him. He was acting like the old Stefan, the Stefan who'd been her friend, the Stefan she'd trusted, the Stefan she knew would do anything to protect her. But she couldn't trust him now, he was too much of a wild card, and she was glad that, if he was keeping any sort of watch over her, he wasn't doing it from a hundred foot radius.
Not to mention, his interference could really put a damper on the plan. Bonnie wasn't in any hurry to seduce Kol, but she knew it would have to happen eventually if they wanted any chance to rebind Klaus's werewolf side. The trick was to make it believable, and there's no way Kol would believe it if she suddenly fell at his feet. She had to keep her distance, while giving a little bit of ground here and there, and with both Elena and Caroline knowing about the plan, they could both protect her and give her enough space. Stefan, on the other hand, was in the dark about the plan, and she didn't trust him enough anymore to bring him in. That thought saddened her, but she shook it off. She wasn't going to go soft on the Salvatores after what they did to her mother. She couldn't.
She opened the book and turned to the chapter she was supposed to read for class, but her eyes darted over to the baseball field, where a few of the junior and senior boys were playing catch and hitting around. She picked Jeremy out instantly, and a small smile formed on her lips, because she knew baseball was his favorite sport, and it didn't surprise her that he'd gravitate towards the field his first day back.
She thought about what he'd said earlier. He wanted to work things out? She sighed, knowing that now was not the time for that. She knew she'd avoided dealing with things right after the breakup, because she'd been hurt and angry, and she didn't want to make any decisions that could affect her life while she was hurt and angry, but at the same time, she didn't regret the breakup. She just regretted that Jeremy had kissed the ghost of his ex-girlfriend, especially since Bonnie bringing Jeremy back from death was the reason Anna's ghost had been around in the first place.
She sighed again, her eyes darting off Jeremy to the guy who'd just walked onto the ball field. She knew, at that moment, that Kol had heard every word spoken between the two of them earlier.
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Kol stepped onto the ball field and picked out Jeremy Gilbert right away. If he hadn't looked a little bit like the doppelganger, then Bonnie's eyes watching the boy would have told him.
He did not like this development, not one bit. This boy was trying to win his Bennett witch, and he wasn't going to let that happen. Still, Gilbert wasn't one of the Salvatores, to just break his neck and toss him on Bonnie's porch. She cared about him, even if she wasn't ready to make up, and Kol couldn't just kill him without sending Bonnie running in the wrong direction.
He sighed, disappointed that his favorite option was off the table. Well, he'd just have to use a different way to eliminate his rival.
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Bonnie watched in horror as Kol walked over to Jeremy. She'd known he'd probably heard their earlier conversation, and Kol wasn't one to let anything get in the way of what he wanted.
Kol said something to Jeremy that made the younger boy laugh, and Bonnie waited, terrified, for Kol to do something to him. But after a few minutes, she realized that Kol wasn't going to just snap his neck in front of so many people, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Until he turned and met her eyes.
Shit.
He knew she was watching, and the smirk he gave her told her everything she needed to know. He could do anything he wanted to Jeremy and there wasn't a thing she could do to stop him. He'd won, and he knew it.
Bonnie could feel her heart pounding as all sound died away at the thought. Kol had won. She couldn't resist him without the constant threat to Jeremy's life, and how easy it would be for him to kill the human boy. She couldn't stay and watch anymore. She shoved her book into her backpack and hopped down off the bleachers. She glanced back at Caroline, who was watching her like a hawk. She shook her head, letting her friend know she didn't need her to follow.
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Jeremy glanced away from his new friend Kol to see if Bonnie was still watching him, but she was just jumping down off the bleachers, and he sighed in disappointment. Still, he knew she'd been watching, and that was a good start. He turned back to Kol.
"You want to hit a few?" he asked. They'd mostly been stretching and talking about ball, but without Bonnie there to distract him, he was ready to get down to business.
Kol shook his head. He, too, had noticed Bonnie's departure, and he wasn't going to just let her disappear this time, especially since she was going without her bodyguards. "Sorry, I have someplace to be." He took off jogging across the field in the direction Bonnie had gone.
Jeremy didn't fail to notice the timing. Was Kol into Bonnie or something?
"Jer!"
Jeremy turned to see Matt approaching, and he gave his friend a smile that the blond didn't return. "Matt, it's good to see you!" It was the first he'd seen of him since he'd arrived home.
"Don't you know who that guy is?" Matt asked, staring off after Kol. Not only was Matt not smiling, he was scowling, his brow furrowed.
"Yeah, some new guy named Kol," Jeremy answered, shrugging. Kol seemed okay, but from the way Matt was acting, it was clear he didn't like him.
"That's Klaus's younger brother, Kol," Matt said. "He's one of the Originals, he broke my hand a few weeks ago just for sport, and he's obsessed with Bonnie."
Jeremy turned back around to look for the vampire, but he was long gone. And, to his horror, so was Bonnie.
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Darkness was falling quickly as Bonnie headed for the witch house. She could feel him following her, haunting her steps, but whenever she'd turn around to face him, he wouldn't be there. Each step she took, she could feel him closing in on her, and she kept waiting for him to grab her, but nothing happened. Her heart raced along the path quicker than her feet.
"Dammit," Bonnie whispered, realizing she must have missed the turnoff to the witch house after traveling for thirty minutes without coming across the house, or even anything remotely familiar. She spun around, planning to head back down the trail she'd been following, but when she glanced at the ground, she saw no signs of a trail. Panic started closing in on her as she looked around, hoping to find something, anything, she could recognize. But there was nothing. She was lost, in the dark, in the middle of the woods, with a homicidal stalker who couldn't be killed following her every move.
"Great job, Bonnie," she said. Just pick a direction. Any direction had to be better than just standing here, waiting for him to catch up, she told herself, even though she knew he could catch up to her whenever he wanted with his vampiric speed. He was just toying with her, trying to scare her, and as much as she hated to admit it, it was working.
She took a step forward and stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes sliding up the body of the person standing before her. She knew without even looking that it was Kol, but she couldn't keep her eyes from meeting his anyway. She was aware that her thundering heartbeat was a dead giveaway, but she wasn't going to let him see the fear on her face. She wouldn't give him that satisfaction.
"I was wondering when you were going to stop playing games," she said, stubbornly refusing to take a step back when he stepped closer to her. She swallowed, her fear making it difficult to breath at such close proximity to the Original vampire. He had her at his mercy. One bite, and it would be all over. She fought off the memory of the last time she'd been bitten by a vampire, when Damon had almost killed her. He wasn't the monster standing in front of her, Kol was, and he was the only one she had the energy to deal with right now.
Kol reached out and brushed a strand of hair from Bonnie's cheek, and she fought off the urge to flinch away from his touch. His fingers were cool against her face.
"You're afraid of me," he said in a soft voice, a gentle sound that Bonnie hadn't yet heard from him. Before she could deny it, his fingers slid to her lips to stop her. "I mean you no harm."
"Then why did you follow me?"
Kol grinned, clearly amused by her question.
"Because all the fun is in the chase," he answered. "If you run, I'll always be right behind you."
That's what she was afraid of. She wasn't sure if she'd feel safer with him behind her, or in front of her, though neither option made her feel safe. She closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath, wondering how she was ever going to let Kol get close enough for her to use him to find the moonstone when all she wanted to do was run away from him. Still, she'd feel better if she wasn't trapped alone with him in the middle of nowhere when she tried. Out here, undoubtedly without any backup, well, that was the worst plan she could think of. It was time to find her way home.
Or to find herself dead at Kol's hands. At this moment, either way seemed to be a better option than seducing him. She took a step around him, glanced up at the sky, and stopped, suddenly remembering she had no idea where she was.
"We're a couple of miles east of Mystic Falls," Kol said from behind her. She spun around, surprised at his awareness of their location.
"How do you know that?" she asked, truly curious. She'd wandered through these woods a dozen times, and she couldn't place anything.
"I grew up here," Kol answered. He stared up at the sky, and he was quiet for a minute. "Whiskey, blood, the stars... Every time I'm undaggered, the world is different, everything has changed. Everything but the stars. They're constant."
Something in his words, in his voice, touched Bonnie in a way she would never have expected. He wasn't threatening her, he wasn't threatening her friends. He wasn't trying to manipulate her. He was sharing something, something personal, something she never would have expected. He was lonely. Lonely, afraid, and lost. Displaced from time, from the people and the world he knew. Bonnie was stunned, because his simple admission was the last thing she ever expected. Maybe there was more to Kol than him just being a homicidal bloodsucking fiend.
That idea scared her more than she cared to admit.
"My father and I used to look at the stars together," she said, surprising herself. She should have just walked away. After all, he'd just told her where they were in location to town. All she had to do was head east to go home, but something in her felt an urge to speak, to try and ease the loneliness he felt. Perhaps it was because she was lonely as well. She didn't dare to let her guard down, because he was a vampire, but maybe there was something human left inside him after all. "We started by finding Orion, and we moved on through dozens of different constellations."
"Used to?" Kol asked, stepping closer. He sat down on the ground and looked back up at the stars. He was quiet for a moment. "Is he...what happened?"
Bonnie could sense that he had wanted to ask if her father was dead. "He's away on business a lot. He doesn't have time for stargazing."
"And he leaves you home alone?"
Bonnie narrowed her eyes. "Don't go getting any ideas."
Kol laughed. "I can't get in unless you invite me."
Bonnie relaxed a bit at the truth in his words. "Yes," she said, answering his question. She didn't know what possessed her, but she sat down on the ground a couple of feet away from Kol. "He spends a lot of time in Manhattan, but sometimes he flies all over."
"Do you miss him?"
The question startled Bonnie. "Of course I do," she answered, as if there couldn't be any other options. She only got to see him a couple of days a week, if that, and for a few weeks over the summer when he'd take vacation and they'd go to see her family. Her father was a busy man, and his job with national security kept him pretty well tied up. But he was a good man, and she loved him very much.
"And your mother?"
Bonnie stared up at the sky, finding the Big Dipper as she searched for the right words. Even though she saw her every day now, Bonnie wasn't sure how she felt about Abby. "I...we...it's complicated."
Kol nodded as he wrapped his arms around his knees. "My mother was so overprotective after my brother Henrik died, she was determined to find a way to keep it from happening to the rest of us. That's why she turned my whole family into immortals," he shared. "And a thousand years later, she tried to kill us all."
"Not kill," Bonnie disagreed. She'd been part of Esther's plan. She hadn't wanted to kill them, she'd simply wanted for them to no longer drink the blood of other beings. "She wanted to turn you all human."
"Isn't that almost the same thing?" Kol asked, finally looking over at Bonnie. She couldn't argue with his logic. "And my father? He hunted us for the last several hundred years before Klaus staked him. He hated us even more than she does."
Bonnie didn't know what to say. There were no words to comfort someone whose own parents created the monster he'd become and then wanted nothing more than to destroy him.
"Kol-"
"I should get you back to town," Kol said, standing up. It was clear that he was done talking about his parents. He walked over to Bonnie and offered her a hand up. "I'm sure Caroline and your mother are getting impatient, and probably more than a little bit worried."
Bonnie had forgotten how well Kol knew her schedule. She debated briefly on taking his hand, but before she could second guess her decision, she put her hand in his, and he gently pulled her to her feet.
"Hold on tight," he advised, slipping an arm behind her knees and lifting her up into his arms. Startled, almost panicking, Bonnie's arms wrapped around his neck to help her keep her balance.
"What are you-?"
And Kol took off at full vampiric speed.
What was only a minute felt like a lifetime to Bonnie as everything became a blur, and she tucked her head against Kol's shoulder as he ran. Her body, her soul, everything felt as if it had been left behind in the forest and was struggling to catch up to the speeding bodies. When Kol came to a stop on her Grams' porch, it took her another minute to realize they'd stopped moving.
"You're home," Kol whispered, releasing her legs and gently setting her feet on the porch. Bonnie let go of his neck, but her balance had been left behind in the rush, and she stumbled forward, catching herself awkwardly against Kol's chest.
She stepped away, embarrassment darkening her cheeks. How long had it been since anyone had held her that closely, or that intimately? Apparently too long, as she had been almost enjoying the feel of his arms around her, and Kol was the last person whose touch she should be enjoying.
"Thank you," she said, looking up into his eyes. She wasn't certain what she was thanking him for. Maybe for bringing her home safely, or for not killing her out in the woods, or for making sure she made it home before Caroline and Abby became too worried about her, or for opening up a little bit about his life.
Kol smiled down at her. He leaned forward and pressed his lips against her cheek, and Bonnie couldn't believe she wasn't setting him on fire for his audacity. Instead, she was enjoying the feel of the kiss against her skin, of his arms lightly embracing her in a tentative hug, his hands sliding down her arms from her shoulders to her hands.
What is wrong with you?
"Good night, Beautiful," Kol said against her ear.
And then he was gone.
Bonnie brushed her fingers against her cheek where he'd kissed her. She could still feel his breath brushing her ear, could feel where his hands had touched her.
She leaned back against the house, her knees weak, her arms trembling. She slid down the siding until she was sitting. He didn't want to kill her. That scared her. But what scared her more was that she was no longer certain she wanted him dead, either.
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A/N: Reviews are love.