Author's Note
Alright, so admit this is long overdue, and I agree, but things get in the way and all. Anyway this chapter is finished and I'm happy to see what comes next in the story. For those of you who have asked, Bella the Witch or Reaper Twins will be updated tomorrow. Tell me what you think, and I hope you enjoy!
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Bella sat down in the living room, the map laid out in front of her she pulled at her hair again in frustration as she didn't get the results she wanted. She had snuck out of bed needing to know where Edward, her mind was whirling with worry about what he might do. Hopefully she got a location on him before he did anything stupid that would cause a battle with the Volturi. Her eyes were glued on the map, she wouldn't be able to get a good reading on Edward's location until he finally settled down somewhere.
"If you stare any harder it just might do a trick," Kol said joining Bella on the couch, the sleep still in his eyes as he looked things over. "Have you been out here all night?"
Bella sighed and leaned into Kol she rested her head on his shoulder but never removed her eyes from the map. "Not all night, just since dawn. I couldn't sleep well, so every few minutes I would do the spell again to see if I could get an exact location on him. Why are you up so early? It's 4 in the morning, I've never seen you up this early."
"Normally I wouldn't be awake, I'd be in bed with my beautiful girlfriend, but she wasn't there, so I had to go find where she had gone," Kol replied laying a kiss on Bella's head. "You need to sleep, you're cranky when you don't sleep enough, and no one wants to be around that." Kol picked Bella up throwing her over his shoulder and began to make his way back to their bedroom.
"I'm capable of walking you know," Bella said with a smile as they made their way up the stairs.
"I know, I've seen you do it countless of times, but if I let you walk you'll just make your way back to the living room to stare at that useless map." Kol said, "You won't find him now, give it time. Rest, and when you wake up from an eight or ten hour sleep, you can check again."
Bella laughed, "How do you know I won't just sneak out of the room again?"
"Because you won't. You're exhausted so you don't have it in you to resist sleeping." Kol said entering the room and closing the door behind them. He put Bella in the bed and pulled the covers over her. He got in beside her and pulled her to him, putting his arm around her Kol leaned into Bella's ear, "Go to sleep."
Bella smiled and turned around to face Kol, she put her hands in his hair and pulled him to her and kissed him not being able to resist. Kol smiled into the kiss and pulled her to him making his hold on her tighter. "As much as I would love for this to continue you need your sleep. I'd be more than happy to pick this up in the morning."
Bella grinned and stared into Kol's eyes, "I love you."
"I love you," Kol said kissing Bella's forehead as she rested her head on his chest and began to fall into a deep sleep. Kol waited until Bella was fully asleep before he followed her into slumber keeping his arms wrapped tightly around her to make sure she didn't run off again.
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"Where is he?" Klaus asked as he walked into the room where most of the house residents were gathered together.
Bella looked at him surprised, not hearing him come into the house. Folding the map back up Bella responded to Klaus's question. She had located him about an hour ago with Kol, but had been waiting to inform everyone else. "Texas."
"Texas? Why would he be in Texas," Jeremy asked, it had been everyone's assumption that he would run to Italy.
Bella shrugged, "Not like I know. I really thought he was going to go to the Volturi, but I don't know what's in Texas that would make him go there instead to the Volturi."
"Let's go find out," Kol said beside Bella, "There has to be something important enough if he's gone to Texas."
"Newborns," Elijah said as a realization hit him as he thought about the importance of Texas. "I passed through Texas a few years ago, it was swarming with newborns. They were part of an army being led by a young one, Maria. There are chances that if Edward went to Texas he could've gone to recruit Maria and her army. This boy is very delusional, I'm sure if we don't get to him in time, Maria will kill him. She's known to be very ruthless with those who trespass on her land."
Bella nodded, "Let's get going." Bella stood but pointed to Jeremy, Bree, Connor and Seth, "You're not going."
"I'll stay," Rebekah said not wanting to leave a newly turned Jeremy by himself. Bella nodded grateful Rebekah would stay she would be the most responsible out of all of them.
Bella looked to the three originals, "Let's get going then." She walked to Klaus's car, there was no way she was risking her car during this.
"Taking my car?" Klaus asked as he noticed where they were headed.
Bella shrugged, "I'm not putting my car in any danger, besides don't you have like 10 of these in your garage? I figured you could lose one."
Elijah chuckled, "It's a car Niklaus, what's the worst that could happen."
Bella smirked and answered, "It could become scrap metal."
Kol laughed, "That would be the worst thing to happen? I'm sure we could do something much worse to it, we'll just have to try harder and get imaginative."
"Just because we're taking it doesn't mean we have to find a way to destroy it," Klaus said with a roll of his eyes, he got into the passenger side while Kol and Elijah got into the back. Bella slipped into the driver's seat she grinned and began to teleport the car out of there.
She looked around as the car appeared at the side of an empty road, there was no traffic on the road as she began to drive.
"Where exactly are we?" Elijah asked looking out the window.
"About 15 minutes from where I last tracked Edward," Bella said, "I figured that if I were to just teleport where he was, we could be bombarded with who knows what. This was the safest route." No one spoke as they made it close to the strong odor that no doubt belonged to an army of sparklers. Parking the truck just out of hearing range of where they suspected the army headquarters to be.
"We run from here, we don't want to cause too much noise that would give us away," Bella said as she got out of the car. Seeing as how she wouldn't be able to keep up with the original's speed, she hopped onto Kol's back and that all took off. They stopped outside of the woods of the house, peaking through to see what they were dealing with.
Surrounding the house were a several newborns fighting each other and causing mayhem between each other. Off in the corner was a barn they expected to be where they changed the vampires, and beside it was a large black spot, one they reeked of dead sparkler flesh
"Alright, so the idiot did go to a newborn camp," Bella said looking the camp over, this was the exact location she got for Edward's location. "I suppose we can't just go in there can we? We have to play this smart?"
"Apparently so, a bite from one of them won't kill us, but it will weaken us momentarily," Elijah said, "We're all easily stronger than them, we just have to be cautious."
"Let's go in separately. Two of us handle finding the leaders and whatever lays inside the house, and the other two can handle the newborns. It shouldn't be too hard, newborns are horrible at attacking in two different directions. They'll get confused and end up taking out some of their own," Kol said looking out to the yard. "I've had a run in with newborns before, confuse them enough, and they'll practically kill themselves. They might be in their strongest state right now, but their mentally as weak as a two year old."
"Alright, Elijah and I will go in from the front, you two can take the back," Klaus said.
Bella nodded, "Sounds like a plan, oh and if anyone sees Edward, I call dibs!" Kol took Bella's hand in his, he laid a kiss on the back of it before giving her a wink and taking off. Bella waved to Elijah and Klaus before she took off after him.
It didn't take them long to arrive at the back of the camp, Bella watched with Kol as they assessed what they were up against.
"You take the right and I take the left?" Bella asked with a smile.
Kol kissed Bella in response, "It's been too long since I've fought I think you're turning me soft."
Bella laughed, "You're anything but soft." Bella kissed Kol's cheek and took off determined more than ever to beat Kol. She took on several newborns, she saw Kol doing the same from the other side the expression of pure joy that was plastered on his face made Bella smile. The newborns seemed to be flooding in from the front of the yard, Bella had no doubt Klaus and Elijah wouldn't have to fight any to get inside of the house.
By the time they finished Bella had two bodies less than Kol on her side, "You cheated!"
Kol laughed, "Now, you know I didn't do that love, you're just not at the top of your game, and let's not forget that I've had years of experience on my side."
"Come on, let's go check on your brothers," Bella said, "They'll agree with me, you were totally cheating."
Kol chuckled and took Bella's hand, "Now you know I wasn't cheating love."
Bella laughed, "I'm sure I can prove otherwise." They walked hand in hand through the back of the house, Kol killed the vampires that attacked them as they entered. "I'm starting to believe that you won't stop fighting until you've destroyed half of the Texas population."
Kol kissed Bella, "They were going to attack you I had to kill them just on principle."
Bella smiled, "Principle, right." Bella stifled a laugh as she heard the arguing of Elijah and Klaus.
"You can't just kill everyone you want Klaus, if Edward is here, we need her to tell us where exactly. His scent is masked by the dozens of other scents in this place," Elijah said trying to reason with his younger brother.
Klaus groaned, "I should've gone with Kol, and left Bella with you. Kol knows to kill first think later, you and Bella both have to do things the other way around."
Kol laughed, and walked up to his brother, "You're right, you should've gone with me, it was quite fun to tear apart those newborns. It is your fault though you choose to go with Elijah."
Bella sneered as Maria went to attack her, but was held back by Klaus, "She's the leader?"
"Yes, she's denying to give us any information," Elijah said as he sighed in annoyance.
Bella tilted her head examining Maria who was being held back tightly by Klaus. "Why did she try and attack me?"
"She saw you as the weakest link between the four of us," Elijah responded.
"You're not even a year old love, she must've sensed that, but didn't sense the power you held," Kol said putting his arm back around Bella's waist, "Attacking you would've distracted us long enough for her to plan an escape, she thought you were going to be easy to hurt."
Maria hissed at Bella, "I'll kill you all! My army will attack any minute."
"Oh do you by any chance mean that army of newborns just outside the walls of this home?" Kol asked with a smirk, "That army is currently a large pile of ash, if the wind hasn't come by it's still all out there for you to see."
Maria went still at the news, and slumped against Klaus, "All that hard work…"
"It wouldn't have happened had you just told us were Edward was from the beginning," Klaus said tightening his grip on Maria.
"If you agree to spare my life I'll talk," Maria bargained, if she died all her hard work would've been for nothing, she still had a chance to begin again.
"I give you my word none of the originals will take your life," Elijah said taking Maria from Klaus's grip.
Maria nodded, "He's in the basement, being contained. He smelled faintly of my Major and I wanted information from him, I just wanted my Major back."
Bella nodded, "Well, we have what we want, should I just kill her already?"
"No! You gave me your word," Maria shrieked looking up at Elijah her crimson red eyes filled with fear at the prospect of dying.
Elijah fixed his tie and straightened his suit jacket before he spoke to Maria. "I never go against my word, and I don't plan to do so anytime soon. Bella might be a part of the Mikaelson family, but she's not an original vampire."
Bella smirked at Maria, "Should've read between the lines there sweetheart it was really obvious. I'll make this as painless as possible." Bella slowly began to rip Maria's head off making sure she could feel it coming off, that she could feel the end of her life approaching. Once it was torn off completely she threw it across the room into the fire place and dusted her hands off, "Well, we should go take care of Edward. I still have that witch that's after Katherine to take care of. You know I'm starting to wonder when the hell my life got so problematic."
"I think it began when you met Nik," Kol said with a grin, "Befriending an original was sure to cause trouble, you must've known that love."
Bella laughed and looked to Klaus, "Apparently it's your fault my life has turned into some sort of soap opera."
"Your life isn't a soap opera," Klaus replied, "It's not as interesting and your love life is far less dramatic."
Bella cracked a smile at the comment. "Thanks for that! So who knows where the basement is?"
"I think it's right over there," Elijah said pointing the steel door that was chained up and locked securely.
"Why the basement?" Bella groaned, "Can't evil villains just lock up their prisoners in the attack or something. A place with a little light and that seems less spooky."
"You're a vampire Bella, one of the strongest, I'm sure you'll make it through going down into basement just fine," Klaus said he and Elijah tore the door down, revealing a dark stairwell.
"Ladies first," Klaus said gesturing for Bella to enter, "Elijah and I will stay up here were we can keep an eye out."
Bella conjured up a flashlight and went in first, Kol was directly behind her as she made her way down the stairs. "This feels like a scene right out of a horror movie."
Kol laughed, "Yes, and we're the monster's that are lurking in the dark."
Bella smiled and sighed in relief as she found the light switch, she turned it on revealing the three locked doors in the basement. "Alright, what's behind door number one?" Bella ripped the door off its hinges, and cringed at the sight.
"She's been experimenting," Kol said reading the clipboard that was attached to the door Bella ripped off, "He was injected with vampire blood, and then bitten which injected him with venom. She wanted to create a hybrid of both kinds."
Bella shook her head in disgust at Maria, who could do that to a person. "Should we kill him?"
"Yes, looks like it failed and he became this thing, the boils on his face represent the venom trying to find its way out of his body. We'd be doing him a service by killing him," Kol said, stepping forward, he walked up to the hibernating creature on the bed and snapped his neck and ripping its head clean off. He threw the head onto the floor with a grimace as venom had spilled everywhere.
Using magic Bella cleaned Kol up knowing he would be in a bad mood if he stayed covered in venom. "That was disturbing."
"I agree, light him on fire love, we need to be sure he'll stay dead," Kol said walking out of the room and onto the second door. He picked up the clipboard and read over its contents. "This room contains another experiment, she's a werewolf who is bitten with venom repeatedly. Her body seems to fight the venom, but with every new bite, a bit of venom seeps through. The theory is that eventually her body will gather enough that she'll undergo the change."
"What do we do with her," Bella asked. "We can't let her live, if she does become some sort of hybrid, she could cause mayhem."
Kol nodded and tore the door open, the girl was hunched into the corner of the room her legs brought up to her chest. Bella stood in the doorway watching. The girl spotted Kol and begged for death, claiming the pain was too much. Kol stayed silent, only nodding, he snapped her neck putting the young girl out of her misery.
"Do you think she has to be burned," Bella asked knowing it could be a possibility.
Kol shook his head, "No, the venom wasn't strong enough to convert her, she's dead. Now, the last one has to be Edward."
"Think he's been experimented on?" Bella asked Kol as they went to the third room.
"I hope so," Kol replied, grabbing the clipboard, "And he has. Looks like he's been injected with werewolf venom. He's fighting it, but it's painfully and tortuously killing him." Kol couldn't help the smirk that came to his face at knowing Edward was being put through a large amount of pain.
Bella ripped the door off, and entered the room, Edward's head lifted from where he was tied to the wall with shackles that seemed to be made from sparkler skin. "Got yourself in a bit of jam."
"You came for me," Edward murmured, his eyes lighting up at the sight of Bella, "I knew you couldn't truly be dead. I could feel you."
Bella sighed, "Technically I am dead. You have to die in order to become a vampire. Anyway you're right, I did come for you, but not to rescue you or anything like that. I came to tear you apart and burn the pieces give you a slow and torturous death, but I think I changed my mind." Kol looked at Bella hearing this, he was looking forward to seeing Edward dead.
"You do love me," Edward said a small smile coming upon his lips as he pushed passed the pain he was feeling. "I knew you couldn't kill me."
"Oh, I can kill you, but seeing you like this and knowing you're in pain, it's sort of all I wanted," Bella said with a shrug. "And I really don't want to ever touch you again, and killing you means that I'd have to touch you in some way." Bella smiled at Edward giving him a charming smile. "But I'm more than positive Kol wouldn't mind killing you. I think he'd be more than happy to take your life."
Kol grinned widely at the aspect of being able to kill Edward, to make him suffer for hurting his girl.
"You won't let him!" Edward said his eyes filling with fear.
"I will," Bella said, "Have a nice time rotting in hell Edward." Bella walked back to the door ignoring the pleas that were coming from Edward. She kissed Kol, and smiled, "Have fun, I'll be waiting upstairs with your brothers."
Before Bella could walk away, Kol grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back to him, he pressed her up against the wall and kissed her hard. He pulled back and smiled at her, letting her go back up the stairs. Kol turned to Edward, with an evil gleam in his eyes. "Normally, when I'd torture someone, I'd have special tools for it, but I guess I'll have to work with what I have around me. Now that I think of it, I did see some coolers down here, I'm sure they contain some things I could use. Don't move, I'll be back in a second, and then we can get started."
Bella stood with Elijah and Klaus near the window of the living room of the large mansion. Kol had been with Edward for close to two hours. "Maybe I should've told him to make it quick."
Klaus chuckled, "That wouldn't have done anything he'd still be taking his time in killing Edward. Our brother is possessive Bella, and Edward hurt you, he's letting out his anger."
"He's protective of you," Elijah commented, "He sees Edward as threat to you, so he's letting his vampire instincts take over in order to protect you."
Bella smiled, "Kol is in control of his instincts, I'm sure he's been planning Edward's death for a while now. I just didn't expect for this too take too long."
"He likes to draw things out," Elijah said changing the subject Elijah spoke again. "What is your plan for this witch that wants Katerina?"
"Track her down, see what she's planning, and decide whether or not she'll be a menace to society," Bella said, "She wants Katherine for a reason, I'm just not entirely sure what that is, but with Katherine, you have to be careful about everything." Another scream came from the basement, followed by the low chuckle of Kol.
"It seems we still have some time until he's done, we should probably start getting this house ready," Klaus said looking around.
"Ready? Ready for what?" Bella asked feeling out of he loop.
"We can't leave this house how it is, it'd draw too much attention from humans, and if they dig enough they might begin to discover that the creatures they think are meant for movies really exist and I don't think the world is quite ready for us to come to light. We have to make it look like this place caught fire destroying all evidence of a newborn army being here," Elijah explained.
"Alright, I'll go gather the body parts that weren't destroyed in the fire, or that are still laying around somewhere," Bella said.
"Check the woods," Klaus said before she left, "Something might've gotten thrown out of the way during the initial fight." Bella nodded and took off, Elijah and Klaus separated getting the house prepared to go up in flames.
Bella threw down the stray parts she found, there weren't many that hadn't already been burned. "So, this is it?"
"Not quite yet," Elijah said he picked up one of the stray arms, and snapped it in half. Venom began to ooze out, Elijah spread the venom throughout the wood, "Their venom is highly flammable, it'll be better than using gas."
"Makes sense," Bella said, Klaus walked in and looked over the pile of things ready to burn.
"Looks like all that's left is for Kol to finish up," Klaus said, "Everything is clear, there is nothing left that will lead people to believe that there was ever anything suspicious. Going on here."
"Well, I've finished up," Kol said coming up the stairs a very joyful smile gracing his lips.
Bella laughed, "I was beginning to think we'd be here all night."
"I had to be sure that he was well taken care of," Kol said with a smirk, "I didn't want to just leave him hanging."
Bella laughed at the joke Kol made, "Alright, let's light this place up and leave."
Kol walked over to Bella and wrapped his arms around her bringing her up against his chest. "I couldn't agree more, let's get this done so we can leave."
Klaus lit the fire and the four exited immediately, they headed to the car, but before leaving they watched as the house was burned to shreds, nothing would remain but dark ash.
"Well, let's head home," Bella said as she teleported them out ready to put this part of her life behind her.