"Thank you very much for the information Selena. An associate of mine will be down to collect the herbs tomorrow"
"As I said in my message though, there is no way to know that the herbs will even work Elijah" the witch on the other end of the call replied.
"I understand. Are there any risks associated with taking them?"
"There shouldn't be, but you may want to monitor her for the first few minutes after taking them"
"I can do that"
"There's also no way to know when the memories will start to surface, if they do at all"
"Understood. Thank you for all of your assistance Serena"
"My pleasure Elijah, please remember our bargain"
"I won't forget it" I assured her, and I hung up the phone, dropping it onto the couch as I slumped down into it. My bargain with Selena was of no consequence, I was more preoccupied with her news. A few weeks ago I had asked my contacts to research the magic surrounding suppressed memories and Selena was the only witch to respond with a possible solution. The combination of herbs she had created were supposed to lower the magical barrier separating Caroline from her past conscious and enhance her own aura to accept the memories. I wasn't a witch expert like Kol but it sounded promising; although I was hesitant to get my hopes up. We hadn't been able to trigger a memory in weeks and I was starting to feel desperate. I crossed my arms and stared into the fire, deep in thought. I had just gotten to my feet, intending to rejoin Caroline in the kitchen, when I heard a gasp and a dull thud. I blurred from the room, desperate to find the source of Caroline's gasp.
I followed the noise through the kitchen and down a back hallway, it was dimly lit and flanked on both sides by a series of closed doors. I made my way down the hall slowly, listening carefully for the knocking and voices; I stopped in front of a door at the end of the hall that I thought the knocking was coming from, but the voices never got any louder. I hesitated in front of the door for a moment, unsure if I should go and get Elijah first, but before I could make a decision, the lock clicked and the door quietly creaked open revealing stairs heading down into darkness. Again I opened my senses, and I could hear the knocking sound coming from the depths of the darkness. I ran my hand against the wall and found the light switch before I made my way down the steps. At the end of the stairs I was again facing a dimly lit hallway, flanked by closed doors, but when the knocking became more insistent I hurried down the hall to find it. A door on the right, near the end of the shadowed hall suddenly swung open when I reached it. The light I switched on did little to lend light to the small room, but I could make out three large shapes in the middle, and when I got closer I realized that they were coffins. My eyes immediately went to the coffin on the far left and my legs started carrying me over to it, my brain buzzing mindlessly as my hand reached out. I opened the lid and saw a young man lying back against a white silk pillow, wearing an old fashioned suit with some sort of knife sticking out of his chest. There was something familiar about him and I couldn't stop my hand from reaching out to cup his cheek – and I was blinded by that now familiar white light…
I was riding through a snowy Forest on the back of a large horse, and I then knew that the horses name was Hope and that she was mine. The landscape was beautiful with the freshly falling snow but the air was bitterly cold.
"You are far too beautiful to be so lost in thought" a voice called out to me and I whipped around in the saddle to see a young man leaning against a tree a few yards away from me.
"Excuse me?" I said, offended.
"I was merely commenting on the fact that you seem to be troubled and giving you a compliment at the same time" he smirked, obviously pleased with himself.
"I think you need to brush up on your skills because you seriously missed the mark with the compliment" I replied and he actually laughed.
"Well aren't you tasty" he murmured as he pushed away from the tree and took a step toward me.
"I would keep your distance sir" I warned, raising my voice a bit.
"And why would I do that?" he asked with a smirk as dark veins began to appear around his eyes, and ironically those veins served to calm me more than alarm me.
"You're a vampire?" I asked excitedly, and he stopped short, his human features returning as he shot me a confused look.
"Not the reaction I normally get…"
"My fiancé is a vampire as well" I explained.
"A vampire and human?" he snorted, "That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. No vampire has that kind of control".
"Well when that vampire happens to be an Original, he has all the control in the world" I looked down my nose at him and his jaw dropped open, much to my satisfaction.
"You are engaged to Elijah?"
"Yes…" I responded, very confused that he knew which Original I was referring to… unless, maybe I wasn't wrong about being followed last week in the village.
"In that case, I think it is time that I introduce myself"
"And why would I care who you are?"
"Because we are going to be siblings soon sweetheart," he said and my jaw dropped open, "My name is Kol Mikaelson" he said with a slight bow…
I came back to the dark basement with a loud gasp of air, breathing rapidly as my mind raced with what I had just witnessed, until I realized I was laying back against something soft and there was murmuring above me. I looked up to see Elijah leaning over me and I realized my head was in his lap. When I caught my breath I hurried to sit up and turned to face Elijah, amazement on my face.
"It's Kol!" I said in awe and at his silent nod I blurred to my feet and looked down into the coffin at Kol again, but I noticed something was missing.
"You undaggered him?" Elijah asked and that's when I noticed the long slender knife clutched in my hand.
"I guess I did… I didn't know I was even doing it though I swear"
"It's alright love, if he can help trigger your memories then maybe it is time we woke him" Elijah said from behind me as we both heard a pair of heels walking down the basement steps.
"Oh good, I was just beginning to think that things weren't interesting enough around here" she said as she came into the room and saw me standing over Kol's coffin with the dagger in my hand. When I turned and saw her grinning I felt my body relax and smiled back at her.
"I was thinking the same thing" I said
"Let's go upstairs and have a drink while we wait for Kol to wake up?" Rebekah said, gesturing upstairs. I looked to Elijah who nodded.
"Don't worry, I'll wait for him to wake up and explain everything"
"Okay" I handed Elijah the dagger and laid my hand on his arm as I walked by him and followed Rebekah back upstairs. I followed behind Rebekah as she retraced my steps through the hall and kitchen until we reached the front sitting room and made our way over to the bar set up in the corner. She poured me a glass of something dark and handed it over to me before pouring herself one, looking at me over the rim as she took a sip.
"So… you remembered Kol" she said
"Yea. I think I remembered the first time we met"
"In the forest?"
"Yea. I was riding Hope and he stopped me in the forest. I think he was surprised when I wasn't scared by him" I chuckled and Rebekah smirked.
"Yea Kol is surprised when women either aren't scared by him or seduced by him" and I laughed, thinking of another Original brother who was shocked by people who didn't think he was scary.
"Must run in the family" I replied, finally taking a sip of the strong smelling liquid. It burned going down my throat but I was pleasantly surprised by the hints of sweetness in the aftertaste. Rebekah and I passed the time talking about the trouble Kol caused in the twenties to get him daggered by Klaus. We were both startled out of our conversation by a knock on the front door. Rebekah left her drink on the bar and went to answer the door, and I heard my mom's voice.
"Hi Rebekah, is Caroline here?"
"Yea she is. Her and Elijah had a training this morning-", Rebekah answered back as I blurred from the sitting room to stand beside Rebekah at the front door.
"Oh! Hi honey. You weren't answering your phone so I figured I would try you here"
"Oh yea I'm sorry, I left it in my bag while Elijah trained me… What's wrong?" I asked, worried that something bad must have happened to drive my mother to the place that housed the Original family.
"Oh nothing, I just got called in to work. Deputy Powell's wife just went into labor so he went to the hospital with her" and I smiled.
"Oh that's great! Should we send them flowers?"
"The precinct has already started a fund" my mom replied with a smile, "So I won't be home tonight"
"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow"
"Umm… Will you be going home tonight?" and I sighed. I knew she didn't like me spending so much time here but it wasn't like I was shacking up with Elijah or anything.
"Yes mother…"
"Alright… Well I'll see you tomorrow morning then. I love you honey"
"Love you too mom" I replied before she made her way back down the driveway to her cruiser. I sighed again as I closed the door. I didn't want to make eye contact with Rebekah as I walked past her but she gently took my arm, so I had to turn around.
"So I'm guessing your mother still isn't on team Original then?" she asked, but instead of seeing her trademark smirk, for some reason she seemed a little saddened by the idea.
"Well to be fair, Klaus is responsible for countless little evil deeds, Elijah is hell bent on trying to get memories from a 1504 version of me and she has Damon and Elena whispering in her ear all day about how you're manipulating me to nefarious ends."
"Well when you put it like that" she smiled finally, but it didn't reach her eyes.
"What is it?" I asked her softly
"It's nothing"
"Tell me"
"It's just that… back in 1504, when I was staying with your mom and dad and you, it felt like a real family."
"And your upset that my mother… in this life, doesn't feel the same way" and she simply nodded in reply, "Well if it makes you feel better my dad in this life is gay" I laughed and Rebekah finally laughed in return.
"Well things in this life certainly aren't boring. Especially now"
"Because of Kol?"
"Yes! I'm just glad it was you who undaggered him"
"Why?"
"If I had undaggered the cheeky little bastard Klaus would have used that dagger on me. At least since it's you he can't get too mad"
"And why is that? Because I'm just so adorable" I smirked
"Well that, and he's almost as desperate to get your memories back as you and Elijah are"
"Why?"
"Klaus hates a mystery. And as of right now, you're the biggest one yet" and I was about to reply when I saw her eyes jump from mine to something over my shoulder.
"Surely manners are not dead sister, will you not introduce me to your gorgeous little-" but the male voice behind me suddenly stopped short as I whirled around to find the body that belonged to that voice, Kol Mikaelson, leaning against a door jam. His jaw dropped open slightly when he saw my face.
"Not even out of the box for ten minutes and already hitting on your brothers girl, again" Rebekah tsked, before running past me and into the very surprised arms of Kol. He closed his arms around her after a moment, but his eyes never left mine over her shoulder.
Kol is back! And as promised, here's the next chapter. Keep an eye out for the next chapter coming in a week... I wonder how Kol will effect things in Mystic Falls...
Read. Review. Enjoy!