Note: I do not own TWD or TVD… just having fun.
Chapter Songs:
Coldplay – The Scientist
Scene: On the Road
OneRepublic - Secrets
Scene: White Oak Tree
Chapter Thirty-seven
Just when she was beginning to fear that he didn't believe her and would possibly harm for her the location, the hand dropped away from her neck.
He stepped closer to her once their hands fell away between them with an unblinking gaze. "Fine, but if we're doing this… It's on my terms and we're leaving now," He decided, the harshness slipping from his voice but the edge still radiating through him.
Before she could start questioning her resolve, Maggie nodded her head barely and accepted with one word, "Deal."
Maggie tried not to let herself think about what she had just gotten herself into. She knew if she did, the image of Damon's face would come up in her mind. No matter how she could possibly explain to him, there would be no good way of him taking the news that she just agreed to go burn down a white oak tree with Kol.
As soon as Maggie made her agreement, Kol immediately went into full preparation mode. In some ways, Maggie was grateful for that much too. He went and showed her where in the house they stored the supplies for leaving town on trips like this. She went to fill up several gasoline containers while he removed the backseat from the SUV out front.
He calculated out quickly how many gallons they would likely need for the drive and to burn the tree down with. He figured worst case scenario they could siphon the rest along the way if they came up short. While she loaded the gasoline up in the back of the vehicle, which she was grateful her vampire strength hardly made it a chore, he went about to prep a cooler with blood bags for the both of them. The rest of the packing went back rather quickly, especially considering much fewer necessities were needed for vampires than humans.
They met up again in a study on the first floor. Maggie stood over a few open stainless steel cases. She was loading wooden bullets into several clips for the pair of Beretta M9s in front of her. She wasn't going to bother asking why or how Kol ended up with them. At first she questioned why they needed guns at all, but Kol just simply said sometimes walkers aren't the only things he finds on the road and it can be easier at times.
"For the record, I'm keeping this," Maggie declared as she loaded the clip into the pistol. She checked the safety before tucking into the waistband of her jeans behind her. There was a comfort to having a gun after surviving on the road. It was the first time she got her hands on one since being kidnapped.
Kol didn't even bother looking up, but there was a smirk on his face. Somehow he doubted he would have to worry about her accidentally shooting herself in the foot. The desk in front of him he cleared off quickly and now had three large maps pulled out in front of him. The first one was a fresh road atlas of the eastern coast, which he was marking off certain highways with a black marker. The second was already heavily marked off with a spider web effect of routes originating from Mystic Falls. The third was marked by several circles, names, and estimated numbers.
"How many people know about this tree?" Kol asked her without looking up as Maggie started to approach the table when the other gun was ready.
Maggie hesitated slightly, knowing he probably wouldn't like what he heard next. "There's a chance that Damon might know about it," She said, thinking about to the dream she shared with him.
The marker tip paused in its path on the paper as Kol stilled. She couldn't tell what passed through his expression before he finally responded, "He might?"
Maggie nodded and frowned as she explained, "Yeah, he saw the tree in a dream of mine… But I'm not sure if he realized what it was at the time. He never said anything about it afterwards." She shrugged her shoulders slightly. It wasn't like she could bring it up down to him without drawing attention to it with a neon flashing sign. The more she thought about it though, Damon didn't really seem in the right frame of mind at the time. They had been discussing Rose before it happened.
"It's Damon… if he figured it out he would've taken off like a bat out of hell after it," She added on, and thought kind of how that was exactly what they were doing, but she didn't particularly want to point that out.
Kol didn't say anything as he stared down blankly at the paper, considering her words. He supposed most people wouldn't know what a white oak tree looked like these days. It was still a bit of a discerning thought he wished he had been more aware of when he attacked Damon earlier. But, he supposed if Damon had really found the tree, he would've whittled it down and armed every human in Mystic Falls with a stake by now.
Kol went back to mapping out the route, sticking to the edge of the Smokey Mountains and avoiding most of the major population areas along the way.
Sensing that Kol wasn't terribly upset, Maggie leaned forward, placing her hands against the desk opposite from him and started looking at the maps. The routes of the second map spread out as far as the coast of Maine and down to parts of Florida. Some of them disappeared off the pages even as far as Chicago and in the direction of Texas.
Her attention was stolen by the first map. The circles were scattered amongst the states, mostly the less populated ones, but there were even several in the New England states. She titled her head slightly as she read some of the names. Cedar Rapids, Clearwater, Whitehall, Haven, Woodbury, Downington. The names went on and she tried to make sense of the numbers next to them.
"What are these?" Maggie's curiosity got the best of her as she pointed towards the map.
"Surviving populations," Kol answered lightly, "with rough estimations from the last time I scouted them out."
Maggie's eyebrows nearly rose up to her hairline. She looked over the markings with a renewed sense of fascination at that. Her eyes wandered to Georgia naturally and she noticed the first one closest to where her home was Woodbury and it had a clearly marked "70+" next to it. It was off from anything that her and her group had searched, but it was still a bit surreal. At the edge of the map, an arrow trailed off with an even larger number, but the name itself Maggie found rather shocking.
"New Orleans?" Maggie questioned incredulously, struggling with the idea any large city could have survived.
Kol nodded, "Not the whole city, just a couple of neighborhoods with a lot of supernatural history." He didn't particularly feel like getting into the history of the witches and such there. His focus was still on the maps as he worked through South Carolina.
Maggie shook her head slightly while mumbling, "I guess I never really considered there could be other surviving towns…"
Kol gave a half shrug as he listened to her. "I've watched nations rise and fall. If there's one thing I've learned is that man is resilient," He commented. He didn't have any doubts that mankind would recover from this plague and rise again. It wouldn't be the same world that they left it, but there was never going back when it came to change.
Maggie didn't say anything, but just appreciated his statement for a moment. She supposed if there was anyone that could attest to that fact, it would be him and his siblings.
The tip of his marker stopped when he reached the edge of the region that Maggie said her home was in. She hadn't given him the full address while they were packing the SUV yet.
"Okay, this is your last chance out of this," Kol suddenly declared, looking up for the first time from the papers to meet Maggie's eyes. His tone came out low and ominous, "Tell me where to go for this tree and I'll let you walk away right now. You can go back to your Salvatore and even tell him I compelled it from you. And if I go all the way there to find no tree, that will give you a two day head start to run."
Maggie stiffened in confusion at his sudden offering of a route out. At first, it seemed like the easy way for her to wipe her hands of it and keep her conscious clear at the end of the day. But as she studied his face, she also knew the opt out was also a challenge. He was seeing just how serious she was about protecting her family and the extent of the conviction behind her earlier declaration. Also she didn't know what to describe this relationship she had with him, but she knew there was a seed of trust beginning to form in it. However, it was only a seed at this point, which could wilt or grow just as quickly as it begun. And as of right now, he had done more things for her to gain that trust thus far than the other way around.
To say she didn't consider his offer seriously would make her a lying fool. However, the idea of just going back to the boardinghouse and trying to pretend nothing was going on didn't settle with her. She would go stir crazy wondering if he found the tree, did he get lost, or did all of it burn.
"Damon knows I can't be compelled," Maggie pointed out, partly stalling as she still considered his words.
Kol's eyes narrowed slightly at her with interest, he tilted his head slightly. "That was when you were a doppelganger human. But now…" His voice trailed slightly and Maggie frowned. He leaned forward to more directly look her in the eyes. She barely realized what he was doing before his pupils dilated and he spoke firmly, "Turn around and walk away."
Maggie froze, unable to look away from him as he studied her. The knuckles on the table edge were white as she held her breath. She waited and stared at him, partly in disbelief that he actually was trying to compel her.
The moment dragged on and she waited for it the irresistible urge to follow his order hit her. But she just realized after a while she didn't feel any different than before.
Her face hardened as she made her final decision. She leaned her face forward slightly, nearly nose to nose with him before responding confidently, "No. I'm going to see to it that every last twig and branch of that tree burns."
Kol blinked at his failed attempt at compulsion. There was no way she was drinking vervain, which only left one thing. A slow uncanny smile broke out across his face. "You never cease to fascinate me, darling," He spoke gently, as if she hadn't just blatantly refused his offer.
He stood up straight suddenly and started gathering up the maps. "Come, let's not waste any more time then," He decided with a grin.
"So now what?" Maggie asked hesitantly as she sat in the passenger seat of the SUV. Leaving town hadn't taken long and she was curious seeing the gates of Mystic Falls for the first time. The last time she passed through the protective wall she had a black bag over her head courtesy of Damon. The getting through the gate wasn't an issue.
Now, though as the headlights flooded the road in front of them where they came to a stop, Maggie had never been more intimidated by little yellow flags before.
The county line.
It was the third time she was seeing it, but the first time as a vampire and realization that was a very real worry started to settling in with her.
"Well it's going to be excruciatingly painful," Kol stated with a shrug. He calmly sat behind the wheel with one hand resting lightly against the frame of the door. He didn't seem nearly as anxious as Maggie was about the prospect.
Maggie swallowed thickly, not sure if she appreciated the bluntness or not. She thought back to crossing the county line with Damon and the way that he passed out. "It's going to kill me, isn't it?" She thought about how much stronger and older of a vampire Damon is and it still got him.
"Without a doubt," Kol answered quickly, looking away from the road and at the concern on her expression.
"Great," Maggie muttered sarcastically. "What about you?"
Kol smirked a bit, "I'm a bit tougher to break. I can stay conscious long enough to get across. But it doesn't help if I have to listen to you screaming all the way." His foot remained firmly on the brake pedal as his hand dropped from the steering wheel.
Maggie frowned. "What do –" Before she could finish her world was cut off by darkness.
Maggie's head was leaning against the window of the passenger seat when she stirred with a sharp inhale of breath. Her shoulders tensed up and she let out a slight groan as she opened her eyes. A hand went up to the back of her neck immediately. It screamed in protest, stiff and irritable.
It was still dark out, but the SUV was moving at a pretty good speed at this point. Trees barely lit by the headlights blurred by them as Maggie looked up, rubbing the sore muscles in the back of her neck.
Kol heard her wake up, but didn't look over. A faint smirk lingered on his lips as he just waited for it.
Maggie squinted a bit as she tried to think back to the last thing she remembered. Being in the car. The county line. It would probably kill her. Now her neck ached like no other.
"Are you fucking kidding me, Kol?!" Maggie nearly shouted as soon as she realized he had snapped her neck. She turned in her seat to glare at him, "What did I tell you about forewarning?"
Kol struggled to keep the amusement off his face as he threw a hand in the air out of mock surrender. "I thought I made myself pretty clear," He taunted in an innocent tone.
Maggie shot him a sour look before rolling her head from side to side. She could start to feel her muscles relaxing in her neck. It was one of the few times she was happy to be a vampire because a kink like that would last half the day as a human.
"Shit," Maggie grumbled as she slouched back down in her seat and dropped her hand from her neck. "No wonder Damon is so grouchy when he wakes up." She wasn't going to admit it, but she recognized getting her neck snapped was probably a lot kinder than consciously experiencing the county line. But she was still irritable about it.
Kol grinned at the vulgarity of her outburst, even despite the mention of his least favorite Salvatore. "Ah, yes that tends to happen a lot when you're persistently annoying," He didn't miss the chance to throw a jab at Damon.
Maggie shook her head slightly, but didn't say anything. Between the stories she heard and the ones she read in Stefan's journal, she doubted that Damon had endeared himself to many people at all.
"I take it you've already had the chance to snap his neck, too?" Kol quirked an eyebrow slightly at her silence, probably enjoying this more than he should have but he didn't care.
Maggie gave a humorless snort before mumbling, "How do you think I got away long enough to see my family that night?"
Kol turned his head from the road to actually look at her. She was glaring out of her window and it almost looked as if she was sulking. She had her arms folded over her chest. He smirked, choosing not to say anything as he enjoyed the irony of the reason why she was able to escape again, unaware of the fact Damon was lying in a parking lot with a snapped neck.
A curious thought crossed her and she glanced at him, "How many times have you snapped his neck?" She wondered if the extent of their feuding was deeper than she truly was aware of.
Kol pressed his lips together thoughtfully a moment, his eyes flickering upwards a moment or two. "Two, no three times," He corrected himself, now counting this evening.
Maggie just stared blankly at him. She wasn't sure what the socially acceptable response was to getting her neck snapped or his casual admittance of doing it repeatedly to Damon. Instead, she commented, "You know, it's concerning that you actually had to stop and think about that."
Kol just smiled.
The anxiety caught up with her when the sun was breaking into the sky as they drove. She tried not to let herself think as she took in the changing landscape around them. They were close to the mountains and the highways they were on curved and bended with the terrain. It was quiet and still, uncanny and familiar to her. This was the country that she was familiar, not the peculiar small town of Mystic Falls.
It was unsettling, but also reassuring to see the signs of abandoned life again. The vehicles left on the side of the road, busted and beginning to weather from the neglect. The lack of power or life in the buildings that she could see flicker by as they drove. Every now and then they caught the sight of a walker or two, but avoided them easily enough.
But as much as she tried to push the anxiety away, it came back to her. She thought about what she was going to say when she got back to Damon. There was no denying the fact he would probably flip out on her. Despite telling him from day one that her family mattered above all else, she knew that he was just as stubborn as her and would see this as a betrayal.
The more she thought about it, the more she began to fidget in her seat. Kol remained mostly quietly through the trip, except for the occasional small conversation, which usually ended up being some sort of bickering. It wasn't quite like the bickering with Damon where she would get angry and irritated with him to the point she stomped off. With Kol, he kept leaving her wanting to shake her head, but biting her lip to keep from smiling at the same time.
Now, he was quietly aware of the increasing tension radiating from her. It didn't take a genius to see the worry in her eyes and to figure out what she could be fretting about. He wondered if she was beginning to regret coming, but she never said anything.
Her fidgeting escaladed to an anxious tapping of her foot against the floor as she stared out the window.
"Screw it!" She suddenly decided with a huff. Kol quirked an eyebrow and looked at her as she unbuckled her seatbelt. She reached behind them to the cooler in the middle seat and popped the lid.
Kol smirked slightly as she dug into the cooler for a blood bag. Thankfully, the first one she grabbed was not a bag of O negative. She wasn't too thrilled about that particular type after her last experience. She turned around and settled back into her seat as her fingers fiddled with the cap.
"Are you emotionally drinking?" Kol taunted in an amused tone.
"Yes," Maggie snapped at him with a slight glare, "I think I'm entitled to after all this."
Kol gave a half shrug, replying in a casual sarcastic tone, "Oh sure, nothing like recent transitioning to bring on the cravings and mood swings of a pregnant woman."
Maggie gasped, abandoning the blood bag for a moment to reach out and smack him in the arm. It wasn't enough to seriously hurt him, but it wasn't exactly gentle either.
The steering wheel of the SUV jerked slightly as he startled, the smirk dropping from his face. "Oi! I'm adding no hitting the driver to my terms," Kol raised his voice, which was torn between amusement and alarm, "Especially when there's a trunk full of gasoline!"
Maggie just rolled her eyes and sat back in her seat. She doubted he would let anything crash this vehicle. "Yeah, yeah, just stop swerving or you're going to make me sicker than this blood bag will," She mumbled before finally popping the cap and taking a few sips.
Kol's temporary irritation settled down immediately as he thought about what she just said. He was silent a full minute as she drank. The veins moved around under her eyes, but she definitely was gaining a better handle on drinking. That and having ten thousand other things running through her mind left her slightly distracted.
"Blood bags make you sick?" Kol frowned slightly at that. Vampires don't sick, he thought.
Maggie nodded numbly, partly distracted by draining the blood bag. While she knew she was going to hate how she felt soon, there was still just enough to the taste to make it worth something. She paused briefly to answer him, "Yeah, I can't say I'm really looking forward to an eternity of this. I don't know how the others do it…"
Kol's expression twisted slightly in confusion as he gripped the steering wheel. His eyes darted back and forth between the road and watching her drink. "Please explain," He requested shortly. It made sense that she was weak from drinking by blood bag instead of the vein, but he didn't quite know what to make of what she meant by sick.
Maggie waited until she finished off the bag. She rolled down the window and tossed it out before turning to look at Kol. "That's actually why I came to see you last night," She commented, looking out at the horizon to the morning in the sky. "I actually started throwing up from a bag of O negative. Some types I can stomach better than others, but that was the first time I ever reacted that strongly." She didn't feel particularly comfortable talking about it, especially since she had been hiding it from the Salvatores. But, she figured since Kol was able to help her that night and at the house, if anyone was able to help it would be him.
Kol remained quiet as he stared out ahead of them, thinking. It wasn't unusual to hear that vampires had certain preferences for some blood types over others. What he never heard of was one becoming physically ill from it without other interfering forces. He knew that she can't be compelled, so he doubted something like that was stopping her.
"You need to start feeding from humans as soon as we get back," He concluded with the only viable option at the time. "You're a newborn, which is a very critical stage of development for a vampire. We are predatory creatures, not only do we enjoy the hunt, but we need the kill. Vampires were never meant to survive off of blood bags. You're depriving yourself of the very nature of what you are and it's taking its toll on your new body."
Maggie nodded faintly and not completely surprised by what he said. The idea of hunting still made her nervous though, especially since she knew that the Council would be after her if any bodies turned up. What concerned her more though was losing herself in it and that monster coming back to the surface.
She didn't bother saying anything else and her gaze drifted to the window. Kol remained in a thoughtful silence. Not much later, she started to feel the beginnings of the first chills. The skin on her arms tingled and she could feel the goose bumps rise on them. She wrapped her arms around herself, absentmindedly running her hands up and down her arms as she did.
Kol's eyes flickered to her quietly as he noticed how pale she got shortly afterwards. It was saying something to be pale as a vampire. As the time passed, Maggie slouched back in her seat and she pressed her cheek against the cool glass of the window tiredly.
Kol didn't like the way she winced and closed her eyes as she clutched at her stomach. He thought about stopping the car, unsure if that would make it better or not, but she never said anything. Maggie kept her jaw clenched and regardless of the slight shake of her shoulders, she never allowed a whimper to pass from her lips.
She still tried not to look weak, even when it was obvious that she was suffering.
"I remembering burning Moscow after withdrawing from Borodino," Kol suddenly spoke up in a quiet tone. Wearily, Maggie opened her eyes, unsure if she had heard him correctly at first. "That was in 1812. So much had been lost in the earlier battle, we were in retreat and we had to abandon the city. I remember that night, helping setting fire to everything that wasn't able to be carried that could possibly aid the French."
Maggie turned in her seat, so her back was to the door as she leaned against the headrest. She still shivered and grimaced, but tried to focus on the story Kol began to tell. She wasn't sure what brought it on, but she just quietly listened to the sound of his voice as he talked about the way they had evacuated the city in retreat. He explained the way the Imperial forces had burned the Russian landscape for three months in retreat before Borodino. Kol went into great detail about how black the skies had been from the smoke and the fires that they left in their wake as they slowly got closer to Moscow. The fights along the way were bloodied and gruesome to put it lightly. She sensed a hint of remorse in his tone and his eyes as he talked about the loss of the earth and the beauty that had been destroyed in man's wake.
It wasn't an uplifting story, but something in it captivated her as she listened to the way he spoke about the night they emptied Moscow. Kol apparently had helped participate in emptying the prisons, letting the criminals lose for the French to deal with. It was surreal to hear about an event she had only barely heard about in high school from the perspective of the Original.
It was during his description of Napoleon that she was only faintly aware that her stomach had quieted down. She was struck by the way Kol described him as a fragile little man, pale and huddled under layers of furs while riding a starved horse that could easily be confused for a donkey. It certainly wasn't the image she had seen in artwork over the years.
She wasn't sure how much time passed, but she didn't care as she listened to him describe the retreat of the French. His eyes light up in wicked amusement while telling how he was with them when they chased them back across the same earth they had burned during the worst of the Russian winter. While he talked about the major events along the way, it was the little details he shared that made it seem more real to her. The energy and morale of the men, along with the unforgiving harsh weather and the nights they spent devising tactics to weaken their enemy while struggling with lacking provisions themselves amazed her.
Maggie last recalled him talking about the Berezina River before his voice lulled her sleep.
Maggie stirred slightly at the faint brush against her cheek. She inhaled sharply, but didn't immediately open her eyes. She was still turned in her seat and her arms were curled loosely on her lap with one leg tucked underneath her.
The gentle touch on her cheek returned, causing Maggie to mumble slightly as she didn't want to wake up from the peaceful state she was in.
"Maggie," A soft voice coaxed her, the breath barely falling against her face. Groggily, she opened her eyes to be met by the ones of a dark angel.
Blinking a few times, she shifted more upright as Kol's hand fell away from her face. He smirked slightly at her sleepiness as she looked around them. According to the clock on the dashboard, it was an hour or so before noon. Apparently she had slept for quite a while. The SUV came to a stand in the middle of a highway.
"Are we there?" Maggie rubbed at her eyes a bit as Kol leaned back into his seat.
"Not quite," Kol answered her and he reached behind the seats to grab one of the maps they had earlier. He unfolded it to the point where the route he had drawn ended. "I need you to tell me where to go from here," He offered the map out to her.
Stifling a yawn, Maggie took it in her hands as she remembered they never really discussed the final destination. He just trusted her with it after their talk in the study. Maggie only gave a short glance at the map. She grew up in this area all her life, she didn't really need it.
She gave him directions to where go from there and Kol nodded, not bothering to question her further about it. As the landscape became more familiar to her, a slow sense of dread started to fill her. Reality of the fact she was returning to her home and the state they left it in was beginning to eat at her.
The last memory she had of it had been fake, but at least a happy one in her dream. Now she was having to face the truth, her home had been overrun and the barn burned in the process. The whole prospect turned her stomach into knots.
"I want to stop at my house for a few things before we leave," Maggie declared when they were only fifteen minutes away. It was possibly the only chance she would have in a long time to get any personal possessions that had been left behind.
Kol's eyes widened as he turned sharply to look at her. He had been so focused on getting to the tree, he didn't really ask any questions about the type of location they were going to. He certainly hadn't been expecting it to be the place of her home. Maggie's head was turned away and didn't see the way he stared at her thoughtfully before finally conceding in a quiet voice, "Alright, after we take care of the tree."
She just nodded solemnly and didn't say another word.
They turned down the gravel driveway of her family's farmland and Maggie remained still, unmoving in her seat. Her eyes darted around frantically, taking in the sight of the land she had been born and raised in. It was quiet and empty, the fields were ridden with a year of neglect and dry wild grass. She caught sight of some of the fences, most of which had been knocked down by the herd that passed through that night.
Kol remained quiet himself as he continued slowly down the driveway. He noticed the dryness of the foliage around them and figured it would at least make for easy burning. He looked at Maggie and noticed the masked blank expression on her face. He didn't know what was going through her mind through all this and even if he wanted to say something, he wouldn't know what it would be.
"It's up there," Maggie pointed to the top of a rolling hill as they started to climb it. She was grateful that the tree was first in the path before her house at the end of the driveway. She had to take care of the tree first before she could face her home. She wasn't sure how her resolved would stand if it was the other way around.
"I see it," Kol acknowledged as his eyes spotted the lone tree at the top of the hill. The black SUV pulled off the gravel road as it approached and came to a park a safe distance away. He had mixed feelings as soon as he recognized the tree. A part of him had thought there was a chance she could be mistaken, since a painting wasn't much to go off of, even one as intricate as Niklaus'. But sure enough, while this tree was considerably smaller than the one they burned in Mystic Falls, there was no mistaking it was a white oak and the implications that brought.
Kol killed the engine of the SUV and stepped out of the car, gently closing the door behind him. He glanced around them and the view they had from this hill. He briefly noticed a white farmhouse in the distance. There were the burnt remains of some building next to it and what appeared to have once been an RV. A few other vehicles were left abandoned near the house and numerous figures laid sprawled out around the house.
The soft breeze in the air faintly carried a foul hint of what they were to his sensitive vampire nose and he didn't have to wonder what it was. The sky was completely overcast with clouds above them. Looking around the land, he recognized in a way that it was beautiful, but hollow and irreplaceably broken. He walked around to the back of the SUV and popped the trunk, his expression was hard as he immediately went to business. He pulled out the first two canisters of gasoline that were still full from their trip down.
Maggie had wordlessly climbed out the vehicle and came to a stand a short distance away from the tree. They didn't need to talk about what was going to happen next now that they were here. Despite that, she didn't move or feel the urge to help Kol as he set down one of the canisters. He took the first one and marched right up to the tree without hesitation. He popped the cap and began throwing gasoline down at the base of the tree and up the trunk. He threw it high in the air at the branches, careful to avoid getting any on himself in the process.
Maggie felt cold and empty as she watched him finish off the first canister. What was there to say or feel? Here she was having a hand in burning the tree that held so many memories to her. It wasn't just a tree, but another piece of her home that she was having a hand in destroying.
Kol was working on the second canister when he stepped around the tree and noticed the stone memorial plate at the base of the tree. His hands stopped immediately as he looked down at the engravings, noticing the name and date along with a prayer from the Bible. The name surprised him the most, particularly the last name.
Kol looked up to Maggie, the question obvious in his eyes. He was met with her cold stare, while it was on him, she wasn't really seeing him.
"My mother," She barely whispered and it was enough for him to hear.
Kol inhaled slowly and deeply through his nose as he looked back down at the memorial marker. Suddenly the notion of family in this trip took on a whole new and more complex meaning. She was protecting her new family, the one that arose in the wake of this destructive world while also protecting his family in the process. All of it at the cost of burning the remaining symbols of her true family.
Kol exhaled gradually before his hands began to move again. He made quick work of spreading the rest of the gasoline. He stepped back to set the canister down next to the other one and coming to stand a few feet away from Maggie.
He gave one last look up and down the white oak tree, unable to shake the dark sense of awe at the whole moment. It wasn't something he was happy to do, because the existence of this tree at all spoke volumes in itself. Yet, here they were destroying it.
Kol reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a matchbook. He flipped it open and was about to rip out one of the matches when a hand on his wrist stopped him. He looked up to be met by a determined expression on Maggie's face. He didn't need words to understand the intention in her eyes.
She reached forward with her other hand and delicately plucked the matchbook out of his hands. Stepping forward from him, Maggie pulled out one of the matches. She looked down at it gravely for a long moment. If anyone was going to do this, it was going to be her, she decided. With a flick against the starter strip, a yellow flame came to life at the tip.
She held it up in front of her a moment, watching it dance in the air before tossing it with a flick of her wrist.
It didn't even touch the ground before the gasoline caught afire. The flames grew in an instant, traveling up the trunk of the tree and engulfing the first couple of branches. Maggie's eyes glistened, but no tears fell from them as she stepped back, taking her side next to Kol again. Maybe she had finally run out of tears or she was just too numb to truly appreciate what was happening.
They stood in silence as Maggie watched another piece of her human life die. The wood crackled and she heard the hiss of the moisture evaporating from the leaves as the flames lit up their surroundings and the smoke started to rise into the air.
Kol started thoughtfully at the burning oak. It wasn't lost on him that she very easily could have not mentioned it at all to him when she figured it out. He also knew there was a reason why she didn't mention Elijah and Rebekah when she told him why she wanted to burn it. She easily could've gone down here to get a branch or two to use against his siblings with no repercussions to her bloodline or family. Instead, she chose to not risk any chance of white oak being used and face the consequences of it.
"Willing to betray the ones that trust you in order to protect your family above all else," Kol pointed out in a tone that held a hint of amusement to it before he smirked lightly as he looked at her. "If I didn't know any better, I would think you were a Mikaelson."
Maggie stiffened at the comparison, but didn't respond, not knowing how anyone was supposed to respond to a statement like that. Instead, she chose to change the subject.
"I don't suppose it's a coincidence a White Oak tree happened to be on the family land of a doppelganger," Maggie countered with a thought that had been on her mind while driving down here.
The smirk faded from Kol's face as he looked back to the fiery tree, one branch cracked and fell to the ground in front of them but neither vampire flinched. "No, I have no doubt this is Elijah's doing," Kol agreed, clenching his jaw firmly a moment. He would have to have a little chat with his older brother next time they saw each other. This tree explained why Elijah was particularly interested in Klaus' whereabouts since discovering Maggie.
Maggie tilted her head slightly in confusion, not quite expecting it to hear Elijah's name.
Staring into the fire, Kol realized not all secrets would remain buried forever. The rational part of his mind tried to tell him what he was about to say next was safe to do so because the tree was burning and not having anything to do with the truth or trusting Maggie.
"The vampire bloodlines of Salvatores," Kol began after taking a sigh, thinking of Damon and Stefan Salvatore turned by Katherine. "The Petrovas," he thought of Katherine turned by Rose, and Elena turned by a Salvatore. "The Forbes," even that little blonde plaything of Klaus' turned by a Salvatore. "The Leaveys," he referred to Trevor, Rose, and recently now Maggie. "All dwindle down to one Original bloodline," He stated, marveling for the moment the rippling effects of one turning.
He turned to face Maggie and declared simply, "My bloodline."
The furrowed brows of confusion remained on Maggie's face as she returned his gaze. Her eyes didn't widen and she didn't startle in complete surprise. It was still a shock to hear it from his lips, but otherwise she remained unmoving.
Kol watched her reaction closely and only the hissing of the fire passed through the air between them a minute. "You don't seem particularly surprised by that," Kol pointed out with a hint of interest.
Maggie gave one shake her head before clearing her throat and finding her voice again, "No, I had a hunch… but I just wasn't sure how it was possible." She had a gut feeling since the night they spoke with Rose about Mary Porter, but that issue took the back burner to dying shortly after that and she had nothing solid to go by anyway.
Kol nodded barely and his gaze drifted back to the flames aimlessly, barely registering the heat he could feel on his face. If there was a place to begin explaining, he figured it was back to the beginning.
"I cannot properly describe the relationship between Elijah and Niklaus at the time, but I can only attest to what I know. Strained and complex would be putting it lightly, no justice could be done for properly explaining the state of a relationship five hundred years ago," Kol's voice dropped into a low, emotionless one as he thought back more to his memories than thinking of his surroundings in the moment.
"What I do know is that a witch contacted me on the behalf of a mother about a ritual that was going to be performed on the full moon. She told me that Elijah was arranging it without Niklaus' knowledge. I found that rather peculiar given how close those two and my sister remained over the centuries, so naturally I was curious and heard the plight of the mother," Kol gave a slight shrug of his shoulders, it seemed so logical at the time.
"Apparently while the father had been eager to offer his eldest daughter, Rosemarie, for sacrifice, the mother was not as keen on the idea. She begged for any chance to save her daughter, even if it meant becoming a vampire," Kol remembered not being particularly moved by the mother's plight. "The witch assured me that vampire blood would alter the outcome of the ritual, which I found out she was relative of the warlock performing it. According to the witch, Elijah was trying to create a doppelganger bloodline that would have the power to eradicate the werewolf gene."
Maggie's eyes widened at the idea of there being a cure for werewolves, but she hesitated thinking about to what happened in the Grill.
Kol continued on in her silence with a slightly bitter tone, "Now, I doubted highly Elijah knew what he was getting himself into when it came to dealing with the servants of nature and I didn't want to risk my brother being the test subject for such a powerful thing." Never mind risking the existence of it at all, he thought to himself.
"So I had to carefully plan my intervention. At the time my brothers thought I was in Eastern Europe and I had to keep my distance to keep it that way. It would have been too risky to go to Rosemarie directly before the ritual. Even if I compelled her to forget me, she could recall it if I was ever daggered," Kol explained, remembering the incident with Alexander and grateful in the 19th century he had the foresight for that.
"Instead, I gave a sufficient amount of blood to her mother and compelled her to believe under every circumstance it came from Mary Porter," Kol smirked slightly, remembering his choice of Mary Porter because of her post-turning hermit tendencies made her hard to find. "One compulsion cannot override another and given the pregnant state of the mother at the time, I doubted Elijah and his morals would fixate his wrath on her if things went wrong."
Maggie shuddered slightly as she remembered what Elijah said he had done to Rose after the ritual.
"From the understanding I've gathered, her mother slipped the blood into Rosemarie's wine the night of the ritual. I didn't stick around to witness the ritual myself, but I heard it had been fairly easy to convince Elijah that Mary Porter turned Rosemarie, seeing as she was a recent newborn of Klaus'… And given the nature of the ritual, it wasn't a far stretch of the imagination someone from his bloodline would want to stop it," Kol paused and the amusement faded away from his face.
He thought for a moment to the next part, which brought the greatest ire to him. "It was afterwards when I confronted the witch again that I discovered she had deceived me. The new outcome of the ritual I had been led to believe would negate it, but instead the presence of the vampire blood only extended its qualities," Kol barely suppressed a snarl, remembering how the witch hadn't been able to get blood of an Original from Elijah, but jumped at the opportunity from him. "I hadn't seen the effects of the changes until what happened at the Grill with the hybrid, but apparently the blood became poisonous not just to werewolves."
Kol's face remained grim as he thought about what he did after that, "Before the witch could tell anyone else about what had happened, I ripped out her heart and burned her grimoires, as well as ripped out the tongues of her descendants for the next three generations so none of them could ever utter another spell again. From what I heard, Niklaus eliminated the rest of the bloodline later on."
"By the time I returned to England to find Rosemarie's family, I found that Elijah had scattered them, probably thinking it would be Niklaus after them and not I. After that I spent three centuries trying to hunt down the Leavey bloodline, which was very aggravating and difficult to do without my intentions becoming obvious to my brothers or knowing what Rosemarie even looked like. I found some of them hiding in Greece and others in Germany. When I had finally tracked down the descendants of Rosemarie's son in Ireland, they had just left for the New World and any chance I had at finding them was lost in New York," Kol's fists were clenched in his jacket as he thought about the frustration and anger he had before giving up on the search after three centuries.
Maggie said nothing in his pause, taking it all in and also thrown by the fact he mentioned New York. She knew that was where her family immigrated to among the many at the time period, their name was changed in the process and they remained there a while before having the money to move to Georgia.
"The best part of it all, I can't even completely take credit for, because even I couldn't have anticipated it happening," Kol shifted his thoughts away from the search and he continued thinking of Rosemarie's mother. "The baby her mother carried at the time of the ritual was born afterwards and named Trevor. When he was old enough, he sought out his sister and she turned him. I believe they remained in England a few years, Rose being mostly in hiding, before Trevor met Katerina Petrova and introduced her to my brothers."
Maggie couldn't believe how the story was beginning to sound familiar to her now, but it was like she was hearing everything anew.
"Niklaus wanted to use Katerina to break the curse of the sun and moon, or more properly, release the werewolf gene in him that my mother had suppressed to become a hybrid. Trevor aided Katerina in her escape and it was Rose's blood that turned her before they all fled from my family. They went their separate ways from that point as did my brothers," Kol took a bit longer to explain this part, since he was only going off of what he had been able to piece together over the years.
"Katerina wasn't the first vampire to try to uncover the origin of her bloodline. Even with Niklaus searching for revenge on her, she sought out Mary Porter in the New World around 1864. That was when she found out Mary Porter knew nothing of what she was talking about… In the process, she all but led Niklaus to where Mary Porter was and he found the same thing," Despite himself, Kol then gave an amused snicker.
"From there, it didn't take him much to piece together that Elijah, Rebekah, nor him had anything to do with turning Rose. Niklaus came after me with a dagger and my own bottle of white oak ash since it was a vampire from my bloodline that ruined his hybrid ritual. I spent fifty years running from him while he chased me under the pretense he was only doing it to protect me from our father before he finally caught me. Meanwhile, Katerina went to hiding in Mystic Falls knowing that was the last place I would show up while running from Niklaus and met the Salvatores."
Kol gave a slight sigh at the long winded speech before finishing with one last statement, "And the rest from there I believe you are already familiar with."
Author's Note: So who's mind just got blown?!
Okay my Kolies, let me know what you think! I want to hear your thoughts on the road trip and Kol coming clean about his history with Maggie's family.
Also, we got a little nod to my TWD season three fans in this chapter (But sorry, nope, I'm not going to touch it again in this story).
Next chapter, visiting the farmhouse and Maggie sorting out how to take Kol's story.
Review responses –
Thesummersky: I could definitely see a friendship of sorts forming between Maggie and Stefan since they can commiserate over being rippers and Stefan is definitely a little more level headed at times than Kol and Damon.
Yes, Kol's mood swings are intense because he's trying really hard to sort himself out and now with this chapter we see why. He's struggling with the fact he's been after this bloodline for so long wanting to destroy it while also being interested in Maggie. And actually if you think about it, there aren't very many vampires that Maggie knows. Just the Salvatores, Elena (which she wouldn't be too upset to see her die), and Carol, which was the main one she wanted to protect.
IrishBeauty: The brawl was because of the tension between the two of them. Kol has beat up and snapped Damon's neck numerous times and Kol was mad about the way Maggie's transition was being handled. The next chapter we'll see how Maggie handles seeing her house and I promise there'll be a pretty epic Kolie moment during the return trip!