Note: I do not own TWD or TVD… just having fun.
Chapter Songs:
Linkin Park – Shadow of the Day
Scene: The Farmhouse
Rob Thomas – All That I Am
Scene: The Rainstorm
Chapter Thirty-eight
"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."
Maggie's mind reeled as she stared at the Original in front of her, trying to make sense of everything that was Kol Mikaelson. In this moment, he wasn't just the dangerous young man with a wicked charm about him. He transcended his simple appearances. There was an ancient and refined predator underneath that exterior.
He also wasn't just the mysterious vampire that had taken an interest in her since she arrived in Mystic Falls. He was more than just the one that was able to whisk her away from the worries and stresses of everything. He was more than just the one that given her an option, a way to avoid permanent death and looked over her in the process. He was the one that pulled her back from the edge when she wanted nothing more to than to jump over it. He kept her sane that night and the day after.
But, now it was all being completely thrown in her face. She stood before him realizing the whole reason she was here in the first place circled back to him. It was because of Kol that Rosemarie survived that sacrifice, starting that branch of the vampire bloodline and allowing Rose's face to carry through time. It was because of that resemblance that Damon ever kidnapped her in the first place. She could almost live with that fact, but it chilled her to hear the way he so casually spoke about hunting down and destroying her entire ancestry. Apparently he had been successful on many accounts, too.
His explanation countered everything she had begun to accept about him. The idea that he spent three centuries tracking her down specifically and her family threw her completely. She wasn't upset at the loss of Rose, which was one vampire that she never knew from a time too long ago to matter to her. But she didn't know what to think of Kol trying to wipe out her entire family. Should it bother her? She just had a hard time trying to believe and understand it all. He spoke as if he wanted nothing more than kill her, but most of his actions since he got to Mystic Falls said otherwise. She knew he was dangerous and had little regard for others, but he never seemed to direct that at her.
Kol stared at Maggie, trying to read anything from her, but her expression was pulled into the deadpanned, calculating gaze that she seemed to master so perfectly well. The tree burned next to them, the branches engulfed in flames as a few more fell to the ground. There would be nothing left of it.
The silence itched at him.
Kol stepped forward to her and his eyes softened to plead with her, "Say something, Maggie." Anyone else he figured would have stomped off screaming and shouting or run away. The natural thing would have been to run away. But instead, she didn't back down from him and she just took it all in. He wasn't sure if that unsettled him further or relieved him.
His voice stirred her to really look at him, but only answered him in a detached tone. "What's there to say, Kol? You were the one person I thought didn't care about my ancestry and it turns out you wanted to kill me all this time."
Kol's gaze dropped from her face. She had him there. A few words came up to his throat. He could say that he didn't know who she was when he told her that in the Grill, but he didn't. It really wouldn't change much now and it just sounded like an excuse to him.
Maggie turned away from him and looked in the direction of her house. "I think I'm going to walk from here," She stated, the meaning clear in her voice that she wanted to be alone while she had a chance to think.
Kol just nodded absently and didn't make any move to stop her as she began to walk away from him. When she was starting to descend the hill, he pulled his hands roughly out of his pockets and ran them through his hair as he turned around towards the SUV. He closed his eyes and clenched his jaw tightly, trying to make sense of everything himself.
Why did it matter so much to him that he may have just completely alienated her? The urge to tell her the origin of her bloodline stemmed from the admiration he had for her choosing to ensure the safety of not just her family, but his family as well in the process. But he just kept going after that and spilled everything.
He shouldn't care what she thought, he tried to tell himself.
Maggie tried to sort through Kol's story as her feet carried her down the familiar gravel road. She barely saw the stones before her eyes as she folded her arms over her chest. She didn't need or want to look around at the land. It was ruined, physically and emotionally, just like her.
She went back to the beginning, thinking about the fact her ancestors had been involved in any sort of werewolf ritual to begin with. It made her think of the eldest Original and she frowned as she focused on the fact he scattered her family, in protection of some sorts. She supposed that's what Elijah really meant when he told her he took an interest in all of his investments. Either way, she concluded she had been doomed the moment he got involved with her family line.
She was a doppelganger and there was no changing that fact at this point, with or without Kol's involvement. Maybe Niklaus would have still come after her too, from the sounds of things he probably would have if he ever figured out the true nature of the ritual.
It was still hard to wrap her head around the fact her family immigrated to the United States and their presence in Georgia had likely all been arranged by a thousand year old vampire. Did that invalidate their human experience? She wasn't sure. Her family purchased this land and cultivated through their hard work and diligence. They took pride in their heritage and making a life for themselves in America. The fact it all may have been prearranged and predetermined unsettled her.
"Talk about identity crisis," Maggie grumbled to herself bitterly.
The sound of tires crunching gravel gained closer to her and headlights lit the way against the overcast sky. She didn't bother looking up as the SUV slowly crept by and she knew that Kol was watching her. He didn't stop though and she was appreciative of that. He continued on up the way to park near the house.
Thoughts of Kol were pushed away from her with the first wave of it carried in the breeze. Her throat tightened up immediately at the intensity of the foul smell causing her to look up as she came across the first couple of bodies. They were weathered and dry, some more mutilated than others. Corpses were a better term for them, they had long since ceased to be people. All of them were struck down and unmoving with fatal head wounds, the only way to take down a walker. Others were ripped apart or flattened in various ways from the night they had used the vehicles to help plow them down.
Her face twisted into disgust as she looked at the land she had once played on and rode horses had become an unceremonious mass grave. Her eyes wandered over to the barn as she neared the house. It lay in a crumpled heap of burnt wood. Every now and then she could catch a hint of the charcoal in the air, mixed with the dried blood, infectious rotting wounds, and filth words could never properly describe. She knew under the twisted heap of the wood, there were the charred remains of the walkers that Rick and Carl had torched on the way out. Next to it, she could see the distorted remains of the RV. The beige was blackened by the smoke, especially on the one-side where she guessed the gas tank must have caught afire after they fled.
Kol stood by the door of the SUV as his eyes darted around the scene before him. His face was grim, but he didn't say anything. Mentally, he was trying to piece together his version of what could have happened here. He wasn't going to ask her and force her to recall it. She was already walking through it enough as it was.
Maggie stopped as she took in the sight of her house. The windows had been boarded up and many of the planks yanked away roughly from the frames. Stray bullet holes riddled the wood siding. The railing of the porch was splintered and broken. The front door was busted from the hinges and the screen door was a torn mess. She took a deep breath, casting a glance at Kol and gave him a short nod.
Silently, Kol followed her lead as they went up the porch steps and to the door. He didn't sense anything moving in this place. It was still as the tomb it represented. It had been too long since anything living had been here to draw any appeal from the undead.
Stepping into the house, Maggie was hit with a triple front assault. On one hand, there were the memories that bubbled up in her mind of her family and the outbreak, but then there was reality. She would see the living room that her family would gather around and listen to Otis playing the guitar. One blink, she would see the sofa that Dale slept on, the sleeping bags on the floor for Andrea and T-Dog. Another blink, there was the room full of overturned furniture. The black dried blood smears along the walls and the floors from the walkers that got in. The disorderly mess of possessions they had left behind in the panic.
The kitchen she remembered listening to her mother hum over the dishes became the same kitchen her and Lori were discussing what to do about Beth's suicide attempt, but now it was empty and ransacked.
The dining room that Hershel had given prayer at before every meal became the same discussion about whether or not it was safe to let the survivors stay within the house, but now the table was gone where it had been used to barricade a door and the remnants of where Daryl and Carol slept remained.
Kol moved through the rooms quickly, sizing them up and glancing them over. He didn't stray far away from Maggie though, especially as he sensed her struggle increase. She faltered in each room. He saw the way she took it all in numb silence and then her eyes swirled with emotion. She wandered back into the living room and he wondered just how much of this she could take.
Carefully, he reached out to touch her shoulder to get her attention. She jumped slightly at the contact, apparently almost forgetting he was there at all. Kol frowned at the tortured look in her eyes. "What can I do?" He asked of her softly.
Maggie blinked and tried to snap out of it, but it really was a futile attempt. "Right… there should be some boxes you can dump out in the storage under the stairs," She tried not to grimace too much as she looked around them.
Kol nodded quickly, "What do you want me to pack?" He tried to keep her attention on him and keep her focused.
Maggie closed her hands, an anxious hand tugging slightly at her hair as it ran through. "Pictures, on the walls or the mantle," She then gestured vaguely at the packs on the ground, "Wallets, photographs, anything personal like that… I'll take care of upstairs."
Maggie barely noticed the reassuring squeeze on her shoulder before Kol moved away in the direction she instructed him. In all the sorrow she had felt in the past few months, nothing compared to hollow feeling in her as she stood in this house. She moved at a human pace up the stairs and towards the bedrooms, knowing they would be the hardest part.
She thought she couldn't break and feel the pain any further than the empty pit in her chest, but it tore at her deeper with each room she walked into.
There was Beth's room, where she remembered springs of times when her sister still sang. Now there was the splintered frame of her bathroom and the broken mirror she had used against herself.
For a moment, she heard Hershel's footsteps going down the hallway as she left one room and went for another. It was like the times he came home late at night and ended up sleeping off his slip up on the couch. But then reality reminded her it was just Kol she heard and her father would never have a normal stride again.
There was the guest room, where she remembered so many times that Jimmy stayed while her step mother kept a sharp eye on him. It was also the room Carl barely clung onto life when Otis accidentally shot him. Now it was just in disarray with only a ghost of the life that used to radiate through the house.
Maggie pulled down some suitcases from the attic and took the first one into her parents' bedroom. She took down the pictures on the walls and the ones along the dresser. She found some of her mother's pieces that had been stowed away, knowing Beth deserved them. Maggie felt sick to her stomach as she moved. She grabbed the old family photo album from the closet and the family genealogy.
She went into the hallways, taking down the pictures from family trips and distant relatives she would never see again.
Kol didn't rush her in the slightest. She could hear him moving about in the house and even disappeared outside for a length of time. Faintly, she thought she heard the groan of metal bending, but she didn't stir from her thoughts. Especially when she went to her bedroom.
The room was just a shell of the woman that had died. The once lime green walls were faded and the furniture in the room casted dark shadows from the overcast sky through the window. Her eyes passed over the photographs of her and her friends, particularly the ones she went to high school with. She thought about taking them, but she only dismissed it. What was the point of holding onto someone she would never be again?
The only thing she decided to pack from her room was her clothing. Maybe it was small and really trivial, but that was the one thing she could imagine taking. She was tired of wearing clothing that had been some other dead person's or raided from a store god knows where. She paused in her packing to change clothes, finding a familiar pair of jeans and a tank top that fit her. She found a pair of her boots as well, tucking the jeans into them and finishing off with tucking the Beretta into her waistband behind her again. Before discarding her previous clothes, she transferred what was in the pockets to her jeans.
Maggie stuffed the suitcase full and forced the zip to shut. Grimly, she took one last look at the room she had grown up in before taking the bag and walking out of it. She picked up the second suitcase as she moved down the hallway. She was descending the stairs, carrying the heavy suitcases with ease in each hand when she spotted Kol coming back through the front door.
He had a stack of papers, which looked like photographs and a couple of books. She immediately caught the smoky scent coming from them. Maggie stop mid-step as she stared at the belongings in his hands. Kol looked up quietly from them and halted at the startled expression in her eyes.
She immediately recognized Dale's Bible. The old man always had that thing out, rereading it day after day. There was only place he could've gotten that from.
Her thoughts immediately went to Jimmy and how he had driven the RV over to the barn to save Rick and Carl. "Did you find anyone?" Maggie was afraid to ask, but they never had a chance to bury Jimmy, Patricia or Andrea.
Kol paused, thinking back to how he pried open the RV door. The air was thick and heavy from the foul stench and the flies in the air. There had been a few walkers with head wounds and maggots all over them, they didn't look like they belonged on a farm. There was one corpse that had been pulled apart and stripped down to the bones, exposing the ribcage. He could only barely tell it had been male at one point. There was nothing recognizable about it.
Kol shook his head.
Maggie let out a defeated sigh and nodded. He kept moving down the hallway to put the items he found in the box with the other items. She wasn't an optimistic idiot, she knew they had been literally ripped apart by the walkers and that was a year ago. It wasn't that she didn't want to pay her respects to Patricia and Andrea, but she just knew there wouldn't be anything to find outside.
She left the bags by the front door and wandered into the living room again. Kol was picking up two boxes, which were quite full and heavy, but didn't take much effort for the vampire to carry. "I'll get the bags," He offered to her quietly and Maggie just nodded.
She wrapped her arms around herself as she looked around the room, remembering the family holidays that would never be had here again. Even the rainy days that she would just sometimes sit and watch the water drip down the window panes would never be the same. Each memory played before her mind with such clarity, partly thanks to her new nature. It was like some sort of sick movie having the memories but the cold reality in front of her.
Faintly, she heard the opening and closing of the SUV doors. Kol returned quietly for the suitcases and carried out the last of the items they were taking back with them. He left her alone in the house and waited by the vehicle.
When Maggie finally emerged from the house, she stopped on the porch. She looked at the window she used to sneak through late at night in high school to avoid her father hearing her coming in by the screech of the screen door. She looked out at the land before her, the burnt remains of the barn and the dead fields full of corpses were just a mockery of the once beautiful home.
"Is there any gasoline left?" Maggie questioned, realizing the decision she made in that moment.
Kol's eyebrows rose as he turned to her. Maggie's expression was pulled into what was becoming her signature detached expression, but he saw a hint of determination in her eyes. "I suppose we can spare a bit, but we'll have to stop and siphon some along the way," Kol answered hesitantly as he quickly thought about their supplies.
Maggie nodded barely, "That's fine."
Kol recovered quickly enough and moved to the trunk of the SUV, pulling out one of the red canisters that were still mostly full. He walked up to Maggie on the porch, who remained unmoving and distant emotionally. "Are you sure about this?" He asked as he held out the canister to her, just for a brief moment wondering if he misunderstood her.
Maggie reached out to the canister, placing a hand on it, but Kol didn't let go immediately. She looked up to meet him in the eyes before declaring, "The people my family used to be died the night we fled. There's nothing for us to come back to here." At least not in this lifetime, she thought bitterly to herself. Maybe someday she could return, but never for Beth and Hershel.
Kol's fingers slipped away from the canister and he backed off. He waited by the front of the SUV while Maggie disappeared back into the house. She started spreading the gasoline in the kitchen, trailing it through the dining room and into the living room before going down the main hallway and out the front door. The last of it dripped down the front porch steps. The sharpness of the fuel was enough to cloud out the smell of death and decay just for a little bit.
She dropped the canister to the side as she took a deep breath and reached into her pocket for the matchbook from earlier.
Her hands shook as she tore out a match. She looked up one last time at the house, mentally saying her last goodbye to the only place she had ever called home.
The match struck against the lighter strip and a moment later the first flames flickered to life along the front porch. Maggie backed up slowly and watched as the trail of flames continued on through the front door and onto the first floor.
It had been dry here lately and the wood caught easily along with the soft fabrics of everything else inside.
Her shoulders sagged and her arms hung limply by her sides as she watched the flames grow with each passing moment. Her home brightened with each second, becoming radiant in its destruction and she just watched. She could tear her eyes away for a moment.
Time had no meaning as she watched each flame burn another piece, searing into her now eternal memory to never be forgotten. The image of the paint flaking away and the windows beginning to fill with black smoke would never fade away from her.
The first floor was taken with flames and she could tell it was beginning to reach the bedrooms within when Kol stepped in front of her. His dark features contrasted sharply with the yellow and oranges of the fire behind him. It was only then she was aware of the hot tears that trailed down her cheeks silently.
Wordless, he reached forward with his arms and pulled her against his chest, embracing her tightly. For a moment, Maggie closed her eyes at the contact and stiffened. But be damn with it, she thought, she had a long and likely awkward car ride that she could sort out what was going to happen between her and Kol. She reached up to wrap her arms around him, thinking right now she just needed that one person who could keep her afloat in all this. Her hands bunched up the material of his jacket as she clutched and continued to watch the burning farmhouse over his shoulder.
Kol remained silent as he held her, one arm wrapped tightly around her waist and the other hand rubbing gently along her back. He frowned thoughtfully while he listened to her few sniffles, but no sobs ripped through her. While it didn't look like it, he had to admire her strength in this moment. It had taken him and his siblings a long time before they could face Mystic Falls again after what they did to their village.
Maggie leaned into his neck as she listened to the shattering of glass from within the house, the splintering and breaking of wood. The fire crackled and hissed angrily as it devoured the home with an unforgiving hunger. She didn't flinch when the heat and smoke broke through the second story windows, billowing out viciously.
"It's time to move on," Kol finally whispered into her ear gently. She knew he didn't mean just moving before the smoke drew unwanted attention either.
Kol only paused at the end of the Greene property to pull out the maps and figure out a new route as they sat in the SUV. Maggie didn't let herself turn around, just allowing Kol to quietly shepherd her into the vehicle after his parting words in front of the house.
He flicked on the overhead light and squinted down at the highways, crossing off the one they came down and tracing a new one, further east from the mountains. He commented briefly about likely having to stop and move abandoned cars out of the way, but there would at least be some fuel in them. Maggie barely listened to him, her vacant stare was out the window.
The ride was mostly silent as Maggie just tried to process everything. It felt like some sick nightmare as her eyes would flicker to the side mirror and see the black smoke rising from the direction of her farm the further and further they drove away from it. Sometimes they passed walkers on the road, heading in the direction of it with only mild interest and then they would struggle to decide between following the SUV or continuing on.
Kol kept his eyes mostly on the road with a similar controlled expression. If she didn't know better, she would have guessed he had an air of indifference about him. But as much as he could pretend, she doubted this didn't affect him. The atmosphere in the vehicle was tense, as if the very air was waiting for Maggie to breathe and react.
Sparely, she would ask him a question as the hours ticked by between them.
"So does Klaus know about ritual?" She asked him at one point while trying to piece together her understanding of everything and how it came to be. She thought back to the night at the boardinghouse, wondering at Klaus' interest in her. But if he knew exactly what she was, she would have thought he would've killed her then and there.
"No, he may have figured out the bloodline, but I wasn't about to squeal that to him," Kol smirked slightly, having more self-preservation than that to explain Elijah's original intentions. "I doubt Elijah has been very forthcoming with the details either."
Maggie nodded. She could understand that, remembering her confrontation with the eldest Original. He certainly had been careful in his words and didn't really leave her much to go with at all. She frowned thoughtfully as they drove, trying to imagine the relationship between the two brothers and just how estranged it must have been for Elijah to consider something that could potentially kill his brother. Furthermore, that tree that stood on her family's property was a statement in itself.
Maggie was nearly catatonic as she sat in the passenger seat through the ride. At first, it concerned Kol, wondering if she was trying to shut off her emotions and push it all away. But the stormy brew of thoughts in her eyes told him otherwise. If she really just shut it off, she would brush it off and not be subdued by it at all.
The next time she asked him a question, they had stopped to push several cars off the road. It was rather easy for the vampires. All it took was a casual yank to break the lock on the driver door, lean in to shift the vehicle into neutral and a push later it was rolling out of the way. It seemed surreal compared to the months she was with the group and how clearing a path would take half the day sometimes while they tried not to make too much noise and kept a wary eye out for walkers.
"Where do you and Klaus stand now?" Maggie had her share of spats with Beth over the years, but she couldn't comprehend the scale of something that would result in being daggered for a century.
"Elijah was the one that un-daggered me," Kol explained with a dark grin, thinking back to the dinner party Niklaus had thrown with the Salvatores when Elijah awoke him. There actually been a moment of fear his brother's eyes when he saw Kol. "Niklaus has had a century to get over it," Kol added, not addressing his persona feelings on the matter.
Maggie didn't ask further about it because everything in Kol's tone of voice said that while Klaus may have deal with it, Kol wasn't as forgiving. She doubted that he would ever kill the hybrid, but she knew he would jump at any opportunity to pay him back in kind.
A slight shift in her demeanor came when the daylight was beginning to fade as they stopped again to siphon gas from other vehicles. It was more time consuming than Kol wished it to be, but after enough strikes, they were able to get the gas necessary to make it back to Mystic Falls.
They were standing at the back of the SUV, loading the now sufficiently full red canisters into the trunk when Maggie stopped after placing in the last one.
"Thank you," She said quietly.
Kol stood up straight and turned to her with a look of confusion, for a moment not sure if he heard her correctly.
"For telling me everything," She said, fidgeting with her fingers slightly as she stood next to him. In spite of everything, she had to recognize the fact he had just come out and told her. She didn't force him to say anything and she didn't find out through bits and pieces or under duress. "I know you didn't have to," She added on.
Kol's expression eased slowly and he opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Instead, he just gave a nod of acknowledgement. She knew that was his way of saying 'You're welcome'. He wasn't really the type to just come right out and say it.
Maggie slipped away and returned to the passenger seat. Kol remained behind a moment as he closed the trunk, staring aimlessly at his hands in thought. He was thrown. Once again she was thanking him for something that didn't deserve it.
Accepting her family history and the bloodline of almost every vampire she knew was nothing compared to trying to sort out what it meant for her and Kol now. She had her suspicions that it was Kol's bloodline from her talk with him on her porch and the information that Jeremy relayed from the ghosts. That was the easiest truth for her to wrap her head around.
The family was another hard part. On one hand, she knew she should have been angry with him for hunting down and killing her relatives. She was always fiercely loyal to her family today. The only problem was she had a hard time trying to connect those same emotions to relatives so distant she didn't even know they had existed at one point. It was hard enough trying to form any emotional attachment to the names written down in her family genealogy book, never mind ones that had been in Germany and Greece at some point between three and five centuries ago.
What caught her attention was the fact that today, even though at some point he had become aware of her ancestry, Beth and Hershel were still fine. For someone who claimed to want to wipe out her entire bloodline, as far as she knew not a single hair had been harmed on either of her remaining mortal family members.
That was when Maggie started to make the distinctions in her mind between the story Kol told her and her Kol. That Kol claimed to want to kill her, but her Kol never raised a hand against her, even when she struck and provoked him. Her Kol had been there the night she died to give her another option. Her Kol pulled her back when she was falling. Her Kol was beginning to make her believe being a vampire could be manageable after all.
When the night fell, more than just darkness fell with it. The first few drops were heavy and formidable as they splattered against the windshield. Kol frowned slightly as his eyes narrowed on the road, noticing the way the branches and foliage were beginning to stir with more agitation. They were somewhere in North Carolina as far as Maggie could tell with the rainstorm quickly caught up with them.
Maggie sighed, recalling a few road trips over the years and cutting through North Carolina. Even with weather prediction, the occasional spring and summer rainstorm cutting down from the mountains was rather heavy.
The rate of raindrops picked up quickly within twenty minutes and the windshield wipers struggled to keep up with the assault of water. Kol's knuckles tightened slightly on the steering wheel and she glanced to see a hint of irritation in his expression. Between the darkness and the rain impeding them, it forced him to slow down considerably.
With a slight huff, Kol slowed the vehicle to a stop and pulled over slightly on the road, not that there was any traffic to block. Maggie sat upright in the seat at the stop as he threw the SUV into park.
"What are you doing?" Maggie asked.
Kol cut off the headlights and turned the key, killing the engine before gesturing in front of him. "I can barely see through this. Might as well wait it out instead of risking being wrapped around a tree," Kol declared casually, apparently not bothered by delaying the return to Mystic Falls even further. He reached down to his seat and adjusted it lean back further.
"Besides, I haven't had proper sleep in days and you know what they say about sleep deprivation," He smirked innocently while shifting in his seat to get more comfortable.
Maggie rolled her eyes, thinking it takes more than just sleep deprivation to get to the level of crazy he's at. "You know, I could drive if you need rest," Maggie offered, also remembering how ridiculous it was for someone who was only around during the era of horses and buggies to do all the driving.
"And guarantee being hopelessly lost? No thanks," Kol replied cheekily.
Maggie shot him a glare and shook her head. Typical male, she thought to herself, even the thousand year old ones had too much pride to receive help or god forbid stop and ask for directions.
Maggie tried to relax in her seat as Kol leaned his head back and closed his eyes. The vehicle was silent, save for the pattering of the rain against the windshield and the roof. She stared aimlessly out the window into the darkness, which she had to admit even with their vision was rather difficult in the heavy rain.
"Have you ever been an aspiring artist?" Kol broke her from her thoughts, only his mouth moving as he remained still.
"What? No," Maggie replied quickly in confusion at the randomness of the question.
"Great, don't start now," Kol said cheerily.
Maggie frowned and looked down at herself, then she realized that her fingers were tapping anxiously against the frame of the door. Freezing at being caught, she pulled her hand back and with a slight huff folded her arms over her chest. "Jerk," She muttered softly.
Kol just smirked without even bothering to open his eyes.
Maggie tossed and turned in her seat quite a bit before she was able to settle down. She tried to focus on the sound of the rain and less on her thoughts, which had been plaguing her throughout this entire trip. Eventually, she managed to close her eyes, nodding off for a bit at a time here and there before real sleep finally overcame her.
Her head was leaning against the glass when she woke up with a sharp inhale. It was still a discerning feeling going to sleep and not needing to breath. Each time she woke up, it was like coming up for air from an ocean of water for the first time. Her eyes fluttered open slowly and she squinted as she noticed there was a lot lighter around them than she fell asleep to.
It was early morning dawn. The rain had relented to only the occasional drop here and there. Stem rose off the pavement and the ground from the heat, creating a thick layer of fog around them. Maggie's eyes widened as she realized they must have slept through the night. She turned her head from side to side, stretching her neck before shifting in her seat to look at Kol.
His arms were folded loosely over his chest and head tilted a bit to the side. He remained completely unmoving with his eyes closed. Any urge to wake him up to continue driving died as she gazed at him. It was the first time she had ever seen him perfectly at ease. His features were relaxed, not hidden behind any smug expression or masked emotions. For once, he just simply looked like the devastatingly handsome young man he was and not some dangerous predator.
Maggie turned on her side in her seat quietly, trying not to disturb him. She took in each of one of his features, her eyes roaming over his closed ones, the angle of his nose, the lines of his jaw, the slight dimple on his chin, and the thin set of his lips. Her face flushed slightly at the memory of those lips on hers and the taste of him. She had to resist the urge to reach out and stroke along his jawline, just to feel his skin.
Kol stirred, as if sensing someone was watching him. He opened his eyes, blinking a few times as he took in the morning light. He turned his head towards Maggie and paused when he found her staring shamelessly back at him. Any snarky comment about letting him sleep the night away ceased with the way she was looking at him.
Maggie didn't look away, even though she had been clearly caught. In fact, she didn't find herself feeling particularly embarrassed either. Kol looked at her with a mix of wonder and curiosity.
"When did you figure who I was?" Maggie broke the silence with a soft whisper, but even then the underline intense feeling the air still remained.
Kol tensed a bit at the question, knowing it would probably come up at some point. For all the questions she had asked, none of them had directly related back to him until now. He didn't answer immediately as he thought back to the moment he knew for sure. It had been with Nikalus and Elijah at the mansion. It was the dinner of the day that Elijah returned, one of the few times the four siblings would all sit down for a meal these days. Niklaus had mentioned the Leavey doppelganger to Elijah, clearly fishing for more information about the ritual. Rebekah didn't care in the least bit about the conversation. Just as did Kol, Elijah didn't give away much, but Elijah wasn't aware that Kol had any knowledge of the doppelganger's significance. That was why Kol had to straighten out his fork underneath the table, out of Elijah's sight, which had been bent to match the groves of his fingers.
"The night before the Founder's celebration," Kol finally answered her, bringing his mind back to the present. He hadn't heard about Niklaus' negotiation with the Salvatores until after the fact when Kol came back to Mystic Falls.
Maggie swallowed thickly, for a brief moment wondering just how close she really had come to losing her head that night when she slapped him. If death was already on his mind, she certainly had made it easy. But yet, she walked away and continued to walk away each time after that. Her mind lingered on the fact he had still taken away to the waterfall and the kiss on the rooftop. The night she swam and danced with him, he had personally delivered her safely to her home afterwards.
"But you changed your mind, didn't you?" Maggie voiced out the only reasonable explanation she had been able to come up with in a slightly hopeful tone.
Kol thought about leaving it alone right then and there. She was pushing to make sense of things that had befuddled him for a quite a bit now. He could look away, dismiss it and they could keep driving on. Instead, her gaze kept him trapped. He nodded once and admitted in a gentle tone, "Yes, you caught my interest."
Maggie inhaled sharply at that one word. Interest. It was so simple, but could be loaded with so many different meanings. Interest could be as brief as admiring a painting before forgetting about it. Interest could be the kind that Elijah spoke of when regarding her family. Interest could be the fascination with an unusual or new toy. But then, interest could take on deeper meanings and ones that she admittedly was a little afraid of because she didn't know how to handle it.
And with Kol, she couldn't be sure what kind of interest he was alluding to.
"When?" She had to know when everything shifted for him, what she had done and what moment it had been.
Kol thought back to all the times he had told himself that he was just going to wait a little longer before killing her. It had been a halfhearted thought each time. She had grabbed his attention and he hadn't been ready to let that go. But since when did he have to justify any of his actions to anyone, he stubbornly thought to himself.
However, as he looked at her, he knew he had really never denied anything she asked of him.
Just when Maggie thought he wasn't going to answer, his gaze dropped slightly as he sighed. "The town square," He stated resolutely.
Maggie thought back to the night with Carl and the walker. More importantly, she remembered the confrontation with Kol and how she got up in his face. That must have been the moment, she figured. "The bon fire," Maggie nodded in understanding.
To her surprise, Kol shook his head in disagreement. "No, before then," He corrected her quietly, thinking how he hadn't even thought about for a moment killing her that night. His mind had already been made up by that point.
Maggie's brow furrowed slightly as she tried to think of the other times she had been in the town square with Kol. The Founder's celebration, she was in the town square when he found her looking for Damon. "When I slapped you?" She questioned the first instance that came to mind. She had metaphorically and literally gotten under his skin in that moment?
The corner of Kol's lip quirked up slightly at the reminder. He had been so livid any mortal had the audacity to strike him. Afterwards, he had found the boldness of her amusing.
She took the small facial reaction as confirmation. Maggie bit the inside of her cheek as she thought about it and her gaze dropped from Kol's face.
"No," His voice pulled her back up and the slight smirk was gone.
The confusion on her face faded into wonder as she felt her throat start to tighten a bit. She could almost feel her undead heart starting to beat faster in her chest. She waited to see if there was any trace of humor or something else in his face, but he remained firm and his gaze bore into her. "But, Kol, that only leaves…" Her voice trailed and she shook her head slightly, her eyes darting away from him a moment.
"When we first met," He finished for her, realizing his interest in her began the day he overheard this feisty woman swearing and flipping off Damon Salvatore. She drew him in from that point on.
Maggie's eyes snapped back to him and she was struck by the sincerity in his expression. Her heart rose into her throat and all of the sudden the air in the vehicle was charged, but suffocating her. She felt her emotions were naked and vulnerable under his gaze. She couldn't hide them from him here.
So Maggie did the one thing she always did when it became too much for her.
"I need some air," She suddenly declared, sitting up stiffly in her seat. She didn't bother waiting for a response or looking back as she reached for the door handle.
She shut the door behind her quickly as she was met by the humid, warm air. It wasn't much of a relief. She almost wished she could still feel the cold as she did when she was human that would slap her with harsh reality. The humidity wasn't enough to bring a sweat to her skin or her hair to cling to her forehead, another reminder that she wasn't human anymore.
Another car door opened and closed behind her, but she didn't turn around. Her fingers rubbed at her eyes and temples, as if trying to wake up from this convoluted ongoing dream.
Kol wasn't the type to allow anyone to run away from him. She confronted him and made him admit to things he had barely acknowledged himself. She wasn't going to get away that easily after that. He walked around the side of the SUV and stared at the profile of her back.
If there was one simple truth he had to take away from this conversation that she made him realize, it was that fact he saw her before he knew who she was. Staring at this young woman, he still saw her, struggling and lost, but more beautiful and powerful in ways she didn't even realize.
He stepped up slowly behind her and she didn't move, her hands remained on her face. She could sense him there, but she didn't want to turn around.
Kol tilted his head to the side slightly as he delicately reached up with stroke a few fingertips down the side of her neck. The touch caused her to tense and shiver a bit as his fingers reached down to her shoulder.
Her fingers began to slip away from her face as he felt both of his hands brush against her shoulders, drawing a chill at the direct skin contact. His hands wrapped gently around her shoulders, his thumbs stroking against her skin, leaving a blaze in their wake.
Maggie clasped her hands tightly in front of her chest, her knuckles white from the tight grip and the rigidness remained in her frame. She closed her eyes when she felt him lean towards her and a soft touch on the side of her neck where his fingers had been.
His hands slide down to her upper arms, almost holding her in place if she decided to bolt. But Maggie realized she couldn't when he began placing soft kisses. One, two and three times she felt his lips on her skin. She closed her eyes and let out a small warning, "Kol…"
It sounded more like a whimper to him. He didn't stop until she broke the contact by turning around to face him. Her eyes were wide, he thought he could actually see some fear in them. But he didn't wait long enough to give her a chance to speak or say anything else, he leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers.
It only took her a moment to realize what was happening and in the next her lips were moving against his. Her reason and worry disappeared as Kol moved his arm to wrap around her waist and pull her against him. The kiss upon the rooftop seemed pale in comparison to this, feeling him with her renew senses. She moaned gently into his mouth as her tongue plunged into his mouth, savoring the taste of him on her lips.
His hand ran up along her spine and to her shoulders, the sensation pushing her restraint even further to the edge. Her fingers knotted in his hair while the other slipped underneath his jacket, feeling his chest through the fabric of his shirt. The digging of her fingers into his scalp caused her back to be pressed up against the side of the SUV a moment later. She didn't care about the Beretta that dug into her lower back as his hands ran down her sides, greedily searching for more flesh by the hem of her tank top.
The hand on his neck reached around to gently stroke her fingers down the length of his jawline as his tongue fought for dominance over her. Her mind began to get fuzzy between the feeling on his hands on her body, the taste of him, and the rising desire that she couldn't distinguish between wanting him sexually and the bloodlust.
She slowly and reluctantly eased back from the kiss, but remained trapped between his body and the car. With a few more soft pecks, she pulled away enough to open her eyes and found him staring back at her. He let out a shaky breath before a confident smirk made its way up on his face.
Her hand remained on his face, reaching back to run through his hair once more while she tried to calm herself down. "What are we doing?" She breathed in a helpless tone, more wondering what in the world she was doing…
Author's Note: One word, Kolie! Do I need to say more?
What do you guys think of Maggie's decision to torch her home, burning another symbol of her humanity?
Okay, serious note here – My updates are going to be coming at a slower rate from now on for two reasons. One, I have a lot of course work and practicum this semester. Second, the last couple of chapters there have been a significant drop in responses/reviews, especially for this late in the story, which is frustrating to spend hours writing these chapters when readers don't bother spending five minutes to leave feedback. So unless there's a sudden increase in demand I'll probably start posting chapters once a week from now on. I'm sorry if it sounds mean, but I have other more important priorities.
(I'm not in any means directing that message to the people who HAVE been posting reviews. I love you all to death and I hope you continue to stick with me.)
Review responses –
IrishBeauty: The reason I decided not to have her bury anyone is because I figured with the way those characters died, they would have been ripped apart and devoured to a point beyond recognition. (It sounds morbid but I thought of that with the episode Daryl was looking for Sophia, they found the camper that hung himself and he pointed out how the legs had been picked clean by the walkers) But yes, you're spot on with the trusting her bit and we'll see her drinking from humans soon… as in possibly the next chapter. ;D
Wileby: Haha yes, it's safe to say that Kol will not be killed in this story. I'm not a huge fan of mass vampire genocide that would wipe out all the main characters.