"I got the sunset in my pocket,
And I'm not afraid to use it.
Now I'm feeling superhuman.
That's the point of the illusion . . .
. . . I'm the man on demand 'round here
I'm the man 'round here

Baby, you can't stomp me out.
You know you can't even slow me down.
You know I spread this wild around,
So if you're sure, you better shoot me now."

Stomp Me Out: Bryce Fox

Lafayette Cemetery was massive, maybe one of the biggest cemeteries in New Orleans. I didn't know because it was the only one we went to, but it was bigger than any cemetery I had ever been to. That was saying a lot because the place my parents were buried, along with most of the Founding Families in Mystic Falls and then some, was rather massive.

I wasn't really dressed for the occasion, though I did wear some wedge booties instead of actual heels. A burgundy dress, ripped tights, and a military jacket, I felt awesome. I didn't feel like the sweet and innocent Darcy who couldn't take care of herself.

I was vampire Darcy, with my magic stronger than ever, and while I hadn't activated my werewolf curse, I did have it inside, just in case. As if being an Original vampire with access to magic wasn't reason enough, let's just add in the werewolf gene, entirely for fun.

"Why is your playhouse in the middle of a cemetery?"

Kol climbed out of the rental SUV behind me, closing the door the moment he was clear of it, and he took a deep breath. His eyes weren't on me but instead the cemetery around us, a place that surely brought back some memories.

"It was easy to hide in the middle of all the graves and tombs," he said, though the words were distant, lost to the memories.

"What's inside?"

That snapped him back, at least enough that he looked at me. "It was a place that a couple of witches I used to run with could do the magic I told you about, kemiya. They created many dark objects for me over time, though I don't imagine they're still inside."

My eyebrows furrowed. "How, if she sealed it?"

"She sealed it, but I don't think she just left the objects inside," he admitted. "They were powerful enough that they could change the tide of war. She wasn't stupid enough to seal them away, surely."

There was a lot of history in this place, Mikaelson family history, and maybe if things were different, we could've stayed behind and explored it, but this wasn't time to learn. This wasn't a chance to explore and see the world. It was something that had to be done, to save the twins from the Gemini before they could find a way to murder them.

History could wait, at least the history that had to be seen and not spoken of.

I buried my hands in my pockets and took a deep breath. "You know, when you told me you had a playhouse, you wanna know what my first thought was?"

The corners of his lips curled into a smirk, to match the devious glow inside of his warm eyes. "I actually really do."

"What made you decide to call it that?"

He shrugged, but his eyes told a different story than just a nonchalant response. This place meant something to Kol, as it had obviously been a big part of his life in New Orleans. "A lot of fun stuff happened there. I supervised witches making dark objects for me, which got me the closest to using magic since I turned."

I didn't mean to smirk, didn't mean to study every detail of his face, but I couldn't help it. I knew Kol Mikaelson fairly well, and if he had a place called his playhouse, I wasn't going to believe it was merely a place he and some witches created dark objects.

"Uh huh."

His eyebrows raised on his forehead, though his smirk pressed together into something less bright, with far less arrogance. "What are you looking at me like that for?"

I didn't want to seem petty and silly because if I thought too much about it, I'd feel horrible and insecure and utterly ridiculous. There was no way to know just how many stunning women Kol had met and been with over the years, yet somehow, none of them had made the impact that I did.

I was secure in that, that I was the only woman Kol had ever loved, the only woman he would ever love, but that didn't mean I was comfortable thinking about it. That didn't mean I liked knowing that there had been other women in his life, surely far better looking than I could ever hope to be.

Let's just stop that right now.

It was wrong to think that way. His past was just that, and now, it was time to look at the future, our future. We were pretty much permanently attached to one another, and not even because of the twins. They were just an added bonus.

Being petty and ridiculous made me feel stupid enough, but to be that way in front of his brothers? I couldn't imagine a more horrifying thought, so instead of letting the thoughts get to me, I just let my smirk widen and started walking a bit, though I didn't make any turns without knowing exactly where to go.

"For your own sake, Kol, I do hope that your fun was limited to things of a magical nature," I heard Klaus tell him, though his tone sounded more amused than anything else. "She will find out before the day is over if it wasn't, I'm sure."

I heard a breath pass through Kol, one that almost sounded like a scoff, but when I spun back to face him, there was a massive grin across his lips. "Is that what this is?"

"Oh, are you really gonna go there?" I folded my arms over my chest. "You threatened to kill an entire restaurant full of people!"

I saw something bright, resembling a flame that had just been ignited, but it was masked behind arrogance, behind the pieces of Kol that found pleasure in being so wanted by someone that she might dare want him all to herself. "Not the worst thing I've done in my life. Actually, the thing that got this tomb sealed was me slaughtering half of a church pariah."

My jaw dropped momentarily, but it occurred to me what he was doing, turning the subject around entirely so that he didn't have to answer the unspoken question. "And then what was it you said? 'The only reason Damon's still alive is because you care about him.'"

The poor attempt I had at mimicking his accent only made him laugh harder, even had Elijah and Klaus laughing in the moment. "You're horrible at accents, darling. Maybe you'll get better over time."

"Hold up a minute." Klaus cut his laughter off, holding a single hand up, but his eyes were absolutely glowing with a dark humor that was familiar to him. "You slept with Damon Salvatore?"

I saw the corners of Kol's eyes tighten, but seriously? He did not want to start with me. If he was changing the subject, what exactly was this playhouse of his? Were we going to go inside and find evidence of some of the sexual horrors he had mentioned, such as making a woman drink the blood of her friend?

Probably not because he ran with witches in the playhouse, and they couldn't be compelled. I was honestly surprised that they wanted anything to do with him since most witches I had come across hated vampires, especially the Original family of them.

Then again, there was Greta and Maddox, who worked with Klaus to break his hybrid curse, and then Luka and his father, who worked with Elijah to save Greta from something she didn't need saving from. Witches weren't all so loyal and bound to the spirits that they just hated vampires.

Prisca and Shea were absolutely perfect examples of that.

"Yeah, long time ago." I let my smirk widen, which narrowed his eyes further. "Maybe I'm just drawn in by darkness because this was when he was still killing a lot of people."

His lips pressed. "Do you want me to kill him?"

"No." That was absolutely the last thing I wanted, but I knew that no matter how much we talked about this, Kol would never actually kill him. I wouldn't put it past him to torment him some more, or maybe compel him to forget all about it—I was genuinely surprised he hadn't already—but in the end, he wouldn't kill him because I cared about him.

Still, for Damon's sake, it was probably best that we stopped talking about it.

Klaus had other ideas, however, and his smile was arrogant. Everything about his body language spoke of the arrogance of the youngest two Mikaelson brothers. Finn and Elijah were more proper, less arrogant in their ways, but Klaus and Kol were absolutely arrogant and smug any chance they got.

"What is it about Damon Salvatore that women are so crazy about?" he asked, and his eyes darted from his brother's pissed off expression to my own.

I rubbed my dry lips together and used my tongue to wet them, to cause less friction between them. "Um, well, for me, I was drunk, tired of my friends telling me I needed to get laid because of my dormant werewolf curse making me angry all the time, and Damon was trying to get over my sister."

His brow scrunched. "So he slept with her twin sister . . . ?"

I held my hands up. "I don't know. I didn't question it. I just rolled with it." I focused on Kol now, whose mind was clearly trying to stay focused, trying to not think about everything that was currently being spoken about. "Hey, you changed the subject."

"What does it matter?" he asked, with a bit more bitterness than I think he intended. The moment the question was practically barked out at me, a soft sigh followed, and he was suddenly in front of me, reaching out to touch the skin of my face. "She died decades ago, I'm sure."

"Ah ha!" His eyes widened more than my smirk could, and I just patted the side of his face lightly. "That's all I wanted to know, if that was why it really called your playhouse."

"No. That's just what it became. Once." He let out a loud groan, and his hand fell back down by his side. "We've really gotten off track."

That was a fair point. This was not the time or place for this. Right now, we needed to do what we came for and get back to Phoenix before the Gemini had a chance to find the home, without us there to defend them any way we could.

They were just vampires. Killing them would be easy enough for a powerful coven of witches.

Kol led the way with memory alone, without missing a turn or having to think back. I wondered how many times he had gone there before Klaus daggered him, but he probably couldn't even count. I imagined it was probably a safe house of sorts for him.

He pulled the heavy stone door of the tomb open, but I was the first to step inside. Had the spell somehow still been up, I at least would've been able to remove it. It wasn't how we wanted it to go because Marcel didn't need to know anything more about me than he already did, but we would do whatever it took to protect the twins.

There was a much larger space than I imagined when we stepped into the large tomb. It was . . . nothing that I expected, though maybe I should have. This was like the strangest looking science lab I had ever seen, with outdated equipment that still somehow seemed better than anything a school science lab might have. More than the scientific equipment scattered about on counters, there were objects, things that didn't necessarily seem "magical" in nature more than they just seemed like cultural objects, artifacts collected over time that only someone who had an infinite amount of time could amass.

I turned back to Kol with widened eyes, whose smile was marvelous. I hadn't really thought about how much he might have missed this place, and I wasn't entirely sure it was the place. It might've been the memories, the dark objects which allowed him to get the closest to magic he had been since turning. I almost felt bad about the fact that I could still use magic, as I'd gladly give my siphoning up and to Kol if it was possible.

I enjoyed being able to use magic, to be able to defend myself and my family, but if Kol could have the same ability to defend our family, I'd give it up somehow, if I could.

To bring my wandering thoughts back in, I gave Kol the best smile I could, but in the middle of the room we were in, it was simply made more apparent how much different Kol and I really were.

He had a thousand years of life and experience behind him, and what did I have? I was eighteen years old and somehow suddenly one of the most powerful immortal creatures in existence. I wasn't stronger than the rest of the Originals, not physically, but would that change when I activated my werewolf curse?

I didn't know when it became certain in my mind that I would, but I jumped far away from the thought and focused on the differences, focused on my lack of life and experience that he didn't have. He had lived so many lifetimes, and I was still on my first.

"This place has more culture than I do in my left pinkie," I informed him, though I gave him the best smirk I could.

"You're young, love." His eyes were bright, illuminating all the dark thoughts that had started racing in the back of my mind until they vanished into memories. I loved that he could do that, make me forget all the bad even if just for a moment in time. "You'll get there. I'll see to it myself when this is all over."

There it was again, another reminder of the forever that we had in front of us. It had my smile coming out across my face so widely that I wondered if it would've stung my cheeks had I been human, but I wasn't anymore. I was a vampire who could smile as widely as I wanted, whenever I wanted.

The smile was short lived, however, because suddenly, I heard it. I heard a sound that I wasn't prepared to hear, the sound that I didn't think of trying to tune out with the rush of everything else going on. We had come early in the morning, hoping to avoid any people who might come along, but I could hear it, the sound of a heart beating loud inside of someone's chest.

It wasn't a normal beat, that of someone simply passing by. It pounded inside someone's chest, thickening their pulse and thumping against the veins to the point that it was almost an echo inside of my mind.

I had to swallow the saliva building up inside my mouth, and my eyes darted to the entrance of the room, towards the source of the sound.

The woman who stood there could barely be called a woman. I wondered if she was even eighteen. She just looked so young and innocent, wearing a white dress with dark hair that fell lightly down her shoulders, but there was darkness in her eyes that didn't make sense for someone her age.

What had happened to her? What made her so hostile all of the sudden?

It wasn't until Marcel stepped into view as well that I realized something was going wrong, something we hadn't accounted for.

This was a trap.

A/N: When I sent this chapter to my little sister for her to read, she got so mad at me for not already having the next chapter written up. Apparently it's a cliffhanger? :)

Read, review, and most importantly, enjoy!