Chapter 45: What am I now?
Work boots scuffed against the charred floor of what used to be Rodriguez's office. The acrid smell of burnt flesh hung in the air among the smoke and ash. Holding a flashlight in his teeth, the man scoured the room, trying to find the source of the fire. Rodriguez didn't seem the suicidal type, which meant someone else started it.
As an obscure professor of the occult, there weren't many people who knew him and cared enough to kill him. The only lead he had was the record of a meeting in Rodriguez's electronic calendar. A google search of the names brought up the social media pages of two teenagers from Mystic Falls, Virginia. They came a long way from home to talk with Rodriguez and he wanted to know why. The girl didn't seem like a pyro or murderer, she was girly and way into ballet according to her page. But the boy was a loner artist. He was a bit of a red flag. But that didn't explain why he would cross the country to New Mexico to torch a random professor and his office.
Picking through the ashes, his boot scuffed against something solid. Bending down, he lifted the item, the ashes falling away to reveal a book without so much as a scorch mark.
"Magic," he muttered as he opened the book to the page last marked with the built-in ribbon book mark. "So, the loner is a potential hunter." How was he still alive? Rodriguez usually disposed of any hunters, potential or not, that crossed his path.
Turning to the next bookmarked page, he held the book closer to make sure he wasn't misreading the handwritten notes. According to the chicken scratch, Rodriguez had come across an amplifier. If the loner was a hunter, that meant the amplifier had to be the ballerina. Tucking the book under his arm, he pocketed his flashlight, exchanging it for his phone.
"I need to speak to the boss," he said when someone finally answered. "It's important."
…
The shower running faintly behind the closed bathroom door filled the awkward silence between Jeremy and Kol. Sitting at the head of the second double bed, Jeremy absently rested his hand against his right side. He'd already inspected it in the shower; it was completely healed. By Kol's blood.
"Thanks for healing me," Jeremy said after clearing his throat. His gaze didn't stray from the peeling wallpaper on the wall across from the beds. "I know you didn't have to."
"Lucky for you, I'm highly impulsive," Kol said, staring at the rusty sprinkler head over the bed he laid across. He wasn't used to anyone thanking him.
"I suppose it is lucky this time your impulse was to save me rather than kill me." As part of the notorious Original family, it really could have gone fifty-fifty either way.
"I promise you, if you die, it won't be at my hands."
The bathroom door swinging open to reveal Charlotte wearing a deep rose pink sweatshirt with jeans, her wet hair in two French braids, drew both of their gazes away from the motel's decaying features. If it was up to Kol, they'd be staying in another penthouse suite. But Charlotte felt bad whenever he compelled humans to accommodate his requests, so they'd gone with the dodgy motel he could afford with the cash he had on him.
"Hope you left me some hot water," he said, stripping out of his shirt as he moved past her into the bathroom.
Tossing her bloody clothes in a ball in the corner, she crossed the small room and laid across the bed beside Jeremy. She rested the right side of her face in the palm of her hand as she looked up at him, her knee pressing lightly against his leg.
"I think we should tell him," she whispered even though she was sure Kol could hear her even with the water running.
"Tell him what?" Jeremy asked.
"Everything," she said. He'd saved Jeremy's life, healed him with his own blood. And he hadn't pressed for information afterwards. Besides, if they'd trusted him to begin with, he'd have been in that meeting with them and he would have stopped Rodriguez before he even reached for his gun. "I think we can trust him."
With a sigh, Jeremy turned on his side so he faced her, mirroring her.
"You know him better than me. I'll default to your judgement on this." Kol had proven to not be as big of a dick as he'd first assumed.
"You do that a lot," she mused, her gaze connecting with his.
"Because I trust your intuition," he said, his gaze softening as he reached out and moved one of her braids behind her back.
"Telling me that could backfire on you," she said, leaning closer to him.
"Like I said." His lips almost grazed hers as he spoke. "I trust you."
Her heart stuttered in her chest, pushing her to close the minute space between them and stampeding against her ribs when he beat her to it. Soft as silk his lips brushed against hers in a chaste kiss even softer than their first. Then his hand moved to cup the back of her head, and she leaned into his kiss. All her hesitation, and fear of this making things too messy, evaporated with every touch as she realized how badly she wanted this, them.
As their kisses slowed, she pressed her lips against his one last time before pulling back with a smile that matched his.
"I can't believe this is real," he whispered between them, his gaze shifting over her face, pausing on her pink lips as his thumb brushed against her bottom one.
"It's definitely going to take some getting used to," she agreed. They'd been friends for so long, this new territory of feelings was unfamiliar. She wasn't exactly sure how to navigate it. Would things be the same as they always had except with kissing? Or would their whole relationship shift?
"In this immediate moment, we should probably focus on what we want to do with the information Rodriguez gave us today," he said, rolling onto his back. As much as he wanted to forget the world and lose himself in Lottie, they couldn't really afford to ignore the reality that he'd almost died, or how they'd discovered they both might have supernatural potential.
"Do you think we can trust what he said to be the truth?" She asked, turning on her back and winding her fingers through his as she stared up at the ceiling.
"If he was lying, I don't think he'd try and kill us." Why kill them over false information?
She squeezed his hand tighter as flashes of his crumpled body bleeding on the floor flitted through her head. The bathroom door banging open jolted her out of her thoughts.
"Don't you two look cozy," Kol said, strolling across the room, grabbing one of the two chairs at the small table, and dragging it to the foot of the bed they laid across. "Now, before the relationship talk I believe there was mention of finally filling me in on what the bloody hell is going on."
He could have pretended he hadn't heard everything happening on the other side of the very thin motel walls, but that would have wasted time and he had never been one to beat around the bush. Taking a seat, he waited for one of them to begin. Jeremy sat up first, followed by Charlotte.
"I'm a potential hunter of the brotherhood of the five," Jeremy said, causing Kol's eyebrows to rise before he turned his gaze on Charlotte.
"So that's why you wanted to know about them." He should have known her questions didn't stem from mild curiosity but because they affected someone she loved. "Why didn't you just tell me then?"
"You hadn't even met Jeremy yet. Your only reason not to kill him would be because I asked you not to. I didn't want to chance it."
"Fair enough." He couldn't blame her for fearing the worst of him. He hadn't given her any reason to suspect he'd act any differently than she expected. "But for the record, it was more likely I wouldn't have believed you than I would have killed him."
"So, you don't care that I could potentially become a hunter?" Jeremy asked.
"You don't possess a white oak dagger, nor the ash of one, so why should I care? What could you possibly do that would matter to me?" So, he killed a few vampire plebs who could die from a simple wooden stake to the heart. That didn't affect Kol in the least.
"Rodriguez believed the completed Hunter's mark leads hunters to Silas."
Charlotte knew as soon as the name slipped past Jeremy's lips that Kol was familiar with it.
"Did he now?" Kol asked, a shadow falling over his face. That must be why the professor felt justified in attempted murder.
"I have no intention of becoming a hunter, or completing any mark if I do," Jeremy repeated what he'd said to the professor.
"I believe you think that way now. You might feel differently should you ever become a hunter. It's in their DNA not only to despise vampires, but to finish the mark and complete their 'quest' as the idiots of the original brotherhood called it. But I suppose we'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it."
"So, you're not going to try and kill me like the professor did?"
"It'd be a waste since I just saved you." Perhaps if Charlotte had told him before he knew Jeremy he would have. He definitely would have if he'd found out before he knew Charlotte. "I'm more interested in how either of you even knew."
That started a whole other story entailing the wretched witch from Georgia and the locator spell. Kol leaned back in the chair during the tale, but the front legs thudded back to the ground when Charlotte revealed Rodriguez's theory that she was an amplifier.
"Does anyone else know?" he asked, leaning forward and gripping Charlotte's arms.
"No, it was only the three of us in the room," she said, eyes wide at his frantic tone. "With Rodriguez dead the only people who could tell anyone are in this room."
"You mustn't tell anyone. Either of you. Not your mom, nor Caroline nor Elena. No one can know. If word gets out there's even a possibility of you being an amplifier every supernatural being will hunt you down."
"They'll kill me?" Charlotte asked, shaking at the idea of being hunted like an animal.
"Worse, they'll use you." Taking the end of one of her braids between his fingers, he rubbed his fingertips against her hair before letting it fall neatly against her shoulder. "They'll use you until it drains you of all energy and life. Then rinse and repeat as you continue coming back again and again."
Klaus' witches used amplifiers back in the thirteenth century like they were just another ingredient to a spell. He didn't want that for Charlotte.
"What do you mean I'll come back?" Charlotte asked, twisting her braid around her finger.
"Amplifiers can't die at the hands of supernaturals. Or at least, they don't stay dead very long."
"Like how my ring protects me?" Jeremy asked, twisting his Gilbert ring around his finger.
"How do you think a witch made your ring?" Kol asked.
"Rodriguez said I have the potential to mute powers as well as amplify them," Charlotte said, desperate to change the conversation away from all the ways she could be used until she withered to nothing only to wake up and live in an endless cycle of it.
"That sounds optimistically impossible," Kol said. He'd never heard of any such trait.
"Then how did Damon's compulsion suddenly evaporate when Lottie and the witch did the locator spell?" Jeremy asked. He wanted, needed, the hope that Lottie could combat those who would strive to use her. "In fact, every time a vampire used compulsion on us it never worked quite right. She always remembered bits and pieces she shouldn't have. We both did, though I didn't start to remember until she started questioning things."
"Is that true?" Kol asked.
"No. Maybe. I wasn't trying to stop the compulsions. I didn't even know what compulsion was back then. Are you sure this isn't a case of reading too much into nothing?"
"It doesn't matter if you tried or not. No human without vervain can resist compulsion," Kol said. "So, if you broke through the compulsions, even just a little, chances are you're not human and Rodriguez might have been right about amplifiers having the capacity to mute powers."
"Great. So, I am a supernatural amp," Charlotte muttered, falling back onto the bed. With stress levels rising, she wished she could slip on her pointe shoes, loose herself in dance, and momentarily forget about not being human anymore, if she'd ever been human.
"On the bright side, you have the potential to blackout powers, that's pretty cool," Jeremy said, rubbing circles on her hand. "And not even the baddest supernatural can kill you."
"Though if you spontaneously come back from the dead after a supernatural kills you, questions will be asked and the chances of keeping your amplifier status anonymous will be impossible. Same goes for if you stop one from using abilities."
"Okay, change of subject. Please," she said, turning towards Jeremy.
"Want us to move the furniture so you can dance?" he offered, making her smile.
Even with moving the furniture there wouldn't be enough room to dance, but she appreciated the thought. Instead, she asked Kol if she could take the change he got when he booked the room to use in the payphone at the corner of the parking lot. She owed Caroline another call.
"I've never been so confusingly happy and angry at the same time," Caroline hissed into her phone, closing her bedroom door and moving to sit in the middle of her bed when Charlotte called. "Did you find whatever you went looking for?"
"More than what we went looking for actually," Charlotte said. "But I think it means we'll be heading home soon."
She didn't really have any plans beyond the professor in New Mexico. And seeing how well that meeting turned out, she wasn't eager to set up any others.
"Good. Because I miss you and Mom's a mess. We both are."
"I miss you too." Charlotte hugged her arms to her chest as she leaned against the plexiglass side of the phone.
"So, are you going to tell me what was so important you risked permanent grounding if not military school for it?"
"Jeremy. We needed answers about something the witch in Georgia said when I was trying to find him. Then found out something about me as well."
"You're making no sense."
"I know." She wouldn't make sense unless she told Caroline the whole story. Something she didn't feel safe doing in the middle of a parking lot through a pay phone. If she did tell Care, she had to do it in person.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes. I promise I'll explain it better when we're home. I'll tell you all about what we were searching for, and how Jeremy and I kind of kissed. Multiple times."
"Shut up!" Caroline screeched, completely forgetting she was trying to be quiet. Charlotte grinned at her reaction, feeling a giddiness bubble up inside her at the idea of girl talking with her big sis about the boy she really liked. Although her smile wavered when Caroline added, "Finally. I'm so happy for you."
"What do you mean 'finally'?" Charlotte asked.
"Please, it was completely obvious to everyone but you two that you liked each other. As more than friends."
It was?
"And you, the cupid of Mystic Falls, didn't say or do anything?" That wasn't like Caroline.
"It was a delicate situation. You both needed to be open to it for it to not ruin everything. I thought it best to let it happen naturally. Now, tell me everything."
"I don't have time to tell you everything. I'm paying by the quarter and I'm running low on quarters."
"You suck," Caroline said, pouting even when she knew Charlotte couldn't see. "Is he a good kisser? Wait, I don't know if I even want to know the answer to that. Okay, who am I kidding. Yes, I do."
Charlotte laughed at her sister's verbal debate with herself.
"Yes," she said, heat creeping up her cheeks. "He's a really good kisser."
"The fact that you two got together during your unplanned adventure makes it almost worth all the drama it's causing here at home. Like, Elena is seriously freaking out because she 'lost control of Jeremy'. It's not a pretty look."
"Maybe you should tell her we're okay." As much as she thought it served Elena right to be kept in the dark, she knew her controlling habits when it came to Jeremy were desperate attempts to protect the only family she had left. As seriously misguided as they were, it did come from a point of love.
"Oh, mom and I did. She's still upset regardless."
"She's not gonna be any happier when we get back. Jeremy's determined he's not staying with her." It'll take a while before he forgives her for having Damon compel him to leave.
A gray work van pulling into the lot stole Charlotte's attention from the call. Since they'd arrived the lot remained empty. She had a weird feeling about it. One that intensified when it parked right beside their hummer rental.
"Care, I love you, but I've gotta go. See you soon." Hanging the phone up before Caroline could respond, Charlotte kept her head down as she made her way back towards their room.
When the driver headed towards the office, the uncomfortable feeling in her gut loosened. She'd been paranoid thinking he was there for them. That he'd figured out she'd killed Rodriguez. Which was unlikely. No one knew they had anything to do with what happened in Professor Rodriguez's office. Turning the corner to the stairs, she was halfway up the flight when a man called out to her. She reflexively paused when she heard her name, and had to force herself not to look behind as she continued up the stairs at a slightly quicker pace. It didn't matter. By the time she reached the second floor he was beside her.
"You're Charlotte," he said instead of asking. Grabbing hold of her arm.
"I'm sorry, you're mistaken," she said, trying to pull her arm free. He had a strong grip.
"Let go," she grunted the last word, focusing on yanking her arm free as she pushed her free hand against his chest.
She stumbled back a few steps when his grip suddenly loosened. Not giving him time to recover from the shock, she turned and sprinted towards their room, shouting for Jeremy as she went. The motel room door burst open just as the stranger caught up to her. In a blink, Kol had the man by his neck, dangling over the railing. Jeremy placed both hands on her shoulders, checking she was okay before moving to stand beside Kol.
"Give me one good reason I shouldn't kill you," Kol said, squeezing the guy's throat a little tighter as he let the veins pop up under his eyes and his fangs elongate. The man gripped tightly to Kol's forearm.
"Kol," Jeremy said, his gaze flicking to the dark ink covering the man's hand. "His hand."
"He can scratch at my arm all he wants with it, I'm not letting go," Kol said. "Tell me why you're here and perhaps I'll kill you quickly."
"He has the hunter's mark on his hand," Jeremy said, giving Kol a reason not to kill him. "You can't kill him without activating the curse."
"That depends on why he was stalking Charlotte." He could suffer a few hundred years of the hunter's curse. It's not like he could die if he was driven to suicide. And Nik could always stick a dagger in him if it got to be too much.
"I was sent to find them after Rodriguez's office was torched," the man grunted.
"Why?" Kol asked, his fingers digging deeper into the skin.
"Because he's a potential and she's an amplifier."
"And how did you know that." It was impossible. The professor was the only other one who knew and he was dead. Charlotte saw to that and he'd made sure to destroy the office of all evidence.
"It was in Rodriguez's magic book the same day his calendar showed he had a meeting with them."
"Who sent you?"
He held up his left middle finger, drawing Charlotte's attention to a small tattoo below his second knuckle.
"If you won't talk, you're of no more use to me." He couldn't have him spreading rumors about Charlotte and Jeremy. So, suffering the curse it was.
"Don't, Kol," Charlotte said, sensing his train of thought. If he killed him, Jeremy would become the next potential with the mark. He'd have no choice.
"Little Dove, he knows too much and is immune to compulsion. I can't just let him go. So, unless either of you want to kill him for me…"
"What if I can temporarily relieve him of his immunity?" Charlotte offered. She wasn't sure she could do it but, "It's worth a try."
"If you can't figure it out, I kill him," Kol said, pulling the man over the railing and dragging him back into the motel room.
She had no idea how to use her supposed powers. The only other times she might have, she hadn't even meant to. Did she need physical contact with the person? Or was it like Bonnie's powers and she could do it from anywhere? Was blood required like with the spell Dorothy performed to help her find Jeremy? It'd be great if amplifiers had books on how to use their powers like witches and their grimoires. Then again, it would probably be dangerous if everyone knew how it worked.
"Okay," she sighed, coming to stand beside Kol who had the man pinned against the motel wall by the throat. Focusing all her energy on willing the compulsion to work, she nodded at Kol to start.
"It's not working, Little Dove," he said when the hunter didn't bite his finger off as he'd compelled, to which Charlotte protested. "I have to use something he wouldn't want to do or else he could fake it just to leave with his life."
"Just, give me a minute to think," Charlotte said when it seemed Kol was going to give up on their experiment.
When she'd broken out of compulsion herself, she hadn't really done anything. So those instances didn't help her. Then there'd been the time Dorothy seemed to use her powers to sense what Jeremy was. The witch had physical contact with her and her blood during the spell. But she didn't want to have the hunter use her powers to amplify his. She wanted to stop his.
Her eyes drifted back to Kol's hands at the hunter's throat, making sure he wouldn't kill him before she had time to figure it out. The hunter still gripped tightly to Kol's wrist, trying and failing to pry his hands off him. The small tattoo below his knuckle glowed gold against his skin.
"His tattoo. It's glowing," she said, barely finishing her statement before the motel door burst open.
A man stood in the doorway, crossbow in hand. In rapid succession the man fired two arrows in Kol's direction. The first embedded itself deep in his arm. The second missed its target, piercing Charlotte's heart instead as she turned towards the door after the first shot.
Kol immediately released the hunter, dropping to the ground behind Charlotte. He didn't need to check her pulse. He couldn't hear her heartbeat.
"Lottie!" Jeremy shouted, vaulting over the bed until he was beside her.
Wearing a murderous expression, Kol rose to his feet, and sped after the hunter and his friend only to find the parking lot empty. Their car was still parked in the lot below, but both of them were gone. Reluctantly returning to the motel room, he found Jeremy cradling Charlotte in his arms, the ends of her braids stained red with her blood. Silent tears streamed down his face.
"Please tell me the shooter had a mark as well," Kol said, though from Jeremy's tears he feared he already knew the answer.
"No," Jeremy said, his voice gravelly. "But he could still be a supernatural. Right?"
"He could. But chances are he's another potential like you. You're not supernatural until you actually have the mark." Tightening his jaw, Kol rammed his fist into the wall, punching through the drywall. He never should have let her try and use her powers. It distracted them all. "I should have killed the hunter when I had the chance. I'd be cursed, you'd have a mark, but she'd still be alive."
…
Charlotte sat up in a daze. Glancing around she found herself outside the second floor of the motel. How did she get outside? Her gaze darted up when the hunter barreled out of the room she'd been in moments before. As soon as he made contact with the man with the crossbow they disappeared in a rush of air, as impossible as that was. One minute they stood a few feet before her and the next, in a gust of wind, they were gone. What the hell?
Pushing herself up to stand, she brushed away the gravel stuck to her hands. It left indents in her palms. Knowing she was supernatural, there were now two reasons she could be on the other side. If the disappearing act was the second man's doing, then he was some sort of supernatural, and everything would be fine. But if it was the hunter's, then she was screwed.
Entering through the open door of the motel room, Charlotte saw herself lying dead in Jeremy's arms for the second time. It was surreal. And the kind of creepy reserved for the horror films she hated. Taking a steadying breath and hoping she wasn't stuck in this in-between world for eternity, she reached out to her lifeless body and felt the vaguely familiar rush of warmth when she made contact.
"Lottie," Jeremy said, pulling her closer when she stirred in his arms.
Kol released his tight grip on the back of his head, rising from his hunched over seat on the bed.
"You scared me," Jeremy said, helping her to sit up. "I thought you weren't coming back."
"Lucky for me, supernaturals tend to travel together," she said, glancing down at her bloody shirt and hair. "Looks like I'll be needing another shower."
"I think I'll poke around their van while you do. Before they come back for it," Kol said. They couldn't get very far on foot, so it only seemed logical someone would come to retrieve it. Unless it was a rental like theirs.
"They don't need the van," Charlotte said, digging through her bag for a new shirt. "The guy who shot me sort of teleported them both away."
"How do you know that?" Kol asked, turning back towards her.
"I saw it when I was on the other side."
"You remember what happens when you're temporarily dead?" Jeremy asked.
"Yeah, it's weird. Like I'm here but on a slightly different plane. I can see everything occurring, even my own body, but no one can see me." She came up empty handed in her search for a clean shirt. She'd only packed for a few days, not thinking she'd extend her trip or stain her clothes with blood, twice.
"When Damon killed me, it was like I'd blacked out. I didn't go anywhere, or if I did, I didn't remember any of it," Jeremy said, pulling his bag closer and handing her one of his shirts.
"Perhaps you should start recording the nuances of your powers for future reference," Kol suggested, turning towards the door. "Seeing as your failure to use them properly cost you your life. Next time you might not be so lucky to come back."
"Is it just me, or was that extremely passive-aggressive?" Charlotte asked. "It wasn't my fault the hunter had a friend on standby ready to murder us all."
"Don't worry about it. He'll get over it," Jeremy said. "I don't think he's used to actually caring what happens to someone."
"You know, if an art career doesn't work, I think you have a shot in psychology," she said. Jeremy shook his head with a smile as she disappeared into the bathroom.
She felt a little more human after washing the blood out of the ends of her hair and swapping her bloody sweatshirt with Jeremy's too-big black Metallica tee. Kol returned empty handed from his search of the van and had packed their bags while she showered.
"We need to find somewhere else to lay low," Kol said. "Since the hunter got away with his accomplice, we can't stay here waiting for them to teleport back with reinforcements."
"You can just say it. I'm the reason they got away. I made a mistake," she said, crossing her arms. She'd assumed she could easily figure out how to use her powers and it resulted in a hunter who knew her enough to put her name to her face escaping. "I'll own my mistake. But I'm not going on the run."
"You want to stay here and wait for them to come back?" Kol asked, his tone hard. "Need I remind you, you didn't want me to kill the hunter. Well, I'm going to have to start killing people if more come back."
"I didn't say we should stay here," she said, tugging at the hem of her borrowed shirt. "I want to go home."
A/N: Happy New Year's Eve! This took a while to get out. I planned on finishing it when I flew home to visit family, but then I got a stomach bug with a fever, and puking and writing just don't go together. Hope you enjoyed. I'll be posting more aesthetics and videos to my Instagram (gracelesslyfalling). I found a whole bunch I made that I never posted, either because I forgot or because they no longer fit with the plot changes I'd made.
Onto guest review responses
To the guest who thinks Charlotte and Kol are so cute: I do find their interactions fun to write. I'm trying not to pull Kol too far out of character in this story. But his character arc will be different because of his interactions with Jeremy and Charlotte.
To the guest who was so happy I'm back and that someone gave them the true run down of Silas: Yeah, I have different plans for season 4 so I wanted Jeremy to actually be informed about hunters before the rest of the Mystic Falls gang.
To the guest who thinks Jeremy and Charlotte are so cute: Yay. I have loved writing them since the beginning and their relationship journey. It's been a fun ride so far. Glad I have you rooting for them.
Mimi: Your comment made me chuckle. I'm so tickled that Jeremy and Charlotte are your OTP. They are pretty epic together, and supportive. They've always had a healthy friendship and I think they'll have a healthy and supportive romantic relationship as well.
Rach
xoxo