Chapter 25

"Welcome to our humble abode. Please come in," Alexander said with a peaceful smile when they reached the house. "It's smaller than your villa but Rebekah told me it is still comfortable. Please, don't despise my family."

While Alexander wasn't wrong and the house was indeed smaller, it was still obvious to Kol that the family living inside these walls were wealthy enough. For men whose older sister worked herself to the bone and died to feed them, it was rather suspicious. This wasn't the future Nora sometimes spoke of. Here, the poor stayed poor. They might even lose their freedom and be sold by their family as slave.

Was killing vampire so lucrative?

As they walked through the front door, a familiar fragrance entered his nostrils and he froze for a second before asking innocently, "Speaking of Rebekah, is she here? I have yet to catch a glimpse of her today."

Her scent was strong yet he couldn't hear her.

Alexander wasn't the one answering him. Instead, three men came to meet them and one of them, tall with long and wavy light-brown hair, said chuckling, "You have just missed her actually. She spent the whole day here, talking about their future house. Who knew a human could speak so much!" He then greeted Elijah, Niklaus and Finn before turning to Kol. "Kol, I presume? Rebekah told us a lot about you."

"All good, I hope," Kol grinned even though a stone seemed to have dropped inside his stomach, the baby hair on his neck bristling.

But Elijah, Nik and Finn didn't appear worried. On the contrary, they greeted the man back as if he was a friend. Mathias - the man's name - was one of Alexander's two older brothers. His future brother-in-law so. He was a huge, stout man with a warm smile.

According to Finn, his smile would swiftly became bloodthirsty when it came to execute vampires in the public square. Kol didn't have any difficulty imagining that. Monsters could disguise themselves as the most inoffensive looking people. He knew that all too well.

"All good, no need to worry," the second man laughed, reaching out to Kol and introducing himself cheekily, "Marvin, the youngest of the family. And the most charming obviously."

"Though she did tell us about your adventurous temperament and your inability to stay in one place for more than a month." This time, it was the third and last man who talked. Of the three brothers present, he was the one who looked the most like Alexander. "The name is Alecto, the twin brother of Alexander."

"Younger brother," Alexander chimed in, to which Alecto rolled his eyes.

"How many times do I have to tell you? No one but you 'remember' who was born first."

"Seeing as I'm the first to marry, it's clear I am also the older brother."

Mathias sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with a defeated expression. "What kind of logic is it? Sometimes, I'm really ashamed to be your brother."

Marvin winked at Kol and his siblings before nodding solemnly. "Especially if you really remember your birth, Alexander." He shivered. "How scary."

Looking at them, they looked like a normal family. One with better relationships than Kol and his own siblings. No one would guess they were vampire hunters, burning vampires alive with no mercy.

"Ernesto isn't here?" Elijah eventually asked, reminding the Alexander and his twin of their presence. Seeing as Alexander knew of Rebekah's undead condition, Kol was rather impressed by them. After all, if Rebekah was a vampire, surely her fiancé could guess they all were and told his brothers. And here they were, acting as if nothing was wrong even though they had invited them into their home.

Once again, Kol's guts clenched and he bit his tongue to keep himself from killing the four hunters. Already, he could feel his face trying to morph, his gums aching and the veins under his eyes pulsing. Good thing no one was looking at him right now.

He took a deep breath and focused back on the conversation.

"No, he found out the location of a vampire just before you came and left to catch it," Mathias informed them, his lips curved upwards in a satisfied expression. He extended his arm towards another door and invited them to follow him, bringing them in a dining room. The table was filled with food and several wine barrels were waiting for them in a corner.

"You are not afraid he will get hurt?" Kol wondered aloud, his brain was working hard. Normally, a human would lose against a vampire. Unless magic was involved. Looking at the hunters' muscular bodies, it could be the case.

"Afraid for Ernesto?" Marvin laughed, "God no! Ernesto is our oldest brother and probably the strongest of us. He has never had any difficulty in killing those monsters alone."

Right. It didn't make Kol feel better. Why couldn't Rebekah fall in love with a scholar? Ah this girl, she just couldn't stop herself from making him worry.

They sat at the table and began to eat, speak and drink. Or drink, drink, and speak. And sometimes at. Alcohol was definitely the theme of the evening and Kol found his throat burning with every drink he chugged down. Somehow, their cups kept getting filled to the brink. Nik's hearty – and drunk - laugh could probably be heard outside the house.

Elijah's laughter was quieter but he wasn't in a better state. Neither was Finn. These vampire hunters were pretty good, managing to get four vampires drunk. Because Kol was no better than his brothers, and was perfectly aware of this. Although, he certainly wasn't laughing. Instead, he was keeping his nose in his cup, drinking and drinking and… well, drinking. He didn't know Alexander's brothers, and didn't actually want to get to know them. Something was currently wrong with the situation but there was nothing he could do. Nothing but drink, at least. After all, this was what Rebekah wanted. A human family. A human husband. Less than a hundred years of life and white hairs and children on her knees. So, for her, he stayed inside the hunters' house and drank.

Not everything was bad though, because the wine did look good, with a beautiful shimmer on its surface. The red color was also pretty.

"The wine is good?" Marvin grinned as he came to refill Kol's cup. Around the table, the other hunters did the same with Nik, Elijah and Finn's drinks.

"Yeah. I like the color. It reminds me of…"

It reminded him of Nora. Not that he needed something to remember her. Even from here he could feel her heart beating.

But Marvin wasn't in his mind. When Kol's voice trailed off, the vampire hunter chuckled and said, "of blood?"

"Wha-?"

Then there was a dagger in his heart and pain and he was dying.

His last thought was Nora. Of course it was. She was so going to kill him if he died.

Kol slowly came back to life. The first thing he was aware of was the darkness engulfing him. There was nothing but darkness. He was nothing but darkness. Then he felt his body. Toes and fingers, legs and arms. His heart healing. Another heart beating too fast. Someone needed him. Someone both close and too far. He wanted to comfort them but couldn't move.

The air filling his lunges smelt of blood and wine and tears and he could hear the heartbreaking sobs of a woman. Then something clicked. The woman sobbing was Rebekah, her sorrow piercing his chest once more.

He opened his eyes, his throat parched and his body sore. For one second, it felt like he was human again.

Around him was the corpses of Alexander's brothers. As for Rebekah's fiancé, his bloody corpse was in her arm as she cried over him, her tears soaking his clothes. Her own dress was stained with blood and had a hole over the chest but she didn't seem to care.

Nik was standing above her, screaming as his face was distorted by his fury and Elijah was tearing apart Marvin's corpse, sucking the body dry.

And Finn… Finn was still sitting in his chair, eyes closed and a dagger in his heart. In a daze, Kol stumbled towards him and raised a shaky hand to remove the dagger. At the last moment though, he was violently pushed away.

"No!" Nik said him harshly, placing himself between Kol and Finn.

"Move," Kol ordered him hoarsely. But Nik didn't move. Didn't even blink, instead staring at him sternly. Kol looked around him, noticing that neither Rebekah nor Elijah seemed to care about what was happening. "Move," he repeated, snarling.

He had no time to lose. His throat was burning and Nora's heartbeats were too fast. He needed to go find her. But first, he had to help Finn. He had to help his brother.

"No!" Nik snapped. "He's not dead. Staying like this is what's best for him!"

"What?!" Kol yelled, flabbergasted. "What the bloody hell are you talking about Nik?!" He turned to Elijah and Rebekah, his anger making him see red and his eyes darkening. "Why are you not helping me?! Are you just going to keep looking at Finn with a dagger in his heart? Is it such a pleasant sight?!"

Elijah pushed away the corpse and briefly glanced at Finn before looking away. "Finn hates what we are. At least, now he won't try to kill himself by confronting Father."

"Finn has never done this before! He's married damnit!"

"Please, as if it will last," Nik scoffed. "Sage just wanted to leave the brothel and took advantage of Finn's naivety."

"They've been together for decades!" he denied before throwing himself at Nik in a rage, aiming for his brother's neck.

However, he was still weak and thirsty and Nik easily overpowered him, pushing him away again. And Elijah being who he was, he quickly came to Kol and gripped his shoulder, his finger digging into his clothes and flesh, breaking his bones while doing so. He then threw him into a wall.

Kol got back on his feet, wiping the blood on his lips with the back of his hand.

Family. What did it mean now? Did it even have any meaning in their eyes? Was hurting him easy? Was seeing Finn dead not hurting them?

"Rebekah!" he called out for his sister, "Help me!"

But Rebekah was still crying and now had her hands on her ears like a child, sobbing Alexander's name again and again.

Disappointed, he glanced back at his two brothers standing between him and Finn and used all the speed and strength he could currently muster to reach Finn. His fist perforated Elijah's guts, stomach acid burning his skin.

He then threw himself at Nik once more and grazed the handle of the dagger before being pushed away.

He spat a mouthful of blood and one tooth and snarled, "How can you do that to your own brother? Do you have any shred of decency left?"

Finn was there, a dagger in his heart and blood on his clothes. Sage was waiting for him at Sófi's. The couple wanted to leave after Rebekah's wedding, far away from the Mikaelsons' judgy stares. They didn't even want to leave a wealthy life. Only a home in the sun and one or two cows. And a goat, because Finn liked goat.

"Please Kol, don't act like you care about Finn," Nik sneered, "we all know you only care about yourself. A world with Finn should make you happy. He's such a bore."

"I won't let you do that!"

"Good thing I'm not asking then," Nik smiled darkly.

And before Kol could even blink, Nik was in front of him, a dagger in his hand. He caught a glimpse of the glimmer of the metal then felt it sinking into his flesh, the strength used breaking his ribs. It pierced his heart at the very moment his whole being was swallowed by a sense of emptiness.

Ah, such a difficult chapter to write... Honestly, I love Elijah and Klaus fanfiction, but I have a hard time with their characters after Kol's death in TVD and TO. Kol is my favorite character and they treated him like shit. As for Finn, well, he's really pitiful - although I will never understand why the hell there is no mention of Sage in TO after Finn came back to life. Isn't she the one - very dead - love of his life?

Anyway, there is still one hunter walking around... And next chapter will be a POV of Nora :)

Thanks for the reviews :) See you next time!