A/N: as always, an enormous thank you to the wonderful GoddessxNyte2 for beta-ing!

Kol listened intently to the sound of a cell phone being picked up in the main home's study, a floor below his and Bella's bedroom.

"Hello, brother," Rebekah addressed the caller cheerfully.

While he couldn't exactly make out what was being said on the other end, the tenor of the voice was, without a doubt, Klaus'.

"Yes, Nik, Kol and Jeremy have finished their move without the little Hunter being any more the wiser as to what was really happening. I did your dirty work as requested, and yes, I'm just peachy, thank you so much for not asking."

Another flawless performance from Rebekah Mikaelson.

"Are you kidding me? I do you a bloody favor and now I'm being punished for it? I am not a bloody babysitter, Nik!"

For a few moments, only the sound of glass cracking, and the protesting groan of metal from the cellphone in her grip could be heard.

"I've only ever done what you've asked," Rebekah hissed in response to what must have been an accusation. "The outcome of which falls solely on you!"

Kol heard his sister hang up and sigh with relief.

"He bought it."

"Good," Kol whispered into the darkness. "He wants you to stay here?"

"Wants me to stay away from Mystic Falls entirely. He seems to think I'm going to meddle with Perfect, Little, Elena, and ruin his progress with the hybrids. I mean—I would meddle, but he can't expect me to do whatever he says like I'm one of his progeny."

Kol smirked and could hear his sister crossing her arms with real annoyance. "No, he can't, Beks. If he knows you at all, that means he's probably expecting you."

"Hmm," she answered noncommittally.

"What do you think of taking a week away from the house with Jeremy to saturate the decoy home with your scents?"

The patience she exerted to think through the plan before responding surprised him, and yet again, he was thankful that Bella was having a positive impact on his sister.

"If you can check in every so often, I'll have a sufficient amount of you on me too," she offered slowly. "Then, I can confront Nik the way he thinks I will, and try to figure out what he's up to without ever exposing Bella's scent."

"Precisely. With the added bonus that so long as I'm careful, any hybrids he might dispatch to monitor us will be led to the decoy home, and far away from here."

Jeremy's eyes were unfocused from where he was buried behind stacks of books and piles of papers. Clothes wrinkled and hair mussed, it was clear in the warm light of morning that the Hunter hadn't yet slept. On top of their regular stressors, the back and forth between the real home and the decoy home and having to live a dual-existence was taking a toll on him.

"Paging Hunter Jeremy; I repeat, paging Hunter Jeremy," Bella teased the young man in a pleasant hospital-loudspeaker voice, her hands cupped over her mouth.

Jeremy jumped and shifted his eyes to his cousin's face. "Oh, hey Bells!"

"I take it you didn't sleep again?"

"No," Jeremy groaned and rested his head against a tower of books and looked back at the table.

"You really don't need to be doing this much research, Jer."

"I know."

"Then why—"

"Something to do," he explained with a shrug. That he could manage to do so without lifting his head spoke to how absolutely exhausted he was.

"Too quiet?"

Too quiet without Rebekah.

He answered her observation with a snort and straightened up in his seat. "That's one way of putting it. I know the group had to split at some point to run recon, but it feels like time has slowed down, you know? And I'm sorry we had to shift the focus from the Cullens' and onto succubus stuff."

"I get it." Bella allowed as she made her way to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. "Revenge can wait, but danger waits for no one. Do you plan on staying up?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Why not take a small nap first?"

When Jeremy didn't answer her, she looked up from the coffee grinder. His forehead was crinkled in thought, his lips pulling down into a frown.

He's anxious.

"It's going to be okay, Jer. Bekah just has to check-in with Klaus. She's not going to betray us."

And she's only been gone for five days.

We planned for a week or two.

Everything is fine.

"I know she won't betray us," he answered her in an uncharacteristically clipped voice. "I'm worried that—that—"

He's anxious for Bekah.

"I know they have a history, that there's bad blood there—"

"Yeah, and that's the issue," Jeremy cut her off and rubbed his face vigorously. "She has spent so much time running from him, trying to break free from him, and we just threw her to the wolves! Literally! And I know he's already messing with her mind! That's just how he is!"

"We all talked about this, Jer," Bella approached the Hunter slowly and sat down beside him. She touched his arm gently to get his focus. "Bekah has something she didn't have before, remember?"

Jeremy swallowed and looked away, but nodded in acknowledgment.

"She has us," she told him firmly. "You know me; you know Kol. Add you to the mix, and she knows that we have her back, right? You know that, right?"

"Yeah."

His voice sounded raspy and Bella realized he was more emotional about the issue than she had initially assessed. She got up and headed back to the counter to get him a glass of water. He knocked it back so quickly that she wasn't sure if he had stopped to rehydrate during the all-night study session.

The realization helped her come to a decision.

"Come on," Bella urged him with a smile and tugged at his arm. "Let's get you to bed for a bit."

Jeremy was so tired that he stood with her and it wasn't until they were in the hallway outside of his room that he started protesting. "But what if—"

"If anything changes, you will know."

Jeremy's eyes turned frantic as he gripped her shoulders, forcing her attention onto him. "Do you promise?"

"Of course, I do."

Silence filled the space between them while he studied her face, her eyes, searching for any hint of deception.

"We aren't them, Jer."

His lips wobbled, and it looked like he was dangerously close to crying. He released Bella to turn away, but she pulled him into a hug instead.

"We're a team and no one gets left behind."

Kol wasn't sure what to make of the implication that Jeremy's sleep-deprived admission had. The Hunter was nervous for his sister's wellbeing. It wasn't like Jeremy was a bad man, and he could certainly keep himself safe whereas any human interests Rebekah had would be a liability to everyone.

But still.

He could get hurt.

She could get hurt.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his succubus joining him at the stove and the sensation of her arms wrapping around his waist.

"Thank you for starting breakfast," she murmured against the back of his neck. She wasn't quite tall enough from behind to reach the soft, sensitive skin three inches below his ear.

Kol faced her in less than an instant and lowered his cool lips to hers. She was warm, a burst of radiance and light against his rapidly growing hunger. With each passing day, it grew increasingly difficult to abstain from luxuriating in the taste of her rich, crimson decadence.

They had been so careful, and it would be a shame to have to start all over again, to endure what he considered withdrawal symptoms again.

"I miss you," she admitted with a gasping breath against his lips, swirling the scent of her breath deeply into his lungs.

He stepped into her space, pinning her body between his and the island counter, and drew in a sharp breath to steady himself, to hold himself together while his stiff cock pressed against her heated abdomen.

Gods, she is divine.

"You have no idea how hard it is," Kol whispered against her neck, tongue trailing, teeth nipping gently, "to not give in when you're this bloody close." He slid a hand between her legs and rubbed roughly against the heat through the denim fabric of her shorts.

He watched Bella hungrily as her head tipped back, exposing the porcelain column of her neck, and the teal veins promising life buried under her luscious flesh. It had been so long that she teetered dangerously close to the brink of completion, ready to come undone in any number of ways, but didn't reach to palm him back, didn't reach for the button on his jeans to free him.

She was taking care to not push him too far.

Kol pulled away briefly and was met with a soft cry of disappointment as his hand disappeared from between her thighs. But he was on his knees a second later and yanking her shorts and underwear from her waist in one fluid movement, before burying his face into her heat.

The smell of her, the taste of her, the slickness of her heat, the rush of her pulse thudding against his neck where her thighs clutched him, the moment she crumbled around him, was ecstasy incarnate. And he had never been so grateful to not need to draw a breath as he did in that moment.

More.

He dropped onto his back, taking the divine creature down with him, and continued his feast with his fingers gripping tightly into the skin at her hips. Before he could grind her against his face, the way he so desperately wished to, Bella twisted away and resettled herself facing away from him. She braced her weight on her knees as she leaned down to free him from his pants.

Bella didn't have to fight for long, as he instinctively kicked his jeans and boxers away before he ever realized what was coming. Her lips descended upon him, kissing along his length and teasing the tip of his cock with soft swirls of her tongue.

Kol drew a sharp breath as her gentle exploring grew heated as he slipped into the wetness of her mouth, and she finally began to suck firmly at his head. Her lips spread wide enough to accommodate his girth as she bobbed carefully on his length, testing his self-control.

I am in control.

I won't do it.

Won't bite.

Kol dug his fingers back into her hips and pulled her heat down to his mouth. His lips and tongue worked a familiar rhythm against her clit, sucking and flicking against her in a way similar to drawing blood from a vein. Instead, he was drawing pleasure from his love, if the sound of her moans escaping from around his cock was any indication.

She's so fucking close.

Bella released the grip her mouth had on him and his rhythm faltered, driving his tongue deliciously inside of her.

"Yes," she cried out, her fingernails digging into the skin of his thighs. "I need you, I need you, I need you," She trembled, waiting for Kol to give her what she was asking for; his tongue, a finger, she needed some part of him inside of her.

He wanted to, he needed to; his tongue pressed slowly against her center, groaning as he stretched the entrance with his muscle. And it was too much.

Kol moved more quickly than he had in his entire life, spinning her over as he came to a sit against the wooden doors of the lower cupboards. He crossed his legs to support her, and allowed her own to relax on either side of his waist.

They shook and gasped, forehead to forehead, until finally, finally, her heat welcomed him home.

She ached for him, burned for him, and when she thought she could bear it no longer, he was inside of her. He was the antidote, the numbing agent that kept the flames from overwhelming her into lust-filled insanity.

Her muscles spasmed and gripped as she sank lower, lower, lower, spearing herself on his rigid length. She crossed her legs behind him with a shuddering gasp to draw him deeper, desperate to take all of him, to bury him as far as possible.

Kol's hands wrapped tightly around the backs of her thighs, and gently pulled her closer, lower. The movement was all-consuming, divine pleasure mixed with exquisitely excruciating pain; the feeling he would split her in two, shattering her into oblivion.

Every single nerve ending was overstimulated, each atom of her body a breath away from exploding. With one last tug, she came, clenching him tightly, her muscles both protesting the invasion of, and begging for more of, the length inside of her.

Bella whimpered longingly as Kol shifted his legs, drawing him out ever so slightly. But then he was fully inside again, and his body rocked them back and forth gently as her climax faded, allowing another to grow to take its place.

Kol's lips pressed to her neck and she froze, finally realizing how dangerous of a position they had fallen into. But instead of sinking his fangs into her skin, his tongue darted out, sliding up and down her neck. And when he sucked against her flesh, he kept his teeth to himself.

Bella relaxed, and sank back down, her insides fluttering around him. She marveled at the way he filled her, the way he was so completely inside of her that all he had to do was lean back an iota to send bursts of pleasure through her.

His lips found hers and one of his hands released her bottom to tangle into the hair at the base of her neck, locking her to him. Her body was momentarily lost to spasms, warning both Bella and Kol how very close she was.

"Look at me," he breathed against her lips.

Bella met his intense gaze, and the love and desperate hunger, not just to feed but to satisfy her, to worship her, that she found there was all she needed. The intimacy of that single moment threw her violently over the edge, her muscles clenching down so tightly that Kol's groan of release was broken by sharp, gasping breaths as he exploded inside of her.

She couldn't move, couldn't lift her forehead from where it was pressed against his. She could only meet his lips when they pressed to hers, and revel in the love they shared.

When her frantic muscles finally slowed, Kol tucked a tendril of her long hair behind her ear and breathed in her deep sigh of satisfaction. "I hate to ruin the moment, oh radiant succubus, but if I don't drink something soon, I am going to ravage you all over again on the kitchen tiles, only this time I don't know if I could find it in myself to abstain."

Bella pressed one final kiss to his lips before she pulled away and flashed him a devious grin. "Remind me again why we're torturing ourselves?"

He groaned at what was clearly an invitation and sank back against the cupboard behind him. The movement broke a cry of pleasure free from her lips and the urge to give herself to him was near impossible to resist. But only nearly.

"Because I would sooner die than allow Klaus to catch so much as a whiff of you. Now, quit being such a scheming, little tart, and let me make you breakfast," he teased with a quick press of his lips to hers.

Kol came to a stand with Bella wrapped tightly around him and whisked her to their private bathroom. He started the tap to draw a bath and added a generous amount of unscented salts to the water before easing her up and off his half-stiff length with a shuddering groan.

"I thought you were going to make me breakfast."

"I am; you, however, are going to enjoy a nice long soak, because there's no way you're not sore."

He had a point.

"Mmm, well, how good of you to think of me, Weatherby."

"I do aim to please, Mrs. Clodpool."

Kol slammed down a glass of warmed blood and grimaced. Drinking from blood bags again was like going from the most decadent and luxurious of indulgences to something a lot like dog kibble. The taste, the richness, the vitality; all lacking in the bags that, while not preferable, he had once considered at least palatable.

It fed him, but it didn't fill him.

Not when he drank one bag, two bags, three bags, four bags, or even five bags of the inferior sustenance.

It fed him, but he was starving.

He hadn't fed from his love since before the move, since before the visit to Eudora, and the thought their home was yet un-christened in that way was somehow maddening to him. That he hadn't caved while Bella trembled and gripped around him was nothing short of a miracle, and due entirely to his instinct to protect her at all costs.

He would make damn sure that if Klaus somehow learned of her significance to Kol, it wouldn't be through fault of his own.

The thought drew his mind to darker places, his energy winding tightly as he finished arranging Bella's tray of food. Truth be told, knowing he couldn't kill his brother, that Klaus could only be wounded temporarily, was terrifying to Kol.

All the more reason to keep researching.

Kol grimaced at the stacks of books occupying the breakfast nook's table. Of course, Jeremy had decided that studying so near to where food was stored was the only proper way to research. Then again, food and drink are energy, and if he was up all night the way Kol suspected, perhaps it was necessary.

Therefore, no matter the mess, it wasn't worth bringing up the importance of tidiness with the Hunter.

I'd let young Gilbert set up shop in our bedroom and keep me from joining with her for a year, if it would give us the answers.

Her. Bella. My succubus. The radiant warmth in the piercing cold. Everything that ever was and will be to me.

If I had known how wonderful love is, I never would have teased Bek for wanting it.

God's above, I'm a sap.

The level of understanding between the siblings had only grown, now that Kol knew what it was Rebekah thought she had with the Hunter that tried to murder their family. And yes, he had always been fond of her—she was his favorite, after all—but knowing what she had felt, what she thought would come from that relationship, changed something in their dynamic.

He understood why she acted the way she had when she was first in love, and that she wasn't being silly or selfish for wanting to be with someone. He also understood that Rebekah did need a protective brother, not just someone who could exchange digs with her.

Which was ultimately why he and Bella were abstaining from blood and energy exchange.

Kol had to be there for Rebekah's sake, had to keep Klaus "updated" on the developments with Jeremy, and had to stick to the narrative that he's a depraved, blood-thirsty monster lacking any sort of moral compass. He was going to have to be bad and do bad things, things that he wouldn't be proud of, to sell Klaus on the lie.

And that wasn't something he could do if he were carrying any part of her inside of him.

Bella was delighted to find her breakfast waiting at a table in the library, along with her vampire partner. She slid her hands along his shoulders and the back of his neck, rubbing the tight muscles she found there.

"You're too good to me," she said, and placed a kiss on the top of his head.

"Not possible," Kol retorted as he guided her down to the cushioned seat at his side and kissed her cheek. "You deserve all of the good things and more."

Bella took a long, bracing gulp from her coffee and ended up finishing it in one go. "That was amazing," she moaned softly, then nudged Kol in the side. "You do too, you know. Deserve all the good things."

"I'll take your word for it," he teased and eyed her empty cup. "Need more coffee?"

"That would be great, honestly," she admitted shyly. "I keep wanting to take a little nap, but I have so much research to do, and it's just so good, and—"

Kol stood quickly and quieted her with a press of his lips to hers. "Of all the things in this world, you need not defend your love of coffee."

"Do you like it?"

"It smells good," Kol allowed with a smirk. "Not as good as you, though."

"Haha," she answered him sarcastically.

He was gone a moment later, presumably to refill her mug.

"Bring the pot?"

She organized her notes and was munching on a piece of toast when Kol came back, armed with the pot, individual creamers, and sugar cubes. "Ooh, fancy," she remarked with a grin.

"Well, the full-size liquid creamers have to be refrigerated, and I didn't want to bring one up and have it make you sick if it stays out too long, and why bring up loose sugar that could get all over the books and—"

He's anxious too!

It was Bella's turn to quiet him. She gripped his hand and pulled him closer so she could wrap her arms around his side. "Thank you."

Some of his stress seemed to ease at the contact and Bella directed him back to his seat. They worked quietly, pouring over the materials, and when Kol had questions about her annotations, she answered them so he could begin again with a new perspective.

There has to be something.

The evidence can't all have disappeared from print.

Unless the books on symbiosis between vampires and succubi were burned or something.

Which just isn't likely, considering the selection of books we do have.

But they contain everything except information on succubi…

Oh, no. No, no, no.

"I hate to bring it up," Bella started slowly, gauging his reaction to the potential for a stressful topic.

"But?"

"We have been searching since the move, to find anything that indicates what this is," she waved back and forth between them. "You and Bekah have collected extensive volumes and read over everything at vampire speed, Jeremy is looking at it from a Hunter's standpoint, and I'm going through with a fine-tooth comb from my own point of view and educational background."

"That's correct," he answered her carefully.

"Well," she continued quietly, fiddling with the handle of her coffee mug. "According to Eudora, there should be information on this. Or there used to be. I know we've considered book-burning, hoarders of supernatural lore, but what if—what if the problem isn't a scarcity of books, but that the information itself was…removed?"

Kol stared at her and a flash of understanding crossed his face before he heaved a deep sigh. He closed his eyes in defeat. "Magic."

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