Kol knew the moment Bonnie departed from Mystic Falls. He also sensed nothing short of disaster awaited her end. How could he do anything other than follow her when confronted with a threat so flagrant? The tactile premonition told much in its ominous sentiment. The foreboding stirred him in a place he'd laid to rest over a thousand years ago. Though the words never crept across his lips, the witch had become his meaning. To secure her well-being he'd bleed the earth dry. Even if the task called for him to do something as tedious as to drain the world one sodding enemy at a time.
Kol hurtled towards the front of the satirical attempt of a hovel. Once on the creaking verandah he kicked in the door. The beetle infested wood splintered in half. One crumbling panel took a haphazard dive to the ground. The other hurtled across the room. A large portion of the door frame soared along with it. Without offering a pittance of a thought to common sense, he attempted to enter. The barrier protecting the squalor retaliated against his idiocy and launched him back out among the graves. He landed on his arse. Not giving the dust swirling about him an opportunity to settle, he rediscovered his footing. He zipped back towards the door.
Back on the verandah Kol lingered at the entrance. This time he didn't attempt to violate the barrier. Instead he assessed the living area, and the occupants. Bonnie lay unconscious on the sofa, while A blonde woman with close cropped hair crouched near her. A tea table stood next to them. The woman pulled various items and ingredients from a bag. Items and ingredients he knew to be utilized to invoke dark spells. She placed each of the objects on the glass surface.
"Use a bald headed struggle witch, Gloria and everybody in these supernatural streets know it! We've all heard how you out here hemming up these milk breath witches for their magic." A deep voice thundered from the opposite side of the room. "But, bitch! I'ma spit it how the good Goddess loves to hear it. If you try my daughter with your bullshit, I swear before Nature I'ma fuck you all the way up," A man roared from his place mounted on the far wall. "And believe me when I tell you this now, that's a check your ass won't need an ID to cash."
Kol doubted such a threat intimidated the witch. Considering she had him pinned to the far wall like a sodding painting.
She laughed as well as she should. Just as he would've done when confronted with a lamb who deigned to bare its teeth. "Please, you're not gonna do shit but hang there like a poster." She paused in her preparation to point an athamae at him. "All while knowing you're too much of a non-motherfucking-factor to save her empty headed ass."
"I suggest you listen to the poor bastard, darling." Kol seethed as he watched her with a predacious eye. The woman's laughter severed at the pinnacle of its shrill when her glare collided with his. "For I assure you unlike your dramatic wall art there, I am more than capable of showing you the fetching pink and red shades of your innards."
The woman glared at the ceiling then back at him. "Where the hell did you come from?"
"Then what the hell is your punk ass waiting on?!" The man bellowed over her.
Kohl's eyes narrowed as they swept back to the screeching bugger on the wall. "An invitation."
"The fuck you mean?" The man's eyes rolled. "Get your undead ass in here and get this crazy bitch off my daughter!"
The barrier dropped. The supernatural deterrent holding him at bay lifted. Not wasting even a fraction of a second, Kol charged into the hovel with the witch locked in his focus. Within paces of reaching her his world went black and reset.
"What about…" Stefan's emerald stare flicked over the Grill. With express ease he assessed and dismissed the nondescript bits of fluff prancing about the establishment. After a moment of searching his eyes flared. "Her. Bet she'll wash down just right with a burger and fries."
Rebekah cut an eye at the middling attractive auburn haired chit. She rolled her gaze away. "Like boxed wine and filet mignon, rubbish! Bonnie would be better." She ran the pad of her finger around the rim of her glass. "Though I've never savored her."
Stefan exhaled, while slouching back in his seat. "Why the hell not?"
"It's not done, Nik would dagger me for sure. Only Kol is witless enough to do so." Her mind drifted back to the night before, and the blunder her daft brother had committed with Bonnie. "Yet after how Nik behaved…" her tongue slid across her bottom lip. The thought of her lovely dove's beautiful bronze body arching in a fit of pleasure while she ravished her femoral artery wrenched her mouth dry. She uncrossed and recrossed her legs, reveling in the friction of it all. "He doesn't deserve one drop of her let alone the whole of her?" She pushed her glass away in favor of settling back in her seat. "Neither does Kol, but Bonnie is blinder than a naked mole rat when it comes to him. She's probably with him as I speak. He's no doubt the reason she failed to keep her date with me."
He reached across the table to caress her inner wrist. "You mean with us, Doll."
"Yes of course." She waved a dismissive hand at him. "Us."
"Hmm." At vampire speed Stefan darted from his seat to slide into the booth next to her. His arm slipped around her shoulders as he angled a bit towards her to flick an assessing stare over her face. "Your Bennett-Fish didn't know I was coming did she?"
She reached for her glass once more. The condensation on the straw drew her focus from his scrutinizing stare. "Of course she…would've known when she…arrived."
Stefan blew out an unnecessary breath as he shook his head. "Forcing me and her together is only going to shit up the situation." She felt the intense burn of his glare on her cheek, and she could no longer stop herself from meeting his gaze. When he once again lay claim to her attention he continued. "Because I'm not going to bow down to her. If she wants to continue playing with you, then she'd better know her fucking place when it comes to me."
"Now there's no need to become territorial, especially when-," she began.
"And since we're on sidelines let's move on to prior bench riders."
"Prior bench riders?" Her head slanted. "What are you on-,"
"When is your ex lame hauling his ass out of town?" Stefan forged on as if she hadn't spoken a word.
Confusion attempted to unite her brows. "You mean Marcel?"
"Is there another I should-," he began.
"Wow, Stefan," Caroline's screeching nasally voice cut him off. The queen of teen cliches waved a hand at her. "Is this the reason you haven't texted or called Elena?"
Elena, Katherine's bloody doppelganger and Caroline Forbes appeared from air in front of their booth. Both girls eyed them as if they'd been caught with crimson stained hands. Elena's disbelieving stare switched from Stefan to her and back.
The ever proving factor to all laws of redundancy tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "Can we talk, Stefan?" The brunette's gaze darted back to her once more before saying. "Alone."
"Dear, why further humiliate yourself? Especially so soon after the lackluster reception you received over your debut performance in the red light district of the digital realm." She offered the doppelwench a mocking smile, before bringing the straw to her lips. "Besides, Ripper favors playing with his morsels from time to time, but never conversing with them."
The Ripper in question laughed and Petty Forbes decided to unsheathe her tongue. "I'm glad you find Stefan's fuck boy ways so amusing, but you wanna know who may be good on his bullshit." She folded her arms across her breasts, while cocking a brow and moving a pointed stare between them both. When they only glared back, a smirking sneer discovered her lips as she continued. "Bonnie Bennett! And the little backstabbing boyfriend thief has made Damon collateral damage." She spat.
"Damon and my dove?" Rebekah scoffed. Not even in a Bonnie Bennett stan written fanfic. "Perhaps you're mistaken, Dear."
"Perhaps, not." Caroline's glare took a vindictive turn as her head bobbed. "Except…I watched them leave town together the night before."
"What?" The news unhinged her jaw.
Stefan's mobile phone chirped. He tore his tolerating stare from the loathsome twosome to regard the screen. The flashing no name number motivated him to slide from the booth. "Run me a sec to take this, Doll. Then we'll go stare at your comets. Oh and don't forget to keep an eye out for a snack. I'm thinking something sweet and spicy." He tossed some bills on the table. As he brushed past Elena to hurry towards the side exit, he tossed over his shoulder, "Fucking miss me with the bitter and salty."
As Greta watched the sleeping boy thoughts of potentially sacrificing him serenaded her conscience with miniature violins. He reminded her of Luka. Both were caught up on the wrong side of the supernatural streets. Yet they still had to navigate them whether they woke up choosing sidewalks or not.
She shook her head. She'd crossed so many lines since she and Klaus began she couldn't help but side-eye the hell out of her morals. At this point did she even have any at all? She'd sacrificed so much of herself to love Klaus Mikaelson, she barely recognized the woman in the mirror staring back at her. And for what? He'd never even muttered love and her name in the same damn sentence. So why the hell did she stay? Especially if doing so compromised her beyond recognition.
Greta turned away from her resting captive. She began to pace the spacious living area of the hunting cabin. A hunting cabin which resided in the middle of Mystic Woods. Klaus stashed them there hours ago, and she hadn't seen him since. His absence offered a foothold to her doubts, which at present spun circles in her head. No matter how hard her mind worked, she couldn't reconcile or even wish away a very real dilemma. A dilemma that threatened to drive a wedge between her and what she wanted most. Klaus. Although, maybe the situation wouldn't have to come to a bloody end.
Perhaps the boy's uncle spoke facts about Katherine…Kathy, or whatever the hell she called herself now. Point being, he'd be free to go back to his vanilla life. With an added lupine spice every few nights of the month, of course. An adjustment true, but only living people had those problems. Yet alive and breathing is where she'd set the goal. So in regards to those measures even a less than ideal return to Pleasantville USA for the boy sounded like a win to her. Such an outcome, however, depended solely on his Uncle Mason's ability to lure Katherine back to Mystic Falls.
The chiming of her phone interrupted her thoughts. Glancing over to the sleeping boy once more, she tugged the cell from the back pocket of her jeans and peered down at the screen. The name flashing across the face prompted her to answer.
"Luka, are you okay?" She demanded, whirling away from the boy to resume her pacing. "What's wrong?"
"Greta? Oh shit! Thank the Goddess!" Luka's dulcet tone rasped into the phone. "Dodi said you were dead!"
"What?" She stumbled in her pace and whipped around not knowing which way to turn.
A series of suspicious sniffles burst from her earpiece. "He said another one of those Bennett Bitches killed you…like mom." He dropped all pretenses and sobbed.
"Luka." Her heart flipped and her hand moved to rest at the center of her breasts. "Don't…please." More sniffles cut her off. "I'm fine, no one's hurt me. Bennett or otherwise. Now stop upsetting yourself before you have another episode."
Not knowing what else to do, she resumed pacing. Her eyes darted about the room. Luka needed her…but so did Klaus. She reached up to grab the roots of her hair. Tossing aside years of therapy she began to tug at her scalp. The ripples of pain did calm her a bit, but what she really longed for the most was to cut.
"I fucking hate all of their tainted asses!" Luka spit from his end.
"Luka, please. We've talked about…,"
Her words ran the hell out as a flash of white crossed her sightline. She paused in her pacing to scrutinize the brass holders near the fire place screen. A scrap of material hung from one of the pokers.
Greta crossed the room as she half listened to Luka who'd continued on rambling. "And when Aunt Gloria deads the one she caught, there'll be one less Bennett bitch on this side of the veil to threaten us or the laws of Nature."
"Goddess does she still call herself serving Nature and the Darkness? Dodi needs to stop entertaining Aunt Gloria before she ruins both of your standings over her unhealthy fixation!" She snapped.
Ironically, Gloria's flirtation with dark magic is one of the reasons she decided to run off with Klaus. After years of practicing nature's magic and being taught to maintain the balance, she'd discovered her aunt's hypocritical secret. Then and there, she'd made the decision to walk away from everything she'd once known.
"This time is different, G," Luka insisted, before lowering his voice. "This time I think she actually found her."
Her eyes rolled back to the offending material hanging from the poker. "What witch does Aunt Gloria think she's caught this time, Glenda from the North or the green one from the West?"
"Sister, why would you quote the witches from the Wizard of Oz and not the Wiz?" Luka sobs swelled in volume. "Now I know we've lost you!"
"Luka, stop this!" She was done.
The potential fireplace deception concerned Greta more than Gloria's Bennett obsession or her brother's bed witch theory. She couldn't count how many witches their aunt had targeted while in search of her mythical prophesized Bennett. And yet her Aunt's undying tenacity for all things Bennett had led her to Klaus. She pushed thoughts of she and Klaus' first moments from her mind. Withdrawing her hand from her hair, she allowed a clump of lingering strands to fall to the floor.
Barely breathing, she reached out and pulled the scrap from the poker. Her gaze scoured the ripped fabric until it landed on the bunched together fruit brand. She squeezed her eyes shut and reopened them. No fucking change! Torn to hell Fruit of the Looms briefs small enough to fit a twelve year old boy still dangled from her index finger. Was Klaus fucking serious? Had he really sunk so low in his depravities? Just when she thought the scandal couldn't get any more scandalous, she noticed a tattered bra wedged between the fireplace and screen.
"Luka, I'll call you back!" Greta hung up the phone and stuffed it back in her pocket.
As soon as she reached out to snatch the bra from the grate a force jerked her around.
"Where the fuck am I?" The once sleeping boy now stood before her. His slitted glare roamed over her, and then down to the item hanging from her hand. Without warning, he snatched the briefs from her. After a moment of inspecting the inner waistband of the underwear, his brows buckled. "And why the shits do you have my chick's tighty whities dangling from your fucking finger!"
Comprehension slayed the hell out of her misunderstanding. "Your…chick?"
Greta snatched the underwear back from him to glare at the waistband as well. Bonnie Bennett had been stitched into the elastic material. Betrayal slammed her like a frat brother train run. Tears flooded her stare and blurred her vision. Burning rage set them to boil. Steam seeped from her pores. She was about to fucking blow!
The front door burst open. Klaus marched inside with his cell pressed to an ear. "You and Rebekah's plans are of no concern to me." He slammed the door after him, and then spun sideways as if the person on the phone stood there waiting. Raising a finger, he continued. "Now bring me my doppelganger, Ripper, or make no mistake, it'll be you who finds himself in pieces." He ended the call and finally read the damn room. His glance swept over Mason's nephew, the items in her hand, and then rose to meet her glower. A smile charmed his mouth. "Oh, Love." He tsked as sanctimonious outrage cut loose and did the most on his face. "Those unmentionables belonged to the gender fluent professional jockey who held the property before me?"
Disbelief snapped her neck back. She flashed the stitched signature in the briefs at him. "Hmm, and was his damn name Bonnie Bennett too?"
Damon stared at the two bodies floating in front of him. The sight fucked his brain. He didn't understand even a tenth of the witchy shit. He only wanted his girl back at his side and fuck the rest. Bonnie Bennett had become the proverbial key to his dreams. Without her Katherine would desiccate to dust in that damn cave. And he refused to allow that shit to happen. Not while donated blood still sustained his cold dead heart.
He spun away from the contradiction floating in front of him to sprint back to the crumbling meth lab that had broken bad one too many damn times. Instead of following the ancient stalker to the front door, he thought it better if he reentered through the window. Just in case Mikaelson's assumptions made his face an ass and his mouth the hole. Why piss off their hosts for the shits?
Back inside the houses, two new scents rammed themselves up his nose and down his throat. Unfamiliar voices collided with his ears. One whiny tone came from the room at the end of the hall, while the other resonated from the first floor. He zipped towards the stairs. At the top, he paused to listen, realizing the serial killer might be on to something.
"How long is all of this going to take, Gloria?" The unfamiliar voice snapped.
He heard the rush of forced air provoked by an exaggerated sigh from where he stood. "As long as it takes, Jonas! You do get that I'm not baking fucking cookies right?"
"It's bad enough I'm going against the wishes of nature by not killing her," the voice said in a too smooth almost monotone pitch. "What I'm not going to do is allow you to forget I'm a grown ass man. If I ask you a question, Gloria, just answer it."
"Aw, man! Fuck everything about you. Especially that shit you talking, motherfucker," he heard Rudy belt from the bases of his lungs. "Say something else about killing my daughter and I'll show you what a motherfucking grown man does. Talking about, you're a grown man. Hell, even her struggle scalp ass knows you're a bitch!"
Someone snapped their fingers. "Jonas, take a walk," Gloria said as annoyance threaded itself through her tone. "And you, shut the hell up. I know you think you know about all of this, because you may have seen your wife float some feathers or light a few candles with her mind." A pause leveled the room in silence for a moment. Then she continued. "You have no idea, though. Not really." She laughed. "But keep fucking over my nerves, and class will be in session real soon tonight."
Done listening to the back and forth, Damon zipped down the stairs. He hurtled towards Gloria, snapping her neck before she registered his approach. When he turned to locate the other witch a mental attack ripped straight from the pages of the Spanish inquisition playbook drove him to his knees. Every blood vessel in his brain burst. Blood gushed from his eyes and nose. The agony forced him to contemplate tearing his head from his own body.
A thud to his left snaked a fraction of his attention. From the corner of his eye he watched Rudy rise to his knees. Was the man an idiot?
"St-Stay down!" Damon forced through the tight clench of his teeth.
"Tell your mama to stay her ass down," Rudy growled back as he struggled to stand.
"Listen to him, Hopkins," the witch cosigned. "You don't have to die tonight."
Rudy managed to stand. "Yeah well when I'm finished, you're gonna wish I did."
Rudy reached up to grab the stonelike jewelry around his throat. Although out of his fucking head with pain, Damon centered his focus on the necklace. On closer inspection the jewelry appeared made from bones. Finger bones. The fuck?! In one yank, Rudy snatched the circlet of bones from around his neck. His eyes flashed scarlet red. Dark mystical energy mushroomed and blanketed the room. Almost to the point of strangulation, which was a good fucking thing he didn't need air. The male witch on the other hand, not so lucky. Jonas dropped to his knees.
When the searing ache in Damon's head receded he zipped to Bonnie. He lifted her into his arms. Time had come for them to get the fuck out of dodge. They'd clearly worn out their welcomes. Bennett would have to catch up with dear old mom and dad in therapy. As he turned towards the door, he caught sight of Kol. Was the bastard sleeping? A fugly amber stone glittered in the asshole's grasp, snaking his attention. Damon's gaze squinted. Was that…no it couldn't be…Emily's talisman? Oh hells no! They weren't leaving without the hopeless not diamond. He needed the damn thing to drag his girl back to freedom. How'd Mikaelson get it?
In the midst of him finding the last ingredient to the spell, Jonas somewhat recovered from the explosion of dark energy. Damon's window to kick the dust out of rocks closed as the witch managed to regain his footing.
Jonas cast a glance towards the stairs. "You're a witch…a dark one."
"Former leader of the French Quarter Coven," Rudy said, dipping low in a bow.
Jonas' eyes flared. "Then Papa Tunde-,"
"My great grandpere." Jonas backed away. As Rudy's eyes bled from red to black, he laughed. "Y'all picked the wrong motherfucking house to squat in, bitch boy!"
Rudy jabbed the air between them twice. Jonas stumbled backwards as he clawed at his chest. Frothy foam gathered at the corners of his mouth. For several moments he swayed from side to side. His eyes rolled to greet the back of his head. He then tumbled forward and face planted right in the crack of Gloria's cakes.
For seconds or perhaps eons Kol plummeted through a series of scenes. Scenes from his past. Every moment of his life whipped along either side of him. Steady flickers on endless reels. From present to past dual realities whirled by. One set of events he recalled as if they'd only occurred an utterance before. While the other frolicked well within the jurisdiction of unreserved fiction. For how'd Bonnie been present for most of his debauched existence? Especially during time periods he'd known himself to have languished in a box.
Yet the alternate reality insisted he'd never misplaced even a day to the dagger. From its account, he'd witnessed the turns of centuries, births of new ages, and the fall and rise of nations. With Bonnie and his family at his side he'd seen it all. Through her, sorcery once again filled him, lending him a contentment he hadn't known since the first time fate placed her in his lap.
Soon the dual realities bled into a single moment. He stood inside his family's barn in the old village. A few paces ahead of him, his younger self lay on his stomach on a bale of hay peering from the slightly opened window. Both of his hands covered his mouth. His tiny body shook from bouts of suppressed laughter. Despite his efforts, however, a few chortles here and there managed to penetrate the cushioning of his palms. Kol smirked. He remembered this. Nik had been a shit to him all morn. Now he'd have retribution for the slight.
Seconds later Nik trudged down the trail carrying the day's milk. The youngster lying in wait muttered a chant and the path slickened. Without a cautioning, Niklaus' feet slipped from under him. He landed on his back in the sludge. Kol and his younger self laughed. Served the provoking prig well.
"The gods must've truly loathed the ground I walked upon to settle me with a weak whelp such as you!" The sound of Mikael's voice halted both of their laughter.
"Why's he here?" his younger self uttered. Fear and tears saturated his tone. "The new moon has yet to rise."
"The raid was successful. So he returned sooner than expected," he explained, though his younger self appeared not to hear him.
"Boy! Due to your inconceivable weakness, a day's worth of milk now goes to ruins in the soil." Mikael grabbed Niklaus by the hair and forced him to look at him. "What have you to say in your defense?"
"I-I'm sorry, f-father," Nik stuttered. "Saturated soil slickens the land. I-I misplaced my footing."
"Excuses!" Mikael bellowed, before shoving Nik's face into the mud. "They will not serve you well here. You will rise! You will return to the beasts and not take your leave of the cowshed until you replace what you have lost."
"B-but, father," Nik stammered, while pulling himself back into a sitting position. Once upright, he wiped the mud from his face with the backs of his hands. "Ebba will not produce again until this eve."
Mikael raised his hand to strike Nik, and the younger him buried his face in the hay. He glanced away as his back teeth clenched. Mikael always spouted about abhorring weakness, but he proved to be the weakest of them all. For what other sort sought to settle their offenses with a child rather than the man who'd provoked his ire?
"What the shit break is wrong with you? He's a child. A fucking child!"
The familiar screech of the shrieking voice snatched his face back around to the scene unfolding in the clearing. To his slacked jaw astonishment, Bonnie came tearing from the forest with all the fires of Dante's hell blazed in her deep jade green glare.
"Ayana?" Mikael questioned with his hand still poised to strike. His face turned into a mask of unmoving muscles. "What's the meaning of your interference? I have told you many times afore my wife and children are of no concern to you."
"Who the fuck is Ayana, dip shit?" she demanded. Once close enough she positioned herself between Mikael and Nik. "You know what, never mind! Real talk is what you're not going to do, and that's put your damn hands on this little boy. What kind of bullshit coward-,"
Before she knew what Mikael was about he'd backhanded her. She landed in the mud next to Nik. He moved to cover her body with his smaller one. Rage ignited in Kol's chest and incinerated him whole. He spun on his heel and tore from the barn. Outside, he saw Mikael now loomed over them both.
"Father, no! Can you not perceive she is not Ayana?" Nik pleaded.
Not caring for Nik's further interference, Mikael tore him off of Bonnie and tossed him to the side. "Away with you and the nonsense you speak. Your sightedness is as feeble as you are weak!"
"I told you not to touch him," she howled.
A surge of magic tore from the palms of her hands. The powerful force slammed into Mikael. A mere fraction of a second later his body hurtled through the air until he collided with a tree. Not wasting time to comprehend her show of power, she grabbed Nik by the hand and ran.
Young Kol stumbled from the barn. He paused long enough to gawk at an unconscious Mikael before running after Nik and Bonnie. While seeking out his leave his younger self brushed past him and Kol's confirmed reality altered. Fiction became fact and fact morphed into a condescending parody of what never happened. Yet there were still holes. Not unlike the years he'd thought he'd rotted away in a box.
The scenery around him spun. Time itself rotated about him in a speed too great for even his original sight to track. When the world finally slowed he stood in the center of the forest. A new moon ignited the sky. Incandescent beams penetrated the canopy of tree leaves. Shafts of glimmering lights lit the woods. Though his vampire sight remained unparallel. He cast his gaze over the land marks to gauge in what time period he now dwelled. Before he could consider his surroundings a small frame landed at his feet. Bonnie? He reached down to grab her. His hand slipped through her. She climbed to her feet and darted away.
"Niklaus!" Bonnie yelled as she ran.
Not willing to allow her to escape him once again, Kol gave chase. He trailed her to the edge of the forest which led back towards the old village. When he exited the woods, he discovered Bonnie standing alone near the harbor. She stared out at a long boat engulfed in flames. Tatia's burial. Oh how could he ever misremember the blunder she committed that eve. She'd spend centuries attempting to make it up to Elijah. His mind blanked. How the sodding hell did he know such things? Shaking away the unaccountable, he left his place in the forest and approached her.
Once he reached her, he pulled her into his arms. When she filled his embrace as she always did the predator in him settled. After a moment of watching the boat disappear beyond the horizon she spoke.
"I really shit the California King on this one, Kol," she said in a hollow voice.
"Worry not, darling," He leaned down to press a kiss to her temple. "Elijah's love for you wills out through the ages. A truth which is a testament to us all." A shoulder rose and fell. "In the face of centuries of unquestioning adoration Elijah's anger will burn but a moment. Now enough of this self-berating." His grip on her tightened. "Tell me, what have I told you of wandering about alone without first giving me notice?"
She stilled in his arms, before pulling away to stare into his face. Suspicion narrowed her stunning gaze. A question crumpled her brow, and then tumbled from her lips. "Toots?"