The tree whispered around them. The air was fresh and crisp. It felt magical and Bonnie wrapped her arms around herself tighter. The moon was high in the sky illuminating the path in front of Bonnie. She took every step slowly, looking out into the looming shadows and the darkness that waited beyond the silvery moonlight. Why had Kol brought her out here?
He said that he was going to teach her magic, not take her on a hike. They stalked deeper and deeper into the woods and Bonnie jumped at every crack of a stick or hoot of an owl. There was nothing this deep in the woods. There was no need for them to go so deep in the woods. What could be in the woods that they could not get in a Walmart of Target? Kol whirled around with a snarky grin on his face.
"Can you slow your heart? Its rapid beating is getting distracting," Kol quipped. Bonnie frowned even more at his words.
"Well you are taking me into the dark woods with no one else and then telling me that you are going to teach me magic. You should like a serial killer," Bonnie snarked back at him.
Kol flashed a smile. "Darling, I am a serial killer."
"That doesn't help your case."
"I am bringing you somewhere where you can amplify your powers. A place where you can gain more power than you already have."
Bonnie tilted her head. "Wouldn't that make it more difficult for me to control my powers?"
"No, it will only make what I have to teach you easier."
They stopped in a clearing where a house stood, or the remnants of what used to be a house. It was a hollowed out husk of a home. The walls were covered in soot and windows had long since broken and shattered. There was no door just an open archway that let anything inside. Bonnie shivered just looking at it.
It was the haunted house. Kids would say that the burned out house had once been home to witches and that anyone who went inside would be cursed by those witches. She remembered Matt and Tyler betting each other to go inside while the rest of them watched. Elena and Caroline had gone inside after Matt had given the all clear, but Bonnie could never find it within herself to step inside. Something about the house disturbed her. It made chills walk up and down her spine and she refused to take a step inside of the building.
"So you brought me to the haunted house, how is this supposed to help me with my powers?" Bonnie asked.
Kol stepped forward standing in the archway. With the moon behind him Kol positively glowed in the moonlight. He looked less like the monster that Grams was telling her he was and more like the innocent youth that he looked like. Something in Bonnie's chest tightened and she found that she could hardly look at him. She turned away.
"Do you know the rumors of this place?" Kol asked.
"They said that this place used to be home to witches and that they were burned because of it." Bonnie answered.
"What if I told you that the rumors were true?"
Bonnie paused and then shivered. If that were true then that would be horrible. Those poor women, all being burned for something that they could not help. Something that they were all, that Bonnie was, born with.
"I know you can feel it," Kol stated stalking over to Bonnie. He pulled at her hand and led her into the archway. Bonnie had never been so close to the house before. She had never dared near it because of the same tumbling in her stomach that she was experiencing now. Kol's mouth was so close to her ear that she could feel the puffs of his breath. "You can feel it can't you. The rage and desperation of the ghosts. The anguish that they went through when they died. You can feel every emotion that they have."
And Bonnie could feel something. It made her stomach curl and she wanted to run away as far as she could from the house. It was driving her mad with fear. Kol held her hands and brushed her fingers against the archway.
The angry roars of a crowd. The screaming of women. The lick of a flame.
Bonnie gasped and pulled away from the door. "What was that?" She asked.
Kol let got of her hand, and Bonnie felt bereft for a moment before she shook her head.
"You saw something didn't you? What did you see?"
"I saw fire and— and I heard women screaming. What was that?" Bonnie asked. She thought of the horrible screams that she heard. The moans of pain and anguish that tore at her heart strings. Those poor women.
"They say that when witches die they leave an impact. They leave some of their magic behind. It is true to an extent. When people did especially in gruesome and terrible ways, they leave an imprint on the earth. They leave a mark. This is more so for witches. And as a servant of the earth, you can feel those impacts that are left behind. You can even take the power of those witches and use them as your own power," Kol said. He walked through the archway and into the center of the hollowed out home.
"And let me guess you want me to gather the power that was left behind here?" Bonnie said, not taking a step inside the house. Kol flashed her a smile. Bonnie looked around at the hollowed out walls and the ground. There were flowers and grass where there should have been tile and wood. She did not want to step foot into the house, but this was for the sake of magic.
Bonnie stepped inside of the house, the grass crunching underneath. It felt as though she was intruding on a scared area. She did not belong here. Kol smiled when he saw her taking cautious steps into the house.
"There we are!" Kol said. "Now settle in I want you to repeat these words: Allicere. Attrahunt. Et fac quod tuum est meum."
"What does that mean?" Bonnie asked.
"Entice. Attract. And make what is yours mine."
"But isn't this wrong? Won't I be stealing the power of those witches? I would be stealing the power that belongs to them." Bonnie could not imagine her life without magic. And even the thought of taking magic of people who were no longer there to use it felt wrong. It felt as though she was stripping these dead people of the one thing that they had left. It all just felt wrong.
"They aren't using it anymore. What are these old witches going to do with magic on the Other Side?"
Bonnie sighed and then closed her eyes. She repeated the words. At first they left her mouth on a shaky breath. As she repeated the words her voice gained power. She could feel the air stirring around her. Behind her closed lids she could see the power of the long dead witches.
It glowed in the light behind her lids. It glowed pure white and watching untapped by anything and overflowing with the power of the Earth. She reached out a hand and felt the power flowing into her.
It was warm and welcoming. Witches wanting to help a young witch on her journey. It felt like eating a warm cookie from Grams. When she opened her eyes, she saw her arm stretched out and lowered it. She felt something heavy and warm in her stomach and she could not sense the feeling of dread that she felt before when she stepped into the house.
"Very good job. You didn't leave any power to linger." Kol said as he came up behind her.
"Kol?"
"Hm?"
"Why are you helping me?" The thought bothered her. She knew that her Grams would say that he was only helping her for his own dastardly needs, but it did not feel like she was being used. He was helping her gather more power and wanted her to learn more than one spell from his grimoire. Why was he helping her when he could have been getting the help from other witches that were more experienced than her?
"I'll tell you that on one condition." Kol said.
"What's the condition?"
"You go out on a date with me."
Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Deal." What could be the harm on going out on a date with him?
"A long time ago. Before I became…what I am. I was a warlock. I had magic just like you. I had magic and I loved it. I thought that I could conquer the world with my magic. And then, things changed."
"How did you become a vampire? Especially a vampire with some magic residue?"
Kol shook his head. "That is something I'm saving for our second date darling."
Bonnie shook her head.
"Now sweetheart don't make a scene."
Klaus leaned back in the booth, his arms across the back of the booth and smiled despite his words. Caroline was dancing with the dead body of one of the girls in the bar. She twirled and dipped and spun the body around the room. There was no one else on the dance floor which gave Klaus perfect view of the girls dancing. Caroling smiled a bloody smile as she pulled away from the dead girl's neck.
"But she said that she was so sure that she was prettier than me. I wanted to see what she meant," Caroline pouted from her point across the room. Everyone else in the bar was cowering behind tables, compelled to not leave but they had free range around the bar.
"No one is as beautiful as you my love," Klaus said. Caroline's smile got bigger if that was even possible and she dropped the dead girl. One of her friends whimpered as the girl thumped to the ground. Caroline sashayed her way over to Klaus and pressed their lips together. She taste of the iron tang of blood and the raspberry lipstick that she had been so fond of recently.
Klaus tilted his head, deepening the kiss and allowing for their tongues to glide across one another. She sighed into the kiss and pulled away. She smacked her lips and then gagged.
"Ugh, I hate alcoholics. They leave a nasty taste on my tongue," Caroline said with a gag. Klaus smiled at the look on her face. And to think that she had almost gone to Kol instead of him when she was young.
"You know the way that you look right now remind me of a darling young flapper back in Chicago." Klaus brought the finger of alcohol to his lips.
"Was she beautiful?" Caroline asked.
"The most."
"Was she a good dancer?"
"The best."
Caroline slid into the booth and Klaus wrapped his arms around her. They sat watching the people cower behind tables and enjoying every moment of it. Caroline snapped her fingers and the bartender rose up from behind the bar and made their way over to them.
"Y-yes?" the bartender asked in a shaky voice.
"Get me a bourbon on the rocks and put some blood in it. Make sure it is B positive blood too," Caroline demanded without ever looking at the bartender. The bartender shook where they stood.
"How will I know if the person has B positive blood?"
Caroline frowned and Klaus watched as a storm cloud came to cover her sunshine smile. A wicked grin rose to face.
"God do I have to do everything around here?" Caroline scoffed. She sighed and then rose from the cage of Klaus's arms.
"Does anyone have B positive blood in here? Anybody?"
A shaky hand went up into the air and Caroline's eyes zeroed in on one of the dead girl's friends. She smiled and Klaus could practically hear what she was thinking: perfect. She pointed over to the girl and snapped her fingers at the bartender.
The bartender grabbed the girl and went back behind the bar. Klaus rubbed Caroline's shoulders. "Come now darling relax. We came out here to have fun and you are getting worked up over nothing."
"Those girls said that they were prettier than me."
"A bald faced lie if I have ver seen one."
"And that girl tried to take you away from me."
"You know you really get me going when you are jealous."
Caroline sniffed and stuck her nose into the air. "I'm not jealous of those lowlifes. I just hate that for a second they thought that they were better than me. I just had to make Sure that they knew that even for a moment they are not better than me."
Klaus gave a laugh. That was his girl. He pulled her close and buried his face into her hair. She placed a hand on his head. They looked the picture of domestic bliss, a man fully and wholly in love with his woman. Klaus wanted to snort at the thought. The both of them were the last people to consider domestic bliss.
They were murderers. Serial killers. That is what they were. Klaus lifted his face from Caroline's shoulder and took a good long look at her. She smiled, her lips stained red from the blood.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I'm just remembering the saucy little minx that you were back in Chicago." Caroline rolled her eyes. Klaus kept going. "Do you remember? The parties? The blood?"
"I remember something better than others." Caroline pet at his chest.
"Well let me remind you."
It was winter in Chicago and the speakeasy was packed. Caroline was on the dance floor. Her hair was trimmed short and curled in the flapper design. She was the epitome of a flapper girl. She smoked with the boys, drank, and danced the night away. Klaus sat back in the booth, watching his girl dance with some other girls that she had become friends with.
A man slid into the booth. Klaus felt his grin become even more ingrained on his face. "Ah! Stefan!"
The ripper smiled at him, his teeth pearly white on his face. But Klaus could smell it on him, the stench of blood and the way that it clung to him. Stefan never not smelled of blood, it was almost ingrained in him, so much a part of him like his eyes of his perfect coiffed hair. "Have fun?"
Stefan shrugged his shoulders. "My date… she's a little broken apart right now."
Klaus laughed knowing exactly what he meant. That was the thing that he loved about Stefan. He was bloody brilliant when it came to making the night fun. Klaus took a puff of a cigar that he held in his hands. What was better than this. His father was dead and he had his girl and the world at his feet. There was nothing better than this.
Caroline strut her way over to them and sat at the table. "How are my boys doing?" She slid in underneath his arm and Klaus smiled as he pressed a kiss to her curls. She smiled and cuddled in closer. Stefan sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Where is Rebekah? You know I always like to have her when you two love birds get into it," Stefan said.
"Why? You want my sister under your arm also?" Klaus asked.
A man strode up to their table, his hands in fists and clearly upset. His face was ruddy and it looked as though he had had one too many drinks. Caroline giggled as he swayed in front of their table.
"Where the fuck is Poppy?" He slurred in front of them. Klaus raised his brows and Stefan leaned in closer. "Huh? What the fuck did you do to her? You-you…You just walk in here with your greasy hair and your looks and then you sweep Poppy off her feet. I know men that can handle you, y'know."
Stefan looked back at both Klaus and Caroline with wide eyes. Klaus could not contain his mirth and started laughing along with Caroline. Stefan looked back and forth between the man and Klaus. The man's face got redder by the moment.
"Now tell me where the fuck is Poppy?! Huh, you answer me right now before I call my boys to have you roughed up!" the man said. Stefan's smile was wide as he rose from the booth and slapped a hand down on the man's shoulder.
"Why don't you tell me your name, then I can let you meet with Poppy," Stefan said. Klaus and Caroline could not hold in their laughter any longer and began to full on roar. The man grinned, happy that he was finally being heard.
"Bruce. Bruce Falcone," the man said without a hint of hesitation. Stefan patted him on the back and tilted his head.
"Come outside with me Bruce." Stefan walked with his hand around the man's shoulders. Klaus and Caroline rose from the table their eyes on Stefan and Bruce's back. They followed Stefan and Bruce out of the bar and into the back alleyway. They walked all the way to the end of the alley and that was when they saw her. Poppy's head was detached from her body. Her body lay in the opposite corner from her.
Bruce let out a low wail and he rushed forwards. "Poppy? Poppy! Oh my God who did this to you?" Stefan stepped forward.
"That would be me," he said with a wave of his hand. Bruce rose from the ground his face regaining that red color and he rushed to Stefan. But Stefan was faster. He pinned Bruce against the wall and let his truce face show. Caroline smiled and clapped her hand as Stefan dug into his meal.
Klaus let out an uproarious laugh.
Caroline tilted her head and sighed, settling into Klaus's side yet again. "I miss Stefan. I miss the group we used to be together. You know, me, you and Stefan. We had so much fun."
Klaus pressed a kiss to her head and then nodded. "I know love. I miss him too."
Tyler paced in front of them all, their eyes tracking him from across the room. He paced in front of them and wiped his face with his hand. His fists kept clenching and unclenching. It was only a matter of time before he tread a hole in the carpet. Elena watched with a concerned face as Tyler walked past another time.
"Will you sit down man. You're giving everyone whiplash," Matt said. Bonnie nodded her head.
"Yeah. You call us all here and then you don't even say a word? What is going on Tyler?" she asked. Tyler nodded his head and then sighed. He fell into a chair and let his head fall into his hands. They stayed like that for a moment just watching him. Tyler did not look so good, Elena could not help but think to herself. His hair was in disarray and slight oily, his face was covered in stubble and from the many glass that lingered in the living room, he had been drinking. Often.
Tyler looked up at them and then said with absolute conviction, "The Mikaelsons killed my mother."
Elena's head snapped up at the words. Matt scoffed. "How could the Mikaelsons killed your mom when your dad shot the gun?"
"Remember when I told you that that guy— Klaus talked to my dad and told him to kill my mom. Loom what happened when my mom didn't listen to me and went straight home. My dad shot my mom," Tyler said.
"Yeah so? The man came over and talked to your dad and then your dad shot your mom. That doesn't mean that he had anything to do with it?" Matt countered.
"He told my dad to shoot my mom and then he did! He did something — I don't know what! But he did something. He put my dad under some kind of I don't know hypnosis. I don't know something."
"You're talking crazy dude."
As Matt and Tyler went back and forth over who was right and who was correct Elena felt a burning in her ears. She knew what happened to Tyler's mom. Stefan was a vampire and had told her as much about their abilities. She turned to look at Stefan who was watching the fight with a sense of detachment. She could not keep this a secret any longer. They needed to know.
"Guys," Elena piped up from her seat on the couch. It was rough and scratched against the bare skin of her leg. She pulled her skirt down so that the upholstery did not rub against her skin. "Tyler is right."
All eyes turned towards her. Damon looked at her face with wide eyes, asking her what the hell she was doing. Elena looked away from that face and looked to Stefan. His eyes were wide and green like a forest and they were warm. He trusted her, his eyes seemed to say. And whatever choice that she made was one that he supported. He nodded his head.
"The Mikaelsons are vampires and they are here for…" she looked to Stefan. He had not told her what the Mikaelsons were here for. Stefan rose and then spoke.
"The Mikaelsons are vampires and they are here to kill Elena." Elena's heart stopped in her chest. They were here for her? They wanted her dead? What had she done to offend them so much? She sucked in a breath. In. Out. She would deal with that later when she had more time to think about it.
"Vampires? That is what you want us to believe?" Matt said. Stefan rushed over with incredible speed and lifted Matt from the ground with one hand. HIs face was a mess of grey and red veins that spread down into his cheeks. His eyes took that bloody red color. No matter how many times Elena say it, she felt her stomach roll a little at the sight.
Stefan let Matt down and he gasped for air. Stefan turned to look at all of them in the room. "Vampires are real. Damon and I are both vampires."
"Okay then why the hell did that Klaus guy make my mom kill my dad?" Tyler asked. Elena turned her eyes to Stefan but he was not looking at her. He was looking to Damon with raised eyebrows. Damon sighed and ran a hand down his face. Damon walked from behind the couch and stood in front of them all.
"Well since the cat's out of the bag, I might as well reveal all that we know." Damon said with no small amount of snark. Elena settled into her seat. She could feel that this was going to be a long explanation. "The Mikaelsons are here to break a curse on vampires. They want to make it so that vampires can walk in the daylight without getting burned."
"Wait, so that is true. Vampires really burn in the sunlight?" Tyler asked. "How come you aren't burning right now?"
"We have rings that protect us from the sun and allow us to walk in the day light," Stefan supplied. Damon raised his hand and flashed the large lapis lazuli ring that he wore.
"That isn't important. What is important is that what is needed for the ritual to be a success. They need to sacrifice a werewolf, a vampire, and Elena," Damon continued. Elena's heart flipped in her chest. Her death would cause Stefan to be able to walk in the sunlight without burning. But he was already doing that with the ring. Why did she have to die?
"Wait but that still doesn't explain why my mom had to die?" Tyler interjected.
"I was there when your father pulled the trigger on your mother," Stefan said. He looked down his face the same somber mask that he got when he was thinking about something hard. Elena placed a hand on his back. She wanted to infuse her warmth in him. She wrapped an arm around his shoulder and he leaned into the touch. "After your father killed your mother his eyes turned this…gold color. I think you guys are from a line of werewolves."
Everyone took a moment to let the words settle in the air. It was a tough situation to be in and Elena did not envy Tyler. His father had killed his mother and now he had to learn that he was part of a line of mythical beings. It was something that was not going to be easy swallow. Elena wanted to reach out a hug Tyler, but she didn't because he did not seem the type who would take kindly to the affection.
"You guys are talking crazy. This is wild," Matt said. "This is too crazy. Well then what are we supposed to do?"
"You are not going to do anything," Damon said. "We, and by that I mean me and Stefan, are going to deal with the Mikaelsons."
"What? No. That bastard got my mom killed and my father in jail." Tyler said. He rose from his chair and looked around the room. "I deserve to stop this ritual from happening more than you guys. You guys probably want it to happen."
Stefan frowned from where he was sitting. "You think I want Elena to die? That is the last thing that I want to happen." He sighed and then he rose from his seat. Elena watched hi, her arm bereft without him there. She lowered it to her side. "Tyler we are going up against vampires that are incredibly old. And the older a vampire is the stronger they are. We aren't saying that you don't deserve some form of revenge but you would be crushed by these vampires before you even know it."
"Yeah, you'd just be walking into their trap." Damon snarked. Stefan and Elena shot him a look, but Damon just graced them with his signature smirk. "Listen, wolf boy, you would be nothing more than an ant trying to go against god if you tried to fight against the Mikaelsons by yourself. Leave the fighting to the big boys."
Tyler's eyes were heavy with tears. He huffed and puffed where he was but then Matt wrapped an arm around his shoulder and the boy just crumbled. His buried his face into Matt's shoulder and sobbed.
"They killed my mom," he wailed as he cried into his best friend's shoulder. Matt sighed and patted his friend's back. "They killed my fucking mom. Who even does that?"
Stefan patted his shoulder. "Yeah man, I know."
Elena rose from her chair and walked over to Tyler. She patted his back. If there was one thing that she could understand it was loosing a parent. She understood that perfectly.
Author's Note: Believe it or not we are nearing the end of Part Two and then Part Three will be here. I am so happy that I am finishing up this story. Thank you all for the love you have shown this story.