'I'm plagued by you night and day, you've got my friends doubting my allegiances.'
Bonnie woke to the obnoxious buzzing of her phone on her dresser early that Saturday morning. Not her preferred way to start the day honestly. Especially as she was only just catching up on lost sleep thanks to Kol's herbs, she'd hoped to sleep until at least noon, but alas it seemed it wasn't to be.
Caroline:
SOS meet at boarding house at 10.
Bonnie groaned as she rolled back over, tempted to just burrow under her covers and pretend she hadn't seen it but she knew she couldn't. SOS' usually meant Elena - or someone else, but typically Elena - was in danger. She couldn't ignore it, no matter how much she might want to. That was her burden to carry as the town witch.
Regardless, she debated for a further ten seconds, enjoying the warmth of her cocoon of covers before finally withdrawing with a sigh. No use avoiding the inevitable she supposed.
~x~
Bonnie pulled into the boarding house driveway at exactly 10:01, grimoire in hand - because why else would she have been called - wondering what the hell was going on this time. Thankfully Caroline was the one to open the door to her, despite her furtive looks she didn't look anxious, so Bonnie assumed she didn't have to worry too much. If there was immediate danger Caroline would have been babbling away the second she'd arrived.
"Caroline, what's going on?"
Caroline only shrugged, "I don't know, Stefan called the meeting."
Bonnie strode into the library of the Salvatore's ridiculously big house, eyebrows raised in question.
"What happened? Is Elena okay?"
"I'm fine Bonnie." Elena was quick to reassure her yet she couldn't seem to meet her eye.
Okay, something weird was going on here, she mused to herself. First Caroline, now Elena, what the hell was this about? Where was the urgency that had required an SOS meeting in the first place and why couldn't they look at her.
"So what is it?" She asked slowly, wary now because of her friends' odd behaviors, directing her question at the Salvatores in the hopes that someone would finally give her some answers.
"We think it's best that you're not involved in any future take down Klaus plans, including opening the coffin," Stefan explained coldly before shrugging. "You can't be trusted anymore."
"What the hell are you talking about? What have I done to earn distrust?"
"Well, you can start by explaining those little witchy dreams of yours involving Kol." Damon piped up snidely.
"You think I'm happy about that? I don't get any say in any of the 'witchy dreams' the spirits decide to give me. Not about Emily, not about the coffins, and certainly not about Kol. All they were was glimpses of him as a human and a new vampire, I don't even know if they were real!" She argued, frustrated to be defending herself from something she had no say in.
"We can't know that these so-called dreams of yours haven't made you sympathetic towards him. I mean why else would you be hanging out with him over at Frose Street?"
"Seriously, this again? I was trying to get information from him, I assumed that was why the spirits had shown me him." The lie fell easily from her lips, her irritation at their constant doubts fueling her credibility.
"Frose Street is where I compelled that room full of the Martins' grimoires for you." Stefan suddenly realized.
"Is he teaching you magic?" Damon sneered, "You're learning magic from the enemy?"
"He's teaching me Latin." Bonnie corrected through gritted teeth, since when was she the one that needed to be on trial for her actions? "You know a dead language he would have grown up with? I figured it might make him open up and maybe share something that could help with taking down Klaus. That still is the plan right? Getting rid of Klaus?"
"Yes, but not a plan you're involved with any longer. We can't be sure that Klaus hasn't gotten him doing the same, spying on you that is. Though you probably didn't consider that, did you, witchy?" Damon spat in her face.
"Fuck you! I have done everything in my power to keep Elena safe despite not having the proper tutelage. The tutelage I was denied because my Grams died saving your two's asses! You don't want my help? Fine. I wish Elena the best of luck without me." She stormed out of there then. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately.
She'd just gotten into her car when the urge to cry almost overwhelmed her. She pushed through the feeling and sped away, she was not going to cry on the Salvatores property, she wouldn't give them the satisfaction.
~x~
Bonnie cried until she had no more tears left to cry. She couldn't believe the Salvatores could think such a thing. As if she would jump ship to team Mikaelson when she barely even tolerated the Salvatores' presences to begin with, only doing so for Elena. God, Elena. Her and Caroline had just stood there and said nothing. She'd always viewed them like sisters but apparently, the feeling was not mutual.
She didn't want to leave Elena at risk but the Salvatores would always do everything in their power to keep her safe. Hell, she wasn't entirely sure she wasn't wrong in believing that they'd go as far as sacrificing the entire town to keep her safe if it came to it. Bonnie certainly wasn't safe if the choice was between her and Elena's life. Elena had a better chance of getting out of this alive than anyone else in Mystic Falls.
All of this was such bullshit.
She doubted it would last long though. Sooner or later they'd need a spell or get in a bind that only she could fix as a Bennett witch and suddenly there they'd be again, inserting themselves into her life. Likely without apologies or remorse for what they had said. They might even find a way to blame the whole thing on her supposed 'untrustworthiness' that was their specialty after all, or at least Damon's.
The thought made her want to cry all over again. She'd known for a long time that she'd stopped being Bonnie the girl ever since the Salvatores had come to town, reduced down to only Bonnie the town witch. She'd known they'd only seen her for her magic and how it could help them or rather Elena, but it was still depressing. She didn't want that. She didn't want that to be her.
She could scarcely remember when magic had brought her joy anymore. Not since the very beginning at least, when she'd used her magic mainly for floating feathers.
That thought brought up another, only tangentially related. In her dreams, Renata had always found joy in her magic - or rather her and Kol's shared magic but she wasn't going there right now - she had found the beauty in being a witch. She wanted that. Bonnie wanted to experience that joy and beauty.
Well now seemed like as good a time as any to put Kol's claims to the test.
~x~
Bonnie had been trudging through the woods for a while now. She wasn't entirely sure she'd be able to find what she was looking for, the woods looked so different from how they did in her dreams, and yet she seemed to know instinctively where she was heading.
Even if she couldn't find the exact spot, at least she'd be alone. Or so she thought until she stumbled upon a figure lounging in the very clearing she'd been looking for.
"Kol?" It seemed she probably could have just let her magic guide her to Kol through the bond and she would have found it in half the time. But she was still getting her head around all the bond nonsense.
The vampire in question turned to face her leisurely, "Bonnie? What are you doing here?"
"I was uh testing to see if what you said was true about retaining memories from my other selves. Wanted to see if I could find this place, figured it must have some pretty powerful cloaking on it if no one found it, and I was right." She chuckled, half-heartedly.
She had practically felt the barrier of magic that surrounded this place pressing forcefully against her when she'd stepped into the clearing. She was shocked to see it still looked the same, right down to the wildflowers, she wondered if one of the many layers of magic on this place was responsible for that.
"What are you doing here?" She asked as she came to sit a few paces away from him.
"Well, it's like you said there's powerful cloaking on this place, even I can feel it. It is one of the last places I can still feel Renata like she's right here with me." Kol smiled, it was an expression touched by nostalgia, and dare she say grief. He turned to look at her then, really look at her, Bonnie realized, as she found herself being analyzed. "Are you alright? You look upset."
Bonnie snorted, "Like you care." The words slipped free unbidden before she could stop them. Her Grams used to tell her she was too defensive sometimes, a dangerous trait to have around temperamental vampires.
Kol shrugged, "Who says I don't?"
Bonnie sighed, picking at the grass. "The Salvatores think I'm going to betray them, that I've joined team Mikaelson and that you're spying on me for Klaus."
"How delusional of them," Kol said simply in a way that made Bonnie smile, like he had the utmost faith in her and so such a belief that she'd even consider betraying her friends was utterly preposterous. "Do you want me to kill them for you?"
"Kol!" Bonnie was startled by the seemingly genuine but casually violent offer, especially when Kol looked confused by her reaction."You're not used to having problems you can't just kill are you?"
"I'll admit it doesn't happen often."
Bonnie chuckled, she couldn't help herself. Was this what her life had turned into? That the only person that understood her was the very same thousand-year-old vampire her friends claimed she'd betrayed them for? That the friends she'd had since birth no longer backed her up?
"How come the magic's still holding?" She asked, needing a change of topic to distract her from her maudlin thoughts.
"There's a couple dozen layers on this place: cloaking spells, glamors, illusions, preservation spells, and the like. Renata and I reinforced them constantly, we didn't want anyone intruding. Besides, cloaking spells and glamors are my specialties." He finished smugly.
"I thought it was transmutation?"
Kol laughed though she wasn't sure what was so funny about that, but she got the distinct feeling she was missing out on an inside joke.
"Uh no it's… never mind that."
"How do you even get good at those specifically? Doesn't seem like there'd be much call for it. More of a party trick type of spell."
Kol shrugged, "The only way I could get away from father sometimes was to literally disappear. Klaus always drew his ire so there was nothing I could do for him, Mikael would notice him missing and punish him for it, but I could at least get away myself."
Bonnie felt a twinge of guilt at his words. She tried not to humanize the Mikaelsons, a task which shouldn't be so monumental but had become all the more difficult since Kol had come into her life, but it was difficult not to do so when hearing someone feign nonchalance while talking about the lengths they had to go to to avoid their abusive father… The very same abusive father they'd awoken to terrorize his children. Whatever monster Klaus was, started with Mikael.
She wanted to ask why they never stopped him. Why didn't they put him down themselves? She knew she shouldn't, but without proper consultation, the question was falling from her lips regardless.
"He terrified us," Kol answered candidly. "No one wanted to be the one responsible for his ire nor the one affected by it. It was everyone for themself. Though, Rebekah got close once. She'd stolen one of his daggers and meant to kill him in his sleep after Nik suffered a particularly brutal whipping, but Elijah stopped her."
Bonnie tried not to think what might have happened had Rebekah succeeded. How different everything would be. Would the Mikaelsons have become vampires without Mikael urging Esther towards such dark magic? Would Klaus have even bothered to sneak out to see the wolves with Henrik if he hadn't had to fear Mikael's wrath? Would Bonnie currently be sitting here? Or would she have lived and died only as Renata?
Whether he sensed where her thoughts had headed or he just wanted to stop talking about Mikael, Kol tactfully decided to change the topic then.
"I can teach you if you want? Glamors aren't overly difficult once you get the hang of them and they can be rather useful. Just need a few things to cast one; comfrey, horehound, amaranth, yarrow, and a few other general herbs."
Bonnie was thankful for the distraction from her current train of thought regardless of his reasoning. She couldn't get hung up on what-ifs because it wouldn't change the here and now with the hand that she'd been dealt. But she didn't have the slightest clue what Kol was talking about.
"I don't know what half of those things are." Kol looked baffled for a moment and opened his mouth as if to question her before she spoke up again. "No tutelage, remember?"
"Right." Kol looked away from her then with a clenched jaw, looking around the clearing before seeming to come to some sort of decision and hopping to his feet. "I guess we better remedy that with a little road trip then." He grinned down at her, holding out his hand towards her.
Bonnie looked up at the hand uncertainly for a moment. She was sure there was some kind of warning about taking the devil's hand and following him into hell. But as far as Bonnie was concerned she'd spent the last year there already, what more harm could come from her knowingly taking his hand now?
~x~
"Are you sure you should be behind the wheel?" Bonnie asked tentatively as she slipped into the passenger seat of Kol's flashy black sports car. If she'd been more into cars she might have been able to identify it further than simply; expensive.
"They had cars before I went under in the nineteen hundreds and I've had a few top-up lessons since then. You'll be fine." Kol reassured her and there was none of that usual cocky arrogance present in his tone so despite her best wishes she found herself relaxing into the passenger seat. Finding it easier to trust him when he wasn't acting the part of the arrogant, all-knowing, thousand-year-old vampire that he was and closer to something more genuine.
"Please tell me Klaus isn't teaching you? I get the feeling he has serious road rage." Bonnie asked lightly, not quite teasing but more at ease than she had been with him weeks prior to their truce.
Kol laughed at her comment as he pulled away, "No, absolutely not Nik and I in an enclosed space rarely ends well. Elijah taught me."
"So where exactly are we going?" She asked after a couple of minutes of driving, in which she reassured herself that it did indeed seem like Kol could drive.
"There are gardens run by witches with every kind of magical plant you could imagine needing, dotted around. Figured we'd find one of those and get a little bit of everything. Or at the very least the basics." Kol explained as he fiddled with the radio, unable to settle on a station.
It was so normal that Bonnie found herself smiling at the situation. Sure they were going to buy witchy herbs and she was a reincarnated witch and he was an original vampire, but still. It was almost normal, more so than anything else had been in her life for the past week. She always found herself unwinding a little in Kol's presence, able to stop worrying about the next big disaster that was likely brewing in their little town and just focus on the smaller things.
She hadn't been able to do that around her friends for a long time. They spent so much of their time talking about the problems that plagued their town - understandably - that there was little space for anything else in their conversations. Though she supposed she wouldn't have to worry about that for the time being as it seemed they wouldn't even be having those kinds of conversations now.
When had her life gotten so twisted?
"I'll run through what they're generally for and their different names so you're not caught off guard by them the next time you encounter them in one of your grimoires." Kol continued, unaware of where her thoughts had taken her, as he finally settled on a rock station, turning the music down low so they could still talk.
"What do you mean by different names?" Bonnie frowned.
"Like eye of newt is actually a term for mustard seeds and bat's wing is a term used for holly leaves," Kol explained easily, staring straight ahead as he focused on the road.
"Seriously? Why not just call them what they are?"
Kol smiled, "There's a bit of friction between witches and travelers, I believe the original intention was to disguise what plants were being used from non-witches."
"Travelers?"
"A different faction of magic users, witches draw on nature and the elements while travelers have been blocked from using nature to fuel their magic. They were cursed by witches to constantly be on the move, if they stay in one place too long the elements turn on them."
"Sounds like there is more than just a bit of tension between the two."
Kol hummed non-committedly.
Bonnie sighed, "Let me guess there aren't any supernatural species with some kind of cross-species rivalry; witches and travelers, vampires and werewolves, etc., etc.?"
"Something like that. There's a lot of pressure surrounding the supernatural community with trying to keep their presence a secret from humans. Sometimes that pressure can turn internally and lead to feuding. Never mind when you add in greed and jealousy."
"Is that your official belief as a former witch and an ancient immortal having lived through the conflict?" She quipped head tilted back against the headrest as she regarded him.
Kol snorted, "Perhaps, I'd like to think I'm well versed in the matter after all." He briefly looked away from the road to throw her his usual cocky smirk to which Bonnie rolled her eyes at in turn, though there was none of the usual heat to accommodate the action.
Shaking her head, she considered his words. When Kol had first proposed their little truce it had included talking about her little dream situation and yet they'd rarely broached the topic. Kol was seemingly waiting for her to bring it up of her own volition, which didn't happen that often, denial still very much a constant companion in her life where the dreams were concerned. But with the shift to topics he was well versed in, Bonnie couldn't help but think of something that had been playing on her mind as of late.
Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
"Can I ask you something?" She began tentatively.
Kol hummed, taking a turning off of the road they'd been traveling along onto the highway. Figuring she might as well take the plunge now while he was too distracted to make a quip of some sort, she took a deep breath as she attempted to organize her thoughts.
"Did you mean what you said about me being the same as Renata?" She rushed out in a breath.
Kol turned to look at her with a quirked brow, seemingly not following.
"It's just-" She faltered for a moment. "I apparently have been maybe a dozen other people before I was me and we're all the same. You know? There were people who were me before I was me and I don't even know about it."
It wasn't that she was having a crisis of self or anything. But she did feel a tiny bit like a fraud to learn that she wasn't really her, she wasn't Bonnie Bennett but merely the shadow of Renata. A fragment of someone else that she hadn't even known had existed previously. Everything she had believed was her own choice may never have been at all influenced instead, by a thousand year old relation. Were her thoughts and beliefs even really hers or something that Renata had believed that had been transposed onto her?
Kol was watching with a slight furrow of his brow now, as if he had personal access to her thoughts, glancing at the road every now and again as he navigated them with ease all the while still giving her his undivided attention.
"Is this because of what I said about Renata's sleeping habits?" He wondered, trying to understand what had led to this line of conversation before he said anything he might regret.
Bonnie shrugged noncommittally, uncomfortable at being called out. Though it wasn't entirely where her issue lay, it was the comment that had started it all.
Kol sighed, "I didn't mean it like that darling. You're not walking copies of each other. Witches in general require a lot of sleep, more so than any other supernatural creature. Their power comes directly from their connection to nature. The only time they can strengthen that connection without disruption or draining, is when they're asleep, sure meditation works in a pinch, but no connection is as strong as it is when you're sleeping.
"Sleep isn't just restorative to witches in the normal sense, it also deepens their connection to nature. And for spirit magic users, their connection to the spirits too. That's why most seers experience stronger prophetic magic when dreaming and why even those who aren't gifted seers can still experience psychic dreams. Disrupting that sleep weakens that connection, it's a witch trait not just something associated with your reincarnations."
Bonnie bit her lip as she considered this. It certainly made sense and she could almost remember reading something on the like before. But still, some doubts lingered… She just didn't know how to phrase her doubts without offending Kol or being misinterpreted.
"But isn't it weird? Renata was your wife and I have her face." She asked, turning to face him now.
"No, you're not her. Believe it or not, I didn't remanufacture the relationship I had with my wife with everyone who had her face." He smirked in amusement.
"But some of them? I mean how different were we?"
Kol let out a deep breath in frustration. He'd likely had this conversation multiple times with her different selves, unfortunately, she didn't remember it.
"It wasn't like that, it wasn't ever my intention in the beginning. I was caught off guard by Solavita, my wife had been dead for a century when she appeared. It was difficult to look at someone who wore my wife's face and was suffering when the last time I'd seen my wife she had been dead. I'll admit I was more motivated to help her because of the resemblance but…"
He shifted in his seat then, carefully considering his words. "That's really all it was. Marie - the woman who I helped make the enchanted tea - she was already married when I met her and by that point, three women who looked like my wife had died and I didn't want to go through it again. I tried my hardest to avoid her and it backfired. In the end, all we were, was friends because nobody else could understand what she was going through.
"And each incarnation is different, you're shaped by different things. The world has changed a lot in a thousand years, not always for the better, but cultural and temporal norms influence the type of person each incarnation is. As well as everything they've been through. You were likely a different person before vampires came to town, right?" He turned to look over his shoulder at her then.
She nodded in agreement, the tension leaching from her as what he said began to make sense.
"It was different with each of them because they were each different and how they regarded me was different in turn. For some we were merely acquaintances, others friends, sometimes mentor and mentee, occasionally more and rarely enemies, though I wouldn't particularly like a repeat of that last one. But I didn't manipulate them for my own ends, my only intention is to not see you die prematurely."
"That's reassuring." She said lightly, trying to absorb all that she'd learned. This was partly why she hadn't been brave enough to ask. A thousand years worth of history was a lot to sift through and understand, it could be a tad overwhelming.
"I'll do my best but you might have to stop going head-to-head with Nik if I'm going to have a chance at succeeding. So if you could be so kind as to meet me halfway." He added in the same light tone with a slight smirk.
"No promises."
Kol chuckled at that but no more was said on the topic and Bonnie settled in for what was setting up to be a long drive, the tension she hadn't known she was carrying bleeding out.
~x~
About half an hour into the drive Kol noted that Bonnie had fallen asleep and as they still had a while to go he let her be, it would seem she needed it. He should have given her the herbs sooner but he'd forgotten how draining the first stage of the spell could be and she was so young, already stretching herself to her absolute limit, that the spell wore her even thinner than her predecessors, something he intended on changing.
She hadn't wanted to talk much about what had upset her earlier and so he'd made light to try and distract her. But he could tell that the Salvatores had been responsible for the strain she'd been under and now it had finally come to a head. Bonnie saw her magic only as a tool to solve her friend's problems and little of the joy in it. Kol wasn't ashamed to admit that he had often taken advantage of the beauty of his magic when he had it, it was something to be treasured rather than wielded though he didn't shy away from that either.
Magic could be as beautiful as it was dangerous. He'd come to that realization a few times in his early years both as a witch and a young immortal. One such occasion was when their mother had turned them, at first he'd been too devastated by the loss of his magic to realize the full repercussions of the spell but had soon seen them in his siblings.
Another such occasion had been when he'd met Solavita, the magic that had reborn her later tearing her apart. That hadn't been an easy pill to swallow.
"Kol! You'll want to hear this." Klaus called through the castle they'd taken over.
Kol sighed, rubbing a hand down his face wearily. He hadn't been able to sleep since seeing Solavita wasting away in that cell with his sweet Renata's face. It wasn't her, he knew that. But that didn't make it any easier. He'd spent a century without his beloved and now she was back, yet she had no idea who he was. It was crueler than not having her at all, to be taunted by her presence.
He didn't want to deal with Nik, he didn't want to deal with Angelsia and he didn't want to face Solavita again. Her scarred visage tugged at something raw and fragile at the core of his being that he'd long since tried to bury. Their bond had flared to life in her presence, he'd felt as her magic wrought havoc beyond her control. And yet, she had felt nothing.
His mind idly drifted back to Ayana's last words to him, he hadn't been entirely truthful with Nik about not knowing anything.
"What have you done?" He whispered brokenly as he cradled his wife's lifeless body.
"Mikael sought to punish you by taking my daughter from me. He assumed that your grief would drive a wedge between you and your siblings that would draw Niklaus to him." Ayana's words were as firm and calming as they always were. He didn't care for them, he wanted his wife back. Ayana bent down to face him. "This is not the end my child, she will be returned to you in another's form and my bloodline will live on. All you need to do is look for her."
"You're not making any sense Ayana. My wife is dead! There is no undoing to be done." Kol snapped loss and heartbreak tearing at the heart that no longer beat.
"I could not save Viggo and I could not save Renata's body, but I could save her soul. The eyes are windows to the soul, my dear boy, to find her soul you must gaze through the windows."
It hadn't made any sense at the time but he knew now that the Brotherhood had stolen more than just Solavita's sight. But that didn't explain what was happening with her magic.
"Kol!" Nik roared again, patience had never been his strong suit.
Downing his drink, he slammed the cup back onto the table, "Bloody hell brother."
He stormed from the room, speeding to his brother if only to cease his yelling.
"Took you long enough." Nik snapped.
"I was waiting to see if you'd remember any manners, evidently not. What is it, Nik? What couldn't wait a single bloody moment?" Kol asked, narrowing his gaze. He was in no mood for his brother's antics today. Honestly the fact they'd never realized he was part werewolf sooner was a greater mystery than him being one.
"The girl, your wife was right, she does know something."
"She's not my wife Nik. She just looks like her, probably another doppelganger like Tatia." Kol straightened his cuffs nonchalantly as if unbothered by the whole thing, as if that mere fact, that it wasn't really her, wasn't tearing him apart inside.
"Still. I think you should listen." Nik gestured towards Angelsia's cell. Nik hadn't wanted to move on until they got answers, so in the castle they'd almost been wiped out in, they stayed.
With a roll of his eyes, Kol stepped forward, descending into the darkness of the dungeon, knowing Nik would not follow with the torch until he did so.
It wasn't difficult to find Angelsia's cell, they'd all but emptied the rest of them since coming to occupy the castle. They'd needed to eat but they'd drawn enough attention that the Brotherhood's prisoners would have to do. And they couldn't very well move on at the moment considering Nik's recent bouts of delusion that threw him into a frenzy.
Angelsia was staring blankly ahead at the wall, frozen in place whether from fear or by something else he couldn't tell.
"I see you still have your eyes," Kol noted by way of introduction as he stepped into her cell.
Angelsia shuffled backward until she was pressed up against the wall in fear. It was as much reactionary as it was tactical. With her back pressed to the wall, she had one less side vulnerable to attack as well as a support for her weight. Kol could almost admire the logic if his patience wasn't already being so thoroughly tested these days.
"They didn't get the chance. My sister couldn't wield her magic with any accuracy anymore when they came for her but I held up enough of a fight that they resorted to other means. Besides, they were too distracted by their true purpose to waste time with me." Her words were stronger than her younger sister's, evidently being left in the dark between torture sessions hadn't worn her spirit thin.
Kol crouched in front of Angelsia not wanting her to escape his gaze when he spoke. He couldn't compel her but he would be able to catch a lie all the same.
"What's wrong with your sister's magic?"
"I don't know, it's a rather recent development. She'd been having trouble commanding it since the Brotherhood came to town, at first we thought it'd pass but it's only gotten stronger and more erratic."
She wasn't lying that much he could tell, though she wasn't giving him the full picture either.
"Why?" He didn't clarify hoping the vagueness of his question would prompt her to slip up and share more than she would be inclined to otherwise.
Angelsia gulped, "Mother said she was touched by magic, an old soul, she'd said. She had visions before Solavita was born, she believed someone was coming for her. We didn't know who or why. But her magic has always been disconnected as if it wasn't entirely hers to wield, to begin with. Mother placed anchoring charms on her when she was little but they had less and less effect on her as we grew." Then she grew solemn. "There's nothing that can be done to retether her soul now."
Kol froze, panic gripping him, though he fought to keep his reaction from his brother. "What makes you say that?" He asked with a curious smile, aiming to look unaffected.
"They took her eyes." She said plainly as though it were obvious. "Without the windows, there is no place for the soul to enter and call home. If mother's visions were true and she is an old soul, her soul isn't hers to keep. It would have become untethered when they took her sight."
Kol's brow furrowed at her words. He didn't like the sound of that, the untethering of a soul was known to be painful. The only times he'd heard of such a thing was when a witch lost themself to black magic, expression especially. The cruelty of their actions wore away at their soul and psyche until there was nothing to salvage.
"I think you had better elaborate on these visions of your mother's."
"I don't remember much, I was only a child myself when it happened and I only caught snippets of my mother's concerns that she shared with my father. But she spoke of an unnatural darkness that was linked with Sol's life essence that would follow her throughout time. I believe she caught glimpses of a spell being performed in these visions as well… And there was a woman, with Solavita's face. About the same age as she is now."
The pieces were starting to come together in Kol's head now. He didn't know what spell Ayana had performed exactly, only that reincarnation had been involved. He wondered if Ayana had found out about the soul bond between himself and Renata and used it in her spell. It would explain the linking of life essence that had apparently been passed onto Solavita. Which in turn explained why his side of the bond had flared to life in her presence. It also explained the 'unnatural darkness' that the girl described, he'd heard witches talk about the sensation that came with touching a vampire after all.
There was just one thing nagging at him…
"How old is your sister?" He managed to choke out.
"She just turned twenty-three."
So not about the same age at all, but exactly the same age, Kol thought, clenching his jaw at the onslaught of painful memories. Renata had died three months, two weeks, and six days after her twenty-third birthday. And now Solavita's magic was spiraling out of control, something that had only worsened recently according to her.
"I think we're done here." Kol decided as he stood, brushing himself off and striding out of the cell, brushing past Nik on the way out without acknowledgment.
Now this complicated things.
He hadn't been lying when he'd told Bonnie that the alternative to the dreams was worse and he'd rather keep another incarnation from that if he could. Though he supposed he could have waited a couple of years until she'd come closer to the endpoint but he hadn't been able to think, driven by his need to be recognized once again and the desire to save her from that fear. The sensation of one's magic turning on them was rather unpleasant and Bonnie had enough unpleasantness in her life as it was.
He turned to look at her sleeping visage once more. He wondered if she was remembering right now or if she was able to sleep at all without any recollections at the moment? She seemed to be fighting the spell particularly hard so the latter seemed unlikely at this stage in the spell.
If someone had asked him why he'd offered to mentor the Bennett witch he would have shrugged, he possibly would have suggested boredom as the cause. The reality was this, in a thousand years he'd only met two witches with her face that didn't already know all there was to know about magic: his Renata and now Bonnie.
The irony wasn't lost on him. Never before had a reincarnation been born in the same place and yet Bonnie had been born in the same little town that he and Renata had a thousand years before. A thousand years since he and Renata had learned magic together he was now mentoring Bonnie. The only difference was he now had no magic of his own but a far more expansive knowledge of magic than he had then.
It wasn't an opportunity he could let slip by. A chance to spend more time with her, to be in the presence of her magic, and watch her come fully into her powers. He hadn't lied when he'd said that transmutation hadn't been his specialty. But Renata's reactions had always made it worth the extra work he had to put into mastering the spells, it not coming as easily to him as cloaking and glamor spells did.
He couldn't reclaim the magic that he'd lost but he could help Bonnie come into her own. Watch as she realized the true extent of her powers. Though he wasn't without selfish motivations too. The chance to experience her magic through the soul bond once more was always a delight he indulged in. The hope being that as her tutelage progressed she'd become more relaxed and at ease with her magic that she might rely on it more for just the beauty rather than the power. A triumph he'd be right there to experience along with her.
It was a while later that they reached the hidden away garden store he'd been thinking of. It had been run by the Helsinki coven for generations now and he was glad to see it was still in business despite his latest daggering.
Time to wake Bonnie, he reluctantly thought to himself.
~x~
Bonnie hadn't intended to fall asleep, knew it probably wasn't a good idea to sleep around a vampire that considered you food, but she had hoped to sleep in this morning before everything had gone to shit. And despite her constant reminders that she shouldn't, she couldn't help but relax in Kol's presence. She was just thankful she hadn't felt queasy from the driving before falling asleep.
She was woken by the soft murmur of her name and a gentle rousing. With a grumble, she sat up straighter as she woke gradually. She blinked blearily at Kol, frowning as her brain struggled to catch up, unable to remember why Kol was there in her sleep muddled state. He'd come round to open her door and was currently crouched in front of her looking mildly amused.
"Are we there?" She mumbled when she finally remembered why she'd agreed to get in a car with the Original, trying not to think about the absurdity of an immortal vampire more powerful than she could imagine kneeling before her - a mere teenage witch - while she was still half asleep.
"Yeah, sorry I hadn't wanted to wake you but I figured you'd probably want to see this, it might be helpful for the future." And with that, he tugged her out of the car by her hands. It was only then that she realized he'd already taken her seatbelt off without her waking.
Kol didn't let go of her hand as he pulled her along and Bonnie didn't feel inclined to fight it as she followed beside him. She was sleep disoriented and in an unfamiliar place now was not the time for her pride to get the better of her, not when she was 80 percent sure she'd forget herself if she wasn't being actively dragged along.
"How do you know about this place?"
"Always good to know where the witch covens are located and this family has been running things here for generations."
"I see." She said simply trying not to think of the implication of an Original knowing the locations of different witch covens. Kol hadn't done anything outwardly to earn the distrust but vampires in general had and this information put her on edge. A feeling she tried to ignore as Kol pulled them into the shop - his arm slipping around her shoulder to keep her close as he did so - a little bell chiming as they entered, wards pressing briefly in on them as they slipped over the threshold.
"Kol Mikaelson." A voice remarked, the duo turned to face a woman who looked to be in her mid-sixties with ochre skin. "I thought I was gonna have a fight on my hands when my wards told me a vampire had entered my shop. I'm almost disappointed that it's you, I could use a good fight, I'm getting rusty in my old age."
Kol smiled politely at her but otherwise didn't outwardly react. The woman gaped at him for a moment before nodding in understanding.
"My mother was Aamu Helsinki, I'm her daughter Helmi. We've not met. I was only 6 when you were last awake."
Kol's face cleared then, realization dawning.
"Ah, how is your mother?"
"Retired. A century isn't quite so easy for some of us." Helmi explained looking amused as she headed back through the aisles of herbs and trinkets she'd emerged from, back to the counter. "So what can I do for you?"
"Right of course not, well I wish her the best. Just planning on doing a general stock up if you don't mind dear." Kol answered, using the arm draped around Bonnie's shoulder to steer her through the haphazard aisles of what seemed to be a mixture of genuine witchy herbs and trinkets and items that outwardly appeared the same but didn't have any of their own magic. It was interesting to see the way the genuine was mixed in with the fake, her magic the only way to distinguish between the two, she supposed it lessened the suspicions of humans to do it this way.
"A full stock up I see. That brother of yours got you moving house again? Well it's gonna take a while for me to collect some of the stuff from the garden, haven't got everything you need already in jars, so make yourselves comfortable." With that Helmi disappeared through a door behind the counter, through which Bonnie could vaguely glimpse a greenhouse.
Once she was out of sight Bonnie tried to step out from underneath Kol's arm only to find his hold unyielding. She turned to glare up at him but he was already speaking before she had the chance to open her mouth.
"Helmi comes from a long line of witches that are familiar with me, they're less likely to ask questions this way."
"You can't be serious. Why would she have fewer questions?" Bonnie asked incredulously, careful to keep her voice similarly low in case of Helmi listening though. Surely the less notice was drawn to her the fewer questions Helmi would have, this, however, must have the opposite effect.
"Her mother knew another of your incarnations." He explained so quickly she barely caught it.
"Really? Personally?" Now more intrigued than irritated.
Kol was quick to dismiss that though.
"No only by reputation. She practiced a different kind of spirit magic so she didn't travel a lot and I'm trying not to let the whole 'reincarnation' cat of the bag to the entire supernatural community."
Bonnie's brows furrowed at that. She wasn't sure what she wanted clarification on most.
"So what does the supernatural community think?" She asked instead.
"Not now." He whispered moments before the door swung open to reveal Helmi with an armful of herbs. Kol was quick to paste on a smile when she reappeared as if it had never fallen in the first place.
"So is this the Aimée my mother told me about?"
"Not quite. This is her niece, I'm mentoring her." And though he was smiling Bonnie could just about detect the threat lingering in his words.
Evidently, Helmi could too as she immediately straightened. Her smile shifted from something almost salacious to merely friendly. Bonnie had almost let herself forget what the Originals were capable of, and even though Helmi's family was apparently on good terms with Kol, this moment had served as a reminder as to his true nature.
"Ah well lucky nonetheless, not many witches these days that can claim to be under Kol Mikaelson's protection."
Bonnie smiled politely in response, not entirely sure what to make of that either. Honestly, she was beginning to think she was still half asleep. Why would any witch want anything to do with any of the Mikaelsons? Regardless of Kol's magical knowledge, it seemed more trouble than it was worth.
Luckily Kol was quick to fill in the gap in the conversation, "I've been busy."
"So I hear. Spirits got plenty to say about your brother as of late. We were wondering whether you were gonna make an appearance sooner or later."
"Well, Nik will be thrilled to hear that spirits are talking about him. His ego has been particularly inflated since breaking the curse."
"Must be a family trait." Helmi was quick to respond but there was no heat to it as she bundled up the herbs into jars with lightning-quick efficiency. Bonnie had to admit it was impressive and she was sure that Caroline would think the same. The blonde always did appreciate efficiency.
"We're immortal, we've earned our ego." Kol sniffed.
Bonnie resisted the urge to snort at that. She didn't think she'd ever have the arrogance to say something like that with a straight face, she didn't know how the Mikaelsons pulled it off. Though she supposed he had a point. The first family of immortal vampires from which all vampires originated, spanning a thousand years without a casualty amongst them.
Casualties they'd avoided through bloodshed, compulsion, and scapegoats. Bonnie shifted restlessly for a moment beneath the weight of Kol's arm at the thought.
It seemed that Helmi didn't have anything to say to that either as she directed her attention to the herbs Kol wanted. Speaking a quick incantation dozens of little jars came floating from their places around the shop to land in one of the crates she'd been filling on the counter. Bonnie was only able to glance at what some of them contained as they moved, unable to recognize most of them.
Kol murmured in her ear all the while though, too low for Helmi to catch. About the different herbs and tools Helmi's family stocked as well as the non-magic trinkets and herbs she'd noted earlier that they kept out for the tourists. Apparently, the shop was organized by need with healing herbs all together and herbs for protection somewhere else with the non-magic artifacts mixed in to throw tourists off. Making it less likely for them to pick up something genuine by accident, if they did they'd be redirected.
By the time she was done, there were five deep wooden crates filled with jars of herbs resting on the counter.
"What do I owe you, dear?" Kol asked nonchalantly, finally dropping his arm away from Bonnie to pull out a black Amex card.
"That's about half my store's worth of ingredients there, let's call it $585 because I know you can afford it."
Kol rolled his eyes at that but paid regardless. Helmi smiled at the cash register.
"Pleasure doing business with you Mister Mikaelson, don't be a stranger now."
"I'll do my best but who knows with Nik about." Came Kol's easy reply as he swiped the five crates off the counter with one-handed ease while taking Bonnie's hand again with the other as he tugged her out of the shop.
"How did you know her mother if you were daggered for a century?" Bonnie asked once they were outside, leaning against the car as she watched Kol load the crates in the trunk.
"Witches have a much longer lifespan than humans, theirs is the closest to mortals but it's still longer, and with the right combination of spells and herbs they can stretch it even further," Kol explained as patiently as he ever was when in teacher mode. She'd figured he'd be irritated by her million questions, frustrated as someone who'd lived through it all a thousand times but he never was.
"How much longer?" She frowned partly in confusion, partly in curiosity.
"The oldest witch I ever knew was nearly pushing five hundred but I think three hundreds is more common but it takes a lot of magic to maintain," Kol said, shutting the trunk to come round and lead her to her seat with a hand on the small of her back almost automatically, like he didn't need to think about the action.
She tried to not let the mere touch affect her but the gentlemanly act was working better than she'd expected. Damn him and his old-world manners.
"And who was Aimée? Aside from my supposed aunt, I haven't gotten to that incarnation yet."
"You wouldn't have, I met her in the 1800s. She was still alive when I was daggered but I doubt she lived much longer afterwards."
"Why?" Bonnie asked, pausing in front of her open door as she turned away from the passenger seat to face him.
"My brother is rather vindictive." Kol smiled bitterly but Bonnie could see the pain in his eyes that he was trying to disguise at the thought of what his brother must have done.
"He's not going to kill me is he?" Bonnie was suddenly worried by the prospect despite having gone head-to-head with Klaus repeatedly as this was the second time today her death had been inadvertently mentioned.
"Not if either of us has any say in it."
A/N: I've already started the Mikaelson Ball chapter which is why I had to wait on these last two chapters while I worked out the pacing to ensure things were in place for that chapter. We've got one more chapter to go before that. The last two chaps have been quite long can't say for certain if that's going to continue, the flashbacks really bulk out the chapters, so sorry if you prefer the shorter ones.
Question: How do you see (or want to see) this story end? I'll ask this again later but so far I have two prospective endings and I wanted to know what direction you guys imagine for these two so far.
Anyways let me know your thoughts in the comments :)
My tumblr if you want to say hi - xawkward-ariesx
