WHEN STEFAN INFORMED HER THAT DAMON HAD ASKED TO JOIN THEM AND HE ALREADY SAID YES, Bella knew right away that she was no longer on the winning team. And she didn't think like that because she was still mad at Damon (even though she wouldn't deny that she was still mad at him), but because she knew for a fact that Damon was a reckless and impulsive person.
Stealing Klaus' coffins was a big move, they indirectly declared war on him. And to win the war, to beat someone as smart and powerful as him, they needed to be at least one step ahead. They needed to think things through. They needed to be careful and always considered every single possibility of decisions they would make. And they couldn't do that with Damon on the team, he was too unpredictable. He could make a sudden change in plan and not telling them until it was too late.
"Good morning," the oldest Salvatore greeted as he walked past his younger siblings who were in the doorway of his room, he only wrapped in a towel from the waist down, his raven-hair was still wet after showering.
"You're late," Stefan pointed out, both hands on his jacket pocket. "We were supposed to met Bonnie at the witch house in ten minutes."
"Relax, brother," Damon taunted and Bella frowned at his unusual cheerful attitude. "Your hair won't fall out."
"Would you hurry up? We have work to do," Stefan replied flatly and leaned his back against the door frame while Bella leaned her shoulder against the other side of it. "You know, Klaus isn't gonna easily self-destructif." Just then he also realized the unusual cheerful smile on Damon's face. "Why are you all chipper?"
"No reason." Damon tried to hide his smile, but failed. "Give me a minute."
Bella raised an eyebrow at Damon's back as he moved away to his closet at the other side of the room. "Honestly, I don't see why we need him," she said as she turned her face to Stefan. "He's useless."
"Heard that," Damon exclaimed without turning around.
She scoffed, "Good."
Stefan could only shake his head at his siblings' behavior, a barely noticeable amused smile on his face.
While Stefan chose to wait for Damon outside, Bella chose to go to the study to write a small note to attach to the gift she had prepared since two days ago. Today was Caroline's birthday. She knew about that from the twenty questions game they played at one of their girl's night last summer. It was two weeks after her 161st birthday that everyone including herself had forgotten because it happened at the same day they found out that Damon had been bitten by Tyler. Finding out about that, Caroline insisted that they still had to celebrate it, so she threw a surprise party for her. And since then, she had decided to include Caroline's birthday as one of the days she had to remember.
But she didn't know what to write on her note other than 'Dear Caroline'. She was always bad at writing notes.
"Where's Stefan?" asked Damon who had just entered the room, he was now fully dressed and looked peppy.
Bella ignored him and just focused on her note. Her right hand was holding a pencil and her left hand was tapping the table around her gift. A frown on her forehead showed that she was trying to come up with something.
"Is that a goodbye gift for Jeremy?" Damon asked again as he walked to her side. This made Bella stop tapping the table and start glaring at him as she couldn't hear a shred of guilt on his tone when he said that. And as if he didn't notice that, he just casually took a peek at her note as he started pouring himself a drink. "Oh, it's for your other blondie bestie."
She could feel her anger boiling up inside her. And the next second, she stabbed the pencil in her hand into his throat.
"That's for Rebekah," she whispered to him as he reflexively stepped back back while removing the pencil from his throat, the glass in his hand fell to the floor, his eyes widened in pain as blood started dripping from his neck.
Bella smirked as she watched it. The corner of her eyes then accidentally caught the lamp table in the room and she suddenly got more ideas. After grabbing the wooden base from the lamp, she flashed herself behind him and before he could do anything, she stabbed it into his back. "That's for trying to stab me in the back."
He fell to his knees and a loud groan of pain escaped his sore throat. And while he removed the wooden base from his back, she casually walked back to the table and whistled.
Another idea popped into her head as she looked at the bottle on the table. Smirking, she turned her face to him and found him still on his knees with his head bowed down, a slight groan could still be heard from him. Picking up the bottle, she slowly walked back to him. While she was right in front of him, she swung the bottle, and before it could hit his head, he looked up and caught her hand in the air. She then kicked him in the jaw with her knee, forcing him to let go of her hand and another groan of pain came out from his mouth, and then, she sadistically smashed the bottle against his head.
She stepped aside as he slowly fell on his stomach, the week movement of his hand reaching his head showing he hadn't lost consciousness. "That's for compelling Jeremy."
Feeling that her message had been conveyed, she started leaving. "And, oh," her feet stopped walking as she suddenly remembered something. She then walked back to him just to give him a few hard kicks on the stomach. He could only groan in pain on the floor, not having enough strength to defend himself. "That's for the way you treated Caroline when she was human."
She ruffled her hair that fell over her face and let out a harsh breath. "Now be a man and get up," she ordered sarcastically. "We have work to do."
Damon might have been her brother, but that didn't mean he could mess with her and get away with it. At least this way, he would think twice before doing something like that again.
Later in the morning, when Damon was all healed and regained his own strength after finishing two blood bags, the three of them finally left to meet Bonnie at the Witch House. Apparently, the Bennett witch had been having a strange dream about four coffins lately, which turned out to be the same coffins they stole from Klaus. One of them was locked, and they had tried to open it manually, but failed, leading them to believe that it could only be unlocked by magic.
When they were only a few meters away from the Witch House, Stefan started asking some questions about Elena to Damon, so Bella quickened her pace. And just then she heard a few footsteps from inside the house. She stopped walking and turned to her brothers with her forefinger on her lips, signalling them to be quiet.
Realizing that there were people other than Bonnie there, they began to be alert. They then quietly divided the tasks. While Damon would check inside the house, Stefan would be waiting at the front door to prevent anyone from escaping, and Bella would check around the house.
Unfortunately, there were two Klaus' hybrids roaming around the house. They found them in different places. One was in the house, which Damon quickly killed by ripping out his heart as he tried to attack Stefan at the front door. The other one was on the back yard of the house, which Bella killed by removing her head (thanks to the piece of iron wire she picked up on the ground around house).
Meanwhile Damon and Stefan left to burry the bodies, Bella stayed at the house to guard the coffins. She sat on the only chair in the basement where the coffins lay. The three coffins were placed parallel to the floor, while the other one that locked was placed on the table not far from it. And instead of paying attention to the locked one, she couldn't stop staring at the other three.
To this day, Bella still hadn't tried to find out which coffin he was in. She couldn't, she wasn't ready to see him again. But deep deep down, she knew she missed him, his face, his smile, his smirk, his laugh, the way he did what he pleased, the way he joked around, the way he teased, the way he made her feel loved and made her feel like she was more than she ever thought, literally everything. And now that she was this close to him, she was starting to wonder how she could actually endure not seeing him in these 146 years of her life. Was that why she hadn't really felt happy all this time?
Damon suddenly entered the room, a shovel in his hand. He walked straight to the locked coffin and started hitting it with the shovel, hoping it would get that box to open.
"You're wasting your time," Stefan commented as he walked into the room and stopped next to his brother. "It won't open." He then turned his face to his sister. "Any sign of other hybrids?"
"Other than the dead one?" She raised her eyebrows, then shook her head. "No."
Damon stopped hitting the coffin and threw the shovel aside. "All right, Klaus has 6 siblings," he glanced around the coffins as he recapped, "Rebekah is now with Klaus." He then started pacing around between the coffins. "There was one dead kid in the old world, one dead kid in the new world, which leaves Elijah and two others. Three sleeping originals, four coffins." He then asked the obvious question in a whisper voice, "So who was in the lockbox?"
"What if it was the mother?" Bella guessed after thinking about that for a moment. Both Damon and Stefan quickly turned to her. "I mean, Klaus also referred to it as his family. Both the dead kid in the old and new world died as humans, so there's no way it was them. We met the father, which leaves the mother, the original witch."
"Interesting theory." Stefan nodded his head approvingly. "But Bonnie seems to think that it will help us kill Klaus." He then sighed and shrugged. "Guess we just have to wait for her to get this open to find out which one is right."
"Oh you'd think spirits from a bunch of dead witches that can make a coffin invisible," Damon turned around and exclaimed to the air, "that they'd figure out how to open one!" As he didn't get any answer from the dead witches, he scoffed, "Fine, don't help."
"I wouldn't be surprise if they mess with your daylight ring again," Bella muttered nonchalantly as she inspected her fingernails. Her smirk then started to appear. "Which I highly recommend."
Damon groaned. "Oh come on, Bell, can you cut me some slack after this morning?"
"No," she answered flatly and rested her chin on her fist with her elbow on her lap. "But I can cut you some Elena's fingers."
Damon shot her a dangerous look and started walking towards her. Bella, unwilling to budge, got up from the chair and stared at him defiantly when he was right in front of her. She knew he wouldn't hurt her. But if he thought for a second that he could intimidate her, Bella would gladly prove how wrong he was.
"You two are not helping," Stefan grumbled as he walked to their side. "And you know that none of this is gonna do any good if Klaus' hybrid friends find our hiding place, right?" He looked at his siblings in turn. "They need to go away."
"Oh, yeah, that's a great idea, Stefan." Damon scoffed and became the first to end the staring contest as he turned to Stefan. "Why don't you just ask him to pack a bag and take a long vacation while you're at it?" he asked sarcastically. "How about you keep the peace? Don't draw attention to the very things that we're trying to hide."
"In case you haven't notice, Damon, we already drew attention to it the minute we stole it," Bella murmured in a flat tone, "And what's the point of having leverage if we don't use it?"
"She's right," Stefan quickly agreed. "And I'm not going to play defense when I have what Klaus wants. He does what I say, or I dump his family to the bottom of the ocean." His last sentence made Bella frown in disapproval.
"Then he kills you and everyone you know," Damon retorted, "like, I don't know, me," he cocked his head to their little sister's side, "or her."
"No, he's bluffing," Stefan countered. "His family means more to him than anything else."
"You sure about that?"
"Oh, I don't know, Damon. I mean, I guess there's only one way to find out, right?" Stefan started walking backwards toward the door, a lopsided smile on his face. "Call his bluff."
"Whoa." Damon narrowed his eyes at him in disbelief. "The only way to call someone's bluff, Stefan, is to be willing to lose everything if you're wrong." He then turned to their little sister. "You're not seriously agreeing on this, aren't you?" Stefan stopped walking and also looked over at her with an eyebrow raised, waiting for her answer.
For a moment, Bella just stared at her two brothers in turn as she thought about it. Damon had a point, but so did Stefan. The choice was between playing it safe or taking big risks. She was used to playing it safe, but that was because she didn't have any leverage. And if they continued not to take risks, they wouldn't be able to step up their game.
"Do what you need to do," she finally said to Stefan, making him smile triumphantly while Damon grunted. "I can take care of myself if he comes after me." She then turned to Damon with a sardonic smile. "And I'm done saving your ass."
She wasn't really serious with her last words, of course. Even if she wanted it to be serious, she knew it couldn't. Once danger started approching him, she would surely come to his rescue. Because they were family. It was one thing that would never change.
While Stefan left to deal with Klaus' hybrids afterwards, Damon left to the Founders' party. Since she didn't have anything to do, she called Caroline on her cell phone to ask her to hangout so they could celebrate her birthday and she could give her the gift she had prepared. But it turned out Caroline was with Elena, Bonnie, and Matt at the moment. Caroline offered to join them, but she had to refuse since she wasn't sure if she could stop herself from trying to kill Elena if they were in the same place.
But later in the night, Caroline called her on the phone. As she picked up the phone, it wasn't Caroline's voice that she heard. It was a guy's voice.
"Where are you?"
Cradling the phone on her shoulder, she picked up a bowl of popcorn and a glass of wine that she had prepared on the kitchen table and walked back to her room. "Who wants to know?"
"It's Matt."
"What are you doing with Caroline's phone?"
"Tyler bit her."
She immediately stopped walking and froze.
"She gets hallucinating or something. I don't know who else to call. No one's picking up the phone."
She swallowed hard as she realized it was exactly what Damon meant when he warned them about calling Klaus' bluff.
"Where are you now?"
"In the woods."
She sighed.
It turned out that she was the one who wasn't ready to lose anything.
"Get her home," she ordered to him, trying to sound as calm as possible. "I'll be there as soon as I get the cure."
After finding out from Damon that Klaus was at the Founders' party at the moment, she quickly grabbed her car keys and went there. And as soon as she arrived, she found him outside the Founders' Hall with his phone on his ear. He was talking with someone on the phone, and she could easily tell that he wasn't really pleased with the conversation.
It would be stupid to approach him at the moment, but it was the matter of life and death. And Caroline, of all people, didn't deserve to spend her brithday night suffering from the effects of a werewolf bite.
Taking a deep breath, she ventured up to Klaus. In her mind she was already thinking of all kinds of tactics she could use to get Klaus to help her.
"Good evening, Klaus."
"Isabella, love," the way his eyes lit up again and a faint smile appearing on his lips as he looked at her gave her a bad feeling but she tried hard not to show it, "I was wondering when you would show up." He shoved his phone back to his pocket. "You left too early from the dance that I didn't even get a chance to say thank you. Though now that your big brother has just pushed me too far, I'm not really sure if a thank you is still in order."
"Yeah, well, that's your problem with him," she retorted, folding her arms across her chest. "I'm here to collect your debt." She tilted her head to the side, smirking. "I saved your life, you owe me. Stefan got his freedom back, and I haven't got anything." Her face became serious as she uttered, "And now I need something from you."
Klaus chuckled. "How would I know that you're not secretly involved with him?" he questioned, a sickly sweet smile was now on his face. "Or that you wouldn't try anything like that after I gave you what you needed?"
"If I am involved in that, then you should have nothing to worry about. You know I would never do anything to harm him, or let my brother to do so." As usual, she did an excelent job of lying with a really convincing face. "And I have spent a century running away from you, do you really think I would be that idiot to throw away my freedom like that?"
As someone who had lived for over a thousand years, Klaus would think of himself as a better judge of character than anyone. And that was what Bella counting on. A century of manage to escape should have proven to him that she was a smart girl and would always prefer to play it safe rather than take risks. And if Elijah could easily believe that she would seek revenge for him, then Klaus should have believe her when she said she would never do anything to harm him.
"Very well," he finally decided after a while just staring at her as he silently considered about it. "What is it do you need?"
"Your blood." She smiled sarcastically, indicating she knew it was his doing, as she added, "For Caroline."
Klaus smiled amusedly as he nodded his head. Without saying anything, he started walking off to the parking lot.
"Where are you going?" she asked and followed him, a frown on her face.
He looked over his shoulder to see her as he reached his car. "To deliver my blood to your friend Caroline, as you wish."
It surprised her somewhat to see how easily Klaus agreed to give Caroline his blood. But the relief in her chest knowing that Caroline would be all right overcame the shock in instant.
Without wasting more time, she quickly went to her own car and followed him to Caroline's house.
MORE THAN A WEEK HAD PASSED and Bonnie still couldn't figure out how to open the locked coffin. And other than Stefan who managed to get Klaus' hybrids out of town, they pretty much didn't have other good news.
Bella had suggested them to give Klaus one of his coffins in exchange for ten years of life without him and his hybrids. With three other coffins at their disposal, it should have given them enough time to figure out how to open the locked one. But as usual, none of them listened to her. In their opinion, as long as Klaus didn't try anything again, they didn't need to take any precautions. And that only proved how idiot they were.
The fact Klaus hadn't tried anything else after Caroline's incident should have alerted them. Klaus wasn't just give up. He was probably planning something bigger, something more devious to get back at them. And the only plan they had now was to wait for Bonnie to open the locked coffin.
And as if their situation hadn't bad enough, someone had to make it even worse. Bonnie had invited Elena to the team without even consulting with them. She said she needed the Gilbert girl's help to find her mother, since according to her witchy dream, her mother could help them to open the locked coffin. And that was why Bella decided to take a day off from their coffins' work so she wouldn't need to see Elena.
"You know you can talk to me about anything, right?"
Bella put down her phone and looked over at Caroline who was sitting on the lounge chair in the corner of her room. She was now lying on her bed with her feets on the headboard. They were supposed to hang out that day, but since Bella didn't really feel like going anywhere, they decided to just relax in her room.
"I know."
"Elena may be my friend, but I don't agree with what she did to Jeremy."
The female Salvatore sighed and sat up on the bed. "What's done is done."
If it were someone else, Bella would have started talking about how badly she hated Elena. But it was Caroline. And Elena was Caroline's friend. She didn't want to make Caroline a bad friend by speaking ill of Elena with her. That was just how much she appreciated Caroline as her friend.
"Or what she did to Rebekah," the Forbes girl added. "I mean, I don't like her, but I don't think anyone deserves to be frozen or whatever it is called."
That was exactly why Caroline was her favorite person in Mystic Falls. The girl had a heart of gold. She saw the good in people, even those who deliberately tried to look bad.
"It's called being daggered. And yeah, she didn't deserved it. No one does." She bit her lips and looked down for a moment. "I just wish I tried harder to save her."
She had planned to undagger Rebekah as soon as Mikael died, but because of the unexpected change of plans, she had to postpone it. She couldn't really come home after what happened that night, especially with Stefan's revenge plan. But when she finally could come back home, Rebekah was already with Klaus. The fact that Bella hadn't seen the female original since then made her realize that Klaus didn't intend to undagger Rebekah for now, probably it got something to do with the fact that Rebekah had found out about him killing their mother.
Caroline got up from the chair and walked over to the bed and sat next to her. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Nah." She quickly shook her head. "I've had enough guilty conscience these days." She crossed her legs on the bed and looked over at Caroline. "What about you?" she asked back. "Do you want to talk about anything... like, I don't know, Tyler?"
Caroline let out a heavy breath, the corners of her mouth turned down. "Honestly, I don't know what to do with him," she uttered, eyes staring sadly at the floor. "I know it was out of his control what happened that night, but I was kinda hoping he would want to do something about it."
"Well, he should be," Bella remarked, "if he still wants to be with you." She then followed her staring at the floor. "Now that the war against Klaus is heating up, I'm definitely not going to let him anywhere near you."
Her last words made Caroline's smile immediately return. "Aw, look at you, being all protective to me," she teased, nudging her shoulder with her own. "Looks like Miss Too-cool-to-care has a change of heart."
Bella, who would rather tease than be teased, narrowed her eyes at Caroline. "Say that again and I will murder you myself," she threatened, not serious at all.
"No, you won't," Caroline remarked confidently. "You love me too much to do it." She gave her another nudge on the shoulder, then got up and started roaming around the room.
Bella just rolled her eyes and picked up her phone again. As she checked the phone screen, there was a new message from Jeremy.
Since Jeremy left to Denver, they had been texting each other more often than before. Apparently, he felt really bad to her that he had to leave after what had happened between them. But she knew she couldn't blame him. None of this was his fault.
"Who's this from?" Caroline suddenly asked as she stood behind her dresser, a small rectangle shaped gift box in her hand. "Jeremy?"
Bella looked up from the phone, and she winced when she realized she had forgotten about that. "No, it's actually your birthday present. I forgot to give it to you that day, you know, with the whole Tyler bit you thing."
"I actually already considered the fact that you helped to save my life as a birthday present," Caroline mumbled as she walked back to her side, "but since you already prepared this," she sat down at the same place as before and smiled tenderly. Slowly opening the box, she gasped when she found out what was inside. "Two tickets to Bahamas?" She picked up the tickets from the box.
"I figured..." Bella's eyes shifted from the tickets to Caroline's expression, "you might want to take a break from Mystic Falls and all this messed-up situation."
"Great," Caroline remarked cheerfully, a bright smile on her face. Putting the box on her lap, she turned her face to Bella. "So when are we going?"
"Oh, no," she grimaced and shook her head, "I was thinking you might want to go with your mother."
"Trust me, these tickets would have been expire before my mom could find the time to go," Caroline scoffed. Her eyes then narrowed at her. "And why didn't you wanna go anyway?"
"Because I can't leave my brothers to deal with Klaus alone," Bella replied as if it was the obvious, and groaned. "They both are idiots. With their luck, they could get themselves killed by whatever that was in the lockbox."
"Well then," Caroline put the tickets back to the box and closed it. "I'm not leaving you either," she stated firmly. "Let's just wait until everything blows over so we could have a real awesome trip."
A slow smile worked its way across Bella's face and into her eyes as she looked over at Caroline. "If you say so."
But deep down, Bella knew that when everything was over, there was a high chance that they wouldn't survive. She knew there wouldn't always be a tomorrow. And she was ready to take her chance there, because at least she wasn't alone anymore.
THE SEARCH FOR BONNIE'S MOM turned out to be a total bust since instead finding a way to open the locked coffin, they had to give the other three coffins back to Klaus. And if it weren't for Damon and Bella's quick thinking, they would have lost the locked one too and Klaus would have no more reason to refrain from killing them all.
However, it was revealed that they had more problems. While Bella left from the Witch House to secure the locked coffin, Damon insisted to stay and waited for Klaus. And it turned out that Damon wasn't completely honest, he chose to stay because he had other agenda.
Before Klaus arrived at the Witch House, Damon had pulled the dagger out of Elijah's chest. And he only told Bella about it the following afternoon when she came home from checking out the Bennett's witches and their progress with the locked coffin.
"Youă…ˇwhat now?"
For a moment, Bella couldn't pull herself together after hearing the information. Her eyes were wide open, her mouth dropped, and she choke in disbelief.
"What's with the face?" Damon asked casually and frowned. "I thought you liked Elijah."
"Do you realize what you've done?"
"Yeah, I gave our wicked witches more time to open our mystery box." He smiled smugly. "You're welcome."
This was exactly why she didn't want him on their team.
"Brother," she took a deep breath and patiently explained, "when you were at a war, you were supposed to cut off your enemies from their resources, not delivered them one."
Damon scoffed, "Are you kidding me? After what Klaus did to him, there's no way he wouldn't seek for revenge. It was a smart move."
"Klaus is his brother, Damon," she reminded him. "He might be angry with Klaus right now, but in the end he would always take his side. I was angry with you, with what you did to me, to the people I cared about, and I did beat you up for it, but did you see me switch sides?"
"Yeah, well, unlike you, Elijah didn't seem to have a problem letting his brother die," he reminded her back. "He already tried to kill Klaus before, remember?"
"Because he thought Klaus had buried their family at sea," she told him, still trying to prove her point. "His family is something that he valued the most, and Klaus is a part of it. Trust me, he would go to Team Klaus as soon as his anger is gone." She then let out a dry chuckle. "Taking down Klaus alone was already hard enough, now this?"
For a moment, he looked thoughtful. Little did he knew she got a point, but he refused to admit it and just scoffed, "You're overthinking it." He licked his lips and gulped, starting to doubt his own idea. "Just get ready. We're going to negotiate a fake truce with them."
"And why do I have to come along?" She frowned. "I thought we agreed that it would be best if Klaus didn't know about my involvement in this."
It was always between Damon and Stefan who confronted Klaus, never her. They kinda assumed that Klaus didn't know about her involvement in all this yet, so they had tried to keep it that way.
"Well, we're going to walk into lion's den, I think it would be best if all of us go," he reasoned and shrugged, "since there's safety in numbers."
Damon had a point. And since he had screwed up once, she knew she had to make sure he didn't screw up the second time.
"Ugh, fine."
Bella quickly went to her room and started to get ready. Taking a shower, she quickly looked for the right outfit. After a while of rummaging through her closet, her choice finally fell on an A-line halter neck short burgundy dress and a pair of silver heels. She then curled her blonde hair down her back and applied some make-up.
During the trip to Klaus' Mansion, Bella noticed that Stefan looked more grumpy than usual and Damon looked amused by it. At first she thought he was annoyed at Damon for the same reasons as her, for screwing them up by undaggering Elijah, but after hearing them argue, she realized it had something to do with Elena.
She rolled her eyes at it. Typical her brothers.
As they arrived at Klaus' front door, Damon gave it a light knock. The door immediately swung open and Elijah stood on the other side of the door.
"Niklaus, our guests have arrived," the original announced and let them in. Damon walked past him inside, then followed by Stefan. And just as Bella took a step inside, his smile appeared and he gave her a light nod. "Isabella, you look lovely."
"Thank you." She returned the smile and her eyes looked up to the change of his appearance. "Nice new haircut, by the way."
"Yes, I believed it was time for a little change," he answered as he closed the door again, a smile not yet leaving his face. They then started walking inside side by side.
They were immediately lead to the dining room where a few compelled female servants stood at the wait by the wall. A table was set in the middle of the room, was covered with food and five chairs were surrounded it. Klaus stood next to it, smirking and waiting for them. "Damon. Stefan. Elijah tells me you seek an audience. Very bold." His smirk grew wider as the youngest one entered the room. "Isabella, I wasn't expecting you to be present as well."
"I couldn't possibly miss another deal with the devil, could I?" Bella replied lightly, a fake smile on her face.
"Very well." Klaus chuckled, somehow seemed amused by how she referred to him. "Let's discuss the terms of our agreement like civilized people, shall we?" he suggested and motioned to the table beside him.
"It's better to indulge him," Elijah told them and walked past them to join his brother on the other side of the table.
"I didn't come here to eat, Klaus," Stefan retorted, causing both of his siblings turn to him with a frown on their faces. He then began to take a few steps closer to Klaus. "In fact, I didn't want to come here at all. But I was told I had to," he glanced over at his brother, "cause you would hear us out."
Klaus let out another chuckle. "Well, we can sit and eat," he walked over to the chair closest to the fireplace and one of the servants stepped forward and pulled it out for him to sit on, "or I can reach down your throats and pull out your insides." He sat down and casually leaned his back against the chair. "The choice is yours."
Damon swallowed hard at the threat while Stefan tried hard to maintain his brave face. Bella, realizing that someone needed to break the ice, stepped forward to Stefan's side and cleared her throat. "Please forgive my brother and his poor manners," she said to Klaus, then looked over at her brother to give him a scolding look. "He got up on the wrong side of the bed."
She might also disagree with this idea, but now that they were here, it would be wise if they just played along.
"I see."
A few minutes later they had all taken their sit at the table. Bella sat between her brothers, and sitting across from her was none other than Klaus. For a while, all of them were enjoying their food and drink, except for Stefan who just sat perfectly still in his chair.
Klaus, who noticed Stefan hadn't yet touched his food, commented, "You lost your appetite."
"Eat," Damon ordered to his brother, sounding like a typical-scolding older siblings. "I thought we agreed that we would leave grumpy Stefan at home."
But Stefan still didn't touch his food. Bella kicked his leg from under the table and gave him another scolding look. He rolled his eyes, then finally picked up the fork and knife in each of his hands and started eating.
"That's the spirit." The hybrid smiled satisfiedly. "Isn't it nice? The five of us dining together? Such a treat." He looked over at the oldest Salvatore. "Is this what you had in mind when you pulled the dagger from my brother?"
"Well, I know how he felt about you, so I figured the more... the merrier," Damon answered casually, then sent a playful wink at Elijah.
Bella looked over at the older original and for a while just stared at him. The look on his face made her believe that he was up to something. The question was, what was it? Could it really be something that would benefit them?
"Well, Elijah and I have had our share of quarrels over the century." Klaus looked over at his brother and was sounding proud at them as he spoke, "But we always make it through."
"Kind of like you and Rebekah, right?" Stefan remarked snarky. "Where is she, by the way?" He brought his glass to his mouth, and before taking a sip from it, he quipped, "Last I checked she was still daggered because you were afraid to face her."
"If you're referring to the fact that Rebekah knows I killed our mother, I've already come clean to Elijah," Klaus replied, defending himself.
"Hey, Stef, remember when you killed dad?" Damon interjected, attempting to shut his brother up. "Might want to dial down the judgment until dessert."
"Yeah, Stef, chill out," Bella chimed in and smiled mockingly at him. "I even watched it with my own eyes, and you never saw me judge you, did you?"
She actually didn't really like to talk about that, especially not in front of the original brothers, but Damon had already brought it up. Since she knew they wouldn't come out of the dinner alive if Stefan didn't shut his mouth, she chose to play along with him.
"We're here to make a deal," Stefan replied stubbornly. "Doesn't mean we need to kiss his ass for seven courses."
Damon scoffed, "We're just saying... we have a long evening ahead of us. Pace yourself."
"So, Stefan," Elijah cleared his throat and intended to lighten the mood by changing the subject when he asked, "where is the lovely Elena tonight?"
"I don't know, ask Damon," Stefan answered bluntly, causing Damon to grimace and stare down at his plate while Klaus burst into laughter. Bella frowned at the hybrid's reaction, she didn't expect him to find the cheap drama between her brothers and the human doppelganger that amusing. Elijah just looked around the table in confusion, completely clueless.
"I'm sorry, you've missed so much," Klaus explained to his brother as he tried to hold his laughter. "Ah, trouble in paradise."
"One more word about Elena and this dinner's over," Stefan warned, leading Klaus to smile and put a finger on his lips as a promise to not say any more words about Elena.
"You know what, probably best just to keep Elena in the do-not-discuss pile," Damon suggested, smiling awkwardly.
Klaus nodded in agreement. "You're probably right."
"Couldn't agree more," Bella spoke in a toneless voice and took another sip from her glass. She was glad that they were about to move on from the topic about the annoying doppelganger, but Klaus had to ruin it by suggesting to talk about the girl's ancestor.
When Elijah began telling the story of Tatia, the originator of the Petrova line as they said, the three Salvatores soon found out that both Elijah and Klaus used to be in love with the girl. Bella had to try hard not to make any snarky comments about it, about how ridiculous the four of them were to fall for the same face and had to fight with their own siblings for the girl's attention. She knew that no one could choose whom to fall in love with, that was just the thing about love. But that didn't mean she couldn't find it weird that the four of them literally had fell for the same face.
"All this talk makes me nostalgic," Klaus spoke again as he put his glass back on the table after a toast to Elijah on the name of family. "Isabella, love," Bella looked up to him as he suddenly adressed her with a smile on his face, "I remembered seeing you for the first time in the 1860s, at our family ball." She could feel her body stiffen at the mention of that. "You were so young, so beautiful, so innocent. Not that I'm saying you aren't anymore, it's just first impressions that stick around, you know?" His smile grew wider. "I mean, no wonder my little brother was so head over heals for you."
The two Salvatore boys exchanged confused looks, then looked at their little sister questioningly. But Bella chose to ignore them and just stared down at her plate as she tried hard to keep her poker face, her grip on her glass involuntarily tightened. Elijah just stared at them in turn, unable to decide what to say about that matter.
As if didn't notice Bella's reluctance to discuss the matter, Klaus continued, "But I'm still curious, what happened between you two? Last I remembered he went on rampage and wiped out an entire district in New Orleans because you left him and he couldn't find you, leading on Mikael almost caught us," he tilted his head to the side, "so I did what I do best," a mocking smile was on his face as he finished, "I daggered him."
She looked up at him and narrowed her eyes sarcastically. It took every ounce of her to not jump across the table and stab his throat with a knife so he would stop talking and smiling.
"Hate to be impolite," she spoke up, a fake smile on her face, "but if you just wanna talk about the past, I think I'm just gonna go. 'Cause I don't really feel like walking down memory lane, so..."
"Ah," Klaus nodded and shot her an apologetic gaze, "my apologies, then."
"Why don't we move this evening along and discuss the terms of this proposal?" Elijah quickly suggested, once again trying to lighten the mood by changing the subject.
"That's very simple," Damon answered immediately as he looked up from his phone. "Klaus gets his coffin back, in exchange, he and the Original extended family leave Mystic Falls forever. Me, my siblings, and Elena live happily ever after," he raised his glass to Klaus, "No grudges."
Elijah commented, "The deal sounds fair, brother."
"I don't think you understand," Klaus spoke in a serious tone, eyes staring at the table. "Elena's doppelganger blood ensures that I will always have more hybrids to fight those that oppose me." He looked up to them and stated, "I will never leave her behind."
Bella, who couldn't hold back any longer to just listening, exclaimed, "Then take her!" She scoffed and looked up to the hybrid. "Seriously, Klaus, you'd be doing us a big favor."
"Bella," Damon warned and shot her a dangerous look while Stefan was just silent. She just rolled her eyes.
Klaus looked at the two siblings in turn and smiled amusedly. He then grabbed his glass and got up from his chair and stepped behind it. "Let's say I do leave her here, under your protection, what then? How long before one of you turns her into a vampire? Or worse, how long before she dies caught between your feuding? You see, the two one of you truly believes that you're the one that can protect her, and that is simply a delusion. Gentlemen, the worst thing for Elena Gilbert is...the two of you."
Bella choke in disbelief at his last statement. "Excuse me," she spoke up and gained everyone's attention, "but I think the right words were 'the worst thing for my brothers is Elena Gilbert'. It was her doppelgangers blood that put her in danger and my brothers had done nothing but save her pathetic life over and over again. And have you seen how she repaid them? Not only she keeps putting their lives in danger, she's also toying with them and makes them fight against each other constantly. So, how come my brothers were the bad one among the three of them?"
When it came to Elena, Bella knew her brothers were too insecure to stand up for themselves, so she felt like she have to do it for them.
Klaus looked even more amused at her, there was a glint of admiration in his eyes. "I supposed you do have a point."
Damon smiled weakly and murmured, "I'm gonna get some air." He got up from his chair and left.
"Let me deal with this," Elijah excused himself, then followed Damon out the room.
Seeing the two of them had excused themselves from the room, Bella felt like taking a break from the room as well. She stood up and exclaimed, "I need to use the restroom." And after Klaus ordered one of the servants to take her there, she finally left.
The first thing Bella did after closing the restroom door from inside was to take a deep breath. This night was a total disaster. Not only her brothers would definitely pull her into another interrogation when they got home, but now she also needed to think of something to make the night end as smooth as possible.
Even if it was just for a fake truce, Bella doubted they would come to any agreement for the night. Both parties were too stubborn. And knowing Klaus' temper, it was her and her brothers who should to be worry.
When she walked back into the room, she found Stefan and Klaus standing face to face in front of the fireplace, they shook hand. Elijah and Damon were also already back in the room, each standing by their brother's side.
"Nice try, Klaus. But no deal." And as soon as the words left Stefan's mouth, Klaus' smile quickly disappeared, and he broke Stefan's hand, he kicked his legs and broke it as well, forcing him onto his knees, then he pushed his hand into the flames of fire. Damon and Bella quickly rushed over them, but Elijah intercepted and pushed them both against the walls with a rough hand on each of their necks.
"What are you doing?" Damon hissed to Elijah and tried to move his hand away from his neck, but failed. Bella tried the same, but also failed. Elijah was too strong.
Stefan's groan of pain echoed through the room as Klaus continued to hold his arm to the fire, it was now badly burnt.
"Stop!"
"Klaus, knock it off!"
Damon and Bella yelled out in turn as there was nothing else they could do at the moment.
"Now give me my coffin before I burn him alive," Klaus demanded, still not pulling Stefan's hand out of the fire.
"I'll get it," Damon relented instantly, anything to save his brother. Elijah finally took his hands off from the siblings' neck.
"Go with him, brother," Klaus ordered to Elijah. "You keep him honest. And when you return, I will make good on my promise to you and I will hand over our family."
Elijah didn't say anything. Again, Bella tried to read his face, but she couldn't. It was unreadable. And then, he just walked away and left.
"Go ahead and kill me. I know you'll do it when he brings you the coffin," Stefan grunted in pain.
Klaus yanked him up and shoved him lightly, he had his hand on his collar. "You really have given up, haven't you?" he taunted. "Where's the fight?" He shoved him. "Where's the ripper?" And as Stefan shoved him back, Bella quickly rushed to her brother's side and pulled him away from Klaus in a protective manner.
"Elijah," the Salvatore siblings quickly turned around as they noticed Klaus's gaze shifted behind them, Elijah and Damon stood there, a servant came in and joined them with a tray covered in a cloth on her hand, "why haven't you left?"
"Where are your manners, brother?" Elijah asked back. "We forgot dessert." With that, he removed the cloth from the tray, reaveling two silver daggers underneath it.
Bella could feel her stomach clench. She swallowed hard, and slowly, she began to step back toward the front door.
"What have you done?" Klaus asked angrily.
"What have you done?" the older original retorted through his gritted teeth. "You see, I've learned not to trust your vulgar promises, Klaus. We're doing this on my terms now."
"Kol."
Bella tensed up. Her eyes widened as she watched him casually walk into the room with his eyes fixed on Klaus. "Long time, brother," he greeted him, and smirked. Without thinking twice, she fled from the room.
Outsides, she only stopped speeding when she almost crashed into a tree. And just then she finally realized she was in the middle of woods.
Her mind was completely blank at the moment. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know where to go. And for the first time in such a long time she felt so weak that she even had to lean against a tree to remain standing.
She then started pacing alone while ruffling her blonde hair roughly as another inner conflict came to her. Her brain kept yelling at her to run and just leave everything behind like she used to, for her own sake. But her heart didn't want to, instead it kept telling her to just come back to him.
After taking a deep and heavy breath, she finally chose to listen to her brain. It was her heart that had her killed in the first place while her brain was the one that kept her alive all this time.
She hurriedly sped-up to her house, intending to get her car so she could get out of the town. But just as she finally found her keys in her room, Damon and Stefan got home. Both of them stood side-by-side behind the front door as she arrived downstairs and was about to leave.
"Now, now, where do you think you're going?" Damon asked tauntingly.
Bella groaned and tried to walk past them, but they continued to move to block her way. "Seriously, can we do this later?"
"Eek! Wrong answer." Damon's face then turned more serious as he said, "We're done letting you play secrets with us. So you either tell us now, or we'll do it the hard way."
She frowned at the threat. Her gaze then turned to Stefan, who just gave her a slight shrug before saying, "I'm with him on this."
She narrowed her eyes in disbelief. Then, in a split second, she tried to vamp-speed past them, but they were faster this time. They blocked her way with their body, grabbed each of her arms, and started dragging her inside with their vampire speed. They only stopped when they were right in front of their dungeon, and they shoved her inside.
"No, wait!" she yelled out as they were about to close the door and lock her.
The oldest Salvatore smirked. "Are you gonna tell us now?"
"What do you wanna know?" She grunted, throwing her hands up in exasperation.
"You said you first met Klaus in the 1900s," Damon recalled and gave her an accusing look. "But according to him, the two of you first met in the 1860s at his family ball." He smiled sarcastically at her. "Liar, liar, pants on fire, sister."
"Yeah, well," her eyes shifted from side-to-side as she tried to think for a reason, "it must have slipped my mind."
Damon asked again, "And what's the deal with the original brother he was talking about?"
"I might have dated him for a while," she informed, trying hard to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal.
Damon gawked at her, "You dated one of them?"
Stefan, who seemed deep in thought before, finally spoke up, "Wait, so you met Klaus in the 1860s and was dating his brother during that time?"
She ignored Damon and nodded at Stefan. "Yeah, you could say that."
"Was he or his brother the one who turned you?" Stefan asked again and she froze for a second. "You don't look older than me, so there's no way you were turned after that."
"No," she answered without thinking. "I was already a vampire when I was with him."
Damon narrowed his eyes. "And why did you look so scared to see him?"
She sighed and started pacing around. She massaged the back of her neck as she explained, "We didn't end on the good term. He didn't like our breakup. And I've spent years avoiding him at all costs." She finally stopped walking and looked pleadingly at her brothers. "I don't know what he would do now he knew I was here, and I don't intend to find out, so could you please let me go?"
Damon and Stefan exchanged glances for a second, then stepped aside from the door. The fear on her face looked so real that they realized she wasn't lying to them.
A smile crept to her face. "Thank you."
Bella stepped out from the dungeon and was about to leave when Stefan suddenly stepped in front of her and pulled her into a hug. "Take care of yourself," he whispered to her. She returned the hug and let out a small nod.
After pulling herself out from the hug, Bella turned to Damon and found him already waiting for her with his arms wide open. She let out a sad chuckle and gave in to his hug. "Call us if you need anything," he muttered softly.
They weren't wrong to make this a goodbye. Because it was. She didn't even know when she would come back. Not when he was still in the town.
While Damon and Stefan left to check on Bonnie and the coffin afterwards, Bella quickly went to the garage to get to her car. And just as she was about to unlock her car door, she could feel someone's presence behind her.
"Greetings from the past."
She flinched and reflexively turned around. And there he was, standing right behind her, an ever-present smirk on his face.
"I do believe we still have some unfinished business, love."
A/n: Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the part you've all been waiting for. XD
Sorry for the cliffhanger, but it's already a really long chapter and I kinda wanna know your guesses about what will happen next. So, feel free to leave your guess!