Bella's footsteps slowed down when she reached the kitchen and found Kol with his face drowning in the neck of the teenage daughter of the owner of the house where they lived. Noticing her presence, Kol looked up, his eyes were blood-red, there were black veins under his eyes, and behind the blood spattered around his mouth, there were razor-sharp fangs. Slowly, all of that disappeared from his face, except for the blood. And after dropping the lifeless body in his arms to the floor, Kol flashed himself in front of Bella.
There was a brief pause as his brown eyes studied her expression, and then he finally asked, "Did I scare you?"
"No," she answered without hesitation. Her lips twisted into a sincere smile.
She wasn't lying, and he knew that. However, he still couldn't help but feel a little skeptical.
"You know, I still remember how you reacted when you first saw me like this." His eyes narrowed teasingly and his mouth slid into a lopsided smile. "You were so scared that I could even hear your heart beating rapidly from where I stood."
"But that was before I fell in love with you." Without breaking eye contact with him, she took out a handkerchief from her dress pocket. "I believe that no one can love only a certain part of a person and be scared of the other." His gaze softened as she stretched out her hand in front of his face and began to clean the blood around his mouth and jaw. "And when I said I love you... I mean every part of me loves every part of you."
"Even this part?" he questioned again, deliberately bringing back his vampire face.
There was not a shred of fear on her face as she saw that, and she stroked his cheek gently with her other hand. "Even that."
Without wasting any time, he lowered his head and pulled her closer to him, kissing her in a way that made her legs weak.
The first thing Bella noticed when she opened her eyes was that her neck felt sore, something that could easily be explained by her head that was tilted to the side and leaned against the car window. A soft moan escaped her lips as she straightened her head, and she slowly took off the sunglasses she was wearing. But when the sun's rays from the windshield dazzled her hazel eyes, she quickly put them on again.
"Good morning, sleeping beauty," Kol greeted her from the driver's seat, "I hope you have a nice dream there?" His voice was soft and suggestive, and there was a mischievous gleam in his eyes as they stared down the street.
"You know, that trick are getting lame," Bella commented, her voice hoarse, typical of someone who had just woken up. Turning to him, she lowered her sunglasses a little. "You are getting lame."
"What trick? Reminding you of how real the love we had?"
It was probably not the first time he had used dream manipulation on her, but the dream he just gave her wasn't just a dream. It was a memory, from when they were together 145 years ago, one of his favorites.
"And If I'm lame, I wonder what does that make your boyfriend," he added, with a mocking tone.
She just rolled her eyes. She had tried not to bring Jeremy up in front of Kol, because she knew how he felt about it and also how he would react to it, but it was Kol himself that kept bringing it up.
Sighing, she took off her sunglasses again and stared out the window. "Where are we?"
"Thousands of miles away from Mystic Falls."
Bella couldn't help rolling her eyes a second time at his unhelpful answer.
After Kol offered her to join forces, it didn't take long for her to agree since she knew he had a good point. Esther was still out there, and because of that their lives were still in danger. If there was a right person to be her ally at the moment, it would be Kol. It wasn't just because her life was linked to him. It was also because his extraordinary knowledge of magic which would be very useful against Esther.
He then told her that he already made a plan. But he refused to tell her right away and instead he told her to come with him if she wanted to know about it. Bella knew she shouldn't have said yes, but she did anyway. And she also knew it wasn't just out of curiosity.
So there they were, in England. After almost ten hours flight from Virginia. But Bella fell asleep right away after leaving the airportㅡthough she was already sleeping on the plane, and it was probably due to the lack of sleep she had after she drove non-stop from Mystic Falls to Denver then to Kansas and then back again to Mystic Fallsㅡ, leaving her not knowing where they were right now.
Not getting a real answer from Kol about where they were, she decided to find out on her own. But when she reached into her jacket pockets, then her jeans pockets, her cellphone was nowhere to be found. Bella knew she brought it with her and not leaving it at her luggage. And she remembered checking it out before she fell asleep at the car.
Her eyes narrowed suspiciously at Kol as a barely noticable smirk appeared on his face. "Where's my phone?" she asked dryly.
He glanced over at her, and his smirk slowly became more visible. "I may have accidentally dropped it outside."
"Kol, I'm being serious."
"What makes you think I'm not being serious?"
She narrowed her eyes even more at him, and the next second, she leaned over him and began reaching into his jacket pockets.
"Oh, you have no idea how much I love this aggressive side of you," he remarked, with a wide grin. He only had one hand on the steering wheel while the other was open at his side, as if he was welcoming her to search him.
Not finding her cell phone there, she turned to his jeans pockets, ignoring his words completely.
"Careful there, or else you'll wake up something."
She made a face at him, but didn't say anything and just kept searching. Her smile appeared as her hand found a cellphone in one of his jeans pockets, and she quickly straightened herself up, but her smile faded away again as she realized it wasn't her cellphone.
"Feel free to borrow it," Kol said scornfully, head tilted to her side.
Annoyed, Bella threw the cellphone at him, which he immediately managed to catch with his hand before it hit his face. That made her scoff. Then, with her arms folded across her chest, she leaned back to her seat while looking away to the window, a scowl on her face.
"Don't worry, darling," he spoke again, putting his cellphone into his jacket pocket. "I'll get you a new one later." The grin never left his face.
"Oh, don't bother," she responded without turning to him, her tone dripping with sarcasm. "You're not the only one who can compel people."
"Glad to know that you like to make good use of your abilities." He took another glance at her, and he joked, "No need to thank me or anything."
And he quickly regretted his jokes as Bella immediately turned to him with a serious face.
"Do you really have no regrets for what you did to me? Not even a little bit?"
Oh shit. He should have known it was still a sensitive subject for her.
A dry chuckle escaped her mouth, and she shook her head in disbelief. "You said you loved me," she went on, her voice cracking, "and yet it was really easy for you to hurt me like that."
"And that's where you're wrong," Kol finally spoke, without taking his eyes off the road. "It wasn't easy, it was far from easy. I mean yes, I've never had problem hurting anyone, but you? It was killing me too, Bella."
He only called her by her name when he was being serious. Other times, he usually called her by darling, love, or any other pet names he could come up with.
"Believe it or not, it's been the hardest thing I've ever done in my whole life," he finally confessed, still not looking at her. "But I can't regret it." Sadness filled his eyes. "Because if I didn't do that, I would have lost you forever."
"Well, you did lose me," she pointed out flatly.
"At least I still have a chance to get you back." He finally turned to her. "How could I do that if you were six feet under?"
Bella fell silent at once.
All these time, she never really had a problem to do perspective-taking. She never had a problem seeing things from someone else's point of view in order to understand more about the situation. But she was too mad at Kol, for what he did to her, that she never really tried to see their problem from his point of view.
He was afraid of losing her forever. And his fear of losing her had made him paranoid and do something out of bounds that drove her away.
She wasn't trying to justify his action, because it was still really wrong, but his confession had made her want to understand more about that. And she couldn't help asking herself questions as she tried to put herself in his shoes; if the situation was reversed, what would she do? Was she really going to just let someone she really loved go? Was she really not going to try to do anything when she was about to lose the one she loved the most?
She could say she wouldn't do like he did, but sometimes people did things that they didn't think they would do. What if it turned out that she would do the same as him instead? Now, did she still have the right to continue to be angry with him?
They suddenly came across a deserted gas station while driving along the endlessly straight highway, and Kol stopped the car in there. He climbed out from the car first, and he walked to her side and opened the door from outside.
"We still have a long way to go," he informed, sounding casual as usual as if they hadn't just had a conversation a while ago, "so if you want to grab a real bite," he glanced over at the gas station attendant who was looking at them from behind the cashier, "better go for it now."
She glanced briefly at the gas station attendant before looking up at him. "Where are we going?"
"One of my family's old places."
"And why are we going there?"
"One question at a time, darling." He chuckled, and he grinned. "Let's keep this trip interesting."
Now she knew how annoying it could be when someone played secrets with her. But she chose not to do anything about it for now and instead she took his suggestion.
She might have brought some blood bags in her luggage, but drinking blood straight from the veins was always much better. It taste fresher, more delicious, which was why she never wasted her time when she was given the chance to get it.
Kol quickly joined her after finished filling up the gas tank. And she let him finished their snack while she began to spill gasoline all around the pump on purpose. And as they drove away, Bella ligthed a match and threw it at where she spilled gasoline, causing a fire to start there, and then a huge explosion ensued, sending the entire gas station including the lifeless body of the gas station attendant on fire. After all she never really liked leaving behind a trail of bodies, not even one.
There was a proud smile on Kol's face when Bella leaned back in her seat so casually as if she hadn't just blown up a gas station. Unlike her, he never really cared about leaving behind a trail of bodies. But it was good to see this side of her.
Putting her sunglasses back on, Bella silently watched Kol who was driving with such confidence. He even dared to take his eyes off the road for a few while when he turned on the radio. And she could feel herself unable to hold back any longer from asking, "Since when did you learn to drive?"
"About a week ago." The corner of his lips twisted into a lopsided smile as he said again, "Guess who taught me."
A frown rolled over Bella's face as she remembered that he was in Denver a week ago. "Jeremy?"
"He's a lousy driver, by the way," he replied, confirming her guess, "and even worse teacher." A smug smile then appeared on his face. "Good thing I'm an excellent person."
Bella rolled her eyes for the third time that day. Of course Kol just brought it up so he could brag aboutㅡtypical of him.
When Kol drove off the highway and into the foggy forest, Bella took off her sunglasses and hung it on her shirt. She looked out the window and tried to decide whether to ask questions or to remain patient, when he suddenly turned onto the unpaved road. The road was unmarked, barely visible through the ferns. The forest covered both sides, and the road ahead of them could only be seen for a few meters.
Then, after a several miles away, the forest started to thin, and suddenly they entered a castle grounds. The castle was very old and looked like it had been abandoned a long time ago.
Kol stopped the car at the entrance, and they both climbed out of the car. Just then she finally asked, "How old this place again?"
"It was built around the 15th century," he answered as they started walking side by side on steps leading to the door. "But I didn't really stay here."
"Why so?"
"You know, the usual." The door was locked when he tried to open it. "Nik's obsession to break the hybrid curse was getting more and more crazy at the time as he heard about the new doppelganger." He took a few steps back, and he kicked it open. "It was always better to just avoid it."
It didn't take long for her to realize who the new doppelganger he was referring to. "Katherine."
"I've never met her myself, but I've heard a lot about her," he responded, confirming it, then he gave her a look. "And about the two of you becoming friends while you were running from me."
He sounded bitter at the last three words, and it didn't go unnoticed by her. But she knew it would be better if they didn't go to that conversation. "Oh, we are far from friends."
That somehow made him chuckle as he knew exactly what had happened between them. "She sounded like one hell of a woman," he commented, and started walking inside.
"She is," she agreed and followed him inside.
The place was huge, there was a lot of doors and corridors. But Kol walked confidently in there, taking turns one after another without a doubt, as if he still remembered all the intricacies of the castle all too well, which was a bit weird since he had just told her that he didn't really stay there. But there was something that made her even more curious.
"Wait, if you didn't stay here at the time, where were you staying?"
"There was another kingdom around, very welcoming." A mischievous grin was on his face as he recalled his time there. "They even had a fun princess to play with." He looked over at her as if he was expecting a reaction, but she just arched an eyebrow at him, which he still considered as a sign of jealous. "Although, she was nothing compare to you."
Bella just squinted her eyes at him and shook her head in disbelief.
As they took another turn, Kol went on with his story, "Back then, Bekah was the one who visited me the most in that kingdom. She visited me even more often when our brothers started fighting over the new doppelganger." It was his turn to shake his head as he recalled his own brothers' behaviour. "Talk about history repeating itself."
A frown was on her face as her own brothers' similar behaviour popped up in her mind. "That's surprisingly something I could easily relate," she commented, causing him to let out another chuckle.
"That's the thing about older siblings," he responded lightly, talking from his experiences, "Even when they become total idiots, they still refuse to listen to us because they feel superior to us."
"Tell me about it," she exclaimed, and she let out a huff at the thought of her brothers' stubbornness. "They really drives me nuts."
"Looks like we never run out of things that we have in common." Tilting his head to her side, he lifted his brows suggestively and grinned widely. "It must be the universe's way of telling us that we are meant to be together."
How smooth. But unfortunately, Bella was never an easy girl.
They entered a large room filled with towering shelves. Some of the shelves still had books in them, but they were covered with dust. Again, Kol walked past the shelves with such confident. He only stopped when they reached the shelf behind the only desk in the room.
Bella stopped next to the desk, and she folded her arms across her chest as she watched him begin to inspect the shelf. "So are you gonna tell me what we're doing here or what?"
"We're here to find something that belonged to my family dating back over a thousand years." He dropped some of the books that were there, then punched the back of the shelf until there was a hole on it and the wall behind it.
"And that is...?"
Kol widened the hole sideways, and it was revealed that there was another book in there. He picked up the book, and he dropped it on the desk. "This." The dust that covered it flew into the air, sending Bella a step away from it. "My mother's grimoire."
Confusion crossed her features as she tilted her head to the side and asked, "And what's the plan again?"
Instead of answering, he glanced up at her with a mysterious glint in his eyes and began to open the grimoire.
"You know what?" Bella spoke again, jerking her hands to each side of her body in annoyance. "I'm done." She couldn't stand any longer with all the secrecy. They were supposed to be working together at this point, but how could they work together if he didn't even want to tell her the plan?
"Have fun with whatever your stupid plan is. I'm going back to Mystic Falls and to my boyfriend." She deliberately emphasized the last word, knowing it would piss him off, and she turned on her heels and started walking away.
"My siblings believe that our mother has died," Kol suddenly uttered, "but I don't." This made Bella stop walking, and she turned halfway toward him. "I planned to prove that to them... as well as find out what our mother was really planning, but I needed to make sure something first," looking up from the book, his gaze softened right away as their eyes met, "your safety."
Her lips parted, and she blinked with surprise.
"This is the spell that my mother used to turn our family into vampires." He looked down at the book again, at one of the open pages. She took a glance at it too, and she suddenly felt stupid as she couldn't understand a single thing since it wasn't written in alphabet. "I know I can find the way to unlink you from me through this, then I'll go look for a witch to do it." He glanced up at her again. "That's the plan."
"You want to unlink me?" Stepping back towards him, she realized how stupid she sounded when she asked, "Why?"
"You died because of me once." Kol's eyes were twinkling with sincerity as he promised, "I will not stand around and let it happen again."
Bella was quiet for a moment, she was grappling with a mixture of emotions swirling inside her. At this point, she should have fully supported his plan because if it was successful she would no longer have to worry about her life being threatened along with Kol's. But why couldn't she? Why did she feel like she was more against it?
"But isn't it like a lot of work? I mean, your mother's immortality spell is an extremely powerful spell. Doesn't that mean you will need a very powerful witch to break the spell just to unlink me? If there's anything I've learned so far is that the stronger witches are, the more dangerous they are. They would be harder to control. How are you even gonna get them to do that? Are you sure you want to go through all the trouble just to unlink me?"
Her babbling made him chuckle, and he closed the grimoire back to focus his attention on her. "Shouldn't you realize by now that there's nothing I won't do for you?" She looked a little dumbfounded at his words, and that made him smile reassuringly at her. "You don't have to worry, darling. I have everything planned out."
IT WAS ALREADY DARK as they left the castle and tried to find a place to stay for the night since none of them planned to sleep in that abandoned dirty place. Luckily they immediately found a motel as soon as they drove off the forest. And even better, there was a bar not far from it.
Walking straight to the bar counter, they flopped on adjacent bar stools. The bartender went straight to them, and Kol immediately ordered, "Scotch. Neat."
The bartender nodded obediently at Kol, and then Bella quickly chimed in, "I'd like bourbon on the rock, please."
But instead of just taking the order, the bartender frowned at her. "I'm sorry, Miss, but can I see your ID?"
Bella's face turned flat at it while Kol looked away and stifled a laugh. "No, you can't," she retorted, staring into the bartender's eyes with her pupils dilated. "You will only do as I say."
The bartender nodded obediently and he immediately went to work serving their orders.
"You know, you can't really blame him," Kol taunted, with a grin. "You don't look a day older than 16."
The England drinking age was 18 and even though he was actually frozen at 18, people usually still believed it if he said he was 19 or 20. But it looked like that wasn't the case for Bella. She was lucky enough if anyone believed her if she said she was 17.
She narrowed her hazel eyes sharply at him. "And whose fault was it that I'm stuck in a sixteen year old body forever and have to compel my way into a bar?"
"Look on the bright side, you're going to look this beautiful and hot forever," he pointed out, eyes glancing over at her body mischievously.
She groaned, and rolled her hazel eyes lazily.
The bartender finally came back with two different bottles and glasses. And as he poured their drinks and handed it to them, Kol raised his glass at her as an invitation for her to clink their glasses, but Bella deliberately ignored him and nonchalantly took a sip from her glass.
A soft chuckle escaped his lips at her demeanor, and he took a sip from his own glass. He savoured the burning sensation as the liquor went down his throat before his brown eyes was drawn back to her perfect features.
"I just realized we haven't really had time to catch up with each other," the Mikaelson boy began, in a causal tone, "There's not really much to talk about me since I spent most of the time in a coffin, but I'm pretty sure there's a lot about you. I've heard about some of it from Nik and Bekah, but I still want to hear it from you." He placed the glass back on the counter, and he frowned. "From what I remember, you didn't even know how to compel someone when you left." He turned his body to her side. "So, darling, would you mind to enlighten me?"
Bella looked over at him and the glass in her hand in turn. There was a brief pause before she finally confessed, "I actually learned to compel someone from you." He raised his eyebrows in surprise, but he didn't say anything and just waited for her to continue. "You used to compel people right in front of my eyes, so I just did it like you showed me ㅡand it worked." A frown rolled over Bella's face as she tried to remember about her old life before Mystic Falls, but she couldn't think of a single thing worth telling. "To be honest, there's not much about me either. I just spent all of the time running from you and your brother."
"How did you do it?" Kol asked again, "Always managed to get away? I tried my hardest to find you... but I always failed." He brought his glass to his lips as he waited for her answer.
"I just..." Bella tapped her fingernails against her glass and tried to think of the right words to explain it, "always tried to get into your head, into your way of thinking." Taking another sip from her glass, she continued, "Also, I knew what you were capable of, Kol. And those two things really helped me to be always one step ahead of you."
Since a long time ago he was always open to her about anything. Not only was she the only person who really listened to him, but she was also the only person who always understood him. That kind of explained why she could be one step ahead of him most of the time, but it didn't explain the case with his brother.
"What about with my brother? How did you always one step ahead of him too?"
"Katherine used to teach me a lot of her tricks, and most of it was about how to be one step ahead of Klaus." She motioned for the bartender to bring her another drink as soon as her glass was empty. "And, uh, I also remembered some of your stories about him, and with my own secret observations... it really wasn't that hard to get into his way of thinking too."
"Then you got this Katharine woman caught by my brother. And if I heard correctly, you also helped him killed our father. And now you managed to gain control over him and everyone." He rested his chin on his palm as he looked at her in awe. "I must say I'm really impressed. I mean, I've always known you were amazing, but it was just..." He was completely speechless, and that was a rare thing because he always knew his way with words.
"When you spend most of your time racking your brains just to find a way to protect yourself from someone ten times more powerful than you, you'd be surprised to know how easy it was to do all of that."
Even though Bella used to run from away him as well, but it wasn't him that she was talking about. Because other than when he turned her into a vampire, he had never tried to harm her or endanger her life.
"Klaus really did a number on you, didn't he?" Kol asked, with a serious face. His brown eyes scanned her face with concern. "Before I was daggered, he pretended to want to find you for me, but I knew better. And that's why I tried to find a way to stop him." He breathed deeply. "I was working on a dagger that would work on him, and I trusted my sister to be on my side, but she betrayed me." He gritted his teeth as he said the last three words.
"Wait, that's why you were daggered the last time?" Bella frowned as she recalled what she had heard about it. "But Klaus told me that he daggered you because you went on rampage and slaughtered an entire district in New Orleans that got Mikael almost catch you and your siblings."
"Ah, he told you about that too?" He looked down at his empty glass and somehow looked embarrassed about it, which probably had something to do with the reason behind it. "Well, I did do that," he confessed lightly, "But that wasn't the reason I was daggered. He probably lied to you just to make you feel guilty."
Disbelief crossed her features, and she muttered under her breath, "What an asshole."
"That's my brother for you," he replied, bringing the glass back to his mouth after the bartender had refilled it.
The night went on and they both had lost track of time as they enjoyed each other's company too much.
"You know, I'm a little curious," Bella spoke again after emptying her fifth glass. "All these efforts... that you've been trying to get me back, but what happens if none of this works?" She leaned over at him and stared at him mockingly. "Are you going to bleed me out of vervain and compel me to come back to you and love you again?"
Kol frowned, offended Bella thought so little of him. "I will never compel your love for me."
"Oh, but you didn't have any problem to compel me to finish my transition?" she retorted, looking indifferent to his reaction. "Now that's comforting."
It might not be the first time Bella had said something harsh to him, but that was usually only after he had upset her first. But he hadn't do anything that night, he hadn't say anything to upset her, which could only mean one thingㅡ"You're already drunk."
"No, I'm not."
"Bekah said you like to pick a fight with anyone when you're drunk."
"Haven't you learned a lesson from trusting her?"
That was the last thing Bella could possibly say, which meant that his guess was right. "You're definitely drunk," he concluded, with a grin.
"Whatever," she scoffed, and stood up from the bar stool. He watched as she started walking away with irregular steps. And as she accidentally bumped into someone, instead of apologizing, she scolded that person instead.
Rebekah had told him that there were three things that Bella would do when she was drunk. First, she would try to pick a fight with anyone. Second, she would dance the night away, like now.
Even drunk, Bella was sure footed on the dance floor. Bold daring moves, grace and beauty, what else was there to ask for?
Kol really wanted to just sit back and enjoy that side of her, but he couldn't help feeling peeved at the other pair of eyes that were also looking at her. And he ended up compeling everyone at the bar to not even glance at her.
As he couldn't stand just watching her from afar, he sneaked up behind her. He grabbed her waist gently, causing her to stop moving. He leaned over to her and he brought his mouth to her ear. "You dance like someone begging to be touched," he could feel her body tense up as he whispered those words, "and to be kissed."
After gently taking off his hands from her waist, Bella turned to him. "Well, maybe I am," she whispered back to him, and bit her lower lip seductively. Her hazel eyes fixed on his lips as she leaned closer.
The third thing drunk-Bella would do; flirting with someone. He realized he shouldn't take advantage of it, but he really couldn't help himself. He had been dying to kiss her since long ago.
His arms wrapped around her waist and her arms was around his neck as the distance between their faces grew thinner. But before he could taste her lips, she had silently snapped his neck.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered to him as she supported his temporary death body with her own.
She knew he wouldn't stop when he had his mind set on something. That was why she had to do this, because she didn't want to be unlinked.
A/n: Can anyone guess why Bella doesn't want to be unliked? Sorry for not making the kiss happen, but don't worry, we will get to see them back together again faster than you guys think xD