I do not own TVD.
So this story might actually be a little longer than I thought because I just can't resist adding in moments between Kolena.
She awakened slow then all at once to a barrage of delicate kisses scattered across her bared shoulder in random patterns, contrasting the solid presence of his hand.
Beyond the flutter of white curtains a thin band of pale light hugged the earth in soft proclamation of the new day.
Rough stubble scratched supple skin. An exquisite ache picked up between her thighs, throbbing with each beat of her heart. A ravenous need overtook her.
Her legs parted, creating more than enough space for his fingers to press against the damp cloth of her ruined panties.
She groaned low in her throat.
Wth clumsy movements she managed to curl her fingers around his wrist. His husky voice curled down her spine.
"I want you."
He pressed the length of his need against the curve of her backside.
She returned his motion on instinct and turned her hips in a slow circle.
He bit her shoulder in response.
She gasped and rolled her hips again, connecting first with his fingers and then his erection.
He soothed the mark with his tongue.
Her lashes fluttered open, allowing her a second glimpse of sky.
"There's no time."
"We have nothing but time," he murmured, catching her ear between his teeth.
The earnest promise of 'forever' urged her to flip over and capture his wicked tongue with her teeth. Had they possessed no responsibilities beyond each other she might have.
"We have forever for this," she sighed, shifting back and forth a final time before raising his hand. She kissed his palm and then his wrist. "We have until dawn's end to break your curse. Is that not what you want?"
He rose on his elbow and met her eyes.
"The only thing I want more is you and our daughter."
"You already have me," she murmured, nudging his nose, "and soon we shall have her, but this morning I can give you your magic."
"I do want that, my love. I know you can do it," he dragged his finger through the air a millimetre from her cheekbone. "I also know that the moment you break my curse you will break Finn's. Everyone shall know within seconds and we shall spend the day answering a million questions from our family and your friends. Rebekah will lay claim to her beloved sister and another moment alone for days."
"I'm sure Bekah will understand when I tell her my nights are yours." She let go of his hand to hold his cheek, rough beneath her palm, and shivered again. "Those questions and confrontation should be dealt with sooner rather than later. At least that's what I think. If things get a chance to fester they'll simply barge in on us and demand answers.
I'd rather not add my friends to the list of people who have seen me naked."
"They wouldn't…"
"You don't know Caroline very well yet," Elena smirked. "Trust me she would. Now can I get up and put on clothes? As it is your going to have to carry me to the site."
"One more moment I get to hold you," he teased.
Elena rolled her eyes and tossed back the covers. She rose to her feet and watched from the corner of her eye as he did the same, drinking in the coil of each muscle.
"Hey, Kol?" Her fingers skimmed her hip bones.
"Yes, my love?" He raised an eyebrow.
She appraised the length of his body, pausing to appreciate the black boxer briefs and abdominal muscles she planned on putting to use soon. Goosebumps rose on her naked thighs.
"What happened to our pants?"
He retrieved her dark wash jeans from the floor at the foot of the bed, smirking as he rose to his full height.
She sincerely hoped they hadn't engaged in anything during the night. It wasn't that she had any objections to sleepy, middle of the night, sex with her husband; making love in the moonlight with only enough awareness to take in each other was wonderful. As was waking with the satisfaction from an orgasm and only the haziest of memories surrounding it.
She held no objections to gentle love-making in the dead of night; she just wanted their first time together again to be memorable. Hopefully not 'Rebekah bursting in on us' memorable, but something she clearly remembered.
"You woke around midnight, though I'm not certain I should call it awareness," he chuckled, handing her the denim. "You then spent several minutes attempting to shimmy out of these before I took over. I understand why you desired them off now."
"Jeans aren't exactly comfortable," she murmured as she pulled them back on. She held zero desire to hunt for fresh clothes when her jeans were perfectly clean. "What happened to your pants?"
"Ah," he chuckled, fastening his belt. "You attempted to wrap yourself around me and decided you disliked the material. You struggled with my belt until I stood and removed my trousers. Then you curled around me and almost immediately fell back to sleep."
She nodded and hummed, reaching into her closet for a soft white sweater. "Next time I'm that tired remind me to put on pyjamas, or just strip me naked."
"I'm a fan of the latter."
"Bet you are…" she rubbed at her eyes and stifled a yawn.
"Will you be needing this Elena?"
She looked over her shoulder where he held out her bra and shook her head.
"Polite society would say yes, my desire for comfort says no." She put on the large sweater, letting it fall to mid thigh. "I'll put one on after the spell. With any luck I'll have time to shower before Elijah walks in."
"Why Elijah?"
"He's got an invitation," she shrugged. "Personally I'm hoping nobody bursts in, but that's too much to ask."
"Elijah has a little more tact than that."
"Four hundred years dead and then I show up and kill Esther? The only reason he's not already here is because of the instructions I gave. He'll follow them to the letter until Bonnie seals the tomb, or Nik compels her to never leave."
She didn't realize she had slipped to the old nickname until after she said it. She wasn't sure what her hesitation was, or where it stemmed from. In truth he had acted exactly as she planned for him to. Being reborn within her own bloodline had been about more than luring her family to her. She sought true Petrova blood so he could break his curse. He wasn't meant to go for Jenna though. The plan had been Katerina who would have been easy enough to find once she remembered her magic and how to use it.
Really, she could blame Katerina for almost everything that had gone wrong. But how was she supposed to know the doppelbitch would muck up her plans?
"And I love Caroline, but she had absolutely no tact. Neither does Damon. He'd march into the bathroom and demand answers through the shower curtain."
"I swear I'll keep people out of your bathroom."
"Here I was thinking you'd join me in the shower," she teased, reaching for her coat.
He followed her down the stairs. A choking sound drew their attention towards the kitchen where a man sputtered over a cup of coffee.
"Morning," Elena cleared her throat.
He got his breathing under control and looked swiftly from her to him. "Who the hell are you?"
"Ric, it's me," she took a small step towards the kitchen, "Elena. The face you knew was a glamour, but it's gone now."
"I know it's you Elena," he rolled his eyes. "I've seen through that glamour since the first time I was killed. I was talking about him."
"Oh," she rocked back on her heels. "Does that mean Jeremy could see me too?"
"Probably," Alaric frowned. "My question? I might be new to this guardian gig, but I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to let strange men be in your bedroom before dawn."
"Don't worry, mate, I'm no stranger."
She heard the smirk in his voice.
"Kol, this is my legal guardian, technical step—father, and almost uncle Alaric Saltzman," she waved towards the kitchen. "Ric, this is Kol Mikaelson…"
Alaric's eyes widened on the last name. Her next words threatened to make them budge straight out of his head.
"He's my husband." His mouth opened and closed a few times. "I can see you want answers, and I swear I'll tell you and Jeremy everything later, but right now I have to go do a spell."
She reached for the door and walked outside. At the bottom of the steps she froze, eyes drawn to the dark figure in the driveway; he moved into a beam of light.
"Jeremy?"
"Hey," he called in a tired voice, adjusting his duffle bag. "Who's that?"
Before she could answer a strangled cry came from inside the house.
"Husband?!"
Jeremy's eyes widened.
"Tell you later, Jer. We gotta go."
Kol had swept her into his arms, taking off before Jeremy could utter a word. The world whipped by in muted colours of brown and green; she closed her eyes to combat her sudden motion sickness, resting her head on Kol's shoulder until he stopped moving.
A thousand years earlier the desolate spot housed the white oak that gifted them immortality while threatening to yank it away. In the twenty-first century only the - and she almost laughed thinking the word - cauldron remained atop a large stone.
The remnant of an ancient fire pit beckoned. In silence Kol gathered wood and created a neat pyramid; she lit it with a thought, making a mental note to locate another hand of glory and soon.
She unfolded the spell and laid out the two stones that thrummed with held energy, catching his amused eye over the flames; his mouth quirked upwards in a familiar smirk.
"What?"
"You have a lot of explaining to do."
"I know," she worried her bottom lip.
A streak of sunlight lit the forest floor, staining her fingers. Shadow passed over a split second before his hand held hers.
His lips brushed over her temple, words caressing her skin.
"Anyone who can't accept you for who you are is a fool. It's their loss if they let you slip through their fingers; I certainly won't be doing that again."
She allowed a second to accept the comfort but no more time as dawn surrounded them. With both hands extended over the stones she closed her eyes and began to chant.
The energies pulsed in their prison, straining to reach out to her.
"How exactly is she meant to stay put?" Rebekah crossed her arms, tapping her foot in the middle of the pentagram. "I don't put much faith in Nik; he'll have us all rotting in coffins again before we can blink."
"Had you refrained from interfering this would have all been over by now," Esther pressed her hands to the barrier. The simple spell would only last until the next moonrise.
"The casual manner in which you discuss the premeditated murder of your own children shocks me." Elijah's hands clenched in his jacket pocket, cutting white half crescents across his palms.
Dark veins writhed beneath her eyes in pathological response to Bonnie's blood still dripping from her fingertips.
"You have all lived too long."
"I haven't lived at all," Rebekah shrieked, gathering the full attention of her brother's. Elijah and Klaus had the decency to lower their eyes, ashamed in part for the actions taken to protect her over the centuries.
Bonnie shifted on her heels. She tipped her chin up a fraction and glanced through the corner of her eye to Caroline.
"I feel like we're getting a little off topic."
"Miss Bennett is correct," Finn cleared his throat, nodding in her direction. "We need a method for permanently securing mother, lest she attempt to remove every vampire from the world again."
"Perhaps you should not be privy to this conversation," Klaus' growled, tone dripping malice, "considering how eager you were to work with her."
"When I thought her plans were to kill us," his eyes narrowed, "she never mentioned that our deaths would result in the deaths of everyone."
"And that should make a difference to you?"
"As a matter of fact it does. You left me to rot. You all left me to rot for 900 years. Why should I not want you dead for that?"
"If you are so angry why help Elena?" Klaus' eyes flashed gold.
"Call it an assured sense that she had no part in leaving me to that fate."
"He's got a point," Rebekah shifted, resisting the urge to hold her hands against her stomach. From the moment Caroline revealed Esther's intentions a knot formed deep inside. Her own mother - a woman who should love them all without condition - desired their deaths. She wanted to vomit.
"She never removed the dagger." Klaus snapped.
"Only because you threatened Kol," she murmured.
Caroline glanced at Bonnie and then the Originals, standing around various points of the pentagram. Sunlight streamed through the whole above their heads. Thankfully it was the weekend so she wouldn't have to come up with an excuse to excuse her extracurricular activity of locking up a psycho witch.
"Is it just me, or could all of you really benefit from some therapy?"
"Care, this is probably the most dysfunctional family in history," Bonnie bit down her smirk, "they'd send any therapist running for the hills. We'd find the poor shrink half mad and muttering about the nice practice they used to run."
"We're not that bad, love," Klaus rolled his eyes.
Caroline arched an eyebrow and raised her hands, ticking off a handful of problems with a raised finger.
"Mommy issues, daddy issues, infanticide, at least one massacre, daggers…"
"Are you quite finished?"
"No," she lifted her eyes to Klaus. "You also murdered your brother's wife… twice."
The fire in his gaze extinguished in a wave of guilt and grief. She caught herself before she could do something stupid, like give him a hug.
"Any therapist would have to be compelled," Elijah's voice broke through the sudden silence.
Rebekah nodded her agreement. "It's much easier, and more satisfying, to remove internal organs. Maybe a few limbs."
"We're you always like this?" Caroline crossed her arms and tilted her head. In her peripheral vision Finn stiffened.
The question took the siblings by surprise. Rebekah glanced towards her brothers then shook her head.
"We've grown more violent these last few centuries," she admitted.
"Why?" Bonnie scuffed her heel on stone.
"Vampires are a scourge, a disease on this earth…"
"And now you're one of them," Bonnie snapped, patience breaking thin. "Being a vampire doesn't automatically make a person a monster. And even if it did nature has had a thousand years to adjust. You can't just wipe out a species and expect everything to go back to normal. That kind of imbalance could destroy the world, and it's not exactly in a good spot right now to handle extra destruction."
"Will nothing you see convince you that my spell, made in error, must be corrected?" She snarled, beating against the barrier. "You have watched the destruction they've caused from life and through the veil of the Other Side, yet you persist in resisting me."
"What are you talking about?" Bonnie took a small step back, unnerved by the venom in the older witch's eyes.
"You were there at the beginning. You witnessed everything in between. And it was your magic meant to aid in the end, as it did at the start."
"Wait a second," she held out her hands, palms up, "are you saying I was alive in the tenth century?"
"Well, at this point we've established that past lives are a thing," Caroline's eyes narrowed. "How many witches lived here?"
"Mother, Finn, Kol and Elena, Ingvar and…" Elijah trailed off, casting a questioning glance in his mother's direction. "Ayana?"
"Ayana?" Rebekah paused when she saw Finn lean heavily on the wall, but focused her attention on the young witch. "Ayana reborn in the same place as Elena? And both of them in their own bloodlines?"
"Coincidence?" Caroline suggested.
"I don't believe in coincidences," Rebekah tilted her head.
"And I don't believe you were all violent because you were vampires," Bonnie rolled her eyes, making a note to ask Elena about Elijah's theory later. "Why the shift?"
"In short?" Rebekah fiddled with the end of her scarf. "We lost Elena. She had a very… human influence on us."
"The girl who slaughtered a coven of witches?"
"Her massacres were few, one really," she pursed her lips. "And she turned after we learned how to compel. Killing to survive was never a necessity for her, and as such she did not begin her new life forced to desensitize herself to violence."
"We are once again veering off topic," Klaus cleared his throat. "How are we to keep her in their permanently? Compulsion can always be broken; even fought through if one's mind is strong."
"What about speeding up desiccation?" Elijah suggested.
"That's no good; I would have to stop a human heart for that."
"You know this how?" Klaus turned his attention to the young witch.
"It's how Abby stopped Mikael." Her fingers dug into her upper arms. "We need a boundary spell that won't break. Something nearly impossible to break. When Emily sealed the tomb she used a comet. Are there any set to fly over head soon? I don't want to use the full moon; it comes around to often."
"You might try binding the boundary to an immortal who can't die."
Almost in unison, everybody looked up, searching the bright opening for the source of the voice.
"Rather ingenious, darling."
"What can I say? I'm still a prodigy."
"That you are."
The air shifted as Kol leapt down with Elena in his arms, bending his knees to absorb the impact.
She released a huff of air and rolled her eyes, pushing her hair from her face.
"You know, there were stairs?" She waved beyond Klaus to the stone steps.
"Yes, but you're fully capable of walking down stairs. And as we both know I'll look for any excuse to hold you."
Rebekah made a gagging noise and a show of checking her watch.
"It only took them a night to become nauseating."
"We should have placed bets," Elijah snickered.
"You all would have lost; they were nauseating when we were down in the tunnels." Caroline scoffed.
Elena set her feet on the floor. An exasperated sigh escaped, undercut with fondness, when Kol snaked his arms around her waist. "You're going to be really clingy for a while, huh?"
"At least a century," he hummed, fingers splayed over her abdomen.
"She'll be sick of you within a year," Rebekah shook her head.
"I'm not worried," Elena grinned, "his attention's gonna be split pretty soon." Her eyes roamed the room to settle on Finn, staring into his palm as the other touched the stone wall in something close to reverence. "Alright there Finn?"
The call of his name broke him from his thoughts. He lifted his eyes to focus on her, wonder glimmering in the depths of his gaze; she would have to show him that stolen memory soon.
"What have you done?"
Smugness tightened her expression that she turned towards Esther.
"The question is: what did I undo?" Her smile turned soft for Finn. "Turns out we were all missing a few memories."
She noted the glaring absence in the lack of screaming.
"Where are Stefan and Damon?"
"They went looking for you," Bonnie turned to face the couple, "about an hour ago."
"Ugh," she shut her eyes, dropping her head on Kol's shoulder, "they're gonna be in my living room."
"I could…"
"You're not killing my ex-boyfriend and his brother," she lightly smacked Kol's hand.
"What about maiming?"
"No."
"Just one blow?"
"Kol…"
"The man slept with my wife," he squeezed her waist.
"And your sister," Caroline coughed.
"Not helping, Care." A shudder went through Elena, rocking her from head to toe.
"Helping?" Caroline scoffed. "Who said anything about helping? I'm involved solely for the drama, plus I kinda wanna see Damon get his ass handed to him."
"Damon?" Kol frowned. "I believed Stefan to be the former lover."
"He is," Caroline grinned. Darkness passed behind her eyes. "Damon's been trying to get in her pants since he came to town. I'll bet he's still gonna try. He's obsessive."
"Should he try he'll learn very fast just how possessive Kol can be," Rebekah rolled her eyes. "And I don't want you killing Stefan either."
"I suppose if they understand what they can and cannot have I could leave them be, but I reserve the right to strike back should they attempt to come between my lovely bride and I."
Elena rolled her eyes.
"I haven't been a bride in a thousand years."
"You're as lovely now as you were then."
"But not a newlywed."
"Then explain why everything feels so wondrously new." His nose skimmed her throat.
"That would be your newly returned magic," she giggled.
"Your explanation fails to account for last night, or the one before."
"Get a bloody room!" Rebekah crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.
Kol smirked, lifting his head from where he had laid a kiss on her soft skin.
"We intend to," he stepped back from Elena reluctantly, gesturing towards the tomb with all the care he would have taken to wave off a troublesome fly, "just as soon as mother is permanently sealed in that one."
What did you think of this chapter?
I thought it would be an interesting twist if the rings had an effect on Jeremy and Alaric. They've seen Elena as herself for months. Ric never thought to question it because every picture of Elena lacked the glamour too and it was early enough I think that he wouldn't have questioned it since he'd only just met her and as a teacher he saw hundreds of teenagers a day.
As for Jeremy... he thought he was losing it, and actually asked Elena once what happened to her eyes to which Elena responded with 'I know I haven't been sleeping well, but that's no reason to insult me'
or something similar.
