Chapter 11

Normal feelings

Kol marched to the living room and slammed his fist against the wall, letting out a growl. Damn it. Damn that girl.

"Problems, little brother?" Finn's calm voice asked, he was sitting in front of the fireplace.

Kol startled, he had forgotten Finn completely.

"None of your business," Kol snapped.

Finn stood up; he didn't seem at all insulted.

"How is the mother of your child?"

"I don't know or care," Kol stated angrily and poured himself a drink. "She's with Nik."

Finn raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"Because for some reason he wants to play her prince charming. Fine by me, he can keep her."

"I see," Finn stated coolly. "And the child?"

"What do you care, you wanted to kill us all!" Kol snapped.

Finn was quiet for a moment before replying.

"Yes, I did. I believed that this world would be a better place without our kind."

"Right and then you suddenly changed your mind?" Kol snorted.

"No, I didn't," Finn replied calmly.

Kol glanced at him and emptied his glass.

"You still want to kill us?"

"No, I don't."

Kol frowned.

"That doesn't make much sense."

"Yes, I know. The thing is… After mother died and I was by myself… I looked around and I saw… For the first time I really saw."

"Saw what?"

To Kol's surprise, Finn smiled. He hadn't seen his brother smiling since…ever.

"This world. I realized that I had never really looked at it before. I want to see it, all of it. I don't want to return to the darkness, I want to…live."

"Well," Kol hummed after a moment of silence. "Who would have thought that you could actually have some kind of normal feelings?"

Finn seemed amused.

"Normal feelings?"

"Yeah. I mean you were in a coffin for 900 years and as soon as you finally got out you immediately wanted to kill yourself. And your whole family. Not very normal."

Finn observed his brother for a brief moment before replying.

"Shall we talk about normal feelings, little brother? Perhaps the feelings a father should have toward his child…"

"Yes, that's a great example," Kol snorted. "Our father was always so caring toward us."

"That is your excuse?" Finn stated. "You will abandon your child because your own father was mean to you?"

"I would say that he was a little more than mean, but I don't see any point talking about this. None of this is your business; I don't have to explain myself to you or to anyone else."

"Perhaps not," Finn stated calmly. "But you are wrong, this is my business. I brought that girl here."

"Why?" Kol snapped. "What did you think would happen?"

"Well, to be perfectly honest, I was hoping that the child would be Elijah's. We have had our differences, but I knew that he would act like a man and accept the consequences of his actions."

Kol pressed his lips together; he wasn't going to talk about this. Yet he did.

"She came to me!" he snapped. "She practically threw herself at me and she did the whole thing on purpose. Do you honestly think that I would have slept with her if I would have known that she's this… vessel or whatever she is."

Finn raised an eyebrow.

"A vessel?"

"Yes, Freya just told us. Apparently the girl was conceived by magic. That's why she can procreate with vampires."

Finn was quiet for a while before speaking.

"I can't believe that mother could do something like this…"

"Well, apparently she could," Kol snorted.

Suddenly something crossed his mind.

"You said that this…child was supposed to be a gift for the ancestors, what did you mean by that?"

"That's all I know," Finn replied. "Mother didn't tell me anything else."

Kol glanced at him harshly.

"You mean you didn't want to hear anything else."

Finn bowed his head and nodded.

"No, I didn't. I believed that we were doing the right thing, I didn't think…" He paused and sighed. "I would guess that this child was meant to be sacrificed."

Sacrificed. Suddenly all Kol could think about was the heartbeat. His child's heartbeat. His child… No, he wasn't going to do this.

"What about the girl?" he heard himself asking.

"I don't know," Finn replied. "But if she was in fact meant as a vessel, I would guess that she would have been… well, useless, after the child would be born."

Kol didn't say anything. For some reason he thought about her eyes and her timid smile when she had brought him that damn hot chocolate and cookies. It had been a sincere gesture; she had genuinely hoped that they could talk. She had hoped that he would help her protecting the child. What had made her think something like that? She had even been willing to sleep with him again.

"She's like a child for heaven's sake! Her father taught her what sex was by making her watch porn!"

"Take me now, baby… I need you… I'm so hot for you…"

Kol cursed and poured himself another drink. He should have noticed something. Well, he had, but he had ignored it. She had seemed more than willing. Sure he was a monster, but he had never forced himself on a woman.

"She has a human body. And I would say a human mind, although someone has gone through a lot of trouble in order to shatter her mind…"

"These followers of Esther… Was the girl with them when you found her?" Kol asked, managing to sound careless.

"No," Finn replied. "She was by herself in a hotel room. Her father had told her to wait him there."

"Her father?"

"Yes, a warlock called Marcus. Mother said that he's one of her most loyal followers."

"Hmm. I would guess then that he'll come and look for her?"

Finn looked thoughtful, like the whole thing wouldn't have crossed his mind before.

"Yes, that's very likely. I don't know what their plan was exactly, but they will probably want the girl and the child back."

Kol suspected that too. Then there was of course Nik… What the hell did he want from the girl? As much as Kol tried to convince himself that he didn't care, he didn't quite succeed. No, he most definitely wasn't Elijah, but maybe there was some tiny hint of decency still left in him.