Chapter 005

There's the Rub

Friday, December 03, 2010, 9:15 a.m.

Mystic Falls' Coffee Shop

The ever gentlemanly Kol holds the door open for Bonnie and then follows her into the busy coffee shop. Reading the menu over quickly, he thinks, 'Everything on this menu has far too much sugar and other unnecessary things added to it. Plain, perhaps slightly boring, hot, black coffee, it is.'

Turning to Bonnie, he smiles and tells her, "I miss the days when coffee was simply served hot and either black or with a bit of cream and sugar. I honestly don't even know what half the things on that board are."

She giggles while she looks up at him and says, "I'd miss my iced mocha if it didn't exist, but I can admit that the sheer number of options can probably be overwhelming to someone who has never heard of any of them before. I highly recommend the iced mocha or the iced mochaccino, though."

He smiles wider and tells her, "I think I'll stick with my regular, plain, hot, black coffee."

My granddaughter giggles again and tells him, "Oh live a little, Kol. Try something new. For all you know you'll love whichever you try, and you'll have a new regular."

At his drawn eyebrows and a slight shake of his head, my ever-optimistic baby girl smiles gently and continues her argument, "I mean you tried the Model T when it first came out, and that was new and exciting, right? So, this could be too."

His features smooth out before he smiles indulgently at her and tells her, "I'm perfectly happy not broadening my coffee horizons, Darling."

At her quickly growing frown he smiles softly and tells her honestly, "I'll drink hot black coffee with different beans from all over the world, and I've even tried a few flavored coffees, such as Hazelnut. However, correct me if I'm wrong, but most of the drinks on that list up there have an enormous number of things added to the coffee after it's brewed."

She nods slowly, so he finishes his point, "I've never even taken cream or sugar with my coffee, so I can't imagine I'd enjoy the certain creamy sweetness of any of those drinks."

Her face loses its frown before he smiles widely again and says, "Besides I read an article the other day that said that humans in this day and age are addicted to sugar and that the amount of it that's added to most everything is incredibly unhealthy and is certainly why your country has an obesity epidemic."

She smiles while they move up a spot in the line and then tells him, "Okay I can see how if you've never even taken cream or sugar then you probably wouldn't like most of the offerings up there."

He nods slowly. A moment later she frowns slightly again and tells him, "And for the record, the amount of sugar added to everything is crazy. It's why I try to cook homemade meals for my dad and me whenever possible. A homemade recipe might have some sugar or even a little corn syrup in it, but it doesn't have the insane amount of sugar or all the high fructose corn syrup or any number of artificial sweeteners and chemicals that processed food has in it."

She pauses and then adds as an afterthought, "Don't even get me started on the amount of sodium in processed and prepackaged foods. The crazy amount of salt in everything is why so many people die of heart attacks these days. The rate of heart disease today has drastically increased from days gone by."

Kol nods because he's read articles that support her claims since he woke up in his coffin. He and his sister have been learning about all the new, or new to them, information about healthy nutrition. It's why Rebekah has been trying to cook their meals for them so she can utilize the hundreds, if not thousands, of cookbooks she's gotten on her tablet. She correctly insists it's healthier than the pre-made items the grocery store sells.

Kol tends to agree with his baby sister on that, although, usually Rebekah has an enormous amount of questions about why a recipe says to do one thing or another, and he's just as clueless about modern cooking practices as his sister is, so he's absolutely no help to her in answering her questions.

He wonders, 'Perhaps Bonnie will be able to answer our questions. I'll have to keep that in mind, and when we get a little closer perhaps suggest that she come and give us cooking lessons. Given what I know of her I think she'd enjoy it probably as much as we would, maybe even more so.'

Bonnie pauses with a frown on her pretty little face that reminds me of my mother's frown and then she says quietly, "Lately my dad has been eating out a lot, though, because he's been working late most nights. It used to be, I'd cook him breakfast and dinner and even make him a lunch to take to work with him. I still make breakfast and lunch for him, but I think he and Caroline's mom usually order fast food most nights. I'm convinced it's why he's slightly overweight. I mean not a lot, but enough that I notice he's not as thin or fit as he was when I was little."

He really has gained weight. Kol wouldn't know what he looked like beforehand, though, so he takes Bonnie at her word and nods and then decides to plant a seed, so he asks, "Maybe you could come over sometime and teach Beks and me how to cook properly. She has a large number of cookbooks on her new Kindle. However, we often don't understand why things are done a certain way, and if I had a penny for every time we had to look up a word to understand the instructions I'd be, well I'm already wealthy, but I'd be much wealthier than I already am."

Bonnie giggles at that and nods before she says, "Grams taught me how to cook from a pretty early age. Some of my fondest memories are of us cooking in her kitchen when I was a little girl, and by little, I mean I had to stand on a kitchen chair to reach the counter and help."

I smile when she pauses because those are some of my fondest memories too. She continues her thought a moment later, "Anyway, I love cooking so I might be persuaded into helping you all learn to cook healthy meals. I never really stopped to think about the differences in cooking and food in general compared to how it was when you were alive. I have some pretty good family recipes too that you guys might enjoy."

She pauses and reflects on what she just said then she adds, "I'll think about the ramifications of my teaching you guys to cook and get back to you, although if you get your way and you end up teaching me magick, it might be fair that I teach you guys something in return."

That's my girl, always doing the fair and right thing. My companions are nodding even before Kol nods and tells my generous grandbaby, "I would be amenable to making a trade of that sort with you, and I think my sister would be as well. While she was not as skilled at magick as I was she was still incredibly talented. All my siblings were much more powerful than Esther was by the time we were a decade old. You should note that I'm comparing our abilities at age ten to her abilities as a grown adult with adult children, so even though my siblings were not nearly as proficient at magick as I was they were all quite talented, and, therefore, they could all probably assist you in your studies as much as I can."

Her green eyes are wide before she asks him, "You were all more powerful than your mother when you were ten years old? She was not weak."

Kol smiles and rests his hand on her arm before he tells her, "When you met her the power she was using was that of your entire family line so that power is yours, not hers. However, when she was alive, well, before she turned to dark magick anyway, she was highly talented, and her children were all far more exceptional than she ever was.

The fact of the matter is, she was well respected in our community for having birthed so many powerful witches. Mikael hated that the boys in our family did magick because he thought it should be women's work only, but it brought our family enough prestige that he allowed us to learn and practice the craft."

After a brief pause to take a breath he doesn't really need, he smiles and confides in his young companion, "Personally, I was more powerful than our mother from the first time I lost my temper and set her skirt on fire. I was just about three months shy of four autumns old when that happened, and I was, at the time, particularly displeased about something she told me to do."

Bonnie giggles again and asks, "Were you a rebel that young?"

He lazily bobs his head and tells her, "Absolutely."

She nods back with a big smile on her face before they move up to the counter, so he tells Bonnie, "Lady's first."

She smiles and tells the woman behind the counter, "Hi Lisa, I'll take my usual medium iced mocha, please."

The barista smiles and while she nods and writes Bonnie's order on a plastic cup the employee asks, "Okay, Bonnie and what can I get for your friend?" Then she looks up from the cup and her eyes widen when they land on Kol before she smiles what is obviously supposed to be a flirty smile and she pushes out her rather small chest towards him before she asks, "So, Bonnie's Friend, see anything here you'd like?"

It's a struggle not to burst out laughing at the woman's overly obvious, not to mention excessively ambitious, attempt at flirting with him or his response to it. He smiles gently in deference to the fact that this woman is apparently friends with Bonnie and looking pointedly at my grandbaby he says, "As a matter of fact, yes I do." Freya, Finn, Henri, Kol and I all smile while my granddaughter turns several shades of crimson before Kol turns and looks away from her then he tells Lisa, "However, I think for now I'll just take a large, hot, dark roast with no cream or sugar added."

Henri grins and tells me, "See I told you women can't resist the Mikaelson charm."

I chuckle and nod while the girl pouts and nods again, but dutifully writes his order on a paper cup, and tallies up the total before telling him, "That'll be $9.49, Sir."

Kol smiles because the barista obviously got the message loud and clear, so taking his wallet out of his back pocket he takes out a ten and hands it to her. When she hands him back his change, he drops it and two additional dollar bills into the woman's little tip jar, and then Kol and Bonnie move to the side to wait for their drinks.

I miss coffee. Other than my baby girl, coffee is the one thing I miss the most now that I'm on The Otherside.

While we wait, Bonnie giggles again. Kol has it bad because he looks at her with a soft, slightly indulgent smile on his face and asks, "What has you giggling this time, Little Witch?"

She smiles brightly and asks him, "Something just occurred to me."

When he raises his eyebrow silently asking her to elaborate she frowns ever so slightly and cautiously asks, "Uh, can I ask you a personal question about something you said earlier?"

He smiles wider and nods so she grins back and asks, "You think women in this day and age are showing everything they have to offer including things that shouldn't be shown in public, right?"

He nods so she asks, "Then what is your opinion as an older brother of a 17-year-old sister who wears short skirts and tight tops like every other 17-year-old girl in the country?"

He laughs and tells her, "It's honestly taking some getting used to. Fortunately, 'Bekah obviously has similar tastes to you and your friends, so she doesn't cross that invisible but very real line into trashy. However, I still want to throw a blanket over her sometimes and tell her to go change into something more respectable. Of course, the first and only time I actually did that I got slapped for implying she was dressed like a trollop."

Bonnie laughs and asks, "You actually threw a blanket over her?"

He just nods with a toothy smile on his face, so she smiles back and tells him, "I heard Stefan tell Elena about the first time Rebekah went shopping after being woken up. Your sister apparently asked about women dressing like prostitutes because they wore skirts that barely covered their rear ends and something about her getting dirty looks when she wore pants, and your brother said, um, oh I think it was that 'she wore pants, so women today could wear nothing' or something along those lines. Other than Cheerleading Practice I haven't really spent much time with your sister. Unfortunately, I bet she hates me as much as Elena and the others hate her. Still, I kind of wish I could have been in the dressing room with Rebekah the first time she tried that sort of thing on just to see her honest reaction after having spent 900 or so years in a society where women didn't even show their ankles never mind their knees and thighs."

Kol laughs and tells her, "We're in too public a setting right now for me to play it, but remind me sometime when we're not surrounded by clueless humans who would react badly to a young woman talking about having literally been alive in centuries past. I'll show you the video of her that day that Nik took on his phone. I think he caught that little rant or one just like it in the footage, so you'll get the next best thing to having been there. He still bitches about having had to suffer shopping with her. Of course, the rest of us impolitely point out that if he hadn't daggered her in the first place, then she would have already had a full modern wardrobe, and a shopping trip with him in attendance would not have been necessary."

Bonnie nods with a small giggle before the girl, Lisa, brings them their drinks. Kol hands my granddaughter her cup and then takes his before becoming distracted by Bonnie's lips wrapped around that little straw while she happily sucks on her iced mocha. Her lips wrapped around that little piece of plastic tubing reminds him of his dream this morning and his fantasy in the shower about the things he wishes to do with my grandbaby even though I think she is still far too young to be doing those sorts of things with a man.

Pulling his thoughts away from those thoughts he holds his hot black coffee in one hand and uses the other to motion her towards a table by the window. He's still trying to acclimate to telling temperatures because both the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales were invented while he was in his box and not as widely used during the 14 years at the beginning of the 20th Century that he wasn't in his coffin as they are now, but it's early December. According to his weather app on his phone they're experiencing abnormally high temperatures in the last few weeks, so 68º F is today's expected high temperature. However, it's only about 9:30 a.m., so it's still early in the day, and he'd be surprised if it's even 50º out yet. Therefore, it's still a little too cold for them to sit outside comfortably. The last thing he wants is for her to get sick, so he leads her to a vacant table near one of the large windows.

Kol puts his coffee on the table and holds Bonnie's chair for her helping push it in when she sits, which causes her to look up at him with a beaming smile on her face and tell him, "Thank you, but you should know that your age is showing, Kol. Boys these days aren't so courteous, or I don't even know the word for it, but I've never had anyone who wasn't my dad, or a waiter help me sit before."

He scoffs at that and tells the witch, "I swear the world has gone to shit in the almost hundred years since I was last out of my coffin. In fact, I think popular music, technology, and lady's underthings are the only items that have improved with time instead of devolving."

He grins when she giggles, and then she surprises even herself by taking the bait and asking him, "You mentioned thinking that most women show too much of, well, everything in this day and age, but do you have much experience with 'modern lady's underthings', as you put it?"

Freya, Finn, Henri and I laugh at that. Bonnie is blushing, hard, and thinking, 'Oh my God, where did the courage to ask that come from?'

My always curious and inquisitive granddaughter really does want to know though, so she smiles wider when he takes his seat across from her and smiles a soft smile at her before saying, "They really do show far too much to everyone who bothers to look. However, surprisingly I don't have nearly as much experience with modern lady's underthings as I would like that's for sure."

She giggles at that. It's such a male thing to say. He grins and tells her, "Although since I got out of my box, I haven't really tried to get under anyone's clothes. For one, I converted to Christianity back in 1698, so I believe that sex should only be between a man and his wife. While I certainly had quite a bit of sex before converting I haven't had much since. Besides I'm sure it wouldn't be as much fun nowadays given the lack of challenge most women would present, and I find I really do miss the challenge, and if I overlooked my Christian beliefs I'd need that challenge to even bother trying otherwise it would be a colossal waste of my time."

I smile at that. Bonnie's mouth is forming a little 'o,' though, and she thinks, 'Okay that's definitely not a guy thing to say. I've never met a guy who would pass up the opportunity to have as much sex as possible, challenge or not.'

Kol continues his thought by telling her, "I mean don't get me wrong, I'm sure it would still feel just as good physically as it always has, better actually because after we're undaggered, our skin and senses are extra sensitive for about a year per every decade we were daggered. The effect also is stronger the longer we were daggered. However, mentally and emotionally I need a challenge for it to be worth spending my time doing. Well, I need a challenge or actual feelings for the woman, either would do, or if I'm lucky, both would make it more than worth the effort."

Finn grins at me and says, "I think your granddaughter will be both without even trying."

I grin back and nod just before Bonnie thinks, 'Okay, maybe it's his age that's making him act differently than guys my age because every other boy I know, Christian or not, would have sex even if it was bad sex, especially if their bodies were hypersensitive. I suppose needing a challenge or actual feelings for the woman makes sense though if you've been alive for over a thousand years because he's probably been there, done that.'

Henri laughs loudly at that thought then says, "Been there, done that, indeed. My brother has tried just about everything there is to try when it comes to sex, but when it comes down to it, he enjoys sex most when there is an actual relationship between him and the woman. It doesn't have to be a romantic relationship, but there at least needs to be a friendship in place for him to get any amount of joy out it."

Finn just nods at his youngest brother's words, so I smile back during Kol's pause and then with a mischievous twinkle in his eye Kol asks her, "Why? Are you offering to model for me? Because if you are, I think that could prove to be incredibly fun, for both of us."

Bonnie's jaw drops before she licks her suddenly dry lips. The idea of doing anything of that nature with Kol is tempting to her in a way she thinks it really shouldn't be, but she tells him in her firm voice, "Absolutely not. I was just curious if you're a man whore. You kind of have that vibe about you."

He chuckles low in his throat before taking a sip of his drink, and then he asks, "A man whore? No. I have gotten around on occasion, though as I said not at all since 1698, but I'm definitely not paid for my services. I'm so good at it, though, I damn well ought to be paid, and well at that."

He smiles when she giggles loudly, which just causes his grin to widen. She lets her laughter trail off. Then she takes a sip of her ice cold coffee before he tells her, "You'd definitely make me work hard for anything I'd get you to do with me. Because anything actually worth having takes hard work to get, if you change your mind, you just let me know, and I'll give you a freebie."

He's making that offer because if he has his way they'll be married eventually, and he wants to plant the idea now, so it has time to percolate and mature by the time they're made one.

I laugh, though, when my granddaughter almost chokes on the sip of her drink she just took, and her eyes widen at his words. After she manages to swallow her sip without choking her mouth forms a little 'o.' 'Oh my God. He's dangerous for sure but not in the ways my friends think or at least not just in the ways my friends think he is.'

Finn chuckles and tells me, "She truly has no idea, but she has the same effect on him that he has on her."

We nod, and Kol thinks, 'God, look at that blush. Could she possibly be any cuter?'

Bonnie snaps out of her daze and crumples up a napkin and throws it at him smacking him in the face with it, which causes him to laugh before she tells him, "Stop, I'm not sleeping with you no matter how much fun you say it would be."

He chuckles again, and after taking another sip of his piping hot coffee, he says, "We could have some definite fun, you and I." He leans in, and as though he's asking for a secret he softly asks, "Or am I not as cute as young Jeremy?"

I laugh again and tell my companions, "Oh he's good, I'll give him that."

His brothers and sister just smile and nod before Bonnie tells the appropriately confident Kol, "You're cuter." Her eyes open wide when she realizes what she just said and to whom. While Kol and Bonnie both think it's certainly very true, my grandbaby wouldn't have willingly said it out loud to, well, anyone really, but the words just popped out of her mouth before she could stop them. She blushes ten shades of crimson and then tries unsuccessfully to cover up her embarrassment by telling him, "But I didn't sleep with Jer, I haven't… well… um… I…"

Kol thinks, 'I can't smell any semen mixed in with her delicious scent. It can linger for years, even over a decade if two women I met centuries ago who each had sex once, more than a decade before I met them are any indication. Even over ten years later, I could still smell the faintest whiff of their partner's semen mixed in with their own unique scent. But Bonnie, her distinctly pure and incredibly untainted scent tells me that she hasn't had intercourse with anyone. God, she's completely untouched and if I get my way I'll be the only man to ever touch her that way. I'll be her first, and we'll be each other's last.'

I still think she's too young to be doing those sorts of things, but I know that Kol isn't just going to sleep with her and then drop her like a hot potato. So, I'm a little more comfortable with the idea than I would be if he weren't thinking in terms of forever and not just right now.

As fun as it is making her blush for him, he doesn't want to increase her embarrassment though, or, at least, not about her lack of experience because that would hurt her self-esteem and self-confidence and that's the absolute last thing he wants to accomplish today or any day for that matter. Therefore, he doesn't tell her that he can smell her virginity. Instead, he smiles gently, takes another sip, and then says, "Ah, I see, you're pure, well since you think I'm cuter, if you decide to change your status, you just let me know. I'll be happy to help defile you in the most debauched ways possible." Of course, he plans to marry her first, maybe not a public wedding at first but a sharing of vows before God none-the-less.

He pauses and smirks at her before leaning in, and in a hushed voice, he tells her, "I bedded my first maiden the spring before I turned 14-years-old, and I've been undaggered for about 608 of my 1,009 years as a vampire. I was sexually active for all but 18 of those undaggered years, so you really couldn't ask for a better teacher than a man who's been bedding women for just under 600 years."

I laugh because my granddaughter shivers at the mental image of him having his way with women for six centuries despite her best efforts. She covers the shiver by giggling and taking a long sip of her drink before she decides to tease him back just a little. She gets a twinkle of her own in her eye and asks him, "Hmm, Klaus and Elijah are both older than you, and they presumably did the daggering, so they haven't been daggered as much, if at all, so does that mean they're better than you in that department?"

Kol chuckles while I marvel at the fact that she feels comfortable enough with him to tease him about sex. Still smiling, he leans in closer to her and says, "Hardly, I wouldn't be surprised if Elijah is as pure as you are, despite his advanced years, and Nik, well his bed mates are, well, honestly he has low standards. If he weren't part vampire, I'd be afraid he might catch something."

He smiles at her resulting giggle and tells her, "Seriously, his standards are incredibly lacking, and I've often wondered if he sleeps with such low-quality women in an attempt at hiding the fact that he lacks the skills necessary to please a real woman of the highest quality."

Laughing again she smiles before she tells him, "He has the man whore vibe too, so what you're telling me is he definitely is one?"

Kol finishes swallowing the sip he just took and chuckles that low deep chuckle of his that gives her that shiver Kol thinks is delicious before he says, "He's been getting into women's skirts far more than I have this time around that's for certain. He doesn't get paid either that I know of, though, and I doubt he ought to be paid for that matter."

My usually sexually shy granddaughter giggles at that, but then she takes him off guard when she asks, "You know that premonition I had?" He's obviously clueless about how the new subject relates to what they were just talking about, but he nods.

After taking a sip of her drink, she continues, "Well I got to see both of your brothers and both of the Salvatore's in the buff, and I saw you and Damon in action, so to speak, although you were in Stefan and Damon's bodies at the time and Elena's at one point."

I'm amazed that she feels comfortable enough with Kol to admit that she's seen both of his surviving brothers naked, but the fact of the matter is she feels exceptionally relaxed with Kol. She thinks it's almost like he's a kindred spirit. Maybe it's the fact that she knows he absolutely understands how she feels not having her magick right now. Whatever it is he's smiling widely at the fact that she's bantering with him.

Shaking his head ever so slightly Kol, who is potentially oversexed, laughs and sits up straight before asking with wide eyes, "I had sex while in Ms. Gilbert's body? Exactly how much sex did I have in this premonition?"

Oh yeah, he's definitely oversexed even if he hasn't had any in centuries. Bonnie laughs like the teenage girl she truly is and ignoring her furious blush she tells him, "A whole lot," and then she ticks the instances off on her fingers, "Let's see if I can remember them all. There was the threesome with the two co-eds in Stefan's body, which you thought was a disgrace to all men everywhere."

He puffs up his chest a bit at that while he smiles. He's pleased that she got to see him in 'top form.' He's very obviously fighting the urge to cackle, though, at the news that he thought Stefan is a disgrace to all men everywhere. She continues answering his question by telling him, "Then there was you in Damon's body, which you thought wasn't a disgrace to all men everywhere, and you switched into Elena's body just as you and she—um, well when you, um, you get the idea, anyway she figured out who you were, and you switched. Then Damon continued through your, uh, aftershocks and you thought he was very good at it."

She turns even redder while he chuckles again, this time at her, adorable to him, inability to say 'cum,' 'climax,' or 'orgasm.' Those just aren't words a girl like her is in the habit of using in public and especially not in the presence of a guy. Kol thinks it's incredibly cute, her inability to say the words, so he just smiles gently, so she knows he's not laughing in a mean way.

My granddaughter knows the vampire's laughter is in good fun, so she doesn't object to his chuckles and takes another long sip then she giggles and tells him, "While you were in Elena's body you thought 'So this is what the women I've slept with felt. No wonder they like sex so much…'"

Kol joins her laughter, but then she sobers up and frowns slightly before she tells him, "Then I watched twice as Damon and Elena did it without you, once after The Hunter's Curse was broken and then on their last night alive a couple of weeks later."

He got enough of the gist last night of what all happened in her premonition to know that he was the reason her friends had a final night. In an effort not to bring down the mood, he smiles boyishly and ignores the sad tone at the end of her story and asks her, "Stefan's a disgrace to all men everywhere? That's good to know. So, you failed to mention my brothers. When did you see them 'in the buff,' as you put it?"

Bonnie swallows her previous sip of ice coffee and grins before telling him, "Elijah went digging in a landfill when he was searching for you, so I watched when you showered the garbage stench off while in his body. Then later that day I saw you change out of what Klaus was wearing and into new clothes, so I know that neither of them wears any underwear."

She pauses then softly, but needlessly adds, "Because they were each in front of mirrors at the time I got an eyeful both times."

Kol laughs when her already deep blush manages to deepen even more before he pauses to sip his own coffee while it's still hot. Then after swallowing, he tells Bonnie, whom he hopes to soon make his permanently, "Most older vampires, well the men I've known that is, don't wear underwear. The braies we wore when I was human, which were really just linen shorts, always bunched and chaffed. They weren't particularly comfortable for the longest time, so we have yet to jump on board that trend. Personally, I don't see the point in wearing them. I mean it makes sense for women to give support and such, but for men, they're utterly and completely pointless."

I chuckle, and so do my three companions. Bonnie's eyes are wide, and her jaw is hanging open while her eyes lose focus, and she imagines cheeky Kol naked. She snaps out of her mental vision a minute or so later and says slightly out of breath, "Uh, that's a little more information than I needed."

He swallows before he laughs again, "You're the one who brought up what my brothers look like naked and the fact that they don't wear underwear. I just followed your conversational lead."

My still furiously blushing grandbaby rolls up another napkin and tosses it at him. He catches it this time before it can hit him in the face while she says, "You're the one who brought up your preference for modern lady's underthings and the fact that you're so good at sex that you ought to be paid to do it."

Kol, who was already grinning smirks with smoldering eyes and tells her, "I really should be."

She laughs for a minute then nods and smiles before she takes a long pull from her straw with her eyes closed.

When Bonnie's eyes open, she releases the straw and swallows before asking her companion, "Um, I have another personal question, which feel free to refuse to answer because I totally realize that until yesterday we were enemies so you might not want me to know such personal details about your family."

My granddaughter means that too. She's undoubtedly curious about him and his family. She understands, though, that she might be asking this question a little too soon in their budding friendship. So, after he nods to show her he'll at least listen to her question, she smiles slightly and asks, "So anyway, uh, you mentioned, I think you said his name was Henrik, was he the only other sibling you had that we haven't met?"

He shakes his head and tells her, "No we all have an older sister Freya who was born in Norway before our family sailed here. Esther bartered her before she was even conceived. Our mother got children and her younger sister, Dahlia, who did the magick that allowed the otherwise barren bitch to procreate got Esther's first born in return. None of us knew any of that though until we found ourselves on The Otherside after we were daggered. Esther told us while we grew up that she died of the plague as an infant, which Mikael blamed on the too cold winters in Oslo, so he decided to sail here with Esther and a few others who wished to flee the harsh winters. They left in what Elijah believes was mid-March of 975 and they arrived off the coast of what is now Virginia in the extremely late summer/early autumn of the same year. Finn was born almost exactly a year after Freya was and was the only one alive when Esther gave our sister to our aunt. He was only about a year or so old and therefore too little to remember much more than Freya's face and blonde curls. He always believed our sister died just the same as everyone else did, but Esther compelled him to keep his mouth shut because a child that young might have said something incriminating without realizing it, so she took preventative measures and essentially turned our brother against us even before we were born."

He pauses and takes another sip then tells Bonnie, who is incredibly attentive, "A little over a year after they arrived in Virginia, Elijah was born."

My granddaughter has always been interested in history and especially people's personal histories, so I'm not surprised that she's smiling widely and asks, "Um, so you guys have to guess at what the dates were back then, huh? I mean calendars probably weren't widely used at the time?"

Kol smiles back, and after taking another sip, he tells Bonnie who is still giving him a broad grin, "As I told you earlier, our condition gives us Eidetic memory, so Elijah remembers not only everything he witnessed but also everything our parents told him growing up. We know we were turned on October's full moon in the year 1001, which Elijah has since figured out was on October 03, so we finished the transition on the morning of October 04 which was just over three weeks shy of my twentieth birthday."

Bonnie smiles even broader and thinks, 'So cool.' She nods so he continues, "My birthday fell on the witches' New Year, which was called Samhain back then but now the humans call it Halloween."

She was about to take a sip when he said that, so she stops a few inches from her straw and raises her eyes to meet his before she asks, "You were born on Halloween?"

He nods, so she nods back then asks, "Wow, that's so cool. So, do any of the others know what day they were born on?"

Smiling still he nods again and tells her, "Elijah loves a good mystery, so I forget when he began his investigation, but a few centuries ago he sat down and wrote down everything he knew about the days we were each born. Then he went about figuring out what day and year each birth was on. It was slightly easier because we were witches, and so was Esther, so she kept track of the moon's cycle and recorded when we were born in her grimoire based on the season and how close it was to each phase of the moon's cycle. So, for instance, she listed me as being born on Samhain, but Esther also wrote that it was the day after The New Moon that followed The Hunter's Moon, which is typically in October. He knew how many seasons we'd each survived when we turned and the year of our turning so he counted backward and figured out the dates of the moon's cycle for October that year, 981 if you're curious, and so he came up with the 31st because The New Moon was on the 30th. Of course, in my case figuring out the date was even easier than that simply because Samhain falls on the same day every year and always has."

Bonnie swallows the sip in her mouth then smiles and says, "That is so cool. So, if you don't think they'd mind can you tell me when Elijah thinks the others were born?"

Honestly, she thinks they'd mind, but she figures it can't hurt to ask.

Finn smiles and tells me, "If it were anyone else, but especially one of her friends then our siblings would most definitely mind him answering that question. However, they know enough about her and Kol's plans that they shouldn't mind too much if he tells her."

I nod before Kol surprises my baby girl with a smile and tells her, "If you were Ms. Gilbert they'd probably try to beat me to a pulp if I even thought to answer that question. However, I sincerely doubt they'd mind me telling you."

She nods but tells him, "Okay, but only tell me if you're sure because I don't want your siblings to get mad at you over something I asked for."

His smile widens at that. He's only slightly surprised that she cares whether his siblings get mad at him, but she really doesn't want to get him into trouble even if he was and maybe still should be her enemy. She's thinking he's sliding closer and closer to friend and farther and farther away from the enemy side of the scale, so she really does care how they'd feel if he told her that sort of thing about his family members.

Still giving her a big smile Kol says, "I'm certain they won't mind, so let's see, Freya, who still exists but goes into a magickally induced sleep every 99 years, was born in November of 972 and we know that it was two days after The Beaver Moon, so Elijah thinks she was born on the 25th. Finn was also born in November but in 973. He was born on The New Moon which was on the 16th that year."

While he talks Bonnie's smile keeps getting wider and wider, so he stops and tells her, "If your smile gets any wider your face is going to break in half."

My grandbaby laughs and tells her companion honestly, "Sorry, I'm kind of a closet history lover, so this is just fascinating. Keep going," she pauses then adds, "Please."

He laughs at her eagerness then tells her, "Very well, Elijah was a late summer baby. He came ten sunrises after The Fire Festival of Lughnasadh, which was two days shy of The Sturgeon Moon, so he figured out that his birthday is August 10th, and based on how many summers he had survived before we were turned he thinks the year was 976."

He pauses to take a sip of his coffee then he asks her, "Did your grandmother get a chance to teach you about witch festivals?"

I frown. I only got to teach her the bare basics. She frowns too but tells him, "Yes and no. I know when they are for the most part because she'd always say something like Happy Samhain to me on Halloween and she did that with all of The Fire Festivals and The Quarter Days too. My dad didn't want her filling my head with that 'witchy crap' as he frequently called it, though, so I don't know much about the actual festivals other than what she could sneak into our conversations without pissing him off. I think he mostly blamed 'that witchy crap' for Abby leaving us, which is pretty accurate because she left to desiccate Mikael and trap and hide him. Anyway, she stayed gone after she finished, for reasons I'm not particularly clear on, so he's probably half right."

She pauses then frowns deeper and says, "Anyway, I guess he was afraid the 'witchy crap' would cause me to leave too. It's a pretty irrational fear, but he wouldn't listen when Grams or I tried to explain that just because I knew that stuff didn't mean I was going to abandon him."

Kol frowns but nods and asks, "How's your father dealing with both your involvement in witchcraft as well as your mother's return?"

My baby girl frowns back and tells him in a quiet voice, "He's not particularly happy about me doing the witch thing, especially after the whole Expression mess, but now that Abby is back, well, last night he asked her to teach me how to do it properly. She didn't seem too enthused about the idea, though. I think he doesn't realize that because she's a vampire, she no longer has access to her magick. So, as I'm sure you realize it's a sore subject with her. It's why I'm giving serious consideration to your offer because you seem to have accepted the fact that you don't have your magick anymore, so helping me might hurt you less than it would hurt her."

He nods and tells her, "I have had longer to come to grips with the loss. Regardless, whichever of us teaches you, we need to make sure you know all about the festivals, so I'll keep that in mind going forward, and I'll be sure to mention them as they occur this year. In fact, just over two weeks from now, on the 21st, is the Winter Solstice, so when it draws nearer, I'll begin telling you more about it, especially about what it will mean for your power."

She smiles and nods before saying, "Thank you, now what about Klaus and Rebekah. When were they born?"

He laughs and tells her, "So nosy."

I laugh when she nods but waves her hand in a hurry-up motion, so he chuckles and tells her, "Okay, so Nik was born the July after Elijah was born on The Buck Moon which also happened to be the afternoon of a total lunar eclipse. According to Ayana and Esther he was born about the same time the moon was completely within The Earth's shadow so about 3:36 p.m. They both knew about Ansel and in at least Esther's book they speculated that it might be a sign because Ansel was a wolf and they're ruled by the phases of the moon. Elijah and I also think it's why Mikael hated our brother even before discovering Esther's infidelity. Mikael despised the wolves from the moment he met them, and we think Mikael was aware enough to realize Nik's birth time was significant in some way. Regardless, Elijah looked it up many centuries later, so he believes that Nik was born on July 03, 977."

Finn nods slightly and says, "I agree with my brothers. Mikael at least had to have a suspicion or why else would he have treated Niklaus so poorly."

I nod while Bonnie frowns and a moment later she tells Kol why when she says, "See I don't get that. I mean after he discovered Esther cheated on him I can see him resenting the child that was a result of that infidelity, but I could never hate a child simply because he was born at the exact time the moon was fully into The Earth's shadow. Who does that? For all he knew, Klaus was his son, and he treated him like crap for no reason. I mean don't get me wrong I'm not a big fan of Klaus', but I can admit that his behavior that I hate is probably a direct result of his relationship with the man he originally thought was his father. That crap would mess up even the most stable person, and I think Esther's curse she placed on Klaus after you all turned made him even more unstable than Mikael's treatment of him did."

She pauses then gently tells Kol, "I know he's your brother, but he's exceptionally good at being a monster, and I credit both of your parents for his monstrous proficiency, for lack of a better way to put it. They made him the monster he is today, and that's not even taking The Immortality Spell into account, just the curse and their overall treatment of him."

He nods with wide eyes. He hadn't realized that she'd given much thought to all of this, but she's not done, so she tells him, "I also find myself blaming Esther for Elena's Aunt and Biological Father dying more than I want to blame Klaus. If your mother hadn't messed with Klaus and taken away a part of himself, then he never would have needed to make those sacrifices that night and Jenna and the werewolf, Jules, would both still be alive. Elena wouldn't have had to die either, so John wouldn't have needed me to cast a spell to revive her using his life force essentially killing him in the process. Incidentally, Caroline would still be human too because Katherine forced her to begin the transition to meet the requirements of The Reversal Spell. Plus, if there were no curse, Klaus wouldn't have been looking for the doppelgänger in the first place so Katherine would have never turned, and Damon and Stefan would have never met her and would have died human, preferably after having lived long, happy, fulfilling lives. When you think about it every supernatural issue my friends and I have had can be traced directly back to Esther and her epic stupidity and unparalleled cruelty."

Kol laughs while he nods and tells her, "You're not wrong about a single thing you just mentioned. It's why I believe she got off incredibly easy, all things considered. The fact is every vampire exists because of her actions. Therefore, every atrocity they've ever committed falls on her. I would, however, like to point out, though, that Mikael was evil long before The Immortality Spell came into play. The word abusive doesn't properly convey just how violent he was towards all of us on a daily basis."

He smiles gently and tells her, "You, on the other hand, are pretty much the epitome of everything good in the world, so I'm not surprised that his behavior is foreign and unthinkable to you."

She opens her mouth, to point out that she's not a saint either, but he holds up his hand and tells her, "Everything you just said shows me that you are a good and decent person who would never mistreat anyone the way our parents did and especially not your own child, or any child for that matter. You find Mikael's actions abhorrent and rightly so. You can't understand why he would behave so terribly because you just don't have the capacity to behave that way inside of you."

My grandbaby really doesn't have the capacity for that sort of evil inside her. Her eyes are wide, but she's nodding, so he nods back and then tells her, "Now where was I, oh yes, so Nik was born on July 03, 977. Two babies died before their first birthdays between Nik and me and then there were two more between me and 'Bekah. The infant mortality rate was remarkably high back then, hence why everyone believed Esther when she said Freya died. Anyway, Rebekah was born two days after Beltane which was the night of The New Moon after The Pink Moon so May 03, 984. Now there were several more babies between 'Bekah and Henri who didn't last more than a few months each, so it was just over six years before Henri was born in July on another full moon. Elijah figured out that our baby brother's birthday was July 05, 990."

Bonnie grins and leaning in closer to Kol she asks, "So Klaus and Henrik were born two days apart 13 years apart?"

He nods and tells her, "Yes, though we celebrated them on the same day because they were both born on The Full Moon. We didn't know the exact dates until Henri had been dead for several centuries so when we celebrated our birthdays was based on the moon's location the day we were born. For instance, as I said, Beks was born two days after The New Moon following The Pink Moon, so that is when we celebrated her birthday. Because the New Moon is on different dates from year to year, the day we celebrated changed every year. Therefore, because Nik and Henri were both born on July's Full Moon, we celebrated their births on the same day."

She nods, and then my ever-compassionate baby girl clearly surprises the ancient man by saying, "It's too bad Jer isn't still a ghost whisperer, or we could try to see if your baby brother is still around and maybe give Klaus, or all of you really, the closure you deserve."

Kol's eyes widen at that. She means it too. If Jeremy could still see ghosts, she'd ask him to try to find the youngest Mikaelson and give them all the closure they deserve. Unfortunately, Jeremy isn't a ghost whisperer anymore, so it's impossible to make happen at this point. The mere fact that she thought of it touches Kol, though, and his chestnut eyes soften while they look at her.

He smiles gently and tells her, "Thank you for the thought, but alas, as you said, Jeremy is no longer capable of communicating with ghosts, so it's probably best not to dwell on it."

Bonnie nods, and they lapse into silence while she stares at her Mocha for a second before asking, "Uh, you know how you said you'd be willing to help me get my powers back?"

Kol is impressed that she managed to wait so long to bring it up. If their roles were reversed, he wouldn't have been able to wait anywhere near as long as she did. Then again, he's not particularly well known for his patience. In fact, I'd go so far as to say he's widely well known the world over for the exact opposite.

His siblings are continually picking fun at his inability to wait for anything or his urge to jump to the best parts in a story, and they laugh even harder when they let him know they've bought him something, but that it's meant to be a surprise, and he must wait a specified time before opening it. He thinks, 'It's like a demented game to them.'

I can see in his memories that they've even hidden the gifts before and then watched amused as he tore wherever they were to shreds in his haste to find his new present.

Bringing his thoughts back to the here and now Kol smiles at Bonnie and nods before bringing his cup up to his lips and taking a sip prompting her to continue, "What exactly would it entail because I think I learned my lesson about just blindly trusting in that department after Shane and the whole Expression debacle. It freakin' hurt when Abby's friends cleansed me of that stuff. In fact, I still have a slight full body ache, and my head is still pounding from it."

Her eyes have been slightly narrowed at various points throughout the morning making him believe she's in pain. So, Kol imagines she's never felt anything as painful as what they did to her last night. If the experiences of other witches he's known are any indication, her bones will likely ache deeply until she gets her natural magick back.

He's pleased she's not just accepting his words at face value, though, and is really stopping and considering whether he's on the up and up. I'm pleased to find that he really is being straight with her, though. He doesn't want her to drown in the darkness. In fact, so far as he's concerned if she never does another dark spell, it'll still be too soon.

Still, he finishes swallowing before he frowns and tells her honestly, "The first thing you should know if I'm going to be your teacher is that caution is always wise when magick is involved. It's too powerful and dangerous not to take caution when it's used. Internalize that fact, and you'll have half the battle won."

Her eyes are wide, but she slowly nods, so he continues telling her, "That said, there are only two ways to get rid of that dark shit, the first is dying, which is most disagreeable under any circumstance."

Freya, Finn, Henri, and I all laugh loudly at that before Finn says, "And he's back to the gross understatements."

I smile and nod but say nothing, instead watching my granddaughter and the man who wants her forever. Kol tells her, "The second way is a handful of variations of the same spell, all of which are incredibly painful, or so I've been told. I witnessed the casting of the spell several handfuls of times and the screams haunted me for years, which given who and what I am and the things I've borne witness to through the years says something. The witches performing the spells put up silencing charms to prevent the neighbors from investigating the screams."

If he focuses, some of the screams still echo in his ears even all these centuries later. He never felt so helpless as he did when he was standing there watching his friends suffer while his other witch friends tried to save them.

My grandbaby nods while she swallows her most recent sip of her drink before she says, "They did that last night too, and I'm glad because I don't think I've ever screamed so loud or so hard. How I missed what I was doing to myself is beyond me." Her face flushes and her back tenses at the thought of how she allowed Atticus to trick her into going head first into dark magick.

Kol is sure she just wanted her powers back so badly that she didn't stop and think about the consequences of her actions. That's 100% true but like he also said earlier, witches talk about keeping the balance within nature all the time, but they very rarely talk about what that looks like, so my untimely death made it so that Bonnie didn't even know that she was doing something that went against nature, not at first at least.

When Kol finishes teaching her the basics of witchcraft, she'll be more cautious, more knowledgeable, and she'll have no need to touch the darkness ever again. Plus, he'll be by her side, Always and Forever, so he'll be able to guide her away from any dark magick people might try to convince her to perform.

The good news is that if the end result is within The Laws of Nature, and even a few things that stretch but don't entirely break The Laws of Nature, then there is a non-dark counterpart to whichever dark spell someone might suggest she use, so following The Laws of Nature isn't really a disadvantage in most cases.

I mean sure, resurrections and immortality spells, or at least the type that changes the person's fundamental species, and even the spell to turn vampires back into humans, which is technically a resurrection spell, are out because if done by a witch they're dark anyway you look at them and definitely go against The Laws of Nature. Most other needs anyone might have for magick, however, should be doable with a non-dark spell. It might take longer or be more involved because The Dark Ways are usually far easier and have a quicker turnaround, but she'll have options available to her in most cases.

Kol thinks, 'I will definitely be making sure Ms. Gilbert doesn't get it into her head for Bonnie to try to create a cure from scratch, though, because I definitely wouldn't put that past the bitch, and a spell of that nature would be The Blackest of the Black.' I smile at his thoughts because I don't doubt that Elena will try at some point to find a spell for my granddaughter to do to create the cure.

The scary part is that I know who made the cure in the first place and she is mine and Bonnie's ancestor, which means the spell to cure vampirism is probably in one of my many family books. It's technically a type of resurrection spell and pretty much right up there with the spell to make vampires in the first place in terms of darkness level.

I whisper a little prayer, "Please, Jesus, let Kol have enough influence over my granddaughter that she'll listen to him when the time comes and not try to help her selfish friend become human again."

Finn and Freya place a hand on each of my shoulders while Henri takes my hand and squeezes. Henri smiles gently and tells me, "Don't worry, Sheila, if anyone can keep your girl from going down the wrong path it will be our brother."

I nod, especially because Kol's thoughts are echoing my own, 'I will do everything in my power to keep her on the correct path and not touching the darkness ever again.'

Still, he frowns and leans closer before he says, "Don't beat yourself up about it, Darling, it's the nature of that type of magick. It intentionally keeps you blind to what it's doing to you until it's too late for you to do anything about it, and then you're just a hand grenade waiting to go off."

Her eyebrow shoots up, and she's frowning more deeply, so he tells her, "I've known at least eight witches that were far more experienced when they got involved with dark magick than you are, and they didn't realize what was happening to them until it was too late. If they didn't know what was happening, how could you expect you who had, according to my sources, only been practicing magick for a little over a year to know what was happening? I mean even Esther is a clear example of a very experienced witch not realizing the danger she was in until it was far too late."

Bonnie nods slightly, but her lip is caught between her teeth and her eyes are full of tears just waiting for an opportunity to fall. Kol places his hand gently over her pleasantly soft hand where it's laying on the table, and tells her, "In fact, you're actually quite lucky to have survived practicing Expression because that spell they did on you last night works best if the witch being cleansed is willing. Including you, I've been friends with 14 witches that spell has been tried on through the years, and besides you, only two were willing and survived in the long run. If you don't go back to it, you'll be the third ever that I've personally known to survive that shit."

He pauses then adds in a somber tone, "Fact of the matter is, most who try Expression or the other forms of dark magick get hooked, and they not only refuse to give it up, but they fight to keep it until it gets them killed."

Bonnie nods and tells him, "The witches were clear that I was lucky, but they didn't explain that it would be more likely to work if I was willing. Um, if you don't want to answer this you don't have to, but, um, were you close to the ones who didn't make it?"

Kol nods slowly, and his lips turn down into a frown when faces flash before his eyes and the old wounds caused by his friends' deaths send a painful pulse through his heart even after all these years. My grandbaby obviously senses his pain and flips her hand under his so that they're holding hands before she gives his hand a gentle squeeze. He squeezes back just as gently and tells her, "I was particularly close to seven of them, but, as I said, I considered all of them to be my friends."

The heartache of watching someone you love basically kill themselves with that stuff never leaves you. If they don't want help nothing will help them, though, so Kol was stuck without being able to do anything to save them. It was even worse for him because in other circumstances he's so powerful, and nothing but a White Oak Ash Dagger or a White Oak Stake can stop him, yet in those instances, he was so utterly powerless to stop his friends' descents into the darkness. Plus, by the time the last of his friends was having the spell done on her he had seen it done often enough to know that her unwillingness to cooperate meant she wasn't likely to survive more than another week even with the spell they did trying to take away her addiction.

Kol is offering to help Bonnie get her natural powers back because he's fairly sure she hasn't gotten to the point in her addiction where she's using more and more dark magick simply for the power rush it gives her. She's not that far gone quite yet and still merely wants to fill the void her spirit magick left behind when it was taken from her. Therefore, he figures if he can give her back her natural magick then she'll have absolutely no reason whatsoever to go back to the dark magick and will, therefore, be far less likely to kill herself with it.

Kol wants my granddaughter for all time, but even if he didn't want her to be his, he would still be trying to help her because despite not currently knowing her that well, saving her is sort of his way of paying tribute to the ones he couldn't save in the past.

Bonnie is already frowning when Kol's frown deepens before he asks, "Do you mind if I ask what led to you losing your natural powers in the first place? It will help me figure out if my plan to return them to you will work. It should work but knowing how you lost them will definitively tell me if I need to come up with a new plan."

Bonnie nods but pulls her hand from his before she wraps her arms around herself and sort of hunches over making herself as small as she can. She takes a deep breath and then tells him, "It all started when Sheriff Forbes, Caroline's mom, shot and killed Jeremy. I, well, I was in love with him at the time, so I tried to bring him back, but The Spirits didn't like it. I did it anyway, and they took away the power of The Hundred Dead Witches."

Kol frowns and thinks, 'Well, there you have it. A resurrection spell started all her troubles. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on Ms. Gilbert from now on because Bonnie's heart is obviously soft enough that she'd be inclined to help those she cares about any way she can, even to her own detriment.'

He's slowly beginning to understand exactly what it took for Bonnie to deny her best friend the opportunity to be human again. It took the very real possibility that allowing Elena to find the cure would cause everyone else Bonnie loves to die, and the deaths were not quick in most cases.

Kol continues his thought, 'She's too giving and selfless for her own good, so I will happily take up the role as her voice of reason if she allows me to. Hell, even if she doesn't consent to me taking on that role, I'll still be there urging her not to do whatever stupid and dangerous thing Ms. Gilbert might try to talk her into, and despite how impatient I am, in most cases, I'm also not known for giving up easily.'

He told Bonnie earlier that the things worth having or doing in this life are usually the ones that take the most work or effort to get and very little in this world is worth more to Kol than keeping my granddaughter on the living side of The Veil for as long as he can.

Bonnie frowns and shrugs slightly before she tells him, "Then people and circumstances kept demanding I do different spells, which at first I didn't realize were mostly dark magick."

It's just like he suspected, her soft heart and desire to help those she cares about teamed up with her inexperience and lack of knowledge to trap her into doing dark magick.

Then that asshole, Atticus, preyed on my grandbaby's vulnerabilities to turn her into a hand grenade. From what I gathered out of his own mind he did it on purpose so that she would be less likely to harm him because he set himself up to be the only one that could keep her from losing control. Thank God her mother knew enough live witches to do the spell last night after Bonnie killed that predator, or she would have down spiraled fast, and nothing Kol or anyone else would have been able to do would have prevented her from getting herself killed.

Kol offers up a small prayer of thanks, 'Thank You, Jesus, for looking out for Your daughter and keeping her safe until I could step in at your urging and help her get control of her life back.'

A tear slips out of Bonnie's eye and down her cheek before she tells him in a quiet yet trembling voice, "Grams eventually tried to warn me, but I didn't listen, and… soon after… The Spirits… punished my grams… for my using… dark magick."

She's practically gasping for air between every couple of words, and she begins hyperventilating, so Kol reaches out and takes her hand from where she's holding herself and tells her, "Slow breaths in and out through your nose, Bonnie."

I sigh and say, "Oh Baby Girl, I wish there was a way to tell you that I'm okay."

She has trouble not gasping the breaths in and out for a minute, but eventually, she manages to calm her breathing, so he smiles and tells her what I can't, "There you go, Darling. Now, the good news is The Spirits likely aren't punishing her anymore because you have discontinued using dark magick at this point. Everything I know about magick and The Spirits tells me that she's safe again, okay?"

She nods while she focuses on slowly breathing. After a minute she squeezes his hand tightly and says, "Thank you, Kol. I… I hadn't said the words out loud yet, and it hurt more than I thought it would to admit… that I caused the woman I love more than anyone else… to be hurt simply because I was too stubborn to listen to her… even though she had never led me astray before."

He nods and tells her honestly, "You're welcome, Bonnie. It's important to realize our mistakes, but it's also important to acknowledge that no one is perfect, and we all make mistakes, and we even all hurt people we care about at some point."

He holds up his hand when her mouth opens to argue and then he tells her, "I'll admit most people don't cause their loved one to be attacked by The Spirits, but the statement is still true. Use the experience as a lesson and as a scale with which to judge the intelligence of doing things in the future."

Kol smiles and tells her, "I knew your grandmother on The Otherside briefly, for a little less than a year, shortly after she died and just before I was undaggered. She's a lovely woman. I was serious when I said I haven't heard a single bad thing about your grandmother, and I made sure I got every piece of information I could on your whole family after Esther tried to manipulate you and your mother into helping kill us."

Bonnie's eyes are the size of saucers, and her mouth is forming a little 'o' at the news that Kol and I know each other. I think part of her shock is that he, whom her friends have all labeled evil, thinks favorably of me, whom she feels is the furthest a person can get from evil. She is slowly coming to realize however that black and white labels will never fit Kol Mikaelson. I'd take it one step further and say that those sorts of labels don't fit any member of his family despite the otherwise popular opinions of most of her friends.

Kol, whom I still consider my friend, smiles and gives my shocked grandbaby some excellent advice, "The next time someone asks you to do a spell I want you to consider this: 'What would your grams say about you doing the proposed spell?' It'll get easier to answer that question the more you learn, but it'll be helpful to get in the habit of asking yourself that question before you do any spell work ever again, okay? And if you find yourself tempted to do a dark spell, I want you to remember how hard it was to breathe a minute ago when you recalled the pain your grandmother suffered. Nothing is worth causing her pain, correct?"

He's very good, and I'm incredibly grateful that my granddaughter has him on her side now.

She nods, so he smiles and tells her, "Okay, good, now tell me the end of the story, and then I'll tell you how I think we can fix the issue of your missing magick."

Bonnie nods and tells him, "That's the end other than that Shane taught me Expression because I had lost all of my magick after Grams was punished. After that, the only power I could access was dark magick and Expression. Though, admittedly I didn't realize that what Shane was teaching me was more dark magick just with a fancy name."

Kol frowns and tells her, "The arse was clever I'll give him that. He made sure he knew enough about you so that he could attack all your weaknesses and mold you to suit his own purposes. As for you losing your access to your spirit magick, there's the rub, The Spirits wanted to punish you, but they set it up so that you thought that going against The Laws of Nature was the only way you could feel whole again and continue doing magick. Honestly, The Spirits aren't as bright as they think they are."

Freya, Finn, Henri and I all nod at Kol's statement, because really, they just make matters worse with their punishments. Kol pauses and takes another sip of his quickly cooling coffee then smiles slightly and says, "There is more good news because The Spirits wouldn't take your powers permanently unless you repeatedly did some major damage that caused major imbalance. I'm talking the kind that would take centuries to correct, think Esther, which is why she needed first Ayana's and then yours and the rest of your line's magick. Even before she did The Immortality Spell, she didn't have any of her own spirit magick anymore. However, if she hadn't then done The Immortality Spell and the curse she placed on Nik and she had stopped using dark magick entirely, they would have given her back her powers. They ultimately don't want the individual imbalanced any more than they want the rest of the world to be out of balance, and keeping your magick from you for all time would upset your internal balance. Therefore, provided you give up the dark magick and stop creating imbalance in the world they will likely give it back after a time."

He pauses then asks, "Sheila is a Christian. I assume you were raised the same?"

She nods so he smiles gently and continues his thought, "God's going to forgive you for any sins you commit. The key is to genuinely repent and then give an honest attempt at not repeating the sin. Therefore, The Spirits, which are a type of Angel, do God's work just the same as we're supposed to. Just as we're supposed to forgive those who wrong us, God and his agents will forgive us our wrongful actions. That's not to say there aren't consequences to our actions, but condemnation is Satan's way, not God's way. God corrects our behavior and then helps us move on."

Bonnie's holding her breath and biting her lip while she leans in closer to him. He continues feeding her obvious hope by telling her, "Of course most witches, including Esther, get further drawn into dark magick because they don't realize the loss if they don't touch the dark again and they reset their own balance, is, in fact, only temporary. The problem is that your initial use of dark magick to bring Jeremy back to life and your continued use of dark magick afterward created an ever-deepening imbalance followed by The Spirits taking your natural powers, which just deepened your personal imbalance. Now, you have all that imbalance and no powers, so naturally, you think all hope is lost, but, it's not. The Spirits are, in fact, only trying to teach you a valuable lesson. In my humble opinion, how they go about it tends to make matters much worse, but you need to realize right now that all hope is not lost unless you go back to that dark shit."

My baby girl has wide eyes, but she's nodding slowly, so Kol tells her, "Now the spell the witches did is a good start for returning the balance, but it only removed your addiction to the dark magick, not the imbalance it created. So, if we find the spell I'm thinking of, well, actually it's more of a cleansing ritual than a spell and designed to be performed by someone with no current magickal abilities. Anyway, if we find the spell and then have you do it, then it should restore your natural balance, and you should get your magick back."

Bonnie looks at Kol sitting across from her, and I smile when her eyes narrow because I can clearly see her reminding herself not to trust blindly so that she doesn't walk down the wrong path yet again so frowning she asks, "What exactly does this ritual entail?"

He chuckles with a smile on his face pleased that she's again not just taking his word for it, "That's good Bonnie, question everything, even from those you think you can trust. Now to answer your question, mostly it involves a bath in the ocean and some parsley and anise in a salt paste if I recall correctly."

He pauses and gazes at her for a minute, and then he asks, "Personally I think the sooner we do this, the less tempted you'll be to touch the dark again, so if you're not too terribly upset about missing the rest of the school day, we could go to my house now and look for the spell."

She stops and thinks for a minute before she smiles and tells him, "I don't mind this once, though, I can't miss too much, or I won't graduate this year."

He grins and tells her, "I won't cause you to miss much more than today."

Finishing the last of his coffee, he then stands and moves behind her helping her stand before placing his hand in the small of her back again. She guzzles the remainder of her drink prompting him to laugh and tell her, "You could have brought it with you. You didn't need to swallow it all down like it was a race."

Grinning sheepishly, she tells him, "I have a strict rule: No sugary or sweet drinks in unsealed containers in my car. I've had at least four of these cups have the lid pop off when I grabbed hold of the cup, and I wound up spilling the drink all over myself and my car, so really I needed to guzzle it to keep my car from suffering any more."

He laughs again at that and nods before he directs her toward the trash where they toss their now empty coffee cups into the trash bin, and then he leads her out of the coffee shop and back into her car.