Chapter 007
Nothing Good
Friday, December 03, 2010, 1:45 p.m.
Bonnie's House
When we arrive at Bonnie's house, we get out of the car, but then she pulls up short. Turning and looking at the original beside her, she frowns and tells him, "I'm sorry Kol, but I can't invite you in. I have a strict no vampires rule in my house."
Her hazel eyes widen when Kol smiles and tells her, "This rule excludes the Salvatore's and Ms. Gilbert from entering as well, correct?"
She nods, but tells him, "Yeah, not even Caroline has been invited inside. Only Abby has an invite into my house, and I didn't do that. My dad did that last night."
Kol smiles wider and tells his chosen mate, "Good, although I'd feel better if no vampires had an invitation into your home the current situation still makes me feel better about your safety because none of us except your mother can get in."
He already knew that her mother had an invitation inside. It's why he compelled Abby never to harm Bonnie because although Abby is her mother and unlikely to genuinely want to hurt her daughter she's still a young vampire, so there is nothing to say she wouldn't get angry and lose control. This way we all know even if my daughter gets angry, Kol's compulsion on her will prevent her from touching a single hair on Bonnie's head.
My only hope is that Kol can control his anger enough when he discovers what Rudy has been doing and give the abusive ass the same compulsion.
Kol didn't know that Bonnie hadn't invited any other vampires inside, though, so his smile is genuine when he discovers that Abby and he are the only vampires with invitations into Bonnie's home even if my grandbaby doesn't know that he has an invitation.
He compelled her father not to invite any other vampires besides the other Mikaelsons into the house in the future, but he figured that Bonnie had already invited her friends inside, so the compulsion was more to prevent future enemies from taking advantage of his keeping Bonnie's father Vervain free.
Still, Kol knows that he needs to play it as if he doesn't know that her mother is safe for sure or that he has an open invitation, so he tells Bonnie, "Your mother likely won't be a threat to you, so that shouldn't be an issue. Plus, once we get your magick back for you even if she does threaten you, you should be more than capable of stopping her in her tracks long enough to dose her with Vervain and restrain her."
Her back straightens and a smile drifts across her face that he thinks she's strong enough with her natural magick that she could stop an enraged vampire in her tracks, so she nods with the ghost of a pleased smile on her face.
He just grins wider and tells her, "I shall wait out here for you to return. It might be easiest if you put the ingredients in a bag to make transporting them easier."
Bonnie nods again and tells him, "I'll be quick," then she hurries inside. Kol spends the time she's inside the house Googling Virginia beaches on his phone and thinking about important things such as what her swimsuit will look like.
He wonders, 'Will it be a one piece or a two piece? What color might it be, and how amazing will it look against her smooth mocha skin? And to that end, exactly how much of that beautiful Carmel skin will it show?'
Bonnie's usual style is tasteful yet sexy, so he has high hopes that her bathing suit will show just enough skin to entice but not so much that he won't have to imagine what she looks like without it. That happens to be one of his favorite past times, and he'll be quite disappointed if her bathing suit ruins his fun when he kills time in the future. As I said, though, he has high hopes.
He thinks, 'Blue would look amazing on her but so would pink or maybe peach.' He stops and imagines her in a peach bikini and then thinks, 'Damn, it would look fabulous on her. The peach would cause her skin to glow in good health much the same way her blue top does today.'
He's also looking forward to seeing her stomach if he's lucky. He thinks it'll be smooth and slightly round and so will her hips. I hate to break it to the possibly oversexed vampire, but my granddaughter will not be wearing a two piece. That would show her bruises, and she's always been very good, too good, at hiding those to make a rookie mistake like wearing something that won't properly conceal her marks.
Ten minutes after Bonnie went inside, his siblings appear beside him and interrupt Kol's very pleasant musings about her bathing suit. Elijah smiles and tells Kol, "We have towels for all of us, the grimoire, and our suits on, but we couldn't think of anything else we might need."
Kol nods and tells him, "I think that is everything we will need."
A moment later, Bonnie opens her front door and finds The Original Family all standing conspicuously in her yard.
She looks them over, and her eyes stop on Rebekah's pink backpack on her back and Elijah's small black duffel bag lying at his feet. She doesn't question them though and smiles at the picture they all make before she giggles and tells them, "It's a lucky thing my friends don't come down this street often, or they'd be asking me why I have all four surviving Mikaelsons posing as lawn ornaments in my front yard."
We all laugh at that before Niklaus tells her, "According to 'Bekah except for the Gilbert boy and Damon, all your friends including Stefan are at the school. So, no worries, Luv."
I imagine Jeremy is planning to stay home from school for some time and that they'll need to come up with a cover story for why and how he lost his arms. Until then, I'm sure so far as the school is concerned he's home sick, so Bonnie nods and tells them all, "Good, I hope you don't mind, but if this works, I'm planning not to tell my friends we did this until they bring it up. So, unless you all go around town flashing your magick, I'm not really planning to tell them at all because all it'll do is cause a fight and make them not trust me anymore, which if they don't trust me then they're more likely to break our new truce. If that happens, then they'll all end up either dead or compelled so…"
Rebekah looks at Kol and then at Bonnie for a moment. All three of Kol's siblings know of his plans for my currently clueless granddaughter, but Rebekah still asks her, "Why are you helping us? As you just politely inferred the rest of your friends hate us, and everything I know about you says that you hate vampires too. Despite that Elijah and Nik both said it was your idea for all of us to try this spell and for us to come along today and try it right away."
I understand her skepticism and apparently so does Bonnie because she nods and tells Rebekah, "First, I can relate to you not having your powers. I can't imagine how much it's sucked for all of you for the last thousand years, so that's why I'm helping you because I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. Kol and I decided earlier that your family is no longer my enemy, so I'm, I hope, helping fix part of the wrong your mother did to all of you. Secondly, I don't hate vampires simply because they're vampires. I don't hate anyone simply for the species they are because that would be wrong in so many ways it's not even remotely funny."
My ever-moral granddaughter frowns slightly before she tells them, "I don't usually trust the members of your species farther than I can throw them, but Kol hasn't lied to me yet. Plus, usually, I don't trust them because most vampires I've ever heard of are controlled by their baser instincts. That's a fact, not a hate-filled stereotype. Take Stefan for example, he turns into a ripper the moment he smells human blood. How am I supposed to trust someone who can't control himself if I accidentally get a paper cut?"
There is a strain in her voice again when she says Stefan's name causing Kol to think, 'What is the story behind her dislike of Stefan? Is it just that he's a ripper and dangerous around human blood or is there more to the story?"
He stares at her for a second or two and then thinks, 'I'll figure it out eventually, but in the meantime, I will keep an eye on Stefan any time he's around Bonnie just to be safe.'
My pride and joy is still talking, so I focus back on her words before she says, "Damon's pretty well controlled, but if he gets angry or his feelings are hurt, he lashes out at whoever is closest. Plus, he plays the bad guy more often than not and does what's necessary not what's popular, and I can relate, but his morals and impulse control are still questionable, so I don't really trust him. Although, I do trust him more now that I had that premonition."
Kol frowns and shifts on his feet before he thinks, 'Perhaps I should pay another visit to all of Bonnie's supernatural friends and compel them not to threaten or harm her like I did with her mother just to be safe. Yes, I think I'll do that tonight when we get back from the beach.'
I know I'll feel much better about my baby girl's interactions with her so-called friends if they're all compelled not to harm her.
Bonnie smiles slightly before she says, "The four of you, on the other hand, seem, both in my premonition and in real life, to have as close to perfect control as a vampire can probably get. I get the impression from each of you that you each carefully choose or craft every move you make or word you say to get exactly the reaction, situation, or end result you want."
She shrugs, "Although I'm sure you get angry, the impulse thing is less of an issue with you guys than it is with those that are so much younger and therefore less controlled than all of you."
She's not wrong. Although Kol, more than his siblings, does still occasionally have impulse control issues, usually when he's angry or jealous. If I believe Finn and Henri, and I see no reason not to trust them on this, then their brother has always been more impulsive and quicker to get angry or jealous than his siblings in most instances, even when they were human.
Pausing Bonnie nods once to herself and then says, "While I'm sort of on the topic of my premonition, I suppose it should have made me all anti-Kol and generally anti-Mikaelsons, but it actually had the opposite effect."
She frowns but says, "Klaus was genuinely devastated by Caroline's death, and I could clearly see that he truly has feelings for my best friend and would never intentionally harm her. And all of you backed Kol's play and openly displayed your love for and loyalty to him. Although Kol and Elijah did terrible things, in most cases unbelievably horrible things, in my premonition, no question about that, it was all out of a need for vengeance or in Elijah's case vengeance and loyalty. I once heard a quote, actually I think it was Elijah who said it to Elena shortly after he came to town, but it made sense to me: 'Sometimes there's honor in seeking revenge.'"
Elijah nods at her to show her that the quote did come from him and she nods back once before quickly continuing her point, "That statement was true in my premonition just as it would be true here and now if the need arose. In my premonition, Elena and Jeremy, and the rest of us by proxy wronged Kol and killed him when all he was trying to do was save the world, so while I hated the things he did I could very well understand where he was coming from and why he was doing them."
Kol's eyes are wide, and he's thinking, 'Um, wow, that's more than I could have hoped for at this point in our relationship. The fact that she's so easily overlooking the terrible things I did to look deeper at why I did them, well that speaks volumes about the kind of woman she is and bodes well for our future together.'
Bonnie pauses and then says, "Plus, after spending the day with him I think your brother is wholly misunderstood by my friends. While that's partially his own fault for breaking Matt's hand at the Ball and setting himself up as the bad guy," Kol smiles when she frowns at him and raises her brow challenging him to argue with her. He just shrugs slightly, so she continues, "I find myself not doubting anything he's said to me today. So, while I'm not best friends with any of you at this point, I do trust Kol not to kill me and not to let any of you do it either."
That prompts Kol to think, 'Well thank God for small miracles. I thought I was making genuine progress both in the car and at the coffee shop. To hear it confirmed by her own words so early in our friendship is admittedly surprising, welcome, but surprising all the same.'
Bonnie appears to be ready to leave it at that, but then she does that half frown half smile thing again and makes her intentions very clear while she looks at each of the Mikaelsons and says, "You should know I decided earlier to make my own judgments where all of you are concerned. Klaus and Elijah are the ones I've interacted with the most before today, so they're the only ones I have any business having an established opinion on at this point, and nothing I've seen from Elijah makes me think I should hate him."
My ever-moral grandbaby looks at Niklaus hard for a minute then shrugs and says, "I must be brain dead or have a death wish or something, but Klaus, well, you're getting a second chance to prove to me that you're worth knowing and not killing. Make sure you thank your brother for that because he's the only reason I even thought of giving you a second chance."
She shrugs again and then tells the flabbergasted hybrid, "In fact, now that I think about it you might want to consider not daggering him the next time the urge strikes you as a way of thanking him for convincing me that you, and really your entire family, aren't my enemy. He made me realize that everything all of you, but especially you, Klaus, have done to me and my friends was a direct result of your asshole parents and their poor decisions and actions."
My very brave grandbaby smiles slightly and tells him, "Because of that realization I've decided to overlook the fact that you killed Aunt Jenna, Uncle John, and Elena as well as the fact that you attempted to kill me, twice. I'm attaching an asterisk next to every violent thing you've done since you came here and in the footnote of that list it says, 'There were extenuating circumstances.' The main one being the fact that your hag of a mother set you up to have to kill people I cared about to make yourself whole again and then required you to use my best friend's blood to make more hybrids. Those are both her fault, not yours and I get the sense that you've been paying for her mistakes your whole life, so I'm making the executive decision to stop that trend here and now. So, from this moment forward you have a fresh slate so far as I'm concerned. Now, I have two pieces of unsolicited advice that I'm going to force you to listen to. One, be the man your siblings know you can be, ya know the one they love enough to stand by through thick and thin despite your previous bad behavior towards them."
Bonnie stops and takes a breath so with a grin firmly in place Niklaus asks, "And what might the second piece of advice be Little Witch?"
My granddaughter smiles and tells him, "The second one should be fairly easy for you if you actually put some effort into it. Be the highly intelligent man I know you truly are. You know, the one who managed to outsmart his evil asshat of a step-father and keep his siblings safe at every turn for the last one thousand years. Don't make me regret the decision to give you this chance because I won't hesitate to kill you if at any point from here on out you in anyway harm anyone I consider mine. And just to make sure there is no confusion, Elena, Jeremy, Damon, Caroline, Matt, Tyler, and, against my better judgment, Stefan, and anyone any of them might be related to or friends with are officially on my list of people who belong to me. Memorize the roster and steer clear of them and you and I will have no further issues. Do we have an understanding, Klaus?"
His lips purse, and his eyes narrow but inside he's impressed by my baby girl. He nods and says, "We have an understanding, but I reserve the right to strike back the moment any of those individuals on your list make a move again me or mine. To be fair just so there is no confusion from either of us, everyone in this yard right now plus young Caroline is mine for the purposes of our truce."
Bonnie, not realizing he just claimed her and her best friend as his to defend and avenge, smiles brightly and tells them all, "Well, look at that, Klaus and I just came to an amicable understanding without either of us resorting to violence to get our way. Will wonders never cease?"
They all chuckle at that and Kol's eyes are even wider now before he thinks, 'Wow, her whole little speech also speaks volumes about the kind of woman Bonnie is that she's willing to give Nik a clean slate to start fresh and prove himself to her. He better not mess it up, or I will find a way to end him myself.'
Niklaus catches Kol's eye briefly and nods ever so slightly, so he knows his brother is aware that he better not screw this up for him or there will be hell to pay.
My equal opportunity granddaughter turns and looks at Rebekah for a minute and then tells her, "Rebekah, I know Elena literally stabbed you in the back, which for the record I didn't agree with that decision or how she went about it when I found out about what she had done after the fact. Anyhow, I'm hoping you and I can start fresh, too, and leave Elena's actions on Elena's shoulders, and we can form our own opinions about each other separate from my best friend and our respective relationships with her. I'm going to forget everything the others have told me about each of you and form my own opinions based on how you each treat me and the behaviors I personally witness from each of you."
Rebekah nods and says, "Very well, I'm willing to ignore that Elena is your friend and judge you based on your own actions, but wrong us, and I will kill you."
Kol growls at his sister, but Bonnie puts up her hand and tells him, "That's fair, Kol. My friends and, therefore, me, by association, don't have a great track record when it comes to keeping our word or behaving fairly when interacting with any of you. You made me realize earlier today that on all but two occasions, maybe three, my group was the one that attacked you guys first, usually after promising not to. Therefore, I think your sister is doing us all a favor by putting it out there that if I behave like my friends have in the past and try to harm her or her family unprovoked, it will get me killed. And I'll just put it out there that if any of you, not just Klaus, harm me or mine unprovoked then I'll kill the perpetrator just as Rebekah would."
Kol smiles and thinks, 'I made an excellent choice when I decided to make her mine. She will fit in perfectly in our family, and she won't let any of us walk all over her either, which will keep all of us happy in the end.'
My pride and joy smiles, and then says, "Now if we've settled that and finished warning each other that acting like backstabbing bitches will get us killed, I think we should be going. My friends will probably be coming here as soon as they get out of school because I didn't call and warn any of them that I wasn't going to be there today."
Kol's eyes widen at the fact that none of them have tried calling her to make sure she's okay, but then she says, "I accidentally put my phone on silent this morning, so I've missed almost 90 calls and over 200 texts from them that I chose not to respond to yet." He nods slowly. That's more in line with what he knows of her friends.
Frowning slightly, she then continues her thought, "Also, if they've talked to Damon at all, which knowing Elena she likely has, in fact, spoken to him multiple times today, then they know that I left his house with Kol. Therefore, I think it's best we all not be here when they arrive," she takes her phone out of her pocket and looks at it for a moment then she finishes her thought, "and school lets out in about 10 minutes so…"
They all nod before Kol asks, "Do you have enough of the ingredients, or do we need to stop at a magick shop on the way?"
She smiles gently and tells him, "No, I think I have enough that we could do this four or five times each and still have some left over."
He nods and then asks, "Okay, so Little Bella, do you want to ride on my back or do you want me to carry you? If you're really worried about being sick, me carrying you might be the best course."
She frowns and then asks, "I won't be too heavy?"
I chuckle because that's a silly question to ask a vampire with supernatural strength, but I remind myself that she is a teenage girl and even all these years later they still worry about inconsequential things sometimes.
Kol laughs, too, and tells her, "I'd be stunned if you weigh more than eight stone, so I highly doubt you'd be too heavy even if I were human. Given that I'm a vampire, I could lift an automobile and carry it as far as we're going and not even be slightly tired when I get there so you will be but a feather comparatively speaking."
Bonnie frowns and turns before looking back and forth between Elijah and Niklaus, the ones she figures will have a clue how many pounds that translates to and asks, "Uh, not to sound stupid but exactly how many pounds is eight stone?"
Elijah smiles and says, "About 112 pounds."
My granddaughter smiles a broad smile, and I bet Kol just gave her a huge ego boost by incorrectly guessing her weight. Honestly, she's tiny, and he finds her pleasantly curvy body very pleasing to the eye, so he smiles back before she says, "You're off by about ten pounds, but I get your point, so I guess you can carry me."
Kol smiles and tells her, "Put your bag on over your chest."
Doing as she's told she smiles before he then walks up to her and takes her left hand in his bringing it up over his shoulder and around his neck, and then he places one arm around her shoulders and his other arm behind her knees and sweeps her up into his arms.
Kol thinks, 'I was right. She's light as a feather.' Still, she's sort of stiff being that close to him, so she jumps a little when his breath tickles her ear while he says, "Relax, Little Bella, I won't drop you."
He's no fool. He knows damn well his dropping her is the last thing she's worried about. She's worried about her closeness to him and his scent making her smell like she did this morning when she arrived at the boarding house because he's aware that he smells good, really good even.
My grandbaby hesitantly rests her cheek against his firm chest and settles in before taking a deep breath, and Kol chokes back a laugh when she does her best to stifle a moan. He was right. She thinks he smells good. He briefly wonders, 'What do I smell like to her?'
Shaking his head to rid it of those thoughts, he focuses on what they're doing and not the beauty snuggled up in his arms before turning to Elijah and telling him, "We need to go to the actual ocean, not the bay. I'm thinking Virginia Beach because when I Googled it, that looked like the closest beach on the Atlantic."
Elijah nods but says, "Due to the time of year and the temperature of the water in Virginia Beach it might be better to go somewhere more southern. I have a private beach we could go to. It should only take an hour or so to get there on foot."
Kol hadn't thought about the intelligence or safety of Bonnie going into the water in the first week of December, so he nods grateful that his brother is once again thinking ahead. He smiles and asks Elijah, "The water will be warm enough to prevent Bonnie from being harmed?"
He nods and says, "Yes, it's in Florida on the Gulf Coast, and humans swim in the water year-round without any harm coming to them."
Bonnie's hazel eyes are wide before she asks, "We're going to Florida, and we'll get there and back in a single afternoon?"
Elijah nods at her, so she grins and says, "That is so cool."
We all chuckle at that. A moment later Kol tells Elijah, "We should follow you, Brother, because you're the one who knows where we are going."
He nods again and then they're moving. Us ghosts just keep them in our thoughts and manage to get dragged along at vampire speed. Everything is a blur to Bonnie while we pass it. Kol shivers when she leans up close to his ear, and her breath tickles him while she asks, "Will no one else be able to see us?"
He smiles and puts his lips to her ear and tells her, "No, if we move fast enough, it'll be faster than the human eye can see, and no one will even know we've been here."
She just nods and snuggles back into his arms. He smiles because about five minutes into our hour-long run my baby girl's breathing evens out and her heart rate slows telling us all that she's fallen asleep, which means she's comfortable enough around him and feels safe enough to fall asleep in his arms, which is nice to know.
Her phone rings ten or twelve times while we're running, and it chimes telling her of missed text messages probably five dozen times, but luckily, she sleeps right through it all.
Friday, December 03, 2010, 3:35 p.m.
Elijah's Private Beach in Destin, Florida
When we all arrive at the beach, it's mostly deserted because it's the private beach for those houses built on the shore, one of which Elijah owns. There are a few surfers farther down the beach, so we walk at a human pace to a section of sand that's far enough away from the collection of surfers that my granddaughter and the Mikaelsons should be able to speak freely without worrying about anyone hearing anything they shouldn't. Rebekah takes the towel Elijah hands her and lays it on the sand for Kol before he lays Bonnie on it and strokes her cheek while he says, "Time to wake up, Little Bella."
Her eyes flutter for a moment, and she giggles before she opens her eyes. Kol smiles widely when she says, "I need to come up with a nickname for you if you're going to keep calling me 'Little Bella.'"
While he kneels beside her, he smiles down at her and brushes her hair out of her face and behind her ear before he tells her, "I'm sure you'll think of something suitably appropriate."
The smile on Kol's face when he called my grandbaby 'Little Bella' tells Rebekah that her brother thinks he's funny and cute. She doesn't understand why, though, so she asks, "Not that she's not beautiful, because she is, and I almost envy her for her smooth mocha complexion, but why is Kol calling her 'Little Beauty'? I sense a story, spill, Brother."
Kol laughs while Bonnie giggles and sits up before looking at Rebekah and telling her about their conversation at the house.
When Bonnie finishes her tale, Rebekah smiles and says, "Oh, okay. Another girl on the Cheerleading Team recommended those books. Should I bother reading them?"
My grandbaby pauses. No doubt wondering if a real vampire would get any enjoyment out of reading about fake vampires? I'm not too sure, but then I smile when my baby girl tells Rebekah, "Provided you can overlook the fact that the vampires in those books sparkle in the sunlight instead of bursting into flames I don't think you'd absolutely hate them. They are kind of tame, though, especially given the actual realities of The Supe World. Plus, the main family of vampires are what they call 'vegetarians' because they only eat animals like Stefan does so you might have some objections to their chosen diet as well, but overall, it's an entertaining story. I have all four novels as well as the novella that came out in June if you want to borrow them."
All of the vampires present think at the same time, 'They do what? They sparkle? Seriously? And they eat animals?'
Kol follows those thoughts up with, 'Real vampires eat humans, not animals. Stefan Salvatore's small manhood is not the only reason he's a disgrace to all men or all vampires everywhere. His diet is just as disgraceful, though, his lack of control while on human blood is even more disgraceful, so just, in general, he's a disgrace.'
Kol looks at his sister with wide questioning eyes, so she smiles widely and bounces on her toes because even if the books are stupid, she thinks she might be able to talk to Bonnie about them and get a real friend. Therefore, keeping her smile firmly in place, she says, "I think I'll take you up on that offer."
My granddaughter just nods and gives the blonde a bright smile before she says, "Okay, then when we go back to my house to drop me off remind me, and I'll run in and grab them, and then you can just give them back whenever you finish with them."
Rebekah nods and tells her, "Thank you, Bonnie."
Her smile widens before she nods once more and says, "No problem," and then she takes off her backpack and opens it up before taking out the makings for her lunch.
Kol sits up straight. He apparently didn't think about her becoming hungry. Fortunately, it appears she did. Looking at all of the Mikaelsons she says, "I hope you all don't mind, but I haven't eaten anything since about 7 a.m., so I brought paper plates, Egg Salad, Tomatoes, some whole grain bread, and chips. There should be enough if any of you want some. I even brought enough of the little single serving bags of Frito's if you guys want them too. I would have sat on my stoop and eaten my lunch there if I wasn't worried about my friends showing up."
The originals each nod and they all find it telling that she would not only pack enough to feed four vampires but that she also thought of it. Most people wouldn't have bothered, and the Mikaelsons think the fact that she did speaks to her character and compassion for others.
Elijah and Rebekah hand everyone towels from their bags, and they spread them out on the sand while Bonnie makes them each a sandwich and then gives them, bottles of lemonade, and the bags of chips to each of them. They all sit quietly and eat.
While they eat Rebekah asks Bonnie general questions about herself. How long has she lived in Mystic Falls? Does she like it there? What's her favorite music, books, movies, television shows, etc.? Bonnie surprises them by asking not just Rebekah for her opinions but also her brothers for their views on everything Rebekah asks her. It feels like future friends getting to know each other, so Rebekah's hope of getting a real friend grows brighter and brighter. They don't get too deep, but it's a nice start towards all of them knowing my grandbaby better and her knowing them better.
Kol is mostly listening quietly while his siblings and Bonnie get to know each other better though he does respond when prompted. He's not really talking, though, because he has a swarm of butterflies flapping around inside his stomach. 'If this doesn't work, then we'll never get our powers back, and although we already thought we lost them forever, I miss my magick, probably even more than my siblings do.'
Even still all their muscles are stiff, and they're swallowing rapidly while each of them silently says a little prayer, 'Please, God, let this work.'
Kol is fidgeting while he sits because he's even more nervous and cautiously hopeful than his siblings which is saying something because they're all nervous wrecks at this point.
Even Bonnie is shifting around nervously and offering up a prayer, 'Please let this work and let it help mellow them all out and be less likely to kill people.'
I smile and tell Freya, Finn, and Henri, "That's my baby girl, always thinking of others."
My ghostly companions nod and when the living members of our group finish eating Bonnie puts their trash back into her bag and then she takes out the mixing bowl she brought and a cup before she holds out the cup to Kol and asks him, "Can you go fill this with salt water, please?"
He smiles and nods before taking the cup from her hand and going and coming back faster than she can see. She giggles and tells him, "Sparkle Pants, that moving faster than I can see thing is going to take some getting used to."
Rebekah giggles while Kol chuckles and asks Bonnie, "Surely you don't intend to call me 'Sparkle Pants'? I mean, really?"
She laughs while she reads from the grimoire that Elijah places next to her on her towel and then pours some Sea Salt that she apparently already ground into a fine powder into the bowl. She then pours some of the parsley and anise into the bowl before taking the cup of water and pouring in a little at a time and stirring it with her Athamé until she gets the right consistency.
When she looks up at him with a broad smile on her face, he smirks back because, honestly, I'm sure he'll let her call him whatever she wants if she just keeps grinning at him like she is right now.
She laughs again and still looking at him with that wide smile on her face she tells him, "Well, if I'm Bella and I'm hanging out with a family of vampires, then that means you all sparkle in the sunlight, so, yeah, I'm pretty much going to call you 'Sparkle Pants'."
Finn laughs beside me and says, "She's got guts I'll give her that. Nobody else would dare call one of us 'Sparkle Pants' even if we did start the name calling."
I laugh and nod, but my granddaughter pauses, and then with a slight frown on her pretty face she tells Kol, "Don't worry, if we're ever in a dangerous situation, I'll know better than to call you that. However, if everything is safe and you maintaining Dominance and other people's belief that you are superior to all other supernaturals isn't mandatory for keeping us alive, then at that moment you are hereby renamed 'Sparkle Pants.'"
Kol grins and nods, so she knows he'll put up with it at least for a little while anyway.
When she's done mixing everything she hands the bowl to Rebekah and then stands and removes her shoes, lightweight jacket, top and pants to reveal her pink, black, aqua green, and peach blocky one-piece suit. The suit covers her shoulders, and when she moves slightly, I see that it also conceals most of her back except for a little square of flesh.
Peach, and really all the colors of her suit are good colors for her and look amazing on her. The suit reminds Rebekah of a pastel girlie version of the Mondrian painting Niklaus has hanging in his study. Personally, she thinks it's just squares, rectangles, and lines and not all that difficult to paint, but she has a new appreciation for the simple painting because every time she sees it from now on she'll remember this day: The day she maybe got her first real friend.
Kol is thinking the same thing his sister is except it'll remind him of the first time he saw his 'Little Bella' in a bathing suit.
The colors cause my baby girl's skin to take on a healthy glow. I'm not surprised when Kol smiles and while his eyes linger on her smooth slightly rounded stomach and round hips, he tells her with a slight leer in his voice, "Modern Women's Swim Wear should also be on that list from earlier, Little Bella, because it has also vastly improved through the years."
She blushes as red as the tomatoes she cut up a little while ago and barely manages to avoid fidgeting and doesn't seem able to make eye contact. After nodding, she runs to the shore and into the water. He laughs and smiles at her hasty departure before he frowns a moment later when he spies a healing bruise through the small opening on the back of her suit.
He thinks, 'Did I do that last night? I didn't think she hit the lockers hard enough to leave a bruise, but who else might have had an opportunity to bruise her? It must have been me. I'll have to be more mindful of how fragile her human body truly is.'
He shakes his head before their vampire hearing picks up my granddaughter saying, "Oh my God, the first dip is always cold even in Florida apparently."
I chuckle because even as a small child Bonnie would complain about the shock of the water being cold even when really it was warm. It's most definitely warmer than Virginia Beach would have been, but that first dip is always a shock to the system.
I grin more deeply while Bonnie wades out until the water is to her chest because now it's registering as warm, and then she takes a deep breath and goes under the surf. I count to nine in my head, and when I reach nine, she shoots up out of the water and gasps for breath. Swimming back to shore, she runs back to them before extending her hand into the bowl Rebekah is still holding and taking out a small glob of paste and putting it on her crown in the shape of a pentagram. Then she goes down her body placing a glob at each of her Chakras over her suit until she gets to the base one, and then she turns bright red again and asks, "Uh, can you guys not watch this next part?"
Rebekah frowns and asks, "Why?"
My granddaughter blushes harder and clearly doesn't know how to explain without further embarrassing herself, so Kol steps in and says, "I think it's because Little Bella needs to stick her hand onto the crotch of her suit to put the paste on the final Chakra."
Bonnie is furiously blushing, but she nods and lets out a gust of air that she didn't have to say it until the cheeky vampire asks, "Want some help?"
Her eyes shoot to his, and she blushes even harder before she tells him, "Absolutely not. I am perfectly capable of doing it myself, thank you very much. I just don't want three hot guys staring at me while I do it."
Her wide eyes, even more furious blush, and her grimace when she finishes speaking clearly says, 'Oh God, did I just say that out loud?' The Mikaelsons all chuckle both at her words and her wide eyes while she shuffles her feet and continues grimacing before Elijah smiles gently and says, "Turn around, Brothers."
The three of them turn and then wait until my baby girl lets out a small breath and tells them, "Okay, now I have to wait 27 minutes, so what time is it?"
Elijah looks at his watch and tells her, "It's 4:01 p.m. I will let you know when it is 4:28."
She nods and says, "Thank you," before she tells them, "You guys should all probably go into the water and then put the paste on, so we don't end up here too much after dark, or my friends will really freak."
Just then Bonnie's phone rings, so she wraps another towel that Rebekah hands her around her shoulders and sits taking her phone out of her jeans pocket and looking at the caller ID before saying, "Speak of the Devil," and then she pushes the send button and tells the caller, "I'm not talking to you, Caroline Forbes."
Niklaus and Kol both chuckle when we all hear Caroline ask, "What? Why not?"
Frowning my grandbaby asks her friend, "Did you or did you not tell Klaus Mikaelson that you thought Jer and I should just get it over with and do it because sex is so great. Then did you or did you not tell that very same big bad wolf that I'm waiting for it to be real and forever, and that's why I'm still a virgin?"
Rebekah thinks, 'She did what? I clearly missed that part of the story.'
We can all hear Caroline's frown when she says, "Um, how do you know about that?"
Rebekah and Kol's frowns deepen before my granddaughter says, "So it's true then, you told The Big Bad Original Hybrid personal details about me, really personal details, that I'm sure you knew I would object to him knowing."
Rebekah has heard enough, so she quickly takes off her clothes revealing a hot pink bikini. She giggles at her brother who is obviously disappointed that Caroline interrupted, and Bonnie didn't get to watch him strip, but he consoles himself with the knowledge that that's okay for now because when he gets his way, my grandbaby will see him strip often. He runs to the water just before his sister does and they swim to the deeper section before dunking themselves for nine seconds.
Even under the water, they can hear Caroline say, "Um maybe, it just came out. I swore him to secrecy."
When the siblings turn and walk out of the water, I see my baby girl catch the hybrid's eye before she tells the gossip-loving Caroline, "Because he's been so trustworthy and willing to respect boundaries right? Who else have you told my personal details to?"
Through the Mikaelsons' minds, I can hear the usually bubbly Caroline gulp, and I think Bonnie can, too, because she visibly braces herself before her friend says, "Um, maybe Tyler."
Bonnie's eyes pop open wide, and her back goes ram-rod straight before she indignantly asks, "Tyler? You told Tyler Lockwood about my non-sex-life? Caroline Elizabeth Forbes, what the hell?"
Caroline is obviously pouting when she tells her older friend, "He hasn't told anyone."
My granddaughter's voice is hot and sharp when she tells her friend, "That you know of." My pride and joy pauses and takes several deep breaths slowly releasing each one before taking another one, then she says with less heat and bite in her voice, "Tell me why you're calling. Then I'm hanging up because I don't want to say something I might regret later."
The Mikaelsons all think that that speaks to her character, too. Bonnie cares enough about her friend despite her upset that she doesn't want to say something in anger and hurt her best friend even though Caroline hurt Bonnie first. If Kol's plan works, and no one I've spoken to has ever known one of his plans to fail unless Niklaus interfered, then Fate is about to bless them all with a very devoted and caring baby sister.
I can hear Caroline's frown when she says, "We were worried about you. You didn't come to school after meeting with Kol and Damon this morning, and you haven't answered any of our calls or text messages. Damon said you left his house in your car with Kol at about quarter to nine, but your car is at your house. Your scent and the smell of vampires, one of which I assume is Kol's scent, and the others of which I think are Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah are still lingering in the air as if you were all here within the last two hours. You're not actually here, though, so I figured I'd try calling one more time and check on you."
My eyes widen that at a little under two years as a vampire Caroline can smell their scents that well after an hour never mind two and can accurately guess as to the time frame of when they were last there. Exactly how much vampire blood did she have in her system when she died?
I'm sure even Damon at 146 years as a vampire wouldn't have been able to differentiate between scents well enough to name the individuals. Instead, he would have just said vampires and not been able to smell individual scents, not after an hour anyway, and especially not after two hours and outside where the scents dissipate quicker.
Stefan certainly wouldn't have even been able to tell any of them had been there. However, Caroline could pick out each of their scents, outside, after two hours have passed, so she is going to be a force to be reckoned with once she's a few years older. In fact, she may already be a force to be reckoned with.
Bonnie sighs and then tells her obviously worried friend, "I'm fine."
The worry and care Caroline has for her is blatantly apparent when she asks, "Where are you, Bonnie? And why haven't you answered your phone?"
My grandbaby reaches up and rubs the back of her neck again before she tells Caroline, "I accidentally put my phone on silent, so I didn't know I was missing calls and texts. I'm sorry about that, and I think I'm in Florida at a beach."
The slightly OCD Caroline gasps and then asks in rapid-fire succession, "Wait, what? Why are you there? How did you get there so fast? There's no way your scent here is older than two hours!"
She's definitely a force to be reckoned with.
Bonnie sighs again and straightens her shoulders obviously preparing for Caroline to yell at her, "I'm here doing a spell to return my natural balance to me, and I got here so fast because Kol ran us here."
She pulls the phone away from her ear just in time to prevent hearing loss when Caroline shrieks, "You're there with Kol, Kol Mikaelson?"
Bonnie frowns after she puts the phone back to her ear and asks, "Do we know anyone else named Kol?"
Rebekah giggles and Kol and his brothers all chuckle while they walk up out of the water, and they smile when my granddaughter nearly swallows her tongue. She's having thoughts about Kol's body that I'd rather not think too closely about or the fact that someday very soon she's going to see all of him. She mouths, 'Holy Hell, he's gorgeous,' when she becomes distracted from her phone conversation.
Kol's chest puffs up a little while her eyes follow one of the many beads of water rolling down his chest and over his well-defined abdominal muscles into his shorts. Bonnie is brought back to the phone by Caroline yelling, "Bonnie… Bonnie… BONNIE!"
When my blushing grandbaby tears her eyes away from Kol's chest, he chuckles again with sparkling eyes and a pleased smile firmly on his face which only grows wider when with an obvious pout in her voice that matches the one on her face Bonnie asks, "What?"
Caroline's worry seems to only be growing because she tells her best friend, "I asked what you're thinking going anywhere with him? Damon said that you don't have your magick anymore, so Kol could seriously hurt you, and with you all the way there and us still here there's nothing we could do to stop him."
The Mikaelsons all frown while they take the paste out of the bowl and begin placing it on each of their Chakras in the shape of pentagrams. Honestly, Kol is the least likely of all the vampires and supernaturals in Bonnie's life to harm her, but my frown turns into a small smile when my granddaughter tells Caroline, "He's not going to hurt me because that would break our truce and put a target back on his chest." While that is 100% true, it's not why he won't be hurting her, but it'll do for now I suppose.
I do smile wider, though, when Bonnie says to Caroline, "Now, I'm really not in the mood to talk with you right now, so I'm hanging up. Don't call back. I won't answer," and then she hangs up on her friend without waiting for a response.
Turning off her ringer again and tossing her phone into her bag, my baby girl sighs and fights back tears while her lip trembles and her eyes get suspiciously moist.
She had to know Caroline told Niklaus, or how else would he have known, but I'm sure the betrayal hurts. She looks up to find all four of the originals looking at her. They're all dripping wet, and there is almost no paste left in the bowl, so I'm sure she knows that they already put it on themselves.
Kol sits down on his towel beside my granddaughter on her left while Rebekah sits down beside her on her own towel on Bonnie's right before she asks my grandbaby, "How long have you two been friends?"
Kol smiles at his sister, and she nods slightly to show him that she really is trying. She thinks, 'Maybe tonight when we get home I'll thank him for deciding to make Bonnie his and possibly giving me a real friend. I might even maybe apologize for threatening to dagger him even if he did almost stake me with the White Oak Stake. I mean, okay, I threatened him first, but it still hurt my feelings that he was threatening to stake me. None of us would come back from that. At least if he were daggered, he'd eventually wake up.'
Rebekah is brought back to the here and now when Bonnie frowns at the question but tells her, "Our moms, Mrs. Gilbert, and Ms. Donovan were best friends growing up, so Caroline, Elena, Matt and I have been best friends since we were in diapers. Abby left when I was about one-year-old, but my dad for whatever reason kept up the play dates, and the rest, as they say, is history."
Bonnie sighs and she stares off into the water before she then says, "Care's been a hopeless gossip ever since she learned how to string words together, so I suppose I should be used to her having a big fat mouth. Though I keep hoping she won't tell my secrets anymore, but I'm not telling her anything important ever again."
She pauses then sighs again before telling the two vampires, "I'm especially not telling her anything about any of you because that's probably the fastest way to make sure everyone knows."
She turns her face to look at Kol and says, "Oh that reminds me, Kol, I haven't told any of them that you all were witches before being turned, so unless one of you told one of them they don't currently know. I wasn't sure if you told me in confidence, so I decided not to share anything you said last night after I left Jer and Elena in the house, and don't worry I won't be telling them anything you said today either. Well except for what you said about women's fashion because I'm pretty sure Caroline will love that, but I'll only tell her if you say it's okay first. Just bear in mind that if I tell her, all of my friends will likely know your opinions on modern fashion pretty quickly."
He gives her a broad smile and nods. That my granddaughter would err on the side of caution and keep his confidences until she knew for sure his words weren't meant only for her ears speaks to the amazing and trustworthy woman she truly is. Still, Kol tells her honestly, "I wouldn't mind if you told all of your friends everything I've said last night or today."
He pauses but then adds, "Well, except maybe the part about Eija, I'll ultimately trust your judgment on that, but other than that none of what I said was intended to be a secret. I honestly sort of figured you would tell them when I told you, but thank you for at least waiting until you could find out if it were intended to be a secret."
All three of his siblings think, 'He told her about Eija?' Well, if they ever doubted how determined he is about making her his, they don't anymore. He rarely speaks of Eija. The pain is still too profound, so the fact that their brother told Bonnie about his long-dead love speaks volumes about how much he already trusts her.
Rebekah offers up a little prayer, 'Please, Jesus, don't let his or our trust in Bonnie be misplaced.'
My grandbaby smiles back and tells Kol, "No problem, that's what friends are for."
His eyes and his smile widen before he asks, "So are we friends then?"
She pauses and seems to really consider his question. She's obviously, and thankfully, still being cautious, but I'm hoping deep down her subconscious knows she can trust him and, really, all of them, maybe even Niklaus.
Apparently, she does because she nods a moment later and says, "Yeah pretty much. My gut tells me I can trust you. You were right at the boarding house earlier about my instincts. My gut told me Shane was shifty the first time I met him and every time after that. I just chose not to listen to what my intuition was telling me. Anyway, I don't think there's anything wrong with my instincts provided I actually listen to them when they try to tell me something."
My baby girl pauses then shrugs before she says, "So yeah, we're friends, or at least we're well on our way to being friends because honestly, we've only known each other for a few hours when you think about it."
Kol gives her a soft smile again and nods while I watch his muscles that he hadn't even realized were stiff with tension relax at her words. He can live with being well on their way towards being friends because she's right that they really have only been speaking for a few short hours. But it looks as though his plans are also well on their way to coming to fruition.
A moment later Elijah clears his throat and says, "Sorry to interrupt, but it's 4:27 p.m. so you should get ready to go back into the water, Ms. Bennett."
All his siblings laugh at their always proper brother and my grandbaby looks up at him giggling. She gives him another broad smile, and then she says, "I think you can start calling me Bonnie, Elijah. I mean, if I'm going to make friends with one original, I might as well go all in and make friends with all of you. Although, Klaus, I promise this is the last time I'll bring it up but be forewarned I will find a way to hurt you if you hurt me or anyone I care about ever again."
Niklaus puts his hands up with a pout on his face before he asks, "Luv, why am I the only one getting a warning, and repeatedly at that?"
She stands and brushes sand off her butt before she smiles wider and tells the man who killed her best friend, however temporary that death might have been, "Because I realized today that you're the only member of your family that's attacked any of us without us first provoking you. While I'm willing to give you a second chance, I feel it's only fair to warn you that if you continue to be a threat, I will find a way to end you, original hybrid or not."
He doesn't show it, but inside he's quite pleased by her showing today. 'She's managed to repeatedly warn me that bad behavior will end horribly for me, but she's done so each time without being disrespectful or outright rude. That ability is rare in someone so young. I dare say my baby brother has chosen a worthy mate.'
He smiles and nods, before he tells her, "Fair enough, Luv."
She just nods back and then looks at Elijah who is wearing a blue and red pair of swim trunks and still managing to exude power and command respect from all those he encounters. She smiles at him and asks, "Is it time?"
He glances at his watch and then nods, so my grandbaby turns and runs into the water while she chants "Jesus, please return the balance to me," in Old Norse. The original chant was a plea to Freyja, one of the Norse Goddesses, but Bonnie changed it to Jesus because I raised her in the Christian Faith, so she knows that any powers or abilities we have are direct gifts from The One True God.
She dunks herself again, and she's thinking the Chant nine times while she holds her breath under the water before popping back through the surface gasping for air.
A second later my previously disempowered grandbaby turns to face us, and a wide smile breaks out on her face while I watch the holes in her aura slowly fill in until the blemishes that had littered it this morning are completely gone, and it is glowing in good health.
She smiles brightly and runs out of the water and straight into the towel Kol is holding up for her. He rubs it over her for a minute before she grabs hold of his hands and tells him what we already know, "It worked Kol, only I think the power is stronger than it was before, even stronger than when I had the power of The Hundred Dead Witches added to mine."
Everyone present, vampires and ghosts alike, all nod because we can feel her immense power rolling off her in waves. Elijah walks into her line of sight and says, "Ms.—" My granddaughter raises her eyebrow at him at the same time his siblings do, so Elijah smiles before he corrects himself and continues, "Bonnie, I believe I may know why your magick is so much stronger. In most family lines every time the oldest of each line of witches dies all the power of every previous witch from that line is given to the next in line. It's nature's way of making sure a family's power continues as long as there are descendants. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you and your mother are the last of Emily Bennett's direct line, and because your mother technically died and became a vampire the magick would have gone to you as the eldest mortal member of your family line."
He pauses then shrugs gracefully before he tells the young teenager, "If I'm correct, then you now have the power of every witch from your line going back to whichever of your ancestors wasn't the oldest of their generation at the time of their magickal parent's death."
My grandbaby frowns and asks, "Emily had siblings, so does it only go back to Emily?"
They all shake their heads before Elijah tells her, "No, it goes all the way back until one of your ancestors wasn't the oldest when their parents died. My guess, if you think the magick is so much stronger, is that you come from a long line of firsts. I know from my research into Mystic Falls in search of the location where The Hundred Dead Witches perished that Emily was the first child in her family, and if I have to hazard a guess, her ancestors were also the first, or at least the oldest surviving child when their parents died. If you had a younger sibling and you were to die that sibling would then become the oldest surviving member of the generation and the power would pass to him or her when their magickal parent died. Once you have the power and children, though, if you died it would be passed down to your oldest surviving child."
Bonnie is nodding slowly while he speaks, so he continues, "From what I know of Emily's descendants, your grandmother, her mother, and her mother, who happened to be Emily's daughter, were each the oldest when their mothers died. Because you and your mother are each an only child, you are the last two of your line so when your grandmother died the power would have passed to her only child despite the fact your mother seemed to have lost her ability to use her magick. When she went into transition, it passed to you even though it was at the time also being blocked from your use."
She's still nodding so Elijah smiles and tells her, "You may wish to investigate your family history and see if you can figure out just how far back the line of firsts goes in your direct family line. My guess is it goes very far back, just based on the power I can feel coming off of you right now."
She grins even wider when she asks, "You can feel it?"
They all nod, so she tells him, "Wow, that's pretty cool."
Kol smiles widely and then says, "I'd go so far as to wager that perhaps your line of firsts at the very least goes back pretty close to Esther's mentor, Ayana."
My very smart granddaughter asks, "Not to bring up a bad memory, but Esther channeled my family's line to kill all of you. She said she needed access to the magick she channeled when you turned so she could turn you back into humans and then kill you. That would imply that Abby and I are in a line of firsts going all the way back to Ayana, no? Otherwise based on what you just told me Esther wouldn't have been able to access Ayana's power through us. Or am I misunderstanding?"
Kol smiles even broader, showing off straight pearly white teeth before he nods and says to her, "You're brilliant," then he turns to his siblings and tells them, "She's absolutely correct. If Esther was channeling their line for the sole purpose of accessing Ayana's magick specifically then Bonnie, her mother, and Sheila all have to be descendants of firsts going all the way back to Ayana."
He pauses while his siblings all nod and then he tells them all, "I actually had a conversation with Ayana about family lines when I was about ten autumns old. The point she was trying to make was that it was too bad I was not the oldest of my siblings because Esther was herself from a long line of firsts and that power combined with my already substantially more powerful magick would have been amazing. Given what I know now that means Freya has our entire line's magick, which is why Dahlia wanted our sister so she could tap into the family's power without being the firstborn."
He shakes his head ever so slightly and then says, "Anyway, my point now is that Ayana told me during that conversation that her own ancestors were descended from a long line of firsts. Therefore, I would posit that Bonnie's line of firsts probably goes much farther back than Esther's mentor."
Bonnie's eyes are round, but she smiles and tells them all, "Grams left me the book full of our family history. I know from conversations with her as well as some brief browsing I did periodically growing up that it names our ancestors going back probably three or four thousand years. Gram's said it's not actually written on paper but parchment and that magick preserves it and prevents it from deteriorating, so I just might investigate my line's history." She smiles, and nods once then says, "Thanks, guys."
Elijah smiles and then picks his watch up off the towel by her feet and says, "It's time, does everyone know what to do?"
His three siblings all nod and then the four of them run into the water. Niklaus is facing away from everyone while he submerges himself because if it doesn't work, he doesn't want anyone to see his disappointment. While he's underwater, he thinks the chant and then pops back out of the water.
They all stand there for a few seconds before a wind blows over them, and they all feel something they haven't felt in a thousand years when their magick slowly fills up the holes it left behind all those centuries ago. Their magick feels stronger to them too, but that's just because it's now somewhere between 1,034 and 1,026 years old depending on which sibling you're talking about.
Niklaus can feel his Aura very slowly filling in the holes, so he turns and faces his family, and he can tell it worked for Kol, Rebekah, and Elijah too because they have broad smiles on their faces, and the holes in their auras are slowly filling themselves in.
The hybrid's magick seems to be returning slower than his sibling's magick if the speed of their healing auras is any indication compared to how slowly he can feel his magick filling the hole that it left behind when it was stolen from him.
They're all smiling at each other while they watch everyone's auras filling in. Elijah, Kol, and Rebekah wonder why their brother's aura seems to be slowly, much more slowly than the rest of them, filling in, but Niklaus doesn't care, and he can't help but grin wider when Kol smiles back at him.
The Mikaelsons all walk up out of the water, and when Niklaus reaches the towels, he looks down at my granddaughter standing there and says, "It looks as though you were wrong about the wolf in me interfering."
She nods but asks, "Are you sure because your aura, while like 95% better than it was, still has a few holes in it."
He grins and tells her, "I'm sure."
She nods back and tells him, "That's weird, but I'm glad, Klaus. I was hoping I was wrong."
Because they're vampires they can all tell that she means that wholeheartedly, and the hybrid doesn't know about the rest of his siblings, but my grandbaby just won him over in terms of any doubt he might have had about her becoming a permanent member of their family.
He looks at her for a minute then says, "Do you know that experienced vampires can tell when someone is lying? Your temperature would spike, and your heartbeat would skip while your heart rate and breathing would both pick up and your pupils would constrict slightly, so I know that you really mean what you just said." He pauses then asks, "How is that possible, after everything I've done to you and your friends?"
Her eyes widen while he speaks, and she apparently didn't realize they could tell that much, but because every emotion has a physiological response and their senses are so sensitive, vampires are generally pretty much walking, talking lie detectors and the Mikaelsons' ages and much more superior senses make that even more accurate.
Still, she shrugs and tells him, "No one should only be part of themselves, and if I could have reactivated your wolf side without killing Elena, I would have done it because it was wrong that it was taken from you. As it was, once I knew the truth of the curse the only reason I tried to stop you was because it required three deaths to accomplish and one of those was that of my best friend."
She sighs and then tells him, "Maybe it's wrong of me that I would have allowed you to do the spell if it didn't require Elena's death to work. When it comes down to it, though, your balance was all out of whack not just because of The Immortality Spell your mother did or even that your magick was stolen from you as a result of that magick but also because your mother took it upon herself to take your wolf side away from you."
She looks up at him and meets his eyes before continuing her thought, "God, Himself, bestowed that upon you, and your mother just took it away, by force if what I've heard is any indication. No one has the right to do that to anyone. I also think your mission and tireless drive to undo what your mother did was a natural drive that you would have had until you managed to return to your full self because what she did to you wasn't natural."
She pauses and then adds, "And her bull about you being inherently unnatural is just that: Bull. She knew full well who your father was, or at least she had a good idea that you weren't from Mikael's line, and she probably knew just as well that your actual father was from a line of wolves, so she should have thought of all of that before she began casting an immortality spell."
She stops and takes a breath and then shrugs one shoulder and tells him, "Then again both spells she did on you were, from what I've read in my gram's books, so incredibly dark it's not even funny, so she should have thought long and hard about the intelligence of doing those spells anyway. But going back to the spell to inhibit your wolf side: My belief that no one should have a whole side of themselves repressed against their will is still true now."
My baby girl means that wholeheartedly too, so Niklaus smiles slightly and honestly tells her words he's rarely spoken, "Well I owe you one, Witch."
Her hazel eyes widen even more at that, but then she smiles when Kol gets tired of giving them a moment and picks her up swinging her around and says, "It worked, Darling."
She giggles before he sets her back down on her feet. She smiles at him while he beams down at her and she tells him, "I'm glad, Kol. Thank you for helping me get my magick back."
He nods and quickly kisses her forehead. Her green eyes widen at his action but she's shivering slightly, and her lips have a very slight blue tinge to them, so he tells her, "You should put your clothes back on, Darling, before you catch a cold."
The ocean breeze is blowing steadily, and the sun is just about below the horizon at this point, so the temperature is steadily dropping despite us being in Florida, so she nods and quickly puts her clothes on over her slightly damp suit. Then she whispers a few words before yelping, "Oww."
The Mikaelsons look at her with their eyebrows raised though they're sure they already know what happened but Kol still asks, "Are you alright, Little Bella?"
Frowning she tells him, "Yeah, I tried to dry my suit magickally, and it worked, but it worked a little too well, so it got a little hotter than I would have liked it to get."
The originals all nod even though her back is facing them.
The vampires all take off their suits and put their clothes back on at inhuman speed, so no one sees anything, and their bathing suits are in their hands when she turns back to face them. Vamp speed is definitely handy to have. Her eyebrows rise towards her hairline, but she doesn't comment.
The five of them quickly clean up and put everything back into their bags and then my grandbaby zips hers shut before putting the bag on backward again and turning to face Kol. He smiles and picks her up, and soon we're running back towards Mystic Falls.
When we reach Mystic Falls' city line just after 5:30 p.m., Elijah and Niklaus part ways with their younger siblings and head to their home. Kol, still holding Bonnie, and Rebekah run towards the home my granddaughter shares with her good-for-nothing father.
My grandbaby fell asleep during the trip again, so when we arrive, Kol sets her down on the hood of her car and stroking her cheek he tells her, "Little Bella, time to wake up enough to go inside and go to bed."
She grabs his hand and curls onto her side before she moans and quietly says, "Hmm, Kol."
Us ghosts all smile because we see in her mind that she's dreaming of doing those things I still say she's too young to be doing.
Kol and Rebekah smile too. Rebekah came to the house with her brother so that she can get the books Bonnie promised her.
Kol leans in and whispers, "Little Bella, whatever you're dreaming, you can continue it once you're inside safe and sound and tucked into your bed for the night."
Her hazel eyes flutter open, and she looks around slowly as if she's trying to figure out where they are. She lets go of Kol's hand a moment later and sits up on the hood of her car nearly toppling over, so he uses his hand on her shoulder to steady her.
Rubbing at her eyes, she asks her two companions, "I fell asleep again?"
They both just smile, so she nods back before sliding off her car. Wobbling a little on unsteady legs, she walks towards her front door and says, "Rebekah, I'll just be a minute, and then I'll be back out with the books, okay?"
Rebekah nods, and we all watch while Bonnie walks into her house. Kol pauses and thinks, 'Should I leave? No, I'll wait and say goodnight.'
Three minutes later my granddaughter returns with a plastic bag that looks to have a box in it. She smiles when she hands it to Rebekah and says, "It's a Box Set, so it's a little awkward to carry. There's a slip of paper in the first book with my phone number and email address for when you want to give them back."
She pauses then with a gentle smile on her face she says, "Although, you should know that I won't be upset if you use either before you're ready to give the books back. Despite the serious nature of what we were doing I kind of had fun."
Then she surprises all three of them by hugging the older girl and telling her, "I'm really happy it worked for you guys. Have a good night, Rebekah."
Rebekah awkwardly returns the hug then says, "Thank you. I had fun too, and I hope you sleep well."
When Bonnie lets go of his sister she turns to Kol and shuffles her feet for a minute while she looks at the ground. A moment later she says under her breath, "God, just do it," and then he has his arms full of Bonnie who hugs him and says, "I can't thank you enough, Kol, for giving me back my powers. I owe you one."
Smiling, he smooths his hand soothingly up and down her back while he tells her honestly, "You already paid back any possible debt you could have had by suggesting my family try the ritual essentially giving us back our magick. If you want, though, you can pay me back by staying as far away from dark magick as you possibly can. Nothing good ever comes from that stuff, so steer clear of it in the future, and I'll call us even, okay?"
My grandbaby nods her head against his chest, and then the scent of her blood so close to the surface reaches his nose and tells him she's blushing a moment before she pulls away and with what he thinks are delightfully red cheeks once again shuffles her feet and looks at the ground.
He leans in and tilts her chin up so he can kiss her forehead again before telling her, "Sweet dreams, Little Bella."
When he begins turning away she says, "Wait, I, um, I wrote down my phone number and email for you too, um, since we're doing the friend thing and all. Uh, if you want to, you can give it to Elijah and Klaus too, if they want it. Although, I'll be surprised if they do want it."
She takes two steps towards him and hands him a little slip of paper, so he smiles and tells her, "Thank you, Bonnie, I'll be in touch then."
She brings her hand up to her mouth to cover a yawn but nods and then turns and goes back into her house. The two vampires wait to hear the lock click into place and then Rebekah smiles at Kol, and while they begin walking away from Bonnie's home she says, "Despite who her best friend is, I like her, and I definitely like you and her together."
Kol just smiles so Rebekah continues her commentary, "You complement each other, even better than you and Eija and you and Chalina did."
She pauses and then after replaying what she said over in her head she quickly adds, "Don't get me wrong, Eija and Chalina and you were each perfect for the other at the time, but it's more pronounced to me between you and Bonnie. You just click in ways you and your two previous loves didn't quite mesh."
She pauses again and considers her words then tells Kol who is listening intently, "I think it's Bonnie's personality. While neither Eija or Chalina would have let any of us walk all over them your new love is more, hmm, I don't know the word, but it's like there's a certain degree of respect and graciousness that wasn't present with the other two. I mean you were just a boy when Eija was your betrothed, so no one really respected you back then, and although Chalina respected you, there was a certain degree of reserve that I think was a result of what we are. She was slightly wary of us because of us being vampires, and while Bonnie is certainly wary too, it has a different quality to it that I just can't place."
Pausing again, she searches her vocabulary for the words she needs to adequately explain her opinion then she says, "It's like with Nik and me. He's killed people that Bonnie cares about and I killed Elena causing her to go into transition and become a vampire. Bonnie is obviously and understandably incredibly aware of both facts, but she doesn't allow either fact to keep her from standing up for herself and her loved ones. She knows we could both break her in one of her human heartbeats, but she still offered us both a second chance but was sure to include a warning that she'll find a way to end either of us if we hurt anyone else she cares about."
She stops walking and turns to look at Kol who is still smiling and then nods and tells him, "Neither Eija nor Chalina would have warned us, not so directly at least. It's almost as though she respects us and the damage we are capable of producing due to what we are and how old we are. However, she acknowledges and respects that we're also people, so she's willing to give us one more chance, and the person she is insists that she give us fair warning that the chance is our one and only second chance."
She smiles widely, and after beginning to walk again, she says honestly, "Anyway, the point is she's an excellent match for who you are now, and I think she will make an excellent little sister."
Rebekah practically skips while she walks and tells him, "Honestly, I'm kind of excited to have a girlfriend and not be the youngest girl in this family anymore."
Kol smiles back and then tells his sister, "I agree completely. She's very aware of what we can do and the damage we can cause, but she's not allowing it to stop her from giving us an honest chance at proving ourselves worthy of her friendship."
While he walks, he pauses and looks at his sister waiting for her to turn and look at him. When she does look him in the eye, he warns her just as he intends to warn their two brothers later, "Make no mistake, if any one of us betrays that trust she's giving us, nothing in this world will be able to protect us from her wrath. She will be the end of us if we break the truce unprovoked and harm anyone she cares about."
Rebekah nods so after resuming walking he swallows thickly and then sucks it up and tells her, "Beks, I wanted to, um, well, apologize for the other night when I threatened to stake you. The whole Silas thing had me so turned around, and you were threatening to dagger me, and, well, I acted without thinking through the consequences of my possible actions. I would have hated myself if I had killed you, so I'm sorry. Always and Forever."
She smiles and nods before she tells him, "Thank you, and for what it's worth I'm sorry I threatened to dagger you. In retrospect, I shouldn't have done that. I don't want to be like Nik in that respect."
He stops walking and turns to face his sister. When she stops walking too and turns facing him he hugs her tightly and repeats, "Always and Forever," then after she reiterates the pledge, he lets go of her and resumes walking again. He spies a smile on her face, so he grins in return and the two walk in silence for a few minutes.
When they reach the turn Kol needs to take so he can visit the first of Bonnie's friends, he tells Rebekah, "I need to visit all of Bonnie's friends and compel them not to threaten or physically harm her, so I'll catch up with you later."
Rebekah nods and turns towards their home while he heads towards The Salvatore Boarding House to make sure Bonnie is as safe as he can make her.
I pause and look at Kol and then at Rebekah's retreating figure and then I look at Freya, Finn, and Henrik. Who should I follow?
Finn smiles and tells me, "Go be with your granddaughter. I'll follow Kol and Henrik and Freya if you don't mind you can both go see how the others are faring and we can all fill each other in on what we miss later."
I nod and smile, "Thank you, Finn." I lean up and kiss his cheek before having to hold in a giggle at his wide eyes and gaping mouth at my boldness.
I don't give him an opportunity to object and instead think myself back to my granddaughter's house.