Artemis was delighted to be back in Colorado. She had always found the mountain air to be refreshing, and the majestic backdrop made her feel alive again. Kol had laughed at the delighted expression on her face, after being pressed up against the plane window for so long. She loved the small condo that he had found on the edge of the city, and was not surprised to find that Jeremy and the family that he was staying with were their new neighbors. Kol introduced her as his fiancée, who was studying at the University of Virginia, which Jeremy seemed to believe.
Jeremy spent a decent amount of time at their home. Kol blamed it on Artemis's cookies. It had taken her decades to perfect the recipe, and she her heart swelled with pride as the teenager declared they were the best he'd ever tasted. Like clockwork, he would be at their place after school, munching on a fresh batch of cookies while Artemis helped him with homework. She was an education major, she explained, and he had asked for help before she could even offer it.
Kol was a volunteer coach for a little league team, as he claimed that the only thing that hadn't changed in this world was how the game of baseball was played. He had also been helping Jeremy, since he had shown an interest in joining the baseball team at his school. Together, Artemis and Kol had been helping him to become more engaged in academics and extra curricular, by simply paying attention to him.
"Do you even sleep at home anymore?" Artemis jokingly asked one morning, as he was waking up after spending the night on their couch. She placed a plate of pancakes and bottle of syrup on the table for him, as he stretched and rubbed his eyes.
"They don't feed me like you do," he grumbled, pulling himself off the couch and padding over to the table.
"At least take the spare bedroom, would you?" Kol said as he swept into the room. "That's why we have it, after all, for guests planning on staying more than one night."
Jeremy nodded. "Okay," he replied, between bites of pancake. "Look, I'm gonna head to the batting cages after school today. Meet you guys there?"
Artemis and Kol looked at one another, and shrugged. "Yeah, we'll be there," Artemis said for the both of them.
They arrived at the batting cages at about 3 in the afternoon, shortly after Jeremy told them that he would be there. They both bundled up against the chilly air, but smiled warmly as they walked hand and hand. Jeremy spotted them, from the other side of two figures that had their backs turned. Artemis and Kol both waved as Jeremy gestured to them.
"Can we do this later?" he asked the two figures. "My friends just got here, and yes, Damon, I actually have some. I'll call you guys when I'm done." He kissed the girl's cheek as he passed, making his way to his two friends and greeting them.
"Damon, it's Kol!" Elena exclaimed, panic and recognition flooding her face.
A pit of dread formed in Artemis's stomach as she watched Damon turn around, his eyes flaring in shock and anger. "Jeremy, get back," he shouted. "He's an Original, and she's no better!"
Jeremy's face fell, a betrayed expression crossing his face. "Is that true?" he asked, hurt evident in his voice as he took a few steps backwards.
"It's true," Kol confirmed after a moment. "My brother, along with your sister and her boyfriend, seem to think that I'm here to harm you. Nik ordered me to use you as leverage against Bonnie, but we don't believe in harming innocents."
"Bonnie is safe," Artemis told him softly, as his gaze shifted to her. "She's at a safe house, outside of Nik's grasp, with two witches that are far more powerful than anyone that Nik could find. We wanted to make sure that you were safe from Nik's threats too, and to do that, you couldn't know who we were. But your sister is here now. You'll be safe with her."
"We don't expect you to believe us, and I know that we've violated the trust that you placed in us, but we do hope that one day, you'll be able to forgive what we've done," Kol continued. "We'll take out leave now. Goodbye, Jeremy."
They turned, leaving Jeremy with Elena and Damon, but not before they heard the splintering of wood. Before anyone could react, Damon had shoved the splintered handle of a baseball bat through Artemis's stomach, causing her to fall forward. Jeremy and Elena gasped as Kol caught his wife, yanking the end of the bat out as he cradled her head. He brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes as blood began to spill from her mouth.
"You didn't have to do that, Damon," Jeremy shouted, a hint of anger in his voice.
"For the bonfire," Damon told Kol darkly, his eyes meeting the angry Original's.
"They were letting me leave," Jeremy growled at his sister and Damon. "They were walking away from me."
"Never trust an Original," Damon spat back, before stalking away, leaving Jeremy and Elena with no choice but to follow him.
"Do you understand what you've done?" Nik seethed from the other end of the line.
"Reunited two siblings, and got my wife killed in the process?" Kol answered humorlessly, as he sat on the edge of the bed, stroking Artemis's hair.
"You allowed a medium to get back into contact with someone hoping to have him contact the dead," Nik told him angrily. When Kol didn't say anything, Nik continued. "They tried to kill Finn that night that they accidentally skewered your wife. But, more importantly, they've somehow discovered that the death of one of us wipes out our entire bloodline. They still want to kill us all, except for the one who turned them. Now, they know Katerina turned the Salvatores, and that she was turned by Rose, but they don't know that it was Mary Porter who turned Rose. I bet they're using Jeremy to contact her right now."
"They can't know who turned Mary," Kol said in a low tone.
"That's why you're going to kill her," Nik replied smugly. "She lives in Wyoming, all alone. From what I understand, killing her would be a mercy."
Kol sat for a moment, looking down at his sleeping wife, the decision weighing on his mind. "Alright," he agreed. "Where can I find her?"
"Like Vampire Hoarders," Kol heard Damon whisper as he, and presumably Elena, entered Mary Porter's house. Kol knew that the old newspapers and phone books were piled high, and that the remnants of Mary's past littered the hallways.
The female voice confirmed that Elena was in the house with him, as the pair bickered back and forth. Kol was surprised that Damon had come across Mary Porter during his lifetime, but not surprised to hear Elena scoff at the exact reason why. He was tired of listening to the two of them talk, and banged his baseball bat against the floor to draw their attention. He was also tired of staring at Mary Porter's body hanging from the wall. It wasn't long before the pair entered the room Kol waited in, and the beam of Elena's flashlight landed on the body.
"Mary…" Damon whispered, as Elena gasped in shock.
"Quite contrary," Kol finished, turning on the light on the table next to him. Both Damon and Elena turned to look at him, clearly not expecting him to be sitting in Mary's house. "Shame about Mary," he continued, rising from his seat and walking over to where Mary's corpse was pinned against the wall. "She used to be a blast. I don't quite know what happened. I fear all the time she spent with my family might have ruined her. She was a bit of an Original groupie."
He had been the one to bring Mary into the family, the sweet and gentle human girl. It had been only about 200 years since they had been turned, back when Kol was still able to appreciate the occasional human. Mary had fallen in love with him, and then fallen in love with all of his siblings, including his sister. She bounced around all of them for months before Nik finally lost control and turned her. With the transition to vampire came a change in her. She was no longer sweet and loving, but cruel and sadistic, killing far more humans that Kol ever had. So Nik had compelled her to become a hermit, to shun the world. Her existence, save for the occasional companion, had clearly been lonely and miserable. Nik had been right. This was a mercy killing, and far overdue.
"Were you her favorite?" Elena asked him, her guard still up.
"You mean, did I turn her?" he countered, asking the question that was really on her mind. "I think I did. But no, wait, maybe it was Rebekah, who called her the sister she never had. But there was also the Klaus period, where she couldn't get enough of him, and let's not forget the Elijah affair. We even brought Finn out of retirement for a bit because we all adored her so much. I'm not really sure who turned her." He paused, letting his story sink in. "I spoke to my brother, and I know what you're trying to do. Now, you never will."
He brought the bat down hard on the back of Damon's knee, and grinned with satisfaction as the younger vampire crumpled to the ground. Elena cried out as Kol went for the elbow next, then the shoulder and the ribs. Damon called for Elena to leave, and she tried to pass through the door, but Kol was faster.
"My quarrel isn't with you, but don't tempt me," he said in a low, dangerous tone. "This is my revenge, for all the times that he has had my wife killed, and for all the times that you have tried to kill one of my siblings. Artemis has done nothing against you, and Finn has done you no harm, yet they are the ones you target, as if their deaths would mean anything to my brother, the one you really want." He scoffed, bringing the bat down across Damon's back. "Pathetic."
He smashed the bat a few more times before calling it even, leaving Elena to clean up his mess as he strolled out the back door of Mary's house.
Artemis was sitting in their kitchen, drinking a cup of tea that she had brewed when he walked through the door. The kettle was still warm on the stove, and he helped himself to his own cup. Tonight had been stressful for him, seeing Mary Porter in the state that she had been in, how she had hissed that it was all his fault.
"Cabinet on the far left, middle shelf," Artemis whispered, pulling him out of his thoughts. He opened the cabinet door and scanned the self until he found the bottle of honey that was sitting there. She always remembered that he took his tea with honey, and grinned to himself as he stirred some in.
"I killed Mary Porter tonight," he confessed, as he took a sip of his tea. "She was this lovely, sweet human girl that I introduced to my family long before we met. I think I was in love with her, but she was not in love with me, and used me and my family to her own advantage. In the end, after she was turned, she became nasty and bitter, and was compelled to forever be a hermit. I put an end to her miserable, lonely existence, the one that I had brought her into."
"Is that why I never met your family?" Artemis asked, and Kol shrugged. "I mean, I have been killed quite a few times since I've been introduced to them."
He chuckled dryly. "I suppose that would be the reason," he murmured.
There was silence again as Kol took the seat opposite of her at the table, before Artemis spoke. "I spoke to Bonnie today," she said softly. "She's enjoying her time with Lucille and Alex, but there's this decade dance or something at school that she wants to go to. From what I can gather, everyone dresses up and they dance to music from that time period or something. It's the 1920s this year. I want to go back to Virginia and keep an eye on her."
"That makes sense," Kol replied. "My siblings have told stories of the 1920s. Was it really as great as they claim?"
"For those who could afford it," she said with a snort. "Women living off family money, or married to rich men with money to spend had a good time. I worked, as a schoolteacher, on the plains, far away from the extravagances of the city. I never experienced what your siblings experienced."
An idea began to form in Kol's head. "You know what, darling, you look a little tired," he said, leaning forward. "Why don't you head on up to bed? I'll join you in a minute."
Artemis stood up and took her cup over to the sink. "I'll see you there soon," she said with a smile. "I have a feeling we won't be sleeping anytime soon, though."
Kol chuckled as he watched her walk towards the bedroom, her hips swaying a little bit more than usual. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, and dialed his sister's number. "Hey, Bekah, I have a favor to ask you…"
