Disturbing Behaviour
The next day the four of us had taken control of a clothing boutique in the middle of Chicago. Rebekah and I were trying on clothes and Nik and Stefan were impatiently waiting in the main store while drinking champagne. I walked out of my dress room to look at my reflection. I heard Rebekah's voice coming from the dressing room next to mine.
"There has to be more to this dress." She exclaimed. I heard her high heels clack as she stepped out into the main room to model the short black dress that she wore.
"There isn't." Nik told her from his spot on the couch.
"So women in the 21st century dress like prostitutes, then. I got dirty looks for wearing trousers."
"Hey!" I complained teasingly. Bec glanced at me apologetically and shrugged it away.
"You wore trousers so women today could wear nothing." Nik responded as he gave me kiss on the cheek as I looked in the mirror. I smiled at him and walked back into the dressing room to get changed into my own clothes.
"And what is this music? It sounds like a cable car accident." Rebekah continued, ignoring Nik's comment.
"It's dance music." I explained to her with a laugh.
"People dance to this?" She exclaimed in disbelief and I laughed again and soon she joined in. I stepped back out and sat next to Nik when I was back in my own floral dress. Nik passed me a flute of champagne and I smiled in response and gently kissed his lips. Nik sighed at Rebekah as she spun in her new cocktail dress. She turned on him with her hands on her hips.
"Why are you so grumpy?" She asked him.
"I needed one thing from you for my witch to find out why my hybrids are dying, one thing. And you lost it." He explained to her. Not wanting to be involved in their sibling squabble in moved over to look at shoes. Hearing Nik and Rebekah arguing only reminded me of Elena. I didn't want to miss her. I hadn't missed her in nearly a year, but I suppose that was before the option of seeing her was taken away. In the back of my mind, I had known that Elena was alive and living in Mystic Falls happy and oblivious to the real world around her. But now that I knew for certain that she was gone, it felt like a part of me was missing.
"I didn't lose it." I heard Rebekah snap at him. "It's just been missing for 90 years."
"Same thing." Nik retorted with a roll of his eyes, as I sat back down and threw my legs over his knees. He placed his hand in my thigh and Rebekah turned her attention on to her long lost love, Stefan. "What do you think, Stefan?" She asked him of her dress.
"I like it." He lied. Bec glared at him and he held up his hands in surrender. "What? I said I liked it."
"I can always tell when you're lying Stefan." She told him and then strutted back into the changing room.
"Nice one, good work." Nik mocked him.
"You're the one who pulled the dagger out of her." Stefan accused in return and I slapped his arm, hard.
" I heard that!" Bec yelled and Nik and I chuckled as Stefan cringed. His gaze shifted to the window of the boutique and sighed.
"I'm going to get some air." He announced and Nik just waved him away. I followed him with my eyes as he left. Something was up with him and it bothered me.
….…xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
After our shopping expedition we returned to the bar that Nik's witch Gloria owned. Rebekah and I were sitting on the bar, drinking scotch while Gloria worked on a spell to find the location of Bec's missing necklace. She sat at a table in between the door and the bar, surrounded by white candles. In the middle of the table a massive book sat as she read it, trying to find a spell. After talking to Gloria, Nik came back to us at the bar. I silently handed him my glass and he drank it in one gulp. He leaned against the bar between my knees and rubbed circles on my right knee. I was about to say something when Stefan entered the bar. Rebekah sat up straighter at the sight of him.
"You left us." She pouted.
"Yeah, sorry. Retail therapy was making my head explode." He apologised as he came over to the bar and poured himself a drink.
"Tell me about it." Nik muttered. I slapped his arm playfully.
"You didn't have to come. You could have gone and done something else and just left us with your credit card." I pointed out to him. He turned his head and frowned at me.
"Last time I left you alone with my credit card, you brought a Ferrari." He reminded me, making Rebekah and Stefan laugh. I simply shrugged my shoulders.
"You did say to buy whatever I wanted." I giggled while saying. "I wanted a Ferrari." He just rolled his baby blue eyes at me. Stefan sipped his drink and pointed over at Gloria.
"What's she doing?"
"She's failing." Nik answered loudly so that Gloria could hear.
"It's hard to find something when you have nothing to go on." She told him with a pointed look. Nik huffed in impatience and Rebekah rolled her own eyes.
"Use me. I only wore it for a thousand years." She suggested and walked over to Gloria's table and sat down on top of it.
"See? Now this one offers a solution." Gloria said, indicating to Bec with a wave of her hand. "Give me hand, sweetheart." She said before closing her eyes and mumbling something in Latin under her breath.
"She's, uh, looking for the necklace, huh?" Stefan asked Nik, and he just nodded his reply, focusing on Gloria and Rebekah. I shot an incredulous look at Stefan.
"I can see something." Gloria murmured and Nik took a step forward. Still at my place on the counter, I watched Stefan take a step backward as worry distorted his face. I frowned as I watched his reaction to the news that Gloria had found the necklace and wondered why he didn't want it found. "I found it."
"Then where is it?" Rebekah asked her, and I could see the hope shining in her eyes.
"It doesn't work that way, doll. I get images. There's a girl with her friends..."
"Yes, a dead girl, with dead friends if I don't get my necklace back." Bec interrupted Gloria impatiently.
"I'll have to dive back in to get the details."
"So dive." Nik ordered the witch menacingly.
"I need more time. And space. You're harshing my juju."
"We have time."
"I'm sure you do, but that's not what I asked."
"Hey, hey, we'll come back later." I interrupted before Nik would rip her head off. I jumped down off the counter and walked over to Nik. I placed a hand on his arm to try and calm him down. Stefan joined me next to the others.
"Yeah, I'm hungry anyway. Lets go eat. I'll let you choose who we eat." He tried to persuade them. Nik grabbed my hand silently and began leading me out the door and Stefan and Rebekah joined us as we left Gloria alone so she could work on the spell.
...…xxxxxxxxxxxx
We were back in the same warehouse that had stored Rebekah before being undaggered. The three vampires were feeding on the humans that they had found and I was lying on one the many boxes with my laptop, trying to block out the sound of their feeding. A body thumped to the ground as Rebekah dropped a dead human girl at her feet. She walked over to me and sat up next to me. I closed the laptop and turned to her with a smile.
"My girl's dead. I'm bored." She announced with a pout and I giggled at her. Both Nik and Stefan ignored her and continued to feed until both the other humans were dead also. I pushed my laptop over to Bec so that she could watch Americas Next Top Model. I had shown it to her the night before and was starting to regret it.
"You weren't kidding about being hungry." Nik said to Stefan in amusement as the younger vampire wiped blood off his lips.
"Long day." Was his only response.
"Try being related to her." Nik joked with a head nod to Rebekah. Stefan laughed out loud and Bec head snapped up from the laptop.
"You're being mean." She frowned at her brother. He smiled and she turned her frown back to Stefan. "And why are you being mean? You used to love me."
"It's being 90 years, Rebekah. Give him a minute." Nik defended Stefan, and I smiled.
"Why are you on his side?" She asked her brother, annoyed. She looked at me then. "You're on my side, aren't you?" She asked me and I nodded in response because I didn't think I could answer without laughing.
"Because, my dear sister, I feel pity for any man that doesn't give you what you want."
"Would you stop making me out to be such a brat? I am not a brat!"
"A thousand years of life experience says otherwise."
"Well you're no picnic either. I mean, I've only spent one summer with you and feel like I want to blow my head off." Stefan responded, making Rebekah and I both laugh out loud. Nik glared at both of us.
"Aren't you going to defend me, beauty?" He asked me. I snorted in amusement.
"Why? It's probably true." I replied with a smile. Nik moved over to me and kissed me passionately.
"Fantastic." I heard Rebekah say faintly in disgust.
"I need to go." Stefan said and left the the warehouse. Nik pulled back and smiled at me lovingly. He wiped my lower lip with his thumb. Rebekah pretended to gag and I laugh at her.
"Alright, Sunshine. You are with me." I told her as I jumped down from the box I was sitting on. I put my laptop in my bag and stood up straight.
"Where are you going?" Nik asked us incredulously. I smirked at him and linked my arm with Bec.
"Girl bonding." I simply said. I blew a kiss at him and us girls left the warehouse.
"Now that he is gone, where are we going?" Rebekah asked me.
"Shopping." I replied with a smile. "It will be so much more fun without the boys looking over our shoulder and complaining nonstop."
"How do you expect to do that without any money?" She asked me and I snort in response.
"Even if I didn't have a way, which I do, you are an original vampire with the power of compulsion." I laughed, and she joined in with me. "But luckily, Nik must have forgotten that he gave me a credit card months ago." I said as I waved around the credit card that I had stashed in my wallet. Rebekah linked her arm with mine and we walked to a clothing boutique. Bec immediately compelled all the staff so that they served our every need. As we looked through a clothing a rack, Rebekah looked back at me with a confused look on her face.
"What is it?" I asked her.
"Why are you with my brother?" She asked as she came closer. I looked at her in confusion so she kept going. "You're human. You should be living a human life."
"You don't chose who you love, Bec." I told her with a smile. She smiled back at me and nodded.
"How did you find out he was a vampire?"
"I knew from the beginning." I told her as I sat down on the couch. Rebekah sat next to me and waited for me to continue. I sighed and recounted the story of how I met Nik for the first time nine months ago.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx...
I was walking ago a bridge outside of Chicago. The wind blow my auburn hair wildly and I pushed it back roughly. Tears streamed down my face but I didn't care. I ran to the edge of bridge and climbed up onto the ledge. I had chosen that bridge especially. It was outside of Chicago so that anyone could interfere and it closely resembled the Wickery Brigde that my parents had died on months before. I slipped my coat off, took a deep breath, let it out and chucked my shoes onto the road beside me. I closed my eyes and jumped. I felt weightless as I fell fast. As I hit the water, my body crashed against the cold water. My brain screamed at me to breath. To get out of the water. My eyes closed. The weightless feeling that I experienced when falling overtook my body again. A searing pain stabbed my leg and my eyes opened again. I screamed and instead of air I took in water. My lungs burned as the water reached them. Suddenly, the water was replaced with air and I gasped in big breathes. I opened my eyes and saw a man with gorgeous blue eyes starring down at me.
"Are you okay?" He asked in a British accent. I nodded my head mutely. I looked around and saw that I was laying on the edge of the river I was just in. I shook my head and looked back at the stranger that had saved me. I pushed him off me.
"Why?" I screamed at him. I struggled to my feet and wobbled on my shaking legs. He looked confused that I was screaming at him instead of thanking him.
"I think the words you're looking for are 'thank you'." He replied, making me scoff.
"Why did you pull me out!?" I yelled at him, tears running down my face freely. I slapped him as hard as I could. His eyes flashed with anger and he put his hands on my shoulders to hold me still. I was surprised at his strength. He sniffed the air and looked down at the cut on my leg. I followed his gaze and saw a piece of wood sticking out of my calf. I reached down and pulled it out. Ignoring the mans warning not to. The blood poured out the wound rapidly. I started feeling faint and sunk down to my knees. I looked up at the man who had saved me and saw that his eyes were now black and the veins around his eyes were black as well. I gasped in surprise.
"You're a vampire." I stated plainly and he looked down at me in surprise.
"You know about vampires?" He asked me as he sunk down next to me. I nodded, momentarily forgetting my bleeding leg.
"My father told me." I said with a small smile as I remembered when my birth father, John told me about vampires.
"Well, then you know that vampire blood can heal." He said with a smile and he bit down on his wrist. He offered my his wrist and I looked at it with suspicion. "Oh, come on, love." He murmured before bring his wrist to my mouth and forcing me to drink his blood. I threw his wrist back at him and stood up. My leg and my dizziness was perfect now that I had vampire blood in my system.
"Why?!" I shouted at him. "Why do you think I jumped off the damn Brigde!? I didn't want to be saved!"
"You can't die yet." He said simply in his defence.
"And why not?" I whispered as he stepped closer. He pushed a strand of my wet hair behind my ear.
"Because I don't know you yet." He said softly.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx...
Later that night Nik and I went to check on Gloria's progress. Nik was growing impatient waiting for news of the necklace. He stopped suddenly and I nearly ran into the back of him. As I about to scold him, he held up a hand to silence me and I complied and glared at his back instead.
"Something's wrong." He murmured softly. We walked into the bar and found it completely empty. Nik looked around the place and I went to the bar and grabbed one of the remaining bottles of scotch. Taking a sip straight out of the bottle, I watched as Nik came back angry. "She's gone." He told me.
"Then we find another witch." I said firmly and held out the bottle of scotch for him. He smiled at me and walked over to join me. He pulled me into a kiss and lost myself in the feel of his lips on mine. I smiled as he pulled away. I jumped up onto the counter and smirked as I looked around the empty building.
"You know, there is one good thing about Gloria leaving." I stated as I took a sip of the scotch.
"And what pray tell is that, beauty?"
"We are all alone." I whispered huskily into his ear. He chuckled and planted a kiss on my neck. He kissed my lips again and our loving kiss quickly turned passionate an hungry. My shirt was off in seconds and soon all of our clothes followed suit.
...xxxxxxxxxx
We walked into the warehouse to find Rebekah and Stefan and let them know that Gloria was gone. When we arrived the ex lovers were standing awkwardly in the middle of the room.
"Gloria's gone. She's cleared out. We need to find a new witch immediately." He said before taking note of the awkward tension in the air. "What's going on?"
"Something's wrong. He was asking about Mikael. He's not with us. I can tell." Rebekah answered her brother. Nik looked at Stefan was a mixture of disappointment and curiosity.
"She's wrong. Klaus…" Stefan started but got cut off by Nik breaking his neck.
"He was worried we were going to find the necklace." I told them as I walked closer, stepping over Stefan's dead body in the process. Nik and Rebekah both looked at me expectantly. "He knows where it is."
"I think I trip to Mystic Falls is in order." Nik announced and I frowned at the mention of my home town. He looked back at me and I met hiss gaze. Rebekah must have felt the tension in the air because she felt the need to go and pack for the trip. After she left, Nik walked up to and held both of my hands in his.
"You don't have to come." He told me. I smile slightly at him.
"I want to come. Unless that was a thinly veiled attempt not to get me to come." I joked, making him smile and shake his head.
"I definitely want you there with me."
"Then I'll come. It will be nice for me to see the looks on the faces of all the people that abandoned me when they see that I'm no longer the scared ugly duckling." I explained to him, but in reality I was scared of going home. Who knew what awaited me home in Mystic Falls.