Disclaimer: I don't own TVD.
Whoa. Looooooooooong chapter, guys. Sorry for the wait. Shit be cray lately. Don't forget to review and I hope you enjoy! :D
Bonnie stirred, her eyes clenching shut in attempt to keep out the morning sunlight that peeked through the motel curtains.
Beside her Kol stirred. Despite the awkward tension that had filled the room last night, things were definitely much easier when he wasn't talking or making an attempt to get with her.
Her phone buzzed once and she groaned softly as she reached out for it.
It was a voice-mail from Caroline. Making sure Kol was still asleep, she put the receiver to her ear.
Bonnie, I don't know where you are or why exactly you left without telling me... But I have a lead. Or I think I do. Her name is Miranda. The person you and Kol are looking for is Miranda. I just... I have a hunch.
Bonnie's eyebrows arched. The message ended and she frowned. That was it? The message was so abrupt and so unlike Caroline.
Kol stirred again, his eyes opening slowly as he yawned.
He glanced at Bonnie.
"Morning beautiful."
Bonnie's eyes fell to his bare chest. It wasn't exactly bad to look at but she still felt a pang of annoyance. If it had been any other person being so persistent about her, she might have given in. But this was Kol. The naive, irresponsible murderous Kol Mikaelson. Original. No remorse whatsoever for humans.
Despite a part of her wanting to, she couldn't. This was business. What she wanted to do and what she should do were slim but nevertheless diverging paths.
"When did you take off your shirt?" she asked, pulling back the covers and sitting up straighter.
Kol smiled mischievously.
"Nevermind, stupid question." Bonnie reached for her bag. "Caroline left me a message. She said that the witch's name is Miranda."
"Good to know," he cleared his throat. "Any idea what she might look like? Granny didn't exactly give me much to go on."
"I can tell. You dragged me out here without so much as a name or a face."
Kol rolled his eyes, standing up and looking for his shirt. He'd thrown it around here somewhere...
Bonnie sighed, pointing to the corner. "It's right there."
Kol smiled again and bent to pick up his shirt. Bonnie, despite her better mindset, couldn't help but watch. She felt like a preteen again. Like a twelve year old who was just looking at her first boyfriend shirtless.
Wait- what? she paused, gulping. Where did 'boyfriend' come from?
"Like what you see?" Kol asked lightly. He hadn't turned around yet he'd still caught her.
Bonnie averted her eyes and felt her face flush with heat.
What the hell was happening?
Caroline sighed as a pair of lips grazed against her neck. Her hands tangled up in the man's curls and she gasped as his hands gripped her waist harder.
She didn't open her eyes-she was afraid that if she did then the dream would be over.
She didn't want it to be over.
"Caroline," he said.
Caroline shook her head, her lips making contact with his. She felt him deepen the kiss, a tingling sensation coursing through her veins. She'd never been kissed this way. Never with such an intensity that left her curling her toes.
She sighed, opening her mouth and feeling his tongue graze her. She laughed a bit at the feeling. Slowly, she slid her hands from his hair to grip his shoulders. She didn't want to stop feeling good.
Klaus... she thought silently.
"Wake up, Caroline," he said softly.
She breathed slowly, her eyes fluttering.
No, she thought.
"Wake up," he said again.
Caroline's eyes shot open and she gasped for air.
"Caroline?" her mom called from downstairs.
She heard footsteps climb the stairs and three seconds later, her mom opened the bedroom door. "Caroline?"
"Mom?"
Liz Forbes shook her head. "Do you have any plans of getting out of bed today? It's almost one in the afternoon."
Caroline's eyes widened as she threw the covers aside, getting up too quickly and causing her head to spin.
"Oh my god," she said, running a hand through her hair. "I slept that long?"
Her mom nodded. Her expression was somber and Caroline was quick to catch it.
"No news on dad yet?"
Her mother shook her head. "We're trying the best we can but it's like your father has disappeared off the face of the Earth."
Caroline bit her lip. Not necessarily, she wanted to say.
"I won't stop looking for him."
Caroline's soft eyes looked at her mother. This was the first time in a long while that Caroline had seen a subtle fierceness in Liz's eyes. Especially if it had to do with her dad.
She had, like a lot of things, assumed that because of their crumbling marriage that Liz might not have cared that much about Bill.
It seemed silly to think that now. Of course Liz cared about Bill. They had been in love at some point.
"Mom?"
Liz sighed, "Yes?"
"Do you still love dad?"
Her mother's eyes dimmed. "I love him the way you'd love a friend. Despite how angry I want to be about our marriage not working out the way we wanted it to be, I can't. I can't because he's your father. Because at some point, I did love your father like a man."
She gripped her holster.
"I'm not heartless toward him, sweetie."
Caroline swallowed. "I know."
They stared at each other until Liz's walkie talkie began to buzz. Sighing, she retreated, mumbling a goodbye before leaving Caroline alone.
There was a roar of thunder and she looked out her window. The sky had clouded over and she sighed. It was a bit ironic that the weather would mimic her emotions.
She glanced down at her palm. The pentagram mark was still there and she frowned. Somehow a small part of her had hoped it had been a dream.
Unfortunately, it wasn't.
"Excuse me, do you know a Miranda?" Bonnie asked the old woman. She could tell the woman was a witch-a psychic.
The woman shook her head. Her hair was curly and gray. Her caramel skin was wrinkled and her eyes were a dull green.
"No; haven't known anybody local by the name 'Miranda'."
She took her eyes off of Bonnie and went back to shuffling the cards.
"Well, thanks anyway, I guess," Bonnie sighed, getting up slowly. She locked eyes with Kol and shook her head. They'd been around asking local witches if they knew a Miranda. All of them had said no and it was beginning to make Bonnie edgy.
For all she knew, they could be lying to cover her ass.
"Hold on a second, sugar."
Bonnie stopped short, her boots clicking once more on the pavement.
"I have a preposition."
Bonnie turned to face the old woman.
"Let me look into your future and I'll see if that jogs up my memory a bit," she said.
Kol appeared beside Bonnie, putting a hand on her arm.
"Don't-she's just trying to trick you. She's conning you into giving her money."
Bonnie sighed. "She might know something, Kol."
They stared at each other for a brief moment before Kol groaned, letting his hand drop. Bonnie nodded and sat back down at the table.
"How much?"
The woman's dull green eyes flared. "For you, sugar... Fifty dollars."
"That's kind of expensive for a reading, don't you think?" Kol asked.
The woman didn't take her eyes off of Bonnie. "You're not going to find the real deal for much cheaper, darling. I'm an actual psychic."
Kol gritted his teeth. "Fine." He tossed her a fifty.
"Give me your hands," she instructed to Bonnie.
Bonnie did as told and winced slightly at how hard the woman gripped her. She heard her mumble something knew- it wasn't in Latin so Bonnie had no way of knowing what the woman was saying.
After a few seconds, she released her hands and drew up tarot cards. "I don't do palm readings," she explained. "I let the cards do the work."
She gingerly placed twelve cards in two rows of six.
"Pick three wisely," she said.
Bonnie blinked, looking at the cards. Without contemplating too much, she chose three.
The old woman removed the rest of the cards, leaving only the ones Bonnie had picked. Her wrinkled hands moved them into a row of three.
"Past, present, and future," she stated.
Bonnie nodded. Okay, she thought silently.
She flipped one over.
"The sun. Your past was leveled by truth. It was simple, easy."
Okay, I can agree on that one, Bonnie thought. It was before she realized that she was a witch.
She flipped the next one over. "Justice. You have a heavy burden placed on you- you're acting as the medium to balance and restoration,"
Bonnie's eyes widened.
"You're doing everything you can to bring back that balance. You're willing to do whatever it takes to get it done. To get everything back to way it was, to how it worked. Nothing is going to get in your way of accomplishing this. It's not to say it's unfair- no, the justice card insinuates that this is the fairest way there is."
Bonnie stiffened. The cards were... Getting frighteningly accurate. In some ways, she supposed that she was a median for justice. She was a servant of nature. Nature required balance and her Grams had always told her that was the priority for witches. To keep the balance.
What did you expect when you're a witch bargaining with another witch? This isn't child's play.
Bonnie watched as the old woman flipped the last card: the future.
"The lovers."
Wait- what? Bonnie thought. Beside her Kol shifted in his seat.
"It's often thought that this card is merely about mundane love. But there is so much more to it. It's about harmony and of the choices we choose to make of it. From what I can tell, sugar, you're not the type to fall in love so easily."
Her dull green eyes glinted as she stared at Bonnie. The air had gotten thick and Bonnie could feel her heart racing.
"Your future holds a dangerous choice. Do you choose to become whatever it takes to be with the person you love? Or do you make the choice to keep a balance- the harmony. Perhaps there's already someone in your life that will prompt this question for you?"
Kol shifted again, his eyes looking at Bonnie. The feeling in the air had gone from aloof to awkward in less than a second. A part of him wanted it to be true. Hell, that same part wanted it to be him that the card was referring to. Could it be him? It was obvious that Bonnie was different-but there was something else pulling him to her.
He saw Bonnie glance at him, he could hear her heart pick up when she realized he was already looking at her.
Bonnie looked away, her face warm and head confused.
It's just a tarot reading.
An incredibly accurate tarot reading. she thought a moment later.
After a few brief seconds, Kol cleared his throat. "Okay, you've had your fun. Are you going to tell us if you know a Miranda or not?"
"Of course I know a Miranda," the woman grumbled. "Who doesn't? That girl has a reputation about as sullied as any other witch who practices Expression."
"Expression?" Bonnie questioned.
"Don't get me wrong, sugar," the woman said. "I love having no rules or boundaries when it comes to magic but there's a right and there's a wrong. I don't necessarily practice that dark magic. It's too...physically demanding. Not to mention I don't want dirty looks thrown my way."
"Do you know where we can find her?" Bonnie asked, leaning forward.
"She's gone."
Pause.
"What do you mean she's gone?" Kol interjected, throwing his hands in the air.
"I mean exactly that. She had some business to conduct in Virginia. Lord knows what she's going to do. Probably stir up more trouble."
"Virginia?" Bonnie whispered to herself. She gave Kol a strange look and he sighed. "She could be going to Mystic Falls for all we know, Kol."
She turned back to the woman.
"Can you describe what she looks like?"
The old woman gave her an incredulous look and snorted, stretching out her hand. "Better yet, I can show you. But it'll cost you fifty."
Kol groaned, pulling out his wallet again.
"Bonnie's on her way back," Caroline said as she shoved her cellphone into her pocket.
Klaus reappeared with parchments and a large book. "And this Miranda character?"
Caroline shook her head, staring at the book in his hands. To her it just looked like a dusty encyclopedia.
"What's that?" Caroline asked, sitting up straighter.
His blue eyes hot her a glance. "An old text I acquired in Italy from a nobleman some five hundred years ago," he paused. "Give or take."
"Ah," she said, smiling slightly. The air was still tense but she supposed that it was from the tension.
Klaus wasn't bad to look at and it wasn't helping when he'd drop a comment on how beautiful he thought she was. For the most part she just blamed her raging hormones.
No, she thought suddenly. Her heart sped up briefly at the thoughts that made their way into her brain. She'd gone this far without sex- she didn't want to wreck anything just because she had the urge to jump his bones every time their skins touched.
"I remember seeing something in here," he said. "It might help our Garnet situation."
Caroline nodded. The room fell silent as Klaus started flipping through the pages.
"Klaus? Can I ask you something?"
"Go for it," he responded, his head bowed down at the book.
She bit her lip. "Do you ever get these...dreams...that show you something- someone-telling you of what's about to happen?"
His slender fingers ceased to flip the pages. Hesitantly, he looked up.
"I'm not exactly sure what you mean."
"It's kind of hard to explain," Caroline said. "But I'll have these dreams where I have somebody talking to me-warning me about something that hasn't happened as if it already has for them."
He blinked. "Well, I know that witches have clairvoyant dreams-that could be a possibility."
She bit her lip harder. "Is it crazy to say that it feels kind of like time travel?"
His eyebrow arched. "I'm sure that's not... That's highly impossible."
He stopped momentarily. Caroline could practically hear the gears turning in his head. She noticed his posture stiffen and she shook her head.
"What?" Caroline asked. The silence was beginning to alarm her. "Klaus?" she exclaimed.
His hands moved quickly, working faster to flip through the pages.
"What-?" Caroline started before he shoved the book to her. The text was messy-whomever had written it definitely wasn't any good at penmanship but it was readable.
She gave him a strange look. I took Spanish-I don't know fluent Italian, she thought. Then again, the roots of the words were pretty much the same. She adjusted the book, trying to make at some of the words. When she felt like it was enough she looked up.
"Astral projection?"
"Does that description match any of your dreams?" he asked.
Caroline blinked. The text was pretty clear on the subject.
"Yes," she said. "It's one person specifically that talks to me in my dreams."
"What does this person tell you? Do they mention a way to kill Garnet for good?"
She shook her head again. If the Klaus in her dreams couldn't tell her how, she supposed reality Klaus knew even less.
Nevertheless, she had to come clean if they were going to work together against the bitch witch herself.
"No, he doesn't," she whispered. "You don't."
Klaus' eyes snapped to her. He didn't say anything. He just sat there looking at her.
She dreamed of me? he thought to himself.
He'd always been sketchy on the astral projection theory. Over the course of his life he'd only ever met a handful of witches with such capabilities. He shouldn't have been so surprised. Caroline wasn't just a witch. She was also part angel. It probably made it easier for her abilities to be extended beyond those of a regular witch.
Still, the witches who could project had all mentioned that it was a difficult ability to control. They had told him that the witch needed an anchor.
Someone on the other end of the line to tether them from losing themselves in the other world. The fact that his future-self was Caroline's anchor made his heart swell.
Caroline fidgeted with her hands. He hadn't said anything and she assumed that she'd freaked him out with the truth.
"You can astral project."
She stayed silent.
"Can you-" he stumbled over his words. It seemed like there was a first time for everything. "Can you control it?"
Again, she shook her head. "The dreams come when they want. I don't think I can force one although I've never exactly tried, either."
She looked down, remembering her dream from earlier in the morning. Her cheeks involuntarily flushed. She looked away from his gaze, afraid she'd make an idiot out of herself if she told him.
She couldn't exactly differentiate between regular dreams and when she was projecting. Yet she wasn't about to ask him how by telling Klaus about how she'd thought of making out with him.
"I think until I can tell the difference between projecting and regular dreaming," Caroline swallowed. "We should get back to finding out how we can get rid of Garnet for good."
"We're about half an hour out," Kol said, eyes on the road.
The car was thick with tension. Hell, the air between them seemed like a ticking bomb since the older witch had pulled the Lovers card on Bonnie.
"Can we please talk about the elephant in the room?" Kol asked, taking a glance at Bonnie.
"What's there to say?" she said sharply.
"Well, you've given me the cold shoulder since that woman conned me out of all my cash."
She gritted her teeth. "Let it go, Kol."
"I really can't."
"It was just a card."
He shook his head. "We both know it wasn't just a card."
"No- it was. It doesn't mean what you think it means."
He snorted. "Is this your way of rejecting me?"
Bonnie grimaced. Suddenly her anger and annoyance spiked. "Stop the car."
He slammed the brakes. Once the car was still Bonnie pushed the door open. She needed air. Anything but being stuck in a cramped space with the Original-Pain-In-Her-Ass.
"What is your problem?" he questioned harshly, vamp-speeding next to her. She groaned, feebly pushing him away.
"I know what you're after, Kol. I'm not that sort of girl or witch. I'm not some play thing."
He opened his mouth. "Haven't you been paying attention?" he argued, grabbing her shoulders.
She wasn't looking at him and he lightly shook her.
"Look at me," he demanded.
Reluctantly, she did.
"I have never thought of you as easy. Ever," he said. "Bonnie Bennett, you're different. Christ, I haven't felt so- so hideously human in a thousand years."
She stopped gritting her teeth, her heart speeding up from the anger and from his words.
"You," he pointed out. "You're fire. I've always been numb. Always. Until I met you. You see something that needs to be done and you accomplish it. You're good- fair. Just. Everything I'm not and-"
he stumbled, his eyes on hers.
"Dammit, Bennett. I'm in love with you."
Bonnie's eyes widened but it was too late to respond. He pulled himself closer and suddenly his lips were on hers, urgent and harsh.
Then something inexplicable happened.
She kissed him back greedily. Her hands unclenched and moved, making their way to his neck. She felt his hands slide from her shoulders, trailing down to her hips.
Bonnie knew that his confession didn't make much sense. They'd hardly known each other. But like a drug, she couldn't resist giving in to her desires. God, it was unreal how crazy he made her act and feel.
He made a sound from the back of his throat and pulled her closer, her warmth against his body.
Vaguely, he knew this was a very, very bad thing to do. Dumb enoughto qualify for a silver daggering from Nik. But he was selfish and he didn't care. All he cared about right now was the girl in his arms.
Bonnie's reasoning returned and she halted, pulling away. Her breathing was ragged and she was glad Kol's was as well.
"This is bad," she whispered. Her eyes met his. "This is very bad."
He didn't need to say it. They were both thinking the same thing.
Oh, Caroline and Klaus would so not approve, Bonnie thought.
So. KENNETT! Haha, not exactly a surprise on my behalf. I've been leaning towards them being together since the very beginning of this story. What can I say? I'm a sucker for Kol and Bonnie. Klaroline is... Well, they're slow and steady. I want to take time to develop their trust for one another before making Caroline just jump into bed with Klaus (that wouldn't be very in-character now, would it?) So, patience is a virtue in this fic. Sorry again for the long periods between updates. Don't forget to drop me a review!
-Fanatic4Fiction