Chapter 27

Babysteps

Kol looked at an old house in front of him. It certainly hadn't been painted recently and there were all kind of junk on the yard. Kol walked to the door and knocked. A man who opened the door was maybe in his forties, he had a dark messy hair and his eyes were almost grey. He was wearing boxers and a dirty t-shirt.

"What?" he asked angrily. "And for your sake, you better not sell anything…"

"Robert Leven?" Kol asked calmly.

"Who wants to know?" he asked rudely.

Kol smiled and looked into his eyes.

"Are you Robert Leven?"

"Yes."

"Good. In that case, invite me in."

"Come in."

Kol walked in and closed the door behind him. The house looked as bad inside than outside. Clearly Uncle Bobby wasn't much of a housekeeper.

"Are you here alone?" Kol asked.

"Yes", he replied mechanically.

"Do you expect any company?"

"No."

"Good, we can chat then."

"Who are you?" he asked.

Kol smiled.

"That is not important. Only thing you need to know is that I'm here for Selene."

Bobby's eyes widened.

"Who?" he asked coldly.

"Oh come on, surely you remember your niece? What a sweet girl she is, despite of what you did to her."

"I don't know what you're talking about. And you shouldn't believe a word she says, that girl had always been a liar."

"Hmm, somehow I doubt that. You want to know what I think. I think that you are the liar here, Uncle Bobby."

"Get the hell out of my house, I don't have to listen…"

"Quiet", Kol said and twisted his arm back breaking few bones. He was screaming.

"I haven't done anything, I swear!"

"You know, nobody likes liars", Kol said smiling and did the same to his other arm.

"Alright, please just stop! What do you want me to say?"

"I want you to admit what you did to Selene."

Bobby looked at him tensely but didn't say anything.

Kol shrugged.

"Alright, I can do this all day. And you still have plenty of bones left to break."

"No! Alright… But I didn't do anything wrong, she wanted it."

"Really now? You do realize that she was a child?"

"Look, I'm sorry but I didn't do anything wrong…"

Kol grabbed his throat smiling coldly.

"Oh, you will be much sorrier when I have finished, I promise you."

...

Selene was standing on a balcony looking at the Pacific Ocean. She was excited to be in the west coast for the first time. She had always wanted to swim in the sea. She had to ask Kol when he would come back. Hopefully he wouldn't ask anything unreasonable in return. But he had acted surprisingly nice for last few days. Selene couldn't help but wonder what the catch was. Kol never did anything without some kind of hidden agenda.

She looked at all the people on the beach laughing and enjoying the last sunrays for the day. The sun would set soon. Selene had no idea what time Kol would be back but she hoped that he would be in a good mood. Hopefully the meeting with his friend had been successful. It was funny but somehow she found it hard to picture Kol spending time with a friend. Did they go out for a beer or something? Selene couldn't help but smile.

She went back inside to their suite and tried to think of something to do. Kol had left some of his clothes lying around so she started to gather them. Men, it didn't seem to matter were they humans or vampires, they always seemed to be messy. She took the clothes to his bedroom and opened a drawer. She was just about to place the clothes there when she noticed something. Was that her shirt? She picked it up. It was her shirt. She had thought that she lost it.

But why would he keep it in his drawer? Selene couldn't think of any reason for that. If he wanted to mess with her he could probably think of something better than stealing her clothes. She had a feeling that it was best not to say anything to him. She put the shirt back to the drawer and placed his clothes on the bed. She barely got out of his room when Kol arrived. He seemed to be in an excellent mood.

"Hello darling", he said smiling. "How was your day?"

"Not so bad. How about yours?"

Kol grinned.

"I can't complain."

"That's nice. So that meeting with your friend went ok?"

"Oh, you could certainly say that. And here, I got something for you."

He handed her a bag.

"What is this?" Selene asked.

Kol rolled his eyes.

"Just see for yourself."

Selene opened the bag and picked up some cloth. It was a white shirt with pink sleeves and a picture of a bunny. Selene couldn't believe her eyes.

"You…got me a shirt?"

Kol smiled.

"Since you don't seem to wear those very expensive clothes I bought for you, I figured this might be more of your liking."

"It is, thank you."

Suddenly she was cautious. Why was he being so nice?

"But if I remember correctly you still owe me that massage", he said grinning.

Selene sighed.

"Yes, let's just get it over with."

She sat on the couch and Kol sat on the floor in front of her. She started to massage his shoulders.

"Hmm, you have a nice touch darling", he said.

Selene rolled her eyes. Then she noticed something on his neck and shirt. Blood. She tried to ignore it.

"What's wrong?" Kol asked. Apparently he noticed her body tensing.

"You should probably change your shirt", she said quietly.

Kol turned and looked at her.

"Hmm, probably."

He got up and walked to his bedroom but he came back almost immediately.

"Have you been in my room?" he asked.

"I just took some of your clothes there, I didn't touch anything", Selene said as calmly as she could.

Kol looked at her for a while.

"Hmm", he murmured and went back to his room.

Selene looked at the shirt he had bought for her. Had he actually done something nice without wanting anything in return? That seemed very strange. And why was he keeping her shirt in his drawer? Selene had no idea what to think.