"I gave up, jumped out the plane
And hopped inside a drop of rain
Look, in my eyes, a hurricane
The wind, it smelled like sugarcanes."

Waking up late wasn't my style. I was usually always up with plenty of time to get dressed and dolled up, as Jeremy called it some mornings when my routine got in his way of being a normal teenage guy.

Today was a late rising day, so late that I barely had time to put any makeup at all. I threw on a fitted navy dress with a flared polka dot skirt, some wedge boots, and a loose fitting grey cardigan, with my ash brown hair in a tied ponytail that looked like I almost put some effort into it.

Elena was waiting on my bed when I hurried out of the bathroom, and her eyebrows were locked together, in a sort of way that made me forget that I was running behind; Kol and I had agreed to get to school as early as possible, to try and talk to Rebekah about the plan before Caroline got there and overheard.

My phone had a text from him when I first got up, telling me that he managed to find her out and about, and he was able to get her on his side of things; she agreed to go along with his identity as long as we were going to find a way to take down Klaus.

That was a relief. I didn't think Kol could handle it if he had to actually let us dagger her. He couldn't do it without showing everyone that he was an Original, but letting me do it would kill him.

Tears began rolling down Elena's cheeks, and I crossed the room, finding myself next to her warmth in a second. "What's wrong?"

She did her best to wipe the tears away, to stop them from messing up what little makeup she had put on, and she took a deep breath. "We have to send Jeremy away."

My eyebrows furrowed. "What? Why would we do that? Klaus isn't going to hurt him, remember? That was the whole point of going behind Damon's back last night."

"Because he's sixteen years old," she insisted. "He shouldn't have to worry about making new friends. He shouldn't have to go everywhere looking over his shoulder. The only things he should have to worry about are what girl he wants to date and studying for the big math test. Instead, he's gotta wonder if he should've packed his wooden stake before going to school!"

I shook my head. "Elena, you can't do this."

"I have to," she whispered. "I have to protect him. I can't protect you from it, but I can protect him."

"No, don't!" I exclaimed, and the idea of it all got my blood boiling. "Do you remember what happened last time you compelled him? He found out and hated you! And things are just starting to work back out between him and Bonnie! Don't you think they both deserve some happiness for a change?"

"What choice do I have?" she asked.

I snorted, the warm air that had seeped into my bedroom burning my nostrils. "Plenty! Let me talk to him, see if he really wants to get out of town."

"He won't," she said. "He'll want to stay here to try and protect us and Bonnie. He won't do what's best for him."

"Then he's not going," I said. "I know you wanna protect him, and so do I, but not this way. Besides, Kol compelled him to only take his ring off if Kol told him to."

Her eyebrows furrowed. "Why would he compel him to only take it off if he told him to? Why not compel him not to take it off at all?"

"I don't know." My muscles in my shoulders strained to life when my arms folded over one another, holding onto my stomach in an attempt to grip onto my sides, to try and remind myself that this was Elena. I didn't need to lose my temper on her. "There's probably some reason behind it."

"I mean, what do you really know about Kol?" she asked, but her own arms folded as the corners of her eyes tightened. "You don't find it a little bit odd that all he said about why he wants to kill Klaus is that Klaus destroyed his family? You know nothing about him, Darcy, and you're blindly trusting him."

A deep ache echoed through the bones of my jaws, grind through my teeth, as I realized my jaw had clenched, probably too tightly. "You don't know anything about him. I knew he was a vampire from day one, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember you lied."

"Because I knew this was how you would react!" I exclaimed. "I felt the magic in his blood and asked him what he was doing here. He realized that I was a witch and told me the truth; he just wants to put Klaus down. He wants him to stop hurting everyone around him, like he did to Kol."

"What do you know about what Klaus did to him?" she asked. "All he said was that he killed his family. That's pretty vague."

"It's actually quite specific," I disagreed. "Kol came from a large family, centuries ago. They were friends with the Original family, and Kol was made a vampire because of their friendship. His sisters all served the Originals, one of them actually falling in love with Klaus, and one day, one of the sisters found the room where Klaus had stored the coffins. She took the dagger out of the one that was in there, but Klaus found her in there and killed her. Her sister found her dead body, and Klaus, after making her believe that it was Kol who had lost control of himself, had her ready to stake Kol. When Kol found out why, he confronted Klaus that night, who offered him an apology and a chalice of blood as peace offering. Kol took the offer, but after it was gone, Klaus informed him that it was the blood of his sisters, and that it tasted so sweet."

"Oh my God." Elena's eyes grew wide. "I knew he was twisted, but that's dark."

It was a pretty dark story, and I asked Kol when he told it to me if it might be too much, but he insisted it was the perfect story—because while it may not be the truth, it was a twist of the truth. It was how he felt about his brother.

He had Rebekah, who had once been Kol's closest sibling, turning against him over and over again. He killed his siblings with daggers over and over, with the fear of being daggered himself keeping him from removing the daggers from their chests over the years.

To him, it was like his siblings had died by the hand of Klaus because every sense of family they all once felt was gone each time he shoved daggers through their hearts and they woke up later.

Elena didn't say anything more, only left my room and headed down the stairs. The gruesome story seemed to work, as Kol said that it would; a twist of the truth that was dark enough, no one would question it further. They would believe he was on their side with a story like that.

The second I knew she was gone, I dropped down under my bed and pulled out the box that I had done my best to hide towards the back, where no vampires could find it. What had started as a way to make sure no vampires got in my head while I slept turned out to work in my favor. At one point, we used to all ingest vervain as a precaution, even with vervain bracelets and whatnot, but the supply of it became limited, especially with the vampires in town had to start taking it with the Originals hanging around.

I kept a few strands of it for a just in case situation, not really knowing what kind of situation might call for vervain, but I broke off a piece of it and stuck it in my pocket before heading downstairs and grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge.

No one said anything the entire way to school, with Elena at the driver's seat and Jeremy in the back. I could hear his fingers tapping against the screen of my phone, and I kept a close check on mine—only a text from Kol that read If you were so cute, I'd be annoyed at how late you are—but hearing Jeremy texting away again brought a smile to my face, very similar to the smile Kol's text had.

It was different kinds of happiness. Jeremy was working to correct his mistake, not just letting the pain and guilt of it all consume him. This was the most grown up I'd ever seen him, and I was proud of him, and beyond happy.

When we arrived at school, Jeremy lingered by the car, as there were a couple of empty parking spots around that I imagined he expected Bonnie to take. Elena didn't even notice him waiting, as her thoughts were consumed with what she had mentioned to me.

With the strand of vervain still tucked into the pocket of my jacket, the water bottle in hand, my thoughts were on what she mentioned to—making sure she absolutely couldn't do that to him.

She was pulled out of the thoughts in her head when she looked up and noticed the two vampires standing not even fifteen feet away from us, both my boyfriend and the blonde Original who she knew would be out to get her the first chance she got.

Her hand reached out to grab my arm, to stop me from taking another step forward, and she pulled me closer to her, trying to keep me from moving forward, too.

Kol's face was empty of all expression, though the corners of his eyes were a bit tight, but when Elena stopped me, he just looked uncomfortable, like one might look if their favorite toy was taken away by someone they couldn't fight against to get it back.

Rebekah, however, had her nostrils flared, her eyes burning with the darkest of rages, and her arms folded so tightly over her chest that I wondered if she was going to break a bone. She was dressed in typical Rebekah fashion, wearing cute clothes that showed wealth and class, in a way all the Mikaelsons seemed to dress, even with different styles to do so.

Elena put her ear next to mine. "Darcy, we have to go. You said Klaus gave you his word, but that doesn't look like she's going to let us walk past. And why is Kol with Rebekah?"

I shrugged. "I'm sure they met over the years, and if Rebekah still wants Klaus dead, they have something in common."

"I'm going inside," she said, and she took a single step back from me. "It's safer around a crowd of people."

I nodded. "Yeah. I'll be right behind you."

Now that Elena was gone, keeping her eyes off of both Kol and Rebekah as she tried to safely scurry away, Kol was able to allow himself to express his emotions through facial movements and the slightest tightening of his jaw.

"You never mentioned that Nik was the one who killed our mother."

I closed the distance between us and bit down on my bottom lip. "You're right, I didn't. I didn't even think about it, to be honest."

Rebekah's lips pressed into a thin pink line, her eyebrows knitting together. "Kol tells me you're the one who removed the daggers from all of my siblings, yet you left me rotting at the Salvatore's. Why is that?"

"I couldn't just get down there to get you out," I reminded her. "It's a house full of vampires, none of which wanted you out. When I found out on the way to the dance that they had done that, no one would listen to me when I said it was a dick thing to do, so they moved you down into the cellar where I couldn't get to you."

"So how am I free then?" she asked, but some of the anger was fading away, at least a little bit.

I took a deep breath. "Klaus tried to kill Jeremy, so I got Elena to help me get you out in exchange for him to leave Jeremy and Elena alone."

"Why are you helping us?" she asked. "The people of this town have shown on more than one occasion that they don't like me or my family."

I shrugged. "We have a common goal, and to be honest, I've never really fit in with the beliefs and ideals of the people here. Remember? You told me I was different."

Though I knew she remembered, as it hadn't been more than a month ago for her, her face fell, those beautiful blue eyes of her falling towards the ground. "I-I don't want my brother dead forever."

"Well, that's fine," I assured her. "I don't wanna be a walking blood bag, so as long as he's not around for the rest of my lifetime, that's all good with me."

"Lifetime?" Kol pushed himself off the table he had been leaning against, his eyebrows woven together. "Darling, your lack of faith in my abilities to find a way around this wounds me."

"You said they didn't know who you were, but you didn't mention whatever this is going on," Rebekah said, and her hand gestured between the two of us. "What am I missing here?"

"All you need to know, Bex, is that I'm stupidly giving myself a weakness."

Her mouth fell open, her eyes growing wide, and she turned to face her brother completely, seeming to forget I was even here for the moment. "Oh my God. Kol, do you love her?"

"Do you trust me, Darcy?" he asked, and from the way his eyebrows rose, I could see that he had no intentions of answering his sister—which was quite a shame because I was a bit curious about that as well. He had mentioned on more than one occasion that I was a first for him, that he had never experienced anything real and passionate before, but I wanted to know if that had become love for him, or if it was crazy to even think he might love me someday.

"It doesn't matter, Kol, because there is no loophole to what your brother will do to my sister if I become a vampire," I said. "I could spend the rest of my life looking for one, but if he loses either of his doppelgängers, the other is fucked."

"We can run from Nik," he insisted. "He doesn't have to control you that way."

I shook my head. "I'm not dooming my sister to live her life on the run. She wants a life, a family, and that's no life for any kind of family."

"Then we'll find a way to incapacitate Nik until she has lived out her life, with whatever is in that coffin," he said. "Assuming it isn't something that will actually kill him. As much as I hate him, I can't imagine actually killing him myself."

"How do you plan to do that exactly?" I asked. "We've been working on it for a month now, and we still have no leads on how we might get it open. The spell it's sealed with isn't something anyone knows."

"Bonnie is a brilliant witch, and I imagine you'll pick up on it a lot better with someone actually willing to help you," he said, voice dripping with a confidence I was struggling not to match. There was so much light in his eyes, such a wide smile forming on his lips with just the idea of the hope we might have found. "We can find a way. The two of you will find a way to open the coffin, or I can show you the other thing we talked about the other night."

"Hold on a moment," Rebekah said, and she held a hand up in a way to sort of pause the conversation. "Let's go back to something he said—you'll pick up on it now that there's someone willing to help you? Are you a witch?"

Kol's eyes widened. "It hadn't even occurred to me that Rebekah didn't know. I am so—"

I put one of my fingers on his lips, in an attempt to silence his useless apologies, and gave him a soft smile. "It's okay. Klaus found out last night when we were getting Rebekah out anyways."

"How have you managed to keep this from us for this long?" she asked. "After Stefan was compelled to watch you and Elena closely while I hung around town, I never noticed the first sign of it."

"My magic is a bit different from anything I've ever seen before," I admitted. "I can't just pull power from nature like a normal witch can, such as Bonnie. My magic requires something different, an outside source of magic. Like the magic in my blood, the magic in a vampire's blood—"

"That reminds me." Kol reached into the pocket of his black peacoat, which was form fitted and very yummy looking on him, and opened his hand back up, to reveal something that I didn't expect to see.

It was a small golden oval, held on a golden chain with a small diamond in the middle of a pattern that looked like a star. Attached to it was a diamond wing and a small crystal crescent moon.

Along with the necklace, there were two small vials of what looked like blood, and from the strong magic I felt just by looking at them, I imagined that they were probably his blood.

"Everything is unpredictable," he said. "At any moment, my brother could decide that he only wants Elena to live and kill you, and I can't . . . I don't want that to happen. You deserve better than that. I told you that I wanted to find you another source of power, so I did."

"This amount of blood will only work for a short time," I said, though I could feel my eyebrows furrowing at the same time my lips were curling up, into a wide smile.

He nodded. "I know. One is for you to keep on you, and the other is for you to absorb the magic. This necklace doesn't have magic, but it's a vessel for it. I was rummaging through some old things last night and found it. It seemed useless when I found it, but I kept it anything—my fascination with magic and all. You can store other sources of magic there for when you need it, instead of losing it as time goes on."

It was hard to breathe when I looked away from the necklace in his hands and up towards his face, which was the softest I think I had ever seen it before. He looked so delicate, like a wilted flower on its last day of life, but there was something beautiful about the vulnerability he was showing, without even realizing he was, I think.

Quickened footsteps approaching from behind, stomping rather angrily on the leaves that had fallen onto the dying grass behind us, snapped me out of my haze, and I grabbed the stuff from Kol's hands, before whoever was approaching could see what he was giving me.

At the sight of Jeremy, with the best glare he knew how to give twisting his usually kind face, a relaxed breath pushed out of me, and I put the necklace and blood in the empty pocket of my coat, only so I could get the vervain out of my other pocket.

"Darcy, what are you doing?" he snapped.

"Relax, Jer." I popped the lid off the top of the water bottle and began grinding the bits of vervain in my hand into the water, getting as much of it in there as I could, to make the effects last long of course. Once it was done, I put the lid back up and began shaking it.

"I can assure you, Jeremy, that I have no quarrel with Darcy."

"I know how you Originals work, and I know what that means," he said. "Leave Elena alone, too."

A rather charming smile came onto her mouth as her eyes brightened, maybe the very idea of hurting Elena bringing out this chipper smile. "No promises."

With a sigh, my arm reached out towards Jeremy, holding out the bottle of water in it so he might get his mind on something else. "Klaus has your bracelet, and we can't take any chances."

Rebekah snorted. "Why? Afraid I'll compel your brother to kill your sister for me?"

"No," I said. "It's not you I'm worried about."

"Yes. Kol mentioned that my brother stole your vervain bracelet, so I'm sure he'll use that to his advantage," she agreed, still not accurately guessing what I was so worried about.

Jeremy's eyes tightened for a moment as they moved away from Rebekah, back towards Kol, who hadn't moved from where he stood when he handed me the bracelet. "How do you two know each other?"

"Kol has been chasing my brother for centuries," Rebekah said. "Before that, he was a family friend. My brother doesn't do well with friends, and he stabbed them all in the back—literally for some. He's been trying to kill my brother ever since, and for once, I'm not going to stand in the way."

"Oh." Jeremy's gaze fell back away from Kol, over towards the water bottle reached out towards him.

"Jer, just trust me, okay?" I said. "You need to make sure you stay on vervain until I can your bracelet back."

He took the bottle from me, as he wasn't a fan of being compelled for any reason, though when I asked him if he was okay with Kol compelling him to keep on the ring, he said that he didn't mind that compulsion.

"Yeah, sure," he said, and with one final glance at each vampire standing behind me, he left, just like that. He was probably off to actually find Bonnie this time, and I was so thankful he had somewhere to run away to.

"What was that about?" Kol asked, and I felt his hand come up to touch my shoulder, sending a warmth surging through me that I still hadn't gotten used to. "Last night, you said that you trusted Nik was going to leave him alone."

"It's not Klaus I'm worried about."

"Me?" Though I wasn't looking at him, I could hear how the idea that I didn't trust him hurt him, and I imagined his face mirrored that.

I turned back to face him and shook my head once again, making the sadness that had begun to creep into his eyes disappear at once. "No. My sister."

"Oh, is she stabbing someone else in the back now?" Rebekah asked, letting out a sarcastic snort before rolling her eyes. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Yeah, or she's planning to," I sighed. "I stood back and let her compel Jeremy once, and I won't do it again."

Even if it meant pissing Elena off to no end, I was going to do the right thing.

A/N: The lyrics at the beginning are from the song Voices In My Hand by Kat Dahlia.

Sorry I haven't been updating regularly! With the holidays passing, and then the family vacation coming up, I've been pretty busy, and I got behind on laundry, so . . . responsibilities and all.

But here's the next chapter. I hope you all had great holidays! Read, review, and most importantly, enjoy! :)