Kol is the easiest to write. I adore him. I'm so mad I can't find many good Kol stories right now. I spent an hour looking the other night. Also- someone please take my pinterest away. I've wasted so much time scrolling this week. Good news is FSO has a board if you want to look. It has face claims for the Alexanders! And history stuff! It's under IAMiniquity.
TW: PTSD Trauma Response.
No Beta.
-7-
Kol
Having to share his mate with his brothers grated on Kol's nerves. None of them were going to appreciate her the way she deserved, in fact they'd likely do harm to her soon enough.
The Mikaelson's always hurt those they love.
Kol wanted nothing more than to grab Isolde and run with her to keep her from it, but she didn't seem the type to run. No, Isolde wasn't like him.
She was brave and confident in ways he'd never been. Never dreamed of being.
So instead, Kol would stick close to her and do his best to shield her from Nik and Elijah as necessary. In this endeavor, he decided he wouldn't fail. He couldn't.
"You've brought us to the woods, well done Elijah." Nik snarked as the four of them left the car behind.
Kol brushed past his bickering siblings to stand beside Isolde, who was scanning the forest with the quick, practiced ease of someone who's been ambushed before. The thought settled like a weight in his stomach. They continued forward, her arm swinging as they walked. Never one to fight an impulse; he snagged her hand in his.
His chest squeezed then fluttered when she didn't fight him. Instead she looked up at him and smiled. He brushed his thumb over the back of her hand and raised it to his mouth for a quick kiss and grinned when he heard her heart rate increase.
"Something I've wondered since Esther told us your family was Egyptian last night…" Nik began, leaves crunching under his feet as he fell into step on the other side of Isolde. "... your names are very western. You changed them when you left Egypt."
"We did." She confirmed. "We also stayed out of the sun as much as possible so we just looked like we were tan European's. Racism has always been in the fabric of western society, eventually our background didn't matter any more but we've had our western names for about three thousand years so we've fully adopted them at this point. The old names only get pulled out when we're angry and start spewing venom in the old language."
"What were your birth names?" Elijah asked from up ahead.
"Emeric was named Horus, Theon was actually named Thoth, Vera's name was Ma'at, and my birth name was Amunet."
The significance did not escape Kol. He kept his silence but he could see Nik's gears turning. Elijah's step didn't falter but Kol knew that Elijah likely understood the significance as well as he.
The pieces of the puzzle were slowly fitting together, and they were all constructing an image for just what and who their mate was.
Kol was almost certain he already knew.
"Amunet is a cool name, darling. I happen to like Isolde too." Kol said with a light hand-squeeze.
She beamed. "Thanks."
"I'm sure there's a significance to the name you choose." Nik interjected with an inquisitive look and a smirk. "First kill in the western world? First western lover?"
Isolde's expression grew dark and Kol glared at his brother over her head.
"First western woman I'd ever met." Nik's triumphant smirk was gradually wiped away as she continued. "She had been stolen from her home, carted across the Mediterranean and presented naked along with others from their village at a celebratory feast in my honor. I just returned from an extended… stay elsewhere." That pause did not escape any of them. "I hadn't known what my family had been getting up to during my absence. I was not pleased when I found out they'd been running slave markets and building our empire upon their backs for fifteen centuries. I lost my temper... I really shouldn't lose my temper."
She cracked her neck as if to punctuate her displeasure. "I killed about eighty percent of the nobility that night. It was the first time they realized I had become... stronger... in my lengthy time away. During the carnage the original Isolde managed to kill her captor and free some of her countrymen. After eviscerating my family for what they'd done I got the westerners to safety. Later, I arranged for them to be transported home. Isolde chose to stay with me as my handmaid until she died. I chose her name to honor her friendship, and as a way to memorialize the mistake my family made. My name will forever be a reminder of what I will never abide."
There was a pregnant pause before Nik-the-fat-mouthed-wanker put his foot in it again. "Wasn't Rome built by slaves, too?"
"Not at first." Isolde's face pinched like she'd tasted something sour. "Rome was a cultural melting pot, people of all social classes from all over came to take part in its construction. Many went unpaid in anything but bread at the beginning but they were proud to be part of constructing a new nation that was accepting. It had to be. There was no such thing as a native Roman for a while."
There was a pause and she took a deep breath, releasing a sigh. "I was sent east, to what is now Syria and then to Asia for several hundred years. 'Keep an eye on them and tell us of their movements, their ingenuity, and their might.' Emeric had said. My assignment was strategic and Emeric used my absence to bring slave labor into Rome. I didn't find out until I returned and by then the empire had begun it's decline and Aphophis was on the horizon. For millennia I seemed to be the exception, not the rule. My views on slavery were considered radical. I'm glad that the world has finally changed it's views. It took a lot of work to see that through."
Kol decidedly did not like this Emeric fellow, and he could see from the way Elijah's shoulders tightened and Nik's eyes narrowed that his brother's were in agreement. Their mother's warning about the man be damned, Emeric's treatment of Isolde seemed to be a reoccurring issue. Kol thought it wasn't so much that Isolde was Emeric's favorite but more that she was someone Emeric sought to control.
'Much like Nik with Rebekah only five times worse based on age alone.' Kol thought.
"Emeric sounds like a dodgy tosser." Klaus muttered, folding his hands behind his back. Strange that he was the one to say it when the behavior so closely resembled Nik's own.
Before Elijah could protest Klaus' comment Isolde burst out with a loud cackle, nodding her head and flailing the arm Kol didn't have a hold of
"Very much so." She agreed when she calmed.
They came upon a formation of rocks and Elijah stopped, placing a hand on the stone. Klaus circled them and then jumped on top.
"The tunnels, then? What do you think could possibly be down there?" Kol asked, recognizing the area even a thousand years later.
"Tunnels?" Isolde asked in a small voice, and Kol frowned when he heard her heart rate start to speed up.
"Call it a hunch." Elijah stated, before stomping on the ground. They watched as the forest floor crumpled and caved under the force of his strike. "I wanted to check to be certain."
Meanwhile, Isolde's heat rate had increased further and she'd released Kol's hand. Her breathing was shallow and it worried Kol. His worry spiked further when she took a step back, putting distance between her and the hole to the tunnels.
"Not scared of the dark are you, love?" Klaus called mockingly from his position on the rocks.
A dry, shaky laugh escaped her in a rush of air. "No, not the dark. Never the dark."
"I apologize, Isolde, I didn't think-" Elijah began, stepping around the hole he'd created with slightly widened eyes.
"Claustrophobic, then?" Klaus taunted, behind her now with one hand wrapped around the back of her neck, the other sliding around her midriff. Isolde went utterly still and that squeezed Kol's heart.
"Don't." She whispered.
"Nik." Kol warned sharply.
Klaus laughed when Isolde's only response was a muttered 'no' and she began shaking like a leaf. "I think you just need to embrace your fear, sweetheart. Look for your information, Elijah. I'll be helping our bonded." And before Kol or Elijah could react, Klaus had disappeared into the tunnel with Isolde.
Niklaus
'In hindsight,' Klaus thought, 'perhaps I should have investigated Isolde's reaction before I brought her this far into the tunnels.'
He'd let go of her once inside but she had her arms snaked tightly around his neck and her legs wrapped around his torso in a grip that would be crushing had he not been a vampire hybrid. At any other time he might have enjoyed it but Isolde's body was trembling and her heartbeat was reminiscent of a hummingbird's, great wracking sobs had started to pour out of her.
He'd wanted time alone with her for a moment, even if he had to force her to face a fear to make it happen. But this fear seemed to be on another level.
Klaus couldn't recall the last time anyone had ever clung to him like a lifeline, if anyone ever had.
She was truly scared, and his rash decision to bring her down against her will now made him feel like a fool. So instead of taunting her, like he'd planned, he reciprocated the embrace and rubbed his hand soothingly across her back.
"What's got you so worked up about the tunnels, love?" He changed his tone of voice, hoping to comfort her into talking to him and sobbing less.
Her voice trembled, lips just barely brushing his neck sending a slight shiver though his body. "I can't do it."
"Can't do what?" He ran his other hand down the back of her head, fingers carding through soft hair, her trembling decreased slightly. So talking was helping.
"The tomb. I can't do it again." A great sob wracked her body. Her voice was shrill and near-manic when she then said; " Don't make me do it again. Don't leave me here. "
The many implications of that ran though his mind and that large part of him that was vengeful started to rear its head screaming. The wolf paced, growling and snapping and pawing at him, urging him to find the threat to his mate and obliterate it.
But he didn't pause what he was doing; it seemed to be working.
"I'm not leaving you. You have my word." He squeezed her back just as strongly as she did him to emphasize this, stomach dropping further as guilt began to claw at him. "These are just tunnels, sweetheart. They've been here over a thousand years. Our family used to hide here during the full moon to stay hidden from the werewolves. They're not a tomb." He felt her take a long couple of breaths while her heart rate began to slow a bit. Good, making progress.
"An endless maze with no exit is a tomb ."
"There are exits. I'm taking you out of here right now."
He'd almost made it to the nearest exit he recalled when Kol bared down upon him, vampire face flashing with rage in his eyes, promising retribution.
For once, Klaus actually felt he deserved it.
Kol must have seen the brief flash of remorse in Klaus' eyes and instead of attacking, Kol let his vampire face recede and he took a step towards them, rubbing a gentle hand from Isolde's shoulder down to her elbow and back again. His voice was soft when he spoke. "Isolde, darling. May I take you home?"
She nodded vigorously and detached her arms from Klaus. She took a second to wipe some of her tears off on her sleeve before launching herself at Kol. The youngest Mikaleson accepted her with ease, her position in his arms mirroring how she'd been latched to Klaus.
Vaguely stung, Klaus recalled something Elijah had once said to him. That sometimes there were people that every individual was meant to protect. That sometimes you were chosen and sometimes you chose. Isolde had removed herself from Klaus the moment Kol had shown up, and Klaus realized Kol had been chosen, and the younger brother had reciprocated.
With barely a glance at Klaus, Kol and Isolde were gone.
Klaus felt the weight of a decision settle in his chest.
Kol wouldn't be the only one.
It didn't take Klaus long to find Elijah at the end of one of the tunnels. The elder brother had his phone flashlight trained on a series of cave drawings. Klaus brushed his fingers over his own name with a blank expression before Elijah spoke.
"Isolde?"
"Kol took her home."
Something in his tone must have given him away because Elijah sighed. "You're too impulsive sometimes, Niklaus." In a flash, Elijah had Klaus pinned to a cave wall, arm at his throat. "Isolde is our chance for the family to reconcile. More than that, she is our soul bond . If I find that you've harmed her…"
He swallowed and pushed Elijah off, insulted Elijah and thought him capable of harming his own mate. But didn't he ? "She's afraid of being entombed. Someone left her in one."
"Who would dare ?" Elijah stressed through clenched teeth as he straightened his suit, his own monster seemed to be bearing down on him like Klaus' as the tension in the cave thickened. A wave of realization crashed over them both and it was Elijah who hissed; " Emeric ."
"Did you find what you were looking for, brother?" Klaus' face warped and his expression turned lethal, mirroring his older brother's expression.. "I think we need to speak with the younger Alexander. Something tells me he'll have the answers we seek."
Isolde
Isolde knew vampires were fast but Kol was a lot faster than she thought.
Then again, she spent the majority of the run back to her home trying to calm herself down, so she wasn't paying attention. Isolde was embarrassed for losing it like that. But underneath that was rage, and the next time she saw Klaus (as long as she was safely away from those fucking tunnels) he was getting punched . Or at very least yelled at.
Kol was good at comfort. Better than Klaus, whose consoling was tainted by the fact he'd put her in that situation in the first place. Kol was surprisingly warm, and he held onto her like every woman wishes they were held by a man. Like she was the most precious thing in the world and he couldn't bear to release her for even a moment.
She'd stopped squeezing him half to death when she saw the blur of her gate and all at once they were on her porch. She felt Kol's hand brush softly down her back before it reached out to grasp her door knob. "Gonna need an invitation, love."
"You actually don't."
She never locked the door so after a moment of hesitation they were inside. Kol flipped the light switch. Theon and Rebekah had clearly left.
"That's not exactly safe, darling but we'll talk about it later." Whether he meant that vampires didn't need an invitation to come inside or something as mundane as locking her front door, she wasn't sure. He rubbed her back again. "Where do you want to go?"
"You can put me down."
Reluctantly, Kol let her slide until her feet touched the ground and held onto her until she was steady. His hand wrapped gently around the side of her neck, thumb sliding against her cheek and she grasped his wrist lightly, meeting his concerned gaze. Her stomach swooped when he pulled her closer and settled his free hand on her waist, leaning down so that he was eye level with her.
"Did Nik hurt you?"
She shook her head and he released a puff of air that blew her hair back out of her face. She ran her hand up his arm, to the elbow and back down. "It wasn't like that. I think he meant to make me face fear and get me alone. I don't think he realized how terrified I really was until we were down there."
Kol's gaze darkened. "Don't go defending him, what he did was wrong."
"I'm not." She declared. "I'm not defending him. I'm going to give him hell the next time I see him. He dragged me below ground without my consent and made me relive the most terrifying experience in my life . If I hadn't been caught so off guard he never would've been able to move me." Her voice started to shake at the end, when flashes of memory- her time entombed, surfaced again.
Kol noticed her heart rate pick up again and moved his hand from her neck to the back of her head, drawing her to his chest. "I shouldn't have let him get behind you."
"It's not your fault. It's not Elijah's, either. I didn't think I needed to be worried about that particular anxiety of mine or I'd have mentioned it." He smelt so good, like tobacco and laundry detergent. She could've buried her face in his chest for the rest of forever.
"Would you like to talk about it?"
"A little. Not sober, though." She stated as she pulled away, motioning for him to follow her into the kitchen. For once, she bypassed the coffee maker in favor of her favorite wine. She handed it off to Kol with a corkscrew and left him to it while she pulled two wine glasses from the cupboard.
He poured for them and she knocked back the first glass. He poured for her again without making a comment and she stalked out of the kitchen and toward the basement steps.
"Plotting my murder, are we?" Kol joked from behind her. "I can't think of a time when I've gone into a basement that ended well, love."
She huffed a laugh and rolled her eyes as they descended the stairs. "I'm not going to murder you, I happen to like you." Isolde flipped the switch at the bottom of the stairs. "Which is the only reason I'm letting you down here."
Kol looked around, touching her sound equipment, circling to her dual monitor desktop, and looking at the papers on her writing desk. He glanced at the television. "The upstairs is lacking in modern technologies, I noticed. You've kept it all down here?"
"There are no windows down here. It's dark and cool no matter what time of day or what season. I don't like the sun, and I abhor the heat." She shrugged. "I love my house, my bedroom is upstairs, but I pretty much live and work down here. Unless I'm building something, there's a shed a few acres west of the house that I use to craft in."
He seated himself on the couch, which was fluffy and modern unlike the ones in her living room, and placed the bottle on her coffee table. "Amunet means the hidden one, it's the feminized version of Amun. One of Egyptian mythology's eight primordial deities. According to legend, Amun created himself and then everything else in the universe. Then he distanced himself as the "inscrutable and invisible creator" until he merged with Ra and became both visible and invisible. I've done extensive research into mythologies and cultural lore over my life span. I never thought deities were actually real until today."
She smiled a soft, sad smile and took a seat on the couch, crossing her legs and leaning back against the arm so she was facing him. "Most of the mythology is, like with your kind, just myth. But the gods are indeed real."
"You know this because you knew them?" He asked, she figured he already knew the answer.
"You tell me." Isolde challenged. "I think you already know, or you're at least close to knowing."
He took a deep drink of his wine, eyes boring into hers and the tension in the basement skyrocketed. "I think," he began, " the gist is that you and your family are lesser deities bound to the earth by an oath sworn to Osiris and Isis."
Isolde grinned devilishly, mimicking Kol's words to her nearly eighteen hours prior. "Oh you are just an absolute treat, darling."
Kol, The Original Sweetheart. I adore him. We've got Finn in the next one. Haven't heard from his POV since chapter one.