-14-
Kol
By the time he and Elijah make it to where Nik said Isolde and Damon were, Kol had worked himself up into a violent frenzy. His emotions were roiling within him and he'd smashed the mansion's front door off its hinges on their way out. Usually one of his brothers would've tried to talk him down by now; the severity of the situation was lamented by the fact that none of them did, not even Finn.
Finn, who was carefully picking Isolde's severed head off the concrete ground, eyes wide and brimming over with tears. Kol had never seen Finn cry. Even when their mother died Finn hadn't let his family see his sorrow. That he was showing that emotion now was a testament to how Finn was already feeling about Isolde, whether Finn wished to admit it or not.
Nik had Damon by the neck against a dumpster, a deep bite mark already penetrating the foolishly cocky vampire's shoulder. It wasn't going to be enough for any of them, just seeing Damon suffer through a werewolf bite, and the look on Nik's face promised more than this simple retribution. Nik would heal Damon, only to make the offender suffer worse.
Kol couldn't stop himself from collapsing to his knees with a loud cry when he came to a stop next to Isolde's headless body. His hands shook as he gently lifted Isolde, cradling her to his chest. He swallowed through the sharp ache in his throat and breathed heavily, blinking to stave off the tears that threatened to overflow.
He'd told himself he'd do whatever it took to protect her, and he failed. Not even a week into the bond and one of their enemies had already hurt their mate.
Even Elijah was barely hiding how affected he was by the sight of their decapitated mate. The noble brother worked his jaw, vampire face already visible as Elijah found himself next to Nik, fangs bared. "Which do you think is his dominant hand, Niklaus?"
"Oh I don't know, Elijah. He could be ambidextrous." Nik responded darkly.
Elijah grabbed Damon by the arm and pulled, knowing Nik wouldn't be letting the man go anytime soon. Damon screamed in anguish as the sound of bones snapping, muscles ripping, and tendon severing had never sounded so sweet to Kol.
Elijah pointed the limb at Damon as the arm burst into flames since it was no longer attached to the body and subsequently the magic of the daylight right. "That's one. You'll lose the next one soon."
They felt Rebekah and Theon arrive before they saw the two.
"Oh wow, it's been a while since I've seen that." Theon laughed, and they all looked at him incredulously as he stacked a few milk crates. Theon took a seat, propping his feet on another crate like he didn't have a care in the world. "You guys should've waited on Isolde to get started. I'm sure she's got a plan."
Damon coughed and sputtered blood, eyes watering as he glared at them all with malice. He looked at Theon. "Fuck you." He taunted the elder immortal, like a massive idiot. "I killed your sister."
"You killed my sister?" He pointed at himself with a grin. "How'd you do that?"
"You don't have any situational awareness, do you buddy? I ripped her head off." Klaus' hand tightened on Damon's throat and Damon should've stopped talking but he persisted. "Seems pretty dead to me."
Theon laughed a full-belly laugh, producing a bag of popcorn from nowhere and tossing a handful into his mouth. "Well that's step one, what about steps two through ten?"
"Pardon?" Finn asked from off to the side. He was cradling Isolde's head to his chest like there was no finer, more delicate treasure in the world. He'd brushed her hair out of her face and it hung loose over his arm. Her eyes were closed. If it weren't for the fact that her body wasn't attached and there was blood all over Finn she'd look like she was just sleeping.
"She'll be up soon. We used to play the decapitation game when we first gained immortality. It was a training exercise; honing instincts. Constant vigilance and all that jazz. Emeric is the undefeated champion, but he's a dirty cheat. Isolde's always the one to get up first. I think we last clocked her at about three minutes and twenty something seconds." He shrugged, waving his hand flippantly. "But it's been a while. Point is…" he looked at Damon with an amused smirk, "she let you do that."
"Why would she…" Rebekah started, coming close to where Theon sat. She worked her hand through his curls. She'd mentioned how much she liked Theon's new hair cut that morning but Kol hadn't really been paying attention.
"Probably because she wanted Damon to break the law." Theon leaned into her touch and wrapped an arm around her middle to draw her in closer. He threw another handful of popcorn into his mouth as he looked past Nik to Damon. "An attempt on the life of one of the royal family is punishable by execution; the sovereign affected gets to choose the means. She could pardon you, Isolde is known for being merciful. But I wouldn't count on that. You've made quite the nuisance of yourself, boy."
Damon coughed up blood, spitting it at Nik and just barely missing the hybrid's shirt before answering. "Royal Family? You guys really think you're that important?"
Theon offered some of his popcorn to Rebekah, who looked at him strangely but took a few kernels anyway.
"Isolde is the Empress of the Shade Nation. The Shade are about three million in number, smaller than my empire by half but she's got the most loyal community; rarely has a mutiny." Theon deadpanned with a wry grin, nodding towards his sister's body in Kol's arms. "Still," he turned his head to address the Mikaelsons, "there's a work around. You lot can argue that Damon is a vampire and therefore under your jurisdiction. It would be a step in the right direction towards assuming control of your species, but if I were you I'd just let her have him. I'm sure whatever Sol has planned will be glorious. As her name suggests; Isolde is the Ice Queen."
No sooner had Theon finished speaking and dark, thread-like cords sprung forth from Isolde's body and head simultaneously. They seemed to know exactly where to go and they threaded together. It took less than a second and Isolde's head was pulled from Finn's hands and soaring through the air until it landed on her neck. Moments later, those threads had worked their way around her neck like stitches and she opened her eyes with a gasp.
"Fuck decapitation is annoying." She twisted her neck from side to side as if checking mobility before she noticed Kol was holding her. "Sorry, hun. Did I scare you?" She smiled at him, hand cupping his face, her thumb stroking his cheek.
Kol felt his relief like a wash of cold water and his body trembled as he wrapped himself around her protectively. She wrapped her arms around him, carding one hand through his hair and lightly scratching his scalp easing some of his tension. The other hand rubbed up and down his spine soothingly and Kol felt himself begin to calm. "It's okay, I'm not that easy to kill."
Kol pulled back but didn't let Isolde go, getting to his feet with her in his arms and finding his voice. "I would appreciate, hard to kill or not, if you wouldn't let yourself be decapitated so easily again. We felt it happen and I think it might've been the most terrifying experience of our lives so far."
"You all felt that?" Isolde looked around wide-eyed.
Finn stepped forward so he was a few inches from Isolde and Kol. She held out her hand to him and Finn took it gently in his for a moment, gave it a squeeze and then let go. "It felt like my throat was slit."
"It was very real, as though it had happened to me but when I checked I wasn't bleeding. We knew it had to have been you. Stefan and Elena had tried to dagger me a few minutes prior." Elijah explained..
"Alaric and Matt had tried to dagger me around the same time. We knew they were making some kind of last ditch effort to be rid of us. You didn't tell us about the illusionary replacement daggers." Kol mentioned, looking closely at Isolde's face.
"I didn't expect them to try to use them so quickly." Isolde explained. "What I overheard last night was their plan to call in more reinforcements before they made a move. I expected (or hoped, I suppose) at least three days and was planning accordingly, using the illusionary daggers just as placeholders until all their allies gathered. Then Theon would cancel the illusion and embarrass them before they attempted to use them. If their allies had even half a brain then at that point they would see the Salvatore's as unreliable and leave."
Isolde looked around at Theon's cocky grin and sighed. "Don't even start."
"I wasn't going to say anything." Theon grinned, putting his hands up in mock surrender.
"Oh, dear." Isolde laughed when she noticed Damon who was still being held in place by Nik who hadn't said anything or moved since Isolde's head reattached.
Isolde patted Kol's arm, non verbally asking to be let down. With one last squeeze to reassure himself that she was okay, he let her go. She took a few steps forward until she was right next to Nik. Isolde wrapped one arm around his back and embraced him from the side for a few moments before she let him go and stepped back.
Nik had frozen, a look of shock flashed across his features before he was able to mask it.
"I don't know what happened but I think you lost a limb, Mr. Salvatore." Isolde said, as if she were commenting on the sunny sky.
Damon opened his mouth, face flaming with rage. "No, I don't want to hear you." Isolde said, and Damon was cut off when a dark shadow passed over his face and wrenched his head to the side, breaking his neck. "I warned you not to anger me."
"He must die, Isolde. Niklaus and I have been more than lenient enough towards him and his friends these last few months." Elijah said as he pulled his handkerchief out of his suit pocket and began to wipe the blood from his hands.
She took a step closer to Elijah, pulled the kerchief away from him and took his hand in hers, dabbing at the partially dried blood. Elijah looked down at Isolde like he'd gladly follow her into the pits of hell and Kol decided he felt the same.
"He will. I'd like it if you all would agree to let me do it my way, though." She looked up at Elijah, her fingers threading with his.
"So long as your way ends Damon's pitiful existence in a cruel and unusual way you'll not hear a complaint from me, love." Nik growled darkly as he turned around to face Isolde and crowded her until she looked away from Elijah and at him. Nik's expression was dangerously dark as he wrapped a hand around her upper arm. "He doesn't deserve your mercy."
"He won't have it." She dropped Elijah's hand and turned toward Nik, gently pulling her arm from his grasp and reaching up to dab some of the blood that was splattered all over the hybrid's face. Nik's eyes widened a fraction and his Adam's apple bobbed.
Kol wondered exactly what thoughts were running through Nik's mind as their mate devoted her attention to cleaning him. Kol made a mental note to research more about wolves mating instincts now that Nik had rid himself of the curse their mother placed upon him.
"Theon." Isolde called from where she stood, not bothering to look back at her brother who was still just eating popcorn. Rebekah had moved to seat herself on the man's lap and Kol was decidedly ignoring that. There would come a time he'd be in the same position with Isolde, he'd rather avoid the confrontation with Theon over it. "I don't have enough patio furniture to accommodate… let's see, six additional… So thirteen? Fourteen?" She turned to Finn. "Will Sage be joining us tonight?"
"No. Sage is no longer in Mystic Falls." Kol noted that Finn didn't look unhappy about it, either. Odd, seeing as how nine hundred years ago Finn and Sage had been quite the affair.
"I see." Isolde said, looking back at the blood she was now trying to wipe off Nik's neck. "Can you fix that in," she checked her watch, "under five hours?"
"Course I can." Theon replied, tossing the popcorn bag behind him scattering kernels everywhere and heaving a sigh as he and Rebekah stood. He held out a hand to his bond. "Coming with, Bekah?"
"I don't know enough about your taste to trust it, so yes." Rebekah said, taking his hand. "Don't worry, Isolde, I won't let him buy anything that won't go with what you already have outside."
Isolde laughed, finishing up with Nik. "Thank you, I appreciate it." Theon and Rebekah were gone in the next second and Isolde patted some bits of Damon's arm off Nik's shoulders. "You've got a lot of dried blood I won't even make a futile attempt to clean on both you and your shirt."
"Forget the blood, that's a weekly occurrence you ought to get used to." Nik rolled his eyes, moving forward a step as he snatched the kerchief from Isolde's hand and threw it at Elijah. He pressed up against Isolde, one hand holding her steady by her arm and the other raising to her chin, fingers fanning over her jaw and cheek as he gently tilted it up to examine her neck. "The threads are gone."
"They only need to stay long enough to let everything fuse back together. It typically takes under a minute." Isolde told him, her own hand reaching up to cover where his rested on her face. There was an intense moment of eye contact between the two and Kol's vindictiveness reared it's head.
"We know you said you were immortal, darling. It's one thing to hear it and another to see it. You'll have to forgive us if we're a bit concerned for the time being." Kol said, hating how he felt left out with Nik pressed so closely against their mate. He moved closer to the two, hoping to diffuse their intimacy for the time being.
And it worked, his voice seemed to break whatever spell had fallen over Nik and Isolde and they broke apart slightly, Nik's hand sliding off her face as he took a step back.
"Nothing to forgive." Isolde said, turning to look at him with an apologetic smile, taking Kol's hand in hers as he stepped up beside her. "If anything I'm sorry. I didn't realize you would all feel it when Damon ripped my head off. That's never happened with any bonds I've experienced. I wouldn't have let him if I knew."
"You've experienced other bonds?" Finn questioned, also moving in so he could be closer to Isolde. Kol noticed that all of his brother's had closed in and were mere feet from their mate. He wondered if it had been unconscious on their part.
There was a lot about soul bonds that Kol didn't know.
He couldn't let his lapse of knowledge continue to impede them.
"Yes." Isolde nodded, looking at Finn. "One is maternal; I met her in Japan during the chaos of the Sengoku period. Her name is Yasu Iwasaki-Alexander and I raised her from the age of four. She is very much a daughter to me and she's currently my top vizier. She runs my estate for me in Italy while I'm away. The other became my closest friend. I met him around the time Rome became Imperialist and he's been my strongest legatus since. He's my second-in-command and you'll recognize his name; Marcus Antonius."
"You're saying your soul is bonded to Mark bloody Antony?" Kol's brow raised almost to his hairline.
Elijah interjected before Kol could wrap his head around this new information. "Were you Cleopatra?" His voice betrayed nothing but Kol had known his brother all his life and Elijah (and Nik, that went without saying) was already ten steps into plotting Mark Antony's unfortunate and tragic death.
Kol wasn't so certain how well they'd stand against one of the most decorated and lauded military generals of ancient Rome, especially since the man was immortal and double their own age with all of that experience.
Isolde laughed and waved her hands. "No, no. Of course not. As I said, Mark and I are best friends. Never had any sort of romantic affiliation at all, no." She laughed some more, seeming to find the question utterly ridiculous which set Kol at ease. "Vera was Cleopatra; the two of them had a thing for a while. They faked suicide because politics (and Emeric was being a dick about it) and returned to Rome half a century later. They never married, but they did have children together. They ended their relationship about a thousand years ago on good terms."
Damon began to stir and all of their eyes darted to his body as Isolde's shadows snapped his neck again.
"I suppose it's time to get moving, then." She sighed, crouching down beside Damon and fishing in his pockets. "I still need to finish grabbing groceries. Could one of you take my card and buy me a shirt real fast so I don't wear this bloodstained mess inside and scare all the PTA moms? Also, it would be really helpful if one of you wouldn't mind tying this guy up in my shed for the time being?" She pulled out Damon's phone with a little triumphant 'ha!' and a smile that made Kol's chest flutter.
"Not so fast, love. You haven't told us the plan." Nik chimed while Elijah was already lifting Damon by the hair.
"Oh, I thought it was obvious." Isolde said, already swiping through Damon's contact list. "I'm inviting the Mystic Falls gang to dinner."
This chapter is short because the next one will be a long one. You're finally going to find out just what the hell the Alexanders are and how fucking scary Isolde can be. Revenge is a dish best served cold, right?