18: Rebirth

[The Abattoir, French Quarter, New Orleans. February 3rd, 2311. 4:23 pm]

It was stunning to see what they had accomplished in a little under a week. While Bella had been dealing with the Regent and the witches, people had been walking in and out the compound to restore it to its former glory and for the first time in a very long time, they had had breakfast in the dining room as a family. Much to her, and Sam’s, dismay, Elijah and Rebekah had been present too.

Elijah was still at a loss for words and Hope refused to lift the spell, as did Bella. If he truly wanted to communicate something meaningful, he’d have to learn the ancient form of sign language.

Even though Klaus and Kol knew what her and Sam’s opinions were about their siblings, they didn’t quite understand why. Their anger towards them had dissipated, there was no grudge for having left Klaus alone for 300 years and in the sole care of Sameen, and before that Bella, and everything was back as it used to be.

On one of the trips where Sam accompanied Bella to the Mikaelson witches across the river, Bella mentioned that she was in possession of the four remaining daggers that could neutralize an Original vampire and Sam agreed that Elijah and Rebekah needed a timeout. Both girls weren’t afraid of the ramifications, Klaus, and Kol, but mainly Klaus -were wrapped around their fingers like a piece of string.

Was it mean? Unfair and backstabbery? Oh, there was no question, and the men would throw a fit, but it’s what Elijah and Rebekah deserved. Even if Klaus didn’t think they did. Even if it was the last act as a human Bella would do.

It was hard not to get all giddy about it; it was a little secret between her and Sam until they’d do it and it was awesome. A secret in-joke and Klaus didn’t like it.

Bella was now sitting in the guest room again, looking at Esther. She still wasn’t cooperating and according to the twins, their mother had always been a little bit funny and slightly not right in the head. “The way I see it, there are a few options here,” she said calmly. “One; you and I are going to the Cemetery and in front of the Ancestors you’ll voluntarily relinquish your Regency to me.”

Esther huffed.

“Two; I’m going to the Cemetery by myself, commune with the Ancestors and tell them about the current state of their Regent and their witches and have them make me Regent.”

“You wouldn’t!”

“Three; both option one and two can end in two ways for you. Either you live, or I’ll present you to my family as a snack.”

“You wouldn’t kill your own blood!” Esther gasped as she looked at Bella in shock. “I come from you!”

“I know that, and normally, I wouldn’t. But you see, I won’t be the one killing you. I’ll merely facilitate that event happening.”

“And what if I refuse?”

“Darling, I don’t think you can refuse,” Bella smiled at her. “Either way, I’m becoming Regent again. I don’t want to, but as far as I can tell, no one is capable of taking over. Not from your coven, nor from the others. But I’m not going to hold on to it for a long time. When I find the right witches to succeed us, I will train them and have them take my place. I will make us a force again. Not a small gust of wind.”

“But I can do that!”

“No, no, you can’t. You haven’t shown me anything in the last few days that makes me think that you’re capable of doing anything, even without outside influence.”

“Because you locked me up in here!”

“And yet, you’re still throwing a tantrum like a toddler,” Bella stated as she rose to her feet. “Think about your options. I want an answer when I’m bringing you dinner.”

[The Abattoir, French Quarter, New Orleans. February 3rd, 2311. 6:23 pm]

“The Ancestors won’t take it nicely that you got their Regent killed,” Kol deadpanned as he wiped the blood off his mouth with his sleeve. “She tasted horrible, thank you very much.”

“I don’t care; I’m done.”

“Done?”

“Yes. I won’t take prisoners or hostages. They’ll die if they get in my way.” She snapped. “I know we’ve done something like this before, you and I, but I never thought we’d have to do it again. It’s mostly our blood that have gone and made a mess out of things, and that frustrates me because when it comes down to it, it’s us who fucked up!”

“Calm down, Cuddles,” he said as he pulled her towards him. “It’s alright.”

“No! It’s not alright!” She said as she punched him in the chest and beat him a few times before stopping and nursing her hand. “Ouchie.”

He recognized so much of his own anger in her. Granted, he’d expect it to have seen it sooner, but she was too busy, too preoccupied with witch business and almost dying that she never really got the chance to adjust. He pulled her closer and gently ran his hand through her hair as he looked at her. “We have raised our children well. We’ve made sure that our kids raised their children well and kept an eye out later on, but we did our best. Three hundred years is a lot, Bella,” he said calmly. “A lot has changed. For instance; New Orleans has been raised above the water so it could be preserved. Taxis no longer require a driver. Some trains go so fast that your ears pop, and there’s no longer need for an airplane. Humans boost their intelligence with chips in their head – which is stupid, yet they use the same technology to restore memories in Amnesia patients. Alzheimers, cancer, AIDS – they no longer exist. People have changed. Their mentality has changed because everything comes so natural to them.”

“But…”

“It’s not easy, you expect things to be as they were, but they aren’t,” he interrupted her. “And that sucks, but you’ll adapt. But I truly understand why you’re done with everything and I think that’s a great state of mind to move forward with.”

“But I feel sorry for wanting to hurt them.”

“They screwed up; they need to pay the price.”

“I know, but…” Bella sighed as she fisted his shirt and looked up to him. “They deserve it anyway, for what they’ve done to me.”

“Exactly,” he softly kissed her. “There’s nothing wrong with being vengeful, Bella, as long as you’re having fun with it.”

“We’re going to do this again?”

“Of course. It’s time everyone’s reminded who the Mikaelsons are. What better way to start instilling fear in people again by slaughtering people?”

“I do love a good murder,” Klaus’ voice could be heard from behind them. “Who are we going to kill?”

“We aren’t going to kill anyone. You promised, Nik. The witches are mostly our concern, not yours,” Kol countered as he put his arms around Bella and smirked at him. “Party for two.”

Klaus huffed. “Bella, love, if there will be more killings, will you invite me?”

“Of course,” Bella grinned and then looked up to Kol. “You know I can’t refuse your brother when it comes to things like that.”

“Party for two,” Kol insisted and kissed Bella sloppily before grabbing the nearest item and throwing the door closed. Corpse present or not, he was going to have her now. She wouldn’t object, would she? Pressing her against the nearest wall, he started to move his hand underneath her shirt, and before he knew it, he was flung across the room. “Cuddles!” He whined.

“A dead body is pretty much a buzz kill,” she said as she straightened her shirt. “I’m going to talk to the Ancestors and get my ass kicked before they see reason and vote me to be the interim Regent before everyone else can vote.”

“You sound so confident.”

“Good, because I’m not.”

[City of the Dead, LaFayette Cemetery 1, New Orleans, LA. Ancestral Plane. February 3rd, 2311. 11:32 pm]

She had worked hard to gain access to the Ancestors. For a few good hours, she’d been chanting her ass off. Eventually growing so frustrated and impatient that she had started to throw in some threats while she chanted. They didn’t like that very much.

Much to Bella’s surprise, only a small contingent of the Ancestors were present for her, and they were mostly all Mikaelsons. Her four children, she recognized. Nina’s children too, but after that it became a little fuzzy. Ed Higginbotham was present too, even though he wasn’t even consecrated in New Orleans, and that threw her off for a moment, before realizing that she was the reason he was accepted anyway.

“Cool, a covenant with my family,” she remarked dryly. The way they were all staring at her made her feel like she was back in school. “All that’s missing is tea and biscuits.”

“You do realize that we’re standing between you and the other Ancestors, don’t you, mother?” Sophia smiled at her. “What you did… resurrecting yourself without their permission and keeping your own magic…”

“That was your sister’s idea, don’t blame me for that.”

“I know, that was brilliant.” Nina grinned. “Why are you here, mother?”

“I killed the current Regent.”

“Yeah, we know.”

“She was useless.”

“We know. What are you going to do to fix it?” Her other daughter, Eliana, spoke up, finally.

“You want me to fix it?”

“Isn’t that what you want?” Nina asked her; she was obviously the one in charge. Bella liked that.

“Yeah, but…”

“You have our blessing, mom,” Oliver pushed past his big sister and smiled at her. “The other Ancestors don’t want to admit it, but things have been problematic for years. It’s time to clean house, and you’re currently the best person for the job.”

“Oh, no pressure then.”

“You love trouble, mother,” Sophia grinned. “Give our love to Father, but you have to go now. Some witches are looking for trouble.”

[City of the Dead, LaFayette Cemetery 1, New Orleans, LA. February 4th, 2311. 12:05 am]

Bella sat up with a jolt and got her bearings. She was back in her and Kol’s Playhouse, and she could hear the noise coming from outside. She got to her feet and headed out. She cast a minor spell to grant her some light and realized that there were people vandalizing gravestones, and they were near the Mikaelson tomb, and Bella wasn’t going to let anything happen to her loved ones.

“Excuse me,” she called out. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Don’t mind us! We’re being kicked out, but thought it would be fun to-” a witch came running to her before skidding to a halt. “Holy shit.”

“I’ve been called that before,” Bella smirked as she launched the witch across the cemetery with a flick of her wrist. “I told you to pack up and leave, not to lash out and destroy the cemetery!” She called after her, before turning around finding more witches. She cast a shield around herself to deflect anything coming her way and started to chase the witches off the grounds.

This was fun. She wasn’t holding back, and she unleashed the monster within her. It felt great to go all out and she didn’t feel guilty about it because she had given the Bennett witches an ultimatum and they were causing trouble. She sent a few flying, threw around a few hexes and chased them out of the cemetery, only for some to collapse just outside.

She blinked when she saw Sam standing there at the entrance, arms crossed over her chest. “You’ve been busy,” she deadpanned.

“Yep.”

“My friend is already working hard to erase your… activity… from the feeds.”

“Huh?”

Sam pointed up in the sky. “Drones. They capture everything; you need to be more careful.” She then looked at the heap of witches. “Is one of them still alive? I’m hungry.”

Bella looked around and saw someone run away from the cemetery. With her magic, she pulled the witch towards her and shoved her into Sam’s waiting arms. “Bon Appetite.”

A big wolfish grin appeared on Sam’s face. “Oh, don’t mind if I do!”

[The Abattoir, French Quarter, New Orleans. February 20th, 2312. 5:22 pm]

It had been a long year. A long, difficult year, but, with the entire family working day and night to restore the balance in New Orleans, people had stopped being afraid and tourists were coming back. Mardi Gras season was in full swing, and the streets were once again filled with laughter and music. Actual music played on instruments.

The National Historical Society was more than pleased with the Mikaelson’s efforts to restore the French Quarter, making things safe again for everyone to venture out. Of course, the lie was that gang related activities had made it unsafe for tourists to come. Then again, it was so close to the truth that it could hardly be recognized as a lie. But everyone was happy. The French Quarter was still a Historic Landmark and years of neglect had turned it into something ugly and dangerous.

Sam and Klaus focused on getting the wolves back in line. Several non-native werewolf packs in New Orleans needed to be shown who was boss and Klaus was more than happy to get them in line. He didn’t even bother with the Crescent wolves as they were behaving themselves. Hope pleaded with Bella to lift the curse, just before she relinquished her position to her well-trained successors, she did.

It had taken six months and some reluctant Mikaelsons, but they all had gone their procedure done. No more Mikaelson witches. Ever. The Original Family was enough for the world to handle. While Bella felt sad about the whole situation, to limit them from reproducing any further, she knew that it was either that, or wished that she’d never had any children, and she didn’t want to wish that – having children with Kol and seeing them grow up had been one of the best experiences of her life.

While Elijah had been crucial in bringing peace back to the city and the restoration of the French Quarter, both Bella and Sam still held a grudge against him and Rebekah, and it was time to put their plan into play.

Both Kol and Bella were so pleased with everyone who turned up for the celebration of their 292nd year of marriage – despite the both of them having been dead for most of that time, but who cared? A party was a party!

Damon and Stefan had made the trip to New Orleans, as had Peter Whitlock – which surprised Bella the most. Caroline was present as well. Hope was there too, as she was needed in case something would go wrong.

A side project for Sam had been to find a Gilbert descendant of Elena for the cure in their veins. While it supposedly was impossible for a vampire to turn human and then turn into a vampire again, Bella had figured a way around it by adding a little spell to the blood before Sam drank it. If she’d drink it, she’d be human again for a period without any side effects, but had to be turned again before the spell ended.

“You are going to do it today, aren’t you?” Sam asked as she took a bite off her steak that she had speared with a fork. “Because I’m human now, like you, and I don’t want to die.”

“Relax,” Bella assured her with a smile. “Enjoy this.”

“I’m not enjoying this. I forgot how tedious it was to be human. This sucks.”

While the spell had been complicated and the potion taken a long time to finish brewing, she had made it easy on Hope by combining everything in two vials. She and Sam needed to drink that, drink from Klaus and Kol and then die. Upon coming back, they’d be as indestructible as their mate, their husband. As long as they were alive, Bella and Sam were alive. The only thing for Hope to do was to keep an eye on them and if there were signs of things going wrong, perform one correction spell that Bella had devised.

Bella had tried to replicate Esther’s original spell that turned the family into Original Vampires, but she couldn’t bottle it and that sucked. It also required special ingredients, not on hand, and she figured by binding herself to Kol and Sam to Klaus, the job would be done as well. It just sucked, for Sam, that Sam needed to be human again for a short time.

But boy, was Bella glad that she wasn’t going to be a witch for much longer. She was done. Finished. In fact, her power made her depressed and bored, and she didn’t like it.

“Oh, fine,” Bella sighed as she poked Kol and smiled up at him as she held up her empty glass. “I need your blood.”

“Oh!” Sam clapped excitedly and pushed her glass in Klaus’ hands. “Me too!”

“You’re going to do this now?” Klaus blinked at the women. “In front of everyone?”

“Why not? It’s not a party until there’s a murder. Now give me your blood,” Sam batted her lashes at him.

“We’re not even sure if it’ll work!”

“Oh, it will work,” Peter smirked as he looked at the family. “As nearly everything Bella does, it will work.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Bella eyed Peter briefly after watching Kol bite his hand and poured the blood into her glass.

“Nothing.”

Bella huffed. “Before everything, though, I want to do something. Something that I wished of doing for a very long time, although I have to admit, I am glad I managed to wait until now.”

“What’s on your mind, love?” Klaus was curious as he looked at the witch.

“I understand that you and Kol have already forgiven Rebekah and Elijah for abandoning you for so long, but truthfully, I haven’t. I died with unresolved anger towards them, and I came back finding out they still neglected you.”

“Family is supposed to be just that. Over the past 300 years, they’ve shown that they only want to be a family when it’s needed when there is something big going on, and they want to polish their egos.” Sam added as she took her glass from Klaus.

“So, I think both Elijah and Rebekah deserve a timeout,” Bella said, revealing the two daggers that were underneath her napkin on the table and with a flick of her wrist, they found the hearts of the original vampires, and they started to desiccate immediately.

“Bella!” Klaus said surprised and wanted to take out the dagger out of Elijah’s chest, but Bella pushed him back in his chair.

“No. I get it; you want them in your life. But they will fuck off again and leave you alone. So, now you can have them all nicely boxed up, and they’ve fucked off, but they’re still in your life. You can remove the dagger them in like a hundred years or so,” she said sternly.

Kol was amused by this. He knew his wife was still angry with his siblings but hadn’t expected her to actually follow through with it.

“You gave me those daggers, Klaus. You trusted me with them, you said. You trusted me to make the right decisions, and now I’ve made one. Respect that.”

Klaus scowled as he motioned for two vampires to take away his brother and sister. “Because you insist so nicely.”

“Don’t undagger them when I’m no longer a witch.”

“I promise.”

Bella looked at Peter for confirmation, and he nodded. Satisfied, Bella handed Sam a vial. “Vial first, then blood,” she reminded her as she screwed open the lid.

“Bottoms up,” Sam made a toasting movement and downed the liquid in one go before coughing out loud. “Fuck, that’s vile.”

“I never said it’d taste good,” Bella said as she scrunched her nose before taking a sip or two from Kol’s blood. “And that’s even worse.”

“Hey! I take offense to that,” Kol objected.

“I don’t like blood, remember?” She already felt sick to her stomach, and when she looked over to Sam, she had already finished what had been in her glass. Taking a deep breath, she downed her own liquid and wiped her mouth before shuddering. “Ugh.”

[The Abattoir, French Quarter, New Orleans. February 20th, 2312. 9:45 pm]

“She should have been back by now,” Kol said worriedly as he paced around the bedroom. “Sam was back within the hour!”

“Sam has already been a vampire before, maybe her body didn’t need that much work,” Hope said calmly as she watched Kol wearing out the rug. “She’ll come back.”

“She promised!”

“Look, we know the spell works, take comfort in that. We are all aware that turning takes a little time.”

“You’re no help, Hope!”

“Stop fighting, you’re giving me a headache,” Bella muttered as she groggily sat up and looked around the room, seeing Hope and Kol there with worried expressions on their faces. “What? Didn’t it work?”

“You took your damn time, Cuddles,” Kol let out a sigh of relief and jumped on the bed to kiss her. “How do you feel?”

Bella shrugged as she tried to push him off the bed with her magic. “Great! No longer a witch!”

“I shall send in your wedding present,” Hope smiled as she backed away to the door. “You’re going to like this one. We found her on a street corner in the Ninth Ward crying out how people shouldn’t abort babies, that it was an act against God and shit like that,” she smirked. “This was before she walked into the liquor store and robbed it at gunpoint.”

“Tracey is quite tasty,” Kol said as he ran his hand through Bella’s beautiful hair and frowned when he saw Bella pale when he mentioned how divine Hope’s gift was. “Bella, you’re almost a vampire. Vampires drink blood. You know this.”

“Just pinch your nose, bite, and drink,” Hope grinned as she pulled Tracey into the room. “Have fun you, two!”

Tracey was already bleeding, but she wasn’t crying out in pain or saying anything in general. Someone had obviously compelled her. Tracey smelled of booze and cigarettes, and it was aggravating her nostrils. But underneath all that, Bella could smell the blood, and it made her hungry. She got off the bed and threw Tracey onto the bed before jumping on top of her, almost as if it was second nature. Without a blink, Bella latched on to the bleeding part of the woman’s neck and started to drink the blood.

When the human blood bag stopped giving her blood, Bella pulled her up before hearing the bones shatter inside the woman’s body as she tried to squeeze every little bit of blood out of her. Every. Last. Drop.

Kol had watched in fascination. Ever since he returned as a vampire, he had fantasized what it would feel like to see his wife feed like a vampire. Be a vampire. And if he had to be honest, it was the biggest turn on to watch her feed and mangle the body like that. When she tossed the body off the bed and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as she looked at him through her lashes, he lost it.

He tore off her clothes as he greedily kissed her as she clawed at his while they both battled to get the upperhand. Adrenaline and lust surged through his body, a renewed passion between the both of them. Kol eventually managed to pin her down to the bed and smirked at her. “Happy Anniversary, Cuddles.”

*fin*

 

4 Comments:

  1. Peggy McDaniel, McCombs

    I love this story from the first time I read it too this time…yes, I’ve read it again…lol. Thanks for sharing this piece of art…bigg huggs. <3

  2. Thank you so much for taking the time to read some of my stories and commenting on them! It means a lot and I’m glad you enjoy them! Pandore was a slight headache, yes, but I had so much fun writing it. Making the family tree, etc. It was fun to play “find the inconsistency”. But I posted the family tree to show everyone that I knew what I was doing. That I had, indeed, a guide.

    I made a tinier tree for Sanctuaire because I needed to figure out where in the Claire line Bella’s ancestor was born. (I swear I have too much time on my hands!)

    Once again, thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment!

    Buggy.

  3. Another fabulous story hon. I enjoyed it very much, and I have to give you kudos for writing a story with so many characters that had to be hard to do…I also like the little snow that tinkled across the screen…thanks for sharing this story with us…until next time…bigg huggs

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