Chapter 38: Adjustment Issues

“And?”

Bella pulled away from Kol, who was holding her anxiously and walked towards Peter. She was well aware that everyone was looking at her as if she was going to snap and kill him. It didn’t work that way, really. She merely didn’t want to show restraint when she saw a Cold One, it had been a choice, although also not so much because she felt like crap around them.

She hadn’t touched him yet, and Cold Ones couldn’t see her unless she made her presence known. “You can see me?”

“Of course,” Peter smiled at her.

“Why wouldn’t he be able to see you?” Klaus was curious. While she and Kol had shared some of their shenanigans over the last few days, this was something they had conveniently left out.

“We discovered that the reason why she’s so good at what she does, is that she’s invisible to Cold Ones,” Kol grinned. “Seriously, Nik, the first time she actually played with that was during the massacre of the Volturi. Aro screamed like a little child when she killed his mate.”

Bella hit him on the arm before turning around again and went back to Peter. “Wife.”

“Right. We don’t speak about mates.”

Interesting. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Klaus demanded, carefully watching the love of his life approaching a former Cold One, still in the middle of transitioning from that to a regular vampire.

“Eh,” Bella shrugged, waving her hand. “Not important.” Bella started to circle around Peter and poked him in certain areas. “How are you feeling, Peter?” His skin was still a little bit hard, no wonder, really. His eyes hadn’t changed and she couldn’t smell the blood in his body. Peter wasn’t sparkling, so that was a plus.

“Lighter,” Peter replied as he eyed her carefully before looking at Freya. “Are you sure this worked?”

“You still need to recover for a few days,” Freya explained. “Magic is wonderful, but even that has its limitations. The venom inside you is slowly turning into plasma and your skin will get softer as it does. What’s important if she kills you or not.”

Bella smirked as she ran her hand over the base of Peter’s neck. “I haven’t decided yet,” she replied with a shrug. “Tell me, Peter, what are your intentions with my Alina?”

“Oh, not you too,” Peter sighed as he buried his face in his hands. “Myriam already said it was fine that I was dating Alina.”

“Dating?” Bella let out a snort. “Oh, you poor bastard, who said anything about dating?” She then turned to Freya with a big smile on her face. “Oh, he lost his gift, didn’t he?” Bella let out a giggle when Freya nodded and put her hand over Peter’s crotch.

Klaus held his breath. While he didn’t particularly care for both Alina and Peter, he could feel the curiosity rise within him. It wasn’t his, it was Bella’s. One look at Kol and he knew that he felt the same. Damn his brother, though, he had more experience with having to deal with Bella’s emotions up close. Klaus had been fine once he had figured out how to tune out certain emotions at long distance, but this feeling was more than curiosity. It was a morbid curiosity and he wouldn’t be surprised if Bella ripped off Peter’s cock.

It did feel like she was in control over herself, but knowing Bella, this could easily change. Both he and Kol were ready to leap to Peter’s defense and rip the little spitfire off of him if necessary.

“Now that you’re no longer in danger of hurting her with this thing here, what will your intentions be with my best friend?” Bella knew that they probably wouldn’t have had sex yet; despite Alina being a vampire, Cold One venom still hurt like crazy. To Bella it was a silly sensation but that was because it was her duty to kill them all. Even Kol, an Original vampire, got burned a couple of times.

Peter smirked at her, despite his gift being non-existent, he knew what she was aiming at. “Treat her like my equal and fuck her mercilessly.”

“Good boy,” Bella removed her hand from him and gently pat his cheek. “Don’t worry, the urge to kill you isn’t there. At least the effect that Cold Ones have on me isn’t here.”

Klaus exhaled at the same time Kol did as relief washed over them. It was hard not to be jealous about the relationship between Bella and Kol. They had spent a whole year together and, if he had to be honest, he’d been afraid that she’d stray and settle for his brother. Unlike himself, Kol didn’t have the pressure of having to keep their family together, to make sure they were safe. Granted, Kol would fight his hardest to do so if either Klaus or Elijah asked him, but he was the wild one.

Somewhere over the years, Klaus had lost that. Hayley pointed that out during their trip, actually. While she appreciated it that he did everything in his power to keep everyone safe, he needed to loosen up. He was truly free now, as was Bella, and it was about time that they started to enjoy their lives. Bella already had a head start due to her time in Europe, with Kol, killing Cold Ones and even some of the disgruntled vampires from his former sireline and now Klaus felt the pressure to catch up.

He’d already made the first step by having Hayley and Hope return home and invite Hayley over for a drink that evening and talk about the last year. For the sake of inclusion, he also invited Davina, something Kol was probably going to love.

Kol was faster than he was when the urge to kill rose inside of Bella and he directed her away from Peter. “We’re not going to kill Peter.”

“No,” Bella swatted his hands away from her. “I was merely thinking that we should take a Cullen… preferably a screamer… and take it to the scrap yard. You know, they have those machines to turn cars into a thin slice of metal? I want to do that with a Cullen. And once it’s flat, I want to run a knife over their body and slice them like they’re a chunk of cheese.”

“What?” Klaus let out a snort. “Love, isn’t it a lot easier to just kill them?”

“What the hell do you think I’ve been doing in the past year? No, they deserve to die with pain. To choke on their own venom. I want them to know that I, Bella Swan, will be the death of them and that I’m going to make it painful.”

“Sure, love, we can do that,” he replied, fascinated by this side of her. He had never known that there was a little psychopath hidden inside of her. “What about tomorrow?”

“What about today? Now?”

“You know they can’t travel in daylight!”

“This is New Orleans. Weirder things happen than a sparkly person. No, I want one now. I want to kill all of them, but one will do, for now. I want them to stew a little in fear.”

“Now, now, there’s no reason to be a brat about it,” Klaus said patronizingly as he grabbed her arm and pulled her closer before repositioning his arm and lead her out of the room. He had different plans and with her wanting to change them wasn’t sitting well with him. Klaus hated it that ever since she returned she was even more bossy than she’d been previously, she was still angry with him for leaving with Hayley, wasn’t she? “Hayley is coming home today, with Hope.”

“I’m not being a brat about it, but fine. I’ll kill them all today in the same boring way that I have killed their kind over the last few months and get it over with,” Bella said grumpily. “I wanted to have my fun with them because of what they did to me, but yes, let’s forget the fact that you like to torture your worst enemies as well. Where are they? Let’s finish this nightmare.”

He wanted to pull out his own hair. “Just because I do it doesn’t mean you’re going to!”

Bella stopped walking and pulled away from him. “Oh, what? Is it because I have boobs? Is that it? I should sit still and be pretty all day? Like I did when you tried to screw Aurora over by literally screwing her?”

“With your permission!”

“Oh, so I’m right,” Bella barked out a laugh. “Oh wow. Nice, Klaus. Very gentlemanly of you. I can’t believe you’ve rounded up the Cullens and haven’t killed them yet in the time that I’ve been away only for not allowing me to kill them?”

“You didn’t hear me when I said that Hayley was returning today.”

“So what? You want me to be pretty? Is that it? There is time for both and if you’re not taking me to them then I will find someone who will. Or better yet, I’ll find them myself.”

Klaus was too late to hold her back as she sped off and when he turned to see if their little spat had been witnessed, he saw the smirk on his brother’s face. “What, Kol?” he barked.

“Let’s just hope that her bursts of anger will go away once she’s killed them all, you looked about ready to kill her,” Kol replied with a shrug. “Don’t worry, brother, in time, you’ll learn to deal with her emotions. Until then, I shall try to find her and make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid.”

~o.O.o~

Of course she hadn’t gone and find the Cullens in a city like New Orleans without Kol, but she really needed to get out of there before she’d do something irreparable to her relationship with Klaus. He was such a stick in the mud, sometimes. The freedom she had enjoyed with Kol had been exhilarating and she knew that she had to dial her opinions back to whatever level they were before, but Klaus hadn’t even wanted to give her one Cullen.

Only because of fucking Hayley coming back today. With Hope. Klaus’ daughter. He had had the entire year to be a family with them and sure, she appreciated it that Hayley wasn’t actually there when she and Kol returned, but now that she was coming back Bella couldn’t help but feel as if she was yet again going to be pushed aside. Or ‘managed’.

She had gone to the only place she felt somewhat safe in New Orleans other than the compound, and that was her old stomping grounds Débauche. Myriam wasn’t there, she was with Elijah and the new manager didn’t want to let her inside. If it wasn’t for Frank, she wouldn’t have been able to get in anyway.

And, no wonder, Kol found her and they drank. A lot. “I envy you,” Kol eventually said after a very long silence and a bottle of bourbon empty. “Nik has this thing where he tries to control and manipulate people he cares too much about, he wants to keep them safe and close. All I’ve ever felt with him was that I’m a burden.”

“Don’t be stupid, he loves you.”

“Now he does. He didn’t have a choice in listening to me when I was in that witch’ body. He didn’t have a choice to accept me when I offered to help because Mother was batshit crazy. I proved my worth and he didn’t like me dying again,” Kol replied calmly. “And to be honest, he was incredibly pissed off when I took you to Europe.”

“I wasn’t going to wait around for him to come back, you know. I would have gone on my own.”

“And he would have come after you and hunt you down. I think that me coming with you worked in all of our best interests,” Kol smiled at her. “He doesn’t like to be abandoned.”

“Well, he abandoned me!” Bella threw back another shot. “Look, I understand his need to disappear, to make sure that his daughter was safe, but… damnit, I thought I was over this already.”

“Klaus knew you were safe,” Hayley’s voice came from behind them. “Granted, the way that he turned you was not okay and I made sure he knew that, but he left you in safe hands. None of his enemies knew about you.”

Bella squeezed her glass so tight that it exploded.

“Oh,” Kol sucked in a breath as he held up his hand to stop Hayley from approaching for her own good. Hybrid or not, Bella was just as strong, if not stronger. He sincerely doubted that Myriam would love to redecorate the walls of the bar if Bella would hurt Hayley. Not to mention, Nik would kill Bella in return.

“I don’t like Klaus and he knows it,” Hayley continued from her spot, taking her cue from Kol at this point. “We had a one night stand and Hope’s the product of that. I have to at least tolerate him because of Hope. It took a lot of fighting and backstabbing to get to the point where we are at now; talking about what’s best for her. Especially now that she’s getting older. You were there when we fought when I came back.”

“He did what he did to keep his daughter safe,” Bella muttered. “You were going to take her away.”

“And I did what I did to keep Hope safe too,” Hayley countered. “We both had our daughter’s best interest at heart, even if that meant taking her away from her father. Which, in hindsight, had been a very bad idea because like Kol said; Klaus doesn’t like to be abandoned.”

“Then why does he do it to other people? This wasn’t even the first time he left me because when I was living here, he just stopped coming round one day without explanation and that broke my heart. If he does it to other people to protect them, to keep them safe, he really needs an attitude adjustment.”

“Klaus likes to be in control,” Hayley said, taking a few steps closer as Kol relaxed somewhat. “So with him leaving you with his siblings, safe, he knew that you were safe. He took me and Hope because I had just lost my husband and I really wanted to kill things and Hope wouldn’t be safe on her own, she’s a baby.” She slipped into the chair next to Bella. “Thing is though, he can’t control women like us. It’s a constant struggle on both sides of the issue. You, me, Rebekah… even Cami. We like to march to our own drum and that’s hard for him to accept because we’re not this perfect image he has of us.”

“I’m tired of being handled. For the first time in a very long time I’ve enjoyed myself, my freedom, and I come back to this?”

“Did you tell him that?”

“Yeah, last night. I just… I don’t know, really.”

“Did he tell you about our trip? What we did?”

“Of course he did. You went to all the Kingfisher buildings and gutted them. Burned them down, to erase every trace of Lucien and everything he tried to pull.”

“What else?”

“What else was there?”

Hayley smirked and motioned to the bartender to keep pouring. “He destroyed six cars because of this bond between you two. Uncontrolled anger was the cause of most destruction, but there was this one time where he was driving and he got so turned on and horny that he couldn’t remember how to work a seat belt and tore off the steering wheel to get out of the car as quickly as possible.” she took a swig of her bourbon and shrugged. “When I asked, he muttered something along the lines of you being a tease on the hood of a car.”

“Oh,” Kol grinned and quickly took a sip from his drink.

“Nothing happened between you two, right?” Hayley eyed them suspiciously. “Because it was kinda intense.”

“We didn’t have sex with each other, no,” Bella shook her head. “Kol was a gentleman and kept refusing me and eventually I decided to wait until I got home. To Klaus.”

“We’d take down these buildings together, but sometimes he was so uncontrollably angry that he started to smash everything in sight, kill everyone in sight, so I took a step back while he let off some steam inside the building,” she then looked at Kol. “How did you fare?”

“I joined in with the killing, it was fun,” he grinned. “Eventually I managed to separate my own feelings from hers and not getting taken over by them, to keep a clear head.”

“He managed to do the same on our way back to New Orleans, but I suppose it’s easier to get it under control when you’re not on top of it,” Hayley shrugged. “Upon our return, he stayed at the Infirmary for a while just to make sure that he was still sane. He needed a break, I guess.”

Bella threw back her glass and shifted a bit uncomfortably. “It’s not as if I can help it what happened, you know.”

“No, but your life isn’t the only one that changed. You can show at least a little bit of restraint when it comes to dealing with your emotions.”

“Bella has excellent control over her emotions,” Kol said defensively. “When there are no Cold Ones around she’s the nicest person ever. She knows the Cullens are in New Orleans somewhere. Subconsciously she feels them and that makes her angry. She holds a lot of anger and resentment towards them and I don’t blame her,” he continued as he downed his glass. “It was liberating to exert all that anger onto the rest of them, but once the Cullens are gone she no longer serves a purpose as a Singer and she’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Kol nodded. “A Singer exists solely to kill Cold Ones, her strength comes from her anger and rage. Once they’re all gone, she’ll be able to deal with everything else in a more rational way. All of her anger is on a big heap right now, difficult to sift through.”

“Keep talking as if I’m not here,” Bella said angrily and threw back another shot.

“It’s either sex or anger with her these days,” Kol grinned. “It’s driving Klaus nuts.”

“We wouldn’t be in this situation if he’d just let me kill one of them today. But noooo, the mother of his child is coming home today, can’t it wait until tomorrow?” Bella said mockingly before looking at Hayley. “Best way to describe this feeling is as if there’s ants underneath your skin, crawling around, taking a nibble, it’s annoying and I want it gone.”

“Klaus told me about your idea, I love it,” Hayley grinned. “Let’s go get one and do it.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, fuck Klaus, right? I’m kinda curious myself what would happen if you’d put them into a car crusher and shit like that. I love a good torture!”

“Sounds like we’re going to break out the popcorn,” Kol emptied his glass before paying the bartender for the damage. “Which one will we be taking?”

“Rosalie, I never liked the dumb bimbo.”

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2 Comments:

  1. Such a great chapter. Bella has every right to her anger and Klaus needs to lighten up.

  2. I love it and hope yo do the torture scene.

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