Chapter 14

Kol could now understand why Bella had been attached to that angel statue in Memphis, taking a break from all the spirits and shit like that. Occasionally, on their trip back, he saw lost spirits on the highway, likely those who died in horrific accidents and that quite unnerved him. Perhaps it had been a good thing that Jeremy had been driving while Bella tried to sleep on the back seat, clutching the angel.

It had been two days since the Cullen House, and while he was used to having nightmares, he felt for Bella; she whimpered and kicked in bed before screaming and waking the both of them up. They all were exhausted, he was more hungry than ever and Bella… Kol had to make sure that she wouldn’t spiral down again like she had for the last two years. She needed to fight it.

She woke up before they rolled into New Orleans and had passed him the angel statue as he was still suffering from the last bit of her blood in his system. “Trust me,” she had said. “They don’t bother me because I close myself off enough, you’re going to have a hell of a time without this.”

And she’d been right. Of course he played with it and see what the fuss was all about, it drove him insane. “I will need to learn if we’re going to be doing that again in the future,” he implied, referring to their blood sharing in bed.

“I know, but the city is one big mess, it’ll overwhelm you and it’ll be harder to learn. I’m not sure how you’ve learned to close yourself off from all the voices and smells of the world around you, but maybe you could try that. At a quieter location where we can control the environment.”

He let out a yearning moan. “Our bed sounds so wonderful right now. Nothing but silence and protection surrounding us!”

“I don’t want to go back to our bed,” Bella immediately said, shaking her head. “We’re going to have to deal with our stuff, not numb it,” she replied, referring to their nightmares and their experiences.

Sighing, he looked over the seat to her. “So the compound for Dr. Myriam to give us a check up? She’ll love that.”

“The Compound so that there are other people around who can support us. Provide a listening ear… and perhaps a cleansing or two. Jeremy has to stay too – granted, his experience wasn’t that intense, but there was a lot of bad shit up there. I’m sure that Drew is suffering from some after effects as well.”

“Ugh,” Jeremy replied with a sigh. “Fine. I’m going to ask Alaric to see if there’s something at the Armory that could prevent Kol from being possessed again.”

“Armory?” Bella asked, still learning much of their lives before they came to her.

“Yeah, it’s an organisation that specializes in supernatural artifacts and knowledge. Much like a library. It’s very old and they have stuff that’s ancient. So, who knows?” Jeremy shrugged. “Hey, Kol, maybe you could donate some of your dark objects to the Armory.”

He turned his head to glare at his friend. Give up his toys? His main defense incase Myriam can’t keep his brother in line? “No. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have some of my stuff there. Maybe I should go and take them back.”

Jeremy shrugged. “Asking Ric to see if there’s something that could help you might be worth it, though, right?”

“Let’s talk to Myriam first. No doubt that the moment we crossed the border into New Orleans, she sensed us and is running amok in the compound, driving Nik and Elijah mad.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if she was waiting for us to do a ninja cleansing,” Bella snorted.

Jeremy started choking as he looked in the mirror at her. “Cleansing? Klaus would actually let her do that to other people? Guys? The fuck?”

“Like, waiting around the corner and jump from behind it with her stuff,” Bella rolled her eyes at him. “It’s not like a sponge bath. It’s sage and noise and whatever her kind of priestess does to do that.”

“My brother would be more likely to rip you apart before harming his in house voodoo witch. He’d probably be present or close enough to step in. You know very well how territorial we Mikaelsons are with our women,” Kol muttered, narrowing his eyes at the stupidity his friend managed to conjure up in his mind.

“You’re not that bad,” Jeremy smirked as he turned into the street.

Bella, and even Kol, turned to look at him in disbelief. While she seemed at times to not be paying attention, there were moments she knew Kol was particularly sensitive when Jeremy was too close or strangers were overly flirty with her and he’d make his position quite clear.

“Just saying,” he shrugged. “Klaus would have ripped everyone’s head off, you have at least some control over those urges.”

“Some? I wanted to bloody run all over Chicago to find that bastard Cullen but no! Dead ghosts had me doing their errands for them!” Kol exclaimed. “I still want to rip his throat with my teeth and bathe in his blood!”

Laughing, Jeremy parked the car and turned to his friends. “Just so you know, I made it clear to him that Bella doesn’t owe him anything and that if he continues to harass her, that we’ll call the cops on him. If he wishes to know what we found in his house, he should watch the first part on the channel next week, but he should not look for further contact.”

“Quite mild… even I want him dead,” Bella muttered as she got out of the car and nearly tripping over her feet if it weren’t for Kol’s speedy reflexes to catch her. “Thanks.”

“Anytime Darling,” he winked, kissing her nose. “Let’s get this over with.”

They carried their stuff into the compound, but the moment they set foot in the courtyard, Myriam loudly called; “Stop!” and they all froze to the ground, curiously looking upwards, where she was waiting for them in full pineapple gear.

“Hey, you weren’t kidding about her looking like a pineapple,” Bella quipped. “She does belong in a circus!”

Myriam zipped down the stairs, a lit sage stick with frankincense in her hand. She immediately blew it’s smoke into Kol’s face first, before covering him with it. When she was done with him, she moved onto Bella, and finally Jeremy, who coughed when it was in his face. “You have so much muck on you, we’re going to have a ball the next couple of days,” Myriam greeted them. “All the dark residue needs to leave. Wherever you went to, it was filthy.” She said before making another round with her sage stick. “Peace and harmony are welcome, not the opposite.”

Kol remained still as she did her thing, but his eyes darted around the building and could see so many dead being held back. He wished he brought Bella’s angel totem with him, but he’d left it in the car, not thinking. “How long will this be going on?”

“It depends,” Myriam said as she extinguished her sage stick, looking at the three of them, curiously. “Is there a reason why you haven’t informed myself or your brother about the house you were playing around in?” She smacked Kol up on the head with the extinguished sage stick. “What you looking at?”

He cringed, glaring at her. “Your little pets you keep trapped here. There are like fifteen up on the balcony! More here or there scattered around. Do you really need so many spirits?”

She narrowed her eyes on him before looking at Bella, but eventually setting her eyes on Jeremy. “It’s not a body swap, what happened, hunter?”

Jeremy glanced at Kol, feeling bad for his friend. “There was an incident at the location we were at and he drank from Bella,” he said, softening the event a little.

“Drank from Bella… I don’t see how that would change anything unless…” she looked back at Kol and hit him on the head again. “Did you get possessed? Did you nearly kill the poor girl?”

“Don’t say it,” Kol growled in warning. “Klaus’ mate or not, I will kill you.”

Myriam stepped closer, her face close to his now. “I fucking told you so,” she whispered.

Snapping, Kol charged at her, attempting to get his hands around her neck. Her damn pineapple turban falling apart around them. Before he knew it, he was pulled off her and was on the ground with a broken neck – again.

“Um…” Bella stammered, staring at them. “Uh-”

“He had it coming,” Klaus said gently as he made sure Myriam was in one piece. “So, the Cullen House?”

She blinked at him as she made her way to Kol’s side. “How did you know? I hadn’t said anything yet.”

“Oh, that Edward person posted a long rant about how rude you and your friends were after he was so courteous with his invitation to explore his family owned home. What’s this thing I hear about being married? Did you elope in Memphis, get married by Elvis himself?”

Bella sighed and wished for Kol to be awake to deal with his nutty brother himself. “No. I just didn’t know what else to say when Edward Cullen was being so…persistent. He wouldn’t leave me alone. Kol damn near killed him the day we met up with him to discuss the visit.”

“Pity,” Klaus said, looking at Myriam. “I suppose we’ll have to cancel the cake.”

Myriam shook her head. “Never. It’s always time for cake. You may want to call the church and let the minister know he won’t be needed for a formal ceremony.”

Bella narrowed her eyes on the pair and decided to ignore them. “How did things go with my father?”

“Oh, let’s compare notes when Kol’s back to his senses,” Klaus quipped as he walked over to their luggage. “Do you want me to take this to your apartment?”

“No, we’re going to stay here for the time being,” Bella said as she was still cradling Kol, running her hand through his hair. “The experience we’ve had was less than welcome and the apartment will only hurt our healing.”

He nodded and turned to take the baggage up to his brother’s room. “It’ll be nice to have the family all together again. Rebekah, I expect her to be returning within a few days from her adventure to find love.”

“Do you have a room for Jeremy, too?”

Myriam smirked and shrugged. “We do, but I don’t think it would be a problem for long.”

“It’s just that Jeremy was in that house, too, you know, and while Kol and I received the brunt of it… I don’t want him to be alone right now.”

“That bad?”

Bella nodded as she continued to toy with Kol’s hair. “When he comes to, I’m sure that we’ll end up talking well into the night about our experiences.”

Klaus didn’t take long with their belongings and soon returned, sighing at the disarray his girlfriend was dressed in. While he adored her abilities and quirkiness, there were times that he grew overwhelmed by her. “They have all been cleansed by your sage and whispers. Could you please go straighten yourself up?”

“Aw, and here I thought you liked it when I dressed like this,” Myriam winked at him before heading upstairs to do as she was told.

As soon as she out was out of sight, Jeremy turned to Klaus with a grin. “Here I thought she wore the pants and controlled you in every way. Looks like you do get to get some bossiness in there.”

“Don’t push it, Gilbert,” Klaus warned him before motioning to his brother with a sigh. “Help me move him to his room so that Bella can continue to play nurse, this is a pathetic sight.”

“If you hadn’t snapped his neck in the first place, this wouldn’t have been a pathetic sight,” Bella responded, narrowing her eyes on him.

“What would you have us do when he was going after Myriam? Allow him to try to kill her? He is more than capable of doing the deed. He has killed without remorse, countless times.”

“I know that! But you could have pulled him off of her and protected Myriam yourself, not taking the neck snapping way out!”

Klaus shrugged. “It’s fun. He’ll sleep off his anger and will just have the munchies when he wakes. You will be there, likely, ready to offer him a vein like a wet nurse,” the hybrid smirked.

Bella scowled as she pulled off her shoe and threw it at Klaus. “That’s the worst idea, ever.”

“Seriously. Them and blood is actually part of the problem right now,” Jeremy pointed out.

“And I fully intend on hearing the details once our resident maniac awakes from his slumber, now, let’s move him.”

“No.” Bella said firmly. “You dropped him here, it’s where he stays. If you don’t want to see this in your courtyard, you leave.”

“Bella, please don’t antagonize the hybrid,” Jeremy sighed as he kept his eyes on Klaus. “He’s one tough cookie to fight and he might actually kill me. Sure, I’ll come back but no. Please no.”

“We came here for help. Not to be put down,” Bella pointed out. “No more cheap shots like this. You won’t have a place truly safe from the dead in town if you press me.”

“Well, I did offer to take him somewhere more comfortable for you, but if you wish him to stay here for my punishment, then he shall stay, I am not bothered,” Klaus said amused, wondering what in the world had happened to them at their location. He could not wait to hear the stories or share his own from what he learned from Bella’s father – who, in Klaus’ mind, should never have given the responsibility to take care of her.

“Do you at least have food until this jerk wakes up?” Jeremy questioned, making himself comfortable on the couch. “It’s been a long morning and the drive was irritating whenever Bella slept, hugging your girl’s present to herself.”

“No doubt Kol was describing any crash victim to you,” Bella smiled as she looked down at Kol. “Right into the gruesome details.”

He nodded, tired and annoyed. “That and whenever one decided to pop up in the car, he constantly argued with it. You slept like a baby.”

Klaus’ jaw fell wide open. “He’s seeing dead people now?”

Jeremy scratched his jaw as he looked to Bella. She was keeping her attention fixated on Kol, completely indignant of Klaus. “Yeah. It should be wearing off soon though. Question. When you nearly drain a human, how long does their blood stay in you?”

“It gets absorbed into the bloodstream until we bleed or until our body has absorbed it in order for us to replenish.”

“Uh… so it becomes a part of you?” Jeremy clarified, quickly looking down at the unconscious Kol.

“I know Kol has fed upon Bella, but blood sharing is hardly something major. I doubt he’d feel the effects of her magic. If it’s even magic that’s in her blood. Our bodies are able to absorb the magical effects, though. If it’s a pint, it takes a day to fully be absorbed.”

“Yeah, okay, so…” Jeremy said slightly hesitant as he pulled Klaus away from Bella and Kol. “I’ll show you tonight what happened but eh… Kol got possessed by the biggest monster in that house and he nearly ripped out Bella’s throat, drinking her blood, digging deep, very primal. I was quick to get some of Kol’s blood after I snapped his neck because otherwise she’d have bled out. Like… it was weakly flowing from her neck, there was no blood pressure anymore. It was a really close call.”

Klaus stared at his brother and the girl, more curious by the two. “Interesting. And you believe this gave him the ability to see ghosts? I thought you did not see them, Bella.”

“There’s more to the story and Kol wants to tell you himself, it’ll make sense when he does, but do you think that whatever magic is in her blood will get out of Kol’s system soon? The guy’s really suffering.”

“Well, I suppose we could speed up the process,” Klaus said, thoughtfully. “A nice, old fashioned bloodletting!”

“Fuck off,” Kol muttered, the sound of bones aligning themselves following, causing Bella to wince.

“Well, that’s quick,” Klaus blinked in surprise.

He sat up, rubbing his neck and glared at his brother. “You need to keep Myriam in line more. I won’t have her bothering Bella or playing an Elijah and decide that we can’t be together because it’s not safe.”

“I do believe that that wasn’t the case, brother. She merely told you ‘I told you so’ for something I am not privvy of,” Klaus said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Exactly my point. What that was, was between her and I, but it still stands true that I won’t have anyone come between us.”

“Myriam has been your greatest warrior for this, Kol. I doubt that she will.”

“Best it stays that way. I’m not in the mood for any more meddling. I will rip out the neck of the next bloody fucker that pisses me off,” Kol growled, getting up to his feet and pulling Bella to him to give a kiss. “What have I missed so far?” he questioned, looking around and intentionally ignoring the extra presences in the room.

“Klaus was suggesting a blood letting to get my blood out of you,” she said softly as she put her head against his arm. “I am so sorry for what you’re going through. My blood is making you experience something and… I’m faulty.”

Klaus scoffed at that. “You are not broken. If anything you fit with this family even more.”

“Exactly,” Myriam smiled as she bounded down the steps, dressed more normal. “And I don’t think bloodletting would solve the problem. It’s been too long and her blood has already been absorbed by Kol’s body. Even if we drained what was left, he’d still have some fraction of her ability. Why this is, I haven’t a clue. I mean, we all fed on witches at some point in our lives and we never gained this magic like that.”

“As I said before, I’m more interested in knowing why Kol can see things while Bella can’t,” Klaus said as he made sure that Kol wouldn’t be able to go after Myriam that easily again.

Kol turned and looked at Bella pointedly. They had a lengthy conversation at the hotel before they left after he had finally settled the problem with the ghost boy, and thoroughly freaking his mother out before he was stuck with a sobbing woman in his arms for an hour. “Would you like to tell them?”

Bella sighed, still embarrassed about what happened in the past. “Did Charlie tell you how he and mom put me in a mental hospital?” She asked Myriam and Klaus. “And why?”

Klaus smirked. “Oh, he told us lots of things, but that was one. You would have to be more specific on the event though.”

Oh, Bella knew that Klaus knew, and she knew that he wanted to hear it from her, and that was frustrating. She started to pace around a little as she scratched her arms. “I always saw things when I was younger. My parents thought I had imaginary friends, but they were dead people. I snuck out at night to play at the cemetery until they managed to lock me up at home. At some point when I was fifteen, I saw people get stabbed and it hurt so much that it lasted for days, my shrinks telling my parents that I had a mental breakdown and they suggested to take me to a mental health institute in Virginia,” she let out a breath as she kept pacing. “I kept seeing things. Not just the stabbed people but the ghosts at the institute and they weren’t going to let me go so Kol’s idea is that I buried it inside my head, like a collapsed wall making sure it won’t ever come out again because it scares me to see things. I don’t want to see things. Like how they died or what they look like in their death state or other things,” she rambled. “And he’s right. I can do more than I allow myself, but aren’t I crazy enough already?”

Myriam, Klaus, and Jeremy sat there staring at her. At some point during her speech, Elijah walked in with a blond woman. “Perhaps you are, but then anyone would be to voluntarily hang out with my family,” she spoke. “Especially so if you got yourself involved with Kol. We wouldn’t hold it against you, though.”

Bella looked at the blond woman in shock. “You were in my skidmark, you’re Rebekah, aren’t you?”

She looked at her alarmed and stared at her brother. “What the hell? Now that certainly is crazy. What kind of girlfriend did you find this time? Skidmark?”

“STOP SAYING THAT WORD!” Both Klaus and Kol shouted, displaying their clear discomfort by it.

“It’s Bella’s word for residual haunting,” Jeremy offered. “We were in the Sanatorium last week and she encountered one of Klaus chasing you.”

Rebekah’s eyes widened as she looked from him to Klaus, to Bella and Kol. “I swear! I apologized to Nik profusely for what I did! I even tried to stop it!”

“Sister, I already forgave you,” Klaus said gently. “And Bella shared the same story as you after her chat with Clara.”

The vampire pouted as Elijah nudged her to a seat. She remained silent as he went to pour the room some drinks. “So, aside from an interesting addition to the family, what else have I missed? Clearly we have taken up one of the Five now. How did that happen?”

“I think you should tell them who you saw, darling,” Kol said as he stopped Bella from pacing. “They need to know, it’s alright,” he softly kissed the top of her head.

“Who I saw?” she asked. “Are we talking about Jasper?”

“No, I’m talking about what we saw inside your head, your experiences. We’ll tell them about the house, but we can’t share everything about it without giving them more context.”

“Right, and I tell them what you want me to say and then they will believe I’m some stalking nutjob.”

“I’m the stalker,” he grinned. “You’re the little prey who made it very easy for me to hunt down and woo.”

Bella rolled her eyes, smiling to herself before sighing. “I really don’t know what to say about it. You understood more than I did. To me, it was more people’s lives being ripped away so cruelly. I had no idea it was you.”

“What?” Elijah said surprised.

“Bella here had a safe place inside her mind as a young girl, it was the woods around our settlement,” Kol explained to his siblings. “Now, we’ve only been inside her mind once, but she used to play with a little boy and grew up with him, sort to speak. Me. The event with the stabbing… that was eight years ago. When Alaric stabbed me and caused most of us to temporarily fall. She saw our faces. She saw our joy, our pain she felt.”

Myriam stared at Bella, pensive as she thought about whatever link she might have. She wasn’t sure what it was, but it was definitely something otherworldly. “I think we all have seen enough in the past to believe that quite well. What I am curious about is what happened more recently that has you both wanting to hide here. It’s something else.”

“We were invited by an Edward Cullen to check out his estate. Bella immediately knew the short but fierce reputation the house has among the paranormal community and didn’t want to go, but, we went anyway,” Kol said, hanging his head in shame. “Jeremy and I were excited about it, it was something new, something untainted by our family and perhaps a good experience for Bella to grow. I felt that since she was so angry at her dad that she decided to go against her own instincts and agreed to do it.”

“This Edward guy is a real piece of work,” Jeremy said, shaking his head. “He basically invites the paranormal elite over to find a specific area of the house that’s hidden from him but that house… is a nightmare. Bella’s friend Drew insisted on coming with since he had experiences in that house with his mates when they were there for his TV show.”

“Sounds like an exciting trip. What do you suppose Cullen is having so many investigators come through to look for?” Elijah wondered.

“We weren’t sure. Drew said the most activity were on the top two levels so we headed there first and we split up for awhile. I took Drew to one side of the first floor, Bella and Kol went to the other side.” He grabbed his laptop and searched for the footage that Kol shot in the room, including with them both flying and Bella closing the portal. “Look at this.”

Klaus and Myriam moved closer before the others, as she was still uncharacteristically silent as she tried to figure their new friend out. At the part with the portal, she let out a breath, glancing over at Bella, knowing that she shouldn’t be able to do that. It almost had her afraid of the girl. “You didn’t say anything that the camera might not have picked up?” she asked, verifying that it was done by mere touch.

Bella shook her head. “I told those assholes that once I removed my hand from the wall that the portal would close, I’m kinda surprised that it actually worked.”

“These types of things require a tremendous amount of energy to open or close,” Myriam pointed out. “Or in most cases if the humans don’t have access to a witch, as those with any real abilities won’t show themselves, it would need a religious aspect to combat it. Like an exorcism by a priest.”

Bella shrugged.

“So, once we were all okay after the flying lessons and scare, we continued our round and then decided to truly split up. Bella and Kol were going downstairs, as there was less activity according to Drew, and Drew and I stayed upstairs,” Jeremy said as he fast forwarded Kol’s footage to where they were in the ballroom where Kol told Bella to focus. After showing that, he fast forwarded it again, right before they’d encounter Alice and Carlisle. “Now, here’s where it gets interesting.”

“That bloody wench was irritating,” Kol complained under his breath, still not happy about being felt up by the dead.

Everyone around the laptop gasped in horror when Carlisle took over Kol’s body. “That house was draining you, wasn’t it?” Rebekah said worried. “There is no way that that could have happened so easily.”

“I did try to fight him off, but it was something else. It’s possible he was around long enough to figure out some new tricks. It’s not unheard of. Only we don’t often seek these places out like this ourselves which is why we haven’t quite encountered it before,” Kol murmured, moving away from the group as he knew what was coming next.

When Bella fought Kol off with vervain, all the vampires winced. “Oh, that must have hurt,” Rebekah said painfully.

“Not nearly as much as what happened in the basement section,” he voiced from the couch.

Bella walked over to him and sat down next to him, crawling into his arms.

“Bella was talking about being drawn to that hidden place, she’s in contact with Jasper, one of the good ones who actually cared for her well being, even showed himself to us earlier on in order for her to leave the house. Kol had seen the area when Carlisle shared his body with him and lead them straight to it. It was a maze, but not. Walls, corners, very spooky, until they came across this,” Jeremy said as he showed the Mikaelsons the worshipping area on the video still.

Elijah scowled as he narrowed his eyes. “Where have we seen that before?”

“Italy and Greece,” Klaus snarled. “The bloody Volturi. What in the world are you getting involved in now?” he spun and glared at the couple. “You know how much trouble that group would cause if they found their fabled source of immortality?”

“Yes,” Kol shot at him, not looking at him. “I told Bella this too, don’t worry, we know and we know why the house wants to keep it a secret from Edward.”

“The wanker would most likely run off to their insane leaders of the moment. Well? Was there anything to be found there that they fought so valiantly to protect?”

“You can’t see it, but there was a scroll that lit up for Bella,” Jeremy said as he pressed play, showing Bella heading straight for the scroll and pocketing it. “Like, it lit up, like the portal did for her.”

Everyone in the family, save for her two boys, turned to stare at Bella. “What are you?” Elijah murmured, curious more than anything.

Klaus was only mildly suspicious considering how he normally could be, and Rebekah was still incredibly confused.

Jeremy sighed as he paused the video again. “Now, what happened next was quite shocking. You don’t see much of it on video, but you can hear Bella’s screams, see the blood and her feet… and uh… the aftermath,” he said as he unpaused the video and saw how Bella covered her ears and turned even more into Kol for safety.

There was a considerable amount of growling once Kol was once again possessed, the desire and inability to protect their family coming through. Myriam turned away at seeing Bella being practically torn by his teeth and the sigh when he was put down with a broken neck just in time.

Klaus was glad to see that the hunter acted fast, putting pressure on Bella’s neck before getting her some of his brother’s blood. Seeing all the footage explained a lot why Bella wanted them to stay at the compound for awhile. Kol was likely feeling extremely guilty and both of them were dealing with something not unfamiliar to him; PTSD. All of them had some form of it and had managed to live with it, but this was fresh. This needed to smoothe over.

“Kol started seeing ghosts almost immediately once he came to, once both he and Bella were done and headed out,” Jeremy explained. “That small angel statue has been his lifeboat for the last couple of days.”

“When she isn’t clinging to it to be able to sleep,” Myriam observed. “Have you gotten any sleep yourself Kol?”

“What do you think?” He shot at her. “I try and then I see myself ripping her throat out and killing her, over and over again and when I’m awake, I see dead people who want my help and they don’t fucking stop.”

Nodding, Myriam took off without a word. Klaus already had an idea of what she was doing, but he’d let her talk whenever she was ready. “Then here you will stay until you feel you are able to go back to your apartment.”

“Oh, we could go back to our apartment and live blissfully, that’s just it. We can’t do that. We can’t ignore the effect the experiences have had on us because it needs to run its course,” Kol said irritated. “I almost wanted to chuck that angel statue out of the damn car window the first few days because Bella was too happy with it that she could visit famous landmarks without being bothered, now I’m glad that I didn’t and know what it does for her.”

“Have you taken a look at that scroll?” Elijah questioned curiously.

“Not yet. We’d like to get some real rest for awhile before diving into this nightmare again,” Bella replied. “Maybe in a day or so. Not right now.”

“Alright, that’s enough for tonight,” Rebekah said, getting to her feet and headed over to her brother and his special girlfriend. “You two, on your feet and march to your room,” she pulled them both up and pushed them gently towards Kol’s room. “Nik can tell you his findings tomorrow.”

“Bekah…”

“Shut up, Kol,” she said as she smacked him on the head. “I’ll be outside your door all night if you need me.”

Bella tugged on his arm to turn his attention to her. “Let’s go lay down then if they are letting us. I am pretty tired.”

“Yeah, alright,” he sighed as he put an arm around Bella and smiled at his sister. “Thanks, Rebekah.”

“Of course,” she smiled at him as she moved to open the door, but Myriam surprised her by walking out first.

“Sweet dreams,” Myriam smiled at Kol and Bella. “In a perfect little bubble for now, I’ll have the anti-dream part of that bubble lessen over a couple of days, but you really need some sleep.”

“But I like some of my dreams…” Bella murmured, her face reddening.

“We all do, sugar,” Myriam smiled at her. “But sleep is needed and dreams are as distracting as those activities in such dreams. Of course no one is stopping you from the act before bedtime.”

Rebekah groaned as she sat down on the sofa in front of the bedroom. “Go on, in you pop.”

“We aren’t children,” Bella glared at the blond. “Don’t treat us like them.”

“Rebekah wants to do something nice, let her,” Kol soothed her as he gently pushed Bella into the room and closed the door; locking it from the inside. “There. All alone.”

“Is she really going to sit outside all night? Because that’s rather disturbing,” she pointed out. “Especially if I had been less tired to be able to do what I wanted.”

“Well,” Kol said as he lifted Bella up and took her to the bathroom. “I think Rebekah feels guilty for that residual haunting you encountered of her and our brother… and she’s curious of you… and she’s actually pretty caring. Not a lot of people get to see that side of her, she’s usually very bitchy.” He put her down and put the plug into the bath before running the water and started to strip Bella out of her clothes.

Bella smirked, watching him as he moved about, leaning against the sink counter. “So is Klaus, despite his attempts to shield the fact that he worries about everyone. He’s not sitting outside the door right now.”

“Ah, what can I say, darling?” Kol smiled as he tugged on her panties before pulling them down. “I’m her favorite brother.” Once Bella was deliciously naked, he got out of his own clothes and checked the water temperature before throwing in some of the lavender leaves that Myriam had placed near the tub and helped Bella step into the bath. “But, let’s just relax now. You and me.”

“You’re not hearing me complain,” she sighed happily as she settled against him.

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