09: Homecoming

[Mystic Falls, VA. Former Salvatore Boarding House. January 24th, 2311. 10:31 am.]

The plan to go to New Orleans had been great, but when morning came, and they were about to leave, Klaus realized that his army was mostly an army of nightwalkers. They would obviously perish in the sun and, therefore, they had to wait until the sun had set to go ahead with the plan. While Bella felt fine, he and Kol still wanted her to take it easy for the day and spend the day on the couch, much to her dismay.

To make Bella feel better, or he thought that it would make her feel better, Klaus had invited KJ inside the house. KJ had proven to be a great vampire, loyal and diligent, primarily climbing the ranks and became the first in command after Klaus and Sam. As it happened, Kol Jasper Mikaelson had been the last of the brood that Bella had seen born and Klaus wanted him as a vampire, so he had something to remember Bella and his brother by. KJ didn’t even remember his great-great-grandparents and called Kol just that, but Bella remembered him as a baby. It would matter to her.

KJ, on the other hand, didn’t want to do what Klaus told him to do. He and this girl had nothing in common but a bloodline, and it was simply ridiculous of his sire – great-great-great-uncle if you had to be precise – to ask him to talk to her. Whispers had gone through the ranks about this girl, saying that the girl was inhabited by the greatest witch ever, but one look at the tiny human on the couch made him think otherwise. Most Celebrated witch ever? How about no?

“You look just like your father,” Bella snorted as the vampire awkwardly looked at her. “Although you seem to have your mother’s eyes.”

“I’m not fucking Harry Potter,” KJ grumbled as he shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at the floor.

Bella looked up to Kol with a grin. “And he’s got your potty mouth.”

“I don’t know, Darling, yours wasn’t exactly rainbows and sunshine either,” he smirked at her and nodded towards KJ. “Look at that, he has the Swan ‘ignoring the world’ trait.”

“We should stop embarrassing the kid,” she said as she looked at the boyish-looking vampire. “I’m sorry. It just had to be done.”

KJ huffed.

“Do you like being a vampire?”

He shrugged for an answer and then nodded as he kept his eyes fixed on the floor. He didn’t want this. He wanted out. Just mind his own business. There was this human girl in Mystic Falls that had enthralled him, and he wanted to stalk her some more before quite possibly ending up as werewolf food.

“You don’t have to be here if you don’t want to,” Bella smiled at him, noticing his unease, his impatience. “I know Klaus made you come in. You can leave if you want to, no harm done.”

KJ nodded before turning on his heels and spat out of the house, causing Bella to laugh. “Oh, he’s cute.”

“Of course he’s cute, he’s one of ours.”

Grinning, Bella pulled Kol onto the couch with her and softly kissed him as she crawled into his lap. “I love you, you know that, right?” She said after she had broken off the kiss and ran her hand through his hair as she looked at him.

“And I love you, Cuddles,” he grinned as he kissed her forehead. “Is this another cheese session?”

“Depends,” she said with a shrug and sighed as she looked at him. “I just want you to know that in whatever body I’m in, that I’ll always love you.”

“Are you thinking about jumping into someone else or have someone cast that spell on you?”

She slowly nodded as she bit her lip. “I doubt that this one is a keeper seeing as your blood made me vomit. You won’t be able to turn me.”

“Well, let’s call that a plan B, alright? I don’t want to interrupt another person’s life just so that my wife can stay with me forever. As much as I like the idea, I also know what it’s like to be human. It’s too precious for tricks like these.” He then scrunched up his nose and shuddered. “I can’t believe I just said that. I’m not supposed to care about humans. They’re food.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” A small smile on her face for Kol’s internal debate with himself. “I want to stay with you and I believe that’s the only option, how wrong it may be. I deserve to be selfish about this. I don’t want to go.”

“We’ll figure it out. Once you have access to your books again and our things in our crypt, we’ll figure it out. It’s likely that the witches use magic to limit your options. We’ll have to find out what and who, and we’ll fix it, I promise. I’m selfish like that too, you know. I want you to stay.”

“Cheese.”

“You started it,” he stuck out his tongue to her.

“Speaking of our crypt, I made a little trip there when I was in New Orleans. I needed to pick something up for us,” she said as she fumbled something out of her pocket and held it up with a big smile on her face.

“Oh, you are fucking brilliant, I felt naked without it!” he said in awe as he gently took her ring and smirked. “Give me your hand Cuddles, let’s do this properly.”

[Mystic Falls, VA. Former Salvatore Boarding House. January 24th, 2311. 3:11 pm.]

She had been dozing in Kol’s arms on the couch when fighting awoke them. Bella sat up and rubbed her eyes and saw that Sam was attacking both Elijah and Rebekah, who had decided to return with Caroline. Klaus was standing at a safe distance with a self-absorbed smirk on his face and Caroline looked enthralled as if she was watching the fight of the century.

“Oh,” Kol cooed as he got off the couch and put the blankets around Bella. “We’re in trouble now; Elijah and Rebekah are back.”

“Hardly,” Klaus huffed as he watched how his Sameen landed a few good punches against Elijah’s jaw. “Sameen, love, don’t piss him off, I’d like to keep you alive.”

Sam growled as her vampire visage had bled out, and she was positioned ready for another attack. “Oh I don’t think I’m the one that has to worry right now considering how pissed off I’ve been at this fucker for the last three centuries…”

Elijah dramatically sighed as he grabbed Sam’s throat and pushed her away from him, holding her at arm’s length. “Brother, glad to see nothing has changed.”

She smirked at him, raising an eyebrow. “You don’t know anything dickhead. It would be wise to let go about now.”

Smirking, Elijah kept hold of her as he eyed his brother Kol, who had naturally secured himself a whore. “I see you’ve managed to resurrect our brother too, welcome back, brother.”

Rebekah squealed as she ran to Kol and hugged him tightly. “Oh, this is fantastic, the whole family reunited.”

Bella got up from the couch and just looked at the scene before her. Rebekah was hugging Kol, Sam dangling from Elijah’s hold on her neck and Klaus as if nothing was going on, leaning against the wall with that egotistical smirk on his face. What was worse was that Kol didn’t even flinch as he hugged his sister, welcoming her back with open arms. Scowling, Bella looked at Klaus. “Hey, asshole, your mate is about to get killed by your brother. Do something about it or I will.”

Sameen’s smirk grew into a broad grin. “Time is up Dick. It has been fun,” she purred as she used her strength, unusual even for a vampire of her caliber, but not for her training, to break his wrist and kicked him in the gut. Swiftly, she grabbed the stakes she kept hidden in her boot and threw them at him, catching them in his chest, just missing his heart. “Guess the cat is out of the bag. Don’t you dare lay a hand on me again and I’ll break more than your wrist. Original dick face,” she muttered and moved to stand beside Klaus.

Elijah sighed as he pulled out the stakes. “Mate?” He blinked at his brother as he gently placed the stakes on the dresser next to him before cleaning his hand with his handkerchief before his eye fell upon Bella again. “Excuse me, but this is a family matter, could you leave?”

“She is family,” Sameen sneered before anyone could. “Could you say the same?”

“Now, love, be nice to my brother,” Klaus said as he caressed her back. “He’s more than welcome to stay, as long as he stays out of our business.”

“He hasn’t earned my kindness,” she muttered as she narrowed her eyes. “I will be watching him. And the bitch.”

“I can’t believe you’re just welcoming them back like that,” Bella spat at Klaus before giving Kol a shove to get him away from Rebekah. “They’ve abandoned you for centuries and because of that, you fucked things up! That was not part of the deal, and it was undoubtedly unfair towards Sam. You need to kick them out.”

“It’s fine, love,” Klaus smirked, deliberately not calling her Bella. He knew that he was in the wrong with accepting their return, but family was family. “Always and Forever, remember?”

“More like…Only when it suits them and Never,” She growled as she moved herself between Kol and Rebekah.

“Whores, always such a big mouth,” Rebekah said as she grabbed Bella by her shoulders, lifted her up and set her outside the door. She then closed the door in her face before returning to her family. “You sure know how to pick them, Kol.”

Sam tsked the Original vampire and shook her head. “That was not a smart move Barbie. You have no idea who the hell you just kicked out. I really do not wish to be in your shoes right now,” she smiled as she leaned her head against her mate’s shoulder.

Kol scowled at his sister. “She’s not a whore and well…” he then smirked as he moved so he was standing next to Klaus and mirrored his stance. “This is going to be quite entertaining.”

Bella was fuming after Rebekah closed the door on her and didn’t even bother to open the door normally. She blasted it off it’s hinges as she walked back into the house and shot her hands out towards Elijah and Rebekah to cause them severe pain as she kept advancing. “You are not family, not after what you’ve two haven’t done. You know how volatile your brother is, and you know the effect you have on them. Yes, I understand your need for freedom and a breather but to leave for nearly 300 years without so much of an attempt a follow-up? You should know better than that!”

“Oh, of course,” Elijah groaned as he had fallen to the floor as pain shot through his body, unable to stay upright. “My brother loves his witches, didn’t know they came as prostitutes.”

“Really should stop while you’re ahead, Dick,” Sam sang.

Klaus had sighed before he growled out with irritation at the insult. “There only ever was one witch for Kol. You know this Elijah.”

“Refer to her as something other than a woman again, I will find the daggers and dagger you both,” Kol evenly replied as he looked at Bella, loving the fire in her eyes. She looked so hot; maybe she could be talked into having sex when she was done playing with his siblings.

Sam looked up at Nik thoughtfully. “Isn’t there one white oak stake left? We can play eeny meeny miney moe. Though right now my money is on Dick.”

“Now now, we do not kill family, love,” Klaus said as he gently rubbed her arm. “Daggering is an option though. Shame all the daggers are in New Orleans.”

“Well fuck me,” she pouted.

“Gladly,” he smirked.

Bella released Rebekah and Elijah and then slammed both of them against the wall and kept them there so she could look at them. “You’re no family of mine and you haven’t been family to Klaus either. We’ll forgive Kol because he’s only been back for thirty years, but you are no family. You should have come back and stayed back as soon as I died.” She released them again before giving them one last smack against the wall and walked to Kol. “You can stay for as long as we need you, then you can fuck off again.”

“That was so hot,” Kol said with a big, stupid grin on his face. “Do it again.”

“I’m not that cruel.”

“I might be willing to switch teams for another show,” Sam agreed with Kol, grinning. Klaus and his brother both looked to one another, their interest raised significantly at the possibilities in the statement.

Bella sighed. “Okay then,” she shrugged and flung the two Originals across the room. “You ask, I’ll do it.”

As the two vampires laid groaning on the other end of the room, Sam made her way over to Bella with a smile. She winked as she lifted her chin and leaned in, kissing her.

Bella had not expected that Sam would actually go for it, but decided to play along with it, just to fuck with Kol’s head, she knew he liked this kind of stuff.

“Fuck,” Kol breathed out as he watched his wife answer the kiss of Klaus’ mate. “Fuck…”

Klaus canted his head as he stared along with his brother, too mesmerized by the sight. It wasn’t the first time he had witnessed his mate seduce a woman but to see her with his sister-in-law; that was another story. “We shall never speak of this again, but I think from now on, if Sameen desires the companionship of a woman, I will only allow Isabella.”

“Your bloody mate is insane Nik,” Rebekah moaned as she pushed herself up from the floor.

“Oh Bex, you haven’t even tipped that iceberg,” Kol cheered. “Still, I have to admit, Nik chose a bloody hot nut although I prefer mine.”

“Impossible,” Elijah breathed as he straightened himself up and looked at the young woman, who looked nothing like the Isabella he once knew. Was this a descendant from Kol and their Isabella? “You married your own blood simply because her name is similar to your dead wife’s?”

Bella growled as she slammed a chair against Elijah. “Three hundred years, and still oblivious to what’s right in front of you.”

“Bella?” Rebekah blinked. “Who in their right mind would resurrect you?”

She shrugged. “I’m here to make sure your asses can enter New Orleans again and then help out the coven.” She leaned against Kol and sighed. “But I meant what I said, you can stay for as long as we need you. Then you can fuck off again.”

[New Orleans, LA. Obama Street. January 25th, 2311. 3:23 am.]

The taxi she had wanted to take to the landfill refused to take her there, a computer voice citing that that area was known for violence and the lack of respect of everyone else’s property. The company had lost many taxis there and wasn’t planning on losing another. Besides, it was in the middle of the night, who in their right mind would want to venture into that area?

It felt strange for her to walk in this area of New Orleans. Not so much due to the threat of violence or whatever, but more because this part hadn’t existed yet in its current incarnation. It had been an industrial area and some marshlands along the waterway, and now it was one solid landmass. They had filled it all up with sand to create more space to live before they had raised New Orleans to protect it from the floods.

The Eastern part of New Orleans had been hit by Katrina and had been underdeveloped in the past, but now that there was more land, they needed to fill it up. However, the years hadn’t been kind; the houses looked shabby, especially under the cover of night and she had to admit, she didn’t quite like the atmosphere. Sure, it felt warm and cozy and friendly, but she could also notice that she was someone new in the area, everyone she met looked at her with suspicion. She didn’t want to ask them why they were up this late. She knew that she was in a bad neighborhood, she had expected it to be, but there were simply too many people on the streets for this to be a coincidence.

Did the Bennett witches have a seer on their side? They were working with the wolves, weren’t they?

She could have gone the easy way and cast the invisibility spell she had used earlier this week with Mandy, but she had to walk quite the distance and she had a big spell to cast. She wanted to save her energy. Walking around with her shield up cost a minimum amount of energy, and it would give her enough time to respond should she get into trouble. She had spent a lot of energy during the day when Elijah and Rebekah returned home, courtesy of Caroline Forbes, who went out and found them, and she needed to preserve the rest of her strength.

Bella felt like shit but hadn’t told anyone. She needed to do this for them and didn’t want them to worry. On top of that, Kol would come and get her as soon as the barrier was down. She was going to help them take back the city from the wolves and then assist the witches with their problem.

Sameen had given her a small device, ‘the new way of communicating’, she had said. Her and Klaus’ friend kept telling Bella to maintain a low profile but other than keeping her head down and continue walking; she didn’t quite know how. But at least their friend could tell them when the barrier was down, and that was comforting.

When she turned the corner to get closer to her destination, an entire pack of wolves was on the street, and they saw her coming. Bella inwardly groaned. “Is there another way?” She asked softly and looked at her device for an answer, but it stayed quiet. “Figures,” she muttered as she shoved it in her pocket and straightened herself up, expanding her shield just a little as she continued to walk.

Bella wasn’t afraid of those wolves. She could easily take them, it was just that she didn’t want to take them, only because they’d alert more of them. They would chase her all over the Ninth Ward or at least until she arrived at her destination if luck weren’t on her side. She didn’t want that to happen. Besides, if any one of them would realize what she was and what she had planned, they would come after her anyway.

“Where are you going, little girl?”

Bella deeply sighed as she kept on walking, getting off the sidewalk and onto the street because the group wasn’t scattering. It was tempting to do something, at least but counted quietly to ten in her head as she focussed on her breathing. Could she chance to fight them off? Should she? She told herself to breathe but the wolves, youngsters, came after her and kept catcalling her for a good ten minutes before she exploded. “Where the fuck are your manners? Were you raised with the wolves?”

This caused the youngsters to laugh maniacally, and she kept on walking. She had to keep on walking because that was the best way to do it. But, of course, it was dark, and it was inevitable that she’d eventually trip over something, which she did; a damn loose tile on the sidewalk she got on after crossing the road. She fell on the ground, hearing something break but wasn’t quite sure what yet and how her shield collapsed in on herself.

With her defenses down, it didn’t take long for one of the wolves getting the jump on her. He grabbed her by her shoulders and pressed her down to the ground. “Get off me,” she said as she was suddenly aware that her ankle had snapped as the pain radiated through her leg before it died down again. Breaks were the suckiest because they prevented things from happening. She’d cast a tiny spell later to allow herself to continue walking properly as a temporary fix, but even that would wear off.

“Ah, no,” the boy said as he used his strength to keep her down. “You have the smell of witch all over you,” he moved his face closer to hers and sniffed her before licking her cheek. “You smell different.”

Bella tried hard not to shudder as she felt how he licked her cheek, that was just rancid and attempted to squirm out of his hold. He retaliated by grabbing both wrists and pin them over her head with one hand, the strength he had in his body keeping them in place. When he started to unzip his pants, her eyes widened in surprise and panic and decided that she needed to stop being such an energy conserving wuss.

This was unbecoming behavior and so unlike her. She was going to do the big spell later, drained or not, because it’s what she’d promised her husband and Klaus, and she needed to be alive for that. And she needed at least one hand free to use her magic. Growling, she sucked in a deep breath and kneed the wolf in his private parts before using the surprise to kick him off of her. She scrambled to her feet, noticing once again that her ankle was truly broken and froze him, and all the other wolves, in place as she limped away. The spell would break eventually but by then, she hoped to be done.

Klaus was going to owe her big time.

[New Orleans, LA. Old Gentilly Landfill. January 25th, 2311. 4:01 am.]

She had cast a minor spell to diffuse her scent as she continued her way to the landfill, even a minor one to temporarily fix her ankle. By the time she got to the point where she would cast her spell, she was exhausted. Bella sat down in the dirt and unpacked her bag with all the herbs and items she was going to need. After switching on her light, she started to assemble the spell.

[Message: I’ve informed Shaw about your location.]

Growling, she set the device on the floor next to her after it started to vibrate in her pocket. “Oh yeah? What else did you say?”

[Message: There’s no other information to discuss.]

“Good, let’s keep it that way,” she said as she poured the first ingredient into the bowl. “Now shut up.” She didn’t know how Sam’s friend could hear her when it was only communicating by text messages, but she figured it was some hacker who had hacked into cameras and things like that. Right now, she was grateful that the friend hadn’t told them about her little misadventure. The vampires needed to stay focused and take out as many werewolves as they could on their trip to the French Quarter where they had to fight off some more.

Once she had assembled all the essentials, she spoke again. “Tell them to get in the car, I’m going to cast the spell now.”

[Message: Affirmative. ETA: 5 minutes.]

“What? Those cars go that fast?”

[Message: Correct.]

“Tell them three minutes from now,” she huffed as she rolled her shoulders and neck, trying to relax some. She put up her shield again and took a deep breath. She could do this. She was Bella Freaking Swan. Kick ass witch. People were depending on her. She was going to do this spell even if it would kill her. “Now shut up again.”

[New Orleans, LA. Old Gentilly Landfill. January 25th, 2311. 4:12 am.]

He had feared this would happen. While he was grateful that he was back in New Orleans, thanks to his beloved wife, he knew that it was going to take its toll on her. It probably already had, and he hoped she was going to be fine. But when he came to the spot, he saw her unconscious body lying in the middle of what looked like a puppy pile.

Kol was just in time to stop one of them from defiling her unconscious state as he mowed through the group. He sent them flying as he hit them with the baseball bat he had found on the streets on the way to her. He listened for her heartbeat as he whacked a few wolves in the head with his metal bat and was relieved to hear her heart still beating. Slow and steady. At least she was still alive.

Once he was sure he had fought most of them off, surprisingly he didn’t get bit, he grabbed the one on top of his love and sunk his teeth into him. Showing everyone what he was, if the exceptional strength and speed hadn’t given it away, before draining the body and dropping it to the ground. The others who were still standing had decided not to fight him, which was preferable.

Kol grabbed some of Bella’s belongings and put them in her bag before lifting her up and continued heading towards the French Quarter where his brother was headed too. They had agreed to reconvene at the statue of Joan of Arc, as it was a spot they all knew, and it was right on the edge of werewolf territory.

Of course, Bella’s presence in the Ninth Ward hadn’t stayed unnoticed. As he ran with her across Obama Street, he had to dodge several werewolves or smack them with his bat to keep them out of his way. It was late, what the hell were they doing up this late? Had they been alerted that something was going on? By whom? Well, that was a question he could quickly answer; it were the Bennett witches. No one ever said that taking back New Orleans would be easy but he wished it was, and he wished that his wife was in good health.

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