Chapter 33

Maybe it hadn’t been the best ideas to call for Myriam. After all, Myriam was a vampire as well, but Jeremy was possessed and Myriam was a voodoo priestess and her cleanses worked. Bella hoped that Myriam would remain sane enough to pull both Kol and Jeremy out of there and cleanse Jeremy from whoever had taken him over. However, if Myriam wouldn’t be able to be herself in this corridor either, it’d mean that it was likely that Bella was going to have to do something about this corridor; despite Kol’s wishes to preserve her energy.

“Ohh,” Myriam giggled as she stood in the doorway, observing the fight that was going on between Jeremy and Kol. “That looks like fun!”

“What’s wrong with you?” Bella said as she ducked trying to get past her boyfriend and friend. Myriam looked barely dressed, bloodied and in a very good mood. Blood drunk. “What did you do?”

“Oh, our corridor had some yummy witches, and some witches that were being kept prisoner… even your friend Linda. We had a snack,” Myriam shrugged as she thumbed behind her. “Selene is checking her over, we kept her alive. She said that she was taken on her way back from the Cullen House and brought here. We fed, we had some more… and well… before you yelled for help… Klaus and I…”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Bella sighed, Myriam drunk on blood meant she was horny as fuck. Bella pointed at Kol and Jeremy. “Hungry vampire and possessed hunter.”

“Well, I can do something about the hungry vampire but I haven’t got anything with me to cleanse a hunter, so good luck,” Myriam said as she took hold of Kol and dragged him outside, leaving Bella alone with the possessed hunter, but it appeared that whoever was inside of him didn’t want to hurt her.

Bella turned around to face Jeremy. “Don’t hurt him, whoever you are, don’t hurt him.”

“I won’t. I merely want to make sure nothing will hurt you, do you have any idea for how long we’ve been searching for you?”

“Yeah, I have an idea,” Bella nodded. “However, we’ll talk later, I need to check up on my friends.”

“That’s not necessary, you can talk to me,” not-Jeremy said and with a wave of his hand, the door closed before her face. “You’re likely wondering what Linda is doing here.”

“Not really,” Bella sighed as she turned to face him again. “She’s a witch. She saw what I was and that was more information for your masters because there’s no doubt that your masters were watching that shit storm.” She tried to use her energy to push the energy out of Jeremy but she couldn’t. She had to try harder.

“Perhaps,” not-Jeremy smirked. “But not because of you, no, they wanted to make sure that the Volturi secrets didn’t surface, and for that, they owe you.”

Bella huffed. “You know what we came here to do.”

“And you and your abominations will fail,” the response was before he pointed towards the elevator. “Allow me to guide you to our inner sanctum, the holiest of places.”

“Not without my friends,” Bella said as she tried to open the door. “Let them through.”

“You don’t need them,” not-Jeremy huffed.

“Yeah, I do,” Bella finally found a way to break through the suffocation and the tight blanket around her to put her hands on the wall and shattering all the mirrors on that side with her energy, including removing some of the portals and wards underneath them. Not-Jeremy was weakening so she did it for the other side as well.

The amount of energy she was using was exhausting her, but it was necessary. “Get the fuck out of my friend,” she said as she walked towards him. “Now, or I will rip you out and tear your fucking soul apart,” She put her hand on not-Jeremy’s arm and started to draw some energy from him to weaken him slightly so she’d be able to get rid of the spirit possessing him.

“How does it feel to get drained, little girl?”

Bella narrowed her eyes at him and took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she envisioned ripping the soul out of Jeremy and was surprised that she’d been able to. She then blew it up and the door back to the reception area opened as she fell into Jeremy. “Woah, headrush,” she let out a breath as she looked up at him. “You okay?”

“Don’t worry about me,” he said as he helped her out of the corridor. “But I do think you made it safe for vampires to get through there now… and then some. Whoever was inside of me was scared of you.”

“And fucking strong,” she muttered as they walked out the door. The reason why she’d been able to do the Cullen House was because she’d been able to rest up, somewhat – despite Alice hijacking her for some fun. It was a luxury she couldn’t have right now. Seeing the worried looks on the faces of her vampires, and their friend Linda, Bella straightened herself up and smiled. “Linda! Are you okay?”

“Of course, Bella, thanks to your friends, although I must say, I wasn’t treated badly. They merely wanted information out of me,” Linda smiled at her. “Are you alright?”

“Yep,” she smiled at her before checking up on Kol, who had a relieved look on his face.

“Bella, I’m sorry, I-”

“It’s alright, you didn’t hurt me. And it seems that the spirits here don’t want that to happen either,” she sighed as she walked into his arms and closed her eyes for just one moment. “That piece of shit in Jeremy was a tough cookie,” she finally said before looking up at him. “Are you okay now? Jeremy thinks I made that corridor vampire friendly now.”

“She destroyed half the amount of mirrors and the anchors and portals attached to them,” Jeremy replied. “I mean, I felt a lot better once she kicked the unwanted visitor out and the things were down.”

“Their large congregation place is through the corridor you just exited,” Linda nodded. “There’s an elevator there that will take you down to the basement of this castle and it’s a wide open space for their meetings and rituals.”

“Have you been there?” Klaus demanded.

“Of course, many times,” Linda replied as a matter of factly. “They liked to interrogate me there instead of in the cell you found me in.”

“And what did you tell them?”

“Well, everything, of course. But also that she wouldn’t be stupid enough to actually come here,” Linda said to Klaus without any fear whatsoever as she walked towards the corridor Bella had just come out of. “I do know that they changed this entire building after they learned from me what I knew. The renovations were loud and painful,” Linda said to Bella. “My apologies for that.”

“That’s alright, Linda,” Bella smiled at her. “I’m not mad.”

“Well, I am!” Myriam growled. “How dare she give up your secrets!”

“She’s a mortal witch!” Bella said as she took Kol’s hand and pulled him along with her as she headed to the corridor, she wanted this to be over with. “She likely doesn’t have the strength and endurance like you have,” she then let out a breath. “Are you coming?”

“This place is like a house of horrors,” Rebekah muttered underneath her breath. “And of course Nik and Myriam got the good bits.”

“Those witches were innocent, like me, but I’m sure that they will be properly punished whenever they do move on,” Linda told herself as she walked into the corridor with a slight nod. “The energy in here has definitely changed, it has a more positive vibe to it now. No spirits,” she said as she stepped over the shards of the broken mirrors. “No oppression, just how much energy did you spend?”

“I’m fine,” Bella replied as she tried to give Jeremy some of the energy back that she’d taken from him when she tried to get rid of the spirit inside of him. At least it hadn’t been Kol who had been taken over this time. They all rode the elevator down and Linda apologized that they’d have to get through another corridor before taking stairs down. Bella could feel everyone in their party tense up apart from Jeremy and Linda, and she didn’t like that feeling. “What’s wrong?”

“We can’t move,” Myriam grunted as she kept trying to move but to no avail.

Linda hummed as she put her hand on the wooden wall and gently caressed it as she continued to walk, away from the vampires. “This wood is ancient. The teachings of the Volturi say that this particular kind of wood can bring down the ancient vampires that roam this Earth. For good. They had it spelled so that no vampire can enter the inner sanctum. I likely should have mentioned that before I took you down with the elevator.”

“Ancient wood?” Klaus said panicked. “What is it made out of?”

“Oh,” Linda said lightly and seemed to think for a moment. “I think something with Oak? White Oak? Yeah, that was it,” she nodded. “They mixed one of those trees with other trees to make enough wood for this corridor and act as a conduit for magic. Unfortunately, I’m unable to lift the spell, the magic is ancient.”

“You were never a prisoner, were you?” Elijah said with his voice level.

“No,” Linda shook her head. “Sorry.”

“What the hell!” Myriam growled. “Being all this lovely dovey with Bella at the Cullen House was all an act?”

“Not really,” Linda replied with a shrug. “I was asked to come on that show because I do have my own reputation, and I thought it would be a boring job but when I found out it was the Cullen House? I wanted to make sure that the inner sanctum of theirs wouldn’t be found, just like the Cullens wanted as Edward didn’t deserve it. And well, I’ve been following Bella for a while now. I had my suspicions of what she was, but I never believed she was what we’d been searching for all this time. So to see her work, was a bonus.”

Fear. Panic. Bella knew she had to do something. This corridor could kill her family, and she wasn’t going to let it. She took a deep breath and tried to find all the energy that she could muster to deal with this. To free her friends, to make sure they were safe.

“I’m going to kill you,” Jeremy said as he advanced on the witch, but she stopped him with his magic.

“Oh no, hunter, I have plans for you,” she said as she performed a small spell to have him taken over by a spirit yet again and kicked against a wooden panel to hand him a stake. “You know what to do, Vincente,” she said as she watched the boy walk towards the frozen vampires. “Come, Bella, it’s time I introduce you to your destiny.”

“No,” she said as she tried to stop not-Jeremy2 but he was strong and Bella couldn’t stop him, not physically and not with her energy. She knew that she had to work fast and the elevator doors were still open. “This is going to hurt,” she said softly as she looked at Kol and tried to draw energy from him, just a bit. And from Rebekah. Elijah. “Like… really going to hurt.”

“Bella don’t,” Klaus, Kol and Myriam chorused before Bella took another deep breath and had her energy expand all around her, she took the floor and the walls and she pushed. She pushed hard and then pushed against her family and threw them into the elevator.

She hadn’t expected Kol to hang onto her though, so when everything shattered around them, he got white oak shrapnel all over his body, shielding her from the wood. It was not-Jeremy2 then who drove the stake through his back, hitting his heart.

“No!” Bella cried out as she used her energy to send the hunter flying away from Kol and pulled on the stake as hard as she could, but it was already burning. “No!” she said as she held on to him, she didn’t want to lose him! All she’d ever done was to make sure he would be safe and now with everyone watching, they were going to lose Kol. No, she wasn’t going to let that happen.

Kol was fading quickly and her heart hurt.

Her pain, her grief and her love for Kol allowed her to push through the safeguards put in place and she allowed herself to be absorbed by Kol’s body and started to push the energy away from them. The stake out of him, dousing the flames, the shrapnel out of his flesh. He started to feel better around her and that was a relief, but there was still a possessed hunter in the corridor and the Queen Bitch.

Kol wasn’t up for fighting much and Bella either, but while she possessed him, and healed him, she turned to her family. “The corridor is safe now. Kill them all, get your revenge. Get mine.”

“Bella?” Myriam said spooked as she looked at Kol. “What are you doing?”

“Saving him. I’ll be with you in a moment, I promise.”

Myriam nodded as she warily eyed Kol before joining Klaus on killing Linda. Elijah and Rebekah were after Jeremy, giving Bella some alone time with Kol as his body healed.

‘Well this is strange,’ Kol said weakly. ‘What did you do to us?’

‘I temporarily pulled us out of your body so we can talk,’ she smiled at him as she touched his cheek. ‘I’m saving you. You’re not going to die.’

‘But-‘

‘You’re an idiot for holding on to me like you have when I wanted to make sure you were safe.’

‘I didn’t want you to get hurt.’

Bella softly kissed him and looked up at him with tears in her eyes. ‘You and I both knew that I wouldn’t be coming back from this. There was always hope, but I’ve expelled too much energy that I’ve become energy again. I can’t go back.’

‘No,’ he said angrily as he grabbed her by the arms and shook her. ‘No! You’re not going to leave me! We had plans, Bella, you and I! And you’re the first person who’s made me feel so good in a very long time, not as if I’m broken! I love you, you can’t leave me!’

‘I can’t go back, I’m sorry,’ she whispered. ‘I wish there’d be a different way but I prefer you alive. You’re an immortal vampire, Kol. I’m sure that I’ll be back one day, you’ll just have to wait for me.’

‘You reverse this right now! You don’t deserve to die, Bella, not after the shitty life you’ve lead!’

‘It became a lot less shitty after meeting you,’ she softly kissed him again. ‘You understood me and liked me for who I was and not what I could do. You made me aware of myself, taught me new things and…’ she then chuckled as her tears kept flowing from her eyes. ‘You never opened that package…’

‘I wanted to do that after our return,’ Kol scowled. ‘You can’t do this to me, Bella. You can’t leave me.’

‘I am saving you, Kol, I think that’s a worthy sacrifice.’

He was quiet for a moment as he looked at her. ‘What happened to you being an immortal, like Ylva said? You’re energy, you’re eternal. That’s what she said.’

‘And she’s not wrong. I can’t go back to being human because I’m severely abusing my power to do things with my energy. Ylva won’t let me and I’m basically tipping the balance between life and death. I’m interfering and I believe out of all my iterations, this is the worst offense… aside from the time-travel Ylva had done, to spend time with you.’

‘You’re punishing yourself, you don’t have to do this.’

‘I don’t want you dead,’ she said again as she kissed him. ‘I love you, Kol Mikaelson, and I will never stop loving you. Now, some time has passed since I brought you here, but I’m going to return you to your body now, it’s healed and strong. You need to get everyone out and I will make sure this place will turn into rubble. But you need to get out.’

‘Is this it?’

‘I’m afraid it is…’ she whispered as she caressed his cheek and kissed him again. ‘Forgive me, my love, but I couldn’t let you die.’

When Kol came back to his senses, he was sitting in a corner of the corridor that Bella had completely obliterated. Linda was torn apart and in pieces all over, and Jeremy was laying in the elevator with his neck snapped. It was a good thing he was wearing his ring, otherwise, they’d be in a world of hurt should Bella come back.

Bella.

He got to his feet and punched the wall. “Don’t you ever think I’m going to forgive you for saving my life and erasing yourself from my life, Bella Swan!” he said as he ran towards the end of the corridor, down the stairs and found his family slaughtering everyone. He joined them to speed up the process and didn’t even like it. He killed because the people needed to die, he needed to get rid of his aggression, his anger, his sadness, and it wasn’t fun. “Right, so, Bella said we needed to get out. Now.”

“Where is she?” Myriam asked as she looked at Kol. Not a scratch on him. That must have cost their friend dearly. “She didn’t.”

“Yeah, she did. Now let’s get out,” he said angrily as he pointed towards the stairs. “I’m pretty sure she’ll save Gilbert from his possession too before she fucks off for good.”

“We’ll bring her back,” Myriam said encouragingly as she rubbed his arm. “We will find a way to bring her back.”

“I admire your confidence, but it’s likely I’m going to have to wait another 1000 years before she comes back. Not knowing who I am. I’ll have forgotten about her as well like I had with Ylva. She’s gone. People leave, we move on. That’s what we do.”

“Yeah, we’re not going to do that,” she said as she looped her arm through his. “Come on, let’s do as we were told.”

Bella just stood there, observing her family and her heart broke even further. ‘I didn’t want to do this to him,’ she whispered. ‘I broke him.’

‘He’ll be fine,’ Ylva replied as she stood next to her. ‘But your light is dim, you can’t continue like this. You can’t sustain your human form.’

‘I know, but…’

‘He’ll be fine. And if not, Klaus will put him safely in his box.’

‘No! Ylva!’

‘Let’s free Valerie and then blow this shithole to pieces,’ she said as she walked off to the holding cells at the back of the area. For an old lady she was suddenly moving quite well, without a walking stick and as if she was young again. Ylva released all the spirits that were kept in cells to fuel the Volturi’s power.

‘Bella! What did you do!’ Valerie ran towards her and checked her over. ‘Are you absolutely insane?’

‘Thank you, Bella, for destroying the Volturi with your family and for finding me so I can get my eternal peace,’ Bella said angrily as she balled her fist. Anger was better than sadness at this point.

‘I deserve that,’ she said quietly. ‘I’m sorry. And I’ve been deceitful, they made me. My name isn’t Valerie.’

‘I know,’ Bella said as she looked at the spirit. ‘You’re Freya Mikaelson, the child that supposedly died of consumption but was taken by Dahlia as a punishment for your mother.’

‘You knew?’

‘I had my suspicions,’ Bella shrugged. ‘Go in peace, Freya. You deserve peace and no more suffering.’

‘Thank you, Bella and Ylva, you didn’t have to free me.’

‘It’s what she wanted,’ Ylva shrugged. ‘Now go, we’re going to blow this castle to smithereens.’

Kol heard some rumbling and then saw a bright light coming out of the ground before it expanded and expanded out of the castle and then it exploded into a million tiny pieces, leaving nothing but ash. While it was a spectacular sight, he felt alone again. Left behind. Empty.

And he needed to kill.

“Good luck with getting home, I’m going to have some more fun,” he said as he started to walk off, but Klaus and Myriam stopped him. “Let me go.”

“You’re hurting, brother,” Klaus said calmly. “Come home with us, I promise you, we will not stop looking for her and not stop to find a way back for her.”

“There’s no way back for her, Nik!’ Kol snapped at him. “Only when the conditions are in our favor and, if the new version is worthy. If there’s even going to be a new version! I’ll never get Bella back! Ever! If that new version comes, she won’t remember me. Nothing. Because Ylva won’t allow that, as that happened with Bella. I lost her. There’s no coming back from that. So, let me go, go home, I’m going to throw myself a big pity party.”

“No,” Myriam said softly as she pulled Kol into her arms and gently rubbed his back. “It’s alright, Kol, we’re going to miss her too,” she whispered. She then could feel Kol’s arms around her and felt his body starting to shake. “Let it all out, mon chou,” she whispered. “It’s okay to feel, to be sad and angry. Grieve.”

“I hate her,” he quietly sobbed. “I love her so much…”

 

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