Chapter 43

Izzy looked at her drawing and it was completely different from what she’d seen Klaus do. This was Kol in a coffin, with a dagger through his heart. “What the actual fuck?” she asked out loud again. “What the actual… jesus fuck, is this for real? Why?”

She then saw Kol freaking out about her leaving and Klaus allowing her to, and it went on for days. There were plenty of neck snaps and human bodies across the house before Klaus decided to give Kol a time-out. “Are you fucking kidding me!”

Myriam sat pouting among the chaos and glances of disappointment from her mate did little to stir her. Not even once Kol was daggered, she was still lost in her own world.

“Okay, fine, I’ll come and free you,” Izzy muttered as she got to her feet and started to pack her bag. “I’d kill Klaus myself but since he kind of slaughtered half my town because of the Volturi, I doubt I could,” she then could feel some panic from Kol and she shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. And this is fucked up. You’re not dead. This shouldn’t be happening.”

Flashes of an image of Myriam and Kol working together on some spell work over a silver spear looking weapon, wearing clothing that was clearly decades old, implied more behind his newfound ability daggered.

“No, we’re not going to do that to him, I’ll just keep hitting him over the head with a newspaper like I did when I found him in our kitchen this morning,” she muttered under her breath.

Unseen to Izzy’s eyes, Kol crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. ‘For as talented as you are, you certainly misinterpreted that memory by a large margin.’

“Yeah well, I’m going to find that totem of mine and shut you up,” she blinked then. “The fuck.”

He grinned with excitement that she was able to hear him and was instantly at her side and whispering in her ear. ‘But you have such a lovely blush when flustered. And you’re the only one that spell was capable to allow me to communicate with. Please don’t.’

“This is so wrong,” Izzy said as she shuddered. “You want me to help you and I can’t take that totem on me? You want me to go insane? I have to drive, you know, can’t actually fly.”

‘Trust me.’

Izzy let out a frustrated sigh as she closed her bag and put her laptop and sketchpad in her other bag before running downstairs. “I’m heading out!”

Peter looked up from working on his rifles, taking them apart and cleaning them, staring her down for a moment. His eyes darted around and nodded. “How long are you going to be out? Should we leave a plate of dinner out for you?”

“Nah, I’ll be good,” Izzy nodded.

‘Tell him the truth.’

“I’m not going to tell him the truth because he and mom kept it from me that they’re vampires!” Izzy countered angrily. “No way.”

Peter let his arms fall to the table. “Where are you going? Who is the spirit visiting you?”

Izzy scowled as she pulled her drawing out of her pocket and showed it to her father. “I’m going to drive 20 hours to Vegas and free him from his box. And then maybe he’ll feel better.”

He eyed the sketch, his lip twitching. “I highly doubt that will be enough, sweetheart.”

‘No doubt. Wake me up and we can go paint the city red together. Sin City.’

“He didn’t deserve that,” Izzy said as she pointed at the drawing. “His dick of a brother who orchestrated the Volturi here, does. Not Kol. Klaus was wrong to touch him.”

‘And Nik is surely on his way there by now if he found out about Elijah’s involvement here.’

“Klaus isn’t home right now so it’s the best time to undagger Kol and survive.”

“Why hasn’t Klaus’ wife released him herself then?” Peter asked, contempt dripping in his tone.

‘She’s still processing the situation herself. Let her be, I assume she’s coming around to Nik’s view, albeit slowly.’

Izzy shrugged. “Likely because she has a lot of stuff on her plate right now. Can I go? I have my gun, my truck is gassed up and I want to leave.”

“He’s not forcing you? I’ll give you the angel right now if he is.”

“No, he’s not. This is me, thinking that he shouldn’t have been put in a coffin. So I’m going to free him and see what happens. I might graduate later from vet school though. Not sure how long this is going to take and I will miss classes.”

Peter shrugged. “Your mother and I will take care of it. You just be careful and come home if you don’t find what you’re looking for.”

“If only I knew what I was looking for,” she said as she picked up her bag again and left the house without hugging her father goodbye. “Oh, I know, people who don’t lie to me to protect me,” she added sarcastically as she threw her bags in the back of the truck and got in. She had a long road ahead of her.

The road trip was silent initially before Kol finally spoke up to her again after having sat staring at her for a large number of miles. ‘That wasn’t fair. They care for you.’

“I know it wasn’t, but you know what else isn’t fair? Finding out your boyfriend was part of a group of people who were looking for your previous selves for immortality. Or to hear that your parents are vampires and not out of their own volition, but because they had a little persuasion from another vampire who can persuade other vampires.”

‘I’m sorry. Nik seems to be the only one who seems to know the right answers it seems,’ he said, feeling sad that things had gone the way they had and he was still lost on how to mend his own friendship with the girl he was as infatuated with as he had been with Bella. Which was strange because she’d been with them for only a short amount of time.

“I left because I felt I couldn’t breathe. Like I couldn’t deal with everything properly and that meant I couldn’t deal with you and Myriam being so… so incredibly sad and hopeful and trying so hard,” Izzy sighed. “I felt like I was being forced to be someone I was not, mainly because of Bella and Ylva.”

‘I know and understand that even more than I could realize back then in my excitement of finding you. I don’t know how to fix this because I don’t want to lose you either.’

Izzy let out a breath. “You said you were going to show me things. Have fun. Let’s start with that. I will stay around.”

Kol stared back at her and smiled, wishing she could see him. ‘Start with Las Vegas? Or did you have somewhere else in mind?’

They were driving along the dirt road and she had been feeling slightly uneasy without her angel statue. Naked. A target. And she had been doing well until she saw a cannon firing and the cannonball flying at her car. Hitting the breaks, she swerved a little but was glad that she could keep the truck on the road. “Holy fuck, we’re not going anywhere if that keeps happening,” she took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “Another 1000 miles or so to go… this is going to suck. I’ll just turn around and get that statue.”

‘Just focus and talk to me.’

“That was a cannonball,” she said as she reached for her bag and grabbed a bottle of water to set next to her and started the car again. “Not real, but yeah.”

‘It was real a few hundred years ago,’ Kol replied. ‘You need to learn how to distinguish things from reality and those that are remnants or spirits.’

“I never learned, not sure if I want to,” she said as she went back on the road and continued to drive.

Kol laughed then, his laughter filling the car. ‘Darling, you can live as normal as you want, but you’re not normal, you’re you and you have gifts. Make them a part of your normal and it’ll be fine.’

“And what if I don’t?”

‘Well, you could get mugged and lose your statue, for example in the middle of a town with a rich history of death and destruction. Just imagine how that will end. Don’t rely on a trinket to keep you safe, or a gun for that matter, rely on yourself. Get your gift under control. You might be able to do more than you might think.’

“It’s not me, Kol.”

‘It could help you with your animals too, as a vet. Use your intuition to see what’s going on.’

“That’s called veterinary science.”

‘And not everything is black and white. Nor set in stone. I told you this before, and you should listen.’

“I should?”

‘Yes, you should.’

Izzy let out a groan. “This is going to be a long drive.”

She had driven for about 8 hours and stopped near the Petrified Forest. Izzy decided to go to an inn to hopefully get some sleep. Kol was objecting, but she was tired. She wasn’t used to driving this far on her own and she’d never driven the roads before. Not this far out. On top of that, all the experiences along the way had tired her out. It was close to Native American reservations, but she just wanted to sleep.

‘What if I keep you awake all night?’

“I’ll turn around and go home,” she replied as she threw her bag on the bed. “And you better get out when I take a shower and get changed into something I can sleep in. Even though I can’t see you, I can still feel you around me, so shoo.”

‘But I’ve seen it before.’

“Not me!” she then grinned as she got a sage stick out of her bag. “Or do I have to expel you?”

‘Won’t work, because this is a connection you and I have, I’m not like the remnants or spirits,’ Kol shook his head. ‘I’ll go and sit in the truck, but I’ll be back in 20 minutes to keep an eye out for you.’

“I have a gun.”

‘I don’t care.’

Izzy made sure that Kol was gone and grabbed some of her more comfortable clothes before heading into the shower to freshen up and get ready for bed. She wasn’t going to sleep in her sleeping wear because of Kol, but also because she was vulnerable. She wanted to be able to just leave when needed.

When she was ready, Kol hadn’t returned yet so she burned her sage stick. “I can’t help you. You might come here with the best intentions, but I can’t help you. Please leave me alone, I mean no disrespect,” she said softly as she kept the sage stick burning and got into bed. “Goodnight Kol!”

Izzy ended up sleeping for about two hours before she woke up to the feeling of joy, elation, celebration, movement in the beat of some drums that were being played but she couldn’t hear. She ended up looking out of the window but couldn’t see anything and tried to go back to sleep, but the feeling stayed with her. It only got worse when she believed she saw gigantic things appear in a bunch of trees, and they scared her immensely.

She put on her shoes and grabbed her bag before heading to reception to pay for her room and then hopped in her truck. It was dark as fuck and she was still somewhat tired. It was a good thing that she only had about five more hours to drive. “Good Morning Kol!”

‘What happened?’

“Partying, excitement, then scary stuff. I’ll just steal your trinket before I remove that dagger from you,” she smiled as she started the car, turned on the lights and drove off.

‘No, you’re not. I’ve had to live fifty years without that thing, it’s not going anywhere.’

“See? If you, a big bad vampire is afraid of some ghosts, why should I, human, deal with them?”

‘I had to learn to cope. You can too.’

Izzy let out a huff.

‘I know you have other plans for yourself, and you can still go ahead with them, but you need to embrace who you are and what you can do. I’m pretty sure you’ll stop feeling at war with yourself.’

“That easy?”

‘It usually is. I struggled with bloodlust for a long time and in the end, I just embraced that it was a part of me and it became better. I can control myself a lot better unless I’m ticked off or experience any other negative emotion.’

“I don’t know.”

‘What’s the worst that can happen? I mean, I think you’ll benefit from it. You don’t have to be afraid of anything because I’ll be with you every step of the way. I’ve helped enough witches to embrace what they can do and who they are. I can see you’re struggling. We can have a lot of fun on the way.’

Izzy sighed and didn’t reply as she turned on the radio and focused on the road.

‘Your parents have always protected you, why didn’t they teach you how to deal with your abilities?’

“Because I didn’t want them to. I would have stuck out like a sore thumb in our community.”

‘And you don’t have to be afraid of that anymore,’ Kol grinned then. ‘Let your inner freak shine.’

“Yeah, we’ll see. First order of business is to get to Las Vegas and get you out.”

Kol directed her to the house and they arrived just before the sun arrived. Izzy let herself in and couldn’t believe the devastation inside the house. The dead bodies were gone, likely because they had started to rot and stink up the place, but things were broken, shards of glass, porcelain and wood were everywhere, fist-size dents in the walls. Torn clothes in the pool in the back garden.

“So, if I get you free, will you snack on me?”

‘No, I’ll leave for a moment and get fed, but it’ll likely be best if you get back into your truck and return in an hour. Just to be safe.’

“I could just shoot you.”

‘I’d strongly advise against that.’

She shrugged as she found his coffin in the basement and saw two others ready for new occupants. “Wow.”

‘Elijah has it coming,’ Kol replied, slightly impatient.

Izzy opened his coffin and started to tug on the dagger to get it out of him, but it was stuck and the angle was just impossible. She climbed onto the table the coffin was resting on and managed to pull the dagger out. She could feel Kol leave and she did what she was told. Putting the dagger down, she quickly found her way out of the house and into her truck. She drove to the nearest supercenter supermarket and parked her truck before getting out and went for a coffee. And maybe something to eat. The coffee shop was just opening up, and Izzy liked that.

There was a warm blanket of people around her, which was slightly suffocating and they weren’t even alive. Pushing through, she returned to her truck with her coffee and sandwich and tried to relax. What the hell was she doing?

No, she needed to stop thinking that, and go with the flow. Because who was she kidding? Only herself. She may be human, but she’d learned that she was the last ever version of this energy being, that her parents were vampires, her boyfriend was a bad guy and then there were the Mikaelsons.

Everything was connected in her life and that was eerie. If she’d relax and go with the flow instead – to stop resisting, it should go better, right? An open mind and all that. She was going to try this time. Not run. It was alright to be scared. The Mikaelsons were older, they’d been through more than she could ever imagine and she liked Klaus. Klaus would definitely like it that she was in Vegas. Maybe not so happy with her freeing his sibling.

After she finished her coffee and sandwich, she drove back to the house and found it all cleaned up for the most part, and Kol looking at her with a smile that went ear to ear. “Wow. How did you do that?”

“Never mind that,” Kol said as he gently hugged her. “Thank you for freeing me, it’s never a pleasant experience.”

“Am I going to regret it?”

“No, I promise, I’ll do better,” he nodded before handing her his little statue. “Settle back in. Get some rest. I’m going to find Myriam and bring her home. I have a pretty good idea where she’s hanging out.”

She felt lighter holding Kol’s statue and smiled at him. “Thank you.”

“Just know, that when you’re awake, you’re handing it back to me, deal?”

“Sure,” she nodded as she headed out to grab her bags and put them into the room she’d been in before as Kol used his speed to get out. Izzy was tired and now she could get some sleep. Hopefully. The moment she hit the bed, she was out like a light.

“No, no, no,” Kol’s voice sounded. “You’re not going to disturb the human who has just driven across the country on not a lot of sleep.”

“But!” Myriam objected. “Please?”

“I’m awake now,” Izzy groaned as she rubbed her eyes. “For how long did I sleep?”

“An hour or two, give or take,” Kol replied as he reluctantly let the vampire go and watched her launch herself on the bed to hug Izzy. “Myriam was drinking away her feelings, sorry about that.”

Izzy took immediate sight of the blood covered vampire and scrambled away. “Shower! Ew no! Now you can burn these linens because I don’t know whose blood you’re wearing and what crap they carry.”

Myriam looked at herself and then looked at Izzy who looked disgusted and shocked. “Right,” she said as she grabbed the linen from the bed and ran out of the room.

Kol saw the look on Izzy’s face and laughed. “Oh, just be glad that Nik isn’t here for her to have fun with in bed.”

“Is there a story?”

“Oh, many,” Kol grinned as he helped her to her feet. “Want to try to sleep again or are you giving up for the day?”

“Might as well give up,” she sighed as she handed him the statue. “Coffee?”

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