Bad Moon Rising [Kol Mikaelson/Bella Swan]

Summary: Bella finds herself on the Other Side and witnesses more than she bargained for when she finds herself in, of all places, Mystic Falls. Helping out a new friend when he meets his demise, the two plot some not so good natured revenge as they continue to watch the ‘good guys’ bring about certain destruction. Of course, there is more than meets the eye as a certain Original finds his match.

Notes: Set in Season 4 of The Vampire Diaries, slightly AU in the events. Set in New Moon for Twilight, severe AU for that story.

Warning: Possible triggers for suicide and self-destructive behavior.

~o.O.o~

I see a bad moon rising.
I see trouble on the way.
I see earthquakes andlightnin’.
I see bad times today.

~o.O.o~

Being a witch in modern society wasn’t difficult, it was often pretty easy to hide your abilities if you were in a largely populated city, such as Phoenix. People would just dismiss whatever oddity they may have seen and cast you aside as the ‘weird one’ in the place. It made life easy, simple. No one to grow too curious to get too close, close enough to be hurt by her differences. Her curse.

Moving to Forks, Washington was certainly a culture shock for Bella Swan. For someone who naturally pushed aside, she instantly became a shining beacon for all the locals. As difficult as it was to keep her abilities to herself. She did so, not wishing to frighten anymore, but the natives tempted her patience. Especially early on with a few humans. Even more so once she met the local Cold One coven.

For a young witch, she’d not come across another supernatural being yet. She’d learned her craft on her own through books she had found in her father’s storage and kept it all secret for years. Baffled by the hostile reaction of Edward Cullen that first day, she had contemplated what to do during his week-long absence from school. She created a spell to destroy one, to defend herself in case he returned, in case he returned just as angry and threatening. The rest of the ‘family’ had remained in his wake, watching her, just as she watched them. Cautious and calculating, unsure of the other and the threat each posed.

But he had surprised her. He attempted to befriend her but continued to leave her with conflicted emotions as toyed with her. He repeatedly told her they couldn’t shouldn’t be friends, yet he wouldn’t let her be. Always returning, drawing her in. Not quite understanding the truth in what they were, in what she truly was to Edward, and the danger he’d was to her. More so than the other dangers he claimed she attracted.

As Bella got to know Edward more, and the rest of the Cullens, she’d grown to care for them all deeply. The level that they took to protect her from the nomads that wanted to hunt her down, all the way back to Phoenix, only increased her unwavering devotion to the coven of Cold Ones.

A young girl’s naivety, the first taste of love and sacrifice. Head over heels, jumping into the deep end of emotions that she hadn’t any real experience with before that made her entirely vulnerable to a manipulative monster. Further, she slipped under his guile until the night of her eighteenth birthday.

The night started off as well as she could expect, forced into a party she hadn’t particularly wanted. She knew if Alice wanted something, there was no stopping her. The night held a dangerous sense of foreboding for Bella. Something in her instinctively knew that things were set to change that night as she and Edward had made their way closer to his home.

Sure enough, by the end of the evening, a thirsty vampire was forced into the woods and her blood spilled over their pristine white decor. She should have seen the entire situation coming by far. Bella wasn’t one of the most coordinated people on this planet, and while she’d been careful, it had been a mere papercut that done the copper headed vampire’s hunger for her in. The rest of the family had been quick to expel their empath from the house, but she found herself not particularly caring; it had been her mistake as she was the only human in the house. Edward drove her home soon after, and she had immediately sensed a change in him. Even he was angry with her. Seemingly for the creature, she was born as.

She would have been foolish to deny that she hadn’t thought of asking him to turn her, to be with him and his family and less of a risk all around. While the thought of being a vampire did not feel wrong to her, it had the words pass her lips to voice them to him that brought her to a stop. In her heart and the deep recesses of her soul, she couldn’t bring herself there.

Three days. Three days of not knowing what she’d done wrong as Edward had avoided her, and not returned her calls before she found him waiting on her porch when she got home from school. She had followed him into the woods behind her house at his request with trepidation.

Never had she thought he’d be dumping her like he was, though she should have expected it. Her self-confidence had already begun to wane by his absence to the point she begged him to take her with him, to change her but he refused. Even laughed at her, leaving her emotionally broken and lost so far from her home, knowing she knew not how to get back.

There was no use of running around; she was so deep in the woods that she had lost any sense of direction and fear ruled her mind. What if she’d never get back home?

Settling against a fallen tree, Bella wrapped her arms around herself as she felt the first drops of the evening mist kiss her skin with her tears as they fell from her face. It didn’t matter how far the temperature would drop; it only began to ignite the turn in her heart.

~o.O.o~

Don’t go around tonight,
Well it’s bound to take your life,
There’s a bad moon on the rise.

~o.O.o~

For more than two months, Bella’s father’s had been trying to get her to do more than sit in front of her window, staring at the dreary Forks’ horizon. He barely was able to get her to eat, and that was only by feeding her himself. She was unable to move on her own anymore. It was as if she was locked within herself. Catatonic. Apathetic.

During the entire period, she spent each day, replaying her time with the Cullens. Trying to understand what had happened, where she had gone wrong. Why she wasn’t good enough. Until she saw it all again from a witch’s eye.

They were not the friends they had claimed to be. While Rosalie had probably displayed more truths than intended, they all played a part in deceiving her. Her anger and rage that she never quite expressed, or needed to, growing up bloomed.

Charlie had often left a couple scented candles lit for her, hoping it was something that soothed her mind. It had been a meditative suggestion from one of the women from the reservation that he had confided in about her condition. Initially, when Bella experienced her flares of anger at her memories, she failed to notice the dancing flicker of the flames in the room with no breeze.

As it occurred more frequently, the movement had caught the corner of her eye. Stirring just enough within her to turn her gaze toward the candle sitting on her dresser, she was too weak physically to move her body any longer. She stared at it for hours, but it did nothing but burn steadily.

When her father returned to feed her, he attempted to speak to her as he did each night. He tried to convince her that what she was doing was wrong, the hurt she was causing not only herself but also everyone else that cared for her. It was the same speech he had given before, but it only grew more frustrated, desperate. He already had admitted that her mother wanted to have her committed to a hospital. Charlie may not have realized his mistake, but he let it slip that he shared similar feelings.

All the while, Bella’s gaze remained fixated on the candle as his words fanned her internal flame. Her hurt was growing, disbelief and anger that she would succumb so deep of her free will. She was still trying to figure out how it was that she got trapped inside her body.

The more her father spoke, the more upset she grew. The flame flickered and grew, making her heart jump as she watched it. It was small, barely noticeable to Charlie but the possibilities of what she was discovering were endless. For everything that a witch may be able to do with such a gift, there was only one thing that she had in mind.

Escape.

So, for the next several nights, into days, each time after Charlie fed and cleaned up after Bella’s meals, she continued to sit in her chair and stared up at the candle. She practiced, recreating the same results. She recalled the Cullens, all the subtle insults because they deemed her inferior. Her realization that they played a hand in her current state, her inability do anything to take out her inner desires on the coven of cowardly monsters.

Her eyes brightened, glistening as the glow of the flames of the candles surrounding her rose higher. The golden amber of the reflecting off the windows as she desperately wanted to grin but the drugged curse of the withdrawal of the Cold Ones’ departure kept her still.

Higher, brighter, hotter, the candle flames grew, Bella’s eyes widened as her heart beat loudly in her chest. A sound only her ears heard as she prayed to herself in hopes that the flames would grow to excess and catch onto anything. All she wanted was for it to be over. To not be trapped within herself any longer because of Edward Cullen. A mistake that she hoped karma would fix on its own.

Freedom would come to Bella Swan that night.

~o.O.o~

I hear hurricanes a blowing.
I know the end is coming soon.
I fear rivers over flowing.
I hear the voice of rage and ruin.

~o.O.o~

Bella wandered through the darkened world aimlessly after her death. While she died of her choosing, the fire created as the only means for her to escape whatever had been done to trap her inside her human body, she soon found herself trapped in another way. Another realm of sorts.

She had lingered in Forks for some time, watching Charlie as he mourned and buried her before he moved onto the reservation that she had been unable to step foot on. She was able to sense the ancient tribal magic protecting its land from the dead. It was soon after that she left town, to explore what was out in the world as she was unsure of what has left her in this new existence.

Her new world had started much like the one she departed. Bright, full of sunshine. Only she walked among the living unknown to them as she watched them go about their lives. Those that were sensitive to the walking spirits were more skittish when she was near. A part of her searched for the Cullens, wanting to cause as much strife as she could cause from the dead. But they had disappeared and kept their truths over their traveling habits from her.

Unknown to her, there was a drive within that pushed her to move east. Need, the curiosity of something greater pulling her elsewhere. She had no idea where she was going or why. But when she suddenly appeared in a small town, somewhere in Virginia, she realized there was much more than the typical supernatural she had observed over the years going on.

At first, it wasn’t unsurprising to see vampires of the original breed running around. However, a pair of familiar faces she had encountered after her initial passing and learning of a much larger world of supernatural beings as she observed the world around her, lived in this area. It baffled her because of the small bits she recalled from years. Curiouser and curiouser, she made her way through the town to figure out more of what was going on.

The way everyone was running around, speaking of some mysterious cure that had the very reference of it, cause the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Following after the vampire and the teenage boy, Bella was never more grateful to be completely oblivious to the living, or undead, for that matter. The squabbling between the two was incessant as they carried on. If she weren’t already dead, she might have begged for Damon, the name of the vampire she’d learned, to kill her already. As it was, the boy might just kill him, himself.

Damon had rooted around in his truck as he spoke to the kid. “Listen, just go one at a time, only shoot for the heart, don’t hesitate, and don’t miss,” he said as he handed him an arrow, causing Bella’s brow to raise in suspicion.

“Save the teaching moment. Elena’s not here. You don’t have to pretend like you give a damn about me.”

Closing the trunk, the vampire appeared irritated by what the boy said. “I’m trying to keep you alive, dumbass. Come on.”

Jeremy and Damon head into the bar, unbeknownst to them, with a ghostly Bella in tow. Loud music continued playing as if it had been another day, but other than that, it was quiet. They walk in cautiously, and the young hunter held up the bow. A giant blood smear was on the ground at Bella’s feet. Her eyes narrowed on the crimson sight, shaking her head. “Something’s not right,” she murmured to herself, her eyes darting around the place.

“Something’s not right,” Damon remarked as he walked right around the mess of blood.

Rolling her eyes at him, she let out a small huff. “Way to state the obvious, idiot,” she sneered at him, moving to follow him and Jeremy into the back cold storage room of the bar, where they found a pile of vampire corpses stacked in the corner.

Scowling at the loss, a new plan of action seemingly beginning to start to take root in his head. “Looks like we’re gonna have to find some new vampires. What a waste.”

Jeremy eyed the display, confused and disgusted. “What the hell happened?”

Bella leaned against the wall, bored with the two and their dumb questions. The gruesome sight was certainly impressive and had she still been alive, years ago, it would have been more traumatizing for her. However, the years of seeing what she has, learning more of what she had been naive to, numbed her to scenes such as this. “Oh, perhaps someone much more diabolical came through here before you and decided to ruin your fun?”

“I confess,” Jeremy turned and held up his bow to see another vampire enter. He had almost a sheepish smile on his face that had the ghostly girl’s lips pull back into a slight smile and shake her head. “I did it.”

“Kol?” Jeremy questioned.

At the name, Bella stood straighter, having heard it from someone else’s lips before, years ago. The very vampire she’d recognized on her arrival in the small town. “Now this all has certainly become much more interesting…” she mused to herself as she eyed the vampire curiously.

Kol smirked, a slight shrug to his shoulders. “Jeremy, good to see you, mate. Sorry about the mess. Ugh, it was a little crowded when I arrived, and I prefer more intimate gatherings. We three need to have a little chat.” He raised the bottle he had in his hands to his lips and drew a long sip as he eyed the hunter boy with a dangerous glint in his eye that the ghost in the room had not missed. “Care for a drink?”

Damon scowled as he interrupted. “He’s underage, and I don’t like you, so let’s just cut to it.”

Kol smiled over at the other vampire, in a way that made something rise in the dead witch. “You know, my brother bragged about his plan to complete Jeremy’s hunter’s mark. It was easy enough to track this lot down. They were all hiding in the shadows. Now, killing young vampires is easy or old ones, for that matter.”

Not understanding the reason for the Original’s visit and little intervention of their plans, Damon attempted to weed out the other’s plan. If she were honest, Bella wanted to know as well, seeing as she was drawn to the city and she felt it was for some reason related. “Why? What’s it to you either way?”

The vampire’s patience was growing thin and was dangerously close to breaking. “Because, you fools, in your zeal to find the cure, you risk waking someone very dangerous.”

Bella swallowed as she looked back over at Damon as he seemed to understand what was going on. “Oh…You must be talking about Silas.”

“Oh shit,” the girl muttered, looking around. The name appeared a number of times in her books and while she often dismissed it because it was a name that she had assumed to be dead, or as close to it as possible. Regardless, what was written, it was enough to know that it was not someone to be crossed, and it was one to be feared more than the great Klaus Mikaelson that she’d observed and found to be a source of great entertainment as she considered some of his methods for retribution against the Cullens should she ever find them on the same side of death.

Kol appeared surprised that Damon knew the ancient witch’s name. “What do you know of him?”

Damon shrugged, not caring. “Nothing. Don’t want to. Not our problem.”

Chuckling, Kol grinned at him. “Isn’t it?”

Bella moved in closer as Damon again denied caring about the name and its implications. She wanted to hear more as she felt more now that this might have something to do with her, or at least in part. How so, she yet to figure out, but any drop of information she intended to absorb.

Kol smiled some, thinking back to his past as he started his story. “A few hundred years back, I came across a group that worshiped Silas. His followers told me that he would rise again, and when he did, he would trigger the end of all time. You know, being immortal, you can see why I’m opposed to time’s ending. So I murdered all of them. And now, here you are willing to risk raising him in your search for the cure. I can’t exactly sit back and let that happen, can I?”

Damon was not impressed. “We’re not going to back off the cure ’cause you were told one too many scary bedtime stories, you idiot.”

Shoving the other vampire, Kol switched to another tactic. “Jeremy, we were mates in Colorado. You’re a smart lad. Why don’t you call off this imbecilic treasure hunt?”

The boy held up his bow, making his position clear. “I’m not calling anything off, mate.”

Bella shook her head at the two of them. “Fucking suicidal, you all are. I’m dead already, and even I’m terrified of this shit happening!” She exclaimed, knowing full well that no one could hear her.

Kol took a step back from the two. “Well, I could kill you. But then, I’d have to deal with the hunter’s curse. And I, I don’t particularly feel like being haunted for the next century. Better idea. I’ll just rip off your arms.”

The Original charged for Jeremy but Damon intercepted him, starting a brawl to distract the vampire long enough for his young friend to escape. Shaking her head, Bella pulled herself up on a table to watch the catfight as Damon shouted for Jeremy to run right before Kol got him into a headlock. Sighing, she rested her chin in the palm of her hand as the older vampire toyed around with the other. “This is going to be a long night…”

~o.O.o~

Well don’t go around tonight,
Well it’s bound to take your life,
There’s a bad moon on the rise.

~o.O.o~

Deciding to stay with Kol Mikaelson, as Bella’s fear at the very mention of this Silas person matched his own, she knew very well she could not trust his brother not to do something against him. At the very least, he would put him back in the coffin she’d heard him mention he kept his family in when she’d first come across him.

Following him into a sitting room at the family’s house, they, or rather Kol, was stopped by a blond who had come in from another way. As soon as she spoke, Bella was able to assume her to be the sister that Klaus and his brother often spoke of. “Going somewhere? I would if I were you. If Damon kills the hunter, Nik will not be pleased.”

Kol smiled and canted his head to the side. “I told Nik I wouldn’t touch the kid. I didn’t.”

“Oh. Well, that was clever. I’m sure he’ll appreciate it,” she replied sarcastically.

Kol went to push past his sister to leave, but she pulled out a dagger and Bella could see the smear of white oak ash on the end as she pointed it at his back. “What a chicken shit little bitch,” she remarked, glaring at the vampire. “If I were still alive, I would have you on your knees for a spineless move like that.”

Sensing the turn about and rise of danger, Kol turned back and had the right sense to look afraid of his sister. “You’d dagger me?” He questioned incredulous and full of hurt.

She was haughty and confident as she met his eye. “If I do, Damon’s compulsion ends and this is all over.”

“And then you’re no better than Niklaus. Daggering siblings when you disagree with them- Look at what this family has become. I mean, Elijah won’t even show his face, he’s so disgusted by our bickering. This cure has ruined us, and it hasn’t even been found yet. Just imagine what would happen if it is,” he tried to plead to his sister, but it fell on deaf ears.

“This family was ruined long before we knew about the cure,” Rebekah said.

Kol vamp-sped around to face her and held a white oak stake to point it at her heart, drawing her surprise. “Kol!”

“I won’t let you raise Silas,” he simply said.

Before either could make a move further, Klaus appeared in the room and pushed them apart. “Enough of this foolishness. Put it down, Kol.”

Gripping the stake in his hand, Kol fled the house instead. Sighing, Bella looked back over at Klaus and Rebekah. “Always placing your trust in the wrong people, Niklaus. When will you ever learn?”

“He was going to kill me!” Rebekah cried out, angry at her brother for letting the other leave.

Klaus smiled. “Well, then. I think you need a lesson in how to properly dagger a sibling.”

“Burn in hell,” she muttered, turning and leaving the house as her brother frowned, watching her.

Bella ran a hand through her hair, not knowing where to go. Kol was in the wind, and she was here with Klaus now. Whatever Kol had planned, she was sure that he wasn’t going to end well, and it wasn’t because of something he was going to do. She didn’t trust everyone else that was involved with searching for this mysterious cure many mentioned time and again. Deciding to stick with Klaus, she figured that eventually he might reveal something else that was going on, or lead her to something that would open up more of the larger picture of why she was feeling such a strong compulsion to be involved with their mess.

It was some time later when Klaus left the house that she followed. She wasn’t sure what he was up to as he walked up to the door of an unassuming house, but when the door opened to find the hunter boy that was with Damon and a girl, she glared at the vampire as he tried to talk them into taking the boy into his care. Eying the girl, the way she held herself, Bella had a bad feeling about her. She recognized a manipulative spark in her eyes that Alice Cullen held whenever she attempted to weave her lies.

When the teenagers closed the door on Klaus, and he walked away, frustrated at their stubbornness, she entered the house through the closed door. She quickly found the two in the kitchen with a familiar looking weapon between them. “You stupid idiots. This won’t end well for any of you,” Bella whispered to herself as they plotted to kill Kol to lift the compulsion on Damon.

~o.O.o~

Hope you got your things together.
Hope you are quite prepared to die.
Looks like we’re in for nasty weather.
One eyeis taken for an eye.

~o.O.o~

Bella did not understand why she would be so drawn to the disastrous events unfolding in this small Virginia town. She tried to contemplate the multitude of reasons as she sought out Kol Mikaelson, even knowing that she was completely incapable of doing anything on her side of death. Instinctively, her mind cataloged through whatever spells she had memorized from when she was alive, believing that one day she might be able to give a hand to fixing whatever was set to occur.

New faces had randomly begun appearing as she made her way through the streets of Mystic Falls. Faces of the dead, she was sure, as they looked directly at her with judgmental scowls. Narrowing her eyes, she knew that her emotional sympathies to the vampire did not put her on friendly terms with the grand majority of the dead witches that were in that world of misery.

Pausing to take in just who was watching her, she also realized that she was beginning to see more vampires aimlessly wandering around. A pretty blond trailed after the other Salvatore vampire, complaining about Damon. Other supernatural beings roaming around much in the same way, or like her, observing but completely unaware of one another. It was something she had learned shortly after her death, the segregation of the magical where she lingered.

Shaking her head, clearing her thoughts of the dead she was now seeing, she set back on her path to locating Kol when she ghosted away from the street and found herself standing in a school hallway. Her eyes were cautious as she looked around at the darkened corridor when she heard the sound of something, or someone, being shoved against lockers nearby.

Bella turned around the corner in time to find the young witch subduing Kol. Balloons began popping including a set right next to her head that would have had the girl jumping in fright had she still been alive. Seeing and learning what she had over her years dead, she could easily tell the Bennett witch was unraveling in the dark magic she was exploring. Magic she was never meant to handle.

A small smile ghosted on the ghost’s lips as the witch ran off frightened by her own doing. Looking down on Kol, she let out a sigh as he pushed himself up, cursing everything about the teenagers in the bloody town. An irresponsible group, Bella agreed, for ones to claim to know better, to be doing the right thing.

It didn’t take long before the doppelganger girl initiated their plan, calling Kol to meet somewhere. She wished she had some way to let him know that it was a trap, his family’s overconfidence and his impatience would ultimately be his downfall. She could see this chapter ending one way.

Bad.

~o.O.o~

Well don’t go around tonight,
Well it’s bound to take your life,
There’s a bad moon on the rise.

~o.O.o~

Bella trailed after Kol, watching as he entertained the doppelganger girl in her ploy to distract him while her minions searched for the weapon that would end his control over their friend. She observed silently as they made small talk and mixed drinks before getting to a topic that begun to interest even her.

Elena watched as Kol sipped his drink as he leaned against the back of the couch before she spoke. “Nobody else seems to think Silas exists, so why do you?”

He smiled slightly, but the clear level of caution again the name she spoke so casually bothered him. “I used to run with some witches. Africa in the fourteenth century, Haiti in the seventeenth century, New Orleans in the nineteen hundred. They all knew about Silas; that he needed to stay buried. I hold witches in high esteem.”

“Yeah, but why Silas? Why are you so afraid of him?” The girl continued to press.

“They said if Silas rises, he’ll unleash hell on Earth. I happen to like Earth just the way it is,” he answered simply, but it already had Bella’s mind in a whirlwind. She recalled reading passages with similar phrasing but had skipped over it when she was still learning more about her gifts.

She could see that Elena wasn’t believing him and merely entertaining him and his story. “That’s pretty biblical.”

“Well, that’s the other problem with people today – they’ve lost faith. And in that loss, they no longer know who they should fear,” he remarked, his eyes narrowing on the girl.

Bella hoped that the charade did not last much longer and to her relief, Kol decided to leave soon after, with a frustrated doppelganger in his wake. The dead witch couldn’t wait to get out of there as she followed Kol through the streets, unsure of what his next move was. All she could tell was that he wasn’t particularly keen on returning home to his brother who had some deal on the table with the idiots of the town.

It was hours later that he returned to the house, intending to take the arms of the new hunter. Amid the chaos, Kol pinned Elena to the wall with a makeshift stake while he focused his attention on her brother.

As she attempted to free herself, Bella watched on as Kol prepared to slice through the boy’s arm when the young vampire appeared from behind. Unknowingly, the ghost let out a breath as the scene continued to unfold, Jeremy managing to come into possession of the Original’s white oak stake.

“Jeremy, now!” Elena shouted before he shoved the weapon into the vampire’s heart and backed away quickly when he began to spark up in flames.

Movement at the open doorway caught their attention, and they found a very upset and angry hybrid held back by a lack of invitation to the house. “What did you do?”

Elena did her best to control her fear and reason their action that was clearly an act of war on the old family in his eyes. “We didn’t have a choice. He was trying to cut off Jeremy’s arm!”

Bella smiled as he saw right through her act as he cried out, “Lies! He never would’ve gotten inside if you hadn’t have set a trap for him.”

Stubborn and defiant, the girl was brazen enough to stand up to the immortal hybrid. “You said you were going to put him down too.”

Klaus spat at her, furious at her for killing his youngest brother. “I was going to make him suffer on my terms! I’m going to burn this house to the ground. And then, when you try to flee for your lives, I’ll kill you both without blinking.”

Jeremy stood tall, glaring as he challenged the man. “You kill us; you’ll never get to the cure. You’ll never be able to make any more hybrids.”

The hybrid laughed at the hunter’s insolence and belief of what he thought he wanted the cure for. “You think I care for an instant about my bloody hybrids? I want the cure so I can destroy it. I would’ve killed you all the second we dug it up, but now I’m just gonna watch you burn instead.”

Klaus suddenly fell to the ground, crying out and falling to his knees. Bonnie walked in past him. “Invite him in,” she ordered, leaving the two staring at her confused. “Do it!”

Klaus slowly pushed himself back up against the pain as he glared back, waiting for the words. “Come in,” Jeremy uttered, allowing the vampire to fall forward while Bonnie magically pulled him in further and momentarily immobilized him. Bella watched, standing close to the charred body of Kol, wondering what she was up to.

Bonnie pushed her friends in the opposite direction. “Living room. Go!”

As Elena and Jeremy ran through the living and into the kitchen, Klaus followed as he was quickly released from his hold, but he couldn’t get into the kitchen. He punched at the air, but there was an invisible barrier. Jeremy quickly walked through Bella to pull the white oak stake out of Kol, and he and Elena ran to the door while Klaus continued to pound on the barrier separating them. “Witch, you can’t do this to me.”

Bonnie smiled cockily, making Bella want to smack her personally. “You have no idea what I can do now.”

Klaus called out as the three left him trapped in the living room, pounding on the barrier futilely, “I will hunt all of you to your end! Do you hear me? Do you!?”

Bella sighed, feeling for the man as he soon settled down, leaning against the invisible shield and stared over in her direction. He stared at the charcoal body of his brother that he was unable to protect from the idiots of the current generation of supernatural.

“Well, this is just lovely. That bloody wanker gets the slip on me, and my personal hell is that I get to see my family live on, and frolic,” Kol’s voice muttered nearby, capturing Bella’s attention. He’d crossed to the Other Side but was unable to see her.

Biting her lip, her eyes shift between the brothers before she decided to let herself be revealed to the deceased vampire. “It’s not so bad. Once you accept that you’re alone, it gets easier,” she spoke, a playful smile on her lips as she watched him spin around to stare at her leaning against the end table next to his body.

His eyes glanced her over, once, twice. “Just who might you be? Because I am pretty sure I was alone here not a moment ago – my irritating brother aside…”

Bella’s smile softened as she shifted her gaze to the mourning hybrid. “In a way, you were. The witches here have a way of not allowing other species of our world see us unless we choose to let you. I’ve been watching the events going on here for the last couple days and to tell you the truth – I’m truly frightened for the sake of the mentality of some of the beings. Perhaps it would be a blessing to cull this town?”

Kol’s eyebrow rose at her blatant distaste for those that killed him as she looked around the house pointedly. “Interesting. Tell me, Darling, just how did you come to be here?”

She shrugged a shoulder. “Same as you. I died.”

“You mentioned witches…you‘re a witch. Why would you show yourself to me if you all hide?” he asked curiously, following her as she started to walk out of the house when more of the idiot friends arrived.

“Why wouldn’t I? I was drawn here for a reason. Why I don’t know yet. I think it may be you, perhaps. But as I watched what was going on, the hunt for this cure, and tales of Silas…” Bella shuddered. “I had to stick around and see what would happen.”

Kol failed to hide his surprise as she appeared to be just as shaken by the mention of the old witch’s name as he was. “You know of him?”

“Not really, no. I remembered seeing his name come across in my grimoire, but I was still young and learning, so I only glanced over it. It wasn’t long after that I was here,” she admitted, turning to face him while she continued to walk backward. At his curious expression, she let out a sigh and continued. “I was involved with some Cold Ones and fell under their thrall. While I eventually learned witches are immune to the compulsion of your kind, I succumbed to their abilities before they left.”

“Ah. I see. You suffered from the withdrawal of their thrall. Not a pleasant experience,” he murmured, stepping closer to her, forcing her to raise her chin higher to maintain a level gaze with his.

“No, but I found my escape. An ability ignited in my rage, my desire to seek retribution against them. While it ended in my death, I am free, and I have no regrets.”

He was bothered by her chosen words and scoffed. “Why would you have regrets? You seem like a capable woman.”

“I’m dead. I can’t go after the coven of Cold Ones that lead me to the state that I was in before I died. If I had known what I know now, I would have done away with them sooner,” she explained with a wave of her hand. “But I was young and inexperienced. I was still learning much about myself when I had met them. They were the first supernatural creatures I had come across since coming into my gift, so my human curiosities won out.”

Kol paused in his approach to her, appraising her differently. She was not at all what he had initially thought her to be, but still, together in this plane of existence they could work together. “Just how long have you been here?”

“How long have I been dead?” Bella asked with a smirk. Looking away thoughtfully, with a wistful longing expression on her face. “Ten years? Give or take. I don’t know anymore. Time loses meaning after some time.”

He moved closer while she was distracted and with a flirtatious smile, brushed the hair back from her face. “Well, if we are going to be stuck here together, I do believe that I should at least know your name, Darling. I think it’s safe to say that you know quite a bit more about me than what I just learned about you.”

Bella let out a startled breath at how close he was. She’d known in her observations that he could be quite the flirt, but she hadn’t anticipated just how she would react to him. Her attraction to him had been immediate but given the circumstances that he had been facing while in the living plane, she was merely on the outside looking in. Her tongue darting out to wet her lips, a living trait still retained to mask her nerves, she canted her head to the side and smiled. “Bella. Isabella actually, but I prefer Bella.”

“Bella. It suits you, truly. Now, what shall we do about this situation we find ourselves in?”

“There is no magic here that I can use, but this thing with Silas won’t go away,” Bella replied.

Disappointed, Kol was unable to deny that she was right. It had been exactly what he’d died fighting to prevent, and now there was no one in his place that shared his fears to continue the fight against his family and those that killed him. “I may have something in mind, but you and I are going to be getting to spend a lot of time together…” he insinuated, a dark smile gracing his lips that had her heart been capable of beating, it would have stopped.

“Sounds intriguing. Tell me more,” she said, allowing him to guide her away from the heart of Mystic Falls and deep out into the woods. There, they began the first night memorizing what spells he wanted her to learn of the magic that surrounded them.

~o.O.o~

I hear hurricanes a blowing.
I know the end is coming soon.
I fear rivers over flowing.
I hear the voice of rage and ruin.

~o.O.o~

Taking a break from their work, Bella and Kol found themselves back in town for some amusement. What greeted them was both entertaining as it was fearsome. The very event they’d hoped wouldn’t happen, did, leaving them to watch on with concern.

Splitting up so they could go spy on everyone key to what was going on with Silas, the two were quickly able to put the pieces of the puzzle together to learn he was looking for a way to reunite with his lost love. A notion that tugged on Bella’s heart but there was something else there. Something familiar about everything.

Standing in the town square, she could see how everyone appeared in like a trance. She also found the doppelgänger’s friend, the witch, that trapped Klaus the night of Kol’s death watching on as she had. Watching as if she was unable to interact with everyone and screaming when the man with Stefan’s face, Silas, she presumed, killed the man on the stage. No one reacted to her cries.

“That was pretty cool,” Kol voiced beside her when he had finished his search.

Bella nodded but continued to remain uneasy about what she saw. “I was capable of doing something similar when I was alive but not on this scale. I never explored it as it frightened me too much.”

“Oh, don’t be scared, darling, magic is an adventure,” Kol smiled widely at her. “Magic is fun if you use it for the right reasons.”

A playful smile appeared on her face. “Such as?”

“Well, if you’re able to do what Silas is doing, you could easily influence bad people to fight each other to the death, and you won’t even need a vampire to compel them.”

“That’s not a right reason.”

“Maybe not, but it’s fun,” Kol grinned. “Oh, come on, Darling, even in these dire times we are allowed to joke around now and then! However, abilities such as that tend to be unique to witch lines. It makes me wonder…”

Bella looked over at her new friend, raising an eyebrow in query. “Wonder what?” she asked, but he was too busy staring over at the gathering of people, and Silas, with curiosity. Before he could answer, though, the dead witch that helped raise Silas turned towards their direction and stared right at them. “That witch that you wanted to kill. She’s made us. We should get out of here and find out what the others are doing. No doubt her friends are going to search for some way to bring her back, and I’d like to know how.”

He was unable to see the other witch but nodded in agreement, his dark eyes glancing over the area. Wrapping his arm around Bella’s waist, he guided her away from the town square. “We’ll need to split up. No doubt he is still searching for that cure, but he doesn’t know where it is yet. You keep an eye on Elena and the Salvatores. I’ll see what my family is up to. Someone, somewhere, is bound to spill something.”

“You are just hoping for another bloodbath,” she teased. “Meet back at our tree tonight.”

“Of course, Darling!” Kol grinned, bending down to peck her cheek before running off.

She stood there blinking in surprise. While he had not hidden his normal flirtatious personality from her, attempting to stir a reaction wherever he might be able since she revealed her presence to him; neither one had made any motion for physical endearments. A simple kiss on the cheek was innocent enough, but what she’d learned about the man was that he just didn’t do innocent.

With so much yet to learn, Bella shook herself of her daze and headed off to find the doppelganger vampire and her friends. Thinking about Kol would simply have to wait.

~o.O.o~

I see a bad moon rising.
I see trouble on the way.
I see earthquakes andlightnin’.
I see bad times today.

~o.O.o~

Dropping the veil between the living and the dead was just the cue that the two needed. As soon as the spell had begun, Bella started her own from their side. The window had been carefully planned so that when the spell was at its highest, they would be able to slip through and remain for when it ended.

It was surreal, once they accomplished the first part. Unlike the other spirits that had some limitations to their interactions, Bella and Kol were flesh and blood. Holding hands in their clearing in the woods, standing in one of the Expression sacrifice locations, they looked at each other with shock and amazement.

Letting out a loud cheer of joy, he wrapped his arms around the girl, swinging her around as he praised her accomplishment. “Oh, Poppet! What fun will the two of us get to cause!” he sighed happily as he held her to him.

Bella was still in her state of shock that she was able to complete the task even. In truth, she never admitted to him that she didn’t believe they would succeed. Seeing him, hearing him sing her praise was overwhelming.

“Come! Let’s see what my family is up to and surprise them,” he breathed out anxiously, pressing his lips to hers.

He didn’t allow her much time to absorb his act when he started pulling her with him. As they passed the Mystic Grill, he stopped short with a wicked grin splayed across his lips. “This will be fun…”

“Yeah, great,” Bella murmured as she followed him into the restaurant, her eyes glancing about at the darkened weather. Almost immediately, she heard his sister’s reaction to seeing him.

Rebekah stood staring at him, blinking in shock. “Oh, my God. Kol.”

Kol smirked knowingly, throwing an arm across Bella’s shoulders. “Greetings from the dead, sort of. So, who fancies a drink?”

Passing his sister as she looked back with a gaping stare, the witch Barry suppressed the urge to roll her eyes when Rebekah spoke. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

Kol smirked as he poured himself and his companion a drink. “Spare me the waterworks sister. We’ve already watched you grieve. It lasted a full 24 hours, remember?”

He handed Bella her glass and turned around to lean against the bar as he looked over at the boy. Matt frowned and narrowed his eyes on them. “I’m assuming this means Bonnie dropped the veil.”

The couple initially shared a knowing smile with one another before he answered. “Not completely, and not for long. But who am I to give up an opportunity for revenge? My killer’s already dead, but his sister is just as culpable, so maybe you could help us find her.”

“If you hurt Elena, I swear-” Matt said as he attempted to look imposing but it only made the previously deceased vampire react impulsively.

Kol smashed a glass bottle on the edge of a table and held up the jagged remnant in his hand. “Oh, I’m going to. But please, continue. I’m curious as to where you’re going with this.”

Rebekah scored at her brother. “You’ve made your point, Kol. Leave.”

He shook his head, stating the two down as Bella silently joined him at his side in her support. “First, tell me where I can find Elena.”

“She left here hours ago; we don’t know where she is. Now get out!”

Kol smiled, glaring between the two. “I see you finally got the quarterback to pay attention to you. How’s the throwing arm, champ?” He threw the broken bottle and it hit Matt in the shoulder and lodging into it.

While Rebekah tended to the human boy, the couple left without further incidence.

Matt looked up at Rebekah, pained and confused. “Who the was the girl with him?”

“Hell if I know. Whoever she may be, I doubt it could be a good thing that she is joining him on whatever idiotic revenge scheme he came back for.”

~o.O.o~

Hope you got your things together.
Hope you are quite prepared to die.
Looks like we’re in for nasty weather.
One eyeis taken for an eye.

~o.O.o~

Kol and Bella set about looking around town for the elusive vampire that was left responsible for his demise. Bella was already irritated by his sister, having wanted her chance to wring the girl’s neck for the way she had treated him after his death and subsequent return.

“Your sister is a bitch,” she commented as they caught sight of the doppelganger heading into the cemetery. “I should have made her feel what it would have been like to been set on fire by that stake.”

“I’m not arguing with you there, Darling,” Kol smiled. “Come, let’s make someone else’s life hell.”

Silently the two made their way through the grave, following Elena Gilbert as she headed for her brother’s plot. “Brother and friend? What genius came up with that one?” she said to herself as she knelt before the headstone. “I give up, Jer. I wanted to kill her for you, but there’s no point. Stefan’s right, it’s just a distraction, and- I can’t – I can’t do this. I can’t- I can’t move on. And I don’t want to. If that makes me weak, then fine, I’m weak, but…I can’t handle you- I can’t handle you being gone. I can’t handle feeling like this anymore.” She had cried for several moments before Kol made his approach from behind her.

“Hello, old friend,” he smirked as she stood quickly to face him. “Pity about your brother. Guess it’s just me against you now.”

Bella pulled herself up on a nearby headstone to watch as the two began to fight, though, with his experience, he seemed to be more batting her around like a cat with a mouse. “Now this is what I’ve missed: two people connecting…”

“What am I? Chopped liver?” Bella snapped, making a face at him before waving off his apologetic smile he sent her way.

Turning back to Elena as he kicked her again, Kol sighed. “It can get lonely on the Other Side…and I swear being invisible will drive you mad. The way you couldn’t see me standing in front of you, or feel my breath on your cheek as I whispered all the ways that I wished for you to suffer…”

“Some of those ideas are quite ingenious. Remember you promised to help me with my revenge, Dear,” Bella said lightly.

He grabbed Elena by the throat and lifts her as she struggled to breathe. “But alas, now you can.”

Defiant in the face of her previous victim, she didn’t blink. “Go ahead, Kol. Kill me. You’d be doing me a favor.”

Kol smiled, leaning in to brush his lips over her ear as he whispered, “As you wish, darling.”

“Kol!” Bella shouted, causing him to drop her so that he could catch the stake that came flying at him with a free hand. Looking to where it came from, they found Jeremy Gilbert standing there, pointing a crossbow at him.

“How many times do I need to kill you?” The boy questioned.

Kol’s face shifted, his visage coming out and eliciting a new level of excitement for Bella as she watched on. “Jeremy Gilbert…Welcome back. Now, what’s the saying? ‘Kill me once, shame on you. Kill me twice, shame on-”

Out of nowhere, Stefan Salvatore vamp-sped at Kol and snapped his neck. “You do know this isn’t over,” Bella warned, standing to face them.

The three looked at her, confused and curious to her presence with the Original. “Who are you?”

Smiling, the corner of her lip rising, “Someone not to be trifled with. Vulneratus!” she shouted, her hands stretched out towards those involved against Kol, causing them each to bend to their knees and holding their heads in pain. Calmly, Bella walked past them to her friend’s body. Kneeling at his side, she brushed back the hair from his face and took his hand in hers. “Revellereprocularae…”

Kol’s body disappeared from their sight, and she slowly raised her gaze to fixate on the three friends. “Come at either of us, and you won’t have to worry about an Original ripping out your heart. I don’t even have to touch you bring you to your knees,” she hissed, canting her head to the side curiously. “I’ll have held you in place so that he can get whatever bloodshed he desires from you and you won’t be able to do anything to stop it.”

Stefan fought through the pain to look up in time for her chant another spell and disappeared from the cemetery. As soon as she was gone, they were released from their hold, and the pain levitated. Pushing himself up to his feet, he couldn’t help but swallow with fear at the strength in the young witch or what it meant.

~o.O.o~

Don’t come around tonight,
Well it’s bound to take your life,
There’s a bad moon on the rise.

~o.O.o~

Sitting up with a gasp, Kol’s eyes were red with anger. Ready to turn and last out at whatever enemy was nearby, he looked around only to find his Bella sitting patiently beside the bed she’d laid him upon. “What happened?”

“The younger Salvatore snapped your neck. I subdued them with a pain illusion spell and transported your ass out of there before they could take you. He intended on taking you elsewhere, burying you until they lifted the veil, believing that you are back in the same form as the others,” she replied. “You need to feed.”

Instinctively, his eyes fell on her neck before looking away. “I’ll find something soon. How much time do we have for the veil?”

“Several hours at least,” she murmured her answer. “You can feed on my blood, Kol. I trust you not to kill me.”

His eyes met hers again. “What- I couldn’t, Love. Thank you for the offer, though – as delicious as you do smell,” he teased, moving from the bed and bending over to drop a light kiss to her jaw that drew a small intake of breath.

“Why wait?” Bella whispered. “Is there something wrong with me that you don’t want my blood?”

Blinking, he shook his head, bewildered by her questions. “Nothing is wrong with you. I- I just don’t see you like food, Darling.”

Turning her head to his, her voice remained low. “What do you see me as then?”

“I, um…” Kol stammered, stepping back as he was unsure where this line of questioning was coming from. Granted he’d been attracted to the young witch immediately upon meeting her, but he knew she was unlike others and had kept his flirting light as so he could get a sense of her feelings and comfort level with him.

Bella’s dark brown eyes that held such innocence turned mischievous, and her lips pulled into a smirk. “Oh, let’s stop this delusion. It’s quite obvious that you want the girl but much like your brother, you fear rejection. Don’t you?”

“The hell are you talking about?” he questioned, trying to piece together the sudden shift in her.

“What is so special about this witch you have attached yourself to? While she is busy torturing those imbeciles, on your behalf mind you, there is just something different. I can’t quite put my finger on it,” she murmured thoughtfully, tapping her finger on her bottom lip. “Her magic is too much like my own. I was able to sense it as soon as you both crossed back over.”

Recognition fully set in and Kol squared himself for a fight. “Silas.”

“Congratulations! Give the man a prize! Or perhaps the neck of a pretty young witch? You would love to sink your teeth into her, wouldn’t you? Oh, don’t be fooling yourself. I saw though Stefan’s eyes everything. She wants you, and you just keep confusing her. Oh, the jealous eye she sent you when your lips were touching sweet Elena…”

“What do you want?” Kol demanded, knowing he was no match for the immortal witch.

Bella/Silas grew serious as he stood, crossing his arms. “I’m not here to attack you. I truly am curious about this girl. If I had a way of getting answers from Quetsiyah, I would, but by what I sensed alone – this girl is mine.”

“Bella belongs to no one-”

He rolled his eyes, shaking his head. “Of course, but not in that sense. I mean, if the feelings I’m getting from her magic are everything I believe – then she’s of my bloodline. How? I don’t know because my ex is a devious and manipulative breed. When she killed Amara, it was very likely she could have been with child. I never knew.”

Kol swallowed at the theory, a possibility he tried not considering with all the hints that she revealed that she was capable of performing. He knew it would upset her at the time if he had mentioned it, considering everything she’d witnessed alone until his death.

Bella/Silas eyed him with a small smile. “You do care for her, don’t you? Why do I bother asking? I already know you do, which is why I have no intention of harming you. I feel she is too much family to hurt in that way, but I will leave her protection and survival in your hands.”

All the Original could do was nod silently, and before he knew it, Silas/Bella was gone from his sight. Running a hand over his face, he scrambled to think of what to say to his friend once she returned to their hideout.

~o.O.o~

Don’t come around tonight,
Well it’s bound to take your life,
There’s a bad moon on the rise.

~o.O.o~

“So let me get this straight – the immortal witch that we’d been so terrified of thinks that I’m some great descendant and selected you to make sure I’m taken care of?” Bella questioned as she tried to make sense of what Kol later explained.

The veil had just gone back up, and all the ghosts in town were gone, so they were making their way out to surprise family and friends. “Yes, Darling. That is what happened.”

“I can’t help but think that you’re keeping something else from me. What else did he say?”

Kol swallowed as he wasn’t sure how to explain that part. The part of how he had appeared in her form to mess with his head and his growing affections for her. Scratching his head, he tried to stall but at her glare, he let out a sigh. “Oh bloody hell,” he whined, then leaned in to capture her lips with his own.

Bella stood frozen as he took hold of her face, his hands sliding down her neck before she responded. Wrapping her hand around his neck to hold him to her, she grinned against his lips and let out a sigh. “Well that took long enough,” she murmured.

“Kol?!”

Turning to the voice, Kol pulled his witch into his arms and held her close. “Greetings, brother! How do you feel about assisting with some good ol’ revenge on a coven of Cold Ones for my girl?”

Klaus’ shock at the appearance of his brother in the land of the living and the pretty brunette in his arms was inexplainable. His mouth fell open as he tried processing everything and slowly nodded. “I think you have quite the tale to tell.”

“That and so much more,” Kol nodded, letting out a breath. Looking to Bella, he couldn’t help but give her one of his devious smirks. He could see she was almost anticipating his next question. “Say, Darling. What do you think about becoming immortal yourself?”