Chapter 21

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, or The Originals in any way shape or form. I just merely enjoy playing with the characters for my own, and your personal amusement…

Damon laid Bella’s body on the couch ever so gently, straightening her clothes that shifted to make sure she was properly covered as he knew she never appreciated revealing too much in life, and certainly would not in death. If there was ever a time for a drink, he could use one but he could not bear to leave Bella’s side.

Having ripped his sleeve off, he carefully tried to clean more of his blood off of her. Sighing deeply and struggling not to break down as his hands ghosted over her chest where she stabbed herself.

“I can’t…” he cried and turned to lean against the couch, crying into his arm.

No one knew what to say as they all were dealing with their own grief in their ways. Stefan made his way over and handed his brother a more than healthy amount of bourbon.

“She had so much promise, so much life to live,” Elijah murmured to himself as he stood, staring out the window. “We only just got her back…”

Jasper watched each of the brothers, both Mikaelsons and Salvatores closely but they all seemed to be lost inside their grief, allowing Bonnie the chance to search the house for some alternative clothes to change Bella into.

As she returned, she stood beside him as she watched the room. “No change?”

“Everyone is still mourning. They didn’t even notice your absence,” he murmured.

Bonnie let out a sigh, knowing that what she needed to do was inevitable, but understood the family’s emotions and sympathized. Making her way into the room, she held up the clothes in her hand. “While I respect your wishes to stay with Bella, I’m sure she would want to stay in bloody clothes like she is. If you guys could just step out so that I can change and clean her up for you, that’d be great.”

While the Mikaelson brothers, and Stefan, took a moment to absorb what she said and wanted to do before gracefully leaving the room to give her privacy, Damon remained stubborn. “I am not going to leave her,” he glared, making his way behind the couch where he could oversee her actions without interfering.

She glared back at him, debating if it really was worth the argument. After all, she had no idea how far their physical relationship had gone in their past life or this one. Throwing her hands up, she shrugged. “Fine,” she conceded.

She took the wet washcloth she brought with her and managed to remove any lingering trace of blood before she started to take off the blood stained shirt. Considering the damage to it, she found it was easier to just rip it into smaller pieces to get it off her easier without jostling her body too much.

As Bonnie began to clean the blood from her chest and stomach, she could feel Damon’s presence move to behind her as he looked over her shoulder. “Do you mind giving her a little respect and backing off?” she muttered.

“Do you see something amiss?” he asked, ignoring her attitude.

Bonnie’s hands still, already knowing what he was referring to. Jasper and her had spoken about the possibility when Stefan had told everyone about the book and it’s contents, but they did not want to say anything to get their hopes up. “What are you talking about?”

Damon pushed her aside and moved the washcloth that she’d let go to cover Bella. As she laid on the couch with just her bra covering her upper body, he stared, blinking as if his eyes were playing tricks on him. “She should have a stab wound from that dagger in her chest. It’s completely healed!”

He wasn’t particularly quiet with his observation, causing the rest of her family to hear and come running in. Bonnie however was still set on preserving as much of Bella’s modesty as she could. Using her magic to push them all back to the threshold of the room, she held her hand up. “Let me get her dressed,” she warned.

“Did you know she would turn?” Elijah questioned Bonnie, who’s body tensed at the accusation.

“She didn’t, but hearing the story and parts of it, she recognized the spell woven in. That is why I had asked Klaus for some of his blood when I came back to the house during the night with the pretense of acquiring a car to escort Bella in the morning,” Jasper explained as he waited outside in the hall.

When Bonnie was done getting Bella into one of Rebekah’s extra shirts she’d left behind, she stood and allowed the family in again. “We weren’t sure it’d work. Damon said he’d been giving her his blood, but it’d been a couple days. While the spell has parts of what looked like the immortality spell that your mother used on you in it, I didn’t think it would work for her. However, it did allow for her to be bound to an immortal being if she were to sacrifice herself with their blood in her. Jasper and I had her take Klaus’ since it’s much harder to kill him than anyone else.”

Damon turned to stare at Bella’s lifeless body, renewed hope in his eyes. “So she’s going to be a vampire?”

Bonnie’s face scrunched up in confusion. “I don’t know. I just know she will come back. We will see when the spell works its way through and she wakes up. I don’t think she anticipated coming back because the blood was kind of slipped to her, so she might be a little pissed.”

“Well she can be as angry as likes, but we will have her back and won’t be taken away again. That is all that matters!” Klaus exclaimed from the bar as he refilled his glass. “Anyone else like a topper?”

~o.O.o~

It took nearly four more hours after the discovery of Bella’s healed wound before she woke with a start, gasping for her breath. Looking around, her eyes were wild in fear as she was certain she was finding herself in some sort of hell.

“She’s awake!” Kol called out.

She heard his voice but she was still finding it difficult to focus until Damon moved in front of her, filling her entire view. “Isabella,” he said in a breathy whisper, reaching out for her face, but she couldn’t help but to cringe back.

“Where am I?” Bella demanded.

“You’re back home,” he answered, blue eyes narrowing in concern as he glanced at her family. “Dahlia is dead. You killed her.”

She was still deeply confused as he tried to reach for her again, her eyes following his hand with suspicion but it still had the same familiar touch as her Damon. “How-?”

Bonnie made her way closer by that point, having anticipated the question coming. “Stefan told us about what was in the book and we recognized parts of the spell you hid in the story. While you thought you sacrificed yourself, we did manage to get someone’s blood into you before you…” she pointed to Bella’s chest that was healed over, causing the resurrected witch to immediately feel at her the area she’d stabbed herself. She could still feel the sharpness of the blade piercing her skin and the memory made her flinch.

“Who?” she asked, wanting to know who she was now bonded to, as she’d have to also worry if any of Damon’s enemies ever came after him if they’d used his blood. He was very capable of dying unlike her brothers.

“That would be me, Sweetheart,” Klaus toasted her. “So don’t you fear. You will be with us a long time.”

Damon remained quiet as he seemed unable to keep his eyes off her and she soon settled down, slowly accepting her new immortality. Looking up at him, she smiled but it was forced. She knew that he was not happy about her actions, and she would not have been with him had he done the same.

“Don’t you try that again, you hear me?” he whispered in her ear before kissing her neck in a sigh and pulling her to him. “I can’t lose you a third time.”

“I’m curious to know,” Kol interrupted, falling onto the couch next to Bella, effectively pulling her attention away from Damon and earning a growl from the man. “What are you now?”

Bella looked around, finding everyone present was equally as curious about what she’d become because of the spell. “The way I understood it, I am still a witch, though my death froze me in this state. The spell keeps me from completely dying as I would be bound to the life of whomever gave their blood, so until Klaus dies himself, if anything were to happen to me, I would come back just the same. No more reincarnations. Same body, same Bella.”

“Same kick ass witch?” Kol asked, an eager glint in his eye. A smile pulled at her lips and she nodded wordlessly. “Awesome. I have so much to show you when we get to New Orleans!”

Turning back to Damon, she looked at him bewildered. “Are we still going? Charlie, you, and I moving with everyone?”

He pushed her hair back from her face and shrugged, a smirk forming on his lips. “Sure. Why not? There’s a lot of trouble we could cause down there and I’m sure plenty of policing for the old man. It would be good for your family to have a man on the inside down there for when the local witches try to get the upper hand.”

Bella stared at him for what seemed forever. She could feel the tension in the room as her family wanted to know her reaction to such life changing events. Taking a deep breath, she blinked as she stuttered through her words. “I guess we’re moving to New Orleans,” she announced.

No one was more pleased to hear those words than Niklaus. “Fantastic! I shall begin packing up whatever is left to bring back with us!” he declared before running out of the room to begin making arrangements.

“Uh, but I still have to see Charlie…” she reminded him, but spoke more to herself. “I have to tell him about what happened…”

Damon turned her to face him and lightly dropped a kiss to her lips. “Don’t worry about anything. Considering that your brothers here told him about everything else going on in town, I’m sure they could fill him in on the rest while you just do whatever you feel you need to for yourself.”

Taking a deep breath, Bella narrowed her eyes as she looked around, finding everyone watching her. When she came across Stefan, she did not feel the same unease as she had in the past, despite his overall friendliness around her. “Well – I am kinda hungry…”

“Then we’ll go and get you something to eat,” Damon agreed, pulling her up. “Let’s head to the Grill. Drinks and food before we skip town.”

Elijah smiled as he stood. “That does sound like a very fine idea. You all go enjoy yourselves. I’ll be happy to go speak with Mr. Swan and handle any arrangements that will be necessary with him for a speedy move.”

Bella was thankful for that as she hadn’t know what to say to the man she knew as a father for eighteen years. How do you explain to someone that you had attempted to commit suicide in order to kill one of the most powerful witches you had ever known in order to save your family? She was still quiet in her reflections of her resurrection from the spell that Bonnie had recognized the details of that brought her back as her boyfriend and family led her out, all the way to the restaurant.

It wasn’t until they were walking in and looking for a large enough area to accommodate their group that she had realized that the witch and Jasper had followed with them. Raising an eyebrow to their direction as she observed them, she could not help but take notice at how attentive her friend was being with the girl. When he looked over at her, he only smiled and winked, sending her a sampling of the witch’s emotions that made her smile.

She didn’t know what had been said between them, or what may had occurred over the last few days that made Bonnie less hostile towards vampires – or her vampires in particularly, but the curiosity that she held for Jasper was laced with a simpler innocence of attraction that she was more than familiar with when it came to his honesty and charm. Bella only hoped that if they chose to pursue whatever they were feeling, that no one was terribly hurt.

Across the restaurant, the group had caught the attention of another, smaller one. While they had been ignored from the moment they walked in, they knew that they were there.

“Let them be Elena,” Caroline whispered, but it did nothing to stop the girl as she quickly left her seat. The blond vampire growled to herself and followed after her friend, not happy with her antics over the previous weeks and had done her best to help keep her away from Bella the best she could, even though she had hoped to get the know the girl better herself.

Elena walked right up to the table where Kol had been joyfully chatting about some lessons about witchcraft that he would like to show Bella in the future when he fell silent, glaring at the intruder. “Yes? How can we not help you?”

Bella rolled her eyes at him and lightly slapped him on the arm, scolding him. “Stop that,” she shushed him before cautiously turning her attention to Elena. “What do you need? Because we were about to have dinner.”

The young doppelganger girl swallowed back her previous courage as she was now cowering under everyone’s glare. “I, um, just wanted to say I was sorry for everything I had done to you,” she replied. “I hurt you, and Damon,” she said, taking a breath and looked to Stefan. “I hurt Stefan. I don’t deserve him and I did the worst thing I could ever do, that I had said I never would. I don’t even know why I did it. I can’t take it back and while I don’t expect either of you to forgive me, but I just wanted to let you know that I am sorry. So – yeah. I just wanted to let you know…”

After her speech, Elena turned on her heel and ran back to her table to rejoin Matt and Tyler, leaving Caroline standing with the Mikaelsons and Salvatores looking confused. “Okay. I wasn’t expecting her to do that. Until this morning, she was still very anti-Bella,” she muttered.

Bella smiled at her. “It’s alright. Whatever that was making her not like me isn’t holding her anymore. It’s fine. It doesn’t matter anyway because I’m not going to be staying in town much longer regardless.”

Caroline pouted at hearing that. “Why not? You just moved here. I was hoping we’d get to be friends.”

“I want to get to know my family more. So I’m going to move to New Orleans with them. Elijah is speaking with Charlie about setting things up down there. We’re going to go with them soon,” she explained.

The girl’s eyes grew large and her mouth fell open in shock. “Family? The Mikaelsons?” she asked, glancing at Kol.

“Yep, Darling. Bella here is our big-little sister and anyone that goes after her will know the costs. You can let all your friends in town know that,” he warned with gleeful smile as he reached behind and wrapped an arm around Bella’s shoulder.

“What about Damon? Aren’t you two together?”

“What about Bella and I, Blondie?” Damon smirked. “I’m going with them. Anywhere Bella is, is where I’ll be. I did promise her forever at one point.”

Bella blinked and held her breath as her head swung to look at him and he simply smiled back at her, his eyes holding nothing but an unspoken promise behind them. The promise of marriage and forever together until their death when he proposed in the 1860s. It was something she hoped to one day repeat in the future, soon. “I can’t wait.”

“Won’t it be difficult? Considering that Klaus and his family tried to kill most of us?” Caroline curiously asked.

Stefan answered for Bella before she could, as he could feel the genuine innocence of her question as he knew the girl more. “There may be some – adapting, yes, but we will figure things out along the way.”

“Oh… so you’re going too?” she blinked.

He hesitated as he looked back at his equally surprised brother and friend. Bonnie and Jasper were studiously looking anywhere else, but he did find a knowing smile on the empath’s face. “I would like to stay with my brother and Bella.”

“What about Elena?”

At the mention of his ex-girlfriend, he looked across the restaurant before turning back to Caroline. “What about her? Regardless of everything she did being part of what was involved with Bella’s reincarnations, I don’t think I could forgive all of it and if I did, I couldn’t get past it enough to try again. The signs were there before Bella came to town and I had ignored it. So, I’m going to move on.”

The young vampire struggled with finding something to say, surprised at the sudden change with what was happening among her friends. Her attention span short and sharp, she immediately fixated on her last friend at the table. “What about you Bonnie?”

“I am staying. I have school after all,” Bonnie answered.

Relief from Caroline was palpable and she nodded happily. “That’s great news! Well, when you’re done here, come see us. Um, good luck with everything Bella. Despite everything, I hope everything works out for you. Maybe we can keep in touch by email or something?”

“That sounds great,” Bella nodded, quickly scribbling her email on a napkin and passing it to her so that she could return to her friends.

As soon as they were on their own again, Kol sat back and continued to watch the witch that had helped his family. Only when she’d finally become uncomfortable by his staring did she demand to know what his problem was, which made him smile with extreme amusement. “I am actually more interested in knowing what Whitlock’s plans are for when the rest of us leave town. He is the only one that hasn’t voice any opinion of his own.”

Jasper sighed and sat back. He wasn’t sure for a moment what to say until Bonnie gave him a small nod. He eyed her questioningly, as if confirming something before he looked over at Bella and the others. “I am thinking of staying here in Mystic Falls for awhile,” he revealed. Before anyone could object, he looked Bella in the eye, knowing she’d understand more than anyone how he felt. “There are no Cullens here. No Volturi or any other of my kind. No Quiletes. I can get some peace for once. Besides someone should stick around to keep an eye on the town considering your little friends’ tendencies for getting into trouble. I can give you all a heads up when they should find themselves in the shit.”

Bonnie said nothing and merely snorted, earning an appraising glance from Jasper who looked thoughtful for a second. “Okay, let me amend that. When they find some shit.”

“There is still those pesky Cullens running around,” Damon complained.

Jasper agreed, frowning. “Yes. I don’t like that Elijah had let them all go either. It was not a good idea. Alice and Edward are worse than a dog after a bone.”

Bella shrugged and smiled. “Edward and the rest of the family is a chapter for another story. They will be dealt with another time if they decide to come for either my family or myself, but they would be sorely underestimating me. I am not worried,” she winked.

“That is splendid to hear, sister,” Klaus interrupted as he appeared behind their booth, leaning on it with a tumbler of bourbon in his hand. “You’ll be pleased to hear that all arrangements for a speedy move has been completed. Elijah even has your father on board and they are in the process of compelling necessary parties and packing up essentials of your family home to take with us. All others we can get for you once we arrive.”

Blinking, Bella sucked in a deep breath. “That was rather – quick.”

“Yes, well. You know quite well the reason that I would like to return home. I’m sure you can understand my haste, Sweetheart,” he responded with a slightly mocking smile that had her reaching out with a single finger to poke him in the arm, giving him a static shock. “Hey!”

“Don’t mock. If Charlie and Elijah are done when we finish our dinner, then we will go on the road at that point, not before,” she scolded and turned around to eye Jasper. “You can use our house. You’ll still need a safe place and we can use someone to maintain the property for us.”

The Cold One was touched by her offer and knew that she was just as stubborn as he was so he wasn’t about to reject it, nodding his acceptance. “I’d be mighty thankful,” he smiled.

“So we’re moving to New Orleans as one big family. Sounds like a new adventure,” Bella grinned as she snuggled into Damon’s arms. “I can’t wait!”