11: Rumour Has It

Elijah was offended by the statement and was poised to defend himself when Klaus and Jasper quickly got between the siblings. “What makes you say that Bekah?” Klaus asked.

“Think about it. All she wants is you to take off with her, to share in whatever insanity she’s going through. But despite everything over the years, her forgiveness, there was always resentment surrounding her when it came to Elijah. I can think of one act of cruelty, at least in her mind, that is entirely unforgivable and she has yet to speak on that I can recall.”

Klaus’ eyes brightened with the recognition of what his sister was referring to. An idea sparked in his mind of a potential way to turn his wife’s humanity back on. They just had to get her home first.

~o.O.o~

Isa laid across a picnic table that some of Maria’s newborns had brought back to the camp and was bored beyond comprehension. Lifting an arm that held a bottle of tequila that had also been retrieved for her, she took a long pull as she stared up into the Mexican sun. Squinting her eyes when flashes of sparkles began to enter her peripheral vision, she let out a sigh.

“¿Qué quieres ahora, María?” she questioned, allowing the boredom drip with each word. (What do you want now, Maria?)

Maria stopped short, pursing her lips as she rested her hands on her hips. Her eyes assessed the dangerous hybrid with caution before continuing. “Cuándo buscaste asilo conmigo, esperaba qué tal vez mi comandante te siguiera. Él no ha venido. No sé si quiero qué te quedes más tiempo, Mikaelson.” (When you sought refuge with me, I hoped that my commander might follow you. He has not come. I do not know if I want you to stay longer, Mikaelson.)

A single long blink of her eyes was the only reaction for a moment before Isabella sat up and amusement glittered in her eyes as she stared at the seasoned warlord. “¿Crees qué me importa lo que quieres, María? No. Me iré cuándo esté lista y no será por orden tuya. Sabes muy bien que no hay forma de que Jasper vuelva a pisar la frontera con México si hay una posibilidad de cruzarse contigo. ¿Por qué crees que vine aquí?” (Do you think I care what you want, Maria? No. I’ll leave when it’s ready and it will not be by your order. You know very well that there is no way that Jasper will again step on the Mexican border if there is a possibility of crossing with you. Why do you think I came here?)

The Cold One knew that any argument would be futile and turned on her heel, surrendering to the mostly emotionless Mikaelson. As she was walking away, one of her scouts was making his way to her in a rather hurried manner.

“¡No tengo el tiempo ni la paciencia para encargarme de ti, idiota!” Maria snapped as she shoved him away. (I do not have the time or the patience to take care of you, you idiot!)

The youngling persisted. “Please mistress,” he begged. “You asked us to keep eyes and ears out for anything from the east. We got whispers of some things that seem to be going to down in Louisiana,” he nervously whispered, glancing back from which he found her coming from.

They both looked over to find Isa sitting up on her table watching them with what one might call curious eyes as she drank her bottle of alcohol. A sculpted eyebrow rose back at them in challenge before the two Cold Ones focused on one another again.

“¿Qué aprendiste?” Maria demanded. (What have you learned?)

The young scout swallowed, a leftover reflex from his human days. “It’s said that some local vampires are uprising against the Original family. That the wolfman has been taken prisoner by way of something called a Tunde blade.”

The commander frowned at the news as it was nothing good to her ears as the Mikaelson family was a strong force that often kept much of the Volturi away from the Americas as they did not particularly care to cross paths, despite any deals the two may have made. She nodded her dismissal to the scout and began to go back to Isabella only to find her missing from the bench table. A nearly empty bottle of tequila remaining in her place.

Picking the bottle up, she sniffed at the liquor. “Hasta que se hace la luz.” (Until the light is made.)

~o.O.o~

“I don’t know what you want me to tell you, Rebekah. Wow! It’s great to see you! Here I am, still in New Orleans and not dead by your father’s hand – of which you left me behind to deal with the fallout of! How the hell do you really expect me to feel about all of that?” Marcel Gerard argued as he stood face to face with the stubborn Mikaelson sister.

Even as her face fell, she remained strong and resilient. “From our perspective of that night, we honestly believed you were dead. It wasn’t like you reached out to us to let us know that he let you live.”

“You never returned to New Orleans in all this time to find out on your own. Why now?” he challenged back. “I have your brother under my control. Two of them actually. It’s really amusing how Mikaelsons seem to be walking right up into my house and just seem to offer themselves for the taking.”

Rebekah rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. “Bloody fools those two. I told them it was a bad plan to begin with. But do they listen to me? Never!”

“What plan?” Marcel questioned, amusement and toying around with his ex-lover gone. “Why are you here?”

She looked up at him, hesitation catching the words from escaping her lips. “With the way you make your feelings clear about my family, why should I tell you? You wouldn’t help us. You were quick to dagger Elijah and shove Tunde’s blade into Niklaus! You have no idea of the war you instigated with that one if Ducky finds out.”

“Bella?” Marcel muttered, blinking back at the memory of the kind-hearted vampire that was nearly a mother to him. “What is she going to do? Spank me? She wouldn’t kill a fly. She’d have the rest of you do it first.”

Rebekah gave him a smile that would chill the darkest of souls. “That may have been the Bella you remember, but the one we’ve been dealing with for the last few months is nothing like her. If you thought Nik was bad when he threw a tantrum, the damage that Isa can do is far worse.”

The number of vampires in the atrium begun to laugh at the threat that the Mikaelson sister laid at Marcel’s feet, but he saw it for what it was as he grew up with them. He immediately sobered up and grew more serious, pulling her closer as he waved his followers silent. “What do you mean by that exactly? I’ve never heard of her doing anything like you’re saying. If anything, she was the one that kept the rest of you from going completely off hinge.”

“Perhaps that is why she may be the worst of us,” she mused lightly with a small and thoughtful nod. “Turning one’s humanity off when it’s all you’ve known and owned, is quite the experience. A thousand years and Niklaus has never done such a thing.”

“You’re saying she’s out there, on her own and completely switched off?!” Marcel asked, more than slightly disturbed as he began to look around as he tried to think of some contingency plans for her eventual arrival. “Where did you lose her?”

“I didn’t lose her, and before you go blaming my brother, she played a dirty trick by having Katherine Pierce as a friend and helping her in snapping his neck and those two took off in the wind. Last I understood, she disappeared over the Mexican border. Our Cold One contact that’s keeping her little pets contained refused to go anywhere near the area,” the blond huffed. “Besides, the Volturi hounddog should be sniffing his way through there by now.”

He let out a half laugh at hearing that the family had gotten the Volturi involved. By the fact that Rebekah seemed uninterested in that detail, he wasn’t sure how he should feel about it. “Perhaps you can tell me why exactly I have your brothers then?”

She shook her head with that strange ability of hers to pout and smile at the same time. “If I told you, it would go against everything that Elijah and Klaus have put themselves through in order to try to get her back. She probably knows more about what you’re doing here in town that you think. She may have known about your being alive and never told us. You know she works for the best of everyone. She probably believed it was best that you were away from the influence of the family.”

Marcel turned around and paced the floor, still trying to make sense of everything he was hearing. Several minutes passed as Rebekah took a seat and patiently waited for him to make his next move. “If you, Klaus, and Elijah are in New Orleans, Isa on the run – God knows where, where is Kol? Boxed up I hope.”

Before Rebekah could reply there was commotion in the foyer, a handful of vampires running in, or rather, stumbling, as they sought out Marcel’s assistance. “A wolf bitch beyond any strength I’ve ever seen!”

Marcel narrowed his eyes on the injury of the vampires, recognizing it and looked at Rebekah. “That isn’t from Klaus and I haven’t heard anything that he made those hybrids he dreamed about after he broke his curse. What the fuck is going on?!”

There was no response as she lowered her gaze with a smirk, hearing the click of heels on the abattoir floor. One, no, two more bodies were flung into the area, landing near Marcel’s feet. “You have some very broken vampires. Now, give me my husband back,” Isa demanded.

He turned his gaze up from the suffering men, to the vampiress. What he saw there honestly terrified him more than anything his own creator could ever instill. There was a dark gleam in her eyes and the way she held herself, was a certain other level poise that he fought the urge to take a step back in retreat.

“Give me back what belongs to me if you don’t have a death wish, Marcel. I won’t hesitate to put you in the same place as your friends here.”

He continued to stare at her, trying to figure out exactly what wasn’t being said. Rebekah was purposely leaving information out and when he glanced at her, he realized why. Somehow, Isa was now also a hybrid. “Why would I give you Klaus? He came to me willingly, though he may not have expected the result. I assure you that he isn’t dead Bella, but you won’t make me fear you the same you make others.”

She zipped up, into his face, grabbing him by the chin and holding tightly. “You truly think yourself better than any vampire? Better than our family? He saw you as his son and you betrayed him so many times, yet you condemn him for some crime he committed against you that he knows not of. And yet,” she said, her tone growing soft. “And yet, you are the one creation of his that he always forgave and ignored your transgressions against him. I’m not the same and won’t allow any foolish sentiment blind me again.”

“What are you talki- ARGH!” Marcel cried out as she sank her teeth into his neck, filling him with her venom and dropping him at her feel. “You – you – actually bit me?” He stammered between the pain and shock of her actions.

Bella stared down at him with unfeeling eyes. “My husband, Marcellus. Perhaps, if you are still alive when I get him back, then you might be granted a cure. Until then, I will continue my hunt for him.”

She disappeared into the building to search for Klaus, leaving Rebekah to tend to the ailing vampire. “I told you that she wasn’t all there. You didn’t want to take my warning seriously. None of you ever want to listen to me,” she lectured as she stood to carry him off.

~o.O.o~

The music in the club was pumping and Alice was already annoyed by having been dragged all the way out there when they should have been working with the witch on locating Bella. Even though she wasn’t all that keen on the process, it was still a much better option than that she was being forced to endure.

“Why couldn’t you just leave me with those other vampires while you went out to feed? I don’t see the point of my having to be here,” she whined.

Kol smirked as he nodded to the bouncer who let them pass, giving Alice a speculative eye. “Shush, Darling. Tonight is the night for fun. I intend to have plenty of it and if word got back to my brother and his wife, should she ever gain her mental capacities back, that I let you somewhere out of my sight, it would be my hide they have strung up and quartered.”

She scowled at him as he pushed her further into the club. Stopping short, her eyes took in the room. Blinking, it dawned on her just what he brought her to. Turning to look at him, she found his signature smirk that she wanted to smack off his, and even his brother’s face, since the moment they stepped foot in Forks. “Are you kidding me?!” She fumed as she tried to turn around and walk away, but he grabbed her tightly. “Let go of me!”

“Now, now, pet,” he directed her towards a particular group of people. “I’ve even got you some friends who want to play with you.”

“You can’t be serious…Please, I beg you! Can we just go back to Mystic Falls?” Alice pleaded as he continued to guide over to where the pets of other vampires were being held.

“No, no. You tried to help that fucker figure a way of keeping my sister from her family. Think of this as a large part of your punishment. And trust in that this isn’t even the tip of what I can come up with for you,” he muttered before compelling her. “Stay here and behave with your new friends. Someone will come along soon to tell you what you need to do.”

She reluctantly settled down as she glanced at the others nervously. The humans in the section were listlessly sitting and staring at nothing. Turning back to Kol, she found he had already returned to the bar and strained to hear his conversations over the music and crowd.

A tumbler with alcohol was placed in front of him as soon as he reached an empty seat, making the Original initially stare at it with suspicion.

“Jesus, fuck. Just drink the damn thing,” the bartender replied. “Even if there was vervain in the shit, it’s not like it’d kill ya.”

Kol’s hand tightened around the glass at the voice, letting out a sigh before his lips turned into a grimace and eyes tightened in pain. “I’m sure that you would have a few ideas for that, darling,” he replied before opening his eyes to find her amused gaze on him. “Long time, no see.”

“Hm,” she nodded, a thoughtful expression crossing her face. “Yes. Although, I suppose your being boxed up a few times over by your family would have something to do with that.”

“Yeah, well,” he released a sigh, looking to his glass again. “It’s not like we get to pick our family.”

“Just drink the whiskey. I promise I didn’t put any white oak ash in it. Although, for all the shit you put me though, it would be pleasant revenge.”

“Myriam,” Kol frowned.

“Kol. Why the fuck did you bring a Cold One into my bar?”

He looked over at the petting ring. “You don’t like my pet?”

Myriam scowled as she stared at him. “I know exactly what it feels like to be in that thing’s position. I used to be your pet once, remember? Before you had that happy little accident and became a vampire daddy.”

“I said I was sorry!” he exclaimed.

“You fucking killed me!”

“And yet, you’re still here!” He countered.

“Because I don’t have a suicide wish. I didn’t want to die!”

“You’re over 300 years old, and you’re still here!” Kol grinned as he downed his glass and was surprised that there wasn’t anything in his drink to compromise him, just like she had said. “Can I have another one of these, please?” He smiled sweetly at her.

She narrowed her eyes on his and smirked as she poured another glass from the special bottle she reserved in case any of his kind showed up. “Sure. It’s on the house. So, why are you here with a Cold One again?”

Kol thought for a moment. “Shouldn’t your witch have told you that by now? Selene, was it?”

Myriam sighed and leaned back. “Kol. Selene was mortal. She died about – 250 years ago. I think you were boxed up then as well. I think most of our relationship, you ended up on your back with something sharp sticking out of you.”

“Well, hopefully, that won’t happen again, darling,” he leaned into the bar as he took another sip of his drink. “I’m a changed man. Plus, Isa’s back and she was always in my corner, wasn’t she?”

She picked a dish towel to clean the counter after glaring at some eavesdroppers and tossed it in her hands as she considered his question. “Was she? I suppose at times, yes. However, from what I hear, she’s not in anyone’s corner but your brother’s these days. Is that why you took on a snake for a pet?” she asked, ignoring the obvious scoff from across the room.

“I actually wanted to take her to a special witch in Mystic Falls to boost her own signal, sort to speak. My sparkly pet is quite the gifted one,” he smirked.

“What does it do? Because I don’t have the best experience or high tolerance for their kind. And if you’re talking about the Bennett line, then you wasted your time. That girl from what I understand is more suited to play Tinkerbell with all the flip flopping she does. She’ll get herself or her friends killed one day.”

He cocked his head and smiled curiously at her. “When was the last time you were in Mystic Falls, darling?”

“I don’t have to step foot in that dreaded town to know what goes on there. Just know, that I have my ways,” she replied with a sweet smile. “I hope you weren’t planning on your pet to stay in one piece tonight. Darren just came in and he’s spotted your toy.”

He looked over his shoulder and saw this big dude passing them as he headed straight for the pit. “Uh…” There was no way that Kol could put him down with a single punch or several punches. “I just put her in there to scare her a little, he can kindly keep his paws off of her. You go and tell him that, darling.”

A song had already begun playing on the radio and made Myriam flash him a malicious grin as she began to sing along, “You don’t own me, I’m not just one of your many toys. You don’t own me, Don’t say I can’t go with other boys… Come on Kol. You know how this one goes…”

Kol narrowed his eyes on his former lover before looking at Alice. “Come here and be quiet,” he said as he motioned for her to come over. Yes, the pet pit was for sex and other means of pleasure, but the pit was usually filled with compelled humans or vampire slaves and sure, back in the day he would have thoroughly enjoyed it, but Alice wasn’t there voluntarily and, while he could compel Alice to enjoy herself with whomever, that wasn’t his initial idea when he put her in there.

Alice quickly made her way over to him to take the seat next to him but he shook his head. “On your knees, on the floor.”

“But-”

He lifted her chin to make her look at him. “On your knees, on the floor,” he compelled her. “And be quiet.” Alice quickly did what she was told and Kol took another sip of his drink before looking at Myriam. “Happy now?”

“Well that was pathetic,” she huffed. “I guess you have gone soft.”

“No, but this Cold One needs to remain in one piece, for now. She’s quite special, even you will want to have your hands on her if you’d know just how special she was.”

“Really now?”

“I’m not telling you,” he let out a chuckle and took another sip of his drink. “Definitely not telling you.”

Myriam narrowed her eyes on her ex and his pet for a minute. Releasing a sigh, she blew a whistle through her lips. “Bar’s closed! Everyone out!” She eyed complainers as they made their way past before looking back at the Original. “This have to do with the shit your family got themselves into this time? Who fucked up this round?”