(CHAPTER THREE :
GONE WITH THE WIND)

✧࿐ ཾ✧

EVEN IN A DIFFERENT body, Finn Mikaelson hadn't changed at all — he was still a tattle tale. After leaving Rousseau's, I was given a warning by Esther about loyalty because her son had spilled about how I tried to sabotage their plans by protecting Davina Claire from the wolves. As a result, I was cut off for the day and had the rather boring and unimportant job of finding the teenage witch in question. According to sources, she had gone into hiding after the incident at the bar. Whilst Esther and Finn were playing 'Happy Families' at a Mikaelson dinner party, I was being pushed out of the loop — further than I was before.

"Might as well change my name to Cinderella." I complained, grumbling to myself about the wild goose chase I had been sent on. Not for a second did I believe Davina would have fled to the outskirts of New Orleans, she was most likely right under our noses. "Don't forget I can kill you, child! Go kill that nightwalker! Meet with the wolves on my behalf! Blah, blah, blah . . ." I imitated the woman, picking up a rock and trying to skip it on the lake I had decided to settle near. For hours, I had failed to see any sentiment of life and wanted to give up, Davina definitely wasn't around here.

"Bad day?" Upon hearing a man's voice, I jumped into the air and spun on my to heel to address my unexpected company. In front of me, Kol Mikaelson adorned a blood stained shirt and licked his lips, the final few rays of evening sun beating down on his head like a disfigured halo.

I repressed a gag, blood held no appeal to me anymore and the thought of drinking it was not a favourable one. "You got a little something there st— — Terrible day, actually." I cut myself off, sighing as I figured he probably didn't care he had blood on his shirt. We were the only two around, the outskirts of the city were deserted with only a few derelict houses to fill the nature-heavy area. "I feel I never get a break, I want the day to myself sometimes. Nobody can ever seem to leave me alone." I ranted, glancing down at my ringing phone before switching it off. It must have been the tenth time in the hour Esther had called me, but it was also plausible this was due to how hopeless the woman was with technology.

"I'm afraid you can't get of me that easily." Kol claimed, having presumed that I was referring to him when I mentioned I wanted to be left alone. In fact, that was the opposite of the truth, I didn't want to be left alone at all — only by Esther. But, I didn't know what else there was to say considering I had no clue what Esther was to me. I didn't want to call her a friend or my boss and it wasn't as if I could admit that his psychotic mother didn't trust me to be at the dinner party because she had thought he would be there so sent me to follow a dead lead in the middle of nowhere.

"It wasn't aimed at you, I don't find your company too intolerable." I assured him, my mind drifting to how I actually craved his company. However, I knew it would be impossible to pick up where we left off. "But, don't think you need to stay with me. I take it you were in the middle of a feed when you heard my insane mutterings." I continued, refusing to sound desperate. "Don't you have a dinner party soon anyway?" I pushed, thinking of how angry Esther would be if she knew Kol and I were in the same place again. She was furious we had met at the bar.

He squinted in suspicion and I covered my mouth, realising that I wasn't meant to know that he had a dinner party planned. "I've never been the type for family gatherings, too tedious for my liking." Kol waved my concern off, a little wary of how much information I knew for someone who had only just arrived in the city. "Feeding out here appeases Nik because it keeps him on good terms with the central human faction, but it also gives me a good excuse to escape for a little while. My siblings do my bloody head in sometimes." He confided in me, delving into why he opted to feed from unsuspecting humans on the city outskirts as opposed to nearer home. For a reason unknown to him, the Original believed there was a pre-established element of trust between us. I could feel it too, being around him made me feel safe and secure, right even.

"You didn't need to tell me that, I know vampires need blood to survive." I touched his arm, showing him how comfortable I was in his presence. I didn't want my automatic disgust at the blood on his shirt to give him the wrong idea about my alignment with vampires in a place where I knew sides had to be chosen.

At the thought, Kol scoffed. "I'm fully aware I don't need to justify my feeding habit to anyone — much less a human." His walls were drawn up once again, a prolonged pause pursuing his snark. "But, I feel like I can't talk to you about such futile things. I can't explain it, I feel like we're already more than strangers. Sometimes, I prefer to disassociate myself from the madness of my family by meeting new people and hearing new stories." Hanging on to every accented syllable, I bobbed my head along with his words. "You intrigue me, Adelina, and I don't know if I like it." He took a daring step closer and I took an unbalanced one back.

Flashing him a faint smile, I subconsciously twirled a strand of my dark hair. "Maybe we've met in another life then." I suggested.

"Maybe." He agreed. "You do seem to know a lot about me. Yet, I'm afraid you're a mystery to me — tell me, who is is Adelina Blackwell?" Kol interrogated, arching a brow at me.

Nerves started to get the better of me as I wrung my hands, struggling to string together an acceptable answer. "I'm a witch, albeit a poor excuse for one." I swallowed, thinking back to how he had assumed I was human. Although the piece of information was small, it was all that I knew about Adelina that was repeatable. No matter how much trust there seemed to be between us, it would have been too dangerous to admit I was a huntress because that would have risked being passed back to Marcel.

Leaning forward, a smirk — sweet or sinister, I couldn't quite decipher — spread across his plump lips. "Now, that is interesting." He claimed, wagging a finger at me. "Magic has always fascinated me. Entertain me, show me a spell." As he reflected on the short period of time he spent as a warlock, the vampire encouraged me to flaunt the abilities I had no grasp of.

I scrambled to think of a spell because I wanted to impress him, but Adelina was blocking me from her knowledge in what I concluded was an effort to embarrass me. "I'm a dormant witch, the gene's there, the powers . . . well, they aren't." I informed him, knowing the truth was the best route. If Adelina couldn't activate her magic, I doubted I would be able to. "I shouldn't intrigue you, there's nothing special about me." In an effort to deter him, I put distance between us until I had backed myself into a tree. Certainly, Kol was the womanising type and I had to remind myself that I would be mere conquest for a man if I fuelled his interest in Adelina. Although I viewed him as somebody I loved, he didn't know who I was and would see me as a potential fling — if he initiated anything, a part of me was afraid I would be too selfish to stop it.

"I take it you're not the type to open up." Kol guessed, his palms resting flat on either side of the tree trunk and trapping me in his arms. "I do think I'd remember if I've seen a face like yours around before. Where are you from?" He inquired, the flirtation in his tone making me swallow. An alarm bell was ringing in my head, this was one of his many tricks to captivate females.

"Portland." I replied without thinking, the vampire's features illuminating. Occasionally, it was easy to forget that I was in a different body with an entirely different life to the one I knew. "Maine — I'm from Portland, Maine. My family moved around a lot though, never the type to stay in one place." I lied through my teeth, watching his face drop as I tried to fix my mistake.

"Relax, darling." Kol soothed. "You're so tense. Don't worry, I've already ate." He joked, noting how my body was stiff as a board underneath his hovering frame.

Blowing out a breath, I dipped under his arms before he could seduce me more. "It's hard to relax if you're going to be so touchy." A frown tugged at my lips. After my death, I observed how he would toy with many girls and I didn't want to be one of those girls — I wanted to be how we were before. "And D—Davina! God, I can't forget about Davina. Just because you've been hurt before, it doesn't give you an excuse to hurt her." I spluttered, knowing it would be unfair to the teenager if I ruined her premature relationship. Rather than being the other girl in a relationship, I wanted to be the only girl.

Kol recoiled. "How do you know I've been hurt before?" He questioned, his tone defensive.

"Because I have too." I sympathised. "I can see it in the way you carry yourself." I recognised some of myself in my old lover. After he had left me heartbroken, I was always on guard like he was in the present and found booze to ease the pain — he found women.

"And it's none of your business if I have!" The Original growled, turning his back to me. "If you wanted somebody who blabs on 'hello' then you were looking for my sister." He called over his shoulder, making a dig at Rebekah.

Evaluating the situation, I huffed, prepared to play him like a violin. "Let me guess, it's a tragic tale about a heartless monster falling in love." I supposed, each word clawing at his skin more so than the previous. If he didn't want sympathy, I'd give him the cold truth. "If I wanted cliché, I'd read 'Beauty & the Beast,' thank you very much." I ridiculed, concluding an unhealthy amount of eagerness would lead to him rejecting me. Of course I already knew the story — I lived it — but I was curious to how he interpreted our romance at times.

"There was a girl." He surrendered, falling for my trick. "She was beautiful, the kind of beautiful that could take my breath away with one look. Yet, there was more to her than that, so much more. Often, she would think more with her head than her heart because she ruled with logic, but deep down, I knew she was simply patient. More than anything, she wanted a fairytale romance and I had given her exactly that — I gave this delicate little creature an intangible romance that even she couldn't handle." Kol recited our story and how he articulated it was haunting, sending my emotions haywire. "I ruined her life by loving her, Adelina." He stated seriously as he faced me at last.

"Oh."

Releasing a vacant laughter, his mouth curved down. "Yeah, oh." Kol mocked. "There's been legends and rumours about me floating around and they're all true. I did nefarious things, but the worst I did was love her." The brunette admitted, his scowl deepening. "To begin, she was human and she would have died as so if she had never met me. If she had never met me, she would married and had kids and died after a fulfilled life." Despite winding a tale about what I could have had, I couldn't find it in me to regret the path I went down. For all the good and the bad, I wouldn't change a thing. "Life kept bringing us together, but death followed in our wake. Where you went wrong is there's no redemption arc to my story, she died for me and I wish she hadn't." His jaw locked as he closed up his recount when the memories started to hurt too much. 

I chewed on my bottom lip. "Her death wasn't meaningless if you found love again. You may not be official with my cousin, but you've been dating for a while, right?" I wondered.

"I suppose." Kol confirmed. "I like Davina, but I don't know if I can love her. Don't tell her this . . ." He warned lowly and I nodded in response. "I worry she's making me go soft and it was never like that with the other girl, there was never a pressure to change." The Mikaelson told me, considerably frustrated with the ordeal. "Ugh, I bet I sound like a lovesick fool — please don't tell I'm turning into Bekah!" He cried out, half joking and half exasperated.

"I'm not good at advice, Kol. If it helps, I don't think love is a weak — —" Abruptly, I was interrupted.

"We both know that is bullshit." He interjected at once. "The other girl said the same thing, insisted love gave me something to fight for, but I don't want to hear that crap. I want to know what to do, Davina is a nice kid, but I don't want her to be the reason I'm suddenly spurting my feelings to strangers. I want to be how I was before." He whined, despising what his time with the young witch was doing to him. She didn't like it when he killed or relished in his nature or made sexual innuendos, she was sucking the life out of him a better half of the time.

I stared into his eyes, searching for an emotion beyond lust. "What if the other girl came back in your life? If by some twist of fate, she showed up in New Orleans?" I proposed — strictly theoretical, obviously.

"She's dead!" Kol snapped.

Only making skin to skin contact for the shortest time, I allowed my hand to skim over his as an act of comfort. "Technically, so are you." I fired back. "I'll ask again, what if the other girl came back to life?" I echoed my previous question.

Kol faltered. "I don't know." He said. "I'd scream at her for saving me, I would scream at her for even considering touching Jeremy Gilbert with a ten foot pole, I would scream at her for never giving me a chance as soon as she found out I didn't write that letter then I would get drunk and kiss her." Stopping himself, his face drained of colour when it registered the vulnerable position he had put himself in. "Forget it, I'm done."

Nobody could tell me why Kol chose me — somebody he had officially met a couple of days ago — to be the person that held onto some of his deepest secrets. I was oblivious to what even provoked him to spark a conversation with me after the wolf situation was dealt with. In all honesty, Kol didn't know why either, which scared him to the point he felt the only option was to walk away. In spite of the 'why' being a question mark to me too, I had a hunch.

I chased after him, catching his wrist before he could leave. "You can't walk away." I pleaded with him.

"Humour me." He demanded dryly.

"Because walking away is selfish." I spat. "I know walking away is selfish because I've made that mistake too many times before. It's the easy option, the option for cowards and the only thing I'm sure of in this world right now is that Kol Mikaelson is not a coward." Persuading him to spare a few more minutes of his time, I poured my heart and soul into each letter that escaped from my loose lips. "That girl you love — or loved — knows that you are far better than walking away just because you are confused or don't know where to go from here." Gulping, I debated if I wanted to distort my own memory by continuing. "She walked away from you and that wasn't courageous, it was selfish because instead of living without you, she forced you to live without her. Look at you, leaving like she did because it's better to pretend what you leave behind will just . . . go on it's own too, right?" I raised my voice, my hands flying in the air from my annoyance.

Using his latched wrist, he tugged my body closer. "Don't talk about her as if you know her." He hissed into my ear.

Untangling himself from me with ease, he fled the scene with his supernatural speed. "But I am her." I whispered, left with mosaic pieces of a broken heart and a cold breeze once he had gone with the wind.

✧࿐ ཾ✧

A.N: Wow, this chapter was a deeper interaction with Lina and Kol, he told her about Lottie — which is confusing because she is Lottie. But, I also mentioned how Davina changed him and that's a nod to the terrible job the writers did with his character on the show. Nope, not kidding. I don't think Kol would have spilled his guts like this if he hadn't felt a connection with Lina and don't forget, he was trying to get in her pants towards the start then just wanted to prove a point about his relationship with Lottie tbh.

Goal for this chapter will be five new comments from five different people.