(CHAPTER NINE :
SAVING KOL)

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FOOL OR NOT, I wasn't stupid enough to drop my guard around Klaus. All my walls had been reinforced with steel and I repeatedly checked there was a pocket knife still in my boot and loaded pistol inside my jacket. Strangely enough, the older man hadn't even muttered as much as a threatening remark since I arrived, but that didn't curve my apprehension. In fact, he didn't speak at all as he led me to the second floor of the compound, halting in front of a room that was tucked away into a corner. Most people would have walked past it, so it made me relatively uneasy that he would take me to such a place — I wasn't the type of person that he'd want privy to Mikaelson family secrets.

Already entering the room, Klaus huffed in impatience as waited for me to follow him. From where I stood, it was clear that the space was cluttered and it would be cramped with two people in there — storage was my first thought, but I didn't understand why a storage room would hold enough significance to warrant a visit.

"Oh come on, love." Klaus moaned, noting my rigid posture and how reluctant I was to enter a small space with him. "Don't flatter yourself in thinking I'm going to murder you here. It would get blood all over the antiques, I'd at least do it outside." He teased me, causing his dimples to show as he gestured to the shelves that lined the walls, filled with magical collectibles. There were ground herbs, gemstones and chalices amongst the ancient objects.

I was caught off guard by his teasing and remained cautious as I stepped into the room, admiring all the history that was contained in the room. "All of this is pretty remarkable." I complimented, tracing my fingers along a row of dust covered books. "But, what does this have to do with Kol? I didn't come up here to spend some quality time with you, that's for sure." I pressed for answers — answers on what I had supposedly awakened in my boyfriend. "And I know you love to hear yourself talk, but keep it short, please." I added in a saccharine tone, batting my eyelashes at the vampire.

"Careful, Charlotte. I'm already aware what's wrong with our beloved Kol and telling you would be a gesture of goodwill on my behalf." Klaus cautioned, making a show of letting me know that he was the one with the upper hand. After a beat, I nodded. "Good. Now that we understand each other —" There was a lapse of silence whilst he scanned a line of leather bound journals, plucking one out towards the end. "—Ah, here it is. You'll be surprised to know that Kol wasn't always the man you know him to be. In the early stages of his vampirism, he was a bit of a bore. Like with most, he had a bloody side, but he didn't make a habit of expressing it. Sure, he was always a troublemaker, but meeting Rosalie changed him. She moulded him into the ravenous beast that caused great cities to fall and mortality rates to rise." Kol's brother proceeded and I half-suspected he was exaggerating. Ravenous was a stretch, even for Kol. Plus, the line between mischievous and nefarious could be a blurry one.

Intrigued by his claims, I accepted the outstretched journal and I almost had to pinch myself at seeing the name on the front. "Kol kept diaries? I never knew he was a closet Stefan Salvatore." I blew out my cheeks in disbelief, flicking through the pages and recognising the familiar chicken scratch handwriting.

Klaus' lips twitched at the reference to the ripper, but he didn't respond, only forcing my hand to stop on the correct page. It was dated 1543 and the ink had faded against the yellow pages over time.

"Wait." I held up a finger. "How do I knows this isn't forged like the letter?" Ripping my eyes away from the entry, I decided to think twice before blindly trusting the same person that falsified a break up letter. Maybe I was paranoid, but it was better to be paranoid than have my heart broken after reading something that might not be real.

Klaus pinched the bridge of his nose. "I might be the villain in your story, but not in my own. Everything I've done has been to protect my brother." He resigned, solemn. Family above all was one stipulation of the Mikaelsons that Kol hated, yet I was fascinated by Klaus' obsession with it. "If you read it, maybe you'll understand better." Inclining his head towards the journal, his expression was stony once more.

Brushing my fingertips over the inky words, I hesitated in reading it. It was an invasion of privacy and if he ever found out, I didn't know how he'd react. Under the pressure of Klaus' gaze, I scanned the text, not allowing myself the time to overanalyse it. From what I could tell, this was during the time he met Rosalie. The entry itself wasn't long at all, but it was a sucker punch to the stomach all the same.

I think I want to marry Rosie. She told me something tonight that changed everything for me. The two of us were lying on bed, her head on my chest, when she looked up and very simply announced that she was an angel. I told her I knew, but when she repeated it with more seriousness, I realised she was like me. An immortal. I roamed this world alone for a long time, never falling in love out of fear they would die . . . Rosie changed all that and was someone that would never leave me.

Threading my eyebrows together, I had the urge to read it again. "She was an angel?" I echoed the entry uncertainly. I didn't mean for it to sound like to a question, but I didn't even know angels existed. Then again, until Mystic Falls, I hadn't even encountered a werewolf — I had only heard the stories. "Shouldn't that mean she was a good influence on Kol?" As I was piecing everything together, I found it hard believe she was the reason for his behavioural changes. Her death was more likely the trigger for his transformation to a 'ravenous beast,' as Klaus phrased it.

"Not quite." Klaus said. "Nobody is inherently good or bad, but they tend to lean in one direction or another. Kol was never bad, he was a vampire that did what was in his nature to survive. Even when I encouraged him to join me on my hunts, he'd hold back and taunt Rebekah about something or the other. After he met Rosalie, he became more like he is today. Manipulative and violent, but he had no no redeeming qualities — there was no charm or wit to him, strictly . . . darkness." He confided in me what one of his greatest regrets. During this time, Klaus was consumed with hunting Katherine and breaking his curse, so he neglected to see that his sibling had hit rock bottom.

"How do you know it was because of Rosalie? He wanted to marry her, that doesn't sound evil to me." I was dubious, rightfully so too. In my experience, it was normal for vampires to go through a dark period when they realise the world moves on whilst they're stuck at one point in their lives, frozen in time forever.

The Original locked his jaw. "Because she lied, she was more than an angel. Rosalie had been cast out of Heaven for her sins, which meant her existence opposed the balance of nature itself — similar to vampires in that respect." He explained, using his hands to help dictate his point. "Kol didn't love her, angels are just . . . hard to resist. She wanted to kill us and she thought Kol was distant enough from the family that we'd catch on too late, but involved enough that she would have her way in." The man recalled, smirking as he remembered how she screamed when the compelled troops stormed the palace and sent her to Hell, where she belonged from the start.

I blinked, waiting for all the new information to sink in. "If she went against the balance of nature too, why would she want to kill you?" Although I had all the jigsaw pieces in front of me, I couldn't seem to make them fit together.

"She wanted to return to Heaven, of course. She believed God would take her back if she rid Earth of vampires — a little insane, if you ask me." He shrugged in a blasé manner.

Underneath his causal persona, Klaus was still bitter over how the blonde had mistook him for a fool. He had been quick to figure out the fallen angel's plan and confronted her the night before the Mikaelson-Windsor wedding, knowing how important it was to be two steps ahead of his enemies. Rosalie tried — and failed — to seduce the vampire at this time, then failed again at staking Klaus with the white oak. It was those series of events that led to him staging her death upon discovering fallen angels weren't that immortal after all.

I watched as an array of emotions passed over the hybrid's face — amusement, satisfaction, dismay — and found it was like changing TV channels. "You killed her to protect your family. In the most dramatic fashion, but still, it was to protect them." I realised, the shock evident in my tone. All this time Klaus was crossing out Kol's ex lovers because he didn't want history to repeat itself like it had for him with Tatia and Katerina. "Why didn't you tell Kol the truth? And how is this related to what happened today?" I quizzed, confused as to why he never once thought to tell his brother that he aided in the murder of his fiancé because she was a psychotic bitch.

Roughly, Klaus snatched the journal from my hands and placed it back onto the shelf. "I tried, more than once, and he wouldn't listen." His eyes remained trained on the wall of the books. "He only cared that I did it, on his wedding too. I'd pester him to hear me out, but he was consumed in trying to bring her back to life, diverting every conversation so he could talk about it. Without her, he had become undone — covens were slaughtered and his aggression extended to his own siblings. Not in a playful way either. If she hadn't been an Original, Rebekah would have died at his hands." The Mikaelson never could forget what his brother was like after Rosalie. With her, he was bad. Without her, he was worse.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I realised I couldn't picture Rebekah Mikaelson bloodied and weak on the floor. Yet, Kol had achieved that, which was a scary thought. "Her death . . . What did it do? You said the extreme violence kicked in when he met Rosalie." The more Rosalie's story unfolded, the more I realised that I'd underestimated her. In the back of my mind, I had half-expected her to be more like I was when I was human — sweet, virginal, innocent.

"Yes, I thought they would stop once she was out the picture. I visited a witch once I realised her death only amplified the . . . unfavourable . .  . parts of Kol." Klaus was pacing now. "I didn't know at the time, but the two had been intimate, which linked his soul to hers. Angels, even fallen ones, have the ability to influence God's will. The two were never meant to be soulmates, but she wanted it enough and willed it to happen." He elaborated, the lines on his forehead deepening. "When someone dies, their soul remains intact. That meant she was still connected to Kol and everything she suffered through in Hell, he experienced it too. His soul was black as coal by the end of it all and we almost lost him to Hell." His tone was twinged with guilt, something I never knew Klaus Mikaelson was capable of.

"Almost." I latched onto the word because it was the only thing that was keeping my head above the water. "You fixed him in the end." I prompted.

"We did." Klaus didn't sound as proud as I would have thought. "It seems it was a temporary fix though as the revival of Rosalie — curtesy of my lovely mother — has Kol back to his excessive ways. For all we know, the bond could be stronger than before." Tightening his fist, his knuckles illuminated a ghastly white as he was left to only imagine what horrible state his brother would be in the next time they saw each other.

Placing my hand over his, I guided him in unclenching his fist and gave him a meaningful look. "Maybe you and I are more alike than I thought — we're both ruled by emotion. But, we need to be logical for once. Esther and Rosalie are a terrible combination because they both want your family dead." I observed, leaving out that Esther actually wanted her family to hop into witch bodies. "If Kol didn't listen to you, that means he doesn't know Rosalie was using him —" I connected all the dots I could before the other man interjected.

Klaus nodded. "And now he's mad at you. If he choose to go back to her, you'll die." He echoed what he learnt after eavesdropping on a previous conversation.

"If I die, there'll be nobody stopping them from killing Kol and his sire line. They don't know that you know Rosalie's here, so they haven't factored you in." Like a lightbulb went off, I quickened my talking pace, worried about how we were wasting precious time. "I'm first on their hit list, then Kol and Esther will no doubt focus on targeting the rest of your family too. Lots of lives are on the line, Klaus. Including the littlest of ones." I stressed, knowing Esther and Rosalie were the first in the long line of threats that the Mikaelsons and their associates would face.

"Hope." He breathed out.

Chewing on the bottom of lip, I spared him a sad glance. I had watched the birth from The Other Side after hearing about the miracle baby through the supernatural rumour mill. Not even I could hate Klaus enough to expose the fact his daughter wasn't really dead to Esther, so I didn't. Yet, the small child weighed on the back of my mind heavily all the same. I despised knowing that an innocent, who never asked to be born into that family, would be used a pawn in a war older than her someday — it was inevitable the truth would eventually come out.

"Um, how exactly did you get Kol back to normal then?" I cleared my throat, not wanting to overstep in regards to his daughter.

At the mention of how to save Kol, the Original became tense and rigid. This sparked my curiosity more — was there something he didn't want me to know? We had no time to be withholding useful information from each other. "To my knowledge, there's only one way to do it. They were bonded through magical energy. Since energy can't be created or destroyed, the darkness had to be transferred into someone else." Klaus disclosed, although I didn't see the problem. For the purpose of the spell, it wouldn't take much to pluck a stranger from the street to absorb the darkness.

"Is there a catch?" I cocked my head to one side, growing frustrated by how he wasn't spitting out the solution.

"There always is with witches, especially when it involves black magic." He asserted flatly. "It couldn't be anybody that took the darkness from him, they had to unconditionally love Kol and accept the consequences of their own free will. No compulsion, no loopholes." Klaus insinuated that if we were to repeat the spell, I would be the one who'd need to accept my lover's vice. "We didn't find someone until the twentieth century to relieve Kol of the bond. He lived for centuries with that darkness stewing inside, which was why I daggered him so frequently — he'd go off the rails and Mikael would be on our trail then." The hybrid shared, sneering Mikael's name.

I puffed out my chest in determination. "I'll do it." I volunteered, raising my arms in mock surrender.

"There's something else you should know . . . Mary-Alice, the girl, had the darkness consume her and she died hours after completing the spell." Klaus revealed, bowing his head.

I tried not to scrunch up my face at the mention of the same woman that cursed me. "Find the spell. I'm saving your brother, no matter the cost." I ordered, already having set my heart, mind and — apparently — soul on this.

Per expected, Klaus' trust issues flared up at this — never being one to rely on anybody except himself. "You hate me, forgive me if I find it hard to believe you'd sign your own death sentence for the sake of my family." The blonde raised an eyebrow at me, the pressure being on to squash any concerns he had about my allegiance.

"I'm not the one who stabs people in the back, that's you." Between gritted teeth, I corrected him. "And I'm not doing it for you, I'm doing it for Kol. I love him, in spite of the people trying to divide us. If you haven't realised by now that my feelings for your brother are genuine, I can't help you." I seethed before relaxing my muscles. "I . . . understand that you thought I would turn out like Rosalie. I don't know if I can forgive you for how you treated me over the years, but I'll work on it as long as you realise I'm not her." I assured him I didn't have any ulterior motives, my tone softening considerably. That might have been the most civil conversation the two of us had ever shared.

"I don't know whether it's foolish or admirable that you would give your life for him a second time." Klaus commented, not necessarily in a snide way.

"I promised him he wouldn't lose me again and I meant it." I disagreed that I was sacrificing myself for a second time — merely sacrificing my soul, which I sold to the devil long ago. "Mary-Alice died because she couldn't handle the darkness. I can handle it." I insisted, confident in my tolerance for this so-called darkness.

Holding his intense stare, Klaus put his hand on my shoulder and leaned forward until his mouth was inches away from my ear. "I can see why Kol likes you so much. You're a fighter, Charlotte. Don't ever forget that." He mumbled in amazement. I knew that was the closest to a compliment Klaus Mikaelson would ever give me, but somehow it meant more because it came from him.

"Does this mean I can call you Nik now?" I shot him a lopsided grin.

"No!"

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A.N: This was such a wordy chapter — maybe you like that, I don't know — but it was important that we learnt about Rosie's motives in the past and what she is. Nobody's really been guessing, but I dropped a couple of hints previously. This was actually my favourite chapter so far and I'm excited to explore if Lottie will ever mend her issues with Klaus. In — figuratively and literally — looking at Klaus with fresh eyes, Lottie finally understands why he killed her and realised it was bigger than her at the time. Klaus needing Kol for his witch contacts was him covering up how much he cared. Perhaps new BROTP since Damon isn't in the picture?!

As a Taylor Swift stan first, human second, I feel I need to tell you all to check out her Instagram live tonight at 10pm UK time. Now, question of the chapter, what's your favourite season? I love Autumn the most and I'm sick of all the sunshine over here at the moment.