15 | Chasing Ghosts

𝐊𝐎𝐋 𝐆𝐀𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐊𝐄 and found himself back in the hotel suite where he and Dakota were staying. His mind filled with confusion, he looked down on himself, wondering how he ended up there when he was unconscious the entire time.

Then his eyes landed on the redhead sitting in the corner of the room reading the Tale of the Foxes. Dakota saw him move through her peripheral vision which caused her to avert her gaze from the book to the original vampire before setting it down.

"About time." Dakota commented, placing the book down on the small round table beside the chair she was sitting on.

Kol's eyebrows were together when his forehead creased, still in bewilderment. "How exactly did you carry me back here?"

Dakota pushed her lips into a thin line before looking at the shopping cart that was parked in the middle of the suite, subtly answering the vampire's question.

"Dakota," Kol said as he stared at the cart. "Please don't tell me you paraded me around in that cart like a fool?"

"Okay, I won't." Dakota sank in her seat as if she was able to hide from Kol that way before he finally argued.

"I can't believe you carted me around!" Kol shouted as he pointed at the shopping cart with an open hand while still sitting on the bed.

"What was I supposed to do?! Leave you there while there's still a white oak stake lying around somewhere?" Dakota fired back.

"How did you even get me in that thing?" Kol questioned after running both his palms down his face.

Dakota opened her mouth and looked down on her fiddling fingers before answering. "I...told a passerby that you were so drunk you passed out."

Kol raised both his eyebrows. "In the middle of the day?"

"I told him we broke up and you were devastated because I'm the love of your life—I just said what I needed to say to get you back here!" Dakota explained. To be fair, she was doing everything she could to get him back there and the only thing that worked was that heartbroken guy story.

Kol sighed in frustration and shook his head before his eyes caught a glimpse of the old book which Dakota had set down. He narrowed his eyes when he recognized what it was, given that he had seen it around their houses over the course of the years that he was out of the box.

"You're still reading that?" He asked her.

Dakota followed Kol's gaze and found him looking at the Tale of the Foxes.

"Uh, yeah. I just finished the second to the last chapter." Dakota said as she took the book back in her hands, carefully flipping through the crisp, tanned pages. "You know, when Mary daggered you?"

"Ah," Kol forced a small grin on his face as he looked away from Dakota. He then glanced down on his hands as a scoff left his lips. "I hated that part."

"Because you didn't really kill the King?" Dakota asked.

Kol stopped playing with his fingers and whipped his gaze toward the redhead with his forehead once again creased. He slightly tilted his head as confusion overtook his whole face, written all over.

"What makes you think that?" He asked her.

The redhead shrugged and stood up from her seat while still holding the book as she approached the bed. She sat on the bed, opposite of Kol, and answered while not sparing him a glance.

"Nothing, really. I just like to give people the benefit of the doubt." Dakota said. Then she smiled, but it was lacking happiness. "Maybe too much, sometimes."

There was a pause between them, just, comfortable silence. As if they were taking the time to revisit their own memories before one of them, Dakota, broke the silence again.

"So, did you?" She asked. "Kill King Francis?"

Kol looked at her. She met his gaze and found no trace of mockery or hatred in his eyes. "No."

It was her turn to squint her brown eyes at him. "Why didn't you tell them that?"

"If you were Mary, the person I've tormented every chance I got, now devastated and heartbroken from the loss of your love, would you have believed me?" Kol pointed out.

The brown haired vampire waited for her answer. It hit him hard, looking at her face and asking that question. It was like talking to Mary herself and for a mere moment, just for a few seconds, he wished that she had believed him.

"No." She answered. Then she followed it with a subtle shake of her head. "No, I wouldn't have."

Kol took a few seconds to himself before a small, sad smile stretched on his lips then he looked away from her. He expected that. But he still hoped that it was a different answer.

Dakota then straightened her posture as she placed a genuine smile on her face, one that could light up a whole room."But as Dakota Grant, I believe you."

This earned another confused glance from the original vampire. Of all the people he could have connected with, he was connecting with Dakota. He wondered if this was a pattern. Because if so, then what the fuck was he going to do?

"Why?" He questioned.

"Because this is the first you've shown emotion toward me that wasn't anger or annoyance." Dakota explained. She tilted her head and stared further into his eyes, searching for something behind them. And when she found it, the answer made everything a lot more confusing than clarity. "You feel remorse. Do you feel guilty for tormenting her? Why do you feel guilty?"

And that was the extent of his vulnerability.

Kol shook his head and got out of the bed, suddenly realizing that he had to make certain raven haired vampire pay. "Show's over. I have a Salvatore to deal with."

"Kol—" Dakota tried to reach out to him again. She knew he was running away from the truth, from his realization. He was so close. She wanted to help him but he wouldn't let her go further.

"I'm not some story you can just read and enjoy, Dakota." Kol snapped, standing in the middle of the room as he slipped on his jacket.

Dakota, on the other hand, was stunned by what was happening. "W-What?"

"Everything that you've read in that book, it happened to me and it happened to her. All our dirty laundry sprawled across those pages in the form of black ink and you devoured it like a vulture." He ranted.

The redhead was taken aback by what the vampire was ranting about, it could be seen on her face, the way her eyes widened and her lips parted. She couldn't help but feel offended not because it was true—although maybe it was a little true—but because she thought that she was doing something good by letting him talk to her, by letting him vent to her.

"I'm sorry. I thought you just wanted someone to talk to." Dakota said then she stood up and grabbed her book and jacket before making her way to her own bedroom inside the suite. She stopped before she could disappear behind the door of her bedroom.

"Klaus called. He said Elena and the others are trying to find which one of you they descended from. You should take care of it." Dakota said with the most unenthusiastic and emotionless voice she could channel.

Kol looked at her and for a moment, she saw his conscience peek through. But she didn't want to make the same mistake. So instead, she entered her bedroom and shut the door. The original vampire stood there, his eyes not wavering from the dare before he closed his eyes and sighed in frustration, another regret to add in his mountain pile.

• ─────────────── •

Kol was sitting alone in the dark, holding an aluminum bat while its middle rested on his shoulder. Sitting in a room in complete darkness and silence seemed to be a fitting place for someone who was deep in his mind. He couldn't see himself but he knew he was wearing a scowl on his face because he was bothered by the fact that he felt guilty about snapping at Dakota like that when he shouldn't feel guilty about it.

Why would he feel guilty about that? He hated her. Or was that an act?

His mind halted its racing thoughts when he heard two people come inside the house, the two whom he was waiting for. Frankly, they were taking their time in searching the house and Kol was growing impatient. He made a noise that caused their flashlights to direct at the door where Kol sat behind.

Kol watched as the flashlights illuminated parts of the room and hit a vampire body that was jabbed to the wall with a wooden baseball bat.

"Mary." Damon whispered at the sight of her.

He knew Damon wasn't referring to his Mary, but he couldn't help but think of her.

"Quite the contrary." Kol simply replied before he reached for the lamp beside him and turned it on, finally brightening the room.

The original vampire stood up from his seat and casually walked past Damon and Elena as he set his eyes on the dead vampire hanging on the wall. He was still holding on to the aluminum bat he was supposed to use to beat up Damon earlier. Only this time, he intended to get through with it.

"Shame about Mary Porter. She used to be a blast." Kol commented as he observed the woman's dead body before looking back at the doppelganger and the Salvatore brother. "I don't quite know what happened."

Kol watched as Damon put on his tough act in front of him, acting like he was not the slightest bit intimidated by the original vampire. Elena, on the other hand, if she was trying to hide her fear toward him, then she wasn't doing a very good job at it. It was practically written all over her face, it almost made Kol chuckle.

"I fear all the time she spent with my family might have ruined her." Kol added, still referring to Mary Porter. He momentarily looked back at her before speaking again. "She was a bit of an Original groupie."

"And were you her favorite?" Asked Elena, definitely not a subtle way of prying information from the vampire.

"You mean, did I turn her?" He clarified then proceeded to think fakely, just as a way to keep them on their toes while also teasing them. "I think I did. But, no, wait, maybe it was Rebekah. There was also a Klaus period. And let's not forget the Elijah affair."

Damon fought the irritated expression that wanted to surface on his face, though Kol didn't miss the little slip up that he made when he accidentally showed it for a mere second. This just gave Kol the confirmation that he was getting under the raven-haired vampire's skin.

"Dakota spoke to my brother. I know you're trying to find out who you descended from." Kol told them. For a brief moment, his thoughts drifted toward the redhead. Suddenly he was looking for her, even though he knew that she wasn't with him right now. Suddenly, he caught himself wondering how she was. Suddenly, he found himself worrying if she was still mad at him.

This was all pretty sudden. But at the same time, deep down inside him, Kol knew it was only a matter of time.

"Now you never will." Kol added when he forced himself to snap out of his thoughts that contained Dakota and Dakota only.

But when he forced himself to stop dwelling on his thoughts about Dakota, he felt this rage inside him like he wanted to get everything over with just so he could think of her again. Which led to the next few violent scenes that involved his bat colliding with Damon's body.

"So, where did we leave off?" Kol rhetorically asked as he placed both of his hands on the handle of the bat, getting ready to let Damon pay the price of what he did to him earlier at the batting cages.

Kol swung the aluminum bat and aimed at Damon's knee, causing the raven-haired vampire to groan and drop to the ground at the contact. The original vampire grinned down at Damon as he grunted in pain on the floor. Though he was not satisfied by the fact that Damon still managed to support himself with his hand and therefore, Kol aimed for that next. After hitting his arm, Kol whacked Damon's back with the bat which made him drop completely to the floor.

"Elena, get out of here!" Damon warned the Petrova doppelganger before Kol's eyes shifted to her. There was no trace of amusement in his face anymore. He was ready to rip Elena's arms off. Why? Because he remembered how she and the others mistreated Dakota. Kol swore he was losing his mind due to what he was thinking. How come he was now protecting the person he had hated from the moment they met?

If only Klaus didn't want Elena to be protected.

Elena tried to run for it but as expected, Kol didn't let her. He sped and stopped in front of her, earning a frightened gasp to leave the young woman's lips.

"According to my brother, you're off limits. Please don't test me." Kol warned. He then proceeded to grab Elena and throw her harshly against the bed, her head hitting the frame. To be fair, that was the least violent Kol could become.

However, Damon didn't seem to appreciate that. Upon seeing what Kol did to Elena, he gathered his remaining strength and sped toward Kol, grabbing him by the neck while still panting.

"Don't touch her." Damon growled. Kol noticed the fury that flamed in contrast to the raven-haired vampire's icy blue eyes.

What Damon didn't know was that Kol was angrier. The original vampire headbutted Damon so hard he was sent flying toward the wall where Mary Porter was still decorated like a head of a stag.

"Oh, dear. I've hit a nerve." Kol said referring to Elena as his weakness, the smugness in his voice so evident that Damon was fuming. "Don't worry, I'm starting to get that now." He muttered, mostly to himself as he secretly referred to a certain redhead that was waiting for him back at the hotel suite.

Though, despite the violent circumstance and setting, as usual, he was finding everything amusing which caused a grin to stretch on the original vampire's face before chuckling while he approached Damon.

"Relax, darling. I just want us to be even." Kol said, staring down at Damon with his open arms. "You snapped my neck, you killed my brother, and then you humiliated me. If you've gotten to know me better, you'd know I don't do well with humiliation."

Damon tried to push himself while groaning only to get slammed down with a bat by Kol three times, each time getting harder than the previous. Once Damon was basically planted on the floor, incapable of getting up, Kol withdrew.

"There. Now we're even." He said, a grin still tugged on his lips.

• ─────────────── •

Dakota heard a knock on her bedroom door in the hotel suite and figured that it wasn't gonna be anybody else but Kol. She took her time in answering the door, wanting to make him wait and piss him off—which she was really good at, she realized. Every little thing she did was getting on Kol's nerves. And that fact was starting to get on her nerves.

She heard a knock again as she was approaching the door and groaned in exasperation. "I'm coming!"

Dakota reached for the doorknob and pulled the door open, revealing Kol Mikaelson himself standing with a crease on his forehead.

"The door is five steps away, what took you so long?" Kol complained.

Of course this was how they were going to start their conversation. It's like any other conversation they've had.

"The urge to ignore you." Dakota retorted. Kol's shoulders dropped as he rolled his eyes in irritation. The redhead simply folded her arms against her chest, arching her eyebrows at him as a sign that she was waiting for whatever it was that made him knock on her door in the first place.

Kol opened his mouth to start off but his irritation got the best of him and he simply scoffed and shook his head before a short, bitter laugh erupted from his throat. "I'm not doing this."

Dakota watched Kol turn away from her and began walking toward his side of the suite until the redhead played with his pride.

"Fine. Walk away. You're good at that lately." Dakota said.

And it worked. Kol halted his steps just when he was in the middle of the living room. He was staring at nothing ahead of him as he gathered the thoughts that were racing inside his head into one coherent speech before he turned around halfway.

"When Mary died, I mourned her." Kol said.

Dakota could not be more surprised by what Kol just said. Her folded arms untangled and fell to her sides as she repeated what she heard to confirm. "You mourned her?"

"Shocking, I know." Kol said as he faced her completely. A smile plastered on his lips and not the usual smug and mischievous one. This one was sad. Dakota almost felt it cut through her heart because she had never seen a smile that sad in a while.

"I'm not an expert in emotions, but...you know when you crave for something and feel like you can't breathe without being in its presence?" Kol said, his tone implying like Dakota should know what he was talking about. "And then you see it then suddenly everything excites you. It keeps your blood pumping and you would do anything to stay in that feeling."

Kol was retracing his steps back toward Dakota as he rambled. The redhead didn't know if she was following whatever he was saying because if she was, then something was weird about her interpretation of what he was explaining to her.

"All those times, I thought it was the game that made me feel that way. That's why I kept playing with the intention to win, thinking that it would feel even more amazing." Kol said, this time, he wasn't looking at her anymore. He was looking ahead of him as he neared Dakota but she noticed how his eyes never met hers as he described what he was feeling. It was like while he was talking, he was sent decades back into his life, reliving those same moments.

Until he finally stopped walking and turned to look at Dakota. "It was too late when I realized it wasn't the game. It was my opponent."

Dakota's lips parted in realization. Kol witnessed the moment she came to that realization. It was when her brown eyes looked at him in a way that didn't carry resentment. It was when she looked at him—for some unknown reason—with worry.

"You loved her." Dakota uttered.

"I hated her." Kol pointed out. "But I loved her just as much."

Dakota was dumbfounded by the twist to the Tale of the Foxes. She definitely didn't find that in the book when she finally read the last chapter while Kol was out. Though, it made sense. Klaus never noticed it.

"It manifested in the form of grief. Love always chooses the most unfortunate times to make its grand entrance." Kol said, the smile on his face still melancholic. "Just like right now."

The change in Dakota's expression was quick, from stupefied to flustered. Suddenly, she was aware of how close he was already to her and how he was looking at her in a different way, just for a few seconds, before that usual look that held vexation.

"Your very presence irritates me. I hate you with a burning passion of a thousand blazing suns—" Kol took steps toward her despite the gap between him and Dakota already so dangerously close which ended up with her taking steps backward in return until they stopped when they reached the middle of the room. "—but without you I cannot breathe properly, I cannot think straight, I cannot bear...to see myself screw this up again."

This is wrong, she screamed in her head. But why was it hard for her to move away as they stood so close to each other? Why did she hold the most intimate eye contact she and Kol had ever given each other for longer than they should have? Why was it that when Kol breathed down on her, her knees weakened?

"No." she muttered, thinking that she said that only in her mind until Kol furrowed his eyebrows in complete confusion.

"No?" Kol repeated.

That was when Dakota snapped back to reality.

"N-No!" She exclaimed before turning and moving away from him. She tangled her fingers into her hair as she just tried to wrap her head around what just happened. "Inheriting your anger for Mary was one thing. But inheriting your love for her—"

"It's not like that. I don't have feelings for you because you look like Mary—" Kol argued when he interrupted Dakota, and she did the exact same when she replied.

"Oh but it definitely helped." she answered, turning around to glare at him for a moment before staring back at the wall rather infuriatingly.

"Dakota Grant, just listen to me!" Kol shouted as he marched toward her and grabbed her arm to force her to face him.

"No!" She shouted back, shoving his hand away with a matching scowl on her face.

Kol was so fed up by the current situation that he ran his palms down his face and groaned. "Bloody hell, you're maddening!" The first two words were muffled with his hands covering his face but once he dropped his hands, he screamed at the end of the sentence.

"Well, so are you!" Dakota fired back.

Then there was peace, or at least a relative of it. The only sounds audible in the room were them panting because of how furious they were at each other. Their chests rose and fall quickly, but in sync, as if they were one. Their eyes were locked on each other, as if the merest blink was going to result in the other's disappearance.

And as if their minds had clicked the same button, their legs took long strides toward each other and met halfway before their lips crashed onto one another. Kol's right hand found the side of neck with his thumb, while his left arm wrapped around her waist to pull her closer as if there was still a great distance between them. Dakota's arms rested on his shoulders and arms until her right hand slid up to the back of his head, fisting his hair in her hand.

Their hunger for each other was driven by hate and frustration. Kol groaned at Dakota's tug on his hair, hating how she had complete control over him that way before he managed to pull away from her. They stared into each other's eyes, searching some sort of hint in them that could tell them what they needed to do next. But they just stood there, their hands all over each other, their breath caressing the faces of one another, their bodies pressed against each other—the intimacy was swallowing them whole.

"Will you listen to me, please?" He whispered, placing his forehead against hers as he pleaded.

Dakota closed her eyes, just now realizing what she just allowed to happen, what all this could lead to. "I know how this ends. I'm not stupid."

"What do you mean?" He asked.

Gently, Dakota moved away from Kol's grasps and looked up to meet his confused gaze.

"Do you still hate Mary?" Dakota questioned, dreading the answer that was going to leave his lips.

Kol swallowed hard before he slowly nodded. "Yes."

Dakota blinked a couple of times before exhaling deeply.

"And do you still love her?" She asked.

"No." Kol answered noticeably quickly, which made Dakota question the truth to his answer.

"Do not lie to me, Kol. I beg of you." She pleaded, her voice faint and on the verge of breaking.

Kol looked at her like he could see her entire being shattering before his eyes. The fact that he could not even answer the questions truthfully and straight was enough for Dakota to know his response.

"Dakota—" he tried to call out to her but Dakota simply ignored him.

"That's all the answer I need." Dakota said as she walked past him and made her way toward the door of her bedroom, holding it open as he waited for the original vampire to exit her room.

He pleaded with his eyes, begging her not to do this. But Dakota answered with one simple sentence.

"I'm not competing with a ghost." She said.

And Kol stood down. He swallowed the words that he aimed to persuade her and with a heavy heart, he walked toward the door, his eyes glancing over to her but she didn't dare to look at him again until he had found himself outside her room and she shut the door.

Dakota didn't know how it happened, why everything happened so fast. But she did know that impulse was not always reliable when it comes to love.

• ─────────────── •

Will be publishing another chapter in a few minutes. I'll be doing a double update since I didn't get to publish anything last Friday. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!