sᴜʀᴘʀɪsᴇ
ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 25

"I know we didn't have a great beginning." Alaric started as the two walked around Mystic Falls and Annabelle nodded in agreement "But you're mother has really made an impact on me so how about we put all our differences aside..?" He smiled and she raised a brow.

"Kind of hard to do that." Annabelle murmured but sighed and showed a thin smile "But, I'll manage. Besides, I haven't seen my mom so happy in so long." She breathes out, running a hand through her hair.

Alaric smiled "Really?" He chuckled and she nodded "You should come to Mystic High, it's better than online school." He mused "And I teach there." He offered.

"No, I'll stick to online school." Annabelle politely declined "And with everything going on, I'm barely managing with online school. Real school would be a whole other level." She smiled and her phone rung to see its Rebekah "Excuse me." She walked away and answered.

"We have a problem."

"Okay, what's up?"

"There was a white oak stake at the doorstep today." Rebekah bit her lip as she continued "I know you put a protection spell on us but whenever we touched the stake, it burned us but then their was a carving with two initials."

"Rebekah, I'm a witch, I'm not Edward. I can't read minds. What is it?"

"M and E." Rebekah breathed shakily "Those are the initials of my parents. Their hellbent on killing my siblings and I. Annabelle, we need you right now." She pleaded.

Annabelle quickly nodded "I'll be right there." She hung up and turned to Alaric. "I'm sorry—"

"It's fine." Alaric smiled "We'll talk later...?"

"Of course!" Annabelle ran to Kols car and got in. "God, I need to get my own car." She mumbled as she started the car and began driving quickly, not knowing the two pairs of eyes watching her from afar with smirks.

Annabelle pulled up at the Mikaelson mansion and hurried inside to see Kol pacing, Rebekah fiddling with her hand, Caroline comforting Klaus and Katherine squeezing Elijahs hand. All eyes turned to her and she set the car keys on the drawer then turned to the rest.

Kol breathed in relief "Thank god." He mumbled.

He thought his parents would have done something to Annabelle. He looked to see the stake with the initials carved inside of them in a table. Kol wore gloves to get it there.

Annabelle noticed it and began walking towards it, she inspected it "Mhm, that's definitely an 'E and M'." She mumbled and Kol rolled his eyes.

"How about you tell us something we don't know?" Kol asked and she glared at him before sighing and slowly moving her hand towards the stake.

Annabelle touched the stake but instead of it burning her, it flowed "Wow." She mumbled and gripped it "This feels good. Kind of like it's giving me power." She explained and smiled until she began hearing whispered and felt shivers travel down her spin.

The brunette felt as if something was gripping her harshly, almost like causing her a bruise. She shrieked and threw the stake away making Kol pause.

"Ouch! That hurt!" She frowned, hugging herself.

"You can whine after you explain what just happened." Kol pinched the bridge in his nose then looked at her, waiting for an explanation.

Annabelle hit his arm, glaring. "It felt like the stake was trying to capture me." Annabelle pondered and they all seemed confused "Sort of like ghostbusters when they captured the ghosts inside the vacuum." She explained, turning her glare to the stake with a funny face "But a lot more aggressive and violent."

"So it was trying to swallow you in?" Katherine asked, raising a brow with a chuckle and Annabelle quickly nodded as she turned to Elijah. "And you think this your parents?" She asked him.

Elijah nodded "Who else do you suggest?" He asked and it went quiet, everyone deep in thought. "With the protection spell Annabelle has put on us, they cannot harm us."

"Actually, they can." Annabelle said, smiling and everyone turned to her "They can harm you, they just can't kill you." She emphasized and Kol groaned.

"It's the funny thing about being a witch with the boundaries and the odds along with the ridiculous rules. Hey, did you know just by me being surrounded by vampires let alone being friends with them makes me go against nature itself....? Yeah, heh, crazy."

Klaus sighed, his arms wrapped around Caroline. "But even if they can't kill us, they can still use Caroline as leverage." He reminded.

"And Katerina." Elijah added.

"And Annabelle." Rebekah and Kol reminded in unison and all eyes turned to Kol making him scoff. "She also spoke, look at her." He grumbled and Annabelle raised a brow.

"So she'll just cast a protection spell on us." Katherine shrugged, grabbing a strawberry and popping it in her mouth. "Easy."

Annabelle cleared her throat "You do realize that putting a protection spell on four vampires is just a drain of energy every day so yeah, why not just add two more vampires?" She sarcastically asked and they all looked at her in disbelief. "Okay fine. Fine."

Annabelle asked Elijah to get her a parchment, knife along with salt and he obligated. Katherine volunteered to go with him. Right now, Kol was staring at Annabelle, deep in thought while she fiddled with her hands, also thinking with her foot tapping against the ground.

"Can you cast a protection spell on yourself?" Kol asked, all eyes turning to him but he kept his eyes trained on Annabelle and she smiled at him with a wink.

"Aw, you care, I'm honored."

Kol noticed she had become more sarcastic but waved it off. "Our lives are linked to yours, this isn't about me caring. Don't flatter yourself." He pointed out and Rebekah rolled her eyes.

"I never did flatter myself." Annabelle commented, smiling "And I'm not doing this for you, Kol. I'm doing this because my sister is unfortunately linked to you. I'm doing this because I care about Rebekah, Caroline, and Elijah— Katherine and Klaus are only tolerable at this point but I'm not doing this for you, please don't flatter yourself."

Rebekah snorted as Kols jaw clenched "But I'm flattered, love." Klaus smirked and Caroline giggled. "I find you quite tolerable myself."

Elijah and Katherine came back. He handed Annabelle the parchment and salt making her smile appreciatively and she looked to Katherine and Caroline. "Time to cut some...vampires." She grimaced "That sounded horrible, I'm sorry."

Caroline chuckled and extended her palm. Annabelle took it and slit it, watching as it healed and dropped in the parchment. Katherine did the same and wrapped her hand around the knife, squeezing her hand into the blade and the blood dripped on the parchment.

Elijah pulled out a handkerchief and gave it Katherine. She smiled softly and wiped her hands as Annabelle sprinkled salt. "Why do you have to add salt?" Katherine grimaced and Annabelle glanced at her.

"I don't know, why don't i just contact the dead witches and ask them?"

"Whats with the attitude?" Katherine asked, raising a brow with a smirk.

Annabelle only looked down and closed her eyes: the spell was nonverbal and she sighed. Closing her eyes as she felt her energy drain and her nose dripped with blood as her eyebrows pushed down in concentration, feeling the blood reach her lips but she was too concentrated to care.

(Again, like last time, beautiful art)

The blood and salt slowly combined with each other and the two vampires felt like their lungs were renewed and Kol smirked. He sped away and grabbed a wooden stake then sped to Caroline, tackling her and he was about to stake her but the stake flew out of his grasp.

Klaus looked at him with anger as Kol got off of Caroline. Klaus began walking forward but Annabelle stepped in front of Kol with a  challenging look.

"I just bought new furniture, I swear if one vase breaks I'm going to kill you." She stepped away from Kol "Feel free to fight outside though."

Rebekah chuckled in amusement as Katherine picked up the stake and bought it to her palm, successfully cutting herself and then she tried to stake herself but the stake flew out of her grasp making her raise a brow and look at Annabelle in disbelief.

"So I could be tortured to the point I want to die.." Katherine raised a brow.

"But you won't." Annabelle smiled "So have fun waking up in the morning and knowing you're basically immortal." She mused and Katherines eyes lit up.

Caroline frowned "If this is using to much of you're energy, I can just ask Bonnie to help—" she was cut off by Annabelle laughing, her laughter echoed through the room and Kol could feel his lips curl up but he quickly hid it but he was to slow since Rebekah noticed it.

Annabelle continued to laugh "Heh, are you that dumb or are you just naturally blonde?" (Katherine Pierce line) she asked and Caroline raised a brow.

"Esther and Mikael aren't just going to rise from the dead out of the ordinary. Someone bought them back and a specific doppelgänger told me, and I quote 'I want them dead'."

"Oh."

"Anyways." Annabelle started, "Elena and the gang, including Bonnie are in on this but I have to make a phone call with a specific history teacher, if you excuse me." Annabelle pulled out her phone and walked away.

"Hello?" Alaric asked.

"Don't 'hello' me. Did you know Elena and the rest wanted to kill the Originals and I?"

"What—no." Alaric answered truthfully.

Annabelles expression fell snd she nodded "Right, well they do. I'll catch up with you later." Before he could answer, she hung up and walked to the rest. "Alaric doesn't know."

Caroline's eyebrows furrowed "Why would it matter,"

"Oh, did I forget to mention Alaric Saltzman is dating my mom?" Annabelle asked and it fell silent.

"I did not see that coming." Rebekah mumbled and everyone nodded in agreement. "Well, I've dropped Matt." She informed.

Annabelles eyes lit up "Oh, thank god!" She cheered and everyones eyebrows furrowed "What? I think you deserve better." She yawned and rubbed her temples.

"Well, I'm very tired because—" Annabelle got cut off by a yawn and she covered her mouth, mumbling a bunch of things as she went up the stairs to her bedroom "I'm going to sleep!" She yelled.

Kol sped up to her bedroom and leaned against the wall when Annabelle entered. She rolled her eyes at him and walked over to her drawer, pulling out her sleep garments.

"Your angry."

"I'm not angry." Annabelle spoke truthfully. "I'm annoyed and I am feeling very used right now."

"Now your being dramatic." Kol rolled his eyes and she shrugged, not taking offense to his words as she shoved her hair into a bun. "You're the only witch we trust with our lives."

"Mm-hmm." Annabelle hummed, taking off her shoes and not paying mine to Kol.

Kol sighs and placed a hand on her chin making her look at him. "If this is too much for you..."

Annabelle smiled lightly at him. "No, it's fine but I recall the last time, you said you don't care."

"I say a lot of things I don't mean, darling." Kol reminds and she raises a brow.

When she blinks.

He was gone.

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