Disclaimer: Don't own it.

Addicted To You

Chapter Four: As Dark As Your Soul

"Everyone I thought I count on, has let me die.
Everyone I thought I could lean on, has made me cry.
Everytime I close my eyes, there's nothing there.
Feeling empty is all I have left, there's nothing else to bare." –

I Realize by Megan McCauley.

EPOV

There were few things Elena Gilbert was absolutely sure of.

First, was the fact that she really should have dressed warmer as her ears and toes felt like they were about to fall off.

Second, was the fact that she wanted to strangle Kol for not telling her beforehand that they were going to one of the coldest countries in the world.

However, she had to admit, there was certain charm to this place that made Elena feel at least slightly at ease. People looked like they kept to themselves most of the time but there was a certain vibe of happiness around them that made Elena smile faintly.

Kol, who kept a firm grip on her forearm the entire way, kept sending her smug grins she did not need or appreciate.

"Where are we going?"

In this sort of situation, it was probably the most appropriate question to ask. Not only was she in the custody of a slightly deranged Original, but also on completely different side of the globe, very far from home.

"We, teacup, are going to visit an old friend of mine," Kol replied, their bags in his hands as they walked outside into the freezing air. "He once worked for my brother but they had a little, ah, misunderstanding."

Elena raised an eyebrow at his tone. "Brother? You mean Elijah?"

"Nope," he said, popping the 'p'. "The more unstable one," he supplied, and Elena gulped.

"He worked for Klaus and your going to see this person? Why?" she asked hastily, picking up her phase to come and stand before him.

Kol seemed unfazed by her distress and instead leisurely looked around as if waiting for something. Snow was falling steadily, resting on his already messy brown locks. As the wind blew sharply from the north, causing Elena to shiver and pull her coat tighter around her slender frame.

Kol's attention was suddenly on her and his eyes racked over her form.

"Cold?" he muttered, staring at her without blinking.

"I'm fine," she assured him, but the slight break between her words did not go unnoticed by the ancient vampire. She actually envied the fact that he was able stand outside in the freezing cold with nothing but a thin brown jacket on, and yet appeared completely unaffected by it. She knew it was a vampire thing, but she still would have liked to have that ability at the moment.

"Come," he demanded, beckoning her closer to where he stood. "I would rather you don't freeze to death."

Elena tensed and turned away to face the masses of people moving around them. "I said I'm fine," she muttered stubbornly.

She heard Kol grumble in frustration even over the noise of traffic, people and the wind. She blinked after few seconds when a warm, far bigger coat was laid on her shoulders and wrapped around her. She looked up and found Kol staring at her with illegible expression on his face. Her own hands moved to hold the edges of his coat when he moved his hands away, and she blinked slowly when she realized that he had given her his coat and was now standing in bitter cold with nothing but a shirt on.

"Stop being so stubborn, teacup," he chided, dark spar of displeasure shining in his murky eyes. "You're starting to become a nonsense."

She looked away from him, biting her lip softly, but still managed to mutter a soft; "Thank you."

After all, she still had manners, and he did give her his coat; a gesture of thoughtfulness she did not expect from him.

"Our ride is late," he declared suddenly, pulling out a shiny IPhone from his pocket. Elena's eyes immediately fell on the phone, and the need to grab the phone from his hands and run for the hills was almost overwhelming. But then again, what chance did she have in surviving even a day in a completely unfamiliar country? It wouldn't take long for Kol to find her and drag her with him by force anyway. It was a miracle he let her off so easily the first time she tried to run.

Elena looked around her, listening to Kol who was speaking, surprisingly, in Russian. She never would have thought he knew the language, but then again, he was only in the coffin for the last century – universal things like languages were never changing, at least in their basics.

It was only a matter of minutes before Kol was done, and she saw him smirk when he turned to face her.

"Why do you look so surprised?" he asked teasingly.

"I wasn't aware you could speak in Russian," Elena said placidly, still holding Kol's jacket securely around her body.

"I wasn't aware that you were so stubborn either, but you don't see me pointing fingers, yes?" he joked, turning towards a large black car that stopped before them. Elena blinked few times, but didn't comment on the large size of the car. However, Kol apparently noticed her look of confusion and surprise anyway.

"I don't actually like big cars, they're a bother, but very effective, especially where we are going," he supplied, opening the door for her and giving her a mock bow.

Elena shook her head but still moved towards the car, climbing in as quickly as possible. She couldn't help but to sigh when she got inside, a rush of warm air wrapping around her like a blanket. Shivered slightly when the last blast of cold air entered the car as Kol closed the door behind him, Elena took time to seat herself properly and get comfortable. Then much to her silent amusement, she noticed Kol shaking his head quickly from side to side, trying to get rid of the water in his hair that was once snow, and at that moment he looked more like a dog than a vampire.

He suddenly grinned, titling his head sideways to look at her, "Enjoying the view?"

Elena sharply cleared her throat, rubbing her now red hands together to warm them. Most of time she really found Kol's egoistic behavior obnoxious, and yet at the same time, it reminded her eerily of Damon, who too was always trying to get under her skin.

"So," she began, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. "Who is this person that worked for Klaus?"

Kol clicked his tongue few times and smirked knowingly at her, running his hand through his now damp hair.

"An old associate of my brother, and a very old vampire," he explained, his eyes dancing in the dim light when she looked up at him curiously. "He was known to be one of the most ruthless vampires in history, if I remember correctly he was the one who invented the word 'ripper'."

Elena barley managed to contain her astonishment, but apparently not well enough since Kol's smirk widened further, his expression turning smug.

"My brother, of course, after hearing about this merciless killer had to have him on his side," Kol continued, "The vampire was smart enough to realize that even he could not defeat him, so he joined Klaus. He was my brother's favourite, his trump card. He was the most loyal servant my brother ever had; he was a perfect killer in every way."

Elena was so engrossed in the story she was barley blinking, clutching the edges of Kol's coat securely around her.

"But, what happened to this vampire?"

Kol rested his eyes on her, and Elena almost felt guilty for interrupting.

"His name was Demetri. And he did one thing my brother could never forgive him – he disobeyed orders," he retorted with a light snort.

"And how did that happen?" Elena asked meekly, wary of sudden sinister emotions that kept flashing through Kol's eyes.

Kol's face twisted into a dangerous sneer, and he let out a mocking snort; "He fell in love."

Her lips parted in surprise before she could stop herself. That was certainly something she did not expect to hear, not in a story like this at least.

"And with a human of all things, a witch even, what a joke," he scoffed arrogantly, sounding somewhat outraged by the idea.

A witch?

Elena bit her lip in wonder. It was rather weird to think about a witch and a vampire falling in love, mainly because vampires disliked witched due to the fact that they were one of the few individuals on this planet that could still harm them, kill them even. And witched disliked vampires because they were completely against the laws of nature. That really was a union Elena could not understand, but then again, what about Caroline and Tyler? One was a werewolf and the other a vampire, mortal enemies by design and yet both madly in love with each other. It simply showed that love really knew no bounds and often managed to prevail all.

"So he did not fulfill his duties because he fell in love with that witch?" she assumed and Kol hummed in agreement after few seconds.

"It was more like she was his duty," he said flatly. "His job was to kill her. Her family caused Klaus quite a bit of trouble, so he ordered Demetri to track every single member of her bloodline and kill them all without a shred of mercy. Unfortunately, by the time he was finished with others, the very witch that was causing trouble died from an illness. Leaving her two children behind."

Kol leaned against his seat more comfortably, and Elena almost automatically lifted her feet to rest them on her own seat, taking off her shoes, and huddling into a ball. Wrapping the jacket more snugly around her body she rested her head against the window, looking at Kol expectantly.

Kol, on other hand, simply chuckled at her but after getting more comfortable himself, continued telling the story, "One of the children was a boy and the other a girl. The boy and the father were easy to get rid off. Demetri made sure it all appeared to be an accident, so people would not question the real circumstances by which they died. However, when the time to kill the girl came…well darling, let's just say he was unable to do the deed. For the first time the merciless vampire flattered, for the first time he let someone get away. Still, the town's people always suspected the girl's family of witchcraft and when the rest of her family mysteriously died out, everyone presumed that the girl was a witch. And back in the day, there was only one punishment for witchcraft…"

Elena felt her throat close up, already guessing where the story was going. She stared at Kol intently, her eyes vaguely wider than usual.

"And yet, Demetri would not have it. He didn't believe that those filthy humans had any right to kill someone he allowed to live. If anyone was going to kill that girl it was going to be him, and him alone."

Elena shuddered, and she wasn't quite sure if it was because she was still rather cold or because of the dark possessiveness in Kol's voice. He turned to face her and leaned slightly closer towards her.

"He saved her," he murmured smoothly, his breath fanning over her face from their close proximity. "You can only imagine what happened next. The girl was thankful, the girl accepted him even when she found out the truth about him, the girl began loving him…and he loved her back. With everything he had, even though she was an enemy. Even though he was meant to kill her."

I wonder why…

"He was going to risk it all to be with her, even the wrath of my brother," he spat darkly. And Elena was barley breathing from the tense atmosphere, her heartbeat picking up few notches. "At that moment nothing but she mattered to him."

He looks so…

Kol stared at her carefully, their noses almost touching. "But my brother found them much faster than Demetri anticipated and when he saw the reason for such betrayal, he made sure to teach Demetri one undeniable truth…"

Elena stiffened as Kol suddenly leaned closer and his lips brushed against the shell of her ear as he whispered softly; "Love is vampire's greatest weakness."

He pulled back abruptly, and Elena exhaled shakily, staring at him wide-eyed. The dark emotion from his eyes faded as he leaned back contentedly, looking every bit the arrogant Original she knew.

…Lonely.

"W-what happen to them?" she found herself asking after few minutes of silence.

Kol barley spared her a glance and simply shook his head.

"Trust me, darling, you don't want to know."

"I do," she reasoned firmly. He finally looked at her, and his twisted amusement was clear as a day.

"Hm? Do you now?" he wondered, his lips trembling ever so slightly.

There was a beat of silence, and then he responded, "The girl was lucky enough to have Demetri's blood in her system when Klaus dealt with her, as for Demetri…let's just say that my brother made sure that he was reminded of his betrayal every single time he saw himself in the mirror."

Elena gulped, pushing a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"What do you mean by that?"

"No more questions, teacup. We'll be driving for at least two more hours, you should rest."

Her face fell and she frowned. "I'm not tired."

"I could always help with that," he said suggestively and Elena leaned back as far away from him as possible, annoyed by his full-blown grin.

"No thanks." she murmured resentfully, turning away from him.

Elena ended up not sleeping.

She really was not tired, but pretended to sleep anyway so Kol would, hopefully, not bother her with his suggestive comments anymore. Sadly, though, she was almost 100% sure that he was aware of the fact that she was awake. His stillness actually unsettled her so much she risked to peek at him by opening her eyelids a little.

To her immense surprise she actually found him asleep. This was the first she ever seen him asleep, and her eyes moved over the edges of his face carefully.

He just looked so peaceful.

His eyes were closed, long eyelashes brushing against his pale cheeks. His body was relaxed, face turned towards her – which meant that he was most likely observing her again before he fell asleep. She actually found it sort of unnerving; she greatly disliked the idea of someone staring at her all the time. It was disturbing.

And yet, ironically enough, she found herself watching him sleep. Perhaps it was because he looked so different from what she was used to. Now, he was just a young man, not a millennia old vampire. Now, he was vulnerable, not the indestructible individual he appeared to be.

"Hm, teacup," he groaned slowly, and Elena jumped in her seat. A small smirk appeared on his face, and his eyes cracked open, staring at her sleepily. "Sorry to disappoint you, but staring won't give you the power to see through my clothes."

Elena blushed at his words and looked away, distractingly tugging on her jacket sleeve. He just had to say something like that and make her feel like some crazy stalker. Glaring at the ground she ignored his soft chuckling as Kol turned towards the driver and said something to him in Russian.

Elena was rather envious of his skills yet again, but then again it was another vampire thing. She actually wouldn't be surprised if he was one of the first people to learn how to speak the language all those centuries ago.

"We're here," he suddenly spoke up, causing Elena to glance around anxiously. They've been driving for hours and she wondered where exactly they've been taken. She knew she would get to meet Demetri, and she had to admit that she rather was curious about what Kol said. What did he mean when he said that Demetri always got a reminder of his betrayal?

So the first thing that registered in Elena's mind was the sheer size of the house before them, if one could even call it that. It was two stories high, yet it appeared to be huge, looking more like a mansion than a house. She squinted to get a better look, but the thick blanket of snow covered the house, making it impossible to tell anything else about it apart from the fact that it was massive in size.

When the car finally stopped in front of the house, Kol opened the door and stepped outside first, motioning for her to do the same. Draping the extra jacket Kol gave her around herself once again, the doppelgänger cautiously stepped out of the car. There was no snow on the driveway, for which Elena was thankful – her feet were already numb anyways.

"Finally free after being locked in that box, друг?" a smooth, deep voice greeted them and Kol grinned boyishly striding forwards to greet his friend.

Elena took a moment to observe the man she only guessed could be Demetri.

He was tall; taller than Kol by at least few inches, medium length dirty blonde hair that were swept back into a low ponytail. His face was long and oval shaped, jaw angular, his eyes dim grey colour. He wore black suite pants and dark blue button up cotton shirt that was rolled up to his sleeves – his clothes were clean and crisp to the last tred. In a way, Demetri reminded Elena of Klaus, just a bigger more physically scary version of him. His shoulders were wide and his frame looked intimidating to anyone, his tallness helping him to tower over both her and Kol easily.

And then she noticed the last, and by far the most striking feature about him.

His scars.

They were everywhere, differing in length and depth. The ragged, twisted gashes ran down in different directions, covering not only his arms and chest, but also his face. Elena's eyes were so wide she felt like they were going to pop out of her head, and she forced herself to swiftly look away, knowing that staring like that was extremely rude. Now she finally realized what Kol meant when he said that Demetri got reminded of his mistake every time he looked at himself. It was actually bizarre to see a vampire with scars. The fact that vampires healed so quickly made them all seem imperishable and she silently wondered how Klaus managed to injure Demetri in a way that would leave such horrible scars on his body.

"And this must be the delightful doppelgänger, I've heard so much about," the man greeted, extending his hand to shake. Elena smiled nervously, trying to look him straight in eyes and not let her eyes wonder elsewhere.

"I'm Demetri, and you must be Elena Gilbert, correct?" he inquired, slight Russian accent lacing his words.

"Erm, yes, it's nice to meet you," she responded uneasily. Was this really the fearsome, brutal vampire Kol told her about? He appeared to be more charming and polite than scary and cruel.

"Please, come inside, you must be tired after your long journey and it is cold outside," he invited them with a gesture of his arm. "You came right on time. Dinner should be ready in half an hour. I hope you're hungry," he added, looking pointedly at Elena.

"Yes, some food would be lovely, thank you," she responded politely.

Demetri grinned. "No need to be so polite, Miss Gilbert. I know that I look like a maniac from a horror movies, but I assure you that I mean no harm."

Elena quickly shook her head. "No, no, it has nothing to do with the scars, it's just…" she blurted hurriedly, cringing at her own stupidity.

"You've been kidnapped by a reckless Original, taken half across the world and now will have to live in some stranger's house?" he questioned passively.

"Yeah, that."

She noticed Kol laughing inaudibly from behind Demetri, his shoulders shaking steadily. She glowered at him but followed Demetri inside the house.

"What about the driver?" she asked suddenly, remembering that they left him outside.

"He's been compelled to never remember this delightful experience, teacup," Kol answered, walking past her and nudging her with his elbow.

She shot a glare towards him and he grinned in return.

"Come," Demetri interrupted her glaring. "I'll show you to your rooms so you can freshen up before dinner."

For the first time Elena took time to look around the inside of the house. And the inside was just as grand as the outside. The foyer was massive, decorated in old Victorian period furniture. A large shimmering chandelier hung from the ceiling, sparkling once it caught light. Elena was able too see a large living room area to her right and a room that looked like a library on her left from where she stood. Moving her eyes up, she glanced at the large marble staircase climbing all the way up to the second floor of the house, where Elena presumed the bedrooms were stationed.

She blinked when Kol suddenly called her name and looked up to see him and Demetri already on the top of the staircase. Nodding her head in a voiceless reply, she began climbing up the stairs to the waiting pair of vampires.

"You have a beautiful home," Elena complemented sincerely. She really did find the house quite lovely.

"Thank you, Miss Gilbert," Demetri thanked, giving her a slight smile. Kol rolled his eyes but moved aside to let the younger vampire lead the way.

They strolled down a wide and spacious hallway, passing multiple closed doors before they stopped to face a nicely worn brown oak door.

"This is the room I picked for you to stay in, Miss Gilbert," Demetri said, opening the door and letting the brunet inside. "I hope it is to your liking, my wife help me pick it out for you."

The last part of his sentence caught Elena by surprise, but she repressed it, deciding that his wife was probably the very same witch he saved from death. However, she certainly never heard of vampires getting married, could they do that?

She was so distracted by her thoughts that she barley looked around the room.

"I'll come and pick you up later, be ready," Kol warned, but the cheeky wink he send her way took the danger element out of his threat.

The old wooden door closed behind the arrogant Original and Elena mentally asked herself what on earth she was going to do now.

A lazy knock came exactly thirty minutes later and Elena paused in brushing her hair. Thankfully, Demetri's wife provided her with basic essentials like toothbrush, shampoo, and a hairbrush etc. And half an hour gap gave Elena enough time to take a hot shower in order to warm her cold body and get changed into new clothes.

The door flew open and Kol sauntered in, looking like he owned the place, his eyes already locked on her. Elena noticed that much like she had, he too changed his clothes and restyled his hair to its previous messy state.

"Barging into someone's room like that is impolite, isn't?" she inquired, slightly miffed with his behaviour. "I could be standing here naked for all you know."

Almost immediately she grimaced, already knowing what reply she was going to receive.

"Isn't that an exciting idea…maybe I should return right after you had showered the next time, eh?"

She sighed but decided to ask the question that has been bugging her for the last hour.

"How did Klaus make…you know…the scars remain?" she whispered, dropping her voice few octave lowers so Demetri would not hear them.

"Curious, hm?" Kol goaded, flopping down on her king-sized bed, messing up the cushions and covers in the process. Elena did not look at him, instead staring at her reflection in the mirror as she continued brushing out her hair.

"Well, sweetheart, in a case you wanted to know, my brother does not take such treachery lightly," Kol said seriously, causing Elena to peered at his reflection in the mirror. He was once again staring at her with surprising intensity that seemed present in his eyes every time he was being serious about something. "Death would be too kind, so Klaus dammed Demetri for eternity of agony. Killing off his little crush was just the beginning."

"What did he do?" she asked fearfully, part of her brain whispering the answer to her. Already guessing what happened based on those horrific scars.

"If you thought Klaus was cruel and heartless when he came into Mystic Falls, you are sadly mistaken," Kol grunted, resting his arms under his head so he could see her better. "Ever since he broke that curse and began hanging around you people he has become weak, just like Elijah with his endless morals, ha! He began letting his humanity in, slowly but surely. Hundredth years ago, Klaus had no mercy, no humanity. He was ruthless in every sense of the word…"

Kol's eyes met Elena's as he continued, "So he decided to lock Demetri inside one of his basements and torture him everyday for the rest of the eternity as a punishment."

Elena felt her gut twist uncomfortably and she felt sick all of a sudden.

"For how long?" she choked out.

"Teacup…"

"For how long, Kol." she demanded desperately.

A sigh. "Seven years."

Elena almost dropped her new brush from her hands as she stared at her lap brokenly. How could anyone possibly suffer through something like that for seven years? Dear god she could not even comprehend it in her mind, and imagining the real thing made her want to throw up.

"The scars… they…"

"Demetri was still best from the best, there was no doubt about it," Kol continued, now sitting up on her bed, his hands clasped together as he watched her rigid back. "Klaus thought that ten years would be a good time period for his punishment and then he would let him loose after the time was up. However, a reminder had to always be there, a reminder of what would happen if he disobeyed again. That's when he got another witch involved."

Elena nodded in understanding. Of course, only a witch would be powerful enough to do something like that, she should have realized this sooner.

"How did you meet him?" she enquired curiously, her voice finally coming back to normal.

"All the way back when he was still imprisoned by my brother," Kol retorted, and then smirked haughtily. "Who do you think helped him escape?"

That honestly caught her by surprise, again.

She never would have believed that someone like Kol, who was so self-conceited and selfish, could actually help someone out without some secret motive behind it all. Perhaps, he did have some humanity still left in him after all, under all that bitterness and cruelty. Perhaps nobody ever bothered to see it or look for it, but it was still there.

"Have I rendered you speechless once again, teacup?"

She shook her head and decided to try her luck with one more question, far more important one for her personally.

"Why me?"

He looked confused for a second. "Pardon?"

"You heard me," she repeated. "Why me?"

Kol sighed in annoyance. "Are we really back to this again, teacup? I told you why, it's because I want to—"

"Yeah, I get it," she cut him off, and he glanced up at her in wonder. "You want to get revenge against people that wronged you, I get. But I don't think that's the only reason why you took me, though. There is more to it, isn't there?"

"Well somebody thinks very highly of themselves," he snorted in amusement.

"You kidnapped me. You own me a proper answer," she argued fiercely.

And as soon as the words left her lips, she was slammed against the bedroom wall, Kol standing in front of her, his eyes like pieces of broken glass; sharp and icy.

"The only thing I own you is a good heart ripping, do you understand me?" he hissed harshly. "I could have annihilated you a long time ago for almost getting me and my family killed, so if anything you own me."

Elena choked slightly, clawing desperately at his hand around her neck. "I just… wanted to know why," she wheezed out.

He glared at her, his dark eyes intense as he let her go, and Elena almost fell on the floor from the lack of air.

"Fine, you want to know why I took you," he said with a crazed smile. "I took you, because everyone else is boring, I took you because you're different. You don't like me, Elena."

"That's it?" she gasped sharply, anger flooding her veins all of a sudden. She felt furious. "All of this, simply because I was one of the few not breaking their necks in trying to stroke your ego. You took me from my life; you're destroying my life right now. And all of it due to your giant ego problems!"

She doubted she ever felt so angry before, maybe because she had to live through literal hell for the last few days and his only excuse was that he found her different!

"I don't need to destroy your life," he shot back moving away from her, his back turned. "The Salvatore brothers are doing that for me."

"What are you trying to say?" she asked with a scowl, rubbing her tender neck.

"Oh, stop playing coy," he snarled, clearly loosing his patience with her. "Ever since the Salvatores have come into your life, it has become one big nightmare. Just look at how many people died because of them. If you never met them, none of this would have happened. My brother would have never found you and he would still be just another mysterious vampire. Not to mention that I would still be rotting away locked in that wooden box."

Elena stumbled back from his words, watching wearily as he turned to face her again.

"You know as well as I do, that if it wasn't for them your Aunt and your real parents would still be alive, and you would not be here with me in the middle of nowhere," he sneered. "You can say and defend them all you want, but from the moment the Salvatores appeared in your life, you were doomed. You already died once, and I wonder just how much more it will take for you to realize that you have no possible future with them, and never will."

Elena was trembling by the time he finished, her eyes wide and full of unshed tears. There she was thinking that he still had humanity left in him just a minute ago, and now he was being so cruel to her. Even if the words did strike a cord within her and she understood that there was some undeniable truth to them.

Kol heaved a heavy sigh and shook his head a little. "Look, stay in the room for a while longer, I have to feed and I doubt you will be willing to watch."

"Are you going to kill them?" she found herself asking right before he exited the room.

There was a slight breeze and Elena looked up to find Kol standing right in front of her, his eyes gazing deeply into hers.

"Probably."

"Can you try not to?" she asked faintly.

Kol bent down and traced her jaw with the back of his index and middle fingers. Elena closed her eyes, and tried not to flinch away, her hands trembling.

"I do enjoy this game of cat and mouse, but I have business to attend to," Kol drawled, his voice containing a smirk. "You know, teacup, if you are so upset about me killing people, you could always take their…"

"NO!" she interrupted, her eyes flying open. There was no way she was going to let him feed from her. She knew that she was being selfish, and that in a sense, she was dooming a lot of people for potential death but she could not help herself. And when she finally looked Kol in the eyes, she expected to see anger, but instead she saw a look of pure mirth on his face.

"No? Are you sure, teacup? Because there are others who would line up to give me their blood," he whispered with a grin.

The next works left her mouth in a chased hurry of desperation and anger, "Then choose one of them! Choose someone willing to do something like that! Please don't..."

Kol's expression suddenly darkened, "Do not beg. Begging is beneath you. Not only that, but it irritates me to no end. You sound like a petulant child forever complaining about how bitterly unfair their life has been. I am sorry to burst your bubble Elena, but life isn't fair."

She whimpered, and tried to turn her head away from him, but he grabbed her chin and forced her to look into his eyes.

"I always get what I want. You can hate me all you want, teacup. But you're not leaving my side until I'm done with you."

And with a soft rustle of wind, he was gone.

She wanted to hate him, but even then she doubted if she was capable of feeling such strong emotion for anyone. And maybe he was protecting her in his own twisted sort of way, after all, who knows what would happened to her if he wasn't there to protect her.

And yet, what he said about Damon and Stefan…there was a smallest smudge of truth in his words. Even if she wanted to tell herself otherwise and not believe in a single word he said to her, Elena knew better. Her life did fall apart once vampires entered it, however, there was also so much good that came from it too. She found Stefan, she fell in love and was, for a certain period of time, happier than she ever thought possible. Especially after her parents sudden death, which she was sure she would never truly recover from.

She missed everyone back home so much her insides ached. However, she had to accept the fact that Kol was not going to let her go until he got what he wanted, and this case, it was his revenge. Part of her wasn't even sure she was going to make it home alive, but hope was the only thing left for her now.

Closing her eyes in anguish, Elena admitted defeat and lowered her head, sinking down onto the carpeted floor, her hair falling around her.

Kol was right; life wasn't fair.

KPOV

The brown haired Original stood outside Elena's bedroom door quietly, smirking faintly at the sound of Elena's uneven breaths. She truly was an interesting human, something rare in Kol's option. For someone who has certainly seen it all, Elena was a true enigma. It was just so much fun messing with her thoughts and emotions, making her doubt herself at every turn.

It was without doubt hard – that girl was incredibly strong-minded, and living around vampires made her stronger and yet weaker at the same time. Kol wondered just how far he could push her before she breaks, how far he can poison her mind before she gives in or realize his ploy. This truly was a battle of wits, and Elena stood no chance against him.

Truth to be told he wasn't even sure why he was trying to expose her to the flaws of her life. Perhaps, in a way, he was jealous of her life. True, not many could say that, considering her life story, but Kol could see how much she loved and valued those important to her. It was actually irritating to see someone so morally set on making others happy; and most importantly seeing others return that sentiment. Once again it all came down to that bothersome emotion – love.

In a way, he really did hate Elena. Her ability to love a vampire was both idiotic and incredible.

How could one possibly love an eternally damned creature that felt no love in return?

Kol was positive that true, genuine love between a human and a vampire was impossible. Vampires were simply not created to love; they left that ability behind them when they died, when everything human about them faded away with the last beat of their dying heart. They were dead to the world, and their emotions to them.

Without a doubt, love between two was not possible.

Kol shut his eyes briefly before taking another quick look at the door beside him and began walking down the hall towards his room.

It was only a matter or time before he succeeded in breaking Elena's shell.

He then realized that he wasn't lying to her; he really did find her different, special. Perhaps for reasons she was yet unaware of, but he was.

And for that reason, he was really looking forward to the day she cracked.

After all — insanity doesn't happen overnight, insanity is a process.

AN: Hello, lovelies! I hope you are all well. I'm great myself, very pleased with Kol's appearance in the last episode, even though I was pissed that they killed him again. I mean, he's an Original for the love of God, make him act like one. They are totally turning him into another Elijah where they just kill him off over and over again. *Sigh* However, Kol beating Damon with a baseball bat was totally fun in my option. ;D

I would also like to take time and thank everyone who review/favorite/alert last chapter and this story in general. I am SO happy with the response so far, so a huge 'thank you' to you all.

And apologies for the delay, but I was sort of stuck on this chapter, I rewrote it three times and I'm still iffy with it. This has been un-beta-ed so all mistakes are my own, and I'm sure there are loads even though I edited few times. I think the only bit I actually liked writing was the last scene from Kol's POV, because even though he is so hard to write, he is also very entertaining as well. Trust me, it's hard to write about him since we know almost nothing about his past etc. So, I will most likely end up creating my own version of his past. ^^

Also, new character alert. Demetri. His a strange one, I'll admit. He's like my own version of Stefan, Klaus and my own imagination all poured into one. XD His going to be an important character in this story as well as his wife - who you will meet next chapter. But with Demetri it's either love or hate. So which one are you?

Regards.

A.~

P.S The first person to get the movie reference in this chapter will get next chapter dedicated to them. Well...there is actually two, but the second is more difficult to find. ;)