Visitation (Vampire Diaries) (Book Six)

Chapter 17__A Bird in a Gilded Cage

I was finally feeling free, like nothing could bring me down. I didn't feel anything emotional about the spell anymore, but it was still there. It didn't hurt me, but it hurt my body... if that made sense.

All I knew was that it still caused physical pain, but not emotional, because my emotions, my humanity, was turned off. 

But the physical pain that came from the spell was what was really putting in the punch. 

I walked into the house to see Stefan sitting down in a chair in the living room.

"Never thought I would see you coming in through that door after you shut your humanity off," Stefan told me.

"Don't judge, okay?" I asked. "I needed to the pain to be gone, and it is. Well, emotional, not physical. Which is why I am here. Kai, oh, Kai, where are you? I know you're here." 

Kai walked into view. "How did you know where I was?" 

"Oh, nothing special," I told him. "Went to the hospital where my long lost sister now resides until she heals enough to go back home, and spoke to Jo while I was there. She led me here." 

"Why were you talking to Jo?" Kai asked suspiciously.

"Well, if it's not obvious," I told him. "I wanted to find you so that you can take this stupid spell away once and for all so I never have to think about it again." 

I slowly stepped toward Kai.

"And how can I be so sure that you won't kill me as soon as I take the spell away?" Kai asked. 

"That is a very question that I figured you would ask, which is why I asked Caroline to stay there with Jo," I told them. "I told her that if I called with bad news that she could kill Jo." 

Kai looked at me skeptically. "You're lying." 

"Am I?" I asked. "Why don't you get into my head like you're so good at doing, and figure it out for yourself when you take the spell away?" 

"She's pregnant, Nicola," Stefan told me. "Call Caroline, tell her to back off." 

"Oh, she's pregnant," I said sarcastically. "Just like Gale was when she was pregnant with my older sister when Damon killed her, and when everybody thought that Sarah had died along with her." I looked at Stefan. "Only come to find out that she didn't die, did she, Stef? You found a way to save her, adopted her out of town, and kept an eye on her her entire life while the rest of us, not even me, had the slightest clue." I looked at Kai. "It happened to Sarah. What happens if it happens to Jo and Ric's baby?" 

"You are ruthless without your humanity," Kai told me. "When I was in your head, all I saw was compassion about your friends and family and what you would do to protect them." 

"Ironic, coming from you, since you're the one that turned me into this," I told him. "This is what you wanted to happen when you put the hex on me. You wanted me to lose my mind, turn it off, and have me stuck with this spell, which would only get worse and worse until I started killing people just to take my mind off of the mind-numbing pain. What's worse than a crazy no-humanity, set-to-kill vampire, right?" Kai didn't answer. "Now take the damn spell away, before I call Caroline and tell her to kill Jo and make sure the baby is dead along with her, and before I start tearing people's heads off in the streets. Oh, I should say 'start tearing more people's heads off in the streets'. See, the spell attacked my mind on the way in here, and it drove me so crazy that I fed on this couple so hard that their heads fell off." I looked at Stefan. "Do you think I'm a Ripper because I'm a Salvatore, or because of the spell? Maybe I'm more like you than I ever thought, Stefan. Which is ironic, since you are the one to blame for all of this. If you had just told me about Sarah, all of this could be avoided."