A Forbidden Love (edited)

Here You Reside In My Dreams and Nightmares

Kai. I could smell him so close. Cloves and Electricity. Like a fine mist he was gone in moments. Only the imprint of him remained.

Nik smelled of bourbon and turpentine. The faint aroma of evergreens clinging to him.

Kol smelled tangy of coppery blood and aftershave. I could hear a dim metal clinking for a moment when I smelled him before my mind began to fog once more.

"Kai?" I called for him into the gloom. The fog hang thick here and my accent was no longer softened with time. For a moment I thought I saw him a flash of raven, but ground to a halt upon realization of the only similarity.

His hair was longer than I was used to curling softly by his temples. Those baby blues crinkled at the corners in a way I couldn't tell if he was exasperated or overjoyed seeing me. Damon?
"Damon," my voice was a cry to him, "Where are we? Why are- how are you here?"
My fingers encircled his wrist softly and for the first time since I laid eyes on him here, he looked directly at me. His expression faded to one of calculation, as though he was analyzing what I might do.
Quickly, I dropped my hand taking two unsteady steps back. My hands reached behind me to steady myself.
"Julius," I was no longer the searching Viktoria, my walls were back, "Am I dead once more? You wish to torment me, once more?"
His own gaze narrowed and he shooed me as though I were nothing more than a whining infant, "You hang at a precipice. From the cavern your witch created in the afterlife I've joined you on Earth, as has Dahlia."

Dahlia. Dahlia. I tried to place the name in my thoughts, but every thought I tried to hold onto about her  went careening into the fog that surrounded me. "Dahlia? Julius, who is Dahlia?"
His eyes grew wide and it was his turn to take a step into my personal space, his hand coming to caress my face, "Oh love. It's not becoming of you to be so dense. Listen to me this once."

His voice begged, but I didn't want to. I remembered. I wanted nothing to do with him. My hand slapped his away, "I listened to you. I did. I listened and you led me to the greatest mistake of my life. I failed my family for you. I loved you so greatly and you gave me betrayal in return. Now Elijah hates me, can barely tolerate my presence."

I began to sob. The fog only grew denser, so dense I could barely hold on. The thoughts I tried to grasp of anger and betrayal only made my head hurt exceptionally.
His voice was soft though his eyes still were cool, "Listen to me now, Viktoria. Just once more in honor of the love we once had."

The center of my head began to burn it was throbbing so bad. I couldn't see another choice than to trust him, in truth I could barely grasp that thought. I nodded, shifting unsteadily from foot to foot. The ground felt as if it were swaying beneath me.  The sky above was so vast, I could just lay there for all eternity. Watching the clouds pass by. The only thing that drew me back to the surface was Julius reaching out to touch my hand. I had begun to sway.

For a moment I saw Kai once more, his lips curved up in a smile. He was gone in a brush of smoke. I was left reaching for him, tumbling into the dirt beneath me.

"You must know, my darling, this isn't real. It's a prison meant to capture you." Julius helped me to my feet, his eyes wide and clear. The only clear thing in this hazy place.

I began to understand. The haze momentarily breaking. The fog surrounding me lessening. Everything was so wrong here. I understood why now. The dirt was firm beneath me, leaves and pine needles littering it. The air fresh. In the distance small homes that rang familiar in me.
"The perfect prison. I was weak here, not myself. How could I escape when my mother was making me so weak here?" I understood what I had been missing. I was trapped in a prison. "It's a memory."
Julius dropped my hand his eyes crinkling and running fingers through his hair, "Of where? Maybe we can lure you back home? To your body?"