Only and Always
It's not like he can hide from me forever, Elena thought as she crouched near the base of a tree. She watched sunlight that penetrated the forest cover above her play across the small yellow flower she had found. Here, on the forest floor, there was life, but it was mostly ferns and mushrooms that thrived best in dark places. Then came this one, small flower, poking up through the moisture to make use of what little light shined here for only probably an hour or two a day. Life always found a way. The thought made her smile.
The wind kicked up around her and her head came up sharply. There. There was the scent she'd been looking for when she got distracted by light and flowers. Taking note of the wind direction and the strength of the scent she knew so well, she took off like a shot, face to the wind. Clearing the tree line, she looked up at rocks jutting above her on the mountain. Of course. She should've known. He had gone to their place.
She moved at her top speeds and the trees and landscape became a blur of light and dark around her as she moved. The scent buffeted around her with the wind, growing stronger with every gust.
Up the side of the mountain she came, her feet hardly touching the ground. As she reached the edge of a small butte, she saw him. He stood, feet firmly planted in front of a boulder the size of a small house, watching for her as the sun rose behind him. He gestured a challenge at her with both hands when he saw her, their understood "bring it" signal. A broad smile broke across her face and she pushed all her effort into her speed using all of her strength, all of her will, to move faster still.
So, Elijah stood, planted with all his might and Elena came, with all of her speed. Unstoppable force, immovable object. Their favorite game.
Elena didn't stop, didn't even slow as she approached, but stretched her strides far and, at the last second, threw herself into him wrapping her arms around his waist. Elijah didn't budge when she struck him for a quarter second before his body folded automatically around her, protecting her instinctively from the impact.
The force of the collision sent a ripple of power around them in waves that travelled down the mountain and away. The ground and trees shook with the waves and the mountain rang like a bell around them. They rolled together into the boulder that was pushed up on its furthest corner before it toppled back into place. The two of them laughed together until their sides ached, the simple joy of their game and in each other shining between them.
Elena sat up and brushed dust off the shoulder of his black shirt.
"I nearly had you that time." She grinned and kissed the tip of his nose.
"Maybe next time, little girl." His smile was wide and proud at how strong she had become in such a short time. She was right, she had nearly thrown him off his feet. But only nearly.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Stefan, feeling generous, reached for a glass and poured, hearing his brother's rustling several rooms away. Two ice cubes and three fingers of bourbon. Damon's daily kick start and breakfast of champions. He left it sitting on the corner of the black marble topped counter.
Damon was wandering down the hall when he felt the floor ripple under him. His drink, waiting on the corner, shook in the glass. His eyes rolled in irritation.
Stefan, cup of hot coffee in hand, halted in the hallway, frozen for a second as the floor rolled beneath them and dishes rattled behind closed cabinet doors.
"What do you think? Three point six, maybe?"
"Nah, that's a four on the Richter scale, easy." Damon emptied his glass and wished it was bigger as he shook the lonely ice cubes around. "First thing in the morning too." So. Annoying.
"What do you think they do up there?" Stefan mumbled as he stood at the kitchen window, staring out at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Damon made a mock heaving sound and put one hand over his mouth while raising the other to stop Stefan's words. "Let's not go there. More than I can stomach first thing in the morning."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Elijah had been teaching Elena about tracking. She chased him across rivers and mountains searching for his scent in the winds. His was a natural skill that she would probably never match, but there were some pieces of it she could learn. Over time she had become proficient, at least.
With this in mind, Elena automatically tipped her head up as a new scent assailed them. Elijah's body drew tight as he stood warily, walking slowly and protectively around her. From the same edge of the butte she had just ascended, another figure slowly strutted into view. The sound of slow, sardonic clapping filled the air.
Elena gasped. The scent was familiar. Now she understood why.
"What exactly is it you want?" Elijah called to the figure, gathering Elena behind him, blocking her with his body.
"Just to congratulate you on finally getting one of them for yourself, brother." Klaus stopped his approach a hundred yards away, folding his arms across his chest. "You always did covet the dopplegangers, did you not?"
Klaus appeared to materialize behind them both, standing close enough to Elena to draw in the scent of her hair. Hard blue eyes roved over her and his lips twisted upward in a smirk.
Watching Klaus rake his eyes over Elena, as Elijah had seen him do to so many women over so many years, the tight control he lived within every day wavered. He knew what that look meant, where it led and fury boiled under his skin. He moved in just as swiftly as Klaus had and swung his hard white knuckled fist, making solid bone crushing contact with Klaus' jaw. His brother slid back a dozen steps but remained standing, rubbing his jaw in genuine surprise.
Klaus' laughter and the broad smile he wore were real. He wiped a bit of blood from his mouth and licked his finger thoughtfully.
"Not nearly as civil", he said the word with a sneer that flashed bloody teeth at Elijah, "as you once were, are you?"
"Elena is my wife, Klaus." His voice was tight.
Klaus strolled away a few steps and back again. He crossed his arms, hard blue eyes whipping angrily over his brother's face as the wind moving over the mountain lashed his blonde hair back from his face. "Yes. Yes. I had heard that. Had to come see it for myself."
Klaus appeared again at Elena's elbow. "Interesting changes you have wrought in my brother. But it has been awhile since the nuptials. I have heard that interest eventually…" He drug the word out, lashing Elijah with an openly disdainful look, one brow up, "wanes."
He leaned close to her ear. "Bored yet?" He whispered.
"Enough!" Elijah roared, moving in to swing at him again. Klaus understood fists and blood, so Elijah would speak his language. But Klaus evaded him, stepping quickly and calmly away. Silently he moved toward the edge of the cliff he'd ascended only moments before, headed back the way he came.
Without turning back to look at either of them, he spoke into the wind. His voice pitched low and seductive. "When the boredom gets too much for you little sister, and it will…come look for me. We will make things interesting again." His laughter followed him down the mountain as he stepped off the cliff and disappeared into the landscape below.
Elena followed Elijah and took his hand, leading him away from the cliff he'd very nearly went down after his brother in a storm of fury at that parting shot. Only recognizing it as an old ploy of Klaus' and knowing he would've doubled back to have Elena alone had stopped Elijah from going after him with murder in his heart.
She wove their fingers together, hoping to calm him.
"I don't know what all of that was about, Elijah." She stopped and looked into his eyes. "And you don't have to tell me." Elena had come to love and accept what he shared and what he didn't. As he said all those years ago, some of it didn't bear remembering much less repeating.
Because he still looked so angry, she stopped and wrapped her arms around him, her face tilted up.
"But you hear me, husband." She never called him that, so the title brought his eyes down to meet hers. "If it ever occurs to you, for even a second that I might ever…ever…ever take him up on that offer," A shudder of revulsion tore through her, unscripted and unintentional. "You and I are gonna tangle over it. Just so you know."
Elijah sputtered for a second, wavering between lingering fury with Klaus and being disarmed by Elena's pluck. Adding to that the disgusted expression she wore when speaking about his brother, it was more than he could stand. He tipped his head back and laughed.
Elijah had seen his brother flash only a smile and find company for the night. Klaus had spent centuries honing his own brand of charm. Elijah had seen very few refuse him. But his Elena was anything but typical. That shudder of disgust had sealed it.
She only felt that level of revulsion for spiders….which seemed appropriate actually. He'd grown quiet and laughed again as it occurred to him. She had stepped around him, wiping more dust from his shoulders. He reached out and gathered Elena to him.
"I love you." He leaned down and whispered the words into her hair, all of the tenderness he felt in his tone.
"I love you, back." She told him, wrapping her small arms around his neck. "You. Only and always."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Elena stood at a large window, staring out with unseeing eyes. The confrontation from earlier ran through her mind. Thinking of the people she loved and all the damage Klaus could do, she reached for her phone.
After only two rings, Damon's voice answered.
"Hello, Elena." She could hear the smile in his voice.
"Good morning. We just got back."
"The dishes in my kitchen would beg to differ." Damon pointed out, sounding faintly annoyed. She grinned. Their game at sunrise. She'd almost forgotten.
"Yeah, sorry about that." She told him, trying to sound contrite.
He laughed at her halfhearted apology. "No, you're not. But I'll forgive you anyway."
"Something happened this morning."
Damon laughed again. "Didn't we just cover that?"
"No, I'm serious. It was Klaus."
"Ah, hell. You're ok?"
"Yeah, we're fine. I just thought you should know. Spread it around, will you? No sense in anyone getting caught off guard by him." She shrugged to herself as she went on. "It might be nothing. He might already be gone even, but he's dangerous and neither of us trust him. So just be aware."
"On it. Thanks." Damon disconnected the line, his voice tight with strain.
Klaus had caused a lot of heart ache and drama once before. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that again. They couldn't just eliminate the problem because, for one, he was still Elijah's brother and two, whole bloodlines of their kind might come to an end if Klaus, as one of the first, met with a much deserved end.
Elena hung up and went to sit quietly in her own garden for the first time in many weeks. They could stay gone, moving forever if they really wanted to, she thought. But they wouldn't, because that would really just be running away. Elijah would never do that.
The two of them, over fifteen years of marriage, had become partners in all things. Elena, freed from the constraints of her writing, had moved into travelling with Elijah and lending a hand where she could with the business he had started decades before she was born.
Elijah had quietly built an empire offering a specialized service that had become popular with their kind.
He opened small private donation centers in college towns all over the country. These centers paid college students, and anyone else really, a handsome fee for blood donations. The blood was then processed. Some of it was separated into whole blood and plasma and sold to research centers or companies that developed chemotherapy drugs. A larger portion was quietly set aside for distribution, not to hospitals, like public companies did, but rather, to individuals instead.
She learned that Elijah knew many of his kind worldwide who preferred to keep their appetites quiet just as he did. So he had teams for private shipping that would allow the blood to be delivered, stored and maintained in their homes for a price. The service prevented open hunting that might draw unwanted attention and allowed those who were like him to live their lives quietly, never harming anyone.
Many of Elena's friends had become his customers, actually, a decade before she even knew what kind of business he did.
Much of the travel he did was for the sole purpose of resolving problems that might arise. She was proud to be part of it and had become pivotal in that role along with him. She had a gift for troubleshooting and what Elijah liked to call "people skills".
"You're far away." Elijah crouched beside her. He was right. She hadn't even noticed his approach. At least she didn't jump out of her skin when he did that anymore.
She turned a small smile on him. "I've been thinking about this morning."
"I thought so." He gathered her up in his arms and set them both together on what had been her seat. She was draped now across his lap wrapped in his arms. Resting her forehead into the curve of his neck, she breathed him in, relaxing finally.
"Tell me." She felt the rumble of his words through his chest.
"He was a little right. That bothers me." She felt him tense around her, headed down a dark path of misunderstanding they had been down before. Elena laid an open palm on the black shirt he still wore from this morning.
"No. That's not what I mean." She moved a little closer, her mouth near his throat and admitted what was really troubling her.
"What he said about how you've changed. How I've changed you." She felt him relaxing around her again. She had been thinking of the person he was when they first met, one who would never have considered taking a swing at his brother for anything. He remained cool and detached in her memory for the first several years that she knew him. But now, he was more open, but also more rash. Had she been a bad influence on him? Changed him somehow without meaning to? She loved that sweet civil man he had been just as much as she loved the quietly passionate man he was today.
He drew a deep breath before he said, "I've always been who I am now. The same passions, the same furies. You just freed me, little one."
"So you're not so tightly bound, anymore?"
"Just tightly bound to you." Elijah leaned down then and kissed her. A moment later he stood and carried her inside and reminded her of the value of quiet passions.
