Disclaimer: I do not own Elijah or any elements from the Vampire Diaries or the Originals. I do, however, own my OC Eternity and any elements from my up and coming novel. Please review! I'd appreciate it a lot! Thanks and happy reading!
Author Note: Welcome to the next installment of the Elijah's Eternity series! Though this story takes place more in the Originals than the Vampire Diaries, I've made the executive decision to leave it under the Vampire Diaries category. Updates might be as fast as they were before, maybe not. I haven't decided. Again, please consider reviewing or favoring and following this story. I hope readers like this next part! Much love!
Ten years.
Ten long and agonizing years.
That was how long it had been since that devastating day when Eternity had left Elijah, assumingely forever. It was the day that would be burned into his very soul for the rest of his immortal life. Forever altered was he, but that was the price he had to pay for daring to love an immortal goddess queen.
"Not a god," he could hear her voice echo in his mind, every time he referred to her as a goddess. It made him smile, but it was always short lived. The pain of loss quickly took hold always.
For a decade, Elijah suffered through his heartbreak, which seemed ridiculous to most that he would feel so profoundly over a relationship that had only lasted a little over a month, maybe more, maybe less. He didn't know. It wasn't like he had been counting the days he had been with Eternity like some love struck high schooler might. Still, it may have been silly to be so torn up over a budding romance, but it had been so much more to him.
After leaving Los Angeles, California those ten years ago, Elijah drove the sporty mustang he had acquired aimlessly back toward the east coast. Along the way, he had stopped in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma to the Mitchells' bed and breakfast.
He had gone to inform them that he and Eternity would not be returning as promised and that he was heading back the way he had come. However, the old couple recognized heartbreak and requested that he stayed with them for a little while. He wanted to deny them, not wanting to be in a place that held the ghost of Eternity's memory. Yet, he couldn't find the will to say no to them, they were simply too kind. So, Elijah stayed...for two years.
To take his mind off his loss, he kept busy and helped the couple run their bed and breakfast, something that he would have done forever. He did his best to avoid the rookie in which he had stayed in with Eternity, instead choosing to help out with maintaining the property as much as possible. It had been a good two years, despite the circumstances.
Unfortunately, the healths of the old humans deteriorated quickly in those few years. Eventually, Elijah was not only running their business, but paying for their medical bills too as they both found themselves in and out of the hospital. Their little frail bodies had simply begun to give out, as mortal bodies do.
Mr. Mitchell was the first to pass, which had devastated Mrs. Mitchell. Some believe that one can die of a broken heart and Elijah was inclined to believe that too. Only months later did Mrs. Mitchell die, passing in her sleep one night for him to find the following morning.
Elijah couldn't help but to be angry at Eternity for their passings, at the time. She could have saved them from death, he had irrationally thought, knowing logically that she could do no such thing. Mortals were meant to grow old and die. This was part of nature's balance. Even if she had been around, she wouldn't have saved them from naturally caused death. Still did he blamed Eternity for the loss of the kind elders.
Speaking of Eternity, at each small funeral service which had taken outside in the local cemetery, of which he had paid for since the Mitchells didn't have any close family, not even children or grandchildren, he swore that he had seen the shimmering grace of the unicorn out of his peripheral. Yet, when he looked in hope of seeing her, he found the field empty. There wasn't any visible sign that she had been there at all, much to his disappointment.
After that, Elijah wanted to keep the bed and breakfast open, but couldn't stay. It had been time to move on. So to keep the Mitchells' place going, he compelled a young local couple to take over the business. Once that was done, he left Oklahoma and continued east.
It was about half way back that Elijah encountered Niklaus again. He had stopped at a local pub for a drink and to hunt for prey. Without Eternity, he was forced to feed upon humans. It was after he had feed upon a couple of young women using the catch and release method, that Niklaus had slinked up beside him from the shadows.
"Brother, you look like hell," his little brother had said.
"I wonder why," he had quipped back, in no mood to deal with his brother.
Eternity wasn't the only one who bore thee brunt of Elijah's blame. In fact, there was one that received more of it than her; Niklaus. If his brother had acted in someone's interest rather than his own, he would have broke ties with Loki or at least, distracted him and Eternity wouldn't have felt so afraid for him that she thought it best that she left.
Elijah had told his brother as much and Niklaus had enough sense to look apologetic.
"I tried to warn you," his little brother had responded. "I told you that she would leave you as she has done others. Though if it makes you feel any better, I saw her not long ago and she looks as bad off as you, brother. It seems the dramatic listlessness is mutual."
His brother's encounter with Eternity had surprised Elijah. Niklaus had explained that she had come to inform him that his alliance with Loki had been abolished by the Trickster's death. Eternity had finally killed her long time nemesis.
He had felt relieved as even a little proud that she had finally freed herself. Yet, like with any positive thought regarding the lady, it was short lived and bitterness quickly took hold of Elijah. If she had freed herself from Loki, then why hadn't she returned to him? Surely, if she loved him as she had claimed, then she would have come back to him. Yet, she had not, for whatever reasons.
Elijah told Niklaus to never speak about Eternity again in a hostile and threatening manner, before returning to the drink he had been nursing.
It was then that his little brother had informed him of one other thing. "It's no matter," Niklaus had said about his broken alliance with the Trickster, "as I have found another way to break the binding spell upon me. I have found a new Petrova doppelgänger. An Elena Gilbert located in our home town of Mystic Falls. I'm heading back there to meet her."
That had caught Elijah's attention immediately. "And you want me to aid you in this endeavor," he had said knowingly.
That devious grin stretched across the hybrid's face, "Yes, brother, I do. Though I hope you have enough sense to not fall in love with this one as you did with Tatia and Katerina. It only complicates things more than need be"
"I have forsaken love, so you don't have to worry about that, Niklaus," Elijah had bitterly replied, "but if you think I will aide you in any way, after the part you played in Eternity's departure, you are sadly mistaken. In fact, you'd best hope that I don't get to this Elena Gilbert before you do. You'll never break your curse, I'll make sure of it."
Without letting his brother say another word, he used his vampire speed and sped away from the pub. All the while, a plan to steal the thing that Niklaus wanted most and to kill his little brother had formulated in Elijah's mind.
Well, from there, he returned to Mystic Falls, met the lovely Elena, and in the end, did not stopping his brother from breaking the binding spell that suppressed his werewolf side. Instead, there was an eventual reconciliation between brothers, but not before Elijah had freed his siblings from Niklaus's grasp and exacted a little vengeance upon his little brother for all the wrongs he had committed against their family.
From that point of unity between all the Mikaelsons, the journey of the family lead them all to New Orleans. The reason? It had been discovered that Niklaus was the only fertile Original vampire and had knocked up a young werewolf girl named Hayley Marshall while still in Mystic Falls.
Elijah had been the first to encounter the pregnant werewolf, to see if it were true; that a new Mikaelson would eventually be born. It was a miracle that seemed too good to be true this glimmer of hope for a dysfunctional family of vampires and witches.
The connection between himself and Hayley had been as immediate as it had been with Eternity. Though he had sworn to forsake love, Elijah had experienced the feeling twice after the goddess's departure. The first had been in the form a rekindling romance with Katerina that ended when he decided to follow his little brother to New Orleans. The other had been with Hayley.
With Hayley, he had danced around her and she around him, neither quite willing to act upon their mutual attraction, even after the child had been born. Elijah had tried to resist out of respect for Niklaus until he realized that his brother had no interest in marrying Hayley...at least at that time.
In the end, the two of them did end up together, but only for a time. It turned out that their relationship had been doomed from the start as Hayley's feelings were based off the suave noble stag that had looked out for her when she was scared and alone, and not for the more complicated and darker man beneath. In a sense, he had ended up scaring her off once she saw the monster behind the red door.
It was after their romance had ended as friends that Hayley had realized her feelings for the father of her child had grown in affection and that the feeling had been mutual. The two of them had decided to marry after all and were now living in martial bliss with their young daughter Hope Mikaelson.
A few years after the end of Elijah's relationship with Hayley, he found...affection with yet another woman, a baby vampire by the name of Gia. She was beautiful and accomplished in the violin. Music was one of his favorite things, being accomplished in the piano himself. It had started as a pupil and teacher relationship after she had turned and found she couldn't play her violin anymore. He was always one to fix what was broken, his united family being an example.
They relationship only grew from there and now, after ten years without Eternity, Elijah was about to be married to Gia. There was only one problem; he couldn't exactly say he was happy. Though he did care for Katerina, Hayley, and now Gia, maybe even loved them, it was hollow, as if his heart hadn't been completely with his two former lovers or the current one. Elijah realized the hole left by Eternity hadn't been healed in the least and all these other relationships had been an attempt to fill the void.
When he had realized this, he had acted in frustration and desperation to move on immediately and made the impulsive decision to ask Gia to marry him. She had accepted readily, despite knowing upfront that he was hung up in some other woman. He never told her the full story, only that there had been someone extraordinary that had walked into his life and then quickly exited it. He never told Gia who Eternity was, keeping her a secret from both his new lady and his family, save for Niklaus.
Regardless, Elijah had a new woman that he planned on settling down with, a completed, thriving family, and a young niece of whom he adored. Though he still suffers a bit from the loss of Eternity, he could at least say that he was content or at least, as contented as he was going to be considering his frozen, longing heart.
Over the years, there had been plenty of enemies come to call, triumphs and tragedies, but none were as dangerous and uncertain as the threat that was currently coming for the Mikaelsons or rather one of them - Hope.
The spirit of the most powerful witch ever to exist called the Hollow was searching for more power and a new corporal form. It had chosen to zero in on young Hope, a tribred with great power. A perfect target for the Hollow. The threat was imminent and it seemed that the most powerful vampire and witch family was not enough to stop it.
Currently, the Hollow was in possession of little Hope and her family was desperate to find a way to free her free her from it's clutches. They were all afraid and desperate for a solution to defeat this impossible enemy. Yet, there didn't seem to be one in sight. It seemed absolutely hopeless.
"What are we going to do?" Rebekah asked as the family gathered for a family meeting over this matter. "What can we do? There has to be something or someone that can help."
"There's nothing we can do," Kol replied realistically. "The Hollow is the most powerful entity to ever exist. Nothing is powerful enough to destroy it."
"Well, we can't just let it have my daughter," Hayley protested. "We have to do something. There just has to be a way to save Hope from this...thing."
Back and forth, they went, trying to think of anything that they hadn't already that might help the child. Elijah remained quiet, his attention was on Niklaus.
His brother, whom had been strangely silent during this exchange finally perked up with a determined look upon his face that only meant one thing; he had a plan. Elijah had a feeling he knew exactly what it was too, having considered it himself before dismissing it.
"Don't worry, wifey, I won't let anything happen to our daughter," Niklaus said to Hayley. Then he turned to Kol, "You're wrong, little brother. The Hollow may be the most powerful entity on this world, but it is not the most powerful in existence. That honor belongs to another." His eyes shifted to Elijah and all other eyes followed until everyone was looking at between the two siblings with confused, curious looks.
Elijah felt his heart leap into his throat at the vague mentioning of Eternity. He wouldn't. He couldn't. Could he? Did Niklaus know how to summon her? How did he know? Perhaps Loki had told him? It seemed like a likely conclusion.
Still, he wasn't sure he was ready to face the woman who abandoned him. He swallowed thickly as he spoke his brother's name in warning. A jumble of emotions courses through him, so messy were they that he couldn't make one a single one thing he felt at the moment. He couldn't formulate more words to follow.
"Desperate times calls for desperate measures," Niklaus said as he approached. "Elijah, I need her help. Hope needs her help. And I will not let you or your hang ups stand in my way of saving my daughter. I will do what I must, regardless of your past with her."
After a short pause, Elijah nodded in acceptance, unable to do much else. Though he was still very unsure about the whole thing. "Do what you must," he said to his determined sibling.
"Would someone like to tell us what the bloody hell is going on?" Rebekah called, but it feel upon deaf ears as both Niklaus and he were already gone from the room.
To Be Continued...