A/N: So, I've created an OC for both Klaus and Kol, so of cause Elijah need's one as well ;) This woman, however, is a bit different from Iris and Anna, as she is a lot younger than our respectable vampires and her situation differs as well.
This story takes place a few years after the events of of season four of the Originals and takes place in the French city of Orleans.
Enjoy ;)
Zoe Duval rushed through the back door of the small bar near the Loire river bank. She apologized to the manager, as he pointed out how late she was and warned her once again that if she was ever late again, she would be fired. Zoe gave the grumpy man an apologetic look, as she picked up a dark red apron and tired it around her waist.
"Late again Zoe," Her colleague and friend Michelle said, as Zoe joined her by the bar, "There's no way Pierre will let it slide every time."
Zoe rolled her eyes and pulled her long raven hair back in a ponytail as she glanced back at the manager, now busy shouting at another employee. She huffed and took a tray from behind the bar to collect glasses from the tables.
"Trouble with the babysitter again," Zoe explained a made a face, as her and Michelle walked towards the tables, "Besides, there's no way Pierre could ever afford firing me. I work too damn much, for him to be able to do without me."
The bar was busy as any other Friday night in the French city of Orleans. It was mid-summer and the city was bustling with tourists. Tourists, drunk by the summer heat and alcohol. A group of Germans laughed out loud when Zoe walked past them with an order to another table. One of them, feeling brave, reached out and was about to grab her behind, however Zoe graphed his wrist before he could touch her.
"Am afraid we're not that kind of bar, sir." Zoe said in fluent German and gave him a sweet smile, earning roars of laughter from the guy's friends. The guy in question turning bright red and mumbled an apology.
Zoe let out a long sigh, coming up to the bar, where Michelle was waiting for an order to be prepared.
"Popular as always I see." The female blonde bartender, Jean said and winked at Zoe, who placed the tray with empty glasses on the counter. Zoe made a face and wiped her hands in her apron as she glanced back at the laughing tourists. Boys, all of them. What was so flattering about being hit on by boys? Zoe had already dated a boy, several actually and all of them had been a grave disappointment, not to mention disastrous. Michelle glanced at her friend and saw a well-known look in dark eyes. She shook her head and turned to Jean, who was just finishing up the ordered drinks.
"You're being too picky." She told Zoe with a small sigh, "Dreaming about mysterious strangers, whisking you off your feet-"
"Not to forget he has to be out of this world handsome and rich in every way." Jean chipped in helpfully and crooked a grin, as she leaned over the counter. Michelle glanced from the blonde to Zoe.
"Really Zoe, don't you think Damien deserve a father figure?" She asked resigned and placed the finished drinks on the tray, "He's three already."
Zoe sighed and paused for a moment before looking at her two friends. The three of them had stuck together ever since middle school, all through high school, college and had worked at the same bar for the past five years. They weren't talking about some random and temporary dream of hers, but something Zoe had talked about when she was still a girl. They still believed Zoe had been dreaming back then, much like her parents and just about everyone else she had told about the encounter. An encounter she'd when she was a 12- year old girl. Not to mention her life-long obsession, following said encounter.
"It's partly because of Damien, that I wouldn't just accept any man anymore." She reasoned with a small huff, "He doesn't have anything to do with any of it." Zoe insisted and graphed a cloth before leaving them to attend to bar guests.
Jean and Michelle exchanged a glance and then sighed, shaking their heads in union at their hopeless friend.
Zoe smiled at the customers and thanked them, as they gave her tips, getting up from the chairs. She put the tips in the apron pocket, when she suddenly noticed an unfamiliar sound, coming from one corner of the bar. Curious, she put the full tray on a nearby table and headed to the source of the sound. Zoe's eyes widened when they landed on a man sitting by the bars piano, looking to be fully engrossed in his playing. Brown eyes following hands with perfect ease as they moved over the piano effortlessly. Short and spiked dark brown hair, strong and marked cheekbones. He was slightly pale and wore a black jacket and pants, which fitted perfectly, despite it's causality. Zoe found herself unable to move, frozen in place, as she watched the man playing on undisturbed by the drunken laughter of the bar's guests.
"Oh yeah, speaking of mysterious strangers." Michelle whispered close behind Zoe. Zoe blinked, her friend's voice having pulled her out of her trance.
"It him." She whispered, finding hard to believe the truth of the words coming from her mouth, "Who is he?" Zoe then asked, shaking her head and turned to her friend.
"He goes by the name of Elijah Mikaelson." Jean informed, stepping up to the two women, "And that's just about all that is known about him. Pierre hired him to play in the bar yesterday, when you were off. He's quite handsome, isn't he?"
Usually, when Zoe got home from work, she'd be checking in on her son, making sure he was sleeping. Then she'd pay the babysitter and get ready for bed herself. However, this night was different. Zoe paid the sitter and pushed her out of the small flat, after which she rushed to her bedroom. Going through the closet to find her old books and notes, Zoe searched for something specific. Books, notes and documents, copies of old documents, all from her time at the university, where she had researched the history and myths, legends of a certain family. Zoe let out a triumphant cry, before she remembered her son was sleeping in the next room. Covering her mouth, she laughed, looking down at the papers in her hands. There was pictures and written sightings, all dated over a period of several centuries, from all over the world. All of them showing and telling about the same four people. Her eyes fell on a picture of a painting from the 17th century, one picture from a 1910's newspaper and another picture from the 1960's. There was no doubt. One of the three men on the painting, the newspaper and the man on the 1960's picture and the man playing at her bar tonight was the very same.
Sure, the hairstyles were different, but other than that, it was the very same man.
The same man who had saved Zoe from two red eyed and sharp teethed people, when she was twelve.
Zoe turned over some of the other documents. Documents from different sources, in different languages, from different locations, dating hundreds of years back – all of them mentioning the same four names; Elijah, Niklaus, Kol and Rebekah Mikaelson.
The infamous Mikaelson siblings. Lords and Lady of the dark middle ages and traders, businessmen, entrepreneurs of the modern world. There was no mistaking it and Zoe was hell-bent on confirming her years long theories, showing everyone that what happened that night wasn't just a fraction of her imagination. She hasn't been seeing things, but that that world was very real.
The next night, as the guests in the bar was thinning out, Zoe approached the man behind the piano. She had been keeping an eye and sending glances his way all night and was now determined on getting answers. She took the pictures out of her apron pocket and slammed them down on the piano in front of the man. He looked up at her, unfazed as if he had known she was coming.
"Zoe Duval, right?" He asked, his voice calm and a crooked smile grazing his lips, "The waitress who's been watching me all night." He said, his smile turning to a smirk, "Can I help you?"
Zoe blinked, for a moment taken aback by his collected pose, then she shook her head, collecting herself.
It was surreal seeing him and Zoe was pretty sure she could watch him for hours in pure fascination. He was, without a doubt her childhood hero. She could never forget that face or that voice. They had been imprinted in her memory back then and had been enhanced by her years of research. Zoe leaned forward, over the top of the piano, closer to him and showed him the pictures.
"I wanna know what you are." Zoe said in a low voice and smirked as Eli looked at the pictures.
"What are these?" He asked, brows furrowing as he looked over the three pictures. He paused, looking at the one from the paper and held it up for Zoe to see.
"Who are they?" He questioned, face blank as he pointed at the other three in the picture. Zoe looked from the picture to the man holding it.
"What do you mean?" She asked, confused by his obvious question, "That's you with your siblings in New Orleans 1918." Zoe explained, wondering why she even had to explain that to him. Eli stared at the picture for a long quiet moment.
"My siblings..."
"Yes. Niklaus, Kol and Rebekah Mikaelson," Zoe said, crooking her head, looking at him in slight confusion and worry. There was no way she had the wrong man, "Your siblings."
"I don't-" Eli began, as he felt a knot in his chest, momentarily making it hard to breathe, "I don't have any siblings." He said and looked up at Zoe, "I'm just me and you are acting as if you know who I am."
Without thinking about what she was doing, Zoe reached out her hand and touched his face gently as her eyes locked with his. Something wasn't right. Something was different about him from 15 years ago. While he hadn't aged a day and appeared to be just the same as he had been then, there was something different about his eyes. They lacked the fire she remembered. The life and the passion. The eyes looking back at her seemed empty, hollow having lost their life completely. Something was missing.
"I do know who you are." Zoe whispered as she absently caressed the man's face, "How come you don't?"
Eli looked back down at the pictures in his hand and Zoe noticed something faze over his eyes for a short moment. Sadness and confusion.
(...)
Eli took in a deep breath before he knocked on the apartment door. One of the waitresses at his most recent job had insisted she knew who he was and that she would be able to show him. Eli knew what he was. That fact was hard to not know when he felt the hunger grow along with the need to pierce warm flesh. He had met others like him, vampires, who had showed him the way of their species. However, who he was, was another mystery entirely. Eli's memories only went back three years, anything before that was a complete blank. Other vampires had suggested that that point had been when he had been turned and so, it was his life as a mortal, which had been lost to him. To Eli, that had made some sense and he had gone with that explanation ever since. That was until the waitress had showed pictures at him. Pictures, going way beyond three years. Pictures that went back decades and even centuries, portraying Eli himself with three other people, who she claimed were his siblings. What was it she kept calling him? Elijah? Elijah Mikaelson? Eli shook his head and knocked on the door again, this time a little harder. He soon heard shuffling behind the door and seconds later the door was opened, revealing a somewhat flushed Zoe Duval. She was wearing grey baggy sport pants and a white top, fit closely to her female form. Raven hair was pulled back in a messy bun. Her long neck was decorated with a silver chain and heart pendant and Eli noticed a small tattoo on the right side of her chest. A small heart with a name and a date.
"You're here!" She said and smiled, dark eyes sparkling, before she opened the door entirely, "I'm glad you decided to come." She added and turned to walk back into the apartment, "I'm sorry about the mess, it's been a rather hectic morning, getting Damien to kindergarten and all."
Eli glanced at the doorframe around him. This, he had learned, was one of the consequences of being a vampire. One wasn't able to enter a private home, unless one was invited. He looked at Zoe's retreating form and was about to speak up, when she suddenly turned around.
"Oh right, I forgot, sorry." Zoe said and gave him an apologetic smile, "Come on in."
Eli stepped over the threshold, a little hesitant, then followed Zoe into the small flat. The room he stepped into was a combined living room and kitchen. A narrow hall on the left lead to three other rooms with two doors ajar. Zoe moved around in the room, picking up toys and clothes from the floor and furniture. She threw the toys into the room closest to the living room and the clothes into the room at the end of the hall.
Eli sat down in the cleared armchair and looked around the room. Besides the couch and armchairs, the room held a few shelves and drawers, decorated with books and pictures. Family photos, Eli noted. Several of them were of Zoe herself, together with a child. A boy. Another picture was of Zoe and two other women, Eli recognized as waitresses and bartenders from the bar.
"You have a son?" Eli asked as Zoe emerged back from the hall, carrying a rather large box.
"Yeah." She said with a gentle smile and placed the box at the table in front of Eli, "Damien. He turned three this year and he's a true little troublemaker."
Eli smiled and looked down at the box absently. Family. Eli had often thought about the possibilities of him having blood relatives and every time he did, something inside him moved and he felt a sharp pain in his chest. What were the chances of there being someone out there, who had known and loved him as family? This was why it had been so overwhelming, when Zoe and confronted him and told him that he actually did have family. Siblings. Three of them. If he indeed was who she claimed him to be.
"According to the myths, you and your siblings are the first and oldest vampires." Zoe said as she walked into the living room, mugs of coffee in hand and placed one of them in front of Eli, before sitting down across from him. Eli looked up at her. She had changed her clothes and rearranged her hair. Now wearing dark blue jeans and a white t-shirt. Her hair, long and smooth, hung loose over one shoulder and waved slightly in the quiet breeze coming from the opened window in the room, as she leaned forward, eyes fixed on him with a hint of curiosity.
"Records from the Vatican and other middle age churches describe you and your siblings as bloodthirsty demons, hunting in the night and deceiving people with your charms by day." Zoe said nonchalantly and took out a few documents from the box, "Other records, from your everyday people, traders and travelers describe you as sophisticated, respected and just businessmen and leaders of your region." Zoe glanced at Eli and smirked, "Quiet interesting people, no?"
Eli looked at the papers she held out and skipped through the words.
"The sources which speaks of your family most, is from New Orleans, Louisiana." Zoe said and handed him an old article, "Those sources go back to the early 18th century and the most recent is from 8 years ago." She told him and paused for a moment, "From what I've read, I believe that city has a special meaning to your family. Also, there's a small town in Virginia, called Mystic Falls, which seems to have a lot on you. Does any of those places sound familiar to you?"
Eli shook his head and looked up at her with a crooked brow.
"You got all that from what's in this box?" He asked, somewhat impressed by her knowledge. Zoe laughed out loud, a pleasant sound, Eli noted shortly and shook her head.
"Oh no, not at all." She chuckled and stood up, "That's just one of my boxes of research, I've got at least seven more of those." Zoe informed him and pointed at the box, "This wasn't just some small, temporary interest. If you ask my friends, it was more like an obsession. I've found records and documents mentioning you as far back as the early 11th century, which would make you and your siblings over a thousand years old. You're not just any vampire, Elijah Mikaelson."
Eli put the papers on the tabled next to the box and picked out a couple of others to read through.
"Vampires." He said without looking up from the documents in his hand, "You say it as if it's the most natural thing to you. The idea of monsters of the night who kills for their own survival and pleasure, it doesn't scare you?" Eli questioned, speaking something which had wondered him for a while.
Zoe crooked her head as she watched him quietly for a long moment.
"They used to." She admitted quietly, making him look up at her, "I used to be terrified of them, but 15 years ago, I learned that they weren't all bad."
"So, you really do believe vampires to be real and you believe I'm one of them?" Eli clarified with a sceptic brow at her. Zoe laughed again and shook her head as she sat down at the small table in front of him.
"Oh, I know vampires are real, even if no one else believed me and thought I was crazy." She said, her face close to his as her eyes locked on his, "I've known them to be real ever since I watched one kill my parents when I was five." Zoe told him and leaned back just a little, "The supernatural underworld might be hidden, but not when you know what to look for. Even this city; it's crawling with vampires, witches and even werewolves."
(…)
Zoe was on her way to pick up Damien one late afternoon, when she was suddenly pulled aside and thrown against the wall in a dark dumpster alley.
"You're getting a little too cozy with the new vampire in town, aren't you Zoe?"
Zoe groaned as she stumbled back on her feet, leaning against the wall for support as her back ached painfully from the collision. She drew a long, annoyed sigh and braced herself, facing the one of the last people she'd want to run into.
"What is it to you?" She asked through gritted teeth and glared at the black clad man before her, "It's not like he's the first vampire and besides Cade and I made an agreement, I still have 3 years." Zoe spat, not hiding her utter disgust for the man. A wicked smirk moved over chapped lips, as the man took a step closer to her.
"You and I both know that this particular one isn't just any vampire, don't we?" He said and graphed Zoe's chin, making her look at him cold grey eyes piercing hers, "However, for some reason, the vampire himself doesn't know and Cade would like to keep it that way for now. So, you see Zoe," He hissed and moved in, pale face inches from hers, "we can't have you meddling with him, with the risk of him suddenly remembering."
Zoe felt her stomach turn when the man's wile breath reached her nostrils. She fought back the nausea and stubbornly held her glare at him. With a huff, the man released her. Zoe dropped to the ground, feeling her legs shaking under her. She looked up at the black clad man hovering over her, staring at her coldly.
"Cade is scared of him, isn't he?" Zoe asked with a hint of glee, as the man was leaving. He stopped and looked back at her.
"Any vampire who doesn't fear an original is an ignorant fool with a death wish, this has been proven time and time again." He said and turned completely to face her, "And we do have some self-preservation, which is why we've come this far." The man took a few steps closer to Zoe, icy cold eyes piercing hers, "I know what you're thinking Zoe and I strongly advice against it. Cade gave you six years with your son, out of the goodness of his heart, however if you should try anything, the last three years can easily be revoked."
In the next second he was gone, leaving Zoe alone in the alley. She let out a long breath she had been holding back unconsciously and looked down at her shaking hands against the cold concrete.
"Shit." She mumbled and clenched her hands into fists.
A/N: So, this is how Elijah first met Zoe - a French female human with quite a few secrets and a messy past. Who is the man in black and this 'Cade' character and how is Zoe mixed up with them? Stay tuned to learn more and let me know what you think so far ;)