Elijah sat perched in the dense branches of a pine tree that stood in the yard of the Salvatore had a clear view of the parlor, where Damon was sitting on an ancient couch, nursing a drink in silent contemplation. Elijah watched silently, as he had done every night for the past week. He didn't trust them.
He turned his head to the direction of a car approaching from the distance. Stefan's red Porsche roared up the driveway and came to a sudden stop in front of the garage, sending gravel flying in every direction. Elijah noted that Stefan was a markedly less cautious driver when he had no passengers with him. Stefan left the car and slammed the door behind him in what appeared to be frustration. Elijah watched as he stormed up the stairs and through the front door. Seconds later, he joined Damon in the parlor.
"What's the matter, brother?" Damon asked him with a smirk. "Trouble in paradise?"
Even though there was a great distance and a thick wall of glass between them, Elijah could hear the Salvatores perfectly. Centuries of consuming human blood had greatly sharpened all his senses. He could have heard them from miles away, but he preferred to watch his prey as well as listen to them.
"Its never been paradise, thanks to you", Stefan growled.
Damon raised his eyebrows. "Don't take your anger out on me, I know what you're really upset about."
Stefan sighed. "I'm sorry. It's just so frustrating. She's made up her mind and I cant change it. And I can't just sit here and do nothing. I can't just let her die."
"I've been thinking about that", Damon said slowly. "What if we don't have to?"
Elijah tensed. This was what he had been waiting for.
"What do you mean?" Stefan asked.
"We can just take her and run. We won't let her sacrifice herself. We won't let her die."
Stefan shook his head. "She'd never come with us."
"We are much stronger than she is", said Damon, grinning.
"You're talking about kidnapping her? She'd never forgive us."
Damon closed his eyes and sighed. "I know she wouldn't be very happy with us, at least not at first. But I'd much rather have her alive and a little pissed off than dead. Katherine's evaded Klaus for hundreds of years – I'm sure it wont be that difficult for us to do the same."
Stefan was silent. He was thinking about it.
Elijah didn't need to wait for anything else. He silently slipped from the branches and landed on the ground noiselessly. The scenery blurred around him as he ran, and in an instant he was standing outside Elena's house.
He leapt up to Elena's window and peered inside; she was sleeping. He would have to be quick – if the Salvatore brothers decided to act, they could take her at any moment. He slid the window open and crept inside, glad that he had been previously invited into the house by Jenna.
"Elena", he said as he stood beside her bed.
She slowly opened her eyes and squinted as she tried to make out the dark figure standing in her room. She sat up quickly and pulled her blanket up to her chin when she saw who it was, as if the thin piece of fabric would somehow protect her from one of the oldest vampires of all time.
"You must come with me immediately", Elijah said. "It will be best for you if you don't protest. I don't want to hurt you."
Elena nodded slowly, confused. Elijah held out a hand.
She stood and slowly walked towards him, reaching out her own hand and taking his. The instant her hand touched his, he swung his other arm under her knees and swept her into his arms. They soared out the window and everything was a blur.
Elena's arms were wrapped around Elijah. Stefan had never run with her like this. The speed was exhilarating, but also quite terrifying. The landscape rushing by on either side was starting to make her feel sick, so she buried her face in Elijah's neck. His skin was soft and cool, and smelled faintly of like the pages of a really old book. She wondered where he was taking her, and what was so important that it couldn't wait until the next morning.
They had finally stopped moving. Elijah set her down gently on the ground.
She looked around. They were standing in front of a modest country house. There were no other houses within sight.
"Where have you taken me?" She demanded.
"To a small house of mine", Elijah said, unlocking the front door and holding it open for her. "You were no longer safe where you were."
"Why not?" She asked. "Stefan will protect me."
She followed him inside and he shut the door behind them. "It is Stephan I'm protecting you from."
She stared at him blankly, confused.
"You and I made a deal", he said. "I would protect you, your family, and your friends, and in return you would stay safe, human, and not run away before the ceremony."
"Yes, and I've upheld my end of the bargain", she said.
"I still don't understand why", Elijah said.
"Then you must not understand love", Elena said simply. "I would rather die than live while my friends and family are killed because of me. If I die, I can save them all. It's not a difficult decision. I see that you don't understand this, but I haven't run yet, and I'm not going to. I don't know why you brought me here. I haven't changed my mind."
"It is not you that I'm worried about. I overheard an interesting conversation at the Salvatore house this evening," Elijah said evenly. "It seems that Stefan and Damon are not very happy with your decision. In fact, they were discussing taking matters into their own hands."
"What do you mean?" asked Elena slowly.
"They are planning on taking you and preventing you from sacrificing yourself at the ceremony, in order to keep you alive."
"They wouldn't..." But as she said it, she realized that it could be true. She had thought that Stefan loved her enough to respect her wishes, but she had known that he would never accept her decision. And Damon was the kind of person who would hold her against her will. He cared about her enough to want to keep her alive at any cost, even if it meant the deaths of her family and friends.
Elena sighed. "This isn't going to make either of them very happy."
"That's too bad," Elijah said. "I made a deal with you, not them. They wont find this place."
Elena considered the situation. Nothing much had changed, she would just be waiting in a different location until the ceremony. If Stefan and Damon were going to take her away, it was a good thing Elijah had interfered, or else Klaus would have gone after her family and friends.
"Thank you," Elena said, looking up into Elijah's dark eyes. He didn't blink.
"I didn't do it for your sake," he said with a slight smirk. "I must go meet with Klaus. You still have vervain in your system, so I cannot compel you. But you know what will happen if you try to leave or contact anyone."
"I wont go anywhere," she said quietly.
"Good," Elijah replied. "There is an extra bedroom upstairs and food in the kitchen, should you get hungry."
There was a swish of black material and suddenly Elena was alone.
Despite being woken in the middle of the night, she was not tired. She decided to wander through the house and explore a little. The house relatively new, and decorated with modern furniture. Elena was a little surprised; she had expected that the old vampire would have had similar tastes to Stefan and Damon. But then, this house probably was not Elijah's primary residence. He undoubtedly had multiple properties around the world. Living for hundreds of years, one would acquire a great deal of wealth. Elena wandered into the study, where the walls were covered from floor to ceiling with bookcases full of books. She ran a finger over the dusty volumes, and wondered why Elijah had brought these books with him to this house. She picked up a particularly heavy volume and opened it at random. The words were handwritten and in some ancient language she didn't understand. She replaced the book carefully.
She wandered upstairs and into the master bedroom. This was Elijah's room. She wondered why he had such grand bed when vampires don't need to sleep. It looked so comfortable. She sat on it to test the softness, and immediately fell back into cushiony wonderland.
Ill just lay here for a second, she thought, closing her eyes.
Elijah returned to the house as the sun was rising. He could hear her soft breathing from a mile away. She was sleeping. He silently entered the house and followed the sound upstairs, into his bedroom. He hadn't expected to find her here.
He stood beside the bed and studied her. In sleep, her face was calm and gentle, unclouded by the feisty determination that took over when she was awake. He could not look upon her face without remembering Katherine and Arianna, but though she was similar to them in looks, she was so very different in every other aspect. Katherine was incredibly selfish above all else, and he had always found Arianna to be too timid. Elena was neither of things.
Elijah would be sad to see her die.