so we're bound to linger on
.
.
The first one is taken away from him.
He finds out too late; he kneels to cradle her corpse in his arms, but with his new, alien strenght crushes her into him instead.
Elijah kisses her bloodied brow, eyelids and lips with the eyes of a drowning man and sharpening teeth (his first act as a monster is a kiss, not a bite. Afterwards, the irony is not lost on him), and then something inside him shifts and burns, and he licks his lips.
Her blood bursts and sings through his veins, and he recoils from her corpse and scrambles to his feet, bolts through the door and runs.
It's much later that he looks back.
A trail of destruction leads up to him, and he is shaking, panting without needing to, drenched in blood.
The taste of Tatia's blood still lingers on his tongue.
Elijah realizes then that it won't ever fade.
.
The second one walks away from him.
He watches as his brother leads her away, thinks she has no right to remind him of warmth in lifeless eyes, in a face that's not her own.
But blood still runs through her veins, though he doesn't need to be reminded of the taste, and when she turns around and looks back to him, catching his eyes (we are not weak, Klaus says afterwards, and Elijah wonders if they've ever been anything but), Elijah knows that he's stealing from her the luxury of looking back without regret.
The beast in him twists and stirs.
The man looks away.
.
The third one walks away from him too, and that, at least, he expects.
What he doesn't expect, is that she comes back.
And he wishes, for the first time in centuries, for a brief second, that his heart was still beating, just so he could hear it falter.
Welcome back he says instead, because he remembers still the taste of Tatia's blood better than how his own heart used to sound.
Elena comes too close, and she knows it. He notices, and wonders.
She had struggled to keep up with him, as he explained, and he'd like to tell her he's done so for a thousand years, trying and failing to keep up with them, with the blood he will always betray, and never forget.
Elena comes too close.
He lets her.
.
.
.
First TVD fanfic! I'm Italian, so if you find any mistakes please tell me right away, I'd love to improve :)
Title is from "Until we bleed", by Likke Li