I do not own TVD or TO.
I'm not sure how good this one is. It's mostly just Elena's thoughts so far, but I might continue it if there's enough interest.
Every supernatural being in the world – be they witch, werewolf, traveller, hunter or siren – is born with a series of numbers on their left wrist. These numbers countdown until the moment they meet their soulmates, and only hit zero when their eyes meet. It is said that there is an instant connection – a physiological response.
Human beings can only ever dream of such things, for their counters are hidden from the eyes. There is one way in which a human may activate their counter and that is to complete the transition into vampirism.
If there was one thing the Original vampires hated more than anything in the world it was the daggers. They loathed them with a burning passion. Nothing ever quite compared to the horror of being trapped within one's body; unable to move, unable to think, unable to breathe. There was no method of knowing how much time had passed until waking up either, but it was guaranteed to last a decade or two at the very least.
They could be sure that the people they had known before falling under the deathlike spell were all dead.
Perhaps the worst thing was the counters. They continued on even as the ancient vampires slept. The siblings never knew if the counter would run out while they were under the daggers effects.
She paused in the process of setting up hundreds of red solo cups filled to the brim with water. The liquid had splashed up onto her sleeve. Using the rag in her pocket she mopped the water up as best she could before sliding her sleeve up her arm; the action revealed a series of numbers slowly counting down like the stop watch teachers used for tests.
For as long as she could remember she'd had the numbers. Her parents had told her to always keep them covered up. As a child that had meant long sleeves, but later she had taken to hiding the numbers under her watch.
The first person to ever see them had been Stefan the night they were first intimate. He had been surprised to find them there because they were markings only found on the arms of supernatural creatures and not on the wrists of random individuals as her mother had led her to believe.
Stefan had proven his point by showing her his own wrist; the numbers were locked in at zero. His explanation had been hesitant at first, but eventually he had told her that the numbers counted down the moments until a person met their soulmate.
As the months had passed it became known that she was a doppelganger, and that this was likely the reason she had been born with the counter. She'd stopped worrying about hiding the numbers after her 'death' because just about anyone who would have seen the marks had marks of their own. Tyler was a werewolf, Bonnie was a witch, Caroline was a vampire, and her brother and Matt knew about everything.
Still part of her was kind of bummed that Stefan wasn't her soulmate, and a large part of Damon was upset that she wasn't his.
She didn't love Damon, and she wasn't sure if she was in love with Stefan either. She would always love him, but she didn't believe her feelings for the vampire that had introduced her to this crazy supernatural world were romantic in nature. She wanted him to come home because he was her friend, and Damon's brother, but she knew everyone thought she was still in love with him.
Elena shook herself from her thoughts and turned her focus from the steadily decreasing numbers to the cups. Math had never been her best subject (she couldn't do quick division in her head) but she knew that there was at least a few days left on the counter. Musing over her soulmate could wait for a little while; right now she had to finish setting up the prank for the first day of school and meet up with Bonnie to help finish filling the pool with balloons.
She honestly wasn't sure how she had gotten here. One moment she was blowing up balloons because Bonnie was out of breath, then she was running from a homicidal maniac; the same one that had killed her months before.
Now she was locked away in a bedroom. She had watched in shock as Klaus used her blood to successfully turn his first hybrid. The next she had been whisked away at vampire speed and deposited in the room she now occupied.
She had to hand it to his mother. The woman had been a mad genius. In order to break his hybrid curse he needed to drain the doppelganger of blood, but in order to create a hybrid he needed the blood of the doppelganger.
Her stomach knotted. She lifted her eyes to his smug smile.
"Welcome home, love," he held out his hands and smirked.
His hand wrapped around her upper arm when her eyes darted to the door behind him. He squeezed the soft skin hard enough to leave bruises and pinned her to the wall.
"Don't even think about it," his free hand tore the vervain filled locket from her neck and tossed it into a far corner of the room. "As you've seen tonight I find myself in need of your blood. Now I have no intention of killing you Elena – it has become apparent I need you alive. However, I can't have you running off on me, so…" he caught her chin and met her angry eyes, "… you will not leave this house unless I am accompanying you, and you will not harm yourself in any way. I'll not have you pulling a Katerina either."
Elena gritted her teeth and glared up at him. She mentally cursed herself for not drinking vervain as well as wearing it. His concern for her well-being might have been touching if he wasn't thinking of his own gains.
"What do you want from me?" She exhaled when he finally released her arm.
"What I want is an army of hybrids," he stepped back.
"So what?" She paced after him down the length of the hall. "You're just going to keep me locked up for the rest of my life?"
"Of course," his smirk was infuriating. "Eventually though you'll have to have children; you can't possibly live forever as a human being and I'll want another doppelganger one day."
Elena froze on the staircase as her blood ran cold.
She stared out the window as the sun cast long shadows through the glass. She'd been held prisoner by Klaus for a week now with no sign of a rescue in sight. She hadn't seen another living soul since he'd brought her to the sprawling mansion, but still her counter decreased; maybe it only counted down to the moment when you were meant to meet your soulmate, and it didn't matter if you actually met them or not.
Who was there for her to meet?
She eventually tore herself from the window and pulled open the large walk-in closet. She still didn't know if Klaus had gotten a minion to run out and get her clothes or if he had gone himself, but either way the knowledge that someone had picked out her underwear was disconcerting; everything was the right size though and for that she was grateful.
She wasn't overly thrilled about the types of underwear in the drawer though. The scraps of lace and silk were very nice, but not exactly her style. She wasn't entirely sure she could pull off the skimpy lace, but luckily the rest of the clothes were closer to her style. They were high end designers but normal-ish. She covered the black underwear with skinny jeans and a dark red dolman sleeve blouse that clung to her hips before slipping into a pair of flats.
Klaus had left to go somewhere with Stefan. Her ex – who she had still considered a friend until the kidnapping – was being no help at all in getting her out. She might have thought that Klaus had compelled Stefan as well, but she knew he was still without his humanity; the only thing he had compelled Stefan to do was to not harm her.
With her ex and her captor out hunting down a pack of wolves she had been given the run of the house. She knew she'd be alone for at least until the sun rose the next day before Klaus returned; he had told her he'd be hunting a pack of wolves all night and that he would expect a healthy donation of blood when he returned to the mansion.
She peeked out the windows of each room as she passed in an attempt to discern whether or not she was still in Mystic Falls. If she was she didn't recognize the area the house occupied. She wandered from room to room for the better part of an hour before she stepped down into a large room.
Her eyes didn't see the beautiful artwork that had been professionally lit along the walls, or the gorgeous antique desk before the floor to ceiling windows. She didn't register the hardwood floors. Her eyes were glued on the coffins arranged in a semi-circle around the center of the room.
She swallowed nervously and ran her fingers carefully over the smooth mahogany of the first coffin.
I had a family. Over the centuries, Klaus hunted them down one by one and he took them from me. He scattered them across the seas where their bodies would never be found.
She quickly located the latch and lifted the lid. Sure enough there was a body inside. Elijah was laid out flat on his back with a silver dagger protruding from his chest. She left the lid open before moving to the next coffin.
The man looked like he'd gone to sleep sometime in the middle ages. That had to be the last time his long hair, green tunic, and jerkin were considered fashionable.
The third coffin revealed a man who couldn't have been much older than her – physically at least. His dark hair was combed neatly to the side. He wore a dark green button down shirt and a black vest that put Elena in mind of the early twentieth century.
The next coffin was shorter, and the moment Elena opened it she saw why. It held the body of a young woman in a vintage dress that Caroline would have killed for when they had the 20's dance.
The final coffin wouldn't open.
Her fingers were curled around the edge of the dagger in the girl's chest when she second guessed herself.
She wasn't hesitant to wake the Original vampires up. Nobody deserved what they had been subjected to, but the memory of how hungry Elijah had been after only a few weeks had surfaced.
Klaus had compelled her not to harm herself in any way, shape or form. This might have been her loophole to that order, but in spite of the plans he had for her she had no desire to die; she wanted to live, and being the only human in a house full of ravenous vampires was most definitely a bad idea.
"I can't leave you," she released the dagger and chewed her lip, "but I don't think I dare wake you either." She worried her bottom lip for a few minutes before leaving the 'viewing room' and slid through the halls until she found the kitchen.
If she hadn't spent so much time around the Salvatores she definitely would have gagged upon seeing the shelves of blood bags, but she had gotten used to the sight. She grabbed a bowl from under the counter and filled it with bags of the thick red liquid before closing the fridge and making her way back.
She placed the blood bags neatly along the top of the antique desk. When they were lined up she started at the last coffin holding the girl and extracted the dagger. The metal clanged when it hit the bowl. She made a quick round of the room.
"I'm not sure if any of you can actually hear me," she balanced the bowl on her hip and fiddled with the lock on the door, "but if you can please drink the blood before leaving the room. I'd rather not be drained dry."
She knew logically that the locked door wouldn't protect her from anyone but she still locked it. The wood would give them pause at least and hopefully distract them long enough to ensure they refueled.
Elena made her way through the house while examining the blades. A thin layer of blood clung to the bottom of each.
She wiped them clean in the kitchen and laid them out on the table.
"Now, what to do with you?" Elena ran her fingers back through her hair. She bent at the waist propped her elbows on the table and held her head in her hands while staring at the antique blades.
Her bedroom would be the first place Klaus would look. She was the only person who could have lifted the daggers from his siblings. The second option would be to give them to Elijah, but she was rather upset over the whole ritual/betrayal business; she didn't want to give the daggers up. She had no intention of using them either.
Coming to a decision she gathered the sharp knives in her hand and started looking everything over. She found a tall vase in the library with a lid; it was the perfect size. She dropped them all inside, replaced the lid and made sure to run her hands over several of the shelves and sofas so her scent would linger in more than one place.
Her eyes narrowed when she left the room full of books and looked down onto her left wrist.
It was a sickening feeling: first waking up after the dagger was removed.
Every vital organ was shrivelled and dry, but that didn't stop the body from waking. That sense of being trapped in the confines of the limbs faded away to be replaced by a need for blood; it was pressing.
Elijah was the first to awaken. He sat up quickly and gasped for breath while looking into every corner of the room. How long had Niklaus left him asleep this time?
There was no possible way of knowing until he asked. He was on his feet in an instant when he noticed the other coffins open as well. He had just enough time to register the lack of daggers when Rebekah sat up with a gasp; she was swiftly followed by Kol.
She worked away at a sandwich while reading the first chapter of The Great Gatsby. She was attempting to make herself forget about the last ten minutes; it wasn't working.
"How long have I been asleep?" Rebekah drained a bag of blood and reached for another. Once upon a time she had used her counter to keep track of the years Nik stole from her, but her counter had hit zero a few weeks before he'd stabbed her in the heart.
"I don't know," Elijah shook his head. His own timer had run out long ago during the years Niklaus had kept him daggered.
Kol unbuttoned his sleeve. His eyes grew round at the numbers left on his skin. Close to a hundred years had passed; the last hundred years. The blood he had just consumed boiled in his veins. There was nobody else in the house aside from his siblings.
"I'm going to kill him," Kol growled. There were only ten seconds left on his arm. He pushed his siblings and tore open the door as the last few seconds counted down.
Based on his reaction Elijah assumed the counter had stopped at 0.000
10 seconds…
She shouldn't have been in that hall.
8 seconds…
She should have stayed in the kitchen, or gone back to her room.
6 seconds…
A door was wrenched from its hinges.
5 seconds…
Her heart leapt into her throat.
4 seconds…
She ran into a solid body. Her hands curled around the dark green fabric of his shirt.
3 seconds…
Her eyes slowly raked up the man's face.
2 seconds…
Mouth…
1 second…
Nose…
0.00000
Eyes…
Her heart thundered loudly. She could hear the blood rushing in her ears as warmth spread down her spine making her entire body tingle with electric energy.
His anger disappeared. On instinct his hands reached out to steady the slim woman's hips. The only thing he noticed about her was her mahogany eyes. He didn't remember the last time his heart had pulsed as it did in that moment. His body hummed with energy; it was the kind of energy he hadn't felt since the night his mother had turned him: magic. For one long moment it pulsed through him again.
"Kol, I was under the impression you were going to kill Niklaus," Elijah paused when he stepped into the hall. "Elena?"
She dragged her eyes from the young man in front of her to the one who had called her name.
"Elijah," she slowly released the dark fabric. The spell seemed to break with the loss of eye contact. "Is that possible?" She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I wouldn't be overly opposed."
Reluctantly Kol released her hips. That was when he saw the rest of her features; her very familiar features.
What do you think?
i've got this idea for another KOLENA fic where Bonnie finds a spell that will allow Elena to be stronger and more durable by binding her to a stronger being (vampire) so she plans to use Caroline, but Klaus gets wind of it and being out of town sends Kol to break up the spell; unfortunately there were complications and rather than stopping it he found himself in the middle of it. Shame Bonnie didn't read the fine print on the spell.
