Sometimes There's Honour in Revenge

Part One

New York City...

Every vein in Elijah's body was currently overcome with a tingling sensation, telling him he was thirsty for blood yet again, to his disgust. He had never hated being a vampire so much in a thousand years than he did right now. Not only had he recently learned that he had taken countless lives in cruel, sadistic ways that he had repressed behind a "red door", but he also nearly killed the mother of his niece, Hayley Marshall, and the only reason why he didn't was because his baby sister Rebekah was there to stop him. But admittedly it had already been a couple of weeks since he nearly killed Hayley, and in those couple of weeks, he had killed somewhere around thirty to forty innocent humans, just because he wanted to drink their blood to satisfy an overwhelming hunger that was practically impossible to control.

Now that he was in New York though, he was hoping to do something about that enhanced blood lust of his. Since it was Dahlia, a witch, who kicked his bloodlust up a notch, it had to be a witch to put his blood lust back to where it was, so he would be able to manage it again. And in New York City, was a witch whom Elijah was quite fond of, a powerful witch by the name of Natalie Simmons. He first met Natalie back in the year 1980, when she was only 17 years old and just starting to learn about the magical world she lived in. Ever since he knew her, she lived in New York city, which made it very easy to keep track of her. He figured if he was going to ask any witch for help, it might as well be her since he certainly trusted her more than he trusted any other witch in his life right now.

Elijah then made his way to just outside of Natalie's apartment and knocked on the door, patiently waiting for a response, trying to keep his mind off the fact that he was thirsty as he did. After a moment, Natalie came to the door, a friendly smile on her face, wearing a black dress and jacket over top of the dress, as well as a chain necklace with a silver pentagram symbol attached to it. Natalie reached out and hugged Elijah, Elijah standing in place, refusing to hug her back, trying to resist the urge to bite into the delicate flesh of her neck and drink every last drop of her heart's blood.

After a moment, Natalie took her arms off Elijah and broke away from him. She stared at his face for a minute, as if she were studying it, a concerned look on her face. "Are you okay Elijah?"

"Quite the opposite. But I didn't come here to discuss personal matters. I have a spell I'd like you to cast," Elijah replied.

Natalie frowned. "You never just stop by to say hi. What kind of spell Elijah? It's not—we won't have to hurt anyone, will we?"

"You won't. I already did," Elijah admitted, Natalie looking even more concerned. "But this spell... trust me Natalie, when I say it would be beneficial for everyone."

Natalie gave Elijah a quizzical look. "Keep talking."

"My aunt Dahlia, she's a powerful witch, she came back into my life not too long ago, hoping to kidnap my niece and channel her magic. In my and my family's efforts to vanquish her... I was cursed. She cast some sort of spell to enhance my bloodlust. And now, my dear Natalie, I need you to cast a spell to reverse what Dahlia's done to me. The longer I go like this... the more people I kill. If you don't help me, I will find someone else. But I'd prefer it to be you because... you're one of the few witches to have earned my trust and not betrayed it. Please, Natalie."

"Alright, no need to beg me, I'll cast your spell for you. But after I do, you're going to have to answer a few questions for me. Like how on Earth you have a niece, one who's a witch no less, seeing as how all of your siblings are vampires and have been for the last thousand years. And how your aunt, who apparently is also a witch, is still alive after a thousand years and has managed to maintain her magic?"

Elijah tried to force a smile on his face. "I'll be happy to explain all of that to you later. But admittedly, I still don't know how some of that is possible. There are things about this world that still escape me."

"Understandably so. Come on in, let's cast this spell of yours."

Natalie turned around and walked away, Elijah following her and closing the door behind her, breathing heavily, still trying to keep his bloodlust at bay.

Natalie led Elijah into the living area of her apartment, where she sat down on a chair, while Elijah sat down on the couch opposite the chair, and in between them was a coffee table. Natalie gestured to the table, and Elijah first pulled out a bag filled with soil, then a bag containing a lock of Dahlia's hair, placing them on the coffee table. Natalie then looked at Elijah expectantly, and slowly, Elijah took out a third bag from one of his coat pockets, this one containing a fresh human heart, to Natalie's horror. "The ingredients for this spell were to be a lock of hair from the witch who cursed me, soil from my native land, and the heart of someone whose life I took," Elijah explained.

"I see I'm going to be delving into the really dark magics today."

"...I apologize for that."

Natalie nodded. "It's... alright. I'll just take some salt out and we'll get this reversal spell started. I think we can both agree that the sooner we get this done, the better."

"Agreed. I happen to be thirsty right now as we speak."

Natalie gave Elijah a nervous look. "Do you... do you want some of my blood before we begin?"

Elijah shook his head. "No-I couldn't. I don't know if I'd be able to stop myself if I started. I have a terrible habit of killing anyone I feed from right now."

Natalie gulped. "Good to know."

Natalie walked out of the room for a minute, and when she came back, she was holding a rectangular box filled with white salt. She sat back down in her chair and moved all three of the bags closer together, before opening up the box of salt and making a circle of salt around the three bags. Elijah then took out a folded up piece of paper from his coat and handed it to Natalie, Natalie quickly reading it over. "Alright, seems straight forward enough. I'll just read your incantation, wave my hands over the ingredients and you should be as good as new, free from whatever your immortal aunt did to you."

Natalie read the incantation over again a couple of more times before she set it down on the coffee table next to the circle of salt and knelt down on the floor next to the table, leaning in and beginning to wave her hands over the circle. "Sanguinem nocet amplius. Sanguinem nocet amplius,"Natalie chanted, twin trails of blood running down from her nose as she did, to Elijah's concern. "Sanguinem nocet amplius."

Suddenly, Elijah felt a powerful, burning sensation in his veins. His skin started to redden, and he began to cough violently, drops of blood flying out of his mouth and on to the table. Natalie stopped chanting and rushed over to Elijah's side, sitting down next to him on the couch. "Elijah, Elijah, oh god... what have I done?!"

Elijah then stopped coughing to Natalie's relief, his skin returning to its normal state, his eyes briefly turning an onyx black before turning back to their normal colour. "I'm not—I'm not thirsty anymore," Elijah said quietly, gasping for air, seemingly in a state of shock.

"Well, I'd say that spell of yours worked then. Looks like you're healed Elijah."

Elijah smiled a little at Natalie. "That's... relieving. What do I owe you?"

"Just a few stories. Like what you've been up to since I've last seen you. Oh and the story about your aunt and your niece. I like you too much to charge you any money for doing spells."

"...Let's start with the story behind my niece. As far as I understand it, here's what happened. Niklaus had a one night stand with a werewolf named Hayley Marshall, and by chance, impregnated her. Normally vampires can't conceive children, but Niklaus isn't just a vampire anymore. He's also a werewolf. And because he's half werewolf, he was able to conceive a child with Hayley."

Natalie stared at Elijah for a moment, trying to take all of this in. "... I see. Certainly didn't see that coming. So, a hybrid mates with a werewolf, and somehow the offspring ends up being... a witch?"

"Our mother was a witch. And the child is not just a witch. The child also has vampire blood running through her veins, and a dormant werewolf gene that will activate if she ever kills someone. So if she does, she will be a member of all three species, a witch, a vampire and a werewolf."

"World's first tri-brid."

"Tri-brid?" Elijah asked.

"Sounded better than werewitchpire," Natalie argued. "Or witchwerepire."

"Fair enough. But understand we just call her Hope."

"You named the child Hope?"

"Niklaus did. I don't remember if Hayley had any say in the matter or not."

"For some reason, knowing your family I thought you might've went with something a little more.. I don't know, Nordic?"

Elijah laughed a little. "You would've thought so. But no. I believe Niklaus chose the name because he thought of her as our family's hope... for redemption."

"You believe in redemption?"

"Depends on the day," Elijah admitted. "But these days, I would tend to answer no. I don't believe in redemption anymore. At least not redemption for myself. My soul has been damned and there's nothing anyone can do to save it. That is what I believe right now Natalie."

"And why are you, of all people—or vampires, beyond redemption?"

Elijah hesitated. "That's a story for another time Natalie."

"Also, I know this doesn't really have anything to do with what we're talking about, but what happened to Katherine? You two were joined at the hip last time I saw you, couldn't keep your hands off each other. Don't tell me you guys broke up-"

Elijah had a deeply pained look on his face. "Katerina is dead."

"...Oh my god. Elijah... I'm so sorry."

"I haven't really had time to process it to be honest. I only heard it from Niklaus and Rebekah around a month ago. She's been dead a lot longer than that from what I understand, they just... they knew and they kept it from me. They thought to punish her. But they punished me too by not telling me."

"Elijah-"

"She'd been made mortal again first. She drank an elixir—the cure, which gave her her humanity back. But since she'd been a vampire for five hundred years before taking the cure, all the years she cheated, apparently they caught up with her all at once. And that's how she died according to my siblings."

"Oh god."

A blank look washed over Elijah's face. "She was probably in terrible pain before she died. She suffered. I could've saved her. Had I stood by her side, instead of leaving her to keep an eye on my brother in New Orleans, she might've lived. I could've done something, I should've. Maybe... perhaps I still can."

Natalie gave Elijah another confused look. "Elijah what are you talking about?"

"I might not be able to raise her from the dead. I'm given to understand that resurrection is now impossible without the Other Side. But I can still get justice for what happened to her. Avenge her in some way."

"Avenge her? Elijah, it's not like she was murdered-"

"You don't know that. And neither do I. Not for certain. For all I know, it wasn't her choice to take that damn cure. I can't rely on my siblings to tell me the truth, I never could. But I can go to Mystic Falls, the place where she died, and I can find and compel people for answers on what happened to her. I have to find out more. I have to, there could be so much more to the story that I don't know yet—that I have to know."

"Elijah, I'm worried if you leave for this Mystic Falls now you're going to do something stupid. Stay, take a minute to relax, catch up with me," Natalie urged him.

"I'm afraid I have to go. I have to. I owe Katherine that much," Elijah insisted, standing up and using his enhanced vampire speed to run out of the apartment, knowing Natalie wouldn't be able to stop him. She let out a deep and heavy sigh, knowing her friend was about to create a huge mess for himself. She also noticed there was something different about him. She wasn't the Elijah she'd known since the 1980's, no, he'd become an altogether different creature now. One who hated his vampirism but wasn't above using it to get what he wanted. He'd hit some kind of vampire rock bottom, and that worried Natalie greatly.

Author's Note: So here's the first chapter, I hope everyone enjoyed it, if not, I promise it will get better from here. The basic idea behind this story came from user Dante 101, he gave it to me a while back when I was still writing TO Season 2 AU. The character of Natalie though was my own creation, you probably won't be seeing her again though, she was more or less a plot device. If you were wondering what actress I would've casted to play her, or what she would look like, google Natasha Henstridge (For Secret Circle fans, you'll remember her as Dawn Chamberlain, Faye's Mother). Also, something I didn't mention in the story, Natalie doesn't look as old as you might think because she has cast several spells and taken a few herbs to slow down the ageing process as some witches in this universe before her have done.