Elijah followed Hayley's scent outside the coffee shop. She headed in the direction of the Art Institute. But her scent disappeared; it was always hard tracking someone in the city. There were too many factors that could easily sway the direction. He looked up at the copper lions. Something unknown, made him decide to go inside, seeing his case as a lost cause. Elijah always enjoyed going into the art museums. It made him feel like he was in a time capsule. All of his past lives brought together to show the arts of every era he lived through. But in the corner of his heart, he knew it was also depressing. It made him realize how cold-hearted he was. With every painting he felt less and less human and he was reminded of his immortality that he did nothing to deserve. To Elijah, everything was modern art. He stood in front of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks with all his self-hatred. So distracted by his inner thoughts, he didn't notice someone come stand next to him. He immediately recognized Hayley's scent. Her perfume made her smell of jasmine, mandarin, and patchouli. "If it isn't the creepy yet charming man from the coffee shop." She teased as she also looked at the painting with Elijah. All of his inner turmoil melted away in her presence. He looked at her standing next to him. He hadn't realize how tall Hayley was. She seemed to be close to 5'11. She was very skinny but Elijah could tell she was somewhat athletic by the lean muscles that softly covered her body.

"I'll try not to be offended by that greeting." He smiled.

"Oh…well I wasn't really worried about that. You like this one?" She asked casually. "It's my favorite." Lightly smiling.

"Yes, I quite like it. Why is it your favorite?" He asked curiously.

"Hmm…I guess I just like to imagine about what they were doing in the diner, what their stories were. What were they talking about? And maybe I like it because I'm a total night owl, and I like to think I could be that girl." Hayley laughed at herself.

But Elijah stared at her. She subconsciously brushed a strand of hair behind her ear as she turned to face him. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"How old are you?" He eyed her.

She cleared her throat uncomfortably. "17…Why?"

"You don't act like you're 17." Elijah replied quickly.

Hayley sighed. "Yeah, I get that a lot."

"You're an old soul." He replied simply.

"I'm a what?"

"An old soul. It's an expression. It means that you're wise beyond your years. You've retained wisdom from past lives and use it in your present one. It was meant to be a compliment."

"Well, thank you...I think" She shifted anxiously. Elijah noticed she wasn't used to getting compliments. Her heart sped a little every time.

"So this is where you were rushing off to. Scared the art was going to leave?"

"Ha, very funny. If you must know, I actually take an art class here every Saturday. I was running late." She gestured to other teenagers her age walking around in small groups also observing the paintings.

"That explains your fingers."

"My fingers?" She said self-consciously shoving them into her pockets.

"Earlier, I noticed you have charcoal and lead stains on them."

"You're quite the observer, Elijah." She looked to see that the rest of her class was going to the next room. "Well, I better catch up with them…Bye for the second time today. Maybe you can follow me somewhere else sometime and ask me other sketchy questions." She gave him a warning look with a smile before turning.

"Hayley, you left this at the coffee shop." Elijah reached into his pocket to grab her small copy of Jane Eyre.

"Oh, I guess it was lucky that we ran into each other again. Thanks… a lot. I would've been really sad if I lost this."

Although in a small town, such as Mystic Falls, the average population of vampires is always low. But in bigger cities, they gravitate much more. So it wasn't surprising that Elijah sensed other vampires at the museum that day. He told himself that he was wasting his time with Hayley. He would leave her alone after that. Elijah had business to attend to anyways, at least that's what he continued to remind himself. Hayley was young, beautiful, clever, and quite frankly, confused by Elijah's intentions for her. He was walking toward the exit when he recognized a young, male as a vampire. He started walking in the direction Hayley had gone. She had clearly caught his attention with her exquisiteness and mouth-watering scent. Elijah precipitously became aware of how defenseless she was. Even if he had no intention of harming her, that wouldn't stop any other vampire from killing an innocent. Immediately, he turned back to the museum. He told himself he wouldn't intervene, he would simply watch over her until she was home.

Two hours later, Hayley was packing her stuff up. She had to catch a train back to the suburbs. Grabbing her bag she rushed down the streets. The sun had just set and it was getting dark fast. She always hated slow walking tourists so she decided to take the less crowded side streets, hoping to get to the train station faster. But Hayley didn't know she was being followed. And all of her decisions were putting her in more danger. But what her predator didn't know is that Elijah was watching his every move. It was clear that the rogue male planned on attacking her the second he could take her in a secluded place without anyone noticing. Elijah's phone started ringing; he ripped it out of his coat pocket, annoyed.

"What?" He growled. It was one of his witches. Someone had called with news about his dear half-brother, Klaus. Elijah roughly responded. As soon as he hung up, he panicked. He'd lost track of Hayley, distracted by his phone call.

Hayley turned the corner, and paused for a second noticing that the street was oddly empty. Unexpectedly, she got the chills and had an odd feeling something wasn't right. She turned to see a man walking behind her. Usually that would comfort her more but as soon as he glanced at her, something told her she needed to find somewhere more populated. Her feet picked up speed. She tried to listen carefully to how far behind they were. But she stopped when she noticed that no one was behind her. She turned back around but ran into the very one she was avoiding. Hayley looked up to his eyes to see that they were black with hunger and veins surrounded his eyes. She immediately screamed, desperate to get anyone's attention. But he had already grabbed her and cupped his hand over her mouth.

He was a ripper. While other vampires compelled silence onto their victims, he enjoyed the screams. They didn't give him shudders of guilt but ecstasy. He rushed her to the nearest alley. He slammed Hayley on the ground. She groaned in pain. For some reason, he stood looking at her. She took his mild pause to try and make a run for it. What she lacked in strength, she made up in speed. When it came to fight or flight, she knew she always would choose flight. She got up, sprinting as fast as she could to the alley's opening. But her attacker was already in front of her, arms crossed with an amused expression. That's impossible, she thought. There's no way he could be that much faster than her.

"Don't bother, you'll never make it." He sneered as he grabbed her arm with more force than any capable human. Then he shoved her against a wall, Hayley's head slamming into brick causing her vision to see spots. She could sense that this was it; there was nothing else that could save her. This man, this thing was not human. He had advantages she didn't even know of. His eyes were still such a dark red she mistook them for black earlier. His fangs slid out of his gums as he forced her head to the side, exposing her pale neck.

His mouth slowly went to her ears as he whispered, "Now why don't you let me hear that beautiful scream of yours?"

But before she could tell him anything but a scream, her attacker was abruptly pulled off of her. It was so unexpected that she fell hard onto her right knee. She hissed in pain but tried with all her strength to get up and run. But her body refused to obey. The adrenaline rush was gone and her body was becoming weaker by the second. All Hayley could do was look up at whatever momentarily saved her life. Her eyes widened as she recognized the man standing before her as Elijah.

His hand flew into her attacker's chest, withdrawing back with the man's heart in Elijah's hand. Elijah faced Hayley to see she had pure terror on her face. Had her life been spared just to face a worse fate? Careful not to scare her even more, he slowly walked over to her. Kneeling down, he balanced one of his forearms on his knee.

"Hayley, look at me. I promise I'm not going to harm you." He spoke slow and soft hoping she wasn't too terrified to even speak to him. But her only response was her entire body shaking. Whether it was from cold, shock, or just plain horror, Elijah didn't know. Sighing, he looked over at the vampire corpse. He had to dispose of it as soon as possible. "I will be back in 5 minutes, I promise I won't leave you." Hayley barely nods her head in understanding. Although, it was a summer night, she couldn't stop from shaking. Her body was rapidly falling into shock. She looked over to see that the body was gone, how did he move it so quickly?

Her instincts told her she shouldn't wait for Elijah to return. If he was so capable of killing a monster, wouldn't that make him even worse? She used her good leg to push her back against the brick wall she was leaning against. Slowly, she stood up. With all her weight on one leg, she leaned her right shoulder along the wall. Except with one step she already lost her balance.

"Would you like help or do you plan on making it all the way home on one leg?" Elijah asked sarcastically.

"Stay away from me." Hayley said with as much warning as she could muster. Unfortunately, her heartbeat gave all of it away. It was fluttering like a butterfly. "She's right to be afraid of me." Elijah thought. "She has good instincts."

"Hayley, I promise I have no intention of harming you. Let me help. You have my word that will not hurt you."

She looked into his eyes, judging his trustworthiness. Something about him told her to believe him. The way he gave her his word made it seem like he actually held a strong belief and loyalty to it.

"Fine." She whispered. Before she knew what was happening, Elijah had draped his suit coat over her shoulders and he'd scooped her up into his arms. He was very gentle not to hurt her right leg. His car was already waiting at the edge of the alley. As if she weighed nothing, he gracefully opened the passenger door and tenderly slid Hayley inside, closing the door. Half a second later, he was already in the driver's seat starting the car.

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If anyone is actually reading this that is. lol.