Author's Note:
I published this a few hours ago prematurely and had to withdraw it. My apologies if you were notified of the first copy. Happy reading.
Chapter 4
The golden wolf continued to stalk beneath the trees, legs stiff and tail high with aggression. The last thing Elena wanted was a confrontation with her god daughter. They just needed to reason with her. But the body language she was giving off made that unlikely for either her or Damon. Both of their scents would be a red flag to a werewolf, being natural enemies and all.
Elena reached Jack by phone. Jack was frantic and headed out at top speed with a few more from their pack. If anyone could calm Milla, talk her down, it would be her father. Once she was calm, Jack felt sure she would be able to change back because it hadn't been the moon that forced her transformation. Or at least that was his hope. They were in uncharted territory now.
After nearly an hour of talking, Jack brought Milla back to herself. They covered her with a blanket and Jack held her as she cried. She was bundled into an all-terrain vehicle and they all agreed to meet at the crash site.
When the vehicle with Milla in it arrived, Elena and Damon were already waiting. Milla was talking with her father, gesturing wildly as they pulled up.
"But Dad, there was. I saw it – him, I dunno. I felt it." Milla argued.
"There's no sign anyone else was here, Milla." Jack was trying to reassure her with soothing tones. "There's no danger. I promise."
Milla crawled out of the car, moving over the ground in her bare feet like she was searching for something.
"Here!" She yelled and Jack joined her. It was a partial paw print in the dirt on the roadside.
"Milla that's only a partial. It could be anything. I could've been you, even."
Milla covered her face with her hands. "I didn't just mess up and hurt Emma." Tears spilled out around her hands. "Someone was here. I got distracted. That's on me. But I swear, Dad. Something was here. It felt dangerous and I think maybe I chased after it."
Elena watched it happen from a hundred feet away. It was evidently the upset that triggered her transformations at this early stage. The increase in adrenaline and a dump of serotonin and "poof" instant werewolf. Milla dropped to her knees crying out in pain.
In Elena's world, the whole scene slowed to a crawl. Milla' body rippled and stretched as she screamed, shifting and popping bones into and out of joint. In a matter of only a few seconds she went from distraught girl to hunkered wolf, with golden eyes focused on her nearest enemy. Damon.
Damon saw what was happening, his eyes went wide as the lumbering wolf crouched and made to spring, intending on closing the distance between them. Sharp white teeth were bared and snapped at the air as the massive rear legs pushed off, aimed at Damon only twenty feet away.
Elena didn't move to full speed, fearing what that would do on impact to the girl. But she moved fast enough that no one saw her coming. She sprung as the wolf sprung. Airborne, the two converged and Elena wrapped her arms around the wolf's torso, thinking to, at the very least, push her away and possibly immobilize her. It would've worked too, because the two of them, caught by Elena's momentum, were flung another forty feet from her target after spinning together once in the air.
But, in the flail of fur, legs and arms and the tumble to the ground as they slid, Milla opened her jaws wide. Razor sharp teeth caught Elena's arm, closing once tightly before being forced open again by the impact.
Damon's bellow split the air, louder even than the furious wolf had been.
The wolf whined and stood, withdrawing. Jack followed her at a run, speaking softly to calm her again.
Damon slid on his knees to where Elena lay on the sand, his eyes wide and horrified. Elena opened her eyes, but she already lacked the strength to sit up. The poison was fast.
"No. No." He held up her small arm and turned it to see the damage. Punctures were still bleeding from either side, the blood soaking her white shirt and pants as it pumped with her heart.
"Oh, please no." He'd already lost Ric this way. To a wolf bite. Protecting his sorry ass.
"No. This is not happening." He tore the sleeve from his shirt and made a tourniquet to slow the bleeding. He already knew the bleeding wouldn't stop and the wound wouldn't close. The swelling had already started.
"Elena! Why? Why? Why in the world would you do such a thing?" He was shouting. He was horrified and furious. So why did her face waver in and out when he tried to focus on it? He rubbed the back of his hand angrily across his eyes, finding tears. It took him a minute to realize he was also nearly crippled at the thought of losing her, sitting motionless and paralyzed with loss already.
Elena drew a deep breath and raised her good hand to lay over his.
"I couldn't let that happen…." Where he was shouting, in contrast, her voice was already starting to sound weak. Ric's had done that, too.
Forcing himself to action, Damon lifted her gently and carried her to the back seat of one of the pack member's cars. He sat in the back with her, her head rested on his lap as he called instructions to the driver to get them to the airport. He moved a hand over her hair as she slept, at least free from the pain for a few minutes. The bite would be excruciating.
Using Elena's phone, Damon called her husband.
When the line connected, without a greeting, Damon said, "Elena's been bitten. A wolf bit her." His voice was thick with emotion.
"What? How?' Elijah's deep voice rang across the line.
"Milla. She activated her curse. She's some sort of amped up wolf after Elena's blood all those years ago and she can't control it. Elena's fading in and out. We're headed for the airport. I don't know how long she'll hold out." His voice broke with the last sentence.
"Don't take off when you get there. Wait." Elijah commanded, nearly shouting. Elena wasn't likely to last for the four hour flight.
"Wait…but?" Damon asked raggedly.
"WAIT!" It was a bellow this time and the line disconnected.
Damon carried her gently to the plane, lying her on a couch in the back. She'd been unconscious for most of the car ride. Her face was flushed, the wound was pulsing and continued to bleed slowly.
She groaned and opened her eyes. Damon was pressing a cold cloth to her face.
He shook his head when she looked at him. "Stupid, stupid." But he said it tenderly.
She used her good hand to take his wrist.
"Damon." It was just his name, but he could hear where she was going. And his heart quaked in his chest, nearly paralyzing him again. So much loss already. And now her.
Straightening his shoulders, he turned away for a second under the guise of dipping the rag into the bowl of cool water someone had brought. Now was not the time to mourn. He pushed it aside with effort, for her.
"No. Don't you dare do that. Don't you say goodbye." Her face wavered again until he blinked and tears washed over his face.
He drew a pained breath fearing he'd never have a chance like this again.
"Elena. There are things you should know." He placed the rag against her face as he spoke. Her eyes opened and swept his face as she smiled peacefully.
"I love you, too, Damon." The words were a comfort, but he knew, even as she said them that it wasn't the same. It would never be the same.
"That's why I couldn't…." her voice broke. "You drive me nuts. And I love you." She smiled up at him through her fever and her tears.
Pain seemed to rack her as another name came to mind.
"Elijah." Her good hand came up to her mouth to cover it as the tears doubled, flowing down over her face.
"He knows. I called him. He insisted we hold the plane. I think maybe he's coming."
She was shaking her head. "He was right. He's always right. Tell him…" A sob stopped the words and Damon held her hand.
"I know. He knows. But I'll tell him." He reassured her after a hard swallow.
Another thought occurred to her.
"Don't let Milla blame herself, ok?" Tears continued to leak from her eyes.
"I won't. I promise." His throat closed. She was dying and thinking of others.
"Tell Milla this is what family does. We bleed for each other." It was an echo of what Milla had said to her years ago when she was too small even to understand the differences between Elena and herself.
The door swung open and Damon turned to find Klaus standing in the doorway. He was dressed oddly for the Arizona desert, in a black suit and shirt. His expression looked annoyed, but Klaus always looked annoyed.
Without greeting or preamble, Klaus said, "Leave us." The command had all the arrogance of royalty ringing in it.
Damon stood, uncertain whether he needed to be doing what Klaus demanded, or protecting Elena.
Klaus turned cold blue eyes on him, his voice deepening with irritation at having to explain himself. "You have been waiting for me. Now leave us."
Confused, Damon left them and closed the door, poised behind it in concern.
Klaus sat on the edge of the couch next to Elena. She opened her eyes to his face and, even in her fevered state, gasped weakly.
"Come little sister, no welcome for me?" Elena looked in to blue eyes that smiled at her.
"What are you doing here?" Her voice was only a whisper. She swallowed hard against the pain that throbbed with her heartbeat starting at her arm and working its way down.
"I am saving your life." He told her as he brought his wrist to his mouth and bit down.
"But…why?" She attempted to move away, but was too weak to do much good.
"Because this is what family does. We bleed for each other." He was quoting her, but he made it a mockery with a sneer.
Klaus, as the only hybrid, carried the only cure for a wolf bite that could save Elena. Because he maintained the two in perfect balance in his blood stream, his blood would counter the active virus in the bite.
Elena, even in her weakened state, watched him with narrowed eyes. "What is this going to cost me?"
He held his bleeding wrist up to her before she had time to say anything else.
"Cost you? Nothing of value." Klaus chuckled to himself like he'd made a clever joke.
Elena took two draws of the blood and pulled away gasping at the foul taste. He remained seated, but moved as if he would stand before he stopped himself.
"There is one thing you could do, actually." He said, his eyes cast down and he looked vaguely uncomfortable. "The girl. Tell her I am sorry about her friend. I never meant that to happen." He shrugged like it didn't matter much.
"Elijah had her name and a picture on his phone of her. My curiosity was piqued." Elena's eyes went wide with horror as she realized he meant Milla.
"He never told you he gave me an open invitation to any home that was his, did he?" One eyebrow up, Klaus' grin became a broad smile.
"What? Why?" Elena felt like her heart had stopped. That would mean that he could come and go freely from their home. And evidently had. No wonder Elijah was so upset about seeing his brother again.
Her eyes were still wide with horror as they met Klaus' filled with the implications of what he'd just told her. And what Elijah had withheld.
Klaus smiled, his eyes distant at the memories. "It has been nearly five centuries now. During the Hapsburg Wars. A coven of witches tried to kill him – he was drawn in by one of them that looked like you actually. I saved his life. When it was done, that was his pledge to me. That sort of promise lasts." He patted his chest with a fist once for emphasis. His eyes moved over her face, the surprise and horror there. "I wonder what else he has not told you, little sister. Maybe you do not know my brother so well as you think."
Klaus stood carelessly and straightened his jacket before he stopped again at the door appearing thoughtful. He turned and looked at Elena again, and his smile was warmer somehow.
"The girl. There are very few things that surprise me anymore. When she came tearing out of that car after me, she was…" He paused for a moment, his eyes distant again and his smile wide, "magnificent." Klaus laughed quietly to himself as he opened the door and was gone.
