A/N: slightly longer chapter this time...WOOT WOOT! Thank you for all of your reviews, this is my first TVD fanfic and it means a lot that people actually like it. I am thinking about making this a part of a series so I am not quite sure how long this story is going to be but I am excited for it to run its course. Keep reading and reviewing!
A/N #2: poll/polls_tab_ ?pollid=356158 Please, Please, Please... Check out my Poll (no, I did not mean that to sound dirty)! Let me know who you want to see together in in my Vampire Diaries Series... I like knowing what you guys want to read and being able to give it to you (also, not meant to sound dirty=P )
Lydia sat on the floor, her legs folded Indian style as she tried to meditate. Her nerves were going haywire as she tried to both get to know her new charge and make sure she could protect her as well as gain her trust. It was hard to gain trust when you were hiding things, even if it was for Elena's own good. Sighing, she gathered her hair up and away from her face, tying it in a high ponytail and relishing the cool air on her shoulders.
This was too much for her. Her role had always been as one who watched and helped from the shadows. People naturally associated the dark with the bad, but as she had heard it once from another she knew that the dark could offer shelter; protection, while the light sometimes blinded. Lydia missed that shelter.
There was no time to miss that shelter though. Lydia needed to center herself back to the task at hand.
Caroline checked her phone for the hundredth time. Tyler hadn't returned her message and she didn't know if he was even using it still. She wanted to trust in her newly developed friendship with Klaus and had sent a text to her boyfriend so he would know it was safe to come home but there was still doubt in the back of her mind. Klaus was in love with her, that much she knew. There was just no way to know what that meant. He had sent her boyfriend away in a tactic that almost guaranteed that Caroline was his for the taking; the tactic of a controlling sociopath with absolutely no understanding of the emotional spectrum of any normal living being. Yet, in an demonstration of mutual affection, he had allowed the blonde vampire to see a more human aspect of his nature and basically told her he wouldn't hurt Tyler like he had threatened.
Sitting there, her phone in her hand, her eyes only lifted from the screen when Katherine dared to darken her mood with her presence. "What are you doing here," she snarled.
"I just thought I would come see how my old friend Caroline was doing," Katherine smiled, though there was no mistaking it as one that lacked kind intention.
"Does Elena know you're out and about," Caroline questioned as friends and neighbors greeted her as they past their table.
"Don't be such a stick in the mud, although it's probably best you turned when you did. You would not have aged well with that sallow skin tone and those awful frown lines," Katherine threw digs at her. "Besides, Elena's the one who sent me," and she past a note to the other woman before standing. "I'll see you there," she offered before she left.
Katherine drove until she hit the town she had been summoned to. Parking, she killed the engine and released her seat belt. Slamming the door shut, she walked to their agreed upon meeting place and waited. Having been on the run for the past five hundred years, Katherine was fine with standing still for a bit.
"Katerina," Elijah let her name roll slowly off his lips. The last time he had seen her was after she had betrayed him in Pennsylvania. The thought that he had allowed himself to believe that they would be together filled him with bitter resentment toward her, and self loathing; he had allowed her to fool him even though he knew exactly what she was capable of.
There meeting played out in his head. Elena -who at the time had shut off her emotions and was unwilling to administer the cure to herself- had found Katerina with the help of his sister Rebekah, and had foiled Katerina's plan of absconding with the cure while poor, naive Elijah waited for her to begin their new life. While Elena pretended to be her ancestor, Katerina had retrieved the precious cargo and fled. He had of course figured it out when he kissed the young vampire but by then it was too late. Damon and Stefan had come for her and when she warned them that there would be consequences if they continued to look for the cure, Damon had done the only thing left to do. He made a deal with Elijah.
Looking into his ex lover's eyes, Elijah once again felt the fury rise from within. Why did he continually lay his love at her feet when he knew she would only trample over his heart to get what she wanted? Why couldn't he have fallen in love with Elena like the Salvatore brothers? Even if he could never have her at least she would be worthy of his unrequited love. That was why he had compelled Elena to turn her humanity back on, and although she was quite willful and it had gone against his wishes to use force, Elijah had used necessary force to penetrate her will as Klaus had once done to Stefan to make him turn his humanity off.
"Elijah," Katherine's eyes lit up for a brief moment before pushing the part of her that cared for him to the back burner. "I didn't think you would want to see me."
"I didn't think you would actually do the decent thing and agree to meet me," he replied, and even though his voice was calm and even, Katherine knew the anger behind his words. Klaus was capable of any and all types of cruelty but at least she knew to expect it from him. It never ceased to amaze -and scare- her that Elijah was capable of cruelty too, and she was certain that she would one day be on the other side of it.
"I know what you must think," she began, taking a few steps closer until his gaze warned her not to come too close, "but everything I do is for a reason. One day I will explain everything," her voice promised, shaken by unshed tears.
"Why don't you explain them now," Elijah spoke, not asking so much as telling her. He refused to be a fool for her any longer.
"Because we have two very different goals despite the fact that we want to same thing," she told the original.
"Do explain. The last I knew before you betrayed me, we both wanted the same thing; to give Klaus the cure and bargain for your freedom."
"Your goal is to hand over the cure to your brother and reunite your family. Mine is to make sure that Klaus will never be able to make another hybrid again so that I may protect my family," Katherine told him.
"Don't pretend to care about Elena," the nobleman scoffed. "You have done everything in your power to make sure that girl was handed over on a silver platter as long as it ensured your freedom from Klaus. You care no more for her than you do anybody else. She is just a means to an end," he spat at her as he walked closer towards her.
"Think what you want," the brunette said, "I know you're furious with me and I understand. But one day you'll realize that everything I have done is for the right reasons-" Elijah's neck snapped and he fell to the floor, revealing Elena, Caroline and Lydia who pierced his heart with a dagger, "-but until then I can't have you running back to your brother with news of my plans."
"Put him in the trunk," Lydia told Caroline and Elena, who hefted the original by his arms and feet. Turning to her best friend, Lydia laid a hand on Katherine's shoulder. She didn't speak, there was no need.
