A/N: Extra chapter cause I can't stop writing! It helps distract me from making pointless videos so it's all good :D
Disclaimer: If I owned TVD I swear the Chicago time never would have ended with compulsion
Elena was naïve. Everyone in town knew it and Elijah knew he could use it. It wasn't the most brilliant plan but it would work and hopefully wouldn't get ruined by his sister's hatred for the doppelgänger. If Rebekah could rein in her temper for long enough then their mother wouldn't be able to finish her plan.
He knocked just loud enough for Elena to hear, hands sliding into his pockets as he waited. Humans seemed so slow and she wasn't any different. Elijah could hear every footstep as she walked down the stairs and across the landing to open the door.
"Elena," he greeted coolly, inclining his head slightly when she said his name. "I don't mean to intrude. I was hoping you might accompany me. I want to show you something."
She followed him without even a twinge of disquiet and Elijah almost felt bad for tricking her. When the conversation from last night popped into the forefront of his mind any guilt vanished. If the witches did what they were meant to then Elena would survive and so would they.
They got in a car and drove out into the woods. After he had left Damon that morning he had gone home to enlist Rebekah's help before heading into the woods to find the old cave system. It wasn't hard to find, even after the landscape had changed, and the ground was weakest over one spot. Without letting Elena realise his plan he convinced her to drive out and she did. If Elijah wasn't so serious he might've laughed. Going into the woods alone with a vampire would never end well and she of all people should know that.
"Forgot how much I missed this land," he admitted, looking around with a sense of fondness. This was his home, it always would be.
Elena commented, "I can't even imagine what it must have been like a thousand years ago," as they walked further into the trees.
"You know, your school was built over an Indian village. Where I saw my first werewolf," he informed her, glancing discreetly at the ground to check they were on track. "The town square was where the natives would gather to worship. Matter of fact, near that, there was a field where wild horses use to graze."
"That's incredible," she breathed but Elijah ignored it, simply intoning, "Come," and continuing to walk forward.
He couldn't help the smile as he approached the rocks that marked that they were above the cavern. Despite everything his memories of being human were clear and sharp and those times he spent away from the village, running through those tunnels, were some of the happiest. As he had grown older the memories had darkened and turned bitter but those times in the cavern had always been treasured.
"Do you know this place too?" Elena asked as Elijah reached out, running his hand over one of the rocks.
"I do. Below us is a cavern I use to play in as a boy," he explained, turning back to her and gesturing around them. "Connects to a system of tunnels that stretch across the entire area."
He crouched down, catching some of the brush on the floor of the woods in his hands as memories continued to bloom in his mind. Those caves had first been his sanctuary from his father's anger. Then they had been his family's sanctuary from the wolves.
"Perhaps it's nature's way of providing us with shelter against the savagery of the full moon. My mother said there must be a balance."
He could hear Elena shifting slightly as she mumbled, "Elijah, I should probably go home."
"I admire you, Elena," he told her as he stood, not deigning her comment about going home with a response. "You remind me of qualities I valued long before my mother turned us." Elijah still didn't look at her, listening for any sign that they had been followed. "It's not in your nature to be deceitful and yet when I asked about your meeting with my mother the other night, you lied to my face."
Her silence was tantamount to an admission and he glanced over at her, meeting her eyes and privately wishing she was a better liar. This was just sad.
"That's not true," she finally managed to get out, still clearly lying. "I told you that all your mother wanted was a new start."
Elijah glanced down during that particular lie before his eyes snapped up to meet hers and he deadpanned, "I can hear you heartbeat. It jumps when you're being dishonest with me." He walked closer, continuing, "You lied to me at the ball, you are lying to me now. Tell me the truth."
Elena was trapped and they both knew it. Her heart was racing, a distracting pounding, and Elijah focused on her eyes as she whispered, "I never wanted this to happen."
"What, Elena?" he asked, all hints of kindness gone.
She took a breath before explaining quickly, "We were told that whatever was going to be in that coffin was going to kill Klaus. When we found out that it was your mother…. We didn't know what to think."
He'd known it would come to this already but the words slipped out of his mouth, unbidden and unwanted. "Since her return she says she only wants this family whole again."
"When she asked to see me, I… I thought that maybe she could help. That she would find a way to kill Klaus." She paused, noticing the stiffening of his shoulders. "But it's not just Klaus that she wants to kill."
Elijah questioned, "She wants to kill us all, doesn't she? She wants to undo the evil she created." He needed to know Damon had been telling the truth despite the overwhelming evidence proving her right already. He needed to know for sure.
"I'm so sorry, Elijah. I wish there was something I could do to help." That was all he needed to hear.
"You know, one thing I've learned on my time on this Earth… be careful what you wish for," he warned before ramming the heel of his shoe into the ground, grabbing Elena as it crumbled and jumping down into the cavern with her.
In seconds he was gone again, leaving her with Rebekah. If this plan was going to work than he needed to warn Damon that he'd listened to her and that Elena would live, at least until the moon rose. After that Rebekah was going to tear her throat out.
"I can't find her anywhere," Stefan blurted the second Damon picked up the phone. Despite whatever it was her little brother had with Klaus he was still out looking for Elena. Luckily he hadn't been home when she and Elijah had been planning and Klaus hadn't told him.
Damon chewed her lip for a second before muttering, "I'll call Ric, see if he knows anything. Just keep looking. We'll find her Stefan."
She hung up quickly and sighed, leaning against the fireplace. She didn't want to lie to Stefan, not anymore but she was. It the best thing she could do though. He may be with Klaus and over Elena but losing her would still hurt hm. Knowing Damon had helped get her killed would make it even worse.
"Lying to your cousin doesn't come easy to you, does it?" an accented voice asked and Damon glanced over, meeting Elijah's eyes with a frown.
Without a second's thought she retaliated, "Is lying to your family easy for you?"
Elijah shook his head slightly, crossing to the fireplace quickly. Oddly Damon didn't flinch at the proximity, part of her revelling in the closeness, as Elijah stared into the unnecessary fire in thought.
"What if the Bennet witches don't cooperate?" he asked softly, glancing over at Damon. "Can you just let Elena die, knowing it will hurt Stefan?"
Her blue eyes hardened as she answered, "She's nothing but trouble. If she has to die, then she has to. Stefan has Klaus now, it'll hurt but he'll survive."
The Original nodded in understanding before questioning, "What are you going to tell him when he returns? If you are trying to protect him he can't know you suggested this."
"I was half-asleep," Damon pointed out, folding her arms defensively. "You're the one who listened to the half-asleep vampire."
Elijah started to retort, distracted by the little pout on the younger vampire's lips, before their supernatural hearing picked up the distinctive sound of Stefan's Porsche. Damon stepped back quickly, not having realised exactly how close they had been, and glanced at the door as Stefan shoved it open and immediately walked towards her.
"Hello, Stefan," Elijah greeted in mock-politeness, unimpressed by the glare. Before he could announce what was going on Damon interrupted, scowling. "He has Elena."
The interruption irked him so he corrected, "Actually, she's with Rebekah. As you can imagine, my sister is just dying to tear her throat out. So… if you want to save Elena's life, I need you to help me stop my mother. Unfortunately, even when killed my mother doesn't seem to want to stay dead. Not with the spirits of nature at her side."
"So, what are we supposed to do?" Stefan asked, seemingly determined to do anything to save Elena. It was kind of sad, in Damon's eyes, that her brother had some sort of thing with the oldest hybrid in existence and was still trying to save Elena. Then again, maybe the thing had just been a one-night tension-release thing.
Damon had started to zone out during her rather disturbing thoughts and barely caught Elijah announcing, "That line needs to be broken."
In a moment of utter naivety or maybe stupidity the younger Salvatore repeated, "Broken?"
"Yeah, he means," Damon started, trailing a finger over her slender neck for emphasis, not noticing Elijah's eyes following that trail.
"You want us to kill them," Stefan breathed, eyes narrowing in anger."
"You know I'd do it myself, but I have absolutely no idea where they are," Elijah pointed out, stepping further away from the fireplace as his distraction, "Besides, seeing me, they'd immediately know my intent. They won't expect to be harm by the likes of you. In any case, you have until six minutes after nine to find them."
"Oh, how super specific of you," Damon mocked, internally flinching at the dark look Elijah sent her. It was just part of the plan.
"By 9:07, the moon will be full, my mother will have the power she needs to kill me and my family. If you do not stop her before then, Rebekah will kill Elena," he paused for a second, letting it sink in. "So we all have our timeline? I suggest you get started."
He left quickly to warn Klaus and Kol, wherever they were. If this plan was going to work they needed to know about Esther. Elijah was just slow enough to catch Stefan's last comment to Damon before the sound of a fist hitting filtered into his ears.
"So, you and your Original boyfriend are having troubles?" Stefan mocked, the comment slipping out in a moment of bitterness.
Before he could apologize or even think twice about what he'd said a fist collided with his jaw hard, the crack echoing through the room. His hand snapped up to cradle the rapidly-healing fractured bone, eyes wide in shock.
Damon folded her arms, knuckles throbbing with hairline fracture, and retaliated, "I'm not the one here sleeping with an Original."
"That's definitely not what it looked like last night."
Before either of them could let the argument turn nasty Damon's phone buzzed, a message from Ric lighting up the screen and bringing them back to the problem at hand.
'Have you found her yet?'
Thanks for reading. Reviews is more chapters and Delijah loving!
So. Stefan just got snippy all of a sudden O.o
~Klefan-Lover