A/N- Okay, so as a lot of you have pointed out to me, I failed in my weekly updates last week. This is because I had uni essays due and this week I'm working four double shifts in a row but god willing by Saturday morning AEST time, every one of my current stories will have two chapters up as apology.
Here we are- Kalijah in Paris.
I will have another Paris chapter if you guys want.
"See Elijah" Katerina held out her arms and spun in a circle, "I told you"
He catches her and is grinning as he kisses her nose, "You did my darling, midnight and not a soul to be seen"
"More fool they," she sighs, leaning back in his embrace, "The Louvre is beautiful at night"
Their private plane had landed at Charles de Gaulle airport early that morning but they had yet to reach the Royal Suite at the Hotel Plaza Athenee where they'd sent their luggage.
Instead they'd had climbed Montmartre to watch the sunrise and then had breakfast at a café in the eighteen arrondissement, walked along the roads that overlooked the Seine and enjoyed the street art, bickering lightly over the point of purchasing any when they had an artist on hand at home.
They'd bought a picnic basket filled with Bordeaux, cold cuts and several cheeses and lunched in the Luxembourg gardens before finding an outdoor cinema and watching a classic fifties film.
For dinner, Katerina had wheedled Elijah until he'd relented and they'd walked into a tourist trap of a restaurant along the Champs Elysee so she could people-watch the tourists, enjoying it more than the theatre as she listened to every gripe the serving staff muttered under their breaths.
Himself, he'd just enjoyed the way her face lit up, how unabashedly happy she was away from the concerns of their daily life, away from the supernatural world, free to pretend that they were just another couple enjoying a holiday.
And now, here they were at midnight, wrapped up in each other's arms in the golden glow of the Louvre Pyramid, the velvet blue night sky above them dotted with diamond stars.
A cold wind blows, Katerina shivers delicately and Elijah's sliding his jacket around her shoulders before he can even register having taken it off.
"Come," he steals a kiss as she grips the wool against her, "We have a beautiful suite going to waste and entire week scheduled of you single-handedly saving France from financial ruin with your shopping plans"
She hummed and chuckled as he guided her to Rue de Rivoli, "And how are you going to entertain yourself for the week my love?" she teased as he hailed them a taxi,
"Unless you going to come along to all the fashion shows with me?"
He shudders and she laughs, "Not to worry my darling, I'm sure I'll find something"
Trouble.
He found trouble.
Because of course he did.
It was mid-morning and Katerina was ensconced in the front row at the first of many, many shows that she was attending this week, when she wasn't visiting her favourite designers and tailors. Elijah had seen her to a taxi and promised her that he would be able to entertain himself for the day.
A quick kiss and he had wandered off in search of an espresso and a feed.
He hadn't fed since they'd landed in Paris and he was starting to feel the itching in his gums.
Elijah had never consumed blood from a plastic bag, he live fed with the classic snatch-eat-erase or snatch-eat-bury method.
Katerina knew this and didn't care but while they were in Paris, pretending to be normal people he wouldn't eat in front of her.
And while he would occasionally bite her in the midst of passion or early in the morning when they were cuddled in each other's arms, it was for intimacy more than sustenance and feeding from her regularly would weaken her.
So it was an act that he was not willing to commit.
He walked into the first café sans tourists he could find and found a missionary preaching loudly, disrupting the customers as she told them all to repent and accept the word of Christ.
He lured her into an alleyway and was enjoying his meal when he realised that he was being watched.
Releasing the woman and sending her on her way with the firm instruction that she was no longer to condemn people for their life choices, he spun on his heel and strode further into the alleyway, away from the street,
"Can I help you?" he called out, his hands in his pockets as he focuses his senses to locate the person or persons nearby. He heard them gasp lightly and followed the sound to a rooftop six stories up and ten metres away from his standpoint.
Interesting…this vampire chose not to breathe but clearly didn't have proper hunting skills. He leant against the wall and waited until the creature blurred to the ground, surprisingly climbing down the wall instead of jumping.
He straightened up and observed the creature in front of him, not a person. Pale as death, dyed black hair, covered in a black leather ensemble with multiple piercings and face tattoos.
And red eyes.
No, he could see the coloured contacts.
Bemused, he nods a greeting and locks his jaw.
He's behind on the fashions but perhaps the vampires liked playing into the Hollywood stereotypes for their race?
Perhaps it was an ironic hipster thing?
"You're eating in my territory" the vampire snarls and he lifts his eyebrows,
"Forgive me" he says politely, "I have been away from France for some time and was unaware that Paris had been conquered by…you"
"Leonidas" the vampire lifts his chin and hisses,
"Leonidas the Killer"
God save him.
Niklaus would banish this pretentious vampire from New Orleans on principle.
He glances down at his polished shoes to try and hide his mirth.
Katerina would laugh herself senseless when he recounted this story later tonight.
"Elijah" he offers his name, receiving only shade in response,
"Am I supposed to know who you are?"
Apparently not.
Clearly he and his siblings had been away from Europe for far too long, in any large supernatural community in America his suits and demeanour would betray his identity immediately.
Failing that, he had only to utter his name. Not that he was the only vampire named Elijah in the world but those to whom he spoke usually differentiated between him and anyone else.
"If you know anything of vampire lore" he elaborates and then checks his watch, he was supposed to be at the jeweler in half an hour
"I'm afraid I have an appointment to keep"
"Stop! I forbid you to leave"
Interesting.
Men had died for less.
He blinks and leans back in surprise, "You truly do not know anything of vampire lore"
Or any survival instincts. Vampires could usually detect when they were in the presence of one older and immensely more powerful than they.
But Elijah's interest was piqued and he was concerned that if he left this creature now he would track him down later and cause trouble which meant next to nothing regarding Elijah personally, he could disembowel this man in his sleep but he didn't want Katerina to face the hassle of being stalked by this creature.
They were on holiday after all.
"Very well" Elijah holds out his arms, "Shall we fight or do I need to write a cheque and offer you recompense?"
The creature glared and bore his fangs at him, "You broke the law you have to go before Him for justice"
Him?
The only being Elijah knew of who required emphasis on his personal pronoun and no other introduction was the Christ-God whom Niklaus worshipped but he was almost certain that if the deity had come down from the heavens lived in Paris it would have been mentioned by someone.
"Who is he?" Elijah asks, annoyed by the theatrics.
"Le Roi de Paris"
When Elijah got home to New Orleans, he was going to discover which author was the inspiration behind this ridiculous fantastical farce and promptly eat them.
With relish.
The vampire who had taken him under arrest had no daylight ring and as such, had promptly announced that they would travel through Paris via the basements and sewers.
Fortunately Elijah had extensive knowledge of the catacombs of Paris and a working knowledge of the sewers that had been in place three hundred years ago and had long since dried up and fallen into disuse.
Thank every god in creation because Elijah had lived through enough centuries where he'd been forced to walk through filth on his travails, he was not going back to those times.
Ever.
So with a quick dismantling of a basement that had been built over a former café de la revolution, he and his captor were able to make their way through the city without the horrendous smell of sewage.
Although they did come across the corpse of an albino alligator which Elijah momentarily considered taking with him, Katerina could have the skin made into shoes or otherwise it would be a nice oddity to have around the mansion, perhaps between the faux-Mayan calendar Kol had made on a whim and the actual Aztec carvings that had been…liberated from the home of an oil lobbyist.
In the end he decided to leave the poor beast to its grave and lead his self-important captor to the very heart of Paris.
Notre Dame Cathedral.
Well…the large catacombs underneath it anyway.
Elijah picked up the sounds long before they reached the large area, some sort of metal music, laughs and the occasional shriek, when they reached a dead end, his captor- he simply refused to consider the name Leonidas- hesitated uncertainly.
"It should be on the other side"
"Ah" Elijah grinned and removed Damon Salvatore's watch from his wrist, judging the structure until he could guess the weak point.
"Allow me"
Hopefully this wasn't a load bearing wall for whatever lay on the other side.
One punch and the centuries old brick and mortar came down in one fell swoop.
Now there were plenty more shrieks on the other side as he stepped through the wreckage and surveyed the scene before him.
He decided in that very second that not only would he eat the author responsible for this delusion, he would burn their body on every one of their works.
And then compel every publishing company to cease printing them.
Immediately.
He was in a large catacomb, one that had evidently been built over by the cathedral above and promptly forgotten about.
The air was rank with smoke from all the candles that lit the area, the walls and floor covered in drops of wax…and blood.
Chains hung from the ceiling, chains attached to bodies that had been drained of blood and ruined with teeth marks.
Prior to their death.
One was freshly dead. It would have to have been her shrieks he'd heard, she was young and beautiful, barely out of her youth and she was wearing her wedding dress.
That poor child.
Elijah ran his cold gaze over the creatures that had found it amusing to kill this woman.
None of them were dressed any better than his captor.
Costumes, farcical idiots who were baring fangs at him as if that had the power to intimidate him.
"Enough!"
The voice boomed through the catacomb and he turned his attention to the end of the room where a throne had been constructed from human skulls.
None of which were more than a century old.
He and his siblings really needed to get back to Europe more often. So as to prevent foolishness like this occurring.
The vampires fell quiet immediately, their faces becoming placid as they bowed their heads.
A man stepped from the shadows…wearing a red velvet cape.
Katerina wouldn't laugh herself senseless when he shared these events with her later, she wouldn't believe him.
The man glided forward with practised grace,
"Greetings stranger" he spoke in flawless French and held out a hand with an obscenely large ruby set in a gauche yellow gold ring.
"I am le Roi de Paris"
His palm was facing the floor, clearly he expected Elijah to kiss his ring.
The eldest original thought of a part of his anatomy that he could kiss.
"Elijah Mikaelson" he replied, "And I have to assume that like your…subject Leonidas here…you haven't heard of me"
The man barely flickered an eyelid, "No…should I have?"
He shook his head, "No, but tell me…who turned you? I should like a word with them"
A lecture about responsibility.
The King of Paris stood back and smiled patronisingly, "Ah but I am afraid I have no maker, you see…"
"Impossible" Elijah interrupts, growing rapidly bored with this pretention, "Any vampire created after the Originals has a maker, you weren't created by magic as there is no actual spell to make a vampire"
The king hesitates, clearly thrown by his knowledge and the crowd takes the opportunity to mutter darkly against him- the intruder- and how they plan to kill him,
"That is what I was about to explain" he covers smoothly, "You have the honour of addressing one of the Original vampires"
Sighs of adoration from the crowd and now Elijah is slightly interested.
This wouldn't be the first vampire to steal the identity of one of his family, usually the frauds were disproven pretty quickly. He wonders which one of his siblings this man was pretending to be,
"How wonderful" Elijah laughs, "And tell me…are you Mikael, Finn, Niklaus, or Kol?"
The ease with which he rolls these names off his tongue has the king visibly worried as he casts about for another lie but they are interrupted by his captor,
"How dare you" he seethes, grabbing a metal stake- truly- from his leather jacket, "How dare you dishonour our dark k…"
"Sit down and be quiet" Elijah commands, compelling him with ease and receiving gasps of shock from the crowd,
"Now" he turns to the man in front of him, "My name is Elijah Mikaelson, I am the eldest living Original vampire. I am nearly a millennia old and I would have no qualm about ridding you of your head and every one of these foolish idiots of theirs as well. However, I am only in Paris for a short time and after this week you shan't need to worry about me, I would prefer if I spent this time without having to commit mass-murder so I would suggest a détente between us. You all avoid me and I shall not kill any of you"
He turns on his heel and the crowd instantly parts to make way for him as he decides to follow the stone steps that lead up to a wooden door.
He blinks and shields his eyes as he steps into the bright sun and looks about, realising that he's emerged in the street opposite the cathedral. Sighing he checks his phone and calls the jeweler.
Thankfully, the good man was able to reschedule the appointment and would be ready for him in twenty minutes.
He is only a few minutes late to meet Katerina at the Galerie Lafayette and she has apparently lost all sense of time,
"Should I get the navy blue or the midnight blue?" she asks him, holding up two pairs of shoes which even with his supernatural sight he can't tell the difference between.
"Navy" he answers, not because he's particularly favourable to either but because she mentioned the colour first which he's taken to understand means that she is more partial to that option.
She hands the shoes off to an attendant who adds them to a rather alarmingly large pile of shoes. He wonders if Katerina has also been sending purchases back to their suite all afternoon and decides immediately that if she hadn't the entire ground floor of the store would likely be swamped by now.
"What have you been up to today?" she asks as she steps into a pair of lovely boots, "Enjoy yourself?"
He hesitates and momentarily considers telling her everything before deciding against it. They're on holiday, the last one they'll enjoy for a while and he wants to continue pretending that they're just a normal, passionately-in-love, about to become engaged couple.
"I saw Notre Dame and walked through the streets" he tells her, turning his attention to the attendant approaching with a rather large booklet,
"Mademoiselle, my employer had me draw some outfits that you might wish to have made?"
Katerina positively beamed as she reached for the overlarge book, "Merci, Elijah this is Scarlet Rose who works for my favourite dressmaker"
Elijah notes the name and nods politely, "Nice to meet you"
"Oh yes" Katerina grins as she takes a chair and begins leafing through the book, "I want all of these"
Wonderful.
Elijah wondered if he'd need to purchase a shipping container to get all of Katerina's new clothes back to New Orleans.
That night, they are lounging on the couches in their suite, Katerina on the one facing the television and he on the one that faced their balcony, watching the sun set as he listens to her recall her day.
There is a knock at the door and after Katerina holds up one delicate, albeit blistered foot with a pained sigh, he answers it with a smile.
A hotel worker stands there with a covered silver tray- assuming Katerina had ordered food he has it brought in and placed on the coffee table before sending the young boy away with a large tip.
Katerina doesn't shriek when she uncovers the bloody head, she drops the cover and sits back on the couch, "Elijah my love" she calls to him in a tight voice,
"Tell me again what you did today"
"Hmmm?"
He comes over from the wet bar and she holds up the lid of the tray, revealing the still-stunned face of the man who'd no longer need his red velvet cape.
"Darling…" he begins with a sigh, "I may have unintentionally become the king of Paris"
A/N- My theory is Esther was aiming for the immortality spell but fucked up, so there isn't a spell to create vampires in existence just a spell that went badly wrong.