Chapter 26

An inconvenient truth

"Please go to your bedroom and stay there for now", Elijah said calmly to a woman whose house he and Seraphine had just entered.

"Sure", the woman replied smiling and obeyed.

Seraphine stared at Elijah trying desperately to understand what was going on. It seemed that he had just randomly picked a house and compelled the woman who opened the door to invite him in. They hadn't even left from Mystic Falls; the house was near the mansion.

"What…what are you doing?" she managed to ask.

"What I have to do", he replied calmly. "Take a seat if you like; I suspect that my brothers will be here in any minute."

This certainly didn't look good. She tried to force herself to stay calm and took a cautious step towards him.

"Elijah, please… Please tell me what's going on."

He crossed his arms and looked at her keeping his face free from emotions.

"I have no need to tell you anything", he replied coldly. "You have caused this whole mess and now I must clean it up."

She was really scared now. All the compassion he had showed her before was gone.

"I'm sorry; I swear that I didn't mean to cause trouble to anyone. Please just let me leave and I promise that you'll never see me again. I…I go somewhere far away…"

"There is no place you can go that would be far enough", he interrupted her firmly. "This ends right here."

She shivered when he grabbed her arm and opened the front door.

"Please…"

"I suggest you stay quiet now. I wouldn't like to cut your tongue off."

She gasped in shock and almost let out a sob. He was worse than Klaus and Kol. How could she have missed that? She flinched when his fingers touched her neck. What was he going to do to her? No more than a second later Klaus and Kol appeared at the door using their vampire speed. Unfortunately they couldn't get inside, they weren't invited in. Elijah grabbed his arm around Seraphine's waist, keeping her tightly against him.

"Elijah, what the hell?" Klaus asked angrily.

"This ends now", he stated.

"Get your hands off her", Kol growled. "Can't you see that she's terrified?"

Elijah started to laugh. His brothers were staring at him, like he would have lost his mind.

"Let her go", Klaus demanded.

"Why would I do that? So you two can tear this family and this town apart while fighting over her? No, I don't think so. There is only one way to end this."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kol asked tensely.

"She must die", Elijah replied calmly.

Seraphine started to shake, her heart pounding like a drum. She couldn't hold back her tears.

"Have you lost your mind?" Klaus shouted. "Let her go right now!"

Elijah shook his head.

"No. This is the only way."

Seraphine screamed when his hand was about to hit her chest.

"NO!" Klaus and Kol shouted furiously.

Elijah's hand stopped before hitting her chest and touched her shoulder as a calming gesture.

"It's ok; I'm not going to hurt you."

She was still shaking and started to sob.

"I truly apologize that I had to do this", he said and looked at his brothers. Neither of them looked so good, in fact they both seemed shocked.

"What…" Klaus muttered.

"You look a little pale, Niklaus, almost as pale as Kol", Elijah stated. "Are you perhaps feeling something unpleasant?"

"What the hell… Are you insane?" Kol shouted.

"I could ask you the same question", Elijah replied coldly. "That little binding spell you both so foolishly used, I suppose you didn't bother to properly research it first."

"What?" Klaus snapped. "What are you talking about?"

Elijah sighed and looked at Seraphine. She had stopped crying but she was still scared and confused.

"It's ok", Elijah muttered stroking her back. "Again, I truly am sorry, but I had to use drastic measures with these two. I needed your fear to be genuine."

Her eyes widened.

"What do you mean?"

"That's a good question", Kol said angrily.

Elijah looked up and pressed his lips together.

"Did you two honestly think that there wouldn't be any consequences? This young lady might be bound to you but that connection works both ways."

"What?" Klaus and Kol asked simultaneously.

"How did you know where to find her?" Elijah asked calmly.

His brothers looked confused.

"Yes, exactly. And when she thought that she was going to die, you felt her fear, did you not?"

A long silence followed his words. Seraphine looked at all three of them alternatively, trying to understand what she had just heard. When she instinctively looked at the patterns on her wrists, Klaus finally found his voice.

"From where did you get this information?"

"Unlike you, I did do my research", Elijah replied. "There is a very good reason why this particular binding spell is so rare. It might be effective but it also comes with some quite nasty side effects. If she dies, you will die as well."

Klaus turned to look at Kol.

"Did you know this?"

"What do you think?" Kol snapped. "This certainly explains few things…"

"So…Are you saying that they are both bound to me?" Seraphine asked, although she wasn't sure if she wanted to hear the answer to that.

Elijah nodded.

"Yes. I'm sorry."

She felt that she needed to sit down. This couldn't be happening.

"There have to be a way to undo this", she muttered.

"Wait when I get my hands on that damn witch…" Klaus hissed.

Elijah smiled.

"I would guess that she managed to found this information as well since she has disappeared."

Klaus rubbed his temples.

"Come here, sweetheart."

Elijah didn't try to stop her so she stepped outside. Klaus seemed distracted when he entwined his finger in her hair. Kol grabbed her wrist and yanked her away from Klaus. He was just about to argue when Elijah stepped between them.

"Really? You don't think this is already messy enough?"

Kol looked at Seraphine.

"She belongs to me, regardless if we have to undo the binding spell."

"You want to bet…"

"Stop it!" Seraphine shouted. "I don't belong to either of you!"

"Yes, you do", Klaus said. "Especially now. Don't think that you are going anywhere, sweetheart."

She crossed her arms glaring at both of them.

"Truce?" Klaus asked looking at Kol.

He nodded.

"For now. Oh, by the way, your doppelganger is about to run out of oxygen, someone should probably dig her up."

Klaus rolled his eyes and picked up his phone.

"Where did you bury her?"

Seraphine couldn't really hear their conversation; she was too depressed to care. All her hopes of having her life back had vanished. She wasn't sure how exactly this binding affected them but clearly it was a huge weakness for them. They would probably start to find a way to break the binding but that didn't really matter, apparently she would still be someone's prisoner. For a moment she almost hoped that Elijah would have just killed her.

I'm sorry if wrote Elijah too out of character in this chapter. If you want to see what I imagine Jared to look like, I added a link on my profile page. He's not a central character in the story but this actor from Teen wolf just matched my image of him perfectly :)