Poison & Wine - Chapter XXIX

~ * • ° • ° • * ~

I looked over at Elijah from my spot. I knew I needed to tell him about the child, I would not be able to hide it much longer, but I was fearful he would find out. He was putting on his clothes and caught me watching him; once he finished he sat beside me on our bed. He must have seen the turmoil I was in.

"What troubles you, my love?" He asked.

I took his hand and placed it on my stomach. I supposed right now is better than any other time, so I forced a smile toward him. "I'm with child, Elijah."

He stared at me in shock for a long moment before he smiled and passionately kissed me. "A child… Our child," He murmured, kissing my stomach. "Our beautiful child."

"I suppose we shall have to tell your parents tonight?" I stroked his head.

"Yes, we shall," Elijah leaned his forehead against mine. "I love you, my Anastasia."

"And I, you, my Elijah." I placed a kiss on his lips, a genuine smile breaking out on my face.

"Mother!"

I looked over toward the window at hearing Klaus's voice. "Nik? He sounds…"

"Mother!" I ran out before Elijah and stopped dead in my tracks at what I saw. Klaus was carrying the dead body of little Henrik.

"No, no! What happened?" Esther screamed, reaching them as Klaus put Henrik's body on the ground. I quickly ran over.

"The wolves! I am sorry, I'm so sorry!" Klaus cried as he crouched over his little brother's dead body.

"We must save him. Please, there must be a way!" Esther pleaded with a nearby woman.

"The spirits will not give us a way, Esther. Your boy is gone." The woman responded.

"No! No!" Esther clutched Henrik's body, and I was crying as I held onto Klaus while Elijah assisted his mother. Klaus welcomed my embrace and cried onto my shoulder.

"I'm so sorry," He softly sobbed over and over. All I could do was hold him. The picture dissipated, and I was standing by a lake, my feet in the water.

"Ana?"

I didn't have to turn around to know who that voice belonged to. "Hello, Nik," My voice broke at the end.

He sat beside of me but remained quiet for the longest of times. "You have been gone for quite a while. We were worried."

"I have my reasons," I murmured.

"You can tell me, Anastasia. We are best friends still, correct?" He gave me the best smile he could muster up.

I burst into tears. "I lost not only Henrik but a child as well, Nik."

"You are pregnant?"

"I was pregnant, Nik," I covered my face as I decided not to tell him it was his child I had carried. "I lost it when we were mourning Henrik."

"I'm so sorry, Anna,"

"Do not blame yourself, Nik, it was out of your control. It was not your fault," I laid my head on his shoulder. "Perhaps it wasn't meant to be… Perhaps I should not have any children."

"Don't say that, love," He said, kissing my head. "You are meant to have children. You would be a fantastic mother."

I cried until I couldn't cry any longer, and he soon joined in with me. We cried and held one another, mourning for his brother and our child, though it was unknown to him about his child.

I came back to the land of the living with a sad feeling. I couldn't help but want to cry over the emotions I'd just experienced. I got up from the bed and moved to go take a shower. After the fireworks last night, Klaus had fallen sleep on the boat and I soon followed after him. I must have been carried back in last night. After I finished getting ready, I headed out to see that Klaus was ready to go.

"Where are we going today?" I asked.

"To a certain witch friend of mine," He tossed me a jacket. "It's raining and cold out, you might want this."

"Thanks," I slipped it over my clothes. "A witch friend? For what reason?"

"To figure out our connection."

"Oh."

"What is it? Second guessing your desire to not have us connected?"

"No," I shook my head. "It's just…" Emmeline sprang back into my head and I recalled her every word and warning about Klaus. "Nothing. I'm freaking out for no reason. Let's go." He handed me a pack of Pop Tarts and a small bottle of OJ before we left out. The only thing I could hope for was that Emmeline wouldn't come up.


We walked into a huge old house from at least the 1800s that took thirty minutes to get to. It was surprisingly in pretty good shape on the inside. No dust was inside and it was brightly lit with the fanciest furniture.

We were being led by an older gentlemen to a back room that revealed to be pretty dark other than some candles spread out in the room. The door slammed closed behind us and I stood closely to Klaus's side. "You said she was a friend?" I murmured to him.

"Richelle," Klaus said into the darkness. "I know you're in here, I can feel you're presence."

"Hello, Klaus," An older, beautiful woman, probably in her mid-forties with olive skin and dark eyes stepped into the dim light. She had to be at least a foot shorter than me; she folded her arms and her eyes went to me. "This is the girl you spoke of?"

"Yes, this is Andy," Klaus put his hand on my lower back and pushed me forward.

"'Sup?" I said, throwing a slight glare at Klaus before looking at this Richelle.

"Hm," She murmured, circling around me like a shark. She was critiquing me! She wasn't supposed to do that, she was supposed to find out what was up with Klaus and I! "Should we begin?" She asked, looking over at Klaus. She kneeled down at the table with the candles and Klaus kneeled down on the opposite side, gesturing to me to follow.

"Give me your left palm, Klaus, and yours as well, Andy," She instructed and we did so. She pulled out a knife and sliced my palm open before I could even blink; I wanted so badly to yell at her, but I kept my mouth shut.

She cut open Klaus's palm as well and poured our blood together into a clear glass bowl. Klaus's palm healed up while mine continued dripping blood. She cut his hand again then joined our hands so our bloody palms touched the other's uncut hand.

"Clear your mind of everything," She instructed. "Think of nothing but the other."

I did as she said and kept my thoughts on him. At one point, I suddenly felt like I was in his head, feeling the things he did; I was extremely calm but I could feel the pain in my palm. The candles burned brighter as I stared into Klaus's blue orbs. I felt my heart start beating rapidly and I felt like the breath had been knocked out of me, but in the good kind of way, if there was such a thing.

"She's so beautiful…" I heard a foreign voice in my thoughts. "So beautiful it hurts."

"Klaus?" I thought, though it was probably stupid of me to do that.

"Andy?"

"My God," I stared at him in wonderment. "How are we—?"

"I have no clue," He stared back at me with the same look in his eyes. "You didn't hear all my thoughts, did you, love? I suppose you didn't since your cheeks aren't rosy."

This was so odd and supernatural; my skin crawled and I couldn't help but be slightly freaked out, but my thoughts had to stay on Klaus, so I kept them there. "I can feel you, Klaus."

"I can feel you as well. Your hands are quite bloody."

"No, I meant in—"

"I know, I just wanted to see your smile."

I repressed a sigh; he obviously wasn't going to give up on seducing me, even after our talk. "Can we just concentrate on the task at hand?"

"Anything for you… You know, I…" He faded out before we heard Richelle speak up.

"Your connection is definitely supernatural," She said. "It looks like your blood is connected, but not in family relation, something much deeper. You're mentally and physically attached to one another, and to explain further it is difficult because I don't understand it myself. All I know is there's no way to reverse it, whatever connected you two must have been write powerful, so you'll just have to suck it up." She held out a cloth to each of us and I gladly pulled my palms away from Klaus and took it. I quickly started cleaning my hands off from the blood.

"That helps," Klaus snorted.

"I didn't have to say a word, Klaus, now I advise you leave before you say something else in that nature," She snapped, handing me a roll of gauze, and then disappearing into the darkness.

"Well then," I muttered, finishing wiping the blood off before wrapping my hand up. Klaus assisted me and then we were led out by the same man who had brought us in.

Once we got back in the car, I laughed, a bit of nervousness in my tone. "That was intense."

He nodded in agreement. "How's your hand?"

"I'll live," I looked out the window as we sped past trees down the dirt road. "Where are we going now?"

"Anywhere you want."

"Anywhere?" I couldn't help but grin over at him.

"Anywhere."


"A record store?" Klaus questioned as we walked towards it.

"It's actually pretty awesome in here," I defended the place. "I think you'll like it. If you don't, then we can leave and go to the art gallery I saw you eyeing just a second ago that's down the street. Deal?"

"Deal," He said as we walked in. As soon as I walked in, I got a greeting.

"Sam, look! I told you she would return for me!" Zak said from the counter, a smirk on his face. "Andy, my love, how have you been?"

"Oh I have been in agony as I have pined for you, my dear!" I winked at him and looked around until I saw Sam talking to a customer. When he caught my gaze, a smile popped up on his face, but it faltered when he saw Klaus standing next to me.

"I take it you know these two?" Klaus murmured to me, sounding defensive.

"They're good guys, Klaus. Don't worry, I'm not going to run off with one of them. Come on," I patted his shoulder in reassurance before going over to Zak. "How have you been in the past two days, Zak?"

"Just pining away for you as well," He said, then looked to Klaus. "Who is the goon?"

"This is—"

"Klaus," Klaus interjected, putting a hand on my back. "I don't know if Andy's mentioned me or not; I'm her boyfriend."

"He is not my boyfriend," I quickly denied it, stepping away from his hand with a slight scowl. "We're friends, nothing more."

"Well, Klaus, you might have some competition," Zak gestured to Sam who was now making his way over with a wide smile.

"Andy," Sam said, immediately pulling me into a hug.

"Hi, Sam," I mentally freaked out at the touch, a bit taken aback at the touch.

"Sorry," He blushed as he pulled away. "I just didn't think I'd see you again."

"Same," I smiled at him, then noticed Klaus giving him a deadly glare. "This is my friend Klaus that I told you about, Sam."

"Oh, good to meet you," Sam held out his hand to Klaus. "Andy talked about you."

"Hopefully nothing too bad," Klaus said, shaking his hand. I could tell his grip was tight because Sam flinched.

"Not all of it was," Sam meant it as a joke, but I could see Klaus did not take it as such.

"So what happened to your hand?" Zak asked.

"Well, I was cooking and let's just say that a knife isn't the best tool I could use," I laughed to try to make it believable. Klaus's phone rang out right then. He took it out and looked at who was calling before excusing himself.

"Geez, Sam, you were right, it's like he's in the mob… Are there British mobs?" Zak asked, slightly confused. I rolled my eyes at him and looked over at Klaus. He seemed happy at first but then his expression turned dark.

"Andy?" Sam asked. "Are you okay?"

"Excuse me a minute," I said before going over to Klaus.

"Well, first I want you to explain to me exactly what happened," Klaus spat into the phone. He was quiet for a moment before he spoke again into the receiver. "I wanna see him. I want to see his rotting body for myself... If you are lying to me Stefan, your compulsion will expose you. So, answer with your life: Is what you are saying the truth?"

So he was talking to Stefan, but about what? Whose rotting body did he want to see? Damon first popped in my mind, but surely Stefan would never…

"I wanna talk to Rebekah," Klaus said. "Rebekah, love. What's this I hear about Mikael's tragic run in with the dagger?" There was another pause. "I'll be home soon." He hung up his phone and put it back in his pocket, then saw me standing there.

"We're going home?" I asked, my heart swelling with hope.

"It would appear so," He said. "Say your goodbyes then meet me at the car." He quickly left from the record store, obviously shaken. What could possibly do that to him?

I pushed that thought away for a moment and went back over to the two guys I'd met here. "It looks like this is goodbye, gentlemen," I said as I approached.

"What?"

"It's time for me to leave Portland… for now," I smiled small at them. "I'll be back, though, I can promise you that."

"I'll hold you to it," Sam said.

"We'll hold you to it," Zak corrected, putting an arm around Sam's shoulders. "Lover boy and I will wait for you, Andy."

"I'll hold you both to that," I waved to them as I backed away. "See you guys again someday." I walked out of the record store, feeling a weight on my heart. I really wanted to stay here, but I knew I needed to take this chance at Klaus allowing me to go home.

~ * • ° • ° • * ~

The End of Chapter XXIX