Hello my lovely readers! So I am only a week late on posting this chapter. I had a few things I needed to take care of health wise before I could get this chapter out. I am still struggling a bit but I'm feeling more like myself than what I had been the last week and a half. As always, thank you to those that continue to read this story and thank you to the new followers. It means a lot that you guys want to read what I write.
On to the reviews:
LoneButterfly05: I promise, he isn't coming back. Its more of the dream itself that holds importance. While I do agree that Liz does have a lot going on, things are about to get even more complicated.
Disclaimer: as always, I do not own the characters from the show. I do however own the characters that I've created and brought in to play in this story.
Happy Reading.
Liz, I've got some bad news.
What came after those words had caused Elizabeth to chuck a vase at the wall once the call had ended. The glass from the vase had shattered into pieces upon contact and showered onto the floor. Frustration and anger coursed through her in that moment and all she wanted to do was throw anything she could get her hands on in that moment. Of all the things that could have gone wrong in the last few months it had to have been that.
She could handle the uprising of a few rebellious vampires. She handled killing the ones that had stepped out of line while making the others fear her that they hadn't done anything to give her a reason they were around. It was a small annoyance that she handled with ease. That had been simple, a small piece of entertainment for the darker part that lingered in side her. She could handle that, but not that phone call.
She could handle keeping the city running as it should be. She could handle the council meetings, the endless fundraiser parties and the numerous other things that the city needed her to plan or attend. She could handle anything that came up unexpectedly in the city that involved any of the factions. She could even handle the last four months as Hayley had suggested her to do.
A phone call from Lily, that she couldn't handle. She couldn't handle the bad news that Lily had given her slowly and repeated it again because Elizabeth didn't think she heard her correctly. This was something she couldn't find a simple solution to the problem. There was nothing she could do and that had been the thing to make her furious.
"Everything alright?" Malakai asked. He came the moment he heard the crash of glass. He thought someone had been breaking in or someone had been attempting to attack Elizabeth. They had all been on high alert since the rebellious Vampires had made a scene in the Quarter. But when he found Elizabeth standing in the middle of the room looking as if she was about to kill someone or something, he knew it wasn't a threat that was present.
She held her phone up to show him. "That was Lily." She said trying to keep her voice calm and failing. "There was an accident at the lab. All of the progress she had been making is now gone."
"What the hell happened?" He asked walking over to her. "Tell me they have that stuff backed up."
She shook her head quickly. "The whole research building went up in flames. Something about an intern playing with one of the burners around chemicals."
In all honesty, Elizabeth wanted to find that human and have a chat with them. She wanted to make idiot fear her and it wouldn't hurt to lose one simple human to an accident. But that wouldn't have gotten her anywhere. It definitely wouldn't have sit well with anyone that knew her either.
"So were back to having nothing." Malakai said as he crossed his arms over his chest. He knew how much those cures had meant to Liz.
"Pretty much. But something tells me it is time to start really thinking about a different way to get the cure. I may just give in and go the faster route of going out and seeing about getting the venom. It may be a while before Lily can get a new place to work from." She placed a hand to her forehead as she tried to think of anything she could possibly do to make the situation better.
...
In the living room, Elijah had been teaching Hope how to play a game of chess when he felt the rush of anger fill him. It had been unexpected seeing as Elizabeth had just felt content just moments ago. There was no pain or anything that came with the anger. It made him worry what had pissed her off enough that he had been feeling something close to rage.
"What is it?" Hope asked. Elijah had been in the middle of moving a chess piece when he stopped half way, holding the piece mid air.
He shook his head slightly and placed the piece down where he wanted it. "It seems your Aunt is angry with someone."
"Mom said she's been stressed, is it because of that?" She asked as she looked at the pieces in front of her. She was still unsure of what pieces did what but she was trying.
"It is possible." He said with a nod. "Elizabeth has been under a lot of pressure lately with those misbehaving children." Elizabeth had told him all about the rebellious vampires that had came to the city weeks ago. While he had suggested just ripping a few hearts out and calling it a day, Elizabeth knew that wouldn't solve anything. But the moment they had caused trouble, she had killed a few of them without hesitating.
"Did Aunt Liz say why they were misbehaving?" She asked copying his words before she moved a pawn forward.
"Details that you need not to worry yourself about." He said giving her a small smile. He had always known that someone would eventually come and create a mess for Elizabeth to clean up. The city had been thriving as the months passed and every once in a while there would be a few that would challenge the rules Elizabeth had over the vampires. He just wasn't sure what her anger was towards this time.
Before Hope could say anything else, Elijah noticed the way she looked up at nothing in particular, a usual tell that Hayley was currently speaking to her outside of the spell. There were times where the siblings tried to see if they could enter Hope's mind to get a glance of the world around them but it never worked. How they all longed for just a taste of the outside world and they may not get it for a while longer.
"Mom said Aunt Liz is coming for a visit." Hope said looking back at Elijah with a smile. "She also said that you shouldn't worry about what Aunt Liz is feeling, she got upset about a phone call from her scientist."
That had peaked Elijah's interest. "Did she say why the phone call made her upset?" He wanted to know what Lily had said that had made Elizabeth so angry as she was.
Hope shook her head slightly. "No. But she needs to talk to you guys."
Elijah thought for a moment before sighing. "Why don't you go see what Kol is doing? I need to go speak with your Aunts for a moment." Hope smiled and nodded quickly before she got up from her seat and ran outside the house, where Kol had disappeared to earlier.
"Angry with the scientist and she needs to speak to us." Rebekah said leaning against the entryway to the living room. "That doesn't sound good."
"Assuming it has something to do with the cures, this may be a set back we don't particularly need." He said as he stood from his seat.
"Hence the feeling of rage." Freya said from her spot on the couch. "I have a feeling this will be our temporary home for much longer than we think."
"We can't think like that." Rebekah said shaking her head. "She'll come up with a plan before she gets here."
"This may actually be the pushing point for that trip she's been expecting to take." Elijah noted.
"If that is true, then there will be no telling when she'll decide to leave on that." Freya said with a nod.
"Given that we still don't know if Elizabeth has reached the points in Jess's visions, she could be very well coming to say that she is leaving tonight." Even as he spoke the words, Elijah didn't like hearing them as they passed his lips.
He was still uneasy about her leaving in general. He had grown so used to her visits, going a year without seeing her, he wasn't sure how he'd feel. Not to mention he didn't know if the bond would reach wherever it was she would go.
"You know, between her being stressed and possibly leaving, the both of you are going to need tonight." Rebekah said with a small smile.
"What are you hinting at Rebekah?" He asked eyeing his younger sister.
She shrugged. "We have all this lovely pretend things in this spell, make her forget about the problems of the outside world for a while."
...
"I swear if anything else goes wrong today, I will start ripping hearts out." She was being sarcastic but her body language was anything but.
"Should I go hunt down the idiots hiding in town?" Malakai asked with a smirk. "Could bring them back so you can take your anger out on them."
Elizabeth shook her head even though it would have been a nice idea. "The others haven't done anything stupid since I killed the others. There is no reason for us to go out there and stir up trouble."
"At least you know nothing will happen while you go over to Hayley's." He said with a nod. "That should be all rainbows and sunshine right?"
Elizabeth thought for a moment. "Shit, Kai I am sorry." She said shaking her head.
"It's fine. You need to see him. We can always go indulge some other night." Malakai had been wanting a night out of drinking and partying. A night much like they used to have before they had came back to New Orleans. They had been looking forward to going out for a few days now. They were going to leave the city limits and enjoy themselves for a night without any kind of worries on their shoulders.
"How about we go when I get back?" She asked hopeful. "I won't stay out there too long. And when I get back we'll head to wherever it is you'd like to go."
"Even Atlanta?" He asked with a smirk growing on his face.
"Why the hell not?" She said with a smile. "We haven't had ourselves a good best friends' night out, might as well go all out for it."
The smirk on Malakai's face had grown even more. "Sounds like one hell of a night. I like it."
"What's the status on our visitors?" The mayor asked from his spot at the head of the table.
"For the most part, they've been dealt with." Elizabeth said with a nod from her spot across the table from him. "I killed the few that had been the most problematic and the others fled. While I am assuming they are lying low, I have others keeping an eye out for them. They show their faces even for a second, they will be brought to me."
"Good. Once they have been brought to you, I'd like a full update on what has been done." He nodded his head slightly as he watched Elizabeth. "Anything else that needs to be discussed?"
She shrugged slightly. "We are fine on our end. We plan on having our weekly 'Snatch, Eat, Erase' party tomorrow night. But like the past several times we've had them, everything will be going according to plan. They know the consequences of killing them."
"Perfect. The number of deaths in this city has been decreasing. I'd like for that to continue." That was something they had all been gearing towards. The city had come a long way from where it had been several years ago. "And for you two?" He asked looking towards Mary and Vincent. "Anything on that end that needs to be discussed?"
"Nothing on our end." Mary said with a shake of her head. She had been sitting next to Elizabeth and for once her hands or her arms weren't crossed as they usually were. "There haven't been any complaints or even anything that I can think of that needs to be addressed. The wolves are still happy with the terms and have been thriving in both the city and out in the bayou."
"Same with the witches." Vincent said with a nod. "We've been doing more in the last few years than we had during Marcel's reign. Our younger witches have been learning magic as they should be and have been showing a lot of progress even without the ancestral well."
"It seems as though we've all been doing better." The Mayor said with a nod and they all agreed.
"Vincent," Elizabeth said as she looked over towards him. "What is the progress on your renovations with St Anne's church?" Over the last few years Vincent had many people working on that church to turn it into something that even the others hadn't really known about.
Vincent's eyes lit up at the question. "Almost complete." He said with a smile before looking towards the Mayor and Mary. "My intentions with the church had always been to turn it into a sanctuary for us here in New Orleans. A place where magic can't be practiced, no worries of blood lust, and the moon has no effect on anyone."
"How will that be accomplished?" The mayor asked curiously.
"The infirmary had been enveloped with magic that created a barrier. When the ancestors decided that they were going to shake the foundation, the spells were broken and the place no longer a supernatural sanctuary. We'll be doing the same with the church. This time the spells won't be so easily undone as it had been before." Vincent explained. They could see the ideas in his eyes that he wished for that place to be and he was determined to get it to that way.
"It's the perfect place for anyone to go to to seek refuge, a safe haven for anyone that may need it in the city and even for those that come to the city looking for it." Elizabeth said with a smile.
"Precisely." Vincent said with a nod. "It's the perfect place to hold town meetings without any kind of tensions getting in the way."
"Not that there has been any tension between the factions." Mary said with a small smile pulling at her lips. "But the city does tend to get people coming into the city that needs a place to stay."
"It's also a perfect place to get to know outsiders before allowing them to stay in the city." The Mayor noted. "When will this be expected to be finished."
"At least another month and things will be up and running." Vincent nodded. He had been glad that everyone had been on board with his plans for the church. Once it was done, he was sure things would be even better for the city.
...
"Now, you'll have to keep an eye out for Elizabeth." Freya said as she pulled a few boxes out from her closet.
"Are we keeping a secret from her?" Hope asked as she looked at the boxes that Freya had just pulled out.
Freya stopped for a moment, trying to find the right words. "I guess in a way we are, but we want to surprise her. When she gets here, we have to keep her distracted until later."
"Wouldn't she be mad that we are keeping her from Uncle Elijah?" Hope asked. She easily remembered the day that her Aunts had kept Elijah and Elizabeth apart.
"She might." Freya said with a nod. "But this time, your Uncle is the one that wants us to keep her away for just a little."
"He's the one giving her the surprise?" Hope asked with a bit of excitement.
"They both need a night to be together without us interfering in anyway." Freya wasn't going to mention that while it was possible that tonight would be the last night they all see her for a while, they had all agreed that Elijah needed this more than the rest of them did. "Want to help us get things ready?"
"Yes!" Hope yelled out as she picked up one of the boxes Freya had set down and ran out of the room. Freya shook her head slightly as a smile grew on her face watching as she disappeared from her sight.
...
"So what time are you supposed to head back?" Malakai asked as he watched Elizabeth head towards the exit of the compound.
"I'll be back in a few hours." She said as she looked over at him. "You're more than welcome to come with and we can head out once I talk to everyone that I need to."
Malakai shook his head. "I'll wait here and keep Veronica company for a bit."
Elizabeth's brow rose. "I thought she was out with Vincent?"
"She is." He said with a nod. "She should be back soon. Once she is, we'll probably pregame a bit."
Elizabeth laughed and shook her head. "Look at you using words we never knew would ever exist at one point in our lives."
"Gotta love the kids of this generation." He said with a smile.
She nodded her head slightly. "Just remember the rules." She watched as Malakai rolled his eyes before she turned to leave to Hayley's.
"You look like you need this more than I do." Hayley said holding out a glass as Elizabeth entered the house. Hayley had been lounging on the couch in the living room reading a book. The glass she offered was currently in her out stretched hand while her eyes went back to the page in her book.
"Thanks." Elizabeth said as she grabbed a hold of the glass and walked around the couch to go sit in the chair that sat across from Hayley. She finished the rest of the drink in one gulp and placed the glass on the coffee table. "I take it Hope is visiting?"
"Up until that door opened, she was sitting there in that window." Hayley said with a chuckle as she took not of the page she was on and closed the book. "She's been going back and forth all day, since I told her you were coming for a visit."
"Something tells me I should be afraid for my visit." Elizabeth said with a small smile on her face. "If they had her on look out duty, I can only imagine the possibilities of what they have planned."
Hayley returned the smile and shook her head. "We both know you probably need whatever it is they are planning in there." She sighed softly as she sat up straight in her seat. "What is it this time?"
Elizabeth bit down on her lip for a moment, trying to find the right words to ease their current situation. But no matter how many ways she could possibly say them, it always sounded horrible. "There was an incident at the lab that Lily works at. All the samples, research data is gone without any way of recovering it."
She noticed how Hayley's eye widened before she let out a breath of air. "After all that time, we still have nothing."
Elizabeth nodded. "I've tried racking my brain on how I can fix it this time, but nothing I come up with helps." That was a lie. She knew there was one thing in particular that she could do. She just still wanted it to be the last resort.
"Have you thought about what we talked about?" Hayley asked curiously.
"I've thought about it non stop today." She admitted. "After the realization that there was nothing that I could do to make this work in our favor some how, I started thinking that maybe it is time just to say to hell with waiting and just go out and find them myself."
"It honestly wouldn't hurt." Hayley said with a nod. "Its been almost five month. We set that deadline for you and you still haven't seen anything. I think its safe to say that it is time to take it into your own hands now."
"Yeah." Elizabeth nodded before she looked up at the ceiling for a moment. "It seems as though the moment we get an inch closer to having anything, we are thrown several feet back without any kind of way back to where we were."
"I used to wonder about that all the time, what it was that I had done to be thrown back like that." Hayley said watching Elizabeth. "Eventually I stopped wondering and just...tried it a different way."
Elizabeth looked over at her and nodded once more. "Can you ask Mary about recent whereabouts for each pack?"
Hayley covered her mouth as she feigned a surprised gasp. "You actually want me to do something?"
Elizabeth rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I'm not asking you to go out and find them for me. You can't get into any kind of trouble by making a phone call."
Hayley laughed and stood up from her seat. "While I get your reasoning for not wanting me to do anything, but one of these days you'll actually take me up on my offer." She tilted her head towards the hall. "Go on, I'm sure he's waiting for you. I'll make a few calls while you're visiting."
Elizabeth watched as she walked out of the room before she stood up from her seat and made her way down the hall to the familiar room. Opening the door, she found Hope standing on a stool right in front of Freya's casket. She walked over to Hope and kissed the side of her head. "Hey Kiddo." She said softly, letting her know she was there. "I'll be in there in a moment."
She walked over towards the middle of the room and opened the lid to Elijah's casket. While she could have easily caught a ride into the spell by placing her hand on top of Hope's and Freya's hand, it just felt different somehow when she held onto Elijah's hand while she was there visiting. Once the lid was opened, she ran her hand along his face, just as she did many times before, a smile tugging on her lips as she did so. A moment later she grabbed a hold of his hand, she closed her eyes and allowed the gem to do its work.
The gem that now hung around her neck, for safe keeping as well as the convenience of it, had easily worked just as the day Hope had done the spell. And like all the other times before that she visited, she found herself in the grass field that she had grown so familiar over the past few years. But when her eyes opened in the dream world, she was met by both Mikaelson sisters and Hope.
"Not this again." Elizabeth whined as she looked at the three of them standing there with smiles on their faces. While she needed to speak with all of them, she had been expecting Elijah to be standing where they were. The slight pout on her lips had caused Rebekah to roll her eyes and Freya to laugh.
"He'll be around shortly." Rebekah said wrapping an arm around Elizabeth's shoulders and leading her towards the house, avoiding the garden completely. "For now, you'll fill us in on what is going on out there and when Elijah is done doing what he needs to, you'll be free to be the sappy love struck couple that you are."
Elizabeth rolled her eyes at her words. Even though they had just told her that Elijah would be joining them at some point, it didn't stop her from looking around, trying to spot him. She may have came to talk to them about what Lily had told her, but she had also missed seeing Elijah as well. "Fine." She mumbled.
A chuckle could be heard and Elizabeth knew it was Elijah's chuckle. While a rare thing to hear, she knew it all to well. It made her look towards the garden. "What is he doing in there?" She asked curiously. She knew he could hear her. If he could laugh at her annoyance, she knew he was there just on the other side of the hedges that were currently blocking her view.
"Something you'll see later." Elijah's voice carried over and it actually made Elizabeth's mouth drop slightly as the sisters drug her into the house before she could try anything at all.
Elizabeth had spent several hours with Freya and Rebekah while Elijah had been in the garden finishing up the last little touches on what he had been working on. During that time, Elizabeth had given every detail that Lily had given her in regards to the mishap. She continued on with the plan that she was now desperately thinking about. While she had assured them that she had no intention of leaving just yet, it would be in the next several days that she probably would be making the plan to leave.
None of this had been what they were hoping for. While it left the siblings upset about it, the hope of Elizabeth doing things with a different strategy made them feel that none of this had been a total lost cause. They technically had two of the seven that they needed. The sisters encouraged Elizabeth to do things the way Hayley had told her months ago: befriend them, ask for the help, and when that failed, take what she needed.
While Elizabeth knew Elijah had been listening in on the conversation and been giving his opinions on the matter through the bond, Elizabeth still wasn't sure how she would be doing things once she was out there. For now, she had to figure out where the packs were currently at. She wanted some kind of plan instead of just driving around in circles looking for the packs and attempting to befriend them blindly.
It was one of the reasons why she asked Hayley to talk to Mary. Elizabeth was sure that Mary wouldn't just easily hand over that information. While they had been on great terms in the city, this was all about the packs now. She was sure she would be met with resistance in asking. Not that she was hoping to avoid it altogether. She knew she would be met with it out there while talking to the packs. While a great plan, none of it would be easy.
"I believe that is enough of this conversation." Elijah said entering the house, causing all of them to look towards him. "I'm sure Elizabeth will know the correct course of action when the time is right." He smiled over at her and she smiled in return. He walked over to her and held out his hand for her to take. She took it without any kind of hesitation. "Thank you both." He said to his sisters before he lead Elizabeth out of the house.
Once the cool night air hit them both, Elijah held up a black sleep mask to Elizabeth, causing her to raise her brow. "I hate surprises, Elijah." She said eyeing him.
"Humor me." He said with a small smirk pulling at his lips. She rolled her eyes before she grabbed a hold of the mask and put it on. Elijah moved his hands in front of her face, testing her vision.
"I swear if you ask me how many fingers you are holding up, the mask is coming off." She said with a shake of her head. "Not to mention I'll give you one specific finger." The laugh that had passed his lips had made her smile. Oh how she enjoyed hearing it.
"Don't pull it off until I tell you to." He said as he grabbed a hold of both of her hands and lead her towards the garden. A smile played on his lips as he watched her with every step they took. While he knew that Elizabeth trusted him, her steps were careful. While she could hear everything around her, having her sight gone had made her both cautious and curious as to what he had planned.
Leading her further into the garden, he stopped her once they were in the center of it all. Rebekah's plan of using all the 'pretend' things in the spell had been the best idea she had. And with the help of his siblings and Hope, the garden had looked completely different from its normal look. It had all been planned and executed in several hours and he couldn't be more impressed with the work they had done. He couldn't wait to see the look on her face at it all, once he took the sleep mask off of her.
"Are we there?" Elizabeth asked with a smile, still holding on to his hands. She had been so curious as to what he had been doing while Freya and Rebekah had kept her from him.
"We are." He said as he let go of her hands and pulled the sleep mask off from around her eyes. He watched as she blinked slightly before her eyes widened at the sight before her.
Each of the hedges that circled the garden had twinkling lights in them. The few trees that were in the garden were lit with lights that helped illuminate their surroundings in the darkness. In between two of the trees was a table that been set with a few candles, glasses, and to her surprise, glass bowls that held fruit in them. She took a step away from him, taking it all in.
No matter what detail she had looked at, it had all been perfect. There was nothing there that looked like it didn't belong or that it was set carelessly. Knowing Elijah, Elizabeth was sure that each detail had been thought out and nothing was placed without his approval. It definitely something that she hadn't been expecting to see when she arrived there. She certainly didn't think doing something like this here in the spell was even possible.
"This is amazing, Elijah." She said as she took a step towards the table, a small smile pulled at her lips. The details, where she was currently standing once she reached the table, even the cool air that she felt had all been familiar without her ever actually seeing any of it before hand. "I've seen this before." She said as she ran her fingers over the back of the chair. Her eyes wandered around the beautifully decorated garden once more. She had to remember to make sure that once he was cured and awake that she'd ask Elijah to take her out on a real date. If he could plan this within a spell, she couldn't wait to see what he could do out there in the real world.
Elijah's smile fell slightly. "You've peeked."
She smiled and shook her head. "No, your sisters made sure of that. This is the first time I've seen it in person."
"The visions." He said a moment later as he remembered. He knew Elizabeth had been waiting for two particular visions to come. And if this was one of them, that meant that soon she'd really be leaving for that year just as he suspected.
She nodded. "The last one before I leave actually." She said as looked over at him. "The next one to play out will be me saying goodbye to you and Hope."
"How long do we have before that happens?" He asked wanting to know how long before he wouldn't get to see her for that time. He thought he had been mentally prepared with her leaving. Even after he and his sisters had spoke about it earlier that day, he thought tonight he would be saying goodbye to her. But now that he knew she really would be leaving soon, he didn't want to let her out of his sight.
Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders slightly. "Days, weeks, months. You know how random Jess's visions can be."
"Have you asked her too see any more?" He asked curiously. He wanted to know what she knew. He wanted to help her piece together whatever new information she received so she wasn't stressed over it. He knew now that all he had to do was ask and she would tell him about any of the visions she had seen from Jess.
"No, I haven't." She said shaking her head. "I'm sure that with whatever this year away will bring, I'll be able to handle it." Even though she knew there was that chance that she could ask Jess for another peek into what her future held, For the time being, she was content with not knowing. "But let's not worry about that now." She said looking around once more. "You've had the evening planned and I would hate to ruin it with talk about something I don't fully understand myself."
He nodded his understanding. That was the whole point of tonight. She was stressed about everything going on outside of the spell just as he had felt it earlier. This was supposed to help them relax. While he thought it had been for a goodbye, it was now them just spending time together.
Pulling out her chair for her, he watched as she smiled and took a seat before he took his own across from her. "How is Malakai and Veronica?" He asked as he popped open a wine bottle and poured the two glasses.
She sighed softly as she watched him pour the glasses. "Kai is..." She shook her head slightly. "Well he is Kai." She laughed at her own words that had caused him to smile at her. "As for Veronica, she's been kept busy between Vincent and myself."
Elijah handed her a glass and she accepted it. "I cannot wait to meet her." He said as he picked up his own glass. "If she is everything you've described her, she is one hell of a girl to mess with."
"She is definitely at the top of her training. Poor Josh is afraid of sparing with her for fear of having every bone in his body broken from one punch from the kid." Elijah enjoyed seeing the smile on her face as she spoke about Veronica. She was like a proud mother that was boasting about her child's accomplishments.
Their conversations continued on, them talking about anything and everything that did not include the spell, the cures or the future visions that would come. They spoke of future vacations that they would take around the world once everything was all said and done. The idea of being on their own for a while had been something they had been talking about for years now. But this time, they seemed to be planning out every detail. France, Spain, where ever it was that Elizabeth wanted to go and see with Elijah, he agreed right away.
He cared not for the past experiences he may have had in different countries. None of the memories he had of them would matter once he replaced them with the new ones that they would be experiencing together. With every thought of the future, they both could feel the bond between them growing in ways that words may never be able to explain. It was a feeling of warmth and love that couldn't be torn from either of them.
Once the last piece of fruit had been eaten and the last sip of wine gone, Elijah stood up from his seat and walked over to Elizabeth holding out his hand towards her once more.
"Is there more to see?" Elizabeth asked curiously.
He smiled and shook his head slightly. "Dance with me."
Her eyebrow raised slightly as she placed her hand in his. "But there is no music." She said as she stood up.
He shrugged his shoulders slightly as he pulled her close to him. "When does one actually need music to dance?"
"Point taken." She said smiling as she placed her hand on his shoulder as he began to lead her in a dance of their own.
Even though there was no music, Elijah moved them as if a song had been playing in that moment. One that would make anyone get lost in the song as their feet moved easily through the garden. Once in a while, Elijah would spin Elizabeth before bringing her back in to his arms. Every time he did a smile was plastered on her face that was simply contagious.
There was even a few missteps here and there that left them in a fit a laughter. For even two creatures, that had been as old as they were, had them as well in their moments of watching the other in the low lights.
Once the laughter died this time, Elizabeth leaned up and kissed Elijah, ceasing their movements. The kiss was slow and gentle, conveying everything that didn't need to be said in that moment.
They both had no idea how long that they would be in this current situation or anything else that may come in the future, but for that moment, nothing else had mattered but each other, keeping close and not wanting to let the other go just yet.
Pulling away from the kiss, Elijah placed his forehead against hers. His hand coming up to brush his knuckles against her cheek. "I love you, Elizabeth."
The words had been barely above a whisper but Elizabeth had heard them clearly. The man she knew who had usually kept those he loved at a distance had just said the words that expressed the feelings she had felt from him tonight and the past several visits.
She grinned up at him and placed her hand on top of his. "I love you, Elijah."
Elizabeth felt bliss when she arrived back in New Orleans. Even though Hope hadn't been awake when she left or even visiting them, there was a part of her that could still feel Elijah there with her. It left her walking into the compound with a smile on her face. That visit had been greatly needed and she wasn't sure how long she'd be able to go this time without seeing him again.
But as she walked into the courtyard, the strong scent of blood filled her nose. Her first thoughts had gone back to that damn dream she had months ago. But there wasn't blood covering any of the walls, or anything for that matter. She wondered who was currently raiding the blood supply they had with in the compound until she reached the center of the courtyard to find Malakai and Veronica standing there. Her eyes widened and her smile fell at the sight of Veronica being covered in blood.
"What the hell happened?" Elizabeth asked as she rushed towards Veronica.
"She's fine, Liz." Malakai said trying to reassure Elizabeth that everything was fine. "Its not her blood."
"Who's blood is it then?" Elizabeth asked worriedly.
"Humans." Veronica said with a sheepish nod.
Elizabeth's mouth dropped slightly as she looked back and forth between the two. "Please, please tell me you took her out of the city limits." She said looking over at Malakai. "And that they weren't locals."
"If I told you that, I'd be lying." He said shaking his head. "This was here on Bourbon street."
In that moment, Elizabeth swore she felt her heart stop. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. And if this was all true, everything was about to change.
As always, Reviews are welcome and encouraged. Next chapter should be up this Saturday, Nov. 10th.