There were some things Grace Gilbert had enjoyed her whole life. Music, art, acting and history were among them. But what she never had imagined herself to do was being in the middle of nowhere, training how to fight and getting her ass royally kicked by him.
Elijah was a patient teacher but even he with his controlled face he couldn't hide a cocky grin when Grace was thrown on the ground again. Fortunately Jeremy was mostly cured of his fantasies to kill his own sister.
Grace struggled hard to learn the basic moves and direct all of her strength in the right way, but it was so hard. Her ambition took over her and changed into anger, that's when she felt her power the most.
Circling Jeremy, her upper lip lightly curled upwards and she concentrated, heard her brother's blood pulsate through his body, it made her own heart race. She sped behind him and took him by surprise. If this was for real, she would've jumped on his back and bit hard into his neck, but of course she didn't. She used one of the kicks she was taught, but Jeremy dodged the blow and grabbed a hold of her. The vampire and the hunter struggled for a bit and Grace suddenly felt the sparring go very serious when Jeremy suddenly was hovering over her, a stake over his head. But thankfully Elijah grabbed a hold of her little brother's wrist and got the wood out of his hand.
"Enough for today. Proceed to gun training with Damon, Jeremy."
The Original calmly said and stretched his hand out to help Grace to her feet. Damon sat on a bench near the lake and annoyed everyone with his snarky remarks the whole day.
"He should train combat with me. Gracie's skinny, that's no challenge."
It triggered Grace's temper and she stomped towards the older Salvatore until Elijah's hand on her shoulder stopped her.
"You wanna see how I break your neck?"
Damon laughed and handed Jeremy a gun, before Grace's younger brother walked off.
"You? The way you fight? I could take you out on my worst day."
He provoked her even further and Grace wanted to get of Elijah's grip, but of course he wouldn't let go.
"Damon, I suggest that you do what you're here for, or I'll break your neck for her."
The threat seemed to be enough to scare Damon away. Pouting, Grace stepped away from Elijah and crossed her arms in front of her chest. She hated to rely on him for protection. Grace was here to learn how to be responsible for herself, but so far she was nothing but a failure.
"You need further training."
Elijah's voice still had this teacher sound that made Grace's throat dry. In addition to that, he took off his suit jacket and tie before he rolled the sleeves of his shirt up.
"I like where this is going."
She teasingly licked her lips and raised her eyebrows, to which Elijah chuckled. He positioned himself in front of her and his arms low, his serious gaze daring her to start.
"I see you won't learn by training with your brother. You don't need to be careful with me."
There was a hint of excitement in his eyes. He enjoyed to fight and he was good, she had seen him before. The way he carried himself while fighting was still elegant, but still predatory.
"So I'm getting the hot teacher now?"
His expression turned unreadable.
"Grace."
He again motioned for her to start and she did. As quickly as she could, she tried to attack him, but in one swift movement, he grabbed her wrists and turned her around, her back pressing into his chest, his lips hovering over his neck. His breath was tickling her neck and her breath quickened.
"Your face is giving your actions away."
Elijah gently pushed her away from him so she could begin again. Control over her emotions was something she was usually good in, so it wasn't hard for her to suppress her own anger of her failure and keep her face blank.
She again tried the strategy to get behind him, but he was so much quicker than Jeremy. Grace had to surprise him by disappearing into the woods before she could jump on his back. Her legs wrapped around his waist, but before she could sink her teeth into his soft skin, she had grabbed her by her shoulders and pulled her over. Within the blink of a second, she was buried under his broad figure, her hands pinned over her head, her chest pressed into his.
The tension between them was physical and even tough his face was controlled, it was obvious that this has become something entirely else than training.
"I'm stronger, Grace. Those tricks won't work."
His lips were inches away from hers and Grace literally felt his patience melt. Suddenly, her back was against a tree and Elijah leaned down and kissed her neck passionately. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling. It was unbelievingly hot when he was like this, but she knew that she had to wait for one more second.
Her hands wandered to his chest as if she wanted to open his shirt, but instead she suddenly pushed with all the force she had and she actually succeeded in making him fall to the ground. Now she was sitting on him and fixing his wrists over his head. They both chuckled.
"I think I like fighting with you..."
She whispered before capturing his mouth. Her hands let go of his wrists and wandered down to his shoulders, where she clawed her fingers into his shirt. But unfortunately they knew that they weren't alone and that Jeremy and Damon could come around the corner every second. There wasn't even enough time to disappear into the woods to release all this built up tension.
Elijah gently lifted her up and placed her on her feet again before stealing one last peck off her lips.
"Later."
He smiled and leaned his forehead onto hers.
...
Surprisingly it was Nik that brought them an evening all for themselves. He turned a whole bar full of drunk people into vampires for Jeremy to kill. It was such a Nik-thing to do that it didn't even surprise Grace. When it came to patience, one would never expect Elijah and Nik to be brothers. For the hybrid it was all going on to slow.
Grace had stopped caring about it. She wanted to slap Nik for his rude ways, but he wouldn't listen to her anyways, so she simply saved herself the trouble of fighting with him.
The young vampire sat on the cozy bed of the master bedroom, her laptop on her lap. She started some research on this Silas person. Rebekah earlier texted her what she found out from Professor Shane. What she found wasn't quite cheering. 'Hell on earth' was something she would love to quit.
Elijah came in shortly after with two glasses of wine in his hands. He placed them on the small bedside table and sat behind Grace, his hands starting to gently work on the tensed muscles in her shoulders. Grace closed her eyes and bit her lip. Could he be even more perfect.
"Doing research?"
He pushed her hair over her shoulder to move his hands to her neck.
"Jup, I'm starting to write my biography. I plan to call it 'How to live with a family of thousand years old vikings and sleeping with one'."
She said jokingly and could literally hear Elijah smile behind her.
"...I was just thinking about the theory if the sexual drives fade over the years, you know, old man and all..."
Grace giggled when Elijah nudged her playfully. She leaned back to rest her head on his shoulder.
"An old friend of mine had the theory that sexual drives determine our whole behavior. You should include that into your statement."
As his words sunk in, she lifted her eyebrows and turned to look at him surprised.
"Tell me that this old friend isn't Sigmund Freud."
A smirk plastered on his handsome features as he noticed her excitement. That's why they fitted so perfectly together. They had so many mutual interests.
"I spent some time in Vienna when he lived. You would've loved it there."
She could only imagine having the opportunity to talk to someone with such an amount of importance. Grace felt the urge to jump up and down and bombard Elijah with questions.
"God, why haven't you turned him into a vampire? Imagine Freud with the resource of analysis we have today. I would cut off my hands to see that."
The Original laughed and wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her closer.
"I don't think he would've liked today's world. He was a genius, we influenced each other's thinking immensely, but he wasn't quite the feminist."
Grace shook her head smiling, still not really getting that Elijah knew such people in person.
"...and there's a problem with turning humans that have quite the significance in society. They tend to have a lot of attention on them and attention is something vampires shouldn't be keen on. It makes people notice things...like not aging, a high amount of people dying from blood loss around them. You know, we built up our very own society that doesn't rely on human qualities. That's why most supernatural beings see the cognition of my siblings' and my face as common knowledge, while humans don't know about our importance in this world."
His hands gestured while he spoke and a small smile appeared on Grace's face. When they were talking like this Elijah seemed so relaxed and happy. She could listen to him talk all day.
"Which makes the girlfriend of the vampire equivalent of some king."
She grinned, but Elijah's eyes darkened and he adverted his gaze.
"It makes you the target for many enemies."
Sometimes the guilt and worry overwhelmed Elijah and it kept him from enjoying this utter piece of happiness with Grace.
Shaking her head, she placed her hand on his cheek and forced him to look at her.
"I'm very willing to take that risk. That's why I'm trying to learn to protect myself."
Elijah sighed and relaxed into her touch.
"Speaking of...we're not done with today's training."
The oldest Gilbert frowned and rolled her eyes.
"You can't be serious."
She was expecting getting her ass kicked again, but Elijah meant something quite different. He smiled knowingly.
"I mean training your mental abilities. You're very talented, which makes it your greatest advantage and it's as important as combat from time to time."
Grace took a deep breath.
"Well, I'm in on everything that takes place in this bed."
They both chuckled at her meaningful words, but Elijah returned back to being serious soon.
"Concentrate. I want you to enter my mind. Show me something of your liking."
Grace bit her lip and thought of something that wasn't awkward to show him. When she managed to find something fitting, she closed her eyes and concentrated on it, reaching out with her mind to Elijah's. It didn't take much effort, those mind strength things came quite natural to her.
Elijah prepared his mind for the intruder. He didn't want to make it too easy for her, so he shut his thoughts away, which usually would make it impossible to enter the Original's mind.
But all of a sudden, he felt the control slip away and he saw he memory he shared with her. It was at the ball his family held, but in this case he didn't see Grace enter through the massive double doors, it was the other way around. He saw his own, stunned face, his eyes giving away too much emotion, but back then he couldn't help himself. She looked so beautiful this night, it was a memory he himself loved to think back to often. But Elijah didn't only saw her point of view, he literally felt it. He could feel Elena's body beside her, he felt Grace's excitement and nervousness as if it was his own. Even the way her breath hitched when she caught sight of Elijah was like as if he took it on his own.
His eyes widened when Grace withdrew her hand and released him from the vision.
"Did you even try to resist?"
She said amused und examined his surprised expression.
"Yes, I actually did. That's...quite extraordinary. I'm curious how it will develop when you get older."
To be honest Grace was a little bit proud of herself, that she at least had this one talent that kept her from being a complete failure. An idea appeared in her mind and she flushed a little.
"I would like to try something."
Elijah pulled up a brow, still looking a bit confused. No one before had entered his mind like this.
"What exactly would that be?"
"Um...you once told me this...mind control thingy...heightens when a connection to the bloodstream is upheld. Do you trust me?"
He nodded, knowing exactly what she wanted. The muscles in his lower stomach tensed as his subconscious remembered how it felt when she fed off him. But she never before had done this completely conscious of her abilities.
Grace lightly pushed him down into the pillows and unbuttoned his shirt a bit further so she could pull down the collar. Instinctively, his hands held her by her waist and ran up and down while they stared each other in the eyes. Even before she sunk her lips to his neck, their breathing increased, both knowing how intense this would get. Elijah closed his eyes as her lips caressed his sensitive skin, searching for the right spot. When her fangs pierced into his artery, Elijah grabbed her even tighter, the rush of emotions and senses overwhelming him. He explored pieces of her that he never had seen before, how she felt in every moment they spent together. But he also felt his own memories and feelings enter her mind, creating a deeper understanding of each other that couldn't be more intimate.
It drifted off from experimenting pretty fast. Elijah suddenly flipped them over, kissing her blood smeared mouth. He was looking into her hooded eyes, asking for permission and she granted it by exposing her neck completely to him. This was the first time that he drank from her since she was a vampire. Before he only had tasted her blood after he woke up in the Salvatore basement and he had helped him out of that misery.
A moan escaped Grace mouth and both their bodies started to move in unison. Grace felt like her whole body was exploding with lust and she couldn't wait any longer to feel his bare skin on hers. They were finally all on their own, no intruders expected, so they could give into their shared desire for each other.
...
With the blood stained sheets in her hands, Grace walked towards the dustbins to get rid of them. They were ruined, but it had been worth it. A wide grin spread on her face when she thought back to what just happened.
But before she could finish the task, Jeremy, Matt and Damon stormed towards her, looking quite upset. Grace raised a brow.
"What happened?"
The older Salvatore motioned towards the bloodied sheets and Grace gave him a look.
"Do you really want to know?"
All of them grimaced in disgust and walked towards the house, Jeremy dragging his sister with him after she put the sheets in the bin.
"Newbie vampires are on our trail. Your bestie let them loose to rip Matty and your brother apart."
Grace just shrugged.
"Well, why don't we just kill them? It'll let Jeremy's mark grow."
Damon turned around and raised his voice enraged.
"Because your stupid little brother will get eaten before he could kill one of them."
The vampire all of them inside, to which Grace frowned. Elijah just stepped out of the bedroom, just wearing his pants and an unbuttoned shirt.
"You do know that the deed is in my name? Which means everyone can enter?"
The eyes of Damon, Matt and Jeremy widened to a degree that Grace feared that they would pop out of their sockets.
"Car, now!"
Damon yelled and the trio disappeared out of the house again. Elijah and Grace just shared an amused glance before they looked out to see the mentioned vampires moving towards the house. Then, there were some screams and ripping sounds and Nik stepped through the crowd, killing some of the vampires that stood in his way. He hopped onto the porch and kissed Grace's cheek while he walked in.
"Don't bother, they'll be gone as soon as the sun rises. Do you have anything to eat? This bar had nothing proper and I'm seriously dying of hunger."
Grace closed the door behind him, the newbie vampires looking at her frightened and confused. They probably came to their right senses again now that there wasn't any human blood around them and because Nik had just killed some of them, they might have noticed that they weren't as strong as they thought. She chuckled and motioned towards the fridge.
"Help yourself."
