Chapter 84

Rebekah left Elijah in the study where he could deal with his own thoughts and emotions. In fact, his mind was a storm of emotions. He put the book aside, stood up and paced around the room for a minute. Then, wanting a generous swig of whiskey, he went into the parlor. He glanced at his sleeping brother, lying on his left side, his right arm dangling over the side of the sofa. It was then that Elijah noticed the bottle lying on its side on the floor, inches from the younger man's hand. Since the glass was clear, he could tell it was empty. Kol had drunk the last of the whiskey!

Rage swept over Elijah, a result of his frustrations. He leaned down and picked up the bottle. Yes, it was completely empty. Furious, he kicked out at Kol's right leg, the knee resting at the edge of the sofa. Something made a snapping sound.

With a roar, Kol sprang upright, his fangs down and his eyes red. He came to his feet, letting the afghan and the sheet fall so that he was naked. With a snarl of pain, he realized his right leg was not supporting him again. He glared and hissed at his brother and found himself facing Elijah the vampire, fangs down and eyes aglow.

"You broke my leg! Why'd you do that?" Kol accused.

"You drank the last drop of whiskey! I needed that," Elijah snarled. He turned and tossed the bottle into the cold fireplace, where it smashed into many pieces.

"Well, need this," Kol hissed and threw a punch at his brother's head.

Caught off balance, Elijah fell to the rug, but he sprang back up instantly. He was ready to throw a punch that might take Kol's head off, but Kol had sat back down on the sofa and was holding his painful knee. Elijah jumped him anyway. The force knocked the sofa over backward, since it was not up against a wall.

The three women came rushing into the room. Barbara would have run to Kol, but Freya grabbed her arm. Rebekah did approach the men who were bashing each other with fists, although neither was seriously biting with their fangs. Still, there was blood.

"Stop it, both of you!" Rebekah bellowed, raising her voice as much as possible.

The fight came to a pause with each brother gripping the other by the throat.

"Let go! Both of you let go!" Rebekah yelled.

To the relief of the women, the two men loosened their grip. Breathing hard, they each got control of their emotions enough to retract their fangs. Elijah, on top, sprang free of his brother, who lay on the floor, nude and bleeding from some small wounds. Stepping back, the older brother looked at his shirt, now torn and with smears of blood, either his or Kol's or both.

"He drank the last of the whiskey!" he growled to his sisters and Barbara.

"I'm sure John will bring us some more," Rebekah reasoned. "How about you go drink some of that 'hard' cider we made. I know it's not strong, but if you need a drink, that's better than nothing."

"And one of you should take a walk outside to cool off," Freya suggested. She had let go of Barbara who now knelt beside Kol.

The younger brother gave a snort and whined, "He can go walk, because I sure can't! He tore up my knee!" Although he had been stuporous from drink, he was wide awake since being attacked by Elijah.

With a snort of disgust, Elijah walked through the house to the back door and went out onto the porch. He went to the wash basin there and looked at the water. It wasn't fresh and clean, but it wasn't so bad that he didn't want to use it to wash the blood off his face, arms and hands. His shirt sleeves had been rolled up, but he noticed that one of them was nearly torn from the shirt itself. He knew Freya or Barbara could do a good job of sewing it back together before making a duplicate. He unbuttoned the shirt front, pulled it from his slacks and removed it. It would be easier to clean if he rinsed the blood from it now. When he had finished, he dumped out the red water and got clean water from the well.

Freya joined him on the porch. "Do you feel better now? Calmer?"

"Yes. I should not have vented my anger on Kol, but I 'lost it' for a few minutes. I would like to think that John will bring us more whiskey, but after my behavior with Alexander, he might not."

"I think he will. Perhaps he has some misgivings about Sarah marrying Alexander, too."

"Perhaps. Unless he goes to Tennessee also, he is going to miss his sister very much," Elijah said.

"He runs a business in town, so he's likely to stay."

"She is angry with me." The idea hurt his heart.

"Who? Sarah? I don't think so. Annoyed, maybe. I'm sure she was not expecting you to tell her fiancé not to kill anyone. It was a strange thing to say."

"I had a reason."

"I understand. You're worried he carries the werewolf trait, but there is no real reason to believe he is a descendant of Nik's father. Otherwise, I would think Alexander would know his family's dark secret."

"And perhaps he does," Elijah said. "One thing Kol and I agree on is that I hate the restrictions of this place. It is definitely better than a prison cell, but not by much. Whiskey is not the only thing we are running out of. As hard as you and Barbara try replicating things, the quality of the results has been less than that of the original."

"I know. I wish I knew how to fix that. After we leave here – if we ever do – I think I will try to avoid farm life. You have to admire people who spend their entire life farming." Freya shook her head at the thought.

"In many cases it is all they know. It provides the needs of the family, but the people are often slaves to their animals, if you know what I mean."

"We certainly are here, unless we want to let them die. What do you think will happen to the horse, cow, calf and chickens if we suddenly go back to our future bodies?"

"My guess would be that the dome will cease to exist and people from town will come for them. Mrs. Anderson is dead and buried. I doubt she will somehow be resurrected," Elijah said with a small shrug.

"You never know. Our family members don't seem to stay dead." A slight smile touched Freya's lips.

"That is different. I suppose I should go apologize to Kol for damaging his leg. It likely will not heal as fast as it should. Damn, I hate losing my temper like that." In fact, he felt ashamed of himself because he was the one who usually managed to keep his emotions in check. Of his siblings, it was Niklaus who most often brought forth Elijah's raw emotions.

"Give me that shirt. I'll take it to the creek and rinse it out more, unless you want to wear a pink shirt," Freya said. "And I'll mend it."

"Thank you," Elijah said.

He went back inside the house and to the parlor. Kol was lying flat on the floor with the sheet over his pelvis. Rebekah was by his feet, gently pulling on his right foot, the idea being to align his knee so that the torn ligaments and tendons could reconnect and heal. Barbara was kneeling by his head, soothing he furrowed brow. She frowned at the older brother, obviously annoyed that he had hurt her lover.

Elijah stuffed his left hand into his pants pocket and stared at Kol, who glared back.

"I hope you're happy adding injury to injury," the latter growled.

"Not really. I apologize, Kol, for attacking you while you slept. It was underhanded of me, although not entirely uncalled for. It was thoughtless of you to drink all of the whiskey."

"Yeah, well, I needed it and then I couldn't stop until it was gone," Kol admitted. "How was I supposed to know you'd want some before it was replaced?"

"It cannot be replicated if you finished it off! Or have you forgotten that?"

"John will bring us more," Kol reasoned.

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Elijah ticked off our visitors," Rebekah told him.

"Oh? How?" Kol asked.

Elijah turned away and headed for the study across the hall as Rebekah began to tell Kol about the warning he had given Alexander, and how it had led to confusion and annoyance. Elijah wished he had kept his mouth shut. This whole day was ending badly.

A/N I would think that after four years of being confined and not knowing what was happening with Klaus or Hayley, tempers might be short.