Traitor
Alex had laid curled up in Elijah's embrace until he drifted to sleep. Staring down at his face, she smiled. His look had never been so relaxed, his tendency to frown would have left him with fine wrinkles if he was still human. Alex placed a kiss on his shoulder before she pulled away and as quietly as she could, pulled out some jeans, shirt and jacket from her closest. She needed to meet up with Renee at the falls to get the moonstone, she didn't have time to waste.
Her feet hit the floor, and she frowned when she couldn't see her bag. It was probably still in her car in the town centre where she had left it.
"What are you doing up?" Alex turned to see Elena, she was dressed in her PJ's and was holding a coffee cup.
"I need to get something from my car," she said. It was a lie, but she couldn't tell Elena about her plan. Not yet. There was no need to tell her she would need to temporarily die unless they had everything.
"And you figured you were just going to go by yourself?" asked Elena.
Alex nodded. "Yeah."
"I don't think so." Elena moved to block the front door. "You almost died, and Klaus is still out there somewhere."
Alex frowned. "I'm not a child, and I am older than you."
"I don't care, you are my sister and I will keep you safe."
Alex sighed and sat down on the bottom step. "I'm the one who is supposed to be keeping you safe."
Elena smiled softly and stepped away from the door to kneel down in front of her. "You have been, but we are family, and family takes care of one another." Elena placed her hands onto Alex's, she said, "Not everything is up to you."
Alex wanted to agree, but she couldn't. No one else could do what she needed to do. Link her life to Elena's, put Elena through the torment of being killed by that psycho, find a way to stop Klaus and then die so that Elena could live. There wasn't anyone else to do that.
"Besides, a certain vampire probably doesn't wish to wake up alone. Not after what I just listened too, anyway." Elena smirked and picked her coffee back up.
Alex blushed. "Oh shit." She had utterly forgotten Elena was here and had no doubt heard the whole thing, she hadn't exactly been concerned about anyone else.
Elena giggled. "Sounds like you enjoyed yourself."
Alex smacked her arm playfully. "Shut up."
Elena shrugged. "I have never caught you like this before, I am going to milk it for all its worth."
Alex sighed but smiled. Standing back up, she said, "Just you wait, one day, it will be the other way round."
Elena just smiled and sipped her coffee.
Alex still needed to get to the falls. Elijah didn't drive so he wouldn't have a car, but Elena's was sitting out the front. It didn't look like Elena was going to budge, so she had to distract her. Alex followed Elena into the kitchen and pulled out her phone to text Bonnie. She kept it simple. She wrote: Long story, but I need you to call Elena and get her to go upstairs so I can sneak out of the house. Will explain later.
There was no reply, but thirty seconds later, Elena's phone rang. "Hey, Bon, what's up?"
Alex kept her smile buried and simply waited. She let her eyes move across the room and spotted Elena's keys hanging from her purse.
"I think it's in my room, let me check." Elena put her coffee down and headed upstairs.
Alex smiled and snatched Elena's keys. Her sister would be angry, but it was all for her. Making a dash for it, Alex made it down the drive and into Elena's car before Elena could notice. As she pulled away from the curb, she gasped as Elijah appeared beside her, dress in only his slacks and button-up.
"Where are you running off too?" he asked.
Alex frowned at him. "You scared the shit out of me."
"My apologies, wouldn't have been necessary if you had woken me up."
Alex looked him up and down and smirked. His dishevelled appearance brought but the feeling of every touch that had lit her on fire not even an hour ago, it was tempting to head back upstairs for round two. There wasn't time for that though. "I'm sorry," she said. "But I had stuff to do."
Elijah frowned. "Stuff?"
Alex nodded dumbly. "Yep."
"Alex! What are you doing?" Elena's voice screamed at her from the porch. She left off and came running towards her.
Alex huffed. She had planned to do this alone, but while Elijah could protect himself, Elena couldn't. "Fuck it," she said and slammed on the accelerator.
Elijah frowned. "Alex, what are you doing?"
"I am going to get the moonstone," she said.
"And why does that require you sneaking off?" he asked.
"Renee has it. I'm meeting her at the falls to get it. And I knew you wouldn't like it and I haven't told Elena that she is going to have to die in order for me to save her, so sneaking out felt like the best option." Alex clenched the steering wheel. She didn't know how he would react, what she did know was that Renee wouldn't be happy if she showed up with him. Somehow, Alex would need to convince him to wait in the car.
"You are correct, after what we discussed I had hoped that you would serve ties with the Council."
"I want to. Believe me. Nothing would be better than being completely cut off from them, except they have something I need to stop you brother. Also, Renee and I had a chat yesterday about all of it, and she told me that if I did reject them that she would kill me, and if you didn't notice her yesterday, she showed me what it was like working against them. If it hadn't been for her, Klaus would be dead by now." Alex's grip of the wheel tightened, and her knuckles turned white. "I hate the bitch. I don't want to go to her and ask for something, but without it, everything is fucked for good."
Elijah reached across and pulled one of her hands from the wheel. He kissed her knuckles. "I'm not going to fight you on this. Whatever you need me to do, no matter what, I will help you."
Alex offered a tight smile. "Thank you. First thing, you need to wait in the car while I talk with Renee."
Elijah's expression dropped. "No."
"You just said you would do as I ask."
"No, I said I would help, and letting you face off with this witch when you are still weak isn't going to happen." Elijah dropped her hand.
Alex said, "Yes, it is. Renee hates vampires, more than anyone else I've ever met. If she senses you with me, she will know that I lied about wanting to stick with them."
"Isn't there a way to get around the way you witches can sense us?" he asked.
Alex shrugged. "I don't know. Never looked into it." She reached for his hands and squeezed them. "I will be fine. Simply exchange. After we have dealt with your brother, you can help me kill the lot of them, okay. No sitting on the sidelines."
Elijah frowned. "I don't like it."
"I know, but please."
The rest of the drive out to the falls was silent. Alex knew she would arrive late due to the few road bumps, but she had hoped Renee wouldn't have run off just yet. Elijah had tried once more to convince her to let him come, but with a firm kiss and a pointed stare, Alex had left him with the car and marched to the falls.
The area was quiet. Not surprising, the falls were a good spot for the locals, but on a Saturday morning when it was overcast with a possibility of rain, no one would be coming out here.
Alex didn't spot Renee at first, but she could feel her. The witch was cloaking herself, but Alex would know her magic anywhere. The hum of her power had once been a comfort, now it scared her.
"Bringing the vampire wasn't your best idea." Renee appeared across the field, arms behind her back.
Alex clenched her jaw. Renee had been watching her. She needed to be careful about what she said. "I'm using him to get Klaus, that's all. He is protecting his own interests."
Renee tilted her head. Her face void of any readable emotion. "Is that so, well then." She walked towards Alex. "No need to keep you out here, this all you needed?" She held out the moonstone.
Alex nodded.
"Planning on breaking the curse?" she asked.
Alex nodded.
"The whole point was to avoid him breaking the curse." Renee frowned.
Alex cleared her throat. "I am going to break the curse, and while he is weak, Elijah is going to kill him."
Renee smirked. "Clever. Using your body to get a vampire to do the job for you. Not something I would ever think you would do."
Alex's stomach rolled. "What do you mean?"
Renee walked closer. "Your little display this morning. Telling him that you loved him, fucking him. All very convincing, almost too convincing." Her face slid back into its unreadable state. "How did his touch not disgust you? I would hate myself if I let a thing like that touch me in any way."
Alex bit her cheek. Renee was trying to mess with her. Make her doubt herself, and while she knew that, it was hard not to feel like a traitor. Even after everything that had happened, what the Council had done, she had been taught to know one thing. Vampires were the monsters of this world, and those that consorted with them were even worse. That had been drilled into her for five years, and while she now knew different, that value, that belief thumped inside of her. "It is a struggle." Alex managed to get the words out, and it was probably the first thing she had said to Renee that wasn't a lie. She knew she loved Elijah, and the fact that this would be her last day meant she wasn't going to spend it fighting against her feelings, no matter what.
"Your grandmother was like that." Renee slipped her hands and the moonstone into her pockets.
"What?" Alex looked at her, confused.
"Nadia, she was a mentor. Did I ever tell you that?" Renee smirked.
"No."
"She taught me so much, and I thought of her like my own mother. Up until the day she turned her back on all of us and declared herself our enemy." Renee threw her head back and laughed. "I had never hated someone so much in my life. And the day I drained her magic from her and absorbed it into myself, I realised that your whole family are a bunch of traitors." Renee's face twisted into a horrid glare.
Alex felt sick. Elijah had never told her how her grandmother had died. Knowing that Renee was responsible for it made her feel like she had betrayed her family. She had let the woman who had killed her grandmother guide her. Alex had considered her a friend, a second mum.
Miranda Gilbert was her mum, had raised her and given her a home since her birth mum had died. But Renee had understood her magic, helped her become the witch she was. The bond she had believed that they had was nothing but lies.
"Did you kill Prudence too?" Alex asked. Her birth mum had been on the run from someone when she had died, her mum had told her that much. And her birth dad had also been killed. Had the Council tried to wipe out her whole family?
Renee's glare distorted and warped into a grin. "I killed your whole family, all except you. Somehow you slipped through the cracks."
Alex clenched her fists. "Why not kill me when you found me?"
"You were so oblivious to it all that the Council thought we could train you. Fix your families ridiculous beliefs and bring you back into the fold. It would have worked except you were so caught up with the doppelganger. Should have sent Klaus the details of her location sooner."
"You told Klaus?" Alex yelled.
"Not me directly, but the information was passed on. The Council thought it was time for you to cut ties completely and make sure that you were fully committed to the team. Seems like you messed that all up, so the Council have given me the go-ahead to kill you." Renee shrugged her arms and sighed. "So, let's make this simple."
Alex was in disbelief. The Council had sent Klaus here to kill Elena to test her. If things had gotten so complicated with Elijah, then she would have no doubt dealt with Klaus and left Mystic Falls for good. Elena had been the only reason that she had never completely let them go. She loved Jeremy too, but it was Elena whom she had wanted so desperately to keep safe.
But no matter what she had done, Renee had killed her family. No doubt she would let Elena die but also Jeremy and Jenna would be collateral damage if she let Renee kill her. No, Alex wasn't going to let her get away with this.
"Just stand still, and this will be over quickly." Renee walked over and reached out to grasp her arm.
Alex pulled up her arms and said, "I don't think so."
