When the other occupants of the house were safely asleep, Elijah found himself stood beside the outdoor pool, watching as Elena swam the length gracefully.
After several more laps, she swam to the side of the pool, resting her arms on the ledge as she looked at Elijah, tilting her head at him curiously.
"Are you not joining me?"
"I believe I owe you an explanation." He said softly. "And I find myself rather short of any appropriate clothing." Elijah remarked, holding out a white towel.
"That hasn't stopped me." Elena smirked, referencing the underwear she was wearing to swim in. "We could ditch the clothes entirely if that's more to your liking." She grinned at him, her eyes roaming up and down his frame.
Elijah responded only by raising an eyebrow and continuing to hold the towel in Elena's direction. She rolled her eyes at his lack of response, pulling herself from to pool to sit on the side, her legs still dangling in the cool water. She tilted her head to the side as Elijah placed the towel around her shoulders gently, turning her head to look at him when the soft material was settled. He held a hand out to her, which Elena accepted, allowing the Original to help her to her feet. They remained still for a moment, hand in hand as they stared at each other.
Elena gently pulled her hand from Elijah's, wringing out some of the water in her hair without breaking the eye contact they held. Elijah was the first one to step away, breaking the atmosphere between them.
With a soft smile at her ability to seemingly frazzle the Original, Elena pulled the towel from around her shoulders, using it to dry her hair rather than her body. She found herself unsurprised when Elijah removed his suit jacket and offered it to her in place of the towel.
Elena shrugged on the jacket, quickly continuing to squeeze some water from her hair as she sat in one of the chairs beside the pool. "Well?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him when he turned to face her. "You brought me to the magic capitol where magic is outlawed. What on earth is your plan?"
Elijah let out a soft sigh, sitting beside Elena. "A vampire runs New Orleans, somehow, he is aware of any magic being performed anywhere in the city, and seeks to punish anyone who practices without his consent."
"You want to know how he does it?" Elena asked, tilting her head as she looked at him. "I fail to see why I'm here to solve our little…affliction, if no-one can use magic without fear of death."
"Marcel must have an in with the witches, somehow he knows when people are practicing."
"You think he has a witch on his side." Elena said, leaning back in her seat in thought. "They'd have to be powerful to track other witches." She shook her head, frowning at Elijah.
"Very." He agreed. "They'd also have to be rather young to turn against their own in such a way." He mused, looking at Elena pointedly.
"You think I can get her on our side?" Elena laughed. "I'm not sure I could break such loyalty even with my emotions on."
"I am hoping we won't have to break any loyalties." Elijah denied, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. "Marcel has a…unique history with my family, I would like to try and repair that relationship. New Orleans is too tumultuous at the current time, we need to do something to try and break the animosity in this city."
"You think repairing the bond between vampires and witches is the way to start." Elena pondered, taking a breath as she thought to herself for a moment.
"It would appear the most obvious place to begin." Elijah explained, running a hand through his hair. "There's too much bad blood with the wolf populous to begin with them; I fear it may start a war if we try and rush it."
Elena nodded thoughtfully. "You're putting a lot of trust in someone with no humanity."
Elijah shook his head. "I'm putting my trust in the girl who undaggered me in the Salvatore house."
"The same girl daggered you in the first place." Elena retorted, struggling to understand why he was so trusting of her.
"She had no choice." Elijah argued quietly, remembering the desperation Elena had exuded that night. "I never held that night against you, Elena." He said, just as softly. "If anything, my admiration for your desire to protect your family increased ten-fold."
"You haven't told them you're sick." Elena said, changing the topic quickly.
"We have no answers yet." Elijah's voice was soft as he loosened the tie around his neck. "There is nothing more they can do to help than what we're already doing."
"How do you know Rebekah won't tell them?"
Elijah shrugged. "Rebekah knows Niklaus as well as I do, we cannot risk his reaction with the city in this state."
Elena laughed. "Of course, Klaus will take it as a personal attack and go off to murder however many people he deems fit."
"For lack of a better explanation." Elijah allowed, one side of his mouth tilting up slightly.
"What makes you think I won't have the same methods?" Elena asked after a moment, looking away from Elijah to watch the moonlight playing on the ripples she'd left in the pool. "After all, chances are this is an attack against one, if not both, of us."
Elijah stared at the side of Elena's head for a few long moments before turning his attention in the same direction as hers. "I'm asking you not to." He said, relenting that was his only plan to try and keep Elena in line. "I'm asking the young woman who bartered with me for her family's safety."
"That person's not here anymore, Elijah." She denied just as quietly as he. "I'm not sure she's been around for a while."
"What happened?" Elijah asked softly, a frown marring his brow as he turned to look at Elena. "I understand that my sister was the cause for your transition, and the loss of your brother is why you have flipped the switch, but your comment to Niklaus suggests that was not your choice."
Elena let out a bitter laughed, shaking her head slightly. "A lot happened while you were gone, Elijah." She said, swallowing thickly when she turned back to look at him and saw the genuine emotions written across his face. Letting out a soft sigh, she flicked her wet hair over her shoulder lightly, she supposed he deserved some honesty in return for his. "We went to find Silas."
Elijah nodded slightly. "I'm aware, you brought the cure back."
"We think Katherine followed us to the island somehow, she killed Jeremy there to raise Silas." She recounted, her voice void of emotion. "I refused to believe he was dead," she said flippantly, turning to look at Elijah again, "what do you know about the Gilbert rings?"
Elijah shook his head in a small motion. "Not much I must confess, I don't believe I ever crossed paths with one myself, though I'm aware they can supposedly bring back the wearer if they die from supernatural causes."
"They can." Elena corrected. "I've seen it enough times." She sighed, shaking her head to dismiss the invasion of her thoughts. "The ring will protect any humans against a death at the hands of any supernatural," she explained, "as Jeremy died by Silas's hand while he was wearing the ring, I was convinced the ring would bring him back to life."
"It didn't work." Elijah said softly, a touch of confusion tinging his tone; frowning to himself as he filled in what Elena had left unspoken.
Elena inclined her head in agreement. "Just before Jeremy died, he became a member of the five; he was no longer human."
"So, the ring couldn't resurrect him." Elijah breathed, running a hand through his hair lightly.
"I didn't come to my senses for a few days," Elena recounted, ignoring Elijah, "not until he started to smell." She shrugged at Elijah's stunned look. "You really don't need to look so upset about it, Elijah, I have no emotions, it doesn't hurt."
When Elijah didn't respond, Elena shrugged again. "Anyway, I lost it then, decided I wanted to burn the house down with Jeremy inside, Damon used our sire bond to make me turn it off, I think he was hoping to stop me burning the house down, it didn't work." She said flippantly, recalling how beautiful the flames had looked as they'd engulfed her childhood home.
"You're sired to Damon Salvatore?" Elijah asked, raising an eyebrow, he'd been vaguely aware that a relationship had been developing between Elena and Damon, but for a sire bond to occur, he was shocked.
"Was." Elena corrected in a hard voice. "A sire bond is born from emotion, I assume that turning off your humanity breaks that link in the same way the hybrids can break their bond to Klaus, and given I felt no inclination to follow Damon back to Mystic Falls, I would say that theory seems pretty solid."
"Sire bonds are usually something to be treasured." Elijah mused, frowning at his companion. "Yet you seem to feel the opposite."
"The sire bond to Damon caused me nothing but trouble." Elena scoffed. "I couldn't keep blood down for weeks because of it. My life is better off without it."
Elijah tilted his head at her curiously. "And Damon?"
Elena laughed. "Are you trying to have girl talk with me, Elijah? We both know you don't really care about my relationship with Damon."
"I thought you may appreciate a sounding board." Elijah shrugged. "My apologies."
Elena sent a small smile his way at his words, it was bizarre, he seemed to actually care about her.
"It's strange…" Elena admitted after a few moments of comfortable silence. "I seem to be able to see things more clearly than I could before."
"And?"
"I'm not sure I like what I see." She conceded with a shrug. "The emotions I held seem to have clouded my judgment of Damon in ways I'd never realised." She sighed. "Did you know he abused Caroline?"
Elijah's brow drew into a frown swiftly at Elena's words, he'd never met the blonde, but from what he'd heard, he couldn't ever imagine her being pushed around by someone like Damon.
"Before she transitioned." Elena explained. "I don't know the extent of it, I probably never will, but he was awful to her. I fail to understand how I ever saw him as anything else."
"You sound upset." Elijah noted softly, cautious of provoking the vampire in front of her, but unable to deny the emotion he could detect bleeding into her voice.
"Perplexed." Elena corrected, her voice terse. "The switch allows me to see things with a certain clarity I lacked before, but I'm unsure if it will allow me to properly digest the observations."
"Do you want to?"
"One day, perhaps." She said, tilting her head at Elijah as she waited for him to question her further. "Have you ever flipped your switch?" She asked when Elijah didn't speak, tugging his jacket tighter to her body as a cold breeze swept over her.
Elijah shook his head. "The switch is a myth." He replied, holding up a finger to stop Elena when she tried to interrupt. "It is real for you now, but as we age, we lose our ability to control our emotions in such a way; if it ever existed. You still feel, Elena," he said softly, when she went to argue again, "to such a lesser degree that one could argue you feel nothing, but the emotions are still there, buried under the surface."
"Why are you saying this?" Elena asked, swallowing thickly around the lump in her throat, dismissing the emotions as quickly as she had felt them.
"You asked." Elijah countered, without any malice or want for an argument. "I told you I would not lie to you, this…situation with Hayley and Niklaus is complicated, but I understand that you need a constant in the storm, I hope my honesty will do that for you."
"Why?" Elena whispered, unable to say anything else as she tried to suppress the emotion bubbling at Elijah's words.
"Your compassion is a gift, Elena." He murmured, looking behind her for a moment before focussing his gaze back on her. "It would be a shame if the world lost a soul such as yours. After all my family has done to you, I feel you are owed at least this."
Elena stared at him for a second before rolling her eyes and standing up from her seat. "You owe me." She muttered to herself. "Don't worry, when we find the cause of this sickness, your debt will be repaid in full." She sneered, stalking past him to the house.
Elijah moved in a blur, grabbing her wrist and pulling her to a stop, she turned to face him, her chest heaving.
"Let go of me, Elijah." She muttered through gritted teeth, lightly pulling at the wrist he held in his hand.
"I did not mean to imply you were simply a debt to be repaid." Elijah breathed, looking down at Elena intently, his skin pale under the light the house provided.
"Then what did you mean?" Elena snapped in a harsh whisper, becoming more aware of the closeness between their bodies by the second.
They were interrupted by the sound of cars pulling into the driveway, causing Elijah to loosen his grip on Elena. "It appears your friends are here." He said softly, his eyes glancing down at his jacket that hung loosely on her frame, the front open loosely. "Perhaps you should dress."
Elena nodded tersely, grinding her teeth together. "Yeah, perhaps." She muttered, pulling her arm from his hand and turning to stride into the house, her still damp hair swishing behind her.
Please review and let me know what you think! I look forward to hearing from you all!
~ I x