Elena came down after talking to Damon, checking to make sure she hadn't been followed before coming inside and sitting down also which disturbed me from my dozing and dreams, my head rocking back up as I blinked blearily. For a while we said nothing, and after growing bored of checking my phone to see if my parents had got my message that I was staying over elsewhere tonight, I decided to break the ice. "So, you're dating a vampire." I struck up a conversation just as a means to fill this tortuous silence, though Elena didn't seem all for reciprocating with as much enthusiasm.
"Yeah." She responded without really looking at me, focusing on Elijah. "Is there anything you can do for him? Speed up the process?"
"The guy was literally stabbed in the heart with a weapon you told me was pretty much fatal to these guys and from what I've gathered, he's been like these for more than a couple weeks. He'll wake up when he's ready." He looked pretty terrible, I mean, aside from the whole being dead thing. His usually pristine Italian made suit was ripped and tattered, with dust settling all over him. Looks like he'd had it rough, guess I can't really blame him for missing my birthday since he was down here with a knife in his heart.
"You said something about a ceremony when you turned eighteen. I thought you were in the same grade as us?" Elena asked me and I couldn't help but smile at her.
"I tell you that I'm descended from an ancient civilisation of magical tree dwellers and that's what you're confused about?" She also smiled and managed to laugh a little, admitting that it was probably not the most important thing, but I explained anyway. "I had some trouble fitting in when I first moved here, things were difficult at first and I ended up being held back a year. That's why I'm already eighteen." I told her, keeping my voice quiet so that Stefan and Damon wouldn't figure out we were down here. "If you tell me more about vampires, I'll tell you more about being a druid." Taking me up on my offer, Elena and I talked for a while quietly.
I guess she wasn't so bad talking like this, and I couldn't help but feel a little bad that some original vampire was after her to sacrifice her in a ritual. That had to suck, but until I knew more about the guy, I wasn't sure if there was anything I could do. "So how come Bonnie wasn't able to sense your magic?"
"Think of magic as being wavelengths. Not everyone can sense the particular frequencies, and since Bonnie is a witch she can't read me, but I can read her. It's like a special sense I have, it's how I was able to tell that there was someone possessing Alaric's body." I elaborated, explaining it to the best of my ability. "Besides, most witch magic won't work on me. I guess I'm like a magic vacuum, it just won't affect me, but I can affect them. It's hard to explain and I'm still getting my head around it myself."
"You know, we could really use your help Lia. I know we haven't really been great friends to you these last couple of months, but things were getting out of control and we were worried that you were going to get hurt. We didn't want you to get involved."
"Whatever, I'm over it. I don't particularly care about all that, I'm just not interested in being some kind of magical hero that fixes everyone's problems when I don't even know if I can. My magic is elemental based, and I'm still learning the other aspects of it. It's hard, like trying to translate a foreign language that's already been imprinted into my head. I can't just snap my fingers and make everything better." I told her honestly before looking back at Elijah. "Besides, I don't know the whole story yet. All this stuff about a doppelganger, werewolves, vampires and curses, it's a little hard to take in all at once." Elena tried to talk to me some more, clearly desperate to get me on her side but I just ignored her after that, so she fell quiet.
It took hours, but finally we began to see some life return to Elijah. His face was clearer and when the guy suddenly jolted and gasped for air, it was a pretty clear indication that he'd come back to life though it scared the crap out of the both of us. "Elijah!" Moving forwards quickly I gripped onto his shoulder, seeing him gasp and convulse as he came back from death with Elena on his other side. He stared wild eyed, glancing at me before then looking at Elena and seemed to recognise her as someone else, labouring for breath.
"Katerina…" Shaking her head, Elena told him that it was her as Elijah continued to struggle to breathe before going still again, making me look at Elena with concern. This didn't seem right. Last time he'd woken up from having been impaled, he was as chilled as anything. Here it was different, he seemed to be in a lot more pain. Suddenly his entire body convulsed violently, jolting sharply and making us both tear backwards away from Elijah as every movement made a cracking sound like breaking bones as he got up onto his feet. "I can't…I can't breathe. What's happening to me?" Collapsing down, I rushed to catch him, my arms holding him upright and trying to call to him but he tore away from me, moving with vampire speed towards the door but collided with the wall in his disorientation. "I can't…I can't be in this house."
"You're not invited in." Elena realised as we'd both moved to help him.
"Wait, that's a thing? You have to invite vampires into your house?" I lifted my head in surprise, momentarily forgetting the situation until Elijah grunted from an intense feeling of pain.
"Get me out of here." With that, he rushed out of the door, slamming into another wall before then disappearing practically into thin air, something I still was getting used to. I mean, I knew I played it cool with Damon and his vamp speed last night, but damn. These guys can really move fast. Elena and I looked at one another before hurrying to follow after him, finding Elijah crouched down on the porch recovering from everything. Elena went right up to him but I hung back, feeling oddly nervous and a little uncertain as he stood and frowned intently at Elena. "What happened?" He demanded to know but she hushed him, making him quiet down before pointing discreetly upstairs to warn him about Damon and Stefan.
Since they were now whispering I couldn't hear what they were saying so I continued to creep forwards until I could hear, though I was still for the most part out of sight. Elena wanted to talk elsewhere and asked if she could trust Elijah, but he merely responded with the same question as to whether he could trust her. I saw Elena holding the dagger in her hand, I hadn't even seen her pick it up after I'd discarded it, and she offered it to Elijah as a token of trust which he accepted with a thoughtful expression. It was then that his gaze shifted past Elena and turned to me, his mouth turning upwards and his face softening as I came to Elena's side.
"Ophelia. How good it is to see you again."
"Hey Elijah. Long time no see." I returned warmly, giving him a smile of my own as Elena whispered that she was going to grab some things before we could leave. "We can take my car, you better be fast before you boyfriends wake up."
"They're not…" Not even bothering to rise to my taunt, I flashed Elena a grin before walking out of the house and Elijah joined me to where my car was still sat right where I'd parked it, though I found a rather suspicious looking scratch along the entire length of the car that hadn't been there before.
"God damn it, I bet Damon did this." Now I was pissed and seriously considering setting him on fire again.
"And what could you have done to invoke such a petty and juvenile retaliation such as this?" Elijah asked me as I unlocked the car and got inside, Elijah tracing the key mark which turns out, was actually all around the car.
"I set Damon on fire." I answered, making Elijah look at me in surprise before making a hum of amusement. He got into the passenger's seat as I exhaled deeply, rubbing my face tiredly as I tried to wrap my head around everything.
"Considering the fact that you are here and recognise me, I must assume that my compulsion has become ineffective and you remember everything." Elijah said to me with a quiet thrum of his voice as we waited for Elena to come back. "As such, I must also assume that I missed your birthday, and thus your Awakening ceremony. I apologise. I promised I would be there to help you understand, and I was unable to fulfil that promise."
"It's alright. Turns out, my ancestors got in contact with me and gave me a druid crash course and pretty much everything I needed to know. It was a lot to take in, but I'm dealing with it. I've even been practicing, check this out." Growing a little more animated, I took a deep breath then steadied my focus, opening my palm and frowning slightly in concentration. Slowly, several orbs of light like tiny white fireflies began to dance over my palm, blinking into existence before filling my care with their subtle hue.
"Impressive." Elijah mused, watching them as they floated before one by one they disappeared as I released the magic, rather pleased with myself. "It appears you did not need my help after all."
"Not really, but thank you anyway, I know you meant well. I was just a little worried. After I got all my memories back and I remembered you, I thought it was strange that you suddenly stopped coming to see me. Turns out you'd been stabbed in the heart. You really don't have the best of luck in that department, do you?" My sarcasm was probably not exactly appropriate considering the situation, but it was all I had to keep me from freaking out about everything. "Though, I think it's safe to say we're probably the only people who had more than one first meeting. We had about…five or six?" Elijah smiled warmly at me.
"And each one was a pleasure." He really was charming, I kinda liked that about him. Any further conversation got cut off when Elena returned with her phone and a bag full of blood which she handed to Elijah.
"Wait, is that…?"
"From the hospital, yeah. Let's just get out of here." Elena answered as I stared for a moment as Elijah opened the cap and just started to drink it like that. Unused to seeing a vampire drinking blood, especially like they were drinking from a sippy cup, I just did my best to ignore it and drove away from the Salvatore house and drove. "You look better." Breaking the awkward silence between the three of us, Elena sat in the middle seat in the back, leaning forwards slightly as Elijah finished drinking the entire contents of the blood bag.
"Where did you get the dagger?" Ignoring her comment on his improved complexion, Elijah didn't even spare Elena a glance as I continued to drive.
"I'll tell you everything but we have to work together, Elijah. I need your word." She has spunk, I'll give her that. Looking at Elena from my rear view mirror, I could see that she was determined to go through with this, absolutely adamant to make Elijah her ally.
"Your ability to make demands has long passed."
"No demands. I'm offering you my help, and in return, I want yours." I listened as the two of them parleyed with one another, Elijah remaining standoffish as Elena continued to push for getting what she wanted.
"And why should I even consider this?"
"The same reason that you haven't killed me. You need my help to kill Klaus." Looks like everybody really was set on killing this Klaus person. "And I need you." Considering the fact that I may have royally messed up his plans whilst possessing Alaric's body, I might need to consider getting my parents out of Mystic Falls. With everything I'd learned last night, this place sounded too dangerous to stay. It was like a supernatural breeding ground of disaster. My attention diverted to Elena as her phone began to buzz, signifying that someone was calling her. I put my bets on Stefan.
"Where are you? Are you okay?" Looks like I was right. Yay me.
"Yes, I'm fine." Elena answered, sighing softly as Stefan demanded to know where Elijah was. "He's right here."
"Where? I'm on my way."
"No, Stefan. Elijah and I need some time alone." So…what was I doing here? Playing at being a chauffer? Elena really needed to work remembering that other people did actually exist around her, not just the immediate parties involved with whatever situation she had found herself stuck in.
"Listen to me. He can't be trusted. He'll use you to get to Klaus."
"Elijah is a noble man, Stefan. He lives by a code of honour, I can trust him. He knows that I'd be incredibly stupid to betray him again." Elena said with a pointed look at Elijah who arched an eyebrow in consideration. "By removing the dagger, I have proven myself."
"Well technically, I was the one who removed the dagger." I spoke up, feeling like messing with her a little in protest to being totally ghosted by this femme fatale. She scowled at me slightly.
"I told you where to find him."
"Only because you figured he wouldn't kill you with me around." I supplied again, making her scowl deepen and I couldn't help but grin. "I'm just messing with you, Elena."
"Yeah well stop it, you're not helping." Shrugging it off, I continued to focus on driving as Elena returned her attention to Stefan, telling him that he should respect her decision before asking him to make sure that Damon didn't do anything stupid. As doubtful as that was, I hoped the guy at least didn't think he could try and take out Elijah this time around seeing as he had the dagger and I'd already warned him that if he pissed me off again I'd be setting him on fire and refuse to turn it off. As if to further prove that she could be trusted, Elena handed over her phone to Elijah so that he would hold it for her. Seemingly satisfied enough that he could consider the option of a truce, Elijah then looked to me.
"Ophelia, would you kindly take us to the Lockwood manor? If nothing else I am in desperate need of a chance to wash and change clothes. We should be able to talk without interruption there." He requested so I agreed to do as he asked, heading over to the Lockwood's without question as Elena began to explain what had happened since he'd been daggered.
"He's here." Elena started, needing no further elaboration for Elijah to know exactly who she meant.
"Klaus is here?"
"He had taken over Alaric's body, but then Lia did something to get rid of him so that he couldn't possess him anymore." Hearing myself being acknowledged for being awesome, I lifted a hand to accept the silent praise before putting it back on the wheel of the car, still driving over to the Lockwood house.
"Of course he did." Elijah sighed with slight exasperation. "One of his favourite tricks. Though I am impressed a novice such as you were able to undo a witch's spell. Usually that's impossible."
"Maybe for another witch, but my magic is different. I'm fairly sure I can get around pretty much all their rules." I supplied helpfully as Elena impatiently returned the conversation to Klaus.
"Well, what are his other tricks? What is he going do next? You're the only one who knows him."
"Yes, I do." And Elijah sounded oh so delighted by this fact. I glanced across at him, seeing a pensive look in his eye that I had seen sometimes when we'd talked together. Mostly it came to him whenever we talked about his brother or his family, so I left it alone. From what I gathered, Elijah had a complicated family history. "We will discuss this more once I am out of these clothes. I dislike talking business whilst feeling so uncomfortable." Chuckling to myself, I assured him that we were almost there, and not a few minutes later I was pulling up the long driveway to the Lockwood manor where I parked up and we all went over to the door, Elijah ringing the doorbell. We must have literally caught Carol as she was heading out since she answered the door after just a few moments of waiting.
"Elijah? Elena? Ophelia? What are you all doing here? What happened?" She asked in surprise, looking Elijah up and down with his dusty and completely tattered suit.
"I've had a bit of an incident, Carol. I'm hoping you could help." He said to her simply as I looked around casually.
"Well, I'm on my way to a meeting so…"
"I won't take but a minute of your time." Recognising the dip in Elijah's tone, the lulling sound compelling Carol to be a little more helpful. She immediately changed her tune, inviting us inside and offering Elijah anything he needed. "Thank you. Well, first things first. I'm going to need a change of clothing." I'll say, I have to admit it was a real shame to see such a well kempt man like Elijah in such a poor state of dress.
"Well, we could try one of my husband's suits." Carol suggested as we all came inside. "I haven't boxed them up yet."
"Wonderful." Accepting the offer, Carol began to lead the way, heading up the stairs as Elena watched after her, lowering her voice to ask Elijah how he knew she wasn't on vervain. For a second I was confused, then I remembered Elena mention that vervain was something like a poison to vampires and if consumed by a human, it could stop a vampire's compulsion from working. "Because I'm the one who got her off it. Right before you and your friends killed me. Twice." Now that definitely sounded like a dig, and I couldn't help but smile to myself. "If you excuse me, I'll be down in a moment."
Resigning to wait until Elijah was finished cleaning up, Elena and I waited for him in one of the front rooms, sitting in silence. She seemed agitated and anxious whilst I was quite happy taking a nap, feeling tired from being up most of the night. It was refreshing and exactly what I needed, so when I heard Elijah come through to join us I started to sit up and move my feet off the sofa but he held up a hand to me. "Please, do not get up on my account. Continue to rest if you desire." I like this guy more and more. I can't believe those morons actually tried to kill him. Once he was settled, dressed in a clean and neat suit, Elijah then turned his attention to Elena as I dropped my head back on a cushion in order to rest and listen. "So I assume that the Martin witches are no longer with us?"
"No." Oh yeah, I heard about that last night. Elena mentioned it when I asked them all how Luka related to them being a witch. A really horrible way to die, I felt a little bad for him. "I'm sorry."
"And Katerina? She would have been released from my compulsion when I died."
"Klaus took her. We think she may be dead." For a moment I was confused, lifting my head slightly.
"When you say Katerina, do you mean Katherine Peirce?" When Elijah nodded his head, I finally clicked the pieces together. "Sorry, I'm still new to all this." Thankfully Elijah didn't mind the interruption and instead corrected Elena on her assumption that Klaus would have killed Katherine so quickly.
"It would not be Klaus's style. Death would be too easy for her after what she did." He noted, making me shift and turn on my side to look at him whilst lying down, intrigued by his hints that everything was somehow interwoven together into one massive storyline expanding across the ages. I had no idea how old Katherine was, but if Elijah had been around for a thousand years like he said, then she must have been around for a pretty long time too.
"I don't understand. You say that you want Klaus dead, but you still made Katherine pay for betraying him." Frowning in confusion, Elijah wore a dark expression as he answered.
"I have my own reasons for wanting Katerina to pay. There was a time I'd have done anything for Klaus." He said to her, pausing a moment before beginning to tell us the story of how everything was connected. "We first met Katerina in the year fourteen ninety two in England. We were posing as young noble lords at the time, and we were celebrating Klaus's birthday when an acquaintance of ours, Trefor as he called himself then, introduced Katerina to us, intending her as a gift. It was known that Klaus had long since been searching for a doppelganger, in order to break the curse, and there she was. The exact image of you, Elena." Elijah began to narrate, and I immediately pictured him in my mind's eye as when I had first seen him in my visions, wearing medieval clothing with longish hair.
"The modern look suits you better." I found myself murmuring as I contemplated, drawing both Elena's and Elijah's attention towards me unintentionally. "I saw what you looked like back then in my visions. The long hair wasn't really your best look." Meaning it as a joke, I was glad that Elijah took it well, simply nodding and smiling slightly before continuing on with the story.
"Of course it was all my brother ever wanted to break the curse, and the doppelganger was a key ingredient, so I had made it my life's mission to help him achieve his dream, because he was my brother. There was nothing I wouldn't do for him back them." Seeing as I already knew Klaus was Elijah's younger brother, this fact didn't come as a shock to me, but Elena looked like she'd been hit with a bag of bricks. "Yes, Klaus is my brother."
"I heard that, I'm still processing."
"Yes, I'm a little behind on the times, but I believe the term you're searching for is 'O-M-G'." Snorting with a laugh, I couldn't hold back at Elijah's dry cut response. Maybe he did have some humour in him, there was hope for him yet. After sipping at his tea, Elijah got up in order to walk about the room, stopping at the mirror to adjust his collar as he continued to speak. "Of course it was not only myself and my brother who were vampires, all my siblings are the same."
"There's a whole family of Originals?"
"My father was a wealthy landowner in a village in Eastern Europe. Our mother bore seven children." Elijah continued as I threaded my fingers together over the armrest of the sofa I was sprawled over in order to follow Elijah's movements, listening intently. He never mentioned other siblings, so this was the first I was hearing of it.
"So your parents were human?"
"Our whole family was. Our origin as vampires is a very long story, Elena. Just know, we're the oldest vampires in the world. We are the original family and from us, all vampires were created." Elena seemed to struggle contemplating the fact that although Klaus was Elijah's brother, he still wanted him dead and voiced her confusion to him. Elijah considered for a moment before suddenly deciding that a change of scenery was necessary. "I need some air. I'm still feeling a tad…dead. Come." He invited and as he walked on over, I swung my legs over, intending to get up and follow but as he passed, Elijah offered me his hand to help me rise to my feet.
Rather flattered at his thoughtfulness, I smiled and took the offer, letting him help me rise gracefully up onto my feet before leading me out into the garden where Elena eventually followed with a perplexed expression on her face. "She is a little slow on the uptake, is she not?" Elijah murmured to me so I glanced over my shoulder at Elena before shrugging.
"For a girl who's been involved with vampires a lot longer than I have, I'd figure she'd understand all this way better than I would." Sharing a friendly smile with one another, the three of us began to walk in the fresh air which Elijah seemed to enjoy a great deal more than being indoors. Can't blame him. I mean, being dead like that, does that mean dust literally gathering in his lungs? So gross, I can't believe he was actually upright, walking and talking like this after having been stabbed in the heart and left to rot.
I guess a little fresh air was probably needed, by this point.