The next morning, Elijah picks her up from Bonnie's house. It's early; the sun is still low in the sky, but Elena is looking forward to getting out of Mystic Falls, even if it is just for the day.

"How is your Bonnie?" Elijah asks her, after Elena gives him directions to the lake house.

"She's doing well. She says that she's really learning a lot from Dr. Martin," Elena tells him, smiling fondly at the memory of Bonnie telling her about everything Dr. Martin is teaching her, and then rambling on and on about how powerful and clever and helpful Luka is. Elena is pleased that Bonnie is excited to be taught the basics of being a witch, after she lost Grams far too soon, and she thinks Luka is not a bad choice for Bonnie.

Elena is also pleased that Bonnie is listening to Dr. Martin's warnings about not doing advanced spells, without the proper support and training. Bonnie still wants to try some of the protective spells she found in Emily's grimoires that require Elena's doppelganger blood, but she has agreed to hold off until she's sure she can do them safely. (Elena will be sure to set some of her blood aside, before the ritual, so Bonnie can keep herself safe after Elena is gone.)

Elena is glad that Katherine's absence from Mystic Falls has relieved some of Bonnie's most urgent worries; that, and the fact that Elijah and the Martins are helping to protect Elena. (At least for now, though of course Bonnie doesn't know about that, and won't until after it's all over.)

"Jonas tells me that she is a bright student, and he fully expects her to be a powerful witch one day," Elijah comments. Elena nods. She has every faith in her friend. (She wishes she could be there to see it, the amazing life that Bonnie is going to have; but the most important thing is that Bonnie is safe and able to have that life.)

"Have you known many witches?" Elena asks him. She's not sure exactly how long he's alive, just that he's older than any vampire she's ever met. She imagines he would have the opportunity to meet all sorts of people over the centuries, including witches.

Elena imagines what it would be like, living forever. It's unfathomable to her: seventeen going on dead. (She pushes the thought away that Stefan would give her his blood before the ritual, if she asks. She's afraid she'll be Katherine, born again.)

"Many," Elijah tells her. "Though rarely closely. It was my younger brother who always had a particular fascination with them." When Elena asks if he means Klaus, Elijah shakes his head. "No – my other young brother, Kol."

Elijah has never mentioned Kol by name before, though of course Elena already knew that Elijah had more siblings than just Klaus – it was their deaths at Klaus's hands that drive Elijah's need for revenge. She tentatively asks Elijah about Kol's fascination with witches, wondering if it will be a sore point for him. She tries to be respectful, and make clear that Elijah doesn't have to talk about any of it, if he doesn't want to.

He wants to.

He seems desperate to share, in fact, if "desperate" were a label she would ever apply to Elijah. (Not aloud, anyway.)

As Elena gently teases story after story from Elijah – about Kol, and about his younger sister Rebekah, and eventually even about Klaus and an older brother, Finn – Elena realizes that Elijah probably has nobody to talk to about his family. That he has nobody to listen to his stories; nobody to laugh with him at the funny parts, and sympathize with him about how annoying younger siblings can be.

His family is lost to him, every one of them but Klaus dead for what sounds like decades or even centuries. And Elena has never heard Elijah mention any friends. (She imagines it would be difficult for Elijah to make real friends; almost everyone that Elena has met who knows who – and what – Elijah really is, seems terrified of him.)

So Elena listens, and she laughs with Elijah at the funny parts, and she sympathizes about annoying younger siblings. And as she listens, and laughs, and sympathizes, she comes to understand just how unbearably lonely Elijah must be, after living decades by himself, and with an eternity alone stretching out before him.

Elena wonders, yet again, why Elijah can't find it in himself to forgive Klaus. She imagines that helping Klaus break his curse could be an opportunity to reconcile, and Elena would just as willingly sacrifice herself for their reconciliation as she would for Klaus's death. After all, it makes no difference to her, reconciliation or revenge, so long as Bonnie is safe.

At least then, Elijah would have one brother. (Elena thinks about her own mixed feelings for Stefan, who hasn't done anything nearly as bad to her as what Klaus did to Elijah. But then, Elena knows that she doesn't love Stefan anywhere near as much as Elijah loves Klaus, even if they are very different kinds of love.)

Elena smiles and nods along as Elijah tells her what she imagines is a highly sanitized story about Kol and Klaus partying in New Orleans. That city seems to feature heavily in many of Elijah's stories about Kol and Rebekah and Klaus. Finn is never mentioned in those stories; Finn is rarely mentioned at all. She wonders how long Finn has been gone, and whether Elijah had already forgiven Klaus once, and now can't bear to do it again. (She doesn't ask.)

"Was New Orleans your favorite place to live?" Elena asks Elijah curiously. It sounds like they traveled quite a bit; Elijah has told her stories from New Orleans, and Chicago, and Paris, and London, and many, many more places that Elena has never visited (and never will).

Elijah thinks about it for a few moments, and then shakes his head. "No," he murmurs, his tone contemplative. "I think I was happiest when I lived in the area you now call Mystic Falls. When I was human." Despite her shock, Elena manages to gently cajole the entire story from Elijah.

The story of how, more than a thousand years earlier, after losing her eldest child to a plague and her youngest child to a werewolf attack, Elijah's grieving mother created the first vampires: her own children.

Elena doesn't linger on her surprise, instead asking Elijah about what it was like, growing up in Mystic Falls so long ago. She can process the origin story of the Original family later; Elijah is willing to talk right now, and Elena isn't sure how long that will last.

Elijah has a thousand years of stories, and Elena knows that he's skimmed only the surface by the time he pulls up to the lake house. He opens her door for her and helps her from the car, as is his habit, a contemplative look on his face.

"Thank you for your patience," he murmurs, something indefinable in his gaze as he stares down at her with those dark eyes. "I don't usually talk so much about myself."

"I know," she tells him with a smile. "You're always listening to what I have to say; it's only fair that I listen sometimes too. Besides," she adopts a teasing tone, trying to lighten the mood. "It was no hardship to listen to stories as fascinating as yours. Maybe you really should write a book about the history of Mystic Falls!"

Elijah smiles at her, and they walk together up to the front door of the lake house. She invites him in without hesitation, and they fall into a companionable silence as they search for the journals together.

When she turns around to tell him that they aren't in her parents' room, he's closer than she expects. Elena startles and jumps back, hitting her head on the closet wall behind her with a dull thump.

"Ow," she murmurs, reaching back to rub the sore spot.

"Are you injured?" Elijah asks, reaching his own hand towards her before apparently thinking better of it and withdrawing. He takes a step back. "I apologize for startling you."

Elena tells him that she's fine, and then threatens – with a teasing smile – that she will put a bell on him so he can't sneak up on her anymore. Elijah tilts his head slightly in thought, before responding with a smirk that he can't imagine how she thinks she's going to ikeep/i a bell on him. Elena just shrugs and says that she'd figure something out.

"I'm sure you would," Elijah replies, clearly humoring her. "But in the meantime, it sounds like this wall is hollow inside." He raps his knuckles on the wall next to her, and Elena steps aside as he removes the panels one-by-one.

There's a door. Elijah pushes it open and turns on the light, revealing an arsenal like Elena has never seen before – and a bookcase filled with journals.

"I'll get you a box," Elena murmurs, needing to get away from the evidence that her parents not only knew about vampires, but ihunted/i them. She wonders what her dad and mom would think about everything that's happened since she met Stefan – everything that Elena has idone/i since she met Stefan. (She pushes the thought away, because it can lead nowhere productive.)

Elena walks out to the car, opening the trunk to grab an empty box. She hears a twig snap behind her, and she turns to tease Elijah about that bell, hoping it will divert him from asking questions about her parents.

It isn't Elijah.

Instead, it's a blond woman who Elena has never seen before. "Hello? Can I help you?" Elena asks, a little uneasy about the way the woman is looking at her. Elena looks at the woman's hands and doesn't see a daylight ring; given the woman isn't burning, Elena feels fairly confident she isn't a vampire. But that doesn't mean she's safe; Elena is well aware that there are more monsters out there than just vampires.

And then more people are walking out of the woods – mostly men, but a few women too. Elena doesn't count, but she thinks there must be over a dozen. They all stare at her.

"Can I help you?" Elena repeats, about two seconds away from calling for Elijah. The only thing that makes her hesitate is that these people haven't actually idone/i anything yet, but she's relatively sure that Elijah will kill them all if he thinks they're even potentially a threat. (Elena may enjoy Elijah's company, and find his story's fascinating, but she is well aware that under that tailored suit lies a terrifyingly efficient killer; if she ever forgets, the image of Trevor's head knocked clean off his body with a single slap will remind her.)

"Yes, you can help us," the blonde woman tells her, making some sort of motion to the people behind her. They fan out behind her in formation, as if preparing to attack. Elena takes a deep breath. "You see, we're looking to break a curse, and we've heard that your blood is the key."

"Eli…!" Elena starts to scream, but she's quickly cut off, a tall man with a buzz cut covering her mouth with one hand, and grabbing her around the middle with his other arm. He starts to pull her away from the car, and she tries to struggle, but he pins her arms easily.

He's too fast and strong for her by far – but not fast enough or strong enough to save himself.

A blink, and the man's arms go slack around her before he falls to the ground – revealing Elijah behind him, the man's heart in his hand.

"Get the girl!" the blonde woman yells, and two other men start running towards her. Another blink, and Elijah is between her and them – a heart in each of his hands. They fall to the ground with nearly simultaneous thuds. Elena watches with wide eyes, and then catches Elijah's gaze.

His dark eyes lock with hers, and she isn't sure whether he's asking if she's unharmed, or whether he's checking that she can tolerate the coming carnage. Either way, the answer is the same: Elena nods, just slightly.

And then, chaos. Elijah moves too quickly for her to follow, pulling hearts from chests as easily as a knife slides through butter. His opponents are fast too, moving almost too quickly for Elena to follow; but they aren't nearly fast enough.

Elijah dispatches them with ease; it isn't a fight, so much as a massacre. Within iseconds/i, everyone is dead – except for a man who is kneeling on the ground, whimpering. Elijah pulls him up with one arm, as if he weighs nothing.

"What about you, sweetheart?" he murmurs, asking the man if he'd like to fight. The man desperately shakes his head. "Where's the girl?"

Elena looks at the bodies on the ground, realizing that the blonde woman is missing. "Where is she?" Elijah repeats, not raising his voice even as he shakes the man. The man whimpers, but doesn't otherwise respond.

Elijah sighs, as if disappointed.

"Lovely Elena, please go inside while I… discuss matters with this dog," Elijah says, his tone conversational, as if his hands aren't covered with the blood of over a dozen people.

"Dog?" Elena questions. Were these werewolves?

"Later," Elijah tells her, his tone as short with her as she has ever heard it. "Please go inside."

Elena swallows nervously, holding her ground as she reminds herself that Elijah won't hurt her. "We need a werewolf," she reminds him.

"Perhaps I'll keep this one alive," Elijah replies, conversationally. Elena knows that Elijah is very careful with his words, and she immediately notices that isn't any kind of promise. "So long as he tells me how his pack knew that you were here, and just what they were planning to do with you."

The man whimpers again, promising to tell Elijah everything. Elena thinks he might have just pissed himself, from the way that Elijah looks at the man with disgust, his nose crinkling as if exposed to some offensive odor. She shoves away any sympathy she may feel (the pack signed their own death warrants, coming after her while Elijah was in screaming distance), grabs the empty box from the trunk, and heads back to the lake house to pack up the journals – leaving Elijah and the man to their "discussion."

Elena packs up all the journals, heats up and eats a can of soup, and is about halfway through "Pride and Prejudice" by the time Elijah comes back inside, the man nowhere to be seen. Elijah looks impeccable as always, not a hair out of place or a drop of blood on him – the stormy expression on his face the only hint that he's just killed over a dozen people and likely tortured another.

Elena imagines that his handkerchief is somewhere outside; sodden with the blood of the werewolf pack that dared to come after her.

Death follows Elena, wherever she goes.

Elena closes her book and puts it to the side. She looks at Elijah with an attentive expression, but she doesn't say anything. Elena doesn't want him to think that she's pestering him, so better that he breaks the silence.

"That was about half of Mason Lockwood's pack," Elijah tells her. Elena nods, doing her best to keep her face expressionless. What did that mean for Mason? For Tyler? "The girl who ran away is the Alpha. She apparently didn't believe the Misters Lockwood when they told her that the Sun and the Moon Curse was fake."

"You think she's going to come after me again, with the other half of the pack," Elena guesses. Elijah nods. "Is… did he say anything about Tyler?" She isn't sure that Elijah would have bothered to ask, but Elena needs to know. She wants to call Tyler, but what would she say? ("Sorry that Elijah killed half your pack, maybe tell your Alpha to back off" isn't a great way to lead off.)

"He remains in Florida, with his uncle and the rest of the pack," Elijah informs her. Elena relaxes, just a little bit.

"Did he… how did they know I would be here?" Elena asks. Did Tyler tell them about the lake house? Did he know they were going to come after her? (Elena wants to think not, but she's suffered too much betrayal to trust blindly, anymore.)

"They arrived in Mystic Falls yesterday morning. One of the pack members was at the Grill and overheard our discussion," he responds.

Elena sighs. Elijah stares at her for a moment, perhaps expecting further questions. Elena doesn't ask any; if he wants to tell her something, he can, but Elena has enough to worry about with adding a werewolf pack to the list. Especially when she knows that, if they come after her again, Elijah will kill the rest of them. (Elena just hopes that she can convince him to spare Tyler and Mason – and one other, to be the sacrifice.)

Elijah grabs the box of journals, and they head back to Mystic Falls.

Elena makes a concerted effort not to dwell on her dark thoughts, and to pull Elijah from his own. By the end of the first hour, she's managed to persuade Elijah into the role of storyteller once again.

The atmosphere isn't quite as relaxed as it was during the drive there, but Elena learns almost as much. In the middle of a story about a secret society of vampires that Elijah founded called the Strix, he mentions turning a former lover of his, Aya, and then he offhandedly asks Elena if she ever considered turning for Stefan. Elena doesn't think twice before saying "no," before she steers the conversation back to the Strix.

Elena catches the contemplative look on Elijah's face at her answer. But as he completes his story and launches into the next with no further mention of Elena becoming a vampire, she lets it go.

That night, she dreams of him. Except when he walks into the lake house with that stormy expression, she kisses it away, and his hands leave bloody marks all over her body as he…

She wakes up, Bonnie breathing softly beside her, and tells herself she's damp from sweat, and nothing more.

(Death follows her, wherever she goes; but Elijah cannot die.)

The next morning, Elijah brings her to the Lockwood Mansion, and reveals that he has been staying there as a guest of Mayor Lockwood. Elena looks him in the eye, and doesn't blush at the memory of last night's dream, and doesn't ask if he compelled Mayor Lockwood, or just seduced her. It doesn't matter. (It doesn't.)

Elijah guides her to the study – the same one where Katherine knocked her out and stole her dress. Elena is just glad it isn't the library; better she stand in the place where she last saw Matt, rather than the place where Stefan murdered him.

Elijah pulls a wooden box from the bookcase, and places it on the desk. He opens it, and pulls out two glass vials.

"As you know, to complete the ritual, Klaus must drink the blood of the doppelganger, to the point of your death," Elijah tells her. Elena doesn't reply, waiting for Elijah to continue. They've discussed the ritual before, iad nauseum/i; he wouldn't bring it up again without a point.

"But there is no need for you to remain dead," he continues. Elijah picks up the first vial. The liquid inside is a dark red. "This is my blood."

"I don't want to be a vampire," Elena tells him, remembering the conversation from the day before, and the look on Elijah's face when she said she hadn't considered turning for Stefan. He looks unsurprised, and doesn't push; he just nods and puts down the vial of his blood.

Then, he picks up the second vial, which contains a pearly liquid with an iridescent sheen. "This is an elixir that Dr. Martin brewed. It possesses mystical properties of resuscitation," he explains.

Elena looks at it, and for the first time since Aunt Jenna died, she feels the faint stirrings of ihope/i. "If I take that before the ritual, I'll die, and then I'll come back – human?" she asks, needing him to confirm it.

"Precisely," Elijah tells her. Elena swallows; she's surprised to realize just how much she wants to live, now that it is a possibility. She thought she had resigned herself to death, to trading her life for Bonnie's. (For Elijah's revenge, or his reconciliation.)

Apparently, Elena is not so resigned to death as she convinced herself she was.

"What do you want for it?" Elena queries, her voice no more than a whisper, though she knows he will have no trouble hearing her. She won't say that she's willing to trade ianything/i for that elixir, because she isn't: not Bonnie, or even Tyler. But she's willing to trade a lot, for the chance to ilive/i.

Elena just has no idea what Elijah wants from her.

In response, Elijah puts the elixir back in the box, alongside the vial with his blood. He closes the box, and then offers it to her. "I want you to live," he murmurs, his dark eyes full of sincerity and something that looks a lot like fondness.

Elena reaches for the box, her hands trembling.

Hope.