Elijah was lying in a bed that was in the shack that was rather too small for his massive size. The werewolf venom was starting to take effect and even with an original vampire, there was no fighting it. Though it wouldn't kill him, it did have to run its course. He was sweating and feverish, face clammy and pale, gasping as if he couldn't get enough air in his lungs. I paced by the door, my right arm wrapped around my torso with the finger of my left hand pressed to my lips as I watched him carefully and wearily. When the hallucinations started, there was no telling what he might do, and I was prepared to get Hayley out safely at all costs.
"Here." Hayley said walking over to him with a glass of water. "Drink this." She handed him the glass and he barely had enough energy to prop himself up and take the glass from her. Elijah took a small sip but instantly regretted it as he threw it back up and coughed, collapsing back down on the bed. "All right."
"Forgive me, please." Elijah tried to apologize for vomiting on Hayley's shoes as she stood back up.
"It's ok." She walked over to the window and I sat down in the chair next to the bed, propping my feet on the edge of the bed.
"Remind me to annihilate your brother once you're healthy." I said.
"Yes, remind me to remind you to get in line." Elijah gasped.
"Doesn't help that we decided to shack up in the middle of a swamp, either." Hayley muttered as she opened the screen door to catch the gentle breeze coming across from over the water. Elijah coughed and she turned back to us. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine. Please just return to your reading." He ran his hands through his already disheveled hair as Hayley picked up the bible she found on the porch last night and flipped through it again.
"Well, I went through the whole thing. It's just a regular bible with an entry in the family tree that may or may not be, but you know I've been a little busy worrying about you." I waved a hand to dismiss her statement.
"That's my job." I muttered. "Worry about your mysterious family."
"Hayley, please." Elijah begged. "This fever will make me unstable. Now, once these hallucinations begin, I'll start to see things. I will start to say things. You must leave me."
"Oh, jeez, would you look at that?" I gloated. "It's the same thing I've been telling you."
"You, too, Hayden."
"Yeah, no, someone's gotta stay behind to keep you at bay. I'm not leaving you like this." Elijah coughed unable to retort anything as I settled back into my chair.
TO
Hayley was sitting outside on the dock by the water, staring out at the setting sun and watching the ripples move the sunrays in the reflection of the sun. I was sitting back in the chair next to the bed, trying my best to ignore the sticky, muggy heat as I closed my eyes, drifting in and out of sleep with my feet propped up on the bed and my arms crossed over my chest. I kept my ears open listening to Hayley outside. Elijah cried out in agony that had me jolting in my seat and I quickly sat up as my eyes flew open to see his body convulse and the sheets so tightly gripped in his fists, it turned his knuckles white. I climbed into bed and took his head in my head as I tried to help minimize his convulsions.
"It's ok." I said soothingly. "It's ok." I placed my hand on his forehead. It was hot and sticky with sweat as the fever kept raging on inside of him. Before I could back my hand, my vision blurred, and my breath was taken away as my mind felt like it was being dragged through a wormhole. I blinked my eyes several times to try to clear my vision, thinking that it was probably the heat getting to me. When my vision came back into focus, I was no longer in the shack. Instead, I was looking at an African American woman sitting in a bathtub who was laughing and giggling. In another world, I heard Elijah's voice and barely felt his touch as he ran his hands up my arms.
"Oh, Celeste." I heard him muttered deliriously. This was his memory. I was in one of his memories. I stumbled back, trying to find the way that I came in and I snapped back into my own mind like a rubber band. I quickly pulled my hand away from Elijah's forehead before I could slip back in. Elijah's eyes flew open with realization that he just shared a memory with me. "Hayden, I'm sorry. I thought you were someone else."
"Celeste?"
"Yes."
"Whoever she was, she was smoking hot." Elijah's brows furrowed with confusion as he looked up at me before relaxing in realization.
"How—did I let you enter my thoughts?" I looked away from him. "I'm not well. I should go." He tried to get out of bed, but it resorted into a coughing fit and I gently pushed him back down on the mattress to rest.
"This is—this is fine. Elijah, you're sick. I'm taking care of you." Elijah grew very still as his eyes snapped towards the door to the shack.
"We're being watched." I became rigid as I gently took his head off my lap and set it back down on the bed as I walked over to the window and looked outside to see a woman standing outside in the trees.
"Hayley, get inside now." Hayley came in from the back door but when she saw the woman through the front screen door, she took off running outside. "Hayley! Don't—damn it, girl!" I quickly followed her before she could go any further into the woods.
"Hey!" Hayley yelled after the woman as if that were going to get her to come back. "Hey!" I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back to me as the woman took off running into the woods.
"Don't you dare follow her. I cannot keep an eye on you and Elijah. So, do me a favor and don't do anything reckless. Now get inside." Hayley looked back the trees searching for the woman and when she couldn't see her, she reluctantly turned and went back inside.
TO
Hours passed and Elijah was still laying in the bed sweating and feverish, becoming more and more pale by the hour. He was panting and struggling to breath as I ran a cold wet rag over his forehead, trying my best, trying anything to cool his body temperature. My breath hitched in my throat once more as I felt something tug in my mind and before I could pull back, I was slipping back into Elijah's mind. It was the same memory as before. Once again, I was looking at Celeste in a bathtub through someone else's eyes. Elijah's eyes. He—I—we—were standing at the entryway wearing an 1800s uniform with knee high ebony boots. Celeste tossed the sponge at him and he caught it as Celeste chuckled.
"Assistance, please, good sir." Celeste smiled at him with magnificent thick French accent.
"No, I'm much happier taking in such a wondrous view." Elijah said. "It's perfection." I reeled back, trying to separate our minds but just as I was almost out, I slipped back into the memory.
"Your brother is again up to no good." Elijah sighed and rolled his eyes. "He's challenging the gentry to duels as though they have any chance of a fair fight."
"I do grow weary of sacrificing my joy to temper my brother's mischief." He walked over to Celeste and sat on the edge of the bathtub and motioned with his hand for Celeste to give him her leg. He took her leg and began to lather it up with soap using the sponge that he caught moments before. "Surely, you could cast a spell, put him in his place." Celeste smiled at him, eyes filled with love and admiration.
"It would take a hundred witches to put him in his place. Besides, he only ever listens to you."
"Yes." Elijah dropped the sponge back into the water with a small splash that sent ripples throughout the water. "He certainly needs a little discipline." He bent down and kissed the arch of her foot and her smile grew. "Perhaps a spanking of some kind is in order. I think I shall need some rehearsal. Come." Celeste chuckled as she leaned forward to kiss him. I threw myself backwards, stumbling and tripping through his feverish mind as I struggled to pull myself out and back into my own mind. I finally exited the memory and growled in frustration, pressing the heel of my palm into my forehead as Elijah began babbling. My mind swirled.
"Are you okay?" I heard Hayley ask.
"I'm fine." I breathed, rubbing my forehead, and taking my hand away from Elijah's head so I didn't risk slipping back in again. "Just… weird going into someone else's mind."
"Then don't."
"Easier said than done. It's like a mudhole. You just… slip in and it's a struggle to get back out."
"Hayden, please." Elijah panted from my lap and I looked down at him. "This fever. My mind is flooded with these tortuous memories. You have to leave me."
"No. You tell me to leave one more time and I'm going to knock your ass out and you can deal with this fever unconsciously. What is your deal anyway? You don't like people taking care of you?"
"There are consequences for those that care. I will not have you pay that price."
"So, you're having weird retro sex dreams. Get over it. I'm staying."
"What about our visitor? What does she want?"
"I can only do one thing at a time, Elijah."
"I'm guess she's the one that left the mystery bible on the doorstep last night." Hayley suggested. "Would be nice if she'd stick around long enough to tell me why."
"Hayley, you came here to gather information about your family, not to play nursemaid to a vampire with a temperature. Please… find her. Learn what you can."
"He's right, Hayley." I agreed. "I got this covered. Go and see if you can find her. Just stay in my earshot."
"No, I'm staying." Hayley insisted.
TO
The crickets and insects came out as the night approached, the trees blending into the darkness. I continued to set on the bed with Elijah's head in my lap, dabbing his forehead with a cold rag. It seemed like he was going through the worst of it now which meant that he would start to get better soon. He panted as he began to babble on about Celeste.
"Celeste… forgive me." He whispered. "I'm sorry." I felt that familiar tug on my mind and I was slipping back into his mind. This time we were no longer in the bathing room. This time we were outside in a meadow with a group of people. Klaus and a man where in the middle of the field with their backs to each other and their guns raised.
"A'outrance." Klaus called. "Huit, sept, six, cinq, quatre, trois, dexu—" With each word Klaus spoke, each man took a step in the opposite direction and on the seventh step, they quickly spun around to face each other and fired their weapons. Klaus was the quickest and shot his opponent in the head. He looked around the awed crowed with a victorious smirk. "Is that it? Is this the best New Orleans has to off?" One of the men dragged the body to a pile off to the side of the field that was growing with carcasses of everyone who tried to best Klaus and failed. Elijah walked out onto the field and over to Klaus.
"Brother, please this is high folly." Elijah declared. "Is it not enough that you have slaughtered dozens in just these past several weeks?"
"Well—"
"Word of a city littered with bodies will surely travel the oceans. Do you want to bring out father upon us?"
"Relax, brother. I've sent rumor that the bodies are a result of the witches seeking blood sacrifice for their rituals."
"You did what? Have you forgotten Celeste is one of those that you so recklessly pointed your finger at?" Klaus' face contorted with confusion.
"Who's Celeste?" He thought about it for a moment before eyes growing wide with realization. "Oh, yes, the witch you've been knocking around with. Well, fear not. Harlots are like rats in the quarter. You trip over one every step you take." Elijah grabbed a gun from the nearest man to him and shot Klaus in the stomach who cried out in pain and stared at his older brother as if he couldn't believe that he just shot him. "Ugh! Agh! Rrgh." Klaus sighed and glared at Elijah, clutching his stomach. "You care about her. Well, that is unfortunate. I hear they're rounding up the town's witches as we speak." I exited the memory so suddenly, it felt like a thousand rubber bands snapping against my brain. Elijah abruptly sat up as I planted my hands flat on the bed. My vision kept going in and out as I fought to come back to the present, my head pounding.
"Uh!" Elijah cried out in agony. "Aah! Ah! Huh!" I stumbled out of bed, the room swaying as I got my footing and I held up my hand to Hayley to signal her to stay back as I stood in front of Elijah who was now sitting on the edge of the bed, panting and looking down at the floor.
"Elijah?" I called to him softly, reaching out to touch his shoulder. As soon as my fingers grazed his shoulder, he quickly smacked my arm away and that sent up a million red flags as that was not like the noble and honorable Elijah. The motion surprised me. "Oh!" I slowly, not making any sudden movements, placed myself between him and Hayley.
"Niklaus, I'll kill you, you bastard." Elijah slowly lifted his head up and looked at me, his eyes black with rage and veins moving under his eyes with hunger. So not good. And this is why I had a big meal before we bunkered down her.
"Elijah?" Faster than anything I could prepare myself for, Elijah was off the bed with his hand around my throat and slamming against the wall with such force, it shook the entire cabin. Out of my blurred vision, I saw Hayley gasp and take a step towards, but I managed to hold up a hand and wave her off. I clawed at Elijah's hand, trying to force my fingers between his hand and my windpipe. I opened my mouth to suck in air, but nothing came through. My lungs began aching with the lack of oxygen as Elijah's grip on my throat grew tighter, his eyes blacker the night. He opened his mouth to reveal his fangs, hissing at me, hallucinating that I was Klaus. I slammed my elbow down on his arm to break his hold and when that didn't work, I gathered up all my supernatural strength to punch him in the chest but he caught my fist with his free hand with ease. It was like trying to push a mighty oak tree over. Impossible. I continued to try to pry his hand off my neck with my left hand, struggling to free my right hand from his grasp but the world around me was rapidly darkening around me and when his grip got so tight that not even an ounce of air could get to my lungs, I felt a sharp pain at the base of my skull as my neck snapped and death took a hold of me.
TO
The sharp pain in my neck was the first thing I felt through the darkness. I could feel the cartilage and tendons weaving together as they rapidly began to heal themselves, bringing function back to my brain. I furrowed my brows as I groaned, slowly testing the mobility of my neck before opening my eyes. Tilting my head from left to right, I slowly began to get a grip on reality and realized that I was in a car. Elijah's car. And we were on the road, driving, just pulling up to the plantation manor. I started and gripped the seat as I turned to face Elijah in the driver's seat. He looked healthy. Not feverish and murderous like the last time I saw him before he snapped my neck in his hysteria fit. I looked behind me in the back seat at Hayley's sleeping form and sighed with relief when I noticed no damage was done to her.
"How long have I been out?" I asked Elijah quietly.
"Just the night." He answered cautiously as he parked the car.
"And you're okay?"
"Better now. The fever broke in the middle of the night. The woman that was watching us came in and saved Hayley from me by staking me in the back. Not the most pleasant feeling but it did subdue me until the fever passed and I was lucid." I nodded my understanding, my stomach fluttering with relief at the thought that nothing happened to Hayley. I cleared my throat.
"Well, thanks for the ride." Elijah smiled at me, but I could still see some guilt and regret behind the warm coloring of his brown eyes.
"Quite the awkward, little adventure, wouldn't you say?" His smile grew before faltering a bit. "Hayden. I'm sorry I hurt you. I would never want that."
"Elij—tell me. Tell me what happened to Celeste."
"That's not important."
"It is important. A thousand years of memories, and that's what breaks through your fever brain. I want to know. Show me." Elijah reluctantly reached across the seat with his right hand to tuck my blonde hair behind me ear and gently cupping my face in his hand. The slip into his mind was easier and gentler this time, like stepping into a calm pond. I didn't fight it this time. The image changed and we were back in the memory of the bathroom but there was no Celeste sitting in the bathtub, smiling, and giggling at her lover. Instead, she was dressed in white and submerged in the water, her eyes wide with no life in them. She had been drowned. Horrified and panting, Elijah picked her up out of the water and held her tightly against him, face contorting with rage and sorrow. He yelled in anguish and that pain and suffering traveled down the link between our minds to me and it felt like getting punched in the heart as I exited the memory. Elijah slowly let go of my face and looked down into his lap.
"It was a cruel and bloody time to be a witch, courtesy of my wonderful brother."
"She died because of Klaus?"
"She died because of me because I cared too deeply for her. I had allowed my brother to slip through my grasp. I'd loosened the reins while Celeste consumed my every moment. I'd abandoned him in the name of my own happiness. Celeste paid the price."
"I don't get it. Why are we here? Why are you trying to put together your family when it's so clear that one part of it is broken?"
"To me, the very definition of the word broken suggests that something can be fixed. I have all eternity to accomplish one single task—my brother's salvation. If I surrender this, then, tell me, what value would I be to my family, to myself, to—to Hayley's child?" I took his hand in mine to comfort him. His hand was stiff and reluctant to relax at my touch. "Please, no, Hayden. You've seen what happens." He closed his fingers around my hand for a second before letting go and getting out of the car, leaving me to wake Hayley up from the back seat. She blinked her eyes several times before gathering her bearings and climbing out of the car with me and we walked over to the porch and sat down on the steps as Elijah went inside.
"Are you okay?" Hayley asked me groggily.
"I'm fine." I answered her, rubbing the back of my neck that was still aching a bit. "My neck still hurts a little but I'm healing. I'm fine. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." The front door to the manor opened again as Klaus stormed out of the house and down the steps past us.
"You're coming with me, Little Wolf." Klaus demanded storming to his car.
"Why would I go anywhere with you?" Klaus turned to face her.
"Because, Hayley, that child you carry is the only thing on this earth that matter to me. Now, you can fight me on this, but you will lose." He walked over to the car and opened the passenger door, waiting for Hayley to comply. "As will anyone else who tries to stop you from getting in this car." He shot a murderous glare in my direction as if he can see all the things that I was about to do to him in my mind. Hayley looked over her shoulder as if expecting Elijah or Rebekah to come to her rescue. They didn't come. Hayley finally stood up from the steps and I stood with her and in a single fluid motion grabbed her arm as Klaus' glare intensified. "Hayden." I growled at him, my eyes shifting and my veins popping under my eyes as my canines and fingernails grew.
"Hayley, if you go I cannot protect you." I said quietly to her, pleading.
"I can protect her just fine."
"I don't doubt your ability to protect her. I just don't trust you around her. Now I already fought one original today. Granted I did lose but I did not go down without a fight. I'm prepared to defend my family against another original."
"You will lose." I shifted into my wolf form, the rage in my soul masking any kind of pain it took to morph. I roared at him, my chest vibrating with the sound as I stood in front of Hayley. She walked over to me and gently rested her hand on my head.
"I'll be fine, Hayden." She whispered to me, one hand laying protectively over her stomach. "You've been through enough today. As long as I'm carrying this baby, Klaus won't let anything happen to me. Stay here, rest and heal. I'll be fine." I whined and scratched my claws against the cobblestone in protest as Hayley walked over to the car and got in. Klaus never took his eyes off me as he closed the door and walked around to the driver's side and I had no choice but to stand them uselessly and watch them drive off the plantation.
