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December 2012
It had been eight months since she had woken in the boarding house. The trauma of her final memory was fading away so it was getting easier; she no longer had the flashbacks whenever she saw a knife.
Her nightmares had stopped as well thanks to the crocus tea.
She ground the flowers down and dropped them in the bottom of a mug before lifting the kettle and pouring in the boiling water. She carried it over to the table and opened the laptop that she had spent the past month attempting to understand.
The tea steeped slowly as she typed in the deciphered letters. It wasn't that she didn't believe Kol because she did; she just wanted to read it for herself.
Ivanka doĭde pri men. Tya vyarva, che slukhovete na pŭtnitsite i sŭmishlenitsite sa verni. Tya otkri neĭnite, kazva tya. Tya zapechata vrŭzkata i sega tvŭrdi, che useshta vrŭzka s prirodata; neshto, koeto nikoĭ ot nas nikoga ne e poznaval.
The translation took less than a minute. When it finally came up in English she switched it over to Greek making it easier to read without hurting her eyes and mind.
Ivanka has come to me. She believes the rumors of travellers and soulmates to be true. She found hers she says. She sealed the bond and now claims to feel a connection with nature; something none of us have ever known.
"Good evening, Elena," Elijah greeted while pulling a blood bag from the fridge.
"Hey," she pushed the computer closed. Taking a sip of her tea she met his eyes; it was getting easier to be around him as well.
Elijah took a seat across from her at the table after warming the blood and placing it in a mug.
"Any luck with your memories?"
"No," she smiled around her mug of tea. She had one foot in another chair so she rested her elbow on her knee and held her mug. "I don't think they will come back on their own."
"I could try contacting a witch if you like," he frowned when she shook her head and smiled.
"No thanks," she laughed softly. Her eyes sparkled when she saw his confusion. "I got the impression from my journal that my life was not… something worth remembering."
"It's your memory, Elena," he tapped the table with a knuckle.
"It doesn't feel like it," she ran a finger around the rim of her mug; "I think I'm alright not knowing. I promise I'm fine." Her eyes narrowed when she caught something flickering in his dark eyes. "Is there something you want me to remember, Elijah?"
"I just want you to be happy," he cleared his throat before rising from the table, "and if you're happy not knowing then…" he trailed off while rinsing his cup and putting it in the dishwasher. He pulled out his phone to answer the incoming message.
"Do you have to go?" She finished the last of her tea.
"Yes," he nodded. "I'm terribly sorry, but I do have to leave."
It wasn't until she was lying in bed that it hit her. The reason he wanted her to remember and the look in his eyes.
"You ever wonder if anyone cares whether or not you live or die?"
Alenka snapped her book shut and turned on the daybed to face him. "Personally no," she arched an eyebrow, "but I know for a fact your brother wants me alive. He's rather insistent on it."
"Ah, yes," Kol scoffed, "Nik and his Hybrid Army. How could I possibly forget about that? Tell me, darling, has he started parading suitors past you?"
"What are you talking about?" She tilted her head and pulled his book from his hands; it wasn't like he was actually reading it.
"He wants another doppelganger," he shrugged, "which roughly translates to: Elena Gilbert will have children."
"Not that," she waved her hand, "I meant the other."
"My flippant attitude over the worth of my life?" Kol mirrored her nod. "I just mean nobody would care if I were to die, or were you not there when Nik was torturing me."
"He's your brother Kol," she dropped the books onto a table, "he would care. They would all care."
"They didn't the first time," he rolled his eyes and leaned back on the daybed, "why should it be any different now. Nobody would care. My own mother has threatened to send me back."
"I'd care," she squeezed his arm and reached for her buzzing phone. "Who else would introduce me to terrible music?" She nodded towards the gramophone.
"This is wonderful music," he bumped her shoulder.
"It's wailing," she snickered. "My phone makes a better sound."
"Speaking of," he rolled his eyes when he saw the missed call and text message, "it looks like you're needed back at the compound."
"We want to bring Hope home," Klaus gestured wildly with his hands, "this is how we can do it. We could ensure New Orleans is safe; I could ensure it."
"By enslaving my people?" Hayley glared at him.
"Not to mention the strain it would take on Elena," Elijah crossed his arms and leaned against the book shelf.
"Of course," Hayley muttered, "it's all about Elena."
"Excuse me?" Elijah's brows rose.
"You've been mooning over her since she got here," Hayley growled. "You immediately rushed out after her when it looked like she was lost. I wouldn't be surprised if you've got someone keeping an eye on her whenever she leaves the house."
"That's actually what I'm doing," Klaus lifted a finger, "I get Josh to follow at a distance. Apparently she likes the cemetery and the botanical gardens."
"She's a manipulative bitch," Hayley threw up her hands, "and is probably faking the memory loss, and those 'nightmares' she was having as well."
"I assure you, little wolf," Klaus cut off her rant, "that nightmare was very real. I saw part of it and she was within her rights to be afraid." He backed away when a set of footsteps echoed outside the door.
"Hello?" Alenka froze when she was greeted by three sets of dark eyes.
"Hello, love," Klaus grinned, "I find myself in need of your blood."
Her eyes flickered between everyone in the room; they settled on Hayley when she scoffed.
"I don't like it."
"Have you got a better idea?" Klaus snapped. "One that doesn't involve marrying a man you don't love."
"Just admit it," Hayley rolled her eyes, "you don't like Jackson."
"I like Jackson well enough," Klaus sighed, "but not as a step father for my child."
"How much blood do you need?" Alenka swallowed when she saw the disapproval in Elijah's eyes.
"You'll give it just like that?" Hayley dropped her shoulders and tilted her head.
"Sure," she nodded.
"It would take too much of your blood," Elijah stepped between her and Klaus. "If you are going to do this you need to take your time: one bag every two weeks."
"Why?" Hayley sighed. "We can just heal her, or better yet drain her dry."
"Vampire blood has no effect on me since taking the cure," Alenka cleared her throat, "and if it's all the same to you I'd rather not be bled dry. How long will this take?"
"Two months," Klaus pulled the equipment from the drawer, "if we're following Elijah's specifications. It will take two months to get enough."
January 2013
"You know what you have to do."
She lifted her head to regard him carefully. Her fingers ghosted over the aged paper of the grimoire that hadn't seen the light of day in a century. She had a feeling she knew what he was talking about, but the thought was somehow wrong.
"What do I have to do?" She crossed her arms and leaned against the table. She tilted her head and watched Kol's face. Not for the first time she wondered what he truly looked like when he did not inhabit the body of Kaleb; did he resemble one of his brothers more than the other. Whatever he truly looked like she knew his eyes always held that twinkle.
"You have to sleep with him." His usual smirk was not present. His lips had fallen into a small line. Why did the thought of her in his brother's bed upset him so? He knew the answer, but that didn't make things any easier.
"Why would I have to do that?" She leaned back.
"Hear me out, darling," Kol caught her wrist. Absentmindedly he rubbed small circles over the back of her hand. "You were reborn in the body of a traveller; a cursed group of witches."
"I'm aware of my legacy Kol," she inhaled.
"The difference is that you remember being a witch," he continued. "You remember all of it. You remember what it was like to feel that connection to the earth. There is one way for a traveller to break their curse and that is to seal a bond with their soulmate."
"You think he's my soulmate?" She stared at his hand. His fingers stroked her soft skin and sent tiny tingles up her arm.
"Don't you?" Kol sighed. "You told me months ago that he bore the face of your dead husband. Fate seems to be throwing the two of you together, darling. Seal the deal and you get your magic back; you're a witch again."
She sighed and chewed her lip. How many times had she thought of it? How many nights had she dreamt of lying with her husband again? The dreams had grown stronger when she'd come to New Orleans and met him. After months in the same house as him she found her dreams were lessening. He was kind it was true, but the thousand years he had spent wandering the world had changed him; he was not the man she remembered. He was different.
"I'd feel like I was using him," she shook her head. She'd done the reading with Kol and she knew he was right. She knew that sealing a bond with her soulmate would lift her curse.
"I thought you loved him?" Kol watched her distant eyes.
"I barely know him," she replied after a brief pause. She wasn't sure what it was about Kol, but he had quickly become her dearest friend. It still surprised her that he was friends with her at all; after all, the woman that she was before had orchestrated his death.
She stood outside his door and hesitated. It was a foolish idea really, and she should march straight back and tell Kol just that. Kol was nothing if not set in his ways though; he reminded her of Elias that way.
And yeah… okay… maybe she was playing on his emotions. Maybe she was using the knowledge of his feelings for who she had been before waking up. Maybe she was being a selfish bitch, but the separation she felt from nature was unbearable.
Like Kol had done by running with witches for centuries, she was willing to do anything to get her power back.
She was starting to think that there just might be more than one person in the world for everyone.
Steeling her nerves she took a deep breath and knocked. Idly she wondered if this made her a whore… using her body to get what she wanted. She shook that thought off when he opened the door and stood before her.
Slowly she lifted her gaze from his sculpted chest to his inquisitive brown eyes.
"Elena?"
The name rolled off his tongue. And it was definitely wrong, but she was going to do it anyway. He didn't know the truth about her mind. Only Caroline and Kol knew what had happened when she took the cure. Only they knew that Elena Gilbert had ceased to exist. Only they knew that she had woken up in her reincarnations body, and only Kol knew her true name.
"Elijah," she swallowed. She contented herself with the knowledge that at least her name meant the same thing, and it sounded reasonably close to her true name.
"Did you need something…?"
She could sense he was surprised when he didn't immediately respond to her kiss. It took him a second before his hands left the door frame and pushed into her dark hair.
Her hands slid around his back while her tongue warred with his. Warmth spread through her when he pulled her body flush against his. She didn't know if it was his fingers dipping beneath the hem of her shirt, or the suddenly vivid memory of the last time she had been wrapped in Elias' arms; maybe it was a combination of the two.
She lost herself in that memory. Her mind was two thousand years in the past in a beautiful courtyard full of flowers. She snapped back to reality when the name fell from his lips.
"Elena," Elijah sank into her wet heat slowly.
Her body was flushed and bare beneath him. She arched when he filled her and gasped. Her nails raked down his back. Her legs wrapped around his waist.
Every inward thrust sent tremors through her body. She thought he must have cared for Elena dearly. The beginning strains of guilt tore at her stomach when she saw the emotion in his eyes. She stretched up and kissed him while he rocked into her body. She couldn't watch his eyes; while familiar to her they kept shifting to a soft blue.
She had to bite her lip to keep from crying out when the orgasms washed over her. She had the strangest feeling it wouldn't be his name passing through her lips.
She rolled him onto his back and braced her hands on his chest as she rode him. Leaning down to nip along his jaw she felt his fingers press into her hips to guide her body up and down.
Pressing her lips into a thin line she stared at the circles under her eyes. It wasn't the night spent in his bed engaging in carnal activities that had left the marks on her face. It was the early hours of the morning after he had fallen asleep with his arm around her waist.
She had thought she would feel immediately different. She had thought the connection with nature would instantly return to her body. When that didn't happen she reasoned that it was because she was inside and as soon as she stepped on the soft ground things would change. When that hadn't happened and she'd been unable to perform what should have been the simplest of spells, even Amara could have done it; she had broken down in tears.
I was going to wait to post these, but I had written half of this chapter and the entirety of the next one already.