An angel's voice 4
Two years had passed since Rachel had moved to New York followed closely by Kurt first and Santana second and her role as Fanny Brice was a great success. A real dream come true. She was very popular and still very happy.
For the past few days, there had been a different kind of tension between Elijah and her and she knew that they had both waited long enough. Things were about to change between them and to make sure he felt secure enough about it, she repeated to him that it didn't matter to her what he was, that nothing would ever change the way she saw him, not even if he turned out to be a serial killer.
"Hey, I've just seen the new downstairs neighbor. It's a man, between 25 and 30 and he's super hot, even for me. He just said Hello but his accent his to die for. I don't know where he comes from but still... he'd make me reconsider men all together in a bit." Santana said as she came in that afternoon.
"Well, maybe I'll meet him later but right now I'm on my way out. I have to meet Elijah for dinner." Rachel said.
"Out? He lives upstairs." Kurt rolled his eyes.
"I meant out of our place. I don't know if Elijah plans for us to stay in or get out yet. He never told me." She replied as she put her shoes on.
"Well, I hope you two will finally do it, the tension has been killing me and then maybe next time his sister comes you two will be so busy that she'll need me to entertain her." Santana said as she opened a magazine and started looking through the pictures of different celebrities.
Rachel rushed to the stairs and to Elijah's loft, her heart beating fast in her chest as she wondered if tonight would be the night.
"Rachel, you're right on time. Come on in." Elijah said as he opened the door even before she knocked.
He looked just as nervous as she was and she found it reassuring. Knowing that even confident, calm Elijah could be nervous once in a while was kinf of comforting.
"Santana is very excited about the new neighbor. Apparently he has a hot accent." Rachel informed Elijah, mainly to make conversation and to distract them both from the tension while they went to site on the sofa with drinks.
"Really? Isn't she into girls?" He replied, welcoming the distraction.
"Apparently, he's hot enough that he could convince her otherwise." she chuckled.
"So, how was your week?" he asked her.
"Listen, we both know that nothing special happened this week for either of us. Why don't we rather address the tension between us immediately? You know... kind of like ripping the band-aid off." Rachel declared, deciding to take matters into her own hands.
"I see... Before we get into...talking... I think it's time I told you exactly what I am." He said.
"Because you think that it will make me change my mind and that I'll run away." She smiled knowingly.
"It appears you know me very well." He nodded before he sighted and said:
"I'm a thousand years old vampire Rachel. I drink blood, though I try not to kill innocent people, I have ripped out hearts and beheaded people after they wronged me or my loved ones. I tried ignoring my feelings for you, to protect you from what I am but it appears that my feelings for you are stronger than me, which is saying something." Elijah announced.
"I... I have strong feelings for you too Elijah and I don't care if you are a vampire. If you're ready to see were the two of us could go, then so am I." She replied with a soft smile as she came to sit closer to him.
"You don't mind that I drink people's blood?" He asked her.
"In all the years I've known you, not once have you fed on someone I cared about so no, I don't mind." She replied.
"Are you sure? I'm never going to grow old. I'll always be like this. I'll never be able to have children either." he warned her.
"Then maybe I'll ask you to change me eventually. And as for children, I've never really dreamt about being a mother. If, and I say IF, the time comes when i want a child, there's always adoption." She smiled at him.
Smiling, Elijah slowly bent in and started kissing her. What started as a simple, tender and loving first kiss quickly became a make out session. The tension had dissolved and they had just created their own little bubble.
"I'm so happy Elijah." Rachel said later as she was snuggled on his lap, simply enjoying each other's presence.
"So am I Rachel. Now, how about we actually get some dinner? I would hate for you to mess up tomorrow's performance because you weren't fed properly." he suggested and she nodded, knowing he had prepared something just for her.
.
It had been two very happy, blessed weeks for Rachel and Elijah since their first kiss. They had spent a lot of their free time together and if they hadn't had sex yet, they were as close as they could be. It was like they had been together for years instead of just weeks.
On the first day of their third week together, Rachel was having lunch with Kurt and Santana while Elijah had an important meeting with an informant.
"So Rachel, have you had the chance to meet our new neighbor yet?" Santana asked her.
"No, I didn't really try to look him out. Why?" Rachel asked.
"I went in there this morning, pretended I needed to borrow some milk so I could snoop around... I don't know much about him but he had lots of pictures of Elijah in a folder on the coffee table, I saw them when I snooped. He had a few of you too... Recent one... Like one of you yesterday when you left the theater... He also had a weird drawing in the same folder... Here look, I took a picture of it with my phone." Santana explained before she sent the picture to Rachel's phone.
"Wow... Creepy..." Kurt exclaimed.
"You have no idea. His place is practically bare, no decoration except for some antique-like weapons like wooden stakes, arrows, some guns and I think I even saw a sword on the table..." Santana added.
"Are you sure? That's so weird." Rachel said, feeling her perfect happiness starting to crumble around her.
"Did you ask him about it?" Kurt asked Santana.
"Do I look stupid? I've seen horror movies, I know how it goes. The minute I ask him about it is the minute I get killed or something just as tragic. I can't die yet, I've got way too much left to do. I pretended I hadn't noticed anything and left as soon as I got the milk I didn't even need in the first place." Santana replied.
"Well, I'm sure there's an explanation... I'll go and wait for Elijah in his loft. I'll talk to him about it as soon as he gets back." Rachel said nervously before she grabbed her jacket, her purse and went upstairs in Elijah's loft.
She was surprised to see the door was already open. Thinking that he had gotten home already and had simply opened the door when he heard her coming like he sometimes did, she pushed it and called out:
"Elijah? How com you're back already? I thought you'd be gone longer."
She jumped when the door closed brutally behind her. Turning around, she noticed a man, taller than her but smaller than Elijah, with dirty blond short hair was standing between her and the exit.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" She asked him, trying to hide the fear in her voice as she looked at him as well as she could to engrave every detail of him in her head.
"Here I thought I was going to have to work hard to get you alone. Looks like I'll be able to use you to get to your vampire master quicker than I thought." The man told her with an accent she could have found charming in any other circumstances.
Instinctively, she guessed that he was probably the new neighbor Santana had told her about. It all made sense to her now. He was here to get Elijah an had apparently no clue as to what her real relationship with him was.
"What are you talking about?" She asked him, trying to stay calm as she discreetly put her hand in her pocket and dialed her cell phone to call Elijah.
She noticed that he answered the call and was hoping he'd stay connected long enough to know he had to be careful.
"Listen, I know you're probably compelled or whatever but I don't care what you were compelled to do or how you were compelled to act, I'll kill you if you don't behave. I don't mind sacrificing a human to kill a vampire, especially one like him." He said quite smugly.
"You want to kill Elijah? Why?" she asked him.
She knew that Elijah could only be killed with one sort of stake, he had told her everything about it.
"Well, I know your vampire is an old one, an original. I also happen to have gotten my hand on the last White Oak stake that can kill him. His father had hidden it before he got desiccated by a witch. I managed to get my hand on it. I'm going to use you to attract your vampire master in and I'll kill him. All the vampires he sired over the years will die along with him along with those they sired and I'll complete my mark. I'll finally be able to complete my destiny and kill Silas." he was gloating.
"Listen, I won't pretend I understand even half of what you just said but Elijah is not like that." She tried to say but he wasn't listening to her.
"Whatever, now just sit tight and don't force me to tie you up. It's time we wait for your Master." The hunter said and Rachel found it suddenly hard to breeze.
Looking down while he checked out the window, she noticed that the screen of her phone was black. She pressed several button but nothing changed. She had forgotten to charge it the previous night and was out of battery... She only hoped that Elijah had heard enough to know he had to be careful.
"How do I know you really have this White Oak stake?" Rachel asked him, hoping for a chance to take it before he used it on the man she loved.
Smirking, he took it out of its hiding place, tucked under his shirt and held by the waistline of his pants. It looked carefully crafted and Rachel's instincts told her that it was real. Putting it back in place, the hunter headed for the door and placed a few trapsthere. Vervain bombs, vervain automatic sprayers, little stake shooting devices... Elijah wouldn't be able to get to her quickly, no matter how strong her was.
.
Elijah had been called by one of his informant and was learning of the disappearance of several vampires in the area. Of course he was worried but his worry only got bigger when he learned that a hunter, one from the order of the five, was in town with his father's White Oak stake. A witch had seen him and decided to tell Elijah, knowing that having him on his side was always better.
Elijah's first question had been where the hunter lived but the witch didn't know that, all he learned was a street. his street. Rachel's street. Could it be the new neighbor? The one with an accent? A bad feeling was settling in the pit of his stomach.
Elijah was about to ask for more details when his phone rang with Rachel's ringtone:
"Rachel, is everything okay?" He asked but got no answer.
On the other end of the line, a man with an accent was talking with Rachel about killing him, using his father's weapon against him and not caring if he had to kill Rachel in order to do it. Unfortunately, the call disconnected right after the hunter told Rachel about a mark he needed to complete.
Elijah knew that he didn't have time to call his siblings for help so instead he called the 2 vampires he knew he could trust in town and, along with the witch he had just been talking to, they headed to his loft. His instincts told him that this was where Rachel was being held. They went as fast as they could but Elijah knew that it would take him at least 20 minutes before he arrived and he hoped it wouldn't be too late.
.
"Listen, if you're going to kill me, I'd like the chance to record a message for my friends and family." Rachel declared, trying to be brave and face that fact that one way or another, she was going to die that day.
"You're not leaving this place." He snapped at her.
"I don't need to. I can use Elijah's computer for it. Please?" She asked, doing her best innocent girl eyes.
"Fine, do what you need to do." he sighted.
Rachel got up from the chair she had been sitting on and went to the laptop sitting on Elijah's kitchen table. Her eyes went to the fridge and she had a flashback of two night ago, when she discovered a bottle of blood in the bottom drawer, under the lettuce. Elijah had told her that it was Klaus' blood, in case he needed to use it to cure a vampire from a werewolf's bite, otherwise fatal. If she could get her hands on it and drink a couple of mouthfuls of it, she'd be certain to come back to life, as a vampire of course but in her book it was better than dying.
"Do you mind if I take something to drink? You see, I'm a professional Broadway singer and I need to hydrate my throat before I speak or sing... I'm planing on leaving my family a musical message and I need to hydrate with something cold..." She tried.
"Whatever. Do it quickly before the vampire arrives." he shrugged his shoulder and went to check on the corridor before he positioned himself so he could see her every move.
Using the fact that he wasn't looking for a moment, she acted quickly, hoping that there wouldn't be an expiration date on this blood. She quickly unscrewed the top, drank a couple of mouthfuls and put it back, making sure it was on one of the shelves instead of in its initial place. Elijah would then get the clue that she had drank some.
Turning the laptop on, she quickly found the music to the song she wanted to sing and it took her only a few minutes to turn the camera and get it to record what she labeled "Rachel's last message".
She didn't know if he was being a drama queen but she wanted to do this for Elijah. He had always told her that her singing made him feel better, that it spoke to him like an angel's voice that came straight from heaven. Maybe this song will help him feel better about her death because there was no way she was letting him die.
Knowing that the hunter was listening to her, she couldn't speak directly to Elijah. She simply started with an "I love you. I'm sorry" before she pressed play on the musical background of "If I die Young" and started singing. Since she found that some of the lyrics didn't fit her well, she simply changed them.
When she was done, she left the message open and quickly went to Elijah's email address. She sent an email to all the Mickealson's saying "There's a hunter in town, holding me hostage in Elijah's loft. Elijah's in danger! Come Now. Don't stop to call. Rachel". Then she pressed 'send' and opened a Word page to leave a few words of her own. Well, at least it was her plan until the hunter decided that she had done enough and grabbed her, forcing her away from the blank page and pushing her hard back in the chair she had been sitting in.
"What's going on?" she asked him, confused at his sudden nervousness.
"Your Vampire is here, and he's not alone. Time for you to play your part girl." He snapped at her as he went to stand behind her, the stake against her throat.
She vaguely hoped that someone would jump inside through the window (a vampire could do it) but he had moved the chair so they were facing the door and the wall was behind them. She just hoped she'd find a way to grab the stake before the hunter used it on her sweet Elijah.
When the door burst open, she was greeted by a very angry looking Elijah and it was the hottest thing she had ever seen.
"I say this once and only once: Let her go." Elijah declared in one of those quiet voices that actually scared the hell out of people.
"Come here and welcome your death and I'll let her go." The hunter replied before he found himself grabbing his leg in pain.
Right then, a man appeared from behind Elijah muttering words in a language she didn't recognize and Rachel understood that he was a witch. There were a couple of other men behind them and both of them had their fangs out. While the witch stayed outside the door, Elijah and the two other vampires stepped in.
The three of them got delayed by the traps the hunter had placed but Rachel acted quickly. As soon as the hunter fell down, grabbing his leg, she took it from his hand and threw it at Elijah, who grabbed it with a smile and hugged her as soon as she reached him. The other two vampires were incapacitated on the floor, weak and unable to move.
"You think you won? Think again." The hunter said and Elijah rushed to him.
The second Elijah left Rachel's side, she saw the hunter had a gun in his hand and before she could warn Elijah, a shot was fired and she was on the floor, in terrible pain. The shot had been silent, the hunter was apparently very well equipped but it hit Rachel right in the heart. Apparently, even in terrible pain and in danger of dying, a hunter knew how to aim.
Elijah knocked the hunter out, knowing he couldn't kill him if he didn't want to get the curse on him and let the witch finish him off while he rushed to Rachel's side.
He had seen her fall the second he dealt with the hunter and wasn't able to reach her in time to prevent her from hitting her head in the corner of his coffee table. She was bleeding from the stomach and the head. Her heart had already stopped beating and he was about to try and give her cardiac massage when he heard a little explosion in her chest.
"Explosive bullets? Who is this guy?" One of the vampires on the floor exclaimed as he painfully got on his feet again.
"No! Rachel!" Elijah yelled.
He knew that there was no way of bringing her back now. the bullet had exploded in her heart, destroying it for good and even his blood wouldn't have been able to make her come back.
"He's dead now. I'll take care of the body..." The witch said before the two other vampires immediately offered their help, grabbing the first excuse they had to get away from Elijah.
Not paying attention to Rachel's blood on his clothes, Elijah held her close to him and cried for her loss, not seeing time pass. At some point he heard the door open, followed closely by Klaus saying how sorry he was.
Rachel had sent them an email, saying she was being held hostage by a hunter and that Elijah was in danger. They were too late and very sorry for it. Rebekah assured him she would handle Rachel's friends and co-workers. Sage took care of coming up with an official story and to warn her fathers.
Elijah was surrounded by his family's support and even if it broke his heart to lose her, he let Klaus take care of arranging her funeral.
Kol ended up finding out that Rachel had been clever enough to put all chances on her side and to drink a bit of Klaus' blood. Of course it hadn't changed anything, not with her heart having exploded but it made Elijah smile a bit to know how smart she had been.
Then, realizing that she had used his laptop to send en email to his siblings, Elijah turned it on and watched the video of her singing "If I die young". Just like it always did, her voice helped him deal with the pain and, when at the end of the video she looked him in the eyes and said "Don't forget about me. I love you." he knew that she'd always be in his heart and that he would never be able to love anyone as much as he had loved her.
Deep down, Elijah knew that Rachel was at peace now. He could picture her in heaven, with a shining golden halo over her head and big white wings on her back. She was back in her rightful place, among the other angels and was probably the star she was always meant to be among them.
He did consider using the white oak stake to kill himself but his siblings had taken care of it, burning it before he could get a chance to use it. When he got mad at them, they reminded him that Rachel wouldn't want him to feel this way, that she'd want him to go on. He calmed down when they promised to dagger him if things got too hard for him to handle.
Maybe he'd get lucky, maybe Rachel would be reborn again at some point, maybe in a hundred years... One way or another, he'd see her again, if only in his dreams.
So, what did you think?
I know this is sad but don't worry, next chapter is an alternate, HAPPIER ending with Elijah watching Rachel's song message and her NOT dying. It will start at the hunter's last words to Elijah (You think you won? Think again).
Don't forget to review,
Lorelei Candice Black