Chapter Nineteen

Distance Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

"Kass! Wake up!"

Kassandra groaned and pulled her blanket over her head. It was too early- she was too tired. Ruby could go fuck herself.

"Kassandra, I'll curse your ass if you're not up in ten seconds," Ruby threatened, pulling the shades up, letting sunlight in the room. She hissed and shut her eyes tighter.

"I'll kill you and your entire family, Ruby," she mumbled, mind still caked with sleep. "Get out."

"Ten, nine, eight-"

"Fuck you," she muttered, putting her pillow over her head.

"Seven, six, five-"

"Ruby, I'm not joking."

"Four, three, two, one-"

"Ruby Amelia-" Kassandra was cut off when the blood in her veins suddenly turned to fire.

Her eyes flew open and a scream tore from her throat. It was over before it started though, and no real damage was done. She whirled around and narrowed her eyes at Ruby. The witch smirked back at her, blue eyes full of mirth.

In a flash, Kassandra had Ruby pinned to the floor and let out a snarl, her fangs popping out of her mouth. The witch didn't look afraid; she just rolled her eyes at the vampire.

"Get off me- your breath stinks," she muttered, and Kassandra sat up and allowed Ruby to stand up.

"Why are you bothering me at-" Kassandra stood up and checked the alarm clock. "Seven o'clock in the morning?"

Ruby shrugged. "I was bored," she answered simply. "And I assumed you would be too."

She raised an eyebrow at her friend. "Why would you assume that?"

"Because Elijah's gone."

Kassandra let out a sigh. She was sick and tired of Ruby saying that she and Elijah were madly in love with each other. "My life doesn't revolve around him, Rubes," she reminded her.

"It has as of late," the witch corrected her, her nose wrinkling as she sidestepped a bra on the floor. Kassandra was a slob.

Kassandra opened her mouth to utter a witty retort, only to figure out that what she said was very true. She shut it and sighed. "It's not like I miss him or anything," she mumbled. "The world keeps spinning even with Elijah Mikaelson missing from New York City."

"Come on, Kass, not even a little bit?" Ruby raised an eyebrow.

Kassandra shook her head. "Nope."

"Not the accent? The suits? The badass quality?" Ruby asked.

"No."

"The deep, thoughtful conversations? The intense eye humping?"

"Nada," Kassandra answered, nose wrinkling at the term 'eye humping'.

"The sex?" Ruby smirked at her friend.

Kassandra paused. "…no," she answered, sounding hesitant.

Ruby smirked victoriously but shrugged. "If you say so, Kass." Then she eyed the vampire's pajamas. "But if you don't miss him- at all- why are you wearing his shirt?"

Kassandra looked down at her body to see that she was, indeed, wearing one of Elijah's shirts. It was the shirt she had taken home after their first night together. She had no memory of putting it on last night. She had gotten wasted off a bottle of scotch and must've found it and slipped it on in her drunken haze.

Maybe, deep in her subconscious, she really did miss Elijah.

Kassandra glared at Ruby, the triumphant grin on the witch's face too much to take. But Ruby was already strutting out of her bedroom, heading towards the kitchen.

"Come on Vampy," she called over her shoulder. "I'll make you breakfast and you can tell me all about your heartsickness over Elijah being gone."

Kassandra shot her a death glare before stalking after her friend.

~SYH~

The screams of Lenore eventually all melted together, and all Elijah heard was a high pitched noise. For the past thirty three hours, his siblings and he had been trying their best to get Lenore to talk, using any means possible. But the witch refused to talk.

Elijah shifted as Lenore went silent. A few seconds later, Klaus came out of the separate, windowless room in the basement they had been keeping her in. He was drenched in the witch's blood, as all his siblings had been. Only Elijah knew how to not make a mess when it came to torture. All of his siblings lacked proper manners.

"She's not saying anything," Klaus growled, angry and frustrated.

"Give it time, Niklaus," Elijah said patiently. "She will, eventually."

Klaus just growled again before stalking out of the basement, letting Elijah know that it was his turn with Lenore. Elijah silently made his way into the bloody room, letting the door close silently behind him.

Lenore was just a mass of skin and blood clumped in a chair. Niklaus had clearly taken his anger out on her. Elijah didn't feel an ounce of sympathy for her.

Despite her injuries, Lenore looked up at him and a twisted smile flickered to life on her face. "I will never tell any of you anything," she declared, her voice sounding similar to a smoker's.

"We will see," Elijah answered cryptically, studying the bloody witch. "Do you even know what Esther and Finn plan?" he was starting to doubt it. Maybe the witch was just messing with them.

Lenore let out a cold laugh. "Oh, I know exactly what they are planning. Down to the last detail." Lenore's eyes glittered maliciously. "I know she loathes all of you. She wants all of you to pay for what you've done with your lives. She wishes she never gave birth to such monsters."

Elijah didn't even blink. He wouldn't let Lenore try to get to him, especially with using his mother's hatred of him.

"Esther told me that you are supposedly the moral one, the honorable one." She laughed humorlessly. "Please, I have seen trash with more morals and honor than you possess."

Elijah didn't reply. Did Lenore really think she could get under his skin? He wasn't his siblings. He had his temper strongly under control. She couldn't unravel his nerves.

"Where is the vampire who was with you? Kassandra Patrikson, I believe she was," Lenore asked curiously.

"How did you know who she was?" Elijah countered, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, Esther told me all about her," she said sinisterly, causing Elijah to frown.

"She was a witch," Lenore started. "And refused to help Esther kill you. Your mother isn't even sure why. Oh, and she knows that you have a soft spot for her."

He stiffened, and Lenore smirked before continuing. "Did you really think Esther wouldn't know if you slaughtered an entire wolf pack for one irrelevant vampire?"

He took a step forward. "What does my mother have planned for Kassandra?" he asked in a low voice.

Her smirk grew. "Oh, does Elijah have a crush?" she teased. "He does! Oh, does Kassie make you feel alive again, 'Lijah? Does she make you feel human? Do you love her?"

Elijah held back a growl and stalked forward, digging his fingers into her shoulders. "What does she have planned for Kassandra?" he repeated, brown eyes darkening.

Lenore lost all the mirth in her face. "She's going to kill her," she said in a low voice. "She's going to use her as bait for you and draw you out. Then she's going to kill Kassandra in the most brutal way she can imagine, right in front of you, only to kill you and your siblings after."

She leaned forward, her voice going soft as she spoke. "You should know better than to have a weakness outside of your family, Elijah."

He gritted his teeth, using all of his restraint not to snap her neck right then and there. Before he could give himself the chance, Elijah pulled back from the witch and strode towards the door. When he opened it, Rebekah was standing there with her arms crossed and he knew she had heard everything.

Elijah didn't even acknowledge his sister before walking past her. He had no time for Rebekah, and he knew everything he was going to say to him.

"Did you really let yourself care for Shirt Girl enough that she became a weakness, Elijah?" she called, striding after him. "Especially with everything going on with Mo- Esther?"

He stopped walking, but didn't look at his sister. After a few beats of silence, he finally spoke. "Yes," Elijah said. "I did."

"How selfish of you," Rebekah said, less of a judgment and more of an observation.

"Yes," Elijah said slowly. "I suppose it is."

Then, without another word, Elijah walked away, not feeling an ounce of guilt for his selfishness.

~SYH~

"Have you been having any nightmares lately? About Peter?"

Kassandra frowned as she picked at her chocolate chip pancakes. "No, I haven't," she answered. "Not since Elijah came into my life."

Ruby started smirking, and Kassandra rolled her eyes. "There's no connection between the two, Ruby," she said. "It's a coincidence."

"Sure it is," Ruby replied.

Kassandra set her fork down and glared at the witch. "Let me guess, my undying love for Elijah cured me of the nightmares?" she said sarcastically.

"I was actually thinking that Elijah distracted you from your self-loathing and guilt over your little brother."

She looked down at her plate. "I think I prefer my theory," she muttered.

Ruby sighed, but clearly didn't want to back off of the subject. "I originally thought that Peter was haunting you, Kass," she said quietly. "So I did some research. Your nightmares, they're not supernatural, they're psychological. You have them because you feel guilty. And I think Elijah and his family issues distracted you from that guilt, so you stopped having nightmares. I mean, when's the last time you thought of Peter?"

Kassandra frowned. "The day I ran into Elijah at the diner," she murmured.

"See? Elijah is the reason-"

"I don't want to talk about Peter anymore, Ruby," Kassandra said bluntly, standing up.

Ruby sighed. "Kass-"

"I mean it, Ruby," she snapped. "My dead brother isn't something I want to think about, okay?"

Usually Ruby would back off by now, but instead the witch narrowed her eyes at the vampire. "God, why are you so afraid of letting yourself be vulnerable for just five minutes, Kassandra? Why can't you just let me help you work through this?" she retorted, eyes narrowing.

Kassandra rolled her eyes. "I'm not a project, Ruby," she said. "I'm not some broken toy you can try to fix in your spare time. Maybe I just don't want to talk about Peter, okay?"

"You always do this," she snapped. "You always get defensive. Just open yourself up for one minute, Kass-"

"Why should I?" Kassandra retorted.

"Because when you keep pushing people away, Kassandra," Ruby said, glaring at her friend. "They'll eventually give up on you. And you'll be all alone, like you're so convinced you want to be."

Kassandra pursed her lips but didn't answer. Ruby sighed slowly. "I'll see myself out," she muttered, heading towards the door.

Kassandra didn't stop her. The door slammed shut, and then she was all alone, like she had been for most of her life, like she had convinced herself she wanted to be.

Because people were easier to deal with when they were kept at arms-length.

~SYH~

Kassandra hadn't known that the carpet in her living room was comfortable. She barely ever spent much time in her apartment, so she wouldn't know. But when she lay down on the cream colored floor, her legs propped up on the coffee table, she discovered that it was, indeed, like floating on a cloud.

There was a bottle of bourbon resting against her thigh, but it remained unopened. It was, after all, only nine in the morning. She wanted to wait until at least ten before she started drinking. When her phone started ringing, she assumed it to be Ruby. Without a second thought, she answered it and held it against her ear. "What?"

"Kassandra."

She frowned slightly. It was Elijah.

"Oh, Elijah," she said. "Hey."

"How… are you?" he asked.

"Fine, I suppose," she said. "You?"

"Frustrated," he answered.

Kassandra smiled slightly. "The witch giving you trouble?" she asked.

"She's refusing to give us any useful information."

"Is there anything she's said?" Kassandra said. "Maybe she said something in witch speak. I could try to translate."

"Well, she was talking about you," Elijah said, somewhat hesitantly.

Kassandra frowned. "Me? What did she say about me?"

Elijah paused, as if deciding what to tell her. "Nothing much," he said finally. "Nothing important."

He was hiding something from her. "Whatever you're keeping from me, Elijah, I can handle it."

He sighed. "I'm not keeping anything from you, Kassandra."

He was lying. "Right," she said skeptically. "Well, when you want to tell me the truth, you can call me back."

"Kassandra-"

She hung up on him, tossing the phone onto the ground next to her. Kassandra let out a sigh and closed her eyes.

Pushing people away was almost second nature to her by now.

~SYH~

A/N: thank you to: Guest, ThePhantomismyLove, Jamiecarterannie, Laura-LaLa, Meliissax3, Luna064, sPaRkzZz, Lovely Rain Dancer, Nightwing's Gal, SomebodyWhoCares, bettingonalice01, and delenawolves for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)