Chapter 25: Come Back To Me
The door then swung shut and magnetism grew in the atmosphere.
Hayley looked towards the ground in shame.
He didn't need to tell her, she knew he knew, his expression was expressionless his posture cold.
Elijah hid the raging need to touch her deep inside of him. He struggled to deal with the fact that she had betrayed him, broken his promise to another. Her body language had given her away in less than a minute and he swallowed a lump in his throat trying to decide his next move.
Part of his was intensely angry, finding it impossible to even look at her but then again there was part of him that just wished to forget it all ever happened.
"How could you?" Elijah found himself speaking, his tone filled with disgust. He found the anger was easier to deal with.
Hayley shuddered inside. Each word was a stab in her heart.
"You know what she means to me." He spoke and then regretted it immediately.
His eyes flickered to her and she finally looked at him unable to hide her tears.
The word "means" revolved in her head.
It began to sicken her.
"Means."
What did that mean?
Did he still love the woman?
Did he still love the woman while he loved her?
Did he ever even love her?
Her tears dripped onto the ground.
Elijah died inside realising his mistake, realising what his stupid words were now doing to her. He'd become so accustomed to speaking of Celeste in such a way he hadn't even realised the loss of truth in the statement until he had said it.
"Hayley." He called to her quickly, in attempt to explain the truth though her eyes flashed onto him angrily.
Elijah froze looking at her with surprise.
She flared, her teeth clenched her posture confident and strode up to him.
She took a deep breath knowing that if she didn't say everything now she wouldn't be able to later.
"Yes, I called Sophie. I called her after thinking about it a million times in my head, despite knowing that it would hurt you, despite knowing that it would mean you'd hate me; all... for my people! I did it for people like Chloe, my people, my family." She spat the emotions inside fueling her.
Elijah flinched at the world hate. "If only you knew how impossible..." He thought.
His heart quivered on hearing her raw emotion, absorbing her every detail.
"I live in the now Elijah!" she almost yelled.
"If I want something I'll take it." She spoke honestly and Elijah found himself watching her with awe realising to the extent to which he was in love with the girl. He was completely and utterly, wholly and undyingly in love with her and nothing was about to change that. Not even a betrayal about some bones.
"In that moment I wanted to fix it, I wanted a cure for my family. Not being with you was tearing me apart Elijah, you think I wanted to leave, I never wanted to leave. I left because it'd be easier for you. I know what family means to you and I didn't want to mess it up." Hayley blurted at a hundred miles per hour her fingers running through her hair in frustration as she found herself pacing back and forth.
Elijah took this information in finally gaining the bigger picture.
She hadn't wanted to leave him, she'd been feeling the same...
She then halted and turned to him once again.
Elijah found his throat so dry he was unable to speak a word. There were too many in his head but most of them consisted of just three.
"I won't choose the dead over the living." Hayley chose her words carefully.
"I'll never understand why you do." She then spoke in disappointment and despair.
"I'm sorry Elijah." She spoke firmly.
Elijah discovered what she was doing. She was letting him go. She was giving up. For real this time, not to protect him, but of her own accord.
"No." His mind screamed his eyes widening with a fear so great.
How on earth could he have let this get so bad?
"Hayley." He finally managed to croak.
Elijah realised he had forgotten to control his expression which now showed utmost agony and a fret. His eyes were bathed in salinity and his voice was wavering.
Hayley turned to him in shock her own tears of hurt and anger still not stopping. She needed to get out of here. She needed to get out of New Orleans. She just wanted to leave be away with it all.
She turned around on her heel, paused for a second and then began to walk away.
Elijah rushed towards her.
"No." He spoke out loud and reached her grasping her arm tightly, pulling her towards him roughly.
"No." He spoke again as her furious eyes met his.
He lunged at her unable to hold back. His lips wildly crushing onto hers. His hands snaked around her and he flung her with him pushing her abruptly against a wall. Hayley kissed him back angrily, her hands fisting into his hair tugging the strands till it was painful. Elijah growled his vampire form seeping through the cool noble original he normally was and a slight moan escaped Hayley's lips.
Elijah shuddered on hearing this sound his fingers tingling to touch her. He vamp speed whooshed her with him once again, this time setting her upon a table. Hayley's lips battled against his craving him wholeheartedly. They'd been apart too long and it was driving them mad.
"You-can't-leave." Elijah stuttered through kisses. Hayley heard each syllable in shock surprised that she could unravel him in such a way.
"I won't." She replied because she knew she couldn't.
She was mad at him, really really mad but she couldn't walk away from him. She couldn't stop loving him.
"I want you." Elijah found himself confessing through gritted teeth and eyes scrunched shut as he kissed her so very familiar neck but then he forced himself to withdraw in a painful frustrating agony placing his forehead on her stomach, nudging softly though imagining it as a brick wall.
"But I can't, not now." He uttered into her shirt.
Hayley knew he would never touch her while she was pregnant. He saw it as wrong and she understood and respected why.
She held his head against her.
"Come back." he spoke when he finally could.
"Come back to the compound."
"Come back to me." he almost begged.