"You're too slow, Parker," Brad said as he sat on the tailgate of his truck and watched McKenna fought against "vampire" Paisley. They backed up and ran through it again. "You're still too slow."

McKenna stepped out of her landing position. "What do you want me to do? I'm not as talented as the rest of you nor have I trained as long as you."

"Try it like this. Caysen." The boys squared up, Caysen as the vampire. Brad moved quickly, sending the stake up his brother's rib cage. Caysen stopped as if he were dying but he didn't fall to the ground. Brad turned around to look at her. "See?" She made a face at him. "You don't see." McKenna gasped as he was suddenly in her face with the stake pressed at the bottom of her rib cage. "You can't stall. You have to plunge it deep so they will die."

"Okay." He stepped back from her. "I don't think I have enough strength to press it all the way in though."

"We'll work on that today."

"What are we doing?"

Caysen walked over and began strapping various weights to her arms and legs. "They help your muscles tone. It makes you faster and stronger. We're running today." He smiled. "Let's go."

McKenna watched him head off into the trees. He stopped and turned back to look at her. She finally started after him, lagging a bit because of the weights.

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"Better?"

McKenna looked up from the steaming water in the claw foot tub. After a long day of running in the woods with weights on her arms and legs, she was sore. Caysen had dropped her off at the grill for her late shift and Matt had driven her back to the Mikaelsen house. Kol had been in the kitchen cooking dinner because no one else was home.

She had gone in the living room after dinner and started on a new painting. She had to stop every few minutes because her arms ached so badly. She had to readjust herself a few times because her legs started to cramp. It was a bad thing for a painter so she ended up standing up in front of the easel.

Painting by fire light had become her new favorite hobby. The natural light made for a great center piece of any portrait she decided to do. Tonight she had decided on a camp fire with chieftains surrounding it smoking peyote. Why she chose that scenery she didn't know but it worked.

She had been so preoccupied she never heard him walk in. She usually heard him when he came in behind her. He always sat on the settee and watched with a rapt fascination. She never understood it but then again she didn't understand much of what he did. She didn't know what he did for a living and frankly she didn't care. She didn't want to know what took him away from her.

When she stopped for the eighth time since he had been in the room, he stopped her. Luckily she was pretty much done or she would have been really mad. He had picked her up and carried her upstairs. He sat her on the bed before going into the bathroom. She heard water running. He returned and pulled her to her feet. She stood still as he meticulously undressed her, laughing as he kissed her shoulder then down her arm. He lifted her from the floor once again and brought her into the bathroom.

The water was warm as she slid into it. It smelled of juniper and orchid, two of her favorite tree and flower. She sank down to her shoulders and lost herself so when he spoke it was a little startling.

"Yes, Elijah. I feel much better," she replied.

He squatted down by the tub and ran his hand in the water. "Why are you so sore?"

She sighed and leaned against the lip of the tub. "Caysen got the smart idea to strap weights to my arms and legs and make me run through the woods. I haven't done it since I was a cheerleader in my old school."

This was a new bit information Elijah didn't know so it showed on her face. "You were a cheerleader?"

She smiled. "From middle school until my mom died. After my dad followed her I quit training and moved here, using the time to get situated. I quit training altogether so my muscles must have gotten lax." She lolled her head to the side and looked at him. "What do you do?"

"I write books, some history, some timepieces, and the rest are mysteries."

"I know you didn't get this rich off books alone."

Elijah smiled. "No. I was a landowner back in England in the eighteen hundreds. Every few years I go back as my own long lost relative and collect on the will after I "die". You should come with me to one of my many houses."

This interested her. "Where are they?"

"I have a couple in the Italian wine country, I have a couple in Ireland and England, and I own an island in the Mediterranean."

"Where in the Mediterranean?'

"Greece. I own a small Grecian island." The way her eyes lit up meant she was excited to hear about one home. "I take it you like Greece?"

"We had a family vacation there when I was seven. We rented a small house on Kassos, one of the southern islands. It was just us and some of the locals. It was fun." She looked back at him. There was an amused look on his face. "What is it?"

"I own the island of Kassos." He held back at his laughter as she stared at him in shock. "I bought from the Greek government in 1935 as a safe haven from the war. Of course it found me anyway. Would you like to visit sometime?"

"Of course! I've always wanted to go back but haven't had enough money to go."

"We'll go this summer after you graduate." He barely caught himself as she shot up from the tub and sloshed water on him on her way to kiss him. He couldn't help the laugh that escaped him. "So I take this as your acceptance?" She kissed him again then yelped/laughed as she fell out of the tub onto him.

He pushed her wet hair from her face. "How about we go back in the room and I massage all those aches away."

She got a glint in her eye. Instead of allowing him up, she pressed herself against him.

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Elijah stared up at the ceiling as he ran his free hand along McKenna's back. Instead of giving her a massage, they ended up doing something completely different. He didn't mind at all. At least she wasn't angry with him.

He was a little concerned with the way her training was going. He saw bruising all over her rib cage, as if she had taken stakes to the side. She probably did because she was training but did they have to work her so hard? She was young and not as well defined as the others. Maybe his allowing her to get involved had been a mistake.

If he took that back, she would run from him and he couldn't deal with that. After a thousand years of living alone, he wanted to keep her by his side. He wanted to give her a family, even though that was impossible. He could still be an adopted father and he'd be a good one. That had been one of the things he had been robbed of when his mother granted him eternal life.

He wanted to give her everything she wanted. And then a thought hit him. It was a thought that he figured would be really brilliant. It also meant he could do something for her, something she had always wanted to do.

He reached over and picked up his cell phone. "Hello, Matt. This is Elijah. It has come to my attention that you promised McKenna an art show. Can you make that happen this Friday night?" He smiled. "Thank you, Matt. You have been most helpful." He set his phone on the nightstand and continued staring at the ceiling. "You are a very bad pretender."

McKenna laughed in the dark, a soft huff of breath caressing his skin. "I actually just woke up."

He canted his head to the right so he could look down. All he could see was the top of her head because she hadn't moved. "Did I wake you?" She nodded, her hair tickling his chest. "Sorry. I didn't mean to."

"It's fine. Who were you talking to anyway?"

"Matt. I asked him to do something for me." She shifted her head to where she was looking up at him. "I didn't ask him to do something you would disprove."

"Good. I feel bad enough asking him to be involved in this anyway."

Elijah sighed. "Are we going to have this discussion again?"

"No, I'm just saying."

He ran his fingers through her hair. "What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Nothing but work at seven. Why?"

"I say we go to Wickery Bridge and you paint again."

McKenna smiled. "I don't think it's a good idea."

"Because of the hunters?" She nodded. "Neither one of us will get hurt. We'll find a sneaky little place to hide. You can pain and I can watch you."

She sat up, pulling the sheet up over her. She leaned against her pillow and looked down at him. He figured it was because she wanted to feel in power. She honestly didn't know how much power she had over him. "You like to watch me paint a lot."

"I like to watch Niklaus paint but he says it unnerves him. He thinks I'm going to stab him in the back with his paint brushes." She smiled but he saw the tautness behind it. "Do you think I'm going to hurt you when I watch you?"

She scrunched up her nose and pulled up her lip as she shook her head. "No, I don't. Half the time I don't even remember you're there and if you show up after I start, I don't realize you're there. When I paint, I go to a different place. No one's there but me and my art. Sometimes I see my mom sitting by the lake painting the wolves. Other times I see the doe and fawn. Most of the time I see the people I care about and I think about what they like or dislike. Then my hand moves all on its own and when I come back to reality, there's a painting in front of me."

Elijah watched her as she spoke. He figured she used something to get those beautiful paintings from her soul. He had never been sure how she did it before. Now as he saw all the passion and peace on her face. When she looked at him, he rose up on his elbows and kissed her. One of his hands framed her face, effectively bringing her closer. Soon he had rolled her under him. She pressed against his chest and he looked down at her.

"What's the real reason you called Matt?"

"You don't believe that I called him to do something for me?" She shook her head. "That hurts. You should know I would never lie to you." She looked at him. He sighed. "I have something planned for you and I was asking him to help me get it together."

"Elijah, you don't have to do that."

"I know I don't have to but I want to. Let me do this for you since you're doing so much for me."

She frowned at him and tilted her head. "What are you talking about? I'm barely doing anything for you."

"That's not true. You're helping me and my family. You've become Kol's reason for staying straight and not killing people. And I've done nothing to help you." He watched her face. When it seemed like she wouldn't react, he looked away.

"Elijah?" She reached up and forced him to look at her. "I didn't so any of that for you. If anything, I did it for me. I love Kol like family and I'm helping your family because it would hurt you if something happened to them. If you're hurt then why should I be here if I can't help?"

"I want to do something."

"What?"

"I want to see how far your ability goes. So tomorrow we're going to the woods with Klaus."

She pulled a face. "Am I going to get hurt?"

"I would never allow you to get hurt. Then I want you to paint something while we're around."

He watched her smile slowly. "As long as I get to choose what that something is." He nodded. "Sounds perfect to me."

Elijah kissed her once again then stopped. "You've got school tomorrow."

McKenna laughed. "You're such a party pooper."