Nik or Klaus?
I wake to find Nik gone, and Elijah sitting next to my bed in a dark, straight back chair. "Where's Nik?" I ask without thinking.
Elijah smiles. "He's... Running errands." The smile falls, and he shifts in his chair awkwardly.
"You mean he's out doing things I'm not allowed to know about?" I raise my eyebrows sceptically. He frowns, his forehead creasing. "Elijah?" He refuses to meet my eye.
"He's getting the last of the white oak stakes from the Salvatores with Rebekah," He finally answers, looking down at the floor.
"Is that what they killed Finn with?"
"Yes."
"Why are you uncomfortable then?"
He shifts into his chair again. "I don't aprove of their methods," Is his singular, awkward reply before he rises and glides to the door.
"Their methods?" I inquire, leaping out of the bed and running after him. Oh, I love not being clumsy anymore. After discovering I'm a vampire I've found that it's just disapeared, probably because I know how much strength I have to hold back instead of just holding all of it back.
I don't understand Klaus anymore. He used to be Nik, my one and only love. Now he's my first (but not my last) love. He's mean and almost an unknown creature to me. Maybe it's because I'm comparing him to goody-two-shoes Edward Cullen. Damn you Edward; you're ruining my life.
"I believe that if the Salvatores aren't cooperative... Then it may get a bit violent," Elijah replies sollemnly.
"Somehow that doesn't surprise me, especially if Bekah's involved," I answer, rolling my eyes. My hands start shaking, as that's the answer I would have given before Finn compelled me. Now, I'm not sure if I mean Rebekah or Klaus...
Elijah sighs and turns to the window, giving me a moment to hide my tembling hands behind my back. "Bella..."
"Yes?"
"How are you?" He asks unexpectedly.
I step back a little bit in surprise, "Fine, why?" That answer was a lie.
"I worry for you," He admits. "Klaus is a different man from the one you knew. I worry your love for him..."
"Has gone?" I inquire, exhaling slowly.
"Yes."
"Well," I smile, but tears well up in my eyes. "It hasn't." Partly a lie. My voice breaks. Damn.
"Bella," Elijah gasps, walking forward to embrace me. "I didn't mean to upset you."
"You didn't," I reply truthfully, stepping away from him. "It's just, you're right! He's different. He's ruthless and uncaring and not the dear Nik I knew. Now he's just... Klaus."
Elijah nods, looking down. "I understand what you mean. I watched from afar as he sort to break the curse, becoming less bothered by the deaths. He felt no remorse, and doesn't feel it now."
He walks forward again, and this time I let him wrap his arms around me. A few tears fall, just as Klaus walks in. "It seems..." Klaus begins, but he stops talking as he sees me. Just as his eyes land on my face a tear rolls down my cheek. Damn.
"Bella," He says, running towards me. Just as he gets to me I turn into his arms, crying for all I'm worth. "What happened?" His tone is sharp, so I assume he's asking Elijah.
"It's not my place to say," Elijah says, walking back up the stairs. I hear a door slam in the distance.
Klaus - oh, how I long to call him Nik again! - pulls my closer to him. "What's wrong, love?" He asks, and for a moment I see hear the man I miss so much in his voice, but I know one look into his hard, icy eyes will diminish the thought entirely.
"I don't know..." I whisper, my voice muffled by the fabric of his shirt. "I just... I just..."
"Is it the Cullens?" He inquires suddenly. I nod; it's the most plausible lie. "Bella... Don't worry yourself over them. If the one that saw you kill comes here and bothers you, or upsets you in any way, I won't hesitate to rip him, or any of them to shreds. Have you got that? You don't have to be afraid."
"I'm not afraid," I mumble. "Just worried."
Klaus pushes my away from him by my shoulders so he can look me in the eye. "If any of them come here, you tell me, and I will make sure they never bother you again."
"Okay," I squeak as he lets go of me. "Are you leaving again?"
"In a minute, love," He tells me, kissing me quickly on the lips. "I have to change; then I need to make sure Rebekah hasn't ripped anyone apart."
He runs upstairs to change, and as he does there's a knock at the door. I open it, and there stands...
Carlisle.
Oh shit.