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Chapter 28

Elijah, Elena, Kol, Bonnie and Matt all met at a clearing in the woods. Kol and Elijah heard Matt coming first several seconds before the girls turned their heads towards the human's arrival. Matt looked a little nervous but brave at the same time.

"Glad you came Matt," Bonnie smiled and she walked over to hug Matt. It was a personal test of her control.

"Oh you do smell good..." Bonnie grinned as she pulled back and Matt was obviously shocked. He turned to Elena and saw that she was gripping Elijah tightly to restrain herself.

"It's okay Elena," Matt encouraged, "you're going to get the hang of this..."

"Elijah is a master in control Elena," Kol encouraged. "You're going to be fine."

"You weren't any slouch either," Bonnie said to Kol.

"When I choose to exercise control I can," Kol agreed.

"Okay Elena. You're going to do this and once you get through this you'll be fine," Elijah said. "You just have to understand the control that you have over human life. You hear his heartbeat right?"

Elena nodded.

"Good that's important, as you feed you need to concentrate on that heartbeat but don't let it drive you into a frenzy. You need to feel each beat as that person's life force and when the rhythm changes you have got to pull back," Elijah instructed. He looked to the young man before him.

"Matt this is her first human so it might be a little rough for you and I'm sorry but I do appreciate your help in this matter. Do not worry she will be able to do this but if she cannot Kol and I are here." Matt nodded and stood his ground as Elijah advanced on him and by extension Elena who was still clinging to him.

"Okay lovely, focus on this task and remember that you have my blood in your system. Draw on that strength," he whispered close to her ear. She nodded and as she grabbed his wrist, she bit into it. Moaning at the taste, she began to take deep pulls when she heard it. It was little but it was still there. A little small fraction of a difference in heartbeat and she pulled away from him.

"You did it." Elijah whispered to her and she turned to stare at him. Wiping the blood off her face, she watched, mesmerized, as he licked the blood off his fingers. Elijah then opened his wrist and offered it to Matt watching as the young man's wound healed.

"That hardly hurt," Matt encouraged her.

"You should never feed from the same person more than once in twenty-four hours because it could endanger them," Elijah advised. "Since so many of your friends already know about the supernatural I would probably advise you to forgo the compelling so that they can regulate all of you and we can avoid any accidents." Kol nodded his agreement.

"Well I intend to mostly stick with blood bags," Bonnie said and Elena nodded her head.

"Well that may not always be available and you should know how to feed responsibly if it's not," Elijah replied. "Now Kol do you want to go over speed. Lovely don't look at me like that...remember this morning?" Elena had accidentally flashed down the hall, miscalculated and broken a table and sculpture. She blushed as much as any vampire could.

You told me that it was a horrible scultpure of you!" she told him, embarrassed. He chuckled and kissed the top of her head.

"You made it up to me," he murmured as he nipped at her lower lip before kissing her.

"Okay," Kol said trying to get the focus back, "we're going to practice running and maneuvering. Here's how it's going to happen. You see the large tree down there? Focus on it Elena and now I want you to run to it - as fast as you can. Remember to focus on the destination." Elena took off and flashed to the tree. Then Elena came back as Bonnie was supposed to go to the tree. One of them lost focus and suddenly the two vampires tumbled back to normal speed and landed in a heap. Kol flashed to them and helped them up.

"Okay try it again," Kol said. Soon he had them weaving through trees and jumping a small creek bed. When they arrived back at the clearing both girls felt accomplished.

"I did it!" Elena was on a high and jumped into Elijah's arms. "I did it!"

"You did Lovely, you did." He told her with a warm smile.

Meanwhile Kol kissed Bonnie passionately, "I'm proud of you. You're beautiful like this you know. Now we're going to practice a little combat. Being a vampire gives you great strength but you need great control if you want your attacks or defense to be effective." Kol said and in a flash he had Elena out of Elijah's arms and Elijah on the ground. That lasted about five seconds before Elijah reversed the position but then when Kol slammed Elijah up against a tree it was obvious that Elijah was trying to break free but couldn't. There was a reason that his siblings called him the most lethal of them all. He held Elijah there for a second before he released him and then patted him on the back.

"Wow," Elena and Bonnie were both impressed by how the originals could overpower one another.

Before Kol could begin the lesson Bonnie decided to attack him. She flashed behind him intending to catch him from behind but Kol whipped around at the last second and thrust her to the ground. Bonnie was unnecessarily breathless as she stared up at him.

"Rule one, be aware of your surroundings," Kol said as he helped her up. "Rule two, if at all possible know your attackers tendencies - are they impulsive, emotional, crazy? All of these things affect your fight style." Elena decided to try throwing a punch and then a kick at Kol. The punch missed but she landed the kick, this gave Kol the opportunity to grab her foot. As he moved to pull her feet out from under her Elena turned the momentum into a flip and landed on her feet. Kol smiled with admiration.

"Rule three, use your surroundings to your advantage. Rule four don't lose your head or you'll lose your head."

"Alright Elena let's see it," Kol said. "Bonnie practice with Elijah please."

The two combatants nodded at each other.

Elena decided to use the surroundings to her advantage and as he tried to grab her, she moved so that she was slightly hidden behind the tree and when he went to punch her, she dodged and kicked him in the side, causing him to double over. She brought her knee up and it hit him in the chin.

"Bloody hell!" Kol got out.

"Tell me about it," Elijah groaned where he was on the ground and Bonnie had both his arms hiked up behind his back. "Are you sure they didn't have this lesson already?"

Bonnie had been caught by Elijah but had run up a nearby tree allowing her to flip over him. She got both arms behind his back and hard thrust him into the ground.

"Cheer squad rules," Elena grinned and Bonnie joined her. Then they helped the men up.

"Cheer squad?" Kol asked. The two girls nodded.

"We were cheerleaders," Elena explained as she hopped onto Elijah's back, "that and the fact that while I was trained by Alaric who's a hunter, I was secretly teaching Bonnie what I learned on the side." The two men let out sighs and groans. Bonnie smiled and did the same thing that Elena did-she hopped onto Kol's back.

Elijah looked to Kol and a moment later both men took off at vampire speed with the girls on their backs. They raced all the way to a nearby bridge and without hesitation they jumped and dove the very long distance into the water below. It was terrifying and thrilling at the same time. When they settled in the water below Bonnie felt Kol swimming for the surface and by the time they came up Elijah and Elena were already there.

"That was amazing!" Bonnie gasped and Elena was grinning.

"Okay being a vampire isn't so bad..." Bonnie smiled.

"That was so fun! I wanna do it again!" Elena got out in a rush. She was a thrill seeker and Jeremy had jokingly called her an 'adrenaline junkie' which she realized was true. Elijah looked at her with a smile and removed her from his back so that he could hold her.

"I love you Elena Gilbert." He whispered in her ear and she broke out into a grin.

"I love you more Elijah Mikaelson."

"I'm going to be sick," Kol teased – a moment later Elena left Elijah's arms and flashed away. Elijah frowned for a moment.

"She'll be back," Bonnie smiled and pointed to the bridge. Elijah watched as Elena jumped from the bridge and dove into the water again.

Kol snickered. "She does tha-AAAA!" he shrieked as Elena popped up right in front of him, scaring him. She giggled and floated on over back to Elijah.

"So do you feel a little better about being a vampire?" Elijah asked Elena. "I think both of you are going to be fine. Control seems to come naturally to you - could be because you have original blood in your veins."

"That's actually very rare these days," Kol said.

"How many sires do you have?" Bonnie asked hesitantly.

"Still in existence?" Kol asked. "My direct descendants there are only two." That statement made the girls blink owlishly at them.

"Two?" they asked. He nodded with a smile.

"Yes, only two."

"For reasons I'm sure you both know about by now we don't tell anyone else how many sires we have," Elijah said. "besides Kol's descendants made quite a lot of descendants before they were offed."

"Yes well Elijah has one and only one descendant," Kol said.

Elijah glared at him before turning to Elena warmly. "You're the only one." He told her lightly and kissed her forehead.

She smiled and wound up wrapping her arms around him. Her legs went around his waist and tried pulling him closer to her.

"If it makes you feel better darling the only sire I have a connection is with you," Kol told Bonnie.

"I love you just as you are," Bonnie smiled. They swam a while longer and then made their way back to the mansion.

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