Hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 18

Elena's entire body felt like Jell-O; if it weren't for Elijah's body bracing her against the brick wall, she would've fallen on her ass. Having sex against the wall in a building full of supernatural people and being only a hundred feet away from said people wasn't part of her plan at all.

"Are you all right?" Elijah whispered as he took in the tension now radiating off of her clammy body.

Her eyes shifted up to his, "Do you think they heard us?"

He pulled away from her and smoothed down her dress as he chuckled, "I'm sure the entire French Quarter heard us, princess. Perhaps next time you can keep the screaming of my name to a minimum."

"Oh my God," she groaned, burying her face in her hands in embarrassment. Now everyone will know that she's sleeping with Elijah.

She heard him zip up his pants and right himself before he laughed again, "You can just call me Elijah, my dear. Besides, we wouldn't want people to think we're going for round two."

"Shut up!" She gasped, smacking his arm, "This isn't funny. We have to go back in there with everyone knowing what we did!"

"To be fair, only the people with supernatural hearing heard us," he quipped smugly, "The humans won't suspect a thing."

"And most of the people in there have supernatural hearing!"

He quirked his lips slightly, "Lovely Elena, are you embarrassed?"

"Aren't you?" She practically screeched, "Everyone knows we had sex!"

"And now they know that you're a screamer."

Elena's eyes widened at his words, "Elijah Mikaelson, you're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"Immensely," his smug smile returned as looked her over, "When you're over a thousand years old you learn that there's not much worthy of embarrassment. And having a gorgeous woman scream your name in the throes of passion is definitely nothing to be embarrassed about. It's actually extremely satisfying."

She rolled his eyes, "Anything to stroke your ego, huh?"

Elijah ducked his head and placed a soft kiss to her lips, "We should get back to the party. I highly doubt anyone will say a thing to you. They know better than to upset me and, by harassing you, I would be very upset." He pulled away and offered his hand to her, which she accepted graciously.

"Alright, let's get this over with," she grumbled as he led her back to the main floor of the Compound.

When they stepped through the threshold, people turned to stare, but quickly averted their eyes. Elena felt heat rising to her cheeks, however when she realized that no one would say anything, she started to enjoy herself.

"Darling, please excuse me. I have a matter to discuss with Father Kieran," Elijah said as he left her side with the priest.

She nodded before looking around the room for a familiar face. With the exception of the Originals, she felt that she didn't know anyone. When a hand was suddenly on her shoulder, she tensed, expecting the worst.

"There you are!" Caroline screeched as she turned Elena around to face her, "I've been looking everywhere for you and after that performance with Elijah, I need my gossip fix!"

"Oh my God, you heard it?" The brunette was once again mortified at her outburst. How in the hell had she forgotten where she was so much that she screamed like a banshee? Oh yeah, she was having sex with Elijah, that's how.

Caroline giggled, "I'm just glad you two made up. He's been moping around for the past month, but his pride got in the way of talking to you. And it didn't help that you were living with Stefan."

"Stefan and I are just friends, Care."

"Well, I know that now! Especially with how he and Rebekah are acting around each other. You would think that they'd just pick up where they left off in Chicago, but it's like they're in a whole new relationship again!" Caroline gossiped, her blue eyes alight with excitement, "Three of us are dating Originals, can you believe it?"

Elena gave her friend a small smile, "I don't really know if I'm dating Elijah. We're just taking it slow, you know?"

"So 'taking it slow' means fucking against the wall? Damn, Klaus and I must be going at glacial speeds!" The blonde quipped before bursting into laughter.

"Caroline!" Elena couldn't help but laugh with her, "I don't want to hear about you and Klaus."

"At least you only have to hear about us and not actually a play by play of the performance!"

Elena sighed, "I'm never going to live this down, am I?"

"Nope," the blonde smirked, popping the p, "And forever is an awfully long time."

The brunette was about to make a witty remark when Caroline's blue eyes widened almost comically, staring at something over her shoulder.

"Care? What's wrong?" As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt fingers tapping against her shoulder insistently. She turned around and was met with ice blue eyes.

"Can I speak with you for a moment?" Damon asked, his voice tight with something that Elena couldn't identify.

Not trusting her voice, she nodded and allowed him to lead her out of the Compound and onto the street, throwing a look over her shoulder to the confused blonde. He stared at her strangely, but she could tell that something was wrong.

"Damon?" She prompted softly.

His eyes quickly found hers again and she was nearly taken aback by the raw emotion that lingered on his face, "How long?"

"How long, what?"

He passed a hand over his face and steeled his emotions against her, "How long have you been sleeping with him, Elena? The truth."

"I-I've only slept with him three times, including tonight," she stumbled over her words, wondering why she was even bothering to explain her sex life with her ex.

"We're you sleeping with him when we were together?"

She bit her lip, but she knew she would feel better if she came clean, "I slept with him once when we were together. After you got back," she clarified as she watched him cringe, "It was the night that you got back and I just…I was so dissatisfied that I ended up here and, well, you know how the rest works. I'm sorry, Damon."

Damon's jaw was clenched tight, every fiber of his being radiating hostility, "Well, I can see that he certainly knows how to give you what you want. Fuck, Elena, the whole goddamn vampire community heard how well he could please you. It was a fucking embarrassment to me!"

"Embarrassment to you?" Elena fumed, her mind reeling with his words, "You have nothing to do with what Elijah and I have. We have nothing together anymore, Damon. We were over the second you wanted Bonnie instead of me. So buck up and deal with it."

She turned to go back into the party, but his hand grabbed her wrist punishingly before he thrust her unceremoniously against the wall of the alley.

"Don't you dare walk away from me, Elena," he hissed menacingly as his glowered over her, "I thought you were different. I thought what we had was special. But you just had to jump into bed with Elijah, didn't you? And here I thought you were different than Katherine."

Elena's heart dropped before all she could see was red. How dare he compare her to that vampire slut?

She could feel rage pooling in her veins as she pushed him away from her as hard as she could. He smashed into the wall behind them, brick falling to the ground from the impact. She whooshed in front of him and held her forearm against his throat, cutting off his air supply.

"Let me tell you something, Damon," she seethed, her body vibrating with anger, "I am nothing like Katherine. But, maybe I should take a page out of her book and tear you apart."

Damon laughed at her, forcing her against the opposite wall once more. Her head smacked against the stone with a sickening thud as he knelt over her, "Are you forgetting that I'm older than you? You don't stand a chance."

"Perhaps you're forgetting that she's dating an Original, Mr. Salvatore," a voice said calmly from the entrance of the alley.

Elena's foggy mind hardly registered the voice; wanting to drift away to unconsciousness instead and that's exactly what she did.

Damon's head whipped around as he sneered, "Are you forgetting that she's not dating you? She's with Elijah. Yet, here you are defending her honor. Is she fucking you, too? She played Stefan and I like that for years."

Finn stared at the elder Salvatore, trying to reign in his anger as much as possible, "You should be counting your blessings that you're dealing with me and not my brother. You see, I'm more forgiving and there's still a chance of you making it out of here alive. Whereas Elijah would've killed you without a second thought for laying a single finger on his Elena."

"She'll never be his. She's mine and always has been," Damon retorted, casting a look of longing to the ground where the beautiful brunette lay in crumbled mess.

Finn wasted no time whooshing in front of the raven-haired man and looking into his pained blue eyes, "You will leave and go back to your hotel. You will remember everything that you did and you will feel remorse. You will leave Elena alone and realize she is happy and there isn't anything you can do about it. You will let her go."

"I will let her go…" Damon said in a robotic voice before he walked stiffly from the alley.

Finn sighed and knelt next to the girl he thought he loved. He could no longer deny that her and Elijah had strong chemistry and there was nothing that could ever change that. He smiled slightly; her happiness was important to him and knowing that she was happy with his brother was enough.

He scooped her up in his arms bridal style as he headed back to the Compound.

"What the bloody hell happened?" Rebekah demanded as she walked into the study to see Finn attending to the still unconscious Elena.

Finn looked up at her and sighed, "A slight run in with a certain Salvatore. Everything's been handled, I'm just waiting for her to wake up."

"You know she's with Elijah, right?" The blonde asked nervously as she watched her brother's tender ministrations concerning the doppelganger.

"I'm perfectly aware, Rebekah," Finn snapped, "I couldn't find Elijah and I didn't want to leave her alone."

She nodded, "Fine, I'll go look for him."

Finn expressed his thanks before looking back at the sleeping brunette. He stroked the hair away from her face as he gently rubbed the blood away from her hairline. He couldn't even fathom what would've happened if he hadn't had been keeping an ear out for her.

Everything in his body was telling him to go and find Damon and rip him to pieces for thinking he could get away with hurting his brother's girl.

"Nik, have you seen Elijah?" Rebekah asked as she walked into the drawing room, "I swear I've looked everywhere and – oh my God!"

"Would it kill you to knock?" Caroline screeched as she grabbed her dress and quickly wiggled back into it.

Rebekah covered her eyes and looked away as she shouted, "This is my bloody house! I shouldn't have to knock! Next time lock the door!"

Klaus laughed at the exchange as he pulled up his pants, "Now, now. We're all adults here. What is it you wanted, Bekah?"

"I can't find Elijah," she turned around and cringed slightly at the memory of her brother on top of the bubbling blonde, "Have you seen him?"

"He's probably with the doppelganger," he sighed, making his way over to the alcohol cart and pouring himself a drink.

"Elena's downstairs and Finn said he hasn't seen him since after their…incident," Rebekah explained.

"He was talking to a priest, I think," Caroline interjected, "That's why he left Elena during the party."

"Father Kieran?" Klaus asked sharply to which Caroline shrugged, "He shouldn't have been out of the church."

"Why?" Rebekah asked, her eyes wide at her brother's sudden shift of mood, "What's wrong?"

"He's still hexed, Rebekah! He shouldn't have been able to leave the church! Davina sealed him in…and if Elijah's with him that mean Bastianna must've gotten him out."

Rebekah paled, "Bastianna is supposed to be dead, Nik, or have you forgotten?"

"I haven't forgotten!" He yelled, throwing his glass against the wall, "Kieran said he's been seeing her since the hex has gotten worse. In his warped mind, she could convince him to do what he wanted."

"Then how did he get out of a sealed attic?" Caroline asked, her pale brows pulling together in confusion, "Another witch would've had to help him and since this Bastianna is dead, she couldn't use magic, right?"

Klaus shook his head, "Davina would never do such a thing if it meant hurting Elijah."

"We have to find him, Nik," Rebekah whispered, heartbroken, "I'll call Davina."

"I'll call Camille," Klaus said as he pulled out his cell.

"And I'll get a drink. A strong one," Caroline muttered.

Uh oh! Trouble in paradise! Be sure to leave a review!

~Grace