The Pure and The Tainted

Astra sat on the back of the truck that was hidden back amongst the trees near the tomb that Stefan and Katarina were locked inside, or had been at least. Elijah had stepped down only a minute prior and was presently speaking with them. She leant her head back as they cool air brushed her skin and listened to Stefan's voice as he spoke with Elijah hesitantly. She looked off toward the sky where the full moon hung in place, lighting the forest for all the night creatures. She began to drum her fingers on the truck to a random tune that she had heard on the radio earlier that day, waiting for Elijah to come. He was probably already dealing with Katarina at that moment.

Her hand clenched into a fist that the thought of what that woman had done to ruin her life, but forced herself to calm down before she damaged Elijah's truck and was forced to pay for the repairs. Her head snapped up when she heard the leaves on the forest floor shifting around, the sight of Elijah walking toward her causing her heart to jump. He treaded gracefully along the forest floor, his hands placed inside the pockets of the double breast button jacket that he was wearing, clearly having no problem with what had just transpired.

"Come, we're finished here," He said easily, stepping around to the driver's side of the truck. Astra hopped off the back of the vehicle and walked around to the passenger side, glancing over her shoulder when she heard someone else come from the tomb. Stefan was stepping up into the open, looking around for where Elijah had walked off. She opened the passenger door and fluidly slipped inside, knowing that he might recognize her if he got a good enough view.

The truck was silent as it pulled away from the path inside the woods, leaving Stefan to find his own way home. Astra looked into her passenger side mirror as Stefan stepped out onto the path they had just vacated, his form barely visible in the darkness of the night. She sighed quietly to herself as she turned her attention forward again, closing her eyes to try and clear her mind.

Eventually, she would have to face the brothers and she could already imagine the hate that they were going to feel when they found out that she was helping Elijah. He may not be the one that wants to use Elena to break the curse, but he is one of the Originals and not someone that they openly trusted. She was in that group of people that they didn't trust. Not only that, but she was sure that Damon was going to think that it was her fault for many of the things that happened in Mystic Falls 140 years prior, when in truth it was Katarina.

"You're thinking too hard," Elijah said suddenly, cutting through her thoughts. She looked over to him curiously, but he had his eyes only on the road. "The cards will fall as they may. You will know what to do and how to deal with the situation when it arises, until then, I need your full attention on other matters, understand?"

"Yes, Elijah."

Astra soon found herself filing through a large room of old documents hidden beneath her house, Elijah was across the room doing much the same. She couldn't help but to become enwrapped in the materials that she found, pulling out old grimwars and documents that she had saved through the years, dust and age warping and ruining much of the pages in the books.

"I didn't even remember writing this one," She said as she help up a thick book of family trees, all of the ancestors having been a part of the group of witches that had put the curse on Klaus in the first place, the names of their families branching off in the dozens, before abruptly ending nearly two hundred years before the present day.

"You should try and find the present descendants of those families, the information could be of some use to us," Elijah said from across the room, moving another large box out of the way to begin rifling through another.

"Do you have any idea how many names that is? There has to be hundreds of people related to those witches these days."

"Then I would suggest beginning very soon," Elijah called back, causing Astra to glare at the back of his head before snapping the book closed and marching to the door. An arm wrapped around her waist before she could leave, dragging her to a stop. "Please, my dear," He added on, whispering deeply into her ear. She rolled her eyes in mock annoyance.

"Yea, yea, I'm on it," She agreed, turning to look over her shoulder and peck a kiss on his cheek. "I'm going to steal your computer for a couple of hours, the thing sure as hell it could use the use," She called as she pulled herself from his arms, marching toward the stairs. She pulled a bottle of blooded wine from the cellar as she passed it before heading up into the kitchen.

Elijah remained down in the basement of the home, looking through the box that he had found. The one in front had held the documents on Astraea's family line, the exact box that he had been looking for, but then he had seen the pages in the one behind it and could not resist himself. Pages and pages of Latin writing were thrown into the box, messed around in complete disorder. They were severely aged and looked ready to fall apart, but they had been kept safe and they were persevered well enough that he was still able to read the lines.

They were Astraea's journal from after she had been turned into a vampire. She had begun writing one night out of boredom when Elijah had locked her in her room so she didn't go and kill someone accidentally and soon had pages and pages of emotion and memory poured out in a way that she had never been able to put into verbal words. Elijah had treated himself in the beginning to reading what she was going through, hoping to better understand her and aid her. But with him he soon realized that the words and pages were even too personal for him to read. There were things that she had taken from the bottom of her heart and shared with no one, choosing instead to unburden her heart by keeping the secret but setting it free all at the same time.

He remembered the first time that he had stumbled upon the writing and read over what she had felt as she watched the city of Pompeii become buried in rock and ash, her parents and siblings and nieces and nephews all perishing in the wake of the volcano's eruption. Paired with the memory of her screams as she fought against him, he knew that her emotions were true and raw.

'I am undecided on whether or not I should feel relieved that Elijah was able to save me. I am glad that I am alive, or at the very least still roaming the Earth, but also cannot help the pain that I feel whenever I think of my family. They perished together in the ruins of the city. I should have died with my family, I was meant to die'

Elijah picked up the page from the top of the stack of yellowed pages and read over the first line.

'The blood lust that Elijah told me about is still very strong, he does not wish for me to leave my chambers encase I am to attack someone outside. I agree with him that I should not be around other people, but I see not the reasoning for why he must have Nicklaus sit outside my chambers to ensure that I do not run off. I am smart enough and strong willed enough not to do such a thing. Not only that, but it had to have been Nicklaus. There is a higher possibility that I kill him than an innocent.'

Elijah smirked to himself as he placed that page back into the box. He decided in that moment that he was going to arrange all of the pages so that she could read them over herself as they were meant to be remembered. He knew that she would appreciate something like that.

"Elijah! When did you buy this computer?" Astra called from the top of the stairs, the computer still in her hands. "It's a piece of crap, you know that? I'm stealing your wallet and buying a new one tomorrow, just to give you a heads up."

"It's not stealing if you tell me," Elijah replied back calmly.

"Then in a couple of years you can't hold it over my head, can you? Remember what you just said the next time you say that I stole your wallet!" Astra disappeared away from the top of the stairs again, Elijah still able to hear all of the movement that she made as she moved around on the main floor of the house. Elijah slipped the box of written pages back into place on the shelf, reclaiming the first box of Astraea's family history to bring with him to his room.

Astraea was sitting in the living room, his laptop on her crossed legs. She looked ready to throw it out the nearest window, her brows drawn down in anger at the device. Elijah stepped up to her side and plucked the laptop from her hands before she had a chance to take her irritation out on the expensive piece of equipment.

"Hey!"

"You do not need to do this right now, it's late. Get some sleep. You still need to get the things from Jenna Sommers tomorrow," Elijah explained, moving to place the computer and box on the table. Astra groaned in reminder before she stretched her arms above her head, her back cracking from the movement.

"What are you going to be doing tomorrow?"

"Business," He answered simply. She knew exactly what that meant; he would be spending most of the day on his phone trying to get a location on Klaus. She pulled herself up from the couch and moved to walk around the piece of furniture, but an arm encircling her waist prevented her from moving too far and spun her back around to face the owner.

"Yes?" She asked coyly, raising an eyebrow at Elijah. Her heels put her at nearly the same height as him, allowing her to look straight into his brown eyes. Elijah's free hand rose up to brush a curled piece of blonde hair from beside her left eye, the pad of his finger brushing against her skin with feather light pressure.

"The full moon is tomorrow, I don't want you wandering around. I won't take the chance that it could kill you," He whispered to her, his eyes following the curl of hair that bounced beside his finger. She closed her eyes as she soft feel of his long digits moving along her skin, sending pleasant sensations throughout her body.

"I'll keep to myself, promise not to anger any wolves," She mumbled back, feel his hand move back into her hair. She barely had a moment of recognition before she felt his lips hit her own in a soft kiss. Her head took on an immediate tilt to the right from pure instinct, Elijah mirroring the movement to his own right and allowing the both of them to deepen the kiss a bit more.

Elijah pulled her closer to him with the arm that was still wound around her waist, his other hand still tangled up in her hair. Astra pulled at the material of his dress shirt, tugging him against her in response. Astra's heart began to beat faster in her chest until it was reaching an erratic pace, the sound pulsing in Elijah's ears. When her eyes began to burn with change she turned her face away from him, clenching her jaw in frustration.

He knew the reason for her reaction immediately and turned her face back to him, her violet and red eyes still closed. He could see her fangs between her parted lips as she tried to regain control of herself, finding it difficult with him so close to her. He turned her to face him fully again before pressing another kiss against her lips, surprising her. Her demonic eyes snapped open to look at him, a jolt of hunger and lust seizing her.

Before she could stop herself, she bit down into the soft skin of his bottom lip, drawing a mouthful of blood forth. He melded their lips together to allow the blood to flow between their lips and onto her tongue, a groan of satisfaction pulled from her throat at the taste that met her. But the simple mouthful wasn't enough to quench the need and thirst that was beginning to grow inside of her.

Elijah could feel her once tense body begin to relax as she pushed down the bloodlust, her mouth parting from his. She let her head fall to rest on his shoulder, her hands still holding onto his shirt. He let her take a moment to herself and calm down. It only took her about a minute before she lifted her head up to look him in the eye again. There was still traces of his blood on both of their lips even though the injury had long since healed.

"That wasn't very nice," She finally whispered.

"You're getting better at controlling yourself."

"I can control myself just fine," She snapped back, releasing his shirt and take a step back to disengage herself from his hold. "Around anyone but you, that is. You know that I've always had trouble with resisting your blood."

"All the more reason for you to learn to," Elijah explained, moving to step closer to her. She glared at him as she backed away, her hand rising to wipe off the remainder of his blood from her mouth. Elijah appeared before her within the next instant, pressing a calming kiss to her forehead. "I apologize. It was your best interests that I had in mind."

She just looked down at the buttons of his shirt as he spoke. "That doesn't make me feel any better, Elijah. I feel used."

"I would never use you, Astraea," He whispered back, wrapping his arms around her shoulders to pull her against him a second time. "You are all that I have left, you deserve all that I can give." She blinked in wonder at his words, unsure of how to take them. There could be many meanings behind what he was saying, it was hard to interpret which one was the true one.

I hope that you all enjoy this chapter, I should have the next one out shorty, tomorrow evening at the latest. I tried to get this chapter out sooner than today, but I've had a killer time with school right now, as well as stuff at home, so I apologize to all you lovely readers. Please review, you know that I love to hear what you all have to say!