Till Death, Do We Part

Chicago, Illinois, 1864

The awkward angle that had once made up Astra's neck bone snapped audibly back into place, a gasp passing through her lips as soon as her heart began beating once more, air returning to her lungs. She hated when she died without actually dying, it didn't make it any less painful just because she was a vampire. Lifting her hand, she moved it up to her neck and felt it delicately, making sure that she didn't have any other injuries that still needed healing.

"I am relieved you are awake."

Jolting, Astra tried to move away from the source of the familiar voice, but found that she was constricted to her carriage walls. Her shoulder slammed against one the side walls, preventing her from moving more than an inch as she looked across to where Elijah was sitting, dressed in a dashing dark suit with his dark brown hair slicked back neatly.

"Elijah," she growled out, glaring darkly at him across from him. Her violet eyes looked far more threatening than the usual peaceful colour he was used to seeing when he had looked into her eyes in the past. "What have you done? Where is Annabel?"

"Your human is alright," Elijah assured, his façade in place as he looked just as calm as he usually did. "I left her behind to finish tending to your home, and then she will meet us later." He shifted just slightly where he was sitting, moving toward her by but a fraction. That fraction was all it took for her to bare her fangs at him threateningly, her eyes bleeding red around the amethyst and stilling his movements immediately.

She growled at him as he went still and listened to her growl out, "You bit her."

"I apologize, Astra, I was not aware at the time that you had a connection to the mortal," he explained cautiously, his eyes as weary as his posture. She kept a steady glare on him as she leaned back as far as she could, refusing to look him in the eye a moment longer. He watched silently as her eyes faded back to their normal colour, her fangs receding back into her gums.

"Take me back," she snapped.

"I was under the impression that you were already planning to leave," Elijah retorted simply, the anger that was manifesting inside of him slowly beginning to seep into his eyes and voice. Astra looked back to him for a moment before her eyes moved to the darkness that was outside of the carriage windows. There was a glow in the distance that she recognised as lights, still hours away by horse and carriage. They were far away from Mystic Falls by that time.

"Better to remain there than to be here with you," she mumbled faintly, never once taking her eyes away from the dark view outside the window. She wished that she could disappear into the night, just as their kind was supposed to do; they were demons, meant to live in the dark. It would be so easy, too. Stepping away from everything and blending into the shadows, pretending to be the killer that she was thought to be by so many other creatures and humans out there.

"That town is filled with vampire hunters; they were in the process of killing all that they could get a hold of when I was tracking you down," Elijah nearly yelled, the sudden rise in his voice taking the blonde Roman by surprise. She jumped in her place, her head snapping to the side and looking in his eyes with a mixture of awe and fear.

"You are the reason that I was there!" she screamed back, finally letting her own calm mask break apart and leave her true anger and hatred exposed. "I would never have even been in that town if it had not been for all that you had done, you bastard!"

Elijah was across the seats in only a moment, his hand moving to lightly clutch at her throat so as to keep her in place as he looked into her eyes, glaring and impatient. Astra snarled as her hand sought out his throat in turn, scratching his skin with her nails and using all the strength within her to throw him back into his own place. She refused to admit that he frightened her like this, that she truly had missed him over the years. He had changed so much; she couldn't stop herself from looking over his new attire and his short, slicked back hair, or revelling in his familiar chocolate brown eyes.

"They were going to kill you!" he howled at her, too strong for her to push away. "I saved your life by taking you away, you fool. I lost you once when you ran away and I will be damned if I let you die at the hands of a group of murderous humans-"

"Then it was my time to die!" she screeched. "It's been over a thousand years, Elijah! I don't care anymore! I am tired of living a life of lies, and running and mistrust! I want to live the life that I was promised as a child, that you promised me after I was turned. This is not what I wanted!" Tears were burning her eyes when she finished, her hands releasing his throat to pound against his chest in outrage. "I was supposed to die, back in Rome, with my family. I did not even get that." By the end, her hands were fisted in his coat and tears stained her cheeks.

Elijah's expression softened at the same time that his grip relaxed ever so slightly on her throat, moving from kneeling over her to instead sit beside her on her side of the carriage. Gently, he moved his hand from her throat to run into her hair, caressing her scalp and forcing her to meet his eyes.

"I know that this was probably not what you wanted, Astraea, but just give me this chance, the one last chance, to make you happy."

Roman Empire, Pompeii, 78 A.D.

Elijah leaned back against the strong, thick wood of the boat as he watched the cloud of black smoke grow smaller and smaller in the distance, fading from the sky above him until he could see the stars once more. Wet tears fell down his cheeks as he looked upward, wanting to see the beauty of the small specks of light. His fingers caressed Astraea's hair lightly, almost absently, as his cradled her to his chest while she sat on his lap.

Looking down once more, his eyes fell on the strikingly pale skin of Astra's face, her once tanned, copper skin now a pasty white that reminded him of dull snow. The blood had been cleaned from her face with gentle touches of a wet cloth, leaving her looking as though she were in a deep, frozen sleep. With a soft touch, his fingers caressed along her lips as he remembered their night together; he wished he could feel her kiss once more, just as soft and pleasant as it had been before.

"She is not going to come back," a soft voice said beside him. Elijah watched as a wet drop of clear liquid fell on Astraea's forehead, making her skin glisten, before he turned his eyes to the blonde as his side. Soft brown eyes looked back at him, much like his own, but with a feminine lilt to them. Rebekah reached out and caressed his cheek ever so softly, wiping away one of the remaining tears on his skin. "You loved her, did you not, Elijah?" she asked in a calm, sweet voice. The smoothness was pleasant after listening to Nicklaus for the past couple of hours and he was relieved that it was Rebekah that had come to him this time.

"I still love her," he answered so softly she almost didn't hear him. Shuffling down to sit beside him, she leaned her head against his shoulder and looked down at the cold woman in his arms, still held so tightly against Elijah's chest.

"She is beautiful," Rebekah commented breathily, reaching forward slightly as though to touch the other woman, perhaps brush the hair from her face to see her better. However, the sudden tensing of Elijah's body at the movement forced to her to stop and she looked up to her brother for a moment before drawing her hand back and placing it reassuringly on his arm. Do not touch her. "I wish I could have met her."

"She wanted to meet you, as well," Elijah said softly, looking over to his sister with such sadness in his eyes that she felt her own heart breaking in her chest. "You would have gotten along so well with her." Rebekah smiled sadly and lifted her hand to brush a curl of brown hair away from Elijah's face, something that she was relieved he let her do. She wished there was a way that she could help him through his pain, but it was so hard to even look at her older brother—so strong and confident—broken down and a mess of emotion.

"I am so sorry this happened to you, Elijah," she cooed, leaning forward and pressing a kiss against his temple.

A soft thump threw her back, though, as her wide eyes looked down at the dead body in Elijah's arms. He, too, looked down at Astraea's face with a look of awe and disbelief. Neither said a thing, Rebekah keeping herself at a distance from the woman and her brother, eyes never leaving Astraea's face. A second thump, the sluggish pulse of Astraea's once still heart, echoed in their ears and left them frozen in shock.

"Nicklaus!" Rebekah screamed, scrambling backward.

Elijah, however, clutched Astraea closer and looked down at her face with such concentration that he appeared to be studying a complex puzzle. Nicklaus rushed up beside his sister, looking at his brother and the Roman woman in confusion, wondering what had his sister screaming in fear. He opened his mouth to question, but there was a weak beat that caused him to stop and look at Astraea.

Elijah gently stroked his fingers along her cheek as he looked to her eyes, hoping that they may open. "Astraea?" he asked ever so softly, stroking his finger along the high bone of her cheek. "Open your eyes, my love," he whispered. "Just open your eyes."

The three siblings sat in complete silence after that, listening more carefully than they ever had before. Soon, Astraea's heart beat again, and again and again. Elijah's eyes filled with tears and his lips pulled into a smile, his fingers caressing all along her cheeks, lips and forehead, feeling the need to touch her as she was waking up. He did not know what was happening, or if she was truly going to return to him, but he could not give up on the hope of having her back.

As her heart began a slow, but steady beat, Astraea took in a deep, shuddering breath and looked upward toward the sky, her violet eyes appearing blurred and distant in the beginning. The stars above the boat were the first thing that she could see, blurry in the beginning before they cleared into beautiful dots of light that created magnificent constellations and patterns along the black blanket of night.

The second thing that she saw was the soft brown of Elijah's eyes, framed in curls of brown hair and pale skin. She blinked tiredly, still dazed and confused, before smiling such a weak, soft smile and reached up with a trembling hand to gently stroke along his cheek, feeling the stubble of his facial hair beneath her fingers. "Elijah," she gasped out, seeing him smile in return and feeling his fingers caress along her forehead, pushing away the blonde curls of her hair.

Using the arm he had curled underneath her shoulders, be pulled her up against him chest and buried his face in her neck, holding onto her so tightly that he briefly worried he may hurt her, but pushed the thought aside and instead took the time that he could to relish in her life and the warmth that was slowly returning to her body. Astraea kept her hand placed ever so gently to his cheek, confused about what was going on. Elijah realized that she probably did not remember the fact that she had died, and he felt that he did not wish to tell her. He could not protect her from it the first time, he wanted to be able to keep her safe from it the second time around.

"Elijah," Rebekah said in the softest tone, that he wasn't completely sure he had actually heard what she had said. She and Nicklaus remained where they were across the space of the stern of the boat, looking on as Elijah clutched the once dead woman against him as though she were going to suddenly evaporate into the very air that they were breathing.

So I wanted to get these past two chapters out before the new season started…yea, that clearly didn't work out, so instead I gave you all a fast, double update in hopes that you'll forgive me! It was very sad, writing this chapter, and very hard to write the last one while trying to keep everything in order. Don't worry, I don't like amnesic Astra any more than you all do, she's too bland for my taste.

Omg, I've almost written 40 chapters…

Chapter 40 – Playing With Matches

"Don't kill her, we might still need her," Damon requested blandly, moving to sit on a leather chair as he watched the show before him.

"Damn," Astra cussed plainly, holding the stare of the struggling woman. "Whatever is the matter now, Katarina? You were all spite and threats before. What happened to that woman, the one that replaced the snivelling, crying doppelgänger that I tracked down all those years ago?"

"Astra," Stefan interrupted, clearly not caring about the threat on Katarina's life as he looked only at the Roman, gaining her attention completely. Amethyst eyes landed on him, her hand never relaxing on Katarina's arm—actually, it appeared that she lifted the woman even higher and drew another pained groan from her. She tried to claw at Astra's hand, but she was much stronger than her.

"Yes?"

Stefan hesitated, looking between the two women before his eyes met with Elena's, who stood frozen on the other side of the scene that was taking place in the center of the room. "Astra…how old are you?" She seemed taken aback by the suddenness of the question; of all the things that Stefan could have asked her, she had not been expecting it to be on her age. Many vampires already knew who she was, almost travelling with the brothers of the Original Family, but that was centuries in the past so it made sense that he wouldn't know.