A Curse of the Blood

Elena leapt back instinctively when she noticed Elijah's eyes opened, the blue fading rapidly from his skin and his chest beginning to rise and fall with each new breath. His eyes fell on her as he carefully lifted himself into a sitting position before getting to his feet, Elena scrambling to do the same so that he didn't have any more of an advantage than a vampire already had on a human. His eyes looked almost black as they landed on her, inspecting her frightened appearance.

"Katarina," he gasped out, disoriented.

"No," Elena assured quickly, holding up her hands. "No, it's me. It's Elena."

"Elena," Elijah repeated with a thick, raspy voice. It was as though he had just awoken from a deep sleep instead of rising once again from the dead. With the appearance of charred clothing, mussed and dirt speckled hair, Elena wasn't sure how to react to the confused and slightly distraught man before her. Instead of speaking more, she lifted a finger to her lips in a show of silencing him before motioning to her ear then pointing up.

"What happened?" he asked in a quiet, though still baritone voice.

Glancing upward, as though she thought she would be able to see if the brothers knew of what she had done, Elena took a moment before answering. "I'll tell you," she assured before adding on, "Not here." Elijah looked weary of the woman, not wanting to remain in the basement of the Salvatore's any longer than he had to, and yet there was a curiosity of why she had taken the dagger from his chest and woke him. "Can I trust you?" she asked in a voice just as soft.

"Can I trust you?" he returned in that same quiet, deadly voice.

Elena swallowed thickly, knowing that he had reason not to believe in what she was doing for him. Looking down to the floor, the dagger remained at her feet, where she had dropped it in her start as he awoke. Toeing at it, she kicked it to the ground at his feet, giving him the only tool that they had to put him down in semi-permanent state.

"Astra needs your help, but we need to leave, now-"

Elena hadn't even had a chance to finish her sentence before she found them both standing outside of the Salvatore home, the rain pouring only a couple of feet away from where Elijah had stopped running. She made sure not to make a sound that would bring either brother or Katherine's attention to them, breathing heavily in surprise to the stunt he had pulled. When she looked up at Elijah, the man having immediately stepped away from her, his eyes were dark and his jaw was clenched tightly. The dagger was clutched in his hand at his side.

"I need to get my keys, one second," she whispered, quickly moving back into the house but leaving the room slightly ajar. Rushing passed the front table that held her purse, she snatched it on her way in order to get a blood bag for the Original. Thankfully, she knew exactly where Damon's fridge stock was and snatched two bags and stuffed them inside of her purse before rushing back up to meet with the Original. She didn't know how long Astra had and she didn't know if Elijah would give her the time she needed to talk before he rushed off to find her.

Moving back out onto the front porch, Elijah was nowhere to be seen. Not wanting to risk one of the vampire inside hearing her call for him, Elena quickly looked around to try and find where he could have slipped off. "What has happened to Astraea?" Elijah's voice demanded nearly inaudibly from behind her.

"I'll explain on the way, get in the van," she ordered, trying not to sound too demanding so as not to anger the man further. Rushing out into the rain, she quickly climbed into the driver's seat while Elijah soundlessly got into the passenger side, the door closing without a sound. Trying her best to do the same, Elena was soon pulling away from the Boarding House, making her way down the long gravel driveway.

"What is happening? What of Astra?" he demanded as soon as was possible.

Elena, using one hand to steer, reached into her purse and tossed him one of the blood bags. "I don't know all of the details, but Luka caught me earlier this evening at the Grill and told me that Astra had saved his life. He and Jonas were trying to free you and Damon used the flamethrower to break the spell. Whatever Astra did is apparently killing her," she began as calmly as she could, cautiously watching the slippery roads. "Where should I be going?"

"They would take her to her home," Elijah said as he discretely took deep gulps of the blood. "She doesn't remember me, does she?" he asked after a brief pause, glancing over to the brunet beside him.

"No," Elena answered hesitantly, not wanting to bring it up.

"It is a spell we asked of Jonas, she gave her permission to do so. She of course would not remember it."

"She wanted to lose her memory?" Elena started, looking sharply over to him before directing her eyes back to where the van had swerved just slightly off course. Elijah looked over at her hotly, making her feel suddenly self-conscious of her driving skills. "Why?"

"That cannot be explained so easily," he answered quietly.

"Well, what about why she's dying?"

Watching the rain pour down along the sides of the car, streaking along the windows in small rivers, he truly didn't want to answer. And yet, she had pulled the dagger out. She had kept it a secret from the brothers, freed him and was allowing him to save Astra's life.

"I am going to tell you a story that I once heard along my travels," Elijah began without looking toward her and in turn missing the confused look that came over her face, but Elena said nothing in protest and instead remained silent as she waited for him to continue with what he was saying. "In life, there is always a balance. For something to be strong, it must have a weakness. Vampires are the same, just as Werewolves and Witches. However, Vampires were an abomination and considered a disease to those that knew of them. So, the witches strove for a way to wipe out the vampires, a weapon against vampire kind."

As he spoke, he motioned to the turns that Elena needed to take through Mystic Falls, guiding her to the exit that led to the country and then to the forest. She did everything she was silently told without question, handing him the second blood bag when she saw that he had finished the first.

"The coven was able to channel the power of the witches that came before them, both in and out of their own bloodlines. With enough strength, it was decided that they would use the channeled power and transfer it into a new, pure body and soul. A baby, yet to be born. The parents were ignorant to the supernatural world, allowing for the witches to influence and teach the child the ways of killing vampires. However, the witches did not plan for the family to move away, the parents unknowing of their newborn baby's fate, and leaving the witches unknowing of their creations location. Spells meant to protect the child from being found prevented even them from discovering where she had disappeared to.

"When the original family of vampires caught wind of this weapon, they decided that it needed to be destroyed before they came to harm. And so, they sought out, dividing themselves among the continents in search of rumours to follow that could lead them to the witch that could end them. It was the oldest of the Original siblings that finally located the witch, over two decades having passed since her creation.

"He had been expecting her to be strong and well versed in the use of magic, but instead found a young woman living with her family still, her father wealthy and protective of his weak, youngest daughter. She was sick, fatally so, but her parents did not know it. She hid her secret from them, and it was only through reason of the Original planning to kill her that he discovered this secret. And as he gained favour with the father to become closer to the witch, he found it hard to think of killing her when she did not even know what she was. The witches had never been able to find her and she was left without influence of the supernatural world.

"It was short months after first meeting this woman that he found the reason for her illness; she was a human woman, forced to live the life of a witch. Her body could not sustain itself with the amount of power inside of her, and it was beginning to shut down. Her major organs were gradually decaying and dying, the magic draining her so much that she could not properly live. The smell of death clung to her constantly. And throughout the months, the Original contacted his siblings and told them of the woman, and the conditions of which she was in. Even though she was not deemed a threat, however, he found he could not leave. She would die soon on her own, there was no need to take her life, but he did not want to abandon her.

"Instead, he fell in love with her. He began to make arrangements with her father to marry her, hoping that he could cure her of her illness somehow. He knew witches, and believed that he could take her from death's grasp before it was too late. It was in the time that he fell in love with her that she came to know the truth of him; he was not human and had not been for a very long time. Though she feared him, she returned his love and allowed him to feed her his blood in hopes of healing her abnormal sickness and give him time to find a cure.

"On day of disaster, the sickness took hold completely and her heart gave up the struggle to stay alive. It was in the passing days a time that taught the Originals how to revive the humans to become similar to them, to begin creating vampire kind all over the world. Because she died with his blood in her veins and it finally cured her. However, though the sickness was gone, the channeled power remained. Vampires and witches were bred to be enemies, and to share the blood of a vampire with the spirit of a witch brings but pain and suffering.

"She swore never to use magic, for the pain was too great of a burden to bear. It was not worth the suffering. Even still, in the centuries she lived she would still be found by witches and hunters that sought to end vampires, hoping for her assistance as the weapon meant for their end. She could never hide, because of one striking difference that the witches' interference caused while she was still in the womb. The amethyst stone that the witches used to cleans to power before channeling into the baby took a physical hold on her. She was born with amethyst coloured eyes."

Elena had to park to the side of the road halfway to Astra's home, unable to drive while listening to the story. Her eyes were wide with shock as she looked at Elijah, who still appeared calm and composed, sitting in his burned suit with dust covering his skin. Her hands felt numb on the searing wheel and her throat was thick and dry. What could she say after that? What could she hope to say that would not sound foolish?

"You wish to ask something?" Elijah asked as he glanced to her, waiting.

"Klaus was in love with Astra?"

Elijah actually laughed; it was a deep rolling sound that started Elena into sitting perfectly straight in the driver's seat.

"Klaus is my younger brother, Elena," Elijah answered morbidly, his smile sad and humourless. "It was my blood that turned Astra into a vampire accidentally. Not my brothers."

"So…Astra was made as a weapon to kill you, but instead she was turned into one of you and proceeded to travel with you for centuries?"

"The reason that Astra left me all those years ago, just after Katarina turned, was because she found out the truth. I had never told her why I truly came to Pompeii or that I knew why she was sick. Klaus, in his infinite impatience, let slip the truth and she fled," Elijah laughed bitterly, the sound leaving a disturbing feeling inside of Elena as she leaned herself back against the door and window. The lights of the console lit up Elijah's face but also brought about deep shadows that made him appear demonic. "I had spent so long hiding her from the rumours and the truth that I had not even spent a moment to think of how she would react when she found out. I knew that she would eventually, but I had never truly expected the time to come."

"She used magic to save Luka's life, then?"

"I assume so, yes. The times in the past that she used her magic, she would grow weak and sick. The stronger the spell, the stronger the reaction." Elena had started the van once more and pulled off of the shoulder of the road, the sound of the tires rolling through the puddles seeming to echo inside the vehicle.

"How is it that you can help?"

Elijah motioned for her to take a left turn as he answered, "We believe that it is because my blood is what turned her into a vampire; only my blood can cure her of the reactions using magic brings. I cured her sickness by turning her from infected human to immortal demon. The term Vampire was not used at that time; we were referred to as demons."

In that moment, Elena pulled into the driveway to Astra's home. They could distantly see that there was a light far within the house still on, the light reaching the halls and other rooms that were linked to it. There was no movement inside of the home as the jittery human parked in front of the steps. Immediately, Elijah opened the door and slipped out; he was gone before the engine was even turned off. Elena rushed after him, reaching the door as he was already striding through the foyer toward the hallway that was lit at the end.

Trying to be as quiet and discrete as she could, Elena followed after him through the chilled home. It was a beautiful place, from what she could see. However, her attention was not on the surroundings because when she followed Elijah into a kitchen, she suddenly felt sick.

Astra was lying on the floor, her feet closest to the glass door to the back yard. It was open, allowing the cool air into the home. The room had the strong smell of rain and moist Earth. Grass and dirt covered Astra's legs and feet, telling Elena that she had been sitting outside. The wet transparency of her clothes told her that it was when the rain had still been falling heavily.

The sickening part was that there was splattering of blood on the floor and the cabinet beside the door. The red stood out on the white tiles, stark and screaming. Blood smeared Astra's mouth and jaw, tears of salt water and blood alike streaking her face. She didn't appear responsive, her amethyst eyes blank and starting up at the ceiling.

She looked like a corpse.

"Is she alive?" Elena asked desperately.

Elijah had shucked off the jacket of his suit and was kneeling beside Astra, uncaring of the blood on the floor that he was smearing and staining his already ruined clothes with. His movements were gentle as he touched her cheek, felt for a pulse on her neck, and wiped the blood beneath her eyes. "Astraea?" he called softly, his voice thick with a Latin accent. When he spoke again, the words were foreign to Elena, but they reminded her of the spells Bonnie would cast.

Elijah was completely ignoring the human in the doorway, focusing on Astra. She had never been affected for this long before. Nor so severely. A healing spell that saved someone from the brink of death was not a spell that she had ever used before, so it would have drained her as it was. Her body could not fight against the flare of magic any longer.

After rolling up his sleeve, he bit deeply into his wrist and tore at the skin, opening a gaping wound that immediately began to gush blood into his mouth and down his chin. Lowering the raw wound to her lips, he used his other hand to open her jaw to allow the blood to pour in unaided. Elena continued to watch from the doorway, unable to move or look away.

The scene was gruesome and dark, but at the same time she came to believe that Luka had not been lying when he said Elijah would do anything for Astra.

Elena showed more of a reaction than Elijah did when Astra's throat began to move as she swallowed, her eyes fluttering closed and her breathing beginning to strengthen between gulps. Elijah pulled his healed wrist back to his mouth and repeated the painful tearing process, this time pressing the joint between Astra's teeth. The veins were beginning to appear as she took in more blood, her organs healing themselves as the blood began to take effect. He would not chance it, however, and gave her more. It was only when he felt her canines lengthen and pierce his wrist that he relaxed with the knowledge that she would survive.

Astra's eyes opened with great difficulty, her entire body too tired to move. Yet she still found the strength to push Elijah's wrist away from her mouth with a gentle hand and turn her head away. Elena let out a breath she hadn't known she had been holding when Astra's red and violet eyes fell closed once more, Elijah's hand moving to her cheek to cradle it gently.

When he spoke in Latin again, Astra responded by tiredly resting her hand on his before falling limp in unconsciousness.

"Will she be alright?" Elena finally asked, feeling like she was intruding on the private moment.

"Yes," Elijah answered in a relieved voice, though she could tell he had tried to hide it. "We still have much to talk about, though," he added on, glancing up to her.

The secret's out! It took 48 chapters, but the secret of Astra's eyes is revealed. I actually built this story completely off of her eye colour. Not the strongest foundation, but I say with pride that I think it worked out very well. Thank you to all of you wonderfully, fabulous readers and a special thanks to all that reviewed! Hope to hear your thoughts on this doozy of a chapter c: