CHAPTER 11 – THE REUNION
They've been waiting for hours until Rhiannon noticed one of Elijah's fingers twinge slightly. She knelt beside him watching him intently. Suddenly he started convulsing and gasping for air making both girls jump up in surprise.
"Elijah," Rhiannon whispered kneeling next to him. "Elijah."
"Brenna," he mumbled when he saw her, his eyes wide open in confusion.
"Elijah, it's me, it's Rhiannon," she whispered placing her hand on his chest.
"Oh my god," he whispered breathing heavily and then passed out again.
"I'm gonna grab my backpack and fill it with blood bags," Rhiannon whispered to Elena. "I think we're gonna need them."
She was back in matter of half-minute, backpack slung across her shoulders, just in time to witness Elijah's attempt to stand up.
"I can't… I can't breathe," he whispered panicking. This has never happened before. "What's happening to me?"
"I…" Elena gasped, not comprehending what was happening. Elijah tried to blur out of there but was stopped by some sort of an invisible barrier. Rhiannon rushed to him, slinging his arm around her shoulder.
"I can't… I can't be in this house," Elijah gasped, still breathless.
"He's not invited in Elena!" Rhiannon gasped in horror.
"Get me out of here," he pleaded and she did what he asked, blurring with him through the front door. Seconds later, they were standing outside and Elijah propped himself against the mural, finally being able to breathe.
"Are you alright?" Rhiannon asked just as Elena caught up to them. Upon seeing her, Elijah blurred over to her with a murderous expression on his face but was stopped by the same invisible barrier like before.
"What happened?" he asked, pissed beyond all recognition.
"We'll tell you, Elijah," Rhiannon walked up to him, placing her hand on his shoulder blade. "But not here."
Elena pointed at her ears, then upwards, signaling that there were too many supernatural ears that could hear them.
"Can I trust you?" she asked making Rhiannon face-palm inwardly. Did she really just ask him that?
"Can I trust you?!" Elijah bit back pointedly making Elena give him the dagger as a symbol of peace. She then went to change quickly giving Elijah and Rhiannon couple of minutes together.
"Here, you look like you could use one of these," Rhiannon grabbed one of the blood bags and tossed it over to Elijah. "No offence."
"You're prepared," he said appreciatively, still not in a very good mood, but obviously glad to see her again. "How long have I been out?"
"Couple of days," she said looking at him as he all but devoured the blood bag instantly making him feel better. "I missed you," she whispered barely audibly. He heard it though and it made him smile.
"C'mon, let's go," Elena whispered coming out of the house. Few minutes and couple of blood bags later, they were parking in front of the Lockwood mansion. Rhiannon pulled the keys out of the ignition saying:" You look better."
"Where did you get the dagger?" Elijah asked turning over to Elena in the back seat.
"I'll tell you everything, but we have to work together Elijah," Elena retorted. "I need your word."
"Your ability to make demands has long passed," Elijah shot her down making Rhiannon look at him pleadingly.
"No demands," Elena retorted "I'm offering you my help and I n return I want yours."
"And why should I even consider this?" he deadpanned in return.
"For the same reason that you haven't killed me," Elena countered. "You need my help to kill Klaus and I need you."
"Please Elijah," she started. "You have every right to be pissed but you need to listen to what she has to say."
Their conversation was interrupted by Stefan calling and panicking. They let her deal with him and after she finished talking he gestured for her to hand over her phone, then turning over to Rhiannon asking her to do the same. She didn't mind giving up her phone but couldn't help but raise her eyebrow at him as she turned it off and handed it to him brushing her fingers against his, watching for his reaction. She was afraid he was mad at her as well, however his eyes crinkling in a small smile proved her wrong.
She was standing on the balcony of her new room recapping everything she learned today about the origin of the curse and about Elijah's family. They didn't get the full story but still it was a lot of information to take in and her head was pounding.
"Isn't it a little too cold for you to stand outside at night?" an all too familiar voice said from behind her making her almost fall over the railing.
"Don't do that!" she gasped at Elijah sitting in the chair with one leg propped on the other.
"I apologize for startling you," Elijah said, offering her a small smile. "But I didn't have the chance to wish you a happy birthday earlier."
This surprised her considering she didn't tell anyone, especially because of everything that was going on. "How did you know it's my birthday today?"
"I have my ways," he said smirking.
"I wonder why that doesn't surprise me anymore," she mumbled sheepishly.
"Well I was hoping to present this with a cupcake, but considering the circumstances, I'm hopeful you would not mind," he said standing up and retrieving a small velvet pouch from the inner pocket of his jacket. He walked up to her, kissing her on the cheek lightly, placing the little pouch into her hand and mumbling: "Happy birthday, Rhiannon."
She didn't know what to say so she just looked up at him, then down on the pouch hesitantly.
"Go ahead, open it," he encouraged her still standing so close to her. She did so and pulled out a gorgeous silver chain with a pendant the size of a quarter that had three diamonds in a shape of a crescent moons bound together on a circular black mineral she'd never seen before. It looked exactly like her birthmark. It was beautiful.
"It's the symbol of your werewolf bloodline," Elijah started. "Diamond is your birthstone and the mineral in the base is a black kyanite."
"It's so beautiful Elijah," she whispered in awe. "Thank you."
"You are most certainly welcome," he said offering her another one of his lopsided smiles. "That's not all though. Your ancestor, Brenna's mother, she was a powerful witch who hated to see her husband and sons go through the pain of transformation into wolves every full moon. She created a protective spell and bound it to the black kyanite to keep them from turning. It shielded them from the full moon and gave them control over their bodies once again. They could turn at will. I still have that spell in my possession and before your merry little friends daggered me couple days ago; I had Jonas spell this necklace with it."
"Wait; are you saying what I think you're saying?" Rhiannon asked incredulously.
"Yes," he said taking the necklace from her and stepped behind her and brushing her hair away he fastened it around her neck.
"You don't have to turn every full moon anymore. Not unless you want to. Also, any vampire that would try to hurt you would be no match for you anymore. Werewolves are naturally faster, stronger and their bite is lethal, and you can have all these benefits without the pain of transformation."
She was rendered speechless for what seem like a thousandth time that day. She couldn't breathe and the tears that had welled up in her eyes threatened to burst out, she couldn't keep it in anymore so she just threw herself in his arms, hugging him as tightly as possible. He was startled by her reaction at first, but recovered quickly and hugged her back with equal ferocity.
"Thank you, Elijah," she whispered into his ear, still not letting go.
"My pleasure," he mumbled stroking her hair lightly.
"I must be the worst person on the entire planet," she mumbled into his neck.
"Why would you say something like that?" Elijah asked genuinely surprised by this statement. He backed up a bit placing his hands on her shoulders, giving her a measuring look.
"Because in spite of all the terrible things I've witnessed you do over past couple of weeks I've known you, I'm pretty sure that I'm in love with you," she whispered barely audibly looking down on her feet.
"You're in love with me," Elijah repeated with a little gasp, clearly dazed a little. He promised himself to keep his emotions at bay. He had other things he needed to deal with before he could possibly think about living his life and pursuing his own happiness, but over the short amount of time the young werewolf standing before him had managed to break all his defenses. His walls were down and he was left vulnerable and without any control over his feelings whatsoever.
"I… well… yea," she mumbled incoherently, blushing wildly and starting to panic a little. She was so adorably awkward sometimes. She was about to run back to her room and off herself in sheer embarrassment but before she could get past him, he grabbed her and pressed her tight against him, caressing a stray hair from her face with his fingers.
"Music to my ears," he whispered as he leaned in and kissed her gently. She froze for a moment, but then melted into his embrace and kissed him back with passion that matched his, grabbing him by the lapels of his jacket. He snaked his hand into her hair while pressing the other against the small of her back and intensified the kiss for a moment before ending it with one last soft peck on her upper lip. When she finally opened her eyes, they were ablaze with that golden-amber shade and she gasped lightly, touching the skin under his eyes. Yes he could feel the blood rush and fangs extend in his mouth. Self-control was almost impossible where she was concerned.
"You may be the one celebrating birthday today, but you've given me a gift greater than anything I could've ever given you," Elijah whispered still not releasing her from his grip. "You have no idea how much I've wanted to hear you say those words. Once we deal with my brother and all this is over, I'll show you just how much this means to me. How much you mean to me."
"Music to my ears," she murmured with a smile plastered on her face, making him smile and kiss her forehead gently.
"You should go to sleep though, it's getting late," he murmured into her ear nudging her towards the inside.
"Like I'll be able to fall asleep after this," she mumbled. "Will you stay?" she asked hopeful that he would. She wasn't very eager to let him go, especially now that she knew her feelings were reciprocated.
"I can't," he said. "I have to get ready. Tomorrow's a full moon and I assume that now that Klaus thinks Bonnie is dead, he's going to want to break the curse."
"You think he's gonna do it tomorrow?" she asked.
"Yes," Elijah retorted tightening his embrace. "Which brings me to another thing I meant to discuss with you before we got distracted," he continued jokingly.
"Yea, sorry about that," she mumbled blushing wildly.
"Rhiannon, don't you dare apologize for that ever again," he said in a mock-serious tone. "Anyway, seeing as part of the ritual requires a werewolf sacrifice, I need you to stay put until all this is over. Knowing Klaus, he already has everything he needs, but if he didn't, I'm positive he wouldn't think twice of using you just to get back at me for trying to stop him from breaking the curse."
"You can't possibly ask me to sit idly by as you and all my friends put their lives on the line in order to stop Klaus!" she said incredulously. "You can't ask me that!"
"I should've known you wouldn't do that even if I begged you on my knees," he stated dryly. "Which I'm not going to do," he added after seeing her amused look.
"Very well," he said sighing in defeat. "You don't move from my sight, is that clear?"
"Crystal," she said with a sweet smile. Then asked: "Why would he use me though? He doesn't even know me and he can't possibly know there's something going on between u, can he?"
"No I wouldn't think so," Elijah agreed. "But he knew Brenna and I'm sure he remembers her and noticed your resemblance:"
"Right," she mumbled. "I forgot about the dead fiancée."
He noticed the hidden emotion behind that statement, jealousy and insecurity perhaps? He sighed walking towards he and capturing her face with his hands, lifting it up so she would look into his eyes, he said: "Rhiannon, I'm not in love with you because you look like her. Yes, the resemblance is what sparked my interest, but I fell in love with you and you alone."
She didn't hear anything else and crashed her lips against his once more. He returned the kiss, but broke it before things got out of control saying: "I'm going over to my apartment to grab everything we need for tomorrow and I'll be back soon."
"You changed your mind about staying here for the night?" she asked happily.
"Yes," he said smirking devilishly at her. "Between now and morning there's still plenty of time for you to get into some kind of trouble and I can't have that."
"Really funny," she bit back but couldn't keep a straight face.
"I mean it though, I will not have you come to any kind of harm," he said placing his hand on her right cheek and kissing her forehead again before vanishing into the cold night's air.
She went and showered, then got into her PJ shorts and oversized Johny Cash T-shirt and cozy hoodie, putting her hair in a messy bun before plopping on her bed happily. She took the pendant in her hands and admired it closely under the light of her nightstand lamp.
"You like your birthday present I take it?" Elijah asked leaning against the doorframe.
"I told you not to do that!" Rhiannon gasped after getting over yet another mini-heart attack.
"I'm sorry, but I couldn't resist," he said with a badly suppressed laughter in his voice making her throw one of the pillows at him. He caught it elegantly and tossed it aside sitting on the bed next to her, leaning against the headboard, stretching his legs over the duvet.
"Do you ever wear anything other than a suit?" she asked incredulously.
"I do," he said patting the pillow next to him and lifting the covers for her to climb under, he added playfully: "Not that you're going to find out tonight."
"Ha-ha," she retorted nudging him with her elbow lightly and snuggling next to him. He placed his arm around her, caressing her shoulder lightly, kissing the top of her head.
"Good night, Rhiannon," he whispered.
"Good night Elijah." she said. There were so many things she wanted to ask him, to learn more about him and his family, but that could wait. After dealing with Klaus, they would have all the time in the world.