Chapter 15:

Bonnie lifted her head with Kol's blood still trailing out the corner of her mouth. She blushed with embarrassment as her little tongue darted out to clean up and a second later Kol's mouth was on hers. The kiss was brief and then they turned their attention to Elijah. He watched as her fangs neatly receded.

"It's a spell," Bonnie explained. "Kol has been detoxing me with his blood and one night I came across this spell and I wanted to see what it was like. Kol really seemed to like it..."

Elijah just shook his head at the two.

"Next time you both want to do this," he cautioned. "Do it in your room Kol."

Bonnie looked at Kol and then flitted out of the room.

"Sorry Elijah, Bekah is down for the count and Klaus is out. I didn't think we'd be disturbed. She's just so...beautiful like that." Kol smirked.

"Yes well you may want to ask yourself why she's so eager to play vampire for you. Did the thought occur to you that maybe she is trying it on?" Elijah asked offering Kol a smile.

"I haven't." Kol looked at his big brother and smiled. "Where were you?"

"At Rousseau's." Elijah answered.

"Did you meet someone?" Kol asked.

"The lovely Elena actually," Elijah replied.

"How did that go?"

"Well we wound up walking the Riverwalk and she let me buy her ice cream. All it took was killing a witch who did quite rightly deserve it."

"So you're well on your way to getting her back!" Kol quipped quite happily. "Now what did the witch do?"

"Placing a hex on Elena and Caroline that would have killed them, Davina undoing the hex and nearly died." Elijah told him. "So she asked me if she should kill her or if I would."

"Is her heart missing?"

"I took her head off." He sighed. "I also said that I would make sure our siblings would be reined in."

"That's going to be easier said than done than done, Elijah," Kol sighed. "Rebekah is a mess. Her emotions are all over the place. She's tired, cranky and crying."

"She's pregnant Kol," Elijah rubbed his temples with his fingers. "She's going to be going through every single emotion just like a human but because of the vampire status...they're all enhanced."

"We're going to need a lot of alcohol to get through this, aren't we?" Kol asked with a whine in his voice.

"We may end up living at Rousseau's." Elijah teased him.

"I don't know anything about..."

"Oh yes that's right," Elijah smiled softly. "I forgot how young you were. Well I helped deliver both Rebekah and you. It's an amazing experience Kol. There are more good moments than bad. She's in one of the most trying parts right now and it's worse right now because it hit her all at once instead of her body gradually increasing the hormones. This is all something you might want to help me with in case Bonnie gets pregnant; vampires don't exactly go to hospitals."

Kol paled dramatically. "I'll wait until I see how Rebekah's doing with this." Elijah nodded and gave his brother a look.

"What else have you been up to while pretending to be dead?" He asked as he focused on his little brother.

"Mostly Bonnie," Kol said. "Getting her detoxed off Expression was an arduous task. It was worth it though. Then I helped her to learn some Nature spells so we could investigate Hayley for you. Also I was kind of watching over Elena and Caroline from a distance."

"How have they actually been?" He was curious. Maybe she did, in a way, forgive him but he wasn't going to hold onto that hope for long.

"Caroline and Marcel just recently begun dating and he's been protective of her." Kol was thinking as he spoke. "I think that he's more worried about her losing it since her mother's death-" he was interrupted by Elijah.

"Liz Forbes is dead?" he asked in horror. Kol realized that Elijah had no idea.

"Katherine-portraying Elena-and Damon killed her."

"Where are they at now?" He wasn't going to waste anytime in finding and slaughtering them now. Kol chuckled.

"I sent them off to New York and had five witches loyal to me trap them there. They can't leave the city now."

"No wonder they hate us," Elijah sighed. "I promised to protect her and this is what I allowed to happen to those closest to her. Caroline loses her mother, Elena I blame for your death and we almost lost Bonnie to Expression; all of those things because I dared to have feelings for Elena."

"No," Kol denied. "She was already going down that path when she desiccated Nik. She had to kill Jeremy to do it and it made a home inside her." He did bow his head. "For Caroline's mother-she didn't know this but it appears that Liz would have died anyway because she had a brain tumor. It was already getting bad so she went out fighting." He shook his head. "As for Elena-that can be your fault as much as it's hers. She had feelings for you as well but because you both decided to be idiots and not act on it, that's on you both."

"She was with Stefan at the time." Elijah denied.

"And you told her that you wouldn't fall for another Petrova but you lied to her."

"When did you get to be so wise," Elijah scoffed with a gentle smile. "You've grown up Kol...when I wasn't looking you've become a fine man. Thank you for looking out for Elena and Caroline when Klaus and I were too bull-headed to do so. Yes, I lied to her...I didn't mean to fall in love with her, just like you may have thought Bonnie was a one-night thing. Love finds you when you least expect it and if it's real I think we should hold on with both hands."

"I think that I'm taking after you brother." He smiled at him. "I better take after you otherwise I'll be as psychotic as Nik and trust me, that isn't good."

Elijah laughed. "That is correct." He then ushered his brother out with the words, "go talk with Bonnie and help her. I'm going to check up on our sister and then I may end up taking a stroll."

"Over to the Compound? Late night visit to Elena?" Kol teased him as he left. Elijah shook his head and walked into Rebekah's room.

Knowing that she was sound asleep, he left the house and pulling his trench coat up to his chin, he made his way unconsciously, over to the Compound.

Closing his eyes, he let his senses take over him as he searched out Elena's and smirked. She was in his room and as he flashed up to the window, he knocked on it, causing her to jump.

"What in the world are you doing here?" she demanded as she stood before him in a pair of very short sleep shorts and a spaghetti strap top.

"May I come in?" he asked always the gentleman. Elena's face contorted as she pretended to consider. She walked over and opened the window.

"We have perfectly good doors," she said. "Though I'm guessing you wished to remain anonymous."

"I just found myself here and wanted to see you," Elijah said honestly. "I had a really nice time earlier."

"Me too," Elena felt the words slip out of her mouth before she could stop them. Elijah felt a little over-dressed with the brevity of her attire and he removed his trench coat and draped it over the back of a chair. He had left his suit jacket at home and now had only his shirt with the top two buttons undone and his slacks.

"You look positively undressed," Elena smirked in jest at his attire.

He had to let out a smile. "I just felt like being undressed a bit this time." His eyes trailed over to hers. "I would be honored if we could have another outing-just the two of us-at a more suitable restaurant in the near future."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you trying to get under all these layers to find that girl I used to be?" she questioned him.

"I just want to get to know you more." Honest was the only way to go with her and he would endure being that honest.

"I think a nice dinner would work as long as you promise to leave those siblings-excluding Kol-reigned in while they live here."

"I will give you my word again."

Elijah laughed lightly, "there was a time you were more afraid of Kol than even Klaus and that was really saying something. You needn't worry about Kol though." Elijah got a smirk on his face, "After our walk earlier I came home to find Bonnie fingering a set of fangs - hers! Then she used them on Kol like a pro. It turns out they're a spell but I wonder if she's not trying the lifestyle change on. I think Kol is in deeper than he knows yet..."

Elena could feel her own shock flowing through her. "A spell to give her fangs? Why-when I was human...why didn't I had that spell put on me? It would have been awesome!"

He pressed a kiss to her cheek. "I believe she had recently found the spell and as he's been helping her detox from that Expression magic..."

She had to nod. "I heard about her detox. I'm proud of her for going through with Kol's plan." She made her way over to the stereo and began to play some jazz music. She gave him a smirk again. "I would have had another playlist on but I thought that tonight would be my jazz night."

"Well you're in the city for it. Jazz was born here in The Crescent City." He stood and then offered his hand out to her. She took it hesitantly but he pulled her into a careful dance form and began to sway slowly with her. As once song drifted into another and more saxophone drifted in his movements became more fluent and from the hips and his body drifted a little closer to hers.

She felt like she was on top of the world until she realized who this was. Every part of her wanted to push him away but she couldn't.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't push him away.

Suddenly he stopped and pulled back.

"I'm sorry Elena, forgive me. That was far too forward..." he stepped back from her. "I should go..."

"You don't have to." She whispered but as he looked at her, she can feel the switch she spent months in that safe zone go slightly up to give her more humanity than she would allow.

"I must-otherwise Niklaus would end up doing something that would break my word to you on keeping him and Rebekah reigned in." He moved in closer to cup her cheeks in his hands which made her close her eyes and he tenderly kissed her forehead as he murmured into her hair, "we will meet again tomorrow night for that dinner, don't worry."

He was gone the second she opened them and for the first time since she spoke to Rebekah on the phone in which she lied to her and to Elijah...she felt a tear slide down her face.

Using her thumb, she wiped it away and tried harder to keep that balance she had.

He knew how to turn on her emotions but she didn't need them on-she had to show the witches who believed in completing the Harvest Ritual that doing so is a bad idea.

They'll be heartless within the month that it would take them to complete it.

VVVV