Elijah's face immediately fell as he quickly removed his hands from his pockets and took a tentative step forward.
"No…" he whispered breathlessly as his eyes met Vivienne's, his voice breaking, "No, you can't…"
"Yes, I can and I will …" Vivienne said, trying to keep her composure as Elijah continued to close the distance between them.
When he was within reach, she laid a gentle hand on the side of his face and watched as he closed his eyes at her touch before she continued, "Let me do this for you …Please. If I'm mortal now and I'm going to die anyway, let my death mean something."
Elijah sighed and gave a reluctant nod as he brought his hand up and covered Vivienne's on his face, then opened his eyes and smiled sadly as he pulled their hands away and brought them to his lips before letting them rest on his chest over his heart.
"My time is over, Elijah…You don't need me anymore," Vivienne said, giving a small smile of her own, studying their hands together before she turned her head to look out the glass doors of the veranda toward where Elena was still standing, "Besides, you have someone else to look after you now."
Elijah smirked as he followed her gaze then turned back and looked down to her as he slowly brought his other arm around her.
"Who could possibly look after me better than you?" he whispered, then kissed her forehead before engulfing her in his embrace and resting his chin on the crown of her head.
Vivienne gave a little chuckle, closing her eyes and deeply inhaling his familiar scent as she wrapped her own free arm around his waist and laid her head against his chest.
"Always the sweet, noble knight…" she said softly
They stayed like that for a few quiet moments before Vivienne pulled back a little and sighed.
"You know, after all these centuries together, can you believe that I have only one regret?" Vivienne quipped to him
"And what's that?" Elijah asked
"That I still have not been able to get you to pick your dirty towels up off of the floor…" Vivienne chided good naturedly, "I swear boy, if I didn't follow along after you, no one would ever see the floors of this house, they would just look down and think to themselves, 'Oh, what a wonderful multi-colored carpet!'"
Elijah let out a laugh and Vivienne joined in, letting her head fall back onto his chest.
"Well, without you to watch my back, I suppose I'll have to work on that…" he promised as he embraced her tighter, a tear streaking down his cheek.
Vivienne smirked as she looked from their entwined hands on Elijah's chest down to her bare wrist.
# # # # # # # # #
New Orleans, 1802
Vivienne smirked as raised her hand to stop Lilith as the witch poised the white oak stake over Elijah's chest.
She turned back from where Elijah was still helplessly hanging and unconscious to face Klaus, still kneeling on the floor.
The original gave a relenting sigh as he silently cursed under his breath.
"Don't …" Klaus finally said softly, closing his eyes, "Don't... kill him."
Vivienne straightened, her eyes connecting with her fellow witches over her shoulder and she nodded to them and they all took a measured step away from Elijah.
Klaus' nostrils flared as he lifted his gaze to Vivienne and watched the witch close the distance between them.
"You know what we want," Vivienne stated simply, looking down at him, "We've made our position clear…"
"Yes," Klaus said, haughtily, "Quite."
Then, with vampire speed, he quickly brought himself to his feet and Vivienne and the other witches watched in shock and mild horror as he moved to where Dorian was standing nearby and, without ceremony, snapped the warlock's neck and he fell lifeless to the floor of the crypt.
"Ahh…" he smirked as he rolled his head on his shoulders and stepped forward over Dorian's body, "I needed that. Nothing like a good kill before the conduction of business."
Vivienne narrowed her eyes in anger as she studied Klaus up and down.
"Now, you'll understand if l want certain assurances before we proceed," he stated, folding his hands in front of him, his eyes darkening as they darted around the room from Vivienne to the other witches standing in a circle around his older brother.
"So will we…" Vivienne countered
Klaus narrowed his eyes, "First, I want your assurance that my brother is alive, not permanently harmed, and I want you to let him down from there. Immediately."
There was a moment's pause before Vivienne responded.
"Very well," she said, nodding slowly before looking back over her shoulder toward the other witches, "Cut him down. Take care of him."
Klaus watched as the witches silently stepped forward and two of them supported the oldest original's weight as the other three cut the bonds around Elijah's wrists and they lowered him gently onto one of the cement vaults below.
Elijah gave a groan of protest as the menagerie of witches laid him out on his back and began binding his wounds.
Vivienne raised an eyebrow as she turned back toward Klaus.
"Secondly," Klaus continued, without missing a beat, "I want an assurance from you that, once unbound, you and your little friends will leave peacefully without any retaliatory action for past sins."
"Agreed," Vivienne replied after a slight moment of hesitation, but Lilith stepped forward again, seemingly in ready for a rebuttal as she stared down at Dorien's lifeless and twisted body on the floor at their feet and her hand tightened around the white oak stake still in her grasp.
Vivienne immediately silenced her with a stern look over her shoulder, "Agreed…" she stressed, warning against any action of revenge and quickly plucked the stake from Lilith's hand.
After a moment, when she was convinced that they were all going to cooperate and there were going to be no further challenges from their sisters, Vivienne turned back to Klaus.
There was a moment of silence before Klaus straightened, eying the stake in her hand, "And your required assurances?"
"I just have one," Vivienne responded coldly
"And?" Klaus prompted impatiently
Vivienne took in a deep breath as she stepped forward and offered the white oak stake to Klaus.
"When I leave here tonight with my sisters and brothers, we will do so without threat of retaliation or death at the hands of you or those who do your bidding—now or ever."
Klaus' face flashed with frustration, but he nodded in agreement as he took the stake from Vivienne and twirled it into his grasp before swiftly putting it inside his jacket.
"Very well," he said, "You have my word that no harm shall come to you or those whom you surround yourself once you are unbound from my service. You have safe passage through the city and shall fear no retribution for your actions tonight now or ever."
"And how do we know we can trust your word when we've all witnessed you break it before?" Lilith asked, her tone bitter
"Because, Love," Klaus replied, looking directly at Lilith with a stern gaze, then let his eyes fall on Elijah, "You still have in your possession the one person that assures that you truly have it."
Klaus' gaze then fell on Vivienne and their eyes locked as he brought his hands slowly up to his chest, unbuttoning the top of his dress shirt collar before reaching into it.
Within moments, he drew out the wooden runic necklace Elijah made for him centuries before.
Vivienne and the witches all suddenly watched him with intense eyes as he wrapped his fingers around the necklace and closed his eyes in reverence for a few seconds.
Then he released the necklace and reached back down into his shirt and pulled out another, longer necklace of brown leather with a gold engraved pendant, and the tension in the room was immediately palpable.
Klaus soon brought his opposite hand to his mouth and, after willing his vampire features forward, bit the palm of his hand and brought it to the pendant, wrapping the blood soaked hand around it tightly.
After a moment of hesitation, he closed his eyes and the witches watched as his vampire features slowly melted away and he spoke in a low tone, "In sanguine meo,et dimittam vincto smihilineae connectere retexere."
When the spell was complete, Klaus opened his eyes and pulled on the necklace, breaking it from his neck and watched as the gold coin and the leather binding instantly withered to dust in his hand and a supernatural wind blew the dust out of his palm and into the air, circling out toward the witches and above their heads and finally falling down on them at the precise moment the leather bound bracelets on their wrists with the exact same pendent as Klaus' necklace broke free of their own accord and fell with a loud clatter in unison onto the concrete floor of the crypt.
The witches' faces immediately broke out into relieved smiles and small gasps of awe escaped their lips as they eyed their now bare wrists and took in their new found freedom.
Vivienne brought her hand to left wrist, rubbing the bare flesh there as her eyes locked with Klaus' and the vampire gave a small jerk of his head.
"Leave," he said in a low voice directed specifically at her and growled, "Before I change my mind and kill you all."
Somehow, the way he said it—she didn't really believe him.
But, she could tell he was bitter and angry and it was better to be safe than sorry.
She didn't waste any time turning back to her fellow witches who were now celebrating and hugging each other and ushering them toward the doorway to join their newly freed warlock brothers outside.
As she followed the women to the crypt entrance, she looked back down to Dorien's body.
"Leave him for now," Klaus said, eying her out of the corner of his eye, "You and your brethren may come for his body later and bury him with all the rights of your ancestors without any interference...But, right now, I just want to be with my brother and take him home."
Vivienne gave an understanding nod before turning on her heel and ascending the stairs to leave the crypt.
When the room had finally cleared, Klaus turned his eyes toward his brother and with vampire speed, closed the distance between them as he moved to his side where he lay on the vault.
"Brother…" he whispered as he reached down and lifted his brother's arm, "Elijah…It's me."
"Niklaus?" Elijah whimpered, gazing at his brother through half-lidded eyes
Klaus smiled as he placed a hand on his brother's shoulder and whispered again, "I'm here. We're going home."
Elijah groaned in protest as Klaus pulled him gently up into a sitting position and brought his brother's arm around his neck and hauled him up and onto his back and made his way toward the steps that led up to the crypt entrance.
# # # # # # # # #
Elijah blinked into the sun's warm rays as they spilled into his room in the family mansion on Dauphine Street and he felt his own bed beneath him as he stirred.
"He lives!" Kol's voice rang joyfully nearby and Elijah turned his head slowly to see Kol standing at the end of his canopy bed and Klaus sitting in the chair at his bedside
"You've been out for awhile Sleeping Beauty...How do you feel?" Klaus asked as he leaned forward with an anxious face, placing a gentle hand on Elijah's arm.
"Like I got run over by an elephant…" Elijah murmured, "Twice."
Klaus chuckled and turned to Kol, who now took a seat at the end of the bed.
"Well, you look great, if I may be so bold to say," Kol said with a smirk, "Really. No one would ever know that you were taken captive by six witches and turned into a stuck pig until our diabolical brother here swooped in and, disappointingly set the little traitorous wenches free before rescuing you and bringing you home."
"You set them free?" Elijah suddenly asked, his eyes turning on Klaus
Klaus nodded, his face solemn
"Niklaus..." Elijah whispered, his face falling apologetically, "I'm-"
"Silence, Brother," Klaus interrupted, his eyes softening, "You are home and you are well. How is not important."
"Well... it's getting a little too 'touchy-feely' in here for me," Kol chimed in, standing up from his position on the bed and twirling around the bed post dramatically, "I'm not really good at those moments, so I'm just going to make my scarce and find someone to eat."
"It's daylight, so no civilians, Kol," Klaus called over his shoulder as he watched his brother moved toward the bedroom doorway, "I mean it. Feed only off of the house staff as we discussed before."
"Fine," Kol scoffed, then turned and bowed in the threshold, "Your wish is my command brother dearest. Though, I hope you know that if I'm to keep up this regiment I'm going to die of complete and utter boredom when there are so many other interesting way to perish..."
"Well, your boredom means that forty innocent lives live for another day," Klaus shot back with a raised eyebrow, "And it also means that the local authorities won't be showing up at our door or the citizens of this fine city with torches and pitch forks."
"You are just no fun when you have been under duress..." Kol replied with a chuckle, shaking his head, then turning and exiting through the doorway with a wave over shoulder, "Ta!"
Klaus rolled his eyes and turned back to Elijah
It was then that he set his sights on Elijah paling in front of him.
"Elijah?" he asked, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Elijah replied waiving him off, "The 'stuck pig' is just feeling a little unwell at the thought of large quantities of blood, that's all."
"I see..." Klaus retorted, then raised an eyebrow, "What would you say to a drink? It's been a long night and I, for one, could sure use one to fortify my nerves."
"Oh..." Elijah sighed dreamily, "Yes, please."
"Excellent," Klaus smirked, "And it just so happens that I have a very large bottle of bourbon in my quarters and it is quite possibly the largest bottle of bourbon known to God and man. I'll go get it."
"But, what will you drink?" Elijah quipped seriously
"Gin," Klaus replied and shared a smile with Elijah, before getting up to leave the room.
Elijah watched him go, then grimaced as he shifted on the pillows and it was then that he felt a rustling in his trouser pocket.
His eyes flashed to the door for a moment, looking for Klaus, then he slowly turned on his side with another grimace and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small folded piece of parchment paper.
He studied it for a moment, then opened it and read the words written in elegant hand upon the paper that Elijah was convinced one of the witches slipped into his trousers after they had cut him down in the crypt and were binding his wounds.
'Elijah,
If you are reading this, I am free. Thank you for following through on your promise to help us break our bondage to Klaus. My only regret is that it caused you pain and suffering in its endeavor to convince your brother. You are a good man, Elijah, and I truly consider myself fortunate to have your friendship. I will await you at your home in Virginia as we arranged and will meet you there when you are well enough to travel.
Vivienne'