I thought Dangerous Liaisons happened in the summer but I just watched All My Children and they're wearing coats like it's fall so I'm a little confused about timing.
And now that we've had some set up: the romance begins!
-6-
Elijah
Elijah wasn't sure what to expect once he made it up his mate's long gravel driveway, but passing the tree line to see a modest (at least by his standards, knowing Isolde was thousands of years old) Victorian style home hadn't been it. He made his way up the remarkably well crafted stone porch and rasped his knuckles on the wooden door.
"Come on in Elijah, door's open." He heard Isolde's voice from somewhere in the house.
That had to have been the easiest invitation he'd ever received. Marveling just a moment, he opened the door and stepped into an invitingly warm foyer. To his left was a comfortably sized living room filled with handcrafted antique furnishings that had him recalling what wealth looked like in the nineteenth century. An elegant stairway was stationed to his right, prompting him to briefly wonder what the rest of the home looked like.
"Hey, welcome." Isolde entered the room with a bewitching smile that lit the room better than the sunlight pouring through the stained glass windows. Elijah returned it, just as she beckoned him forward with a wave of her hand. "We're sitting in the kitchen, would you like coffee?"
"Don't do it Elijah, if she makes another pot she won't eat anything and we've been arguing about it for forty-five minutes." Rebekah called out as Elijah followed Isolde into the kitchen, using every bit of his centuries of willpower not to watch the way the ends of her hair bounced delicately just above her ample arse as she walked in front of him.
"Coffee is food; I'm making another pot." Isolde responds with a huff, but the second she and Elijah stepped into the kitchen she changed her tune. " Theon , I swear to all the gods, even the ones I hate, that if you don't put it back where it belongs I'm going to tell Rebekah about that time in 489 BC-"
"I'll put it back!" Theon said in a rush, Elijah watched him leap up from the chair he'd been sitting upon and almost stumble over himself to get to what Elijah assumed was the pantry. Coffee maker in hand, he returned to the room. "See, it's safe and unharmed."
Isolde looked at Elijah, pretending to whisper conspiratorially. "I don't even remember what happened in 489 BC. I just have enough stories to make him think I have something specific to tell."
Theon groaned as he sat back down in his chair, rubbing two hands over his face before setting his fingers on a laptop keyboard. "Bloody menace."
Isolde threw a spoon at him, which he caught and discarded on the table.
Elijah and Rebekah shared an amused look.
"How's your day going so far, Elijah? Have a seat, if you like." Isolde asked as she began preparing what he assumed was at least her second or third pot of coffee for the day, based on Rebekah's complaint.
"Better, now. Thank you." He responds, lowering himself into the only chair that didn't have a person or an empty mug on the table in front of it. "The mood in our house was stifling this morning. Esther, now powerless, has taken to glaring at us all and renouncing us for our wretchedness. I'm glad to have time away. Rebekah tells me you have an idea for creating a means to end this feud between Niklaus and Elena?"
As the scent of brewing coffee permeated the air, Isolde pulled another mug from the cabinet. Elijah didn't look away in time to not notice the flash of caramel skin that Isolde inadvertently exposed when she reached up, he wondered what it would feel like to run his hand along that exposed flesh, bury his nose in the juncture between her throat and her chest.
"We do. As Theo told Rebekah, there's a lot that vampires haven't been privy to in the supernatural world because you're what's considered a young species. Pair that with the emotional volatility of your kind you might understand why the rest of us have been reluctant to embrace you. I don't mean to be offensive, but we've had a hard time believing vampires to be trustworthy."
"A bit offensive, actually." Rebekah said, regarding Isolde with slightly narrowed eyes.
Theon shook his head. "It may be, but in the last thousand years we've been proven right time and time again. There have been so few exceptions that we can count the amount of vampires in the know on one hand, with remaining fingers."
"You speak as if you are the ones in charge of who gets to know about this expanded supernatural world and who doesn't." Elijah mentioned before Rebekah, who was going very still, could lash out. Every word out of Isolde and Theon's mouths was like taking a knife to the chest but he knew they were right. Even if he didn't want to admit it.
Isolde came to take the seat next to him, passing him a mug of coffee and filling everyone else's. Her scent wafted over to him and he started to get tunnel vision. The rest of the world began to fall away momentarily as she spoke. "I doubt it would surprise you to know we are, in fact, the ones in charge. Ask your questions," she said, not unkindly, "but there are certain things I'd rather not answer until your whole family is around. Like our origins and how we came to be immortal. That's a long one I don't think any of us would like to hear repeated several times."
"Alright. We'll start with this then; our mother mentioned last night that you are ancient Egyptians, from the time of the Pyramids. That would make you around five thousand years old." Rebekah interjected.
Theon nodded, briefly glancing up from the computer. "We were born right around the time papyrus was invented. A couple decades before, actually."
That revelation had Elijah coming back to reality. He took a moment to soak this new information in. It was one thing to theorize, and another to have it confirmed that his mate was five times his age. Until this moment he'd thought his family were the oldest beings on the planet. To have been wrong for hundreds of years was a shock.
All of his countless struggles. All of his emotional upheaval, the horrors of his existence. What would it be like to have lived it five times longer, he wondered? How strong was his mate to have endured such an infinite existence when he felt he was just barely scraping by through his most of the time.
"Is your family in charge because you're the oldest?" Elijah asked, looking directly at Isolde.
She licked her lips after taking a long sip from her mug and Elijah shifted. Now was not the time for him to be crass, but his mind couldn't stop from conjuring images of what he could put that tongue to better use for. Should she let him, of course.
"It's a combination of things. In short; yes. But it's also because we're the most qualified. Emeric was Pharaoh when we were mortal. Theon was our best scholar and a vizier. Vera was Egypt's best warrior. I was it's best informant."
"...and assassin. Why do you always leave that part out?"
She threw a sugar cube across the table at him, this time hitting him in the forehead. "Because I'm not a good assassin if I tell everyone I'm an assassin, idiot ." She shook her head at him and continued. "But above all, it's because we, like you, are the creators of our species'. Unlike you, again offensive but I don't mean to be, we've kept our peoples in line since day one."
"So you expect that we should have just thrown away our lives and corralled vampires when we could barely control ourselves? Constantly on the run for fear of our father?" Rebekah mocked in scorn, looking as though she was becoming angrier by the minute.
"Calm yourself, Rebekah. These are hard truths; we should hear them." Elijah said, daring his sister to argue further.
Isolde's features darkened, eyes flashing gold in a way that reminded him of Niklaus' when the wolf was near, but her pupils had become more diamond shaped like a cat's eyes in direct sunlight. The temperature in the room decreased rapidly. Rebekah's look of scorn turned to one of apprehension just as quickly.
"Sol…" Theon warned, shutting the laptop lid.
"What we expected was for the originators of a new species to step up and take responsibility for their people." Isolde leaned over the table, bracing her elbows on the wood and folding her hands underneath her chin. Gone was the smile and the happy countenance and in its place was firm, regal authority. "Do not create if you cannot lead . It's that simple. It was a round table meeting between our family and each of our top legatus that spared your race five hundred years ago. I've no doubt in the next century, had last night not happened, Emeric would've insisted we intervene. Your family has had a thousand years to get it together. What we intend on doing, now, is help you get your house. In. Order."
Elijah wanted to be upset, but he understood. They'd made an enormous mess in the past millennia and they'd made no move to correct it. Never before had he felt the oppressive weight of this responsibility so keenly as he did in this moment, being utterly reprimanded for his past behavior by someone far older and more experienced than he. The fact that she was his soul bond made it embarrassing.
He felt guilty. And humbled .
"Sharp as Isolde's delivery may be, she's not wrong." Theon began, casting a glance at his bond. His frown increased and his lips pursed ever so slightly.
Rebekah's wide eyed stare did not leave Isolde. The younger woman's hands gripped the edge of the table, posture stiffer than he'd ever seen it. Elijah knew that look; he'd often see it on his own prey when they were considering whether or not they could out run him.
The temperature rose as Isolde's eyes returned to their normal shade and Theon turned away to re-open the laptop before continuing what he was saying.
"Not only is your family's negligence an issue, but you now have what amounts to five or so legions of your species and I'd say roughly seventy five percent or more hate you to the point that they'd do anything to kill you. That's a huge problem, and it doesn't even include the covens you've pissed off. They'll be coming out of the woodwork in droves, and soon. Klaus, actually, seems to be the only one who realizes this. But his hybrid solution is just going to end up adding more shit on top of the burning pile that's already at your feet."
"Of course, we recognize that this is our burning shit pile, too. We allowed vampires to carry on all this time, after all. So even forgoing the bonds, should they not have happened last night, we'd be remiss not to help." Isolde said, her voice and face now back to their typical pleasant charisma. She gestured to the laptop. "So while waiting for you, Elijah, we began taking strides in the right direction by compiling a contract. Legally binding in the supernatural world. Please, take a look."
Theon turned the laptop around and Elijah pulled it closer to him, taking the wireless mouse.
Elijah scrolled for a moment before his eyes widened and he looked over to Isolde.
"This says that should Elena and Niklaus both agree to the terms then she would be agreeing to give him a blood donation once every two months until she dies or is unable to due to health conditions, and that now that she's eighteen she will have ovarian eggs frozen so that should anything happen to her we would have access to her cells to reproduce and keep the…"
"... doppelganger bloodline going, yes. And this way your family can monitor her descendants and identify a doppelganger right away." Isolde nodded.
"...this contract is only viable if the entire Mikaelson family leaves Mystic Falls and it's residents within the next month, unmolested, and doesn't return unless given permission by an uncompelled citizen of the town who is aware of the supernatural." He pointed a finger at the screen and stared at Isolde as if she'd grown a second head.
"Klaus needs to learn that he can't have everything he wants exactly how he wants it. This is a good compromise. As per Rebekah, we're given to understand your family doesn't necessarily wish to settle here. This is just a convenience so Klaus can be close to the blood source needed for his hybrids." Theon informed, a gentle hand resting upon Rebekah's shoulder as the vampire began to release the tension in her body.
"Additionally, in the fine print, she would be agreeing to let you pick the doctor for the procedure and the facility as long as the Mikaelson's are the ones paying for it. This way, she can at least trust you're going to do your best to be sure she's comfortable undergoing the procedure, and that she doesn't have to worry about insurance coverage. Klaus will be able to go with her to the appointment and confirm the eggs were indeed frozen. So long as another person of her choosing is also there for her peace of mind." Isolde stated, having pulled the laptop a little closer to her, fingers brushing his.
He'd gone too long without much positive physical contact, certainly. But the brush of her fingers against his hand set his nerves alight and in that moment, despite having dressed his whole family down like small ill-behaved children he couldn't keep himself from reaching back to snag her hand off the keyboard.
In a swift move, realizing what he'd done he'd turned her hand over and drew it up to his lips. Dark brown eyes met forest green and pressed a kiss to her palm.
Belatedly he hoped he hadn't overstepped. There were bonds that didn't develop romantically. He hoped that wasn't the case with Isolde. He wanted her in all the best ways.
"You're under no obligation to do any of this, despite what you say. Forgive me, but I am selfishly glad you are willing to step into the mess my family has created in effort to help correct it. From these truths you speak to this contract you've helped write. I'd like you to know that though the road forward may be paved with boulders and spikes, know that I am forever grateful and I welcome your aid."
He felt his insecurities about what their bond was wash away as her eyes dilated, heart racing.
Theon low whistled, pulling Elijah's attention from Isolde. "Damn, now that's game."
"Disgusting." Rebekah sneered half heartedly.
Abruptly, Elijah lowered Isolde's hand back to the table and looked to Theon. "There are a few words I would change in the contract, but I believe you've got the gist of the issues. I have only a few suggestions then I can take it to Elena and begin the tedious process of convincing Niklaus." The two men nodded at each other, Elijah handing Theon his card, and Elijah's attention was right back to Isolde, unable to forget she had yet to eat and it was already after noon. "This is last minute but I wondered if you'd accompany me to lunch, and then run an errand, if you're amiable?"
"Sure," she smiled that radiant smile at him and he tried to ignore the way his stomach swooped, "now?" He nodded. Her chair scraped the floor as she stood. "M'kay, just give me a minute to get my things."
Isolde
The Grill wasn't overly busy, which was perfect. They got a booth near the bar, well enough away from anyone else that their conversation would be private.
"Thanks for bringing me, I love The Grill. I don't come into town too often so it's always a treat."
"A half hour is hardly much of a drive, is there something that keeps you from coming to Mystic Falls?" Elijah asked, folding one arm on the table, the other grasping his glass of bourbon.
Isolde hummed and shook her head. "Not really. It's not that. I'm almost entirely self-sufficient at home, my garden is huge and I don't do much. I only need to come out once a month for some essentials and even then I'll stretch it sometimes."
A raised eyebrow, a sharp jump in his jaw, the almost unnoticeable way his eyes narrowed ever so slightly. She took a long drink of her soda, feeling like her temperature just shot up five degrees. "Your siblings don't run errands for you?"
"Um, no. Theon and Vera live in New York, they're just visiting." She laughed a little nervously. It had been a long time since a man had given her this much of his undivided attention. Especially a man with this level of sex appeal. Elijah Mikaelson was easily one of the most attractive and effortlessly sexually appealing men she'd met in quite some time. That, and she hadn't been laid in a while. She hadn't gone there with William. "My actual estate is in Italy. This is my vacation home. I built it when I decided to go on holiday. What about you? I'm sure you have a place that's not the one Klaus built here in Virginia."
She tracked the movement when his tongue darted out to wet his lips before he spoke. "Not exactly. I have properties in various locations but the only homes I've claimed are ones where my family has been together."
Isolde felt a sharp pang in the chest. "Being together sounds nice. Complicated, of course, but worth it I think."
Elijah's gaze narrowed in on her face, searching. He seemed to find what he was looking for before he spoke. "How long has it been?"
Isolde huffed a little. He'd picked it up right away; she may as well have been transparent. "It's been a few years since Emeric's been around. I try at least once a year but his priorities are always elsewhere. The twins are happy to visit more often but it's usually treated as a chore and they're gone again in a couple of days. We haven't lived together since the Magna Carta was signed, so it's not just that I'm in Virginia. I chose Virginia because it was close to the twins without being overbearing. I wasn't going to live near Emeric, he's settled in Egypt. There are precious few things that could ever get me to go back there. Which reminds me that I'm angry with him, he was supposed to be here yesterday but he missed his flight and didn't bother to let any of us know until we called him."
"Seems thoughtless." Elijah responded, curiously detached.
Isolde responded with a half smile and a shrug. "Emeric's philosophy; Non nobis solum nati sumus. "
"Cicero. 'Not only for ourselves are we born,' meaning he believes it to be his duty to put others first." Elijah translated.
"And we are not considered 'others' to him- just extension's of himself. To him, in turn, we must all put others first. Family is power, after all." Isolde concurred with a sad smile. "It's the one thing that causes tension between us. We often clash."
"Clashing with a sibling is something I can understand whole heartedly." He raised his glass and she met him with a soft clank.
Their food arrived and they ended up on lighter subjects while they ate, which Isolde was fine with because it hurt when she started talking about her grievances with her family. Elijah seemed to understand that, and she internally thanked him for being able to pick up on it and divert the conversation. Isolde admired his perception and thoughtfulness.
It was towards the end of the meal when they were bombarded.
A shift in air, a weight settled beside her. Kol slid into the booth, trapping her in. Klaus on Elijah's side. Her younger bond positioned himself so his thigh was flush with hers, opposite arm on the table so he could lean and prop his head on his hand and still have a full view of Isolde. The warmth of his thigh against her made Isolde's heart leap. She looked him over, appreciating the way he looked in normal attire.
"And here we wondered where you'd gone off too, Elijah." Klaus said by way of introduction. "How fitting the brother who said we should all stay home and wait for Isolde to come to us is the one who snuck off to have a date."
Elijah calmly folded his napkin and placed it on the table. "I had fully intended to honor this morning's conversation until I received a call from Rebekah with an invitation to meet at Isolde's home."
Kol ignored them both, smiling genuinely at Isolde. He used his free hand to reach and wrap around hers, which only served to reignite the flames of desire she'd felt for him the night before. "Good afternoon, darling. Save any unsuspecting families from filicide today?"
She hummed, and if she moved a little closer who would know? Klaus and Elijah were arguing back and forth but Isolde couldn't bring herself to mind. "I'm afraid not. Might have been a one family occurrence."
Kol's grin grew impossibly brighter as he slid his hand up her arm and back down. This time she laced her fingers with his. "Fortunate for us, then, isn't it?"
She opened her mouth to respond, something cheeky, but was cut off by Klaus. "And when were you planning on speaking to the rest of us, love?"
Isolde raised a single eyebrow at him, removing her hand from Kol's and pulling a pen out of her purse. "Alive a millennia and just over fourteen hours induces this much anxiety, Klaus?"
"I seem to recall promises of information. How you were able to spy on Esther. You said later." He tilted his head at her with a cocky grin. "It's later, sweetheart."
Her snarky response was interrupted by Elijah as she jotted down her phone number on a clean napkin. "It will have to wait, Niklaus. Isolde and I have an errand to run."
Klaus' face blossomed with glee. "Ah, an errand. Do you hear that Kol?"
"And what such errand couldn't be shared with the family, brother?" Kol's attention left Isolde's face for the first time since he'd slid in beside her. His hand detached from her but instead of missing his warmth he turned to face his brothers and threw his arm around her shoulders, dragging her flush with his side.
Elijah went to speak and Isolde caught a flicker of movement near the bar. She raised a hand directly in all three Mikaelson's lines of sight. They looked at her, perplexed. She nodded toward the bar. "Unwelcome company."
Klaus immediately got up and went to sit beside Damon Salvatore, likely trying to unravel the work her and Elijah were doing before they'd even completed it. She put the napkin down in front of Kol. "My number. And since I didn't get a chance to tell you last night, I live in the north eastern most corner of the county. My driveway is across from a stone cottage with vines all over it. Adorable, and the only other residence for ten miles. If you see that house, you'll see my gate. Any of you can come whenever you want; open invite."
Kol took the napkin and pocketed it immediately. Isolde figured he'd either keep it from Klaus or taunt his brother with it, she wasn't certain.
"Let's hope you don't come to regret your open invitation." He said, removing himself from the booth and offering a hand to help her out. "Now, Elijah, is this an errand I can impose on?"
Elijah seemed to ponder for a moment. "You're welcome to come, Kol." He waved a dismissive hand. "If Niklaus wishes to come, he has roughly two minutes to make it to the car."
Elijah had begun to reverse this Lincoln before the passenger rear door opened and Klaus was sitting directly behind her.
"Good of you to join us Nik." Kol snarked.
"Well when most of your family takes an impromptu trip for some obscure errand that includes your fresh soul bond…" He responded sarcastically, kicking her chair. "Move up."
"Don't have enough room?" Isolde asked, turning to look back at him.
He glared. "No, I just asked you to move up to find reasons to speak."
She reached down and shoved the seat back. "Good enough?" Isolde asked sweetly over his cursing. While Kol laughed and even Elijah smiled, Isolde pulled the seat up again.
They passed through town and ended up winding down an old country road.
"Elijah how much father?" Klaus asked once he'd calmed down.
" Are we there yet , really?" Isolde joked, throwing a grin back at him and locking eyes with Kol who was watching her with a bemused expression.
Klaus glared. "Love, I'm seconds away from snapping your neck."
The other two in the car began to protest, loudly.
"It won't do what you think it will." Isolde laughed, the car went silent. "Won't even kill me temporarily. I'll just be annoyed that I have to reset it."
Elijah was glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, not that she noticed whilst she stared out at the passing houses and land.
It was, instead, Kol who spoke. "And a dagger wouldn't work on you either, I suppose?"
"Nothing would. Unless Osiris and Isis decide I've outlived my usefulness."
"And you mean that because of your faith in those gods?" Elijah asked.
Isolde traced a shape on the window with her finger. There was no fog, so it didn't stick but it was a hieroglyph. "I mean because of their blessing. If they revoke it, we die. They haven't seen fit to do so. I suppose they believe we've been doing well with the job they assigned us to do."
"Hold on a moment darling. Are you saying Osiris and Isis granted your family immortality?" Kol asked, shoving Klaus out of the way and practically smashing his older brother against the door so he could lean forward between the two front seats.
Isolde turned to meet his eyes. Perhaps Klaus wasn't going to be the first one to figure it out. Seemed she was wrong with her appraisal of him last night. "That's exactly what happened."
Kol's eyes went wide and he sucked in a breath just as Klaus casually wrapped his hand around his younger brother's arm and pushed him out of the way, taking the middle.
"And what is this job they assigned you to?"
She laughed, the sound was dry and bitter and none of them liked it. "To keep the people in check. To protect the world. To keep Apophis at bay."
"And you actually believe this?" Klaus asked scornfully, a disbelieving look upon his face.
Her green eyes flashed golden and Klaus moved back just a fraction, eyes wide.
"Of course I do. The fall of Egypt; we defeated Apophis and it cost us the dynasty. The fall of Rome; once again we met Apophis in battle and won at a hefty cost. It will happen again and again until the end of time. Whether we be the ones to carry out the duty or the gods see fit to one day replace us."
She took a breath and steadied herself, eyes returning to normal before she spoke again. "Though I doubt they will. We are… well. We are their legacy. And until I have Theon with me and all of you together I'd rather not say any more. As I told Elijah earlier today, it's a very long story. One I'd rather not have to repeat."
The car was parked. "Perhaps not the best time but… we're here." Elijah interjected.
Rebekah got no sympathy from Isolde. Oof. I had a really hard time with Elijah in this chapter. Starting a romance with him, anyway. Hopefully it'll be easier to write him as we get into the story. But I've been going through Elijah/Hayley, Kol/Davina, and Klaus/Camille youtube videos. Julie Plec really did my boys dirty. I'm kind of glad I never finished the show. Seems like so much heartache. (Almost caught up with what's already posted on A03. Just three more. I'm just spacing it out a few days. Should have it all posted on FFN before Friday. Thanks for the patience, y'all.)