"What, exactly, happened?"
"I don't know! There was just this weird light, it looked like it was going for Elena, but it just, just stopped right above her." Caroline muttered, shaking her head slightly, though she didn't take her eyes from her friend, laid carefully in Elijah's arms. "It understood me though, whatever it is, it's intelligent, and from the way it threw me across the room, it really doesn't like being told what to do."
Elena woke with a gasp, her sudden movement catching the attention of the entire room. Racing to her bedside, the vampires in the room found themselves thrown when Elena disappeared from the bed in just as swift of a movement.
Scanning the room, Elijah tensed when he found Elena crouched in the corner, her chest heaving. Searching for the threat, he relaxed some when be realised the only threat Elena found was them.
Stepping towards her carefully, Elijah didn't bother to turn his brother when he grabbed his arm; his focus remaining firmly on Elena.
"She's not herself, Elijah, and she's scared, not a good combination." Klaus muttered lowly, regarding the doppelganger in the corner cautiously. "She could attack you."
Elijah shook his head. "Look at her, Niklaus," he said softly in return, "she's not afraid of us." He whispered, watching as Elena dipped her head into her hands, covering her ears and staring at her feet as she rocked lightly. "If she was she would never consider taking her eyes from us." Pulling his arm from Klaus's grasp, Elijah shrugged softly. "What relevance is it if she does attack me? She can't kill me."
"Guys, what's she saying?" Caroline breathed, a raised hand from Elijah preventing any further words leaving Caroline's lips.
"Elena? Can you hear me?" Elijah crouched in front of her, bringing a hand up slowly and cautiously to cover one of hers. "Sweetheart, are you there?"
Elena said nothing, though she let Elijah gently take her hands from her head, her lips continuing to move softly, no words escaping in any understandable format.
Bringing a hand up to the side of her face, Elijah let out a soft breath, catching Elena as she fell forward onto him, collapsing onto her knees as a heaving sob escaped her.
Taking hold of Elena, he buried her face against his shoulder, refusing to let on that he could finally understand her words.
"We're all already dead. We're all already dead…"
Watching Elena burrow into his side, Elijah squeezed her tighter, rubbing her back lightly and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. He let out a soft breath, resisting the urge to hug her tighter, knowing he would only wake her, which was absolutely the last thing he wanted after how long it had taken to settle her.
Whatever Caroline had witnessed had Elena more than a little shaken, even if Elijah had yet to disclose her uttered words to his family. Running his hand through her hair, Elijah finally allowed thoughts of her whispered words to take over his mind, wondering what exactly she meant.
Then again, he supposed it was rather obvious, someone, something, dangerous was after them all. Not exactly unheard of in his family, or in any of their lives, but why was Elena convinced their doom was pre-determined? She had never been the sort to give up before even knowing what they were up against.
Had this, thing, gotten to her already? Had he been so caught up in his vendetta against Hayley that he had missed this? Had he really failed her so quickly?
Turning his attention to Elena as she moved again, he carefully cleared his features, sensing the slight change in her heartbeat as she woke up.
"Hi." She whispered, tightening her arms around him for a moment before letting out a soft breath and rolling away to stretch out her back. "I wasn't sure if you'd be here."
"I don't want to be anywhere else." Elijah replied instantly, turning to look at Elena. "I swear to you, this is the only place I want to be."
Sitting and running a hand through her hair, Elena let out a sigh, pursing her lips for a moment as she thought about what to say. "You haven't been here until now. You've always been here, until now."
Copying Elena in sitting upright, Elijah found himself torn between reaching for her and keeping his distance. "That was a mistake."
Elena said nothing, chewing on her lip.
"I try my best to be calm and controlled, but I find that I am unable to be so when it comes to your well-being. I…lost myself in my anger with Hayley, and I neglected to look after you, and for that I am sorry, Elena. I never should have allowed myself to get as carried away as I did." Letting out a breath and running his hand through his hair, he shook his head slightly. "I cannot help but feel that last nights events never would have happened if I had been with you as I should have been."
"What do you mean?" Elena asked softly, turning to face him. "What happened last night?"
Elijah sat up, a deep frown marring his brow. "Elena, what is the last thing you remember before this morning?"
She shrugged. "I was talking to Caroline, that's all, why? Something happened?"
Cautiously taking hold of her hand, his touch light in case she wanted to throw him off, Elijah waited until she looked at him before talking. "We're not sure, Elena, something was here last night, it seemed like…it was interested in you, Elena."
"Not a good sort of interested I assume."
Elijah allowed a soft smile at Elena's quip, squeezing her hand gently. "We believe it may be related to what Hayley has done to us, but we don't know for sure."
Biting her lip, Elena let out a soft breath, her hand tightening around his involuntarily. "Is…is it dangerous?"
"I don't know." Elijah admitted.
"Elena!" Davina grinned, flying towards the vampire and wrapping her arms around her, a soft gasp escaping her as their skin made contact. Pulling away from her, Davina held her by the shoulders, frowning at her. "What happened to you?"
"I don't…" Elena trailed off, looking around the room to faces just as bewildered as her. "What do you mean?"
"There's something dark in this house, and its got it claws in you. It wants you, Elena, it's made contact already."
"What?" Elena frowned, hardly able to figure out where to look or who to look at.
"D, what are you talking about?" Marcel dove into the conversation, Davina's ominous words having stunned and confused the rest of the room into silence.
"Something dark, and powerful, powerful enough to leave a psychic signature on Elena." Davina murmured, finally letting go of Elena's shoulders and taking a step back, regarding the doppelganger with an uncertain look.
"It's bad," Elena surmised, wringing her hands together, "and it's here for me, isn't it?"
"What's happening with Hayley?" Elena asked softly, hugging her legs to her chest as she curled up on Elijah's armchair.
"Hayley is not the critical issue right now." Elijah said firmly, turning to Elena with a deep frown scrawled into his face. "There is an unknown entity after you, Elena, that takes precedence over anything else."
"But Hayley bought this thing here, she might understand it, better than any of us can; she might be able to stop it, Elijah."
"She won't." Elijah snapped, much more harshly than he meant, letting out a soft breath when he saw Elena deflate in the chair. Moving around to perch on the edge of the desk in front of Elena, he took hold of one of her hands, holding it to his lips for a moment before holding it between both of his. "I'm sorry, sweetheart, I didn't mean to be so harsh. We both heard Davina, this is darker than any of us know of, Hayley probably doesn't know what she's gotten mixed up in."
Elena let out a soft sigh, dropping her cheek onto her forearm as she looked at Elijah, closing her eyes as he placed another kiss on the back of her hand.
"What are we going to do, Elijah?" Elena murmured. "None of this was supposed to be this way."
"Once more your association with my family has landed you in immeasurable danger." Elijah sighed. "I am so sorry, Elena."
"Our lives are entwined, bound together forever, regardless of what we do or want."
Elijah kept hold of Elena's hand, dropping his gaze to where his thumb rubbed the skin on the back of her hand. "You don't want this?" He said softly, letting out a soft breath of air.
She didn't reply for a few moments, the pair sitting in a soft silence. "I just want to sleep, we've school in the morning, Stef."
"Of course," Elijah whispered, swallowing around the lump in his throat, "let's get you to bed." He said, helping her up from her seat and wrapping an arm around her waist to gently guide her from the room.
Shutting the door to Elena's bedroom behind him, Elijah paused for a moment with his hand on the doorknob, scrunching his eyes shut and letting out a harsh huff of breath, the only lack of control he could allow himself at that moment.
Heading back across the hall into his office, he could finally allow himself to show some sort of emotion, launching his desk across the room and watching as it shattered.
HisSecretLover18: Yes! I love giving the 'baby vampires' a chance to stand up to the Originals! Hayley is more than a thorn in the side at this point.
94HarleyQuinn25: I'm sorry it's been so long!
lauramorgenstern: Awh I'm, glad you liked it, it's really tough to try and balance all of them sometimes! I'm sorry I've left you waiting so long!
mysticgguk: Ooo, I love a keyboard smash! So many questions and unfortunately I don't have any answers yet!
S Thakur: Awhh, thank you so, so much!
Mcguiness21: Sorry it's been so long!
Guest: I'm finally back! I'm sorry it's been such a long wait, but I hope you're still here!
Guest: That's so sweet, I'm so glad it helped you so much! I had a wonderful Christmas thank you! I hope you did too!
Angeles315: I'm here! I'm sorry it wasn't sooner!
Hey guys! I'm back! I am so, so sorry it's been such a long time! I never intended to let this story stagnate for so long, I just had the most extreme writers block ever when it came to writing this chapter, I couldn't get anything out for so long, hence all the chopping and changing. This is probably shorter than most other chapters, but in the end I decided I just had to get something out and move on or we would never get an update.
Hopefully now I'm past this I can get back in my groove and get you guys more of the content you're after.
Until next time
~ I x