A gasp tore from Elijah's throat, his eyes slowly blinking open as his hallucinations faded away; slowly regaining some awareness of his surroundings. A dull ache in his shoulders became one of the first sensations he was capable of pinpointing, followed shortly by the uncomfortable, itching sensation of a wound in his chest trying to heal.
Heaving for breath again, he grimaced as he heard the wheeze in his chest, trying his best to clear his throat to take in a decent breath.
"Nice to see you back with us." Elena said, not even turning to look at him-no, that was wrong. No, not Elena. Inadu.
"What…" Elijah paused, choking on his own breath. "What do you want…with us?"
Inadu laughed. "What could a witch possibly want with the oldest vampire in history and a Petrova doppelganger?" She laughed again, shaking her head before continuing to grind the herbs in the mortar in front of her.
Lamely tugging at the hold some apparatus above him had on his arms, a soft groan escaped his throat. "That doesn't answer my question." The words were slow to form in his mind, and even slower still to leave his body, leaving him with a sense of powerless rarely felt unless he was impaled with one of his brother's daggers.
"I want my body back, Elijah, my real body, not this shoddy borrowed one." Inadu grimaced, plucking some hairs from Elijah's head before turning back to the concoction on her table. "If I can channel enough sacrificial power, I can rebuild my original body."
"Sacrificial power?" Elijah rasped, a dry laugh escaping him. "You can't kill me."
"The Originals can only be killed by the wood from a white oak tree." Inadu recounted, sprinkling a few more herbs into the bowl in front of her and grinding the mixture together. "Unless you're extremely powerful, like me."
Picking up a blade to the side of her, Inadu sliced open Elena's palm, allowing some of the blood to flow into her mixture before turning to face Elijah.
He held himself firm as much as he could, ignoring the pain in his knees from the cement floor under him. "That still…doesn't answer…my question."
"If I have a Petrova doppelganger I can use for an extra boost of power, why not?" Inadu shrugged, stepping closer to Elijah and dipping her finger in the bowl of paste she carried, drawing a symbol on his head. "She's just convenient."
Elijah frowned at her retreating back, gritting his teeth together as he worked up a brief bout of energy, pulling his hands apart to break the chain holding him in place. Rushing the woman in front of him, he span her around, forcing her back against the table, one hand around her throat and the other resting over her heart.
She laughed.
"Go on, Elijah, kill us both! I'll reanimate; your darling won't."
Elijah glared at her, measuring his options as quickly as he could; feeling the strength he'd managed to gather sapping away quickly. Elena would die if he did this, he knew that, but would The Hollow really survive? Was she trying to save her own skin? Worse, was she telling the truth?
"Well? What will it be?"
"Elena." Elijah exhaled, releasing his hold on her possessed body and crumpling to the floor. "Always Elena."
Lurching upright and pushing herself away from the table, Inadu straightened her shirt, striding to the other table in the room and grabbing hold of the white blade still adorned with Elijah's blood. Storming back to the Original, she held the tip of the blade against his chest, narrowing her eyes at him.
"Don't worry, Elijah," she said, pushing the point of the dagger until it began to cut his skin, "you won't wake again."
"Elena." He breathed, looking Inadu in the eyes, feeling as she paused slightly, she hadn't lied, Elena was still in there. "Elena, this wasn't your fault, I don't blame you, not for one moment."
"Touching." Inadu sneered, rolling her eyes and shoving the blade into his chest, watching with satisfaction as it disappeared.
"Elena's not up there, neither's Elijah." Caroline reported breathlessly, using the doorframe to help stop her rush into the lounge.
"But?" Rebekah asked shortly, narrowing her eyes at the other blonde.
Caroline hesitated. "There's blood in his office…I'm pretty sure it's his."
For once, a look of understanding passed between Rebekah and Klaus before the former darted out the room, followed quickly by Caroline and Marcel.
Rebekah crouched by one of the armchairs in Elijah's office, her eyes closed as she took in a deep breath, her shoulders deflating as she released it in a puff of air. "It's definitely Elijah's blood," she sighed, standing from her crouch and looking around the room, "Elena was in here too, not that long ago."
"Do you think she could have been hurt as well?"
Rebekah glanced at Caroline and Marcel, turning back to the room in front of them without saying a word. Her attention caught by an object in the room, she wandered over to it, picking up a book from the floor and turning it over in her hands, scenting it easily. "I think it's more likely that Elena is the one that hurt Elijah." She sighed, standing and placing the book on the shelf, looking at the other books scattered on the floor around her.
"That's ridiculous." Caroline snapped, folding her arms over her chest as Rebekah turned to look at her. "She would never hurt Elijah."
"She probably didn't know what she was doing." Rebekah argued, shaking her head. "She's been hallucinating on and off for weeks, lord knows what state she was in when she woke up!"
"He's the only person who's been able to talk her down!"
Rebekah stormed across the room, shutting the door to the study firmly and whipping around to face the other blonde. "The alternative is that she did this in a sound frame of mind, which is infinitely worse. Whatever you want to try and believe, Elena was in the cellar where Hayley's dead body was found; she was in this room where my brother was injured and taken from. When my brother has regained his head enough to put that together, he will hunt her down, and if that baby is dead it will take every single one of us to stop him from killing her!" Watching recognition dawn on Caroline's face, Rebekah let out a sigh, rubbing her brow with her hand. "Elijah is more than capable of looking after himself, when it comes to anyone other than Elena. If someone had hurt him and when after her too, I guarantee you we would be clearing their blood from this floor. Elena killed Hayley, and maybe her baby too; she hurt Elijah and managed to get him out of the house without any of us noticing, so I sure as hell hope for her sake that she has no idea what she has done!"
Silence covered the room for a few moments, glances being shared between Caroline and Marcel before Caroline let out a huff of breath, bringing her hand up to chew at one of her nails. "What do we do?"
"We have to find Elena before Nik does, and you have to pray that she's not with it when we find her."
"Babies are resilient. Human babies can be delivered as young as 24 weeks with a pretty solid survival rate; let alone a hybrid baby at 32 weeks." Bonnie sighed, taking her hand from the baby in front of her. "She'll be fine; now that she's out in the open and able to be cared for, she'll be fine."
"You do understand how loathe I am to trust you?" Klaus muttered, holding the child in his arms closely.
"She's a kid." Bonnie bit back, narrowing her eyes at him. "Despite all our history, she's just an innocent kid."
A brief moment of understanding passed between the hybrid and the witch before they were joined by several other presences.
"It's definitely Elijah's blood," Rebekah sighed, striding quickly over to her brother and the baby in his arms, "something, or someone, took him out of this house, most likely against his will."
Before Klaus could respond, Davina barrelled into the room, pausing only to catch her breath. "It was her." She gasped, hardly registering the confused looks she garnered. "She killed Hayley."
"D?" Marcel probed softly, stepping forward when no-one else did. "What are you talking about? Who's she?"
"Inadu." She said, frowning like it was obvious. "The Hollow, she was in this house."
"That's impossible." Rebekah argued instantly, turning away from her niece. "She would have left some sort of trace behind, a scent or something."
"She did, she left a magical trace behind; the basement is teeming with it."
Klaus glared at her, eyes narrow and lips pursed. "Are you really suggesting that she got into this house without any of us noticing?"
"I'm not suggesting." Davina snapped, glaring back at the hybrid. "I'm saying she was in this house."
Klaus let out a huff of breath, turning away from Davina, his eyes catching his sister's for a moment as he turned. Looking down at the babe in his arms he let out a softer breath, watching her sleeping face and tuning out the sounds of arguing behind him.
"Rebekah." He whispered, not needing to turn to check when his sister stepped beside him2, the rest of the room continuing in heated conversation. "You have to take her away from here."
"She needs her dad, Nik, her family. She belongs here."
"She's not safe here." Klaus rebutted, turning to look at her. "If you hadn't found her when you did…" He trailed off, taking in a deep breath and letting it out just as slowly. "Rebekah there is no one I trust more with her than you."
"I can't leave until I know Elijah's safe. He needs us, both of us, Nik."
"She cannot stay in this city." Klaus argued, shaking his head. "She doesn't even have a name yet and someone has already murdered her mother and tried to kill her too!"
Rebekah bit her lip, running a hand through her hair. "Nik, there has to be-"
"There's no-one else!" He snapped. "There's nothing else we can do!"
"Klaus," Caroline stepped in softly, sensing the argument between the two siblings about to bubble over, "she hasn't even got a name yet." She murmured, stepping closer to the hybrid and the baby in his arms. "She needs you; she needs her family to look after her."
"We are the reason that she is in danger." Klaus denied. "Her own family! Scores of our enemies will come for her because of our family; she is not safe with us."
"She's not safe without you."
"Someone tried to kill her, Caroline. Until we find whoever did this, she cannot remain in this city. Not if we have any hope of keeping her safe."
Godric777: Thank you so much!
HisSecretLover18: Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed!
qvnthesia: I'm glad you thought so! It was fun to write even though it's angsty af! I was pretty undecided on Hayley, but I don't think I'm going to bring her back. I'm not a massive fan of her anyway and there's a lot to juggle at the moment anyway! I do feel so bad for Elijah, and Elena with what this chapter has bought to light, but writing the angst is just so fun!
Juti91: Based on this chapter I don't think Elijah is going to be doing much to help Elena...
Guest: The Hollow has a few game plans, but at the moment she's not diverging too far from the show... I think keeping Hayley gone is definitely the way I'm leaning, pretty much thinking the exact same as you! The baby is alive! But I also can't wait to find out what's going to happen to our favourite couple!
Guest: That's what I was aiming for! The baby is fine at the moment! There's still plenty of this story to come! I'm glad I get the chefs kisses! I do feel bad for hurting our babies, I promise!
lauramorgenstern: I tried to leave some subtle clues, but I didn't want to make it tooo obvious for all of you! The Hollow has some nasty tricks up her sleeve!
Hi all! Shit's getting real up in here! I hope you enjoy this chapter! Please let me know what you think; I'll look forward to hearing back from you soon!
Until next time
~ I x