A/N: Happy new year ! Sorry I take so long to update, I never expected so many people to follow this story and now I overthink everything that I write. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and as always I would love to hear your thoughts. XOXO, Eden.
While I was studying for my biology midterm, Damon called me. Like the last twelve calls from him over the past week, I let it go to voicemail. Unlike the last nine voicemails, I actually listened to it.
"Would you please, please just call me back? Stefan won't tell me how you're doing, and I know you need space right now but I just need to know that you're okay. There are no words to explain how much I love you and how sorry I am, but I'm not going to stop trying to find—"
"What are you doing? Are you calling her again? Come on, Damon you have to leave— no, give me tha— stop."
A crunch scraped through the speaker and into my ear, and then the voicemail ended. My right eyelid started to twitch when I returned to studying. Damon didn't call me again after that.
After our last midterm, Elena cornered me by my locker and demanded that my isolation period end.
"I'm not exactly in a party mood," I said.
"Come on," Elena leaned against the locker next to mine and pouted, "It'll be fun. You know, that thing you used to have."
"It'll be more fun without me dragging the mood down." I wedged my copy of Jane Eyre between my biology book and the sticker-coated metal wall.
"At least go for Caroline, she's really excited about this."
"Excited about what?" Caroline bounced up to us.
"Please," Elena said, "Like you couldn't hear me from down the hall."
"Well, what I heard is that Lucy is trying to rsvp as a no for the most awesome party of the year so far, and that's just not acceptable. So tell me I misheard."
"Since when do we celebrate the end of midterms?" I asked. "Is that just because you're not sure if everyone will make it to final exams?"
"Okay, yikes," Caroline said. "Trust me, and I'm speaking from personal experience, Damon is not worth all of this anger."
"Caroline." Elena hissed.
"Right, okay. No D word." Caroline pinched her thumb and index finger together and ran them across her lips. "Anyways, I'll see you both no later than eight thirty, the sooner the Grill is full of bodies, the sooner the real party starts.
"She has too much time on her hands," Elena said once Caroline was at least thirty lockers away from us.
"That's because she can just read something in a textbook once and memorize it. You know, because vampires can never forget things."
"You're doing it again."
"It's only been two weeks, sorry I'm not over it yet."
Elena sighed. "Of course you're not over it, I would never expect you to be. I just want you to think about something else, anything else. It's not good for you to go on like this."
"Fine." I said. "I'll go to the stupid party."
When we first walked into the Grill, I wasn't sure if we were in the right place. My confusion wasn't just because of the flask Elena and I had stealthily sipped from before leaving; in one section of the restaurant, all of the chairs and tables were pushed to the side, forming a makeshift dance floor in between the speakers and the bar, and there were more people dancing than there were in the entire restaurant on Sundays at brunch time.
"How is no one questioning this?" I yelled into Elena's ear after the bartender gave me a vodka soda without any protest. Caroline had many styles; subtle was not one of them.
Elena smiled. "They're having too much fun to care."
Caroline sat on top of the other end of the bar, resting her arm on Matt's shoulder and surveying the room. Matt whispered something in her ear that made her laugh, then kissed her cheek and walked off.
"What's so funny?" Elena asked after we pushed past at least fifteen of our classmates to get to Caroline.
"Oh, nothing," Caroline hopped off of the bar. "Matt was just reminding me of the last time we partied here and I had a little too much to drink."
"So you guys are back together now?" I asked. Elena coughed.
"What do you mean?" Caroline replied.
"I just thought..." I stirred the ice cubes around in my glass. "Never mind, I don't know what I thought."
"Yeah, I don't know either," said Caroline. "So are you enjoying the party?"
"We just got—"
"Of course we are, everyone is." Elena downed almost a third of her drink before coming up for air. "Have you seen Jeremy? He left before we did but I don't think he's here yet."
"I have now." Caroline raised her eyebrows and chewed on her straw to hide her smirk.
Jeremy and Bonnie were walking in together holding hands. Elena waved to them, bouncing up and down a little bit to get their attention, and they started to make their way over to us.
"Well that's new," I said.
"Not that new," Elena replied.
"Excuse me?" Caroline said. "You knew about this? Wow you really are good at keeping a secret."
Elena shrugged. "It wasn't my secret to tell."
"Oh whatever. Lucy! Bottoms up." Caroline drummed her fingertips on the bartop. "That vodka isn't going to drink itself."
As soon as I tipped the contents of my glass into my mouth, I saw him. The burn of the vodka mixed with the acid rising in the back of my throat, and I coughed and lost my grip on the glass. All I could hear was ringing my ears, but there must have been a shatter as a shard of glass sank into my palm when I reached to catch my drink.
"Lucy would you be careful," Caroline hissed, the veins under her eyes flashing
"You invited him here?" From across the room, I couldn't tell if Damon was looking this way along with every person within a ten foot radius of me.
"No of course not," Caroline averted her eyes as Elena pulled the piece of glass out of my hand. "What kind of friend do you think I am?"
"He must've followed Stefan here." Elena held a napkin over my palm. "Everything's fine, go back to partying everyone!" She squeezed my hand. "Are you okay?"
"It was just a little piece of glass."
"Well, you definitely need another drink." Caroline snapped to get the attention of the bartender and pointed at the shards of glass covering the fizzing remnants of my drink.
"You're here!" Elena jumped to hug Bonnie.
"Yeah, we're here. Oof," Jeremy winced when Elena hugged him with equal enthusiasm. "Everything alright?"
"Everything is wonderful." Caroline replied. "Now, if you all don't mind, I have a boyfriend to find, you" —She handed a new drink to me—"Have a drink to drink, and all of you have dancing to do. Now get to it!"
"She runs her parties like a drill sergeant." Bonnie laughed.
Elena tugged at my elbow. "I'll be right back, I'm gonna go find Stefan. And you need a bandaid."
"I'm fine." The napkin over my cut gave me something to death grip. "But find Stefan, I'm not leaving this party until he does at least one tequila shot with me."
At least half of the junior class filled the room with their energetic buzz, along with dozens of unfamiliar faces, and Elena quickly disappeared into the crowd.
"So, you and Jeremy, huh?" I chewed on my straw. Even standing right behind Bonnie, Jeremy didn't hear me yelling his name to her.
"Yeah," She smiled, "Is that weird? It's weird, isn't it."
"No, that's not weird," I craned my neck to look around the room. "It's probably the most normal thing to happen in our social circle."
Damon still loomed in the same spot. Two guys that always brought lacrosse sticks to my Spanish class came up to clap Jeremy on the back and spill beer on the floor.
"He's still Elena's little brother," Bonnie said, "I mean, she says she's okay with it but...you'd tell me if she wasn't, right?"
"I don't think Elena's going to judge you for the age gap in your relationship."
Mason had joined Damon in the corner of the restaurant. Save for the bartenders, they were easily the oldest people in here. A giggling group of senior girls with matching fluorescent blonde highlights and strappy heels inched closer to them every second. I finished my drink.
"There you are," Elena hopped up to us, "I thought I'd lost you for a minute. Here, hold on."
Jeremy and the boys from Spanish had amalgamated into a larger group, but despite the bodies bumping into him, Stefan managed not to spill the shots he was carrying as he sauntered over.
"I hear that this was a vital part of your party experience." Stefan handed me a shot, then passed one to Bonnie.
"Elena, what's this?" Bonnie tilted her chin down and held a hand to her chest. "I haven't seen you have this much fun in a while."
"We could all use it," Elena dropped her arm around my shoulders. "Cheers!"
Bonnie coughed after we all took our shots. "Where did Jeremy go?"
"I think he got eaten alive by the boy's lacrosse team," I said.
Bonnie rolled her eyes. "I'm gonna go find him, make sure they don't try to recruit him."
Elena snapped and pointed to my empty glass. "Do you want more?"
"I don't think I really—"
"One refill and three more shots coming right up!"
I stretched to prop my elbow up on Stefan's shoulder. "Well, she's wearing her necklace, so at least we know Caroline didn't compel her to act like this."
"She just wants you to have fun," He replied. "She's been worried about you, we both have."
I glared at him and forced my face into an exaggerated smile.
"Seriously, I feel like I haven't seen you all week." Stefan's brows migrated closer to one another. "How are you doing?"
"Next question."
"Fine, okay," Stefan tapped his foot. "Who sings this song?"
"Very funny," I said. He didn't laugh. "Stefan, did you do literally any research on how to be a normal teenager before coming back to high school or did you just decide to show up one day and hope for the best?"
His face relaxed into a smile and he shoved my arm off of his shoulder. I stumbled a bit more than his force called for, but I didn't fall because I ran into someone. Damon.
"Easy there, brother," He said. "Knocking ladies over is no way to enjoy a party."
Stefan sighed. "What are you doing, Damon?"
"I'm hurt, brother." Damon took a swig of his whiskey. "I'm here to enjoy the party and spend some quality time with my brother and this is the welcome I get?"
"Really," Stefan said, "You expect me to believe that your presence has nothing to do with the fact that Lucy is here?"
"My relationship is none of your business."
"Your relationship doesn't exist." I said.
"Sorry I took so long," Elena said, "There were a ton of people at the— oh. Damon."
"Yeah," I grabbed one of the shots from the tray Elena was carrying. "Damon."
"Underage drinking," Damon tutted. "Don't make me report you to the sheriff."
"That's rich coming from the man who's had a drinking problem for a century and a half." I muttered.
"My brain is done developing; yours isn't."
"No, your brain is just never going to finish developing. There's a difference. Now if you'll excuse me," I choked down the shot and picked up one of the drinks Elena brought. "I need some air."
Stefan held Damon back, allowing me to push to the back of the grill and duck outside, where Tyler was smoking. A dingy light flickered over the employee parking lot, only lighting up the dumpsters, a few cars, and the steps that Tyler was siting on.
"What are you doing out here? You hiding from Damon?" He asked. "I don't blame you," He flicked his joint over the edge of the steps to ash it, "That guy's a dick." He looked at me. "Mason told me you broke up."
"We didn't break up," I sat on the step next to him, "We imploded."
He scooted closer to me and held the joint out. I had never smoked before. My glass clinged when I set it on the steps, then I took the joint from him.
"What about you?" I managed not to cough when I took a hit, and passed it back to him. "Are you out here avoiding Caroline?"
"Maybe," He took a long drag. "Maybe I'm over it."
"You don't seem over it."
"She just gets it, you know?" He breathed out a pillar of smoke. "A few months ago she was a normal teenager too."
"I think normal is the only thing I don't believe in anymore."
He handed the joint back to me, but it was torn from between my fingers before I could grasp it. Both of us turned around. It was Damon. The left side of his face was in shadow and the right side of his face was frowning down at us. I leapt to my feet.
"Does Elena know you're out here smoking?" Damon asked.
"Does Stefan know you're out here harassing me?" I replied.
"What, is he your bodyguard now too?" Damon held the joint higher when I tried to snatch it. "No way."
"He's my friend, which is more than you can say at the moment."
"Oh sure, best friends. Remember when he took you out to dinner? No wait, tried to eat you for dinner?" Damon chucked the joint over the railing.
Tyler stood up. "Dude, not cool."
"Dude," Damon sneered at Tyler, "Beat it."
I barred Tyler from walking to the door. "No, stay."
"No," Damon grabbed Tyler by his collar. "Leave."
Tyler pushed past my arm to scramble back inside, and Damon blocked the top of the steps to keep me from following him.
"What is wrong with you?" I asked.
"What else am I supposed to do?" Damon replied. "You won't answer any of my calls."
"Normal people would take a hint." I walked down the steps.
"I thought you didn't believe in normal." He jumped over the railing to meet me at the bottom of the steps. "Is this your plan now?" He dragged the smoldering joint across the pavement with his boot, leaving a trail of white ash. "Get trashed every weekend, destroy your life, and then what? Huh?"
"Why would I need to destroy my life?" I replied. "You did plenty of that for me."
"Lucy, I know you're mad at me, I know I messed up, but there has to be something I can do to fix this." He said. "Tell me what it is you need, you can't stay mad at me forever."
"Watch me."
"Stefan almost killed you and you found it in yourself to forgive him, but you'll never be able to forgive me?"
"You didn't just hurt me." I bit my lip. I couldn't cry, not now, not with Damon standing right there waiting for any sign that he could still make me feel something. "You hurt my brother."
The blanket of substances did little to block out the evening chill, and Damon didn't hesitate to step closer to me the moment I crossed my arms to halt the shiver that threatened to shake my body.
"Come on, you're freezing out here." He pulled on my upper arm using only the strength of a human. "Just come back inside."
"Don't touch me." I tried to shrug him off.
"Is everything alright here?"
"Elijah." Damon groaned at the sight of the elder vampire. "Wonderful. Don't you have anything better to do than lurk around high school parties?"
"You're one to talk," I said.
"Is he bothering you?" Elijah asked.
Damon let go of my arm. "Nobody's bother any—"
"Yes."
Elijah advanced on Damon, mirroring the stance Damon had over Tyler a minute ago. "Go inside, don't come back."
My mouth dropped open when Damon relaxed- no-resigned at Elijah's words, and retreated back to the party, slamming the door behind him.
"Did you just compel him?" I asked.
"I did." Elijah smoothed the lapels on his jacket. "May I speak with you for a moment?"
"Does my permission matter?" My drink was at the top of the steps. My pinched throat was begging me to float back up to it.
"I owe you an apology," Elijah said. "I understand you are upset with Damon."
"Like that's not exactly what you wanted."
"I would never wish to upset you."
"No, you did." I replied. "You wanted me to hate Damon, because you hate him. And it worked." I kicked the bottom step. "I hate him."
"I allowed my rage towards his callous behavior to cloud my judgment. I sought to punish him, and in the process I did not consider the collateral damage of your emotions." He said. "For that, I am sorry."
I stared at him. "How did you know?"
"Damon was speaking to his friend, the wolf. I overheard." Elijah said. "If it's any condolence, he seemed very torn up about it."
I nodded. The pavement we stood on had scaly cracks on the surface. It probably hadn't been touched up since the Grill first opened. Elijah had no cracks on the surface, not even a single scuff on his shoes.
"I should also apologize for killing Rose. I forget how shocking death can be for those who will actually experience it. In trying to protect you, I only hurt you further."
"Everybody dies." Except for him. "Maybe spend a little more time protecting Elena, and a little less time trying to protect me."
"I swore to Elena that her loved ones would remain safe, and since the Salvatore brothers appear to be incompetent in that regard the responsibility falls on me."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.
"I simply thought they would look out for your well-being and not allow you to get this drunk."
"Allow." As if none of my decisions were mine anymore. Maybe they weren't. Maybe they hadn't been for a long time now. "Are you about to yell at me too?"
Elijah tilted his head to the side, and the unimpressive light managed to shimmer across his hair. "No, no I am not. Do you wish to return to the party?"
There were ten steps and a really old door separating me from Damon. Maybe he was hovering just behind the door, waiting, or maybe Stefan dragged him away, but there was no chance that he left.
"Not really." I said.
"Would you like for me to take you home?"
I nodded. The sheen of his car was hidden in the shadow cast by the streetlight, all the way at the end of the parking lot. There was no drink in the cup holder, or book discarded on the dashboard, or any indication that he was doing anything in his car other than observing, listening, waiting for trouble.
Elijah inhaled deeply when he got into the car. "You're hurt."
Elena never gave me that bandaid. "I'm fine, it's just a small—"
He was already behind the car. The door he left open swung and threatened to close itself as he fumbled through the trunk. Maybe he hadn't fed in a while. Maybe he had blood bags in the trunk.
"Sorry," I said when he got back into the driver's seat, "Blood, vampire, small spaces. Not good." The metal box in his hand glinted as the door open light flashed on the dashboard. "You keep a first aid kit in your car?"
"I know a thing or two about maintaining appearances," He rested his hand on the center console, "And as it turns out, there is some use for it once in a while."
I set my hand on top of his. The skin under his focused eyes remained smooth as he wiped the dried blood away from my skin. He wasn't even holding his breath.
"Do you hurt your hand often?" Elijah asked. "You already have a scar here."
He skimmed his finger along the scar from when I fell in the woods. The scar from another lifetime, when vampires weren't real and when Damon stitched me up instead of shattering me. It was still pale pink and shiny.
"I didn't used to," I replied, "Then I moved to Mystic Falls."
"I take it you don't plan on staying here past your high school graduation?" He peeled open a bandage.
"I wouldn't even stay here tonight if I didn't have to."
As he smoothed the bandage over my hand, the corner of his mouth twisted upwards. "Who said you have to?"
I pulled my hand out of his. "Thank you."
I leaned against the window, and the obtrusively cold glass rattled in sync with the engine when Elijah started the car.
"I suppose I should drive you home now," He said.
I squinted at him through my left eye. "Who said you have to?"
When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on a sofa that swallowed me more than the seats in Elijah's car did. The sofa bore the same barely-peach hue as the armchair Elijah sat in across from me, like they were both meant to be gold but just a touch of red dye got mixed in at the upholstery.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"A hotel."
"A hotel where?"
Elijah nodded towards the large window behind him. "Why don't you take a look?"
I weaved past his armchair to look out the window. When I was six, my family took the first vacation I could remember. We stayed on the top floor of the hotel, and Brandon and I remained transfixed by the view the entire trip, convinced that we could see the edge of the world from ten floors up. Right now, we were at least thirty floors in the air. Above New York City.
"You're kidding." I sat on the window sill and pressed the heel of my hand against my forehead. "What? What time is it? New York is like a five hour drive from home."
"I drive fast."
"I'm glad I was asleep." Though maybe if I was awake I would have stopped him from driving halfway up the east coast. Maybe.
"I told the lovely concierge that the airline misplaced your luggage," He pointed to an open door across the room. "They sent some things up for you."
"And they didn't question you bringing an unconscious girl up to a hotel room?" I asked. "What am I talking about? Of course they didn't. You can do anything you want." I crossed the room and paused in the doorway to the bedroom. "Thanks. I think." Then I locked the door behind me.
I squinted at the analog clock on the bedside table until there were only two gold hands. Elijah must have driven double the speed limit to get here. I chugged a glass and a half of water in the adjoining bathroom before taking a shower. Water tastes the same at every hotel.
In my absence, Elijah had moved from the armchair to the sofa, discarding his jacket over the back of the chair. Even with his shirt sleeves rolled up and his arms sprawled across the sofa, his posture told me that he'd never been truly relaxed in all his life.
"Do you need anything?" He asked. "Is everything to your liking?"
"Is everything to my liking?" I crossed my arms, reveling in the soft cotton of the sweater that enveloped me. "Why did you bring me here?"
"You said you wished to leave town?"
"And you listened? To the drunk teenager?"
"Call it an impulse."
"An impulse?" I echoed. "This is a five star hotel in the biggest city in the country."
"If you wish to leave I will take you home immediately."
"No, I want to stay here. With you. I have questions for you." I shuffled across the floor and sat on the sofa between him and a tasseled pillow that still bore an indentation from my head. "What's your accent?"
His eyes flickered. "That's what you wish to know?"
"Well, no, that's not all I want to know." I propped my elbow up on the back of the sofa and rested my head on it. "I have a lot of questions actually, like about the sacrifice and how exactly you're helping Elena, but I don't think you'd answer those questions, so what's the point?"
"How about this," He said, "I give you my word that I will answer any of your questions in good time, and when you are in a better state of mind."
"Who's to say I'm not in a better state of mind right now?"
"Me, because you are intoxicated." Elijah folded his hands in his lap.
I lifted my head. "Why do you think I'm still drunk?"
"Call it a combination of my expertise and your . . . talkative honesty."
"I'm not honest because I'm drunk, I'm always honest, " I said. "Well I've definitely kept some things for Elena but I had to. And I didn't tell her we were cousins at first, but it turned out that we were sisters anyways. Also I've been lying to my parents about pretty much everything for the past six months."
I set my head on the back of the sofa again, but didn't close my eyes. Yet. Elijah smiled a real smile. A soft smile, but a real one. As real as anything else in my world.
"Did you really just bring me here to be nice?" I asked.
"Perhaps," He replied, "Perhaps I'm fond of you."
"Oh you're fond of me, is that it?"
"Can't you just accept the kindness for what it is?"
I closed my eyes. The hotel conditioner left my hair tangle free, but it smelled old. Not Elijah old, just grandmother old.
"Lucy," Elijah murmured, "What are you thinking about?"
"If there's no ulterior motive here then I might be in love with you because this is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me."
"Really, how much did you have to drink this evening?" Elijah said. "I must have a word with the sheriff about keeping a closer eye on things."
I rolled my head to the side to glare at him. "Now you sound like Damon."
"My apologies, I will turn a blind eye to the debauchery of Mystic Falls youth."
"Thank you." My whisper faded with his smile as I leaned up to latch my fingers around the collar of his shirt. He smelled like the type of cologne kept behind a glass counter at the department store; it was a warm scent, but not as warm as the daze in his eyes. "Do you really think I'd need to be drunk to like you?"
"I think," He wrapped his hand around my wrist, "You are quite tired and not in a state of mind to make decisions." He pulled my hand up and gently placed his lips on it. "You are also incredibly hard to say no to."
"So don't."
He picked me up and carried me back to the bedroom. After pulling the covers over me, he sat on top of them.
"Go to sleep," He said, "You will thank me in the morning."
In the morning, I had five missed calls from Elena, three from Stefan, and eight from Damon.
"Elijah?" I called out. When he didn't reply, I sat by the window and called Elena back.
"Lucy, thank god," Elena said, "Where are you? I thought you went home and then you weren't there and you weren't answering your phone and we've been worried sick. Things got pretty crazy here last ni—"
"Slow down, I'm fine." My brain couldn't process words as fast as she was speaking them. "I'm with Elijah."
"She's what?"
"Damon, shut up. Why are you with Elijah?" Elena asked.
"What's wrong? I thought you trusted him." I replied. "Why are you with Damon?"
"Because Damon eavesdrops on all of his brother's phone calls." Elena said. "Where are you? Why didn't you sleep at home last night?"
"How did you know I wasn't— Damon."
"I'm sorry, you weren't answering your phone and I wanted to make sure you weren't in any trouble."
"Why would I be in trouble?"
"Caroline's mom busted the party, in uniform," Elena said.
"Yeah, I definitely left before that happened." I tugged on the string attached to the blinds. "What's going to happen when she finds out her daughter was the one behind the temporary no ID necessary policy at the bar?"
"I'm sure Caroline thought of something in case this happened, she thought of everything. But—no—ugh, Damon!"
"Damon, give me the phone," Stefan said. A few clunking noises echoed in my ear.
"I don't need to hear the repeat of last night's Gossip Girl episode."
"Would you stop?" Stefan said. "Lucy, hi, just tell us where you are and I'll come get you."
"I appreciate the offer but there's no need. I'll be back in five, six hours tops."
"Six hours? Where'd she go, Alaska?"
"And tell Damon to stay the hell out of my house!" I said.
"Or what? She'll ask Elijah to compel me again?"
"I just might."
I jumped up when I heard a low chuckle. Elijah was poised in the doorway, observing me. The morning light illuminated my unbalanced stance, and there he was, encompassing more grace with his casual posture than I would over the course of my entire lifetime.
"Look, I gotta go," I said, "I'll explain everything later, I promise." I hung up. "Hi."
"I thought your friends might be missing you," He said. In his navy sweater under a gray suit, he could have passed as a normal man, perhaps a breezy tech mogul who normally resides on the West Coast.
I didn't know what to do with the hand that wasn't holding my phone. "They'll get over it, I told them I'd be home soon."
"Yes, I heard." Elijah replied. "And what exactly will you be explaining to them?"
"That I'm an idiot who drank way too much at the party I didn't even want to go to, and that you're a million times nicer than any of us thought."
"I would agree with one of those statements," Elijah said. "Tell me, are you hungry? You must be."
"I could eat."
A coffee, a croissant, and a short walk through the crisp morning later, we sat on a bench overlooking a pond in central park. A stone bridge hung over the pond, threatening to crumble if the wrong number of tourists trekked across it. It was younger than Elijah, maybe even younger than Damon.
"If I had known I would be having breakfast in central park, I definitely would have brought my camera to the party." It didn't feel real; not in a vampire way, just in a way that was too beautiful to be a part of my life.
"Technically you did not have breakfast in the park, you had it outside of the park. You are finishing your coffee in the park."
"Did you just make a joke?" I blinked. My fingertips found the dry grooves on the bench and ran along them. "What if we just ran? Klaus would never find Elena here."
"I can assure you that he would find her,
"I can't lose her. I wouldn't survive it."
"Have I not made myself abundantly clear that the safety of you and your sister is my utmost priority at the moment?" He replied.
I squinted as the sun managed to escape from the clouds and hit my eyes. "Yes you have, but I don't understand why."
"Call it a vested interest"
"Vested interest, meaning you want to kill the world's most terrifying vampire, and you need to use my sister as bait to do it."
"I have lost every single person I ever loved because of him," Elijah said, "Klaus is my only living family, he made sure of that."
"Your only living family? Klaus is your—"
"Klaus is my brother, though for many centuries it has been in name only."
Had I told Stefan where I was, he could have driven at least halfway here by now. Instead, no one knew that I was sitting hundreds of miles from home, next to the brother of the man who wanted to kill my sister.
"We have the same mother, but not the same father," Elijah said, "A fact that revealed itself when he committed his first of many murders, activating his werewolf gene."
"I thought he was a vampire."
"He is," Elijah replied. "In the eyes of nature, such a monster could not be allowed to walk this earth. So witches cursed him, forcing his werewolf side to remain dormant while he eternally searched the earth for the means to break the curse. We forged countless documents to ensure that every supernatural being in existence raced to find the doppelgänger and the moonstone and render themselves the superior species."
"We? You helped him?"
"My entire family had their humanity taken from them," Elijah said, "My brother at least had the chance to partially exist as the creature he was born as, not the one he was forced to become, and that was taken from him as well."
"I want to go home," I said, "Please, Elijah. Take me home." I shouldn't have stayed here. I should have accepted when Elijah first offered to take me home, instead of asking for an escape from Damon, from my own life.
"Have I upset you?"
"You said it yourself; you were trying to help him break the very curse that you promised to protect Elena from."
"As I have said before, I no longer wish for Klaus to break the curse."
"What happens when you can't do it?" I asked. "What happens to Elena when you look your brother in the eye and realize that you don't actually hate him enough to kill him?"
"This is not about hatred at all. Quite the opposite, in fact."
"The opposite?" I replied. "No you don't. . . did you- do you love Katherine? Is this because he tried to kill her?"
"I thought I loved Katerina, at one point, yes. "
"But you don't anymore."
"I never truly did. What I experienced was merely the doppelgänger allure that so many have fallen a fool to."
Elijah reached into the breast pocket of his jacket and pulled out an aged leather wallet. It was empty, save for a yellowed piece of paper, which he placed in my hand.
I unfolded the wispy paper to see my own face drawn in faded ink. My hair was plaited back in a way I had never worn it before.
"Nikolina." I whispered. "She was real?"
"As real as anything else that now exists only in memory," Elijah replied.
"And you loved her?" I asked. "I thought Klaus killed her."
"He did."
The sunlight fell into the morose creases that framed his eyes that looked anywhere but at me.
"When Katerina ran from Klaus, I knew he would seek revenge, but I could not stop it. Amidst the carnage he left behind in Bulgaria, I heard the faintest murmur of a heartbeat. I fed her my blood and fled the country, took her to France." He said. "Even now when I think of her, I see her smiling in the garden, full of joy just to be interacting with the earth and the things that grow from it."
The drawing fluttered in the wind, and Elijah took it from between my fingers and tucked it back into his wallet, hiding it once again in the left side of his jacket.
"I tried to save her from him, but I only delayed the inevitable. He found us, found her, and he didn't make the same mistake twice. One day I returned home to find her blood marring the walls of our haven."
Instinctively, I reached for Elijah's hand, but pulled away before my skin touched his. The motion was enough to pull him out of his trance, and he looked away from the glassy gray pond.
"I don't wish to kill my brother, Lucy," he said, "The brother I once loved has long since died, and he will never return to me. Now I just wish to kill the monster that wears his face."
"How?" I asked. "He's like you, isn't he? He can't be killed."
"Nature would never allow a truly immortal creature to exist," Elijah said, "If a witch can channel enough power, they can kill him."
"If? How does a witch channel enough power?"
"That is the last piece of the puzzle. Long ago, when mass hysteria plagued Mystic Falls, a group of witches was murdered. I haven't found the site of the massacre yet, but there's power there. Lots of it. That kind of terror leaves a mark."
"And what happens if Klaus shows up before you find it?" I asked.
"He won't. Every vampire I've sired in the last century is looking out for word of him or his associates. Anytime he comes even remotely close to learning of Elena's existence, I've ensured the trail goes dead."
"So you can really save her?"
Elijah nodded. This time, when I reached for his hand I didn't change my mind. I let my skin settle against his skin, skin that had shed a thousand times over, skin that held a thousand lifetimes of stories.
He still faced away from me. That made it easier for me to lean closer to him and press my lips against his cheek, which made it easier for him to turn and catch my lips with his. It was only for a moment, but when I broke the kiss I kept my hand looped through his.
"I can't be her, Elijah." I said.
"I would never want you to be."
The skyscrapers that peeked out over the treeline struggled to retain the usual vibrance of the city. All of the trees were dead. Even Elijah was dead. But his eyes were the warmest thing in the park.