Fic: To Take Each Step In Turn (4/7)
Aug. 22nd, 2013 04:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urthTitle: To Take Each Step In Turn
Author:jedi_of_urth
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Characters/Pairings: Ensemble, Elena/Elijah, various canon ships referenced
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Past character death and related issues, violence on par with the show, sexualized abuse
Word Count: ~34,500
Summary: Part three of ‘To Find a Light In Darkness’, Elena and Elijah’s break from the world comes to an abrupt end courtesy of the Salvatores, but at least it wasn’t Klaus...
Author's Notes: Great thanks to my always awesome beta, and thanks to those who have waited and encouraged me to continue this series. Hopefully the next one won’t take as long.
To Find a Light In Darkness series master post
To Take Each Step In Turn story master post
Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
~~~~~~~~~~
Elena felt like she had the wind knocked out of her and she couldn’t possibly breathe in the moment between seeing Klaus in her doorway and slamming the door in his face. She leaned back against the door and tried to steady her fingers long enough to turn the lock back into place. Her mind finally caught up with the fact that Klaus had never been invited in as she continued to fight for a steady breath.
“Now Elena, that’s incredibly rude,” Klaus said loudly from the other side of the door.
Elena squeezed her eyes closed and tried not to panic. As often as she’d been frightened by Klaus before, she’d always managed to hold it together when she actually found herself facing him. Now she needed to keep it together and think. But how could she possibly think of anything?
“He’s right, it is rude.”
Elena’s eyes flew back open to meet Elijah’s blank expression. “Elijah?” she gasped. How had he sneaked in? He was leaning against the railing at the bottom of the stairs as if he’d come down from her room, but why?
“Now Elena, can I count on you to open the door?” Klaus put in.
Elena’s heart was pounding, but not just with fear now – anger and betrayal were pulsing right along with the fear. “You’re here with Klaus?” she demanded. It was the only conclusion, he certainly wasn’t there as her ally, friend, or lover.
Elijah advanced another step towards her, and she almost recoiled from him, but there was nowhere to go. She was trapped between Klaus and Elijah, two Originals; one who wanted to hurt her and the other who may not want to but whose actions were still unpredictable. “Elijah?” she said again, a pleading note in her voice for him to answer her, to tell her something –anything – she could trust.
He brought one of his fingers up to her lips, shushing her; the casual intimacy of his touch astonished her when otherwise he remained so closed off. His eyes found hers for a moment, and then moved quickly to the door behind her, encompassing Klaus behind it. “Understandable I assure you, but still rude.”
Elena’s jaw tightened. She was still angry, but the message was received. He wasn’t exactly here with Klaus, but Klaus took it that way and they couldn’t let on anything else. Elena did realize that it didn’t mean he was really here on her side, and as much as she badly wanted to not have to face this alone she couldn’t rely on him the way she wanted to.
“I suggest you open the door, I told him I would make sure he didn’t have to burn the house down.”
She brought a hand up to move his hand away from her mouth. “What are you two after?”
The accusation landed, as she had figured it would; but the fact that he let his mask slip enough to let her know it landed was part of an answer to her fears. “Klaus,” he said with subtle stress on it being Klaus’s goals at work here, “is in need of more of your blood.”
That made Elena even angrier than she had been, and it was more than enough anger to encompass both Originals, regardless of which one deserved it more. She hated this part of her stalemate with Klaus, how it put her at his mercy and what he would do once he had her blood. Her hand tightened around Elijah’s wrist that she hadn’t let go of and he smiled slightly. It wasn’t the predatory smile her anger and resentment might have expected at the moment, it was almost encouraging; but her mind was cautious enough to keep her from taking it at face value, he could wear any mask he wanted to.
But she still wanted to trust in him; just as she’d told him, she always wanted to trust him. Her eyes sought his, looking for something more than vague understanding, but it seemed he couldn’t give her more. Then his lips moved, soundlessly on account of the other vampire only inches away, “Always and forever,” she managed to lip read; she was getting better at it the longer she lived in the world of vampires. When she squeezed his wrist again, more understanding that furious now, he spoke out loud. “I’m also here to make sure he leaves with only your blood.”
“Come on Elijah, let’s get on with it,” Klaus interjected.
Elena was still a little angry with Elijah, but she could see what role he was playing right now. And she could be angry with him later, once Klaus was gone. For now she pushed it back and spun around to open the door again, releasing Elijah’s arm as she did. He was still close behind her, so close she could practically feel him hovering, and she still wasn’t sure if that felt threatening or reassuring. “So exactly what deal have you two struck for my life?” she demanded.
Klaus’s nearly ever-present smirk turned to more of a sneer before he answered. “You come along nice and quietly – and that includes leaving your little friends out of things – and our dear Elijah will make sure you make it home safely. And while I return to creating my hybrids I’ll leave your little band to find my stake.”
Elena was breathing hard, so many things she wanted to say but none that she could let out, either because the words stuck in her throat or she had enough desire for self-preservation to know would be a bad idea to say. But she couldn’t be completely smart in the face of Klaus, even though she knew better. She turned back to Elijah and addressed him instead. “I can’t trust him,” she said, not directly insulting Klaus but only just shy of calling him out, “but I’d like to think your word still means something. So can you give me that?”
Klaus wasn’t to know that she trusted Elijah’s word almost completely; if last night hadn’t happened she would be questioning his honor even more than she pretended to now but she was angry enough to present a lot more doubt in him than she actually felt. She had no way of knowing if Elijah understood that part of it, his expression was back to blank and emotionless. “Yes,” he said evenly. “He will take your blood and leave town again, and you will be free to return to your normal life.”
Instead of reassuring her, his words made her jaw clench. Her normal life? She didn’t have a normal life, and Klaus had seen to it that she never would again. She knew what he meant, but she wanted to say no; and she obviously couldn’t.
Once Klaus was gone they could get back to the plan to put a stop to this. Once Klaus left Mystic Falls again she could start to fight back, so that one day she could tell him no, or better yet he wouldn’t get to ask anymore. She hoped with all her heart that she was right to trust that Elijah would ultimately be on her side even if he couldn’t be right now.
On the plus side, this time as she stepped out into the cold winter night she had her shoes and coat on; aside from that it was pretty much as desperate a move as she’d made the night before, and Elena had a hard time thinking it was going to end as well this time.
~~~
Klaus’s driver, presumably also one of his hybrids, drove while Klaus rode next to him, Elena in the backseat behind him and Elijah behind the red-haired driver. It was very quickly obvious they weren’t going to the hospital as Elena had supposed, which meant they were almost certainly going back to the mansion.
Elena pulled her arms tightly around her body and stared out the window. Her heart pounded furiously; she badly wanted to take it back, she shouldn’t have agreed to this. She wanted to reach for Elijah’s hand, for any kind of anchor in the face of her rising fear, but she couldn’t even look to him for that kind of support. The fact that less than a day ago he had been the one she was afraid of seemed a distant memory.
And she had never been afraid of Elijah like this, she could see that now. She may have believed he could and would kill her, but that was easy – had been especially so in her emotional state at the time. Death was easy when you didn’t have much to live for anymore. But even if she had still felt as dead inside as she had the day before, facing Klaus was different. What Klaus did to her was so much worse than any threat she had imagined Elijah posed. At his worst Elijah would only kill her; Klaus though...
Klaus destroyed her, drained her, violated her; and left her alive so she could view all that he had done.
Elena was fighting back tears by the time they arrived at Klaus’s mansion, where the hybrid parked the car right behind Elijah’s car that was still closest to the doorway. In a mockery of chivalry Klaus opened the car door for her and offered her a hand out. She was definitely not so far gone as to accept that and found the fire to glare at him as she stood up on her own.
Once she was standing, he still took a grip on her arm, and when she tried to pull away it only made him increase his hold until it was painfully tight. “Niklaus,” Elijah barked as he appeared beside them. The two of them engaged in a short, silent battle of wills that seemed to end in a stalemate as Klaus grip loosened slightly but it was clear he wasn’t going to release her. “Shall we proceed inside?” Elijah added dryly.
Elena hadn’t even been fighting that – no matter how much she wanted to turn and run the other way she knew it was pointless – she just didn’t want Klaus touching her. Those hands had killed her brother; those teeth, which showed through his smirk now, had ripped Jeremy’s flesh apart until there could be no conclusion for the authorities except that an animal had done it.
An animal had done it. An animal that now herded her through the grand entrance of his habitat.
The night before Elijah had left the house dark aside from the rooms they were using, Klaus had the whole place lit up and announcing he was in residence. But it was just as hollow and empty as it had seemed to her in the cold darkness of her last entrance. The sounds of the four of them entering echoed in the vast space of the mansion, as it they were clustered together surrounded by a void of dead – but well lit – space.
There weren’t any signs of the fight between Elijah and the Salvatore brothers in the front hall and she knew there would be no other signs of what had happened here last night. It felt so much longer ago than that, and all the strength she had been able to draw from it had been taken from her – most of it taken by the day’s events before Klaus had even appeared but it was certainly all gone now.
Klaus still didn’t let go of her now that it was even less possible for her to run away. “Welcome back Elena,” he said in a light tone. “I’m sure you’ll forgive me for say I hope you won’t be staying long.”
“I hope so too,” Elena found herself saying, with at least half the bite she had wanted to put in it; so she was doing better on the surface than she felt inside.
Klaus smirked again, either with genuine amusement or just because it was his natural expression as he escorted her down the hall towards where she knew the kitchen to be, but instead he turned into the dining room; identified by the fact it had a table large enough for at least thirty people Elena was sure. Having seen more and more of the mansion she was found herself questioning more and more who Klaus had built such a space for. As Elijah had pointed out, Klaus had intended to leave his siblings daggered, and from what Elena had seen Klaus wasn’t terribly interested in treating his hybrids to grand style. She wouldn’t be at all surprised if there was a servants’ area of the house she hadn’t seen yet, which was more likely where Klaus had intended to house his slavish followers.
The dining room, like many other rooms in the house, was decorated with artwork Elena now suspected had been done by Klaus; Caroline had let them in on how Klaus preferred his own artwork even to pieces he could steal. And at the far end of the room one of the chairs had been set up with equipment to harvest Elena’s blood.
For as differently as she felt towards Klaus and Elijah, they did both know how to make a statement without having to say a word. Of course, they had lived and been lords for centuries; if they hadn’t known it in life, they’d had plenty of time and opportunity to learn the art of it. Klaus made her walk the length of the room, her fate looming before her, letting her feel the weight of it approaching before they even neared the chair.
“Tim, why don’t you go and fix Miss Gilbert something to eat for when we’re done with her,” Klaus said, dismissing his hybrid. As he issued the order Klaus smoothly pulled Elena’s long coat off her and set it on the table. In the same smooth motion he practically pushed her into taking a seat where he wanted her.
“Yes sir,” Tim said with a nod; he had an accent that screamed of Texas to Elena’s ear.
“And make sure to bring a knife, she’ll need blood and Elijah refuses to do things the easy way when he can do them neatly.”
Once Tim was gone, Klaus brought his hand up to run the back of his fingers against Elena’s cheek. She tried to turn away from his attempted contact, but he continued until she couldn’t escape his touch. “Now, you’re not going to run now are you? Or do I have to tie you up?” His voice, like his touch, was a mockery of seduction.
She shuddered at the implication of his words and shook her head. “I won’t run,” she said softly; how many times had she promised him that?
“Good,” he said in a low voice, and rubbed his hand against her cheek again.
Elena couldn’t help it anymore, her eyes desperately looked to Elijah. Elijah was keeping his distance standing well behind his brother, but she could see the set of his jaw and the barely perceivable fire in his eyes as he watched what was happening. He was an Original, but in this he was as helpless as she was; or at least he acted like it.
Klaus chuckled slightly. “If you’re looking for him to save you, you should know better by now.”
“I agreed to help you do this as neatly as possible; much more of this behavior, Klaus, and I may reconsider,” Elijah explained; he said it without emotion but still the threat was clear.
“I don’t particularly need your cooperation anymore,” Klaus said breezily.
Elijah’s eyes met Elena’s and they were alight with a smile that didn’t quite materialize on his lips. “You do,” he said knowingly, “more than you know.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Klaus asked as his hands took their good, sweet time rolling up the long sleeve of her maroon shirt and making preparations to begin drawing her blood, all while feeling quite free to touch her as he desired.
“Let’s just say if you attempted to carry out your plan of taking her away with you, she would certainly have taken steps to ensure this was the last blood donation you ever took from her.”
Elena barely suppressed a shudder at his words, and at the way Klaus’s fingers slowly felt her arm for a vein. Elijah knew her almost too well; he’d seen her drive a knife into her own guts when she stopped having anything but her life to bargain with – and ended up with a dagger in his heart for thinking she wouldn’t do it. She wasn’t sure how well that plan would have worked with Klaus, but Elijah knew what she was capable of and that she wouldn’t have accepted Klaus’s plan.
Finally Klaus inserted the needle just below Elena’s elbow; and at last he drew away from her, but not without a final possessive brush of his fingers against the soft flesh of her arm. Elena watched as her blood began to flow through the thin tubes into the blood bag hanging at the base of her chair. There were at least two more bags waiting beneath this one.
“How much are you taking?” she asked, suddenly aware of how dry her mouth seemed.
Klaus reached up and yanked her hair so she looked up at him, all pretense of gentleness gone. “I promised to leave you alive because I wish it,” he told her roughly.
Anything else he might have said was stopped by Elijah pulling him back by his collar. Not far back, but enough to take Klaus’s attention; at which point he let go again. “Neatly,” Elijah reminded him.
Klaus bristled and stood up to his full height, which wasn’t quite even with Elijah’s but was close. “When did you grow so soft?” he asked in a hushed and dangerous tone.
The air around Elijah seemed to crackle dangerously. “When did you begin to mistake honor for weakness?”
Klaus’s answering chuckle was just as dangerous. “It’s not my mistake,” he said. “It’s you that confuses the concepts.”
Elijah glowered a moment and then lightly shoved Klaus back – lightly for a vampire in that Klaus only staggered back into one of the high backed chairs. “I am working for your interests,” he said as he stood over Klaus. “As I have done before and will surely do again, but it is past time you took my council in your pursuit of those goals.” Elena was glad he wasn’t directing that kind of anger at her, he certainly was scary when he chose to be, but she’d be lying to say she wasn’t a little turned on by watching him direct it at Klaus.
Unsurprisingly, Klaus’s response was another smirk. “I do remember when I stopped,” he said cruelly. His gaze shifted back to Elena and his smirk deepened.
Katherine, Elena knew. She doubted whether Klaus knew Elijah had told her about that chapter of history, he was most likely just using her as a stand in for making his point. She looked away; it was just as likely Klaus did know that Elijah had told her about that months ago so she didn’t need to pretend to miss the point, but she wasn’t interested in being anyone’s Katherine stand in, no matter how minor the role.
She knew that if this thing with her and Elijah continued, one day they’d have to discuss the Katherine story again. He had never made her feel like a Katherine substitute, in any of the forms their relationship had gone through; but at some point she would need to hear the words, to know and not just assume that he saw her for her and not as a shadow of the past girls who had shared her face.
Elijah remained standing between her and Klaus as Tim the hybrid came back with a plate of food and was dismissed again. Shortly after that, the blood bag filled to the point it needed to be exchanged for another one. Elijah did so clinically, with no evidence of the process bothering him or of being stirred by the blood; then he circled around to take the seat to Elena’s right side, across from Klaus.
Klaus pulled the food plate towards himself and picked up one of the slices of cheese. Elijah looked at him disapprovingly but didn’t actually do anything to stop Klaus from helping himself. Elena was starting to feel light-headed but she eyed the sharp knife on the edge of the plate and fantasized that she lived in a world where it would have done any good to attack Klaus with the blade. How satisfying it would be to slice his throat and watch his blood flow out of him, freeing them all from his terror and control; unfortunately she lived in a world it wouldn’t have done any good even to try.
The silence stretched on between the three of them while the sound of Elena’s pulse pounded in her ears, and may have been just as audible to the vampires.
By the time the second blood bag was full Elena’s thoughts were fuzzy beyond the focus she spent keeping herself from resting her head on the table. She could hear and feel her heart beating rapidly, trying to keep her going but only pumping more of it out of her body with every pulse. And still Klaus replaced the second bag with the third empty one. “Klaus,” Elijah cautioned his brother, “is that necessary?”
“You can heal her from one more,” Klaus said without concern. He placed both of the already filled bags on the table in front of the three of them.
The third bag seemed to take forever, either because her blood was flowing more slowly or the blood loss was starting to affect her sense of time. With every long moment that passed, putting her head down on the table seemed more and more inviting and only the presence of Klaus and plastic bags already filled with her blood gave her the determination not to. Her eyelids felt so heavy though, and her head so light and cloudy. Her arms were dead weights resting lifelessly on the heavy armrests, and yet still blood flowed out of her left one, slowly (so slowly now) filling the blood bag. What if Klaus insisted she could still give more? He wanted her to remain alive, right? He wouldn’t push this so far that she couldn’t recover from it, would he...and Elijah couldn’t let it go that far, could he?
Finally, Klaus was satisfied and he knelt to retrieve the final bag (there was still another empty one on the floor, but apparently he wouldn’t risk draining her that much) and disconnected her from the thin, red stained tubes. His hands lingered against her skin as he worked and stood up, but she couldn’t find the energy to pull away from his touch now, and even if she had the energy to try it was doubtful her limbs would have responded.
Before he left he laid a hand on her shoulder and looked down at her; with a smirk of course. “Thank you for your cooperation,” he said, his tone just shy of sarcastic but far short of gratitude. He turned to Elijah then, even as he trailed his fingers along the collar of her shirt, trailing into the V of her the neckline – which was thankfully not a low cut on this shirt – before truly releasing her. “I’ll deal with this and leave her to your...care. I’m sure you can deal with that neatly.”
Klaus took the blood bags carefully and walked the long distance out of the dining room while Elijah pulled the plate across the table. Elena knew faintly that she should eat something, but it seemed like too much work right now. She watched Klaus leave and once he was gone she needed a seemingly enormous amount of energy just to look over at Elijah.
A finger to his own lips this time indicated a reminder to be careful with what she said, not that she felt like talking right now anyway. He then offered her a slice of fruit (apple, maybe pear, she wasn’t sure) but set it down again when she didn’t move to take it.
This time he picked up the knife instead. “You’re going to need blood,” he told her evenly. His tone was careful, but now that they were alone his expression was less controlled and she knew he was concerned for her.
Elena managed a heavy sigh and a single, small and weary nod. She was in no position to argue.
Elijah set the knife back down and stood up to remove his suit jacket and roll up his sleeves. He then repositioned his chair so it was next to hers facing the opposite direction before sitting back down. The armrests of their chairs were nearly touching and when he sat down his arm brushed against hers. His skin wasn’t particularly warm right now, but against her own clammy flesh Elena hardly noticed.
After a moment of that contact he bent his arm up and positioned the thin-bladed knife against his wrist. “Are you ready?” he asked.
She couldn’t make herself say yes, but she couldn’t say no. She needed vampire blood, she could feel it, but this just felt like too much.
When she didn’t answer, Elijah brought his hand to rest lightly on her shoulder. He mouthed something that she was too bleary eyed and minded to read and decipher. It was too short to be ‘always and forever’ this time, but likely some reassurance he didn’t think he could give her audibly. Aloud he cautioned her, “It’s either me or Klaus.”
There was no choice to that. Even if she didn’t feel...whatever it was she felt for Elijah, there was no question of letting Klaus’s blood heal her. She would never be clean again if she took Klaus’s blood and allowed it to merge with her own, always feeling the violation of him lingering inside her.
So she nodded, and watched him consider his hand and arm for a moment before cutting into the flesh of his hand so that the blood would flow into his cupped palm. There was already a sizable and growing pool of blood waiting as he brought his hand to her lips. “Drink,” he encouraged her, as close to the gentle bedroom Elijah as she was likely to get within earshot of Klaus (or anybody for the time being).
Slowly she leaned forward just enough to bring her lips (dry and cold now) to his hand. Elijah made it as easy as possible for her to drink the blood, but she still gagged a little as she took in a mouthful of the stuff. Once she had drunk the collected blood, Elijah moved his hand slightly so she could drink from the still-open cut he had made. It was a far larger and deeper cut than the one he had made in the middle of the night to give her just enough blood to heal her minor wounds. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine they were back in bed together, that the world was only the two of them and the wounds were more or less self-inflicted. It made it slightly easier to keep the blood down as she fought with every fresh swallow, but it would take so much more blood to restore her this time.
At long last Elijah’s hand healed enough that her lips and tongue found healing flesh rather than continuing blood flow and she pulled back from him. Under the circumstances of the night before, her lips had lingered against his skin longer than necessary, nuzzling lightly at his wrist; but even if she had desired to do that now she wouldn’t have dared to with Klaus nearby.
“You’re going to need more,” Elijah told her as he handed her the piece of fruit again. This time she took it, her arm and hand responding slowly to her commands to move up, grasp the fruit and bring it to her mouth, but at least she was able to command them now.
The fruit turned out to be pear, soft and spongy; Elena made a face, she had never much cared for the texture of pears and now the taste reacted badly with the flavor of blood in her mouth. Tim hadn’t brought her anything to drink, just crackers, cheese, and fruit.
Elijah offered her a slice of cheese, but Elena reached for the crackers. Those turned out to be slightly lemon flavored but didn’t clash as badly with the aftertaste of blood. “Don’t they usually feed you cookies after you give blood?” she joked. Her voice was still pretty weak, but she was getting stronger.
“Do you want cookies or do you want to get out of here?” he asked with slight amusement.
It made Elena grimace a bit though. “Getting out of here,” she said with as much conviction as her condition allowed.
“And you’re still being rude,” Klaus said from the other end of the dining room, leaning against the entryway. “Not that I think we could expect any better, after you so rudely killed our brother. That wasn’t neat at all,” he added, clearly directed to Elijah as much as her.
“That we can agree on,” Elijah replied before Elena could say anything.
There was bitterness in his voice that made Elena’s heart clench. How much of that had actually been resolved between them? She knew it wasn’t all faked for Klaus’s benefit, it couldn’t be. She also couldn’t be sorry for it in front of Klaus, no matter what she could give Elijah when it was only between them. “You don’t get to take the high ground,” she said flatly.
She wished she had the nerve to say ‘It would have been neat if it had worked.’ But knowing what they knew now that wasn’t appropriate – it wouldn’t have been neat at all, it would in fact have been a mess – to say nothing of saying it in front of Elijah.
“I can take whatever ground I wish,” Klaus told her.
“Can you take it elsewhere? I’d like to finish the task at hand,” Elijah offered dryly.
Klaus sped across the room at vampire speed and took Elena’s chin forcefully in hand to make her face him. “I hope you’re smart enough not to need another demonstration of what happens to people who deny me.”
Elena almost literally bit her tongue, but she glared at him hard. His hold tightened until she managed to spit out an answer; “I know.”
“Then find my stake before I start to think you need another example,” he said, his voice alone was as threatening as the words he used. He then pushed her away and quickly left the room again.
“Shall we continue?” Elijah said after they’d sat in silence for a moment.
Elena looked back at him, still keeping up the cold exterior he took on when Klaus was present; how much of it was true and brought on by the reminder of Finn would have to wait. “I guess we should,” she said, shaken.
Elijah repeated the cut to his hand, but with her ability to help matters this time it was easier to start the process of drinking it; the first taste wasn’t quite as hard to swallow and she held his hand in the position again her mouth to drink at an acceptable rate. Her hand gripped his, but it was only comforting in its solidness, there was no more to it. This round wasn’t awful, but she hoped this would be the last time they had to do this. She was tired of blood leaving or entering her body, and she was completely ready to get away from here.
It seemed they were done, as this time when there stopped being blood for her to swallow, Elijah stood up and returned his chair to its former location. He indicated the plate still mostly stocked with food and Elena picked up a few more of the crackers; they seemed to be the best thing to eat to combat the effects of drinking so much blood. If they were leaving she could eat more of the peach pie – as well as all the other sympathy dishes in her refrigerator – when she was home and once she thought she could actually stomach food again. She knew she needed real food, she didn’t need to be a doctor’s daughter to know that after significant blood loss the body needed nutrition, but the blood she’d ingested was upsetting her stomach, or maybe that was the tension of the last hour getting to her.
“Can we go now?” she asked as she nibbled at the cracker.
“If you feel strong enough, then by all means; I’ll return you home safely, as promised.”
Elena pursed her lips slightly. Come to think of it she wasn’t sure she wanted to go home; but she had to get out of here and once they were clear they could discuss the next step.
Author:
jedi_of_urthFandom: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Characters/Pairings: Ensemble, Elena/Elijah, various canon ships referenced
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Past character death and related issues, violence on par with the show, sexualized abuse
Word Count: ~34,500
Summary: Part three of ‘To Find a Light In Darkness’, Elena and Elijah’s break from the world comes to an abrupt end courtesy of the Salvatores, but at least it wasn’t Klaus...
Author's Notes: Great thanks to my always awesome beta, and thanks to those who have waited and encouraged me to continue this series. Hopefully the next one won’t take as long.
To Find a Light In Darkness series master post
To Take Each Step In Turn story master post
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~~~~~~~~~~
Elena felt like she had the wind knocked out of her and she couldn’t possibly breathe in the moment between seeing Klaus in her doorway and slamming the door in his face. She leaned back against the door and tried to steady her fingers long enough to turn the lock back into place. Her mind finally caught up with the fact that Klaus had never been invited in as she continued to fight for a steady breath.
“Now Elena, that’s incredibly rude,” Klaus said loudly from the other side of the door.
Elena squeezed her eyes closed and tried not to panic. As often as she’d been frightened by Klaus before, she’d always managed to hold it together when she actually found herself facing him. Now she needed to keep it together and think. But how could she possibly think of anything?
“He’s right, it is rude.”
Elena’s eyes flew back open to meet Elijah’s blank expression. “Elijah?” she gasped. How had he sneaked in? He was leaning against the railing at the bottom of the stairs as if he’d come down from her room, but why?
“Now Elena, can I count on you to open the door?” Klaus put in.
Elena’s heart was pounding, but not just with fear now – anger and betrayal were pulsing right along with the fear. “You’re here with Klaus?” she demanded. It was the only conclusion, he certainly wasn’t there as her ally, friend, or lover.
Elijah advanced another step towards her, and she almost recoiled from him, but there was nowhere to go. She was trapped between Klaus and Elijah, two Originals; one who wanted to hurt her and the other who may not want to but whose actions were still unpredictable. “Elijah?” she said again, a pleading note in her voice for him to answer her, to tell her something –anything – she could trust.
He brought one of his fingers up to her lips, shushing her; the casual intimacy of his touch astonished her when otherwise he remained so closed off. His eyes found hers for a moment, and then moved quickly to the door behind her, encompassing Klaus behind it. “Understandable I assure you, but still rude.”
Elena’s jaw tightened. She was still angry, but the message was received. He wasn’t exactly here with Klaus, but Klaus took it that way and they couldn’t let on anything else. Elena did realize that it didn’t mean he was really here on her side, and as much as she badly wanted to not have to face this alone she couldn’t rely on him the way she wanted to.
“I suggest you open the door, I told him I would make sure he didn’t have to burn the house down.”
She brought a hand up to move his hand away from her mouth. “What are you two after?”
The accusation landed, as she had figured it would; but the fact that he let his mask slip enough to let her know it landed was part of an answer to her fears. “Klaus,” he said with subtle stress on it being Klaus’s goals at work here, “is in need of more of your blood.”
That made Elena even angrier than she had been, and it was more than enough anger to encompass both Originals, regardless of which one deserved it more. She hated this part of her stalemate with Klaus, how it put her at his mercy and what he would do once he had her blood. Her hand tightened around Elijah’s wrist that she hadn’t let go of and he smiled slightly. It wasn’t the predatory smile her anger and resentment might have expected at the moment, it was almost encouraging; but her mind was cautious enough to keep her from taking it at face value, he could wear any mask he wanted to.
But she still wanted to trust in him; just as she’d told him, she always wanted to trust him. Her eyes sought his, looking for something more than vague understanding, but it seemed he couldn’t give her more. Then his lips moved, soundlessly on account of the other vampire only inches away, “Always and forever,” she managed to lip read; she was getting better at it the longer she lived in the world of vampires. When she squeezed his wrist again, more understanding that furious now, he spoke out loud. “I’m also here to make sure he leaves with only your blood.”
“Come on Elijah, let’s get on with it,” Klaus interjected.
Elena was still a little angry with Elijah, but she could see what role he was playing right now. And she could be angry with him later, once Klaus was gone. For now she pushed it back and spun around to open the door again, releasing Elijah’s arm as she did. He was still close behind her, so close she could practically feel him hovering, and she still wasn’t sure if that felt threatening or reassuring. “So exactly what deal have you two struck for my life?” she demanded.
Klaus’s nearly ever-present smirk turned to more of a sneer before he answered. “You come along nice and quietly – and that includes leaving your little friends out of things – and our dear Elijah will make sure you make it home safely. And while I return to creating my hybrids I’ll leave your little band to find my stake.”
Elena was breathing hard, so many things she wanted to say but none that she could let out, either because the words stuck in her throat or she had enough desire for self-preservation to know would be a bad idea to say. But she couldn’t be completely smart in the face of Klaus, even though she knew better. She turned back to Elijah and addressed him instead. “I can’t trust him,” she said, not directly insulting Klaus but only just shy of calling him out, “but I’d like to think your word still means something. So can you give me that?”
Klaus wasn’t to know that she trusted Elijah’s word almost completely; if last night hadn’t happened she would be questioning his honor even more than she pretended to now but she was angry enough to present a lot more doubt in him than she actually felt. She had no way of knowing if Elijah understood that part of it, his expression was back to blank and emotionless. “Yes,” he said evenly. “He will take your blood and leave town again, and you will be free to return to your normal life.”
Instead of reassuring her, his words made her jaw clench. Her normal life? She didn’t have a normal life, and Klaus had seen to it that she never would again. She knew what he meant, but she wanted to say no; and she obviously couldn’t.
Once Klaus was gone they could get back to the plan to put a stop to this. Once Klaus left Mystic Falls again she could start to fight back, so that one day she could tell him no, or better yet he wouldn’t get to ask anymore. She hoped with all her heart that she was right to trust that Elijah would ultimately be on her side even if he couldn’t be right now.
On the plus side, this time as she stepped out into the cold winter night she had her shoes and coat on; aside from that it was pretty much as desperate a move as she’d made the night before, and Elena had a hard time thinking it was going to end as well this time.
~~~
Klaus’s driver, presumably also one of his hybrids, drove while Klaus rode next to him, Elena in the backseat behind him and Elijah behind the red-haired driver. It was very quickly obvious they weren’t going to the hospital as Elena had supposed, which meant they were almost certainly going back to the mansion.
Elena pulled her arms tightly around her body and stared out the window. Her heart pounded furiously; she badly wanted to take it back, she shouldn’t have agreed to this. She wanted to reach for Elijah’s hand, for any kind of anchor in the face of her rising fear, but she couldn’t even look to him for that kind of support. The fact that less than a day ago he had been the one she was afraid of seemed a distant memory.
And she had never been afraid of Elijah like this, she could see that now. She may have believed he could and would kill her, but that was easy – had been especially so in her emotional state at the time. Death was easy when you didn’t have much to live for anymore. But even if she had still felt as dead inside as she had the day before, facing Klaus was different. What Klaus did to her was so much worse than any threat she had imagined Elijah posed. At his worst Elijah would only kill her; Klaus though...
Klaus destroyed her, drained her, violated her; and left her alive so she could view all that he had done.
Elena was fighting back tears by the time they arrived at Klaus’s mansion, where the hybrid parked the car right behind Elijah’s car that was still closest to the doorway. In a mockery of chivalry Klaus opened the car door for her and offered her a hand out. She was definitely not so far gone as to accept that and found the fire to glare at him as she stood up on her own.
Once she was standing, he still took a grip on her arm, and when she tried to pull away it only made him increase his hold until it was painfully tight. “Niklaus,” Elijah barked as he appeared beside them. The two of them engaged in a short, silent battle of wills that seemed to end in a stalemate as Klaus grip loosened slightly but it was clear he wasn’t going to release her. “Shall we proceed inside?” Elijah added dryly.
Elena hadn’t even been fighting that – no matter how much she wanted to turn and run the other way she knew it was pointless – she just didn’t want Klaus touching her. Those hands had killed her brother; those teeth, which showed through his smirk now, had ripped Jeremy’s flesh apart until there could be no conclusion for the authorities except that an animal had done it.
An animal had done it. An animal that now herded her through the grand entrance of his habitat.
The night before Elijah had left the house dark aside from the rooms they were using, Klaus had the whole place lit up and announcing he was in residence. But it was just as hollow and empty as it had seemed to her in the cold darkness of her last entrance. The sounds of the four of them entering echoed in the vast space of the mansion, as it they were clustered together surrounded by a void of dead – but well lit – space.
There weren’t any signs of the fight between Elijah and the Salvatore brothers in the front hall and she knew there would be no other signs of what had happened here last night. It felt so much longer ago than that, and all the strength she had been able to draw from it had been taken from her – most of it taken by the day’s events before Klaus had even appeared but it was certainly all gone now.
Klaus still didn’t let go of her now that it was even less possible for her to run away. “Welcome back Elena,” he said in a light tone. “I’m sure you’ll forgive me for say I hope you won’t be staying long.”
“I hope so too,” Elena found herself saying, with at least half the bite she had wanted to put in it; so she was doing better on the surface than she felt inside.
Klaus smirked again, either with genuine amusement or just because it was his natural expression as he escorted her down the hall towards where she knew the kitchen to be, but instead he turned into the dining room; identified by the fact it had a table large enough for at least thirty people Elena was sure. Having seen more and more of the mansion she was found herself questioning more and more who Klaus had built such a space for. As Elijah had pointed out, Klaus had intended to leave his siblings daggered, and from what Elena had seen Klaus wasn’t terribly interested in treating his hybrids to grand style. She wouldn’t be at all surprised if there was a servants’ area of the house she hadn’t seen yet, which was more likely where Klaus had intended to house his slavish followers.
The dining room, like many other rooms in the house, was decorated with artwork Elena now suspected had been done by Klaus; Caroline had let them in on how Klaus preferred his own artwork even to pieces he could steal. And at the far end of the room one of the chairs had been set up with equipment to harvest Elena’s blood.
For as differently as she felt towards Klaus and Elijah, they did both know how to make a statement without having to say a word. Of course, they had lived and been lords for centuries; if they hadn’t known it in life, they’d had plenty of time and opportunity to learn the art of it. Klaus made her walk the length of the room, her fate looming before her, letting her feel the weight of it approaching before they even neared the chair.
“Tim, why don’t you go and fix Miss Gilbert something to eat for when we’re done with her,” Klaus said, dismissing his hybrid. As he issued the order Klaus smoothly pulled Elena’s long coat off her and set it on the table. In the same smooth motion he practically pushed her into taking a seat where he wanted her.
“Yes sir,” Tim said with a nod; he had an accent that screamed of Texas to Elena’s ear.
“And make sure to bring a knife, she’ll need blood and Elijah refuses to do things the easy way when he can do them neatly.”
Once Tim was gone, Klaus brought his hand up to run the back of his fingers against Elena’s cheek. She tried to turn away from his attempted contact, but he continued until she couldn’t escape his touch. “Now, you’re not going to run now are you? Or do I have to tie you up?” His voice, like his touch, was a mockery of seduction.
She shuddered at the implication of his words and shook her head. “I won’t run,” she said softly; how many times had she promised him that?
“Good,” he said in a low voice, and rubbed his hand against her cheek again.
Elena couldn’t help it anymore, her eyes desperately looked to Elijah. Elijah was keeping his distance standing well behind his brother, but she could see the set of his jaw and the barely perceivable fire in his eyes as he watched what was happening. He was an Original, but in this he was as helpless as she was; or at least he acted like it.
Klaus chuckled slightly. “If you’re looking for him to save you, you should know better by now.”
“I agreed to help you do this as neatly as possible; much more of this behavior, Klaus, and I may reconsider,” Elijah explained; he said it without emotion but still the threat was clear.
“I don’t particularly need your cooperation anymore,” Klaus said breezily.
Elijah’s eyes met Elena’s and they were alight with a smile that didn’t quite materialize on his lips. “You do,” he said knowingly, “more than you know.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Klaus asked as his hands took their good, sweet time rolling up the long sleeve of her maroon shirt and making preparations to begin drawing her blood, all while feeling quite free to touch her as he desired.
“Let’s just say if you attempted to carry out your plan of taking her away with you, she would certainly have taken steps to ensure this was the last blood donation you ever took from her.”
Elena barely suppressed a shudder at his words, and at the way Klaus’s fingers slowly felt her arm for a vein. Elijah knew her almost too well; he’d seen her drive a knife into her own guts when she stopped having anything but her life to bargain with – and ended up with a dagger in his heart for thinking she wouldn’t do it. She wasn’t sure how well that plan would have worked with Klaus, but Elijah knew what she was capable of and that she wouldn’t have accepted Klaus’s plan.
Finally Klaus inserted the needle just below Elena’s elbow; and at last he drew away from her, but not without a final possessive brush of his fingers against the soft flesh of her arm. Elena watched as her blood began to flow through the thin tubes into the blood bag hanging at the base of her chair. There were at least two more bags waiting beneath this one.
“How much are you taking?” she asked, suddenly aware of how dry her mouth seemed.
Klaus reached up and yanked her hair so she looked up at him, all pretense of gentleness gone. “I promised to leave you alive because I wish it,” he told her roughly.
Anything else he might have said was stopped by Elijah pulling him back by his collar. Not far back, but enough to take Klaus’s attention; at which point he let go again. “Neatly,” Elijah reminded him.
Klaus bristled and stood up to his full height, which wasn’t quite even with Elijah’s but was close. “When did you grow so soft?” he asked in a hushed and dangerous tone.
The air around Elijah seemed to crackle dangerously. “When did you begin to mistake honor for weakness?”
Klaus’s answering chuckle was just as dangerous. “It’s not my mistake,” he said. “It’s you that confuses the concepts.”
Elijah glowered a moment and then lightly shoved Klaus back – lightly for a vampire in that Klaus only staggered back into one of the high backed chairs. “I am working for your interests,” he said as he stood over Klaus. “As I have done before and will surely do again, but it is past time you took my council in your pursuit of those goals.” Elena was glad he wasn’t directing that kind of anger at her, he certainly was scary when he chose to be, but she’d be lying to say she wasn’t a little turned on by watching him direct it at Klaus.
Unsurprisingly, Klaus’s response was another smirk. “I do remember when I stopped,” he said cruelly. His gaze shifted back to Elena and his smirk deepened.
Katherine, Elena knew. She doubted whether Klaus knew Elijah had told her about that chapter of history, he was most likely just using her as a stand in for making his point. She looked away; it was just as likely Klaus did know that Elijah had told her about that months ago so she didn’t need to pretend to miss the point, but she wasn’t interested in being anyone’s Katherine stand in, no matter how minor the role.
She knew that if this thing with her and Elijah continued, one day they’d have to discuss the Katherine story again. He had never made her feel like a Katherine substitute, in any of the forms their relationship had gone through; but at some point she would need to hear the words, to know and not just assume that he saw her for her and not as a shadow of the past girls who had shared her face.
Elijah remained standing between her and Klaus as Tim the hybrid came back with a plate of food and was dismissed again. Shortly after that, the blood bag filled to the point it needed to be exchanged for another one. Elijah did so clinically, with no evidence of the process bothering him or of being stirred by the blood; then he circled around to take the seat to Elena’s right side, across from Klaus.
Klaus pulled the food plate towards himself and picked up one of the slices of cheese. Elijah looked at him disapprovingly but didn’t actually do anything to stop Klaus from helping himself. Elena was starting to feel light-headed but she eyed the sharp knife on the edge of the plate and fantasized that she lived in a world where it would have done any good to attack Klaus with the blade. How satisfying it would be to slice his throat and watch his blood flow out of him, freeing them all from his terror and control; unfortunately she lived in a world it wouldn’t have done any good even to try.
The silence stretched on between the three of them while the sound of Elena’s pulse pounded in her ears, and may have been just as audible to the vampires.
By the time the second blood bag was full Elena’s thoughts were fuzzy beyond the focus she spent keeping herself from resting her head on the table. She could hear and feel her heart beating rapidly, trying to keep her going but only pumping more of it out of her body with every pulse. And still Klaus replaced the second bag with the third empty one. “Klaus,” Elijah cautioned his brother, “is that necessary?”
“You can heal her from one more,” Klaus said without concern. He placed both of the already filled bags on the table in front of the three of them.
The third bag seemed to take forever, either because her blood was flowing more slowly or the blood loss was starting to affect her sense of time. With every long moment that passed, putting her head down on the table seemed more and more inviting and only the presence of Klaus and plastic bags already filled with her blood gave her the determination not to. Her eyelids felt so heavy though, and her head so light and cloudy. Her arms were dead weights resting lifelessly on the heavy armrests, and yet still blood flowed out of her left one, slowly (so slowly now) filling the blood bag. What if Klaus insisted she could still give more? He wanted her to remain alive, right? He wouldn’t push this so far that she couldn’t recover from it, would he...and Elijah couldn’t let it go that far, could he?
Finally, Klaus was satisfied and he knelt to retrieve the final bag (there was still another empty one on the floor, but apparently he wouldn’t risk draining her that much) and disconnected her from the thin, red stained tubes. His hands lingered against her skin as he worked and stood up, but she couldn’t find the energy to pull away from his touch now, and even if she had the energy to try it was doubtful her limbs would have responded.
Before he left he laid a hand on her shoulder and looked down at her; with a smirk of course. “Thank you for your cooperation,” he said, his tone just shy of sarcastic but far short of gratitude. He turned to Elijah then, even as he trailed his fingers along the collar of her shirt, trailing into the V of her the neckline – which was thankfully not a low cut on this shirt – before truly releasing her. “I’ll deal with this and leave her to your...care. I’m sure you can deal with that neatly.”
Klaus took the blood bags carefully and walked the long distance out of the dining room while Elijah pulled the plate across the table. Elena knew faintly that she should eat something, but it seemed like too much work right now. She watched Klaus leave and once he was gone she needed a seemingly enormous amount of energy just to look over at Elijah.
A finger to his own lips this time indicated a reminder to be careful with what she said, not that she felt like talking right now anyway. He then offered her a slice of fruit (apple, maybe pear, she wasn’t sure) but set it down again when she didn’t move to take it.
This time he picked up the knife instead. “You’re going to need blood,” he told her evenly. His tone was careful, but now that they were alone his expression was less controlled and she knew he was concerned for her.
Elena managed a heavy sigh and a single, small and weary nod. She was in no position to argue.
Elijah set the knife back down and stood up to remove his suit jacket and roll up his sleeves. He then repositioned his chair so it was next to hers facing the opposite direction before sitting back down. The armrests of their chairs were nearly touching and when he sat down his arm brushed against hers. His skin wasn’t particularly warm right now, but against her own clammy flesh Elena hardly noticed.
After a moment of that contact he bent his arm up and positioned the thin-bladed knife against his wrist. “Are you ready?” he asked.
She couldn’t make herself say yes, but she couldn’t say no. She needed vampire blood, she could feel it, but this just felt like too much.
When she didn’t answer, Elijah brought his hand to rest lightly on her shoulder. He mouthed something that she was too bleary eyed and minded to read and decipher. It was too short to be ‘always and forever’ this time, but likely some reassurance he didn’t think he could give her audibly. Aloud he cautioned her, “It’s either me or Klaus.”
There was no choice to that. Even if she didn’t feel...whatever it was she felt for Elijah, there was no question of letting Klaus’s blood heal her. She would never be clean again if she took Klaus’s blood and allowed it to merge with her own, always feeling the violation of him lingering inside her.
So she nodded, and watched him consider his hand and arm for a moment before cutting into the flesh of his hand so that the blood would flow into his cupped palm. There was already a sizable and growing pool of blood waiting as he brought his hand to her lips. “Drink,” he encouraged her, as close to the gentle bedroom Elijah as she was likely to get within earshot of Klaus (or anybody for the time being).
Slowly she leaned forward just enough to bring her lips (dry and cold now) to his hand. Elijah made it as easy as possible for her to drink the blood, but she still gagged a little as she took in a mouthful of the stuff. Once she had drunk the collected blood, Elijah moved his hand slightly so she could drink from the still-open cut he had made. It was a far larger and deeper cut than the one he had made in the middle of the night to give her just enough blood to heal her minor wounds. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine they were back in bed together, that the world was only the two of them and the wounds were more or less self-inflicted. It made it slightly easier to keep the blood down as she fought with every fresh swallow, but it would take so much more blood to restore her this time.
At long last Elijah’s hand healed enough that her lips and tongue found healing flesh rather than continuing blood flow and she pulled back from him. Under the circumstances of the night before, her lips had lingered against his skin longer than necessary, nuzzling lightly at his wrist; but even if she had desired to do that now she wouldn’t have dared to with Klaus nearby.
“You’re going to need more,” Elijah told her as he handed her the piece of fruit again. This time she took it, her arm and hand responding slowly to her commands to move up, grasp the fruit and bring it to her mouth, but at least she was able to command them now.
The fruit turned out to be pear, soft and spongy; Elena made a face, she had never much cared for the texture of pears and now the taste reacted badly with the flavor of blood in her mouth. Tim hadn’t brought her anything to drink, just crackers, cheese, and fruit.
Elijah offered her a slice of cheese, but Elena reached for the crackers. Those turned out to be slightly lemon flavored but didn’t clash as badly with the aftertaste of blood. “Don’t they usually feed you cookies after you give blood?” she joked. Her voice was still pretty weak, but she was getting stronger.
“Do you want cookies or do you want to get out of here?” he asked with slight amusement.
It made Elena grimace a bit though. “Getting out of here,” she said with as much conviction as her condition allowed.
“And you’re still being rude,” Klaus said from the other end of the dining room, leaning against the entryway. “Not that I think we could expect any better, after you so rudely killed our brother. That wasn’t neat at all,” he added, clearly directed to Elijah as much as her.
“That we can agree on,” Elijah replied before Elena could say anything.
There was bitterness in his voice that made Elena’s heart clench. How much of that had actually been resolved between them? She knew it wasn’t all faked for Klaus’s benefit, it couldn’t be. She also couldn’t be sorry for it in front of Klaus, no matter what she could give Elijah when it was only between them. “You don’t get to take the high ground,” she said flatly.
She wished she had the nerve to say ‘It would have been neat if it had worked.’ But knowing what they knew now that wasn’t appropriate – it wouldn’t have been neat at all, it would in fact have been a mess – to say nothing of saying it in front of Elijah.
“I can take whatever ground I wish,” Klaus told her.
“Can you take it elsewhere? I’d like to finish the task at hand,” Elijah offered dryly.
Klaus sped across the room at vampire speed and took Elena’s chin forcefully in hand to make her face him. “I hope you’re smart enough not to need another demonstration of what happens to people who deny me.”
Elena almost literally bit her tongue, but she glared at him hard. His hold tightened until she managed to spit out an answer; “I know.”
“Then find my stake before I start to think you need another example,” he said, his voice alone was as threatening as the words he used. He then pushed her away and quickly left the room again.
“Shall we continue?” Elijah said after they’d sat in silence for a moment.
Elena looked back at him, still keeping up the cold exterior he took on when Klaus was present; how much of it was true and brought on by the reminder of Finn would have to wait. “I guess we should,” she said, shaken.
Elijah repeated the cut to his hand, but with her ability to help matters this time it was easier to start the process of drinking it; the first taste wasn’t quite as hard to swallow and she held his hand in the position again her mouth to drink at an acceptable rate. Her hand gripped his, but it was only comforting in its solidness, there was no more to it. This round wasn’t awful, but she hoped this would be the last time they had to do this. She was tired of blood leaving or entering her body, and she was completely ready to get away from here.
It seemed they were done, as this time when there stopped being blood for her to swallow, Elijah stood up and returned his chair to its former location. He indicated the plate still mostly stocked with food and Elena picked up a few more of the crackers; they seemed to be the best thing to eat to combat the effects of drinking so much blood. If they were leaving she could eat more of the peach pie – as well as all the other sympathy dishes in her refrigerator – when she was home and once she thought she could actually stomach food again. She knew she needed real food, she didn’t need to be a doctor’s daughter to know that after significant blood loss the body needed nutrition, but the blood she’d ingested was upsetting her stomach, or maybe that was the tension of the last hour getting to her.
“Can we go now?” she asked as she nibbled at the cracker.
“If you feel strong enough, then by all means; I’ll return you home safely, as promised.”
Elena pursed her lips slightly. Come to think of it she wasn’t sure she wanted to go home; but she had to get out of here and once they were clear they could discuss the next step.
