Okay, y'all: I'm taking an unofficial opinion poll. If these two ever manage to get some intimate alone time, and if I can stop blushing and clutching my pearls long enough to write it, do you want to see it from:
A) Elijah's point of view; OR
B) Jenna's point of view
(It will presumably NOT be from Elena's point of view; I think the poor girl's been traumatized enough.)
What say ye?
Once again, since the comments don't seem to work well on this blog site, the fanfiction.net link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6910203/7/Just_Enough_Rope . Please don't hesitate to zip over there and leave a comment as a review if the site won't let you comment here.
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CHAPTER SEVEN
Jenna stole yet another glance at the fancy clock on the Lockwood mantel. The committee meeting had passed the two hour mark and was about halfway through the third hour. Privately (and perhaps uncharitably), Jenna wondered why Carol bothered to put these committees together when she always ended up dictating everything anyway.
"Jenna, will you contact the woman who did the study to see if she'll come and speak at the dedication?"
She shifted her attention away from the clock and back to the mayor. "Yeah, sure. I'll probably see her tomorrow night anyway." That was why Carol formed committees: so she could get other people to do the actual work once she'd dictated it. 'Work,' in this case, being the opening and dedication of the new Mystic Falls Women's Shelter and Resource Center. Jenna had made the mistake, several months ago, of mentioning a study that one of her professors had done regarding the effects of sexual abuse during childhood and adolescence, and that had been all Carol had needed to hear before she was off and running with the idea for a shelter and assistance program.
"Excellent," Carol said, closing the binder in front of her. "I think we've covered everything, then."
Jenna didn't wait for Carol to go through her usual closing remarks. She was tired, she had to pee, and she damn well wanted to go home. "I'll call you next week and let you know if Marjorie is available," she promised as she saw herself to the powder room.
When she had finished what she needed to do and exited the powder room, the other women were gathered in a clump by the front door. Apparently Carol had thought of yet more to discuss. Jenna slipped quietly down the hall in the other direction and scooted into the library, letting herself out the french doors that went onto the verandah. She'd have to walk around the house, but at least she could avoid being assigned yet one more task.
Carol's army of groundskeepers were hard at work. Two workers, a man and a woman, chatted amiably while they pruned back the bank of rosebushes that skirted the entire back of the house. A younger guy, probably 19 or 20, stood on a stepladder, touching up the paint on one of the large trellises. A fourth worker drove a huge lawn tractor, mowing for what would be perhaps the last time before winter.
Jenna stepped off of the verandah and headed across the lawn to go around the house on the far side, which would put her at the driveway without having to cross in front of the main entrance, where there was every possibility she'd be waylaid by the mayor. As she walked, she stuck her hand into her bag, feeling around for her phone. It wasn't in the smaller pocket on the outside of the bag, where she normally put it. She tried reaching into the main compartment, but couldn't get her hand in all the way. Pausing, she swung it around in front of her and opened it, looking as best she could around all of the other stuff jammed in there. When the quick visual inspection yielded no results, she stuffed her hand in one end, then the other, to no avail. Probably wouldn't be able to hear anything on it anyway, as loud as that mower was. Thinking back, she tried to recall the last time she had used it. She didn't remember turning it off when she got to class. In fact, she didn't think she had used it since that morning, when she'd had the near miss on the way to campus.
Figuring she must have left it in the car, she swung the bag back up onto her shoulder. The movement in her peripheral vision when she did so made her look up – just in time to hurl herself sideways, where she crashed into the roses, snagging clothing and skin and hair on the thorns as she fell. The lawn tractor kept going, right over the spot where she had just been standing; had she not gotten out of the way, it would have knocked her down and likely gone over her.
"Hey!" she shouted at the driver, climbing painfully to her feet and gouging yet more skin on the thorns as she did so. The tractor hadn't even slowed. There was no possible way the driver hadn't seen her; she'd been maybe three feet away when she had dived for cover. "Hey, asshole!" Still nothing.
Well and truly pissed, Jenna took off at a jog, catching up to the mower just as it reached the corner of the house. Grabbing the driver's shoulder, she gave it a hard tug, shouting to be heard over the machine's racket. "What the fuck?!"
The man jerked when she grabbed him, as though startled. Braking to a stop, he reached down and turned the machine off. "Shoot, you scared me. Something wrong, Miss? Oh! You're bleeding! What happened?" he asked, swing out of the seat and stepping toward her.
"Wrong? You practically just ran me over!" Jenna looked down at her hands and arms, which were covered in long, narrow scratches, several of which were indeed bleeding.
"Huh?" He shook his head blankly.
"Right back there, where there's a crushed spot in the roses that's roughly me-shaped?"
"I... I didn't..." He reached up and took off his ball cap to run his hand over sweaty, thinning hair. "I don't know what happened," he said, looking around him absently, brows drawn together in a look of total confusion. "I'm not even supposed to be mowing this part today." He turned his gaze back on her, clearly troubled. "What am I doing over here?"
Jenna backed up a few steps to put some distance between herself and the man, whom she was realizing had clearly been compelled. "Nevermind. It's okay," she said, scooting around him and hurrying around the corner of the house. She kept an eye behind her in case he came after her, but he made no move to do so. Still, she didn't let her guard down until after she'd dug her keys out and gotten into her car.
A glance in the rearview mirror as she shifted the car into reverse showed some scratches to her face like the ones she sported on her arms and hands. Her hair was a mess, disordered and sprinkled liberally with bits of leaves. She’d take care of it once she got home, she decided. She felt around on the passenger seat for her phone as she pulled out of the driveway and onto the road, but came up empty-handed. Probably on the floor or under the seat from when she had stopped so suddenly.
As she put some distance between herself and the Lockwood mansion, the adrenaline started to wear off, leaving her feeling shaky and nerved up. She couldn't believe she had chased after him. What if he had been compelled to try and kill her, not stopping until he had succeeded? She grabbed her travel mug, half full of long-cold coffee, and took a couple of swigs.
That was a mistake.
Jenna swerved onto the shoulder and slammed the car into park, jumping out of it almost before it had completely stopped moving. Stumbling around the hood of the car, she leaned on the fender and retched repeatedly, dry-heaving long after everything had come up. She wondered blearily if it were actually possible to turn entirely inside-out.
Once everything seemed inclined to stay in place again, she scuffed gravel over the mess and paced a little until she was sure the nausea had passed. So much for her big speech to Elena and Elijah about being able to handle everything, she thought bitterly. A couple small incidents of attempted murder and dismemberment, and she was already a frigging basket case. Way to hold up under pressure, Jenna.
She got back into the car and pulled her water bottle out of her bag, uncapping it to rinse her mouth out. She paused, though, with the bottle halfway to her lips. Her coffee cup had been in her car the whole time she had been at Carol’s. Her unlocked car. What if it wasn’t just nerves turning her stomach into an amusement park bouncy house? Though she supposed that wouldn’t explain last night, unless… unless someone had gotten to the pizza too! It had been delivered, after all, allowing God only knew how many people access to it. Jenna wracked her brain, trying to think who else had eaten the pepperoni pizza. Andie and Elena had both eaten the veggie; Jeremy had eaten at the hospital. She didn’t think Elijah had eaten any at all, but even if he had she doubted it would have affected him. The rest of it was presumably in the refrigerator.
Unless the kids had taken some to school for lunch! “Shit! shit shit shit,” she started muttering under her breath, leaning over to dig frantically through the papers and food wrappers and empty fast food bags littering the floor on the passenger side, searching for her phone. No luck, not even after checking underneath the seat. “Shit!”
Deciding that the lukewarm water was probably okay by virtue of having been with her the whole time, Jenna took a couple of mouthfuls and swished them around, spitting them out her still open door before slamming it shut and peeling away from the shoulder, sending gravel flying. She could only pray that no one else had eaten any of the pizza.
~~~~~
Jenna almost cried with relief when she tore down the street and saw both Elena and Jeremy’s cars in the driveway. Elijah’s car was there, too, looking like a sleek black panther in a predatory crouch, ready to pounce on the kids’ SUV and Jeep wildebeests. She barely had time to open the door before all three of them piled out of the house, Elena and Jeremy jogging over to her, Elijah following at a more dignified pace.
“Aunt Jenna!” Elena swept her up in a hug. “Where have you been?! What happened?” She turned Jenna’s arms over, looking at the scratches.
“Carol’s. Committee meeting. The pizza! You didn’t eat it, did you?”
“Uh, yeah…” Jeremy said. “Sorry. I didn’t think you’d mind.”
Jenna let go of Elena and rushed to Jeremy. “The pepperoni?!”
“Yeah… Aunt Jenna, are you okay?” Jeremy shot a concerned look over at Elijah.
“I think it was poisoned,” she said. “How do you feel? Are you sick?!” She held a hand up to Jeremy’s forehead. “We should go to the hospital!”
“I’m fine,” he said, removing her hand from his forehead. “That was like, three hours ago. I’m fine,” he repeated.
“Wait, why do you think it was poisoned?” Elena asked, frowning. “Did something else happen? We’ve been trying to call you all afternoon.”
Jenna took a deep breath, fighting down the latest bout of panic. “I lost my phone. I can’t find it.”
“Jeremy, Elena, could I have a few moments with your aunt?” Elijah asked, his eyes never leaving hers.
“I… yeah, sure,” Elena agreed, reluctantly. “Come on, Jer.”
Elijah held an arm out to Jenna, wrapping it around her waist as she fell into step with him and went into the house. He moved her toward the living room; she got to about the archway before turning and wrapping her arms around his waist, burying her face against his chest. He put his arms around her and rested his chin on top of her head, stroking her back.
“I’m sorry,” she said, fighting back tears, her voice muffled against him. “I supposed to be handling this.”
“Shh.” He kept up a steady, calming rhythm, stroking her back and her hair. Jenna let herself cling to him, wallowing in the feeling of being taken care of. The feeling had been in damn short supply lately. May as well enjoy it for a minute or two, at least until she was sure she wasn’t going to further humiliate herself by breaking down and bawling.
When she felt marginally better, she pulled back a little. Elijah kissed her forehead and led her over to the chair, seating himself on the ottoman and facing her when she sat. “Tell me what happened.”
Jenna blew out a breath. “Whole list, or just the top ten?” Elijah quirked a brow at her. “Not literally. But it’s been a long day.” She told him about the near miss with the Volkswagen and her paranoia when she had seen the girl getting out of the car, then moved on to the incident at Carol’s, culminating with her theory on the coffee and the pizza being poisoned somehow. He waited until she was finished before saying anything.
“First of all, it isn’t paranoia if someone really is out to get you. The first incident sounds innocent enough, though. The second, however…” Elijah got up to pace. “Who else was at the mansion? Anyone you didn’t know?”
She shook her head. “No, not inside. There were people outside working on the grounds. Three people besides the one who tried to… heh, to mow me down.”
“Can you describe them? The other three?”
“Not really. There was a man and a woman pruning rose bushes, and a kid, maybe twenty years old, painting the trellis. Nothing about them really stuck out to me.”
“I ask because this doesn’t sound like a pre-meditated compulsion. Too random, too nonspecific. It strikes me more as an act of opportunity, which would seem to indicate one of the other three as the source of the compulsion."
“Yeah, because that makes it much less scary and creepy. Not!”
“You said he didn’t pursue you beyond the initial pass?” Jenna shook her head. “And you’re sure it was intentional, not just a loss of focus on his part?”
“I wasn’t exactly hidden, Elijah. I was standing right there in plain sight. And he was looking directly at me. It was like there was no one home upstairs, if you know what I mean.”
“Okay.” He stopped pacing and resumed his seat on the ottoman. “Onto the next. Jeremy seems to be fine after eating the pizza, so I don’t believe there was anything wrong with that. Where is your coffee cup? Still in the car?”
Jenna nodded. “Yeah. Do you think I should take it somewhere, have it tested?”
“That depends. Do you want the sheriff asking importune questions?”
Jenna scrunched her nose up. “I’m guessing ‘no’ is the appropriate answer here?”
He smiled, rueful. “You guess correctly. I’ll go retrieve it.”
While he went out to the car, Jenna went to the bathroom to wash her hands and arms. The scratches had stopped bleeding, leaving tracks of dried blood in a maze-like pattern on her skin. The shallow wounds stung as she patted her skin dry. She grabbed a washcloth from the cupboard and did the best she could with the scratches on her face, then started pulling leaves and bits of twig out of her hair.
Elijah appeared in the mirror behind her, travel mug in hand. He had removed the top and was sniffing at it. “I don’t smell anything off,” he said, then took a swallow.
“Hey! What are you doing?!”
He swished it around in his mouth before swallowing. “I don’t taste anything either. Other than grotesquely over-light coffee.” He made a face.
“Would you be able to tell?”
“Most likely.” He leaned against the door frame. “I don’t suppose you have any friends out of town that you could go visit?”
“With my abstract due next week?”
“Right,” he sighed.
“I’m going to make some coffee,” she decided, edging past him and heading toward the kitchen.
Elijah followed. “There are two more Originals in town. Or were, earlier,” he amended, when she turned to give him a wide-eyed stare.
“Way to bury the lead.”
“They’re friends, after a fashion.”
“'After a fashion?’ What does that mean, exactly?” she asked, measuring out coffee grounds. “I don’t speak ‘arcane vampire.’”
He smiled, a little. “Let’s just say, if I were to count any of the others as allies, it would be the two of them.”
“Not in love with the 'if' word in this context.”
“They would challenge me if they felt that the situation warranted it, but they’re not going to play games like compelling truck drivers or gardeners. That’s more Sebastian’s style. I’m guessing he sent others besides Justin here. If Hilda or Gareth had an issue with me, they would confront me directly with it.”
Jenna paused with the coffeepot halfway to the sink. “Hilda? Like as in a woman?”
That got a small laugh out of him. “Yes…”
She filled the pot and poured water into the coffee maker, pressing the ‘on’ button. “I just assumed that all of the Originals were men.”
“Hilda was the only woman amongst us.”
“Weren't you all warriors?”
Elijah nodded. “We were, Hilda included.”
“Wow. Okay. I… didn’t think women did that sort of thing. You know, back then.”
“Most didn’t. It was of course frowned upon. Hilda was allowed, however.” Elijah gave a soft laugh. “Probably because no one wanted to be the one to tell her she couldn’t.”
Jenna smirked. “She kicked your ass, didn’t she?”
“Repeatedly,” he affirmed, leaning against the counter and pulling her back against him.
“I almost want to meet her,” Jenna said, putting her arms over his, across her stomach. “Almost. Is she scary?”
“Mm, terrifying,” he said, his lips nuzzling her behind the ear.
“Stop that,” she giggled.
“Stop what?” He pulled her earlobe between his teeth, flicking it with his tongue.
“Ooh… that,” she answered, even as she tilted her head to the side to give him better access.
Elijah seized the opening and trailed a string of kisses down her neck, pulling the collar of her shirt aside with his teeth so his lips could continue their slow, torturous progress, stopping just short of her bra strap. He traveled back along the same path, pulling her skin into his mouth every few kisses or so, making her catch her breath. “You mean this?” he breathed into her ear.
“Yeah,” she gasped.
He freed one arm out from under hers and slid his hand slowly up her body, caressing her breast on its way to cupping her face and turning it toward him so that he could claim her lips. His other hand followed the trail the first had blazed, resting underneath her breast, his thumb reaching up to flick across her nipple. Jenna groaned into his mouth and tried to turn around, but he held her fast against him, not allowing it.
Fine, two can play this game. Reaching one arm up over her shoulder, she wrapped it around his neck. She quickly realized she'd made a tactical error; Elijah took the opportunity afforded him by the position and slipped his hand underneath her shirt and over the lace of her bra. Searching for any advantage, she pressed her backside up against him, rubbing as she moved side to side. She smiled a little against his lips as his breath caught and his arm tightened around her.
The next second, she was somehow perched on the counter, face to face with him, with his hand tangled in her hair and pulling her head back to expose her throat to him. This should probably worry me, she thought briefly, then stopped thinking at all as his hand on the small of her back pulled her hips forward so there was nothing between them but a little cotton and denim. Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around his waist and moved against him as he nibbled and sucked and licked at her neck.
Fevered, she yanked his head back by the hair and attacked his lips with her own, biting his bottom lip before darting her tongue into his mouth. His hips moved, bucking against her and tearing a ragged moan from her throat as the world narrowed down to her body and his, and what the two were doing to one another. She ground herself against him again, pulling a muffled oath from him this time. She was close… oh God, she was so close…
“Uh, Elena…”
“Wha – oh my God, sorry. So sorry! I… Jeez, we…”
“Let’s just go.”
Stefan and Elena’s voices, along with their retreating footsteps, somehow seeped into Jenna’s lust-drenched consciousness, and she shoved Elijah away from her, clapping a hand over her mouth in horror and quickly-dawning mortification. Elijah shook himself a couple of times, as though he too had lost all sense of anything other than what they’d just been doing, or about to do, or wanting to do…
“Well,” he said, after a moment, his voice low and husky. “That was awkward.”
A slightly hysterical giggle escaped her. Jenna darted her eyes down the hallway. “There’s always the half-bath…”
“Jenna,” he said, eyes dark and dangerous, “when I have you for the first time, it’s not going to be in your bathroom.” He blew out a breath and turned away from her, making a subtle clothing adjustment as he did so. “Nor on your kitchen counter. All evidence to the contrary,” he added, ruefully.
“Right. Yeah. Totally.” She dropped her head into her hands. “Oh God, and here I told Elena you wouldn’t be walking around naked, eating ice cream.”
A hint of amusement crept into his voice. “As I’m neither naked nor eating ice cream, you’ve so far kept your word, as it were. Though it does beg the question,” he said, as she peeked out from behind her hands, “as to just how many times she’s caught you in flagrante delicto, now.”
“Not just her,” she groaned. “ Jeremy too. And Stefan, this time.” She heaved a huge sigh. “It’s official. I am the worst parent – and the skankiest aunt – ever.”
“I suppose it could be worse,” he said, reaching into the cupboard for two coffee mugs.
“Do tell.”
“You could have walked in on her and Stefan doing that instead.”
“Good point.” He handed her one of the mugs after putting a liberal dollop of cream in it. “Though then I could be all righteously indignant, instead of mortifyingly embarrassed.” She inhaled the coffee aroma as she went to take a sip – and quickly set the mug away from her, swallowing rapidly. “Too soon!” She hopped off the counter, away from the coffee, breathing shallowly until the sudden nausea passed. “I guess my stomach isn’t ready to forgive and forget the earlier incident just yet. Goddamn it. I like coffee!”
“About Stefan,” Elijah began, covering the concerned look he had been giving her with a sip of his own black coffee, “I called him earlier when I was outside and asked him to stay here for the night. I don’t like the idea of you three being here without protection. I’ll make sure the security system gets installed tomorrow.”
“So… instead of staying here yourself and… guarding my body… you asked Stefan to come over? Thereby virtually guaranteeing that my niece will be doing what I wanted to be doing?”
“Essentially… yes.” Setting his mug down, he walked over and propped a finger under her chin. “When I have you for the first time, Jenna, it will also not be with your niece or nephew in the next room.” He lowered his face to hers, then gave her a peck of a kiss on the tip of her nose. “Because I promise, you will not be quiet.”
“I… see no problem with this plan,” she decided, blinking as he backed away and picked up his coffee again.
“About your phone…”
“I have class first thing, but if I can’t find it after I tear the car apart then I’ll go and replace it when I leave campus.”
“Good. I don’t like the idea of you not being able to call.” He drained his mug and took it to the sink, dumping the one she had abandoned and rinsing both before putting them in the dishwasher. “I should go. What time shall I pick you up for the meet-and-greet tomorrow?”
“Oh. Um, six-thirtyish? Shit, I need to figure out what I’m going to wear.”
“Tomorrow, then.” He gave her a quick kiss, stepping nimbly out of the way when she would have pulled him in for a longer one. “Behave. There are children present.”
She watched him leave, then moseyed into the dining room or, as she was beginning to think of it, the war zone. Heaving a sigh of frustration, she sat down to do some work.
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