Just Enough Rope, Chapter 10

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Sorry for the delay, y’all.  I had a bit of a rage blackout after Thursday’s finale episode.  At least now I have the four-month hiatus to recover.  If I ever can.  Julie and Kevin, I’m watching you.  >:-/

So, without further ado, part two of the scene I feel like I should ground myself for writing, since I’m too old for my mom to do it.  *deep blush*   I am SO not letting my husband read this sequel.

Let the tomato throwing begin.

Fanfiction.net link:  http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6910203/10/Just_Enough_Rope

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CHAPTER TEN

Elijah lifted Jenna down, keeping his hands on her waist until he was sure her legs were going to support her – and was privately pleased with his efforts when she grasped his upper arms to steady herself for a moment.  He hid the smirk by reaching back to turn off the water.

“That was…” Jenna sighed.

“A good start,” he finished for her, catching her mouth for a smoldering kiss before opening the shower door and grabbing a couple of towels from the rack.  He draped one over her shoulders and rubbed the other across his shoulders and torso, wicking water off of his skin as efficiently as possible.  While she dried off, he sped out to the bedroom, lighting candles and starting the gas fireplace so that when Jenna emerged from the bath, the room was warmly lit by the glow of the flickering light.

She glanced around, impressed.  "This vamp speed thing must come in really handy when it comes time to do housework."

"Mm."  Elijah crossed to her, watching the firelight play off of her skin, flushed and moistened from the steamy bathroom.  Taking her face in his hands, he lowered his lips to hers, soft and sweet.  As heated as things had been in the shower, he preferred to bank that fire and feed it slowly; flames that burned too hotly flashed over and were quickly extinguished.  He had every intention of making this last.

Jenna circled his wrists with her hands, turning to press a kiss into each of his palms.  Elijah rested his forehead against hers as he drew her against him, stroking one hand through her hair to comb through the wet tangles while his other arm circled her waist, holding her close.  "I'm glad you're here tonight," he told her.

"Me too."  With a deep sigh, she settled against him, nuzzling her face against his neck and holding onto him.  "I was scared," she whispered.

"Shhhhh..."  He rubbed his hand down her back, then up; down and back, in a slow, soothing motion over and over again, until Jenna relaxed fully against him, and her heart rate took on a even, steady rhythm.  Only then did he pull back just enough to kiss her again.  He took his time, caressing her lips with his as he traced lazy circles along the back of her neck with his fingertips.  He felt her hand stroke along his jaw, her thumb brushing the cleft in his chin. 

Jenna brought her arms up around his neck, pushing his hair back out of his eyes and off of his forehead as she pulled his bottom lip into her mouth, suckling at it for a moment before she pulled her mouth away from his and moved it down his chin, flicking her tongue where her thumb had just been and trailing kisses down his neck. She moved into him, pushing him back a step, toward the bed.  Elijah smiled and let himself be pushed until he felt the sueded microfiber against the backs of his legs.

Pulling back and looking into his eyes, Jenna raised one eyebrow at him and pushed a hand into the center of his chest.  Acquiescing, he sat on the edge of the bed and put his hands on her waist to try and bring her with him, but she put her hands on his shoulders, resisting.  Taking his face into her hands, as he had done to her earlier, she bent and kissed him deeply.  Wrapping his arms around her hips as the passion flared between them again, he made to turn and roll her onto the bed.  Once more, however, she resisted.  It appeared she had other ideas.

Jenna tore her mouth away from his and knelt slowly down onto the carpet, between his knees.  Smoothing her hands first along the tops of his thighs, then along the insides, she locked her eyes with his in a smoldering, wicked look and took him into her mouth.

Elijah hissed out a breath as her lips and tongue touched him, followed by fingers that softly caressed and kneaded all of the sensitive areas.  "Jenna – "

"Shhhhh," she parroted back at him, making him shiver as he felt as well as heard it.  Needing something to do with his hands, he stroked her hair as she worked her magic on him.  It was always obvious when a woman didn't really enjoy what she was doing, only participating out of some misguided sense of obligation; that wasn't the case with Jenna.  She did enjoy it, just as he had enjoyed her earlier.  Satisfied that she was content, Elijah let his head fall back and surrendered to her.

Sensing his acquiescence, she took all of him in briefly, pulling a gasp from him as all of his senses jumped several steps up the alert scale.  He both heard and felt her chuckle at his reaction, which sent another shockwave ripping through him, making him curse and tighten his fingers in her hair before he consciously made himself let go, gripping the coverlet instead.  Her tongue dancing over a particularly sensitive spot made his whole body spasm involuntarily as a groan escaped him.

Normally a very patient man, Elijah was reminded forcefully – yet again – that his body had been ignored in this manner for far, far too long, and Jenna was taking full advantage of that lapse, making him shudder and jerk and gasp as her mouth flirted over him, by turns playful and forceful.  He had to make her stop.

"Jenna..."

"Mmm..."

Jolt!  His hips jerked forward as that hum, low in her throat, brought him right to the brink.  He bit down on his lip, hard.  "Jenna, you – "

She closed around him, pressing her thumb to the base of him and running it upward.  Jolt!  "You have to – "

Again, she took the whole length of him in, and he felt the delicious rasp of teeth as she withdrew.  Jolt! 

"Jesus, Jenna, you need to – " JOLT!  He gasped in a ragged breath.  "You can't –  I can't –  "

Her dark eyes looking up at him, she fluttered her tongue over him as he whimpered, and as the last of his control started to shred, he saw triumph in them.  Gripping her fingers hard around him, she took him in deep again, and shot him over the edge.

The force of the climax made his back arch hard enough that he heard it snap as he poured himself into her, rocking against her lips as each spasm shook him.  He dimly registered a ripping noise as he clenched the coverlet in his fist, trying to anchor himself.  Wave after wave her mouth worked him, until he was fairly certain he was going to die from the sheer sensation of it and resurrect sometime later in the evening.  At last he spent himself and, shuddering and gasping, fell back on the bed, his feet still on the floor and Jenna rising up to stand between them, her mission accomplished.

His eyes closed, Elijah felt her weight settle on the bed as she pressed a kiss to his forehead.  He cracked one eye open and glanced up to see her lying on her stomach, her head near his, sporting a very self-satisfied smirk.  "Quite pleased with yourself, aren't you?" he murmured.

The smirk widened a little.  "Not as pleased as you are, I think."

"Oh?"  In a quick blur, Elijah moved so that he was over her, his teeth nipping lightly at the back of her neck, making her squeal.

"Hey!  You aren't supposed to be able to move yet, mister!"

"I'm a vampire," he reminded her, running his tongue along her ear-lobe.  "We recover quickly."  He slipped one hand underneath her on the bed, cupping her breast with it.

"Mm," she groaned.  "I seem to remember something about that now."

On his hands and knees over her, Elijah pressed kissed after kiss along Jenna's neck and spine, nipping here and there as he went and caressing her breast, her side, her hip.  She pushed up on one hand, as though to turn over, but Elijah pressed his weight to her to keep her from turning.  "Uh-uh," he murmured.  Using his knee to part her legs a little, he kissed the small of her back and reached around her hip to stroke his hand between her legs.

Jenna moaned and arched her back up a little.  Elijah let his fingers play over her as he slid back up her body.  Feasting on her neck and shoulders, he kept his senses trained on her, waiting for a jump in heart-rate and the scent of hormones to tell him when she was ready.

When she was, he raised her hips and slid inside her.

Jenna groaned and gripped the covers, just as Elijah had earlier.  He covered her hand with his, pulling almost out of her before sliding home again.  The third time, a sudden gasp and the answering kick in her heartbeat showed him he had found the spot; after that, he hit it unerringly.  When she started to clench around him, he took her harder and felt her jerk underneath him as she came.

As her tremors subsided, Elijah slowed his rhythm and wrapped an arm underneath her, straightening so he was on his knees and pulling her up with him, giving his hands full access to the front of her.  He stilled his hips and let his fingers bring her back after a short lull, resuming movement when her breath started coming in quick pants again to send her flying back over the edge.

Elijah held that pattern until he felt himself getting close.  Humans were fragile, and even with the best of intentions, too tight a grasp in the throes of passion could crush her.  Afraid of hurting her when the time came, he separated from her and lay back, urging her on top.  He let Jenna take control from there, setting her own rhythm.

This time, when she went, he went with her.

~~~~~

Jenna stretched out beside him, laying her head on his shoulder.  Elijah pulled the blanket up around her when he felt the gooseflesh along her arm.  "There were supposed to be chocolates, and a truly excellent bottle of wine, you know," he murmured into her hair.

"Mmm... chocolate," she said drowsily, snuggling into him.  She was asleep within minutes.

Elijah lay there, listening to the sounds of the night before he too dropped off to sleep.

~~~~~

Kingdom of Wessex, England, 883 A.D.

It was well after midnight and into the morning when Elijah let himself in through the servants’ quarters.  In the three weeks since he had returned home from battle – a battle from which they had finally emerged victorious, thanks to the ritual he and the others had undergone – it had become his custom to leave the household when it started bustling in the mornings, returning at night when all had quieted.  Then, he could sit in his study and hear himself think.  He could walk through the house without being accosted at every turn by someone wanting something.  He could exist in the same house as his family without wanting to tear their throats out.

This night, though, when he passed silently down the hall and crept into his study, his wife was there, awaiting him.

Leah had lit only a single candle, but the light was more than adequate for his now-heightened senses.  She was in her shift and dressing gown, as though she had risen from bed, unable to sleep.  As he entered the study, she pushed aside the blanket she had draped over her legs to guard against the chill.  Her long, dark hair was unbound and fell in curls almost to her waist, which was barely wider than it had been when he had wed her, despite her having born him five children.  She stood, and Elijah could see just by her stance that his days of politely avoiding her had come to an end.

"The hour is late," he told her, rather unnecessarily.  "You should be abed."

"Yes, I should.  With my husband."  Leah moved to stand in front of him, reaching out a hand and placing it on his arm to stop him when he would have stepped around her.  "Your return has been nearly one month hence, Elijah, yet you have barely spoken.  Indeed, you are barely present.  What troubles you so, my love?"

"Nothing you need dwell on.  I should review the household accounts."  He moved to go around her again. 

She took his hand as he tried to pass.  "Was it something that happened in battle?"

"We won the battle," he answered shortly, freeing his hand.  "Now, please:  return to bed and allow me to work."  Elijah moved the candle from the stand by the divan and set it on the desk, pulling a large ledger from the shelves behind it.  Cracking it open to the last three months' worth, he sat in the chair and uncapped the inkwell.

Leah slapped her hand on the ledger and gave it a mighty shove, sending it flying off the side of the desk.  Elijah leapt up to avoid being sprayed with the ink as the book clipped it and knocked it off the desk.  "Bloody hell!  Are you mad, woman?!"

"Bloody right I am!"  She rounded the desk, all but pinning him to the bookcase with a finger drilled into his chest.  He could see her working herself up to a truly fine temper.  "You disappear all day and for most of the night, and for the few hours you are here, you do whatever necessary to avoid me and the children.  You are not injured, not that I can see, nor are you ill.  This is not like you, Elijah.  My God, Mary came running and hid beneath my skirts this morning after you passed her on your way out the door.  Your own daughter has grown frightened of you!"  Leah emphasized the last with another vicious jab to his chest.

"Perhaps she should be.  Perhaps you all should be."

"Does this have to do with that foolishness with Klaus?" she demanded, crossing her arms in front of her.

Foolishness?!  He had to get away from her.  He stepped to the side, only to have her block him again.  In the next breath, he had her shoved against the bookcase, his hand around her throat.  "Yes, Leah.  That foolishness with Klaus.  That foolishness that made it possible for us to save our homes here."  Elijah felt her pulse flutter under his thumb, where it pressed against her throat. He could hear it whispering to him, calling from under her skin.  He could feel his own veins filling around his eyes as fangs pressed against his lip.

With a monumental effort of will, he whirled away from her, crossing the room to lean his arms on the mantel over a long-cold hearth.  He sucked in deep breath after deep breath and clenched his fists, anything he could think of to keep from crossing the room again and tearing out his wife's throat.

"Helen fled, you know,” she said conversationally, into the charged silence.  “Before Klaus could return home again.  She said that he was no longer her husband, that he had become a monster."

Elijah clenched his eyes shut, afraid the emotion there would spill over.  "Helen was right," he whispered, laying his head on his arms. 

He jerked, startled when slipped her arms around his waist and pressed against his back.  "Helen was a fool," she told him, her disdain for the woman clear.  "Klaus was always a monster.  No arcane ritual was necessary to demonstrate that; anyone with eyes could see it.  Elijah, look at me."

"Please," he begged.  "Leah, don't."

"Look at me," she said, more firmly.  When he still didn't move, she slipped around to the side and turned his face toward her. 

He didn't know how much was visible to her in the dim light, but he could still feel vestiges of the bloodlust marking him.  The thought of what he could do to her... what he wanted to do to her…

But Leah was not a woman easily cowed.  She took his face into her hands, rubbing her thumbs along his cheeks, under his eyes where the veins still ran dark and ugly.  She pressed her lips to his.  "You are not a monster, Elijah.  You. Are. My. Husband.  Whatever this... this thing is that Klaus has pressed upon you, I will not allow it to take you.  I will not allow him to take you.  Do you understand me?  I will not allow it.  You belong to me."

He turned his face from her, unable to bear the scrutiny.  “Leah, please…” he whispered hoarsely.  He wasn’t even certain what he begged her for.  Space?  Understanding?  Absolution?

"Hush.”  Leah pulled him to her.  He resisted at first, but her fingers in his hair and on the back of his neck soothed him, and he let his head fall onto her shoulder, let her give him that small comfort.  “I need you,” she told him softly.  “Our children need you.”

He held her to him.  “There will be no more.”  It was the first time he’d said it out loud, that he had let himself think it, really.  Whatever magic or demonic force – he no longer knew which – drove him, he knew that he had died.  Whether he was man or demon now, he was dead, and life did not spring from death.  He could add no more to their family.

Leah pulled away from him.  Taking his hand, she placed it on her belly, under her dressing gown.  “There will be one more.”  Startled, he stared into her eyes.  She met his gaze steadily.  “Before you rode out, you left something behind.”

Slowly, he spread his fingers out, and felt the small bump underneath, where she was just beginning to swell with his sixth, and final, child.  His emotions, kept viciously dammed to that point, surged and broke through, crashing and raging through him until he was certain they must drown him, but through the maelstrom she held him, kept him anchored to her, to himself, to what he had been before he had allowed Klaus to change him.  “It will be all right,” she murmured to him, over and over as she held him to her.

And for just that little bit, he had allowed himself to believe her.

~~~~~

Jenna shifted and rolled over, waking Elijah from the dream.  He rolled with her and spooned against her back, his arm draped over her.  She sighed contentedly and locked her fingers with his, dropping back into sleep after a few moments.  Elijah remained awake, senses trained around him.  

He couldn’t remember the last time he had dreamt of Leah.  He had long ago trained his conscious mind not to think of her, not to let his mind dwell there.  Because he had hurt her.  But not that night.  That night he had let her lead him to their bed, and made love to her.  He had held her against him when she slept, listening to her slow, steady breathing, and the fluttering, staccato beat of his unborn child’s heart.

Just as he could hear Jenna’s child now.

Elijah slipped his hand out of hers and rolled onto his back, staring up at the ceiling as he sorted through all of the implications of that realization.

An hour later, still awake, he slipped quietly out of bed and left the room.                                         

Just Enough Rope, Chapter 9

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The vote was fairly evenly split, so consider this part one. Meanwhile, I’ll be over in the corner, blushing furiously and clutching my pearls, once again feeling like a 13 year-old hiding under blankets with a flashlight to write dirty stories I didn’t want my mom to find.

Fanfiction.net link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6910203/9/Just_Enough_Rope

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CHAPTER NINE

When Jenna came to, her senses were under assault. Sirens, car alarms, shouted orders, and the roar of fire all battered at her ears. The flickering of flame and the strobe effect of red and blue dancing lights speared into her eyes as she opened them, though she seemed to be some distance away. The acrid smell of smoke, with an under-note of gasoline, filled her nose and made her cough as she took a deep breath to try and clear it. Her body sent up plaintive cries from a scrape here, a bruise there; the ghosts of deeper injuries made their presence known, misty and fading, but somehow no less real for their snuffed out existence.

On her tongue, she tasted blood.

Struggling to an upright position, she realized she was sitting in grass, a little away from the parking lot. Three fire trucks had converged on the scene, and several police cars were circled around the outside of them, keeping onlookers away from an area now teeming with crew that struggled to bring down the flames that danced where Elijah's car had been.

Elijah!

Jenna looked around sharply, hissing in a breath when the sudden movement sent a jolt of pain shooting up the side of her neck to her temple. There, behind her. Elijah was on his hands and knees, blood staining the side of his face that she could see. It was hard to tell in that lighting, but the back of his clothes looked burnt to the point of disintegration. Far more alarming, though, was the large, jagged piece of metal protruding from his back.

"Elijah! Oh my God!" Jenna half crawled, half scrambled over to him, wincing as scraped knees slid across the grass.

He turned his head toward her. "You're awake. Good." His voice sounded oddly breathless. A thin string of blood dripped out of his mouth as he spoke.

Jenna started to put a hand on his back, then pulled it back, afraid to hurt him worse. "Okay. This is bad. Elijah, there's a big piece of metal sticking out of your back."

"Yes, Jenna, I'm aware of that," he said, which started him on a long, racking cough that ended with him turning his head away from her and spitting a torrent of blood onto the ground. "You need to pull it out," he wheezed, when he could speak again.

"I... oh God... wait… just don't move. I'm gonna get someone."

Elijah's hand shot out and grabbed her wrist before she could go. "No!" The one word sent him into another long spasm of coughing. "They can't see this," he finished weakly.

Jenna gulped in a breath. "Elijah, I don't think I can do this. I... I don't want to hurt you," she finished inanely.

"Jenna. Just. Pull. It. Out."

Jenna climbed to her feet, taking another deep breath as she gauged just how big the shrapnel was. Shaking her hands in front of her, she took yet another deep breath, then another – then realized when the sudden dizziness hit that she was going to hyperventilate if she didn't stop. "Oh God, okay. I'm gonna do it now." She found a grip on either side of the piece, feeling for spots that weren't too sharp and, grasping it tightly, she pulled upward.

It barely budged.

Elijah coughed and spat some more blood. Jenna let go and tried not to go into full-blown panic. "Fuck! It's too deep. It won't slide out!"

"It's caught on a rib," he whispered. "Push your foot against my back. Leverage."

“Won’t that break your rib?!”

“Likely,” he agreed.

Jenna took a step back. I can't do this I can't do this I can't do this. This was not in my contract! But, she realized, looking around, she had to. He was right; they couldn't risk someone else discovering his resilience. She took a few seconds to psych herself up some more, then re-gripped the metal, this time putting her foot against his back too. She gave it a hard jerk and heard a horrific, muffled snapping noise.

Elijah grunted in pain and jerked like someone had run a livewire through him, coughing more blood onto the ground. Jenna tried to breathe around sudden nausea as that terrible sound played over and over in her head. Her hands and arms tingled from being jarred when the metal had hit bone. “I’m sorry,” she whimpered, fighting down hysteria.

“S’kay,” Elijah slurred. “…keepgoing...”

Jenna blinked back tears and sniffed. It was ridiculous, her crying while he was the one with the big piece of metal making mincemeat of his insides. She swallowed and grabbed it once more, giving it a tug. This time it slid out a few inches. She took a breath, then tugged again. Another couple of inches slid out. The third time, she kept the pressure steady, feeling his body starting to loosen its hold on the shrapnel. It slid slowly out of him, freeing itself the last little bit with a quick pop that had her tumbling backward onto her ass.

As the metal came free of his body, Elijah collapsed onto his stomach, coughing and retching more blood. Jenna tossed the object away from her and scrambled over to him; when he stilled, she helped him turn over and placed his head in her lap. Tearing off a piece of her ruined coat, she wiped his face, cleaning off the worst of the blood. "What the hell happened?" she asked at last.

“Car bomb.”

“Okay… um,” Jenna processed that for a moment. “Where were we when it exploded?”

“A few steps away. That’s as far as I got before it went off.”

“Wait. We were in it?”

Elijah sighed and sat up. As he did so, his jacket more or less disintegrated off of him. The shirt underneath didn't look too far away from following suit. "Initially.”

"How did we get out?”

"I..." Elijah shook his head. "There was something off, something that warned me. I pushed your door out and pulled you with me out of the car."

"Holy shit." Jenna looked down at herself. "I guess I got lucky with just a few scrapes.”

Elijah got to his feet, holding a hand down to her to help her stand. "I tried to take the brunt of it. You were injured, though. Broken ribs, probably internal bleeding. I fed you my blood to heal the worst of it."

Jenna stared up at him in the dim light. "You mean you got us all the way over here with that thing through you, AND stopped to heal me?"

“I thought it would be prudent not to be too close when the rescue crews arrived. And you needed healing.”

Belatedly taking his hand, Jenna dusted her backside off as she stood, though considering the state of her dress, she didn't know why she bothered. "I'm not a vampire or anything now, am I?"

"No. Not unless you die this evening, while my blood is still in your system."

"You know, normally I wouldn’t walk around like I was an extra in a Final Destination movie, thinking I'm about to kick the bucket, but right now..." Jenna wrapped her arms around his waist, fighting off the impending freak-out.

Elijah pulled her to him, resting his chin on her head as he looked over toward the parking lot, where the flames were dying under the onslaught of the fire hoses. He let out an irritated sigh. "Three."

"Three what?"

"Cars. In the past month."

Jenna watched the firemen. "Maybe you should think about a Hummer," she said, giggling until she recognized the edge of hysteria in it.

“We should leave, before someone discovers us and starts asking questions. Did your phone survive?”

Jenna fished into the pocket of her coat and pulled her phone out. “I think so. Won’t you have to talk to the police, though?”

“Later. Right now I want to get you home. I can deal with this – and whoever is responsible for it – tomorrow.”

~~~~~

Jenna’s mini Cooper gamely climbed the long driveway up to Elijah’s Aerie, as she privately called the hilltop house that stood sentry high up over the lake. She had spent the better part of a week in that house, held there by two of Elijah’s vampire cohorts “for her own protection.” She sincerely hoped she wasn’t walking into a similar situation this time, in light of the evening’s events.

That’s if she talked herself into getting out of the car at all. She had surreptitiously asked Elena to bring her an overnight bag along with her car, “just in case.” It had seemed like a terribly good idea at the time; nothing like surviving (yet another) murder attempt to make someone want to celebrate being alive in the most primal way possible.

Now that they were here, though, she was suddenly shy. Should she just get out of the car with him, on the assumption that she was welcome? Make a tacit suggestion? Hint for an invitation? Considering he was pretty much the definition of ‘old-fashioned,’ she somehow doubted fuck me – here, now, hard! was the way to go about it.

“Are you coming in?” he asked, thereby rendering the problem moot.

Jenna sent up a silent prayer of thanks. “Yeah, sure. I had Elena throw a change of clothes in the car for me,” she told him, reaching into the miniscule back seat for the bag. She thought she saw a little smirk before Elijah turned and got out of the car. Okay, buddy. We’ll see who’s smirking later.

The house was exactly as she remembered it, and was immaculate. She wondered idly if he had someone come in to clean, which seemed unlikely, or whether pathological neatness was a vampire thing; Damon was always fussing at something.

Elijah flipped the door down on a keypad identical to the one he had had installed in her house and disarmed the system, dropping his keys into a little dish on the occasional table by the door. “I’m going to clean up,” he told her, heading toward the bedroom.

Jenna debated heading to the guest bath down the hall and doing the same; she was sure as hell not in any state to even sit on the furniture, let alone have naked sexytime. While she was mulling it over, she heard Elijah’s shower turn on. She remembered that shower: hugely oversized, with amazing water pressure, a big overhead rain fixture, plus multiple jets set at various heights. She had spent so much time in there her first morning that Sofia had come in to make sure she hadn’t tried to shimmy out the bathroom window. Not that she hadn’t considered it, but the sheer drop down the rock face was enough of a deterrent, even if the shower hadn’t been so incredible.

What the hell. No guts, no glory.

Heading into the master bedroom, Jenna slipped out of her ruined dress and pulled the hairpins out, freeing what hair hadn’t already escaped. She winced as her fingers fetched on a tangle of dried blood in her hair. A shower was definitely in order. She took a deep breath to quiet the butterflies in her stomach and walked into the bathroom.

The glass around the shower was frosted with steam from the hot water, offering only an indistinct outline of Elijah’s body. She wondered suddenly if she should say anything before she stepped into it with him. Jenna somehow doubted that sneaking up on a vampire was a very good idea. Then again, she hadn’t exactly tiptoed into the room or been super quiet undressing; chances were he had heard her anyway. Here goes nothing.

Jenna opened the glass door and waited a moment so she was sure Elijah knew she was there and, squaring her shoulders, stepped into the glass enclosure.

And stared.

Elijah stood with his back to her, but had turned his head to look at her over his shoulder, a smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth. Broad shoulders and muscled back tapered to a narrow waist, under which was a truly fine specimen of a male ass. The rivulets of water running down his body only served to highlight his form. She’d known from her fingers’ limited explorations that he would be fit and trim, but she hadn’t imagined he was hiding all that under his expensive, tailored suits. “I,” she began, and cleared her throat when he voice came out all husky, “I thought we could save some water.”

Elijah chuckled, low in his throat. “Did you, now?”

Jenna closed her eyes and backed under one of the jets of water, wetting her hair and running her fingers through it as best she could to rinse the blood and dirt out of it. She sensed, rather than heard Elijah move, and then he was running his hands over her head as well. She smelled the faint scent of lavender as he massaged her scalp, working shampoo through her hair. She kept her eyes close, letting her head fall back with a sigh.

Elijah’s lips on her neck sent a bolt of lightning ripping through her body. She gasped, half-expecting to feel the sharp bite of teeth on her throat, but he only trailed light kisses there, working up to her earlobe, which he sucked into his mouth. Reaching forward to steady herself, she lay her fingers along his sides, feeling the muscles shift underneath them as he worked his hands over her hair, rinsing it.

He pulled away from her momentarily, and returned to rub conditioner through the tangles. I should have figured he conditions, with that hair of his. Jenna chanced opening her eyes; the rearview of him should have prepared her, but it hadn’t, not adequately. His chest was as hard and sculpted as his back, with scars like ghosts from old, old injuries. Of the injuries from the explosion, there was no trace. Muscles rippled under the flesh as he rinsed the conditioner out of her hair, bringing goosebumps to her flesh and shooting another jolt that arrowed straight to her groin. Her gaze drew inexorably downward, where she discovered that the front view was indeed every bit as nice as the back. She felt a guilty flush spread over her skin. His eyes are up there, Jenna. Eyes. Up. There.

The knowing look in those eyes when she glanced back up only deepened her blush. Jenna noted a bottle of body wash out of her peripheral vision and pulled away to get it. She poured a generous amount into her palm and rubbed her hands together, stepping around him to glide them over his back, working it into a lather. Elijah tried to turn around, but she slapped a hand to his shoulder. “Uh-uh.” She took her time on his shoulders, his back, gradually working downward over his buttocks, out of which she was seriously considering taking a bite.

“Jenna…” Elijah said, his tone low, with a hint of warning.

“Shh.” Pressing herself against his back, she eased her slippery hands around the front of him, over his chest, deep down his stomach, along the fronts of his thighs, gliding within a hair’s breadth of there but without ever actually touching. As the water from the rain head sluiced down over them, rinsing his back, she feathered kisses over it, occasionally licking a droplet of water from here or there. Elijah blew out a breath as she traced just her fingertips over his thighs – then inhaled sharply when she wrapped her fingers firmly around him and bit his shoulder blade.

Jenna suddenly found herself pressed up against the warm tiles by the full length of him, his erection digging into her stomach and his tongue inside her mouth. She met him fully, putting her arms around his neck and kneading the back of it with her fingers as her tongue danced along with his, fanning the flames for both of them. Elijah pulled his lips from hers to pay homage to her neck again, this time sprinkling little nips in with the kisses. Aroused almost beyond bearing, she wasn’t aware of any conscious thought process behind it when she told him, “Go ahead.”

He didn’t seem to hear her at first, but at last her words sank in, and he pulled his face back to look into her eyes, questioning. Jenna nodded, pushing his hair back from his face. “It’s okay.”

She caught a quick glimpse of the veins around his eyes as they started to fill and go dark, and he pulled her hard against him, one hand cradling the back of her head, the other coming up around her throat. The bite itself didn’t hurt as much as she thought it would; a sharp pinch, then a little pressure as he pressed his thumb to her neck and drank from her. Jenna dug her fingers into the back of his scalp, a little gasp escaping her as the twin sensations of him suckling at her neck and the hard length of him pressed against her set up some sort of strange biofeedback loop. Every pull at her throat drew an answering pull from her groin, and she used the wall at her back and her arms around Elijah’s shoulders as leverage to draw her legs up around his waist, bring her That. Much. Closer.

Elijah pulled his mouth away and tore his thumb open on a fang, rubbing his blood over the bite wound until it closed. Jenna pulled his mouth back to hers, not caring that she tasted her own blood on his lips as she kissed him deeply, moving her hips against him in an attempt to try and line things up. Elijah though, it appeared, had other ideas.

With seemingly no effort at all (which, she supposed for him it wasn’t), Elijah grasped her around the waist and lifted her up. Jenna squeaked at the sudden elevation, flailing a hand out and grabbing the neck of one of the showerheads for balance as he settled her legs on his shoulders and, with her back against the tiles, tasted her.

“Oh God,” she breathed as all of her senses went on red alert. Elijah’s hands on her ribcage held her steady as he used his tongue and lips to torment her relentlessly, his thumbs teasing her nipples until they were so rock-hard it was almost painful. Some small part of her mind tried to form coherent thoughts with regard to the height and the slipperiness of wet tile; then he demonstrated just exactly what Andie had been talking about, and suddenly there was no thought whatsoever anymore, just wave after wave of sensation that swamped and threatened to drown her.

Her breath coming in gasping pants, Jenna hooked her ankles together behind Elijah’s back as all of her muscles quivered and tensed, seeking release on the crest of that last devastating wave. Her hips moved seemingly of their own volition, rocking her against his mouth as the first tickling, tingling sensation started at her core and spread outward. As though he could tell just exactly when the time was right, he gripped her hips hard to hold her still and pressed his tongue hard against her, fluttering it at a speed no human could have matched.

Jenna’s world went white, then shattered into a billion brightly-colored pieces, blinding her to everything but waves of ecstasy that crashed over her again and again and again. When they started to ebb, and she could see the possibility of perhaps one day being able to think once more, Elijah restarted that relentless rhythm, making everything clench once more in anticipation of the next shattering climax.

When it came, she proved Elijah right: she was most definitely not quiet.

Just Enough Rope, Chapter 8

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Sorry this is so late in coming. I had it almost finished, but then Thursday's episode happened and it made it a little difficult for me to write. I'm still not sure this chapter is up to snuff, but here goes nuthin'.

On the security system thing: I worked for a security company until recently. Yes, people actually DO do that. You'd be amazed. o_0

Fanfiction.net link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6910203/8/Just_Enough_Rope

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CHAPTER EIGHT

Having made the necessary introductions, Elijah left Caroline and Sofia at the table to talk and joined Marcus at the bar, where the younger vampire had already ordered them a round of bourbon. “To not having to listen to ‘girl talk,’” he said, raising his shot glass in salute.

Elijah did the same. “Cheers.” He downed the shot and motioned the bartender for a refill. “Did you have any luck with that other project?”

“Mm. I forwarded what I found for photos; they should be available to download on your phone.” Marcus pulled a basket of pretzels closer to them, snagging one. “That’s a fairly dated list, though. There’s no telling who else Sebastian has recruited since then.”

“It’s a start.” Elijah downloaded the photos of Justin and Sebastian’s other known cohorts into his phone’s photo gallery. At the sound of approaching footsteps, he looked over his shoulder to see Damon headed toward them. “Thank you for coming. Damon, Marcus,” he said, by way of introduction.

Damon pulled himself up onto the barstool next to Elijah, signaling the bartender. “So, what’s today’s big emergency?”

Elijah forwarded the photos on to Damon. “I have a task for the two of you. Damon, do you still have a stock of the vervain syringes?”

“A few.” He signaled to the bartender and ordered a whiskey, then looked at the photos on his phone. “Vamps, I assume?”

“Mm. If any of these, or for that matter any other, vampires appear in town, I’d like to have a conversation with them.”

“Speaking of vampires in town… what are we doing about our little schoolgirl situation?”

So Stefan had filled him in. “For the time being, nothing,” he sighed. “Better to know where she is than wonder what she’s up to.”

“Or, we could just kill the bitch.”

No, evidently he couldn’t. “She could still be useful.”

“Riiiiight.” Damon downed his drink when the bartender set it in front of him and held the glass out for another. “So, outside vampires. I’m guessing this would be an in-the-dungeon with pointy stakes kind of conversation and not a ‘can I get you something to drink?’ conversation?”

“Your powers of deduction are astonishing, Damon.”

“You have a dungeon?” Marcus asked, looking around Elijah at Damon.

“Doesn’t everyone?” Damon grabbed a couple of pretzels out of the bowl.

Elijah checked his watch and left enough cash on the bar to cover their drinks, plus a few more rounds. “Play nicely, gentlemen.”

Damon gave him the eyebrow treatment. “Where are you going?”

Elijah clapped him on the shoulder as he got up. “I have a date.”

~~~~~

The door to the Gilbert house opened just as Elijah reached for the knob, and Elena crashed into him, letting out a startled, “ooph!” as they collided.

“Whoa,” he said, grasping her arms to steady her. “Is everything all right?”

“Yeah, sorry. Yeah! Bonnie. Jeremy called. She’s awake! She talked to him and everything!”

“That’s excellent news. Please give her my regards.”

“I will.” Elena skipped down the steps and to her car.

Elijah looked up as Jenna started down the stairs. Her normal attire of jeans, shirt and sneakers had undergone a radical upgrade. In its place she wore a wine red cocktail dress. The velvet bodice was overlaid with a pattern etched in silver, starting at a high collar that left her shoulders, arms and most of her back bare. It hugged her body like a second skin all the way down her hips; just below there, a high side-slit allowed the skirt to drape gracefully to about mid-calf. She wore a pair of matching silver and red shoes and carried a small, silver clutch purse. She, or perhaps Elena, had pulled her hair up into a sleek, elegant style, pinned in place by an ornate silver clasp.

Whatever he had been thinking fled as his long-deprived body took over his thought processes. He wanted to Do Things to her. He wanted to run his hands over her bared back, inside that oh-so-convenient side slit, down the silvered front of the dress that appeared to have nothing underneath it but Jenna. He wanted to pull her hair loose and spread it out with his fingers – preferably across his pillow. He wanted to sink his teeth into that tantalizing peek of thigh right there. Most of all, he wanted her writhing underneath him –

“Should… I take this whole speechlessness thing as a compliment?” she asked him, giving him a little sideways look as she paused at the base of the stairs?

He swallowed. Twice. “You look absolutely stunning.”

Jenna smiled the self-satisfied smile of woman who looked good and knew it. “You’re not looking so bad yourself.” She reached into the hall closet for a coat. “I am so gonna have the hottest date there.”

Elijah took the coat from her and held it up for her to slip into. “Are you absolutely certain we must attend this gathering?” he asked suggestively. “There are far more pleasant ways to spend the evening…”

“Easy, tiger. Yes, we need to attend.” She slapped a hand to his chest when he leaned in to kiss her. “Uh-uh. If we start that, we are never getting out of this house, and I did not shimmy into these pantyhose just to slither right back out of them. Besides, I need to make nice with these people. God knows I’m going to need all the help I can get.”

He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her neck instead, making her catch her breath. “How long, precisely, do you expect this ‘making nice’ to take?”

She turned him bodily toward the door. “Out.”

Elijah let her turn him, noticing as she did the new keypad next to the front door. “Excellent. They did get the security system installed.”

“Oh, yeah. Crap. I suppose I should set it, huh?” Jenna stepped up to it and held her finger poised hesitantly over the buttons.

“That’s the general idea, yes. I don’t think it bites.”

“Hrmph. Spoken like someone who has never witnessed my epically bad luck with anything electronic.”

He stepped up to her side. “Here, what’s the code?”

“It’s right there on the flappy drop-down door thingy.”

Elijah closed his eyes and dug thumb and forefinger into them. “Jenna.”

“Hmm?”

“Having the code right there for anyone to look at rather defeats the purpose.”

“Well…” She flailed her arms. “I won’t remember it!”

“It’s a four-digit number.”

Jenna crossed her arms in front of her. “Could you just set the damn thing so we can go already?”

Elijah entered the code – so handily provided – and pushed the ‘away’ button. The keypad emitted a steady, monotone sound.

“Oh God, you set it off!” Jenna tried to reach around him.

“That’s just the tone that signals the unit is set and you’re clear to exit. That’s not the alarm.”

“It’s not?”

Elijah opened the door and motioned her out, closing it behind him. The tone stopped. “See, it silences once you exit. Did they not show you how to use the system when they installed it?”

She glanced up at him guiltily. “They did, but I made Elena go through it with them. I’m sorry! It freaks me out.”

Exasperation at war with charm and attraction, he wisely decided to quit the field of that particular battle. Walking her to the car, he held the door open for her. “You know, chivalry is really sexy,” she told him, once he’d opened the driver’s door and gotten in.

“Duly noted.” Elijah pulled out onto the street, resisting (rather heroically, he thought) the urge to slide his hand off of the gearshift and inside the slit of her dress, which happened to be on the side facing him. “Were you able to get a new phone?” he asked, changing the subject from anything that had the word s-e-x in it.

“Oh! I found mine. Well, Suzanne found mine. We had lunch together yesterday, and she found it on the floor after I left. It must have fallen out of my bag. God, I love the new car smell," she added, inhaling deeply.

“There’s one less worry, then.” He slipped his own phone out of his breast pocket to check for messages. Nothing pressing. “Tell me who we’re meeting tonight. Other than the overly curious professor.”

Jenna turned a little toward him as much as the seatbelt would allow, inadvertently hiking her dress a little higher. Elijah started calculating the pros and cons of waiting until their post-abstract weekend away versus taking her home with him tonight and ravishing her. This level of distraction was verging on ridiculous. “Let’s see…” Jenna started ticking off names on her fingers. “There’s Professor Harris, Professor Scarsdale, and Professor Lee, who are all on the panel. I’m sure several other professors from the department will be there, as well as other grad students. Professor Mitchell, obviously. And Margaret Shumly, who I need to corner.

“For…?”

“Carol wants me to ask – read: strong-arm – her into speaking at the dedication for the new women’s shelter at the end of the month. I made the mistake of telling Carol about a study she did on sexual abuse, which is what started Carol steamrolling on the idea of a shelter. You’d think I’d learn not to give that woman ideas.”

“Is there a great demand for such a shelter in Mystic Falls?”

“Probably more than you’d think. People always assume these problems are more prevalent in big cities, but that’s not really the case. There’s just more anonymity there than in a small town. Hopefully one thing the shelter will do is give the women who need it a safe environment to recover in.”

“You know,” Elijah said reflectively, “there was a time when a woman had a greater expectation of being raped than of living to see her fortieth birthday.”

“That’s awful!”

“It was. Yet it wasn’t looked upon as it is now. A woman was not considered traumatized, but shamed. As was her father or husband.” Elijah glanced over and saw the storm clouds gathering in Jenna’s eyes. “I’m not saying I believe that,” he assured her hastily. “But that was the common perception.”

She didn’t look appeased. “Right. Because a woman was nothing but a piece of property.”

“For all intents and purposes… yes.” Elijah took her hand and raised it to his lips to press a kiss into it. “I know it may not always seem apparent from watching the news, but society truly has come a very long way in that regard.”

“Not far enough.” Jenna rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand before letting go. “What really surprised me in listening to Prof. Shumly’s lecture was how girls who are molested at a young age become almost hyper-sexual. In a way it’s counterintuitive; you’d think they’d want to avoid anything to do with sex rather than seeking it out. It’s like their whole… sense of self gets wrapped into their sexuality, and that’s their primary modality for dealing with the opposite sex." Jenna shrugged. "It’s just sad.”

“Mm. Is this the entrance I want?” he asked, gesturing toward the upcoming road onto campus.

“Next one. All the way down, and take a right. That will put us at the Arts center. Parking will be at a premium, but Professor Mitchell handed out some temp passes to the faculty lot next to the building.”

Elijah parked where indicated and, seeing no one in the immediate vicinity, sped over to open Jenna’s door for her, eliciting the usual little squeak from her. “What if someone saw you?” she asked, glancing around.

“Ah, but that’s just the point – they couldn’t see me.” He held his arm out to her, tucking her fingers into the crook of his arm as he led her into the building. “Shall we?”

~~~~~

After an hour of desperate socializing (on the part of the graduate students) and pretentious intellectualism (on the part of the faculty), Jenna's questionable advisor had yet to put in an appearance, and Elijah was beginning to fear that this entire endeavor would prove to be a waste of time. He had just begun formulating a plan that involved an early departure, a bottle of fine wine, and a number of throw pillows in front of his fireplace when Jenna grabbed his arm and nodded in the direction of the door. "That's him."

The man in question stood in the doorway next to a petite redhead. From that vantage point, he stood surveying the room. He was tall, and what Elijah supposed some would say was physically imposing. Jenna motioned, catching the redhead's attention, and she nudged the Professor. The two headed their way.

"They were just somewhere having sex," Jenna told him, under her breath.

"What?"

"The back of his shirt collar is out over his jacket, his pants have wrinkles from lying on the floor, her hair is sweat-dampened at the temples and crushed flat in the back... they were totally doing it."

Elijah looked down at her, eyebrow raised. "You can tell all that at one glance, from a distance?"

Jenna shrugged. "It's a gift. Suzanne!" she said, as the two approached. "Nice dress! You look great."

"You too! Wow."

"Professor Mitchell, this is my friend, Elijah Smith," Jenna said, turning toward the man.

"Pleasure." Elijah extended his hand to him. The Professor hesitated for a fraction of a second, then took it, squeezing perhaps harder than necessary.

"Nice to meet you," Mitchell returned, though the stare he was giving Elijah suggested otherwise.

Jenna gestured to the redhead. "And this is Suzanne Turner. She's a fellow graduate student."

"Hi." She didn't offer him a hand. In fact, she looked distinctly uncomfortable. Elijah didn't recognize either of them, and would have put money on neither being a vampire. Still, something felt off.

"So, I thought you'd be here earlier," Jenna said to Suzanne.

"Oh, yeah, worked a little later than I planned at the library," she answered, studiously avoiding looking at the professor.

Jenna gave her a knowing "Mm-hmm."

"Jenna tells me you took interest in some of her extracurricular research," Elijah said to Mitchell.

"An intriguing if outlandish subject," Mitchell answered shortly. "I hope you get a chance to mingle, Jenna. Excuse me, I need to speak to Professor Lee." He headed toward a clump of fellow academics, leaving Suzanne standing awkwardly with them.

"I should go... talk to some on the panel, I guess," the redhead said, by way of excusing herself. She headed off in a direction away from Mitchell.

"Okay, so... that was weird," Jenna said, leaning into his side. "Did you get anything, pick up any vibes?"

"I'm not a psychic, you know," he told her, amused.

"No, but... hey, are there psychics?" she asked suddenly. He just continued smiling at her. "Shit. What else is real? Big Foot? The Loch Ness Monster? The Easter Bunny?"

"No; yes; and you would not believe how much he sheds."

Jenna bumped her shoulder into him. "Very funny. Seriously, though."

Elijah glanced around the room. "Have you talked to everyone you needed to?"

"Yeah."

"Let's go, then. We can discuss it on the way."

Jenna stopped to say goodbye to a couple of her friends as they made their way through the gathering, and it took probably another half hour for them to get out of there. During that time Elijah noted Mitchell's gaze resting on him, though he was quick to glance away when Elijah looked back. He'd lost track of the girl in the crowd somewhere.

"I hope I didn't spaz out too much on the panel," Jenna said, once they'd gotten outside. "Professor Lee may not be any taller than my navel, but she is freaking scary. What is it with tiny Asian women being so intimidating?"

"Oh, I wouldn't worry," he told her, pulling the keys out of his pocket as they walked. "I think you'll find your abstract goes over splendidly."

Jenna glanced up at him, suddenly suspicious. "You didn't..."

"Didn't what?" he asked, tone perfectly innocent.

She stopped walking. "You... Oh my God, you did! You compelled them to accept my abstract!"

"I... may have suggested that they consider it favorably." Elijah stopped as well, waiting for her.

She stood with her arms crossed for a moment, eyeballing him. "Okay, I'm trying to be mad at you, but I'm really not feeling it. Does that make me a horrible person?"

Elijah leaned in toward her, lowering his voice. "You're asking the Ancient Evil Vampire?"

Jenna sighed dramatically. "Well that's it. It's happened. I've gone to the dark side." She started walking again; he fell into step beside her.

"It's all right. We have cookies."

"Mmm... cookies!"

He chuckled, opening her door for her as they reached the car, and adding chocolates to the wine on his mental list.

"So, what did you think?" she asked, as he got into the car.

"I don't believe he's a vampire; you were correct there. There was something, though."

"Compulsion?"

He shook his head. "I don't think so. But I'm fairly certain he knew who and/or what I am."

"Why?"

"The way he looked at me. His rapid and surly exit from the conversation."

"That's actually kinda normal for him. He's got a reputation for being moody as hell."

"Still... I believe there's something up with your friend as well."

Jenna giggled. "Uh, yeah, I think that would be Professor Mitchell."

"Yes, well, that may have accounted for some of her nerves, but... let's just say I'm not willing to discount the possibility that whatever he knows, she knows."

"Oh, I think there was definitely a lot of 'knowing' going on between them."

"An intriguing segue," he said, putting the key in the ignition and turning it.

He wasn't sure he could even say, later, what it was that warned him. A sound that was off, a smell... he didn't stop to give it conscious thought, just lurched across the seat and pushed the passenger door clean off of the car. Grabbing Jenna up on the pass, he hauled her with him out of the car. He had time to speed just a few short strides away before the explosion came.

Just Enough Rope, Chapter 7

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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.

Just Enough Rope, Chapter 6

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
sigh.  I think I've lost all semblance of control over this story.

Fanfiction.net link:  http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6910203/6/Just_Enough_Rope
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CHAPTER 6

When Elijah entered his classroom that morning, Caroline was already there waiting for him. “Miss Forbes," he greeted her, drawling the 'r' a bit as he set his briefcase down. "You’re out and about early. Not here seeking an extension on your paper, I hope.”

“No, you’re a hard-ass, we get it. Which I will totally forgive, by the way, if you keep doing that ‘Miss Forrrbes’ thing, because hello, hawt! No, actually, since you're a teacher here now and everything, I want to recruit you.”

"Recruit me?"

"For one of the event planning committees. Instead of doing a Harvest Festival, because boring! I was thinking we should do a Ren Faire. And since you're a history teacher, you'd be the perfect faculty advisor for it."

Elijah closed his eyes for a couple of beats. When he opened them, she was still standing there, and still looking at him expectantly. "Surely you jest."

"No, I'm serious! Look, here's what I've got locked in so far." Pulling out a three-ring binder marked 'School Events,' Caroline flipped to the designated tab. "I want to give it the feel of an outdoor market over here, which is where there will be vendor booths, then a stage over here with medieval type entertainment, like dances and plays and stuff, and then..." she pawed through the different pages until she came to another drawing. "I want to have fencing demonstrations and a jousting tournament. That's where you would come in."

Raising an eyebrow at her, he took the notebook from her and flipped through the pages she had included regarding the event. In addition to drawings and diagrams, she had listed out what each component would need, and had organized contact lists, letters of support, cost estimates, a list of paying participants... any number of organizational details. He had seen top level corporate executives with less organizational acumen. "It looks like you've already done quite a lot of work on the project. I'm impressed," he said – and meant it.

"The only thing I need now is a member of the faculty to sign on to oversee, and someone to train the people who want to participate in the fencing and the joust."

"Shouldn't you hire professionals for that demo? You can't be expecting students to do any jousting." He was fairly certain the school board would frown upon the death-by-impalement of its high school students.

"Well, with modifications, sure! I mean, we'll need to plan on safety equipment and measures and stuff, but I think we can do it. Besides," she lowered her voice. "Whenever we have some kind of a school event, it always seems like we get attacked by vampires or something. So it would be really good if you were around." Caroline closed her binder up and slid it back into her backpack, giving him that sweet-yet-steely head cheerleader smile. "Can I sign you up?"

"What are your plans after high school, Caroline?" he asked, apropos of nothing.

"Huh? Um, college, I guess. I mean, that always was the plan...why?"

"We'll have a more detailed discussion regarding your future at another time. For now, yes, I'll sign on for your event."

The girl let out a little squeal and pressed her hands together delightedly. "Thank you so much. This is going to be epic! I knew I could pull this off. Hah! Suck it, Dana!"

"I'm glad I could be of assistance in your game of one-upsmanship," he said drily. Another skill that would serve her well as a vampire.

Caroline set her backpack down at her class desk. "Um, there's something else I kinda wanted to ask you."

“All right.” Elijah leaned against his desk, arms and feet crossed.

She hesitated fractionally, then plunged ahead. “Do you know any women… you know,” she looked around, though they were clearly the only ones in the room. “…vampires?” she finished in a stage whisper.

Elijah’s lips twitched, but he stifled the grin. “I do. Several.”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, of course you know some.” She huffed out a sigh. “What I meant was, do you know of anyone I could, you know, talk to? The only other woman vampire I know is Katherine, like as if.”

“What is it you need to talk about?”

Caroline crossed her arms over her chest. “Like, you know. Woman stuff.”

“I…” No, don’t ask for details you don’t want, Elijah.

Too late. “It’s just that things with Matt were all like ‘Mmmm,’ but I was all like ‘Rawr!’, so I had to be all distant and stuff, and then there was everything with Tyler, but then Matt said he loved me, but then Tyler kissed me, and everything was all ’OMG!’ but then he was just all ‘whatevs’ while the werebillies were attacking me, and I was so mad, so when he apologized I was all ‘talk to the hand!’ But then he came back and we talked, and the ritual happened, and Tyler was all like ‘Grrr!’ and I was all ‘No!’ and he totally ran off and didn’t eat anyone, and I think I may kind of like him, but what if I get all like ‘Rawr’ again and he gets all ‘Grrr!’ and…” She heaved an enormous sigh. How she had the breath left to do so, he couldn’t imagine. “I just really need someone to talk to.”

“Okay. Well, I – ”

“I mean, what if I make a mistake and bite him and drink some of his blood? Is that poisonous, like if they bite us? And what about saliva? Because when he kissed me before there wasn't like tongue or anything.”

Elijah scrubbed a hand over his face. He was beginning to feel marginally sympathetic toward Damon. “I think I know someone I can – ”

“And for that matter, what about other, you know, fluids and stuff? Like if I went – ”

“Caroline.”

“Huh?”

“Stop. Talking.”

“Oh. Okay,” she said, looking chastened.

“I have someone in mind. I’ll put in a call to her. All right?”

“Um, ’kay.”

“Was that all?” Please, Dear God, let that be all.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Elijah began taking out his lesson plan and notes for the day, thinking that perhaps adopting some of Klaus's demeanor might not be a thoroughly bad idea. Surely Klaus had never had to deal with a newborn vampire's sex questions.

The warning bell rang; within a few minutes, students were filing in for their first period class. Elena and Stefan arrived in the first wave. He motioned Elena over as she came through the door. “How is your aunt his morning?” he asked, in a low voice.

Elena shrugged. “She got up and went to class, so I think she’s okay.”

“Good.” He left it at that and let her take her seat.

Matt Donovan, Caroline’s ‘Mmmm’ in question, strode in and walked up to Elena’s desk. “Elena, I can’t believe you never told me!”

Elena darted a quick look at Stefan and at Caroline. “Told you what, Matt?”

“That you have a twin sister! You never even told me you were adopted. Why didn't you say anything?”

Stefan looked over at Elijah with an ‘oh shit!’ expression. “Matt, what… where did you see my… sister?” Elena asked him.

“I walked in and she was trying to open her locker, and I thought it was you, but I couldn't figure out why you had changed lockers. I can’t believe you weren’t going to tell me – here she is.”

Sure enough, Katerina came sauntering through the door, dressed in an outfit straight out of some teen male sex fantasy: plaid microskirt, button-up shirt that was unbuttoned down to there, and thigh-high black leather boots. Her hair was unbound, and framed her face in a riot of curls. She had a notebook and a couple of textbooks carried in one arm. With a wicked glint in her eye, she came up to Elijah's desk and handed him a piece of paper that turned out to be a note from the guidance office, showing ‘Katherine Pierce’ as a transfer student, assigned to his first period history class.

All conversation in the classroom ceased for a moment, the charged silence quickly giving way to heated whispers as the students who were not named Elena, Caroline or Stefan darted looks back and forth between the two doppelgangers. Elena shot him a desperate ‘do something!’ look. Katerina had picked her moment beautifully, however. There was precious damn little he could do about it, given the present circumstance.

Elijah set the paper on his desk and gestured toward the desks. “Take a seat, Miss Pierce.”

Matt motioned toward an empty desk next to his. "Hey Kat, over here."

Katerina smiled at him and moved down the row, pausing next to Elena. “I can't believe we're finally going to the same school, sis!” she told Elena, before moving on to Matt. “Thank you so much for helping me with my locker, Matt. I can't believe I couldn't get the combination right.” she told him sweetly, batting her eyes at him.

At least, Elijah thought morosely, he now knew Katerina’s whereabouts.
~~~~~

“Miss Pierce, perhaps you could remain a few moments to go over the syllabus,” he suggested when the bell rang, signaling the end of first period.

“Of course. Mr. Smith.”

Elena, Stefan and Caroline all shot him looks with various levels of pleading as they left the classroom. Elijah brought up the rear, intending to close the classroom door to have a little chat with his newest pupil.

“You should probably leave that open,” Katerina suggested. “It wouldn’t look good – a male teacher, a female student, behind closed doors… What would people say?”

Elijah shut the door firmly and had her down across the desk a fraction of a second later. “What on earth are you playing at now, Katerina? A high school student? Really?”

“Who's asking? Elijah the Original Vampire, or ‘mild-mannered history teacher Mr. Smith?’” she mocked.

Elijah released her throat with a scowl and took a step back. Katerina sat up, crossing her legs as she perched on the edge of the desk, which inched the tiny skirt up even further. “Why are you here, Katerina?”

She fluffed her hair up, shrugging. “Building a life. You know, now that I’m not running for mine. Isn’t that what I was supposed to be doing?” she asked innocently.

He sighed deeply. “And you thought it best to do that by remaining in Mystic Falls? And going to high school?"

“Where else was I supposed to go?"

"Anywhere but here?"

"I happen to like it here," she said archly. "And if I wanted to stay, there had to be a reason for Elena and I to look alike. The twins separated at birth and adopted out to two families thing seemed like the most logical story to go with. And if I’m supposed to be her twin, then it would be odd if I didn’t go to school, wouldn’t it?”

He supposed he really couldn't argue with the logic, as far as it went. Stepping forward again, he took her chin in his hand, tilting her head up. "Do not mistake my previous leniency for carte blanche to run around causing trouble, Katerina. If you become a problem, I will end you. So, I will expect you to be on your best behavior."

“Well, what fun would that be?” She shot him a coy little sideways glance and hopped down off the desk. “I think I have English next period.”

Elijah caught her arm before she could slip out the door. “I have enough to worry about right now, Katerina, without having to worry about you, too.

She leaned into him, bringing her lips close to his ear. “Then don’t worry.” A second bell rang, indicating the start of second period. Elijah released her as the door swung open and his next class started filing in. One more wicked little glance over her shoulder at him, and she left, causing a male student to walk into the door frame when he turned to stare at her retreating form, as another let out a wolf whistle, setting off what was sure to be a cavalcade of testosterone-driven nonsense throughout the school's male populace.

Elijah shook his head. Absolutely no good could possibly come out of this.

~~~~~

During the fifth period study hall that he had to baby-sit, Elijah alternated between sending out text messages and watching Katerina as she insured that no male in the room paid attention to anything but her. Marcus and Sophia were still in the area; Sophia agreed to come back to town and meet with Caroline. Elijah thought about warning her just what she was getting into, but afraid that she might change her mind, he opted to keep that information to himself. He sent a few texts to various people keeping an eye on things for him in New York, one to Maya to check on Bonnie's progress, and one to Damon to warn him about the Katerina situation. The handful of text messages he sent to Jenna went unanswered.

When he still hadn't heard back from her by the time he was finished for the day, he called. It rang several times, then kicked over to voicemail. Growing concerned, he waylaid Elena as she came out of her last class of the day. "Have you heard from Jenna at all today?" he asked, walking down the hall with her as she went to her locker.

"No, why?"

"She hasn't responded for a couple of hours. Given everything that's going on..." He gave her a meaningful look.

"Here, I'll try her." Elena took her own phone out and dialed Jenna. Just as it had when he had called, it rang and then went to voicemail. "That's weird," Elena said, pocketing her phone with a frown. "Today is her early day, she's usually done with class by lunch time." She looked past him, down the hall. "Jer!"

Elijah turned to see Jeremy walking toward them. "Hey. So, Katherine: WTF?" he asked as he drew near.

"I'll deal with it," Elijah told him shortly. "Have you heard from your aunt at all today?"

He shook his head. "No. Why, is something wrong?"

"She's not answering her phone," Elena told him.

"You said she was sick last night. Maybe she's taking a nap. Or she's working on her thesis and turned off her phone," Jeremy suggested.

Maybe I'm just getting paranoid, like Klaus. "I'll swing by the house and check on her."

"Do you want us to head home?" Elena asked.

"No. Go on ahead to the hospital. I'll call if there is a problem. It's probably just as you said: she's either sleeping or preoccupied." Or in some kind of trouble from Justin or God knows who else. If I'm being paranoid.

On his way to the parking lot, he called Andie to see if she had heard from Jenna, but struck out there too. If he were brutally honest with himself, the whole lot of them would likely be better off if he just returned to New York until the fallout from Klaus's demise had settled, but he feared that if he left now it would be too little, too late, and he'd only be leaving them unprotected. Busy with his phone and with retrieving his car keys, Elijah didn't look up until he was only a couple of car lengths from his vehicle. When he did, he stopped dead.

Two figures stood flanking the car. The man stood on the passenger side, his powerful arm leaned casually on the roof of his Lexus. At around 6-foot-5, he topped Elijah's height by several inches. His sand brown hair has been chopped into one of those spiky, unkempt hairstyles that were supposed to be stylish. The woman leaned against the driver's side, arms crossed in front of her. Only a few inches shorter than the male, her hair was as long and as red as Elijah remembered it. Both were well-dressed, muscular and athletic. And both were Originals.

Elijah resumed walking, keeping his eyes on both of them, and he perhaps put just a bit more swagger into his step. The woman straightened and walked toward him as he neared the front of his car. He stood his ground, hands hanging loosely at his sides, letting her approach. She stopped mere inches in front of him, looking him up and down appraisingly. He quirked a brow at her (and wasn't it annoying that he had to look up at her to do so) and waited, his peripheral vision trained on the man.

She ended the stand-off first. Closing the distance between them, she grabbed him into a bone-crushing hug and practically lifted him off the ground. "Elijah, you son of a bitch!" She loosened her grasp on him enough to pull back and look him in the eye. "You actually – finally – took that bastard out?"

"I did," he confirmed, which got him squeezed against her once more. He flicked a glance over at the man. "Little help here?" he asked, his voice coming out half-strangled.

"Hilda, let the man breathe," he told her. Hilda released him reluctantly. He drew in a deep breath – which promptly left him in a whoosh when the man snatched him up into a bear-hug. This time, his feet did leave the ground. By several inches.

"Gareth," he choked out, "put me down, you big idiot."

The huge man set him down, but not without giving him several manly-hug-back-thumps that set his teeth jarring. Elijah straightened his jacket and tried to gather the shreds of his dignity. Which Hilda promptly shattered again by laying a big kiss on him. "Oh for Christ sake, woman, let him be," Gareth told her. "I think this deserves a celebratory drink, Elijah. I assume there's someplace to get one in his backwater hell hole?"

Elijah glanced at his watch. "I... all right. A quick one."

~~~~~

It was early; consequently, the Grill was sparsely populated. Elijah appropriated a corner table, going around in back so he was facing out toward the rest of the room. Matt Donovan waved as he walked through and headed toward the kitchen to start his shift. Gareth went to the bar and came back with three glasses and a bottle of what was likely the best scotch available in Mystic Falls – outside of Elijah's personal collection at home, of course. "To Klaus: May the bastard's soul writhe in hell," he said, raising his glass. Elijah and Hilda did likewise, all of them draining the first glass in a couple of swallows.

"Have you heard from any of the others?" Hilda asked, pouring herself a second glass.

Elijah held his out for a refill. "Sebastian sent his lapdog to confirm."

"Which one?" Gareth asked. "He's got three or four on a string."

"Justin."

Hilda made a face. "No one else?"

"Just the two of you so far."

Gareth leaned forward on his elbows. "You need to think about calling a summit, Elijah. The sooner the better."

"A summit?" Elijah asked, frowning. "What for?"

"There are issues that need to be discussed. Hell, that have needed to be discussed for decades now, except Klaus would hear nothing of it," Hilda pointed out.

"Klaus may have been crazy as a shit-house rat, Elijah, but he wasn't wrong about everything," Gareth added. "There are decisions to be made about how we're going to handle things now that he's not hovering over us all."

The outside door opened, and Katerina strolled in, glancing his way briefly before going over to the bar to greet Matt.

Gareth looked around to see what had caught Elijah's attention, and did a double-take. "Is that...?"

"Mmm. Katerina. The first doppelganger."

Hilda snorted into her glass. "And she's still alive... why?"

Elijah took a swallow of scotch. "A question I ask myself on a continual basis." Katerina had pulled herself up onto a barstool and ordered a drink (soda presumably, given her cover story) so she could flirt with Matt while he performed, or tried to perform, his duties. The young Mr. Donovan was obviously buying absolutely everything she was selling.

"Oh no. Don't tell me she finally got to you, too," Hilda said, following his gaze.

"No. She hasn't." Had she? He didn't think so. And yet, when he had finally had the golden opportunity to be rid of her forever, he had blown his own carefully laid plans. And rather than running her out of town on a rail when she had pulled her stunt that morning, he had reluctantly gone along with it. Lovely. Yet another thing to worry about.

Hilda set her glass aside and leaned forward, mirroring Gareth. "Is it true that you've agreed to set the witches up with their own compound?" she asked, her voice low.

"It is." Elijah wasn't surprised to be questioned on this point; he had known that it wouldn't be a popular move in some circles.

"Was that smart?"

"I like to think so. You don't agree?"

Gareth took the conversational baton from Hilda, making Elijah wonder suddenly just how 'together' they were. It would make sense, he supposed. Present personal circumstances notwithstanding, he had always maintained that vampires were better off with one another than going the human route. "I think it's dangerous to let them convene and learn from one another and not keep some kind of a rein on them," he said.

"You're clinging to the old way of thinking, Gareth. Keep them enslaved, and sooner or later they were going to build up enough power to throw off the yoke, and we can't have that. It's in our best interest to work with them, show them that they are better off allying with us than being at odds."

Hilda shook her head, scowling. "I don't like it. You should have maintained control over them. They can't be dealt with as equals."

"They're too powerful not to be dealt with as equals." He finished his drink and checked his phone. Still no word from Jenna. "I gave them my word. I will honor it."

"And the summit?"

"I'll consider it." Elijah rose. "I have matters I need to attend to, but it's good to see you both. It's been a long time."

"Too long," Gareth agreed, standing and clasping his hand.

"Will the two of you be remaining here in town?"

"We'll be in D.C. for the next little while." Hilda reached into her pocket and gave him a slip of paper with their cell numbers on it, and hugged him again. "Call us when you've set something up."

He didn't bother to correct her 'when' with an 'if.' Bidding them goodbye, he cast a last glance over at the bar, where Matt was leaning on his elbows and telling Katerina some story or other while she looked at him with rapt attention. Elijah added 'slip vervain to Matt Donovan' to his mental to-do list and exited the premises, hoping fervently that Jenna would be at the house when he got there.