𝐊𝐋𝐀𝐔𝐒

𝐞𝐩 𝟏𝟗

            𝐴𝐷𝐸𝐿𝐴𝐼𝐷𝐸 was awoken to Elena roughly shaking her shoulder and bashing a pillow in her face.

"Leave me alone," the girl grumbled, curling back into a ball under the warm covers laid on top of her.

"Adelaide, wake up. We have to do something. And we have to be quiet. Damon and Stefan can't know," Elena whisper yelled at her sister, wanting her to get up.

"Can't know what?" Adelaide opened one eye, peaking up at her twin.

"What we're about to do." Elena wasn't specific at all.

"Sounds like you're doing something rebellious. I'm in. Let me get dressed." Elena nodded, relief spreading across her face as she backed away from the bed, letting Adelaide sit up and stretch.

"I'll be two minutes." Elena nodded before walking out of the room, looking down both sides to the hallway, making sure Stefan or Damon hadn't woken up.

A few minutes later Adelaide joined her twin outside the room she was currently staying in, in the Boarding House, dressed in a pair of black high waisted sports leggings, a light grey crop top and her blue Nike jacket. She wore her usual white sneakers and tied her hair up into a pony tail to keep it out of her way.

"What are we going exactly?" She asked Elena as she followed her down the stairs.

"Shhh," Elena held a finger up to her lips. "I'll explain once we have escaped them," she pointe dup the stairs, making it clear she meant the two vampires currently asleep. Adelaide nodded in understanding, making sure to keep quiet. Elena brought her down to what looked like a basement but when she reached the bottom of the stairs she was shocked to see that there were prison like cells. Elena opened the door to a specific one before walking inside with Adelaide following. She let out a gasp as she saw a man on the floor with a dagger stuck into his chest. His skin looked like a corps and his cloths were dirty and ripped. Elena knelt down next to the body before using both her hands to tug on the dagger handle. She fell back from the impact, making a small grunt noise before scurrying to the side, leaning against the wall. Adelaide slowly walked into the cell and took a seat next to her sister.

"Who is that?" She whispered.

"Elijah. He should wake in a few minutes."

The two sisters waited in silence for Elijah to reawaken. Elena still held onto the dagger tightly and watched the body like a hawk. Adelaide had many questions that she wanted to ask but she kept quiet, knowing that they could not be caught by Damon or Stefan whatsoever.

She jumped back, hitting the wall as Elijah sat up instantly coughing for air. He groaned as the sound of bones snapping filled the air. Elena was quick to make her way over to him as he looked at her with wide eyes. Adelaide kept her distance.

"Elijah."

"Katerina!" Elijah yelled, staring at Elena.
"Elijah! It's me, it's Elena." Elijah kept gasping.

"Oh my god," he whispered. He stopped gasping but his held lulled back to the ground. Elena went to nudge him but he snapped his body to the side, gasping once again. He stood up as Elena cowered back into the wall.

"I can't - I can't breathe!" His voice was raspy and dry. "What's happened to me?" Elena stammered, not knowing what to say. Adelaide stepped into the room and made her way over to Elena slowly, looking Elijah in the eyes as she knelt down next to her sister, slowly pulling her up. Elijah looked at Adelaide in shock before he used his vampire speed to get out of the room, hitting the wall on his first attempt as he did so.

"I can't be in this house." He managed to tell them.

"You're not invited in." Adelaide realised, the two of them turning to look at the youngest of the twins.

"You need to get me out of here." Elijah then vanished. The two girls ran back up the stairs and through the hallway to where the front door was located. There they saw Elijah on the front porch, his breathing now calm but he was still panting, trying to catch his breath. He looked up an Elena furiously before trying to charge at her, only to be stopped by doorway. He hadn't been invited in still.

"What happened?"

"Shh!" Elena held a finger to her lips quickly as he spoke. She pointed upstairs and then to her ears.

"I'll tell you. Not here." She whispered, barely being heard while trying to keep it brief and simple but understandable.

"Can we trust you?" She asked.

"Can I trust you?" Elijah asked Elena, purposefully leaving Adelaide out of the equation as she had not betrayed his trust before. Elena sighed before breathing in deeply, she held her hand out with the handle of the dagger facing Elijah so he could take it. He hesitated before taking it out of her hand carefully and quickly tucked it away.

Elena had retrieved some blood bags before they had left the house with Elijah. Elena drove while Elijah sat in the passenger seat and Adelaide was in the back, behind Elena's seat.

"You look better." Elena complimented Elijah, since the blood had made him look less dead.

"Where did you get the dagger?" Straight to the point. The car pulled over beside the Lockwood mansion.

"I'll tell you everything. But we have to work together, Elijah. I need your word. We need your word." Elena repeated, turning to give her sister a small glance.
"Your ability to make demands has long passed." He replied.

"No demands. We're offering you our help. And in return, we want yours." Adelaide added, carefully thinking of her choice of words. Elijah looked at her before sighing a little.

"And why should I even consider this?"

"The same reason that you haven't killed us." Elena responded.

"I wouldn't have killed Adelaide."

"You need our help to kill Klaus." Adelaide shifted in her seat uncomfortable with the sentence that fell from her sisters lips. "And we need you." Elena didn't notice her sisters uncomfortableness but Elijah seemed to. Elena's phone then rang.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Elena answered the person on the phone. No doubt it was Stefan wanting to know where she and Adelaide were. Adelaide rolled her eyes at the over caring Salvatore. She knew Elijah would be able to hear the other side of the conversation with his vampire hearing but she was shocked when she noticed she could also hear Stefan's voice.

"Where's Elijah?" She frowned, hearing Stefan's voice as clear as day.

"He's right here. So is Adelaide."

"Where? I'm on my way." Even though she was confused she still was able to roll her eyes once again at the youngest Salvatore brother.

"No, Stefan. Elijah, Adelaide and I need some time alone." Elena disagreed with her boyfriend while Elijah watched, amused.

"Listen to me. He can't be trusted. He'll use you to get to Klaus." Stefan argued, frantic about his girlfriend and his girlfriend's sister being in the presence of an extremely old and powerful vampire.

"Elijah is a noble man, Stefan. He lives by a code of honour. We can trust him. He knows that I'd be incredibly stupid to betray him again." Elena seemed to also be directing her words towards Elijah, who looked away and watched the scenery from the side window instead. "By removing the dagger, I have proven myself. He's already said that he isn't going to hurt Adelaide either." That wasn't exactly what he had said but, whatever.

"You can't do this alone." Stefan told her, his voice not as frantic as before.

"It's my decision, Stefan. Please respect it. And make sure Damon doesn't do anything stupid." Elena was getting slightly annoyed with her boyfriend constantly worrying about her. The Salvatore brothers were not letting the Gilbert girls breath for a second. Adelaide too was also getting annoyed. She reached forward and snatched Elena's phone from her hands.

"Bye Stefan," she droned on, before hanging up. She handed the phone back to Elena, watching as Elijah held his hand out for the phone, not completely trusting her. Elena slowly dropped the phone into his awaiting hand, as he tucked it into the pocket inside the blazer jacket he wore. He needed a fresh pair of clothes.

"He's here." Adelaide then began.

"Klaus is here?" Elijah seemed worried.
"He's taken over Alaric's body." She carried on, informing him on the latest news, even though she was fairly new to it all herself.

"Of course he has." He didn't seem shocked at the news, as if Klaus had done it a million times before. "One of his favourite tricks."

"Well, what are his other tricks?" Elena asked the vampire. "What is he going to do next? You're the only one who knows him."
"Yes, I do." He agreed, staring towards the ground.

"Elijah! Adelaide, Elena, what are you doing here?" Mayor Lockwood asked the three of them as she opened the door to the Lockwood mansion. "What happened?" She asked, noticing Elijah's rough attire.

"I've had a bit on an incident, Carol." Elijah began, "I'm hoping you could help."
"Well, I'm on my way to a meeting, so I-" Elijah cut her off, taking a step forward.

"We won't take but a minute of your time." He stared her straight in the eye.

"Of course." She suddenly changed her mood, a smile gracing her face as she let them in, "Anything you need."

"Thank you. Well, first things first I'm going to need a change of clothing."
"Agreed." Elena sent her sister a small glare but Elijah only chuckled.

"Well, we can try one of my husband's suits." Mayor Lockwood suggested, closing the door behind them. "I haven't boxed them up yet."

"Wonderful." She went to retrieve the suits for Elijah to try on.

"How did you know she's not on vervain?" Elena asked the vampire, curious but also confused.

"Cause I'm the one who got her off it. Right before you and your friends killed me. Twice." Adelaide raised her eyebrow, feeling awkward.

"If you'll excuse me. I'll be done in a moment." Even though Elena and the others had killed this guy twice, he was very gentlemen like and polite to her.

"So I assume that the Martin witches are no longer with us." Elijah now had a clean and none ripped suit on as the three of them sat on the sofas in the Lockwood mansion living room. Mayor Lockwood had left to go to her meeting but Elijah compelled her to let them talk in her house while she was gone.

"No. I'm sorry." Elena shook her head.

"And Katerina? She would have been released from my compulsion when I died." Adelaide assumed Katerina was Katherine's real name.

"Klaus took her. We think that she may be dead." Elena told him.

"I doubt that. Not Klaus' style. Death would be too easy for her after what she did." Elijah corrected her, knowing Katherine wouldn't be close to death.

"I don't understand. You say that you want Klaus dead, but you still made Katherine pay for betraying him." Adelaide spoke up from her position in one of the arm chairs. Elijah stared at her for a moment before responding.

"I have my own reasons for wanting Katerina to pay. There was a time...I'd have done anything for Klaus." It took a moment to click and register what he had said but the two girls eventually realised that Elijah must have been family to Klaus.

"Yes. Klaus is my brother." He noticed their shocked looks, figuring they had realised that he was related to Klaus.

"We heard that. We're still processing." Elena sighed, wide eyed.

"Yes, I'm a little behind on the times, but I believe the term you're searching for is 'O.M.G.'" Adelaide couldn't keep in her laugh as Elijah quoted the abbreviation for oh my god.

"There's a whole family of Originals?" Adelaide questioned Elijah, after listening to him explain he had several siblings. Said vampire stood up and wondered over to the fire mantle.

"My father was a wealthy land owner in a village in Eastern Europe. Our mother bore seven children." He explained while neatening the collar of the shirt he had on and undoing the top button.

"So your parents were human?" Elena asked him, sat down on the sofa next to the armchair Adelaide was in.

"Our whole family was. Our origin as vampires is a very long story, Elena. Just know...We're the oldest vampires in the world. We are the Original family, and from us all vampires were created." Adelaide couldn't believe she was even listening to this. It was still processing in her mind that vampires, witches and werewolves were a thing and that Elena and Katherine looked identical.

"Right, but Klaus is your brother. And you want him dead?" Again, the words Klaus and dead in the same sentence didn't sit right with Adelaide.

"I need some air. I'm still feeling a tad...dead. Come." Elijah announced, beckoning the two to follow him onto the Lockwood garden grounds.

"So as you've seen, nothing can kill an Original. Not Sun, not fire, not even a werewolf bite. Only the wood from one tree. A tree my family made sure burned." Elijah began as they walked down the stone steps to get to grass area.

"That's where the white ash for the dagger comes from." Adelaide noted, following along to his every word, intrigued.

"Yes. The witches won't allow anything truly immortal to walk the earth. Every creature needs to have a weakness in order to maintain the balance." He informed them as they walked down to the large pond.

"So the Sun can't kill an Original. Why is Klaus so obsessed with breaking the Sun and Moon curse?" Elena asked.

"Right. The curse of the sun and the moon. It's all so...biblical-sounding, don't you think?" Elijah stopped, placing a hand on the fence surrounding the pond. He was almost laughing, a small chuckle escaping his lips as he smirked.

"What's so funny?" The two girls said at the same time, not understanding why he was laughing.

"I don't understand. So Klaus drew the Aztec sketches about the curse?" Elena asked once Elijah had explained that Klaus and himself had come up with the idea to draw Aztec sketches about the curse.

"Roman scrolls, African tribal etchings, and any other culture or continent we felt like planting in it." Elijah added.

"But why?" Elena didn't seem to understand why they did it but Elijah waited a second before explaining as he saw Adelaide had a flash of realisation appear on her face.

"Because the easiest way to discover the existence of a doppelgänger or to get your hands on some long, lost moonstone is to have every single member of two warring species on the lookout." She spoke up. Elena turned to look at her quickly, shocked while Elijah was already looking at her, impressed with her intelligence.

"So it's not Aztec at all?" Elena whipped her head back around to Elijah after he had confirmed what Adelaide had said was true.

"The curse of the Sun and the Moon...is fake. It doesn't exist." The two girls stopped, eyes wide at the information.

"What?!"

"Klaus and I faked the sun and moon curse dating back over a thousand years." He described, developing their knowledge on the curse.

"But if there's no curse..." Elena trailed off as they began to walk again.

"There's a curse. Just not that one. The real one's much worse. It's a curse placed on Klaus." He took a deep breath in, enjoying the cool air. "And Adelaide." Said girl stopped dead in her tracks as her name was mentioned.

"What?"

"What are you talking about?"

Elena also stopped as she turned to her sister who looked shocked. "What do you mean Adelaide?"
"I don't know the details exactly. But I can sense it. And I'm pretty sure if I can, then Klaus definitely can. You're connected to our family. Mainly Niklaus. It is not for me to explain it to you." Elijah briefly told her, trying to not give away anything really as he knew it must be Klaus who should explain to the girl what was going on. Elijah had sensed it the moment he had woken up in the cellar in the Salvatore Boarding House. Adelaide Gilbert was tied to the Mikaelson family. She was the part of the curse that had never been explained to them properly. He felt a connection with the girl, like she was apart of his family. So he only assumed that she was the girl that was talked about in the curse.

"Klaus has been trying to break it for the last thousand years. And you are his only hope." He changed the topic back onto what they were originally talking about. Adelaide still stood in shock and so Elena had to grab her wrist gently and tug her along, snapping her out of her shocked state.

"What is this curse?" Elena asked her as her phone vibrated from inside Elijah's blazer pocket.

"Your phone will not stop its incessant buzzing. Answer it, please." He took the phone out and handed it to Elena.

"Stefan...what's wrong? No. No, no, no, no. Okay, I'll be right there." Adelaide wasn't really paying much attention to the conversation but all she did manage to catch was that Elena was very panicked and worried about something. Elena hung up on Stefan, worry etched all over her face. Adelaide looked up to her twin, also turning worried.

"Klaus went after Jenna. We have to go to her." Adelaide stumbled slightly at Elena's words.

"I'm afraid that wasn't part of today's arrangement." Elijah imputed.

"She's our family, Elijah. We have to. We'll be back. You have my word." Elena tried to persuade him.

"That doesn't mean anything to me until you live up to it." He told her.

"How about Adelaide stays with you until I can get back?" Elena suggested.
"What?" Adelaide whipped her head in Elena's direction.

"Ads, you only found out about vampires the other day, I should be the one to explain to Jenna what's going on. I don't want her angry with you too." Elena said, wanting to get away to check on her aunt.

"Fine, I'll stay. But you better text me about Jenna when you've talked to her." Adelaide finally caved in.
"I will. Thank you." She turned to Elijah as she thanked him before jogging off back to her car.

"How many siblings do you have?" Adelaide asked the vampire as they stood where Elena left them.

"I have three brothers and one sister. I had another brother but he died before we were turned into vampires." He explained, staring down at the small girl.

"Are you all close?" She looked up at him, squinting slightly because of the bright sun.

"We used to be. Klaus has them all daggered and hidden at sea." He briefly explained. "I have a younger sister, Rebekah. I think you too would get along." She smiled softly.

"Do you think Klaus will ever undagger them?"

"After he believe's they've served enough punishment. That could be a few hundred years from now." She frowned at his statement slightly. What did he mean by, served enough punishment?

"There's a painting on the wall by your staircase. Did you paint it?" He asked her, remembering the last time he had been helping Elena and the Salvatore brother's before they daggered him.

"Er, yeah. I did. It was before my parents car crash." She nodded, swinging on the backs of her heels as she stuck her hands into her jacket pocket.

"It's a lovely painting." He smiled down at her.

"Thank you." She grinned back.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but in some aspects you remind me of my brother. Klaus that is. He was able to paint the most magnificent of paintings when he wasn't worried about the curse." She didn't know whether it was a compliment or not but being made similar to Klaus made her heart flutter ever so slightly.

"Is that a good thing?"

"It can be. Klaus sometimes painting the most dangerous of sights. Blood, gore, war. They were captivating but gruesome. I saw that the painting you did held many dark emotions hidden within it. Such as the Black Moon you painted. Deep down it expresses the dark side of one's personality, buried deep in the subconscious realms of your psyche." She didn't really know how to respond to that.

"Everyone has some dark side hidden within them." She said, looking out towards the lake.

"I think it's easy to say that I agree." He noted, hands tucked in his trouser pockets.

"Welcome back." Elijah greeted Elena as she entered the Lockwood mansion. Elijah and Adelaide had moved inside, after getting bored of standing outside waiting for Elena to come back. They had been silent most of the time but it wasn't uncomfortable.

"Tell me. What is Klaus's curse?" She got straight to the point, ignoring Elijah's impressed look that she actually came back. "Please." She took her jacket off before sitting down. Elijah followed suit, sitting opposite Elena. Adelaide was already sat down, well more like sprawled out of the sofa. Elena had messaged her earlier saying that Jenna was in shock and shaken up with the news but listened to Elena and didn't storm away.

"My family was quite close, but Klaus and my father did not get on too well. When we became vampires, we discovered the truth. Klaus was not my father's son. My mother had been unfaithful many years before. This was her darkest secret. Klaus is from a different bloodline. Of course, when my father discovered this, he hunted down and he killed my mother's lover and his entire family. Not realising, of course, that he was igniting a war between species that rages until this day." Adelaide listened, intrigued with everything Elijah had to say about his family. It was all very interesting. She hoped one day that he or one of his other family members would be able to go into more detail about it all.

"A war between the species?" Elena asked.

"The vampires... and the werewolves." He informed them.

"So Klaus' real father was from a werewolf bloodline? What does that make Klaus? A werewolf? Or a vampire?" Adelaide questioned, looking up towards the ceiling as her head rested on the arm of the sofa, her legs spread across the rest of the sofa.

"He's both." Adelaide wasn't as surprised as she thought she would have been. None of it was suprirrisng her much more now. If vampires, werewolves and witches were real. She was pretty sure anything could be real at this point. "A hybrid would be deadlier than any werewolf or vampire. Nature would not stand for such an imbalance of power. Therefore the witches, the servants of nature, saw to it that my brother's werewolf side would become dormant."

"That's the curse that Klaus wants to break? He wants to trigger that part of him that's a werewolf. If allowed, Klaus would sire his own bloodline. He'd build his own race. Endangering not just vampires, but everyone." So the oldest and baddest vampire in history wants to make his own arm of hybrids.

"But you helped him?" Elena accused him.

"I helped him because I loved him. That's changed, now he must die." Adelaide understood where Elijah was coming from but she didn't like that he wanted to kill Klaus. And she didn't know why she felt like that. He was going to try and kill Elena for his own selfishness and yet she didn't want him to be killed either.

"We have the dagger now. We can stop him." Elena tried to convince Elijah.

"When a werewolf is wounded by silver, it heals. An Original can't be killed by anything but white oak ash on a silver dagger. So you see the conundrum. The dagger does not work." So they couldn't be killed. At all?

"What, are you saying that Klaus can't be killed?" Adelaide tried to make her voice seem as if she didn't have any hope in her that Elijah would respond with a yes.

"There's one way to kill any supernatural species...at the hands of the servants of nature themselves." He developed his explanation, now stood up and leaning against the doorway.

"A witch. If they can channel that much power. But it would kill them." Elena realised, letting out a sigh.

"The curse must be broken during the full moon. When Klaus is in transition. That's when he'll be at his most vulnerable. A witch with enough power...can kill Klaus." Elijah stood closer to Elena, his voice quieter.

"What if I told you that I knew a witch that could channel that much power?" Elena said, hesitant at first.

"Then I would tell you there's one more thing that you should know." He began before explain that he had found a way to save the life of the doppelgänger but Klaus had not wanted to use it as he didn't care for a human life.

"You found a way to save the life of the doppelgänger?" Elena seemed shocked.

"Yes, Elena. I did. But unfortunately, Katerina took matters into her own hands first. I believe you already know how that played out." Elijah nodded, confirming her question.

"You cared about her, didn't you?" Adelaide noted, being able to read Elijah's emotions when he talked about Katherine, or Katerina as he kept calling her.

"It's a common mistake, I'm told. And it's one I won't make again."

"Stop!" Elena yelled as she, Adelaide and Elijah walked into the Salvatore Boarding House to see the two brothers throwing each other across the room, fighting. They both instantly stopped fighting at the sound of Elena's voice.

"Now you've invited him in?" Damon scoffed, seeing Elijah next to Adelaide, behind Elena. Damon didn't want the vampire to be anywhere near Adelaide along with Elena. He cared about both of the girls, though he would never admit it.

"Elijah and I have renewed the terms of our deal." Elena spoke up, informing the two brothers who were both deeply in love with her.

"Really?" Damon sneered sarcastically.

"The two of you will come to no harm at my hands. I only ask for one thing in return." Elijah voiced.

"What?" Damon snapped.

"An apology." Elijah answered, walking closer to them.

"A what?" Adelaide giggled at Damon's response slightly, before covering it up with a cough when Elena glared at her.

"I'm sorry for the part that I played in your death. I was protecting Elena. I will always protect Elena." Stefan apologised, realising that it was what needed to be said and done. Elena gave her boyfriend a smile, glad he was respectful of how she wanted things to go.

"I understand." Elijah nodded, glad with the apology Stefan had given him.

"The sacrifice is going to happen, Damon. Bonnie will be able to kill Klaus without hurting herself and Elijah knows how to save my life. I told you I'd find another way. And I did." Elena tried to persuade Damon who still hadn't apologised. Everyone had turned to look at him but he wasn't having it. Adelaide gave him a small pleading look but he ignored it.

"Is that true?" He asked Elijah.

"It is." Elijah confirmed.

"And you're trusting him?" Damon asked the tow Gilbert sisters, not just Elena but also Adelaide.

"We are." Adelaide nodded, stepping forward so she was next to Elijah.

"You can all go to hell." Damon snarled at them all before walking off, sending them all glares.

"He's angry with me right now. But he'll come around." Stefan tried to excuse Damon's behaviour.

Elijah didn't seem too convinced though. "Perhaps."

・ • ☽ • ・

So, I have finally updated this story. Wow, it's been a long time. Because of quarantine I'm hoping to get through quite a few chapters for this book. 

I would also like to mention that I have started a new book based off of Outer Banks, the new amazing show on Netflix. Honestly, I'm obsessed with it. It's a JJ fan fiction, because I mean... who doesn't love him and I have only published the cast so far as I have been more focused on this chapter today. But it would mean so much if you were to check it out - it's called Opposite's Attract.   

・ • ☽ • ・

⧫ 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝟏𝟏 // 𝟎𝟓 // 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟎 ⧫