Body & Soul - Klaus Mikaelson

Two

Elijah isn't what I imagined. He isn't a vampire looking older than most, covered in the victories of his dead. He looks young, and clean pressed. A suit jacket hugs him, and his eyes are soft. But he holds a stern look. He looks human. 

He stares at Elena for a moment, memorizing every detail of her face. Her clutch tightens on my hand. Within a second, the vamp speeds towards us, stopping in front of Elena. My breath gets caught in my throat. He leans forwards, towards her neck. I close my eyes as Elena starts to tremble. He sniffs her, smelling the blood that runs through her veins. Checking to make sure she is indeed human, and not Katherine.

He breathes, slowly pulling his face away from her neck. He silently scoffs. "Human. It's impossible." He gives the gentlest of smiles. His voice heavy with a dying accent. "Hello there."

I let out a heavy breath thankful that he didn't kill her right where she stands. His attention turns to me. "And who might you be?"

I clench my jaw, his brown eyes searching my blue ones. I bite my cheek as I try to push into his mind searching for memories, but I barely make it anywhere. Flashes of a white hallway with white doors, an old red door, but nothing consisting of memories. Nothing I can pull from, nothing I can use to connect him to my own memories. His mind is stronger, barred, and protected. Something I can not meddle with. Not without touching him at least. 

"She has the Mark," Rose catches my eye from behind Elijah. I clench my jaw. Elijah's eyes widen in wonder, amazement flying across his face. 

"I don't know what she's talking about," I mutter.

He gives me a smug look. "No? No marking in black, starting on your arm, ending just under your collar bone? Hmm?"

I raise my eyebrows, a common lie forming on my lips. "You mean my tattoo?" It's been something I've been hiding since it appeared. Tattoo seemed like the easiest excuse. But then I was the kid who was off the rails because she lost her parents. 

"Is that what you're calling it? May I?" Elijah gestures to my arm.

I glance at Elena before pulling my shirt down my shoulder, displaying the black ink that lies under my skin. It's simple, beautiful for something that just magically appeared on my skin a year ago. A feather placidly draws on the upper part of my right arm, with birds breaking off from it flying under my collar bone. There are beauty and semblance in it. But also unexplainable. 

"The Mark," Elijah says smugly. His eyes tracing it like he knows the shape, a small smile falling on his lips. 

"It's a tattoo." I brush aside his words, pulling my sleeve back up.

He hums. "It didn't just appear one day? Burning your skin for hours as it made its appearance, blossoming onto your delicate skin? It wasn't on your sixteenth birthday, perhaps?"

My eyebrows furrow. "How did you-"

"You really don't know what it is, do you?"

I have never been able to find anything on magically appearing marks on the skin. In all my dad's research and my mom's grimoire, I couldn't find a single reference to anything. So I gave up, thinking it was just some side effect of my mom and dad's genes clashing when I was born. 

Elena glances between the vampire and I. "What is it?"

Elijah smirks briefly at me, "That, my dear, is the mark of a Mate, with whom, you share the same symbol."

My stomach drops, and so does my face. My jaw clenches as I batter his words around my brain. There is no way. My dad had spoken of the legend given to so few of us. Something he was given. Something I hoped to avoid. The vow my body has made without my consent to love another that I may never meet. "No," I whisper weakly. "Who?"