Poisonous Chocolate and Forbidden Fruit

6. Karma

    Elijah, Lilith, and Niklaus were all reading in the sitting room. Lilith, craving physical touch like she always did, shared a chair with Elijah. She was half in the chair, half on Elijah's lap. This wasn't an out-of-the-ordinary experience between the two. Lilith had always been fond of touch. They'd been sharing chairs, blankets, and/or beds since they met. Elijah was reading from his mother's spellbook and Lilith read it with him. Niklaus sat across from them reading poems from an old book. Still, he was eyeing Elijah every chance he got.

    Rebekah marched in and immediately saw the girl, a previously living girl, on the table between them. She eyed them all before saying, "So this is what you do the first time we're back together a family; vampire book club."

    "Reading edifies the mind, sister. Isn't that right, Elijah, Lilith?" Klaus quickly tried to gauge his brother's mood.

    "Yes. That's quite right, Niklaus." Elijah confirmed for him like a father to his son.

    "And what's this business?" Rebekah pointed to the girl.

    "This is a-" He waved dismissively at the dead girl, "-a peace offering."

    "Her name is- was Madeline," Lily informed her as she continued to read through the spellbook. Something about it felt so familiar to her.

    "I presumed, after so much time desiccating in a coffin, that my big brother might be a bit peckish." Nik started.

    "So I explained to my little brother that forgiveness cannot be bought," Elijah explained.

    "So I took the 'peace offering' for myself!" Lily added quickly.

    "I'd simply prefer to see a change in behavior that indicates contrition and personal growth, not this nonsense." He went back to his mother's book while Klaus rolled his eyes.

"Lilith and I couldn't very well let her go to waste now, could we?" Klaus grinned.

"Well, I suppose I'll fetch the rubbish bin because she's staining a 200-year-old carpet." The blonde then stormed off as Elijah finally took notice of the blood spilling from the girl's neck.

"Oh, yes." He breathed. Klaus eyed him but continued to read. Lilith read over his shoulder but was mostly messing with his hair at this point.

After a moment he swatted at her hand which only made her want to mess with his hair more. Hayley walked in after a while. That immediately caught Elijah's attention, which caught Klaus and Lily's. They both watched as Elijah's eyes never left Hayley. He eventually gave in and followed the wolf-girl into the kitchen. Lilith then walked over and sat with Niklaus, now reading his book over his shoulder.

    Lilith only listened for a moment, they were talking about milk. That was when she stopped listening. She looked back to Klaus's book. "Why are we reading this again?"

    He laughed once, "I'm reading it. You are skimming through it. And I am reading it because it is great literature, Luv."

    Lily rolled her eyes. "Don't lie to yourself. You're reading it so you have something to relate to."

    He sighed weakly, "Stop psycho-analyzing me, Lilith."

    "Never." She smirked.

    Then Rebekah walked in. She glared at the two of them a moment before stepping over to the dead girl. She grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her from the room. Lilith looked to Klaus who was turning to look at her. They shared a knowing look before laughing together. Rebekah had always had a knack for dramatics.