Ardent | Elijah Mikaelson

Chapter 45

The days passed slowly.

Each one brought a new task for Evangeliya to handle for Lucien, all within the apartment. Most times he was there, other times he wasn't, leaving her with only Alexis for company.

Until Alexis died.

"What the hell happened?" shrieked Evangeliya when he returned on Halloween night with her dead body in his arms. "You said you were just going to The Strix party, that you staged a kidnapping to get Klaus to trust— oh god!"

She sank down beside Alexis's body as he set her on the floor. Evangeliya cupped her face, sadly sliding her hand over it to close her eyes.

"Marcel Gerard has joined The Strix," said Lucien hoarsely, grabbing the nearest bottle of whiskey and collapsing against the couch. "The tearing apart..." he waved his hand dismissively. He popped open the bottle, and drew one small sip before he decided to throw it against the wall.

Evangeliya flinched as it broke, glass spraying all over. A small piece managed to nick her shoulder, a wound she quickly pressed her hand over when she saw Lucien turning his head toward her. But it seemed he didn't even have the motivation to feed.

"She'd been with me through so many things," he whispered, staring at one of the broken shards, glittering in the light. "She was supposed to be there, to help us see this through. The prophecy is real, she knew it, I knew it..."

"She was kind to me," murmured Evangeliya. Despite the circumstances, Alexis had never been disrespectful. "I'm so sorry, Lucien." She paused for a moment. "Who did this? Tell me everything."

"We got her from the Davilla Estate... took her to the Compound... she started to cough... she was poisoned. Someone poisoned her."

"I thought Tristan was in on this..."

"He was."

"The Strix deal with poisons. Maybe someone didn't agree. Someone must have gone behind his back. Aya doesn't trust you, she hardly trusts me but she is a bit less hostile because I've been respectful and she sees a fellow woman who has been abused by men in power... she's controlling and clever and tenacious enough to try and seize it, to make this plan hers. If she sees Tristan working with you, she could want to sabotage the operation to get you out of it, to get herself in, to make sure The Strix control the entire de-linking..."

"Tristan would never forgive her," said Lucien, shaking his head. "No, Aya was too preoccupied with other things. If it were a Strix vampire, it would have been someone else. Who, I don't know..."

"We'll kill whoever did it," Evangeliya told him firmly. "We'll put their head on a spike." She got to her feet. "We should bury her."

"I will. You have to stay here." He rubbed his forehead, mustering up the strength to do what needed to be done. "Get some rest, love. It's just you and me now. 'Til the end."

His mood grew progressively worse after he buried her at the edge of the Bayou, herbs and flowers sprinkled over her grave.

Evangeliya noticed how he tossed some of the dark objects around as they continued searching boxes. Whenever he was doing company work, he typed furiously and often slammed his laptop shut, grabbing his temples, huffing, and stepping out to gather his focus.

She tried to remain a quiet, almost invisible presence behind him. She hadn't forgotten how strong he was, something much more dangerous now that she was in a human body. He'd never laid a hand on her in a violent manner, never even grew upset enough to snarl in her face. But she couldn't take any chances. Deep down, Lucien was just like Klaus.

And Klaus often solved things with hitting and yelling.

"Where were you today?" she asked gently a few days later, pushing forward a plate of food. She'd grown hungry after coordinating with three Strix vampires who were tailing Rebekah. They were getting closer, good as she was at covering her tracks with the help of Freya, Kol, Finn, and Lucy in amplifying her Cloaking Spell.