Everlasting- N.M {2}

46: the axeman's letter

Klaus and Elijah walked into the compound as they talked over the prophetic situation they had. "So, my first sired wants to kill you. Yours wants to kill me. Makes you regret turning vampires in the first place." Klaus remarked in annoyance.

"Well, the division of labor seems crystal clear; two of them, two of..." Elijah stopped when they looked at the scene in the courtyard. "Us."

Astrid stood over a dead body that had been placed over a bed of lavender, holding a letter in her hand. Her wrists had been slit open to the point of death from blood loss.

Astrid gritted her teeth in rage as she read the letter. Klaus rushed toward her,just for her to harshly hold it out for him. "A gift from your true love." She quoted the contents of the letter to her husband with a hateful glare for the sender.

Klaus took the letter and ran his eyes across the letter and clenched his jaw, wordlessly giving it to Elijah.

Elijah took it from his brother, reading it out loud. "Roses are red, lavender is blue. Come find me before I find you - Your one and only true love." He glanced over at Klaus who was looking at Astrid.

Klaus said nothing, and only turned to Astrid, taking one of her tightened fists, and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.

Elijah studied the woman's lifeless body below them as Klaus stared furiously at the sight. "I remember her as a better poet." He ground out through his teeth.

"Oh, I wouldn't say this is lacking in poetry." Elijah spoke purposefully as he stood up from his position on the floor.

"She wants us to find her." Klaus mused in a hollow tone and let the letter drift to the floor, next to the dead body. "So let's." He headed for the door before Elijah stopped him.

"Are you so eager, Niklaus? Last time you even said her name was a thousand years ago, when you told me to never speak it again in your presence." Elijah stopped with a bewildered look.

Klaus turned back around. "She almost destroyed my marriage a thousand years ago and I am not about to let her have another go at it!" He responded angrily. "So, excuse my eagerness. Am I to wait as she leaves her little calling cards all over my home?"

Klaus' words in defense of their marriage allowed Astrid's worries and anger to dissipate slightly as she sighed in relight relief. "Obviously not."

Elijah looked more worried than the couple and slowly got his words out. "There's nothing the both of you need to know."

Klaus and Astrid looked at Elijah in dread at the possibility that Elijah had kept another secret from them.

Elijah looked to make eye contact with them both. "When Mother seized control of my mind, unleashing those monstrosities that lurk behind that red door...I saw something." Elijah took a number of more steps toward his brother. "Aurora was there."

Klaus rolled his eyes at his brother's build up to what sounded like a confession. "If you mean to confess a thousand-year-old secret that will divide us after our hard-won reconciliation, then te absolvo brother; there is nothing you could have done involving her that could be worse than what she did to us. To Astrid."

"Please do not dismiss this, Niklaus-" Elijah tried but was interrupted by Klaus once again.

Klaus cut him off in the middle of his sentence, seeming not to care about whatever Elijah had to confess. "Whatever it is, it can wait! We have a plate of here-and-now problems, and I mean to clear it!" He placed his hand on Elijah's shoulder. "If it makes you feel any better, we can kill Aurora together! Then neither of us need play her mind games ever again, hm?"