Love Sucks [Kalijah & Haylijah]

CHAPTER 3

Haley's POV

I turn to leave, but I'm suddenly pushed into the nearest tree, hands around my throat. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" the vampire that was with Katherine demands. She releases me, but doesn't back away, her piercing brown eyes the only thing I can see.

"I was just-" What am I supposed to say? Um, I was looking for the bathroom. There's nothing I can say to make this look any less suspicious. I might as well be honest. "I was spying on Katherine."

She didn't seem to like that. Her expression becomes angry, and she grabs my neck again. "Whatever you're planning on doing, don't. If you do anything to hurt her, I will personally hunt you down, and tear you limb from limb before I reach into your chest and show you your own beating heart." If she's trying to scare me, it's working. Suddenly I can't breathe, and the only thing I can think about is escaping, running as far away from Mystic Falls as possible.

She disappears, leaving me to my thoughts.

Elijah's POV

Inside, no one appears to be home. I pour myself a glass of bourbon, and wait for someone to return. Almost an hour later, I hear the door open, and a woman walks in. She seems hurt, her eyebrows drawn together; her lips pressed together in a straight line; eyes glassy. She looks familiar, but I don't know how. "Who are you?" she asks, her accent making it obvious she's European.

"My name's Elijah." She shifts awkwardly, looking down at her feet. She recognizes me. Of course she does, I'm an Original, we're a legend among the supernatural. Yet I still ask, "You heard of me?"

She pauses, deciding what to say. "I've heard stories. You were in love with my mother."

"And who might that be?"

Without hesitating, she says, "Katerina Petrova."

I'm too shocked to say anything, too stunned to even move. I've known for almost two years now that Katerina continued the Petrova line, but I'd never anticipated her child still being alive. "You're her daughter," I finally say. It's not a question, but a statement.

She nods to confirm what I said.

"She never told me," I stumble for words.

Her expression goes cold, draining all emotion from her face, "That's because she didn't know. I've spent 500 years looking for her, and now it's too late."

"Too late?" I asked, confused.

"You don't know..." Now she has a sad look, one of sorrow and grief. "Katherine's dying."

Her words don't process in my mind. That makes no sense, she's a vampire, we don't just die. But then I think of the girl I encountered outside: clumsy, unaware, unconfident. Human. I remember what happened here before we left: Silas, the cure. "The cure," I say, and she nods her head again. Of course I've always wondered what happened with the cure, I'd just assumed Silas got what he wanted. "Why would Katherine take the cure? All that would offer her is vulnerability. None of this makes any sense."

So she explains everything. She tells me about Silas's reunion with his one true love, Amara, and how they both died; Elena forcing Katerina to take the cure; how she, who's name I've now learned to be Nadia, met Katerina; and that her body rejects contact of any kind with vampire blood.

"She's aging much faster than the average human, which means that in a month she'll die the little 542 year-old she's supposed to be," tears well up in her eyes as she says it. "She jumped off a clock tower." Her voice is shaking now; she's barely keeping it together. "I don't know if I should hate her for giving up, or be there by her side when she dies."

I move closer to her, our faces just inches apart, and rest my hand on her shoulder. "Nadia, she's your mother. Family is power. Love, loyalty, that's power. No matter how bad things are, you'll always be able to depend on her. I know, better than anyone, how difficult family can be. But in the end, we always look out for each other. Please, Nadia. Do not give up on her in her last moments." I have no idea who this woman is, yet I feel a deep connection to her. I've thought about giving up on Niklaus countless of times.

She looks up and gives me a small smile. "Thank you, Elijah."