Black Castle 🖤 E. Mikaelson

Chapter Twenty Eight. A King & No Crown

Chapter Twenty Eight A King & No Crown
ELIJAH
{The Fire Down Below by Slaves}
🖤
Take the air from my lungs,
Put it in hers because
She's the one who deserves to live;
The one that I pray that God forgives.
🖤

  The room was hot when Arabella shot up in an upright position, sweat in beads on her forehead as she breathed heavily while looking around frantic, looking for someone who wasn't there. She wasn't crazy for thinking her twin sister was there with her, she knew she saw her mother and father too. She looked to her right and then her left, she could see dust particles sailing around the room as sunlight came pouring in through the windows. That's when it dawned on Arabella; she found herself in Niklaus' bed, his blanket tousled, her clothes removed, and the only thing clinging to her sweating body was one of his t-shirts.
Arabella kept telling herself it wasn't a dream, and that she wasn't hallucinating because she knew what that felt like. Her hand swiped across her forehead as she thought about why she was there instead of her bed, but as soon as the thought came to her head, bacon could be heard frying in a pan in the kitchen. Her first thought went to Elijah, she could imagine him going through his list of questions in his head as to what happened the night before. But as she entered the kitchen, preparing her argument, Elijah wasn't the man standing there making her breakfast, but it was Niklaus. His back was turned to her while he remained preoccupied, and for a split second, she didn't know what to do. She was wearing his shirt, she had nothing on but her panties, and that was enough. She was aware Niklaus had seen her naked many times before but that time it was different, he had stripped her of her clothing and placed one of his own over her body. If that wasn't drawing the line, then she didn't know what was.
He felt her presence and that was why he turned around, and from what he could see, she looked ravishing in his clothes. That wasn't the reason for having her in them though. After she had appeared behind Tristan, knowing that she was already standing in front of him, Niklaus concluded that Arabella had come to know another power that came along with her curse. He knew that wasn't true because Bête didn't have a new name, and she happened to be Arabella's older sister; what was even weirder was how quickly she had gone away when they both touched the sword Arabella was carrying around, which was now in Marcel's possession until they could figure out the history on it. He constantly questioned how he had never seen it before.
In the meantime, he helped her out of her clothes because when she came to, she wasn't like herself, she was angrier than usual, and as soon as she could get past everyone, she was gone. When she returned to the compound, she was covered in blood. She fell to her knees, then she passed out. So as Elijah had done before, Niklaus helped her get cleaned, and dressed her, and then he left her in his bed while he slept in her old room to give her space. He knew that it was better to get to the bottom of what happened when she woke up, so now that she was in the kitchen with him, he could sit her down, feed her, and then ask what everyone wanted to know.
"Where's Elijah?" She asked as she looked around suspiciously. When she realized he wasn't anywhere in sight, she walked up to the island and took a seat on the tall bar stool.
"Beats me, been ringing him all morning, hasn't been answering." Niklaus shrugged as he stuck his thumb in his mouth, sucking off the syrup that he started to pour with his other hand. Pancakes, bacon, grits, sausage, eggs, and even more bacon had been on the stove, but for the time being, he wasn't going to keep her waiting until it was done, so he started making her a plate. He wasn't moving fast enough because she reached over and took the plate, sat it in front of herself, then reached out again, took three more pancakes off of a nearby plate, slapped them on top of the two she already had, and then grabbed for the bacon, and syrup. Only when she sat down, she began to shove the food in her mouth. "Slow down there mighty wolf, there's plenty for you to devour."
She looked up from her plate and narrowed her eyes. It wasn't that she wasn't in the mood for jokes, she was just starving. Arabella might have come to the compound instead of going home covered in blood but it wasn't as if she had come back from eating several stupid people, she was angry after she became conscious, so she found a distraction in just killing several members from Lucien's army. She had found more way deep down in the bayou, and how she realized they were out there was beyond her but she was gone and she succeeded with little to no effort. By the time she reached the Quarter, her energy ran on empty before she could get home, so the compound was the closest place to rest. She wouldn't mind explaining that to him either.
"So I wanted to talk to you about something," He began as he leaned on both of his hands and finally glanced up at her, she was already staring.
"Naturally," She sighed, shortly after her mouth was clear she shoveled more food into her mouth.
"I wanted to wait until everyone arrived." He looked down again, he wasn't trying to be turned on by her eating but it was starting to get harder by the day. It was something about how she didn't care how she looked that t attracted him to her, and it wasn't long before he wouldn't be able to hold how he felt for her, it was bound to come spilling from his lips at some point.
"Who is everyone?" She muttered with smashed-up pancakes and bacon in her mouth, and as she said it, Camille, Vincent, Davina, Josh, and Marcel came walking in through the door. Marcel was holding her sword, so when Arabella's eyes made contact with it, his hands involuntarily moved it away so that she wouldn't get any ideas. She rolled her eyes and chewed slowly while they all gathered around, making it look like they were all there for an intervention. "I clearly spoke too soon."
Josh handed over a gift bag and smiled while Arabella was confused by what was going on, then she remembered that it was her birthday. It was her first birthday being with her family and with Elijah after a thousand years, and no one knew where he was. Arabella met him halfway and grabbed the bag from his grasp, her smile was light but in the back of her mind, it didn't feel right when Elijah wasn't there.
"Happy birthday Arabella." He was happy when he said it, but he cowered into the back of the surrounding group when he realized that he was the only one who brought something for her special day because it seemed like everyone else had forgotten. "You guys didn't get her anything?"
"Poppycock, Elijah, and I already gifted her with something special. I bought her place to open her very own dress shop." Niklaus seemed proud of himself, which made Arabella smile a little bit.
"Elijah, eh uh, cremated Eli and had an artist create his ashes into a beautiful work of art." Arabella finished for Niklaus because it was obvious they wanted to see what Elijah had done. "It was truly beautiful."
"Wait, really?' Josh asked with complete and utter surprise because, to him, Elijah was an emotionless creature who wore a straight face and a nice suit, he didn't think of him as someone who would do something so thoughtful. And Elijah wasn't the type, he would help if it benefited him, and he was more than known for keeping his promises but being sweet to anyone who wasn't Arabella, wasn't something he did. Arabella had stood up and went to retrieve what she meant. "That's actually really sweet."
Arabella was Elijah's moon and stars, the tide in a wave, the sand on the beach. In other words, Elijah was nothing without Arabella, and she knew something had to be going on that he wasn't there with her. She did nothing wrong in his eyes, but she was going to do plenty wrong if something happened to him.
Elijah's head was hanging while his mother continued to take his blood from his body, what she did with it had him confused and curious before she sent him into another temporary trance until she needed him conscious again. She was mixing Arabella and Elijah's blood to create a linking spell, and the reason why it was taking so long was that Arabella physically could not be linked to anyone as magic didn't affect her, Esther already knew that, and immediately regretted it. There were ways to work around it, but she couldn't let Elijah go until it worked. It was a risk she was willing to take because there was always a loophole when it came to magic, even Esther knew that she had to give something in return for helping Elijah and Arabella. It was a price that she knew they were both going to have to pay to live a happy life together.
Esther was almost where she wanted to be, and it only took a little push to get there. Soon after, Elijah would be home like nothing ever happened, that was the plan, as long as Arabella hadn't realized something was wrong and come and rescue him herself. That was something that didn't need to happen because she would then get defensive and do something she wouldn't regret, that was why Esther was fearful of the Lycanthrope. Esther might have helped Arabella become the ruthless tyrant she came to be but in all honestly, she did not think she was responsible for what she turned into.