Black Castle 🖤 E. Mikaelson

Chapter Thirty•Two. All There Is To Hate & Love

Chapter Thirty•Two. All There Is To Hate & Love
ELIJAH
{Human by Aquilo}

🖤
I know that it's been hard
But even when it's hurting
You're gonna have to start
To learn to recognize
That even in the dark
There's lines between the spaces
Hiding where you are
🖤

It was rare when Niklaus showed interest in another human being. So one could only imagine how Arabella looked when she stood in the doorway looking at Niklaus as he watched and waited for Camille to wake up.
Now that Camille was technically dead, he wanted nothing more than to protect her at all costs. Arabella thought it was too late for that.
Niklaus felt like he failed at protecting her, but he never understood that Camille didn't want to be protected, all she wanted was to be safe and she couldn't get that as long as she remained in the city. She was a vampire now, or at least she was for the next twenty-four hours, and it annoyed Arabella more than anything only because she was some sad depressed shell and all she did was whine. When she woke up, all of that would have been elevated. Arabella couldn't understand why Niklaus couldn't let her go, then she realized that he might have been in love with Camille.
Niklaus was confused with his feelings considering that he was in love with Arabella as well, and he had conflicted feelings for Camille. That was maybe because he believed Camille to be a fresh drink of water, whereas Arabella was a strong shot of whiskey. He also didn't understand that he didn't have to choose between the two, Arabella didn't feel that way about him, and it was clear that Camille did. So why was he still thinking about Arabella while he was with Camille?
    Arabella had stopped watching the two and decided to give them both some space, so she found herself downstairs in the courtyard, where she was cleaning the blood off of her sword with a rag, the blood she happened to be getting off of it, belonged to four Strix members, who they were, she would never know. She swiped her finger across the blade and then watched slowly as the blood rapidly dripped from her finger. The moment Elijah walked in from the kitchen, he stopped and watched her while she did it, she was in some sort of trance he sort of wondered why, but decided to go against asking her.
She brought her finger to her mouth and attempted to suck on it until it healed. When he watched, she hesitated against doing so, his eyebrows couldn't help but lower over his hooded eyes. He was starting to place things together as he thought about what could have been wrong with her, and the fact that she didn't eat a single heart, out of the entire pile of vampires she killed the day before. He thought that to be abnormal for her.
Or how she didn't eat anyone before she came back into the compound, she wasn't drinking alcohol. That only left one thing, she wasn't feeling like herself because it was clear that her skin looked a little pale to him. She probably needed some rest and hadn't slept in days. Which was a normal occurrence for her.
And because of that, he thought that to be the perfect moment to approach her. She was unlikely to brush him off.
  He knelt at her side while her finger had healed, and she inhaled deeply because she just wanted to take a moment to breathe. Her eyes went from his eyes to his hand as she saw that he was still holding on to her ring-as he did it before with her old ring which she was wearing on her right index finger-so when he slowly took her hand in his, she didn't move while he replaced the ring on her finger and looked at her sadly.
"This was a gift, do what you want with it, but I do not want it back." He held onto her hand, the feeling alone made her heart flutter. Her stomach felt tight, and she also tried to refrain from jumping in his lap. She could try for the rest of her life to hate Elijah but it would never make how she felt about him go away.
"Fine." She was quiet when she responded, her eyes were staring into him, if not through him, and she shrugged her shoulder just a little bit before she went back to cleaning her sword, meaning she had to take her hand back and when she did, Elijah's expression saddened although he did try and hide it. The second time she decided to slice her skin, it was the palm of her hand, and as it happened, she didn't wince once. Elijah recognized that as not normal but he wasn't going to push it further because he knew that she needed to focus, she didn't need Elijah distracting her. She was thinking of something when he got up and left for the kitchen, the only time she watched him was when his back was turned, when her hand healed, she looked down at her hand and flipped it, revealing the ring. A smirk appeared on her lips.
It was a known fact that Elijah still had that effect on her.
   She stood up minutes later and started to feel dizzy, something she wasn't known to feel so that meant to her that her days were getting away from her as she refused to sleep, she had forgotten to eat on multiple occasions and it was finally catching up to her. She placed her sword on her back, then made a beeline for the kitchen where Elijah was already opening up a small bottle of apple juice. He handed it to her, and then two pieces of toast popped out of the toaster, which made him walk over and start spreading butter and apple butter onto it. He placed the contents on a plate, sat it on the island, and waited for Arabella to take a seat and start eating. If they had the time he would have made her a proper breakfast, but it was already so early, and he didn't want to push his luck.
Only Elijah would notice that Arabella wasn't taking care of herself as she should. She was unknowingly depressed; she wouldn't know anything about skipping meals and what it caused to her body when it was fighting so hard to stay awake and not shut down. The little gesture he showed her had given him a little hope that maybe she would at least know that he cared about her ardently.
"Please, eat." His hand offered her the chair across from where he was standing, and at first, she hesitated, then concluded that it was better if she ate something now rather than passing out while trying to kill Tristan and Aurora. Lucien was still at large and Vincent and Freya were attempting to locate his whereabouts.
"How did you know?" She bit into the first piece of toast, started chewing, disregarding the small amount of apple butter that rested on her cheek, and asked while avoiding his eye contact. He didn't say anything about it, he just took out his handkerchief and started to slowly make his way around the island. She wasn't paying him any mind as she continued to eat and sip slowly at the apple juice.
"You have these little episodes where things that you normally do, start to disgust you." He was calm when he approached her, but his heart was beating a million miles a minute. It was safe to say he was very much still in love with her despite how he felt about her past transgressions.
"I am not predictable." She looked up for a second and jumped a little bit to see that he was at her side.
"You're right, that is why I am the only one who noticed." He offered her the handkerchief as a tiny smile curved his face. She was hesitant at first but then she ignored her feelings and took it from him and wiped her face. When she handed it back to him, their hands touched again, and that time she didn't bother moving away quickly.
It took Rebekah walking in with Kol in tow that get them to move away from one another.
"What's going on?" Arabella asked quizzically. Rebekah looked like she slept as well as an insomniac, her eyes were bloodshot, and her hair was a little tousled, that alone was why Arabella knew something was wrong.
"I keep telling him it's nothing, but of course, he just won't let it go." She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.
"Rebekah, what have you done?" Elijah sighed, it wasn't surprising that she was bound to do something but he needed to know so that he could get things under control before anyone noticed.
"It's nothing! Stop overreacting." She sneered at Kol.
"She killed about twelve people and it's not even morning." Knowing that Kol used to be the one killing people left and right for no reason, it was a strange sight for Arabella to witness him changing, it was for Davina no doubt.
"But your witchy bitch of a girlfriend can kill whoever she pleases, that's rich." Her face was contorted, and black veins popped up under and over her eyes, that was what made Elijah walk around Arabella's seat and made Arabella stand up.
"This is what I mean." Kol hooked his hand and pointed at her as he felt defeated, he must have had to deal with her for quite some time because his patience was wearing thin. She must have been throwing jabs at Davina in the meantime because he didn't look the least bit offended.
"The hex is turning you into a ripper." Arabella looked to be in awe as she raised her fingers to Rebekah's face so that she could trace the veins. Rebekah snatched her hand in hers and glared at her angrily, but that only made Arabella smile more. "I like this."
"There is nothing to like about this, the more she kills the worse it gets." Kol reminded Arabella. Arabella glanced at him like it really wasn't a bad thing and he should have thought the same as well.
"And that sounds like a problem because...?" Her eyes widened slightly as if she didn't understand what he was trying to imply.
"Oh, I forgot, ruthless killer, talking to a ruthless killer in training." Kol couldn't help but chuckle.
"Stop talking about me like I'm not standing right here." Rebekah's eyes went back to normal, she didn't glare at Arabella, she just glared at Kol since he was the one to ruin her fun.
"I wouldn't dream of it doll." Arabella couldn't contain her smile, and that was why Kol moved her out of the way from Arabella's grasp as she touched Rebekah's face again. She wasn't taking anything seriously, and it was the first time in a while that she was actually in a good mood. The last few hours were, eh, but now that she ate something, she felt as right as rain.
"Some sister you are." Kol joked.
"It's not every day that a Mikaelson joins the dark side." Arabella was light with her jokes, but she also knew how serious it was, not the act itself, the actual hex.
"I'm leaving." Rebekah rolled her eyes but the smile alone let Arabella know that she wasn't serious. She was probably going to head up to her room and realize that Arabella stole a couple of her outfits, then probably sleep it off.
"Why are you in such a pleasant mood?"Kol looked Arabella up and down, totally ignoring that Elijah was standing incredibly close when he shouldn't have.
"The thought of anarchy reigning down on New Orleans makes me happy." He looked up dreamily as she continued to joke about it, it was good to see her in a good mood but it was weird for the occasion.
"Of course it does!" He was incredibly sarcastic. Then he became serious again. "So what's the plan?"
"First, we see how Camille is doing. Then we have to figure out how to get Hayley back." Arabella looked up as if it killed her to say that sentence.
"You're going to help rescue her?" Elijah finally spoke up to the news that Arabella would help, he was sure he and Niklaus would have to go at it alone.
"Of course, that way I can be the first to wrap my hands around her throat and squeeze the life out of her." She motioned her fingers like she was ready to strangle someone, Hayley in particular, she didn't care if she was being held, hostage.
"We're not going to do that." Elijah reminded her as he took his hand, placed it over hers, and pushed them down softly. She looked up at him but the look wasn't dirty.
"You're right. Because I sure as hell am." She turned her body to Kol and moved her hand from underneath his. She didn't know what he was trying to do but it wasn't the time for him to try to be supportive or nice.
"Arabella," Elijah sighed.
"Elijah." She rolled her head and looked back at him. Kol just thought she was being immature, but he liked that about her, it reminded him of Arabella back in Cannes.
"Enough you two." Niklaus was rubbing his temple when he walked in. He looked like someone had killed his dog and the fact that Arabella knew exactly what that felt like, she knew that it wasn't good news.
"What's the matter?" She asked while he approached her, she was there to support him in his time of need and nothing else, whatever he needed, she was going to do for him. What were friends for?
"Camille doesn't wish to be a vampire." He didn't have his head down but all three of them could tell that he was disappointed.
"Boo hoo, the only reason Nik is sour about it, is because he fancies her." Kol threw in his input, and that caused Arabella to look back and glare at him.
"We all knew that." Arabella scoffed. "Why would you want to her be a vampire anyway, wouldn't that just make her extra emotional?"
"Way to be subtle." Niklaus gave Arabella a harsh look before walking over to the wall of booze, and grabbing himself something to drink, he felt like he needed it.
"Well while you're wallowing in despair about the potential loss of a loved one, I have a heinous bitch and her brother to hunt down." Arabella placed her hand on Niklaus' shoulder, she was still joking when she dropped her head, and then she parted with him so that she could go ahead and get the materials she needed to get Hayley back.
"Language." Elijah stopped Arabella. She rarely cursed but when she had it was foreign to him, he didn't like it coming from her mouth.
"Excuse me, what else do you expect me to call her? A mindful beauty?" She rolled her eyes.
"We get your point, just be careful," Elijah mentioned, she nodded her head, and threw her hand back to wave them goodbye, and then she was gone.
"She seems like she's in a cheerful mood, all things considered." Kol made her lips pout as he involuntarily shrugged his shoulder.
"All things considering what?" Elijah's eyebrows lowered.
"That you two are no longer together, and that she's moving away." Kol continued with an obvious nod of his head. He didn't forget, and the fact that Elijah was playing it off like it wasn't a big deal, it certainly was.
"What do you plan to do about Camille?" Elijah chose to ignore that part about her moving away and changed the subject. Looking at Niklaus expectingly. Niklaus noted it and moved on.
"I can't force her to be a vampire." He took another sip of his drink. It was way too early to be drinking but he had his reasons.
"It's either she becomes one or she dies." Elijah reminded him, that there was no loophole, there was no way around her becoming human again, it was one or the other.
"As if I didn't already know that." He raked a hand through his hair as he tried to think. It was hard to think clearly when Camille was up in his room freaking out about her life-or-death situation.