Lover Be | The Originals

Chapter Twenty-Five | Suggestion

The witch slowly woke, looking around at his surroundings. The cold, cement ground of the basement brought back the memories of his capture.

When his vision came into focus, Elijah was standing over him. A flicker of recognition was in the witch's eyes, a realization that he was in the presence of one of the original vampires. He immediately tried to cast a spell, but nothing happened.

"I'm afraid that won't work," Elijah said calmly, with a sinister undertone. "I had a friend of mine disable your magic."

The witch growled.

"Don't worry. You and I will have plenty of time to get to know one another. You'll tell me all about your little group."

"I'll tell you nothing," he spits. "I'm loyal to my coven."

Elijah's lips quirked in a chilling smile.

"So you are a coven. Good. We have to start somewhere."

The witch scowls and tightens his lips, determined not to reveal anything else. 

For several hours, Elijah attempts to pry information from the witch. He cuts his skin and studies how it heals. But as far as the coven went, he wasn't really getting anywhere.

"I am a patient man," Elijah says, rolling up his sleeves. "But patience has its limits."

The witch braced himself for another cut to the skin. Elijah pushed a knife into his chest, just shy of his heart.

"Just kill me," the witch coughed blood, staring into Elijah's eyes with hatred.

"But I'm having so much fun."

"Oh my god!" 

Elijah closed his eyes, realizing the girl had caught him in a less-than-ideal light. He removed the knife and stood, turning to her.

"Malia, this isn't what it looks like."

"It looks like you're torturing him!" 

"Well," Elijah tilted his head. "That much is true. This is one of the murders. I'm just trying to find out what he knows."

"Who's this?" the witch smiles, revealing blood-covered teeth. "A girlfriend?"

"You have much bigger concerns than who this is," Elijah said without turning.

"I don't think so," the witch spits blood to the ground. "Because as soon as I get out of here, I'm going to do to her exactly what you did to me."

Elijah turns to the witch, who has a daring look in his eye. 

"Unless you kill me," his eyes narrow. "Go on, kill me."

Elijah clenches his jaw, thrusting his hand into the witch's chest and pulling out his heart.

Malia cried out in shock, staring at the blood dripping from the heart in Elijah's hands. 

He looks down to the heart and drops it as if he was surprised he had done that. 

Malia turned to leave, running up the stairs.

"I'm getting out of here," she called over to Klaus. He had started to feel better, so she had gone downstairs to tell Elijah. "You and your brother are psychos."

Once again, she was stopped before she could reach the door. Elijah wrapped his arm around her, holding her in place.

"What did you do, brother?" Klaus called from the couch, looking at the blood covering Elijah.

"I was just interrogating our friend downstairs. And then he told me to kill him."

"I assume you got what we needed first?"

"That's the thing, Klaus," Elijah looked over at his brother. "I didn't. I couldn't stop myself, it was like I was compelled."

"You can't be compelled, Elijah."

"You're right, and yet . . ."

Elijah looks down at Malia.

"He told me to kill him and I didn't. I didn't want to. We needed more information from him. Then Malia came downstairs and he threatened her. And I did want to kill him a little bit. So when he told me to, I couldn't stop myself."

"Will you let me go?" Malia struggles against Elijah's grip.

"I can release you, but you probably shouldn't leave. You're covered in Klaus's blood."

Malia looked down at herself and saw that he was right. She'd look like she'd just committed murder if she walked outside like this. 

She nodded, and Elijah let her go. She went upstairs and put on one of Elijah's dress shirts, removing her blood-covered shirt.

She moved like a zombie, flashes of the witch's threats to her, his blood-filled mouth, and his heart in Elijah's hand filling her mind. Once she had the shirt on, she went downstairs

"You killed someone," Malia finally said.

"I did."

He pulled out his handkerchief and wiped the blood that had stained his hand.

"You- you tore his heart right out of his chest."

"Yes."

"Of course you did," she nodded, trying to grapple with the reality of the situation. "You're a vampire, you've probably killed a lot of people."