laissez les bon temps rouler//jackson kenner

1.8

It's early as I try to sneak out of the house and out to the Bayou. I regret biting Elijah. I blame my momentary lapse of judgment on being a pregnant hormonal hybrid. I'm almost out the door when I hear Bekah behind me.

She is standing there with her arms crossed. "Where do you think you are going?"

I sigh. "The Bayou."

She looks surprised. "What are you going to do to Elijah this time?"

I shake my head. "Nothing. I want to make sure he's okay. I shouldn't have bit him. But you didn't hear the things he was accusing me of. The way he was talking about my child."

Bekah looks at me with sympathy. "Go before Nik sees you."

I smile at her slightly before leaving the house. I head to the werewolf encampment I left Elijah at.

When I walk into the shack Hayley stands up defensively. "What are you doing here?"

"Stand down wolf girl. You know you can't win this battle." I pause for a moment. "I honestly thought you would have been gone by now. That's why I came back. I didn't want to leave Elijah alone."

Elijah is laying on the bed, tossing and turning restlessly. Hayley steps out of the way so I can approach him.

I try to feed him some water. "Here, drink this."

He looks surprised to see me, but drinks from the cup. He immediately starts to gag and cough. He's pale and sweaty and clearly miserable. "Forgive me. Please."

I laugh a little. "Elijah I think it's you that should be forgiving me. Especially since you know I can't help you or Nik will have my head."

Elijah nods his head. "I should not have accused you of having a child for..."

I smile as I cut him off, "We can discuss this later. Right now I just want to make you comfortable."

"It doesn't help that we decided to shack up in a swamp," Hayley states. She walks out onto the porch, leaving the door open to let the breeze into the shack.

When Elijah starts to cough, Hayley immediately rushes back. "Are you okay?"

Elijah rubs his hands on his face. "I'm fine. Please, just... return to your reading."

"I went through the whole thing." Hayley picks up a bible and hands it to me. I start to flip through the pages. "It's just a regular Bible..." She sits down next to Elijah. "With an entry in a family tree that may or may not be me. But, you know, I've been a little busy worrying about you."

"Hayley, please. This fever will make me unstable. And once the hallucinations begin, I'll start to see things. You must leave me here," Elijah urges before starting to cough again.

"I'm not leaving you like this," Hayley states.

I smile at her. She hasn't known my brother for more than a day but she is already willing to risk getting hurt by him. I don't know what it is about my brother that makes people admire him so much. I guess it is because he is the nicest out of all of us.

Hayley heads outside onto the porch.

I look at Elijah. "So does she know about our families' storied past?" Elijah shakes his head no. "Well I can tell you like her and I can tell that she is kind, something that a majority of our family is lacking. I'm gonna tell her about me, while we're here. Maybe I can even help her figure out what this bible means."

Elijah smiles at me softly before I head out onto the porch. Hayley is sitting out on the steps. She turns around to look at me. "I think we got off on the wrong foot."