Eternal || Elijah Mikaelson

XCIII - Part Witch

"Unless Hayley's husband-to-be starts flapping his gums," I could practically see the smile on Nik's face with his next sentence. "Perhaps I should take preventative measures and separate him from his head?"

"Jackson will do nothing to jeopardize that wedding," Elijah said sternly.

"If he does, then I will be the one to do the separating, Nik," I said, while Nik chuckled on the other line.

"Hayley's getting married?!" Rebekah yelled, then sighed. "Well, what in hell else did I miss?"

Elijah and I looked at each other with soft smiles on our faces.

"Nothing. Nothing at all, Beks," I said. "Now, I think it's time for breakfast. We'll call you later. Try and get along, you too," I said to them over the phone before hanging up.

We both went down the stairs, and saw that Cami was in the living room with Hope sitting on a blanket on the floor. Of course, it was the blanket Elijah had gotten for her. I saw a soft smile come onto his face when he realized it too.

"Cami!" I called out from the kitchen. "Eggs and toast, right?" I said.

"Yeah, thanks guys!" She said, then went back to laughing with Hope while she shook a rattle.

Elijah began to clean a skillet, while I grabbed the butter and eggs from the fridge. He put a small slab of butter in the pan before cracking an egg on the side. When he did, we heard a crashing sound come from the living room, followed by Hope's crying. We both looked at each other, then ran in.

A broken dish was on the floor on top of Hope's blanket, while Cami was picking her up and holding her with a distressed expression. Hope had a small cut on her forehead.

"She yanked the tablecloth and that knick-knack fell on her!" she said, then calmed a little when she saw that Hope hadn't been seriously hurt. "It's just a scratch."

Hope continued to scream and cry from the shock of what had happened.

"I'll get a b-" I started, then stopped when I saw the look in Elijah's face.

He looked completely helpless with his hand out to Hope, and I knew that he was in a trance. He was remembering the door. Cami held Hope closer to her, then glanced at me with a concerned expression.

"Elijah, are you alright?" I asked him. When he didn't answer, I put my hand on his, grazing my fingers along his skin before holding it.

He jumped a little and then blinked rapidly. "Yes," he said, seeming uncomfortable with the way that all of our attention was now on him. "Forgive me," he licked his lips, then turned, eager to leave. "I'll get the band-aid."

*

"Rose," Cami said from the doorway of the study, where I was reading a book on PTSD.

"Yes?" I said, setting the book down on the desk.

"I'm going to take Hope out for the day, give Elijah some time to himself. Would you like to come?"

I nodded. "Yeah, he needs some time alone to relax a little."

She smiled at me. "Alright, do you have any suggestions of where we should go?"

"Well, there's a farmer's market in the next town over. Would you like to go there?"

She smiled in reply. "Yeah, it'd be nice for Hope to be around people other than us. And we need to stock up on food, too."

We agreed, and she told me that she had given Elijah a list of things to do. She had decided that, in his case, staying physically busy wasn't enough. If he did chores and kept mentally busy, then he would push the thoughts of his past to the back of his mind.

We got ready to go and went to the car, and I saw Elijah keeping a watchful eye on us as we left. I knew that he was uneasy about not being near us, but he knew that I could protect Hope and Cami easily, and I could protect myself perfectly fine.

We were about five minutes away from the house when Cami decided to break the silence that we had been quite comfortable in.

"You're helping him," Cami said. "A lot. I hope you know that."

I didn't have to ask to know that she meant Elijah.

"So are you."

"Not like you are," she said. "You... I don't know how to explain it. You're like..." she sighed. "I don't know. There's just something about you two that's unique."

"Cami, I'd be lying if I told you that I only think of him as a friend," I told her. "But I don't know what we are, and frankly, I don't want to know."

"Why not?"

"Because defining something just makes it that much harder when you lose it."

She didn't say anything after that.

Hope was getting a little restless. I could hear her heartbeat start to speed up, so I reached behind me and held her hand for a moment. "It's alright, sweetheart. We're almost home."

She suddenly gripped my finger slightly tighter, and then something extraordinary happened.

The engine shut off, and the car slowed to a stop.

"Uh... Rose?"

I shook my head at Cami, just as confused as she was. "I didn't do it..."

She pressed the engine start button, but the vehicle didn't respond at all. I pulled my hand out of Hope's grip, and that was when I realized. It was Hope.

"Cami..." She looked at me curiously, hoping that I had an explanation. "Hope is part witch."

Her eyebrows rose. "You think that she did it?"

"It's possible. Children don't usually show signs of magic until they're around five years old, but she's a hybrid. Anything's possible with her," I shrugged my shoulders.

"Okay, so why did sh-"

She was cut off by a sudden bang followed by a screeching and hissing sound. We both turned to look at the house, and my jaw dropped.

"Oh my god!" Cami exclaimed.

The house had exploded, the remnants of the frame erupting in flames.

We stayed in silence for a second, and I had just realized that Elijah might have been in the house when Hope decided to show her power even more.

The engine turned back on.

"She has power..." I whispered. "But one question still remains: how the hell did she know what was going to happen?"

"I have no idea," Cami said, her eyes still wide.

I paused, and inhaled. I caught two scents lingering in the air. One was a vampire, and I assumed it was Elijah. But the other was a witch. And when I realized that, I growled and glared at the burning structure.

"Finn."