Gods & Monsters ✧ Elijah Mikaelson

XXVIII ✧ Certainty

"Where are we?" she asked when they pulled apart, glancing around the room.

She snickered. "You don't recognize your own room?"

"Sorry. Wrong wording," she mumbled. Her head was still a little fuzzy. "I meant, how did we get here?"

"Elijah carried you to the limo and we brought you here."

Avarice's eyes widened, and she shot up to a sitting position in the bed. "Elijah!" she exclaimed, only to instantly regret her fast movements and loud words when a flash of pain ran up and down her spine and to the base of her skull. She held her head as her brain began to throb, feeling like it was trying to break out of her skull.

"Lay back down," Pin said, though it was more like an order. "You just woke up. You need to stay calm, okay?"

"How long was I out?"

"Three days."

"That's shorter than I expected," Avarice admitted.

"Elijah has been asking for you a lot," he said. "When he brought you here, he almost collapsed from exhaustion. He was barely able to stay awake for an hour, but he stayed here in this room for almost the entire time you were asleep. He's only gone now because Klaus and Freya finally managed to convince him to feed. He's downstairs now, I think."

"So he is all right? You're certain?" she asked. Her voice was full of more anxiousness than she cared to admit.

Pin nodded her head. "Yes, he's perfectly fine. I made sure he was. I couldn't feel the mare anymore."

Then she suddenly went pale, and the content expression on her face faded. Avarice immediately felt nervous.

"Pin, what's wrong?" she inquired.

She didn't answer, and instead began to gnaw on her bottom lip so much that Avarice was surprised it didn't bleed.

"You are withholding something." She said it as a statement, not a question.

Pin wrung her hands. "Avarice, the... The mare is still there. At least, a piece of it. A piece of the mare is still clinging to your soul, and I don't think it's going to ever go away. You have a demon inside you."

It took her a moment to process what Pin meant, but then she nodded. "That's all right."

"That's all right?" Pin asked incredulously.

"Elijah is safe," she stated.

She found herself glancing down at her palm. She could still remember the feeling of his hand in hers.

"That's all that matters."

*

When they found out that Avarice was awake, the Mikaelson's, Levi, Ajal, and Robert were all filled with relief. Kaige had stopped to visit right as they found out, but of course, Levi was determined to let him in. So, the others went to see her on their own.

She couldn't quite describe the relief that she felt when she saw him. He was in his normal suit, and she briefly wondered if the cuts were healed under that pristinely white shirt. She knew that they were. She could not sense anything wrong with him at that point. He was safe.

They eventually left her to rest, but she could feel the stars calling to her that night. She went to her balcony, and watched them twinkle in the night sky. She heard a sound from below, and saw him standing in the courtyard. He had his hands in his pockets and was watching her, his figure illuminated by the lanterns that were placed along the pathways.

He appeared beside her on the balcony, and when she looked over at him, it made her heart skip a beat.

"I am glad you're all right," Avarice said, breaking the silence that seemed to infect both of them.

"Likewise," he replied, seeming distracted. "That Kaige is quite the character. He was rather angry with me when I went after you when you left."

"He was?"

He smirked ever so slightly. "Indeed. I do believe he was close to tearing off my arm when he yanked me back from the door."

"He did what?" she growled, a tense expression forming on her face.

"Not to worry. Klaus and Ajal found it very easy to tame him. They just made it clear that we are the Mikaelson's, and that he was causing a scene at his own party, and he left us be."

She nodded. "Good. I won't have to kill him. Yet."

"Yes... Kol told me you argued with him. I apologize. From what he said, my well-being is what started it."

She licked at her lips, suddenly realizing how dry they were. She was nervous without even knowing it.

"Well, not to worry. It certainly didn't end that way."

He nodded once in reply, and then his soft smirk vanished. She already knew what he was going to say.

"Tell me, Avarice... What on earth were you thinking?"

She knew that this was coming. She leaned against the wall near the balcony doors, and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I knew how to save you."

"And you almost died in the process."

"You think I was really going to let you die, Elijah?" she asked, her brow furrowed. "Surely you know me better than that by now."

"I do know you, Avarice, and I know that when I first met you, you thought entirely logically. You did not waste time on emotions when you knew what was best for everyone," he stated, his calmness fading rather quickly.

"Are you telling me that I should have let you die?"

"No, I'm telling you that your thought process has changed. You have gone from saving us due to it being your duty to do so, to saving us because you care."

"Because I care?" she said, raising a brow at him.

"Yes, because you care. Why the hell else would you have been willing to trade your life for mine?"

"There was not any danger of that happening," she argued with a shake of her head.

"Did you know?"

"What?"

"Did you know? Did you know that it would work? Did you know that if it did work, you would make it out alive? Were you absolutely certain?"

His voice was raising. He was desperate to know. When she looked him in the eyes, she saw that he genuinely wasn't sure. She didn't know what answer he was looking for, but she gave him the only one she had.

"No."

He knew now that she had risked her life to save his, not knowing if she would live too.

And just like that, he was kissing her like she was the only thing that mattered.

He had both of his forearms on either side of her head against the wall, and it was as if he was trying to restrain himself. She was not.

Avarice was surprised, but only for a moment. Then she was leaning away from the wall and into him. His arms didn't move from the wall. Instead, he got closer, and her back was up against it once again.

He pulled away very suddenly, like he hadn't quite registered in his mind what he had done and he needed to process it. She stared up at him in a mixture of surprise and disbelief.

She had never felt anything like that before, and from the look of pure awe on his face, he hadn't either.

Recent events had proven that both of their world's were remarkably dangerous.

He was dying and she was burning.

But when he looked her in the eyes that night, she knew full well that he wanted to burn along with her.