Throws chapter to hungry tiger-readers
YOU GET TO SEE ELIJAH CALL HER DARLING
SO DON'T BE GREEDY
THAT'S ALL YOU GET FOR TODAY
Runs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Chapter Thirty-One
It felt like years had passed before Avarice finally did awaken fully. She wasn't quite aware for a while, but the first thing brought to her attention was that Elijah Mikaelson was holding her.
She knew that she had had a fever earlier. She did not really remember very much about what had happened after she had forced Kaige out of her home, One thing that she knew for sure was that she probably acted ridiculous in front of them. She knew that she likely begged for cold, and they knew what she needed. It made her face flush.
She didn't like the idea of being taken care of. She looked after everyone else. It was her job, and it was what she did.
The more she thought about it, Avarice knew that she did not just dislike the idea of being taken care of. She disliked the idea of being so vulnerable that she had to be taken care of.
"I am glad you're all right," Elijah said.
She felt the vibrations of his chest when he spoke, and then she realized that his chest was bare, she found herself only wanting to hold him tighter.
"I'm sorry," she muttered. "You shouldn't... shouldn't have had to take care of me."
"You think that, after everything you have done for my family, I would find it a chore to keep you safe?" he asked.
"Of course."
He chuckled. "Darling, you and I are the same. We protect the people we love above all. And we do love you."
She swallowed, and then nodded against him.
"Finally!" Pin said as she walked in the room. "You're actually attentive now."
Avarice lifted her head ever so slightly. Then her head shot up, her eyes wide.
The day after the ball, she was supposed to meet with Hayley. She had completely forgotten with everything that had happened with Elijah. She needed to let her know that she was all right.
But unfortunately, she would be unable to go to the mortal world. She definitely would not be able to make it if she had enough trouble transporting Kaige home.
"Pin, can you get me paper? And a pen? The top drawer in the desk."
Pin nodded, said "Sure thing" and did just that.
Avarice wrote out an address, and then handed the paper over to Pin.
"Go there tonight. Tell them I'm fine and the others are too."
Pin's brow furrowed. "But this address is-" she cut herself off. "Ohhh... Okay, I will."
Pin hurried off, and Elijah looked down at Avarice with a brow raised.
"What exactly was that about? Where did you tell her to go?" he asked.
"To go see a friend. It's all right," she said, feeling another wave of exhaustion coming over her.
Elijah simply nodded. "Sleep. I'll still be here when you wake up."
And she did.
*
Pin crossed her arms over her chest, staring up at the so-called "house" that Avarice had directed her to.
There was just one problem. There wasn't a house. There was nothing there. At least, nothing that she could see.
If these people were who she thought they were, then Avarice most definitely put up a cloaking spell on it.
Pin sighed. "This is gonna hurt."
She took a few steps back, then launched herself at the shield surrounding the house. She broke through easily, but that didn't stop the minor burning she felt from the magic of the shield and the pain from hitting the ground on the other side.
"Ow," she groaned.
Pin had always been kind of clumsy compared to the other reapers. But Avarice trusted her with this, so it clearly didn't matter to her.
"Who the hell are you?" she heard someone ask, and blinked a few times before turning towards the direction of the voice.
A woman was sitting on top of a blanket, holding a toddler in her arms. The toddler kept trying to look back at Pin, but the woman kept her closer.
Pin rubbed at the back of her head, which had hit the ground rather roughly, and then flipped onto her front. She sat up to sit on her knees.
"Ah," she grunted as she settled. "You must be Hayley and Hope."
The woman, who Pin could assume was Hayley, only blinked at her. Then she narrowed her eyes.
"I'll ask again. Who the hell are you?"
"I'm Aspin. I'm Avarice's friend. She sent me here to talk to you."
The accusatory expression that Hayley had once worn faded. It lingered, but it was mostly gone. "She's told me about you."
"I hope it's been all good things," Pin grinned.
Hayley gave her a soft and wary smile.
"I guess I should tell you why I'm here," she said, bending back and cracking her spine a little. She had not quite landed correctly, and was feeling it now.
Hayley nodded in reply.
"Okay, well," Aspin said, clapping her hands together. "For starters, I'm pretty sure Avarice was supposed to meet you a week ago?"
Hayley blinked, thinking back to it, and then agreed. "Yeah, she was. I wondered where she'd gone."
"Well, the night of the ball, Elijah was hurt, so Avarice had to take care of that."
"Elijah was hurt?" Hayley asked, her eyes widening. "Is he okay? Are the others all right?"
"Yeah, they're all good. Anyway, that kinda wiped Avarice out for a bit. Then a couple of days ago, Avarice got in a fight with another reaper and used her magic to send him home. But using her magic when she had just almost died saving Elijah-"
"She almost died?!" she said, then saw that Hope winced at her yelling and spoke quieter. "I didn't think that was possible."
"Yeah. It was a big deal. Elijah was badly hurt, and was on his way to death, so Avarice saved him. But anyway, she was probably gonna come back to see you, but she ended up using too much magic than she really should have. So she ended up getting a fever and spent a lot of time resting. When she finally awoke again, she asked me to come here and explain. In short, Avarice is fine, everybody else is fine, and I'm just supposed to be here to tell you that."
Hayley blinked, still trying to take in all of the information.
"Also, I feel the need to inform you that that is the most adorable child I've ever seen."
Hayley couldn't help but laugh. Aspin smiled back.
"Well... Thanks for telling me. I was getting worried. When will Avarice be able to visit?" she asked.
"Probably some time within the next week. She'll likely start to research more ways to help Elijah and Kol pretty soon. She's just really tired right now."
Hayley nodded. "I get that. I hope she'll be all right."
Pin grinned at her knowingly. "Oh, don't worry. As long as Elijah's around, she'll be more than fine."