A steady drum solo sounded through the ballroom and Madelyn turned her body toward the staircase as eight men carrying Jamaican drums made their way down the steps, beating on their drums with their drumsticks and their hands.
She saw Hayley standing in front of the staircase as the guest all made a hole for the drummers. Madelyn herself stood closer to the staircase as she had just been talking to Davina Claire, the witch that received no gifts from the guests.
Madelyn saw as Elijah moved across the floor to stand beside Hayley as they watched the drummers. Madelyn had to look away from them before she got angry. She didn't understand how she could get so jealous, because she had never met him before the fire at the plantation. She didn't know him. She didn't hang around him. Hayley did.
As the drummers stopped in the middle of the floor, they finished their drumming. "Happy Fête des Bénédictions," one of the men shouted to the guests. "We have a message for all of you from Marcel Gerard."
Murmurs broke out from people of the crowd, and, judging by the looks on Hayley and Elijah's faces, Madelyn got a bad feeling about the "message" that this "Marcel" guy.
To speak true to her bad feeling, all eight drummers produced a switchblade first. They popped them open in unison, and then proceeded to cut their wrists. Madelyn's lips fell open slightly at the sight of the blood oozing from the men's wrists.
She looked around to see each vampire in the room with the veins showing under their red eyes and their fangs out. They all started hissing in hunger at the sight of the blood, but none of them attacked.
Madelyn became practically still when she saw a few of the vampires were close to her. She didn't dare breathe as she watched Elijah walk out into the middle of the floor. He turned to the guests and looked between the vampires. "You will control yourselves," he told them calmly. "This is a vulgar trick. We do not violate our agreement."
As soon as the words left his mouth, the room went dark and the guests started screaming and shouting. Madelyn ducked and tried to get to Hayley in the dark as the vampires started hissing. The iron scent of blood filled the air as they attacked anybody they could grab.
"Hayley!"
Madelyn's sensitive ears picked up on Elijah shouting Hayley's name over the screams of the fleeing guests. Something struck her in her gut as she listened to him shout Hayley's name. She stilled in her flight from the room, and that's when strong arms grabbed her.
Sharp fangs sank into the flesh of her neck and she gasped, finding it hard to scream as she felt the blood start to leave her body. Her reflexes took over and she used her strength to shoved the vampire away. His teeth yanked her skin, ripping it as he detached himself. He hissed at her and she wrapped her arms around his neck, twisting his head to snap his neck. He dropped to the floor and so did she.
She gasped to breathe as blood flowed down her chest, covering her wound with her hand as if it would stop the blood.
The lights came back on and Madelyn saw the carnage that the darkness had created. All eight drummers, along with several of the guests, were all dead on the floor.
"Elijah?" Hayley's voice rang out.
"Hayley," he said.
Madelyn turned to see him knelt down beside Hayley, helping her to her feet. Madelyn felt tears in her eyes, but silently pushed herself to her feet. Neither of them saw her as she turned and ran out of the room. Her adrenaline was still pumping through her body, even as she lost blood.
She made it all the way outside before the adrenaline was gone—as quickly as it had come on. She didn't run. She stumbled as she made her way through the alley. She tried not to think about the sight of Elijah at Hayley's aid. She had to get over the silly crush she had on him, no matter what.
Once she was on her feet, Hayley looked around the room, but she didn't see Madelyn. "Where's Maddy?" she asked frantically. "Elijah, did you see her?"
Elijah Mikaelson looked around the room, scanned the area with his hearing, but he couldn't hear or see her. "Not after the lights went out," he told Hayley.
Hayley started panicking. "We have to find her," she pleaded hopelessly.
The blood in the room filled Elijah's nose, but a particular scent also wafted toward him. He snapped his head off to the right, where he last recalled Madelyn standing before the room had gone dark.
He could smell Madelyn's blood. It was a scent he couldn't forget. A poignant smell of trees and moss and roses that he only identified as her blood. "Come with me," he told Hayley, leading the pregnant werewolf girl out of the building.
Because she was bleeding, Madelyn stayed away from the main streets. She didn't want to draw attention to herself. She kept close to the river in the back streets, trying to find a way back to Hayley's car. Maybe Hayley would be waiting for her.
She was still losing blood, not healing as fast as she should've. She was starting to grow weak as she walked, and she started stumbling in her step. She broke out into a sweat and her vision started to blur. She prayed she would just lose her balance and fall into the Mississippi.
"Madelyn."
What blood she had left in her body ran cold at the sound of his voice. She stopped walking, but didn't turn around to face him. However, as she soon as she stopped walking, her body started to sway and she knew she was going to lose consciousness.
She blinked and then Elijah was in front of her. She staggered back in surprise, but his hands took her forearms to steady her. She swallowed at the warmth that his touch brought to her trembling body, but, she pulled her hands free. She looked down at her bare feet, as she had taken her black pumps off somewhere along her journey to find Hayley's car. "How's Hayley?" Madelyn murmured.
"She's fine," Elijah answered. "Madelyn, you are not," he added, reaching for her again.
She shook her head vigorously and stepped away from him, moving her arms back so that he couldn't touch her. "I'm not important. She is. As long as she's okay," Madelyn stated.
"Madelyn, let me help you," Elijah said. "You are important. You are important to Hayley and to Jackson," he told her. He couldn't bring himself to tell her that she was important to him as well. He knew that if he admitted such a thing aloud, his enemies would use it against him. He did not want to put her in danger like that.
She shook her head and turned away from him. "No. Only Hayley is important to Jackson," she denied. He looked at her sadly, but she didn't see it as she closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Look, Elijah, I'm fine. I don't need your help. I'll find my way back to Hayley's car or the bayou myself," she argued stubbornly. If she let him help her, she'd get a false sense of hope that she meant something to him, even though he indirectly just told her that she wasn't even important to him.
"You are not fine," Elijah argued back, stepping around her to stand in front of her again. She lifted her head to look up at him, instantly regretting that she did because he looked so handsome as he looked down at her with soft eyes. "Please. Let me heal you," he said.
She staggered back again and shook her head as her vision got spotty. "No," she gasped out harshly. "I'll be f—"
Elijah watched in horror as her eyes fluttered closed and her entire body dropped toward him, slumping against his chest. He grabbed her with one hand before she could slide to the ground and then he took his phone from his pocket to call Hayley. "Elijah, did you find her?" Hayley asked worriedly.
"I did. Go back to the bayou. I will bring her back," Elijah told her.
"Is she okay?" Hayley asked.
Elijah sighed. "She had been attacked after the lights went out," he answered her. He knew he couldn't lie to Hayley, so, he didn't try. "Get back to the bayou." And then he hung up on Hayley. He lifted Madelyn into his arms and sped off toward the bayou.
He was walking up to the cabin on the river and Jackson came running outside as he appeared. Hayley called him. "Madelyn!" Jackson yelled out, running toward Elijah. "What the hell happened to her?" Jackson growled at Elijah.
Elijah ignored the question as he stated, "We have to get her inside now. She's losing blood rather quickly." He rushed passed Jackson to enter the cabin and he put Madelyn down on the bed as Eve rushed to her side.
Jackson grabbed Elijah's arm and the Original vampire turned around to glare at the werewolf. "What happened to her?" Jackson asked in a low and threatening voice.
"Marcel Gerard happened. He sent men to bleed for the vampires and the vampires attacked," Elijah answered. "Now, kindly let me go so that I can help her." Elijah was just as threatening in that statement as Jackson was being toward him in the midst of the situation. Jackson let Elijah go and Elijah turned back to Madelyn, attempting to cover the wound to stop the bleeding.
"Why aren't you giving her your blood?" Jackson asked. He hated the idea of allowing his cousin to drink vampire blood, but the wound on her neck looked terrible and he was afraid she wouldn't heal.
"She refused it. She didn't want it. I will respect that," Elijah answered. "She will be fine. She's healing herself," he added as he noticed the wound closing on it's on. Slowly, but it was healing.
The noble Original turned back to Jackson as Madelyn's earlier words repeated on a loop in her mind. "She refused to allow me to heal her because she believes she is unimportant. She believes that she is not important to you," Elijah explained to Jackson. He watched Jackson's eyes widen in surprise before they fell onto Madelyn's face behind Elijah. "Jackson, she needs to understand that she is just as important to you as Hayley is. She's important to all of us, but she does not see it," Elijah continued with a sigh.
He turned his head behind him again and looked down at Madelyn. Seeing her pale complexion and the terrible bite mark on her neck angered him as he knew that he was not there to help her, as he focused his concern solely on Hayley and his unborn niece. It angered him that she was hurt because of something that Marcel had done.
He spotted a cup off to the side and in a flash, he grabbed it, bit into his own skin, and poured his blood into the cup. "If she wakes before her wound is healed, you can offer this to her. Maybe you can convince her to take it," Elijah said to Jackson, placing the cup on the dresser beside the bed. "Tell her that I am sorry."
And then he was gone.
"Marcel!" the furious noble vampire shouted into the wind as he appeared on the other side of the Mississippi. With a speed that was faster than any other vampire, he zipped passed Thierry and yanked him back, away from Marcel before he then sent the horn-playing vampire flying in the other direction.
And then, in the blink of an eye, he was standing directly in front of Marcellus Gerard, his brother's sire. "I warned you," Elijah said in a low voice. He grabbed the collar of Marcel's jacket and, in a millisecond, had the century old vampire pinned against a pole. Marcel grunted, but Elijah didn't flinch. "And yet still you return to the French Quarter."
"You gonna kill me, Elijah? Go ahead," Marcel taunted menacingly. "But then, you won't know what Klaus has got going with that witch in his pocket," he dangled the threat loosely in front of the Original.
"Oh, whatever shall I do?" Elijah mused sarcastically. "I suppose I could just ask him."
"Yeah," Marcel said. "Make sure he tells you all about the secret meetings with the werewolves," he taunted once more. That almost reigned a response out of Elijah, as he was surprised to hear of his brother colluding with wolves. "That is, if he's still speaking to you once he learns that you killed me."
Elijah slammed him against the pole a little more harshly. "Do you not know me?" Elijah questioned gruffly. He slammed his hand into Marcel's chest, feigning a groan from him. Elijah heard Thierry come up behind him in order to help Marcel, but Elijah brought his hand back and slammed it into Thierry's chest, his hand clutching the vampire's heart. "Someone I care deeply for got hurt tonight because of you," Elijah said to Marcel in a low and threatening voice. "So this... is for your violation."
With that, he ripped Thierry's heart from his chest.
"No," Marcel whimpered. "No, no, no," he continuously whimpered as Thierry's body fell to the ground and started to gray with his veins rising to the surface of his skin.
Elijah, still holding the vampire's heart in his hand, raised the organ up to Marcel. "You live...and you die according to my will." He dropped the heart nonchalantly. "Try to remember that." He let Marcel go and then Elijah was gone once more.
Madelyn's eyes fluttered open and she moaned softly. She whimpered and gritted her teeth with a loud shriek as she felt the pain overwhelm her. Her body felt hot and she was sweating profusely. She whimpered loudly and started tossing and turning in the bed that she was laying on.
The screen door of Eve's cabin swung open and she turned her head to see Jackson rush to her side. "Maddy, hey, you're okay. You're gonna be okay," Jackson assured her as he sat at her side and held her hand in his.
She squeezed her eyes shut as the white hot pain she felt at her neck traveled through her nerves. Her legs kicked under the blanket that was covering her body and tears fell down her cheeks. Jackson, hating that she was in so much pain, grabbed the cup of Elijah's blood and handed it to her. "Here. Drink this, Madelyn. Please. It'll stop the pain," he pleaded with her.
He placed the cup securely in her shaking hand and helped her sit up. The wound on her neck had healed only slightly in the short amount of time since Elijah had brought her back, as her healing had been a little slow. "What...is it?" she murmured, flinching at the hoarseness that was her voice.
"It's Elijah's blood," Jackson answered her. She flinched again and shook her head, attempting to shove the cup back in Jackson's hands. Memories of how the evening had ended flashed through her mind and it brought tears to her eyes again while Jackson tried to push the cup toward her again. "Madelyn, you have to drink it. It'll help you heal faster," Jackson pleaded with her.
"I...I don't w-want it, Jackson," she stammered out painfully, shoving against his hands to shove the cup back into his chest.
Jackson shook his head and pushed against her hands so that she would take the cup. "Elijah left it for you for when you woke up. He said he was sorry, but I don't know why he would say that. He just wanted you to know that he was and he wanted to make sure you had his blood if you changed your mind," Jackson explained to her.
She had stopped trying to fight him with the cup when he told her that Elijah wanted to give her an apology. Why would he want to apologize to her? She gulped and turned her head up slightly, wincing at the pain that followed in the action, and she chewed on her bottom lip. "He...didn't say what he was...sorry for?" she stuttered painfully.
Jackson shook his head at her. "No," he answered. "He gave me the blood and said it was for you, had you changed your mind if you woke up before the bite wound was gone. Then he told me to tell you that he was sorry. And he was gone," Jackson explained. "What the hell would he have to apologize for, Maddy? Was he the one who hurt you?" he asked, suddenly growing angry at the idea of the Original vampire being the one who had done this to his cousin.
Madelyn shook her head and looked down at the cup of blood in her hand. It repulsed her to have to drink it. But her body was alive in fire and she felt like she was going to faint in response to the excruciating pain that she was trying so desperately to ignore and fight through. "No, Jacky. He didn't hurt me," Madelyn murmured.
She squeezed her eyes shut and quickly tossed back the blood. She coughed as she choked down the dark red substance. She flinched and shook her head vigorously as she gaged on the metallic taste of it. The cup fell through her fingers and fell to the floor, but she didn't care as she cringed again. "Then, who did, Madelyn? What the hell happened tonight?" Jackson asked her.
Madelyn coughed again as she tried desperately to get the grotesque taste out of her mouth. She lifted her head so that her chocolate brown eyes gazed at him. A sigh escaped her lips and she flinched again when she felt her wound closing up on her neck. After that, she reluctantly let the story spill from her lips.
Back at the abattoir, Klaus Mikaelson entered one of the numerous hallways from the courtyard and closed the double doors behind him. He turned and saw his brother leaning against a railing in front of him from the second level of the building, dried blood coating his hand. "Well, I see that you've already avenged the little wolf," Klaus observed to his older brother.
Elijah raised his hand slightly and took a look at Thierry's blood, a reminder that he had done it for Madelyn; unbeknownst to Klaus, of course, who had assumed it was Hayley that Elijah had avenged. But he said nothing to his brother as his eyes moved up to look at him.
"But judging by your look, you're still out for blood," Klaus continued slowly.
Then, Elijah spoke, "If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results, then surely, my quest for your salvation ranks me as one of the maddest of men."
Klaus rolled his eyes and shook his head at the sound of his brother stating it as if Klaus had done something wrong. He held his arms out and said, "Come on, then. What horrible deed has the bastard done this time?"
"Do you know, in the past, I actually appreciated the methods to your manipulations?" Elijah questioned his brother with his hand on his hip. "However, now here we are, poised on the brink of a new era which would benefit not only your home but your child, and you go behind my back to conspire with wolves," he said angrily at his younger brother.
Niklaus was quick to his own defense, pointing a finger at his older brother. "Conspire is hardly the word I would use for a family council," he said quickly. "Lest you forget, Elijah, they are my family as much as any Mikaelson—a name, in truth, I cannot even call my own."
In a flash, Elijah was on the first floor, standing in front of Klaus. "How casually you disavow a thousand years of allegiance towards you," Elijah said.
"And now that I've found the remnants of my other family, am I to ignore their plight?" Klaus asked him incredulously. "I would've thought you'd support my desire to help them, when in doing so, I help Hayley and the child," he pointed out as his brother walked to stand directly in front him, within arms-length of him.
"Do not question my allegiance towards that child," Elijah warned his younger brother.
"Oh, and I suppose your affection for Hayley has nothing to do with your tireless dedication," Klaus pointed out, amused now as Elijah looked stunned. "Yes, you see, I saw how you cared for her tonight, whilst the other little wolf bled as she fled in tears." Again, Elijah was shocked as Klaus told him what he had not known—that Madelyn had been in tears when she ran from the building. "Called Hayley's name in the dark whilst Madelyn was fed upon. The zeal with which you destroy those who would harm Hayley. But not Madelyn."
Elijah grabbed Klaus and shoved his face in the railing behind him. Klaus broke free and went for Elijah but Elijah shoved him back, his hand at his throat. "I have denied every single impulse I have ever had for that woman," Elijah growled. "Out of some misbegotten respect for intentions that you don't even have." He lifted his bloodied hand up so that Klaus could see it. "However, this blood was spilt for Madelyn, Niklaus. I found her nearly dead on her feet in the alleys. Do not question my affection for her, either."
Klaus shoved himself toward Elijah in a threatening manner. "I'm warning you—"
Elijah shoved his brother against the railing again and pointed in his face angrily. "I'm warning you," he repeated. "I've forgiven you. I have stood by you. I've forsaken every single one of my desires in the name of your ridiculous redemption." He shook his head. "No more. If I want something... I'll take it. And nothing...nothing...will stand in my way."
He turned away from his brother and opened the door to the courtyard. He walked away, but, deep down, he couldn't stop himself from wondering about the last thing he had said to Klaus. Was he talking about Hayley, like Klaus was no doubt assuming?
Or was he talking about Madelyn?