Brady opens the car door for Elizandra. She steps down and tugs at the sleeves of her dress.
"I still don't understand why we have to attend the funeral of the cult — "
"The council." Brady corrected.
"Same thing," She barked. "They held us hostage. They died. Good riddance."
"Enough. We're not here for the service. Stefan asked for our help; keep an eye on Elena. Said there's a new vampire hunter in town."
"And with Elena being a newbie, it's easier for her to slip up and expose them all." Elizandra concluded, and therefore being okay with staying all together.
"Come on." He nods at the entrance of the church and the two walk up the steps. A soft melody is being played as they enter. Elizandra sees Elena take her seat with Matt and Jeremy.
"There she is." Elizandra tells Brady. She then grimaces, "And looking like hell. I don't think she's taking this transition well."
"She's not," Stefan sighs, appearing beside her. The two look over at a concerned Stefan. He explains, "Her body is rejecting blood."
"That's possible?" Elizandra asks.
Brady lightly sighs, "She needs to drink from the vein, Stefan. Fresh."
Stefan averts his eyes, "So I keep hearing." He gives them a fleeting nod and approaches Caroline and Tyler. Then, Brady and Elizandra take their seat behind them.
"Oh! I've missed you!" Caroline rotates her entire body around and grins widely at Elizandra. Then, the blonde frowns, "There's something you should know — "
"Care," Tyer nudges her as Mayor Lockwood approaches the podium.
"I'll tell you after." Caroline pays her attention back forward. Elizandra huffs; she hated when people left her on edge like that. Now, she wasn't going to be able to concentrate, and wonder instead what it is Caroline needed to desperately tell her.
Mayor Lockwood begins her speech, "Before we begin the Mass, we'd like to open the floor to anyone who would like to share a memory about our late friends on the Town Council."
Elizandra crossed her arms and mumbled, "I have one in mind." Caroline suppressed a snort with a hand flying over her mouth.
"I know that April Young wanted to say a few words about her dad. April? April, are you still here, honey?" Everyone began to look around. No April in sight. Elizandra furrows her brows at Brady. His own eyes are scanning the room. "Is there anyone else who would like to share a recollection or a memory about Pastor Young?"
"Where's April?" Elizandra whispers to Brady.
"I don't know," Brady nods ahead, "But something tells me we should focus on someone else." Everyone's head turns forward at a rising Elena.
Elizandra lightly spat, "What is she doing? She's not stable."
"Elena will be Elena." Brady replies.
"Come on up, Elena." Carol tells Elena.
Elizandra's focus is turned behind her when the church door opens and in walks Damon. He smirked at her as he dipped his fingers in the bowl of holy water. Elizandra rolls her eyes and faces forward.
Suddenly, Elizandra's nerves elevate and she tunes out everyone else, "Brady." Brady straightens his posture. It was blood. Lots of it, and they were the first to smell it.
"Yeah ... I smell it too." Brady responds. Elizandra looks forward and sees Elena. She looked very uneasy and sickly. But, she continues with all her strength. That was one thing Elizandra most respected her for.
"The worst day of loving someone is the day that you lose them." Elena continues. Elizandra took a deep breath in; the thoughts of her parents, her vivid flashback with her dad, and freshly, losing Klaus, flooded her mind. Pushing them aside, Elizandra directs her whispers to the couple in front of her.
"There's blood." She whispers to them. Caroline stiffens and looks to Elena immediately who had obviously smelt it as well. Tyler's eyes widen.
"What do we do?" Tyler whispers back.
"Nobody move," Damon speaks monotonously for them all to hear with their supernatural hearing. "Don't turn around, it's a trap."
"I um ... " Elena begins to breath harder as she fights the urge to vamp out.
"Stefan, I think you should get up there." Brady speaks. As subtly as possible, Stefan stands and heads over to Elena.
"It's okay, it's okay. I got you, I got you." Stefan helps her off stage, making it look like he was only consoling her, and led them back to their seats.
"Please turn to page forty two in your hymn book. Let us join together in a song." The Priest instructs and everyone stands.
"What's going on?" Elizandra asks Brady without turning to him.
"The hunter's here." He replies.
Everyone tunes in on Stefan cooing Elena.
"She's hungry. She hasn't fed." Stefan says.
"So, get her out of here." Matt responds.
"I can't. There's somebody watching us."
Without moving her head as much as possible, Elizandra scanned the room, but nobody was out of the ordinary.
"I'm going to use the bathroom." Elizandra stated. But before she could move a muscle, her idea was shot down.
"No." Brady and Stefan disuade in unison.
"Stefan, I'm losing it." Elena whines. Elizandra could remember the first times she shifted on full moons and how uncontrollable they were. She was in so much pain and nothing could stop her body from breaking every bone in her body, but it was only with time and Brady's mentoring, she finally got it under control.
"You have ten seconds before I go old fashion on the new guy." Damon warned Stefan.
"Don't do it, Damon. Please." Stefan pleaded.
"You coming, Wolf-Girl?" Damon grinned.
"Right behind you."
"Absolutely not," Brady side-eyed her, "I'll go."
"Fantastic." Damon smirks at Stefan.
"Damon, no."
"ThreeTwoOne — bye." Damon begins to leave his row until Matt's next words surprise everyone.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Elena, feed from me."
Elizandra looked up at Brady, then to the back of Matt's head. "That boy is too brave to for his own good."
"It's okay, everyone will think you're upset. Just feed from me." He tells Stefan, convincing him it was the best option in this situation. Elena turns to Matt and he brings her head to the Crook of his neck.
"Looks normal from back here. You're good." Elizandra tells Elena.
"It's okay. You'll be okay." Matt assures. Then, Elena gives in and bites into his neck. Elizandra hadn't realized she was holding in her breath. Matt was too good for the life he was given, too empathetic, strong, and caring all at once. She smiled sadly at him. He was a good guy, and Elizandra felt every need to protect him from supernatural harm. Which is ironic because he was currently being fed on by a vampire.
"The blood. I can still smell it. It's got to be April. We have to help her." Elena tells Stefan when she finished and regained her strength.
"Elena, we can't risk it." Stefan tells her.
"Then I'm gonna do it."
Elizandra watches Tyler step up to the podium. The hunter knows who and what Tyler is. "What's he doing?" Elizandra whispers to Caroline. She only shakes her head.
"Excuse me. I just wanted to say a few words about Pastor Young." Everyone takes their seats as they give all their attention to Tyler. "Back in first grade, I was a brat who couldn't be bothered with team sports. Didn't care much about anything that didn't affect me. But he was the one who made me understand how important it is to be part of a team; a community. Of giving yourself up for the sake of — " A shot is fired and Tyler is sent to the floor. Hell breaks lose in church as everybody scrambles to the ground first, then to the closest exits. Brady and Elizandra look up in the direction the shot came from.
"Up there." Elizandra growled.
"No. He's probably gone out by now." Brady corrected and the two run towards the nearest exit. Brady was faster but Elizandra was able to keep up. They spot the man throwing his duffel bag onto the bed of his pickup truck. Elizandra uses her speed to catch up to him before he could get inside his truck. She grabs his shoulders and throws him to the ground. He pulls out his gun and shoots her. It threw her off balance but luckily it was only vervain. Brady grabs the man, holds him in the air, revealing his fangs and crimson red eyes to the hunter. The man looked shocked but wasn't going down without a fight. Brady rammed him against the ground. Damon jumps in. The hunter pulls shoots Damon in the abdomen three times, then turns around to shoot Elizandra with a gun that launched a stake into her chest. Brady runs to her aid on instinct.
"Damon!" They hear Stefan call. The hunter took this opportunity and speeds off in his truck.
Elizandra and Damon are both on the floor with their wounds. "Hold still." Brady held her shoulder down as he pulls out the stake. She groaned aloud with a mixture of a growl.
"Ow." Damon groaned. Stefan holds out a hand for him. Brady does this as well for Elizandra. She stands up besides him and the two watch the Salvatore Brothers be brothers. Stefan punches Damon and he falls back on the ground. "Uh, what the hell was that for?"
"You know what." Stefan replies and walks away. Elizandra looks down at her chest and touches the blood.
"This is why I don't buy dresses." Elizandra walks away, "They always get bloody."
☾ ✶ ☽
Elizandra walks down the stairs and skips the last step lazily with a jump. She drags her feet to the front door and opens it. Caroline smiles big and steps forward; forgetting the invisible threshold preventing vampires from entering. She rolls her eyes and takes a step back.
"Right, " She sighs sadly, "Forgot."
"I'm sorry, Care — "
"You can come in, Caroline." Brady says as he passes through the foyer. Caroline and Elizandra share a surprised look. Caroline looks down and watches her own foot pass the door frame. She looks up at Elizandra and the two girls shriek with excitement.
"This makes me the first vampire to be invited in!" Caroline jumps up and giggles, "I feel so honored."
Elizandra chuckles and links her arm with Caroline's, "Come on, you can tell me whatever you need to tell me, in my room."
Caroline was filled with so much joy as she tries to take in as much as she could of the house on their way to Elizandra's bedroom.
"Oh my god," Caroline gasps as she entered Elizandra's bedroom, "Your art."
Elizandra smiles and walks over to her bed. It was amusing and heartwarming to see somebody so entranced in her art. "I don't show them to anyone, Caroline."
Her head whipped in Elizandra's direction, "I'm invited into the Direwolves' home and I get the honor of seeing your treasured art? Do I mean this much to you?" Caroline squeals and ran over to her bed. At that moment they felt like just two normal teenage girls having a sleepover.
Elizandra laughs and rolls her eyes, "Now, what was it you needed to tell me."
Caroline exhales sharply and tosses her purse aside as she sat in front of her on the bed, "Right ... you know how Klaus died and went up in flames and whatever."
Elizandra felt her body stiffen at the mention of his name and horrid memory. She could still hear Rebekah's cries as she watched her brother die in front of her. She had no clue Caroline's big news involved Klaus. "Yeah, sure. How could I forget?"
"Okay, now don't get too angry, I read that Direwolves have short tempers — "
Elizandra stifled a snort. "That's not necessarily true."
"Bad resources — anyways! Long story short — don't ask me how and why — but ... Klaus isn't dead and is very much alive." Caroline made a face as if to brace herself for Elizandra's outburst. But, instead, Elizandra felt as if the whole world stopped spinning and time stopped ticking. "Eli? Are you good? Look, I know I know, why can't he just die? Last thing I want is Tyler to be pulled around on a tight leash ... "
At this point, Elizandra had tuned everything out and Caroline continued talking.
He was still alive.
What would she do?
Was this the universe giving her a second chance?
But a second chance at what?
Can her and Klaus really be something after all?