A/N: For those of you that don't know I am a black woman. What is happening in America but all over the world to black people is wrong and to stay silent is to stay complicit.
There has been so much awful things happening to people who look like me and it has meant that writing can be hard in these times. I highlight black characters and their experiences in my stories. Fiore is a proud, loud black woman and those that she loves and cares for know that and support her.
To my black fans, I thank you for your support. I am glad we are able to rely on each other. To my white readers, I urge you to educate yourselves on racism and always speak out against it.
My worldly life is not a controversy or a political statement. I wish people would stop treating it like it is.
Black Lives Matter. If you have even a minuscule problem with that statement don't read my books. You don't deserve me, my stories and I don't want your viewership.
And now, onto your regularly scheduled reading.
~Odessa POV~
"This is where you've been living all this time?" Odessa asked as Elijah brought her to his dingy apartment.
"If you can call it that." He said with a sigh. "The way I'm forced to feed, I'm lucky if my victims even have a wallet."
"I really need to teach you how to compel." She murmured. "Maybe then we can upgrade you to a penthouse."
"Is that what you did to that guy?" Elijah asked. "When I first met you? When you told him to go back to his friends and he did."
"Guilty as charged."
Elijah smirked as he brought out a cardboard box and gave it to Odessa to examine. She warily opened it and saw what he had meant for her to see.
"This what you wanted to show me?"
"Yes."
She rifled through the box, seeing the cufflinks he had referred to when they first met. She pulled out his black suit jacket and she chuckled as she compared it to the simple brown shirt and jeans he was wearing now.
"Based on the reference clues, it seems like you were a butler." The two laughed at her joke, which she cut abruptly when she picked out an ominous note that read "Don't Look Back." "What's this?"
"I don't know. I didn't write it." He shrugged off the suspicion and turned to her with a bright smile. "You look beautiful, by the way."
"Charmer." She winked and twirled around in her short blue dress. "Where did you say you heard about this place again?"
"I didn't." He told her. "I wanted to surprise you."
"In my experience, amnesiacs with zero life experience are rarely good at planning surprises." She teased as the two headed for Elijah's party location.
"Consider it a thank-you for taking me under your wing these past few weeks. I mean, I'd just take you someplace nice, and...I promise to get you home by midnight." He replied.
"Huh, how wholesome."
"Well, if you prefer debauchery..." Elijah ran his eyes up and down her body without pause. "We can do that."
"And just like that, you've got my attention."
She took Elijah's hand and brought him into the club with him. Practically a warehouse, Odessa laughed at the sight of the rundown arena that she knew wasn't ordinarily his wheelhouse.
"Do you even know how to dance to music like this?" She asked.
"I'm a fast learner."
"Good to know."
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer to her. Their faces now centimetres apart, Elijah leaned in to kiss her, paused only by the DJ's announcement.
"Let's get this party really started."
The smell of blood permeated the building as neck's were snapped and all the vampires began feeding on the nearest humans.
"Surprise." He said as he pulled a woman towards and with a sickening crunch, snapped her neck. "I found more of us."
Odessa was surprised by the sudden turn of events and took a moment to adjust to her new surroundings. But more than that, a long-awaited phone call showed up on her phone.
"I'm just gonna get another shot, E." Odessa told him before rushing outside to answer the phone.
~Elijah POV~
Elijah went outside to see Odessa talking to a street vendor in French. The smile on her face was not the lively one he had come to know, but instead false and bittersweet.
"What happened?" He asked her. "You disappeared."
"This recipe is over a hundred years old." Odessa told him fondly. "Back in Manosque his daughter-in-law bakes them every day for her friends. Can't get it there, but this is the next best thing."
"Did I do something wrong?"
"No, I love a bacchanal as much as the next girl." She said with a half-hearted laugh. "I just have some of my own stuff to deal with."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I've got a past too." She murmured. "I haven't been able to deal with it just yet."
"I'm so sorry, Odessa." He commiserated. "I had no idea. You seem so happy."
"I am."
The two began to walk through the city, never quite saying anything. They sat in the park and Odessa turned to him with a sad smile.
"I have a daughter. Back in France. That man, Martin, is her father-in-law." She told Elijah to his surprise. "I know I don't look it, but I've been around the block."
She laughed half-heartedly and Elijah shot her a sympathetic smile. "Does she have a name?"
"I named her Estelle." Odessa answered. "But the family that she grew up with called her Blaise."
"I take it she's the past that you haven't been able to deal with." Elijah said knowingly.
"I want to know her, but I don't feel like I deserve to." She explained. "You don't get to just enter someone's life and tell them that you abandoned them when they were a baby but you're back."
"Odessa—"
"I'm sorry, I know it must be hard to hear about me going on about my past when you don't even know yours." She stammered out.
"No." He took her hand and squeezed warmly. "I want to know everything about you."
"Well—"
"Shh." He quickly silenced. "I know this feeling. We're being watched."
Less than a second later, Elijah had been pinned against a tree by a stranger. He struggled to get a handle on him, but the man remained steadfast.
"Elijah, what the hell are you doing here?" The man asked angrily.
"Who are you?" He asked.
"It doesn't matter." The man replied. "What does matter is that somebody's coming back to town soon and you can't be anywhere near her when she does."
"Who is she?" Elijah asked desperately.
"You need to leave this city." The man instructed.
"Get away from him." Odessa demanded.
"This doesn't concern you." The man continued; his eyes still locked on Elijah.
"Marcel!" The man turned to see Odessa and his eyes widened with recognition.
"Odessa? I didn't know you were here." Marcel said in surprise. "What are you doing here? With him?"
"He doesn't know anything." Odessa told him. "I'll get him out of here. Today."
"Good." Marcel replied. "Because if he's not out by the time she's back, I'll kill him."
The man disappeared and Elijah turned back to Odessa in shock and disbelief, but she was already preparing next steps.
"Where do you want to go?" She asked him. "California? I've heard good things about L.A."
"That was him. That was the man, the face I couldn't remember." Elijah told her. "Elijah, that's my name. We have to go after him."
"He threatened to kill you, Elijah." Odessa shot back. "And I promise you, he meant it."
"You knew him." Elijah murmured. "You know who that man was. Do you know who I am?"
"Elijah, I'll tell you as much as I can, but we can't stay here." She told him. "You can't stay here."
"I have to go find him." Elijah insisted. "Come with me."
"Elijah, if you want to dive headfirst into a suicide mission then I won't stop you, but I won't watch you die, either." She told him with a sigh. "This road you want to go down is dangerous and it is not easy. I get it, I've been there. Wanting to know every single thing about the life you think you're missing out on but sometimes...the past is better left where it is."
"Odessa..."
She leaned and kissed him on the cheek, pulling away with a sad smile. "We'll always have New York."
As Odessa left, Elijah was filled with a kind of sadness he knew he could not cope with. And when that sadness began to numb him it turned to anger. He stalked back into the club, fuelled by rage and began to systematically rip apart every person inside, vampires and humans alike. He was covered in blood, and an hour ago, this level of carnage would have made him sick to his stomach. But now, it was the only thing giving him any meaning.
Once every single being in the vicinity had been disposed off, Elijah stood in the middle of his destruction, almost revelling in it.
"Elijah." He turned and saw the man from earlier, Marcel, glaring at him. "Even without memories, you are still a colossal pain in my ass. Did you forget how to read too?"
"What are you talking about?" Elijah asked.
"The note in your pocket."
"How do you know about that?"
"I wrote it."
"Who are you?" Elijah asked angrily.
"Let it go!"
"Tell me why you wrote it!" Elijah insisted. "Tell me wh—"
Marcel's patience had worn thin and he slammed him into a post, clutching his throat in between his fist.
"Because you asked me to!" Marcel snapped. "You did this for someone. A kid. A girl. And she means everything to you. And if you keep going down this path, the one who's gonna pay the price is her. You did the right thing. Trust yourself, Elijah. And make a life somewhere else."
~Odessa POV~
Odessa had travelled back to her hometown of Manosque, hoping to one day gain the courage to approach her daughter and have some sort of relationship with her. She sat in a bar where a woman she had frequently kept tabs on was playing piano.
"I never took you for a piano lover." Odessa turned up in shock to see Elijah coming in to sit beside her.
"Elijah!" She said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you."
"Did you find out who you are?" She asked, causing him to shake his head in response. "Elijah, I can tell you if you—"
"No." He rejected. "I realised that obsessing about my past brings me nothing but misery and torment. And that I miss you. Can you forgive me?"
"I wasn't the best either, so let's call it even." She beamed.
"Veins ici."
He pulled her in for a long-awaited kiss and smiled as he felt the sense of peace he had missed when he had been away from her.
"Elijah, you have no idea how long I have been waiting for you to do that."