A World of Our Own

The sun had slowly worked its way around the manor while he had remained in the library. The shadows slowly moving from one range of leaded windows to the other, slanting across the letter he had rewritten three times over now. Each iteration of it had ended up crumpled, despite the value in the heavy paper, tossed in the fireplace that had been kept burning in his chambers by the house’s servants. Elijah’s lips pursed, his eyes narrowed against the glare of light now shining direct in his face. The quill In his fingers bobbed slowly, carefully, so as not to spatter the page with ink. He suspect this was not quite right either and never would be but he studied the written text anyway.

So different to the runes they had used even in the new world. The language captured so formal in its query but … not right. Elijah sighed, setting aside the quill with its cap of black ink still coating its split end. He crumped the page again, carefully avoiding the damp lines of ink. Twisting in his seat Elijah tossed it into the flames. They started to lick at it immediately, hiding his attempt at enquiring for news of the Petrova family. Katherine’s family.

Turning back he sank back in his seat, his eyes narrowing again. He stared at the quill and lamented the words that had not streamed from it. Their guest had no notion that he had gotten in his head to make enquiries after her family. An idea that he should’ve driven from his head to start with. It was not his place to pry into her life before she had arrived in England and had become their guest. Stretching a hand, Elijah picked up the glass of wine that had been set at his elbow by a servant a half hour before. It bloomed warm on his tongue, eased the burn in in his throat that built as his hunger struck. A man should not look a gift horse in the mouth, he had warned himself but he had started to do that. It was a mistake. He had gone far too long without a bright spark in his life, now that one had started to grow in that darkness he should not be looking for a way for it to be extinguished.

Pushing back from the chair from the cramped desk, Elijah took to his feet. Too much had already been extinguished, centuries of running and sacrificing to stay one step ahead of Mikael, to hide what they were from a world not prepared to know of their kind. Leaving the fire to consume the letter he had cast aside and the glass of wine, he walked from the room, heading for the chambers their guest was occupying. Half way down the hall he was pausing, the light from the narrow windows streamed down on her as she walked up the stairs towards him, highlighting the dark silk of her hair and the alabaster of her skin. It was as silky as the hair, warm unlike the stone when his fingers brushed it.

Elijah leaned against the balustrade, head tilted. The smile that had graced his lips at the first glimpse at her grew, warmed like the sun that streamed in to lighten up the panelled space. ”I had just thought to come find you,” he murmured lightly, fingers extended to her to aid her up that last step. He took a half step back but remained in her space, close enough to draw her in as much as was properly allowed. ”It seems you have read my mind and come to find me instead. Has Niklaus kept your properly entertained today?” More often than not these days it seemed that Niklaus was gone. Busied with the business of being lord of manor, with the preparations for the ritual that would snuff that light out in an instant if another way tcould not be found.

Tagged: KATHERINE PIERCE [ARCHIVED] * Word Count: 665