Forever

All the death

I was on the fucking blood diet again.

Four times a day, just to be safe.

It used to be once a week.

I fell onto a couch in the library, throwing an arm over my eyes. The last time I'd been in a library with Elijah, he'd betrayed me and my siblings died. "Why are you guys micromanaging me?"

"When you show us you can drink a healthy amount, we will reign it in." The sound of pages turning followed his words. "Speaking of which, you need to go retrieve a bag from the kitchen. Freya had them restocked. It's nearly your feeding time."

I groaned. "Don't say it like that." 

"Go get a blood bag."

"Don't worry about it, my love." That was Kol. I peeked out from under my arm and he was standing near my feet with blood in hand.

"Fine." I snatched it away from him.

He grinned. "Make sure she drinks all of it." He directed at his brother.

I frowned. "Where are you going?"

"Somewhere you will never go, if I can help it." Kol turned on his heel and left, shouting for Finn.

That was, something.

"Where's he going?"

"Drew." Elijah didn't even look up at me. "Drink."

"But it's gross." And I already had so much of it today. I'm sure I could skip one bag. "I'm much more interested in this highly secretive place."

"Your ability to go long periods of time without blood is concerning. Why must you take yourself to the brink of desiccation before you drink?" He was ignoring my question.

"It's gross." Might as well be honest.

"And yet I won't let you leave this room until you've had every last drop in that bag."

"You're so pushy." But I uncapped the straw thingie anyway. The metallic taste was the first thing to hit my tongue and I nearly gagged.

I found myself questioning yet again, how they all drank this stuff.

And it was warm when they did it. 

Which, they were also drinking from humans, nasty creatures.

As I sipped, I couldn't help but think about the memories. Elijah's head dive happened nearly week ago, and I'd been searching for a time to bring it up. Could I even broach the subject?

What was the etiquette on these things?

"Elijah-"

"You may ask me your question after you've finished."

"But-"

"After."

Fine.

I think he knew I was going to inevitably bring it up. He'd been kind of avoiding me in his very Elijah way.

Honestly, I was kind of conflicted.

Could I really bring that kind of thing back into this world?

I mean, if even Klaus feared him...

But-

All the death.

If Mikael's only purpose was to kill his children and only that, then I was okay with it.

Then again, I was bringing this family's worst nightmare to their doorstep.

They deserved it.

Did they?

Yes.

"-ew, Drew." Elijah had set his book down. "I called your name, where did you go?"

"Nowhere."

His brow raised. "You've finished with the blood bag."

"Oh." I hadn't realized, though the bitter aftertaste on my tongue told me he was right. I had all of it, and not noticed. "It's nothing."

"I seem to recall the last time you'd been reluctant to tell us something. It hadn't ended well."

"Yeah well I seem to recall a certain someone doing absolutely nothing, if not encouraging Klaus as he set my siblings on fire." I took a breath. Not the time for that. "Is what I saw real?" Might as well rip the bandaid off.

Elijah sighed. "Yes."

It didn't hurt that it also changed the subject. "So your father-"

"Beat us all relentlessly, yes." He replied bluntly. "Mikael never saw us as children, merely a means to extend his bloodline, especially Finn and I."

"But vampires can't procreate- besides Klaus."

"The irony in that statement doesn't escape me." A small, sad smile grew on his face. "We were bred for one purpose, and Mikael's kin was cursed to never reproduce. Instead it was Ansel's, the very wolf my father hated. Small victories I suppose."

"Ansel?"

"The wolf that impregnated my mother." I turned around and Klaus was leaned against the doorway. "I'm so glad we could have a sit down conversation about our lovely parents." Had he been listening? "She might as well know the dangers that will follow her if Mikael is ever released."

Did he know?

"But he's not going to be."

There's no way he did.

Klaus' brow lifted. "You'd better hope not. While he was pleased with the implications Kol having a soulmate would bring, he saw the mark as weakness, had Kol cover it up, lest his violence be turned on his child. There was a different stigma around soulmates back then, it was believed to be a curse."

"Why would he force your mom to complete the bond then?"

"Because he believed she belonged to him, and not completing the bond meant that one of his things had escaped him." Elijah adjusted in his chair. "And you never took something of his without consequences."

"Thus we were hunted." Klaus nodded. "He'd given us the gift of immortality and in turn, we ran."

Objectively, I felt bad for them.

But Jeremy, Elena, and Jenna hadn't been killed because the Mikaelsons were trying to escape their father.

"So you agree that Mikael holding you all and your mom against your will was wrong."

Klaus pointed an accusatory finger at me. "I know what you're doing."

"I'm just simply stating the obvious. You haven't killed me, despite the fact that if we're being technical, you did. But you repeatedly used my loved ones against me and actually murdered my family in a bid to keep me in my place."

His jaw set.

"Come."

"What?"

"Niklaus, I don't think that's a very good id-"

"If you really want to know what we're doing, then come. I'll gladly show you."