To Love a Phoenix (Elijah Mikaelson story)

Chapter 7: Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo

"If I cannot bend the will of Heaven, I shall move Hell"—Virgil

Days had passed since the group had departed from Mystic Falls and Atalanta was stuck sitting in the passenger seat of the car next to Klaus while Stefan had been shoved to the back. Something about Klaus enjoying Atalanta's presence more than Stefan, who was struggling with his ripper self.

As they were driving in the middle of the night in Tenessee, Klaus stopped a while when he sensed the presence of a human nearby. Atalanta raised an eyebrow at the hybrid when he opened her door for her and extended a hand for her.

With an annoyed sigh, Atalanta grabbed his hand and stepped out of the car. Stefan looked over to the hybrid, who gave him a warning glance that the younger vampire was not welcome. Atalanta rolled her eyes when Klaus put an arm over her shoulder and swaggered both of them to a house.

Atalanta recognized the house from her recollection of the show and sighed as she whispered to the Original next to her,

"Remember your promise about innocents?"

Klaus sighed and nodded, and he proceeded to knock on the door. It did not take too long for a dog to start barking at the door and a girl to open the door for them. Klaus immediately gave a dashing smile to the girl, almost looking genuinely apologetic as he said,

"I am so sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

The girl eyed the couple suspiciously. Mostly at the woman in front of her, who had applied heavy eye makeup, almost making her look like a dark character with her straight her and black leather jacket. She looked like a punk rock wannabe, but considering how the man seemed to dress, fit in well with him. The girl warily asked them,

"Can I help you?"

Klaus smiled awkwardly and said, "Yeah, my, uh, my car ran out of gas a couple miles back. My girlfriend and I feel like we've been walking forever. Yours is the first house we'd come to, so we were just hoping we could use your phone."

The girl looked hesitantly at them and asked, "Don't you two have a cell phone?"

Atalanta looked apologetic and said, "Uhh... out phones' batteries died."

Klaus almost smirked at how well she was acting along with this as he continued,

"Look, we promise we're not a serial killer. We just want to use your phone."

The girl eyed the one more time before saying, "Sure." With that, she took a step back and seemed to walk back into her house. Klaus hesitantly asked,

"So... can we come in?"

The girl's eyes immediately narrowed in suspicion at that question and shook her head, answering,

"No. I'll get the phone and I'll bring it out to you."

Klaus sighed in annoyance as he said, "I thought you country folks were supposed to be more trusting."

The girl looked offended as she ground out, "I'm from Florida."

Klaus muttered under his breath as he looked at Atalanta, "Well, that explains it."

With that, he flashed over to the girl and compelled her with, "Now, show me a little Southern hospitality... Sweet pea."

Atalanta made a gagging noise at the nickname, causing Klaus to smirk over at her as he grabbed Atalanta's hand and stepped inside the house. As they walked in, another girl told her friend who had been compelled,

"I bet you a hundred dollars that the dog ran off to a house with air conditioning."

When the second girl saw her friend have a blank look in her eyes and Klaus bringing Atalanta to the kitchen, she looked fearful as she asked,