Broken Promises (An Elijah Mikaelson LS)

Bitter Dreams...

Elijah's pale skin was nearly as white as the sheets he lay on, sweat beading on his forehead. "Here. Drink this," Lorelei muttered, speaking softly to her pained husband – though keeping her voice indifferent – as she handed him an old tin cup. He struggled to sit up and the nurturing nature within her helped, placing a hand under his head as he propped himself up on one elbow to drink. Barely a second after the liquid touched his lips, he coughed it up, doubling towards her.

Hayley was standing slightly apart from the two, watching closely as Lorelei took gentle care of him. "All right," she couldn't stop herself from grumbling at the liquid spewed onto the old wooden floors. "Forgive me, please," Elijah groaned, rolling onto his back, eyes closed against the pain of the hybrid bite. "It's all right," Lorelei soothed, setting the cup down onto a small side table. Elijah's jacket had long been removed to keep his fever down. But it didn't help that the small cabin was also warm.

"Remind me to annihilate your brother once you're healthy," Hayley called to the sick original in hopes of bringing up his spirits. She shucked off her pink cardigan as Lorelei turned her gaze back to the she-wolf. "Remind me to remind you to get in line," Lorelei teased softly. "Remind me to remind you both that the honor of first blood is mine," Elijah responded, attempting to keep up the humor even though his voice was tight with discomfort.

"Doesn't help that we decided to shack up in the middle of a swamp, either," Hayley grumbled, shifting to stand with the door open slightly, trying to catch a breeze. Lorelei sighed, shaking her head as she returned her gaze to Elijah. Gently taking his chin in her delicate fingers, she turned his head and leaned forward to get a better look at the bite on his neck. It was starting to fester, but would heal eventually.

As she examined the wound, however, the feeling of eyes burning into the side of her face caught her attention. Her bright eyes locked with Elijah's dark ones, taking her features in as if to memorize them. Her fingers on his jaw moved feather-light across its sharp edge, her eyes unable to turn away from his. But she realized, even as the fluttering in her stomach began, that she had no right to be looking at him like that. Nor did she want him to know of her ever-present love for him.

She pulled back quickly, leaning back in her chair as her eyes cast down onto nothing in particular. Elijah noticed the hesitance in her eyes – the shield she kept up around herself. For just a moment, when their eyes had locked, he had seen it slip. Or, at least, he thought he had. Perhaps the hallucinations were already beginning to set in. That didn't explain the coldness in the pit of his stomach when she pulled back abruptly.

A cough racked through him, his head pounding. Lorelei was quick, leaning forward once more to tend to her patient. "Are you okay?" Hayley called out softly, turning back into the cabin. She had seen the tender, although brief, moment between the two and hadn't wanted to disturb them. "I'm fine," Elijah ground out, the heels of his palms pressed into his temples as if that would alleviate the headache.

"Please, just return to your reading," he instructed her, though the discomfort in his voice was clear. "Well, I went through the whole thing," Hayley said as she picked up the old bible from another table in the room. "It's just a regular bible – with an entry in the family tree that may or may not be me, but you know I've been a little busy worrying about you," she told him.

"Hayley, please, this fever will make me unstable. Now, once these hallucinations begin, I'll start to see things. I'll start to say things. You must leave me," he pleaded with the she-wolf before turning his gaze to his wife. "Lorelei, please. You must take Hayley and leave. I can't have you here; you can't see me like this," he pleaded, reaching up and gently gripping Lorelei's forearm. "Please," he managed to add in a whisper before another cough overtook him. He rolled slightly to his side as he coughed, Lorelei leaning forward to hold his head up.