Eternal || Elijah Mikaelson

CXXXIX - Devour Us All

One of my "friends", if I can even call him that, is really fucking pissing me off lately. -__- At least I have you guys. <3

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Chapter One Hundred & Thirty-Nine

We came down the stairs to see Marcel waiting at the bottom of it. I saw Elijah's jaw clench in frustration, and more so in worry when I went in front of him to meet Marcel at the bottom of the steps.

"We know your little friends are hanging around here, Marcel," I said through gritted teeth.

"So leave them," Elijah continued for me. "Before we take your behaviour as an act of betrayal."

Marcel had the smallest smirk forming on his face as he looked from myself to Elijah.

"That's the thing, Elijah... See," Marcel reached into his jacket, and pulled out what looked to be a wooden stake. It, unfortunately, was a rather powerful one. I could feel its power just by looking at it. "I betrayed you before I even got here."

And, as we expected, the Strix all came out of hiding. They came from the top of the stairs, out from the hallways, and into the courtyard. They watched us with careful eyes, ones filled with intimidation. They didn't seem to care that they were attacking the person who controlled their very existence. All they cared about was getting their leader back, no matter how incredibly selfish he may be.

Marcel came at Elijah first, running past me to meet him halfway up the stairs. He sent his fist at Elijah's face, only for Elijah to grab it and crush it in his grip. Elijah then kicked upwards, and got him in the stomach. Marcel came falling down the stairs, while I dealt with the Strix in the middle of the courtyard. I had three hearts in my hand by the time Elijah made his way down there, only to be met with yet another Strix. While he had his hand over the man's heart, another one appeared behind him and kept him in a headlock. I then removed that man's head from his shoulders, while Elijah broke the neck of the other.

We looked at each other in relief, and shared a moment of pride in ourselves, before Marcel came up behind Elijah. He stabbed the stake straight through his chest, and I shouted in protest, but Marcel just looked at me before dropping Elijah to the ground.

I was then surrounded by Marcel and the last two remaining Strix.

Their hands darted out to grab me, but I managed to dodge them and attempted to break the wrist of the first. However, the second soon had his hand wrapped around my throat, and I was up against the wall. He took me away from it, only to hit me back against it once again. The second man did the same, pushing me harder into the brick. I was almost surprised that the brick didn't start to chip.

They were just barely strong enough to hold me there. They were very, very old. I couldn't stop them.

I tried my hardest to give them both aneurisms, but they seemed to have little to no effect with the state I was in.

The last thing I expected was for Marcel to appear behind them, and rip out both of their hearts.

He dropped the hearts, the bodies of the men both falling down the same way.

I stared at him in surprise, rubbing at my throat and coughing twice. "W-Why?"

He watched me closely, making sure I wasn't about to dart forwards and rip him apart.

"Your boyfriend is gonna wake up real mad at me..." he muttered. "Make sure he knows who his friends are."

With that, he vanished, and I let what he had said register in my mind for only a few moments. But then I heard his voice from upstairs, saying a similar thing to someone else. I ran up there, and saw him. He was kneeling down by Freya, feeding her his blood. She had been stabbed in the stomach. When she was finally healed completely, he helped her stand and then led her to another chair.

I saw that there was more blood around the chair Tristan had once been sitting in. He was obviously gone now, which was probably the result of Aya showing up. The blood was likely because someone - who is also known as Hayley - had probably taken another bite.

Freya looked at Marcel in minor confusion, before he walked up to me.

"I couldn't stop Aya," he said, looking down at me in regret. "But I promise that I'll try and help you in any way I can."

He disappeared yet again, and I didn't see him for the rest of the night.

I checked to make sure that Freya was absolutely fine, then rushed back downstairs to Elijah. He was still laying there, the stake all the way through his chest. I looked down at it, trying to sense its power, but... It was gone. I wondered how that had happened. Perhaps Marcel really was on our side, and could only show it by tricking us into believing that he wasn't.

I pulled the stake out, and about a minute later, Elijah was fully healed and gasped for breath.

"You're all right," I whispered, pulling him up to a sitting position.

He was disoriented for a second, but then realized what had happened and clenched his teeth a little. "Marcellus..."

"He's gone," I told him, biting my lip before continuing. "And I think he's still on our side."

*

"The stake as embedded with dark magic," Freya muttered, a defeated expression on her face. "It's strong enough to take down even you."

We had found the stake that Marcel had left behind, the real one. I had been right. He had saved Elijah and used a plain stake, and left the real one behind so that we take a look and see what we were up against.

"Apparently the Strix have no shortage of weapons," Elijah said.

"At least they don't have Marcel," I muttered, taking a seat down beside Freya.

"Oh, I'm not so sure about that," he stated, somewhat harshly.

"He is on our side," I insisted. "He could have used that stake on you, and he didn't. He played it up so that, when there were enough for him to take care of on his own, he killed the remaining Strix then saved Freya. He didn't have to help me either, but he did."

"Yes... And he healed me," Freya agreed. "A few minutes more and I would have been dead."

"Do I need to remind you, that because of your beloved hero, Tristan is free, and Rebekah is lost?" he asked.

He looked at the portrait in front of him, the one of himself. When he had decapitated one of the Strix members, a splash of blood had gotten onto it. He had told me it was one of the visions in the prophecy, and that information alone was enough to make my hands shake a little.

"This prophecy threatens to devour us still," he whispered.

Indeed it did.