Susannah knows Niklaus Mikaelson is close by the way her fingertips feel like frost. Somewhere deep, beneath her skin lies the core of her power, and in his presence it feels like a hook pulled by an invisible string.

"I should kill you myself," he greets his blue eyes glinting in the meager light with his dimples on full display.

Susannah mulls those words over. "And yet, there you stand...not killing me."

"And here I stand, not killing you," Klaus says around a sigh.

"Did I anger you sweetness?" Elijah circled her, his eyes dark as night.

She ignores the question.

Offers a blatant dismissal, in fact.

"I never did see the appeal in terms of endearment," Susannah's voice rumbled out. Welcome, after the hours he'd gone without hearing its soothing cadence.

Elijah hummed in reply, quirking an eyebrow. And she couldn't help but wonder if the defenses Elijah erected against the world were not made to defend against outside forces.

No, they were made to contain something dangerous within.

"I like it. When you do it, that is."

"Yeah? You like it when I call you sweet things, baby?" Elijah's voice was ligh-hearted, one who didn't know him would call it playful teasing.

His every step was tall and regal, an elegant display, surrounded by an air of nonchalance. He kept himself at a respectable distance with no tension visible in his frame. Within the bond however, hostility burned slow and hot.

He shifted slightly and all Susannah wanted to do was burrow in his protective strength.

"Why did you leave me, my love?" His hands are in his pockets and the line of his spine is relaxed.

Nevertheless the hairs on the back of Susannah's neck lift.

Her breathing grows shallow, but otherwise no reaction.

Only the slightest twitch of his eyebrows let her know that her silence only provided further anger.

"Did I hurt you?"

Elijah's voice is low and hypnotic and Susannah has an abrupt memory of reading about the Indian fakirs and their capacity to charm snakes: how the two weave and undulate together, moving with the synchronicity of lovers and constructing a mutual seduction through sound. But that surely can't be the right analogy because it would mean that Susannah herself was the snake…and aren't they supposed to be loathsome and wicked?

"No."

"Did you feel pressured?"

Susannah pauses then, before answering. "No."

"Then why?"

She is not moved, so Elijah moves her. Taking her by the cheek and drawing her close.

"Klaus is-"

"I don't care about that. Not right now." Elijah stepped forward, a command on his tongue. "Answer me."

He bares his teeth.

Elijah doesn't brandish his teeth unless you are as good as dead. There is however, one exception, when you are his.

"I couldn't look at myself without seeing you on my skin and it scared me." The words fall from her mouth in a shaky whisper, and she showed her teeth back in a pointed, threatening sort of smile, harsh, cruel, meant to draw blood. "I was trying to remember who I was before I met you. When I reach into the past all I see is the potential for this moment."

"It scares you." Elijah repeats.

Almost unbelieving.

He knew Susannah was often afraid. She carried it with her at all times. But she knew how to work around it, to make her fear into a weapon rather than hindrance.

The empath carried herself with an easy grace and air of respect that was generally unheard of.

So when Susannah allows her head to drop, so did Elijah's stomach.

"I was engaged once."

Elijah froze his hand tightening into a fist. "Oh?"

People break in odd ways. Sometimes they recover, other times they don't. This is her wound.

"His name was Kion." Her voice cracked and the pain in her eyes nearly broke him. How he wished he could wipe it away. "Kion was..."She shifted, looking drained in a way he hadn't seen in a while. "He didn't hold back on any aspect of life."

Elijah closed his eyes, holding them shut for just a moment.

At his silence she just went on.

"I'm not good at this," she said openly, honestly. "It's abysmal."

"Perhaps he didn't understand you."

"I wasn't really good at helping him understand."

She taps her hands against her thigh.

"It was arranged, that was the way of my time after all." She shakes her head. "Kion was putting in a lot of effort into being charming, so he wasn't all that bad to be around...but I, but he couldn't handle...he fell apart when I needed him most."

"A gilded cage is still a cage," says Elijah. He places a possessive hand round the back of Susannah's neck, alternating between stroking it with his thumb and gently massaging the top of the spine. "So when did it go wrong?"

"It was never right."

She turned away, pacing like a lion does when trapped in a too small cage.

A small smile formed on Susannah's lips. "He was powerful." When she finally looked at Elijah it was with wide, imploring eyes. She took a deep shaky breath. "A lot of people loved him."

The girl blinked, and Elijah got the impression that she was back in the present. Echoes of joys Elijah could never know blazed and then slowly died in Susannah's eyes. She looked smaller and more fragile without them

"He wasn't wise, he didn't have great insight either. He wasn't masterful or a sharp operator," After her jaw flexed. "But he was horrifying. He had an almost unparalleled level of no inhabitations. There was no depth to which he wouldn't stoop. No blow to low. No remark too cruel."

Fear entered her expressive eyes, causing his mouth to run dry.

"When he died, I..." she brought her fingers to her lip, biting down on her nails. "... I did not react well."

Who would? His breath catches, and Elijah knows it's not his responsibility to pick up these broken pieces he didn't realize she had. He knows all this, and yet the desire to help, to comfort, is there.

"I was reckless..." She stopped the words lost on her. "I uh..."

Elijah gently increased the pressure of his hand against hers, rubbing his thumb in soothing circles around the back of her hand.

"I just didn't do well. For a lot of reasons. And my predecessor, Silas, overreacted about some things." She shook her head. "Or maybe he didn't. I still don't know. It's hard to see it from a different perspective when you're that lost. It felt different, like I was…like there was something wrong with me. It made me feel so…small." Her face tightened. "I'm sorry. I'm not making any sense, am I?" She rubbed her right eye. "Nothing I'm saying sounds right. It's all just…jumbled. And I don't feel like I'm describing it right."

Tears start again, and they're no longer just pools in her eyes causing some stomach pain, now they're streaking violently down her flushed cheeks and his chest constricts so tightly it's like he can't breath.

"I loved Kion," she murmured. "Or I thought I did."

She always had this theory that love exists at this bottomless pit that you fall deeper and deeper into and it won't matter how long you've known someone or how much time spent together, you'll still keep falling.

And yet, she's working on the part of that theory that allows for...the opposite direction. Falling out of love. Perhaps, one has to claw his or her way out of the pit for that to happen. Maybe, someone sends down a rope and you'll be able to pull yourself out.

And Kion. She just couldn't be in love with him anymore without tearing herself apart. So long ago, in that coffin, she clawed herself out.

"There's a lot you don't know about me, Elijah. A lot I don't know how to say."

"All I ask is you try."

Susannah sucks in a breath. "I've always been hiding."

"Why?" Elijah asks lowly. Susannah's pain was so raw, inhibited, that it shook Elijah to the core.

"My past experience with sex wasn't...pleasant."

The original tensed. "It was, however, consensual?"

Silence.

Her face closed off.

"I had to show myself as untouched in order to maintain the engagement. I hid all the bruises and made it look like nothing ever happened...and to everyone around me, nothing did."

Elijah had seen loss. Seen what it could do to people, seen it in herself. But it seemed to him that women always endured. Men suffered some. Push a broken bone back in, live with the bruises, don't talk about the ones on your heart. Die in battle, or mysteriously. Or just go out abruptly and unforeseen, like a flickering candle in a strong wind. But women were tortured. They were forced to live with their pain, their loss, and be stoically strong about it in order to prioritize those around them. He's seen women be consumed by illness. He'd seen them bleed routinely; he'd watched them cry, and scream so violently they were doubled over with grief. He'd known women to be mistreated, beaten, raped.

They needed to be pillars of composure and power, even more so then men, because the slightest faltering would be taken as evidence of failure. And it was all so unfair. So degradingly unfair.

"Don't look at me like that, Elijah, there is nothing wrong with me. I'm not ruined. I'm not broken-"

"I know," he combs through her hair. "I would be a fool to imply that you were."

"Please don't treat me like I am fragile."

"I won't," and she can see the sincerity in his eyes.

Taking a deep breath, she pushes through, because if her heart truly wants Elijah...then she has to at least try at being honest.

"When Kion found out...It was, I was suffering. I suffered. And my suffering merely became a part of his. It was like in his head, men raped me as a way to punish him. He subsumed my pain with his. And he couldn't handle it. He just couldn't. And I needed him and he wasn't there."

"He failed you."

"He did."

"So that is why you believe everything has a catch." Elijah moved around his space, into her space, undaunted by the truth. "You've been afforded genuine trust, unconditional love, unconditional acceptance so rarely that, when the opportunity seems before you, you are always on the lookout for the snake lurking in the underbrush. Ironically, it makes you short sighted in ways you may not expect. You may spot the snare, but not the pit covered in leaves."

And the pain and sadness just melted away as that force of nature that is Susannah rushed forward. "You think I'm short sighted?"

"I think your purposely avoiding the truth."

"Was last night just sex?"

Elijah stares at her. And then he chuckled. "That's why you ran. You thought last night was just sex but you didn't know how to ask. So you ran, because you would rather be the one who left then the one who was left behind."

"Elijah, please just answer the question."

The new world Elijah dragged her into, everything seems so different. Every leaf, every blade of grass, every word seems like a first time experience.

He ran a hand on the side of her face, his touch so cold it burned. "I don't want to scare you with the depth of my affections."

"You're tiptoeing."

"Should I be more blunt, then?"

"Please."

Elijah took a breath. "My feelings are not platonic. I desire your company in any extent you wish to share it, and abhor the idea of causing your strife. I doubt there is anything you could ask me that I would refuse. Know that last night was more than physical release."

"Even with knowing how...messed up I am?"

"Don't presume to know what I do and do not want, Susannah," Elijah warned her. "And it hurts to hear such words; it makes me want to put you where I stand so you will see what I do."

Susannah opened her mouth to reply, but tears started to clog her vision and her throat grew too thick, Elijah's eyes softened and he cautiously cupped Susannah's jaw again. "Trying to hurt me will not push me away," Elijah murmured gently. "Trying to cast yourself in a certain light won't make me react the way you wish I would, but I understand why you're doing it. I'm not leaving."

"And why do you think I'm doing it?"

"Because you cannot fathom that anyone would want you knowing the entire truth. What you are. But what you are, Susannah Bennett," Elijah rumbled, "is astonishing. You are stronger than anyone I have ever met and I find myself completely helpless to you, Devoted to you, even if you push me away. I don't care if you lie, I don't care for right and wrong. Such things do not and never will apply to you. You're exempt from it all."

Susannah shuddered. "I'm terrified Elijah. I'm terrified of this world and how I am supposed to fit in it."

"You don't have to fit in to anything, and if there ever is a reason that you need to, I will carve the world to fit around you."

Elijah kissed her and the world melted away because finally...finally after all these years of feeling misplaced, shaken, wrong, she finally feels safe. His hands roam freely over her body, possessively and she conforms to his probing touch.

"I want this Elijah." Susannah whispered against his lips. "I do, but I'm under no illusions it's going to be easy. I'm a difficult person to deal with already and, as you might know, I tend to lose myself a little in relationships, but I want this. It's what my heart wants, and I have to get my head to catch up."

Elijah makes a sound so low it was more of a vibration. Predatory, powerful, relishing the delicious submission offered willingly by someone glorious. He moved closer, a motion almost reptilian, fast enough to draw Susannah's lips back from her teeth, but no arms came to push him away.

"Remarkable thing," Elijah murmured, watching Susannah's throat as she swallowed. "Will you listen?"

Will you obey me? Bend to me? Submit.

"Will you?" Susannah replied.

Elijah's delight was palpable. He drew his knuckles up again, moving higher, skimming Susannah's pulse with his thumb.

"My sweet Susannah," he would train her to associate his touch with her pleasure. "Your voice is the last thing I want to take from you." He wants to hear that lovely voice.

Hear it pull tight and tremble.

"A relationship without balance is destruction," he breathed drawing his nose against Susannah, looking straight at her. Amused. Curious. "I want your honesty and loyalty. I will give you mine. You want my everything. You'll have it."

"And the rest?"

"Quid pro quo, as it comes."

Susannah swallowed again, allowed the words to settle against her, gave herself a moment to think.

"I don't want just reciprocity. I want equality."

"Let us not do a disservice by pretending that you have ever been or ever will be anything other than my perfect equal and opposite."

"If we're doing away with pretense," she purred, "why not disperse with all the others."

"If so, look at me." Elijah commanded.

Susannah made a noise, somewhere between a sigh and a sound of protest.

"What are you doing?" she said between labored breaths, clearly annoyed. "You know—you know eye contact is hard for me."

Elijah may not bleed his inner self all over the walls like other people did, but he still filled a room.

"I know it's hard with other people. I haven't seen you evade eye contact with me for quite sometime now. Why is it hard for you now?"

Susannah narrowed her eyes. A scowl pulled at the edges of her mouth. "It's hard because it's hard," she said, sounding defensive and almost wounded. "I don't owe you an explanation."

"Don't you?"

She licks her lips, steps forward, gathering her courage.

"Your mine, Icarus."

"And you are mine, my darling Eve and Persephone."

They should be talking about Niklaus, about the incoming ritual, about everything.

Instesd they held onto each other, bare, and tangled up in one another. They let sleep fall between them like it should have happened the night before. Like it was meant to happen.

And when Elijah gives her one of his rings, the one he had since before he became what he is now, she held onto it tightly.

"I need Niklaus out of the way," Susannah said the following morning, the morning of the ritual. "I need him weakened, I need him silenced. I cannot make peace between the Salvatore's and myself while he sews mistrust."

Her eyes darted to Elijah. "And I wonder..."The original cocked his head and waited for her to continue. "I wonder if Bonnie might help me do it."

"Oh?"

"I have a plan, one that may keep Elena alive, have your brother complete his transition and have you refrain from having to...remove him."

"I have to kill him."

Elijah doesn't change. His face remains like stone, his body still holding the same energy as before. And that's how she knows, instinctively, that the words hurt. When Elijah Mikaelson becomes overly deliberate, it's because he is hiding something.

"He destroyed my family."

"He didn't. He couldn't have, Elijah." She lifts her hand to his face, and she almost sighs at the way he leans into her touch. "You and Niklaus are very different but still in some ways very much the same. He understands and appreciates that one must complete a painting before proceeding to the next, or the paints get mixed on the brush and the lines will blur." She pauses catching Elijah's eyes. His lips are drawn into a line, and his hand is tight around the edge of the table in what looks like a crushing grip.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that he values family just as much as you do but probably viewed you all as a liability. And what do you do with liabilities?"

"You get rid of them."

"That doesn't necessarily mean permanently. He needs you. He needs his siblings, Elijah. He was posturing when he told you he threw their bodies into the ocean."

"Susannah-"

"But Niklaus says he doesn't trust me. Well if he will not take my words as more than hot air, perhaps he will take Bonnie's as something."

"He'll think this is a trap-"

"Is he not a man of reason? Perhaps he should investigate the truth of it on his own."

Elijah leaned forward, watching her intently. "You intend to lure him towards Bonnie."

"He thinks I'm a snake, that I'm manipulating you. Fine. Let him deal with someone else. I want him distracted. I cannot do what I need to do as long as he is forcing his presence on everyone. Let Bonnie be the weapon I use to cut through his focus."

"And if he hurts her?"

"He won't."

Elijah looked her up and down. "Susannah, my brother is impulsive-"

"I know Klaus," Susannanh replies, her head ticked to the side. "His obsession with hybrids is like an imprint on my skin, a map I can read like no other. I can make him see whatever we need him to see, I can make him do whatever we need him to do."

"And will Bonnie appreciate being used by her only family?"

"She used me to."

"So this is the proper response," Elijah counters reaching for her.

"It's the only way that everything falls into place the way we want. That no one important dies." Susannah scowled. "I ask you to trust me. Trust me as I trust you. And let the music play."

"Then by all means," Elijah replies with a kiss. "Let me hear your symphony."

Bonnie wasn't supposed to be here.

In fact, she didn't even understand why she was here. All she knew was she had this pounding in her head and this voice whispering in her ear. So she stupidly followed it, followed it straight to Nik.

He was smirking at her presense, and she wanted to set him on fire on principle but she restrained herself.

"I'll do a spell, one that will guide Bonnie to her soul's desire," Susannah said lightly, her eyes drifting out towards the window.

"Would she not know a spell has been cast on her?" Elijah grabs a hold of her hand, pressing a kiss to her palm.

"It's not a spell in the traditional sense...just an enhancement. Something to open her mind, her instincts to him."

"Would that not leave her vulnerable to my brother's influence."

And Susannah grinned.

"Not if I do the same to him."

"Love," Klaus said, his eyes roving up and down her form with no hesitance. He moved forward, not so much slow as he was measured. "Looking for me?"

"No," she bit out, her eyes narrowing into daggers.

"Of course you aren't," he smugly replied. "It wouldn't do for the precious Bennett to come looking for me. What would they all think...they'd probably be disgusted."

She feels gutted, flayed, and left indecently open for him to dig into and rip apart. A thousand years must have made finding someone's weak points easily done. The trees around them, instead of providing comfort like they usually did, felt like a cage keeping her locked in.

"I was just going on a walk."

"All alone?" He tilts his head. "You don't hold much regard for your own safety."

"I can take care of myself." She doesn't take her eyes off of him. It wouldn't do to take your eyes off the threat. "Why are you here?"

And he grins, and although it seems lighthearted, she can't shake the dangerous feeling that runs up and down her spine. The feeling of power. The one she gets from Elijah, and even Susannah. As if...as if they were all just chest pieces and they were the real players. Her magic rises up with her anger, ready to do harm should it be necessary. She's not a fucking game.

"I'd like to know why you care so much about the doppelganger? All it requires is her sacrifice and then when that is done...so will everything else be."

Bonnie swallows harshly. Her lips part and her fingers curl harshly against her thighs, into fists. She taps her knuckles against one thigh, a set of ten.

"I'll tell you," Bonnie says, strained. "But you have to answer my question first."

"Why is that."

"I'll cite precedence. I asked first."

Klaus tilts his head to the side. He forces his tongue behind his teeth and resist the urge to bare them, to cow Bonnie Bennett into submission. He could do it- easily, But Bonnie just stared at him, her eyes a fire of green.

"This is where my transformation will take place."

Bonnie bit her lip, her eyes darting to the ground before her. Susannah had promised that if they did this correctly then Elena would come back. They just had to be patient, to be smart. Even if that meant snapping Damon's neck and throwing him in the Salvatore cellar for the time being. Or Elijah turning a criminal and finding a wolf to be used...to be killed. Now all that was left was for the time to come. For everyone to get what they desired so they could all leave.

"I'm loyal to my friends."

Klaus chuckled then. "I wonder what will get you killed first: your loyalty or your self righteousness."

"I wonder what will get you killed first: your arrogance or your entitltement."

His hand was to her throat in an instance, and her nails helplessly clawed at him. His grip was tight, but not brusing, not constricting.

"Careful, little witch." He leaned forward with a smile. "I need you."

"Why?" she choked out.

"Because you are mine."

And when the world faded to black and all that was left was his smirking face, a spike of dread entered her heart.

A/N next chapter comes the ritual and then this story is going to have a wild shift in perspective. Bonnie Bennett and Klaus Mikaelson love galore is on the way!