An Elemental Difference - FIRE - Book 2 (Stefan Salvatore)

Chapter 41 - Don't suppose you got a sandwich in that fancy suit?

A/n: I'm sorry for the long wait. A lot is going on. Please accept this DOUBLE update in forgiveness xoxo

MYSTIC FALLS WOODS

It was dark, and despite knowing it was Tyler's transformation that night, Aella couldn't leave; talking with Elijah was fascinating. When Aella's phone vibrated in her pocket for the fifteenth time in the last few minutes, Elijah raised a brow but looked straight as they walked, "Your phone will not stop its incessant buzzing."

"It's called people caring," Aella corrected him. She pulled out her phone and saw four calls from Jenna, six from Elena, and ten from Stefan. She was about to text them when a hand took the phone from her fingers and placed it in his fancy suit pocket. "Um, excuse me!"

"You're excused," Elijah smoothly spoke over her anger. "What this century could have achieved. Instead, mindless contraptions were developed to replace the beauty of the English language with nonsensical abbreviations such as L.O.L or O.M.G."

Aella held up her hands in shock, "Okay, Gandalf!" Aella never thought words such as L.O.L or O.M.G would come from Elijah's mouth. The man was like James Bond; such sayings were beneath him. "I happen to like such 'mindless contraptions,' especially when I've been kidnapped by a dude that doesn't die."

"You Americans do like to overstate the obvious," Elijah scowled, shaking his head. He glanced at Aella for a moment, "And you're not exactly powerless. The first time we were acquainted, you knocked me off my feet with the wave of a hand. I couldn't remember the last time that happened."

Aella's brow raised, forgetting about her phone, "And... how old are you?"

Elijah stopped, deeply breathing in the air around him, "Let's just say that things have changed vastly since I was last in Mystic Falls."

"I knew it," Aella chuckled bitterly to herself. "All that bullshit about research... That was a story you knew way too well to have casually read. Including your snotty emphasis on 'The Fell's.' So, c'mon... How old are you really?"

Elijah didn't answer her and began walking again; instead, he suggested, "How about an answer for an answer?" Although suspicious, Aella nodded, not expecting his first question, "How long have you and Stefan Salvatore been together?"

Well, that was a mind fuck 180-degree turn, but she did agree to the terms, so she answered, "Seven months."

Elijah looked down at her, "You said that immediately."

Aella let out a huff of laughter, "Sometimes, Stefan and me... it seems like the only sure thing."

"'Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,'" Elijah quoted, a smile hidden in the corner of his lips.

Aella thought over his words. Never had she been able to articulate how Stefan made her feel, "Yeah." She looked at him and saw a look in his eyes, "Seems like something you know well?"

The look disappeared, and Elijah shook his head, "A dream within a dream." Suddenly he stopped and pulled out her phone, tossing it to her, "Will you turn off that incessant vibration?"

Aella just held it, eyes narrowed at him, "Will you tell me what we're doing here?" Elijah looked away, yet Aella continued, "Look, I'm all for having a nice walk in the woods, chatting about history and love. But my loved ones-" she held up her phone, it ringing in her hand, displaying Stefan's name, "are calling me worried, and when I go back, I have to tell them why I let them worry. This-" she pointed between the two, "has to be worth the worrying I'm putting on them. Otherwise, I'm gone."

Elijah was quiet, his stare steely and unforgiving. But eventually, he nodded, "Fine. But firstly, that-" he pointed at her phone, "goes off."

"Done," Aella nodded, turning off the phone with regret. She could just feel Elijah wasn't walking in the woods with her just to talk. He called her shrewd; let's hope he wasn't making that up. "Anything else?"