One
I'm aware of her presence before she even opens her mouth. The smell of lilacs with a hint of freesia floats through the air and wafts over to where I sit on the black leather couch, at the opposite side of the room.
I can tell by the way that she drums her fingers against the thick denim cloaking her thighs that she's annoyed. One of the perks of being an Original vampire – your hearing is super human.
I shift my weight throwing my feet on top of the bronze coffee table in front of me. I'd like to say that the antique mahogany table is a family heirloom, but it wasn't handed down. The beautiful brushed edges and Aztec carvings on the legs are a result of artisans from the 12th century. I acquired it from an old merchant with an appetite for fine jewelry. When I met him it just so happened I had a large amount of royal gems stuffed into my pockets. The table is one of the few pieces of furniture that managed to survive the centuries of running, hiding and turmoil.
My ears perk up at the sound of leather sweeping against the polished oak flooring.
"Do take your shoes off, love. The floors were just treated."
Her annoyance becomes audible, escaping from her lips in a rush of blown air. "I'm not here to play with you, Klaus."
A smile spreads across my lips, raising my cheeks. I'm glad she can't see the effect the frustration in her voice has on me.
"Then what are you here for?" I turn my head to peek over the couch in her direction. I feel my pulse pick up as soon as I spot her and urge it to settle before she notices the change in my demeanour.
There she stands, her arms crossed and nestled against her chest with her hips slanted to one side. Her long golden tresses drape languidly against the lapel of the deep red, silk blouse she wears. Her pale blue eyes glare at me under long golden lashes. Her smolder is so enticing, I fight the urge to rush over and tease a kiss out of her pink lips.
"Is your cell phone broken?"
I glance over at the delicate aluminum cell lying to the left side of the table. A loud and clearly distinct 'PING' emanates from the sleek white shell.
"Well, I guess that sound answers your question," I tell her.
She closes the gap between us, standing directly in front of me. The only thing that separates us is the cushioned back rest of the couch.
"You know you should have met up with Stefan and Damon to talk about Silas situation an hour ago."
"I know nothing of the sort, sweetheart. Silas is no business of mine," I turn my head away from her and slide down into my seat, picking up the Dickens' novel I was skimming through before she interrupted my day of leisure.
"No business of yours," she enunciates each word vehemently.
"It's no business of yours whether a handful of angry demons come back into this world to kill thousands of innocent people? You know some of those spirits don't hold a very high opinion of you right, like your brothers."
I bite my cheek, trying to rid myself of the guilty feeling that unexpectedly creeps up on me. Two of my brothers are dead. Do I feel like it was my fault? Well, I did have a stake impaled in their chests for a large part of their lives. Can't say I really did my best to extend a helping hand.
"Another one of those people would be good ol' Mikael. You know, the father you spent most of your life outrunning," her voice is sharp with sarcasm looking to draw blood.
"Not to mention all of your hybrid buddies that you slaughtered. I'm sure they'd be pleased to see you again, especially with all that Tyler taught them."
"Enough Caroline," my fingers tightly curve around the cover of the book as I fight to keep my voice level.
Tyler, my blood still boils at the sound of his name even after three months. After all I did for him, breaking the leash the moon coiled around his neck; giving him the freedom to lead a life free of the bone breaking transformation that had him fearing the monthly cycle of the nightly orb. And how did he repay me? He created an army of unruly hybrids eager to rip my limbs from their sockets when he should have thanked me with a lifetime of servitude or, at the very least, an elaborate fruit basket.
I promised to strangle the light from his eyes. I've just been a little too preoccupied to follow-up on my promise. What with all the family quarrels and reveal of a centuries old beast from the dank depths of the darkest crevice.
Caroline refuses to heed my warning. She continues to burden me with trivial statements about the traitor's whereabouts. "And you've chased him off to who knows where so you can sit here on your ass reading books without a care in the world. You're such a coward Klaus! If you were half the man Tyler is..."
"Caroline stop," I tell her, my voice rises a bit and I find myself getting to my feet.
"That's why you chased him off isn't it? Not because he gave your hybrids a purpose, but because he was a better leader than you could ever be..."
"Don't!" My hand throws the book roughly on the couch and it bounces off to the floor splayed open.
She fuels her next statement with as much contempt as she can muster, "You couldn't bear that your cruel, unfeeling nature became the thing to undo you!"
Her words incite a rage that is so blinding that I cannot even hope of containing it. My fury about Tyler's betrayal gets the better of me and I charge towards Caroline, coming face to face with her while my hands wrap around her neck.
Her nails dig into my flesh trying to get me to loosen my grip. For a minute all I see are angry flashes of failure clouding my vision: my failure to protect my family; my failure to keep anyone close to me, even by force. When my vision clears I see her. Her light blue eyes are largely expressive with fear.
My anger subsides as I stare deeply into her eyes that eagerly scan my face, wondering what I will do with her. I'm disgusted with myself, the last thing I want to do is hurt her like I did before when I was trying to prove a point to Tyler at the Gilbert house.
My hands recoil as if vervaine was poured all over them and I turn my head away from her. "I'm sorry..." I mumble and I walk towards the marble fireplace.
"I didn't mean to..." the words taste like lead.
If I wanted I could stop feeling all these pent-up emotions waiting to pour out of me like a violent storm. I could just shut it off. But I've done that for so long...I don't even know how to control them anymore.
I'm afraid to look at Caroline. To see the disgust etched on her face and know that I've pushed her even further away.
We stand in silence for a long time. I have my back to her, tracing the cool surface of the marble tile with my index finger. She stands a few feet away from me, her eyes boring a hole into my back.
"I didn't..." her voice is a little raspy, but there isn't any anger in her words. "I didn't expect you to do that."
I place my hands to my face hiding my shame. "You've known me to do worse, Caroline."
"No," I hear her take a step in my direction, "to apologize."
I stop rubbing my hands against my temples as she says this.
"I mean, every time I think I have you figured out..." she leans against the couch. "I expect it when you're a heartless jerk. Not caring who you have to crush or kill to get whatever you want. You take without thinking about the consequences. So when you rushed at me, I can't say it was surprising. But I didn't expect to see the sheer disappointment in your eyes. Or hear the heartfelt remorse in your voice," she lets out a deep sigh.
I turn towards her, studying the blond-haired girl two feet away from me. Her eyes are downcast and her arms wrap around herself like she's trying to hold something in.
"What is it about me, Klaus?" All the fight has gone out of her voice.
"What do you mean, Caroline?" My eyebrows lift curiously as I watch her. She refuses to meet my gaze. I hear the change in her breathing; the air comes to her lungs in short breaths.
"What makes you want to protect me, when your instincts tell you to cause me pain? Why do you go out of your way to get close to me?
"Caroline...I don't want to talk about this." I don't want to get into another quarrel with her and I don't feel like hearing how much of a fool I am for letting her affect me in a way I haven't felt in years.
"I need to talk about it Klaus," she looks up at me with pleading eyes. "I need to make sense of this. The way you feel...the way I feel."
My breath catches, "The way you feel?" I ask her.
Before she has time to hide it, her eyes show her panic at her slip-up. She's admitted something she didn't want me to know. I refuse to let it pass without being discussed.
"Caroline, how do you feel?" I soften my voice as I walk towards her.
"This isn't about me," her voice is so small. "I asked you those questions first."
"You already know the answers to them, Caroline. Why else would I have saved your life multiple times? Or have paintings of you crowding my study? Or even bother to remain in Mystic Falls?"
She looks at me now and I can see a haze of genuine flattery clouding her vision. Her lips part and beckon me towards them. I can't stop myself from taking the next few strides towards her and stroking my hand against the faint red mark on her neck that shows how my anger got the best of me.
Ever so slightly I press my lips to hers. She stiffens when she feels the pressure of our lips together and I wait to hear the loud smack of a delicate hand connecting with my cheek, and to feel the slight sting afterwards. But then she starts to relax and her eyes flutter close as I kiss her bottom lip, placing my other hand on the small of her back.
I can't explain how wonderful it feels to kiss the girl who smells of lilacs and freesia. I hear a short pleasurable sigh escape her lips and I pull her closer to me, wanting to feel the smoothness of the red silk against my black cotton t-shirt.
But then her body goes rigid and before I can catch my bearings I'm flying over the couch, colliding with the coffee table. The wood gives on the left side and splinters into dozens of little pieces, some of which find a home in my lower back. I groan as I feel the wood piercing my flesh.
Caroline stares at me with wide eyes. She places a hand to her lips and begins to pace. "Oh no, no, no," she mutters, drumming out a rhythm with her feet as she walks back and forth.
"What did I do?" She speaks as if she's unaware I'm lying here in a mass of splintered wood.
"I'll tell you what you did," I say to her. "You broke my favourite coffee table." I gingerly ease myself away from the mess and begin to pick at the wood that's attached itself to my elbows.
"That thing has been in my family for centuries you know," I tell her, but she doesn't hear. She just keeps pacing.
"I shouldn't have done that. But I did. And I liked it? No, I didn't," she stops and looks at me. I raise my eyebrow, puzzled. "Oh my gosh, I did didn't I?" she continues.
"You can't have feelings for him. This is wrong. This is very wrong! How could it be possible?"
"Haven't you heard the saying opposites attract, love," I interrupt. She fixes her eyes on mine, examining me. I watch her expression change from grief to confusion and then to something else that I'm not quite sure of.
"Why are you doing this to me?"
I'm completely baffled by her question. "Why am I doing this to you?" I repeat in comical disbelief. "I don't recall holding a stake to your heart and demanding you care for me, love. In fact, I doubt I could compel you if I tried, you're right stubborn."
"This isn't a joke Klaus!" she shouts at me.
"I never said it was." I push myself off of the ground wincing as a wooden shard shifts further into a groove in my back. I reach around to pull it out before I say anything further to her. "You want to know why you feel this way?" She rolls her eyes defiantly in my direction.
"It's because I'm not like those fools you call friends. All your little chums are familiar with giving Miss Mystic Falls what she wants because of her overbearing personality. You're a caregiver, my dear. You enjoy fixing broken things."
She laughs at this. "Oh please," she huffs.
"It's the truth. And I'm a challenge for you. I infuriate you, but that only draws you towards me. You care about me for the same reason I care about you," I tell her.
She places her hands on her hips and resumes the same annoyed disposition she had when she first entered the house. "Oh yeah? And what reason is that?"
"You believe there is goodness in me, and you make me feel as though I still possess a bit of my humanity."
"Bullshit"
"I've never lied to you, Caroline. I tried to lie to myself about the way I feel about you, but I don't want to do that anymore."
Once again I cross over to her.
"This isn't right," she whispers and places her hands against my chest.
"I'm arrogant and impulsive, I admit. Perhaps what's right is having you near to push me into an antique wooden table when I'm wrong," my face hovers near hers.
Her mouth gradually lifts into a smile and I read it as a token of encouragement. I let my lips trace a path from her jaw to her neck, planting delicate kisses to her collarbone. She tilts her head to the side giving me more room to play with and I smile at her.
I let my lips engulf the smooth pale skin along her décolletage, delicately creating circles that cause her to shudder with delight. Every swirl of my tongue causes her heart to pick up just a bit. Her hands rest on my waist and slide towards my abdomen, causing my t-shirt to rise above my hips.
And then suddenly, I find myself pressed against the limestone wall near the fireplace. She pins my hands above my head as she stares into my eyes with a hunger I've never seen before, and I am no stranger to hunger.
I welcome the beguiling smile that spreads across her lips. "Careful love," I whisper to her, "You don't want to start something you aren't able to finish." I rip my hands from her grasp and we're moving again, hurtling towards the ivory piano in the corner in a flurry. I push her against the beautiful instrument and the keys sound against her weight, plunking out a noisy tune that expresses our forbidden coupling.
I hover above her, fervently kissing her supple lips while her legs gradually wrap around me, bringing me in. She spreads her hands out against the sleek wood of the piano and shifts, pinning me underneath her as she straddles me between her legs. The piano groans at the abrupt movement.
Heh, never did I think Mystic Fall's crown beauty would be so feisty. "Watch it pet, you've already broken my table, don't add the piano to that list." I wonder why Tyler would ever in his right mind high-tail it out of here without taking her with him.
"You always want all the control," she purrs, flashing a catlike grin at me. She leans over to trace her tongue along my bottom lip and then she's gone.
I cover my face with my hands and groan. "Really Caroline, that's how you're going to leave me?"
"I'm still here," her voice sounds as if it's coming from the doorway. "If you want..." she hesitates.
"I don't do well with ultimatums," I call out through the gaps in my fingers, though I know she is already well aware of this. If she came here hoping to seduce me into giving in, then I must commend her for her efforts, but I will have to decline. However, her body's reaction to me speaks more than her mouth ever could. I know I am not the only one who got caught up in the excitement.
"Klaus please, help us with Silas." The pleading in her voice unnerves me. If it were anyone else asking me I would have dismissed the idea without a second thought. But I could never do that with Caroline, which is probably why they sent her over here.
"What's in it for me?" I tease her, placing my elbows on the surface of the piano so that I can stare at her.
"How about a life without your dead family members harassing you?" She counters, rolling her eyes.
"Now Caroline, you didn't put very much thought into that one. You forget the other two dead siblings I have roaming around various parts of this quaint town."
She places her hands on her hips and sticks her tongue out at me. Oh, how I wish she was closer when she did so. I would've taken advantage of the gesture. "Fine, what do you want?"
I smirk, and raise my right hand to play with the stubble on my chin. She's really backed herself into a corner now. "You," I tell her simply.
She raises an eyebrow and shifts uncomfortably. "What do you mean?"
"I want you, love. I want you to stop denying that you care nothing for me and start acting on the feelings you try to bury in the pit of your stomach."
"You're being ridiculous, Klaus," she objects, shaking her head in disbelief. "There is nothing between us."
"You call what just happened nothing," I scoff. "Were you experiencing something else?"
"I'm with Tyler," she counters.
"Then go be with Tyler," I wave her off. "And leave me to my book." I get up from where I sit on the polished wooden piano and walk towards the couch. I look down at the splayed open book on the floor, A Tale of Two Cities. I've already read it about a dozen times, and yet the words always seem fresh.
"Klaus...what you're asking—"
"—Is not outrageous," I interject. "You are asking me to risk my life to take down a monster with the power to shape-shift into anyone I have known throughout my many years of existence. I am an Original, but this man is like nothing I have ever seen before. If I get involved in this, I am not doing it for my own well-being; I am doing it for you." I lean down to pick the book up and turn to face her.
She nervously grabs a strand of her hair and starts to twine it around her finger, bringing it towards her mouth to shield the doubt in her eyes.
"What's between us...it's...confusing," she sighs. "I can't just hand you my heart like it's a piece of food or something I want you to try. This is serious. Us...together...it could change everything I have ever known. You've hurt so many people."
"So what then, Caroline? You expect you can come around here, get your fill of me, and then walk off pretending like nothing happened."
She looks at me sternly and a flash of anger crosses her face. "Klaus, none of this should have happened!"
"But it bloody did. So what will you do now, pet?" I say spitefully. I walk around the couch clapping the book against my palm, looking at her with raised eyebrows. I hate how she affects me. I hate how deeply she gets under my skin. This girl with her beautiful blond waves and pouty lips, all I want to do is wrap her in my arms and run away with her. Where was she 800 years ago when I wasn't as volatile as I am now? It would have been easier to charm her then, to win her over with regal poise and live contentedly with her.
"Give me some time to work out whatever this is," she whispers.
I sigh deeply, not the response I wanted, but I will take it for now. "I will help you, Caroline, but don't expect much."