Danse Macabre
Summary. Caroline is a witch and Klaus is the devilish creature evoked by her to make him help her in saving her friends' life. To pay her debt, she's forced to help him taking his revenge over the witches who imprisoned him many centuries ago… [Rated M; AU; Drama/Horror/Romance]
Some Notes from the Author. This fiction doesn't really follow the chronology of the TV series. Here a small guide so that the following events won't confuse you: Caroline has always been a witch and, as long with Bonnie, she has knew it since she was a child; Stefan and Damon are now living in Mystic Falls and Elena has just turned into a vampire, but we don't have any Originals or any Doppelgänger, for now. No Silas, no Hayley, maybe a little of Matt, and definitively no Cure; Tyler is just a werewolf, and as for the "famous" dead of the show, well, they are all still dead.
The story could easily take place during the summer before college.
Now that I've brought I little more light on the story, I just have to wish you good reading. :)
Chapter 1
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«The wolf thought to himself, what a tender young creature. What a nice plump mouthful...»
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Two weeks had already passed since a strange plague had mysteriously hit and made ill all the supernatural creatures in Mystic Falls. It seemed there wasn't any explanation. One after the other fell. With first the werewolves and then the vampires, they all seemed to collapse just like fragile flies under the influence of that evil miasma. Someone had suggested that the germ of that epidemic was carried by the wind – perhaps there was vervain or wolfsbane dust blowing in the air – yet others asserted that it was a powerful spell, casted to fulfill a twisted revenge.
Only the coven of thirteen witches who had lived in Mystic Falls for four centuries seemed immune to this illness, which of course did nothing but fuel the rumors about the latter conjecture. Of course, the stubborn silence of the Council's members did not help much to appease; but then they had less chance of being blamed for what was happening, given the relationships that some of them had with the supernatural creatures that were slowly perishing.
And this was precisely the reason that had driven Caroline and Bonnie, two of the youngest and more capable witches of Mystic Falls, to meet secretly to look for a way to save their friends' lives, who happened to be disappointingly all supernatural beings.
«There must be something we can do», said Caroline, violently flipping through the pages of her grimoire. «We can't just let our friends die.»
«I don't know what to think, Care», Bonnie replied, raising her head from the book to watch apprehensively as her friend sat on the bed. «If all this is caused by the Spirits, there's nothing we can do. You heard the Supreme. This plague doesn't affect us, so maybe we should just let it do its course.»
«Are you listening to yourself, Bon? My boyfriend is a freaking werewolf, in case you forgot, and right now, he's confined in bed with a fever, chills and in desperate need of my help. So you excuse me if I don't have any intentions to let the Spirits kill him», Caroline retorted, trying to contain her anger. She hated feeling so weak and useless, but she also knew that it was unfair to blame Bonnie. «Besides», she added more gently. «We're talking about Elena too. She's our friend, Bon, don't you think that it is our duty to help her?»
«I would give my life for my friends, Care, you know that», the young Bennett sighed, shrugging.
«See? That's the spirit, Bonnie! Now, back to work», she ordered with a little smile.
They spent several hours studying the books and the old parchments full of notes belonged to their grandmothers, but it seemed a waste of time. Apparently, this was the first time, ever, that such a storm came upon a town to exterminate slowly all the supernatural beings. There was not even a single reference that a similar thing would have happened in the past, and the two witches were beginning to lose patience.
Caroline groaned exasperatedly, closing her grimoire with a loud noise and throwing it away. «Okay, I'm sick of it.» She stopped. «Wait a second, Bon», she said, standing up and running out of her bedroom and down the stairs, leaving a perplexed expression on her friend's face. When she came back two minutes later, however, Bonnie's eyes went wide in realization of the thing that Caroline was holding in her arms.
«Care, what the hell is that?» She asked, though she was afraid of the answer.
«It's the Book of Shadows», Caroline said in a tiny whisper, closing the door behind her and reaching again her friend on the bed.
«Oh my God, are you serious? It belongs to the Supreme, how on earth have you stolen it?»
Caroline rolled her eyes, impatient. «I haven't stole anything, Bon, my mother just borrowed it some days ago. Now, be quiet – we must read it quickly before she comes back from work.»
«I can't believe we are doing this», Bonnie whispered.
«Yeah, well, neither can I, and yet here we are.»
«I wonder if you do realize what are we risking, by reading this book without any authorization», Bonnie carried on her preaching, staring sideways at her friend. «This is by far the worst thing we've done since that blasted daylight ring! What if the book is cursed? What if it… I don't know… strikes us dead?»
«You've been listening too much to your granny's stories, Bon», Caroline retorted, without deigning her friend of another look. «Voilà! The book is open and I'm still alive. Now, unless you don't want to help me, please shut up and let me read.»
Bonnie's resigned sigh gave her the answer she wanted to hear.
While reading the infamous Book of Shadows was so interesting to make them forget their original plan – there were spells and formulas in every known language, ancient drawings of monstrous creatures that they hoped to be extinct, and even hand-written notes on the edge of the pages of a hundred different witches – Caroline finally managed to find something that captured her interest.
«Bon, look! Read this, it sounds interesting.» Caroline handed her the book, pointing out a yellow page.
With a curious look on her eyes, Bonnie took the book with a sort of cautious deference. «Mm. Niklaus Mikaelson, known as the Hybrid. Confined while still alive on the Other Side – how can it even be possible? – by Qetsiyah's coven, in the first century Before Christ. His curse condemned him to crave and feed on blood and to abandon his human shape on full moon nights; but thanks to his cruelty and his corrupt slyness, he made sure to turn his curse into a blessing, and so he became the most powerful creature… Care, I don't understand, why this text could be of any help?»
«Just keep reading, Bonnie!»
«Okay, okay… So, most powerful creature… blah blah blah… Oh, you mean this? Because of the curse, legends say that his blood has healing properties, even more than the blood of a simple creature of the night: it can cure a werewolf bite, usually fatal to any vampire, and makes him invincible. The inability to definitively kill him has forced our ancestors to confine him in a prison specially created for him.» Bonnie stopped reading only to watch Caroline with a concerned expression. «Please, Care, tell me you're not really thinking of let this creature free.»
«Why not, Bonnie? We are powerful enough; we have been practicing and studying magic since we were children», she stated, with an impatient wave of her hand.
«Caroline, this… this hybrid, or whoever he is, is dangerous! Surely, there is an explanation more than comprehensive for the fact that he has been secluded only God knows where. Perhaps you didn't read the small print, but he can't be killed, and there's no way you can control him! And don't even let me start with the fact that it's totally against the rules.»
«Yes, well, are we talking of the same rules that, technically, prevented us from creating a daylight ring for Elena?» Caroline retorted, with a slight hint of annoyance in her voice. «Have you forgotten how many times we already broke those rules, just for our friends?»
Bonnie seemed suddenly taken aback by Caroline's sideswipe, and she realized she had nothing to refute with. «I'm just saying», she insisted though, trying to put some sense in her friend. «There must be another option. And we don't even know for sure if his blood could save Tyler, or Elena, or the others! Look, I'm going home now, I want to take a look in my gram's grimoire. I'm sure we'll find a spell less drastic, okay? Please, Care, just… be patient, don't do something stupid giving heed to your fear and the heat of the moment.»
Caroline stayed silent for a couple of terrible seconds, pouting and valuating Bonnie's wise words. «Fine», she muttered eventually, crossing her arms. «It was a stupid idea, anyway.»
Bonnie did not like having to be the voice of conscience of her friend, and certainly, she felt sorry for having to break her ideas and throw out what, in theory, could also be a good plan. But they knew virtually nothing about the creature that Caroline would have liked to evoke. The Book was very vague about him with merely a warning to anyone who read not to awaken such a monster, but other than that it did not go into further detail. Bonnie could understand the disappointment of her friend: here they spoke to choose between a hypothetical danger represented by such a hybrid, and a real danger, namely the death of their closer friends - no, far worse, the death of her boyfriend. Yet Bonnie remained firm in the idea that it would be wiser for them to proceed with feet of lead, and controlling the book of her grandmother seemed therefore the best solution; if only they hadn't had to operate secretly, all these problems wouldn't be there.
So Bonnie left, lulled by the certainty of having brought back her friend's senses, but Caroline was far away from giving up her only hope. If the young Bennett were really determined not to help her, fine, she would come to terms with the idea of having to roll up her sleeves and do everything alone. Besides, she had the strange feeling that the other witches did not want to do anything to save the vampires and the werewolves – it didn't seem to matter that most of them knew Tyler's and Elena's families all their life. She could maybe understand somehow their hatred towards the Salvatore brothers, who since their arrival to Mystic Falls had done nothing but messed up with their peaceful existences. She seriously couldn't come to terms with the fact that the coven would have rather watched the kids who they had seen grow up die, without even shedding a tear.
Caroline wasn't a fool, she was actually well aware that what she was going to do was against all her coven's rules. Just as Bonnie had told her, she was risking too much – perhaps the other witches wouldn't kill her, but they could still deprive her of her powers, and then banish her from the coven. It would have been an affront to her mother and her ancestors, and she could even lose the support of the Spirits if the spell had gone wrong – but she didn't have any other choice, she had to try no matter what the consequences would be.
So, she began to copy carefully the Greek words of the spells, in order to return the book without her mother noticing its missing, and then she went in search of the necessary ingredients that would have ensured the success of the ritual. She took a jar of salt from the kitchen, a sharp knife, some candles and bandages and then she put all this in her bag. The Book of Shadows was put back from where she had taken it in her mother's bedroom, and at that point, she was ready to go.
«The things I do for love», she sighed, entering the car.
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The wind hadn't stop blowing on the city not even for a moment. It was cold, relentless and merciless, it brought tears to the eyes and then froze them on the cheeks. Even breathing was painful, not only for the supernatural creatures but for the human being as well. It made the trees stirred restlessly, the shutters of the windows rattled and the gates creaked ominously, which let the desire to go outside of the house pass to anyone with a little common sense. Carol Lockwood had called her a couple of minutes ago, crying, begging her to doing something for her son, who appeared to be passed out from the amount of pain.
«I'm working on it, Carol», Caroline had assured her, terribly worried about Tyler. «Trust me.»
However, how could she ask someone to trust her, though she had not any faith on what she was about to do? The truth is she was afraid. If that spell was contained in the Book of Shadows, and if Merrick, the Supreme, had never told them about it – because it was impossible that she wasn't aware of it, since she had to know every spell and every magic of her grimoire – well, that had to mean something. And yet, Caroline still did not understand why the coven persisted in not wanting to take any action, as if in the end they approved the work of that wicked wind.
She drove into the woods as far as she could, but then the ground went so bumpy that she was forced to leave the car and walk further into the forest. There was a place in there in which converged the power of hundreds of generation of witches – her coven rarely went there, since none of them practiced anymore spells so formidable as to require such a great power – and that Caroline had no hesitation to draw from it.
Perhaps, she thought with a shiver of apprehension, the Spirits will forgive me, and will let me use it. After all, I'm doing all this to save my friends, and not for a personal gain.
But the wind seemed only to grew stronger, as soon as she had had that thought.
Without wasting any more precious time, Caroline took the jar from her bag and began to form a solid circle with the salt, just in the middle of the power center. She counted her steps and she intoned simple spells of imprisonment and protection, which would serve to block the creature inside the circle for all the time necessary. Then, when the last handful of salt closed the ring, Caroline took the knife and carved a deep but not dangerous cut on her arm, and then let her own blood flow in the empty jar: the salt, in fact, would have prevented the hybrid from going out, but the blood would secure her control over him. With this comforting thought, she dipped the tip of the knife into the dark and thick liquid collected in the jar, and she carefully drained it along the edge of the circle of salt. When the last drop of blood fell to the ground, closing the circle, Caroline felt a sudden sensation of entirety, as if everything had just found its place.
Only in the end, she settled five candles in places that should represent the five elements of nature, ideally drawing a star, and then with a silent thought, she lit them: the flames lighted up the darkness of the woods, creating frightening shadows all around her. The wind had died.
«No need to be afraid, Caroline», she murmured to herself. «You can handle this.»
She tried to stay focused while reading her own notes of the spell at the faint light of the candles. At the beginning, she was shaking so much that she could not read her own writing, but then, quite suddenly, she was able to find that secret place within herself, from which she drew her power with the same ease with which one draws water from a well. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and when she re-opened them she felt enveloped by a new and stronger determination.
The spell's words flowed from her mouth with the simplicity of a nursery rhyme, relaxing her with their familiarity. To wield the magic was undoubtedly the thing that she preferred; to feel the tingle of power on the surface of her skin, as if endless sparks of energy came from the center of her body and poured outside to wrap her in a warm cloak of magic, it was something that made her feel invincible, fearless - almost immortal. The wind that now whistled through her hair, making them move gently, it was not as scary as that of the epidemic, but it was warm, pleasant and reassuring: it was the feeling of home. The flames of the candles hissed up in the air, bringing light to the previously darkened forest and all in the matter of seconds.
Caroline kept her eyes shut and continued to recite the spell, raising her voice so that it stood higher over the wind noise. Thank God she was not only tapping into her magic, otherwise the power of the spell would have destroyed her – she tried not to think about the fact that she also could lose control and collapse, as it happened so many years ago when she still had wielded the real magic for the first time.
Then the wind suddenly disappeared, and it seemed to take away fragments of the power, torn so violently that Caroline stopped breathing for a few seconds, gasping for air. But, when she finally found the courage to open her eyes, she could not but mentally thank all the Spirits in realizing that her spell had been successful.
The creature – the hybrid – seemed a terrible beast born from a nightmare, and then jumped out from the most distressing antrum of the underworld. Caroline didn't resist, and she found herself drawing back slowly and carefully, with her hands down so that he wouldn't consider her a threat. In the short span of time that followed his manifestation, she had managed to notice several details that concerned him, as the fact that he clearly belonged to another era. His dirty clothes were torn in several places and fell on him as rags, denuding portions of skin from which she could see wounds and old scars; his long hair was a mess of tangled and dirty blonde curls, which once must have been his pride. He had the well-built physique of the warrior, with broad shoulders and long and strong arms – she could easily imagine him wielding a sword during a fight.
When he suddenly turned around and saw her, Caroline really feared for her life. His face was disfigured by a furious grimace – in his golden eyes was the reflected glow of the candle light, his mouth was a fatal trap of two sets of menacing fangs, and his claws were as long and sharp as his teeth. He then growled, and that horrible and primordial cry seemed to hush the whole forest. He tried to run towards her using his supernatural speed, but thank God the invisible barrier created by salt and blood blocked him.
Only then, Caroline began to breathe once again.
«Please, listen to me», she started, taking a heedful step forward. «I don't mean any harm.»
«Who. Are. You?» He bellowed in hoarse and rasping voice, as if he hadn't had a chance to talk for a very long time.
«I'm the witch who summoned you», Caroline answered, trying not to let her voice trembling.
But the hybrid seemed not to have heard any words. «Blood. I. Need. Blood!» He grumbled once again with a hint of desperation, running from side to side inside the circle as if he was desperately looking for a gap.
«Okay, now stop. Stop it! I'm ordering you!» She screamed, trying to sound as authoritative as possible. She had to make it clear to the creature who was in command between them; otherwise, as Bonnie already pointed out, she would not be able to control him.
Her scream finally caught his attention, but when he looked back at her, he did not seem impressed at all. His face's features were still threating, and plus it seemed to have turned on in the depths of his eyes, a mocking light.
«You dare to command me?» He hissed, with his eyes narrowed.
Something in his tone gave her the strength to master the situation better. «Yes! Yes, I dare, and if you don't stop your attitude, I will send you back into the damn hole from which I pulled you out!»
He didn't answer, merely scowling at her, but somehow Caroline knew she had gained his attention. «Now, you have to listen carefully to what I say. Understand?» She continued, waving a finger towards him. «I'll give you some blood, since you seem like you really need it, but know that I can make you feel a pain beyond your imagination if even the thought of attacking me takes shape in your mind.»
As she continued her little speech, Caroline felt more and more confident about her task. Then, under the watchful eyes of the creature, she took again the knife and reopened the wound previously inflicted, collecting some more of her blood in a bowl: his eyes darkened for his thirst, staring at her from behind a thick curtain of matted curls, but surprisingly he waited patiently for Caroline to hand him it.
«Here. Have at it», she said, reaching out long enough to put down the bowl inside the circle so that he could take it.
In a movement too fast for her eyes – though the most part of her friends were supernatural creatures, she still hadn't get used to their speed – he grabbed the bowl and drank the blood in just one sip. «I want more», he grunted, throwing the empty bowl on the ground.
«You'll have more blood when you agree to help me», she said, in a tone that brooked no argument.
Caroline swore she heard him snort with amusement. «I like your use of "when", it's very confident», he murmured, moving a step forward towards the edge of the circle.
It seemed that her blood had shown a little clarity in the hybrid's mind, making him suddenly more loquacious. «I haven't summoned you to be teased», she hissed, crossing her arms.
«Then perhaps you should tell me why you did it, love. I don't have all day», he added, still glaring at the salt ring. He folded his hands behind his back, and then looked up to her with an impatient glare.
«I need your blood», Caroline began drily.
He merely raised an eyebrow, without reply nor letting imply anything from his expression. Despite his nature and his wild appearance, he was behaving in a rather civil way, considering that he had been locked up in some kind of hell for the last two thousand years.
His gaze made her uncomfortable, but she forced herself to continue. «Some kind of spell has been casted over the town, and this is making all the supernatural beings die. Vampires, werewolves… they have no escape. But it also happens that I know that your blood can cure them, so… I'm going to need some.»
Caroline had not expected his chuckle. «And why the hell should I willingly agree to this? Please do tell me, love, what makes you think that I would be interested.»
«Perhaps you'd like to regain your freedom», she retorted, a little baffled. Wasn't that enough?
«My freedom», he repeated. «Are you telling me, in whole honesty, that you'd be willing to release me for just a few drops of my blood? Do you really think that I'm such a fool?»
She rolled her eyes. «Look, I made you come here, I feed you, I'm not a liar. You can trust me…»
«Trust a witch? Ah.» He cockily shook his head, but he also seemed amused: she hadn't liked to be so abruptly interrupted. As most of the witches, she loved to be in control, and he was counting on being able to make her lose it. «Besides, we haven't even been properly introduced, how can I trust you?» He continued, clearly making fun of her.
Caroline grunted impatiently. She had known him for less than ten minutes and she wanted to strangle him already. «God! My name is Caroline, okay? Does it make you feel any better? Could we please move to some more serious topics?»
«You really are an impatient little thing, aren't you?» He couldn't help his smile. «Well then, Caroline, my name is Klaus, even if I guess you already knew it.»
«I thought your name were Niklaus», she contradicted. Oh God, had she evoked the wrong demon? This would have really been the last straw.
«That's the name my father gave me, actually, and I'm not quite fond of anything that concerns him», he quietly explained.
Caroline sighed. «Okay, Klaus, fine, whatever. Nice to meet you», she replied summarily. «Now, are you going to help me, or…?»
Klaus cocked his head slightly to one side, studying the girl with the voracious eye of a hawk looking for its prey. «You grant me that if I help you, then I'll be free? Permanently, no tricks involved?»
«Yes, I promise. Ah, and of course I need you to behave, as soon as you stay here in the surroundings. I want you not to hurt anyone in town, or our deal is off and I will hunt you until you are imprisoned again. And this time I will make sure to burn the spell that can set you free.» Caroline wasn't very good when it came to threatening somebody, but she was also a pretty powerful witch and she knew what she was capable of. Caroline knew that, alone or with Bonnie, maybe – just in case – she could have sent that hybrid back from where he came from. And if he didn't take her seriously, well, that was his problem.
«I must say I'm impressed, little witch. You've sure got some fire», he admitted with a small fleer.
Caroline pursed her lips, holding a triumphant smile. «So, do we have a deal?»
He did not answer immediately, but eventually he just nodded slowly. «Yes, I believe we do.»
Now it was her turn; she had to prove him that she could be trusted. Therefore, without losing sight of him not even for a moment, Caroline blew out the candles with an elegant wave of her hand, and with that, she put an end to the spell that imprisoned the hybrid.
At that point the situation was reversed abruptly, and not in her favor.
She was just in time to see his fangs flashed in the dark in a strange smile, before finding herself pressed against the trunk of a tree with the creature's hand tightened threateningly around her neck.
«Now, that's more like it», he whispered in her ear.
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Well, that was an unfortunate turn of events.
If Bonnie could have seen her right now, she surely would have said something like I told you so, even if that was usually Caroline's favorite sentence. She swore silently, her eyes flickering frantically from side to side, desperately thinking of a way to freed herself, but his long and sharp claws were a major distraction.
«And here I thought we were becoming friends», she muttered with a little mocking smile – she couldn't help herself. His grip became tighter, which suggested her to stop fooling around and take over the reins of the situation. «Should I remind you the agreement you accepted only two seconds ago?»
«If you like; but that won't change the fact that you're at my mercy, now, and that I could easily kill you for your arrogance.» He seemed quite serious with his statement, and Caroline started to worry for the first time.
«You can't kill me! You drank my blood, and now we are linked. If anything bad happens to me, you too will suffer the consequences», she whispered with difficulty.
«I am immortal! I won't be killed by a witchy little thing like you are», he growled instead, tightening imperceptibly his fingers around her thin and delicate neck. His pupils were again black and dark as a deep abyss, and Caroline found herself unable to look away.
«I don't think you want to run the risk», she had the guts to dare him, and in spite of all he could not help but feel curiosity towards the girl. She had fire in those beautiful eyes, who watched him with rage and disappointment, and she did not seemed particularly frightened by him; this was something he needed to make up for.
«Why would have you done something so stupid as to unite me to you?» He asked, forcing himself to understand that witch. She was so different from the others, who had imprisoned him centuries ago, but after all she didn't really know who she was dealing with – besides, her courage could as well be naïve stupidity.
Caroline glared him. «Because, just as I told you earlier, you serve me to save my friends' lives, and right now this has a lot more value than my own safety», she retorted with more honesty than it was wise to use.
Though he had passed more time in exile than walking the Earth surface, Klaus had learned one or two things over the witch's ancestry: namely, that it was never safe to blindly trust them – and even though this witch was desperately trying to prove him wrong, he preferred to stay loyal to his idea. They had no qualms about exploiting and take advantage of the creatures that they believed to be inferior, if that would have meant achieving a higher purpose. They were arrogant and their faith made them behave as fierce religious extremists. They thought to have the Spirits of nature by their side and therefore to be untouchables, and often they were as ruthless as he himself was. They made a monster of him, they made him crave for blood for his own survivor, but for some reasons they managed not to take any blame for what they did to him.
He would have not be manipulated once again.
As if she would have been capable of reading all those things in his eyes, Caroline's expression somehow softened. «Look, I know what my ancestors did to you, but I'm nothing like them. I promise I will show you the gratitude you deserve for helping me», she added with a very convincing tone.
He snapped back to reality, and with that he recovered the threatening attitude. «You take for granted that I'm an honorable man, who lives following some kind of code. That's very mindless of you», he teased, easing the pressure on her throat.
«I'm promising you freedom!»
«That's not what I want, love.»
Caroline seemed genuinely confused: his freedom was what they had discussed so far. Had she really misunderstood his intentions? «Name your price, then», she boldly offered, but as soon as the hurried words left her mouth, she realized her mistake: never look desperate in front of your enemies.
You're doing the right thing, Caroline, she tried to comfort herself. It's for your friends.
His little smile confirmed however her fears. «I want revenge.»
The blood drained quickly from her face, turning her pale. She guessed she should have seen that coming, but in spite of this she had hoped the contrary; and the worst part was, she couldn't go back on her word. «Revenge? Revenge for what?» Of course, she could easily imagine the answer, but she needed to hear it from him – she needed it so she could prepare herself for the worst yet to come.
«Do you need me to explain it to you? Can't you get it, love?»
«I really can't», she replied, hardly tolerant. She was not sure if her current inability to think rationally was due to a mild state of shock where she was almost certain to be sealed, or to the unexpected and embarrassing proximity of the hybrid. His warm breath sent strange shivers down her spine, the nature of which, however, preferred to remain ignorant to Caroline. It was not wise, nor advisable, to find attractive the creature that literally held her life in his hands.
It almost seemed that the hybrid had guessed her embarrassment and was pleased, because he pressed even more his body against Caroline's, making her fully aware of its heat and its consistency. She let out a moan that could easily be misunderstood, and she hated herself for that.
His expression suddenly became more condescending than she could bear. «Ah, sweet Caroline. You have made such a big mistake to release me from my prison, and soon you will realize it… But I could show some kindness and gratitude for you, after all.» His sinful lips poured a poison as sweet as honey against her ear; it was like a snake's hypnosis, she knew it was dangerous and yet she couldn't do anything to save herself. «So. All you have to do, love, is help me taking my revenge on the witches who put me there in the first place… I intend to make them pay for making my existence so miserable in the last two millennia.»
«Do you want a witch who helps you take down other witches? Where I come from this is called a conflict of interest», Caroline hissed, still in disbelief for what she had heard.
«I'd rather call it irony, love, it has a sound much more poetic.»
Caroline shook her head, regardless of scratching with his claws. «No, I can't accept. Anything else, please, but this.»
«It's a bit too late to go back on your word. Tick tock, little Caroline, time passes and the thread that holds your friends still tied to this earthly existence becomes more and more subtle. Do you want my blood? So I do not think you have much choice.»
She raised her eyes flooded with unshed tears upon him, looking so defeated and tormented to make him almost question his blackmail. The conflict that was taking place now behind those eyes was painful to watch, and yet Klaus did not look away, silently forcing her to make her choice.
«You're trying my patience», he warned her, in a dangerous tone.
«Fine! I'll do what you say», she spat angrily, biting her lower lip.
«You made the right choice, love. I'm sure your friends must be happy to have so much loyalty from you.»
Klaus let off his grip around her neck, stepping back a few steps and restoring her personal space along with the ability to breathe normally. Caroline watched him while he walked slowly away, kneeled to the ground and then took the jar who once had contained her blood. He stood up, turned around and, without looking away from her, he bit his own wrist and let his dark blood dropping on the little glass bottled.
«This is my part of the deal, love», he said with a mischievous smile, approaching and then handed it to her. «How do you prefer that I collect yours?»
«Wait for me at my house, I'm sure you can follow your hound nose», she replied, resignedly but with a bitter hint of insult. «After bringing your blood to my friends, and assured myself that it works, I'll join you and we'll decide what to do.»
His smile opened into a feral grin.
«Fantastic.»
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Final notes.
I want to thank for the umpteenth time my dear Alyssa [know on Tumblr as — theinevitabilityofus] for being my Beta, and of course my sweet Hana [on Tumblr as — frostyklaroline] for convincing me to write this story! I really hope you'll enjoy reading it just as much as I do writing it! :)
See you soon in the next chapter - for anything else you can find me on Tumblr as his-beloved-mrs-mikaelson. :)
xo xo xo
Giulia
The opening quote is taken from the pilot (1x01) of the TV series "Grimm".
I've never seen "American Horror Story", but for the record I took from there the term of "Supreme", as to indicate the leader of a coven.
Eventually, in the role of Guest Star we have the Book of Shadows, previously seen in "Charmed". :D