A/N: Written after 4.14. Um…so first Klaroline fic. I love them and their twisted relationship. This is completely AU after that episode, though I might add in some lines from the show as it continues to airs. There will be plenty of chapters, lots of heartache…there will be little goodness within this fic, angst is the ruler here. But I hope you'll stick with me through the ride.

oOo

Blood and Roses

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
― Martin Luther King, Jr.

It had been one year since Caroline saw Tyler. He had gone…he disappeared with a promise he would forget about her and live a full life. For weeks after, she often woke with tears on her cheeks. She called him when things with Silas got out of hand, when Elena lost her humanity after Jeremy died, when Bonnie gave up her life to weaken Silas and Elena sacrificed herself in a fight with Katherine for the cure that could kill Silas forever. He never replied to her messages. She was holding onto nothing now. Her friends were dead, her mother's job was on the line, she had graduated high school. She would look seventeen forever and she had nothing to do with her life.

When she came back from the Grill, where she was visiting with Matt, the only friend of hers that was still alive, there was a message on her phone. She checked it quickly, cursing the dial tone before her voicemail clicked on. "Hey, blondie." It wasn't Tyler. It was Damon Salvatore. She listened anyway. "I've made a mess of things in Texas." A frown overcame Caroline's face. Damon had taken Elena's death harder than anyone had thought. "If Stefan comes asking, don't tell him where I am." There was a muffled voice in the background and the line cut off. Caroline stayed sitting on the couch for a good five minutes, phone hanging between her fingers before she blinked and moved away from the room, up to her bedroom.

Frantically, she pulled a small suitcase from her closet and began throwing clothes into it. There was no rhyme or reason as to what she was packing, she as just tossing around whatever her fingers touched. When the bag was full, she pulled it into the kitchen and wrote her mother a hasty note.

Mom-
I have to leave for a while. You know how tough this last year has been. Don't worry about me.
Love you,
C
PS. I'll have my phone with me.

Sticking it on the fridge, Caroline took one last sweeping look at her home, the one she had grown up in, the one her father had died in, and stepped outside. She closed the door slowly, because she wasn't just leaving a house. She was closing the door on this part of her life. Everything from here on out was completely new.

Caroline sat on the front steps and called a cab. It took thirty minutes to get to her house. During that time she fished through her phone contacts, her thumb hovering over the numbers belonging to Rebekah and Klaus on her phone. She sucked in a sharp breath and just pushed her finger against Rebekah's name when the cab pulled up and she hung up the call after the first ring. Grabbing her bag, Caroline moved toward the cab, put her suitcase in the back and slipped into the seat. "The bus station please," she told the driver.

They had to drive close to Richmond and her bill was outrageous, but she paid and was thankful for the credit card in her wallet since she had no more cash. Walking up to the ticket booth, she bought a ticket for the first bus to Georgia. She had heard that a vampire loyal to Klaus lived in Atlanta, and that's where she was going first. Lucky for her, there was a bus headed there in just forty minutes time. She bought her ticket and waited inside. Twenty minutes passed before a mother and a little girl with blonde pigtails walked into the station and sat on the bench opposite Caroline. There was a pain in her chest when she realized how much the two of them reminded her of herself and her own mother.

Blinking away tears threatening to come to the surface, Caroline turned her attention to her phone and before she realized it, she had pushed the call button next to Klaus' name in her phone. She put it to her ear and was sadly met with a monotone voice saying "The number you have called has been disconnected. Please redial and try again." Frowning, she deleted the contact from her phone and minutes later, the only contact left in her phonebook was her mother, Matt and Rebekah. Everyone else was dead or had moved on with their human lives and were no friends of hers anymore.

Before she broke down crying, the intercom called for all those going to Atlanta to go to the E terminal. Caroline stood quickly and pulled her bag behind her, the woman and her daughter joining the line along with a man wearing a fedora, a woman with a nose ring and an older gentleman with a full white beard. There were others that trickled in as the doors were opened and everyone walked out toward the proper bus. Caroline put her suitcase under the bus with the other luggage and walked onto the bus with just her ticket and phone. She grabbed a window seat. Soon the bus was more than half full and the doors closed.

There was nothing spectacular about taking a bus trip, but for Caroline this was more than that. She had never left home before. Not on her own, not for what she assumed would be a rather long amount of time.

Once the bus left the city, Caroline settled back in the chair, checked her phone for messages or calls and managed to slip into a semblance of a nap. She had dreams of dancing, close moving bodies with the air smelling sweetly of blood and roses. Everything felt dangerous in a way that set her skin alight. She was slipping from the majestic scene, things were growing blurry, but a voice clearly spoke to her:

"I'm leaving town tomorrow. I'd invite you to come with me, but we both know you're not ready to accept my offer. Perhaps one day, in a year or even a century, you'll turn up at my door and let me show you what the world has to offer."

Caroline jumped awake on the bus. If her heart worked, it would be racing. She instinctively put her hand on her chest and imagined the feeling of a swift heartbeat under her fingers. She still felt half asleep as she whispered, "Klaus."

Suddenly, there was a thunk and Caroline was pushed into reality. The little girl from the station was standing at the end of the row of seats, looking at Caroline with wide blue eyes. Caroline looked down to see the girl's doll that had gotten jostled out of her hands and landed at Caroline's feet. The young vampire leaned down and picked up the doll, handing it over to the girl with a smile. "Thank you," the girl said shyly before scurrying off to the front of the bus where her mother quietly reprimanded her for walking while the bus was moving. Caroline smiled sadly and a tear slid down her cheek. She brushed it away and rolled her eyes.

"Get it together, Caroline," she told herself.

The trip was long and left Caroline longing for a private jet. By the time she got off of the bus in Atlanta, Georgia, she was in dire need of a shower and a feed. She used her phone to find the address attached to the name Hugo Theeds, which was the only thing she had to go on at the moment. Thankfully she managed to get an address and used a map service to walk to the place. It was a nice apartment building in a nice part of town. There was a burning in the back of her throat telling her that she had to drink some blood soon.

Swallowing, she noticed that there was no buzzer and she walked into a lobby where there was a desk and elevators. Behind the desk was a woman. Caroline walked over to her.

"Um…which apartment belongs to Hugo Theeds?" she asked as politely as she could as her eyes focused on the pulsing vein in the woman's neck.

"Third floor," the woman replied in a bored voice.

Caroline shook her head into some sense before she grabbed her bag and walked to the elevator. She pushed the '3' button once inside. The elevator doors opened to a small eight by three space where there was a single door marked with the same number. Sucking in an unneeded breathe, Caroline lifted her arm and knocked on the door.

It took a few moments before someone pulled open the door. He wasn't a vampire, she could hear his heartbeat and smell the human on him. He had a bite mark on the side of his neck that was recent, and was dressed in boxers and a silky bathrobe. "Who're you?" he asked, eyeing Caroline like she was a piece of trash.

"I'm here for Hugo," she said, standing up a little straighter.

"Tell her to go away, Jerry," a second male voice said from inside the apartment.

Jerry was about to shut the door when Caroline spoke louder and clearer, "I'm looking for Klaus."

Jerry stopped and stared at her and a moment later a second man came into the doorway. This one was a vampire, and he put his hands on Jerry's shoulders and whispered something in his ear. The human disappeared from view.

"I'm Hugo," the vampire said. He was tall and thin, with hair as red as fire and a well defined upper half which was currently uncovered. "Who are you?"

"My name is Caroline," she replied, her face shifting into its vampire form: fangs, red eyes and obtrusive veins around her eyes. "Do you have anything to drink?"

It took a moment before Hugo cracked a smirk and stepped aside. "Jerry, tell Caroline she can come inside."

Jerry's head appeared from around a wall. "Come on in, Caroline."

Caroline tilted her head in a thanks to Hugo and stepped inside, leaving her bag in the foyer. The apartment took up the entire floor, and opened up to a huge living room in dark wood and maroon colors. Heavy curtains covered the windows. Hugo walked and stopped in the middle of the room, turning to her. "Do you prefer live…?" He waved a hand toward Jerry who was doing something in the kitchen.

"No," Caroline said quickly. She still hadn't gotten over that hump of drinking from a human since the incident with the carnival boy after she had been turned and had no idea what she was doing. Not long after, Jerry was giving her a crystal glass filled with blood, the almost-empty blood bag sitting on the counter. The blunt smell of it was more tantalizing than the man's heartbeat and Caroline sucked it down quickly and without manners. Once it was finished and Jerry emptied the rest of the bag into the glass, he disappeared from the room and Hugo offered her to sit.

"I heard that you are looking for Klaus," Hugo said after an elongated pause.

Caroline held the glass on her lap with both hands. "Yes. I can't contact him and I heard through the grapevine that you are loyal to him. I thought you might know…where I could find him." She felt out of her element here. She wasn't perky little Caroline anymore. So much about the past year had changed her completely and she was still getting accustomed to it herself.

Hugo liked to keep her waiting before he replied. He was studying her actions, her body language, as she sat there and she could feel it, his eyes raking across her skin. She was glad that she had worn jeans and a jack and not much of her actual skin was showing. "I am."

"You are…?" Caroline arched an eyebrow.

"Loyal. To Klaus," he said after a pause two seconds too long.

Caroline took a drink from the glass. The blood was almost gone. Her thirst felt quenched. "Are you going to help me or not? Because if not, I'll just leave." She made a move to stand.

Hugo sat forward quickly, half standing with an arm out in her direction. "No, stay. This is entertaining."

She rolled her crystal blue eyes. "I'm not here for entertainment. I'm here for information."

"And a drink," he added, nodding toward the cup in her hands.

"I can pay you," she lied through her teeth. She had no cash left.

He waved a hand. "It's just a bag. For emergencies. It's fine." He sat back. "Just…answer one question and I'll tell you where you can find Klaus."

Caroline finished the blood, licked her lips and then met Hugo's eyes. "Ask away."

"How do you…walk during the day, without burning?"

It wasn't quite a secret, so Caroline didn't feel badly in telling it. "This," she held up her hand and fiddled with her ring so he could see, "was spelled by a witch so I could walk under the sun. I don't know the spell, and the witch is dead." The words fell heavy out of her mouth.

Hugo gave a little "Huh" before he stood and walked over to an old desk in the corner. Caroline fidgeted on the couch. She didn't feel threatened here but she was still on edge, expecting to wake up from a dream and find Silas alive and having opened the veil between worlds. The thought of such a world sent a shiver down her spine.

With a letter in hand, Hugo came back and sat next to her. Caroline shifted slightly so they weren't sitting so close. "Klaus saw me a while back," he started, opening up the envelope, "telling me to give this to someone. He didn't tell me who it would be, only that I'd know." He didn't hand her the entire contents of the envelope, but a small piece of paper that was folded in half with a C written in Klaus' handwriting on one side. "I figure this is for you."

He didn't move back to the other seat, so Caroline set the glass down on the wooden floor and unfolded the piece of paper. It was in fourths. In one corner, there was a sketching of the Eiffel Tower. Under and around it were words, carefully written in the hybrid's familiar writing.

If you have found this, you must have come to your senses. I can offer you the world, and you can take it.

That was it.

"This is it?" Caroline echoed her thoughts, looking over at Hugo.

The ginger haired vampire nodded. "The letter is a long ramble to me. He sends me one every so often, confessing things he'd rather not discuss with other people."

Caroline's eyes flickered to the thick envelope. She suddenly craved to know what was written in there. Was there anything about her? Did Hugo know she would be coming? She frowned and looked back down at the small paper with the simple words. "But how am I supposed to find him?" she said under her breath. Up until now, she hadn't really let herself believe that this was exactly what she was doing: she was searching for Klaus to take him up on his offer. She wanted more than her life in Mystic Falls.

She needed Klaus.