Chapter 1

Caroline Forbes frowned up at the sprawling place known as the abbatoir, the lavish compound that currently served as home to Klaus and Elijah Mikaelson. In the blazing late afternoon sunlight, she squinted in momentary wonderment at the extravagant lodging, the frown unintentionally fading as that part of her which enjoyed the finer things in life was momentarily impressed. "Damn," Caroline murmured admiringly, maybe trying to cut the tension within herself. And failing.

"Who are you?" An exhausted, bedraggled vampire, one of dozens milling around the courtyard, stopped to acknowledge Caroline with only passing interest.

Her patience with this endeavor dwindling already, she chirped, "I need to see Klaus. Now."

"He's not seeing anyone these days," the vampire, a young man with limpid blue eyes, explained, almost sympathetically, "just his innermost circle, and hardly ever even them."

"Oh yeah? Tell him it's Caroline."

The vamp shrugged and trotted off to perform the errand, returning at record speed to usher her upstairs to a darkened room and leaving her there without another word.

"Klaus?" Caroline called, squinting.

Finally, he stepped forward, out of the shadows, and there he was. The single biggest problem in Caroline's life. The embodiment of the forbidden desire that haunted her dreams even as she tried to keep it from her conscious thoughts. Klaus. She felt the same as ever when she saw him, though everything else had changed and she should by now be numb to the sensations he awakened in her. Why did he still have the power to overwhelm her with this craving to be near him, to reach out and touch him, find that light within him which he tried to dampen about as hard as Caroline tried to shake off her feelings for him? Hadn't she moved on after that little tryst in the woods, resolved the sexual tension? Wasn't she edging ever closer to Stefan Salvatore these days? Caroline couldn't believe the way seeing Klaus threw her right off her game all over again and for a second blew the whole rest of the world away from her thoughts. Irritated and uncomfortable, she grumbled inwardly, this sucks!

Klaus looked about a thousand times more world weary than his denizens outside, and no less heartbreakingly beautiful for all that. His face broke into a stunning, mischievous smile. "Caroline," he said warmly, shifting in a beat from miserable to enraptured. He swept her into his arms so fast that she had no time to react or try to prevent his embrace. He clung to her like she was a life preserver but also as if this move on his part was the most natural thing in the world.

"What are you doing?" Caroline asked, freezing up her body but not her heart.

"My city is going to hell. Warring packs of werewolves and witches have made my life of late a disaster. And I've lost my child." At hearing this last part, Caroline's breath caught in her throat.

"So please, Caroline," Klaus breathed into her hair, "let me hold you."

"Klaus, the baby-" she began, startled and horrified to her soul.

"Please, love," Klaus whispered, "just for a minute."

She shut her mouth and leaned into his body, helpless against the tide of emotions that enveloped her. She thought she'd never touch him again or fall prey to this dangerous abyss of temptations, but here she was. It felt so good, collapsing into the depravity of caring for this monster. Caroline could feel months of pent up anxiety fall off of her as she breathed in his familiar and intoxicating scent...like really expensive European cologne, paint, and pure evil, she mused, hypnotized but weirdly self-aware.

She forced herself to pull back, and it hurt to do so. "Come here," she charged him, leading him to a sofa and sitting beside him. "What happened?"

"We'll get to that," Klaus replied, wiping a tear away though he was laughing as well. "Oh, Caroline," he said in a pained grimace of amusement, yearning, and despair. "Why are you here?"

"Klaus, I didn't know what you were going through, or I wouldn't have-"

"Wouldn't have come to doubtless ask some favor of me in my darkest hour?" Klaus smirked. "Don't lie to yourself, sweetheart. Though yours is by far the sweetest heart I know, there's no question in my mind that the task which brings you here supersedes my personal tragedy in your mind. You need something from me or you'd never come, not in a million years. So out with it. My blood, perhaps? That's always a popular choice."

"No," Caroline replied, twisted by the bitter yet flattering tumult of his words. "Your mother's grimoire. We need it to try and find Damon and Bonnie. They're dead but not on The Other Side. Their souls are trapped somewhere else, maybe somewhere terrible." She gulped, hating to think of Bonnie suffering, or the pain Stefan and Elena suffered because Damon was gone.

"But Klaus..." She trailed off. What could she possibly say? He knew her all too damn well, and it bothered her intensely. Yes, she felt awful, beyond awful, for what had happened to Klaus. But was she still going to ask for his help? Hell, yes.

"You think my mother's book may hold a spell capable of wrenching open a disintegrating underworld of lost souls so that you can retrieve two of them?"

"Or three," Caroline admitted, "we'll get Lexi, too if we can."

"Wonderful," Klaus remarked, "that's completely ridiculous and impossible. But if there is such a spell in existence, my wretched mother's infernal spell book is the place to look."

"I was thinking more 'long shot' than 'ridiculous and impossible,'" Caroline snipped.

"That's my girl. Certainly. You can have the book. Take it back to Mystic Falls with you."

Caroline's brow furrowed suspiciously. "What's the catch?"

"Ah, love. You don't miss a trick. The catch is, I want you to stay here for just another day. With me."

Caroline couldn't believe her ears. "Klaus, you'd give up one of your most valuable possessions just to spend time with me? But...I can't. That night in the woods..."

"Was a one time deal. I know, and I would never insult your virtue or my own ego by trying to gain another night in your arms through a trade. The next time we make love, it will be because you want nothing more than you want me. I can wait for that time."

"Make love?" Caroline repeated incredulously, "you really are over 1,000 years old."

"That's fine," Klaus replied smoothly. "You go ahead and smother your true emotions towards me with mockery and disbelief. You are so very good at it. But the point I'm trying to make, love, is that I want you to be near me, if not with me, for one more day. That means, tonight and tomorrow - all of tomorrow. Then the following morning, take the book and your repression and go running back to your cookie cutter existence back home. Is that agreeable to you?"

"I'm not repressed and I don't appreciate your condescending attitude towards the life I choose to live," Caroline argued testily, "but okay. I agree to your terms."

"Splendid," Klaus enthused with that wicked, seductive smile in full force.

Oh, God, Caroline thought, panicking but concealing it bravely, I'm in trouble.