Chapter 2

Despite protests Klaus somehow found himself ushered onto the final life boat alongside a rather bored looking sister. Rebekah was completely un interested in the commotion going on around her, and would have been more than happy to have jumped overboard than stay confined to the small vessel.

"This isn't right Nik!" She hissed in her brother's ear.

"Must we discuss this now?" Klaus spat back , focusing his attention on the long ropes that were slowly lowering them towards the sea.

"Its just, all the peop- "she stopped abruptly letting her voice fade off as she noticed the look her brother had directed her way.

"and how many bodies have you thrown overboard already this week sister?" He hissed in her ear, glancing over his shoulder to insure than none of the other life boat occupants could hear their conversation, yet he seemed to already know that they were far to absorbed in their own fear and trauma to listen to hushed conversations of those sitting nearby.

Rebekah looked down at her shoes. She knew Nik was right. She had spent the late hours of the night draining her fellow passengers of their blood, only to dump their corpses into the icy waters below once she was finished with them. A fine burial at sea.

"That's what I thoughts." He muttered, reading his sisters thoughts from the expression on her face.

"So I beg you, not to let your compassion show now." True be told, it was Klaus himself who was struggling with the whole ordeal. He had never planned on boarding a life boat. He and Rebekah had been simply standing on deck, waiting for correct moment to make their exit into the dark waters below. It was understandable why Rebekah had been rushed forward and into a life boat. Seeing as procedure stated , women and children first, yet Bekah had held tight to Klaus hand pulling him alongside her, unsure of their destination. When she was ushered into the final life boat, he had tried to detach his hand from hers, but found himself pushed forward into the seat alongside his sister. He found himself being lowered away from the ships decks, sitting amongst frightened woman, confused children, and men who had bribed and forced their way to safety.

Klaus had killed before. Countless times, yet never before had he taken a life for no reason. He had killed for thirst and hunger, even for revenge, yet never had he knowingly deprived a person of their chance to live, for no reason at all.

Someone else could be in his seat at this very moment, being lowered to safety. It wasn't as if he needed this boat to survive. Far from it. Hell, he thought as he watched those around him lift heavy paddles from the boats sides, he could probably swim to shore faster.

The life boats sat all together in a cluster, Meer yards from the sinking vessel and the hundreds of people flailing in the waters around it. Klaus tried to block out the sounds of those dying so close. Trying not to think of which one of them would be in his place right now if he had only dived into the water when he had a chance.

He did not know how long they sat there. The humans around him and his sister huddled together, desperate for warmth. Nik became aware of the sudden silence. He was not sure now long ago those in the water had gone silent, he was unclear on how much time had passed, how long he had spent huttled in small boat, feeling guilty for a murder he didn't even commit.

Suddenly everything changed; boats were pulled closer together, passengers traded from one to another. It was announced that a boat was heading back, to search for survivors in the water.

In a flash, Klaus was on his feet, moving so quickly that the boat didn't even have time to shift under his moving weight. Before the boats operators could object, he was safely seated in the returning boat. If he could save a life from the water, maybe we wouldn't be so guilty for depriving another of theirs.

Soon, the small vessel was wading through thick throngs of corpses. Bodies frozen over, frost clinging in their hair and eye brows. Their eyes glassed over, almost as if they were wistfully watching them pass, regretting their inability to call out for help.

Klaus sat silently, listening. Listening for anything, a single breath, a heartbeat, any sound at all that would indicate that someone, anyone was still alive.

Then it happened. A faint beat. Growing slower, fading off, but most defiantly there. Ten feet away, floated a young girl, her blonde hair glued to her face by the frost that had formed all around her.

"Stop" Klaus commanded. The operator and his assistant turned around to face him. Shocked almost, as if they had forgotten he was there.

" That girls still alive" He breathed out, Leaning farther over the edge to get a closer look.

The operator turned his light on her, shining it into her pale frost covered face. He shouted in her direction, just as he had been shouting to the open field of people before, and just as before, he earned no response.

" Don't know what you're on about mate. " He stated turning his attention back to the front of the tiny boat, as his assistant continued to check the bodies on either side of the ship.

" Turn back" He demanded. Listening as the heart beat grew fainter with every passing second.

"What's that?"

" We have to save her!" His half shout echoed like a cannon in the too quiet night, projecting his voice across the water.

" My priority." The man spat back

" is to find survivors not weigh to boat down with pretty corpses!"

What Nik did next was rash. Stupid even. Thinking back on it he really could have just compelled the man to turn the boat around and return to the girl. Yet instead he stripped himself of his jacket and dove straight into the water.

"Are you flaming mad? Do you have a death wish! What you think you're playing at!" Klaus ignored the shouts from the life boat behind him. Pushing through the corpses around him, until he reached the barely living girl. It wasn't until he got up close that he realized who exactly he was saving. He had watched her from his dinner table almost every night, occasionally caught her staring back at him, blushing and then quickly turning away. Those fleeting moments of eye contact, were the only times he saw her smile. When he glanced over at her table she always seemed to be in a state of pure misery, as if she was trapped in a prison cell rather than on a luxury ocean liner. As he danced with his sister, he stole glances in her direction, as her eyes followed the other dancers, and sometimes landed on him. He had considered going up to her countless times, but something in his sisters knowing gaze had always stopped him.

Yet now here they were. In the middle of the ocean, with her only seconds away from certain death. He had imagined holding her in his arms for the first time, dancing across the ball room floor. Now he held onto her for dear life dragging her failing body towards the life boat that had surged forward to rescue the mad man who had dived into the water to retrieve what they believed to be a dead body.

Klaus lifted the girl out of the water, pushing her into the life boat, before allowing the two men to hoist him up by his shirt.

In the commotion he had stopped listening for the sound of her heart, and once he was finally back in the boa, he realized it was no longer there. He knew his blood would cure her, but her heart had be beating for it to actually take effect.

His hand pressed down against her heart. Willing it to go on. Just one beat. That was all he needed. Up and down up and down. He pressed a breath of air into her mouth. The other men standing over him, shaking their head at the guy trying to revive a corpse. Up and down, up and down, He pressed harder, and blew another breath into her lungs. Then she was coughing, and gasping for air. He pulled his discarded coat around her body before pulling her close against his chest. The water from his sopping hair fell into her face, as he bit down harshly on his wrist and then offered it to her. Without knowing what was going on she accepted liquid willingly, letting it heal her without her knowledge. He held onto her tighter than before, breathing out a sigh of relief.

End of chapter 2