His finely shined shoes made crunching noises as he walked across the broken glass strewn across the floor of Gloria's. The whole place was empty, which was something he could not fathom. It was only two a.m., it should be packed with those of the underground. He struggled to connect a thought with another as he felt like he had the answer, but then it disappeared.
He was still walking when he saw something glittering there on the ground. He crouched down, picking it up. It was a simpler necklace with a strange sphere-like shape to it, a red gem adorning the upper corner. He knitted his eyebrows together.
This necklace, he knew this necklace. It was- he struggled to come up with where it was from.
Pale skin, blonde hair, crimson sheets, crimson blood, lots and lots of blood. It all flashed before him but he couldn't put it together.
Stefan shrugged, standing up and pocketing the necklace. Even if he couldn't remember where exactly he knew it from, he wanted to have it. He walked through the strangely empty club, not glancing back as he stepped through the doors.
-j-
"Nik. Oh my god, Nik." Rebekah was murmuring as her hands listed fearfully through her hair, her heels clicking loudly against the marble flooring as she paced back and forth.
"He found us, how could he have possibly found us?" Her thoughts spoken aloud more or less mirrored his own, though his spoke less fear and more anger. He had settled into that city, it had been comfortable and dare he say fun.
And then he had met Caroline, what an inconvenient time. His eyes flicked to the ceiling above him as he thought of her for the millionth time. He had been with her when she had screamed, seeing the vampiric face of one of Mikael's henchman. No doubt she hadn't know what it was.
He raised his tumbler full of warm blood to his lips, sipping leisurely. He wished it was her blood though.
Caroline, beautiful and unexpected Caroline.
"Nik, what are we going to do?" Rebekah asked after she had calmed down a bit. He looked up at her, smiling.
"Well, we have thrown him off the trail for now. Next, we will plot our revenge." He said calmly, trying his best not to let his worry seep through as he heard another tortured whimper from upstairs.
He had immediately called one of his witches after they had escaped Gloria's, a bloodied and unconscious (but not dead, invariably not dead) Caroline in his lap. She was absolutely knocked out and Klaus couldn't even wake her up to accept his blood, which would heal her. Rebekah had been shaking and crying next to him in the car, completely oblivious to Klaus' pain and concern, of which he was grateful for now.
There were four witches attending to Caroline now in one of the upstairs room of his palace in southern Italy. That's where he had flown them after escaping the city which Mikael had found them in. It had taken two days to get here. She had been attacked by a vampire of Mikael's and though it had only taken a couple of seconds for Klaus to kill the vampire and retrieve Caroline, she was human and it had damaged her terribly.
He wanted to erase the haunting images of her torn dress and body. Your fault, your fault. Something whispered inside of him.
Klaus stood up suddenly, wanting to stop those thoughts, and also wanting to check on Caroline.
"Will she live?" Rebekah asked as she collapsed into a lavish armchair. Klaus faltered in his step, glancing down at his beloved sister. He blinked. Rebekah's eyebrows furrowed at what she saw in his eyes.
"Nik, she is human." She saw fear there, fear for the human girl's life. She knew him to think that she had been oblivious to what had happened in the car and in the club but it would have been impossible to have not heard him. No. No. No. Not her. He had repeated it as he tried to shove his wrist into her mouth until they reached the witches.
"I know that." Klaus said cautiously, trying to be devoid of emotion. Rebekah was good at reading people.
"Just reminding you." She called out as he walked away, up the stairs.
Klaus' footsteps resonated throughout the now silent hallway of the upper level and he turned down one side, towards where Caroline was. He inched open the door to find the four witches scattered around the room, sitting down and staring at her.
She was lying in the bed, uncovered. Her still torn dress stolen from Rebekah (he still wanted to laugh about that but didn't) remained on her body. He couldn't see any of her injuries anymore and none of her sliced flesh was open to the air as it had been. There was just dried blood. Her hair was matted down and wild, her mouth open to accommodate the breaths that she needed.
"How is she?" His voice was broken and rough, fractured by emotions he hadn't had to deal with in a long time. One of the witches raised her head to look at him with what he thought was pity. He'd have to kill her for that later.
"She is still unconscious, sir Niklaus. All of her physical injuries have been healed, but her mind is plagued by what she has seen. It has taken a great toll on her inner being." The witch murmured softly and Klaus nodded, sitting down on the bed at her feet.
"How long until she wakes?" He asked softly, not wanting to disturb Caroline. Her kiss still burned his lips.
"We don't really know for sure. Since she is human, it will be difficult for her when she is up to process everything." Another witch said, lifting her head. "But, we have seen glimpses of her memories through healing her. She has lived through a troubled past and is strong, she can overcome this." Klaus' eyes narrowed. Troubled? Caroline should never have to go through pain.
"Thank you, you may leave me now." Klaus said to them as he didn't want them prying into his mind right now as it seemed to be doing whatever the hell it pleased. They filed out of the room. He sat there, staring down at this fragile human he had only met hours ago.
Suddenly she whimpered again in pain and Klaus surged forward, wrapping his arms around her. He lifted her up so that he could sit behind her, Caroline's head coming to fall against his shoulder as she lay on him. He kissed her forehead gently and whispered,
"Shhhh, love. It will be over soon, I promise."
-j-
I awoke on the soft padding of summer grass and inhaled the sweet scent. It was summer here. Above me I could see the delicate spiraling trees, covered in blossoms and glittering green, reaching towards the sky, which was blue and irresistible.
I tilted my head as I felt a warm breath on my shoulder, smiling as I saw Tyler lying beside me.
"Hey, baby." He said in a strange drawl. I smiled, glad that my friend could be here, in what seemed like paradise, with me. And as I looked into his warm brown eyes they slowly shifted into endless blue ones, and then it was Klaus lying there.
"Love." He murmured and I blushed, recalling our kiss. He wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me into his side. I stared into the depths of his sapphire eyes and watched as they suddenly changed into harsh black ones.
"I'm back Caroline." The man said, and long teeth suddenly broke through my skin.
I screamed.
-j-
I could feel it right there, hovering above me. Consciousness. I wanted it so bad. I wanted to be awake, to force my limbs to my submission. Because right now they just. weren't. moving.
I was suspended in darkness, somewhere between where I wanted to be and where I didn't. Everything ached terribly.
I could feel it as someone pressed their lips to my forehead and for a fleeting moment I thought it was my mom.
But I knew it wasn't and was grateful for that. Because if it was, I had gone to place I didn't want to be and that was sad.
-j-
Sunlight flickered across my eyelashes, urging my eyes open. They did and I saw a blank white space above me. I pondered what new place this could be before I realized it was a ceiling. To a room, a real room, with real sunlight. I was startled as I shifted to take in more of it.
It was definitely the nicest bedroom I had ever been in, with huge bay windows overlooking some ocean (an ocean? where the hell was I?) and marble flooring that looked to be old and valuable. The room was covered in fine paintings and the bed I was lying was soft and pliable. I had been changed into a silky nightdress I realized as I looked down, wondering who had changed me.
I looked to my left at the sudden noise of breathing and there was Klaus, sitting on an armchair, his head thrown back and eyes closed in sleep.
Suddenly memories came rushing back of decapitated heads, black eyes, and blood. Lots of blood. I started shaking, suddenly very afraid of what happened.
"Klaus." I uttered, my voice hoarse and husky from disuse. How familiar. His head snapped up immediately and his eyes met mine. For a second I swear I saw relief there.
"Caroline." He whispered as he stretched like a lazy lion that had been taking an afternoon nap in his lair. His blue eyes were hazy and he looked tired, but he focused on me.
"What happened?" I asked cautiously, unaware of where we were, what day it was, and why I was so damn sore. My head hurt, too.
"It's been four days since you were conscious. How much do you remember?" He asked, resting his head on his hand as he gazed at me. Four days?
"Umm…" I tried to focus, to recall something. It was like there was a chasm in my mind, where I knew things were but they were blocked by a veil of darkness now. "We were together in the car. I remember that." I blushed as he nodded slowly, not seeming to be too affected by the mention of our passionate moment.
"And, something scared me?" It turned into a question because I really couldn't place what had made me scream, but I remember screaming. Klaus just nodded again. "I don't remember anything else."
"You were attacked." Klaus said slowly as if speaking to a child and I nodded as I took this in. "And I then got you medical attention and now we're here." I could tell there were gaps in his story. But his movements were rather distracting.
He got up from his chair, a devious look overcoming his face as he walked towards me slowly, and I watched his advance. He wrapped his arms around me once he reached the bedside. I was still sore and I winced at his touch.
"Sorry." He muttered at my whimper and instead lifted me up so that my head was resting in his lap and he was leaning against the pillows I had been laying on.
"Can you remember anything else, love?" He asked softly as his hands began to play with my hair, his fingertips rubbing into my scalp. It felt heavenly.
"No." It was meant to be said with suspicion but it came out as a moan. I could practically hear his smirk. With a touch like this, there was no need to mention that a couple of nights ago he had been a pawn in my scheme.
"Where am I?" I managed to focus and speak at the same time. I heard a rumble from Klaus and his hands tugged at my hair. I couldn't help my gasp.
"Love, that's not really important right now, is it?" He spoke in a mellifluous tone, drawing me further into his touch. It was mesmerizing. One of his hands left my curls, tracing down my neck instead. It continued further down my body, fingering the strap of the silky night dress I was wearing. It stopped moving as he spoke.
"Wouldn't you much rather not talk?" He said darkly, and I found my head nodding at his words. Anything, really, just to make his hands continue. And they did, the one trailing further down, in the valley between my breasts. He cupped one of them suddenly, and I realized fairly quickly that whomever had dressed me had decided against a bra.
"Aaaaa." Another moan escaped my mouth as his thumb swept across my tender nipple, the other hand pulling again at the roots of my hair. It was pleasure mixed with pain, ice with fire.
I barely felt it as Klaus flipped us over so that now I was underneath him, his hips pinning me deeper into the bed. I looked up into his eyes and found them to be molten steel. He propped himself up on one forearm, the other free to continue its deadly path.
His hand flitted across my stomach, teasing past my hips, and the flimsy night dress I was wearing was rather short and posed no problems to his devilish ways. He was kissing down my neck, his lips occupied there with one hand cupping one of my breasts, teasing it gently when my heat was met with his hand. I gasped. It was all way too much.
"Carolineee." He groaned into the crook of my shoulder and I realized my mystery dresser also decided not to offer me panties. My center was free to the roughness of his touch, not that I was really complaining any.
"You're very responsive, love." And I blushed as his accent spun through the ardent words with ease. He was very, very forward. "So wet." His hand was rubbing against me as he spoke, tuning me like an instrument he knew well. Klaus was speaking into my neck, his lips brushing against my skin and his breath fanning across.
I could barely remember what we had even been talking about before.
I whimpered as my hips ground against his hand and I could feel his smile against my skin. He was pulling me in again, towards that thing which was unknown to me.
Suddenly he shifted and I felt a finger violently plunge inside of me. I gasped loudly at his movement as he growled.
"Damn, love. You are so fucking tight." He was slow inside me, and of course it had my mind running rampant with certain thoughts. He was really very good at all this. His cheek was pressed to mine as his nose dove into my hair, and I'm certain he could feel the heat on my face unmasking my inexperience.
Not to say that as a con artist I didn't kiss them, most certainly, it was a part of the game. But I'm really very good at it and it never took me longer than kissing to get what I needed.
And this time, I wasn't really sure what I needed.
He rotated his index and I gasped again, which is what I'm sure he wanted as his chuckle resonated through the room. He went so slowly I could feel ever divet in his finger, every flux of his movement.
"Nik! Nik! We have a visitor!" A voice bounced through the hallway outside my door and Klaus was out and off of me faster than I could even blink. And that's what I was doing, when a woman walked into my room. Somehow he had managed to sit back down into the armchair, not even a hair out of place. How unfair.
"Ah, if it isn't our sleeping beauty, awake." The woman said, only on the edge of being snide. I could tell she was one of those girls that really are truly beautiful but they seek to find the validation from everyone else too. I suddenly recognized her as Klaus' sister, Rebekah.
"Um, yeah." I murmured as I realized that both siblings were staring at me, awaiting a response. It wasn't my smoothest. I tried my best to pull the duvet up over my barely covered chest and still underwear-free bottom half.
"That's a quality night dress you're wearing there." Rebekah said, her voice not as cold as it had been. I could almost hear sympathy, maybe at my flushed state, maybe at my wild eyes.
"Oh, so you're the one who dressed me?" I regretted the question as soon as it was answered.
"No, god no. Nik simply asked me for something for you." I glanced over at Klaus and he was smirking, eyebrows half-raised in a sexy 'yeah, I dressed you, and yeah, I'm the one that chose sans undergarments." Rebekah coughed to break our stare down. I glanced over at her, guiltily of course.
"Nik, I did say you have a visitor. I will go greet them but I expect you down there soon." Rebekah said in a cursory tone, as though she were trying to forget about something. Klaus raised his hand in acknowledgement, swiftly closing the door once she left.
He stood up, stalking closer to me. My breath hitched in reaction, as I was still aching from his sudden absence of touch. He smiled slowly.
"Caroline, love." He reached forward, his hand grabbing the duvet I had pulled up to my chin and pulling it down to reveal my quivering body. He smirked, as I was becoming accustomed to. "We will finish this later." And with a parting kiss beside my mouth, he was gone.
I sighed, my head falling back onto the sinfully soft pillows. I was aching very badly deep in my stomach, and yearning swirled viciously in my body. My hips swiveled, trying to fight it off. It took a minute or two for me to cool down.
And out of Klaus' hypnotizing presence, my mind was free. What am I doing here? Kept running across my mind, and it was rather plaguing. I liked to be in control of my predicaments, and here I was in some unknown land, with some unknown man, and no particular wish to stay. It was rather overwhelming.
I stood up, testing out my limbs. They seemed okay to move, but rather in need of some, ahem, relief. I tried my best to shrug it off, instead turning to the view from the massive bay windows.
It was definitely a beach, as I had noticed before, but one like I had never seen before. The sand was so white and the water a tantalizing dark blue that it reminded me of something. I gasped as I glanced over to the left and saw a beautiful city, filled with high arches made of stone and breathtaking gondolas washing through the canals in the streets. This was definitely not home.
I stepped away from the window, walking through the rest of my quarters. I chanced upon the en suite powder room. It was as elegant as the rest, a giant claw foot tub and wash basin with a fairly large mirror. I took in a sharp breath at my appearance.
Firstly, my hair was a mess. Probably from lying on it for days and Klaus' less than gentle treatment of it. My skin looked badly in need of some attention, and, most glaringly, there was a dark love bite right under my ear. I hadn't even noticed him doing that. I cursed his talented mouth. I noticed a few pins near the basin, and used them to artfully pin my hair back, effectively covering the mark. There was a floor length satin robe hanging from the door, and I pulled it on, tightly tying the sash. There. I felt a little more prepared to face the rest.
I wandered out of my room, taking in my surroundings. Directly across from me was a grand marble staircase leading down into the foyer, and to my left and right were hallways which led to what I assumed to be more bedrooms. Everything was eerily silent and bright, and even my bare feet seemed to make noise. It was all extravagantly decorated and I didn't think I had ever been in a nicer place.
Wrapping the thin robe that offered little warmth tighter around my body I chose to go left from my room. I passed by several doors before one would open, and I glanced into it.
I'm sure my mouth was hanging open again because, there, before my very eyes, was one of the most beautiful paintings I had ever seen. It was not unlike some Grecian goddess strewn across billowing sheets of silk, but it took a moment for the observer to fully realize the abstractness of it. Certain aspects of it threw you off, wondering exactly what the artist had intended it to be. Well placed spills of dark color led you to believe that it told of tragedy, but the woman (was it even that? maybe a deity) was painted in the lightest of pastels, soft lines of adoration and wonder. It was erotic, but historic, classic, but authentic, dreamlike, but very real. It left me breathless.
And I as I was able to take in more than that one, I realized the room was full of them, some still not finished but stunning nonetheless, others representing much darker themes, while still others were giant landscapes depicting lands I had certainly never been to. I spun around the vast room, trying to take it all in.
"Do you like them?" I heard a throaty voice behind me suddenly, and I spun around to face Klaus, who was standing behind me very closely. I couldn't help but blush.
"Oh, yes." I breathed, overwhelmed by the paintings and him. "I- they're rather incredible. Especially this one." I pointed my finger at the first one I had looked at, stepping closer to take in the strokes of each color. "It's so…" I trailed off as I turned around to face him again, finding his eyes dark and face drawn.
"And what do you think you're doing in here, little one?" He suddenly spoke with an edge, and I found myself stepping away from him in instinct. I could tell I'd overstepped a boundary. What had I been thinking?
"Klaus, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to intrude …it just caught my eye…" I trailed off again, not sure what to say. I was in a strange land in fancy clothes with an even stranger man who seemed to be getting angrier by the minute. "And, and you left me all alone in a place unknown to me!" He suddenly moved forward, gripping my wrist.
"Well, we'll just have to make sure you're locked up a little tighter next time, won't we?" His response confused and frightened me all at the same time, as he all but dragged me out of the room, firmly shutting and locking the door after us. It was vaguely familiar for some reason. His grip was bruisingly tight. I couldn't even manage a protest with the look he was giving me, all that came out was a puny whimper.
He practically pushed me back into my room that I was finding less and less beautiful and more dungeon-like by the second. We stood there staring at one another.
"Just, stay in here." He said briskly and then slammed the door. I heard the telltale click of a lock, and then his steps striding away. I sat down on the bed in defeat.
Did I just get locked in my room? Like a child?
How dare he.
Author's Note:
So definitely a big thank you to those of you who reviewed, I hope you like this chapter just as much.
A few canon notes:
-Most obviously, I chose to keep Rebekah alive for the purpose of this story, and uncompelled. I just love her character so much and wanted to be able to work with it in this story. Hopefully it doesn't bother anyone too much. You'll also see some other characters that aren't supposed to be "alive" that I've taken creative license with.
-It's set in the 1920's, but as you will see Klaus' character is not defined by what is represented in the show, we'll see a little more of the 21st century Klaus goals and personality as well.
-Klaus did not compel Caroline to forget the events, its more like selective amnesia. Just to clear that up.
-As you've seen here, I will also change the point of view once and a while, to round everything out. So it's technically first person omniscient, but whatever.
-I tried my very best to avoid any anachronisms but feel free to comment on any that you find and I'll correct it!
Again, thanks to those of you who reviewed. This is my first story that I'm publishing here, and I'm very excited for the plans I have for it.
Best,
J.