Authors Note: Thank you so much to everyone who read, followed, favorited and reviewed the last chapter. I was really pleased with the response and hope everyone enjoyed it!
Just a little warning for this chapter...Klaus is pretty dark and definitely not fluffy bunny Klaus, and there are some threats of violence etc. Please be aware in case this kind of thing offends you.
Here's the next installment so please enjoy! x
xxxx
Chapter Two
In her twenty-three years of life, Caroline had gotten herself into more than a few scrapes.
There was that time when she was 16 that she'd thought it was a good idea to drunkenly make out with her boyfriend-of-the-week down by the swimming hole at two in the morning only to be discovered by her Sheriff mother.
That had landed her a month of extra chores.
Then there was the day back in eleventh grade when she and her two best friends had decided to skip out on class to take a road trip to Richmond to see their favorite band playing in concert that evening.
She'd been grounded for two months after that little escapade.
Despite her perfectionist tendencies, she'd somehow managed to find herself in trouble more times than she could remember.
But until that awful moment, as her eyes met those of a ruthless killer whose latest victim lay only yards away, the young blonde had never truly known gut-wrenching, heart-stopping fear.
With a gasp, she spun away, willing her feet to finally move from the spot where they seemed to have taken root.
And Caroline did the only thing she could do.
She ran.
And ran.
And ran…
Pounding her bare feet against the cold ground, her legs started to work faster, as she scurried through the unfamiliar maze of streets. The echo of her heartbeat thrummed against her temples and the farther she ran, the more her muscles burned. It felt like acid was coursing through her body, immolating her from the inside out, and she was sure any moment her body would surely combust.
But she didn't care.
Right then all she cared about was getting away from the certain death that was following steadily behind her.
She could hear his footsteps pounding after her, but Caroline was fast. She hadn't been captain of the Mystic Falls High cheer squad and star of the track team for nothing.
Still, as quick on her feet as she was, he was faster and after what seemed like hours, although it hadn't even been minutes, she knew he was about to catch her.
Skidding into an alleyway, she felt a pair of unrelentingly strong arms band around her middle like iron shackles, her back pulled flush against the hard expanse of his chest.
"Get off of me!" she spat. "Get the fuck off, asshole!"
His hissed in annoyance, clearly unimpressed with her resistance and insults and clamped one of his hands over her mouth as she tried to scream out more curses.
Snapping viciously at the palm of his hand, the blonde tried to sink her teeth into his tender flesh, but he squeezed her jaw tightly shut before she was able to do any real damage. Her body writhed and twisted in his grasp, but he wouldn't let go, his own tense form almost seeming to engage in a macabre dance against hers.
His hot breath tickled the juncture of her neck as he fought to restrain her. "I'd stop all that wiggling," he warned her in deceptively dulcet tones, his voice low and menacing. "You don't want to get me…excited now, do you?"
Immediately she went limp in his hold, realizing that struggling was useless, and definitely not wishing to get the crazy gun guy excited…in any way at all.
Not only was this man was a lot stronger than her, he was probably used to kidnapping innocent women.
Hell, it was probably his number one hobby.
She wouldn't be surprised if he wrote a blog about it.
"What do you want?" she asked, her voice muffled against his palm. She couldn't deny that she was a little proud of herself for keeping the shakiness out of her question.
On the inside she was quivering like a barely-set bowl of jello.
Ignoring her question, Klaus shot her one of his own. "Did Mikael send you after me too?" he demanded. "Or are you one of Marcel's little minions?"
From the outside she looked decidedly naive, but that didn't really mean anything as far as he was concerned. She could easily be one of Mikael's assassins. Who knew what his asshole of a father was plotting these days?
"I don't even know those people!" she bit out, a little sigh of relief escaping her lips as he loosened his hold just a little.
"Don't scream!" Klaus warned and spun her around, his fingers banding round her wrists, his eyes boring into hers.
The fear leapt right back up into her throat when Klaus gestured to the gun under his coat, the implications clear.
If she said or did the wrong thing, she knew she'd be nothing more than a cooling corpse discarded on the sidewalk before she could blink.
She nodded anxiously.
They both knew he could kill her with a flick of his finger.
He probably wouldn't even need to use to gun. He would just tear her apart with his bare hands.
Lowering his lips to her ear, he questioned her coldly. "If you're not involved with those betrayers, what were you doing, watching me? You don't seem like the voyeuristic type."
"I got lost!" she admitted, her eyes clashing with his when he pulled back to search for signs of deceit. "I didn't know where I was going and I heard weird sounds so I thought someone was in trouble. I thought maybe I could help."
He scoffed. "I'm supposed to believe that bollocks?" His azure gaze didn't stray from hers and it was almost mesmerizing. "How exactly could you help anyone?"
"I don't know. I didn't exactly take a beat to consider what the hell I was doing, but it's true! I'm not lying," she insisted, silently pleading with him to believe her.
"You'll forgive me if I don't take your word for it, love," he drawled, smirking a little when she bristled at the casual endearment. "But either way, you need to come with me. I can't have you running to the nearest precinct, crying murder."
"I won't tell anyone what I saw if you let me go," she promised in her best little girl voice, her tone dropping to a whisper. "I'll forget I ever saw you."
Klaus rolled his eyes, smug disbelief shining through them, and laughed. "Sweetheart, you might be beautiful but I've learned that the more lovely the woman, the more poisonous her lies. Anyway, I still can't be sure you're not working for Mikael. And if you are working for him…well I'm going to extract everything you know about him from that little Barbie brain of yours. I can't promise it won't hurt though. But the pain's half the fun, isn't it?"
She sighed again. "Look, I don't even know this Mikael guy you keep talking about. Although you do seem a little obsessed with him. Why don't you just let me go and…"
"And if you actually are being truthful and you're not affiliated with Mikael or Marcel you'll run straight to the police telling them all about the Big Bad Wolf who threatened you," he interrupted scornfully. "Right?"
Her lack of response was enough to tell him that was exactly what she'd do.
Well, at least she'd already learned not to lie to him.
Perhaps she was smarter than she first appeared.
"Right! And the bloody police are the last thing I need on top of everything else."
She stared at him with blank eyes, her mouth twisted hatefully.
"What's your name?" he asked, his voice a little softer, although the intensity of his gaze didn't wane.
"Why the hell should I tell you?" she hissed, narrowing her eyes.
"Hmm, because I'm allowing you to keep your tongue for now, so you should use it while you can. Is that good enough a reason for you, princess?"
She blanched, forcing down the bile that clogged her throat. "I'm Caroline," she responded, mentally kicking herself for giving in to his threats. "Caroline Forbes."
"Well, Caroline, Caroline Forbes, you're coming with me on a little expedition. And if you try to alert any people we pass on the streets as to your…situation…I'll shoot them and then I'll shoot you. And I'll use your skull as a nice potpourri filled centerpiece on my coffee table. Got it?"
Swallowing thickly, Caroline nodded, but didn't offer a verbal reply seeing as her voice suddenly seemed to have fled.
Clasping his fingers roughly around her bicep, he dragged her along with him for several blocks. The young blonde didn't want to imagine what kind of picture they made as they walked. Him, the quintessential leather clad bad boy, and her, a barefoot Barbie doll lookalike sporting terror in her gaze.
If it hadn't been so tragic, it might almost have been comical.
She was just glad her friends couldn't see her now.
True to her word, Caroline made sure to keep her eyes carefully averted from anyone they did pass. After all, she didn't want to be the trigger for some horrible bloodbath of the innocents.
She really had no doubt that he'd make good on this threats if she stepped out of line.
He didn't speak the entire time as he yanked her through the streets, which she was actually pretty glad about. So far every one of his words had only served to lance fear through her heart so it was way more agreeable to her when he wasn't talking.
Finally, they came to a standstill in front of what Caroline assumed was Klaus' car, an old gray Mustang that looked like it had seen better days.
Although, it was probably stolen.
She didn't see Klaus as the kind of man who made monthly payments to some smarmy used car dealer.
Caroline briefly glanced between Klaus and the car, taking a few moments to get her breathing back under control, even as the rest of her world felt like it was spinning off of its axis right then, which was a feeling she despised.
People often called her controlling or a control freak and it was true, which only exacerbated her loathing for the idea of being at the mercy of someone else.
Especially when that someone else was seemingly a volatile maniac.
Not to mention that face that her feet were throbbing, her arms felt bruised, and she had the queen bee of headaches raging in her brain.
For a moment she wondered if death would actually be better than this living hell.
But no, she didn't want to die.
Before her mind had time to delve more deeply into that thought, Klaus pulled her around to the back of the car and popped open the trunk, gesturing toward it. "Get in."
Caroline raised her eyebrows as she realized he actually meant for her to get in it. This had to be a joke. She was Caroline Forbes, Miss Mystic Falls, and she didn't ride around in the cramped trunks of dirty old cars.
"Are you kidding?" she asked, suddenly forgetting her fear of him in favor of annoyance. "You can't really be serious?"
He nodded. "Serious as a sucking chest wound, love," he smirked.
"You expect me to get in the trunk of your damn car?"
"I realize this probably isn't to your usual high standard of transportation, sweetheart, but either you get into the trunk willingly, or I'll stuff your lifeless, bloody corpse into it. One way or another, you will get in."
"Geez," she sighed, shaking her head. "You have serious anger issues. They have classes for that, you know? And you really need to work on your people skills."
The flare of his nostrils and jut of his chin was enough to halt her mini tirade from continuing. But she stood by her words.
They really were true.
For another second she hesitated, glancing between Klaus and the dark hole he wanted her to get into. She knew that it wasn't exactly as if she had a choice but she wasn't going to kowtow to him that easily.
Even if he did kill her then at least she could die with her head held high, knowing she put up something of a fight.
"Caroline," he said warningly when she didn't obey immediately. "Get in there."
With a sigh, she started to get into the small dark hole of the trunk before he stopped her with a sharp grab of his hand, his fingers circling her wrist.
"What now?" she asked irritably. "I'm doing what you wanted."
"Give me your purse," he ordered, holding his hand out, fingers wiggling impatiently.
"What? Why?" she asked, a little perplexed. "I mean, sorry but I don't think it'll coordinate with your outfit."
A familiar growl hissed from between his gritted teeth. "Because I assume you have your mobile phone in there and I can't have you ringing for some kind of bloody help from the boot of my car, can I, Princess?"
Caroline had always had a deep running streak of bravery, but she wasn't stupid. She was rapidly learning that when a guy with a gun told you to do something, you damn well did it.
Of course, that didn't stop her from pouting as she relinquished her small designer bag.
Huffing one last time she handed over her small clutch, wishing she could smack him with it instead, and clambered into the trunk, throwing him an exaggerated glare before he slammed it shut.
Curling up in the cramped space, her hands wrapped around the torso as she screwed her eyes shut in the darkness.
She shivered as she heard the faint echo of his retreating footsteps, but not from the cold.
It was the uncertainty that scared her more than anything. She hated the thought of not knowing her fate. She'd had a plan for the path her life was going to take and this definitely hadn't been part of it.
Locked in that gloomy cocoon, Caroline finally let her first tears fall, biting her lip to keep her sobs silent.
She didn't know how she was going to get out of this but she wouldn't be broken. She made that silent vow even as the hot tears cascaded down her cheeks.
She was Caroline Forbes and she would muster every ounce of her inner strength to try and come through this unscathed.
And she would get through this.
One way or another.
