Jeremy Gilbert angrily tied his sneakers and stood up from the leather couch. He'd raced back down to the game room after accusing Damon of Tyler's murder. The lights flickered on and off as he reached for his overnight bag and car keys. He had to get out of there. While he hated leaving his sister, Elena wouldn't leave Stefan, her awful boyfriend and his murderous brother.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. Tyler wasn't supposed to be dead. They were supposed to play Madden together once everyone else was gone. That's what Tyler promised. Now Tyler was gone.
Taking the stairs two at a time up to the front door of the house, Jeremy walked into the swirling night. The air was thick and oddly refreshing despite the thrashing wind. Anything was better than staying in the house.
"Going somewhere?" an elegant voice called out from near the oversized garage.
Narrowing his eyes, Jeremy couldn't see anyone, but he kept moving forward, head down. "Party's over, bro. Go home."
A figure appeared in front of him. The man had dark hair and dark eyes. Wearing a suit without a tie, he made quite the spectacle dressed so formally in the middle of Hurricane Claudette.
His appearance unnerved Jeremy, but didn't scare him as much as being inside did.
"I'm afraid I can't let you leave."
"There's no way I'm staying here." Pushing around the man, Jeremy tugged his bag higher up his arm. Opening his truck door, he was about to toss his bag inside when his arm was halted and the door closed. "Dude, I'm not staying. Leave me alone."
Elijah Mikaelson didn't enjoy standing outside in the rain. His Savile Row suit was being destroyed, but if Klaus didn't want anyone to leave, no one would leave. "Dude," he mocked the man, "you can't leave." He pointed at the huge oak tree blocking the end of the driveway. It hadn't landed that way. No, Elijah had been resourceful after it snapped in half and nudged it into place.
"Then I'll walk," the stubborn man informed him.
Understanding that subtle tactics weren't working, Elijah leaned forward and stared into the younger man's eyes. "Go back into the house. You will not leave until I tell you."
Jeremy's heart rate picked up. Another vampire. Sick of feeling helpless, picturing Tyler's lifeless body in the house, Jeremy dropped his bag and ran for the woods, hoping the vampire would be distracted by both the bag and by him not being compelled. If he could make it to the swaying trees, they could provide cover if the vampire was afraid of being accidentally staked. It was a weak option, but all he had.
Irritated he'd neglected to consider all the possibilities, Elijah raced in front of Jeremy, catching him easily. Grabbing his arm, he hauled the enraged man and his bag back to the front of the house. Throwing the large door open, he glared at Jeremy. "It's more dangerous out here. Stay inside." Then he pushed him inside.
Shaking with rage and fear, Jeremy leaned against the closed door at his back, drops of rain falling from his fingers. "Fuck!"
"Jer!" Elena called as she emerged from Tyler's room along with the others who heard his yell. "What happened?"
"Let's see, Elena. He," he raged, pointing at Damon, "killed Tyler and some asshole outside won't let me leave."
"Who?" asked Matt.
"Never seen him before," Jeremy murmured, kicking at his bag and swiping his hands through his wet hair.
Matt looked around. Tyler hadn't moved since he'd been killed. He wasn't sure how long it would take to find out if he'd turn into a vampire or not, but the situation was spinning out of control. "I'll take you and Vicki home." With one arm around his sister and the other reaching for his phone, he hit 9-1- before the phone was snatched away from him.
"You've met my brother Elijah," Klaus chirped, clearing the started emergency call from Matt's phone. "You're better off in here than in the storm," he said calmly, pleased when the lights flicked off and on again. "There are trees down and the roads are flooded. For your own safety, you should stay inside."
"But not you?" Caroline asked him, wary of the power he exuded and control he was taking. His brother was here too?
"Pardon?"
"You said that we should stay inside, as if you'd be ok out there," Caroline explained. "We're all adults here and we can leave if we want to."
So Caroline had claws did she? Klaus kept his cool, more drawn to her with every word out of her feisty mouth. "I would be fine, but if some evil befell any of you, well then I'd feel just awful," he cooed insincerely, hand rising up to his chest in mock horror.
"Seriously?" she snarked with an eye roll, listening as another tree fell outside. The hurricane was raging as hard as it had been all night.
A smirk was the only response she got from the irritating and handsome man.
"You can't leave in this," Elena told Jeremy, walking downstairs to him. "We'll go tomorrow morning when the winds die down."
Glaring at Damon over her shoulder, Jeremy allowed Elena to put her hand on his arm. "There is a tree blocking the driveway," he admitted. There would probably be even more coming down before the night was through. He hated to admit, but he was stranded there.
"Excellent! We're agreed," Klaus added. "Mr. Police Academy it would be foolish to call for your fellow first responders to come out here now." Handing Matt his phone back, Klaus watched the others.
The group began to disperse around the house in small groups, each eyeing the other with distrust. Jeremy alone went back down to the game room. Stefan comforted Elena with Damon tagging along. Matt and Vicki returned to Tyler's side in hopes his lifeless body would stir.
Klaus followed Caroline into the kitchen. "Feeling a bit peckish?"
Smirking, Caroline pulled out two frozen pizzas and set them inside the oven. The kitchen was a dream come true. Carrara marble countertops. A Viking range. Large farm sink. Gorgeous white custom cabinetry. The only thing marring the photo-shoot worthy room was the sign of its owner. Feeling bad thinking so poorly of a dead man, Caroline began to clean. It set her mind at ease to pick up the opened and empty boxes of cereal and to put the empty beer bottles in the recycling bin. "Did he have any family? Someone should contact them."
The lights flickered again and Klaus was startled to see the compassion in Caroline's bright blue eyes. She was a vampire, far superior to a mere human and did not seem to know Tyler, yet was moved by his death. "His uncle died in a surfing accident last year." Klaus didn't share that Mason Lockwood's death was not quite as natural as it sounded. "How did you end up here Caroline…?"
"Forbes," she answered, tying the top of a trash bag.
"Caroline Forbes," Klaus repeated. It was a timeless name and it suited her.
He took off his jacket and slipped it onto the back of a chair. The gray of his henley made his eyes appear as stormy as the hurricane outside.
"I live in Atlanta, but my best friend is from here. She invited me to spend Thanksgiving weekend with her, but didn't quite make it." She sighed as she lined the garbage bin with a new bag. "She's better off since this turned into one of those dinner party murder mysteries, except it's not a game."
Hands tucked behind his back, Klaus watched her flit around the room, cleaning up a dead man's home. "And who do you think killed young Mr. Lockwood? Miss Scarlett in the master bedroom with a wooden stake?"
Rather than answer, Caroline's smile disappeared as she tucked a tress of hair behind her ear. "Why are you here, Klaus? No one here knows you either. Who are you and what kind of name is Klaus, anyway?"
Smirking, the man in question opened the refrigerator. He'd spotted a chilled bottle of white wine when she'd opened the door earlier. It didn't seem Tyler's style, but he was appreciative. Holding the bottle up, he tipped it towards her in question. "I don't think Tyler would mind," he added cheekily.
Caroline shrugged, a little unnerved by his charisma. She was supposed to be protecting herself by identifying a murderer, not cleaning a kitchen and flirting with a notorious vampire. Shaking her head at herself when she wondered if he was single, she swept her hand along the countertop. The way Damon and Stefan reacted upstairs to his name meant this man was someone she ought to know. Was Klaus a friend or foe?
As she sipped the deliciously crisp Pinot Grigio, she perched herself onto a stool, watching Klaus. With his arrival…in the dark…in a hurricane, he seemed to cultivate an air of mystery. Even if she wasn't worried for her own safety, her eyes would be drawn to him.
"I was born here in Mystic Falls…in the tenth century."
Sputtering, Caroline slapped a hand to her chest. Sure he had to drop that bomb right when she was taking a sip.
When Klaus walked towards her, she put her hand out to stop him. After a coughing fit, she looked at him with watery blue eyes. "Seriously?"
Recognizing that it must be one of her favorite phrases, Klaus grinned and used it himself. "Seriously, Caroline Forbes." Her eyes flashed at him and his pulse kicked. There was heat there in her eyes. She should be afraid of him, especially knowing how old he was, but she wasn't or not enough to keep her from him and maybe the latter was even more attractive. Despite her cool blonde hair-blue eyed appearance, she was all fire and determination.
Wanting her to know more and see how she reacted, he revealed more. "My name is Niklaus Mikaelson. My family was the first turned into vampires." He leaned back against a counter. "You owe my family a debt of gratitude really."
Her eye roll was massive. He wanted to grin at how adorable she was, but refrained.
"I don't think so," she told him with a fake smile. He couldn't stop from grinning that time.
"If not for my family, you wouldn't be here."
At that, her mood shifted.
"You don't know what happened to me, Klaus, I'm not in your debt and you haven't told me why you're here." She pinned him with a look as a huge gust of wind raged outside. "I know you didn't kill Tyler."
One blond eyebrow lifted gracefully. "Do you now?"
"You couldn't get inside until after Tyler died. It's why you wanted me to get him to the door."
Klaus' head tipped in admiration, yet also caution. Ms. Forbes was smart and observant, a deadly combination. As an asset in rooting out Tyler's murderer she would be valuable, but his first goal was finding the moonstone. Once in hand, he'd be paying the Petrova doppleganger a return visit. "And how do I know you didn't kill him?"
The brittle grin he got in return was blinding. "You don't."
The blonde vampire certainly did have fangs and dared show them off a little. "Well, well Ms. Forbes. Should I be afraid?"
The flash she saw in Klaus' eyes at her provocation was both unsettling and sexy. A huge part of her nature, the fact that she was a vampire, was something she kept hidden everywhere, all the time. With this man in front of her, this millennia-old vampire, she didn't have to hide that she drank blood to survive. She didn't have to pretend to walk when she could race in the blink of an eye. The temptation to revel in her nature was extremely appealing. He must have seen and done it all in his thousand years on the planet. The idea of it was intoxicating.
However, there was someone in the house willing to kill. She might even be next.
"No, Klaus. I didn't kill Tyler. I don't belong here. I'm an event planner in the wrong place at the wrong time. I want to get out of here and the only way I can protect myself is finding out who is staking people." She eyed him over her wine. "Why did you come tonight?"
"The Lockwood family has a bauble that belongs to me. And here I am."
"What it is?"
Klaus refilled their glasses with the last of the bottle.
"A stone, about the size of an egg. Mostly clear, but with a slightly milky appearance."
"What are you going to do with it?"
"That's neither here nor there."
"What do I get if I find it?" she teased.
"My eternal thanks," he replied stiffly, not willing to joke about something so important.
The oven timer buzzed, breaking the tension.
Accepting that she might be getting off track, Caroline slipped on oven mitts she found buried in a drawer and set the two pizzas on cutting boards. With the likelihood that power would go out sooner rather than later, Caroline slipped in two more pizzas, re-setting the timer. Thankfully the house had plenty of pizza and beer. For one night, it would do.
"Was that everyone?" Klaus asked as he watched her slice the pizza.
"Hmmm?"
"Upstairs. Is there anyone else in the house?"
Using her finger to break off a piece of melted cheese, Caroline put three slices on a plate and slid it towards him. "I think so. They're the only ones I've seen." She looked at Klaus. "Do you think he's really dead-dead?"
"I do."
She nodded, believing it too. It was wishful to think he'd come back when no one would admit to turning him.
Filling two more plates with two and three pieces of pizzas, she loaded up her arms with them and a stack of napkins.
"Where are you off to?" he enquired.
"The scene of the crime."