A/N: Forgive me for the more-than-a-year-long wait, I have no excuse except for procrastination and a slight bout of ADD. Although this story is very dear to my heart, I've found myself coming up with other stories in my head, mostly of Klaroline ones, but sometimes not, and I unintentionally pushed this to the back burner. This is a lot shorter than the previous chapters because I think posting this now instead of waiting until I manage to write more will encourage me to pay more attention to it. Hopefully, the next update won't take as long.


Chapter 4

Caroline still remembers when her life had been simple: she had sleepovers with her two best friends, a crush on the new guy in school, was head of every dance committee her small hometown could possibly come up with, and she had the perfect hair. Like most things, she eventually learned, this simple life did not last long. Before long, one of her best friends was falling in love with the guy she had a crush on—who turned out to be a vampire, mind you—the other one was turning into a powerful witch, and dance committees were being bogarted by the Original Bitch. Nothing ever damages her hair though, thank you very much.

Now, a few short years after she herself got turned into a vampire, and her ex boyfriend turned out to be a werewolf—who got turned into a vampire-werewolf hybrid by her current one (don't try to understand it, she's stopped attempting to a long time ago)—she prides herself in still being able to stumble on things that shock her.

"Anubis?" she asks incredulously, unable to wipe the disbelief from her face. "Like, after the Egyptian god, Anubis?"

"No," Bonnie answers, shaking her head, her eyes never leaving Caroline's. "I mean THE Egyptian god, Anubis."

"What?" she scoffs, straightening her back and looking around the room; surely, no one is buying this. Her poor sweet Bonnie must have huffed one too many rolls of her special herbs. "You're joking, right?"

"Yes, Caroline," her best friend sighs, sarcasm thick in her voice. "I came all the way out here just to pull a prank on you."

She narrows her eyes fractionally as Bonnie rolls her own before looking directly at Klaus.

"You don't seem so surprised, Klaus."

None of the three girls present miss the way the two men in the room eye each other pointedly, nor do they fail to notice the silent conversation that seems to pass between the brothers.


Images flash quickly in Klaus' mind, of ages long passed when the Mikaelsons gravitated towards power like moths did to light, of dark underground rooms kept secret from but a few, of plans schemed and allegiances formed rather than broken.

Once upon a time, they had heard of power even stronger than those that they had already possessed. Rumors whispered all over the world: of a young man somewhere in Southeast Asia whose rage caused volcanoes to erupt, spewing lava that covered the lands (Klaus had gotten on fairly well with him), of sisters who could control the waves of the sea (Kol had had his fun with them), of a man who could apparently talk to and summon other gods (Rebekah had all but dragged them across the seas to look for that one, and they hadn't understood why until they met the young African man whose priapism they would not soon forget; indeed, Rebekah still sometimes talks dreamily of the 2 weeks she'd spent locked in a room with the man she fondly refers to as Legba).

Never one to share power, Klaus had initially planned on killing them all. However, upon meeting the young boy whose skin did not sizzle when he waded waist-deep in molten hot lava, he had decided that these creatures would serve them better as allies rather than names on a long list of powerful beings they'd annihilate throughout the centuries.

Elijah had been both smart and humble enough to admit that his brother's change of heart had more to do with the fact that they found no feasible way to kill these things than anything else. So they'd stopped hunting them, choosing instead to make acquaintances when they happened to chance upon one during their travels.

"That's because this isn't the first time we've heard of such a man," Elijah answers for him.

Klaus sits back on the couch, steepled fingers pressed against his lips, and he tunes out his brother's voice. Deep in thought, he can't help but feel somewhat peeved at this sudden turn of events. Has he not promised Caroline her attacker's head on a plate presented by her feet? Has he not made threats—no, vows—to maim and torture whosoever dared touch the hair on her head? Knowing what he does now about the curse, and what he has learned from his travels, about these beings that thought themselves omnipotent (and truthfully, though he would sooner eat his own tongue than voice this out, he's yet to find any evidence to the contrary), he can not ignore the almost unfamiliar feeling that is slowly starting to corrode his insides.

Defeat. Throughout his existence he'd only ever felt this emotion once before: when the doppelgänger was turned into a vampire because of an accident his own sister had caused out of grief for what she then thought was his own death. His plans of building an army of his hybrids gone to dust, he felt for a brief moment like everything he'd ever done in his life had been for nothing.

Defeat. How utterly human.

"We have met more than our fair share of these 'gods' before," Elijah continues, his hands burrowing deep in his trouser pockets. "Throughout our travels, a few of them have…popped up, but we haven't encountered one in a while. Not in at least two hundred years, I believe. Let me warn all of you, if this Jackson Wolfe is indeed the god Anubis, he will not be easily killed. I am not sure he can even be killed, not by vampires or witches."

"How can this even be real?" Caroline asks quietly.

"Caroline, you're a vampire, and I'm a witch," Bonnie answers patiently. "If that isn't enough, we're in a room with two of the very first vampires, and one of them is part werewolf."

"I know," she says petulantly, voice rising a little. "But gods, Bonnie? How are they even here? Shouldn't they be off somewhere smiting people from the sky? How can Jackson—Anubis—" she curls her fingers into air quotes, "have the time to run around cursing every woman who jilts him?"

"Maybe there aren't many girls who do," Sophie offers. "How many gods are known for chasing after vampires? Nymphs, humans, yeah—even horses! But vampires?"

"From what my siblings and I have gathered, these gods take on human form out of sheer boredom. This was back when they were revered, and had sacrifices offered to them every day. For a god to walk this earth, they need a human vessel, someone who believes in them so much that when they pray or they offer up their sacrifices, they are not only called, they are willed into this world. They inhabit these vessels, and whether these naïve souls mean to or not, they offer their gods the noblest sacrifice: themselves. Once they are in this world, we have learned that their human vessels become quite indestructible. Perhaps it is the powers of the gods within them that protect them, perhaps the earth itself gives way to them, but I've seen nothing of this world penetrate a human vessel's skin. Eventually, they grow bored of this world again, they leave their vessels like a snake shedding its skin, and are not heard from again until someone offers themselves to them once more. Over time however, these gods have been forgotten, cast off into the backs of their people's minds, and we figured that's why we haven't ran into any of them in centuries."

"So how do we even defeat this guy?" Caroline asks, still unable to hide how preposterous she thinks all this is. "Ask nicely? Say 'please?'"

All eyes turn to Bonnie expectantly, even the brothers'.

"Not on our own," she answers. "From what I've learned back when I was in Egypt and from these books, Anubis is the illegitimate son of Osiris; his mother took on the form of his wife to trick him into conceiving a son with her. I say we ask our own god to back us up."

"Hold on," Sophie interrupts, holding up her hand. "Isn't Osiris the god of the underworld? Wouldn't all this be beneath him? Why would he concern himself, why would he even help us?"

"We're not summoning Osiris," Bonnie explains. "We're calling on Isis, his wife."

"And what do we need to sacrifice to do that?" The way Sophie asks this suggests that she is not surprised nor is she against such an act.

"We won't be doing this the old fashioned way," Bonnie says, shaking her head. All eyes follow her as she stands up and walks to the table that has Klaus' bottles of alcohol. She looks back at Klaus with a raised eyebrow and smiles. "May I?"

Klaus inclines his head slightly, while Elijah walks to stand next to Bonnie. He watches his brother take the bottle from Bonnie after she sniffs the drink, watches him pour a shot of the amber liquid into a clear old fashioned tumbler for the witch. He clenches his jaw to keep from demanding that they get on with it. His patience is growing quite thin. He watches Bonnie take a sip of the drink and wince slightly before she looks up from her glass and continues with her explanation.

"Isis is not only the goddess of magic, she is the guardian of the dead. I'm a witch, and I've been to the Other Side. 2 for 2."

"No!" Caroline interrupts, getting up from her seat and ignoring Klaus's hand on her wrist.

"I'm going to be the perfect vessel," Bonnie continues as if Caroline hadn't spoken. "I'm going to call on her. We're going to her temple, one of you will have to kill me, and then I'm going to look for her on the Other Side. I will offer her what power I have."

"No. No!" Caroline repeats, and she's suddenly standing in front of Bonnie, hands clutching the other girl's shoulders. "Bonnie, stop this."

"I'm going to do this, Caroline," she answers, and she looks at her best friend head on, waits until her eyes soften in consent. Or perhaps they do so in defeat. "I'm going to be fine. She's going to bring me back."

"We don't even know anything about this Isis," Caroline snarls, hands dropping to her sides. "You say she's powerful, probably more powerful than Jackson. What if she's eviler, too? What if she refuses and you stay dead?"

"She might be," Bonnie concedes. She pulls out a long chain wrapped around her neck from under her shirt, an ancient looking amulet hanging from it. It looks like a tiny man to Caroline. "But I have this amulet. I found it in one of her temples in Philae. It belonged to a high priestess of Isis', and it has great power. I feel nothing sinister in it, and I've been wearing it for a while now."

"So this is our in?" Caroline asks incredulously, eyeing the amulet around Bonnie's neck suspiciously. "An ugly necklace?"

Bonnie gives her a warning look before turning to the other people in the room. "Once we have Isis on our side, it shouldn't be that difficult to find allies in Egypt. Her followers have scattered all over the world, but are believed to just be in hiding, waiting for her return, sitting behind thrones and influencing rulers."

"Like Kate Middleton?" Caroline interjects, and is met with another warning look from Bonnie.

"But until we find new allies, how about we call on the ones we already have?" There's a glint in Bonnie's eyes now, an excitement Caroline recognizes from years passed.


Klaus stands nursing his scotch in one hand, leaning against the fireplace and watching as the others make their calls. He can hear his brother in his office upstairs, talking on the phone to Rebekah in a low voice. From what he's heard from Elijah's side of the conversation, their sister has been traipsing around Australia, and it's taking him quite a lot to convince her to cut her trip short. Bonnie and Caroline are talking to Elena on Bonnie's laptop, Caroline doing her best to downplay the whole situation and trying to talk their best friend into staying put in Italy with Stefan.

"Stop it, Care," Elena says, and Klaus can see her rolling her eyes. "Stefan and I will be there soon."

"Hey," Bonnie says before Elena can terminate the call. "Don't tell Jer, okay? I don't want him to worry."

"You sure?" Elena asks, her brows wrinkling. "I'm all for keeping him safely away from all of this, but he's not going to be happy."

"Yeah," Bonnie answers, nodding her head firmly. "I'll deal with it."

Klaus turns his attention to the other witch in the room, who is holding her cellphone to her ear as she types messages to send out using one of Elijah's cellphones with her free hand. "Magda, I am not ordering any of you to do anything. If you don't want to help, I'm not forcing you. Just let me talk to Cooper, okay?"

Sophie catches his eye and shakes her head.

"Coop! Yeah, it's fine. You don't need to convince her. If she doesn't want to, she doesn't want to. What about you, you in?"

"Hey."

He looks away from Sophie to find Caroline standing next to him, holding her own drink in her hand. She smiles up at him, and he doesn't miss the concern in her eyes.

"You've been awfully quiet this afternoon," she says before taking a sip of the clear drink in her glass. "What's wrong?"

He smiles down at her, a smile that doesn't quite reach any part of his face other than his lips, and finishes his drink. "Nothing, love" he answers, before pulling her closer to kiss her forehead and then leaving her to pour himself another drink.

He finds himself in Elijah's office as his brother says his goodbyes to Rebekah. He sits on the chair opposite the sterile desk and takes a deep gulp of his drink. "What news of our dear sister, then?"

"She's agreed to come home, Niklaus."

Elijah doesn't need to say how much she'd pouted, or what he'd said after she'd asked what business it was of hers what happened to Caroline Forbes. He doesn't need to. Elijah has always been the one to bring them all together when they needed to, even when Finn and Kol were still alive, and Klaus suspects that Rebekah has agreed to help because of their older brother, and not himself.

"You realize this may be the most foolish thing we've ever done?" Elijah asks, reaching across his desk for Klaus' drink. Klaus merely shrugs his shoulder as he hands over his glass. "We are asking a lot out of everyone."

"And you realize I'm not the one asking here," Klaus answers finally. "You all are."

"Yes, because if we don't, you are just stubborn enough to fly into that country on your own without thinking about the people you'll be leaving behind."

Klaus sits glaring at him once again, something he seems to be doing quite a lot lately, and Elijah changes tactics.

"Things are different now, Niklaus." He hands the glass back to his brother who accepts it grudgingly. "What is the point of all the fighting, of all the betrayal and the blood, of seizing this kingdom, if you are just to throw it all away in the blink an eye?"

"The point, my dear brother, is Caroline. Always. She will always be the point now."

"Yes, Caroline," Elijah concedes. "The queen of your kingdom, the balm for your scars. And will you leave her to sit on your throne alone? Are you truly that shortsighted, that selfish? What do you think she's come all the way to New Orleans for?"

"And what do you know of it?" Klaus demands, sending his chair flying behind him as he gets to his feet angrily. "What do you know of Caroline and her intentions? Her wants and her needs?"

"One merely needs to see her eyes when she looks at you to understand her, Niklaus. She didn't find you after a decade, after all that you've done to the people she loves, so she could lose you all over again."

"No," Klaus snarls, slamming his fist on the table between them, ignoring the cracks it causes. "She's come so I can stand by and watch her wither away to nothing!"

"Guys! What is going on?" Sophie is standing by the doorway, Klaus' upturned chair by her feet, and he doesn't appreciate the judgment in her eyes.

"Stay out of this, witch!" he snarls, turning his back on her and fixing his glare back at Elijah.

"I would, but you realize that if I can hear you all the way downstairs, your vampire girlfriend can too, right?"

"I don't care if the whole state of Louisiana hears me!" he growls, but Sophie is no longer in the room with them. His brother is now standing behind his desk, fingers resting on the marble top of his ruined table, lips pursed. They stand like that for a while, younger brother glaring, practically baring his teeth, the older one looking back in disappointment, before Klaus turns around in a huff and exits the room.

He finds the sitting room empty, save for Bonnie's books that still lay scattered about, and he doesn't need to listen for the girls' location in the house when he opens the front door and finds his truck gone.


"God, that was so embarrassing!" Caroline says through gritted teeth, gripping the steering wheel tighter as she slams her foot on the gas pedal, desperate to get away from all the yelling. "I'm sorry, Bon."

"Don't worry about it," her best friend answers, scrambling to get her seatbelt on. She hears Sophie's click in the backseat.

"Are they always like this?" Caroline asks, looking up at the rearview mirror and catching Sophie's somewhat frightened eyes. "How do you deal?"

"Um… Yeah, no, I—" Sophie stammers before pointing at the car in front of them. "Eyes on the road, Caroline! Bonnie and I aren't built like armored trucks."

Both witches grip their seats as Caroline narrowly avoids the green sedan and makes a sharp turn at the next corner; they don't loosen their fingers until she eases up on the gas.

"Seriously!" Caroline continues, making another turn as she shakes her head. "Why can't he just talk to me instead of brooding like some emo tortured artist and pretending everything's okay?"

The other girls stay silent, having decided to just let her vent out her frustrations. After driving around like some drunken college tourist for a few more blocks, Caroline steps on the brakes and turns to look at Sophie.

"Oh my god, Caroline!" Bonnie exclaims, as she braces herself against the dashboard and looks over her shoulder. She breathes a sigh of relief when she sees that no one is behind them.

"Where am I going, Sophie?" Caroline asks, ignoring Bonnie. "I need a drink."

"You're giving me whiplash," Sophie answers, rubbing her neck. "Figuratively and literally. Take the next right, and find a parking spot. We'll walk to Rousseau's."


Caroline stumbles into bed around 2am, Klaus nowhere in sight. She doesn't even care, the copious amounts of tequila shots she consumed at Rousseau's and the blood bags she drank straight from the fridge when she got home have effectively numbed her and freed her head of worry. She only has enough sense to kick off her shoes before passing out on top of the covers, fully clothed.

Had she been in control of her senses, she would've heard the sound of Klaus' truck pulling into the driveway, felt Klaus entering the room and climbing into bed with her. She would've probably gotten furious at him when she saw him covered in blood, gotten him to tell her how he took a stroll down some dark alley and all but drained three heavily intoxicated tourists without even stopping to compel the memories away. She would've pushed him away when he reached for her, probably would've chosen to sleep next to Bonnie in the guest room down the hall. Instead, she buries her nose in his neck and sighs.

She sleeps this way until half past noon when the sudden opening of curtains floods the room with bright light, making her groan in pain.

She smells him first, his musky aftershave mixed with dried blood, and she opens her eyes when her memories come flashing back. Her head feels ready to implode, but she ignores the pain and pushes away from Klaus' still sleeping body to get out of bed. For a moment she panics when she sees him covered in blood, looks at her own messy dress and hopes she didn't go on a killing spree with him the night before. She heads for the door, planning on barging into Bonnie's room to ask her what happened, but finds her friend standing just outside of the room, arms folded over her chest and grinning at her knowingly.

"Good morning," Bonnie almost sings. "How are you feeling today?"

"Geez! Bon! Not so loud," she complains, closing the door behind her. She ignores the grating sound of Bonnie's chuckle and pulls on the hem of her dress to make sure she's decent before heading for the stairs. "What happened last night?"

"You got very drunk, we had to take a cab home, you raided the fridge, devoured 3 blood bags—cold and clumpy, might I add—and I had to haul your ass up the stairs to your room, where I assume you passed out before getting yourself cleaned up. On the bright side, you can now handle your alcohol somewhat better than when you were still human because you did not throw up on my shoes once."

"And Klaus?" she asks, as they enter the kitchen. She heads straight for the perpetually full coffeemaker as Bonnie starts taking out food from the fridge.

"What about Klaus?" Bonnie's in front of the stove now, one hand laying strips of bacon on one pan, while the other starts cracking eggs over another.

"He's covered in blood!" she hisses, taking a sip of coffee and sliding another mug across the counter to Bonnie. "I woke up and the weirdo was cuddling me."

"Maybe you guys had a weird make up session and started feeding on each other," Bonnie suggests, shrugging her shoulders. "Vampires do that right?"

"Uh, trust me, neither of us would be fully clothed if we started feeding on each other."

"Gross!"

"You started it," she mutters, pulling herself up on the counter and watching Bonnie cook. "I'm serious. Do you think he killed someone? Oh god, he probably killed someone. Multiple someones!" She flashes out of the kitchen and back again with her laptop from the sitting room, furiously scrolling through a local news site. "No news of a murder spree last night, that's good, right?"

"You need to relax, Caroline," Bonnie says soothingly, setting the plates of greasy food on the counter in front of them. "Eat some of this, you'll feel better."

Caroline picks up a strip of bacon and chews quietly, her eyes fixed on her computer screen and ignoring the concerned look on her best friend's face.

"This is crazy, Bon."

"Don't worry about it. You guys will talk it out, you'll manage to make him spill his guts out to you like you do with everyone else, you'll be fine."

"No, not that," she insists, closing her laptop shut. "This whole thing with you and Isis, and Elena and Stefan getting mixed up with my stupid drama, and the Corleones of the vampire world heading into battle for me. I never wanted this. I just wanted to enjoy these last few months with Klaus, maybe see the world with him, you know?"

"Yeah, instead you'll be enjoying the rest of eternity," Bonnie answers seriously, setting down her cup of coffee and covering Caroline's fist with her hand. "None of us is doing anything you wouldn't have done for either one of us."

"Except Rebekah," Caroline mutters, her lips forming a reluctant smile. "I'm pretty sure Elijah just guilt tripped her into helping out."

"Probably, yeah," Bonnie laughs.

Caroline stiffens suddenly, turns her head and listens over her shoulder. "Crap, he's up."

"I'm gonna' go take a shower," Bonnie says abruptly, taking a piece of bacon and her coffee with her as she leaves the kitchen.

A few seconds later, she senses him entering the kitchen behind her. She doesn't look at him, but slides the plate of eggs towards his side of the counter wordlessly before turning around to refill her cup.

"Thanks," she hears him mutter, and she nods her head once. She takes a sip of coffee to give herself something to do as she turns back around and looks at him. Thankfully, he's changed into some clean clothes before coming down for breakfast, and she wishes she'd done the same.

They stand in awkward silence for a couple of seconds, Caroline refusing to talk first, Klaus not knowing how to start. Finally, he runs a hand through his face, mutters, "fuck" and is suddenly in front of her, taking her in his arms.

"I'm sorry, love," he whispers into her hair, breathing in deeply.

"For what," she mumbles stubbornly against his shoulder, her arms refusing to hug him back. She fights the tears threatening to spill from her eyes as she sets her cup on the counter behind her.

"For everything," he answers, his arms tightening around her despite her continued indifference. "For not talking to you, for shutting you out. For blowing up like that and embarrassing you in front of everyone."

He relaxes against her when she finally wraps her arms around his waist, burrowing her face against his neck.

"So are you finally going to talk to me, then?" she asks, kissing his neck gently.

"Yes," he sighs, closing his eyes. He hugs her tighter as he adds, "and I'm sorry I ate three tourists last night."

"Oh my god!"


A/N: And that's all for now. Next up, some heart-to-heart between our favourite baby vampire and her whipped Original hybrid, some god-killing-planning, and who knows what else. No, seriously, I have no idea. As always, comments/reviews/suggestions are always appreciated. :)