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When I finally fell asleep that night I assumed I would not be getting a very restful nights sleep. I was right.
I began to dream, I was back in the Miss Mystic Falls pageant. I was dressed up and ready to make my descent down the stairs. I took each step slowly, getting excited to see my dance partner at the bottom. I hadn't been able to convince Tyler to be my partner, we were having one of our little spats at the time. Luckily Matt had agreed to be my partner. I smiled as his blonde head came into view but my smile faded when I noticed it wasn't his blonde head that was waiting for me.
Instead there stood Nik, looking at me with a slight grin on his face. He extended his arm to me, feeling like I should accept rather than make a scene I hooked my arm through his. I remembered at the last minute to plaster a fake smile on my face.
"You look ravishing, love." Nik whispered to me.
"What are you doing here?" I seethed under my breath. "Where is Matt? Please tell me you didn't kill him!"
"Of course not, sweetheart. This is just a dream after all." He smiled, leading me out to the dance floor.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"I kind of crashed your dream. I hope you don't mind." He took his spot where he was supposed to be to begin the dance but I stopped in my spot. I looked around in confusion. "Do I need to prove it to you, love?"
I watched as the atmosphere around me began to change. The dance floor with the other dancers faded away and was replaced with a sandy beach on some tropical island. I looked down at myself and noticed I was wearing a two piece red bikini. I glanced back up at Nik and blushed noticing he was wearing nothing but black swim trunks. His chest and stomach bare for me to see and of course what bad boy wouldn't be equipped without a sexy tattoo. I pulled myself and my chin off the ground, he had some serious explaining to do.
"What is going on?" I gave him the best dirty look I could conjure up.
"I can get inside your dreams, Caroline." He said it as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
I glared at him, "So what your saying is your controlling my mind?"
He smirked, "No, I can control your surroundings but I cannot control what you do. That is all up to you?"
"Why are you doing it then?" I asked, putting my hands on my hips in a show of annoyance.
"Easy, love. I just thought this might be a good way for you to get to know me without the prying eyes of your friends."
"You said at The Grill that when I was ready to get to know you that I could come to you."
"Well, I was going to do that but then the idea of you not coming to me bothered me so I thought it best to be proactive and make my desire for you known."
"You barely know me though?"
"Caroline, do you know how old I am?"
"I heard you're like a billion or something." I sarcastically threw out.
He smiled, the one with where his dimples went on display, which caused my heart to skip a few beats. "Oh sweet Caroline, you are a little ball of fire. But I'm actually a little over a thousand years old and I've crossed paths with countless people throughout that time. Some truly beautiful women but they have lacked something I could never exactly pinpoint until I saw you. You were standing there arguing with that pup and you looked fierce and beautiful yet full of light. You reminded me of an angel."
His words made me blush forcing me to break eye contact and stare at the sand between my toes.
He paused a second before continuing, "I don't do this Caroline. I don't pursue women like this. I don't even know if I can do this but I feel like I am being pulled towards you and I can't find it in me to fight this."
He reached out and grabbed my hands, he lifted my hands up and placed a gentle kiss on each hand. I finally raised my eyes back to his, I could see several different emotions playing across his intense eyes. None of which I could read.
"I don't know what to say Nik."
"Neither do I Caroline. I just know that I want you to give me a chance."
"Why did you come to Mystic Falls?" I had been wondering this since Bonnie and I had talked to Stefan and Damon about the original family. Why would they want to come to this town of all places.
His eyes darkened a bit before he responded, "I've got business to take care of."
My eyes narrowed at his vague answer, "What kind of business?"
"The personal kind."
"How vague Nik." I said, turning and walking towards the water. Pausing I turned back to him. "You want to get any where with me, you've got to be open with me. I can't stand being kept in the dark."
I turned back and started again towards the water until the small waves were covering my feet. It was amazing how real all of this felt. The water was cool and refreshing in this humid tropical air.
I looked back up and noticed he had quietly came up to stand next to me a smile spread across his handsome face. "What?" I asked, wondering why he was standing there smiling like a fool.
"The way you said what you just said sounded like you were going to give me a chance."
"Are you going to open up with me?" I challenged. I really didn't know if I was ready to give him a chance or not but I did know that I felt the same pull towards him that he said he had towards me. I had never felt this kind of attraction, not even with Tyler. This powerful man, or beast, standing next to me was dangerous. I knew that for sure, I however, knew that in just the short time I've known him that I was very interested in finding out more about him.
"Fine." He grumbled. "I'm here for the doppelganger's blood."
I thought about what he just said. "What do you want with Elena's blood?"
His eyebrows rose in surprise, "You know Elena's the doppelganger?"
"Yes, when Damon and Elena started dating he told her about Katherine, his and Stefan's first love and how they could've been identical twins. He called her a doppelganger. Then when you just said doppelganger it struck a cord."
"That's why I like you, Caroline. You're so much more than a pretty face."
I rolled my eyes, "You didn't answer me. Why do you want my best friend's blood?"
"Because her blood is the only way I can create hybrids like myself. I have to feed a werewolf my blood, then kill them. When they reawaken I must feed them the doppelganger's blood so they can complete the transition. If not they die. When I used Katherine to break the curse put against me to withhold my werewolf side the witches didn't mention that I would need her blood to create more like me so I let her die. Luckily for her she had vampire blood in her so she became a vampire." His voice was bitter as he talked about it, obviously still a sore spot for him.
"Are you going to kill Elena?" I said, my voice barely above a whisper. I knew though with his vampire hearing he could hear me clear enough.
"No, I don't plan to. I just need some blood from time to time." He said, turning to stare at me. I think he was trying to gauge my reaction to his news.
"What if she doesn't want to give you her blood?" I turned facing him.
"Then I'll just take it." He said calmly but with firmly.
"I can't let you hurt her." I said, getting angry. "She is my best friend and you think I'm going to date you or whatever while you are causing her pain!"
"I can compel her to forget, love. It's nothing different then a blood donation to a blood bank. It's not like I'm going to be torturing her!"
"You can't compel her, Klaus." I said, using his other name. "She drinks vervain everyday, as do I!"
"Caroline, as much as I fancy you, I will not risk anything getting in my way. I've waited a very long time to create an army to protect my family and I'll be damned if a human girl is going to ruin that for me!" He said through gritted teeth. All warmth having left his blue eyes.
"Well, this human girl has had about enough. You want me to give you a chance. Ok, I will, but then you need to leave Elena alone if she doesn't want to give you any of her blood!" I waited for him to respond but he was looking off past my shoulder.
I was about ready to turn and walk away from him, already deciding I would spend the rest of this dream soaking up the sun on another side of the beach away from him when he grabbed my elbow and pulled me back around to face him.
"I can't promise you anything Caroline. I'm not that guy that easily does the right thing. I usually just do whatever I need to in order to get me what it is I want." He was still holding on to my elbow. "All I can ask is that we take this day by day, maybe I can convince Elena to give me her blood willingly and then this won't ever be an issue between us."
"I don't know Nik." I sighed. He grinned obviously pleased I was back to using Nik again.
"I don't know is better than no." He moved his hand from my elbow up to caress my cheek. "Why don't we just enjoy the rest of your dream. All our problems will be there when you wake up."
"Don't you sleep?"
"Very little." He pulled me down with him in a lounge chair that magically appeared. He draped his left arm around my shoulders while I tried without success to acknowledge the fact that we weren't wearing much clothing.
"So tell me all your hopes and dreams Miss Mystic Falls." He teased while I rolled my eyes at his cheesy line.
We talked for who knows how long since it was a dream time seemed different. It felt like a long time. We talked about our families and what we were like as children. I enjoyed his stories about his siblings, especially Kol, who seemed to be a wild card. However, I felt like I never got the whole story about his family. He never mentioned his parents once. Knowing part of the story of his father and mother I never pushed the issue.
By the time I opened my eyes the next morning I couldn't suppress the smile from my face. I didn't know what was going to happen with our problems but for the first time in my whole life I felt like I had truly connected with another person and for once I didn't have to be anybody but myself.
