Arriving at the ball was nothing short of a miracle. The driver was annoying and chatty. It took three minutes of holding my breath to keep myself from ripping his tongue out. When the car pulled to a stop, I lunged from the vehicle and stumbled across the pavement. Not caring if I ate concrete. Luckily, I didn't. I growled and glanced back to see Elena smirking as she exited with Stefan, the other cause for my fury.
He was being oh so sweet tonight, and it was disgusting. We moved toward the entrance and a man in a tuxedo took Elena's coat. I didn't bother wearing one, already feeling far too hot. Heels clacked against the tile floor as the three of us moved toward the main hall. I moved inside and without being allowed a moment's relief, I was yanked to the side.
My mother wore a floor length silver dress with off the shoulder sleeves and a sweetheart bodice. Her hair was up in a pristine bun on the lower right side of her head. A golden pendant rested in her cleavage and I frowned at it, finding it to be confusingly familiar.
"You are late." She clipped and I snorted.
"No, I'm not." I defend. I wasn't. She said to be here I eight. It was seven fifty-nine.
"Do not ever make that despicable sound again." She growled referring to my snort while unnecessarily fixing the straps of my dress. I rolled my eyes and pushed her hands away.
"Mom, this is my engagement party. Don't make a scene." I say through gritted teeth while smiling at a threesome of females who moved past us. She ignored me and them.
"There are important people-." I cut her off.
"I don't care." I smile, sweetly and move away from her. My attention was on the table holding various glasses of alcohol and I would kill anything that got in my way. Nothing did and without bothering to glance up, I yanked a glass of champagne from the hand of some man and downed it. I swallowed the dry and bubbly liquid, thickly, and wiped my mouth. I pushed it back into the man's hand.
He took it with a disgruntled sound. I, again, ignored him while taking my time glancing through the assortment of liquids. There was one glass filled with blood and I was willing to bet my life it was virgin's. With a near moan, I reached for it, but it was swiped from my grasp and I growled, turning to grab it back, but the man held it high above his head. Far higher than I could reach, even in heels.
"Son of a bitch." I snap, dropping my hands to my hips as I momentarily contemplated maiming him.
"You owe me an elevator, luv."
Shock caused me to stumble back as my gaze flew to connect with a pair of electrifying blue. One's I'd never thought I'd ever lay sight on again. My mother was there, appearing like a fucking irritating bug. I cast her a slightly bemused glance as she smiled tightly at Lucifer.
"Klaus." She greeted and I blinked.
"Mom, his name is Lucifer." I whisper. Her tongue touches the roof of her mouth as she shuts her eyes in disbelief.
"Right?" I asked him.
"Guidelines." He answers. Okay, cryptic dude.
"You took my blood." I challenge and his eyebrow raised as a laugh of pure disbelief escaped him. Remember that heat that enveloped me back in the broken elevator? Yeah, it was happening again. A dull throb that I couldn't control started to drum hypnotically between my legs as a tightening sensation gripped my nipples in a harsh embrace. He had a nice laugh.
"You took my champagne." He returns and I scowl.
"So? Bite me." I retort, reaching with expert speed and ripping the glass from his hand. I downed it and placed it back against his palm. I licked my lips, slower than I needed, but I enjoyed the way his eyes darkened far too much to really care.
"Caroline!" My mother exclaims and I cock an eyebrow.
"I can't die." I say obviously.
"And, no offence, but you don't really scare me." My mother's grip after my comment hurt, but I was being truthful. The devil, Lucifer, the king of hell, Klaus, whatever the fuck he wanted to call himself, he didn't scare me.
"I like a challenge." His chest rumbled in pleasure and more heat pooled into my panties at the sound. What the fuck was up with that?
"I apologize, Niklaus." A man said and a rumble bubbled in my own chest as I stepped toward the man.
"Excuse you?" I ask, feeling my hand curl around the handle of a blade strapped to my outer thigh.
"Did you just apologize on behalf of me?" I asked, not truly believing it. I watched through his own gaze as my eyes turned from sky blue, to dark blue, to a brilliant silver within the matter of seconds. Klaus inhaled deeply, but I barely caught it as my body moved on instinct.
"Caroline!" I heard someone exclaim and I had a feeling it was Tyler, but I didn't care. The man was pinned to the wall and my blade was against his throat. He choked as I broke his kneecaps with a single twist of my calf.
"I'm a big girl and I can apologize on my own. I don't need your help with it. No one speaks for me. If you find yourself in that inconceivable position again, I will make you pray to the gods that you could die, because death would be the only relief from the agony I would inflict upon you. Test my word." My voice shook with barely restrained fury. My blood boiled and silence raged around as the man cowered on his broken knees in front of me.
"I don't think I heard your apology, sir." I say, before casting a glance over my shoulder at Klaus.
"Did you, your majesty?" I ask and he wets his lips, before shaking his head. Lust burning in his eyes. I grinned and turned back.
"Yeah, I didn't either." I dug my blade into his skin and just as blood started to bead, he cried out.
"Forgive me! Please! Oh, I beg you!" He cried like a coward.
"Sure . . . this time." I dropped his worthless body and stepped back, before placing my blade back in its sheath. I turned on the long stem of my heel and moved toward the table. I grabbed a glass of champagne and walked toward the exit.
"Where are you going?!" My mother shrieks and I turned with a wave of my dress, walking backwards while staring at her.
"Home. I only came here to figure out what frightened you, mother." I cast a glance towards Klaus and smirked.
"I figured it out and now I'm done. Enjoy the rest of this bullshit party. Don't look so surprised, mom. You should know better than anyone that I'm not one to give in so easily." I tilted my head to her and raised my glass to Klaus before spinning back around, and leaving.
"That was fascinating."
The voice gave me pause and I turned to see Klaus exit from the shadows. "Come here to get back at me for being such a crass little girl?" I pout sarcastically at him.
"Sorry for not kissing your ass." I finish, turning back around in my quest toward home.
"You intrigue me, Caroline." He admits and I froze. Okay, now I was curious. I turned to face him and stared.
"Why?" I ask.
"Because you have silver blood and you don't fear me. Even the most callous of demons cower at my very name, but you're measly aroused." He comments and I snort.
"I'm not aroused. That doesn't happen to me." I say, crossing my arms. He cocks an eyebrow.
"Then why are your nipples hard. And there is this scent." He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes as if in pleasure.
"Mouthwatering female arousal. Sweet. I've never smelled anything like it. How do you explain that?" He purrs, grasping my jaw with his fingertips. I shove him away.
"I don't know, but I'm not aroused. I don't get aroused. It's not my thing." I say and he watches me curiously.
"You have no idea how much that intrigues me. You're obviously turned on, yet you deny it and you believe your own denial. So, damn naïve. So, damn evil. That's not a combination one comes across often. You can threaten and break a man's knees without batting an eyelash, yet you blink at your own bodily reaction. It's confounding." He admits in awe.
"Thank you?" I ask, slowly.
"I have a job for you, Caroline Forbes." He states, changing the subject so abruptly that I nearly laugh.
"A job?" I ask, dumbfounded.
"I've heard of you. You only kill the damned. I could use someone like that. I could use someone with silver blood." He says and I crossed my arms.
"My blood is red." I say.
"When it come in contact with air, sure, but inside your body it is very silver. Why do you think your eyes glow that specific color when you're hungry? You're craving nutrients. It's your blood's call and silver is rare. In my entire eternal existence I've only come across three. You'd make lucky four. I need someone like you, Caroline. Hard to kill. Kills easily. You're the devil's wet dream." I didn't miss the way his grin broadened as he said that.
"Gold is the rarest, go look for someone with that." I say and he caught my arm.
"I see one every time I look into a mirror." He informs me, but I shoved him back, not interested.
"Don't touch me." I warn and his hands come up in a show of surrender.
"My apologies, luv." He purrs in that accented drawl that served for only one purpose and that was igniting this damning heat within my loins.
"I don't want a job." I snap, going to move away, but he slips in front of me.
"Oh, c'mon, Caroline. I'm offering you freedom." He purrs.
"No, you're offering me a literal deal with the devil and I don't want to be indebted to you." I inform him, arching my neck to stare into his eyes.
"You would travel the realms doing my bidding. Being the one thing you've always wanted to be." He says, following me through the streets.
"Oh, and what's that?" I challenge.
"An executioner. Except you'd have a license and a paycheck. A meaning. You hate your life, Caroline. I don't need to know everything to know that. I'm offering you a way out. For one measly thing in return." He says, eyes glowing with unconcealed mischief.
"I'm waiting." I inform him and he runs his bottom lip through his teeth. A few beats of silence pass before he finally answers.
"Your time." It didn't seem like much, if I was being honest with myself. Not in comparison to what he was offering. A job. A way out. A key. This is what I wanted, right? Freedom to do as I pleased, but was I really going to make a deal with the devil in order to get it?
"Do we have a deal?" He asked, anxiously. No one ever said I wasn't reckless. I needed to get away from this place. From these people. I needed a life that I could call my own.
With a deep inhale and a knowledge that this could very well be the biggest mistake of my life, I met his gaze.
"Deal."