A/N: Ah, look at this new chapter already! Thank for your reviews! I love you guys!
Enjoy!
Chapter Four
Caroline entered the grand mansion and let the servants take her coat. She took in the sight before her. The music, the light and all the dancing people, dressed in big, formal dresses and suits. As she entered, the host of the party welcomed his guests. He was a handsome man, with a sophisticated air around him, which reminded her of someone she used to know. Decades ago. The host wore a black suite, matching his chomped black hair. His beard was neatly cut and added some charm and elegance to the way he carried himself. He was very pale, but that in itself weren't unusual in this part of the world and season, with a long and dark winter and only little sun. Caroline had heard a lot about the man. Supposedly the wealthiest and owning most of the town. He was a regular guide at Bran Castle, telling all sorts of exciting stories about the historic place. Caroline remembered several of the female tourists swooning over him and not without reason. He was, by all means, a charming man, but charm wasn't what had made Caroline jump to the chance of attending this party. With the exception of a little fooling around, every now and then, she hadn't been serious about anyone, for the past 50 years, not since then... She had been busy embracing her vampire life with travels and what not after finishing college. No, this man, guide, royal or whatever he was, had an enormous amount of knowledge. Knowledge, which Caroline could use and she hoped to be able to talk with him and maybe ask a question or two about the old myth, she had been chasing, which surrounded the area and country.
Caroline nodded in greeting to a few random people, before she noticed the host himself, coming her way. She took a deep breath and braced herself.
"Lord Dragos Lupei," he introduced, sounding his tick east European accent and gave a small bow.
"Caroline Forbes," she replied formally and gave him a slight nod in acknowledgement. He gave her a crooked smile.
"Pleasure, Miss Forbes," he said and kissed her hand, "thank you for attending my gathering. I do hope you'll find it to your liking and do me the honour of a dance later?" Caroline shuddered at his touch, and several cold shivers followed his piercing gaze. She couldn't help feeling a little in awe of it all. The place, the music, the people, and the formality - it was as if she had stepped into a completely new world. A world of a time long gone. However, Caroline quickly recovered and focused her attention at the man before her. She gave him a small smile in return.
"Thank you, I would love to," she replied, hoping that a dance with the man could shed some light on the myth she was researching.
Dragos Lupei gave her a last nod before moving on to greet other guests.
Caroline let go of a breath she didn't know she'd held back and felt her hand shaking just a bit. Dragos Lupei was not only charming and a gentleman at a distance, but quite intense in his approach. There was something off about him though. Something, which send Caroline cold shivers and made the small voice in the back of her head scream at her to run away. She shook it all off. She'd travelled the world and arrived in this country with a mission and she was determined to see it through.
That's how she first met Lord Dragos Lupei from Brasov, Romania.
From that first meeting, almost four weeks ago, things had evolved. Caroline was now staying, not at Bran Castle, but at the mansion, a few miles outside Brasov, where she'd attended the party. She had daily dinners with Dragos, which they spend talking about the myth and all the stories, which fascinated Caroline more and more, the more she learned. Although she hated to admit it, Lord Lupei was growing on her. His charm and the way he was with the people around him was very attractive. Caroline had stolen more glances then she cared to admit. Then there was the fact, which she had quickly realized; that Lord Lupei and most of his staff were fellow vampires, some of them rather old, which intrigued Caroline further.
She had grown so custom to the place and the people surrounding it, that she'd managed to even start a friendship with one of them. Sanda Constantin was one of those. The two female vampires had hid it off almost immediately at the grand party and had ever since made a habit of hunting together in the late evenings and well into the night. Being out hunting all night, Caroline had started sleeping in, to well past noon. Caroline's days were filled with having fun with formal parties, hunts, sleeping and hearing incredible stories from a long time ago. Sanda too, was quite the storyteller, and having lived for 600 years, give or take, she had a fair share of them, which she happily shared with Caroline. However, the life the young vampire had basked in for three weeks came abruptly to a hold one morning.
She'd woken up suddenly, feeling hot and sweating, despite the cold weather, like something had woken her. Looking around in her bedroom, she realized she was alone and she was surrounded by silence. From the amount of light, it was still rather early for her. It couldn't be more than ten. Caroline groaned and turned in bed, pulling the covers over her head, shying away from the bothersome morning sun. Five hours of sleep was not nearly enough for her, especially not after a night like that. She was dozing off again, on the brink of sleep, when she heard it. An all too familiar voice. It was barely a whisper, but with strained vampire hearing, there was no doubt. Caroline sat up quickly. Suddenly she remembered the dream, which had woken her, or more like the memory. It couldn't be, there was just no way it was possible. Not after all these years. Caroline lay completely still and concentrated on listening in on the voice.
"What can I say?" She heard Dragos' voice, "I had a good teacher."
"That, I can't argue."
There was no doubt in Caroline's mind who it was now. She'd be able to know that voice anywhere and at anytime. It became quiet for a minute or so before she heard him again.
"Is there a problem?"
By Dragos excuse, Caroline rose from the bed and started to get herself ready. She had to know why he was here.
Caroline stopped in her tracks, when she heard the voice again, talking with Sanda. It sounded like they knew each other. In fact, it sounded like they had been rather close once. Caroline threw some clothes on and left her room. She ran down the stairs and stopped in the doors to the study.
"Klaus?"
Said man looked away from Sanda and their eyes locked immediately as blue met blue.
"Caroline..."
Caroline was sure that if her heart had been working, it would have skipped one or two beats and then jumped a few times. Vivid memories from their last encounter, filled her mind and she tried to calm herself, but without much luck. She took a deep breath and stepped further into the study, towards the two. Sanda looked confused from one to the other.
"Do you two know each other?" She asked curiously. None of them answered, as they kept staring at each other and slowly Sanda drew a conclusion.
"You bastard!" She exclaimed and fisted Klaus' shoulder hard, making Klaus break eye contact and sent Sanda a deadly glare, which she brushed off, "what did you do?!" She asked accusingly.
"I didn't do anything!" Klaus quickly said, trying to defend himself. Caroline huffed and crossed her arms.
"Understatement of the century..." She mumbled under her breath, but Sanda and Klaus heard it none the less.
"Okay, maybe I did do a little, but not in the way you think," Klaus explained to Sanda, "and you," he continued, turning to Caroline, "you're the one who didn't want this." He said and pointed between the two of them. Sanda looked between the two again. Caroline didn't respond, but merely send Klaus a glare.
"Wow okay. The air just became so much more awkward," Sanda said and headed for the door, "I'm sensing you two have something to discuss, so I'll leave you alone. Let me know if you need a talk afterwards Care." She added walking past Caroline. Caroline gave her new friend a grateful nod.
"What are you doing here?" Caroline asked as they were left alone.
"I could ask you the same question," Klaus countered and took a few steps closer to her, "what do you think you're doing here?"
"What I think I'm doing here?" Caroline retorted, "I told you, I had places I wanted to go and things I wanted to do, this is me doing just that!" Klaus shook his head. He couldn't believe this.
"You are kidding me, right?" Klaus asked, his voice disbelieving, "Chasing myths all across Europe is your idea of fun?" Caroline gave him a look as if it was obvious.
"How did you even know this? That I was here?" She wanted to know. Klaus pinched his nose, growing more and more frustrated with the woman. Something, which seemed to repeat itself, when it came to Caroline, not matter how many years they'd been apart.
"Stefan called me a few days ago," he explained, "he hadn't heard from you in three weeks and grew worried and he was right to..."
"Wait, Stefan? He's here?" Caroline asked surprised. She knew she hadn't been contacting her old friend lately, like she usually did, but she'd honestly had so much fun with the people here, that she'd totally forgot.
"Yeah, him and the Siamese twins is probably roaming the town as we speak, looking for you." Klaus confirmed. Congratulating himself for the clever nickname, he just came up with for Damon and the Doppelganger. Caroline seemed to catch on to the reference and couldn't help a little smile.
"Well, then I should go find them and invite them here to…" Caroline started and turned to leave the room, finding her friends.
"No," Klaus interrupted her and took hold of her arm, successfully stopping her.
"What do you mean 'no'?" she asked, looking back at him.
"I mean, they should not be here, and neither should you," Klaus explained and looked at her with an intensity, which told her he was serious, "You need to leave, the faster the better." Caroline starred at him for a moment.
"What? Why?" she then asked, "No, I can't just leave, not after everything that Dragos..." She tried to wrestle herself free from Klaus' grip, but without luck.
"Who's Dragos?"
Caroline stopped her struggling and gave Klaus a confused look.
"Lord Dragos is the one owning this house, who you talked to earlier...?"
"Oh, so that's the name he goes by now? Makes sense I guess… Listen carefully Caroline," Klaus said and stepped closer to the young vampire, so they were only a few inches apart, "you came to Romania to research the Dracula myth, right?"
Caroline blinked a few times and was about to respond to the question, when Klaus spoke again.
"Well, congratulations, you found him," he said nonchalantly, "Now, will you for once, just do as I say and go home?"
Klaus began to push an opposed and complaining Caroline towards the door, but stopped half way and stepped away from her. Caroline turned towards him, ready to give him a piece of her mind, when she felt someone enter the study.
"Sorry for the wait, it… Oh Caroline, you're up already?" Dragos stopped in his tracks when he noticed Caroline in the study. He approached the blond vampire and gave her a small kiss on the cheek.
"Yeah, I woke and couldn't sleep, so I thought I might as well," she explained and gave him a gentle smile. For some reason she held back the fact that hearing Klaus' voice had woken her and that she was too curious to go back to sleep. Dragos nodded and turned his attention to Klaus.
"Well Klaus, this is Caroline Forbes," Dragos introduced proudly, "Caroline, meet my old friend and the one who turned me, Niklaus Mikaelson."
Neither Klaus nor Caroline, said anything in respond to the presentation, but merely starred at each other as if they were silently communicating. Dragos looked from one to the other a few times, before drawing a conclusion.
"Do you two, by any chance, know each other?" he asked and gave Klaus a suspicious look.
A/N: Cliffhanger! I love making those, sorry… :P What do you think will happen if Vlad/Dragos finds out about Klaus and Caroline's connection and even more, the complicated feelings between them… If you've seen the trailer, you'll probably be able to guess some parts of it… ;) And Klaus and Caroline met after 50 years, how do you think it went? Let me know what you think!
