DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE VAMPIRE DIARIES
CHAPTER 3: PUNISHMENT
"Enzo?!" Caroline screamed as she rushed into the Salvatore`s Mansion.
Enzo clenched his jaw glaring daggers at his friend.
"I remember perfectly well that I very specifically asked you not to call her!" he said.
He lay down on the leather couch in his friend`s room, he had settled himself down when his weaknesses overtook his strength. Damon had stayed with him the whole time, leaving only fifteen minutes ago to fetch him a blood bag and - as it turns out - to go behind his back by informing the vampire Barbie of the situation.
"Well, I didn`t actually call her… I texted her so…" Demon replied with his signature smirk on.
"Enzo…" Caroline whispered when she entered the room cutting the British man from whatever snarky comment he was about to fire his friend with.
Her face was pale – almost as pale as his – and her blue-green eyes were full with concern, anger and relief all at the same time. He wondered how could she possibly feel so many things at once without exploding.
She`s Caroline, his subconscious informed him, she`s the definition of extraordinary... She can do anything she puts her mind into…
"Hello gorgeous…" he said smiling at her as he sat up nonchalantly, pretending as if he wasn`t at the brick of death.
Caroline scoffed at him as she rushed to sit on the couch next to him.
"How are you feeling?" she asked worriedly while examining his bite marks one by one.
"Now that I see you? I`m peachy!" He winked at her.
"Stop with all the flirtation, for God`s sake Enzo!" she exclaimed angry now "What were you thinking?! He could have killed you!"
"I`ve been worse, Gorgeous, relax…" he replied attempting to sit up straighter and flinched in the process.
"Why did he do this?!" Caroline asked no one in particular feeling the tears forming unwillingly in her eyes.
"Why do you think Blondie?!" Damon spat at her obviously feeling obliged to answer.
"But he agreed not to kill him, he said he wouldn`t…"
"And you believed him?!" Damon asked incredulously. "Well, maybe you`re not as smart as he thinks you are, after all!"
"Shut up Damon!" yelled both Caroline and Enzo, making the eldest Salvatore smile.
Caroline examined Enzo for a little while longer and cursed when she realized that the fever was picking up. Soon the hallucinations would`ve start if they hadn`t already and then…
"We need to fix this, we need to meet Klaus on his terms…" Caroline said rising from the couch.
"No, we can`t do anything…" said Damon seeping from his glass slowly "You`re the one he wants and we all know that… So put on your smile, wave your hair, batter your eyelashes and do what you do best… protect your friends…"
"No…" Enzo said angrily coughing a little. "I won`t let you do this. That bastard won`t get the satisfaction of…"
At this point he started coughing more vividly, spitting… blood.
"Enzo!" Caroline yelled and tried to comfort him by patting his back and holding his hand.
"Are you okay?" she asked after awhile.
"He`s getting worse!" Damon announced throwing the glass against the wall. "Damn it!" It shattered into thousand tiny little pieces.
"When did they bite you?" Caroline asked intensely.
"A few minutes after you called me…" Enzo admitted.
The blonde girl looked like she was about to explode with anger. It`s been at least ten hours since then…
"And you haven`t told me about this till now?!" she asked indignant looking between Damon and Enzo, searching who to blame.
"I didn`t wanted you to play his game… Not because of me…"
"I would rather play any game than let you die, Enzo!" she said with a stern and fierce look on her face. "I would do anything to save you…"
They exchanged a long lasting silent look but so much meaning passed through their eyes. It was as if they were communicating without even needing to use any words.
"I`m sorry to spoil your seven minutes in paradise, but as you see, time is of the essence!" Damon yelled getting annoyed at their improper timing "So get to work Blondie!"
"No…" Enzo repeated "Caroline, you shouldn`t do this… That's why he came back, to torment you, don`t give him the satisfaction of achieving it!"
Caroline looked back and front in between the two guys, deciding if she should share her thoughts.
"I`m not sure he`s here for me…" she murmured receiving the astonished looks of the two male. "Just think about it! He`s been away for twenty years. Why show up now, unless he`s plotting something…"
"Well maybe he got jealous that you kissed Romeo over there…" Damon said matter-of-fact gesturing to his sick friend and Caroline flinched at him knowing this.
Of course he bloody knew, he was Enzo`s best friend… and Elena`s husband…
"He knew about Enzo long time ago Damon. And even if we assume that he came right after learning about the kiss, he couldn`t come here so fast." She stated. "He had to be already on his way… He claims that he was here for my birthday but I can tell he`s lying…"
"Oh, bloody hell!" Enzo exclaimed "Today`s your birthday!"
He couldn`t believe he had forgotten the date!
"What if he`s telling the truth? Or what if he just missed you and dropped by?" said Damon ignoring his Enzo`s comment.
"It`s highly unlikely…" the blond insisted. "He made a call on my birthday every year and arranged gifts to arrive at my door but he never showed his face. And I don`t think it`s because he misses me because he… uh.. kind of admitted he`s been stalking me…"
Enzo growled while Damon made a face.
"Creepy…" said the Salvatore.
"Yeah, tell me about it…" she replied looking down at her hands.
Damon looked at his old mate for a few seconds and then back at Caroline. He needed to save his friend but he didn`t wanted the blonde vampire to get hurt either. He had to play it safe, somehow…
"Look…" he finally said taking a few steps closer to where she sat. "I need you to do this… I need you to go to him and try take information out of him about what he knows… We need to know exactly why he`s here and we need his blood to save Enzo…"
"He won`t talk to me…" she said sadly. "He`s not the Klaus I used to know… Well, he is, but… He won`t let his real self-"
"You`re the only one who can take the information out of him, Blondie!" Damon almost yelled. "You need to, at least, try…"
"No!" Enzo practically screamed but no one paid attention to him this time.
"You`re up, Blondie…" Damon said leaving the room in a whoosh.
Enzo looked at the blonde girl with pleading eyes.
"You know you don`t have to do this, right?" he said.
Caroline smiled weakly.
"You know I will, regardless what you say to me, right?" she said back.
Enzo smiled at that and raised a hand to cup her chin.
"So stubborn!" he replied. "You don`t have to do this… He won`t let me die… He knows that if he does, you`ll hate him forever. He`ll just wait until the crucial moment then he`ll probably show up to give me his blood."
"And then he`ll probably wait until you`re healed to bite you again." She said bitterly. "And he`ll do this again, and again, and again, until we`ll do as he demands! He won`t get tire of it and we won`t gain anything from it but pain and suffering… Your pain and suffering at that…"
"I can handle pain…" said he just too willingly. "After all I`ve spent quite some time with the Augustine's, remember?!"
"Is that supposed to make this okay?!" she yelled while standing up. "Because it really doesn`t I would prefer dying before letting you be a torture lapdog to a lovesick psychopath!"
"I won`t let him drug you to his bed using me!" Enzo yelled standing up.
"He won`t!" She yelled back.
She took some steps close to him and cupped his face between her hands looking tenderly in his eyes.
"He won`t, okay?" she said in more hushed tones. "If he wanted to force my hand he would`ve used compulsion by now and he hasn`t…"
Enzo trapped her hands into his and pulled her slightly closer. Their breaths meeting each other shortly, their eyes locked and their lips were only few inches apart. Caroline closed her eyes while listening to his marvelous voice…
"Stay with me, love…" he whispered and her eyes shot open when hearing the endearment.
"I will…" she promised. "Once I bring the cure!"
And with that she blew a kiss on his cheek and went out of the room without looking back.
She would save him.
"KLAUS!" she yelled when entering the enormous mansion. "KLAUS!"
Klaus sighted turning a page on the book he was reading and continuing doing so as if nothing had happened. Well, actually he was putting on quite the show for his hybrids, deep down he was anticipating seeing the girl enter the living room and stand in front of him demanding… God, he`d missed her fire!
"KLAUS?!" she yelled again.
"KLA- Have you gone duff?!" she demanded to know crossing her hands on her chest. He decided to keep the show on, letting her under the – false – impression that he had more important things to do.
"I`m sorry love, but I`m quite busy at the moment…" he announced indifferently. "Maybe if you come around later I could be more inclined to help with whatever-"
He didn`t get to finish his sentence because in a flash Caroline was in front of him grabbing the book from his hands and throwing it in the fireplace. She ignored Klaus` incredulous look and crossed her hands on her chest once more.
"There, that should give you more time…" she stated coldly.
"That was the original copy of War and Peace!" he said trying to cover his amusement at her reaction with anger.
"Well since you`re an expert in war and ignorant of even the meaning of the word 'peace' after what seems to be a billion years of your existence, I fail to see how Tolstoy can help you in any way…"
"Well you just burned the first copy of his book so until I find another one you`ll have to wait and see-"
"You sentenced my best friend to death yesterday and you`re worry about some stupid book getting burned?!" she half yelled at him. "Well, you`re even bigger of a jerk than I thought!"
Klaus was in no time on his feet and inches away from her face.
"Watch your tongue, love…" he said using his husky tone and angry face. Although, his voice got more delightful and light when he turned around facing away from her and continued "Besides, I haven`t sentenced him to death yet, he still has an hour or so to go on, if I`m not wrong at my calculations…"
He poured two glasses of drinks and handed one to her offering her a seat as well. She took the glass and sat where he pointed knowing that yelling wouldn`t get her anywhere, not with him... He settled right in front of her and pierced her with his gaze.
"So I suppose you came to beg for your friend`s life?" he more stated than asked.
"I came to tell you that you`re a liar!" she announced loud and clear so the hybrids would hear. "You said you wouldn`t kill Enzo… You said you`d spare his life and now he`s-"
"Still alive!" Klaus finished her sentence a little angry. "Which will seize to be the case if you keep up that attitude!"
Caroline looked down at her glass knowing very well that if she screw this up she was risking more than just her well being.
"What do you want?" she asked almost with a whisper. "In return of Enzo`s life, what do you want from me?!"
"Nothing…" he said smiling and seeping from his drink. "I`ve already sent someone to get my blood at the Salvatore`s mansion, he`ll be quite well in the next ten minutes…"
"I don`t understand…" she said really confused. "If you weren`t going to kill him why let your hybrids bite him?"
Klaus shrugged.
"Control…" he simply said. "To teach him a lesson to keep his hands away from what`s mine…"
"Ugh! That again!" she yelled standing up. "I am not yours!"
"Aren`t you?!" he said smiling while she stared back defiantly denying it.
"Clarissa, come over here sweetheart!" he called and a beautiful young girl appeared from behind his study's door smiling. She`s human, Caroline realized. She had long blond curly hair and blue eyes. A really disturbing copy of herself…
"Take this glass and fill it with your blood…" he told her giving her his empty glass. "When you`re done, give it to Caroline over there…" he said and pointed at her smiling arrogantly.
"What are you doing?" she asked terrified while watching the girl cut her wrist to fill the glass.
"I`ve already made your little friend pay…" he said smirking and leaning comfortably back to the couch. "It`s time for your punishment love…"
Caroline lost her color. Oh, no… not this again! She thought remembering what had happened the last time he had said that.
"It`s time for your punishment, love…"
"Klaus, leave her be!" Stefan had defended her with his last breath but it hadn`t been enough. "Take out your anger on me, but let her go…"
"Silence ripper!" Klaus had yelled shoving him to a wall.
"Stefan!" Caroline had attempted to run to him but Klaus had another idea.
"YOU!" he had yelled grabbing her from her throat while looking at her murderously.
Caroline had struggled under his hold in vainly.
"What am I gonna do with you?" his voiced cracked in many places and the tears Caroline was holding escaped her. Not only because of the way he was hurting,, but because of everything she knew he would do to them because as he lashed out…
She just hoped he wouldn`t force her to do the same horrible things she did that night. The horrible things she didn`t knew she was capable of doing to protect the ones she loved…
"Drink!" he ordered.
"Why are you doing this to me again?" she asked, her voice cracking while she had the glass already at hand tears ready to fall down.
"Because you too need to remember who`s in control… You need to remember your place…" he said angrily. "It appears, in my absence, you`ve all forgotten who I am and what I`m capable of… Drink!"
"You never let us forget!" she said back angrily. "We all know who you are! You`re the self-satisfied bastard King, who`s ruining our lives!"
With her last words she emptied her glass full of blood and looked at him defiantly as she threw it on the floor and it shattered to pieces. Klaus stared back at her with unreadable face. He studied her for awhile before slowly, tantalizingly standing up.
"Clarissa!" he called the human girl when he stood precisely above Caroline staring down into her brave and fierce blue orbs, never breaking eye contact "Come over here, sweetheart!"
The girl did as bidden and Klaus yanked her to the side exposing her neck to his fangs. He drank for several seconds and then stopped to look at his blond vampire companion. Caroline was looking the other way. He grabbed her chin and forced her to look up at him.
"Drink!" he ordered again offering the girl`s hand to her.
"No!" she said facing him fiercely.
Klaus sighted.
"Should I threaten anyone else you care about for you to do as you`re told?" he asked before yelling. "DRINK! Before I lose my patience…"
Caroline shot him a hateful look and complied. She knew why he was doing this and she could tell he needed it but she couldn`t help herself from feeling hatred for his actions and occasionally for him… She drank along relishing in the guilty pleasure of sharing a human blood with another vampire. The sensation was so private and so unique… Unlike everything she had ever experienced…
"I don`t remember permitting you to stop!" he said when she stopped drinking minutes after.
"If we don`t stop she`ll die… Klaus…"she looked the other way while saying the next word almost in a whisper. "… Please…"
Klaus flashed one of his fox smiles and let the girl go reluctantly.
"Ok…" he murmured. "I`ll let the girl keep the blood in her veins, if you offer to replace her…"
Caroline growled and glared daggers at him.
"Glare as you wish love, but we both know you won`t be able to turn down my proposal…" he said while stocking tenderly her chick. She huffed and offered her wrist to him defeated, but Klaus has another idea. He cycled around her and moved some of her curls away from her neck. He planted soft kisses among her neckline, leaving chills that traveled down her body, before biting into her major artery.
Caroline moaned in pleasure. She could hate him all she wanted for degrading her like that but she knew she enjoyed it…
"That`s so you know who's you truly are…" he murmured into her ear. "Don`t ever dare to cross me again… or I`ll show no mercy on you. Do you understand me?!"
Caroline nodded, a single tear escaping her eyes.
"You are mine, Caroline…" he continued. "You do well to remember that, because as long as you do… no one you love will get hurt… Not by my hands, anyway…"
Caroline shot up and spun around while reaping the tear away fiercely.
"And you do well to remember that no matter what you do I will never forgive you for what you`ve done!" she said with watering eyes. "I may hate you for everything you`ve done… But I will never stop searching for the man I fell in love, and when he`s back, it`ll be all your fault if I`ll never be able to forgive him!"
"Well, you`ll be searching in vain, love…" he said still smiling. "That man is gone…"
"No!" she said fiercely. "He`s just too scared to come out and play!"
Klaus` eyes darkened as he looked at her but Caroline gave him no chance speak.
"I Belonged to that man… But I can never belong to you…" she hissed stepping closer. "I will try to hurt you in every turn in the off chance that he will return to me…"
"You`ll be wasting your breath, love." He said sadly, showing the first emotion in that morning. "He`s long gone…"
Caroline smiled and took another step closer. It was too close but she didn`t care right then.
"I will believe that when you rip my heart out of my chest…" she whispered. "I will believe that when I`m no longer breathing, I will believe that when one of us is dead, not a second before! I`m not gonna give up on him… He deserves to be fought for and I will fight till my last breath!"
Klaus` eyes were now glistering with unshed tears and he fought hard to push them back to bay.
"Good luck with that!" he murmured looking away from her.
"Now… if you`re quite finished with your games, I`d like to go back to my friends and celebrate my birthday…"
Klaus looked back at her and smiled suspiciously sweetly.
"Of course love…" he said. "But first…"
In the blink of an eye, he whooshed to where Clarissa stood and snapped her neck without flinching.
"No!" Caroline yelled and hurried to her side. It was already too late though. She was dead.
"Be thankful, today is your birthday, love!" he said seriously as he leaned down to grab her tearful face with one hand and forced her all the way back to her feet. "Otherwise the blood would`ve drown Mystic Falls for what you`ve done and said today…"
With that he left the room shooting one last: "Feel free to leave!" at her direction.
Caroline looked dumbstruck as the hybrids came in and carried the body out to bury her. She didn`t know if she should feel sad for the girl he had killed or happy that she finally managed to get through him. His lashing out and killing the girl to prove her he was a monster could only mean one thing, she was getting to him, she was getting him back and he knew it.
This was the second time he had shown vulnerability to him, in the two days he was back.
She called that progress.
Caroline smiled as she walked out of the mansion with hope lingering in her chest for the first time in awhile. She turned back to glance up at the mansion one last time and caught Klaus looking down at her from a window. She smiled at him before she turned around and whooshed towards the Salvatore mansion.
Maybe there was hope for him after all… And she wouldn`t give up on him. She would never give up on the people she loved.
"Are you kidding me?!" she asked giggling once Enzo removed the blindfold from her eyes.
Caroline stood in the amusement park looking at the roller coasters and other games not being able to stop smiling and biting her lips. It was nine in the evening and the park was open till twelve, so she might as well get the most of it, but she just couldn`t believe he had taken her there.
"You said no expensive gifts and no gifts at all…" he said mimicking her tone. "So team Denzo figured out that we should do something creative instead of buying you gifts…"
"Team 'Denzo'?!" Caroline asked raising her eyebrows and making a face.
"Yeah, Damon and Enzo…" he said mimicking her voice from days ago. "Team Delena is on the way… while team Bonemy… well, let`s just say that she`s in no mood of coming…"
"Okay, first of all, stop making shipping names, you`re terrible at it!" said Caroline and raised her voice when he was about to complain. "And second of all… Bonnie isn`t coming?! It`s an unwritten law that the three of us should always go to amusement parks together, we never have been separated before!"
"She said that she had something to take care of…" Enzo lied easily but he notice Caroline`s unconvinced and suspicious look.
"What could be more important than her best friend`s birthday?!" she yelled. "She should be here! I`m gonna call her…"
"No!" said Enzo grabbing he cell phone. "Um… I think that Jeremy and Bonnie are together…"
Caroline covered her mouth with both of her hands and started jumping up and down.
She made some muffled excited 'really?!'s and 'OMG's as she continued acting like five year old...
"Why didn`t she tell me? Why didn`t they came together?! How did you know?!"
Enzo raised a hand as if to stop her senseless rumbling questions.
"Because it`s nothing official and I kind of caught them in an awkward position." He said with his British accent filling the air.
"Awww... that`s great news!" she cheered smiling. "Finally something good happened…"
Enzo stared at her genuinely happy face and couldn`t help but feel a little bit guilty for his lie. But she couldn`t know the truth, not until they got everything under control, not until they had what they needed. Stefan was right, sharing this secret with Caroline would be a horrible mistake. Klaus could compel it out of her… He and the rest of her friends could move in the shadows because they hadn`t Klaus` full attention. But Caroline was on the spotlight at all times and they couldn`t risk telling her… Neither could they risk protecting her from compulsion… She had vervain in her system but as long as Klaus was willing to offer her some… So no, telling the truth wasn`t an opinion.
"Thank you Enzo…" she said reaching up and kissing his cheek. "Thanks for telling me the truth, it`s the best gift you could ever give me…"
"Yeah, no problem…" he murmured looking down.
I am so gonna regret this… he thought.
"Come on! Let`s start!" she said enthusiastically grabbing his hands and pulling him towards the highest roller coaster.
"Fesmatos tribum. Reversas victas sangvinem. Ex Eleto reversas victas fesmatis… " chanted the young witch sitting on the tombstone. "Fesmatos tribum. Reversas victas sangvinem-"
"What`s taking so long, darling?!" asked Kol impatiently getting closer to the Bennett witch.
"It`s a difficult spell!" she spited at him venomously. "It`ll take time…"
"You`re a Bennett witch Bonnie, this spell should be a piece of cake for you!" Kol responded.
"Yeah well, if I had all of my powers back it would be…" she replied. "But your brother forced me to give up my powers remember?!"
"How did you managed to keep some of your powers anyway?!" he asked curiously.
"I hid half of them in a dark object when Caroline told me what your brother was up to." She replied still chanting inwardly. "I preserved my body with some herbs and spells in case I had an opportunity to put down your brother but I don`t want to wait anymore… you`re brother is out of line, I need to put him down now… permanently…"
"Yeah, that would be a little bit difficult." He commented. "Elijah has the white oak and he would never give it up if it means killing any of his siblings, not to mention Rebekah would never give up her beloved Nik! So our only way at succeeding is if we subdue him with a dagger."
Bonnie looked at the huge diamond in her palm.
"I`ll keep chanting… I won`t rest until my friends are safe from that monster of a brother you have…" Bonnie said fiercely.
"What if your witch magic isn`t enough?" Kol asked uneasily.
"Then I`ll use Dark Magic… Or even worse Expression…"
Kol raised his eyebrows.
"I already died once for my friends Kol." She said fiercely. "I will do that again, if necessary…"
"I hope you won`t have to though…" he said smiling.
It was Bunnies' turn to raise an eyebrow.
"If I didn`t know better Kol, I would say you`re flirting with me…"
Kol raised his hands as if in defense.
"Oh, I wouldn`t dare to flirt with the last and most powerful witch in the world now, would I?"
They both smiled at each other before the witch started chanting again.
Thanks for reading, please REVIEW.
NEXT: Bite Me!
A Flash Back
An an unexpected bite.
A trip.
An an APOLOGY?!
Hm... Kol and Bonnie again..?
T.J.