Bloodlust

Caroline walked back up Main Street at night after leaving Klaus in the alley a few hours back. The screen of her phone shone brightly back to her in the darkness as she attempted to contact the rest of the group. They had all gone their separate ways and apparently stopped answering their phones all at the same time. Around noon Caroline had returned to the diner hoping to see a familiar face but ate instead lunch in silence when she found no one there. Afterwards she walked around trying to see what was so special about this town unfortunately her memory of the meeting with Klaus haunted her every step of the way.

-flashback-

"Hello, love" said Klaus' annoyingly attractive accent.

Caroline rolled her eyes and vamped further down the street past him. Seconds later he was right in front of her again.

"In case you didn't get the hint, I'm ignoring you." she stated crossing her arms.

"There's no need for that love I come in peace." Klaus smiled.

"Why are you even here Klaus?" Caroline asked.

"Well you see I was down in New Orleans dealing with my own drama as you call it when I got a nice little call from an informant about strange proceedings going on in this town. So I thought i'd come and investigate."

"And i'm just supposed to believe you?"

"Believe what you want love its the truth." Klaus stated. "Though meeting you here is a happy coincidence."

Caroline rolled her eyes and kept walking.

"Come on, you didn't miss me even the slightest bit?"

"No not at all, now if you would leave me alone I would be spectacular."

"So am I just supposed to be here when you need me so you can toss me away when you don't. If that's your philosophy love your no better than me."

"We are nothing alike." Caroline countered.

"That's not true at all Caroline, we have more in common than you think?"

"No that's not possible because I'm not a psychopath murder who kills for no reason."

"Now that's where your wrong I may be bad but I'm bad with purpose."

"What is it that you want Klaus?" Caroline asked tiredly.

"Simple, let me show you that I'm not all bad, go on a date with me." Caroline hesitated for a moment and looked at him. "I am very persistent love, so give me a chance."

"Fine!" Caroline eventually agreed. "Once chance, that's it." Caroline looked at him as Klaus cracked another smile.

"What do you say, tomorrow night?"

-flashback end-

Caroline continued to walk up Main Street but suddenly halted when she heard the commotion of loud voices in the distance. Using her hearing she located them and quickly walked to the source of the chaos. She reached it moments later down another road where a restaurant was located in front of it was a crowd of people with frightened expressions on their faces. Caroline pushed her way through to see what they were looking at and was shocked to see a body laying in the middle of the road in a puddle of blood with a hole in her chest. Even from this distance she easily recognized the two puncture wounds that could only have come from a vampire's fangs.

"Oh no," Caroline whispered to herself. She watched as a blonde woman in a dress walked up to the body and felt for a pulse that wasn't there, she then looked back up at a man in all black and shook her head sadly.

"Caroline." Caroline heard someone calling her name and turned around to see Elena and Damon.

"We were heading towards Granny's diner when we heard the noise." Elena gasped when she saw what had happened her eyes glued to the spot on the woman's neck. Damon and Elena exchanged horrified looks. "But who? It had to be one of us."

Damon narrowed his eyebrows in thought as he eliminated possibilities. "I'll go and find the others and meet you back at the diner." he told them and walked away without another word leaving Caroline and Elena standing in the center of the crowd of onlookers.

"What is going on here?" a voice pierced through the noise of the crowd and they parted to allow the mayor to walk through to the center. She stopped when she saw the woman.

"Sheriff what happened here?" she asked the blonde woman. "I don't know, I didn't see what happened." the blonde stood up and looked at the crowd. "Everyone back away go to your homes, trust me we'll handle it and find whoever did this."

The crowd hesitated looking back and forth between the blonde and the dead woman.

"Come on you heard her, clear out." motioned the man beside the blonde clothed in all black. Reluctantly people began to walk away muttering to themselves about who they thought did it.

Caroline grabbed Elena's arm. "Come on, we need to get back to the diner." Elena nodded and allowed herself to be dragged back down Main Street as they headed to the diner.

Damon left Elena with Caroline and made his way down the dark alleys trying to retrace the steps the woman had taken. A trail of blood led him around many corners and pooled at some placed where she had stopped to rest. Eventually it led him back to an alley not too far from the diner in which the pale light barely illuminated a figure laying on the ground. Damon neared it cautiously until he recognized the man's face.

"Rick!" Damon exclaimed and helped to pick his buddy off the ground. Alaric was passed out cold holding a bottle of Bourbon. What worried Damon the most was the trail of blood all down the front of his shirt.

"Come on buddy wake up." Damon held his friend gently shaking him.

"Wake up!" he yelled and he felt Alaric move.

"Wha... What happened." Alaric asked groggily attempting to stand up.

Damon helped him regain his footing. "Take it easy." he told him picking up the bottle of Bourbon along with him. "Come on."

Alaric stood leaning against the wall of the alley taking deep breaths he looked around him at the alley and at Damon's worried expression and then finally down at his own shirt covered in blood.

"What happened?" He questioned. "What did I do?"

Damon clenched his jaw and looked at Alaric. "Damon, what did I do? What did I do!?" Alaric yelled.

He tried to think back to what happened but his mind was a mix of jumbled thoughts and fuzzy memories. Alaric remembered stumbling out of the bar and into the alley. The woman's voice rang in his ears and he began to remember the encounter. The last thing that he could recall was sinking his teeth into the woman's neck.

"Did I, did I kill her?" he asked looking at Damon's expression and realizing the answer. Alaric's eyes were wide with horror and he began to back away deeper into the alley.

"Rick, listen Rick." Damon walked up to him. "You'll get through this."

"Damon," Alaric said appalled. "I killed somebody!"

"I know! We just have to figure this out."

"There is no figuring this out, she is dead! How can I be there for Elena and Jeremy after this!"

"Listen to me, I am NOT going to let you spiral. This happens at least once to every newbie vampire, you lose control, the blood lust overtakes you, I get it! Trust me I get it." Damon sighed. "But we have to find a way to keep going. Now you can sit there all you want full of self loathing or you can help me fix all this."

Alaric looked at Damon beginning to calm down. "I should have died."

"But you didn't. Actually you did die but for whatever reason you found your way back. More than that, we need you. Elena and Jeremy need you. Come back with me to the diner and I'll help you control the blood lust. We'll make sure this never happens again."

They stood there in silence looking at each other for a moment. "Fine." Alaric finally muttered and began walking in the direction of the diner. He stopped and looked down at himself remembering all the blood and took off his outer hoodie revealing the clean shirt underneath. He balled it up and threw it in a nearby dumpster. "Lets go."