Hey all! So, thanks for all the reviews/comments on the last chapter. Some of your are intrigued by the whole Caroline is a human thing and some of your are like noooooooooooo! (only a couple people said they weren't reading anymore because they hated it so much...what can ya do? *shrug*) Anyways, I hope you'll stick by my side, because I think I have some good plans in store.
Oh and pain, lots and lots of pain.
Also, just to clarify cause I know some readers were confused, Caroline's supernatural sucking power on lasts for as long as she is touching someone and it only works during skin to skin contact. So touching through clothes won't do anything.
AND...I'm gonna go ahead a spoil this since so many people mentioned it...no pregnancy in this fic. I am not a writer of fics with pregnancy plots/children in them. It's just not something I enjoy. Apologies if you were one of the readers crossing your fingers for that plot line!
Enjoy!
p.s. this was not really beta-ed so apologies for extra spelling/grammar errors and weirdness.
.
Klaus placed his hand on the silver knob of Shane's office door and gave it a firm twist. It turned easily, the tumblers of the locks crushing each other to pieces under the pressure of his hand. He pushed the door open and shut it gently behind him. The door wouldn't shut properly now that the knob was broken, but it would still appear to be closed and locked to anyone who might pass by.
He stood inside the room, golden spring light peeking through the curtains and blinds. The room smelled faintly of incense and chamomile, a hint of the man who had lived his days in and out of the office. Striding over to the desk, Klaus began flipping through the papers on scattered on top. There were a few students assignments, with scratches of red on them, bleeding with Shane's thoughts and comments. Not that he was expecting to find what he was looking for that easily.
Truth be told, he wasn't sure exactly what he was looking for. Something. Anything. A clue or some answers about the legend of Silas that the professor had conveniently left out. Perhaps it was his proclivity to always being suspicious of those around him, but his instincts were flaring and he knew there had to be more to the whole cure thing than they originally thought-given that Caroline was now human again, and now possessed the power to turn other supernaturals human with a single touch. A power that he had never heard of in his thousand year existence, or even conceived possible.
Her face appeared in his mind and he recalled the way she looked when he recoiled from her at the Salvatore house a week ago. Klaus wasn't a man who lived with many regrets; there wasn't room for such an emotion when one lived for an eternity. But if he had a list of moments he wanted to do over again he would have chosen that one. He had run from her and that, he begrudgingly admitted to himself after a few days, had been cowardly.
However, instead of rectifying the situation he had chosen to keep his distance. The distance helped him think. It helped him dig himself out of the feeling of disappointment and hopelessness and find some straw of hope on which to grasp.
There had to be an answer, a reversal, a fix it. He was unwilling to accept that Caroline was just human again—human and in possession of a terrifying power. He needed her to be whole and herself. He needed her to be the woman that he-
Voices outside the door made him stop and look up. They were voices he recognized. The door creaked open and he watched as Caroline walked into the room, Stefan standing behind her. She stopped and their eyes locked, his breath stilling in his chest.
Klaus kept up his emotionless mask, trying to gage what she might be thinking. Was she angry at him for running? Was she a little glad to see him? He never could figure out exactly how she would react to situations. Perhaps it was one of the reasons he was so enamored with her. It had been days since he'd seen her. His eyes roamed her form. He hadn't really studied her since she came back from the island, not that he'd given himself much of an opportunity to do so.
She looked exactly the same, beautiful as ever-an array of soft colors and sharp, hidden edges making up an entirely original work of art. Golden curls, as expressive about her moods and thoughts as Van Gogh's brushstrokes, wave blue eyes that would both could caress and rage against the sand before and after a storm, crimson lips that he had kissed many times over and could never get enough of—the taste falling from them sweeter than blood. It was as if nothing had even changed about her. He couldn't see a sign in her features that indicated she was human. She just looked like Caroline. His eyes went to the bandage at her neck, partially obscured by her golden locks. He frowned, hoping for a moment that perhaps her human status had been corrected in his absence from her, even though he currently knew that to be impossible.
His hybrid spy had been keeping an eye on the group and had reported of the findings between Bonnie and the doctor, Meredith Fell.
It had been his last sliver of hope. After a few days and several bottles of Scotch, he had almost marched over to her house himself to change her again, but had hesitated, not wanting to do something rash and make matters worse. It was a fortunate thing too, he realized, after his hybrid had come to him with the news that attempting to turn her vampire again would only kill her.
Of course he took his temper out on the unfortunate messenger, drowning his anger in the younger man's blood. That was when he considered further investigation into Silas and the immortality spell and what it all meant.
"Klaus." Stefan said his name, obviously confused by his presence.
"I'm guessing that you had the same thought I did?" Klaus asked, cursing when Caroline's eyes moved away from his.
"That Shane was a lying bastard?" Stefan replied, shutting the office door.
"Now, now. It isn't wise to speak ill of the dead."
He saw Caroline's attention moving back and forth between them, but her gaze never connected with his again. She was angry. She liked to avoid eye contact as much as possible when she was mad. It wasn't a surprise. "Now with the three of us, hopefully we can find something useful faster."
"I'm sorry," Caroline broke in, stepping forward. "What exactly are you doing here?"
"The same as you and Stefan I presume," Klaus answered. "Looking for any information on Silas that our now dead professor friend forgot to mention. I've gone through that cabinet there already, perhaps you can start on the bookcase, love?"
Frustration flashed in her eyes, but Klaus missed it, turning his head back to the files on the desk. Caroline scrunched her face, feeling Stefan give her a tiny nudge from behind. She relented, walking towards Shane's dusty bookshelf, beginning to go through each of the texts.
"I'm surprised you didn't do this sooner," Stefan mentioned from the opposite side of the room as he began going through the file cabinet that still remained unchecked.
"So am I," Klaus agreed. "I don't know why it didn't occur to me to take a second look at Shane's motivations. Clearly, I underestimated the man."
"We all made that mistake."
Klaus sat down at the professor's desk, letting his fingers travel over the wood. Caroline watched him from the corner of her eye as he scrutinized the structure very carefully. "What are you doing?"
"This is an old desk," Klaus explained. "They were often built with secret compartments. Shane-being a history teacher-would have known this. In fact I'm sure that's why he has this particular desk in his office. It's not a typical piece of furniture one would find in a modern college."
"Okay, Sherlock Holmes," Caroline muttered under her breath, turning her attention back to the book in her hand.
"What did you say? Didn't catch that, sweetheart." Klaus baited.
"I just don't get why you're here," Caroline lashed out, speaking up. "Why do you care about finding out what Shane might have been hiding?"
Klaus looked at her from the chair, his expression revealing nothing. "I care."
"Do you?" She challenged. "Because running away from me a week ago like I'm some sort of freak and not hearing a word from you since says otherwise."
Klaus stood and walked around the desk coming closer to her. Her arms folded across her chest, the look on her face pulling at him. She was the only one who ever dared to look at him that way, without a drop of fear in her eyes. It unnerved him and it excited him. Then he realized that she didn't have a reason to be afraid of him anymore. One touch of her skin, and he would be powerless.
Caroline could see the trepidation guiding his steps, and she hated the way he kept a fair amount of distance between them. He seemed unsure of what to do or how to act around her now. She wished he would rush forward, scoop her up into his arms, and kiss her senseless, making all of her insecurities go away. She wanted him to tell her that she was just being crazy in thinking that he couldn't care about her now that she was human.
Stefan cleared his throat, breaking some of the tension. "I'm gonna…just…" he pointed at the door and scurried out, leaving them alone.
"I wanted to find out more about the cure," Klaus said to her. "To see if it's reversible."
"It's not," Caroline told him. "Bonnie already figured that out. And I can't be changed again the usual way."
"I see," he said, already aware of the second part.
It doesn't matter, I still love you, Caroline urged him to say, but he remained silent. "Why haven't you said anything? Called or come over or something?" It was such a normal fight to be having with a boyfriend, but the context was anything but average. It wasn't as simple as him just being distant or neglectful.
"I knew you were alive. And safe for now."
"That's all that matters?"
"Yes."
Caroline flinched at the finality in his voice. With a shake of her head, she turned her attention back to the bookshelf, sensing Klaus's eyes on her back. She tried to ignore him, pulling a volume from the shelf and flipping the pages. Weird symbols were drawn across the page and as she reached the middle, she noticed a few that looked familiar.
"Hey," she called, hiding her sniffle. "These are familiar."
She extended the book to Klaus. He took it, careful not to come in contact with her skin and looked down at the page. "They're runes."
"There though," she said pointing out three of the symbols. "They were on Jeremy's tattoo. I remember seeing them." Klaus's jaw ticked as his eyes flicked back and forth. "Could this be something?"
"Shane might have known how to translate them," Klaus guessed. "I imagine that he would have committed it to memory and destroyed any of the information he gathered."
"Can you read them?"
"I can't," he replied. "But I know someone who can."
Caroline shook her head impatiently. "Who?"
"Kol."
.
Caroline had taken Shane's book back to her house, deciding to spend the evening studying the Runes instead of catching up on homework. Her laptop was open on her coffee table and she was searching the Internet for any translation she could find. The results were frustrating.
Kol, as it turned out, was not an option for help. Klaus had admitted to her that he had daggered his younger sibling after an argument they had. He didn't go into specifics. Caroline rolled her eyes at his childish behavior and thought that whatever revenge Kol would exact, Klaus probably had coming. Afterwards they had parted ways and Stefan had driven Caroline back home.
It had been three hours and Caroline was so tired of staring back and forth at her computer and the book. Everything was blurring together into an even more nonsensical mess. With a frustrated huff, she leaned back against her couch and stared up at the ceiling.
Nothing made sense. She was a human, but still had vampire speed and strength. She and Stefan and tested her strength when they'd gotten back to her house, going through a few safe demonstrations that Stefan thought up. She could run, jump, punch, lift, like a vampire could, but she didn't heal at an accelerated rate.
"This doesn't make sense," she said out loud to no one.
Something clicked in the kitchen, and she sat up in attention. Her ears on alert. It sounded like the back door shutting. Apparently, she still had acute vampire senses too.
Wait a second, she thought.
She was home alone. Her mom was working and even if Liz had come home early, she wouldn't have entered through the back. Not to mention Caroline would have heard her patrol car pull into the driveway.
There was an intruder in her house. Her body tensed, going into defense mode.
Slowly, she rose from the couch, careful to not make a sound and still listening for more noise. It could be nothing; maybe just an animal scarpping against the back door. She could have just been imagining the sound and freaking herself out over nothing.
Her heart rate increased as she moved closer to the kitchen, her eyes darting back and forth looking for a shadow or listening for a noise or something to give away an intruder's presence. Her hands reached for a vase on the hall table, aiming to use it as a weapon.
Gathering her courage she darted into the kitchen and yelled, hoping to at least scare her potential attacker.
No one was there. Now she felt dumb for yelling and jumping out like a banshee. She had just been freaking herself out after all.
"Get a grip, Caroline," she muttered, lowering the vase from attack position.
A sharp knock at her door made her jump again and spin around, almost dropping the vase to the floor. Shaking herself out of it, she walked out of the kitchen, setting her makeshift weapon back into place. Through the window of her front door she saw Bonnie giving her a tiny wave.
"Hey," she greeted opening the door.
"Hey," Bonnie returned, shuffling her feet. "Can I come in?"
"Yeah." Caroline stood back and let the girl in. They walked into the living room and stood facing one another, a few moments of awkward silence passing between them
"I'm sorry, Caroline," Bonnie began. "I feel weird about today and I just wanted to say—"
Caroline sighed. "No, Bon, it's fine."
"You were right though. We haven't been good friends to you. We should be doing everything in our power to make this right."
"Bonnie, you have done everything in your power. More than everything in your power," Caroline said. "I just—I had a moment. I hate blaming Elena and being mad at her, but does she get what we sacrifice for her?"
"She does," Bonnie reassured. "And she's suffered too."
"Yeah, I know. That's why I can't really blame her. It's not her fault," Caroline ran a hand through her waves. "It's just—it's not fair. That she gets to have my life now. She didn't even want to be a vampire and I did—do."
Bonnie nodded, not knowing what to say. Her eyes flicked momentarily down at the coffee table, noticing the book that Caroline had left there. She recognized the symbols on the open pages. "Runes?"
"Yeah," Caroline affirmed. "We found the book in Shane's office. We were hoping to find something else about Silas or the cure or some way of fixing me."
"We?"
"Me and Stefan and…Klaus." Caroline pulled her lip between her teeth.
"Klaus?" Bonnie snorted. "I thought he bailed on you and this whole thing."
Caroline's brows flicked up and down. "Me too. But we caught him there snooping so…" she let the sentence trail off. "Do you know anything about Runes?"
"A little bit," Bonnie said. "Grams gave me a magical history lesson once. But it was before I really bought into all the witch stuff, so I yawned through most of it."
"I'm trying to translate them. Klaus said Kol knows how to, but he isn't exactly available for consultation at the moment," Caroline explained about Kol's current comatose state.
"I can't read them," Bonnie told her, "but maybe I can help find a translation source."
The two girls smiled at one another. "Thanks, Bon."
"Hey, what are best friends for?"
"Hair braiding, shopping, boy trouble, life threatening supernatural misadventures…" Caroline giggled.
"I'm gonna go grab a soda," Bonnie said.
"Sure help yourself," Caroline replied, taking a seat on the couch once again.
She pulled the book back into her lap, feeling refreshed and encouraged now that Bonnie would be helping her out. Caroline had been trying to translate the pages with the symbols she had recognized on them, but now she had decided to go through the entire book and look for repeats. Two heads would be better than one.
After a minute or two, Caroline realized then that Bonnie was taking a long time in the kitchen. "Hey Bonnie, what's the hold up?" No answer. Not a single sound of a refrigerator door swinging or a cabinet opening. "Bonnie?"
The click of a gun answered her and she saw Bonnie walk around the corner, face stricken in fear. There was a gun pressed to her friend's temple and holding it was a man just behind her dressed in cargo pants and black utility vest, his free hand squeezing into Bonnie's shoulder and moving her forward. Caroline jumped up off the couch.
"Easy there girlie," the man warned, his accent sounded Scottish or Irish, Caroline wasn't sure which. "No sudden movements. Wouldn't want to have to shoot your friend in the head."
"What do you want?"
"You, Caroline Forbes. Mystic Falls, Virgina. Birthdate: September 20th, 1992."
Caroline took another step forward but stopped when he thumped Bonnie in the head with the back of his gun, letting her unconscious body drop to the floor.
"Bonnie!" Caroline cried out moving forward, but the man trained his gun on her, freezing her in her tracks.
"Don't worry, she'll be alright. Just wake up with a nasty headache," he said moving toward her. "You're coming with me."
"Like hell I am," Caroline countered. She didn't even think as she strode toward him. Maybe she wasn't as durable anymore, but she still had her vamp-strength and reflexes. And this bastard had just hurt her friend. No way was he getting away with that.
She gritted her teeth and lunged grabbing his arm with the gun and throwing it up in attempt to dislocate his shoulder. The trigger pulled and the gun went off, the sound ringing in Caroline's ears. He shoved her away but she managed to hold him, taking him down with her as she fell back.
He landed on top of her, hard, and she let out a grunt. Her hands went to the gun attempting to wrestle it away from him.
"You're going…to get…yourself…shot…" he warned between gritted teeth, his scruffy face turning red and purple.
"Then…let...go…" Caroline countered, rearing back to head but him.
Something ripped him off of her, tossing him across the room, causing him to hit the wall. The framed pictures of her family bounced and fell down around him. Caroline scrambled to her feet and saw Klaus standing there, his menacing gaze focused on her attacker. Without pretense, he leapt forward and bashed the man's head into the wall rendering him unconscious. The intruder slumped to the ground, the gun falling from his limp hand.
Klaus turned his head toward Caroline, his hybrid features melting away as he faced her, yellow eyes morphing back to blue and wolf teeth disappearing into his gums. "Are you alright?" he asked. Caroline nodded and noticed his lip twitch in satisfaction. But that momentary happiness soon gave way to irritation. "What in hell were you thinking? In case you've forgotten you are human now, love."
"Seriously? You think I forgotten that?"
He stepped toward her. "Well, that can be the only possible explanation for you taking on an armed intruder."
"What else was I supposed to do? It's not like I knew you were here," Caroline shifted on her feet, smoothing out her mussed hair. "Why are you here?"
Klaus opened his mouth and shut it again. "It's fortunate that I was, wouldn't you say?"
"Mhmm," Caroline murmured, furrowing her brows. "Nice try. But your evading techniques aren't going to work. Why. Are. You. Here?" Klaus and Caroline stared each other down as he refused to answer. "Simple question," Caroline goaded.
Klaus started to respond, but a groan from Bonnie on the floor interrupted them and Caroline flew to her friend's side, feeling a little guilty about totally forgetting her on the floor.
"Bonnie, are you alright?" Caroline asked as Bonnie sat up, rubbing the back of her head. Caroline knelt down on her knees next to her.
"Yeah," she groaned. "That hurt though." Bonnie blinked a few times, looking up and seeing the new person in the room. "Klaus?"
He nodded and turned back in the direction of the unconscious attacker. "Well, I should finish killing him before he wakes up."
"No!" Caroline shouted quickly, surprising both Klaus and Bonnie.
"No?" He questioned, looking at her like she'd better have a bloody good explanation for keeping him alive.
She stood up. "You can't. He's a hunter."
Klaus gave her a confused look, but then walked over to the man, crouching down and pulling up his sleeve. There on his arm was the hunter tattoo, fully formed, black ink swirling around his entire arm. Klaus looked back at Caroline. "How did you know?"
"That's the guy from the island. I recognized him," she explained. "He's the one who shot me."
.
Klaus had taken the unconscious man and sat him in one of the dining table chairs that Bonnie had brought into the living room from the kitchen. Caroline remembered a spare pair of handcuffs her mother kept in her room and grabbed them, handing them over to Klaus and letting him bind the man's hands behind around the back of the chair.
"Well, it's not the best means of interrogation," Caroline said, examining their handiwork. "But it's something."
She thought she saw Klaus's lip curl up, but as soon as she looked again it had disappeared.
Right on cue, the man came awake, a moan sliding from his lips. "Fuck," he groaned, rolling his head around his shoulders. He tried to move his hands, quickly realizing that he couldn't. His eyes opened and he tried to crane his head to see his cuffed wrists, looking forward again and meeting the stares of an angry hybrid, a witch, and a sort-of human.
Klaus stepped forward, bending to eye level. "Who are you?"
The man gave him a smirk. "That's not going to work bloodsucker."
Klaus had tried to compel him. He straightened and pulled at the lapels of his jacket, undeterred by the small misfortune. "Well then, I suppose we can do this the hard way."
"Whoa, whoa," the man said, holding up a foot in defense. "No need to be nasty. I have nothing to hide."
"Who are you?" It was Bonnie who spoke up, her stern tone sounding miles away from its usual friendly note.
"Name's Vaughn. Galen Vaughn."
"You're obviously not from here," Klaus said. "Why are you in Mystic Falls?"
"Looking for her," he nodded in Caroline's direction.
"You're from the island," Caroline repeated. "How did you even find me?"
He jerked his chin to his vest. "Left pocket."
Caroline met Bonnie's eyes and then she stepped forward, reaching into Vaughn's pocket. Klaus watched her and the hunter carefully, wary for any sudden movements. She pulled her hand out, holding a wallet, and stepped back.
"It's my wallet," Caroline said, flipping it open to reveal her license and credit cards still intact. No wonder Vaughn had known her name, birthday, and address. It had been in her jacket pocket that she had been wearing and discarded on the island.
"Seems you dropped it," he said. "I picked it up and used it to track you down."
"Why bother?" Bonnie asked. "Why come all this way to kill one vampire?"
"She not a vampire anymore though, is she?" He replied.
"That doesn't answer the question," Klaus interjected. He was itching to cause the man some serious pain. If this Galen Vaughn was partially responsible for putting Caroline's life in danger, there was no way he would be leaving in one piece. Maybe it was a good thing Klaus couldn't kill him. It would simply force him to be more…creative in his punishment.
"I don't want to kill her," Vaughn told them.
Caroline blinked. "You don't?"
"No," he continued. "I don't. But Silas will."
"Silas?" Both Bonnie and Caroline said the name at the same time.
"You woke the beast," the hunter told him. "You stole his cure and drank it and it became part of your blood. So he'll track you down, drain you, and then become vulnerable. Then I'll kill him and fulfill the destiny of the Brotherhood of the Five."
Caroline shook her head in confusion. "Wait a minute, how is he going to become human by drinking my blood? Am I the vampire cure now?"
"A vampire cure?" Vaughn repeated, mirroring her confusion from his chair. "Is that what you think you took?" He laughed, dropping his head and shaking it back and forth in disbelief. "I've heard a lot of mistranslations of the legend but you honestly think you took a cure for vampirism? You can't be serious."
Vaughn seemed to be getting a huge kick out of some joke that the rest of them weren't in on. His head fell back and he roared with laughter, stomping his feet as he continued to laugh.
Klaus rolled his eyes and grit his teeth. The laughter was cut off with a curse of pain as Klaus reached forward and popped the Hunter's shoulder out of place, just as Caroline had attempted to do before. Vaughn glared up at Klaus as he stepped back, leaning to favor his injured sigh.
Caroline spoke up. "It's a cure for immortality—"
"The potion isn't a cure for vampirism or immortality," Vaughn growled. "It's a cure for invincibility. The spell Silas and Qetsiyah created was an invincibility spell. It prevented them from dying from disease, murder, suicide, anything you could think of that would possibly kill a normal human."
Invincibility and immortality-so close in meaning and yet so different. Rebekah had gotten it wrong. Shane had gotten it wrong. They had all gotten it wrong.
"That doesn't explain why I become the cure though," Caroline pointed out.
"Christ!" Vaughn shouted. "Don't you people know anything about magic, potions? Why do you go fooling around with things that you don't understand?"
Vaughn's lecture ended as Klaus's first shot out, connecting with his jaw and knocking him out cold again.
"Klaus!" Caroline yelled.
"I was tired of listening to him," Klaus shrugged, shaking out his fist, the broken skin on his knuckles knitting back together.
"You can't keep knocking people out because you don't like what they're saying," she chided.
"He's right though," Bonnie said. "I don't know anything about potions or how they work."
Caroline turned to her friend and put a hand on her arm. "Bonnie, this is not the time for self blame. We all jumped into this not knowing anything." She turned and saw Klaus untying Vaughn, hauling his limp body over his shoulders. "What are you doing?"
"Taking him back to the mansion," Klaus answered. "So I can lock him up in a more suitable arena." Caroline rolled her eyes, knowing that suitable, he meant painful. Caroline and Bonnie followed Klaus outside. He placed Vaughn in the trunk of Caroline's car and shut him inside. "Call Stefan and tell him to meet us."
"Okay," Caroline said, pulling her phone from her pocket. Bonnie went around to the passenger side door of the car and opened it. "Why am I dragging Stefan into this?"
"We might need a bit of backup for the next part of the plan."
"Which is…"
"I'm going to wake up Kol."
Once again, I'm changing canon on the cure legend/plot. Hope you guys are keeping up with it all!
Kol's coming back next chapter and he is none to pleased with Klaus for daggering him.
Anyways, let me know your thoughts! Thanks for reading!
follow me on tumblr at hybridlovelies
