Disclaimer: I'll let you know if I morph into LJ Smith and own TVD and all of its characters. But right now I'm still just Morgan and I don't own any of it.

A/N: Thank you so much for all of your reviews! Seriously! I love you all so much and I wish I could bake you a cake made out of rainbows and smiles and we'd all eat it and be happy! I hope you like this chapter :D

P.S. I know some of you don't like the parts I write about the Mystic Falls gang, but they're important to the story so I have to include them. I'm sorry.

-xxx-

Caroline had decided to follow Finn and Nik several minutes after they left. She needed to talk to Nik about what Finn had told her. She couldn't just push it to the back of her mind and pretend he'd never said anything. Making herself forget about it won't make the truth go away, whatever the truth may be.

"You're pathetic," Caroline heard Nik say right before she passed his study. She stopped and decided to listen for a bit before making her appearance known.

"At least I'm not a monster," she heard Finn say.

Rebekah laughed humorlessly. "Maybe not, but you're more selfish than any of us! If you want to die, fine, but the rest of us? If you go down, you won't take us with you."

"It'd be better than letting you live. Mother trapped us here for a reason."

"But she gave us a way out," Elijah chimed in. "If Niklaus can get the lovely Caroline to fall in love with him, we'll be free."

A lump formed in Caroline's throat. What was he talking about? Free from what? Was Finn right? Was Nik just using her?

"And I was doing a perfectly wonderful job of that before you had to go screw everything up," Nik grumbled.

Caroline's hands started shaking with anger. She could literally feel the knife in her back. How could she have been so stupid?

"Stop getting in the way, Finn. We need Caroline to break this curse," Nik continued.

Caroline had heard enough. She moved to stand by the door, in full view of all the Originals. "What curse?" she demanded, crossing her arms. She was sure she looked furious on the outside, but on the inside her heart was shattering into a million pieces. The Originals stared back at her in shock, but Nik's expression was unfathomable.

"What curse?" Caroline repeated.

Nik looked at Elijah and nodded toward the door. He took the hint and shuffled past Caroline, his other siblings close at his heels.

Nik waited until they were gone before saying, "Sweetheart, why don't you come in and have a seat."

Caroline grit her teeth and stood firmly in place. "One; stop with the pet names. I'm not your 'sweetheart' or your 'love.' Two; you don't get to tell me what to do."

Nik was silent for a few moments. He didn't like the way she was speaking to him, but he knew he deserved it. Whatever she heard must've sounded terrible when she didn't know the whole story.

Taking a deep breath, he said, "Caroline, please come in and let me explain."

"Why should I do you any favors?"

"Because if you don't—" Nik caught himself before continuing. If it were anyone but Caroline, he would've been throwing around threats like there was no tomorrow.

"Please?" he asked instead, hating himself for begging. But you know what they say. Desperate times call for desperate measures and all that.

Caroline shook her head, but she didn't leave, so that was a good sign.

"Give me today," Nik asked. "Let me give you the whole story. If you still hate me after, then I'll leave you alone. It's your choice."

Caroline's eyes narrowed as she studied his features, wondering what he could possibly say that would make all of this okay. She knew she didn't owe him anything, and she had every right to walk away without letting him explain himself, but she was curious.

"Fine," she agreed.

Nik visibly relaxed. "Come with me," he ordered as he headed for the door.

Caroline cleared her throat and crossed her arms even tighter across her chest.

Rolling his eyes, Nik corrected himself. "Please come with me."

If she weren't so mad at him, maybe she would've smiled. "Where are we going?" she asked as he led them out of the study and down the hall towards the front door of the mansion.

"You'll see," he answered.

-xxx-

"Thank God you're here," Elena breathed as she opened her front door and let Stefan inside.

"What's wrong?" the youngest Salvatore asked, stepping past her as she closed the door behind him.

"It's Damon. He won't let me come with you guys to rescue Caroline, but I have to go. She's my best friend, I can't just sit here and do nothing."

Stefan shook his head. "You have to, Elena. It's not safe for you to come with us."

Elena's eyebrows knit in confusion. "I thought you would understand. You know how important Caroline is to me, Stefan."

"And we're going to get her out of there. I promise we are. But we don't know how old those vampires are that are keeping her hostage. We're already worried about Caroline's safety, we don't need to be worried about yours too."

"So I'm supposed to just sit back and hope that you all don't get killed?"

"Everyone is going to be okay," Stefan tried to reassure her.

Before Elena could respond, the doorbell rang. With an exasperated sigh, she pulled it open, revealing Tyler Lockwood on the other side.

"Elena," he greeted her. "Is Caroline here?"

"No, she's not. Do you need her?"

"I need to know where she is. I haven't seen her for weeks and she isn't answering her phone."

"Have you considered that she might just be ignoring you?" Elena offered. It was no secret that Tyler was infatuated with Caroline, but his feelings were one-sided.

Tyler rolled his eyes. "I'm being serious. I'm worried about her." Stefan and Elena exchanged a look,which didn't go unnoticed by Tyler. "What's going on? Look, if you know something you need to tell me."

Elena considered him for a moment before sighing and opening the door wider. "You might want to come in, Tyler."

-xxx-

"We're going on a little walk," Nik told her as they stepped outside.

Caroline glanced up at the sunset, her eyes wide with concern.

"The full moon isn't tonight," Nik said, certain that she was remembering the last time she was out here. Caroline immediately relaxed, but she looked confused.

"We're leaving the house?"

"Not exactly." Nik's eyes scanned the forest they were walking through. "I'm surprised no one has chopped down these trees and built anything here... It looks the same as it did twenty years ago."

Caroline tilted her head to the side. "You've lived here for that long?"

Nik nodded, staring ahead for several minutes before speaking up again. "We didn't plan on it. Our father has been after us for a thousand years. We can't stay in one place for too long or he'll eventually find us and kill us."

"Then why are you still here?"

"It's complicated." Nik sighed. "Twenty years ago when we were all living here, I wanted to move immediately. We grew up in this town, and it had too many bad memories. On top of that, it was boring. The others didn't agree with me. They wanted to stay and build a life here. I threatened to leave without them, and no one protested. So in a moment of blind rage, I went on a killing spree."

Caroline cringed. "That's a little extreme."

Nik smirked. "I get a little moody," he admitted. His smile faded as he continued. "My mother, Esther, was angry with me for what I'd done, so she cast a spell on us to keep us from hurting anyone else."

"Is that the curse you need me to break?"

"It's much more complex than than you think, but...yes."

As the sun dipped lower in the sky, as did the temperature. Caroline tried to run warmth into her arms, not even noticing that Nik had slipped out of his jacket until he had wrapped it around her. She didn't want to accept any of his kind gestures, but at the moment she was too cold to care. She pulled it tighter around her as they kept moving through the forest, listening to the leaves crunch under their feet.

Suddenly, Nik stopped walking. Caroline stopped walking too and turned to face him, confused.

"Why did you stop?" she asked.

"I can't go any further."

Nik held out a hand and pushed, but some invisible barrier was blocking it from going through. He was either a very good mime, or this was the spell he was talking about.

"Esther trapped you here?"

"We can't leave until I learn to care about others. I have to fall in love with someone and they have to love me in return in order for the curse to be broken. If I don't break it in twenty-one years, we'll be stuck here forever. That wilting rose you saw in the west wing signifies how much time we have left. When our time's up, it will be dead."

"So you thought that I could be that girl for you. The one you fall in love with," Caroline concluded.

"Yes," Nik confirmed.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Not that it would've made a difference, Caroline thought.

Nik walked towards her slowly. "Because I wanted your feelings to be real. And I didn't want you to feel like you weren't worth anything to me beyond your ability to break this curse." He was only a few inches from her now, but she wasn't backing away. She wasn't giving in either.

"You really expect me to believe that you were only looking out for me?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes," Nik whispered, his sweet breath washing over her and making her feel like kissing him right then and there. But she wasn't that easy. He would need a lot more than a few charming words to prove that he was worth forgiving.

"Believe it or not, Caroline, I care about you. I don't want to lose you because of this." He leaned down, but Caroline turned her head to the side at the last second, causing his lips to land on her cheek.

"Please don't," she breathed.

Nik pulled away, his eyes confused.

"I just...I just need time," Caroline explained. "You lied to me, and I can't forgive you that easily."

"I don't know if I can wait."

She smiled briefly, but it was gone in an instant. "Well, lucky for you, I'm terrible at holding grudges."

-xxx-

"So that's that," Elena concluded, leaving Tyler open-mouthed and dumbfounded on the couch.

"Then what are we still doing here? We need to go save her!" he exclaimed.

"No, Tyler, be smart," Stefan said. "We don't know what we're up against. If we go barging in there without some sort of a plan, there's a good chance that we'll die. Caroline too."

"Then what's the plan?" Tyler demanded.

"Don't worry about it."

"I need to know what the plan is if I'm going with you."

Stefan and Elena exchanged glances. "Tyler..." Elena began.

"Don't try to talk me out of it," Tyler said. "I'm going, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

-xxx-

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter! As always, thank you for reading. Hugs for everyone who reviews! ;)

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