To my loving and loyal son-
Greetings.
It has been a long time coming for me to find your weak spot. Everyone has one, my son, so do not fret that you have failed in this way. Rest assured that you have in every other way, though.
It is interesting though, for it to be a girl. Laughable, that your weakness is a girl. How pathetic. A human girl, in fact. Caroline Forbes, correct? Daughter of William "Bill" Forbes and Elizabeth "Liz" Forbes, both dead, and originating from Chicago.
Is that not where I last saw you, Niklaus? Perhaps I could have done us both a favor and finished her then. She's twenty one years old, blue eyes, blonde hair, 5'8", and loves the roses that litter your grounds. And she loves you, too, doesn't she? How unfortunate, how damning. Lovely Caroline isn't exactly innocent either, is she? I won't have to feel as bad when I kill her, then.
I'm nothing if not thorough, and hell bent on destroying you and your lover, that is.
But no, this timing is perfect. I am truly glad that you have had your first taste of love, so that I can rip it away from you. Which I will, because you are foolish as always, boy, and have left her human and in my clutches.
I will see you soon.
-Mikael.
The letter didn't exist to see another second as it was crumpled in his rough hands, and thrown angrily into the raging fire before him. Every word of it caused a bloodbath to flash before his eyes, and his nerve endings were peaked.
He watched as the unrelenting flames licked up the sides of the cursed paper, the ink spilling and becoming one, swallowing it whole and vanquishing it to mere ashes.
He heard it as the rolling clouds outside burst and cackled with a goose bump inducing crack of thunder, and saw it as the world held still for a moment as it flashed bright white with unrestrained lightning. There was no rain, not yet.
His heightened vampire senses could smell the oncoming storm. It was the scent of just wet pavement, salty air, and unbridled passion bloating the air. Unavoidable. He was at the precipice, his whole life at the precipice.
He felt it as the power that he really only possessed at his darkest moments surged to his fingertips. This was the reason the world had rights to hold their fear of him. The animalistic side, feral, absolutely uncontrolled, brought to the very edge, to the surface. He was bred for control.
He could practically taste the blood of his enemies on his tongue, their anguish his glory. His father's blood. He wouldn't let anyone who ever threatened her live. He would win, he had to win.
He had never believed the whole 'seeing red' thing, but now as his vision blurred and the edges of his sight definitely took on a dark crimson tinge, he understood. It was because when this much anger, this much rage, is flowing through you, there has to be an outlet.
His father knew. His father knew of Caroline, and knew how he felt of her. He was suddenly transported back to when he was only a kid, and he felt incredibly weak for but a moment. How could he have let her crawl under his skin in such a way?
She was human, just a human. But it would kill him to change her, in any way. No, he would be able to protect her. He had to protect her.
And Klaus knew, without a doubt, that his blasted father was right. She was his weakness. There was no turning back. He would go to the ends of the earth for her, he would tackle any task that separated them. This fact should have scared him, but it didn't because it was not a revelation for him. He had known for quite some time now what she was to him.
And now, as he stretched his legs out languidly in the high backed chair facing his fireplace, she wasn't here. Rebekah had left a note saying they had gone out shopping and had brought guards, but his spine still tingled with anticipation and fear. Also anger, a good part anger.
He needed to see her, right now. He had woken that morning with a deep rooted desire to have her again, and she had already been gone. With the charred ashes now resembling the letter in his fire his lust was only heightened. And now he was a waiting lion, and incredibly restless.
It would have been less severe if his father's letter for him had not been sitting pliantly outside his door that morning. It set a rage he hadn't felt in a long time through his bones, through every fiber of his being.
Oh yes, he definitely needed to see her. And keep her locked up with him for the rest of eternity, at least until he found some way to destroy his father.
And then he might just keep her locked up still, for their own enjoyment.
-j-
My head was still spinning as we finally reached the driveway to the palace. I had no idea what to make of anything that had just occurred. I was still half convinced it had been a very strange and horrible dream. I felt like my whole mind was racing to catch up with my body, but at this point they were in two completely different places.
"Caroline?" Rebekah called and I turned to face her, realizing that she had been talking to me. The car came to a stop in the slab stone driveway. It was daytime, but the whole estate was still shrouded in darkness as the incoming storm clouds barred any possible light from coming down.
"Yeah?"
"Don't tell Klaus what happened. It's important that this stay a secret." She said urgently and I nodded my head in agreement. Klaus would probably send me to the doctor if I told him the whole wacked tale.
"Absolutely, Bekah. Is there anything you want to tell me?" I asked sincerely, and her eyes softened. The whole car ride she had been quiet and meditative and brooding, and, well, very un-Rebekah. I was even more concerned than I had been.
"Just, remember what I said." She said sweetly and then leaned forward to bestow a kiss on my forehead. When she pulled back there were tears brimming in both of our eyes, and I wasn't sure why. For some reason it felt like the goodbyes I was so used to giving. "Everything ends up okay for good people." Rebekah said cryptically, and I nodded as I pulled away.
We both exited the car, and excitement suddenly overran my confusion as the prospect of seeing him in mere seconds overtook my mind.
Last night had been, well, the most intense and exciting moment in my life thus far. I felt like something inside of me was burning, slowly and carnally. I wanted to have the epiphany of it being fueled and staved off again, and I wanted it bad.
And then, I just wanted to see him. My entire morning had been weird and unfamiliar and nerve-wracking, and I felt like my whole body was aching just to hear his voice. Everything about him soothed me and thrilled me at the same time.
I entered the palace with Rebekah nowhere to be seen anymore, most likely due to my lollygagging, and I was greeted by silence in the gigantic foyer. I had almost expected him to be waiting to greet me, but then I recalled that he wasn't exactly a man to wait. Or greet, for that matter.
My heels clicked lightly against the white marble flooring as I ascended the wide staircase. It was the only sound in the whole place. I pushed a stray lock of hair behind my ear nervously, and I wasn't too sure why.
I walked through the open door into my room, finding it empty and lacking a certain man. I slipped off my jacket and dropped it to the chair, exiting the room in disinterest. I walked back into the hallway, gazing around in search of him.
"Klaus?" I called, but was answered with silence. Curious.
I glanced left and the door that I had already frequented, that led to the drawing room with the captivating paintings, was wide open and flooded with light. I tiptoed forward and when I glanced in I was met with the sight of Klaus' back to me, his arm outstretched and spanning across a canvas with deep colors and vivid images.
I stepped inside, my heels once again the only sound resonating through the airy room. He kept his back to me, but after a moment he broke the silence, thankfully.
"Love." He said in acknowledgement, and turned around to face me. His eyes were blazing and fierce. My breath caught in my lungs with that look. I blinked once as he leaned against a nearby rustic-style, hardy looking table near him, folding his arms. It was a powerful stance that filled the room and nearly had me quaking.
"Hi." I answered, wanting to reach out to him but keeping my arms to myself. He looked incredibly tense. "I missed you." I said after another moment of heavy silence, because it was true. Just being in his presence relaxed my frazzled brain, despite his weird behavior.
"How was your trip to town?" He said darkly, and my eyebrows furrowed. He sounded angry, and I struggled to connect the dots.
"Fine." I spoke, and took a step towards him. I wanted to close the distance between us and he was making no moves anywhere close to me. "What's wrong?" I asked quietly as I reached out to him, my hands wrapping around his biceps. The muscles beneath my grip flexed in tension reflexively. He looked down at me with steely blue eyes that hid his feelings from me well.
"Nothing." His clenched jaw line still gave him away. I reached up with my hand and traced along his jaw, looking up to him gently.
"Klaus, tell me." I demanded softly. He was still staring down at me with a molten look that was intimidating but I gazed back at him unabashedly.
"It's just, …no. Rough morning." He said briefly and I only looked at him, silently willing him to continue. He dragged his hand across his face, avoiding my gaze now. "I don't want to talk about it." He finished shortly and then his lips were crashing down against mine.
I wasn't even capable of answering him or giving up complaint as his lips roughly coaxed mine into a seductive dance that I knew well by now, but was no less arousing and intoxicating from its familiarity. His kiss made me forget my sanity, let alone whatever had been bothering him. I reached my hands up to wrap around his neck, but suddenly his had captured mine and pulled them back to my sides. He kept them there with an iron grip around my wrists.
Klaus had me flipped around in the blink of an eye, not that mine were even opened at this point, so that it was me with my back to the table, and my backside dug uncomfortably into the surface from the pressure of his hips. I felt it in his kiss and his movements, he was angry. I didn't know what from, but it didn't hinder my body from erupting into flames at his violent and erratic passion.
No one but him had ever touched me like this.
He pulled my hands into a sharp lock behind my back, holding them there with one of his, so that with the other he could hitch the skirt of my hasty ensemble up and over my hips. I was in complete submission to his actions. His advances were very different than last night, and more reminiscent of the first time we kissed. Rough, frantic, but entirely alluring.
His growl vibrated through me as he lifted me up so that I was sitting on the table, my legs wrapped around his lithe waist. Somehow our lips were still connected. I felt his hard on for me. When he pulled back from my mouth which he had just so thoroughly conquered I took in with little surprise his black eyes and sharp fangs. I couldn't deny that it turned me on, the fact I had the capability to make him lose control electrocuting my nerves.
"Tell me if I hurt you." He spoke gruffly, his voice laced with unadulterated desire and the anger that I was sure was flooding his veins. I gave a jolted nod at his words, for his hands had begun to pull my flowing shirt up over my breasts.
Intoxicating touches were given to my taut peaks, just long enough to have me gasping. Klaus' pitch black eyes were on me the whole time as I fell apart under his hands.
After he had made sure I was complete putty, his capable hands drifted downward, in between the heat of my thighs. A moment later I heard a startling rip as he easily tore apart the lace of my panties, leaving me utterly bare to him.
He still had my hands held captive behind my back, and a wanton moan fell from my mouth as my already aching center was met with the rough touches of his hand. I was brought to the brink inhumanly fast, his years of experience obvious to me. I was then shoved brutally over the edge as he plunged a finger inside me, and I spasmed uncontrollably around it. His name fell from my open lips.
Another searing kiss was shared between our mouths, hot and messy, before I heard the clinking of his belt and then the button of his pants as he undressed himself with one hand. Our eyes met for a second, blue meeting black, and then he plunged into me without warning.
I cried out at the abrupt intrusion, but my quaking orgasm from earlier and the absolute desire I always felt around him had me catching up fast to his intense passion. He crushed us together and I was left in complete submission to his sharp thrusts.
It felt like we were the last two people on the earth, linked in the most intimate way as the world fell apart around us.
That same fire built up inside of me as his mouth moved along my collarbone, sucking harshly, and I gasped when I felt one of his fangs accidentally scrape against my skin. It left goose bumps as he pulled away to gaze at me.
It was an undercurrent that I was aware of, the bloodlust. He was a vampire, and there wasn't a doubt in my mind that he craved blood right now. Our gazes were still locked when I spoke.
"Yes." Was all I could manage to murmur as he was still buried inside me, and even with his vampire side revealed I could see the confusion and doubt in his stunningly handsome features. I couldn't believe what I had just said. But for some reason, I wanted him to. I wanted him to bite me, for him to own me in every way possible. He had every other part of me, why not this?
"Caroline…" He grated out as realization dawned on him. His hips were still rocking against mine, and I felt myself standing on the edge of the cliff. It would be the undoing of us both.
"Bite me." I murmured, and I wanted to touch him but my hands were still in captivity. He closed his eyes for a moment. "I love you, and I trust you. Do it." I whimpered as a particularly harsh thrust speared through me at my words.
Klaus finally released my wrists in favor of his hands digging through my hair. Seeing that I was unwavering in my demand, he leaned into my neck. My whole body was on fire as his lips brushed erotically along my neck before they settled right in the crook, only centimeters above my collarbone. I held onto him tightly as his fangs sank into me.
It was just not painful, but unfamiliar and entirely wanton. I could feel his groan as he marked me, and it pushed me fiercely off the cliff I had been desperately clinging to. His plunges became messy and erratic and only a couple of moments later he stilled after one final plunge and emptied himself into me.
I was gasping for air, my lungs not capable of keeping up with the passion that flooded my veins. He pulled away from my neck and his face rapidly transformed back into the oceanic blue front that I adored. All of the anger that had previously occupied them had ebbed and he blinked once in shock.
"Are you okay?" He asked, pushing my hair back to look at the wound. Two small puncture wounds marred my skin, marking me as his. They didn't hurt. I looked up at him, slightly dazed at what had just happened.
"Mhmm." I hummed, pulling him into my embrace. I didn't ever want to move from that position; Klaus holding me tightly against his body and every part one of our limbs interlinked.
"Caroline, I'm incapable of letting go." He said quietly and without abandon into my shoulder and I pulled away to look at him. Something was hidden in the depths of his eyes, and it looked strangely like fear. I smiled faintly.
"You don't have to."
-j-
It was later, after Klaus had carried me to his room and laid me down on his bed and then crawled in with me, that something happened in my mind. It was like a huge chasm in the inner workings of my brain had been slowly building to mend itself for a long time, and the edges were finally meeting.
My eyes widened in shock.
"Klaus." I said, turning towards him. He tightened his hold at the tumultuous look in my eyes. Fear washed steadily over me as the memories came flooding back. "I can remember, from that night." I whispered and his eyes widened in partial shock, partial fear.
"I, I was in the car with you. And then there was a… a vampire? You… you killed him, didn't you?" Klaus stayed silent, but nodded cautiously. His grip was now bruisingly tight on my hip. "And then we went back into the joint, and there was a man with Rebekah. She loved him. He… he was… Stefan?" I asked and then his face flashed through my memory. It was the man I had seen in town, the one that had run into me. My mind raced.
"Caroline." Klaus called and my gaze snapped back to his, for it had wondered towards the ceiling. He looked frighteningly worried.
"What did you do to Stefan?" I asked warily, now recalling how he had held Stefan's face, their gazes meeting, and then letting go a moment later after saying something that I couldn't hear. Rebekah had been screaming.
"I compelled him to forget us." He said darkly and cautiously all at once, obviously we were in unfamiliar territory. My eyebrows furrowed.
"Yeah, Bekah explained that to me." I paused, searching for the end of the night, right before I had completely blacked out. He had been reaching out to me. "Klaus, were you going to compel me, too?" I asked in fear and his eyes flashed.
"Yes." He said, and pulled me closer into his warmth. I shuddered at the thought of not knowing him, of having my mind wiped. "Collateral damage, love, I'm so sorry." He murmured into my hair, and I nodded. I understood.
"Would you compel me now?" I asked, my voice slightly muffled by his shoulder. I felt him freeze up at my obviously unexpected question.
"No, absolutely not." He spoke passionately and I sighed in relief at the honesty in his voice. He then searched for my hand in the convers, fingering the bracelet that was still looped around my wrist. "Besides, I couldn't even if I wanted to. This bracelet has vervain in it." He said and I looked up at him.
"Thank you." I murmured and he smiled before pressing a gentle kiss to my lips. Our eyes were boring into one another's when he spoke again.
"When that vampire attacked you and hurt you so bad, that was the worst moment in my entire life thus far. I was paralyzed in fear for a moment, that I had lost you." I could tell this cost him a lot to tell me by the wavering in his normally calm voice.
"I hadn't known you for a day, and you were already the center of my universe. I held you the entire way here, to Italy, and I don't think I breathed again until the witches told me you were going to live." Klaus admitted quietly, and my heart thudded in response to his unbidden adoration.
"Don't ever do that to me again, okay?" He demanded and I nodded automatically. I didn't want that any more than he did.
"I won't."
-j-
His fingers rattled impatiently against the wood surface, his foot bouncing anxiously under it. Adrenaline was pumping at an almost uncomfortable rate in his veins. He felt the wolf in him roaring, roaring for spilled blood.
"Alright, Tyler. Do you understand the mission?" Mikael asked from above him, and he nodded automatically and without hesitation. He was subconsciously aware that he was actually on auto pilot, and that he didn't control his next words.
"My job is to take her." He said, his voice drone-like and flat, without any emotion. Mikael's smile was utterly chilling.
"When?"
"In the night." He answered quickly, his gaze locked with the older man's.
"And bring her where?" Mikael asked impatiently, leaning forward to look directly into Tyler's eyes.
"To you."
-j-
His now seemingly permanent frown deepened as he glanced down and saw that there was a hole in his shoe. When had he gotten that? It bothered him.
He looked ahead of their small group, deeper into the unrecognizable forest. Had he been here before? He wasn't sure. It was thickly wooded and vibrant with forest life, though none of that could be seen now in the darkness of night. How fitting. Matt walked sluggishly beside him, and no one had said a word for hours. He felt a hand suddenly clasp his shoulder and he turned to look into their leader's eyes.
"Stefan." The man spoke, and for the life of him he couldn't remember the man's name. Mark? Maxwell? He hadn't a clue, and his didn't particularly care to fix the matter.
"I'm so glad you are with us." The man said and Stefan nodded vaguely. A familiar feeling was overcoming him, the instinct that he was about to fuck something up. It wouldn't be the first time, so he made no move to correct it.
He hadn't seen his beautiful ghost in a while.
The man then moved on, to another member, and the group continued to move carefully through the woods. He had missed bloodshed and violence, and he knew that this excursion would bring this to him, in great volumes.
Matt suddenly stopped along the path, and looked at him with a strange glint in his eyes. Stefan paid him no mind as he kept walking. The boy wasn't his problem.
What a strange world.
-j-
Rebekah set the glass full of blood, freshly poured, down in front of her. She was impressed with herself that she had remembered to drink.
Everyone had always spoken of her ability to perceive events, and her intuition. She even knew it was strong herself. And right now every nerve ending in her body was completely wired with the awareness that the end was near.
Maybe Mikael was on his way. Or he was already here. Either way, his plan was going to come to fruition soon. It was eerie and exhilarating to know that she had finally bested her blasted father. Her plan was without fault, and would triumph. She had but only one regret.
Stefan.
She would miss him, invariably. Rebekah wasn't exactly sure what was waiting for her after, but she hoped for peace. She hoped that though she had lived centuries of being a royal demon and slaying more lives than she knew, that whatever was up there would have mercy on her poor soul and that she would finally know peace. Maybe her one good deed could save her.
Rebekah also hoped that her brothers would finally find peace as well. That with this final act of violence and vengeance that their lives would gain some normality, some happiness.
Ironically, she had searched her entire life for love and had found it in her family. In her brothers, in the sweet human Caroline. That maybe love wasn't just from a man, that it could come from her family. And from protecting it.
A smile graced her perfect lips as she stood up, lightening flashing through the windows as she did.
The storm was at their doorstep.
Author's Note:
Happy Valentine's Day my scrumptious readers. I hope it was wonderful, and if not here's some Klaroline smut to make it all better. xx
Yay! New update! Sorry this kind of took me forever but it's here now. We have some lovely Klaroline moments in here, and Caroline getting her memories back, finally. Thoughts?
WHAT HAS REBEKAH DONE? Haha, literally the only question I have been asked these past couple of days. I can't spoil anything for you guys, but I promise you'll want to stick around for the answer.
And what is this dang storm this crazy lady keeps talking about? Maybe I don't even really know at this point, haha.
So Matt, Stefan, and Tyler are on the bad guys' team? What the heck? Let me know what you guys think of their POV's and also if anyone has been catching the recurring parallel with Stefan, let me know! I'll give you a cookie. xx.
AofH reached 5,000 views this week and even if this isn't considered a lot to everyone, it is to me. Actually, it's pretty mind-blowing and I just want to give the most sincere thanks to all of my beautiful readers. It means the absolute world. I never imagined I could come this far with a story or my writing, and it's all thanks to you guys.
Question: What has been your favorite chapter so far? I'm sooo curious so tell me, and why!
Another question: What do you like the best about this story? This is entirely for me to improve my plot and writing. Be honest! If it's smut, it's smut. Wink.
Thank you, as usual, for reading and please give me your honest reviews, I love them to death!
Best,
J.