The group was all moving in sync, breathing and gliding their feet across the sand at the same time and Caroline was following the routine naturally, she didn't have to look at the others because as Klaus had taught her, practicing Tai Chi was about finding the right balance within oneself.
Luckily she found out that a group of people practiced every day at sunrise in the park across her house and every morning she was here to practice silently with them, it was something that gave her peace and it became a bit of ritual for her.
She was one of the youngest in the group but still she was welcomed with smiles by the older ones who even helped her in the beginning with a few minor advices about her posture or about executing more advanced exercises.
Everyone was nice and Caroline loved the group, except for one particular guy who started practicing with them for the last three days, he was a beginner but she had a feeling that he wasn't here to learn which was obvious when he finally made a move and approached her.
"I don't think that I'm very good at this." He awkwardly said as the group started dissipating and he was granted a chance to speak to her alone.
Without giving him a word Caroline tried to send him away with a tiny smile and a look somewhere else.
"I could really use some help." He insisted.
Caroline had a quiet sigh and looked at the sandy ground. "I can't help you and I'm waiting for someone…" Politely she looked at him.
He had a nice face and his hair was dark like his deep-brown eyes, there was a smug smile crossing his lips and Caroline really wished he wouldn't go there.
"I'm not really the jealous type." He joked satisfied with his antic.
"Could you please leave? I would like to be alone." Cordially she asked.
"I thought that you were waiting for someone." He let out his crispness.
"Are you deaf?" Gloria gave the boy a fright by speaking just behind him, when he turned she eyed him with such ferocity that it propelled a fast exit from him.
Caroline had the smallest giggle. "I think that that one will never return to the park."
"He will keep his distance if he's smart." Gloria picked up an apple from inside of her grocery bag still with an astute eye for any other possible hassle. "If not, I will gladly hex him." She handed a red apple to Caroline.
"You sort of remind me of my mother, she was a woman of fire and convictions."
"And as much protective?" Gloria identified her tiny fault.
"Sadly we weren't close and she died before I could ever try to reconnect with her."
"I never wanted children." Gloria mused. "Didn't see myself much as the maternal type."
Caroline stopped as they reached Gloria's house. "Was there a great love that could have changed it all?"
Gloria laughed carelessly. "I had at least four epic loves."
Caroline juggled her apple from hand to hand. "I used to believe in love."
With a smile Gloria touched her arm. "Caroline, you were mistreated by life the first time around but many people will go in and out of your life and each one will leave a different kind of feel in it. I know that you're scared of getting hurt again but don't close yourself up completely."
"When I was with Damon I used to think that it couldn't get worst and then he always proved me wrong but now that he's gone, I know that he was the worst that could've happened to me."
"And this time around he will not prove you wrong." Gloria winked at her before leaving to her house.
Caroline smiled, that was the foundation of her rebirth.
Dickens was still napping on the sofa and Caroline went straight to the bedroom without waking him, she sat on the bed polishing her apple before having a big bite out of it.
Her phone had a couple of messages and one of them was from Klaus, her smile was huge as she unfolded the playful picture of a can of yellow paint.
Rebekah rolled her eyes poked by the giddy smirk that Klaus had as he answered Caroline's message. "I wonder if she knows that she makes one of the most callous men known to humanity smile like he's a boy experiencing his first puppy love."
"Her wit is very different and I enjoy it immensely." Klaus replied to another message quickly.
"Why are you leaving the rest of her out?"
"I'm shy." Klaus conveyed this appalled stance that was almost real.
Rebekah laughed with a drifting look at the view, they were leaving Belgium in a train and the sight from the window was amazing.
Less impressed by it and fixated on Klaus was Davina, who sat in front of the two siblings as a good hostage.
"Can I help you with an answer to some urgent question, sweetheart?" Klaus asked her without taking his eyes from the phone.
"How did you become an assassin?" Davina asked him.
"There were already too many priests in the world." He kept his phone inside of his pocket and looked at the young witch. "And witches."
"Some more special than others." Rebekah eyed Davina with a piercing look.
"What did Thierry say before you killed him?" Although the question was for Rebekah he kept his stare straight ahead.
"That only Marcel knows what Davina can do, I'm not sold on the future foreseeing abilities that they are trying to sell us." Rebekah answered Klaus.
"So she is here for a special purpose, it's not just a random location spell that Marcel wants from her?"
"That's what I reckon." Rebekah lifted her eyes to the door down the corridor, someone was joining them in this passenger coach.
"What's so interesting about your witchcraft gift that made Marcel flash out of his hiding spot?" Klaus analyzed the young girl.
"I'm very good at keeping my mouth shut." Davina noticed the company around them and reacted agitated to it.
"The train is providing us with entertainment, that's thoughtful of them." Klaus counted 10 men by the time the last one closed the door behind him.
"You're on the aisle side so you deal with them." Rebekah had a sip from her drink.
"Why can't I enjoy my drink while you ask them why they are here?"
"Because I'm having a mojito and you're drinking dull scotch." Rebekah didn't plan to move an inch.
Klaus sighed annoyed, he was hoping for a calm ride filled with opportunities to call Caroline.
"The girl stays here but you two have to get out on the next stop." A big man with a ponytail informed the trio.
"That's very rude of you to not introduce yourself first." Klaus looked at the man with a smile.
"My name is Lachlan and you two need to leave." He divided his attention between the two siblings.
"That's such a nice name." Rebekah easily said.
He narrowed his eyes on edge. "Take your stupid compliments with you when you leave, dirty vampire."
"That's what you get when you are a classy girl with manners. Werewolf?" Rebekah crunched the ice with her teeth.
"Do you think that there is a chance he won't beg for a cure if I bite him?" Klaus asked her.
"There's no cure for stupidity." Rebekah looked away aloof.
Right on cue as Klaus moved his foot to sweep Lachlan's legs and knock him to the floor, he leaped from his seat so fast that the reaction from the group came in slow motion when in comparison to his agility.
He snaked an arm around the man standing behind him, he held him under his reach tilting his chin backwards and breaking his neck at the same time that he kicked someone all the way to the end of the corridor, he used the dead weight on his hand to send someone else to the floor as he hauled the corpse strongly against the man.
Two other burly men tried to swing a few good punches but Klaus simply caught their fists with each hand, he twisted their arms snapping them by the joints and pushed them off as they screamed in pain.
As he prepared to kill another man a gunshot was heard and the softest burning sensation hit the back of his shoulder, he turned around to face a shaking man but that fate was sealed by a knife that Rebekah threw from her seat, she just hated guns too much.
Klaus smiled but his sister was determined to keep her intervention to the minimal so it was up to him to decapitate the man closest to him, it resulted in a panic scene with the rest of the group trying to leave the carriage and inevitably ending up dead at his hands.
Unperceived to the gory fight the train announced a stop in a few minutes and Rebekah took Davina's arm to make the girl stand up. "Let's go, special girl."
She felt sick as she walked by bloodied corpses and body parts scattered on the seats. "I'm going to throw up."
"I hate humans with a weak stomach." Rebekah grunted.
Klaus waited for them by the exit. "We go on separate ways now, it's time to see if Marcel wants his witch more than he wants to come after us."
"Matt and the boys are waiting a few hours away." Rebekah wanted to keep Davina with her. "We shouldn't take this one back to San Francisco right away."
"I agree." Klaus nodded serious. "You should carry on until you reach Luxembourg while I return home to conference with Elijah."
Rebekah chuckled finding him terribly transparent. "Or to meet with a particular blonde who looks well in my clothes."
"Having my hand on a few matters at the same time has always been a quality." He exited ahead of the girls vanishing quickly into the crowd at the station.
"Wonder girl, we need to compel someone for a car." Rebekah stepped down from the train with Davina being held closely to her.
This second paragraph was very interesting and Caroline looked for her colorful marker, it was suddenly missing and she moved her books, her notebook and everything else on her cluttered table searching for it.
She almost looked inside of her bag as well but there had been someone else attentive to her marker's destination.
"It's holding up your hair." A young man said as he leaned against her table, standing just next to her.
Caroline lifted her hand remembering now the moment that she made an improvised bun with the pink marker. "Thanks." She quietly said without taking her eyes from the book in front of her and pulling the marker out of her hairdo.
Her long curly hair unfolded into a natural cascade and the boy was outspoken about it. "You have really nice hair…" He said as if he was complementing his own sentence.
Caroline stopped reading but kept her posture unchanging.
"It's been almost two weeks since you started college and everyday you come to the library and sit at the table across mine and you never look up from your books… if you had, you would have noticed that I was looking at you the entire time."
The temperature inside of the library was of no significance for a vampire and Caroline knew that her skin was crawling for a far different reason but she still searched for her jacket, it was a simple gesture that was frozen as soon as the boy trapped it under his hand.
He rested his palm over the back of her chair and smoothly leaned away from her table and towards her. "Or have you seen me and decided to play shy?"
Caroline directed her eyes at him, he had dark hair that reached his shoulders and disobedient black eyes. "I don't come to the library to look at you or at anyone else. I'm here to study."
Her brass reply made him smile. "What's your name beauty? I'm Trevor."
"I'm not interested so please leave me alone."
He didn't move right away but within the next five seconds he straightened up and even stepped back opening his arms.
Although she forged the space she wasn't comfortable in here anymore and cleared up her table, leaving the library next.
There was still time before her next class and Caroline settled in the auditorium for a quick call, she waited for his strong voice to greet her and it felt nice to hear him when he did.
"You sent me happiness in a can." She joked with him.
Klaus richly laughed. "Did it reach you intact?"
"It made me smile." She granted him a small gift.
"Perhaps a portrait of that would have made me smile as well."
"Our friendship hasn't reached the selfie status yet."
He laughed again. "I rather admire that smile in person nevertheless."
"When will you come back?" She worked on a drawing in her pad.
"Well sweetheart, that could depend entirely on how much you miss me."
She scoffed him silently and her hand made some extra force on the pad. "I wouldn't put all my money on that side of the scale."
"You are probably right because it's a big wage after all."
She knew that he was toying with her and concluded what her drawing would be. "Even if I don't miss you to an extreme, will you be back soon?"
Her tone was so childlike that it left him endeared. "That scale is dangerously tilting my way."
She sighed focused on her work. "Klaus, if you carry on like this, when you do come back I won't show up at your door."
"And in case I showed up at yours?"
Caroline clasped the pencil in her hand. "You're on your way home, aren't you?"
"I should arrive at my house in the morning."
She bit her lip. "Really?"
Klaus looked at a sea of clouds. "I'm leaving on a jet plane."
She had a quiet deep breath, they hadn't seen each other for two weeks but talked every day nonetheless and she missed him. "I would like to see you."
Klaus nodded elated. "I will drive by your house and take you out for breakfast."
"Ok." She cutely smiled enamored with the idea, there was a sudden commotion with people coming inside of the auditorium in groups and she smiled at the first girls sitting next to her. "I have to go, my class starts in a few."
"I will see you tomorrow then." Klaus ended the call with a sensation of soreness in his shoulder, just where the bullet had hit him.
"That's a really cool wolf." One of the girls told Caroline.
"Thank you." Caroline liked what she had so far as well.
"I'm Rose." The girl smiled at Caroline hugely.
"Caroline." She replied a bit reserved and placing her attention on their professor.
Rose took a bit longer to look away from Caroline.
Katherine smiled as the handsome man occupied the stool in front of her, she was having a Latte in a very hip and busy coffee shop and she had sensed his presence outside for the last five minutes. "Good morning Elijah."
"Our pleasant meetings are running out of steam." He set the tone to their conversation quickly.
"But I enjoy our dinners so much." She complained.
He smiled with a small leaning of his head to the side. "On a sad note, I'm not here to find a romantic partner Katherine."
"You are here for the stakes."
"Which are not in your room."
Katherine smirked on her way to taste her coffee. "Of course that I would never leave them where anyone with natural charm could just stumble on it."
"The siren way is bewitching and I enjoy the flirtation Katherine but now I must insist that you reveal the location of those weapons."
Katherine sighed as she was missing him already. "It's sad that our flirt ends so abruptly."
"We haven't gone past the evening meals." Elijah simplified their interaction so far.
"Those dinners were more fun than most of my flings." She eyed him always flirtatiously.
"Your company was most amiable." He crossed his hands over the table. "But in a time of war there is no breathing space for a liaison."
She folded her napkin with a chuckle. "You're gorgeous Elijah and you look good in a suit but we would never work as a couple."
"You are wounding my heart." He said in a joking manner.
"This has been fun but a girl has to do what she has to do." Katherine dropped her napkin on the floor.
It was a sign for one of the waitresses and acting under compulsion the girl plunged a fork into Elijah's hand, it didn't affect him beyond the surprising moment but it caused a raucous mess around them and when Elijah looked for Katherine she was already gone.
In a hurry he rushed to the door catching a glimpse of her inside of a car, picking up a random small rock from the ground he tossed it at the passing vehicle, the hit forced her to stop as the window on the driving seat was shattered but to Elijah's dismay it wasn't her at the wheel but someone who was wearing a wig similar to her hair.
He looked around but evidently she escaped without leaving a scent to track and he plucked his handkerchief from the pocket suit upset but while cleaning his hand dirty with blood he felt almost impressed by how slick she was.
"If he bothers you again, you slam his head down on the table and carry on studying." Sage inched closer to the screen. "He was making you uncomfortable so he was the one who had to leave."
Caroline was using Skype to speak to Sage and she seemed to shrink a little in her sofa before answering back. "I could be expelled for being violent towards another student, even if he was harassing me. Besides he looked human and the Academy forbids any usage of supernatural abilities against fangless creatures." She cuddled Dickens closer to her and buried her chin in his fur. "I'm screwed if he develops a crush on me."
"This isn't a predicament Caroline…" Sage softly said. "If he comes around sniffing you again, you put him down."
Caroline smiled, Sage was firing up again but surprisingly she wasn't the only one.
With a subtle approach Finn neared the seat that his wife was taking and peeked at Caroline from above Sage's shoulder. "If you could provide the boy's family name I could send him a Viking warning."
Caroline crunched her lips and eyebrows unclear of what he meant.
"He would send Elijah to scare the life out of the boy." Sage most proudly explained.
"That's ok Finn, I will stand up to him the next time that he bothers me but thank you for the offer." Caroline was sweet in her reply.
He nodded serious. "But outside the Academy you could use your supernatural fist to bring him some sense, or did I misinterpreted the rules?" He lifted an eyebrow as the thought thickened in his mind.
Caroline nodded. "I'll remember that."
"Or you just run him over with the Jag." Sage reinforced.
Finn and Caroline laughed enthralled but it was up to the two girls to keep up another half an hour of conversation, by the time that Sage closed her laptop Finn was already involved with a book.
One that didn't hold his interest once Sage was free and he smiled from the sofa at his wife. "You have taken such a warm liking to this girl."
She twirled her long ponytail with a scold. "Are you trying to fool someone? Because just now your fatherly side was a beacon all the way to San Francisco."
He hard-pressed his lips. "Nothing but repercussions of having a baby sister, Rebekah always attracted a vast list of unpleasant creatures in heat."
"Rebekah knows how to keep them at arms-length, it's Caroline that I'm guarded about."
Finn stood from the sofa with a tender look. "And the reason behind it?"
Sage kept her eyes on his as he sat next to her on the dining table. "When you came home that night and told me that Klaus had a girl inside of his car and that she looked oddly not all there, I thought of some traumatized infant that I would detest at first sight. I never expected to meet someone so estranged from life itself, Caroline's eyes were lifeless, completely immersed in this indescribable pain that she insisted on keeping to herself. It broke my heart to look at Caroline and that's something that I won't forget so soon."
Devotedly he left a stroking caress on her cheek. "She's taken her time but she's becoming better."
"And I'm not the only one mindful of her wellbeing, Rebekah said that her traveling companion was glued to his phone and swift with his messages."
"We may all be very different from each other but comes a Leelan and we all act the same." Finn closed his hand around Sage's.
She moved from her seat with a smile and sat on his lap. "Let's do something romantic tonight."
"We could drive down to the river and have a gondola ride." He lowered his chin charmingly. "And I could sing for you."
She answered back by laughing.
"You do not love me enough." He complained.
Sage wrapped her arms around his neck. "I do and it's because of that love that I don't want to have your singing voice as the echo of a beautiful night."
He liked the special light that he found in her blue loving eyes and smiled. "If my Shellan wishes so." He gave in.
Sage tilted her head slowly so that she could frame his lips for a kiss. "I don't want anything to disrupt my night with you."
"There's a chance that the gondola man will erupt into song spontaneously." He did his obligation and warned her.
"I will have to throw him overboard if he does."
"Always with your guns blazing, my love."
"I like the prospect of this night more and more." She rested her lips upon his for a kiss.
And blissful that he had dedicated his life to this one woman he kissed her back.
It was early in the morning but Caroline expected him to arrive before the scheduled time, although they hadn't talked again on the phone he did send her a small message with the rendezvous timing so she stepped out of her house hoping to see him soon.
Caroline waited in her porch with alert eyes that reacted to every car or person approaching, minutes passed and she checked her phone to find it oddly absent of any contact from Klaus. "Hmmm…" She wrinkled her lips questioning herself wether she should call him or not. "He's probably just a bit late."
Yes, that was probably it and she locked her phone again.
Patiently she waited on her porch but as time started to flow her calm started to dissipate as well, an hour had passed since she checked her watch and neither had he called or showed up.
She was definitely a bit reluctant when she dialed his number but Caroline found it strange that he was so late and without warning to top it all, it was far from reassuring that he didn't pick up the call and if she had a sparkle of fear that something happened she also had a thought that slowly overtook everything else, he didn't share her enthusiasm and wasn't rushing to see her again.
Caroline sat on the steps of her porch discouraged and stared at an empty street without will to move, she couldn't shake off the feeling of false hope altogether.
Another hour went by and it was clear that Klaus wasn't coming or calling to inform her of his decision but not even going back inside and snuggling Dickens for comfort sounded appeasing for Caroline, she was sad that there wasn't a followup to the easy friendship that was created between them.
She got used to the calls and to Klaus' mischievous sense of humor, to his bright incisive remarks and naturally to the way that he made her feel calm and resistant to the haunting demons that still played inside of her.
There were a lot of mixed loud sentiments when she called him again and although the result was the same her attitude wasn't, this made no sense at all, they kept in touch since she moved out of the Brotherhood house and he never showed the intention of toning down their interactions, it was actually the opposite and Caroline went back to her first thought.
Something happened and that's why he didn't show up.
Before her creepy thoughts took control again she acted on her small hunch, twenty minutes later she was speeding in her car and headed to his house, her memory didn't trick her and she easily found the right exit in the freeway, from there to find the lone road that led straight to his mansion it was a matter of minutes.
As she neared the house the first thing that she saw was his car parked in the driveway and Caroline stopped just behind it, she didn't see anyone as she left her car and there was no answer at the door when she knocked but she hadn't drove all the way here to go back to sulking in her porch alone so she opened the front door.
"Klaus?"
It was an unanswered calling but the mantel was lit up, there were also a few couch pillows scattered on the ground and some of the furniture was moved out of place so Caroline guessed that the slight disorder was a bad sign.
"Klaus, are you in here?" She asked from the bottom of the staircase.
The top floor was dark but Caroline heard a noise as she walked upstairs, it was coming from a bedroom and she asked for him once more as she headed down the long corridor.
"Caroline…"
She identified the weak response as his voice and it troubled her how it was missing his usual force, she quickened her step but entered his room slowly.
Klaus was standing by his bed and trying to close up the buttons of his shirt, trying because his fingers kept sliding through the buttons like he was too frail to perform such a simple task.
"I tried to warn you that I would be late but I seem to have misplaced my phone." He looked confused and it showed in the way that he wasn't sure if he should look for his phone or look at her.
Caroline's next step found something on her way and she looked down to find his phone just next to her foot, she picked it up but Klaus was still fondling over his open shirt, he couldn't go past the first two bottom buttons and he appeared pale and actually ill to her.
"Klaus, you don't look well." She stepped closer to him.
"You found my phone." He was baffled by that and reached for it.
It was a simple motion but it took a toll on him and Klaus lost his balance to stagger forward, Caroline was fast to catch him and supported his weight with her own.
"I'm not sure that I'm well." He confessed a bit vaguely.
"You are burning up." She stated as his scorching heat pressed against her body and as she moved her hand up his back to better support him it became sticky with blood that was crossing the fabric of his shirt. "And you're bleeding." She was the one confused now.
"I was shot by some Slayer." He closed his eyes responding to the painful fever that took over his skin.
He was going to stagger again and Caroline guided him to the bed, just in time as he sort of collapsed to sit there without much control over his body.
"I need to see your wound." She softly moved to sit behind him and pulled his shirt down, there was a nasty infected hole with dark blood oozing out of it. "Didn't you take the bullet out?"
"There was no bullet…" He tried reaching out to touch his shoulder but his hand was limp.
Caroline traced a scratched line that was fading too slowly, it was obvious that he had been scratching and fussing over the wound for a while but she was unsure why he wasn't healing. "This might hurt…" She prepared him before running her thumb over the wound.
Klaus hissed and his skin wrinkled under her touch caused by the intense pain of her gentle inspection, he tried reaching for it again, he wanted to dig that disturbing sensation away.
"It's eating away my skin." He protested.
Caroline caught his hand to stop him from making things worst. "What is?"
"That… infection." He didn't have a better word.
Caroline rubbed her thumb against her index and noticed something white that was mixed with the blood. "There's this white powdery residue inside of the wound."
"Ash." Klaus found the word that had been missing.
Caroline looked up startled. "They hurt you with white ash?"
Klaus had a bit of a troubled intake of air and looked back at her. "I need you to clean thoroughly that laceration."
"Okay." She nodded at him.
"The longer that white ash stays in contact with my blood, the strongest will be the infection and the hardest will be to heal fast."
"Where can I find the things that I need to clean it?" Caroline was ready to jump from the bed with a flash.
He answered with a drift of his eyes to the bathroom nearby and in blurring speed she gathered everything that she needed and went back to the bed, Klaus' shirt was now resting on the bed next to him and Caroline sat behind him again but with a better look at a very polished back.
She used the gaze to clean the first layer of blood and it wasn't a pretty sight to see a deep gash with infectious tissue, nor it was to see Klaus holding back a rasp every time that she touched him.
"That's a very distinctive tattoo." She mentioned the triangle that was imprinted on his other shoulder blade.
"The Japanese have a saying, each decision we make, each action we take is born out of an intention. The triangle represents the connection between my past, my present and my future."
She smiled, everything about Klaus was a monstrous affirmation of how regal he was, even the ink on his skin had a deep meaning and history behind it. "It's a cool tattoo but I prefer the other one." She wondered about the big tattoo with birds and a feather in the front.
"I enjoy the poetic meaning of freedom."
"You're not leaving much space for your Shellan Mark." She softly said.
He turned his head to look at her.
"Sage told me a bit about the Viking wedding tradition." She glanced at him but without lingering.
"My heart leans slightly to the left and the tattoo is on my right."
She was using alcohol to remove all the ash and she soaked another gaze with it. "So you have all that space saved up for a name?"
"There's room for a name with many letters."
She resisted looking at him and concentrated on her medical assistance. "It's done with white ash on a blade so you would have to suffer as you are suffering now." Rebelliously she glanced at him again. "A short name would be better for you."
"My Leelan will have my pain and my blood as an offering, regardless of how long her name is. I assume you know by now what a Leelan is."
She moved her blue eyes in a telling way. "I need a knife." She hid a smile.
He didn't. "There's a blade in the first drawer."
She used it to cleanse the injury of all the poisonous ash, she was hurting him, of that she was sure so she was swift and efficient, once all the ash was on a gaze she used more alcohol and then pressed his wound to stop the bleeding.
Caroline tore his shirt apart and used a portion of it to strap a clean gaze to the open gush, after improvising a dressing she rearranged his pillows and helped him sit back and rest against the headboard. "I think that I got everything out but you need blood to heal faster because that ash is all over your bloodstream by now." She pulled the sleeve of her cardigan up to expose her wrist.
Klaus shook his head refusing her proposal. "My bite is deadly."
"Oh." She widened her eyes. "I hadn't thought of that." She chewed on her lower lip thinking of a solution.
"And I'm not well to heal you afterwards."
She tapped the knife in her palm. "You don't have to bite me, I can simply bleed into a glass."
"I will be well in a few hours." He took the knife from her hand. "There's no need for you to cut yourself."
"It's sweet that you're doing this Klaus but unless you have a stack of blood in the fridge, you need my blood."
He closed his eyes with a sly smile in his lips. "I'm not having any blood and I'm not going to die within the next hour but if you want to be certain perhaps you could stay while I slowly return to all my immaculate holiness."
It was a shame that he couldn't see how much she was scolding him but Caroline quietly left his side so that he could rest.
She had a small walk around his bedroom, it was cluttered with books written in several different languages but that was the only thing that she expected.
His bedroom was very unique, it was a testimony of his love for the Orient, all the walls were white with the exception of the wall behind his bed, that one was vivid red like the duvet and the bed itself was black.
There was a painted mural of a dragon expelling fire on the farthest wall and Caroline was fond of it, although her favorite one was the cherry blossom tree that was painted on the living room.
She didn't find any weapons at sight which she found surprising but she did find something far more interesting, there was a big pad with a leather cover and Caroline's curiosity was stronger than her prudence, when she lifted the cover she encountered a collection of portraits of the Mikaelson family.
Elijah in his long hair, Kol as a young vampire in a early Shakespearian era, Finn and Sage with a bright France in the background and of course Rebekah, the beautiful girl was captured in detail and love with her hair caught up in Victorian ways.
She knew them all so the last drawing that she found had to belong to Henrik, the boy on paper was sitting on a horse and smiling hugely, he had brown hair and a playful personality that she grasped from the way that Klaus drew him.
"You found the family album."
Caroline turned to the bed, Klaus had his eyes closed which was disconcerting. "I couldn't resist looking into it, I'm sorry."
"Rebekah detests her personification, she claims that I've made her fat." Klaus opened his eyes.
Caroline laughed with the softness of a woman who related to another. "We don't like seeing our features so enhanced."
"Beauty should never be overrated." He fixated his stare on Caroline as she sat next to him on the bed.
Caroline ignored the blunt praise and felt his forehead with her palm. "Your fever is stubborn to come down."
"I have not succumbed to the hallucinations."
"How can you tell? I could be a fabrication of your mind right now."
"What a cruel and harsh possibility that you speak of."
She looked away from his eyes and searched for a random spot in the wall. "Sometimes I do think that I'm imagining everything that happened since that party." She looked down on the floor. "That all this is just a sadistic induced illusion and that you don't exist." She lowered her voice. "And that all my smiles are only in my mind."
Softly Klaus moved his hand closer to hers, when she didn't pull away he asked for her permission to hold it close.
Caroline looked at his hand at the same time that she hid her delicate fingers under his strong palm and quietly smiled. "So do you think that you could like… avoid getting shot?" She faced him.
"I've always been proficient when it comes to dodging bullets."
"Until now." She danced with the words as much as she danced with his eyes.
On his behalf he would have been lost in that pearly blue if it wasn't for his phone accusing a message, unhappy he let go of her hand to take his phone. "My sister is reporting in." He handed Caroline his phone. "Do you mind typing in a message? I'm still having a hard time focusing."
"Shoot!" She toyed with a hint of sass.
"Adorable usage of a pun." Klaus pressed his dressing, wishing that he was healing faster.
Caroline breezed out this tiny giggle but looked at him ready to type.
"Everything is calm in San Francisco. I haven't spoken to Elijah yet." He said.
Almost as fast as she sent out the message, she received an answer that she read out loud. "Stop wooing Caroline and call our brother." She looked at Klaus with narrowed eyes.
"How is Matt?" He pointed at his phone.
With a sigh Caroline wrote down the message and then read what she received as a reply. "Sod off, sweetheart."
Klaus laughed entertained but eased up as his shoulder troubled him.
Caroline stood up to check on the dressing, it was covered in blood which worried her. "Who's Matt?" She had to keep him distracted for now.
"One of our best soldiers and someone with an unconcealed flame for my sister."
"And he's still alive?" Caroline didn't like a bit of how dark the skin around the open gush was looking and she tried to keep him going so that she could do what had to be done.
"Rebekah doesn't fancy him." Klaus cringed his teeth when the cold blade came in contact with his skin.
"I promise to be quick." Caroline whispered feeling awful that she had to dig for any remains of that nasty white stuff.
This time Klaus screamed as she stirred inside of that open cut.
"How many of her suitors have you dismissed?"
"All but the one who mattered." Klaus replied between teeth.
"I met Marcel so I know how hot he is, probably irresistible if he had his eyes set on Rebekah."
"It's a wonderful afternoon for torture." Klaus groaned.
Caroline moved the tip of the knife a little to the left. "It's been a while for me so I might be out of touch."
Instead of another loud scream Klaus held in his rage and pain as her words froze his immediate response.
"You still don't know when I'm joking…" Caroline read his reaction.
"I know when you're using your torment as your best smile."
She plucked a tiny little splinter with the blade. "There you are, you nasty little bugger." Victoriously she held the last shred of the weapon used against him.
"That's bloody brilliant…" He tried to turn his head back but slumped against her battered.
Caroline cradled him carefully. "I love how courageous you are Klaus but you're being a dimwit now, you need my blood."
He was nested against her chest and looking at her striking beauty, somehow he was missing the tragedy of his condition. "This is not how I envisioned our first blood sharing."
She stroked his scruffy cheek. "You think of biting me often?"
He inched towards a smile. "Blood sharing is not that."
"I wouldn't know, I've never done it before."
His glistening stare reflected a doubt.
"With Damon everything was one-sided." She lowered her wrist to his lips.
Caroline prepared for a cutting pain that would propel exponentially as he fed with more will but from the second that Klaus' sharp fangs perforated her skin that there was no pain or discomfort, only this warm sensation as he started to pull her blood into his mouth.
It wasn't what she was used to and instead of wanting him to stop Caroline ran her fingers through his curls and watched him as he fed with an admiration, it was indisputably new for her to have such a feeling but she liked how caring he was not to hurt her and how the sensation seemed to have this exhilarating effect on her.
Klaus drew out her blood some more with a tilt of his head so that he could frame her with a look, before he let go of her wrist he brushed her skin with his lips like he was closing them in a kiss.
Caroline's cheeks burned in a timid blush and she barely maintained her eyes on the same level of his as he pulled away from her blood. "Is it enough?"
He licked his lips, she tasted so good. "Do you know the definition of genuine beauty Caroline? Being in contact with something that leaves you wanting more." Klaus closed his eyes tired.
"It's a White Ash bullet, it's designed to disintegrate upon impact."
"A what?" Kol frowned with the definition and with the view.
Jackson was one of Kol's most trusted men and an expert in weapons, he crushed the white bullet in his hand turning it into a thousand tiny pieces. "This is how it looks once it lodges inside of your body."
When Kol touched the pieces his skin was instantly an open wound. "Will you imagine that? These wankers are getting smart."
"There are a few of these scattered all around, I have a friend in Europe and he saw a casing of these as well." Jackson further informed.
Kol unlocked his phone and called one of his brothers. "Elijah, have you talked to Nik today?"
Klaus woke from his slumber revitalized, he was healed and out of pain and he opened his eyes locating Caroline at once, she was standing by the window with the sunset light behind her like a dreamy apparition.
"How's the fever?" She added some sweetness to the moment.
"It vanished along with the infection." He tried to assess how long he had been out cold and the damage that his poison had caused on her.
Caroline stopped feeling her entire right arm but she was resistant to pain and she took her time nearing the bed when he held out his hand for her. "You look better." She slowly joined her hand with his.
"Time to take care of you."
Caroline's lips were dry and she nervously sat down next to him. "How is this going to happen?"
"It's the same as feeding from a warm jugular."
"I named my blood bags Joe and Jane, does that count as feeding from a person?" She had a small side look at him.
Klaus chuckled but he had a sad aura around him. "You were robbed of too many things."
Her answer was absolute silence.
"Grant me with your trust for the next 5 short minutes."
Caroline gulped down but gave him a small yes by nodding.
"You should lie down for this." He said in the most undoubting voice.
He was careful not to touch her and to keep a distance between them as he rested on his side, just next to her, his weight on his forearm and his eyes on her.
Caroline breathed out loudly and with a nervous rasp while her eyes were two huge questioning marks locked on his features.
"Are you all right?" He asked without taking things any further.
"I'm lying down in a strange bed with a shirtless man. I've only been on this situation with another man before."
"I could put on a shirt."
Caroline crunched her lips avoiding a smile. "I wasn't complaining about the landscape."
He released this thick small laughter but his focus was entirely on her and he respected her reluctant behavior. "You don't have to feel forced into anything and I could merely fill a glass with my blood but I would like to provide you with the experience of feeding directly from a vein."
"Will you stop at that?" She whispered.
"Sweetheart, we are rewriting your lines and it would be hideous of me to cross any of those lines when you are still defining them."
Her voice dropped almost to inaudible standards. "What if those lines are about my aversion to be touched right now?"
"It's your limits Caroline and I just stated that I'm not hideous."
A sweet set of blue eyes, a cute button-nose, a polished scruff that hid his dimples, and lips that knew when to curve into perfect little smirks were not traits of a hideous man, he was handsome as hell and she was starting to like that.
Klaus held his wrist for her to take, he didn't push her further or moved closer to her, he gave her time and space as he had set out to do from day one.
Cautiously as if she was measuring her own moves she wrapped a hand around his wrist and brought it closer to her mouth, her eyes gained a different color and became red at the same time that her fangs fought their way out of her gums and into Klaus' thick skin.
It was a bit of a harsh bite because she wasn't experienced in this but Klaus was motionless and complaint to her needs, as soon as that rich warm blood reached her palate Caroline moved her tongue to have a better taste of it, she swallowed the liquid wanting more as it burned down her throat while leaving an almost salty taste in the back of it.
Klaus tickled his fingers with one of her locks, brushed her face with a subtle outline that barely touched her and encouraged her to go on. "Stop only when you are satisfied."
Caroline closed her eyes and clutched his wrist harder, it was a fire that she couldn't stop and a hunger that was untamed, every time that she thought it was placated there was a new greed for his blood and she only stopped when there was nothing but serenity blanking her.
Klaus glided his thumb softly across her cheek. "That certainly brought a rosy color to your features."
She felt the heat as well and looked at him with a smile. "I liked that."
Closer to a smug he smiled. "That was the intention, love."
This sort of electricity was set between them and powerful like his blood Caroline felt his energy prickling every square of her skin, she silently moaned and narrowed the distance between them. "My arm doesn't hurt anymore."
He held her wrist with care, there was a beautiful little bird tattooed on her skin, another small detail that he was discovering about her.
"Klaus…" She used a low voice to bring his focus back to her.
"Do you want me to stop touching you?" He looked at her powerfully.
It wasn't his benign touch that she was repulsed to stand and she didn't mind his thumb adoring her tattoo. "No."
He only looked at her now, wandered his eyes along her face while she lowered her eyes to his lips, their next breath was beautifully held at the same pace and when she looked up to his line of sight there was a wish forming inside of her.
Perhaps the very same that fuelled him to lean over the smallest inch, careful not to overstep her trust.
"Niklaus, where are you?"
Caroline covered her lips with a smile while Klaus rolled his eyes miffed, Elijah's voice halted everything between them and swiftly Klaus left the bed and bedroom but things were never so active inside of Caroline.
Soundtrack:
Babel - Mumford & Sons
Flaws – Bastille
The voice within – Christina Aguilera
I should go – Levi Kreys
Wildest dreams – Taylor Swift