I was binge watching a season of Top Chef and the finale was held in San Miguel de Allende. After deciding I had to travel there someday, a random plot bunny to have Caroline there as a vamp hunter set 80 years in the future emerged. Who the hell can ever say what will inspire lol.
TW: allusions to child abuse and child death. Torture.
Voices CarryWhen it looked like a trap and it sounded like a trap, it probably was a trap. Not that it mattered, because Paolo here was going down. Caroline's ballet flats slapped a staccato rhythm on the cobblestone streets as she chased the dark-haired vamp through alleys unchanged by time. They were heading out of the city, the bright walls of red and saffron yellow a blur as the incessant bells of San Miguel de Allende sounded, the speed of the vampires' chase dopplering the sound into a dull whine that rose and fell as the streets flew by.
The imposing grey stone walls of the Sanctuary loomed before them, starkly lit in the moonlight, and Caroline lifted her brows in curiosity. She had actually been meaning to check this place out, might as well get a bit of tourism in while killing this shitty excuse for a vamp.
Paolo wrenched open a massive wooden door, the chains that bound it almost hitting Caroline who followed closely on his heels. He seemed calm, which furthered Caroline's suspicions that she needed to end this fast. With a burst of speed she drew close enough to reach out and grab the collar of his shirt, twisting to the side and using the momentum to send him flying back the way they had come. He skidded on the worn flagstone before hitting the door they'd just entered with a resounding thud. She rolled forward to slow her own momentum, coming up in a low crouch, gun raised at the vamp. She fired and Paolo hissed with pain, caught up in a web of vervain-soaked fibers that pinned him to the door.
Caroline walked calmly to face him, nudging Paolo with a toe as smoke rose from where his skin touched the bonds. "So, nothing to say? No last pleas? Insistence that you'll never treat humans like toys again? I'm disappointed, honestly."
He spit blood, his swiftly-healing face making the action seem incongruous. "I've heard about you."
It was an odd response, but Caroline didn't let it phase her. "Good, because I'm here to kill you, and this way I don't have to explain things," she said, her eyes tracing the arched curves of the building's interior. She really needed to come back and see if they had a tour sometime.
Paolo spit out his next words, the derision almost palpable. "You're Klaus' girl. So either way, I have a death sentence."
She dropped her gaze back to him in a flash. Klaus' girl? As if. She hadn't even seen the Original for the past eighty years, so what the hell was this about? She mentally filed the information for later - her and Klaus clearly needed to have that boundaries talk again. For now, she needed to focus on the puzzle of Paolo's words.
"What do you mean, either way?"
Paolo didn't answer, his breath stuttering in his lungs as a rumble of low growls sounded behind her. She turned slowly, distractedly noting the shine of gold that crowned the archways, before meeting the latest threat.
Ten wolves, hackles raised. Paolo had just run her into a werewolf camp on a full moon. Death sentence indeed.
Caroline staggered in through the guesthouse door, plastering a smile on her face at the night manager and praying he didn't notice anything was amiss. San Miguel de Allende still held to the ideals of an earlier century, and humans worked jobs that had since been resigned to machines in the rest of the Western world. While she normally loved Mexico's old-world charm, she certainly didn't tonight while she had a bite mark's searing pain and oncoming delusions to try and hide. Luckily Rubén was caught up in some visor-game, the light playing across his irises, and he merely nodded at her as she headed out through the courtyard to her room.
Once inside, she dug in a pocket of her suitcase and pulled out a small vial, unscrewing the cap and giving into a moan as Klaus' blood hit her tongue. Even aged, his hybrid blood was unfairly delicious. Now she had two reasons to stop by New Orleans, and she wasn't sure if she was dreading the trip or looking forward to it. When it came to Klaus, it was always a little bit of both.
She yawned a gape-mouthed yawn and laid back in bed, sticking one foot out the end of the coverlet. Even with the cure coursing through her veins, the wolf bite had exhausted her, and any thoughts of Klaus would have to wait until after sleep claimed its due.
Paolo was one of mine, love. Have a care whom you kill.
Yeah well Paolo was a douchebag that tortured humans. Have a care who you hire to be your lackeys.
Caroline was propped up against the 32 pillows guesthouses always insisted on putting on beds, woken a few minutes earlier by a housekeeper's tentative knock and writing her irritated text response with sleep still blurring her eyes. She eyed the vidscan screen, tapped send, almost picturing his amused grin when he received it. Despite everything, Caroline knew when things mattered to Klaus, and Paolo wasn't something that mattered. Even without her certainty, there was the simple fact that…wait a second…how the hell did he know she was the one to kill Paolo? She tapped out another response:
Do you mind not having someone creep on me wherever i go btw? And why did Paolo call me your girl?
Did he? I'm merely interested in your activities, love. You've grown into a formidable vampire hunter. If I weren't immortal, I might be a bit concerned.
Caroline sighed. If she were being honest, their shared past continued to mean way more than it should; she knew she had killed other vampires for doing far less than what Klaus had done just in Mystic Falls alone. It wasn't something she liked to think about, honestly. So she didn't, ignoring his text for now and typing one to Evie, the witch who had clued her in to Paolo's antics.
God, that had been a nightmarish scene, she thought, humans forced to fight each other to near-death. Remembering the meat hooks where the losers of the fights hung, their screams compelled out of them as vamps took hunks of their flesh in their bloodthirst, she shuddered. The broken, damned look in the victor's eyes would stay with her for a long, long time, and it was with a sense of grim satisfaction that she clicked send.
Hey girl! Alls well in San Miguel (i rhymed!) and that dickwad is gone forever. Any news?
Caroline had gone through a bit of a lost period twenty years ago when Bonnie had finally succumbed to old age, Enzo cradling her in his arms, his easy charm traded for grief. Bonnie had been her last real connection to Mystic Falls and her old life, and the loss of her had been devastating. Caroline had traveled aimlessly for a bit before finding herself in Lisbon, Portugal, where the salt air and the friendship of a young witch had brought her back from her depression. Evie was amazing and had a grudge the size of Texas against vampires who treated humans like food alone, and Caroline found that she agreed. Seriously, it wasn't that hard to live on blood bags and the occasional gently compelled sip from the vein while still treating people like, well, people.
Caroline glanced down at her vidscan; it was just like Evie to call instead of texting back.
"Fuck yes! Did you kick him in the junk for me?" If Evie's accented lisp hadn't been enough to make Caroline smile, the excited grin stretching across her holo-ed face did the trick.
"Nah, I only do that for the pervs, you know this," she responded, pulling back the coverlet and swinging her legs off the bed. Might as well get ready while she talked.
"A girl can hope right?" Evie responded, her image reaching up to absently run her hand along the shaved side of her head. "Anyways, things are quiet for once, it's weird. My divinations are turning up nada." She sounded almost disappointed and Caroline understood. Since they had teamed up, there really hadn't been a dull moment between training, research and hunting down the worst of the vampires. She knew that staying busy helped Evie cope with the loss of her family, gone all these years to a vampire's cruelty. Yeah, the girl had every reason to hate, and Caroline was just glad that Evie had accepted her. It was more than she could say for her mom at first, or Matt.
Running a brush through her hair to get the worst of the tangles out, Caroline summoned a peppy tone. "I'm sure something will turn up. Oh! Before I forget! We're gonna need a new werewolf pack entry in the database, right here in lovely San Miguel." Her voice twisted sarcastically at the end, and Evie picked up on it, her eyes narrowing.
"Don't tell me you got bitten."
"Yup."
"Ugh." Caroline and Evie had been like sisters for the last twenty years, so Evie knew what this meant. "Do you want me to go pick–?"
"No," Caroline grimaced at how fast she interrupted. "I mean. It's ok. I'll do it. Just..please have an assignment ready for me when I'm done. I'm pretty sure I'll need it." His promise still rang in her mind after all these years, but she knew she still wasn't ready to explore what it meant.
Annelie Lund was proving to be a thorn in Caroline's side. The vampire was crafty, choosing to avoid Caroline's attempts to draw her out of hiding. And make no mistake, Annelie had to die. Caroline didn't think she'd ever be able to shake the image of those children's sightless eyes, their bodies stacked neatly in rows. Shaking her head violently, Caroline looked down at her vidscan again. She couldn't get used to visors - the graphics weren't up to speed with vampire vision and it always made her feel disoriented, so she kept to old-school technology mixed with a little bit of Evie's magical know-how.
The GPS dot blipped on the screen, right under the dot for Caroline's own location. She huffed in frustration and scanned her eyes up the stolid red brick of the building to the tower that stood silent watch over the city, its patinaed roof a bright mint-green in the rainy Copenhagen sky. Maybe she'd see something from the tower, some sort of clue?
"I hear the ruins underneath Christiansborg Slot are quite fascinating." Caroline was ready to level a glare at whomever was interrupting her work when the accent hit her.
"Klaus…what are you doing here? I told you I'd stop by to pick up the cure after I was done here."
He smiled at her, dimples cutting and brows raised high. "I thought a personal delivery was in order, since you cancelled our meeting. There are plenty of werewolves in Copenhagen, love." His smile grew bigger at the set of her jaw and he looked up at the tower, clasping hands behind his back. "And I must admit your chosen profession intrigues me, Caroline. Never met Annelie, though I have heard of her. I can't say I've ever been a fan of killing children," he glanced her way, "although I won't say it hasn't happened, I find it a bit in poor taste." He paused, considering. "I suppose pun intended."
"Ugh, Klaus, look. I'm in the middle of a stakeout."
"Oh yes, of course. Well, don't let me stop you, although you seem to be stalled a bit here. Did I mention the ancient ruins underneath the palace?"
Caroline's glare made Klaus' lips twitch, which only incensed her more, but time was of the essence and he had just given her the best lead she'd had in hours. She was willing to swallow her pride, just this once. "Ok, fine! Where's the entrance to the ruins?"
"Follow me, love." With a final smirk that Caroline swore she was going to wipe off his face someday, he sped off, and she followed.
The two blurred across the lawn, circling around the palace buildings that now housed the Danish Parliament. A tour guide and several chaperones were desperately trying to corral a group of kids wielding wooden swords and shields. Their joyful cries of mock battle lent Caroline a grim determination - so much lost already, and so much to be saved. She caught up to Klaus with her jaw set, dipping in beside him as he pulled open a pair of heavy iron doors set into the ground. A pig-tailed soldier's playful screech covered the protesting shriek of the metal and the two vampires ducked into a small, low-ceilinged room.
Klaus dropped back a little, letting her lead, and the trust in the gesture was strangely touching. They moved through an archway, rough-hewn stones forming the walls of the tunnel beyond.
She whispered back to him, "Annelie may have compelled children to fight for her. Just please don-" She cut herself off. If he was going to trust her, she needed to trust him. Her own gesture wasn't lost on him - his eyes were soft when she glanced back.
Other than their whispers, the ruins were remarkably quiet, with just the wet smack of water dripping on stone breaking the silence. They pushed forward, Caroline choosing a path on instinct when the tunnel forked. The floor of the tunnel had just given way to packed earth when Klaus stilled her with a gentle hand on her hip. She looked back to where he held a finger to his lips, his eyes narrowed as he strained to hear something that only his hybrid hearing could detect. He looked at her then, almost pleadingly, and she motioned him forward to lead, appreciating that he had bothered to ask.
She studied his back in the dim light - they had long since left the tourist section of the ruins, but every hundred meters or so an LED light glowed dully. He was still all lean muscle and preternatural grace, and Caroline caught her breath in memory of those shoulders sliding underneath her hands.
It was a poor time for the distraction, and Caroline kicked herself mentally when she felt hands grabbing at her leg from behind. She swung blindly, knocking herself free and turning to face the threat. He couldn't have been older than six, his fangs almost comical in his child's face, hissing at her in anger. She couldn't bring herself to touch him and ran after Klaus who had stopped at the next fork and was peering back into the gloom.
Caroline had expected compulsion, but seeing this tiny vampire shocked her into silence, only her eyes showing her conflict.
"He can't be saved, Caroline," Klaus said gently. He shook his head, not dropping his gaze from her own. "He won't learn or grow, his brain hasn't a chance to develop past the cognitive abilities of the age he was turned. And those base thoughts are heightened - want and need and mine and food and - " his eyes flicked to just beyond Caroline, "- mother."
Annelie called out in a high, girlish voice, walking into the low light of the tunnel's fork "I see you've met my sweet James." She glanced up at Klaus, taking his measure before turning to face Caroline, who watched as the tall, skeletal form coiled and sprung, landing with an unnatural grace steps away.
Caroline dipped down in response, circling a leg in a low, sweeping kick that Annelie stepped gently over, as if playing jump rope. But that was fine by Caroline, the move was merely a feint - she shifted her body weight to her opposite hand, using the reversed momentum to send her leg curving in a brutal upward arc. It shattered Annelie's cheek with a sickening crunch and the vampire wailed in anger and pain. Klaus stood, eyebrows in his hairline, smiling with a sort of bemused pride.
That's right, she thought, I didn't spend ten years learning Hung Gar from a vampire Sifu in China for nothing. He should be impressed.
A mere second was eons in vampire time, and young James latched on with tiny teeth to her right forearm before she could even stand up. Klaus peeled the child off of her, murmuring quietly, "it's a mercy, Caroline." She didn't - she couldn't look back, instead approaching Annelie, trying to keep the momentum. But Annelie had other ideas, vaulting off the curved wall and launching herself at Caroline with a surprising fury.
Caroline had a split second to react and dove forward instead of falling back, diving just under the other vamp and feeling the score of fingernails scratch through the fabric of her shirt. She stood and spun to face Annelie once more, and it was her turn to snarl now. She fumbled at her waist, reaching for her vervain net, but Annelie was too fast for her, vaulting once again across the curved passageway and knocking Caroline to the floor. She pinned her hands to the ground and reached down to grab the gun, examining it with exaggerated interest before shooting it point blank at Caroline's face.
Even with plenty of practice in her vampire life - way too much, if you asked her - there was still no getting over the fact that vervain hurt. Fired in such close quarters, the fibers of the net dug into her face, and she could barely see through the smoke from where vervain burned her skin. She took a deep breath and held it as a means to channel her focus away from the crippling pain and shot her arm out in a block, sending Annelie's next attack flying wide.
Caroline knew she had to change the angle - with the bony vamp leaning over her there was no way Caroline could get the leverage she needed to do any damage, but she was also glued to the damn floor by the vervain net so her options were limited. She swung her hips up and wrapped one leg around a jutting hipbone, the other leg banding high across the vampire's shoulder blades. Pulling with both legs, she levered the skeletal body forward, then down onto her locked arm, the momentum giving enough force to punch through the vamp's ribs. Caroline felt the heart's fragile beat fill her hands a second before she tore it out of Annelie's chest.
Klaus was staring at her, and the years melted away.
Sitting in an outdoor café that bordered Nyhavn canal Caroline stirred her cappuccino, using it as a foil to hide her reaction. She thought back to a time when that stare - that strange mix of vulnerability and affection and unshakable regard - had made her question her loyalties.
Eighty years later and those Mystic Falls loyalties seemed so far away, but her ties to humanity remained just as close, and Klaus wasn't exactly the poster boy for valuing human life. She wondered if she'd ever stop being confused at how deftly he straddled the line between everything she ever wanted and nothing she remotely wanted to know.
"I appreciate your help, but I can do this just fine on my own." It was a nicer way of doing what she always seemed to do around him - lash out to avoid her own feelings. She watched his eyes dim and he glanced away as a tour boat puttered by, tinny speakers telling tales of mermaids and kings.
"So I suppose thanks aren't in order then?" His jaw was clenched and his face impassive, but she knew his tells, and he was more hurt than anything else.
Caroline sighed exaggeratedly and he looked at her, his brows knit close as she responded. "I suppose I should have been around more to help you work on those friendship skills I taught you." She pretended to ponder for a moment. "Ok, well actually, maybe you have shown me I can trust you."
It was as if the dark look had never crossed his face, and she could even hear the smile in his response: "Well I did save you from Annelie's minions."
Caroline shuddered. "At least some of them were older. I couldn't - how could you do that? Turn a child?"
Klaus' eyes turned thoughtful as he sipped his coffee, a breeze from off the water blowing hair back off his face. "Loneliness. The unbearable stretch of time through the ages is not something easily borne."
After the brief time she had spent as a vampire, years that still seemed as vast as an ocean before her, some part of her understood and she nodded. It was why she got into vampire hunting, after all. "Purpose is hard enough when you're a human - I wasn't even out of high school when I had my first existential crisis."
Klaus grinned at this, and leaned back in his chair, motioning for her to continue. His shirt gapped at the movement, and Caroline spotted the necklaces that had featured heavily in some dreams throughout the sometimes lonely years. It took a moment for her to respond, and the bastard knew exactly why, if the shift in his smile from pleased to predatory was any indication.
She wet her lips and felt a deep sense of satisfaction as his lips parted involuntarily and his legs shifted. Wait, what had they been talking about again?
"Well, when I was cheerleading -" Caroline didn't think anyone would blame her for throwing that mental image into the mix. -"I thought about it a lot. I don't know. I think everyone goes through it, like 'what is life for' and all that. What are we doing here, really? It's hard. To know if there's a reason, or if there's even supposed to be."
She looked up at Klaus and despite everything, her reservations and the fear that had kept her from seeing him for eighty freaking years and her doubt that he would ever fundamentally change, despite all these things; there he sat, caught between arousal and interest, and she almost moaned at the look of him.
"And what do you think now, Caroline? When you're alone at night and the thrill of the hunt has ebbed, is it enough, or do you crave something more?" His tone, laced with innuendo, brought the unbidden image of her in a thousand guesthouses, sheets curled around her legs as she pleasured herself.
There had been lovers over the years, of course, but much of the time was spent alone, romantically speaking. Because really, despite how crazy it sounded, it was close to impossible to trump the heat between them and the memory of the sexual prowess of a thousand-year-old vampire who seemed to care only about her.
She fanned herself with her napkin unconsciously. This was seriously the most sexually-charged philosophical conversation she'd had…in well…ever. And this is why she avoided him, their chemistry had always been off the charts, and that attraction threatened her tenuous hold on what she actually felt for Klaus.
And now he was here, staring with his thousand year stare, cutting right into the heart of her. It had been eighty long years already, she thought. There really was only one thing to do.
"So, Evie said the next vamp is in Paris," she said, twisting her lips in exaggerated consideration. "Wasn't there someone who said they'd show me around Paris? Or was that Rome? Maybe Tokyo?" She looked up through her lashes, a grin sliding into place, and watched the light in his eyes dawn.
"Wait, you haven't been in New Orleans for how long? Thought you and Hayley's love child brought out your nesting instinct. Knitting scarves and whatnot as you ruled the city, the big bad baby king."
Klaus miraculously took the jab for what it was, jealousy, rolling his eyes in a dead-on Caroline impression. They sat across from each other in Klaus' Paris apartment, a cozy two-bedroom with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Seine.
"My 'love-child' was merely a now-deceased witch's joke, Caroline. And truth be told, Elijah and Rebekah are more suited for, and interested in, the political machinations involved in leading a city, so I left them to it. Conquering's the only part that matters, and what fun it was." His eyes grew faraway, snapping back when Caroline fidgeted in her chair. He studied her for a moment before speaking again. "The wolf-girl meant nothing more to me than leverage, Caroline."
"You think that makes it better? I know what it's like to be used, Klaus." Her eyes flickered down and another piece in the Caroline Forbes puzzle fell into place. He made a mental note to look into it later.
"Do you think she used me any less?" he responded, lifting a glass of scotch to his lips, the ice clinking against the glass.
"Why her?"
Something in his heart twisted at her stubborn refusal to drop the subject. He heard the doubt, the insecurity, and he would actually recognize it as well if he let himself. His mind raced, searching for the right thing to say, and all he could think of was the most honest thing. "Because I knew it would hurt you, in the end, as much as you hurt me."
His voice was soft, if not remorseful, but it was enough. Her eyes lost their brittle sheen and she turned back from the window in which she had been steadily avoiding his gaze.
"I'm going to see if Evie has the tracking spell ready. Meet me at in a little bit?" He nodded cautiously and she smiled, relieved. She needed some time to think.
Caroline hadn't realized how far she had wandered, finding herself by the gates of the Moulin Rouge, several miles from the apartment. But who could blame her? The sun was out, the air was crisp with the promise of fall, and the curling, sensuous Parisian accent slid along her bones like a caress. The famous red windmill turned in front of her, hologram garishly bright and stretching way up into the sky. She was a bit disappointed at the tackiness, but it was short-lived as the sound of a street musician's voice filling the air distracted her. The road was split by a small park in the median, and there a young man sat singing, his eyes closed in passion. The voice rolled over her and she approached, sitting next to him on a small, grated pedestal.
There were times when you didn't need language to communicate, and this was one of them. She felt the man's grief, his sorrow, his love, his passion and his pain and she let the tears fall from her eyes, thinking of her conversation with Evie.
"You brought him with you? To Paris?"
Caroline could almost imagine Evie's incredulous expression crowned by that halo of baby-pink hair. She had the vidscan set to audio only as she waited in line at the corner creperie, and watched as the attendant spread batter on the griddle with a practiced sweep of his hand. "Yes, Evie."
"I'm just…look, I've heard about the Mikaelsons. They're the baddest of the bad."
Caroline had cringed. This was Mystic Falls all over again. She couldn't validate her feelings for a monster. God she really couldn't, could she?" She closed her eyes, feeling the sting of tears welling as she tried to focus on what Evie was saying. She owed her that much, even if it hurt.
"…but I also know you, and I trust you. It's just…look. Tell him that I have a spell that will make him piss fire for a thousand years if he fucks you over."
Something in her chest had loosened at being given both trust and a choice, and Caroline laughed, but Evie's voice remained like steel. Adorable-sounding steel, but steel nonetheless. "I'm not joking. You'll tell him, yeah?"
She had mumbled a yes with an accompanying unseen grin and changed the subject, her heart light. "So, Julien? What's the story on this loser?"
'Ne Me Quitte Pas -'
A small crowd had gathered, and the sound of change clinking in the musician's tip jar almost drowned out this last whispered refrain as the song drew to a close. Caroline was so mesmerized she didn't notice the man just behind her until he clamped a firm hand around her upper arm and whispered with an almost distracted-sounding calm in her ear.
"Vampire hunters shouldn't let themselves be caught out in the open, now should they? Come with me, mon chou." Before she could try anything his grip firmed and he whispered lowly in her ear, his thick accent making her strain to understand. "I have no problems to eating everyone on this street if you cause a scene. Now come with me."
Caroline nodded and rose, turning to look at her assailant's face. Large, beaked nose, heavy-lidded eyes, a cruel thin twist of a mouth. Julien. His eyes looked far colder here than in the holo Evie had sent, if that was possible. She looked for an out as he steered her through the crowd, away from the bustle of Moulin Rouge and off onto a series of side streets. She tried to twist away as the crowd thinned, but his grip was firm and he grabbed her other hand, effectively cuffing her behind her back, muttering what sounded like a fiercely derogatory curse.
Julien's file was fresh in her mind, so Caroline stopped struggling to focus on her thoughts, adding a defeated set to her shoulders to hopefully lull her captor into a false sense of security. This vampire had escaped notice for years, his controlled style keeping his killings mostly out of the public eye until a feisty and extremely lucky Paris University co-ed managed to gnaw through her bindings and escape to tell chilling tales of decaying corpses and cruel tortures.
Julien was methodical and exact, so Caroline would just have to shake his composure.
"Soooooo, do you think you can really get away with killing me?"
He snorted at her opening gambit. "It will be as easy to kill as finding you, Miss Forbes." His English had the odd phrasing of the non-native speaker. "You have a reputation, salope, and I knew you come for me."
Caroline shook her head, nonchalant. "Oooh a reputation, sounds fun. So! What's good here. Dead bodies, some torture, what've we got?" She bounced on the balls of her feet, her tone chipper. He glanced at her with confusion, but ignored her. It was a start.
They ducked into a building so abruptly that Caroline had to take a moment to get her bearings in the darkness. The smell of blood hit her first, thick in its age, and she let her monster come out, giving a little moan and licking her lips. Julien blinked twice at her before pulling her along through a narrow hallway, passing a number of closed doors. She could hear weeping behind one of them, and almost gave herself away with the angry tension that filled her. She decided to pass it off as excitement instead; perhaps playing the vamp fatale would work with him.
"Ooooh! Do you have a toy to play wi-?"
She was interrupted by his unceremonious shove into a cement-floored room, a drain set prominently in the center. The scent of blood was strong here, and Caroline's fangs, still out, ached.
"Did I not say I know you? Your games are worthless." He leered at her a moment, eyes tracking up from her feet to rest on her breasts. "Although you would be fun to play with."
Caroline pretended to shake with revulsion, curling inward, using her finally free hands to tap the still-hidden vidscan tucked into her skirt's lining. She sent up a silent prayer that Evie was monitoring the channel - they hadn't planned to go after Julien for a couple hours yet.
Communication - check. Hands still free to attack? Check. She launched herself at Julien, fist drawn back to strike and he calmly sidestepped her, shoving her head into the now-closed door, the metal ringing like a bell. She rolled to the side and kipped up, meeting the gimleted stare of an irritatingly calm Julien.
"Now, now, there's no hope to fighting. But I do think you need to calm." Reaching over to a switch on the wall, he flipped it, calmly exiting and shutting the door with a clang that rang through the room. Caroline was bewildered until she heard the hiss of the sprinklers above her and vervain began to rain down.
"What do you mean she's in trouble?" Klaus' voice cut like a blade across the airwaves.
"Look, don't shoot the messenger. And did she tell you about the pissing fire thing? Because that's still on the table."
"Quit with your incessant prattle and tell me WHERE CAROLINE IS!"
"You don't need to yell. The vidscan has her at Roo R-U-E Clawsel C-L-A-U-Z-E-L? In the ninth arondissi- however you say that word. Give me your vidscan code and I'll send the coordinates over." Evie paused for his response, speaking again over the clatter of what sounded like an ancient keyboard. "Klaus, Caroline's been my best friend for a long time now. Please."
Klaus choked out an acknowledgment before hanging up and letting rage fuel his vamp-sped course across town.
Julien knew the fine art of torture, turning off the vervain spray and letting her heal before setting off the sprinklers again and repeating the cycle. At the moment they were off once more and her skin was red and mottled, open wounds starting to form as her vamp healing lost potency from lack of blood. The door opened and that dead, hooded stare greeted her. She sensed something in it this time, though, some satisfaction that lit up his gaze at seeing her so damaged. She turned her back so that the wound on her shoulder was visible.
His voice held a sick pleasure in it when he spoke. "So the great vampire hunter has been brought to her knees by a poor ploughman's get. Wonders do not cease. Do you wish to beg for mercy, mon petit? Or maybe you join Magritte in the other room? I think she would to like the company, if you can of course control your hunger."
Seriously? This guy's definition of homework was totally child's play or he'd know that her control was impeccable. The realization pushed away the fear and she let her monster emerge, black veins stark on skin paled from vervain's assault. A grin flickered on his face for a moment and he slapped a pair of plasticine cuffs on her, soaked in that same hellish substance. Her wrists burned, but Julien had clasped them in front of her so she had free range of motion as he moved her out of the room and down the hall, closer to the weeping she had heard earlier. Caroline knew this was her chance, while he thought her confined and weak from vervain's sting.
She spun quickly, looping her cuffed hands behind Julien's neck and launching herself at the wall, climbing up and over, using his neck as a pole to swing around. She ended up at his back and pulled the noose of her arms tighter, choking him for a moment, keeping him off balance. She knew she couldn't win a war of strength with him now, so dropped in a backwards roll and pulled her arms off his neck, using her legs to launch him into the air.
Julien cursed as he slammed into the ceiling and dropped to the floor, laying unmoving for the precious seconds Caroline needed to pull her hands through the cuffs of the plasticine, biting back a wince of pain. Her wrists were raw and broken now, slow to heal with the vervain still on her clothes and soaking her hair. She needed to get out of here, fast, but she couldn't leave that poor human behind to die. She ran forward, launching herself at Julien who was rising to standing. He caught her fist in his own, crushing the bones in her hand as he stared daggers at her, his composure finally cracking.
Caroline was not nearly down for the count yet, drawing close and delivering a vicious headbutt, but she became disoriented when the lights abruptly winked out. Behind her, Magritte screamed in her room, terrified by the sudden darkness. The drip of vervain from Caroline's sodden clothes echoed on the cement. A sharp crack sounded like a gunshot in the close quarters of the hallway, and Julien's grip loosened and dropped. Her breath rattled and shook and she almost cried out in relief when she felt herself pulled against a familiar lean frame.
Three bags of B+ and a caps-lock conversation with Evie later, Caroline lay back on the couch, trying to relax.
Klaus still roiled with a cold anger, his jaw set and the darkness an almost tangible thing that filled the room. Caroline sighed.
"Look, I'm safe. Julien is dead, everything is good. Can't you just chill?"
Klaus met her gaze swiftly, with an almost affronted air. "Just 'chill'? You almost died, Caroline, I could smell the vervain burns from outside the house."
Caroline rolled her eyes. "I've been vervained a thousand times, Klaus, enough to use it as a verb. At a certain point you push past the pain. I still had a chance to take him down, and I would have." She softened as she looked at him, his face shuttered in a cold defense. "It was certainly a lot easier when you came in though, not gonna lie. Thank you, Klaus."
There had only been a few times she had ever thanked him, and his reaction each time had been one of shy wonder. It was much the same now, eighty years later, and her heart flipped at his boyish grin. This monster with his heart on his sleeve would be the death of her. She patted the smooth microsuede of the couch next to her and Klaus sat, slowly wrapping his arm around her when she snuggled into his side.
She needed comfort right now, rubbing her head against his shoulder as she sought the perfect position. I guess eighty years is how long it takes, she mused to herself sleepily; the low murmur of the TV lulling her and Klaus' hand rubbing slow, tentative circles on her back, as if he couldn't quite believe she was in his arms.