Klaus closed the door and slowly dropped the keys on the table waiting for it, he smiled because Elijah was too predictable.
With a whoosh Elijah pressed him against the wall with a hand on his throat. "Finn?" he asked about Klaus' doings.
Klaus narrowed his eyes. "Take your hand away Elijah."
"He's our brother."
Klaus smiled. "And I'm supposed to care, because..."
Elijah breathed out in pure rage now. "We are not disposable items that you can put away whenever you grow tired of toying with us."
"Just as I'm not a pawn in your little prophecy game." Klaus confronted him.
That made Elijah waver on his strong hold.
"Let's move to Mystic Falls, let's all just be one happy family in Mystic Falls… so Rebekah said and nagged for months. But it was you who convinced her to come back here."
"This is our home..." Elijah had nothing but conviction about the motive behind his actions.
"You can plan behind my back as much as you want to but I will not be your puppet."
"What's this?" Rebekah asked as she came inside of the room.
"I will let Niklaus explain it to you." Elijah stepped back to give Klaus breathing space.
"What's with all the heavy breathing?" Kol wasn't sure what he was walking into.
"You arrive just in time, Klaus was about to explain to us what he did to Finn." Elijah parted his arms hopeful for that one good action from Klaus.
"I drove a dagger into his heart, then I locked him inside of a coffin and hid him inside of a tomb." Klaus looked at Rebekah knowingly.
"I always believed that he just chose to be invisible." Kol knew that Finn wasn't too attached to the family.
"He wasn't exactly the family loving type so do spare me the dramatic comments." Klaus begged him.
"He is still our brother." Rebekah reminded him.
"He was a problem." Klaus corrected her.
"That's a lovely excuse." She judged him with a scoff.
"I don't need excuses Rebekah. He was a problem that needed to be solved and I dealt with it as I saw fit."
She shook her head in disbelief, no matter how much she knew Klaus, he still managed to surprise her with his aloofness towards the family.
"For how long has he been there?" Kol asked Klaus.
"Think to how long you haven't seen him." Klaus revealed.
"So for the last 900 years you've decided to trap him inside of a tomb." Elijah gravely judged him. "May I ask why?"
"His eternal girlfriend Sage was relentless on her chase and I needed her to stop following us so I found that a grave bellow Fell's Church was perfect to seal the deal. I arranged for the perfect witch to do the spell and then I killed her to keep the dead where they should be." He lifted a hand with a judging look at Rebekah. "But you decided to befriend the only alive descendant of Emily Bennett."
Smugly she smiled at him.
"You should've told us…" Elijah scolded him.
"Are we all dancing around the pink elephant in the room on purpose?" Klaus looked at all of them. "Finn sided with Mikael."
Elijah looked down on the ground unable to comment on that.
Klaus reached his limit of tolerance and walked out of the room enervated.
"He has a point." Kol quietly said.
Rebekah quickly left after Klaus. "Wait…" she called softly just as he reached the stairwell.
He stopped to look at her.
"The girls... they don't know what they are doing."
"Why should I bother with the fact that you have such poor judgement when it comes to choosing your friends Rebekah?"
"Because my friends have already opened the tomb and they are keeping Finn's body elsewhere."
Klaus inhaled and exhaled really heavily, that was just bloody brilliant.
[XXXXX]
"Will you be at The Grill later?"
Caroline smiled back at the other girl from her cheerleader squad. "Like there is anything else to do after school."
"Yeah, you're right." The girl laughed before getting inside of her car and driving away.
Caroline was left alone in the parking lot and after shoving her gym bag into the back seat she closed the door, she startled when she saw Tyler standing in front of her. "Jesus Tyler..." she said uneasily. "I didn't see you there."
"Klaus came to see me yesterday." he told her as serious as he looked.
Caroline tried to keep a straight face. "And what do I have to do with that?"
"He wants to take the Alpha place that belonged to Mason."
"Tyler... I'm sorry about Mason." she said softly.
"Forget it. He got himself killed, the problem now is that everyone wants his place but I wasn't expecting that Original to come in and claim it, like he genuinely thinks that he has any rights over it."
"I don't have anything to do with this."
"Like you didn't have anything to do with Brady's death?" he hissed at her with an inching motion that brought him closer to her.
Caroline gulped down.
"I know about him too…" he looked at her disgusted.
"Is that why you're here?"
Tyler grabbed her arm forcefully. "If he becomes the next Alpha in this town there will be a lot of deaths and I don't think anyone wants that. I'm not about to bow down and kiss his feet so he better expect an ugly fight."
"Tell that to him, not to me." she tried to free herself, Tyler was leaving a mark on her arm.
"You're such a good friend of his family now." Tyler lowered his voice. "Aren't you?"
Caroline's breath quickened up because she recognized this Tyler, the angry one. "Like I said, if you have something to tell Klaus, tell him yourself."
"Care…" Rebekah stopped behind Tyler. "Is everything all right?"
"Yes." Caroline looked down on her arm.
Tyler released her and started to walk away but not without glaring at Caroline one last time.
"Are you sure?" Rebekah asked as she got inside of the silver car.
"I need a drink." she admitted before starting the car.
[XXXXX]
Klaus walked inside of the Pub looking for Kol, he found him on the other side of the counter which confused him. "What are you doing on that side of the bar?"
"I bought The Grill." Kol shared the news excited.
Klaus was flabbergasted.
"I figured that since we are bound to spend most of our time here anyway, I should make the most of it."
"So you decided to buy the town's local Pub?" Klaus cocked an eyebrow.
Kol nodded happily. "I'll keep the name because it's short and kind on the ear but I was thinking of adding some dancing girls to the venue, what's your opinion on that?" he asked truly interested on his input.
"You have plans for a stripping club?" Klaus kept his raised eyebrow.
"You're right Nik..." Kol placed two empty glasses on the counter. "I shouldn't mess too much with it. I'll just make this a nice haven for us and ban all the werewolves." He poured scotch for both. "On the house!" he smiled.
Klaus shook his head. "Awful start, you'll go into bankruptcy soon. And what is this talk about banning werewolves?"
"I don't like them... but I'll consider a few exceptions, some of the werewolf girls are attractive." He smiled at Rebekah and Caroline as they headed to the counter.
Klaus glanced to the side as Caroline stopped next to him, she was wearing tiny shorts, a pink shirt and sneakers, the casual sportive look told him that she was straight out of her cheerleader practice and he couldn't tell why but he felt her uneasy and on edge and he didn't like that a bit.
"Did you accept a job here Kol?" Rebekah was confounded.
"You are looking at the new owner." he smugly informed.
"Lord help us all, Kol with unlimited access to liquor and women." she laughed.
"You are paying for your drink." he slid a glass in her direction.
Klaus turned his back on the two nagging siblings going at each other with snarky comments and focused on the girl standing beside him in silence, he couldn't help to wander his eyes again, Caroline was simply put, hot.
"My face is up here Klaus." She pointed out.
He chuckled as she sat on a stool and crossed her arms in that adorable way that only Caroline was able to pull off.
"What is this that I hear about you gunning for the Alpha chair?"
"What is this that I hear about a coffin that you stole?" he smirked at her.
Caroline smiled wider. "There are no secrets between your family."
"Only the ones that I can't force out of them." He delectably winked at her.
"I can't tell you where that coffin is."
"Can't or won't?" he countered quickly.
"I don't know where it is." She affirmed smugly.
Klaus squinted. "I'm not sure I understand."
Caroline sighed. "Only one of us knows the location of that coffin and I compelled her to forget."
That left Klaus truly impressed. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you?"
Caroline laughed while she left the stool, she walked over to the restrooms swinging her hips lazily.
Klaus had to turn away and during his action he found two smirking siblings with an eye on him.
Kol pointed at a huge empty bowl on the counter. "You might need that." he smirked. "You know... for the drooling that you're leaving on my counter."
Annoyed Klaus left the two of them just as they were about to make a toast.
[XXXXX]
Elena smiled when she saw Jeremy on the other side of the street. "Hey Jer, wait up." She shouted before doing a small spring to reach him.
"What do you want Elena?" he asked without stopping to wait for her.
"Can't I walk home with my brother?" she sweetly looked at him.
"I'm not going home Elena." he headed straight to The Grill.
Visibly she wasn't welcomed to the detour and so she decided not to follow him, instead she felt the need to go see someone else.
[XXXX]
Elena was by her parent's grave in less than 15 minutes, she knelt cleaning the leaves that gathered over the names and sadly looked at them, she missed them so much.
"They were important to you."
The voice startled her. "Elijah..." she stood up at once.
Elijah smiled politely at her. "I tend to forget that humans can't hear my footsteps."
She ran her hand through her hair a bit nervous, her heart always picked up whenever she was around the dashing older vampire. "My parents were everything to me..."
"I'm sorry for your loss Elena."
"What are you doing here Elijah?" she worried about his strange visit to the cemetery.
"It has come to my attention that you have something I crave for." he said.
Elena placed her hair behind her ear like she always did when she was nervous, because that's what Elijah did, he made her nervous.
"A coffin that belongs to our family." he insisted softly.
Elena looked down from his eyes. "I don't know where that coffin is."
Elijah had a step closer to her.
She gulped down with his proximity. "I'm telling you the truth."
He smiled as he leaned over. "I can listen to your heart Elena… why is it beating so fast? Is it because you are lying to me?"
"I'm not going to tell you where Mikael is because I don't know where he is."
Elijah smiled. "I can compel you to tell me what I need to know."
She smiled. "Even if I wasn't wearing Vervain I would tell you the same thing."
"Are you saying that I should blindly trust you Elena?"
"I have no reason to lie to you Elijah."
With a final nod he broke away and started to walk towards the entrance of the cemetery. "I will hold you to those words Elena."
She tried to steady her heart because it wasn't beating out of fear, it was beating because of something entirely different.
[XXXXX]
Caroline came out of the restroom with a chuckle when she saw that Klaus was waiting for her. "What now Klaus?"
"I was just wondering about what happened last night."
Caroline shrugged. "I don't remember what happened last night." When Klaus moved she took a few steps backwards until she felt the wall.
Klaus placed a hand on each side of her face. "Apparently you and I kissed."
Caroline smiled. "Mhm…" her eyes took in his raw beauty, his amazing eyes, the perfect sexy stubble, his button nose, the lustful raspberry lips and she unconsciously licked hers.
"Where is that coffin Caroline?"
She rested against the wall with her hands behind her back. "What do you want with it?"
"It's not Mikael in that coffin."
"Who is it then?"
"It's my older brother Finn." he said with his eyes on her gorgeous face.
"Good or evil?" she asked him with a tiny squint.
"It's debatable since he wants us dead."
She nodded thoughtful.
"Caroline... whoever is behind the attacks on this town is the same one after Elena and it's not Mikael. He is trapped inside some other forsaken grave and he can't be the one behind all of this."
"Well I know that!" she told him with a crumble of her lips.
"My father hated what I was even if it wasn't my fault." Klaus opened up.
Caroline looked into his eyes again, the words triggered something unexpected out of her, she related to them.
"He wants me dead, there's no way I would want him awake and out of that prison he is trapped in. As for the the attacks, I suspect that Finn's companion Sage is responsible for them. You should expect a vengeful red-haired vampire to arrive soon, she knows that it's Finn inside of that coffin and she's not going to be pleased when she finds out that a group of teenagers just stole his body."
"Klaus I..." she fell quiet, she didn't know what to tell him now, he obviously picked up on a lot of things.
"Are you using my sister as well?" he started putting his solid mask again.
"I didn't use anyone Klaus." she was offended.
"You didn't fiddle with me just enough to see if I wasn't the one after Elena?"
She simply looked at him, she didn't feel like explaining herself to Klaus, what right had he to judge her suspicions? It wasn't like he had been an open book since he arrived to town either.
"Well sweetheart..." he started to haul away. "If I was after your friend, she would be dead by now."
Caroline remained silent even after he turned his back on her and left, she banged the back of her head against the wall, why did she feel so bad now with his reaction?
"Hey... I need to talk to you." Bonnie rushed in her direction.
Caroline tried her best to smile at her friend. "What is it Bon?"
"Remember that cute deputy that used to work for your mother?" She asked her in a low voice.
Caroline smiled. "The one you seduced to get out of a parking ticket and then ditch because he had bad taste in music?"
"The very one." Bonnie nodded. "Well, we kept in touch after he left town and I asked him for a favor last week." she showed Caroline her phone.
"That's Mason's car!" Caroline recognized it.
"During the last month he was a regular at a club called Cave."
"Sounds promising..." Caroline handed Bonnie the phone back. "So we have a date tonight?"
Bonnie smiled. "I'll pick you up at seven."
Caroline nodded, she could use the distraction.
[XXXXX]
"Mom I'm going out." Caroline shouted on her way down the stairs.
"Are you going to The Grill?" Liz asked her from the sofa where she was watching the news.
"No. I'm going to a club with Bonnie where Mason and Tyler were seen a lot."
Liz turned the television off to focus solely on Caroline.
"Mason had a good reason to stay away from Mystic Falls for an entire month and I want to know what reason was that."
"Sweetie, men go to clubs mostly because of women…" Liz tried to reason with Caroline.
"Mason never left Mystic Falls before…" she shook her head. "He left his pack alone and he took Tyler with him. They were up to something fishy and I'm going to find out what it is."
"Im worried about this, two nights ago you were attacked by a wolf and just because Klaus told me on his way out of the house that it wasn't that bad I'm ok with it."
Caroline smiled at her mother. "He was right... it wasn't even a bite and all I had to do was drink blood. Plus tonight I'll be fine, I'll have the strongest witch by my side and I can still remember all that self-defense moves that you taught me." She made a few improvised karate moves.
Liz was far from being convinced but there was little she could do whenever Caroline was this determined, at least this time Caroline actually told her what she was up to before she went in head first and reason later.
Caroline grabbed her white short leather jacket and left the house still smiling until she found the discouraging image in front of her eyes, Bonnie was waiting for her but with two extras that she wasn't expecting.
"Kol heard us talking and they just picked me up. I didn't have a choice." Bonnie grumbled.
Caroline tried not to look at Klaus, she eyed Kol instead. "What makes you think that we're taking you along for the ride?"
"You are tracking someone who obviously knows about Nik's little stunt and I'm very interested in knowing who this mysterious person is." Kol answered from his car.
"We probably won't even find anything." Caroline tried.
Kol smiled. "Then we will just enjoy a fun night out." he opened the door of the car.
Caroline wasn't happy at all, this was a huge setback.
Bonnie fumed as well on her way to the car.
When Kol drove away Caroline realized that she was paired with Klaus, she groaned upset, it was going to be a very long night.
"I don't suppose you can just ask Tyler what he was conniving so that we can get this over with?" Klaus asked as she came inside of his car.
Caroline harshly closed her door. "No one is forcing you to go. No one invited you to go in the first place."
Klaus licked his lips, it was going to be a long ride.
[XXXXXX]
"They aren't letting anyone else inside, apparently it's a really popular club and it's packed tonight." Bonnie informed the group.
"We can always compel the man at the door, if I get close enough I'll get all of us inside." Kol suggested.
"You do that Kol." Caroline took her jacket off, the tight red cleavage-showing top stood out against her ivory skin, she smiled at the young Mikaelson. "I'll try it my way."
Bonnie followed her friend who seduced her way into the front of the line, every guy was smirking enjoying the sight and the girls gave her the usual hateful look, with the exception of those who smiled hopefully at her.
Caroline smiled at the bouncer and he immediately pulled the rope up for her and Bonnie, the girls gave their best smiles as they were marked with some invisible ink.
"Enjoy your night beautiful." The bouncer told Caroline with a flirting smile.
"I will." she winked at him before making her way inside of the club.
"Okay... now what?" Bonnie asked with a loud voice, she was trying to get heard despite the ear-shattering music.
Caroline pointed at the bar. "Ask the bartenders if they know them, I'll watch your back."
Bonnie nodded and took her phone from the back pocket of her jeans, she searched for a picture of Tyler and Mason and made her way to the bar.
Caroline stayed behind guarding her.
"Nice Club." Kol shouted next to her.
She smiled. "Did you compel the poor bastard?"
Kol made an appalled face. "Not even remotely, he begged me to come inside and give this place something good to look at."
Caroline couldn't hold back the laughter. "You're so modest Kol."
"I'm not acquainted with that expression love." Kol left after Bonnie.
She could feel how tense Klaus was even before she faced him. "You don't like clubs?" she moved her head to look at him. "You look spiked about something."
"I don't like bad plans."
"You're just saying that because I was the one who came up with the plan." She glared at him.
Klaus kept his eyes on her and she squinted as if she was asking him what.
Klaus took her hand and started walking to the crowded dance floor, she tried to fight him a bit but despite her reluctance she still found herself in the middle of a bouncing crowd staring at Klaus.
With a single motion he positioned himself behind her back and lowered his lips to her ear. "Look around sweetheart, take a really long look around..." he whispered.
She shivered, Klaus' steel body was glued to her back, his strong manly scent covered her, his stubble scratched her cheek gently as he spoke and Caroline licked her lips.
"You are surrounded by werewolves." he stated.
Caroline parted her lips with a gasp.
[XXXXX]
The girl at the bar shook her head. "Sorry, I don't remember them… every night is a busy night and…" she shrugged. "Everyone looks the same when you've doing this for as long as I have." She handed the phone back to Bonnie. "I can't help you." She turned to another customer.
Bonnie still had one more girl to try and smiled at the one with a gothic look. "Hey."
"Can I help you?" she smiled back at her.
Bonnie showed her the picture. "I'm looking for one of these guys. I'm supposed to meet with one of them here tonight, I met them online..." she said trying to look coy.
The girl quickly shook her head. "I don't know them."
"Please... I know that it sounds weird but I really clicked with them and they seemed so nice..."
"I have to go back to work." She went away to the other side of the counter with a nervous glance behind.
"She knows them." Kol assured Bonnie.
"Can you... persuade her?" she whispered.
"I thought you'd never ask." Kol walked over to the prey with a request for beer and immediately started flirting with the girl.
Bonnie watched as Kol effortlessly used his natural charm to pull smile after smile from the bartender, she rested her arms over the counter and Bonnie unwillingly crinkled her lips when he reached out and touched the girl's hands, he raised his eyes knowing exactly what he was doing and two minutes later they were discretely stepping outside together.
Bonnie rushed after them, she found Kol kissing the girl's neck and used her powers on them.
"Bonnie!" he hissed at her mad while the girl looked at them scared.
"I was just testing to see if she was a vampire." she said with an innocent smile.
Kol rubbed his temple snappy.
Bonnie turned to the girl. "Now you, if you don't want a headache that will last a year start talking."
The girl was mad that she had been played by the charming ass in front of her. "I remember them from a couple of nights ago, they came in here asking a lot of questions and the dark-haired one started a huge fight out of nowhere. Sage said that they weren't welcome here but they still kept asking questions so she took care of it."
"Did you just say… Sage?" Kol asked on edge.
"Yes, she's the owner."
"Bloody hell..." Kol picked up his phone to text Klaus.
[XXXXX]
"We should leave." Caroline whispered.
In response Klaus laced an arm around her waist.
She could feel his body outlining hers and it was making it hard to focus on all of these possible death traps surrounding her, the music in the club changed and a sexy song started, she closed her eyes faltering because Klaus started moving slowly, his hand was resting over her stomach which made her move with him, or was it her sheer will to move along with him? She never expected Klaus to be a club lover, let alone such a good dancer.
"Easy love... we don't want to instigate any unnecessary attention... do we?" he was calling her out on it but against his better judgement he stroked her bare arm, came slowly up her shivering skin and moved her hair to expose her neck.
She rested her head against his shoulder enjoying the music and expertly moving her hips to the sound of the alluring music.
"What is this music anyway?" he murmured hypnotized by her perfect neck that he wanted to kiss, or bite.
Caroline smiled and slowly moved her hands up his legs. "Glad you... came." she raised her arms while her body taunted him with a continuous grind.
"Profound..." he let out realizing that this was slightly messing with his body, Caroline was messing with him a bit too much to be more accurate and for a second he believed that his entire body was vibrating, that Caroline had that much power over him but then he shook his head and reached inside of his pocket to read a message from Kol.
Sage owns the club
Klaus' instincts took over. "Caroline." he leaned over hastily. "We need to go. Now."
Caroline understand the change in his posture and started walking, she smiled at a couple that moved so that she could leave the dance floor but in her getaway she stumbled into a hard chest.
"Aren't you infiltrated on the wrong crowd... bloodsucker." A huge man harshly snarled at her.
Caroline pursed her lips, this wasn't part of her quickly get in, ask questions and leave plan. "I was on my way out. I didn't know that this place was exclusive, so… my bad." she tried to leave but some other guy grabbed her arm.
"You're here now, I'm sure we can make your visit worth it." he bluntly lowered his eyes to her cleavage.
"No thanks." She reclaimed her arm and strutted away.
He tried to follow her but Klaus cut him off with a dominating look, the werewolf instantly stepped down.
[XXXXX]
"Where's Bonnie?" Caroline asked as soon as she saw that Kol's car was gone.
"They're on their way home, from where we should have never left." he said mad.
Caroline parted her arms. "Fine Klaus, it was a stupid plan. Next time I'll ask for your infinite wisdom."
Klaus opened the door of his car. "Next time use your head, understand what you're getting yourself into before you actually decide to make a move." he snapped.
"Carpe Diem Klaus... I don't care what happens because I'm already dead."
Klaus slammed the door of his car raging. "Really Caroline? That's what you believe, that your existence is over?"
Caroline didn't answer him, she just looked away, she was done confessing for one night, she had already given away too much.
"Look at me." He demanded in a deep voice.
She slowly looked at him but she kept her expression closed up.
"You have eternity ahead of you. Time has no meaning to us, humanity has no value to us, we can do whatever we want and you are wasting it on careless deeds. You are wasting your true potential on a small town and with small town boys." he spat out unable to stop himself.
Caroline smiled. "Seriously Klaus? You think that a few romantic drawings and shallow promises are going to make me believe you can actually come to feel? I know shallow, ok? I was the frigging princess of shallow and I was an expert in it, with the depth of a kiddy pool so don't fool yourself, I know exactly what you are. You're a heartless awful and sadistic murderer." she didn't filter the strength of her words.
Klaus listened to them but they didn't make sense to him, they didn't match any of her actions towards him. "If I am all that, then why did you trust me when you were dying?"
"I don't know." she said looking down on the ground.
Klaus rested his forearms over the roof of the car. "I could've let you die Caroline…" he turned around to act on the sound approaching him from behind, he grabbed the man's hand removing the large knife that he was holding and slit his throat open, then he faced Caroline coldly. "But I didn't."
[XXXXX]
Caroline only spoke when she was close to her house. "I didn't mean to call you a monster." She said with a hand on the door already.
Klaus didn't say a word, his face was an unreadable hard expression.
She wavered before leaving his car, she looked at him one last time before doing so. "But if you're one… this is that moment when I admit that I'm falling for a monster."
She left the car determined but she wasn't as steadfast as he was, Klaus left the car with a steady walk that only stopped when he was on the porch with her and kissing her.
It was an intense kiss and easily she found herself pinned against the door moaning and parting her lips for a deeper kiss, it was a first sweet meeting of tongues and for the longest minute they indulged in that new sensation.
As the kiss softly came to an end Klaus kissed her bottom lip with care, he looked at her expectant about her next move.
She stroked his neck. "I'm not going to invite you inside tonight..."
Klaus smiled before kissing her lips again. "Who said I wanted to go inside?" He started to move away from her.
Caroline remained by the porch watching him as he drove away, there was this growing happiness taking over her, maybe giving in wasn't as bad as she thought it would be.
[XXXXX]
Soundtrack:
Glad you came - The Wanted
Guarded - Kevin Daniel
