Then
Caroline left her rooms the next morning with her head held high. She swept into the dining hall, as breakfast was being served, and though Klaus wasn't often present so early in the morning, his little run in with his future bride had left him sated enough he had actually slept a normal night through. He was becoming horribly banal as his marriage approached, he was thinking to himself when he saw Caroline step down the last of the stairs and enter the room. There was always the possibility life could spice up a little, he though darkly as her eyes found his instantly, and he saw a delightful pink tint her cheeks as she averted her eyes, unable to help the hand that strayed to her shorn locks, tucking them behind her ear. The little mouse had defied him. The very fact of it struck him dumb. It was against her very nature, or so he had been led to believe so far, aside from making a fuss about the treatment of all the less fortunate souls she came across, she had otherwise been biddable. And yet, she had now defied his direct order. It annoyed him, and the ugly haircut certainly annoyed him more, but the will behind it… the predator inside him, the wolf… sat up and took notice.
She walked haughtily to an empty seat and sat gracefully, accepting food from a servant. The conversation had dropped when she had entered as people glanced at him, waited for his reaction to seeing his famously inconvenient bride in public. He merely lowered his face into his cup, sipped his morning blood and mead and watched her. Conversation started flowing again when it was clear a show would not be forthcoming.
Caroline had sat near her friend, the witch who had taken care of her the previous day. The dark-haired girl was exclaiming over her hair, running her fingers through the chopped ends. Klaus listened in shamelessly.
"How could you do such a thing? It was your crowning beauty, it would soften even Prince Niklaus' heart… now with your slim body and nun's clothes he may mistake you for the stable boy" Katherine was saying.
"It would suit me fine if he did, in fact I'd encourage it" Caroline said, and Klaus barely avoided coughing as he swallowed a laugh at her surprisingly forceful tone.
"And no less than a week before the wedding!" Katherine continued, stilling only as Caroline put her hand on her arm, drawing her attention.
"How could you not tell me, not even mention it once?" Caroline asked, and Katherine needed no context to understand her meaning.
"I didn't know how to tell you, at first I didn't believe you were in the dark about it, I thought it impossible. Then, I was too afraid of upsetting you. I'm sorry"
"So am I" Caroline said quietly, her fork tracing a path through her eggs, her eyes downcast.
"Is it… so terrible?" Katherine asked gently, and saw an unshed tear appear in Caroline's eye. She felt her throat squeeze with words that couldn't pass.
"Most woman will envy you for it" Her friend continued. Caroline managed to relax her throat, her voice only the barest whisper now, she glanced at Katherine, that lone tear falling down her cheek.
"He is… the cruellest person I have ever known. There is no mercy in him, no feeling. I cannot understand him" she said, each word bringing tears closer and closer. Katherine glanced around, and suddenly, her eyes met Klaus', and she grasped Caroline's arm in alarm.
"Come, I need help to prepare the healing ointments for today. Can you spare me some time?" she said, already dragging her friend to her feet. They left quickly, and all the while, Katherine could see Klaus's dark gaze never leaving his trembling bride.
Caroline felt as though her nerves might not take another false alarm, as she rounded a stone corridor to find a man dressed in black approaching her. Her heart shot to her mouth and her palms broke out in sweat, all before she realised it was no one she recognised.
She had a heavy cloak over her thin muslin, having no other clothes ready yet, and she drew the hood up as she slipped down some back stairs she had discovered. She was making for the stables, hoping some animal company would give her respite from her fears. Why had she goaded him, if she was this afraid? She had no idea, all she knew was the prospect of meekly accepting his orders couldn't be born. She had never in her life been disobedient, and her mother certainly would never have described her as such. Yet there was something about Klaus that sparked the small streak of rebellion she had found buried deep inside. She walked around the western gardens, skirting past a pavilion full of night blooming roses, a lover's arbour. She crossed a tiny bridge over a small river and pressed on, seeing the torches around the stable glowing in the distance.
She reached the wooden stalls and dropped her harried pace, allowing herself a deep breath. The smell of hay and horses greeted her. She walked slowly past the stalls, stopping at intervals to lean over and gaze at the beautiful horses inside, holding out the carrots and apples she had pilfered from the kitchens on the way. The soft snickering against her hand of their soft lips and wiry whiskers made her smile. She walked on, stilling only as she heard the soft sound of a moan.
It was altogether too human and it was jarringly at odds with the safe and bright sanctuary of the stable. She stepped closer, curious even as she knew she should sneak away. She was pulled forward by an invisible thread of naivety.
She saw the rough shape of three bodies sitting in another stall, this one housing the largest steed in the stable, one she recognised from the day Klaus had returned from his hunt. She struggled to understand what she was seeing, there seemed to be too many limbs, and suddenly, the picture took focus.
Klaus, the very man she had attempting to avoid all day, lazed back, his hands on the parchment in his lap, which she could now see held charcoal sketches. His hands were streaked black with it. Beside him, two beautiful girls lay, their gowns unbound, and Caroline could see the plump swells of their breast spilling out. They were lying with their arms around each other, touching each other. Caroline was shocked, never had she imagined such a thing. They were laughing in low, throaty voices, though, Caroline noticed Klaus was largely ignoring them. The girls were shooting him lowered, suggestive glances, and seemed to become rather irritated when he refused to turn an interested eye to their games. One of them suddenly reached out a hand, and gently laid it on his leg. If she had though Klaus had been sitting still before, it was nothing to the ice that seemed to freeze him now. He looked to the hand, and then up at the girl, with a face so devoid of expression, it scared her even from afar. The girl withdrew her hand quickly, but managed to keep a pleasant smile on her face.
"Sire, do you not wish to partake, we are both here to serve you" she said, reaching another hand up, toward his cheek. As the hand approached, his head moved fast, and she saw as his face, contorting into the terrifying mask she had glimpsed when he had bitten her. He sank impossibly long teeth into the girl's wrist, an unbreakable latch. The girl screamed, attempted to pull away, even as Klaus held her wrist fast. She was turning paler and paler by the second, and Caroline stifled the urge to shout. She should try and save her, but would it only sign her death warrant, as Klaus made his displeasure known. As she tried to decide, she shifted, her voluminous cloak catching an empty bucket, which fell to its side with a hollow clank.
She froze, not daring to look back, spun around, already feeling cold, hard hands grip her from behind, pushing her with force into a stall door, so hard her teeth clattered and she bit her lip. She saw Klaus before her, his face crossed in anger, a drop of blood collected at the corner of his full, pink tinted lips. She saw the girls, both of them, running out the stable behind them, though Klaus did not even glance to see. His furious gaze was intent upon Caroline, and she could feel the tremble building up her from her knees. He was breathing hard, and her own pounding heart was making it impossible to breath even as well. They stared at each other, and after a heartbeat, his eyes dropped to the blood from her bitten lip, just a drop.
"It seems, as you have scared away my supper… you will have to do" he said, his voice rough with blood lust, still raging in his veins, his tone almost mocking as her eyes widened at his words and her head started to shake.
"Or would you rather I went after them?" he continued, and saw the wrenching on her beautiful features. That noble heart torn by fear. She slowly shook her head, indecision and fear written on her face. It was cruel he knew, she would never knowingly hurt others, and so he forced her to offer herself in their place, to avoid her guilt. As though she could be the guilty one, instead of him, the abuser.
"Don't hurt them" she whispered, looking up at him with beseeching eyes. She couldn't know they were the blood slaves of the original family, sworn to provide blood in return for immortality later.
"Who should I hurt, Caroline?" he pressed her, twisted as always deep in his nature, the desire to taint that pure innocent bride of his, to make her more like him.
"Do you want me to hurt you?" he asked, his whole body slowly pressing her against the stable wall, hips first, his hands still holding her by the shoulders. He slowly dropped his hands to her waist, and her little fists instantly pushed on his chest, unmoveable as it was, she still tried.
"Must you hurt anyone?" she cried as he grabbed her wrists and pressed them against the wall over her head, leaving her more prone and vulnerable. Her blue eyes blazed up at him.
His eyes ran over her face, searching, caressing, and she felt he could see down to her very bones.
"Perhaps not" he breathed, leaning in closer.
"Perhaps, there is another way, if you choose it" he whispered, and the warm breath on her cheeks sent goose bumps chasing across her skin.
He kissed her then. She had braced herself for it, had expected it, in the way his voice lowered, and a flicker of blue flame seemed to appear in those unreadable eyes. She had imagined he might, knowing him to be a man of extremes, of passion and violence, or molten fury and icy distain, even in the short time she'd known him.
What she hadn't expected was how her tense body relaxed as his mouth searched hers, how the cold she had been feeling all day seemed to finally melt away, there in his arms. She hadn't expected the way her body fit into his, as though it were by design. She felt him suck her bleeding lip, and the action, so intimate and startling, brought a long sigh spilling from her lips. He turned them around, and brought her down aside him, as he sank to the floor. Her cloak billowed around them as her slender thighs were forced apart across his waist. His fingers went to her throat, laid bare with no veil of hair to protect the delicate skin there. His fingers brushed the skin, and Caroline arched under his touch. His eyes were black veined and gold now, a pulsing gold, and with his fangs elongating he pulled her neck to him. She stilled, afraid suddenly, afraid of the pain she had accepted in lieu of the other girls. He pressed a kiss on the hot skin, and then, all so slowly, she felt the piercing of his teeth, more like a nip of passion. Then, a tingling crept through her, radiating from her neck. It swept like a tide over her, lingering in the apex of her thighs and breasts. She gasped, her eyes falling closed as she held onto his shoulders, and rode out the sensations. Gently the feeling receded as she felt him pull back.
"Here" he said, his voice rough, and she felt his wrist held against her mouth. Her eyes opened as she looked at him in confusion.
"Drink of me" he commanded, seeing her reluctance. She shook her head numbly.
"Why? I do not wish… to become like you" she said, a small whisper. He studied her, his expression darkening.
"Why can you not do as you are told? I am your betrothed, and your Prince. If I tell you to drink, you will drink, or I will make you" he warned, his voice growing more heated. She attempted to stand, a motion quickly suppressed as he held her there in front of him.
"Why must you attempt to control me, at least tell me why you impose these arbitrary restrictions?!" she bit back.
"And who decides what is arbitrary?" he demanded hotly.
"Wear my hair down?" she shot back. She saw his eyes stray to her cut hair, an even deeper frown appearing.
"I suppose you have demonstrated that you are spectacularly awful at following even the easiest requests."
"It was not request! It was an order, an order about what to do with my body!"
"It was a request" he argued back.
"A request I would have considered, an order I cannot. Haven't you ever been ordered around by someone so much more… powerful than you, haven't you ever lost agency? No, I suppose the great Prince Niklaus has never felt powerless before" she said, writhing now to get up, to get away from the man who still, she could come no closer to understanding. He held her there, her attempts not even swaying his arms an inch, before he slowly relaxed his grip. She felt the anger go out of him, and stilled also. It seemed her words had touched something in him.
"You must drink, or you will become ill as before" he said, in a tight voice, his eyes shifting away from hers. She sat very still.
"Ill as from the werewolf's bite?" she asked carefully.
"Not a feeling I suspect you'd like to revisit, and one I find myself disinclined to witness again." He said.
"Are you… are you a wolf? As well as a vampire?" she asked carefully.
"And what if I was?" he asked, a challenge springing up in his voice, and Caroline knew then, they had entered dangerous territory.
"I didn't know such a person could be. With no weakness, you are truly immortal" she breathed, and caught a pained expression on his face.
"You did not know it was possible, because it is not, an accident of nature, and here I am. The only one of my kind." He said it lightly, and yet, as Caroline looked into his affected nonchalance, she felt a tendril of compassion for him, the very first, tiny budding sapling strand of understanding.
"How very lonely that must feel" she whispered, and in that moment, as their eyes met, she knew, even just for a heartbeat, she was seeing Klaus, as no one ever did. Stripped bare of artifice, or the mantle of power that he wore day in and day out. He slowly raised his wrist again.
"Will you drink?" he asked, and she felt the smallest victory of hearing a question, not a command.
"If you wish it" she replied, bending her head to his wrist and biting to break the skin, with little effect. She looked back up at him to see his approval of her words, of her submission, before he raised his other hand, the nails of which grew long in a second, becoming talons. He sank one into his wrist, and brought it back to her. She sipped the blood, feeling it warm a path inside her. As she drank, she felt his other hand, still heavy with talons, stroke her hair.
AN. Hi everyone, thank you so much for the reviews, as always it helps to see what other people are thinking of the story, if its too confusing, if its nudging along in the right direction. I hope the 2 timelines aren't too confusing to anyone? They are converging gradually... so hopefully you will understand the Klaus we see NOW in the Night Garden, with captive Caroline and understand how he came to feel that way, and why he is acting the way he is... In a way the Klaus of now, is a bit scarier than past Klaus, as that was just regular Klaus, crap childhood etc, he had never had his heart broken. Present Klaus has all of that on top of some other Caroline related issues, so is a little darker.