Title reference: Gifts and Curses - Yellowcard
"Bloody hell, Elena, this dress was brand new!" Rebekah yelled.
"Why are you painting in a new dress?"
"Not for you to ruin it!" The original sister retorted and slapped her brush at the doppelgänger splattering the white paint all over her. Elena looked down her body in surprise examining the white splashes that ran a wild pattern over her clothes, her mouth forming a wide O.
"Bitch!" The young vampire shrieked half amused half offended.
Rebekah pursed her lips a bit arrogantly and waved with the brush in her hand again.
She simply laughed and Caroline started to giggle as well which made her earn an angry glare from Elena. Bonnie smirked at Elena because she knew exactly what was about to happen and she made sure that she would not stand in anyone's way.
Elena stroke out and Caroline gasped when the wet paint hit her full on before she could escape the drops.
"You are supposed to support me!" Elena complained, but she laughed only a second later right before Caroline's face took on a kind of sneering expression.
"You know what I think?" She started. "Polka dots are suiting you far better than anything else."
And with that she also hit at Elena who shrieked for no real reason. Rebekah laughed and it only needed a second before the three of them were caught up in a full blown paint war. White colouring flew through the air and landed everywhere but where it was supposed to. They were probably making a mess of it but they would have an eternity to get it right again if anybody cared enough about it.
Caroline just closed her eyes because Elena was aiming at her again.
She felt the wetness dripping off her hair and running down her arms. Bonnie giggled but squealed when Caroline aimed at Elena and hid a second later behind Bonnie. She quickly stepped away.
"Oh, no no no no! No way!"
"Don't be such a spoil sport, Bonnie!" Rebekah grinned and her eyes glowed menacingly. She had a pot of colour in her hand dipping her brush deep into it.
Bonnie raised her hands shaking her hair wildly.
"Don't worry, Bon, I am gonna defend you!" Caroline cheered a raised a whole bucket of white paint in the air.
Rebekah gasped. "You wouldn't dare to!"
Colour hit Rebekah's cheek out of an unexpected direction. She raised her shoulders and screwed her eyes shut squealing.
"Why?" Elena cocked her eyebrows waving the brush and admitting to the crime.
"Well, how about it's the last thing you will do tonight!" Rebekah answered cockily.
Elena and Rebekah both got hit by another rain of white drops.
"No, death threats tonight!" Caroline commanded sternly pointing two brushes, one in each hand at them. Her face was serious but Elena and Rebekah gave each other a look. One of those looks!
They took a step towards Caroline at the same time and at the same time Caroline took a step back.
"No!" She said.
Bonnie had already duck out of the way and was watching amused.
Rebekah raised the pot in her hands, when someone cleared his throat making the four of them stop midair.
They slowly turned around to see who was interrupting their fun silently promising that depending on who it was he wouldn't get away that easily.
But they let their brushes sink when Marcel stepped onto the porch.
"Good evening ladies." He was grinning his sunny-day smile while his eyes examined the women in front of him from head to toe. Elena suddenly felt somehow embarrassed and looked at the floor biting her lip.
"What do you want, Marcel?" Rebekah snarled striking a casual pose since she didn't feel intimidated one bit. There was probably nothing aside from Niklaus that could intimidate her anymore after a thousand years and least of all the people she didn't actually like much.
She simply stared arrogantly at Marcel with her hands on her hips and even Caroline didn't feel the usual urge to cover her eyes. When at one time she would have never let something or someone ruin her clothes and let herself be seen in them she now couldn't care less about hiding, quite the contrary because she straightened without any hesitation. No more shallow, superficial girl there.
Here's to the confident bright creature she had always been inside.
"I need to have a word with your brother." Marcel spoke and the air between him and the original sister was suddenly quite hostile. Rebekah squinted angrily and Marcel's smile was wiped off his face.
Caroline noticed the change and snapped quickly out of her drowsiness. "I'll take you to him."
She made her way to the door with Marcel following suit after one last glance at Rebekah. He had liked her once but their ways had parted a long time ago.
He didn't know if he should be surprised by Caroline's quick willingness to take him into the house. Once again he was kind of taken aback by the light of this woman.
And once again he wondered how the hell Klaus had managed to get her to be at his side?
It shouldn't be possible considering his ways! But maybe only the deepest darkness was capable of attiring the brightest light and that was the reason why it was possible after all.
Or maybe he simply manipulated and brainwashed her. Wouldn't surprise him if he was honest.
With a confidence that someone could only have in their own home Caroline marched down the hall while Marcel couldn't help but admire her appearance and attitude.
"Klaus!?" She called out. Then she turned around to look at Marcel with what almost looked like friendly eyes and Marcel wondered how she looked like when she despised someone. Was she even capable of doing just that?
He couldn't imagine her to be anything but nice and sunny. How little did he know of what Caroline had gone through last week and how much it had actually affected her deep down. It hadn't dimmed her light, but it had made her a bit more ruthless in a world that was cruel and restless. She had discovered a side that she hadn't known of herself before, her truest vampire side, a side which she had yet to come to terms with.
A door upstairs clicked.
"Looks like he has been painting." She said more to herself than to Marcel. Klaus slowly descended the stairs.
"What's going on, love?" He stopped for a second when he saw Marcel standing next to her.
Then he smirked.
"Marcellus, what a nice surprise, mate." He walked over to them. "Let's retire to the study, shall we?"
He extended his hand towards the door on his right and motioned for Marcel to go forward. Klaus quickly checked Caroline out with one swift look.
"Painting is obviously harder than it looks like, don't you think?" He smirked at her raising his eyebrows while he picked a few white strands of hair up holding it in front of her face. "You know to achieve the desired effect the paint is to actually stay on the porch?"
Caroline pushed against his chest with a smile on her face.
"Shut up!"
Klaus chuckled and ran his thumb over her cheek, wiping a bit of paint off it. Caroline smiled brightly at him and Klaus felt warm inside. It was as if she could put his body on fire with only one look and he hoped that it would never change.
Humans fell out of love. What about vampires?
Maybe their lucky days were numbered too.
His gloomy thoughts were chased away when Caroline's lips suddenly pecked his.
"Try not to kill him." She smiled and smeared a bit wet paint on his nose with her finger before she quickly made her escape out of the front door before he could stop her. She giggled and swayed her hips because she knew that Klaus was following her with his eyes which made her smile satisfied.
Klaus grinned amused and rubbed the paint off his nose with a roll of his eyes, but he felt proud and possessive that Caroline was so carefree in his presence.
He waited until the front door closed behind her before he walked towards the study in a merry mood.
Marcel had gone over to a window where he eyed the green grass while Klaus just shut the door behind him.
"I take it that you made your decision?"
Marcel turned to face him and nodded once. "I agree. I am going to help you, but I want a truce between you and me and my people."
Klaus squinted at him.
"You are in no position to make demands." He said calmly, but not cruelly. It rather sounded as if he was stating a mere fact. Marcel shrugged and crossed his arms. He had nothing to lose, but more importantly he wanted to protect his kingdom and people. Klaus wouldn't break a deal if he made one.
The hybrid exhaled heavily before he went to pour some alcohol into two glasses of which he offered one to Marcel. "For old time's sake."
"For old time's sake." Marcel repeated. Their glasses clinked through the room and each of them took a sip. They eyed each other and a cover of silence fell over them since no one was really sure what to say. They weren't actually friends anymore but the word enemy might be a bit too strong too.
Marcel finally spoke about the one thing that was always heavily on his mind every time when he came here and saw the life that Klaus had managed to establish.
"You and the girl…"
Klaus' eyes flashed to his face silently warning him to be very careful, but Marcel just looked at his glass which he twirled in his hand with a smile on his face.
"What you have, is rare." Simple spoken words that made Klaus frown at the dark skinned vampire trying to see what he wanted to imply or where he wanted this to head, but he couldn't detect the ongoing of this conversation. His fingers around the glass tightened ever so slightly. It had almost become a reflex reaction for every time when someone mentioned his relationship.
Marcel half chuckled half snorted wryly.
"I envy that." He looked up at Klaus from under his lashes before he dropped his eyes again. "As much as I hated and hate you, you should protect it from everything the future holds in store for you, because that kind of thing is a one in a life time thing you will never ever find again." Marcel told him sternly and Klaus looked totally taken aback. No one outside of the family had ever told him that bluntly that he should protect his new personal space, least of all someone who had once wanted him dead.
He looked at his own glass leaning forward and images of Caroline smiling at him wandered through his mind.
Yes, he knew it was true.
He knew.
With the truce between the vampires, Klaus now had spies in town everywhere, but none of Marcel's minions reported anything out of the ordinary. Everything was quiet and no witch showed her face in the streets.
It was as if with Klaus and Marcel's truce the whole town had finalised a truce.
The newly painted porch of the Mikaelson mansion glistened in the low afternoon light.
The calmer the situation seemed to be the more anxious Klaus became infecting actually everyone else inside of the house. Some had actually turned quite paranoid with the heavy atmosphere. Only this morning Elena had asked if the sky had always looked like this, with this greenish tint.
"What greenish tint?" Damon had asked her but she had insisted on it.
The situation only became more ridiculous when Rebekah told them that it wasn't green but turquoise.
Since then practically everyone had cast a glance at the sky frequently, however no one would admit it, of course.
A few hours later Kol strode into the living room along with Stefan.
The two of them had decided to walk into town to keep an eye on things and catch up on the latest gossip, but truth be told they had only wanted to escape the house for a while.
Everything had been normal in the Quarter and not even Thierry or Diego could tell any news, but then they overheard an interesting conversation in a bar.
Thierry had pointed him out as being the father of a new discovered witch. She had only recently received her powers and she was indeed related to one of the elder witches from the coven. The man was telling another one that his daughter has been behaving strange lately, especially since she was friends with Sophie Deveraux. The other man had agreed and told him to be careful because the Deveraux girl was said to be into witchcraft and crazy voodoo stuff. It was obvious that they didn't believe in the supernatural and had their prejudices about witchcraft, just like every human who didn't know any of that stuff.
"He said that his daughter had asked him to be allowed to go out with Sophie tonight and meet with their friends. Her aunt Mariah one of the elder witches would be there too. When he asked where they would meet she told him the location of the graveyard." Stefan repeated to the Mikaelson's what the man had said earlier.
"I doubt that they'll be sharing a simple cup of tea in a graveyard." Kol mocked.
"Something is obviously going on and I have the slight feeling that I won't like it." Damon said.
Elijah sighed gravely looking at Klaus who stared grimly back at his brother.
"I believe that we have a meeting with a coven of witches." Elijah sounded more like asking a question than making a statement.
"Why do we have to do it near the graveyard?" Davina complained and eyed the gravestones fretfully. It was so dark around here and the dead underneath the surface made it even darker. There was no streak of light only the faint glow of Davina's old torch light that prevented her from tripping over anything.
Tyler groaned. God, what a girl!
He asked himself if she was especially easily to get scared or if it was normal for a 16 year old girl to be like this.
He certainly had never been like that at her age!
She was supernatural for god's sake, so why was she scared?
"I told you that this is a binding place. There are a lot of witches buried here, your ancestors by the way and you can draw power from them just like I told you before."
Tyler had never learned so much about witchcraft as he had lately, for his position in Marcel's ranks had contributed to that perfectly. Two days ago he had accused some witch of practising magic and just before he had executed her he had quite cleverly rid her of her knowledge about curses and binding places and stuff that Davina could need to activate and use all of her powers. Tyler had kept her alive for a day in order to get any information he needed. Then he had grinned and snapped her neck immediately without any remorse.
The best part of it was that there had been no witnesses at all and no one had suspected him of doing anything that had nothing else to do than with Marcel's rules, not even Marcel.
Davina and he could easily sneak out from right under his nose. It was perfect!
If there only wasn't this scared little kitten that jerked even when there was only an owl hooting. She was probably scared of her own shadow!
"Don't wet your pants. There is nothing out here that should scare you!" Tyler snapped losing his patience.
The young girl rubbed her arms and glanced from side to side. "Are you sure we should be doing this?"
Tyler stared at her as if she was out of her mind! "Seriously? We discussed it for hours, Davina. Don't you want Marcel to get rid of Klaus? Don't you want to punish them for what they did to you?"
Davina nodded. Yes, yes, of course she wanted justice!
But this place was creepy! What if there were ghosts around here?
Although, there was something else inside her that nudged her forward towards the home of the dead. It felt almost like she was drawn towards the graveyard with its dead bones. There was a rush in her veins, as if there was something swimming in her blood. And she knew that it were her powers that flowed through her body and that she felt so distinctly. She had tried some easy spells lately that Tyler had given her and they had all worked out. Wherever Tyler had gotten his knowledge from it had helped her to be able to feel and let her powers flow within only two days and the most amazing thing was that she suddenly felt strong beneath. It was a weird and unusual feeling, but at the same time it felt natural, because her powers were a part of her.
Tyler nibbled at his lips looking around the empty place.
He had spread some rumours over town that the witches would meet in the graveyard tonight. It had been far too easy and that was why he was afraid that it wouldn't work. The vampires had easily swallowed the bait and now all he had to do was wait and calm an over-paranoid witch down.
Davina had so much power that she could do practically everything she wanted to if only her imagination was strong enough, due to the dead girls' powers that flowed through her veins.
Davina unfolded the already worn out piece of paper in her hand and read the words she already knew by heart once again.
"Are you sure this spell is going to work?" There was worry in her voice. What if it didn't?
"Of course it will work!" Tyler answered annoyed.
Suddenly steps filled the air and leaves crumbled under some feet which Tyler sensed with his vampire hearing.
"They are coming! Remember that if he is gone half your problems are resolved and your friends' ones as well! You can do this! Do not doubt your powers!" He quickly flashed away to cowardly hide himself. He didn't want them to see him just yet. No, he would wait for the big entrance this time. No more rushing into this, patience!
There were muffled voices and soon Elijah, Klaus and Caroline came into view.
Tyler clenched his fists so hard when he saw her that his nails drew blood.
They had divided their group into small parties and each would circle the area and finally enter the place from a different way.
The three vampires came into view and stopped when they saw Davina standing there, alone.
Elijah and Caroline exchanged sceptical looks, but Klaus just stared grimly at the girl when at the same time he tried to scan the surroundings quickly.
"What is this?" Klaus snarled under his breath and instinctively tried to shove Caroline behind him.
Elijah raised an eyebrow. "I guess this is Davina." He mumbled connecting the dots.
"The girl who is to be sacrificed?" Caroline asked and watched her almost in awe, but more with sympathy, especially when she noticed how much the girls' hands were trembling.
However, Davina didn't think long, because she knew that if she started thinking now she would give in to that nagging voice inside her head that told her that something was wrong with everything Tyler told her. That she didn't really have any reason to believe him, but she was scared of him and a part of her told her that she had to help him. She raised her hands and started mumbling the imprinted words in her mind. She had no choice anyway, if she didn't do anything they would simply kill her.
The wind picked up. There was a rustling and swishing in the air as if everything seemed to flee and escape from the place as soon as possible.
Elijah and Klaus looked at each other confused. One young witch? Where were the others?
But they immediately felt the rush of power that practically rippled through her body and into the air around them. They knew from experience that this was an unusual shockwave of power that was emanating from this young girl.
"She's holding the power of the other dead girls." Klaus murmured while Davina kept mumbling. Suddenly the powers overpowered her body and her eyes became a deep black, but her voice remained to be a steady hiss.
"That is too much power for her!" Elijah commented and contemplated flashing forward and snapping her neck or something, but he feared the consequences.
"What is she doing?" Caroline shrieked and became frightened feeling the energy around them as well. She quickly grabbed Klaus' sleeve and held on to it, but it was ripped from her hand when the original flashed forward.
Klaus wanted to reach the witch not thinking about the consequences like Elijah did. But suddenly, just before he could reach her, he was thrown backwards.
There was an invisible wall surrounding Davina, keeping her inside and everyone else outside. Her voice sounded strange by now and there was only magic speaking out of her mouth chanting the words over and over again without her being able to influence anything. It wasn't her anymore. She had no more control and gave herself over to the complete rush of power.
Caroline held her breath while her heartbeat picked up.
There was another ripple of magic cutting through the air and it sucked all air out of their lungs. Caroline moaned and even Elijah bend forward his hands flying towards his chest, but Klaus, Klaus fell forward onto his knees and a long scream left his body.
Colourful dots exploded in front of Caroline's eyes and she felt dizzy, but despite that she heard Klaus' scream and tried desperately to hold her eyes open.
Klaus turned towards her and stared wide eyed and frightened. Frightened?
There was another ripple in the air and this time it felt hot and dangerous. It engulfed the hybrid and held him onto the ground with hot strong fingers. There were strange noises coming from somewhere out of space.
Her feet wanted to run to him, comfort him and wipe that look from his face, that she couldn't handle. She couldn't look at him, the big bad, so frightened, but she couldn't take her eyes off him either.
Elijah's hand on her shoulder tightened infinitesimally holding her back.
Because then it started.
A splintering sound soared through the air followed by a piercing scream.
As if someone had pressed slow motion, Klaus dropped forward onto his hands, while his face contorted into a mask of pain.
A whimper escaped Caroline's lips unintentionally and she pressed her hands in front of her mouth.
Klaus looked up at her with a desperate look in his eyes when he felt the explosions inside of his whole body knowing immediately what was about to happen. And it horrified him more than anything else ever had. Sweat started to beat on his forehead when he tried to fight against his inner demons' demands.
Another scream made Caroline wince.
"Klaus!"
Elijah held her in place while he watched in horror how his brother's bones broke.
Klaus arched his back and screamed in hot pain when his spine splintered into a thousand pieces. He tried to hold it back, tried to keep control but with every snapping bone he felt it slipping from his grasp. His whole body was on fire.
Another snap and his legs bend at an unnatural angle.
He gasped and moaned.
Make it stop! Caroline pleaded silently. Make it stop!
Her chest ached when she had to see him like this and it was as if she felt his pain as well and it was China all over again.
It was torture to watch, witness without being able to help.
The cracking of his bones was sickening. The sound of it deafening.
Caroline wanted to avert her eyes. She wanted to look away, and to shut the images out of her mind. She knew that they would haunt her till the end of time, but she didn't know what would be more disturbing, the sight of the deformed body or the sound of the breaking bones, the painful screams.
Klaus cried out once again but suddenly there was a growling undertone coming from deep out of his throat. His eyes turned yellow and looked wild, his sharp teeth were frightening. Another growl echoed through the night. His human features morphed into those of the wolf that he was deep inside. Davina's magic turning him inside out.
A grunt.
A howl.
And in the next second there was no remembrance left.
Instead of a man a big grey wolf looked up at Elijah and Caroline out of glowing yellow eyes. He had his nose scrunched up, his lips raised, his teeth barred.
Caroline stared at the animal in white shock. She had never seen his wolf self before and she wondered if everyone else ever had since Klaus usually only turned at will.
Its sides heaved with every rattling breath.
"Klaus?" Caroline whispered, but the animal didn't stir. There was no recognition in his eyes.
It snarled. White teeth flashing dangerously through the dark forest.
One bite and any vampire would be dead!
Never the less Caroline wanted to step closer, but Elijah immediately held her back.
"Nik." Caroline said again and jerked her shoulder out of Elijah's grasp.
"Caroline, no." But she didn't listen. She took a step forward, but the wolf only let out a guttural aggressive snarl.
"Niklaus." She whispered softly.
Elijah tensed and readied himself never letting a single movement of the wolf out of his sight. If need arose he would grab Caroline as quickly as possible and flash her out of there.
Slowly she stretched out her hand, but the wolf's snarl grew louder the closer she came. And suddenly he snapped his fangs at her forcing Caroline to jump backwards. The wolf ducked as if he wanted to jump at her at any moment. It heaved a paw and his ears were pressed flat against his head, hot salvia dripping from his pointed fangs.
Elijah steeled himself for the fight imagining every possible scenario in which this could end, but in a fight it would end.
However, all of a sudden the wolf just spun around as quickly as possible and ran into the black forest. It simply disappeared between the dense tree stumps, leaving Caroline and Elijah behind in surprise.
Leaves rustled. Branches swayed.
Caroline swallowed, before she turned around to face Elijah. The look in his eyes was stern hiding his confusion, but a small part of him was glad that the danger was running into the opposite direction now.
Tyler cursed under his breath when he saw the big grey wolf running towards him.
The damn witch should have clumped his blood and not turn him! Damn it!
He thought while he ran from Klaus, once again.
Caroline stared in shock at the spot where Klaus had vanished.
She looked at Davina who she had totally forgotten about. She stood stock still and had lowered her hands. Her sight looked empty and suddenly she seemed to be so very small, so powerless. Her shoulders were slumped forward and her skin looked pale and almost luscious in the faint light of the night.
All of a sudden there were other shadows moving and running from out of cover. They moved quickly. Getting in and getting out without any interference from the stunned vampires.
A black shadow lunged forward, hurtling himself at the petrified girl, grabbing her and dragging her away.
Davina was so exhausted that she didn't even scream when the shadow hit her and pulled her with him into the darkness.
"What? What the hell!?" Caroline flashed off towards the forest line where the shadow had disappeared. "Elijah, what was that!?" She tried to see something, but there were no traces left, except for a lingering scent that reminded her of something.
Elijah was speechless and flashed over next to Caroline. He ran his hands over his face and could only shake his head. "I…I must admit…"
"Elijah, those were werewolves!" Caroline exclaimed finally recognizing the smell.
Stefan suddenly jogged out of the trees. "Did you see the pack?" He asked and Damon followed him on his heels with Elena next. "We ran into them in the woods and they were headed this direction but they escaped us at last."
Elijah looked dead serious and Damon frowned at him. "Bugger, you look like you've just see a ghost."
"I believe that you are right." Elijah said.
"What happened?" Stefan asked.
"Looks like the wolves just kidnapped Davina." Caroline said wryly and was still staring at where they had vanished. Then she looked into another direction. "Before she turned Klaus into a wolf."
"She, what?" Damon yelled. "You've got to be kidding me! Wolf Klaus is running around here somewhere? Are you serious?" Caroline nodded. "Oh, perfect! And there goes the peaceful night!"
"What is the means of this?" Elena asked Elijah who shook his head.
"I have no idea."
"Why is she trembling so much?" Hayley asked and looked at the girl they had just snatched away from under the eyes of Caroline and Elijah. She smirked. She hadn't expected it to go that smoothly. They had expected a fight, but lucky for them everyone had just been too stunned after what had happened. Klaus in wolf form however was definitely not to their advantage.
Damn Tyler! Hayley cursed. Why the hell did he have to get involved? Why would he want Klaus to be in wolf form? To kill him off? Finally and forever? She wondered if that would work after all.
Anyways they had to be very careful now.
"Probably because of the repercussions of her using all that magic." Cortez mused looking the girl over. He waved a hand in front of her eyes, but she didn't react. It was as if she was in shock, not realizing what was going on around her.
"Looks quite small doesn't she?" Reese said and everyone looked at him in confusion. "I mean for so much power she looks quite small."
Cortez had a dark frown on his forehead. His lips were pulled into a thin line but he didn't answer. Instead he waved his hand. "Come on. Let's get this over with!"
Reese looked again at the girl shaking his head. "Poor thing."
He followed Hayley and Cortez through the forest to meet with Sophie Deveraux.
The rest of the pack would watch Davina and take her to a safe place where the witches wouldn't find her for the time being.
"Don't tell me you sympathize with a witch!" Hayley said. Reese just shrugged.
"She's like what, 16? Let me sympathize with the poor girl who can't sit comfortably at home right now and watch American Idol or whatever it is those kids are watching today."
Hayley pulled a face. The last thing she needed was Reese playing out the conscience card right now. She was on a mission. Find her family, lift the curse and live happily ever after. Why should she care about a young witch she had never seen before? The same witch being her ransom for everything she had ever wanted!?
A clearing came into sight.
Sophie was not alone. There were a couple of other witches with her. They looked old and Hayley assumed that those were the elders. Of course they wanted Davina as well for their ritual.
That was the part where they agreed again with the younger ones. They all wanted Davina in order to complete the ritual.
"Do you have her?" Sophie asked.
"What if we do?" Hayley snapped, but was silenced by Cortez who lifted his hand.
He took his time to speak. "We do. Now lift the curse and she is yours."
Sophie shook her head. "The girl first."
Cortez shook his head. "No. We have what you want and you will lift the curse of our family."
Sophie stared defiantly at him. "What if we just curse you too?"
"Then you will never see her again. I have someone waiting with her in the wings. Should something go wrong he will get her out of this state forever. No sacrifice, no completed spell."
Caroline had been pacing in the study for hours now. She looked at the clock on the wall for the thousand's time in that night. It was long past midnight.
Everyone had tried to calm her down before but it hadn't lasted for long.
"Oh come on Caroline, you are probably more anxious about this all than Nik is!" Rebekah had tried to soothe her. "He loves his wolf side!"
Caroline had tried to smile at her.
"She is right." Elena had said siding with Rebekah. "It will be fine!"
Damon and Stefan had then closed the front door behind them.
The older Salvatore had met Elena half way through the room. She had looked him over and Damon, being Damon, had grinned cockily. "No, wolf bites this time. Speaking of which, since this wolf is usually not that shy I'd say he disappeared."
Caroline was anxious that something might have happened and worry was written all over her face while she kept pacing.
"Disappeared?" Caroline had asked.
Stefan had sighed at her. "He will be fine."
She had gnawed her teeth.
Ts, of course she knew that! He would be fine eventually, but what happened until then?
Stefan had hugged her before he had led Rebekah out of the room to give Caroline some space to herself. He had noticed that Caroline wasn't too fond of that much company at the moment.
Damon and Elena had left as well and it was Bonnie who had stayed behind.
She had looked at Caroline and then silently admitted. "I am jealous, you know."
"What?" Caroline had thought that she had misunderstood her friend, but Bonnie had smiled excusing herself.
"What you have is…well…kind of admirable."
Caroline had rushed to her friend and had sought some comfort in her arms. "I promise you that we'll find someone for you too."
Bonnie had chuckled. At least she had managed to distract her friend for a second.
Caroline had grinned when she had pulled back. "Now, I know that you are not particularly fond of Kol, but…"
"Caroline!" Bonnie had scolded her. Admittedly Kol was handsome, but also obnoxious, an original, annoying, self-confident…
"I know." Caroline had sighed defeated. "Can you stay for a while?"
Bonnie had nodded. "Sure." Kol…ts!
But at some time, after a few hours she had become so tired that she had left to go to bed too.
Caroline's mind was still far away from resting.
A few hours! It shouldn't be any longer should it?
Tyler had never been in his wolf form for that long!
It had started to rain cats and dogs outside a couple of hours ago.
She glanced at the clock and sighed for what felt like the thousandth's time that night. Her hands rubbed over her tired face. Exhaustion had settled down deep in her bones.
The room around her was dark just like the whole mansion. Everyone had finally retired to their room after Elijah had confided them all to the house for the night. It was too dangerous to walk around with an original werewolf on the loose.
Caroline sat down but immediately rose again to her feet. She couldn't sit still and tried to occupy her nervous hands somehow.
She tried to soothe herself by telling her that she would feel it if he was in any life threatening danger, but she felt nothing. Maybe the bond wasn't working between a wolf and a vampire?
Then there was the clicking sound of a lock and the dripping of wet rain wasn't muffled anymore.
"Klaus?" She breathed and flashed to the door. She looked around the corner and into the hall.
The front door was open, but there was no one there.
Caroline stared outside into the rain and frowned. Just then she lowered her gaze and there he was.
She sucked in a sharp breath and covered her mouth with her hands.
Her breath froze in her lungs.
The cold night air streamed into the hallway and ran shivers over Caroline's body.
There on the threshold of the front door, near the floor, there it was.
A big grey wolf stared at her with yellow eyes.
Caroline's heartbeat picked up. Her throat went dry.
Its eyes locked with hers and a tremble shook her body.
She tried to swallow her uneasiness but was too petrified. The wolf stood stock still just staring at her and Caroline was afraid to move. What if he jumped at her the second she moved?
But the animal just sat there, watching her with a tilted head.
After what felt like an eternity her hands fell slowly to her sides.
Her breathing hitched. "Niklaus?" she asked her voice low and raw. Her legs were still trembling visibly, but not really from the cold.
The wolf lowered its head and looked up at her from under its lashes.
Suddenly Caroline's legs gave in under her weight and she dropped to her knees. "Oh my god!"
The animal raised a paw slowly and waited for her reaction. When she didn't move it tapped carefully closer as if it didn't want to scare the vampire. Caroline could only watch the large wolf closing the distance between them. It stopped about an arm length in front of her without making any sound.
She looked at it. The eyes yellow, but not empty.
"Why are you still in wolf form?" Her voice was barely a whisper.
His head dropped and she realized that he definitely understood her.
Her thoughts raced through her mind before it dawned on her.
"Oh…" She gasped. "You can't turn back?" A wave of shock washed over her body. She stretched out her hand ever so slowly and with trembling fingers touched the soft wet fur.
The wolf held still and closed its eyes.
Tears sprang to her eyes. She buried her hand in the fur at the side of his neck.
"I am so glad that you aren't hurt." She whispered.
The wolf then stepped closer and pressed its head against her shoulder.
As if on reflex, her arms shot out and wrapped themselves around the werewolf's body, burying her face in the fur. She held him tight.
Thank you so much for reading and all the nice reviews!=)
You are great!=)
Thanks also to my guest reviews and: no, I really don't know about Genevieve. She is in a 3 or 4 shot of mine though if you are interested;) as about Tyler, well I don't want to spoil anything.