Because they lived for so long alone they were used to have the bed only for themselves so it became a ritual to wake up invading space that wasn't theirs, after the first time of awkwardly waking up in his bed with her nose crushed against Klaus' back and her leg over his while her arm was stretched over his enormous shoulder plate, it became obvious for Caroline that this wasn't sexy at all so after that she decided to claim ownership over the middle of the bed and Klaus found his new favorite position to sleep.
From then on she woke up with a privileged view into the other tattoo he had and with her body shielded against his chest as he made sure to nest her against him every time she slept in here, it wasn't a big secret that Klaus didn't sleep much but when he did he was still unconsciously there for her and she often woke with his hand warming her neck and his arm over her waist.
This morning she laid in bed curled up into a loose ball without a single minute of sleep, cold because she didn't have his warm body protecting her and because she was lying in a naked mattress, she was clutching his necklace and facing a wall but she was alert to every tiny noise in the mansion so she shot up from the bed with a single jolt when she heard someone arriving.
Still she went down the staircase without much enthusiasm and it even diminished further because Elijah looked trounced. "I knew that I should have stayed with you." she was still annoyed that he convinced her to return home while he carried on with the search for the rest of the night.
"Bonnie has not arrived yet?" he stopped at the bottom of the staircase.
Caroline crossed her arms dangling the jacket she was holding. "It's the last time that you will trick me with the your best friend needs you now, I'll handle my brother alone rouse."
"Rebekah mentioned in her call that they encountered some difficulties and that Bonnie had a rough reunion with Elena…" he stopped because Caroline had clasped lips and a curved head sending him a look.
"I know, I talked to Bonnie and she decided to spend the night in your house in Mystic Falls, I think that she took the guest room but we'll have to wait until they return to know if anything finally developed between those two."
Elijah moved his hands behind his back, he couldn't postpone it any longer. "I found traces of Niklaus' eventful night, he had fun with a few witches who were killed brutally. I recognized the carnage, it was the same as the first day he shifted and left a cold trail behind him."
Caroline lowered her head following Elijah's composed tone. "Do you have any idea where he is now?"
"I'm going out again to look for him."
"But we need to find the Anchor as well, she is important, otherwise Selene wouldn't go to all that trouble to get her coffin and even Damon risked a lot to get his hands on her."
"For a creature with 2000 years she is hiding with incredible success, I haven't been able to track her down." Elijah sounded peeved because that was one of the things he did with brilliancy.
Caroline unfolded her arms and slipped them into her jacket, she shook her straight hair ready to go out. "Kol said that he was sending help, some hunter or tracker or something that he knows and that could help us."
"I see you are taking charge while the General is away in his wolf skin."
Caroline fixed the sleeves of her tight jacket and powerfully smiled at Elijah. "It's a big city so we need to divide and conquer, Klaus' hybrids are searching for Genevieve right now and a few others are helping my mother."
"That leaves us with a few streets to pave… whoever stumbles upon something significant first calls the other?" he asked as they reached the courtyard.
"I have something painful to do first but I will keep my phone close to me." Caroline said as they went in different directions.
He already had all the books that he wanted to take with him but Kol could make room for one more so he opened the duffle bag again and threw in a book about spiritual magic, he closed the bag just as Bonnie came inside of the library.
It was obvious from the mess that she found that Kol had been awake since dawn. "Wouldn't we find these online?" she asked as he dropped the bag that he was holding next to the other three bags already by the door.
"I only recently found out that it was possible to keep music inside of a phone…" he adorably squinted at her. "Besides, we do own some really rare books, I doubt that we can find them that easily on the internet."
She had a small smile for him but he looked serious which made her smile grow, she hadn't said a word since they left The Grill, he didn't ask any questions she didn't want to answer and she spent the night alone in a guest room thinking about what she was now ready to tell him.
"I was here once…" she neared him on the desk. "When Klaus made me sever the link Esther forged to bind everyone in the family and…" she pointed at her left. "Damon was trapped in another room and Klaus asked me at the time if I wanted to have him released and I said no. Because he had turned my mother and I was mad at him so I ran away and had a big breakdown alone in the parking lot."
Kol remained silent and even cautious as she closed the space between them.
"I've done that a lot of times Kol, it's like the only thing that this town does is break me down and apart and make me cry but…" that sweet enchanting smile of hers was back. "It felt good to have someone there with me yesterday for a change."
"Elijah gave me this unblemished speech back in New Orleans, it involved shoulders and the right length of arms…" he narrowed his eyes trying to recall the exact words his brother used.
Bonnie only looked at him scared of what was coming.
With a spur he took her arms gently and roguishly smiled. "I usually drift away when Elijah starts with his long lines and longer words but I know what he was trying to tell me and I know how much I don't like seeing you troubled Bonnie but it's bearable if we are doing those hug experiments because I really enjoy the way you fit against me."
If she ever expected a romantic confession from Kol this was as close as she would get, he wasn't a cocky jerk because he knew everything, he was guarded and hid behind that wisdom because he didn't know a thing about being in love or close to someone.
Bonnie knew that now and she slant over to hide in his warmth ever so sure the reason they kept isolating themselves from the rest was a warning that this unique connection they had was escalating rapidly to something else that neither felt before.
She didn't take his words the wrong way because she knew that this was a clumsy attempt to tell her that he really liked her.
He read those wonderful trails in her thoughts by just watching her and he looked forward for a kiss that was evilly paused by her, instead of pressing her lips against his Bonnie took his hand while she lifted her shirt, when she took his hand to her back Kol dithered with her doings but then he felt an irregular line on a very soft back.
"That's the scar that Vaughn left when he stabbed me and that's exactly how I feel Kol, like this mark defines me. I am scarred."
The most gentle touch traced her scar with quietness. "You are a warrior Bonnie."
She felt like one when she was around him and her eyes began to dance with his.
"But nothing defines you." he said with empowerment.
One that was hard to lever on her side but if odds had to shift, this was the right moment to do it and Bonnie traced his chest returning the same care he took with her back, the only difference was that she was doing this with a thin fabric under her touch. "There's a tomb with my name next to Gram's. I never cared about myself as much as I cared about everyone else around me and then when I finally died, I was still unable to stop and listen to the hot psycho when he tried to tell me that I was giving in too soon."
"I like this tale, the fella seems smart and enticing and I have a thing for the anti-heroes just so you know." Kol joked.
Still she felt his voice accusing the proximity between them and she smiled because of that. "I never felt as alive as I feel now Kol, you make me feel alive..." she said closely to him. "And I really like that." her hand found his cheek before she searched for his lips eager for a kiss.
And it wasn't a kiss similar to the others they already shared, it was a deep kiss and exchanged with very little breathing space between them.
When he pinned her body to his her arms went around his neck with a single thought, she was ready to leave this town and the depressed sample of a life that she once had in here, she was ready to go back to New Orleans with Kol, to the place she was learning to call a home and where she wanted him to make her a woman.
Rebekah moved her head into a perfect full circle, she felt bones angrily telling her that she needed some rest but she ignored it, just like she ignored that hunger that was nagging her. "Are you sure you don't have somewhere else to be? I don't want to be the one to keep you away from the pretty girls all gathering in your chambers." she had a small smile as she dipped the dagger into white ash.
"I rather be driving, this car is pure lust." Enzo beamed because he was finally driving the Jaguar.
"You are a bizarre figure Lorenzo." she eyed him with a soft squint.
"Granted that I'm not your type but a little subtlety when you are bluntly insulting me would be appreciated gorgeous."
Softly Rebekah laughed. "I meant it in a way that I never met anyone more at ease with who he is and his life."
"Why should I spend my endless time concerned about things that I cannot change and chasing those who shouldn't concern me?" he pulled the side of his mouth with a smirk.
She kept her eyes on his features and tried to guess how honest were the eyes he was keeping behind sunglasses. "You live a nomad life, you have no roots and no family to call your own. I couldn't live like that, I rather have the worries and concerns than no hassle at all."
Enzo parked the car indulging in a shake of his head. "You are unique in your foundation, you should be paving the way for dedicated followers instead of wasting a single thought on human athletes." he mildly judged her as they headed to the big house just down the street.
"I tried out a harem." she easily gave her shoulders an uninterested move. "Between the ones my brother killed and the ones who turned out to be disappointments. I've tried humans, vampires and there was once a werewolf. Men, women..." she sighed.
"They will never put you first unless you put yourself first."
"Is that how you conquered your wife? With the really deep introspective into the life of those who are not appreciated of it?"
He was as cocky in his response. "I conquered Maggie with sex."
Rebekah brushed off his taunt and his chivalrous ways as she reached for the door before he did and went inside without any regard for his ego, she already had a major ego do deal with and he just glanced at the lobby to meet her.
Kol was holding the detached arm of a girl and filling his glass with the blood that was dripping from a smaller cut on her wrist.
"Does Elijah know that you decided to usurper his house?" she commented on the misshapen picture.
With an elegance that she grew used to see in him, unlike the gory display if she had to be candid, Klaus dropped the arm of the girl and enjoyed his drink with a mean moan.
"There is nothing like the blood of a coven in the morning."
Enzo counted the dead girls piled on the living room, a few were either left on the sofa bleeding or on the floor and by the display he could tell that the last one to be killed was the one lying on the coffee table. "How did you get them all in here?" Curiosity itched him to make the question.
"I compelled them." Klaus sat on the sofa pushing a dead girl to the side so that he could have more room to breathe.
Enzo was never as appreciative to have healing blood as he was now. "I have a feeling that this is a message to someone who threw water at your face and claimed to be rain."
Klaus didn't lift his eyes from the glass. "The message was written on a cemetery, this however was light entertainment." he graced the air around him with a flaunt of a smirk and his glass that he moved in front of him as he eyed the couple standing across him.
"I'm calling Elijah." Rebekah dived her hand inside of her jacket.
"Perchance we should neat the place a little before we call the righteous heroic brother…" Klaus carried on enjoying his blood.
"I'm your sister, not your maid and I'm offended that you are looking at me like someone expecting that I will get on my knees and clean the carpet." she admonished him as she dialed Elijah's number.
"Did you get the necklace Rebekah?"
"A herd of rude gypsies tried to kill everyone on their path and Elena pulled a strange speech a la Klaus and cut Bonnie from her life, it should explain Damon's erratic behavior as well because she sent him away from Mystic Falls and chose Jeremy over him." she informed Klaus upset that Elijah was out of reach.
"Where's the necklace?" Klaus insisted merely on what interested him.
Rebekah grimaced. "We were all in danger."
Klaus took a very long breath and leaned forward to leave the glass on the table, before it even settled on top of the wood, he was already flashing and snapping Enzo's neck.
Rebekah's mood changed into something that came with a snarl. "I haven't even kissed that one yet."
"I was hoping that the image would bring back my patience towards stalling into light." Klaus tossed Enzo's inanimate body across the room. "Give me the necklace Rebekah."
"I left it with Kol and Bonnie." she defiantly smiled at him.
"Then what did you bring me?" he asked her slowly.
She tilted her head just an inch, how well he knew her.
"Little sister…" he dragged the next step towards her.
Her retort came with clasped lips and a swift hand, instead of her phone she was now holding a sharp blade that she maneuvered skillfully, her biggest accomplishment came when she noticed the small cut that she just made across his chest, the blade ruined his shirt and remained in her hand tainted with his blood.
Klaus was definitely not amused and under his breath released an awful sound of anger, he grabbed her hand so fast that she felt bones breaking as he ruthlessly bent her wrist breaking it, she dropped the knife but she was mad and quickly reacted by launching her head against his face.
"I might have learned my blade technique from Elijah but I learned that from you." she hissed at him.
Klaus laughed before licking a split lip slowly. "With whom did you learn the disparagement attitude? Because you never stood a chance with that little blade against me and I'm failing to see the point." he stopped his hand in front of his chest.
Again, instead of answering him verbally she smacked him first across the face with a violent punch. "I think that was Kol's teaching." she rubbed a wrist that just healed from his doings.
When Klaus growled and came for her, she flashed stepping back further away from his reach.
"Let me conjecture, you learned how to be a coward with Finn." Klaus closed in on her, limiting her space to a little corner where she only had the wall on her back and a very enervated brother in front of her.
"What are you going to do with me?" she asked him without a shred of what he was implying about her.
"I demand to know why you are so aggressive today." he picked up the knife she dropped earlier.
"We've all made a pact behind your back." she barely said the words.
He callously pinned her against the wall with a hard hand on her throat. "You know how much I hate when you all conjure against me."
"We've all decided to steer you away from this path where you are headed in full speed, as your family." her voice took a few turns into softer ways.
His eyes were yellow in rage and he showed her his fangs. "I haven't asked for anything."
He only hauled his hand away so that he could either snap her neck or even hurt her with the knife, there was no time to wait for the unravel of it all because Enzo's waking noises made Klaus smile, he changed his mind at the last second and turned to hurdle the knife at Enzo, he swiftly switched his hold from the lever to the blade and was about to aim at Enzo's neck when Rebekah appeared in front of him and buried a dagger into his heart.
The coldest sensation took over his heart and Klaus dropped his knife in disbelief, he touched his chest as the cold reached his shoulders, when it began to touch his face he realized that it wasn't stopping or fading as it was expected.
"Bonnie used mother's medallion to tamper with the daggers that you kept at home." Rebekah said before Klaus fell to his knees.
He hit the floor with his face first and then closed his eyes turning completely grey.
"But it would only work if you were in hybrid form." she said even aware that he couldn't listen to her.
Enzo looked at her solemnly. "How come I didn't take your word for granted when you warned me that this would be intense?"
Rebekah chuckled searching for his eyes. "We've only started Lorenzo, so there's still time for you to check out."
He neared her to help with the body. "I just got involved with the prologue, why would I skim through the play and jump right into the epilogue?"
"Bizarre doesn't even cover it." she mumbled as they carried Klaus to the car.
It was a mess, one girl was throwing up a few feet away, another was sobbing out of panic and the rest were just trying to accept that the remains that resisted Klaus' chewing belonged to a coven very dear to them.
"He didn't just slaughtered them, he…" the witch didn't feel like even mentioning how he shred them all to pieces, like they were random animals within the reach of a wolf.
Genevieve didn't bother with a particular remark, they were dead, there was nothing they could do about it except gather a new coven to do what they couldn't finish. "This is still neutral ground so find me a new coven to locate the Anchor."
There was an instant upheaval as the girls questioned her for her insensitivity before such findings but she wasn't having any of that, without looking she motioned a hand towards one of the girls and she had her neck twisted before another insolent word.
It was enough to quiet the rest and Genevieve looked at them just to make sure. "Call me when you find out where she is."
The leader of this coven eyed the other with anger as she walked away.
"She is out of control…" one of the girls told the leader.
"Let her deal with Markos when he finds out that her little game with the Mikaelson guy is costing the life of our sisters." she assured the other.
"Good morning, man of God!" Damon exclaimed loudly.
He came near the window and pulled the blanket covering it, when the warm sun hit him he smiled with a sigh but the lack of movement from the man strapped on the corner made him turn his head there.
"No… no, no." he whispered rushing to Kieran, he pulled his head back and fed him with blood. "We can't have you dead just yet."
Kieran coughed weak and lifted his eyes to meet Damon's. "Why are you bothering?"
Damon bent down a little, he rested his hands over his knees and smiled at ease at the man chained to the ceiling. "Dear beloved…" he laughed straightening up and opening his arms. "We are all here gathered today to torture one of the men responsible for the worst years of my life."
"I left the Society Damon… as soon as I became aware of what they were doing to vampires."
Damon brought his eyebrows together and mimicked it with his lips as well. "Watching them rearranging my insides on a daily basis was messing up your stomach?"
"What they did to you was wrong and Bill knew it as well…"
The mention of the other man sent Damon on a dangerous rout. "It's time to make you scream instead of talking." he went over to a filthy table full of bloodied objects and tried to pick one torture instrument from all the choices he had.
"We both left the Augustine Society but you didn't let it go, did you Damon?"
The blue-eyed vampire finally decided on a scalpel and turned to Kieran with a crazy grin. "I'm inclined to slice your neck and let you bleed out for the day, I could come back at night and heal you… or not." he moved the sharp object from right to left.
"You went after my niece." Kieran hissed gripping the chains around his wrists.
"I heard that she had a heart of gold that Klaus tugged from her chest."
Kieran couldn't really open his eyes because of the massive bruises he had on his face, quite similar to the rest of his beaten body but the angst still filled his tired eyes with tears. "When?" he whispered.
"While I was here having fun with you. Its' too bad that you weren't there to save her."
"It was not her fault!" Kieran yelled letting go of his angst and clutching on to his anger. "My crimes are my own and she should have been left out of this."
"Klaus' reasons are far different from mine, I think it had to do with Marcel."
"She only became closer to Marcel because your actions caused her transformation into a vampire."
Damon shrugged innocently. "I had to retaliate while I could, I killed a few professors, tracked down a few retired doctors… it's been an action-packed stay in New Orleans but since you are already wondering about it, I've been doing this for quite some time. Every single accident that the former members of the Augustine Society suffered had a Damon hand behind it and I've been so good at it that no one suspected that it was foul play all along. Every now and then I would leave Mystic Falls for a day or so and arrange a few accidents…"
"Why the clemency to others and not to Bill and I?"
Damon was serious again. "Because your crime was the worst, you are guilty of cowardice, you chose to walk away and turn blind to what was happening and even had the audacity to start a new life while others like me were being butchered day after day and that my little yellow friend, particularly pissed me off."
"You are a monster far worse than we ever were, we had to live with our conscience and our remorse so that leaves the coward act to you because you didn't go after us directly, you used our family against us and that is repugnant."
"I think I'm going to cut off your tongue." Damon simply said and grabbed Kieran's face forcefully.
The other fought him but Damon was obviously stronger and forced the priest's mouth open, while an unfair fight took place someone kicked the door open.
Damon expected Stefan but he was sort of stunned to see Liz carrying a gun and a deadly look.
"Let him go Damon."
"Are you going to shoot me?" he asked almost about to mock her.
She didn't bother with an answer and pulled the trigger hitting him right on the shoulder.
Damon yelled ticked off as the skin there fumed with a sting. "What are you doing Liz?" he considered her a friend, not a fast trigger.
"Something that took me long enough to do Damon." she shot him again.
Damon wasn't taking any of this and with a hiss aimed at her with a whoosh but not only was he stopped by an emergent Stefan, he also ended on the other side of the rented house because his brother sent him there with an easy throw. "Are you on blood again?" he mumbled picking himself up.
"It took us days to find you, I had to be prepared." Stefan stood as a protection wall in front of Liz as she freed Kieran.
"What are you going to do now? Ground me?" Damon poked his brother with a daunting grin.
Stefan took his jacket off and shared only one look with Liz, silently asking her to do what they had agreed upon before coming inside of the house.
She nodded and closed the door behind her as she left supporting a limping friend.
"We are brothers Damon so we will solve this as brothers."
"Solve what?" Damon lessened his eyes.
"You are going to tell me everything that happened, how they caught you, what they did to you and what you went through while I lived my life trusting that you didn't contact me because you hated me. I want to know everything."
"So now you are a torture expert?" Damon hated talking.
"I need to know how bad it was and how was it that it all turned you into an abomination of a creature so low that you used a teenager to get back at her father."
There was the smallest rendition of regret in Damon. "So this is about Caroline…"
"Start talking Damon." Stefan pulled the sleeves of his shirt up and crossed his arms.
She eased on her fast steps surprised to find so many with the man she expected at the cemetery, it was odd to find Marcel with a small posse, she took him for imprudent and cocky but not really for an idiot, Klaus would kill this bunch just to find diversion for an hour.
Her heart clenched in that horrible sorrow as she caught a quick look behind the wall of men, Camille's casket was being taken to the back where Davina was buried as well and her sad eyes searched for Marcel's.
"What are you doing here?" he was bewildered with her audacity to show up.
"She was a Catholic Marcel, her uncle is a priest and you are giving her a rushed burial without a proper funeral service?"
"A wake is out of the question because the community doesn't mourn the vampires." he gave a small step closer to Caroline. "Why don't you just go home and light a few candles and pray for her soul?"
"I'm sure you meant to sound grieving but you only sound like a moron right now." she simply went around him.
Marcel turned his head before he moved his body. "You are not welcome here."
He expressed out loud what she silently found as his group of bulky men closed up ranks in front of her and because she couldn't get past them just yet, she looked at Marcel. "I want to say goodbye to my friend."
"The friend that your lover killed." he threw at her on the way to a shout.
She shook her head with a nervous chuckle. "So now he isn't your father and sire, the role model you so desperately wanted to impress by ruling this city?"
"He killed her!" Marcel shouted without any valid reasoning behind it.
"He's Klaus!" she tossed her hands in the air. "There's no half way with Klaus and you know that, he is acting out and we should be prepared for the worst."
"Are you justifying him?" Marcel inspected every line on her face.
It was a somber look that she took upon. "I hate him for killing Camille… but I love him."
Marcel surprised her again today by easing on his harsh welcome. "Then this is the first time we ever agreed on anything."
Caroline felt tired and she guessed how that showed on her face when she gathered a deep breath. "Let me say goodbye to Cami."
"I want to do this alone and I want you to leave." he was still cold but he didn't shout this time.
Caroline knew that he didn't know her and that he expected her to walk away instead of following him as soon as he began to walk but as the group accompanying him moved towards her with a vile intent she stopped sternly ready to fight a bunch of losers on the back of a private cemetery.
"I wouldn't do that… if you want to walk out of here instead of sharing a grave with Camille."
Her blue eyes looked for Marcel who was looking at her in a strange way, he seemed awed but she could be reading too much into it. "Tell your clowns to stop breathing so close to me, they are ruining my delicate complexion."
There was a group chuckle due to the perky comment but it was Marcel who set the record straight.
"They are a very small sample of an army that was recently given to me."
Suddenly she was able to explain the way the hair in the back of her neck raised and the ice traveling down her spine, it wasn't a posse and they weren't random vampires.
"I doubt that Klaus will bother to waste a single look if you show up bitten by a few hybrids." Marcel gave her reason.
And she stayed where she was while they all flicked their eyes to a different shade, she only found them ugly compared to the regal yellow Klaus sauntered with sexiness, and with that in mind Caroline gave up and turned away from all the idiots making her day blue, this confrontation was only leaving her grumpy.
Rebekah pulled the dagger out ready for anything, that's why she was ready for the ill hiss that Klaus made as soon as air was allowed inside of his lungs.
"What a neat trick you've come up with…" he sat up straight and touched the little tear on his shirt.
"It was my idea." Kol spoke from across the room.
"Jumping in for a defense Kol? I love how inappropriate your love for Rebekah comes off sometimes." Klaus said without the courtesy of looking at his brother as he spoke.
"Aren't you confusing me with the incestuous brother who wanted to keep her immaculate and all to himself?" Kol shot back mercilessly.
Klaus smiled spiked by it. "It could be but you are the imbecile who got himself killed by a Gilbert so you don't have an active voice within this family."
"Where is a bat when an imbecile needs one?" Kol sneered.
"He's right, smashing your head would be more productive than listening to your wanker tantrums." Rebekah scowled Klaus as she left his side.
Klaus accompanied her walk with an offended stance. "Where are the dull talks about family and feelings to be now? Have we given up trying to act as a dreary human family with no prospects of greatness whatsoever?"
"You are being an arse, that makes things rather difficult." Rebekah pointed the dagger at him.
"Are you going to elaborate?" he pointlessly asked.
"Your girlfriend gets smacked around in your presence and instead of fighting this hex, you choose to quietly enjoy a drink while all that happened?" Rebekah was livid. "You've killed before just because some fella mentioned her scent."
Klaus gave her no attention and chose Kol instead of her to direct his coldness. "Bennett used the magic left in the medallion to tamper with my daggers…" he squinted languorous. "Is she keeping it?"
Kol didn't answer so Klaus moved around the room like an animal about to comprehend that he was trapped which meant that he was also ready to leap at them violently.
"We are going to use it so that we can try to undo your hex." Rebekah explained trying to prevent what was coming.
The attack still came and she ended up with a broken neck.
"I'm going for someone next who isn't as durable as my sister Bonnie, so I suggest you make an appearance." Klaus taunted with a singing voice.
Bonnie showed up at the door but she didn't look about to crumble in her fortitude. "Do you remember that time I made you suffer in the woods and it all felt like I was basically shifting all your internal organs out of place?"
"I remember pushing your magic so much that you died in the Gymnasium." Klaus maliciously smirked.
She skipped his cutting remark and dove right into hers. "Because this is going to feel like I'm frying your brain." she opened her hand making the chain fall and the medallion dangle in the air, she opened her Grimoire and started reading out loud.
Klaus stepped closer to her but was stopped by a simple lift of her black eyes, he didn't like where this was headed and she sprinted things along by launching him across the room, he cracked the wall with his body and slowly faced her but she was on a roll and had him screaming in a record time.
It was more intense than he envisioned and his skull was practically being cut open with the pain of it all, Bonnie was trying to undo the hex by using some of what Genevieve did to her on the Bayou, she was accessing his brain in an attempt to trick it into doing what she wanted of him, to make him feel.
"Mom?" Caroline checked Bonnie's room first but found the priest on her room instead. "Oh…" she staggered before coming inside.
"I hope you don't mind, he's been through so much that I didn't have the heart to leave him on the couch." Liz explained while holding a wet towel.
"I told her to take me home." Kieran said trying again to leave the bed.
"I'm taking care of you." Liz ended his ramblings and pushed him down on the bed, she pressed the towel to his forehead with a single determined motion. "And I'm going to make tea."
Kieran looked stunned as she left the room, it made Caroline smile and she assured him it was ok to stay here.
"I don't want to be a bother." he said slowly now that they were left alone.
"I don't think that you have a choice." Caroline softly chuckled.
"She is very officious." he padded his face with the towel, it felt really good to have that cold against his bruises.
"Do you need blood to heal faster?" she offered in goodwill.
"Damon tortured me for days and he kept giving me blood to sustain it all so I have enough of it in my system."
His tone suggested that he was weighed down by that particular detail and Caroline had this sort of appeasing long breath before she ventured to mention the painful upcoming subject. "About Cami…" Caroline wanted to go on but he sat on the bed, he shifted his legs so that his feet touched the ground and she realized how serious he was about to become.
"Don't talk to me about her. Your mother is a very important woman in my life, she is one of the very few friends I have left and I know how much she loves you so I don't want her to know this but I hold you and Marcel responsible for what happened to my niece. She was never the same after Sean died so I know that Camille is finally at peace but you made her a vampire and that drove her straight to Marcel and ultimately that's what killed her, so please… don't talk to me about her, you have no right whatsoever to do that."
Caroline gulped down that sour taste inside of her mouth and she disguised the tears as her mother returned to the room.
"Do you want some tea honey?" Liz sweetly asked her, always so clueless to everything.
"No… that's ok mom. Actually, I have to go because they are trying to reverse the hex today and I wanted to be there." she struggled to smile and left quickly.
"Call me later."
She still heard her mother say as she closed the front door and without realizing she did the one thing she was so used to do lately, she reached for her phone unlocking it and it wasn't until she searched for his name that she crashed harsh into reality.
Something so mundane to her for the past few months was now out of reach, she couldn't call Klaus and tell him about the horrible day she was having, and he wouldn't make her feel better with his cheesy sense of humor so she locked her phone and put it away with pursed lips, she wanted to cry but bravely put it off for now.
Klaus looked just like a monster when he cleaned the blood from his nose but by the look that he was launching at her Bonnie could tell that it didn't work and she looked at Kol discouraged.
"I can try it again…" she said without much conviction.
Kol fetched for the Grimoire in her hands and the medallion. "Three times in a row with such a powerful spell? I'm not even letting you go near a candle for the rest of the night."
She gasped a bit appalled as he took her away. "I just need to find a way to trick his mind, as long as he is in control I can't do it but if we could find a way to make Klaus' power over mind slip away from him... all I need is for Klaus to stop resisting."
"No more spells for the night." he clearly stated.
"You are not going to dictate my working hours now." she snapped as they paced along the long hallway.
"Count on it darling because unlike your former boyfriend I don't like dead girlfriends." he dropped the magic items on the sofa as soon as they reached the living room.
"That was so inconvenient…" Bonnie widened her eyes while she shoved her hands into the back pockets of her skinny Denim jeans.
"It's my specialty." he opened his arms.
"We have a few minutes left before the binding spell lifts to free Klaus from inside the room, we can use that… for something." she faltered knowing that there wasn't anything in concrete to use at this point.
"I know just the thing missing but we need to leave the house for that." he neared her and unexpectedly cupped her face and kissed her hoping that that would appease the beast.
She still eyed him doubtful but the way his stubble tickled her lips made her smile. "That doesn't sound very reassuring."
"Nik is about to leave his cage, so we should go." he promptly said.
Bonnie staggered as he pulled her hand to take her away with him.
Klaus smiled facing the wall. "They are very endearing together…" he narrowed his eyes before turning to the woman just walking inside. "Are you more supportive of them now?"
Caroline found it particularly cruel that he was smiling and she tried to bypass the forsaken dimples. "It's not easy to admit but he treats her better than most of us ever did."
"He has a good sense of preservation because I would have shred her to pieces if she tried that spell again." Klaus dropped the bearable mood to an icy one.
With the fading of his smile she found it hard to stand in a room with him but she wasn't a quitter and she asked him for the smallest scrap with her stare, he looked away from her like she was unknown to him and started walking away.
"Please wait." she stepped in front of him.
"It didn't work Caroline." he informed her crassly.
"But it could work, there has to be the tiniest thing left inside of you." she bravely cut him off again when he tried to leave and she sided his neck with her hands firmly. "When you think of the times we've made love, of the endless talks we've had… doesn't it make you feel anything?"
Their eyes met in what used to be something so easy for them, for the longest time he chased her with a flirtatious look and she scolded him wanting to reject what he evoked in her and then when all that shifted, she found nothing but pure love in his eyes and she returned that with all the love she felt for him but now his deep blue eyes mirrored nothing, there was only this blank empty void when he looked at her and Caroline took her hands away from his skin.
She felt like an intruder by touching someone so estranged with her touch, without seeing it coming he closed his big hands around her arms and Caroline reacted to it with a catch of her breath. "Nik?" she asked immersed in hope.
"Tell your friend Bonnie to never try another stunt like that or I will kill her and then I will kill Kol and bury them together poetically." he sadistically tried to terrorize her with an easy smile.
Two fat tears rolled down from her eyes as she blinked. "Why won't you try? Why won't you do this for me?"
"There's no way around this Caroline." he simply said.
"It could be, you prevailed on a search to break a curse for 500 years, this is the same thing and we could be doing this together but you won't try any of what we are coming up with Klaus."
"I don't want to try it!" he yelled making her flinch. "I don't want to do this." he lowered his voice but the damage was done beyond repair.
Caroline pushed him away from her with clasped lips and ran away, in a bittersweet parallel to that day in the woods there was the faintest reaction from him but he didn't go after her, instead he punched the wall with the loudest yell of agony.
She was the woman who made him feel after centuries of fierce refusal to let any type of feelings exist inside of him and now it was all gone with her again.
He couldn't fight something that simply didn't exist inside of him, she was a ghost, a memory of something that existed once and that now was eradicated from where he swore to never let her leave.
"Are we meeting someone?" Bonnie was still confused why they crossed Esplanade Avenue and now headed here.
Kol pulled her to him to dodge one of the many taxicabs that rushed down the street and guided her to a very narrowed and crowded alley.
"You know someone else that can help Klaus?" she had to yell as they reached the end of the alley and a loud sound of music hit them.
Kol had been guiding her with his hands on her shoulders but as they reached the main street he laced his arms around her waist. "Welcome to Frenchmen Street." he whispered against her ear. "It's where the real locals gather and my favorite corner in New Orleans."
Bonnie moved her head enough to look back at him. "What are we doing here?"
"I think that this is what they call a date?" he was eternally mischievous with his smile.
She shook her head vehemently. "We need to help Klaus and Caroline, not deviate…" they were in a really lively street with people drinking and laughing, couples dancing to artists playing on the streets, there was such a variety of music that she picked up around them that she had a hard time focusing. "We can't do this." she stated determined.
"There will be other occasions with caviar and black truffles from Périgord and all that gourmet that requires us to dress all hot and bothered but this will do for tonight, we need to take the night off from the endless drama and celebrate this beautiful city for once."
Without warning he took her shoulders and propelled her to an unexpected spin, she was losing balance fast but knowingly he took her hand and Bonnie screamed scared as he pushed her away, her clumsy brain took forever to process that he was spinning her around to dip her on a skillful dance move and she shrieked afraid to fall to the ground.
Bonnie gripped his leather jacket with a life dependence on it and she closed her eyes knowing that he was going to do it all over again, she managed to keep up with the fast boost of her body far away from his and she was already circling perfectly to his spinning hand when he twirled her to him, she hit his chest with a loud escaping giggle and her squeal was a laughter when he dipped her the second time around, she still held on to his jacket forcefully but she was boasting with joy now.
"So you agree with me?" he asked loudly because of the music.
"I don't even know how caviar looks like." she shouted back the answer and she really had no idea what she was doing but she was laughing louder when he threatened to let her fall. "Kol!" she shrieked although she was sure that he would never do it.
With an unexpected and calm shift, Kol heaved her back to him. "I will do that all night if it means that you will say my name like that." he was smiling but Lord only knows how it felt like she was etching herself under his very skin.
Bonnie wheezed with her breath a little, she wanted to say his name in all kinds of ways, she wanted to moan it, to let it linger on her tongue like a soft tickle but she also wanted to forget her own name until there was only his screaming its way out of her.
Her legs became an intricate puzzle with his, there was a friction between their bodies as they were left attached to one another without an inch between them and it was funny that although there were literally hundreds of diverse kinds of music around them, their bodies blindly found an unique rhythm that both reacted to.
The slow compassed music was overtaking every other sound and if it wasn't for their heavy breaths it would be all they were listening now, they were touching foreheads and their hands were united by the palms, there was a playful little game between their fingers while their bodies began to sway as one to the intense rhythm.
Kol's hand on the small of her back supported her securely when he dipped her once more, in contradiction with the other times Bonnie arched her back slowly and was so naturally sexy in her move that she felt his breathing become rasping as she returned to his chest, her mind was blank of worry and responsibility as she took that small initiative to tease his lips for a kiss.
She brushed his full soft lips a few times before she left her lips at his reach for a proper kiss, and what a kiss it was.
Kol tilted her head with a hand that was beginning to love the softness of her skin too much and he parted her lips with conviction, she kissed him back while they stood in the middle of a street full of fast music and life but where their hearts were the ones commanding the tempo to the slowest dance.
Enzo held the door surprised with the guest.
Rebekah raised the vintage wine in her hand. "I need someone to drink with me."
He was still held up by the tiny white fur ball in her other hand. "What is that?"
"This is Klausy." she introduced him to the little dog happily chewing her sparkling bracelet. "He is the only sane member of this family and we take turns babysitting him."
Enzo gave up without trying and moved aside so that they could come inside.
Rebekah set the little dog free so that he could explore the house before she beamed at Enzo. "He likes pillows and I like big glasses."
He closed the door with a cheeky smile. "And I'm the bizarre one? We know each other for the jarring amount of five minutes and you've already walked in on a random, took me on a road trip, got me killed and now show up at my doorstep with a dog."
"And wine." she dropped while leaving towards the kitchen to get the glasses herself.
Klausy stopped his running in front of Enzo and barked at him a couple of times before he raced away to look for colorful pillows.
"I feel like I'm married again." Enzo muttered.
"Lorenzo? We are out of cheese." Rebekah shouted from the kitchen.
He froze petrified.
"There were times when I thought that you had lost your mind but this surpasses it all." Elijah exploded upon arrival, knowing exactly where he would find Klaus.
The other ignored his outburst and kept his random pacing through the old foundations of the house he was currently occupying, this used to be a grand courtyard but now it was just reminiscent of a dirty dark gutter.
"We are trying to help you." Elijah grabbed Klaus' attention by taking his arm.
Klaus moved it to set himself free from his hold. "I don't recall asking any of you to be the hero and the next one to stab me will be daggered in return."
"You fooled me with the wish to shift for Caroline." Elijah confronted him with anger.
"I needed you to leave me alone and you heard what you needed to hear, it's not that much of a brain mishmash, you are quite the gullible type Elijah."
"That's sublime Niklaus except that I don't believe a single callous word, what you said about Caroline being your mate is what makes sense to me and to you. I know I was the last to see it but I believe now that she is the one for you, I've never seen you with such peace and happy as you were with her, she's the woman you love."
"I can't spend a bloody feeling for her!" Klaus shouted and pushed Elijah away from him.
But as fast as he was, Elijah pushed him back keeping a hand on his chest and a finger pointed at his face. "So you fight to feel again and you do not give up on the woman of your life just because magic got in the way of it."
Klaus bitterly laughed in Elijah's face. "Who are you to give me a verbal take on that matter? You never fought for Katherine."
Elijah's eyes darkened and the skin under them wrinkled, when he spoke he showed a face very few had seen. "Don't push me Niklaus."
Klaus reacted to the display of fangs by changing his eyes into yellow. "Don't pin a beast against a fence if you are not ready to handle the consequences."
"Leave the authoritative threats for the others, I am not afraid of an insolent little childish boy lost without the unrestricted love that Caroline brought along with her." Elijah was commanding in his fatherly role.
It had worked so many times before that Elijah expected no less than to have Klaus finally relax but a man without a heart and impulsive as Klaus was only meant that what would follow would be nothing but shocking as he fell deeper into his dark abyss.
The seconds that ensued were so harsh for Elijah that he barely concentrated on the pain of it, what really got to him was the action itself, as it turned out that in a cruel twist Klaus bit Elijah on the neck with strength.
When he released him, Elijah's blood filled his hand as he clutched the wound Klaus left him with and that powerless feeling was never as strident to him as he watched Klaus go away without a care for the well-being of his older brother.
"Are you sure that you can handle it beautiful?" the cute bartender asked Caroline with a smile.
She waved her empty glass. "I don't want to see the color of this unless it's Irish yellow."
The guy nodded at her and opened a new bottle of whiskey, she touched his hand when he finished serving her and he left the bottle on the counter upon her request.
Her pupils were still returning to normal when another cute guy arrived to her side.
"I've been watching you for a while now and I don't see any boyfriend around…" he was actually nice as he smiled at her. "So is it safe to offer my company? I don't like seeing a good-looking woman drinking alone."
"That's a bit prejudiced of you, isn't it? If I was considered ugly by your standards, you wouldn't even approach me."
He took the dialogue as an invitation and sat on the stool next to hers. "The good-looking part was only a compliment to help with the uninteresting flirt."
Caroline looked at the sighing guy for a little while, he reminded her of Jesse and maybe because of it she went back to her drink and decided to cut short the small talk.
"I messed up, didn't I? I'm not very good at this…" he mumbled to himself and focused on his beer.
Caroline reached for her buzzing phone and opened the message with a grimace, the news that Klaus just bit Elijah threw her right into a new level of depression, he was hurting everyone so now they had to back away and stop pushing him or things would only get messier, with a swift thumb she closed that window and opened the contacts, she really could use a friend right now and she really hoped for Stefan to pick up.
She clenched her teeth when her call was instantly directed to a voicemail and to an offensive disconnected greeting message, with a huff she put her phone away and emptied her glass quickly.
The guy sitting next to her frowned as she threw her head back and gulped the whiskey like it was softer than water.
"It wasn't a good message?"
Caroline slammed the glass on the counter angry. "Can you just go? This rank of kindness is the last thing I want to deal with right now."
"I'm sorry for disturbing you." he nicely apologized and even added a smile when he stood up.
Caroline couldn't explain it but it irked her beyond and she waited for him to be gone by the time she refilled her glass but unfortunately some people just like to gamble with destiny.
"I'm really, really sorry but you look like you could use someone to talk to." he sounded incredibly apologetic as he came back only after a couple of instants.
Caroline picked the bottle and dropped the whiskey hurriedly into the glass, the recent events were toying with her limits and the incessant man wasn't making things easier on her.
"… they say that talking to a stranger is easier." he launched on a small nervous ramble.
Caroline had her drink as fast as her mind was starting to work, there was a way out of all of this, a simple cut to all this pain and the horrible nagging truth of it all.
At last the guy stopped talking when she stood up and took his hand, the beer bottle in his hand started vacillating, he couldn't believe his luck as Caroline headed to the back alley.
"What's your name?" he asked after clearing his throat, she was taller and prettier than what he made of her inside of the bar.
"No names." Caroline took the bottle from his hand with a seductive smile.
That was even harder to handle without a shaking stir. "Okay…" he whispered a bit in a daze. "Your beauty is really striking." he admitted out loud.
There was only Klaus in her mind when she said the next words with a powerful murmur. "But this isn't my real face… do you want to see my real face?"
"… sure…" for the first time the guy doubted that she was entirely lucid but he flinched back when she within a blink showed him deep-red eyes.
"Don't be scared." she allured him with a sweet voice and changed her eyes to that clear blue again.
"I'm not." he said without control over his body and unable to understand why her eyes were suddenly so big.
Her face transformed into that strange way again but he didn't move, not even when her teeth became sharp and uncanny, there should be a wave of panic crossing him but oddly he was paralyzed while her hand went to his neck and he wanted to scream when she bit him at first softly and then really sinking her fangs into his flesh but he didn't make a sound.
The blood filled her mouth, sweet and warm like a forbidden fruit that she knew that she wasn't allowed to have, the blood started warming her throat and then her chest.
It was that magical, with every ounce of blood, the guilt started shattering and she gripped his neck harder, it was working, the blood was covering every horrible memory that she had of his scent, his voice, his warmth and safety of a strong body she missed crushing hers.
It was all being buried under a red cover of blood that started warming her veins and then the guilt of what she was doing started being replaced by the exhilaration of freedom, she was being what was in her nature to be, she was a vampire and she took the blood from the stranger harshly than before, he buckled his knees weak but she easily used her strength to support him while she kept draining him, she didn't want to stop, she wanted to take it all because it was healing her from that crippling loss.
The stranger released the smallest yelp about to succumb and the tiniest voice echoed inside of Caroline's mind as a forewarning, she was killing someone, she was willingly and deliberately killing some nice guy whose only crime was to inquire if she was ok.
She eased on her grip but his husky voice surfaced inside of her mind with a power of its own.
You are strong, beautiful and full of light.
And in that moment Caroline chose to be the opposite of what would constantly remind her of him.
With a ruthless, cold decision, she chose to drain the stranger until his heart stopped beating and his breathing ceased.
She dropped the limp body to the ground and ran her thumb over her lips to secure all the blood left in them and when that overwhelming guilt peeked as a threat, she shut her conscience down without mercy, little by little she shut everything down until there was nothing left inside of her to feel.
Unfeeling Caroline tilted her head looking at the dead man and carelessly turned away from him, she walked down the alley finishing his beer and pondering about feeding again.
Soundtrack:
No rest for the wicked - Lykke Li
Love me like I'm not made of stone - Lykke Li
Hearts a mess - Gotye
Teflon heart - Caged Animals
Stay with me - Sam Smith
Hey Ya - Outkast
There's a man goin' around taking names - Josh White
In a Bar - Tango with Lions