Happy birthday, Angie! This is an expanded fic based on the "Burned" series of mini-drabbles I wrote based on an anonymous prompt: Klaus and Caroline au soulmate meeting before the ritual. Disclaimer: I own nothing but worn-out earbuds blasting Bat Out of Hell: The Musical, the soundtrack of which inspired the chapter titles.
"Hello, love."
Caroline looked up, terrified to note that Tyler still hung limp in his chains. Luckily, the guy strolling down the stone steps and the young woman following him hadn't glanced her way yet. She shrunk back against the wall as she felt the danger rolling off of them.
The guy knelt down in front of Tyler, gently lifting his head and patting a cheek. "Come on, little wolf, time to wake up. Curses won't break themselves, I'm afraid."
While Tyler slowly lolled to life, the woman moved over to where Caroline was bound. Though still new to the whole supernatural life, she could sense the barely restrained magic. "You're a witch," she accused, her voice hoarse from yelling for help.
"And you're going to die," the witch answered blithely. She reached for her chin, but Caroline was quick to bare fang, smirking when the girl jumped back.
Unfortunately, this caught the man's attention. If she felt the power on the witch, there was something far more potent coming from him. He grinned down at her, tracing a soft finger over the veins beneath her eyes. "Aren't you pretty?"
She fought hard against the instinctive gasp, forced herself to remain still against the icy burn of the words splayed across her ribs. No, no no no. It couldn't be-
Biting her tongue hard, she wouldn't let him know. She couldn't. Talking about curses, hoarding people as ingredients, this could only be Klaus. The Klaus. The guy was evil, totally, completely. He had no business, none whatsoever, being the soulmate she'd dreamed about for years.
Someone who would truly, for once and forever, be only hers.
And Caroline refused to give this Klaus the satisfaction of being his, not when he seemed determined to kill her and her friends.
No.
But he was looking at her funny, pushing the witch back toward Tyler. "Take care of our friend, love. Leave this one to me."
She fought against the chains as he reached toward her. It was futile, apparently, because she could tell he was stronger than Damon or Stefan would ever hope to be.
Easily snapping the manacles from her wrists, he had the gall to smile as he pulled her to her feet. "You must be Caroline."
Still, she wouldn't speak. She didn't see any words on his skin, but she refused to chance it. But then the witch held out a hand toward Tyler, who managed to tackle her before whatever spell she tried to cast could take hold. Klaus nearly broke her wrist in a stranglehold while going for him with full fangs on display, and she couldn't stop herself from snapping, "Don't you dare hurt him."
The words were instinctual and effective if Klaus's reaction meant anything. Like he'd been hit, he stared at her with venom and surprise. When she'd been a vampire ready for sacrifice, he'd looked at her like she was a toy to be carved apart for fun.
Now…now, he just stared.
Don't you dare hurt him.
The runes inscribed on his shoulder blade left some room for interpretation, which turned into something of a pastime for Rebekah. She wasted many an afternoon over the centuries wondering what her intended might say that finally brought her the joy of a soulmate bond.
As the world progressed, however, the phenomenon of true mates finding each other became all too rare and unimportant. Words were just words, in the end, a silly dream to smile about. A thousand years of assuming his human mate had long since died left him drained of any vestige of sentiment for the idea, and Klaus had no patience for dreaming of impossibilities when the reality of breaking his curse was so near at hand.
Except, the pretty little vampire before him appeared perfectly real to him, her wrist very much in his hand already.
Don't you dare hurt him.
He might not have taken heed of her words had a sharp sensation of ice not dug into his shoulder, carving out the runes he rarely thought of until they burned into his awareness. His grip unknowingly tightened until the girl released a pained gasp, but like hell was he going to let her slip free. "Apologies," he murmured, gently moving his hand up to her elbow instead.
Though she glared, Caroline's eyes still tracked the glide of his skin against hers, her fangs poking into her bottom lip. He felt an overwhelming urge to tug her closer, made primal when she easily stepped forward at the barest touch.
"Care!"
Don't you dare hurt him.
Holding back a growl, Klaus forced himself not to attack the wolf for the claim his little mate had made. "Greta." The witch tried her containment spell again, this time successfully binding the wolf with invisible ties. "Chain him back."
"But-"
"And when you're finished, go to Maddox. Help him execute Plan B." His tone brooked no argument, though Greta had grown too comfortable in his preference. Even now, he could tell she wanted to challenge his command, but she did as he needed and made her way out of the small dungeon.
The wolf struggled loudly with his chains, his heart pounding with the effort. "Leave her alone."
A crushing wave of possessiveness brought forth Klaus's fangs, and he finally tore his gaze from Caroline - only for her to pull him back, her hand tangling in his necklaces to hold him close.
Don't you dare hurt him.
"I'll run," she warned, her voice low. "Hurt my friends, and you'll never see me again."
She was a brave one, his mate. Laying a gentle hand on her cheek, he couldn't resist a soft stroke over her lips with his thumb. Bravery would get her killed in the wrong hands. "We'll see, sweetheart," he said in a reassuring tone.
Then, he snapped her neck and swung her into his arms. Klaus relished the horror in the young wolf's expression. "I hope one of your friends thinks to look for you when this is all over." Caroline's head rolled to rest over his heart, and he just barely resisted a fond glance down. "I'd like to humor her from time to time, no reason not to start now."
Before the boy could answer, Klaus sped out of the cellar. He needed to find his mate a safe place for her incapacitated state, preferably one she couldn't escape should she wake early. It was a simple enough problem to solve, and quickly; the moon was already rising. The obvious solution was hardly ideal, yet he found himself speeding to the teacher's flat where he left a certain thorn in his side to rot.
He could feel Katerina's eyes following his every move when he arrived, but Klaus did nothing to cover the gentle way he arranged Caroline on the bed. Careful to prop her head at a comfortable angle, he brushed her hair back from her face. If he didn't know better, she might only be sleeping for how peaceful she seemed.
Unfortunately, her broken neck would heal too quickly for him to smooth over the fact that it was broken by his own hand. He could apologize when his curse was finally broken, a feat he'd spent a thousand years working to achieve. Having found his soulmate in the midst of it all was a complication even he hadn't foreseen, but there would be time for that after his wolf was free.
The timing was suspicious, of course. Pretty little Caroline, a baby vampire turned in the area of his own making, turned out to be the mate he never dreamed he had, to be found just as he was about to unleash his full power. It was all too convenient.
Taking an extra moment to toy with the ends of her hair, a strange ache pulled at his lungs as his eyes roved over her. Where were his words carved into her skin, he wondered, some fierce need to confirm the claim searing through his bones. For one who'd written off the idea his soul was calling out for another, the thought wasn't so ridiculous to him anymore, not when she lay right before him. Still, he had things to do and needed time to understand the implications of this latest development lest he get carried away and lose sight of the endgame.
Doubt trickled along the edges of his mind, cold as it mingled with the fear Mikael had managed to slip past his defenses to plant the perfect distraction. Steeling himself, however, Klaus preferred to focus on the victory within his grasp.
Turning to face Katerina, he smiled all too pleasantly. "Since I can't compel her to stay here, you should know I'd be very angry to find that she left in my absence." His hand reached for her shoulder, roughly pulling her forward and making her meet his intent gaze. "You will do what it takes to keep Caroline in this apartment, short of inflicting long-term damage time her person. Snap her neck, if need be, but I want her whole when I return. Understood?"
The doppelgänger hadn't improved her acting skills over the years, but he took her pallid recitation of his instructions as confirmation enough that she'd play along. It would have to do, despite the growling anger he felt at needing to leave his mate for an undetermined length of time, let alone with Katerina of all people. There was nothing to be done, however, except to make sure the separation ended with a successful result.
As he made his way back to the clearing where Greta was holding the sacrificial lambs, he felt all but certain that his plans would fall into place - even those newly formed around this unexpected attachment.
Gasping back to life, Caroline struggled to align her senses, overactive and too sensitive for her to properly take in her surroundings. If kidnapping was going to be a common thing, she thought, she should really work on her situational awareness. Her whole body hurt, and her fangs itched for blood. While she didn't recognize the apartment, it smelled familiar, which helped to put her at ease - until she realized that she wasn't alone. "Elena?"
The wicked smirk was enough to prove her wrong. "Try again, babycakes."
She groaned, her hand massaging her aching neck as she sat up, only to find Katherine watching her with a calculating curiosity. Looking around, she finally placed the scent as Alaric's and figured this must be the loft he'd all but abandoned in favor of the Gilbert house. "Why are we here?" Something rose in the back of her mind, if only she could focus on anything other than the fierce hunger clawing at her throat.
Katherine shrugged. "When Klaus kicked dear old Ric out of his body, he took his place in more ways than one. I'm more interested in why the big, bad hybrid wants to make sure you're in one piece."
Klaus. The pieces in her mind finally slammed together, and she shook with a sudden wave of dizziness. Her side burned with the certainty that she'd found her mate, only to be paired with the equivalent of hell on earth. But she also knew better than to give the doppelgänger any information that could leave her in worse danger. "I'm surprised he hasn't killed you yet," she bit back, her hands pressed to her temples. What little blood was in her system seemed to pound in her head, thick and painful. She just wanted it to stop, all of it.
"He will if you run," Katherine pointed out, not having budged from her bored recline on the couch. "Again, interesting. You're cute and all, but hardly anything special."
Bitterness gathered in her mouth at the thought she preferred the simpler problem of being chained in the Lockwood cellar, about to die. Now, she had to deal with the fact that the guy prepared to kill her was her soulmate. And to think, she always hoped to be one of the few to find their other half. It seemed like a cruel joke. "I'm not special," she answered quietly. Just cursed, she mourned to herself.
Growing up, she would trace the faint lines of the words until she could follow the script without looking. But she spent more than her fair share of looking at them, too, hours in front of the mirror with her shirt hiked up.
aren't you pretty
They were a comfort in the worst of middle school when gawky limbs and braces left her feeling clumsy and the furthest thing from pretty. Somewhere out the world, someone existed that would see her and think her pretty. As high school brought boobs and boys, she realized it was probably a lame come-on, but it'd probably sound romantic coming from the right person if she found them. That was what she held onto, anyway, near desperately when she began to notice all those boys passing right by her to get to Elena. She might have Matt now, but he'd drop her in a second to get another chance with his first love. One day, she could have a soulmate that saw only her.
And it turned out to be someone as obsessed with that face, just like everyone else.
It didn't help that Matt had been pulling away from her recently, though it was a moot point, she supposed. He was probably meant to find a sweet girl, able to give him everything he wanted without thirsting for his blood.
Blood, she needed blood. Her tongue ran over her fangs, wanting to ignore the bitch who killed her; but, Katherine seemed suspiciously well for a captive. Hauling herself up, she trudged to the fridge, where she found two blood bags, beer, and not much else. "Men," she muttered, taking the bags and leaving the beer. Drinking didn't sound like a bad idea, but she would definitely need something stronger.
The entire Salvatore liquor cabinet wouldn't be enough, she was sure.
As though on cue, Katherine appeared in front of her, head canted to the side. "You were supposed to be the vampire sacrifice," she said. "I turned you specifically to make sure there was another option in case my negotiation didn't work out."
"Thanks for that."
Her angry sarcasm was brushed off. "Why doesn't he want to use you?"
Caroline licked a stray drop from her lips, hesitant to answer. Without permission, her hand strayed to the sore spot over her ribs. "He does, just not for that." For what, she had yet to figure out, but it couldn't be good. "Why are you still here?"
Rolling her eyes, Katherine crossed her arms with a petulant pout. "Klaus compelled me to stay."
In the span of a heartbeat, she nodded - realizing she hadn't been compelled, thank god - and made a break for the door, only to come to a screaming stop from the firm grip on her hair. "Bitch!"
"Again, he'll kill me if you leave. When he asks, remember that I tried to play nice." Before Caroline could ask what the hell she was talking about, Katherine had already gripped her jaw and twisted to the right.
Her last conscious thought was that this whole mate business was more trouble than it was worth.
A/N: Thanks for reading, I hope you like it!