Caroline didn't know why she thought why it would be a good idea to go to school today. She moved on autopilot from class to class, resolutely ignoring her mother's calls and texts. It didn't help that her senses were out of wack, her hearing was sharper and her sense of smell was heightened, but her eyesight was pretty much the same as when she was a regular old vampire, thank god. It seemed she only saw in grayscale when she was a wolf.
She shivered, remembering the pain of the change. That had been….unpleasant. She had no idea how Tyler could go through that every full moon. It had been excruciating. Her memories then stuttered over the memory of her running through the forest and the thrill of the chase; the glorious satisfaction of bringing down that doe had been amazing and suddenly Caroline found herself tempted to change again despite all the visceral agony.
She considered talking to Tyler about it but something told her he wouldn't understand. He spent his transformation chained to a wall, with no memory of his wolf the next morning while she remembered every glorious minute of it.
Her phone buzzed again, it was her mother's ID on the screen. She hadn't been home this morning when Caroline had eventually got there but a quick search through her room produced her cellphone. She'd scanned her messages and realised her Mom was out looking for her.
Feeling guilty, Caroline sent her a text telling her she was at school. She knew it wouldn't be long before her Mom's squad car pulled into the school car park, so she decided to bunk off the rest of the day and make her way to the boarding house. Maybe she and Elena could hide out together. She knew she was just avoiding the inevitable but she needed to come up with a game plan. Besides she needed to get away from all these people. Her blood thirst hadn't increased but it felt like her sense of competition had been dialled up to eleven. She had poor Sarah Michael in floods of tears earlier because she tried to suggest a different colour theme for the Halloween Dance and, while Caroliner knew that if she ever saw another pumpkin orange streamer she'd scream, Sarah did not deserve such a catty put down. Her nose wasn't that hooked.
It was a wolf thing, it had to be. She should google it later.
Elena answered the door with a tired smile and Caroline remembered suddenly all she had been through the night before. The last thing Elena needed was her arriving on her doorstep to add her baggage.
"Is everything okay?," she asked and, not for the first time, Caroline wished didn't have such a transparent face.
"I've got something to tell you," she said. "You'd better sit down for this."
"Oh god, nobody else is dead, are they?" Elena asked.
"No, no, sorry, nothing like that," Caroline reassured her she scanned the house with her senses. "Where are Stefan and Damon?"
Elena wrinkled her nose. "They've gone to find Elijah," she said. "They're worried he might spill the beans about me being alive."
"Huh, good call, he and Klaus seemed very chummy this morning."
"You saw them?" Elena's eyes went round. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, it's just…" Caroline let out a hoarse laugh. "There were a few unforeseen repercussions to the ritual last night. It's turns out I'm part werewolf and last night I changed."
Elena blinked. "Huh," she said. "You know, that kind of makes sense."
"Seriously?" Caroline burst out. "What is it about me turning furry on the full moon that makes any kind of sense?"
"Well, you and Tyler, for one," Elena said bluntly. "Werewolves and Vampires don't get along, but you were so keen to help him."
"But that hadn't anything to do with him being a werewolf. He's a friend!" Elena gave her a look. "Well, okay, more like a long term acquaintance who became less douchey and turned into a friend," said Caroline. "But you know what I mean."
"Uhuh," Elena said. "Sure."
"Fine!" Caroline snapped. "If you want to believe my friendship with Tyler is because of some weird mystical werewolf bond, then go ahead!"
Elena raised an eyebrow. "You're a bit snappy today, aren't you?"
"Sorry," Caroline said, her shoulders slumping."I can't seem to help it. I think it might be a wolf thing, I kept barking at everyone - but not literally!" she added hastily. " Thankfully. I don't think I could handle that particular humiliation."
Elena let out a laugh. "C'mon, I think we're going to need a drink for this.
Klaus stared down at Elijah's greyed face and wondered why his brother had looked so surprised when he'd driven the dagger home. Elijah had tried to kill him, he'd actually reached his hand into his chest and wrapped his fingers around his heart. It would be a long time before he would forgive him this treachery and it wasn't as if if he hadn't kept his word. Elijah was now reunited with their family. Smirking, Klaus closed the coffin lid and slid it into place beside the other coffins on the rack. The spell he'd had Greta place on them was still effective despite her death and began working as he stepped back, cloaking the coffin's presence from curious eyes. The storage space was a short term solution but once he solidified his dominance over the other packs he's come up with something more permanent.
His mind flitted to the other hybrid in Mystic Falls and a grin stretched across his face. That had been an unexpected development. If memory served him correctly, she was friends with that Lockwood boy, perhaps he could kill two birds with one stone; add the boy to his hybrid pack and gain a means to coerce the lovely Caroline to his side, but not before he completed a trial run. He heard there was wolf pack north of Roanoke, that would do nicely.
But first he had to deal with his little pest problem.
"Well, if isn't the Salvatore brothers," Klaus drawled, as he stepped outside."Come to teach me a lesson?"
"Nice pad," Stefan said dryly, eyeing the warehouse. "We didn't think you were the type to slum it."
Klaus's leaped, his eyes glowing a dangerous yellow as he toppled and pinned Damn to the ground, ripped into his throat with his fangs and tainting his blood with hybrid venom. He raised his head and wiped the blood off his lips.
"Oops," he said. "Sorry about that. Does it sting?" Damon just groaned and Klaus laughed as Stefan pulled him off his brother. "Too little, too late," he said. "I'm afraid your brother doesn't have long to live. I suggest you make your peace now."
He sped away, glee lurking in his heart. Stefan would find him later, once he found out Klaus's blood was the cure. He expected to find the whole incident terribly entertaining.
" Hey Mom, remember when you first found out i was a vampire and kinda freaked out and tried to kill me? Well….don't kill me?" Caroline stopped, pulled a face, and then resumed her pacing in front of the Salvatore fireplace. "Hey Mom, remember how you always not to so secretly thought Nana Charlotte was a real bitch? Well, surprise, turns out she really was."
Elena let out a snort of laughter and looked up from her textbook. "I think we can cross that one off the list."
Really? Because I kinda liked it," Caroline. "Short, straight to the point, firmly placing the blame on one of my mother's least favourite people…"
"Your Nana Charlotte was a sweetie, she used to make the best Christmas cookies," Elena protested.
"You never knew her behind closed doors," Caroline said darkly as she threw herself onto the couch beside Elena. "She could be a real harridan, especially after the divorce. I think she blamed Mom for Dad being gay."
"Ouch," Elena said, sympathetically, and Caroline shrugged.
"This is useless," she said. "There is no good way to spin this. I wouldn't be surprised if Mom immediately starts making a stake with my name on it."
"Is there a chance she might already know?" she asked. "She is a member of the council, and if it runs in the family…"
"My Dad's family," Caroline said. "Nana Charlotte was a Lockwood.
"Well, then, maybe you should call your Dad," Elena said. "See what he has to say about it."
"And mess up his life too?" Caroline asked. "No, he's just fine where he is, playing happy families with Steven."
"Well, if you say so," Elena said doubtfully.
The front door opened with a slam and Caroline and Elena leaped to their feet. Stefan entered, Damon slung against his shoulder. He didn't look good and he stank of Klaus.
"He got bitten by Klaus," Stefan said, before taking a double take. "Caroline, why do you stink of wolf?"
"On any other day, I'd hit you for that," Caroline snapped.
"She's a hybrid," Elena said, before turning to Bonnie. "It turns out Nana Charlotte was a werewolf."
"She wasn't a werewolf!" Caroline protested. "At least, I don't think so. She just had the gene."
"And when Klaus completed the ritual last night, Caroline got a new hairdo and some paws," Elena carried on unrepentantly.
Caroline crossed her arms. "You're enjoying this way too much, do you know that?"
"Hey, dying here," Damon sniped tiredly "Can we put a pin in this and come back to it when Barbie Werepire here is in less of a huff?"
"I cannot believe you just called me a werepire-" Caroline said.
"And she puffs," Damon muttered. "And blondie blows the house down..."
Elena frowned and put her hand to his forehead. "He's feverish," she said.
"How long do you think he has?" Caroline asked, eyeing the vampire dubiously
"I don't know, couple of hours," Stefan said. "We need to find Klaus fast."
"Why?" Caroline asked. "Hasn't Mr Original Werepire done enough damage?"
"Klaus has the cure," Stefan explained.
"Of course he does," Caroline muttered. 'And what do you think he's going to say when you ask for it? Oh sure, Stefan old buddy, here it is.'"
"I don't have a choice, Caroline, he's my brother."
"I'll go too" Elena said suddenly. "Maybe together we can convince him."
Caroline sighed, giving into the inevitable. "No, neither of you are going," she said. "I am." They both whirled on her.
"I don't think this is a good idea," Elena said, and Caroline rolled her eyes because Elena didn't have a leg to stand on when it came to good ideas.
"Why do you think it should be you?" Stefan asked, and received an elbow in side from Elena for his troubles.
"Because I'm immune to his bite, I'm better able to track him down with my hybrid nose and ...mumble, mumble, mumble."
"What?" Elena asked.
"He-wants-me-to-join-his-pack!" Caroline rushed. "There! Happy now?"
Elena gave her a long look. "You kind of left that part out earlier."
"Well, I was trying to block it out, seeing as we were both naked at the time." This time Stefan's eyebrows rose and Caroline groaned.
"Firstly, it was not even remotely like that and, secondly, we don't have time for this. I'll go find him and convince him to give us the cure."
"You know what he's going to want in exchange," Stefan said.
Caroline shrugged. "I'll burn that bridge when I come to it," she said. "Now tell me where you last saw him."
"I'll show you-" Stefan started.
"Trust me, Stefan, you don't want to be with me when I find him. I'm not going to track him down in human form. Her eyes glowed yellow in anticipation, her double fangs extending, and Stefan took a step back.
"That's new," he said.
"Yeah, gave myself quite a shock in the bathroom mirror this morning," she said "I'll be back as soon as I can." She darted out of the house and headed for the trees. This was for Stefan and Elena, she told herself, otherwise she's never intentionally put herself through the pain of the change - but she'd be lying to herself if she didn't admit she was looking forward to feel of the forest floor beneath her feet and the freedom that she'd felt. She had been a wolf less than a day and she already knew she'd never give it up.
Slipping out of her ballet shoes, she shrugged out of her leather jacket and pulled her dress off over her head. She could already feel the slide of muscle under her skin as she slipped her panties off - her body eager to change. She weighed her clothes down with a rock and frowned. She really needed to make a more permanent arrangement for her clothing on occasions like this.
Her spine shivered, releasing crackles of agony, and Caroline fell to her hands and feet. Time to change.
It was the wolf howl that attracted Klaus to the still half built window. The construction workers were compelled to make the property their top and only priority but it still would be a number of weeks before his new home was truly habitable, which gave him more than enough time to find the wolf pack outside of Roanoke and turn them . Another howl came from beyond the treeline on the edge of his estate and Klaus's eyes narrowed. There were no true wolves native to this area and it was late afternoon and past the full moon, so it wasn't a werewolf. That left only one option.
"Well, well," he said softly, as the hybrid stepped from under the shade of the trees and showed herself in the sunlight "You're unexpected. I had thought it would be Stefan or maybe the witch." He fell to his haunches, eyeing Caroline as she slowly approached. She wasn't submitting, he realised, and a part of him was pleased about that. A Beta too easily won wasn't a Beta worth having.
He held out his hand for her to smell and she batted it away with a paw before slinking past him into the half built house.
"If you're looking for a robe, love, I'm afraid you're going to be terribly disappointed." She let out a low snarl in response, and Klaus's grin grew sly as he followed her inside.
.
.
