THis was written for justanotherfiveminutes on Tumblr!

The world tasted like ash.

It bled on her tongue when she fell, banished for loyalty she'd refused to break; wings stained and broken, body cursed. Hands and knees stained brown, body clumsy with its heavy bones and dense muscle, Caroline watched the world from her monsters face and wept.

Eventually, she healed.

She learned how to move her clumsy fingers, claimed this new existence as her own. The realm - stripped of its light, left nearly barren by powers both darker and greater than her own, she found she could flourish here. That her small sparks of power were enough.

But she never flew.

The brilliant wings that had once carried her through realms - white and vivid - were streaked with the color of new blood. She'd waited for them to bleed to a darker grey, to turn black; to show the world the cost of her sins. But what white remained was luminescent, the red scattered like rubies.

So she tucked them away. Sank her freedom, the peace of the open skies back into her bones and these new muscles, hid them away with those soft drops of remaining power and set about finding life; instead of mourning what she'd lost.

Sometimes she'd watch a bird and remember.

The rush of the wind, the elation of a steep climb and the vertical dive. The soft brush of feathers against skin and the thrill of the chase.

But only sometimes.

"I thought I knew all the monsters in New Orleans," the vampire said. He was tall and dark skinned, the lines of his jaw handsome. Caroline suspected many found him appealing.

"I suppose you do," Caroline told this Marcel, pushing her blond curls away from her face with a slight smile. "I'm just passing through."

Marcel leaned against the bar she chosen to hunt in, hungry for more than blood. A hundred years, and sometimes she craved people - not touch, just people. Their noises, their vibrancy, anything to crack the ice she carried beneath her skin. Falling had stripped her of so much, but she refused to crawl.

"Without introducing yourself? New power makes a splash."

Caroline laughed, as he'd intended. This vampire's skin was older than hers, age a comfortable weight sling his shoulders. The power she'd once carried was older by millenniums. What she was now was nothing more than a shadow. "I'm hardly a power, but thank you."

Marcel shrugged, his smile turning thoughtful. "I think Klaus would like to meet you."

"Klaus?"

"Our king."

Klaus was no vampire, but he wasn't fallen. The shadow and flame of him burned through her ice - cut through her flesh and bone with his presence until those golden drops of her power burned through her body like a drug. He stared at her like she was a surprise, those flickers of monster turning his face stark.

He hadn't touched her.

"I heard your fall." He said, eyes dark. His jaw was strong, dimples softening a face almost rugged. "We hunted for you, but you hid yourself well."

Caroline stared at this nightmare creature and wanted. Fingertips aching, body hot with arousal she had felt in decades, she shrugged. "I'm not prey."

Klaus laughed, and darkness gathered around him until he felt like coal, the lingering fire against her skin. And then wings - glorious wings, the color of spilled ink spread behind him. "Neither am I."

"Why?"

Caroline arched both brows, licked the drink he'd handed her from her lips. Tasted blood. "I'm not a creature of mixed loyalty."

Greed turned his eyes blue, left his pupils wide. "What fool let you fall for him?"

"It was never about falling," Caroline corrected him, lips curved in a mimicry of a smile. "I do not regret my choice."

His hand caught hers, tangled his hot fingers with the coolness of hers. She glanced at him, tried to ignore the way hers trembled.

"Then why?"

She blinked once, untangled their palms.

"Because I fell alone."

The massacre stained her skin with rust. Sword held lightly in her hand, she turned to face her shadow. "You shouldn't be here."

"You're hunted," Klaus bit out, his temper turning the air arid. "Why?"

"In realms beyond this one, wars are fought. Armies are bred and power is born though sacrifice and death - sometimes life." Caroline let her sword fall, watched it disappear. "You're made of chaos, how do you not know this?"

"This realm is overlooked for many reasons," Klaus countered, fingertips brushing near a cut on her arm. "I am one. You draw attention."

"When I fell - I was pulled here, by something I could not name. Fate? Who knows. But they hunt me because I did not loose my wings, did not fall powerless, although what I carry is useless here."

Hot palms cupped her face. "You will return with me. To the safety of my home."

"Death comes to us all."

"Death does not lack for company; she'll not object to your continued absence."

"I can take care of myself."

"I'm not a selfless creature, Caroline." Klaus warned her, brushing her cheek with his thumb. "If I'd fallen, I'd have taken you with me, torn you from the sky with greedy hands. I too, am not a creature of mixed loyalty."

He taught her to sin.

With his hands, along the curve of his lips, against the rough velvet of his tongue. She luxuriated in his body and his power, wondered at the look behind his eyes. The possessive adoration he drew along her skin, those swirls of power she pretended not to notice that didn't quite cling to her soul.

Laughed at his narrow eyed determination.

Flightless she was but not powerless.

"You fight me."

"I'm not a creature to be claimed."

"But I am."

Caroline turned, stared at the monster that wanted beneath her skin. He hunted for the slightest of weakness and beguiled with a soul so dark she could see nothing but age.

"What?"

"You do not even try," Klaus said voice tight with anger. "What do you need from me, Caroline that I have not given?"

What pieces of her heart she'd found in the past hundred years broke. Because she'd made a choice, had left behind those claiming ribbons, burned herself into another's skin and broken at the rejection. Lips trembling, she watched him from behind tears she'd forgotten could fall.

"I have nothing to claim you with."

Caroline left.

She'd been wrong.

Something must have broken free with her, some tiny shard of her heart. Because she'd left it behind, embedded carelessly against Klaus' skin. It's absence burned inside her chest and no amount of distance soothed it.

Then she found war.

Klaus found her.

Exhaustion eating at the narrow of her bones, wings spread in their brilliance of white and blood red, she cradled the body of her dead. She felt him long before he crouched next to her, the familiar shadow touching her skin.

"He did not fall."

Caroline hiccuped a sob, reached with a blind hand to grab for him, needing the strength he'd always shared. His fingers met hers, locked tight.

"There is only one way to return what I'd given him," Caroline whispered, voice ragged. "And I refused."

The lean lines of his fingers tangled in her ruined curls, his touch possessive. "How did you fall, Caroline?"

"Our match was not favored - he was chosen for a Generals daughter. I was a fool. But I was a fool who loved and so when the time came for him to choose, I accepted his choice. But I had given too much, loved too much - so I choose to abandon my duties, I banished myself."

"And he let you."

She pressed her bloody hand to her mouth, closed her eyes. Shook with the sobs she would not voice. Nodded once.

Klaus turned her tear stained face to his, his monster vivid. Curved his palm along her throat. "You ran."

"I miss you."

"Good."

She stretched lazily on the big bed, wings spread in bold colors. "That won't be the last who hunts me."

Laughter filled the room as hot lips brushed her spine. "You hid these from me. Why?"

Caroline tilted her head, looked at her black winged monster. "I tell you that Tyler wasn't the only who'll seek to hunt me; now that I've killed a general and taken back my power and you ask about my wings?"

"They're beautiful," Klaus told her with something soft behind his eyes. "Why hide them?"

"They reminded me of what I'd lost, the price I'd pay to get it back." Caroline sighed, dug into his thigh lightly with her nails. "Why are you not worried?"

Klaus grinned, sprawled next to her on the bed until the his cascade of feathers spread across hers. "This is my realm."

"Yes, you live here."

Hot lips against her shoulder. "Yes and no."

His power flooded the room, drenched her in shadow fire. Breath stuttering at the feel, at this controlled unleashing, she stared at him with parted lips.

"This realm, little love, belongs to me and with everything in it." He traced her jaw. "I felt you fall, searched for decades. Then you walked into my city wide-eyed and wingless, held off my advances with a smile; ignored my claiming with a laugh. Your dead lover returned your heart, your golden ribbons of power. Tell me, Caroline - do you think I didn't notice the lingering touch of your power, that one little spark against my chest."

Caroline rolled up her side, touched his face. "I didn't know I'd lost it until I'd left."

"What do you need from me to paint my skin with your claim, Caroline?" Klaus kissed her cheek, lingered briefly on her lips. "Be warned - I'm not the type to let go."

Caroline reached up, cupped his face. Smiled at him, golden fingertips turning his eyes brilliant as her claim teased him. Traced the line of his lips - watched his gaze darken as his tongue licked at her power.

"I want to fly."

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