Hey guys, here is finally another update and the plot thickens even more. I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get back to this but I'm trying to keep most of my stories more updatet on a regular basis from now on. Please hassle me if I'm being to slow!

Hope you like it!

- L

She'd drugged them. She did not feel good about it, but she'd been locked inside that house for three days under constant supervision that was supposedly for her "own protection", but she was done with it. In the three days she'd spent with her vampire companions, she'd observed them and picked up on their habits, learned their routines and weaknesses.

It was close to midnight when she put her plan into action. Earlier in the day she'd spiked the bourbon with an urb she knew held powerful sedatives and would knock out even the strongest of supernaturals, a little trick her dad had taught her once he finally introduced her to the other part of his life. The part in which he hunted vampires and other dangerous supernatural creatures that saught to harm humans. He told her he'd learned about the herb from a witch who was a good friend of his and who'd helped him a lot over the years, and he hadn't been wrong.

They had all been down in the main room when they started passing out the bourbon, and Caroline had politely declined explaining she was coming down with a headache and didn't think alcohol would help the situation. It was a slowacting herb, but after an hour or so it had started to make it's affect clear as she noticed all four of them getting slightly less focused, more drowsy, tired in a way she didn't think vampires could get. After that it was easy to finish the rest of her plan. While they were all mostly incapacitated she'd excused herself and stated she was getting tired and thought it best to call it a night. She slipped into the hall, made her way back into the main room through the kitchen, took care of Elijah and Rebekah first by quickly snapping their necks and as she'd realized several days ago, they were the strongest of the four and the sedative herb had already done a number on both Stefan and Damon. Therefore, even though they both saw what she was doing and looked as if they wanted to get up, they were unable to. She finished what she needed to do by snapping both remaining vampire's necks and after she was done she'd whispered, "I'm sorry," even though none of them could hear it.

So there she was, in the middle of the night, driving her car towards Mystic Falls the town, and hopefully finding some way to learn the answers she so desperately needed.

It was two o'clock at night when she parked her car in the empty parkinglot outside the high school and the first thing she noticed was what was obviously a memorium. Getting out, she walked over to where it was and leaned down, saw pictures of four girls that all resembled each other and she wondered what had happened to them. They weren't much younger than she was, a couple years or so, and they all had the same brown hair, dark eyes, and they were all smiling. Young girls who'd had something tragic happen to them, and for some unexplainable reason, Caroline couldn't help but feel like it was somehow partly because of her. There was no logic to it, but she just had this feeling that she was involved somehow.

While she was kneeling there, watching their pictures and wondering what had happened to them, she felt a shiver ghost across her skin, a sense of being watched slithering through her body like a coiling snake poised to strike at any moment.

Swallowing, she rose to her feet and turned around slowly, her eyes doing a slow scan of the parking lot and the surrounding area, but there was nothing out of the ordinary that she could see. Maybe she was just being paranoid, it was the middle of the night after all, and an hour ago she had drugged and then subsequently snapped the neck of four vampires who'd probably be pissed out of their minds when they came too.

It was probably a good idea for her to just get down to business and do what she came there to do, then she could get back in her car, pretend none of it never happened and get out of town as soon as possible. Hopefully before the vampires came too and decided to hunt her down and expose her to a slow, painful death. Or at least, she figured Damon would do that, Elijah would make it quick and painless, he was the ultimate gentleman after all.

With quick steps she moved away from the high school, wrapped her jacket tighter around her body and headed down the main street and searched for the adress she'd memorized. She stopped outside what now seemed to be some kind of herbal/medicinal shop, but twenty years ago had been a cafe owned by the people who were Caroline's biological parents. Her eyes moved to the sign above the door and she recognized the name immediately.

Bennet's Herbs

Bennet, as in Sheila Bennet, the woman who'd given her the necklace she'd swore to her mother she'd never take off, and the woman she'd pieced together had to be the witch that was her fathers friend. She probably had all the answers Caroline needed, but it was the middle of the night, the store was closed and she couldn't sit outside the shop all night and wait for the woman to show up in the morning. She was too exposed out there in the open, too vulnerable and she needed to find someplace to hide for the night. A place a bunch of pissed off vampires wouldn't think to look for her.

"Haven't you heard sweetheart, it's not safe for a girl to be out alone at night in these parts anymore," Caroline spun around at the unfamiliar voice, saw a man that seemed vaguely familiar standing in the middle of the street, his features lit up by the streetlamp above him. He was beautiful, but that voice inside her, the one that instinctively knew things, told her he was dangerous, told her to run.

"Why?" She asked, ignoring the voice and keeping her eyes locked with the piercing blue of the stranger who watched her with what could only be described as a predators gaze.

"Girls have gone missing, the police thinks it a serial killer, even the FBI is investigating it, I hear."

"The memorium at the high school, it's for them isn't it? Those four girls," He watched her, but there was something about the way he watched her that made all her senses come to a strange alertness.

"Hmm, yes, I believe so." Nodding, Caroline took a hesitant step back and watched his eyes drop to her feet and she stopped immediately, thinking the smartest thing right at that moment was to make no sudden movements.

"I'm not a brunette," she pointed out in a calm voice, "whoever took them seems to have a type." His lips curved up in a slow smile, he put his hands behind his eyes and for a second she swore his eyes turned bright yellow, or gold, but as quickly as it happened it was gone and she wondered if she was going crazy.

"True, then again, who knows what goes on inside the monster's head. Perhaps he'll switch types, perhaps blondes are next on his list. You really can't know for sure," Her eyes flickered to the empty street leading back to the parking lot and she tried to figure out if she could make it to her car without this man catching her before she made it.

"I wouldn't if I were you." She froze as her eyes snapped back to the stranger and she sucked in breath as it dawned on her.

"You're him, aren't you? The one who's been hurting all those girls," He shrugged, took a casual step in her direction and she thought that if he tried anything, it was a good thing she was apparently a werewolf, she could defend herself in ways those other girls couldn't, and she would fight untill her dying breath.

"Tell me love, how did you do it? How did you escape the gilded cage my siblings have kept you in the last few days, I'm genuinely curious."

Oh no. This was him, the brother they had been trying to protect her from, and she'd walked right into his path.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she said dismissively, playing dumb, but his dark answering chuckle told her he saw right through her.

"I've been watching you for some time now, Caroline. In fact, I've been searching for you nearly five hundred years, and here you are. More beautiful than I could have ever imagined, brave and stubborn, there is much more to you than just you're looks, isn't there?"

She had to get out of there. Right away, that second, she had to find some way to leave. She held his eyes, her heart beating like a jackhammer inside her chest, and just as she was about to run, the man groaned in pain and clutched his head as he fell to his knees.

An older woman appeared from the shadows, she kept her eyes on the vampire as she walked with hurried steps to Caroline, grabbed her hand and pulled her roughly to the herbshop, unlocked the door and shoved Caroline in before she entered it behind her and slammed the door closed.

Whirling on Caroline, the woman wore a tight expression, "Stupid child," she scolded and Caroline blinked at her.

"Putting yourself out in the open like that. You're lucky he felt like playing his mind-games. He could have killed you."

"No," Caroline stated immediately, a part of her she didn't yet fully understand taking her over, a knowledge rooted in her soul that plainly told her that vampire, no matter how sinister he might have seemed, would never hurt her.

The witch studied her, a flicker of recognition in her eyes, then those dark eyes moved down to the pendant around her neck and they widened.

"Sweet child," she whispered and lifted her eyes to meet Carolines, "Caroline, I haven't seen you since you were a baby. What on earth are you doing here? And where are your parents, Liz and Bill knows better than to let you come here." Caroline sucked in a breath at the reminder of her parents and she took a minute to collect herself.

"My parents are dead, it happened a while ago, housefire. Then someone sent me an anonymous letter explaining they weren't really my parents at all, that my whole life has been nothing but a lie and to go to Mystic Falls if I wanted answers. Since then I've encountered a bunch of vampires, discovered I'm a werewolf and that for some reason that man out there, whoever he really is, is hunting me. I came here to get answers, instead I have a hundred more questions, none of which anyone is willing to answer me. So, since you're here, and I'm assuming you're Sheila Bennet, maybe you can tell me what the hell is going on." After she finished her rant, her eyes moved to the front window of the shop and she saw that the vampire who had hurt all those girls was gone, and some part of her she didn't understand, didn't like it, which was just straight up crazy.

"Allright, child, I'll put on a kettle and we'll have ourselves some tea. Then I'll answer the questions I can, that sound okay?" Sighing, Caroline nodded and rubbed her hand against her temple, feeling a migraine pressing on and she just wanted this all to be over with already.

"His name," Sheila said, and put a steaming cup of tea before Caroline and took a seat in the chair across from her, "is Niklaus. And he is not like any other supernatural being on this earth." Caroline picked up her mug, warmed her frozen hands and took a small sip as she listened avidly to the woman across from her speak.

"He's a hybrid, half werewolf, half vampire. His mother, Esther Mikaelson was the Original witch, or so the story says and she's the reason vampires exist. You see the Mikaelsons, they've been around a millennia. Esther was married to a man named Mikael, they had seven children, the youngest a boy named Henrik. Now werewolves, their lore is a little more dicy, but they've been around longer than the vampires and one night Henrik, the poor child, was killed by one. Esther, griefstricken and determined to never let anything harm her children ever again, created a spell that would make them immortal. Now, as I'm guessing you know, werewolves activate the curse by taking a life." Yes, Caroline thought, she knew.

"In order for one who has been turned to fully transition, he or she has to feed on human blood. Niklaus, like his siblings, fed and he killed the person he was feeding from and that's when the truth was revealed." Riveted to the fascinating story of the Originals well, origin, Caroline leaned forward in her seat and listened intently.

"See, at some point, Esther had an affair with a man from the neighboring village. A man who was a werewolf," Caroline's eyes widened and she wrapped her fingers tighter around her mug, "and when Niklaus had killed his first victim, and it's important to mention that all of this happened during a full moon, the curse was activated and the truth came out. Esther realized just how dangerous something like what Niklaus is would be too dangerous to allow to roam the earth, so she had Mikael and Elijah restrain him as she performed yet another spell, this one to suppress his werewolf-nature. She used the blood of a doppleganger and a moonstone as keys to the spell, and trapped the curse inside him." Caroline closed her eyes, feeling almost sorry for him, to have his own mother do that to him, and she knew what it was like to discover your entire life had been a lie.

"Five hundred years ago, Niklaus found a way to break the curse his mother placed on him. He had the moonstone, found a doppleganger and he broke the curse, releasing the other side of him, but Esther was clever. She knew there might come a day when he'd break the curse and she took precautions to make sure he wouldn't become the monster she feared he'd be should he break the curse." Sipping her tea, Caroline watched as Sheila put down her mug, got up from her chair and walked over to a bookcase standing by the window across the room from Caroline. She pulled out a thick book that looked ancient and carried it back to the table where she laid it down, flipped through it until she found what she was looking for and turned the book to face Caroline.

"It was only after the curse had been broken that Niklaus and his family learned the full truth of what Esther had done. See, in werewolf lore there is an ancient-long tradition of mates. Two souls tied together, two parts of a whole. This is not to say that two werewolves looks at each other and immediately feels a connection, it's a bond made out of love and there's a ceremony that needs to be done for the matingbond to be complete. Esther went around this and tied Niklaus to a bloodline of werewolves, so that one day, and even she didn't have enough power to determine when that day would come, he'd meet the person who was supposed to be his other half. His one true mate." Caroline swallowed, starting to see where Sheila was heading with this and she didn't much like it.

"This book," Sheila said and pressed her hand down on the page she'd opened it on, "is a grimoire. A spellbook if you will, but this page, Caroline," she looked down at the page and slowly lifted her eyes back up to meet the witche's," this page and all the rest of them, is filled with the names of werewolves who belong to the bloodline Esther tied Niklaus too. Sheila flipped to the last page, and right there on the bottom, was Caroline's name.

She stared at the page, looked down at what was her real name, Caroline Mystic, written at the bottom of the page and tried to process everything Sheila was telling her. Raising her eyes to look at the name above hers, she saw the name Michael Mystic and felt tears well in her eyes. If his name was on the spot above hers, that had to be the name of her biological father, right?

All of a sudden something occured to her and her eyes snapped to the witch.

"Even if my name is the last written in the book, that doesn't mean I'm this mate you're talking about." She pointed out and Sheila gave her a sad smile.

"Like I said earlier, Esther was a clever witch and she made assurances so that when the child was born it would be clear. You, child, were born with a birthmark shaped like drop on your lower-back. That was the mark those belonging to your bloodline knew to look for, that was the mark the witches who devoted themselves to help the bloodline knew was the distinguisher. When you were born and your father realized who you were, he and your mother gave you to Liz and Bill to keep you safe. They took you and left town, telling no one where they were going, and Michael and Lily stayed behind in Mystic Falls. Two years after Liz and Bill took you away, one of Niklaus minions came sniffing around and Michael knew it was only a matter of time before he'd discover the truth. So Michael and Lily disappeared, took off to places unknown, all so they could keep you safe."

The tears were flowing freely now, four people had given up their lives to keep her safe and who knew how many more was involved in all of this, trying to keep her existence a secret from a man who wanted her dead.

"Did he hunt them all down and kill them?" Caroline asked softly and looked at all the names with crosses behind them.
"Some of them, yes." Sheila said and went on, "but not all." Nodding, Caroline leaned back and looked away from the book, turning her eyes to the window she wondered if her biological parents was still out there somewhere. Michael and Lily, that was their names, and she had nothing more to go on than that.

"Sweetheart, I know this is a lot to process, but why don't you wait here and I'll go give Elijah a call, tell him you're allright." She nodded absently at Sheila's words and heard the other woman leave the room. Then she went back to studying the book and flipped to the first page, and frowned at the drawing of the woman she saw there. She looked strangely like the girls who Klaus had killed, and she knew he had killed them all.

"Sheila?" she called out and the other woman reappeared a few seconds later.
"What is it honey?" Caroline pointed to the drawing, "who is this?"

"Her name was Tatia, she was the doppleganger Esther used to bind Niklaus curse." She explained and Caroline turned her eyes up to her.
"She looks like the girls he's killed," she pointed out and watched the witche's body jerk, her face pale and Caroline tensed as she whispered, "oh dear."