A/N:

Trigger warnings: Gore


"They were like two enemies in love with one another."

― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov


White walls, gray tiles. Everything seemed clean but a bit old despite the attempts of giving the surroundings a polished exterior.

Davina Claire walked inside the sterile environment of the private clinic and pushed the door that led downstairs. To the morgue.

No one stopped her. It was as if she was invisible and everyone went around doing their jobs as if she didn't exist.

There was no natural light in the corridor as she walked further into it until she spotted Caroline Forbes.

The vampire was leaning against a wall next to a steel door. Her knee was bent and her high heel looked like a nail stuck inside the old plaster.

A smile appeared on her lips when she noticed Davina and the witch tried to hide the uncomfortable claustrophobic feel she was starting to get. Everything was quiet down here and quite chilly. And they were all alone.

Caroline looked comfortable, however, beautifully dressed, fashionably in black, with perfectly curled hair.

"Hey Davina," Caroline welcomed her warmly, "thank you for coming."

Caroline scanned her up and down with a serious expression that made Davina tense up but before she could say something the sound of soft steps approached them and a nurse came closer holding a small portable fridge.

"B positive as requested," the nurse told Caroline with a perfect smile and Davina noticed the woman's glassy gaze.

"Thank you!" Caroline beamed at the nurse and waved her off as she took the fridge from her hands, "Have a nice day."

"You too," the nurse cheerfully smiled and left just as quietly as she had come.

"What is that?" Davina asked giving a side glance at the box Caroline was holding.

"Lunch!"

"You know people need that for emergencies right?"

Caroline lifted her brow at the condemnation of the witch's judgmental tone.

"A hungry vampire doesn't constitute an emergency you think? Would you rather I eat people then?" she provoked her while not revealing how she had also compelled people to donate more blood and others to become blood donors. If she was to wait for people to show empathy and become socially more empathetic she would spend her eternity pointlessly.

Davina scrunched up her nose and Caroline laughed.

"So you are judgy with every vampire's eating habits except Marcel's and Josh's or just mine?"

Davina narrowed her eyes annoyed.

"Let's get this over with," she grumbled and watched as Caroline watched her intently for a moment.

"Are you okay?"

"Why?" Davina asked defensively.

"You look…tired."

"Peeved is the right word."

"Set in your default settings I see," Caroline laughed but Davina pursed her lips. Caroline cast her one more piercing glance but then shrugged. She then took out a key from her jeans pocket and opened the steel door.

"Private room," Caroline winked at her as she unlocked first, used a sliding card, and then entered the code in the electronic system to get them in.

Caroline sauntered in and Davina followed cautiously and watched as Caroline locked them inside the room and left the box with the blood bags on a small table before she went straight at the morgue's fridge doors that were, on the far end of the room, embedded on a wall.

The lights flickered, almost ominously as Caroline turned to Davina and scanned her from head to toe.

"You are not squeamish are you?" Caroline questioned her curiously and Davina gave her a weird expression.

"No?"

"Is that a question or an answer?" Caroline asked and Davina tilted her head to the side.

"Why?"

Caroline smirked at the distrust that showed in the witch's face and words.

"I guess we are about to find out," she cryptically said and Davina blinked when Caroline's fangs descended, and she was ready to use her magic to defend herself against the vampire when Caroline only bit the inside of her palm drawing blood.

Caroline's eyes turned to normal as she pressed her bleeding palm on one of the morgue's metal doors and with her other hand, she pressed a code on the system's security device next to the handle. The blood vaporized in thin air, absorbed by the metal and a click was heard.

Magic and technology blended and Davina was impressed by Caroline's ability to master both. She could tell there was a dark object hidden somewhere inside the room that allowed Caroline to use her own blood as an additional magical lock but somehow she couldn't detect its magic. She couldn't tell how the vampire did it but obviously, she was either too crafty or she had more witches doing her bidding and if so why did she need her and asked Marcel to intervene to get her to do this for her? And 'this' was yet to be seen as to what it really was.

Caroline pulled the sliding table with the frozen dead body on its surface and brought it to view under the flicking lights. She then slid the zipper of the body bag open revealing something that made Davina recoil a step back before her curiosity rose.

"What is that?" Davina mumbled her eyes unable to watch anywhere but the grotesque sight in front of her.

"That was a hunter," Caroline remarked bluntly and stared at the thing on the table with a bored expression, "now it is a corpse stitched in other parts from other corpses. The hunter was human, the excess skin was taken from dead witches," she explained detached and Davina grimaced.

"You did this?" she questioned the vampire watching her in disbelief.

"Yep!"

Caroline looked completely comfortable while Davina's expression was turning greenish.

"Why?"

"Well the traces of magic from the witches' flesh interferes with locators spells basically shielding him," Caroline said, "not my best handiwork I admit but I was never one for knitting or had any artistic talent for embroidery I guess," she shrugged, "It's effective though."

"Nope," Davina commented looking repulsed but somehow also impressed, "effective is not the word I would use."

Caroline smirked.

"What word would you use?"

"Disgusting for one," Davina muttered, "not to mention disrespectful."

"Well I am sure they don't mind given how they are all dead," Caroline cynically remarked.

Davina's gaze became haunted.

"The witches can see from the other side," she whispered, a note of fear and even anger colored her low tone.

"Right," Caroline pondered, "New Orleans still has its other side intact," she said and then her voice turned colder than ice, "good."

Davina lifted her eyes from the monstrous corpse to Caroline.

"Good?"

Caroline's gaze darkened dangerously reminding Davina that the usually cheerful creature in front of her was as lethal as they come. Marcel's warnings echoed in her mind. Caroline Forbes was dangerous. A killer. And from the looks of it a twisted one.

"Well those witches were pretty disrespectful attacking me. Bitch move," Caroline drawled wickedly, "So let's go with the cliché that payback is a bitch," she played with the pun.

Davina would have smiled at that if she wasn't feeling bile rising on her throat. She wasn't squeamish as Caroline had asked her but today she was barely able to get out of bed and this smell both from the body, or what that Frankenstein thing was, and the formalin was making nauseous.

Caroline went and retrieved a scalpel from a drawer and Davina tried to control her breathing that was becoming shallower as the blonde wore medical latex gloves too.

"Ready?" Caroline asked the witch without waiting for an answer and then she started hacking the excess skin to reveal the hunter's decayed bluish body that was in a horrific condition despite the fact that it was kept in the fridge.

The smell was awful now but what was worse was the scent of death the hex had left behind. It reminded her so much of the grave she had been in. It reminded her of the other side so much. So much that Davina almost retched.

She pressed her hand on her mouth and nose hard.

"Marcel had mentioned dissecting a corpse but this wasn't what I had in mind," she mumbled weakly.

"What did you have in mind?" Caroline asked as she kept cutting and ripping out pieces of flesh. She was not bothered at all. Not from the smell, of the fluids and flesh that were sticking on the gloves.

"Not…this."

Davina closed her eyes for a moment before she examined Caroline's methodical work.

"You've done this before?"

"Stitching corpses or hacking them apart?" Caroline asked.

"Both?"

"A few times," she replied unconcerned thinking of all the times she had skinned creatures in Purgatory.

Davina's brows lifted.

"Long story," Caroline said and Davina's lips curled in disgust.

"At least tell me they were dead when you did this."

Caroline eyed Davina pensively as if she was taking her time to actually think about this.

"Depends on your definition of dead," Caroline finally said because after all technically speaking everything in Purgatory was dead.

"What do you want me to do with this?" Davina sighed.

Caroline put her hands on the stretcher at each side of the half-cut and revealed male body and eyed Davina.

The hex had made him unrecognizable and Davina could tell Caroline was smart enough to use all the flesh from the other witches not only to shield the hunter from locator spells but also to preserve him with their remnants of magic that neutralized the last traces of the hex.

"I'd like you to see if you can trace the origin of the hex he used to off himself. Not only who cast it but also the exact moment it was cast. And if you are able to see if his bloodline coalesces with another."

"Who's?"

Caroline took in a deep breath and then she became cold again.

"Mine."

Davina nodded weakly but she couldn't tell why Caroline was watching her like a hawk. There was something in her gaze. Something like concern and worry.

Caroline must have said something.

Asked her something.

Her name?

If she was okay?

She couldn't tell.

Everything was turning suddenly and her knees trembled as if they were made from rubber.

The room was turning upside down. Only it was not.

She was.

She was falling.

Her eyes fluttered close. She was expecting the pain from the impact with the floor but she collapsed straight into Caroline's arms before everything turned completely blank.


Hayley Marshall was watching her wedding dress. Simple. Elegant. Placed on the bed.

It symbolized hope and a promise but there was another promise made to her.

She averted her eyes at the small wooden box next to the dress. She opened it and looked at the onyx stone with the carved Viking rune.

'Soon' she thought. Soon she would have to make her mind and decide for her future. Her daughter's future. Once she did that then all of this would be in the past and she would be free.

Hope and she would be free and far away from all this madness. Far away from New Orleans, somewhere the Originals and their enemies would never be able to reach them.

She looked at the wedding dress again.

She had to decide.


Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Delicate fingers touched the elegant ruby earrings letting the long perfectly manicured nails caress them with grace.

"Thank you for my gift Elijah although I have to admit your brother has better taste," the woman in the black gown with the beautiful shiny locks pinned up in a French updo gave him a feline smile.

Elijah Mikaelson lifted a brow as he expertly cut his medium-rare steak and took a bite chewing slowly.

"Which one?"

Renée Mardoin's smile grew wide and far more provocative just as Elijah wiped his lips with his napkin just as elegantly as she run her nails around the long-stemmed wine glass. The red liquid inside rippling slowly.

"I am aware of the dealings your family has with both of my brothers Miss Mardoin."

"I think I have asked you before but I will so again, please call me Renée."

Elijah slanted his head politely, something that didn't seem to deceive Renée that watched him with sharp eyes as if she could see right through him in the same way he could with her.

"As you wish dear Renée."

Elijah then raised his hand and every guest of one of the most well-known, prestigious, and opulent restaurants in Baton Rouge started leaving.

The soft music that played in the background slowly came to a halt and it only took a few more minutes before the doors closed and then Elijah Mikaelson and Renée Mardoin were the only people left inside the huge interior with the long mirrors, chandeliers, and pillars that decorated the restaurant that was beautifully lit to compliment the shades of black, red and gold shades along with the gleaming surfaces and candelabras.

No footsteps could be heard in the textured plush carpets or in the very building. In fact, no noise could be heard in this building or the ones surrounding them.

They were left on their own.

"Impressive."

Renée Mardoin picked up her glass and sipped slowly her red wine looking unimpressed despite the compliment she gave Elijah.

"I think we are past impressing each other Renée."

"If you say so," she drawled her lips curling sensually.

"You came to the ball."

"Wasn't I invited?"

"At my brother's arm."

"As I have already said Kol gives great gifts," she pointed out, letting the ring of the matriarchs Kol had given her gleam under the candlelight and reflect its light on the polished cutlery, "it would be a shame to deny him."

"Deny him or the opportunity to not deny vengeance?"

Renée sat back in her high chair and laughed.

"Vengeance over whom?"

"Aren't we both a bit too old to play coy?"

"Do I look that old to you Mr. Mikaelson?" Renée played along despite her age that surpassed her youthful looks due to the de-aging magical herbs she had been consuming for centuries.

Elijah set his napkin next to his plate.

"Enough with the games please."

"Life would be so boring without them but since you said please," she sassed," what is it that you want Elijah? So much to provide just solitude for you and me."

While keeping his controlled composure the danger that laced his words was palpable.

"You threatened the mother of my niece."

"I give my condolences for the child," Renée solemnly bowed her head, "my family had no participation in that ghastly affair I assure you."

"Yes, neutrality becomes a convenient tool to use for whoever remains standing when the dust settles doesn't it?" Elijah's eyes flared with something so ice-cold in them that resembled heat, "some would call such behavior equally reprehensible."

"You would know," Renée calmly replied, "since we have taken a page out of your book when it comes to noninterference."

She crossed her fingers on the fine tablecloth.

"My family stands for the interests of Mardoins as yours stands for your family's interests," she leveled her gaze at him speaking evenly, "not taking sides and avoiding uncomfortable situations unless those are deemed unavoidable seems to be favorable, especially lately given the purpose of your ball. Is not peace the desired goal to unite us all as you so fervently insisted, threatened, and cajoled us all?" she provoked him but Elijah's stony expression remained unmoved to her games.

"And yet you threatened Hayley Marshall."

Renée touched her exposed cleavage gently, mirth dancing in her eyes.

"I did no such thing!" she all but pouted, "if I remember correctly I told you that I didn't need to do anything to her."


Flashback

"Make no mistake Renée. The treaty will happen," Elijah emphasized, "New Orleans will find peace either through alliance or…destruction. Because if the treaty won't stand Niklaus' wrath won't compare to mine. No one…and I mean no one will lay a hand on my family again."

Renée watched him thoughtfully but didn't step back. She ran her fingers over his tie with a smile. Elijah tensed.

"I am sorry for your loss Elijah and… for all the loss that is yet to come."

Her tone was sad, sounding almost genuine despite the threat it carried and Elijah was ready to tear off her head when Kol came by her side and protectively wrapped his arm around her waist.

"Easy there, brother. Remember your precious treaty," Kol mocked him and Elijah glared at him.

Kol made it clear by his stance that if he wanted to go after Renée Mardoin he would have to go through him.

"You take her side over your family's?" Elijah asked him not hiding his hurt and not bothering to care for whoever would listen to them now.

"You should know better than to ask me this Elijah. There is only one side. Mine," Kol turned him down with a dark grin but whatever Elijah was about to say was cut short when Renée spoke.

"Have no worry about your treaty Elijah. My family won't oppose it. Your family is safe," she said while she kept her eyes trained on Hayley.

Renée detached herself from Kol's hold, drank her champagne, and gave Elijah Mikaelson her glass only for Elijah to realize that inside it the remaining champagne had turned black and a ruby was floating on top.

"I've come prepared to avenge my family tonight," Renée admitted "but after your brother's inspiring speech I reconsidered. How was it? Lux Omnia Vincit?," she ironically sang and Kol laughed amused.

Neither Renée or Elijah bothered with Kol however. The witch only came closer to the older Mikaelson who visibly stiffened.

"One of my gifts is premonition," Renée revealed to Elijah before she directed her gaze to Hayley that was standing a few feet away among the wolves, "It only comes to life when I step in New Orleans. I wanted to exact my family's revenge against your precious she-wolf but I don't have to. None of us do."

"That's a pity," Kol mumbled and reached for the glass of champagne Elijah had abandoned and drank it in one go ignoring his brother's glower.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Elijah asked Renée that now watched Hayley with the kind of glee that turned Elijah's insides to ice.

"Her downfall has already been written," Renée prophesized, "Mors Vincit Omnia," she paraphrased Klaus's words from before. Elijah froze.

Death conquers all.

"Her destiny is soon approaching. And I for one would not dare intervene with fate."


"Isn't that mattered settled?" Renée asked him amused.

Elijah remained calm but the battle of wills that started raging between them was anything but.

"Mors Vincit Omnia," Elijah repeated her words, and Renée's red lips stretched in menace, "would you be kind enough as to untangle your riddle?"

"Prophecy," Renée corrected him and a muscle jumped on Elijah's jaw.

"What did you mean?" Elijah intoned each word quietly. With such a low voice that forewarned nothing good.

Renée ran the edge of her upper pristine teeth with her tongue.

"What do you think?"

"I think I need to know if you are threatening my family, dear Renée," Elijah responded and his mouth turned to a thin line.

Renée pretended to consider his words before she threw her napkin on the table and ran a long fingernail over the silver knife, next to her plate, that she had yet to use.

"If you consider the she-wolf your family then you are well aware I planned to do exactly that the night of the ball. More than just threaten and you wouldn't have been able to do anything about it." she nodded sincerely as Elijah's eyes narrowed at the remembrance of the hexed ruby Renée Mardoin had intended for Hayley that night but had left behind. If anything the ruby earrings he gifted the Mardoin witch tonight were meant to send a similar message too, "But you don't have to worry where I, my family, and every coven under our rule is concerned," she assured him and her gaze locked with his shining victorious, "we don't waste my time with resolved matters. Hayley Marshall is as good as dead I am afraid."

Renée waved her hand dismissively as every muscle in Elijah's body coiled.

"As a matter of fact you should start searching for fancy coffins fitting royalty and whatnot given her Labonair status," she continued apathetically, "you will need more than one but one tombstone will do though," she winked at him.

Elijah with a flick of his hand toppled the table that went crashing to the other side of the room toppling more tables along making Renne rise her glass and her eyebrows looking bored at the destruction in front of her.

When Elijah's fingers curled around her throat Renne only leaned back in her chair, with crossed legs, and watched with delight despite the pressure the Original applied on her skin.

"As lovely as these games have been," Elijah seethed and when his fingers wrapped tighter around her neck Renée's breathing sounded like laughter.

Her fingers curled around his forearm that held her and a zap of her magic loosened his fingers around her throat but Elijah held on as his eyes turned vampiric and his fangs were ready to drain her from her blood.

Renée leaned forward as if she enjoying the touch of a lover and longed to come closer for a kiss.

"Is this what you think dear Elijah," she drawled mocking him placing her other hand on his tie gently," you will eliminate me and she'll be safe?" she laughed and smirked when Elijah tried to resist her magic and snap her neck but his body and his fingers would not oblige his will but only her magic that combated his strength, "No need," she told him reassuringly, "I gave the order for everyone seeking retribution from the lovely wolf mother of your family to stand down," she revealed, "no one of us will touch her. There is no need after all. There is no saving her."

Her absolute tone send a shiver to Elijah that started kneeling to her power as she rose from her chair.

Renée subdued Elijah Mikaelson easily as he fought to escape the thrall of her magic but as she caressed the matriarchs' ring her magic bound him without mercy. He became an unmoving statue with veins that protruded his skin that were starting to turn to marble. He was not desiccating but he felt as if his heart was shrinking in his chest and the blood was drained from his body that stilled with poisonous magic that felt like a whip on flesh and a knife on bone.

Renée gave him a pitying smile showing him her hand with the ring on it.

"As I have said your brother gives better gifts," she reminded Elijah that watched her with murderous eyes unable to speak, "lovely trinkets for heads on platters," she laughed, "not that Klaus' charm is not amusing. However Kol is the far better enticer. Not to mention quite the sweet talker that one. No wonder in our history many remember him as the witch whisperer," she added jovially.

"You think these games will stop me?" Elijah croaked as he struggled to win over her magic. Soon he would, she couldn't hold him for long. No magic would when it came to those that threatened those he held dear to his heart.

"What of your treaty Mr. Mikaelson?" Renée's irony was sharp as was her smile, "Is that one a game too? Or you discard your precious peace just because we are not on New Orleans ground? Or you particularly are excluded from the rules in general?"

"No one hurts my family and lives," Elijah hissed but Renée's power felt like a leash around his neck.

"And yet there is a list of survivors who did exactly that," Renée observed condescendingly, "do you wish me to count?"

Elijah grunted managing to move only an inch before her magic strapped him back into place. While he tried to thrash against the witch's power she was not even moving to add any more power to her spell thanks to Kol's ring.

"No threat will go unanswered," Elijah warned her realizing she was allowing him to speak.

"No threat," the witch shook her head faking innocence, "stating a fact and simply speaking of the truth is not a threat."

Elijah watched from the corner of his eye as the witch went to one of the other tables that were left intact and got herself a champagne flute. She filled it with the bubbly alcohol before she magically dragged a chair in front of Elijah and sat there crossing her legs sensually revealing long smooth skin through the slit of her beautiful gown.

"My gift is…complicated but during the last centuries I have mastered it beautifully," she explained taking a sip from her champagne, "I get glimpses even here despite how my power manifests in New Orleans in its full potential and since I am an advocate of love," she cooed with a saccharine tone, "I will give you the cliff notes with no charge."

Elijah's face twisted in a mask of pure rage.

"I swear-"

Renée placed a finger in front of her lips and Elijah's mouth snapped close.

"Shh," she hushed blocking his voice.

The witch observed him with sharp eyes for a long moment before she drained her glass and sighed.

"I like you, Elijah. The lengths you would go for your family are no different than the ones I'd go for mine. I too acknowledge how it feels to carry the burden of a family that forces one to clean after their messes all the time," she exhaled tiredly, "but it is how it is I guess. Family loyalty may be the last thing to remind us we were once human and some of that humanity still lingers no matter what time, magic, and war deprive us," she lamented and cupped his cheek as she bent closer to him bringing her face in the same level with his.

Her gaze turned melancholic despite her arrogance.

"Ignorance in your case would have been a blessing I guess and if you were not so quick to attack me tonight I would have allowed you this small mercy but here we are…as predicted," she smiled at him enjoyed the look of disgust in his eyes as he obviously hated both her touch and the feeling of weakness his enslavement from her magic gave him.

"Although I have to admit I may have judged you wrong," she pensively argued with herself, "I thought you were the sensible one from the Mikaelson brothers. It seems the Unhinged one is far more than the rest of you which is quite ironic if you ask me but I digress," she chuckled.

Her fingers skimmed his jaw. Slowly.

"So here you are," she smiled, her tone enticing, "you fell in love with the mother of your niece. Everyone in our circles knows it. Love, however, is quite the nostrum isn't it? Meant to solve it all and yet failing."

Renée removed her touch from Elijah's face and placed her hands on her lap sitting on the chair as a queen would on her throne and looked at the Original as she would at one of her subjects.

"Here's the thing about your Hybrid lady. You want to change her destiny but you should be old enough to know that some people make their own destiny." Renée declared coldly, "Remember Elijah. Tatia, Katerina, Celeste. Different and yet same stories, same destiny. Fate may be written in the stars but they are the ones on the driver's seat and your beloved now is in a free fall with no breaks."

Darkness spread in Elijah's eyes. It was fear. Undiluted.

"She chose to be," Renée gestured stoically and then scrunched up her nose as if she was confused and her gesture became dismissive, "Will choose to be. Has chosen to be. Semantics really," she callously said, "It's already happened as it will happen and as it happens as we speak."

Renée tilted her head and smiled contently. Elijah saw the abyss of magic in her eyes. He swore he saw the other side reflecting in that dark gaze.

"Her suffering will appease our wrath of course but I am not heartless," she told him sympathetically," I recognize love," she swooned sarcastically, "and your love will cause you great suffering too," she lamented, "it's pity really if not quite ironic."

She checked her nails and lifted a brow.

"You said no one hurts your family and lives. I live by the same code and Hayley Marshall has hurt my family," her tone turned vengeful and bitter, "and I had already conjured a multitude of hexes and curses that would have had you mourn her for ages to come and I'd be willing to die at your hands to honor my fallen and yet," she paused giving him a pointed look, "none of my instruments of vengeance would be as heartless as the one that will take her life when the time comes."

Renée Mardoin now beamed and touched her new earrings.

"So lovely," she admired once more Elijah's taste, " so let me give you a gift too."

The witch waved her hand and the crack that sounded in the empty restaurant was deafening. One of the floor-to-ceiling mirrors broke and glass exploded all around them like rain.

Pieces of the glass seemed like diamonds that reflected the colors of the rainbow on Renée's hair as they left cuts in Elijah's face that dribbled with blood.

With the snap of her fingers, some of the shards came together and a piece of the broken mirror, jagged and puzzled weirdly, appeared in front of Elijah's face.

"If you wish to face your beloved's murderer all you have to do is look in the mirror," she announced and held the mirror in front of Elijah's bleeding face.

His eyes widened with dread at what the witch told him and she smiled darkly.

"Oh yes my dear Elijah," she stated in cruel calculation, "Here's my instrument. You."

Elijah watched his distorted idol in the mirror unwilling to believe the witch's words and yet something inside his gut told him it was true. Thousand of years had taught him to recognize lie from truth and the witch wasn't lying. Her pleasure and delight were too real to be faked. Her promise was set in stone and the blood that dropped on his cheeks as his skin healed looked like tears of blood before Renée let the mirror fall on the floor and turn back to shards.

"Once you leave here I am sure you will try to change the course of destiny," she mused, "you will even try to find seers and witches to give you hope but if anyone gives you any know they'll be lying," she vowed him unfeelingly, "you can plead, you can rage, you can bargain. It will be pointless because in the end there is no stopping an Original when they kill is there?" she smirked brutally.

Then she raised her index finger as if there was a chance for him to grab and he was ready to take any chance. To sacrifice anything. Even himself.

"You know you'll have the chance to save her," she revealed giving him hope before her lips curled to a heartless smile, "and…you won't," she prophesied with absolute certainty making his blood turn to ice, "you'll stand and watch as she falls into despair and you'll stand and watch as she takes her last breath in this world," she swore and Elijah felt something inside him break, "You'll take her life and everyone she has killed will finally rest in peace. Something I very much doubt she will achieve but that's another story," she muttered without showing any emotion.

Her finger touched his chin and tilted his head back so he could see her clearly.

"I saw more than a glimpse," she let him know her apocalyptic prophecy for the love of his life with eyes that shone both with evil and twisted empathy, "she has already started walking the steps. Each brings her closer to death."

Renée leaned over and kissed him on the lips.

"One kiss," she whispered against his mouth and placed her finger on his lips.

"Remember Elijah," she sibilated before her voice turned smooth and a siren's song, "Your last kiss with her will be her death."

Her eyes turned wholly black.

"Hear my prophecy. Hear death's degree."

Elijah's dread became so deep in his soul in a way that he hadn't felt in a thousand years. He heard wind and saw lighting flashing from the windows. Darkness was looming. Swallowing him whole.

"Once the city burns her fate will be sealed. And when the time comes you will be the one to drive the stake into her heart," she breathed, "All it will take will be a kiss."

Renée Mardoin gave him one more light peck and rose from her chair standing up regally.

"Very Shakespearean really," she noticed and twisted her ring on her finger. Elijah's head was jerked back, his eyes lethal with intent to kill, his body unable to move, his gaze locked with the witch's.

"I guess that's the price one pays for loving an Original. Or is it the other way around? The price an Original pays for daring to love? It is tempting fate isn't it?" she challenged him, "fate granted you eternity, power, indestructible immortality but you always want more when you should know that no one can have it all, " she taunted him, "You choose to want more. You chose love when you should have chosen more wisely," she reminded him, "Now you will pay the price. You will lose what you love the most in this world… as will your brother," Renée's eyes shone wickedly, "And this time I do mean Klaus Mikaelson."

"I wonder witch loss will hurt you the most," she wondered with a chuckle.

"Anyway, it was nice seeing you, Elijah. Don't bother looking for me. We are predestined to meet one more time after all. Until then," she promised him and walked away.

Her heels left an echo behind, a staccato of drums, a mourning sound that ebbed away slowly leaving Renée Mardoin's magic to fade away moments later leaving Elijah to shutter on his knees powerless and drained.

He could only remain kneeling staring at his twisted reflection in the broken glass.


Caroline was munching on her curly fries as she was silently watching Davina devour her burger.

There were sitting at a back table that was set against the wall separated from people, windows, and doors. Caroline had double-checked the place. It had a cozy atmosphere and the people were scattered around occupying the dark wood tables. They were all mortals.

When Caroline had brought her in Davina was barely standing but refused to go see a doctor or for Caroline to call anyone for her. At least now some color had returned to her features. Some. But not enough.

Caroline pushed more fries at her and while Davina gave her an unsure glance she eventually caved in and practically started demolishing them too making Caroline smile.

"Easy there. You better chew slowly if you don't want indigestion," Caroline told the girl as the waitress brought them the beverages they had asked along with the chocolate milkshakes Caroline had ordered.

Caroline waited for their server to walk away before she turned her attention back to the young witch.

There was something about that girl that Caroline really liked. Her gaze softened as she took in the image of Davina eating her burger. She was just a girl. A young girl that should be at school making friends and kissing boyfriends. She shouldn't be in the middle of a supernatural war.

"You shouldn't have tried Davina," Caroline signed making sure her admonishment was laced with soft words, "if you couldn't do it you shouldn't have tried."

There was a flash of stubbornness in Davina's gaze that made Caroline smile.

"I can do it."

"I know you can under normal circumstances," Caroline agreed, "but you are also tired. I don't know what's going on and got you winded like this but it is not worth it."

Davina pushed away her plate and watched Caroline aggressively although Caroline could see that her gaze was also guarded.

"What's not worth it?" Davina challenged her but Caroline simply reached for another fry and ate it slowly.

"Pushing yourself till you break," she lightly remarked, "I don't know what Marcel has you up to these days but you need to take it easy."

"You care for my best interest now?" Davina scoffed. "I guess that way I'll be useful for your special favors."

Caroline smiled at that. Yep. She definitely liked the girl. Her sass reminded her of Bonnie and of herself too.

"You don't have to do me any favors, Davina. If you don't want to help me it's okay. I'll find another way," she shrugged and licked the yummy grease from her fingers and wiped them with a paper napkin, "the only thing I ask is discretion. Aside from Marcel keep this between us," she stressed out the last part without breaking eye contact.

She didn't need to speak of Klaus' name or mention the Originals or any other faction for that matter. Davina was smart enough to know what she meant and why it was important for this to stay between them.

Davina remained silent and stared at her plate for a few moments. She resumed her eating. This time slowly and soon enough her eyes started drooping.

"You need sleep," Caroline observed.

Davina nodded but there was something in her reaction that made Caroline narrow her eyes at her.

"I do need to go back home," Davina said almost weakly and Caroline stared at her for while.

"And work on whatever 'favor' has brought you in this condition?" Caroline's sarcasm hit its mark because Davina's face flashed before a muscle started to tick on her jaw.

"Maybe I just got squeamish," Davina tossed back sounding just as sarcastic and Caroline couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Really though," Davina insisted, "that was messed up."

"Yeah?" Caroline asked her sweetly as she crossed her hands on the table. Davina scrunched up her eyes at her tone and Caroline leaned forward fixing her a taunting look, "did it make you want to throw up?" she mocked Davina that pressed her lips angrily, "but wait!" Caroline exclaimed and plopped back on her leather seat in the booth they were sitting in, "you'd have to have eaten something to do that," she said and then became serious, "when was the last time you ate something, Davina?"

When Davina remained obstinately silent Caroline shook her head watching the girl with pity.

"You need a break."

"You don't know what you are talking about," Davina hissed but when she tried to get up she stumbled back.

Despite eating she was still lightheaded and weak.

"Enough with this," Caroline gritted out angrily and took out her phone but before she could slide her finger on the screen Davina reached out and stopped her.

"What are you doing?" she questioned worriedly.

"Calling Marcel," Caroline said even though she planned on doing more than just calling him. She was planning on giving him an earful, alliance be damned.

Davina's clammy fingers wrapped harder around Caroline's wrist trying to prevent her from making the call.

"No! don't!"

Caroline could sense the witch's discomfort at touching her directly as she could feel her weakness too. She could see her aura. The green shine that surrounded almost every witch had dimmed around Davina's form. It was sickly trembling. It was fanning out and was misting away.

Caroline yanked her hand away and didn't miss the sigh of relief that escaped Davina's lips that trembled now.

"Stop me then. Give me a headache," Caroline challenged her, speaking as quietly as she could in order to not be heard by others even though they had chosen a secluded table far away from any windows and other people in the diner. She then waited as Davina's eyes darkened considerably making her eyes stand out more against her pale skin. "You can't can you?"

Davina's hands turned to fists on the table and she heaved.

Caroline's lips thinned and she looked around with hard eyes before she took out a packet of smoke from the pocket of her jeans. It was one of Kol's handy tricks but it would do. She took out a rolling paper and licked one edge of it before she sprinkled some sage leaves and started rolling the paper making it look like a cigarette before she flicked the lighter and lit up the cigarette.

Davina blinked when Caroline inhaled a long breath from the cigar and let out the smoke escape her lips before she threw the cigar on an empty glass and let it burn inside it. The smoke rose like mist in the glass and started pouring out like a cloud that resembled water rushing out from a fountain. Only the cigar kept burning and the smoke kept wafting without any ash falling inside the glass.

"Is that-"

Before Davina could finish her sentence the waitress that had served them came to their table looking at them sternly.

"Smoking is not allowed Miss," the girl admonished Caroline that only smiled and stared at the girl. Caroline's pupils dilated and the waitress's shoulders sagged as she became slack and watched Caroline with a dreamy expression.

"No one is smoking. You've seen nothing. Walk away."

The waitress robotically repeated Caroline's command and then smiled and walked away.

Davina cast Caroline a furious look.

"You do this often?" Davina seethed.

"Using sage tricks to keep my discussions private?" Caroline played with the witch that now fumed.

"Compelling people," Davina bit out and Caroline smirked.

"Less than Marcel Gerard I assume," Caroline taunted Davina that glared at her, "but to answer your question, more than I would like lately, yes," Caroline admitted, speaking freely now that their privacy was protected by the low-grade magic of the sage smoke. Caroline picked up another fry and chewed on it deliberately, "does this make me the villain in your book?"

"I spent hours to get Aaron to break Klaus' compulsion," Davina pointed out, her eyes now shining with hard accusation and judgment, "what makes you different than him if you go around compelling other people?"

Caroline smiled at Davina's words.

"Is this only concerning mine and Klaus' nefarious compulsion methods?" Caroline drawled, "if so what makes me different from Marcel Gerard too? Or any other vampire for that matter?"

"They didn't come to me spouting nonsense about needing my help to break someone free from compulsion."

"Was it nonsense? Didn't Aaron need your help?"

"This is not the issue!"

"What is the issue then?" Caroline pushed Davina's buttons more but then snorted at Davina's mutinous expression.

She gave Davina a harsh look but kept her voice low and controlled.

"The difference is that I am not comfortable with it," Caroline gravely said, "that's why I sent you Aaron. That's why aside from minor things that I wouldn't have to do if I wasn't stuck in this city by magic I would never compel someone's autonomy or free will away."

She could see that Davina didn't believe her.

"Esther has bound my hands. Literally," Caroline pointed out letting some of her anger come through, "I can't move outside the city, I have people watching my every move. And it's killing me that in order to survive I am forced to do things I don't like," she calmly said but deep inside her frustration was building. She hated this weakness. She hated being stuck in this city, not by choice but because she had jailors that wanted to contain her. She was not an animal to be caged and she would soon make everyone realize it. "Which is not an excuse," she continued in a controlled voice, "but you see the difference with Klaus is that I know how it feels."

Davina considered her now with a speculative light in her eyes. Caroline could see she was curious.

This time instead of watching Davina she stared at the smoke that was pouring out of the glass.

"Someone had done it to me when I was human," she mumbled, "he took everything from me. My will, my memories, my body. He fed on me, abused me, almost killed me, and made me believe I was less than what I was. He made me think I was shallow, weak, stupid. He took away my choices and my ability to say no to anything and everything he wanted. He crippled and stole away my voice, my thoughts, and decisions. My consent."

As she spoke the words voicing her memories of Damon Salvatore and every pent-up emotion she had she felt bile rising on her throat. She had once believed she had left all that behind her but after dying, she realized that she hadn't. She had died while her abuser kept living. Damon lived and befriended everyone she had loved while he had turned her into a victim and his crime was left unpunished while she had ended up in Purgatory being punished every day.

There was no justice in this world unless you made it it would seem. People like Damon, like Kol, like Klaus, and all the Originals and people like them got everything they wanted and walked away unscathed because they had the power to do so and because people like her didn't speak up. She had endured the horror and she had remained silent.

After dying all that silence seemed insignificant and stupid and so pointless. Why she had tried to placate her abuser and the people who supported him even though they knew what he had done to her was something her brain couldn't comprehend today but back then it seemed normal.

Caroline slowly realized that this was the first time she was opening up about what Damon did to her and she did it with a stranger because that was what Davina was essentially. She found it easy. To speak about it. To not pretend that this hadn't happened to her.

It had happened.

"He used me to do his bidding," she concluded and then her thinly veiled patience turned to a sardonic expression as she gave Davina, that now looked her in awe, a look of sympathy and mocking concern, "but you know how this feels don't you?"

"It's not the same!" Davina denied looking affronted and Caroline smirked bitterly at that.

"No?" she teased Davina, her voice dripping with something dark resembling pity, "the first day I spent in this city Klaus and Elijah snapped their fingers at you and you did their bidding because Marcel ordered you to," Caroline reminded her and at the way Davina swallowed she could see how much she hated this. "Sure you two are scheming to bring the house down on the Originals," Caroline arched a brow at that making Davina still, "but you are still doing things, forced to do things you do not want, like, or believe you should do. And yes Davina maybe you have a say in this but is it a real choice?" Caroline confronted her, "you are not in the driver's seat. Let's hope you are just on the passenger's one and not in the trunk."

Davina's face momentarily crumbled but then she became stone-faced again.

"Marcel is my family."

Caroline hummed at that.

"I get that," Caroline accepted, "but families are sometimes toxic. You did your research on me no? Marcel has probably given you the cliff notes about why you should trust me or why you shouldn't. I told you a few things too. But maybe I am just manipulating you right?" Caroline pointed out giving Davina a knowing look challenging her to either deny this or to search deeper under the surface, "you think you have me figured out and while you think that I did my research on you too," Caroline remarked in a measured tone and Davina looked disgruntled now, "when I was fifteen going seventeen I was going to school, I was being a cheerleader, partying and kissing boys," Caroline lifted her shoulders with a smile on her face and she felt a tinge of hurt when she saw Davina's sadness at her words. So her next words were spoken softly, "you were stuck in a warzone being sacrificed like lamb to a slaughter."

Caroline didn't miss the part where Klaus had come to their town planning to sacrifice all of them like lambs to his slaughter either. Ironic really.

"And Marcel saved me," Davina lively argued looking offended and hurt. Caroline could tell she would soon bolt away but that didn't stop her from pushing her further. She needed Davina to see how screwed up this whole thing was.

Loving Marcel was one thing. Being grateful to him for saving her was another. But none excused Davina becoming a tool of power for any of them, including her, to use at will. It didn't sit well with Caroline. Not when she had been a pawn countless times. Not when it had gotten her killed and the same thing had happened to Davina. She had died. She had her own horror story to tell but she was just as trapped in this city as she was. Servitude was another form of imprisonment and to that, she owed no gratitude to anyone. She was too young to be stuck in that mindset and just maybe through Davina's situation Caroline could also see how fucked up was her behavior towards her own problematic relationships back in Mystic Falls. Loyalty, friendship, devotion were great things as long as others didn't take them for granted. As long as they were not warped versions of how they should really work. As long as the people that were meant to care for you didn't take advantage of your love and loyalty.

"And then he did what?" Caroline inquired giving Davina a cold look, "he locked you up."

"For my own protection!"

"Which also meant being at his service," Caroline added grimly, "making him stronger. Until the Originals came back. How did that work out?" Caroline questioned the girl letting her irony wash over her.

Davina's eyes flashed with anger and Caroline saw the green of her aura flickering.

"Stop!"

Caroline's lips curled and her eyes gleamed.

"Stop me."

Her provocation seemed to ignite Davina's anger more but the glow of her aura was dull.

"Oh, that's right," Caroline feigned a sympathetic look, "you can't right now since you are about to collapse. Again," she drily noted and almost felt a pang of guilt at the way she pushed the girl but she couldn't afford to be delicate with Davina Claire, not when she was so set in her ways.

She needed to get her out of her comfort zone and challenge her emotionally and for that, she needed to kindle her anger. And from the looks of it, she achieved exactly that because Caroline could see the change in Davina. It was almost like a seismic shift.

"When you were partying and going to school you were oblivious of this world. I was not!" Davina snarled letting out every bottled emotion that suffocated her, "I was born to it! Marcel was forced into this world as a child and he knows how it feels! This is why he couldn't stand seeing me hurt. How did ignorance work for you?" Davina vigorously threw at her, "because if you were turned at seventeen this means that whoever hurt you basically hurt a child. How old were you sixteen? Fifteen? You didn't have a Marcel! I did!" she yelled heaving and Caroline gave her a nod despite how she felt as if she had been punched in the gut because she realized that Davina was right. She had been a child when Damon abused her. As Davina had been a child when Marcel saved her from the harvest ritual.

"Davina I am not telling you this to turn you against Marcel."

"Really?" Davina snorted.

"Really," Caroline smiled, "He is your family. I get it," she emphasized, "and yes you are right. I didn't have someone like Marcel stopping my monsters in time," because she thought Stefan had come too late and he hadn't even cared for her back then. It was all about Elena and she had been disposable. Stefan stopped Damon yes but not before he allowed him to use her so to pacify him in order to keep Elena safe. She had been collateral damage. Davina had Marcel. She had no one, "I wish I did as I wish that I wouldn't have to face what I faced once I learned the truth about this world. Because I was too young. Like you are too young," Caroline tried to make her understand, "because no one deserves this. Because my family knew about this world and kept me in the dark. Because my family, my mother…my father," she muttered trying to swallow the knot that had formed in her throat, "they loved me but they hurt me," she whispered, "once I turned, they turned against me and I had to fight to keep their love. I fought so hard when I shouldn't have to do that. It was not fair. It was not right," she stared at Davina intently now, "but at some point, everyone has to stand up even to their family."

Davina finally listened now. She truly listened and Caroline reached to hold her hand but stopped midway. She could tell Davina could feel the darkness that was brewing inside her. She could tell every witch resented her touch. She could see it in the way their faces blanched. In the way, their bodies locked and their eyes flared with darkness and disgust. She could see it in the way the energy that surrounded them seemed to want to repel her own. She was hurting them and they hated her. Instinctually even most ordinary humans felt uncomfortable at her touch and kept some distance even though they couldn't explain why.

Caroline balled her hand and let it fall on the table without touching Davina.

"This is what I am telling you. Create your limits. Protect yourself," she advised her, "you are smart enough to know that people have many sides but deep down there are bonds that can't be denied. If you feel the people you love push you more than they should into a direction that is harming you then you need to tell them to stop," Caroline advised her telling her the advice she would have hoped someone would have given her a long time ago, "it does not make your relationships worth any less if you acknowledge their problematic parts and in the end, you are the one that is mostly responsible for your well being. You need to take care of yourself Davina and demand the people who care for you to do the same as you would do the same for them," Caroline gently said, "if Marcel cares for you, which I believe he does, he will respect that. He wouldn't want to see you like this."

Davina hunched back in her seat.

"What would he choose Davina? No matter his thirst for power what would he choose? A spell that'd kill you in the process or your safety?" Caroline seriously pressured her, "you said it yourself he is here to protect you so let him. Your gratitude for what he has done for you and your need to protect him doesn't have to cause you harm," Caroline insisted, and then at Davina's almost guilty expression had her eyes turned to slits, "you have been keeping this away from him haven't you? Making him think whatever you are doing is not killing you slowly?"

Caroline cursed under her breath when Davina swallowed down harshly.

She knew Marcel was observant and she was sure he could tell the girl was pushing herself to her limits but somehow she was sure that he had overestimated her limits. His obsession with Klaus and their war blinded him and Davina was hiding her situation from him. Caroline wouldn't have guessed how bad things were if she couldn't see her aura. And it was dying out. So far she had seen only glimpses of it because Davina was glamouring even her energy with spells but in her current state after she fainted she was unable to do that and what Caroline saw now alarmed her. Davina was playing with her life and if she lost the price would be death.

"This isn't right," Caroline breathed, "you have Josh and Marcel, Davina. You have Cami too. You are lucky to have them but you can't do this to yourself," she implored her, "talk to them. Make them understand."

"Understand what?" Davina mumbled and Caroline closed her eyes and counted backward from ten.

Caroline couldn't believe how mulishly stubborn this girl was and she wondered if her own stubbornness could be just as annoying to others because right now she wanted to grab Davina from the shoulders and start shaking her.

Maybe she wasn't the right person to give Davina the wake-up call she needed or make her realize how what she was doing was wrong. Davina didn't trust her and they were not friends but right now she was probably the only one who could tell how severe the situation was and she just couldn't stand back and let Davina destroy herself.

It was not just because she needed her witch powers. She just couldn't do it.

"That you are breaking down," Caroline finally exclaimed, "Kol is breathing down your neck like a vulture. Marcel has you working overtime. The witches around are not very fond of you so it is not as if you can ask for help or count on them. If anything, you have to deal with their games and hostility. The Originals keep stringing you along whenever they want with whatever they want and here is me on top of everything asking you favors," she let out in frustration and leaned over the table demanding Davina's attention.

Davina bunched a napkin in her fist in an attempt to stop her hands from shaking and Caroline briefly closed her eyes. When she opened them again she meticulously allowed every sense of hers to sweep over every sign Davina's body was showing.

"Your heart rate is slow. Your blood pressure is barely up," she enumerated stoically, "yes I can hear your blood pumping in your veins if you are wondering and it is not doing it right," Caroline pointed out, her tone coming out unperturbed, despite the frustration she felt, "did you know the human body generates electricity? Guess what, witches generate more, and vampires if they are well in tune with their surroundings can feel it. Yours is way low while when I first met you was higher up. You are deadly pale and your concentration is amiss. Do you want me to carry on?"Caroline wryly asked her, "tell you all about the cabin fever symptoms you are showing right now?"

"What's your point?" Davina rushed out but Caroline could detect the notes of worry in her tone and narrowed her eyes as she watched the girl with silent apprehension.

"How did you hide this from Marcel?" Caroline demanded, "if I can pick it he should too," she then paused and languidly asked, "glamour spell?"

Davina's eyes widened worriedly at that.

"How do you know about glamour spells?" Davina asked her with a quivering voice.

"A friend of mine used to do them when she was trying to save another friend of mine from Klaus," Caroline replied as she took out from the box of her recollections the memory of the days when Bonnie fought against Klaus so to save Elena from his ritual. Simpler days for sure.

Davina blinked.

"Plus Kol Mikaelson is like the Google search for witchcraft," Caroline snickered languidly, "he's given me the crash course on magic. I may have some of his cliff notes on stickers on my fridge."

Davina gave her an exasperated look and Caroline beamed at her before she tapped her finger against the surface of the table observing Davina once more with an impenetrable look.

"Although your glamour is broken right now," Caroline observed.

Davina lowered her head and stared at her plate for a few minutes before she asked without raising her gaze.

"Did your friend save your other friend?"

Her voice was barely a whisper and Caroline's finger stilled and she stiffened.

"Not at first but …eventually," she told Davina keeping her face blank and her voice cold and composed.

Bonnie was dead. She had died. The emotion that bubbled under the surface ever since she had learned this was creating havoc inside her only to leave her hollow and empty in the aftermath of the emotional turmoil. The rush of dread and agony would not dissipate and she hated to think this was what the people who loved her felt for her death. Only she was here and Bonnie was not. "Unfortunately she wasn't able to save herself," she revealed to Davina feeling her anger rising. Bonnie would have survived if she hadn't been using her magic to help them all the time. She sacrificed herself and they hadn't known she had died. What kind of friends were they that they hadn't noticed Bonnie had been dead. For months they didn't know. The lump that rose in her throat blocked her voice and Caroline had to swallow the bile that came along, "She kept helping everyone. She surpassed her limits and broke right about every rule of magic there is out there and paid the price."

They all had paid the price. Just like Bonnie she had been collateral damage too.

She'd never go down that road again. Never. Never again.

Davina seemed lost now.

Caroline interlaced her fingers on the table and desensitized herself to the grief and chaos inside her.

"If you want to perform right," she now spoke unhurriedly but with authority, "if you want to be able to do anyone any favors and most of all yourself you need to take care of your body and your mind otherwise your magic will be useless."

Davina's head whipped up with fury. Caroline met the scowl of her eyes with the ice that was spreading in hers.

"My magic is the objective isn't it?" Davina spitefully grumbled and Caroline smirked.

"Yes it is," she threw at her coldly, and judging by the young witch's expressive face her answer was not well received. She could also tell that Davina felt vindicated by her answer. As if she had won an argument that proved how she didn't really care for her and was only using her. Well, she was not exactly wrong when it came to her intentions. She did need the witch but she also could not look away from the person. Davina was young and she was wasting her life. Just like Bonnie had and that didn't sit well with Caroline.

"You know why?" Caroline countered sardonically before everything in her expression turned serious, "because this freaking place is a battlefield," she gestured all around them before she pointed her finger straight at Davina, "you don't get to survive it if you can't fight and magic is your weapon. I need blood to function. You don't see me missing blood bags and desiccating myself do you?" she quipped ironically, "you need your magic and if you can't use it effectively when you need it you won't be able to defend yourself Davina. And girl," she snorted, "from what I have seen you have made enemies in this city and they will relish at the opportunity to hurt you. To kill you."

Caroline was almost impressed by how Davina restrained herself from flinching. She could tell she was terrified of dying and with good reason. She had heard her story and she was not missing the parallels to her own story. She was acutely aware of how she was facing a survivor that died, went through her own hell and a resurrection later brought her back to the living scarred and damaged. Worse was that the girl probably had no one. She at least had Kol. Davina had no one in the other side. She had faced death and possible torment in the other side that still existed for the witches of New Orleans and yet somehow she still went around having a suicide wish.

Caroline could relate to that emotion too. Davina was closing herself into her own bubble of loneliness and was shutting everyone out. She didn't want them to see her suffering, her trauma. She didn't want anyone to see her as damaged. She wanted to show only strength. To prove she was a fighter and what happened hadn't changed her. Her denial and her refusal to face her demons and fears were her own survival tactics and she believed she had everyone fooled. She believed no one could see her.

Only she could and she felt angry on her behalf. She had conquered death and now life was conquering her.

In many ways, if she could help Davina maybe she would be able to help herself. If there was hope for that girl maybe there would be hope for her.

"If you don't protect your magic you won't be able to perform simple spells how much more complicated ones," she warned Davina hiding her emotions effectively from her, "it will take one attack, one hex and it will be over."

Her warning was like dousing ice on a heart. Davina's walls were crumbling and Caroline wanted to hammer those reluctant bricks further.

"Do you want to die Davina?"

Her questions seemed to rob the witch's breath. Caroline could see her body going rigid and she could see the terror that flashed through her eyes.

Davina had crossed paths with death and the memory alone must have become her own version of a vengeful grim reaper that was out there to get her.

"If you want to keep death at bay you need to fight back," Caroline coaxed her now, her voice steady and encouraging, "you are like a professional athlete. If you don't follow a certain regimen you will fail and you will fall apart," she advised her, her warning clear, "keep a strict program. Balance your magic. Work with your diet and yeah hit the gym too. I don't know," Caroline shrugged, "binge-watch the chilling adventures of Sabrina on Netflix. Take a spa day. Tell me and Marcel and anyone coming around for favors to go screw ourselves."

Davina stared at her and Caroline didn't shy away from her astute examination. It would seem the young witch was searching for something and would not rest until she'd find it. She definitely had trust issues that one.

"Sabrina?" Davina eventually exasperated, rolling her eyes, "Really?"

Caroline shrugged at that with a mischievous smile.

"At least you don't see the witches there falling apart like weak damsels in distress," she teased Davina that sent a dirty look her way.

"Oh screw you!" Davina blurted out and Caroline's lips stretched to a pleased wide smile.

"See! You are already heeding my advice," she smugly gloated "keep it up and who knows. Maybe then you will be to be useful to me," she winked at Davina who burst out laughing.

"You are such a bitch," Davina shook her head amused finally relaxing and letting her guard down and Caroline nodded pleased as she dipped a fry in her milkshake in front of a flabbergasted Davina.

"Bitch with fries!" she impishly piped and moaned as she chewed on the yumminess. Yes, this was a word. A legit word to describe the morsel of heaven that was in her mouth.

"Oh my God! What are you doing?" Davina spluttered and Caroline's eyes widened in disbelief.

"What?" Caroline let out in a high-pitched tone as she swallowed showing her utter surprise at Davina's bewilderment, "You haven't tried it?"

"Dipping fries in chocolate milkshakes?" Davina scrunched up her nose, "No."

Caroline's eyes widened more and looked at Davina as if she had personally offended her.

How was it possible that she hadn't tried it?

"Seriously?" she squealed, "Oh my god! You should try it!"

Caroline made a point of dipping more fries in her shake and biting them closing her eyes in pleasure.

Davina watched distrustfully but Caroline gestured with her chin towards the plate with fries and her shake until the witch reached for one of her fries and cautiously dipped it in the glass with her shake.

She carefully took a small bit and lifted an eyebrow at the taste as Caroline gave her a 'told you so' look.

"Right?" Caroline giggled as she ate another fry.

"Hhm," Davina agreed and Caroline beamed when she tried another fried potato like that.


Raphael Bonnett was watching the lineage painting with jaded eyes. He had created it himself. He was not an artist and it had taken him centuries to perfect the art to simply create this parchment.

The man behind him was standing on attention. Dressed in black.

"Sir if I may ask?"

Raphael's nod was given imperceptibly. A human wouldn't notice it.

"Are you planning to recruit the girl?"

"Why?"

"She is effective," the guard complimented Caroline Forbes, "most of us can't approach her. Even centuries' old vampires face difficulty trailing her. She's become aware she is being shadowed and," the pause was loud, "we have lost her on occasions."

Raphael smiled at the trepidation in the guard's voice but most of all at the noticeable anger and shame that came along with the unacceptable incompetence.

Klaus Mikaelson had been correct. He had to assign his best assassins on Miss Forbes which given her age was quite interesting but given her mentor was not that unexpected either.

"She'd make quite an asset," the vampire behind him continued, "with the right training."

Raphael smirked. There was nothing they could teach her Kol Mikaelson hasn't already taught her.

Probably.

"We are bound by contract," Raphael said his eyes never leaving the painting following every line straight to the last end of it. "Not to mention she was a very close friend of a relative of mine," he casually said before his tone changed and became lethal, "dispose those that lost her and assign better eyes on her. Increase her security. I won't tolerate any more disappointments on this matter. Neither will Klaus Mikaelson."

The soldier bowed respectfully and Raphael dismissed him.

He waited until the doors behind closed and he closed his eyes. When he reopened them every line of the painting brought memories. If things had been different. If the Originals hadn't entered his life his own lineage would follow the lines of his family tree. His name was marked with the death sign but the family continued without him. It expanded further than the year of the Lord he was turned. It had new branches. New witches. Formidable.

He stood in front of his family's tree and his eyes followed a branch that still survived. He followed the line until one ended at one more dead descendant.

"Such a pity," he mumbled at the recent loss. His finger touched the last mark of death solemnly, "I am sure Caroline Forbes mourns you. As much as you would have mourned her should you have been alive at the time of her death," he said just as his gaze became calculative.

Caroline Forbes seemed to be attracting all sorts of supernaturals to her side. Originals, Bennett witches, doppelgangers, wolves, vampires, and hybrids.

Like a magnet.

"It must run in the family," Raphael observed and went to the bookcase to retrieve a book.

His nail slid over the title of the book.

The Lost Trove.

'No wonder Klaus Mikaelson was so fast to bind me with a contract' he thought bitterly and yet he couldn't have denied him. Not Klaus Mikaelson.

However, for every unbreakable rule, there was always one golden exception and for each contract, there was always a loophole to be found. Maybe it was worth searching for one because Caroline Forbes may indeed be a very interesting individual.

He looked back at his lineage tree. At the end of it.

Very interesting indeed.


Caroline jolted up from her restless sleep and fell back on the pillows. She was sweaty and exhausted. She looked at the soft rays of the sun and sighed.

It was morning and while it seemed to be a chilly one she felt as if she was heated from within.

The dreams were not helping. Lately, she would either dream of eating people, or Katherine in Purgatory, or worse even she would be having sex dreams non-stop.

This time she had a weird mix. She dreamed of drinking blood from humans together with Klaus before they started blood sharing while having sex. She still felt her body tingling all over.

She grabbed one of the pillows and brought over it her face and almost screamed before she punched it away and kicked the tangled sheets away from her body feeling the need to start kicking the mattress too.

It had been too long. Way too long. This was becoming a problem.

With everything that kept happening to her ever since she came back from the dead, she had neglected her sex life. And it was now coming back to bite her in the ass. She was a vampire for fuck's sake! She was always horny! The bloodlust seemed to be making that need worse too and just maybe she would have to get over herself and follow Kol's example and start having one-night stands to relieve herself.

The thing was that she didn't trust herself to not eat any human she would bang and she didn't want to get into it with anyone from the supernatural population of New Orleans given how things were escalating with everyone that wanted to kill her or use her in their war games. So sue her she had trust issues! And she had trust issues and her vibrators and her fingers only could not help. Not really.

And every stupid night she seemed to be driving herself into madness because all she remembered was how she had blood shared with Klaus the night of the ball!

Yes! Those sex dreams were all about Klaus Mikaelson as if she didn't already have enough problems as it was. She was meant to distract him and remember they were not on the same side but her dreams didn't seem to agree.

She would very much prefer one of the haunting nightmares to this.

"Ugh! I am in hell," she grunted as images from last night's dreams seemed to invade her mind again.

His sexy voice and everything he could do with his tongue.

It would be much easier if she didn't remember all the pleasure he had once given her back in Mystic Falls. Only she did remember. He was an expert lover and was like sex on freaking legs. And why couldn't she dream about other boyfriends of hers? Tyler had been good too! Hell, even Matt had been sweet and cute and had given her nice orgasms in the past.

"Nice," she cursed rejecting the idea.

No. She didn't need nice.

She needed mind-blowing. Hot. Hard.

No wonder Klaus Mikaelson seemed to star in every sex dream she had and it was driving her mad! Especially since she felt the echoing memory of his blood on her tongue and-

"Ugh!" she grunted again but this time she didn't bother fighting the feeling.

She closed her eyes and imagined a recap of her dream as her hand reached beneath her legs sliding into her throbbing wetness with a moan.


Davina rubbed her eyes as she went to her front door feeling more tired now that she had slept rather than before sleeping.

Maybe there was some merit in what Caroline had told her, not that she would admit it to her.

When she opened the door a smiling Cami met her. She was holding two packages and offered her one.

"Brought you coffee and cookies," Cami told her with a smile as she got in and Davina inhaled the scent from the cup letting it wake her up.

"Caroline called," Cami told her as she closed the door, "she told me you need a friend and I can see why she said it," she concluded watching her worry. As if she had caught the flu of something.

Davina was ready to say she was okay but she only sighed and Cami wrapped her arms around her enveloping her in a warm hug.

Davina hugged her back tightly.

"She also told me to get you to the spa?" Cami mumbled and as she moved a little bit back she gave Davina the other paper bag too, "and give you this."

Davina looked into the other paper Cami had brought her and smiled.

Milkshake and curly fries.

"Did you know fries and milkshakes taste great together?" Davina simply asked her and Cami frowned curiously.


Two self giving orgasms and a shower later and Caroline was slamming the kitchen drawers and cupboards. She needed to smash things today.

She blew out some half dried locks away from her face. Her messy ponytail was annoying her too.

She desperately needed coffee but her coffee machine decided to malfunction today of all days! Stupid luck and stupid karma and stupid technology! This was Purgatory all over again because one of the worst curses of that stupid place was that she couldn't get any coffee there and it was torture!

Why? Why was she getting tortured again?

She looked at the kitchen clock.

Josh said he would drop by in about an hour and she desperately needed to get her caffeine and blood dose if she was to start functioning today.

She also had to drop by one of the clinics to restock her blood supply because the blood she got from the clinic she kept Forbin's corpse would not last for long in the way things were escalating.

She also needed to check online for better sex toys too.

"I need to find myself a guy. Or even a girl. Or both," she mumbled shaking her head. She was a freaking mess and the last thing she needed was to explode from sexual tension just because she was horny!

The soft knock on the door made her curse.

"Josh!" she yelled as she marched for the door, "this is not an hour! And I might actually kill someone if I don't get my cof-"

She furiously opened the door.

"-fee."

She paused.

Klaus Mikaelson was standing in front of her doorstep with a smile. It was a bit of a hesitant almost shy smile but for some reason it made her heart skip a beat.

She couldn't help herself. Her eyes traveled all over him. There she was barefoot with her hair all messy and with shorts and a loose cropped shirt and he was looking like he was about to go have a photo shoot.

He looked better than he looked in her dream.

The fuck she would think about this right now! Fuck was also not the right word to think right now. But this was so unfair. Why was he so pretty?

She couldn't handle his looks this early in the morning. She needed coffee first. Blood and alcohol too.

Sex too.

No. Do not go there either!

Fuck!

'Enough with that word stupid brain!' She yelled in her mind.

She sucked in a breath. This wasn't good. Not good at all. Not after the dream, she had and that thought alone seemed to awaken her lady parts again.

Ugh! Klaus was looking so good and she was definitely certifiably crazy because she wanted to jump his bones right then and there.

Nope. No. She was just horny. Celibacy did stupid things to vampire hormones and it was too early in the morning for Klaus to look so good and she hadn't been with anyone since she came back and he looked-

Her toes curled.

She flushed and looked away.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him frazzled and cringed. Was that really her voice? Since when had her voice become raspy?

"May I come in?"

Caroline stepped outside. His eyes followed her closely as she stood in front of him. They stared at each other for a few moments, gravitating almost closer. Klaus took in a deep breath as if he was breathing her in and she felt her whole body coming alive.

He shouldn't be here. Why was he here?

They had left things somewhat better but still a bit tense. She was meant to make the next move again. To have control. Not him.

And she still had to remember her end goal here. She was meant to distract him. Not the other way around. She had to gain his trust, to get closer. She couldn't afford him being her distraction instead.

"Can I?" Klaus repeated and she blinked.

"What?"

He smiled.

"Can I came in?" he asked her again.

"You would have to ask Cami," Caroline finally said with an awkward laugh trying to regain her control, "the lease is in her name now," she informed Klaus and then rushed to explain, "for safety reasons."

Klaus hummed and she leaned against the doorframe as he peered through her open door only to narrow his eyes. She frowned at his horrified expression and followed his gaze past her shoulder. Nothing seemed to be off with her apartment.

"Please tell me you did not paint the walls!"

Klaus sounded affronted and Caroline burst out laughing.

"Me and Cami did," she giggled.

"It shows," he deadpanned with a suffering expression.

Caroline shook her head laughing but then bit her lower lip feeling unsure.

"Is it weird for you?" she asked him carefully, her eyes not leaving his.

"To see such a mess?" he shuddered, "painful I would say."

"To see me and Cami becoming friends," Caroline said and Klaus smirked.

"Why would it be?" he wondered innocently and Caroline gave him a dirty look but then sighed and watched him seriously.

"Isn't there something going on between you and her?"

Klaus took a step closer and placed his palm on the wall next to her head.

His proximity was messing with her senses. She really needed to get laid. Or coffee. Coffee would have to do.

"Who is asking?" Klaus drawled, his voice playful, and yet so intense, "my opponent?" he murmured, "My friend?"

His gaze seemed to mesmerize her. And she felt so drawn in and emotions were building inside her that were becoming too big for her body to contain.

Nope. Reminder to self…She was just horny. Nothing else. And her mind was a traitor today.

She shouldn't have done this. The last thing she needed was Klaus to think she was jealous.

Or… maybe this was exactly what she needed him to think. Only she couldn't think clearly right now. Great. That was just great.

She cleared her throat and moved closer to her door putting some distance between them.

She hated retreating like this but she…retreated exactly like this.

"So," she breathed out realizing that she felt breathless as if someone had sucked the air away, "what are you doing here?" she asked quietly changing the subject ignoring Klaus' smile that widened at her reaction, "except criticizing my walls that is," she mumbled.

"I am bringing you a peace offering."

Caroline blinked realizing that Klaus had been holding something all this time and she had totally missed it.

It was a folder. And he was giving it to her.

"What is this?" she asked reaching for it cautiously. With Klaus Mikaelson it could be anything. Even a grenade.

Klaus gave her an expression that seemed tender and that disoriented her more.

"I know you are not ready to open it yet," he told her gently pointing at the folder, "but it has information about Mystic Falls."

Caroline stilled.

She looked at the black folder she was holding. So it was a grenade.

She gulped down and felt the urge to shove the folder back at Klaus. Her fingertips felt as if they were burning even though she felt as if Klaus had thrown ice water on her.

"I assume you have compelled people to give you feedback from Mystic Falls but I believe this is a more thorough search, given my resources and the time I had to collect the information," Klaus honestly said but Caroline kept her gaze focused on the folder.

"I know you may not be ready to read it but I am sure you are curious about what happened when you were-"

She swiveled a look at him and casually finished his sentence since he seemed to be fumbling for the right word.

"Dead?"

Klaus' jaw tensed.

"Away," he said, his voice hard, holding a warning and she couldn't help but roll her eyes at his attitude. Way to be more touchy about her death than her.

She sighed and scrunched her features as she stared at the folder again.

"Well, that settles it," she murmured before she eyed him and pointed at the folder, "you are a creepy stalker."

He was keeping tabs on everyone the paranoid freak! And yet she felt thankful for it even though she hated holding the folder and everything it contained.

She already knew Bonnie had died. She hated the idea to read every detail about her death.

Klaus shrugged not even bothering to pretend he was offended.

"How long have you been keeping tabs on me?" she asked him giving him a knowing look, "before I went..away," she echoed his word pointedly.

"Don't joke about this Caroline," he said heatedly.

Her gaze locked with his.

"I am not."

Klaus' palms turned to fists.

"I wish I had more people keeping an eye on you then," he confessed, "maybe they would have stopped it," a shuddering breath left him, "maybe I would have stopped it."

The full force of his haunted gaze was staggering. There was anger in its despair and Caroline felt as if in his own way he was asking her to forgive him for not being there. For not being there to stop it. Maybe he would have and maybe a part of hers always blamed him for not being there. Maybe if he had been things would have been different.

"Maybe not," she whispered, nearly forgetting to breathe, "maybe some things are meant to happen."

She couldn't help it. She scanned his aura with her eyes and the gold flecks that shone brightly in the silver and red essence that surrounded him were unique. They looked like starlight in black ink. She had noticed vampires had silver and black auras while werewolves had red and orange. Klaus had a mix of both along with flickering of gold.

He was indeed a different kind of monster. She was different too now. She had silver and black both while not all vampires had both silver and black. Some like Marcel did. Josh had only silver. Elijah had mostly grey-black with silver mist surrounding it while Kol had only pitch black with some illusion of silver that was barely enough to be noticed. However, she like Klaus was different too. She had something more too because she hadn't seen any purple aura anywhere except from herself in the mirror.

If she hadn't died she would have been unable to see it. Maybe some things were indeed meant to happen.

"You dying is not one those things sweetheart," Klaus said vehemently and her stomach somersaulted for some reason.

"This is why I am here," she eventually said, her gaze finally settling on him instead of his aura, and Klaus grinned proudly.

"Indeed," he praised her, and this time his eyes lit with happiness.

It felt as if they hadn't exchanged bitter words.

Only they had.

But then there was that smile of his. Its sight for some reason always made her breath hitch. That boyish smile of happiness that always brought out those dimples always made her forget that he was meant to be the villain.

Somehow her heart refused to acknowledge him as the villain of her story. Even when it should.

Silence clocked by and the silence was intense.

Finally, Klaus gave her a defeated nod.

It seemed he was expecting for her to tell him something.

Maybe to tell him to stay.

"Have a good day love," he bid her farewell and turned around to leave but before he could take a step she reached for his hand.

His energy throbbed under her fingers but she ignored it.

She could ignore the power but not the man it would seem.

Klaus slanted his head at her.

"Thank you for this," she whispered her head tilting towards the folder she was still holding.

He inclined his head acknowledging her gratitude and looked at her hand. She did not remove it. Instead, she tightened her hold and felt his muscles coil underneath her touch.

"I feel we have been in this place a thousand times before," she admitted and gained Klaus' full attention.

Caroline let go of his hand. She tried to untangle some strands of her hair with her fingers.

"This is so not the place to have this discussion," she sighed but then she sat down on the corridor resting against the wall next to her open door. She placed the folder on the floor, looked at it for a few moments as if she was trying to make up her mind about what she was going to do, and then her shoulders sagged, "but there will never be the right place or time," she said, "what happened between us was much more than just a fight. It hurt. It really hurt," she mumbled looking up at him.

"It did," Klaus acknowledged and sat down next to her.

They stayed like that for a few long moments. Both sitting down on the floor, with their backs against the wall and their bodies close to each other, staring straight ahead.

Caroline looked at Klaus and when she spoke again her voice was controlled as if she was trying to measure each word very carefully.

"Let's make this a tentative truce Klaus. For now anyway," she proposed.

Klaus watched her intently as if he wanted to see if there was any deception on her part. She remained calm under his scrutiny until his gaze mellowed down a bit.

"I'd like that," he quietly said and settled back.

Her own eyes searched to find any loopholes in his honesty too. The fact that she fully intended to play his distraction once more didn't change the fact that he was very well attuned to her ways by now or that he has been her distraction for more than she would like to acknowledge or accept.

"I want a truce, not a ruse," she deliberately said and Klaus arched a brow at her, "this folder seems to be both a peace offering and a snare. Will I have to keep waiting for the other shoe to drop Klaus?" she asked him firmly.

His stare was blank but Caroline could see under his unruffled calm. She only hoped he couldn't see under hers.

"There must be a part of you that resents me for what I have said," she finally said and when he opened his mouth to deny this and she stopped him by speaking first, "don't lie. Just…don't tell me what you think I want to hear," she insisted making sure to school her features in something soft and stern at once, "I don't want you to treat me as if I am made of glass now that you know how long I stayed in that place. Be honest with me. Don't hold back."

Klaus grimaced at that and then inhaled a deep breath.

"It's instinctive many times," he said as he leaned his head back on the wall and closed his eyes, "The things I do out of frustration…or fear."

Caroline blinked at the unexpected confession of Klaus Mikaelson admitting his fear.

"I know who I am Caroline. I am not as deluded as you have accused me of being. Truth is I have repeated the same mistakes for a thousand years and now I am afraid it's my second nature to hurt the people I don't want to hurt and you are one of the people I don't want to hurt."

"But you end up hurting," she concluded for him and he nodded.

"Yes," Klaus simply said, "many times my anger is a creature that takes its own life."

"So does your ego."

"Do does my ego," Klaus agreed, "not that yours is any less misguided than mine at times," he remarked and despite the dirty look, Caroline gave him she also shrugged making him give her a sympathetic look.

"Maybe," Caroline groused.

Klaus gave her a crooked smile and Caroline didn't miss the way his hand inched closer to hers on the floor. His eyes lit up at her reluctant admission as if he was seeing something adorable he wanted to coax into his arms.

Instead, his hand stilled just an inch away from hers. She could feel his warmth and if she focused on the wedge between their fingers she could see a bridge forming between their energies that seemed to swirl closer crossing the purple with the gold.

She fought the urge to withdraw her hand.

Worse was that she had to fight the even stronger urge to reach for his hand. To touch him. To lace her fingers with his and blend their energy until she'd feel him on her skin.

"Your ego however is more excused than mine given my age," Klaus mused, "I have lived countless lives, encountered thousands of people. Some remain nameless and faceless to memory, some left an impression, some taught me things. I should have learned to tame my baser instincts by now but it is one of my fatal shortcomings I am afraid," he accepted almost with grace which contradicted what he was actually telling her, "I always revert and succumb to my uncontrollable urges."

Caroline squelched the frustration his words created inside her.

"They are not uncontrollable Klaus," she admonished that mentality of his, "for someone so obsessed with control this sounds like a cop out and it's not an excuse you can or should use," she tossed at him, her tone brokering no argument.

"No. It's not," Klaus replied unfazed, "and while I do acknowledge that, it doesn't stop the rage inside me," he accepted this part of his, "it's not even part of my vampire heightened emotions or my werewolf nature. This is who I am. I can be patient, driven, and set on controlling what I deem as weakness, but I am always the nightmare and the monster everyone fears. I am the villain. The brutality, the heinous acts. It is not a pretense. It is not an illusion or a trick, or an act. It's me. Part of me. There is no changing this in me Caroline," he warned her.

Caroline couldn't look away from Klaus' blue eyes. And she saw more layers of truth inside them than those he had just unfurled for her. She could see how he loathed that side of his but she could see the other side of him that relished in it. That side was not just a tool and a necessary evil for him in order to survive. It was part of his identity and it made him strong.

Klaus enjoyed being the villain and felt comfortable in that role because it wasn't just a role. It was indeed part of him and that part of his had left a mark in his heart and soul. It bled out in every action of his, in every emotion and thought, even in the way he loved and cared, and a long time ago Caroline felt that in order to be a good person she had to reject that side of his despite how it called in the dark places that flared inside her. The places that wanted to embrace Klaus' nightmare because it didn't terrify her. It excited her. It seeped into the cold inside her and ignited every dark desire she ever had. Because even back then she knew that his shadows could creep into her heart and she could make wings out of them. Wings that promised power and freedom.

For a long time, she was ashamed for that longing but since then there have been years and decades of torment. Since then she had become the hero and the villain in her story because since then she had realized who she was. A vampire. A curse. Someone who could understand what Klaus was telling her because she could already understand that side of him even in the past no matter how much she hated herself for it.

She took a deep breath and glanced at him until the glance became penetrating and she could see how Klaus once more had armed himself for her rejection.

"I never aimed to change you, Klaus," she said softly.

There were unresolved issues between them but she wanted this part to be clear. She wanted this dynamic to finally change between them because she didn't want Klaus to have any misconceptions about how she felt. She may hate the fact that his actions could turn him into her villain and in retaliation, she would turn herself into the villain of his story but she didn't hate him for being a villain. Because that word was just a label and she knew Klaus was more than just a label even if he placed it upon himself.

"I wanted to unravel more parts of you yes. Because against my better judgment those parts, those seductive parts, intrigued me even when I pretended there were not there. Even when I was pretending that I didn't see them or when I lied to myself about how there was no connection between us."

The way Klaus now watched her made her wriggle her hands.

There was something vulnerable in him and it showed in the way he was hanging upon her every word and while in the past he used to be the darkness to her light right now she didn't know anymore who was the light and who was the dark.

Maybe it was all grey but she didn't see monochrome. She saw colors in his eyes. Faster and faster every hue burned and seeped inside her making her walk in uncharted territory.

Something between them seemed to collide and bounce back. It was a dangerous blend that always put them in the same trajectory of being pulled closer and being pushed away in different directions.

She aimed for his soft spots but her hard ones were breaking apart.

Becoming his distraction by blurring the lines and using the truth to cover for her lies was creating a web that she could barely escape from. She was flying faster and faster into that web and somehow she felt as if she craved that irrevocable imprisonment. In that web, she was no longer seeking justice or vengeance or salvation. In that web, there was no reason or truth. The questions and the answers became a haze and she was left opening her heart to Klaus as if a thousand knives carved it open for him.

"I am not that evolved or… ignorant actually," she muttered feeling something burn in her eyes. The stinging sensation was obstructing her throat not letting the words come out with ease, "I never was. I never concocted a fairytale in my mind about us," she confided and Klaus seemed to be more fascinated by these words than he would be if she had told him that she saw him as her fairytale. Something to believe in and want and dream of. No. There were never any fairytales for people like them. Their dreams were nightmares and they were bound by those nightmares that somehow turned terror into desire and hope into irredeemable fate, "I never wanted to redeem you or even believed you were capable of redemption or showing mercy," she said lifting her shoulders and a flash of hurt passed through Klaus but she could also see relief in him.

"You terrified me," she said without being ashamed to admit it, "and at first I only wanted to stop you from hurting my friends and me."

Klaus smiled at that. And while it was a mocking smile there was also the contradiction of something gentle and tender in his eyes.

He knew. He knew she had been his distraction in the past.

Could he see it now?

"And in doing so I saw parts of you that intrigued me," she opened up more to him, "I couldn't help it," and it was true. She had tried so hard to stop feeling like that in the past but it had been a lost battle and she was afraid to lose this battle even now. "The good parts along with the bad. But your bad parts always seemed unshakable," she shook her head sadly, "I had to manipulate and weave myself into what you felt for me to change not you but your course because it felt the only way I could survive you."

Maybe this was the core of their relationship after all. Right now she felt as if she was doing the same. She was weaving herself into his emotions, manipulating and deceiving him just so to have him lead her to the truth he was so set on hiding, and in doing so she was afraid that while she was trying to survive him and his secrets in the end she would lose more than what she could gain. Was she willing to accept these losses? Was she willing to accept that he could be one of those losses? Could she come to terms that just maybe her bad parts were becoming unshakable too?

She stared at his eyes. She focused on the way the corner of them were softening and inside the murkiness of all her thoughts, she let her honesty become clear. It was the only way to win him over. To push past his locked doors. To find a window into his hidden secrets.

"I never expected you to feel anything more than a passing infatuation for me," she told him honestly and Klaus' gaze seemed to be telling her that this would have been impossible and somehow she believed him. And that belief became a fist around her heart and squeezed. It made her hurt. It made her bleed.

This couldn't be real. This was just her heart playing tricks at her because she had to remember that Klaus approached her for a reason. She had to remember that nothing was a coincidence and he had lied. She couldn't let her insecurities and her desire to be enough and come first cloud her judgment despite how Klaus was looking at her now as if she was his beginning and his end. As if she was singularly the one person he could never pass by.

Maybe she was indeed that for him and she just had to find out why.

Did he know about her powers? Or the ability to get them? Was it about her family? Her parents? He lineage? Was it something else? What?

"But you showed me a more complicated side of your feelings and in doing so you showed me more parts of you," she continued almost breathlessly, "and so I saw more of you and it felt as if I was betraying myself, my beliefs, the people I loved. Truth is that if I hadn't seen glimpses of your good side I wouldn't have believed it existed. But I have seen it," she sighed, "I have felt it."

The rare affection that appeared in Klaus' features resembled melancholy.

"Problem is you have felt everything else too. The terrible that repulsed you. Haven't you love?"

She nodded without missing a beat.

"Yes."

His gaze turned black. Venomous even and at that moment Caroline realized that for Klaus affection was another kind of poison. It was a betrayal as if he considered it weakness and he didn't tolerate weakness. It made him even more hateful and the nightmares were waking up.

She didn't back down from the force of his gaze because she wasn't afraid to dream, she wasn't afraid of the nightmares.

"And what you have felt made you feel as if I am no better than Mikael."

Caroline's gaze, similarly dark, remained focused on Klaus.

What blazed inside those fathomless depths of the dark blue of his eyes that had turned into deep black felt like the abyss she used to gaze at in Purgatory when she was on top of the jagged rocks of the high mountains.

She wasn't afraid of looking into that abyss then and she wasn't afraid looking into it now.

"You hate me for those words don't you?"

Her question was softly spoken and while Klaus held her gaze for a long moment eventually he looked away. His chest rose and fell almost as if he was in pain.

"There is a part of me that retaliates to the fact that I don't," he seethed and Caroline couldn't help but arch a brow at that and felt her whole body tingle with fascination and dread when Klaus cast her vitriolic look, "and in doing so it creates something angry resembling hate that is only there because of the other feeling, that other word," he stressed out as stark intensity marked his gaze making her swallow down instinctively, "that you are not ready to hear me say to you. Sometimes those two feel the same. Two sides of the same coin."

He didn't have to say the word for it to echo into her mind. Hate and…love.

He was right. She wasn't ready to hear it. Not when she wouldn't believe it. Not when it could feel as the blade that would cut her making her wounds fester more than they already were.

"Klaus-"

"I want to hate you for what you said," he cut her off, his daunting words laced with anger, "I wanted to hurt you. Badly. It's why I stayed my hand and kept my distance because I could. I can. It's who I am."

Klaus' gaze roamed over her making shivers zip up and down her spine. Being loved or hated by a man like Klaus felt like a death sentence but she felt compelled to the destruction as if it was a blessing and not a curse.

This was Klaus' true nature. He wasn't a hybrid because he was a vampire and werewolf he was one because he was able to connect every conflicting emotion and making it into a hybrid creature that could tempt even the devil.

Klaus promised her pain now. He promised her the worst part of him and she knew he could deliver on that promise.

"Will you?"

Klaus licked his lips slowly as if he was contemplating which was the road he wanted to explore with her and somehow instead of worrying she felt calm. There was no fear in her eyes and this somehow seemed to make Klaus' features gradually soften.

"I don't want to lie to you sweetheart," Klaus breathed out and his previous anger transmuted into hurt, "I felt betrayed. That you out of all people would say this to me. That you'd believe it. The echo of that feeling is still there."

Caroline breathed out a dull humming sound.

"And everyone knows how you respond to betrayal, or what you deem to be that anyway," she commented testily.

"You are not everyone," Klaus argued and she hated how persistent was the warm sensation his words created inside her, "I am incapable of hurting you while I am afraid I am capable of doing exactly that. It's a double-edged blade," he acknowledged, "I wield it and it wields me."

Caroline tilted her head to the side watching him as if he was a new species she wanted to explore.

"This makes no sense for sane people you understand that right?"

Klaus' dimples made a taunting appearance as he challenged her with a tempting smile.

"Are you?" he drawled, "Sane?"

Caroline scoffed at that but she had to admit that she couldn't be sane.

That train had long gone left the station of sanity because it was insane how they basically discussed about how toxic their relationship was and how he was capable of hurting her and unable to stop himself from doing so –which btw she called bullshit on that crap- while she was playing at being his distraction once more and was trying to find a way to wiggle back into his emotionality in order to get the answers she wanted while her body was also reacting at that seductive quality of his accent. Because that damn accent was doing weird things to her and her stupid vampire horny hormones.

"A sane person would be terrified now," Caroline muttered giving Klaus a sidelong glance, "hell, a sane person would be running to the opposite direction as far away from you they could," she couldn't help but laugh at that, "so I guess I am probably not."

Klaus' gaze seemed to blaze with elation and wonder at her words. He almost looked proud at the fact that she had obviously gone bonkers. Of course, if she lost her mind over him that would be so convenient but she had news for him. His charm was not that good despite his stupid alluring voice and accent and those dimples that she wanted to poke and kiss. Nope. She would define her brand of madness and she would use it accordingly. If she was to distract and seduce Klaus Mikaelson she could very well enjoy the ride as crazy as that sounded.

"You said I used to terrify you," Klaus remarked, making her thoughts halt, just as he asked her carefully, "Don't I anymore?"

Caroline shook her head slowly.

"I've seen terrifying Klaus. I felt it in my bones," she said, and even though Klaus Mikaelson himself was his own kind of terror she somehow felt comfortable with it, "no, you don't terrify me. Your rage doesn't terrify me. Not any more than mine anyway, but-"

"But?" Klaus urged her to continue, his eyes blazing.

Caroline closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. Her shoulders sagged and she brought her knees up and hugged them.

"But I am tired. I need a break," she deflated allowing her exhaustion to come out unrestrained, "the more I think about it the more I realize I haven't had a normal moment for what feels like forever. You know," she muttered and rested her chin on her knees. She looked straight ahead into nothingness but she felt Klaus' eyes following her every move, "just a chance to come to terms with what happened to me. To be able to breathe, to sleep without having any nightmares, to be free. And I am so exhausted that this feels too much," she turned her face towards him and allowed her fatigue to show unfiltered and with it her weariness, "I don't want to have to keep second-guessing everything you do and say. Because this rage you feel, it consumes you Klaus," she told him quietly, "sometimes it feels like a tangible thing you keep fighting but you keep losing and I don't want to have to pick up my pieces every time you lose."

In a way, this was an ultimatum because one way or another she would not allow him to step all over her because he couldn't control his anger issues. She knew he was right to be distrustful but two could play that game because she didn't trust him either.

But she did trust his rage. It was a constant and she knew that it was destructive and while she didn't fear that it didn't mean she was willing to play at being his punching bag. There were limits she would not allow him to break and if he lashed out to her she would lash out to him. Simple as that. She wouldn't take his abuse without making him feel hers in response. For every emotional outburst of his, she would retaliate and she would up her game until Klaus would get to realize that she was not there to coddle him and his issues.

"I wish I could tell you, you are safe from my losing battles," Klaus regretfully said, "but you asked me not to lie. I am broken love. And my broken pieces are toxic. Something inside me is dark. Worse it is evil," he stated, "somewhere between my truth and my lies this part of me always thrives. It feels more acutely. It's in agony and it's my survival instinct. Paranoid, deceitful, a tool for pleasure and punishment."

Something inside her clenched at the way Klaus' voice changed into something more suggestive when he spoke of pleasure and punishment.

"It's what makes me feel alive and dead. It guides me when it shouldn't and when it should."

Caroline deliberately kept her expression indecipherable. Klaus had that uncanny ability to get into her head. She could tell he was already suspecting her. He knew her tells when she wanted to distract him and Caroline realized that she had to play this smart. If he could tell she was trying to distract him she would have to point him in another direction when it came to her motives and not so much to her playing at being his distraction.

Caroline stared into the evil monster Klaus described to her now. Only what she saw in the eyes of that great evil was the way her own image was reflecting in its eyes.

"Sometimes it hides, sometimes it sleeps but it's always there," Klaus promised her. He warned her and threatened her at once. "A thousand years of pain, of being hunted, of not allowing myself any weakness, of not allowing myself to trust…to love," he whispered the word he had told her she wasn't ready to hear and she realized this game would not be easy because these thousand years had turned Klaus to a devil that would use any weapon in his arsenal to win. He just baited his time to use those weapons at the opportune moment.

Oh yes. Evil. He was that. And those thousand years of evil beckoned her closer.

"A thousand years, love," he emphasized, underlining the magnitude of what he was telling her. A blatant message of how he was too old to be deceived and she was too young to play the deceiver and if she would dare to do so then she would have to face the consequences as his next words almost promised, "they turned me into this hollow man that destroys everything he touches."

Caroline's lips twisted into a hint of a smile. She provoked the evil monster in Klaus. The one that lurked under the surface and loved to come out and play. The one that always challenged her and had power over her because it always intrigued her. She wondered if that monster would ever set her free or it would remain an eternal spark of intrigue in her mind.

"Maybe I can relate," she responded. Her tone soft, sweet. Her expression hard, unyielding.

Klaus watched her with admiration and…regret.

"Maybe," Klaus recognized, "it is yet to be seen. I'd say your hundred years pale in comparison to my thousand," he pondered but he was smarter than that. He always had been, "but I am afraid that every decade you spent into that place may match a century I spent here."

Caroline's shoulders shook with silent laughter. Bitter. It was bitter to feel vindicated as Klaus acknowledged an equal in her because he saw her damage. He had resigned. He had realized too that his foolish idolized version of who she used to be was gone. Dead.

"Giving up on my light already?" she drawled wryly but her mockery didn't seem to have any impact on Klaus that watched her steadily.

"That's not my fight to lose sweetheart," he countered, "that's yours."

Caroline stretched her legs in front of her and sat back nonchalantly.

"Maybe it's already lost."

"If I was a gambler I'd bet on not yet on that," Klaus surmised, "but even if it was I'd still be there," he vowed, and she realized that vow was a trap because she longed for it to be true. "Because if there is one thing you never have to second guess with me is that every part of mine is devoted to you."

Caroline tensed. She felt her heart still because she tried, she tried so damn hard to detect a lie in his words but she couldn't. And it gutted her because a part of hers would not believe him but every other part of hers was unable to do that.

"The evil one included," Klaus swore and the longing coiled inside Caroline. It was begging her to uncoil and set everything she held inside her free. To let it pour out. She refused to do that because she knew evil. Evil lied.

"Everything in me will always want and crave you Caroline," Klaus's seduction promised eternal devotion and maybe she had lied to him too. Maybe she was still terrified of him. She was terrified of…this.

"Every side and every part of you," he pledged, "your evil one included."

Terrified. She was terrified. Of him. Of herself and her darkest desires because this was where it all ended at.

As she saw his parts he saw hers. From the very start. He had seen her evil parts too. Those she had been ashamed of. Those she had hidden from everyone, herself included. Klaus had seen them.

Her evil side.

He had seen it and he had wanted to stroke it. He understood that side in her and had wanted to allow her to nurture her darkness without shame. He had seen it and he hadn't rejected it. He hadn't rejected her.

Because their evil parts, with all their complexity and untamed nature, were the same.

"That's why you apologized to me?" she asked him unable to censor herself. For every wall she built against him he would demolish two.

"That's why I meant it," he told her unequivocally and there was a haunting quality in his words.

"That's why you also meant that something inside you wants to hate me too," she studied him and there was a dark sense of understanding that engulfed her and she could see that Klaus felt it too. At that moment they were completely attuned with each other.

"A part inside you wants to do the same with me."

His words were not a guess or a suggestion. He spoke them with ease. He stated a fact and Caroline cast him a contemptuous look.

"Who says it already doesn't?"

Klaus' lopsided smile made her heart ache as he finally moved closer to her erasing the distance between their bodies and she could tell that he would always try to erase the distance she would force between them emotionally too.

Caroline's breath was caught into her lungs when Klaus skimmed her jaw with his knuckles.

"You want to hate me, Caroline," Klaus kept his tone deliberately intimate and soothing, "I can see it in your eyes," he crooned, his gaze holding hers hostage threatening to destroy her resolve. He was creating a war between her head and her heart and his touch was igniting every battle inside her, "I see it right now too. Maybe you have even succeeded in doing so too," he conceded and he scrutinized her face as if it was a transparent canvas were he could paint his intentions and reveal hers.

Caroline sucked in a breath when his thumb outlined her bottom lip and she glared at him. Klaus seemed to absorb the strong emotion that reflected in her glower. He was starving for everything she'd give him. Everything that wouldn't be indifference or rejection. He'd take even her hate.

"When you accused me that I was no better than my parents you were strategic and manipulative but you were also angry and that anger ran deep," he analyzed her easily and she despised him for being able to read her so effortlessly while others never could. Others she had wanted to be able to understand her but could never reach her expectations while Klaus could see her, truly see her, with just one look. "And that anger was not born just because I tried to lock you in. It has deeper roots and there was, there is, resentment and hate there."

Caroline tried to yank her head back but Klaus wouldn't let her. He held her chin in a tight grip that was not bruising yet but Caroline had no doubt that he would enjoy any bruise that would blood by his touch because in a way it would mark her. The bruise would heal but its mark would remain just under her skin like a burning brand.

Just like that Klaus' digits buried deeper into her skin and in retaliation her hand wrapped around the wrist of the hand that held her. Her nails grazed him, bruised him and Klaus smiled content. Because while she resisted he seemed to long for her mark.

Her nails dug into his skin.

"Once you confessed to me that you covered our connection with hostility," Klaus reminded her and his hand slipped behind her neck. It wrapped around her nape and brought her face closer to his. "Only this is not just a cover. It became part of our connection too. I know you feel that I betrayed you too," he professed and Caroline's eyes came alive with the fury that stirred inside her for all the untold lies and secrets and betrayals between them. He had betrayed her.

Klaus gave her a knowing smile and sighed, "it showed and still shows in your eyes."

Klaus let her go and Caroline hated how she missed his touch and his proximity. He ducked his head and his expression tightened.

"That is what hurt me the most," he opened up, his voice hoarse, "that is what made me to want to hate you too. It felt safer to respond to your hate in that way."

When his gaze found her Caroline felt flames erupt across her skin. He stared at her for a beat too long with a fierce emotion that overwhelmed her.

His hold on her was merciless now and he was not even touching her.

In a fluent movement, that defied human nature, he leaned closer before her instincts could comprehend how smoothly he could move. His lips grazed the shell of her ear and she shuddered at the heat the wafted at her neck when he inhaled in her scent.

She didn't know why but, with infinite caution and complete abandonment, she turned her head slowly to his direction until their eyes met.

"Like it or not," he whispered, his voice husky, "I see the good and the bad parts of you too sweetheart."

She couldn't look away. If she didn't know any better she would have sworn he was compelling her only she did know better and this was going beyond compulsion and mind tricks.

This was raw and real and it was a siren of temptation that kept singing and entering her bloodstream and she couldn't close her ears and her senses to the song.

"Even if you do hate me there are other parts of you that don't," Klaus confidently stated and there was an undercurrent in the firm tenor of his voice that threatened to drown her, "and just maybe you hate those parts more because those parts just maybe feel something more for me. Something more than your hostility and your hate. Something you hate to admit to yourself but it's there."

Caroline couldn't help but hate the conviction his words carried but most of all she hated the way she couldn't deny what he was telling her. He had managed to get under her skin a long time ago and she couldn't shake him out. Even now, she couldn't expel him from the deep part inside her that she would not admit even to herself.

"It was there before you died."

Caroline's throat constricted at the way Klaus spoke of her death. This time he was not hiding from the fact that she had died but at the same time, the blue of his eyes deepened in an intense shade that left her breathless. "And not even the hollowing wilderness death cast you in was enough to erase it."

Blunt knives cut her deep.

Memories from Purgatory clashed in her mind, born out of Klaus' words only this time they didn't break her apart as they usually would. This time she remembered how she thought of him when she was stranded in that hell. How she had wished him to have been there with her. She remembered carrying his voice, as her last thought, with her in death. Those memories burned and she felt as if she was scorched in flames. She stared at his set features, at every nuance and line that created that unrelenting expression of his.

He believed in what he was saying. He had no doubts and she wanted to rage against that certainty but instead, she was falling deeper into his web and as she did a smile grazed his lips and it was both endearing and savage.

"It's there still," he exhaled and Caroline bit her lip so hard that she tasted blood.

Klaus' smile grew wider at the drop that trickled down the edge of her lips and caught it with his thumb.

Caroline swallowed hard as he licked his thumb slowly, sensually, without taking his eyes away from hers. Gold flickered in his eyes when the taste of her blood hit his tongue and she watched him mesmerized, his soft moan reverberating inside her tugging at her heartstrings and making the ache from her dreams return with vengeance.

"So fair warning," Klaus gave her the heads up and she braced herself for the onslaught of emotion she'd have to deal with because she could see the challenge in him as he faced her in a way that promised battle, "I plan to hold on to it and not allow you to hide from it or destroy it, no matter how much you want to."

Caroline's lips thinned because he was right. She wanted to.

She wanted to destroy and bury every stupid contradictory feeling she had for that man that messed with her head and heart. He was invading her mind with such intensity that was opening up making her vulnerable. She hated how he was the only one that could do that. Klaus could bring out the old Caroline that was insecure and a dreamer and a puppet for him to string along.

Only this time she had an objective and she was failing because instead of distracting him here he was distracting her. This was nothing but a lapse of judgment and this was what Klaus represented. He had the power to set her heart in war with her head and while she couldn't allow it here he was not willing to allow her to do anything but that.

"And just maybe that's your way or hurting me in the end," she mumbled releasing a long sigh and Klaus shook his head at her reproachable tone.

He reached for her hand and when his fingers wrapped around hers she felt the blood that rushed under his skin, making his veins create a map over his muscular hands. A map that led straight into his heart that she could now hear as it was beating loud and strong making her heart flutter at the same rhythm.

"It doesn't have to be a punishment," he purred, holding her gaze hostage, and Caroline was left without breath when he brought her hand to his mouth and his lips touched her knuckles, "you can always enjoy it."

Her whole body started tingling at the dark promise of his words and she could not stop the heat that engulfed her as it was coming straight from his body seeping into her own.

Vivid flashes from her dream appeared in front of her eyes and she withdrew her hand from his quickly.

"That's –" she paused trying to compose herself again, "a bold assessment," she finished lamely and turned the hand he had kissed into a fist.

This was ridiculous. Getting this affected by hand-kissing was a thing that happened in Victorian literature, not in real life.

Damn him, she was in real trouble!

Klaus smirked at her looking way too pleased with himself.

"Goes along with my ego," he bantered and Caroline pursed her lips to stop herself from smiling but it was a lost cause. She broke into a smile but then her smile became bitter.

"Kol had once told me that words lie," she bluntly mentioned, and as she did she erected more walls than Klaus could disintegrate, "Lying with the truth seems to be a talent that runs in your family."

Klaus observed her closely and then shrugged.

"An acquired one," he acquiesced and gave her a pointed stare, "one you have cultivated too."

Caroline mimicked him and gave him a casual shrug too.

"At least we can both trust that I guess," she conceded and forced herself to get back on track.

Klaus wasn't the only one that could play this game. So could she. And she could master it better than him because this was who she was. An over-achiever. And as such she had to turn the tables on him. As far as emotional manipulation went she could sharpen her weapons too. She tilted her head to the side and Klaus mirrored her movement giving her a questioning look.

Caroline turned her whole body towards him and crossed her legs on the floor. She took in a deep breath and glanced down at her hands before she looked at him.

"But even like that," she started cautiously, "even though words keep failing us I still want to try."

Klaus watched her keenly now. He was building up his walls too. As if his instincts were telling him not to trust her.

So she would start with a truth. One he would not be able to contend or doubt.

"This is why I want you to know that while you apologized," she stopped and squared her shoulders, "I don't know if I can forgive you."

Klaus' jaw tightened and the hurt in his gaze was almost heartbreaking. She knew what it meant for him to actually apologize to her. She knew that he meant it and that it went against every instinct of his to actually do it.

And yet he did.

Someone should have taught him however that when you apologized you should do it without expecting something in return because if you did then your apology was not exactly genuine.

"I can try," she added but she could see Klaus didn't believe her, "but I don't know if I will. If I can."

Caroline rubbed her temples trying to ease the tension that was building there.

"I already told you I am tired Klaus and you already told me how you won't allow me to hide the part that feels for you. You are ready to charge into a fight and I am tired of fighting," she muttered and Klaus scoffed at that.

"What?" she defensively asked him.

"You are fighting right now," he pointed out callously.

"I am not," she denied stubbornly.

"Sure you are not," he taunted her.

Caroline crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Is this how you want to do this?"

"It's your truce," he mocked her and she pursed her lips annoyed.

"You don't want it to become ours?" she mocked him back.

"Sure I do," he chuckled, "if it's honest."

She looked at him through narrowed eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I know there is a part of you that is exhausted," he easily said, "but it is not the one you are showing me right now. You think I can't see through your façade sweetheart?" he provoked her and she glowered at him.

"Yes you are tired," Klaus intoned, "but that part you keep for yourself and you are not letting anyone see it. It's eating you alive but you'd rather let it spit you out in pieces than share it with anyone."

Her glare became murderous and in response, Klaus gave her a feral grin.

"And love, you are a warrior. You may be battle weary and you may have a collection of battle scars to show and hide," he added emphatically, "but nothing will stop you from fighting. Nothing will stop you from wanting to fight and sweetheart you do," he laughed wickedly, "you do want it. You are in war mode right now in front of my eyes and you thrive in it."

Caroline didn't dignify his assessment with a response because she hated to prove him right by either lying or by accepting what he was saying.

"You strategize the hell out of every move you make before you lunge straight into the battlefield and you like the adrenaline and the danger and most of all you love the thrill of knowing you will get even with your enemies and you will tear them apart and dance on their ashes. That is not tiring you at all. If anything you crave it and you are addicted to it. It's one of the things that still make you feel alive."

"Is this really how you see me?" she wondered unable to hide the lethal curiosity and wonder from her question.

"Yes," Klaus said without missing a beat, "a long time ago the potential was there," he went on, giving her an insight as to what he had seen in her a long time ago, "I was seeing it back in Mystic Falls too but now that potential has come to fruition and what glorious creature you turned out to be."

Klaus pushed a lock of hair that had escaped her ponytail behind her ear. Her eyes followed his movement and when his nail traced the pulsating vein in the column of her long neck she looked straight into his eyes that glittered dangerously and she didn't hide the menace and the desire she felt.

"You have developed an appetite for blood Caroline and not only in the literal sense of it. It's the sweetest taste, isn't it? The high that comes along with the power of subduing your opponents and the control you gain. It is not given. It is taken. And once you earn the right you rule over your enemies. Over everything, as far as your reach extends. Do you know how they called that in the days I was born?"

She shook her head and he smirked.

"Right of Conquest," the words rolled from his tongue laced with dominance and ruthlessness, "It was what created royalty and shaped the world. That's how Kingdoms and Empires rose and fell. So yes Caroline this is how I see you," he responded and she basked at the tone of pride in his voice, "a Warrior Queen. And as such, I would prefer if you were doing me the honor of not disrespecting me by lying straight to my face in such a juvenile attempt. You can do better and there are rules of engagement after all too."

Caroline snorted at that. As if Klaus would ever play fair. They both knew that manipulation and scheming were part of every war and everyone called it strategy. Klaus was not beneath using such methods with her.

She mustered a taunting smile.

"Are we at war then?"

"Weren't you the one who asked for a truce?" Klaus facetiously entered their cat and mouse game.

"You said I long to dance at the ashes of my enemies and then you added that I should respect you as such," she repeated while giving him a critical gaze, "so this is it Klaus? You are my enemy?"

"No."

There has been no hesitation at his instant reply and she raised her brow at his resolve.

"No?"

His gaze burned with absolute determination.

"No."

"Who is being a liar now?" she tasked sarcastically, "where did your rules of engagement go?"

"Caroline-"

"You won't have the luxury of treating your enemies with soft gloves," she cut off his warning by repeating what he had told her the night of the ball in a sweet voice. She insolently eyed him noting how his body tensed, "Remember?"

"I remember," he said in an even tone.

"In war, we must always choose sides," she echoed more of his words from that night.

"I remember Caroline," he snapped grimly.

Caroline's lips curled to smile at his impatience and lack of restraint.

"Does your apology include your ultimatums and threats?" she challenged him and he pressed his lips. Obviously, that part was not included not that she would have expected anything better from him. Whatever it was that drove Klaus Mikaelson was a priority and he was ready to destroy anything or anyone that would get into his way because this was his right of conquest after all.

"I see," she simply remarked and Klaus sized her up solemnly.

"Is this what you can't forgive then?"

"That you would treat me as your enemy if I didn't choose you?" she scoffed but Klaus stared at her waiting for her to confirm exactly that. Only she didn't.

"No. That I would respect," she told him with a quiet laugh, "I don't appreciate the underlined threats but if it came down to it I would rather you treat me as you would anyone else than giving me preferential treatment just because you happen to want to get into my pants."

Annoyance flickered in Klaus' eyes.

"This is not what I want from you."

She gave him a look.

"It is not," he insisted but then caved under her stare, "although it is quite an exquisite bonus."

She gave him an amused look but Klaus' eyes saw right through her.

"What of your war," he asked her turning the tables on her, echoing what she had told him when the sun rose after the night of the ball, "Whatever your endgame is anyone that goes against it is not on your side. Remember?"

She responded with the same look and the same quietness he had at the same question.

"I remember."

"Is this what you can't forgive?" Klaus' insistence remained unwavering despite how his words were spoken softly, "that you believe I am not in your side?"

She tilted her head to the side, her eyes soft to hide the chilling poker face that expertly covered the battle beneath the surface.

"Are you?"

Klaus didn't blink or lost a beat at the softness of her question. Because he knew it wasn't soft at all. It was hard. So hard like a double edge knife and it would cut them both till they bleed.

"Always."

"Always is a long time." Caroline provoked him, keeping her poker face.

There was blood. The blade had cut. It would cut. Always.

"Not long enough," Klaus whispered and she gave him a wistful smile.

"But long enough for me to forgive and forget?"

"Why Caroline?" Klaus asked thickly, for once dropping his mask and letting her see through the cracks, "why do you feel you can't forgive me?"

"Why do you expect me to be able to do that? Are you that special to me? Is that what you believe or is it because it's you?" she bitterly pushed him relishing at the fire that scorched his gaze, "is it because you believe that you are owned forgiveness because you apologized? Are you entitled to it because for just once you did something any decent person should do when they screw up as you do? All the time?" she cruelly let her harsh words rub like salt on an open wound before her whole face turned all hard edges and ridges marking her tone with finality, "Because it doesn't work that way."

Klaus sagged against the wall.

"I know it doesn't."

"And yet you expect it."

"From you?" he pondered confidently," Yes."

"Why from me?" she tried to understand, "Because I am meant to be all-forgiving and good?" she lashed out wryly, "sunshine and light and all that crap?"

"More like starlight and night sweetheart," his lips curled up ruefully and in something Caroline could describe as endearing, "but yes. Because you are good," he emphasized as if he wanted her to see and more so believe what he saw and believed, "Among other things," he added pointedly making her exhale sourly, "and I have always admired the effort you make in order to be good. It is earned and I don't think there's any kind of hell that can change that."

Caroline found herself peering up at him. Seeing him under a new light as his faith in her and his understanding of her was haunting her. He knew how to get under her skin. And he was not wrong. Not entirely. There had been a time she had tried to consciously be good. To make the right choices. To believe in herself even when no one else would. To achieve where others thought she failed. For her success, morality, being good, and being forgiving was a choice. It was not easy as it was for Elena. It wasn't natural as it was for Bonnie. It was a decision that she had to make every single day. And she didn't know if she could do that anymore.

"Good, doesn't mean forgiving," she eventually whispered quietly averting her eyes, and electricity surged from skin to heart when Klaus very gently touched her shoulder.

She looked up at him.

"Be honest with me Caroline," he challenged her for the thousandth time as she eyed him critically. "Come on love," he nudged her more, light dancing in his eyes, "I dare you."

She snorted at that but the rush of the memories and the anger made her stand as if she was a coiled spring that snapped.

She started pacing back and forth as Klaus watched her from the floor.

"Fine," she fessed up, "if it's my honesty you want so badly how about this then," she snapped waving her hands, "I keep trying. I keep trying so hard," she let out the words in a desperate flood pushing her hair back because she couldn't keep her hands still," and sometimes it feels like it is not enough," she cursed under her teeth, baring her soul for him mixing every truth and every pain with every distraction that was also distracting her because she was hurting, "like I am set for failure no matter how much I try and there is no apology you or anyone can give me that can change that. Because words do lie Klaus and actions do not," she glared at him, his eyes never leaving her, "because I don't want to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again thinking that the outcome will somehow be different now. That's the definition of insanity," she chuckled bitterly, "to think you can change anything by going through the same motions. Because I used to be a forgiving person and it got me…nowhere," she exploded, "I was left with death and I regretted things I couldn't take back. I was stuck in that hell and all I could think about was how I forgave things I shouldn't have," she heaved feeling trapped in a body too small for all her emotions, "that hurt didn't go away because I couldn't forget what I shouldn't have forgiven."

Because there were things she shouldn't have forgiven. Because she hadn't meant that forgiveness but she had tried to live with it and pushed all the despair and the shame and degradation down. Because she felt the pain but chose to persevere. Because it was a choice and because there were times she felt she chose wrong.

She chose wrong with herself. With Damon. With Klaus. With Kol.

And she hated to admit she was wrong. She hated to admit she chose wrong. Because that would hurt. That would hurt more than anything else ever would have. Even Purgatory.

What was the point of being forgiving and good if she couldn't truly mean it? If she had to try every single time. And fail and then pretend. What was the point if she was the one left broken when everyone else moved on and found happiness and she was stuck in a loop? How was she a survivor when she couldn't survive her mind, her pain, her broken parts?

She kicked the wall next to Klaus in frustration.

How could she keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again?

"I was a forgiving person but I don't know if I am anymore," she mumbled, her tone resigned now," I really don't know Klaus. You seem to psychoanalyze me back and forth and know all about my hidden parts and whatnot," she sarcastically tossed at him, "but I don't know which way is up. I don't know. I don't know if I can forgive myself how much more anyone else. Your apology didn't fall on deaf ears. I heard it. I felt it," she promised him touching her heart feeling the erratic beat pulsating against her palm, "I just don't know if it is enough for me or if I am able to hold on to it and move on. Is this honest enough for you?"

As she glowered at him Klaus slowly rose and gave her a simple nod.

"It's a start."

Her eyes widened at his blasé reaction after the way she had poured everything out and now once again she wanted to kick him again.

"Seriously?" she huffed breathlessly.

"Seriously," he said.

Her gaze turned fierce.

"Are you?"

Klaus slanted his head in question.

"Am I what?"

"Forgiving?" she threw the word tauntingly.

Klaus' tongue ran over his upper lip, mirth and menace dancing in his eyes.

"I think my track record speaks for itself," he just said, "but I can tell you that me lacking the ability for forgiveness paves the road for other kinds of demons to be born. You struggle with yours, love, but there is no way that won't bring you more struggle. So in the end it depends on which fight you believe it's worth more fighting. What's more worth it, Caroline? Guilt for being forgiving or for being unforgiving?" he lifted his shoulders, "you can take a page out of my book if you want but there are no shortcuts with this. We may be monsters love but there is no such thing as an unfeeling monster. Not with our kind. Not even the humanity switch can change that."

Caroline kept her poker face on but his words resonated inside her. There had been times she had battled with her desire to turn off her humanity but in the end, her need for control, her need to feel and be in control won over her desire to turn off her emotions, and yet as she watched Klaus now she could see that his truth was honest. There was nothing unfeeling in his life. For some reason, his eyes and his words spoke of one truth. The humanity switch was an illusion. You could never kill emotion even if you delayed feeling it.

"Great," she mumbled, "well I guess since you are the unforgiving kind then it won't matter if I say this but," she paused and then searched his eyes focusing on the intense gleam that always seemed to penetrate deep into her secrets, "I do know how hard it was for you to apologize to me and I feel that I may owe you an apology too," she begrudgingly said, or at least she tried to replicate that reaction," so here goes nothing," she let out a long-drawn sigh," I am sorry Klaus."

The slight way he narrowed his eyes made her sure that right now he had her under the microscope.

"For?"

"For hurting you," she replayed choosing not to duel at his mistrust and spoke with as much caution as he posed his question.

Caroline's brow scratched upward before she rubbed the wrinkled skin with her nails.

"I can't say that wasn't my purpose," she muttered and stared at Klaus deliberately, "I tried to do exactly that and I won't apologize for doing what I had to ensure my freedom but I have been lashing out to you long before that," she whispered sincerely," and I knew how much saying those things to you would hurt you. I knew it," she honestly said, without letting any emotion overwhelm her confession, "I did it and if I am being honest I would do it again," she admitted without preamble noticing the gleam that flared in Klaus' eyes, "but I didn't enjoy hurting you. It hurt me too," she quietly said," for the most part it did," she corrected herself, "it was the first time you looked at me with so much resentment and disappointment and that hurt me too," she said hating that this part was true and not a diversion or a distraction. It had hurt. "I don't want to analyze why it did or if it should, or if it was right or wrong but it did. That part I did hate."

Klaus' eyes were blazing hot now and there was hope and vulnerability in them but also understanding because Caroline knew that Klaus had mastered hate in his thousand years. Self hate too. And to that she could relate.

"And for that I am sorry," she breathed out," which of course none of what I am saying right now means you were right," she hissed pointing an accusing finger at him, "you are still very controlling and paranoid and I still feel the need to punch you. So there's that," she finished her rambling breathlessly.

Klaus smirked.

"Of course," he accepted a little being condescendingly and a little bit honestly but for them, it would have to be enough.

Almost enough.

She shifted on her feet and looked down at the worn out floor.

"And-"

She stopped and bit her lip.

"And?" he encouraged her pointedly.

"God, this like pulling nails," she mumbled to herself staring at her manicured nails, "and I- well," she closed her eyes taking a deep breath before she stepped closer to him. She raised her gaze to him and told him firmly, "the relationship I have created with Kol does not give me the right to point fingers at the problems you have with your brother," she owned up to it, "Kol is not exactly without fault and the fact that I don't want to see him daggered does not mean I am taking any sides in what's going on between you two," she promised him. "And you know I am an only child so I can't say I can fully understand what's going on between siblings not to mention that you have a complicated history. A thousand years of a family feud," she said trying to wrap her mind around it, "well that's something you two need to solve. And I do understand that you have boundaries when it comes to your family that I shouldn't have disrespected and," she stopped to take a deep breath as she was saying everything all at once, "I shouldn't make these comments about your relationship with Cami either," she sighed reluctantly if not a bit peevishly," it is really not my place to meddle with what you do in your personal life."

Klaus shook his head as if he was absorbing what she was telling him and she could see the amused way he was observing her now which really irritated her.

"It isn't," Klaus finally agreed but then his grin meant trouble, "however I would not mind if you were in a place that would give you the right to do so," he meaningfully told her, arching his brow and she shook her head trying and failing to contain the slight smile her lips stretched into.

Of course, this would be where he would focus out of everything she told him. Deflecting about Kol, focusing on Cami, and flirting once more. Damn him, he was good. If this was a game he was definitely one of the best players she had met and while she should be angry, and she was, she was also finding this exhilarating.

"Don't you ever stop?" she complained playfully.

Klaus beamed at her making his dimples come out and Caroline hated the way she felt the need to poke them with her finger.

Klaus sauntered closer to her and Caroline held her breath at the proximity. He was looming over her.

"I want more than just a truce Caroline."

His voice felt like temptation wrapped in soft vowels and consonants. A melody, a song to lead her to a web of rose petals and spider poison.

The magnetic pull never dissipated between them. It pulled them closer. Her eyes darkened and lit up at once. A contradiction only he could create inside her.

"What do you want?"

"I am not sure you are ready to hear that even though you do know," he inclined his head at her solemnly speaking with his eyes the meaning his words alluded, "but I have a feeling you are still in the denial stage."

She turned her head to the side. She had to pull away. This tension was brewing a hurricane inside her.

"Oh please," she grunted making sure her voice would come out as pure condescension, "Denial? Seriously?"

He smirked at that. He definitely derived some sick satisfaction over pushing her buttons and making her angry. He loved putting her into a corner when it was nothing but a dead end where the only exit would be through him.

Their staring contest continued for some time before she narrowed her eyes and poked him in the chest with her finger.

"You are such a jerk!" she burst out, "you couldn't just leave it be at the heartfelt confessions," and underlined warnings and double meanings she added mentally, "I mean all these long dramatic heart by heart monologues for what?" she pouted and Klaus chuckled.

Mischief lit up in his eyes.

"Don't get mad love, we just had a spat."

Caroline pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Oh, not that again," she laughed and shook her head delightfully, "you think your charm is so irresistible but you know," she goaded him, "this kind of stroll down memory lane loses some of its flair when there aren't any cars around this time to almost run you over," she smugly said and Klaus' acted as if she had offended him.

"I'll have you know my stealth was never jeopardized," he protested and she giggled.

"Sure," she mocked him.

Klaus watched her fondly and then almost shyly.

"So… friends then?" he asked her, the very same question he had asked all those years ago, with so much hope, and her heart skipped a beat.

Without giving him an answer she reached for the folder she had left on the ground and stared at it before she hugged it and gave him a secretive half-smile.

"Well," she started slowly, "let's take it one step at a time and see where it leads us."

Before Klaus could respond to that in a blink of an eye Caroline had whooshed back into her apartment leaving Klaus dumbfounded before she returned a second later with her phone talking to Josh.

"Change of plans Josh," she spoke to the phone without taking her eyes off Klaus, "I have to cancel our plans for today. No there's no problem. I'll just take the day off. I'll call you to rain check"

Klaus gave her a crooked smile and then watched curiously as Caroline slid her finger over her phone's screen, put it on speaker, and extended the device between them holding it up on her palm.

His voice, an echo from the past, filled the space between them.

"…Caroline I am standing in one of my favorites places in the world surrounded by food music art, culture and all I can think about is how much I want to show it to you. Maybe one day you'll let me…"

Klaus watched the phone almost mesmerized, slowly realizing she had kept the voice message he had sent her all that time ago when he had first come to New Orleans. He then lifted his eyes at her.

"You saved it," he swallowed slowly, the realization sounding like reverence.

"You owe me a tour," Caroline told him, arching her brow and Klaus smiled happily at her.

"As far as debts go I don't mind paying this one," he said pleased and then winked at her as he added, "with interest."

"On one condition though," Caroline played along just as seductively.

Klaus tilted his head in question while she came closer giving him her most innocent expression.

"We get to seriously talk and negotiate your dagger obsession," she deadpanned and Klaus rolled his eyes.

They both laughed and then Caroline looked down at herself and scrunched up her nose.

"Ok. Give me ten minutes and then… I am all yours."

She didn't miss the possessive note in his eyes or his hope as she dashed back into her apartment to get ready.


No stop signsSpeed limitNobody's gonna slow me down…

Hey satanPayin' my dues…

Kol Mikaelson pressed the gas pedal of his Corvette as the air whipped his face and highway to hell from AC/DC could be heard all around him as he was leaving behind him the sign of New Orleans and was putting more and more distance between him and the city.

Highway to hell…I'm on the highway to hell…


Song: Highway to Hell by AC/DC