CHAPTER TWENTY SIX:
KLAUS P.O.V.
A strangled growl made its way up from throat, and I looked to Andre who was standing above Caroline's fallen body. Dropping to my knees, he took one look at me and ran for it.
Everything stopped, and my heart ached tightly in my chest. It was like a piece of me had been taken away. Like there was a hole in my chest where something beautiful had been.
Reaching for her, pulling her closer to me, tears ran down my cheeks as my ears strained to find any trace a heartbeat that was no longer there. Her neck was hanging completely to the side, showing the strength he had used when he had snapped it. Her skin already a sheen of pale.
I studied each scrape on her skin, each cut that Andre had made. And with each cut my heart broke more and more. I didn't want think that this was the end. I didn't want to think that the small amount of time we had shared would be our only. And losing her had been all my fault.
Unmoving, I sat with her, holding her body close to mine. Knowing that I would eventually have to let go, but not bringing myself to do it just yet. I cried into her hair, not caring about my reputation.
I lost track of everything that happened, but eventually the noise that had been surrounding us faded, and left nothing but quiet whispered conversations. Trying my hardest to drown everything out, my mind screamed out for her to wake up, but knowing that she wouldn't.
"Nik." Rebekah said, placing her hand on my shoulder. I looked up from Caroline, meeting my younger sister's teary eyes. "Everyone has been dealt with except Andre. I…do you want me to take Caroline back to the house?"
I nodded, looking over to where Katherine and Elijah held Andre in place. Rebekah moved to lift Caroline, but I still couldn't bring myself to let her go. Rebekah placed her hand on my shoulder again, reassuring me that she would take care of her, before lifting her away from me and carrying her off with Marcel and the others, leaving only four of us behind.
Climbing to my feet, I walked over to where Andre was kneeling, Elijah and Katherine holding him down by his shoulders.
"This should have worked." Andre was mumbling to himself, looking undone as he stared down at the ground. "I should feel better, but it didn't work."
I kicked his leg, causing him look up and stare at me with bold eyes. "Murdering an innocent human never makes anyone feel better, no matter the revenge you're getting from it."
"But the seer said that if I could kill the one you loved then you would be destroyed, and then I could live without this pain. Without the loss."
I knelt down in front of him looking into his eyes. "I'm 1000 years old, and I feel the pain of the people I've lost, every day. You just killed an innocent woman. Someone who never did anything to you. You deserve all of the pain in the world."
"She was not innocent. She was with you. Any woman who can see past your sins is guilty enough." Katherine gripped down on his arm, causing Andre to cry out as his shoulder broke under the weight. "You killed Elizabeth, and hundreds of other women. How is that any different from what I did?"
Standing straight I let out a blood-curdling growl. I smiled as he stiffened at the sound. Katherine was looking off into the woods, not watching what was happening. I thought I could see tears in her eyes, but I turned my attention back to Andre.
"I didn't kill Elizabeth." I whispered, leaning in close to Andre's ear. "I turned her."
When I pulled back to look at him, his eyes had widened and his mouth was open slightly. "You what?"
"I turned her." I repeated, stepping back and looking back over to where Caroline had fallen, but no longer lay. "I made her a vampire, then I made her promise to never contact you again. She was so ashamed of what she was that she run into hiding. I didn't even need to compel her. The last time I saw her was in London about…50 years ago."
He tried to process what I had told him, his face scrunching up. Stepping closer, I squatted down in front of him. "There was no better punishment for Elizabeth other than taking away that power that she loved so much. Just like there was no better punishment for Katherine other than taking her freedom. And for you…you're punishment isn't going to be so…kind."
In a short second, my teeth sunk into his throat and his blood ran down my throat. I didn't take pleasure in the bite, pulling back and watching as the panic filled his eyes.
"You're revenge was all for nothing. If you had asked me nicely, instead of causing all of this, I would have told you where to find her. But, instead you decided to do this." I said, standing up and beginning to walk across the clearing. I called back to Elijah and Katherine as I left, my only thought being to get back to the house. "Tie him to a the tree, let him suffer."
#
KATHERINE P.O.V.
I never expected it to hurt as much as it did. Losing Caroline. I mean, it was obvious that she was going to die eventually, she was human. But losing her to Andre, of all people, broke my heart. That and the look on Klaus' face when it happened.
After Klaus had left the clearing, Elijah and I had wasted no time tying Andre to the tree, ignoring his protests. Then Elijah and I had walked slowly back to the house, not wanting to face whatever it would be that we would be walking into.
When we had returned to the house, in the early morning, the house was completely silent. Rebekah and Marcel were sitting together in the lounge room, neither talking, and Nadia was standing on the porch staring off into the woods. Everyone else had gone back to their hotels.
"Did Klaus kill him?" Nadia asked as Elijah and I were about to close the front door, not turning from her spot on the porch.
Waving Elijah off I walked up behind Nadia and wrapped my arm around her waist. "Klaus bit him and had us tie him to a tree. He has 24 hours tops."
Nadia nodded. "Good. He deserves it for what he did to them."
Leaving Nadia there, I headed inside to see that Elijah was now sitting on the entrance steps with his head in his hands. I sat down beside him and placed my hand on his knee. "Where's Klaus?"
"Up in his studio, I think." He groaned loudly and then looked up at me. "I can't wrap my head around how this happened. I just…I can't make sense of how we messed things up as much as we did."
"Neither can I. You know, out of all of us I thought Caroline would surely be the one to make it through this."
I was interrupted by Kida making her way through a side door, holding a grimoire in her hands. She smiled sadly at me as she walked forward, coming to stop directly in front of us.
"I did what Klaus asked. I'm going to drive home now, if that's okay?"
I looked at her confused. Unsure as to what she could be referring to. Kida wouldn't resurrect Caroline, would she? "What did he ask you to do?"
"Oh, he asked me to put a preservation spell on the body." She said, gripping the book tight to her chest, her accent sounding more pronounced with emotion. "To make sure she'll never decompose. I told him I was happy to…considering that it's partly my fault that she's gone."
"It's not your fault." We all froze at the voice at the top of the stairs, turning to see Klaus standing at the top of the stairs with tear stained cheeks. "It's not any one of yours faults."
Elijah and I stood up as Klaus descended the stairs, running his hand through his hair. He thanked Kida for her service and wished her goodnight, even though the sun was close to rising, then he headed towards the lounge room.
Elijah and I followed behind him, coming to sit down on the couch near where Rebekah and Marcel sat. Rebekah looked up as Klaus entered the room. Placing her drink down on the table she jumped up to wrap Klaus in a bone crushing hug. He held her for a moment before letting her go.
"Marcel, I want to talk to you soon, but first, Rebekah I was wondering if you could clean Caroline up." I stared at him confused. Clean her up? "I spoke with her mother, she's driving up here to collect Caroline. If anyone saw her in the state that she's in currently, Caroline would have a fit."
Sitting up straighter, anxious butterflies filled my stomach. The prospect of having to have a face-to-face confrontation with her after taking her daughter away to get help, and getting her killed instead.
"Of course I'll clean her up." Rebekah said, smiling at her brother.
"And maybe cut her hair as well, just to make it nicer. It would be best if her mum didn't know all of the details of what happened."
She nodded, not waiting for him to continue before she ran from the room. Klaus sat down as she left, sighing as he leant his head against the back of the chair.
"What's going on? What happened?"
I don't think any of us had ever moved faster than we did in that moment, our heads turning to the voice in the door. Hayley. She looked dishevelled. Her skin healed of the injuries she had endured, but her clothes still torn and her skin still coated in blood.
"What happened?" She repeated, stepping into the room.
Straining my ears, I listened to her carefully, staring at her stomach which still protruded out, looking even bigger than it had before she turned last night. There was a heartbeat. I turned to Klaus, watching his reaction as he took her in. He let out a breath of relief, getting off of the couch and walking over to wrap her in his arms.
"How is the baby still alive?" Klaus whispered, sounding relieved.
Hayley pushed back, looking at us all. "I'm not going to repeat myself again. Tell me what happened? The last thing I remember is being upstairs, then black until I woke up in the woods behind the house."
Klaus stepped back, looking down at her sadly. I knew that it would be painful for him to have to tell her that Caroline had been killed, so I stood up from the chair and grabbed Hayley's hand, promising to tell her what had happened.
Taking her to her room, which had somehow been cleaned in the time that everything had happened. I sat Hayley down on the edge of the bed, placing her hand in mine.
"Caroline didn't make it, Hayley."
Her face didn't change straight away. But then her eyes narrowed and ripped her hand from mine, standing up from the bed. "How did it happen? Was it because I ran instead of her? Was it because you were distracted by me returning and didn't go and find her?"
I shook my head. "No. We found her in time. There was a fight and Andre tried to run off with Caroline. Klaus tried to talk him down, I'm assuming he didn't want to attack Andre in case he hurt Caroline. But, when he got close to getting Andre to give up, Andre snapped Caroline's neck."
Hayley started to weep, throwing herself into my arms as she cried.
