The carpet was quiet beneath her bare toes as Caroline pulled herself off her crinkled bedsheets. Her blinds were open, letting in a cool draft and streams of sunlight. Outside, the crisp air shook the budding green leaves, the delicate sprigs of spring tinging the landscape with vibrant colour. It was as beautiful a morning as any, but chilly. The first day of spring had her shivering.
For just a second each morning, she liked to pretend that everything was normal. For just a second, she could enjoy the idea of senior year, homework and her boyfriend. For just a second, Caroline didn't have a monster lurking beneath her skin.
But all too soon that second was up and the weight of her new reality sank through. A young face she'd never grow out of, a supernatural world which was sexy and dangerous in equal measures, and a boyfriend whose bite almost killed her for good. If he was still her boyfriend, given his spontaneous travel plans. Tyler made her want to go back to bed, because as painful as it was to be abandoned without so much as a conversation beforehand, god did she miss him. She missed the flirting and the date nights and always having someone to impress. She missed having someone to laugh with, and she missed the sex. Good god, she missed the filthy, rough, touch-starved, tearing sex which left them both boneless.
Sighing deeply, she stilled to listen for life in the house. She was met with only silence - not surprising, since her mom had been at the police station every waking moment since the Originals started dropping bodies all over town.
With every inhale she could smell the lingering scent of Klaus in the air. It was particularly strong where he'd been pressed up against her bedsheets last night, the echoes of his gentle growls etched in her memory. Caroline's nose wasn't great - certainly not a patch on Stefan or Damon's, honed by many years of tracking. Usually she struggled to distinguish people beyond their species, but that morning it was clear Klaus was everywhere. The hybrid scent was distinctive enough - dark and sharp and deadly - but of course Klaus was so much more than a hybrid. His scent was everything.
The spiced musk was always delicious, but the memory of having his blood on her tongue while she breathed him in had her head swimming. Sharp arousal shot through her veins. Of all the side effects of being a vampire, no one warned her how horny she'd be. It made a change from feeling hungry though, and Caroline was grateful that her throat wasn't giving her the fiery, stabbing pain which was becoming closely tied to Klaus' presence.
Glancing at her phone, she ruled out sinking back into her sheets and slipping a hand down her shorts in lieu of getting to school on time. Instead, set on coffee and a sit down with herself to wrap her head around her current hybrid-only dietary situation, Caroline quickly dressed herself for the day and padded into the kitchen.
The "good morning" offered made her startle.
She turned sharply, glaring at a well-muscled back covered in fitted navy fabric. "Klaus!" She squeaked. It'd been at least six months since someone had managed to sneak up on her.
Klaus hummed without glancing up from the newspaper he was skimming, even as she moved around the kitchen.
Caroline pinched a mug from the cupboard and filled it with black coffee hot off the hob. Great, so now he's making himself coffee. "Did you even leave last night?" She hissed, cursing herself for even entertaining the thought that her own home might be a safe space from the supernatural shitshow.
Humming gently, Klaus turned the page without so much as a glance in her direction. "Grumpy in the mornings. Good to know."
Ignoring the further rumble of arousal that his absentminded tone spurred, Caroline turned around, leaning back against the counter. "I didn't know we were starting a breakfast club?"
Klaus looked up then, dimples on show at the bite in her words. "Hungry, love?" He held her gaze for a beat, and Caroline registered that his eyes were back to blue, so different from the liquid gold on show when she'd pulled her fangs from his neck last night.
Realising that she might have left it just a moment too late to be subtle, Caroline rolled her eyes. It didn't feel like hunger. In fact, she felt dizzy and blood-high, which should be impossible given the ten hours she'd slept since her feed. Not sated, though. Definitely not sated. If in doubt, deflect. "Why are you pretending like this isn't weird?"
Amused, he shut the newspaper and sipped his mug casually. Caroline tried to pretend that the obvious shift of his biceps under his henley wasn't distracting. You're a taken woman, Caroline. Tyler has fantastic arms. "I can think of worse things than having your teeth in my neck."
"That doesn't answer the question." She hissed, pressing her thighs together involuntarily. She could think of worse things than his body pressed against hers, all hard muscle and soft touches.
Klaus eyed her, gaze dragging down to her bare sternum, then her t-shirt and finally pausing where her plaid skirt finished mid-thigh. It spurred the butterflies in her stomach into flight. It'd been a long time since any boy except Tyler had looked at her with that kind of hunger. Watching a magnetic being darken his eyes for her felt indecent. Caroline was no saint and certainly wasn't a stranger to a man's bed, but most of those experienced paled in comparison to the heat that Klaus' gaze made her feel. She studied the way he wet his lips before meeting her eyes once again. "Because I don't have to." He spoke quietly.
Caroline held his gaze, ignoring the way her skin tingled and the heat rose across her chest. The throbbing, slow burn of arousal crept through her veins, making her shift on her feet. For a split second, it felt like he could see right through the clothes she was wearing. Something about that self-satisfied smirk and the glitter behind his eyes. "You know something." She guessed.
With that, Klaus stood, circling around the island until he was directly infront of her, rolling up the sleeves of his henley and exposing more skin than should be allowed. "I'm old, Caroline. I know many things." He teased with a raised eyebrow.
She didn't shy away from his smirk, even when their height difference was made so apparent as he moved closer. Caroline crossed her arms enjoying the way his gaze dropped to her chest. Teasing goes both ways. "Isn't it kinda creepy to be hanging around a teenage girl, then?"
"Careful, sweetheart." He uttered with a grin, sunshine from the window making his skin glow as he relaxed back on the counter opposite. "I'm probably not the creature you want to offend."
As much as she enjoyed the shivers his words cast over her skin, curiosity got the better of her. "Is it the witch? Did she call?"
"Witches love, they're good, but they're not instant." Klaus paused, following the frown which seemed permanently etched in her features. "Give her time. She'll come up with answers for you."
Lifting her chin, Caroline tilted her head. Her eyes narrowed when his expression didn't change, still an obnoxious, smirking, self-satisfied, hot hybrid. "Then what is it?"
Her breath hitched as he leaned over, boxing her in with both hands on the counter behind her. He was close now, his scent heavy in the air and intoxicating in her lungs. Eyes wide, Caroline took in the tiny space he'd left between them, imagining the small shift of her arm it'd take to run fingertips through his hair, pull him in and taste his lips. She could feel his breath fan across her temple, the heat of him stood in sharp contrast to the chill of her skin. Caroline tried to hide the shiver, but the smile in his voice let her know that she had been caught. "Are you hungry, Caroline?"
Be brave, Caroline. With a deep breath of him, she met his eyes so close that she could focus on very little else. "No." She breathed, perfectly still even though her monster was screaming for her to touch, the throbbing need at her core growling for him. "I don't need blood." Her voice was steady too, almost convincing.
Almost. Klaus eyed her lips. "Anything else then, sweetheart?" He murmured, ducking down until his face was level with hers. "Is there anything else you need that I can provide?"
All she could feel was the heat of him and her monster pressing right up against her skin, demanding and unrelenting, yes yes yes yes. Breath hitching in her throat, Caroline felt her arousal tangle in her stomach as he pressed closer still, chest almost touching hers until the lace of her bra rubbed up against her nipples in a spine-tingling way which made her gasp. The subsequent moan she stifled felt wrong. Horny, check. Hot guy, definite check. But while all her instincts told her to reach out and taste, Caroline wouldn't. Not with Klaus, and definitely not while she could still call Tyler her boyfriend. She shook her head sharply, a hand pushing on his peck.
He went easily, taking a step away and weaving his hands behind his back. "Are you sure?" In the light of the sunshine, his eyes were almost black, but his face revealed nothing.
Caroline brushed past to shove her mug in the sink, resolve melting the longer she took in his cheekbones and hungry gaze. "I'm fine. Thanks for stopping by but I've gotta get to school."
"Far be it for me to make you late. See you later, love." She could hear the smirk in his voice. Her brow furrowed at how nonchalant he could be while she was hot, turned on beyond measure with nothing more than his scent and a few quick words as a cause.
Caroline turned back around, but he was already gone.
If she shifted back to her bed, gathered up her skirt and pressed quick fingers between her legs, that was none of his business. When she came with glowing gold eyes on her mind, she convinced herself that she'd imagined the howl in the distance.
Later that day as the warning bell sounded the end of lunch block, Caroline closed her locker door with a sigh. "Klaus!" She squeaked for a second time that day, jolting to attention at the figure it revealed.
"Hello, love." He dimpled, all dark eyes and lean muscle.
Klaus' presence certainly wasn't going unnoticed in the hallways, with just about every hot-blooded female (and a fair few males) in the corridor ogling. This was not the low-key day which Caroline had in mind. "You're here. At my school." The 'I literally just saw you this morning' was said with a raised eyebrow and a tight jaw. He looked art teacher hot, leaning up against the lockers with a coffee in his hand and a confidence so rarely seen in high school hallways. Magnetic, Caroline thought as she glanced around at the entourage of onlookers trying to be subtle in their interest.
Once again, her frustration seemed to amuse him. "Well observed." He muttered, keeping his focus solely on her. "You were late?"
"Car trouble." She muttered, feeling the flush before it tinged her cheeks. Surely he hadn't stuck around. Surely. But his eyes and the curve of his lips said otherwise. Caroline couldn't afford to make a scene right now, especially not when the whole school was talking about the mysterious reasoning behind Tyler taking off. Lowkey was how this week had to go, and arguing publicly with Mystic Fall's newest smoke show was not lowkey. With a tightening of her jaw and a withering look, Caroline turned on her heels and went to walk herself to AP Calculus. It took two seconds before his hand curved around her wrist and she was tugged back around to find his face far closer than before. Thank god the melting pot of teenage boys and their pungent deodorants masked most of the delicious scent of him, because the dark glittering of his eyes alone had arousal twisting in her gut.
"You're not a good liar." He whispered, grinning as he slid his fingertips to tangle with hers with a knowing smile. Caroline felt her jaw drop, pulling away her hand with a huff and an unwitting shiver at the memory of those fingers between her thighs just a few hours ago. When she turned this time, he didn't stop her. Caroline made it three hallways over before Elena caught up with her.
"Did I just see what I think I saw?" Elena snapped with a furrowed brow, pulling Caroline to walk in tow. They had AP Calc together, but Caroline wasn't keen on company. She hugged her textbooks tight against her frame and gave Elena a look which said as much, but Elena just walked faster still to keep up. "Why were you talking to Klaus?"
"I wasn't talking to Klaus, Elena. He was talking to me. I was ignoring him." Caroline rolled her eyes and wished the ground would swallow her up. She practically dived into the classroom, throwing her bag down and slumping in her seat.
Elena sat in front of her as a few other classmates trickled in. She turned around in her seat, dark eyes wide with concern. "Have you told Bonnie about this? Or Stefan? For god's sake, have you told Tyler?"
That stirred some kind of annoyance in Caroline's chest, not only because her life was none of Bonnie nor Stefan's business, but her relationship with Tyler was certainly not a topic to be judged by Elena of all people. Still, best to keep the peace. "Hard to tell him something when he doesn't answer my calls."
"So this is a jealousy thing? You're with Klaus to make Tyler jealous?"
"I'm not with Klaus!" Caroline hissed, leaning over to keep the conversation between them private. She knew she'd lost when Stefan eyed them from the doorway. He slouched in, sitting next to Elena with a nod.
Elena shared a glance with Stefan who also turned in his chair to face them. "Between the fancy bracelets and the midday check ins, I'd say he seems pretty comfortable with you."
Great, so I guess Stefan's in this conversation now. "I didn't ask for them!" Caroline snapped, leaning back and as far away from them both as possible. A quick glance at the clock assured her that soon the conversation would be interrupted by the final bell.
"I know that but-" Elena started.
"But what, Elena? What are you trying to say?" Caroline snapped, baring her teeth enough that Stefan put a hand on her desk in warning.
Elena recoiled, sharing yet another look with Stefan.
"I just… I just want you to be careful, Care. Klaus is manipulative, he'll do anything to get what he wants-" Elena spoke quietly as the final bell rung out and Mr Carman strode into the room with the air of someone who has been in the profession a decade too many.
The red hot coils burned in Caroline's chest and she had half a mind to lunge for Elena's throat. The frustration was intense, fast and all encompassing, making her fingernails dig in to the desk beneath her hands. "And you think that's you." She spat, hissing quietly enough to not be told off. "Because of course no one could ever actually be interested in me. They all just want you. You don't even have to tell me, Elena. I've heard this one before."
Elena pouted, brows furrowing and somewhere deep inside Caroline knew she'd have to apologise for that rash comment at some point, but right now all she felt is irrational anger. "That's not what I'm saying." Elena whispered.
"This conversation is over." Caroline snapped, still feeling the boiling of her blood.
Just outside the high school, Klaus hung up the phone with a growl. Trying to control the all-consuming rage he so frequently felt, he made a bee line for the woods, his monster scraping against his skin. Some witches just don't know how to stay dead.
Later that night, Caroline shuffled up the front porch stairs of Bonnie's home, bag in hand, before she stopped dead in the doorway. Groaning, she opened the front door and gazed at the party. "I didn't realise that a 'girls night in' included you."
Stefan, Damon, Bonnie, Elena, Alaric and Jeremy all gazed back at her.
Damon smirked from his reclined position on Bonnie's couch. "I love a slumber party! Gossiping, pillowfights and short shorts - it's a shame you're here."
"Sorry Care, it's the only way I knew you'd come." Bonnie sighed, turning back to the plethora of books which were lying on her coffee table.
Half in the mind to just turn around and go home, Caroline had had just about enough of other people's company for one day - the irritability had lingered, and she hadn't even had a minute to work out what it was for. "Seriously, why are we all here? What's going on?"
"Well Caroline, we have an infestation of Originals trying to murder your best friend, leaving a slew of drained bodies in their wake, and if we don't move fast, we'll be drowning in hybrids before Christmas." Jeremy said, jaw tight. Caroline didn't move from the doorway, letting the shared looks between the other members of the party speak for themselves.
It was Alaric who finally broke the silence. "It's time to kill Klaus."