Author's note: Your reviews were so much fun to read; thank you for sticking with my story so far! Also, a lot of you picked up on the clues I've been placing in my chapters — good job! If you're familiar with my work, you know I enjoy a few plot twists and turns. :)
Warning: Violence.
Flashing a bewildered Klaus an amused grin, Caroline lifted off the air duct cover and jumped down into the control room, feeling strangely exhilarated now that she was reuniting with her team. She knew that whatever they faced next, they would face it together. She was proud of the way her team moved together as one, their highly disciplined training on display as Katherine, Bonnie, and Enzo stood in standard triangle formation to protect the civilians. Their quick reflexes allowed them to recognize their commander and lower their weapons even before her boots touched the concrete.
"Commander," Katherine greeted her, brown eyes quickly assessing her blood-stained shirt, "looks like you lost a wet t-shirt contest."
Caroline snorted, replying sarcastically, "And from what I heard, you've scored a Bill Nye the Sugar Daddy."
Shrugging carelessly, her captain jerked her head toward Bonnie and said, "At least I only threatened to skin his wrinkly ass. Bonnie's the one who threw a knife at his head."
"Bonnie," Caroline sighed, surprised by her officer's Kol-like lack of restraint.
Dark eyes feigning innocence, Bonnie toyed with the canvas gun strap slung across her shoulder. "What? I thought I saw a spider."
She turned to help Klaus climb the rest of the way into the room, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from giggling as she caught the telltale quirk of his lips that said he was fighting back inappropriate laughter too. The burning ache in her shoulder jolted her back to reality. A reality with werewolves, for fuck's sake. Damn Stefan's ridiculous movie monster obsession — she really should've given him better advice about girls when he clumsily started dating.
Clearing her throat, she addressed her team: "One monster came at us from the ceiling when we were on the second floor. Buried a bullet in its neck, but its damn hide is too thick to cause much damage. Knifed it a few times in the side, but it didn't seem to slow it down much. Ditto for the grenade."
While her team remained stoic in the face of her grim report, Klaus surprised her by speaking up to say, "The werewolves' regenerative properties only had begun to be studied when they escaped. Preliminary data suggests their hides, while not impervious to all damage, seems to knit back together within minutes. That said, I've now procured a sample to begin enzymatic tests." With a raw determination in his voice he swore, "There's a way to destroy these creatures — I just have to uncover the science."
A small moan near the back of the room caught her attention and she chastised herself for momentarily forgetting about the injured scientist they were there to help. Klaus' face immediately turned serious and he reached for his small first aid kit he'd brought as Caroline followed him toward the blood-streaked scientist laying on a table. One look at the pale, sweaty skin and the painful twitching told her that he was beyond the help they could provide.
Just like her mother had been. Caroline had been in her last month of her senior year when she'd received the call from the hospital. She barely listened to the policeman who detailed the horrific car wreck that involved multiple cars and a distracted semi-truck driver. Instead, she couldn't stop staring at the blinking, beeping series of machines that were keeping her mother alive.
Each artificial breath that moved through her mother's pale, broken form felt as though it took away one of Caroline's, making her dizzy. The doctors had been infuriatingly calm as they said that her mother would never wake up or breath on her own. She was nothing more than a shell.
It was in that moment the remaining sliver of childhood she'd stubbornly clung to was gone, and she knew what had to be done. Wiping her eyes, she'd gone to the waiting room to collect Stefan and Damon, and together they took the long, horrible walk back to their mother's room to say goodbye.
Still gawky preteens, they'd looked up at her with tearful eyes, trembling as they clung to Caroline, hugging her tightly. She murmured, "No matter what, we'll get through this. We're family."
Stefan had looked up at her, his brown eyes full of worry as he asked brokenly, "What's going to happen to us?"
Her heart broke all over again as she heard Damon say roughly, "Foster home, probably. We don't have anyone else."
"No," she told her brothers firmly, "You have me. And you always will." She grasped their mother's limp hand, doing her best not to burst into hysterical sobs as she looked at her strangely serene face. "I swear it, Mom. I'll take care of Damon and Stefan. You don't need to worry." As her brothers hugged their mother one last time, Caroline's voice hitched as she said, "You can let us go."
Shaking her head, angry that she'd allowed her memories to distract her from her responsibilities, Caroline focused on the grim situation before her.
"Matt," Klaus said lightly, gently laying his hand on top of the scientist's head. He quickly made a shushing noise when he saw how little energy Matt had left. "Save your strength."
Caroline didn't let her gaze linger on the awkward angle of Matt's broken arm, realizing that his other injuries were more severe. Pushing aside the shredded fabric of Matt's filthy lab coat, she eyed the flesh and muscle severely damaged by the werewolf. "Remove or work around," she asked Klaus quietly, pointing to the ruined fabric.
"Work around — he's in shock from the blood loss and we need to keep him warm," Klaus answered, gruffly telling Alaric, "Toss us your overshirt, mate." He and Caroline gingerly draped the jacket around Matt, noting how pale and clammy he was. At Klaus' direction, Caroline applied pressure to several of the still-bleeding puncture wounds, even as she surmised from Klaus' grim expression that the werewolf's fangs had caused extreme trauma to the internal organs. Even if by some miracle they managed to stabilize him, his weakened immune system likely wouldn't survive the bacterial infections.
"The graying skin, the lips turning blue," Klaus began hesitantly, "he needs a transfusion as soon as possible." Matt began to gurgle and gasp for air, shuddering violently. "Hold him steady," he instructed Caroline, reaching for a small suture kit. However, before he could open it, menacing snarls alerted the group that they'd been found.
Katherine took point, her toned arms steady as she raised her submachine gun to the double doors. "Reinforced steel," she called back to her commander, while the rest of the team awaited orders.
Blue eyes narrowed, Caroline muttered, "Probably standard 18-gauge." She recalled the twisted remains of the ruined door downstairs that she and Kol first encountered, and decided not to risk it with both monsters. "We'll split into two groups and escape through the ducts again. Klaus and I will go to his lab to research a way to kill these bastards, while the rest of you head to the first floor where Kol, my brother and three other civilians are barricaded in a northeast office."
Enzo shared a silent look with his commander before tapping his earpiece. "Lab Rat, online. Fearless, Spell Slinger and Tomb Dodger are here along with three civilians, one of which is severely injured. Both werewolves are outside the control room."
Kol's voice came through the team's earpieces. "Mischief Maker here. Understood."
A horrific squealing sound of claws scratching through metal caused Alaric to jump, fearfully inching toward Katherine, who rolled her eyes despite the impending peril.
As the top corner of one door began to curl away from the frame under the powerful blows of the werewolves, Klaus looked at Caroline with an eerily calm expression she'd only ever seen on his brother's face in the heat of a battle.
Her breath was visible in the freezing morning air in the remote Russian village where she and her team had tracked down the infamous serial killer Qetsiyah, who'd fled from them assuming they wouldn't risk taking the 'Road of Bones' to capture her. From their surveillance, they knew she'd kept her youngest victim alive, hiding out in a tiny shack and living off of frozen reindeer meet.
From the infrared equipment, it was clear that Qetsiyah realized she'd been found and was using the boy as a human shield. An angry furrow appeared in Caroline's forehead as she calculated the angle of the best kill shot. She flexed her fingers, still trying to stiffen in the frosty air despite the double-wool-lined gloves. "Can't get a clean shot," she muttered in her earpiece, signaling to Kol who was perched in the loft of a broken-down barn across the narrow passage.
There was no trace of the familiar impish grin on her officer's face as he expertly adjusted the scope of his rifle. After a moment, he glanced at Caroline, strangely calm as his voice came over the earpiece. "Kill shot with civilian superficial injury."
The terrified boy in Qetsiyah's clutches couldn't have been more than seven or eight. With a grimace, she spied the khanjali, Qetsiyah's signature double-edged dagger, digging into the thin, pale throat of the boy. No choice. Fuck. "Acceptable risk parameters. Engage."
The hard edge to Klaus' voice broke her from her morbid thoughts. "Can your team get the entire group away from the werewolves and transport Matt?" He kept his voice low, despite the fact that Matt was no longer coherent, and the roars of the werewolves had grown so loud it felt as though they were in the room with them.
Caroline saw the steel in his gaze, and understood with cold certainty what he was really asking. Having already weighed the risks, she told him the truth. "No."
He nodded once, and then smoothly slipped the point of a scalpel into Matt's neck, cleanly severing the carotid. He gripped Matt's twitching hand, his voice shaking as he quietly said, "Forgive me." As Matt took a final shuddering breath before lying still, Caroline rested a comforting palm on Klaus' shoulder.
Straightening, she turned to her team, watching in approval as they pulled an almost catatonic Alaric up into the exposed air duct. She caught Katherine's eye before her captain disappeared after her group. She told her firmly, "Stay safe. And tell Stefan and Kol we're ok."
The thundering screeches of claws on steel caught Caroline's attention, and she realized that the creatures had broken down the top half of the doors. Realizing that Klaus hadn't moved from Matt's side, she allowed him one final moment to look at his fallen colleague before yanking him toward the air duct. She helped him climb up before vaulting in after him, quickly pulling the metal grate behind her.
Just as she locked it back in place, she saw the werewolves tumble into the control room, long claws scrabbling on the concrete floor. Fortunately, despite their height when they reared up, their muscular bodies were too wide to breach the concrete air ducts. Suddenly, one of the monsters stiffened, sniffing the air as though it caught her scent and was studying it. It turned its massive head to regard her with a dark, wild stare before resuming its threatening growls.
Klaus tapped her shoulder, distracting her from the werewolf's confusing behavior. As she quietly followed him into the dark recesses of the airshaft, she couldn't help the disquiet she felt. Because she could have sworn that for a moment, she glimpsed a flicker of emotion, a bizarre sadness in the werewolf's dark eyes.