Thank you everyone for the lovely reviews! I'm glad you all enjoyed last chapter. As I said before, intensity will pick up between Klaus and Cami in this chapter. Good or bad? You'll find out. I do not own anything! Thank you for reading and enjoy!
Klaus's POV
I can hardly believe I am holding her in my arms. I run my hand through her beautiful blonde hair and breath her in. She seems smaller in my arms causing me to pull tighter. After everything that had happened tonight, this was my biggest surprise. I would have never thought she would show up. Her head lays silently on my chest drenching it in tears. Where has she been this entire time? I release my grip and bring both my hands to each shoulder keeping her steady arm lengths away. She sniffles a little but and wipes her tears away. I can't help but bring my left hand to her face and brush off a few with my thumb. Her gaze meets mine and a shockwave sends through my body.
"Camille..." I say once again searching her face. Slowly my eyes rake her body. I instantly notice the claw marks on her arms and the way she has put all her weight onto one side. Her right ankle ripped into leaving a little skin over the bruises bone. I clench my teeth knowing I was not there to protect her. Her body starts to turn a light pink and her hand lays on my elbow.
"Klaus, I know what you are thinking, I'm okay I..." Every bit of my soul burns and I know she can see the fire in my eyes. "You are not okay, look at yourself. I... You..." I have absolutely no way of explaining my fury to Cami. She had been hurt and I was nowhere to protect her. But how could I have protected her? I couldn't even find her...
"Where have you been?" I say through clenched teeth. I grind them hoping they will become nothing but dust. Her face is masked with fear and my heart breaks. She tries to take a step back but her weight cannot be supported. She rolls over her ankle and before she can hit the ground, I hold her pressed up against my body. With a hand on my chest and the other gripped to my arm, she keeps herself upright. New tears form and I watch her jaw tremble. She is raking her mind for words but nothing every comes out of her peach lips. I know I'm spending far too long and too much focus on them I wish to capture them. I know I'm getting closer and right before our noses touch she turns her face.
"Klaus..." She says for the second time. I slowly guide her to the bed and set her down. I step back three feet giving us enough space. If she is as flustered as I feel, I know that moment did go on. I stand staring at her with my arms crossed. This night wasn't going to end well and we both knew that. I spend the next five minutes pacing watching her every move. She keeps meeting my gaze and quickly looking away. Her tears have dried and she runs her fingers through her hair. "Please Klaus say something, anything!"
"And say what Camille? You have been gone for almost a month, no sign of where you were. Do you honestly think that I haven't been terribly worried. I haven't slept in days. I thought you were hurt or captured. I've needed you more than I ever have before and you were not there. So don't make me ask again, where have you been?" I hiss tightening my fist with every word.
She sighs obviously conflicted on what she was going to say. "I've been in town this entire time." I exhale deeply shaking my head. Where?! I wish to demand. "If it weren't for right now, you'd probably laugh and we'd smile about it, but obviously not in this situation..." I stop her enraged with her loops trying to escape the question. I approach her tired of her silly game. "Get to the point, I am losing patiences." I bark looking down to her. "I had Vincent and Davina put a cloaking spell on me, I was that bartender that always waited on you." My body goes rigid and my heart aches. The strength in her eyes was hers. The unexplainable disappearance and appearance of the new bartender. The way she already knew my name. She said is all too fast that I'm forced to take a second to comprehend. Her eyes stayed glued to the floor. I feel compelled to lash out at her and disassemble her like I do with all my victims. Love restrains me. "Klaus I just needed space and time away from your lifestyle." She interrupts my thoughts.
"And look where that has left you. Back into my damned life and suffering like everyone else. You are a coward!" I yell freezing immediately aware of what I had said. "Camille.. I.." "A coward? I'm the coward!" She yells getting of her foot even though her body tries to restrain her. I have never seen this fire burn in her eyes before. "You... you are the coward. You hide from everything. From everyone. How dare you insult me! I have been nothing but supportive to you. I am the only person that has constantly seen good in you and I sure as hell known I shouldn't. I needed space because you are always, and I mean always, leaving me. Every time I finally see the pure good, the pure love in you, you run. So God forbid I ran after you leave me in the dust." Her cheeks are a deep red and her face glows with anger. I turn to leave but her hand locks me in. "Don't you even dare think about leaving. I trusted you and you still hurt me. I'm tired of being whatever the hell I am to you. I didn't come here tonight to be called a coward. I came here because I knew you would need me but I can, I will leave and never return." She yells with every sentence getting closer to my face. Her breathe is sharp and quick. I have never seen this side of her. I am not good in situations like this, my response is never appropriate or right. Bad habits don't just go away. I size up to her.
"I am 1000 years old and have lived far longer than you psychological brain could even imagine. I have experiences far worse events than anything you have ever endured. I called you every day and every night and you denied me. Camille I need you and I know that you need me. The matter of the fact is Hope is missing and I don't have time for this right now. I can't have you as a distraction, so do us both a favor and please just leave. So as you say and never come back" My voice goes from a throat-ripping yell to a whisper in a matter of a second. I turn from her not daring to look in her eyes.
"A distraction?" She laughs. The laugh that haunts your dreams. Her hot-head is fogging the entire room. I know I will lose myself if I look at her. I had let all this trail too long. "The least you could do is own up to your feelings. I heard the voicemail of yours and Elijah's conversation. If what you said is true, I'm not just some human you want to leave. Just admit that you are scared of the feelings that we have built." She shouts. her voice cracks and I know more tears are falling. Her sentence ended so quickly as if she was trying to bite it back.
"I'm terrified." I yell spinning towards her grabbing her shoulders. The way she's looking at me reminds me of when I told her that I didn't kill Aiden. I can hear her heart beating and that her breath has stopped. She stands stunned hinting at an almost relieved expression. She shakes her head. "What?" Her voice in a whisper.
"Camille I am a man damaged by his demons and every day I watch them become yours. You do not deserve a man like me. I have already told you this countless of times." I softly say running my hand over the area I once bit her. "We can't keep thinking that 'we' could ever happen. It's impossible and you know that. The danger I put you in kills me and I can't let you live this way anymore."
"You don't control me Klaus, I make my own decisions. Remember? You are so caught up in the this idea that no one can save you, that this hole you're in is impossible to get out of. You never let anyone in and you are letting yourself burn because of it. You refuse any good that comes to you because you'd rather be alone and a monster than be with people that actually care for you. You are not the villain in this story. I'd hate to think that Hope looks at you and sees you a monster. If anything you are her biggest hero. The only demons that haunt you are the ones you're creating in your very own head." She takes a deep breath patiently waiting for an answer. After a minute, she crosses her arms thinking she has won this petty war. I flex my jaw biting back all the words I need to say but know that they are not wanted.
"And then am I not the demon everyone sees me as? I will get you killed and that is not a causality I cannot live the rest of my life with. I've gotten you hurt and that as itself has torn me apart. I can't keep asking you to walk the line with me. I find comfort in your safety and I need you to be safe." She watches every words leave my lips. I can see her fighting her instincts to slap me and scorn my old soul. Her cheeks build in color and her face sharply shakes left and right.
"Only when I am with you, I finally feel safe. I never asked for any of this. You told..." She shouts poking my chest, " you're the one who found me, that no matter what, you were going to find me. If fate really did bring us together then I'm not just standing here for you to tell me that my life isn't yours, because it already is. I have debated leaving and never ever seeing you again but against everything of my better will I just can't." Her voice shakes with every word and her anger only grows. "I've spent this part of my life alone in my apartment asking myself if I deserve this cruel life, that maybe I can dream of a world without evil, I become angry knowing that you took everything from me. That my life has been ruined by yours. You forced me to forget everything I knew of my brother and Kieran, you were so rude to me and showed me every side of you, you made me find comfort in a man by compelling me to give him a second chance. Each time I have done exactly what you said and have never faltered, but with you, my best is never enough. You will always have enough time to correct your mistakes, always enough time to make mends. I don't. I have maybe 60 years left in my life before everything I wish I had accomplished will become impossible. You're life will be so different by then you'll probably forget to visit my gravestone. And it will just sit there unnoticed like I am now. I have no one and no one will remember me. I've realized I have spent all this time trying to bring the good out of you and you have ruined any that remained in me. I am done wasting my life around someone who will never see me as enough." She shoves past me, her whole body shakes and her ankle barely keeps moving. I can hear her wincing with every step.
"Camille please you aren't strong enough." I softly say to her catching up to her putting my arms around to her waist to take the pressure off her ankle. "And I guess I never will be." She shyly states looking everywhere but at me. Her face is filled with pain from the walking. I pick her up and bring her back to her bed. I see how exhausted she is, she doesn't even fight. I watch as her eyelids try to stay open. Her body gives in and she lets me tuck her in. I bite my wrist and she barely has enough strength to drink any of my blood. I look helplessly down at her. There is nothing I could say to fix what had happened tonight. I think she assumes that too. I walk to the door and flick the light off. The hallway light gleams enough in the room to illuminate her face. I grasp the handle getting ready to close. "I have noticed you since the day we met, don't ever think I wouldn't miss you. You are enough, you've always been enough." And I shut the door.
Well there you guys go! I hope you liked it. I wanted to write a bunch a fluff and decided I don't want to go down that path just yet. I wrote an alternate ending which will be right after this paragraph. Please review and as alway, thanks for reading!
Alternate ending:
"You don't control me Klaus, I make my own decisions! Remember? I've spent the last month deciding that a life without you, isn't worth living at all..." She says meeting my gaze. And i suddenly realized that what she said went the same for her. I shake my head disproving myself but I do it anyways. My lips crash into hers and I lose myself. The spark thats been set off between us shoots through both our bodies as one. My hand returns to the tangles of her hair and I decimate the space between us. Her body presses against mine and for the first time I can take in every curve and inch covered in skin. My hand runs up her arms causing goosebumps to appear instantly. I keep slowly guiding her back until we bump the bed. I debate on laying her down but she is far too special to ruin in one night. I give her one last passionate kiss and I pull back. Her pink lips are now swollen and her cheeks are flushed. Our bodies crave more but I cannot be so naive with someone as fragile as her.
"Why I am not surprised you are the first to pull back." I frown at her comment brushing hair out of her beautiful face. "Camille I pulled back because that is how much to mean to me. I cannot risk ruining everything we have built." My mouth burns without hers on it and my body fizzles wanting more. I can feel instinct wanting to take control and finish what we started. "You should sleep, a lot has happened tonight." I bite my wrist and she knows the routine. Slowly the marks disappear and she wiggles her foot. Reality hits her cold and hard in the face as if she just now understood what had happened. "Klaus i didn't mean what I had said..." I stop her with a small kiss on the cheek. "We both said things we are not proud of but all had to be said. We were becoming grenades with our unsaid troubles." I pull back to the sheets patting her to fill the empty spot. She looks at me with pure bliss in her eyes.
"Will you stay?" Even with everything that has happened, I had never slept a more soundless night.
I hope you all liked it! More chapters coming soon. Please review! Again thank you for reading!