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VI

Klaus tried everything, but nothing could take his mind away from Caroline. It had been two months since he left Mystic Falls but it felt like only two seconds. He tried everything he could to shake his feelings off, but nothing worked. Not killing on a rampage, nor isolating himself, nor having countless one night stands that didn't survive to tell the tale. But nothing erased her image from his mind. He tried avoiding blondes, but it didn't work. Then he did the opposite and aimed for blondes, but it was only worse. Caroline was imprinted in his mind and heart. And then he simply accepted the fact that nothing or no one would be able to make him forget about her, so he gave up. It'd been weeks since he slept with any woman or since he killed innocent people for the sake of it because if anything both things only caused him more pain. He knew she wouldn't approve of him killing and he felt like cheating on her when he was with someone else. Both ideas were bizarre to him because he wasn't with her, so there was no cheating involved. Also he had always seen himself as a monster that no problem killing and he wasn't going to let anyone change him. But he knew deep down it wasn't Caroline that was changing him. It was the emotions taking over. Guilt and regret making it hard for him to be who he had always been.

Trying to be productive at least, Klaus focused his attention on trying to find a way to defeat Silas as his informants told him the ancient vampire hadn't been completely truthful to them about his plans. While he couldn't care less about people in Mystic Falls and the undead coming back the other side – he was positive he would be able to kill them again, just like he did the first time – his main concern was Caroline.

There was no convincing her about leaving the wicked town, especially while Elena continued to be such a nuisance. He urged to just kill the doppelganger and end Caroline's slavery to a girl that wasn't worth the time of anyone's day, but he had hurt Caroline enough.

When he decided he wouldn't compel her to forget his compulsion – and therefore his betrayal – he did it knowing it would only make things easier for him – and for her. She would never come to look for him not only because he compelled her not to, but also because he knew she wouldn't forgive him. He found himself being hurt by that realization, but he was convinced he had done what was best for her. And although he had never understood why people sacrificed themselves for others, he didn't regret his actions. He didn't mind the pain that came from making Caroline hate him and destroy the frail and rocky friendship they had reached. He would be her perdition and he couldn't allow that. He couldn't risk her coming to him because he knew he wouldn't have self-control to reject her if she did. She deserved much better than him and because he loved her, he would sacrifice any remote chance he could ever have with her as long as she was happy. But just because a part of him felt that way, it didn't mean he was at ease with his choice. A part of him hated himself for being so vulnerable and soft, but he was still picking which battles to fight and that one wasn't worth it.

But just because he didn't think he was the right man for Caroline it didn't mean he thought Tyler Lockwood was. The mutt was just a jock that as expected was far from brilliant or even clever. He was just a small town boy that didn't have anything to offer to Caroline, someone that would never understand the potential she had and who she could be. But still Caroline loved him and he seemed to love her back and maybe that was enough. Maybe love would be enough to make her happy even if loving such a boy she would never allow her to reach the greatness he knew for sure she was destined to.

She would make a glorious queen to his kingdom in New Orleans. She would help him rule the city and make vampires not only be on top of the food chain, but also control the city, take their rightful place in the highest positions.

The witches, of course, offered resistance to his plans, but he didn't expect them to put such a damper on his plans. New Orleans had always been a place where they had practiced their magic and voodoo nearly freely and the city seemed to even embrace that side of the supernatural world although to most witchcraft wasn't exactly real, and overall just some superstition and something that brought good luck and helped karma.

If Caroline was with him he wouldn't have gone rogue and killed so many people, leading the witches to be even angrier and more resistant. The situation almost spun out of control, but Elijah had helped him to hold back and be smart about it. It was difficult to be cold and calculating as he had always been when he felt everything. When every single emotion was torturing him and consuming him. He had been blind by rage and anger in a way to feel like himself again in his own skin, but it didn't help. Actually it only made it worse as he felt guilt, disappointment and even regret for the newest additions to his black list.

A part of him accepted he was a vampire – a hybrid for that matter – and that killing was in both his dominant natures. The problem was the human part of him. It had been as dormant as his werewolf side had been for a thousand years, but now it was not only awake, but roaring its disapproval towards his actions. And in the middle of the turmoil of emotions one thing kept him sane: his love for Caroline.

It felt good to know he had been able to make a sacrifice for her, it eased him to know he was taking care of her by having a few of his compelled minions to keep a closer look at her in Mystic Falls. Despite the discontentment that came from knowing Tyler was with her. Releasing his only hybrid to come back to her arms comforted him for he knew that was what she wanted and what would make her happy.

If only he knew how wrong he was in that assessment.

She wanted to hate him. There was nothing more she wanted than to hate the vile Original Hybrid, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to do it. Especially because she had seen right through all of his actions.

It was all for you.

His words still haunted her. She knew he had released Tyler to come back because of her. She knew he had compelled her to keep away from him for her own good. Damn it, she even knew that he didn't make her forget the compulsion so she would have one more reason to hate him, but it actually had quite the opposite effect.

She missed him.

She had come to terms to that. For more than one year everything she and her friends wanted was to get rid of Klaus, and although they had never been successful in the many attempts to get rid of him they were now living in a Klaus-free world.

He didn't come back, he didn't look for revenge, he didn't hurt or even threaten any of her friends. He simply left, trying to put Mystic Falls behind him. And she knew the only reason why he went away so peacefully was because of her. He had said so.

But she had spent enough time to him to know how he operated. Actually she hadn't spent enough time at all, but the brief friendship they had and the many times she approached him as a distraction had been enough for her to learn how to read some of his actions. She wasn't going to fool herself. She still had no idea of who Niklaus Mikaelson really was and what made him behave like a perfect psycho for no apparent reason. He didn't spare anything or anyone. Violence was second nature to him and she even suspected he used to take pleasure into killing, torturing and hurting people and that wasn't something she could understand.

She knew it must have been hard for him to have his own parents planning his death for a thousand years. She knew it must have been hard to receive the hate from his father when it wasn't his fault his mother had an affair. She knew his own siblings betrayed him. She understood why he was so damaged and lost, but she couldn't understand why he thought crude violence was the key to overcoming it all. In fact, she thought the way he handled things only made it worse as it created a vicious cycle in the Mikaelson's family dynamics. They didn't trust each other, and they plotted against one another as a way not to be the next victim.

She really felt sorry for him. How could she not? But that didn't mean she was willing to agree with his methods of dealing with everything.

And then there was the kiss. And that brought two more problems to her.

First she couldn't forget it. She couldn't shake the feeling of his soft lips against hers. She couldn't forget how her body reacted, physically and emotionally to that kiss. And every time she looked at the bracelet lying on her dresser the memories became even more vivid. She had liked kissing him. She had liked it much more than she should. And that led to her second problem with that kiss.

She hadn't told Tyler about it. They have been together again for two months and still she hadn't found the courage to tell him that not only Klaus had kissed her, but she had kissed him back, even if briefly. And she was positive that was the reason why things with her boyfriend were so different since he came back. They spent a couple of months apart since Klaus had led Tyler to run, and it seemed like they couldn't reconnect even two months later.

She felt like she was holding back because she knew she was lying to him. Technically it was only omitting, but she couldn't help but feel guilty and even undeserving. Sometimes she even thought he suspected something had happened – although he never asked – because he also seemed to have put some distance between them.

They hadn't decided yet where they were going for college. They had applied for a few universities and although they knew it was wrong, they would compel their way into the same as soon as they decided which one they would go. The only place they were both accepted was the Richmond University, but neither seemed excited about the prospect of going there. She was accepted in a few other places, including Columbia, but it seemed like her heart was somewhere else. A little more to the south. She knew exactly where she was tempted to go, but she hadn't applied to any universities in Louisiana. Stop it, Caroline. There's no way you're going there. There's nothing there for you, she reprimanded herself, but she would be lying if the possibility wasn't becoming more and more appealing to her. She was even trying to reason with herself it was a good choice because of the university and because of the nearby beach and other things, but she knew deep inside her reasons weren't actually more than one. It was just one reason. A reason that had compelled her not to look for him. Although he never compelled her not to move to the same city as him.

Reminding of what he did before leaving made her blood boil, but she was slowly admitting not for the reasons she initially thought. Not completely anyway. Yes, she hated him for taking away her free will, but she hated him even more for proving to her he could be saved. And now she didn't need conjectures that felt like memories she didn't recollect. She didn't need any conclusion she might have come to while she was hallucinating. She simply knew it. She knew he could be saved and that only drew her even more to him, but not because she couldn't resist a project. But because saving Niklaus Mikaelson would have anyone's biggest accomplishment in life. Not only for all the evil and bad it could prevent, but especially because of the great good it could cause. She had seen firsthand that when his heart was in the right place, Klaus could be amazing. She could try and pretend she would be doing it for a greater good, for the human race, but she knew she would be doing that for two people mainly: the two of them.

And that kind of thought scared her. As each day passed she felt like she took a step towards the edge and she wasn't sure if she wouldn't simply jump. Her guilt was still too much and she was still very much true to her words to him. She couldn't, she wouldn't act on whatever it was she felt for him – and she used all her self-control to refrain herself from finding out what whatever was. She couldn't do that to her friends and especially not to her boyfriend. Klaus had killed Jenna, Elena and Carol. Those murders shouldn't be taken lightly especially when she knew he would kill anyone that crossed his way or that was needed for him to reach his goals. But he spared you and your friends, a voice told her, but she brushed it off quickly.

She decided to focus on another thing she hated about him: that he seemed to be right about her growing need to label what she felt for him, to explore it, to get it out of her system. She hated it when he was right about things she didn't even know herself. She hated whenever he was right, period. He was Klaus, he was evil, he was a monster. He should never be right.

But he was, more often than not. And she hated it.

But before she could indulge in the one emotion she was comfortable indulging about Klaus, her phone interrupted her thoughts.

She felt really stupid for feeling her heart racing in her chest every time her phone buzzed. There was a small hope in her heart that it would be him, that he would contradict himself and not be able to keep away from her, but she was wrong. As she normally was about him. And it only made her even angrier. How come he was always right about her and she was normally wrong about him? infuriating, but her insistent ringtone brought her back to the present reality.

"Hey," she greeted answering her phone, Stefan's name stamped on the screen.

"We've got a problem," Stefan said quickly.

"What happened?" she asked feeling the anxiety growing. She felt so shallow for spending so much time thinking about her pathetic personal life when there was an ancient vampire running around, making people see whatever he wanted, manipulating and threatening them constantly.

"I figured out why Silas haven't made any move yet,"

"And what is that?"

"He needs three sacrifices to be completed. The council and the hybrids massacres were the first two, but he needs a third one. I've made some research and I found out exactly what he needs and where needs to do it,"

"And?" she asked, panicking a little inside.

"He needs to complete a triangle, and he needs to sacrifice twelve witches,"

"And where would that take place?"

"There are two spots in the woods that it could happen. Damon is with Elena and he can't go with me, Tyler made it clear he doesn't want any part in any of it anymore and Bonnie had disappeared. Her father called us asking if we had seen her. she had left earlier in the morning and she doesn't answer her phone,"

"Oh my God, do you think he'll kill her along with eleven other witches?"

"No, I think he needs her to do the spell that will drop the veil, but I think he used her to attract the witches to Mystic Falls,"

"We should go to the sites where this sacrifice could be happening and hope we're not late,"

"Which is why I need your help, I just sent you a map of one of the locations. I'm going to location A and you could go to location B. Do whatever you have to stop the sacrifice,"

"I'm on my way," Caroline said as she stood up, leaving her bedroom.

"We should wait in the neighborhood in case they are yet to go there, but if you find someone there, you text me," Stefan instructed and she agreed, before they disconnected the call.

"What?" Klaus yelled on his phone.

"The Salvatore brother called her and they have a plan to stop Silas," the vampire explained again, as he followed Caroline from a safe distance.

"And you should stop her. I don't want her anywhere near Silas," Klaus kept his voice loud, enraged by the stupidity of his minions.

"We're still following her. Should we kidnap her? Snap her neck?" the vampire asked, not sure if Klaus would agree with hurting Caroline somehow.

"You do everything you have, but you won't let her anywhere near Silas! Stop short of killing her, but everything else is allowed otherwise you're dead," Klaus ordered, and the vampire gulped.

"They're here," Klaus heard Mark saying, as Jim was basically paying attention to Klaus and following the older vampire.

"Who?" Klaus asked, feeling his stomach clench. He hated to feel powerless, but that was how he felt knowing Caroline was in danger and he was hundreds of miles away.

"I guess they're the twelve witches the Salvatore brother mentioned, and her friend, the dark skinned one, there are thirteen people in a sort of a circle"

"What is Caroline doing?" Klaus asked relieved. If there were only thirteen of them and Bonnie was there, it meant Silas probably wasn't. Unless he was taking Bonnie's form, and just like that he was nervous again.

"She's using her phone,"

"She's informing Stefan. Wait and see what happens, but closely. If any harm is to happen to her you do what you're compelled to do!"

"Die for her," the vampire answered mechanically. As he watched as Caroline hung up and watched the witches, making no move to approach them or make her presence known. Then Bonnie started changing, and Caroline took a step towards them.

"Keep telling me what's happening," Klaus demanded, feeling tense and angry, as the vampire stayed silent for way too long, while he could hear some buzz in the background

"She's talking to one of the witches, explaining that they were there to be killed and Silas complete the sacrifice,"

"Did the witch believe her?"

"Not yet, she's giving Caroline a migraine,"

"Stop her!" Klaus yelled. Mark was about to make his move, but Stefan was faster.

"Stefan Salvatore arrived, he's talking to the witch. She stopped attacking Caroline,"

"Go there and take Caroline away, I don't care what she says, what Stefan says, just take her away," Klaus ordered, as he winced, a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"We're on it, boss," Jim said, as he looked to Mark and they walked towards the circle, while Klaus used his heightened senses to try to hear what was happening, but he could only make Caroline's voice in the distance.

And that was when hell broke loose. Jim and Mark tried to capture Caroline, but Stefan saw them approaching and attacked them. The witch that talked to them, started to attack Bonnie, finally believing what Stefan showed her in the book he stole from Shane's office.

"Tell Stefan you're working for me to protect her!" Klaus yelled on the phone, and as Stefan was attacking Jim at that exact moment, he heard the Original's voice, stopping the punch midair.

"Klaus?" he asked, as Mark attacked Caroline, who was ready for the attack the moment she saw Stefan fighting. Improvising a stake, she attacked the vampire quickly, hurting him, but not killing him, while she saw Stefan talking on the phone with someone, as the other vampire made his way towards her.

Caroline didn't know why Stefan was talking on the phone instead of helping her, but when she heard Bonnie's scream, she ran from the approaching vampire, towards her best friend, and without giving it a second thought, she snapped the witch's neck in a millisecond.

"No!" Stefan yelled, as Jim reached Caroline and took her away.

"What happened?" Klaus yelled on the phone that Stefan still held on his hand, as he watched the witches dropping dead one by one.

"Stefan, what happened? Where is Caroline?" the hybrid yelled, desperately.

"It's done," Stefan whispered as he answered, still shocked by the events.

"Where is Caroline?" Klaus feared the worse, the tears already dropping from his eyes.

"Your vampire took her away. She killed them, Klaus. She killed the twelve witches, she completed the triangle," making Klaus' brief relief for knowing Caroline was alive be swept away.

AN.: I know I should be updating my other story, but I can't complete that chapter, and I'm having so many ideas to this one - I even have a sort of outline now, and I need to tell you I'm completely changing where I was initially taking this story to. I hope you'll still like it.

I read your reviews, and I'll try to please everyone, but I have a plan and I'll stick to it.

And to answer the anonymous of you:

Guest 1: If I do the baby story line it won't be in the way you described it. First, even in the show, I don't think Hayley or the baby would be a priority for Klaus. I'm not even sure if he puts Rebekah and Elijah ahead of Caroline to be honest. But I can assure you in this story there's no one more important for Klaus than Caroline. She is his priority, so rest assured. Also if I do the baby story line, I won't make Hayley pregnant. We've seen the last of Hayley in this story. She's off somewhere looking for her biological family. Also my point when I mentioned Tyler in one of the previous chapters wasn't to make it look like he didn't put Caroline first, I know he did. I just wanted to show that Caroline values what Klaus did for her in a different way she values what Tyler did because Tyler is her boyfriend, he's a good person, and it's sort of his obligation as both looking out for her. Klaus on the other hand is really evil, violent, and selfish, when he does something because of her it has a different meaning because she knows he's getting out of his way. It's really meaningful not only because he doesn't have any obligations towards her, but mainly because that's not what he normally does.

Guest 2: I wouldn't say I made it impossible for KC to happen in the fic. Just because Klaus compelled her it doesn't mean they will never meet again. He could uncompel her, he could change his mind, she could break compulsion because of him, she could have been on vervain, she could get someone to contact him about what he did. There are many possibilities to get over that bumper in the road. I guess I explained more about his reasons in this chapter, but if you still have doubts about why he did that, let me know.

Aujla: I don't like the idea of Klaus being a father, but I have to confess I'm tempted and because this is fanfiction and not the show, I'm considering it. But if I take that road, you might be surprised about how it will develop.

Thanks for reviewing, guys! And sorry if there are any mistakes, still no beta. The truth is I didn't send Elena the chapters because I've been so terrible to update and to make you guys to wait more because of beta editing doesn't seem fair. You let me know if you rather wait more and have it edited. Oh and please, take the time to review. It makes my day and I really hear to what my reviewers say.

Have a nice week

Babi