"I don't see anyone." Caroline said as she looked around the empty forest.

"That's because they don't want to be found." Klaus said in a voice that would tell everyone hiding in the woods that he was there. As if they were supposed to greet him. "But I can feel them." he said quietly, turning to Caroline.

"So?" Caroline looked at him. "Are you going to howl and transform into a big yellow puppy to find them?"

Klaus smiled fondly, his dimples showing. "Not really. They'll know I'm here." He looked around the trees and turned around once more to sit on the hood of his car. "Also...sweetheart, I don't exactly turn into a puppy." He said with a mischievous smirk. "But I can let you pet me if you want..."

Caroline sighed and rolled her eyes. "Not this again."

Klaus raised his eyebrows with a serious expression. "And I'll need you to stay close to me, just in case." he added with an amused little glint in his eyes.

Caroline tilted her head to the side. "I don't think being attached to you keeps me out of danger."

Klaus grinned. "It does. At least from others."

Caroline sighed. "Aren't they just regular werewolves? It's not like I should be scared of them when it's not full moon."

"You should know that even when they're not fully transformed, their bites can be lethal to you." Klaus clarified.

"And to you?" Caroline asked.

Klaus laughed. "I'm a hybrid. No other beast is lethal to me."

Caroline stared at the intensity in his eyes and for a second she forgot what she was thinking. She caught herself staring and quickly looked away.

"So we wait for them to show up?"

"They'll find us."

Klaus opened the door of his car, "In the meantime, why don't we go get a drink and enjoy ourselves?"

Caroline put her hands on her hips. "What makes you think they'll come to you?"

Klaus smirked. "Because wolves are extremely territorial. More so than vampires. The moment they smell us, they'll follow."

Caroline rolled her eyes as she got in the car.

"Good. Maybe now I can eat something while you wait for them."

"Don't worry. We can have ourselves a little feast."

Caroline watched the road as Klaus drove.

"So how long will we stay?" she asked in a small voice, hoping to sound like she was merely curious.

"I don't think it will take much time now." Klaus said. "It won't be a problem to convince and turn them since I have your friend's blood with me. We'll be back in a few days."

She was surprised to have a proper answer for once but she didn't want to look disgusted or enthusiastic, so she simply nodded as nonchalantly as possible.

Klaus looked at her. "You seem to be getting used to being my partner in crime, love."

Caroline struggled to keep her composure and not snap at him. "I guess so." She mumbled instead. She was getting better at playing his game.

Klaus kept his eyes on the road as he smiled a little to himself.

"Tyler..." he began, suddenly drawing more attention from Caroline. His voice sounded like he was having too much fun with whatever he was going to say. "He can't control himself when he's in his wolf form, can he?" Klaus said slowly as he watched Caroline for her reaction.

She looked at him. "What do you mean?"

Klaus only smiled.

"You can?" Caroline asked, her eyes wide.

Klaus looked away, his smile still in place.

"So you are completely in control."

He raised an eyebrow.

"I always am, love."

"I mean in wolf form." Caroline said, trying hard not to roll her eyes.

Klaus looked at the road, still smiling.

"Stop that." Caroline spat.

He rubbed his forehead. "What?"

"Smiling."

He looked at her with mock offense. "But I'm told it makes me look angelic." He faked an innocent smile.

Caroline closed her eyes with frustration. She could feel the anger slowly rolling away in waves from her body "Six days! You've been dragging me around for nothing!" She mimicked his tone. "I know they're here, sweetheart. Wait and see. My hybrids.'" She put her hand on her forehead and huffed. "Finally you say you know they're there. And to be honest I think you're delusional because I didn't smell anything! You're just doing this to annoy me. To...to spend time with me." She rolled her eyes when Klaus gave her a playful look as he raised his eyebrows.

"Also... for the last time, stop flirting."

Klaus looked at her. "You get grumpy when you're hungry. How about we get you something to eat?"

Caroline didn't answer him. She'd lost control again. He was right. She was hungry but she was also frustrated. They'd been looking for his potential hybrids for almost a week now and they'd spent every moment of every day together. She'd dropped her guard almost completely when she was tired and she'd already crossed more limits than she liked to admit. She was acting more casually with him while he was constantly teasing her and talking to her in the same sweet voice and it drove her crazy. One again she realized that no matter how she tried to act numb she always ended up acting the way she felt like anyway. And right now she just didn't care. He didn't hurt or threaten her anymore. He was basically killing her with kindness. Which, she thought was pretty ironic. The other night, when she snapped at him for trying to manipulate her he'd just stare at her as if he was hurt. She'd expected to be shoved away and punished for it but he'd just taken her by the arm and ended up buying her a drink.

What was he thinking?

"Sweetheart."

She closed her eyes in anger. Sweetheart this Sweetheart that. He was getting on her nerves.

She looked up to see Klaus watching her intensely. "I think I found the perfect place to eat." He pointed at the bar ahead. "Let's go and find you someone to eat."

Caroline froze. "Are we out of bloodbags?"

"We are." Klaus said slowly. "No worries, love. I don't think anyone would mind you sinking your teeth in them."

Caroline shook her head as she rolled her eyes. She had to feed on someone and compel them to forget. She hated doing that. And Klaus knew it.

"Then what?" she asked, not giving him more pleasure by arguing. "Will we wait for your wolves to come to us? Will they howl in the night when they arrive?"

Klaus laughed.

"I'm serious." Caroline said. "You dragged me for a week now and the moment you find them you're telling me we'll wait. Do you really think they'll be eager to just accept the fate you decided for them?"

Klaus seemed to think for a second and then his eyes slowly met hers.

"I'm giving them freedom. Their devotion after that will only come naturally. You see, Caroline. I like to earn loyalty."

He gazed into her eyes with that look Caroline hated the most. It was as if he was looking into her soul. She swallowed. "Like you did with Stefan?"

Klaus ignored her.

Caroline looked at him.

"What? No 'He was my best mate, until I made him forget about me for his safety' again?"

"Why should I bother when you make it clear that you're determined not to believe me?" Klaus asked as he suddenly looked serious.

"You're right." Caroline felt herself flush under his gaze. She really hated his genuine moments. She knew he was telling the truth. And it annoyed her even further.

"Okay, let's go eat." She said, looking outside.

Klaus nodded, looked away from her and got out of the car.

Caroline waited as he walked around and opened her door. He'd been doing this every time since they came here.

He smiled sweetly. Like the psycho he was.

She almost cursed under her breath. "Thanks," she hissed as she got up from her seat. His expression changed when their faces were inches apart, he was just looking at her the way it made her feel naked but this time Caroline stared back into his eyes, not backing off. Even if it wasn't any less harder.

She waited for him to step back and when he did she turned towards the bar.

Klaus smiled to himself as she kept walking.

Caroline watched the young woman walk towards the bar as she asked for a drink and waited.

She knew Klaus was watching her from the dark corner.

Probably with a smirk plastered on his face.

She sighed. Every time, he waited for her to show him how she could be like him.

And every time Caroline proved him wrong.

"Hey," she smiled at the young woman. She had beautiful, wavy red hair. Caroline smiled warmly. The woman smiled back. "Hey."

"I'm Caroline."

"Jess."

After the first random guy she'd chosen to feed on was murdered by Klaus without a blink, she'd figured women had more chance of survival when she let them go. And it had worked. He didn't seem to mind her being "compassionate" to women. At least not as much. He really had weird jealousy issues.

She didn't like taking a chance anyway but she had to eat.

"Do you hang out here a lot?" She heard herself say. God. I sound like I'm trying to get in her pants. Lamely, that is.

Jess smiled. "Not really. You?"

"Same." Caroline nodded awkwardly. How did other vampires lure their victims? Did they just compel them without making small talk? Which would make more sense. But Caroline always found it hard to just bite someone without even knowing their name. She felt like she was violating them. She would take their permission if she could. She would tell them it wasn't personal. She would rather not do it at all. But Klaus always grew impatient. He would take over and that never ended pretty.

"Um..." She began but Jess cut in. "I-"

"Yeah?" Caroline smiled.

"You were saying-" Jess laughed.

"I'm really bad at this." Caroline said to herself but Jess smiled. "It's okay... I...I'm not so good either."

"At what?" Caroline asked, confused.

"I mean...um I don't actually pick up girls from bars." Jess said slowly.

Caroline looked at her. "Oh..."

Jess bit her lip.

Caroline suddenly realized what she meant.

"Oh. You mean..." She laughed. "That's not why I was... I mean I didn't mean to-"

"No?" Jess asked.

"I mean you're gorgeous." Caroline smiled sweetly. "But it's just that I'm not into... girls. Though you're pretty and I would definitely be interested. You know... if I were-"

"Oh." Jess looked away. "I'm sorry. I just assumed. When you started talking to me-"

"It's me who should apologize. I'm just hungry." Caroline blurted out.

Jess looked confused. "Do you need money?"

Oh, she was such a sweet girl. Caroline sighed.

"I actually kinda need..." She looked back at Klaus who was sitting in the corner, drinking his precious scotch.

"Stop it." Caroline whispered to herself but she knew Klaus could hear her clearly. "You're distracting me."

"Is that so?" She heard Klaus' voice. It was so soft and low that she was sure no one else could hear him.

For a second she looked back at him. She could swear that his eyes were shining with amusement.

"Did you say something?" Jess asked.

"I was just...um can you help me with something?" Caroline asked with a resigned voice. She needed to feed now.

"Yeah sure." Jess said.

"Just come with me?" Caroline asked. Jess looked at her for a second before nodding. "Okay."

Wow, she hadn't even needed to compel her.

When they walked in the ladies room, Caroline smiled to Jess assuringly and slowly checked around to see if there was anyone else. When she made sure that they were alone she walked towards Jess. She had to compel her.

"Look at me." She said softly.

Jess met her eyes.

Caroline swallowed.

"I'll need to bite you for a second, and you won't feel any pain. I'll be done in a minute. Okay?"

Jess' lips parted slowly. "Okay."

"I'm sorry." Caroline said. "When I'm done I want you to forget about this. You'll be happy and perfectly healthy. And also you shouldn't just go with strangers when they ask you to. Okay? That's not safe. No matter how innocent they look."

Jess nodded.

"Okay." Caroline said to herself. "Here I go."

"Any chance you'll be done by sometime around the next century, love?" She suddenly heard Klaus say.

She whirled around.

He was leaning against the wall, with arms crossed, looking at her.

"What are you doing here?" She hissed.

Klaus tilted his head to the side. "Watching you feed. Patiently."

Caroline sighed. "Get out."

Klaus pursed his lips. Slowly pushed himself off the wall and strutted towards her.

"Come on."

Caroline looked at him. He was going to watch her feed. As if she wasn't actually going to do it. Did he get off on it or something? Possibly.

"All right." She said finally.

"Jess, just look at me." Jess' gaze was already fixed on her.

"I'm truly sorry for this. I swear it's not-"

Klaus rolled his eyes. "It's like you're begging me to take over."

"No!" Caroline snapped.

Klaus' eyes darkened.

"Please." She said slowly. She had to remind herself to be cautious but she kept getting swayed by her emotions. "Please let me do this on my own." She said.

Klaus looked at her with an expression she couldn't define.

"Go ahead." He said.

Caroline looked at Jess but Klaus' intense stare didn't help.

"I can't do it when you're looking at me."

"You've already done it a dozen times with me watching."

"You make it sound so dirty." She said, disgusted.

The corners of his lips curled up.

"Okay." Caroline said stubbornly. She wasn't going to give him more pleasure by fighting.

She pushed Jess' hair behind her ear as tenderly as she could.

Klaus watched.

She gently moved her lips to the girl's neck and slowly sank her teeth in her flesh.

Jess gasped.

He suddenly appeared right beside them.

"Shhh." He whispered to the girl's ear. "You're safe."

Caroline lost herself in the taste of her blood. She closed her eyes and savored every drop, slowly, focusing on not hurting the girl more than necessary.

Jess moaned as Caroline sucked her blood and fed the blood lust in her veins.

No guilt. No shame.

Just blood.

After some time, she felt Klaus' caressing her hair.

A part of her felt annoyed and sick.

But she realized that for some reason she also found comfort in his touch.

Assurance.

She didn't even know she needed it.

"Go on, love. That's it..." He whispered, his voice like velvet on her ears, like a caress on her skin. "That's my girl."

Caroline pulled away.

"I'm not-." she spat, her eyes unfocused.

Klaus stared into her eyes, at her mouth which was smeared with blood."

"Let her go." He said slowly, taking her hand in his. Taking her hand away from someone.

Caroline felt like she was in trance. Her whole body was getting warmer, slowly burning up.

The fire settling in waves.

She suddenly realized.

I drank too much.

She turned to Jess. She held her by the arm. "Are you okay?" She asked frantically.

Jess nodded slowly, her eyes were closed but she was still under compulsion.

Caroline brought her hand to her lips but Klaus stopped her.

"I'll take care of it."

"This isn't the first time I'm doing this. I can handle it." Caroline protested.

"Leave it to me." Klaus said, his gaze shifting between her eyes and lips.

"I don't want you to puncture your beautiful skin." He said, looking into her eyes.

Caroline felt warmer. His words sounded like bullshit considering everything he put her though but his eyes, they were so... genuine. She really hated it.

Klaus bit into his hand and let the girl drink.

"A few drops should be enough." He said, pulling his hand away. "Now go, this never happened."

Jesse looked at him and then turned to Caroline.

"You never met Caroline."

"I'd already compelled her." Caroline pointed out.

"I heard." Klaus said. "All the same, my compulsion is stronger than yours and it won't do us harm to make sure she doesn't remember this little encounter."

Caroline rolled her eyes. "What are you, five? 'My compulsion is better than yours'" she mimicked him.

Klaus turned to her and took out a handkerchief and slowly wiped her lips.

"You must be kidding me." Caroline mumbled. Klaus smiled a little, in a way she hadn't seen him smile before. It wasn't mocking. It was...weird. Caroline looked away.

"So...I don't hear any howling yet." She said quickly. Hoping to distract him.

Klaus put his handkerchief away.

"I do. I have a feeling we'll be seeing them right about...now." He glanced at the door.

Caroline raised an eyebrow.

"What? They're waiting for us?"

"They're already here. Three of them, I'm guessing they represent the pack."

"And you're sure they're here on friendly terms."

Klaus smiled a big smile and looked at her as if she was such a naive, innocent little girl.

"What I'm saying, sweetheart, is that it wouldn't matter if they weren't. You'll see."

Of course he wasn't afraid of werewolves. Didn't matter how many or how strong they were. He was stronger. And he was so confident it scared her.

His smile could be as terrifying as it could be...fascinating.

Caroline thought he was the devil sometimes.

Most of the time, actually.

He gazed into her eyes and offered her his hand.

"Shall we?"

"Do I have another choice?"

Klaus smiled. He leaned in closer.

Merely inches from her face, he stopped.

"I think you'll find that you won't want to have other choices, love." He said playfully, in her ear.

His voice almost made her shiver. "You've started to enjoy what we have here. And it's only the beginning."

Caroline swallowed. She wanted to object but he looked at her as if he could read her mind.

She realized she didn't know what to think. Maybe it was the blood that was still warm on her tongue.

Maybe it was the lighting of the room.

The way it played in his eyes.

And when he stood this close to her, her judgment washed away with her resolve.

It wasn't even sexual. It wasn't fear.

She felt pure excitement.

She felt alive.

And even though she was angry at him for forcing her to come all this way, to kill, to compel, a part of her reveled in the freedom.

Which was ironic, considering her choices were "taken" away.

But a part of her that she had ignored for such a long time seemed to have lifted its head from the darkness.

And it was asking for more.

A/N: Hey guys, I'm truly sorry it took me a year to write this chapter. To be honest other than being busy as hell with work, I started writing three times and I lost the files so I had to write from the start. Also with the way the show went I kind of lost my inspiration along the way to write something serious and dark. But I don't want to abandon this story and I'm planning on updating really soon. With some action that is. If I didn't have to work I'd probably give you guys a novel length fic filled with dark Klaroline which is basically all I want. At the same time, a part of me wants to write the character growth faster so I have to give you less darkness as we achieve a certain stage in their relationship. For now, it's as you can see, Klaus playing mind games and also being affected by Caroline while Caroline confronting her true self under all that "light" inside her. This is the thing I love the most about them. The deeper you go with Klaus the more light you can find in him. And with Caroline, if you dig deep enough there's a certain kind of darkness. It's not like the one Klaus carries and it takes a lot of work to get there but it's kind of the source of her goodness in a way.

I hope you liked this chapter. It doesn't have much action since Klaus is fixed on having her by his side for now rather than push her further. I hope it will make the next chapters all the more fun for you guys.

Please review, it will mean the world to me to know you guys are still reading and still interested in more.

I would love to know what you think, which parts did you enjoy the most?