A/N: Hey there, thanks for being so patient with me. The last three chapters before this one took a lot out of me. Moreover, I was struggling with how to best approach the chapter. I received a lot help/opinions/ideas from a few very wonderful readers/reviewers, so I'm really grateful them, as I am to all of you for continuing to read and review.
Also, I'm really pleased with the reception to the last chapter - particularly the end. I was worried about your reactions, but it turned out I had nothing to be concerned about.
I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the last. This chapter, and likely the next, are mainly filler chapters leading up to the final climatic event of my story: prom.
She could vaguely remember falling asleep outside against his chest. She could vaguely remember him slipping on her feet back into her shoes before he picked her up and wrapped the blanket around her. She could vaguely remember him carrying her back to the house and upstairs to his room where he tucked her into his bed and climbed in beside her.
All of that would explain why she was still dressed in nothing but her underwear, stockings and his suit jacket, and why the blankets were pulled back on one side of the bed.
Rubbing her eyes absentmindedly, she cursed herself when she noticed the black on her hands from her make-up she never bothered to wash off before bed. She could only imagine that she was a sight for sore eyes.
She sighed at the empty space beside her before rolling over with a stretch.
The slight anxiety his absence brought her was quelled when she noticed him through the closed French doors in the other room putting the finishing touches on the painting of her he had started yesterday.
Smiling, she watched him contentedly as he worked.
She could also vaguely remember him telling her that he loved her. No, scratch that. She could vividly remember him speaking those words to her as the sun came up.
Her cheeks reddened as her smile intensified uncontrollably as she replayed the moment over in her mind.
Everything about it had been perfect. In hindsight, it was a fairytale moment; the kind of unrealistic romance you never expect from reality. That was the point; it was an unexpected and unplanned romance; apparently it was inadvertently Klaus's thing after all, she mused.
There was this excitement bubbling inside of her. She had this insane urge to jump out of bed and scream at the top of her lungs that he loved her. She wanted to tell anyone who would listen.
Elena would have been the first person she texted if circumstances had been different.
Who could she talk to now?
It was almost painful having to keep this development to herself.
She was sure Klaus would prefer it that way though.
Maybe he himself had forgotten the words he had uttered to her earlier? After all, he was drunk, high off her blood, and sleep deprived when he said it.
There was no way it slipped his mind.
When you say something as significant as those three words, you never forget it, regardless of how drunk you are.
Besides, she couldn't really blame him for letting it slip after he had been drinking. The first time she confessed her love for him she had been drinking too. She confessed it to him believing him to be Tyler; little did she know.
She rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling with a contented sigh as she dared to replay the moment to herself one more time.
The clock on Klaus's nightstand said it was just after noon-hour. While it seemed late, she really hadn't gotten that much sleep when she thought about it.
Sitting up, her head still felt a little fuzzy from last night's excessive alcohol consumption.
Listening closer, she could hear commotion from downstairs probably due to Klaus's birthday being disassembled. She was surprised Klaus wasn't in the midst of it seeing as how he had been so concerned about it yesterday.
Slowly climbing out of bed, she headed for the bathroom to wash her face and grab a shower.
As she started her shower, she was only moderately surprised when she heard the bathroom door open and close.
She began to wet her hair with a smirk, anticipating his intentions.
Through the steam, she managed to catch a glimpse of him stripping away his jeans and old t-shirt.
She closed her eyes again as she tipped her head back to catch some more water.
When the glass shower door opened, so did her eyes.
She let her eyes roam his body shamelessly as his did the same to hers.
He was already sporting half of a hard-on for her.
A small grin tugged on her lips as she turned around to let the spray of the water hit her face.
"You're awake," he said. "Good afternoon."
"You found me," she mused, stepping aside to let him warm his body with the water.
He shrugged as he soaked his hair.
"It wasn't hard. You left a trail of your lingerie for me to follow," he explained mirthfully, "which I can't say I minded."
She picked up the shampoo she brought for herself and put some in her hand.
"Good," she said decidedly as she massaged the liquid into her scalp.
He stepped aside, allowing her access to the water to rinse out her hair as he retrieved his own shampoo.
When she was done, she returned the gesture and offered him space to rinse out his own hair under the showerhead.
She hated that he was playing coy with her; making it seem like this was merely an innocent shower to be shared.
Taking the initiative, she filled her hand with some of his body wash while he was occupied with rinsing his hair.
She put her palm on his chest, drawing small circles as a lather formed between her hand and his skin.
He let out a low groan as he tipped his head upright.
She ran his hands over his arms and then onto his stomach.
"What are you doing?" he asked feigning ignorance.
She arched and eyebrow as her hands descended lower.
"What does it look like?" she asked with a playfully sarcastic tone. "I'm seducing you in hopes you'll take me in the shower," she said bluntly.
His eyes widened as a smirk appeared on his face.
"Can you hold that thought?" he wondered just before her hands reached the base of his growing manhood.
She frowned, eyeing him curiously.
He kissed her before looking at her apologetically.
"I actually really came in here to shower," he laughed. "Elijah and Stefan are downstairs waiting. They want to go dispose of the human body of the wolf I killed the other night."
She couldn't help but laugh at the situation before scoffing.
"Now who's being a huge tease?" she complained as she began to use some of her own body wash on herself.
He kissed her again, a little more intensely than the last.
"I never tease without the intention of following through, love. Unfortunately my follow through will have to wait until later," he told her.
She sighed and nodded, knowing she wanted more than what a quickie in the shower could offer her anyways.
"Promise?" she asked.
"Of course," he said obviously, as he rinsed his body off.
She finished her shower shortly after him and gratefully caught a towel he tossed in her direction when she emerged.
Wrapping the towel around herself, she re-entered his bedroom. Fully intending to cloth herself, instead she succumbed to her hangover induced laziness and fell back into his bed, wet hair and all.
It's not like she had anywhere particular to be. She wasn't exactly keen on tracking down the wolf that attacked her the other night.
She crocked her head up when Klaus stepped into the room. She admired the curl of his damp hair and the perfect way his jeans rested on his hips as he slipped a white t-shirt over his head. She was sure he could hear her sigh when he finished his look with his collared black spring coat, but he only replied with a smirk.
"You sound concerned about this wolf?" she said.
He shrugged as he approached her.
"Where there's one wolf, there's usually more. I want to determine who they are; if I recognize them. Perhaps that could explain why they're in Mystic Falls - a notoriously hostile environment for wolves," he explained. "This place is teeming with vampires."
"And big bad original hybrids," she teased as she looked up at him.
He climbed in between her legs on his knees, kissing her jaw chastely.
"Precisely," he said.
"Can't you just send Stefan and Elijah to retrieve the body?" she pouted as she ran her fingers over the material of his jacket.
He caught her extended lower lip in between his own.
"I have to go," he said before laughing slightly. "I refuse to fall for your feminine wiles like I did yesterday," he added, tracing his index finger over her collar bone.
She grinned guiltily.
"But you enjoyed yourself yesterday, didn't you?" she wondered hesitantly.
He nodded.
"Did you?" he asked warily.
She reciprocated his nod.
"We drank too much, spent too much money, and stayed up too late though," she mused.
"I have no regrets," he stated, a seemingly serious expression forming on his face as his eyes focused on hers. "None," he emphasized.
Her stomach fluttered instinctively in response. She knew exactly what he was referring to and it was what she needed to hear.
She nodded again quietly as he pried himself off of her.
"I'll be back later on," he told her before leaving the room.
She dressed herself in simple jeans and a floral blouse and debated what to do with the day as she picked up her things.
Deciding to pay her mom a visit before doing some homework, she practically had her hand on the bedroom door to leave when she was startled by an annoying knock on the other side.
"Caroline, I know you're in there," Rebekah said. "Open up. We have prom stuff to attend to."
So much for her mother, or her homework, she thought.
She opened the door to find Rebekah seemingly stunned that she had answered the door so quickly.
Leaning against the door frame, she sighed.
"How are you not more hung over?"
"I can handle my liquor," Rebekah shrugged.
"So what's on the agenda?" she asked, deciding it was probably best just to go along with Rebekah's plan.
"Well we have place cards to make up, a dinner menu to decide on, a layout to create, and table settings and centrepieces to confirm," Rebekah listed. "The event company Kol enlisted for Nik's birthday is the same company I contacted for our prom. After they're finished cleaning up downstairs, Taryn, one of the planners, is going to have a few tables set up so we can make some final decisions," Rebekah explained. "Oh, and Adrian is coming over later too. He's bringing my dress for a final fitting, and apparently he has yours too."
Her eyes widened.
"Already?" she asked.
Rebekah nodded.
"Well I did compel him to hurry up. I guess he took me a little too literally," Rebekah mused.
She rolled her eyes before following Rebekah to her room.
"We're hand-writing the place cards in cursive. They do still teach that in school, don't they?" Rebekah asked her.
She laughed and nodded.
Rebekah handed her some place cards along with a thin black marker and a list of prom attendees.
"You do the right column, I'll do the left," Rebekah instructed her. "Use a book for a hard surface," she added before taking a seat at her desk.
She grabbed large hardcover book randomly off one of the shelves in Rebekah's room and spread out all the material on the area rug in front of the fireplace.
"How did the rest of your night go?" she asked Rebekah curiously as she noticed the dress Rebekah had worn last night draped over the end of her bed.
She couldn't see Rebekah's face completely, but she thought she could see a small smile.
"Bonnie and Matt took a cab home soon after you left us," Rebekah informed her.
Rebekah paused and sudden silence unnerved her.
"Matt agreed to be my prom date," Rebekah said finally.
She exhaled in relief and found herself mirroring Rebekah's beaming expression.
"He did? Rebekah, that's great," she exclaimed.
"I didn't think it would happen," Rebekah admitted.
She shrugged.
"I think you underestimated how forgiving Matt can be," she said.
"I guess I did," Rebekah conceded as they both turned their attention towards the work they had to do.
After a while, she heard Rebekah scoff.
"That's what I don't get," Rebekah complained. "I nearly killed Matt and he's giving me a chance. You fall in love with Nik and Elena doesn't want anything to do with you," she scowled.
She sighed.
"Well that could change, but I won't get my hopes up," she hinted, sparking Rebekah's intrigue. "Elena and Damon were here last night."
Rebekah turned around in her chair to fully face her, now sporting a confused expression.
"They were here last night? What did they want?" she asked.
"They weren't here very long. They left as we gave Klaus his cake. They came to make a deal with us," she revealed to Rebekah.
Rebekah was becoming antsy with her cryptic talk.
"A deal?"
"When I confronted Elena the other night I kind of let the prospect of a cure slip. Apparently Elena is sired to Damon. They want the cure to break the sire bond," she explained.
"So what's the deal?" Rebekah asked.
"They need Klaus to help find the cure. In exchange, Damon gave up the white oak stake, and Elena has offered up her blood and a promise to be more understanding of my relationship with Klaus," she told Rebekah.
Seemingly deep in thought, Rebekah nodded absently.
"And you're just okay with Nik creating more hybrids?"
She shrugged.
"He just wants them now for our protection; nothing more. He's willing to compromise," she assured Rebekah.
"And the cure?" Rebekah asked.
"What about it?" she wondered.
"Nik's just going to destroy it after Elena gets her hands on it?" Rebekah clarified.
She nodded.
"I guess, unless anyone else wants it," she answered.
Rebekah gazed briefly out the window before confronting her with a serious look.
"You don't want it?" Rebekah asked.
She shook her head.
"No, I don't," she replied.
Rebekah seemed surprised.
"Because of my brother?" Rebekah inquired.
"I like who I am as a vampire. I don't like the person I was when I was human. I know it sounds ironic, but being a vampire has made me a better person," she confessed.
"But didn't you ever want to grow older? Have kids?" Rebekah wondered.
She nodded.
"I did; there's a part of me that still does, but I know that I want to be with your brother more," she admitted.
"And Nik would never take the cure," Rebekah added.
"No, he wouldn't. I would never ask him to," she said.
Rebekah looked pensively down at her desk.
"Would you take the cure?" she asked, curious to know Rebekah's answer.
A long sigh escaped Rebekah's lips as she almost tried hard to ignore the question. It was obviously something on her mind; something she had considered.
"You don't have..."
- "I would," Rebekah cut her off. "I would take the cure."
Needless to say, Rebekah's confession surprised her. Klaus's sister had always flaunted her strength and revelled in the power being a vampire gave to her. It seemed unlike her to want to give all of that up for a human life.
"I've been a vampire for almost a thousand years," Rebekah continued. "And most of those years have been miserable. I'm tired of it. I want something different," she said. "I want to live, I want to grow old, I want to work, and I want to fall in love, be married, and have children. I want to feel it all. I want to appreciate life," she revealed.
She tensed at Rebekah's very personal confession. Rebekah had never been as open with her as she was being right now.
"Where would you go? What would you do?" she asked, curious for Rebekah's answer.
"I suppose I would stay here. I like it here. This is the place I grew up in after all. I would finish school; go to college," Rebekah answered.
"What would you study?" she questioned, encouraging Rebekah to continue.
Rebekah shrugged.
"Perhaps medicine," Rebekah replied.
She thought back to the conversation she and Klaus had the day before about his adventures with Rebekah.
"Klaus said you were a nurse during the First World War," she mentioned.
Rebekah nodded, both surprised and intrigued that Klaus had divulged such information to her.
"I was, but only to follow Nik. At that time, nursing was the only medical profession open to women. I am more interested in research," Rebekah explained.
She sometimes forgot everything Klaus and his siblings had lived through over the centuries.
After she encouraged Rebekah to reveal all her hopes for the cure, she decided also to be the voice of reason.
"You know things may not turn out as you plan," she reminded Rebekah, urging her to consider the potential negatives of taking a cure.
Rebekah nodded.
"I know that," Rebekah said. "But my mortality would force me to make the most of it," she concluded. "All I really want is to be normal."
"Have you ever told Klaus this?" she asked.
Rebekah shook her head.
"Nik, Kol, even Elijah; they're all too consumed by the power being immortal gives them. They wouldn't understand," Rebekah said decidedly.
"I'm sure if you told them what you told me they might," she offered.
Rebekah shrugged pessimistically.
"Even if they did, Nik would never give me the cure," Rebekah sighed.
"Why wouldn't he?" she countered.
"He wouldn't want to let me go. Nik is selfish," Rebekah replied. "Except with you, apparently."
She glanced down bashfully at the original task at hand.
"If he wouldn't give you the cure, Rebekah, then I doubt he would give it to me if I wanted it," she said.
Rebekah didn't seem convinced.
"He's made a lot of sacrifices for you, Caroline. You're probably the only one who could convince him to give up his hybrids. If you wanted the cure, he would give it to you - not without some persistence of course. Hell, he might even take the cure himself for you eventually," Rebekah carried on.
She shook her head.
"Well it doesn't matter anyways, because I don't want the cure," she said, pushing their conversation around full circle. "But if I have as much sway with him as you seem to think, I could try to put in a good word for you," she offered.
The whole idea of Rebekah taking the cure was bittersweet to her. On the one hand, despite all of their drama, she genuinely wanted Rebekah to find happiness. On the other hand, she suspected she was feeling the selfishness that Rebekah claimed for Klaus. Despite all of their drama, she couldn't picture a time when Rebekah would not be here.
Rebekah eyed her hopefully.
"You would do that?" Rebekah asked.
She nodded simply.
"If the cure is what you wanted, then I would," she answered.
Rebekah offered no reply, preferring instead to let her confirmation digest as she returned to the work at her desk.
After devoting a while longer of writing out place cards, she found herself unable to let go of her conversation with Rebekah. It kept relentlessly nagging her every time she tried to concentrate on the task at hand.
"Rebekah?" she asked.
"Hmm?" Rebekah replied.
She hesitated.
"What makes you so sure that Klaus would give me the cure if I wanted it?" she asked.
"He loves you," Rebekah stated.
"But he loves you too?" she countered.
"It's a different kind of love," Rebekah retorted. "And I don't mean because you're fucking him," Rebekah added with a laugh.
She laughed alongside Rebekah, letting her smile linger a little too long as she allowed the warm feelings spurred on by Klaus's confession last night to overtake her.
"Okay, spill," Rebekah urged.
She snapped out of her blank but smiling stare and looked questioningly at Rebekah.
"You've been smiling like a fool for the last five minutes," Rebekah said.
She was about to reply when Rebekah interrupted her again.
"I take it back. I don't want to know if it's anything sexual," Rebekah protested through squinted eyes.
Rolling her eyes she fell back against the area rug with a huff.
"Klaus said it last night," she said vaguely.
Rebekah's eyebrow arched.
"Said what?" Rebekah asked.
"He told me he loved me," she revealed, trying hard to contain her excitement as she finally had someone to share the news with.
Rebekah's features softened and her lips parted with a hint of shock.
"He was pretty drunk last night, Caroline," Rebekah reminded her cautiously.
She shook her head.
"He wasn't that drunk," she reasoned.
"I haven't heard my brother use that word as anything but a term of endearment for centuries," Rebekah pointed out. "Did he say anything else?"
Shrugging, she recalled him mentioning Katherine and Elijah.
"He basically said that his love for me allowed him to understand where Elijah was coming from with Katherine," she explained.
This revelation seemed to sway Rebekah's opinion in her favour.
"Elijah loved that pesky doppelganger," Rebekah said loathingly.
"He wanted Klaus to try and spare her during the sacrifice," she added, remembering the story Elena had told her.
"And that's why; he loved her," Rebekah sighed. "Perhaps there was some honesty in what Nik said to you," she conceded. "He wouldn't have brought up a sore point between him and Elijah if there wasn't."
She smiled at Rebekah's affirmation and they both returned to their work.
On occasion she would glance at her phone, wondering if she should text Klaus to check-in. His curiosity about the wolf had started to unnerve her. Sure, tracking a dead body in the woods seemed innocent enough on its own, but she knew Klaus suspected something malicious with the wolf's appearance in Mystic Falls.
Before she could send her text, she got a mail notification on her phone from Rebekah.
She glanced up at Rebekah who was busy fidgeting with her own phone.
"Did you get my message?" Rebekah asked.
"Can't you just talk to me in person? I am sitting across from you?" she mused sarcastically as she opened the message.
A smile hit her face instantly when she saw the photo Rebekah had taken of her with Klaus from the night before.
She couldn't help but laugh at how silly it actually looked now that she was sober.
Neither of them was actually looking at the camera. Klaus was looking down at her with one of his infamous smirks that showed off his dimples; and she didn't even know where she was looking - off into space she supposed.
"You need to frame that one," Rebekah chortled.
"Maybe a soberer re-shoot is in order?" she suggested as she made the photo her phone's wallpaper.
Rebekah smirked.
"It's a cute photo, actually," Rebekah conceded. "Very 'in the moment.'"
As Rebekah's phone started to complain, she took a moment to send Klaus a message.
"Taryn is downstairs. She has the tables set up for us to take a look at," Rebekah informed her.
Elijah parked the SUV on the side of the road where Caroline's car had been the night before.
It looked different in the daylight; almost unrecognizable to how he remembered it.
Truthfully, he hadn't taken much time to make note of his surroundings after he found Caroline. His main priority had been getting her out of there and back to the house so he could heal her.
He stepped out of the vehicle and greeted Elijah who emerged from the driver's side.
"It's nice to see you dressed down for the occasion, brother," he joked, unsurprised by the fact that Elijah was still in a dress shirt and pants under his jacket.
Elijah shrugged nonchalantly as Stefan slid out of the backseat.
"You look a little worse for wear, mate," he chuckled.
Stefan shot him a snide look as he stretched.
"If I'm not mistaken, I believe Stefan drank his way through half the bar's supply after you retired with Caroline. I found him late this morning buckled over on one of the sofas in the parlour," Elijah mused.
He smirked at the thought as Stefan grew a defensive look at both him and Elijah.
Scoffing, he patted Stefan on the back.
"Aw, we should take it easy on poor Stefan, brother," he decided. "Certainly we're both aware of the woes women can bring. Stefan certainly handled himself better than I would have," he stated, thinking briefly to his and Elijah's affair with Tatia.
Elijah nodded.
"We nearly killed each other once or twice," Elijah acknowledged.
"Tatia?" Stefan concluded with an intrigued look on his face.
"Indeed," Elijah replied. "But that is in the past now," he added, exchanging a knowing look with him.
Stefan shrugged as they approached the tree line.
"I feel like murdering Damon, hence why I drank enough to render myself immobile," Stefan admitted.
He laughed at Stefan's confession as it trudged up memories of their mostly care-free days in the twenties.
"We could stop at the boarding house if you like. You know I don't much care for Damon," he offered, semi-jokingly.
"Don't encourage him, Niklaus," Elijah chided with an amused grin.
"Yeah, don't encourage me," Stefan glared at him, clearly mocking the way Elijah talked to him like an older brother would.
He gave Stefan a light shove forwards, nearly causing him to stumble over some of the staggered terrain.
"Surely Stefan knows the bond of brotherhood is more important than the love of a woman," Elijah shrugged.
He mimicked Elijah's gesture.
"You would think, but it would appear the Salvatores learnt nothing from Katherine," he said, garnering him a disapproving glare from Stefan. "It would seem you are the only one, Elijah."
Elijah went noticeably quiet with his last comment.
His mind went his profession of love for Caroline. He understood why Elijah had acted so seemingly irrational with Katherine; why he tried to spare her life and appease him all at once. Elijah loved Katherine, but in the end she betrayed him.
Not since Tatia had Elijah opened himself up like that to a woman, and that had been the last time. Elijah had resigned himself to a life of solitude much like he himself had for all of his vampire life...that was until Caroline.
He wondered if he and Caroline would share the same fate as Elijah and Katherine. Perhaps this all had been much too good to be true.
Certainly fate would dictate that if Caroline were to ever betray him it would be now that he had confessed his love for her.
He brushed the moment of insecurity aside. He told her earlier that he harboured no regrets and he meant it.
If his moment of vulnerability came to backfire on him, he would address it if it happened.
He tried hard not to dwell on it. For if he did, he knew he would only grow bitter and detached.
"I forgot Katherine manipulated you too," Stefan scowled.
Elijah sighed.
"I loved her once," Elijah admitted. "As I'm certain you did."
"And it's that love that almost tore us apart a second time," he interjected.
Elijah glared at him.
"It didn't have to," Elijah said simply, clearly referring to the plan the witches had devised to spare the doppelganger.
He shrugged.
"It's no matter now. She betrayed you when she ran," he replied. "She destroyed you, not me, brother," he defended himself.
"True enough," Elijah acknowledged.
"Katherine always was a selfish bitch," Stefan mused as they continued to walk.
Both he and Elijah smirked.
"Something all the doppelgangers seem to have in common," he joked.
He could see Stefan's jaw clench and he knew he was pushing it with the younger Salvatore.
"Come on Stefan," he chuckled, "you know deep down its true - even about Elena. Personally, I think you and Damon should wash your hands of the entire thing and move on. It won't end well for either of you whether or not Elena takes the cure," he warned.
"It's easier said than done, Klaus. You and Elijah both know that," Stefan countered.
He arched an eyebrow as Elijah looked at Stefan passively.
"Do we?" he wondered.
Stefan nodded.
"You and your brother don't exactly have a great track record of taking your own medicine," Stefan explained.
He paused for a moment, knowing Stefan had a point; knowing that at this point he was in too deep with Caroline, and despite being aware of the risks, he could never wash his hands of her.
"I mean even if Elena took the cure and it was revealed that her feelings for Damon were only a product of the sire bond, your relationship with Damon would suffer. Moreover, Elena would eventually succumb to her mortality," he continued. "Is it really worth it?"
Stefan shrugged as a pensive expression crossed his face.
He tried quickly to decipher it, a smile appearing on his own face once he did.
"You want to take the cure for her?" he inquired curiously.
He looked to a hesitant Elijah.
Stefan shook his head.
"I don't want to take the cure just for Elena. I'd want to take it for myself too - regardless of her feelings for me," Stefan claimed.
"Really?" he said intrigued. "So even if it still turned out that Elena's feelings for Damon were real, you would still want to take the cure and become a powerless mortal?"
Stefan nodded.
"We both know I'm not cut out for this life," Stefan said.
"Are any of us really?" Elijah interjected. "This is a significant choice."
"A choice I didn't have when Katherine turned me in the first place," Stefan said.
He smirked.
"A choice that you still don't have since I'll be the one obtaining the cure," he mused.
Both Elijah and Stefan glared at him and things went silent for a few moments as Stefan considered how to reply.
"Would you give Caroline a choice?" Stefan asked.
He scoffed at Stefan's weak attempt to get under his skin.
"She doesn't want it," he answered. "She likes being a vampire."
Stefan crossed his arms and his eyebrow arched with suspicion and surprise.
"What if she did? Would you give it to her?" Stefan questioned.
He remained silent.
"Would you give it to her if she wanted it?" Stefan interrogated. "You would, wouldn't you?"
He rolled his eyes dismissively.
"I would, is that what you wanted to hear?" he relented, staring Stefan down. "If she wanted it badly enough, then I would give her the cure," he said. "Christ," he complained uncomfortably.
Stefan's expression relaxed into one of satisfaction as he made eye contact with Elijah.
"So then what's it to you if I stay a vampire or become human?" Stefan asked.
He shrugged with a sigh.
"The grass isn't always greener on the other side, Stefan. I don't want you to make a mistake," he seethed.
"Well then like Caroline, it's my mistake to make, isn't it?" Stefan retorted, clearly annoyed by the fact that he was holding the cure over his head.
"Surely there would be no harm in letting Stefan take the cure, brother," Elijah pointed out.
He grumbled under his breath at Elijah's attempt to undermine him.
"I suppose it would mean one less vampire I'd have to worry about stabbing me in the back," he muttered, stepping ahead of both Stefan and Elijah as they neared the spot where he had killed the wolf.
His cell phone started to sound from his coat pocket soon afterwards. It was a text from Caroline.
He went to read it, but his cell phone was ripped from his hands as his body was seized by a rope net that quickly pulled him up and suspended him from a thick tree branch.
The sudden entrapment disoriented him and he winced as he grabbed the ropes to regain his bearings.
"There's vervain on the ropes," he scowled, staring down at a bewildered Stefan and Elijah who were scanning around them for any other traps or threats. "She will literally be the death of me," he hissed amusedly as he noticed his phone on the ground.
Stefan smirked as he picked up the phone.
"Caroline wants to know if everything is all right," Stefan laughed as he read the text message he himself had just been about to read. "She also says that she's going to hold you to your promise later tonight, and she added a winky face," Stefan added mockingly.
He tried his best to ignore Stefan's teasing as he covered his hands in the material of his jacket and grabbed onto the ropes.
"Maybe I should reply," Stefan teased.
"Fuck off, mate, and help me down," he demanded as he tried to crouch up enough to bust the ropes with his foot.
"The spot where Caroline was attacked is close by," Elijah said from a few feet away as Stefan began to climb the tree. "I can smell her blood."
He took a second to focus on his sense of smell, instantly picking up the scent of her blood as Elijah had observed.
With another slam of his foot, he was able to exert enough force to snap the thick branch and break the rope cage on his own. Expecting the fall, he landed on his feet as the former rope cage open and pooled underneath him.
He brushed himself off before smiling up at Stefan, who had now climbed the tree for nothing.
Stefan jumped down from the tree effortlessly, giving him a snide look before stepping forwards.
He anticipated it before Stefan could even blink, and he extended his arm to halt Stefan much to his chagrin.
Stefan had almost walked right into another booby trap consisting of a trip wire that would have released, from what he could tell, wooden stakes carved from nearby branches.
He motioned his head to the ground and Stefan followed suit, soon noticing the trip wire and the stakes.
A look of realization spread across Stefan's face and he gave him an appreciative nod as they stepped over the trap and Elijah followed them cautiously.
"This is where I killed the wolf," he said, pointing down to a darkened spot of dirt and a blood-stained rock.
"The body's gone," both Elijah and Stefan noted.
He gritted his teeth in frustration as he kicked at the dirt.
"The scent is too diluted. I don't recognize it," he said as he struggled to make sense of it. "There's a female and a male wolf. I think," he described.
"But there was only one wolf. You're not picking up Caroline's scent, are you?" Stefan inquired. "Her blood is here too."
He shook his head.
"So that means if the wolf you killed was a male, there was female wolf present after the fact, or vice versa," Elijah concluded.
"Mates, perhaps, or pack members" he suggested.
"And what about the traps?" Stefan wondered.
"The hunter," he stated. "Trip wires seem to be his style," he explained, thinking back to his adventure with Caroline in the hunter's hotel room. "He suspected someone would be back. He knew about this."
Both Stefan and Elijah were busy pondering.
"You think the hunter has a connection to the wolf?" Stefan wondered.
He shrugged.
"I think a talk with the Council is in order, brother," he said to Elijah.
Elijah appeared reluctant.
"We don't know for a fact that this had anything to do with the hunter, Niklaus. The Five usually like to advertise their work. I saw no symbols on those haphazardly carved stakes back there," Elijah pointed out. "Maybe this is another threat altogether. Perhaps they want you to believe it was the hunter?" Elijah suggested.
He considered Elijah's words.
"So are you saying we should do nothing?" He asked Elijah incredulously.
"No, but I think we should lay low and proceed with caution. If we react overzealously and overconfidently we could lose the hunter and put everyone in even greater danger," Elijah recommended. "Our priority should be capturing the hunter."
He exhaled impatiently, knowing Elijah was probably right.
"I think Elijah is right," Stefan agreed.
He glared at Stefan before conceding to his brother.
"Fine, we'll focus on the hunter," he said, "but I want you to withdraw your municipal funding. Let's see if a fiscal crisis will motivate the Council to be more cooperative."
With a consensus reached, they lingered in the woods awhile longer, curious to see if the person or persons behind the traps would emerge.
However, they had no such luck. With his patience waning and daylight fading, the three of them departed.
After dropping Stefan off at the boarding house he and Elijah returned home.
He groaned when he noticed Adrian's car parked out front.
"Perhaps he has my suit," Elijah wondered as he pulled the vehicle in behind Adrian's.
He scoffed as he climbed out of the car.
"That's doubtful. Rebekah probably has him obsessing over her prom dress," he concluded.
"You're probably right," Elijah agreed.
They stepped inside and he was relieved to see the house had been cleared of all birthday evidence from last night.
There were, however, a few decorated tables on display.
He eyed them suspiciously.
"These must be some options for prom," Elijah noted. "Rebekah mentioned something earlier about the event planning company that we hired to do your birthday being the same one helping with prom."
He looked over the brocade and damask table linens, the varying upholstered chairs, along with the variety of colourful flower arrangements and candles.
"It looks like they're really going all out," Elijah observed.
Nodding passively, he couldn't help but notice a crate of paintings off to the side.
He clenched his jaw as he inspected the paintings. Most of them belonged to him - some of them were Rebekah's.
"I see Rebekah's taken the liberty of bringing out some of the eighteenth century artwork for the occasion without consulting me," he grumbled. "If any one of these pieces is ruined by the teenaged rift-raft brought into the house I will not hesitate to slaughter the bloody lot of them, including our dear sister," he threatened as an amused Elijah listened.
"Do you really think the majority of these kids have an appreciation for fine art, Niklaus? They probably can't even tell the difference between a Picasso and a da Vinci. I doubt they'll even notice Rebekah's eye for detail to get close enough to cause any damage," Elijah laughed.
He shrugged as he focused in his hearing for the location of his sister and Caroline.
They were in the sitting room off his study as they had been during their last meeting with Adrian. He could hear them laughing.
"I'm going to talk to Caroline," he informed Elijah.
The doors to the room were closed when he approached, but he disregarded it and opened them anyways.
All three of them gasped in surprise.
He himself sucked in a breath unexpectedly.
Rebekah was neatly fitted into her prom gown with Adrian tightening the corset laces, while Caroline was standing at the far end of the room in front of the large mirror in the corner, the back of her dress clipped.
"You're back," Caroline said, eyeing him through the mirror.
"Nik, what the hell?" Rebekah scolded.
"What?" he asked annoyed. "This is a common room in the house."
"I could have been changing," Rebekah cried.
"In front of Adrian and Caroline?" he laughed before nodding to Adrian as an informal greeting.
Rebekah scoffed.
"So what do you think?" Rebekah asked, a now high pitched voice replacing the spiteful one.
Rebekah pulled away from Adrian and twirled around to show it off.
The pale blue dress featured a faintly embroidered laced corset and a billowing skirt of silk and tulle.
"If you were trying to embody the very best of eighteenth century fashion excess, than I suppose you have succeeded," he said jovially as Rebekah shot him a nasty look.
He chuckled as she rolled her eyes, fully knowing that he was joking with her.
"Caroline, I need to speak with you," he said as he looked over Rebekah's shoulder.
"Did you find the wol..." Rebekah attempted to ask before he silenced her with a sharp glare.
He motioned his head towards Adrian.
Rebekah nodded with a bit of annoyance before Caroline stepped forward.
"I need to change out of this anyways. Adrian still needs to take it in a little more and put in the zipper. My clothes are in your study," she confessed as she moved past both Rebekah and Adrian.
He followed her, closing the doors behind them as they entered.
"Unclip me?" she requested as she stood in front of the upholstered chair her clothes - and what he assumed were Rebekah's clothes - were draped over. "I can't reach the top one," she laughed.
He obliged readily, the prospect of seeing her half-naked a secondary thought as he approached.
Gazing over the back of the dress, the image of how it looked from the front crossed his mind.
The ivory cream coloured dress fit her like a glove; the ruched bodice hugged her waist flawlessly. The crystal embellishment along the sweetheart neckline accentuated her perfect cleavage, while the bustled skirt flowed down from her hips in a whimsical way. She looked practically angelic, he thought.
"It looks good," he said casually as he removed the clips for her from the back of the dress.
"Hmm?" she asked, obviously not with him on his train of thought.
"The dress," he clarified as he tossed the clips aside on his desk.
He didn't have to see her face to know that she was smiling.
"Well it is the one you picked...sort of," she chuckled. "Adrian kind of put two designs together," she explained as she shimmied herself out of the dress, giving him a lovely view of her matching pink bra and boy-shorts.
Allowing her to dress, he took a seat at his desk.
"What happened this afternoon?" she asked. "I texted you."
He smirked with a shrug as she slipped into her jeans and blouse.
"I got a little tied up," he mused, "quite literally."
"What?" she asked worriedly.
She leaned against his desk.
"The body wasn't there, but there were a few traps in its place," he told her. "We waited to see if the culprit would show, but nothing."
"The hunter?" she half asked, half suggested. "Do you think the hunter has a connection to the wolf?"
He nodded as he clasped his hands and pressed them to his lips.
"I think so, but I can't be certain," he replied.
Her eyebrows furrowed as she extended her hands questioningly.
"Who else could it be?" she wondered, sounding almost annoyed as he first did.
He shrugged.
"Elijah wants us to err on the side of caution. This could be a separate issue entirely. Our focus on the hunter could be causing us to confound the two," he said.
"So what do we do?" she asked.
He ran his hands long the surface of his desk.
"Well since we don't have to worry about wolves until the next full moon, we're going to lie low and keep our focus on the hunter," he told her.
She nodded.
"I'll talk to my mom and see if she can find out any more leads on the hunter," she offered as he opened the bottom drawer of his desk, recalling the item from yesterday he had yet to destroy.
His eyes widened and his body went frigid as he peered inside.
"Klaus, what is it?" Caroline asked alarmed.
He swallowed hard and looked up at her.
"The white oak stake is gone," he replied darkly.
A/N: So shout out to the real Vampire Diaries show for those trap ideas, :D
Also, if any of you were wondering what Caroline's prom dress/outfit sort of looks like, or perhaps what will inspire Klaus's outfit, I have hastily put together a collage, which I'll probably post on my tumblr, I haven't decided yet if I'm gonna post it now as a sort of teaser or post it with the actual chapter. I've also considered doing one for Rebekah, but since no specific dress inspired me, it's going to be hard to find one dress that resembles what I depicted. I may still put some pictures together though to give you an idea.