Yes, I'm still working on this story! I needed to work out some other stuff for a bit - check out my drabble collection in my profile if you want to see what I've been up to. It gave me a chance to stretch my writing legs on some other ideas, and was something I desperately needed.
The song referred to here is Arvo Pärt's Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten. I'm not really a classical girl, but this song is probably the most beautiful, sad song I've ever heard in my life, and I can totally picture Klaus revering it as much as I do.
The chapter is short but I feel like I'm packing so much in already. TW for Damon and sexual assault discussion at the start. Never fails to piss me off thinking about how he treated Caroline, so I get a bit of that out here while furthering the story at the same time. Win win.
"Will she be OK?" Abhi asks as he pours chai that's been bubbling on the stove into two earthenware mugs.
"I don't know. She's not responsive, and her seizures keep pulling out the IV." Caroline reaches up at the offered mug and curls both her hands around the comforting warmth. "We need magic to fight magic, so...K-Klaus has us visiting a witch his family knows." She glances up at Abhi with concern. "Sorry, I feel like saying his name is like Voldemort now." At Abhi's confused look Caroline waves a hand in dismissal. "I just mean that I don't want to bring him up if I can help it, but it's really hard not to."
The confusion turns to understanding and Abhi gives a wry grin. "You do not need to concern yourself with my feelings, Miss Caroline." He holds his hand up as she opens her mouth to retort. "I can own my own grief, Caroline. I love that you care, truly, but I am alright. To be honest, I am distracted by who he seems to have become now. There is some part of him that is giving freely to you, and it does not click with the monster I met those years ago." He takes a sip of chai, the milky tea tipping the ends of his newly-grown mustache white, and Caroline stifles a giggle. "What?"
"You've got a little something there -" Caroline hands a napkin over. "What do you mean by giving freely?"
"Have you not questioned why him and his sister help you? Why they have traveled across the world to lend their aid? Especially when you have seen the dark monster that lies beneath?"
Caroline considers for a moment and realizes that no, she hadn't thought about it. At all. Because despite everything, she realizes with growing confusion, she trusts Klaus. Which seems all kinds of wrong in the face of experience and Abhi's grief. She thinks of Mystic Falls, her own damaged soul, and the friends that did not give her a voice to speak, and she swallows, the words somehow both heavy and buoyant in her throat.
"When I was human, a vampire compelled me." Caroline glances up at Abhi through lowered lashes, uncomfortable with her next words. "To be his blood bag for him, to have sex with him." Abhi pulls in a sharp breath and his eyes turn hard and angry as Caroline continues. "I didn't really know or understand what was going on, but my friends saw the damage, had at least a suspicion. It wasn't until I was turned that the truth came out, and I was so angry. To be violated in such a way, both body and mind, and despite it all this guy was still part of our circle of friends." Caroline blows out a shaky breath, trying to calm down, and a fine dusting of clay falls from the mug she's been squeezing a bit too hard.
"My friend Elena even ended up dating him, falling in love. Told me that "he changed", and I couldn't accept it, still can't. I don't think I'll ever be ok with what happened, to be honest. To know that my friends dismissed what happened to me as nothing, that they dismissed me as nothing, really hurt."
Abhi slides an arm across the table and grabs Caroline's hand in his own, curling thick fingers around her delicate ones. "This isn't the same, Caroline. You're not dismissing my wife's death or my feelings. If I sat here right now and said to not ever speak to Klaus again, and to find another way to cure your mother, I know you'd accept that. You give me the power that your friends should have given you."
Caroline shakes her head as if to clear it and sends a sniffling, watery smile across the table. She's not really ready to accept Abhi's point of view or forgive herself, but it feels good to at least talk to him about it. Murmuring a thanks, she exhales a shaky breath, jumping with a start at her phone juddering across the table on vibrate. She scoops up the phone before it can make any more noise and checks the latest text:
I have a car out front. Time to meet with the witch.
Several Hours Earlier
"Just in case you were unaware, Miz Bennett is hella pissed." Josh debates whether to sit near the two Originals in the living room, leans against the threshold instead.
"Oh is that why there's a pulverized phone in the kitchen?" Rebekah drawls with a sideways glance at Klaus, who answers with a quick exhale through his nose and shrugs, unconcerned.
"The only important thing she had to say was that we couldn't leave India without breaking the curse. After that, I'll admit the threats started getting a bit repetitive."
"So she was familiar with the spell?" Josh asks, perking up.
Klaus shakes his head. "No, just that the curse, and its symptoms, sounded like something old and ancient and tied to the magic of this place. She doesn't want us to take a chance with Bonnie by moving her out of India." He pauses a moment. "And Caroline wouldn't want us to either, so I've arranged a meeting with a witch just outside the city."
Rebekah snorts at this admission, and Klaus looks up and asks a question he knows the answer to. "What?"
Glancing back and forth at the tension growing between the two Originals, Josh mouths 'Ooookaaaaay' and spins out of the room as fast as vampirically possible. He's not paid enough to deal with sibling drama.
Klaus repeats the question. "What, dear sister, do you find so amusing?"
Rebekah shakes her head in dismissal and changes the subject. "Elijah called this morning. Marcel's supporters are still very much a presence in the Quarter. He needs us back, Nik. The wolves are becoming increasingly unruly and Kol isn't helping matters, enraging the witch community with his pranks"
Klaus glowers, still focused on the unanswered question. "By all means, Rebekah, run home to Elijah. I'm certainly not forcing you to stay."
"You're the one who wanted to be 'King of New Orleans'," Rebekah crooks her fingers in the air, underpinning the sarcasm in her tone. "You cut a swath of destruction so you could put a crown on your head and declare everyone your subjects; then left Elijah to clean up the mess." She crosses the room towards the foyer, turning back as she reaches the threshold. "Yet here, with her, it's almost as if you've grown soft, Nik."
Klaus stares at her in challenge, face so unyielding that his next words are a surprise. "And what if I have, Rebekah?"
Rebekah has already opened her mouth, ready for a retort, but her breath falters at his unexpected response. She narrows her eyes as she considers his question, looking back up to meet his gaze and shaking her head in disbelief; for only this brother, this ravaged wolf, would let the softest truth lie hard in his eyes like a gauntlet thrown.
Not the best time to think of boundaries, what with Bonnie lying in the backseat, wrapped in thick straps to suppress the shudders, but there it is. Caroline shakes her head as if to dislodge her thoughts, raising a dismissive hand at Klaus' questioning gaze. His eyes linger for a few beats longer than they should, and she's very much unsure how she feels about that.
But for now, her thoughts are more caught up in Abhi's words, and how the lines she's drawn in the sand are wavering; so she lets her eyes track the landscape through the window as her mind takes its own course.
Klaus sits next to her, grip hard on the wheel. He sneaks glances as Caroline wrestles with something, her eyes betraying the struggle. Turning back to the road, he watches the seemingly inescapable cityscape of Delhi finally recede in the rear view; the tires trail billowing dust. A woman's bright sari breaks up the dull brown of the road, basket perched atop her head, and a small herd of goats bleats at the car spearing through the countryside.
Disused to situations where violence or manipulation can't take the lead, Klaus feels out of place and a bit helpless. At a loss for words, he hits shuffle and the strains of Arvo Pärt fill the air until a furrow of Caroline's brow has him awkwardly stabbing at the power button.
"No it's - leave it. It's beautiful," she murmurs, resting her face against the glass.
A brief return of mortality, that heartbeat thud of joy sounding in his chest, tolling out like the bell that underpins the graven voice of the orchestra. She couldn't know this piece moves him deeply, he thinks, trying to disparage the reaction, the feeling. It doesn't work, and some disused part of him creaks in warning.
She does not say anything else, but something in her face has shifted and he knows she isn't quite so far away anymore. Klaus relaxes into the buttery leather and gives her another sideways glance.
"Rupee for your thoughts?"
Caroline does one of those slow, exaggerated double-takes and groans. "Oh my gooooood Klaus, you are the oldest old man to ever old man. Are you going to pull a coin from my ear next?"
"No," he says, dimples cutting. "I'm driving."
The witch greets them at the door with a vicious stare that softens the moment she sees Bonnie. She flips a dark fall of hair over her shoulder and turns, bidding them to follow. Klaus motions Caroline forward in a gesture of chivalry that sends Caroline's eyes into orbit and she follows the witch to a small bedroom tucked in a rear corner of the house. Caroline lays Bonnie down on a small daybed and the witch bends over her immediately, running a hand over Bonnie's prone form while chanting lowly.
"This is old magic. I can feel the age of it pulsing through her veins." The witch's eyes flicker behind closed lids, her face a rich mahogany. The air thickens with magic and Caroline rubs at the gooseflesh that pops up on her arms. "Old and strong," the witch continues. "It's a curse of the blood, fire in her veins. Your young witch is lucky to be alive."
Caroline draws a breath to respond and Klaus cuts in, voice sharp. "Spare us the doom and gloom, Richa, and remove the curse."
Richa's eyes remain closed but her tone betrays her annoyance. "If you let me finish, I don't think there's anything I can do, at least not immediately. It's unlike any curse I've seen, and to unravel it will require magic as ancient as that used to cast it. I'll need to look up some old magic to bring her back," she repeats lamely when no one responds.
Caroline finds her voice amidst the panic bubbling up in her throat. "We don't have time for that, she's dying. She has constant seizures and we can't get an IV to stay in." Richa's face softens at the obvious concern and she opens her eyes.
"I'll do what I -" Richa pauses, her eyes widening. "You -" she says, pointing at Caroline. "There is a darkness at your edges, a darkness of old blood and shadows. Someone stands in your wake."
Klaus stares at Caroline, trying to see what the witch refers to, but all he sees is the fear and confusion in her eyes. "Richa, you rival my sister with your grand dramatics, but now is not the time. What are you talking about? What darkness touches Caroline?"
"It's not something to explain, but to witness. Here." Richa waves her hand in a flourish and the air around Caroline seems to shift. A long shadow stretches out in in front of her in the opposite direction of the light's path. It wavers a moment and disappears, but not before Klaus sees the silhouette, full breast and hips quite unlike Caroline's cheerleader slimness.
"Who was that?" Klaus growls.
"Who was what?! OK seriously, are you guys going to keep talking like I'm not here?" Caroline sets her stance wider and places her hands on her hips. "And no offense, but can we talk about it later because my friend here is, like, dying?"
Richa's face is abashed. "Of course, Caroline, is it? I need a day - two at the most - to contact my coven and unearth the ancient magic that can combat your friend's curse. Most of the old spells were lost, or revised and revamped over time, and their counters with them. To counter a spell you have to understand its construction, and the ancients weaved spells in a way far different than we do today." Richa kneels down next to Bonnie, passing a hand over her forehead. "For now, I can at least calm the seizures." She glances back at Caroline and her face is troubled. "I will come to you, in the city, so that you don't have to transport her again."
Caroline smiles in thanks and searches Richa's unlined face. "Thanks Richa. Should I worry about whatever," Caroline waves at herself vaguely, "or whoever you saw with me?"
Klaus's gaze arrows at Richa, waiting for her response.
"I do not know, Caroline." Richa says grimly. "You've brought two mysteries into my house tonight."
"Ugh, the pollution is horrible here," Caroline wrinkles her nose at the grey haze that hangs over Delhi. The ride back looks to be infinitely slower than the ride in, as they're heading in to the tangled morass of roads that play host to Delhi's considerable traffic.
"Humans are not known for their foresight," Klaus responds, absently blaring his horn at an offending auto-rickshaw. "One of humanity's many flaws - when life is so short, to care about the future beyond a lifetime is not something people readily do."
"Oh right. I see. And I'm guessing you're the president of the Vampire Green Committee then?" Caroline snipes sarcastically, waving a dismissive hand.
Klaus' expression shifts from professorial to mulish. "Just because I don't sugarcoat humanity doesn't mean I deserve your ire."
Caroline is distracted from her retort as they merge onto Ring Road from the NH10 and chaos descends. Klaus reaches a hand out and folds the side view mirror flush with the car seconds before a diesel-spewing truck passes with inches to spare. He grins at Caroline's shriek and joins the insanity by bumping into the stalled car ahead of him, pushing it until it starts with a groaning cough. The driver waves distractedly in the rearview before honking his horn at the latest obstruction.
"How...how does anyone get anywhere here?" Caroline's voice is awed.
"In a wonderful storm of chaos," Klaus yells joyfully over the blaring horns and Caroline can't help but grin, even as she pulls her knees up into her chest to make herself smaller. She flinches at the closeness of the car sliding by her window and Klaus pulls in his lips to suppress a laugh.
"Just because I'm not the oldest guy in existence who's experienced everything doesn't mean you can laugh at me, you know."
"I know, Caroline. I know." Klaus breezes out with an easy grin and Caroline huffs again, turning away from him, then turning back when the man in the sedan next to her gives a lascivious grin from inches away. Klaus almost feels sorry for her, she's so clearly discomfited, but decides it's just too funny not to laugh. The affronted expression on Caroline's face at his first bark of laughter makes it worse, and then she surprises him by joining in. Their eyes lock for a moment before he turns back to the road, and it's all he can do not to pull over and haul her into his arms.
Bonnie's lying in her bed, the seizures calmed for now, and Caroline turns the coffer from the step-well over in her hands for what feels like the six hundredth time. There are no words carved in the seamless surface of the box, just an intricate pattern of vines and leaves inset with gold. Caroline runs her hands over the engravings, searching for a button to press - some way to open the damned thing.
Sparing a glance to her right, she watches the slow rise and fall of Bonnie's chest for a moment before turning back to the coffer. Was nothing going to be easy? Bonnie hurt, the curse being some gajillion-years old thing that had to be unraveled; the cure stuck inside a stupid box while her mom was dying an entire world away? Really, world? Could at least one thing go right? Caroline sucks in a breath and feels frustrated tears well up in her eyes, just as a footfall sounds in the hallway. Fabulous.
"May I see?" Klaus looks at her from the doorway with a solicitous grin, brows raised high in his forehead. Caroline gives him a guarded look but nods, and he kneels down next to the bed, pulling the box to the edge. There's something thrilling about seeing Klaus knelt before her, attentive, and her tears are forgotten as she stares at his tousle of curls. Bent over the box, he gives a small hum and looks up at her, and a wicked grin splays across his features just before he bites into a wrist and lets the blood spot the surface of the coffer.
For a moment, the only sound in the room is the muted drip of blood hitting wood. Caroline feels her fangs extending at the rich smell of his blood and ducks her head to hide her hunger from his own ravenous gaze. She's never been more thankful for a distraction as the coffer begins to split, cracks spreading like a growing tree across the box's surface, and a rich, red glow emerges from behind the wood. There is a sudden, almost deafening sound of a heart beating and Caroline realizes it's coming from the lit stone that Klaus now cradles in his hands, red light shooting through the cracks in his fingers. The light inside the stone contracts and expands in time with the repeated thwack-thud.
"It's a heart." Caroline states the obvious. Klaus looks up at her before sweeping his gaze back down. "How did you know blood would open it?"
"Because I knew there had to be something more to me being here than just helping you fight some demons." Klaus gives a nonchalant shrug, but Caroline can see he's immensely pleased with himself. "And because all things in this world, in these many lifetimes, begin and end with blood."
"You should eat," Josh says, tossing the blood bag at her before she can decline. "You've been sitting up here all day."
Caroline smiles in thanks from her perch on the end of the bed, sliding the bag underneath her thigh to warm for a few minutes to take off the chill. Blood never tasted good cold. "Thanks Josh. It's hard for me to think about food when Bonnie's like this."
"At least we've got the IV in her now." Josh pulls a chair up next to the bed and brushes hair away from Bonnie's forehead before looking up at Caroline with worry. "Why does she look worse?"
"I don't think you're supposed to survive this spell. Good thing Bonnie's a badass." Caroline's face pushes through the routine of smiling, gives up at the eyes. "I'm scared too. What if Richa can't help in time?"
"She'll figure it out. I spent the day scanning Abhi's book collection and Dropboxing it to her with a keyword search program I cobbled together in Python." Josh takes a bite of some papadum he's brought in with him and holds a piece up to Caroline with a questioning look. She waves a hand in dismissal and pulls out the blood bag from under her leg, raising the bag to him in a toast. They listen to the heartbeat of the cure that sits on the nightstand, crimson glow suffusing the room. Josh's leg starts to twitch, nervous energy seeking release, and he opens his mouth to speak.
"That thing creeps me out, not gonna lie."
Caroline dissolves into shocked laughter and Josh smiles a hidden smile, mission accomplished.
Caroline can't tell if the red light is sunrise or just the glow from the beating cure when she wakes up the next morning, sleep crusting an eye shut. There's a clinking sound of metal slapping, repetitive, and Caroline waves a hand idly as if her hand has the power to mute the world.
"Wha-what?" A hard blink, two. Eyes focus and Caroline jumps up in alarm, screaming. Bonnie's arms are taut in their restraints, the buckles pinging against each other from the force of her seizure. Her eyes are open and the red film over them is almost opaque, her irises just dark smudges underneath.
Klaus slams into the room through the door Caroline had locked last night for privacy and streaks his gaze across Caroline before settling on Bonnie's fitful movements.
"Klaus, she's dying. We don't have time. What do we do?" Caroline looks about, panic bringing back tortured human breath.
"It's ok, Caroline, we'll use the herbs Richa gave us to stop the seizures again."
"I just used them two hours ago before I fell asleep. They're supposed to last six." Caroline's voice spirals up as she tilts Bonnie's head back, saying an automatic thanks as Klaus takes over to hold it fast so that Bonnie won't swallow her own tongue.
"I can't do this, Klaus. I can't have her die, not when all she came her to do was help me." Caroline's voice is choked with the weight of panic and guilt. Bonnie makes an incoherent noise and blood begins to run from her nose in thick rivulets.
"Get Richa on the phone, now," Klaus barks at Rebekah and Josh standing in the doorway and Rebekah pulls out her cell, walking out of the room to give a bit of space.
Klaus turns back and Caroline is wiping away the sweat from Bonnie's brow with an idle hand. The beating heart of stone has been removed from the nightstand and lies in her other hand that's swiftly approaching Bonnie's chest.
"NO!" he roars, loud and dangerous enough to still Caroline's hand for the second it takes Klaus to grab it, the heart inches away from Bonnie's own. "No," he says, softer this time, ducking his head to meet Caroline's fierce gaze. She strains at his grip and he swallows thickly.
"You know what this will mean, Caroline, if you give Bonnie the cure." He watches her face crumple as she nods, but her grip still tugs and pulls at the beating heart in their clasped hands. His throat closes further. He catches her gaze again, to bear witness to her choice, and there's a flash in those blue eyes beneath that high brow and -oh- is this what loyalty is?
He lets her go.
Two heartbeats merge.
The red film clears, and a breath shudders deep.