Prompt: No humanity Caroline is out of control in Mystic Falls and they have to call Klaus for back up so he comes back to town but Caroline has him wrapped around her finger.

The pained whimpers of the young werewolf are like music to his ears as his grip tightens around the heart. The sounds of New Orleans have faded away to a dull roar, and he knows that even though they might hear his screams they'll never dare disturb him.

Rebekah is leaning up against the brick wall just a few feet away, picking at her nails with a look that tells him just how utterly bored she is by the whole situation.

"Oh come on Nik just get it over and done with already so we can go home. It's bloody freezing out here and I can think of half a dozen other things that I'd rather be doing."

He gives her a look.

"Was he not threatening your life?" He asks patiently as his grip in the chest cavity shifts slightly. He can hear muscle and bone tearing. Another pained groan.

Rebekah rolls her eyes, pushing off from the wall.

"Oh please like I couldn't have dealt with him there and then. His pathetic attempts to dagger me was transparent from miles away. The chase is always so much fun, but you always ruin that as well." Rebekah whines as he lets out a long suffering sigh.

He yanks his hand back, arm coated in blood, heart crushed in his fist. He lets it drop to the ground and turns to Rebekah with a dangerous smirk on his lips. It had been far too long since he'd allowed himself some fun

But Rebekah isn't paying attention anymore, instead reaching into her pocket for her now buzzing phone. This is a normal occurrence as well.

He watches her frown at the name on the screen.

"Matt? This is unexpected."

He's already turning away from her, barely able to make out the indecipherable sounds of the moronic blonde human boy on the other end.

"Matt slow down. What do you mean Caroline's turned it off?"

He's ripping the phone from Rebekah's grip within seconds, growling down the line because he needs to know everything right now.

To the boy's credit, he remains relatively calm explaining the situation to him in neutral if not slightly panicked tones.

"Caroline's mom died a few weeks ago and she's holed herself up in the Mystic Grill with a human girl. I'm doing my best to pass it off as the Grill needing renovations but I can't keep the story up forever, and people are starting to get suspicious. I know she listens to you…"

Rebekah's hands tighten around his neck, and he tries to be gentle as he backhands her into the wall. He does not have time to deal with her right now.

"So you're saying that you want me to clean up your mess yet again? I'm starting to sense a pattern here. Where are the Salvatore brothers in all of this?"

Matt clears his throat, and he sounds a little hesitant as he replies.

"I actually think that part of the problem is Stefan. I just… I'm not sure what to do."

"I'll be there in three hours. Remind me not to kill you when I get there."

He doesn't bother to wait for Rebekah as he tosses the phone in her direction and blurs off into the night.

It's easy enough to get to Mystic Falls, Virginia, and sooner rather than later he's approaching the Mystic Grill. There's a certain stillness to the air. Some call it The Witching Hour, that time when morning is battling against night, when darkness gives way to the light.

His footsteps echo impossibly loud off the pavement, but he doesn't bother to mask his coming. He's never had to. He's the stuff that nightmares are made of, the monster under the bed and in the closet.

The door to the Grill is locked, but that's never stopped him before. All it takes is a well positioned shoulder and an application of force before he's stepping into the dimly lit interior.

The displacement of air clues him into the fact that there's a wooden stake flying towards his centre mass, and it's nothing to catch it mid flight, eyes seeking out the source of disturbance with slight annoyance.

She's sitting cross legged against the bar, another stake held loosely between her fingers. She looks almost bored by his appearance, but then again he's always liked a challenge.

"What are you doing here?" She asks in bored tones, reaching for the glass of bourbon in front of her and downing it in one. She tips her head to the side, surveying him like she would an ant that she's dying to squash under her heels.

"Your friends were concerned. And I was curious." He replies, hands in his pockets as he saunters towards her. He purposefully leaves some space between them, still not sure what she's going to do with the stake that still rests in the palm of one of her hands.

He'd rather not end up with a piece of wood sticking out from his stomach.

"Oh please you're never curious about anything."

"I'm always curious when it comes to you sweetheart."

She stares at him for a long moment before scoffing and rolling her eyes.

"God you haven't changed a bit since you left. Are you still trying to charm unsuspecting girls with your stupid lines?"

He doesn't answer her, instead letting his eyes rove over her, taking in every inch of her. She might not be full of light anymore, but she's still beautiful and she's still strong. And despite it all he is charmed.

"This isn't you, you know." He points out conversationally, leaning over the bar to pour himself a drink since she hadn't exactly offered.

He's surprised when she throws her head back and laughs.

"God if I had a dollar for every time someone said that to me I could retire to the tropics and not have to give a fuck about any of you."

Technically she did have a point, but that wasn't his end game here.

"So what, are you hear to convince me to turn it back on or something stupid like that?" She scoffs as he turns towards her with a drink in hand.

He gives her a smile, just the slightest hint of fang showing through.

"Not just yet."

He watches her.

There's something different about her, in the way that she carries herself. She's always had that air of unflappable confidence about her, but now it's different, more obvious. Seductiveness rolls off her in waves, and although she's not directing it towards him just yet, it's going to be devastating when she does.

He can see the darkness that's found its home in her eyes, cloaked her like a second skin. He's not going to pretend that he doesn't find it attractive; he just doesn't find it attractive in her.

He doesn't make any move to stop her as she feeds off the human girl still in the room, sitting up against the wall and obviously terrified out of her mind. Although he holds little regard for human life these days, if this is going to end well he needs to the human out of this situation entirely, knock her out of the equation.

So he waits patiently. He's the master of it, having every appearance of being totally bored and at ease when every nerve ending in his body is on high alert, biding his time and ready to make his move.

And so he does when Caroline disappears into the other room, blurring over to the human, feeding her his blood, and wiping her memory clean. It's disturbingly easy to plant memories in her mind, and he should revel in the absolute power but he doesn't. Instead he just feels sick to his stomach.

Caroline reappears just as the girl is pushing out through the broken door and into the sunlight.

"What the hell did you do that for?" She hisses as he turns towards her, ready for a fight if needed.

"Oh come now love. You're surely not that upset?" He purrs towards her, smiling when he sees just how caught off guard she is by his sudden change in demeanor. "You and I can have so much more fun without a bothersome human messing things up. Don't you remember?"

She swallows audibly as he stalks her across the room, that delicate dance as he finally presses her up against the wall, hips pinning hers into place.

"Let me tell you what I remember." He begins with a pleasant smile as she tries to look anywhere but directly into his eyes. "I remember you purring my name over, and over, and over again."

He noses along the column of her neck, taking in the smell of her and the dried blood crusted on her skin. It's not an unpleasant combination as his hands tighten around her waist. She makes no move to push him away and that alone is enough to spur him on.

"I remember your legs tightening around my waist when I took you on that forest floor for the second time. I remember the feeling of you clenching around me when I finally let you cum." He whispers into her ear, pressing hot, open mouthed kisses at her neck.

She's gone limp, pliant below his hands as they start to roam up her ribcage, thumb brushing over her nipple almost absentmindedly.

"You'd like me to do it again, wouldn't you?" He remarks with a breathy laugh into her ear, gripping her chin and forcing her to look at him.

The lust has chased away the darkness, pupils blown wide as she openly gapes at him.

It's her that attacks him with her lips, hands gripping at his jacket, anchoring her in place as they do a battle of a different kind. He's still got her pinned against the wall, and she groans into his mouth as he slips his tongue past the seam of her lips, fingers tangling through that golden hair that he'd missed so much.

It's exquisite and the purest form of torture, but the end game isn't sex. Perhaps another time, when she's more herself.

His lips ghost over her neck again, but this time the fangs have slipped out as well. He steels himself for what he's about to do, already hating himself just that little bit as his fangs slice through skin, blood spilling into his mouth as he takes a long pull.

He lets her back hand him away from her, eyes flying to his in shock as she presses a hand over the bite wound. Whatever she'd been expecting him to do, it hadn't been that. They both knew that there was still enough venom in his bite to kill her.

"Son of a bitch." She hisses at him as she blurs across the room, putting as much distance between them as possible.

"Well I have been called worse." He replies nonchalantly, crossing towards the bar once more and picking up his drink. "It seems that you're in a bit of a conundrum love."

"You're unbelievable!" She shrieks as she blurs over to the table and flings the stake at his head. He bats it aside with an almost bored expression on his face as he downs his drink and just sighs.

"Let me explain your options to you before you work yourself into such a state that you can no longer form a coherent sentence." He begins with a pleasant smile fixed on his face.

Wood crushes beneath her grip as she growls at him.

"I can either walk out of this door and you can continue as you were. But in a few hours the venom will set in and you'll die in agony." He ticks the points off on his fingers. "Or, you can switch it back on, I'll heal you, and I'll leave you peacefully to your own devices once more."

"You wouldn't let me die." She replies dully, sinking down onto one of the chairs as she rubs at her neck with a wince.

He just grins toothily at her, her blood coating his teeth and fangs.

"Try me."

She's got him there, he'd never let her die, but this is the only thing he could honestly think of to get her to cooperate. Although she'd never admit it to herself, Caroline loved being fearless and ageless and strong.

She might have eternity stretching out before her endlessly, but she was still afraid of death, just like most of the vampires that chose to walk amongst the darkness.

She stares at him for a long moment, eyes probing at him as if to try and unravel the meaning behind his words. She looks uncertain for a moment; as if she's not sure if he's actually lying through his teeth and that he'd really let her die. And that is enough to break whatever is left of his heart, because he never wanted to be the source of her anguish.

"Your choice, as always sweetheart." He softens his voice just for her, trying to dispel some of the tension in the air between them. He doesn't want to see her like this, doesn't want her to become this person, this unfeeling, uncaring monster.

He doesn't want her to become like him.

She stands, feet crunching over broken glass and splintered wood. She is beautiful, even when she stands teetering on the brink of death.

"I hate you for manipulating me like this." She voices as she stops towards him, swaying slightly on her feet as the venom does its deadly work.

"I know." He replies softly, hand reaching out to envelope hers.

"But I don't want to die either." She takes a deep breath as he holds his. "But I agree to your terms. I'll turn it back on if you agree to heal me."

"Done." He counters immediately, dropping her hand and biting into the skin of his wrist.

He's never really clued her in to the intimacy that comes with blood sharing. It's usually only something done with lovers or partners, and he's never allowed it to happen with anyone else. He suppresses a soft groan as her lips clamp onto his skin, fangs slicing through to the veins below.

He strokes her hair as he lets her feed off him, eyes fluttering closed at the sensation. She finally backs away from him, his blood ringing her mouth and her eyes dark with something else this time.

He can pinpoint the exact moment when she flips it back on, and lets her sink into his arms when everything comes crashing down onto her at once.