Saved By The Devil

Chapter 7

Stunned, Klaus stood in the middle of the mayhem, completely floored. He couldn't even seem to register a minor, simple, coherent thought. His gaze only on Caroline, his beautiful Caroline.

"What?" she asked, with a dark, toying, little smirk, as she winked. "I didn't become head cheerleader, and Miss Mystic Falls, without knowing how to get a few things done. You're right, Klaus. I'm tired of being pushed under. I work hard, damn hard. I deserve more. I deserve respect. I matter!"

In a fury, Caroline's blond hair became a blur, as her fangs sank into one of the lady patrons, who had been trying to stumble over one of the fallen tables. The scent of blood began to thicken in the air, and when she drew away, the woman fell to the ground. She moved, again, drowning herself in another, and then another. In a blur of speed, she started across the room again, but Klaus stepped in front of her, stopping her with a start. Her breath caught with a jump, as he gazed down at her blood soaked shirt, and lips.

"You do matter," he said, before he kissed her, hard; the rising blood lust, and her, tangling seething heat to his groin.

A low, guttural sound escaped his throat, and right there, amidst the fallen bodies, his hands roamed up under the back edge of her shirt. She bit his lower lip, and he twisted the thin, white material into a knot. Blood dripped down to his chin, and he shivered. With an explosion of restless fever, he grabbed her, his tongue sliding over hers, tasting her, and her victims, as he melted into her lips. His hands couldn't work fast enough, as they moved over her warm, smooth skin. Finding her bra, he grabbed it, slipping his fingers up under it to pinch her tight nipple.

Caroline gasped a high pitched sound, and then he felt her hand on his crotch. He nearly doubled over, as his eyes rolled to the ceiling; the groan slipping his lips, almost embarrassingly loud.

The room became a blur, as he moved her back to their table; each touch of hers below, and his on her breast, making the other erect, and hard. With a sweeping motion of his free hand, Klaus knocked the now dead waitress, and the man who had interrupted them, off the table to the floor, and then lifted Caroline up, onto it.

The dishes rattled with the impact, and her fingers tangled with his belt. Klaus pressed her back flush to the table, as he moved in between her thighs. Releasing her nipple, he grabbed her by the legs, and yanked her to him. Her back arched against the table, hands falling back behind her head, and his hard length pushed against the fabric between them.

"Klaus," she breathed. "I want it. Make me your queen. I don't ever want to be weak again."

"You never were," he whispered.

Caroline's lip fell, and then began to quiver, her eyes fading back to blue, as they teared up. She turned her head away, her arm dropping to cover her face, as her chest shook.

Klaus stopped what he was doing, his own face falling, as he glanced over her curiously. "Caroline?"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she said. "I don't know what's wrong with me."

"There's nothing wrong with you. Don't say things like that." He reached over to brush her damp cheek, now an odd mix of blood and tears. "Don't worry about this. I'm concerned about you."

Something twisted in his chest. He meant it. Part of him wanted to lash out, or throw some kind of indifferent remark to her, to cover his truly felt concern, but he couldn't. It actually hurt him to see her like this, and that idea in itself, literally floored him. He didn't care. He didn't feel. Caroline was but a fancy to him, a beautiful creature he had watched in silence for months now. Wanting to claim her for himself, yes. Make her strong, and swayed to his point of reason, yes – but really for her own sake? Truly because he didn't want to see her in pain?

He was confused. It had to be all the blood, and stress from the hotel.

"Don't look at me like that," Caroline said, finding a smirk to brave her own front over her inner pain.

"Like what?" he asked, lifting a brow.

She shifted herself up to a half seated position, leaning back on her hands. "You know what, Mr. Big Original Vampire. Shouldn't you be out, like, I don't know, with big time high class vampire girls who are like movie stars or something?"

"I don't want to," he said, with a small shrug, shifting his eyes down.

"See! Ugh," she said, rolling her eyes. She got up off the table, and fixed the wrinkles in her jeans. "That's the look I'm talking about. God. You're like… evil," she paused, and then turned around to point, "and I'm not talking about the killing."

"Hey, I only killed one person in here, love," he said, raising his hands in mocked innocence.

"Shut up!" she pouted, slapping his chest with her hand, before fixing her hair back with a 'hmph'. "That is so not fair, and you know it."

Klaus saw the slip of a smirk teasing her lip, despite her protest to conceal it, and he sighed with relief. Good, she wasn't upset. She caught his gaze, before she rolled her eyes, again, flicking them away. "So what are we going to do about all these bodies anyway?" she asked, pacing back toward the open area of the room.

She glanced down her nose as if trying to decide whether or not she approved of the décor – obviously in her little Caroline 'organizer' mode. It was adorable, especially considering the situation and all. She was taking this better than he thought. The tears had worried him.

"We'll burn the place down."

"What?" she asked, turning around. "You're kidding, right? Shouldn't we at least make it so their families can find them, and pay their respects?"

"Oh sure," Klaus said, waving his hand. "Why don't we just bring them to their respectable homes, knock on the door, and leave flowers too."

Caroline furrowed her brows. "I'm serious, Klaus."

"So am I!" He rolled his eyes, pacing. "We killed them, Caroline. We can't just leave them here. You should know better than that, your mother's a cop. Obviously, I'm not concerned about going to jail or anything, but I for one, don't need the added drama of a police pursuit. Be reasonable."

"I am being reasonable."

Klaus nodded, with a smirk. "Of course you are, love. I wouldn't know anything about these situations, you know," he said, waving his hand, "being a thousand year old vampire and all. I'm sure in your two days of vampirism you've got everything covered."

"I'm thinking about the people, Klaus."

"No, you're not. You're thinking about your own guilt. Let it go. It's only going to get you killed. Do you really think for an instant the authorities, and society, will understand that you're just a vampire, and it's the natural order of things? Oh, yes. Please excuse me. I was only hungry. If they didn't attempt to kill you on sight, they'd lock you in an institution, …or at least try to." He winked, and lowered his voice. "I wouldn't let them."

"Oh?" Caroline said, placing her hands on her hips. "Is that what you think my mother would do?"

Klaus inwardly groaned. "This isn't about your mother, Caroline, but honestly, yes. I think she would. My own father's been hunting my siblings and me since we were created. People fear what they don't understand, sweetheart. It's one of the reasons why I took you away from your human ties. I wanted you comfortable in yourself and knowing how to handle things. I know what they would do, and think. I've been dealing with it for centuries."

"Ugh." Caroline sighed, placing her hand on her head. "You know that isn't going to work forever, Klaus."

"What is? Staying away from Mystic Falls?"

"No, your 'I'm a thousand years old, and know everything' spiel."

"I can't help it if I'm a genius, love." He leaned back against the bar with a grin. "Comes with the evil package deal."

Caroline turned around with a huffed breath, her gaze rolling to the ceiling. "I am so not responding to that."

Klaus smirked, watching her little gesture. How could anyone possibly be more adorable?

"Well, love," he said, pushing himself up from the bar. He wrapped his fingers through her back belt loops, as he leaned in to whisper in her ear. "Why don't you go get in the car, while I finish up in here. No need to get this beautiful hair of yours covered in ashes."

Caroline almost instinctively leaned into his touch, and he could hear her heartbeat quicken. "Fine…okay," she said, her voice tight with her little failed attempt at protest.

He mouthed her lobe with a soft hum. "Good girl."

She glared, and then turned on her heels, swinging the door shut behind her.

Klaus smiled, pleased at his little conquest. Making his way to the bar, he leaned over the edge to grab a hold of two glass bottles of whiskey, and then began to douse the tables, dead patrons, and drapes with its flammable contents.

"Pardon me, Sir," he said, to the fallen body of the man that Caroline had dropped first. He slid his fingers into the front pocket of the man's shirt, retrieving his lighter, and flicked it on. "Just cleaning up after my girl. You understand." He placed it to the man's shirt, and lit up in flames.

Crackling embers spread from his shriveling corpse, rising up through the dry wood banisters, and furnishings in a beautiful symphony of flames; catching easily onto the spilled alcohol throughout the room. Smoked filled the air, and he moved to the door, just as the central ceiling beam cracked, and splintered to the floor. The alarm sprang on, echoing it's blasphemy out into the stilled night air. Klaus took this as his cue, and quickly slipped his way into the driver's seat of his sedan, and pulled out of the lot.

Caroline gazed out the window to the side of him, everything about her still, and quiet.

"Don't worry about it, love. You have to trust me. It's for the best."

"No, it's not that," Caroline said, leaning over the back of the seat, as if trying to see something. "I thought I saw something."

Klaus flicked his gaze to her, and then back to the road. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know," she said, turning around to sit back in her seat the right way. "What if we didn't kill everyone? What if someone saw everything?"

"What on earth are you talking about?" Klaus said, yet his inner nerves twisted, and ran cold. He flicked his gaze to her again. "Did you see someone, Caroline?"

"I don't know. For a second, I thought I did. I thought I saw someone by the further side door, by the bushes, but it's probably just me being crazy, and all weirded out by this whole thing. I mean, that's what crazy neurotic me does right?" She giggled a tight laugh. "It's not like being on a kill run thing is normal for me."

Klaus spun the wheel around, skidding the tires up, across the single lane highway. The scent of burnt rubber filled the car in a gagging wave, and then he shifted the car into gear, and floored it back to the small diner lot.

As they pulled up, all he could hear was the pinch of the gravel under the wheels. The alarm had already stopped; the flames having taken it before help could arrive. Smoke filled the area, and the heat of the flames could be felt through the glass. Holding up one arm, to block the glaring light, he opened his door, and stepped out. "Stay here."

"Klaus…," she protested, but he ignored her, shutting the door behind him, and started around to the back.

If Mikael was here… he swore to God….

Although, why would he play these ridiculous games? Why not just come after him? Why his victims? Curiosity, and the rather apparent realization of danger, leaving Caroline alone in the car, tangled a war in his mind. Just a quick look.

Klaus picked up a large rock, and hurled it at the smoked over window on the side of the building, smashing it, and half of the rotten, charred wood to the ground, making a large hole in the side of the building. Raising his shirt over his nose, he stepped just a small way inside, waving the smoke to the side.

Goddammit, he couldn't see a thing.

A scream lifted from the air behind him, like fear itself. Without even thinking, Klaus tore his way out of the burning building in a blur of speed. "Caroline!" he called out, his eyes flooding blackened gold. With a single motion, he ripped the car door off its frame, flinging it backwards, as he pulled her to him from the car. His heart beat so fast, he couldn't even breathe. "Caroline. Oh, God. Caroline," he said, palming her hair, and cheek, to make sure she was real, and truly there. "What happened?" He pulled her chin to up, to see her. "What happened, Caroline?"

She pointed to the windshield. Smeared across the glass in burnt ashes, were the words, 'She's pretty.'

"What the hell is going on, Klaus?" she yelled, her voice shaking.

"What did you see?" he asked, ignoring her question, his voice desperate, and sharp. "Tell me, Caroline."

"I…I didn't see anything. I swear." She shook her head. "I was sitting in the car, looking out the window, to see where you were going, and then when I turned back, this was here."

"You didn't hear anyone? You're a vampire, Caroline!"

Caroline shoved herself away from his grasp. "Stop blaming me like this is my fault, Klaus. I didn't do anything. There wasn't anyone here. I swear!"

"Then how did it get there?!"

"I don't know!"

Klaus grabbed his hair with a furiously frustrated growl. He paced away, and then back. "This doesn't make any sense. If my father was here, why this? Why didn't he kill you, or take you as bait?"

"Klaus, what are you talking about?" Caroline asked, her voice dropping soft. "You're scaring me."

With an agitated sigh, he twisted his head to the side, rolling his eyes. "I think someone's following us. Someone was messing with me at the hotel, same deal. I thought maybe it was Mikael, my father. Remember I told you he wanted me dead? But now, I'm not so sure."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Because I didn't want you to leave me!

"Because I didn't. Just…" He took a deep breath. "Never mind." He didn't need to deal with this on top of everything else. He had to focus on who this pathetic asshole was, and obliterate him, before this went any further. "Just get in the car. I don't feel like being here, when the authorities come. I've got enough on my mind."

With a growl of her own, she slid back in the car, crossing her arms over her chest. "This doesn't excuse you from talking to me, Klaus. This affects me. I have a right to know if I'm in danger."

Klaus wiped the lettering off the windshield with his arm, and then hopped in. "You're not. You're with me.

"Klaus…," she said, grabbing his arm, when he yanked it back, spilling her small hand purse across the seat, along with a picture from her wallet.

Klaus' eyes went wide. "Why do you have a picture of Katerina in your purse?"

"Who?" she asked, obviously flustered by the apparent, quick topic change. Seeing the picture, she picked it up. "Oh, you mean Elena?" She held it up to show him. "She's one my best friends back home."

"No, that's Katerina, the vampire who turned you in the hospital."

"Mm mm," she countered, "it's Elena. I've known her since second grade. She's dating a vampire though. A guy named Stefan."

You're kidding me… A slow smile teased Klaus' lip, as his eyes shifted to the road.

"What?" Caroline asked.

"Let's just say, I think we're ready to go back to Mystic Falls, love."

"What? Wait. What about that guy? Isn't someone after us?"

Klaus shifted the car into gear. "All the more reason to head back now, love," he said with a darkened smirk. "You'll see."

With the curse lifted, no one would stop him.

Thank you again for all the comments! I really appreciate it! *loves you all* Please, if you feel so kind, leave a review, or let me know what you're thinking. I'd love to hear from you!