The new three-story house was bigger than the old one. It had a grand total of five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a large kitchen, dining room, and even its own library.
The front garden was rather large too, but the back garden was even bigger- and it stretched so long that the woods were visible and easily accessible.
As soon as she stepped through the front door, the boys were on her. Charlotte spent a full ten minutes receiving hugs- although the boys weren't gooey, so it was a bit of a manly I'm-So-Glad-You're-Not-Dead hug-, followed by about two hundred 'I'm sorry!'s'
She was stunned they cared about her so much: she never saw them much, she was out all the time.
But then Charlotte thought- They're men. This is what they do. They pretend they care about you, but when it suits them they drop you like a bag of horse poop.
When Charlotte had had enough, she told them- not at all nicely- to go away and stop slobbering all over her. But they just laughed and Kian took her up the stairs to show her where her room was.
They'd figured that she'd want the room with the most storage space- mostly due to the fact that Charlotte was a girl and had truckloads of designer gear- and so they gave her the room on the second floor. It had marvelous wardrobes- large, but it still even made the room look gorgeous. She could see why the boys hadn't wanted to take this room for themselves, storage space or not: it was obviously a girl's room with the dressing table it had in it.
They were so sure that she was coming back to live with them that they had taken the rescued clothes from the old house, and placed them on the bed.
Kian left the room, and she immediately opened the bag of clothes to find what had been salvaged from the wreckage. Her wardrobe in the burned down house had been situated on the farthest side of the room from the fire, so her clothes looked fine. They smelled bad though, so she knew she'd have to wash them. Well, not wash them herself, obviously. After all- she thought sneakily- if nobody gave the launderettes something to wash, they'd be out of business.
Once all the boys were asleep, Charlotte- sat on her bed- was deep in thought in her bedroom. I need to find out what Klaus wants- she thought. If only she did, then she could give it to him and make him leave. But then Charlotte realized: you can't make an Old One do anything. Klaus was very very dangerous- he could snap a vampires neck like a twig. And human's- well, humans were so easily killed it was almost laughable. Of course Charlotte didn't know any of this when she had first met him- she'd thought he was just a man then. But when she heard all the tales about him from the people who had lived in his village; they were awful. And Charlotte, back then, had been disgusted with herself for sleeping with the man. But now, she didn't really care. He had made her a vampire, after all. She wouldn't be here today if it weren't for him.
But she was angry at him. He had deserted her when she was at her most vulnerable, and she bet he had never looked back since.
And then Charlotte made the decision she had been pondering over all night...
She was going to meet Klaus again.
Well, hopefully.
Charlotte put on her fluffy black boots, and quietly sneaked out of her room- then thought the better of it. Men don't wake up. Period.
So she walked down the stairs and out of the house.
The cold night air hit her like a slap in the face. The stars were out, and the wind that made the trees blow was calm and steady.
Charlotte wrapped her arms around herself- but the cold still stung, so she leaned back through the door and grabbed one of the boys' hooded jumpers. Through the scent of it, it belonged to Sam. She quickly put it on and left the house, shutting the door behind her. Then she walked round to the back of the house, into the back garden. It was only now that Charlotte realized just how long the garden was. It stretched far into the woods- looking more like a field than a garden. She didn't walk at vampire speed, as it was relaxing to walk slowly in cool night air.
Charlotte stopped walking as she reached the woods after walking in a straight line the whole way. She took a deep breath, in and out.
Okay- she thought. Show time.
"Klaus?" she shouted. There was no chance that anyone could hear her- she was too far out.
"Klaus?" she tried again. And felt a stirring of Power come toward her.
Charlotte whipped round, not knowing what to expect. Nothing there.
Beginning to get pissed off with shouting like a lunatic, she just waited. Then the Power came again. This time she didn't turn around.
Breath came on her neck. Now she did turn.
And there he was. Klaus.
She gasped. Imagining him being here and actually seeing him were two very different things. He hadn't changed at all- his white blonde hair and bright blue eyes were exactly the same. He was wearing a black shirt and black hooded jumper over his perfectly sculpted muscles, along with blue jeans. All designer. The black emphasized his white blond hair, and made it stand out like a shining light-bulb. His face was perfect- high cheekbones, beautiful pale skin, and lips that just beg to be touched and kissed.
He stood about a metre away from Charlotte, just watching her with his bright blue eyes. A small smirk was on his face, and his hands were in his pockets. He looked her up and down, looking at what she was wearing. When he noticed Sam's jumper, his gaze hardened.
"You're wearing a male's jumper."
Charlotte couldn't speak. He was so beautiful... His voice- his perfect, smooth voice- brought back so many memories for her. All of the night she had had sex with him and he had Changed her into a vampire.
She then realized that he was glaring at her- waiting for an explanation. But then she realized: she didn't have to. He had abandoned her! She had been with truckloads of men, and she bet he'd been with millions of women, so why did she have to explain herself to him, even if she was with a boy?
Charlotte said nothing to him.
He chuckled, but it was cold and harsh.
"Millions of women? I have been with a fair few..."
She forgot that he could read her mind. Stupid Charlotte.
He moved closer towards her, slowly, until he stood directly in front of her. His nearness was really getting to her- she could smell the scent of his skin and hair, and she had never forgotten that for the whole five hundred years she'd been alive.
"Speak. I want to hear your voice again."
Charlotte tilted her head, raising her eyebrows. Nobody ordered her around, not ever. Powerful vampire or not: she was not going to be told what to do by him.
Klaus lost his smile and stepped closer to her so that he was looking down at her, bodies very nearly pressed together.
Christ, he smelled mind-numbingly gorgeous!
"You are very annoying," he said, putting his hand through her hair.
"How?" she asked, smiling slightly at his random comment.
He smiled. "I've missed your voice, sweet Charlotte."
That really brought her back down to earth.
She was no longer the naïve little teenager she used to be. She wouldn't describe herself as sweet and none of her ex-boyfriends would either she would bet.
Klaus stroked her curly hair.
"Nice pyjamas. Revealing."
His sudden comment had her looking down at what she was wearing. She had been going to bed when she had come up with her idea, and her usual pyjamas were a pair of really short-shorts, and a t-shirt.
Oh fantastic- she thought. Why did I have to wear my most revealing pyjamas?!
Klaus chuckled again, his breath on her cheek.
"Do not fret, my love. You look beautiful. But I do not like you wearing such things when there are boys in your home," he added, looking at her coldly.
"You don't own me, Klaus, nobody does. And what do you think I am? A whore? I don't let every single guy in the world feel me up," she snarled at him.
"I do own you. I made you what you are today." He was angry, but his voice kept getting colder and colder as he got angrier and angrier.
"And you left me! You left me alone to fend for myself when I was so weak! I had no idea what I was- how I should behave!"
How on earth could he talk like this to her?! He obviously didn't care about her, or he would have stayed with her when she was a new vampire, so what right did he have to be possessive?!
Klaus glared at her and she realized that she was yelling. Not good. He was very powerful...
He moved closer towards her, so close that Charlotte immediately took a step backwards. Now that she was a vampire, she could feel the evil practically radiating off of him- something she couldn't have felt when she had met him.
Klaus kept moving forwards very fast, and she kept moving backwards until his movements became more violence-fuelled and she stumbled backwards. Her back hit something cold and hard, and for a second she thought it was a person. But she felt the hard surface with her fingers, and realized Klaus had backed her up against a tree.
Trapped.
He looked down at her, his face set like stone in an angry expression.
"Do. Not. Shout. At. Me- Charlotte. I left you because I had to. Do not think that I don't care for you; we made love the night I first met you. And I am here now, I could have not come to you tonight when you called."
Charlotte just glared at him. Sure, they'd had sex- wonderful sex at that- but he'd been with lots of women. She was just one in a very, very, very long line.
Klaus glared back. But his glare was much stronger than Charlotte's as he was an Old One and very dangerous.
Then he surprised her by slowly smiling. And as he smiled, he reached out his hand to stroke her hair.
"Your hair looks beautiful tonight."
Charlotte took a deep breath. His touch was like electricity- flowing through her body.
"Speak again, my dear," he breathed as he leaned his upper body in closer to her- his lips inches from hers.
"No," she said, smiling slightly.
He chuckled- he didn't seem to laugh- and she could feel his soft breath on her face.
"Aren't you glad to see me?" he said- his lips hovering over hers.
Then he leaned in just that little bit closer...
