Since you get a better insight when you can read more than just the first chapter, I decided to post the next one as well.=)

Here you go!

When Kol had arrived Klaus had hardly looked at him. However, the whole original family had agreed to help with the pack that moved camp every day which made it their first priority to track them down. They were gathered at the boarding house again to discuss their plan.

"Okay this is how we'll do." Damon announced. "We will split up in groups of two and go on a search party."

"Since when are you in command?" Klaus snarled at him and Damon pulled a face.

"Oh excuse me Mr High and Mighty, would you like to take over?" Damon bowed sarcastically and Klaus flashed over to grab his neck. "Don't mock me, Salvatore! You are lucky enough that I am not in the mood to kill you right now!"

"Oh seriously?" Rebekah didn't sound too enthusiastic. She didn't want to run around the forest all night to look for some stinky stupid mutts. "Nik, let him go I want this over as soon as possible!"

"As do I!" Elijah agreed with a sour expression. None of them liked to have been drawn into yet another stupid death threat. They had been about to finally leave town and get rid of the drama in Mystic Falls.

Klaus tossed Damon against a wall. He groaned and coughed before he got to his feet: "Argh…get some control!"

Suddenly Klaus looked lethal and was about to do something stupid, but in a blink of an eye Elijah was in front of him to hold him back. No one had even seen him move. He stared at his brother and shook his head ever so lightly.

Caroline frowned at the strange scene especially as Rebekah sighed rolling her eyes.

Klaus stared at Elijah a moment longer before the death threat left his eyes and he turned around to walk over to a window.

Elijah turned to Damon and told him under his breath to proceed. Damon cracked his bones as some of them grew back together from the crash earlier. "You" He pointed at Rebekah. "Will go with Stefan, Jeremy and Bonnie, Caroline and Klaus…"

"Excuse me?" She interrupted and Damon sighed. "Why do I have to go with him?" Even though they were on friendly terms now she was still angry with him for the last stunt he pulled. Out of the corners of her eyes she saw that he pursed his lips.

"Because Blondie, you are the only one he will neither kill nor dagger…"

"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Klaus growled and crossed his arms over his chest. Damon, however, just ignored him. "…nor put you in any danger by acting rash or ill-considered."

Klaus grunted and Caroline stared angrily at him.

Damon raised his hand. "Plus, none of us can stand either of you at the moment! Work it out and I really don't care how it ends." Kol sniggered: "Well, he does have a point there!"

Damon grinned. "Elena, you are with me."

Kol winked at Caroline and stepped closer. "But darling if you really want to swap partners I would gladly volunteer and save you from your misery." He let his finger trail down the side of her face and Caroline wrinkled her nose. Klaus stared daggers at Kol and he really wanted to kill him then. The younger one always had to provoke him.

"As for Elijah you are keeping Kol in check so he won't screw things up." Damon went on and the ghost of a smile passed Klaus' face. "Did I forget anyone? No objections? Then let's get going. I want this pack gone." Kol squinted at Damon who smirked.

Eilijah rolled his eyes and grabbed Kol's arm. "Come on little one, the sooner we find them the better." They left the house and the other pairs followed. Klaus and Caroline were the last couple to leave the house.

At the door Klaus stepped aside and motioned Caroline to go first: "After you, sweetheart."

Caroline huffed and walked outside with her nose up in the air. Klaus suppressed a smile. Never the less, she had elegance and pride. Hell, she was probably prouder than him!

He loved to tease and anger her with his charm. She could be as mad at him as she wanted he didn't mind.

"Let's hope we'll find them quickly." Caroline said in the car.

Klaus drove slowly towards the north of the forest. "So you can get rid of me?" Klaus smirked.

"Excellent, you got it! Turn over there."

"Why?"

"Because it's the easiest way to get into the forest and start searching from there on!?"

"Beg to disagree, love, but it is not!" He drove passed the place Caroline had pointed at. She crossed her arms and huffed: "Of course you know better!"

"Of course I do!" Klaus said simply.

Further down the road he drove up a narrow wash into the forest and stopped the car. Without another word he got out and Caroline followed after him.

She had her arms still crossed and angrily stalked after him not sensing how much Klaus was enjoying himself. They walked in silence for a long while.

Caroline stumbled over the third root and kicked it furiously. "Argh, this is ridiculous!" Neither of them had said anything before. There was no trace of a wolf, not at all. It was obvious that they weren't here.

"Really…" Klaus said ironically.

"We've been running around for hours! Stupid wolves! Why can't they just leave us alone!" Caroline complained. She was tired, cold and so hungry!

"Careful love, your lover is one of them."

"Oh no!" She raised a finger at him. "Don't even start now! I can't take it anymore!"

"Never the less I suggest you lower your voice if you don't want them to hear us!" He whispered.

Along with her anger her heart pumped the last bit of blood through her veins. She staggered: "Can we rest for a second?"

Klaus laughed hoarsely. "Rest? You must be joking!" But as he turned around he saw how pale and lucent she looked. His hard face became oddly softer. His eyes narrowed: "Are you okay?"

Caroline rubbed her face with her hands. "Starving."

Klaus looked at her for a second before he slowly stepped closer while he pulled a blood bag out of his jacket pocket and handed it over to Caroline. She straightened and just looked at it for a moment.

"Take it." He muttered.

She looked at him and back at the bag before she slowly took it. "Thank you." She whispered surprised. Her fangs pushed through and she just perforated the plastic. The red liqueur was like salvation to her aching body. She didn't know when she had last eaten something. Eagerly sucking did she almost lose it. Klaus watched her close her eyes and cherishing the red liquid of life. A rigid feeling went through his body and it caused goose bumps on his arms, but as soon as he felt it, the thing he didn't know how to name, he shook himself and turned around.

The colour returned to her cheeks.

When she had finished she put the empty bag away.

"Feeling better?" Klaus simply asked and Caroline nodded. "Then let's get going."

After another 100 yards they suddenly heard something. Their eyes met and they flashed into the same direction. Hiding behind trees and bushes they watched the pack.

There weren't many of them. They were obviously setting up their camp.

The two vampires watched them in silence. Until Caroline spotted a familiar face.

Her breath hitched. "Tyler!" She whispered and was about to move.

"Caroline, no!" Klaus hissed and tried to hold her back but it was already too late because she had stepped out of hiding and called out his name: "Tyler!"

He stopped and stared at her bewildered. "Care!"

"You are back!" She whispered.

"What are you doing here?" He asked surprised and Klaus stepped out of hiding as well.

"Well, mate if this isn't a big surprise!"

Tyler scowled. "Klaus!"

The original vampire smirked. He just wanted to get rid of this mutt and the only reason he wasn't dead yet was…Caroline, he admitted. She would never forgive him and he wouldn't want to never be able to talk to her again.

"Since when are you back?" Caroline asked.

The other wolves stirred and scowled at the vampires. Klaus watched every one of them and tried to memorize their face as quickly as possible.

"I came with the pack." Tyler answered and Caroline looked a bit taken aback. "And you never considered telling me that you are back? That you are okay?"

Klaus noticed every glance of the pack members. There was a rather large one, probably the alpha whose eyes wandered shamelessly from him to Caroline and back again, but Caroline didn't notice.

"Caroline…"

"Tyler, why? What…"

"Let's talk about it later." He said and Klaus stepped closer to Caroline as he watched the wolves to move.

"Come on, love, let's go!" Klaus gently pulled her at her elbow. Tyler scowled at Klaus again, but he didn't retort. Caroline looked at Tyler with wide eyes and slowly shook her head before she let Klaus pull her away.

Klaus held her fiercely by the arm and practically dragged her back to the car.

"Are you insane!?" He yelled. "What the hell was that?"

"What?" She snapped.

"What the bloody hell did you think to just barge in there like that!?"

"What is your problem?"

"Now they know we have been looking for them! They know we are after them! You just spoiled our moment of surprise! Whatever they are after they are going to react quickly now and we have no idea what this is about!"

"Oh, god, calm down!" Caroline yelled back and stared daggers at him just like Klaus who was close in front of her. A tickle seized their bodies, like two magnets that pulled each other toward the other. They could feel each other's breath on their faces and their eyes wandered from their eyes to their lips. No one could deny the sudden tension in the air, but Klaus tore himself away from her and got into the car without another word.

Caroline woke out of her daze and tried to gain control over her senses.

Later that night it knocked at the front door and when Caroline opened it Tyler smiled at her.

"Ty." She said surprised.

"Caroline!" His voice was suddenly so different from before. It sounded relieved and an instant later he pulled her into his arms. "I am so glad to have you back!"

Caroline felt suddenly strange and pulled back: "Tyler, what is this all about!?"

They entered the house and sat down in the living room because Liz was at work.

He scooted close to her and took her hands. "I am so sorry, Caroline, but I couldn't let the pack know how much I longed to be with you again!" He tried to kiss her, but Caroline held up a hand.

"What the hell is going on? Why are you with them?"

Tyler shrugged. "I joined them. What's the big deal?"

"The big deal is that they want to destroy us!"

"Rumours, just rumours!" But Caroline squinted at him suspiciously.

"Where is Hayley?"

"Why? Caroline, there is nothing going on between us!"

"You keep telling me that, but I can't believe you Tyler!"

"Why not? Why do you believe Klaus of all people!?"

Her gut told her, she admitted to herself. She couldn't explain it. There was just this strange feeling inside her that told her that Klaus didn't lie to her. She probably should know better, but she didn't. And right now, the way Tyler acted, the way he looked at her, she couldn't help but feel herself pulling away.

"I only want to be with you Caroline!" But somehow the words sounded false from his mouth.

Caroline shook her head: "Tyler, the moment you left with Hayley…"

"It was all for you!" He defended himself. "There is nothing going on between Hayley and me!"

"But there was! Tyler, please just leave!"

"Are you sure that the plan is going to work?"

"They will act now, in fact they need to, because they would want to move before we do. So we just have to wait for them to come." The witch explained and squinted at the black sky.

"What about Tyler?"

"Leave the boy out of it!" She replied.

"Don't you think he could help us since he has got the connections?"

"Where do you think is he?"

The alpha looked around but couldn't spot Tyler. He turned around to the witch and tilted his head ever so slightly. She just smiled eerily at him.

The canvas was flawless. The surface was even and strained.

It was snow white with not so much as a tiny black spot. Thoroughly he examined it from every angle. Turning it around in his hands. It was quiet and the artist enjoyed the foreplay almost as much as the painting itself.

Gently he wiped over the linen one last time before he moved on to the paint.

While he went over the picture in his head he chose the colours one by one.

Pouring a drop of blue, black, red, green, yellow and white onto a wooden plate as he planned every detail in his mind.

The paintbrush was old and used, its brush handle covered in spots of paint and yet its tip was clean.

He dipped it carefully into the wet paint.

The first stroke was always the hardest one because there was always this tiny notion that the painting wouldn't turn out as planned.

Where to draw the first line?

How to start?

Which direction?

The brush was familiar with his work, his hands, his movements.

The directions were clear and his movements smooth.

The whole process allowed him a moment of peace.

He needed to take his mind of things.

Blue, deep royal blue filled the canvas and slowly erased the white. His movements were fluid now for once you have started you knew what to do. The brush seemed to have a life of its own, guiding his hand and dancing over the smooth surface.

What had happened there earlier?

The electric shocks that had ran through his veins as she had yelled at him yet another time. Her face as she had merely forgotten to feed enough before going into the lions dent. She was a mere danger for herself let alone for others. This strange strong feeling of…

What was this?

The coherent strokes slowly filling the white rectangle in front of him he pondered.

Blue and Black water that mirrored the cloudless night sky.

It had almost felt like a tremor of hope. But that couldn't have been…

Hope for what?

For him? In which context?

Elijah was the only one who still hoped to find his brother again. Well, brother if you'd stop backstabbing me!

The strokes became fiercer.

The memories threatened to drown him.

Only one way to finally get over this liability.

He finally had to get her into his bed in order to get her out of his system. The chase would be over he would have had his fun and Caroline the night of her life. End of story.

Maybe then he could finally leave this rotten hole and pay more attention to New Orleans.

Only problem could be Bekah and her infatuation with the younger Salvatore.

"How could you let him see you?" Damon yelled.

"I do agree darling, that wasn't your smartest move!" Kol said shaking his head.

"I am sorry, okay? How many times do I have to tell you!" Caroline waved her hands through the air and huffed. "They know now that we are up to something." Damon went on but Elena interrupted him and put her arms around Caroline's shoulders. "Stop yelling at her!"

"She ruined our moment of surprise!" Rebekah said and Caroline started to feel really bad. She bit her lip and threw a glance at Klaus who hadn't yet said anything. He met her glance briefly.

"We should rather think about a new plan!" Stefan interjected and Elijah nodded at him.

"Then what's the plan, hm?" Rebekah snapped.

"Life bait!" Kol grinned and cocked his eyebrows at Caroline. She glared at him and tried to swallow the angry tears. "Leave me alone, it's not like I initiated the end of the world!"

"You sure about that?" Klaus said and stared at her indifferently.

There were angry creases on her forehead and a stinging pain shot through her body. She raised her nose and left the house.

Elena groaned. "Are you happy now?"

Elijah watched Klaus who didn't move an inch. "Caroline!" Elena yelled and walked after her.

The remaining six vampires listened for the front door before they continued.

"Well dear sister, wanna take off after your girlfriends?"

"Shut up, Kol!" She retorted.

"Can we go back to business now?" Damon asked bored.

"We have to act fast!" Stefan said.

"We take one of them!" Klaus said. "It's as easy as that."

Elijah put a finger onto his lips and thought about it for a mere second. "Beg to disagree brother, but I don't think that is such a good idea!"

"We just torture it out of them!" Kol agreed. "I can't see any other way, can you Elijah?"

Elijah sighed and tried to reason with them. "We might not want to anger them any more."

"I say let's go get ourselves a wolf!" Damon said, but Stefan raised his voice to side with Elijah: "They have got a witch on their side and we don't know what they are after!" He had stepped next to Elijah.

"So? We have one too, remember?" Damon replied.

Rebekah stepped over to Klaus. "Exactly! Anyways what is a simple pack against all of us?" She would always stay at Klaus' side, no matter the plan.

Damon walked closer to them as well and shrugged at Stefan and Elijah. "It pains me but I agree with Barbie here." Rebekah quickly kicked his legs away so that Damon ended up on the floor once again. "Oh come on, this gets kinda old!" He just said and stood up again.

Kol sniggered but moved over to them.

The two groups stared at each other from across the room.

"This looks like a yes to me!" Klaus stated satisfied.

"Rebekah, you'll be the distraction." Klaus decided.

"The blonde distraction." Kol chuckled. "Well this is somehow ironic, don't you think?" Kol teased his brother who moved in the blink of an eye to snap his neck. He didn't want to hear another word about Caroline. "Come on let's go!" Klaus mumbled and walked ahead of Rebekah who squinted at her brother. He wasn't well and acted very impatient and short tempered. She sensed that something was troubling him, but it was probably just the pack.

"Tell me what you are up to!" Klaus said menacingly and bowed over the wolf tied up to a chair. They had tortured him for three hours now but the wolf was stubborn and strong despite his small body frame. His skin was a flaming red from the ropes soaked with wolfsbane.

He set his jaw and groaned: "Never!"

He looked up into the hybrid's blank face.

It had been easy to snatch the wolf away. He was still young and it had been easy for Rebekah to get his attention in the streets of the small town. She had smiled and flirted with him until Klaus could simply knock him out.

"What do you know?" He screamed and the wolf just spit into his face. "Go to hell!"

In that moment it was as if a switch turned inside of Klaus. His eyes turned yellow and he snapped the guy's neck.

"What the hell?" Damon started and groaned. "You do know that he is dead now, right?"

Klaus stared at the dead body and his chest rose and fell with every angry breath he took. His eyes were cold and without another word he went upstairs.

Kol grinned but shrugged at Damon who raised his eyebrows.

"Forgot to take his pills this morning?"

Upstairs Klaus ran into Caroline who frowned at his angry face. "What happened to you?"

He scowled at her. "Leave it Caroline. You did enough!"

Her mouth dropped and she instinctively held his arm as he passed. "Stop accusing me, as if you are better than me, because guess what, you are not!"

He flashed her against a wall. "Don't dare to…"

"What? Yell at you!?" Anger rose inside her. Her frown deepened and she gnawed her teeth.

He backed off merely an inch but it gave Caroline air to breathe.

"I could kill you with only a snap of my fingers!" He growled but Caroline held his stare.

"Then why don't you do it already?"

He wrinkled his nose before he turned around to walk away but not without answering: "You will find your end soon enough if you go on like this!"

"Conceited old man!" Caroline mumbled.

Klaus furiously wheeled around: "Excuse me!?"

"You heard me!" She yelled back at him and stormed out the door. "Argh!"

Klaus stared with screwed eyes after her. Who the hell did she think she was!?

She was lucky that he hadn't killed her yet! He knew he should have! Stupid child!

Elijah had watched his brother all is life. Yes, he had always been lonely but he had never really figured out how unhappy he really had been over all these years. Right now it was written plainly all over his face. He was unhappy and maybe even miserable.

Elijah watched Niklaus leave the house. He got into his car and drove off.

It pained him to see him like this and even more when he figured that no one seemed to notice. Kol would never get the idea and Rebekah was too much occupied with herself.

But Niklaus would never admit it or accept any help.

But maybe Caroline Forbes was willing to listen to him and look at Niklaus from another perspective. Elijah had listened to their exchange in the hallway. It was worth the try. None of them had nothing to lose anymore except for a bad reputation maybe.

The ice cubes clanked against the glass in his hand as he twirled it around.

He watched the rear lights of his brother's car as he drove off.

There were footsteps and Caroline opened the door to the study. She didn't seem to be surprised to find Elijah for she just slammed the door and sat down into a red leather covered chair. Why the hell did his behaviour bother her? He was grumpy, short tempered and cruel.

"I don't understand him! Why the hell is he behaving like this!" Caroline sighed. "Why can't your brother be a little more like you, Elijah?"

Elijah chuckled at her question. "You wouldn't want that. Niklaus is…difficult, I admit, but you see he wasn't always like this…"

She shouldn't care. Seriously! But Caroline couldn't help the curiosity. She straightened her back and considered for a moment. "Will you tell me?"

Elijah smiled kindly. Caroline did really like him she had to admit.

"When we became vampires it was hard to cope. Niklaus wanted us to stay together as a family, but you see Finn left after Niklaus had killed our mother in short temper. Kol and him were always bickering about our control because Kol loved what we had become and he lived our strength as much as he could, but Niklaus didn't want to get discovered and rightly so, but Kol wouldn't listen and provoked Niklaus every day. Especially after that night when Niklaus had made a mistake he didn't stop to anger him. Kol finally decided to leave, well, maybe Niklaus had driven him to that action, but never the less Niklaus was reluctant to him leaving.

The night before his departure Rebekah had lost control.

She adored Niklaus for he had always been the one to protect her and she wanted to please him as much as possible so she had avoided every temptation of blood in order to keep control, but she couldn't. She had been ashamed of herself and so Kol had persuaded her to leave with him. Niklaus was devastated. We, his siblings, were the ones who stood always by him when Mikael our father had taken his rage out on him, even though we never dared to stand up against Mikael. We were his family and everyone left him.

He lost control over us and figuring out that we were only his half siblings assured him that we didn't consider him part of the family, that we didn't love him enough to stay. He had lost his roots.

He figured out how the compulsion really worked which gave him some authority back."

Caroline had listened carefully. "But you never left him."

"No. I didn't. We did have our quarrels and spent time apart but I never abandoned him, but then again neither did Kol nor Rebekah for they dropped in regularly and then Rebekah did stay with him for most of the time. Never the less he didn't think he could keep us and rightly so I'm afraid considering everything he has done. He is no idiot, not at all. If I hadn't literally known him all my life, if I just met him I couldn't tell if I'd support him. Probably not admittedly, but he is my brother, my family. Even though his lonely soul cannot believe it."

Caroline tried to grab everything. "So, he wants to control you…he daggered you to keep you close…but why can't he trust you for not leaving him? Has he ever lost you? Has he always been this control freak then?"

Elijah bit his lip. "No, his need for control actually started after we were turned. As for his loss…"

"What happened?"

He hesitated. "I'll tell you this because I think you should know, but it is actually not for me to tell. Please ask Niklaus for any specifics, but just this much, when he lost control he killed his loved one."

Caroline gasped. "What? Oh no!"

Elijah nodded sadly. "It was tragic."

"Ja…I guess so." She was silent and thought about what she had learned.

"You are the first one in a thousand years who cared enough to ask about my brother's past. You dare to take a second look behind the facade." She felt almost embarrassed, but with Elijah there was no real embarrassment. "Forgive me if I stepped too far, I understand that you are in a difficult position, but I am glad you asked and the fact that Niklaus has not yet scared you off is pretty amazing. You don't perceive it, but Niklaus has changed or rather is about to change since he met you."

"What do you mean?"

"As I have spoken to him last night I glimpsed pieces of the boy he once was, tiny flickers of his past, his human self. You should ask him about the painting he is doing at the moment…"

She nodded silently and caught herself wondering who this Klaus was? Or Niklaus? Or was it Nik?

Could it be that he was not as bad as she had thought?

That his nature was actually a different one?

After a moment she spoke again, but her voice was very quiet and pensive. "He doesn't trust himself…isn't that so, Elijah? He has made a horrible mistake and he doesn't trust himself not to do it again, that's why he keeps you close… in order not to lose another loved one, although it's the wrong way…"

Elijah smiled at her warmly. "You've gotten to know him over the last few days a bit, so you tell me. Caroline you have a bright mind and I mean that in ambiguous ways. I wouldn't want to see you hurt so please be careful about my brother and I am not only saying this for your sake but also for my brother's. I don't know if any more damage can be done, but…you know what I mean."

Caroline nodded. "Of course…Thank you, Elijah, for telling me."

"You are very welcome."

Thanks for reading!=)

Have a lovely evening!