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Chapter Two

Darkness

"Nik!" Rebekah yelled as she walked into his apartment, completely uninvited, mind you. Klaus lifted his face from the neck of a lovely brunette and looked at his sister with irritation.

"You could learn to knock, Bekah."

"Well, you should learn to lock your door. Wipe your face; don't you have any table manners?" She asked and sat herself down on his couch without an invite. Klaus did not say a word, just pressed his mouth against the girls neck, draining every last drop of her blood. He let her body fall to the floor. That could be taken care later.

"What brings you to me, my dear sister?" He asked, finally wiping his face clean of the blood. She had been truly exquisite, he thought as he licked his fingers for the last drops of her blood.

"I just thought you would like to know that our brother is back in town," Rebekah informed as she poured herself a glass of whiskey. Klaus furrowed his brow. This would not be good.

"Which one?"

"Kol. Last I heard, Elijah was still roaming around Europe." Klaus sighed and poured himself a drink as well.

"That is what you get for un-daggering him, sister." Rebekah just rolled her eyes at him.

"He had been lying in that coffin since the 1700s, I felt bad for him." Now it was Klaus' turn to roll his eyes.

"You do remember why we daggered him in the first place, don't you?" Kol had been causing too much trouble. Drawing attention to himself. And Mikael was more than happy to be following the trail of bodies Kol had left behind. He had his trademark, and it was easy to find him. Too easy.

"Yes, I remember, but he deserved to have some fun. It wasn't fair to keep him daggered down in a coffin in your storage, Nik."

"Well, why don't you just go pull the dagger out of Finn's chest too?" he asked, his voice full of venom. Klaus liked it here in Chicago. Music, girls, bodies to drain. And no one noticed the occasional girls who went missing. The gangsters were in charge, and girls went missing all the time. It was nothing that would draw attention to him. But Kol would.

"Oh come on, Nik. We all know that Finn is a real danger. With all those suicidal thoughts. Plus, he's a terrible bore." Klaus just shook his head. He was already dreading the moment Kol would come knocking on his door. It was time to start planning how to dagger him all over again. Klaus needed to keep his family alive, and as long as Mikael was still following them and trying to kill them all, Kol would be safer lying in a coffin.

"You let me know when he shows up," Klaus informed Rebekah as he started tying his tie.

"Sure. Where are you going? Can I come with?"

"I am going to Friar's. With Stefan. You aren't welcome."

"Oh come on, Nik! He's completely head over heels for me. Please, Nik. Please!" He sighed and shook his head. He rarely could deny his sister anything.

"Fine."

"Thank you!"

Stefan turned up on his door fifteen minutes later, smirking as he saw Rebekah all dressed up.

"I didn't know you were coming, Rebekah." She smiled coyly, making Klaus laugh in disbelief. Rebekah was far from an innocent, coy girl.

Stefan had proved to be good company, but Klaus was a little irritated that Rebekah had to have a crush on him. Klaus was not good at sharing. Not at all. He had met Stefan about three months ago. And he knew he should be avoiding him. The Ripper of Monterrey, he was called. Klaus was very much aware how much attention Stefan's feeding habits were drawing, but he could not turn down his company. Klaus very much liked his company. He was amusing and an original character. And Klaus knew how hard it was to find someone like him. During the last nine hundred years of his existence he had met someone like him only twice. And Mikael would not know Stefan was with Klaus.

"So, why are we going to Friar's, again?" Stefan asked as he hailed a cab.

"No reason," he said and Stefan left it there. He had learned not to question him. But the truth was, he had been looking for a certain blonde girl he had met a week ago. He had not seen her since, but he had a hunch that she went there often. Truth be told, he had no idea why he had even noticed her. Yes, she was beautiful, but not the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. But when he sat down with her, it was that fire in her eyes that kept him sitting there. Normally he would just have dragged the girl to the restrooms and drain her body. But this girl did not want to hear his charming comments. She was not charmed by his accent. She stood up to herself and somehow Klaus felt like he could not turn away. Of course he was planning on draining her at some point, but for now, he wanted to play. Klaus enjoyed the chase, but he usually didn't stay in the same place for long enough to do it often, and also, he rarely found a girl he deemed worth chasing.

He could already imagine the sweet taste of her on his lips. He smiled as they neared the speakeasy. Perhaps he would find his mystery girl. Perhaps he would even learn her name. This was going to be so sweet. He wanted to play. To make her see all of his darkness. He would not even compel her to not to be afraid, like he usually did. He needed this. Most of the time he handled his feeding fairly discreetly. He even left about 75 per cent of his victims alive. He would do anything to avoid Mikael. But he wanted her. Klaus wanted to feed from her many times before finally killing her, seeing the fire behind her eyes turn off. Only if he could find her…

Stefan paid for the cab and led Rebekah inside the Inn. Klaus trailed behind them, not particularly keen on seeing his sister drooling all over Stefan. The downside of being a vampire was that you could literally hear everything. And humans had such poor hearing. Going to a place like this could be very exhausting if you did not know how to control it. Klaus could hear the music coming from the inside, people talking and ah… That was her voice. He could hear her clearly. This was his lucky night. If you didn't count his annoying sister tagging along. He was going to have so much fun tonight.

As they entered, Klaus searched for her immediately, and spotted her near the dance floor with that brunette friend of hers that he had seen her leaving with a week earlier. He pondered what he should do next. Approach her right away, or let her drink a few drinks and relax a bit. But Niklaus Mikaelson was not the most patient man in the world. That would be his brother Elijah. Still chasing his 'one true love' across Europe. Klaus snatched a glass of bourbon from the waiter, drank it and headed towards the women.

"No Elena, I really don't want your pity. I can find a man on my own. I don't need you to set me up with one of Matt's friends. Do you even know this Tyler? I didn't think so either. So thank you, but no thank you." Klaus listened her argue with her friend, Elena.

"Come on, every girl has a boyfriend these days!" Klaus studied the blonde girls face when Elena said this. She was mad.

"No, Elena. Not everybody needs a boyfriend. You have known this Matt person for less than two months. You are putting yourself in danger, and I would be putting myself in danger if I were to take you up on your offer. Don't you know the world isn't safe? Especially if you're a woman." Elena just shook her head. It appeared as they had gone through the subject before. As Klaus looked at the two women, he saw his usual victim in Elena. She was careless, trusting, and just wanted to have fun. Now, there was nothing wrong with that, he actually enjoyed the women who liked to let loose. But considering he was a predator, she would be all too easy to kill. Charm her, convince her to go outside with him, and then she would be dead. Or at least he would have taken blood from her. He couldn't afford killing everyone he fed from. He would have loved to, but he couldn't. But the blonde one on the other hand… She was suspicious. She wouldn't have left with him; he would have had to compel her. And that was why she made the perfect candidate for his prey.

"Fine, but just have fun today, okay? It's Bonnie's day of. Just dance with someone, then we can all drink together and laugh at the desperate men who we danced with and who thought we would be going home with them. Please?" The blonde stared at her friend, but finally smiled at her.

"And then we all go to your house, right?" Elena nodded and hugged her friend. "Just have fun, Care. I love you and I just want you to be happy, you know that right?" The blonde girl nodded and hugged her back tightly. Klaus had never been one to show affection, and he found the scene that was unraveling before him quite odd. He waited for the hug to end. It made him uncomfortable for some reason.

The girls let go of each other, but Elena's hand remained on her friend's shoulder.

"I know you have been through a lot, Elena. But you have always been here for me, and I think I have not shown that to you nearly as often as I should," the girl mumbled. Elena merely smiled at her and squeezed her hand. Now was his time.

"Ah, we meet again," he said as he reached the girls. Elena looked up to him with curiosity, and he couldn't help but to notice the flicker of jealousy and disappointment in her eyes as she realized that he was talking to her friend instead. The blonde looked at him with a different expression, but he found himself unable to read her. Odd.

"It would appear so," she said shortly. Elena eyed at her and nudged her with her elbow.

"How rude of me. My name is Niklaus Mikaelson. You can call me Klaus." The brunette offered her hand and told him that she was Elena Gilbert. But the blonde girl he had only heard to be called 'Care' frowned.

"When did you two meet?" Elena asked.

"We met a week ago. A rude fellow was bothering your friend. I thought I would help her out, but she was most ungrateful of my help. Wouldn't even reveal her name to me," Klaus said and smiled at the blonde as he said it. She lifted her brow at him, making Klaus almost laugh. What an odd feeling.

"How rude of you! The least you can do is give the poor bloke your name!" Elena gushed. Her friend did not seem happy, at all.

"Fine. I'm Caroline Forbes. Happy now?" Caroline… He liked the name. It suited her.

"Very happy. But I would be even happier if you would dance with me." Caroline was silently eyeing him.

"Of course she will dance with you! This is one of her favorite songs. Come find me if you need me. If not, we'll meet by the door." And with that she was gone, leaving Klaus and Caroline standing alone. He offered his hand, which she took, after a moment of hesitation. Klaus whirled her to the dance floor. He decided that it would be best if she initiated the conversation, so he only focused on dancing, for now. The song was half way through when she finally decided to speak.

"You are a very good dancer, Nik. Or should I call you Klaus?" He let out a small laugh. He hadn't even realized that he had told her his name was Nik. He went by Klaus. Only his family called him Nik. Well, it didn't really matter. After a short time there would be the exactly same amount of people calling him Nik as there had been nine hundred years ago.

"You can call me whatever you want, love." He said and twirled Caroline around.

"Would it be too much to ask you to use my given name?"

"Yes." Caroline looked at him, but instead of irritation he saw an amused smile.

"You really are a good dancer, Nik, I'll give you that." Klaus smiled and pulled her closer to him. She smelled divine. He had such a terrible urge to sink his fangs into that perfect white skin in her neck and taste the sweetness of her blood. But before he even had time to try and resist the urge, the song ended and he led Caroline to a table.

"You know what they say about men who are good dancers, sweetheart."

"No, I really don't know what they say about men who are good dancers." Caroline said and ordered a glass of wine from the waiter.

"You might just find out," Klaus said before even thinking what he was saying. Having sex with her hadn't really been part of his original plan for Caroline, but now that he was so close to her, he had the urge to lay her down on his bed and show her what he could offer to her. He shook the thought out of his mind.

"You are not from around here," Caroline said sipping her wine.

"How very observant of you, darling. I am indeed not from around here." Caroline rolled her eyes at his smart-ass answer.

"Fine, from now on I will not try to be polite with you anymore."

"But you weren't that polite to me to begin with, now weren't you, Caroline?" Caroline stared at his eyes and he stared right back at the beautiful blue eyes. She was truly exquisite.

"You are very annoying, has anyone ever told you that?"

"Yes, my sister has the need to remind me of that on daily basis. But most women love me. You are the only one who seems to have complaints."

"I am not most women."

"No, you certainly are not like most women." Caroline held his gaze. He could not read the emotion behind those eyes, but he took it as a good sign that she was still sitting here.

"Oh my god, get me out of here, Care!" he heard a female voice call at Caroline. He saw a dark woman right next to him. He recognized her as one of the singers. Caroline laughed at her.

"That bad, huh?"

"Jamie is terribly boring. We need to leave; he's going to notice that I didn't go to the rest room anytime now."

"You sure know how to pic them, Bonnie." Caroline said, making Bonnie groan. Bonnie's eyes moved from her friend to Klaus.

"And who might you be?" she said with a smile. Like a proper gentleman he was, he stood up and offered her his hand.

"Hello, I'm Klaus," he said and as soon as her hand touched his, her expression turned from relaxed into a one filled with horror. Klaus' heart sank. Why did Caroline had to have a friend who was also a witch. All his plans about the hunt were now officially ruined. Great.