AN: Chapter Seven, yay! And it took less than a week, thanks to all of those great reviews!

This is also the longest chapter to date, and now the story has more than 20,000 words!

Hope you'll like this!

Chapter Seven – Still not too old to die young

Klaus and Rebekah arrived to the Inn only ten minutes after Rebekah's call. But he was not there. Klaus cursed and controlled his urge to grab the nearest glass and throw it against a wall.

Rebekah looked agitated and for a good reason. Klaus was not known for his kind nature, and it was her fault their brother was out of the coffin in the first place. Klaus was not pleased with her. And when he was not pleased… Well, it usually meant daggers to hearts and corpses without heads.

She approached the bartender she had glamoured to give her a call if Kol would ever be seen in the Inn.

"Where is my brother?" Rebekah demanded. The bartender smiled.

"Mr. Mikaelson says hello. Also, he thinks it's very rude of you not to be home to greet you guest, Mr. Mikaelson."

Caroline was the only thing rushing through his brain.

"That bastard," Klaus cursed.

Caroline groaned as she tried to open her eyes. She felt dizzy and the back of her head was throbbing. At least she was alive. She managed to open her eyes just to come face to face with the strange vampire. Caroline tried to back away, but the sofa she was laying now gave her no way to escape.

"Good to see you awake, darling. You were getting a bit boring, to be honest with you," he said with a smirk.

"Who are you? What are you doing here? And what happened to me?"

"That's awful lot of questions, sweetheart. You didn't give me a change to introduce myself before you panicked and tripped on a chair and hit your head against the floor."

That didn't make any sense to Caroline.

"You were about to eat me!" she yelled, the loud voice making her head ache even more.

"I'm not going to deny that I was about to take a small sip, just to see what was so special about you that my brother keeps you around and paints portraits of you," he said casually. Wait, what? Nik painted portraits of her? No, Caroline, focus, she reminded herself.

"You are Nik's brother?"

"Oh, you call him Nik, you really must be special. And yes, I am his brother, the one and only. Well, not the only, there's still Finn and Elijah, but I am the most intelligent, interesting and attractive brother. I'm Kol. And who would you be, sweetheart?"

Caroline didn't really know anything about Nik, and it was just dawning on her. He apparently had three brothers, who knew? The only person Caroline had seen him talk to was that creepy friend of his, and she didn't even know his name.

"I'm Caroline."

"Yes, that is a nice name and all, but who are you to my brother, I mean." Caroline wasn't sure what he was going after. It was a strange question to ask, and she got the feeling that the answer to the question would somehow be crucial.

"I'm no one. I'm just staying here for a while," she said. Kol smirked and shook his head.

"Now, Caroline, I think you aren't actually telling me the truth. There are no bite marks on you. Of course, Nik could heal those very easily, but he never bothers. Sometimes he keeps humans around as a convenient food source, but he doesn't waste his precious blood on them. And yet here you are, a human girl, not a mark on you. Well, if we don't count that nasty wound you got when you fell. So, I'll ask again, Caroline. Who are you?"

"I really don't know what to tell you. I met him a few weeks ago, and I didn't have anywhere to go, so he took me in," she said, telling the truth. Last night Nik had told her that he fancied her. She didn't have a clue what he meant by that. The kiss from last night would not leave her head, though.

"My brother, a philanthropist? I think not. Is he going to turn you?"

"I don't think so." Kol took a long look at her.

"There must be something about you that I can use. I won't spend another few centuries daggered in a damn box," he muttered. Daggered in a box? This man was just so bizarre.

"You must be important. You wouldn't be here otherwise. Yes. This is good." Caroline blinked, and suddenly she was being held by the vampire. One of his hands was around his waist, the other on her throat. He wasn't choking her, but Caroline screamed and started struggling. Of course it did her no good. She screamed again, alarmed, when the door burst open, revealing Nik and a blonde woman, judging by her speed, also a vampire.

Nik's eyes were red and the veins in his face were clearly visible. His fangs were exposed, too. The last time she had seen him like this, she had screamed and ran away. This time, she let out a relived sigh. He wasn't going to let his brother hurt her. She was sure of it.

"Let her go, Kol. I promise you, you'll regret the moment you said hands on her," he growled and stepped closer to them, but Kol's hand tightened around her neck. Caroline started having trouble breathing. His hand was too tight around her neck. Panic was starting to take over.

"Is this how you welcome your dear brother, Niklaus? I find snack in your house and I am not allowed to eat it? Preposterous."

"Let her go," he said quietly. But the quietness did not reach his eyes. He was furious.

"Come on boys, stop bickering," the woman said with the same accent as the two men.

"Shut up, Rebekah," Nik hissed. Caroline struggled to breathe, tears started running down her face as she tried to swallow. Her throat was on fire. Nik's eyes met hers. Only for a moment Caroline saw something in his eyes that she thought to be despair.

"You want her back? Fine. I have something you want and you have something I want. I want the daggers," Kol said, loosening his grip a bit so Caroline could breathe properly.

"Do you really think I will give you the daggers? I have no intensions of ending up in a coffin, brother."

"You can keep the ash. I don't wish to see any of my siblings daggered in coffins, unlike you. I just want the daggers as an insurance that I will not be spending any more time in that damn box. Now is that too much to ask for?"

Nik glanced at Caroline, but turned his attention quickly back to his brother.

"Yes it is."

"Oh come on now, Nik! I have your precious Caroline. Right now she might be unharmed, but humans are so fragile. I will have her neck snapped in two before you even take your first step towards me."

Nik seemed to bonder Kol's words for a while, but he seemed to realize that what he was saying was true. Caroline already knew that Nik would never intentionally harm her, but now she wasn't so sure if her life was more important to him than those daggers they kept talking about.

"Fine, you can have the daggers. But not the one on Finn's chest." Rebekah turned to look at Nik with slight disbelief in her eyes.

"I will let her go as soon as I have those daggers in my pocket," Kol said, and let go of Caroline's throat. She immediately brought her hands up to her throat and rubbed it. It would be terribly bruised the next morning. She would have to wear a scarf. Kol's grip on her was tight and he probably could kill her in a blink of an eye, but right now the only thing Caroline cared was the fact that she could breathe.

"Rebekah, the daggers are in my bedroom. Here's the key. Also, wear gloves, the handle might burn a bit," Nik said and dismissed her.

"It really is good to see you Nik. How long has it been? Two hundred years?"

"Enough with the small talk. I will rip your head off shortly." Nik delivered the threat with a small smile on his lips.

"I didn't even taste her and you are already ripping off the head of your favorite brother? You insult me, brother." Nik quirked his eye brow, not believing his words.

"I can smell the blood, Kol."

"Oh that! It's just a small head wound. She fell. Girls tend to pass out when they see how handsome I am," Kol said. Caroline couldn't see him, but she could imagine the smirk on his lips.

"Love?" Nik questioned his voice suddenly a lot softer, full of concern.

"I'm fine," she said, wiping the tears from her face.

"No, you are not okay. I told you no one was going to hurt you. And I'm sorry. He will pay for what he did." Caroline felt tears welling in her eyes again. She wasn't that badly hurt, but the fact that he was so concerned about her made her emotional. No one had really cared so much before.

Rebekah arrived with the daggers in her hands and gave them to Kol. He released Caroline. She still felt dizzy and her feet were about to fail on her, but Nik's hands were suddenly around her, laying her down on the sofa before she could hit the floor.

"You better go now, Kol. But you can count on seeing me again soon." Nik said his voice full of poison. Kol disappeared.

Nik brought his wrist to his mouth, revealed his fangs and bit into it. Caroline let out a small cry.

"What are you doing?" His mouth was red with blood, and before Caroline could do or say anything, his wrist was pressed against her mouth, his blood flooding in.

"You'll heal." Nik said and stroke her hair as Caroline gulped down the blood so she wouldn't choke on it.

"Sleep, you'll need it," he said as he removed his wrist from her lips. Caroline looked at her, just about to argue that she was not sleepy, but something in his voice made her eye lids feel heavy. She yawned and fell asleep.

Klaus left the living room where Caroline was peacefully in a glamour induced sleep. He knew she would have a couple of carefully chosen words to say to him about that, but right now he just wanted her to rest. She had been through a lot in the last couple of days; she needed to rest without having to worry about her father, living with a vampire and now about his brother.

Klaus was livid. He was so, so angry. At Kol, but also with himself. He had told Caroline. He had told her he wouldn't let anyone hurt her. But he had failed. And it felt worse than his father beating him repeatedly, worse than failing to break the curse. Klaus hadn't felt anything like this in a long time. When Henrik had died, he had shut himself down completely. And now she was awakening feelings in him that he hadn't thought to be feeling ever again.

He entered his study and took a look at the portrait. He was happy with it, surprisingly. Perhaps it was because she wasn't smiling in this one. She was scared, fearing for her own life. And it was because of him.

Klaus was frustrated, angry and very, very confused. He grabbed the half empty tumbler from the desk and threw it against the wall. He looked at the whiskey running down the wall, and let his face wall to his hands. Everything he had done the past few days was so unlike him. He had been alive for centuries, always unchanging, an emotionless beast that everyone feared. Then one blonde human entered his life and turned it all upside down. Klaus couldn't understand how it was possible. Nothing about Caroline screamed remarkable, but when Klaus looked at her, nothing and no one he had ever seen could compare to her. She was special.

And this angered Klaus to no end. This wasn't supposed to happen. If Caroline was just another normal human girl, Klaus would still have his daggers. He wouldn't have lost some of his power over Kol. If Caroline was just another girl, Klaus would have called Kol's bluff. He would have killed her, but Klaus would not have cared. He would have his daggers and he would have Kol safely daggered in his coffin. By choosing Caroline, Klaus had made the choice of knowingly putting himself and Rebekah in danger. He had seen Rebekah's disapproving look, and he couldn't help but to agree with her.

However, seeing Caroline being choked by Kol had made him see red. But anger wasn't the only thing he had felt. The moment he had realized that Kol had gone back to his apartment and that Caroline was there alone, a strange sensation had filled him. Fear. He never feared, but when he grasped the fact that Caroline could be dead, he couldn't help but to be afraid. Somehow this girl meant more to him than himself or his family. And that was unacceptable. That was not Klaus.

Klaus reached for the telephone and dialed.

"Stephan, meat me at the Inn."

"Finally!"

When Caroline woke up, the head ache and dizziness were gone. It took a minute to realize that she was sleeping on a sofa and not the huge and comfortable bed she had last woken up in.

Then everything came rushing back to her.

"That bastard," Caroline cursed Nik as she realized he had glamoured her to make her sleep. If she wanted to sleep, she did. He had no right!

"Hi," a woman's voice called from a distance. Caroline shook off the blanket that someone had put on her and sat up startled. The voice belonged to the woman she had seen earlier with Nik, Rebekah.

"I'm Rebekah. Nik and Kol's sister," she said and came closer, taking a seat in an armchair that was located within a respectable distance from Caroline. She appreciated the gesture.

"I'm Caroline," she replied, her voice still hoarse. It was still dark outside, so she guessed she had not slept to the morning. It had been around dinner time when Kol had come into the apartment, and when she had been forcefully put to sleep.

"Oh, don't I know," Rebekah said and rolled her eyes. Caroline looked at her pointedly.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You are the human girl my brother just gave away the daggers for. And we really needed to get Kol into the coffin again."

"Why do you want to put your own brother into a coffin? Not that I object, he was about to kill me."

Rebekah turned to look at the fire place. The fire was burning, painting Rebekah's face red. She took a sip from her wine glass. For a moment Caroline thought she was going to ignore her.

"Because if we won't, Mikael will find us."

"Who is Mikael? And why don't you want him to find you?"

"If he finds us, he will kill Nik and everyone who comes in his way. Mikael is our father." Caroline stared at her. Their father? Caroline had never thought that anyone else would have a worse father than she had, but at least hers didn't want to kill her.

"Why would your father want to kill him?"

"Caroline, I know that Nik hasn't told you much, but I think you should know something. Because I know you will stick around, and the faster you learn, the safer you are. And if you are safe, Nik will be safe too. Judging from what happened today, you would be perfect bait for Mikael. You are only human and if Mikael ever found out that someone was important to Niklaus other than his family, he would go after you."

"Why does he chase him? And why on earth would he go after me? I'm no one!"

"I need to tell you who we really are, Caroline."

And so Rebekah started a story that began in the 10th century. The Mikaelson family had sailed from the old world to the new long before Columbus was even born. Rebekah had four elder brothers and one younger brother. The village they had settled was otherwise ordinary, but once month the villagers hid into the caves to hide from the humans turned to beasts. One night Nik had wanted to observe the wolves, and his youngest brother Henrik had come with him, despite Nik's objections. The wolves couldn't control themselves while in their animal form, and Henrik lost his life. The accident shook the Mikaelson family and their mother Esther, a powerful witch, decided to protect the rest of her family from something like that ever happening again. They were turned into vampires.

Young vampires cannot control themselves, and they all went on a feeding frenzy. But when Nik killed the first villager, something happened. He was one of the wolves. He was no trueborn son of Mikael, but a bastard son of Esther. The curse activated and Nik became a werewolf-vampire hybrid. But his werewolf side needed to be restricted, so a curse was placed on him, repressing his werewolf side.

Ever since Nik had been searching for the way to break the curse. And he had almost managed to do so with one Katerina Petrova. She escaped though, and Nik was unable to break the curse. A few decades ago he had learned that killing the doppelgänger would only break the curse, but he would be unable to make new hybrids. He had been able to track down a way to keep the doppelgänger alive, but he hadn't been able to find one after Katerina.

He searched feverishly, but Mikael was always on their trail. He could never accept Nik, since he was not his son, and a result of his wife's infidelity. He swore to take Nik's life, who was an abomination, according to Mikael. He had the potential to be a hybrid, the most powerful immortal being in the whole world, and Mikael needed to get to him before he would become impossible to kill.

"Wow. You were the original Vampires. I can't really believe all this," Caroline murmured when Rebekah came to the end of her story.

"You see now why you could end up being the death of Nik? If Mikael finds out who you are and how important you are to Nik, he will use you. And Mikael will come, Kol always draws attention."

Caroline desperately wanted to ask about the part where Rebekah said how important she was to Nik. Yes, he had said that he fancied her, kissed her and taken her in to his house, but was she really that important? Instead she asked about Kol.

"Kol… He has the habit of killing women in a very specific way. He doesn't really have a type of women, but when the police find young women with their own hearts in their hands, it really draws attention."

Caroline stared at Rebekah, unable to say a word.

"He rips their hearts out of their chest and places it in their hands?!" Rebekah nodded. Caroline felt cold. It could have been her. She could be dead right now.

"He doesn't do it that often, but if he stays in one place for a long time, he can't control it. It's always women who are a certain age. It's his revenge for someone he knew a long time ago." Caroline just nodded. She didn't need to know more about the gruesome details. Nik murdering that girl in front of her started to look like nothing at all. The fire was going out as Rebekah finally stood up.

"I know you wanted to be a vampire before Nik had to go and demonstrate his abilities to you. He thinks you don't want to be like us anymore. But I think you do. And you need to talk about it with Nik. The sooner you are turned, the better."

Caroline nodded, her head filled with all this new information. Rebekah left, leaving Caroline alone, staring at the dead fire.

The sun was already coming up; there was no sign of Nik.

"I don't know the hell has been up with you the last few days, but it's good to see you back to normal," Stephan said as he lifted his mouth from the neck of the brunette. They were sitting in the middle of the busy Inn, and no one looked at them twice. Humans were so easy to fool.

Klaus smirked at him. The red head next to him was still alive, but he didn't plan it to be so for much longer. He needed a binge.

"You always bring the best out of me, mate," he smirked and sank his teeth into her neck. She sighed as her blood drained from her veins and ended up in his mouth. Klaus felt high on blood, but he wasn't even nearly done.

The red head was still warm next to him, but soon she would be cold. And he needed more.

Stephan's girl was even more lifeless than his, if that was even possible. Her neck had been ripped open with such violence. Ripper. Just what he needed.

The Inn was closing, but Klaus wasn't ready to stop this party. The sun was coming up and he had no intention going home. He needed to forget everything for a while.

"Let's take this party back to my place, shall we?" Stephan suggested and grabbed the nearest four girls and glamoured them to come with them.

The cab ride was obnoxiously laud. The petite blonde girl was glued to Klaus' side. The three brunettes were sitting with Stefan. Fine, Klaus could manage with only one girl.

Stephan's place wasn't big, but it sufficed. Stephan sat down on the sofa, the girls putting music on, and dancing for him, taking articles of clothes away at the same time. Klaus grabbed the blonde who eagerly followed with him. She had been glamoured to come with them, but she hadn't been glamoured to everything he wanted. He didn't need to do that.

The blonde attacked his mouth after he had slammed the door of Stefan's bedroom closed. Klaus desperately wanted to get the image of Caroline out of his head. This kiss was nothing compared to kissing her. But as the girl started unbuttoning his trousers, Caroline fled his mind. She grabbed his cock and smiled at him. He unzipped her dress and quickly removed her undergarments. She was completely naked before him. He pushed her into Stephan's bed and stepped out of his trousers, and removed his shirt. The girl squealed when he pinned her to the bed. She pressed her lips against his neck and moaned loudly. Klaus pushed her back down on the bed and entered her. The girl kept making those god awful noises. He wanted her just to be silent. He sank his fangs to her neck, making her shout out due to the foreign feeling. The blood was sweet. Much sweeter that she was. He wasn't in the mood of taking his time. Not with her. Not now. He thrust in her a few more times, her blood constantly running to his mouth. He came with a low grunt. He rolled of off her. Necrophilia was not his thing. He inched back to her neck and let the last drops of her blood fill her mouth. She died long before she was empty of blood. After the last drop of her entered him, he rolled onto his back.

Laying there next to a corpse he couldn't help but to think of her. She never left her. Caroline. She had stayed with him. Even though he had tried to make her stay away.

He had just fed, killed, and fucked. Yet he was even less satisfied than he had been hours before. Nothing made him feel like he was used to feeling. Sex had always been satisfying. Blood even more so. All the blood was still sweet, but not as sweet as her kiss. Women were still beautiful, but not as beautiful as she was. No one and nothing compared to her. Was this love?

The sun had gone down again hours ago and she still hadn't seen Nik. She had no idea where he had gone. By midnight she went to bed. She couldn't just stay up and wait for him to come home the whole night. That would be pathetic. Just when Caroline was about to fall asleep, the door of her room cracked open. She stirred awake. The footstep came closer to her bed. It was dark and she couldn't see who it was. At first she thought that Kol had come back to get her. Her heart started beating faster as she pondered what she should do.

"It's just me, love," Nik said. He sounded intoxicated. It almost made Caroline laugh. It was just so absurd. The big bad original vampire was drunk like a regular old human. He stopped by her bed and sat down on it. The bed was huge and Caroline was lying in the middle of it. Nik kicked of his shoes and rolled close to her. Caroline's eyes were staring to adjust to the darkness.

"Where were you?" she whispered. Nik's hand came to her cheek, brushing the locks of hair from it.

"Here and there. It doesn't matter. I'm here now," he said. Caroline didn't know what to think of him anymore. After her discussion with Rebekah she knew so much more about him. About his father, his dead brother. He felt so much more real to her.

"There's no place in this world I would rather be, Caroline." She didn't know what to say. She had feelings for him, but she didn't really know what those feeling were, yet.

"You have to believe me," he pleaded. Something made Caroline reach to his face. She needed to touch him. It was something she constantly felt herself wanting to do, but she always restrained from doing so. But in the darkness, it felt almost like a dream. His stubble was course against her hand, and his hair so soft. Caroline couldn't help but to wonder how the rest of him felt like.

"I do believe you, Nik."

"Good. I need you to know. Nothing feels the same anymore. Nothing." She stayed silent. His words weren't making any sense to her.

"Did you kill people, Nik?" He sighed and rolled to his back.

"Yes, I did. Three girls." He reached for the pocked of his jacket and pulled out pieces of paper. Caroline reached for the bedside lamp so she could see better.

They were letters. The dead girls' letters, she realized. He answered to her question before she could even ask it.

"A reminder how utterly alone I am." She put the letters on the table beside her bed.

"But you're not alone, Nik."

"No one stays. In the end, everyone leaves." He looked so vulnerable. He was more real than ever before. She could never make excuses for the things he did, but she could understand them. She could look past them. She could. She would.

"I will stay. I promise."

Nik looked at her for the briefest moment before he closed his eyes. The man that was now laying here beside her seemed like a completely different person than the one she had met in the Inn weeks ago. Caroline couldn't help but to wonder how much her life had changed. He had given him hope. Hope of a better future. And she hoped she would be able reciprocate. The last thing Caroline heard was Nik muttering something that almost sounded like 'I love you'. She fell asleep with a smile on her face, and her hand in his.

AN: Don't kill me! But I never believed Klaus to be celibate, and he's really confused right now. I hope the last Klaroline moment convinced you that good things are ahead ;)

Also, a brief end note about the curse and stuff. So, Elena is not the doppelgänger, as you might have figured out already. She is related to Katherine, but they do not look like identical twins, more like regular siblings. Also, Klaus doesn't know that Katherine is Katerina, so he doesn't know who made Stefan. And Elijah is in Europe, tracking down Katherine, because Kalijah 3 And that's why Nik and Elijah are not really speaking to each other.

There, please review!