Chapter 4: Misery Loves Company
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Klaus's POV:
"Why are we here?" Caroline groaned for the hundredth time,
"A friend of mine has been working over at here for over a century, he's met almost every vampire who's ever visited New York City, I believe he has some information on Katerina, at least, that's what he tells me."
"And what if he doesn't have any information?" Caroline asked,
"Then I tear out his liver." Caroline looked generally disgusted as she always did whenever he was near her, he couldn't say it didn't bother him, Caroline knew too well that he wouldn't hurt her, and she took advantage of it.
They walked into his old friend, Diego Richards, bar. Diego was a warlock, a male witch in other words. He knew everything about everything practically, Klaus knew he was stubborn, but he'd get him to agree. "Oh, look who's here after a whole century, must say, surprised to see you here Nic, that too with such a, interesting, new woman by your side."
"I'm not Klaus's woman, okay?" Caroline said, in a rather rough tone,
Klaus didn't mind of course, he didn't appreciate the tone Diego was using, he'd forgotten what a pain Diego could be. "Wow, pretty and dangerous, I like what I'm seeing, Nic." Klaus smiled then caught Diego by the neck,
"Say another word and I'll rip each of your intestines and make you swallow them!" Diego was unamused, "Please Nic, I'm not threatened by you."
Klaus hated witches, but this was the only way he was going to get any information on Katerina, which if he didn't all the supernatural beings he'd ever killed would come back to existence and ambush him, he couldn't afford to take that risk. Caroline just pushed Klaus away and stood with her arms crossed in front of Diego, "Look, we are here for business. We need all the information you have on a doppelganger vampire called Katherine Pierce." Diego's eyes instantly lit up, he already looked like a midget as it was, he was short and had brown extra curly hair, his face looked like he had just drank several cups of coffee, he wore awkward rags that people in today's generation seem to call 'fashion', jeans that were torn up in places like on the knee and a t-shirt with a inappropriate slogan that read, Green Day. Whatever that meant, "Wait, if I tell you what do I get in return?"
"I don't know about that, but I do have a pretty clear idea on what you will get if you don't tell us immediately." Klaus said, using his best 'in-control' voice. Diego got mad, he bought his hands together, and Caroline started to scream, she put her hands to her ears, "Ouch!" Klaus was desperate, "Stop it! Don't hurt her! I said, stop it!" He screamed, but Diego just kept on going, Klaus couldn't take it anymore, Caroline was screaming in pain, he grabbed Diego and snapped his neck.
The male witch fell to the floor, Caroline looked terrified, he didn't think twice he ran to her side, and held her by the shoulders, "Are you alright?"
"You just...he just...you..." Klaus had realized he'd just killed Diego in his own bar, it was a good thing it was closed. But Diego was a dick, and now he could find out all the information he needed on his own, "How will...Katherine?" Caroline said, still stammering, "One thing I know about my late friend Diego is that he stashed all his vampire info in his house, I bet we will find plenty on Katerina there."
"You just killed him!" She cried, getting into her senses and pushing him away, "You'd rather have him torture you with that juju?"
"This is not working! Urgh!" She said, pacing from one end of the small bar to the other, "Sue me for trying to save your petty little life, again." He said, tired of being polite, "Is killing always the way out of every little situation for you?" She asked,
"I was desperate," Caroline looked overwhelmed, "Don't ever do that again, you hear me? Not in front of me, gosh" Klaus looked away and stared at Diego's dead body, "What do we do with him now?" she asked
"I'll drag him out, and bury him somewhere, I'm giving you an address go there and start digging, I'll be there soon enough."
Reluctantly, she nodded, took the address from him and walked out.
How long was she going to resist him? He was amused to find out...
Stefan's POV:
"So Katherine's been here?" Damon asked, "Oh yes, my bet is, she's still here." Stefan said, resisting the urge of punching his brother, not like he didn't deserve it, Klaus had been right, Damon was up on the roof doing god knows what with Elena and it upset him, a-lot. On the other hand, he had no idea what Rebekah was doing here to complicate matters.
Elena smiled at both of them, "Join the party"
"How did you get to New York, baby bro?" Damon said, walking towards him, Stefan had noticed the way Damon shuffled as far from Elena as he could get once he saw him, Stefan was going to punch him for that, later.
"You don't cover your tracks very well, Damon. Maybe the next time you want to run away with Elena you could make sure a witch isn't able to track you."
"Aw, c'mon! I knew my plan wasn't Bonnie proof!" Damon whined,
"And were you two sneaky brats working together?" He asked, looking more at Rebekah than at him, Rebekah rolled her eyes, "Please, I know better than to trust any of you two Salvatores, I have a plan of my own, Stefan was just at the right time at the right place, i suppose."
"Let's get to business, shall we? What did the two of you dig up on Katherine?" Elena asked, "Stefan first." She added, smiling at him, he sighed,
"I had a talk with a friend of mine, he told me he saw a female vampire at his bar two days ago, his description fits Katherine perfectly."
"Wait a minute..." Damon said, "That means..."
"Katherine's in New York right now." Rebekah completed. "Great, we don't need Rebekah now, let's go dig up more info" Damon said, Rebekah smirked at him,
"I found out an address, I think I know where the bitch is residing."
Elena's smile widened, "We split up, tomorrow morning, Rebekah and I go search her house, the two of you, do...well, whatever you want."
"Wait a second, you and Rebekah? Together? Bad idea, I don't trust her one bit."
Damon complained, "Oh, but you trust little miss no emotions over there?" Rebekah asked, Stefan gave Damon his rudest look,
"Back me up on this, Stefan!"
"Rebekah has information, the two of them can go. I'm on their side for now, and we have a little talking to do ourselves, Damon."
He rolled his eyes like he knew this was coming up, "Fine! Then don't complain when I tell you 'I told you so' when the two of them screw up royally."
"Oh shut up Shaggy and Scooby, and listen to me clearly. I don't need any of your permissions; I chose to go with Rebekah and I'm going with her, I need to find Katherine, so that I can take the cure from her and keep it as far away as I can from the two of you. If you try and stop me, there will be consequences." Elena said, "Rebekah, are you coming?"
Elena was halfway to the door leading back downstairs into the disco,
"Right behind you." Rebekah answered, giving one last smirk at the two of them before following Elena out. "Let me guess, you want to yell at me for taking your girlfriend for a spin, I was trying to find Katherine, you know, I had a plan, you and Barbie Klaus ruined it for me."
Stefan nodded his head no, "Oh, don't give me that crap, Damon. I know you like Elena this way, you wanted her to embrace being a vampire? There, you got what you wanted!" Before Damon could protest, Stefan's cell started to ring loud,
"Hello?" He picked up, "Hey sweetheart, you miss me?"
"Katherine." He said, instantly picking up her voice,
"You know I care about you Stefan, you know that right?"
"What do you want, Katherine?" He asked, "I want nothing, I'm just calling to warn you, a little head's up, you know, I'm in the middle of something, if you or Elena or anybody, tries to ruin that for me, you're gonna be in some trouble."
She said, "Don't be stupid, just tell us where you are, Katherine. I'm not buying this, any of it." He replied, she giggled,
"Don't sign your own death sentence Stefan, this is bigger than you and me. Anyway," She went on, "Try and meddle, you'll be responsible for what happens next." Damon grabbed the phone, "Are you working with Silas?"
She laughed, "Puh-leeze, no, I don't work with or for anyone. Just telling you, any of you mess up my plan, I'll create living hell for you."
"You bloody—"
Katherine cut Damon off before he could curse some more,
"I won't repeat myself, boys. Don't tell me I didn't warn you."
Stefan sighed; he'd just been threatened by two ex-girlfriends.
Caroline's POV:
"Now if I was a horny dick named Diego where would I hide my important stuff?" Caroline asked herself, she was inside the dude who'd just been killed by Klaus's home. And she felt, awkward, more than usual. She was having mixed feelings, I mean of course, Diego was trying to kill her or hit on her, or hurt her, or something...she probably would've killed him herself if she could have. But seeing Klaus do it; it just felt wrong. Everything he did just felt wrong to her at the moment, but she couldn't understand why. Then a cartoon light bulb flashed over her head, she found Diego's boxer cabinet, she half-expected some info to be there, but no luck, she tore the room apart, checked on top of and underneath the bed, inside his closet, in the cabinets, on desks, even inside the bathroom and found nothing. She sat down on the bed, exhausted when someone stepped in, she twirled around as quick as possible and found Klaus staring at her in that creepy way he always did, she called it Klaus's Loverboy look, seriously, sometimes Caroline wondered what he saw in her, why he behaved the way he did around her and her only, but she didn't say any of that out loud of course she just went,
"Well, I didn't find it in his boxers."
Klaus grinned at her, "Did I forget to tell you where he kept them, love? Did you check the book shelf?"
Caroline dug her nails into the palms of her hands, "How could I have forgotten the book shelf?"
Klaus walked over to the book shelf and started flipping through,
"I've heard that people in the 21st century make a-lot of jokes on blondes."
"Hey—Not funny! I'm actually pretty smart" She said, defending herself,
"Mmm hmm, you're the head of the Mystic Falls beautification committee, that's real ivy league nowadays, isn't it?" She smirked and picked up a pillow and threw it at him, "Sure, make fun of me all you want, at least I'm not a billion years old, I mean how can you be this handsome anyway? Aren't you supposed to be all papery and white-haired by now?" He looked up at her with a small intrigued smile,
"So you think I'm handsome?"
She bit her lip, opened her mouth, and then closed it because she didn't really have anything to say. "Well...do you?"
She nodded, "Perhaps, but that doesn't matter, if I was a heartless, cold-blooded hybrid monster, I probably wouldn't have been able to look at myself in the mirror." Klaus stopped smiling, he looked away, looking genuinely hurt,
"I think I found something," He said, picking up a light blue cardboard box and opening it to reveal a dozen different kinds of belongings, wallets, jewellery, cell phones, and perfume bottles. The guy wasn't just a horny dick, but a thief too.
"Diego here, stole from vampires and only vampires, he stole something from every vampire who's ever been to his bar, except us I suppose, point is, if we can find one of Katherine's items in here, we can—"
"Get Bonnie to do a locator spell and track her down!" Caroline completed,
Klaus nodded, "Something like that."
He continued to look through the stuff in the box,
she saw he was constantly frowning while doing so, not even attempting to start a conversation, "Don't give me the puppy dog looks, it won't work." She said,
"What looks?" He asked, not even looking up at her,
"Hey, look at me when I'm talking to you!" Caroline cried, feeling insulted,
"What do you want me to say, Caroline? Haven't I finished making a complete fool out of myself by now?" He asked,
Caroline looked into his eyes, "Don't give me that crap, I would never accept you after all the things you've done, especially to Tyler!"
Klaus put down the box for a second and stood up and barged right into her personal space, his face, inches away from her own, he always did this when he was trying to prove a point, he stared right into her eyes, his blue green eyes were deep and entrancing but she would never fall for them after everything that had happened. Even though they'd been in this position before, she felt strangely uncomfortable, her stomach felt weird and she felt goose bumps tugging at her skin. She could feel his hot breath on her face, she could hear his heart beat with her vamp-hearing, she could feel the tension around them,
"Just answer one question for me, Caroline, and I'll never bother again."
"G-go ahead..." She said, controlling her stammer, he held on to one of her hands, his touch was warm and comfortable, it sent her pulse racing for some reason, no, she didn't like him, it was obviously because he could rip her neck off at any given moment, but for some reason, she wasn't afraid of him, she couldn't be, even after all he'd done. "If I was a nobleman like in the old days, if I wasn't the man I am today, would you have...you know?"
She let go of his hand, pulling herself a little away so she could comfortably speak, "I...I can't answer that."
"Just, please, do and I'll leave you alone, Caroline, I promise."
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, deep down she knew the answer, but what would he think of her if she said so?
"Caroline?"
"Yes."
"Yes, Klaus I would have fallen for you, probably hard. But the fact remains that you are the fringing man you are today and neither you nor me can change that! No woman can ever be okay with the things you've done, Klaus. No woman ever will, I certainly won't!"
Klaus didn't seem to get angry, he moved out of her personal space just a little and smiled down at himself, "Why are you smiling, huh?"
That moment she heard footsteps, and turned around, Klaus was already half way to the door of the house, "Oh, did I walk in on a moment, guys? Oh, I'm sorry." Elena said.
"Elena! What the hell are you doing here?" Caroline cried,
Klaus grabbed her by the arm, and twisted it, "Ouch! Let me go you freak!" She cried, "I gave Stefan strict orders to keep you away right now, with your switch turned off you're of no use to any of us."
She released herself from his grip, "So Stefan's been taking orders from you huh? Interesting..."
Caroline made a face at her, "What do you want, Elena?"
Elena nodded her head, looking genuinely confused, "Now, is that the way to speak to your best friend?"
"My best friend died the night you turned off your humanity! And after you tried to kill me, I don't think there's any other tone I'd like to use here." She said,
"Hmm, sorry about that by the way, you've always really annoyed me anyway."
"Wait a second," Klaus said, then he shoved her and grabbed her by the neck, "Let me go! Urgh!" She cried, "Um, lighten up there?" Caroline said sounding helpless, "She's not Elena." Klaus said, Caroline's eyes widened, "Katherine?"
Katherine smiled, "It's getting so easy to fool you people these days."