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Part 2
KLAUS
Once upon a time he had thought her an angel. Once she had been a shock of bright light he neither deserved nor wanted. He was the most powerful being on earth, incapable of death or destruction, and he had no desire to change. He had been above them all. All others immortals cowered in fear and seethed in hatred of him.
And there she was—perfectly polished like the silver in the royal solarium on display at the Hermitage.
There she had been, young and innocent and unsullied in such a way that was impossible for a bloodsucker. She had always been more of a faerie creature to him than a vampire. Powerful as he had been, he had just about bowed down to her.
Surprising as it was, looking at her now as she stood still as stately and elegant as before, Klaus recognized. She was not as picture perfect as she tried to seem.
His insides coiled at the sight of her. Marcel offered his arm, and she took it with a smile. Down the steps they glided. That bastard mentee of his that he had sired long ago still had the impossible grace of a dancer. Her smile was not so easy. Klaus knew when she forced it. It was easy to see that she had it on by necessity. She turned to the rest of the visitors and he swore she avoided another look in his direction.
Elijah stopped next to him and commented, "How on earth did this happen, Niklaus?"
It was the easy way she moved about in Marcel's arm. She leaned her head to the side as she listened intently to a story narrated by another young vampire from Marcel's circle. And then she laughed, throwing her head back with the effort. Her warm, feminine voice stirring in his gut sensations.
The memory of the hot slickness of her as he pushed his way inside her as she pressed back on the alley wall, the caress of her breath on his own lips wet by her tongue, the whisper soft sound of his name erupting from his throat when she came.
He had never been squeezed so tight. So ridiculously tight.
Klaus made a move towards her, and Elijah caught his arm. He turned to his brother.
"Not here."
"I will do as I please," Klaus returned.
"Niklaus," came Elijah's reminder, "you are surrounded by his loyal men."
"They cannot hurt me," Klaus claimed with pride.
"Then by all means start a rumble," Elijah allowed. "You may forget that girl may be the most defenseless here."
"Then let her get herself killed," Klaus snarled. He cursed himself and his stupid instincts, because even as he said the words he felt himself pulling back. He watched beneath hooded eyelids as she wandered away from Marcel to greet other guests.
Found his perfect opportunity when Marcel vanished into a room with his closest. He scanned the room for her. For a second he recognized himself—the one him—in the way he stalked towards her like a predator to his prey.
He was close enough to smell himself on her skin, and he swore he may have branded her the night before because his scent was so strong on her still that Klaus wondered if anyone else saw her and just knew. Her back was to him as she looked up at a painting on the wall.
"Yours?" she asked softly.
He sucked in his breath. Was surprised she knew. He had always moved stealthily enough that no one could tell.
"I knew sooner or later you were going to want to talk." Caroline turned her head and met his eyes. She glanced back towards the party, then nodded towards a nearby door. "Not here."
They were the only words he needed. His hand wrapped around hers and discreetly they slipped into the room she directed. Before the door slammed shut, she was pressed back against it and Klaus leaned both hands on either side of her, trapping her there.
Her lips thinned. "Let me go," she demanded. "And give me back my bracelet."
His eyes narrowed. "Which one?"
"You know which one I need right now, Klaus," Caroline replied, her voice taking on a rough edge.
Klaus slipped one hand into his pocket and then dangled the bracelet in front of her. "Rubies," he said in disgust. "Since when did rubies take precedence over diamonds."
Caroline reached up to try to snatch the jewelry from him. He swung it away and up, and instead of once more trying to reach for it she glared at him. "Stop playing games, Klaus!" she snapped.
He growled low and slammed his hand on the door beside her. She jumped. And fuck her if she ever thought that she was going to get hit. She should have known better, seen better, experienced better. He had burned and been subject to the torment of his own father in the hands of her and her friends and never once had he laid a hand on her. He had had her in his arms multiple times and it was he that had shed blood. "Games?" he exclaimed in disbelief. "I'm the one playing games?"
"Give me the bracelet," she repeated.
"The moment I saw you making eyes at the man who stole everything from me was when I stopped giving in to your demands."
"Klaus," she said, her stance softening, "he asked about it."
And damn her for thinking Marcel getting hurt that his girlfriend did not take care of his gift would make him want to give in. Instead, Klaus cocked his head, "What did you tell him?"
Caroline sighed. "I told him I seem to have lost it."
And he grinned with no trace of humor. "Did you tell him you lost it in an alleyway fucking my brains out?"
The words settled uneasily in his gut, because when he was inside her he believed for the first time that he was capable of being saved.
She closed her eyes. Klaus watched her face when the words washed over her. For a split second he thought he saw devastation, but when she opened her eyes they were hard, resolute. And they almost looked like stranger's eyes. "Sometimes I forget how terrible you are," she said softly.
And it was like she had screamed at him.
He swallowed, and saw her take a breath as she watched his throat work. Her gaze flew up to his. "Help me understand what you're doing here," he pleaded with her. She did not respond. Instead she reached for the buckle of his belt and pulled him to her. "Caroline," he said in protest, putting his own hand over his, "tell me."
Her eyes brimmed, and Klaus cursed at the injustice that he would be so moved, so easily, when it was she that had come to him the night before, she that professed the very words he had only dreamed about, she that started this entire thing again.
He had been perfect the way he was, drawing pictures in the dark, far away from her and the utter destruction that feeling the way he did about her just made possible.
And despite his reluctance it was he who leaned forward and pressed an openmouthed kiss on her lips. She pursed her lips and returned the kiss.
"Come with me," he said as he lifted his head.
"I can't leave."
"Is he holding you against your will?" Klaus asked, his heart fluttering with hope. "Because I swear I can get you out singlehandedly. These young vampires are nothing against me. I made Marcel."
"I choose to stay," she told him.
"Why?"
She stared at him for a good while. Klaus wanted to throttle her right then, maybe snap her neck so he could carry her away without objection. "I want to be here," she told him. And then, she licked her lips.
"You seem to forget what you told me last night," he whispered into her ear.
"Last night I was drunk. You know how easily I fall in love," she threw to him.
Klaus' eyes narrowed. "When I saw you, I thought you were in trouble. I thought I somehow brought it down to you."
"My world doesn't revolve around you, Klaus, even though sometimes you forget that you're not the center of the universe."
With those words, Caroline slipped from where Klaus had her trapped against the door. She turned her gaze away, as though she could barely stand to look at him. Klaus' grip tightened around the ruby bracelet. "So much for your pretensions of goodness and self-righteousness, Caroline. Turns out you are just as terrible as the rest of us." He could see the way her throat worked when she swallowed. The flicker in her eyes seemed like pain.
"You're not king around here, Klaus."
It stung—so hard. "And you can be quite the bitch with the razor-sharp tongue, can't you, Caroline?" His eyes narrowed. Klaus tossed the bracelet at her feet. "When I rise, I shall rise from the ashes of Marcel's kingdom. And when I do, I shall walk over every last one of you and not once look down in pity."
He grasped the doorknob and pulled it open. Behind him, he heard her say, "Be careful, Klaus."
Klaus looked back around. He paused, because as well as he knew her he recognized she was not done.
"Quick words you don't think through beforehand always catch up to you, and then it becomes too late to regret."
He bit back his tongue. "Well, Caroline, it's not too late to regret making a fool out of myself all this time—believing in a schoolboy's crush."
He closed the door easily behind him, then glanced up back at the party. Klaus saw Marcel looking towards him. Shit. As much as the girl increasingly irritated him, he had no desire to unleash Marcel on her, or have Marcel suspect he was related to Caroline by any means.
Damn him. Klaus never thought of himself as noble. Klaus strode towards where Elijah stood, then muttered, "I will distract Marcel. You get her out of that room before anyone sees her coming from where I was." Elijah did not budge. Klaus grasped him by the elbow. "Please, brother."
CAROLINE
She leaned down to pick up the bracelet, and Caroline noticed the way her splayed hand trembled. She gasped, then fisted her hand. She covered her fist with her other hand, then took a deep breath. She reached back down for the bracelet and found her vision too blurry with tears. "Dammit!" she exclaimed. She focused on the color blotch in her haze and grasped the bracelet before straightening up and hastily wiping away the tears.
Caroline snapped the ruby bracelet back on her wrist. She heard the door open again. She used the back of her hands to dry her cheeks and turned her back on the door. "If you're here for another round, I suggest you walk away, Klaus."
"Another round of what?"
Caroline gasped. She whirled around and saw Elijah with an arched brow. "I thought you were your brother," she said by way of explanation.
"Clearly," Elijah stressed. He closed the door behind him and snapped the lock shut. Caroline watched Elijah warily. "Is it your practice to address my brother before turning to check beforehand who it is?"
She flushed. "You know very well there isn't anything in this picture that is within my practice," Caroline retorted. She demanded, "What is he doing here? You were supposed to keep him away. That was your role. I did my part!"
"Did you, Caroline?"
She growled. "I hate you and your stupid one line questions in response to my questions!"
His lips quirked. "I believe it's called Socratic dialogue. You were learning it in your sophomore class."
"In the college you asked me to abandon because your super powerful Original Hybrid brother can't do anything right?" Caroline parried, still stinging from Klaus' words.
Elijah sighed. He looked down at his shoes, his fascinating, gleaming shoes. Caroline rolled her eyes. At the very least, he relieved her frustration with Klaus and his stupid hurtful threats. Where Klaus was passionately angry or coldly terrifying, Elijah was a breath of fresh air in his logic. He slid his hands into his pockets, then looked back up at her. "You were always Niklaus' distraction ever since he met you, you know."
Caroline was surprised. She had gleaned much from their brief conversations, but Elijah had never been so telling. "You told me you needed me so he could focus. How is my being a distraction help him?"
"The more he was wondering about you, these past two years, the less efficient Niklaus was. You do not want to deal with an unfocused Hybrid with dreams of grandeur." Elijah shook his head. "I needed you to come to the city safe, because Marcel knows the comings and goings into the city. All you needed to do was convince him you were new in the city, remove any suspicion on you so you are not followed around."
To his credit, Elijah had been very clear about that. When she received the information of Marcel's whereabouts, Caroline had planned it exactly like Elijah had suggested. Be seen. Make him aware that she was new in town.
But Elijah had allowed to slip that Marcel had a goal of obliterating Klaus from the face of the earth.
Not without reason. Klaus threatened Marcel and his way of life.
Still.
The moment she saw him, she knew she could take him.
"I saw a chance and I took it. Can you honestly say it's useless that I can come in and out of his house, and that his vampires-his family-think they need to protect me than that they need to hunt me down?"
She could still remember that look of his in Klaus' eyes.
She was drunk. It was too easy to fall in love.
As if she had not spent the last two years blaming him for making her fall so hard, only to walk away from her to come chase after shadows.
"I am not questioning that chance you took," Elijah assured her. Caroline walked deeper into the library. "You showed me." He allowed a semblance of gentleness in his regard for her. "Two years Klaus has tried to get under Marcel's skin to get some leverage, and the closest he'd come was almost killing Marcel's confidante with a werewolf bite, then offering his blood to be the savior."
She wondered if it was a woman that he bit, was oddly jealous at the thought of someone else's fangs breaking into his skin, someone's nose pressing into his wrists as she shared his blood.
"You were in Marcel's house within hours." He crossed his arms across his chest. "Within days you're driving my brother into quiet conversations with Marcel so no one sees you coming out of here right after him." Elijah shook his head. "For two smart people, you will be each other's deaths."
Caroline gave a small smile. "Good thing we're going to live forever."
"If you're lucky," Elijah pointed out. "Caroline, I am showing you that things can change in an instant, and we need to be prepared."
Stupid. She had been stupid. They could have been in full view. Marcel could have seen.
"It was a mistake, Elijah. You know how hard it is to handle Klaus." Because really, most of the time she lost her head.
"While we're talking about stupid mistakes, what were you doing last night?"
There was no answer to that. Not even with another question.
But she had given everything she had last night, everything she regretted never allowing since he said goodbye.
"I'm willing to wager, Caroline, that somehow you have been found out."
Marcel's eyes were everywhere.
And then, Caroline watched in fascination as the oldest surviving Mikaelson turned to his side and extended his hand towards her. "Take my hand, Caroline, and I can get you out of here."
And she had to refuse him the same as she had refused Klaus. "I can't."
Elijah's arm lowered. "You have been found out."
"You don't know that."
"You're willing to bet your life on it?" He shook his head. "You and Niklaus both deserve each other. You're a perfect match in utter foolishness."
The rapid knock on the door made her jump. Caroline glanced towards the door. She heard the key in the lock, and Caroline grabbed Elijah's wrist. "Swear on your sister's life that you won't tell Klaus what I'm going to tell you."
He narrowed his eyes, thinking. The door began to swing open.
"Swear!"
He nodded. "Marcel has a white oak stake."
"You're saying he will be a threat to Nik-"
"He doesn't know he will destroy everything here if he destroys Klaus." Her voice dropped. She licked her lips. "I'm not leaving until that stake is in ashes. Until then, keep your brother away. Do you part."
"He's coming back for you," Elijah warned. "You know he's coming back."
"Not if I can help it," Caroline swore.
Caroline sped to the doorway, and then greeted Marcel as he came through the door. When she glanced back around, Elijah was gone. She sighed in relief. Marcel turned to Caroline. "Are you lost?"
Caroline smiled brightly at him. "Absolutely not!" she replied. "I love history, and art. Your home has both." She sidled up to Marcel. "Sorry for abandoning you to your friends."
"Ten minutes into that meeting, I was ready to abandon them." He chuckled. Caroline found herself smiling at his infectious smile.
"How did you know I was here?"
"I know everything that goes on around here," he told her.
The hair on her arms stood.
And the party went on, with every hour Caroline eased knowing that both Klaus and Elijah had gone. As they wrapped up the night, Caroline scanned the crowd, remembering faces. She allowed Marcel to help her into her coat, his fingers brushing up her arms. She looked back at him and smiled.
"Before I take you home, would you mind stopping by somewhere?" he asked as he drove. Caroline froze in her seat.
The car slowed in front of a small cabin. Caroline rolled down her window and looked around. Quickly she got off the car.
She was going to die. Elijah was right. Marcel knew.
Of all the silly mistakes to make. She survive the Original Hybrid with most of her intact, only to be offed by his own creation. This was perfect. She was going to be offed in some isolated cabin. Just like many teenage horror flicks, as if she did not live and die through one.
Caroline was surprised when Marcel walked up to the door and knocked. The door swung open, and Marcel briefly conversed with the old woman. He produced a roll of cash from his pocket. He leaned down and argued with the woman. Caroline gasped when Marcel suddenly grabbed the woman by her knitted sweater and pulled her up. He dove in right for the jugular. A few seconds later he dropped the woman to the floor. Caroline scampered up the cabin steps and reached for the old woman's pulse.
She looked up at Marcel, who was wiping his mouth on his pristine shirt sleeves. "You killed her," she accused. "You could have gone easy and not drain her!"
He laughed. "Is that how you hunt?" Caroline pursed her lips. "You don't hunt!" he surmised. Marcel shook his head. "Heaven help you if you ever meet my sire, Caroline..." he trailed off.
Caroline abruptly lowered her gaze. And then, across the room from the doorway left ajar by the fallen body, Caroline saw a glimpse of a small curly blonde head. The child ran forward, a little over a year old as far as she could tell. With its chubby and stubby arms and legs, he toddled and bounced. The kid climbed over the corpse barring the way between him and Caroline. Almost immediately Caroline picked up the child and stood up, her skin crawling at the prospect of the baby touching the dead woman.
Who was obviously family.
Her eyes widened. "You killed a grandmother!"
"Relax," Marcel told her. "She was help I'd hired to watch the kid and the mom." Marcel reached forward and flicked the kid's nose.
He was fond of the child. He knew the child. Obviously, she thought, remembering the roll of cash that Marcel pocketed again, he was supporting the child.
"You like him?" Marcel asked.
"How can you not?" Caroline replied, giggling when the kid cuddled up to her.
"Good. Then he's yours." She gaped at him. Marcel clarified, "You like him, then you can keep him."
"Marcel, the kid is not a pet you just give away."
"Sure I can." He cleared his throat, then grinned. "I'm king."
"Is he yours?" Caroline pressed. It explained why he was giving money, like an allowance. "Did his mom abandon him?"
Marcel jerked his head towards the car. Caroline looked at him wide-eyed. "Do you want to leave him there with that?"
Caroline shook her head in horror. She held tightly to the... boy, she hazarded a guess based on the color of his diaper. She climbed into the car and held on to the baby. "We're kidnapping him," she murmured. "You are making me kidnap a baby."
"I'm letting you rescue the kid," Marcel pointed out. With a grin, he turned the wheel of the car and backed up, then made a u turn to go back from where they came. "The kid's mother abandoned him. That's what the nanny said. She didn't want to be a parent. She was no more than a kid herself, came here to find her parents before finding out she got knocked up."
Caroline listened intently, holding on tighter to the child in her arms as she listened. She regarded Marcel in another light. Marcel glanced at her with the boy. "You look like quite the couple there," he said, and Caroline was irritated at how charming he was. "Blonde and blue-eyed. If I didn't know any better I'd think that was your kid."
She turned the boy in her arms, then looked down at the pert nose and the dimpled cheeks. He was sweet. She missed her mom. She could not imagine anyone abandoning a baby as beautiful as him. Caroline hugged the boy to herself and she was filled with the oddest overwhelming feeling when the boy pressed his nose into the crook of her neck.
Marcel reached between Caroline and the boy, then pushed a little bit on the boy's head. Caroline scowled and swatted Marcel's arm away.
"Be careful with the little barbarian-been raised by wolves in the truest sense of the word." Marcel continued, "The little bastard bites. Make sure he doesn't break your skin." Caroline looked at the child in surprise. A werewolf baby. "But it would be years before he breaks his curse and really becomes toxic."
tbc