A/N: So sorry for the length of time between chapters. I was on vacation and didn't bring a laptop because I knew I'd get no writing done with all I had to do. But I hope the amount of Klaroline in this chapter makes up for it. The chapter after this is nearly completely written as well so the wait shouldn't be too long in between.

As always big thanks to my beta, livingdeadblondegirl, and to all of you for reading. :)

"How terrible this darkness was, how bewildering, and yet mysteriously beautiful!" ― Stefan Zweig

Klaus was at a loss for how to handle Caroline's emotional state. He understood anger, he understood lashing out with fists and with tongue, trying to force others to feel the pain that wouldn't go away. But this internal grief that she was experiencing, this melancholy that seemed to have surrounded her was something he didn't know how to cure. She continued on, he couldn't deny that. She didn't falter or stumble, had taken hold of her own suitcases and moved about without any assistance.

But there was hardly any life in her eyes, in her stance as she'd sat on the first train, cheek pressed to the window as the world passed by, reminding him of a flower that had wilted. Klaus could tell that she hadn't been paying any attention to what was happening outside though, didn't even comment on the horses that they passed, and it worried him.

He would not see her break because of their current circumstances, wondered if this was a foreboding of what would happen when Liz Forbes finally did die and meant to insure that Caroline powered through the feelings that appeared to be overwhelming her.

Klaus did not know how to comfort. It had been too many years and far too little opportunities to truly have a chance to do so and mean it. He could fake it, use it to coerce someone to his side, to do his bidding. But to actually mean it, to provide what another person might need was a foreign concept that he was struggling with.

He'd held her hand in the cab and that had seemed to help, though he'd been mostly startled the entire time, waiting for Caroline to wrench her hand away, to realize who she was allowing to touch her. She hadn't though and they had arrived at their destination before he'd been able to react appropriately to the allowance. He hadn't tried it again on the train, simply sat by her and glanced at her hands that were tucked under her chin as she looked out the window.

They were on the night train now though, the one that would take them into Romania and to the village where Vincent currently resided. They had their own compartment on this one with two couches that converted into beds and their own private bath. But there she was again, simply sitting on the couch, not really looking at anything in particular.

"You need to eat," Klaus told her as he sat down in the one chair, watching her carefully.

"I'm not really hungry," Caroline replied, and that was something at least. "And the dining cart is supposed to be open all evening so I can go later if I get hungry."

"I wasn't referring to human food, Caroline," Klaus told her, and she glanced at him and then at their luggage.

"We don't have blood bags," she murmured, and he could almost spot the exact moment she remembered that she'd drank the last of those back in Amsterdam. "I'm not feeding from people."

And there was that fire he'd been missing, that spark that was so indefinably Caroline that it hurt when it was gone. "I am not having you anywhere near a nearly seven hundred year old vampire when you've not fed in a day. Weakness will be exploited and I will not have you be weak," Klaus informed her.

He would not allow Vincent or anyone to try and harm her, but could not also allow her to be more vulnerable than she already was because of her age. "Yeah, well, I'm not feeding on humans. I don't do that and just because I…" Caroline swallowed, and he noted that her hands were shaking. "Just because I've done some other things doesn't mean I'm going to start doing that. We'll just have to find some blood bags when we get to the town or whatever."

"I highly doubt there will be any so easily accessible where we're headed." Klaus enjoyed her glare, the way she clenched her fists, no doubt having seen him notice she'd been jittery. "And before you say that you'll find an animal to snack on I am sure you know that animal blood is hardly a decent substitute for the real thing and will not give you adequate strength. It's to be used when there is nothing else available in order to keep you alive."

Caroline crossed her arms, shrugging slightly. "I'm not doing it and you can't make me do it." She pressed her lips together at that before looking back at him. "Well you could if you wanted to ruin any progress you've ever made with me."

Compulsion.

No. He wouldn't do that to her.

"Then you'll be drinking mine," Klaus replied, rising from the chair and stepping toward her.

"Uh. No." She wasn't looking at him then, gaze fixed on the window instead.

"What alternative is there, Caroline? You won't feed from anyone on this train. We have no access to blood bags and animal blood will not give you the nourishment you need for what we will be doing. So tell me a better plan," he offered, already rolling up his sleeve.

"He's supposed to be one of yours, isn't he? So like…shouldn't he listen to you?" Caroline muttered, still refusing to look at him even as he sat down on the couch beside her. "Though I guess the hybrids were yours and they didn't like listening to you either."

Klaus tensed at that, almost rising at her words, but he saw her cringe after she said them, not out of fear, he couldn't smell any, but it seemed it was more likely to do with her penchant of speaking before she thought things through. "I don't like drinking your blood," Caroline continued, and he heard the way her heart sped up a little at that.

"And here I thought you were acquiring a taste for it," Klaus murmured, watching her closely. "It's mine or those in the compartment across the hallway from us. Choose or I'll have no problem choosing for you."

Her fangs dropped down at that, eyes narrowing as the blood pumped in her veins, rushing to the ones in her face, eyes becoming such lovely pools of darkness. Klaus wanted to reach out and touch them again, to let his fingers caress her flesh, but he had a feeling that she'd jerk away if he did so and he needed her to drink. "Wrist or my neck if you prefer," he told her as he tilted his head to expose his throat. "I'm sure I don't need to tell you that it pumps much easier from here." He tapped his neck, watched her gaze move to it, and noted her tongue darting out to lick her lips.

She seemed to notice what she was doing though and latched onto his offered arm, lifting it to her mouth before biting down onto it. Klaus closed his eyes at the sensation, shifting against the couch so that he was able to lean back against the wall, drawing her back with him. He let his fingers brush through her hair before gliding them down her neck and to her spine, drifting down her back and smiled as she shivered.

Klaus moved his hand around to her stomach, touching the inch of skin that was exposed between the end of her shirt and beginning of her pants, as she leaned back against him, holding onto his arm with a vice grip. He'd need to get her to stop soon but he couldn't help but enjoy her leaning against him, mouth attached to his skin, and the smell of blood and arousal in the air. Klaus swept her hair off her neck, brushing his nose down the length of it.

That only seemed to make her tighten her grip on him, sucking harder, faster, and he knew she was riding high on the blood lust, probably unaware of what she was even doing. The urge to bury his own fangs in her neck was overwhelming as well as the urge to bury other parts of himself into her, but he had to repress them, knowing she wasn't ready for either scenario. But he couldn't help but relish in having her there with him, body pressed against his, enjoying the delicious little moans that she made as she drank from him. He scraped his human teeth along her neck, eliciting a whimper from her as she continued to feed, before pressing his lips to her jaw.

"Time to stop," Klaus murmured against her ear, gripping her hair tightly in his hand and giving it a small yank so she'd unleash herself from him.

Caroline did, eyes shut as she tried to breathe, and Klaus shifted, moving so he was no longer back against the wall and letting her lean against it on her own. "I'll be back in a bit," he told her, licking his lips at the sight of his blood on her lips, thoroughly pleased with how completely satisfied she looked.

No doubt she'd do her own internal freak out once she came down from her current high but Klaus didn't mean to be in the room when she did. He needed to feed now to build up his strength again and to give some distance between the two of them. He was out of the compartment before she could answer and headed off to find a few people to feast on. He had no intention of killing anyone on the train, not wanting bodies to be stumbled upon and a delay to happen with their journey. But he couldn't quite help the extra bounce in his step or his smirk as he searched out some easy prey, quite pleased with how the train trip had gone so far.

Kol would have preferred having his brother and Caroline as his traveling companions. The two of them provided plentiful moments of entertainment and having the baby vampire around made riling Klaus up even easier than usual. Though if he couldn't be with the two of them, he supposed being with the witch wasn't too bad of a consolation prize.

Out of everyone in his family he was the one who got along best with the witches, who actually took the time to understand them, to learn from them, and actually appreciated what they could do. Elijah used them when necessary and treated them fairly enough but he never truly grasped why they did what they did. Rebekah treated them as accessories, never really wanting much to do with them, and Nik, well; he usually threatened or seduced depending on how long he needed them to be at his disposal.

Kol had wandered the world with different Covens over the centuries, keeping up with certain lines more than others. He'd traveled down to Africa, learning various secrets there, followed them after a time to Haiti and watched the magic evolve before eventually seeing them in New Orleans as well.

The balance of nature was usually the key to everything they did, but he'd seen various witches and warlocks become lost in the power over the years. Watched in fascination as they lost themselves, as their strength became too much for them, and they were either taken down by others or burnt themselves out from inside.

And he couldn't deny that he quite enjoyed Lucy's spunk. She didn't like him and she wasn't afraid to show that, though she also seemed to realize that he could be somewhat of an asset. After all he'd lived the last Silas followers uprising. He'd been the one to destroy it. He had traveled with the group of witches who had been trying hard to eradicate any chance of him rising before. Some of them had been her ancestors. He was a wealth of knowledge and he knew she'd want to tap into it at some point.

They were on their way to meet up with another witch—some distant relative of the Bennett line—that had some information about Bonnie's whereabouts. Why the witch couldn't have simply informed them of it all on the phone when they'd gotten off the plane in New York was beyond Kol, but it'd been a simple enough drive.

He smelled death though as soon as they got out of the car and leaned against the rented vehicle, shaking his head as he glanced over at Lucy. "What?" she asked voice sharp and full of that annoyance he enjoyed creating in others.

"I think your friend won't be of much use," Kol told her, tapping his nose. "Call it a hunch."

Lucy sprinted to the door then and Kol strolled behind her, watching as she opened the unlocked front door, his suspicions confirmed as he easily strolled in behind her, no invitation needed. Lucy gasped in horror at the sight of three dead in the kitchen, all children, obvious puncture marks on their skin.

"Looks like the doppelganger got here first," Kol murmured, walking around the scene. This was why the witch should have told them everything over the phone. Never knew when one's life would meet such an abrupt end. Though he was curious as to where the parents were. They had to be dead as well or he'd never have been able to walk in unimpeded.

Lucy backed away from the scene, looking slightly sick as she forced herself to breathe in and out, before heading toward the back of the house. Kol followed after her, wondering what she was doing. They entered a room, one filled with various occult objects and various books. Some books were scattered on the floor as if someone had been looking through the shelf for one in particular, discarding what they didn't need.

"Damn it, the grimoire is gone," Lucy slammed her hand against the shelf, looking more distraught then Kol thought was necessary.

"I'm sure the next witch we find will have one if you're in dire need of one," Kol assured. They weren't exactly the easiest thing to come across, but they weren't the rarest object either.

"You don't understand," Lucy muttered, leaning back against the shelf as she turned to look at him. "Claudia's had the name and address of every witch that could be linked to the Bennett family line. Genealogy was her hobby, she's been building this list for years and has the most up to date one ever created." She rubbed her forehead and Kol could see the tension building in her body. "I know a significant number of them—the obvious ones are easy enough to find, distant cousins and all, but the ones whose family line deviated centuries ago were in there and all of their relatives. And now, Elena or whoever did this has that book and access to where every one of them is located."

And they both knew what the list would be used for. Killing off that many witches of one power line could have devastating consequences on the world, would upset the balance of nature to a degree that had never been done before. Not to mention it was the Bennett line. One of the oldest lines of witchcraft and if the legends surrounding them were true, one of their descendants was the one who trapped Silas. This meant that one of their descendants was needed to kill him.

Kol froze, sensing something else in the house, someone nearby that he hadn't noticed before with the fresh kills filling the air. "We're not alone," he commented, flashing away from Lucy and toward the movement.

He caught the vampire by the throat, shoving her into a nearby wall, and from the pictures hanging on it confirmed that she had been the owner of the house and most likely mother to the dead children. He wondered who had fed on them, their mother or the one who had turned her.

"Claudia," Lucy gasped, hand clasped over her mouth as she entered the room, staring in horror at the sight of her friend. "Who did this? Was it the doppelganger?"

The newborn vampire thrashed in his grip, no doubt focused on the blood pumping in Lucy's veins and wanting nothing more than to drink it. "You will stop struggling. You will not attack, and you'll be a good girl now, and answer all of our questions," Kol compelled, knowing they needed the information.

The woman's eyes glazed over, confirming what he'd told her to do before he glanced back at Lucy. "Ask again but make sure they'll give you information you need because I already tire of this game and don't know how long I'll be able to wait to pull out her heart." He simply grinned at her glare before looking back at the baby vampire.

"Who did this to you?" Lucy asked, and Claudia looked at her, forced to answer.

"It was the doppelganger," she replied, and Kol found it curious that she would know what Elena looked like. He'd need to ask Lucy about that later.

"Did she take the book?" Lucy continued.

"I don't know. I woke up and she had my children…oh god…my babies?" Claudia looked at them and Kol could see the hysterics getting ready to begin. Her emotions would have been high enough without vampirism considering it was her children who were dead, but the added effect of her transitioning only heightened them further.

"Dead, most likely at your hand," Kol replied, releasing his hold on her and she dropped to the ground, sobs wracking her whole body. "Would you like to see them?"

"Kol," Lucy snapped, and he shrugged at the disgust in her voice.

"I have to hand it to the doppelganger, she's using a torture technique far past her years," Kol replied, glancing around the room at all of the photographs of the happy family. "Destroying the magic potential is probably her goal, but forcing the witches to kill their own families? Pure genius. Made a man eat his wife once. He never quite looked the same after that. Didn't end up stiffing me on drinks at his establishment again either."

Kol turned toward Lucy. "Would you like me to kill her now? Or shall I let her feast on the neighbors or compel her to walk out into the sun and die that way?" So many glorious options to choose from.

Claudia looked up at that, shaking her head but Kol ignored the pleas for her life. "Make it as painless as possible," Lucy replied, and he noted that she couldn't quite look at Claudia any longer.

Kol simply knelt down and smiled at the vampire, nodding along as she pleaded to live, to be able to see her babies one last time. He patted her cheek. "You'll see them again soon enough," he told her and plunged his hand into her chest, ripping out her heart.

He let it drop onto the floor and wiped his hands off on her already bloody shirt. Kol strolled out of the house, finding Lucy already in the car waiting for him. "I take it we'll be having all pertinent information told to us on the phone instead of waiting until we get to them from now on?"

Lucy didn't answer, simply peeled out of the driveway and turned on the radio, no doubt needing to drown out everything that she had seen, to try and forget that she'd condemned someone who had been a friend to death. Kol leaned back against the seat, tapping along to the song, a big smile on his face.

This was going to be an interesting journey.

Once Klaus had left their compartment and she'd managed to come down off of her high, Caroline had quickly altered the couch into its bed form and curled up in it, not wanting to deal with anything that had happened. She wanted desperately to fall asleep, but her mind was too busy, too frantic with worry over a million different things to allow for any rest. Though she'd managed to lay still and tried to even out her breathing when Klaus came back in, wanting him to think she was sleeping.

She doubted that he was fooled, though she was grateful that he didn't try to get her to interact, even if he didn't sleep. She hadn't known what he was doing at first, but eventually she'd made out the scratching of pencil against paper and figured he was sketching. Hopefully he'd remain focused on that for the rest of their journey.

Caroline didn't like that she really didn't know where they were headed. The places he named meant nothing to her, she had no frame of reference for them, and it was making her uncomfortable, antsy. For someone who craved control as she did, it was hard to not be able to read the signs, to understand what people were saying around her, to know how to get around. And he seemed to know it all, for it to be as easy as tying his shoes, and she knew that was because he was well traveled and had been doing it for a thousand years, but it still aggravated her.

The silence was stifling though and if she allowed it to continue, her thoughts would return to her mother again and the anxiety would only strengthen. Caroline didn't want to give it a chance to take hold and fester inside of her, needing to trust that her mother was safe from harm. She didn't like what she'd had to do, didn't think she'd ever like it, but she hadn't come up with any alternatives while they'd been on the first train for a few hours and had to accept that there hadn't really been another way. Every other idea ended up with her mother in peril and seeing the monster that her daughter had become.

Caroline turned over so that she could see Klaus, watched him concentrate on what he was drawing for a few moments and wondered if he'd be annoyed if she spoke. "Does it take long to learn a new language?"

He arched a brow at that but didn't look up from his sketchbook. "It depends on how you go about doing so. Books and those cds or online programs that are offered nowadays don't do any language justice. The key is to live in the area and immerse yourself in the culture, in every day conversations. As a vampire you'll learn quicker and as time goes by you'll catch on faster because of your reflexes and ability to see the connections various languages all have to one another. Though you'll not have the benefit my siblings and I did in seeing a variety of the current languages evolve the way we did."

"I don't like not knowing where we are or what the signs say or not understanding more than half of what everyone else is saying around me." She'd been in Mystic Falls her whole life and was used to seeing and hearing everything in English. Seeing that the rest of the world spoke in so many different ways was eye-opening.

It wasn't that she didn't know that the world spoke different languages, that English wasn't everyone's first language or only languages as her case might be—four years of high school French classes had taught her nothing—but it was different to be thrust out into the world and experience it in the rapid way that she was now.

Klaus looked up at her then and she tucked her hands under her chin, not really caring how young she must have looked in that moment. "Is there a particular language you'd like to learn first? You'll find in Romania that they speak a number of languages depending on the village we head to. Mostly Romanian, but some German, Hungarian, Slovakian, Turkish, Russian, various dialects of Romani, and others. But most of the signs you'll see are in Romanian. I believe they finally made it the official language of the country in the last century or so."

She wrinkled her nose at that, his almost casual way of referring to a century as not being a significantly long time. You have to adjust your perception of time when you become a vampire, Caroline. His words echoed in her head and she wondered how she was supposed to do that. How did she go from planning for proms and decade dances and weekend dates to planning out decades and centuries and all of that?

It had never seemed as daunting as it did in that moment. Probably because she'd never paid it much attention, deliberately forced it all from her thoughts whenever it would pop up, but it was near impossible to do that any longer. Not when she was getting a taste of what her eternity would be like.

No mom, her friends dispersed around the world because she wasn't naive—Bonnie would die one day and Stefan, Elena and Damon would probably forever be locked in their crazy triangle and as much as she loved at least two of them, there was only so long she'd be able to deal with that drama. But Tyler was immortal as well and maybe he'd be with her, somehow. Maybe she could get Klaus to let him go, to not kill him, and she and Tyler could travel the world together.

Except she didn't really see it happening. She remembered his pull to go with the werewolves back when he'd turned, that same pull she'd seen with the hybrids, and Caroline had a feeling that it wouldn't ever really go away. From what she'd seen of werewolves they didn't roam the world either. They seemed to settle in places, to form roots, and that wasn't something she wanted to do. Eighteen years in one small town had really been enough for her.

And then there was Klaus.

Klaus who offered her the world. Klaus who knew the world. Klaus who did horrible, awful things, like murdering her friends, using them in sacrifices, getting them to bite her, who terrorized her town for months on end. Klaus who seemed to be doing everything in his power to protect her even if it was sometimes in ways that she found to be utterly despicable. Klaus who'd allowed her mother to go to a place he owned and Caroline didn't doubt for a second he had eyes on Liz to insure her safety.

Klaus, the conundrum that on one hand she just couldn't figure out and on the other felt like she knew entirely too well.

"You never answered my question, love," Klaus pointed out, breaking Caroline from her thoughts. He smiled when she looked questioningly at him, unsure what question he'd asked. "What language would you want to learn?"

"I was learning French in school but I seriously doubt anything has stuck besides like a few words or phrases," she murmured, pursing her lips in thought. "I think I'd like to learn Italian though." Because her mother was in Italy and maybe Liz would fall in love with the area and when Caroline broke the compulsion on her she'd want to stay in the area and never return to the chaos that was Mystic Falls.

"Considering the way most schools go about teaching languages it's not surprising that you've barely picked it up," Klaus told her, and closed the sketchbook before placing it down on the small table.

She couldn't help but wonder what he had been working on, but she held back from asking, not wanting to pry. Or really confirm that it might have been her face he was drawing again because if it was the butterflies would come back and she didn't need those fluttering around. They needed to be caught, released and never thought of again. Not fed and allowed to remain and grow into something greater. It was one thing to enjoy the first sketch anyone had ever done of her but it was another to want to see Klaus do more of them. At least in her mind it was. One time was okay, but wanting it to happen again was a betrayal to Tyler.

"Can you tell me about Vincent? It might help with the whole not being vulnerable thing you were wanting to insure." With his blood. His delicious blood that she needed to not allow him to give her again because she knew blood sharing between vampires was supposed to be intimate and maybe he hadn't had hers, but she'd felt how her body reacted to drinking in his and didn't want it to react that way toward him.

"What do you want to know, love?" Klaus asked, and Caroline could swear he was able to read her thoughts in that moment because of how his gaze seemed to bore into hers.

"I dunno. Anything. Everything. How did he turn? When did he turn? Who turned him? Why's he a collector? Why did he get turned? What does he collect besides the bones of dead witches?" She rapid fired the questions, anything to help get him to stop looking her like that. With that damn all-encompassing look that made her body tingle in ways it shouldn't with him.

Klaus leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees as he looked at her. "I turned him nearly seven hundred years ago. We created a number of vampires back in the day, a way of throwing off Mikael when we needed to dash away into the night, leaving them to be sacrificed for our benefit. Some were what I believe is nowadays called our 'groupies'. Ones we created for amusement and because we wanted to keep them around for a longer period of time than those we fed on." She frowned at that, not really wanting to know what Klaus and his siblings would find to be amusing. "Vincent had a great mind for his day and age. Was able to observe the world and see things that have only been acknowledged as fact in the last century or so. I didn't see a point in wasting his mind and turned him, taught him how to survive, and allowed him to go on his way collecting what he did and learning all he could. He's a wealth of knowledge that I like to tap into every now and then."

"So he's not antagonistic toward you?" That was a good thing, right?

"You'll come to find that outside of your tiny town, Caroline, that those old enough to actually know my face treat me with the fear and respect that I deserve and those who don't know my face but know my name, cower once they learn who I am," he replied, looking entirely too pleased with himself.

She rolled her eyes at that, though she couldn't discount that everyone they'd met so far seemed to hold him in a mix of high regard and fear. "I'm not going to cower at your name or in your presence," she told him and she never really had. "And I'll treat you with the same respect you treat me."

"I've no intention of making you cower before me, sweetheart," Klaus told her and from the intensity of his look she just knew she wouldn't like how he continued. "I'd much prefer you shaking before me for far more pleasurable reasons."

Caroline scoffed at that, thankful for the blanket pulled over her body, shielding from him the small tremor that road up her spine at his words. "How much longer until we can get off the train?" It was definitely time for a topic change.

He pulled out his cellphone and clicked it on, noting the time. "About an hour I'd wager. You can sleep if you'd like but the hotel I've booked will be far more comfortable."

Of course it would be.

Caroline pulled out her iPod, thankful she'd thought to pick one up during their last shopping trip before leaving Amsterdam, and turned away from him, not willing to talk any longer. She closed her eyes as the music started playing and willed the rest of the world away for a bit, needing time to recharge.

Life is made up of a lot of defining moments, some of them having lasting significance and others forgotten almost as soon as they happened. Her mother's abandonment, not once but twice, was something Bonnie wanted desperately to forget but seemed to be forever seared into her mind. After learning the circumstances for why Abby had left the first time she could almost forgive her, had started that healing process, but all too soon it had all gone up in smoke and her mother had left all over again.

She hadn't expected Abby to even answer when she'd located her, hadn't expected any help from the woman who had given birth to her, but surprisingly her mother seemed to have also been looking for her, had somehow known she was in trouble.

Bonnie didn't know what to make of that, but she did know that she wasn't going to fall for any false promises this time. She wouldn't try to make this meeting into something it wasn't. There was not going to be a mother-daughter reunion, no heartfelt moments like she'd watched Elena and Caroline get with their mothers, like she'd had with her Grams before the older woman had died.

She would almost prefer not to see Abby, not to be anywhere near the woman who couldn't seem to handle being a mother and she probably would never have reached out to her if circumstances had been different. But she needed help, she needed answers, and Abby seemed like she'd at least be able to point her in the direction of some other witches who could offer up answers.

And yet there she was in some truck stop restaurant with Eddie, waiting for the woman who gave birth to her and trying not to show how anxious she felt. Eddie kept side glancing at her, opening his mouth to say something but closing it quickly before going back to sipping his drink through the straw. Bonnie was trying not to rip apart the napkin on the table in front of her, tried to not keep glancing over at the doorway waiting for Abby to appear.

Hopefully this wouldn't be another in a long line of disappointments.

"I'm guessing you and your mom have some issues?" Eddie finally said and Bonnie looked over at him, shrugging in response. "Just from the way you two spoke on the phone. Also how the look on your face keeps getting increasingly more disappointed each time you look over at the door and no one enters."

"We have a complicated relationship." Which was putting it lightly but she didn't really want to get into it all. She didn't even know where to start. "Actually. There's something we need to talk about. She's a vampire and I'm going to need you to not kill her." This was going to be tricky because she hadn't worked on conditioning him not to give into his new base instincts. This could be a disaster…if her mother ever showed up.

"She's a…what?" He stared at her before leaning back against the booth and raking a hand through his hair. He had that 'is anything ever normal with you' incredulous look on his face and Bonnie couldn't blame him for it.

Eddie had the unfortunate luck of being thrown into all the supernatural mess just like she and her friends had gone through about two years ago. She didn't know how to tell him that it was probably only going to get worse. Or he'd end up dead.

God, that was depressing.

"Vampire. It's complicated but you can't kill her. You'll probably really want to but…don't." She could always knock him out if she really needed to.

The bell jingled to indicate that someone had opened the door and Bonnie glanced over, noting an older woman walking through the door. No one else was with her but she scanned the place before heading over to them. Bonnie had no idea who she was but there was something vaguely familiar about her, someone she was reminded of but she couldn't put her finger on who.

"Bonnie Bennett," the woman murmured, smiling down at the two of them as she stopped at the table. "You're even prettier in person."

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Because Bonnie still couldn't place her.

"I'm a distant cousin of yours. Sheila was my aunt and I believe you've met my daughter. Lucy," the woman told her and Bonnie blinked, suddenly realizing why the shape of her nose and eyes had seemed so familiar.

Lucy. Her cousin. The witch who'd been beholden to Katherine and then wasn't any longer. "You're Joanna," Bonnie replied, and Eddie scooted over in the seat to let the woman sit down. "Is my mother with you?" She glanced out the window to try and spot her.

Joanna shook her head, a mixture of sadness and irritation reflecting in her features. "Your mother isn't quite ready to be in your presence it seems."

Of course she wasn't. Bonnie couldn't believe she'd had a sliver of hope that this time would be any different. "It doesn't matter." She shrugged. One more moment to add to her ongoing list of her mother disappointing her. "There are bigger things at play right now and we need to focus on that."

"I know all about Silas and what Valencia is trying to do. What she nearly manipulated you into doing," Joanna informed her and then looked over at Eddie. "And I know of the Hunter you found. I'm here to help both of you. Him with learning what he must do and about his heritage." She looked back at Bonnie. "And for you, to purge the expression that Shane and the others tried to tarnish you with. Oh it'll give you great power but in the end it will destroy you and with it the Bennett line. This is what Silas wants, Bonnie. Without our line no one will be able to stop him. It was our magic that trapped him in the first place and it will be our magic that will destroy him once and for all."

Bonnie frowned, wondering exactly all that she hadn't been told by Shane and Valencia, wondering how she'd let them manipulate her the way they had. She'd just wanted her magic back, to fill up that emptiness that had eaten away at her once it was gone. She'd never meant to hurt anyone.

Joanna reached across the table and offered up a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. We'll cleanse you and help you gain what you need to. Together we'll make certain to finish what Qetsiyah started so long ago."

Caroline was getting used to how Klaus seemed to always pick the finer establishments for pretty much everything that they did. She had a feeling it hadn't always been like this, not with him being on the run from Mikael. Surely he'd needed to be more discreet at times, but she supposed that during those long stretches where he and his siblings had been far enough away from the man they had called father that there was no way they'd have chosen to live in squalor. Not when he carted around paintings that should be hanging in the Louvre or had bracelets that apparently belonged to some foreign princess at some point.

She'd never really wanted for much growing up, hadn't gotten everything she wanted either, but her mother and she had gotten by well enough, her father paid his support and Caroline had been able to join committees instead of getting a part time job. She owned a new car, she'd bought clothes from the small boutiques in town, and while her mother wasn't exactly fashion forward, Caroline had been one to set a lot of the trends at the high school. So she was used to a certain level of comfort.

But then there was the level of comfort that Klaus expected and it was at a level Caroline didn't even realize existed outside of movies and MTV specials. She didn't want to get used to it, didn't want to come to expect it for traveling she knew she'd end up doing later on in life. Maybe she hadn't seen Amsterdam and New Orleans under the best circumstances but she couldn't discount that going to those cities had definitely piqued her interest even more.

There was always compulsion and while part of her hated that ability, especially when coupled with feeding, it was hard to discount how it did make life easier in some ways. Caroline wasn't sure if it was supposed to be easy like that though, her mind a conflicted mess in regards to all of it. Her mother probably wouldn't have approved, but there was that tiny voice in the back of Caroline's head asking what she was supposed to do to survive? She knew she wouldn't be able to stay in one place for too long a time, not with how young she looked, not unless she did resort to compulsion every now and again. Especially because she thought it'd be difficult to find a decent job when she looked forever seventeen. Maybe if she had been older when she was turned it would've been different, but Caroline didn't think it would have really done more than allow her a few more years somewhere before suspicion started.

Caroline watched Klaus interact with the concierge, getting the two of them the best room available, all charm and dimples with compulsion mixed in and for a moment she didn't see the murderer, but an experienced traveler, one who loved a variety of arts as shown when he pointed out various paintings displayed in the hotel lobby to her. It was hard to reconcile these parts of him with the others, those violent parts that could come out without a moment's notice. She liked these parts, couldn't quite force herself not to want to see more of them. Nor could she discount the other parts...though what frightened her most about those ones was the fact she also found herself wanting to see them at times too.

She thought it might be the beast inside of her, the vampire that she tried to not allow out in all its glory. The others thought she did such a great job with it all, with being a vampire, but Caroline doubted any of them understood precisely how much effort it took to make the decisions that she did, to reel it all in as often as she needed to.

"I believe the phrase is 'a penny for your thoughts', love," Klaus told her, interrupting her thoughts.

"I never liked that phrase," Caroline informed him, nose scrunching in annoyance. "My thoughts are worth more than a penny."

He laughed, something she didn't hear often from him, not this genuine kind without any malice behind it, and it brought her back to other conversations they had engaged in, had her wondering how often he allowed himself to let down his guard in order to actually feel amusement. Caroline didn't think it was all that often. Oh she'd seem him find amusement in other things, heard from Stefan that Klaus found it in other's pain and misfortune, but the laugh Klaus let out around her was different.

It was human, or at least, was another little sign that he had humanity in him. Which was something she had been witnessing often lately, picking it up in situations here and there, even with all of the hell happening around them, even with his anger and control issues, she still saw it.

Like when he had taken her hand in the cab and simply held it, letting her take what comfort she could from him without any sharp remarks.

"How much do you wager they're worth then?" Klaus asked, brow quirked, a smile tugging at his lips and Caroline pressed hers together, trying not to grin back, wanting to keep hold of the melancholy she'd been feeling since compelling her mother but it didn't work. His grin was contagious and she found herself smiling back.

"Oh, they're priceless," she replied, and her smile faltered for a moment as the elevator door opened. She didn't want this ease that she felt around him, which had only been growing no matter how hard she tried to force it down and away. It shouldn't be there, not with all he had done to her friends, not after what he'd had Tyler do to her all those months ago. But it was there and no matter how she tried to bury it, to squash the undercurrent of happiness, of contentment and the allure of the challenge he invoked within her, she couldn't do it. It was easy to hold onto her feelings of displeasure, of annoyance and anger with him except in moments like this and it was why Caroline hadn't wanted to be alone with him. She had wanted to travel with one of the others, even though she'd known he'd never have allowed her to leave his side.

"As priceless as you are," Klaus replied and she couldn't help but roll her eyes at the cheesiness of the line. Also noted his frown could practically see him mentally reprimanding himself for the reply, and Caroline wondered how many others he'd used similar lines on.

Though how many others had he allowed to talk as she did with him, or done whatever necessary to protect like he had with her?

She headed into the elevator, forcing all of her conflicting thoughts from her head. The sooner they found Vincent and got what they needed, the sooner everything would be over and things would go back to normal. Or as close to it as they could ever be again. If nothing else she could have her mother back and not spend every minute with Klaus.

"We'll need to head out to a few local establishments just beyond the city," Klaus informed her as they rode up in the elevator, the bellhop taking another with all of their luggage. "Alert Vincent to our presence and obtain an invitation to his residence, but before we do that, we should be able to freshen up some after the long journey. I can put you in contact with Stefan if you'd like."

Caroline nodded, worrying her bottom lip as she wondered how everyone was doing in their travels. They all had specific tasks and suddenly having their group broken apart was disconcerting. "Can you see if my mother made it?"

She tried so hard not to sound too hopeful about that as she looked at him, noting the flash of regret in his gaze before he looked away, holding the elevator door open for her as it stopped at their floor. "It would be best if no contact was made with anyone there, Caroline."

Of course.

If they were in constant contact or even any contact probably someone would be able to trace her mother. Caroline couldn't help the rush of sadness at that fact though as she stepped off the elevator and waited for Klaus to show where they needed to head. "I would offer to take away the pain, but we both know you wouldn't want that," Klaus continued, and she couldn't help the slight shiver at the idea of compulsion being used on her. "You're strong, Caroline. You'll survive this; you'll endure this, and become even more fearless than you are now, sweetheart."

"I know." Even if she was tired of being stuck in survival mode. She'd really like to get back to living mode. That was where she thrived.

Caroline hadn't realized that Klaus had moved over to her until she felt his breath on her ear, sensed him standing right behind her and had a feeling he was only standing an inch or less away from her. "Don't hesitate to let me know if you're hungry," he told her, and she sucked in a breath at that, knowing exactly what he was referring to. "I'm more than happy to oblige."

He was ahead of her seconds later, sliding the keycard into the door and opening it as the bellhop headed toward their room, leaving Caroline standing in the hallway, trying not to appear as flustered as she felt. She glared at the space where Klaus had been and forced her walls back into place, tried not to think about how flimsy they had become.

She'd told him once that she was too smart to be seduced by him and that hadn't changed. Especially not because of her bloodlust that she'd worked so painstakingly hard to get under control. The prickling of her fangs through her gums didn't mean a damn thing and she concentrated, taking a deep breath and forced them away before striding into the hotel room, deliberately not giving away any of her astonishment and exhilaration as she took in every detail of the area.

Klaus was speaking to the bellhop, directing where to place their luggage and Caroline headed to the balcony, mentally reminding herself of each and every horrible thing Klaus had ever done to her friends, to her, to anyone she could think of for a moment. She glanced back into the room, spotting Klaus tipping the young man, and looked back out at the city.

Everyone else probably thought of the Hybrid being his most dangerous when he was in his volatile mode, when his hybrid features were in full bloom, but for Caroline this was Klaus at his most dangerous. Charming smiles and pretty words and the ability to make her nearly forget all of the bad and she needed to focus on keeping her guard up, on not letting him in any more than she apparently had in that cab and on the train and work on fixing all that was happening so she could get her mother back.

Her mother that he had protected in his own way. For her.

Caroline wasn't stupid, she knew he hadn't done it out of the goodness of his heart, or because he wished for her mother to be unharmed. He'd done it for her, because he knew Liz was important to her—the most important person in the world—and it had won him some major points. Even if she didn't like what had been needed, even if she didn't want her mother not knowing who she was thousands of miles away from her.

Caroline found herself feeling grateful, found herself wanting to give him that tiny chance he'd asked for all those months back, but hesitant to do so, frightened even because she knew once she allowed for one that Klaus would weasel his way in and he would never ever let her go.

Not that she thought he'd do that now anyway, but allowing that would only make it all that much more permanent.

"We'll be leaving in an hour," Klaus called out, and she turned back watching him motion toward the doorway that led to her room for their stay. "Do what you must to refresh and get ready." She nodded, not trusting her voice in that moment, and watched Klaus head toward his own room, stopping before he got to it and looking over at her again. "You'll be getting another taste of what the supernatural world is like outside of that tiny home town of yours. Of the greatness that is waiting to embrace you if only you'd allow it."

"Maybe I don't want your greatness. Maybe I want my own." She forced a glare at that, arms crossed at her chest, and her eyes narrowed even further at his amused smirk and knowing look, as if he was seeing parts of her that Caroline had no intention of letting him or anyone see.

"One hour, Caroline, and we'll leave no matter your state of dress," Klaus continued before heading into the room before she could reply.

Caroline sighed, doubting he'd actually force her to head out if she wasn't quite ready, but there was little point in putting that to the test. Not for the first time that day she couldn't help but wonder what the hell she'd gotten herself into and how to survive it all with who she was intact.

It was going to be a long night.