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Chapter five - What now?
As soon as Klaus went out to the car, he opened the door, fell into the front seat, locking the door quickly behind him. Placing his hands on the steering wheel, he noted how they were trembling and sat on them so he wouldn't have to see his nerves laid out in front of him, torn to shreds.
To say he was in shock was an understatement. When Caroline had bitten into her wrist and forced the blood to his lips, his adrenaline had started running overtime and he felt his grip on reality slipping. "Her face! What the hell was that all about?" he wondered. "She said she was a vampire, her story was bloody ridiculous. If it wasn't for the fact I feel fantastic, like I had never been sore in my life, I wouldn't believe her. And the fact her wrist healed itself in front of my eyes."
He sat in the car for ages, waiting for calm to settle enough to drive away. When it didn't look like that would be happening anytime soon, Klaus started the engine anyway. "What is happening to me? This weak, shivering pussy is not who I am" he thought as he drove away, determined to get himself under control. Cranking up the music, he concentrated on her face as he drove. Well, the face before his world went a little crazy.
Pulling up to a red light, he briefly closed his eyes. Behind his eyelids, Klaus could see her lips draw close to his, could still feel the lingering warmth of her pressed up against him as she gave into the feelings she seemed to have for him as well. He could summon her scent and his lips curled up in a smile at the delicious skin he had seen peeking out from her clothes. A loud tooting horn behind him alerted him to the green light. "All right, I'm going, keep your panties on!" he bellowed at the grumpy looking middle aged lady, racing away from the intersection towards his home.
As he pulled the car into his long driveway and stalked towards his front door, he was already planning the drink he was about to pour for himself. Something strong and definitely more than one would be needed. He could still feel tension bubbling just below the surface, threatening to explode if he thought too hard about his morning. But as he took his first gulp and felt the liquid burning down his throat he had no choice but to think.
He had told her he would take her to dinner that night, what the hell had he been thinking? Safety in numbers for sure and he knew where that would be. Somewhere surrounded by people although he did believe her when she had said she wouldn't hurt him. It would just be better to start out safe. But he was a man who usually didn't plan the next time. He had always been happy to spend a night with a woman and then decide if he could be bothered making it a second night. Not that he was a complete player; many women had spent more than one night with him and even some days too. But he tended to get bored of their clingy committment requests. He just wasn't the type to be tied down to one woman. But then, he had never met anyone like Caroline before. "Was there anyone else quite like Caroline?" he wondered.
Walking over to pour another drink, he stopped in front of a painting he had finished a few weeks ago. He hadn't understood why he had painted it at the time and didn't even remember details of the dream that had inspired it but now he looked at it with fresh eyes. The urge to paint a swan had been strong and so he had, surrounding it with water. But as he painted, he had become caught up and before he realised it, the swan was shades of black and white and being pulled under the water by an unknown force, drowning. It hadn't made sense to him at all. He often painted dark things but he appreciated real beauty and the swan deserved to float magestically on the surface, surrounded by light. "Like Caroline" he said out loud reaching out to touch the paintwork on the swan. Caroline looked like an angel, but she was trapped inside another body. He remembered how vulnerable she looked after she had revealed herself to him. "Before she threw me to the floor" he thought with a chuckle.
Gazing at the picture for a while longer, he cemented a few things in his head. 1. He was going to pick her up tonight as planned. 2. Somehow he knew he didn't need to fear her. 3. The blonde had well and truly worked her way under his skin.
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Meanwhile Caroline paced. All day. From the time Klaus had walked out the door, she had been a mess of confusion. "Dinner? After what she had shown him? Was he planning on pulling up with the cops to arrest her and take her to a lab for observation? Why hadn't she compelled him when she had the chance?" But she knew the answer to that. She didn't want to. Nothing felt real when compulsion was used and she wanted this to be real.
The way he had looked at her; she couldn't remember Tyler ever looking at her like that. So maybe, just maybe it would be ok. That's if he still felt the same way about it as he did before her revelation.
Pulling out her phone she dialed. "Hey Care, what's up?"
"Elena, I've done something stupid" Caroline said with a sigh, leaning back against her desk.
"Oh no, what did you do? You didn't go back with Tyler did you?"
"Argh not likely! Give me more credit than that Elena!"
"Well, you did have a hard time letting him go. But I'm glad to hear it's not that, so what has happened?"
"I told him. I know I shouldn't have but he came in looking all sexy and talked all British like and it just kind of slipped out" Caroline blurted out in a rush.
"Caroline! How does it just slip out that you're a vampire? And by 'him' and sexy and British I assume this is 'Mr Off Limits' or did you forget about that part?"
"Ok, ok, so it didn't slip out. I might have healed him with my blood. Oh God, I forgot to tell him not kill himself or he would become one of us!" She put her hand to her forehead, tension brewing.
"Breathe Care. Let me get this right. Mr Sexy came in, you fed him your blood, told him you're a vampire and then you sent him on his way?! I hope you compelled him."
"Ah no, not exactly, actualy we're...going out tonight."
"Caroline Forbes! This is like vampire 101! You've known the guy for 10 minutes. He could be a hunter for all we know. How do you know this isn't going to end badly?"
"If you'd seen his face when he saw my fangs and eyes, you would know he wasn't a hunter. He was in complete shock. And I just get this feeling like it's going to be ok. I only rang cos I thought you'd understand."
Elena sighed. "I'm here for you, for everything Care, you know that. But Caroline, do you know what you're doing?"
"Not exactly" she answered quietly. The knock at the door signalled her next appointment. "Sorry Elena, I have a client just arriving, I need to go."
"Love you Care, call me if you need me. I promise to listen and I'll try not to judge. I mean, I'm with Damon, you listened to lots of coversations about that craziness."
Caroline heard a muffled "hey!" in the background and some laughter.
"Thanks Elena. I'll let you know if our girls weekend needs to have double the quantity of alcohol!"
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Closing the door at 5.30pm after her final appointment of the day was a relief. It gave her half an hour to sort herself out before Klaus turned up for dinner. That's if he turned up at all. But assuming he did, she wanted to be ready.
Splashing water on her face to freshen up, she carefully re-applied her makeup and re-did her hair, twisting it up so just a few tendrils fell around her face. She wanted to make herself look as 'normal' as possible so Klaus could see that in spite of being a vampire, she was still just Caroline. And really, since she had moved away from Mystic Falls and all the drama that seemed to be constant there, she had found it easy to sink back into normality, just using her vamp skills as a perk.
She went to the small fridge under her desk and pulled out some blood, disguised in a cranberry juice bottle. Caroline needed her thirst to be under control so she could be as self contained as possible. Klaus could run scared at any moment so she wanted to do everything possible to keep him around. At least enough to see if these feelings they seemed to have for each other were destined to go anywhere. Drinking enough to feel satiated she replaced the bottle and made sure her face was clean and her teeth were blood free.
Caroline heard the outer door open and close then footsteps approach her door. She gave a gulp and stood up. The heartbeat she could hear coming from the other side of the door was quick, too quick for someone in complete control of themselves. "Much like mine would be if I was in his shoes" she thought, her mouth feeling dry.
"It's now or never" Klaus thought standing in front of her door. His hand hovered an inch away and he was having difficulty getting it to go the last little bit and make contact. "You're being a coward Niklaus" he said, echoing the words he'd heard Mikael say many times. Gritting his teeth and shoving the memories away, he knocked loudly.
Carolie took a deep breath when the knock finally sounded, let it slowly out, straightened her dress for the 20th time and stepped forward to open the door.
Sorry, kind of a filler chapter but I wanted to get a little of their thoughts happening. The next chapter – many discussions and questions leading to information overload.