Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or it's characters. If I did, The Originals would never have happened, Kol would be alive and happily causing mayhem somewhere, and Klaus and Caroline would be travelling the world and sexing it up.

"Well." Rebekah pronounces with a delicate sniff, glancing around the abandoned hotel with barely concealed disdain. "This is not creepy, at all."

Kol looks delighted at his sister's discomfort, and steps up next to the blonde Original, slinging a companionable arm around her shoulders.

"Come now Bekah, we have slummed it in worse places." Kol pronounces with great relish. "And even you have to admit it's a step up from being stuck in a coffin with a dagger in your heart." Kol throws a suspicious glance over his shoulder at Klaus, who lets out a barely audible sigh from behind her.

"Only slightly." Rebekah shoots back, crossing her arms over her chest and tapping a booted foot impatiently against the floor. "You never did tell us why we are here."

Katherine just rolls her eyes, knocking her shoulder into Rebekah's as she passes. Rebekah snarls at Katherine, and Caroline has to marvel at the composure the younger vampire displays despite the circumstances.

"Enough Katerina. Rebekah." Elijah raises his voice only slightly, but it's enough to shut Rebekah up.

New York is not what she expected. She'd been here before of course, in the days before the SRA had become such a guiding force in the country. She thought that she would fall in love with the city, with the constant hustle and bustle.

Instead, it had put her on edge, threatened to suffocate her with the amount of heart beats and the smell of blood everywhere she went.

There was a darker side to New York, as she quickly discovered, a hidden underbelly known only to the supernatural. Vampire clubs where you could feed on humans freely, every blood type currently registered freely available.

She'd only been once, and had never gone back again. She'd hated the vacant and haunted look in the eyes of the human feeders, unable to tell if they were there willingly or if there was some sort of trafficking ring going on.

And of course, New York was where she had ran into Klaus again.

It was funny, that she happened to be in one of the busiest places in the city when she saw him again for the first time in twenty years. She'd been in Times Square, waiting for the lights to change.

It was that prickling sensation, the hairs standing up on the back of her neck that told her that she was being watched, and probably not by someone who was friendly to her. She'd hitched the strap of her purse a little higher on her shoulder, prepared to ward off a human pick pocket or mugger.

She'd tilted her head to the side slightly, hearing his chuckle float above the cacophony of sound.

She'd only caught a glimpse of him, enough to see that the passing of time had treated him well. Ruling it seemed, suited him. Just as he mentioned that it would, during their time together in the woods in Mystic Falls, when she'd let him pull her into his arms, breathless, sweat cooling on her body as he'd traced invisible shapes into her back.

He'd been insatiable, and she'd been only too willing to oblige him on that particular occasion, believing it would be the first and last time that they would be together in that nature.

Of course, fate always had a way of screwing with her in the most twisted of ways.

She'd been checking out one of the dive bars in Brooklyn, listening to the live band somewhat absentmindedly as she tapped her fingers against the wooden bar top. There was an almost full beer in front of her, and she couldn't bring herself to drink it, as foul as it was.

Even just eyeing off the rows of bottles sitting behind the bar, she could tell that there was nothing here that would cater towards her tastes.

Then of course, he slides onto the bar stool next to her, darkness draped in black as he motions to the bartender with a crook of his finger. It's odd to watch the magnetism rolling off him in waves as he talks to the bartender, almost like she's witnessing the invisible string of compulsion between Klaus and the completely oblivious human.

It's not until she's eyeing off the glass of whiskey in his hand with barely concealed jealously that Klaus turns towards her, gaze revealing nothing as his eyes sweep over her, lips curling into a smile.

"Hello sweetheart."

And that had been that.

When she reflects back on it, it was probably one of the more normal nights that she'd ever spent with a guy, far more used to teenage dates like dinner and a movie, or even netflix and sex.

She didn't tell him that she'd thought about him when she'd visited Rome, Paris, Tokyo, or that she missed him more than she wanted to admit to herself. Because that would be kind of pathetic. Especially after he'd promised to leave and never come back.

Instead they'd talked, and when the live band had cleared out she'd challenged him to a game of snooker, thinking it would be the one thing that she could probably best him at. Klaus had agreed with a secret smile, picking up his glass and draining it before motioning for two more.

She had lost in spectacular fashion, because of course Klaus had been good at snooker along with everything else, ever.

It had been sort of surreal, to see the big, bad Hybrid indulge in something so decidedly human, but Klaus had been nothing but a gentlemen for the entire night, and this continued when he had offered to walk her back to the place where she was staying.

She had made the first move. She'd had to, because Klaus was still Klaus, and although he was kind of a dick he was also a gentlemen. And he had made a promise.

They'd fallen into bed together, and they'd blood shared, which was enough to have her fleeing the next morning before he woke up.

Something between them had changed after that night, an intimacy that hadn't been there before. Blood sharing was a big deal with vampires, something usually only done between lovers or partners as Damon had told her once a very long time ago. She'd known that he and Elena had done it a few times, could always tell when they had, if the happy and content look on Elena's face had been anything to go by.

But that morning as she'd tried to silently collect her things and she'd looked back at Klaus, she'd felt frightened at the depth of emotions that she'd felt, happiness and euphoria and a deep contentment, a knowledge that something was right in the world.

And what was the most terrifying was that deep down, she knew that the emotions that she was feeling weren't her own.

They were Klaus'.

And the depth of his feelings, the enormity of the realisation that had hit her all at once, had terrified her.

And so she ran.

Lips, burning a scorching trail down her throat and between the valley of her breasts, rough stubble scratching against her heated and flushed skin.

Bark digging into her back, leaves tangling in her hair with each thrust bordering on pleasure and pain as his necklaces dig sharply into her chest, leaving behind imprints on her skin that she knew would be there for hours after.

Talented fingers, rubbing where they're joined, his hands, marking her, branding her, having little care for the air she's trying to squeeze into her lungs.

Bruises already blooming on his skin, her skin, where they'd gripped a little too tightly, gripped a little too hard as limbs had tangled together.

And bliss, pleasure cresting over her in waves, her eyes flying open as she's pulled from sleep with gasp and a sigh.

Caroline looks around the dark room which Katherine had lead her to earlier, searching for something, wondering if he's messing with her dreams or something ridiculous like that.

Vampires having extra powers wasn't unheard of, she well remembered Elena's tales of Damon when he'd first come to Mystic Falls, haunting her footsteps with mist and a crow. Although Damon had loved the theatrics, he'd very rarely used his powers, only in the greatest of emergencies.

It wouldn't surprise her, if Klaus could walk in people's dreams, haunt and invade their nightmares. And if it was true that he had this power, he had no qualms in using them whenever he desired.

She casts her hearing outwards, beyond the four walls of her room, relaxing when she hears no dark chuckle curling around her senses, no indication that this had been Klaus' fault.

She's not exactly sure if that made things better or worse.

It's on shaky feet that she stands, reaching for the jacket on the foot of her bed, one that Klaus had draped around her shoulders when they'd first gotten to this place. He hadn't said a word and she'd followed his lead, pulling the leather tightly around her body as Katherine had directed her towards a musty bedroom where she could get a bit of respite before moving onwards to meet the coven.

It smells like him, pine and sandalwood and something else that she can't quite place, and it's almost nothing for her to pull her arms through the sleeves, before she pushes open the door to her balcony, cold air biting at her face.

They were up high, in a high rise building in a less populated part of town. Nevertheless, Katherine vowed that it was safe, but how much credence was there to her words really?

To her surprise, she's not alone, Enzo already gazing out over the city, at the sky lightening just over the horizon. He turns his head when he sees her, in acknowledgement of her presence as he stares at her for a long moment.

"I never thought I'd see you running around with the Original family." Enzo's voice is low, his tone devoid of accusation. It's not a question, not even a statement, more of an observation, really.

"Do you have a problem with that?" She asks lightly as she steps forward, hands curling around the railing of the balcony that had once probably been glass. Most of it had shattered now, and she takes great care to find a patch of ground that didn't have shards scattered across it.

Enzo lets out a short bark of laughter.

"Of course not. They're a bunch of sanctimonious assholes, but if they keep you safe that's all that matters." He pronounces matter of factly. "That's all I've ever wanted, when it comes to you."

She's surprised by his answer, so used to being judged by people close to her, for making choices that naturally drew the disdain of others, Elena and Damon most of all, who had the most reason to hate The Originals.

The moment that she had stopped living the life that Elena had expected her to live and started living for herself had been the most freeing moment of her life. She hadn't looked back, she and Elena falling out of touch long ago.

"Although I have to say that I'm a little surprised to see Klaus so gone for you. When did that happen?" Enzo asks curiously. "During Mystic Falls, or after?"

"He is not gone for me." She hisses towards him as Enzo raises a single eyebrow. "We became acquainted while I was in high school. Shortly after I'd been turned."

"Yes he is gone for you. That one would burn this world to ashes if it meant holding onto you. Why are you denying it?" Enzo replies with a tilt of his head.

She pauses for a long moment, hands flexing around the balcony railing as she sucks the cold New York air into her lungs.

"You know why." She murmurs to Enzo, trying to mask her voice within the howling of the wind. No conversation is ever private when you live and travel with vampires, especially powerful ones like Klaus and his siblings. But this was something she wanted to bury, something she didn't want to share with the rest of their group.

"Ah." He pronounces delicately, saying nothing else. For that, she is grateful, that Enzo was still so intuitive to her thoughts and emotions even after all this time.

She steps closer to him, resting a heavy head against his shoulder as he wraps an arm around her waist. Their friendship had always been so easy, so comfortable, Enzo serving as both best friend and protector in the decades that they'd known each other.

He'd drifted in and out of her life during various periods of time, but the beauty of their relationship had meant that they'd always been able to pick up right where they left off, without the need for akwkward recap or an overly detailed rehashing of their lives.

"I'm glad you're here, for what it's worth." She tells him truthfully, shivering a little even under Klaus' leather jacket still draped around her shoulders, cocooning her from the elements. "Even if it is with the she devil."

Enzo's grin is a flash of white in the darkness, so quick she would have missed it had she blinked in that moment.

"Happy to be here, love. You know I'm always here for you, no matter what. You've always known that." He tells her, hand squeezing her waist oh so briefly.

She'd briefly considered a fling with Enzo a long time ago, back when they'd been hazy on tequila in Mexico, clothes sticking to them thanks to the humidity in the air.

He'd seemed different to her, as he'd twirled her around in the salsa club, the heavy throb of the latin music pulsing through her veins. There'd been a certain darkness in his eyes that hadn't been there before, and his hands had been scorching through the thin fabric of her dress as they'd moved together effortlessly across the dance floor.

Her mind had wandered, wondering if it would be as effortless if they were to fall into bed with each other. She'd curled her hand around the back of his neck, bringing their foreheads together as she'd breathed out sharply.

It was Enzo that had moved in, lips hovering tantalisingly close to hers, hovering like a question mark, waiting for her to answer with her body. She'd turned her head to the side as he'd moved closer, and his lips had landed on her neck, pressing oh so lightly as he'd smiled into her skin.

The change between them was slight, but noticeable as Enzo had backed off respectfully, adhering to her silent and unspoken wish to not take things further.

Since then, they'd been nothing but the best of friends.

She feels Enzo stiffen beside her for a moment, notes the uptick of his heart beat as she turns her head to see what had disturbed him so.

Klaus steps forward silently, boots not making a noise despite the debris scattered around the balcony, evidence of a raid gone wrong.

"I need a moment with Caroline." Klaus begins calmly, eyes moving past her, instead landing on Enzo. He doesn't ask for permission, doesn't request politely.

If the way Enzo defers to him with a nod, hand brushing through her hair, he doesn't need to ask permission.

Klaus stays rooted in place, head cocked to the side as he listens to Enzo walk away. Only when he's certain that the other vampire has left the vicinity does he move forward to stand next to her, propping his hip up against the railing, paying no mind to the dizzying height that they find themselves at.

He notes the presence of his jacket around her shoulders with a curl of his lips, smirk apparent for a split second.

"What do you want?" She asks coolly, hands balled into fists at her side as her body tenses at his presence.

"I thought I would come and check on you. As I was retiring I couldn't help but hear that you were having a rather interesting dream. Care to share what was bothering you?" Klaus asks lightly, arms crossed over his chest as he stares at her.

He knows.

She realises this in split seconds, a flush overtaking her skin at the realisation that he knew exactly what she was dreaming of.

"You're an arse." She spits out between gritted teeth, taking a step forward and pushing him in the chest. "You have no right to mess with my dreams." She pushes at him again, and he catches her wrists in his hands, almost squeezing tight enough to bruise.

It was a warning, plain and simple, to not touch him again.

Klaus bends down to her height, and they're almost nose to nose as his gaze seems to pin her to the spot.

"While I do have the power to walk through your dreams, I didn't on this particular occasion." Klaus' voice dips low, his accent enunciating each word carefully to ensure that she would hear him loud and clear. "I would never do so without your permission. But thank you for confirming that your subconscious was thinking of me."

Every inch of her body is screaming at her to take a step back, to put some distance between them, his presence as commanding and as intoxicating as ever as his grip loosens around her wrists, thumbs swiping soothingly over the veins in her wrist as her heartbeat thunders in her ears.

"I did wonder why you were content to lose yourself in the arms of human men after we parted ways, why you wanted to forget what happened between us, that first time." Klaus remarks conversationally, hand reaching out to cup her face, tilting her face up towards his as he steps closer still, hips pinning her between his body and the railing.

She looks up, up, meets his gaze as his eyes darken.

"Tell me love, did they ever please you like I did? Did you ever feel satisfied, sated, filled?" His breath fans over her cheek and she squeezes her eyes shut briefly, trying to calm the thundering of her heart, the organ betraying her.

"You never came back." She whispers into the space between them, watching as a surprised look takes over his features.

"You made it very clear that you didn't want me to come back sweetheart. That was the deal wasn't it?"

Her tongue darts out to lick her lips, the confession heavy on her tongue as his gaze bores into her, stripping away another layer of her soul. It had always been like that with him, every nerve ending in her body electrified, skin on fire wherever he touched.

He'd burrowed in underneath her skin so completely, that she'd never been able to get rid of the memory of him, the feeling of him buried inside of her, the way his hands used to map out her skin like he'd been doing it for centuries instead of seconds.

Their first encounter, no matter how fleeting, had been right up there with some of the most memorable experiences of her short existence.

And Klaus knew it, if the satisfied expression on his face was anything to go by.

"And what about the second time?" Klaus asks in a low voice, gaze still on her, blue eyes clouded with something. "When I pretended not to listen to you trying to escape me while I gave every appearance of sleeping?"

"Let go." She tells him forcefully, as Klaus acquiesces immediately, perhaps surprised by the forcefulness of her tone. He'd pushed her buttons plenty of times, but had always been careful not to push his boundaries with her.

"I know you felt what I felt while I laid there with my eyes shut. The happiness, the contentment, the feeling of finally coming home." Klaus' words bite into her, wrapping around her with little chance of escape. "And I know that it scared you."

"I'm not having this conversation with you." She tells him, swallowing audibly as she finally meets his eyes again.

Klaus smiles to himself, as if he'd been expecting her flat out denial.

"Very well then. Some other time, perhaps." He replies as he turns, beginning to move towards the dark doorway that leads back into the apartment. "You should try and get some sleep while you can. You never know when you might need it most."

She ignores him, listening to his footsteps as they fade into the distance.

It's only when she's well and truly alone does she turn back to the city, letting out a long breath that she hadn't even realised she'd been holding.

When she wakes, it's in a bright white room. There's a sizzling sound and she can't help but grit her teeth together in pain as the familiar smell of vervain reaches her nostrils, along with the smell of burning flesh.

Her flesh. She's chained to the bed with handcuffs, although she doesn't doubt that they've been reinforced somehow, because she could break through human ones like they were plastic, had done so on a number of occasions.

She feels groggy, and if she'd been human she would have thought that maybe she'd been roofied as she tugs experimentally at one of the cuffs.

But this was something more, and as she blinks away the darkness at her vision, for the first time in a long time she's genuinely afraid.

The fear had always been there, while she'd been on the run with Stefan and Damon these past few months, trying her best to evade the SRA who seemed hell bent on killing all of them.

Through the haze of her memories, she feels bits and pieces begin to come back to her. Their cosy cabin in Alaska, fire popping and crackling away merrily as a snow storm had flurried outside.

She'd never expected to end up in Alaska of all places, the winters long and the sunlight weak. But Stefan had insisted that it would be the safest place for all three of them, and she'd always trusted Stefan's judgement.

Running had been the best thing for them, once they'd seen exactly what they'd be up against. She knew that Damon was angry about the decision, wanted to fight back, to show the humans that their species was not to be cowed into submission, to be forced into hiding.

She remembers an urgent knocking on the door as Stefan and Damon had looked at each other uneasily as she'd moved towards the door. They'd told no one where they were going save Enzo, and even then had kept their travel plans vague. Alaska was a big place after all.

She'd wrenched the door open, cold air swirling into their warm sanctuary, and she'd remembered….

The screeching of the door to her room jerks her back to the present, and she can't help but quickly glance at the person coming to join her, relaxing a little at the sight of a familiar face.

"Bonnie." She breathes out through cracked lips, tongue darting out to wet them. "Bon you have to help me out of these." She continues, rattling her cuffs as if to drive her point home.

Bonnie's gaze lands on her then, and that's when she knows that something is very, very wrong.

Her friend is dressed in dark clothes, clothes designed to make her blend into a crowd. She's powerless, watching as Bonnie pulls on a pair of surgical gloves and flicks her finger against a syringe full of a sickly, green looking liquid.

Bonnie's smile is dark, and she can't help but recoil a little as her once best friend steps towards her.

"Don't worry Elena. This will only hurt a little." Her oldest friend reassures her, before plunging the syringe into her neck.

The pain is unlike anything she's ever experienced before, and she's felt the cold grip of an Original vampire slowly squeezing the life out of her heart, breaking her sternum and a few of her ribs along the way.

This was something more, something more sharper, more intense.

And Elena Gilbert can't help but scream.

AN:

Wow, okay this story has been sadly neglected, if the indication that I haven't updated this for almost year is anything to go by! I've been trying to get around to this one believe me, because I love the universe and the potential this bad boy has. Of course I'll be finishing this one.

Would love to hear your thoughts (even if it is to reprimand me for my long absence on this story). As you know, every review means the absolute world to me!

Much love to my Klaroline fandom squad, as always.

xx