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“Now how did a pretty bird like you fly into a place like this?”
Caroline paused, cocktail glass hovering at her mouth. Her eyes connected with the bartender, an older gentleman named Dave who was wiping a glass. He rolled his eyes so hard she had to fight to keep from snorting. With deliberate slowness, Caroline set her glass down on the small bar napkin and turned to face her suitor.
“Well aren’t you…” Her eyes slid up from the slightly worn jeans, the dress shirt stained from a chemical if Caroline had to guess, to the ten o’clock scruff that hadn’t seen a cleanser in a truly tragic amount of time, “…a tall drink of water.”
Dave choked, and she flashed her eyes at him meaningfully before fixing Scruff with her best Miss Mystic Falls pageant-winning smile. She knew she should’ve at least had the pretense to compel Dave to make sure he didn’t give anything away while she was here, but he worked in midtown Manhattan and it was the holidays, thus likely had sucked down so much vervain tonight it was shooting from his ears.
Plus, using her vamp abilities tonight was kind of a moot point for her mission.
Catching Caroline’s fierce look, Dave rolled his eyes and turned his attention to another customer down the bar. Caroline returned her focus on Scruff. “What’s your name?” she asked, tilting her head with interest.
“Mark,” he replied, smiling wide enough that Caroline caught the glint of an old filling in his back molar. “Mark Bitterman.”
Bingo. Name, check. Root canal and filling, check. If she’d been unsure before, she was certain now: she had the right guy. He looked a little different from the photo attached to his social media profile, likely an older photo, but not enough that Caroline couldn’t recognize him.
Mark Bitterman’s existence was straightforward from what Caroline had gleaned of him online: he worked nine to six, had good relationships with his coworkers, and frequented the Valerie cocktail bar after clocking out of work. It usually took him twenty minutes by subway to get to midtown; it was an easy enough commute, nestled between Bryant and Central Park, and close to Hell’s Kitchen. A bona fide prime spot, in Caroline’s opinion. And after having a particularly frustrating day at work fielding crank calls (thank you, Jeremy), it was only a matter of waiting for him to arrive at the bar’s doorstep.
Caroline had a splendid time waiting. She liked the Valerie, was already friends with Dave the bartender (who was she kidding, she was friends with all the waitstaff and the head chef who made her endless appetizers), and Dave already had a plate of burrata and fruit ready for her when she arrived thirty minutes ago. God, she loved Dave.
As it happened, Dave had a keen ability to sense when something supernatural entered the establishment (big cities attracted vampires, etcetera etcetera), but Caroline liked to think she was just that much of a goddamn delight that he hadn’t immediately tried to kick her out when his vervain-laced Bloody Mary two years ago had only made her laugh.
“Good try, seriously,” Caroline had said, her dimply smile visibly—and reluctantly—charming Dave. “What’s a girl gotta do to mix a little O-neg with the Bloody Mary next time?”
Dave had glowered, until he saw a snip of her dissertation on the laptop propped next to her on the bar, and blinked in confusion.
Following his gaze, Caroline had nodded sagely. “Oh yeah. I’m not your typical ampire-vay.”
“You’re in college?” he’d said, bewildered.
Caroline tilted her head, blinked, and let her tone register a higher, airier affect. “What, like it’s hard?”
Dave had smiled, forgetting himself, and Caroline used that to push that last step into his good graces. (Making enemies in the state you studied in sucked, even more so in places that served alcohol). “See?” she needled. “I need fuel or I won’t graduate with my Master’s. And if not the O-neg,” she grinned again, impish, “I’ll settle for some fries.”
All in all, it was pretty symbiotic. Caroline would consume a sizable amount of their signature apps, and in turn she’d throw out anything supernatural that was not as nice as her. For her birthday, Dave had surprised her with a vampire-friendly drinks menu—unofficial, of course, but Caroline had been pleased as punch.
Crap, he’s still talking. Caroline refocused when Mark leaned in, whispering, “I’d ask for yours, but I don’t think they made a name pretty enough for a girl like you.”
Caroline filed away that tragic line for telling Bonnie later, and ducked her head coyly, running a fingertip along the rim of her glass. “Maybe,” she demurred, “but you can call me Sandra.”
Mark’s eyebrow rose with interest—no doubt expecting an “Ashley” or something given the age she looked—but Caroline just smiled sweetly. “Sandra,” he repeated, and Caroline waited patiently for his next move. He shrugged lightly. “I guess it’ll do.”
Ass. Caroline sighed inwardly as she held the pretense of paying attention to his attempts at flirting, entertaining his not-so-smooth transition of persuading her to join a timeshare scam, peering up at him with wide eyes and hanging on every word. Just once, though, it’d be nice if the guys she had to deal with in her line of work weren’t so predictably boring.
Sure, her dealings meant they’d be missing a chunk of memory from the night with a nasty headache and a sudden and urgent desire to read every book in the New York Library’s section on feminism, but by god, not one decent conversationalist? Not a, “Hey, you seem well-read, did you study here?” to which Caroline would’ve happily answered, “Yes, actually, I got my Bachelor’s in NYU and my Master’s in Columbia”—none of that! Instead, she got to just do her job, of which occasionally meant flirting and stealing information or artifacts from unsuspecting men, and chasing the edge of relief in her bed with her hands and imagination after a dissatisfying evening .
And Caroline knew good guys existed; she wasn’t so jaded as to swear off men altogether as one whimper of a note. She’d seen them time and again, hitting on Bonnie and Elena and Damon… and Stefan and Enzo and Rebekah, all the damn time. Cool, good humans. Or warlocks and witches. Or other magical species that kept cropping up. So what the hell was it with her?
“I mean, is it me?” Caroline said out loud. “What gives?”
“Huh?” Mark blinked.
“Oops. I mean—is it me, or has today just been weird? I’ve been getting all this spam in my text messages today.”
Mark’s eyes widened and he gestured wildly at his phone. “Me too! All day at work some asshole kept calling me asking if I knew my car’s warranty had expired. I was like, I live in New York, you asshole, I don’t have a car.”
“Morons.” Caroline nodded sympathetically. “Say, where did you say you worked?”
“Well, I mentioned that travel agency—”
“Uh-huh, but I thought you mentioned you work nearby,” Caroline blinked, rounding her eyes in that curious way that she knew worked so well.
“Did I?”
Caroline nodded and bit her lip. “I think so.” He didn’t.
“I work at a museum.” Mark shrugged lightly. Caroline narrowed her eyes at him, sensing he was trying to feel out her interest level, and Caroline signaled Dave for another round. Mark watched this with a surprised look.
“That is so cool! Do you, like, curate?” Caroline leaned in, eyes sparkling.
“Heh, no way. Those upstairs folks are such snobs.” Mark rolled his eyes.
“Upstairs? Does that mean you work downstairs?”
“Uh-huh. I do all the data collection on our samples and stuff.” He added, “Basically, I put labels on everything and keep it all organized.”
Caroline’s smile stayed in place long enough to hurt. Part of her knew he wasn’t trying to be patronizing, but Caroline’s patience was beginning to wear thin. Time to wrap this up. “Wow, I didn’t know they actually did that in the museum. I thought it was just where all the plaster replicas were, and the real stuff was in a warehouse somewhere.”
“I could show you around sometime, if you like?” Mark said, a little hopeful. “It seems like you’re interested.”
“Oh, I am,” Caroline replied eagerly. “I so am.”
“Great! I love meeting people who like history and science.”
Caroline’s brow ticked up, smiling a little. Ooh, half-point to Mark. “So about that downstairs…”
“Mm, this drink is good.” Mark licked his lips. Caroline pressed her lips together, reaching for a well of patience as he reached over and curled a strand of her hair around his finger. Half-point deduction. “You know, you’re nice to talk to.”
“Thanks, so are you.”
“I worried, because from afar you kinda looked like a bitch.”
Caroline stared. And forced a smile. “That so?”
“Mm. I’m glad I was wrong.”
Yeah, enough of that. Caroline looked at the strand of her hair wrapped around his finger and started prying it off. A strange feeling passed through her as she did, and Caroline paused. She glanced around the bar, but couldn’t find anything out of place. Laughter came from the restaurant seating area, and a few servers came out with plates filled with food. Dave was now chatting with his husband, leaning over the bar and smiling.
It felt like…
“Uh, you okay?” Mark asked.
Caroline shook off the feeling and looked at Mark. “I’m so sorry. I smelled something good and got distracted—probably by the food. What did you say?”
Mark sighed. “I said, what did you say your name was, again?”
The air behind her shifted, then—
“I believe the lady said it was Sandra.”
A tremor ran up Caroline’s spine. She whirled around on the barstool and locked eyes with the deepest blue eyes that now came only in her dreams. “Klaus?” she said with disbelief.
Klaus smiled. “Hello, love.”
Caroline’s first instinctual feeling was joy, then relief, her eyes flickering over him rapidly. The same stubble, hair slightly curlier and fuller, and no less than three necklaces hanging from his neck. He was slightly flushed, probably having fed recently, and fed well if the pink of his cheeks said anything.
He looked good. And in one piece. Klaus watched her watch him, and when her focus returned to his eyes, she saw a knowing smirk developing across his face.
Just like that, the rush of pleasure at seeing him again rapidly morphed to anger. “You,” she hissed venomously. “Find somewhere else to sit.”
Klaus gave her a wounded look. “Now don’t be like that, love. Watching you sit through fifteen minutes of his painful attempts at flirting was bad enough.”
“Hey,” Mark protested.
Caroline scoffed, ignoring Mark. “Because your idea of flirting has been so successful with me.”
Klaus smiled slowly, dimples on full display. “I never heard any complaints.”
“Uh, hello! There were a lot of complaints!”
“Mm, but there were a lot of other more interesting words and sounds you made—”
“Shhhh!” Caroline pressed her hand on his mouth, and forcibly ignored how good and soft said mouth felt on her hand. “Uh-uh, you don’t get to go there.”
“Whyever not?” His lips brushed against her palm as he spoke, then a small flick of his tongue. Caroline pulled her hand away as if scalded.
“Because—”
“Everything okay here?” Dave was now across from them, looking between Caroline and Klaus warily. Caroline sighed and forced a calm smile.
“Everything’s fine,” she said, with emphasis.
Taking the hint, Dave nodded and backed off. “You need anything, just shout.”
“I will.”
Dave moved to the other side of the bar and Caroline exhaled, suddenly exhausted. Damn him—not even two minutes in her space and Klaus was driving her nuts.
“I’m guessing you two know each other?” Mark asked, looking between Caroline and Klaus unsurely.
Caroline jolted, and cursed herself for getting distracted. “Old high school friend, it’s nothing. Just ignore him.” Caroline flashed a quick smile, hoping to reel Mark back in enough to return his attention to their discussion. “So, the museum.”
Mark blinked, glancing behind her shoulder at Klaus. Whatever he saw made him swallow thickly. “Um. That’s okay. I think I’ll just let you two…”
“Nononono, seriously, please stay,” Caroline insisted, half-pleading.
“Yes, Mark, please stay,” Klaus said mockingly from behind her, sounding highly amused. “I want to see this play out.”
Caroline swung around to glare at Klaus, daggers in her eyes. “You’re not seeing anything, bucko. You’re leaving.”
Klaus blinked in annoyingly faux confusion. “Apologies sweetheart, I didn’t know you gained the ability to compel vampires since our last meeting.”
“Do you just like hearing the sound of your voice or something?”
“Well, I much prefer the sounds you—”
Caroline held up her hand. “I’m busy, Klaus, I’m working. I know how foreign that concept is to you, but you still need to respect it.”
To his credit, Klaus inclined his head in agreement. “I have the highest regard for your work, love, you know this. But forgive me if I confused your efforts in your PhD program with something else.”
“It’s related,” Caroline insisted, her hackles rising at the slight judgement in his tone. She hated to hear it, but she hated more how she felt the need to defend herself when it came from him. “Or maybe I’m just flirting with a guy at a bar. Am I not allowed to do that?”
“Far be it from me to tell you what you are and are not allowed to do.”
“Stop being charming.”
Dimples flashed again, and Caroline cursed him silently for her traitorous body still reacting to him from just sitting near her. She could feel the heat radiating off of him and warming her side. It was then that Caroline realized she’d begun leaning into it, a golden-haired moth to Klaus’s hybrid flame. Klaus took it a step further, running his knuckles down the soft skin of her bare arm for who knows how long.
Five years ago, Klaus would never have been so bold. The lines Caroline had drawn were clear, and for all his many atrocities, pushing her was never one of them. In their early days, if he ever touched her, it was either to save her life, or in response to her touching him.
That changed the last time they came together in the city. Something had unlocked, and it seemed Klaus was still riding that wave.
Swallowing hard, Caroline shrugged him off and leaned away.
Undeterred, Klaus captured her left hand and ran his thumb over her knuckles. “I caught on that you needed something from him, but what I don’t understand is why you aren’t compelling it from him. I haven’t tasted vervain in the drinks here, yet.”
Not anymore, Caroline thought smugly, but she kept that to herself. Caroline smirked. “Uh, not compelling him is kind of the whole point.”
Klaus’s eyes flashed with interest. The corner of his mouth curled, but instead of praise (which she totally wasn’t looking for), he answered frankly. “It would be much easier gaining information from a sea slug. This one’s dull as bricks and was never going to give you anything.”
Mark made a spluttering sound. Caroline’s jaw dropped, outraged, and she snatched her hand back. “Excuse you! He might be dumb but he was giving me everything!”
“This is crazy,” said Mark, nonplussed.
“Glean his mind, then,” Klaus challenged, raising a brow. “Fair warning, his only thoughts have been what color your knickers will be on his bedroom floor.”
Caroline looked at Mark, scandalized. He shrugged helplessly. Caroline squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. Focus, Caroline. “That doesn’t matter,” Caroline sniffed. “We were having a perfectly intellectual conversation before you showed up. Which, again, rude, and you need to leave before you fuck up all my hard work.”
Klaus made a considering hum, then took a sip from his drink. Caroline eyed him warily. “What?” she asked.
Klaus shrugged. “Nothing at all. Continue—feel free to pretend I’m not here.”
Caroline narrowed her gaze. “What, Klaus?”
Klaus leveled her with a measuring look. “You can’t or won’t read his mind. Very different from our last… situation with it.”
Caroline pressed her lips together briefly. “Not everyone can do that. Dreams, sensory manipulation, it’s always different what we get when we wake up as a vampire.”
“Not for you. You could do it.”
I’d know, I trained you, was left unsaid.
And he’d be right. A year and a half ago, fresh from the graduation high, the successful thesis defense, and acceptance into Columbia’s PhD program, Klaus had caught the ability in Caroline by pure chance. Untrained, unnurtured, and practically dormant, the skill was something Caroline mentioned only in a joke, claiming she never had to worry about which guys approached her with good intentions because she always “saw what they wanted.”
Klaus had caught the slip and clamped onto it with the focused intent of a predator. He’d brought it up again innocently that evening, between swirls of wine and the best damn brie she’d ever had.
And honestly that was all it’d taken for him to encourage her to give it a proper go. There, sat together on a rooftop bar somewhere in the Upper East Side, she’d sharpened her ability and used it on the richer-than-god patrons around them. Klaus’s voice had been an insistent and encouraging guide, showing her how to hone the skill, the cleanest way to enter a mind without inflicting pain on the recipient.
She still remembered the look on Klaus’s face when she’d turned to him, beaming at her success, and excitedly thrown her arms around him, squeezing. He hadn’t tensed, hadn’t so much as flinched; he wrapped her in a matching embrace and let her melt into him. Klaus had been warm, and firm, smelling clean and slightly of warm citrus. She could’ve stayed in his arms all night.
When she’d pulled back and seen the gentle look, the quiet adoration he always had around her, that something finally clicked in place in her heart. Caroline knew, as she’d always known would happen someday, that it was time for a Big Damn Gesture from her.
But then Klaus… well.
Caroline blinked, returning to the present. Shaking her head, Caroline looked away from his piercing gaze to fiddle with her glass. “We’re not talking about this.”
She felt Klaus stare at her for several moments. She exhaled quietly when he turned away and drained his glass. “Fair enough,” he conceded.
“If that’s all,” Caroline said carefully, “I have to get back to Mark.”
Klaus glanced at her, then behind her. Mischief filled his blue gaze, putting Caroline immediately on alert. “As you were, sweetheart.” He gestured behind her. “It’ll be difficult, though, what with Mark no longer actually here.”
“What?” Caroline whirled around and gaped. The stool next to her was empty. Mark was gone. “Fuck! Fuck, fuck!” Caroline threw on her coat and slung her purse over her shoulder, stumbling out of her stool.
“Colorful,” said Klaus, highly amused.
Caroline pinned him with a furious glare. “You,” she whispered icily, “suck!”
She heard Klaus laughing behind her as she stormed out of the Valerie.
“Where are you, where are you…” Caroline muttered, shivering only slightly at the sudden change in temperature. Where it’d been toasty inside, the late December air was a sharp chill in her lungs. Caroline paid it no mind. She glanced left, then right. 45th Street wasn’t particularly busy tonight, oddly enough. She supposed folks had better things to do the day before New Year’s Eve.
She inhaled deeply and caught Mark’s scent. Better yet—he was extremely close by.
Caroline didn’t risk flashing forward at vamp-speed, and it wasn’t necessary anyway—Mark was only a couple hundred feet away. She found him loitering in the little plaza square between buildings, pulling out a pack of cigarettes as he settled against a lamppost.
Mark startled when she appeared in front of him. “Sandra?” He made a face. “Listen, I don’t know what drugs you and that guy are hopped up on, but I don’t want anything to do with it. Okay?”
“Sure,” said Caroline, forcing him to meet her eyes. She saw the moment he was caught in her compulsion. Her skin prickled suddenly, and she sensed Klaus’s presence near. She ignored it. “But first, give me your employee key card for the American Museum of Natural History.”
Dazed, Mark reached in his pocket and pulled out the key card. Caroline took it with a smile. “Thank you. I’ll get this back to you after New Year’s.”
“Okay,” said Mark, blinking. “Why do you need my key card?”
“Don’t worry about that.” Mark nodded faintly. Caroline made sure her next words were clear. “Now, you’re going to go home. You’re going to enjoy your holiday time off from work. You’re not going to remember this conversation, or talking to me at the bar.” Klaus stepped into view, lingering at her peripheral. He looked on with quiet interest, but said nothing. Ignoring him, Caroline continued, “You’re also going to look up some books by Andrea Dworkin, just for fun, and you will read at least three with an open mind. And maybe think of figuring out better ways to talk to women at a bar while you’re at it. Preferably don’t call them a bitch in the first fifteen minutes.”
“Okay,” Mark said again.
Caroline smiled brightly. “Great! Now go home.”
Mark staggered off, shoving his hands in his pockets in the direction of the subway. Caroline looked at the key card, smiling a little. Finally. Goal of the day, complete. Caroline was a little bummed she’d had to use compulsion, but it was fine—all that mattered was in her hand now.
Klaus settled next to her, their shoulders brushing. “Dworkin might be too much too fast, for a beginner like him.”
“Everyone starts somewhere,” Caroline muttered, uncaring. She tucked the card in her pocket. “Maybe by next week he’ll stop watching so much porn in his free time.”
Klaus looked at her sharply. Caroline glanced up at him and watched his attention glimmer with realization. “You did look into his mind,” said Klaus, thrilled.
Caroline considered hedging, but rolled her eyes. “It was a lot of porn, Klaus. It’s unhealthy. I’m doing him a favor.”
“One man’s poison…”
“That’s so not the point,” Caroline retorted.
“And the point of avoiding compulsion tonight?”
Caroline sighed loudly. “Because it’s too easy otherwise. I get bored and need a challenge, so I had a no-compulsion rule to get what I needed from Mark. Which I would’ve won if you hadn’t come and distracted me. Thanks for that, by the way.”
Klaus looked more and more pleased as she explained it to him. Figures, Caroline thought, as Klaus was one of the Original vampires who truly enjoyed a challenge. “Apologies, Caroline.” Her name rolled off his tongue in that way he made sound beautiful; the first he’d used her name all night. “I didn’t mean to spoil your fun.”
“Thank you,” said Caroline, enjoying Klaus apologizing a little. “But again, not the point.”
“Then care to tell me the point of going through all that just to get a key card?” Klaus smirked, and Caroline’s stomach gave a pleasant flip. “Are you having a museum heist soon?”
Caroline waved him off. “Nothing so clandestine. I just need a little sample of something. A samplet, really. Maybe two.” She started walking again, leaving the plaza square and back to 45th Street.
She felt Klaus’s expectant stare, and she shot him a dark look. “And no, you don’t get to know what for. I’m angry with you.”
Klaus said nothing for a few minutes, walking alongside her in silence. Then, “I figured, love. I just don’t know why.” Caroline looked up at him, bewildered. Klaus searched her eyes hesitantly; Caroline was surprised to see something vulnerable reflecting back at her. “Our last time spent together, we were… you were happy to see me.”
Caroline stopped. Grabbing his elbow and moving to the side so as to not stop the flow of pedestrians, Caroline let Klaus see the extent of her frustration. “Seriously?” At Klaus’s blank look, Caroline shook her head and rolled her eyes up to stare at the darkened sky. “Freakin’ typical. Shoulda known better, joke’s on me.”
“Caroline.” Klaus’s voice held a tone of warning.
Caroline closed her eyes and sighed. “Look,” she said quietly. “We can catch up later. Or not at all, whichever. But I have research to do and things to prepare, so let’s have a raincheck on this conversation. Okay?”
He wasn’t happy with her, she could tell. Well, too bad. Even big bad hybrids had to deal with Caroline’s black moods. Jaw tightening, Klaus nodded once. “Later, then.”
“Great. Goodnight, Klaus.”
Caroline turned to walk off. She’d only made it a few steps before she heard Klaus ask, “Why Sandra?”
Caroline paused, turning to look at him. A small gust of wind blew past them, fluttering Klaus’s hair nicely. Caroline’s cheeks warmed. “For Sandra Kolter,” she explained.
Klaus frowned, brow furrowing slightly. “Ziegfeld Girl?” he said, after a moment. “Why?”
Caroline smiled again and turned back around. “Goodnight, Klaus.”
-:-
The closer Caroline approached her goal, the more it felt like a museum heist.
It was New Year’s Eve, the museum staff had the day off, and Caroline was headed to break into the lower level of said museum. She had to remind herself all through the subway ride that it wasn’t a heist. Heists meant stolen jewels, crazy breakdancing through a crisscross laser field, and the other bits of Ocean’s Twelve Caroline slept through. Caroline only wanted a teeny, tiny, little sample from the herpetology department at the American Museum of Natural History. Nobody would even miss it.
There was no way to get official clearance though, as this part of Caroline’s PhD research was not strictly funded by Columbia, nor could she ever explain it to them without coming off as a crazy person. But—again—it was just a teensy snake sample. Hardly anything.
Caroline stepped off the subway and kept her trepidation at bay when she swiped the key card access to enter the museum. The door opened, and Caroline had the rest mapped out—just a matter of getting in, grabbing the sample, and getting out.
“I’m in,” Caroline said to no one. “Alright. Storage room, here I come…”
Caroline found it fairly quickly, and used the key card again. The door swung open, and Caroline grinned. Jackpot.
Rolling up her sleeves, Caroline got to work. “Damn, Mark really did file these well,” she muttered, going through the containers. She found the first one, Micrurus ancoralis. Flipping open the container, Caroline ignored the strong scent of formaldehyde and extracted a tiny sample into a vial she’d brought with her. Capping it, Caroline resealed the container and moved to the next one she needed.
It took a bit longer, but she found it—Cemophora coccinea. “Aren’t you cute,” Caroline murmured, quickly getting the sample and capping it. “Phew! And I thought that was going to be—”
“What are you doing in here?”
Caroline froze. Whirling around, she found a wizened older woman standing at the doorway to the storage room.
“Er. Nothing! Just making sure everything’s sealed properly.” Caroline tapped on coccinea’s container. “Looks great on this end.”
The elder woman narrowed her eyes. “I don’t recognize you. You’re not a student. How did you get in?”
Caroline sighed tiredly. “Clearly, I wasn’t the only one hoping to do some last minute work. You’re not supposed to be at work today, ma’am. But not to worry.” Caroline walked over and held the woman’s gaze. “You’re going to forget you saw me, and go back to your office.”
“Like hell I am!”
Caroline blinked. That was new.
She didn’t smell like a vampire, didn’t have the scent of magic on her like Bonnie did, and definitely not a werewolf… “What the hell are you?” Caroline wondered, the first tendrils of fear crawling through her.
The woman smiled, crooked teeth sharpening to points. “Your worst nightmare, girlie.”
Then just as suddenly, the woman was on the floor, her head having been struck against the wall and her body falling unconscious. Klaus was in front of her, slightly winded.
“Klaus, what the hell?” Caroline gasped. “That was an old lady!”
“It was not. We need to go,” said Klaus, reaching for her hand. Too shocked to protest, Caroline grabbed him. She didn’t bother asking how he got in without detection, or why he was here; after all these years she just sort of expected interference from him if they were in the same town.
“I couldn’t compel her,” said Caroline, feeling slightly shaken. “And she didn’t smell human. I don’t know the hell she was.”
“That, my love,” said Klaus, glancing at her with a tense smile that didn’t reach his eyes, “was a demon.”
Caroline’s jaw dropped. “Demon? We have demons now?!”
“It’s an unpleasant development,” Klaus acknowledged as they jogged toward a stairwell, their hands still held tightly. “I found out last year. Our little planet is crawling with them now, most unfortunately.”
“Wha—I—but—” Caroline couldn’t think. “Last year?”
“Yes.” A sudden shriek filled the air, and they glanced back. Klaus looked equal measures interested and disappointed. He tugged on her hand and led them downstairs. “We’d better get out. She’s awake.”
“What is she—?”
The sound of scales sliding on linoleum filled the air, and Caroline glanced behind her and paled immediately. “Oh my GOD! She’s a giant snake!”
Klaus had the gall to laugh as the lady who was now a monster-sized snake raced after them, but said nothing of Caroline vamping out and flashing the both of them the fuck out of the museum. She slammed the door behind her and ran down the subway line. Klaus made no objection when she pulled them into the first subway train she saw.
The doors closed behind them, the shrieks still sounding from the museum door. She dragged them into two seats, both windswept and sweating slightly. To her relief, their section of the subway train was empty.
It took a few minutes for Caroline to collect herself. “So,” she said finally, “that happened.”
Klaus hummed in agreement. As awareness dawned, she noticed their hands were still joined, with Caroline’s fingers gripping him tightly. She didn’t remember interlacing their fingers, but there they were, all snug together like it was the most natural thing in the world. Klaus’s thumb stroked her skin idly.
The mental effort it would take to object to the casual intimacy, on the grounds of her standing annoyance with him, was too much for Caroline to bother with. Instead she sighed, wrapped her free hand around his bicep, and rested her head against his shoulder.
“Let’s never do that again,” Caroline vowed.
She felt more than heard Klaus chuckle. “You won’t hear an objection from me.”
Caroline snuck a glance at him. Apart from a tousled curl, Klaus appeared completely unphased. “So. Demons?”
Klaus glanced down at her, looking a touch graver than she liked. “Demons,” he confirmed. His gaze shifted a little, then met hers hesitantly. “Incidentally, the thing that kept me occupied all of the last year.”
Caroline’s eyes widened. “This is what you were up to? Demon stuff?”
Klaus’s jaw ticked, clearly annoyed at the very thought of it. “Believe me, love, if I could’ve avoided it, I would have. It took the full force of my family and a few covens to seal a doorway that had ruptured. Then we were trapped inside for what we thought was five days. It was nineteen bloody months.” Klaus glanced at her, trying to read her reaction. “In the end, in spite of all our efforts, hundreds of demons have spilled into our world and scattered.”
Caroline stared at him. It was almost too much to process, and from the looks of it, Klaus was still figuring it out himself. “Bonnie never mentioned anything about demons to me,” she said unsurely.
Klaus smirked, a touch fond. “But she did sense a rift in the earth’s harmony, didn’t she?”
Caroline’s brow wrinkled in thought. Had she? Caroline struggled to think back. Everything had been mostly fine, except… “The summer solstice after I got my Master’s?” Klaus’s brow ticked up, and he nodded. “Bonnie said she felt a disturbance.” Wryly, Caroline added, “I told her she was watching too much Star Wars.”
Klaus tilted his head. “Bonnie is not part of a coven. There was no reason for her to get involved—though now that we’re back, the message will need to be made clear on what we’re facing.”
Caroline chewed on her lower lip, starting to feel guilty. “When did you get back?” she asked, hesitant. Klaus stared at her for a long moment. Caroline cringed. “Oh God. Please don’t say last night.”
Klaus’s mouth twitched, hiding his amusement. “The night before. The 29th.”
Caroline groaned, finally releasing his hand to bury both of hers in her hair. “I was such a bitch.”
“You were angry,” was Klaus’s diplomatic response.
“I was awful.” Caroline peered at him through her hair. “Is this why you were at the museum? You weren’t just stalking me?”
Klaus grinned and threw his arm behind her seat. “As delightful as following your excursions are, love, I did have my own reasons. Rebekah tracked a demon to the museum, and now I’ve confirmed it. How the bloody thing made its way to the leadership board in the bloody herpetology department, in a year no less, I don’t know.”
Caroline leaned back into her seat against his arm. She felt him start to play with the hair hanging off her shoulder, and she hummed slightly. “Well, looks like humanity’s going to be fucked. Again.”
“Quite literally. They can and will breed with humans.”
Caroline smirked. “Annoying, but unsurprising. People are weirdly pro-monster fucking.”
She heard the smile in Klaus’s reply. “I’ve said it before, love. The allure of the big bad monster is as old as time itself.” Caroline looked at him, catching the gold glinting in his eyes. Caroline licked her lips, and Klaus’s gaze lowered to her mouth.
“Uh-huh.” Caroline started to smile, a teasing thing. “So how do we deal with a new life with demons, mister big bad monster?”
Klaus’s smile widened. “All in due time.” She felt his fingers trace slow patterns along her shoulder. “Will you tell me why you needed snake samples from the museum?”
“All in due time,” Caroline replied, eyes sparkling, and made him grin sheepishly. “I think we should cash in on that raincheck conversation.”
Klaus’s answering smile sent a thrill through her.
-:-
“The city will be insufferable soon,” Klaus warned as they settled in a booth. The low lights were warm and intimate at the Valerie—it was the closest place Caroline trusted to serve good food, and after nearly being swallowed by a snake demon, Caroline needed that old reliable comfort.
Caroline nodded. “I know. New Year’s Eve rush. We’ll figure it out.” She let her voice take on a teasing tone. “Or should I say, I know you always have a contingency plan.”
Klaus smirked. Caroline noted he didn’t contradict her.
His face had taken on a look of delight when food started coming in. “You have a standing order,” he realized, eyeing the basket of truffled fries with keen interest.
“Mhm. A little bit of everything. Not to brag, but Chef Julia loves me. Plus,” she said conspiratorially, “The bartender made a special vamp menu for me and my guests.”
Klaus’s gaze sharpened at that, noticing the red-tinged drink that had been placed on his side of the table. “If I hadn’t already seen him with his husband,” Klaus drawled, lifting the glass to his lips, “I might be concerned.”
Caroline rolled her eyes and dipped a slice of pita into the avocado hummus. Closing her eyes with a moan, Caroline sighed and leaned back against the booth, savoring the salty-spicy flavor. “That hits the spot.”
When she opened her eyes, Klaus was watching her. Eyes dark, arousal clear in how he followed the movement of her licking hummus off her thumb. His gaze traveled a clear path up to her eyes, and let his intent sink in, unblinking.
Overwhelmed, with heat blooming in her body to match his, Caroline looked away and grabbed a fry. “So, you had questions.”
Klaus switched gears easily, and took a sip of his drink. “Last I read your thesis, herpetology was not one of the guiding topics of your research. Was this a personal project?”
“You read my paper?” Caroline said with surprise.
Klaus glanced at her. “Of course I did. It was very good.”
Caroline stared at the table for a beat. “My friends didn’t even read my paper.” Caroline was gobsmacked. “I think it was just Bonnie.”
Silence stretched for a moment. Carefully, Klaus ventured, “Your Mystic Falls friends, I take it?”
Caroline smiled a little, rueful. “Strange how I still default to them. And I’ve made other friends since.” She added quickly, “I’m not saying they had to read it, either. It’s just… it’s boring and really long, if you’re not in the field. Not a lot of people care about advancing methods to differentiate human blood from animal blood.”
As she said it, Caroline reminded herself Klaus was over a thousand years old, and had probably written a few papers of his own, floating somewhere in an archive database. What was a half hour reading forty pages of Caroline’s research?
“It’s well-researched,” Klaus replied, his gaze sharp and inquiring. “I didn’t expect your interest in blood to go in a scientific path.”
“I didn’t either,” Caroline admitted. “But it kind of made sense to make that my topic. Motivated individual and all. And to answer your first question, it’s both a personal project and related to my degree.”
“And the snakes?”
Full disclosure time. “I needed a venomous and nonvenomous snake sample. The closest I could get to them in New York was the museum. As for the why…” Caroline exhaled, and met Klaus’s curious stare. “Let’s just say it was to test my control group with… more magical application. Snake skins make surprisingly good substrates.”
Klaus furrowed his brow. “I’m not following.”
Caroline glanced around anxiously, checking that they weren’t being listened to. “Bonnie’s the only one I’ve told so far, so don’t go around spreading this.” Klaus nodded, his attention focused on her. Licking her lips, Caroline said, “My research is true, but it’s also a cover for what I’m really looking for. I’m… trying to isolate the factor in human blood that sustains vampires, and synthetically replicate it.”
For a moment, Klaus didn’t know what to say. Surprised, bewildered, intrigued, she saw it all cross over his features. Then, he settled on, “And did you find a way?” His tone was genuinely curious.
Caroline bit her lip against a smile, but it peeked out anyway. “Maybe?”
Klaus stared.
She’d blown his mind a bit, she could tell. She could see Klaus thinking fast, mind calculating and recalibrating at a mile a minute. “That,” he said, voice deceptively soft, “is quite the development, love.”
Caroline lifted a brow. “Is it a problem for you?”
“I don’t think it is,” Klaus answered, and she heard the honesty in his voice. “But it will create a ripple effect in our world.”
“As much as I appreciate your confidence in me, global reach is not really my aim. Not right now, at least.” Caroline let out a soft sigh and looked at Klaus meaningfully. “It’s supposed to be like the patch, maybe. When people try to quit smoking, they get a nicotine patch. For people who have… addiction issues with human blood, synthetic blood is a solution until they can transition over to animal blood. Over time, they won’t even think about the real stuff.”
“Ah,” Klaus said flatly. “A solution for, say, a ripper.”
“Bingo.”
Klaus didn’t respond for a bit, playing with the salt coating his fry. “All that for an old friend,” he said eventually, his tone unreadable.
Caroline shook her head. “For Stefan, yes,” she agreed easily, “but… it’s more than that. If this works, it’ll help people curb the bloodlust without hurting anyone. Especially the newly turned or in-transition vampires.” Caroline reached for his arm when he shook his head, amused. “Listen, I get it, blah blah, I’m young and idealistic. Whatever. I didn’t like killing someone when I transitioned. It actively hurt my soul once the bloodlust was sated. These—these people you guys think are cattle, these humans—you know what? They make your fancy cars, your expensive colognes, your pretty skyline buildings and computer tech. Their lives mean something, and yeah, I based my research on ways to curb their senseless deaths for our meals. And don’t think it’s escaped my notice that a lot of vampire murder victims are women! I mean, I was human chow before I was turned, and let me tell you, it fucking su—why are you laughing?”
Klaus forced down his grin when she glared at him, and he reached up to close his fingers around the hand that was gripping his arm. “Caroline,” he said, eyes bright and tenderness in his voice, “you are extraordinary.”
-:-
True to Caroline’s prediction, Klaus absolutely had an exit plan for navigating Manhattan on New Year’s Eve.
“Where are you staying?” she asked in the back of the SUV that picked them up outside the bar. Klaus had wasted no time giving directions to her apartment to the driver.
“You remember the estate where you stay with Rebekah every summer?”
Caroline glanced at him, interest piqued. “The penthouse? That’s a nice place.”
“It is,” Klaus agreed, “and it’s mine. I own the building.”
Caroline hummed. It wasn’t a terribly far commute from her apartment, either. She wondered how long he would be staying.
Klaus was warm next to her. Caroline didn’t bother with the pretense of distance anymore; the minute he’d slid inside the car after her, Caroline settled herself against him. Within a few blocks, it went from her leaning against him, to his arm wrapped around her waist, hand nudged past her thick winter coat and slipped under her sweater. His fingertips felt like threads of warmth tracing her skin, electricity shooting straight from his skin to her core.
“You’re cross with me,” Klaus started, quietly, “because I left for a year.”
Caroline inhaled slowly, choosing her words carefully. “Yes. But… more than that. It was the disappearing after…”
“…we kissed.”
It’d been a slow-building thing, this thing between them. It had started small, running into each other across the northeast. Around the penthouse Rebekah let her stay in over the summer months. That was a good time, when she saw more of Klaus as himself—without the apocalypses, the rituals, the manipulative threats of violence that made her furious with him in Mystic Falls.
But those moments over the years had built something. Trust. Humor. Wry affection. Before she knew it, Caroline couldn’t remember anymore why she used to mask her connection to him. Beyond her understanding or will, Caroline enjoyed Klaus’s presence in her life’s orbit.
Then her graduation. He found her after the ceremony, a gift of flowers in hand, and the sight of him there, with the sunlight slanting over his hair in a way that made it golden, his eyes going from blue to seafoam, made her feel like her chest could just burst. It was messy grabbing the flowers and embracing him with one arm, and he’d definitely gotten a chunk of her hair in his mouth, but he’d just grinned at her unexpected open affection.
She let him treat her and Bonnie and a few friends to dinner at a high-end restaurant in the Upper East Side, and when one by one they left for home, she’d followed Klaus up to the rooftop bar. It was perfect, for May in the city. The air didn’t feel so thick with pollution, the night felt cool but not cold, and there were endless shrimp cocktails in a glass that cost more than her month’s rent.
And Klaus—had been fun. It had been fun, sitting with him. He made her laugh hard enough that she’d nudged him to stop or she’d die. (“You won’t die,” he’d said fondly.) She made him laugh in that way where no sound came out, and the distance between the two of them shrank to nothing, until she could smell the soap he’d used that morning when he’d showered. She’d caught him lingering near her hair, meeting her gaze straight on when she looked at him.
She’d seen a glimpse of what something between them could look like, in the long-term. How he’d treat her. How he’d look at her. How she’d feel. She imagined reading a book in the same room as him. Maybe while he painted. The thought had twisted pleasantly in her chest.
Then he’d helped her with the mind reading, watching her with unparalleled interest. It’d been like that all day through the night. It made her gums itch; it made her want him under her skin. It was different from all the other times when she felt lust for Klaus—that was nothing new. It was the more. It was the want with the need, the desire to wake up with him in the morning and kiss him through the night. She wanted to kiss him.
So she’d kissed him.
He had turned to ask when she wanted to head home, and she took the opportunity to press her mouth to his. Lucky for her, Klaus was never the kind to turn away any bit of affection from her, and hadn’t hesitated to kiss her back. By god, could the man kiss—and it ended with Caroline promising to call him, she really would this time, she’d told him, and when she’d settled in and felt ready a few days later, she called him. Then she’d done a little more than call him, and came back frustrated beyond all hell.
Now, Caroline knew he’d been thrown into some demon dimension with his siblings for a year and seven months.
Caroline glanced up at Klaus. “I’m not angry with you, now,” she told him. “I was defensive and hurt, but I understand what happened. It was outside your control.”
Klaus’s lashes lowered, tracing her face with his gaze. “Caroline…”
“And to be honest,” Caroline continued, forcing herself to keep going despite how stubbornly her hind brain wanted to keep her from accepting partial blame, “I jumped the gun with the conclusions I made. That’s on me. It’s not like that kiss meant you were beholden to me. Up until then, we never…” she shrugged helplessly. “We’ve never had a thing where we’d see each other more than a year or two apart. You and your family tend to go dark all the time. So…”
Klaus turned her face with his hand on her jaw and kissed her. Caroline moaned, wasting no time to deepen the kiss. His hands closed around her waist underneath her opened coat, kneading her flesh, pulling at her hips. They barely noticed the bumps in the road that jostled them in the back seat, and Caroline sighed his name when his lips traveled down her throat to the nape of her neck.
“Come to my home,” Klaus murmured against her ear, softly kissing the sensitive skin behind it. His hands traveled past her waist to her tights-clad legs, raking his fingers up to slide past her skirt and grip her thighs.
Her fingers gripped his shoulders tightly. “I…” she breathed. Catching the uncertain note in her tone, Klaus kissed her again before pulling back to look at her. Caroline closed her eyes, and forced herself to think past the pleasure-dazed fog.
“I want this,” she said finally. Klaus’s gaze flared, with an expression so full of desire that Caroline felt almost overwhelmed by it. “But I also want to do it right. Last time we…” Now Klaus was looking smug, in that insufferable way she secretly found hot—not that she’d ever tell him. Caroline bit her lip, cheeks pinkening a little. “It was amazing, but it won’t be a forest floor this time. And you don’t have to back me in a corner to admit I have feelings for you. So,” Caroline took a steadying breath, “I’ll call you tomorrow. And this time,” Caroline poked his chest, “you better pick up.”
Klaus laughed, a soft thing that made her heart flip. “I will, love. I promise.”
-:-
Her apartment seemed quieter than usual when she stepped inside. Caroline set her coat and her purse on the coat rack by the door, stepping out of her shoes. It was almost hard to believe everything that happened was just in the last twenty-four hours.
She was perturbed a little, by the strange feeling in her chest when Klaus dropped her off at her building and drove away. It lingered inside her all the way up to her door and to now, with Caroline staring at the empty spaces in her home.
Impulsively, she pulled out her phone from her purse and swiped to her contacts list, finding his name.
Just as quickly, she put her phone down.
“Relax,” Caroline told herself sternly. Lifting her head with determination, Caroline marched to the bathroom, stripped down, and stepped in the shower.
Ten minutes later, she came out with a freshly scrubbed face, her body smelling like clean soap, and her night slip on and ready for bed. She grabbed her phone off her dresser and turned it on to check the time.
12:01 a.m. The new year was already here.
She didn’t think this time. She pulled up Klaus’s number and hit call.
The dial tone barely rang once before he picked up. “Caroline?”
“It’s tomorrow,” she blurted. “How fast can you get here?”
She didn’t hear his response. She did hear a muffled bark of an order, tires screeching, and the sound of a very familiar elevator dinging.
“Wait—Klaus?” Was he really right here?
The door knocked.
Phone slipping from her hand, Caroline ran to the door and threw it open. Klaus stood in front of her, slightly out of breath, and staring at her with an intensity that had her pulling him inside. “Oh thank god,” she breathed, slamming the door shut behind him as he crushed their lips together. Caroline pulled back. “How did you—”
“Was circling around your building for ten bloody minutes,” Klaus replied before kissing her again.
Klaus no longer held back. His mouth moved over hers in a way that had her toes curling, her fingers threading through his hair and nails scraping his scalp as their kiss deepened. He groaned and pushed her against the wall, somehow losing his coat and his shoes in the process.
Caroline panted between kisses, already throbbing with want and probably embarrassingly wet if she still gave a damn about that sort of thing (she didn’t). “Bed,” Caroline gasped, scraping her teeth over his jaw. “We are so not having sex on a floor again.”
Klaus pulled back, a wicked glint in his eyes. “This time,” he said, dragging a thin strap further down her shoulder until her breast was exposed to the cool air. Caroline shivered when his thumb brushed against her nipple. “We’re not having sex on the floor this time.”
Without another word, they flashed to her bedroom, and Caroline found herself flat on her back on the bedspread in record time. Klaus didn’t waste a moment kissing her again, and Caroline moaned when his hips sank onto hers. She pulled him closer, rolling her hips and whimpering when his tongue found her nipple. Desperate, she tried pulling up his Henley, fingers scrambling against firm muscle. There was a time for slow seduction, a thrill in it that Klaus had managed to show a glimpse of the first time they’d had sex. But now was not the time. Klaus flung off his shirt as Caroline unbuckled his belt.
Before she could reach for his zipper, Klaus pushed her hands away and smoothed his hands up her legs. “You,” he murmured, mouth quirking as he reached her hips, “didn’t let me do this long enough last time.”
“Do wha—at!” Caroline gasped when he dragged her hips forward. He slid her underwear off in the next second, and pushed her thighs apart, sinking to his knees. At the first swipe of his tongue, Caroline pressed a hand to her face. “Jesus… Christ what does ‘long enough’ look like for you?” Because Caroline remembered very well what happened when he’d gone down on her the first time, holding her hips off the ground and to his mouth. She’d come several times that day just from his mouth and hands, and it definitely had not been a short thing.
Klaus licked up her throbbing center in response, and her thighs trembled around him as he slid one, then a second finger inside her. If she’d any doubts if he still remembered her body, they were gone. His fingers curled exactly where they needed, and Caroline gasped his name again.
Caroline was climbing high and fast, keyed up from the day and from Klaus, and how desperately she wanted him since he’d walked back into her life yesterday. Her hand drifted to her chest as the other dove into his hair, something he seemed to like, if the soft rumble against her flesh said anything. When his tongue rolled over her clit, Caroline’s hips bucked against his iron hold. “Klaus,” she gasped, glancing down to catch his eye. She felt his lips curl against her folds, and he moved with such deliberation that Caroline cried out, back arching off the bed, the pleasure nearly blinding.
She wasn’t fully certain when she came down. Her body was still trembling with the occasional aftershock, and when she opened her eyes, she saw Klaus had stripped down to just his underwear.
“Kiss me,” she breathed, pulling his smiling face down. “Kiss me, kiss me.”
He huffed against her mouth, lips curling as they kissed. “Still wasn’t long enough,” he said, with one more peck to her lips.
“You’re insane,” Caroline replied, unable—and frankly unwilling—to stop the silly smile that spread on her lips. “Let’s not add ‘death by oral sex’ to your repertoire.”
Klaus grinned, opening his mouth to say something, but Caroline figured there’d already been enough of that. Smiling slyly, she relished his momentarily confused look before flipping them over and palming the hard length behind his underwear. Klaus’s breath shuttered as he looked on at her with amused interest. “You,” said Caroline, with a slow, curving smile, “didn’t let me do this last time at all.”
“Apologies,” Klaus murmured, gaze penetrating hers with unmasked interest. “There were more important things I wanted to do to you at the time.”
“Nope. This is just as important.” Klaus helpfully lifted his hips when Caroline dragged the band of his underwear down, tossing it somewhere beside the bed. “And were those Gucci boxer briefs? I swear to god, Klaus—”
“They were not, they’re—” He shuddered out a breath when Caroline licked the very tip of him, swiping at the pearl of liquid that had gathered there. “Store brand,” he finished.
Caroline gave him a mock-scandalized look. “Just when I thought I’d seen it all.”
Caroline didn’t give him an opportunity to talk again, wrapping her lips around him and swallowing him down. He groaned when she moved back up, hollowing her mouth. She liked how he moved restlessly beneath her, careful not to jerk his hips; she liked his hands sinking into her blonde hair, gathering it away from her face. Caroline hummed appreciatively, enjoying the strangled sound he made when she did.
Caroline had just started a rhythm when Klaus nudged her off then flashed her off the bed, the backs of her thighs hitting her dressing table. “Sorry, love,” said Klaus, hands reaching for the top of her slip and tearing it in half. Caroline gasped when he pulled them flush together, skin against heated skin. Klaus’s mouth moved in a devilish curl. “I’m coming inside you the first round.”
“So bossy,” said Caroline, not at all serious as she sank her (human) teeth into his bottom lip. Klaus gripped her hair and tugged her head back to kiss her properly, tongue flicking in her mouth. She pulled back, breathless. “You owe me a nightie.”
Klaus smirked, hands pulling her hips to his before squeezing the globes of her ass. “You’ll have it. With a few other pieces that I think would interest you.”
Caroline smirked at him, and lifted a brow. “Uh huh. I seem to remember wanting a bed.”
“You didn’t want a floor,” Klaus corrected, running the tip of his tongue over his teeth. “This isn’t a floor.”
Turning her around and pressing against her back, Klaus nudged her legs apart and stroked his length through her folds. Caroline moaned, snappy comment dissolved on her tongue as her hips rolled back into his. Her head dropped back to his shoulder with a hoarse sigh, blonde hair spilling over him. “It’s going to be a long night, Caroline,” Klaus murmured, with warning and promise. His hands snaked up to cup her chest, rolling her nipples between his fingers in a way that had her seeing stars, hips moving against him. “How many years has it been since that day in the forest?”
“So many promises,” Caroline said, biting her lip as she grew hotter at their movement. Klaus pinched a nipple, demanding, and she shuddered, before remembering he’d asked her a question. “Eight years. Ish?”
“Hm.” He helped lift her knee onto the flat surface of the dressing table, and tilted her hips. Caroline inhaled sharply at the first press of his head to her center. “We’ll make up one orgasm for each year we were apart.”
Caroline nodded quickly, fully on board with that. “Okay.” She bit her lip when, with a sucking kiss to her shoulder, Klaus pushed in.
They groaned together as he sank inside her. Her walls twitched and stretched, squeezing him until he gasped her name. Caroline lifted her hand from the dressing table to his hip, grasping desperately. “Wait,” she breathed out, grinding a little into him and sending a pleasurable shock through both of them. It had been a while, at least since before getting her master’s, with an actual person and not her vibrator, and her body needed a moment. “Wait…”
Klaus’s hand slid from her hip to her stomach, gliding soothingly along her skin as he pressed kisses to her shoulders and neck. Biting her lip, Caroline experimentally pushed back against him, and Klaus pushed forward, moving deeper into her. Moaning, Caroline lowered her hand back to the table. “Good?” Klaus murmured, soft lips brushing her ear.
Caroline nodded quickly, biting a gasp as he rolled his hips into hers again. “Yeah.”
Klaus murmured something against her skin, and it didn’t take long before Caroline’s breath was coming out in short gasps, her nails scrambling for purchase against the rhythm of their hips. She felt everything—the warm grasp of his hands on her body, the scrape of his teeth, the words he branded into her skin. The sound of their groans and flesh moving against flesh filled Caroline’s bedroom, city light filtering through her window in a pantomime of moonlight. Klaus cursed, she could tell he was on the cusp just like her of losing control. He adjusted the angle slightly, pulling her hips up and Caroline rose up to her toes—
“Fuck,” Caroline gasped as Klaus hit a spot in her that lit her up inside.
Groaning, Klaus slid his hand between her legs and Caroline trembled, gasping a whimper as he stroked her. “Come, sweetheart,” Klaus said against her skin, and Caroline sucked in a breath when she felt fangs graze the sensitive flesh of her throat. “I want to know the taste of you when you come.”
“Yes,” Caroline whispered. A sharp thrust, his fingers swirling along her clit, and Caroline was gone. Trembling, she registered the sharp bite of fangs into her neck and let out a helpless cry, the pleasure overwhelming her. Klaus pushed his wrist to her mouth, urging her to drink before the venom of his hybrid bite could affect her. Caroline didn’t need to be told twice; she sank her teeth in, taking in three luxurious pulls of his blood before Klaus’s thrusts stuttered, driving to the hilt as he came with her name a gasp on his lips.
Caroline came down slower this time, soft like honey, her body boneless against the table. She was pretty sure if it wasn’t for Klaus’s hold on her she’d have already melted into the floor. Caroline hummed when he pressed a tender kiss to her jaw, her cheek, and turned her face to meet his lips. She felt his chest rumble, his hips rolling one more slow pulse into hers that she met with her own, sending an almost too-sharp spark of pleasure through her.
When they broke their kiss, Caroline peered up at him through her lashes and cleared her throat. “Full disclosure,” she said, matter-of-factly and more seriously than she felt, “I can’t feel my legs. So you’re gonna have to do the work here to get me down.”
Klaus grinned at her, a laugh startling out of him. “At your service, sweetheart.” He slid his hand down her side until he reached her thigh, sending sparks of electricity down her skin and sending an unexpectedly intense afterglowy tremor through her. Klaus’s hand stilled on her, and she practically felt the interested gears shifting in his head. “I almost forgot,” he said faintly, “how sensitive you are after coming.”
“Klaus,” Caroline warned, inhaling sharply when his fingers abandoned her thigh to run over her mound and up her stomach. She trembled, clenching around his now-hardening cock with a soft whine. Klaus hummed, pressing himself against her again. Caroline grabbed at the other hand now cupping her breast. It was almost too much, pleasure hanging on that border of oversensitive. “Klaus,” she choked on a gasp, “I can’t do three again so soon.”
It was clearly the wrong path to take with him, as Klaus lit up with the challenge. He practically purred in her ear, “On the contrary, love. I remember very differently from our first time together.”
“That was different,” Caroline insisted, even as she met the shallow thrust of his hips, Klaus now fully hard again. “I was younger and…” Her eyes shuttered closed as she reached up to tangle her fingers in his hair, completely losing her train of thought. “Mm, I missed this.”
His lips brushed the shell of her ear. “Which part?”
Caroline smiled. “You’re fishing.”
“Of course.”
“All of it. But right now…” She tightened around him, relishing his answering groan. “Refractory periods get so boring after seven years of dating humans.”
Klaus grinned, and to Caroline’s delight, finally flashed them to the bed.
-:-
The benefit of Klaus being an intensely close cuddler—really, the man was a very tactile, touch-enthusiast—was that it met very well with Caroline’s tendency to cling like a starfished barnacle in her sleep.
She felt his fingers stroking her skin, running up and down her spine, when she opened her eyes. He shifted with her as she stretched over him, pulling her closer. Caroline pressed her lips to his chest and peered up at him.
“Morning,” said Klaus, dimples forming on his cheeks as he watched her smile at him.
“Morning.” His eyes were soft, and Caroline’s smile widened. Unable to resist, she moved up and planted her lips to his, only a little disappointed that hybrid (and vampire) healing meant his lips were no longer cherry red and swollen with hours of use. Caroline took it as a personal challenge to make them so again as soon as possible.
When she pulled back she caught a passing look of relief on his face, before it smoothed into a soft expression. She imagined he must have been anxious, watching her sleep and wondering if she would wake up and brush off their night, like she had once before. Caroline crushed their lips again, a brief and breathless thing of lips and tongue, before pulling back. This time, Klaus was smirking when she looked at him, his hand finding the dip in her waist, thumb tickling her ribs.
She brushed a curl away from his brow. “What’s your day looking like today?” When his eyes darkened with interest, Caroline laughed and nudged his shoulder. “Other than that.”
Klaus pulled her thigh further over him, squeezing the flesh there with a satisfied sound. “Bekah’s waiting at the penthouse. She got there an hour ago. I need to debrief her on the museum demon we found yesterday.”
“How’s she handling it?” Now that she knew the Mikaelsons had literally disappeared from the face of the earth and weren’t just epicly ghosting Caroline, her parallel frustration with Rebekah had all but vanished. Caroline considered her a close friend, and it had hurt when she couldn’t contact her for a year and a half.
“Very well,” Klaus rolled his eyes. “The hell dimension was very good for her. She’s found her calling.”
“Really?”
“As of today, she’s fielding three separate marriage proposals from various demon lords.”
Caroline’s jaw dropped, and a shocked laugh left her throat. Shaking her head, Caroline laughed again at the supremely annoyed look on Klaus’s face. “Go Bekah.”
Klaus threw her a pointed glare. “She will not be marrying them.”
Caroline didn’t counter his point, but she had a feeling Rebekah was going to get her way no matter which way she looked at it. Klaus’s absolute hold on his sister’s love life had been slipping over the last several years, with the supernatural world having calmed down and Mikael no longer a threat to their lives. It helped, Caroline thought, that with Caroline in the picture, Klaus would not want, nor have any desire, to keep his sister so tightly wound in his life as a constant failsafe companion.
A thought struck her as she considered the demon they met yesterday. “Are you planning to kill them? The demons?” Caroline asked, genuinely curious. She needed to understand their threat level and how worried she should be.
Klaus glanced at her. “No,” he said carefully. “Not all need come to that, unless necessary. The power balance has tipped in our world, with their arrival. Most who fell from their dimension to ours want nothing to do with the politics of it. They just want to go about their lives, much like the snake demon in the herpetology department.”
“Klaus Mikaelson, supernatural diplomat,” Caroline said, impressed. Klaus smiled and ducked his head. Caroline’s heart melted a bit when she saw a faint pink dust along his cheeks. “That’s a big departure from Klaus Mikaelson, heart eater and doppelgänger torturer.”
“They’re both one of the same, Caroline,” Klaus replied. His gaze was sharp, testing.
“I know. But I like being proven right, is all.”
“About me?”
Caroline hummed, tracing patterns on his chest. “About how even someone like you could change. Could grow, and learn.” Her eyes flickered to his. “Could love.”
“That is a lot you’re attributing to me, Caroline. I’ll disappoint you.”
“Everyone disappoints,” Caroline countered. “That’s just life. But it’s the sort of thing you work through in a serious long term commitment.”
Klaus’s eyes sparked with interest, and he held her impossibly closer. Caroline closed her eyes at the feel of his skin pressing against hers, running her foot along the side of his calf. “I meant what I said to you years ago, Caroline,” said Klaus, quiet possession like iron in his voice. “My intention hasn’t changed. I will be your last love.”
Caroline opened her eyes when Klaus threaded his fingers in her hair, pulling her face up to look at him. She searched his gaze, her tone going gentle. “I’m not in college anymore,” she began, “but I’m still in a university. I’m still building a life for myself,” she continued, and Klaus’s jaw tightened, blue eyes flickering as if he wanted to look away. Caroline moved her hand to his cheek and forced him to keep steady. “I still have plans, and a future, and things that I want.”
“Caroline,” Klaus started, his tone a touch dangerous, a touch vulnerable. His body tensed beneath her.
“And I want all of that to include you,” Caroline finished gently, emphasizing her point by staring directly into his eyes. Her thumb stroked his cheek. “What I’m not going to do is spend another eight freaking years searching for something I already have with you.” Taking a steadying breath, Caroline finally let go of the last thing she’d been holding to her chest. “I wasn’t just upset that you were gone for a year and a half. That was the big thing, but it was more than just that.” Caroline worried her lower lip and looked at him again. “When you didn’t pick up the phone, I wasn’t doing anything that summer. I gave myself the summer off. So I packed a bag, booked a flight, and… went to New Orleans, looking for you.”
Klaus’s eyes rounded. “You came looking for me?”
Caroline nodded, glancing at his shoulder. “It was my Big Damn Gesture. For you. When we kissed that night, I knew then that I was choosing you. And I thought, with my PhD starting in the fall, we could…” she trailed off, losing her steam for a moment. “And maybe show me some of those cities you talked about. But then…”
“I wasn’t there.” Klaus’s voice was flat, and she did not like the look of anger in his eyes, especially when it was directed at himself.
“It’s okay. What matters—the reason I’m telling you this—is to say you’re kind of it for me, Klaus. I’m not going anywhere.”
Klaus absorbed this for several moments. “Caroline,” Klaus said again, almost disbelieving, but his awed look was all she needed. She giggled when he rolled on top of her, kissing the daylights out of her as he settled in the cradle of her hips.
“What do you say? Ready to be my long term, long distance, low commitment casual boyfriend?” She smiled cheekily when Klaus groaned.
“Bloody hell, Caroline.”
“It was a great movie and you know it.”
“Boyfriend, lover, husband, bride wife, I could care less what you want to call it. So long as we,” Caroline gasped when Klaus sucked a bruise on her neck, “are clear that I am never letting you go.”
“Deal,” Caroline breathed. Klaus pulled back to look at her, something soft and happy in the little smile he was giving her.
“I figured it out, you know.”
“What?”
“Ziegfeld Girl,” Klaus murmured, tucking a loose curl behind her ear. “Sandra Kolter. She spent the film looking for something she already had with her husband. She stayed with him.”
Caroline’s eyes crinkled, a soft laugh huffing from her. “True,” Caroline allowed, and smiled impishly at him. “And a good guess. Way too advanced, though, and frankly, I had no idea I’d be seeing you when I picked that name.”
Klaus’s brow furrowed, thinking. “No… not just Hedy Lamarr?”
“Just Hedy Lamarr,” Caroline confirmed, laughing when his eyes rolled heavenward. “What! ‘Sandra’ sounded way more convincing than calling myself Hedy in this day and age. Besides, Hedy was an odds-defying smartypants too, you know.” Caroline snaked her leg over his hip. She felt the rumble in his chest against hers when she ground against him. “Much like yours truly.”
“Oh sweetheart,” Klaus’s lips brushed over hers as he pushed her thighs apart and sank slowly into her, making Caroline gasp, “never doubt my admiration of your mind.”