Sanctuaries: A Klaroline Fanfiction

15: Traces

Klaus lifted his eyes from the text he had just received and looked at Elijah and Silv. "Bekah and Stefan have found the car. Mobile Airport. Let us go."

All three of them were silent while Klaus raced his M6 towards Alabama. They had been in Jackson, and it would have taken a normal person about three hours to reach Mobile from there, but then they had never been normal persons after all. A not-too-long while later, Klaus pulled up at the long-term parking lot Rebekah had indicated. Getting out of his car, his eyes never left the silver Toyota SUV as he approached the vehicle. Without so much as a hint of effort, he opened the locked driver's door and inhaled deeply. And there it was. Very faint, almost disappeared, but definitely there, preserved by the confined space and no air circulation.

Caroline's scent.

It hit him like a tornado, and memories flashed through his mind like lightnings. The first time he had held her at the dance in his house. How she had kissed him while he was in Tyler's body. The way she had snuggled into him when he had comforted her after her first encounter with Prelati. Their first real kiss. Their first night. How she had held him the night he had told her about Henrik. Their wedding. The way she hid in the curve of his shoulder whenever she was upset. The way she looked at him with such love and longing, every single day.

He balled his fists and tried to breathe evenly. After a moment, he turned towards the others and nodded. "That's the right car. Silv, please do focus. Can you feel anything?"

His sister-in-law closed her eyes and put one hand on the steering wheel. A light grin spread over her face as she turned around to look at him. "It's there. It's very weak, but I can feel it. It must have been some sort of tracking spell. Okay, I will probably look like a bit of a sniffer dog now, but just follow me."

With her eyes almost closed again, Silv began to walk. The four of them followed until they reached the shuttle stop. "It ends here, so she has taken the shuttle. Don't panic," she added when Klaus was about to go berserk, "it will pick up at the entrance to the airport. Fortunately, this is not Chicago or Newark, so there won't be a million doors to check."

It was the second door. Silv nodded and walked ahead. They compelled their way until the brunette stopped at a gate. "This one. Now all we have to do is find out what flights left from this gate on said day."

Klaus turned around and grabbed the first person in uniform he saw. "I will be back shortly, wait here," he called out to the rest of them as he led the man away. He returned not five minutes later. "There were four flights leaving from this gate after two pm. Charlotte, Atlanta, Houston and DC. Although I did rule out DC as a permanent place, she might have chosen it to connect to somewhere else. Silv, you will have to check all four airports. I wrote down the respective arrival gates for the flights from Mobile, so at least we will not have to scour the entire airport grounds. There is a flight leaving for Atlanta in fifteen minutes."

No traces were to be found in either Atlanta or Charlotte. Klaus was getting increasingly frustrated, but he tried to rein in his impatience. "DC or Houston next?" Stefan asked.

"Houston. Tell Elena and Damon to meet us there."

When they arrived in Houston, they made their way to the gate in question. After a brief moment of silence, Silv's eyes lit up and she smiled at Klaus. The relief on his face was so eminent that Rebekah actually leaned forward to give him a quick hug. He looked at his baby sister and gave her a faint smile.

"All right then, same procedure. Let's find the next gate and see which flights took off from there," Klaus instructed.

"Got of a treasure hunt, huh?" Damon's voice suddenly sounded behind the small group.