A Way Out

Chapter 6

“No, no,” Hayley muttered as Elijah rubbed her swollen, sore feet, “She didn’t even touch me. She compelled me to tell her why I was here and then left.”

It usually took more than this to unnerve her but it seemed like pregnancy fried more than your energy levels. Elijah was sitting at the foot of her bed as she lay down. After Klaus told him that Caroline had gotten the news about their baby out of her, he came to see that she was alright. He also knew from Klaus that Ms. Forbes was not…in the best place at the moment.

“Did she seem normal to you?” Elijah asked carefully.

Hayley raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah, she seemed her normal sweetheart self while she was compelling me,” she drawled sarcastically.

She and shook her head but then stopped. “Wait…”

Elijah looked up at her while continuing to knead her feet.

“The last time I saw her, I snapped her neck but she didn’t seem angry. Well, it was obvious she would have killed me without a thought but I could tell she really didn’t care about me. She just wanted to know what was going on. A normal girl would have at least yelled at me. Her eyes looked so…vacant. Dead. Even for a vampire. That’s not the Blondie I remember. I would know her irritating perkiness anywhere and it was non-existent then.”

Elijah dropped his gaze to Hayley’s feet when she finished speaking.

In measured tones, he said, “Niklaus informed me that Ms. Forbes has turned her emotions off. A response to her mother’s death apparently. He doesn’t even fully trust her but is allowing to live here.”

Elijah stopped rubbing Hayley’s feet and scooted up on the bed so he could rest a hand on her arm. He looked into her eyes.

“I tell you this only so you know to be careful. A vampire who has turned off their humanity is a danger because they have no weakness. They care for nothing.”

A drop of blood ran down Caroline’s chin and was caught by Thierry’s tongue. She giggled and dropped the waitress they had just drained. She had been holding the girl by the neck as they pulled the last dregs out of her. Her body slithered to the ground and rested next to the body of a teenage boy with similar facial features to hers.

Marcel had ordered Thierry to ‘take care’ of a witch named Jack LaFlamme in the French Quarter and given him an address. Thierry had ripped out the throat of the boy who answered the door. Caroline had come upstairs to see Thierry cringing on the ground and screaming, blood running from his nose and eyes as a tearful witch stood mumbling above him. She snapped the girl’s neck before she even knew Caroline was there.

Turns out Jaq (as in Jaqueline) LaFlamme lived with her little brother who actually hadn’t done anything wrong. Caroline didn’t care that the boy was dead; more blood for her, but Thierry was sloppy. Way more collateral damage than was necessary.

Thierry kissed and licked his way down to the swell of Caroline’s breasts and was in the process of liberating them from her shirt when he mumbled, “So what’s this weakness of Klaus’ you were talking about?”

Caroline refrained from sighing and shaking her head. He really thought she would be so distracted by the blood and the sex that she wouldn’t notice him fishing?

She put on her ditzy persona and giggled, squirming away from him and saying, “Wouldn’t it be better to tell you, Marcel and the rest of your guys at the same time?”

Thierry palmed one of her breasts and flicked her nipple with his tongue before replying, “No, it would be better if you told me so I could bring your idea to the guys. They’ll take it more seriously coming from me.”

She grabbed his face and kissed him with as much passion as she could muster, playfully nipping at his lip before pulling away.

“Well, for now, all you need to know, baby, is that it involves a very special dagger.”

Klaus had had enough. Enough of the coyness. Enough of the mystery. Enough of this emotionless person that used to be Caroline.

He grabbed her arm and zipped them over to the fireplace, simultaneously changing their position so that he was holding both of her wrists behind her back and one hand was grasping the back of her neck. Once there, he forced her to her knees facing the fire, he pushed her face into the fireplace until it was a hair’s breadth from the leaping flames. She struggled against him but she could barely move; it was like resisting stone.

“Let’s try this again,” breathed the Original Hybrid, “About these plans to kill me, love…”

Caroline was loathe to even open her mouth so close to the flames that could end her not-life but she knew Klaus would kill her if she didn’t.

“Do you really think I would tell you I was gonna kill you IF I ACTUALLY WANTED TO KILL YOU?! I need an in for Marcel’s inner circle and this is the best way. ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend.’”

Klaus was silent but didn’t relax his grip on her neck. “How do I know you’re not lying?” he snarled.

“I’ve been hanging out with Thierry to see if I could get closer to Marcel but it’s been slow going. I told him I live with you and that I could be his little inside agent. I’m gonna ‘help him get rid of you’ to earn his and Marcel’s trust.

“And exactly how far will my demise progress before you show your ‘true’ allegiance?”

“…Haven’t thought that far yet.”

Klaus stifled a laugh. He should not be laughing about his own death but her lack of forethought was hilarious, especially knowing with whom she was dealing. He released her. If she really wanted to kill him, she would have had a much better answer to his question.

Caroline got up off the floor, rubbing her bruised-but-healing neck. “I know how you’re gonna die though.”

Klaus dropped into a chair. “Do tell.”

Caroline unbuttoned her jacket and took it off, laying it meticulously over one arm. “I think having them dagger you is the best option.”

“Come on, Caroline, you know a vampire cannot wield the dagger and live.”

Without warning, she flashed that megawatt, sunny smile he had fallen in love with. Klaus could almost forget she was an emotionless bitch when she smiled like that. But then he looked at her cold, dark eyes. And he knew that wasn’t his Caroline’s smile.

“Oh dear, I forgot to mention that to him.” she said, chuckling.

As Thierry gyrated on top of her, Caroline heard a wail from outside. A baby crying. The cry had pulled her away from her memories of yesterday.

A baby. Hayley. Hayley was pregnant. For Klaus. Klaus. She pushed the thoughts away and flipped herself over so that she was riding Thierry. She focused on the swing of her hips and the rhythm of his strokes. Mirroring his guttural groans of pleasure and look of ecstasy took all of her concentration. She made sure it did. She didn’t want to think about anything else.

Because for that second, when she heard the child’s cry, she didn’t want the child to cry. No child should have to cry like that. For that second, Caroline Forbes felt sad.