New Beginnings (2) [Klaroline]

Set fire to the rain

"This is it?" Stefan asked as they stood in front of an ordinary looking two story house in the outskirts of New Orleans. Everything seemed quiet around the house and only a few humans were passing by on the curb outside.

Camille looked it over one more time with searching eyes, ignoring Klaus' angry breathing and nodded at Stefan with certainty. This was definitely the place that she had escaped from but the silence seemed strange. Before anyone could react, Klaus was at the front door and he opened it impatiently, not caring about who might be waiting on the other side.

The others watched in surprise as Klaus strode into the house without meeting any barrier and quickly followed him into the empty house. Inside, Klaus was standing in the middle of some sort of living room, but disappeared when he suddenly heard something.

Rebekah was quick to follow him, while Stefan stayed in the room with Kol and his aluminum bat; the rest of the vampires either outside or searching the rest of the house. Stefan frowned when he watched Kol pick something from the floor, but caught it easily when the former Original tossed it to him, surprised to discover that it was a heart.

The question was now who the heart had belonged to and who had torn it out?

Stefan dropped the heart on the floor as the searching vampires came back from looking through the house. They had found two bodies in one of the rooms; one of a vampire without a heart and one of a woman, who was slouched over a book of grimoires with a broken neck.

After reporting to Stefan, they were all sent outside and only a few moments passed before Rebekah entered the room with Henrik on her arm. Both men smiled at the boy, who was almost asleep in his aunt's arms and Stefan felt a wave of relief that disappeared as soon as he thought of Caroline, who still hadn't shown herself.

"Where's Caroline?" Stefan asked worriedly, but with a low voice as to not disturb Henrik.

"Downstairs with Nik." was all Rebekah said, her voice just as low as she looked down at her nephew, who fought to keep his eyes open. She then walked out of the house with Kol on her heels, probably rushing home with an army of vampires at her side.

Stefan quickly detected the whereabouts of his friends and a couple of seconds later he found himself standing in the door to a cell. His eyes widened and worry overwhelmed him when he registered what was happening inside the room.

Klaus was sitting on one of the two chairs in the room with Caroline in his lap and just as Stefan entered, he bit into his own wrist and rested it on the lips of a barely conscious Caroline.

"Come on, love." Klaus whispered into her hair, inhaling sharply when Caroline's fangs suddenly dug into his skin and she started drinking his blood. A small moan escaped the blonde's mouth and Klaus couldn't help but smile in both relief and satisfaction.

"What happened?" Stefan asked with a rather uncomfortable look on his face as he watched the intimate moment between his friends. He felt like he should leave but he needed to know what had happened to his best friend first.

"Werewolf venom." Klaus replied with a low voice and for a moment Stefan was surprised that the hybrid even had heard what he said. Klaus seemed almost lost in Caroline and Stefan had to look away as he noticed how Klaus' fingers were playing with Caroline's filtered curls.

"But it couldn't have been in her system that long." Stefan pointed out and frowned as he suddenly noticed the dark veins that were slowly disappearing from Caroline's upper chest.

"It seems like someone decided to play doctor with our dear Caroline and injected it into her carotid artery. Quite clever since it made the venom spread much faster. Another hour and she would have been gone." Klaus informed him with a calm voice but the anger was unmistakable. Caroline squirmed in his arms when Klaus' fingers gently traced the veins up towards her neck and he immediately removed them with a worried look on his face.