Two Lost Souls

Defy You

You may push me around

But you cannot win

You may throw me down

But I'll rise again

The more you say

The more I defy you

So get out of my face

"What can I do for you, Marcel?"

The vampire doesn't answer right away. Instead, he crouches down next to the body Caroline tossed to the ground, carefully examining the marks on its neck, and it all makes sense to Klaus as he realizes what his former protégé is looking for. Marcel has made it a point to control every vampire in the Quarter and they have all been ordered to keep the urge to kill at bay. They're supposed to heal and compel so that the city doesn't suffer from a bad reputation, which would lead to a drastic drop in tourism and therefore in the amount of fresh meat available. And even if some insignificant human gets killed every once in a while, those incidents are mostly isolated. But over the past three weeks, the body count has increased, courtesy of... well, himself. Even though he knows that Rebekah and Elijah have been taking care of the trail of bodies he leaves in his wake almost every day, they cannot keep an eye on him 24/7. And even without bodies, that many disappearances are bound to attract attention sooner or later.

Since he doesn't know that he has turned off his humanity, Marcel has no reason to suspect him. He must think there's a new vampire in town, hence why he wants to talk to him now. He wants his help finding the newcomer and putting an end to him or her. The irony is not lost on Klaus.

Knowing this, it's easy to deduce what Marcel is doing right now. He's trying to see if the marks on Caroline's victim match the ones found on the others.

After a while, Marcel predictably asks, "Your little girlfriend's work?"

Klaus nods, not bothering to wonder if confirming Caroline's guilt in this instance is a good or a bad idea.

"She made quite a mess," Marcel notes.

She did indeed. She tore into the artery with all the savagery of someone who doesn't care about the damage, only wants to get to the blood as quickly as possible. Just like he's been doing. It makes it impossible to identify the vampire who committed the murder. There's no way to see how long or sharp the fangs that broke the skin were, as the only thing left of the bloke's neck is a bloody mess. But since rebels are as rare a thing amongst Marcel's crew as unknown vampires are in New Orleans, he's not going to want to consider the possibility that there is yet another, different threat in town. He's immediately going to come to the conclusion that Caroline is the one who has been killing her way around the city for the past few weeks.

When Klaus doesn't reply, Marcel stands up to face him.

"You're gonna have to rein her in."

Klaus bites back a smirk at that. He has never been able to control or manipulate Caroline even when she still had her humanity. She was always the one that managed to distract him and use his feelings against him. Now that she doesn't care about anything, least of all her victims, he really doesn't see how he's supposed to get her to bend to Marcel's will. Since he knows she's on vervain, he can't compel her. Of course, he could always lock her up until it left her system or bleed it out of her, but it seems like a lot of work for something that Marcel wants.

"Not bloody likely," he says offhandedly.

"If you don't, I will," Marcel warns.

He knows what it means. The self-proclaimed king of New Orleans is not going to bother trying to convince her to obey his rules for very long and if she doesn't submit to him, he will kill her. Klaus shrugs. What does Marcel think, exactly? That he cares what happens to her? Even though he doesn't know that his emotions are off, he should know better than to assume that Klaus cares about his one night stands – for that is what he probably believes Caroline to be. In all honesty, that's exactly what she is to him right now. He wants to have her – and he will – but it doesn't go any further than that, and it's a good thing too. It's hard for him to comprehend how he could have let her get so close back in Mystic Falls. He has always said that love was a vampire's greatest weakness, and with his emotions off, he's now able to think rationally and to admit that having any kind of feelings for her was a foolish mistake. One there's no risk he's going to repeat.