Two Lost Souls

This Means War

Do you know what it means?

This

Means

War

This means war

The plan is simpler than she expected. In fact, the particulars are so straightforward that Caroline spends more time rolling her eyes and promising Klaus that she'll do her best to stay away from the line of fire than actually discussing them with him.

Once they're both clear on the details, and Stefan has chimed in with a sassy "I'm okay with it too, in case anyone cares" from his spot in the basement – nope, she's not thinking about how disturbing it is that he can hear everything that happens in this bedroom, and she's most definitely not making plans to have a privacy spell put on it as soon as the witches can do magic without getting killed – Caroline throws a look outside and, noting that they still have some time before nightfall, decides to broach a topic that will make both her and Klaus uneasy, but needs to be addressed.

"About earlier..."

"Yes?" Klaus asks innocently even though she can see that he knows where she's going with this, earning himself a half-hearted slap to the shoulder.

"How many..."

She doesn't get to the end of her question, too afraid to actually voice it, but she doesn't need to say it out loud for him to understand, and he lets out a sigh. He had to know that this was coming, but it looks like he was hoping to avoid it.

"More than you'll be comfortable with, but less than you think."

Intrigued, she raises herself up from her comfortable position resting against his chest, trying to get a better look at his face, but he's avoiding her gaze. His answer doesn't tell her much since the number she has in mind is frighteningly high. He turned in the middle of the freaking French Quarter for crying out loud, that meant dozens, if not hundreds, of potential victims right within his reach. Granted, it was at night, but that doesn't mean much in New Orleans, given the round-the-clock activity.

"Really?"

Nodding, he explains, somewhat uncomfortably, "I managed to get out of the city before I completely lost it."

"I don't understand. I heard you howling right after you left and you were still close."

"I turned within the city limits, yes. Not too far from here," he confirms. "But even as a wolf I have control over my actions."

It takes her a minute to analyze this, and he lets her do so in silence, until she finally hears what he hasn't quite said.

"So you dragged yourself to the bayou to limit the damage," she says in a low voice, half awed statement, half incredulous question.

"Yes." Another long sigh escapes him and he looks at her at last. "I needed to kill, Caroline. I know it's not what you want to hear but I don't want you to have any illusions about this. I chose the bayou because it's not as populated and I knew the number would be more reasonable, but I did kill everyone I came across there. I didn't try to..."

He doesn't get to say anything else, because she's suddenly straddling him and devouring his mouth. He's so taken aback that it takes her gently biting his bottom lip to make him react, and when he does, she moans at the feeling of his lips opening for her and his arms trapping her against him. Her throat closing up with emotion – not to mention the fact that she can't go for another round right now – forces her to keep the kiss short, and when she breaks away, only two words make it past the lump.

"Thank you."

He looks uncomfortable again and gives a small shake of his head.

"I'm never going to..."