Wicked Schemes

Chapter 26

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Tonight the foxes hunt the hounds
It's all over now before it has begun
We've already won
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Two bags of blood later and Caroline felt even more anxious. She couldn't seem to stop alternating between tapping her foot against the table leg or her pen against the pad of paper she was currently using to make a pros/cons list. The list wasn't helping either and she alternated to drumming her fingers on the wooden surface, chewing on the end of the pen cap and then realizing her bite might actually cause the thing to burst. The last thing she needed was ink all over her lips and teeth.

At least she didn't need to worry about Stefan at the moment. Rebekah seemed to be doing a pretty good job of keeping an eye on him and helping him stave off the panic attacks that he couldn't seem to shake. Not that Caroline could blame him. Everything seemed to remind him of being in the damn safe and set him off on another one. She didn't know how to help him with that and figured time was one of the only things that would. And maybe something for him to anchor onto when he felt like everything was closing in again. There had to be someone she could ask about that.

Later though because wasn't there already enough for her to go over at the moment? She looked up from the pad of paper, watching Klaus pace back and forth a little ways away. Elijah had called to discuss some matters in New Orleans with him and they'd been going back and forth for the last fifteen minutes. Caroline was pretty sure a vein in Klaus' head was going to pop the way it seemed to throb the further annoyed he became with the discussion.

"That's not going to help," Caleb started as he slid onto the chair next to her. He tapped the pad of paper, looking it over and Caroline let out a long sigh. It really wasn't helping her any. All it did was make her see the horrible outcomes of both scenarios and she still wasn't liking either of them. "How long have you been a vampire?"

"Like a year and a half," she murmured, pushing the pad away. She needed a break from the damn thing and turned her attention toward Caleb, propping herself up by her elbow as she leaned against the table.

"It kinda shows," he replied, grinning at her indignant look.

"I'll have you know that I have some of the best control ever for a baby vampire," Caroline protested. Or so the others always told her, but really compared to the other ones around her age that Caroline knew of, she really did have the best control.

"No, it's not that. I'd be really surprised if you didn't have control. You're kind of a control freak." Caleb pointed out, and Caroline stuck her tongue out at him. She definitely was one and she considered that to be one of her strengths, not a weakness. Even if some saw it as a definite flaw to her personality. "Your mindset isn't like Klaus'. And not the whole humans are a source of food and entertainment, nothing more one. But like if someone attacked him he'd be using all of his vampire-hybrid-whateverness to his advantage." Caleb tapped her forehead. "You're still thinking like a human a lot of the time."

Caroline sighed. Hadn't she been thinking that just the other day? "I know." She still wasn't sure what her friend was trying to get at though.

"And you've been a Harbinger for about six weeks," Caleb continued, mimicking her stance against the table. "So you're not thinking like that either. We don't necessarily have to die if you give us the ability to tap into the potential that we need to in order to take him down." He glanced down at her hands and Caroline's eyes widened.