Blood Bond Chapter 13

Caroline woke to the sun warming her body beneath the duvet and snuggled deeper. The last couple of weeks had been crazy and she wasn't sure what was going to come next. It felt like forever ago that she had shared blood with Klaus and found out that they were mates, but it had really only been eight days. Her whole life had been turned upside down, but Mystic Falls had maintained its breakneck pace of insanity concerning anything supernatural. How was she supposed to figure out what her feelings were towards Klaus and what feelings were manufactured by their bond?

She had seen both Tyler and Elena when they were sired, and they didn't even realize that they were doing things that they would never normally do. What if that's what was going on with her and Klaus? Maybe everything she'd been feeling the past few days was just some supernatural mumbo jumbo designed to force her to be with Klaus. Sometimes being a vampire sucked. This crap never happened to her when she was human. But then again, nothing great ever happened to her as a human either and she wouldn't ever want to go back.

Ugh, focus Caroline. The bond, her feelings for Klaus. Klaus. He really was kind of great, and her feelings for him weren't totally new. She'd be lying to herself if she said she felt nothing towards the man prior to finding out they were mates. She could still remember how it felt when he sat behind her on her bed at her mom's house, his warm chest pressed against her back while he healed her from Tyler's bite. That had really been the start of their weird relationship because since that night, Caroline had always been hyper-aware of Klaus whenever she was near him. Even Klaus had said he'd fancied her before any of this bond nonsense, so it can't all have been manufactured like a sire bond was.

She still didn't think she was in love with Klaus though. She'd been in love with Tyler only a week and a half ago! Not to mention that Klaus was the reason she wasn't with Tyler right now, bond or not. But she'd tried going back to Tyler the morning she found out she was Klaus's mate and she'd felt…nothing. No spark, no intense feelings, not even pleasure when he touched her. And it wasn't for lack of trying. Caroline had thrown herself into that kiss, hoping that the bond and everything that came with it were lies.

How was she even supposed to know what love was? The only people she was 100% certain that she loved were her mom, Bonnie, and Elena. Caroline blew a stray piece of hair out of her face, thinking about how Klaus was noticeably absent from that list. Not that she didn't really like him, but it didn't feel like the same level of emotional intensity as her feelings towards her mom and friends. Different feelings, to be sure, but not as strong yet.

Caroline grew tired of the self-analysis and kicked off her covers, grabbed a robe from the closet, and made her way downstairs to find breakfast. Klaus's kitchen was immaculate, and Caroline took a moment to marvel at the fact she never ran into any of the house staff – she'd have to ask Klaus about it later. She opened a few cupboards and was thrilled with the shelves full of tidy kitchen staples, alphabetized for easy searching. Caroline pulled out ingredients to make chocolate chip pancakes and had just started mixing the batter when she heard a human making their way downstairs.

She hated to admit it, but Klaus's teaching had been paying off because she barely had to focus to register the difference in human and vampire hearts now.

Caroline vamp-sped to the alcove by the front door, hoping to get a peek at whoever was sneaking out of the Mikaelson's house, and was surprised to see Matt. Had he just spent the night with Rebekah? She'd seen them dancing at the prom last night, but she hadn't really thought of them as a couple.

"Want pancakes?"

Matt jumped at the sound of her voice and spun around before spotting her by the door. He gave a sheepish smile, "Sure."

"Sooooo, you and Rebekah huh?" Caroline lightly elbowed him in the side as she led the way back to the kitchen.

"You and Klaus huh?" Matt wrinkled his nose a little but gave her a friendly nudge in return.

"Oh, I kind of assumed Elena or Bonnie would've told you," Caroline bit the inside of her cheek for a moment. Was it ever going to get easier to say the words out loud? "It turns out that Klaus and I are mates."

Matt lowered his brow in concern, "You mean like you guys are dating, and this is some new weird vampire way of saying that?"

"No, um, you know how in Twilight, Jacob imprints on Bella's daughter? Kind of like that. It's a wolf thing apparently, and since Klaus is a hybrid, I guess nature chose me." Caroline looked into the bowl of pancake batter she was mixing, trying to determine if there were enough chocolate chips while Matt processed.

"So, in this situation you're Bella's daughter?" Caroline nodded. "And you're ok with that?"

She thought about it for a moment before answering. "Not at first. I totally freaked out when Klaus first told me what was happening, and then I left to look for answers by myself. I feel like I've kind of figured some stuff out though and it's helped. But it's not like I can just end things with him, we literally need each other, or we'll go insane, so I sort of feel like there aren't any other options except to be ok with it." She blew out a big breath and laid her palms flat on the counter.

Matt laid a hand on top of hers and squeezed. "That kinda sucks, Care."

She looked up and couldn't help laughing. "That's it? I'm the supernatural mate to an immortal hybrid who has been terrorizing our town for the last year, and that's it?" She dropped her head back and laughed harder, eventually wiping a tear from her eye.

Matt was grinning now, "Well, I mean, you're Caroline Forbes and if there was another option, I'm sure you would've thought about, so yeah, it sucks and you're just gonna have to make the best out of it."

She grinned back, "You know this morning I was lying in bed thinking about everything that could possibly go wrong with this stupid mate situation, but you're right. I guess my real fear is that I have feelings for Klaus, and I can't tell what's mine and what's being made up by the bond."

Matt got serious again, "But you're not just his mate, right? Like he's your mate too?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, it doesn't sound like Tyler's sire bond - he had no control over Klaus but couldn't stop doing whatever Klaus wanted. It sounds like you guys have more of an equal partnership thing going on. Even though nature, or whatever, forced this on you, it isn't one sided and you're not some helpless victim."

Caroline thought about that as she flipped the pancakes that were ready. She tapped the spatula against the counter, waiting for them to finish, before turning back to Matt with a smile. "When did you get so wise?"

"When he started associating himself with a superior class of lady, like myself." Rebekah strode into the kitchen and took a seat on a stool next to Matt, popping a chocolate chip into her mouth. "When will breakfast be done?"

After stuffing herself with chocolately pancakes and blood, Caroline left the mess for Matt and Rebekah/the unseen house staff. She made her way back up the stairs, running her hand along the banister, to change and look for Klaus, finding him in his office.

"You know," she leaned against the doorway and popped her hip out, "I didn't really picture you as the kind of hybrid who has a desk job."

Klaus was seated in an oversized chair behind an intimidating mahogany desk covered in official looking documents and a sleek laptop. There was a tasteful potted plant in one corner of the room next to two armchairs and a small wet bar that looked like it got a lot of use. An entire wall was devoted to books, which seemed a bit odd to Caroline since there was a separate library within the house, but maybe these were special or related specifically to whatever business the Mikaelsons conducted.

Klaus leaned back in the chair with a smirk and stretched his arms overhead, "Someone in this family has to manage our vast fortunes."

"Hmmmm," Caroline wandered into the room and stopped to look at a piece of art on the wall she couldn't see from the doorway. "Seems like something Elijah would be into."

She walked further into the office and nudged Klaus so he would scoot further back to make room for her to seat herself on the edge of the desk. Her hands rested on the desk edge while his moved to rest at the curve of her hips.

"He's a bit indisposed at the moment," his smirk turned bitter, "I'd wager for the next few years."

Caroline frowned at that. "Huh? Klaus did you dagger him?" She pushed his hands off of her and threw her own into the air in frustration. "He literally just got back here, like a day ago, and you've already stuffed him in a coffin?"

Klaus looked up at her innocently and gave a small shrug of his shoulders.

"That's it? Uh uh, tell me. Now." Caroline had grown bolder in talking to the hybrid over the past week and sometimes she forgot that he was 1,000 years older than her and had killed countless people throughout the centuries. Fortunately, she was confident that she would not be added to the list of victims.

Klaus sighed, "Elijah is currently resting in the basement while I decide what to do with him and the doppelganger."

Caroline considered this for a moment, "Why do you have to decide what to do with him? He's not some burden you have to deal with, he's your brother and he's old enough to make his own decisions. Second, what do you mean you're deciding what to do with Katherine? You already told me that you were going to let this whole thing, where you chase her for the rest of eternity, go!"

"If I remember correctly, I stated that I would make the appropriate arrangements upon returning home. Now that I am home, I'm making the arrangements."

"And Elijah needs to be daggered for these arrangements?" Caroline pushed herself off the desk to pace the room.

"It certainly makes it easier."

"And Katherine? Where is she?"

Klaus hesitated, "She is also in the basement."

Caroline closed her eyes for a moment and pressed her fingertips to her lips. "And that's code for vervained and locked in a cell, right?"

He gave a slight nod.

Caroline sighed deeply and held her hand out to Klaus who looked at her questioningly, "Well, come on. We're not leaving your brother and the possible love of his life to rot while you deliberate who to email about not killing her!"

She held his hand tightly as she pulled him down the large staircase before looking to him to lead the way to the basement/dungeon. He opened an unobtrusive door that held a staircase covered in a plush grey carpet – it was probably hard to get bloodstains out of.

"Why don't I ever see housekeepers or gardeners or something here? I mean, I also never see any messes so," she pulled slightly on his arm when he didn't answer immediately.

"The staff is compelled to remain out of occupied rooms and share no details about their work with anyone else. I've found it's best to maintain privacy in matters of my home."

Klaus led her past an enormous wine cellar in what looked like a glass case. "Climate controlled room, love," he answered her tug on his hand before pointing out a cinema with plush couches and recliners, a popcorn machine in one corner, and a gigantic screen on the wall.

They stopped at a dead end with a doorway to the left and Klaus entered a combination on the keypad then pressed his thumb to a sensor before the door clicked open.

The floor in this room was a gleaming white tile and there were drains inconspicuously placed every ten feet. Convenient for a house full of crazy Originals. Two large stainless-steel cabinets stood against one wall and Caroline shuddered to think what was inside them. Most disturbingly, Katherine Pierce was slumped against the wall of a plexiglass enclosure, staring out at the coffin Caroline assumed Elijah was daggered in. Katherine looked like an unhappy zoo animal, but Caroline quickly shoved that image from her mind. One, this was serious – Klaus had people locked in his creepy sterile dungeon – and two, even though Katherine was locked up at the moment, Caroline had every intention of getting Klaus to release her and Elijah, and Katherine was a vengeful woman who probably wouldn't appreciate being laughed at while locked in a glass cage.

Caroline turned to look at Klaus who was watching Katherine.

"Are you ready to apologize yet, Katerina?"

Katherine's eyes tightened, but she didn't say a word.

Klaus walked forward and crouched to be on eye level with the girl. "As you know, I spent the last one thousand years searching for the ingredients to break my curse. I suffered disappointment when my dear brother chose to protect you rather than help his own flesh and blood, regardless of the oaths he had sworn." He lifted a finger to tap on the glass. "If you think for one moment that you will be released prior to giving me what I want, you are delusional. The daggers won't harm me, and the only way out of that cell is if I lift the compulsion that has you contained."

What. The. Hell. She was mated to a literal psychopath. Caroline did her best to tamp down her revulsion and sent white hot rage across the bond and knew it worked when Klaus's spine stiffened. She made no effort to be quiet as she stomped from the room and back up the stairs to wait for Klaus to finish playing his disgusting cat and mouse game with Katherine.

Caroline was seated on the floor of one of the sitting rooms working on her math homework when Klaus found her. The coffee table was plenty large enough for her to spread all of her work out, so it was the perfect setup. She heard Klaus stop walking at the doorway, but didn't look up, instead choosing to focus on solving a problem about optimizing the fence perimeter of a farmer's field to give him a maximum land area. Who came up with these problems?

"I can't let this go with no consequences, love."

Caroline typed some numbers into her calculator and wrote the answer on her paper before carefully underlining it so it would be simple for the graders to find.

"Try to see this from my perspective. I searched for five hundred years to find all the pieces to break the curse that my mother cast on me when the doppelganger appeared in England and was presented to me by some underling." Klaus took a deep breath. "I courted her for nearly a month to keep her in my sight until the full moon and I find out that my dear brother, who had sworn to stand by me always and forever, had fallen for this simpleton who I could hardly stomach being with."

Caroline finally looked up and noted the tense lines of Klaus's body, the crossed arms, and tight grip on his own forearm.

"He went behind my back to a witch who created a miracle elixir to save his precious Katerina's life, possibly at the risk of my own should the elixir somehow spoil the curse breaking. He didn't care. He felt more concern and love for this human girl who he had known for less than a month, than for his own family. Family above all, indeed," Klaus scoffed. "He told Katerina what the curse breaking would entail, and she fled – leaving me to wait another five hundred years to try once again to free myself from the curse my mother cast on me while Elijah held me down." By this point Klaus was breathing heavily and Caroline could feel a slurry of emotions coursing across the bond. Rage, hurt, sadness, regret. More rage.

Caroline stood and crossed the room to stand in front of Klaus, cradling his neck in her hands. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that happened and I'm sorry that you suffered for so long, but Klaus, you're free. You're the Original Hybrid and the only reason you could create more hybrids was because Elena survived. Not that the whole hybrid situation turned out great," she winced. "But you know. And might I remind you that I was turned by Katherine? Well, technically Damon healed me with his blood and Katherine killed me, but still."

Klaus smirked slightly, "I must admit that has been one positive aspect of Katerina's constantly irritating presence."

"I'm not saying you have to forgive her and be best friends all of a sudden, but just take a moment to think about your family. Rebekah is desperate for love and affection, and I can't imagine that Elijah is super thrilled with how things have turned out between him and Katherine. And even though you guys fight and hurt each other, I know that family is the most important thing to you. It's why you made hybrids, right? To try and make a new family that wouldn't be able to betray you?"

Klaus's eyes tightened and he gave the slightest of nods.

"The hybrids are gone, well, except for Tyler, but I don't really see that working out either. My point is that your family is here, Klaus. They're here and it seems like they're trying, so maybe you could try too." She absentmindedly stroked the stubble on his cheeks with her thumbs while he considered what she'd said.

After what seemed like forever, Klaus nodded and Caroline was so excited that he'd agreed to try being a tiny bit more understanding that she stoop on her toes to kiss him.

Klaus immediately deepened the kiss and pressed her back into the door jam while his hands moved to grip the backs of her thighs, pulling her legs to wrap around his waist. Caroline nipped at his lower lip and he pulled back to smirk devilishly at her.

"Shall we release my brother and his paramour now, love?"

Caroline grinned and used one hand to grip the back of Klaus's head, twisting into the hair at the nape of his neck, while the other gripped his bicep. "I mean, I think they could wait a little longer…" She felt clearer about her feelings after talking to Matt, and besides, she was definitely done waiting.

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