…

The air is smoky from the several hearths with fires blazing and someone is playing a guitar to the boisterous delight of a few drunken patrons. The tavern is crowded that night to escape the sudden and unexpected rain falling outside and he stands at the bar, so much blood and beating hearts surrounding him. She stands next to him, sipping on her cup of ale that he has bought for her. She has never tried it before and he can't help but smile as her nose wrinkles up at the slightly bitter flavor that runs over her tongue.

"People willingly drink this?" She asks.

He is still smiling and he nods. "Some love it a bit too much."

She makes another face but brings the cup to her lips again for a sip. She doesn't need to drink it. It does absolutely nothing for her. It doesn't help with her thirst or hunger.

She was turned two weeks ago. Two weeks since Klaus found her, confused and disoriented and starving in the woods. Two weeks since he explained to her what she was now and she still didn't quite understand but in those two weeks, she had seen him hunt and kill and he had allowed her to feast and drink the blood first and get her fill first before he helped himself.

The first time, her brain had yelled at her to stop. This man had just killed a person and now was telling her to drink the blood. This was a nightmare and she would wake up and she had to be crazy to even be thinking of doing such a thing. But she had been so hungry and she licked her lips and a small voice in her mind told her that this was wrong but it couldn't stop her from eating.

Now, it is her turn, he told her as they walked through the small town and found the tavern. The tavern is the easiest place to begin, he says. Too many people and almost all of them drunk and unaware of things around them. No one misses a drunkard for a few hours, he tells her, and by then, they will be long gone from this town and no one will remember seeing them. There are always travelers passing in and out of taverns like this and even if they are remembered, how can anyone suspect the beautiful blonde woman?

She is gorgeous. Klaus can't help but look at her as he has been doing since finding her. He has seen many centuries now but there is something about this girl. She had been just seventeen when she had died and been turned and now, she will be seventeen forever and there is definitely an innocence to her that comes with living for not even two decades.

But there is something else.

There must be if he has shown such a devotion to her already. There is something beyond her beauty. There is something about her that makes him want to take her and protect her and show her the world and how to live and survive with her new self. A newly changed vampire is like a newborn. They have no idea how to do things and whoever had changed her had left her in the woods, alone and to fend for herself.

That was two weeks ago though and now, Klaus, infamous hybrid amongst them all, has taken her and he has hardly left her side since. He's not sure if he will leave her or not.

"Caroline," he says her name, quietly and yet through all of the noise, she hears him perfectly and she looks at him, placing her cup down. "There is a man who seems to be quite interested in you. Over your shoulder, by the door that leads to the alley."

Caroline is still accustoming herself to no longer being a human – to being alive – and she swears she feels her heart pounding in her chest. Slowly, she turns her head and glances over her shoulder to the man. He is tall and young – maybe near her age. Perhaps three weeks ago, if he had made eye contact with her on the street, she would have blushed.

He sees her looking and he smiles at her. She remembers what Klaus has told her about putting up a friendly front and she smiles in return before coyly turning her head away.

Klaus smiles at her performance. "Take him out back to the alley."

Her eyes widen at him. "That is not proper!" She hisses to him.

He laughs and shakes his head at her. "Not proper for who?" He lifts her wrist and holds two fingers to her pulse point. "There's nothing there," he reminds her gently. She lowers her eyes to look at his fingers and her wrist. "We don't live in their world anymore, Caroline. We're above it. Everyone here, they are here for us."

She swallows and nods but she doesn't know how to respond.

"Take him to the alley. I will meet you there," he promises. Caroline lifts her eyes and he has moved in a step closer, staring at her. "You can have anyone in here that you want. Any man would follow you anywhere you led them."

"In the alley, I won't know what to do," she whispers.

"I'll be out there. I'll show you. I won't leave you alone," he says.

"Promise," she says and his fingers slowly encircle around her wrist.

"I promise you. I won't leave you."

Their eyes are intensely locked together and she wants to step forward and hug him. She has so much to hug him for and she doesn't know if she will be able to say thank you and have him understand just how much it is for.

"That wouldn't be wise, love," he takes a step back, as if reading her mind, smiling still but shaking his head. "You don't want him to get the wrong idea, do you? He'll leave and you're still hungry."

She doesn't blush anymore but her memory still remembers how it feels. She smiles and shyly lowers her eyes. In her life before, she hadn't had that much interaction with men. She had born to a wealthy family and her parents had given her the finest tutors and she had been to the most glamorous balls and parties and there had been men who had spoken to her father but he had been waiting for the "right" one – whoever owned the most money or land or had the right family.

She was never permitted to be alone with a man and had never been inside of a tavern and though Klaus was endlessly polite and got them two rooms whenever they stayed somewhere. But to have a man as her constant companion, to always be with him, she is still learning quite just how to function with this arrangement.

She exhales a deep breath and nods but she feels knots in her stomach.

"What if I do something wrong?" She asks.

"You're a natural," he tells her. "I know already. You'll be perfect."

He smiles at her and she gives him a small smile in return before turning away from him. She locks eyes with the man, still leaning against the wall, and she takes her first hesitant step towards him.

She's not a lady anymore. Not the lady she was born to be. She has to remember that every day, it seems. She's not sure who she is but right now, she's Caroline and Caroline approaches men in taverns and invite them into alleyways.

…

The rain has stopped – at least for a brief interval.

He waits for her in the darkness, next to a stack of crates. There are rotten vegetables and human – as well as animal – piss in the air, mixed in with the smell of alcohol from the tavern. A man and women enter the alley hoping for an up against the wall quickie but one look from Klaus in the shadows and they hurry away to find another place.

He leans against the wall and watches the door opposite, waiting and trying to remain patient and not worry himself. If Caroline is in trouble, he will hear and know instantly.

She could do this. He has complete faith in her that she can do this.

The door suddenly swings open and he takes a step to the side, hiding himself further into the shadows though the man is looking at nothing but Caroline to notice anything else. Klaus doesn't exactly blame him.

"You are so beautiful," the man is telling her and he lifts his hands to frame Caroline's face.

"I bet you say that to all of them women you bring back here," Caroline smiles. She makes a show of looking around; looking nervous. "Will anyone see us?"

The man shakes his head. "It's just you and me."

Caroline lifts a hand to his face, her fingers touching his lips. "You and me."

She slowly turns them around so she is guiding him back against the brick wall.

Klaus finally steps forward and the man sees him for the first time, his eyes widening.

"Are you going to rob me?" The man asks, looking to Klaus and then to Caroline before back to Klaus again.

Klaus allows a cold smile to pass over his lips. "Not quite." He looks to Caroline and his hand rests on the small of her back. "Caroline, look into his eyes. Look at nothing but into his eyes. Focus on nothing but him and his eyes."

Caroline nods, still feeling so nervous. She puts herself directly in front of him and just as Klaus instructed, she looks into the man's eyes. She has seen Klaus do this to others. He calls it compelling. She's not sure what she's doing but she just tries to concentrate and stare into the man's eyes. The man tries to look away but he can't. He looks directly into her eyes as she stares into and holds his.

There is almost a flash that suddenly occurs in his eyes and a cloud seems to sweep in as if a storm is moving in from sea. His eyes dilate and dull and she almost gasps.

"Good girl," Klaus speaks softly next to her. "He is under your control now. Give me your hand," he then orders.

Caroline can't look away from the man. She can't make herself draw her eyes away but she lifts her hand and Klaus takes it. He guides the tips of her fingers to the side of his throat.

"Do you feel that?" He asks.

The pulsing vein, the pumping blood. Caroline nods, her entire body nearly beginning to shake with the hunger and want at the idea of what was beneath this thin covering of skin.

"He's for you, Caroline," he says in a quiet voice.

She finally turns her head away from the man's eyes to look at Klaus.

"The whole world is for you now," his other hand lifts to brush fingers across her cheek. "There are things out there you haven't even dreamt of seeing."

She stares at him now and she isn't sure what to do. She feels an urge to kiss him but she wouldn't dare. It's not proper for a woman to kiss a man first. She doesn't care if she's not even technically alive with a beating heart anymore. There are some things she was raised with that she can't just forget – especially not just in two weeks.

The man must make the first move.

And Klaus doesn't at all seem interested in making any sort of move with her. He has taken her under his protection. He has been kind to her, showing her how to feed and to survive, but she can tell already that he looks to her as a teacher looks to his pupil. She is so naïve and almost childlike when it comes to men and needs so much more interaction with them before she starts drawing conclusions about them.

The man who had come into the alley with her, she had just given him a smile and a soft "hello, sir" and he had boldly taken her hand and started to speak with her minutes before inviting her to the alley with him for a "quickie". She isn't quite sure what that is.

"Will you show me the world?" She asks.

Klaus instantly smiles. "Anywhere you want to go."

"Can we leave Virginia?"

He nods and smiles. "As soon as you're full."

She looks back to the man, her fingers still on the side of his throat, his eyes still clouded and pupils still dilated. He seems to almost be waiting for her.

Caroline takes a step closer to him. She can smell his blood and her hunger is giving her pangs low in her stomach now. She feels her fangs extract – it still makes her jump slightly initially – and her eyes turn black, making the world around her go black and white. The veins in this man are now black and pumping and she is so hungry.

"Feed, Caroline," Klaus says in a low voice and she glances over to see that his fangs are out as well and his eyes are black like hers. He will feed once she's had her fill.

She moves so fast, a normal human wouldn't be able to see clearly. Her fangs sink into the fragile skin, puncturing it, and the man lets out a low groan as Caroline feels the blood pour into her mouth.

Klaus watches her and he feels something of pride in his chest. He has taught her. She has never compelled or taken the first feed and she is doing so well.

He knew.

The first time he saw her in the woods, he knew.

She is different and special and he is going to keep her with him for some time.

She is drinking so much of the blood, the man begins to slide down the wall but Caroline follows him, never removing her fangs. He is past the point now. He is going to die. There will be no pulling away now and leaving him alive.

Klaus feeds and he never leaves anyone alive and it seems as if Caroline will be the same.

Finally, the pain in her stomach stops and she has drank her full and she carefully pulls her fangs from the vein. She is now kneeling on the wet ground, getting mud on her dress, and the man's eyes have rolled into the back of his head. The blood is no longer pumping and his heart has stopped.

She has killed him.

She stares down at the man, now nothing more than a body, and her fangs slowly slide back and the blackness fades and her eyes return to normal, bringing color back to the world. She waits for the guilt. She has just killed a man and she waits for her conscious to attack her and drive her away from that alley, screaming and crying for what she had done.

But instead, Klaus crouches down next to her.

"You've made a mess, love," he wipes the blood from her chin away with his thumb.

And she giggles.

He smiles and then within a second, he has bent down over the body and he is feeding, drinking his share. Caroline watches him, licking at the corners of her mouth and wiping at her chin and when Klaus is done and he lifts his head, he hasn't spilt a drop anywhere.

"You must show me how to do that," she informs him.

He smiles, standing up again. "Practice makes perfect."

He holds out his hand for her and she takes it, him easily pulling her back up to her feet. Thunder rumbles in the distance and it smells like dirt and water and fresh earth in the air. The next round of rain is fast approaching.

Klaus takes her hand and he casually leads her out of the alley, not sparing the body a second glance. Caroline walks with him, holding her skirts up with her other hand.

"How do you feel?" He asks.

She is beaming. "I feel amazing. I've never felt like this before." She stops walking, making him stop as well, and she bolding takes his hand and brings it to her chest over her heart. "I swear to you, it's beating."

He smiles, almost laughing. "Human blood makes you feel alive," he agrees. He takes her other hand with his and presses it to his own chest over his heart. "It is a rush. It almost makes me remember what it's like to be human."

"And it feels like this every time?" She asks.

Propriety tells her that she shouldn't be standing on a dark street with her hand on a man's chest and this man's hand on hers but what is propriety? She almost wants to laugh for even thinking of it now as a man's body lies dead in an alleyway because of her.

He nods. "It can or you might get used to it and it will be just like when you were human after eating food. You feel full and satisfied until you're hungry again." He looks into her eyes and even in the low gaslight of the street lamp they stand under, he can see her eyes nearly sparkling.

She's beautiful and his fingers suddenly inch to get back to their room back at the inn so he can sketch her face in this very moment.

"You never forget your first," he whispers and she smiles now shyly.

Her hand slowly drops from his chest and he removes his from hers. "Thank you," she looks up to him through eyelashes. "For everything. I know the words aren't enough-"

"They are more than enough," he interrupts gently.

He picks up her hand and kisses her knuckles.

"Where do you want to go?" He asks as they begin walking down the street again in the direction of the inn they are staying at. Just for tonight though. Tomorrow, they will leave.

Caroline is quiet for a moment and she suddenly remembers the atlas her father used to have in their library. It used to be her favorite book in their entire household.

"Paris," she then bursts into a smile, excited at just saying it. "Can we go to Paris?"

Klaus smiles and it's his turn to stop walking. They are crossing over the bridge in the town and a small river flows beneath them. Klaus stands behind her and turns her towards the railing of the bridge. She looks down at the rushing water, black in the night, and he brings his face next to hers. She isn't cold but she nearly shivers as his chest presses to her back.

"Look out there, Caroline," he whispers in her ear. "Do you know where this river flows?"

"The ocean?" She answers almost unsurely.

He smiles. "The ocean," he nods. "And out there, the entire world is waiting for you. We can and we will go anywhere you want to go. We will see the world."

She closes her eyes, feeling the soft breeze on her face and his lips right to her ear and her body feels as if it is humming.

She can't remember being a human and being this happy.

…