Chapter Text
“You know, if you were to find me, we could do this in reality.”
Caroline sighed in delight as lips kissed along her neck and hands roamed up her body, cradling her breasts and holding her tighter against a hard chest.
They were reclined on a bed, and in the harsh light of day, she would feel out of place on fine silk. But she had been there before, what seemed like a hundred time, and had stopped feeling awkward ages ago. She reached back and ran a hand through his blonde curls, tugging him down so she could turn her head and kiss him.
His lips were addicting. Even from the very first dream, she had wanted to kiss them.
“I’m trying to seduce you, Love,” he grumbled, moving so she was lying down and he was looming over her, his hands next to her shoulders.
“Isn’t that what you were doing?”
“No, you were trying to seduce me.” He pushed her tank top up, pressing open mouth kisses along her stomach. “I prefer to be in control.”
So did Caroline, but in these dreams she didn’t mind it so much – giving a bit of her control up to someone else. So she stretched her arms above her head and arched her back, closing her eyes to better enjoy the sensation of her mouth.
“No,” he suddenly snarled, and Caroline felt confused and cold, because he was no longer kissing her and causing her blood to heat.
She opened her eyes.
---
The roof above her was white, the room bright. She felt confusion, because her sheets were no longer black silk, and there was a loud, obnoxious buzzing.
Her alarm clock.
Caroline groaned and covered her eyes with an arm.
“Barbie, shut off that damn alarm!”
Her blood ran cold, and she was no longer in her room, nor was she reclining on black silk. Instead, she was in her childhood room, a heavy body on top of hers, her own voice pleading no and –
“Get the fuck out!” she screeched. She didn’t bother with a pillow, instead grabbing the alarm clock in question and wrenching it up, hurling it at the head of her intruder. Damon Salvatore threw himself backward, falling to the floor, scrambling to avoid the shoe that followed the shattered alarm clock.
“Jesus, Barbie. Get a hold of your crazy. No wonder Donovan didn’t keep-”
Caroline slammed the door in his face and slammed shut the lock she’d had installed when she’d realized that his presence in her life wasn’t just some terrible nightmare, but instead a permanent fixture. She pressed her back against the door and took a deep, shaking breath. The warmth her dream had caused was gone, replaced by goosebumps and shivers. She looked around for a wild minute and grabbed the chair next to the door, propping it up beneath the door handle.
Certain that no one would be getting in her room, she backed away from the door and all but fled into her bathroom. Within seconds, she had stripped off her pyjamas and had the water pounding onto her back, almost as hot as it could go. A few more deep breaths, and she had calmed herself enough that she no longer feared stepping out of the shower.
By the time she had put on her clothes, makeup, and blow dried her hair, she was able to look in the mirror and paste on a smile that made it hard for even her to see the shadows in her eyes.
The rest of the world wouldn’t suspect a thing.
When she entered the kitchen, Elena sat at the island counter, a cup of coffee in front of her. When she saw Caroline, a look of faux concern covered her face. Caroline hated that look; it came before the bullshit got spewed.
“Caroline… look, I know you don’t like to talk about it, but I think you should see someone. About your mom.”
“My mom?” Caroline repeated blankly, completely confused. Where the hell had her mom come from? Liz had gotten cancer, then she’d died. Caroline’s heart had broken, but it wasn’t the first dead parent she’d dealt with, and if she still sometimes cried at night… well, it had only been six months.
It was six years after the death of the Gilberts and everyone still gave poor orphan Elena a pass whenever she brought it up.
And that was mean. Caroline turned from her and dug in the fridge for a yogurt, using the time to calm her temper, so she wouldn’t say something she’d regret. Teenage Caroline had done that a lot – saying things she regretted – and adult Caroline tried to be more tactful.
She succeeded. Sometimes.
“Caroline, your reaction this morning… Damon told me-”
“Damon shouldn’t have been anywhere near my room,” Caroline interjected, all but clenching her teeth as she tried to keep the venom out of her voice. Elena’s mouth tightened, letting Caroline know she hadn’t been entirely successful. “That was the rule.”
“Your alarm clock-”
“Doesn’t matter. You decided to date the man that tried to rape me, Elena. At least be a decent enough human to keep it out of my face.”
Her appetite was gone, so she threw her nearly full yogurt in the trash and grabbed her wallet instead.
She needed to be gone. The house suddenly felt entirely too small and she needed… not to be there. Not with Elena looking hurt, as though somehow her poor life decisions shouldn’t be commented on – as if she were the victim, and not Caroline, who had to look at Damon freaking Salvatore’s face every day.
“Caroline, you know Damon has changed since then. He regrets-”
“Oh, give it up, Elena!” Caroline snapped, spinning around to face the other girl. “He doesn’t regret anything. He doesn’t have to! He gets away with it and he gets you! Why do better when bad behavior gets you rewarded?”
“I’m not some sort of prize!” Elena snapped back, finally - finally - showing true anger. Thank God, because he rest of it was getting on Caroline’s last nerve.
“Tell that Damon,” Caroline replied acidly. “Your relationship is so cliché I can map out every argument you have. He does something terrible, you threaten to end it. He swears he won’t do it again and behaves well for, like, half a day. Rinse and repeat.”
“That’s not fair.”
Elena went back to looking hurt, and Caroline couldn’t stand to look at her anymore. This was her life – no parents, and a shitty friend sleeping with the man that had caused her nightmares for years down the hall.
She was suddenly… tired.
“You’re right,” Caroline agreed. “Having to see Damon every day and act like he’s not terrible… that isn’t fair. To me.” She turned back to the door. “You have until the end of the month to leave. But he’s not welcome here. Not anymore.”
It was a line drawn in the sand, one that would ruin their friendship.
Caroline didn’t care.
---
“I kicked my roommate out today.”
More often than not, the dreams were filled with pleasure and heat. But every now and then, it was like this. She would be upset and he would hold her. She’d cried on his chest more times than she could count immediately after her mother’s death.
She’d slept a lot that first week.
Now, he stroked her hair, seemingly content to hold her. He wore clothing that seemed like sweats and a wifebeater, but not quite. There were more laces, and the texture was cotton, but not quite.
Everything about these dreams was not quite. Once, it had alarmed her. But in the four years since the dreams had begun – almost immediately after her dad had died – the not quite had come to be comforting to her.
It was a sign that she had retreated to her comfort zone.
“I gave her until the end of the month, but she was gone when I got home.”
And the apartment had been trashed – Damon’s touch, she assumed – but she didn’t want to bring that up. Not when it still made rage rise in her chest.
This was her happy place; her retreat. In his arms, she could hide away from reality. She intended to do that.
Instead, tears filled her eyes.
“I’m all alone,” she whispered, her voice breaking on the last word.
Elena had been her last tie to her family, her last tie to Mystic Falls… and now she’d lost even that, tenuous as the tie had become since Damon had re-entered their lives.
“Easy, Love,” the murmur was low and soothing as Caroline’s shoulders shook with sobs. “You’re not alone. You have me after all.”
Caroline looked up, hiccupping as she did so.
“I wish,” she replied sadly, running her fingers over the planes of his face, tracing those full, all too kissable lips. “But you’re a dream. A comforting one… but a dream.”
“What if I weren’t?” he grasped her wrist, gently guiding her palm up to his lips. “A dream, that is.”
“I… you can’t make a dream real.”
“You most certainly can,” he rolled her over and pinned her to the bed. It had taken time, for her to trust him enough for that, even in dreams. But he was persistent, this dream lover of hers, and he was pressing kisses along her collarbone and up the length of her neck. “Believe in it, Caroline. Believe in me.”
He sealed his lips over hers, his tongue tracing them for a moment, before nipping her bottom lip. She clutched his shoulders, and he buried the fingers of one hand in her hair.
It felt so good. To forget about her reality for a moment. To just let herself go and feel him.
“Believe in us, Caroline. Let yourself believe in a castle in the sky. That’s all you need to do.”
His words were hot and made her feel breathless… and why the hell not?
Why shouldn’t she believe in him? He was the single person who hadn’t let her down, and even if it was a dream, why shouldn’t she let herself believe in him?
To believe in something, no matter how unrealistic, just for tonight.
“I believe in you,” she whispered, pressing kisses to his lips. “Tonight, I believe in you.”
“You’ll believe in me for longer than that, Love.”
Caroline’s eyes snapped open. His expression had changed, and he seemed darker somehow, as though the shadows that had surrounded them had now come to join him. His eyes, normally blue, were black and endless. He held her face in his hands and touched his forehead to hers.
“I will find you, Love. We are nowhere near done yet.”
He touched his lips to hers in a fierce kiss, and Caroline’s vision went blurry.
---
It was entirely too bright out.
Caroline groaned and rolled over, intending to pull her comforter over her head. Only, there was no comforter to pull.
A rock poking painfully into her back let Caroline know that she was no longer even in her bed. She opened her eyes and sat up, looking around. She appeared to be in a ditch. In the Boonies.
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
I will find you, Love. We are nowhere near done yet.
She lifted her fingers to her lips, and her tongue darted out. She could still taste him as if… as if…
As if it had been real.
She was crazy. Clearly, Caroline Forbes had 100% certifiably lost it. Damon would love it. Oh, God…if he was the one that found her wandering around, clearly hallucinating, then Caroline hoped she never woke up.
Abandoned in the Boonies would be better.
I will find you, Love.
“Well, now would be a really good time for that,” Caroline announced, probably louder than she should. She looked up at the sky, as if somehow her dream Lover would suddenly fall down in front of her.
Oh God… her dream lover. The one without a name – because he was a dream. It seemed weird now, but he was supposed to be a dream.
Caroline pinched herself – hard – and tears stung her eyes. But she was still in the middle of nowhere, only a half dozen cows in a nearby pasture for company.
“I’ve screwed up,” Caroline said to the air. “I’m not entirely sure how… but I’ve done something.”
Like trusting a nameless dream – and nope, not ready to go there yet.
“You sound like a mad woman. If anyone from the village sees you, they’re going to condemn you as a demon.”
Caroline shrieked and fell back into the ditch. She scrambled wildly back to her feet, grabbing a handful of pebbles as she did so and prepared to face whoever the voice belonged to.
The other girl was pretty, with dark skin and hair and eyes that were alight with amusement. She looked at the pebbles Caroline held in front of her, and raised a dark brow, her laughter a musical thing.
“Yes, those will definitely get me.”
“You’d be surprised,” Caroline snapped back in challenge. “I’m a champion softball pitcher.”
It had been when she was nine, and there had only been two other teams in the league. But Caroline had brazened her way out of tight messes before, she would do it again! Even if she felt half naked in just her pyjamas, and the other woman didn’t look at all impressed with her supposed accomplishments.
“I have no idea what that is,” she said. “But good luck with not getting exorcised.”
She turned away, and continued down the wellworn dirt trail that was the only sign that other humans were somewhere in the vicinity. Her words made Caroline think of every terrible horror movie she’d watched ever, and she had a sudden mental image of a priest throwing Holy water at her while her head spun around and she projectile vomited everywhere.
Why had she ever let Matt talk her into seeing that terrible movie.
“Wait!” she called after the other woman, scrambling up the ditch and down the path. Green eyes looked back at her, vaguely annoyed, and Caroline stopped several feet away. “I could… ah… I could use some help?”
If this was her hallucination, then it’s inhabitants would be nice to her, right?
“I don’t do charity,” was the blunt reply, and Caroline gaped at the woman as she once more walked away.
“I… but… you can’t just abandon me here to, like, and exorcism!” Caroline argued, rushing after her again. “That’s seriously inhumane.”
“If you’re not possessed, the exorcism won’t kill you.” The woman paused for a moment, looking up at the sky thoughtfully. “Probably, anyway. Unless it’s not a real exorcist. Then I don’t want to be around, because fake exorcists like to just kill people.”
“I… that’s horrible!” Caroline blustered in place, before realizing she was once more being left behind. “Shouldn’t you call the cops on people like that?”
“Cops?” a dark eyebrow lifted, and Caroline got the feeling her new companion was curious despite her better judgement. “You say the most insensible things.”
“I don’t get what’s so insensible about the police,” Caroline grumbled in return, but the woman still just looked confused. “Ah… the authorities? You know, like for stopping crimes?”
“I’ve never heard Justice Mages called either of those other names before. And they don’t really care about the odd Exorcism death, not when the real cases outnumber fake three to one, and Wizards are killing each other to steal powers all the time.” The woman’s expression tightened, her lips going flat. “Truthfully, I shouldn’t even be talking to you. This is probably a ruse.”
Caroline suddenly found herself on the business end of a small, vicious looking sickle, and she stumbled back, holding her hands up, hoping to show she was helpless.
“I have no idea what half the words you just said are. I mean, I get wizard, but I don’t think you mean Harry Potter, and even if you do, then I’d like directions to the Hogwarts Express because I’m just a muggle who would really like to get home!”
By the time she finished babbling, her eyes were closed. If she was about to die by way of sickle, then she’d really rather not see.
How do you die by hallucination in the real world, anyway?
When nothing happened, Caroline finally cracked open an eye.
The woman was a good quarter of a mile gone, and she cursed under her breath, running after her.
“Why are you following me?” she demanded when Caroline caught up, embarrassingly out of breath. “Look, I can’t heal madness.”
“I’m not mad!” Caroline argued. And okay, that was probably a lie… but if Bonnie was her hallucination then Caroline demanded some respect, dammit!
“With what you were babbling? You better be. Or else I’ll believe it’s demons.”
“That’s totally barbaric, I hope you know that. But look, let’s just… I’m Caroline.” She stuck out her hand. The other woman wrinkled her nose and looked at it as though it might suddenly try to wrap around her neck. Caroline rolled her eyes. “Seriously? You’re the one that’s armed here, lady.”
“Another sign that you’re mad. Who walks around unarmed and dressed like that? One good storm and you’re dead.” Caroline wished she had a way to cover her pyjamas, but since she didn’t, she just kept her hand out and her expression as smooth as she could manage and hoped the woman would just take her hand already! “Okay, okay, geez… that glare could be a weapon of its own. I’m Bonnie.”
Bonnie took her hand gingerly and broke contact as soon as possible.
“It’s great to meet you, Bonnie!”
“I can’t say the same.” Bonnie continued to eye her, and then slumped her shoulders. “You’re just going to follow me until I help you, aren’t you?”
“Yup!” Caroline put on her best cheerleader grin, and Bonnie sighed in disgust.
“Fine, but if we run into anybody, you don’t speak. At all. You’ll be the dumb girl from down the road or something.” Bonnie started to walk again, and Caroline followed, her smile turning painfully fake and then fading entirely when Bonnie was turned away. “If you talk, you’ll get us both exorcised.”
---
“The ruins are waking up.”
Elijah sighed as his siblings spoke in hushed tones. Kol had all but dragged him to the rocks submerged in Rebekah’s domain so they could speak. The others hadn’t been invited, not when Finn was too loyal to their parents and Henrik was still far too young. Demigods aged far more slowly than their mortal brethren. Henrik still had decades before he would appear a man.
So he was left with his two most reckless siblings as they gossiped about the return of Niklaus.
Just the thought of his brother made Elijah feel painfully guilty. He could still remember the betrayal in Niklaus’ eyes, when he had realized that his siblings were going to allow Esther to bind him.
“It’s not like we had a choice!” Rebekah all but wailed. Elijah winced, and Kol rolled his eyes. “Mother is far more powerful than any of us. Only another God can kill her.”
“Or a God Slayer,” Kol added helpfully, getting splashed for his snarky comment. The God Slayers had been hunted down and killed centuries ago. Even now, the moment one was born, they were slaughtered. None had survived to adulthood since Elijah was a boy, and the dregs of their clans were still being hunted. “Oh, calm yourself, Bekah. We don’t know for certain this even means anything. Perhaps Nik’s little pets are merely growing restless and giving up on him.”
The words were meant to be jovial, but it just sent them into further silence. After all, if even the shadows had given up…
“Will we truly never see him again?” Rebekah asked, her voice small. Elijah made to comfort her, but a sudden chill filled the air, and the hair on the back of his neck rose.
“Underestimating me, Rebekah? Have I truly been gone so long that you’ve forgotten how clever I am?”
Shadows seemed to converge on the rocks between Kol and Elijah, a frantic dance of darkness, before they dispersed, leaving behind a slender, blond man whom Elijah had thought he might never see again.
“Nik!” Rebekah gasped, joy lighting her face. They had always been close, the two of them, and of them all Rebekah and Henrik had been the only ones to never think that perhaps, just perhaps, what Esther had done had been for the best.
Kol and Elijah were both quiet as Klaus greeted Rebekah, and the grin he shot back at them was sharp and hard and said he knew exactly what they were thinking.
“Brothers,” he said, stepping back from the water and balancing carefully on the stones. “You don’t share our sister’s enthusiasm?”
“Forgive me if I’m recalling the sensation that is choking on my own blood because you puncture my lung,” Kol replied, sarcasm heavy in his voice. “I enjoyed you better when I didn’t hear you speak.”
“Niklaus,” Elijah said, stepping between Kol and Klaus when the latter took a step forward, bloody murder in his eyes. “Can we keep the fighting to a minimum so soon after your return?” Klaus continued to glare, but stopped his forward movement, giving Elijah the chance to observe him unobserved. “How did you return?”
“Elijah, must you always be so suspicious?” Rebekah asked. She levered her body out of the water and reclined on a stone, idly waving her tail. “Can’t we take a moment to be pleased that Nik’s returned.”
“Yes, let’s enjoy it… after all, I’m sure that our parents – the ones that hate him – won’t at all suspect us of assisting in that return,” Kol drawled out, rolling his eyes skyward. “Brilliant, Bekah, really.”
“Must you always be such an insufferable arse, Kol?” Rebekah retorted, dipping her tail into the water, and sending a rain of droplets at all three of them.
“Rebekah,” Elijah hissed, disgruntled at his carefully tailored suit getting wet. “Can we please be serious?”
“Oh, don’t worry, Brother. I’ll make it clear to your beloved parents that you played no part in my return. I merely came to offer you some advice.”
“And what advice would that be?” Elijah replied.
The air around them seemed to grow heavy suddenly, and the darkness swirled ever closer. Within Elijah’s mind, memories rose, and his hands felt wet. When he looked down, there was blood on them, and Elijah knew he had been here before.
Tatia.
The name echoed in his mind, centuries old, and he fell to his knees. He heard screams, and shouts, and laughter – and over all of it? Screams, and a voice begging him for mercy.
As suddenly as the visions had begun, they ended. The blood disappeared. The sun shone, having been shadowed by Niklaus’ darkness. Kol knelt next to him, while Rebekah was in the ocean again, hands grasping the stone on which they knelt.
Niklaus was nowhere to be see.
“That bloody bastard,” Kol hissed, embers sparking at his fingertips for a moment.
“He said not to interfere,” Rebekah said, her voice wooden as her fingers dug into the stone. “That if we do, he’ll ensure we’ll never leave our nightmares.”
Grief still made Elijah’s throat tight, but he managed to drag himself to his feet, dusting off his suit and straightening his carefully starched collar.
“This is not our problem,” he said at last. “We stay out of it.”
“Elijah-”
“Keep watch over your ocean, Rebekah. And we’ll keep to our corners. Niklaus can…” Get locked up again by Esther? Can go to hell? Elijah wasn’t sure. “Niklaus can dig his own grave.”
He didn’t remain to hear what his siblings thought of his declaration.
---
“Bonnie, my Love, can I – and who might you be, Gorgeous?”
Caroline blinked at the man that had entered Bonnie’s small hut. For a second, she had thought it might be her dream lover, but except for an accent, the two had nothing in common. Where her lover was blonde haired and blue eyed, this man had dark hair and dark eyes.
But his grin was rather charming.
“What are you doing here?” Bonnie asked, re-entering the kitchen. She had retreated to have a bath – apparently she wasn’t a believer in guests first – and now she was dressed in a clean skirt and blouse, her dark hair damp.
Still, clearly she was grumpy with everyone, not just Caroline, and that was sort of a relief.
“I’m afraid I got somewhat skewered, Love,” the man replied, far too brightly for the topic. He lifted his shirt, and Caroline recoiled so hard her chair nearly tilted over. There was something sticking out of the brutal wound in his side, and she thought she might be sick.
Bonnie ignored her reaction, going over to survey the wound. Caroline didn’t know what the… thing sticking out of it was, but Bonnie grabbed it with a confident grip.
And yanked it out.
Caroline let out a disgusted shriek as blood began to spill out, and the man went instantly white, swaying on his feet. He put up no fight as Bonnie shoved him onto a free chair, while Caroline stood and wrung her hands, feeling completely useless.
She hated feeling useless.
But then… then Bonnie did something amazing.
Caroline had read Harry Potter, of course. She’d even read a few Tamora Pierce books. Magical healing wasn’t a fantasy novel concept that was new to her.
But… this wasn’t a fantasy novel.
But a glow emanated from Bonnie’s palm, and right in front of Caroline’s fascinated gaze, the wound began to close. What had been a bloody, gory mess became smooth, unmarred skin in, like, less than two minutes.
“Couldn’t you have left me a scar, Love? Women love scars.”
“That will be two hundred fifty koura. And no, I won’t open a tab. You’re lucky I didn’t make you pay up front.”
The man sighed heavily and pulled out a bag, counting out a handful of weird golden coins.
“She’s a cruel one, our Bonnie,” he said to Caroline with a grin. “I’m Lorenzo, but why don’t you call me Enzo, Gorgeous?”
“You were just bleeding out. Should you really be flirting?” Caroline asked, her brow furrowing. He stood easily, and showed no sign of pain, but still… she looked at the bloody stub Bonnie had pulled from the wound and saw that it appeared to be a spearhead, and shit – the guy had been stabbed with a freaking spear.
“If Enzo isn’t flirting, then it means he’s beyond even my abilities,” Bonnie replied, her voice wry. She cleaned the blood from her hands, and looked back over her shoulder. “You’ll have to take that spear with you when you go. I don’t want it.”
“So cruel. Now, Gorgeous, what’s your name? Bonnie’s been talking about finding an apprentice, though I always imagined it being someone a bit younger. Late bloomer, were we?”
“There is no way I could ever do that,” Caroline blurted out, still in awe of what Bonnie had made look so simple. At least she was creative with her hallucinations.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re brimming with magical potential; Bonnie will get you there.”
“No, I mean I can’t – wait, what?”
“Your powers, whatever they are,” Bonnie explained with rolled eyes. “You do a terrible job of keeping them cloaked. I’ve had a headache since I first saw you because of it. It’s pretty rude, really.”
“It’s… I’m… I don’t have magic!” Caroline tugged a hand through her hair, and God it was gross. She was gross. “This is terrible. I’m hallucinating, or dreaming, and why would I dream that I’m this gross?”
“Bonnie, Love, I know you have a soft spot for the strays, but couldn’t you make sure they’re sane first?”
“Shut up, Lorenzo,” Bonnie replied with rolled eyes. She grasped Caroline’s elbow and directed her into a chair. Within a few moments, she had a mug of tea warming her hands, and Bonnie was perched on a chair across from her while Enzo was left to get his own tea, muttering under his breath. Bonnie, however, ignored him in favor of watching Caroline as she sipped her own tea. “Now, let’s start from the beginning. You think this is a dream. Why?”
“Because I woke up in a ditch instead of my bed, and you’re talking about magic. Magic isn’t real.” If it was, Caroline’s mother wouldn’t be dead, because there would have been some magical cure for her cancer. And Caroline wouldn’t have been forced to share a place with Elena and the Worst Person In The World. If magic were real, life would have been… easy.
“That’s not how magic works, Gorgeous,” Enzo said, and it took Caroline a moment to realize her emotional break down hadn’t been taking place in her thoughts as she’d hoped. “It’s just… part of life. It doesn’t make anything better or worse. It just… is.”
“No, it’s not,” Caroline argued. “Magic isn’t… it’s…”
“How did you get to our world?” Bonnie’s tone was so entirely logical that it took a handful of seconds for Caroline to compute the completely illogical question. “Oh, stop staring like that. You look like a fish. Your clothes are completely out of place, and you talk about magic like it’s some sort of miracle. Either Lorenzo is right, and you’re insane, or you came from another world.”
“Another world. As if that even makes sense. Bonnie it sounds so…” Caroline trailed off, and Bonnie just continued to watch her while she sipped her tea. “Oh, why the hell not? I had a… dream. And in that dream, someone told me to believe in him. And then I woke up in a ditch. So, yeah.”
“Trusting strange men in your dreams is never a good idea, Gorgeous. He was probably a Sorcerer who used your belief to power a spell to bring you here. Sorcerers are always being jerks like that.”
“They are,” Bonnie agreed thoughtfully. “Although it usually takes more than a dream to power spells. There needs to be a certain level of intimacy, that allows the magical bonds to develop and… oh. Oh. How long? And how… how far?”
“What do you mean how far?” Caroline replied, after nearly choking on her tea. Because she was pretty sure she suspected what how far meant.
God, she hoped she was wrong.
“Did you tup the dream wanker?” Enzo replied, far too cheerfully, and no, Caroline hadn’t been wrong.
“That’s crude but… not wrong,” Bonnie acknowledged, tilting her head slightly towards Enzo, but never looking away from Caroline.
“Oh… you know what, who even cares anymore? Clearly, I’m insane, so I might as well tell my hallucinations everything like that will fix me. Four years, and he’s slid right into home base. Several times.”
“You need to stop panicking. It makes your magic react, and every time it does, you light up like a sun and I want to pluck my eyeballs out. And what is home base? Does that mean yes to sex?”
“Yes,” Caroline replied shortly, her teeth clenched. This was humiliating. Talking about Him to anyone else made her want to curl up and disappear. What did she even call the dreams? Hyper-realistic wet dreams?
“Look, if you’re going to be a brat, I don’t have to help you. You can leave with your weird clothes and your super bright magic, and end up getting exorcised. I’m okay with that.”
“No you’re not, Love,” Enzo said, earning himself a dark glare from Bonnie, and some sort of weird looking crystal thrown at his head. “Hey! I got you that for magical cleansings!”
“And I was using it to cleanse my house. Yet you’re still here.”
Enzo pouted dramatically, and Bonnie just rolled her eyes. Despite the situation, Caroline found that she had to giggle, and tried to muffle the sound with her hand. It failed.
“He isn’t funny!”
“I’ll have you know, Bonnie, that I’m a delight. Clearly Caroline agrees.”
“Caroline thinks we’re hallucinations – clearly she’s insane.”
“And world hopping is supposed to be more believable?” Caroline interjected because, hello, clearly hallucinations was the more logical assumption. Bonnie and Enzo, however, both just looked at her blankly. “Oh my God, you think it is.”
“Well, yes,” Bonnie replied shortly. In a quick, unexpected blur, she lashed out and Caroline felt a searing pain on the back of her hand. She let out a yelp, and curled her hand towards her body. Blood slowly fell down the side.
“What the actual Hell?” Caroline demanded, trying to stand. Except Enzo was there, and with a firm grip, he pressed her back into her seat.
“Pain, Gorgeous,” Enzo pointed out. “Pain and wounds. To show that this is reality.”
“I… don’t know nearly enough about psychology to give an opinion on that. You’re probably wrong, but I sort of don’t want you to be.”
Caroline looked down at her bleeding hand. She felt somewhat detached from her body as she watched Bonnie reach out and take it in hers. Within moments, the wound was gone, not even leaving a scar.
“There are detectors that can determine magical abilities,” Bonnie said, dropping Caroline’s hand again. “My cousin Lucy is one. If we determine your magical source, we should be able to figure out your… dream wanker pulled you here. Theoretically, we should then be able to send you home.”
“You’re helping me,” Caroline remarked, rubbing her thumb over the spot she had been stabbed. “Why?”
“Don’t you ever just listen to your instincts, Caroline?”
Caroline’s instincts had led her to trust a dream lover whose name she didn’t even know. Now, they were telling her that everything around her was real, when logic pointed in the direction of her being entirely crazy.
“My instincts are telling me to help you,” Bonnie continued. “They’ve never led me wrong before.”
And how amazing must that be? To have such complete faith in your abilities? Caroline felt her lips curve into a smile.
“I appreciate it.”
---
She was here somewhere.
His Caroline.
Not only was his awakening proof of that, but he could feel her, as though her heart beat in tandem with his own. His every nerve and instinct screamed at him to find her
But he had to be careful.
Even if his siblings didn’t inform their parent of his return - and the odds were fifty percent on that, depending on if Rebekah decided to pout or not – it wouldn’t be long before Esther realized he had awoken. Goddess of the World, Esther had given each of her children control over an element, but she had control of them as well.
If Elijah knew his shadows were restless, their mother would be even more aware.
If he wasn’t careful, that awareness would lead Esther to straight to Caroline. His little soulmate wasn’t ready for that.
Not yet.
He had felt her initial fear as though it were his own. But she had calmed since then, and seemed unaware of him. He didn’t like that – soulmates were meant to share everything – but as long as he could sense her, he would allow the incomplete bond to stand.
At least while she was awake.
Her nights, however, would still belong to him.
His lair remained the same as before his sleep. It was somewhat musty, of course, and Klaus knew he would have to find new followers to take care of that. But for now, he shook out the blankets on the bed – the bed that matched the one he took Caroline to in their shared dreams – and then settled down.
He drifted off, and at first he thought the bond wouldn’t work, that something – or someone – had interfered with it.
---
And then she was there, sitting on the edge of the bed.
Here hair was scraped back into a tight braid, and the expression on her face was distrustful. The clothes she wore were far more familiar to him than those she usually did; the material was that of his world, rather than the one he had stolen her from.
“How do you keep dragging me here?” Caroline demanded. “Is… is it magic?”
“You’ve made friends, Love.” When Klaus joined her on the bed, she nearly hopped to her feet, putting distance between them. It made Klaus growl. There should never be space between them.
“Yeah, and Bonnie can heal people and Enzo… well, I don’t really know what Enzo does, but at least he’s telling me things. Which is more than what you’ve done. You took me away from my home.”
Klaus growled again, both at the mention of an Enzo – she had no need of an Enzo, she had Klaus – and at the mention of her old home.
Elena and Damon, whom Klaus would kill, should he ever get the chance, and a world that didn’t deserve her. A world that she didn’t belong in.
“I brought you home,” he said, getting to his feet. She took a single step back and then, as though realizing she’d shown fear, she stood tall and refused to back down, even as he stepped into her personal space. His brave, beautiful Caroline. “You were never meant for that world.”
“You don’t get to decide that! My life is my life, and that was my home.”
“Only because they wanted me to suffer!” Klaus wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her body flush to his. He buried his face against her neck and inhaled.
Caroline smelled of power. She always had, but now it was even more prominent, and Klaus believed he could become addicted to it.
“Esther bowed to the whims of a man who loathed that he was less powerful than she. She made herself lesser for it, and punished me because I wouldn’t do the same. To punish me, they made it so you would never be born here. So you would always be where you would not belong. I found you, but they’ll still die for it.”
He pulled back to kiss her, but stopped when Caroline pressed a palm to his chest. Her pulse beat rapidly in her neck, and Klaus swore his own heart raced as well, but not with anything he wanted Caroline to feel.
It was fear.
“I don’t even know your name, and you’re telling me you’re going to kill someone for me?”
“It’s Klaus. Caroline, Love-”
“Telling me your name now doesn’t change anything!” she pushed him away, and Klaus took a handful of steps back while she hugged herself, rubbing her hands down her arms. “I want you to send me home.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Fine. I’ll figure it out myself. Or with Bonnie and Enzo, if they’ll help. Just… stay out of my dreams. Murderers aren’t hot!”
She disappeared then, so suddenly that Klaus knew she must have been woken up.
Klaus let out an angry roar, and around him shadows swirled like a storm.
---
Caroline came awake swinging.
Her fist hit something fleshy, and something wet spurted on her hand and down her arm, as a male throat let out a very girly scream.
Caroline blinked and thought Bonnie looked entirely too amused at Enzo curling into the fetal position at her feet, his hands clutching his nose.
“Oh God,” Caroline looked at her fist and arm, the red of Enzo’s blood seemed so dark against her skin. “Oh God… I’m gonna be sick.”
“Shove your head between your legs. It’ll probably help.”
Caroline did as Bonnie advised, and squeezed her eyes shut, focusing on the quiet murmur of the healer’s voice as she spoke to Enzo. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, before something wet was dropped on her head.
“Clean up the blood. If you let it dry too long, the gross factor will increase.”
She tried really hard not to actually look at the blood as she wiped it away. If she focused on it for too long, Caroline was pretty sure she’d get sick again. Once the majority was gone, she tried to pretend the rest was just dirt as she wiped it away.
Dirt wasn’t nearly as disturbing.
“You wake up with a rumble, Gorgeous,” Enzo remarked once his nose was healed. He kept his distance as he perched on the edge of her bed. “And you were giving off some rather distraught magic signals.”
“They woke me up,” Bonnie muttered, but her gaze was more curious than disgruntled. “Dream sweetheart again?”
“Klaus,” Caroline replied softly, the letters of his name rolling off her tongue as she sunk onto the bed next to Enzo. Klaus. It fit him. He had been different tonight, as though he were finally allowing Caroline to see the real him, and the real him was dark. And powerful.
She shivered, and wished it was out of fear.
She still wanted him – darkness and power and everything.
“Klaus?” Bonnie prompted with a raised brow.
“I finally got his name. It’s Klaus. And he said something about someone else… Essie? No.. it was Es something, and he said that whoever it was, was the reason I wasn’t born here.”
“Esther?” Bonnie asked, her voice little more than a squeak.
“That’s it!” Caroline pointed a victorious finger at the other girl, then let her hand drop when Bonnie stumbled to the chair in the corner and sunk into it, as though her legs could no longer support her weight. All of the irritation and exasperation that had made up 90% of Bonnie’s mood to that moment disappeared, replaced by something that Caroline thought might be fear. “And that’s not good, is it?”
“Esther is the Goddess of the World. Everything around us? It survives based off of the Goddess Esther’s whims,” Enzo said, his voice soft.
“And Klaus is her most hated creation,” Bonnie added, scrubbing her hands over her face. “The bastard son that refused to die.”
Caroline swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. It sounded like Klaus’ family was… complicated. And the last thing Caroline needed was complicated. Besides, Klaus had manipulated and lied to her. Even if complicated was a thing she’d do, obviously he didn’t deserve her effort. It didn’t matter if her stupid body still wanted his stupid body.
Not. Worth. It.
“Is this where you kick me out?” Caroline asked wringing her hands together. “Because if it is, you should probably know that I basically told Klaus to get fucked and I really have no idea what I’m doing. Like, at all.”
“We couldn’t tell,” Enzo deadpanned.
Bonnie laughed into her hands, and it sounded alarmingly hysterical, which wasn’t a good thing. Because Caroline was pretty close to hysterical herself.
“We’re so screwed,” Bonnie said, when she could finally speak through the laughter. “So, so screwed.”
“Uh… are you-”
“And someday the scorned soul will return, and on that day, the Goddess will burn, and the new order will rise. The Slayers will be born again.”
Bonnie’s tone took on an odd cant, as though she were reciting something. Elena used to sound like that, when delivering Shakespearean monologues, and it had made Caroline spitefully gleeful; at least there was one thing she had been better at.
“Is that supposed to make sense to me? It really doesn’t.”
“It’s from the chronicles of the Slayers; the final lines to be specific. Erana of the Wind predicted her own death, and prophesized that an even more powerful God Slayer would rise, and gain vengeance for their people.” Enzo tapped his fingers on his knee. “Bonnie, aren’t you getting ahead of yourself?”
“What else could it mean, Lorenzo? A scorned soul returns?” Bonnie motioned at Caroline. “Hello, Miss Scorned Soul.”
“Me?” Caroline blinked, and realized with a flush of embarrassment that she was pointing at herself. She dropped her hand into her lap and shook her head. “I mean, I don’t even know what you’re talking about. So I doubt your… Slayer thing refers to me. Is that, like, a Buffy thing?”
“Buffy?” Bonnie scowled at her. “What kind of God Slayer name is Buffy?”
“God Slayer… you know what. Let’s start at the beginning.” Caroline ran a hand through her hair. “Do you have more tea? I think this callsl for more tea.
---
Here lies the chronicles of the God Slayers.
They shed our blood, they broke our lines, but they will not destroy us…
---
They were staring.
Caroline didn’t even have to look up to know they were staring; she could feel their gazes. She didn’t know what they wanted from her, though. She flipped another page, narrowing her eyes as they ran down the words.
Erana of the Wind had been aptly named; she was full of hot hair, and had apparently blown it all out into the book. She had thought Lord of the Rings could get tedious at times, but Tolkien had nothing on the author of this book.
“It’s boring,” Caroline finally said at last, turning a couple pages with little more than a quick glance at the page. “Like, it shouldn’t in theory, because it’s full of blood and death and super epic promises of revenge. But the reality is seriously boring. Has this place never heard of an editor?”
“That book is banned,” Bonnie replied, her voice flat. “I could honestly be killed, simply for owning it, and you’re calling it boring?”
There were plenty of boring books that been banned at one point or another, but Caroline had a feeling Bonnie would be one of those book snobs that lied to herself and pretended the “classics” didn’t make her want to throw herself down a ravine.
Caroline gave a small shrug and tried to read the book again.
Still boring.
“Is there a cliff notes version of this?” When Bonnie looked at her blankly, Caroline wrinkled her nose and sighed. “You know… like a summary? Something that highlights the pertinent points without all the…filler.”
“Sure. Her name is Bonnie,” Enzo replied cheerfully. “What say you, Love? Want to outline the pertinent points for us?”
It was Bonnie’s turn to sigh, and her eyes flashed as she shoved a finger at the book.
“This contains the final words of a people believed to be extinct. It outlines their rise, and their fall, and contains forbidden prophecy of their return. My grandmother was killed because of this book. Countless infants have been slaughtered, just because there was a whisper of a chance that they were the Scorned Soul of the prophecy. So no, I won’t do… cliff notes. Read it or die.”
Bonnie swept out of the room, leaving Caroline and Enzo to stare after her.
“I think I pissed her off.”
“Don’t feel bad, Gorgeous. I piss her off daily. It’s remarkably easy to do.” Enzo looked over Caroline’s shoulder at the book. “But in this case, she may be right. I’ve never read the chronicles myself, but I knew a woman once who was familiar with them. They frightened her.”
“Yeah, but Bonnie thinks whatever Erana wrote refers to me, Enzo. And that it could kill me. I am… entirely average. Except for a Type A personality, and that doesn’t make me unique in any way that’s enjoyable. So, I just… I’d rather focus on getting home.” Caroline flicked the book closed and leaned back in her chair. “Let someone else be the Scorned Soul. I don’t want it.”
“Destiny has a habit of ignoring what we want in favor of what we need, Love. Beyond that, if you think the Son of the Moon will let you just disappear after going through all the trouble of bringing him here… well, maybe you should jump ahead to what Erana said about him. Just a heads up – he’s somewhat horrible.”
Enzo patted her head like she was a toddler, and then followed after Bonnie. Caroline watched him go, her brow furrowed. Whatever this situation was, it had gone from terrifying to a nightmare, but she was beginning to think it one she wouldn’t wake up from.
She didn’t have an imagination creative enough to come up with all of this.
“Well, Erana. It’s just you and me. If Bonnie’s right about me, then she better be right about you keeping me alive, too.”
---
“Are you going to turn her in?”
Bonnie didn’t look away from her scrying bowl. Her Magic was healing, but her grandmother had taught her to read the water as a young girl. It appeared murky to her more often than she cared to admit, but the process of seeking the future helped to soothe her when she was frustrated or troubled.
Today, she was both.
“If we leave her alone, she’s probably going to get snoopy. A snoopy, untrained Mage can cause problems in my house. Especially with her power.”
“I can’t tell exactly what her abilities are,” Enzo said, as though Bonnie hadn’t spoken. “I mean, I know she’s powerful, and I know there’s elemental magic, but I can’t tell what kind. Still, it does fit in with your theory, I suppose.” He leaned against the counter, and Bonnie felt his gaze on her as she stared down into the water. “So, are we turning her in? I bet Esther is rich. I’m a big fan of koura, and your healing damn near broke me. So, what do you say? Wanna go halfers?”
For a single moment, Bonnie considered it. Her grandmother had been a Seer, and she had told her once, that her bleeding heart would help the wrong person someday. It hadn’t been a warning – Shelia had spoken with the bone deep certainty that meant her vision wouldn’t change.
Just a year after that, it had been Shelia who helped the wrong person, and she had died for it and the legends in the book Bonnie had put in front of Caroline.
Shelia had thought that Liv was the one meant for greatness. Instead, Liv had been a liar and a thief and, ultimately, a traitor. She had died, too, thinking that by approaching a Mikaelson with the things Shelia had told her would save her life, despite her Slayer blood.
She had been wrong. So they both died.
What if Bonnie was wrong, too? She looked back to the dining room, where they had left Caroline. She wasn’t at all what Bonnie would imagine a prophesized heroine to be. After bathing, she had spent nearly an hour drying her hair and carefully grooming it. She had bemoaned a lack of makeup in Bonnie’s cottage. She was soft, and still wasn’t sure she believed she was sane, and she didn’t have the first clue about magic. Esther would destroy her without thinking twice.
And… that thought made something inside Bonnie twist. Because sometimes, Caroline’s eyes were so very sad, and Bonnie had felt that kind of sad before. And maybe her extremities were soft, but there was a steel in her spine that kept her from breaking apart entirely, even though she was far from home and would likely never return.
“Well?” Enzo asked, voice cutting into Bonnie’s thoughts.
“No one would even believe us if we did turn her in,” she replied brusquely. “So we might as well help her. No one else will.”
Bonnie turned from the water and began to cut up herbs. Enzo joined her, his hands quicker even than hers. She looked at him from the corner of her eye, and saw the tiniest of smirks on his stupidly nice lips.
“You weren’t even serious about that,” Bonnie said, her hands hesitating for a moment. She let out a huff of laughter. “Of course you weren’t. You like her.”
“So do you. You just needed to admit it to yourself.” Enzo nudged her with his elbow. “She’s stronger than you think.”
“No she’s not,” Bonnie replied, thinking of that steel in the other girl’s spine. “She’s exactly as strong as I think she is.”
“Can I help?” Enzo and Bonnie both looked up as Caroline stepped into the doorway. She held up her hands when Bonnie glared at her. “I’ll keep reading. I just need a break. My eyes were getting exhausted.”
“Dice up those. Don’t cut your fingers.” Bonnie motioned at another knife and some roots.
They worked in silence for a while, before Caroline finally asked the question that had obviously been her reason for joining them.
“Klaus… is he really as bad as Arana says he is?”
Bonnie bit her lip, staring down at her plants.
“We don’t know, Caroline,” she finally said. “He was locked away centuries ago, shortly after Arana died, in fact. But the others… Esther’s other children, they aren’t kind. And at least they have mortal blood. Klaus is the only true Immortal of the bunch, and Immortality rarely ever lends itself to kindness.”
“Mortals are beneath their notice,” Enzo added. “And it’s made worse for a bloke like Klaus; legend has it his father was Ansel of the Moon, the Wolf King. They don’t tend to think of much but their Pack and their mates.”
Bonnie didn’t quite understand the look he levelled at the blonde, and Caroline was too busy focused on her roots, or perhaps it was her thoughts. Her brows her furrowed, and her lips pursed.
“How much trouble would it save you, if you did turn me in?”
Bonnie jerked and nearly took off her finger at the question. She didn’t even react when Enzo plucked the knife from her fingers and set it aside. But Caroline had looked up and was meeting Bonnie’s gaze head on. The girl she had thought of as silly as she bemoaned the absence of makeup was replaced by those sad eyes and that spine of steel.
“I don’t let people die for me, Bonnie,” she said simply.
“What about you? Do you die for them?”
Caroline blinked, her expression troubled, and then she shrugged.
“I tend to fall more on the survivor side of the survivor versus martyr scale. But I’m good at it, without using people that help me as a red shirt.”
“Gorgeous, that makes no sense,” Enzo said, perfectly verbalizing both his own and Bonnie’s confusion. Caroline rolled her eyes, and the too serious girl was replaced once more by the shallow slip of a girl she’d first appeared to be.
“Whatever. I don’t want you to die for me. It’s pretty simple. It’s not like I’ll say no to help. I’ll just say no to, like, a suicide mission or something.” She set her knife aside primly. “I sort of skipped around to find the bit about Klaus, so I guess I’ll go back to reading about Arana’s childhood in Bumfuck, Magicland.”
Then she flounced away, and Bonnie found herself giggling.