Body & Soul - Klaus Mikaelson

Thirty-Four

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"Klaus?"

My whisper doesn't fall on deaf ears. I can hear Caroline moving through the house as she freezes next to me in the doorframe. I can feel her breathing down my neck, moving hairs and sending chills down my body more than Klaus's eyes are already causing to radiate through me.

His blue eyes seem to glow, burning deep into my own eyes. They don't leave mine. The chills continue to riddle down my body, causing visible shivers to wreck me. He's been gone. No goodbye, no heads up, no telling me where he was going or if he was coming back. He simply just disappeared and left me here to deal with everything on my own.

"I'm going to go," Caroline says hesitantly. I can feel her eyes glancing between Klaus and me. I can smell her confusion, her fear that is fluctuating too much for me to keep track of. I watch her lick her lips out of the corner of my eyes before she brushes past my shoulder and out the door. Klaus barely steps aside as she trots down the front steps.

Klaus shifts on his feet, "May I come in?"

My brows furrow at his stupid question. May I come in? His accent is comforting, I relish it for the first moment in a while. But his question is irking. He knows he can come in; he knows they all can. My house is open to all vampires that wish to enter. It's one of the many risks of living in the past and refusing to move on. I nod slightly, stepping out of the doorframe.

He gives me a gentle smile and crosses my doorframe without trouble, no invisible barrier to keep him from my home. I close the door behind him and move back towards my kitchen. He stands there waiting for me. His eyes inspect my body, running across every inch of exposed skin, flaunting over my face, before settling on my stomach. "What happened?"

"Nothing," I say crossly, "Nothing happened."

Klaus takes a stiff step forward. His fingers gently wrap around my arm, "The pain you felt wasn't nothing, City."

My breath leaves my body at his touch, the chills rag my body again. I almost withdraw from his grip but the heat of his skin against mine keeps me stuck. I meet his eyes evenly, fearful for the answer to my question, "Where have you been?"

"Hunting down my brother. I plan to break this curse," He smiles, brushing a piece of my hair from my face. His fingers brush my cheekbone as his hand settles at the back of my neck. His eyes trace my face, memorizing every inch of my features, "I won't have their idiocy killing you. There are only so many people I can control entirely, my family being a few of them. So somebody else hurt you, happened while I was gone?"

I try to not meet his eyes, but his hand drags my chin back towards him, softly forcing my eyes to meet his own. I chew on my cheek, trying to keep it down. He left me alone to fend for myself while he went off on some undivulged mission. "It was nothing."

"It was nothing?" He whispers harshly, "Your pain is not nothing. So tell me who hurt you."

This time, instead of moving my head, I move my eyes away from him. If I rat out Ric, he probably won't live to see tomorrow. Klaus's anger will get the best of him and Ric won't get the best of life. We've worked too hard to find him some form of a cure for Klaus to rage kill him. "What are you going to do if I tell you?"

His eyebrows furrow, "Anything to protect you."

I shake my head, "I don't want you to do anything. I have it under control. You don't have to fix it in a fit of anger, Nik. I'm fine. I promise."

His eyes narrow. Everyone knows a wolf's anger is the most uncontrollable part of them. We have it from the time we're young, and if we're not taught, that anger will control us. It's been easy to hide my anger for the most part. But I had a good teacher, my father knew what he was doing when he was raising me. He knew what anger could do to a wolf and he made sure I could control my own.