Changeless ( Sequel Of Timeless.)

Chapter 7

Klaus placed his hand on the silver knob of Shane's office door and gave it a firm twist. It turned easily, the tumblers of the locks crushing each other to pieces under the pressure of his hand. He pushed the door open and shut it gently behind him. The door wouldn't shut properly now that the knob was broken, but it would still appear to be closed and locked to anyone who might pass by.

He stood inside the room, golden spring light peeking through the curtains and blinds. The room smelled faintly of incense and chamomile, a hint of the man who had lived his days in and out of the office. Striding over to the desk, Klaus began flipping through the papers on scattered on top. There were a few students assignments, with scratches of red on them, bleeding with Shane's thoughts and comments. Not that he was expecting to find what he was looking for that easily.

Truth be told, he wasn't sure exactly what he was looking for. Something. Anything. A clue or some answers about the legend of Silas that the professor had conveniently left out. Perhaps it was his proclivity to always being suspicious of those around him, but his instincts were flaring and he knew there had to be more to the whole cure thing than they originally thought-given that Caroline was now human again, and now possessed the power to turn other supernaturals human with a single touch. A power that he had never heard of in his thousand year existence, or even conceived possible.

Her face appeared in his mind and he recalled the way she looked when he recoiled from her at the Salvatore house a week ago. Klaus wasn't a man who lived with many regrets; there wasn't room for such an emotion when one lived for an eternity. But if he had a list of moments he wanted to do over again he would have chosen that one. He had run from her and that, he begrudgingly admitted to himself after a few days, had been cowardly.

However, instead of rectifying the situation he had chosen to keep his distance. The distance helped him think. It helped him dig himself out of the feeling of disappointment and hopelessness and find some straw of hope on which to grasp.

There had to be an answer, a reversal, a fix it. He was unwilling to accept that Caroline was just human again—human and in possession of a terrifying power. He needed her to be whole and herself. He needed her to be the woman that he-

Voices outside the door made him stop and look up. They were voices he recognized. The door creaked open and he watched as Caroline walked into the room, Stefan standing behind her. She stopped and their eyes locked, his breath stilling in his chest.

Klaus kept up his emotionless mask, trying to gage what she might be thinking. Was she angry at him for running? Was she a little glad to see him? He never could figure out exactly how she would react to situations. Perhaps it was one of the reasons he was so enamored with her. It had been days since he'd seen her. His eyes roamed her form. He hadn't really studied her since she came back from the island, not that he'd given himself much of an opportunity to do so.

She looked exactly the same, beautiful as ever-an array of soft colors and sharp, hidden edges making up an entirely original work of art. Golden curls, as expressive about her moods and thoughts as Van Gogh's brushstrokes, wave blue eyes that would both could caress and rage against the sand before and after a storm, crimson lips that he had kissed many times over and could never get enough of—the taste falling from them sweeter than blood. It was as if nothing had even changed about her. He couldn't see a sign in her features that indicated she was human. She just looked like Caroline. His eyes went to the bandage at her neck, partially obscured by her golden locks. He frowned, hoping for a moment that perhaps her human status had been corrected in his absence from her, even though he currently knew that to be impossible.

His hybrid spy had been keeping an eye on the group and had reported of the findings between Bonnie and the doctor, Meredith Fell.

It had been his last sliver of hope. After a few days and several bottles of Scotch, he had almost marched over to her house himself to change her again, but had hesitated, not wanting to do something rash and make matters worse. It was a fortunate thing too, he realized, after his hybrid had come to him with the news that attempting to turn her vampire again would only kill her.