Wicked Schemes

Chapter 14

_______________________________

Sometimes before it gets better
The darkness gets bigger
The person that you'd take a bullet for is behind the trigger
_______________________________

In Klaus' opinion they did not have time for this frivolous endeavor of Caroline speaking to the pack. The Leseid Coven would be arriving any minute now and Klaus wanted to be on top of his game for that event. Not only would there be a new group of witches in New Orleans, something that was sure to spark Marcel's interest and have him poking around in places Klaus did not want him, but it also meant that he would need to enact his plan for dealing with the Leseid Coven and making sure they didn't get their claws into Caroline. The boy witch was hardly a threat, but an entire coven of witches who would no doubt want to manipulate the girl into their beliefs was another story. If their power hadn't been needed for the coming battles, Klaus would have been keen on keeping them altogether out of his life and far away from Caroline, but he would suffer through their presence as long as they didn't try anything with the young vampire.

He knew they could try and force her powers to transfer to another of her kin, but Klaus had eyes and ears on anyone even remotely related to Caroline and if someone so much as booked them a ticket to a southern state, his soldiers had directives to kill them. Not that he would ever inform Caroline of that fact, he hadn't even told Rebekah about it. This was one task Klaus was keeping close to his chest.

"Okay, so is there anything in particular that I need to know before we go in there?" Caroline asked, breaking him out of his silent reverie. "Because werewolves generally don't like vampires and I like being alive-or well you know-so is there a specific pack manners that I should be aware of?" Her limited werewolf knowledge had come from hanging around Tyler and her boyfriend had known little of pack mentality most of the time. Even once he had a pack they hadn't exactly warmed to her, even going so far as to kidnap and torture her to get his attention.

And as far as Caroline was concerned she had well passed her torture quota for the next century or two.

"Are you under the impression that I would allow any of them to take even one threatening step toward you?" Klaus challenged, looking at her as though she had lost her mind. "We're not meeting with the entire pack. Only a fraction of it that I have living at this particular apartment. They're spread throughout the city in every section barring the French Quarter. As for what you need to know about pack manners, suffice it to say that they will treat you with the same respect they show to me."

She arched a questioning brow at him, clearly not believing a word he was saying. "They'll pick up immediately on how I act around you, Caroline," Klaus continued, placing a hand on the elevator door to hold it open as he motioned for her to exit to the hallway. "As my queen."

He chuckled at her glare. "You're not king yet and I am not yours," she reminded, stepping away from him and fussing with her curls so he couldn't try to be sly and take her hand. "Just lead the way."

Ever since the other morning when she had said her stupid 'maybe' speech he had upped the charm, coming to stand too close to her, touching her in such innocent ways that still made her body shiver from the contact. He had allowed Caleb and Patrick free reign of the city which had been helpful for her own mission, allowing Caroline to send them out on tasks to find out what they could on who the remaining witches were and what officials seemed to be under Marcel's influences. But sending them out had left her alone with Klaus and being alone with him had only allowed him opportunities to try and break down more of her walls.