The Devil In Me

Chapter 28

"I have barely been out over this doorstep, except to... It matters not. I have not called on anyone else, and I shall not. You know this."

"Maybe so, but does Rebekah?" Katherin challenged.

"She must" he said his confidence draining at the looks on their faces. Caroline noted then, the slight tremor to his fingers, his paled complexion, and nervous eyes.

"Damon, be frank with us... what is going on? Have you been meeting Lord Mikaelson?" Damon gave a short laugh, and looked away.

"I suppose you could say that" he bit out, running a hand through his hair, a move that was uncharacteristically flustered for him. Caroline studied him a moment, before she decided to cut to the heart of the matter.

"What does he want?"

"The better question might be, what doesn't he want? It would be shorter in the telling" he muttered.

"Damon... tell me" she insisted. Damon finally stopped looking around, and brought his face back to hers, his expression defeated and sad.

"He wants something I can never give him. Your happiness, so he may destroy it." he said, and Caroline and Katherine sat back, stunned into silence at the admission.

"And you are voluntarily entering into that family" Katherine muttered, shaking her head, unable to comprehend how a man such as that had produced the children that she had become so close to.

"What do you mean?" Caroline pressed further. Damon tore his eyes away from her intent look and stood up, pacing the room a little.

"He wants money. It is all he thinks about, well, that, and how to make your unfortunate husband suffer."
"Whose money? Klaus's is tied up by law"

'It is yours he wants Caroline, he wants it dreadfully. Not only a subsidy, he wants it all. And he hopes that his acquisition of it, will drive a wedge between you and Niklaus. And he wants me to get it for him" Damon finished, a little desperately. He was surprised how good finally confessing felt.

"Tell me everything, from the beginning, let us find a way out of this mess." Caroline said.

"There is no way! He controls Rebekah, he cannot directly manipulate Klaus, for he might remove access to your fortune completely, if pushed too far. It is too direct, and Mikael does not care to be seen as the villain, he prefers others to commit crimes on his behalf. He wants me to tell Rebekah that without your inheritance, he cannot afford the dowery for our marriage, which may well be true, at the rate this man spends. Rebekah shall go to her brother, for they are close, and Niklaus would not see her suffer for any reason. Mikael will get the inheritance, and Rebekah and I would be free to marry..."

"Is that so awful?" Caroline asked quietly, thinking that if her parents money could buy Rebekah's freedom, maybe it would not be so wasted.

"Except that he wins... I suppose not. But, in doing it, he knows the price it will exact from Niklaus, do you see? When he knows how he has been manipulated, and backed into a corner, he will hold himself accountable, for losing what was yours."

"I do not care about money, I would not be angry at him" Caroline said adamantly.

"Perhaps not, but Caroline, there are things that you will come to learn of a man's pride, and ego. It might seem small to you, yet, to your husband, do not forget the relationship between the man undermining him... there is no worse devil in all of hell, than Mikael Mikaelson to your husband."

Caroline was silent as she thought over the situation. Damon was right about their relationship, she had seen first hand the scars that did not show, left on Klaus, from that man. How she hated him. It made her blood boil, to think of him, manipulating them all, manoeuvring them into position. She put a hand to her belly, thinking of the child that grew there, one that needed two, whole parents, one that could not be used for others ends. She thought for a few moments more, before turning back to Damon, a look of renewed conviction on her face.