Caroline took one last look in the mirror before she exited her room with her sunglasses on top of her head. Klaus was standing in the hallway and they moved towards the elevator. As they doors opened, Caroline fought a smile as the piccolo from earlier was standing inside. All colour dropped from his face as soon as he saw her and he nearly ran into Klaus in order to get out before the doors closed.
“What’s the rush, mate?” Klaus asked with an irritated voice. The piccolo just pointed at Caroline but before he could say anything the doors closed and he disappeared. Klaus was looking at Caroline with both surprise and amusement but she just shrugged her shoulders and looked at the elevator doors.
The sun was shining when they stepped out of the hotel and Caroline put on her sunglasses as they moved down the street. Klaus led them back to the cathedral and they paid for entrance at a counter. She was a bit surprised that he didn’t just compel his way through but she didn’t say anything.
As they stepped inside the large cathedral, Caroline had to stop and breathe as she took it all in. It was bigger than she had ever imagined and like nothing she had seen before. Klaus was just standing beside her, a smile on his face and his hands behind his back as he waited for her to comprehend everything.
The morning light shone through the great mosaic windows and covered the floor in beautiful colours. Only a few tourists had found their way to the church at this hour but the echo from their footsteps almost seemed too loud for Caroline’s vampire hearing. Caroline barely noticed Klaus’ stare but when she at last turned to him with a smile on her face, she was surprised to see the look on his face.
The wonder present in Caroline’s face was present in his too but in whole different way. He hadn’t been studying the cathedral but her and he had seen every emotion crossing Caroline’s face from the moment they had stepped in. For a moment he had a hard time remembering if he had ever seen anything quite as beautiful.
Caroline then proceeded down one of the great halls in the rectangular ship of the church and Klaus followed close behind her. They spent half an hour just wandering around, looking at all the relics and tombs in the cabinets placed around the ship and at last they stopped at Christopher Columbus’ tomb, where Columbus’ remains supposedly were buried.
Caroline looked at Klaus with her eyebrows raised and he clearly knew what she was asking.
“I might have lived for a millennium, Caroline, but I don’t know everything.” Klaus said and smiled at her. He still found her perception of time and place amusing but decided not to lecture her about it.
“So you don’t know?” she asked with a slightly disappointed voice.
“I do.” Klaus just answered and then looked at the tomb once more. He was about to talk again, when he felt a sudden change in the air. As he tried to turn his head, he realised that he wasn’t able to move. They had found the witch.
“Caroline. Can you move?” Klaus asked through his teeth.
“What are you talking about?” Caroline sighed, irritated by his lack of answer to her question. Then she saw it. Klaus seemed completely frozen in his place and Caroline quickly moved towards him.
She stopped right in front him and looked into his enraged eyes. Slowly she moved her hand towards his cheek and as she got closer she felt the frozen air around him. She withdrew her hand and searched the space around her with her eyes.
Lucy appeared with a lifted hand from behind a large statue by Columbus’ tomb. She was clearly using a lot of her powers to hold Klaus in his place. Caroline walked over to her with a determined look on her face but she wasn’t able to get closer than an arm’s length.
“You must be Caroline.” Lucy said with a strained voice. Caroline nodded and felt very confused. She wasn’t sure they had ever met.
“What are you doing to him?” Caroline asked with worry in her voice. She didn’t know why she was worried. Klaus could survive almost anything but he suddenly seemed very vulnerable.
“Bonnie told me that you were coming but she didn’t mention him. I don’t trust him. You are coming with me and he will stay in his place until we are far enough away. Follow me and then we’ll talk.” Lucy said and began moving towards the exit with slow steps.
Caroline was even more confused than before but recognized that she probably had to follow Lucy without Klaus if they wanted her help. Before going after Lucy, she walked back to Klaus and stood in front of him.
“I’m going with her now. I’ll convince her to come with us and then I’ll meet you at the hotel, okay? I have my phone so I’ll call if anything happens.” she told him and then stared at him for a moment. His eyes were screaming at her, telling her not to go with the witch.
“Caroline…” Klaus managed to say with a warning voice. Caroline just sent him a smile and then gave his frozen hand a squeeze before leaving. “I’ll be fine. Trust me.”
She ran after Lucy, who had just left the cathedral and followed her into a taxi. After driving in the car for five minutes, Lucy relaxed her body and Caroline realised that she had released Klaus from the spell. They drove ten more minutes before getting out in front of an apartment building.
“Come inside” Lucy said as she invited Caroline into her apartment. It was the first any of them had said to each other after leaving the cathedral. The two-bedroom apartment consisted of a large room with combined kitchen and living room and a smaller one where Lucy slept.
Without saying anymore to Caroline, Lucy hurried to a broad wooden table by the wall filled with all sorts of things Caroline had no idea what was. The witch was searching for something in the mess and when she found it seconds later, she quickly walked to the front door and knelt down.
Caroline watched her, confused and with no idea what to say or do as Lucy began drawing something on the floor with the chalk she had found. When she was done, Lucy stood up and began whispering words that Caroline didn’t understand. But yet it was familiar and Caroline suddenly recognised the language as the one Bonnie used to cast spells with.
Lucy finally finished and walked away from the door and back to her messy table. Caroline turned around and was now looking at Lucy’s back, still at loss. Caroline crossed her arms and glanced nervously over her shoulder at the front door. If she knew him at all, Klaus would probably be here soon and he wouldn’t be happy.
“Soooo…” Caroline said hesitantly, tapping her fingers against her arm impatiently. “Not to hurry you or anything but I don’t think we’ll be alone for long and the saying is quite wrong; Hell has no fury like Klaus Mikaelson scorned. Trust me, women have nothing on him in that matter.”
Lucy finally turned around and looked at Caroline with her eyebrows raised. Then she leaned against the table and crossed her arms in front of her like Caroline had.
“You are not afraid of him?” Lucy asked with surprise written in her eyes. The way the blonde vampire talked about the hybrid was new to her. It almost sounded like Caroline was joking.
“It would be stupid not to be.” Caroline said with a shrug of her shoulders, not really answering the question. Lucy clearly picked up on that and a worried expression crossed her face.
“It would.” Lucy said and then they both were silent. Caroline shot another glance over her shoulder at the door before meeting Lucy’s curious eyes.
“You know why we are here.” Caroline said and Lucy confirmed with a nod.
Well, this is going slow.
“You said you’d talked to Bonnie. How?”
“She reached me last night while I was sleeping. She told me about Silas and that you were coming for my help. I thought it was just a dream but then I saw you at the cathedral. We never met that time with Katherine but I saw you with the others at the masquerade. I wasn’t expecting Klaus Mikaelson to be your escort, though. Does Bonnie know?” Lucy said and tilted her head slightly to the left.
Caroline wasn’t sure what Bonnie knew but it would surprise her if her dead best friend didn’t check up on her from time to time even though Caroline couldn’t see her. The thought suddenly made Caroline blush as a scene from the night before with her and Klaus in her hotel room played inside her head. The blonde vampire felt Lucy’s stare and quickly nodded.
“I think so, yes. She knows that the Mikaelsons are helping us and I don’t think she expected me to travel to Spain alone. I would have no idea where to start and Klaus did. Look, I know you don’t trust him and that is clever of you but trust me when I say that he is only here to help.” Caroline told her, unconsciously placing her right hand over her heart.
“And how can you be sure of that? I’ve heard about Klaus. He doesn’t do anything unless it’s for his own good. He will tear up a whole village with his bare teeth if he knows he will gain just a little more power. He is a narcissistic psychopath who cares for no one but himself.” Lucy said with a firm voice.
The Bennett witch almost didn’t notice the weird expression that crossed the young vampire’s face at her last words. Lucy blinked and the blonde looked as before, impatient with pleading eyes. Caroline glanced at the front door once more, this time unconsciously, before averting her eyes back to Lucy.
“First of all: he does actually get something out of this. I don’t know how much Bonnie told you but Silas is capable of almost anything. And he is stronger than Klaus. He once let Klaus think that he was dying by making him believe that splinters of the white oak stake were moving towards his heart. But there was nothing there. Believe me; I spend almost an hour trying to get them out of him. That was messy.”
Lucy raised her eyebrows in surprise once more. She had heard stories from Bonnie and other witches about all the terrible things Klaus had done to her cousin’s friends back in Mystic Falls and yet, this girl had spent an hour trying to help him from dying. Was she in some kind of debt to him?
Caroline pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed as if she wasn’t sure if she should continue. “Second of all: I trust him. I know you think it’s stupid and I will probably regret it someday but I’ve seen things. I’ve seen his humanity. He’s not all bad.”
Just as Caroline finished her sentence, a knock that threatened to take down the door, made the floor vibrate. Caroline saw Lucy’s eyes grow wide with fear and she quickly turned around to look at the closed door, not knowing exactly what to do. Caroline jumped when a roar was heard through the door.
“CAROLINE!” Klaus yelled, smashing his fist against the door once more. Caroline flashed to the front door and opened it just as he was about punch through it. Caroline saw a short glimpse of relief in his eyes but his anger returned before she could even think twice about it.
“Hey! Relax! I’m fine. See.” Caroline yelled back and twirled around with her arms stretched to the sides, still inside the apartment. When Caroline faced him again, he looked like he had understood nothing of what she had just said and his anger didn’t diminish. A cunning smile appeared on his lips for a moment as he seemed to figure something out and his eyes wandered to the scared witch behind Caroline.
Caroline followed his gaze, confused, and Lucy quickly took a step forward in an effort to not show fear.
“It is a silencing spell. He can’t hear us. But if you step into that circle on the floor, he will be able to hear you.” Lucy said without removing her eyes from the enraged hybrid staring back at her. Caroline looked down on the floor, only now noticing the weird circle Lucy had drawn in front of the door.
“No salt, Sammy?” Caroline asked with a smile on her lips but Lucy clearly didn’t get the joke. Caroline stepped into the circle, once again facing Klaus.
“Can you hear me?” Caroline asked hesitantly, feeling like talking into a phone with bad signal. Klaus’ eyes immediately snapped back to Caroline and she took it as a yes. Before she could speak again, Klaus started shouting as he pointed at her.
“Don’t you ever leave me like that again!”
Lucy couldn’t help but stare at the hybrid in astonishment as she heard the hidden desperation in his voice before looking at Caroline’s back. Even though the blonde vampire was tensed, she still seemed calm as if Klaus Mikaelson shouting at her wasn’t much of a problem. Others would have run for their lives.
“For God’s sake, calm down! I’m fine, okay? I can take care of myself and besides, I know she wouldn’t do me anything. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to speak with her. You can stay out there if you want to.” Caroline said and moved away from the circle to close the door.
“I’m not taking my eyes off you again.” Klaus said with an almost threatening voice. He looked like he was trying to push through the invisible wall that was keeping him out of the apartment.
“How romantic.” Caroline murmured without thinking, rolling her eyes. She blushed deeply when she realised what she had just said and quickly turned her back on Klaus. She was standing outside the circle but there was something in the way his body language had suddenly shifted that told Caroline he had understood anyway.
Now she was looking at a puzzled Lucy and Caroline felt like sinking through the floor and away from their staring. She took a deep breath and turned around to enter the circle once more.
“Fine. I’ll leave the door open but then you have to calm down and stop being so dramatic, will you?” Caroline said and stepped away from the circle without giving him time to answer.
Caroline was about to open her mouth and speak when Lucy interrupted her.
“I’ll help. I’ll go with you to Mystic Falls and help you. For Bonnie. And to stop Silas from taking more innocent lives.” The witch said with a decisive voice. Caroline looked at her, startled. She had mentally prepared herself for begging on both knees but Lucy had agreed just like that.
“Well, that was easy.” Caroline said and looked at Klaus, grinning. He was standing completely still, his hands behind his back, watching the two women without being able to hear what was going on.
“Thank you.” Caroline said to Lucy with a thick voice. It would all be over soon, hopefully.
“But I have some changes to make.” Lucy said and Caroline suddenly became nervous.
“Shoot.” Caroline said and moved closer to Lucy, who had turned around. It took a second for Caroline to understand that Lucy didn’t want Klaus to read her lips and Caroline moved to stand beside her so both of them had their backs on the hybrid.
“Bonnie told me something about you wanting to turn him to stone again like she did the last time. But that won’t do. When I die someday, he will wake up once more, possibly more revengeful than before. He will not even take the time to consider whether to kill you or not. So we need to eliminate him. Forever. He needs to die, Caroline.”
“It’s impossible. We’ve tried everything. Why do you think I asked Klaus Mikaelson for help? For old time’s sake?” Caroline said, shooting a quick look at Klaus.
“I might have an idea. But I’ll need to speak to Bonnie again to know if it can work.” Lucy almost whispered. Caroline wasn’t sure why but she had no problem hearing Lucy so she didn’t say anything.
“And I will need some things. And someone.” Lucy said, finally looking at Caroline.
“Who do you need?” Caroline asked, expecting to hear some witch’s name.
“You.”