AN: So we are at day one of the search for the white oak stakes. Klaus is being extremely kind and warm hearted, but remember what the old witch said. 'The darkness will always try to make an appearance' or something like that. He's won Caroline over…or so he thinks. Can anyone say honeymoon period? Look for difficulties start to creep up a little later. Maybe a temporary return of Dark Klaus. :)

I do not own the Vampire Diaries or Originals Characters. I own the story. ****Note: This story contains themes of an adult nature, including and not limited to rape, murder, kidnapping, domination, submission and more. If you are uncomfortable with themes of this nature, please do not read. This is part 3 of a series following 'The Dead of Winter' and 'The Blood Rose'. This story may cause triggers and is rated M for intense sexual situations, death, domination and more.*****

Chapter 12

They were all gathered around the table, having finished brunch. There was a feeling of gratefulness in the air that no one had died during the attempt to take out Klaus. For now, everything was good.

Klaus cleared his throat. "So we have a situation, which I've made Kol and Bonnie aware of." Everyone in the room was silent, assuming he was talking about the white oak stakes that may or may not be out in the world.

Elijah concentrated on his younger brother. "Brother what is it?"

"I think that our mother is in our midst again." Concern crossed Elijah and Rebekah's face. They were still but it was apparent that the news was very shocking to them.

"How do you know that Nik?" Rebekah demanded.

"Because my friend Claire told me right before she tried to transfer my body and stake me. She said that she knew of a witch that wanted me dead, obviously apart from her. Exactly how many witches do we know that can manifest that kind of power? Now we can take the chance that she was talking about some random witch that got lucky enough to manifest that much power. However, as I tend to like to air on the side of caution, I'm going to assume it's our mother. Call it intuition."

"Why does your mother want to kill you?"

"Well love that is a very good question. You see our mother, Esther…that's her name, turned us into vampires and then upon doing that almost immediately regretted it. After my brother Henrik was killed, she grew frantic with worry that another one of her children would be taken, as Freya and Henrik were, so she enacted a ritual to make us immortal. No one, including her, foresaw the consumption of blood or the effect that it would have upon us. While our mother was a very powerful witch, she could not undo the spell or stop it's consequences. There is always a consequence to magic. To further add to her worries, my werewolf gene would make me beyond powerful if it ever were allowed to manifest, so she did an additional spell to suppress that, however, I broke that spell years later. She was obsessed with killing us then and I tore her heart out. However, I do believe one way or another she has found her way back and I believe she assisted Claire with the magic that she was doing."

Caroline swallowed hard. Imagine having a mother who wanted you dead. How does that happen? Granted Klaus was a little hard to love in general but maybe his mother and father both being homicidal maniacs added some clue as to why.

"Okay, so Klaus, I've been thinking about this. I found a spell in Emily Bennett's grimoire that is a locator spell and I think it's specific to white oak stakes."

Klaus' interest was piqued. "Why would you think that?"

"Well…" she lay the grimoire on the table. "…because it looks exactly like the stake that Claire had when she tried to stake you." Klaus took the book and looked at the hand drawn picture on the page.

So there was a locator spell. "Do we have everything we need?"

She raised her eyebrow, "Yeah I think so. It requires some runes, salt and a powerful witch."

"Well aren't we lucky to have you Miss Bennett?" He grinned like he was the most charming man in the world, and well he might have a point there.

"Yes." She said matter-of-factly. "You are lucky." Kol laughed out loud practically spitting out his coffee.

"Let's go upstairs shall we?" Klaus stood.

"Klaus, Nadia and I are going to leave if you have no more use for us."

"Yes, Klaus I should be going as well. I have a city to run." Marcel added.

"Of course. Thank you all for your support. It was appreciated." He stopped to say goodbye to his friends before they departed. Everyone else filed upstairs into Klaus's bedchamber. On the way, he stopped one of his house assistants. "Please have the coffins removed from the study and move my office in there. I'd also like you to make an appointment with a decorator. It would be preferable if it was a little brighter than it currently is."

Caroline laughed to herself, what the staff must think when he gives requests like that. It still seemed odd to her that everyone just ignored everything that went on here. She thought she would never be okay with a coffin room though. Klaus caught her eyes. "It's soundproof love. After our last situation, it's a better choice." She nodded at him as they headed into his bedchamber.

Bonnie used the table to lay out the spell, first pouring salt on the table and then drawing a triangle in it. She used the stone as a conductor, as she started repeating the incantation. "L'arme filium. Pa kenbe ex oculus. Indi. L'arme filium. Pa kenbe ex oculus. Indi. L'arme filium. Pa kenbe ex oculus. Indi. " A brief gust of wind blew through the room, as Bonnie's eyes rolled backwards. She seemed to be in some kind of psychic possession. It didn't take long for her to come back this time though, she opened her eyes. "Okay, I have the location of the first white oak stake. It's in New Orleans."

"And the others?" Klaus pressed.

"It only shows us one at a time. Ever heard the quote….'Absolute power corrupts absolutely'. It's a failsafe for the spirits. So yah, we need to go to New Orleans. Klaus, locating these could take awhile."

"Thank you Bonnie." He smiled appreciatively at her, which warmed Caroline's heart. "Who is joining us in New Orleans? Meet us in the foyer in twenty minutes." Klaus was all business today. Klaus went to the intercom to have his assistant pack for him, to which Caroline got strangely possessive about. He noticed but it let it go.

Everyone decided to tag along except Elijah and Hayley. Although Elijah did tell Klaus that if something came up that he knew how to reach him. Klaus nodded and everyone else left to pack.

Caroline was the first one in the foyer waiting, soon followed by Rebekah, Kol and Bonnie. Klaus was the last to make it down the stairs. He had to make few calls to his business assistants to make sure that she was okay handling all his businesses in Chicago while he was gone. His businesses, some illegal, consisted of a number of legitimate businesses as well. Most of his involvement was from an Executive Board position but his control was no less there.

Corralling everyone to the car, they were soon headed towards the airport. Klaus texted Marcel, who had just taken off and let him know they were right behind him. The plane soon departed Chicago, headed towards New Orleans. Klaus looked at Caroline, who was looking at her phone. "Klaus I want to call my mom when we land."

"Of course love, whatever you need to do." His hand was covering hers lightly. A couple of hours later, they touched down in NOLA and headed for Marcel's. Caroline headed straight up to Klaus' room, without even asking where she was sleeping, to which he smiled. Nervously, she dialed her mother's number.

The phone rang and she smiled from ear to ear when her mother answered. "Mom?"

"Caroline? Is that you? Caroline where have you been? I've been so worried. I've looked everywhere." Her voice was frantic as if they would lose connection at any moment.

"Mom, I know and I'm sorry. I'm okay. It's hard to explain everything that has happened, but know that I'm okay and I'm not in any trouble. I promise I won't disappear like that again." Her voice was shaking. She felt as if her world was spinning and felt a sudden pang to be back in Mystic Falls.

"Oh-ohhh okay. Where are you? Are you sure you are okay? When are you coming home?"

"I'm in New Orleans right now. I was in Chicago. Yes, I'm okay. I promise. This is my number. You can call me any time. I'll try to come home as soon as I can. I met someone. He's complicated."

Her mom laughed. "Oh dear, most men are complicated. Look at your father." For the first time, Caroline laughed. Her father, as much as she loved him, spent ten years married to her mother, when he came out as being gay. He was happy now, living in another city with his long time partner. She didn't really care that he was gay, but she knew it her mother immensely when it happened.

"So how are you?"

"Oh you know me, I've been working a lot, spending at least part of that time looking for you. I lost you in Chicago. I had tracked you to a club but after that nothing. I found out you quit school. Lately, I've just been working and I started seeing a guy."

Perking up…"A guy? That's awesome mom. I'm so glad you met someone."

"It seems we both have. I can't wait to meet your boyfriend."

"I will let you know as soon as I can when we can come home." In her mind, she really didn't know how Klaus would feel about meeting her mom or being called a boyfriend.

"Okay. I love you Caroline. Please come home soon."

"I love you too Mom." Well that didn't go as badly as she imagined. It did leave her with the lingering question of when she would be able to see her again. As she walked downstairs, she was still considering how to broach the subject when Klaus came up behind her and folded her into his arms.

"So love how did it go?"

"It was fine." She stood there staring into his eyes. "Klaus?"

"Yes?" He could tell something was on her mind as she looked at him and he was bracing for whatever news she had to bare. In his mind, he was scared that she was going to want to leave and go home, which of course now he'd let her, even though it would kill him and his heart would be shredded with possessiveness.

"I told my mom about you."

His eyes widened and he leaned back to gawk at her.

"I'm sorry, I know I should have asked you first, but I wanted her to know about you and well now…" she chewed her lip "…now she wants to meet you, which I know is weird because you are like a million years old and you'd probably rather not meet my mom but I'd really like it if you did."

A gorgeous smile spread across his face, he was truly flabbergasted. "Caroline…I would be happy to meet your mother, honored even. I'm not quite that old Caroline, at least not yet. It's just right now…"

"Not right now, but after all this is over, maybe we can take a trip there?"

Laying a delicate kiss on her lips, he pulled her close, hugging her to his body. "Yes of course love." Her face immediately transformed to a smile and she kissed him back eagerly. They all assembled in the courtyard after settling in their respective rooms. Bonnie was the first to speak.

"So the first white oak stake is here." She pointed on the map to the Garden District. "I need to go check in on Chloe Rose. The spirits are insisting. Klaus and Caroline, you should go find the stake. We should meet back here in a few hours…sound good?"

"And what am I supposed to do?" Rebekah chimed in, not used to being rendered useless.

"Rebekah, you and Marcel should check in with his contacts in NOLA and see if there are any rumors going around about Claire and the attempt on my life." Knowing full well that if he didn't give his sister an assignment, she would create needless drama and he didn't want to have a bored Rebekah on his hands.

He and Caroline departed for the Garden district. The Garden District was a beautiful area of New Orleans with massive mansions. It was an artistic wonderland of architecture which had been beautifully preserved over the decades. Quite miraculously this district had escaped the horrific flooding of Hurricane Katrina. Caroline was quite taken with the area and its beautiful residences. They pulled up to one of the less cared for mansions in the area. Klaus stepped out of the car, looking up and down the street for any signs of danger. Nothing seemed afoot. So they approached the door and rang the bell.

A woman with long dark hair peeked out through the side window and sighed. Caroline guessed that Klaus was probably the last person most people wanted to see. She opened the door slowly as she stared out the screen. "What do you want?"

Klaus made a move to do say something aggressive, but Caroline stepped in front of him. "Hi." She smiled brightly at the woman who had her eyes trained on Klaus. "We aren't here to start any trouble. We received word that you know about a certain white oak stake and we are here to obtain it."

She frowned and pushed the door open. "Come in, but he stays out here." Again, he went to say something.

"Klaus, can I at least find out what she has to say before you threaten her with bodily harm?" Begrudgingly he nodded and took a seat on the porch, while Caroline entered the double doors of the mansion.

"So why did you let me in and not him? I'm the same thing he is." Caroline said in a flat tone.

"No child you are not the same as him. And while I have no desire to start a fight with the Original family, I also have no desire to let one into my house." She waddled into a sitting room off to the right of the foyer. "Please sit. I'll be right back."

She trotted off to the back of the room and disappeared through a doorway. Several minutes passed before the woman returned with a bundle.

Bonnie's POV

Kol was quiet the entire way to Chloe Rose's house. "What is Claire is here?"

"Kol she doesn't have her power anymore, or any power for that matter. If she even tried to use traveler's magic or expression, the spirits would take her out." Approaching the tiny dwelling, they pushed open the chain link gate and headed towards the door. Bonnie knocked and looked into the eyes of a kind elderly woman. "Hi. I'm Bonnie Ben-"

"Yes I know who you are child. Come in, but he stays out." Bonnie looked back at Kol who was none too pleased about this turn of events. He started to protest.

"He's a friend."

"Oh I know he is, but he's not going to be welcome in most houses in New Orleans. He's an Original vampire." Bonnie turned to him with an apologetic look and he rolled his eyes as he sat on a chair outside the little dwelling.

She followed the old woman into the modestly furnished living room. She saw the baby sitting on the floor, she currently had several stuffed animals dancing in front of her and she was giggling hysterically. At least she was a happy baby, a happy baby that already seemed to have the power of telekinesis. Bonnie was floored by this as sat down to look at the cheerful toddler. "Hi Chloe Rose." She smiled brightly at her.

The stuffed animals dropped and the baby crawled towards her. "Witch" she gargled and put her pudgy finger in Bonnie's cheek.

"Wow, she really is tuned in."

"Oh yes, child, you don't know the half of it. Keeping up with a magically gifted toddler is challenging. I've been wondering if I can do it all on my own."

"So obviously she has telekinesis and can at the very least recognize other witches. What else can she do?" Bonnie studied the little girl intently.

"Well, she can move things as you've seen, I think she is psychic as well. She has an uncanny ability to know what I'm thinking most of the time and she absolutely knows when people are coming. Of course with her limited speech, it's difficult to know the full extent of her powers, but the spirits are definitely talking to her. She'll have long periods of gurgling responses to some invisible force. She seems to have some new ability every month. Last week, she accidentally set the coffee table on fire." The old woman nodded toward the little table with a huge round burn mark in the middle of it.

"Wow. I didn't have any idea about witchcraft until I was seventeen." She said in wonder of the little girl.

"Well, I fear for her. There are rumors. Of course, no one will tell them to me. But I've heard the spirits talking. Of course as you know, they tend to be fairly secretive and puzzling. The funny thing is, I'm not sure she wouldn't see someone coming a mile away. Why, right before you pulled up, she turned to me and said 'Witch' just as she did when you were sitting there. That was about five minutes before your car drove up." Bonnie gaped at the old woman. "And last week, she said 'Klaus' and 'friend' about a week ago before your friends showed up. It's the only reason I let them in to be honest. I don't generally let vampires in my house."

"How old is she?"

"She's two and a half."

Suddenly Bonnie remembered Chloe Rose's mom. "Did Claire come back?" The old woman looked hurt and shook her head. All of the sudden a teddy bear came whizzing through the air at Bonnie, not to hurt her, but she looked down at the child who looked very unhappy at the mention of the name. "Did she?"

"She prefers to be called Rose. No she didn't throw it herself, well at least not with her hands. I heard she was back but she didn't even try to see this little one. Rose doesn't like the mention of her mother's name. It breaks my heart the things that woman does." She squeezed her eyes together to hold back the tears. Bonnie felt truly bad for the woman. Although she could tell that the baby was a joy to her, it still had to hurt that your own daughter didn't want to her baby.

"She's truly remarkable. I'm sorry, I didn't get your name…Mrs?" Bonnie had been so enthralled with the child that she didn't even remember to ask her name.

"My name is Cornelia Dubois."

"Well she is truly remarkable, Mrs. Dubois. I know that the Original family is scary, but they are trying to protect Chl…Rose. Klaus has guards watching after her."

The old woman started laughing. "What can Klaus do against a witch? No offense of course, but Chloe is probably much stronger than he is."

Bonnie raised her eyes in agreement. "You are right, but still. It doesn't hurt to have extra help."

"Oh I'm sure you are right Bonnie. To tell the truth, I am probably more scared than Rose. I don't have my powers anymore, at least not to perform spells. I do have the vision though. I can see things."

"Why are you scared?" Bonnie asked while still watching the little girl, who had now gone back to her dancing stuffed animals.

"Well about a month ago, most of the witches that I used to talk to, stopped coming around. I don't know why really. Now, very few people talk to me. I have a feeling it's because of Rose's future. Witches don't want to be controlled and a lot of them can't envision having a truce with vampires and werewolves. It's just a guess."

Bonnie smiled at the woman and got up to leave. She felt compelled to the hug the elderly woman for some reason. The woman showed her to the door to a very impatient Kol, who was standing there tapping his foot.

"What?"

"I don't like being ignored."

"Kol, you heard everything that was said." Bonnie smiled and kissed him on the cheek as they headed back to the car that was waiting for them.

Caroline/Klaus POV

The woman sat on the sofa opposite of Caroline; she leaned over and shoved the bundle towards her. Caroline regarded her as she carefully opened the bundle, in it the white oak stake. She looked at the woman. Okay that was a little too easy. Not trusting the woman's motives.

"So you are just giving me the white oak stake?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Look, I don't want no trouble. Claire gave me that for safe-keepin. I heard she's back but I also heard she was startin' a war with the Original family. I don't want no part of that. There's all kinds a trouble brewin."

"What kind of trouble?"

"I told ya I don't wanna be involved. But I can tell you that some of the witches round these parts don't want no part of peace with vampires. They are startin' somethin."

"Can you tell me anything?" Caroline looked at the woman who was obviously not feeling very secure.

"No...but I can give you a name. Her name is Tara." She wrote an address down on a piece of paper and handed it to Caroline.

"Well thanks. I appreciate your help." She smiled at the woman, out of things to say and headed towards the door. The woman followed her to the door and eyed Klaus who was still sitting on the porch looking way too comfortable.

"I gave her what ya'll came lookin for. Don't want no trouble with you. We good?" The woman waited.

He glanced sideways at Caroline, who nodded at him. "We are good." Klaus regarded the woman and started towards the idling Linoln Towncar waiting at the curb. Once inside the car, Klaus raised an eyebrow.

"We'll talk at Marcel's." She slid the bundle at Klaus though who picked it up and looked quickly inside and then covered it back up and stuck it in his jacket.

"One down." He took Caroline's hand and stared out of the window at the passing scenery. By the time they reached the house everyone had returned. Marcel suggested that they talk over dinner, which was moments away from being served.

Klaus offered to join them in a moment, excusing himself with the package that Caroline had given him. She followed everyone else in to the dining room. They all sat and were served a bourbon and were chatting away, when Klaus re-entered the room moments later without the package. "Everyone we located the first of the white oak stakes." Everyone smiled at this news. "Unfortunately, things still seem amiss with Claire."

Bonnie chimed in. "Claire's grandmother seemed genuinely afraid for Rose and she suspects there is a plot afoot."

"We found the same thing," Marcel added.

"So rest assured that there are some witches that are not happy about the species uniting. The witch that gave us the white oak stake, gave us the name of another witch that we are going to go visit tomorrow."

"I don't like it Klaus." Kol mistrusted most things in life. "Witches are not to be trifled with. It's too easy."

"Well, rest assured, Bonnie will do another white oak locator spell. Once we have located all the white oak stakes, we can deal with the threat. Although I hardly think that the rest will be as easy to locate as this one was."

"I still don't like it. It was too easy." Kol added again for emphasis.

"Brother I heard you. I don't take that lightly. But for now, we must worry about one thing at a time."

Caroline had been quiet for awhile. Klaus leaned towards her. "Love are you okay?" The truth was she had been thinking about her mom all day. She didn't realize how much she missed Mystic Falls until she talked to her mom, but now she was stricken with a bout of home sickness. Klaus' eyes clouded over. He could tell something was wrong.