You saved Klaus even he has a raging temper. He acts out on it fairly often and is unforgiving no matter who is on the receiving end of it. He doesn't believe that a vampire should allow themselves to feel love: showing love and affection is, to him, their kind's greatest weakness
You have to love Elijah's brutality -- he favors ripping out hearts -- is hard to reconcile with his old-world charm which is part of what makes him so simultaneously hard and easy to love.