Long Shadows - Leia_Naberrie - The Vampire Diaries (TV) [Archive of Our Own] (2024)

Chapter 1: the one battle that she can't walk away from

Chapter Text

May 2013

Mystic Falls

The night of Jo’s wedding, Bonnie woke up to smoke and fire and screams.

And black magic.

It was thick in the air, thick enough to choke on. And it fed greedily on the fear and panic that surrounded her.

For a few seconds, she just lay on the floor, tired, so tired. Through the ground, she could still hear the screaming, the sounds of running feet, of distant explosions.

This was happening. This was really happening.

She had raced against time to get here and warn them. Yet despite all their plans, despite all their precautions, despite all her prayers and sacrifices… she was too late.

She was tired. Maybe she should just stay down, wait for it to be over.

Wait for them to come and kill her.

Then a familiar face flew into her vision and all thoughts of rolling over and dying fled from her.

“Kai!” she screamed, panicked, and her hand flew out instinctively.

He caught the motus with reflexes that would have impressed her from anyone else and sent it harmlessly into the air. Before she could incant again, his hands were wrapped around her shoulders, dragging her to her feet and immobilizing her magic. She knew that it only took the slightest pressure and her magic would be ripped out of her painfully.

You only got one chance against Kai Parker and she had used up hers.

“What did you do?” she shouted into his face.

A trickle of blood ran from his temple to his chin, and his formerly impeccable suit was stained with more blood and soot. His grey eyes narrowed at her, looking as furious as she felt.

“What did I do? Do you think I did this?”

Before she could respond, there was a whistling sound beside them. He whispered something and they slid three meters across the floor. A second later, the grand piano landed on the space they had been standing in.

Bonnie jumped and his grip on her tightened, painfully.

“Let me go…”

“KAI!”

Both turned to see Joshua Parker rushing towards them, his suit and beard covered with soot, magic pouring out of his hands.

“We need you! They’re trying to breach the Southern Portal! If one of the anti-cloaking barriers come down…”

Bonnie gaped at him, then gaped even harder at Kai when he said, “OK” and while she was still trying to understand what the Hell was going on, Kai was shoving her at his father.

“Get her out.” He said to the older man.

“I don’t have time to-”

Kai grabbed his father’s sleeve. “I need her to not be here.”

Joshua frowned, about to speak, then must have seen something in Kai’s face that silenced him. “I will.”

Kai gave her one last look, his eyes full of things she couldn’t begin to decipher, then he was gone.

Joshua Parker’s hand was wrapped around her elbow and she was being dragged along beside him as he cut a path through the chaos of twisted furniture – and broken bones. Both littered the once-beautiful wedding hall. She could make out figures in the crowd: witches and warlocks in their once-glamorous wedding clothes, hands outstretched and chanting, their magic curling through the air like white smoke. A flash of blonde curls caught her gaze and she stared, barely recognising Liv Tyler in a black dress, twirling like a ballerina as sparks of power poured out from her eyes and finger-tips. Around her a werewolf prowled, its teeth bared and stained with blood.

Then in the far distance, towards the south, red hooded silhouettes with black auras pouring from their beings.

“There’s a portal on the Eastern side. We’re sending the younger children and the mundanes through. Come on,” he shouted at Bonnie who had dug her heels half-way across the floor.

“Not until someone tells me what is going on!” she shouted back, standing her ground.

“I don’t have time-”

“Tell me!”

There was a small explosion to their right. Joshua raised his hand in time to deflect the debris from them.

The older warlock glared at her. “The heretics attacked.”

Too late… Too late… The phrase echoed in Bonnie’s head.

“Elena?” Caroline… Damon… Stefan…?

“The doppelganger? She and the vampires left us to deal with this on our own.”

And left her behind, Bonnie thought then mentally shook it away. They hadn’t even realized she was here. She had got here seconds after all hell broke loose.

“What about Jo? Is she-”

“Safe. Kai was right beside her. Made a path for her and Alaric to get away.”

Instinctively, her head turned, searching for him in the melee. She couldn’t see him, but she could feel his magic, bursts of him sending shockwaves through the hall, under her skin.

Had she been wrong?

Joshua was still speaking. “The coven is taking heavy losses and I need to get you out of here. Come on, girl. I have to get back to the fight!”

Bonnie, turned back to him and shook her head. “I can fight.”

“I know you have magic, but leave this for the witches trained in combat.”

Bonnie would have laughed if she wasn’t in a life and death situation. “I have seen combat. And I am a Bennett.”

Joshua Parker turned at her, his face registering shock. “What?”

Above them, there was a creaking sound. They moved just in time to dodge the chandelier that fell with a shatter of glass and wires on the floor. Joshua raised his hand but Bonnie was faster.

The shards of glass stayed up, suspended in mid-air. Then they swirled into a cluster in the shape of an arrow and went spinning towards the south side of the hall.

A high-pitched shriek filled the air. Bonnie waved her hand and then it stopped.

She looked at Joshua Parker’s frozen face. “I’m Bonnie Bennett,” she repeated. “I’m Sheila’s grand-daughter. I can help you.”

“My son asked me to get you to safety,” Joshua said uncertainly.

Bonnie finally twisted out of his grip. “I’m not a Gemini. I don’t take orders from you or your son.”

The old man’s lips twitched. He nodded. “Try to get to the stage. That’s the best vantage.” His lips twitched again. “Stay away from the south side. The coven leader is probably there.”

Then he left her, his arm already rising up to shoot a spell from his index finger.

Bonnie stared up at stage. She could make out two young witches, standing back to back, working magic and shooting it up at the sky. A red-robed figure was bearing down on them, mouth snarling with curses.

She started running.

June 2014

Portland

The landing rocked her awake. She jolted forward, and almost slipped off her seat during the forward throw. She scrambled back into place.

Damon watched throughout; the only thing on his face that was not actually laughing was his mouth. Bonnie shot him a dirty look. “Thanks a lot, jerk.”

“You’re welcome,” he crowed.

“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We have reached Portland Airport. Please stay in your seats until the plane has come to a complete stop, the engines switched off and the Seatbelt Sign has turned off.”

“Had a nice nap?” Damon asked, his eyes still dancing with laughter.

Bonnie scowled. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Alaric was waiting for them at the airport. He and Damon exchanged bro-hugs and, to Bonnie’s surprise, Alaric bypassed her outstretched hand and lifted her from the ground in a huge bear-hug.

“Hey!” she said, laughing. Alaric Saltzman had gone from being her favourite professor in high school to someone whose death she mourned to someone who she barely spoke to. Even though it had been over a year since they last saw each other, she hadn’t expected this kind of welcome.

“It’s so great to see you, guys,” Alaric said, his face wreathed with smiles as they walked to his car. “Jo will be over the moon.”

“You’re just saying that because you need someone to take over diaper duty,” Damon drawled, his tone not quite disguising the broad smile on his face.

“That, too!” Alaric said with a laugh.

He looked great, Bonnie noted, half-enviously. A year out of Mystic Falls, with his brand-new family, a comfortable job at the local high school, and in the heart of one of the most powerful covens in the world –

Who considered his children their heirs

– had done wonders for the gloomy, half-broken man he used to be.

Of course, none of that would have even been possible if he hadn’t come back to life in the first place.

Bonnie pushed back the thought. She had long moved past that bitterness.

The car drove through the warm streets of Portland. Bonnie, riding in the back, kept turning her head to take in the sights and sounds. The last time she was here was both at once a year and nineteen years ago. Then the streets were empty and she had been driving fast enough to kill herself. She hadn’t had time to stop and smell the roses.

Literally. The city was littered with them.

Back in Mystic Falls, the streets were littered with vervain.

“This is not a social call, drinking bud,” Damon said bluntly somewhere after an hour of catching up as they turned into a street.

Alaric shrugged. “Whatever. I’m just glad to have you guys here.”

She and Damon shared a loaded glance through his side mirror.

They hoped Alaric would still think so when he heard what they had to say.

“Talking about drinking,” Alaric said now. “Remember what I told you?”

Damon heaved a long-suffering sigh. “No blood. No fangs. No fun. Relax, Ric. I’ll be on my best behaviour.”

“You’re not exactly going to have a choice,” Alaric said sheepishly. “Coven put in a few spells in the house.”

“Let me guess: a few vampire-proofing spells?”

Alaric shrugged again. “The girls are their heirs. I’m just the baby-daddy.”

“The word you’re looking for is sperm donor.” Damon said snidely and looked like he was ready to say more about this but at that moment, Alaric took the car off the road and into a gated estate straight from a suburbia catalogue.

He drove past the fence, up his driveway and parked the car.

Then he waited the few seconds it took Damon to stop laughing.

More like few minutes.

Five minutes later, Damon was still laughing as they pulled their luggage behind them: Damon carrying his knapsack, Bonnie swinging her satchel and Alaric struggling with the three pieces of luggage that she had managed to squeeze a week’s worth of essentials into.

“A white picket fence? Really? A white picket fence?” Damon asked when he finally caught his breath. Then he burst into laughter again.

“Oh shut up,” Alaric said finally, the walk between the car and his door apparently too much for him and his burden and he stopped halfway. “Come here and give me some help.”

“Why should I help? That’s Bonnie’s stuff not mine.”

“Because you can try to be a gentleman?” she asked, smoothly.

“What happened to equal rights?” he retorted.

“What the heck is equal about vampire strength?”

Their bickering was – thankfully – cut short by the front door opening and the spectacle of Liv Parker standing before them, a crying baby on her hip.

“Oh thank god!” she said by way of greeting and dropped the baby in Bonnie’s arms.

“W-what?” Bonnie said in horror, just barely holding onto cloth and blanket and staring into a face that had apparently, been shocked into silence at the sight of her.

Liv was already walking across the lawn. “I need to get out of this house. You said an hour, Alaric!” she said, as she passed him.

“There was traffic. Where’s Jo?” he yelled, after her back.

“Sleeping with Rachel. Don’t you wake them!” Liv yelled back, not turning her head.

The baby, having studied Bonnie’s face and come to its own conclusions, opened its mouth into a high-pitched wail.

“Welcome to my home!” Alaric said cheerfully, as he followed Damon with the last of Bonnie’s boxes to the front door.

Jo didn’t wake up until almost three hours later and when she did, she scooped up the wailing baby with one hand, and it shushed the moment it disappeared into her blouse. Everyone was too relieved to be embarrassed – although Damon started opening his mouth and closed it without comment under Bonnie’s and Alaric’s combined icy glares.

“I love your hair,” Jo raved, eyeing Bonnie’s almost waist length braid with approval as she led her upstairs, to the nursery. “You look amazing. Very continental,” she added with a wink, clearly referring to Bonnie’s summer of Europe, the previous year. She had left a few weeks before the Saltzmans themselves had moved out of Virginia for good.

“You look incredible,” Bonnie countered honestly. She couldn’t stop sneaking glances at the older woman as they bent over the side of the double crib to coo at the sleeping baby, also a girl. Apparently, a year away from Mystic Falls translated to ten years away from one’s age. The doctor looked closer to Bonnie’s age than her own, black hair radiant, her skin glowing and her whole demeanour brighter and happier than Bonnie had ever seen. Not even on Jo’s wedding day.

Bonnie swallowed, dark emotions lurking somewhere near, never far from her heart, whenever the memory of that day entered in her thoughts.

The two women – and a half, counting the baby in Jo’s arms – left the nursery and made themselves comfortable in Jo’s bedroom while Alaric and Damon made themselves useful cooking lunch.

“Sorry, it’s all hands on deck here,” Jo said with a laugh as she kicked up her feet on the small stool while Bonnie – in a fit of spontaneity she was fast regretting – tried to make sense of the clutter of baby clothes that were thrown on the bed.

“No matching sets?” she asked, holding up one green short-sleeved onesie and a yellow sleeveless one.

Jo shuddered. “I’ve had enough of matching twin sets to last a lifetime. Kai and I wore colour-coded clothes until we were twelve and Luke and Liv had to do the same. We even still got matching sweaters for the holidays.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m going to give my girls some individuality or die trying.”

Bonnie was silent, concentrating hard on folding the clothes correctly.

Jo sighed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to just throw him at your face. I know you guys –”

Bonnie gave her a sharp look. “You know we what?”

Jo bit her lip and fell silent.

“What?” Bonnie asked, trying and failing to keep the aggression from her voice.

“I know you guys have things to work out,” Jo said finally.

Bonnie felt her heart stutter. “What did he tell you?”

Jo rolled her eyes. “Bonnie, he didn’t have to. Look, I’m not going to have this conversation with you if you don’t want to. But… you didn’t come here just to coo over my babies. You’re going to see Kai soon and you’d better know what you want from him when you do.”

“We need his help with the situation at Mystic Falls,” Bonnie said at once. “The heretics that returned. That’s all I’m here for.”

Jo shrugged.

That little gesture infuriated Bonnie and she wasn’t able to censor her next words. “Since when did you two get so close anyway? Why are you so OK with him?”

Jo stared at her. “He’s my brother, my twin.”

“Who murdered half of your siblings.”

Jo’s face fell and Bonnie felt like kicking herself. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t.”

“No, you- you have a right to hear this.” The doctor was silent for a moment, and tapped the baby at her breast. It looked like if she had fallen asleep, and Jo was trying to get her to keep feeding. “After the merge with Luke, Kai changed. That’s what happens after a Gemini twin merge ceremony. One twin physically lives on but within that body, the souls of both twins combine to form an entirely new person. It’s not just a transference of power – it’s a mergence. The Kai that is alive now … he’s more like the brother I remember growing up with, the brother that I loved than the monster that destroyed our family. I can’t hate him anymore than I can hate Luke who died saving my life.”

Bonnie was shaking her head. “I’m sorry. I’ve heard this before and I don’t… I don’t accept it.”

“It’s not up to you to accept or not,” Jo said quietly. “It’s the truth. I’ve made my peace with it, with Kai. So has Liv, my father, the rest of the coven. If Kai was still the same man he was over a year ago, my father won’t be alive today and the same goes for half, if not more of our coven. He saved my life and countless others. He’s saved yours, too.” Bonnie opened her mouth to retort and Jo raised her hand. “Yes, I know. After he put you in danger in the first place, I know. But he still did it, Bonnie. That must have – it must have counted for something, right?”

Bonnie said nothing.

“He’s … he’s a good man. I’d never have imagined a year ago that I would be the one to say this. But it’s the truth.”

“I can’t accept that.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

Bonnie was silent.

“If you came here to harm Kai, I’m not going to let you.”

Bonnie started at the sudden hardness in the other woman’s voice. “I didn’t come here for that,” Bonnie said vehemently. “We need his help. I’ve worked with people I’ve hated before in the past. I can keep my personal feelings out of it.”

Jo stared at her searchingly, and Bonnie stared back. Then the doctor nodded, apparently satisfied.

“OK, then. Help me get this little one to bed then we’ll go and take a look at all the lovely presents you brought from Whitmore.”

Liv Parker showed up just as the dinner places were being set. It was a good meal. Bonnie was so hungry that anything would have tasted good at that point in time but she had to admit that Alaric and Damon really outdid themselves. It was also a bit disorganised, between the conversations that kept starting and stopping and going over each other as everyone tried to keep up to date on over a year’s worth of stories. Occasionally, the baby monitor would beep and Alaric – it was always Alaric, never Jo – would jump to his feet and check in the nursery. When he came back after the third false alarm, Jo shook her head and told him to save his energy for the night-time feedings.

Everything was so peaceful, Bonnie found herself thinking sometime after her second glass of wine. So peaceful and so normal. While back at home, life had come to a petrified halt.

Finally, dinner was over. The twins were still sleeping and Liv took Bonnie upstairs. She didn’t seem any more enthusiastic towards Bonnie and Damon than she was a few hours ago but she did show Bonnie the room they would be sharing and even offered to switch beds with her if Bonnie liked.

“No, but thanks,” Bonnie replied, a little surprised at Liv’s friendliness – her version of it, of course. “You know, Damon and I could have just booked a hotel.”

“Wow, hooking up already? I thought it’d take him at least a couple of years post-Doppelganger to get into your pants.”

Bonnie gaped. “What? Er… no. Also, ewwww! I meant separate rooms; Damon and I aren’t in a relationship.” As a matter of fact, last month was the first time Bonnie had seen him in ages but that was hardly Liv’s business.

“You don’t need to be in a relationship to hook up,” Liv said wryly.

“Trust me, I do.” Bonnie retorted. Then she fell silent and turned to the box she was unpacking, fighting the urge to check her nose to see if it was growing. What happened in Europe, stayed in Europe, she reminded herself. And as for what happened before…

That didn’t count. Not in the least.

“Well, I’m certain Damon will still go for you someday. I think if he wasn’t so hung up on the Doppelganger, he’d have gone for you years ago. Didn’t he have the whole Protector of the Bennett line going on for a century? That’s a long time to stand guard over a bloodline and not get some compensation.”

“OK first of all, gross. Secondly, I’ve done plenty for Damon over the years. I think I’ve more than compensated him. And finally, Protector of the Bennett line? Don’t make me laugh. I hope he’s not going about telling people that because he’s not going to get a reference from me.”

Liv hummed, looking contemplative. “So the doppelganger’s gone for good and Damon’s single? Why do I find that hard to believe? You sure she’s really gone? She didn’t have him swear some kind of fidelity blood-oath until she returned? No, that won’t work; Damon would have died by now… No, she’s probably already flown back in from Europe and is hiding somewhere in that huge house of theirs so her girlfriends won’t shame her. Yeah, that sounds about right.”

“It sounds to me like you’re weirdly interested in what’s going on in Damon’s pants.”

“Yuck.” Liv shuddered. “OK, so if you’re not hooking up with Damon, then who’s it? Did you and Jeremy get back together?”

“No.” Bonnie gave Liv a look. “Why? You want him? I can give you his number.”

Liv made a face. “No, thanks. I don’t do younger men. That’s more your thing,” she said sweetly.

“Can’t wait to meet the dude you’re currently doing then,” Bonnie retorted with equal sugar as she looked for her sleepwear with a little more agitation than necessary. “Hope I don’t end up making a play for him. Oh wait, that’s more your thing, isn’t it?” Not exactly the best comeback, and heaven knows she wasn’t in the least bit interested in Liv’s boyfriends, hook-ups or otherwise. But if Bonnie had picked up anything from Damon Salvatore, it was that a good offensive was the best kind of defence.

Liv didn’t answer right away, so Bonnie looked up, and was surprised. From the frozen look on Liv’s face, Bonnie’s weak barb had drawn blood.

“Er… Liv?”

Liv’s face shifted back into its default stone-cold bitch glare. “You can try. But any guy I date would eat a sweet little thing like you for breakfast.”

“Or maybe the guys you date are just lousy in bed and that’s why you’re always such a bitch?”

Liv flipped her outrageous curls. “Being a bitch is better than being a doormat. Have you finally grown a spine now that the doppelganger has left-”

“Her name is Elena,” Bonnie said tersely.

“Or do you roll over and die for Forbes now? I’m guessing there’s no need to ask if you still do that for the Salvatores. Ow!”

A tiny – well, maybe not so tiny – zing had zipped out of Bonnie and hit the other woman square on the cheek.

“Oops, my bad,” Bonnie purred.

“Did you just give me a zit?” Liv yelled, rushing to the mirror.

Bonnie shrugged.

Liv glared at her through the glass, her own fingers curling into a hex pattern. Bonnie braced herself, ready to throw it back at her.

Then Liv’s hand dropped to her side and she smiled ruefully. “I guess I had that coming.”

“You think?”

“So not a doormat, anymore, Bonnie. Looks like your time-out with my brother really brought out your inner bitch.”

Quickly, Bonnie turned back to her box, her hands balled into fists. She managed – barely – to rein herself in.

“Whatever, Liv. Are we going to get along or do I really need to book that hotel?”

“Relax, miyagi,” Liv said, surprising Bonnie by mentioning the nickname she had given her when she – Bonnie – had foolishly thought that she was training Liv.

What a joke.

“I wanted to know who I was dealing with,” Liv continued. “Now I know.”

“Know what?”

Liv smiled. “I know we’re going to get along just fine.” She threw herself on her bed. “I’m taking you to the Great Coven Leader, tomorrow by the way. So make sure you bring your A-game.”

Bonnie was silent, as she gathered her bathroom things. On the tip of her tongue were the same questions she had thrown earlier at Jo – why Liv was also so normal about the brother she once hated, the brother that had killed the twin she loved so much.

Then Bonnie decided that it was none of her business. None of the Parkers were, really. She was only here because she had to be and once she got the help she needed, she was leaving and hopefully, never looking back.

She did hesitate at the bathroom door, and when she looked back she caught Liv’s sober face, staring at her.

“Tyler and Matt are doing great at the academy,” Bonnie said, softly. “Matt and I get together once in a while, and sometimes Tyler drops by. I don’t think he’s dating anyone serious, either.”

Liv’s raccoon-shadowed eyes brightened up a little. Then she made a face quickly to hide it. “You and Matt, huh? Is he the one that you’re hooking up – sorry, I mean, that you’re in a relationship with then?”

“Oh shut up, Liv!” Bonnie snapped, shaking her head and closing the door behind her.

June 2013

Whitmore

When Bonnie turned the corner as she walked from the showers to her dorm room, she spotted a familiar dark-blue suited figure walking away from her on the corridor.

Her heart stuttered, the beginning of panic rising. He disappeared round a corner and without thinking, she dashed after him, her flip-flops slapping on the floor. The bend led to the stairs landing and he was half-way down the steps when she caught up with him.

She grabbed his wrist, spinning him so hard, he flailed. “You!”

“Hey!” yelped the...

…completely unfamiliar person, clinging to the handrail and gaping up at her as if she was crazy.

Bonnie dropped his wrist quickly. “I... I’m sorry. I thought you were someone else.” Embarrassment burned through her as she realized just how ridiculous she seemed, standing in her bathrobe, waylaying a complete stranger.

Too late, she noticed the clipboard he had dropped. Of course. A building inspector.

Sometime during the past school year, Whitmore College had been sold. Aaron Whitmore’s death had marked the extinction of the Whitmore dynasty and the college and the rest of their legacy had been sold off in parts or as a whole to either a consortium of investors or another wealthy dynasty, depending on which rumour you believed. No one quite seemed to know much about the new owners of the university beside the facts that they had chosen to keep the old name and they planned several massive improvements to the campus real estate. Extensive construction work had been scheduled for the summer; flyers and emails were being sent around to residents in affected dormitories, including Bonnie’s own.

So this was not the first time that Bonnie had seen an inspector prowling around the dormitory.

It was the first time she had assaulted one, though.

The man gave her an uncertain nod, still staring at her warily. She took a step back, tried for a placating smile. In turn, she got a “lady, you’re crazy” look before he picked up his board, and all but ran away from her.

It was an honest mistake, Bonnie told herself, as she plodded back to her room. After all, how many men over six feet wore a navy suit in the middle of June? It was quite funny, really.

But she couldn’t muster any humour for the next unexpected encounter that was waiting for her.

This time it was in the form of two tickets lying beside the pyjamas she had spread on her bed.

She picked up the first one and stared at it, her eyebrows climbing higher and higher in her face.

“What is this?” Her gaze snapped at once to Caroline, who was sitting ramrod straight on the bed across from Bonnie’s.

She jumped at Bonnie’s question, her oddly glazed face sharpening into alarm. “Don’t look at me. I had nothing to do with this.” She waved her own ticket in front of her like a white flag.

Bonnie whirled to the girl that was sitting at her desk, textbooks spread in front of her.

Elena turned to give her a bored look. “A choice. Europe or Portland. Pick one.”

“Here’s a thought,” Bonnie muttered, crumpling the hard paper in her fist. “How about neither?”

Elena didn’t blink. “There are more copies where that came from. If you want me to choose for you, I’d be happy to.”

Bonnie took a deep breath.

“OK!” Caroline said, jumping to her feet. “I’m just going to go… hide.”

She all but ran out of the room. Bonnie and Elena didn’t watch her leave.

Elena still had that infuriatingly guileless expression on her face.

Bonnie counted back from ten, and reminded herself that her childhood friend could no longer survive an aneurysm. “I signed up for summer classes.”

“Cancel them. With all the construction that’s happening, you’ll spend half your time looking for your class, and the other half getting there. Besides, if anyone has earned an extra semester in college, it’s you. What you haven’t earned is the right to carry all that baggage inside you for three more months. So this is what I’ve come up with: We can have an all-expenses paid Eurotrip to fix us – or you have an all-expenses solo trip to Portland, where you can visit breweries, smell the roses, and fix whatever is going on between you and Kai Parker-”

“There’s nothing going on between me and Kai Parker!” Bonnie hissed, hands balled into fists.

The fire place – which had been cold and dead all day – came to life, flames rising with a roar, and spitting embers.

Elena’s chair scraped, as she shifted hastily away, and Bonnie took another deep shuddering breath.

The flames went down.

“Obviously,” Elena deadpanned.

Bonnie sat down abruptly.

For a moment, the room was silent while Bonnie felt her head bow under the weight of her friend’s – former friend’s?- gaze.

“Europe, it is then,” Elena said softly, and she turned back to her desk. “Chicks before dicks. I like it.”

Bonnie laughed in disbelief. “You can’t make me go anywhere, you know.”

“Wanna bet?” Elena murmured.

Bonnie glared at the other girl’s serene face, at her brown eyes dancing with mischief. Then Bonnie turned to her bed and picked up the second ticket. “Company of three?”

“You, me, Caroline. We all need the therapy. Plus, I think it’s embarrassing that all three of us hit twenty without ever leaving this country, don’t you?”

“Just us three? No… Salvatore in company?” For the first time, Bonnie was intrigued.

“Nope.”

“And what does your boyfriend think about that?”

Elena laughed loudly. “Chicks before dicks. Also… who effing cares?”

Bonnie turned her face so that Elena won’t see the smile that was threatening to form.

Instead, she muttered, “I’ll think about it.”

She ignored the triumphant look on Elena’s face and put on her pyjamas. She was hanging up her bathrobe, when she remembered her earlier encounter.

“Did someone come in here while I was in the shower?”

When Elena didn’t answer right away, Bonnie turned to her friend. “Elena?”

Elena raised her head from the books she had apparently already retreated into. “Sorry. What, Bonnie?”

“I thought I saw…” When Elena kept looking at her blankly, Bonnie shook her head. “Never mind. It was nothing.”

Elena shrugged, her head already bowing back over her books.

Bonnie sat down on the bed and stared fluffing her pillow when her gaze caught that first ticket – the crumpled paper with PDX peeking through the wrinkles.

Under Bonnie’s gaze, it levitated into the air and burst into flames.

She caught Elena’s gaze as the ashes fell to the ground – a gaze filled with pity and worry – and Bonnie lay back on the bed abruptly, turning her back to her friend, staring unseeingly at the wall in front of her.

June 2014

Portland

The time difference between Virginia and Oregon caught up with Bonnie sometime in the early hours of the morning; she woke up abruptly and so decidedly that she knew there was no point trying to go back to sleep soon.

She stared up at the ceiling and thought of all the events that had led her to now – in Portland, in his sister’s home, as she counted down the hours before she would see him again for the first time in a year.

When she had returned to Mystic Falls last month – after almost a year away from her hometown – their makeshift crew of town defenders had been divided about reaching out to Portland for help. Bonnie had been the one to finally shut down that idea.

Yes, she had admitted, the Gemini had fought and won against the heretics in the past. But, she reminded them, their gang of seven – Bonnie, Damon, Stefan, Caroline, Tyler, Matt and Enzo – had fought and won over worse than a pair of vampire-witch freaks over the years, hadn’t they? They didn’t need the unpredictable Gemini, she had insisted. And the others had mostly believed her.

But weeks had passed and the bodies kept piling up. And maybe, at the back of Bonnie’s mind, was the hope that the Gemini – that he – would reach out to them first. But it never happened.

Then they had suffered a loss of one of their own and Bonnie knew it was time to swallow her pride. This was the only option left to them.

Although there was one option open to Bonnie. She could pack her bags, move out of Virginia and leave Mystic Falls, Whitmore, and whatever other territory the heretics chose to claim, to the mercy of fate. After all, she had done it before, sort of. And in the past year, the two towns had survived through a rampage of nomadic werewolves, and an inexplicable visitation from a dragon of all things – all without her. Surely, Mystic Falls-Whitmore could weather a pair of misplaced heretics.

But Bonnie knew, deep down, that this time around, she wouldn’t do it – couldn’t. This was one battle that she won’t be able to walk away from.

The days leading up to this trip had seen her emotions run the gamut from dread to anticipation. It changed with every passing day, every passing hour. The only constant thought in her head was –

Get it over with.

And in the next twenty-four hours, regardless of the outcome, she would.

From the corner of her eye, she caught the flash of her phone’s alert light. She picked it up and saw a message from Matt. Heart beating, she tapped it open and then heaved a relieved sigh.

The town was quiet today. No deaths. No incidents. No news was the best news.

She tapped a response back. “I’m getting help. Keep your fingers crossed.”

He buzzed back immediately. “Take care of yourself there, OK?” That brought a smile to her face.

There was an older message from Caroline that must have come in during dinnertime, asking how things were. Bonnie decided to take the chance and call back. It was probably breaking dawn in Whitmore and Caroline was usually an early riser.

“Hey,” Caroline’s voice sounded sleepy.

OK, she was usually an early riser.

“Hey. Sorry to wake you.”

“No. No problem. How’re you doing? How was your trip? How’re Alaric and Jo and the kids? Hope Damon is behaving himself.”

“OK. Fine. Great. He doesn’t have a choice.” She grinned. “Did I miss anything?”

Caroline laughed softly. “Nice one. So… have you seen him?”

Bonnie snuck a glance across the room, where she could make out Liv’s sleeping form in the dark. “I’ll see him tomorrow.”

Care sighed. “Bonnie, I know-”

“I think Jo’s at the door. Talk to you later?”

“Sure, Bon. ’Night.”

“’Night, Care.”

She stayed up for an hour after that, thoughts like ghosts chasing through her head. When she finally did sleep back, she dreamt of red-cloaked, redheaded heretics, the vengeful face of Lily Salvatore, winged stars falling in flames from the sky, and a warlock with grey eyes and a streak of white shooting out of his dark hair.

Chapter 2: the council (of the creepy-ass twin-murdering coven)

Chapter Text

June 2014

Portland

“You look like you’re going to throw up,” Damon observed.

Bonnie pinched the bridge of her nose, and put her sunglasses firmly back in place. “I won’t.”

“Well, you look it. Are you coming down with something? Need a little blood?”

Bonnie stared at the outstretched wrist and felt like retching. She wound down the side glass, took a whiff of fresh air. “I’m fine, Damon. It’s just the heat.”

“Whatever you do, don’t throw up in the car.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said dryly.

“You’re not nervous, are you? The great Bonnie Bennett? Nervous about seeing this punk?”

“I said I’m fine.”

“I mean, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you dragged me all the way to Portland because you needed some moral support to meet this guy.”

Bonnie bit back her words. The last thing she wanted was to get into another over-prolonged bickering session with Damon. It was the strangest thing. If anyone had asked her anytime since over a year – anytime since her second trip from 1903 to be precise – Bonnie would have described her relationship with Damon Salvatore as borderline estranged; but a month back in Mystic Falls and they’d fallen into a kind of groove – less than the friends she’d thought they had become in 1994, but more than the reluctant allies they had been for most of their acquaintance. A compromise that only time, and time apart, had enabled them to achieve.

It was comforting, in its own way. If she and Damon could reach an understanding despite all the blood and betrayal in their shared past, then maybe someday, she and him could…

She almost laughed out loud at the hopelessly naïve train of her thoughts.

Yeah, right, she thought bitterly.

Beside her, Damon droned on. “I mean, it was great to see Alaric and Jo all over again, don’t get me wrong. I’m just wondering how much help a vampire is when you need to meet the great Gemini coven leader. Especially when you’re meeting over another vampire problem.”

“The operative word there being another,” Bonnie couldn’t help quipping. “You being an on-going case.”

“Now, that’s the Bonnie I know and fear,” Damon crowed. “For a moment there, you got me worried.”

She sighed.

May 2013

Mystic Falls, 1903

The red-clad figure was rising.

The headless heretic was standing. Stood.

Horror was a bottomless pit opening in Bonnie’s stomach as the creature she had just decapitated five minutes ago, stretched out its hands and caught the head that flew into them.

It can’t be.

When they were children, and the girls still played with dolls, all three of them – Bonnie, Elena, and Caroline – had one day got into a fight with Jeremy Gilbert and with some clever lying, put most of the blame for it on him. The next day after school, they had gone to Elena’s house and seen their My Little Pony dolls lined up on the bed with their heads ripped off.

Watching the heretic carefully place his head back on his shoulders, the red sizzle of magic as it sealed seamlessly into place, the red coat of blood on its neck the only sign of what had happened before – was like a macabre call back to that day.

I took off its head!

‘Suckers don’t die easy.’

Yes, but not that they couldn’t die at all!

The eyes blinked open, dark fathomless pools of swirling black magic, and Bonnie felt her brain breaking as she watched its lips part in a chant, a hand stretched out at her.

How do you kill something that can’t die?

She was tensing to push back the hex – the only thing that she could manage to think of at the moment was to send its own magic back at it – when something slammed into her side and she went down, rolling across the floor in a tangle of legs and arms.

She came to a stop with her back on the floor and her attacker on top of her and for the second time that night, Kai Parker was in her face.

“What the hell are you still doing here?”

She was too dazed to answer. She pushed back at his shoulders but his whole body was locked around her own.

“Get off me,” she managed, weakly.

“I told you to get out. I told my –” he breathed hard, then turned his head and cursed loudly.

Bonnie shifted, trying again to push him off her but it only seemed to make her fit into him some more. She shivered, and it must have been a mixture of her fury at him and the adrenaline running through her veins that made her feel so enflamed.

He turned back to her and his eyes were smouldering.

“Stop that,” he said, his voice low and gravelly.

“Let me go, Kai,” she said weakly.

“Oh, I will,” he snarled.

She blinked and the chaos of the wedding hall vanished.

June 2014

Portland

Liv was waiting for them in front of the diner. She gave Bonnie’s outfit the full up-and-down inspection, taking in her slick bun, her smart dark suit with the green camisole peeking out from underneath and her sensible shoes. She nodded approvingly.

“Nice. You dressed up. That’s five points already with the Council.”

Liv herself was wearing a pantsuit and a complicated braid that made her look like a completely different person.

She had fixed the zit, Bonnie noted with an inward smirk. The small observation broke her own bundle of nerves somewhat.

“I guess I’ll be taking those five points back then,” Damon drawled, hands in his jean pockets, leaning against the parked car. Bonnie wasn’t sure, but she strongly suspected that he wore either the exact same black T-shirt every-day or he had an infinite number of black T-shirts in the same style.

“You can wear anything you like, Damon. You’re not coming.”

He straightened at that. “No way.”

“Coven rules. No vampires allowed in the Council halls.”

“Even if the coven leader vouches for me?”

“Especially when the Praetor does not vouch for you.”

“The what now?”

“That’s Gemini-speak for coven leader. Get used to it. And get used to not being included in the witchy stuff, vampire.”

“What the-” Damon started, advancing at Liv.

Bonnie stepped between them. “It’s OK. Bunch of bigots, right? We considered this.” She took a deep breath. “I’ll go in, meet him, get the spell and I’ll be out in a jiffy.”

Damon looked over her head at Liv. “You Geminis are freaks. I’m not letting Bonnie in there by herself and I’d like to see you try to stop me.”

“Damon,” Bonnie started.

“Oh, he’s welcome to try,” Liv said, her eyes dancing. “Just don’t say I didn’t warn you when for example, your daylight ring suddenly stops working.”

Just like the witches’ house back at Mystic Falls, Bonnie thought, and she could tell from Damon’s face that he was remembering that, too. His powerlessness made him even more furious. She gave him a reassuring smile that belied her own nervousness.

“I’ll be fine, Damon. He’s a good guy now, remember?”

“The same good guy we stabbed in the back a year ago. You never know when these things come up again.”

Bonnie looked away. “That’s water under the bridge. We’re even.”

“We’re even, Bonster.”

She suppressed a shiver.

“You’re actually meeting with the Council,” Liv interjected.

They stared at her. “I thought I was meeting with K- your leader.”

“You can’t just waltz in here and get a one-on-one with the Praetor. There’s a chain of command. You climb it.”

“But-”

“Anyway, he sits on the council, too. As the head.”

Bonnie thought about that, then faked a grin for Damon. “See, even better?”

“Better? That’s the council of the creepy-ass twin-murdering coven, remember? They’re probably the ones who came up with the twin-murdering rules,” he retorted back but seemed to back down. “Make sure Judgy gets out of there in one piece, Liv,” he warned. “Or you’re answering to me.”

Liv gave him the finger. He answered with a big smile, fangs and all. Outside the Saltzmans’s house, his vampiric nature had free reign.

Bonnie shook her head at the both of them.

Liv opened the door to the diner with a big flourishing bow. Bonnie got a peek of its dim interior, before Liv stepped in behind her and the door closed.

Then the diner vanished.

In a flash of colour, they stood in a huge hallway, walls and floor made of shiny, polished marble. A spiral staircase rose up in front of them, reaching to a ceiling that was so high, Bonnie couldn’t decipher the elaborate symbols etched into it.

“Portal through the diner door,” Bonnie said curtly, hoping her voice did not betray how awestruck she felt. “Neat.”

Liv threw her a look that told Bonnie she wasn’t fooling anyone. Then she led her across the hall. There were two large doors on the east side and she pushed them open, standing to the side to let Bonnie through.

Bonnie curled her hands into fists, and walked inside with her head held high.

They stepped into a hall shaped in a half-circle. It was arranged like a church, with a half-dozen benches on either side of the aisle that Bonnie and Liv walked down. The far side of the hall, the curved area and where an altar would have been in a Catholic church, the floor was elevated about a foot from the rest of the hall and a high curved bench lined the wall. Behind the bench sat eleven men and women of varying ages and races, and from the prickling on her skin, Bonnie knew she was in the presence of very powerful witches.

Not a church, Bonnie realized as she and Liv sat down on the first row on the right side of the room.

More like a courtroom.

Was she on trial?

“Olivia Parker, you may approach the bench and state your prayer.”

The person that spoke was an elderly, snow-bearded white man seated at the left-side of the bench, closest to the empty chair in the centre. Joshua Parker.

There were eleven people but the bench was clearly meant to be occupied by thirteen. Bonnie could tell because there were two empty spaces – one at the extreme left and one at the centre. Kai Parker was not here.

Bonnie bent down and stared hard at her hands, forcing down the relief and disappointment – mostly disappointment – that had risen inside her.

Olivia walked to the centre of the hall, looked up at the bench and started talking.

A lot of what she said went over Bonnie’s head. It sounded like some complicated, legalistic formal form of greeting in a mixture of Greek and Latin during which Olivia acknowledged by name every person in the room. She barely even recognized her own name when Olivia mentioned her. And there seemed to be all kinds of magic constantly at work, the purposes of which Bonnie couldn’t grasp but she could still feel the tingling sense of.

After a while, Olivia was done talking and silence settled in the room.

“Let Ms. Bennett give her own testimony,” said an older, dark-skinned woman that sat at the furthest seat to the left.

Bonnie stood up awkwardly. “Hello. I mean, good afternoon.” She tried a smile. She didn’t get one in return. Biting back a grimace, she continued, “Thank you for seeing me on such short-”

Liv cleared her throat noisily. Bonnie stared. Liv cleared her throat again, and made an awkward beckoning kind of gesture with her shoulder.

It took Bonnie a moment, then she blushed. “Er… excuse me. Sorry.”

She walked out of her seat and came to stand beside Liv. Staring up at the non-smiling faces above her was even more disconcerting from this position.

“So, thanks again for seeing me. It all started-”

The woman cut right through her words. “What measures have been taken to contain the heretics in Mystic Falls?”

Bonnie blinked. Rude much, old lady? She thought but wisely, kept that to herself. “So far, vervain is the only thing that works. We’re pumping it into the drinking water. It’s a bit hard on the…”

The unsmiling faces were setting into harder lines and Bonnie quickly skipped over the part where she was about to say, “it’s a bit hard on the non-heretic vampires in town but they manage.”

“Wards don’t hold up for long. The heretics just siphon out the magic from them. In fact, the best restraints right now are the old school bolts and bars, dosed with liquid vervain. Everything magical just ends up being more juice for their batteries, if you know what I mean.” She cringed. Not the most formal of expressions but really the most apt.

“You confirm what Olivia stated, that the heretics reappeared in Mystic Falls exactly one month ago?” The question came from a slightly younger male wizard.

“Yes.”

“And you are certain that these are of the group that we conquered during the Fourth Battle of Mystic Falls?”

“I recognised one of them. From the Battle,” Bonnie replied. She supposed it was a battle of sorts. She had never thought of it that was before. She guessed she had been in so many of those high-powered confrontations of magic and violence that she took them for granted.

The Fourth? Left to Bonnie, she would have counted differently.

“You could not have recognised any of the heretics. They wore hoods and you were carted off with the rest of the children and the mundanes.”

Bonnie’s jaw dropped. “I was not-” she began furiously but Joshua Parker had already cut in.

“Ms Bennett fought in that battle. She saved the lives of Isaiah Long, Antonia Genova and Judi Stewart and even beheaded one of the heretics. It resurrected, of course, but like the rest of us, she did not know they couldn’t be easily destroyed.”

One or two others murmured in agreement and looked at her with slightly less unsmiling faces.

The man that spoke before still looked sceptical. “I do not recall her presence. I do recall that the majority of the Mystic Falls contingent left the moment the heretics attacked. Your,” and she could literally hear the air quotes in his voice, “‘vampires’ abandoned us and eventually, so did you. Furthermore, these heretics were released as a result of your actions on behalf of these ‘vampires’ of yours.”

She could hear the blood rushing through her ears and she started speaking when Liv grabbed her elbow. Bonnie turned at the other woman and saw the warning in Liv’s eyes.

Her hand still firm on Bonnie, Liv spoke. “Inquiries into the release of the 1903 Prisoners were concluded during -” She rattled off the date in Latin[1]. “It is clusus to third parties, too.”

“She is not a third party. She was implicates[2],” the man said belligerently. “The venia[3] came from the Praetor, against the council’s recommendation. Her very testimony is suspect.”

“She is Sheila Bennett’s grand-daughter,” another man said sharply.

“With no formal Praecantatio Disciplina[4],” the old lady, the first one that spoke, retorted. “She associates with vampires. Yes, members of our coven have entered short-term alliances with nefandus bestia[5], but her case is unprecedented. She has more loyalty to them than any witch of her acquaintance. We cannot in good faith place any value on her testimony without independent verification.”

Liv’s grip on her elbow was almost painful. Bonnie yanked herself away.

“People are dying in Mystic Falls,” she said through gritted teeth. “Mundanes. Witches. Werewolves, although you probably don’t care about them or the vampires. But what about your own kind? What about the Gemini mandate to protect mundane existence?”

“You will speak in turn.” Unsurprisingly, that was from the first young man – Mr. Asshat, Bonnie decided, mentally christening him.

“We are already aware of the casualties in question,” Joshua Parker said.

Bonnie started. “Already aware? You mean, you’ve known all along about this? And you’ve done nothing?”

“You will speak-”

“Oh, shut up!” And it was satisfying to see all their stuffy faces bristle in outrage as one. Beside her, Liv covered her face with her hands. “The heretics have been on a rampage for a month and you’ve all been sitting on your collective asses while my so-called nefaria have been risking their lives for the town.”

“The heretics are only a danger because you let them out! If you hadn’t freed the ripper, none of this would have happened!”

And there it was.

Bonnie raised her hands. “I. am. sorry! OK? I did this. I know. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.” At least that much she knew. “But it’s done. They got out. Two remain. I’d kill them myself if I knew how. Nothing works. Not fire. Not decapitation. Not a stake through the heart. They don’t need an invitation. They can walk in daylight. These things are terrorising my town. Tell me what to do to end this and I’ll be on my way.”

The old lady eyed Bonnie with disapproval written all over her face. “You’re here to present a prayer, young woman, not to make demands.”

“Oh for heaven’s sake, where’s Kai Parker? I didn’t come all the way here to judged and lectured by you jerks. Where’s your blasted coven leader?”

Liv’s hands were still covering her face and now she moaned a little.

The council erupted. They all seemed to be talking at once, a loud murmur of voices that increased in volume and intensity. Bonnie couldn’t make out the words. A lot of it was in Latin. Most of it was punctuated by sharp glares and gestures at Bonnie.

After almost ten minutes of this, Joshua Parker raised his hands and they fell silent.

“The council will convene privately. Ms Bennett, you may take your leave. We will inform you through Olivia-”

It took everything in Bonnie not to launch herself at them. “Oh my god, are you even listening to me? Don’t… f*cking inform me. Just tell me what to do!”

Liv gave her another hard pinch. Bonnie turned on her, eyes flashing…

…and they were now standing in the doorway of the diner.

Liv pushed her outside.

“What just happened?” Bonnie asked, gasping.

“You heard my father. Council is meeting in private now. Nice job pissing them off, by the way.”

Bonnie’s words were cut short by Damon rushing up to them.

“What’s going on? Did they cancel on you or what?”

She shook her head, blinking back the angry tears that were threatening to fall. “It’s over. I don’t know what they’re deciding. This was just a waste of time.” She started walking towards the car.

Damon grabbed her shoulder. “What? We came all the way here when they’d already made up their minds? Is Kai in there? Daylight ring or not, I’m going to kick his-!”

“He wasn’t there. It won’t have made any difference. Let’s just go.”

“No, we can’t leave. They have to hear us out at least!”

“They did. I don’t… I don’t think it made any difference.”

“What’s going on? When did all this happen? You were in and out in like a second. I thought you left something in the car.”

Bonnie stared at him. It was suddenly clear what the confusion was.

“Damon, I’ve been in there for almost half an hour.”

He stared back. “Huh?”

Both of them turned to look at Liv, who had been leaning against the car watching their exchange.

She shook her head, smirking at Bonnie. “You really have no disciplina do you?”

Bonnie took a step forward and Liv backed away, her hands coming up in mock-surrender. “Sorry! You stepped through a portal to the Gemini headquarters and time works a little differently there. That’s all.” She looked at Damon. “She kind of lost her temper there, too. Which, for the record, is never a good idea when you’re talking to eleven bad-ass witches. Anyone of them could have hexed you into a frog just by squinting. Let’s not forget the fact that you came to them for a favour.”

Bonnie scowled, feeling just a bit shamefaced.

“And if that wasn’t bad enough,” Liv continued, “she demanded to speak to Kai! Like he was a store manager and the customer service clerks were giving you a hard time,” she shuddered. “I take back what I said last night. You didn’t find your inner bitch, Bonnie. You found your inner T-Rex.”

Damon guffawed and Bonnie kicked him until he stopped. “Ouch! You know you just proved her point?”

“Look,” Liv finished, “the Council will decide when they decide. You can’t rush these things.”

“People are dying,” Bonnie said miserably. “They’ve known about this for a month and they…” She was tired. She was just so tired.

She opened the passenger door and sat down heavily.

“Why can’t they just tell me how to kill these things? What the hell is the point of keeping it a secret? What’s the big deal?”

“You know, if any of you guys besides Tyler had stuck around during the battle, you’d have witnessed first-hand how to kill a heretic and probably realized why it’s a big deal,” Liv said mildly.

Damon at least, had the sense to look slightly guilty.

Bonnie glared. “I didn’t stick around during the battle because-”

Kai.

Bonnie swallowed down the feelings of anger and disappointment and heartache that were consuming her.

She had dreaded seeing him today. But at least she would have seen him and had that done and over with. Now, the chance of an encounter loomed ahead of her – in some vague, uncertain future – and the anticipation exhausted her.

She was so tired.

She had given herself a clean break last year – or she had tried to. But somehow, she had still got dragged again into the middle of another supernatural battle.

She had been fighting one supernatural battle or another since she was a teenager.

When would it ever end?

“Can we just go back now? We’ll stay a night and leave for Virginia in the morning. Whenever your Council make up their mind, they can reach me by magical email. They teach that in Praecantatio Disciplina, right?” she added nastily.

“Googlas 101,” Liv deadpanned.

Bonnie gave her a cutting glare and Liv had the sense to stay silent for the rest of the ride.

She checked her phone when she remembered. No messages. Thank goodness for that at least.

No news was good news.

Liv dropped off a few block to the Saltzmans’s home, claiming some vague errand. The rest of the drive home, Damon grumbled – while Bonnie silently agreed – that the blonde witch was skipping out on baby duty.

As he pulled up the driveway, they could already hear the clear sounds of babies wailing through the open window.

Alaric was still in school and one twin needed a diaper change, the other needed a nap and Jo almost wept with relief at the sight of both of them. She all but threw the cranky baby into Damon’s arms then dragged Bonnie to the nursery to help with the other.

“What am I supposed to do?” Damon called after Jo over the baby’s screams.

“Rock her, sing to her, cuddle her. You’re almost two hundred years old, Damon. Figure it out.”

In the nursery, Jo insisted on hearing everything that happened with the Council. Her eyes were sharp and attentive even as she changed her baby’s diapers with robotic efficiency as Bonnie narrated the disappointing events of the day while handing over the required equipment.

“I came all the way here to be picked apart by a bunch of old snobs,” Bonnie concluded with a scowl.

Jo gave her a sceptical look while with one hand, she flipped over her progeny with a briskness that made Bonnie’s heart jump. “You shouldn’t have lost your temper.”

“That is so not what is important right now!”

“And then demanding to speak to the Praetor like that?” Jo tut-tutted. “Well, it’s too late to fix that. The council’s told you they’ll come to a decision and they will. You just have to be patient.” She beckoned to Bonnie to hold onto a waving arm while she pulled on the baby’s clothes.

“Why is everything up to the council, anyway? What’s the point of the coven leader then?”

Jo sat on the rocking chair with the now changed and freshly dressed child and threw Bonnie an amused glance. “You want Kai to play favourites for you?”

Bonnie felt the blood rush to her cheeks. “Of course not! I just want to understand how things work with you Gemini. I’m not a political major but isn’t there a reason why the President calls the shots during a state of emergency?”

Jo snorted as she positioned her baby to nurse. “Bonnie, as we speak, there’s a vampire infestation in Brooklyn, the dragon-worshipping cults have been on the rise since last Fall, rumours of the Augustine Society being revived, and there’s the chance that one of the largest covens in the country is about to break their treaty with us.”

Bonnie blinked. “What?”

“If any of those actualize, that would be a state of emergency. But two heretics in Mystic Falls? Seriously? If that were the case, the coven would have burnt down that town down years ago, and salted the ashes. Do you know how many times they considered that during your Klaus episodes… or your Silas episodes…? If all it takes are a couple of heretics, then just your sheer vampire population would be enough reason.”

“It’s not the same thing. They can’t be killed.”

“That you know of. You thought Klaus couldn’t be killed … until he could. And Silas. And every other threat you’ve faced,” she said calmly. She reached over and gave Bonnie a one-armed hug. “Hang in there, OK? Your town’s weathered through a lot worse.”

Bonnie bit her lip and looked away. “Could you…” she cleared her throat. “I don’t suppose you could speak to K- to your brother about this?”

“The council will recommend their decision to the leader in due time…” she said and Bonnie groaned. Then Jo winked. “But if I give my twin brother a call and let him know how my day went, that’s not anybody’s business.”

“Thanks,” Bonnie said softly. She looked down at her fingers, which had automatically twisted in her lap at the new possibility of still meeting with him before her return to Virginia, and swallowed hard against the tension that threatened to rise within her.

“Now please go get something to eat and make sure Damon isn’t snacking on my baby.”

An hour later, Alaric was home from school, the babies were both asleep, and Liv strolled in, curls bouncing and completely oblivious to Damon’s dirty looks.

“Any word from the Council?” Bonnie asked at once.

To her disappointment, Liv shook her head.

While Alaric and Jo were in the living room catching up, Liv dragged the others to the kitchen. Damon poured himself a glass of bourbon – ignoring Bonnie’s glare – and listened as Liv informed them that sometime during her still vaguely defined assignment, she had come up with the idea of the trio doing babysitting duty while the Saltzmans got a much needed date night.

Damon gulped. “We didn’t come here to-”

“We’ll do it,” Bonnie said at once. “I think it’s a great idea.” Despite everything, she could be generous to a friend. Besides, it won’t be the first time they’d juggle life-and-death with the boring minutiae of day-to-day existence. Babysitting for a night was nothing compared to organizing the Homecoming Dance while mentally duelling with an immortal dark wizard.

Liv beamed at her and smirked at Damon.

Half an hour after Liv had gone to tell Jo, the older woman came to them with a face wreathed with smiles and gave her two guests big hugs.

“Thank you so much! Once in a while the older witches come around to lend a hand but never for the whole night. This night will be the second time I’ve had sex since the twins were born.”

Damon, in the middle of a sip of bourbon, spat it out.

“TMI?” Jo asked. “Sorry. When you’ve been through a pregnancy and birth, you tend to lose all filters. If I had a dollar for every doctor, nurse, intern, janitor that put their fingers up my-”

“I will watch your kids for two nights if you stop talking now!” Damon shouted.

Jo smiled broadly and left, dragging the girls with her.

It was fun, helping her pack for her short stay. There was the question of appropriate nightwear. Jo had a few post-baby ones that she was a little self-conscious about trying out. Bonnie thought she should go for it. Liv countered that Alaric would be lucky enough to be getting any. He won’t need any fancy wrapping.

That made Bonnie laugh so hard, she was in stitches for five minutes.

Alaric popped his head in just in time to see the gaggle of laughing women and took to his heels.

It was Damon that eventually came to fetch Jo.

“There’s a dude downstairs, fairly good looking, borderline alcoholic, I think he’s waiting for his date…?”

“I’ll be down in five.”

Liv called him back. “Remindhim to stop for condoms.”

Damon Salvatore opened his mouth, and for the first time Bonnie could remember, nothing came out.

“I don’t think so. No way am I going through all this ever again.”

Damon fled, chased away by malicious feminine laughter.

Jo finally made it down with, to her husband’s great confusion, two overnight bags.

The twins were asleep but Alaric still left Jo in the car to rush into the house one last time and give them a once over. As they all but dragged him out of the nursery, he repeated all of Jo’s instructions on feedings, changes and bedtimes with a few tips of his own.

“Rachel loves being held just so.” He showed how to Damon who was clearly fighting a losing battle with his eyeballs.

“We’ll be fine! Just go!” Liv said as she and Damon wrestled him into the car and slammed the door.

“Bye!” Bonnie called from the door.

“Have a good time, buddy,” Damon said with a knowing smirk.

“Have great sex, Jo!” Liv cooed.

The Saltzmans finally made it out, the car pulling out the driveway to the cheers and hoots of the trio behind. The only things missing were a rope of cans dangling from the license plate and the Just Married sign.

Bonnie glanced at Liv, then Damon, and she knew they were all thinking the same thing.

This was the send-off they missed out on a year ago when the dream wedding turned into a nightmare. They hadn’t even finished the ceremony. The first heretic had appeared in the middle of Jo’s vows.

It was her brother that had saved her that night.

Frowning now, as unwanted thoughts filled her head, Bonnie led the way back into the Saltzmans’s house.

May 2013

Mystic Falls

With a few hours left before the Saltzmans’ wedding ceremony started, it wasn’t a good sign that the wedding planner was freaking out more than the bride. Apparently, no one had done Caroline Forbes the courtesy of asking her approval of the last minute changes to the event. Jo had done her best to explain to the irate vampire that as the daughter of the former Praetor, sister of the current one, and likely mother of the future one, Josette Parker’s wedding was the Gemini equivalent of a Royal Wedding. While she had been merely Jo Laughlin, estranged and prodigal daughter – and all the witches had been hiding from their new leader – the ceremony was entirely her affair, and it was going to be a simple event with Elena standing for her, and Damon standing for Alaric. But now the Gemini Coven had recently undergone some sort of reconciliation with their leader, and as a show of good faith, they had been given permission to essentially hijack his twin sister’s wedding.

Caroline was having none of that.

Bonnie was walking slowly through the chaotic event hall, searching for her friend with all the foreboding of a bearer of bad news. The floral contractor had called and Caroline would not like what they had to say. It was just one more thing cutting it close on an event that, according to Caroline, was already threading the line between a success and a disaster. As Bonnie weaved through workmen carrying ladders and drills, and supervisors yelling at the top of their lungs, Bonnie feared that the odds were on disaster.

She slowed even more as she passed a cluster of dusty hunks surrounding a site where a large chandelier was being hoisted, and spotted Elena and Stefan Salvatore in the distance.

Elena was standing still with arms crossed; under her straight dark hair, her face was bowed and grave. In contrast, Stefan was uncharacteristically animated, pacing in a tight arc around her, arms gesticulating wildly as he talked quickly. Bonnie was too far to hear him but clearly, something was wrong and a few days ago, her curiosity might have been piqued enough to walk over.

Now she did an about-face and walked away, praying that she wasn’t about to be dragged into cleaning up a new supernatural mess.

She searched, now more eagerly, for Caroline. Her friend was still nowhere in sight but Bonnie could see a trio of well-dressed women standing along the edge of the canopy that still lay on the open area. They were from a group of guests that had arrived early and that Jo had introduced to everyone earlier as ‘family friends from Portland’. Bonnie didn’t need that cryptic description to tell her what her own witch intuition had picked up first.

These were witches. Gemini witches.

And finally, Bonnie spotted Caroline – and in the nick of time, too! Her friend was striding at almost vamp-speed towards the trio, with a look on her face that made Bonnie believe that a vampire-witch war was about to be declared.

Bonnie all but ran to her friend’s side, arriving at the start of a near-heated conversation.

“There’s room for Liv to stand with her sister but that’s it,” Caroline was saying vehemently. “We can’t add any more places to the bridal train.”

“Unacceptable.” The sharp word came from a petite, matron-type woman. Her magical aura was taut, competent, and Bonnie could tell that she wasn’t someone to cross lightly. But even with that, from the steel in her gaze as she gazed condescendingly up at Caroline, it was evident that she was capable – and willing – to set the vampire on fire.

Behind her hovered two teenage girls – one dark-skinned, and slender with darkish red curls – and another white with straight black ponytails. Their auras hummed with magical proficiency that Bonnie envied to see in witches their ages. They looked about 15, 16 at most.

“I’m sorry,” Caroline was saying in a tone that sounded the opposite of sorry, “but we’ve already rehearsed the stage arrangements. I hope,” she gave the two girls a smile that made Curly flinch and Ponytails bristle, “you girls aren’t too disappointed. You can be bridesmaids some other day.”

“These girls are not to be mere bridesmaids,” the woman retorted. “They are representations of the covenant between the coven and the Regium, portals in human form for ancestral invocation, essentials to the completion of the Nuptialem orationem that will be cast on the candidates this night.”

Caroline blinked. “The what for the what in the what now?”

The woman looked ready to explode. “I cannot believe Joshua put me in this position, where I need to explain our rituals to a-a…suc-!”

Bonnie inhaled quickly, preparing for a quick intervention – Caroline looked like if she was about to vamp out – but the bride herself beat her to the punch.

“Dame Bethany!” Jo all but shouted, appearing as if by magic between the warring factions. “You forget that not everyone has your flair of being a master of protocol. It’s really quite complex, even for me.” She laughed merrily. “I am beyond honoured to have your input in this, especially with such short notice.”

The older woman mellowed slightly. “Speak nothing of it. This duty usually falls to me and I always rise to the occasion. Which is why,” she said, eyeing Caroline, “this… person … needs to step aside for m-”

Caroline took a menacing step forward. “Not on your-”

Her words ended in a muffled shriek when Bonnie daintily ran her heel into her best friend’s foot.

“But we can’t spare you. There’re too many other things that need your attention,” Jo said sweetly. “Leave Tonia and Judi with me. Of course, they’re going to be in the ceremony.” – Caroline gasped – “Will the boys also be included?” She smiled at the teenage girls who were staring at her with mingled awe and terror.

The older witch sniffed. “Of course, they will. I’ll keep the children close, if you don’t mind. Too many nefaria wondering around for my comfort.” She eyed Caroline balefully. Then she seemed to check herself. “On consideration, you keep them. I don’t want you or your father to swap them out of the ceremony at the last minute and give their places to some other family.”

Jo gasped. “We would never-”

The woman sniffed again. “It’s been done before. And bear you mind, Josette, the Stewart and the Genova families will not take the insult lightly.” She turned to the girls. “Behave.”

Once again, she had to stare up, but her face, her voice, and apparently her sheer personality was enough to make them look absolutely terrified at the idea of whatever would happen to them if they didn’t behave.

With one last smile at Jo, and one last withering glare at Caroline, and a measuring glance at Bonnie, she left.

Jo smiled brightly at the girls who were now staring at her nervously. “Girls, could you go into my trailer, and try out your clothes?”

With a look of relief, the girls scampered off and the cheery mask on Jo’s face slipped off to reveal the strain under it.

“Jo, you can’t seriously…” Caroline started warningly.

“Uh oh, Caroline, not you, too.” Jo groaned. “I have more than enough to deal with today with her as my matron of honour.” She shuddered.

“Jo, are you OK?” Bonnie asked worriedly.

“No, I am not. I can’t wait until this is over,” Jo declared. Then she peered at Bonnie. “How are you holding up? I was coming over to check on you.”

Caroline whirled on Bonnie. “Oh, Bonnie, I can’t believe I forgot to ask. Are you OK? Do you need some blood? Shouldn’t you take a seat or something?”

Bonnie tried not to flinch. It was not the first time that she had been drilled like this about her health that day. She supposed it made sense considering recent events – Lily Salvatore violently gate-crashing last night’s bachelorette’s party and Bonnie ending up waking up in the hospital – but she was simply not used to this degree of scrutiny and over-commiseration. Frankly, she was finding it unnerving.

Especially now as Caroline vamp-sped to grab a chair and forcibly pushed Bonnie into it.

“I’m fine,” Bonnie said, trying to stand, only to be shoved back in. “Seriously, Care!”

Caroline scowled at her. “I don’t know why you couldn’t just take the day off to rest and show up in the evening. And if you have to be here, why aren’t you even dressed?” She looked at Bonnie’s jeans and shirt with distaste

Bonnie glared back. “If I hadn’t shown up when I did, that old lady would have given you an aneurysm or worse!”

Caroline snorted. “Oh, please, I could take her.” She whirled at Jo. “Who the hell was that old bitch anyway? And why’s she suddenly the new wedding planner? I thought you asked me to run things when your old one cancelled?”

Bonnie and Jo shared a furtive glance. If memory served, what happened had less to do with anyone asking Caroline – and more to do with Caroline showing up, seeing a vacancy – and putting herself in her favourite spot – in charge.

But now was not the time to split hairs.

“I explained to you about the Gemini being involved. Believe it or not, there was a lot of political manoeuvring that went on to get those girls in the ceremony. You just have to work around them, Caroline and… all the other changes.”

“What other changes?” Caroline shrieked.

Jo waved her hand dismissively, panicking Caroline further. “Caroline, just roll with it, OK? Half of this stuff won’t make sense to you anyway; if they want to change anything, let them. This ceremony is important for my father – and my brother.” She glanced at Bonnie when she said the last.

Bonnie was suddenly grateful for the chair Caroline procured. She felt like if a thunderbolt had hit her. She had been so focused on throwing herself into Jo’s wedding, a desperate effort to distract herself from everything that had been going on in her life recently that she had completely failed to realize what was now so stupidly obvious.

He was going to be here. How could he not be? It was his sister’s wedding, a now-Gemini affair, of which he was leader. For the first time in the weeks since they returned from 1903, Bonnie was going to come face to face with Kai Parker.

In real life, at least. Because in her dreams – nightmares, he was always there.

“It’s your wedding, Jo,” Caroline said furiously but Bonnie could barely hear her; her friends’ voices, and the sounds of the hustle and bustle around them drowned out completely by the storm in her own head, by his voice – from memory, from nightmare – mocking her in her head.

“You and I are even now.”

“Do you think you could keep screwing people over and getting away with it?”

“Believe me, I’ve changed…”

“Your magic can’t protect you from me.”

I LIED.

The last wasn’t a memory of anything he said, but of what he left her on his pager, the LED symbols flashing mockingly at her as she woke up, soaked in her blood and completely alone.

Bonnie could almost smell wet iron, almost hear the roar of silence that had been her constant companion for five months. She felt sweat pouring out of her skin, and told herself to snap out of it, but the bottomless pit of weeks of suppressed emotions was suddenly yawning open, threatening to swallow her …

“Bonnie.”

The impeding panic attack receded as abruptly as it started, and Bonnie stared up at Elena’s worried face – and a whole crowd of people. Stefan Salvatore, his face stark, Caroline and Jo, their faces anxious, were all peering at her. Bonnie blushed, embarrassed, especially when Stefan’s eyes seemed to blaze at her; then he looked away, mumbled something and walked off. Caroline turned to watch him go.

Elena gave him a worried glance, but her eyes went back to Bonnie.

“Are you all right?” she asked, her newly warm aura shimmering with concern.

Bonnie nodded, squeezed out a smile. “Of course.”

“I told you she should have stayed in the hospital,” Jo said, as if Bonnie hadn’t spoken.

“It’s not too late,” Caroline said, staring at Bonnie with a glint in her eye.

Hastily, Bonnie burst out the bad news she had previously been dreading to deliver. “The floral contractor’s truck broke down. They can’t promise to deliver the flowers on time!”

The effect was instantaneous. Caroline let out a scream, then she yanked out her phone and started punching it like if she was loading bullets into a revolver. Jo threw up her arms in the air and cursed. Elena started firing out alternatives. Caroline shushed both of them, all but shoving them away to give her space. As if on cue, one of the contractors that had apparently been hovering near all this while, approached Jo and after a few words, she and Elena walked away with her.

Elena threw Bonnie back one more anxious glance which Bonnie returned with a big toothy smile – that vanished the moment Elena turned her back.

Caroline was good, Bonnie thought from her own vantage point in her chair. In a few minutes, she had come up with a Plan B.

“Great. We’ll pick them in 5. Do NOT screw up again or I will END you.”

She shut off the call. Bonnie jumped to her feet. “You need someone to get the flowers? I’ll go.”

Caroline frowned. “I was going to ask Matt to do it, and I don’t think you’re up to –”

“Up to what? Leaning against the truck and pointing while Matt carries the bouquet? You know you can’t send him alone. He won’t have a clue what he’s supposed to bring along and there’s no time for any more screw-ups.”

Caroline hesitated. “I should probably ask Elena.”

“Care.”

Bonnie’s sudden grave voice clearly startled Caroline. The two girls locked gazes.

“I need to do something. Don’t put me on timeout.”

Caroline nodded slowly, understanding passing over her face. She of all people should get it. It was barely twenty-four hours that she had turned up from wherever she had been hiding out since her humanity came back, and Bonnie knew half of the reason that Caroline had thrown herself into organizing Jo’s wedding wasn’t just because she was a control freak.

It was in the moments of ‘peace’ that the demons inside shouted the loudest.

“OK,” Caroline said with a sigh, then laughed when Bonnie hugged her. “One more thing, though.” She fished out a small case from her purse. A groom’s cravat. “Matt’s over at Alaric’s. Please make sure the blushing groom gets this. Apparently he forgot to pick it up yesterday.”

Both girls sighed and rolled their eyes in tandem. Men.

“Make sure Matt toes the line. Er… also, don’t tell Elena… She’ll probably freak out if she finds out you’ve gone.”

“Elena’s probably doing a mini-rehearsal now with Liv Parker and the new bridesmaids.”

“They’re not bridesmaids,” Caroline corrected dryly. “They are representations of the covenant between the coven and the Regium, portals in human form for hocus pocus mumbo jumbo.”

Both of them laughed, and Bonnie felt her heart lightening. “See you around, Care. Try not to kill anybody from Jo’s coven.”

“I make no promises,” Caroline said darkly.

But Bonnie was already punching her phone for Matt’s number, walking away rapidly, and telling herself that after getting the flowers with Matt, she had every intention of coming back for the ceremony, every intention of actually standing in the same space with Kai Parker and spending all of it wondering when he was going to try to kill her again.

June 2014

Portland

Bonnie was in the kitchen, making a sandwich. One of the twins – Martha? Rachel? – was in her high chair, playing with a spoon. Bonnie had just fed her all by herself, which had gone on better than she had feared. Liv was having a shower. Damon had claimed he was going to have one – and disappeared just before the twin’s meal – and reappeared just as conveniently after.

He was hunting for bourbon again as Bonnie sliced and diced when her phone buzzed. She smiled when she saw who was calling. “Hi Matt.”

“Hey, Bon. How are you? How did it go with the Gemini council?”

Bonnie sighed. She glanced at Damon who had found his bourbon, and was clearly listening in. He gave her a commiserating look as she told Matt an abbreviated version of events.

“They’ve got some nerve,” he declared when she finished. “You almost killed yourself trying to save their asses that day!”

He seemed more outraged by the personal attacks on Bonnie’s character, than on the lack of a firm commitment to help.

“Well, they didn’t see it that way,” she said.

Matt muttered something that sounded suspiciously obscene under his breath. “So… are you going to stick around to hear from them? There’s no rush. Things are under control here…”

“We’re coming back tomorrow.”

“Good,” he said, sounding very relieved.

“Aren’t you disappointed we’re coming back empty?”

“I’m happier you’re coming back soon. Screw the Gemini. Half the time, we can’t tell whether they’re supposed to be the good guys or the bad guys. At least if you’re back in Mystic Falls, I won’t have to worry about anything happening to you over there.”

Her heart warmed. “We’ll be home tomorrow.”

“Good.” He paused. “Hope you’re keeping Damon in line?”

She snorted and Damon said loudly, “I can hear you, Donovan!”

“I know,” Matt retorted then his voice went softer. “Bonnie, I hope you’re not letting what those freaks said get to you?”

Had she been so transparent? Bonnie wondered. “I’m not,” she lied.

“Mmmm… Come home soon, OK?”

Damon threw her a funny look as she put away her phone. “Donovan’s keeping tabs on you.”

“He’s right to be wary, I guess. It wasn’t really that long when Liv and Luke tried to kill off Stefan and Elena.”

Which was one more reason to loathe this life, of fluid alliances and shifting loyalties, where one moment you could be fighting side by side and the next moment, you could fighting to the death with the same person.

“Or that Caroline snapped Luke’s neck,” Damon continued as he grinned around his mug. “Now that I think about it, the poor guy was doomed from the start.”

“Damon.”

“How does the whole merge thing work, anyway? Is he rattling somewhere in Kai’s head? Can they hold a conversation?”

“Damon.”

“Though I guess, Kai’s head was already so filled with crazy, one more voice won’t have made a difference. But that’s not why,” he said, abruptly, “Donovan is keeping tabs.”

“Damon!”

She finally broke through to him. He boggled his eyes at her “Wha-” then did a double take at Liv, standing at the kitchen door and staring.

“Oops,” he deadpanned.

A tense moment followed. Liv’s face was blank, but her hands shook slightly where they rested against her sides. Damon held his mug with two hands, in a protective-like gesture, and shrugged. “I’m sorry?” he offered, his eyebrows waggling.

Bonnie nearly threw her knife at him.

But it seemed to do the trick. Liv pushed past them to the girl in the high chair – who had apparently fallen asleep without anyone noticing. “Damon, the day I let you get under my skin, is the day hell freezes over,” she whispered loudly as she gently freed the baby from her restraints. She gathered up her niece and left the kitchen without a backward glance.

Damon turned to Bonnie with an exaggerated look of relief. “Wow,” he breathed dramatically. “For a moment there, I was-”

“Congratulations,” Bonnie hissed. “You just achieved a new low on the insensitivity scale.”

“Oh come on, BonBon. You heard the girl. She’s moved past it.”

“And you would know this from all the people in your life you’ve lost, and moved past?”

He gave her a pained look. “I’ve lost my fair share, Bonnie.”

“Really?” she snapped. “Like whom exactly, Damon? And it doesn’t count if they came back.”

He opened his mouth to speak, then seemed to think better of it, and shut it. “I think I’ll go … stock up on diapers.”

“You do that.”

He shuffled off.

She turned back to her sandwich.

The twins were playing a new game – a ‘take turns waking up and driving everyone batty’ game. Barely a few moments after Bonnie finished her sandwich, a sharp cry emitted from the monitor.

She and Liv hurried to the nursery to retrieve the screaming child before she woke her sister. But it was already too late. The other girl was stirring when they left. And a few minutes later, Bonnie was struggling to pin down the wriggling, crying baby – Rachel or Martha, she really needed to know their names – while Liv fiddled with the diaper and tried to block the sound of the other twin’s screams coming from the baby monitor.

“You’re putting it the wrong way,” Bonnie suggested.

“You want to do it yourself?”

“No.”

“Then shut up!”

“It’s upside down.”

“Oh. Oh, I see.”

The cries through the monitor increased in pitch.

“Where the hell is Damon?!” Liv screamed again.

Bonnie had no idea. But she knew this much – he was getting an aneurysm to end all aneurysms when he returned. She suspected the “stock up on diapers” was a ruse. They found the extra diapers – right where it made sense to have extra diapers, in the closet in the nursery. But by then, Damon had taken off and that was an hour ago.

“OK, I’ve got it. I’ve got you. Dear, dear, now. Auntie Liv’s not completely useless,” Liv said, now progressing from diaper to clothes. “I-I think I can manage now. Maybe you can check on Martha-”

Something like an internal bell rang inside Bonnie’s head but before she could chase the meaning, the sound-activated monitor suddenly went silent.

Without the cries from the baby upstairs, the house felt deathly quiet.

Bonnie’s heart stuttered. She stared at Liv over the baby between them. Liv had the same look on her face – more panic, than relief. Martha’s sudden silence was more likely to be very bad, than very good.

Without a word, she was on her feet and half-way out the door and that when was the monitor came back on.

They could hear a baby cooing happily, then a lower, deeper-toned voice cooing back at it.

Her heart jumped and Bonnie took off. She thought she heard Liv shout something after her but she couldn’t stop, panic rising in her as she rushed upstairs.

Half way there, she felt it or rather, she recognized it. That alarm that had rang in her head just before the baby stopped crying.

The realization almost sent her stumbling down the steps.

She got to the nursery, slowly, her feet dragging and she stopped at the closed door.

Her heart was pounding, she realized, and she swallowed hard against the lump that had risen in her throat.

Through the door, she could still hear him, talking softly to the baby, his voice so low it seemed to echo in her ribs. She froze where she stood, her hands pressed flat against the door as she braced herself against the two equally powerful urges that were ripping through her: the urge to flee, turn around and keep running until the space of the world was between her and that voice; and the urge to fling open this door and run towards it.

She did neither. Just stood there for as long as it took her to take a deep breath and count down from ten.

Then she pushed the door open.

He stood by the window with the baby over his shoulder. Martha lifted her head, the baby’s eyes shining serenely.

Then he turned. And there was nowhere to look. Their eyes caught and Bonnie’s chest clenched.

The last time she had seen him was over a year ago, just after the ordeal of Josette’s wedding. All this while, she thought she’d never be able to forget his face – the deep-set, steely grey eyes, the sharp jaw, the mouth that could be both wickedly cruel and dangerously persuasive – in so many ways. But memory was nothing compared to reality. And reality was tall and broad and a powerful, punishing stare that stripped her bare. Reality was a man whose presence was the torch that could still enflame her with fury and grief and regret and ….

No. No. No.

She shut those thoughts down completely.

“Hello, Bonnie,” he said, and at the sound of his voice, soft and low, her flesh broke out in goose-bumps again.

She swallowed. Twice. She had to before she could get his name past her throat.

“Kai.”

[1] Pythonicus Percontatio duo milia et duodecim

[2] implicated in an inquiry

[3] pardon

[4] formal magical education, either by apprenticeship or academy-trained

[5] supernatural creature (that is not a witch)

Chapter 3: Praetor Magus

Chapter Text

April 2013

Mystic Falls, 1903

“Sangima Maerma, Bernos Asescenda.”

One hand on her torn side, the other tangled up with Kai’s around the Ascendant, she sang the words of the incantation and watched the colours of the Borealis mingle with the red blood in the snow.

She was bleeding, and she was probably dying, the only thing keeping her upright was his arm around her, his body supporting her. He fared barely better. The revival spell she had done on him an hour ago was wearing off and she could feel, from where her cheek rested on his chest, that his heart was slowing.

But all these registered absent-mindedly in her head. Even the bodies littered in a half-circle around her, stirring slightly, barely got her attention.

“Sangima Maerma, Bernos Asescenda.”

She was lost in the magic, in the mingling of their auras as they channelled each other, pouring everything they could into the spell. It was like nothing she had ever felt before. The strands of their individual magic seemed to knot into a tight rope that tugged at something deep, down inside her.

She felt like if her soul was filling, stretching, like skin tight enough to rupture. Did he feel this too? She wondered, even as the lights changed over her head. Even as she could see, vaguely, noting with academic interest, that two of the figures around them were rising.

The question was still echoing in her head, as the colours around blended into white. Their bodies were falling upwards, into the white.

They were Ascending.

June 2014

Portland

Did he feel it too? Bonnie thought now, staring at Kai Parker from across the room. That pain like knives through one’s heart, like if she had fallen into a pit of spikes that had shredded her soul into so many pieces that no matter how she tried, she could never quite put herself back the way she was?

All the King’s men and all the King’s horses…

The air between them seemed electrified, crackling with all the bad memories and bad blood they shared.

The urge to run – to him or away – had not left her and she just leaned against the wall, paralyzed and dizzy, torn between the two overwhelming impulses.

He had looked almost peaceful, the short moment she had watched him unobserved. But now he too leaned against the wall by the window, the child’s head on his shoulder, and there was a storm of feeling in his eyes.

Then Liv touched Bonnie’s shoulder and Bonnie jumped.

“Oh, thank god you’re here,” Liv was saying. “Bonnie, I was trying to tell you not to worry. He usually pops over during the week.”

Kai turned his gaze from Bonnie to shake his head slowly at his sister. He turned a little so that she could see that the baby’s eyes were almost shutting. His face softened as well.

Something inside Bonnie seemed to break a little.

Liv gave him a huge grin and two thumbs up. Then hooking her arm through Bonnie’s, she half-led, half-dragged Bonnie out of the room.

Bonnie could feel his eyes follow her as she left.

Martha – or Rachel – was in the playpen, knocking against the bars with a wooden spoon. Bonnie kept an eye on her – or rather stared in her general direction while she tried to control the wild thoughts running through her head.

He’s here.

Her heart had stopped pounding at least. She had got that much under control.

“I ordered pizza. I’m going to call for an extra box now that Kai is around.”

Bonnie was sitting on the counter, with a clear view of the living area and the baby’s playpen. Liv was flitting through the kitchen, preparing the baby’s meal.

“Not that I mind,” Liv continued. “He can have all the pizza. He’s great with them.”

“With the pizza?” Bonnie asked, her mind completely scattered.

Kai.

Kai is here.

Liv gave her a sceptical look. “With the twins? Duh. They just love him. It’s not really surprising when you think about it. He and Jo did spend more time with us than our parents did, what with running the coven. There’s this old lady that sits for the twins. She knew us from way back and she told me once that our mom would pop out a baby then hand it over to Jo and Kai right in the delivery room. Gross.”

Maybe that’s why he killed half of his siblings, Bonnie thought hysterically. He got tired of diaper duty.

“What’s up with you?”

“What?” Bonnie asked, coming out of her thoughts to see Liv looking at her crossly.

“You’re all spaced out. You’re not doing drugs or anything, are you?”

Bonnie burst out into incredulous laughter. “What?”

“I’m not one to judge but you’re on baby duty right now so no chemicals. Not even the juju stuff.”

“Juju stuff? I’m guessing you have a stash then,” Bonnie said wryly, only half joking. Right now, anything to switch off her brain sounded great.

Especially as in the next moment, she felt the back of her neck burn.

She knew. She knew without turning that he was right behind her.

“Everyone keeps a stash. Raid Jo’s before you go. She has the best stuff.”

His deep voice was mocking. Bonnie stared fixedly at the baby in front of her, and worked on her breathing. The heart that she had just got under control was beating rapidly again.

“Want some pizza, Kai?” Liv asked.

“Don’t you ever eat proper food here?”

“Actually we had a whole home-cooked dinner last night. Too bad you weren’t invited,” Liv said sweetly as she walked around the island and into the living room, baby bottle and napkin in hand.

“Not if it was your cooking,” he drawled.

Liv just snorted, as she picked up the baby and, cooing, walked to the high chair in the far corner.

The silence between the two in the kitchen stretched out painfully.

Bonnie fidgeted in her seat, feeling his gaze all but branding her neck. She sighed with relief, when she felt it lift. She heard him moving around the kitchen, then he was on the phone with the pizza place. His voice was low, barely audible but she felt every cadence on her skin.

She snuck a quick glance at her distorted reflection on the smooth shiny surface of one of the appliances on the counter. Loose strands had escaped from her once-neat bun. She smoothed her hair quickly, then frowned at her outfit. There was nothing she could do about her scruffy jeans and faded old T-shirt.

A moment later, she almost groaned at her silliness.

The call was ending soon. She clenched her fists tightly in her lap and took a deep breath. She turned to face him just as he was hanging up the phone.

Kai was already waiting for her, his grey eyes locking into her face at once.

He looked older, Bonnie thought, forcing herself to study him. A while ago when she saw him carrying his niece, his features had been relaxed, almost peaceful – well as peaceful as they could be in the circ*mstance. Now she could see that his face had grown stern, his jaw harder. There were lines at the corner of his eyes and mouth that were begging for someone’s fingers to reach over and smoothen them out. The strands of white hair that had sprung up that night, now stood in stark relief to his otherwise thick, dark hair. She couldn’t see the top of his head from where she sat, but she knew that the white streaked in a zig-zag pattern across his head.

She looked away. That was enough. That was all that she could bear.

“It’s good to see you again, Bonnie,” he said softly.

She shivered at the sound of her name in his voice. She had to clear her throat before she could speak. “You, too.”

Despite everything, that was the truth.

“Of course, the circ*mstances could have been better,” he added, wryly.

She grabbed the opening with both hands. “Did Jo call you? Or did the” – despite herself, she made a face – “council give you their recommendation?”

“Yes, and yes. You really shouldn’t have lost your temper.”

She let out her breath in a sharp hiss. “Why does everybody keep saying that?” she growled.

Kai snorted. “Because it’s true.”

“But it’s up to you, right? You have the final say on this.”

His face was instantly grave again. He nodded.

“So?” She pressed at once. “Are you going to help us?”

He walked towards her, and she leaned back, instinctively. He stopped, staring at her, and she felt the colour rise in her face.

“Sorry,” she muttered.

Kai shrugged, grabbed the stool across the counter from her and sat, his arms folded over each other, and resting on the table. His sleeves were rolled to his elbows and she could see the muscles rippling beneath veined skin, and the dark hairs coating it. His arms were bulkier than she remembered. She recalled how they looked upstairs, when he was easily walking with his niece against his chest.

She had a clear view of his hands, the trademark black wristband and the rings on his fingers. Sometime in the past year, he had replaced the three that he had used up and acquired one more.

She hated that she could tell.

She caught her hands twitching. Blushing, she pulled them into her lap, locking her fingers together.

He gave her an indecipherable look, then shifted his gaze, skidding past her face to rest somewhere just beside her left ear.

For a moment, neither of them said a word.

He spoke first. “What’s going on in Mystic Falls?”

She looked from his hands to his face in surprise. “You just said-”

“Yes, I got a full report from the council. And Jo told me what she knew. I even spoke to Alaric and got the version he had from Damon Salvatore. I’ve read the newspapers and the police reports, too.”

Her eyebrows went up. “All in one day?” She was impressed, despite herself.

Was she imagining it or did the tips of his ears go slightly pink?

But when he spoke, his voice was clinical. “The Gemini have been aware of the goings-on in your town for some time. What I want now is your version of events.”

She swallowed, suddenly nervous. She felt like if she was back in that hall, facing the council. “OK.”

“When did the heretics first appear?”

“A month ago yesterday. They were first spotted near Fell’s Church. Their first few sightings, they wore odd clothes – I guess whatever get-up they had while they were in 1903. Damon and Stefan thought they were just a pair of old-time vampires coming out of hibernation. That was enough reason for them to worry.”

Damon’s first call had come towards the end of the Spring semester, the day Bonnie got the news that at the last possible minute, she’d been bumped off the waitlist for Dr Malraux’s seminar.She could still vividly remember walking triumphantly out of the department office, then seeing the name Damon Salvatore flash on her screen and pressing the ignore button at once. The calls kept coming, as well as messages from him and his brother and she had kept ignoring them.

A year ago, she had vowed to herself to stay away from the Salvatores, Mystic Falls and supernatural power plays in general; and she had been pleased with herself at how long she had kept that promise.

Now she’d always wonder: if she hadpicked that first call, maybe April Young and Ronnie Martin would still be alive.

“It took a few kills to figure out what they were, what we were up against. They moved into an abandoned mansion somewhere on the upper-scale side of town, and barricaded it with wards. I’ve never been able to pinpoint its exact location. They come out once in a while to hunt and feed.” She grimaced. “You can be sure if you see one of them lurking around, dead bodies will soon crop up. And they’re hard to miss. They dress pretty normally now but a pair of white, creepy ginger-heads stand out anywhere.” He made a sudden movement. She bit her lip, then continued. “I-I recognized the man myself, from the battle and earlier from when I was attacked at your apartment. I don’t think I’ve ever met the woman before.”

That sudden movement – he had betrayed something. “D-do you recognize them?” she asked softly, hating herself even as she did so.

One of his hands clenched. “I guess you’re asking if I recognized any of my hosts from the scintillating time I spent enjoying their 1903 hospitality?” he asked and his voice was like ice.

Bonnie closed her eyes, inhaled, and opened them. “Yes,” she whispered.

“Tell me about the first attack.”

He hadn’t answered her question and she didn’t have the nerve to ask it again.

“A pair of high school seniors. One of them was a mundane girl called April Young. I-I knew her, growing up. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. She and her boyfriend Ronnie were walking home from a game. She was a cheerleader; and he played in the rival school’s team.”

Bonnie had been in the library, finishing up a term paper when the headline had flashed via a pop-up on her console. She didn’t even remember turning in that paper or the grade it got her. What she did remember was the nausea that had had hit her reading April’s obituary. Then again during the phone conversation with Matt later.

She had driven to Mystic Falls that evening.

“The town’s been relatively safe since the start of the year. This was the first supernatural incident and nobody expected it. Their bodies were found after searching for two days. They were drained of blood.”

“And you knew this was your heretics and not anyone from your friendly neighbourhood nest of vampires because…?”

She ignored the barb. “Whoever drained these kids of blood, also drained them of their essence. They had siphoned their auras for magic. The bodies that were found were aged. It was clothes, then dental records that identified them.”

He nodded. “That’s their M.O. alright. Magic isn’t just in supernaturals like witches, or vampires or werewolves or banshees or any the other freaks. Everything alive has magic, including mundanes. That’s why we can channel them, if we have to. But it’s wrapped up in life and blood. So the heretics take everything when they feed. It’s not very efficient though. Better to feed from a vampire, or a werewolf. But the best thing, the real piece de resistance, is a full-bodied witch. Blood. Power. Magic. Like a triple layer burger. Take a bite from all three at once. Or you can peel the layers apart, pick and choose. Breakfast on blood. Power for lunchtime. A supper of magic. If you’re smart and not too greedy, you give your snack enough time between feedings to grow strong enough but not too strong. Just enough for that next juicy bite.”

His eyes were filled with a stark faraway look.

“Kai,” she whispered, her heart pounding. Unconsciously, her hands had reached out towards him on the table.

He didn’t hear her. “And you have to be careful because you have to break him, not too much or he won’t last long but enough so you don’t lose him. Sort of like a farm animal. You do it right and you can keep him alive for a long time. Feed a whole coven of heretics with just the one witch.”

Goosebumps were crawling over her flesh. She was almost choking with horror.

“Kai… Please.”

He came to, with a start. Something passed over his face, too quickly for her to read. Then the shutters fell.

“Did they keep going after mundanes?” he asked brusquely.

But her emotions were still too raw. Her heart hadn’t stopped pounding. Her eyes stung. She looked away and kept blinking furiously until they stopped.

He had to ask the question again before she could even understand it.

“Rarely,” she whispered, still staring down, forcing herself to stay on topic. “They have a clear preference for supernatural beings. After April, they took out two wizards, a couple of senior citizens that moved to town last year. Gerald and Victor Briggs. A bunch of vampire co-eds living in a Whitmore dorm. Then there was a party at the Lockwood manor where they attacked. They killed two men and one woman with the werewolf gene. Two were relatives of Tyler Lockwood that just popped over the weekend for this shindig. One of the men was a fellow cadet from the Academy. Wrong place. Wrong time. Probably didn’t even know what he was. A week later, we lost one of our vampires when we tried to trap them. Next day, there was a massacre at a bank, all human casualties. That was the only time they attacked humans in Mystic Falls since April Young. It was around that time that we started fighting with vervain. It seems to have worked … for the moment.”

“We?”

“Damon, Stefan, Caroline, Matt, Tyler and I.”

“Scooby Gang in action. Finding solutions to problems they create in three episodes or less.”

She glared at him for that and he glared right back.

The lights in the room flickered.

“Hey, guys!”

Bonnie almost jumped out of her skin at Liv’s loud whisper. She turned to see the blonde girl, standing with the baby in her arms, and a look on her face that said she clearly wished she was anywhere but here.

“Baby’s sleeping. I’ll just… go away for a while, OK?”

Bonnie nodded, tried to smile reassuringly at her but knew it probably came out as a wince.

Liv paused at the door, then said over her shoulder. “Try not to kill each other in Jo’s kitchen. It’s baby-proof and vampire-proof, but not witchy woo murder-proof.”

Kai snorted. She smirked back and left.

Liv’s words had done something to him. She could see the tension slipping off his shoulders as he pushed away from the counter and walked to the fridge. “I need a drink. Want one?”

She shook her head, then realized he couldn’t see that. “No. Baby watch, remember?”

He snickered. “That never stopped Alaric. Or, for that matter, Jo.” But he only brought out one can. He took a swig from it, still standing by the fridge.

Bonnie watched the play of muscles under his shirt when he did, remembered how they felt under his skin.

Her fingers spasmed again and she stared down at them in surprise. She hadn’t realized when she placed them on the table, but they were there now. Her arms were outstretched as if she had been trying to reach for something.

Or someone.

She pulled her hands back to her, clasped them together. Then she changed her mind, and wrapped them around her body.

Kai took another swig before he came back to the counter.

Sitting across from him now, both of them with drinks at hand, she was suddenly reminded of a year ago, meeting with him like this. She could almost still smell the coffee in that café. She had been so tense, ready to fight or fly, as she watched him warily, barely touching her glass of water. He, on the other hand, ate through his meal like if he didn’t have a care in the world, his face alternating between mirth and gravity with his characteristic and uncanny unpredictability.

Despite what Damon had said, Bonnie hadn’t really believed that he would help them without demanding some hefty price in exchange. His ‘fee’ had caught her off-guard.

“Come on, it’ll be fun.”

Staring at him now, she had a clear view of the sharp emotion that flashed across his face and she knew that he, too, was remembering that day. He shifted sideways on the stool so he was now staring out the window and his face was partially in profile to her.

She wondered if it was as disturbingly painful for him to look at her as it was for her to look at him.

“Your heretic problem. I’m guessing you must have tried a few tricks before you came here cap in hand?” He asked now.

Once again, Bonnie ignored the blatant attempt to get a rise from her. “We’ve tried everything. The usual stake and fire. Spells from any Grimoires we got hold of. Gilbert devices. And, of course, that’s only when we manage to get close enough to attack. But we keep fighting them with magic and that just makes them stronger. I triangulated their mansion once, and Tyler got the idea to booby-trap it with dynamite.”

Kai looked impressed. “Obviously, it didn’t work.”

“We lost Enzo that night. A few days later, they attacked a bank downtown, and dropped his body with the rest of the corpses.” She felt cold just remembering. “It was a message. They didn’t feed from the humans. Just sealed them in the bank and torched it.”

Did she imagine the sudden anger that crossed his face, so quickly that she only barely caught it?

She must have because he just asked curiously. “Enzo who?”

“One of our own. An old friend of Damon’s.”

“And an old friend of Damon’s mother.” He added. He noticed her surprise because he elaborated. “I remember him now. He was the vampire you said you lost?” he asked, concluding correctly.

Bonnie nodded.

He glanced at her quickly, then away. “What about you? Any up close and personal encounters? Anyone tried for that yummy Bennett essence?”

She shuddered. It was over a year, but she still had vivid memories of that second nightmare visit to 1903. “I’ve been lucky. We’ve all been lucky, and smart. We knew they were hard to kill. Just how hard, we didn’t realize at first. But we always knew enough to always attack as a group. Enzo… fell behind.”

“So they’ve never tried to siphon you?”

She looked at him suspiciously. There was an undertone of persistence beneath the deceptive casualness of his question.

“No,” she answered, wondering what he was leading to.

But he said nothing further, just kept staring away from her.

After a moment of waiting, she shrugged and went on. “The only thing that works is vervain. It seems to have the same effect on them as it does with ordinary vampires – it weakens them. So we started putting it everywhere – in the water, planted it in parks, on lawns, layered branches over fences and walls. Matt had this brilliant idea of mixing the powder with house paint. That really helped.”

“Vervain drowns their vampire auras and they draw their magic from their vampirism.”

“Yes, that’s what we realised. They’ve stopped haunting the town. Now they go further upstate for prey. We’ve read the reports: it fits their profile. A few mundanes. Extremely aged in death. But more often, someone with a werewolf gene or someone who was clearly a vampire or probably some other supernatural human or creature, but clearly not a mundane. If we can keep this up for the next few months, maybe we can even drive them out of the town completely. I don’t know why they keep coming back. But eventually they have to go. I just don’t know how long it will take or who else will die before that happens.”

The can was half way up Kai’s mouth as she was speaking. Now he placed it back on the table without drinking. “Drive them,” he said slowly. “Where?”

Bonnie shifted uneasily. “Anywhere. Out of Virginia, we hope but I’d settle for outside the Greater Falls-Whitmore area.”

“And then what happens? They become someone else’s problem? Another town, this one without a Founders’s Council? As incompetent as yours is, at least you have a system for handling rogue supernatural elements. What do you think will happen when the heretics go somewhere they can have a free for all?”

She was acutely aware that it wasn’t a fully thought out plan but – considering everything – his question rankled, and she threw it back at him. “Maybe by that time, you Gemini might actually get off your asses and do something about it?”

He turned then, looked her full in the face. His expression was incredulous. “You seem to think this is our problem.”

“Isn’t it yours?”

His lips thinned. “Is that your angle then?”

There was a challenge in his gaze. And for a moment, she glared back at him, ready to get into it with him there and then.

Then the moment passed, and she backed down. She wasn’t going down that road with him.

Not again.

“What I meant was,” she asked, willing herself to speak calmly, “aren’t you Gemini supposed to be some sort of,” she struggled to remember Damon’s words, “‘supernatural police’? When the travellers were in Mystic Falls, it was the Gemini’s problem, wasn’t it? Your coven locked up the heretics before. Can’t you do it again?”

“When the Ascendants were destroyed,” he reminded her, “the empty Prison Worlds were destroyed as well.”

“Surely, there are other Prison Worlds in existence.”

“There’s a reason why their existence is shrouded in secrecy, even from one Praetor to the next. Maybe you didn’t get the memo, but I for one learnt my lesson the hard way about locking people up in prison worlds they don’t belong to.”

If his words were meant to make her flinch, then he succeeded. His eyes seemed to burn into her face, watching her every cringe. But her guilt was also spiked with fury.

How dare he put this all on her?

“Fine,” she snarled. “Make a new one then.”

“Yes, please add that to your online Gemini shopping cart,” he said, his voice soft and furious. “Item: Alternate dimension. Quantity: one. Size: the Earth. We don’t make them en masse, Bonnie. And considering the jailbreak rate in the past century is currently at one hundred per cent, the Council believes they are a waste of time and magical energy. I agree.”

His sarcasm made her burn. She gripped her glass fiercely and barely restrained herself from hurling its contents in his face.

Barely restrained herself from hurling at him and scratching his eyes out.

She must have shown some of her anger in her face because his gaze turned wary. “Have you tried other means of solving your problem?” he asked, a tad more courteously.

“I just told you-”

“I mean non-violent means. Talking to them, reaching some sort of understanding? Striking a deal?”

Bonnie stared. “You are joking, right? They murdered two kids the first day they showed up in town.”

He boggled his eyes mockingly. “And this is a problem for… whom exactly? Last time I checked, none of your Scooby Gang had their hands clean. Do you really want to play the ‘who has the longest rap sheet’ game with your track record?”

“I’ve never killed an innocent,” she said sharply. “Everyone I’ve gone after deserved it,” she added, meaningfully. “Everyone.”

A muscle in his jaw ticked.

“You’re right, Bonnie. You’re perfect. Not a black mark in your book. You only just enable the murderers in your inner circle.”

“How dare-”

His voice rose. “Oh Caroline, you ate half the freshman class when you turned off your humanity switch. But that’s OK, you lost your mom.” His mimicry of her inflection was irritatingly uncanny.

Her face burned.

“Oh Damon, you murdered your unborn niece and both her parents. But that’s OK, nothing says ‘I’m sorry’ like blueberry f*cking pancakes.”

“Shut up!” She screamed.

He did. Took a gulp of beer and banged the can on the table loudly.

Her eyes were stinging again and she blinked rapidly. “Who are you to sit in judgement over anybody?” she hissed.

“The leader of the Gemini coven. You came to me, remember?”

“I did. So tell me how to kill these monsters and we never have to speak to each other again.”

The sound of metal crumpling drew her eyes to his hand. He had squashed the can in his fist. The muscle in his jaw was ticking so rapidly now it was practically telling time.

Overhead, the lights were flickering again.

He stood abruptly, walked quickly to the window.

It probably took a full minute but the lights finally stopped blinking.

“It doesn’t matter if you know the spell,” he said at last, so low, she almost missed it.

She nearly screamed in frustration. “Just tell me.”

“It won’t make any difference, Bonnie! You can’t kill them even if you knew how. You aren’t built for it.”

She laughed, short and bitter. “You’ll be surprised at what I can handle.”

“I’ve seen what you can handle, remember?” he said lowly.

Bonnie inhaled sharply. It was a simple enough question but it sent her reeling. She stared at his back with her heart thudding.

“Or have you forgotten the cost?”

Maybe she had. There were a lot of things she had forced herself to forget – and for good reasons.

Although there were other things she simply couldn’t remember because she hadn’t been there.

Not for the first time, the old anger rose up in her:

He had no right taking her out of that fight.

She jumped off from her seat and walked over to Kai in sharp, angry steps. He turned as she came close, and stared warily at her hands which were balled into fists at her sides.

“You’re taking it out on them, aren’t you?” She whispered, fiercely. The thought formed almost as she asked it.

“What are you saying, Bonnie?” he asked, and there was a warning in his voice.

Don’t go there. Don’t you dare.

She dared. “Not helping my town. Letting them rot at the hands of these heretics. You knew for a month and you did nothing. So much for you changing. So much for us being even,” she scoffed. “You’re punishing me. This is you teaching me a lesson, isn’t it?”

He scoffed, shook his head, tried to turn away. “This is me having a better understanding than you what is at stake since you clearly have an inflated opinion of y-”

She rushed around him, put herself between him and the window. “Isn’t it, Kai?” she all but yelled, getting as close to him as possible.

He glared down at her. Then he grabbed her shoulders and pushed her against the window in a sudden movement that left her breathless.

“You listen to me, Bonnie Bennett.” His face was so near that his breath washed over hers. She could taste the alcohol in it. “I am the Praetor Magus of the Gemini and that means I literally hold the life of every single warlock, witch and witchling of my coven in my hands. Whatever I decide to do is going to be in the best interest of my people. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

Absent-mindedly, she noticed that the lights were flickering again.

Her heart was pounding again, and her lungs were not working properly, she felt breathless, almost dizzy. But she lifted her chin and looked at him squarely. Her mouth twisted into a sarcastic smile. “Yeah. Right.”

His rings dug into her skin as his grip tightened, painfully and he stepped closer. She could practically feel his words on her face. “I don’t put my personal interests before the interests of my coven anymore, Bonnie. I learnt that lesson the hard way.”

I’ll go if you go.

They were breathing heavily now, their eyes boring into each other. His gaze dropped lower, to her mouth. Instinctively, she licked her lips and he swallowed, his Adam’s apple jumping in his throat. Her own gaze went to the crow’s feet she had noticed before and she felt her hand start rising up to smoothen them.

Bonnie yanked herself out of his grip.

Kai’s arms stayed in position for a few moments, his hands clutching the empty air, then he lowered them slowly.

He turned to face her and they stared at each other, both still breathing heavily.

“So you’re not going to help us?” she asked finally, and even in her own ears, it sounded more like a plea than a dare.

Shutters fell over his face.

“What do you think, Bonnie?”

She nodded softly, more to herself than him. Then she turned her face away because she couldn’t bear to look at him. Then turned back because she couldn’t bear not to.

His eyes were stormy, his face riddled with more emotions than she wanted to understand.

There were about a hundred things she wanted to say to him.

She walked around him and out of the room.

It took almost half an hour before the lights stopped flickering.

April 2013

Mystic Falls

She was swimming in an ocean of magic, silver eddies floating over her head as she felt more than she heard the echo of spells. A familiar face, pale-skinned, and dark-haired seemed to peer through the shadows at her – and she felt her heart swell with fear, then she was sinking further into the depths.

She came to slowly, her mind breaking out of her swirling dreams like a diver resurfacing. Her eyes blinked slowly up at the familiar ceiling above, then she turned her head carefully to take in the yellow window curtains, the matching furniture, and her winter wear on the floor.

The Salvatore’s boarding house. She was lying on her bed, in what had been her room during her stay in 1994.

Was she back there? She sat up at once, and felt dizzy. Her heart was already jumping, panicking, when she heard voices from the door.

She turned to see his tall figure, half-blocking the doorway. From around his broad shoulders, she could make out a familiar female figure – dark hair, white jacket.

Dr. Jo Laughlin.

Josette Parker.

“-needs rest. Magic and medicine can only do so much. And come to the hospital. You need a transfusion, Kai.”

“If I can stand and walk…”

“You’re going to drop to the floor the moment I close this door.”

“I forgot how good you are at this, Jo. The concerned doctor slash sister act. Impressive. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you actually gave a damn about me.”

“Kai-”

“I’d give you a hefty tip but I think my wallet’s somewhere in the turn of the last century. Thanks so much for coming. Bye!”

She was still talking when he slammed the door in her face.

He paused a moment, then he fell to the floor like a ninepin.

Tentatively, Bonnie reached for her magic and felt it, weak and rattled underneath her skin. And, she realized with a mix of relief and regret, it was just her own. She had used up the last of her Expression magic.

Pushing back that thought for another time, she scanned the room for a weapon, or anything that could improvise for one.

“You know, I can practically hear you thinking of a way to attack me?” She started at Kai’s voice.

He was still sitting on the floor in front of her, leaning on her footboard, but he had turned his head to stare up at her.

“You have to make up your mind what you want to do with me: slay me or save me? Because if it’s the former, you botched your plan. Unless,” he made a face, “you brought me back to finish the job yourself. Is this a case of ‘no one can kill me but you’ because that’s kinda hot.”

He looked marginally better than he had a few minutes – or hours? or days? She had no idea how much time had passed between leaving the prison world and now – ago. The puncture wounds on his neck had closed, and the paper-white complexion had filled with a bit of colour. He was still pale though, she thought. Dr. Laughlin was right. He needed blood.

Wincing, he pulled himself to his knees, then dragged himself to sit on the foot of her bed. She skidded all the way to the headboard, clutching the blanket with one hand and her magic with the other.

He noticed.

“I’m really flattered but right now, I can’t endanger a mouse,” he said bitterly, and grimaced.

Bonnie hoped he was in considerable pain.

“How long have we been back? Where is Damon? Elena?” she fired him with questions.

“A few hours. Good question. Where are they, Bonnie? I distinctly remember you threatening me with the fact that your vamp pals were waiting for you on this side, ready to rip out my throat if I pulled a Crocodile Bondee on you.” He snickered darkly. “Get it?”

She glared at him stonily, determined not to even blink at being caught in her bluff, or to let her disappointment show.

Because of some convoluted reasons involving Elena and the Cure, Damon had wanted Bonnie to bring back Lily’s ‘family’ as well – a task that Bonnie had been against long before she understood just what that ‘family’ was. She had kept him out of her plans, leaving only a message at the very last minute before she went into the 1994 Prison, asking that he come to the Salvatore House to wait out her return. She had been hoping that despite their disagreement, he’d have her back.

Clearly, she had underestimated how disappointed, furious even, Damon had been over Bonnie refusing to help Lily.

Kai’s glare had narrowed, turned shrewd and she broke, and looked away.

To her surprise, he didn’t crow. “Whatever,” he said brusquely. “This place was empty when we got back. I barely managed to lug you up here and call Jo. Turns out that apart from her mad medical skills, the good doctor also carries along a vial of vamp blood for emergencies. That’s why you’re not swimming in your own blood, by the way.”

Bonnie touched her side, the memory of canines tearing into her body flashed through her brain. She lifted her blouse and touched the skin. It was unblemished. There was no sign of her ordeal. Even the blood that must have dried there had been cleaned away.

She glanced at him then and caught his eyes fixed on the patch of skin she had revealed, his mouth gaping slight, his face twisted into an expression she could only describe as yearning.

He saw her staring at him, and looked away, the tips of his ears reddening.

“You’re welcome,” he muttered.

“For what?” She snapped. “Asking Jo to fix me after I got bitten and siphoned saving your life? If anyone should be groveling with thanks, it’s you.”

His eyes snapped back at her, and she recoiled at the sudden fury in them. “I’d prostrate myself on the floor and crawl on my belly right now but I’m a little weak from being used as a blood bag for six weeks. If only I could remember how that happened.” He scrunched his brow in pretend-confusion and then gasped dramatically, his eyes mockingly wide. “Oh wait, I remember! I was stuck in a prison world because you stabbed me and left me there to die!” He snarled the last sentence.

“Now doesn’t that sound familiar?” It was Bonnie’s turn to be sarcastic. “Because I remember you doing the exact same thing to me.”

“So you wanted to punish me? Bit out of proportion, don’t you think? I left you by yourself. You left me to be food to a bunch of monsters. It’s not my fault that you broke after five months and tried to kill yourself. I was in that prison for eighteen years, Bonnie! You planned on doing the same thing to me. The only difference was I got out first. So stop acting like you’re some kind of innocent victim!”

Bonnie lifted a hand and threw her magic at him. He caught it, threw it at the window and the glass shattered beneath it.

Then before she could summon another hex, he had leaned over and grabbed her wrists, holding them painfully in its grip.

“Let go of me!” she shouted.

“Use your magic against me, Bonster and I’ll bleed it out of you.”

She sneered. “So I’m the monster, Kai? Can you hear yourself? I did bleed for you today. I almost died getting you back!”

“Why? Because you felt guilty? Because you cared so much? Puh-leeze. You did it for Jo and the coven or I’d still be there, being passed around like a bowl of soup.”

“You deserve worse! At least, I came back for you. Which was more than you ever did for me.”

He laughed in her face, his eyes completely mad. “Semantics. I almost died trying to bring you back after stranding you there. You nearly died trying to bring me back after leaving me there. We’re even, Bonster,” and he said it like a threat. “All debts settled. All bets off.”

“Even? I never owed you anything!” she snarled, struggling against his grip. “What the hell did you ever do for me but hurt me, and trick me, and abandon me?”

“Your birthday, Bonnie,” he said through gritted teeth.

“What about my birthday?”

“Myself. Almost dying. Saving your life!”

She stopped struggling then to look at him, at the look of fury and hurt on his face. “What. the. hell. are you talking about, Kai?”

Impossibly, his face seemed to get angrier. For a heart-stopping moment, she thought he would siphon her. Then he froze, the anger melting away into confusion. Then shock. Then dawning realization.

He sat back, and her hands slipped out of his.

She pulled them to her chest at once, twisting them into the blanket that she wrapped protectively around her body.

“You… don’t know?” he asked, slowly.

“Know what?” she said, trying to bite out the words but they only came out as confused as his did.

“Your birthday. When you tried to kill yourself. Didn’t Damon or Elena or Jeremy Gilbert tell you what happened? What I…” he swallowed. “Didn’t anyone tell you what I did?” he asked, very quietly.

“What did you do?”

He stared. “They didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“The spell. Jeremy Gilbert and I came to you. I tried sending everybody but it was too much. With him alone, we could just barely interact physically with your world. But boy, did that take major juice out of me. Then,” he suddenly snorted, “to make things even more interesting, my baby sister ran a poker through me. There I am, bleeding all over Damon’s kitchen, wondering how I survived the merge ceremony to be gutted by Livvie poo of all people. But I keep at the spell because you, Bonnie Bennett are five seconds away from carbon monoxide poisoning. Which is not a bad way to go, all things considered. I should know. I’ve tried them all.” His smile was broken.

Something cold was filling Bonnie, her lungs, her pores. She felt like if she had been sleeping, and someone had grabbed her, thrown her into the deep end of the pool and now she was drowning.

“Jeremy Gilbert got to you in time to open the garage door.”

She dragged herself out of the bed, almost stumbling onto the floor. He half-stood, trying to reach for her but she dodged his reach, limping backwards and away from him, needing to put as much distance between both of them as possible.

He was lying. He had to be lying.

She swallowed past the lump that was forming in her throat and told him that. “Stop lying.”

“The map opened to Nova Scotia on the kitchen floor? Right where you needed it to be to get the idea to go for your ancestor’s magic? How do you think that happened?”

“I thought – the wind… somehow…”

“The garage door that opened just in time to save your life? Did the wind do that too? That must have been some genius wind.”

How had that garage door opened?

Bonnie had asked herself that question once, not too long ago; but this was not the answer she had expected. Or wanted.

“You’re lying.”

He shook his head, laughed bitterly. “Why would I lie? How can I lie about this?”

“To manipulate me. To get into my head.”

“Ask Damon or Elena what happened that day. Ask Jeremy Gilbert, your boyfriend.”

His voice snagged on the last word but Bonnie barely noticed. Too many thoughts were going through her head.

Damon had written the notes to Nova Scotia on the map. She had thanked him for them. He hadn’t mentioned Kai. Or Jeremy. Between Caroline’s and Stefan’s humanity crisis and getting Lily out, she and Elena hadn’t even talked about her time in the prison world.

And as for Jeremy – Bonnie hadn’t had a proper conversation with Jeremy since she got back. They kept missing each other on the phone. Or in all fairness, she kept missing him, deliberately. What could she say to him? She didn’t know who she was anymore, had stopped knowing for many months now. She needed to figure herself out before she could figure out who she was or could be to anyone else.

Kai was still talking. “It was your birthday. They were throwing a party.” He laughed at that.

She hadn’t known that. Why hadn’t she been told that?

“I needed to send a note to Jo. I asked Elena. She asked for a favour. Damon wanted me to send a message to you. A trade. It was your birthday, he said, and he didn’t even know if you knew.”

“I did,” Bonnie whispered, hoarsely, the memory of the pain of that returning.

A pressure in her head was building, threatening to burst out of her. She hurt. In her head. In her bones. Everything hurt.

“I was – I was counting days. I knew.”

He swallowed hard before he continued again. She could see his Adam’s apple bob violently.

“The Ascendant was too broken to use properly. But I tried to fix it to send them back.”

“It was broken because you destroyed it!” She retorted, clutching at what was familiar. “Damon told me you destroyed it so that no one could ever use it again. You wanted me stuck there forever.”

“I destroyed the Ascendant so that it couldn’t be used to imprison me again.”

“But you also wanted me trapped there, didn’t you, Kai?”

A familiar expression passed over his face. A mixture of anger and hunger. It was the same way he had sometimes looked at her in the prison world. She remembered that day when she had dared him, and he had almost drained her of magic, only letting her go at the last possible moment. He had stared down at her like that then.

That had been the first time but it hadn’t been the last.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” She asked him now, her voice shaking. “You wanted to pay me back but you also wanted to keep me there like some kind of caged pet.”

His fists clenched, unclenched on his knees, but he didn’t look away. “I’ve changed, Bonnie. I’m not the same person who-”

“I don’t care!” She cried. Everything hurt. She was stretched thin and a hair’s breath from breaking into pieces. “It doesn’t matter! None of it does. There’s nothing you can ever do to make me forgive you.”

Pain flashed across his face. Then he was on his feet and striding to her, backing her right against the wall.

Her magic hovered at her fingertips. You only got one chance with Kai Parker and she was ready to do considerable damage with hers.

But his only attack was with words.

“Fine.” His voice was deep and dark like the ocean during a storm. “You and I, Bonnie? We’re even now.”

It sounded like a warning.

Then he was gone.

Bonnie sank to the floor, bent her head over her knees and sobbed.

Chapter 4: bend to her will

Chapter Text

May 2014

Mystic Falls

“Why did you come back?”

At first the question didn’t register in Bonnie’s head.

She and Matt were in the ‘War Room’ – the nickname they all gave the guestroom-turned-armoury in the Salvatore boarding house. Crossbows, Molotov co*cktails, magical weapons of all variety were lined up and stacked, filling practically every inch of space except for the table in the middle of the room, where there was just room enough for six people to stand around. The table itself was usually used to hold maps or scrolls or the occasional spell book and candles for what Damon called ‘witchy juju stuff’.

Some witchy juju stuff was in progress now. Seven candles arranged as the points of a heptagram around the complicated box of machinery placed in their centre. It was one of many Gilbert devices that Jeremy had sent over. Unable to come in person because he and his group of hunters were currently wading through a nest of vampires in Brooklyn, he had sent what help he could.

The device was a slightly different version of the same one that Bonnie had pretended to de-spell so many years ago. Now, she was tampering with Emily Bennett’s magic for real – modifying the embedded hexes so that when they were set off on the heretics, they would harm only the intended targets, and not her own vampire friends. Bonnie had just put the finishing touches to her magic, and extinguished the candles when Matt asked his question.

He was whittling a stake at the small lathe machine. He, Bonnie and Enzo who was loitering somewhere in the cellar, were the only ones in the house. The other four had gone on reconnaissance.

She repeated Matt’s question, trying to understand it.

“Why did I come back… to Mystic Falls?”

Matt shook his head. “Mystic Falls, yeah. But this whole …” He tilted his head to gesture at the whole room. “I sort of got the impression that this was behind you.”

You and me both, she thought ruefully but all she said was: “Did I ever say that I was never coming back?”

He gave her a look, his blue eyes skeptical. “Bonnie, during Thanksgiving weekend, those nomad werewolves tried to eat what was left of your campus, and you packed your bags and went to your Mom’s.”

“Because it was Thanksgiving?”

“Last Christmas, Demon Santa came to Mystic Falls and you spent your entire Winter break with your cousin Lucy.”

“Give me Silicon Valley, California over snowy Virginia any day. Lucy is a blast. She taught me all sorts of cool magic and hacking stuff. Plus we went to Disney World.”

“Bonnie…”

“But yeah, look at me choosing to spend time with the only family I have left. How incredibly selfish.”

“I’m the last person… I would never…” He groaned, and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. That made the stake wobble, and he quickly turned off the machine, then turned to face her fully. “Look, that’s not what I’m saying at all. When Ty and I would come over to your place and talk shop, you were OK when the topic was mundane crime, but the moment it switched to supernatural stuff, you made some excuse to take off. I didn’t even dare bring it up on the phone when I called. You didn’t want us telling you about this stuff.”

“Maybe because there was no need to? I mean, not to sound completely desensitized, but none of those cases ever ranked up the body count of the Originals, or Silas, or heck even Stefan and Caroline when they turned off their humanity switches. I was sure you guys could handle things, and – guess what? – you did.”

He folded his arms. “Fine, then. So what’s changed now?”

“It’s Summer and I couldn’t get an internship anywhere. You guys don’t pay much, or at all, but still… I figured you could use my help.”

He stared at her in disbelief. “Come off it, Bon. You can do that misdirection thing with everyone else but this is me, OK? Matt. We’ve known each other forever.”

Her smiled wavered slightly. She looked away. “There’s no big, dark secret reason why I’m here. What you see is what you get. I couldn’t help before and now I can. That’s it, Matt.”

“No, that’s not it. Sure, you never actually said you weren’t coming back to Mystic Falls… but I helped you move your stuff to your new apartment and I knew you took everything you didn’t want to come back for. Then remember just after you got back from Europe? That time some old friends of Damon rolled into town, looking for trouble? I tried to tell you about it and you just shut down the whole conversation. Acted like you had no idea what was going on. Like it wasn’t any concern of yours.”

“It wasn’t.”

“I know. You kinda … made it clear, without actually saying anything that you didn’t want to get involved anymore and I respected that. Tyler didn’t understand. Damon and Stefan were pissed…”

Bonnie snorted.

“But everybody got used to not having you around anymore for the fights. And then suddenly, you show up for this.”

“Are you complaining, Matt?” Bonnie asked, exasperation creeping into her voice. “If you think you don’t need or want my help-?”

“Good heavens no!” He all but shouted. He walked over to her, and placed the stake on the table, then put a hand on her arm. “Are you kidding? We’d have all been dead the first time we went up against them. Well, except me, maybe.” They both glanced at his hand and the familiar ring on his finger, then he turned his blue eyes back to her. “We need you, Bonnie. I just… I guess I’m just worried about you, OK? You made some kind of resolution or something when you got back from Europe and now you seem to be backtracking and all I want is to be sure you’re in this for the right reasons. That Damon or Stefan isn’t pressuring you and Caroline isn’t guilt-tripping you…”

Warmth filled Bonnie’s chest. “No one’s making me do anything I don’t want to do, Matt,” she said gently. “I’m doing this for me, for my own reasons.”

“Is it because of April?” he pressed, but his voice was softer now, his hand warm on her arm.

Bonnie said nothing.

“I cared about her, too. We all did. She was a good kid, and what happened to her and the Grove Hill kid was sad but Bonnie… it wasn’t your fault.”

“I know that,” she said half-truthfully. “And I’m not here because of her. At least, not only because of her.”

He squeezed her arm slightly. “So what is it? Come on, Bonnie. You can tell me.”

His concern was touching – but it was also beginning to feel invasive and she tried to edge back, but his hand on her was firm. “I… Matt, I have my reasons. OK? Just … just take me at my word that no one is making me do anything.” She sighed loudly. “And that’s all I’m ready to tell you.”

“Sure, of course.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, lamely.

He grinned quickly, covering the clear disappointment on his face. “Don’t be. Just wanted to be sure that you’re OK.”

“I am,” she said quickly. Then they looked around – at the weapons, the stake, the candles and the device – and they laughed. “Well, relatively speaking…”

“So touching.”

Matt stepped back, his hand falling from her arm to the table, as they both turned to face the spiky-haired vampire who was loitering in the doorway.

“Bugger me, did I interrupt you lovebirds?”

Bonnie snorted as she turned back to the table, and started gathering the candles. “What’s up, Enzo?”

“Nothing much. Just drank some blood bags downstairs but I still have a thirst for vein. Anyone care to help a mate out?”

Matt spun around, stake in hand but Bonnie was faster – her hand was out, her spell loud – and the vampire flew up into the roof, and came crashing down on the floor.

“Ow! Can’t you muckers take a joke?”

“A joke?” Matt growled, still holding out his stake. “I still remember when you used to torment my life on a daily basis.”

Enzo got to his feet, and gave both of them an exaggeratedly hurt look. “OK, Donovan, I haven’t even looked at you funny in yonks. Quit whinging already. As for you, Witchy, I’ll give you a pass because you’ve been out of circulation. But we’re all mates now. While you were busy playing at being Little Miss Perfect College Student, I was saving your friends’ lives over and over last year.”

“You mean after putting us in danger first?” Matt retorted. “And don’t pretend you didn’t do half of that to impress Caroline. You don’t give a damn about anybody else.”

“Sorry that I hurt your feelings, mate,” Enzo mocked, putting his hand on his chest and everything. “What do you think, Witchy? Is this a good time to tell Detective Gadget here that I think he’s really fit but he’s not my type?”

It took a while for him to grasp the meaning of Enzo’s words but the evil leer on the vampire’s face finally clued him in. Then Matt’s face turned into such a picture of mingled horror and disgust that Bonnie couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing.

“Bonnie!” Matt cried, pained.

“I-I’m sorry, Matt,” she said, trying and failing to stop.

He rolled his eyes, and moved sulkily back to the whittling machine.

“Don’t give up so soon, it’s a bloke’s prerogative to change his mind-” Enzo started over the roar of the machine but Bonnie shushed him. She had felt the wards of the building change – and in a moment, the other two felt it – the magical alarm of sorts that Bonnie had set up to protect their houses.

The others had returned. Matt turned off the machine just as Caroline, Damon, Stefan and Tyler poured into the War Room.

Bonnie gasped at the sight of them. They all looked worse for wear. Being vampires and werewolf, their wounds had healed, but there was still blood on their ripped clothes. Caroline’s blonde hair was streaked with red. Damon was limping, leaning on his brother. He spoke with a hoarse voice.

“Pieces of stake in my leg. Wicked evil spell. Bonbon, can you-”

She was already on it, guiding Stefan to position Damon so that he could lift the leg onto the table. His pants were torn from knee down. Even though his skin had closed, she could tell where the pieces of wood were from the lines of dessication that had formed where veins should have been. It was an easy enough spell to pull the wooden splinters, but she had to be careful not to split them further as they tore through vampire flesh and bone in their exit. It also didn’t help that Damon yelped and jerked with every passage.

When it was done, Enzo was already at his friend’s side with a blood bag.

“Thank you so much,” Damon said earnestly to Enzo.

Bonnie gaped at him.

Damon gave her a wink. “Put that on my IOU tab.”

She shoved at him, and he laughed. “You’re too easy, BonBon.”

“And you’re a lousy spy. You all are,” she added, turning to include Stefan, Caroline and Tyler in her reproach. “You were supposed to have been silently observing and gathering intel, not engaging.”

“I wanted to leave when he spotted us,” Tyler muttered. “But Carebear went ‘come on guys, we can take him’.” His voice went high-pitched.

“Shut up, Tyler,” Caroline retorted but there was no sting in it. She hung her head. “I’m sorry, Bon. It was my fault. I thought since there was only one…”

Bonnie sighed. “You didn’t mean any harm, Caroline. But we have to stop forgetting that these guys aren’t… hybrids. They’re witches, vampires and syphons. They were raised in the Gemini coven and they have skills in spells that I haven’t heard about. Their vampire nature gives them an endless supply of magic. Their syphon nature feeds from everything that has magic. All three combined has given them some form of immortality that we haven’t figured out a loophole to. Everyone in this room is vulnerable to them.”

“Triple threat,” Damon piped. “Top of the supernatural food chain. Got it.”

“We can’t tackle them like a football team. We can’t ever win against them without a planned method of attack.”

“Good talk, Bonnie,” Stefan said quietly. “Just one little thing… we don’t have a plan, do we?”

She bristled. “I’m working on the Gilbert devices that Jeremy sent. Once I can re-spell them so they can’t be used against you, we can come up with some strategy to use them on the heretics.”

“How long will that take?”

“As long as it takes, Stefan. You know, I could probably work faster if I didn’t have to add your blood to the antiserum that I use on the devices? What do you say to that? It’s for a good cause, right?”

He returned her furious look with a cool glare of his own.

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence.

“Oh-Kay…” Damon declared, clearing his throat noisily. “I move the motion that this was a successful day since no one actually died.” He pumped his arms in the air and hooted. Ignoring the baleful stares he received, he continued, “I propose that we all go downstairs and get thoroughly wasted on some excellent bourbon that I have been keeping for just this occasion.”

“What occasion, Damon?” Tyler murmured. “Celebrating your continued existence?”

“Rats! I forgot. You’re still here. So no, this has not been a successful day! I propose we all go downstairs and get thoroughly wasted mourning the continued existence of Tyler Lockwood.”

Matt and Enzo snickered at that – which made Tyler look at his friend in outrage and made Matt in turn look horror-stricken at the realisation that he had been in agreement in any capacity with Enzo.

Bonnie was hiding her smile behind her hand when Stefan spoke again.

“I have a better proposal: We petition the Gemini Coven for help.”

June 2014

Portland

Bonnie paused at the kitchen doorway and peeped in.

Liv was sitting at the counter; a can, a laptop and a box of pizza were open in front of her. She sat on the kitchen side of the counter so that she was looking into the living area. Rachel was playing a game with herself that involved rolling, sitting and rolling again.

“Kai’s gone. You can come in.” Liv’s voice was extremely wry.

Bonnie pretended not to notice as she stepped inside, and poured herself a glass of water.

She said after a gulp, “I got a text from Damon. Apparently he got caught up downtown.”

Liv rolled her eyes. “Caught up between someone’s legs?”

Bonnie started chuckling, then she checked herself, remembering. “What he said about Luke earlier.” Liv froze but Bonnie pushed on, feeling horrible. “It was out of line. I… I’m sorry.” She felt angry even as she said the words, apologising for Damon’s insensitivity – and probably making herself a target for Liv’s anger.

But damn it, Bonnie couldn’t not say something.

Liv looked up – and Bonnie braced herself for the other girl’s acerbic wit.

But Liv just shrugged, completely calm. “Oh please, spare me the Elena Gilbert Kid Gloves treatment. Have you texted Damon back?”

Bonnie half-laughed, relieved enough to let the dig on her friend slide. “I texted back that he was a liar, some more censorable words, and finally that he owed us both. Full disclosure though: Damon’s not good for much except maybe if you need someone’s head ripped off…?”

Liv snorted. “I’ll bear that in mind.”

Bonnie checked the box of pizza and put two slices on a plate. “I thought there were two boxes?”

“Have you met my brother?” Liv said, glibly, then winced.

Bonnie tried to crack a smile, but her face wasn’t quite working. She concentrated on the microwave, considering very carefully all her reheating options before popping in her plate.

All the while she could feel Liv’s eyes boring through her back.

“So, you and Kai…”

Bonnie’s shoulders stiffened.

“Is there something…”

Rachel wailed. The both dashed to the parlour. It wasn’t anything serious, to their relief. The baby’s rattle had rolled out her reach. Liv fished it out for her and Rachel thanked them with a beaming, toothless grin. Liv’s eyes softened despite herself and Bonnie stroked the bald little head, grateful to the little girl in more ways than one.

The microwave beeped and she dashed back to the kitchen. She yanked its door open and grabbed a bite of the pizza, steaming hot and all. She walked around Liv’s PC to sit on a counter stool and caught a glimpse of what appeared to be blueprints.

“What are you working on?” she asked, genuinely curious but also to keep the conversation away from its earlier topic.

“Some stuff from work.” At Bonnie’s raised eyebrow, Liv continued, “Believe it or not being a professional Gemini witch doesn’t pay much. I freelance for this Architecture firm downtown. I’d probably get paid better if I did a proper 9 to 5 job but this way I get to pick and choose only the stuff I find interesting. And the money’s not too bad. I can afford a place of my own, in case you’ve been wondering. I’m not just freeloading on Jo. I have a room here and everything because it’s the easiest way to help out with the twins.”

“I never thought that,” Bonnie said, honestly. “If I had a big sister with kids, I’d probably move in and help too.” She felt a little sad thinking about that. Most of her life, that had been her one wish. And of course, that would be a wish that no spell could grant.

If she had other siblings, her life would have been so different that she couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would be like now.

Liv laughed. “Trust me, you won’t say that if you really had a big sister with kids.” She looked across at Rachel with a rueful smile. “The little brats aren’t half bad but it would be nice to deal with them only once a week. Heck, I’d probably still show up every day. I love them. I’d just like some me-time, you know? I haven’t gone on a date in months.”

“Oh.”

“Mmm… hmmm… I was sort-of seeing someone in the office but you know how guys are. You aren’t there 24/7 and they move on. Although, Tom started getting boring in the end. So maybe that worked out for the best.”

That explained her disposition, Bonnie thought wryly as she chewed her pizza, but kept that little observation to herself. She was rather surprised that Liv was opening up this much to her.

“I’d kill for a weekend abroad,” Liv continued. “I could afford to go on my own with all I’ve saved living here. Not Europe though. That’s for Trust Fund babies from Virginia.”

Bonnie raised an eyebrow at the last, and the snide glance that accompanied it. “Let me know when and we’ll start a charity in your name anytime,” she snarked. “We’ll call it the Olivia Parker Tourism Fund.”

Liv snorted. “Don’t think I won’t hold you to it. And while we’re on the subject, how was Europe anyway? Saw your pictures on Facebook. It looked rad.”

Bonnie gave her a look askance and took a pointed bite of her pizza.

“Oh, come on!”

“Whatever happens in Europe, stays in Europe,” Bonnie said in between chews.

“That good, eh?” Liv asked enviously.

Dancing on every bar from Dublin to Vienna and back. Bicycle racing through den Hagg with Caroline. Bungee jumping with Elena in Ticino. Hiking through magical hotspots with Freya and Nora.

Wild parties. Wilder sex.

Bonnie shrugged. “It was OK.”

“Liar!” Liv shouted. “Besides, if it was just ‘OK’, doppel-Gilbert won’t have upped and left everything behind to stay there for good. What exactly is she doing there?”

“Finishing her medical degree at a hospital that has a residency program for trauma surgeons, specifically combat situations. That’s what she’s going to do,” Bonnie said with no small pride.

Liv rolled her eyes. “I knew all that. Jo is bursting at the seams with pride at her little protégée. Makes me check Elena’s online presence and everything. Which by the way has been silent for a while. Is she at a warzone or something now?”

Bonnie sobered. It had also been a while since she heard from Elena; they hadn’t spoken on the phone in ages – time zone differences and school made that hard – but they exchanged emails once in a while. The periods of long silence usually meant that Elena was somewhere incommunicado. Liv’s flippant comment wasn’t far off from the truth.

“I don’t know,” she said quietly.

Liv gave her a quick glance. “Well I can’t see any holidays or dates in the near future for me,” she continued breezily, clearly picking up on Bonnie’s mood and deciding to lighten the topic. “Not until the twins are pre-teens, probably. Jo practically begged me to move in here after I finished from Whitmore. Our stupid coven treated her like a pariah when she and Alaric came here and she needed someone in her corner. Kai was too busy playing impartial Coven Leader in the beginning, and Dad was too busy playing the noble ex-coven leader to be of much help.”

Bonnie tensed at the mention of Kai’s name and she hoped Liv missed it. She doubted it, if the flash in the other woman’s sharp blue eyes was any indication.

“Why didn’t the coven welcome Jo?” Bonnie asked hastily, trying to keep the conversation away from any dangerous topics. “They all turned out in mass for her wedding.”

“And miss the free food, free booze and a chance to gossip about the Parkers? Or watch the snobby families cat-fight over who got to gloat about being in a Parker wedding?” Liv asked drily.

Vaguely, Bonnie remembered that there had been some kerfunkle about the last minute changes to the wedding train.

“That it turned into a massacre didn’t do Jo any favours. Then the inquiry after and the whole business of the heretics being let out in the first place.” She gave Bonnie a pointed look. “They didn’t want to blame Kai who was, you know, responsible.”

Bonnie’s heart thumped. “They knew?” She gasped. “That he let out-”

“Lily Salvatore?” Liv finished, her eyes glinting again. “It was kind of obvious since usually, only the Praetor truly has access to the Ascendants. You know, Jo thought she stole the 1994 Ascendant but the truth was that she was bribed with it. If my father wanted it back, he could have got it anytime. But even then, the Ascendants are kept secret from one Praetor to the next, and for good reason: Prison Worlds are built to last for eternity. The 1903 World was breached because Kai went looking for something he shouldn’t have. When Lily escaped, it was only a matter of time for the rest of the heretics to follow.”

Bonnie felt the familiar guilt churning inside her. She reached for the pitcher, poured herself water with shaky hands and tried to drown it some.

“But, of course, the Council wasn’t going to indict its own leader for something like this. Like my father argued it was a stupid, dangerous mistake, but no real malevolentia[1]. But they had to blame someone, even if it was someone they couldn’t actually punish, so they latched on Jo. She was the closest Gemini around him at the time so she should have known better.”

“What? And he let them?”

“Of course not. And he didn’t let them blame you, either, which was something a few Council members also wanted.” At Bonnie’s gape, she grinned. “Besides the part you played, the Gemini don’t trust or like other witches. And even more compelling, it would have been awesome for us to have something on a Bennett. Oh, the possibilities.” Her eyes twinkled rather maliciously. Then she shook her head. “But Kai overruled all their recommendations, declared it immo iudicium[2] and closed the case.” She reached for Bonnie’s pizza and took a bite. “I’m guessing you have no idea what half of any of that means?”

“Whatever, Liv.” Bonnie rolled her eyes. “I get that Jo wasn’t abused by the coven and that’s all that matters.”

“Who said she wasn’t?” At Bonnie’s sharp look, Liv shrugged, and some of the mirth fell from her face. “The Praetor can overrule Council iudicum[3]. But he can’t go into people’s minds and overrule the way they think. Lots of witches still blamed her. Weirdly enough, Kai not being a horrible Praetor is part of the problem. Some witches are now wondering exactly what was the big deal after all about the twins merging 18 years ago? Kai would have turned out alright back then, too. My father having to be Praetor way past his prime has been bad for the coven. Then there are the witches who aren’t comfortable that Jo exists at all.”

Bonnie was in the middle of a sip of water and she choked. “What?”

“Yep. She copped out of the merge. Twice.”

“That’s not what happened. Jo was going to merge with Kai. Luke stopped her.”

“No one cares about Luke,” Liv said, flatly. At Bonnie’s shocked stare, she shrugged. “All they care about is that it’s unusual for the Praetor and his twin to be alive at the same time. Some say it’s unnatural.

“And finally, there are those who still don’t care how good a Praetor he is. He will always be a syphon. They freak out over the fact that the coven leader is one sip of vamp blood and one broken neck away from being an actual heretic. Things have changed since he actually started doing the job. But back in the beginning of his reign, if Kai’s life hadn’t been in danger in the 1903 prison world, the council would probably have voted that he be left there for as long as it took Jo’s twins to grow up, merge and take the coven leadership from him.”

Bonnie felt a cold hand run down her spine. “That sounds so-”

“Cruel? Cold?” Liv smirked. “Is this coming from you? Really?”

Her temper rose, red and sharp. “You tried to kill him, too. Even though you knew it would have murdered your entire coven. So don’t you sit there and judge me,” Bonnie snapped.

Liv made a face, as if attempted murder and genocide was a bad hair-cut she had grown out of. “My twin just died. I was pissed. I’m over it now.”

Bonnie’s temper fizzled. “Yeah, I can see that.” They were all apparently over everything – Luke’s death, four murdered siblings, Kai returning from the prison world and terrorising them.

“I want to give the Gemini coven an excruciating death.”

It sure put her mad determination to keep him locked up in 1994 to protect these people into perspective.

Liv left the baby playing on the mat and went back to the kitchen counter and her open laptop.

“So I guess what you’re saying is that all is not well with the Gemini coven, and I shouldn’t feel too bad that you guys aren’t going to help us?” Bonnie asked.

Liv shrugged. “I won’t go as far as to say ‘all is not well’. It’s more like: we’re still kind of in transition right now and too many anomalies are existing at the same time. Many in the coven went into hiding after the merge because, you know, the abomination became King. Then Kai made up with Dad – I still have no idea how that happened – and Dad called them back. Saving our collective asses at Jo’s wedding helped a lot, too. But still... Kai’s only been leader for a year and he started out by making a spectacular mess of things with the 1903 prison world fiasco. Since then... Well, no one can’t say he doesn’t get things done, but he’s not very orthodox. Witches need constant reassurance. He may be Praetor, but if the whole coven revolts against him they can do some serious damage.”

“So this is politics, then. He’s protecting himself?”

“He’s protecting the coven. We’re literally only as strong as our Praetor, and the Praetor is only as effective as the rest of the witches’ loyalty to him. We can’t do any good if we fall apart or are destroyed, can we?” She asked pointedly.

Grudgingly, Bonnie nodded. Of course, Kai had tried to say the same thing to her mere moments ago and it hadn’t sounded reasonable then.

She pushed that errant thought from her head.

“Do you have any idea how many enemies the Gemini have? You’ve been a witch for a few years and how many have you picked up?”

Bonnie actually started counting mentally before she gave up, shaking her head.

Liv nodded. “We’ve been around for two millennia. We’ve stepped on a couple millions of toes. The last thing we need is our enemies knowing that we’re vulnerable. We’re not, by the way,” she said with a sharp, warning look at Bonnie.

Bonnie rolled her eyes.

“Our father supported Kai one hundred per cent and that got the Council on his side. All the exiles that count are back. Jo’s twins were born and there’s a clear succession plan. Kai’s methods may not be popular, but he’s got some great results. The coven’s back to being revered in the supernatural world. It’s actually been a good year for the Gemini.”

“Chill, Liv. I’m not going to tell anyone about your coven’s problems. I just wish Damon and I knew all this before we made the trip.”

Liv shrugged. “You got to see us all again, didn’t you?” she said cheekily. “And Kai.”

Bonnie gave her another warning look and Liv winked in a way that was so like her oldest brother that Bonnie felt her stomach hurt.

She looked instead at the baby, who had now somehow got hold of some book and was gumming at the edges. Bonnie dashed over to take it away. Rachel tugged a little, but there was not much fight in her, especially after Bonnie dangled a toy in front of her.

She went to put the book out of the child’s reach and an idea popped into her head.

“Do you have a Grimoire here that I can take a look at?” Bonnie asked, casually.

“I have a few upstairs,” Liv said casually. Then her voice sharpened with curiosity. “Why? What are you looking for?”

There was no point hiding it. “How to kill a heretic.”

Liv laughed. “You won’t find that in a Grimoire.”

“Let me be the judge of that,” Bonnie retorted.

Liv hesitated.

“Liv, if there’s information there that can help-?”

“There isn’t,” Liv insisted. Then she shrugged, even though her eyes were still wary. “Fine.I’ll get you some and you can knock yourself out.”

“Thanks. I don’t suppose if you knew how to kill a heretic, you’d tell me?” Bonnie asked, one last ditch effort.

“Nope.”

“No, you don’t know or no, you won’t tell me?” Bonnie asked, exasperated.

“Both. I’ll tell you this much: the only person I know of that has ever killed a heretic, is my brother.”

Bonnie raised her chin. “I’m a Bennett. Believe it or not, Liv, I can be a pretty bad-ass witch, myself.”

“My point exactly: You’re a witch.”

Her words were ominous and the look she gave Bonnie now was loaded with meaning. Then she went back to work, leaving Bonnie to chew on her pizza and her worries. And for the first time in a year, Bonnie finally let her mind go back to that night. To that time, when for a short time, she had been something more than just a witch.

May 2014

Mystic Falls

And there it was, just like that, the one possibility that Bonnie had refused to even let herself begin to consider.

She opened her mouth to shut it down at once – but Damon did it first.

“Not happening, bro.”

“I’m serious, Damon.”

“No, Stefan, I’m serious. You clearly have been inhaling too much of Caroline’s nail polish.”

“I’m on Stefan’s side in this,” Caroline snapped.

Damon looked skywards. “Colour me shocked!”

“Not because it’s Stefan,” Caroline continued, glaring at the brothers in turn, “but because it makes sense. The Gemini fought and won against four of these heretics a year ago. I brought this up the first time we figured out what these guys were. I really don’t understand why we haven’t asked them already.”

“They also lost a lot of their witches fighting the heretics,” Tyler said quietly. “They might not be so eager to take the heretics on again, especially if they remain in Virginia, far away from Oregon.”

“We’ll never know unless we ask,” Caroline insisted. “Bonnie, don’t you think so?”

Many thoughts were churning through Bonnie’s head right now and she stared at her friend, struck dumb because she couldn’t decide which one she could say out loud.

“If the Gemini come to Mystic Falls, I’ll leave.”

Everyone turned to the spiky-haired vampire.

Enzo’s voice was hard, all trace of his usual irreverent humor gone.

Caroline looked betrayed. “Enzo, don’t you think-”

“No, Care, I do not. Their leader locked Lily up like some kind of animal,” he said through gritted teeth.

“She was a ripper, unstable, out of control…”

“So is Stefan,” Enzo roared. “Didn’t see anyone throwing him in the clink. Her sons didn’t lift a finger to save her, act like it’s no big deal” – he gave Stefan a particularly poisonous look – “but I do. I’m not asking help from the same people that locked her up. And none of you duffers should, if you have a lick of sense. You’ve all forgotten what happened with the Travelers. You don’t want to mess with the Gemini. They hate vampires on principle. Their idea of fixing problems like this is taking everyone out, good and bad. There’s no telling that after this whole thing goes down, they won’t decide to throw us all in the same clink. Or hang us from the same noose.” Pain crossed his face. “At least we’d keep each other company which is far better than the deal your mom got.”

Bonnie, Damon and Stefan glanced at each other in turn, secrets in their eyes, and then looked away.

Caroline’s eyes were shining. “We’ll get Lily back someday, Enzo.”

He scoffed, bitter.

“And what happened with the Travelers was a long time ago,” Tyler added. “It was a war between the two covens. We just got caught in the crossfire. The Gemini won’t betray us this time.”

Enzo’s lips curled in mockery. “Think your girl will protect you? Like how she did at the wedding?”

“I stayed to fight while the rest of you turned tail and ran and you are mocking me?” Tyler sounded more amazed than insulted.

“They should consider themselves lucky. If I knew what I did about Lily then, I’d have joined the heretics to fight against them,” Enzo snarled.

“You-”

“Tyler,” Bonnie interrupted. “I know I’ve asked. You’ve probably been asked a dozen times already by all of us. But I have to ask again. You outlasted me in that fight. Do you remember anything about that night? Anything at all that can help us?”

He gave her a helpless look. “I’m sorry, Bonnie. I’ve gone through this over and over in my mind. Liv and about half a dozen witches were battling against two heretics. They had managed to flank Liv on either side, and a third was bearing down on her from the rear. I blocked the spell, knocked it down, tore out its throat. I rolled to attack the other two. Then suddenly, it went dark. Itshouldn’thave been a spell – I was in wolf form, immune to magic – but who knows with these heretics? Whatever they did to me, turned me human, and knocked me out. This was probably about an hour or so after Kai returned. When I came to, I was with the rest of the people they had ported to safety. Liv was still at the battle. None of the other witches told me anything. If the battle was over. If she was safe. Nothing. Just gave me some clothes, patched me up and put me in a cab home. I didn’t get to see Liv until days later. She didn’t tell me anything much then, too. Guess we’d said all we had to say already to each other.” A shadow passed over his face, but he shrugged it off with a patently fake smile. “At least this time,shedidn’t knock me out and leave me lying on the ground.”

Bonnie sighed with disappointment. It was the same story he had told her already. Not even one iota of information was new.

“Knocked you out?” Damon asked, latching on, in his typical way, to the creepiest things. “What kind of kinky stuff were you and Goldilocks into?”

Tyler scowled. “Won’t you like to know, Damon?”

“So, if I get all you said right: you got your ass kicked, your girlfriend had to save you, and then she dumped you, probably because of all the above?

“Is this coming from the guy whose sorry-ass Elena dumped the minute she turned human and free from his sire-”

“We’re wasting time,” Stefan said, quickly cutting off the soon-to-be ugly altercation. “If we can’t agree on this, then we vote.” Everyone started talking at once but his voice overrode them. “They’re seven of us so we can decide on this here and now. And everybody has to stick to the plan.”

“Except me,” Enzo growled. “I’m bloody leaving.”

“Everybody except Enzo,” Stefan amended, indifferently. “I vote Yes. We need them. We eat humble pie and ask for help.”

Damon had gone back to glaring at his brother. “You’re willing to work with Kai Parker? After everything?”

And there it was. The name. It was like a kick in her ribs, making her breaths shallow. Bonnie’s fingers knotted together painfully.

Stefan glared back at Damon. “Kai Parker is not the one I have a problem with.”

Even the others picked up on the sudden tension between the brothers, the load of unspoken resentment in Stefan’s words. They probably even thought they knew the reason for it.

They were wrong.

With a small shiver of surprise, it hit Bonnie then that somehow, impossibly, they had all four of them– Damon, Stefan, Elena and Bonnie – actually managed to keep that little secret for over a year.

“Well, I vote No,” Damon growled, then looked at everyone in turn with bulgingly menacing eyes, as if daring them to vote otherwise.

Caroline threw him a contemptuous look and flipped her hair. “I vote Yes, for all the obvious reasons. Put your stupid eyes back in your stupid face, Damon.”

“No,” Enzo said brusquely. He looked away from Caroline’s hurt face.

“Yes,” Tyler said quietly. He shoved his hands into his pocket, and his gaze was unwavering. “Stefan’s right. There’s no guarantee that they’ll agree to help us. But we have to ask. We have to put our differences aside and reach for help.”

“And you get your old girlfriend back, maybe?” Damon sneered.

Tyler didn’t deign to reply. He looked at Matt, who had been quiet all this while.

Bonnie turned to look at him, too, and was surprised to find him already staring at her. She couldn’t make out the look on his face, but after staring at her for a heartbeat, he nodded to himself as if he was deciding something.

“No,” he said firmly. “We don’t need the Gemini. They’re more trouble than they’re worth.”

He was still staring hard at Bonnie when he finished, and she had a feeling that he was trying to tell her something with that stare but for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out what it was.

It took her a moment to realize that all eyes were on her now.

“It’s a tie, Bonnie,” Caroline said. “Three-Three. You break it.”

Oh no.

“Bonnie, we need the Gemini,” Stefan said sternly. “You’ve done your best but it may not be enough.”

“Stefan,” Caroline said, warningly.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Bonnie said testily.

“If you say Yes, I’m walking,” Enzo repeated for the zenith time.

“No one cares, Enzo,” Bonnie murmured.

“It’s down to you, Bonnie B,” Damon sing-sang. “Class of ’94 reunion or no?”

June 2014

Portland

An hour after Rachel joined her twin to sleep, Liv was still downstairs, working against her deadline and Bonnie was upstairs, cross-legged on her bed, skimming through four leather-bound books with the double figure crest on their spines – Gemini Grimoires.

Liv’s earlier reluctance made sense when she asked Bonnie to keep her use of the books to herself.

“Coven gets weird about sharing our stuff with outsiders,” she said. “Let’s not damage your already shaky standing with them.”

Bonnie rolled her eyes but agreed, more for Liv’s sake than her own.

The earliest entry in all four books was dated in 480BC. Before now the oldest Grimoire Bonnie had seen was dated from 1429AD. Spread before her on top of her patterned duvet was over a millennia and a half worth of chronicles of magical discoveries, incantation, experiments and major events; and she knew that these were probably not the oldest, not for a coven that had been in existence since a few centuries BC.

For the first time, it dawned on her just how old and ancient and permanent the Gemini were. Of course, she had known this before – academically. But now, the reality hit her with full force. She had got so used to Liv and her family – most of them – that she had forgotten that they were part of an institution that was older than many major religions in the world.

A shiver ran up her spine as she cracked open the first book. She wondered how she had ever imagined that she could waltz into their home base and bend them to her will.

Kai staring her down across the kitchen counter, sharp-eyed, scruff jawed, with his rings of power and authority glinting in the low light. Every resemblance to that Peter Pan-like creature she had first met almost two years ago almost entirely erased from him.

Praetor.

“Not them,” her inner voice said treacherously. “You only need to bend one.”

She shook her head to silence it.

There was a spell tailor-made for searching through magical text like scrolls and spell-books for specific information. She chanted it now, and asked for any record of heretics in the first book. She came up with nothing. She repeated the spell for the remaining three.

Nothing.

She searched for syphons. Siphoning. Syphon magic. The ability to draw out magic from living or non-living sources or both. Records of children of witches who had been born without magic.

Nothing.

She groaned and covered her face with her hands. She needed help with this. She picked up her phone and called Damon. It rang to the end. With a half-sigh, half-curse, she dialled Caroline’s number.

Her bestfriend picked on the first ring. She sounded perky, despite the late hour and Bonnie quickly filled her in on the events of her disastrous day.

“What’s the big secret about killing heretics?” Caroline asked once Bonnie was done.

Bonnie tugged on her hair. There was something – an idea – that had started taking shape in her head. But it was little more than a nebulous thought, tangled up in even murkier memories.

She shook her head. “I have no idea. What about you guys? Have you found anything?”

“We’ve already checked the entire Salvatores’ library twice already, your Bennett grimoires, the collection you got from the Martins’s. We’ve got nothing, Bonnie.”

“We can’t. The Gemini aren’t going to help us with this, Care. We’re going to have to wait it out until the vervain drives them out of town.”

Caroline said nothing.

Bonnie knew her friend well – too well. Alarm bells immediately started ringing in her head.

“What are you keeping from me, Care?” she asked at once.

“It’s probably nothing.”

“We made a deal when this thing started, when I came back to Mystic Falls. No secrets, lies or half-truths. No back deals, no hidden agendas. I want all cards on the table at all times or I walk.”

“Bonnie, chill.”

“Caroline…”

Caroline sighed dramatically. “Fine. It’s something Stefan and I thought of when we started painting the town with vervain. We hoped we’d be wrong but it looks like…”

“Just spit it out.”

Bonnie could almost see Caroline narrowing her eyes and bracing herself to give the bad news. “A vampire can build a tolerance to vervain. It usually takes years and years of small doses and we hoped that the heretics, being hybrids would take longer, may not even be able to…”

Dread formed at the bottom of Bonnie’s stomach. “But they have.”

“That’s why I didn’t want to say anything. We’re not sure… But they were spotted in the Park. It has vervain shrubs all over its boundary. But they were both there, strolling through the Park like if they were normal people, not blood-magic sucking monsters. They didn’t stay for long though. Barely ten minutes. Maybe they’re still…”

“… building tolerance? But that’s it, isn’t it Care? They are building tolerance.” She ran an agitated hand through her hair. “We thought we’d found a way out of this. Something far from perfect, but at least something we could fall back on if the Gemini turned us down. Oh god, Caroline,” Bonnie said despairingly. “What do we do? When does this ever stop?”

“Don’t give up now, Bonnie,” Caroline said gently.

“I haven’t. It’s just… I fooled myself into thinking that this was over. That… I’d put this part of my life behind me.”

“Bonnie…”

She forced herself to get a grip. “I’m sorry Care. I just… I just don’t know what to do right now.”

“You’ll talk to him again. You’ll make him see reason.”

“I’ve talked to the Council. I’ve talked to K… their leader. I mean, I could ask Damon to go talk to him but that would probably end with someone’s head on the floor.”

“You’ve got to try harder.”

Bonnie rubbed her eyes with the back of her free hand. “I’ll talk to Jo tomorrow. I’ll ask her… beg her to make a case for us.”

“You’re better off talking to Kai yourself.”

Bonnie swallowed her impatience. “Care, I already told you-”

“Or maybe more than just talking…” Caroline’s voice was so quiet that Bonnie barely made out her words before they trailed off.

Bonnie almost wished she hadn’t. “What are you trying to say, Caroline?” she snapped.

Her old and usually dear friend exhaled noisily, then started speaking very quickly. “Maybe if you and Kai worked out your issues with each other…”

“Caroline…”

“…you could get him to help us. Whatever he felt for you is clearly still there and I know you…”

“Caroline!”

“…care, too. Just think about it, OK, Bonnie?” Caroline spoke louder, clearly determined to finish what she had to say. “It’s a win-win for everyone. You make up. He fixes the heretics. Everyone lives happily ever after. Except, of course, the heretics.”

“Caroline.”

“It’s for a good cause.”

“Caroline, are you out of your-?”

“Oh, look at the time. I have to go.”

The line ended abruptly.

Bonnie covered her mouth with her hands and screamed into them. The urge to call Caroline back and rip her a new one was overwhelming. Instead, she channelled it into furiously searching through the Grimoires, her spell-work so erratic now that the pages of the books flew as the magic flipped through them, some of the loose sheaves rising into the air.

“To find the 1903 Ascendant, I have to navigate ancient texts, undo layers and layers of cloaking spells…”

She shook her head again and asked for any mention of Lily Salvatore.

Nothing.

Kai sitting across from her in the café, his eyes hard as he sipped his drink and dared her to turn down his offer.

Kai’s eyes burning through her as she stood before him in that room, daring her to leave.

Any mention of the 1903 Prison World.

Nothing.

Her own hands running through his thick hair, tracing with awe the zig-zag line of white strands that had sprung across his head.

Any mention of any prison world.

Nothing.

Kai catching snow with his tongue.

His tongue. His mouth.

“Running away, Bonnie?”

“Get out of my head,” she whispered out loud.

But he was in her head. Had never quite left, if she was to be honest with herself. And now that Caroline had planted this insane idea, it had taken root, it was growing. The more she tried not to think about it, the more it filled her mind.

“It’s for a good cause,” Caroline’s voice whispered in her head like a snake.

“Damn you, Caroline,” Bonnie muttered, spelling the books shut. She wasn’t thinking this. She wasn’t considering it.

“Whatever he felt for you is clearly still there…”

Caroline didn’t know that. How could she from a terse and edited summary of a thirty-minute conversation? How could she when Bonnie didn’t know that? All she knew was that it had been a mistake calling Caroline. It had definitely been a mistake the first time she had broken and confessed to her and Elena.

Desperately, Bonnie picked up her phone and dialled Damon again. He had been the first person she had wanted to talk to over the Gemini’s refusal to help and when the phone rang to end without him picking, she nearly threw it on the wall.

Her fingers trapped between Kai’s wrist and the leather wristband, his other hand sliding along the hem of her shirt, his rings brushing lightly against her waist and setting off tiny explosions under her skin.

She thought she had pushed the memories into the furthest recess of her mind, forgotten for all time. But now they came flooding back in such clear detail, she felt she would go insane.

His salty skin. And his blood… she could have died happy drinking it.

Damn Caroline’s suggestion. Damn her.

She was actually shivering, Bonnie realized, her arms coming around to hug herself. She picked up her phone again and her fingers hovered over the keypad. A thrill of shock ran through her. She didn’t have a number to call. Didn’t know the number to call. But she had picked up the phone with every intention of calling him.

“It’s for a good cause.”

She could ask Liv for his number. Liv would give Bonnie a knowing look but she’d give Bonnie the number all the same.

Oh god, am I truly considering this? Bonnie thought to herself as she started walking towards the door.

The moment she opened it, she heard the baby crying and then Liv’s footsteps rushing up the stairs.

They met at the door of the nursery.

It was only one twin. They bundled her out before she set off her sister.

“I thought you were asleep,” Liv said, almost accusingly as she looked at Bonnie with tired eyes.

“No,” Bonnie replied. They were standing near the top of the steps and Liv was carrying Martha, swaying as she did so.

“Let me take care of her,” Bonnie said desperately. “I’m not anywhere near sleep and you have work to do.”

Liv literally dropped the baby into Bonnie’s arms faster than a hot potato. Bonnie clutched the child to herself as if she were clutching her salvation.

The next few hours were so busy with feeding, changing and entertaining Martha – who apparently had a more cantankerous personality than her easy-going twin – that she almost succeeded in chasing away the insane idea that Caroline had planted in her head.

Almost.

Martha, after all, was the child that her uncle had been rocking to sleep a few hours ago.

May 2013

Whitmore

If not for the sudden silence that surrounded her, she won’t have even been aware that they had ported. Her body was still locked in Kai’s arms, his broad shoulders blocking out both light and air.

His body was heavy on hers, his bloody, brooding face inches from her own. For a moment, they were both still, staring at each other. Then her brain kicked in and she shoved hard with her hands and with magic. She was a little surprised that he yielded, falling back to a crouch before her. She skidded backwards as fast as she could until her back hit something hard.

That was when she managed to look round and register the familiarity of her surroundings. They were in her college dorm room. She had backed into the foot of her own bed.

The room was empty of everyone except Ms Cuddles who was sitting on Bonnie’s pillow, and Bonnie could swear that the bear was staring with a “what the f*ck is he doing here?” look on her face.

Which was a very good question.

“What the hell, Kai?” Bonnie gasped. She glared up at the man who had brought her here against her will. Kai was already on his feet and she could feel the magic he was drawing into himself. He was getting ready to ditch her.

The bolt of power she sent at him was propelled with more anger than finesse, but it did the trick – literally tripping him up, and stopping his portation spell.

“Woah!” he yelled, hopping.

“Take me back, Kai!”

He smirked – he actually smirked – as he righted himself, smoothening down the black tuxedo that fit him like a glove, stained as it was with soot and blood. The blood on his face had dried there, his eyes were lit from the effort of recent magic, his jaw was set and Bonnie couldn’t help thinking that his bloody face was reflecting the madness of the mind within. Between his face and his suit, he looked lethal, more so than usual.

Her dorm room was large, luxurious really by any standard, but with him inside it, the room suddenly seemed very small, constricted almost like if his very presence had consumed all the air.

Bonnie swallowed hard against the sudden dryness in her throat.

“You can drive yourself. Should take you about an hour in this weather. Oh wait, your car’s stuck at the venue. Uh oh.”

She glanced out then, and through the open windows, she could see the storm churning across the sky. And now that she was listening for it, she could also hear the rumble of distant thunder. All the stations had predicted clear weather this weekend. That was the whole point of the wedding being fixed for today.

But of course, none of the meteorologists could have predicted tonight’s magical showdown.

“I will Uber my way there if I have to,” she vowed.

Kai’s smirk wavered. “Is that some kind of portation spell?”

Bonnie blinked at him, and it took her a moment to realize that he wasn’t joking. Of all things to almost make her laugh now: Kai Parker, man out of time, still figuring his way around 21^st century jargon.

It was her turn to taunt. “Possibly. Phaesmotos uber. Also, I’m a Bennett, remember? And no one can MacGyver as good as me. You go ahead, Kai. I’ll see you in five.”

His face hardened. “Don’t you dare go back there, Bonnie.”

Bonnie rolled her shoulders casually, infuriatingly. “Hurry along now. Don’t you have a wedding to get to?”

He took a step towards her, his face menacing and her smile slipped off, her heart jumping as she scrambled to her feet quickly, magic rushing to her fists.

He halted. His face twisted. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he growled.

“I believe you. Do you know why? Because I’m not going to let you.”

“Did you miss the memo, Bonnie?” His growl was now tinged with exasperation. “The one in the form of Headless Horseman there re-attaching his head? In case you hadn’t figured it out: it wasn’t PWR that made those things indestructible back in 1903.”

PWR. Prison World Resuscitation. That had been the explanation, back in 1903, for how a heretic that they had watched get blown into pieces before their eyes, had been up and running mere moments later.

Apparently, they had been way off the mark.

For a split-second, Bonnie wasn’t in her warm dorm-room but in a winter wasteland, staring down into nauseating whorls of gold.

She couldn’t hide her shudder and Kai nodded grimly. “I know this is impossible for your brain to comprehend but I’m trying to keep you safe here.”

Her hackles rose at once but she held her tongue. The less she said, the sooner he’d leave and she could figure out her next move. But if he imagined she was sitting this out, he had another think coming.

His eyes narrowed at her silence. “Comprehend is another word for ‘understand’, or in case that’s also too hard, it’s also a stand-in for ‘get’. Do you get me, Bonnie? Last I checked, which I admit has been a while, this was SAT stuff-”

Bonnie almost hated herself for rising to the obvious baiting but she simply couldn’t help it. He did that to her. “You’re right. It is impossible for me to understand that you’re up to any good. I get that much.”

Kai advanced on her, his taller and larger build clearly intending to intimidate her. But Bonnie stood her ground, lifting her chin defiantly.

“This. is. not. your. fight,” he grounded out. His face was bent so close to hers that she could see the blood on his face was dry and flaky. “You know, the IQs of all your friends put together can barely make one functional brain but even they figured out that much. They all took off first chance they got. They left you,” he added, for good mocking measure.

Bonnie recoiled, stung. “They didn’t know I was there! I was coming to warn them and your coven.” And to warn you, she added in her mind and that made her even more furious. That she had actually been worried about him – for his coven’s sake, yes but still – this was the thanks she got?

“Yeah, I noticed,” he said, surprising her because at the time she got to the ceremony, she could have sworn he had half a dozen other more pressing concerns at the time.

A literal half dozen – six heretics all hell-bent on destroying his coven.

“Your timing could have been better but hey, it’s the thought that counts. By the by, however did you know they were out and coming to the wedding?”

And the question made Bonnie wary for a totally different reason. “What does it matter?” she muttered.

But he was already figuring it out, realisation fast dawning on his face. “Were you…? But of course, you had to be… What were you doing in my apartment, Bonnie?”

The question should have been intimidating. And it was, Bonnie insisted to herself. But it was also – the way he asked, his voice going low, his eyes glinting as he stared hard through her own eyes, as if he wanted to pull out the memory from her head, so that he could replay for himself the image of her in his house.

She had a flash of memory from earlier that day – her own self, running her hands over his clothes, his bed. For ingredients for a spell! She snapped to herself. But it didn’t stop the sudden heat from rising in her face, or her own feet from stumbling as she took a step back, suddenly overwhelmed by his proximity.

He followed, closing back the gap and then entering her space. The back of her legs hit the bed and there was nowhere else to move. His scent filled her nostrils – a strange mix of blood, wood and brimstone that should have been repulsive but was strangely … not.

“Bonnie,” he said again, his voice still low. His eyes were now flickering from her face to the bed behind her and back.

The already thin air between them became even thinner. Feeling like if she needed to distract him from whatever was going through his mind, she burst out quickly: “They were looking for you. To kill you. We tried calling ahead to warn everyone but…” She shrugged helplessly. “So I drove like hell to get to the ceremony on time to warn you.”

His face softened. “Well, on behalf of my coven, I thank you.”

He sounded genuine, even smiled a little, tentatively; he was so obviously mocking her.

A sarcastic retort was already on the top of her tongue when Bonnie caught his eyes and it died there.

His eyes were shining with something that in another person, she would have sworn was gratitude.

Warmth mingled with confusion rose inside her. He was mocking her, she told herself; he had to be. Because even if – and it was a very big IF – Kai was ever going to thank her for anything – why for this? It was such a stupid thing to be grateful for – her attempt to help that hadn’t even succeeded; she hadn’t stopped the heretics from getting to the wedding; she hadn’t even got a warning to him in time.

In the past, she had done far more tangible things for her friends than just a botched warning; and all she had to show for that was Elena’s increasingly absent-minded appreciation or a back-handed compliment from Damon.

Thankfully, this train of insidious, confusing thoughts was cut short by what he said next.

“But now, this is Gemini business and you’re going to stay out of it.”

Bonnie’s spine snapped straight, that momentary warmth chilled at the imperiousness in his voice. “No, I won’t. Not when I’m needed. Do you even know how to kill those things?”

“Do you?” he mocked.

Bonnie clenched her fists. “Stop getting in my way and I’ll figure it out.”

He looked like if he wanted to shake her. “I said no, Bonster! I know you get a turn on from putting your life in danger, but you’re going to look for cheap thrills somewhere else today!”

“Look the other way if you must, Kai but I am coming. And stop pretending that you give a damn about my safety.”

“I don’t give a damn about you in anyway,” he retorted.

“Perfect,” Bonnie said, baring her teeth in a mock grin. “So I’m coming.”

“I don’t want the bad karma of a Bennett, no matter how misguided this particular breed is, dying at my sister’s wedding.”

Bonnie couldn’t help it – she burst into laughter. Even to her ears, she sounded half hysterical and she could tell from the way he was looking at her, that he thought so too.

“You’re up against something you don’t know how to kill. I would have thought a coven leader would be desperate for any help he can get at a time like this. But instead, you’ve been wasting time here while your people are fighting, trying to persuade me not to help. Makes me wonder what you’re really trying to achieve here, Kai.”

For the first time since they got to Whitmore, his face lit up with fury. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

His tone was ominous, a clear warning to Bonnie not to answer – and obviously, a challenge that she wasn’t going to back down from.

“I’m beginning to wonder if you really want to save your coven. You’ve only been plotting to destroy for them for the past two decades. Maybe that’s why you’re so determined I’m not there to save them. Maybe that’s what this is really all about – an excuse to abandon them. Are you even going back there?”

His chest was heaving now; he looked angry enough to breathe fire. “I won’t even dignify that with a response. I don’t give a damn what you believe, Bonnie, but you stay out of this or I swear, I’ll-”

“You’ll what, Kai?”

If it were possible for a look to burn, his furious eyes would have turned her into ashes by now. She probably looked the same. For a long moment, they just glared each other down, neither giving an inch. They were so near now, they were breathing the same air. She could see the torn skin under the line of blood that ran from his temple to his chin. The incongruous thought flashed through her mind that he really ought to have that seen to.

Then his eyes narrowed, the fury giving away to something cold, calculating. He stretched out his arm then, silent magic whispering, and Bonnie tensed, her own magic ready to set him on fire. But his hand went over her head – and Ms Cuddles, who had all this while been sitting on Bonnie’s bed minding her own business, came flying from her pillow into his grip.

Bonnie stared incredulously as Kai grinned at the bear. “Betcha thought you’d seen the last of me, huh?” he snarked, something like real fondness spreading across his face. Then his eyes fell back at her, hard and still calculating.

It hit Bonnie then, horror rising inside her.

“No,” she shouted – and the silent, automatic Motus sent him flying across her dorm. She vatosed the beds after him for good measure.

She scrambled to her feet and ran to her door, yanking it open and rushing down the corridor.

It was like something from one of her dreams. Her running down the dark corridors of her dormitory and Kai chasing her. She was looking back to see if he was following – and that was when she bumped into something tall and hard that had suddenly appeared in front of her.

Her breath went out in a whoosh at the impact, cutting off her scream. She tried to backtrack but his arm whipped round her waist, yanking her against his hard body. Panicked, she slammed her hands against his chest, pushing back for some much needed breathing room. She barely got an inch. His grip on her had absolutely no give.

She tried another motus but he was ready this time, and it fizzled away into the air.

“No,” she panted, despairingly. “No.”

He waved Ms Cuddles in her face; the little bear had never looked so menacing. “You’ll get it back,” he said, his voice as hard as his grip. “It may not look like to your righteous mind but I’m doing you a favour. Consider this a freebie.”

Then her magic was rushing out of her pores. The first bolt of pain sent her reeling into him, and she felt his arms draw her close. But after that, the pain sank into a muted throb, to be replaced by a dizzy nausea that made her feel like if she was slowly dying.

He was saying something, his words fast and angry, but she couldn’t hear over the roaring of blood in her head.

When the darkness beckoned, she stepped into it gladly.

June 2014

Portland

The text message must have come in sometime in the early hours of the morning but by then, Bonnie was fast asleep – finally – and dead to the world. She didn’t see it until early the next morning.

There was news from Matt. Someone who looked very likely to be a witch had been found dead in a motel near Mystic Falls.

[1] malevolence/ ill intention

[2] no judgment can be passed as no offence has been committed / a non-trial that shouldn’t have happened in the first place

[3] judgement / decision

Chapter 5: tag, Bonnie. you’re It.

Chapter Text

May 2013

She looked at his bared wrist with horror, even more so as she felt the veins on her face deepening, her strange new teeth cutting against her gums.

“Put that away,” she said weakly.

It would have been easier if he was smiling, smirking, looking at her with any kind of mockery that would make the defiant stubbornness in her rise. But his face was dark with something like desperation. When she didn’t reach for his wrist, he tilted back his neck so that she could see the thick vein jumping underneath his skin.

It took everything not to launch herself at him there and then.

“I hope you don’t mind if I try to exert some control in all this.”

His voice wasn’t helping. It was lower than she’d ever heard from him, the timbre of it causing vibrations in her stomach.

She edged back from his wrist like if it were a viper, stopping only when she backed into a column. She went around it, wrapping her arms around it, and holding on for dear life.

“Better I offer than you lose control and maul me. Learnt that the hard way. Plus draining me, means the deaths of my family and coven, and an absolute waste of all the energy I’ve just spent keep us all alive. But probably worse for you is that the wards in this room will fall at my death and you, dear Bonnie, will prowl through this hotel and turn it into a mausoleum.”

“I’d never…”

“Yeah, you’d like to think so, but I’m something of an expert at spotting a hungry heretic. And when – not if – you kill me, who knows what’s going to happen to you, mmm? You might turn back to a witch. Or you might just get stuck like this for good.”

“Stop it. Stop taunting me.”

“I’m not taunting you. I’m warning you. Just like I warned you that this would happen and what do you know? I was right then; and I’m right now. You’re going to lose it soon.”

“I won’t…”

“I know you won’t. You know why? Because I’m not going to let you. Drink.”

His words were almost as tempting as the scent of his blood under his skin, even the dried flecks of it on his face and bare torso. She gripped the column so fiercely that it shrank under her newfound power.

“How long will this last?”

“An hour. Maybe less but not by much. You can’t hold out that long.”

“You are!” she said, accusingly. But even as she said it, she could see the cracks in his composure. His accelerated heartbeat. His shallow breathing. The way his fists kept clenching, like if he was barely holding himself together. Even the way his voice broke slightly when he spoke. She’d missed the clues before but now, her heightened senses were making her painfully aware of him now.

He was absolutely desperate.

He smiled, and she could see his fangs. “I lived in an empty planet for eighteen years. I have more self-control than anyone alive you probably know. And if you’re feeling half the hunger I’ve felt all this time I’ve been in this room with you, then you’re probably going out of your f*cking mind. Drink!”

“No.”

He scoffed, then he lifted his wrist to his mouth.

“NO!” She shouted.

Fresh blood flowed out of his skin. The scent of it filled her nostrils – iron, magic and him.

It was in her mouth before she realized she had moved.

She felt the sigh leave his body, heavy, shuddering and she could swear she tasted his triumphant relief in his blood. But she could barely register it, caught up as she was in drinking. His skin was salty, his blood was amazing, liquid electricity flooding her veins. She was holding onto his arm with both hands, all but gnawing through the flesh as she tried to get as much of his blood into her as possible.

The same arm curled her into his body, his long fingers actually gripping her shoulder as his bare chest pressed against her back. His other arm wrapped around her waist, a heavy band that she had no intention of escaping, lifting her so that her bare feet kicked against his legs. He was saying something – asking something – his words coming thick and fast and pleading in a voice so low she felt them echoing in her ribs.

She nodded her permission, partly because she didn’t care – not for anything beyond drinking – and partly because the new aching in her core wanted to, desperately wanted to have him drink from her as she drank him.

He tilted her head, and she let him guide her easily, not caring as long as his wrist stayed in her mouth. His fingers trembled slightly as they stroked her hair, and then she felt his lips pressing against her neck. For a moment, he just left them there, as if he was bracing himself. Then with a sigh that made her whole body shudder, his teeth pierced through her skin. Her magic, her blood, was already there waiting for him and when he drew from her, she shuddered, her knees buckling, but not with pain.

His groan was so loud, so close to her skin that she felt like if it was an earthquake. The ground was opening beneath them, and Bonnie let Kai pull her through it, not caring if it swallowed her whole.

June 2014

Portland

It was barely daybreak. Alaric and Jo had been back for an hour, looking smug. Although shortly after, Alaric had rushed to the nursery to check on “the other two women in my life”, and Jo had hopped to bed obliviously. Liv was still working in the kitchen (“I’ll crash all morning. It’s not only vampires that get to have all the fun”) and Damon sauntered into the house to find an irate Bonnie in the middle of packing.

Tentatively, he confirmed that he had also received an update on their heretic problem.

“Er… about last night, I stopped at a bank for a drink. And after that, I got-”

“You’re an ass, Damon,” Bonnie muttered as she stuffed her makeup into her purse.

Damon loitered in the doorway, turning sulky. “Oh come on, it’s not like you didn’t have enough help. Heard the high and mighty Gemini president himself was around. Isn’t it a good thing I wasn’t here to get in the way of official witchy business?”

“I thought you were worried about him hurting me? Or do you only pretend to care when it’s convenient for you?”

He blinked at her. “Woah! Don’t tell me this is just because you changed a few extra diapers yesterday?”

She didn’t say anything, just angrily folded her jeans.

He paused. “I told Liv I was sorry, you know.” When Bonnie stared at him in confusion, he waggled his brows. “You know… about the whole Luke thing. I apologized properly to her this morning and everything. We’re good.”

Bonnie had forgotten about that already. On another day, she would have been surprised that Damon himself even remembered, to say nothing of apologizing – but right now, all she could think of was that he was already pissing her off enough as it was.

He fidgeted a little under her glare and said carefully, “And so you asked Kai and he said No. Disappointing, but we always knew there was a chance that would happen. We’ll just go back to Plan A – vervain them out.”

“Plan A’s not going to work.”

“Why not?”

“If you were here yesterday, you’d get why,” she said through gritted teeth.

He waggled his eyebrows. “Fine. Then we go to Plan B.”

“We don’t have a Plan B, Damon!”

“I always have a Plan B,” he sing-sang. “I just… don’t know what it is yet.”

Bonnie slammed her box shut and glared at him. “Somebody else died and you’re here cracking jokes. Make yourself useful for a change and find out if we can get an early flight out of this town.”

“OK, I’m going to let all that slide because you are clearly suffering from PMS right now. Either that,” he added as she growled, “or something else happened yesterday between you and the President of the United Covens of Gemini?”

“Get lost.”

“Definitely PMS then,” he quipped and made himself scarce.

Bonnie directed her glare to the grimoires stacked neatly at the foot of her bed and remembered her conversation with Caroline from the night before. A conversation that had triggered a fitful sleep filled with dreams of things best forgotten.

“…if you and Kai worked out your issues with each other…”

The night before she had been one crying baby away from doing something that was at best very stupid and at worst very dangerous. And now…

Suddenly weak-kneed, she sat down on the bed.

Damon did not have a Plan B. But she did, didn’t she?

A mental bell rang in her head, its peal deep and ominous.

May 2013

Mystic Falls

Bonnie rang the doorbell and waited.

It was a few hours before the wedding and she had jumped at the chance to run the errand and escape the bride’s camp. At first it had been nice to have her friends hover over her so solicitously, but after a while it had put her on edge. So last night’s bachelorette party had ended with her spending the night in the ICU. That was a day in the life of Bonnie Bennett.

It was not like if she had actually died.

Alaric answered the door. He looked exactly the same, right down to the facial hair that wasn’t sure whether it wanted to be clean-shaven or a beard.

Bonnie brought up a mental image of Jo that morning in the middle of hair stylists, pedicurists and the makeup expert that Caroline insisted needed to be there.

The men had it so easy.

“Here you go.” She pushed the box into his hands. “Your cravat.”

His face reddened. “Oh my god, I was supposed to pick this up yesterday.”

“I know. Or rather, Caroline knew. The person that doesn’t know is Jo. So you owe us big time.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

He laughed. “I’ll remember.”

She peered around the room. A few beers were on the table, and what appeared to be a ring box. Other than that, it didn’t look like the house of someone who was about to change status or make any other major life-changing decisions.

“Should you be up and about after last night?” he asked.

Bonnie sighed. “Don’t take this the wrong way but I’m really tired of telling people that I’m fine. Is Matt around?” she asked quickly, both to get to the task at hand and to stop him from poking. “We’re supposed to pick up the flowers together, some hitch with the floral contractor.” She also had another errand in mind, a thought that had taken shape in her mind as she drove here, but she didn’t feel the need to share that with Alaric.

“He just stepped out with Tyler for some…” Alaric coughed. “Refreshments.”

More beers, you mean, Bonnie thought while keeping her face as straight as possible.

“He’ll be back soon. You wanna wait?”

“I guess,” she said, a little uncomfortable now. She and Alaric hadn’t really had much to say to each other since she came back.

He nodded and made a show of tidying up a little while she perched at the edge of the sofa. He came to sit across from her, still holding the cravat box in his hands.

“Thank you, Bonnie.”

She smiled. “No biggie. I was coming to get Matt and the flowers, anyway.”

“Not for this,” he chuckled, then coughed a little. He looked both serious and nervous.

Bonnie shifted, guilt and confusion seeping through her. “If it’s about going back for Kai, I only did what I had to do. You don’t need to thank me.”

“Oh god,” he whispered. “I have to thank you for that, too.” He slapped his forehead and his shoulders shook slightly.

How much exactly had he had to drink? “Alaric, is everything OK?”

“Everything’s great, Bonnie!” he said, still chuckling. Yeah, he definitely had had one too many. “Everything’s fine. And it’s because of you.”

She looked at him in surprise.

“I… I was dead, Bonnie. I died. But you brought me back. You were in pain, you were dying but you still tried to bring everyone back. Jeremy said, you saved everyone but yourself. You didn’t have to. You could have lived a little longer if you hadn’t. But you brought me back to life. I found Jo. I have Jo. We’re going to have kids. Can you imagine me, a Dad?”

Bonnie nodded, swallowing against the lump in her throat. She could actually. She could imagine it very well.

“I got a second chance at life, Bonnie. How many people can say that? And it’s all because of you.” His eyes were shining.

“I…” She swallowed again. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Now, I also have to thank you for saving my horrible brother-in-law and keeping Jo and my children alive. When I think about when Damon asked me-” He made a face and wiped his eyes. “When Jo told me what happened yesterday, how close we all came to losing you. Again.”

“I think everyone’s getting a little carried away over what happened last night,” Bonnie muttered, slightly mortified.

Alaric continued like if he hadn’t heard her. “I owe you, Bonnie. Anytime. Anyday. Anything. OK? Remember that.”

“You don’t owe me anything,” she whispered. Her heart was actually aching a little bit.

Alaric shook his head, wiped his face again.

Right on time, the door opened and she heard Matt’s and Tyler’s voices. “We got the beers. We got the good stuff. We got- Bonnie!” Their garbled song ended with a high-pitched exclamation point.

Before they caught sight of her, they had been waving two six-packs like pom-poms. Bonnie relieved them both of their burden.

“You guys, I think Alaric’s had enough. If you don’t want Jo… No, if you don’t want Caroline to come here and whoop all your asses, you’d better start brewing some coffee. STAT. Not you, Matt, you’re coming with me.” She peered into Matt’s slightly hazy blue eyes. “Are you sober enough to drive?”

He and Tyler exchanged scoffing glances. “I got us back here, didntcha?” He boomed into Bonnie’s face, smelly breath and all.

Bonnie nearly gagged. “We’re going to stop at the local Starbucks.” She started dragging him along.

She caught a glimpse of Alaric’s face staring at her and she smiled back tentatively, her heart so full she almost couldn’t breathe.

“Come on, Bonnie. Just one beer,” Tyler whined as she slammed the door behind them.

It took two coffees and one stop at the flower shop, but Bonnie was recovered enough from the weight of feeling that Alaric’s unexpected gratitude had filled within her; and Matt was sober enough, for her to tell him what was on her mind.

“Visions about Kai, Lily and the heretics?”

Bonnie shrugged. In the warm, clear light of daytime, it all sounded a bit melodramatic.

But when was the last time her life wasn’t ever melodramatic?

“Sometimes all of them – Kai, the one with red hair, the big blond. Sometimes it’s just the heretics. Sometimes, it’s just Lily. Sometimes… it’s just Kai.”

The dreams that only featured Kai tended to be slightly different from the rest. Bonnie felt her face heating up and pretended to stare at something out her window as they drove back to the event.

“If it’s been going on since you got back from 1903, maybe you were having premonitions of Lily trying to kill you? But Lily’s gone now,” Matt said. Then he made a scoffing sound. “I still can’t believe Damon and Stefan just let Kai send her back to the Prison World.”

“She abandoned them. She had found a new family. She tried to sabotage his relationship with Elena,” Bonnie hesitated. “She attacked me.” And even now, the last filled her with more surprise than gratitude.

The events of the night before were still so hazy. She had woken in the hospital with Elena’s tear-streaked face hovering over her, then her friend hugging her so tight she swore her bones had bent a little. Even Jo had been spooked, acting as if Bonnie had died.

Bonnie shook the thought away. Her days of dying were far behind her.

Matt gave her a concerned look. “So if your dreams warned you about Lily, you think they’re still warning you about something else, right? You think the heretics are going to get out? That Kai’s going to get them out?”

“He has the Ascendant.”

“But you said that you rescued him from the heretics. Why would he try to get them out? Why bother sending Lily back if he’s just going to release her family?”

Bonnie rubbed her hands on her face. “I don’t know, Matt. I just don’t trust him, you know? I’m just waiting for him to do something to pay me back…” She bit her lip and felt her heart tighten again, this time for a completely different reason.

She hadn’t seen Josette’s knife since 1903. By the time she had noticed it gone, Kai had left her, and anyway, Bonnie had far more pressing matters to worry about. But since then, every once in a while, her mind would go to the knife. Had it dropped into the snow in 1903? Or had Kai taken it?

The same knife he had stabbed her with in 1994.

The same knife she had stabbed him with in 1903.

Tag, Bonnie. You’re It.

She clasped her sudden shaking fingers together. “I’m just waiting for him to pay me back,” she repeated.

Matt nodded. Then he hit the brakes, and turned the car in a U-turn so abruptly that Bonnie rocked into her door.

“What the-?”

“He lives in an apartment off town.” At Bonnie’s inquiring glance, he added, “Some of their people are crashing there. I think the kid is in Jo’s train. The local hotels are packed with Gemini so Alaric and I had to arrange lodgings for the extras.”

That sounds awkward, Bonnie thought. Although, she also thought, that was not quite as awkward as Jo sending out wedding invitations to the brother that carved out her spleen or the father that tried to murder her.

“If the 1903 Ascendant is there, do you think you can locate it?”

“I think so. Matt, you’re helping me with this? You believe me?”

“If Bonnie Bennett has a hunch, I’m not going to be the fool that ignores it.”

A warm feeling blossomed in her heart and the two of them exchanged smiles. Matt’s truck bumped along the road, racing against time.

June 2014

Portland

Jo snored. She always had but Kai didn’t remember it being this loud, or this annoying. He rubbed the skin of h- is wrist under the black leather strap as he waited for the infernal racket to end while the tension in his head and in his heart stretched taut.

After a good fifteen minutes, he twiddled his fingers and sent his sister the magical equivalent of a good hard shove.

She woke with a jerk and looked around, her eyes wild. He looked over guilelessly from where he sat by the window and waved at her with his fingers.

“Finally, you’re awake. Long past the time most respectable people are up and about.” There was a lot more bite in his voice than probably needed to be. He was here after all, to ask for her help. But it had been a bad night – no, a bad couple of days – actually, a bad couple of weeks – or maybe just a bad year…

Long and short of it was that Kai wasn’t in the mood to play nice with anyone that day.

Jo slumped back, with a sigh.

“I don’t know what is sadder,” she said tiredly, rubbing her eyes. “The fact that your face is the first one I see this morning or that I’m so used to your complete disregard of boundaries that I can’t even work myself up to be annoyed.”

“Good morning to you too, Sissy,” he answered with fake cheer. “Also, you still snore.”

That got her attention. “I do not.”

“Alaric is a better man than I ever gave him credit for,” he continued, blithely.

She spared him one frosty glare before her gaze morphed into concern. “What’s wrong? You didn’t wake me up this morning to talk about the Brooklyn situation or the dragon cults or the quandary with the Nine Covens or any of the other stuff you’ve been dealing with this month so why are you here?”

He never could put anything past her for long.

“To see my favourite sister,” he said dryly, turning to stare blindly out of the window. The only thing he could see was her green eyes, staring up at him accusingly. “Why else?”

“Whatever it is, spit it out so I can get some sleep. Gab is in this morning and I had big plans for my sleep cycle.”

“How’s the old biddy?” Kai queried, genuinely interested. It had been a while since he bumped into Gab, the old woman who had practically raised him and Jo while their parents were busy running the coven. She’d been away for her brother’s funeral.

“Still gaga. Half the time she talks as if he’s still alive.”

Kai squirmed with guilt and worry. “Maybe, it’s time you…”

At Jo’s glare, he fell silent. They both knew full well why Jo couldn’t trust anyone else with the care of the girls.

“Gab’sfine.Great with the twins and most importantly, she lets me sleep in. Which is more than I can say for other people in this room. So next time, use the door. Praetor or not, you don’t have the right to port into my bedroom. There are boundaries.”

“Says the woman who let a vampire into a house with two babies.”

“The house is vamp proofed to my eyeballs. He’s practically human inside here. Besides, Damon doesn’t eat babies. That I know of.”

Kai grimaced. Clearly his sister didn’t know about the ‘worst day’ of Damon’s life during which he ate a pregnant woman and her unborn child. Alaric clearly didn’t know either or he’d have told Jo. His sister and her husband were thick as thieves.

It was disgusting, really.

Kai and the vampire were not friends – and he’d never trust Damon as an ally again but he knew what it was to live under the shadow of one’s past. As long as he was confident of his family’s safety – and he was – and until Damon gave him cause to, Kai would keep the murder of the Salvatore relation’s wife and child to himself.

Of course, the moment their visitors from Mystic Falls left, Kai was going to personally cast the enchantments that revoked the vampire’s permission into the house.

Visitors.

The pain behind his ribs worsened.

But all he said now was, “well, your vampire babysitter skipped on you last night. I got here just in time. So you’re welcome, Sissy.”

“Now, that’s a sight I’d have almost given up my night to see. You, Bonnie and babies.”

He couldn’t help it. He flinched.

There was a pause. He could feel Jo’s guilty gaze on his face and he looked away. In the far distance, he could ‘hear’ the activities of the other witches in the house, his senses specifically attuned to Liv’s, to Gab the nanny, and even the little twins in the nursery. They were all Gemini witches after all, and all their magic answered to him.

Then his basic witch senses picked up on the vampire in the study; and something even deeper, something that had been within him long before he had magic, connected to the non-Gemini witch in her bedroom.

Bonnie.

Black hair shining under the faint kitchen light. Green eyes flashing at him. That cupid’s bow mouth, full and soft and curved with spite as she threw words at him like hexes. It had been a month since he had seen her last – although she probably thought it was a year – and still the reality of her was a shock to his senses.

She was flitting through the house now. Awake. Alert. Annoyed.

If Bonnie’s aura was a flame, then Kai was the moth that wanted to fly to her and be burnt.

Again.

“They’re not leaving until late evening,” Jo said quietly, and he could hear the unspoken apology in her voice. “That’s plenty of time for conversations… maybe more?”

“Good for them. Excellent weather for flying. Clear skies,” he answered blithely.

“Kai…”

He gave her a warning glance and brusquely changed the subject. “And while we’re on the topic of Mystic Falls and its usual drama, guess who got themselves killed last night?”

He told her.

That got her back on track. She sat up, face pale, eyes wide. “No.”

He knew what she was thinking. First Tim and Rose Stewart at Jo’s own wedding, dead at the hands of heretics and now their great-aunt, in the same way. Now all that was left of the once proud Stewart family was the ageing Bethany and a grand-daughter.

“That poor family,” Jo whispered. She looked completely shattered.

He looked away, grimacing as frustrated remorse smote through him. “Yeah. Someone needs to find out which Elder broke a cursed mirror.”

“And that’s three now, right? The Briggs. Now Judith Stewart…”

“Yep. Three of the coven witches that went into self-imposed exile the moment I became leader are now dead.”

“By the hands of the heretics you released.”

The way she said it made him throw her a furtive glance. The pained shock was wearing off, replaced by a look of calculation. Her voice was almost aloof with coolness.

With suspicion?

“Not exactly how that went down, Jo,” he muttered.

“That won’t matter to a lot of witches.”

“What do you think?” he shot back at his sister.

She hesitated. Her gaze on him was searing, probing. He could practically see the gears turning in her head. “I don’t think you had anything to do with this, Kai.”

He didn’t realise until Jo said it and he sighed, that he was holding his breath. He looked away so that she won’t see the gratitude that had threatened to overwhelm him.

For someone who had lived most of his life, natural and unnatural, without emotions, the maelstrom that had overcome him after the Merge had almost driven him mad. The spiralling events that had followed shortly had not helped, coming near to almost completely pushing him over the edge. Even now, a year after everything, he still had nightmares about what depths he might have sunk to if things had gone just a little bit differently.

As it was, he already had more than enough on his conscience. The guilt and grief at the lives he had ruined and taken would always remain with him, but none more so than those of his own siblings.

He had sought help in his own way – the Internet, various self-help books, even the short-lived stint with a god-to-honest psychiatrist on Jo’s insistence. They all said more or less the same thing – time would heal the sharper, more crippling emotions, but they would never entirely leave him; he would always carry the burden of guilt within him, and the best he could do was to redirect it positively and make the rest of his miserable existence worthwhile to others. Most importantly, it was imperative that he asked for forgiveness from the survivors of his malice – but he should not expect it because he had no right to it; could never do enough to earn it; and should resign himself to the possibility that as desperately as he would want it, he would never get it.

So that was why, even after all this time, the reminder of Jo’s forgiveness, Jo’s acceptance, Jo’s loyalty to him still had the power to stun him.

He had to clear his throat before he could speak. “Well, thanks for the vote of confidence,” he said in a weak attempt at lightness.

Jo looked at him in a way that made it very clear he wasn’t fooling her for a minute. “Anyone with half a brain could figure that it’s not your style. You’re more … hands-on, so to speak.”

Kai couldn’t tell if she had picked up on his discomfort and was trying to ease it, or if she was serious. Probably both.

She was already turning back to the matter at hand. “Well, no matter their loyalty or lack of it to you, that’s three dead Gemini witches. The Council’s going to have to change their tune now.”

“You’d think that, right? I got the news a few hours ago. I summoned an emergency Council right away-”

“Wait, what – you ported Council members out of their beds?” She was gawking at him.

“You heard when I said emergency right?”

She laughed incredulously. “I’m sure they loved that.”

“Apparently not. They were more bugged about that than about Judith Stewart’s death. It certainly didn’t make much difference to them.” He got to his feet, started pacing the untidy bedroom. “No dice, Jo. Still no.”

“What? No way.”

“The usual bull. Witches die all the time. Witches who separate from their covens die even more easily than others. The heretics are content to stay in Mystic Falls. The town is sort-of equipped to manage them, and seems to have a handle on them. Nothing about the situation warrants our interference. Yadda yadda yadda. Let’s leave well enough alone. Now since we’re all here, we might as well talk about that empty Council seat. Cue bickering.”

“What did Bethany say to all this?”

“She had excused herself. Obvious reasons. I thought I was doing the right thing by respecting that. I was wrong. They won’t have dared to behave that way in front of her.”

“Don’t be so sure. The Stewart name is not what it used to be. Knowing Bethany, she knew this and that’s why she stayed away. You did her a favour.”

Kai looked away.

Jo let out a low howl. “Still! I can’t believe them. Three witches dead and they decide to do nothing at all?

“OK, maybe not absolutely nothing. Exile or not, Judith was a respected Envoy, who hailed from one of our oldest houses. There’s Bethany to consider, too. So Envoy Parrish will be going on an all-expenses paid trip to Virginia to ‘observe’ the goings on. That was the fall-out of the emergency meeting.”

He kicked the leg of a table in frustration.

Jo cringed. “The Council has no objectivity where the heretics are concerned. They’d bury their heads in the sand until the heretics burnt their way across the country to Portland. Then the same Council will turn around and point their fingers at you,” she warned.

“Yeah, I thought of that,” he said. “Some were there the night of your Red Wedding. What they saw clearly scared religion into them. I’d overrule them in a moment and hightail it back to Mystic Falls. I wanted to a month ago when those vermin turned up like a couple of bad pennies.”

“So why haven’t you?” she prodded.

He stopped pacing and gave his sister a piercing look. “Because that would be missing the bigger picture. The question isn’t why the heretics are back, it’s how. How do you think that happened, mmm? Because I was damn sure that we rounded up all those freakshows that night before I executed them. How the hell do you think two of them managed to escape?”

May 2013

Mystic Falls

What do you think, Malachai? Was it worth it?

Jo’s Red Wedding ended in a gigantic barbeque. A group of young witches stood at the edge of the huge bonfire, hooting and casting unnecessary fiendfyre spells as the flames rose impossibly higher and higher, un-impacted by the torrential downpour.

But most of the Gemini still standing were consumed with more useful pursuits. The shattered Western portal had been repaired, and the wounded were being carried through. There were deep ditches in the ground where hell-hole spells had been cast, and a group of Envoys moved from one to the other, sealing them back with careful, painstaking magic. Other Envoys were moved across the field, finding and neutralizing any lingering effects of malicious hexes that still remained. But they could only do so much. The auras of witches who had lost their lives, the potency of the magic that had been cast here, and the sheer violence of the past few hours, would linger over these grounds and mark them cursed for decades, if not centuries.

Most of the Councilmen and Elders had already left, but a few remained, and those stood with Joshua Parker, having a slow conversation. There was no time for a formal meeting but already questions were being raised and some form of answers needed to be given before harmful rumors could be allowed to take life.

The Praetor himself should have been part of this group, or at least taken an active role in organizing the Envoys and the other helpers in their work, but it was his family that took his place. Joshua dealt with the leaders, and Liv Parker had helped to set up the Portal. Now, after giving instructions to the Envoys, she worked with the witches who were collecting the dead.

All this while, Kai Parker stayed apart from the rest of his coven. Scant meters from the flames, closer even than the boisterous young witches dared, he stood with his hands clasped behind his back, tall and silent in the rain, his form highlighted by the bonfire that he gazed unseeingly into. A few people had met him earlier – touched his shoulder, murmured thanks – but his curt one-word, and eventually non-answers – had rebuffed them. Now, glances flitted to him, as questions were murmured behind his back. But everyone gave him a wide berth.

“So you were right and we were wrong, yet again, Joshua,” Anthony Genova, fellow Councillor to the now ex-Praetor told Joshua as they stood in the rain and watched as a fiery ditch slowly closed before their eyes.

Joshua’s voice was grave. “Your concerns were not unjustified.”

“Justified and timely. The failsafe might have come in useful earlier this night,” Bethany Stewart said, her eyes sharp and accusing on Joshua.

“The failsafe,” Valerie Hildegard said sharply, “was the reason why we didn’t complete theRedimio[1] and we almost lost the coven this night.”

Joshua sighed. “We were all caught unawares.”

“And in the end, we didn’t need it. The syphon – the Praetor – saw to that,” Anthony interjected, his voice now tinged with amazement. “I never knew a heretic could be killed in such a way.”

“It has always been theoretically possible. There were studies many centuries ago,” Joshua replied, his voice distant.

“I’m more interested in why those heretics were free in the first place,” Bethany Stewart persisted, her voice cold as she glanced now at the bonfire and the man that stood alone before it, then turned back to Joshua. “There will be an inquiry. Too many people died.”

Joshua bowed his head. “I am sorry about your son.”

“His wife, too. My grand-daughter is an orphan now.”

There were cries and murmurs of sympathy. One loss was expected – theirs was a dangerous life. But two from one family in the space of one night? That was indeed a tragedy.

Bethany waved them off. “I don’t want commiseration. I want answers.”

She would obviously have said more, but her cousin, Padma Patel took her elbow. “Come, Betty, we can do more on the other side of the Portal.” The two women drifted away.

The others watched her leave. “Betty won’t leave this be,” Mark McGordon said.

Joshua’s response was curt. “She shouldn’t.”

They said very little after that. At least nothing that was of any importance to Kai where he listened with his newfound supernatural hearing. His composure was a mask, inside he was burning as furiously as the fiendfyre before him, the ruination of magical essence from more souls than he had ever absorbed at once running through his veins like fire. He was fast realizing that the spells that he had cast on himself to ride this through were not going to be enough. Neither were his Sanskrit rings, which were supposed to share some of the burden. Now they were pushing back power on him, feeding into a vicious magical cycle that would soon send him to his knees – or drive him mad.

It would be the ultimate irony, he thought, if he ended up either dying or turning into the same thing he had just saved his coven from.

He could have gone long ago, but he wanted, perversely, to watch the last of the heretics fall into ashes. Maybe then, the satisfaction that he was expecting from all this, would finally come.

So he stayed. And he waited. Long after the fiendfyre was empty and turned on itself, long after the crowd had thinned to a handful, he was still waiting. It didn’t come. That sense of victory, of vindication. Instead what came was an emotion that Kai would gladly have exorcised from his soul, but one that he had become horrifyingly familiar with since the Merge:

Guilt.

His eyes weren’t only burning because of the smoke from the flames, or the warring of auras clashing inside him.

Was it worth it, Malachai?

The question wasn’t his, Kai thought furiously. The guilt wasn’t his. It was Luke’s. That and his inability to enjoy this moment. Apparently, even the simple pleasure of getting even, was something he was going to have to learn to live without. Not for the first time, Kai wondered who had really won the Merge.

Another tremor smote him, and he staggered where he stood. He felt eyes turn to him immediately. They were all watching, he knew. All whispering, all wondering. Even after everything that happened today. They probably always will.

Are they wrong?

Shut up, Luke. He said tiredly.

In the flames, he could see the heart-shaped face of little Judi Stewart. He had glimpsed her at the ceremony. She and her Genova friend had been disproportionately smug at being chosen to be in Josette Parker’s train.

Now, she was an orphan.

Ashton Lang Parrish, one of the envoys, was talking to Liv. “Portal will be closing soon. We need to round up the rest.”

“Who’s left?”

“A few councillors. The Pr-er, I mean your father and the Praetor.”

“Get my Dad.” There was a pause as she walked from the other side of the field to him. Liv’s question was hesitant, diffident in a way that she had never sounded to him before. “Kai, are you coming?”

“No,” he growled.

She hesitated. “Are you OK?”

He didn’t answer.

Her heartrate, already loud and erratic, spiked; and he was so grateful that at least, he could still tick off Livvie-poo.

“Suit yourself.”

He heard his father say something about staying with him, but Liv managed to dissuade him. Then they were finally leaving. Joshua was last, his eyes lingering on his son for a long moment as he stood in the Portal. Then he, too, was gone. Moments later, the Portal collapsed.

Kai ended the fiendfyre spell. The smoke cleared at once, and nothing, not even ashes, remained of the six heretics.

Well not nothing. The ghosts of the dead Gemini witches remained. As well as Kai’s own guilt.

He unclasped his hands, and curled his fingers to make the portation spell. Magic flowed through him at once – too easily. He closed his eyes and his body shook with pleasure at the rush of it. It was like the overwhelming excess of the Traveler’s spell all over. It occurred to him – because he was a syphon and by his very nature, he would always revel in magic – that he could probably learn to control this power, with time. But he rejected the thought almost before it was completed. The cost was too high.

The rain disappeared as he ported.

[1] loose translation: ‘coronation’ of the Gemini Praetor

Chapter 6: not a battle, a massacre

Chapter Text

May 2013

Mystic Falls

The last thing Kai saw before he ported from the cool hotel suite was Bonnie’s irate face. So it was only appropriate that the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes to the scorching, deafening and bloody chaos that was his sister’s wedding was his father’s livid one.

The night kept bearing gifts.

“What the hell are you doing?” Joshua Parker shouted. His eyes were filled with horror.

Kai cracked his neck, held himself back from ramming his fist into his father’s face on sheer principle. “I took a detour fixing a problem I askedyouto deal with. What did I miss?”

His eyes were already sliding from his father, barely taking in the tapestry of magical violence spread before him, as he sought out the glimmering rings of the Portal. He spotted it almost at once, its glow lighting up the Southern boundary. Before it, he could make out a line of witches throwing hexes at a heretic that was repeatedly charging towards them, apparently trying to breach the Portal.

He had barely registered all this when a scream burst out from somewhere beside him. He and Joshua turned to see a witch fly across the hall, followed immediately by a creature in red. Kai threw out his magic, in tandem with his father and the heretic froze, then shattered into pieces.

“That’ll buy some time,” Joshua muttered then he turned to Kai and grabbed his sleeve. “Get out of here.”

Kai tried to take his arm back but his father held firm. “What the hell, Joshua?” he spat. “You don’t give me orders.”

“Where did I hear that before?” Joshua said irritably. “I don’t have time to deal with your ego, Kai. Leave.”

“So you can take all the glory and I live the rest of my days as the Praetor That Ran? No, thanks,Dad.” He snorted. “What’s the plan? Wait for me to scram, save the day and make me look bad? I’d bet good money you’re carrying an Ascendant on you.” He hooked his fingers in preparation for a summoning spell.

Joshua blocked it. “You foolish boy. You destroyed the 1903 Prison when you let these things out.”

Kai reeled. “I… I d-”

“You might as well have! What possessed you to free the ripper?”

Not what, who. But of course, Kai wasn’t going to tell his father that. Or tell his father anything at all.

Not that Joshua was waiting for an answer; he was in full rant mode. “It would take months to build a new Prison to hold six heretics, and we’d have to trap them first. And as for glory?” he spat. “Look around you, Malachai!”

Kai did. Saw the glass littering the ground, the flames, the blood, the twisted knots of smoke hovering in the air that indicated spot-sites of magical duels – light against dark.

The bodies.

So many bodies.

And not one wore a red robe.

Even the creature they had just obliterated had vanished, probably re-awakening somewhere in the ether.

Kai fought back a wave of nausea – and guilt. Despite the still ambivalent feelings he held for a lot of the members of his coven, he hadn’t wanted this.

“Do you see?” Joshua said bleakly. “We’re losing.We’ve ported out the young, the old, the sick. Now we’re moving teenagers, the injured, those too weak to any longer. The rest of us will hold the line until they are through. Then we shut down the portals. This is not a battle. This is a massacre. Now get out.”

“I’m the most powerful person here and you’re asking me to run?” Kai asked incredulously.

“You’re holding the lives of every single Gemini witch in your unworthy hands and I’m asking you tolive.”

Kai finally yanked his arm back. “I’m going to do more than that. I’m going to win.”

“Kai-”

“See those party crashers in red? I’ve a good reason to think that I’m the only one who’s qualified to bounce them. Besides,” buried fury lashed in his belly, “they welcomed me with open arms in 1903. I’d like to return the favour. Sorry to ruin your last stand, Dad.” He shouldered his father out of the way and jumped into the fray.

A pair of older witches ran past him, chased down by a red figure. He shot out a spear of power at it.

The woman’s red hood fell back and her long curls streamed behind her. Its tips lit up with flames that propagated along the length of her hair. She died screaming but Kai didn’t stay to enjoy the sight. He was racing south as fast as he could, towards the shimmering glow of the Portal, stopping now and then to lend a magical hand to any skirmish that crossed his path.

He finally made it within yards of the Portal, and now he could make out his own Livvie Poo, clearly in charge of the quartet of young envoys that guarded the Portal. She threw vicious hexes that made Kai proud but the scarred heretic before her, just bounced them back lazily, even though it could probably have easily taken down at least two witches. Kai hesitated, cloaked in the shadows, wondering what the ploy was.

Finally, one of Livvie’s hexes snuck past the heretic’s reflexes and the creature staggered back, choking – then charged forward with an angry snarl, flinging out a curse that would have killed off half of Kai’s living siblings. He threw out a hand quickly to block it – but someone was faster. The werewolf that he had not even noticed until then – launched itself onto the heretic, the curse catching on, and bouncing harmlessly from its immune body. The wolf buried its jaws into the heretic’s neck and both went crashing on the ground.

All eyes were on the macabre sight before then – and that was when the second heretic, clearly bidding its time all this while, charged.

Two envoys were on the ground before Kai could react. It reached for Livvie next – and his sister was still standing, frozen, too shocked or too slow to reach – when Kai sent a wave of power at it. It screamed as its skin tore, revealing blood and black magic, swelling obscenely until it exploded. Pieces of heretic fell to the ground. Livvie jumped out of the way with a yelp of disgust. It was only then that she looked around at her fallen friends and she let out a low gasp.

Her eyes met her brother’s as the wolf padded back to her with its bloody jaws.

“Go,” Kai said hoarsely. “Set up another Portal for the injured to the North. I have need for this one.”

She didn’t argue. Without looking back, she left, leading the surviving envoy and her wolf with her.

He ran up to the Portal, to the very edge where the magic threatened to pull him inside. Raising his arms up, he started chanting, channeling its power and transforming it at the same time. The rings on his fingers burnt as the rings of the Portal turned from their silvery blue glow to a dark, red blaze.

His arms were sore when he lowered them, but that was a small price to pay. The magic was already settling in the Portal. For the first time that evening, finally something was going his way.

He heard the whistle of a hex aimed at the center of his skull in the nick of time. He dodged it, and it shot into the Portal, turning the rings black for a moment, before they blazed back red.

He swirled to face the two that were materializing before him.

“Malachai,” snarled the peroxide-blond reject that Kai had ‘affectionately’ named Iceman.

“Nice to see you too,” Kai snarled back and threw lethal hexes from both hands in rapid succession. Iceman dodged the strike and the spell smashed into the ground, opening up a crater beside the heretics. The second heretic – Gingerdum – absorbed the magic with one hand and returned fire with the other hand. Kai flung out a shield but it went up a tad too late, and the edge of the hex struck just above his brow. Blood spilled into his eye, half-blinding him.

He staggered a little, blinking rapidly, but his shield was still up and the barrage of hexes that both attackers were sending merely smashed against it.

“You will perish for your treachery,” Gingerdum was ranting.

“You have no idea what that word means, do you?” Kai muttered.

He was curling his right hand into the shape for a bone-crusher, preparing for the pause to drop his shield and strike.

The moment came and he had the satisfaction of hearing bones snap and crackle. Another hex and he had shoved them both into the crater and yet another sealed them in.

He smiled.This canstill work, he thought, asflexed his fingers, rings glittering in the light of flames and spells as he channelled his power...

And something flung itself on his back and sank its teeth into his neck.

June 2014

Portland

“I was damn sure that we rounded up all those freakshows that night and then I sent their black souls into Oblivion. How the hell do you think two of them escaped?”

More to his frustration than to his surprise, Jo shook her head. “Don’t be paranoid, Kai. No one in this coven would have helped any one of those heretics then or any other time.”

“Your faith in our backstabbing little serfdom never ceases to touch my ugly black heart,” he declared.

“You keep calling them serfs and very soon you’re going to have a revolution on your hands. How many times do I need to tell you: the Praetor is only as strong as the witches’ loyalty to him?”

“I play nice with the other kids, Jo,” he exclaimed in protest. “I give the old fossils in the Council my ear all the time. It’s hard to believe it, but when they put aside their petty politicking, they actually give good advice. Yes, that happens once in a blue moon but you never know when, right? Besides, when I’m too busy getting stuff done to hold their hands and make them feel important, that’s what Dad’s there for.”

Of course, Jo couldn’t counter that because it was true. Like many others, she had probably thought it was a phenomenally bad idea for Kai to give Joshua Parker a seat in the Gemini Council but that move ended up being a stroke of brilliance, if Kai said so himself. It had turned his father from being Kai’s biggest enemy and a rallying point for the witches seeking to flee the coven – to becoming his staunchest supporter and his unofficial liaison with the rest of the Council. And when Joshua Parker vouched for him, a lot of the witches who had gone into exodus when Kai became leader came back in droves.

It amused Kai that his sister could still be so surprised at how well he did politics. In his pre-merge life, he had pretty much survived by learning, imitating and manipulating the emotions and inclinations that came so naturally to everyone but himself. A year of figuring out how to get a handle onhisown emotions hadn’t made him lose his old talents. If anything, they had come in handy in figuring out his own head.

Particularly where a certain black-haired witch was concerned.

Kai clamped down on that line of thought before it derailed him.

“You’d get on better with the Council if you just tried to be a little bit less…yousometimes,” Jo said with the voice of a woman who had given this advice repeatedly and was exhausted. “But back to the point: if you think one of us rescued the heretics to … I dunno… pull them out of their sleeves like Jokers a year later to lure you to Mystic Falls and kill you, you’re… You’re being more than paranoid, Kai. You’re being flat out ridiculous. Why would anyone in the Gemini coven want to kill their leader?”

“I could be the nicest Praetor in the world and there’d still be someone who wants to play game of magical thrones with me. Maybe someone lost a bet on how many bodies I’d drop in my first one hundred days in office and is looking to get even?” At Jo’s look of outrage, he chuckled humourlessly. “Sorry. Too soon.”

But still, someone somewhere had to be disappointed that the forebodings had not come to past. That the mad man hadn’t burnt the coven to ashes. That he hadn’t murdered his father, gutted his pregnant sister, ripped into shreds everyone that opposed him and drank the blood of their children.

Instead, he had, against all odds, saved all their asses. And thanks to a series of hard lessons early on in his reign, he had got his head on straight about just what it meant to be Praetor. And he had thrown himself into it.

Perhaps he had thrown himself into it a bit too much.

“Think the Genovas or the Lovegoods could be behind this?” He asked Jo now.

Those two families were some of the nastier elements in the coven, previously considered untouchable and allowed to indulge in forbidden arts unchecked for generations. A member of each of those houses had sat on the Council for centuries, the last being Anthony Genova and Mary Louise Lovegood, whose duties had concluded a few months into Kai’s reign. One of his first ‘official’ acts when he returned to Portland was to evoke a privilege that Praetors rarely exercised – and forcibly retired two serving Council members. Then he had proceeded to lay down the law on both houses. Most of the witches had watched in anticipation of a rebellion or even self-imposed exile. But the Genovas and Lovegoods had toed the line. Perhaps all they had needed was a Praetor strong enough – or crazy enough – to bend them to his will.

It was just one more of Kai’s actions as coven leader that inspired an interesting mix of approval, outrage and outright fear from the other witch families.

“Powers or no powers, their lives are still linked to yours,” Jo countered. “I would suggest looking outwards – at some of our newer allies that you brought in by force. But in all honesty, I can’t imagine a pack of wolves or a swarm of faeries or any of the other covens having any kind of influence over these heretics.”

Kai nodded in grim agreement. For the past year, he had been using his scheming talents to repair old alliances with other supernatural elements, alliances that had been broken or forgotten because of his coven’s paranoia. The Council had not liked the fact that the new Praetor was more likely to cut a deal with a werewolf clan than to cut off their heads. But they couldn’t deny that he got more results his way. And when those had failed...

Well, he was mega-powerful and that streak of violence in him had been tamed, not erased.

Jo had told Kai once that the Council thought he was impulsive and he had laughed out loud at that. The truth was that he was a stickler for their protocol, and always took counsel before making a decision. He meant what he said – some of the advice the Council and the Elders gavewereworthwhile. He was as likely to go along with a recommendation as to go against it.

Their real beef, he suspected, was that he didn’t drag his feet long enough for them to catch up with him. He made up his mind as quickly as possible, and stuck to his guns. Councils, elders and petty factions be damned.

They had got too used to his father. Joshua had been formidable once upon a time, but he had had to be Praetor far longer than was normal – and his leadership had become overly cautious, even by Gemini standards, as a reflection of that. Over the past two decades, he had filled his Council with like-minded witches and now they were struggling to keep up with his son.

Jo sometimes told Kai that the witches whispered that the new Praetor was more ruthless than the former one had been in his prime. He considered it a compliment.

“What does Dad think?”

Kai bit back a groan. Of course,Sissywas going to pick up on his thoughts and start the discussion at a tangent that was not only furthest from his mind but completely in contradiction to it.

He had had eighteen years to forget what that felt like – growing up with someone who thought exactly like you but in the polar opposite direction.

But he had been reminded shortly after her children were born, when Jo had faced down the coven for her twins.

Although Kai had killed the debate eventually, Jo had gone from the wary indifference to coven affairs she had had when she first moved to Portland, to taking a more active interest. Powers or no powers, Jo Saltzman was still the sister to the current Praetor, the mother of the coven’s heirs, and the daughter of the most influential wizard on the Council. Only an ostrich would fail to realise that she had a big stake in all things Gemini; and Jo wasn’t that.

So she had started increasingly voicing her opinions to her twin brother and in return, Kai had gradually taken her more and more into his confidence. Being able to bounce off problems against a brain that worked like his had proven invaluable. Over time, she had become his informal counsellor / sounding board and the one person in the coven that he trusted absolutely.

Still, there were times when their differences in some fundamental ideologies left him wanting to tear his hair out.

Like now.

“Our father gave his recommendation with the rest of the Council,” he answered shortly.

She rolled her eyes. “I meant one on one. After the Council meeting.”

“He didn’t stick around to chat.” He barely reined in the flare of anger at the disappointment on his sister’s face. “We’ve had this conversation before, Jo. I know this makes me a big fat hypocrite but Father and I are never going to repair the father-son bond we never had. We share an overwhelming interest in the welfare of the coven. Other than that, we don’t have anything to say to each other and we both like it that way.”

“I wonder why,” she said sadly. “You guys are more alike than you think.”

Now that made him laugh. “You can’t be serious.”

Either the baby hormones had finally scrambled his sister’s brain or he was right and his sister indulged occasionally in juju weed.

Thinking of juju weed made Kai remember his conversation the night before with Bonnie.

He groaned inwardly. It seemed like his brain found every possible reason to bring her to the forefront of his thoughts! His chest tightened as a specific memory flashed through his mind. Bonnie between him and the kitchen window, her face so near that he could count each of her eyelashes, could smell her breath with each exhale.

Even now, he could feel her essence in this room. It dusted the entire house; it would linger here, this second home of his, long after she had gone.

He was equal parts thankful and resentful for that.

Jo’s eyes were searching. “Yes, you are.”

It took him a startled moment to realise that she was still going on about him and his father.

“Jo-“

“Duty before love. Coven before everything else, right?” Her voice was sad. “Gee, wonder where you picked that from?”

“That’s not true,” he said warningly. She was pushing it.

His sister’s gaze was unrelenting. “Not yet. But you’re getting there, big brother. There were many times you could have gone to Virginia this year. The nomad vampires. The Smallwood pack.”

“Their pseudo-Founders’ Council did their own housekeeping. Those potatoes were too small for Gemini interference.”

“What about the dragon rumours?”

“Some run-of-the-mill shapeshifters with delusions of grandeur. I’m not one to rely on Astromancy, but even the experts ruled that a Landing would be impossible; and if an Old One had been revived, we’d all know now by the … I dunno… current apocalyptic conditions, dontcha think?”

Jo rolled her eyes.

The Southern Court had confirmed that a pair of their shapeshifters had gone rogue a few weeks before the first dragon sighting last Summer, and they had tracked them along every major sighting since then. Kai had volunteered a few Envoys to the Court’s manhunt and although it was taking longer than he’d like, it was only a matter of time before the idiots were brought to justice. He supposed the temptation of having a bunch of mundane cultists spring up like weeds in response to the shapeshifters’s theatrics had been too much to resist. But the fall out of all that nonsense was that sooner or later, one of those cults would go too far, and then the Gemini coven would find themselves – himself, to be precise – wading in the murky waters of the river of palaver that flowed whenever the same mundanes the Coven was committed to protecting became dangerous nuisances.

“Besides,” he chuckled, thinking about this bit, “how the heck would the Mystic Falls Scooby Gang have been able to deal with a real dragon?”

“Yeah, and wasn’t that convenient for you? Even if you had needed to look into things, you’d probably have just sent a few envoys and stayed away yourself.”

Kai stared her down, daring her to say it.

She did. “You’d have found some reason to stay away from Bonnie.”

He kicked her table again and was pleased to see her jump. “Why shouldn’t I have?” he asked coldly as he started pacing again. “The situation was being handled… and I knew where I wasn’t wanted.”

“If you think this changes anything between us, then you’re mistaken.”

He felt his hands ball into fists. The leather on his wrist crackled as magical static rubbed against his skin.

“You didn’t give her time. Oh my goodness, Kai! Youterrorizedthat girl and you expected her to just let everything go because you had one night-“

“You really need to mind your own business, Jo…”

“Now, you’re sending her packing to Virginia with the impression that you hate her so much that you won’t do your job just to spite her, knowing full well that you’ve been digging into this matter from the moment you first heard about the heretics re-appearing!”

Now that shocked Kai into stillness. “How the hell did you know about that, Jo?”

Because he had been playing that very close to his chest. At the first whispers of Mystic Falls’s newest tenants, he had bought a plane ticket to Virginia and used it. Heretics in Mystic Falls and Bonnie in Whitmore, one hour away. That was two reasons too many for him to get involved. But he had hoped she’d stay out of it. She had, surprisingly, managed to stay out of that town’s troubles for a year. But as it turned out, he had hoped in vain; she had been right in the thick of things when he got there. He had barely made it to Virginia in time.

The Council had recommended against getting involved and officially, he had concurred. Unofficially? What he did with his private time as a private person was none of the Council’s business.

So how the hell did Sissy of all people know about this?

Jo shrugged. “That’s not important.”

“Like hell it’s not. Have you been spying on me, Jo? Got a few witches in your pocket shadowing me?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” she snapped. “I kept calling you to help with the twins that weekend and you kept putting me off. I asked Liv to port over to your place and you weren’t there. I put two and two together.”

“I could have been with someone,” he grumbled.

“Ha!”

Oh for goodness’s sake. He didn’t need this. To stand here, feel Bonnieeverywhereand deal with Jo’s smugness all at the same time.

He turned on his heel and walked towards the door.

“Kai! Come back, OK? I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…” Behind him, his sister sighed.

He froze where he stood, a few steps to the door. If he were honest with himself, he would admit that he wasn’t angry at Jo. He wasn’t even very angry at Bonnie.

Well, he wasn’tmostlyangry at Bonnie.

Whom Kai was really angry at was himself, or rather, at his own feelings. These horrible feelings that a year later, had only gotten worse. Stronger. More hopeless.

That misguided shrink had tried to feed Kai some psychobabble about locking his redemption onto the one person he had hurt the most. Kai grudgingly admitted to himself that there was some truth in that. But he had also meant it when he told her – what seemed like eons ago – that they were even. He would always be haunted with what he did to Bonnie – the guilt of it, as much as the regret of paths not taken. But he also knew that she had got her own back at him, with interest.

So why couldn’t he let go?

“You need to give her time,” Jo said uncannily. “But, Kai... Even if you never get the kind of relationship you want with Bonnie, you can’t let yourself turn into this… machine that doesn’t feel or care for anything beyond his duty.”

“You say that like if it was a bad thing,” he muttered.

“It’s a bad thing because you can’t keep going on with this… this… thing with Bonnie. You can’t keep bottling everything inside, not wanting to try, not wanting to let go, hurting her, hurting yourself. Neither of you can.”

Something warm gripped him at her words. It took him a moment to realise what it was. Hope.

No, you loser, he told himself at once.Don’t do this to yourself.

But still. “Neither ofus? Did… did Bonnie say something… about me?”

Jo’s face was pained. “Oh, Kai.”

So much for not hoping. He couldn’t even keep it out of his voice, out of his face – if his sister’s reaction was anything to go by.

“I just…” He cleared his throat against the ache that had started in it.Come on, Jo, he thought desperately.

“Bonnie didn’t say anything to me,” Jo said gently. “But I could read between the lines… she has a lot of stuff to work through. Whatever Bonnie feels for you, Kai, it’s not indifference. That’s a start.”

He laughed, and it was a hollow sound even in his own ears as the hope vanished as quickly as it appeared, popping out of existence like a pricked balloon. “No. Just slow burning hatred.”

“You don’t really believe that. She’d never have come here if she still felt that way. “

“Bonnie Bennett was going to lock herself up in a prison world with me for all eternity because it was the right thing to do. She’s big on self-sacrifice. Believe me, coming here to ask for help wasn’t a big deal.”

“I guess we’re stuck here. Forever.”

If he had a choice now between being the all-powerful Praetor, responsible for the wellbeing and prosperity of a coven, which was just a fancy way of describing his job as a glorified babysitter to a bunch of witches who either feared or hated him – and being stuck in an empty world with only Bonnie Bennett for company – he knew which he would choose in a heartbeat.

What was that word again?

Irony.

“At least just let her know that you’re working on this. Let her know that you care about what’s happening to her town,” Jo insisted.

“No, I don’t,” Kai said at once, truthfully. “For all I care, that whole town can sink into the ground with everyone in it.” Everyone except one.

Jo pursed her lips.

“Why can’t you just be happy that I’m not having a psychotic break because my crush doesn’t like me back?” He asked lightly.

“Probably because I’m afraid youwillhave a psychotic break over this and my family and I will be collateral damage.”

He recoiled, feeling like if she had punched him.

There was contrition on Jo’s face but it was buried under layers of steely resolve. “There’s a fine line you’re walking here, Kai. You don’t see it but-“

He barked with laughter, cutting her off as he gave himself a mental face-palm. Even after everything they had gone through together this year – from her wedding to the fight with the Council over her twins – Jo would probably always regard him as a ticking bomb. As a monster trapped within a man, waiting for the crack, the fault line it could slip through and escape.

He tried to remind himself that he deserved this – just as her forgiveness was her right, not his, the extent of her trust in him was hers to determine, not his to demand in full.

But yet…

Yet…

If his twin sister, who he regarded as his steadiest ally, who was probably the closest person in his life right now, thought of him that way then what the hell did he expect Bonnie to see when she looked at him?

And why the Hell did everything keep coming back to her?

It was enough to make one mad, he thought, feeling the dark emotions beating against his skull like a twisted drum orchestra.

Times like this, the fleeting thought would cross Kai’s mind, that being a heretic won’t be too bad. Not if it would let him switch off his emotions for good.

“Kai…” Jo tried again.

“Oh save it, Sissy,” he taunted. “Once a sociopath, always a sociopath, right? Thankfully, no one’s depending on your two months internship in the Psych ward to pull me from the brink. I happen to know my antidote and even better, it’s right around the corner.” He grinned maliciously. “Good ol’ fashioned violence. Magic-ripping, heart-ripping, blood-splashing-everywhere type of violence.”

Jo blanched and he laughed nastily.

“But don’t you worry. The lucky recipients are not, for a change, your nearest and dearest but two heretics in a quintessential town in Virginia. Shortly to be followed by the rat in our coven that is in league with them. And-“ he raised his hand to hush her next words –“spare me the lecture about being paranoid. One good thing about being a semi-retired, semi-reformed sociopath: when I feel someone’s out to get me, I’m usually right.”

He finished with a smile, and even though the menace in it wasn’t directed at her, his sister still flinched.

Nice one, loser. Spook the one person on your side.

His heart was like a stone in his chest but he donned the aura of his authority like armor, turned on his heel and went to face his demons.

An hour after Damon took off, Bonnie was heading to the nursery to find Alaric before he left for the high school. If Damon had any luck with bumping up their flights, then by the time they left Portland, Alaric would still be in school; so Bonnie wanted to say goodbye now.

Her emotions were all over the place. After that wave of exhaustion had flooded her in the room, she was hit with the opposite extreme – tense, wired, out of sorts, like if there was a tight coil inside her, taut with anticipation for something.

Someone.

“It’s for a good cause.”

Caroline’s words still haunted her. As did Bonnie’s own memories. She was getting tired of fighting them.

She didn’t know what to do. She only knew that whatever she decided had to be soon.

Alaric was in the nursery, cooing over Martha. The baby sat on the floor, banging her toys together and he was on his stomach, watching her. In the far side of the room, Rachel was asleep in the crib. Bonnie sat down beside him and allowed herself a small sense of smugness at finally figuring out the twins.

He grinned up at Bonnie. “Hey, Bon. Thanks for,” he cleared his throat when one of her eyebrows went up and his face reddened. “Anyway, you should catch some rest now. Daddy’s home,” and he smiled at his daughter who – and there was really no other way to describe it – preened.

Bonnie petted the soft down on the baby’s head – that was the difference between the two. Martha had a few wisps of dark hair and Rachel was bald.

The baby smiled at Bonnie and her heart loosened. “Oh, you precious little thing,” she said softly.

“They’re amazing, right?” Alaric said, his eyes fixed on the baby. “So much work. So little sleep. But they smile at you and everything just melts away.”

Bonnie nodded. He was right. Just by watching the baby, she could feel that coil inside her loosening.

After a few minutes, she looked at Alaric curiously. “Don’t you have to be at work in a couple of hours?”

“Yeah, but I do this all the time. She’ll be asleep in a little while. I’ll crash for half an hour and then I’ll be good to go.” He peered at her. “Are you OK?”

“Somebody else was murdered.”

His face fell. “Oh no. I’m so sorry, Bonnie. Was it someone you knew?”

It was someone somebody knew,she wanted to retort but didn’t. She couldn’t really blame him. That had also been her first concern when she called Matt back that morning.

“Matt said the cops identified her with the contents of her purse. Her name is Judith Stewart. 63. Her address is somewhere in Nevada State. No one has a clue what she was doing near Mystic Falls.” Alaric’s frown surprised her. “Do you know this person?”

“I-I’m not sure. The name sounds familiar.”

She waited but after a while, he just shrugged. “I’ll check my records. If I find anything, I’ll call you from school.”

“We’re going to leave today. As soon as possible.” At the look of disappointment on his face, she smiled ruefully, “Sorry. Wish we could have stayed longer but -“ she sighed heavily.

“Yeah, I know.” He said, smiling back. “It’s been nice having you guys around. I don’t just mean because you gave Jo and I a night out,” he added and they both laughed a little. “I miss Mystic Falls sometimes. It wasn’t all bad, was it?”

Bonnie gave him a look.

He laughed. “Yeah, it probably was.”

“You have a lovely family, Alaric,” she said, almost scolding.

He looked at her in amazement. “I know that. Come on, Bonnie, do you think I’d trade a minute of this for anything from Mystic Falls?”

She shrugged, unconvinced. The town had its charm. She had been away for almost a year and it had felt like coming home.

If home was a graveyard, that is.

“I mean, who would have thought, right?” Alaric continued. “Three strikes. My first wife would rather be dead than be married to me. Literally. The next woman I fell in love with was murdered.” His face twisted and so did Bonnie’s, at the memory of Aunt Jenna. “Then the third woman, well we were almost something, but she ran off. I still tell Jo that Meredith’s the smartest woman I ever dated, and that includes her.”

Bonnie laughed.

“Now, look at me. A beautiful, amazing wife. A doctor, for that matter.” He chuckled. “My old mom would have been so proud. Two beautiful little girls,” he stroked Martha’s hair.

Bonnie felt her eyes tear up a little.

“I even have a job. As a respectable high school teacher in a town where it’s somebody else’s job to keep the supernaturals in check for a change. Heck, I’d like to see the suicidal vampire or werewolf or Original that would try to take on the Geminis in their home-front. You did that for me, Bonnie.”

Her face burned. “Oh my goodness, not again!”

“You did this,” Alaric insisted. “You. And Kai.”

And just like that, the tension had coiled back up inside her. The indulgent smile on her face froze.

“Alaric…”

“The heretics wanted to murder Jo first, you know. No idea why. Maybe because she was the most vulnerable person there and the easiest to kill. Maybe because she was the center of attention and they wanted to start their massacre with a big bang. Who knows? But if Kai hadn’t got between her and that knife, she’d be dead, and I’d have lost three people that night.”

Bonnie said nothing.

Alaric glanced at her. “People change, Bonnie. Damon turned my first wife into a vampire. Years later, he gave up his chance to live so that I could.”

“That’s different,” Bonnie muttered.

Alaric co*cked his head, like if he was thinking. “I don’t see how it is.”

“It just is.” She took a deep breath. “Jo told you, didn’t she?”

She didn’t say about what. She didn’t have to.

For a moment though, Alaric looked uneasy, like if he was thinking of feigning ignorance. But her eyes stayed sharp on his face, and he bowed his head.

“Actually, Kai did.”

She started. “What?”

“A month before the twins were born, we had a false alarm. Jo and the babies, I mean. I rushed her to the hospital, thinking they were about to come. The nurses were all cool and clinical and not appreciating the situation at all. So, I probably threw a little tantrum.”

“A tantrum?”

“Yeah. I got thrown out of the delivery room.” He made a face when Bonnie snickered. “Luckily, we had called Kai and he got to run interference between me and Jo. I was out of my mind with worry. Jo didn’t have the easiest time with the coven when we got here. And the old witches used to say things about the babies.”

“What kind of things?” Bonnie wondered, remembering Liv’s talk from earlier.

Alaric shrugged. “Mostly about Jo not being a witch anymore and how she’ll have a difficult time because of her age and lack of magic. The doctors said the same about the age part.Josaid the same about the age part. Then there was some talk in the coven about taking the kids from us so that they could be raised in a proper magical home.” At Bonnie’s alarmed look, he shook his head. “Kai shut that down at once.”

She looked away from him and stared fixedly at Martha. The baby was on her stomach, now, kicking with her legs.

Alaric put a bright toy just a little out of the girl’s reach.

“He helped calm me down while we were waiting. And we got talking. We aren’t close or anything but… you know, family is family. We both care about Jo, about the twins. I told him about Isobel. He told me about you. Now that I think about it, he was probably a little tipsy.”

Bonnie felt her hands tighten into fists. Her heart was pounding. “He had no right.”

“He’d never told anyone else before. I don’t think he even told Jo. She sort of figured it out on her own, twin-style.”

Bonnie stood up abruptly and would have walked away but Alaric reached for her.

“Bonnie.”

“It was nothing,” she snapped. “A moment of …madness. Magic. Adrenaline. I was half out of my mind. It could have been with anyone, OK? It just happened to be him and I needed… It meant nothing to me. Except for wishing it never happened because apparently that’s why he’s refusing to help us now,” she said, bitterly.

“Kai would never do that.”

“Won’t he?” she cried. “You don’t know him, Alaric. You don’t know how he was before his…” She clapped her hands together. “Mergeance Personality Transplant. He was a monster.”

Martha gurgled then, distracting both of them. She had reached the toy. Alaric placed another one just a little out of her way. The baby gave him what Bonnie almost swore was an “Are you kidding me?” glare.

“Come on kiddo, you can do it,” he murmured.

Bonnie sighed. “Look, Alaric, can we please just not talk-“

“Was, Bonnie.”

“What?” she asked, confused.

“You saidwas. Your words: ‘Kai was a monster.’ So you do realize that he’s not the same guy.”

“I did… I don’t…” She tripped over her words and Alaric looked at her knowingly.

Semantics!She thought. She knew what she meant, what she felt.

Anger and hurt were rising in her again.

But Alaric was already going on:

“And you’re wrong, you know, about me not knowing who he was. I did meet the old Kai. I even put a gun to his head. All I had to do was pull the trigger but Jo stopped me. Not because she thought he was worth saving though. Because she thought she could merge with him and beat him, and spare Liv and Luke.”

Alaric sighed. “And maybe she would have won and we’d be telling a different story now. A better one. Ormaybe something worse.”

He gave her a pointed look.

“But… that’s not what happened. Luke merged with Kai. And Kai saved your life. And Jo’s . And mine. And a lot of other people at our wedding. And even more people since then. He’s done so much good for this coven, and the supernatural world in turn. There comes a point when–”

“Don’t, Alaric,” Bonnie warned, her voice a harsh whisper because of the baby. “Don’t you dare tell me when I have to trust Kai Parker or anyone else who’s ever hurt me. Don’t. You. Dare.”

“I don’t,” he said softly, and his eyes were sad. “But haven’t you already? Didn’t you have to for what happened between you two… to have happened in the first place?”

“No, I didn’t –”

“Pssst.”

They turned to see Liv standing by the door. Her face was tense, her blue eyes wary.

“The Praetor’s downstairs.” Her voice was cold. “You’ve been summoned.”

May 2013

Mystic Falls

On the night of his sister’s wedding, when a heretic bit him, Kai screamed not so much from the pain but from the memory.

Teeth. So much teeth. His magic. His blood. How much do they need? When will this stop?

Why can’t he just die?

It was sheer reflexive power that shot out of his head and into his attacker’s. He felt more than he heard the pop of a skull imploding and then the gooey mess of heretic brains splattered on the back of his suit.

He fell to his knees, bile rising in his throat and he wanted nothing more than to hurl but he was already raising his hands up to push back Iceman and Gingerdum who had apparently crawled out of the literal hole they came from and were about to rush at him again; and Kai started laughing, half-hysterically, because it was more than ridiculous, just how badly his careful plans had screwed up…

Then hexes flew above his head, and both of them hit the heretics inches from his face. Blondie and Ginger shattered into dust and smoke.

A healing spell hit him in the back and a firm grip was pulling him to his feet. He turned to throw a grateful grin at the witch that had joined in the fight.

And took his father’s punch full in the face.

Kai reeled, but not before his magic flared out defensively and smote his father in the stomach. Joshua doubled over, coughing out blood while Kai hesitated, his hand up, his magic barely leashed and his head whirling in confusion. It was barely a few seconds of momentary pause, while the battle whirled around them, but it seemed to last forever.

Finally, Joshua lifted his head, and shouted through his blood-stained lips. “This isn’t about your stupid pride or petty revenge! You wanted this! You fought for it! You murdered your siblings for it! I locked you up in that Prison because I didn’t know how to kill you and yet you found your way back and stole it! Well you got it. Now. do. the. damn. job.” With each angry exclamation, he stood a little straighter, came a little closer. By the end, he was standing right in front of Kai and he shoved his son.

Kai shoved him back, both fists up as he glared at his father, his heart pounding with hatred.

Joshua held his ground and glared right back, his eyes brimming with contempt.

“You want to be Praetor? This is what it takes to be Praetor, Malachai. Putting your pride and your vainglory aside tosurvivefor the coven.Look around you.This is happening because you forgot your most important job.Putting the coven first. Now get out of here so I can clean up your mess the way I did eighteen years ago.”

He shouldered past his son and marched off.

Kai swallowed hard as he turned to watch as his father walked into the storm of smoke and magic.

Chapter 7: i put a hex on you

Chapter Text

May 2013

“You’ll get it back. It may not look like it to your righteous mind but I’m doing you a favour. Consider this a freebie.”

The morning after Jo’s wedding, Bonnie woke with those words echoing in her head. It was warm but under the thick blankets, she had shivered through the night. She stared blankly at the chandelier above her, then at the large window across the room with fancy curtains. The mosaic floor was tastefully dotted with expensive furniture.

For a long moment, she had no idea where she was and panic immediately filled her. She was cold in a way that meant only one thing – she had lost her magic. The nightmare of 1994, and all the times she was vulnerable because she had no power, threatened to consume her.

Then the moment passed; her fright subsided as the memories came back, first slowly like a trickling stream then crashing like a waterfall. The heretics’ ambush. The wedding. The fight. Kai Parker porting her out of it against her will.

Taking away her magic for ‘her own good’.

Anger flared up inside Bonnie and she sprang up at once.

Last night, after being dumped semi-conscious in this hotel suite, Bonnie had barely given herself a moment to recover, before she had exhausted herself even more trying to find an exit. But every one – the window, the door opening out to the corridor and the connecting door leading to the other room in the suite – had been warded shut. The same spells that kept the doors and windows barricaded had also prevented her from finding a phone or any other form of communication. Of course, he had taken her phone from her, too.

The spells were still active as she quickly confirmed now, fury building up inside her.

He had kidnapped her. Again. He had stolen her magic. Again.

She was cold. Cold and mad. Mad and scared. Because it must have been all over by now – the fight – and she had no idea what had happened. Who had lived. Who had died. And there was only one person to blame for that.

Where the Hell was Kai Parker?

Bonnie was spoiling for a fight and if he were to appear before her right now, she wouldn’t need magic to kill him. She’d just gut him with the first sharp thing she could lay her hands on.

She spun around to find one and that was when she saw it. Lying on the corner of her bed, an incongruous rose beside it, was – of all things – a familiar one-eyed teddy bear.

Glowing through its fur, visible through her witch vision, was a vibrant aura that she knew very well.

Tentatively, she touched Ms. Cuddles, wondering if this was a trap.

But it was Bonnie’s magic alright, warm and smouldering out of the bear’s fur. She had no way of telling, especially now with so little magic left inside her but the power in the bear felt intact, full and untapped.

Kai had kept his word.

Relief poured through her, sharp and unexpected; and her eyes filled with tears. She clutched the bear, cuddling it close and felt the heat from her power seep through her skin, chasing away the coldness that her magicless aura had tormented her with all night long.

It took Bonnie a moment to recollect the incantation; at first she struggled to say the words that she used to draw out her ancestor’s magic from a rock in another world. But the second time they came easier, and with each repetition the words flowed faster, and she knew the moment the magic in the bear started pouring into her body.

It was nothing like drawing out magic from a long-dead ancestor. This was Bonnie’s own magic and it filled her up like a flood filling up a crater. She cried out in half-pain, half-pleasure as her body lit up from within and through fading eyes, she could see her own veins glowing under her skin. The magic-infused blood seemed to fill up her vision until all that she could see was white.

Then nothing.

When she opened her eyes again, the shadows in the room had changed. She sat up slowly, and stared at her arms. There was still a faint glow through her skin, barely visible with normal sight but nothing a very thorough day at the beauty spa wouldn’t have caused. She smiled.

Her body ached though, her joints stiff and painful, like if she hadn’t moved in days not hours. The urge to close her eyes to sleep it off was so overwhelming that for a moment, she didn’t care where she was or who had put her there.

Then she heard it again. Felt it again. What she now realised must have broken through her deep slumber and forced her to wake.

A shout of pain.

And the crackling in the air that was strong magic being invoked.

She got up at once, and immediately felt dizzy. She had to hold onto the headboard to steady herself. The sense of active magic was pressing down on her – thick and heavy in the air like black floating ropes. Powerful spellwork. And it was coming from close by. She closed her eyes and let her senses guide her, stumbling through the room as she dragged her still tired body along. Her nose bumped into something flat and hard and she opened her eyes.

She had walked across the room, and now she was standing in front of the suite’s connecting door. It had been warded before but now it yielded to the press of her hand.

The door was already ajar when she checked herself.

What was she doing?

She had her magic back. Whatever wards were still up would be simple enough to break through. She could go – should go right away. Before, for whatever new inane, insane reason, Kai tried to stop her. Because even though she had only been exposed to his magic a few times, she recognized whose spellwork hung heavy in the air. It was his and he was on the other side of this door.

If Bonnie left now, she could get a phone to call a cab and her friends and find out what happened at Jo’s wedding. If she stayed here and he caught her, heaven knows what would happen. He had given her back her magic but that meant nothing. Bonnie had learnt the hard way that having magic was no defence against a syphon.

She was turning on her heel when she heard it again. The sound of a muffled shout.

And now she could feel it as well. Pain. Enormous and consuming, mingled with the threads of magic.

She didn’t hesitate. She pushed open the door.

And stopped in her tracks.

Kai was in the room, just as she had expected. What she hadn’t expected was the sight of him. He looked like if he had been thrown out of a plane and then hit by a bus. He stood before what looked like a reading desk, his hands flat on the surface, and she could tell from the tension in his biceps that he was barely holding himself upright. All that was left of his wedding tuxedo were black pants that hung in shreds. His torso was streaked with blood, mud and – and she gagged a little – a cauterised stab wound on his lower torso and two still-open slashes across his stomach. Underneath all this, lines of black tattoos crisscrossed his skin, from his throat, across his chest and down his arms to the tips of his fingers. There were two streaks of caked blood from his temple to his chin, his hair was parted in an unusual manner and when he looked up at her as she stepped in, she could see his eyes.

His eyes were red, their hollows veined.

She backed away in horror.

“Why are you still here?” he asked. The words came out slowly, painfully like if they were torn out of him – or like if he was speaking with a mouth filled with fangs.

“I don’t…” know, she wanted to say. Hovering in front of him were three rings, similar to the power rings he usually wore. They were rotating in mid-air, each in a different axis, their colours changing too rapidly for her to ascertain a pattern. A quick glance confirmed that, yes, three rings were missing from his fingers. The glance became longer when she noticed the familiar knife between his hands; its once-shiny blade was now black and shiny, making it almost invisible on the black desk. Then she really took in his hands and she gasped in shock.

What she had thought were tattoos were actually his veins, pulsing with the black blood that showed through his skin. They ran across his entire body, every part that she could see.

Not black blood, Bonnie realized, horror filling her. Black magic.

“What happened to you?” She whispered.

“Get. Out.”

Kai’s voice was strangled and even as she watched, he jerked his head sharply, involuntarily and bit back a groan.

She took a step forward, too shocked by what she was seeing to even remember her own tiredness.

His eyes turned back to her, and she could see the red recede to give way to the gray-blue. “Your magic. The bear,” he croaked.

“I found it,” she whispered and took another step forward. The pain rolling out of him was unbearable. She had no idea how he was still able to stand.

As if on cue, he let out another shout and collapsed on his knees.

“Kai!”

“Leave!”

But she had rushed forward and now she stood before him, the desk the only thing separating them. He was pulling himself slowly to his feet, the muscles in his shoulder bunching as the black veins throbbed furiously. She reached out to help him and he caught her hand, clamping around her wrist like a vice.

The angry magic rushed to his palm and she could feel it try to jump from his skin into hers. She could also feel the Herculean effort he was using to keep it leashed to him.

“I. Said. Get. Out.” His eyes were red again, and the veined hollows had deepened.

She swallowed. “I can help you,” and the words came out before she had made the decision in her head. But she didn’t take them back. She had seen this before, recognised a bit of what was happening to him. She could help him.

And she wanted to.

His grip on her wrist tightened painfully, black magic stabbing greedily at her own aura, and his eyes were boring into her with an intensity that was just as painful.

“Leave,” he roared, and his knees buckled again, her hand slipping out of his grip.

Bonnie was around the table in a flash, her hands reaching for but not quite touching him. She was looking straight down at his head and she almost cried out at what she saw. What she had thought was an odd part in his hair was actually a jagged line running from his crown to his nape where his hair had been ripped out to reveal the pulsing vein beneath. The strands of hair on either side of the line were clotted with blood. Even as she watched, fresh plasma started dripping out of the vein and down his face.

Her stomach churned and she quickly glanced away, her gaze landing on the rings suspended in front of him. One had stopped rotating and was hovering, a thick dark cloud gathering rapidly around it like a dirty ball of wool.

“Let me help you, Kai!” she shouted at him.

He raised his head up then, and looked at her. The trickle of blood had run down an eye, so it looked like he was weeping red tears. His eyes were changing from red to blue to red so rapidly that they appeared to have turned violet.

“Bonnie…” He whispered her name and something else.

She had to lean forward to hear him.

“Help me.”

He collapsed.

June 2014

Portland

When Bonnie got to the door that led into the kitchen, she hesitated and did a quick once over at her outfit. Straight jeans and a sleeveless shirt she could throw a jacket over during the coming trip and change in weather. More practical than glamorous – the shirt didn’t even have an interesting neckline. Her hand went to her hair and, quickly, before she could talk herself out of it, she pulled off her scrunchie and shook her head, letting her hair fall loose over her shoulders.

Then, putting a lid on the voice in her head that had started a scoffing tirade, she put her hand on the knob of the door and walked in.

Of course, her eyes went immediately to the man standing across the room.

He was dressed in a short black jacket, open over the white shirt and black jeans beneath. He had poured himself a glass of orange juice and stood by the window, drinking. His cuffs were turned up, and she could see his rings, and the leather strap on his left wrist. He looked like someone Bonnie would run into on campus, not the feared leader of an ancient coven.

Until you looked at his eyes, of course. Even in the Prison World, there had always been something about his eyes that gave him away and that put her on her guard right from the first.

He turned when she stepped in, and she caught a glimpse of stormy blues, then he turned fully, so that his back was to the window and his face was in shadow. He stood rigidly, his shoulders tight and his hand around the glass white-knuckled. She could still feel the weight of his gaze on her face. It felt angry.

Bonnie’s heart skipped a beat. Something was wrong.

“My name is Ashton Lang Parrish. I serve as Council Envoy. It’s an honour to meet you, Bonnie Bennett. Your family is held in great esteem.”

The voice pulled her out of her stare and it was only then that she registered the other people in the room – Damon, leaning against the counter with his daily dose of bourbon, and a familiar fair-haired man standing beside her, vying for her attention.

Mr. Asshat from the Council.

Bonnie stared at him, then turned to Kai.

“What’s going on? Have you changed your mind?” She asked, hopefully.

“If I may explain…” It was Mr Asshat that spoke. Kai only stood silently by the window.

Bonnie dragged her attention, unwillingly to the man. It was then she noticed that he had offered her his hand.

She almost didn’t take it. “We met yesterday. You didn’t act like you were particularly honoured then, Mr. Ass- Wait, what did you say your name was again?”

Damon snorted into his bourbon.

The man shot him a cold glare, before turning back to Bonnie. “Ashton Lang Parrish, at your service. And yesterday, I was serving on the Council and if my attitude was a bit hostile, please understand that I was only doing my job.” He spoke formally.

“A bit?” Bonnie echoed. She was still processing his name.

He gave her a stiff smile. “Please believe that I genuinely was not aware that you participated in the Battle. After the hearing, the P… former Praetor briefed me of some of your activities. There are many witches from great families who live off on the good name of their ancestors while applying nothing of themselves. I wrongfully assumed you to be of such a character. Allow me to now apologise and to express my sincere admiration for you, personally.”

This time Damon guffawed out loud. Bonnie sneaked a glance at Kai but he still said nothing, only drilled holes into her face with his eyes.

By now Asshat - Ashton, seriously? - was looking at Damon with open hostility. “Is there anything you would like to say to me, Vampire?”

Damon put down his glass, the mirth in his eyes morphing into something more sinister. “You tell me. Care to step outside for a little chat?”

“No,” Bonnie snapped and gave him a warning frown. She turned back to Ashton. “Please why are you here?” The ‘please’ took some effort but she felt she needed it to counteract Damon’s behaviour. “Will your coven help us then?” Her eyes sought out Kai again, wishing she could see his face well enough to read his expression.

Ashton stiffened as he faced her. “I will be coming to Mystic Falls to inspect your heretic dilemma. We will need to consult on occasion. I hope that we will be able to do so effectively.” At the last sentence, he gave Damon a pointed glare.

Damon waggled his eyebrows and grinned back. Bonnie was sure that it was only the wards in the Saltzmans’s house that stopped him from dropping his fangs.

“So … you are going to help us kill the heretics?” she persisted, confused. “I thought that only the Praetor,” she glanced again at Kai and felt a stab of irritation at the man, “could do this.” Why did he just stand there, silently watching and probably judging her?

“I can only inform you that our interests appear to have aligned. Beyond that, I have divulged all that I am at liberty to say. Here is my card.”

Bonnie took it. It was ordinary-looking, with just his name and a phone number. Then she flipped the back, and saw the indentation of the Gemini symbol moving through the paper.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” he continued. “I need to organise my logistics. Praetor, will you be coming?”

“I have business with my family,” Kai said, speaking for the first time since Bonnie entered the kitchen.

The sound of his voice, deep and low infuriated Bonnie in more ways than one.

“Extend my regards to Mr. and Mrs. Saltzman, and Ms. Parker. Once again, Ms. Bennett, it was an honour.”

With a stiff nod to Damon, and a low bow to Bonnie, Ashton Parrish turned on his heel and briskly left the Saltzmans’ house.

Damon poured himself another shot. “If that Witch Street stiff steps into my town, I will tie him up with a red bow and hand-deliver him to the heretics myself,” he announced.

“Noted,” Kai deadpanned, his gaze finally shifting from Bonnie. “I highlighted your tendencies to stab your allies in the back when I gave Ashton my Mystic Falls 101 cheat sheets.”

Damon sneered. “Just so we’re clear.” He strode to Kai and waved his glass at his face. “What the heck are you up to, Kai?”

Bonnie tensed, ready to intervene. “Damon.”

Kai said nothing, just looked at the other man with a bored expression on his face as he drained his glass.

“Last year, you lay down the law on Mystic Falls like some Clint Eastwood wannabe in an old B-rated Western, and the only reason why I don’t rip your throat out for that is because hey, it’s my town, too. I don’t need some stuffed up prick from Portland of all places to tell me to protect it. Then now, the first time we ever come to you for backup, you can’t move your ass to help.”

Bonnie started. What was this about?

Damon poked Kai with an index finger. “And now this? One minute you’re hanging us out to dry. Next you’re sending your lackey to spy on us.”

“First. Ashton doesn’t like me. Don’t call him my lackey to his face. It’ll hurt his feelings. Second. Piece of advice: you’re not supposed to introduce your spies to your intended targets. It sort of defeats the purpose. Third. The next time that finger touches me, you’re going to lose it.”

Damon growled and drew back his fist.

The glass in Kai’s hand vibrated with the slightest, faintest tingle.

Bonnie was between them in an instant, her hand on Damon’s wrist. “Stop it.”

He yanked his fist back and glared at her.

“Remind me again why we needed this jerk’s help?”

“Mmm…” Kai murmured and she realised with a slight shock, that he was near enough for her to feel his warmth on her back. “Let me see. The last time you faced a bunch of heretics, you hightailed it faster than a Bugs Bunny cartoon. If I were a betting man – actually, I am a betting man …”

Bonnie covered her face with her hands, pressing her palms into her eyes and groaned until he stopped talking.

“Damon, can you give us a moment please?” She asked quietly.

She dropped her hands to see Damon looking at her like if he thought she was insane.

“Er… let me think. No.”

“Please, Damon,” she hissed.

He glared at her with narrowed eyes. Then he shot Kai a final poisonous look. “Watch yourself around her.” Then he gave Bonnie a slightly less menacing one. “Yell if you need help.”

Kai snorted.

Damon growled and grabbed the whole bottle on his way out. The door slammed loudly behind him.

Bonnie whirled round to face Kai.

He was near, barely inches from her and she instinctively took a step back.

He raised an eyebrow at that, but said nothing. He had gone back to the same brooding, almost angry stance that he had worn when she first entered the kitchen. Once again, she was filled with the sense that something – she, to be exact – had ticked him off.

Still, there was something she needed to know first. “What did Damon mean about you laying down the law on Mystic Falls?”

He took his time answering. She was about to snap a repeat of the question, when he finally drawled, “That’s between me and Damon, don’t you think?”

“Really? That’s your response.”

This time, he didn’t deign to reply.

Bonnie bristled. “Fine, then. What did Asshat mean when he said our interests have aligned? Why is he really coming to Mystic Falls?”

His mouth twitched. “Asshat?”

She shrugged. “Ashton Whathisname.”

He smirked a little. “And I thought Malachai was bad.”

“Answer my question, Kai.”

His eyebrow went up even higher. “You do like ordering me around, don’t you, Bonnie?” He brushed past her, his jacket rubbing against the bare skin of her arm and she stifled a gasp at the contact. “It was the Council’s recommendation. Last night’s casualty caused them to rethink their position.”

He stopped at the counter, put down his glass, and turned to her. His eyes were fiery. “This is not some special favour I’ve done for you because you have me wrapped around your little finger.”

Her mouth fell open. “What. No, I don-”

“Really?” he snarled. “Wasn’t that the whole point of you waltzing in here to Portland and demanding to speak to the leader of the coven? Think you have me on some sort of leash?”

Bonnie felt her face burn and then her own anger flared up. “Where the Hell is this coming from? I asked for your help and you said no. You don’t owe me anything, remember? You’ve made that abundantly clear.”

A myriad of expressions flitted across his face, too fast for her to catch. It finally settled on a scowl as he muttered, “You and I both know that’s not completely true.”

Her ire left and bewilderment took its place. With the latter was also relief because at least she could begin to understand why he seemed so angry – or rather, angrier than usual. But just what the Hell did he mean by that? What was going on here? One minute he was yelling at her because of this non-existent hold she had on him and now he was saying…

What exactly was Kai saying?

That they were not even? That he owed her one favour?

Or that she did have him wrapped around her finger?

Bonnie stared at his brooding form.

Did she?

In her confusion, she could only manage to shoot back weakly, “Wanna tally?”

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence.

“I have-” he started just as she said, “I know-”

They both paused. Bonnie licked her lips nervously and his eyes went to her mouth at once. And stayed there.

Her own mouth went dry.

“You’re better off talking to Kai yourself. Or maybe more than just talking…”

“You first,” he said slowly, his half-lidded eyes still on her mouth. The scowl remained on his face but there was something else there too.

Hunger.

Bonnie swallowed. She was still standing by the window and he was half way across the kitchen and the irrational thought gripped her that they were too far apart.

For what, exactly?

The voice in her head was Caroline’s.

Without stopping to think, she walked across to him.

He stood still, his eyes not once lifting from her as she approached him. It struck her then that the first time she had come this close to him, had been in the 1994 prison world, when he had tricked or tested her – she still didn’t know which – to find the Ascendant. She had placed her hand right on his jacket, a full hand span from the pocket where the device was, and felt the thrumming of his heart beneath; and she wasn’t sure what had been the stronger force – the magic of the locator spell or her own desire to touch him.

She could have easily told him and Damon where the Ascendant was, and called Kai out on his trick.

But Bonnie had touched him because she had wanted to. Their eyes had locked, magic swirling around them and she had felt it for the first time – that dual sensation of attraction and repulsion. Wanting to be as close to him as possible. And wanting to be as far away from him as possible.

She had told Damon then that there was something not quite right about Kai Parker. But the truth had been – and still was – more complicated than that.

There was something not quite right about the way Kai Parker made her feel.

Now, she stopped right in his space; and just like that first time, she was close enough to stretch her hand and touch his chest. She stared at it, now, at its rapid rise and fall under his white T-shirt. Then she took a step even nearer.

“Bonnie,” he said, his voice low and resonating with something deep inside her. It sounded like a warning, and like a plea.

She looked up at his face, and quickly looked away, her eyes stopping to rest on his tense jaw, unable to hold that burning, hungry gaze a moment longer.

She swallowed again. “I know how you killed the heretics,” she said softly.

He started. Whatever he had been expecting her to say, it clearly wasn’t that. “Do you now?” he returned quickly, guardedly.

“It was something someone… something I heard yesterday that tipped me off.” Bonnie decided not to mention Liv for his sister’s sake. “Then I remembered, your rings.” She glanced at them now and because of what she was about to say next, she kept her eyes on them. “I remembered what happened the day after Jo’s wedding, too.”

She didn’t think it was possible, but his body became even tenser than it already was.

It was a few seconds before Kai spoke. They felt like eons. “I thought we were supposed to be pretending that day never happened,” he said and his voice was very, very low.

She licked her lips, feeling his gaze heavy on her and feeling like a coward because she couldn’t bring herself to meet it.

“Yeah, I’ve been doing that a lot,” she said and she swallowed back a sudden burst of inappropriate, slightly hysterical laughter. “And that’s why it took me so long to figure it out. What happened that night.”

“Which night, Bonnie? My sister’s wedding? Or the one after?” Impossibly, his voice went even deeper. “Both of them were equally memorable.”

Heat washed over her, from the top of her head, through her lungs, to settle somewhere in her core. He was deliberately trying to derail the conversation. But that didn’t stop his words from affecting her.

She shook her head to clear the haze that had filled it and pressed on stubbornly. “They can’t be killed as heretics because they can’tcross-overas heretics. Part servant of nature and part abomination of nature, in the end, heretics are neither and nature will not…cannotlet them cross over.” Her lips twisted with wry bitterness. “You’re talking to the resident expert of crossing overs. I should know.” Another part of her life that she had spent the better part of the year putting behind her.

He stayed silent, but she heard the slightest shift in his breath. She bit back a smug grin; she was close.

“They couldn’t be killed. Their very ‘destruction’ would release power that they would reabsorb, and rejuvenate with. Like using magic against them, it just made them stronger. So you consumed their necromancy, youunmadethem, until they were syphons. Dead syphons.”

“Too bad you used up the Cure, right?” he asked, dismissively. But when she glanced up, his dark eyes were glinting with something like – her heart fluttered–admiration.

“I don’t think the Cure could work. It’s still magic. It’s still something they can feed on. But you…” She bit her lip; and watched as his eyes, almost black now, went to her mouth. “You’re a syphon. Probably the only one alive right now who’s not already a heretic. But Kai,” she raised her chin, “I took Qetsiya’s magic from that rock. If you can just teach me-“

She bit back a shriek as his hands clamped around her upper arms and yanked her forward, her hips hitting his own. Her hands fell on his chest reflexively. Bonnie’s magic snapped to her fingers at once, ready to strike back but he just held her, glowering down at her, his jaw ticking furiously.

He spat out each word like bullets from a gun. “Qetsiya was your ancestor. Your blood and your magic come from her. Drawing from her magic compared to drawing from, say, Liv is like swimming in the kiddie pool compared to swimming in the deep end of an Olympic sized pool.”

“I’m anexcellentswimmer,” Bonnie retorted,“anda trained lifeguard to boot.”

His eyes narrowed and his rings dug into her bare skin as his grip tightened. He shook her, slightly but enough that her teeth rattled. “And comparing that to drawing from a heretic would be like swimming in the ocean. In the middle of a storm. With sharks.”

Bonnie lifted her chin defiantly.

Kai laughed, an incredulous barking laughter. “You’re crazy enough to try this.” And he let her go. She stumbled back, grabbing onto the counter for support.

He looked away from her, then looked back, his hands raking down the sides of his face as he scoffed. “Bonnie…”

“Throw me a life jacket, Kai,” she countered. “If you’re so worried about me, come with me to Mystic Falls and we’ll do it together. I can help you. Like the last time, but better-”

“…the last time…” he repeated, his hands falling as he looked at her.

Those three short words were loaded with forbidden memories. He wasn’t making a statement. He was asking a question.

Bonnie licked her lips, saw his gaze go to her mouth again. It seemed like a kind of reflex of his. “Yes,” she whispered and she was stepping into his space again. Oh god, was she really doing this? That urge to push him away and the urge to pull him to her… it was the latter that was winning now.

His Adam’s apple bobbed jerkily. There was a desperate longing in his eyes that would have frightened her if she wasn’t feeling the exact same thing right now.

“No.”

It took a moment for her to understand what he said. Then she drew back sharply.

“W-what?”

He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, the longing was still there. But it was also mixed with fury. “You really think …” He bit off what he must have been about to say. “I said No, Bonnie. No. Non. Nada. Niente. NO. You can stop trying to manipulate me right now.”

Blood rushed to her face. “I… I’m not,” she lied.

Kai scoffed again, walked away from her in short angry steps, then turned and marched right up to her. She stepped back in alarm. He looked angry enough to bite.

“You regretted what happened. You made that oh so abundantly clear. A moment of madness, you said. But dangling yourself in front of me, using how I feel…?” He broke off, and his whole body was practically sparking with fury.

She wrapped her bare arms around her body, suddenly feeling vulnerable.

“And for what?” he continued, his voice lethal. “Why are you even involved in this? Weren’t you supposed to have closed shop in that town?”

She stared. “How did you know…?”

“Oh, let me guess. Damon messed up his hair grappling with a heretic and he called 911 Paramagical – you. So you come rushing back to save the box of tools that you call friends? The same besties that ran off and left you behind at the first sign of trouble at my sister’s wedding?”

Bonnie recoiled from the viciousness of his words. “They didn’t even know I was there. If they had-”

“They’d what? Stay and fight? For you? Aren’t these the same guys who couldn’t take a timeout from their 90210 drama long enough to figure out a way to free you from prison?”

With each word he spoke, her hackles rose higher. By the time he was done, her fists were clenching and unclenching at her sides as she imagined using a hex to sew that spiteful mouth shut. “I’m not doing this for them. I’d have thought you of all people would realize that. But hey, I forgot who I was talking to. You don’t feel even the iota of responsibility for this, do you?”

His eyes narrowed into slits. “Believe me, I do, Bonnie. I am full aware of the role I played in starting this. So if you’re asking if I learnt the hard way not to throw away my good judgment for your sake, then the answer is yes.”

Despite her own anger, she flinched. “So you’re putting this all on me? How convenient,” she asked hoarsely.

She had thought he couldn’t get more furious; she was wrong. The pots hanging above rattled as his face darkened. “That. is. just. it. This hasnothingto do with you! It never did. Lily Salvatore. The heretics. My coven.It was never your fight, Bonnie.I learnt my own lesson. When will you? How long are you going to keep throwing yourself into battles that aren’t your own, to save people who won’t do the same for you?”

Oh, that hit. That hit hard. Bile rose in her throat as her own angry magic added to his. “Shut your mouth! You don’t know a damn thing about my friends or me.”

“Oh yes, I forgot who I was talking to. Loyal Bonnie. Faithful to the end,” he said, sneering. “Do you get off on sacrificing yourself, Bonnie?”

“Go to hell, Kai!” She shoved past him to walk out of the kitchen. There was absolutely zero reason for her to stand here and listen to him insulting her. But before she reached the door, he was there between it and her.

“You’re not going to try to siphon magic from the heretics.” It was an order.

Bonnie saw red. “Who the hell are you to tell me what I can or cannot do?” She yelled.

“The person who just did. The person who can take your magic away if he doesn’t like what you do with it.”

“You won’t dare!” Real fear gripped her at that.

“Try me,” he said grimly.

She took a deep breath, forced herself to stay calm and not give into the overpowering urge to launch herself at him and strangle him with her bare hands.

“You think I let my friends use me?” she hissed. “Fine. You don’t want to help me? Fine. But don’t. you. dare get in my way, Kai!”

“Not until you promise you won’t do this.”

Bonnie chuckled nastily at that. “All bets are off, remember?” She raised her hand and silently Motused him out of her way. He slid along the wall, and stumbled into Jo’s dishwasher.

Her left hand was on the knob when he grabbed her by the arms and spun her towards him, and before she could blink, she was pinned between him and the door. Her hands went up at once, shoving against him with her magic but he was ready this time and deflected it without blinking, sending it fizzling into the space between them.

“What the hell, Kai?”

He cracked his neck and glared at her. She tried to shove past him, then tried to kick past him; after a few moments of struggling while he watched her, holding her almost effortlessly against the door with a bored expression on his face, she leaned back, gasping.

“You let me go now or I swear-”

“What’s your dominant hand?”

Bonnie bit back on the curse she was about to hurl at him. “W-what?”

“Your dominant hand,” he said slowly as if he was talking to a child. “The hand you use to cast and write.”

The question was so mundane, his tone so patronisingly normal that she was thrown for a loop.

“I-I don’t have one,” Bonnie stammered. “I’m ambidextrous.”

Incongruously, something like a smile flitted across his face. “Figures. I could never tell.”

The meaning behind the words – that Kai had studied her and tried to know this – didn’t escape her. It threw her even more off balance than she already was and that proved unfortunate for her.

His left hand – the one holding her right shoulder in place, unclenched a little, just enough for it to run down the length of her arm, his palm cupping around her limb and sending goosebumps in their wake until he was holding her right hand.

She gaped at him in confusion. What was he doing? She could probably have pushed him away then, without magic. But she was frozen at the spot, her heart pounding as he lifted their hands to chest level, lining their fingers up against each other, his rings pressing into the edges of her palm. Then he let go of her other arm so that he could use his free hand to untie the leather strap on his left wrist.

His skin underneath where the strap had lain looked distinctly paler than the skin beside it. It made his wrist look naked.

“What are you doing?” Bonnie asked.

Later she berated herself that she should have known what was going to happen next. But at the moment, she just stood stupidly as his long fingers quickly wrapped the band around her wrist and pulled the strings so tautly that she gasped.

“Hey!”

Kai gave her a stern look as he knotted the strings.

“Stop,” she said and tried to pull her hand back but he held onto it firmly. His face was grim as she struggled, trying to use her other hand to pry his grip from her. “Let me go, Kai.”

“Ideally, I’d ask you if you trusted me,” he said coldly, finishing the knot with a bow, and she stopped struggling long enough to look at him. “But we both know the answer to that, right?”

His eyes glinted silver, and Bonnie felt a jolt of magic pour out from his hands into her wrist.

She cried out as the strap tightened so painfully that for a moment, she thought it was going to cut off her hand. Then the pain vanished, and with it the strap. It sank into her skin and disappeared. All that was left of it was a black band, roughly its shape, inked around her wrist like a tattoo.

She yanked her hand – he let her go – and clutched at her wrist, rapidly casting a string of spells. She could feel her magic work – which was a relief because there was a horrible split-second when she thought he really had somehow taken her magic from her – but nothing she did made any difference. The tattoo remained, the band irretrievably strapped around her.

“What the Hell did you just do to me?” she cried, looking up at him.

He smirked. “Maybe I put a hex on you.”

Oh god, Bonnie thought furiously, her heart now pounding out of control. Why even now, when she was so furious and yes, slightly frightened of him, did she want to reach up and kiss that smirk off his face?

What the Hell was wrong with her?

Kai’s eyes darkened then, the smirk slipping off, and she wondered, mortified, if her face had emoted her thoughts.

“Take it off,” she whispered.

“No,” he whispered back. But he took a step closer and for a moment, she thought, wildly, inappropriately, please just kiss me.

He didn’t, just kept staring down at her with that half-angry, half-hungry look on his face that she knew so well.

The moment passed.

Bonnie slid past him, turned the knob of the door and fled.

Chapter 8: this is how i died

Chapter Text

May 2013

Whitmore

“Bonnie… Bonnie, wake up!”

In the early hours of the day that would end with a wedding and a massacre, it was fitting that Elena Gilbert woke up Bonnie Bennett from a nightmare.

Bonnie sat up, her eyes wild as they latched onto Elena’s face. For a moment, what Bonnie saw was not the tear-streaked, anxious face of her oldest, dearest friend but a tall, dark-haired female vampire looming over her; and reflexively, her hand stretched out, magic lashing at its target.

Elena fell to her knees, holding her throat with one hand, gasping for breath.

“Bonnie, it’s me!” she managed to choke out.

It took Bonnie a moment before she could realise her mistake.Not Lily Salvatore. Elena. Not a vampire. Elena.Then she pulled back the spell with a little scream. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry! Are you OK?”

“I-I’m fine,” Elena croaked, standing up slowly.

Bonnie started climbing out of the bed to help her, when she realized that she couldn’t. Her arms were attached by tubes to medical equipment by her bed. With a start, she realized that she wasn’t where she assumed she’d be when she woke up in a bed – in her dorm room – but apparently, in a hospital ward.

“What am I doing here?” she asked, confused.

“Don’t you remember?” Elena asked hoarsely as she fell back into the chair by Bonnie’s bedside. “Jo’s bachelorette’s party? The bar? Lily?”

And slowly, it came back to Bonnie. She shuddered violently and clamped her hand on her neck. The skin there was smooth, unbroken.

“She attacked me,” she whispered, more out of anger than fear. “Even after I let her go and she…” Then panic hit her, but not for herself. “Oh my god, Jo!”

“Jo’s fine,” Elena said quickly. “She followed in the ambulance that brought you here.”

“Where’s she now? Is she safe? The baby?”

Elena laughed ruefully, her eyes shining. “The babies are fine. Jo’s fine. You’re the one we were all worried about.”

“What about Lily? We need to track her down. We only just got Stefan and Caroline under control-”

“Lily’s not your problem anymore, Bonnie. You’re not listening to me, are you? You were in the hospital all night.”

“I got blood from you, didn’t I?” Her brow furrowed. “Why am I even here?”

“Oh, Bonnie,” Elena breathed and in the next moment, she had enveloped Bonnie, tubes, wires and all, into a fierce hug. “I was so worried about you.”

Why? Who’s in danger now? What new spell do you need?Bonnie wondered. “I’m fine,” she said, choking a little under Elena’s hair. “Can you…?”

Laughing softly, Elena pulled away. She sank back into her seat and wiped at her eyes.

In an effort to lighten the mood, and dispel her own bitter thoughts, Bonnie said glibly, “You can make up for your crazy future-mother-in-law by compelling a cute resident to check me out in the next five minutes. We’ve got to get out of here ASAP. Do you have any idea how many texts Caroline must have sent by now? She must be freaking out right now.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me!” Elena groaned. “Whose bright idea was it to let her take over the wedding?”

Bonnie cleared her throat loudly.

“That was a rhetorical question!”

Bonnie laughed and in a few moments, Elena joined her. After a while, they fell silent, and simply stared happily at each other as they shared a rare, peaceful moment in their supernaturally melodramatic lives.

And then it was back to business.

“So where is Lily now?” Bonnie persisted.

“I told you. Gone.”

“What do you mean gone?”

Elena looked at her uncertainly. “After she attacked you, Kai Parker was there-” She broke off, dashing quickly to one of the monitors in the room that had just given a shrill beep. She looked down worriedly at Bonnie. “Calm down.”

“I am calm,” Bonnie muttered, trying to even out her breathing that had hitched at the mention of his name. “You were saying…”

“I don’t think-”

The door flung open and a group of medical staff, headed by Dr. Jo Laughlin rushed in.

“You’re awake!” she gasped.

The others started poking and prodding at Bonnie without so much as a by-your-leave.

Dr. Jo hung back, staring at Bonnie.

Bonnie smiled uneasily. “I think so. Ouch!” she cried, when a nurse stabbed her with a needle.

“Oh god,” Jo said softly.

The good thing was that they removed half of the wires holding Bonnie in place. There was another doctor with the others, and after he checked the monitors, he spoke to Bonnie softly, asking her questions about her name, age, the current President, and then asking her how she felt.

“I feel fine,” Bonnie said quickly. “I think I’m good to leave now.”

The doctor and Jo exchanged glances, then he turned back to Bonnie. “I’m sure you do but I’m going to ask you to stay for a few more hours. You gave us a real scare, young lady. These machines tell me you’re fine, and everything checks out so we’ve unhooked you a bit but I’d like to run some tests before you leave and you’re going to get a few more hours of rest.” When Bonnie started talking, he waved her silent. “I know you have a wedding to go to, but trust me, I think the bride will understand.” He winked.

After a few minutes, the rest of the crew left. The doctor lingered at the door. “I’ll be honest with you, I’ve seen some medical miracles but yours takes the cake. I don’t know if you’re a religious person, but you definitely need to check in with your Guardian Angel sometime today.”

He chuckled to himself. While Bonnie was still staring, he turned to Elena with a parting shot. “Ms. Gilbert, are you on call today?”

Elena shifted nervously. “Just staying with my friend, Dr.”

“Visiting hours are over,” he said sternly.

“Oh, let her stay,” Jo said, speaking up for the first time since she stepped into the room. “She’ll know not to wear her out.”

“She’d better. Miss Bonnie needs to rest. Next time, there’s a spike, Ms. Gilbert, I’ll have you thrown out.”

He left and Elena made a face at his departing back, making Bonnie giggle a little.

“I saw that,” Jo said sternly, but absentmindedly. She came to stand by Bonnie. Her face was filled with wonder as she looked down at Bonnie, as if she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing.

Bonnie fidgeted a little under the scrutiny.

“I really am fine.” She snorted. “Medical miracle, huh? More like vampire blood.”

“Yeah,” Jo said slowly. “That was probably it.”

She bent down and carefully, navigating through the wires and tubes, gave Bonnie a hug. When she straightened up, her eyes were shining. She looked away quickly. “Gotta get ready for a wedding. You take care, Bonnie.”

“Bye Jo,” both girls said softly.

Bonnie turned to Elena when the door closed. “What happened to me last night?” she asked at once.

“I told you. Lily attacked you. We thought you won’t make it.”

“But I did.”

“Obviously,” Elena said with a shaky smile.

Bonnie shook her head, confused. There was something more to all this.

And Elena hadn’t answered her question about Lily’s whereabouts.

She asked her again, leaning forward earnestly. “Look, I need to know or I’ll just imagine the worst.”

Elena sighed. “She’s been banished to the 1903 prison world.”

Bonnie fell back against her pillows. “Oh.”

Elena was staring at her worriedly, as if she expected another of Bonnie’s monitors to start beeping.

But Bonnie merely said quietly, “so that’s over, then.” She exhaled heavily. “The whole trip might as well have never have happened.”

The whole trip should never have happened whispered a treacherous voice in Bonnie’s head.

“Not really,” Elena said hesitantly. “I got the Cure. I’m not sure Damon would have given it to me if she hadn’t made him.”

Elena had been doing that more and more of late, Bonnie managed to observe despite the thoughts swirling in her head. Speaking with a candidness about Damon, and her relationship with him in a way that Bonnie had never known her to do before.

“So, what did you decide?” Bonnie asked. She reached over and touched Elena’s cheek.

Even before her fingers made contact with warmth, Bonnie realized it. In truth, she should have realized it from the moment she woke up, and saw Elena, felt her presence. But she had got so used to Elena’s aura as just hers, not a vampire’s or a human’s, just Elena’s that it didn’t quite dawn on her until this moment.

She sank back into her pillows. “You did it,” she breathed. And now that Elena had actually done it, it struck Bonnie that a part of her had expected her friend not to go through with it. “You took the Cure.”

“You sound surprised?”

“I don’t really know why,” Bonnie admitted. “I mean, you’ve wanted to be human again since the moment you became a vampire.”

I should know. I died the first time I tried to Cure you. Before then, I helped build the spell that killed your father so that you won’t wake up as a vampire after Klaus killed you. So I don’t know why I’m surprised you took it after a little second-guessing. Heck, you even managed to spare a few seconds from your night of ‘worrying’ over me to swallow it down.

The angry voice wasn’t a complete stranger to Bonnie. She had first started hearing it during those months of isolation in 1994, when reflection had led to despair. But then she found Damon’s map – hah! the voice said now – and found her way out of that prison and the voice had seemed to quieten when she returned home.

If she were honest with herself, Bonnie knew that the voice hadn’t completely left her in those early days. It had whispered to her when the morning after her return from 1994, Elena had asked her to babysit Caroline at the rave. It had rumbled at her when Damon had orchestrated that vomit-inducing encounter with Kai at the same rave. It had muttered the morning that he had appeared in her dorm, demanding her help with his mother.

But when she had been bending over Kai in the snow, holding her knife ready to strike – it had been quiet. And Bonnie had thought – hoped – that she had finally silenced it.

She hadn’t, though. But it had been quieter, only whispering words of uncertainty in the dead of night.

Then Jo told her that Kai couldn’t die, Bonnie had had to go back for him, and he had told her the truth – about her birthday, about Damon’s ‘rescue’ – and the voice had come rushing back in all its poisonous self-doubting glory.

Elena’s eyes had taken a distant, faraway look. “So because I’ve always wanted it I should get it? How is that fair? No one gets what they want all the time. Life doesn’t work that way.”

Bonnie stared. “Why’re you talking like this?”

Elena looked down at the hands that were folded in her lap. “It just makes me wonder sometimes… if things don’t always work my way… usually at the expense of other people.”

Damon’s hands around Abby’s neck. The cracking sound of her mother’s neck being snapped.

Jeremy dying. Jeremy coming back.

Bonnie dying. Bonnie coming back.

Bonnie looked away. “That’s ridiculous, Elena. You’ve suffered more than anyone I’ve ever known.”

“I used to think so. But now I’m not so sure.”

“What are you trying to say, Elena?” Bonnie said, getting irritated. “Do you regret taking the Cure or what?”

“No,” Elena said firmly. “I don’t.”

“Sure about that? Last night you sounded completely unsure of what to do.”

“Last night you seemed mad that I hadn’t taken the Cure already.”

“I wasn’t mad,” Bonnie said testily.

“Are you sure?” Elena snuck a glance at her from beneath her lashes. “Because I think you were. You’re also mad at me right now, aren’t you?”

“Why should I be?” Bonnie muttered.

Mad at you for second-guessing the reason why Expression drove me half-mad? The reason we all risked apocalypse to get the Cure for you? The reason your brother died? Why I died bringing him back to life? Suffered for months as the Anchor and ended up in Kai’s prison world?

Raised Silas who murdered my father?

Why ever would I be mad at you for that?

She kept the words in her head, but she couldn’t keep the bitterness from her gaze – not if the dejection on Elena’s face was any indication.

Guilt battled with fury inside Bonnie, and confusion came out top. Why was she so angry? Yes, she was furious at Damon over the whole Kai affair. Damon hadn’t just hidden the truth from her – he had taken credit for her rescue when Jeremy and Kai -Kai!- had done the heavy lifting. And to free his mother, he had lied to her and used her. Again.

But after the first flash of rage, it was almost a joke how unsurprised she was at Damon’s actions. Damon had just been Damon. He had not changed in the least, not really. It was Bonnie who had decided that he had, who had developed this idealized version of him in her head after four months of their time together. A version of him that simply did not exist in the real world.

He had given her no reason to believe he had changed.

Bonnie only had herself to blame for wanting to think he had.

But Elena…

Elena hadn’t known about Damon’s and Bonnie’s plans to trap Kai in 1903. Hadn’t even been meant to come along on that trip. Had explained to Bonnie in the middle of the massive blowout with Damon that she hadn’t known that Bonnie had been kept in the dark about the events that took place during her ‘birthday party’.

But at that time, Bonnie hadn’t cared and she had lashed out at Elena as well. They were reconciled now – something Bonnie was sure she could never be with Damon. Yet this lingering resentment, well, lingered.

Why?

“Bonnie-” Elena whispered. She gave the at-the-moment silent monitors a worried glance.

Bonnie forced a smile on her face, pushing her confusing thoughts far into the back of her mind.

“No biggie, Elena. If you hadn’t taken it, I bet there are a million uses I could have found for the only known cure to immortality in the world. Or I could have auctioned it on the supernatural black market and paid off my student loans. Live rich as sin for the rest of my life.” Bonnie waggled her brows.

Elena managed a tentative smile. “Says the girl who has two trust funds and a college scholarship.”

“I kind of lost my scholarship when I died.”

“And all you have to do is give a name and number, and any one of a half dozen vampires would gladly compel it back to you. And talking of compulsion addicts, I don’t care what bonding experience you two went through in 1994 but please, don’t ever do that twitchy eyebrow thing again. That’s Damon’s thing. It looks ridiculous on him and it looks ridiculous on you.”

Despite herself, Bonnie snickered.

Elena rolled her eyes dramatically. “What’s even worse is that he thinks it’s sexy and I’ve never been able to break it to him that -.”

“Liv? Liv Parker?”

Elena cut herself off, to follow Bonnie’s gaze to the figure of Liv Parker, standing in her doorway, with the oddest look on her face as she stared at the two girls inside.

“Elena? Bonnie?” Her voice was hoarse.

“Liv?” Bonnie answered, echo-like. When Liv just kept staring, Bonnie and Elena exchanged confused glances.

“Are you OK?” Elena asked, slowly. “You look like if you’ve seen a ghost.” She chuckled uneasily. “Which isn’t figurative in these parts…”

“No, I…” Liv shook her head and the reflection of fluorescent light on her massive blonde curls almost blinded Bonnie. The white shock on her face had morphed into nervousness, which was an even stranger look on her. And considering that she had disappeared from Whitmore since her brothers merged and her twin lost – her presence alone was a bit of a surprise to the girls inside the room.

She stepped inside uncertainly. “I was looking for my sister. I went to her apartment and she wasn’t there… They told me at the desk that her shift just ended and I don’t know where Alaric lives…”

Elena stood up. “I can give you the address where she is.” Then she hesitated. “Only I don’t completely trust you, Liv.”

Liv blinked. “She’s my sister.”

“So you should have her number,” Elena countered.

Liv turned to Bonnie but the other witch’s face was blank. The blonde pursed her lips and tried to glare down the younger girls.

When it became obvious that they were not going to back down, Liv finally admitted, “I threw away my phone when I went on the run with my Dad. Everything I had on Jo was there. We and most of the witches in my coven just came out of hiding. Dad made us come back for Jo’s wedding. To show support. Apparently he and Kai have worked something out.” The look on her face spoke volumes about what she thought about that.

“So get her number from your Dad.”

“He doesn’t have it either.”

Elena and Bonnie looked at each other. Both shook heads imperceptibly.

Elena turned back to Liv. “Then you can come to the venue early and try to catch hold of her. Or wait until the wedding, and see her with everyone else.”

Liv’s blue eyes flashed. “What the hell?” Magic crackled at her fingers.

“Hey!” Bonnie snapped and both witches locked gazes.

The sparks around Liv’s fingers vanished. But the ones in her eyes were still there.

“Please,” she tried for placating. It sounded painful. “I really need to talk to Jo. It’s important.”

“What is this about?” Elena asked. “Maybe if you explained to me…”

“What’s so difficult to understand that I want to be there for my sister on her wedding day?”

Elena snorted. “Did you remember that Jo was your sister when you were trying to kill Kai Parker? Whenhewas trying to help us bring back Bonnie? Besides, you’re not always the most trustworthy person, Liv and you come from a really weird coven so forgive me if I don’t jump at the chance to reconnect you with my friend and mentor on her wedding day.”

“Wait a second… I’m the bad guy because I tried to killKai?” Liv sputtered.

“You knew Kai’s life was linked to the rest of your coven and you were going to kill him and everyone else anyway.”

“I was upset,” Liv said through gritted teeth. “My twin just died and I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“Obviously.”

Liv’s face turned wrathful. “What happened? He did a few freebie spells for you vampires and he’s now everyone’s BFF?” She threw a poisonous glance at Bonnie. “Careful, Bennett. You’re dispensable now. Mega-powerful Gemini coven leader trumps self-tutored witch any-day.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Bonnie replied at once but the barb had struck, and her voice didn’t sound quite as glib as she hoped. She felt Elena give her a look of concern, then turn to hiss furiously at Liv.

Liv raised a hand, staving the irate girl off. “As for you, Gilbert,yourbrother died and you and Rebekah Mikaelson racked up a massive body count when you went on your little Thelma and Louise trip from Virginia to New York. I would have thought that you of all people would have some freaking sympathy.”

Elena visibly wilted. “If you leave a number,” she conceded, “I’ll pass it on to Jo immediately, and she can decide to call you or not. That’s the best I can do for you.”

Liv glared at her but Elena straightened her spine, and didn’t waver.

Inshortviolent movements that rattled Bonnie’s magic, Liv pulled out her purse, scribbled on a piece of paper, scrunched it into a ball and threw it at Elena.

She added a little juice to it, too because when Elena caught it, she yelped and dropped it.

“Ooops,” Liv said in the fakest way possible. “Let’s hope you have better luck catching the bouquet.”

She turned on her heel and slammed out the door.

“Bitch,” Elena muttered.

“Bitch,” Bonnie murmured at exactly the same time.

Then they looked at each other and burst out laughing.

June 2014

Portland

Bonnie sat at Liv’s dresser, hastily writing a thank you note. She hadn’t seen the blonde witch since morning and guessed Liv was probably giving her work presentation right now. She put a mention in her note, hoping that it went well. When she was done, she folded the paper and left it on Liv’s pillow. Then she picked up the notes she had already written for Jo and Alaric and tucked them into her purse,

It was all rather old-fashioned, but Bonnie was raised by her grandmother after all.

She had written a note for Kai, as well. Something incoherent and stupid and she had burnt it the moment she was done, feeling a little cathartic as she flushed the ashes down the toilet.

For the millionth time that morning, she fought her mind not to dwell on what had happened between them a few hours ago. Almost happened.

But how could she stop thinking about it? About him? This whole house was drenched with his essence. She felt his presence everywhere, and if she didn’t leave soon, she’d probably do something crazy.

Damon had come through – they had tickets to the 1245 flight – and Bonnie looked around the room to make sure she wasn’t leaving anything behind. Her eyes caught on the set of grimoires on Liv’s desk, where Bonnie had left them earlier. After chewing on her lip in thought, she quickly snatched the four at random and stuffed them into her suitcase, before she could change her mind. She’d send Liv a text from Virginia.

Of course, she could send one right now, asking for permission and probably get an answer before she left. But why risk Liv saying no?

Which reminded Bonnie of the strange way Liv had acted that morning, when she came to the nursery to call Bonnie. Frowning, Bonnie wondered what was up with that.

Or Kai’s anger that morning in the kitchen. She never did quite find out what it was that she did – and she was sure thatshewas the one that ticked him off. But why?

Was he mad that the Council had sort of come around to her in the end, and was sending Asshat to Mystic Falls?

Or was it from their conversation the night before? That she had the audacity to come to Portland and ask him for help after everything that had happened between them?

Or maybe Kai was angry at her for purely existing, Bonnie thought bitterly. She could relate to that. Sometimes she felt that same way about him. Other times, she had no idea what she felt about him – only that it was extremely strong and mostly irrational.

She thought again about Liv informing her that Kai was around. And howunsurprisedBonnie had been. Because subconsciously, she had known he was around, hadn’t she? She had felt it. Up at the nursery, that sense of mingled dread and anticipation… it had been for Kai.

The realization that she was that attuned to him was alarming.

“You ready?”

She came out of her dark thoughts to realize that Damon was in the room, bouncing on her bed as he tipped his head towards her luggage.

Bonnie nodded, then slapped her forehead. “I haven’t called the cab yet.”

“Already did that, Bon Bon.”

She could tell that he was pleased they were leaving. She couldn’t blame him. He hadn’t wanted to come; he had been against the idea of seeking the Gemini’s help from the start; and then he had been proved right that his presence here was completely redundant. If this trip had been a heart-wrenching disappointment for Bonnie, it had been a complete waste of time for Damon.

Or had it…?

“…rumours of the Augustine Society being revived…”

Suddenly, Jo’s words from that first evening popped into Bonnie’s head. She had been too preoccupied then – was still very much preoccupied with everything going on – and had completely forgotten about it until now.

“Damon, have you heard…?”

“Heard what?”

She paused, staring at his mildly curious expression. Jo had said ‘rumours’. Bonnie certainly hadn’t heard anything about it and if Damon hadn’t either – then she’d be tipping him off. Why should she? The last thing needed was Damon going off on a rampage to murder the members of the fledging Society. Definitely, the last thing she needed was more blood on her hands.

“Bon, what’s up?”

She shook her head. “Nothing,” she said firmly. It was best to leave well enough alone. She resolved not to even mention it to anyone when they got back.

“Mmmm…” His eyebrows jumped a little. “You sure you’re ready to come home? You could stay a little while. Your ticket’s refundable.”

Bonnie eyed him warily. “Of course, I’m ready. What’s keeping me here?”

His eyebrows were going crazy now but whatever he had in mind, he opted to keep it himself, and as he stood to leave, Bonnie remembered something else. “What did you mean earlier in the kitchen? What you said about him laying down the law in Mystic Falls?”

“Oh. That.”

His tone was dismissive and Bonnie was immediately suspicious.

“I asked for full disclosure, Damon. Don’t you even th-.”

“Relax, Judgy. This is stuff that happened ages ago, nothing at all to do with our witchpire crisis.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. Spit it out.”

“Liv is right. You really found your inner T-Rex, didn’t you?” When she made a threatening move, he raised his hands placatingly. “OK, OK. If you really have to know every single nitty gritty of everything…”

She crossed her arms sternly.

He rolled his eyes and plumped back on the bed with a dramatic sigh. “Sometime last Fall, a gang I used to roll with back in the 70s came to town. Wanted to see their good friend Damon, party some, you know, the usual?”

He grimaced at the look on Bonnie’s face. “Forgot for a moment who I was talking to. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the partying led to bodies. I try to get them in line, and that led to more bodies. Everyone’s getting pretty tense. Stefan, Matt, Ty, Caroline… Heck, you’d probably have been getting tense yourself if you weren’t too busy not giving a damn about us back then,” he added, glibly ignoring the sharp glare threw his way. “So there I was in the middle of it, trying to smooth things over. Which would have been so much easier if I had a witch helping me. Not accusing anyone here. Just saying, you know. Just stating the facts.”

“Enough with the guilt-tripping, Damon,” she snipped.

“Like I said, just saying things as they are. So… around this time, I get a call from Portland.”

He mimicked the call, the gist of which apparently was some high ranking Gemini, speaking with the coven leader’s authority, had offered to send ‘help’ to Mystic Falls.

“The ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ kind of help.”

In not so many words, it was made clear to the Salvatores that it would be in their best interest to solve the situation in Mystic Falls themselves and in the future, make sure that whatever went on in that town was never high-casualty enough to blink on the Gemini radar.

“I almost wanted to take him up on the offer. Let them come in to ‘help’. Get a chance to break some Gemini skulls. But Reason, also known as Stefan Salvatore, prevailed.”

“So what happened after that?” Bonnie asked quietly.

Damon shrugged. “I sent my old friends on a one-way ticket to Permanent Retirement; and ever since then, Stefan and I have managed to keep the mundane population safe enough not to warrant a Gemini intervention. We’ve had a couple of setbacks and it’s been a struggle without a witch to help us. But we’ve managed.”

Bonnie was silent.

“And you’d think that now that we’re actually asking for help, he’d be jumping at the bit to give it…” He shook his head, then winked. “Ah well. At least we have you, don’t we, B-Bomb?”

Bonnie forced back a smile. “Right.”

“Don’t you worry, BB, we’re going to beat those guys. Show these Oregon stiffs how we kick ass in Virginia.”

He got up again and bent to pick up her bags. He pretended to gasp. “I thought you dropped off the babies’ gifts? How the hell are these heavier now than they were a few days ago?”

“Is someone letting himself go?” Bonnie murmured, more out of habit than anything.

“Maybe I should let you carry your own weight?” he retorted snidely.

“Do that, Damon, and there’s no telling what you’ll find when you open your backpack in Mystic Falls.”

Their back and forth lasted a few more minutes but Bonnie won in the end – and he shuffled out of her room with her bags, muttering under his breath.

The moment he left, the weight of what he had just told her seemed to settle on Bonnie, and she remained sitting for a moment longer.

So Kai had threatened an intervention in Mystic Falls, enough to make Stefan and Damon take direct responsibility for keeping the town safe. She had thought all this while that it was mostly Stefan being Stefan – he had always been protective towards the town – and Damon going along with his brother more for the thrill of conflict than anything else. But now she realized that the extra motivation of keeping the Gemini away from the town had probably helped. She remembered Enzo’s paranoid rants and, before that, gossip from the witches she had hung with briefly in Europe: once in a while, the Gemini coven would descend on extremely problematic towns and sweep out the supernatural population en masse, skipping straight from arrest to executions, and jumping over the trial portion of supernatural criminal justice.

But if all this was true, how did the Gemini leader go from threatening that intervention a year ago to washing his hands off the town now that, as Damon admitted, it definitely needed his help?

It was so maddening, Bonnie realized with no small frustration. His inconsistency. His inability, his resistance even to be someone that she could figure out easily and immediately dismiss. She felt like if she kept on getting pieces of the puzzle that was him, but she had no idea where they fit or even how large a picture she was supposed to reconstruct.

With a defeated sigh, she stood up and pulled on her jacket. Her gaze snapped to the black band on her wrist. Yet another puzzle piece. She rubbed her thumb over it, felt the magic –hismagic – thrumming beneath.

What the hell is this thing?

She remembered the look on his face when he cast it and shuddered. Then she frowned at herself, abruptly snapped her cuff closed, and stepped out of the room.

Alaric had long gone but Jo was just shuffling out of her room. They both could hear Damon on the steps, perversely walking and carrying Bonnie’s luggage at a human pace, and grumbling all the way.

“Hey Bonnie,” she said with a smile. “You really have to leave right away?”

“There was another attack last night.”

Jo’s face turned grave. “So I heard.”

Feeling a bit self-conscious, Bonnie reached into her purse and handed over the notes. “I made these. Just a thank you to you guys for having us.”

Jo’s face smoothened into a smile. “Awww, this is so sweet. You know, Sheila used to do this, too.”

Bonnie blinked as her heart filled with the familiar poignant feeling that always hit her at the mention of her grandmother. “I know.”

Jo looked at her face, then pulled the younger woman into a hug. Bonnie returned it gratefully.

“Can’t you stick around a little longer?” Jo asked, still in the hug. “You’re not taking Summer classes, are you?”

Bonnie sighed, pulling away. “Mystic Falls will literally burn down if I don’t get back soon.”

Jo shrugged. “Let it.”

It was a good joke but Bonnie laughed with a touch of bitterness. She stopped when she realized that the other woman was serious. “Tell me you’re joking?”

“Why not, Bonnie? Don’t you think you’ve done enough for that town? Enough for,” she jerked her head in the direction of the stairs and Damon’s general location. “Elena walked away from it all. Why can’t you? Isn’t it time you cut yourself some slack? Let someone else shoulder the burden?”

She had tried that, hadn’t she? Bonnie thought bitterly. Turned her back on Mystic Falls for a year.

It had cost April Young her life.

But all she muttered now was, “Asking for help was kind of the idea when we came here.” On an impulse, she asked, “Did you know that the Gemini mandated Damon and Stefan to protect the town?”

Jo was clearly surprised. “First I heard of it. Normally, the coven would never ally or partner with vampires but… in this case, I guess it makes sense? The whole ‘it takes a thief to catch a thief’… Sounds like something my brother would come up with.”

“I guess it worked,” Bonnie admitted. “The number of ‘animal attacks’ last year was at an all-time low. What I don’t get is how the coven went from threatening to take over Mystic Falls to refusing to help now.”

“Well, priorities are shifting all the time. Do you have any idea just how vastly spread supernatural activities are? The coven is stretched thin. Finite resources and infinite obligations and all that. But I bet you, if you ask any of your cop buddies to check the statistics of ‘unexplained deaths’ and ‘animal attacks’ nationwide, you’ll see that it’s dropped rapidly in the past year. Kai’s getting stuff done. A lot of stuff, not just in Mystic Falls.”

That was surprising news to Bonnie. And yet still, “but the heretics are uniquely a Gemini problem. They should get priority, Jo. No one else knows how to deal with them.”

Jo’s lips twisted, like if she was biting back something. But all she said was, “well, you’re not exactly leaving here empty-handed, are you? You’re getting help – the Council’s Envoy for that matter.”

“We’re getting an asshat in a suit.”

Jo gasped, laughing. “Bonnie!” Her eyes became soft. “Don’t be too hard on Ashton. He’s not a bad sort.”

“Really?” Bonnie asked, highly skeptical.

“He was friends with my younger siblings growing up. He and the twins served as Envoys together, and he must have been good to be in their team. From what Liv’s told me, he and Luke even…” She blinked a little. “Well, he was a different person before. Then Luke died, and he got on the Council. And he became a bit …”

“… of an asshat?” Bonnie suggested, but she smiled a little.

Jo returned her smile. “I’ll give you a good reason to be friends with Ashton,” she whispered conspiratorially. “Kai doesn’t like him. You two getting along will tick him off.”

Bonnie fought – and won – against the blush that wanted to fill her face. “I don’t care what Kai thinks.”

“Really?” Jo said, with a mocking smile that was uncannily like her twin’s.

“Yes,” Bonnie said firmly.

Thankfully, Jo dropped it. She hooked her arm around Bonnie’s and took her to the nursery to say good-bye to the twins.

The two little darlings were fast asleep, lying side by side in the same crib. Even though there were two cribs, on the rare occasions when the twins’ schedules aligned, they tried to put them together.

“Bye girls,” Bonnie whispered softly and on an impulse, she sent a little shimmer of happy magic above their heads. It shattered into tiny sparkles around the crib.

She glanced at Jo with a smile and saw the woman looking at her solemnly.

When they stepped out of the nursery, she turned to Jo at once, feeling awkward. “Hey, I hope you don’t mind.” She had no idea of the etiquette of magic use around little witches – one more thing to chalk up to her lack of proper witchyDisciplina. “It’s just a little light show that they’ll see when they wake. It’ll fade in a day, maybe less.”

Jo’s serious face broke into a chuckle. “Oh no,” she said. “That was me being silly. I was only…” She laughed again and looked a little embarrassed. “Sometimes, I miss magic, you know? I remember doing things like that for my younger sisters and brothers. It would have been nice to be able to do it for my own kids. Poor Martha and Rachel are going to be brought up by a pair of mundanes.”

“Hey,” Bonnie said. “I didn’t know I was a witch until I was sixteen. My all-mundane dad raised me and I think I turned out pretty OK.”

Jo gave her a grateful smile and Bonnie remembered what Liv had told her about the coven’s initial intention to take the twins from Jo and Alaric.

What creeps.

“You were great with the twins, by the way,” Jo said now. “So whenever you’re ready to have kids of your own, just know you’ll be fine.”

Bonnie shrugged. “That’s not likely to happen soon.” Her love life was non-existent. After she got back from Europe – and none of the randoms in Europe counted – she had probably gone on a total of three dates with a couple of guys in her major.

And before Europe, there had been…

Nothing, she told herself firmly. Nothing but a phenomenally bad idea and a waste of both their times. An impulsive and ultimately stupid decision based on a long night of magic, adrenaline and hormones.

OK, maybe more than one night.

She wasblushingnow. And from the meaningful look on Jo’s face, the older woman knew exactly why.

Thankfully, she didn’t probe. “Did I ever tell you that I once caught Damon in a staring contest with Rachel? He said he was scanning her for Evils.”

Laughter sputtered out of Bonnie. “Well, it takes one to know one, I guess?”

The two women were struggling to contain their chuckles and didn’t hear the soft footsteps behind them.

“Bonnie Bennett, is it?”

An unfamiliar voice wheezed the question from behind her.

Bonnie spun around and found herself looking at an old lady with hair almost as white as her skin and bright blue, bird-like eyes that stared hard at Bonnie with disconcerting curiosity.

Jo stepped up to stand between them. “Bonnie, this is Gab. She stops by on occasion to help with the twins. She and my family go a long way back.”

“Nice to meet you,” Bonnie said, shaking hands.

Gab’s small fingers, ringed with stones the same shade as her eyes, were surprisingly firm and she peered hard into Bonnie’s eyes as if she was trying to see through them to Bonnie’s skull.

“’was her nanny, too, and all the other Parker bunnies that their folks kept breeding. Liv don’t remember me ‘cos by the time she was born, Micah’d pop out one ’n’ give it to Jo–”

“-right in the delivery room. Yeah, I remember, Gab. I was there.” Jo said, dryly.

“Sounds kind of sexist,” Bonnie muttered. “What happened to your twin?”

A cloud passed over Jo’s face. “No one was going to allow Kai anywhere near witch babies.” She saw the way Bonnie looked, and smiled airily. “Which was a pity because the times we went behind our parents back and let Kai help, he was better with them than me.”

Bonnie tried to return the smile, but the sick feeling inside her barely allowed her to stretch her lips.

She felt a tug and looked at Gab with a gasp. The old woman was still holding Bonnie’s hand and still glaring up at her. “Known this family for a long time. Messed up family. Don’t need nobody’s help making a bigger mess of things, know what I mean?”

Her grip was becoming painful, rings digging into Bonnie’s flesh. “Ouch!” Bonnie said, yanking her hand away.

“Gabby.” Jo spoke up sharply.

“Hush, child. Bit of Parker in me, too and don’t you forget it. I speak my mind. Always have. Always will. Did it to ya pop. Did it to ya ma. Did it toyagrandma, Bonnie Bennett,” she said and Bonnie started. “I do to ya brother, his High and Mightyness ’n’ I’ll definitely do it to ya, little Bonnie.”

“You knew my grandmother?” Bonnie whispered.

Gab sniffed. “You go ask your Sheila ifsheknew Gabrielle O’Sullivan,” she declared, puffing herself up.

Jo looked mortified. “Gab…” she said, despairingly.

Bonnie stared at the old woman. “My grandmother’s dead.”

Gab scowled. “So? She can still talk, can’t she?”

And with that, she shuffled into the nursery.

Bonnie turned to Jo with what must have been a “what the-?” look all over her face.

Jo laughed and hugged her, apologetically. “Oh my goodness, Bonnie, I’m so sorry! But she really does treat everyone like that. Even my father.” She hooked arms with Bonnie again and they started walking down the corridor to the steps.

“You guys let her watch the twins? Isn’t she a bit?” Bonnie pointed a finger at her temple and twirled it in a tight circle.

Jo shrugged. “She’s old, and half the people she’s known in her life, from your Grams to her brother, are dead. Can you blame her? In her own way, she’s probably saner than you and I and she is a brilliant witch. Most importantly though, she’s one of the few people that didn’t give Alaric and me any grief when we came here.” Her eyes suddenly narrowed. “I’d be stupid to trust any of the other witches that offered. They’d probably hex Alaric and me in our sleep and steal our Rachel and Martha.”

Bonnie shuddered. “Your coven is so…”

“Disturbing? Scary? Evil?”

“You said it not me.”

“It won’t be for long, not if Kai has anything to do about it.” Bonnie stumbled a little but Jo held her firmly. “My Dad was Praetor way longer than he ought to have been. It affected the coven. Now Kai’s in charge and he has some great ideas. He’s been shaking things up for a while now and he’s going to do even more once we get the coven to fully accept him. It’s been an uphill journey, yes. I keep thanking heavens every-day that Kai had the sense to make Dad a member of the Council.Ithought it was a bad idea but it’s turned out to be for the best. Who would have thought? Once Kai and my Dad were probably going to kill each other and now, they’re a team. You never know with people, right?”

Bonnie said nothing.

Jo pressed on. “I’d never have imagined I would ever say this about my brother but he just may be the best thing that’s happened to our coven.”

They were almost at the bottom of the stairs and Bonnie had a clear view of Damon, standing on the porch besides their bags, looking out for the cab. Just a few steps to the door and Bonnie would escape Jo and her Kai Appreciation monologue.

But when they reached the last step, Jo held her firm, stalling her to a stop. She turned so that she was looking right down at Bonnie’s morose face.

“Kai’s going to find a way to help you, Bonnie. Depend on that.”

Can you please shut up about him?Bonnie thought, despairingly.

Instead, she replied in what she hoped was a neutral voice, “Liv already explained to me about coven politics and I do understand. The Council recommended not to get involved with Mystic Falls and he has to…”

“Kai doesn’t give a crap about the Council,” Jo said with ashortlaugh. “And he’s going to find a way to helpyounot Mystic Falls.”

Bonnie felt her heart flutter with hope and she damped it down at once.

Feigning indifference, she answered, “Thanks for saying this, Jo but I’m not going to hold my breath. Besides, we’ve,” – and she jerked her head towards Damon – “been handling things for years before we even heard about the Gemini. I think we’ll do just fine.”

Jo frowned. “Or you could just go to the airport now and change your flight to Europe. Visit Elena. Give yourself a vacation.”

Bonnie smiled. That wasn’t such a bad idea. The three of them – Bonnie, Elena and Caroline had had a blast the previous summer – and she told Jo so. “Elena’s probably in the middle of some crisis zone at the moment. But afterwards? After all this crazy? Definitely.” Her smile turned mischievous. “We can all go. I’m sure three vampires can wrangle up tickets and visas for all of us, and the babies.”

Jo chuckled ruefully. “There’s no talking you out of this, is there?” She unlinked her elbow from Bonnie’s and gave her a little shove towards the door. “I’ll hold you to that vacation someday, Bonnie Bennett.” And they went outside to meet Damon.

The taxi pulled up just as Jo finished saying her goodbye to her husband’s best friend.

“You’re always welcome back. We’ll miss you.”

“Aw, Jo,” he said with an uncharacteristically fond smile and hugged her. “Had a great time last night?” he quipped.

Bonnie bowed her head in shame.

“The best,” Jo shot back at once.

“Did he do that thing with the lemon?” Damon asked in a loud whisper. “’Cos I told him that.”

Bonnie groaned.

Jo patted his cheek. “Ask him about that thing with the jam.”

His eyebrows went crazy. “You know about the thing with the jam?”

Jo winked. “Itaught him the thing with the jam.”

And on that happy note, she gave a laughing Bonnie another hug, blew a kiss at a dazed-looking Damon and flounced into the house.

“You know I’m going to have to kill Alaric and steal you from him now, don’t you?” he shouted after her when he had managed to pick his jaw from the floor.

As they piled into the car, he asked Bonnie, his eyebrows jerking in earnestness, “Remind me again whyIdidn’t date her?”

It got boring fast and she gave him an aneurysm to get some peace for the rest of the trip to the airport.

May 2014

Mystic Falls

Latent magic tingled against Bonnie’s fingers as she manually configured the Gilbert device. She had already set up the candles in preparation for the first vampire to walk into the War Room for testing.

She didn’t expect said vampire to prance in bare-chested, shirt hooked with one finger over his shoulder, and his jeans low on his hips. Bonnie nearly levitated one of Matt’s freshly whittled stakes into his bare white chest.

“What the hell, Damon?”

His leer was wide enough to split his face into two. “Like what you see?”

Bonnie threw the stake. His vamp speed just got him out of the way on time.

“Whew! That’s new,” he chortled, mock-confused. “Women usually react differently to the sight of nearly naked me.”

“You idiot,” Bonnie hissed. “Caroline is upstairs.” Was he really that insensitive?

The leer slipped out his face at that, something like contrition taking its place. “Uh, sorry. My bad.” He turned defensive. “But I heard you were looking for a vampire guinea pig to test some of the Gilbert devices on.”

“And you thought I needed a naked Guinea pig?”

He leered again, but only half-heartedly. “If you want to be thorough…”

“Put your damn clothes on, Damon.”

He heaved a big sigh, then made a production of twisting around to pull on his shirt. Bonnie snuck a quick glance – she was only human after all – and gasped.

“What is that?”

“What?” he asked, half-in and half-out of his shirt.

She turned him around – ignoring his lewd quipping at that – to get a closer look.

It was raised skin, thicker and whiter than the rest, low on his back. Its covered area was about the size of her palm and its shape was like an…

“Oh, my old war scar?”

“Your old scar?”

“From, you know, the time I was an idealistic human, fighting for the wrong side.” His voice was uncharacteristically bitter. She looked up at him as he made a face.

She stared back down at the scar. “You’ve always had this scar?”

“Sure thing, Bonnie. Most women who’ve had the pleasure of my company are intimately aware of it.” She didn’t need to look to know that he was leering again.

She ignored it, her eyes focused on the scar. She and Damon hadn’t exactly spent their time in the Prison World prancing around half-naked in front of each other; but it had been a perpetual May and skin had been shown once in a while. Even before then, surely Elena’s one-time boyfriend must have tagged along to a beach-party or two? Shouldn’t something this size and this prominent have jumped out at anyone?

Her palm hovered over it, and she felt a tinny tremor of magic. From the scar? Or an echo from the Gilbert device that she had just fiddled with?

“You’re freaking me out, Witchy. Or checking me out? I can’t tell the difference.”

Bonnie stepped back. “Sorry. Just a little bit… Of course, it must have been as you said, right? You can’t get scars on vampire skin.”

“Yep.” He turned around, tucking in his shirt and grinned up at her.

“Unless,” she said quietly, “you got some kind of magic brand on yourself. Like a tattoo for vamps?”

He stared. “Why would I want to mar all this perfection?”

“It’s a very neat scar, Damon,” she said carefully. “In fact, it doesn’t look much like a scar. It looks more like a brand… in the shape of the Viking symbol for the letter ‘E’.” The moment she said it, she almost bit her tongue but it was too late.

Shutters fell over his face.

Ah, one of those beautifully awkward moments where she knew that she had crossed a line – and crossing back was probably going to be even more awkward than just digging her heels into the mire of invasiveness that she had stumbled her way into.

But as the saying went: in for a dime, in for a dollar. Bonnie cleared her throat, trained her gaze on his left ear, and shoved her big nose right in.

“Before we left for Europe, you came crying to me about how you planned on taking the Cure with Elena and you didn’t understand why she had suddenly ended things…”

Damon said nothing. He didn’t have to, because his eyebrows were clearly doing all the talking for him.

“You don’t talk about it at all. No ranting. No venting. It’s almost creepy, really. Heck, when I came back from Europe, I half-expected to find half of the town’s population in a cemetery or something.”

Still more dead silence.

“Which, by the way, is a good thing. I’m actually kind of impressed? I mean, a tattoo, magical or not, is pretty much standard fare for a bad breakup. Heaven knows that the Damon I knew before… Well, when you were having a bad day, you made sure that everybody else was having an even worse one…”

“Finished yet?” He asked, his voice level and pleasant.

She gulped, then nodded.

“So are we taking turns in this little tête-à-tête?”

“Damon…”

“I’ve done all this sharing – or rather, you’ve done all this sharing for me. Now Busy B, it’s your turn to share. Let’s start with the real reason why you shot down Stefan’s idea that we page Portland for backup.”

She inhaled sharply. “I said I was finished.”

“Or even better, let’s call everyone back and have a revote. All it takes is just one disgruntled vamp to change his mind and hey presto! the Calvary will be here with bells and whistles. I suddenly don’t mind a little spontaneous Class of 1994 reunion. You, me, and one Malac-”

“That’s enough, Damon!”

Her head pounded with tension.

Damon, on the other hand, looked serene. He smiled at her, almost kindly.

“You don’t poke my scar and I don’t poke yours, BonBon. Got it?”

Her lips tightened. “Got it.”

He hopped on the table, knocking down one of her candles. “So… let’s get started.”

June 2014

Whitmore

The flight from Portland was peaceful – no turbulence, clear skies – and across the aisle, Damon was sleeping like the dead. Bonnie had been restless all through out, trying to distract herself with the inflight entertainment but only ended up with her mind wandering to things – and people – she’d rather not be thinking about.

His fingers lined up with hers, his own long, slender and rubbing slightly against the spaces between her own …

His fingers in her hair, wrapped so tightly that she could only move her face a little as his mouth devoured her own …

His fingers deep inside her, his rings literally working magic in her core …

She turned to the window, blood rising in her cheeks, shifting in her seat, and said silent thanks that she had the row to herself.

It was evening by the time she and Damon hiked the ten miles to where the Camaro was packed. They had had one of their spats when they were leaving Virginia and so to spite her, even though he could obviously afford it, he had deliberately not paid for airport packing. In between bitching under her breath as she panted along behind him, she called to check in with their friends.

Caroline’s and Stefan’s numbers were both busy. Ignoring Damon’s string of p*rnographic speculations as to why this was the case, Bonnie tried Matt’s number and he picked up on first ring.

“Bonnie!” he said with his usual warmth. “Am I glad to hear from you.”

“Hey Matt,” she said with a smile. “How’re you doing?”

“Great now that you’re back. How was your trip?”

She told him, but she kept the pleasantries brief, moving the conversation quickly to the latest murder. She put the phone on speaker so Damon could chip in.

“We’ve got a little more information about Judith Stewart. She was an unorthodox pharmacist in Nebraska. She had just opened shop there about a year ago. The plane ticket in her wallet brought her to Virginia the night before she died.”

“What was she doing here, all the way from Nebraska?” Damon wandered, voicing Bonnie’s own question.

“No idea yet. We’re going through her things to find something.”

Judith Stewart had been found in a motel room near the town.

“There’s a pattern here, I just can’t see it,” Matt continued.

“Well, keep your deerskin cap on, Mattlock…” Damon started, and then trailed off as he grinned at Bonnie. “Get it?Matlock?”

Bonnie frowned at him, wondering who was the butt of this joke – her or Matt? “No, I don’t.” She turned her attention to Matt. “Any sightings of the heretics?”

“None whatsoever. I’m worried, Bon. The days before an attack, we’d spot them hanging at a corner, or in a bar, or at a rave. Somewhere. Now. Nothing.”

“They’re planning something,” Bonnie concluded, apprehension filling her. Instinctively, she glanced around her but the street lights on the fairly empty airport road just blinked innocently back.

“Great,” Damon said, his eyebrows shooting out in opposite directions. “Alaric’s and Jo’s anti-vamp house had started making me feel almost human. I’m spoiling for a fight.”

May 2013

Whitmore

The soon-to-be Dr. Jo Saltzman’s bachelorette party was over – well, if one called three women and an empty bar a party. Of course, if Bonnie had taken up the offer that the gorgeous hunk of a stripper had clearly been offering before he left, she’d probably be having her own party of two right now. It was almost a shame, because Elena and Jo were all respectably taken women. She felt like if she was letting the team down.

But the carefree party girl mode – a relic from her old cheerleading days – had long timed out and Bonnie was running on empty, sipping her drink quietly and letting the fake, bright smile on her face fool Elena and Jo into thinking that she gave a damn about the ongoing conversation.

It was something about Elena and Damon and the cure. Honestly, if Bonnie had realized that bringing the cure to them was going to cause such drama, she’d have left the stupid thing in Nova Scotia, circa 1994.

“What’s your opinion, Bonnie?” Elena asked at last.

About what?Bonnie took a big gulp of her glass and tried to think fast.

Thankfully, Elena’s phone buzzed then. “It’s Damon,” she whispered to the others and looking tense, she slipped out to the back of the bar.

Bonnie made a face and hid it behind her glass.

Jo reached out a hand to grab hers.

“You doing OK, Bon?” she asked.

Bonnie grinned broadly. “Just peachy.”

Jo co*cked her head in a gesture that reminded Bonnie of her brother. The grin wavered.

“I called my med school classmate. He didn’t get a call from you.”

“Oh, you mean the shrink?” Bonnie said casually. “I forgot about that. I don’t think I really need one, you know what I mean?”

So what if she couldn’t remember the last time she had a good night’s sleep? If it wasn’t nightmares, it was insomnia – the sound of silence, and her own internal musings spinning round and round and round in her brain until she passed out.

She’d get over it. She was Bonnie Bennett. That was what she did.

Jo frowned. “I stand by what I said when you came in for your physical. The ordeal you went through – the isolation – there’s a reason why solitary confinement is a method of punishment for hardened criminals. And that’s not counting what my brother put you through. And before that? Your time as the anchor? What you must have gone through…?”

Bonnie laughed hollowly. “Are you sure you’re not trying to take your friend’s job? I think you could do some part-time as a shrink yourself.”

Jo’s hand on hers became tight.

“Ouch?”

“You did a lot for me, for my entire coven when you went back for Kai.” Bonnie froze at the name. “And that was just you going back. I didn’t expect the heretics… I promise you, Bonnie, I had no idea they were awake. Damon and Elena assured me they weren’t and I couldn’t imagine that Kai would, for any reason, wake them.”

“I don’t think he did that on purpose,” Bonnie said, squirming.

She didn’t want to think about how Kai had been when she found him. About what he must have gone through before she did.

She had had Qestiya’s magic in addition to her own to fight those creatures and even then she had barely made it back alive.

“Turns out that I owed Kai my life anyway,” she mumbled. “So you gave me a chance to pay him back.” Her voice wavered a little. The confused emotions that usually assailed her whenever she dwelt on this – on the idea that Kai,that anyone had almost died saving her life- threatened to overwhelm her.

“Bonnie?”

She took a long draw from her glass, waited until the burn pushed away that dark storm of emotional turmoil for another day. Ignoring the voice whisperingcowardin her head, she smiled at Jo. “Besides, we’ve had this conversation already. You thanked me. You’ll name your firstborn after me. Yada yada yada.”

“I’m not thanking you again,” Jo said, then she laughed. “OK, maybe I am thanking you a little. But I’m also saying that you need a break, Bonnie. You’ve been through a lot in the past … years now, if Elena’s stories are anything to go by. I went through one traumatic event and I gave up my magic, changed my name and ran away from my family for eighteen years.”

“Sounds wonderful,” Bonnie said and she was only being half-sarcastic.

“Sheila never wanted this life for you,” Jo said sadly. “She did just about everything she could to protect you from the supernatural.”

“Maybe instead of spending all that effort protecting me, she should have spent some more teaching me how to protect myself,” Bonnie said bitterly.

Jo leaned back in her chair, folded her arms and stared at Bonnie.

Bonnie bit her lip, feeling ashamed. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have talked about Grams like that. Sometimes I feel like she was the only person who ever cared about me.” Sadness washed over her. “I miss her. Yet sometimes I’m so angry with her, you know?” She sighed, and shifted in her seat. “Look, I don’t want to spoil your day. I guess the party’s over. You have your beauty sleep to catch up with…”

“It’s good to be angry,” Jo said, cutting hershort. “It’s good to feel angry at Sheila. And Damon. And Caroline. Stefan. Even Elena.”

Bonnie shifted, guiltily under Jo’s prying eyes.

“Anger is healthy. My goodness, Bonnie, you were stuck in a Prison World for half a year and your friends –”

“Good evening, Miss Bennett. Miss Laughlin.”

The two women looked up in surprise. There had been no sound of a door opening. Or of footsteps walking across the empty bar.

The moment they saw the woman who stood above them, her posture ramrod straight, oozing old-time propriety even in her slacks and shirt, Jo and Bonnie sprang to their feet at once.

Lily Salvatore smiled, but her eyes on Bonnie were like ice. “I was out for a walk and I saw you through the window and I thought to myself, ‘I know her. That young lady broke my trust andruined my life.’”

“I never meant to hurt you, Lily,” Bonnie said quietly, her magic rushing to her fingers. Slowly, she started edging nearer Jo. Something nagged at her thoughts, but she couldn’t think past getting herself and Jo safely through this moment. “I was only ever going back to get Kai. It’s over now. The Ascendant is no longer in my possession.”

“Surely we can retrieve the device and bring my family home?” Lily said, and there was a touch of desperation in her voice.

Bonnie shook her head. The idea of thosethingsgetting loose was enough to make her skin crawl.

She was now close enough to Jo that her shoulders knocked against the other woman. She tried to move the few inches needed to shield Jo completely from Lily; but Jo must have realized what she was trying to do because she pushed back against Bonnie.

“Not with my blood. Not with any help from me or Kai,” Bonnie said coldly. “Your so-called family are monsters and we’re never letting them out.”

The veneer of propriety slipped off like a mask to reveal the monster beneath – red eyed, red veined and Lily lunged forward.

Bonnie was ready, her hands already curled up and aneurysm after aneurysm hit the vampire, making her scream and fall to her knees.

“It’s over, Lily. Let it go,” Bonnie warned, “and get out!”

Lily stretched out a hand to the table near her for support, her other hand still holding her head. She raised her head enough to stare at Bonnie with pain-filled eyes. “Your mistake,” she hissed.

Then her hand flew out and pain exploded in Bonnie’s neck.

Bonnie screamed and she grasped her neck, swaying, the spell breaking as the pain radiated like a spider’s web from her neck to every part of her body. There was something there – a dagger, apin, and her blood was gushing through her fingers. She fell to her knees, her hand on the cold floor, the only thing keeping her from falling to her face.

She was suddenly choking and when she coughed, blood spurted out.

After surviving death twice, the agony of being the Anchor, a prison world and the psychopath it was built for, Bonnie Bennett was going to bleed to death on the floor of the grill from a f*cking pin.

Lily’s steps were light, measured – still walking in that precise, finishing school trained elegance – as she stepped towards her. But she still had to go past Jo.

Bonnie heard the bride-to-be scream and tried to summon her magic but she couldn’t. She was in too much pain. She was losing too much blood. She couldn’t save herself. And she certainly couldn’t save Jo and her baby.

Too late, far too late, the memory of a nightmare gripped Bonnie.

This is how I die.

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she felt the edges of her vision begin to darken. Above her, Jo and Lily were talking but Bonnie couldn’t hear them above the rush of blood in her veins. Her arm, the one that was keeping her face from the floor, was trembling now with the effort of holding her weight.

Finally her elbow slackened and she was about to land on the floor…

When strong arms caught her, lifting her from the ground.

Bonnie gazed up into a pair of stormy blue eyes. They were the last things she saw before the darkness overcame her.

Whatever dark reputation the Genovas bore amongst their fellow Gemini, cowardice was not one of their flaws. The family of three that had turned up with Matt Donovan earlier that day had seemed more in awe of being hosted by the Praetor himself, than they were afraid that Joshua’s mad boy would murder them in their sleep. It wasn’t Kai’s choice to have company, but the wedding of Joshua Parker’s long-lost daughter – who had resurfaced after nearly two decades and somehow managed to survive her Merge Ceremony – was the stuff of dreams for his gossipy coven and now that Joshua Parker had called the exiles back, every Gemini in the world seemed to be in Virginia this weekend. There was only so much magic could do about unavailable hotel rooms.

Kai left them pottering through his flat, and wandered the streets, his plans chasing each other through his mind. There were a dozen ways it all could go wrong, and a dozen more it could work and still blow up in his face. But he was too close now to back down and he needed…

He needed an outlet for the fury that had been building inside him since his first horror-filled night in 1903. Apparently one of the down-sides of pesky emotions was that it laced the feelings he was already so familiar with – rage, bitterness, the need for vengeance – with an added bite of hurt that elevated them to the power of infinity. Downside or upside, depending on which self-help book he read. Kai didn’t much care.

One way or the other, heads would roll for what had been done to him.

And what about what you did to others? Whose heads rolled for that?

Shut it, Luke.

He turned the corner of an abandoned newsstand, and that was when he first felt the warm stirrings of recognition that he only ever associated with…

His steps faltered. No. They had managed to stay out of each other’s paths since their escape – her rescue of him – from 1903, and it had been long enough that the thought of inevitably bumping into her at his sister’s wedding tomorrow plagued him with both dread and anticipation.

Not for the first time, Kai asked himself what she would think about his plans – and not for the first time, he shut down that idiotic thought furiously. Like he gave a damn what she thought of him. Not anymore.

He turned on his heel, not interested in more self-torture this evening, when he recognized something else – her offensive magic spiralling all around her.

It was perverse the Pavlovian way everything in him snapped to in reaction to that.

Had no one ever taught the woman how to shield properly? He wondered furiously, as he turned back. Just to see, he told himself, what tomfoolery she had got herself into now. And maybe he’d lend a hand, or maybe he’d just conjure himself some popcorn and watch.

Her casting – an aneurysm, he recognized as he drew nearer and nearer to the source, the local bar – ceased abruptly. Even before herecognized his own twin’s auraand the way it radiated fear, he had already started running.

He burst through the doors of the bar, and the first thing he saw was Bonnie seconds from smashing her head on the floor. He caught her in the nick of time, lifting her into his arms. Later he would think about how light, how right, she felt in them, only the second time he had ever held her without trying to actively hurt her. But right now all he could think of was that she had lost so much blood she was almost as pale as him, and her pulse was an erratic bird beating in her throat.

All this went through his head as he whirled to face the person responsible for this, who was using his sister as a body shield.

He briefly locked gazes with Jo, was surprised at the relief shining from her eyes, and then shifted to a few inches from her face.

Oddly familiar pale blue eyes glittered at him with malice. “Good evening, Mr. Parker. We haven’t been properly introduced although I have made several unsuccessful attempts to seek audience with you.”

Lily Salvatore, ripper.

It was amusing really, that they had never actually met until now. It hadn’t been so long ago that they were swapping jail cells, courtesy of her son and her son’s BFF, the witch she had just injured.

Kai couldn’t even savor the supreme ironic karma of it all.

Not when Bonnie was bleeding in his arms and a ripper had his sister in the grip of her claws.

“Been a bit busy of late,” he hissed, “but you sure got my attention now.”

His mind was working double-time. He was silently casting a healing spell over Bonnie’s unconscious body; at the same time, he was trying to figure out an exit for all three of them – and coming up blank. Jo’s neck was in the grip of a madwoman and Bonnie’s lifebloodwas spurting out of her throat like water from a tap. Kai was a gambling man but even he won’t risk these odds.

“You will provide me the Ascendant, Mr. Parker, or I will end the life of your pregnant sister,” Lily Salvatore warned.

Another irony. Kai had an Ascendant for her alright, just not the one she wanted.

He concentrated on the mental recitation of the spell, while holding steady eye contact with the vampire.

“You’re going to let my sister go or I will boil your blood where you stand,” he said conversationally.

She glared at him, her grip on Jo tightening. Jo’s eyes widened but they were more filled with anger than fear.

“You’ll risk your sister’s life?”

“It’s not a risk,” Kai said levelly, keeping his rage at bay, lying through his teeth and willing her not to call his bluff. Desperation was building in him. He could feel Bonnie’s essence slipping out of her. His spell was not working. Time was running out.

Lily’s brows shifted rapidly – apparently her equally odious son got that annoying habit honestly – as she visibly calculated her options; and then with a snarl, she flung Jo against the wall.

Kai’s hand reached out to break his twin’s fall – the distraction the vampire had obviously counted on to flee safely and flee, she did.

Jo slid slowly to the ground, landing on her tailbone with a little jolt. Then she was on her feet and running towards Kai and Bonnie.

He was already placing Bonnie on the floor beside him, folding her hands over her chest. She was so silent, so pale, so cold. She was still breathing… but barely. The bleeding in her neck had slowed but he didn’t know whether it was from his magic or because she had already lost so much blood.

His hands were shaking.

Jo knelt on Bonnie’s other side, across from him, and looked at him with horror on her face. “Kai…”

“Help me,” he snapped as he conjured what he needed – candles, chalk, moss… They landed with a thump by his side.

“My doctor’s bag is in the car. Get that, too,” Jo said as she hurriedly started drawing the marks around Bonnie.

“I don’t need your medicine, Jo…” he hissed.

“I know you were trying to heal her while you talked to Lily and it wasn’t working,” she hissed back. “This is Sheila’s granddaughter. You do your magic. I do mine. Now get me my bag!”

He spared a moment to call for the stupid bag. It came flying through the door of the bar, smashing the glass to land beside his sister. Then he started pouring everything he had into calling back Bonnie’s essence.

It wasn’t working.

Kai’s heart was pounding from exertion, his chanting quivering a little by the twentieth iteration. A drop of blood landed on Bonnie’s shimmery pink blouse, then another. Jo raised her head from staunching Bonnie’s neck wound and pointed a shaky hand at his nose. He touched his face instinctively and noted absentmindedly that it was wet, and his fingers were now red.

He felt faint. But whether that was from the magic he was expending or from feeling Bonnie’s life slipping away, he couldn’t tell.

“What’s going on?”

The twins turned to look at Elena Gilbert walking into the bar with her phone in her hand and confusion on her face.

Kai stretched – more like flung – out his hand and dragged the vampire with magic. She skidded to a stop on her knees beside Bonnie.

“What the –” she yelled then froze at the sight of Bonnie. “Oh my god, Bonnie!”

“Your blood. Now.” Kai snarled but even before he finished, Elena had already torn out her veins and was pushing her wrist into Bonnie’s mouth.

Kai’s eyes were fixed on Bonnie’s face, waiting for the colour to return.

It didn’t. Her breathing was so faint now, he couldn’t hear it. He could only tell from the infinitesimally slow rise and fall of her chest. She was fading.

Jo’s phone was in her hand and he could hear, distantly like from a radio in another room, her conversation with the 911 dispatcher.

Elena pulled her wrist back, horror on her face. “Bonnie!”

“Give her more!” he shouted, pushing her wrist back down.

“It should be working by now,” Elena cried, yanking her hand back. She bit through her wrist again – the wound had healed – and returned it to Bonnie’s mouth. Blood bubbled past her lips. She should have been choking on it.

No.

The vampire made a sound that was between a gasp and a wail. She was staring at the twins with horror on her face.

A split second later, Kai realized why.

Bonnie’s heart had stopped.

No. No. No. No.

Jo’s hands were pushing Elena’s wrist away, and she was tipping Bonnie’s head back and breathing into her mouth. “Elena, her chest.”

In a blur of movement, Elena was on the other side, now kneeling beside Kai and bent over Bonnie with her hands locked on her chest in the style he vaguely recognised – what must have been eons ago – from Jo practising on him.

They were counting. Jo’s face determined, Elena’s desperate.

There was a storm in his head. Water crashing and dying against the rocks beneath. He watched them with a sense of surrealism. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening.

No.

The windows started cracking, tiny little slivers that they barely heard over their own bated breathing, until they shattered and burst, glass flying every which way.

Jo and Elena looked up then, wide eyes full of fear. But, Kai noted absentmindedly, they didn’t lose count, they kept going at the CPR.

Bonnie’s body spasmed under his sister’s and the vampire’s ministrations but otherwise, she was still. The delicate features of her face were frozen in a way he had never seen before, not even the times in the 1994 prison world that he had spied sleeping, in the months before he made his presence known to her, when he thought his fascination with her had only lied in the fact that she was the first living, breathing person he had seen in nearly two decades, and his ticket out of his hell.

Bonnie.

The upturned tables slid across the room, smashing into the walls.

“Kai!” his sister shouted. “Control!”

He climbed to his feet, his hands rising to grip his head, his fingers tugging at his hair. The chairs climbed up with him, into the ceiling and bounced off it, smashing into the ground. A storm was rising in the bar, wind whipping from the centre and catching the debris around it in a narrow cyclone.

“Get out!” Jo screamed.

No. He couldn’t leave Bonnie. Not again. Not this time.

As if she could read his mind, his sister shouted, “You’re not helping her by being here, Kai. You have to go!”

She was right, a small sane part of his head realized, watching that cyclone get wider and wider. Very soon the debris would be smashing against the people that were fighting for Bonnie’s life.

Bonnie.

He stared at her tightly shut lids and it hit Kai like a moving train would hit a jumper – the thought that it was very possible he would never see those fiery green eyes open again.

He turned on his heel and fled.

Chapter 9: it is never over

Chapter Text

May 2013

Whitmore

It was mere hours to the nuptial ceremony between Jo Laughlin and Alaric Saltzman was to commence and Caroline Forbes was sending frantic texts to Bonnie and Matt asking about the whereabouts of the floral arrangements.

Bonnie texted back something about a flat tire and turned off her phone before Caroline blew it up.

Sitting at the passenger’s side of Matt Donovan’s truck, she threw her friend a wry look that he returned.

“If Kai or the heretics don’t kill me, then Caroline will for sure,” Bonnie muttered and Matt laughed.

He pulled the truck into a short term parking slot in front of Kai’s apartment building. Bonnie stared up at the nondescript, standard building with some surprise. She hadn’t imagined Kai living somewhere so… ordinary. Not that she had given it much thought, that is. But if she had, she probably would have imagined his home having at least a chimney – somewhere to send the smoke from his cauldron.

She shook her head, laughing silently at herself as she and Matt hopped out of the car.

The flowers lay beside Matt’s bag of weapons, and together they both selected the most practical ones for the task at hand – a gun with wooden bullets, tiny Molotov co*cktails of vervain water and gasoline, and a mini-bow that he could put under his jacket. He wanted to take the more powerful crossbow until Bonnie reminded him that neither of them were vampires and it would be hard, without compulsion, to explain to Kai’s neighbours why a man the size of a linebacker was lurking around their corridors with a loaded weapon.

Bonnie didn’t take any weapons. She had her magic, and the only weapon she wanted was her missing knife.

With one last guilty glance at the flowers, she led the way to the front door.

Getting through the security code at the main entrance door was tricky. Bonnie couldn’t pick it in view of security cams, nor think of a discrete spell that won’t do permanent damage to the door; so Matt had had to punch a random apartment number and pretend to be a delivery guy. Compared to that, getting through Kai’s apartment door was a breeze. No cams in the passageway took off the pressure of discretion. A quick detection spell identified an empty apartment and a weak boundary ward. So weak that she disabled it with a simple power spike. The lock was a joke, nothing compared to hot wiring a car. She pulled out a hairpin, grinning slightly at the stunned look on Matt’s face.

He recovered quickly, and moved to shield her, his eyes scanning for nosy neighbours.

“Where did Bonnie Bennett learn how to pick a lock?” He whispered from the corner of his mouth.

Bonnie twisted the pin with her teeth and placed it inside the lock, and wiggled expertly. “I was stuck on an empty planet for months with no magic, Matt. Kicking down doors doesn’t come naturally to a girl my size. So I learnt some new skills.”

The lock clicked and the door fell open. Bonnie stepped in, then turned back in surprise when Matt still lingered outside. He was staring at the apartment door across from them with a frown on his face.

She touched his hand, and when he looked at her, she raised an eyebrow. “What?”

He frowned. “I’m not sure but… I saw a shadow pass across the peephole. I think someone might have spotted us.”

She cursed softly.

He shook his head quickly. “I said I’m not sure. Probably imagined it.”

“Better safe than sorry,” she murmured. She whispered a quick Ocludus in the general vicinity of the other door.

“What was that?”

“A distraction spell. It’ll last an hour. We’ll be long gone by then.”

Gently, she shut the door and they were fully in Kai Parker’s apartment easy as pie.

It said something about the psyche of the resident that he was all but inviting danger into his home. And not, Bonnie told herself, that he was brave. Or even that he was stupid. But that he knew that there was nothing outside that could be more dangerous than himself.

She shuddered to imagine what Kai would think – what would Kai do if he ever found out that she broke into his apartment.

While driving, they had spoken to Tyler and he had confirmed that Kai, and the rest of the Gemini coven were at the venue. So Matt and Bonnie expected his house to be empty. Still, she stretched out her senses again as they stepped further inside.

He wasn’t there – no one was. But she could sense magic lingering in the air. Casting had been done there, recently. Nothing potent, nothing remarkable. Just ordinary magic – levitation, cleaning; it even seemed like someone used a spell to fix a last-minute wardrobe malfunction. Day to day magic, done casually, carelessly even and it brushed against the edges of Bonnie’s aura and hit her with an unexpected pang of wistfulness.

“You said some Gemini witches were here?” She asked Matt.

“Three at least. Looked like family,” he said, distractedly as he made a beeline towards the large screen TV and complicated game centre taking up most of the space in the living room.

The interior of the flat was furnished in the typical bachelor pad style – basic monochromatic furniture. The small kitchen, which they had to walk through to get into the rest of the house, was equipped with a variety of gadgets, a lot of which Bonnie didn’t even recognise. She lingered a little in it, remembering her last Thanksgiving dinner. Kai had cooked it. It had been a surprisingly good meal, but she had been too on edge to enjoy it, half-trusting, half-wary about the deal she had made with him.

He got her to trust him towards the end, she realised now, bitterly. It must have made the literal and figurative gutting all the more sweeter for him.

She frowned at Matt’s awed inspection of the entertainment centre. “We need to hurry. Find something of Kai’s for the spell.”

As she had explained in the car, since the Ascendant belonged to the Parkers, and Kai personally as their leader, a locator spell would need something of his. Blood was always the best choice but a little hair would do.

Going a bit shamefaced, Matt nodded. “Should we split up?” he suggested.

“No,” Bonnie said firmly.

There were two bedrooms in the flat. They chose one by random and stepped in.

Matt whistled under his breath. “Woah.”

“Woah, exactly,” Bonnie murmured.

The room had clearly been magically reconstructed. There was no other way that its internal dimensions or the large elaborate furniture pieces contained within could have otherwise fit into its physical space.

Bonnie felt slightly ill standing inside it.

“Convenient,” Matt said. “Wonder why they couldn’t all have super-sized their hotel rooms?”

“It’s complicated, and some people might just not prefer to do this.”

“Maybe. But it’s also fun, isn’t it? It’s kinda easy to forget that,” he said with a shrug. “We get so used to always using magic in the middle of some war or the other, we forget that sometimes magic is just cool.”

Bonnie hummed vaguely, and left the room quickly, Matt behind her. He might find the room fascinating, but the dimensional alterations made her slightly nauseous. Also, she doubted that there would be anything of Kai’s there.

The second room was clearly his. If the plain starkness didn’t tell her, the trace of his magic, powerful and capricious as the man itself, seemed to reach through her skin to touch her own power. It made her blood thrum. The memory of 1903, when they channeled each other, suddenly overwhelmed her.

“You OK, Bonnie?” Matt asked, stopping halfway into the room to stare, puzzled, at where she hesitated by the doorway.

She smiled thinly, forcing herself to shrug off the momentary shock. “Sure,” she said as normally as she could, and stepped into Kai Parker’s room.

There were no structural alterations that she could see or sense. Which, she supposed, made sense. After almost two decades of his life being trapped in a magical dimension, he would probably find the thought of magical enhancements or alterations to his physical environment as nauseating as Bonnie had found that guest room. Rather, his room was sparsely furnished – just a bed and a low table in the centre of the room – ideal, she thought immediately, for sitting cross-legged on the floor and casting. There were two pillows placed neatly beside the table, and she pictured Kai sitting across a random witch, doing magic.

That pang of longing shook through her once more. She allowed herself a moment to imagine what it felt like – growing up with magic, being surrounded by witches she could practice with, learning difficult spells, honing her craft, or merely studying along with. She had never had that. Her grandmother had died too soon. The brief time she had ‘tutored’ Liv Parker, Bonnie had been a magic-less Anchor.

Then she snapped out of it. Someday, she’d find a witch community that wasn’t working against her and/or trying to use her and she would integrate into them. She would learn from them, make allies, and maybe even friends. The Gemini were out of the question. She didn’t envy any of the Parkers nor their medieval twin-murdering cult.

Matt had already headed to the bathroom, so Bonnie had no choice but to rifle through the bedroom. There was a tiny dresser and a larger wardrobe. She yanked open the top dresser drawer and felt the blood rush into her face.

She could have lived her whole life without knowing that Kai Parker folded his underwear.

Bonnie had never so desperately wished for a spell as she wished she knew a spell that could just call loose strands of hair out of clothes. Instead, she had to carefully run her hands over the fabrics of his clothes, all his neatly folded tees, slacks, jeans, and … everything else. His scent lingered on them, despite their obvious cleanliness and her face was scorching by the time she moved to the wardrobe.

This was so awkward. It felt so invasive, touching his clothes like this. Then she laughed at herself. She didn’t feel guilty breaking into the man’s house to steal his family’s magical artefact but examining his clothes made her feel bad?

Of course there wasn’t a single strand to be found, she realised when she was through. He probably did a scouring spell every-time he left his house. Kai Parker, Gemini leader and scion of a generations-old coven, was not going to leave random bits of himself lying around for some interloping witch to find. That was a rookie mistake. The kind of thing mundanes did thoughtlessly all the time. But no seasoned witch half their salt would leave such a powerful ingredient for any number of personal spells – anything from locator spells to powerful jinxes – lying around.

“Any luck?” Matt asked, popping out of the bathroom.

“Not yet. You?”

“Nothing. Everything’s so clean, it looks like it was magically bleached.” Which made Bonnie laugh because she had just been thinking the same thing. “I’ll go check the living room. Maybe there’s something there?”

More like he wanted to scrutinize the game console more closely, Bonnie thought, turning her head away so he couldn’t see her roll her eyes.

“Leave the door open, Matt,” she conceded. There were too many horror stories – including the ones she had lived through – that taught that splitting in enemy territory was always a bad idea.

Only Kai wasn’t an enemy, still. Was he? Bonnie wavered, uncertain. She didn’t know. And she was too tired of worrying about it. About him. His plans for her. If she needed to watch her back. Once she got hold of the Ascendant and destroyed it, then she’d let it go. Until then, she couldn’t drop her guard.

She glanced around the room, her eyes falling on the bed. She had avoided looking at it directly all this while but now she couldn’t take her eyes off it. It was hard not to imagine the man himself lying down on it.

There was one particular dream.

“I was spooning you earlier and I may have sleep-siphoned you.”

Gah! Bonnie yelled mentally. She had been certain that she had scoured the memories of that particular sleep encounter from her brain. Rubbing her suddenly damp palms against her jeans, and grimacing, she marched up to the bed and briskly lifted the pillow propped against the headboard. She ran her hands over it. It was cool to touch, and it smelled even more strongly of him. His scent was not unpleasant at all and, her whole face was burning now.

When her finger snagged against a single short brown strand, Bonnie almost cried in relief.

“Missed one, Kai,” she crowed.

“Found something, Bonnie?” Matt called.

“Yes, I’ll be right there.”

Matt was standing by the low corner bookshelf, looking through a book when she stepped into the parlour and she was feeling guilty for misjudging him until she realised that he was holding the book upside-down.

“Can we do the spell here?” he asked, dropping the book quickly and walking up to her eagerly. “Or do we go to your place?”

Bonnie hadn’t exactly packed a magic bag but an idea suddenly popped into her head. She went to the kitchen pantry, and she found exactly what she expected. Arranged neatly in clearly marked containers on the shelves and DIY-organizers were bunches of different-flavoured candles, a bowl of incense, a bottle of quicksilver, a rolled-up bunch of thin maps on scrolls, that looked like if they had been conjured en masse. Beams from the skylight hit the top shelf, where a row of terrariums with spices and slithering things sat. A mortar and pestle on the floor. There were ingredients and tools here she couldn’t even describe, much less name. In other words, she found pretty much everything she needed for the locator spell. And probably any other spell she would ever want to cast.

And was that…?

Bonnie gasped.

“Bonnie?” Matt asked at once.

“He has a cauldron set,” she said quietly. Packed like nesting dolls, and ranging from soup-bowl-sized to cook-a-small-human-sized.

Well, what else would one expect to find in a witch’s pantry?

It hit Bonnie for the third time. That sense of forsakenness, of being disconnected from her natural habitat and left to float adrift. She had been cut off from the witch community all her life. And now here was one ready-made all but staring her in the face. She had always believed that her grandmother had good reasons for going solo and teaching Bonnie to do the same. But right now, perusing Kai’s magical collection in his house that was filled with magic... Bonnie wondered if her grandmother might have been wrong about this, at least.

“I don’t…” Matt asked, confused. “What…?”

“Nothing.” For the third time, she shrugged off her melancholy thoughts and focused on the task at hand. She gathered what she needed briskly and shut the pantry behind her. The map was spread out on the kitchen counter, then she arranged the rest of the things quietly while Matt, after a last uncertain glance at the pantry door and whatever he had just missed, drew up two bar stools for them. The strand of hair slid into a crucible. A trickle of Bonnie’s blood and a fyre spell transmuted it. Carefully, she magically extracted a single drop and let it fall on a corner of the map.

She sat on the stool and started chanting softly.

The first time Bonnie casted, the blood shivered, like if it was boiling, then it vanished.

She blinked at the map in shock.

Then she repeated the spell twice more – almost completely depleting the contents of the crucible to be sure – before she stopped.

“What’s going on?” Matt asked finally. He had been silent all through out, staring at her magic with a mixture of fascination and wariness.

She spoke slowly, still struggling to grasp this new development. “It’s gone.”

“Gone? As in gone to a Prison World? I thought that wasn’t how it worked,” he asked, confused.

“No. I mean yes, you are right. That’s not how the Ascendant works. It doesn’t follow to the Prison World. It can’t travel between worlds so it’s always on this side while there’s another one on that side. Only…” Bonnie frowned at the empty map. “The Ascendant on our side is… gone.”

Matt leaned forward, staring at the map. “I don’t understand, Bon.”

“This spell is telling me that it’s been destroyed, completely and leaving no trace.”

“So Kai destroyed it after he sent Lily back. Makes perfect sense to me. He’d be the last person to want those monsters out,” Matt said reasonably.

Too reasonably, Bonnie thought, schooling her face so her irritation didn’t show. There was nothing reasonable about Kai Parker when he wanted to get even with someone.

She should know. She had the scar to prove it.

And it was that memory that fuelled her as she grabbed a knife, slashed her palm – ignoring Matt’s sharp inhale – and sent the spray of blood into the most powerful revelation spell that she knew.

A gust of wind swept through the sealed apartment, the lights flickered twice and she felt the reverberation of the spell send a tremor through her bones.

Matt sprang to his feet. “What was that?”

“The Gemini love their cloaking spells,” Bonnie murmured calmly, reaching for a paper towel to clean her bloody hand. “If Kai cloaked the Ascendant, then I just uncloaked it.” And everything else cloaked within a hundred feet from here. But there was no need telling Matt that.

“So the tracking spell will work now?”

“Unless it’s really been destroyed. Let’s see, shall we?”

Using the very last drop from the crucible, she casted the spell for the last time.

And for the very last time, the blood boiled and vanished.

“It’s settled then,” Matt said, relieved. “Kai destroyed it.”

Shivering slightly, Bonnie stared hard at the map, while she mentally repeated what she had told Matt.

The Ascendant couldn’t travel between worlds. So there was one on this side to transport the bearer into the Prison World and another in the Prison World to transport the bearer out.

“The heretics don’t need this Ascendant to escape. They need one on their side. They have one on their side. It would be on the ground, right where Kai and I left.”

“But what happens to the Ascendant on that side if the one on this side is destroyed?” Matt asked.

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

“Can you search for it?”

“Matt, I can’t track an object from another dimension.”

“Maybe not with this spell but some other spell, right?”

“Matt…”

“I mean.” He snorted softly. “Bonnie, this is magic we’re talking about.”

She opened her mouth to contradict him with a laugh – then stopped. That was the great thing about Matt, Bonnie thought. He might not know the answers but he sure knew the right questions to ask.

“You’re right, I guess,” she said slowly, thinking. “With the right tools, practically any kind of spell is theoretically possible. The problem would be the amount of mojo it would take.” Expression. “Way more than I have, I’m afraid.” She made a face.

He saw it. “What is it?”

Bonnie shrugged. “This talk of mojo – not having enough. It reminds me of…” She trailed off. When he kept staring at her with puzzled earnestness, she gave him a small, sad smile. “The times I didn’t have magic. How powerless I felt.”

His face lightened as something like realisation seemed to dawn on it. “Maybe that’s what’s causing your nightmares, Bonnie? Remember how it was to feel powerless.”

She smarted at that. “No, Matt, I don’t think so.”

“Bonnie…”

His face was filling with deep concern and she shied away from it, hunching her shoulders slightly as she stared back at the map. But she wasn’t seeing it; her gaze had turned inwards, reflecting on his words even though she had denied them. Was Matt right? Had all this really been for nothing? Her fears? Her bad dreams? Was all this just a way of her wanting to reclaim control?

She supposed that she would probably be feeling something like embarrassment right now, but she was still too tense.

Lily Salvatore was back in the prison world. The Ascendant was destroyed. Kai Parker… He had told her they were even. And before that – and as always when she remembered this, Bonnie felt her insides churn with confusion – he had saved her life.

Maybe, just maybe, Kai had really let 1903 go?

Could it really be all over?

What were her dreams, then? Vestiges of post-traumatic stress, like Jo Parker kept insisting?

Perhaps she should call the good doctor for the shrink’s number after all.

“Bonnie,” Matt said very gently, and she felt his warm hand on her arm. “The Ascendant on this side is gone. No one’s going to get them out. And they can’t get out themselves, remember? They need to know the spell and to have Bennett blood.” He squeezed her arm. “It’s over, Bonnie. You don’t have to be afraid anymore.”

The spell.

Bonnie sat up so suddenly, she felt her spine crack.

She and Kai had escaped under the Northern Lights, a circle of heretics around them. Any one of them could have heard the spell.

As for Bennett blood…

There was a whole vat of it in its ancient, most powerful form in a tomb in Nova Scotia.

“Bonnie?”

Bonnie didn’t hear Matt. She was too busy forcing herself to remain calm, to deliberately think this through before panicking.

Surely, if the heretics had been aware of Qetsiya’s blood, wouldn’t they have escaped the Prison World long ago? Unless they had only recently found out… from Kai.

Information he gave under duress?

Or information he had given up willingly with the hope that they would break free and take him along?

Or…

Bonnie remembered the nightmarish details of her second trip to the 1903 prison world. By the end of it, she had been exhausted. Her magic couldn’t sustain Kai’s revival spell. Her own healing spell had failed and her wound had re-opened. Only the power of Expression, the magic she got from channelling Kai, and her sheer force of will had kept her alive long enough to do the Ascending spell.

She sat warm and safe in Kai’s kitchen, but she felt herself very far away. She could almost taste the snow falling against her lips, the sound of Kai’s voice chanting, the warmth of his fingers where it tangled with hers around the Ascendant, the coldness of her blood-soaked shirt. The smell of iron from her blood as it dripped into the snow…

Her blood-soaked shirt… her blood… dripping into the snow…

It’s never over.

Bonnie stood up from her stool abruptly, and whirled at Matt, horror rising in her.

“Bonnie, what is it?” he asked, startled.

“I left blood behind,” she whispered. “They heard me say the spell.

“Matt, they’re already out.”

June 2014

Whitmore

During the drive from the airport, Damon eventually managed to touch base with Stefan. Assuming she hadn’t got any of Bonnie’s messages yet, Stefan would bring Caroline up to speed. Matt sent them a text that he had got through to Tyler. They all agreed to convene at the Salvatore’s Boarding house the next morning to discuss strategy. Damon still hadn’t figured out exactly what his Plan B would entail but, in his usual Damon way, he was pretty optimistic.

He dropped Bonnie off at the off-campus apartment that she and Caroline had moved into after sophom*ore year. During the previous summer, the university had relocated several students out of their campus dorms to temporary housing, in order to do the construction upgrades requested by the new owners. The three girls were supposed to have moved back to their old and improved dorm for the Fall semester; but when Bonnie and Caroline returned from Europe without Elena, it just hadn’t felt right to them. So they moved to this place, which was just near enough to campus that they still felt like a part of the community, but far away that they could practice what Caroline liked to call their ‘alternative lifestyle’ without raising too many eyebrows. For Caroline, that involved nocturnal hunting and the occasional trip to the bleeders. For Bonnie that involved practicing magic that could cause extremely localized climate changes.

Bonnie hadn’t spoken directly to Caroline since she left Portland but there was a welcome home note on the fridge and an actual apple pie in the oven.

Bonnie grinned happily because it was good to be back in their cosy little place, tastefully furnished with Caroline’s eye for colours and patterns and Bonnie’s magic creating some exciting finishing touches. Dropping her stuff at the foot of her bed, she threw herself with her arms spread out on it, kicked off her shoes and exhaled.

It had been a nightmare finding a place that they both agreed on but when they found this place, they had fallen in love with it at once. To Caroline, it meant growth, and independence. It meant those for Bonnie too. But even more, it meant escape. She had taken everything worth taking from her father’s house and moved it here, then put up the house for sale. She had not quite sworn to herself that she would never step foot in Mystic Falls again – that was extreme, especially with the ties she still kept with Matt, and Tyler, and so many others she grew up with and loved. But she had vowed not to have a reason to stay too long, and certainly not to get tangled up in Salvatore and supernatural feuds.

But this was different.

So you come rushing back to save the box of tools that you call friends?

Kai’s mocking words echoed in her head and she felt the same flash of anger rise in her again. He had no idea what he was talking about and she hated that his words – the entirety of the man himself – affected her so badly. In so many aggravating ways.

Sighing, she rolled out of bed, stepped into the bathroom and, despite the cool Virginia evening, had a cold shower. She tried – and failed – not to let certain memories plague her but they were like the contents of a Pandora’s box. After a year of keeping that night shut tightly in the box of her mind, the trip to Portland had slid the key into the lock and turned it; Caroline’s insidious phone call had creaked the lid open; and the last encounter with Kai Parker in the Saltzmans’ kitchen had blown the lid off completely.

Or, Bonnie thought crossly, lifting her right wrist to the spray and glaring at the band, maybe this was the culprit. Maybe he really had put a hex on her. But even as she thought it, she knew she didn’t believe it. Still, first thing that morning – well, first thing after the meeting at the Boarding house – she was going to find what it meant and a spell to take it off.

And now, her head was filled with the memory of that smirk when he said that he might have hexed her.

After several cold showers, she finally felt sane enough to slip into her sensible pajamas. She walked with stocking feet to the kitchen and made a cup of hot chocolate. She drank most of it as she slowly worked through most of the apple pie, only stopping when her eyes started drooping. Then she packed up the leftovers and went into her pantry to find the ingredients she needed to make a very special potion.

She had got the recipe from the two witches she had made friends with in Europe. It was an antidote to bad dreams… and unwanted memories.

She measured carefully, poured the mix of herbs and rock into her tiny mortar and ground them into powder.

His chest pressed against her back, hands on her waist, rings digging into her skin, and something harder digging into her ass. He buried his face in her hair and hummed a little against her scalp while her hands shook slightly over the coffee machine and she steeled herself to say it…

Her hands were steady as she poured the powder into her chocolate. She started lifting the cup to her lips…

…and tipped its contents into the sink.

She made another cup of chocolate, and spiked it with a little vodka. Enough for a long night’s sleep only, not a bad hangover the next morning… certainly not enough to suppress the memories that she had been running from for the better part of a year.

Not anymore, though. It was time to wake up. Figuratively, that was.

She washed up and wiped her hands, and then she had to wipe her face which had suddenly, stupidly become wet and she padded off to bed.

May 2013

Whitmore

Bonnie’s sense of panic was so immense, so immediate that Matt’s unworried face startled her.

“Bonnie, that’s a pretty big conclusion.”

She gaped. “Did you hear anything I said? They have my blood and they know the spell. The Ascendant fell on the snow when Kai and I left there. They had everything they needed. They may’ve been out for days!”

“Then why didn’t they meet up with Lily Salvatore?” he asked reasonably. “Why leave her wandering around Mystic Falls, desperately missing them? All they had to do was mention the name ‘Salvatore’ to anyone in town and they’d have found her within a day.”

The thought gave her pause. “I don’t know.”

“Lily’s about the only thing that would bring them to Mystic Falls, anyway. If – and, mind you, I think it’s a pretty big if – these heretics got out, they’d be more likely to go West to Oregon where the Gemini coven is…”

His voice trailed off as Bonnie’s panic finally caught up with him. They stared at each other in dismay.

“The Gemini coven isn’t in Oregon,” she said unnecessarily, her voice rising. “They are here in Mystic Falls. To attend Jo’s wedding. They’ve been gathering here for days. And,” her mind was racing now, making the connections faster than she cared to, “more importantly, Kai is here. They don’t need to go after the entire coven. They just need to kill him and the rest of the coven dies. And the prison worlds collapse, yes but perhaps the heretics think destroying the Gemini is worth sacrificing Lily. Oh my god!” She gasped. “We need to call him, Matt. We need to warn him. All of them!”

She started reaching for her phone, and then she let out a soft scream when she realised it was pointless. She didn’t have his number. Why would she?

But Matt had pulled out his phone and was already dialling. “I got his number when I was running around, getting their coven people settled in,” he said in answer to the unspoken question.

Bonnie waited, standing on her toes and straining her ears. Kai’s phone was ringing, but he wasn’t picking. It rang and rang then it went into an automated voicemail.

“Let’s call everyone else,” Matt said, and his calm voice anchored Bonnie a little. “I’ll call Alaric, Tyler, Stefan. You call Elena, Caroline, and Damon.”

“We can call and walk at the same time, too,” she declared as she strode towards the door.

Matt rushed ahead, passing her. He was reaching out to touch the knob, when Bonnie felt it – a spike in the air that said Danger.

Her hand stretched out in a silent Motus, and she pulled Matt back to her side a split second before the door flung inwards violently.

Standing in the doorway were three people – a man that looked partly Native American and an olive-skinned brunette standing side by side; towering behind both was a tall, auburn-haired man. They were dressed in long, hooded red robes; their faces were veined and hungry; and their auras pulsed with a strange, repulsive but – to Bonnie – horrifyingly familiar rhythm.

Heretics.

June 2014

Portland

The ringing of her cell jolted Jo Saltzman out of sleep.

Because she had spent over two decades responding to life-and-death late night phone calls, she didn’t grab the offending object and fling it across the room – like any other sane nursing mother of twins who was catching up on some much needed sleep would have done. Instead, she calmly swore like a sailor, enough to stir the man sleeping beside her, and then checked her phone to see the suicidal fool that would dare disturb her rest.

The name seemed to jump at her, and she sat up in bed at once. “Dad? What’s going on?”

She and Joshua Parker may have reconciled over the little matter of attempted filicide but they were not exactly on late-night social calls terms so clearly, something was wrong.

“Where is your brother?”

Her heart jumped. “I’m guessing you mean Kai?”

Joshua sighed heavily. Wherever his children had got their snark from, it wasn’t from him. “I need to speak to him urgently.”

“Have you checked his place? Because if he’s not in Portland, then I have no idea where he is.”

“Jo, this is important.”

“Honestly, Dad, I saw him this morning and he didn’t say anything to make me think he was planning on leaving town soon.”

“Do you think he’s gone to Virginia? For the heretics?” Joshua cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I believe Ms. Bennett and the vampire returned there today.”

Jo raised an eyebrow. So her father had picked up on that.

“Jo, what’s going on?” Alaric mumbled from beside her.

She shhhd him. “Nothing important. Go back to bed. You need your rest.” He was on night-duty again.

Murmuring sleepily, he turned around and hopefully, nodded back off.

“Jo, are you still there?”

“Coming, Dad,” Jo muttered, as she dragged herself out of bed. She went to the corner of the room, far enough that she could talk a little louder without waking her husband.

“Last we spoke, Kai mentioned the renegade shapeshifters. Maybe he’s gone to NOLA to consult with the Southern Court? Then there’s the vampire situation in Brooklyn…”

Even to her own ears, her words sounded unconvincing.

“Our Envoys and the Hunters have got the Brooklyn situation in check. And while I would very much like to think that Kai is in NOLA for entirely different reasons – all this talk of the Augustine Society resurrecting, and the Nine Covens allying with them, should be of grave concern to us all – I sincerely doubt that. You’re covering for him, Josette, just like you did when you were both younger. All these years and you’re yet to learn your lesson.”

A short, uncomfortable silence followed that.

Then Joshua sighed again.

“Whatever means you have to reach your brother, do so quickly. I won’t stand him going after his personal vendetta and risking the coven.”

Jo tensed. Joshua Parker was head Councillor and informal peacekeeper between the council, the elders, and their Praetor. Emphasis on peace-keeper. His threats carried weight.

“Kai won’t do anything rash. If he’s in Virginia – and I don’t know if he is, OK? – but if he is, he has a plan.”

“It’d still be an unnecessary risk. Especially now that I strongly believe that our real enemy is not in Virginia, but here in Oregon.”

Jo was fully awake now, her grip on the phone tightening. “Dad, what do you mean by that?”

“Martin Linus. Victor Briggs. Gerald formerly O’Sullivan. Judith Stewart. Do those names not mean anything to you, Jo?”

“No, they do not.”

“Are you sure, Jo? Because these three...”

“You should speak to the Praetor,” she said and her voice had gone stern, formal. “In a situation of this nature, you are required to provide all information…”

“Don’t quote rules to me, Jo.” He snapped. “Have you forgotten who you’re talking to?”

“Have you?”

He exhaled noisily, clearly irritated. “I have my reasons to wait until my theories are proven – or not. I do not want to cause a panic. You obviously know more than you want to admit so I advise you to do the same.”

Jo was silent.

“Whatever you choose to tell your brother, I still need to talk to the Praetor and soon. Let him know this the moment you get off the phone with me.”

“I’ll do my best to reach him, Dad but I can’t guarantee anything.”

“You doing your best, Jo,” his voice had become suddenly fond, “is all the guarantee I need.”

They said their goodbyes and Jo put her phone down. For the first time, she noticed the time. It was three am. It was already early morning in Virginia. Montana was earlier still.

Donning her dressing gown, and slipping her phone into her pocket, she quietly left the bedroom.

The house was quiet. The twins were still sleeping deeply. Even Liv’s usual snores were silent as Jo passed by her door. The study was on the first floor and she carefully made her way down the stairs in the dark.

She turned on the desk-light, then went to a bookshelf and searched through the thick tomes of medical reference books until she pulled out a specific volume. She opened it carefully, and revealed – not pages – but a hollowed-out centre. It was a trick book. And hidden in it was a slim and faded spiral notebook. She flipped through the pages until she found what she was looking for. A list of names.

Seven names precisely. And the first three names were already crossed out.

1. Linus
2. Briggs.
3. O’Sullivan.

Holding the book open with one hand, she walked to her desk and got a pen. With a careful hand, she crossed out the fourth name on the list.

1. Stewart.

Jo’s finger rested against the first name beneath these, pressing hard enough to feel the worn paper yield. Indecision raged inside her as she felt a swirl of emotions staring at the list.

1. Stewart.

Jo’s finger rested against the name beneath these, pressing hard enough to feel the worn paper yield. Indecision raged inside her.

She made up her mind.

The burner phone was hidden in another trick book. She waited impatiently for it to power up, then scrolled down the contacts until she found P. Lang, and started typing her message.

May 2013

Whitmore

The three heretics were as shocked to find Bonnie and Matt at the other side of the door as Bonnie and Matt had been to see them. It was a momentary advantage that Bonnie had the presence of mind to seize.

“Immobiliza!” She cried, one hand throwing a hex, while the other stretched up and drew a protective shield over her and Matt.

Her spell hit the three squarely and they froze in place.

Matt was already loading his crossbow, and he shot two arrows in quick succession right into the hearts of the two in front. The third arrow was aimed for the head of the tall redhead but it never hit its target.

Because the man had broken through the spell and charged, leaping over the heads of his companions with the super-speed and agility of a well-fed vampire.

Bonnie threw out another freezing spell but another figure leaped in front of her, catching the spell, absorbing the spell and then charging at Bonnie.

Her weight slammed Bonnie right into the ground and Bonnie pushed out an Immolata with her mind. The heretic reeled back, holding her head as she squirmed on her haunches and Bonnie tried to scramble out from under her, yelling out Immolatas after Immolatas with rapid succession.

Across the room there was a small explosion, and a shout and she guessed that Matt must have thrown one of the vervain bombs.

Thank goodness he’s holding his own, Bonnie thought with relief. Now all I have to do is incendia this creature…

The Incendia spell hovered in the air, suspended an inch from the heretic’s eyes, which were glowing gold. She was smiling at Bonnie.

And that was when Bonnie realised, with a thrill of dismay, that the heretic had not been squirming with pain but shaking with laughter.

“Your magic is delectable,” she said, her eyes shimmering with familiar gold whorls as Bonnie literally watched her magic being absorbed by the creature.

Bonnie stopped casting, frozen with shock as she realised, remembered – and all that was holy, how could she have been so stupid to forget? – that everything she just did had only served to make this creature stronger. How, she thought, terror-mounting, do you fight something that turns your own power against you?

“Pray do not cease on our account,” said another voice above Bonnie and she looked up to see the dark-haired man standing over his companion. “My friends and I were just starting to get entertained.”

The redhead appeared beside them. All three heretics were accounted for.

“Where’s Matt?” Bonnie cried.

The three heretics exchanged glances, then turned to give her identical, malicious smiles. Two of those smiles, she noticed with horror, bared sharp teeth stained with red. The redhead lifted his hand and curled his fingers into a fist.

Immediately, Bonnie felt her throat close, as if an invisible hand had wrapped around it and was choking her. She couldn’t breathe and her vision was rapidly dimming.

She tried to push back with magic, but the more she pushed, the tighter the grip. She didn’t need to see the three pairs of eyes glimmering with gold to know that once more, her magic was being used against her but she couldn’t help it. She couldn’t not struggle.

Everything was dim now. She slumped to her side, still gasping.

Where was Matt?

A shadow was looming over her, and then suddenly, strong arms pulled her into a sitting position and she felt cold breath at her throat.

No!

Panic and disgust shattered through her and she tried to struggle – with magic, with physical strength, but she couldn’t. She was weak, too weak.

Matt. Was he all right?

The edge of sharp teeth grazed her skin. She didn’t even have energy to scream, just brace herself for the agony of blood and magic being stolen from her.

Then she felt a lightening of pressure as if someone had hurled her attacker back.

She fell back to the floor, her head hitting hard. Darkness came rushing, much as she struggled against it. But not before she heard their last words.

“Not this one. Remember our sire.”

“A taste. Bennett magic. By god, her Expression…”

“Be steadfast then. Frederick, contain your sister.”

“And the other?”

“He’s already dead.”

Matt!

Bonnie’s own mental scream was the last thing she heard before she went under.

June 2014

Whitmore

When Bonnie woke up, it took her a few minutes to remember that she was no longer in Portland, no longer in Jo’s and Alaric’s white-picketed house, no longer in the same vicinity as Kai Parker.

She had no idea how long she had slept but if the light pouring through her thin curtains were any indication, it had been an incredibly long time. The vodka had done its job and she didn’t even feel the slightest bit woozy. For a long moment, she stared blankly at the ceiling.

She was home. She said it aloud and then again, in a happier voice. She was glad to be back.

She had reached out for help but to no avail. In a twisted way, she should be thankful for that. If the Gemini had agreed to help, and swooped in to save the day, she’d carry the burden of being the one to cast the deciding vote that day in the War Room when they had argued about petitioning to Portland for help. She hadn’t just been the one to break the tie – she had also been the one whose ‘objectivity’ had convinced everyone who opposed to agree. Agree that they didn’t need the Gemini coven.

She could admit to herself now that – despite her efforts to ignore it – the insidious thought had been creeping up on her. The thought that she had steered her friends, her comrades-in-arms to speak, wrong not because of an honest mistake but purely because of her –

- past, feud, unresolved feelings for Kai Parker –

own comfort. At least this way, she didn’t have on her conscience the deaths of all the people that had been killed between then and now. The Gemini didn’t help now, and they won’t have helped then.

So yes, she was thankful that this was not one more burden for her to carry.

And if once more the stakes of a looming supernatural war depended solely on her? She was fine with that. Since Sheila Bennett’s passing, there was only one person Bonnie Bennett had ever been able to depend upon and that was Bonnie Bennett. She’d deal with this problem like she’d dealt with countless others in the past. Sooner or later, she was going to fix this, and then the debt she owed this town would be paid once and for all.

She got up with a little hop and stretched like a cat. Then she padded to the bathroom, freshened up, and returned to her room to attack the luggage that she hadn’t bothered unpacking the day before.

It didn’t take too long and when she was done, she picked up the Gemini Grimoires and took them to the reading table by the window. She cracked her knuckles, then cracked open one of the volumes.

Once again, she felt overwhelmed with the wealth of knowledge contained within. The Gemini might have been reticent about recording any information about Heretics, syphons and Prison Worlds, but they had detailed out information about practically every other supernatural phenomena. Bonnie could spend months poring through any one of these books and not nearly be done.

Today however, she looked for information about vampire weaknesses. She remembered what he had told her about how vervain worked against the heretics – by dampening their vampiric aura and their primary source of magic – and she wondered if there was anything else that could have that effect. An elemental by its own nature, not constructed and spelled like one of the Gilbert devices. She already knew that holy water, garlic and crosses were useless. But she wondered if there weren’t any real-life equivalents to these elements of popular fiction.

An hour later, and she was almost drowning in information. The tome she was reading was titled Medeis Bestia –a study of supernatural creatures. Apparently the supernatural demography was a lot more varied than Bonnie had realised. Vampires, werewolves, and recently dragons were the extent of her own knowledge. But now she skimmed through an index that included immortal faeries, banshees, succubae, and so much more. The Gemini seemed to regard these creatures with a spectrum that spanned from mild suspicion to outright hatred.

And vampires, Bonnie realised with disquiet, were very near on the ‘outright hatred’ side of that spectrum.

As much as she realised that her own life became considerably more difficult when vampires entered into it, Bonnie still held onto her objectivity about them – still believed that she was supposed to judge vampires based on their actions, not their natures – just like every other sentient creature in existence.

The Gemini did not.

If this tome was any reflection of their beliefs, vampires were high on the list of Nefandus Bestia[1] – supernaturals that were inherently evil. There were several citations to other journals all detailing stories that ended badly – alliances betrayed, witches compromised and enslaved, covens destroyed – when witches had associated with vampires. The tome itself contained detailed information on how witches could defend themselves from, attack and kill vampires. Studies were done on a lot of vampire phenomena – who’d have guessed that the sire bond was a genetically peculiar variation of vampire compulsion? – and apparently, the joke she had shared with Elena once upon a time about the many uses of the Cure to Vampirism was not a joke at all. According to this Grimoire, the Cure was an ingredient in some of the most powerful and elaborately dangerous spells that could be thought of – creating an infinite source of magic, the basis of a Discerno Coniugo – some form of dangerous separation spell, even a key ingredient in a spell that could cause a magical Armageddon, whatever that meant… But its most important use would always be to disable, and then destroy a vampire.

It was rather fascinating, Bonnie thought, focusing on that almost to distract herself from the rest. But she reasoned that most of the other uses had to be theoretical. There was only one known cure for vampirism in the entire world and it had been a myth until a few years ago. But then again, she realised almost at once, the Gemini could build Prison Worlds that duplicated the real one, right down to magical objects. Perhaps some of these spells had actually been tested?

The possibilities were mind-blowing.

Liv would probably know, Bonnie thought. Not for the first time, Bonnie imagined what it would have been like, being brought up with a proper Disciplina, studying these Grimoires leisurely, over the course of years and under the guidance of seasoned witches, not self-tutoring like she had been forced to do, looking for quick fixes to some immediate emergency.

Of course, if she had been given a proper Gemini Disciplina, Bonnie might never have thought twice about leaving Stefan Salvatore locked up in a tomb.

And Grandma Sheila would still be alive today.

The nebulous voices that started haunting her in 1994 used to fill her head with thoughts like that.

And thoughts like that, Bonnie told herself firmly, will buy me a one-way, all-expenses-paid ticket on the Cuckoo Express Train to Insanity City.

A witch could do a lot of things. But even she couldn’t change the past.

She swallowed hard, then took a deep shuddering breath, and forced herself to think of something else. The first thing that came to mind was Liv Parker. Bonnie hadn’t got any messages from the witch yet, but it was only a matter of time before Liv noticed that Bonnie had ‘borrowed’ her grimoires for a bit longer than they had agreed upon. With a sigh, Bonnie realised she’d better do some pre-emptive damage control and call the other witch. Make sure she wasn’t freaking out too much over the missing spell-books.

She got up from her chair and went to sit on her bed. Her phone was under her pillow.

She had turned off the ringer last night and now she gaped at the list of missed calls and messages from Caroline, Matt and Damon. Bonnie groaned as she realised that she had forgotten all about the morning pow-wow. Damon was going to kill her.

She was in the middle of a quick text in apology to them when a cold aura suddenly filled her room.

“Good morning, Miss Bennett.”

Bonnie jumped to her feet.

Tall, ginger-haired, cherub-faced, dressed in denim from top to toe but still standing with the posture of someone who had lived in an era of charm schools.

Their small gang of misfits had had two skirmishes with the heretics and both times, Bonnie had only caught glimpses of the vamp-faced duo, sensing their empty lightning-fast essences better through magic than with her own eyes. It had been enough to place the man from the wedding – it was hard to forget a face that was attached to a head you had literally cut off. But Bonnie was certain that until now, she had never had a good look at the woman.

Yet there was something oddly, strikingly familiar about the face that now regarded her with clear malice.

“We’ve never been properly introduced. My name is Georgiana Parker and you are in possession of something that I am in desperate want of.”

Instinctively, stupidly, Bonnie threw a motus which the heretic just absorbed with a gleeful laugh and then in blur of red she was on Bonnie, hands clamped around Bonnie’s wrists, and fangs buried in Bonnie’s neck.

[1] Abominable creatures

Chapter 10: can we go now?

Chapter Text

April 2013

The heretics, the witch-vampire creatures that Jo described so graphically, were awake.

Bonnie knew this the moment she stumbled over the thin, pale creature huddled in a heap on the snow, a threadbare blanket thrown over his body. He was so still, so silent, his aura so dimmed. The tracking spell she had conjured with his twin’s blood had led her to him. Otherwise Bonnie would have been sure he was dead.

“Kai… Kai…Kai!”

She struggled to turn him around to work the reviving spell. She barely recognised him. Under crudely hewn scruff, his face was worn and tired and the bulk he had picked up after the 1994 prison world had whittled away.

Then there were the bites. On his neck. His wrists between sleeves and gloves. Even his temple… Who knew where else?

So many bites.

She had found Kai Parker exactly as she had expected, exactly as she had hoped.

Bonnie had wanted to kill this man, to feel the satisfaction of twisting that knife through his chest and watching the life drain out of his eyes. Only then did she believe that she would ever know peace. The peace she had lost trapped in his prison, slowly losing her mind, as she succumbed to the ghosts and the voices that plagued her.

When he had escaped, she felt cheated.

But later when she had been chanting under the Northern Lights, with the other three beside her, she had looked up at the sound of his cry, seen the devastation in his face, and she had been glad that he didn’t die.

It had beenso muchsweeter to abandon Kai Parker to suffer the same isolation he had condemned her to. To trap him in an empty world, with nothing but his own guilt and demons for company.

Before she vanished from 1903, Bonnie had watched Kai’s face break with utter desolation and she had felt happier than she had ever felt in … many, many years.

It hadn’t lasted.

That same night, Bonnie was told about Lily Salvatore’s travelling companions, and she once again felt that her revenge had been thwarted. All she could think of was that a sociopathic witch and a band of evil vampires would go together like butter and jam. Fear creeped into Bonnie’s heart at the thought of Kai escaping. Because he would come after her, she had no doubt about that.And he would be ruthless.

So she had to figure out how to keep him there forever. Already, Lily Salvatore was breathing down Bonnie’s neck, demanding for the release of her family. Bonnie stalled as much as possible but she knew it was only a matter of time before the woman’s polite insistence turned violent.

It was tempting to assume that all she needed to do was to destroy the Ascendant, and the passageway to the Prison World would be sealed away forever. But she had also assumed that the key ingredient to powering the Ascendant was Bennettmagic, not Bennettblood. That hadn’t turned out too well for her. For all Bonnie knew, the Ascendant was the seal to the Prison World and destroying it was the equivalent of detonating its door, letting the inmates free. To do this properly, she would need to consult with the architects of the Prison. She would need to talk to a Gemini witch.

Liv Parker and the rest of her coven had gone into hiding when Luke died, which left Josette Laughlin, formerly Parker, as Bonnie’s only option. Bonnie paid a visit to Dr. Laughlin, informed her that her estranged brother had changed address, and asked her how to make that permanent.

That was how Bonnie learnt four things: first, that Josette had no idea that had brother had been trapped in a Prison World all this while; second, that the life of the leader of the Gemini Coven was tied to the lives of all the witches and wizards of the coven, from the oldest member to the youngest – even the unborn baby in Jo’s womb; third, a new word -heretics.

Lastly, that she, Bonnie, rather than finding a way to lock Kai in the 1903 Prison World, would have to find a way to bring him back.

Bonnie hadn’t wanted to believe it, had refused to take the word of her nemesis’s twin sister at face value. She had done her own homework, digging into Sheila’s old grimoires. Had even ended up sharing her plans with Damon, against her own judgment, if only to get access to the spell-books in the Salvatore library. After hours of research, she had finally found the obscure reference in one of Jonas Martin’s grimoires that confirmed the truth of Jo’s words.

Bonnie’s revenge versus the lives of hundreds of innocent people.

It wasn’t a choice.

He had barely been gone long enough forher to revel inher victory over him. The ghosts had not stopped plaguing her. The voices in her head had not stopped talking.

But just like that, she was robbed of any chance of peace.

At least, she took comfort from the thought of Kai suffering under the hands of merciless heretics. If Jo’s story was true, then vampires with their own magic would not be so easy for the sociopath to make friends or bargain with. Bonnie hoped that he had somehow woken them up. A troop of hungry, desiccated vampires. And Kai the only living thing in sight.

She hoped that they had drained him to within an inch of his life.

Barely five minutes after she landed in that cold world, she found Kai Parker:a crumpled figure on the snow, suffering from acute anemia, exposure and multiple bite wounds. His magical essence was sodepletedthat it barely registered when she prodded it.

Drained within an inch of life.

Bonnie had found Kai exactly as she imagined. Exactly as she had hoped. This was supposed to make her happy. This was supposed to help her find peace.

Thereality made her sick.

June 2014

Whitmore

Everything about the attack was brutal. The teeth tearing through her neck, the growling as her blood gushed into the heretic’s mouth, the pull on her magic that drew it to her skin, pulsing hard in her veins…

… and staying there.

She could feel her heart slowing, her vision fading from blood loss but her magic still stayed within her.

With one fading gasp of energy, Bonnie drew on everything she had and threw a motus.

This time it hit. Too engrossed in her feeding, the heretic was caught off-guard and she went flying across the room. Bonnie held her neck with one hand, gasping and fighting against the coming blackness, and stretched out another hand to throw incendia after incendia at the creature.

She was already on her feet and flying towards Bonnie and each time it hit her, she paused, reeling as if to absorb the spell. It slowed her down, but it didn’t hurt her, and it was probably already making her stronger.

In seconds, she had reached Bonnie and grabbed her by the shoulders, lifting her up and pinning her high on the wall. She had stopped siphoning and this close, Bonnie could see that her eyes were deep blue, there were jewellery shaped like little green birds in her ears, and her face was taut with utter bewilderment.

“By what means is your magic restrained?” she rasped.

Bonnie stared down at her, her head hurting, so weak that she couldn’t even feel the pain from the heretic’s grip. Could barely muster up a watery smile. “Won’t you like to know?” she whispered.

With a snarl, the heretic pulled her forward and smashed her back into the wall. Bonnie’s vision exploded with red stars.

“I demand your Expression. Yield it to me or face your demise.”

Bonnie’s head was almost lolling on her neck now, and the heretic’s face was dimming into a pale blur surrounded by a red cloud.

“Y- you won’t find it if I’m d-dead,” she managed.

“You have no leverage to make demands of me.”

“Not a demand. F-fact.”

Its grip on her tightened so hard that Bonnie was certain that it really was going to make good on its threat and tear her apart.

Instead, it flung her to the bed, and the next thing Bonnie felt was magic being forced into her body.

A healing spell. Done by someone with obviously little experience performing one. Without the finesse of a practiced caster, it burnt through her body, hurting even worse than the biting had done. Bonnie moaned as her neck knitted closed and blood was forced out of her bones, leaving her weak and shaky.

“Enough.” Bonnie gasped.

It was nothing like being healed by vampire blood. Her body ached all over, her heart racing, her lungs working overtime to compensate for the rapid healing that had taken as much a toll on her as the attack.

The heretic loomed over her, her oddly familiar face dark with determination. “You are sufficiently revived. Yield the Expression at once.”

“So that you can kill me when I’m done?” Bonnie muttered. “I think I’ll pass.”

Fingers curled into her hair, yanking her head forward and making her yelp. “If it is required, I will dismember you and burrow through your remains until I possess it. I have knowledge of the means to prolong your life until you are begging for the mercy of its end.”

“If you torture me, you’ll just piss me off and I definitely won’t help you,” Bonnie gasped.

The heretic’s grip in her hair loosened a bit. “You are the insolent witch that gypped the one dearest to me. It will immensely gratify me to destroy you.”

Bonnie smiled slowly, her eyes catching the tiny blur of movement in the far corner of the room. “The feeling is mutual.”

Then her fist smashed into the heretic’s face. Or tried to. The woman let go off her hair to catch her hand, and that split-second of distraction was enough for the heretic to be caught off-guard when a stream of wooden bullets went pumping through her body.

She screamed, the force of the shots flinging her into the wall. Bonnie yanked her hand away, and rolled off the bed, landing painfully on the floor. She tried to crawl out of the way, but before she could shift further than an inch, a blur of blonde hair and flowers was at her side, swooping her up into strong arms.

Caroline.

“I am not done with you!” Georgiana’s voice roared, shooting out a de-mobilizing spell on both of them. But Bonnie had anticipated it, and threw it right back at her. It wasn’t enough to stop her but it sent her reeling.

And made her infuriated. She snarled, fangs cutting through her lips. “I care nothing for what was promised, you will suffer for that.” Her hands rose up and pain exploded in Bonnie’s head. She felt Caroline stagger, as well. Both girls fell to the floor.

Then Tyler came flying across the room with a stake in his grip and halted in the middle of it – his hands on his head, shouting in pain as Bonnie felt her own pain leave her, the heretic switching her focus away from them.

Two shots were fired and now, Matt was stepping forward, the gun in a two-handed grip as he shouted Bonnie’s name. Georgiana merely rose a lazy hand, sent them flying back – he dodged the first, and the second one hit his stomach, the impact throwing him against the wall.

“You missed, young man.”

“No, he didn’t,” Damon quipped from behind her.

She turned in time to receive the full blast of the blowtorch in his hands. She lit up like a firecracker, flaming from her shoes to the top of her fiery head. Then Stefan and Tyler were running forward, batons swinging, Bonnie was stretching out her hands and with magic and brute force, they shoved her at the window. It shattered under her weight, and she flew through, screaming all the way down until her voice went abruptly silent.

April 2013

About fifteen minutes after she found Kai Parker’s body in the snow, Bonnie finally felt she had moved them to a place safe enough to stop. Even with magic, dragging along the dead weight of a six feet plus man through the snow was no joke. Keeping them camouflaged had also taken its toll. But she didn’t know what to expect when she revived him and if he was going to attack her on instinct, she needed them to be in a place where they were less likely to both get caught; and she could, hopefully, talk him down from his rage.

She stretched out her senses now, enveloping everywhere within a mile. If anything stepped into that radius, she would know.

She stared down at the unconscious man in the snow, scowling. It would be so much easier if she could do this without having to wake him up. Heaving a huge sigh, she knelt down beside him, and placed her hands over his back.

He was still wearing the same clothes he had arrived in. She made out the rips in his jeans and coat where her knife had gone through.

Swallowing hard, she closed her eyes and chanted softly. The revival spell she used was the strongest one she knew, and she augmented it with Expression to be sure. It should send Kai to his feet with enough energy to burn through for hours. Enough for both of them to get to the designated spot, do the Ascension spell and kiss this prison world goodbye.

She felt the magic working, and stopped, taking her hands back. She placed her left hand flat on the snow, but kept a hex hovering at the tips of her gloved fingers; her right hand brushed against the hilt of the knife under her jacket. Any moment now, Kai was going to jump up like a jack in the box, take one look at her, and attack. She’d have to immobilise him, then explain her presence and give him the choice to either come along without violence or …

Well, she would think of something.

She heard him stir, and grew even tenser. But he just slowly rolled to his back, his breathing changing as he shivered. His lids finally opened, and a pair of grey eyes stared at her.

For a few moments, they just looked at each other. Kai’s face remained blank, and his shattered aura barely stirred.

“Kai…” Bonnie asked finally, tentatively, half-worried, half-wary as she touched his chest gently. Worried because she feared he had been so badly sapped of blood and magic that even her spell, which was the magical equivalent of an adrenaline shot, hadn’t been enough.

Wary because every single time that Bonnie Bennett and Kai Parker got physically close to each other, it always ended with one of them getting stabbed.

It was like a demented game of tag. And – what were the odds? – Bonnie was It.

After a few more moments of staring blankly at her, his face – thin, under weeks of unkempt facial hair – stretched into a smile she could only describe as idiotic.

“You’re wearing far too many clothes, Bon.”

Her jaw dropped.

But Kai helpfully elaborated, his voice hoarse but still managing to retain its annoyingly familiar singsong lilt. “I didn’t just hit rock bottom. I kept going. I’m at the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean. No, further than that. I am practically in the Earth’s core. I’m swimming in prehistoric magma right now. If magma was ice-cold, instead of hot.”

“Kai…”

“The least the universe can do is deliver fantasies to my exact specifications, don’t you think? Now the Bonnie I asked for was wearing a red bik-.”

“I’m not some wet dream, you jerk,” she shouted, horrified, yanking her hand back. He had been pushing ever so slightly against it. “Get up!” And for emphasis, she struck him with her open palm and a bolt of magic.

“Ow! Can everybody stop assuming I’m into kinky stuff? What the hell kind of fantasy is this?”

“Will you stop calling me that?”

He shook his head, rubbed his eyes with one hand, and glared at her. Then suddenly, he sat up with a yelp, his eyes bugging. “Bonnie?” he yelled. “Are you really here?”

“Yes, you prick. I’m here to rescue you,” she snapped.

He blinked. Looked behind her. Looked over his shoulder. Looked up. Looked everywhere but at her. “No, you’re not. You can’t be,” he said slowly. “They’re playing with my head. They’ve done that before.” He kept not looking at her, and she suddenly realized that he was talking – or trying to talk – to someone close by. “Whose idea was this? Iceman? Cherokee? Ginger-dee or Ginger-dum?”

“Kai…”

“Can’t a man get a little privacy here? I’m not going to last long if you can’t even let me escape into my own head…”

Bonnie slapped him, her gloved palm leaving a red print across his face.

He looked at her then, shock washing over his face. He raised his hand to touch his cheek. “That didn’t feel like a vamp-dream,” he said stupidly. “Why would they put a dream in my head of Bonnie Bennett slapping me? On second thoughts, don’t answer that...”

“Get up, Kai!” she yelled. “We don’t have all day. The Northern Lights are about to start and unless you want your new besties to tag along…”

He was breathing hard now and still staring hard at her, as if he dared not look away or she would disappear. She could see disbelief warring with hope on his face.

The hope was desperate, and painful to look at and she hated herself for feeling even one iota of pity for him. So she forced it down as she got to her feet. “Come on, Kai. Unless you’re enjoying yourself here…?”

Kai swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I swear if this is another twisted mind game, I don’t care what it takes, but I will find out who came up with this f*cked up idea and I will rip out their heart.” And his voice was cold and cruel – and she was grateful to hear it because that was the voice of the man she hated beyond measure.

“Good to know.” She leaned over and stretched out her hand. He hesitated for a fraction, then he took it. A frisson of something – magic, probably – passed from his hand to hers, even through the gloves and his eyes locked into her own, making her breath stutter. It took everything in her not to yank away. Instead, she broke that locked gaze and held on firmly. His weight almost dragged her down, and since she wasn’t moving her hand from her knife, she had to work one-handed. But somehow she got them both upright. She let go off his hand the moment he was standing, shaking out the tingles that were climbing from her palm to her elbow.

They stood, staring at each other. Bonnie felt apprehension rising in her gut as she saw the light of realisation, then acceptance dawning in his eyes.

She took a deep breath, and spoke with as much venom as she could muster. “This is only going to work if we work together. My friends are waiting on the other side and if you dare try to kill me or trap me here, I promise you Gemini coven or no coven…”

“Now I know this isn’t a dream,” he said, his equally cold voice cutting through her speech as he stepped towards her. “Forgive me, Bonster. I know you have this big threatening speech all rehearsed for me but I’m going to take a rain-check because we need to start running now.”

She glared up at him. “We need to find the Ascendant first, Kai.”

His eyes glinted. “I already have it, Bonnie.”

That gave her pause, then her suspicions came back. “Let me see it.”

He laughed, tut-tutted. “So you can stab me with a pick-axe and take off?” He was near enough to glare down menacingly at her.

Her hand tightened on her knife. “I came back for you, you jerk.”

His glanced at her hand, and scoffed. “OK, this probably sounds ridiculous, but where you’re concerned, Bonnie, I have trust issues. Crazy, right?”

“Damn it, K-”

“Can we at least move this discussion to somewhere a bit safer?”

“I can sense anything from a mile away. Nothing’s going to surprise me. Show me the Ascendant or I swear, Kai…”

“Fine. Let’s do a locator spell.” He was tugging at his glove. “Since you’re so eager to feel up my chest a-”

And then she felt it step through her perimeter – it was cold and empty and made her think of black holes and vacuums. Made her think of Kai in his prison world every-time he unleashed his power at her. Only this was ten times worse.

And it was moving fast.

Bonnie’s eyes locked with Kai’s, and she saw the stark panic – fear even – in his face.

“Bonnie!”

She felt the air shift as the creature flew toward them – felt its breath almost on her neck.

And she went flying into the cold ground and only barely registered Kai’s hands shoving her out of the way. She landed with an oomph, face down and eating snow. She turned quickly to see the two figures struggling in front of her. The heretic had landed on Kai instead; she could barely make out the creature’s face or if it was even male or female, just silver-blond hair flying as it clung to Kai who was desperately trying to shake it off. Kai’s magic set its coat aflame and it still clung, its teeth digging into his neck.

It yanked itself back with a scream as Bonnie’s aneurysm struck it. It staggered away from Kai, and turned silver eyes to her where she stood with both hands outstretched.

Gold lights were swirling in them.

“Bonnie…! Stop…!” Kai was shouting.

She sent another aneurysm at it and now it laughed, the gold in its eyes glowing brighter. It was a man, tall and large, with sharp high cheekbones. He was beautiful, the way a black hole was beautiful. And he was coming towards her, glee stark on his face.

His hands clamped on her cheeks, rings burning on her cold face, and she felt the rush of magic violently pulled out of her body like a hook in her stomach violently tugging out her guts. Either she had forgotten how it felt when Kai siphoned her. Or this was a hundred times worse. Pain exploded in her head and she fell to her knees, screaming; the creature was falling with her, his hands tight on her face, gold swirling so rapidly in its eyes that it made her dizzy to look. His face was ecstatic.

“Bonnie!”

Her fear reached a crescendo and Expression exploded out of her like a supernova, the volatile power rising with her fear to protect her. The heretic’s face was no longer joyful but suffused with something like fear; its eyes now glowing so brightly that she couldn’t stare at them anymore. She felt his hands tugging from her – like if he was trying to let go but couldn’t. His mouth opened wide in a silent shout.

Her head was still pounding, tears streaming down her face as magic gushed out of her body like her life’s blood. Only infinitely worse.

Then the contact was broken. And she staggered, gasping, to see Kai behind the creature, throwing it into the snow.

It rolled and stopped, in a sitting position. Its mouth was still open, and the horror on its face had only increased with the horror that was now its face. The bright streaks of gold had ripped through eyeballs, and skin. Its veins were lit with gold, and they were bursting in front of Bonnie’s eyes, leaking out magic like water from a puncture skein.

It finally screamed, but it wasn’t words but magic that poured out of its mouth, almost blinding her. She wanted to look away, but she couldn’t. Absentmindedly, she felt Kai near her, and she turned instinctively to hold on to him.

Finally, it imploded, its body collapsing into itself, leaving only a bright mushroom, golden and black, that hovered over it for a moment, then zoomed upwards into the atmosphere.

Bonnie watched it go, heart pounding. Then she turned to look at Kai Parker’s shocked face.

He was so close, that she could see her breath mist over his skin, feel the warmth of his on her face. Both of them were gasping, from cold and shock. He was staring at her with wonder in his grey eyes.

“How did you…” He started, then laughed, looked away, stared back at her. Laughed again. Stared harder. “Bon…”

She could barely make out the words. “Can we go now, Kai?”

He laughed again. She wondered if he was losing it. She felt like if she was. “Thought you’d never ask.”

June 2014

Whitmore

“Bonnie,” Matt was groaning from where he laid shivering and bleeding on the ground. “Are you OK?”

Caroline put Bonnie down on the floor, placed one hand on her cheek and put the bleeding wrist of the other hand to Bonnie’s lips.

Bonnie moaned gratefully as she gulped down the vampire blood, then she pushed her friend’s hand away. “I’m fine… Matt… He got shot…”

Faster than Bonnie could blink, Caroline was by his side. When she held her wrist against his mouth, he grimaced – Bonnie knew Matt’s reservations about vampire healing – but he was sensible this time, and swallowed.

Both humans healed, Care rested on her haunches and stared at them worriedly. “Will you guys be OK? I should go after Stefan and the others.”

The vampire brothers and Tyler had rushed out of the room, ignoring the calls to come back.

“Stupid. That’s how we lost Enzo,” Matt mumbled as he pulled himself into a seating position.

“Go, Care,” Bonnie said. “Those idiots will only-”

“Save your life with minimal damage to your cute little place and this is how you thank us?” Damon drawled, swinging the door open almost into Caroline’s face if she hadn’t edged away in the nick of time. He sauntered into the house, ahead of Tyler and Stefan, who Caroline rushed to in concern.

In response to Damon’s remark, Bonnie stared pointedly at the blood-stains on the carpet, then in the direction of her room where there were scorch marks and a broken window. At least.

He shrugged. “Told you not to skimp on insurance.”

April 2013

“Come on.”

Bonnie was running as fast as she could through a snowy forest in 1903 Mystic Falls, feeling Expression racing through her blood, lighting her bones like fire. The snow was falling fast now and she could barely make Kai out ahead of her, but she could feel his essence, pulsing brightly and streaked with hers – residue of the healing spell she had used to revive him what now felt like a lifetime ago.

Behind them, she could feel the aura of the heretic ebb as it stirred. She had sensed it a few minutes ago from the distance. But now it was gaining ground on them.

She could have used magic to give herself a boost of speed but that demonstration from that… creature… had made her wary, paranoid almost. She dared not release even a single spike of power that could be used against her. She glared balefully at Kai’s back in front of her.

God, how she hated these syphons. Witches, vampires, the lot of them.

Perhaps it was the sheer fury of her thoughts that made her miss the raised root, and go sprawling into the snow.

“Bonnie!”

Pushing past her disorientation, she scrambled to her hands and feet, and tried to stand up. Then she felt a bolt of power and something large and fiery grabbed her, and shoved her back into the snow.

Hair and skin almost the color of ice and teeth that were just as sharp.

It was the same one.

And with a nauseating jolt, Bonnie remembered that death to a Prisoner of this World was meaningless.

“Pretty little witch,” and now its voice was in her head, whispering like a snake’s forked tongue, “You caught me unawares. My apologies. Now I am primed to indulge in that intoxicating magic you possess so abundantly.”

She shoved with her hands and a Motus that ripped out of her instinctively but it only slid back a few feet, its ice eyes swirling with gold strands of her own power, a macabre smile on its face, then it bent its head and tore through her side.

Bonnie screamed. Her head slammed into the snow and she saw the stars blinking over her, her body on fire as her blood and her magic – brutal, merciless Expression – were sucked out of her wound.

Once again, she felt that wicked tug of power from her body. But this time with the blood, it was worse. How was that even possible?

Then the stars were blocked with something large and black and she felt the teeth ripping out of her flesh. Which made her scream some more.

She scrambled away, her hand already on her side as she chanted something to douse the throbbing. It was barely enough. Beside her, there were sounds of a scuffle, but she was disoriented from the pain and shock of losing both her blood and her magic.

Still, she forced herself to focus, to make out the two figures grappling in the stone. Kai was astride the heretic, his arm swinging repeatedly as he jabbed into the creature with a familiar, wicked-looking blade. But even as she watched, the heretic’s hand shot up, grabbing him by the throat, and the flesh turned red where they touched.

“Ossux!” Bonnie screamed in her head, stretching out her hand and the wrist choking Kai snapped. The heretic hissed as Kai scrambled away.

Her secondOssuxflew – right into the heretic’s outstretched hand.

It grinned at her, eyes swirling.“You’ll have my attention in a moment,”it snarled as it splayed its fingers. Bonnie felt theMotuspull her off the ground like a noose around her neck. A tightening noose… The white world turned grey…

Then she was free, falling in a rough, but gentle heap to her feet. She stumbled, but refused to fall, blinking away the dark edges of her vision until she had found Kai’s dark hair and his thin strong hands, burning red where they gripped the other’s face, his thumbs hooked through the sockets, tugging at them. She scooped up a fist of snow in the ground, packed it into a ball, whispered under her breath then lobbed it at the fighting men.

She barely had the strength for a good throw but magic did the rest, sending the ball flying, then flaming and striking the heretic directly at its ear and through. For a moment, the creature was frozen, its hands locked on Kai’s neck, choking him. Then Kai stepped back, pushing him away and the man fell sideways.

There was emptiness in the spaces where his eyes belonged. A few feet away, the ball of scorched blackness rolled to a stop, next to a mess of goo and eyes.

Kai limped to stand in front of her, bending over with his hands on his knees. “Good throw,” he said hoarsely, then broke into a bout of coughing. “An inch off-aim and I’d be the one with snowballs. Get it?” His thin, unshaven face was streaked with mirth. He actually looked like if he was enjoying himself.

Of course, anything was an improvement from being eaten by a bunch of witch-vampires.

“That was the same one that attacked us before, wasn’t it?” she asked him.

His cough sounded like a laugh. “PWR’s a bitch, ain’t it?”

“PWR?”

“Prison World Resuscitation. To make it worse, these suckers don’t die easy.” That was definitely a chuckle. “Suckers? Get it?”

She clenched her fists, felt Expression tingle against her knuckles. “I killed him the first time.”

He scoffed. “You got lucky, caught him off-guard. You saw what happened now. He’ll suck you up like a Slurpee. Better save those Bennett batteries to get us out of here.”

Bonnie thought for a moment. “In 1994, the times you died-”

“-the times you murdered me-”

“-it took you at least half a day to wake up. This guy was up and running in …what? A few minutes? Half an hour? How is that possible?”

“I’ve been a bit busy staying alive to take notes on ‘heretics in their unnatural habitat’ but if you want to stick around and observe” - he waved his hand expansively at the winter landscape - “by all means, be my guest.”

She glared at him, furious that she couldn’t argue the point. “Whatever. Let’s just go.” She got to her feet wearily.

“Gimme a moment. Took a little magic to fight that bastard. And I think your spell is wearing off.”

That was inevitable. She had lost more magic in two short moments than she ever had before.

But they couldn’t wait. Not for one moment. “We have to keep going. The others…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. No worries. You’ll keep me safe.” He winked at her.

Anger and hate rushed through her. He was enjoying this. Her rescuing him. Her saving him. Her risking her life for his sake.

She walked up to him, right into his space and saw with satisfaction the way the mirth slid from his eyes, wariness filling its place. “We’ve put one down but the others will soon be at our heels.” Her voice thickened with spite. “I think it’s getting close to their meal-time. Wanna stick around when they get hungry and start looking for their snack?”

His face twisted with anger – his mood change as abrupt as it was familiar and she braced herself for it – the attack that she’d been expecting from the moment he opened his eyes after her spell had revived him.

Perhaps he had been too grateful at being rescued to care that it was Bonnie doing it. Or perhaps he was waiting until the rescue was over to turn on her.

But now looking up at his furious face, she knew he wasn’t waiting any longer.

She actually felt relieved. Let’s get this over with. Her hand rushed to her belt where her knife…

Her knife was gone.

Immediately, her eyes flew to the spot in the snow where she had seen him stab the heretic.

When did he take it? The first attack? The chase? How did I miss it?

She called it to her hand… too late. She watched in dismay as it landed in Kai’s own magical grip.

He waved it nonchalantly in front of his face, his eyes glinting the same steel-blue as the blade. “Well, isn’t this familiar?”

‘All I need is Bennett blood…’

Standing by that tree stump, watching the light catch his sister’s knife – this same knife – as he tossed it and smiled craftily.

Fear splintered through Bonnie and she shot to her feet, pushing out amotusstrong enough to send him crashing into a tree.

Or meant to. His free hand caught both hers, and she felt the spell fizzle out. He was yelling something but she was still on attack, readying to push out an aneurysm with her mind… sensing his own magic rise defensively…

When she saw he was holding the knife at her, hilt-first.

She paused, halted magic crackling in the air between them, as she stared from the knife to the man who was all but cursing her with his eyes.

“Take the stupid knife, Bonnie!” He shoved it at her, and it poked her jacket.

She hesitated – what’s the catch? – and he co*cked his head, his mouth curling mockingly. “Unless you still want to play tag…”

The echo of her own thoughts not long ago rattled her; and Bonnie snatched her hands free, grabbed the knife, pushed it into its sheath in her belt. Trap or not, she’ll figure it out while she had the advantage.

“I swear Kai, if you try anything, anything at all…”

“You’ll… what? Stab me in the back? Serve me up to heretics?”

Her hands curled into fists. For a moment, she and Kai just glared at each other, breathing so hard and angrily that steam clouded between their faces.

He was the one that broke theimpasse. “We don’t have time for this,” he snarled. Without another word, he picked her up, hissing as her hexed hands burned his coat, and flung her over his shoulder and started running. “You’re slowing us down!”

Part of Bonnie’s brain told her that this actually made sense – with her shorter legs, she was slowing him down and revived as he was, he had a boost of energy that they should put to good use. The other part of her, felt sick from hanging upside down, staring down at endless white, and being in close physical contact with Kai Parker – and that part kept screaming at him to put her down that instant.

He didn’t though and in a few minutes, she stopped screaming for him to drop her and started screaming that he run faster. Because she felt them coming nearer.

They were more. And, curse her ill-timed joke, she was right.

They were hungry.

June 2014

Whitmore

“I said it,” Damon was telling Stefan. “I knew Little Miss Organized here wouldn’t have skipped on the pow-wow unless she was in mortal danger. And there you all were thinking she had overslept.”

Bonnie nodded eagerly. This was not the time to tell them that actually, she had overslept. The heretic attack had come later.

“Did you find her?” Caroline asked. Although since the three men had returned without the crisped body of a red-headed heretic, Bonnie guessed the answer was no.

Tyler said, “She was gone by the time we got there. Must have regenerated and zapped off.”

Matt shook his head. “Or just cloaked herself and lurked nearby, waiting for some sucker to walk into her trap and get eaten. It was stupid of you to chase after her. We stick together against these things.”

“Save the lecture, Boy Scout,” Damon snapped. “She attacked Bonnie. I wanted her blood.”

Bonnie felt warmth suffuse through her.

“More like she’d have got some of ours. Matt’s right,” Stefan murmured.

“I care about Bonnie, too,” Matt said quickly. “But we have to be practical.”

Caroline’s blood had kicked in and Bonnie felt stronger, recovered from both the heretic’s violent attack and her equally violent healing. She started pulling herself from the floor to sit down on the lone armchair, and Matt rushed to help her. He had changed into a shirt that Caroline found – a shirt that looked suspiciously like Stefan’s – an observation that Damon had made loudly and to everyone’s amusem*nt. Everyone, that is, except Stefan and Caroline.

“You know I’d have gone after that heretic if it had been the right call,” Matt told Bonnie now, staring at her earnestly, as he perched on the armchair after settling her in. His arm was warm and comforting over the back of the chair.

She shoved him lightly. “Of course, I do, Matt.” She peered at him in concern, and murmured, “You OK?”

“Good as new,” he said wryly. “You?”

Out of habit, she checked her neck and felt the skin whole under the blood. Spotting that, Caroline passed her a wipe for her fingers and started dabbing at her neck with another one.

“What did she want, Bonnie?” she asked now.

Bonnie quickly narrated the conversation with the heretic.

Tyler whistled. “What the hell does she want with Expression?”

“I have no idea,” Bonnie said.

“They’re already super-powered, un-killable killing machines. What harm could they come up with a little more super-magic?” Damon drawled.

“We have to keep you safe, Bonnie,” Caroline said. She squeezed into the seat with Bonnie, and put her arm around her, displacing Matt who landed with a thump on the floor. Both girls ignored the glare he sent up at them – or the way Tyler snickered. “They tried this once and they’ll probably try it again.”

“Why’s that, I wonder?” Stefan asked.

Everyone turned to him.

“Why couldn’t she drain out your magic? They’ve managed to do that for every other witch, vampire or supernatural so far. What’s the difference with you, Bonnie?”

Tyler’s smile turned to a scowl. Caroline inhaled sharply and glared at Stefan. Damon looked like if he was going to beat his brother up right there and then.

Matt’s eyes on Stefan were hard and his voice was icy. “If I didn’t know better, Stefan, I’d swear you’re disappointed the heretic didn’t kill Bonnie.”

Stefan shrugged. “I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on here.”

“What’s going on here is that Bonnie is lucky to be alive,” Caroline snapped. “And you need to shut up if you can’t say anything helpful.”

Everyone started talking at once. Stefan was defending himself in calm, measured tones that were only making Damon, Caroline and Matt increasingly louder and angrier. Tyler started by playing peacemaker, and trying to get them back to neutral ground and talk strategy. Then after a while, he gave up and went to fetch a beer from the fridge.

That seemed to do the trick because the next moment, Matt, Damon and Stefan had helped themselves to cans too – which made Damon bitch about the girls not stocking up on bourbon – which set Caroline off on him as well.

Bonnie registered all this with half her attention. The other half was replaying Georgiana Parker’s teeth tearing through her neck and her magic rushing to her skin and staying there.

Stefan’s question, hurtful as it was poised, was a valid one.

Furtively, Bonnie stared at the black mark on her wrist.

Portland, Oregon

“Does the name Stewart ring a bell?”

It was mid-day. Alaric was at school, calling as he usually did to ask how all his girls were doing.

Jo assured him that they were all doing great. It was a full house that day with Gab and Liv both in. The conversation was drawing to a close, and Jo was in the middle of deciding how much was not too much ice cream to scoop into her bowl, when the unexpected question popped up, making her freeze mid-scoop. “Nope. Should it?”

“I don’t know. It’s the name of the woman that died in this Mystic Falls/ Heretics business. When Bonnie mentioned it, it rang a bell.”

Jo shifted the phone on her shoulder and thought of a good reply. “Mmm… Now that I think of it, it does sound a little familiar. Want me to take a look into it?”

“You don’t mind?”

“I’m a desperate housewife. It’s in the job description to be nosy.”

“You’re not a desperate housewife. You’re a wonderful mother who spends an incredible number of hours taking care of our children. And before that, you were an amazing doctor who spent an incredible number of decades taking care of lots of other people’s children. There’s nothing desperate about you, Jo Saltzman.”

Before she had met Alaric Saltzman, Jo had thought of herself as quite an unsentimental woman. But now? “Someone is going to get lucky tonight,” she promised.

He was still whooping when she ended the call.

She grinned as, finally deciding, she ditched the bowl and grabbed the entire tub. She passed the nursery where Gab was carrying one of the twins over her shoulder. Gab caught her eye and pressed a finger to her mouth and Jo nodded, moving on. She had persuaded the nanny to spend the night so she really was going to deliver on her promise to Alaric.

Her mind went back to her husband's question and her grin faded.

She moved along the corridor, almost walking by Liv’s open door, but then she caught the tail end of a harsh whisper.

“Stop trying to screw me over!”

Jo hesitated, worried.

Liv was pacing the room in angry strides, her curly hair all but sparking with temper. She turned, starting a little when she saw Jo, then beckoned her sister over.

Jo stepped in, hesitantly.

Work.Liv whispered around the phone.Just hold a sec.Then she turned back to her call. “We had a contract. Clear terms and conditions. If you don’t live up to your part of the bargain, I’m going to walk and you’ll find out just how easy it is to get someone of my skillset.”

She switched off her phone and let out a strangled scream.

Jo gaped. “Woah, what’s that all about?”

Liv looked angry enough to explode. “Office bullsh*t.” She ran her fingers through her curls, making them even wilder and messier than they already were. “My idiot co-workers think they can pull a fast one on me.” She breathed hard, her eyes flashing.

Jo tut-tutted. She knew all too well from her own professional career how often freelance workers, like Liv, drew the short straw when it came to office politics. Your more ruthless colleagues saw you as an easy mark. Her stoic younger sister was not one to bring work drama home so for her to be so upset now, she was clearly having a hard time.

Jo may have missed out almost two decades of Liv’s life, and a few months of cohabiting wasn’t going to undo that. But there were certain things that hadn’t changed.

For example, whenever Livvie-poo had a tantrum, there was usually one quick fix.

She held out the bowl.

“Ice cream?” Jo offered.

Moments later, and the Parker women were sitting on the floor of Liv’s bedroom, tucking into the whole bowl. Liv was a bit hesitant at first – something about calories – until Jo promised to teach her a spell for that. “Not exactly orthodox,” she warned. “And it helped that I had a Bennett BFF to spell it with. But maybe if you asked Bonnie, she could help you with that, too.”

So Liv tucked in, and two spoons later, she was visibly calmer.

She looked over at Jo now, with raised eyebrows. “You knew Abby Bennett, didn’t you?”

“She lived in Portland for some time. We went to grade school together. She was half the reason why I went to Virginia. The other half was her mother.”

“Wasn’t that a bit counterintuitive? I thought the whole idea of you running away was to get away from magic?” Liv asked, her voice suddenly sharp. She stared at her spoon intently.

Jo glanced at her sister, wondering how long that question had festered inside Liv. They had talked about family a lot, over this past year. Liv mostly asked about her mother whom she barely remembered. But this was the first time she had ever brought up Jo’s decision to leave.

Jo chose her words carefully. “When I left the coven, I didn’t want to be around anything that would draw me back to magic. Not even family.” She gave her sister an intent look but Liv’s face was steadfastly blank. “But if not for the Bennetts, I wouldn’t have lasted three months in the real world before I went crawling back. I needed them.”I didn’t choose them over you,she added silently, hoping that the words she did say out loud had managed to convey that.

The silence that followed was loud with everything that went unsaid.

Liv broke it. “So did you ever meet Bonnie as a kid?” The question was asked matter-of-factly, her face relaxed. Whatever she thought of Jo’s answer, it hadn’t bothered her too much.

Jo chuckled. “I used to babysit her until she was three or so.” After that, Abby had left her family and Rudy Hopkins had closed ranks on all things witchcraft.

But magic had not been the problem with that marriage, Jo thought sadly.

She reached for the tub and caught a strange – slightly nauseated – expression on Liv’s face.

“What?” Jo asked, surprised.

“Nothing. Just… Thinking of something funny.”

“Funny ha ha or funny weird?”

“You know what? I’m not so sure.”

Jo shrugged. She wasn’t one to pry. “So what did the guys at the firm do to make you so pissed, anyway?”

Liv’s face clouded, getting mad all over again and making Jo sorry that she asked.

Liv swallowed her spoonful of cream, her jaw working furiously. When she finally answered, her voice shook slightly. “Tried to take out some of the work from my scope. After clearly telling me I was responsible for everything. Then they were going to short change me, too.”

Jo scowled. “Is that even legal?”

“Technically it is. Ethically, it stinks and they know it.” Her face darkened further. “I have half a mind to hex all of them until next Friday.” She bit her lip then, and gave Jo a guilty glance. “I’m not going to, I promise.”

Jo rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to snitch to Dad. Heck, if I had magic, I’d probably help you. No one screws with my little sister and gets away with it.”

That made Liv smile, some of the anger fleeing from her face. “I was more worried about the great coven leader, actually.”

“I’m not going to tell him either. Especially as I have no idea where he is.”

Liv laughed. “Yeah, right.”

Where did that come from? “Liv?”

Liv gave her a pointed look. “Dad’s been calling me too. I tried calling Kai for what it’s worth, but his phone’s been switched off all day. Why don’t you just tell Dad that Kai’s gone to Virginia?”

“Has he? Do you know that for a fact?”

“Come off it, Jo.”

“Seriously, Liv. I have no idea where Kai is. Like I told Dad, maybe he’s in Brooklyn? Or in NOLA, negotiating with the Nine Covens? Which, by the way, is kind of important. If they’re really being wooed by the Augustine Society, they’re borderline violating our treaties.”

“You know, that’s never made any sense to me. The Augustine Society died with the last Whitmore heir.”

“Rumour has it that it’s been revived.”

Liv shook her head, disbelieving. “I don’t doubt that some mundane secret society is chatting up the Nine. I just doubt that it’s Augustine.”

“Well, you should know better than me.” Jo shrugged. “If Kai’s not in NOLA for the Nine, then he might be there to consult the Southern Court about the dragon pretenders.”

Liv choked on her spoon. “Honestly, Jo? You mean, you’re going to sit here and pretend that you don’t know anything about whatever’s happening between your twin and Bonnie Bennett?”

Jo grinned. “Now, I didn’t say that.”

Liv eyed her sister. “Well,Ionly found out when he showed up here the day after she arrived and they nearly set the smoke detectors off just talking. And suddenly a lot of stuff started making sense. Exactly how long has this been going on?”

“We really shouldn’t be talking about the Praetor in such a disrespectful way,” Jo said primly and Liv groaned, “but we’re all family here and it’s important we share these things!”

So naturally, she spilled everything she knew. Her first inkling had been her own bachelorette party turned nightmare when Lily Salvatore had almost killed Bonnie, and Jo had witnessed first-hand her brother’s reaction to the possibility of losing Bonnie. Not pretty. After that, it was merely a matter of her having eyes and using them. Months later, when Alaric repeated what the conversation he had with her brother during Jo’s false labor, it had been a mere confirmation of her own conclusions.

“Wow,” Liv said at the end. She looked slightly dazed, her round eyes impossibly rounder. She shook her head. “You know that technically, Kai’s old enough to be Bonnie’s dad?”

Jo choked. “Oh my god, Liv!”

“But it’s true. Abby was your age.”

“Stop skeeving me out. He was in limbo for most of her life. It doesn’t count. Besides her friends are dating vampires that could be their ancestors. Kai’s practically a teen in contrast.”

Liv still looked skeptical, and slightly nauseated; and Jo realized the reason for the ‘funny’ thought that had passed through her sister’s head a while ago. But thankfully, Liv dropped that particular line of questioning and asked instead, “So I’m guessing you think they have a chance?”

“As much a chance as the rest of us. Two years ago, I thought I was going to be some old cat lady and now I’m married to a wonderful man, with two beautiful girls. Bonnie’s friends hooked up with the Salvatore vampires, so there’s a precedent there.”

“And the moment the doppelganger turned human again, she gaveherold man the boot so there’s precedent there as well,” Liv snarked.

Jo rolled her eyes.

“How’s Gilbert, anyway?” Liv asked, her eyes glinting. “Are you guys still in touch?”

“She liked all the twins’ new pictures on Facebook,” Jo said with a smile. “But other than a few mails last Fall, we haven’t reallyreallyconnected. She’s busy. She chose a crazy career for herself. Amazing, rewarding but demanding as hell.” Pride fluttered in Jo’s heart. She had bonded with Elena Gilbert long before she knew who the girl was, magically – and she had recognized a lot of herself in the younger woman. It gave Jo immense gratification that – also like her own self – Elena had risen above the tragedy and craziness that had plagued her early life and chosen to make a difference in the world.

She threw a guilty glance at her younger sister, suddenly sensitive to how Liv might feel about Jo’s big-sisterly affection for yet another woman close to her own age.

But Liv merely looked speculative, not at all like if she was jealous or upset or trying to pretend she wasn’t either.

“Well, Caroline is still with Stefan Salvatore,” Jo said, changing the topic back. “That precedent still stands for Bonnie and Kai.” Her thoughts became speculative. “And if our Praetor can snag a Bennett, after centuries of our coven courting them that would pretty much seal our covenandour family’s ranks in the pecking order for centuries.”

Liv’s spoon was half-way to her mouth when Jo said that; and she stopped to give her sister a look of disgust. “Yeah, that’s music to a girl’s ears. ‘Baby, your bloodline gets me all hot and bothered. Come make witchy babies with me. Forget the part where they’ll eat each other when they turn twenty-two.”

“Stop pretending to be a mundane for a few minutes, Olivia and imagine where the next generation of Parkers can go with Bennett lineage.” Jo’s head spun just contemplating the possibilities.

“Well, don’t start printing out the wedding cards yet. That dream of yours will probably never come to pass. What with Bonnie being so anti-Kai at the moment.”

“She’ll get over it.”

“Will he?”

“What do you mean?”

Liv smirked, her eyes shining with mischief. “She had a very interesting conversation with Alaric yesterday morning about Kai. Went on and on about how hooking up with him was a mistake. And she said all this in the kids’ nursery. With the monitor switched on. Guess who was in the kitchen to hear the whole thing?”

Jo stared at her sister, eyes boggling. “No effing way.”

“Yep. Kai was downstairs. He arrived shortly before Ashton Parrish. I was rounding up my presentation and I heard the whole thing.” Her smirk broadened. “Should have seen his face, Jo. He turned as white as sheet. He looked like if he was going to pass out. Or cry.” Liv sounded the opposite of sympathetic.

“Oh Kai,” Jo whispered softly, her heart aching for her twin.

Liv snickered, and stuffed her face some more.

“They’ll get past it,” Jo said confidently.

“Will they?” Liv sounded doubtful. “Still think he’s in Virginia?”

“You’re the one who thinks he’s in Virginia.” Jo declared, frustrated. “Why are you so fixated on…?” And that was when it occurred to her. She peered hard at Liv. “You know I took psych during my residency.”

Liv groaned. “That sentence never ends well, Jo.”

Jo ignored her. “And all this harping on about Virginia and other people’s love lives seems to me like a classic case of transference. Is someone feeling a little homesick? A little Lockwood-sick?”

Liv shrugged nonchalantly, but her cheeks went slightly pink.

“You know you can always hop over to Mystic Falls and help them out with their heretic problem,” Jo suggested half-heartedly.

Jo always felt more than a little guilty about Liv’s social life – or rather, her lack of one. After moving to Portland, Liv had gone clubbing, gone on regular dates with someone from her office, and even got her passport stamped a couple of times. But all that had ended after the twins had born. As much as Jo loved and trusted Gab, she hadn’t shaken off the misgivings from early in the pregnancy when there had been talk in the coven of taking the twins from her. It was part of the reason why Jo wasn’t in a hurry to go back to work. And it was the reason why Liv was more or less grounded since their birth. The parties, the sort-of-boyfriend and the holidays hadn’t meshed with her new role as full-time Aunt.

“And leave you at the mercy of Gab?” Liv muttered, stirring her ice cream and turning it into slush, oblivious to how much worse her words were making her sister feel.

Jo was about to answer that when a phone rang. Both of them stared at Liv’s immediately, until they realized it was coming from Jo’s pocket. She picked it up and then groaned at the caller. “Dad.”

Liv made a ‘sucks to be you’ face and pulled the bowl into her lap. For someone who had been so worried about calories, Jo thought with some temper, her baby sister was really helping herself to most of the ice cream.

Jo took the call in the corridor, and was already mentally preparing herself for the usual questions and her usual answers: “I don’t know where Kai is, Dad. If he calls, I’ll let him know you want to speak to him.”

But Joshua Parker was calling about something different.

The conversation barely lasted ten minutes but by the end of it, Jo was filled with disquiet. She stood for a moment, thoughts running through her head. Was Kai behind this?

She turned to go back to Liv’s room and nearly screamed. Gab was standing right in front of her, so close that Jo could see the tiny blue veins in her face.

“Gab,” she said, still gasping. “You startled me.”

Gab’s blue eyes were glittering; and her face was undecipherable. “Did I, Josie?”

“Gab…?”

“Told Livvie to stop eating that crap.” Jo realized with some dismay that Gab had confiscated the ice cream. Instinctively, Jo reached for the tub, then drew her hands back quickly when the agate rings on the old woman’s gnarly fingers seemed to spark with outrage. “Girls are asleep. Come down and I’ll get us all a proper dinner.”

She trotted around Jo, and shuffled off.

Jo gaped after her. Then she went back to Liv’s room, half-expecting to find Liv pissed as hell. She hoped that Liv hadn’t given up their ice cream without a fight.

Instead, she found Liv crawling half-way under her bed.

“You won’t find it there,” Jo drawled.

Liv’s head shot up, banging her head against the bed frame, and swearing. She crawled out to stare at her sister with narrowed eyes. “You know where it is?”

“Er… we’re both talking about the mocha vanilla, right?”

“Oh, that.” Liv scowled. “You need to do something about her. She’s out of control.” She got to her feet, and strode to her closet.

“She’s mellowed,” Jo retorted. “You should have met her thirty years ago. Even Kai was scared of her.” She tilted her head, thinking. “Come to think of it, I think he still is.”

Liv didn’t chuckle, as Jo had expected. Although she probably hadn’t heard Jo since she was intent on flinging out all the contents of her closet to the floor.

“What are you looking for?” Jo asked, alarmed.

Liv popped out her head, her hair springing at gravity-defying angles. “My… Never mind. It’s nothing important.”

“Really?” Jo asked, highly skeptical. It was a lot of effort looking for something not important.

Liv heaved an impatient sigh. “Fine. I loaned Bonnie Bennett some of our grimoires and I think she may have borrowed a couple.”

“Youthink?” Jo squeaked.

Liv rolled her eyes. “Pretend you didn’t hear that?”

“Olivia, if the council finds out…”

“They won’t find out because you won’t tell them.” She gave Jo an irritated look. “Come on. It’sBonnie Bennett. The superhero. Not some random witch from a rival coven. The Grimoires are fine.” But her eyes were worried and her brows were creasing. She turned back to her closet and started throwing her things back in.

“Olivia…”

“So what did Dad want anyway?” Liv said sharply, in an obvious attempt to change the topic.

Jo refused to be side-tracked. “Get those Grimoires back, before anyone realises they’re gone. I mean it.”

“Worried about Bonnie getting into trouble with the Council?” Liv asked lightly.

Too lightly.

“I’m worried about both of you,” Jo said softly.

Liv’s eyes flickered over her, gave her a small smile. “I’ll keep us out of trouble, don’t worry. Thank goodness, Kai’s AWOL, right? What did you tell Dad this time?”

“He wasn’t calling about Kai. Well, he asked about Kai, but this time there was something different.” Jo grimaced, remembering.

Liv paused in the middle of her own idea of tidying up, to give her sister a puzzled look. “What’s wrong, Jo?”

Jo sat down on the second bed heavily. “Not a single thing. It’s actually good news.” She looked up at her sister’s worried face and schooled hers into a smile. “Remember the witches that left after Kai became Praetor? And how some still stayed back even after Dad joined the Council and vouched for him?”

Liv nodded.

“Well, during the past week, a handful have reached out to the coven. Today the Council got calls from over a dozen.” She took a deep breath. “They’re coming back, Liv.”

Liv gaped. “That’s… that’s unbelievable. I was so sure… I thought…with Kai as Praetor… Some of those families swore never to return.”

“Well, they have now. It looks like our Praetor has been busy for a while.”

Liv’s eyes were almost falling out of her head. “You think Kai’s responsible for this?”

“I’m sure of it.” Jo said with firmness she didn’t feel. “Well, now we can’t keep assuming that the Praetor’s in Virginia.”

“If he’s not then someone else is. And whoever that person is, with influence over these witches, sending an influx of his allies back into the coven – that’s bad, Jo.”

“Well, we’ll find out soon enough. The Council will be debriefing all of them in the next few days. They’ll tell us what brought about this sudden change of heart. If it’s someone up to no good or the Praetor himself.” She grimaced. “But it would be so much simpler if Kai was already here.”

Liv sighed heavily. “Whereishe?”

Chapter 11: washed-up old timer

Chapter Text

June 2014.

Ranger, Wyoming

The weathered old truck pulled up in front of the mountain cabin and the equally old, equally weathered man with greying white skin under thick layers of grey clothing, and a shock of even whiter hair climbed out of it with a rifle over one shoulder and a deer over the other. Without bothering to lock the truck, he trudged around the cabin to the back door with his two burdens.

He dropped the carcass at the top of the steps, opened and stepped through the door, letting it swing close, once more without bothering with a lock.

But as he stepped into the dimly lit house, and hung up his rifle, he whispered a few words and magical wards snapped into place.

Patrice Lang, wizard, exile from the Gemini coven, was home.

He had been up the mountains for a week, without cell reception or any means of communication. His five years out-of-date mobile was dead where he had left it on the mantelpiece, and he found an electric outlet to plug it in, while he sorted out the fireplace.

Once the fire was roaring, he picked up the phone and glanced through the messages.

There was one from Jude, one of the other wizards who had taken up residence in Ranger, asking Patrice to call back urgently. Patrice deleted it at once. Jude still owed him money from his last ‘urgent’ meeting.

Then Judith Stewart had sent a series of messages, the last one just after she arrived at Virginia. All of them berating him for not coming along. He snorted to himself. While he whole-heartedly endorsed the plan to return Joshua to power, he had no truck for the politics and schemes that Judith and the Genovas were so fond of. When the time came, he would do his part gladly but until then, he was content with his own simple life back here.

The upstart had sent a message as well, asking Patrice imperiously to call the moment he received this. Like hell he would, Patrice thought, deleting it angrily.

The only other messages in his phone were from two unknown numbers. The first was signed as the Sheriff’s Department, Mystic Falls, Virginia, asking that he call them as soon as he received the message.

Patrice stared at that one with increasing disquiet.

The last message was short, but its words were plain and it kicked up his anxiety by another notch.

And that was when he felt his wards tingle.

They were being breached. By poachers, who must have caught whiff of the carcass at the back.

He grabbed his gun, and charged his free hand with a latent hex as he strolled out the door.

Almost immediately, he caught whiff of their scent in the air, and his own hackles rose.

“Wolves, you’d best keep hunting!” he growled, his magic pushing his voice out into the cold, silent air. “Or you’ll be prey yourselves soon.”

Fast as a streak, a trio of grey wolves appeared in front of him. Patrice’s fist clenched as he watched them shift their form until standing before him were three young, long-legged, blond men, who looked alike enough to be brothers or at least close cousins.

“Easy there, old-timer.” The one in the middle smiled and raised up his hands as he felt the first wave of Patrice’s magic, and its clear message:

Back off.

“This is your last warning, boys. I make no truck with mongrels.”

His companions snarled, but the speaking wolf – the leader of this trio – quelled them with a look.

“You’ve been off the grid for a year, old man, so you probably don’t know that we’re all allies here.”

Patrice spat on the ground. “I’m Gemini no longer; and I curse the day Joshua’s mad boy took over my coven and gave it to Infidels.”

The wolf’s eyes hardened, but he kept the smile firmly on his face as he took a cautious step forward. “I reckon you’ll change your mind when you hear what we have to say.”

“Doubt that.”

“It’s a message from your leader, stupid old man!” one of the other wolves barked.

His own leader turned on him with a snarl, grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and shoved him, hard enough to send him flying to the ground.

Barbaric creatures.

The leading wolf turned back to Patrice, easy smile back in place. “Deepest apologies for my brother’s rudeness. And for my own. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Thomas of the Randolph pack and these are my brothers. Our pack are allies with your Gemini coven. And yes, we do have a message from your leader.”

A prickle of alarm worked its way up Patrice’s spine. Young Parrish, Judith, the Genovas and their schemes. The cryptic messages on his phone. And now this.

“And what might that be? And why the hell is he sending wolves, not witches to deliver it?”

“How about we go out to neutral territory and discuss it?”

“The hell I will. I want no truck with you or with that kin-slayer.”

Randolph merely bowed his head, and took a step back. “The other Gemini wizards in this vicinity have already accepted our invitation.” His smile turned mocking when Patrice started at that. “Eight o’clock at the Drunken Lady. Drinks are on us.”

In a blink, the three men were three wolves again. In another blink, they were gone.

Patrice Lang stood alone on his land, with nothing but a dead deer and his own confusing thoughts to keep him company.

May 2014

Mystic Falls

It had been almost a year since Bonnie Bennett had been in Mystic Falls and the change in her town made her heart sink. She drove through quiet streets, past closed-up shops and abandoned playgrounds, and breathed in deeply the air of fear and decay.

Damon had once joked that the boarding house was like a church – its doors were always open; and they were even now. Bonnie walked through them, thinking about how it was pointless to bar the doors from the heretics who didn’t need an invitation to enter your home.

“Hello?”

No one answered. She frowned as she walked down the quiet, empty corridor. Damon had told her that they would all be here, waiting for her. But she stretched out her aura and all she sensed was emptiness.

She passed by the doors of the large living room, and a flash of memory hit her. Sitting on the couch beside Elena Gilbert and watching her friend sign the papers to become the owner of this property. Now she wondered if Elena still had possession of the house or if after her estrangement from the Salvatores, she had formally rescinded it. Would the Invitation Spell even still work, now that Elena was Cured? Or had the effect of her former death in lifting the barrier been irreversible?

Bonnie walked ahead. They were supposed to meet at the library. She’d wait there.

A few steps from the library doors, she stopped.

“Hello?”

She was sensing something, wasn’t she? It was faint, barely even triggering her aura but it was there… wasn’t it?

She tensed, stretching out to feel…

It felt like the rushing essence of something moving very fast through the house – faster than human speed. Too fast for her to discern its nature. A vampire?

On instinct, her magic rushed to her hands.

“Damon? Stefan? Is that you?”

But now she was certain that she wasn’t just picking up one presence but two. The second stronger, steadier, familiar and yet…

Whatever it or they were, they were coming closer, close enough to…

Bonnie spun around and sent out a spell to flatten anything living within range.

Her spell rebounded down the walls of the corridor, rattling the portraits and hitting absolutely nothing.

And now that she stretched her senses again, she couldn’t feel the presence. Any of them. Had she imagined the whole thing?

By now, she was standing in front of the open doors of the large, empty library. The fireplace glowing in the far side should have been welcoming, but instead it looked like a warning. Bonnie wrapped her arms around herself, suppressing a shiver that even the fire couldn’t chill. Barely an hour in this town and she was already spooked. But the time for misgivings had long passed.

Where was everyone anyway?

As if on cue, her phone rang.

“Hey, Bonnie.” It was Caroline. She sounded exhausted.

“Care, I’m here. At the Salvatores. Where are you guys?”

“We had a little run-in with the witch-pires,” Care gasped.

“Caroline, are you OK?”

“Yeah, I’m good. We all are. We think they had come for Tyler, and we kicked their asses.”

“It doesn’t count if they got away.” Matt’s voice came through clearly. Caroline had obviously put the phone on speaker.

In the background, Bonnie could make out a laugh that sounded like Tyler’s. “I’m alive so it counts for me.”

“You’re all together, right?”

“Yep, Bonnie.” Stefan said. “Stay put. We’ll be there in five.”

“Not going anywhere. OK then-”

“And Bonnie.” It was Damon. “Welcome back.”

The line clicked shut. She stared at the phone for a little while and pocketed it.

Bonnie moved through the library slowly, taking casual inventory of everything. Nine months of living in this house had made her more familiar with its rooms than she could imagine. She knew, for example, where they hid the best bourbon. The row in the bookshelf that housed Stefan’s prized first editions. She recognised that rug. She had shifted it to place under Mason Lockwood’s chair prior to Damon torturing and murdering him. She moved past that quickly.

She didn’t recognise the new table in front of the settee. It must have replaced the old one, the one she threw Damon into the last time she was in this house.

She sank into the settee.

She hadn’t quite vowed never to step foot into the Salvatore Boarding House again. She certainly hadn’t vowed never to return to Mystic Falls again – that wasn’t even practical. She had friends here. Property. History going back two centuries.

So why did Bonnie feel like she had let herself down by coming back?

She was still looking at the table, and remembering, when the doors burst open and they all filed in.

Damon. Stefan. Caroline. Matt. Tyler. Even Enzo.

Caroline was her roommate. Matt and Tyler called and emailed every once in a while and they had even driven over to Whitmore during spring break and the four Mystic Falls former rug rats had had a blast. But Bonnie hadn’t set eyes on either Salvatores or Enzo since last June.

“Hello, witch,” Enzo said, with a slow, appreciative smile as his eyes swept from the top of her simple braid, down the boots that encased her calves and back to her face. “Now you’re here, we can do some real damage.”

“Enzo,” she answered warily.

“Bonnie, I’m glad you made it. It’s good to have you back,” Stefan said carefully.

“Hey, Stefan,” she said simply.

Damon surprised her by dropping into the settee and giving her a half-armed hug. She hadn’t been expecting it – hadn’t been quite sure what to expect after almost a year of not-quite-estrangement. But the stiff way he embraced her, and didn’t quite meet her eyes spoke volumes.

That was the problem with knowing someone as well as she had got to know Damon. It was probably a huge character failing on her part – no, scratch that – it was definitely a huge character failing on her part but four months in an empty world wasn’t something Bonnie could squash into a ball and throw into the trash. Even when every instinct within her told her to distrust him, to dislike him, to disapprove of him…

“I almost missed your annoying face,” Damon declared.

No matter how sometimes Bonnie wished she could.

But then he’d do something like murder his mother for nearly killing Bonnie and she was right back where she started.

“I almost missed your hyperactive eyebrows,” she quipped back.

Tyler clapped his hands together. “Avengers Assemble. I don’t know about you guys but I think with Bonnie here Mystic Falls has just maxed out its Supernatural Creatures Quotient.”

The others responded with a varying mixture of groans and guffaws at the weak pun but Tyler paid them no mind.

“Now it’s time to do some natural selection. Let’s drive these goddamn witch-pires out of our goddamn town.”

June 2014

Whitmore

During the ‘Crazy Heretic Attacked Bonnie’ post-mortem, Tyler brought up the fact that they now had Gemini presence in Mystic Falls.

“What’s his name… dude from the Council? Shouldn’t we page him or something?”

The others were not overly impressed with this suggestion but Bonnie agreed with Tyler. For what it was worth, they had to use every resource available to them. She didn’t even know if he was in Virginia already but it won’t hurt to keep him in the loop. Ignoring the ensuing argument, she got out her phone and sent out a message, snickering a little. She had saved his contact details under ‘Asshat Parrish’.

Over her head, oblivious to the fact that she had already made up her mind, the debate raged on.

“Until they send us some real help, I’m not checking in with those freaks,” Damon declared.

Tyler rolled his eyes. “Can you think with your brain, and not your ego for a moment? Georgiana Parker? That name ring a bell?”

Everyone fell silent at that. They had been more focused on the attack, than that tidbit of new information.

“It can’t be a coincidence, I guess?” Caroline offered first.

“With that name? From that coven? I doubt it,” Tyler answered.

“So maybe the heretics are some long-lost ancestors of the ruling family of freaks?” Damon retorted. “Who cares? The Gemini don’t, so why should we? We still need to kill them.”

Tyler looked unconvinced. “Does the coven really know this? I don’t think there was time in the wedding to exchange pleasantries. If this is new information, it might change their minds.”

“Dunno, Tyler. It makes more sense that they have some sort of record of all the people they sent to the Prison Worlds,” Matt said.

“It’s still worth drawing it to their attention,” Tyler insisted. “Maybe it won’t make any difference… Maybe there’s no relation at all…”

“I’m almost certain there is,” Bonnie said. Even in the heat of the attack, it had struck her how familiar-looking Georgiana Parker’s face was. Now that she was removed from that moment, the realisation came to her. “She was right in my face. Apart from the red hair, and before she went into vamp face, she could have been a dead ringer for Liv Parker.”

Tyler started, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

“Doppelganger dead ringer?” Damon asked, with a mischievous grin at his brother who stared stolidly back.

“Not exactly. More like siblings. She looked more like Liv’s sister than Jo.”

“Even if the Gemini already know this, it’s worth looking into ourselves,” Matt said and Tyler shot his friend a grateful look. “We could find some way to use that to our advantage.”

“I doubt that,” Damon declared.

If Tyler’s face was any indication, he was about to say something curt and irritated in response to Damon, but Bonnie cut him off. “We can ask the Gemini Councillor when he gets back to us. And before then, I’ll give Liv a call. She should be able to give us any information on that.” After, of course, she had sorted out that small matter of borrowed spell-books.

On second thoughts, maybe, Bonnie had better call Jo instead.

Stefan gave Bonnie a pointed stare. “Won’t the coven leader be the best person to ask?”

The question threw Bonnie, and she stammered a response, acutely aware of the sudden silence and five pairs of curious eyes on her. “I… I mean we… well, we already asked… for help and he … he refused…”

“For help fighting the heretics,” Stefan said in a patient way that irritated her. “Asking for information on a name shouldn’t be a problem.”

“I…”

Matt jumped in. “I say we ask Liv first. If she doesn’t know, then we ask her brother.”

“Besides, Bonnie was the one who went to Portland. She should know best how to deal with these Gemini,” Caroline added, squeezing Bonnie reassuringly and throwing Stefan a dirty look.

He shrugged, and wisely decided to back down.

“At the boarding house this morning, we were talking about reaching out to the Vampire Hunters again,” he said instead.

Matt said something in reply, but Bonnie didn’t hear him, her eyes on the fingers clenched tightly in her lap. She tried to discreetly level out her unsteady breathing. When Caroline’s hand squeezed her again in silent support, she leaned into her friend gratefully.

She came back to the present in time to hear Damon’s startling declaration:

“Bonnie can’t stay here.”

Her eyebrows shot up as she watched everyone else nod in agreement.

“If the heretic attacked you here once, she can attack you here again,” Matt said.

“And we can’t vervain-paint here because of Caroline,” Tyler added, giving Caroline an apologetic look.

Caroline sighed. “We’ve talked about it, guys,” she said impatiently. “Put the damn paint on some of the walls. I’ll be fine as long as my room is good.”

“You’ll be inhaling vervain every day,” Stefan retorted. “It’ll be in the water, too.”

“I can take it,” Caroline fired back. The two vampires glared at each other.

Damon rolled his eyes. “Don’t take this the wrong way but: You two can go f*ck yourselves.”

Matt was mid-sip and he spat out his beer, laughing. Tyler guffawed.

Ignoring the shocked, furious gazes of his brother and Caroline, Damon went on with a bright smile. “So that’s settled then. Bonnie moves-”

Bonnie’s own urge to smile – something she had been fighting against out of loyalty to her friend – completely vanished. “Excuse you? Bonnie’s right here and she’s staying put, thank you very much,” she snapped. Then she softened at the worried look on her friends’ faces. “But I might come crash over at Matt’s or Tyler’s once in a while. I’ll need to be in Mystic Falls anyway, to keep an eye on things there.”

“ Look, BonBon,” Damon said impatiently, “no one knows better than me that you kick major magic butt. But that’s the thing – you can’t fight these things with magic. You’re use-” he caught the dangerous flash in her eyes and quick amended, “you’re powerless in this situation.”

Bonnie was opening her mouth to retort when Caroline said quietly, “I’m the last person to ever say this but: Damon’s right.” She cringed at Bonnie’s look of betrayal but her stance did not waver.

“It’s for your own good,” Matt added.

“You guys can go hang. I’m not moving out of my flat and that’s it.”

But Damon kept pushing and the others pushed with him. After what seemed like hours of deliberation, they finally reached a compromise. Some degree of vervain-fortification would be used in the girls’ flat – and Bonnie would have some form of protection detail on her. Bonnie was laughing her head off at the latter until Matt reminded her that it was as much for preventing the heretics’ from using her in their endgame as it was for her own protection.

“I don’t have Expression anymore,” she muttered. “They’d just be wasting their time.”

“Well, we don’t want them to snap your neck when they figure out how useless you are,” Damon rasped, clearly pissed off that he didn’t get his way.

Bonnie drew in a sharp breath, ready to fling an aneurysm at him. Only Matt’s hand, suddenly squeezing her ankle, held her back.

After almost two hours and lots of beers, they wrapped up their plans. She, Damon and Matt were going to go to the morgue the next day to look at the body of the witch that had been murdered while they were in Portland. The other three would reach out to Jeremy Gilbert again, maybe even plan a road trip to his latest hunting ground. The Gilbert devices hadn’t been much help. But perhaps the Hunters themselves could be useful.

But before that, Stefan was going to take first Bonnie Watch – something Damon had a lot to insinuate about, his eyes glancing mischievously from his brother to Caroline – and Stefan was going back to the mansion to get some of his stuff then return. Matt was hitching a ride with them and he hung back after the vampire brothers to bend down and give Bonnie a hug that lifted her off her feet.

“Hey, I almost forgot – welcome back.”

Bonnie smiled the first real smile she had that morning.

Tyler stayed behind. He had offered to wait with the girls until Stefan came back.

“Seriously, Tyler?” Caroline quipped as he lolled on the settee with a beer. “You couldn’t protect Bonnie from me.”

“You sure know how to make a guy feel special, Care.”

She just rolled her eyes and left to her room, for a quick shower and change. That was when Bonnie registered that Caroline was wearing what looked like the previous day’s clothes.

Mmmm… Bonnie speculated, happily. She was glad to have something else to occupy her thoughts for the moment.

She pulled out her phone and rang Jo. It went into voicemail, so Bonnie left a brief message, asking for a callback without giving any specific details.

She tucked it away, looked around the room casually, and was taken aback to realize that Tyler was staring hard at her.

“Ty?” she queried, raising an eyebrow.

He reddened a little. “Hey, Bon. S-sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop or anything but I thought you were calling Liv?”

“Er… I figured Jo might know more, being older and closer to the leader.”

He nodded, buying her hastily made-up excuse. He then gave her a rueful smile. “You know, you don’t have to keep me company or anything. I’m just a sentry on duty. Plus you’d probably like to be alone right now…”

“Actually, I don’t,” Bonnie said honestly. “Especially if you can help get me a beer?” She had tucked her legs under her in the chair and was feeling quite cosy.

He nodded, good-naturedly and fetched a can from the fridge.

She took it with a smile and tilted her head, questioningly when he didn’t return to the settee but waited, standing in front of her. He shifted his weight from one foot to another.

“Tyler, is something wrong?”

His behaviour was puzzling. Bonnie and Tyler had been close friends in elementary school but that was over a decade ago. Since then, he had been closer friends with Matt, and Elena – and, later, Caroline until that relationship had ended. Bonnie had interacted more with Tyler this last year he joined the Academy than all their high school years together. He was as invested in protecting Mystic Falls as Matt was, and she admired that about him. She knew Tyler had reservations about both Salvatores – also like Matt – but he was willing to put his misgivings aside for the common good.

Still, they weren’t particularly close and Bonnie wracked her brain now, trying to figure out what this was going to be about.

Tyler finally sat down on the table across from her, and looked down at his hands. “So how was Portland?”

Bonnie stiffened. There hadn’t been much briefing on the time in Portland and her botched overtures to the Gemini Council and their Praetor. Bonnie and Damon had been keeping everyone abreast while they were there so they didn’t have anything new to add. Which was great because Bonnie wasn’t ready for prying questions. Portland, the Gemini and Kai Parker were all rolled into one convoluted ball of hurt in her heart and she wasn’t in any frame of mind to start untangling that mess. Despite the nightmarish interruption this morning, she still retained some of the serenity the night had given her and she wasn’t ready to let that go.

“I hear the Saltzmans are all settled there with the babies,” Tyler continued.

“Uh-huh.”

“Jo must have her hands full, right? Damon said something about Liv helping out with the twins. How are they all doing?”

Oh. That.

Relief flushed through Bonnie and she bit back a smile. “Alaric, Jo and the babies all are doing great. Liv was… Liv.” She watched his face. “She’s staying with them. She looked good, and seemed happy enough, busy with her job and coven business.”

He made a face. “She used to complain about the coven all the time. How they were all into early marriages and loads of magical babies to strengthen their power zones. Made it sound very medieval, if you ask me.”

Bonnie chugged her can and waited.

“I guess she’s probably dating some wizard douche right about now, counting down the days until she walks down the aisle,” he added, not prying in the least. No, not at all.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. “She asked after you, too, Tyler.”

He went bright red. “She did? I mean… Er… Not that I asked or anything…”

“Oh, come on, Tyler!”

He groaned a little, and covered his face with his hands.

Bonnie giggled, amused but also a little touched. Sure Liv had mentioned something about dating someone but Bonnie hadn’t needed to know the girl very well to understand that was a transparent front. It was obvious that Liv’s feelings for Tyler were still very much there.

Clearly, Tyler also felt the same way.

“Give her a call. You’re way too old for this high school crap. You like the girl. She likes you… God knows why.”

He laughed at that, his hands falling down. He looked fearful and hopeful at the same time.

Bonnie took another drink. “Don’t let the grass grow under your feet, Tyler.”

“We kind of parted on really bad terms, Bon. You know… the whole kill-the new leader-kill-the-coven-and-kill-herself stunt that she pulled.”

“Oh, is that why you broke up?” Bonnie asked, surprised. Funny that Bonnie hadn’t known this. Until now, she had assumed that Liv and Tyler had broken up because they hadn’t wanted to try a long-distance relationship after Liv graduated from Whitmore. Of course, like Tyler, Liv wasn’t a close friend either. Liv and Tyler were both, what Caroline would call ‘second-hand friends’ – Tyler was to Matt, what Liv was to Jo where Bonnie was concerned. She hadn’t really given much thought to their relationship or why it ended.

“Yeah, sort of.” He gave her a furtive look, his face suddenly looking guilty.

Bonnie thought she knew what he was thinking of. “I never really thought about it,” she said softly, “but when you compare what she went through with yourself after your mother…”

He scowled. “That’s what she said, too. It’s not the same thing, Bonnie.”

Wasn’t it? Bonnie wondered but she didn’t feel like arguing the point. “I don’t know what else to tell you, Tyler…” she said, finally. “She’s fine. She’s got past her issues with K- her brother.” That made him give her a sharp look. “They’re actually kind of good with each other now. And she’s still interested in you. If you’re holding back because of something she did a year ago when she was grieving and upset…”

Tyler was staring at Bonnie like if she had grown two heads. “By brother you mean Kai right?”

Bonnie swallowed. “Who else?”

He shook his head. “There’s no way Liv would ever be good with Kai. That’s crazy talk, Bonnie.”

She shrugged. “Well, as good as siblings from the same twin-murdering coven can be? I dunno. Only child here so I don’t have any experience with these things…”

“I’d never have imagined Liv would ever get over losing Luke. At least not enough to embrace Kai.”

Bonnie looked away from his skeptical face. “Luke would have died anyway, wouldn’t he? Either that or he’d have killed Liv which isn’t what he wanted. And there’s this whole sharing personality thing they say the Merge is about. So K-Kai has a part of him forever. I dunno…” She said again, her voice trailing off.

She swallowed against the lump that had suddenly risen in her throat. “He saved Jo at the wedding. Took a knife in the gut that was meant for her. He saved everyone else again when he got rid of the heretics the first time…”

She glanced at Tyler’s face; was it her imagination or was he looking far too perceptively at her? Schooling her features into what she hoped was neutrality, she said softly. “They’re not like you and me, these Parkers. They are the walking talking definition of dysfunctional.”

Tyler nodded in hearty agreement to that.

“Jo managed to get over her father and her brother both trying to kill her, enough to invite them to her wedding. I guess Liv did the same.”

For a few moments, neither of them said anything.

Then Tyler chuckled bitterly. “This is probably crazy but considering the fact that she threw away ‘us’ because her hatred of Kai was that strong, I guess I’d feel better if she still hated him. Now I feel…” He heaved a sigh. “I… I said some things to Liv. At the wedding. She tried to apologize, asked for another chance and…” He ran his hands down his face. He looked miserable. “And I blew it.”

“It’s never too late, Tyler,” Bonnie said simply.

He gave her a disbelieving look. “Did you hear what I said? She asked me for another chance and I turned her down.”

“It’s never too late,” Bonnie insisted, her voice shaking slightly. “Not if you both care about each other. Don’t let your pride get in the way, Ty.”

He just shook his head. Then he sighed again and got to his feet. “Thanks for listening, Bon.”

“I’ll send you my bill.”

He chuckled again. “Hey, do you mind if I-”

Bonnie forced a smile, stretching out her arms to shove him a little. “Please go. You need to make a long-distance call and Caroline and I need to have a pillow fight in our underwear.”

He had started reaching for his jacket but now, he hesitated. “Er… maybe I should just stay for your protec-”

Bonnie shoved him again and they both laughed.

He hovered at the door. “Guess I’ll be seeing you around Mystic Falls soon?”

“Yep. You heard what the others said. I will even be crashing at your place. I need to be on ground full-time to use my SuperWitchy powers to fight crime and save the day. Again.”

He gave her another furtive glance, his face twisting with something like admiration and guilt. “Yeah. That. You take care, Bonnie.”

She watched him go. Then she waved her hand at the door and the lock turned. For moments, she just let herself dwell in her thoughts, her drink forgotten in her hand. The conversation bothered her more than she liked. She had no idea why. She and some people were nothing like Liv and Tyler. Those two had dated, they had been in love. What she, Bonnie had had with him was…

Nothing.

It was nothing. It had meant nothing. To her. And maybe even to him.

Right?

Not that it mattered, she told herself firmly, ignoring the way her heart was clenching. Because whatever it had been, it was over. Had never even started.

She forced herself to think about something else, like the strange look on Tyler’s face before he left. Now, what was that about? Did he feel sorry for her? Sorry that she had been dragged back into the whole supernatural business that she had strongly hinted to both he and Matt that she had sworn off?

Bonnie shrugged and finished her drink. Who knew? Who cared? She liked Tyler but his opinion of her wasn’t something she’d lose sleep over. He’d better get his ass in the game or Liv would probably hook up with some hottie from her coven, or even a mundane from her firm.

Talking of Liv, Bonnie remembered the Grimoires and the message she never got round to writing to the other witch.

Bonnie had just pulled out her phone and opened the text app when Caroline burst into the living room in a storm of blonde curls and silky pyjamas.

“Thank goodness, I thought he would never leave!” She said as she dramatically flung herself on the sofa.

Bonnie eyed her friend’s outfit. “PJs at noon?”

“I’m a vampire, remember? This is way past my bedtime.”

Bonnie laughed, put the phone aside.

“I can’t believe Tyler is still going on about that Parker witch. What’s so special about her anyway?”

Bonnie was surprised. “Bit late in the day for the green-eyed monster to rear its ugly head.”

“Oh please,” Caroline scoffed. “We’ve been over for years. I just think Tyler could do better. Though that would be hard. I am such a tough act to follow.”

Bonnie snorted. The two girls exchanged grins.

“I missed you, Bonnie,” Caroline said softly. “Flat wasn’t the same with you gone.”

“I didn’t think you’d spend much time here…” Bonnie said cautiously.

Caroline raised an eyebrow.

“You know… You and Stefan?” When her friend still wasn’t forthcoming, Bonnie asked point-blank. “How are you guys doing?”

Caroline shrugged. “It’s complicated?” She brooded for about five seconds, then her face turned angry. “I’m sorry about what he said earlier. I don’t know what his deal is, these days but he has no business taking our problems out on my BFF and I’ll rearrange his face the next time he does.”

Bonnie didn’t think Stefan’s… unfriendliness – because that was what it came down to – had anything to do with his relationship with Caroline. It was directed to her, Bonnie, personally. And it started a year ago around the time that Lily Salvatore had almost killed her.

It struck Bonnie suddenly then – because a year of living apart from all this plus her determination to forget all things related to Him had caused her to push it far back in her mind – that Stefan never let Caroline in on the secret of what really happened to his mother.

“I’m not going to put up with any crap from him,” Caroline said now.

Bonnie shelved away thoughts of secrets. “He’ll be here soon. Think you can handle him?”

Her friend smiled nastily. “I’m putting crowns in the fold-out.”

They both snigg*red, although Bonnie couldn’t help wondering if Stefan would end up using the fold-out at all. More likely, he’d spend most of his ‘downtime’ in Caroline’s bedroom. The moment the thought passed through her head, the obvious innuendo followed and Bonnie snigg*red some more. Clearly, she was hanging around Damon a tad too much.

Caroline glanced at her, her eyes flashing. “But enough about me. What about you? How did your trip to Portland go?”

Bonnie fought back a flinch. She loved her friend like a sister, but please no, not now. She didn’t want to talk about him. She didn’t want to think about him.

She answered cagily. “Haven’t you been getting the updates? We’re getting some inspector-type witch and no fire power, whatsoever.”

Caroline bounced with exasperation. “Who cares about that stuff? I meant how did things go with Kai ‘Sexy Powerful Warlock’ Parker?”

“Yeah, who cares about getting help to get rid of a pair of un-killable vampire-witches ravaging through our home town?” Bonnie murmured, stalling.

“Argh! You’re hopeless!” Caroline declared, and leaned over and sniffed Bonnie’s neck.

“Ew! What the hell, Care?” Bonnie yelled as she recoiled. She was a little sensitive in that area at the moment.

Caroline pulled back with a scowl. “Hopeless and sexless. You reek of frustration.”

“You are so gross!”

“And you are so horny. How do you stand it? If I had half of that tension bottled up inside, I’d have jumped on the first guy I met. Talking about options, there is one at least very close at hand…”

Bonnie scowled, feeling her throat tighten. “Give me his number, then. We can skip wine and roses and go straight to the hook-up.”

Caroline laughed, her eyes dancing. “Well, he’s thinking more long term and as for you… Yeah, right.” Then she stared when Bonnie didn’t say anything. “You’re serious, aren’t you? Oh Bonnie, you already tried that in Europe. That’s not your style.”

“What is my style then, Care?” Bonnie asked, swallowing against the lump in her throat. “I pretty much threw myself at him in Portland and he said…” She could barely choke out the word. “No.”

Caroline’s jaw dropped. “He didn’t. The jerk. I’ll run all the way there and tear out his heart.”

“He figured out what I was trying to do. He called me out on it.” Bonnie rubbed her scratchy eyes, and to her horror, saw wetness on her fingers. “Newsflash, Caroline. Your idea sucked.”

“Bonnie,” Caroline said softly, her voice dripping with remorse.

Bonnie almost resented her for it. She rubbed her eyes angrily. “f*ck if I care about Kai Parker.”

Caroline said nothing.

“I don’t,” Bonnie muttered. “I’m just… tired. I’ve barely been home for a day and someone’s already tried to kill me. I thought I was done with all this crap after Elena left. But now I’m right back in the middle of things.”

“Bonnie, you don’t have to do this. You never had to do this. I told you from the start. You could have always told Damon and Stefan no. I would have backed you up.”

“I have to,” Bonnie said, rubbing her eyes again. “I’m not doing this for…” you, any of you. But she didn’t say that.

“Can we just not talk about any of this stuff right now?” Because everything all led back to the Gemini and Kai Parker and she just needed a break from the man for a few frigging hours! Was that too much to ask for? “We’ve got this big-ass TV and a Netflix account we never use. What’s hot, these days? What do normal people watch?”

Caroline gave her a look that clearly said, ‘this is not over, Bonnie’ but wisely, decided to play along. “Nothing beats The Fixer. I’m going to get some popcorn.”

April 2013

Mystic Falls

Kai Parker had dropped a bombshell on Bonnie the day she brought him back from 1903 and he told her what really happened on her birthday.

She was still reeling from the aftershocks.

She wasn’t a coward, but it had taken her a whole day to call Jeremy Gilbert and have a much-needed conversation with the once love-of-her-life. And after that, it had taken her almost as long to call Damon Salvatore and ask to speak to him.

Then it took Damon some time to fit her into his busy schedule. Bonnie was the college student who was essentially re-doing her entire year and had taken on extra load so that she could still graduate sometime in the near future. He was the wealthy and jobless vampire.

But it was Bonnie who ended up working around her schedule to fit his.

It was that last thought that was boiling in her head as she followed Damon into the library of the boarding house.

Lucky for him, she couldn’t get angrier than she already was.

“So this needs to be fast. The Forbes Humanity Rehabilitation Project hit a bit of a snag and I need to get back to the motel pronto-”

“I left you a message before I went to 1903. Did you get it?”

Something in her voice finally clued him in. He had been oblivious so far but now he stopped in his tracks and turned to really look at her.

When his eyes widened, she almost smiled.

“What’s up, Bonnie?” He asked, warily.

“Did. you. get. my. message?”

He hesitated, his eyes calculating. Then he shrugged. “I did. When I was already at the motel, elbows deep in fixing your best friend, by the way.”

“If you couldn’t make it, you could have sent Elena to the boarding house. You could have told her that I might need back up when I came back with Kai. If I came back at all. If he didn’t just kill me the moment I showed up and left my body in Winter 1903.”

“You know why I didn’t want Elena involved in this,” he hissed.

“You didn’t have to tell her about the Cure,” Bonnie hissed back. “You could have just asked her to come help me.”

“What’s going on with you? Forget the fact that you sneaked around and did this after I had begged you…” His eyes boggled with frustration. “You knew we had this thing to deal with. I told you to wait until we got Stefan and Bubblegum sorted out, and then you and I could talk this over properly, find a middle ground that would make everybody happy but nooooo, you just had to rush over and rescue Kai – and only Kai – right that very moment. How is President Prick, by the way?”

“He’ll live. So will I. Even though I could have used some of your blood when I got back. Awkward that… since you weren’t there.”

He had the grace to look a bit shamefaced. “Stefan really needed me at the motel. Barbie was…”

“She had Stefan, Elena, and Jo, and Alaric. Just how many people do you need to babysit one three-year-old vampire on vervain?” She raised her hand to cut off the next stream of excuses. “Save it. I knew you’d be pissed that I wasn’t getting Lily’s creepy heretic family. But I figured you’d still have my back when it mattered. Guess I was wrong, wasn’t I?”

He hesitated again, clearly struggling with the truth – typical Damon – then he smiled charmingly. “Come on, BonBon. You know me better than that.”

“You’re right,” she said heavily. “I do. Motus!”

The poker went flying from the fireplace and whacked him across his stomach, sending him flying across the room.

“What the hell, Bonnie?” he roared.

“I called Jeremy. We had a long talk. About my f*cking birthday!”

He froze in the process of getting to his feet. A series of emotions, starting with realization and ending with a mix of guilt and defiance passed over his face. Bonnie’s heart fell.

Up until then, she hadn’t realized that a part of her had badly wanted Damon to have some stupid excuse for this. He forgot. He thought it wasn’t important. Anything but the truth that was clear on his face:

He had deliberately, calculatingly manipulated her.

She picked up the poker with her mind and sent it – pointy end first – into his ribs.

He screamed. “Bonnie!”

“You piece of sh*t.”

He yanked out the poker. “Bonnie…”

“You lied to me!”

“I didn’t lie! I did leave that message for you!”

“You. left. a. message? That is how you ‘saved’ me? You couldn’t even watch their backs during the spell. You left Kai and Jeremy defenseless and Liv attacked them. They could have both died and I would have killed myself for nothing!”

“OK. Hold up a sec, BonBon,” he gasped, getting to his feet slowly. “Let me ask one thing… Did you just randomly have this conversation with Jeremy? Or did someone spit poison in your ear?”

“Kai told me the truth. Imagine how it felt like hearing it from him? That I had almost killed the man who saved my life?”

Damon laughed nastily. “Can’t you see what he’s doing here, Bonnie? He’s manipulating you. Manipulating us. Trying to turn us against each other. He tried to do the same thing in the Prison World, remember?”

“This is not about Kai!” Bonnie shouted. “This is about you and me! You’re supposed to be my friend and you lied to me and you were going to let me do something that I would have regretted for the rest of my life!”

“Hey! Back up a sec! I never asked you to kill him, alright? I told you. ‘Here’s your chance to get some payback.’ How you chose to interpret that, was entirely up to you–”

Bonnie sent a chair flying into his face, that he barely dodged.

“You gave me the f*cking knife!”

“Who the f*ck cares, Bonnie? He did one good thing! One! That didn’t erase everything that he had done before. You told me – you showed me how he tortured you. I try to help you get even and now I’m the bad guy?”

She laughed, and it was filled with bitterness and mockery. “You lie so much, it’s no wonder you start believing your own bullsh*t.”

His eyes narrowed. “Watch it, Witchy. I get it that you’re upset but don’t you-”

She threw another hex at him, flinging him into a table.

He yelled, and was silent.

“Damon…?” she asked, hesitantly, hating that as angry as she was, she still cared.

He tried to drag himself up. “Bonnie… Wooden table… Bad idea…”

She came closer. “Damon, are you-”

He jumped to his feet, and rushed across the room in a bolt of speed and rage and before she could blink, she was shoved back to the wall, and his hands were around her neck.

“Now, BonBon, you’re going to have to get a grip.”

His eyes were bloodshot and veined. He was furious.

Good.

So was she.

She screwed her eyes almost shut and he went flying back across the room. She pinned him there with her mind and fried his brains.

His shouts could probably be heard from the street.

“What’s going on?”

Elena stood at the doorway, staring at the two, in shock.

June 2014

Whitmore

After the day Bonnie had had, her dreams should have been filled with violence, memories of the times she had encountered the heretics – 1903, Jo’s wedding, even this morning.

Instead she had one of her old dreams. Herself, lying on her side on a soft bed, watching the sun climb up through a distant window, with a warm, strong presence at her back, long limbs wrapped around her tight enough to crush. But she hadn’t felt smothered, she had felt cocooned, protected, in a way that she hadn’t felt in a long time.

When she woke up, her consciousness pulling out of the dream reluctantly, she almost started telling herself that it was just a dream, and the person holding her might have been anyone – Jeremy, one of those randoms from Europe, heck even Brad Pitt.

But as she pulled herself into a sitting position, and stared out at the still pitch-black night through her magically mended window, she knew she couldn’t keep up the lie. It had been Kai. And what had first been a dream had ended up being a premonition.

For the first time in a year, Bonnie let herself willingly remember something from that night. How it had felt to fall asleep with him alongside her, spooning her. She had felt safe, shielded from the world, as if nothing bad could ever happen to her again.

It had been a strong enough feeling that she had let him change her mind a few hours later. Strong enough that she had agreed to try…

The memories of what came after, days later, were easier, fresher to recall. Probably because she had played them over in her head so often that she could practically repeat word for word what they had said to each other.

“You haven’t changed. Not really. You’re still the same vindictive, vengeful, cold-blooded snake you’ve always been.”

“So we’re a perfect pair, aren’t we? Because you’re still the same judgmental, self-righteous hypocrite you’ve always been.”

Swallowing the bile rising in her throat, she went to the bathroom. A few minutes later, she was at her desk, the Grimoires she had abruptly abandoned that morning waiting for her. She had got distracted when she went from looking for vampire weaknesses to researching the Cure, but she would try to be a bit more organised. She glanced at the clock at the table. It was only a few minutes past three in the morning. The best time to study, in her experience. And hopefully, if she didn’t get an unexpected visit from a heretic, she’d actually get some work done. Anything to keep her mind focused, away from dangerous thoughts and memories that only led to unhappiness and regret.

An hour later, Bonnie was stretching like a cat, hands over her head and her chair tipping back. There were three open volumes and a large loose leaf suspended in front of her; and she had pulled out two incantations, the words hovering in the still air, pressing lightly against her skin. Her own personal Grimoire was also open in front of her, its pages flickering as magic scribbled on its paper. Her mind was working rapidly on an idea that had grabbed hold of her half-way through and had started taking shape.

She dropped her hands slowly to the table, and her eyes caught the tattoo on her wrist.

It was almost alarming how easily she was getting used to it. How little it bothered her now.

She whispered into the air, and the books fell gracefully back to the table. The words of the spell hovered a moment longer, then sank into her Grimoire.

She needed a break. Some tea, too. She pushed back her chair and left for the kitchen.

She was walking across the dimly lit living area to the kitchen, when a soft voice reached out through the darkness.

“Bonnie,” Stefan Salvatore said.

Bonnie bit back a shriek, spinning around to see him sitting up on the fold out. He had apparently just put on his smartphone so she could see his face, eerily lit up by its glow.

For a fraction of a heartbeat, it was someone else’s face she saw; someone who smiled gleefully as he opened her father’s neck, while she screamed futilely into the void…

“Sorry,” he said quietly. “I knew you didn’t see me and I didn’t want to startle you.”

He had turned up an hour before Bonnie had retired for the night. Or – if she were to be honest – his appearance had sent her into her room.

She laughed awkwardly now, her heart still racing a bit. “Better luck next time. I forgot you were here.” She moved quickly to the bar. “I’m making some tea.” Beat. “Want some?”

“Sure. Thanks.”

Even if she had remembered, she would probably have expected to find the fold-out empty and Stefan shacking up in Caroline’s room. So this was a double surprise of sorts.

Everyone’s love life was a sorry mess these days, Bonnie thought as she brought out two mugs.

Moments later, she placed a steaming mug before Stefan.

“Thanks,” he said quietly. “Having problems sleeping in this. For some odd reason, I keep finding crowns in it.”

“That’s really odd,” Bonnie murmured as she sipped her tea. Avoiding his suspicious gaze, her eyes landed on the table lamp by the fold-out that was switched on, then the journal that lay beside it.

“That reminds me of Elena,” she said impulsively.

For a moment, he just stared at her, his face frozen. Then he followed her eyes to the book by his side, and his body relaxed. “Yeah, we had that in common. She and I. Have, I mean.” He cleared his throat.

Yep, Bonnie thought. Sorry mess all around.

She was about to walk away. She and Stefan didn’t have the same kind of relationship these days that they had many years ago, and she wasn’t in the least inclined to sit and make small talk. But something struck her and she lowered herself into the armchair.

“Have you heard from Elena lately? The last email we exchanged was just before finals started. Nothing serious, just wishing Care and I good luck. She was getting ready for her internship in Bulgaria.”

“We talked a few weeks ago. She’s still there.”

“So she’s not in a war-zone?”

“If she was, she probably wasn’t allowed to say.”

Bonnie felt slightly envious. She couldn’t remember the last time she spoke to Elena. Time zones and school made it hard. Caroline was even worse – not being a long-distance relationship person naturally. Yet Stefan had somehow managed a phone call to his ex.

By an association of ideas, she wondered how Caroline felt about that. Was it any wonder their relationship was so rocky?

“I guess so. I remember how crazy Care and I thought she was. Sneaking out time during our holiday to do this online language program. We didn’t realise what she was planning back then.” She shook her head ruefully.

Stefan was silent for a long time. “That’s the thing about her, wasn’t it? Once she made up her mind, she put everything she had into her decision. Stubborn to a fault.”

“Strong-willed,” Bonnie corrected. “And ballsy, too. Staying on in Europe, signing up for part-time medical school, part-time army medic internship,” Bonnie chuckled, even as her eyes became slightly misty. “This really sounds strange, but I sometimes feel that Elena is stronger as a human than she ever was as a vampire.”

“Well, she spent most of her time as a vampire being sire-bonded to Damon so what did you expect?” Stefan said.

The cold bitterness in his voice alarmed her, almost as much as the sudden hardness in his face.

“Stefan…” she said cautiously.

His gaze, which had been fixed at some unknown point over her shoulder, sharpened on her. “That’s all water under the bridge now. Did you hear back from Liv Parker about the heretic’s name?”

The subject had changed so abruptly that Bonnie had to take a moment to recover from the mental whiplash.

“I spoke to Jo, actually,” she finally said. The older sister had eventually returned her call. “The name didn’t ring any bells, but of course, we’re talking at least three generations ago. She promised to dig into it and let us know. I hope she finds something. I’ve done a lot of research; and it looks like information about the heretics and Prison Worlds are classified even amongst the Gemini.”

“All the more reason why you should have saved time and asked the coven leader directly.”

“I know what I’m doing, Stefan,” she said tersely.

“Jeremy and the Hunters are tied up in Brooklyn with all this vampire cult business. No help from them soon. That leaves your research…” He looked sceptical. “Caroline said you’ve been trying to figure out a way to fight the heretics on your own? Any progress?”

Bonnie eyed him warily. “I have some ideas.”

“We’ll need something more concrete than that soon,” he said warningly. “They’re developing a resistance to vervain. They’ve started coming out more often now. We were able to hold one off today, but who knows where next they’ll strike? Or if you’ll be so lucky if they come after you again? You need to find out why they want your Ex-”

“Stefan.” Slowly, deliberately, Bonnie placed her mug on the centre table. The action took supreme self-control and stopped her from doing something rash – like an aneurysm or a Phaesmotus Incendia. “Back off.”

He paused mid-sentence, the look on his face so comical that she would have burst out laughing if she wasn’t so ticked off.

“I was just…”

“You know I thought it was in my head. But everyone else has picked up on it, too. So just spit it out.”

“Spit out what?” he asked slowly, and the careful way he repeated his words reminded her, for the first time in a long time, that inside the body of the eternal teenager, was actually a very old-fashioned man.

“The problem you obviously have with me.”

He stared for a few moments. Then he bowed his head. “You’re mistaken, Bonnie. And I’m sorry if I gave you that impression.”

“Oh come on, Stefan!”

“I mean it, Bonnie. I’m really sorry that I’ve made you th-”

“You want me to say it?”

“Bonnie-” He still wasn’t looking at her and now his voice was half-pleading, half-warning. “Don’t-”

“Lily.”

He looked up then. His eyes were round with shock. “Lily?”

She let out an exasperated breath. “I’m sorry you lost your mom, but it wasn’t my fault she died.”

And there it was – the elephant in the room. The secret all four of them – Damon, Stefan, Elena and she – had impossibly managed to keep for over a year.

Lily Salvatore wasn’t languishing in a Prison World, as her sons had told anyone who cared to know. She had been dead since the night before Jo’s Wedding, the night she almost succeeded in murdering Bonnie.

It was the brothers’s decision to keep it a secret and at the time, it had seemed more incidental than deliberate. The only other person who had cared about the ripper besides her estranged sons and a bunch of dead heretics had been Enzo; and his loyalty to Lily had traits of the sire bond all over again. Telling him about her real fate would have led to unpredictable chaos. Additionally, Stefan had just wanted to close a painful chapter in their lives.

Damon hadn’t wanted Elena to know that she loved a man that could kill his own mother.

Or at least, that was how Elena had explained it to Bonnie in Europe, after first swearing her to secrecy.

Now with Enzo dead, the heretics back and Elena long aware of Damon’s role in ending his mother’s life, all the reasons had been rendered moot. And yet, paradoxically, the truth of Lily Salvatore’s fate still stayed secret.

(To Bonnie’s knowledge, only one other person knew the truth about what really happened to Lily Salvatore – and he held his peace for reasons best known to him.

Reflexively, her mind shied away from that line of thought.)

Stefan’s mouth twisted bitterly. “You’re the reason why Damon killed her. And if it wasn’t him, it would have been your Kai Parker.”

Blood rose up in her face. “He’s not my-” she started sharply, then took a deep breath. “I was the last straw. Lily was out of control. Don’t you dare blame me.”

“I wasn’t blaming you. I was simply stating a fact.”

“A fact? You want to talk facts? The fact is that you have some nerve getting upset over me and your mother, Stefan Salvatore. Have you forgotten what you did to mine?” She snarled.

He met her gaze head on. “Never.”

It was the first time they had ever spoken about this, she and Stefan. And Bonnie braced herself for it – the rote defense; the speech about how it had been due to Elijah’s ultimatum; how anyway it had been Damon, not him, that had snapped Abby’s neck; Stefan downplaying his role in it as he issued a well-articulated apology that meant absolutely nothing.

But none of that happened. He was silent as he looked at her, his face hiding nothing. The harshness in his gaze, the self-directed condemnation in it calmed her more than anything he could have said.

Bonnie nodded grimly. “Good.”

The tension that had risen between them these past few minutes did not abate though, just lingered on a plateau. One fitful conversation would not be enough to unpack all the years of unaired bitterness between them – starting from that fateful night where Bonnie had thought this man’s immortal life valuable enough to risk herself for his freedom.

That fateful night that Sheila Bennett had died.

Stefan sighed, breaking through her thoughts. “Lily was out of control, yes. But Damon could have been a bit more patient. I thought a few months in the dungeon… Maybe a year or so. But Kai Parker gave us no choice.”

“That’s not my fault.”

“I’m not saying it is,” he said tiredly. “This isn’t even… This has nothing to do with…” He shook his head then, laughing hollowly. “I just wish… I wish things had turned out differently. I thought my mother had been dead for over a century. And you want to know the truth? She should have stayed dead.” He sighed. “I wish you hadn’t brought her back.”

His words were like a slap across her face.

But he wasn’t even aware of the impact they had on Bonnie; as he went on, “But she came back because I had switched off my humanity. And after Lily, the heretics followed. So if anyone is to blame for all this, it’s me. If you’ve ever wondered why I went along with Damon, continued to hide the truth of her death from Caroline and everyone else… That’s why.”

For a moment, neither of them spoke. Stefan’s gaze had turned inwards, his mind wallowing in his dark thoughts. While Bonnie’s was…

Goosebumps spread all over her arms, and for the first time since she woke up, she felt the night chill.

Choosing to risk everything to save Stefan and losing her grandmother in the bargain, might have been Bonnie’s first mistake as a player in this unending supernatural battlefield her lineage had drawn her into. But it hadn’t been the last. Nor had it been the last time that her own flesh and blood had paid the price for her bad judgment. It was a thought that had managed to haunt her for years without providing any real retrospection.

Until she had been forced to spend half of a year in an empty planet with only the ghosts of her past mistakes for company.

“I just need to know we’re on the same page,” she said finally, quietly, choking back on the emotions that hovered just beneath the surface. “I was very clear when I came back. I’m not going to be a part of this if we’re going to repeat the same mistakes. Hidden agendas. Secrets. Back deals. Betrayals. I’m not sticking my neck out if I can’t trust you to have my back when it counts.”

His eyes on her were steady. “You can. You will.”

She nodded and stood up. That was as good as she was going to get.

“Good night, Stefan.” She picked up her mug.

His quiet answer followed her out of the room. The last thing she saw was the light of his phone as he turned it on. As before, the glow lit up his face, emphasising harsh lines of grief.

As she walked to her room, Bonnie found herself assailed with sombre thoughts: Being abandoned and forgotten had been the worst chapter in her already crappy life, yes but… Perhaps if it hadn’t happened to her, if she hadn’t been forced to take that time out from life and reflect on the decisions that had led her there in the first place… And more than that, if she hadn’t been made to reject those first instincts she had on her return – instincts to rationalise what she told herself were treacherous feelings towards her friends, and to re-direct her anger at anyone but them…

Perhaps, she’d still be making those same bad decisions now.

The conversation with Stefan had drained her in more ways than one, but it had also ignited something inside her. Ignoring her bed, she sat her butt on that chair and vowed she won’t get up until she found a way to fix this mess, and then finally, finally turn her back on these people once and for all. She pushed herself for a good three hours, and there was light in the sky by the time she finally got up from her desk with some semblance of satisfaction.

Before she closed her eyes though, she glanced at her phone out of habit and was pleasantly surprised to see a new message from one Elena Gilbert waiting for her.

It wasn’t long, and most of it was filled with mentions of places and people and medical stuff that went over Bonnie’s head. But it filled her with warmth, and she carried it into a long and thankfully, dreamless sleep.

April 2013

Mystic Falls

Bonnie never quite found out what brought Elena to the boarding house that afternoon, in the middle of her discussion with Damon about appropriate ways to celebrate birthdays, the nature of friendships and the ethics of attempting to murder your rescuer.

“Damon? Bonnie?”

Curse Damon and his luck. If Elena hadn’t walked in then, Bonnie would probably have aneurysmed him until he died. And not regretted it one little bit.

Instead she lifted the pain spell, keeping him still frozen, and turned on Elena.

“You… Why didn’t you tell me?” Bonnie asked, her eyes wild, her voice almost hoarse with fury.

“Tell you what?”

“About Kai,” Damon groaned, the aftershocks clearly still ringing through his head. “She found out he did you a little favour and helped on her birthday. That’s what’s got her panties all in a twist.” His voice turned mean. “Is that what this is about? The little crush you had on him before? You know BonBon, you really need to get f–“

She silenced him with an angry hex. His mouth kept moving for a few moments before he realized no sound came out. His eyes boggled comically.

Elena stared at him, then Bonnie. “Bonnie…”

“Answer me, Elena. Why. Didn’t. You. Tell. Me?” And Bonnie’s fingers clenched into a fist.

Elena gasped, clutched at her throat. “Bonnie,” she managed.

Damon shook frantically where he was, struggling against the magical hold, his eyes murderous.

For a moment, Bonnie felt like if she was standing outside herself watching this happen. A part of her was telling her to stop, that she was going too far, that these were her friends.

Another part was whispering, “They deserve worse.”

“I… didn’t… know…” Elena managed to gasp.

Bonnie loosened her grip on her friend, stared at her in shock. “How couldn’t you have known? You were there! It was your idea. Jeremy said so. Kai said so.”

Elena coughed, her voice now hoarse. “I meant I didn’t know that Damon didn’t tell you! I thought you already knew! I thought you knew and it didn’t matter!”

Bonnie staggered back and her magic slipped – her grip on both vampires falling away.

Damon was on her in a flash, his fangs out and Bonnie was just standing there, too slow to react when a blur flew between them.

Elena.

“Damon, no.”

He came to a stop inches before her, close enough that he had to stretch out his arms to brace himself from slamming into his girlfriend.

Elena stood her ground, her body rigid and immovable in front of Bonnie, her hands clenched into fists and slightly raised.

Damon sounded absolutely furious, staring at Bonnie over Elena’s shoulders, with mad eyes. “The little witch needs to learn-”

“Damon, stand down!” Elena shouted.

His eyes went from Bonnie to his girlfriend in shock. “She choked you and do you know what she did to me before?”

“You’re not touching Bonnie!”

The two vampires stared each other down for a long moment. In her heels, Elena was tall enough to look Damon right in the face.

Then he backed up, his hands out and a nasty smile on his face.

Elena took a deep breath, her body relaxing marginally. “You should have told Bonnie. I thought you already did. I would never have…” She turned to Bonnie. “I didn’t know what you both planned for Kai until we were leaving 1903. You remember that, don’t you? When we were leaving, I asked you where he was. That’s when you told me you were leaving him behind.”

Bonnie was still reeling, but she managed to say this much. “How could you think I would do something like that if I knew what he did for me?”

Stabbed him. Left him to die. Left him to be fed on by those… things.

She hadn’t known about the heretics, she told herself now, desperately. She hadn’t known she’d be leaving him to that.

“But weren’t you thrilled when you found out?” a little voice whispered inside her head.

“He hurt you, Bonnie. It doesn’t matter if he saved your life. He hurt you first.”

So has Damon! And Stefan! And you, too, Elena! You’ve all hurt me, more times than I can even remember.

And do you know the worst thing you ever did to me?

But the words only stayed in her head and all she could whisper was, “Of course, it matters, Elena.”

“Why?” Damon snapped. “He didn’t exactly waltz in here eager-Beaver to save you. We had to pay him first.”

Bonnie gasped, the laughter choking her. “By delivering a letter to his sister? That was your deal with the devil? That was the great price you paid for my life?” I’ve given up my freedom, my magic, my … Grams, my life for you all!

Elena shook her head. “Bonnie, Damon told me what Kai put you through. I didn’t know about what you planned for him in 1903, and I won’t have let you do it without knowing everything first. But … you needed to do it. You said it yourself: you needed to close that chapter in your life.”

The worst chapter in my life. Where I was abandoned and forgotten, living day after day of emptiness while the rest of you went on with your lives.

It was the worst thing that ever happened to me and in the end, a sociopath that I had killed twice did more to save me than you.

“Must be nice,” Bonnie said through frozen lips. “To be so used to people throwing their lives away for you that you think it’s something that should ever be taken for granted.”

Elena recoiled like if she had been slapped.

Damon growled. “Bonnie,” he said warningly.

For a moment the three of them stared at each other, the air thick with unspoken grievances, going back further than the present discussion.

“I didn’t deserve that,” Elena said finally, her voice quiet.

Bonnie didn’t answer.

After another long moment, Elena let out a shaky breath. “And neither does Damon. I get that you are upset that he didn’t tell you everything. But he was only trying to h-”

“He wasn’t!” Bonnie shouted, and she winced at the sob that burst out from her. “It was never about helping me! It was about getting his mother back. That was always what all this was about.”

Elena turned to stare at Damon, and he tried to look casual and outraged but it was too late.

But still she asked… redundantly. “Damon, is this true?” As if she didn’t glimpse the guilty wince on his face.

As if, after four years, anyone could still have illusions about whom Damon Salvatore was.

“The witch’s gone cuckoo. Five months of isolation has finally stolen all her marbles,” Damon sneered.

I’ll go if you go.

The words were haunting Bonnie now with a dark epiphany.

“Kai was never going to help you without me coming along,” Bonnie said, her voice shaking with the dejection. “You didn’t just need my blood for the Ascendant. You needed me to get him to help you. This whole plan to ‘give me closure’? To ‘answer all my prayers’?” Her fingers came up and both vampires tensed. But she only curved them mockingly into air quotes. “It was just a ruse to get me to do what you wanted. You used me to use Kai. You used me, Damon.”

His face shook, something like contrition wavering through the sullenness. “Maybe I was trying to do both? Get my mother out and help you? Ever thought of that?”

She covered her face with her hands and laughed into them, hollowly. “Do you know the horrible thing about knowing someone as well as I got to know you in the Prison World? It’s that at the end of it all, I don’t even have the luxury of being outraged. I can’t even be surprised because you lived down to your worst nature.”

“Watch it, Bonnie-”

“Since when have you ever tried to do anything for anyone that you weren’t getting something out of as well?” Bonnie snapped.

Elena said quietly, “That’s not fair, Bonnie. Damon did try to rescue you. It just never quite …”

“It just never quite worked out,” Bonnie finished bitterly.

All three fell silent after that. The tension in the air was unbearable, choking with resentment, guilt, and regret.

Bonnie took a deep, shaky breath and flung her head back. “I want the truth now. All of it.”

“Didn’t Wonder Wizard give you all the gritty details?” Damon asked sullenly. “How he pulled you from the brink of death with his bloody, broken hands? I don’t suppose he mentioned how I saved his life at the end of it all?”

“Jeremy told me that.”

“Score one for me, then,” he said sourly.

Bonnie shook her head, genuinely confused. “Make me understand why you did this, Damon. You knew he saved me. You knew he risked his life to do so. You knew he was changing. But you deliberately kept this from me even when you were trying to get me to see him. You came up with the idea to trap him. Why? Why would you do that? To him or to anyone?”

Damon’s face turned ugly. “Get your head on straight, witch. He did one good thing. Doesn’t erase all the asshole things he did in the past. Kai and I are not buddies. I don’t owe him a damn thing.”

Elena was staring at him, the expression on her face unreadable. He glared at her, too. “I don’t. And neither do you, Bonnie, if you know what’s good for you.”

“This is not about Kai,” Bonnie said tiredly for the second time. “It’s about…” you and me. The friendship I thought we had formed in 1994.

Kai saved my life. If you were my friend, that should have meant something. My Life should have counted for something, to you, as My Friend.

But that friendship apparently only existed in 1994. Now, she was back in the real world. Where Damon was Damon Salvatore, who got what he wanted regardless of who got hurt in the process. And Bonnie was…

Still Bonnie Bennett.

The best friend. The loyal companion. Their own personal Witch Friday. Good ol’ dependable Bonnie who could be counted on to put everyone before herself and not expect them to do the same for her.

Except for one person, though…

But she pushed the thought away.

“I said I wanted the truth,” she reminded them tiredly. “Not about Kai and my birthday. I already know that. I want to know why Lily Salvatore was in a prison world.”

Elena looked guilty, and Damon snorted. “A bit too late to start asking, isn’t it?” He sneered.

Bonnie nodded sadly. “Yeah, I know. I was all caught up with wanting to gut Kai that I didn’t even think to ask before. Which was exactly what you wanted, wasn’t it?”

Of all things he could have done, smiling was the worst. Bonnie felt sick looking at him. She glanced at Elena’s face, and was taken aback to see the same disgust she felt reflected in her friend’s gaze.

“So tell me,” Bonnie said in a voice that was low with disappointment and anger – most, if not all of it, for herself. “What kind of monster did I unleash into the world?”

June 2014

Ranger, Wyoming.

“Malachai Parker is a monster. Only a fool will take him at his word.”

Five pairs of eyes watched Patrice warily as he pushed his beer away.

The Drunken Lady was a rundown old hangout, more bar than diner. It was less than half empty, a handful of patrons, mostly locals, littered around the darkly lit space. A dolorous melody droned out of the jukebox, dulling most of the conversation.

The party of six eyed each other cautiously across the corner table as they sipped stale beer and talked terms.

When the wolves had finished their spiel, Patrice Lang glanced at the other pair of witches suspiciously. Jude hadn’t made it, the explanation for his absence shady. Now Joeb and Hannah Hunter were giving each other the kind of looks that meant no good. And if the knowing smile on Rudolph’s face meant anything, the wolves saw it, too.

Patrice glared at all of them.

“We grovel back tomorrow and I bet you he’ll murder us before we’ve even got up from our bellies.”

“You are being unreasonable, old man,” the wolf replied. “I manage my clan’s treaty with your coven because I studied the Gemini for years. The terms are fair. Your old leaders wouldn’t have been so generous.”

Hannah Hunter wrung her hands nervously. “Joshua certainly wouldn’t have. And we left with him to exile. He returned to the coven a year ago, pledged allegiance. He publicly endorses Malachai…”

“Publicly,” Patrice said meaningfully.

Hannah shifted, and gave her husband a glance. Joeb said nothing, his dark face as unreadable as ever.

Rudolph raised an eyebrow. “Something you care to share with the rest of us?”

Patrice opened his mouth to speak, but at that moment someone walking along the aisle bumped heavily into their table. Patrice sat closest to the aisle, and he got the brunt of the clumsy fool’s weight on his shoulder. He shoved the man back, and the six at the table glared in thinly-disguised distaste as the drunken biker-clad man righted himself, grunted an apology, then shuffled away.

The small encounter had brought the eyes of some of the patrons and the barkeep to them, so they waited for some time before speaking again.

“You were saying?” Rudolph prompted, after a careful glance around. “About Joshua Parker?”

“All I’m saying is you shouldn’t be too sure about his approval of his son. He took that seat on the Council to keep a close eye on the maniac, keep this coven as safe as possible with that in charge. But he’s not on Malachai’s side.”

Joeb coughed. Hannah looked panicked. “Patrice…”

Patrice glared at them. “I know to keep my mouth shut, you pair of fools. But I know what Joshua planned on the night of his daughter’s wedding. I’m not going to sit here and let these wolves tell me my own coven’s business.”

The Rudolph men said nothing, just kept staring at him with glinting eyes.

Patrice had more to say but Hannah cut in quickly. “We are so isolated up in the mountains here. It takes a while for news to reach us. You said the other witches have returned?”

The wolf nodded. “Most of them. I hear there’s a family off the continent that the Whispering Court are still searching for. But word on the street is that the majority of the witches in exile took your leader’s offer. They are gathering in Portland as we speak.”

“Why is Malachai sending wolves and fairies as emissaries to witches?” Patrice asked belligerently. “They could have sent a Councillor, an Elder, heck even some Envoy who would have done this faster, tracked us down better, treated us with respect.”

After another quick glance at her silent husband, Hannah nodded in agreement. “It is somewhat of an insult. No offence,” she said hastily as the two silent wolves growled softly.

Rudolph merely raised an eyebrow. “When you see your leader, ask him. We are all allies these days. Maybe he trusts his allies more than he trusts the other witches in his coven.”

Once more Hannah and Joeb exchanged glances.

“As isolated as you are, surely you heard of the deaths of some of your own.”

Despite himself, a shiver of apprehension ran up Patrice’s spine.

“Until last year, my pack had never even heard of the word ‘heretic’. Your dirty Gemini secrets are out for the rest of us to wonder at.” Rudolph gave them a feral grin. “And with witches being targeted... My people have a saying about the lone wolf who wanders away from his pack.”

“Two dead witches is hardly a crisis,” Patrice muttered, his gruff voice masking his own misgivings. “Those monsters haven’t ventured out of the South since they re-appeared. Gerald and Victor were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Hannah and Joeb gave him sharp glances that he didn’t register.

He had heard, of course, of the deaths of the Briggs. They all had, the witches in exile. They were scattered across the continent, but they still managed to stay in contact in a make-shift Circle of sorts. The death of the mild-mannered couple had been a shock to Patrice. Despite his private thoughts about their lifestyle, and some begrudging towards O’Sullivan becoming a Chief Envoy, Patrice had liked both men well enough. They had all advanced to Envoys at the same time as young wizards. With the Stewart sisters, they had been part of the group that served alongside Joshua and Martha Parker before Joshua’s Ascension to Praetor and they had continued to work together for decades after, and even beyond the usurpation.

Their murders had hit Judith hard, he remembered, and now some of the things she had said before she left ran through his head.

“Two witches?” one of the two silent wolves had spoken up. He turned to his leader with a question on his face. “I thought there were three.”

It was then that Patrice noticed the looks his fellow witches were shooting at him. Looks of pity and sorrow.

Alarm bells rang through his head. “What?” he spat out.

Hannah held his hand gently. But it was Joeb that spoke. “Judith is dead, Patrice. She was murdered in Virginia by the same heretics that killed Gerald and Victor.”

He slumped back in his seat, shock like a tidal wave hitting him so hard that the wind and the spirit were completely knocked out of him.

“You were up in the mountains then. We got a call from the Sheriff’s department from the town where she died.”

The message on his phone. He had never got round to returning the call.

“We’re taking the deal, Patrice,” Joeb continued. “The wolves have it right. This is not the time to stand apart from the coven. Hannah and I are returning to Portland tomorrow. Jude already left. We decided days ago, but we wanted to be here with you when the wolves spoke to you. Give you a chance to hear them out for yourselves.”

Patrice swallowed against the harsh lump in his throat. Judith. Dead.

“Malachai Parker is a mad man,” he said dully through the roar of noise in his head. “You’re running from monsters to dragons.”

“That’s not what we’ve been hearing from those back at home. Truth is, we’ve been thinking of doing this for a while now, long before the heretics turned up. Away from the coven, witches are always easy prey to vampires who would use us. And... Malachai sorted out the Genovas, the Lovegoods. Even Joshua couldn’t stand up to them. I think we may have been wrong about him. Hannah does, too.”

“Joshua said-”

Joeb shook his head. “I know what Joshua has been saying. Or rather, what we’ve been told he’s been saying. But Joshua’s on the inside, safe and sound in the heart of the coven while the rest of us are straggling out on our own here. Hannah and I, we’ve lived a pretty good life. We’d like a pretty good death as well.”

Patrice watched as his friends stretched out their hands to each other. Hannah pulled out her knife, and nicked her husband’s palm; then he did the same to her. The Rudolph leader pulled out two sealed scrolls from his jacket and placed them into the bloodied palms.

The sight of the red two-faced seal of Castor and Pollux sent an unexpected pang through Patrice’s heart.

“Compliments of the Gemini Praetor,” Thomas Rudolph said gravely.

The Hunters grasped the scrolls and the seal vanished in a flash of blood-red smoke.

“You have twenty-four hours to present yourself before the Council,” Rudolph said, in the same formal tones.

“Not a problem,” Joeb said. He glanced at Patrice.

He looked guilty, Patrice thought wrathfully, his shock fast receding into temper. He and his wife. As well they should.

“Patrice…”

“You’re fools,” Patrice hissed. He stood up, pushing the table with enough force that it slammed into the wolves.

They growled, eyes glowing.

A few patrons looked their way. Hannah and Joeb looked around anxiously, but Patrice and the wolves ignored them.

“If you turn down this offer, you’re fair game to everyone out there. The heretics. Even us,” Rudolph snarled. The genial façade had gone. Now the man that stared up at Patrice was all pointed teeth and canine eyes. All wolf.

For one fleeting moment, Patrice almost liked him.

“Is that a threat?”

The three wolves smiled, fangs peeking through their lips.

Patrice leaned forward. “You’re messenger boys, aren’t you? Well, here’s message from me to Malachai:

“f*ck you.”

The wolves rumbled. Even the Hunters looked scandalized.

“Patrice,” Hannah said warningly.

But he wasn’t done. “Tell him I helped his father put him away twenty years ago and I am prepared to do so again if he tries to come after me. I see any of your faces again and I’ll skin you and hang you on my wall. You too, Hunter. Hannah.”

The wolves were rising, their faces twisting. Hannah and Joeb held hands frantically and he could feel their magic spiking, the edge of the shield they were raising.

Fools and cowards, he thought with one last contemptuous look at them, and with a wave of cloaking magic, he marched out of the diner.

His truck was close to the road, further than he’d like with werewolves at his back and he kept his cloak high. He didn’t sense them approaching, though and reached the vehicle with nothing but his own mounting anger, grief and – yes – fear accompanying him.

He slammed into the driver’s seat and placed his hands on the wheel.

They were shaking.

Gerald. Victor. Judith.

Gone within weeks of each other.

Flashes of memory of their time as Envoys passed through his head, and he swallowed down his grief.

Memories.

Envoys.

Messages.

The message in his phone.

And that was when it hit Patrice. So clearly that he was shocked that it only just occurred to him.

Frantically, he fumbled with his phone as he started the car. He found Betty Stewart’s number and was about to start dialling and driving when he realized a motorbike was blocking his car.

“What the-” he cursed. He tossed the phone aside and jumped out. The bike was abandoned and he was about to use magic to smash it out of his path when he spotted somebody weaving towards him, bottle in hand. Of course, he thought contemptously, recognizing the man coming. The drunk from earlier.

“Get this heap of junk out of my way or I’ll tow it down,” he roared.

The man may or may not have heard him. He still walked at the same stumbling pace, half-mumbling, half-humming. As he came nearer, Patrice realized with outrage that the idiot was singing.

He reached out anxiously with magic but the werewolves and the Hunters were still in the bar. Probably discussing the particulars of how to prostrate before Joshua’s psychopath boy, he thought scornfully. If they only knew…

The drunk was close enough now to see Patrice standing by his vehicle. He stumbled to a stop, and peered at him through a dirty beard that covered half of his face.

“Problem, mister?”

“Get your bike out of my way.”

“My bike?” He blinked at Patrice. Then he turned to his bike. A look of amazement crossed his face. “Well whatcha know? That’s me bike there. Ain’t she a beauty?”

Patrice had had enough, he reached out to the man, his hand clapping over his upper arm, a spell that would put him into nightmarish sleep already starting in his head.

The man swung his other arm – the one with the bottle – and sent it crashing into Patrice’s skull.

He felt the shock before he felt the pain, and he stepped back a full foot, before he fell to his knees. Still dazed, he put his hand on his temple and saw blood.

He snorted softly, even as his vision suddenly, drastically dimmed. “You picked the wrong old man to hustle, fool.”

“More like,” and there was no slur in this biker’s voice, no thick highlander accent in his voice. His words were sharp and clear and cut through Patrice’s daze enough to make him look up in alarm. “You picked the wrong Praetor to piss off.”

Patrice sent out a wave of magic, and felt it slam back into him, pain ricocheting from the base of his neck to the balls of his feet.

What the -?

The ‘biker’ yanked him to his feet, so that they were level enough that his fist could go flying into Patrice’s face. Patrice dodged, his jaw turning right into the sucker punch that came from the biker’s other fist.

He shouted this time, falling back flat on his back.

He tried and failed to get up.

A pair of boots approached his face. He barely managed to turn his head, his vision now rapidly receding, to see the man bend low enough to look at him.

Malachai Parker – the biker façade slipping off so completely that Patrice felt a shiver of alarm at the seamlessness of the glamour – was staring at him with a diabolical grin.

“So there’s this washed-up old-timer that’s been talking crap about me for as long as I remember; and word on the street is that I’d find him here.” The grin widened, and the sight of it almost paralysed Patrice Lang, sixty-year-old practicing wizard with fear. “Hey, Patrice. What’s good?”

Chapter 12: monsters

Chapter Text

May 2013

Kai half-expected Bonnie to be gone by the time he came back, was already steeling himself for the disappointment of meeting the hotel suite abandoned. So when he felt her aura radiating through the door, and pushed past it to see her standing in the cutest, softest, fluffiest white bathrobe in the small kitchenette, fumbling with the coffee machine, he had to turn away for a moment to hide the grin of sheer glee that threatened to split his face into two.

She must have caught it all the same, because when he turned back, she was frowning up at him. “I don’t suppose it occurred to you to get some of my stuff when you ported back to your flat?” Her eyes made a quick once-over of his new jeans and tee.

Her flippant question did nothing to hide the way her face had coloured slightly during that quick once-over and he smirked broadly, putting a hand over his chest. “You thought I’d break into your college dorm and raid through your lady-things? What do you take me for?”

He hadn’t even planned the innuendo. It just slipped out. And he saw with no small gratification the way her eyes darkened, before she turned her gaze back at the machine, fidgeting.

“Do you need any help?”

“No,” she snapped.

“Alrighty,” he retorted, biting back on the flash of hurt. He hesitated for a half-second, then he came close enough to lean by the counter beside her, where he could better enjoy the view of her flawless skin, her heart shaped, makeup less face, her hair black from her shower, and curly too so that her neck was exposed.

“I ordered room service before I left. They should be here in,” he glanced at his watch, “a half hour or so. With coffee,” he added pointedly.

She didn’t deign to respond to that, just bent closer to her task, exposing another inch or so of her upper back. The urge to bury his face against her neck was unbearable and he discreetly, held onto the counter for dear life, knowing from the way her body had stiffened when he came nearer that she won’t welcome it.

Not at first, maybe.

She said nothing. Kai, never one to be comfortable with long silences, went on, “I could have cooked up something myself but I’m paying for bed and breakfast so…”

Bonnie glanced at him from beneath her long lashes and his breath caught at the flash of green intensity. “Yeah, because the last time I got a home-cooked meal from you, it ended so well for you.” Her voice was as sweet and cool as poison.

His grip tightened on the counter, this time because he had to fight the urge to punch himself in the face for his own stupidity.

She set her jaw, her chin lifting slightly in that characteristic gesture of defiance. “About last night…” she started, and there was nothing about the detached, resolved tone of her voice that he liked.

“And the evening before that, and the early hours of this morning,” he jibed, quickly cutting off her words.

It was so gratifying to see her face color with a different emotion from anger.

“If you want to get technical,” she said curtly, making a show of returning her attention to the machine that she had probably destroyed already.

“Oh, I do,” he murmured, inching nearer. “I want to get very, very technical with you…”

“Kai!” she gasped.

It did something to him, hearing her say his name. Burnt right through him, and for a moment it was all he could do not to throw himself at her.

“What?” he said, his voice strangled.

“What happened doesn’t change anything,” she muttered.

His heart, already unsteady, started beating erratically, and he knew there was no hiding the emotions on his face.

It was a good thing Bonnie wasn’t looking at him then, her gaze fixed on the machine in front of her, her shoulders tightening with clear resolve. “Yes, I get that you’ve changed… become this new person… But this… this was a mistake. Just because-”

“Got it,” he said tightly. She threw him another quick look, then away.

Kai forced the muscles in his face to unclench, forced his mind to push past the wall of panic that was threatening to overshadow it. He knew she’d try to pull something like this. Had thought about it during his short trip this morning. At least she wasn’t playing the ‘Jeremy Gilbert’ card. That was another thought that had crossed Kai’s mind, and curse his new-found empathy for feeling the smidgen of guilt about that. But Bonnie hadn’t once mentioned that name in the past 72 hours and Kai wasn’t going to be the idiot that brought up her ex.

So that meant her reservations had nothing to do with the other man but just Kai himself. Which, yeah, was a pretty huge mountain of a roadblock, but as the past 72 hours had proven, not as insurmountable as he once thought.

It was up to him to change her mind.He watched her face now, her eyes narrowed, her lips screwed with resolve as she fought with the coffee maker that she was clearly using to distract herself from the tension that was between them. He remembered her looking just like this in 1994, in the time she struggled to find her magic back. Even then he had wanted to reach out a hand, smoothen out the crumples from her face.

“Let me help you with that,” he said brusquely, and in one swift movement, he had trapped her between his body and the counter, ignoring her sharp gasp as his long arms went around her fluffy robe to rescue the poor coffee machine. His hands brushed against hers, slowly, deliberately as he fiddled with the device, until she snatched her hands away, pressing them flat on the counter in front of her.

Her magic was flashing across her skin, rushing at his own, and he could smell brimstone in the air, as the charge built up between them.

“Kai…”

“It’ll just take a moment,” he said, with a casualness he didn’t feel as his magic made quick work of the device, the parts pulling apart to float in the air, then falling back into place. He pressed the button and it whirred into life. When he switched it off, the silence that followed was almost deafening.

Bonnie broke it with a shaky sigh. “OK, that’s-”

“No thank you?” he murmured, moving just a fractional inch closer, lowering his face nearer to the skin that was practically begging him to touch it.

“Kai…”

“Shh…” He said, and finally gave into his earlier urge to bury his face in her neck. He felt, more than he heard, her breath catch in her throat and he pressed against her, closing the microscopic space between their bodies so that she could feel just how badly he wanted her.

“We can’t…”

“Why not?” he demanded, his mouth open against her skin, her scent driving him mad but all he did was stay in place, his hands sliding to cover her own, the machine completely forgotten.

For a moment, they were silent, she was frozen, while he was fighting the urge to rock his hips into the amazing ass in front of him. He could feel her response to him, in the way she trembled, the little wet breaths she inhaled, the rapid beat of her pulse against his cheek, but more than that, in the way her magic rose to her skin to ignite against his own, little sensory explosions setting off between the two of them. He almost came from the sheer heat of it all.

Then she sighed deeply, and she shifted, slowly, deliberately against him.

Stars flashed across his eyes, and he only barely heard what she said. “You want more from me than I’m ready to give you.”

Now that she had given him permission, albeit overtly, his hands made quick work of the ties of her bathrobe, and his hands were finally, finally, on the smooth skin of her stomach. He felt her muscles clench under his touch, but his fingers moving quickly until they were brushing the apex of her thighs. She gasped, and spread her legs apart and he felt it again – that sense of awe that had hit him the first time, that she was letting him do this, that this was finally happening.

The little blood left in his brain was barely enough to string words, let alone form sentences, but he was fighting for his life here. “All I want is for you to give me another chance,” he said – lied, really because oh, he wanted so much more from her. More than he had even realized at first when the constant thoughts of her had threatened to drive him mad, and he thought that an unburdening of his new-found emotions was all that he needed to exorcise himself of her ghost. But time passed and he just kept wanting more. And she had betrayed him and hurt him and still he hadn’t been able to stop, hadn’t been able to not hold onto her coming back for him, and feeling so f*cking grateful to her for that. And now they had finally had sex and he realized that even that was not going to satisfy him.

That was his problem, wasn’t it? He was a greedy bastard. He wanted all of her.

“Give me a chance, Bonnie,” he groaned, his lips tracing from her earlobe down her cheek, as his fingers finally slid into slick, hot, wetness of her. She moaned, her eyes falling shut as her head fell back to land on his chest. He now had an amazing view down her front, and not for the first time in the past 24 hours, he wandered if he wasn’t still trapped in 1903 and having an incredible series of dreams.

But this was no dream. This was reality, him in this hotel suite, finger-f*cking Bonnie Bennett as she rubbed her remarkable ass against his throbbing dick while the curtains and the windows rattled with the force of the wild magic that was igniting between them.

“Please, Bonnie,” he begged, his lips just pressing the corner of her mouth. The angle and their height difference made it impossible for him to get close enough to kiss her, and he wanted to, badly, but just as badly, he wanted to keep rocking against her, and keep feeling her muscles clenching around his fingers.

Then she was turning around in a swift, smooth motion that kept his fingers inside her as she reached to wrap her fingers through his hair and bring his mouth to hers. From the corner of his half-closed eyes, he saw something explode and he wandered if it was the coffee machine but whatever worry that caused vanished in the wake of consuming her mouth with his own. The kiss was as frantic as their hands on each other. In minutes, his tee and jeans were in burnt shreds on the floor, and her robe was a soft, fluffy pool of white beside his clothes as she hopped onto the counter, lifting her knees while she pushed him down to his own with her fingers in his hair.

Then the scent, feel, taste of her flooded his senses, short-circuiting his brain and for the next thirty minutes, there was no talk of regrets, of things that did not matter, just Bonnie, Bonnie, Bonnie, and her moaning, then screaming his name.

August 2013

Rijswijk, Netherlands

“So… on a scale of one to ten.”

“You really want to go there?”

“Truth or dare, Elena.”

Elena sighed heavily, made a show of swirling her wine glass, then sighing again and made a show of flipping her hair. Which was ridiculous considering that her hair was now shorter than Bonnie’s old bob.

By the end of it, the other two girls were ready to strangle her.

“Elena!”

She burst out laughing, her eyes sparkling like her glass. “Fine! On a scale of one to ten, I’ll say… thirteen.”

Caroline fall back, deflated. “Wow. That good?”

Elena grinned smugly, her cheeks reddening ever so slightly. Whether from the memory or from the wine, Bonnie couldn’t tell. “Yep. Stefan is very …” She cleared her throat. “… attentive to detail.”

Bonnie hooted and the other two girls burst out laughing.

It was their last night in Europe and they were getting wasted. Not that that was much different from a lot of their nights in Europe– well, a lot of Bonnie’s nights in Europe – but they were doing it in the privacy of their shared cottage for a change, and not some seedy bar.

The seedy bars had been fun, Bonnie thought, her mind wandering a little as Caroline pestered Elena for more details. And dancing on tables was something she was never going to regret doing. But this, this pocket of time with her girls, was even more precious.

Especially with the sense of finality that hung heavy over them, even as they steadily drank their way through the night.

“But come on, you had the whole humanity-switch off sex spree,” Elena was saying now.

Caroline shrugged and it was a testimony to how wasted they all were that a taboo topic had been so casually raised.

“Not having emotions makes the kind of feelings you need … well, that I need to enjoy sex… mostly absent.” She shrugged again.

Elena shuddered. “Tell me about it.” Her eyes cut to Bonnie, and despite the glasses she had consumed, her eyes sharpened. “You’re awfully quiet, Ms. Bennett. It’s your turn.”

“Oooh,” Caroline said, rubbing her hands together. Or trying to. She kept missing them, and ended up fist-bumping the air instead. “This is good. Was it Henri from Belgium or Roberto the Italian?”

“Your guess is as good as mine because all their names are jumbled up in my head,” Bonnie retorted, sipping her glass.

Elena coughed. “Now that I think about it, I will plead the Fifth for Bonnie.” Over Caroline’s cries of ‘No Fair!’ Elena continued, “Because Jeremy is in the running here and depending on Bonnie’s answer, I’ll be either offended or nauseated.”

Bonnie leaned over and clinked glasses with Elena. “Smart move.”

Caroline glared at both of them. “Well, with all due respect, Big Sister, I doubt it’s Jeremy,” she snapped, “or someone in Europe, now that I think about it. Remember after Jo’s wedding, Elena? When after two days of worrying and wondering where the eff she was, Bonnie showed up with Jo’s brother? That hawwwwt specimen of a man. What was his name? What was his name?”

“Unless it’s a she or two,” Elena cut in, talking over Caroline’s words like if she hadn’t heard her. “Those girls, Nora and Freya? Just how up close and personal did you guys get?”

Bonnie made a show of rolling her eyes but inside, her heart was pounding and she reached for the bottle, and filled her glass with shaky hands. “Give it a rest, Elena.”

“I just want to know. For science. Since we lost a lot of easy money in Greece because Miss Prude here refused to make out with me.”

“I’m sorry that I didn’t think pandering to a couple of frat boys was worth a few lousy euros.”

“A few thousand lousy euros.”

“Bonnie, that was total fail,” Caroline declared, shaking her head. “Especially after hooking up with your groupies. You can make out with some random chicks but not with us, your BFFs?”

“I did not hook up with Freya and Nora!” Bonnie declared, half-laughing.

“So you admit you hooked up with Freya or Nora?”

“Care, I didn’t know you felt this way… I mean… you know I love you… as a friend…”

Elena snorted, choking on her wine.

Caroline waved her glass threateningly. “Really, Bonnie? Really? You just ditched us for a week in the middle of Vienna to run off and not have a lesbian threesome?”

“I needed some air. You two were getting on my nerves, and spoiling my fun. Elena broke a bottle on my date’s head, for goodness’ sake.”

“That was bad-ass, by the way,” Caroline said, leaning over to hi-five Elena. “Wish I had been there.”

“Thank everything that you weren’t,” Elena retorted. “Bonnie and her groupies were dancing on the table. Without underwear. It wasn’t pretty.”

“The f*ck-load of euros that we got beg to differ. Plus open invitation to all the bars on the Strait.” Bonnie pumped a fist up and whooped.

“OK, so then you had no problem with pandering?”

The night continued in pretty much the same vein, as they all relived the best and the worst of their time in Europe. The bottles finally ran out and now, too wasted to navigate to their respective beds, they managed to drag down a duvet and cover themselves, huddling on the floor together.

There was time when the duvet would have fitted them with spare, but now Caroline’s feet stuck out and one side of Elena’s body was cold. It was Bonnie, snug against the wall that was the most comfortable.

“Remember when Bonnie gave me a black eye?” Elena whispered.

“You deserved it!”

“Like you deserved Care biting you?” Elena retorted.

“Why did you have to bring that up again?” Caroline yelled. “Bonnie, I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

“Oh get over it, Care. We all took shots at each other. Elena snapped your neck.”

“I still don’t know how she did that!” Caroline shouted. She was a loud drunk. “Oh my god, you are so freakishly strong!”

All of them burst out laughing then, at nothing in particular. Then they fell silent, drifting slowly.

“Are you ever going to come back?” Bonnie wondered.

She didn’t realize she had asked the question out loud until Elena answered, “I’ll always be with you. Here.” She touched her heart, then shifting awkwardly, she reached over to touch Caroline’s, then Bonnie’s.

Bonnie swallowed the lump in her throat. Beside her, Caroline was already sniffling.

“I’m going to miss you so much!” Caroline shouted.

“Shhh,” Elena said softly, but whether she was comforting her or trying to get her to quieten down, Bonnie didn’t know. Elena was mumbling something to Caroline. Something about Stefan. Or Matt. It was hard to keep track of the guys they had shared. The conversation barely registered in Bonnie’s head, most of it not making a lot of sense to her in her inebriated state.

She had probably even fallen asleep all the way when she heard Elena’s voice again. “Pssst. Bonnie. Pssst.”

“What?”

“There’re still two more weeks until the end of summer,” Elena said, her voice sounding surprisingly lucid. “Enough time to go to Portland and back.”

Bonnie laughed softly, sadly. “Bad idea, Elena.”

“Why?” Elena sounded almost as sad as Bonnie felt. When Bonnie didn’t answer, Elena pressed on, “Because he was a monster? He changed, Bonnie.”

Bonnie swallowed the lump that threatened to choke her. Could barely get the words past her throat. “Elena. Stop.” And because she was drunk, and it was the last night in Europe and tomorrow would be the first of many days, weeks, years that she won’t see her childhood friend again –

(but not for him, never for him)

– tears slipped past her lids.

“Bonnie.”

“He didn’t change,” she sobbed in the dark. “I thought he had, but he didn’t. He’s still a-”

“A monster. So what? He can be your monster, Bonnie.”

“I don’t need any monsters,” Bonnie thought sadly. “I’m monster enough for me.”

And once again, she must have spoken out loud because Elena reached over Caroline’s sleeping body, to entwine her fingers with Bonnie’s. “We’re all monsters, Bonnie.”

“Not you, Elena. You’re human now.”

She could hear her friend’s head shaking. “We’reallmonsters. In the dark, when our backs are against the wall, when the people we love are in danger, when we think we’ve got nothing to lose, and revenge is all that matters. We’re all capable of being monsters – human, witch, vampire, or werewolf. It’s not what wearethat makes us monsters, it’s what wecan do.Have done.”

Her voice trailed off. There was a long moment of weighty, guilty silence, as goose-bumps crawling on Bonnie’s flesh as she fought her mind to not remember…

“So we’re a perfect pair, aren’t we?”

When Elena spoke again, Bonnie almost gasped in relief.

“There’s nothing you can’t move past, if you want to. Look at us. Look at everything we said and did to each other this summer.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Look at everything I’ve done to you. Bonnie, I almost killed you once. I told you once that I didn’t deserve that. What you said to me. I was wrong. I deserved worse.”

Bonnie didn’t say anything. There was nothing to be said.

“But Kai… Kai did more to bring you back than any of us did.” Elena breathed deeply, the admission painful even now, probably always. “And even before that, before the Merge, before he got his emotions, he was fixated on you.”

Bonnie scoffed.

“Don’t pretend you didn’t know. Did I ever tell you how, back when he was… well, evil, he torture-practiced on me and spent most of the time talking about you?”

“…is that supposed to be a point in his favour?”

“You were on his mind even then. He couldn’t shake you off. Even when he couldn’t understand why. And when he got his emotions back…”

“He didn’t get emotions back. It’s not the humanity switch.”

“It isn’t? He didn’t have emotions and was dangerous. He got emotions and was a mess. Sounds exactly like a humanity switch to me. And” – she raised a hand as Bonnie tried to speak – “between the two of us, only one person is qualified to know.”

Bonnie looked away. “You make it sound so simple, but it’s not. He… I… We aren’t… we can’t…” She took a deep, shaky breath. “What if we make each other monsters? What then?” Her voice hardened, challenging. “What if we bring out the worst in each other and everyone else gets caught in the crossfire?”

“Then I think that if two people are so destructive when they’re on opposite sides, it might be the most important thing in the world that they stand together.”

Disbelieving, bitter laughter surprised itself out of Bonnie. “My God, Elena…”

The grip on Bonnie’s hand tightened, literally pulling her attention and surprising her into silence. There was a strangely earnest, almost pleading strain in Elena’s dark eyes.

“Bonnie, listen to me. That short time after the wedding, you were… Well, you weren’t exactly happy, but you looked like if you were going to be. I’ve known you all your life and I’ve never once seen you come close to that. Not with Jeremy. Not ever.”

“Wow. That’s comforting-”

“It made me happy, Bonnie! Knowing you had that waiting around the corner for you. It made everything worth it. Don’t throw it away.”

Even with her pain, and drowsiness, and alcohol, something in Bonnie – call it her Elena-switch – flickered at that. “Made every what worthwhile?”

Elena was silent.

“Elena?”

Elena sighed. “Going away. Leaving Mystic Falls. You all. I thought I was leaving you in safe hands.”

The memory of Kai’s hands suddenly sent a rush of heat through Bonnie, and she looked at the wall, and snorted with laughter even as the tears kept pouring down her cheeks.

Elena’s fingers left Bonnie’s and then she felt them on her face. “You’ve been such a good friend to me, Bonnie. I love you so much. I need to know you’ll be happy someday.”

It only made the tears run faster. “I will.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.” She swallowed her sobs enough to say, “I love you, too, Elena. Be safe here, OK?” She sighed. “And I’m sorry I hurt your feelings when I didn’t make out with you at the bar.”

Long after she fell asleep, and for many weeks after that, she could still hear Elena’s surprised laugh echoing in her head.

June 2014

Whitmore

“Rise and shine!”

Bonnie’s eyes bleared open and then shut back immediately at the sight of Caroline’s overly bright smile.

“Go away, Caroline.”

There was a huff, then she felt strong hands clamp around her arms and shake her.

“Hey!” she yelled, eyes still closed and hoping this was all a bad dream.

“Bonnie! Get up!”

Her eyes re-opened reluctantly, and she finally got a good look at Caroline’s jogging outfit.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

“Nope. You asked me to put you on a schedule this summer, remember?”

Bonnie groaned with regret at her foolishness. “Caroline, I barely got any sleep last night. My body is three hours out of sync.”

“And if you don’t force yourself back into our time-zone, you’ll be out of it for days. Vampires don’t need workouts. Witches do. Now say thank you and get up!”

Bonnie moaned plaintively. “Go away!”

In a half-second, Caroline had flown across the room and opened all the window blinds. The bright light seemed to tear right through Bonnie’s eyes and she sat up with a yell.

“Get up, Bonnie! You know you’ll love it the moment you start moving.”

There was no stopping Caroline Forbes once she was in this mode. Bonnie knew this from long, sad experience. So slowly, miserably, grumbling with every inch, she crawled out of bed; after a trip to the bathroom – Caroline drill-sergeanting her loudly and obnoxiously through the door – she pulled on the running outfit that her friend had already laid out and dragged her ass out of the room, and through her front door.

They were already in the elevator, when her tired brain finally woke up and registered the still-ruffled sofa and pillow she had passed by in the living room. “Where’s Stefan?” she asked.

“He was taking a shower when we left,” Caroline said curtly in a voice that brooked no further question, as the lift opened.

Huh. “Looks like he spent the night in the living room,” Bonnie said, not giving a damn about Caroline’s voice.

“That was the plan,” Caroline deadpanned.

Bonnie decided to drop it – for now.

They were already outside then, and the early morning coolness hit Bonnie’s face, waking her even further.

“Get your ass moving, Bennett!” Caroline yelled, shouldering Bonnie as she kicked into a jog.

“Ow,” Bonnie muttered, rubbing her shoulder; but she twisted her baseball cap around her head and took off.

Caroline was obviously running far slower than she could, but still fast enough for Bonnie to take a while to catch up with her and match her pace. Much as Bonnie loathed admitting it, it took mere minutes before her body moved from grumbling slouch-mode and entered ‘the zone’. The wind was in her face, delightfully cooling her heated skin. Her Nikes pounded on the pavement alongside Caroline’s, and her own long, deep breaths were more music to her ears than the stream of hip hop sounds from an mp3 player.

“I told you,” Caroline yelled, grinning at her friend, no doubt smelling the endorphins that were rushing through Bonnie’s veins, intoxicating the witch more than any of those binge-o-manic nights in Europe had.

“Shut up, vampire freak,” Bonnie yelled back, and Caroline huffed.

“Just for that I won’t tell you all the latest campus gossip.”

Bonnie scoffed. “Yeah, right.” Caroline would implode if she even tried.

And sure enough, it didn’t take long before the blonde broke her word – ‘to put Bonnie out of her misery’ – and started a running commentary of the latest campus gossip, which was surprisingly still very juicy even during the summer break.

They wove round their usual circuit through campus, and waved at the few familiar faces that remained over the summer. A particularly cute boy from Bonnie’s Occult Studies class whistled long and low as they jogged past him. Caroline actually did a 360, still running, to wave back at him, making Bonnie splutter as she laughed and panted at the same time.

They jogged past the old student cafeteria and its ‘marked for demolition’ sign. A new modern cafeteria on the other side of the block had been opened at the start of summer, and this plot was going to be turned into a park. All courtesy of the new owners of Whitmore who seemed to be constantly revamping the real estate on campus. Bonnie sighed nostalgically. She had pulled many overnighters at the campus library during the year; and she usually popped over at the cafeteria before returning to her flat or going to an early morning class. Sometimes, she found a familiar face to sit with and she’d catch up on the latest campus gossip herself – which professors were sleeping together (or with a student), the odds on Friday’s game, even more pertinent news like politics and world affairs would come up.

They were jogging back now, the apartment building looming ahead, and were moving slow enough to have a two-sided conversation. Bonnie waved a hand at the Deputy’s cars parked at a reserved spot.

“Someone’s not abusing their parking privileges,” she observed wryly.

Caroline grinned. “Perks of the job.”

Bonnie snorted.

Caroline ran into her, making Bonnie almost lose her balance. “Ow! Watch it, clumsy vampire!”

“So what’s up with you and Mattie?”

Bonnie slowed to a walk, rubbing her side. “We plan on going to the morgue to look at the body of that witch that died while I was away. We’ve done it for all the victims so far. Nothing ever comes out of it…” She trailed off at the exasperated look on Caroline’s face. “What?”

Caroline shoved at her again. “You really don’t know?”

“All I know is that the next time you run into me, I’m going to fry your brains!”

Caroline shook her head and threw up her hands. “You are hopeless, Bonnie Bennett.”

What the hell?

But no matter how much Bonnie kept pestering, firing question after question at her friend as they marched into the building and went up the lift, Caroline stayed mute. Verbally, that was. She was very loud with her sighs, the dramatic head shaking, and the narrow-eyed ‘you-are-so-hopeless’ glances she kept throwing at Bonnie.

By the time they were entering the flat, Bonnie was this close to aneurysming the other girl for real. She got distracted at the sound of familiar voices coming from the kitchen, where apparently Stefan’s, Damon’s, Tyler’s and Matt’s. Caroline, whose vampire hearing must have picked up on the others much sooner, had already speed-walked to her room, leaving Bonnie to trudge into her own, and a much-needed shower. The cool water was a balm to her sore, slightly out of shape muscles, and by the time she was dressed in her shorts and loose blouse, she had forgotten about her friend’s weirdness, and was already planning her day.

Her first instinct was to drift towards the Grimoires on her table, avoid the others completely and put finishing touches on the plan that had germinated before she slept. But her thoughts of studying were arrested by a sudden, amazingly pleasant smell that wafted into her room. As if on cue, her stomach rumbled. Almost blindly, Bonnie left her room, and followed her nose to what it recognised as the aroma of rich pastries, and even richer coffee. It lured her towards the kitchen, and she could hear voices coming from within:

“And that was the first and last time, I saw the insides of a creature with two sets of guts,” said Matt.

“You’re very sure that was the last time, Donovan? You got a crystal ball hidden somewhere in that utility belt of yours?” That was Tyler, talking with his mouth full. Bonnie made a face.

“Come on. Two dragons in one lifetime? I think your bad luck only runs with women.” That was Damon’s voice, with a slur that said he was having his usual breakfast of bourbon.

“What would you know?” Tyler countered promptly. “You weren’t even there. Had to make a sudden trip out of state, my ass. You turned tail and ran.”

“Watch it, Lockwood or I’ll be tasting Stefan’s cooking the best way I like it – intravenously.”

“You’re not scary anymore, Damon,” Matt retorted, lazily. “Not after we met Demon Santa.”

“You know who else met it?” Tyler added. “Enzo. He was the one who stuck around and saved all our asses while Stefan here rescued Caroline. Can you believe it, Donovan?”

“Still can’t. If anyone had told me that it’d be Enzo that I’d owe my life to someday…”

There was a moment of silence. Bonnie, who had paused just outside the door, felt a small pang herself. She and Damon’s old friend had barely interacted after her return from 1994. But he had proved his worth to the gang in his own way.

Matt continued, “I was lucky to live to tell the tale. I still can’t quite figure out how I did. I can still smell its ghastly breath as its jaws closed…”

“Care to join us, Bon or are you just going to keep lurking outside the door?” Damon asked suddenly.

Bonnie rolled her eyes and strolled into the kitchen

“Lovely breakfast conversation guys,” she muttered, pointedly ignoring him and making a beeline for the coffee pot.

He was leaning against the other door in his typical black tee and jeans, and waved his bottle at her, leering at her legs out of habit. Stefan nodded at her from where he stood in front of the stove, a prim flower-patterned apron over the slacks he slept in, and that explained the small crowd that converged in the kitchen.

And probably why Caroline was probably sitting this get-together out. Not for the first – or last time – she wondered what was going on with her best friend and the Salvatore junior.

Tyler and Matt were in uniform, sitting at the small table. They looked up when she entered. Tyler grinned his good morning but Matt frowned.

“Where’ve you been?” he asked curtly.

Stefan sighed heavily.

“Jogging with Caroline,” Bonnie said, surprised at the attitude.

“Just like I said already,” Stefan added lowly while Damon snorted into his drink.

Matt scowled at the vampires, then at Bonnie, surprising her even further. “When you didn’t answer your phone, I got worried.”

“I left it in the flat. Didn’t think I needed it with Caroline.”

“Well, a crazy heretic almost killed you yesterday, Bonnie. So excuse your friends for worrying a bit.”

Bonnie rolled her eyes. “You didn’t sound so worried a few minutes ago while you guys reminisced about jingle bells, blood and guts. By the way, now that I’m here, can we not talk about jingle bells, blood and guts for the next fifteen minutes? Kinda ruins the appetite.”

She filled her cup, then squeezed in between the two deputies at the table. Matt still had an upside-down smile so she made a face at him, and shoved his shoulder. It took a while, but he finally caved, his face softening into a rueful grin, and he shoved back.

She reached for the bowl of delicious looking pastries as she turned her smile at Tyler; but he didn’t return it. His face was tense as he eyed the big donut she had just grabbed.

Bonnie blinked. Seriously?

“You sure you don’t want to hear more about last Winter, Bonnie?” Matt asked, his mischievous voice distracting her from Tyler. “You missed all the fun. Nothing says Christmas spirit like meeting the Santa version of the IT Clown.”

Bonnie shuddered.

“No, thank you. So what’re you all doing here? As if I can’t guess?” She took a bite of a hot bun and hummed happily and loudly – for Tyler’s benefit. His eyes had never once lifted from her donut. Really, how greedy could he be that he’d begrudge her eating food cooked in her own kitchen?

“I wanted to see if you and Damon were up for going to the M.E. this morning,” Matt said, looking outraged. “I’ve got some paperwork to pick up there. I sent you a message but I guess you didn’t have your phone with you…”

Oh. “I forgot that,” Bonnie said sheepishly.

“Then you weren’t home and no one was sure where you were…”

“I was sure, not that it matters,” Stefan murmured.

“And we hung around to make sure you were OK,” Tyler concluded for his friend, looking away long enough from Bonnie’s food to act wounded.

It was almost enough to make a girl feel guilty. Almost. “Nothing whatsoever to do with…” She cleared her throat and started singing. “Stefan’s baking brings all the boys to the yard. Damn right it’s better than yours, damn right it’s better than yours…”

She stopped singing when the younger Salvatore laughed out loud, surprising her. Their eyes met and they shared tentative grins, last night’s conversation still fresh in memory.

Matt and Tyler were protesting while Damon barked out a laugh from where he leaned on the door, chugging a bottle.

Bonnie raised a brow at him. Really? She hoped it said. A whole bottle?

He grinned around it and chugged on with gusto.

“You know, just for that stupid song, I will talk some more about the Demon Santa,” Matt said with a mock glare at her. “Now I’ve seen some seriously disturbing things down at the morgue.”

“I’m eating, Matt.”

He ignored that. “… even though it had horns that looked like phallic worms with teeth, and I threw up all of Stefan’s Christmas pudding when I looked down its jaws…”

“I swear I will throw up on you right now.”

“… and it was pretty horrible at the time, and I’ll never see a Santa the same way again, and yeah, Christmas is ruined for me forever, and I probably lost ten years of my life from the sheer horror of it all…”

“Where is this going?”

“I’m trying to say that I got a chance to see a real live dragon, Bonnie and you didn’t,” Matt teased.

Bonnie fake-gasped, “Shoot! There goes my bucket list.”

Matt shoved her again and she shoved back, while the others laughed.

Even as she joined in the laughter, a part of Bonnie’s mind couldn’t help thinking how strange all this was. How strangely easy it had been to slip back into this life, where monster talk was something to crack jokes about. Where monster talk was something that happened around her at all, at least with this group of people.

Over the past year, there had been several times when she and Caroline had shared breakfast, and instead of trading school gossip, Caroline had filled her in on the latest Mystic Falls supernatural drama – on Bonnie’s request. Caroline was fully aware and in full support of Bonnie’s year-long vow of keeping away from supernatural feuds and schemes in general, and Salvatores in particular. But Bonnie had also wanted to have a vague idea of goings-on, nothing too specific, just enough not to get any nasty surprises.

Caroline had been the only exception. Upon their return from Europe, Bonnie had subtly but undisputedly laid down the law, banning any “shop talk” from their Mystic Falls friends in her flat, or to her in any form. Now that she thought about it, it had been easier than Bonnie had expected to get the vampire brothers and her ghost-busting friends to back off from using her as a magical fail-safe. Sure, she had got the occasional call from Damon – which stopped when she blocked his number – and Stefan would pop over, ostensibly to visit Caroline and drop a few hints, as did Matt and Tyler, but after a few not-too-subtle dismissals from Bonnie, even those stopped all together.

It was both enlightening and… well, strangely disheartening just how easily Bonnie got her space when she put her foot down firmly. Made her wonder if all those times in the past, she had felt backed in the corner, it had less to do with the forcefulness of the demands on her and more to do with her own inability to stand her ground.

It was also strange, she thought as she watched their smiling faces now, strange and amazing just how OK everyone was joking about this now. For some reason, Bonnie had imagined that they’d be holding her ‘checking out’ on them over the past year against her for probably the rest of her life. But although it still came up once in a while this past month of her ‘return’, no one ever brought it up in a way that was more than good-natured teasing.

It really made one think.

She reached for yet another bun – Stefan’s pastries really were the best – and noticed Tyler staring again.

She heaved a loud sigh. “Tyler.”

He started, as if surprised that she had noticed his obvious glares. “What…”

“There’s enough food to go around,” she said, pointedly.

“Oh… Sorry, I was…” He laughed a little, but she noticed he was still staring at the half-eaten bun in her hand. “I was actually wondering where you got that tattoo.”

Oh.

Bonnie felt some of the blood leave her face as four pairs of eyes locked on her wrist. The sleeve of her blouse had fallen back when she had reached for the food, and her souvenir from a certain coven leader was in clear view of everyone. In the early morning sun, the black ink was stark against her bronze skin.

She shrugged her wrist, turning it so that her hem slid to cover it, but the harm was already done. The curious eyes went from her hand to her face. She shrugged, making a show of chewing her food slowly.

“That’s a very… ordinary looking tattoo,” Matt said finally, clearly searching for words. “I won’t have thought it was your style, Bon, but it… fits you somehow. Nice.”

“Didn’t notice that a while ago,” Stefan said sharply. “Where did you get it?”

Bonnie gave him a curt, warning look, then she shrugged, sipping her coffee. “Where do people get tattoos?” She said, deflecting, and looked around at the others. “Why’re you all clutching your pearls? I’m too straight-laced to get some fancy ink?” She asked scornfully, going for the offensive.

“It depends,” Damon drawled, “on where else you have a tattoo.”

That got a hoot from Tyler and a disapproving grunt from Matt. Damon went on to make some more comments on needing to perform an inspection, and Bonnie let that go on for a little while before she turned his bourbon into hot coffee. He was still spluttering in outrage as she got up.

“Gotta get ready for our date with dead people, Matt,” she quipped, with a bright smile and a light step. She got to the door and, like an afterthought, said over her shoulder to Tyler. “Hey, Ty, do you have a sec? I need someone to help grab something off the top of my closet.”

“So you ask Tyler?” Damon scoffed.

Tyler was on his feet at once, pointedly ignoring Damon. “Sure, Bonnie.”

“I can help, Bon-” Matt started.

Damon groaned loudly, and was it her imagination but did Stefan snicker?

Matt fell silent, and it definitely wasn’t Bonnie’s imagination that his face seemed to brighten with colour.

“Er…” Bonnie started, wondering what she was missing here, but Tyler had already grabbed her elbow and the two left for her room.

They stepped in; he shut the door and leaned on it, folding his arms. “Spit it out.”

Bonnie covered her eyes, laughing ruefully. “I thought I was being subtle.”

“Picking me out of those guys ‘to help grab something off the top of my closet’?” He mimicked her voice, making her roll her eyes. “I’m confident with my height but nope.” His face turned serious. “It’s your tattoo, isn’t it?”

She answered by pushing back her sleeve. Both of them stared at her wrist.

Bonnie swallowed. “Mind telling me what’s the deal with a little ink anyway that’s got you so worried, Lockwood?”

He frowned. “Bonnie, you and I both know that’s not really a tattoo.”

His voice was ominous and a shudder ran through Bonnie.

Why had she got so comfortable carrying this thing around?

She stared into Tyler’s worried face and it was on the tip of her lip to just fess up – wasn’t she the one that made the rule about full disclosure at all times in the team? – but she had a sudden, vivid mental image of that look of concentration on Kai’s face as he strapped the black band around her wrist, the surge of magic as it tightened around her wrist – and she felt her face burn, and her throat closed for a moment.

She said nothing.

Tyler’s frown deepened. “Where did you get that, Bonnie?”

“I can’t say.”

“Bonnie…”

“Tyler, please don’t ask. Just tell me what you know about this.”

“I know it’s got some serious mojo in it. Gemini mojo, to be specific. But I can’t tell if it’s good or bad. That’s what worries me the most.”

Bonnie stared at her wrist. Tyler’s werewolf instincts picked up on these things.

“Can you at least say what it’s meant for?”

Bonnie opened her mouth –

A knock on the door made them both jump.

“Hey, BonBon, are you and Lockwood making out or something? Because someone’s going to be seriously piss…”

Bonnie pushed past Tyler, yanked open the door and glared at Damon. She wasn’t worried that he had overheard them. She understood that vampires developed selective hearing, as a form of protection against an otherwise bombardment of auditory overload. So Damon would need to be actively eavesdropping to hear her conversation with Tyler. And if he had been, he won’t have interrupted her when he did.

But his rudeness gave her an opportunity to vent at someone.

“Scram.”

He gave her and Tyler a clearly disappointed look. “Oh. Clothes on. How boring…”

“Scram,” she repeated, less politely.

“I’ll leave you to it in a minute but Donovan’s on a clock and we’re waiting on you to go to the M.E..”

Bonnie nodded. “I’m on my way.”

He shuffled off.

She waited until he was out of sight. But she didn’t shut the door when she turned to Tyler and gave him a hesitant look.

“Bonnie…”

“I can’t say, Tyler,” she said honestly. “I… just can’t.”

He opened his mouth – then closed it, clearly checking what he was about to say. “Just be careful with that thing, Bon,” were his unnerving parting words.

Bonnie shut the door behind him, and for a moment, she rubbed at the band, feeling tendrils of his magic.

It still didn’t worry her. Maybe it should. But it didn’t. And, if she were honest with herself, it was not just because she had so many more pressing things to worry about first.

She let go off her wrist, shoved off the door, and got a move on. Her day had barely started and it was already full.

May 2013

Whitmore

“Do you have plans for today?”

“Look, Kai…”

“Do you?”

Bonnie sighed. “No.”

She could hear the grin in his voice over the phone. “Well, you plan on eating sometime, don’t you?”

“Y-yes,” she said warily.

“So why don’t we do that, together? Let’s say in two hours? My place? I know you know where I live.”

“Kai, I don’t think…”

“Or we could go out to eat? It’ll be like a proper date and everything.” His voice was light enough but there was the edge of a challenge in it.

She twisted the sheets of her dorm bed with her hand, and stared at the wall across from her. “I don’t think this is a good idea, Kai.”

“You promised you’d give me a chance, Bonnie.” The determination his voice both beguiled and frightened her. How did her giving him a chance translate to having dinner with him? She wondered, despairingly.

“Kai…”

“It’s just food, Bonnie. I promise. Nothing else.”

Unless you want it to be more. She didn’t need him to say the rest of the words, they were already echoing loudly in her head.

A few days ago, she’d have laughed – or thrown up – at the idea that she’d ever want anything more of that from Kai Parker.

Not anymore.

The idea of sitting across a table from him after everything that had just happened between them was enough to send her hyperventilating. And no way would it stop at just a harmless meal. As much as Bonnie had always liked to think that she had eons of self-control, she was fast finding out that that wasn’t the case where Kai Parker was concerned. The best thing, she had told herself just that morning, was to avoid him completely until he left Virginia.

But at this moment, hearing his voice in her ear, tugging at her heart, making her body flush with memories and anticipation, a storm was churning through her and Bonnie couldn’t think past it to anything she could do or say to get away from him.

She looked despairingly at Ms Cuddles lying beside her, and not for the first time in the past few days, Bonnie wished the bear could talk. Wished she had anyone to talk to. But Caroline had disappeared shortly after the wedding, gone back to wherever she had gone to before to deal with her mother’s death and the horrible decisions that had followed that. And Elena was, as always, too caught up in her own drama to realize what was going on with anyone else.

“OK,” she said, quietly. The word echoed in her room with a sense of finality. Not for the first time in the past couple of days, she felt like if the walls of a trap were closing in on her.

“Great,” he said, and his voice tried to play it cool but she could hear the triumph in it. “Er… dress as you like. Just come with an empty stomach.”

“Sure. Bye, Kai.” She hung up, quickly.

Empty stomach, Bonnie thought, wrapping her arms around her waist and stared at Ms Cuddles. That was going to be hard. Right now, said stomach was full of butterflies and dread.

This was a mistake. She and Kai Parker. It was a bad idea in every possible way. A train wreck. A disaster just waiting to happen. And she was damned if she could think of anything she could do to stop it.

June 2014

Ranger, Wyoming

“You’re making a mistake.” Patrice Lang had spat a few moments after meeting the leader of the coven he had self-exiled from.

“Am I?” Kai had wondered, amused smirk on his face. Then he had reached for the man’s throat and pulled out his magic, stopping just before the man had a fatal heart attack.

It was still enough to make the man faint away from shock, and Kai had placed a sleeping spell on him to be doubly sure. He had shoved the man into his own truck, put his own motorcycle in the back and driven the truck to his cabin. He let them both in, found somewhere to dump Patrice on, and then Kai progressed to take a ten hour nap. Porting across the greater United States for the past forty-eight hours, calling in favours from his allies and reeling in renegade witches took a toll on a warlock. Even a mega-powerful coven leader like himself.

The next morning, he woke up in top form. Lang was still down for the count, so Kai got busy, running magical traces over the wizard, reconstruction and Memorian spells through his house, and rifling detective-style through the man’s things – mails, phone, even the decrepit looking computer in his office. There hadn’t been much. His magical traces were routinely purged. His phone and mails were routinely cleared. Of course, that could have been down to habit – as the saying went, once an Envoy, always an Envoy.

Or maybe Patrice Lang had something to hide and was covering his tracks.

Kai’s money was on the latter. His suspicions had formed when Rudolph reported that the ex-Envoy was proving difficult and now Kai was convinced. Patrice Lang knew a lot more about the strange goings-on with the heretics than he should. One way or the other, Kai was going to get to the bottom of things.

But first things first. Kai made himself a hearty breakfast. He found a fresh buck, of all things, skinned it, and made some good old venison stew. When it was ready, he even revived the old geezer and set a plate for him. Then Kai asked Lang to tell him the story about what he’d been up to since he deserted the Gemini. With the mildest of verbal motivations, the ex-Envoy spilled his tale.

A short tale, it was. Consisted mostly of hunting and mountain-climbing and a few get-togethers with some other renegade witches who had already chosen to return to the Gemini.

A short, harmless tale with no mention of heretics, or dealings with Joshua Parker. Or any of the things he had hinted at during his meeting with the Rudolph pack the night before.

A false tale.

Kai put a fork of venison in his mouth, savoured the taste with each chew before swallowing and washing it away with good ol’ standard beer. “This is awesome. Nothing beats eating what you killed, right?”

Lang glared at him from across the table. His own plate of food was untouched.

Kai glanced at it as he cut his meat. “Most people are happy when I make breakfast for them. And you, my friend, look like someone who needs to keep an eye on his blood sugar.”

“I’m no friend of yours, Malachai Parker.”

“Nope, you are not. What you are,” said Kai, talking as he chewed because the man clearly didn’t deserve that much regard and the food really tasted that good, “is a grubby old timer, who licked the wrong boots and is now too busy licking his wounds to hear the sharks that’ve seen blood.”

“Sharks?” barked Lang. “More like wolves. Wolves that you’ve let into our coven.”

Yeah, someone like Lang would think that, Kai thought, giving him a mocking look. Old-school, and bigoted, the type of warlock that rose high during his father’s watch. Kai remembered him from way back when. He had been close enough to Joshua and Micah that he had been a regular fixture in their house, and there was talk of him becoming the next Chief after the old one passed on. Talk that had even allowed him to weather over the scandal of trading in his twenty year old marriage for a union with a girl half his age.

His closeness to Kai's parents had also given him a great deal of leeway in the way he treated their oldest son, the potentially next Praetor. Lang had never been overtly offensive or abusive, but he had disliked and – Kai also realised in retrospect – he had been afraid of what Kai was, and hadn't bothered hiding it.

Now that Kai thought about it, he was certain that Lang had been one of the Envoys present on May 10, 1994.

That really should have been his first clue that Jo had planned to screw him over.

But that was two decades ago. Now Kai was Praetor. Lang’s career as envoy ended after a skirmish with a rival coven had left him impaired; and, karmically, his young wife had immediately traded him for a much younger Parrish. Now he was a fugitive, and a traitor and at Kai's mercy in every possible way.

Now, Joshua Parker was the head of the Council, and supposed to be at peace with – and even in active support of – his son’s leadership. But, a nagging voice murmured in Kai’s head, Lang’s insinuations had hinted the opposite.

Kai eyed the aged ex-Envoy seated across from him, and mentally replayed the words he had overheard the previous day.

“He publicly endorses Malachai.”

“Publicly.”

What amounted to dirty politics was nothing, common fare in the coven, even in the family. But a twisted alliance with heretics?

“You’ve dragged the Gemini into dealings with wolves, shapeshifters, banshees and all manner of accursed creatures,” Lang was still ranting.

“And all of them far more pleasant company than yours,” Kai remarked with a sigh as he swallowed the last of the venison. He looked at his empty plate regretfully. “So, you ready to talk, yet?”

Lang glared at him, now choosing silent mutiny.

Well, Kai could play this game.

“Fun fact: The mundanes developed sodium penthotal to treat World War I vets suffering from PTSD. The chemical removed anxiety, fear, so to speak.”

Lang blinked.

“Well, after that,” Kai continued cheerfully. “it was a hop, skip and jump from thinking that if this drug could remove the fear of bad memories and experiences, it could also remove the fear of guilt. Ergo, truth serums.” He smiled. “Ever heard of Veritork?”

The stoic look on Lang’s face wavered.

Kai’s smile broadened. “Ever watched the truth ripped out of someone’s skull?”

The blood was slowly leeching out of Lang’s face.

“Obviously, we’re light years ahead of mundanes in the truth confession department, our method being actually effective when done properly, and therefore not against our laws. But the thing is… only very, very talented Envoys have actually performed a Veritork without leaving permanent damage on the subject. Maybe one Praetor back in the 13^th century? You know, I never actually got the proper training to be one. Obvious reasons. Who knows what’s going to be left of that brain of yours if I mix a little siphoning into the casting? There isn’t much grey matter there to start with and by the time I’m done…”

“I told you everything I know!” Lang shouted. He was in a sorry state by now, pale and sweating.

“Really?” Kai wondered. “OK, let’s try this again. We’re going to be on a plane soon to Portland. And while we’re on it, we’re going to have a long talk. Maybe a change of environment is what you need to loosen your tongue a little. I’ll even throw in some non-complimentary airplane wine, as well. Oh did I forget to mention that we’re travelling first class?”

He winked at Lang, who just stared at him.

Kai shrugged. “There’s no pleasing some people, is there? Well here’s the deal. After you spill your guts – and I don’t care if you do it by your own free will or if I have to use Veritork, but you will tell me everything, I promise you – you can come along with me and testify to the Council about my father’s scheming, any other traitors and all the other stuff you claim you don’t know but that I can practically see scurrying behind your eyes.”

He waved his fork in the general direction of Lang’s face. He might have waved them a little too close to the man’s eyes. Might have also created a small illusion that had them flickering against Lang’s lashes. Kai grinned at the look of fear on the other man’s face. “You can do that, or you can do…” He let his words trail off menacingly then widened his eyes dramatically, and gasped in mock-surprise. “Oh, wait a minute! You don’t actually have a choice here. It’s one of those deals where you have to do exactly what I say or I invoke my mega-powerful leadership clot and squeeze out the life from your body. After I tear open your skull to get what I want, as you do.” He winked.

Lang was ashen by now.

“So if you’re not eating that,” Kai said as he swapped his empty plate for the other man’s, “then you’d better get packing. It’s a long flight to Portland and you’re never leaving there.”

“You’re throwing me into prison?” Lang said, his belligerent voice almost masking his palpable fear.

“It’s all above book, you know. You used to be an Envoy. What’s the going sentence for the witch who forswore allegiance to the leader and deserted the coven without due process? We’ll start with treason and see where it goes from there.”

“Treason?” Lang’s laughter sounded like angry barking. “That’s what you want to call it? Treason? Too cowardly to call it by the right name?”

“And what name will that be?” Kai asked pleasantly.

“Revenge. That’s what you’ve been up to, haven’t you? You and those heretics of yours. Abominations all of you. Taking us out one by one. Will I even make it to Portland or will I have an accident along the way?”

The smile on Kai’s face vanished as his fist clenched and the man’s larynx closed. “Firstly, they are not my heretics,” he said, his voice like steel.

Lang boggled at him, his face turning purple as his liver-spotted hands clutched futilely at his throat.

Kai’s hand fell open and the man almost fell, face-forward on the table. He stretched out his hands in time, catching himself, rasping painfully.

“Secondly,” Kai continued, “if you want to know who’s behind the deaths of the other witches in exile, then think about the person that’s asked you all to remain in exile and out of the protection of the coven.”

Lang opened his mouth, then closed it. His eyes were angry, teary with pain, but there was a slyness in there as well.

Kai didn’t like it.

“Get out of my sight before I mess up my own plans by killing you on the spot.”

The man didn’t need telling twice. Kai finished the venison, relishing every last bite, as his eyes stared sightlessly ahead of him. The kitchen windows faced the back, and all he could see were sparse trees and mountains in the distance. His senses were stretched, and he could feel Lang as he pottered through his room. He almost hoped the man would take a chance and try to escape. Take a chance that when – not if – Kai caught him, he won’t really exercise his coven-anointed right to murder him on the spot.

Abominations, all of you.

That was the pesky thing about emotions. Words, of all the most ridiculous things, suddenly had power over you. To make you feel like a f*cking King. Or to make you feel like someone had put a knife through you back and abandoned you in a cold hell to rot.

This was a mistake.

You haven’t changed, have you? Deep down inside, you’re still the same monster.

It was nothing. A moment of … madness. Magic. It meant nothing to me. Except for wishing it never happened …

The plate in front of him cracked. Kai cursed, his hand waving over it quickly, fixing it back. But the mess of stew was also running into the veins of the wooden table underneath, and spilling onto the floor.

He remembered another meal that had ended in a similarly disastrous way and he felt an invisible hand clamping over his ribs, pressing down on the muscle beneath it.

Damn her. Damn her a thousand times over. And damn him too for not being able to get her out of his heart, out of his head, out from under his skin. He thought he had done well enough that first night in Portland, his veneer of aloofness only cracking towards the end of that tense-filled conversation in the kitchen. But the next day, her words to Alaric were still fresh in his head, in his heart and he had been absolutely wrecked by the time she saw him again. And, of course, that was when she had offered herself up oh so completely in Jo’s kitchen, and for a moment all he could see were her eyes, her mouth and all he could hear was his own blood roaring through his ears with the sheer want that had flooded him, mingled with the need for revenge.

Even now, Kai still wondered if he hadn’t been a fool not to take up the offer that she was oh so easily, oh so foolishly making. Bonnie wanted to sacrifice herself and who was he to refuse her? The old him wouldn’t have hesitated, would have delighted in screwing with her head and every other part of her that was on offer. Even the not-so old Kai, the one who was fresh out of the 1903 prison world, would have jumped at the chance to make her pay for daring to manipulate him yet again, to get back at her for hurting him even unknowingly, and let the pieces fall as they might.

But he was neither of those creatures now. It had been a year since he started letting himself sink into the discipline and isolation that came with his position, a year of learning and adapting to the new personality that had metamorphosed from his merge with his brother, a personality that he still wasn’t quite sure he understood himself, or could define. Not for the first time Kai wondered – burdened as he was with this damned empathy that managed to both curse him with feelings and curse him with the inability to do anything about them – if Luke hadn’t been the victor after all.

Take his father for another example. A year of working side by side hadn’t stirred up any affection in Kai for the man but the thought that Joshua Parker was plotting against him left a bitterness in his mouth that tasted like betrayal.

He shivered a little under his light jacket, and it was from more than just his gloomy, despairing thoughts. It was colder than he had expected in this mountain country. What was taking the old man so long? Kai reached out magically to check on Lang, and that was how he caught the edge of it – void-like, cold, familiar and alien all at the same time.

Heretic.

In a flash, he was on his feet. In another flash, he was in Lang’s room.

Gingerdee was there. He held the old warlock up against the wall with one hand, his fangs out and dripping while his other hand was raised above their heads, spelling out dark magic.

Mystic Falls

Like Gerald and Victor Briggs, the two old wizards that the heretics had previously murdered, Judith Stewart, the old lady found in the motel the night before Bonnie left Portland – all bore identical injuries leading to death. There were two neat little bite holes in their necks, and, according to the M.E., some degree of blood loss. But not enough, she explained to Bonnie, Matt and Damon, to cause a heart attack-induced death, not even for people this age. Which contradicted what she had written in her autopsy report – an animal attack that led to blood-loss induced shock. But the old M.E. was pushing sixty, had lived in Mystic Falls all her life and was no stranger to the goings on of that town. She was familiar with all three and gave them not only a copy of the autopsy report, but her own unofficial, off-the-record conclusion:

Death by unknown natural causes.

After briefing them, the M.E. then gave Bonnie the usual opportunity to do what Bonnie regarded as one of the most traumatic part of this business – examining the new corpse. Bonnie donned disposable gloves, braced herself, and got down to it, concentrating on being as methodical as possible, even as she was flinching at the total lack of essence that was left within the body.

It only took a few basic spells for Bonnie to confirm what the others had already concluded – old Judith Stewart had definitely been a witch. And that was what made it even more horrifying for Bonnie.

Naturally, anything that was alive, or had been alive, should have some degree of life force, even if it was just an echo of it. It was why power could still be drained from the remains of long-dead witches, from Questiya’s blood in the tomb, or the graveyard of a hundred witches. The body of a witch, even the corpse of one, should have been vibrant with life force.

Judith Stewart’s body was an empty shell. Like the old wizards before her, nothing was left. The magic suckers had drained every last drop.

After it was over, Bonnie disposed of her gloves, smiled graciously at the M. E., picked up the reports, and signalled the guys that she was good to leave. On their way out, she stopped over at the bathroom on their way out and threw up Stefan’s pastries.

She was still shivering as she and Damon drove back in the Camaro. Matt had said his good byes outside the M.E.’s office and headed back to the station.

Damon, in one of his rarely sensitive moments, hadn’t said much to her, but when they got out at her building’s garage, he gave her shoulder a reassuring rub.

“We’ll get them soon, BonBon.”

She threw him in a grateful smile.

He walked her all the way to her door, handing her over to his brother at the door. Stefan was apparently still doing guard duty at their flat.

When Damon left, they regarded each other with strained smiles.

“When does your shift end?” Bonnie asked.

Stefan chuckled softly. “In a hurry to get rid of me?”

Bonnie squeezed out a little more smile. “Just figured you needed a break from baby-sitting me.” And last night’s tete-a-tete aside, I think we still work best together in small doses. Also, my roommate seems to be avoiding you. Which means she’s avoiding our flat.

While in the M.E.’s office, Bonnie had got a message from Caroline saying that she’d be out for most of the day, doing random chores. Now that Bonnie met Stefan in the flat, she knew why.

“Damon will take over tonight at the Lockwood mansion.”

Bonnie blinked. “Huh?”

He tilted his head. “You and Caroline are moving out for a few days so that Matt and his deputy friends can vervain paint the flat.”

Oh. That.

Bonnie nodded, and started walking to her room.

“Bonnie…”

She halted, turning her head to stare at him.

“About that tattoo…”

Stefan never finished that sentence, his voice trailing off at the look that must have been on her face.

“It suits you,” he said finally.

The smile she gave him this time was almost wholehearted. He was learning.

She took another shower, washing away the stink of the dead and unnatural from her skin, then changed in the bathroom to a loose maxi dress that was hanging off the hook on the door.

Which turned out lucky for her, because it would have been very awkward if Bonnie had stepped out in her bra or less, to meet the black-haired vampire that was hovering over her desk, picking up the Gemini spell-books, examining each of them gingerly in the light through the window, a thoughtful frown on his face.

The sudden, unexpected, uninvited sight of him made her jump. She bit back a yell. “Damon!”

He started with alarm, one hand slamming so hard on her desk that she felt the vibration of magic from his lapus lazuli ring.

She marched up to him and tried to grab the book he was still holding on to. “What the hell are you doing here?”

He held on to it, grinning weakly. “Hey, witchy.”

“Give that back,” she snapped, trying – and failing – again to snatch them back. She folded her arms in exasperation. “Did you forget something?”

“Well, I-”

“Why are you snooping through my stuff?”

His face flickered rapidly through a series of looks too fast for her to understand – and finally settled on a mock-innocent one that was apparently supposed to disarm her.

It didn’t.

“Give that here!” she said, and the book flew out of his hands into her own. She placed it carefully on the desk, and then whirled to face him.

He took a wary step back, arms raised high. “Hold your horses, love. I came in to tell you something then I got curious, OK? Wanted to see for myself what you’ve been up to. Anything good yet?”

Bonnie rolled her eyes, exasperated at him. She sat at her desk. “Between when I left you in the car and now? No. No new brain waves, Damon. Especially if I keep getting distracted.” She gave him a pointed look.

He ignored that, waved a hand at the books on the table. “Not much to distract in these, is there? Looks like a whole lot of gibberish to me.”

She snickered. “Well, it would, won’t it?” She said. “The Gemini are hard-core, Damon. To read their spell-books you’re going to need some witch blood in your DNA.”

“Paranoid freaks.”

She snorted, opening the Medeis Bestia and flipping through it. She paused at a page that carried a creepily familiar looking image, and read the text rapidly, humming softly to herself. Just as she had thought.

She whispered a temporary decryption spell over the page, and raised it towards Damon. “Look familiar?”

It was the image of a grotesque reptilian creature, its head crowned with four twisted and serrated horns.

He jumped. “Bloody hell!”

“That’s your dragon from Christmas, isn’t it? The one you guys talked about this morning…?”

“Father Christmas from hell,” he said with a low whistle, staring at the page with morbid fascination. “Not the same guy per se. Give or take a few horns, a few extra limbs. But close enough, I reckon. He didn’t start out looking like this, though. Won’t have got away with so many murders if he had.”

“OK, firstly, there are many scholars who don’t even believe dragons exist because guess what? No one gets close to a dragon and has lived to tell for sure what a dragon even looks like.”

“Bonnie–”

“Original shapeshifter? Original animagus? Demon? There isn’t one definition in this book from about half a dozen different journal excerpts and this is a grimoire from one coven! Imagine how many different covens have tried to explain what a dragon is? The only thing they all agree on is that dragons are huge. I’m talking mind-breaking, astronomic proportions. Literally mind-breaking because they possess advanced mind control, and can appear to different things to several people in several places at once. Mundanes, witches, supernaturals — we’re all vulnerable. Then that’s saying nothing about their super strength, ability to do magic, breathe mystical fire that burns souls, inflict mass scale destruction on entire countries, -”

Damon scoffed. “Relax, sweets. I went mano o mano with one of these dupes last year. They’re overrated.”

“That’s the other thing. It’s impossible. I didn’t want to say anything this morning because I wasn’t sure and I didn’t want to hash your squee. But I just checked and I’m certain now. You guys couldn’t have defeated a Dragon on your own.”

He scoffed. “Bonnie, I’d like to think-”

“No, Damon. You just couldn’t have. Not without a Guardian.”

He stared at her. “A Guardian? Like an Angel?”

“Well, sort of, yes. I mean, if – and it’s a big if – then the theory goes that there are Guardian Spirits everywhere that act as Nature’s counterbalances to demonic spirits of Dragons. They are immortal creatures, from which all magical bloodlines are culled. Only, you can’t really invoke one. They only intervene on your behalf if you are found worthy…” Her voice trailed off as she noticed the glazed look creeping into his eyes.

“It sounds to me like someone is over-compensating for abandoning her friends to live a normal life as a mundane college student.”

Bonnie slammed the book shut and folded her arms. “Fine. So how did you defeat your Dragon?”

He shrugged. “We managed. Cut a few deals. Ripped a few hearts. Tortured an Order of satanic monks into giving up some one-time-use-only super weapon and used it to kill Ugly here. The usual.”

“That just proves that this must have been the usual run-of-the-mill fey shape-shifter then. Because there are no one-time-use-only super weapons that kill Dragons. Not unless a Guardian is wielding it!”

“So says your witch-geek textbook,” he said with a dismissive sneer. “Those who can’t do, teach. And what does this have to do with the heretics anyway? You know… our very real-and-present-danger?”

She deflated. “Not much.”

“Get your head in the game, love.”

She scowled. “It is. I busted my ass all night trying to get us out of this mess. Then Caroline dragged me out of bed before I could throw off my jet lag. Frankly, I’m exhausted so if you only came up here to micro-manage me…?”

“OK, OK.” He shook his head ruefully and turned to go.

“Damon?”

He turned back. “What?”

She gave him a disbelieving look. “What? Didn’t you have something to tell me?” When he looked puzzled, she shook her head at him. “You know, the reason you were here in the first place? Or did you really just come in here to poke and pry?”

“Oh, yeah. That.” His face cleared; then became grave.

Apprehension crawled up her spine. “What is it, Damon?”

He gave her a look that was almost sympathetic. “I got the message after I left you. There were more attacks last night. A co-ed hall at Whitmore. Five died. All mundanes. A friend found them this morning and what he found…” He whistled softly. “It wasn’t pretty.”

“Oh my god,” Bonnie whispered, sadness and anger warring inside her. “They haven’t gone after humans in a while.”

“Beggars can’t be choosers. I guess after trying for you yesterday, they decided to take what they could.”

Bonnie felt bile rise up in her throat. She didn’t feel guilty. She didn’t.

But still…

The vampire in her room didn’t notice. He had filched another one of the spell-books and was flipping through pages he couldn’t read. “With word of the heretics spreading, supernaturals have started giving this place a wide birth. And you’re all sticking together like a pack. No breaching the lines here.”

“We are sticking together like a pack because we learnt that the hard way,” she said softly, her mind still on the deaths. “After Enzo.”

He froze at that, his whole body becoming rigid.

Bonnie nearly kicked herself. She hadn’t been particularly fond of Enzo – her memories of him were few and they were more bad than good – but his death had given the rest of them a chance and she had been grateful to him for that.

Damon’s attitude after Enzo’s death hadn’t changed much. He had been bitter for about a day, but it seemed at the time, more anger at being ‘beaten’ by the heretics than loss of his oldest friend. So it was easy to forget just how close Damon had been to the dead vampire.

She guessed he had been mourning his friend in a way, all this while. What a far cry from the man that had been characterized by how obvious and volatile he was with his emotions. These days, he either seemed to keep them very well hidden, or he simply didn’t feel things so deeply anymore.

Bonnie wasn’t sure which was better.

“Sorry,” she muttered now.

“Don’t be, BonBon. We’ve all moved on splendidly since then, haven’t we?” He threw her a glance with a smile that had too much teeth.

Bonnie ignored it, unwilling to delve further. Besides, she had other things to worry her. “What were their names?” She asked now.

“The what, love?”

“The names of the dead, Damon. What were their names?”

He shrugged. “No one important.”

Why am I even surprised? She asked herself, glaring at him. “Of course,” she snapped. “They were only mundanes.”

He looked up then, his eyes wary. Then he shrugged, tried another of his flashy smiles. “Don’t start again, BonBon,” he said in the bored tones of a man who’s had this discussion far too many times.

And he was right. Bonnie dropped it, already tired. “It wasn’t that long they were found, right? Caroline and I were on campus this morning and everything was still normal. I guess Matt didn’t get the news in time. But I’d have thought the M.E. would have been one of the first called to the scene.”

His clumsy fingers dropped her book, and she cursed in the split-second it took for him to grab it before it hit the floor.

“Oops,” he cackled.

“Give me that!” she snapped, snatching it.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “Butter fingers. Your nagging is making me nervous.”

“My nagging?” At that moment, there was a familiar beeping noise from the other side of her room, next to her pillow.

She gave him a “this isn’t over yet” glare then rushed to get her phone. With a little shock, she realised that she had not only left it at home earlier, but she hadn’t once checked it all day. She blinked at the number of voice messages, missed calls and text messages waiting for her. Most of them, she realized with a gulp, were from Liv Parker.

And a couple of them were from….

“Asshat Parrish?” She read out loud.

He was beside her in a flash. “Who?”

She rolled her eyes in exasperation that Damon had forgotten so soon. “Council Envoy Ashton Parrish from Portland. He…” she read his message quickly. “He got my message. He’s in Virginia, and he’ll be here this afternoon.”

“Good,” he said.

That was a surprise. “You’re OK with this?”

“Why won’t I?” he shot back, moving away.

“Because in Portland, you promised – and I quote – that you’d gift-wrap him and ship him off to the heretics if he ever stepped foot into town.”

He didn’t look back. “I changed my mind. We need all the help we can get, right? Especially after what happened to you yesterday and then the attack again last night.”

Bile rose again in Bonnie’s throat. “Yeah,” she said, her voice strangled.

“Later, Bon.”

She didn’t look up as he left. Her eyes had turned inwards, as she remembered the last time she laid eyes on April Young and her unfortunate friend, the Martin kid. Blood. Gore. A crumple of ancient looking bodies, wearing incongruously ‘hip’ clothes. That strange emptiness even in death.

Horror filled her and despite the warmth of the day, she shuddered.

Ranger, Wyoming

Lang’s face was a mask of fright and Kai thought, vaguely, that the man looked like if he was on the verge of a heart attack.

The heretic and the warlock both turned with equally horrified faces, when Kai stepped in, and the distraction was enough for Kai to motus the freakshow across the room.

Lang fell to his knees, choking. Kai rushed to his side, throwing a generic healing spell at the old man as he turned to face the heretic who was already on his feet.

“Kai Parker. What an unexpected delight,” said Frederick Parker, Second of His Idiotic Name, or as Kai affectionately nicknamed him:

“Gingerdum. The pleasure should be all mine but didn’t I kill you already?”

Frederick’s mouth twisted scornfully. “You always did have a peculiar sense of humour. It manifested at the oddest of times. Particularly when we were feeding from you, I recall.”

Anger flashed through Kai, burning him up like a torch and he only – barely – managed to hold back from striking with magic.

“You thought I was funny then? You should see me at a Gemini wedding. I have to be present for all of them as Praetor. Give a speech, too. I always try to make it funny, lighten things up. And you know the punchline that always gets them? It’s when I re-enact how I lit up your family like a big, heretic bonfire last Spring. It gets everyone rolling on the floor every single time.”

Frederick’s face went from scornful to wrathful.

“Whoever thought that witches would find a joke about burning other witches so funny?” Kai mused.

The slicing spell was a doozy, hard, brutal, and fast; and enough to send a lesser witch to the floor in exactly sized slivers. Kai braced himself for it, his hands stretched out and ready to catch it, and when it hit, he absorbed the spell, feeling the charge of it, before he sent it back at the heretic with a little boost.

Frederick wasn’t quite ready, dodging instead of absorbing it, and it clipped his shoulder.

Blood and gore sprayed against the wall beside him.

Kai didn’t have time to savour drawing first blood. Eyes never leaving his foe, he pulled the old warlock to his feet. “Run,” he hissed.

The ex-Envoy hesitated, his eyes wavering from Praetor to heretic.

Kai half-turned to shoot the man an incredulous look. “I don’t have time for your suspicions, old fool,” he snapped, and he shoved. Lang vanished.

“That was most impolite,” Frederick said mildly. He had recovered somewhat, his shoulder – and arrogance – back intact. “I had not completed the act of murdering him.”

“Yes, you and I need to talk about that. Murdering my witches. I think someone is trying to get my attention. Or trying to make me look bad. Or both.”

“That statement implies that some degree of effort is required to discredit you. By my comprehension, your reign over the coven is unpopular and precarious.”

“You know so much about me, already? I’m touched. Stalker.” They were circling around each other now, tense and ready to counter-attack but knowing that whoever struck first put himself at an immediate disadvantage.

It was almost fun, Kai thought giddily. If you skipped over the part where he was going to yank out Frederick’s spine via his throat and strangle him with it.

No, on second thoughts, that made it even more fun.

“I consider it of great import to decipher the weaknesses of the ones I am determined to destroy.”

That made Kai laugh. “Pretty big words from a guy whose ass I kicked the last time when he came at me with a bigger army. If you ask me, someone here has a death wish.” He dropped his voice into a mock whisper. “Spoiler alert: it’s not me.”

Frederick’s balled his hand into a fist, magic flashing across his ringed knuckles and Kai grinned.

“The last time,” he snarled, “we were insipid enough to put some degree of trust in your worthless person. In return, you broke faith with us. It is a mistake that will never reoccur, you treacherous viper.”

“Famous last words. By the way, word of advice? You keep using these expressions – broke faith, treacherous, etc. I do not think they mean what you think they mean.”

“You swore to us, syphons alike to your own nature, victims of a shared prejudice…”

Kai laughed bitterly. “And you were stupid enough to overlook the small fact that you… I dunno… fed and tortured me for weeks… totally destroyed whatever bond of syphon-brother-hood we could have had … and fell for that.”

The heretic growled.

“But since you’ve brought up the topic of past encounters, maybe we can discuss the whole ‘I killed Gingerdee and Gingerdum a year ago’ and yet here you both are, alive? Can you run it by me again, how that did not happen the way I remember it? Because clearly my killing you didn’t take.”

Frederick glared. “I cannot commence to comprehend what inanity you speak! Your deplorable use of contractions and concocted idioms will send me to the asylum!”

“OK, let me put in smaller words then: How the f*ck are you and your bitch sister still alive?” Kai snapped.

For the first time, Frederick smiled. “By my admittedly limited grasp of contemporary vocabulary, I understand that there is an appropriate expression for this. I believe it goes thus: ‘won’t you like to know?’”

And with a small ‘pop’, he ported.

For a moment, Kai blinked, staring dumbly at the space where the heretic had stood a few minutes ago. Then it hit him. While they had been circling each other, the bastard had turned him around completely. They were now standing in each other’s starting positions – and Frederick hadn’t just ported from some random location. He had ported from exactly where Kai had shoved Lang out of the room.

Frederick the heretic had come for Lang, not Kai. And now he had gone after his original target.

With a curse, Kai went after both.

Whitmore

Asshat -

Ashton Lang Parrish (because Bonnie was not twelve) stepped into the flat, visibly shuddered at the sight of so many vampires, and muttered a curse under his breath.

“Are these necessary?” he asked Bonnie, his gaze shifting warily from Stefan’s calm demeanour, to Caroline’s bubbly smile, to Damon’s sinister grin, fangs and all.

A few moments ago, Bonnie had been grateful that these three made it. Tyler and Matt were still on duty. Damon had turned up so late, she half-suspected that despite his earlier words, he had considered avoiding the Gemini. She was certain that Caroline had almost bailed to avoid Stefan.

But now, watching the look on Ashton’s face, she wondered if she hadn’t been better off meeting him with just Stefan instead of three vampires.

Over his shoulder, she glared at Damon until, with a wink at her, he retracted his fangs.

She bit back a sigh, and turned her gaze back to Ashton. “We’re all in this together. You are safe with them. I assure you.”

That was apparently the wrong thing to say because he bristled at that. “I’m not worried about myself, Ms. Bennett. I am the Envoy to the Council of the Gemini Coven. Believe me when I say I can take care of myself.” He frowned at her. “I’m more worried about you. Why do you surround yourself with so many of these nefaria?”

The air in the room became frosty.

“What does that mean?” Caroline asked, innocently, smile still bubbly.

From the look on his face, Ashton probably found her ignorance even more offensive than her being a vampire.

“I don’t think-” Bonnie placated.

“It means ‘Abomination’.” It was Stefan that answered in a cold, quiet voice. “That’s how vampires are regarded by the Gemini coven.”

Caroline’s bubbly façade switched to her bitch face in a heartbeat – and unlike Damon, she didn’t need fangs to look intimidating.

“Excuse me but these abominations are standing right here.”

Ashton opened his mouth – and Bonnie jumped in before another supernatural fight kicked off in her flat. They had only just got out the bloodstains from the carpet.

“Please, let’s get this over with quickly. In your messages, you mentioned something about a magical scan? A way of filtering through the scene of the attack for traces or clues?”

“Clues to what?” Damon barked. “It’s not exactly a whodunit when we know who did it.”

“Damon,” Stefan warned.

“What?” his brother retorted. “This is a waste of time. Unless you like being insulted on your own turf, then I guess you’re having a rollicking good time then. By the way, I remember saying something about never seeing Asshat’s face in my town…”

He was getting to his feet, and Bonnie was already stretching out a hand to immobilise him, when Caroline crept up behind him and snapped his neck.

“Ouch,” Stefan deadpanned.

Caroline shrugged.

Bonnie covered her face with her hands, but not before she saw the disgusted look on Ashton Parrish’s face.

His voice was positively frosty. “Shall we proceed?”

Bonnie was feeling a little disgusted herself. So much for Damon’s pragmatic, ‘we need all the help we can get’ attitude that morning. The moment someone had brushed against his enormous ego, he had reverted to his typical brat-mode.

Bonnie had got the names of the five students from Caroline – who had acted surprised that Bonnie knew. Bonnie imagined that there must have been some sort of deal to keep it from her, to make her not feel bad or something since the attack had directly followed the foiled attempt on her. Only one name had sounded vaguely familiar and when Bonnie checked it against the campus directory, she realized that he had been one of those people she used to bump into during her mornings in the old cafeteria.

Gone too soon. For reasons he would never understand.

Bonnie told herself again that she didn’t feel guilty.

She didn’t.

Now, flanked by Caroline and Stefan, Bonnie led the Gemini Councillor to her room, the scene of the attack. The three stood back and watched him cast a complicated series of spells and suddenly the room which was lit up through the open curtains with the afternoon sun, suddenly plunged into darkness, silent except for the sound of his chanting.

Bonnie gasped as her head jolted with a sudden sharp spike, that fizzled into a dull throb.

In a flash Caroline was by her side. “What-?” she started, but her words stopped, when the darkness was suddenly filled with an eerie ghostly light. Bonnie could see her room again, but it was as if she was looking through layers of thick film. And there was a certain oddness about the room – her luggage had returned, unpacked, to the foot of her bed, the spell-books she had carefully concealed in her closet were back on the desk – that confused her until it hit her.

She turned to Caroline, and registered that in contrast to the rest of the room, her friend and the others – Stefan, Ashton – looked vividly normal.

“He’s recreated the room as it was yesterday, before the attack.” She whispered to Caroline and the words were barely out of her mouth before her own image appeared, sitting at her desk.

“I felt something. Pain in my head. Not an aneurysm, more like a quick migraine,” Caroline said. Across the room, Stefan nodded in agreement.

Ashton’s chanting stopped. “I’mconjuringthe scene, calling up from your memories, both conscious and subconscious, and the lingering auras what happened here. Hence the one side-effect – a slight headache that would soon pass,” He turned on his heel. “Come.”

“You might have mentioned the side-effects first,” Caroline snipped.

He didn’t deign to response; grumbling slightly, they followed him out of the room, through the rest of the eerily distorted house, and watched the front door open to let in the fiery-headed heretic. Not for the first time, Bonnie wondered if the Invitation Barrier really didn’t work on them because of their hybrid nature, or if they simply siphoned it off.

“Even images you did not directly witness can be recalled, with a powerful enough aura,” Ashton continued.

Just looking at the heretic made Bonnie shudder.

Caroline’s arm went round her shoulder at once. “She can’t hurt you.”

“She is just shadows and memory,” Ashton added. His gaze turned thoughtful. “I remember this creature from the Battle of Mystic Falls.”

“I know she can’t,” Bonnie said in answer to Caroline. “I still feel like kicking her face in.”

Caroline chuckled.

“Shhhh,” Ashton saidprissily. “Your chattering will disturb the casting.”

Bonnie and Caroline exchanged identical looks.Seriously?Because he hadn’t been worried about his casting when he was giving a running commentary.

So much for her resolve. From now on, she'd just keep calling him Asshat in her head.

But everyone fell silent as they followed the heretic as she made her way through the house. She moved quickly, deliberately towards Bonnie’s room in a way that made Bonnie’s skin crawl.

When the heretic attacked the Bonnie sitting on the bed, the real Bonnie looked away, disturbed at the scene.

Caroline turned Bonnie’s face into her shoulder.

“I demand your Expression. Yield it to me or face your demise.”

“Expression magic? You had Expression?” His voice was sharp, almost accusing.

Bonnie lifted her face from Caroline’s shoulder to look at the man. He was standing beside the wall where the image of Bonnie being held up by the fiery heretic was frozen.

“Past tense. I used it up when I drew on it to fight off the heretics in the 1903 prison world.”

“When you fetched them?”

That made her snap to attention. “I didn’t fetch the heretics from there, what the hell?”

“Apologies,” he said quickly, turning back to the ongoing scene. “The details are not important.”

“Of course, they-”

“Shush for a moment, please. I need to observe. The spell can not be repeated.”

So Bonnie had to wait, bristling with anger and a rising headache, watching herself be mauled at by the heretic. Watching her and her friends roundly kick ass, too. The concentrated loathing on Georgiana Parker’s face as she saw Damon, just before she turned into a human-shaped torch made Bonnie feel slightly better.

Slightly.

When it was over, the Envoy did another series of complicated casting, and the darkness descended. Then lifted. The room was back to normal.

Bonnie left Caroline’s side to glare down the other witch.

She was smaller, shorter but her fury made him take a step back.

“You and I are going to need to iron out these details of yours. Because we’re not going to make much progress working together if your coven suspects that I’m in some conspiracy with the same heretic you just saw try to eat me.”

“I never said-”

“Oh, come on,” Stefan drawled from where he stood near the door.

Asshat glared at him, obviously infuriated at another vampire speaking out of turn. Then he turned back to Bonnie with a semi-apologetic expression on his face. “Our coven is suspicious of everything and everyone. It is how we have survived this long. Don’t take it personally.”

If that was supposed to mollify Bonnie, it failed spectacularly. “Too late.”

He nodded. “Fair enough.” For a moment, they stared each other down. He broke the gaze first, and instead his eyes travelled from the top of her head to the bottom of her shoes.

What the-

He glanced around Bonnie, then actually walked around her, his pale eyes clearly scrutinising every aspect of her person.

“What the hell are you doing?” Bonnie cried.

“Trying to find…” he murmured absent-mindedly, still walking around her. His hand lifted and she felt the warm stroke of probing magic touch her.

Her right wrist burned.

“Hey!” She yelped.

In a flash Caroline was between her and the wizard. “She said, ‘hey’,” Caroline snapped. “Translation: ‘back off or I’ll define abomination on your face.’”

Asshat sniffed. “Your vampire’s threats are not appreciated, or necessary. I was only trying to see what kind of protection or ward you had that prevented the heretic from siphoning you.”

“You could have just asked,” Bonnie snapped.

He bowed his head. “Of course, my apologies, Ms. Bennett.” He paused, expectantly staring at Bonnie.

Bonnie and her friends stared back at him. What now?

“May I know what you used to protect yourself?” He asked, finally.

Bonnie started. Ordinarily, she would have just admitted that she didn’t know – had no idea why Georgiana Parker had failed – but he had already raised her hackles and she hesitated. Instinctively, her right arm went behind her. She was wearing long sleeves, precisely to keep her strange band covered, but in her clumsy nervousness, she did precisely what she was trying to avoid and drew his attention to her wrist.

“What is that?” He said at once, trying to turn to catch a glimpse of it. But Caroline kept standing in his way.

If Bonnie had a dollar for every-time Asshat had sniffed since he stepped into her house, she’d have enough money to get a matching tattoo on her left wrist.

“I felt a surge of magic from there.” He pointed vaguely towards Bonnie’s right hand, craning his neck around Caroline. “Is that a ...?” Suddenly, his eyes sharpened and he drilled them into Bonnie’s face. “Where did you get that from?”

Get what from? Bonnie felt like screaming. First Tyler. Now Asshat. What the hell had Kai put on her?

From the corner of her eye, she noticed Stefan shift into increased alertness, his eyes also sharp and probing on her.

Great. Just what Bonnie needed from that corner.

“She got it from a tattoo parlour,” Caroline snapped. “Can you stop talking to Bonnie like if she’s a suspect here? She’s the one that was attacked, remember? She came to your stupid coven, remember?”

He glared at her. “Your comments have been noted, vampire. I am done here. I will report my findings to the Council. But before I leave…”

He lifted a hand, blinked hard – and a familiar set of tomes flew right into his hand almost as if from thin air.

Bonnie gasped. The other two vampires tensed at once.

“Excuse you?” Caroline managed to ground out.

“I thought I recognised the Gemini grimoires,” Asshat muttered, examining the books.

“Those are-” Bonnie started angrily, then fell silent.

He eyed her sternly. “Borrowed with the authorisation of the Council, I presume?”

“I guess this explains why nothing ever gets with the Gemini Council. You’re too busy being over-zealous librarians,” Bonnie said waspishly, not caring that she probably wasn’t helping things. Damn it. She should have called Liv back, or texted or something.

Damn it!

“The Council approves the distribution of any part of the Gemini Coven’s body of knowledge to parties outside the coven. Where did you get these from?”

Bonnie was silent.

“Never mind. I will find out.”

He marched to the door where Stefan stood blocking his way.

The Envoy sighed. “Ms. Bennett, kindly tell your vampire to get out of my way.”

Stefan merely raised an eyebrow. Then he looked over the man’s shoulder at Bonnie.

Bonnie shrugged helplessly.

Stefan stepped aside. With one last sniff of disapproval, Ashton Lang Parrish, Envoy to the Council of the Gemini Coven, was gone. Along with Liv’s spell-books and probably the last foundations of Bonnie’s shaky standing with the Gemini.

Everyone looked at everyone else when the door slammed.

“What the heck just happened?”

Ranger, Wyoming

How the heck did I let this happen?

Kai was too late.

The heretic was already fangs deep in Lang’s throat, and the old warlock was twitching, as his life was drained out of him.

Cold fury rushed through Kai and he let his rage out in a combined vatos and motus. It sent the heretic flying through the cabin, loose furniture and objects flying with him in small explosions that propelled him from the end of the cabin, through the wall and out.

Kai didn’t give chase to finish him off, but rather he rushed to Lang, grabbed the old man with both hands and ported them out of the cabin.

They landed in the middle of the motel room that Kai had rented for his brief stay in Wyoming.

Lang slid onto the floor, his limbs cold and flopping, but the gushing blood that rapidly soaked through the dirty motel carpet meant he was still alive. Kai fixed that quickly, staunching the flow, then he leaned over the man, pressing his hands on his chest as he drew on everything he had to force the life to stay inside.

Lang’s eyes had been shut all this while, and now they flew open, and stared at Kai intensely.

He shook his head. “Too… late…”

“Don’t you dare die on me, you old bastard,” Kai muttered, and he sent a bolt of power that must have felt like an electrocution through the man’s heart.

Lang jerked, gasping, and for a moment Kai thought the magic had taken. Then he fell back to the floor, and the wound on his neck re-opened.

“No!” Kai shouted.

“Oh,” Lang moaned. His hand found Kai's wrist. “Live…”

“Keep quiet and let me fix you,” Kai snapped.

“Too… late… for … me…” Lang managed. He coughed, and blood sprayed on Kai’s face. “Betty. Find… Betty.”

“Bethany Stewart?”

“Help her… tell her… o…” His next words were drowned by the flood of blood that gushed out of his mouth.

“Stop talking,” Kai said urgently. “You’re making it worse.”

Somehow Lang managed to gargle out the next words. “Tell… her that… live… her… We… were wrong. Don't… trust…”

“Don’t trust who?”

“Live… you must…”

“I will,” Kai said as fervently as he could. “I will live. Tell me. Don’t trust who?”

The man shook his head, his eyes desperate. He took a deep shuddering, bubbling breath. “Pa… Par…”

“Don’t trust who?!”

But all that came out of Lang’s mouth was another gush of blood. Then his eyes turned glassy.

The magic that Kai had been pushing into the old man, recoiled furiously, all but shoving Kai across the room.

Patrice Lang, ex-Envoy, almost-Chief, honourably discharged after an injury in the line of duty – was dead.

And with him, his secrets.

Whitmore

“Spill it, Damon.”

“What?”

“The secret, elaborate scheme you’re plotting to get back at Caroline for snapping your neck.”

His eyes widened with innocence. “BonBon, I already said it was no big deal.”

Her head was pounding and Bonnie almost tore at her hair in frustration. “We don’t have time for your pettiness! You’ll start something and it will escalate and I have so much more important things to worry about right now. So just snap her neck already and call it even.”

“You wound me, Bonnie, with your suspicious mind.” He placed his hand over his heart, and she almost used magic to tear it out.

Instead she glared as he smirked away, leaving her frustrated.

At least, Matt, Tyler, and a few of their fellow deputies were here to start vervain-painting the rest of the house, and therefore there were more buffers between the two vampires. At least until they got to the Lockwood Mansion, where she and Caroline were supposed to crash until the work was done.

Where Damon was supposed to take over sentry duty from his brother.

Bonnie groaned. It was bad enough that her non-vampire physiology meant that, unlike Caroline and Stefan who had shrugged it off almost immediately, Bonnie still nursed a headache from Asshat’s memory spell. But now this? She did not have time for this! She had luggage to pack, and heretics to murder. If Damon tried anything with Caroline, she’d aneurysm him until he passed out, grab his daylight ring and lock him up in the Lockwood’s cellar.

Moments later, she was in her room, almost done packing. Her spell-book was the last thing she packed. After the initial shock, Asshat’s high-handed confiscation of her Gemini reference texts had been more embarrassing than anything else. Thanks to Bonnie’s own drive, and maybe the nagging of the Salvatore brothers, she had gleaned as much pertinent information from the Gemini Grimoires as she could do while she had them. Enough that, she had come up with something that – if she said so herself – was a brilliant game plan in their battle against the heretics.

She just needed a few hours to fine tune it before she told the rest.

A few restful hours. And being stuck in a Mansion with Caroline and Damon at the moment was not going to get her that.

She was zipping up her bag, still fighting that headache, when her phone buzzed in her back pocket. She pulled it out and gulped at Liv Parker’s name flashing on the screen.

The phone stopped ringing; Liv was probably leaving her twentieth voicemail in Bonnie’s inbox now.

It was the crappiest of the crappiest of crappy bad timing. Bonnie had no idea what to tell Liv. It was bad enough that she had taken the Grimoires without properly asking for them – but to have got them confiscated by a member of her Council?

Bonnie was about to turn off the phone’s LED light when it started ringing again – startling her so badly that she tapped it open.

sh*t!

“Hello? Bonnie?”

Silence.

“I can hear you breathing, you know.”

“Er… Liv. Hi. How are you doing?”

There was silence. Bonnie was just about to quickly end the call – when Liv spoke up. “Can someone say Hallelujah? Bonnie Bennett actually picked up my call.”

Bonnie cringed at the clear irritation in the other woman’s voice. “Yeah, er… Sorry about that. Been kind of busy. You know, fighting against witch-vampires that your coven refused to help us kill.”

“Are you guilt-tripping me, Bonnie, really?”

“A little?”

Liv snorted. “Just tell me my spell-books are safe.”

“Yeah. About. That.”

“What?”

“Liv, are you sitting down?”

“Am I…” She must have taken the phone away from her mouth to hyperventilate – or curse quietly. When she spoke again, her voice was eerily calm in a way that did not calm Bonnie at all. “Bonnie, where are the Grimoires?”

“It’s kind of hard for me to explain over the phone right now,” Bonnie said weakly. “Maybe I can call you back?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that.” On cue, Bonnie heard the doorbell of her apartment ring. “I’m right outside. You and I can have a nice, long, face-to-face chat.”

May 2013

Whitmore

Kai tried to put the long tête-à-tête with his father out of his mind. Joshua Parker thought he was close to figuring out his son’s secret but all he had were vague suspicions that would never amount to anything more. The heretics were all dead and gone, and with them the truth.

All the conversation had succeeded in doing was throwing Kai off his game when he had more important things to worry about – like the sauce taking longer than he expected, and the pan of onion rings that he had only just put on the burner.

Then the doorbell rang, for the second time in less than half an hour and his magic spiked, all but jumping out of his skin, and sending flames flaring out of the pan. He put that out with a dishrag and another oath, and paused at the sink, trying to make himself calm down. The bell rang again and all thought of calm flew out of his head as he rushed to door, his hands clenched into tight fists, and his heart jumping fast. Bonnie was going to be here any moment and if Joshua had another barrage of questions for him, pax or not, Kai was going to punch his father in the –

He yanked open the door and his mind seemed to stop working for a few seconds.

Bonnie Bennett stood on his threshold. Dressed in her trademark sinfully short denims, a loose green blouse, and the look on her face indecipherable as she stared up at him.

For a moment, they just regarded each other in silence. Relative silence, that is, since Kai’s heart was pounding in his chest as he struggled to get a hold of his magic that had been rushing towards her from the moment she was near, aware of her presence long before his mind had registered it.

Struggling to get a hold of his body, too. That was all too recently, and too intimately acquainted with her own.

She broke their locked gaze first, her eyes glancing slightly towards his ear as a single eyebrow went up.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

Kai opened his mouth to say something – what he didn’t know – but no sound came out. One dainty eyebrow climbed higher on her smooth forehead and he felt his face flushing. Wordlessly, he stepped to the side, holding the door out wide.

She stepped across the threshold, after throwing a passing glance at him, then turning quickly, her eyes scanning through the house, stopping at the dinner table with the place mats already set.

Not quick enough for him not to see the slightly rosy hue of her cheeks.

It gave him a bit of confidence.

“I’m sorry, dinner isn’t quite ready. I-I er had an unexpected visitor earlier.”

Bonnie nodded, turning slowly, so that her body was angled just a little towards him. He came to stand beside her, and felt her tense. A few days ago, he would have said for sure that it was with hate, with fear, but now he wasn’t so sure.

He wanted to touch her. Badly. He had to curl his hands back into fists to fight the urge. She was right there with her skin, smelling ever so slightly of oranges, her hair long enough now to cover her nape, making him perversely want to lift it up to feel the flesh underneath. Her hands were resting on the chair in front of her, lightly he thought at first, but on closer look, he saw how the skin stretched across her knuckles.

“Dinner,” she said, her voice low and Kai bent his head towards her, partly to catch it and partly because he needed an excuse to come closer.

“Yeah,” he said, his voice breaking slightly, making him turn red again. “It’ll be ready in a few minutes.” He recollected himself enough to straighten up, and pull out a chair.

She took it, after a wary glance at him, and he pushed it in. But not before he got a glimpse of more golden skin as her shorts rode up her thigh, or the pink lace of her bra through her wide collar.

The blue flame of the gas burner flared up a little.

Bonnie jumped, startled.

“Sorry,” Kai muttered, rushing to the stove, and making a show of turning down the burner. The sauce was done, perfect. Dishing the food gave him something to do.

“Need any help?” She asked.

“N-no,” he managed. Even though it was slightly risky, with his pulse jolting erratically, he muttered the spell that sent the plates landing perfectly on the table, as well as the bottle of white wine and even lit up the candles.

He turned to see the look of reluctant admiration on her face. “Nice,” she said. “You’re gonna have to teach me that one.” Then her face twisted but not before his lit up. Because the idea of Bonnie thinking about a future where they hung around each other enough and she trusted him enough for him to teach her magic filled him with glee.

He sat down across from her, watching her as she watched him, then eyed the plate before her warily.

“You’re going to love this. The guy on the Food Network listed it as one of his top three most delightful and most difficult meals ever.”

She picked up her fork, looking at him through her lashes. “You don’t seem worried about the most difficult part.”

Kai shrugged, smiling smugly. His own fork stayed on his plate, his eyes on Bonnie as her lips closed around her food. He knew the exact moment the nerves from her taste buds reached her brain. The way her eyes widened, then closed from sheer pleasure. The exhalation of breath that had barely suppressed a small moan.

Under the table, he felt himself tighten and even though his mouth was empty, he swallowed hard.

Whose bright idea was it to have dinner in his house with her? The next hour or so was going to be torture.

She chewed and swallowed with her eyes closed, her shoulders twitching slightly all throughout and when she opened her eyes to see him watching her, her face reddened a little.

“What do you think?” he asked, cool as a cucumber, even managing a little smirk just before he popped his own forkful into his mouth. He hummed happily. Even he had to say so himself, he was damn good.

Bonnie smirked back. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you’re a good cook. Your thanksgiving dinner was the nicest I’d had in a long time.”

The food in his mouth turned into sand.

Kai stared at her, his heart pounding now for a completely different reason as he stared at the cool anger on her face.

He put down his fork slowly. “I’m surprised you remember what the meal tasted like. You barely touched your food.”

“I had enough to remember. I remember how I kept wishing that I could relax and enjoy it but I couldn’t stop feeling that the moment I dropped my guard, you were going to try and stab me in the back.” Her lips twisted wryly. “Considering what happened next, that’s almost funny.”

He felt like if he was the one being stabbed now. “No,” he said hoarsely. “No, it’s not.”

Bonnie shrugged. “I think it is. Two days later, Damon and Elena showed up and I spent the whole day driving across country to meet them. And well, you know how that ended.” He felt another knife stab through him. “I kinda knew somehow that they weren’t coming back.”

She snorted softly, and he bit back a plea to ask her to stop. “But I hung in there for a bit. Hung out in Elena’s room for days, told myself it was all that driving that made me feel like I couldn’t get out of bed. I finally put myself together long enough to go back to the boarding house. But it was days before I made myself a proper meal.”

Her eyes were faraway in her bleak face. “There was one night when I literally woke up from hunger, and I went rifling through the Gilberts’ fridge for snacks. And I couldn’t stop thinking, of all things, of how I should have finished my thanksgiving dinner when I had the chance. Goodness knows, you gave me more than enough time to.”

“Bonnie…” He all but begged.

“In case you’re wondering why I’m telling you all this, it’s because I’m wondering how the heck you thought it was good idea for you to ask me over for another one of your home-cooked dinners. And how the heck I agreed to this in the first place.”

Her words were so calm, so levelled that it was only the sense of her magic flaring that warned him a split-second before she shot out of her chair, and marched towards the door.

Kai had been frozen in his seat all through her narration, but now he was on his feet like a jack-in-the-box and, moving so fast that he must have subconsciously ported, he was between Bonnie and the door a split second before her body slammed into him.

Shock filled her face, her hands hitting his chest to push herself away but he grabbed onto her bare arms, held on for dear life.

“A chance. You promised. Remember?”

Her eyes were too angry, the blood and magic under her veins spiking so violently, that his palms burnt where they gripped her skin, fiery, silky and slippery as she struggled in his grip, but he didn’t let go. “This was a mistake.”

“No,” he said urgently, desperately, speaking so quickly his words fell over each other. “It wasn’t. I know I’m new at this emotions thing. But I wasn’t being some insensitive jerk when I set this up.”

“Let me go, Kai.”

“Just listen, OK? I read about this in a book. You can’t imagine how many books there are out there for people like me. Or at least, people who were like me. Like I was. I mean… I read this book, and it said this was something we had to do. Redo the bad memories. Take away their power.”

Bonnie stopped struggling to stare at him, incredulity streaked across her face. “You read a couples’ counselling book for sociopaths? Don’t you think that was, I dunno, a hell lot of being presumptuous?”

He squeezed her arms, drawing her nearer, almost reflexively. “I don’t know everything, Bonnie… I’m learning. I’m trying to do this right. I’m trying to do right by you.”

She shoved at his chest again, but weakly now. “This was a mistake.”

“No, it wasn’t.”

The look she threw at him was tired. “I got carried away. We both did. There’s no way this was ever going-”

Kai bent down and kissed her, partly to get her to stop talking before she said something she felt she couldn’t take back and partly because he had been burning to do so for the past fifteen minutes, no, the past forty six hours, and eleven minutes and he couldn’t hold himself back a second longer.

Bonnie froze in his arms, her body stiff and still as a rod, and for a horrible moment, he thought he had made another mistake. Another bad move. Another thing that he won’t be able to take back.

Then her arms slid across his chest to grip his back and she opened her mouth, deepening the kiss as she stepped right into him.

Stars exploded behind his eyes as he groaned, his hands slid up her arms, stroking her neck under her hair, then sliding over the back of her head, holding her in place as their mouths mated desperately. He could feel her small hands on his skin through his shirt, and it wasn’t near enough and so he sent it away, feeling her gasp when her small hands now burnt palm-shaped prints into his bare skin.

Her gasp broke the kiss, and he quickly slid his mouth down her throat to see if she still tasted the same, and damn, she did, like everything delicious and intoxicating and when she gasped again, her body arcing into his own as he bent her half over, his hand sliding down her back to grip her ass, slam her hips right into the ache in his groin.

Dimly, he heard the curtains in his room flapping wildly, the overheard lights dimming in and out but only dimly, because he had turned them around so that her back was against the door, lifting her by her ass so that her legs could hook around his waist, all the while without lifting his mouth from her skin.

“Kai,” she gasped, her voice so low it thrummed through his bones, and her hand was clutching his hair, keeping his head in place as he pushed down her blouse, his greedy eyes desperate for a proper view of that lace, and his mouth all but watering at the memory of the delicious skin underneath it.

The knock on the door sounded so far away, like something from someone else’s bad dream, that it took Bonnie’s hand, painfully yanking his head up by his hair and her wild eyes, staring at him, before he heard it.

“Kai! I need to speak to you right now.”

Joshua.

The murder in his heart must have shown on his face because Bonnie’s own face twisted, and before he could blink, she had slipped out of his arms and was standing beside her chair. As he watched, her hands raised up to fix back her hair, she murmured a spell, and he felt the trickle of magic as she ‘fixed’ her entire appearance. In a split second, her outfit was unruffled, her makeup was unblemished and that wild, flushed look on her face had disappeared.

It killed him a little. He was walking to her, instinctively, without any other thought in his head but to make her look as dishevelled as she did a moment ago, and her hand came up. Her magic held him in place.

“Bonnie…”

“You should see to that.”

“Bonnie,” he tried again, wanting to explain, to wipe away that split-second that she had looked into his face with fear. But every-time he tried to make a move towards her, his feet froze.

“Malachai!” Joshua yelled through the door.

“I’m coming, dammit!” Kai yelled.

The knocking ceased.

Bonnie flinched.

It was enough to make someone go mad, Kai thought half-hysterically. The more Joshua angered him, the more it frightened Bonnie; the more she was frightened, the more he felt like sending a wave of magic through that door to implode his father’s skull.

“Bonnie,” he tried again.

“You really should get that,” she said quietly. She turned towards the table, and the spread on it. He had no idea how much time had passed since they both left the table. The glasses had overturned,probably from the force of magic a few moments ago, and the wine stained the cloth, dripping on the floor. But the food still looked warm and tempting and that almost set him off again.

“This will just take a minute,” he said finally. “Coven business.”

She nodded.

“Don’t…” He managed a gasp of laughter. “Don’t go anywhere.”

She gave him a thin-lipped smile.

He nodded nervously, then went back to the door, and he reached for the knob.

“Kai,” she called out.

He turned back at once. “Bonnie?”

She waved a hand in his general direction, her face flushing. “Your shirt.” What she actually meant was the lack of one.

Not for the first time, he felt his face flood with embarrassment in front of Bonnie. But it was worth it to see the way her eyes glanced over his chest, then looked away, her skin darkening even further.

He snapped his fingers, and he was in one of his t-shirts.

“And your…” One hand twirled over her face, then pointed at him. “You might want to fix that, too.”

He smirked. “Do I?”

She shrugged, still flushing. “I’d prefer it, actually.”

Disappointment filled him. “Of course,” he said, with bite. She clearly didn’t want his father to walk in and get the right impression about what just almost happened between them. He muttered the spell she had used – useful thing that, he had never known it before – and he almost felt his blood cool somewhat. “Satisfied?”

She shrugged again, and looked away.

His jaw was clenching as he yanked open the door to glare into his father’s equally furious face.

“Listen, Joshua,” Kai started.

“No,” his father growled. “You listen, Malachai. I’ve been in the flat across from yours.”

Shock went all the way from the top of Kai’s head to the bottom of his shoes.

Oh no.

He hadn’t had the time to go through that place. Too much had happened since the wedding and he had only barely muttered a simple Erasorio spell the night he had stumbled into his own apartment.

“Joshua…”

“Start talking, Malachai.”

Somewhere at the back of Kai’s mind had lain the thought that he needed to scour that place magically and ensure that no trace was left of what had been there. But it had been vague, buried under too many other things. It had raised its head a little this afternoon when Joshua had shown up with his questions and suspicions but Kai had something… someone more important to worry about.

Someone who was standing in his kitchen now, listening to every word that was about to be said.

Without a backwards glance, he walked out of his flat, shoving his father into the hallway as he slammed the door shut behind him.

“Get out of my building,” he snarled.

“Not until I get to the bottom of this.”

“I don’t have time for this and you’re forgetting that Head Councillor or not, you don’t call the shots here.”

“You’re going to make time, Kai. Or I’m going and then I’m coming back with the Council, and the Elders, and the Envoy chiefs and I’m going educate you on just how much power you think you have.”

Magic rushed to his fists and he felt his father’s aura flare right back. Kai almost laughed. “You want to duel, Dad?”

“I want the truth.” If Kai didn’t know any better, he could have sworn that laced into the anger in his father’s voice, was disappointment. “I vouched for you. I brought the coven to your side. So you’d better start talking about what really happened in 1903 with those heretics, Malachai.”

Kai dragged his father into the apartment across his own, cast a muffling spell, and told him everything. He didn’t hold anything back. What was the point? Afterwards, he listened to Joshua’s scorn. And rage. And accusations. And when it was all over, he left his father to decide his fate and went back to his flat.

Kai knew before he opened the door what he would meet.

The food was cold. The candles had burnt out. The spilled wine was a messy pool on the floor.

And, of course, Bonnie was gone.

Chapter 13: Countdown to a massacre

Chapter Text

May 2013

Kai had told her an hour, and that was probably how long it took for the heretic magic to seep out of her aura, but by the time Bonnie woke up, the light through the hotel windows told her that it was late evening.

She hummed with relief at the reassuring feel of her magic beating warm under her skin, a bit worse for wear after the ritual, but completely untainted. She tried to flick her wrists and perform a small spell – something practical and useful like drawing the curtains shut – but she couldn’t move her hands. That was when she realised that they were trapped by Kai’s body, one under his throat, and the other alarming close to his tail bone.

The last coherent thought in her head had been of blood lust so intense that it had obliterated everything else. Somewhere between the fifth and the tenth frenzied bout of feeding, they must have both passed out. Now they lay together on the floor beside the circle of candles and spent power rings, so intertwined that it was hard to tell where she ended and where he began.

His body was large and long, and there was altogether too much of him. But his skin was warm anywhere it touched hers – which was everywhere; and she could feel his magic rumbling against her own. It was wild, ancient, and steady all at once – a surprisingly hom*ogenous mix of ancestral magic, his own volatility and, what she supposed, had been Luke Parker’s steadier temperament. Most importantly, it was Kai’s, unmistakably. The abnormal magic from the heretics was as completely gone from him as it was from her.

Her first instinct was – surprisingly enough – not to extricate herself from the tangle of limbs and flesh and sticky blood – but to just close her eyes and let real sleep overtake her. That this involved sleeping with someone who she had, barely twenty-four hours earlier, been convinced wanted to murder her or worse – did not seem as important as the weight of complete exhaustion that lay heavy on her. She might have been out for hours by the look of things, but she certainly was far from rested; the rush of hectic, unnatural magic through her system had taken a toll on her.

Kai stirred.

With a jolt, common sense kicked in – get the hell away from this guy! – and she twisted and pushed and rolled until she had unravelled herself from him.

Kai had moaned when she first started trying to get away, so she knew he was awake by the time she was done. He didn’t, as she half-feared, try to hold on to her. Neither did he help her. When she finally got free, and crouched on the floor beside him, he was lying on his back, staring up at her.

For a moment, they just watched each other.

“You look horrible,” he said at last, in his lilting voice.

“As do you,” Bonnie countered. Which was true. She was hard-pressed to remember that the pieces of rags he wore had once been an eye-catching tuxedo. The slashes and stab wound from the night before had healed, she noticed. No doubt, courtesy of the dose of heretic aura that he had consumed. But the tan skin underneath, stretched over muscles that she could swear he hadn’t had a few months ago was stained with sweat, blood and soot. His skull…

She touched his hairline; he tensed, his eyes widening, but she ignored that, as her fingers traced the smooth path of ripped hair that ran zigzag across his scalp.

He winced.

“Does it hurt?” Bonnie asked, more fascinated than concerned.

“Not the scar, no,” he answered. Gently, he took her wrist and pushed it from his head.

Her hand fell to her side, and she resisted the urge to rub her wrist against her clothes, rub out the burn of his touch. She could feel his eyes heavy on her, and she ignored them, staring instead at her clothes. They weren’t torn and shredded like his own – courtesy of her missing out on the battle of the night before – but they were drenched with blood. Her mouth, too, tasted slightly of iron.

“We’re a mess. We can’t go anywhere looking like this,” she muttered, and clambered to her feet.

He stayed on the ground, watching her. “Know any cleaning spells?”

“No,” she said, and felt defensive at the way his eyebrows lifted. “My speciality is combat. What about you? Didn’t you need domestic magic growing up with a ton of bratty siblings?”

She bit her tongue as soon as she said it but it was too late. His brows fell as did his eyes, but not before she saw the darkness cloud them.

Grief, she recognised with surprise, even though every instinct in her wanted to deny it.

“Bonnie, believe me, I’ve changed.”

“I know. But so have I.”

She hadn’t really known, if she were honest with herself. She had still believed it was all part of some long con, some diabolical plan he had cooked up to hoodwink her, his coven, and everyone else. But now…

Now, none of that mattered.

She hadn’t been allowed to be physically present in the battle with the heretics – and there was simmering rage at that, but distant like a faraway storm; it would come but not yet. After all, in a way, she had done her own part in the fight. Arguably the most important part, since the entire existence of the coven rode on the continued existence of this one man, who was regarding her with that undecipherable look in his dark eyes.

Bonnie hadn’t known that either, before 1903. That and a whole host of other things.

“How does it work?” she asked before she could help herself.

When he gaped, clearly taken aback, she shook her head and started scooting away. “Never mind-”

He reached out and grabbed her. One moment, he was lying on the ground, looking as completely worn out as she felt – the next moment, her back was on the ground as he hovered over her, his fingers wrapped around her arm.

The next moment, he had dropped her arm like if holding it burnt him. It probably did, if the charge that had rocked through Bonnie’s body at his grip was anything to go by.

“I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I didn’t… Still trying to figure this out.”

She just stared at him, her heart pounding; but whether from how suddenly he had moved, how easily he could overpower her, or from that charge, she didn’t know.

Whatever she showed on her face made him duck his, his mouth twisting as if with self-deprecation. “You know, the whole human interaction kind of thing. Wanting to understand people now. Wanting people to understand me. And at the same time, remembering that no one, least of all you, is obligated to give a damn about me.” He chuckled bitterly. “Life was so much easier when I was a simple sociopath.”

When she didn’t say anything for a long moment, he threw her a quick glance. “Feel free to freak out now.”

Bonnie sat up slowly and wrapped her arms around her middle. She didn’t freak out. She wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. “OK then.”

Kai eyed her warily. “What?”

“Never ‘never mind’. Tell me. How does this whole merge thing work anyway?”

He didn’t look pleased or relieved with her question. Instead his eyes narrowed with suspicion. “I thought you didn’t believe in the merge. You thought that deep down inside me, I was still the same old me. You know, the guy who plotted to kill his coven for decades. The guy who brought you here so that you won’t be in the way when the heretics destroyed them.”

If his biting words were supposed to make her feel ashamed, he was wasting his time. Instead, her temper flared and she scoffed. “Your own parents didn’t think that the Merge would automatically make you a better person otherwise they won’t have tried so hard to have a back-up plan. So excuse the girl who’s been on the receiving end of your cruelty for not automatically giving you the benefit of the doubt. If you’re waiting for an apology for that, you’re going to wait for a very long time.”

His jaw ticked, his eyes at once stormy. For a moment they both just glared at each other angrily.

He broke first, looking away, and for a moment, she watched his profile as he swallowed rapidly, visibly trying to get himself under control.

“I’m not asking for an apology,” he ground out. “All I’ve ever wanted was for you to…”

He bit off his words, his face darkening, and he turned away from her.

Bonnie glared at his back, wondering what he was about to say, to lash out at her before he changed his mind. He was visibly struggling with his own temper, his shoulders shaking slightly.

She supposed that was another post-merge change. His anger was hotter, less… refined was the best word. In 1994, his fury had been cold but contained; his eyes chips of malicious ice, not blazing rage. She had only ever seen him truly lose his temper once – that day in the cave she had thrown away her magic, thinking that she had trapped both of them there.

What had she been thinking?

Every other time, even at his most violent, there had always been something detached about him. He had never been angry for its own sake; he had used his anger like he used every other thing or person – a means to an end, that would be discarded promptly once it served its purposes.

But in the short, scattered time Bonnie had spent with him since her return from 1994, he now appeared to be less in perfect control of his emotions. It seemed to take a small thing for her to push him to the edge. Like right now, he not only seemed upset – for apparently, no other than reason than that she had upset him – he struggled with it. He was breathing steadily, his arms tense at his sides, his back muscles rippling with his effort to check himself. He hadn’t suffered any injuries on his back but there were faint traces of white scars over the otherwise smooth muscles. She remembered how warm he had been, when they had been wrapped around each other on the floor. How his muscles had shifted against her body when she had slid out of their blood-stoned cuddle.

His back was marked with scars. Most were faded, old but there was a relatively new one that lay barely an inch to his spine, the skin twisted and angry. It was very familiar.

Her fingers were inches from touching it when her brain caught up with her.

Bonnie snatched her hand back with a thrill of horror. Then she shook her head, trying to literally snap out of her weird mental tangent. She hastily threw her gaze elsewhere – anywhere would be safer – and it landed on the three discarded rings on the floor. She remembered why she had asked the question in the first place.

Why she had ended up spending all day in this room with this man, doing everything in her power to save him.

Because much as she wanted to believe it, she hadn’t done this just for the sake of his coven.

The day they returned from 1903 and Kai Parker told her the truth about her birthday, Bonnie had refused to believe him. Until she spoke to Jeremy, she had kept on hoping, with increasing desperation that Kai had been lying, that it was just a part of some grander manipulation that he was plotting.

Then she had spoken to Jeremy and he had confirmed all of Bonnie’s worst fears – how Damon had lied and used her, how little her friends had actually done to save her and, the worst of it all, how Kai had almost died saving her life.

After that, the only thing she could process, the one thing she could latch on and deal with was the revelation about Damon. But even after the explosive confrontation with him and Elena, Bonnie had still not been ready to deal with the other, more damning the truth.

The truth that Kai had almost dying to save her life, going on with the spell not once, not twice, but three times, even as the stakes got higher and higher for him. That this sociopath whom she had hated, whom she had taken turns with in a vicious game of violence and betrayal, had probably risked more for her in those few hours in the Salvatore mansion than all her friends had ever done in her entire life.

How much of her nightmares of him taking vengeance against her, her growing conviction that Kai was just bidding his time to get back at her really stemmed from her determination not to confront that truth?

It was so much easier, Bonnie thought with no small bitterness as she turned her gaze back to the man himself, when she just hated him and wanted him dead.

Because now she had run out of excuses – he had saved her last night when he could have easily let a heretic murder her; and he had saved his coven at great cost to himself. And that conversation, that confrontation that she had been mentally running from since they day they both returned from 1903 – had finally caught up with her.

She took a deep breath but before she could speak, he swung back to face her, and cut her off. “We’re even. I don’t want an apology from you, Bon.”

“But you do want something,” she said shrewdly.

His face darkened at that, his whole body – and she knew because she could see so much of him – turning red all the way to the tips of his ears.

She felt her own face flush as she realised what she had just said.

“I m-mean,” she stammered, “you w-want me… to understand you. You post-merge. What you just said now. I mean.”

The corner of his mouth curled up in the tiniest of smirks. “Yes, Bonnie. I want you…” and even though his ears reddened further, he deliberately paused at that point “…to understand me.”

There was something like laughter in his eyes – something like a plea, too. Like he was trying to make a joke that he desperately needed her to be amused by. It reminded her of him in the snow, talking about her palms, and how she looked up to see that faux-shy smile on his face as he waited for her to laugh that off.

Only it hadn’t been faux at all, had it?

She sighed, got to her feet, and walked away.

Kai’s eyes jerked up at her movement, disappointment flashing across his face, and then surprise taking its place when she stopped at the mini-bar by the door.

“I need a drink,” she said simply, checking out the contents, “clean clothes will be nice too. Maybe even wash the makeup off my face.” She pulled out two cans and tossed him one. He caught it easily. Bonnie tried not to notice how his face was positively glowing as he watched her.

She popped her can, took a long, cold swig, washing out the residual taste of blood from her mouth. “If this is going to be long, then I’m not going to sit on the floor for it.”

June 2013

Mystic Falls

Matt Donovan had a cubicle-like office, a three by three feet space that was inundated with paperwork, spilling from what was probably a table to the floor. He was hunched over the floor, with a stack on his chair, a fistful in his grip, and only occasionally came up for air to consult something from the pile on the desk.

Apparently, someone was trying to drown the cadet with paperwork.

After waiting for a reasonable length of time and not being noticed, Kai cleared his throat loudly. Then again. Then he waved his hand discreetly and the pile of paper work on the chair slid down to the floor.

He half-expected the man to jump up with an expletive, instead Donovan just groaned heavily and sighed.

“You know, I knew you were there all this time,” the cadet muttered, staring sadly at the chaos in front of him. “I just needed a few minutes to get down something. What is it about your super-naturals that makes you all so bloody impatient?”

“Shouldn’t that be my line?” Kai wondered. “Your generation being into instant gratification and mine being … not?”

Donovan sighed again and finally stood up. He was frowning, not screaming with horror and trying to enact violence on Kai. Which, Kai remembered, had also been pretty much his reaction when his then-future brother-in-law Alaric Saltzman had made introductions. Donovan had been put in charge of running the groom’s – a.k.a. the mundane – side of things for the wedding; Kai was the brother-in-law-to-be and the leader of the coven that Alaric was marrying into. It had, apparently, seemed necessary to Alaric for both men to know each other by name.

“And talking about millennials and the millennium, what happened to Go Paperless? Global warming, saving the trees and all that?”

Donovan sighed again. “What do you want, Kai?”

Bonnie.

The thought tore through Kai’s head, sharply, keenly; and it was all he could do to keep the desperation off his face. It had been four days, fifteen hours, and ten minutes since she vanished after his botched attempt at a romantic dinner date, ruined so spectacularly by his father’s unwelcome intrusion. Kai blew up her phone, haunted the Whitmore campus, stalked Mystic Falls, and all her friends, but there was no sign of her. In all those places, she had magically scoured any trace of her that he could have used for a locator spell.

She was avoiding him.

Either his father’s interruption had given her the opportunity to make the escape she had been itching to do from the moment she showed up at his door or…

Or, thanks to Joshua, Bonnie had just found the perfect reason to hate him.

Kai had thought that never having a chance with Bonnie Bennett was bad. No, not bad. Horrendous. A f*cking Greek tragedy. It had got so bad during that time in Portland when he and Joshua were patching things up – to put it mildly – that he had spent a day in the Archives, looking for any information on love antidotes. Pathetic, really.

But now, he was beginning to realise that he could have lived with that horrendous, hopeless pining. He could have lived with unfulfilled wanting.

Because this? Knowing that he had had a chance with her? Knowing what it felt like to f*cking be with her – in every sense of the word? And then knowing that he wasn’t going to get that feeling back… ever? Oh no. No way in hell could he survive this.

He wasn’t interested in the niggling thought in the back of his mind that he could survive this because apparently, other people did. At least according to those sappy love songs and corny stories that never used to make any sense to him. Chalk it up to him being an ex-sociopath, on a zero to hundred learning curve in processing human emotions. Chalk it up to his feelings for Bonnie being exacerbated by that or magic or fate or f*cking karma.

But he couldn’t survive this.

So he refused to believe that he would have to.

Of course, he didn’t say any of that out loud to Matt Donovan. Kai had guilted Alaric into giving him Bonnie’s schedule but that was the most help he got from any of her friends. He didn’t know how much she had told them of … anything. But they all played dumb, seemingly unaware that her relationship with him had moved past ‘former enemies who tolerate each other from a safe, preferably umpired distance’. Kai couldn’t decide if they genuinely didn’t know where she was hiding or why she was hiding; but he certainly knew that they won’t have helped him even if they did.

So he wasn’t expecting Matt Donovan to get him what he really wanted above everything else. No. What the police cadet was going to get for Kai was closure. He was the end of a loose thread that Kai should have cut ages ago.

On their introduction, Kai had easily placed the man – childhood friend of Bonnie and co from Mystic Falls. The Humanity Quotient of the team. He hadn’t raised any flags and Kai hadn’t paid him any attention; had barely even registered his presence when he had installed the Genova family into Kai’s apartment when the hotels had filled up with Gemini guests and boarding needed to be out-sourced.

But that was before Kai had discovered that this Matt Donovan had been Bonnie’s chosen partner-in-crime when she had broken into his apartment in the hours before Jo’s wedding.

Not Damon ‘My Best Friend is a Vampire dickhe*d’ Salvatore, nor Elena ‘My Other Best Friend is a Vampire Insert-Appropriate-Gender-Equivalent-of-A-dickhe*d’ Gilbert nor anybody else from their nest of user bloodsuckers. Nor Tyler Lockwood, the werewolf.

Bonnie had chosen the Token Mundane.

Since then, Kai had done his homework on the guy and now he regarded him attentively.

He raised an eyebrow now at the cadet’s pointed question. “You don’t beat around the bush much, do you?” He looked around for a chair, didn’t find one, then waved his hand and conjured a seat.

Donovan jumped, and quickly looked around him. “Care to be more discreet?” he hissed. “Most of my mates don’t know about this…” He waved his hand, ‘this’ probably signifying Kai, magic, and the supernatural as a whole.

“Word of advice: Any mundane who lives in this town and doesn’t know about ‘this’” Kai made an exaggerated imitation of the other man’s gesture – “doesn’t want to know. They see what they want to see. It’s amazing really. A sort of survival instinct, I think. Anyway, you didn’t offer.”

This mundane’s frown deepened.

Kai decided to take a page from the guy’s book and get to the point. “I want to report a crime.”

Donovan blinked. Stared.

Kai stared back.

“You want to report a crime?”

“Already said that. Do I need to start ranting about millennials and their abbreviated attention span?”

Donovan glowered. “O… K… That would be downstairs at the front de-”

“Break-in and forced entry into my apartment. Sunday the ____ of May.”

Kai had to give it to the guy. He had an excellent poker face.

“I see.” The mundane turned to his desk and started shuffling papers.

“Uh-huh. I was away that day, attending my sister’s wedding. Hey, weren’t you supposed to be in it? What happened?”

Donovan cleared his throat. “Had an accident. Needed to go to the hospital.”

“Sorry to hear that, man. What kind of accident?”

Donovan kept shuffling. “Didn’t look where I was going. Walked into a pole.”

The guy was either the lousiest liar in the world or he couldn’t be bothered to deflect the freaking Gemini leader.

“Aw shucks. Well, glad to see you’re back on your feet. Now about that break-in…”

“Here you are, sir,” Donovan said suddenly. He turned back to Kai with a sheaf of papers. “Just fill in your name and address, and give us as much details as you can. Initial here, here and here. Sign here for permission to conduct a search through your apartment, and here to disclaim the Sheriff’s office of any property damage that might occur accidentally during the preliminary search of your apartment.”

When Kai stared at him, he elaborated with a smirk. “You know, as part of the investigation? Oh, I almost forgot: sign here for permission for forensics to collect some of your personal items as evidence. You’ll be surprised at the clues these small-time crooks leave behind in the, for example, the pantry.”

Kai couldn’t help it: he laughed out loud. “Touché.” He pushed the papers aside.

“Just going by the book, sir.”

Kai snorted, tapped his knee with the pen, as he regarded the man sitting across from him. He was torn between amusem*nt and impatience. Forget the pleasantries – he could clamp a hand around this smartass’s shoulder, yank him to his apartment and clout the truth out of him, magic optional.

Or he could appreciate the fact that this was one of Bonnie’s oldest friends, the one person she chose to accompany her into dangerous territory, and figure out how to use that.

After all, Kai used to be really good at figuring people out and figuring out how to use his knowledge of them to his advantage? It had been a survival technique honed through years of observing and imitating behaviour that had always seemed foreign to him.

Well now that he had all this pesky empathy, wasn’t it supposed to make that technique easier?

He thought again about Matt Donovan’s connection to Bonnie.

It always came back to her, didn’t it? He thought with a tinge of bitterness.

He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “I don’t want trouble, Officer. I know you’re worried about Bonnie.”

The effort it took Kai to say her name so casually was almost worth the flicker of emotion that crossed the other man’s face.

A flicker of emotion that immediately raised Kai’s hackles. For a moment, he stared hard at the man, wondering…

Then he shook his head, refocused on the task at hand.

“I already know you were both in my apartment that day. I don’t have a problem with that. You did what you had to do. But you were also the first people to see the heretics after they got out of the Prison World and there are a hella lot of unanswered questions about the why and how of that. She’s not… around so that leaves you.”

“But the heretics are dead. What does it ma-”

“You’re a cop, aren’t you? Then you should know that the case isn’t over until all the questions are answered, not whether the bad guys are dead or not. And my biggest question is how they got out in the first place.”

Donovan co*cked his head. “Bonnie left her blood in the snow. They had the Ascendant, they heard her do the spell…”

Kai blinked. OK, so maybe the Token Mundane was not decorative after all.

“Impressive,” he admitted as much. “But I was one step ahead of them and I made sure that even with all that, they won’t be getting out of the Prison World.”

I was one step ahead of them, all right. But I really should have been one step ahead of myself.

He winced as the sudden, bitter thought.

Donovan was staring. “What do you mean?”

Kai hedged. “Let’s just say that as coven leader, I could and I did put a few extra locks in place. The Ascendant, Bennett blood and a pesky spell shouldn’t have been enough for the heretics to break out. No offence, but I don’t have time to explain the nitty-gritty details to a m…” At the man’s frown, Kai quickly back-tracked. “I mean, most of this stuff is kinda coven-exclusive, you know? Gemini trademark secrets and all that. No time to clear with the witchy Consigliere. Just take my word for it, OK? If you follow me now to my apartment, there’s a spell you can help me with to figure out how they did.”

The mundane was still clearly unconvinced, his eyes narrowed with suspicion. Kai tried for a friendly grin. “Come on, didn’t anyone tell you? I’m one of the good guys now. I grew the beard and everything.”

“So you’re not going after Bonnie?”

Kai almost laughed again.

Is that the real problem here? Well then, you can bet your law enforcement career that I’m going after Bonnie!

Just not the way you’re thinking.

But Kai kept that to himself. Or tried to. From the feeling of sudden heat on his face, and Donovan’s appraising look, he wondered how well a job he did of that.

“No, Donovan. I just want to figure out how this happened.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t know how much your friends told you about my coven’s Prison Worlds, but they were built for some very bad people. It’s for all our best interests that we know for certain how these guys engineered their prison break. Make sure no one else repeats the trick.”

“You mean like you?” Donovan asked, but there was no bite in his voice. He looked thoughtful, considering. Then he shrugged. “Fine. Count me in. I’ve teamed up with worse for the greater good. What do I do?”

Teamed up with worse? Kai thought with outrage. Oh, for the glory days of his sociopathy! He’d teach this Pet Mundane a thing or two about Big Bads.

Instead, he could only plaster a smile on his face, and stretch out his hand. “Let’s shake on it.”

Donovan took the proffered hand – and Kai yanked them both out of that dingy cubicle.

June 2014

Mystic Falls

“And when Matt came to, he was back in his cubicle, with a bottle of water and two Aspirins on the desk beside him.”

Lucy’s laugh through the Bluetooth speakers of the car was almost infectious. “Considerate. I think I like this guy.”

Almost.

Bonnie scowled. “Or he could have just warned Matt about what the spell could do. Even better, asked his consent before he performed invasive magic on him.”

“The Memorian spell is hardly invasive magic, Bonnie. Come on, did Matt suffer any ill effects after taking his pain-killers?”

“‘Take drugs from some weirdo who kinda kidnapped me and did juju on me in my sleep? Er… no can do.’” Bonnie repeated Matt’s exact words verbatim, deep throat accent and all. Lucy chuckled at that and Bonnie cracked a small grin. “He slept it off. He felt fine the next day.”

“My point exactly, Bon. The only reason why that Gemini wizard’s spell hit you so badly was because you’re already carrying so much on your shoulders. Whatever happened to staying out of the Mystic Falls Drama? Choosing a major, getting in on the Dean’s list, working towards graduating summa cum laude, and all that boring college stuff that’s been so important this past year?”

Bonnie sighed. She stared through the windscreen of Matt’s police car to the man himself, standing by the hotdog stand and haggling with the vendor. It was a wet Sunday morning, and his image was blurred as the splashes of water ran down the glass. Even with the engine and the heat on, Bonnie felt the chill. She wondered how much of it was from the weather or just her own trepidations.

“This will be the last time, Luce,” she said at last.

Lucy snorted. “That’s what they always say. Admit it, Bonnie. This is you. Your Hero Complex. Saviour Syndrome. Whatever you want to call it. You can’t walk away from a fight.”

Bonnie flinched, her cousin’s casual throwaway hitting harder than she probably realised.

“I can’t walk away from a fight? Really? So what did I do when those werewolves were rampaging through campus? Or when the shapeshifter who was pretending to be a dragon-”

“What? What did you say?”

Bonnie raised an eyebrow, surprised at the sudden urgency in Lucy’s voice. “The werewolves-”

“No, Bonnie. The dragon.”

Bonnie laughed. “Oh that. Not a dragon, Lucy, I promise you. The gang took it out within weeks of it popping into Mystic Falls. It was either a shapeshifter or some other weirdo type creature that I’ve never heard about.”

“I’ve never heard of vampires defeating a dragon before…” Lucy said, her voice uncertain.

“And you’re not hearing it from me now.” Bonnie lifted her head as the car door opened and grinned at the hot cup of coffee that Matt proffered. “Whatever Damon and co took out, that was certainly not a dragon.”

Matt gave her a sharp frown at that. He shook his head.

‘Sorry but it wasn’t,’ Bonnie mouthed.

He shook his head fiercely.

Bonnie gave him a ‘get over it’ shrug in reply; and he glared harder.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. Whatever.

“Mmm….”

Lucy sounded like if her mind was wandering, and Bonnie pulled her back to the point of the conversation. “So you’re certain, right? The Memorian spell won’t work without the people that were in the scene in question being physically present in the scene in question?”

“Yep. It recreates the reality from the conscious and sub-conscious memories of those present. And it gives reality – not glamours, not illusions, cloaking too is revealed. But the key ingredient is the memories of the people present. They can be sleeping, unconscious, in a coma, whatever. As long as they are existing in this realm, it’s enough. It won’t work, for example, if the ghost of a murder victim is haunting the scene of his murder.”

“Or if none of the people are present, right?”

“Exactly. So this Parrish dude needed you and the others there – the more, the more detailed, more ‘coverage’ is the memory – and the Gemini Praetor needed Matt in his apartment to recreate what happened when you and Matt encountered the heretics. There’s no way else he’d have known for sure what happened – short of using you, yourself.”

Matt, who had been listening to the conversation keenly, sighed heavily. His eyes were sad as he mouthed to Bonnie, ‘I’m sorry.’

‘What the heck for?’ she mouthed back, surprised.

He just sighed again.

“So,” Bonnie asked Lucy with a knowing eye on Matt, “if, for example, I were to break into the boardings of a visiting Gemini wizard and rob him of certain books… Unless he physically drags me – or anyone helping me – back there, there’s no way he can do this spell and confirm that I’m the one who stole these books and I dunno, get me thrown into some Gemini Prison World for breaking and entering, theft of sacred text, larceny, etc.?”

“No,” Lucy started, then the rest of the question finally sank in. “Wait – what?”

“Nice talking to you, Luce! I’ll let you know how it all works out.”

“Wait a minute! Bonnie, you are not going to mess with some Gemini Envoy, are you? Bonnie, wait-”

“Oops, I’m entering a tunnel. Line’s breaking up! I… can’t… hear…”

Bonnie switched off the phone.

Matt burst out laughing. “That was mean.”

“That was necessary. You’ll be surprised out how petty Lucy can be over me pumping her for information but not advice. Apparently, there’s a world of difference” She gave him a triumphant grin and reached for the black bag she had thrown on the floor. “You heard her. Our mission is a Go.”

“Still seems like too much trouble just to get some damn books back for Liv. Why can’t you just let this Parrish guy take them back to Portland and leave Liv to deal with her Gemini people? I mean, how bad can it be, Bonnie? You’re a good witch, Bonnie. You saved their asses on Jo’s wedding. And she’s a freaking Parker. Her brother is like their King or something.”

Bonnie pressed her lips together, as she retrieved a candle, and a small palm-sized pot of incense. “The Gemini are creepy and weird. What else is new?”

“I don’t like them, at all. Any of them. That whole Parker family is sick.”

She gave him a look, surprised at his sudden vehemence. “You don’t like Liv?”

“Liv is alright. It’s the rest I don’t care about.”

“The rest? Like Jo? Her twins?” Bonnie smiled as she balanced a candle on the dashboard.

“Not them. I mean everyone else…” When she kept staring, he burst out. “Remember when they tortured Luke for trying to help us save Elena and Stefan from the Travellers? Their idea of an election is ritual murder. Come on, Bonnie…”

Her smiled slipped. “Well, I’m the last person to defend the Gemini. Which is all the more reason why I don’t need any more enemies there than I can help. And now that Liv’s here in Mystic Falls, we can use her help. We can pick her brains some more about the heretics. Jo got back to me about Georgiana Parker. Nothing. Apparently, the Gemini scour out records of any known syphons from their books – and” – Bonnie clenched her fingers – “the only person who can get any kind of information about the inmates of any of the Gemini Prison Worlds is the Praetor. It’s information that is buried under layers and layers of cloaking spells, a lock within a lock within a lock. Praetors don’t even pass the information between themselves. Just how to access it if they need to.” She sighed.

“So Liv isn’t likely to know either,” Matt said shrewdly.

Too shrewdly for Bonnie’s sake. She glared at him and he raised his hands up. “Well, I’m just saying…”

“She might know. Liv was training to be a Praetor for a very long time. She might have some knowledge that Jo won’t.”

“Wasn’t Jo also trained to be a Praetor? She and her brother were the older twins.”

Bonnie shook her head. “No, that’s not what happened at all. Jo was never prepared because that would have meant preparing Kai, too; and because of his siphoning, he was never a candidate to lead.” It was almost textbook ironic.

“That’s sh*tty even for the Gemini,” Matt said simply.

It was. Bonnie had long thought so. But there was no point saying it aloud. Or dwelling on it. So many wrongs, maybes, what-ifs? What was important was the here and now.

And the here and now was preparing the spell to track Envoy Asshat’s whereabouts so that they could break into his apartment and rob him.

“Be careful with that,” Matt said, eying the candle.

“Relax, Deputy Donovan,” she said with a grin. “Not going to wreck your shiny new police car. Do you let this car see any action at all? Or do you wax it every day?”

He scoffed. “I’ll let you know that my machine sees a lot of action.”

Bonnie gave him a sharp look but it looked like the innuendo had gone right over his head. Poor Matt, she snickered quietly.

“Talking about seeing action,” he said suddenly, “way to misrepresent our run-in with the Dragon Demon Santa.”

Bonnie shrugged. “Sorry to burst your bubble, Matt. But whatever that thing was, it wasn’t a dragon.”

“Who cares what you want to call it? I’m just pissed that you told Lucy that it was ‘Damon and the gang’ that did all the work when Damon wasn’t even there at all! He had to take a sudden trip out of state.”

“That’s not like Damon,” Bonnie said, frowning. “For all his many faults, he’s never been one to walk away from a fight.”

“Well, considering the fact that he was never in- Speak of the Devil!”

And, Bonnie realised with a muffled scream, the Devil appeared. Or in this case, the Damon, whose wet face was pressed up against her window, eyes bulging as he stared into the car.

After her initial shock, the next thing she felt was pissed. She wound down her glass – he almost fell in – and glared at him. “Excuse you? What the heck are you doing here? We’re supposed to rendezvous at Lockwood’s in an hour.”

He grinned. “Thought you duffers could use some help. Plus, I was bored. Stefan’s off sleuthing the campus massacre with Vampire Barbie. Tyler’s keeping our visiting Gemini witch very occupied.” He winked at Matt. “I take back everything bad I ever said about the wolf. The bloke’s got stamina.”

What Damon was referring to, in his usual disgusting way, was the fact that Tyler had ‘rescued’ Bonnie from the confrontation with Liv the day before. He had intercepted the blonde witch in Bonnie’s apartment, keeping her there while Bonnie, Caroline and Damon sneaked off to the Lockwood mansion. Later on, Bonnie found out that Tyler and Liv had stayed on at the apartment for hours, with Liv even helping with the vervain painting, speeding it up with magic, then they had ended up in the hotel room she was lodged.

And were still there. Tyler had called in sick at the precinct.

As Damon had put it that morning when they worked out the details of their break-in of Asshat’s place, Lockwood was valiantly taking one for the team.

Matt was laughing now, and started saying something undoubtedly disgusting about timberwolves – then fell silent when he caught Bonnie’s disapproving eye.

“Get lost, Damon,” she said. “There’s a reason why this is a No-Vampires-Allowed mission. Just because I’ve been inoculated to you lot, you forget that the presence of a vampire anywhere near a seasoned witch is like a beacon of all things dead, vicious and monstrous. Asshat will sense your decaying aura and this heist will be over before it’s started.”

“You say the sweetest things, love,” he retorted. “But I’m one step ahead of you, as always.” He flashed his phone at her. She stared at a display from a Map apps. Squinting, she saw a little red dot all the way in the heart of Whitmore. Miles away from here.

“Got a tracker on Asshat Whatshisname. He’s somewhere in Whitmore, also looking into the campus massacre. So you can stop playing around with candles and locator spells, and let’s get this thing done with.”

Bonnie gaped at his phone.

“Wow, that’s nifty,” she said, marvelling at the red dot of magic and technology combined. “What witch helped you do that?”

“Hasn’t been seen in this parts for some time now. But I believe he once went by the name of Jobs. Steve Jobs?”

“I’ve never heard of him. Maybe I’ll ask Lucy-” Then it registered, and she glared up at Damon’s laughing face. Beside her, Matt – the traitor – was snickering.

“Very funny.”

“Find My Phone app, witchy. But you should have seen the look on your face.”

Bonnie grabbed her bag, and pushed her door open, getting him straight in the gut. He doubled over, gasping as she stepped out, barely turning her head to them. “Come on, then. We don’t have all day.”

All this while, the police car was parked across the street from the row of single-bed-and-bath semi-detached bungalows that were rented out as guest houses by one of the downtown realtors. Bonnie stretched out her senses to reaffirm that the house leased by the Gemini was empty, then she pried through his boundary words and made quick work of his lock.

She grinned at Matt’s awed observation of her breaking-in-and-entering skills. “Not going to arrest me, Officer Donovan?”

He scoffed. “Is it me or did you do that faster than you did the last time, in Kai’s apartment?”

Bonnie’s grin faded abruptly. “More or less,” she muttered, and led the way into the house, the boys following.

The sense of déjà vu was inevitable – breaking into a Gemini wizard’s home with Matt at her side, for the purpose of finding, and stealing something that belonged to their coven. It was probably why she didn’t so much mind Damon tagging along either. At least, he broke the pattern.

It was a sparsely furnished studio flat. The only other door beside the front door led to a bathroom. Bonnie made her way to the open closet and stared hard at the empty space on the floor underneath the hanging clothes.

Either Asshat travelled very light or his luggage was cloaked.

“Spread out and search for anything that looks like it could be keeping those books. Just please be discreet. The idea is for him not to even notice they’re gone.”

“Waste of time, love,” Damon murmured. “By the time, we’re done tearing up this place, there’s no way he’ll know we weren’t here. Unless you’ve been practising your housecleaning magic?”

Bonnie ignored him, and after a while, he wandered off. Matt hesitated, watching as Bonnie sank cross-legged on the floor and started unpacking some of the contents of her bag.

“Need any help?” he asked.

“No, thanks, Matt. Just keep an eye on Damon. Make sure he doesn’t break anything. He hates this guy.”

“Obviously, I heard that!” Damon snapped. “And I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve no quarrel with the bloke.”

“Yeah, right. Caroline only needed to snap your neck because you were threatening some other Gemini Councillor.”

That shut him up, leaving Bonnie with the much-needed peace and quiet to concentrate.

She stared at the arrangement of candles before her, the careful pattern drawn with quicksilver on the floor, the blueprints to the housing unit that Matt had downloaded via the police servers, and last but not the least – the strand of curling blonde Parker hair that Tyler had smuggled to them that morning.

Once again, the sense of déjà vu assailed her.

The locator spell was tricky, but Bonnie had already factored in the cloaking and after a few false starts, it took hold. Her eye followed the trail of blood on the blue print before her, then she raised her hand to find what it represented in the space around her. She gazed hard at the wall on the side of the room opposite the bed. Just blank wallpaper, not even a painting or some decorative mirror. But the locator spell told her that her books were suspended somewhere on that wall.

Now for the revelation spell.

Bonnie wiped her hands against her trousers, her palms damp with nervousness. After Europe and those wild days and nights with Freya and Nora, Bonnie had taken a long break from magic – not just being involved in supernatural affairs but in her own magic. She had swapped her Grimoire for textbooks and her candles and incense for multi-coloured post-its and highlighter pens. But months later, when she had escaped from whispers of the Demon Santa shenanigans in Mystic Falls to the West Coast where Lucy now lived, her cousin had re-awakened Bonnie’s love for her own power – reminding her that magic was more than a weapon for others to exploit, and could be … well, fun. Bonnie had spent Christmas practising cool, new spells, honing her craft and she hadn’t let up when she returned to Virginia with her new outlook:

Magic was her heritage, not her curse.

Just because she wasn’t going to let people use her for her powers – didn’t mean that she should ban herself from them. She had a right, heck an obligation, to practise her arts, expand her knowledge and be the best witch she could possibly be.

But still… the revelation spell was wound up with a lot of baggage that Bonnie had left unpacked for over a year. She could hardly blame herself for being nervous over it now.

She retraced the quicksilver markings, checking and re-checking that her calibrations limited the spell to only this space, for a few minutes. Nothing beyond the walls of this house would be uncloaked. When she was satisfied, she poised her palm over the blueprint, and slashed it, whispering the wordings of the spell softly.

Only she stumbled over the last phrase and the spell fizzled out – her blood falling upwards to the ceiling, bouncing off it and falling onto the blueprint in a messy splatter.

From across the room, Damon burst out laughing. “Guessing that wasn’t meant to do that.”

“Bonnie, are you OK?” Matt asked, coming over.

“I’m fine,” she said, a beat after she muttered a quick cleansing spell while the botched magic was still potent. She was trying to quickly re-align the quicksilver markings when shadows fell over her.

“Go away, guys,” she said with a sigh. “I don’t need an audience for this.”

Damon promptly plopped down beside her. “And miss out on the witchy-woo fun?”

“It’s just a revelation spell,” she said quietly.

“Like the one you cast over at…” Matt’s voice trailed, his eyes flickering from Bonnie to Damon, clearly at a loss at how much the latter knew.

“Over at what?” Damon asked, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.

Bonnie shrugged. “It was a long time ago.” But Damon pressed and pressed and Bonnie finally told him about the last time she had casted a revelation spell. She stuck to the bare bones of the story – going to Kai’s apartment to find the Ascendant, back when she – thought she – had good reason to suspect him. She didn’t mention that she had done the spell recklessly, desperately with no thought to the consequences of uncloaking things that were meant to stay cloaked.

When she finished, she eyed Damon warily, expecting him to pry into all the missing holes of her narrative. Even Matt was looking at her sceptically. Perhaps picking up for the first time that there was more to this story than even he knew.

But Damon didn’t seem interested in the details surrounding the spell, but the magic itself. “So everything that’s hidden? Cloaking spells, illusion spells and the like?” he asked, staring at the quicksilver patterns.

“But only in this room, for a little while. At least, if my configurations are correct. Then the spell ends and whatever was cloaked before goes back to being cloaked. That should give us a few minutes to find these books, swap them with my substitutes” – she tapped her black bag –“and scram.”

Damon nodded, looking contemplative. He cracked his knuckles. “The speed trick is where I come in. Get going witchy, we haven’t all day.” He yanked out his phone, ostensibly to check the time, then he yelped. “Parrish’s on the move.”

“What?” Bonnie asked.

Damon was already on his feet. “I reckon he’s doing the Gemini portal-jumping thingummy thing.”

Matt stared. “How’s that possible? I thought only the coven leader could do that?”

“The heretics could do that, too,” Bonnie said thoughtfully. “It’s really a question of power.”

The moment she said it, all three of them froze. Then they exchanged glances as the same thought undoubtedly crossed their minds.

Could Ashton Parrish, Envoy of the Council of the Gemini Coven, be working with the heretics?

“No way,” Matt breathed.

“Why not?” Damon asked, his eyes shining. Bonnie half-expected his brows to start waggling but they stayed relatively calm. “Corrupt official in league with the heretics, their inside man working on…” He trailed off.

“On what?” Matt insisted. “The heretics haven’t even left the Mystic Falls-Whitmore area. For all we know, they’re staying clear of Portland and the capital of their creepy coven.”

“For all we know,” Damon said meaningfully. He started moving. “OK, I’ll see what I can do about heading him off. You get that spell cooking, Bonnie.”

She was already on it, her hand poised above the blueprint with the knife for slashing in the other hand.

“How’re you going to do that if he’s portal-jumping?” Matt cried.

But Damon had already left.

Bonnie slashed her hand, and whispered the words of the spell again. This time she got it right.

A light breeze swept through the tightly-sealed apartment, ruffling the blueprint on the floor. Then it stopped.

It was done. Bonnie looked up to the formerly empty wall to point at the huge suitcase now suspended in the middle of the wallspace.

“How much time do we have?” Matt asked, grabbing a chair and pushing it up against the wall.

“Five minutes. Give or take ten?” Bonnie replied as she started gathering her things and stuffing them into her bag.

“Seriously?” he grunted, stretching to reach the top zipper of the suitcase.

“Sorry. I’ve not got much practice on this spell. Just hurry, Matt. This guy is portal jumping towards us as we speak.”

“No pressure,” he snorted as he finally yanked the zipper open. An assortment of clothes, books, loose pages and candles fell out.

Bonnie yelped, shifting out of the path of the downfall. Then her yelp turned to a cry of triumph as she spotted the Grimoires and dived for them. She muttered a quick spell to send the rest of the stuff floating at Matt. She was distracted, hurriedly grabbing the books and trying to catch some of the loose leaves that had gone up with the spell, while overly conscious of the little time they had. So she couldn’t help it if instead of the items floating in a dignified manner, they rose haphazardly towards Matt. Some hit him in the face and he swore.

“Sorry,” she cried again, glancing up at him quickly – then pausing when she saw the outline of the luggage shimmering. “The spell is ending. Quickly.”

He had just stuffed in the last item, and yanked the zipper shut when the suitcase vanished before their eyes. The revelation spell was completed.

“Come on,” she said, heart pounding as they gathered up her things into her bag. She swung it over her shoulder, and reached the door but had to stand there waiting and fidgeting as Matt put the chair back in the exact spot he had moved it from. He reached her, then he turned around to glance through the room for anything they had left out of place.

“Woah,” he muttered and to Bonnie’s dismay, he rushed back into the room to grab a loose brown parchment that was floating in the air. “From the Grimoires?” he asked, turning it over.

“No time to check. Just grab it and let’s go,” she said impatiently.

Her heartrate didn’t return to normal until they were across the street, and moving towards the car.

“Mission accomplished, right?” she said, shooting a grin in Matt’s direction.

He grinned back and reached over to give her a hi-five. “I’m walking out of here on my own two feet, at least. That’s a nice change.” He glanced up and down the street just before getting into the car. “He’s nowhere in sight. We could have given ourselves a few more minutes to do a proper look-over.”

Bonnie closed her door and strapped in. “Well, even if he suspects something, he won’t be able to prove it. But if we’re lucky he won’t notice the books were taken until he’s in Portland.”

Matt started the car and she pulled out the particular tome she was most eager to check through. As he manoeuvred into the road, he asked if they needed to call Damon, and let him know they got out fine.

“A text will be faster. Then we’ll call Tyler, and arrange a meet with Liv later in the day. Let her know that her precious Grimoires are back.” She reached for her phone, and her hand brushed against a loose piece of parchment paper. It was the last page that Matt had grabbed from the floor just before they left. She was about to stuff it into one of the tomes when a line on the paper caught her eye.

She paused to read down the list.

“Matt,” she said slowly. “What was the name of the old witch that died while I was in Portland? The one whose body we went to the M. E. to see yesterday?”

“Er…” he frowned. “Stewart, I think? Julie Stewart.”

“Judith Stewart,” Bonnie corrected quietly. “And the old wizards? The married couple? The ones who died almost a month ago?” When Matt frowned, struggling to remember, Bonnie added. “They moved into the house next to my Grams. Weren’t they called Briggs?”

When he still looked puzzled, she glanced at the digital display on his dashboard. “Matt, your onboard computer is hooked up to the police database right?” When he nodded, she went on, “Let’s try and run some names through that database right now.”

He glanced from the windshield to stare at the paper in her hand. “What names? What’s that?”

“I think… I’m not sure… But I think that this is a Kill List, Matt.”

June 2013

Whitmore

“Am I still on your sh*t list? And if I am, can you just take me off it for an hour or two? Because I really need a friend.”

Bonnie had had late lab work and returned to her dorm with a pile of even more work. Ever since – everything – she had been trying to swamp herself with activity as much as possible. Inundate her heart and soul with disciplined academic grunt work. Anything to keep her mind off the storm that was her emotional life right now.

On the more practical side, she had missed so many credits that year that she genuinely needed the extra work to make up for it. Signing up for summer classes hadn’t been optional but she had an extra reason to be thankful for that.

The last thing she needed was to deal with Damon Salvatore. But there he was, sitting at the edge of Elena’s bed, that mock-innocent expression on his face that he adapted when he wanted to worm something from her that he knew she won’t ordinarily give.

He was about to waste his time and hers.

There had been a pile of flyers in front of her door, some about still-available summer classes and party invites, but most were about the upcoming construction work that was going to affect her dorm. Damon had picked up one of those flyers and he now waved it at her like a white flag.

“Bad news, Bon,” he said with fake earnestness. “Looks like the Suits that bought this place finally clued in that this dorm room of yours is larger than most people’s homes. Bye-bye vaulted ceilings and multiple light fixtures. Wanna bet the rent will stay the same?” His eyes popped with exaggerated outrage.

Bonnie left the door wide open and stood by it, arms folded.

With a dramatic sigh, Damon dropped the flyer and the act. “I’m sorry, Bonnie, OK? Lying about your birthday… tricking you into releasing my mother… We were buddies and that was not cool.”

“Too little, too late,” she bit out.

His eyes narrowed. “So it’s too little too late for me but for Kai Parker…” Something dark and dangerous must have flashed across her face because he backed off, throwing up his hands in a peace-offering. “Look, BonBon, I promise I didn’t come here to fight. I just wanted to know if you’ve seen Elena?”

For a moment, she considered not answering him, on the sheer principle of not wanting to help Damon Salvatore with anything whatsoever.

“I haven’t seen her since just after the wedding,” she said finally. The sooner he got what he wanted, the sooner he’d leave. “She sent me a text once that she was OK and not to worry.” Which was almost funny because Bonnie had not even given Elena’s absence a thought until then, assuming that she was in Mystic Falls with Damon. That is, when Bonnie thought of Elena at all. She had her own problems to deal with.

He frowned, clearly not happy with Bonnie’s answer.

“You can leave now,” Bonnie prompted helpfully.

He didn’t look like if he was about to. “So she hasn’t mentioned anything about me? About us?” When she shook her head exasperatedly, something like genuine pain flickered across his face. “What’s going on, Bonnie? She freaked out when I told her I was going to take the Cure with her. She ignored every attempt I made to talk about it, and instead went to Jo’s bachelorette. Which… OK, I went to Alaric’s stag party, too. So I figured she needed a while to think about our options. I was expecting her to take the Cure after the Wedding at least but then the next day, she had taken the Cure already! So I thought OK, I’m going to take the Cure from her but we never really got a chance to talk at the Wedding, what with heretics crashing the party and all and then… since then…” He seemed to struggle to find the words.

Bonnie sighed. “Look, Damon. I don’t want to get involved-”

“You’re her friend. Are you telling me that you haven’t noticed she’s changed? Haven’t noticed she’s not been herself since she took the Cure?”

“I might have seen Elena” – Bonnie raised three fingers – “so many times since that happened. Damon, I have my own crap to deal with. I really need you to leave now.”

“My brother’s gone, too,” he said, his face growing dark. “Took me a while to notice it. I thought he was with Caroline, doing the post-humanity-off mutual flagellation thing for change – instead of the usual solo-flagellation thing he’s perfected over the decades. Then I found out that Enzo’s the one babysitting Vampire Barbie and Stefan was just… gone. I don’t suppose Elena mentioned that to you, did she? That she’s with Stefan?”

“No,” Bonnie said automatically. She hadn’t been aware of anything Damon just said. So this was what happened when you had your own personal melodrama to deal with? You got so self-involved, you were oblivious to the physical and emotional whereabouts of your friends.

Wow. It almost put things in perspective.

“You’d tell me if you knew right? If she said anything to you? You won’t hold back for my sake?”

Bonnie laughed – she couldn’t help it; the incredulity of the situation ripped it out of her. “Why would I care to hold back? To spare your feelings? The feelings of the guy who – gosh, where do I start with the crap you’ve put me through but let’s use the last one – almost strangled me to death for not wanting to help your crazed mother free her deranged family of freaks?”

She could feel the shift in his mood, the way he struggled to keep his face and voice neutral. “But I didn’t strangle you to death. Doesn’t that count for something?”

When she gasped, he went on. “You know that I let my crazed mom be taken back to her Prison World, right? Handed her over to your boyfriend and everything?” He watched her carefully, something like suspicion in his gaze.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Bonnie snapped, her colour rising.

“I’m not judging, Bon. But I have to say that it’s mighty hypocritical of you to hold the whole birthday thing against me but be OK with screwing the guy that stabbed-and-abandoned you back in 1994.”

“When I need your opinion, Damon,” she said through gritted teeth, “I’ll ask for it.”

He smirked, and leaned back on the bed with his arms folded under his head. For some strange reason, he looked relieved. “By the by, I saw the guy last night at the Grill and boy, was he a wreck.”

She hadn’t even known that Kai was still in town. Since their disastrous last meeting, she had assumed he had left for Portland. Now Damon’s words made her heart leap. She tried to school her face to be as dispassionate as possible but her surprise and interest must have shown because Damon’s smirk widened.

“What did he do now to piss you off, Bonnie? I mean, you had obviously already got over the said stabbing-and-abandoning thing.”

“Kai didn’t abandon me,” Bonnie corrected softly. “You did. As for the rest… I was stupid enough to think you were my friend at a time. So clearly, I have poor judgment. It doesn’t only apply to you.”

Damon scoffed. “Nope, it just means you can’t lord your high-and-judgy self over the rest of us. Can’t go around giving your friends sound advice about their love lives since you’re just as capable of making bad choices as the rest of us.”

So that was where this was going. As always, Damon Salvatore’s only interest in other people’s lives was to the extent that they affected his.

“If you’re trying to imply that I’m somehow involved in turning Elena against you, Damon, then you’re wrong and stupid.”

“I hope not, for your sake,” he said and the mask dropped then, his eyes turning cold and viper-like. “Because if you had helped Lily, she’d have returned the Cure to me and I would have kept it from Elena and everything would be as it was. I’m going to look past that for now, but if I find out that you’ve done anything else to turn Elena from me…” He smiled unpleasantly as he got up.

She watched him stalk towards her, her magic rushing defensively to her hands. When he was inches from her, he raised his hands and mimed snapping someone’s neck.

“For the sake of our ‘friendship’, Damon,” Bonnie whispered softly. “I think you should leave now before I set you on fire.”

He tipped an imaginary hat to her. “When you hear from her, tell Elena that she needs to come home…”

The ‘…or else’ was implied.

“Get out, Damon. I’m not going to say it again.”

He shouldered past her as he left the room.

June 2014

Mystic Falls

Tyler nearly knocked her down on his way out of the door.

“Woah!”

“Sorry.” He said hastily, righting her then moving quickly to the police car in the driveway, all the while tucking his shirt into his pants. “I… I’m late for my shift. Liv’s here, by the way. Hope you’ve got her stuff?”

“What? S… she’s here? You’re leaving?” Bonnie didn’t even know where to start. “Didn’t you get our message? We’re trying to hold a meet now. Care and Stephan are on their way.”

“Hold it without me!” he yelled as he started the engine. “If I miss this shift, the Chief will fry my ass.”

Matt, who had been chuckling under his breath all this while, managed to yell out before the car pulled out. “You’ve got lipstick on your shirt, dude!”

Tyler hastily checked himself in the rearview mirror. Of course, his shirt was spotless. As the car drove down the winding lane to the mansion gates, he stuck out his hand to give his friend the finger. But there was a wide grin across his face.

Bonnie rolled her eyes as she entered the house. “Glad to know somebody’s getting their happy ending,” she muttered. Not that she was bitter or anything like that.

Oh, not at all.

Voices led them through the palatial mansion to the state of the art kitchen. There Damon was seated at the island, a bottle of bourbon and a glass in front of him. Bonnie had barely had time to frown her disapproval when Liv’s frame popped up from behind the open fridge.

“Good, you’re back. Do any of you know how to cook? This fridge is full of booze and chips and I’m starving.”

She looked and sounded her usual self. Bonnie was relieved. It might make her a Grinch of sorts, but she didn’t think she could have stood being around a cooing lovebird.

“Someone worked herself an appetite,” Damon remarked.

“Get bent, Vampire,” Liv drawled.

“You mean like Lockwood did you? Hey, is this kitchen table even clean-”

“Hey! Hey!” Bonnie yelled, throwing up her arms before things turned ugly. With these two volatile personalities, it was hard to tell what was playful banter and what was the prelude to a throw-down. She eyed Matt – who had just started chuckling again – balefully. “Save the snark for never, people. We’ve got things to talk about now.”

“Yeah, we do,” Damon said with uncharacteristic seriousness. “Where the hell were you guys? Weren’t we supposed to meet over an hour ago?”

“We stopped over at the Sheriff’s. We couldn’t have taken more than a few minutes, Damon.”

“You took way lot longer. Next time, give me a heads up when you’re changing the plan.”

Matt sputtered at that. “Seriously? You’re the one who crashed our heist this morning and now you’re bitching because we were a few minutes late?”

“When did I…?”

“Your friends were on a heist and you’ve been sitting around here, slu*t-shaming me?” Liv murmured, as she took a seat across the vampire.

He glared at her.

“If you were that worried, you should have called, Damon,” Bonnie added. She waved her phone at him. “But guess what? You didn’t.”

“Couldn’t find my phone,” he grumbled. He snuck her a guilty look. “Actually, that’s when I realised you guys were taking too long. I needed you to do a locator spell for it.”

Bonnie gaped. “Of all the…”

Liv cleared her throat. “Bonnie, about my Grim-”

Matt intervened. “OK, so the others aren’t here yet. But Liv is, and she’s the VIP for this so let’s just share what we found with her. Right, Bonnie?” He indicated the folder he carried, bulging with files.

Bonnie gave Damon one final side-eye, then sat down next to Liv. The other witch looked startled, then delighted as Bonnie yanked out the Grimoires from her bag.

“Your books. Sorry about… everything.”

“By everything, you mean stealing them and then getting caught by Parrish of all people?” But there was no bite in Liv’s voice, just relief.

“Kinda,” Bonnie admitted, shamefaced.

Liv grinned. “No problem. That doesn’t mean this should ever happen again,” she added hastily as she gathered the books. “Found anything useful?”

“So-so,” Bonnie said noncommittally. “Look, Liv…”

“Cryptic,” Liv said throwing Bonnie an amused look, then glancing over at Damon and Matt. “Your League of Mystic Falls Avengers seems kinda lean. Where is everyone else?”

“Busy doing your coven’s work for you,” Damon retorted. “You’re welcome.”

Liv smirked. “Let me guess… you and Ashton aren’t getting along?” At the faces that Damon and Bonnie made, she burst out laughing. “If you’re going to pick and choose who you work with, then you need to do either recruit more suckers or at least lure back your retirees. Speaking of which, how is the doppelgänger?” Her eyes glinted maliciously at Damon.

Matt shifted impatiently but Bonnie threw Damon a side-eyed glance. The one-time love of Elena’s life didn’t seem fazed by Liv’s probing, shrugging as he filled up his glass. “Some war zone or the other, saving the world one broken leg at a time. At least that’s what I heard – third-hand. Ex-boyfriends didn’t make Dr. Gilbert’s mailing list.”

Liv gaped. Unlike the others who had got used to Damon’s strange way of coping with Elena’s departure, she was clearly dumbfounded at his very convincing disinterest and complete dispassion at the whole topic.

She shook her head slowly. “I never thought I’d see the day…”

“Can we save the romantic gossip for later?” Matt grumbled. “We have something important to ask you.” He nudged Bonnie.

Liv and Damon stared at the other two. “Ask me?” she echoed.

“Yes, actually,” Bonnie said, a bubble of anticipation rising inside her. “We found this when we went to get the Grimoires.” She pulled out the single parchment from her bag and pushed it over at Liv.

The witch stared at the list of names and the blood seemed to leach from her face. “What is this?” she whispered.

Bonnie exchanged a knowing glance with Matt.

“Are any of those names familiar?” he asked, and there was a subtle inflection in his voice that surprised Bonnie. At that moment, it struck her in a way that it never had before that he was a police officer.

“I…”

“Because we checked the police records. Martin Linus. Victor Briggs. Gerald Briggs – changed his name from O’Sullivan when he got married. Judith Stewart. Patrice Lang. Isach Genova. Bethany Stewart. All born in Portland roughly around the same time. All…”

“Gemini witches,” Bonnie finished.

Liv was still silent.

Matt pressed on. “Records show that six of these people dropped off the grid around the same time last year. They moved out of their usual residences, stopped using their credit cards, switched off their mobiles… They vanished. Until they started showing up, one by one.

“And started dying.”

“What’s going ...” Damon started and Matt shushed him.

Damon was so surprised at that that he actually stayed silent.

“Did you speak to my brother about this?” Liv asked quietly.

Bonnie’s stomach flipped.

“No.” Matt answered, speaking up quickly, to Bonnie’s silent relief. “You’re here; he’s there. It seemed sensible to come to you.”

Liv looked up then, her forehead furrowed with confusion. “Then how do you…?” She checked herself. Then she spoke again, her voice cautious now. “What do you know?”

Bonnie and Matt exchanged looks again.

“You tell us what you know first,” Matt insisted. “Can you confirm that these are Gemini witches?”

Liv answered slowly, thinking over her words. “The Stewarts, of course. I knew the Briggs personally. The others…? Not really. I mean, it’s a large coven. I don’t know every single witch. But you don’t grow up as Joshua Parker’s daughter, in line to lead, and not learn the last names of the families in your coven. And all these last names are definitely Gemini. So I guess that the answer to your question is: yes, these are probably all Gemini witches.” She drew in a long breath. “Now’s my turn to ask questions. What is this list for?”

Matt opened the folder and spread out its contents. Print outs of police reports and autopsies covered half of the island. “Out of these seven people, three are missing and four are dead.”

“The Briggs. Judith Stewart. But that’s three, right? Who’s the fourth?”

“Martin Linus died of a heart attack a few years ago.”

“Supposedly,” Bonnie added.

“While the other three were murdered-”

“-by heretics,” Liv completed. She sat back in her chair, her face shuttered. “I see now.”

Damon leaned forward, his eyebrows so high that they almost vanished into his hair. “See what? What is-”

Matt cut in. “Look at the order of the names – Linus. Briggs. O’Sullivan. Stewart. Lang. Genova. Stewart. Linus died years ago of natural courses – we think – but he still died first. Victor and Gerald Briggs were two of the heretics’s first kills when they returned. Judith Stewart was murdered while I was in Portland. Her phone is in the evidence locker. Patrice Lang was listed in it as an Emergency contact. He was contacted but he never got back to the Station. That’s been days now. I’ve put out an APB for Genova and Stewart but something tells me that it might already be too…”

“No,” Liv said vehemently, her eyes flashing. “If they’re taking them out in order, then it’s not too late. Maybe the other two are safe. Maybe they-”

“Who’s they?” Damon demanded impatiently. “Come on guys, you’re talking over my head. What the hell is going on?”

Bonnie shifted the parchment to him. “We think this is a Kill List.”

“A what?”

“There are seven names on that list. All Gemini witches. Four of those people are confirmed dead. Killed in the exact same order as written on the list. One might already be. He and the other two have been missing for over a year. It can’t be a coincidence.”

“There are no coincidences,” Matt said gravely.

Damon whistled, long and low. “Where did you get this?”

“We found it in Parrish’s luggage,” Bonnie answered. “We thought it was part of the Grimoires but I never saw anything like this in the tomes when I had them, and I combed through those tomes pretty thoroughly.”

She gave Liv a piercing look.

For a moment, Liv just blinked back, confused; then she goggled, her eyes almost falling out, as she finally grasped Bonnie’s insinuation. “What…? You think… that this… this Kill List is Quent’s?”

“It was in his luggage,” Matt stated, his voice turning even more ‘cop’-like.

Liv shook her head, then let out a strangled laugh. “No way. Ashton had nothing to do with this. Ashton…” She seemed to struggle for words. “Look, Ashton and my family go back a long way. Ashton was Luke’s…” Her voice trailed off as sudden pain flashed across her face. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Hey,” Bonnie said softly, putting a hand on Liv’s shoulder.

Liv smiled thinly, but her eyes were still closed. She took another deep breath before she opened them. They were shining.

The others looked away.

When she spoke again, Liv’s voice was scratchy. “Ashton is a bit of a … tool, I know.” She cleared her throat and laughed at the same time. “But he’s not some… heretic-conspirator slash murderer, OK? I don’t vouch for a lot of people but I can vouch for Ashton.”

“Then what was this list doing in his luggage?”

Liv shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s here in Virginia to help you guys out. Maybe he found it while he was doing his own snooping. Maybe he wrote it because he’s figured out a pattern to the killings? Or maybe it’s just a coincidence? The heretics kill witches and these witches…” She checked herself.

“If there’s anything you know and you’re keeping from us…” Matt warned.

“Chill!” Liv exclaimed. “I was just figuring out something in my head. OK, I’m not certain about this but a lot of those names are – I think – names of witches who went underground after Kai became leader.”

Bonnie felt her heart leap.

Liv shrugged again. “That could be why they all seem to have dropped out of the grid for a year. That’s around the time since Kai came back. We all went underground after the Merge; could you blame us? We had no idea what Kai was going to do then. But then he and my Dad made nice and Dad convinced us to come back. Most of us did. A bunch didn’t. Although…” Her voice slowed as it became thoughtful. “They’ve been trickling back. Kai pardoned them. Perhaps,” she added, her voice getting strong, “that’s why Ashton had this list. Maybe they’re the names of the witches still in hiding.”

“He did?” Bonnie asked eagerly. “Kai, I mean. He pardoned the exiles?” She kept her voice as neutral as possible, and ignored the knowing look that Damon threw her before he took a swig from his glass.

Liv was about to answer when Matt interrupted, his voice cold. “Be that as it may, that doesn’t explain this list. Why is it written in the order of these deaths? And Martin Linus died years ago, didn’t he? Before Kai became leader, right? So he was never part of the group of witches who left in the first place.”

Liv threw up her hands in surrender. “Look, I know it looks bad. But believe me, Ashton is not guilty. I just don’t… I just can’t believe it.”

“Maybe you don’t know your friend as well as you think you know,” Matt insisted.

Liv chuckled again. Her voice was certain now, even tinged with amusem*nt. “Ashton Parrish’s not my friend. You’d think his parents knew he was going to grow up to be a pain in the ass and absolute wet blanket and named him accordingly. He got the oxymoronic job of ‘Council Envoy’” — she made air quotes — “because he’s such a rule stickler he really thinks it’s a promotion and not just the job you give to the guy that’s grimoire-smart but can’t cut it in the field. Believe me when I tell you that Ashton is the absolute last person to get mixed up with heretics who tried to murder our entire coven.”

“Well, until we can find a good reason for this list, he remains a person of interest in our investigations.”

“What?”

Damon guffawed and even Bonnie bit back a laugh.

“Matt, this is not a police investigation,” she said, smiling a little.

But Matt’s demeanour didn’t crack. He gathered the papers strewn on the surface with brisk sternness. “Maybe not officially, but this is Mystic Falls. We mundanes” – he scoffed over the word – “are not as clueless as you’d like to think.”

Bonnie blinked. “We… you… Matt, where is this coming from?”

He turned on her with a glare, tension stark on his face and body – and Bonnie was so shocked at that, that she started.

“Matt?” she asked, weakly.

“Easy now, Donovan,” Damon said. He sounded mild enough, but his hand around his glass had tightened into a white-knuckled fist.

There was a long tense silence.

Liv broke it.

“I’ll speak to Ashton.”

Everyone rounded on her for that, protesting.

Liv raised her hand for silence. “I won’t tell him about the list. Gosh, I’m not an idiot! I’ll just feel him out. Drop some names. Fish out where he got that list from, what he knows. None of you can do it because you’re all stuck in your theory and won’t budge from it. But I know this guy and most importantly, I know my coven. If this is really a kill list, like you said, and if Ashton is – in the one-in-a-billion odds of this – is actually involved with it, then this is Gemini coven business, and you guys are officially off the case.” She raised her hand higher to ward off another round of protests. “It’s one thing for random witches in exile to be killed. That’s the whole reason why they shouldn’t have been in exile in the first place. We can’t protect them when they’ve cut off from the coven – and I know this sounds cruel – but we shouldn’t, either.”

Bonnie recoiled at the hardness in Liv’s voice. Matt drew in a sharp breath.

Even Damon looked weirded out. “That’s cold.”

Liv shrugged. “Our strength is in our numbers and when a witch abandons the coven, they weaken the coven. So it teaches everyone else a lesson not to do so.”

“You Gemini make me sick,” Matt muttered.

“You’d think a mundane like yourself would appreciate what the Gemini do for your kind. Do you think it’s a coincidence that the heretics are deliberately trying to keep the number of mundane murders low?”

“You call two massacres and a pair of high-school kids low?” Matt exclaimed.

“It kinda is by Mystic Falls standards,” Damon said grudgingly. When Matt glared at him, he pulled a face. “Hey, I’m calling it as it is. It could be worse. It has been worse. Think Ripper Barbie and Ken worse.” The vampire appraised the Gemini witch. “Last year, we were in the middle of a crisis when one of your lot called us.” He narrated again what he had told Bonnie back in Portland. How the Gemini gave them an ultimatum about the mundane body count in Mystic Falls.

Matt was not impressed. “So as long as we keep our quota count low, you don’t get involved? What happened to one life lost being one life too many? Mundane or witch?”

“Because you guys are all white hats, right?” Liv scoffed. “Your scorecard before we showed up wasn’t impeccable so stop acting so self-righteous and judgemental about how we run our coven. Besides, it’s like I said already: it’s one thing for these dead witches to be exiles who were at the wrong place, at the wrong time. It’s another thing for some other supernatural, for a heretic, to be specifically targeting them because they are Gemini witches. The way this list is written, the victims being killed in order, of the same age bracket. I’m not sure, but it looks like these are sacrifices for a ritual.”

A ritual, Bonnie thought, sharing surprised looks with the two men. That hadn’t occurred to her but of course, it made sense. It would be just like – and this thought made her shudder – an Expression triangle.

“What kind of ritual would need seven dead Gemini witches?” she whispered.

Liv shook her head. “I don’t know. But if it is one, then this has become coven business. Kai’s business.”

“Too late,” Damon barked. “We came to Portland cap in hand for your help and you turned us down. Now this is our little mystery and we’re not sharing. To quote Officer Donovan, you’re out of jurisdiction.”

“I never said that,” Matt interjected.

Damon smirked. “Because I beat you to it.”

Liv scoffed as she got to her feet. “Like you’re going to have a choice if – and it’s a big IF – any of this is true. Look, if you guys don’t need anything else, then I’m off. Apparently, I now have the Council Envoy to interrogate before I leave town tonight. Also, this place has nothing to eat.”

She grabbed the Grimoires, her purse hanging from a chair, the parchment -

Matt held on to it. “That stays.”

“How am I supposed to remember these names?” Liv asked, irritated.

“Take a picture.”

She looked like if she was going to argue, holding onto her edge and matching Matt’s glare. It was on the tip of Bonnie’s tongue to ask Matt to let go. They had made taken pictures of the parchment already; and Bonnie had scanned it as thoroughly as she could for magical clues and she had found nothing. It was just a piece of parchment. But before Bonnie could speak, Liv shrugged, and pulled out her phone.

That reminded Bonnie. “Hey, Liv. Did any of your ancestors go by the name of Georgiana Parker?”

Liv was bent over the table to focus the camera’s lens on the parchment. She paused to consider Bonnie’s question. “I guess? I mean, I don’t know for sure but the last name fits. Why?”

Bonnie, Matt and Damon exchanged glances over Liv’s head. Damon and Matt shook their heads. Their message was clear: Don’t tell her.

Bonnie frowned. Why not?

Matt scowled as Damon’s eyebrows waggled. Just don’t.

It made zero sense to Bonnie. Even if Liv told Asshat the heretic’s name, what harm could it do? The heretic herself provided the information. Plus they had asked Jo already. Liv probably already knew this.

Liv had straightened up, paused expectantly. “Well?”

“Nothing,” Matt started. “We just thought-”

“That’s one of the heretics,” Bonnie blurted out. “She introduced herself before she tried to eat me. Between her name and the fact that she looks like a redheaded shorter version of you, we’re pretty sure you’re related. We asked Jo, but she couldn’t find anything because records of syphons are expunged from your archives, apparently.”

“Jo said that?” Liv frowned, biting her lip thoughtfully.

“Did she talk to you about this?”

“No, she didn’t.” For a moment she seemed to think, and Bonnie waited hopefully, ignoring the sharp, angry looks that Matt threw her way. Damon just rolled his eyes heavenwards.

But Liv shook her head. “Well, she’s right, I suppose. I’m quite certain that access to information about past syphons and prisoners from a Prison World will be the purview of the existing Praetor.” Her eyes twinkled a little. “I guess you’ll have to talk to-”

“No,” Bonnie said sharply. She flushed when Liv peered at her, her eyes twinkling more, but continued. “I’m not. He won’t help. He made that quite clear,” she finished and even she could hear the bitterness in her voice.

Liv looked like if she was going to say something, then she changed her mind. “Well… in that case, I guess I could ask Ashton…”

“No.” It was Matt’s turn to speak.

Liv sighed. “He’s right here. If he’s good for one thing, it’s having the Council’s ear. You should actually be sharing information with him…”

“Share intel with the Asshat?” Damon snorted. “Don’t make me laugh. Until we say otherwise, keep your lips sealed. From Asshat. From everyone.”

Liv’s brows rose. “Including my brother?”

“We can’t let Parrish know we suspect him for any reason,” Matt said, cutting over what Bonnie was about to say. “The more people in your coven know, the more likely he will find out.”

Bonnie pressed her lips together, holding back her own reply.

Liv gasped in exasperation. “This is-”

“Are you deaf, Goldilocks?” Damon barked.

Liv drew herself up, and gave him a frosty glare. In heels, she was tall enough to be almost eyeball to eyeball with the vampire. “Bonnie, Matt. Later,” she said without once taking her eyes off Damon. Then she turned to leave.

And drew to a sudden stop as she looked up in irritation at Damon, who had suddenly appeared in her way.

“Seriously? Bonnie, can you ask your pet vampire to move out of the way before I set him on fire?”

Bonnie rolled her eyes. What was it about these Gemini and their insistence that Bonnie should have some sort of leash on her vampire friends? First Asshat with Stefan the other day and now Liv with Damon.

It was enough to make a witch wonder if she should be leashing her vampire friends.

“I don’t know about that,” Matt said, cutting over Bonnie’s answer. “You’re so sure he’s innocent, you’ll probably blab to this guy.”

Liv sighed. “Are we really going to do this?”

“Let her go, Damon,” Bonnie said tiredly.

“Bonnie!” Matt snapped. Damon looked sceptical.

“Damon,” Bonnie insisted.

He frowned. Then he shrugged, and slid out of the way.

Without looking back, Liv walked out of the door.

Matt exploded the moment she was gone.

“Seriously, Bonnie? Seriously?”

“Do you honestly think that Liv can’t be trusted to keep our secrets?” Bonnie asked. “Or K…Kai if she tells him? They’re not brain-washed by their coven. We’ve seen them go their own way lots of times.”

“I can only speak for what I know. And what I know is that the Gemini are not to be trusted.”

“Yeah, I know, Matt. You keep going on and on about that.”

He pressed his lips firmly together, then grabbed his satchel and started walking away.

Surprised, Bonnie grabbed his arm, stopping him. “Hey!”

His face was red when he turned to her, but he didn’t shrug her hand off.

“What’s the matter, Matt?” she asked gently, when he did nothing but glare at her.

“Yeah, Donovan,” Damon drawled from where he had drifted back to his bourbon. “I wasn’t too keen on FauxNoobie going off without giving us a blood oath at least, but since BonBon gave her say-so, I chilled. I think there’s something else that’s got Detective Gadget all rattled up.”

Matt’s face reddened further.

“Damon, can you excuse us?” Bonnie asked tiredly.

“And miss the show?” he retorted. Bonnie glared him down. He got up with a shrug. “Donovan’s probably going to choke anyway,” he snarked as he gathered his bottle and glass and left.

Bonnie turned back to Matt. “OK, Matt. Spit it out. What’s going on? What’s eating you?”

“Nothing,” he muttered.

“Really?” she drawled, crossing her arms. “Because you’ve been acting off for a while now. Don’t think I haven’t noticed that the others seem to be in on something about you that I’m not. What’s the secret that everyone else in our little group seems to know but me? Did something happen when I was in Portland?” She shook her head, rejecting the thought at once. “No, it couldn’t have been then because Damon clearly knows but I don’t.”

Matt’s face was so red now, it looked like it was about to explode. “Did something happen to me in Portland?” he parroted. “How about me asking if something happened to you in Portland?”

“What?”

“Since when did you become such a big Gemini champion, anyway? You’ve never been a fan of that coven. Now you’re defending them left and right!”

“What are you talking about? I haven’t-”

“That was a Kill List, Bonnie! Ritual Murder! I don’t care what explanations Liv gave for Parrish. Nothing else makes sense. After Judith Stewart’s dead body turned up, I said there was a pattern in all this and I was right! These witches disappeared for a year. The heretics we thought had died returned after a year. Can’t you see what that means?”

Bonnie shook her head, more thrown by her usually mild-tempered friend’s rage than by his question.

“It means that everything… the deaths of those college kids yesterday… Tyler’s cousins… the bank… Enzo… those were just window dressing. That Kill List was what the heretics were after. Those were their targets. Everyone else… The wolves, the vampires, the mundanes… Bonnie, heretics don’t like eating mundanes. We’re not their first choice of a meal because we don’t have the kind of magic juice the rest of you carry. But you know what we’re excellent for? Collateral damage.”

She couldn’t tell which hurt her more – the clear bitterness in his voice or the realization that was dawning on her, too.

“You think the heretics came back to sacrifice those witches. And that everyone else who died was just a cover for the real murders?”

He nodded.

No, Bonnie thought, her mind rebelling against the idea. It couldn’t be. April Young and her friend. The students. The bank massacre. All those lives stolen brutally, violently…

… as window dressing?

But what did it matter? A murder was a murder was a murder.

No, it isn’t.

It was one thing for the heretics to be mindless, conscience-less killers who thought they were at the top of their mythical food chain and could kill as they please. It was sick and disgusting but it almost – almost – made some kind of twisted supernatural biological sense.

It was another thing entirely to know that the series of murders, the mayhem, was deliberately staged as a cover for another purpose. They could have just killed their targets, but no, they chose bury them under bodies. People’s lives taken for camouflage…

The kitchen door swung open as Stefan and Caroline stepped in, gasping a little as if they had ran all the way there from Whitmore. Considering that they were vampires, Bonnie thought distractedly, that was not impossible.

“We got here as soon as we could. What did we miss?”

Portland, Oregon

Alaric Saltzman was not one to procrastinate on a decision. After the resolution he had made earlier this Sunday morning, he called his old friends in Mystic Falls first chance he got.

“I did my best, guys but I came up empty. It’s the oddest thing – Judith Stewart… I could have sworn I know that person. Or heard that name recently. But at the moment… nothing. Sorry, guys.” He paused, thought of the best way to say what came next. “And you know… I know I offered to help but maybe… I’ll just sit this one out. Call me an old, retired, has-been badass or anything you like, Damon. But this isn’t my life anymore so I’m leaving this to the experts to deal with from now on. You take care of yourself, buddy.”

Alaric made a face as he ended the call. He wished he could have spoken to Damon directly. It was a crappy thing to leave in a voice message. But maybe it was for the best. If Damon got on his case, he might be tempted to do something stupid.

The only regret he had was letting Bonnie down. She rarely asked for anything – technically, she hadn’t even asked him to look into Judith Stewart. Alaric had offered. And he had come up with zilch.

With a sigh, he pocketed his phone and climbed up the steps. Done with his weekend markings, he wanted to spend time with his family.

He heard Jo’s phone ringing as he walked down the hallway. She was either taking a shower or asleep. Whichever, it was an unnerving thing to listen to in a house full of easily cranky little babies. He stepped into their bedroom. His guess hadn’t been too far off – Jo was at the dresser, drying her hair. He took a moment to admire his beautiful wife, her strong and sexy body, half of her dark hair wet and shiny while the other half was spread out like a fan under the blast of the dryer. With a grin, he tapped her on the shoulder and handed her her phone. That was when he noticed that the caller was Kai.

Huh, he wondered as he left the room. What was going on with that one? Jo had been complaining about Kai’s sudden and mysterious disappearance from Oregon, shortly after Bonnie and Damon had also left. The official word was that the Gemini weren’t getting involved with the heretic situation at Mystic Falls. But how much of that was Kai’s decision and how much was the Council’s? Could Kai have gone rogue? Or had he gone off on something else entirely? Alaric still had his alerts from his online supernatural forums. A lot of it was drivel, but there was always the 10%. After the past year’s lull, there was suddenly a lot of chatter. News about brutal murders on the East Coast… old powers re-awakening… old secret societies being reformed… sightings of creatures that were mythical even by supernatural standards…

He stopped at the door of the nursery and chuckled loudly.

He had only just resolved to stay out of Mystic Falls’ heretic palaver! Yet barely five minutes later, his mind was full of even more morbid scenarios.

I need a 12-Step Program. Vampire-Hunters Anonymous or something.

Shaking his head, he stepped through the door.

Rachel was on her mat, trying to touch the portable mobile hanging over her. She turned her head to the side and cooed at her father and he felt his heart melt.

“Hello, sweetheart,” he murmured, coming to kneel beside her. He gave her a kiss and she grinned from ear to ear.

“Good afternoon to you, Mr. Saltzman,” said Gab from across the room.

She was at the changing area, manoeuvring a diaper around a pair of fat legs.

“Hey, Gab,” Alaric said with a small sigh. He had given up trying to convince her to call him ‘Alaric’.

“Is their mama asleep? ’heard her phone ringing and now, you’re here…”

He tried not to bristle. “She’s fine. Just wanted to spend some time with my girls.”

Gab also had slightly old-fashioned views about child-rearing though and she usually regarded Alaric as the last resort in all things babies. It had bugged him at first – still bugged him, if he were honest. He tried not to take it personally.

He smiled instead at his baby girl, and she rewarded him with a beatific smile of her own that turned his heart a little. He could never get enough of her and her sister. Jo didn’t believe him but he could already see their differences in personality. Martha seemed to be the more adventurous of the two – first to hit her physical milestones, always grabbing and touching. Rachel was the more affectionate one, and showed all signs of getting to proper words first.

Moments later, Gab dropped Martha beside her sister. She was very pleased to see Alaric and after chattering excitedly, started rolling towards him. He and Gab burst out laughing.

“She’s gonna walk first, I tell you. Too impatient to crawl, that one.”

“You think so, too, right?” Alaric asked.

Gab hummed her yes. “Rachel’ll be a talker but Martha’s gonna be a runner.”

“I knew it!” Alaric exclaimed, disproportionately smug. Wait until he told Jo.

Gab hummed again, getting to her feet. She went back to the changing area and started tidying up. Alaric got down on his stomach besides his girls and took turns playing ‘this little piggie’ with their tiny toes. They squeed with laughter in turn, each one poking her feet at him when she had to wait her turn.

For a while, he and his girls were in a world of their own. All thoughts of Judith Stewarts, and disappointed friends from Virginia had leeched out of his head. He wasn’t even aware that Gab was still in the room until the sound of her throat clearing loudly finally pulled him out of his bubble.

He blinked up at her. “Anything, Gab?”

She gave him a long hard stare.

A prickle of alarm hit him and he quickly sat up, glancing at his daughters who were now playing a game of rolling towards each other and laughing and crying in turn. “What… is something wrong with…?”

“Girls are good, Mr. Saltzman.”

“Oh.” He felt relieved – then confused. “Then… is everything OK?”

She sniffed. “You won’t think it to look at me now but I was something of a catch back in the day.”

Alaric blinked. “I… believe it,” he managed to say to this completely apropos of nothing declaration.

For a moment, she stared hard at him, as if to determine if he was being honest while he stared back, completely befuddled. Whatever was on his face must have satisfied her because she went on. “Dated a guy called Tommy as a kid. Tall, strong, not much of a wizard but definitely a lot of man, if you know what I mean. Sort of like you.”

And the old lady gave the very married Alaric Saltzman a once-over that was disconcerting enough to make him take a hasty scoot back. “Er…”

“We were all set to make it to the altar, and we would have if not for Judgy Judy. That’s what we used to call his sister back then. Bossy, bold, and not as smart as she thought she was. She served as Envoy with Betty Patel and my brother though he wasn’t good enough for her either. Good thing though, considering she wasn’t really his type.” Gab snorted.

“Gab, I don’t think-”

“The Stewart name used to be a big deal once upon a time but they had fallen on hard times. But Judith had big plans. She made her mark as Envoy and everyone paid attention after that. Suddenly a mere O’Sullivan wasn’t good enough for her precious brother anymore so she broke us up. Match-made him with the Patel girl instead.”

Alaric had been thinking of how to extricate himself from the conversation. It wouldn’t have been the first time that Gab had started rambling at a tangent apropos of nothing. The old woman was slightly gaga – something that had worried him a lot in the beginning, but that he had got used to, as well.

Then she dropped the name Stewart, all the while staring at him with keen bird-like eyes, and his interruption froze in his mouth. By the time she mentioned Judith, his attention was riveted.

“Tommy died before he hit thirty. Judith helped Betty bring up the boy and they’ve been inseparable all these years. People call them the Stewart girls, and completely forget that they aren’t even really sisters.” She swivelled her head, bird-like, around her neck. “When Malachai became leader, they ran like everyone else, but only Betty came back. Is it true that Judith is dead?”

Alaric nodded.

Gab blinked rapidly.

“I’m sorry,” he said gently.

“Don’t be,” Gab snapped. “She was always too smart for her own good. Too ambitious. Knowing her, she got tangled up in something that wasn’t any of her business and she finally bit off more than she could chew. She should have listened to her nephew. He had some sense. Tommy’s son and his family also came back with Joshua. I hear his little girl was even in the wedding, wasn’t she?”

Alaric started shaking his head, about to say that he didn’t remember – when he suddenly did.

When Joshua Parker had re-appeared a few days before the wedding, and made peace with his estranged children, he had asked Jo to let four coven children, two girls and two boys, stand in her train, supposedly as a sign of good-will and reconciliation in the coven.

“These are sweet children from good families. I don’t want them to be crushed,” Jo had said blithely but Alaric suspected that her capitulation had less to do with her concern about the kids and more to do with the fact that her father offered to pay for the wedding.

Jo had surprised Alaric at how quickly she let bygones be bygones.

“He’s paying for the wedding,” Jo had murmured, as she made some last minute changes to her train that she claimed were absolutely necessary but he suspected was simply because she now had a bigger budget.

“He tried to kill you!” Alaric had reminded her, shocked.

“He’s paying for the wedding,” Jo had said simply, looking at Alaric as if he was the crazy one.

They had been introduced to him. Four teenagers – two pretty girls, two scrappy boys, all completely forgettable. Heck, some of them might even be students in his high school. But he had been told their names and at the back of the head, those names had stuck.

And now, with Gab’s shrewd prompting, they came back.

Alaric gaped at the old woman.

Her beady eyes glinted. “Too bad about Tommy’s boy, though. Hell of a way to go. Him and his wife.”

He opened his mouth to ask her what she meant by that – when there was a loud explosion from below stairs.

Alaric jumped to his feet, panic slamming through him. It sounded as if a bomb had gone off in his kitchen!

Gab had let out one short, sharp screech, but now she stood frozen, her hands pressed into her face, her blue rings emphasising the roundness of her eyes. The twins were screaming at the top of their lungs.

Alaric stared at the three of them desperately. Then turned around to stare at the door.

Jo, he thought, feeling like if he was torn into two. His heart was racing.

He swirled on Gab. “Stay here. Keep them safe…”

She looked frightened. “Mr. Saltzman…”

“You’re a witch, aren’t you?” he bellowed. “Keep my children safe!”

She swallowed hard, clasped her trembling hands together, nodded.

With a last desperate look at his babies, he turned on his heel and ran out to find his wife, and what the hell had just happened in his house.

Mystic Falls

“It’s a good thing Tyler’s not here then,” Caroline said when Matt and Bonnie finished.

All five sat around the island now. Damon had returned to the kitchen with an empty bottle, and he let the other two do the narration of their findings and conversation with Liv Parker.

“Why?” Matt asked, surprised.

Caroline gave him an ‘isn’t it obvious?’ glance. “Because we have to be careful what we tell Liv now. Or any Gemini. And right now, he’s the one most connected to them.” She carefully did not look at Bonnie as she said this – for which Bonnie was very grateful.

“Liv was right about this being Gemini business,” Stefan said. “If their Councillor and heretics are performing ritual murder on their own witches then it definitely falls in their territory and they can take it out of our hands.”

“I am not giving this to the Gemini,” Damon snapped. “They had their chance to get involved and they blew it. If they want in, they’ll come to us and they’ll do it on our terms.”

Stephan just rolled his eyes at that.

“Stefan, we don’t know who else might be involved in this,” Caroline pointed out.

“So we take it right to the top,” Stefan said. “We speak to Kai Parker.”

All eyes landed on Bonnie.

“Why are you all looking at me for?” she exclaimed.

“Bonnie…” Caroline sighed.

“This is no time to be coy,” Stefan finished.

Bonnie glared at them with narrowed eyes, not failing to note how in sync they suddenly seemed to be. “What the hell? I wasn’t coy when I went to Portland and got turned down flat.” In every sense of the word. Her face reddened at the memory, but she pushed on. “Maybe one of you guys should give it a whirl. Besides, Liv didn’t believe a word against Saint Asshat. Why would Kai?”

“I agree with Bonnie,” Matt added. She nodded gratefully until he added: “and don’t forget, there’s the chance that Kai might be involved in this.”

Bonnie whirled at him. “What?”

“Didn’t Liv say that those witches exiled themselves when he became leader? That sounds to me like motive.”

The others started looking thoughtful. Which incensed Bonnie more.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Bonnie declared. “Kai doesn’t need heretics to kill those witches. If he wanted them dead, he’d do that himself.”

Matt whistled. “What a guy, huh?”

“What is with you?” Bonnie cried.

“Hey, guys!” Caroline cried. “Let’s not fight_, OK? So … can we all agree that we don’t tell the Gemini?”

There was a strained silence. Then Stefan_, who had been one to suggest it_, nodded.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. Spineless.

Caroline looked relieved. “Great. So we keep on doing what we agreed to do all along. Figure out some way to get rid of these heretics ourselves. That’s the most important thing, right? I mean, whatever their reasons for killing people… they’re killing people. We have to stop them.”

“Sounds good to me,” Stefan said at once.

Bonnie raised an eyebrow. Yeah, those two were back to banging each other again.

There was a pause.

“I… I agree with Vampire Barbie,” Damon drawled, his brows almost falling off his head as he exaggerated a look of amazement.

Caroline shot him a withering look, before turning to Matt and Bonnie, her face appealing. “Guys?”

“We have to go after the heretics, Ashton Parrish, and whoever else is involved in this,” Matt insisted.

“I’ll take a wild guess and say that the heretics might be the hardest kill there,” Stefan murmured.

“But-”

“Oh come off it, Donovan!” Damon snapped. “We all know that your suspicions have less to do with the actual evidence and more to do with-”

“Fine!” Matt shouted. “Fine! We do it your way then.”

“More to do with what?” Bonnie prompted, watching the way the other three shot knowing glances at each other_, the way Matt seemed to cower into his seat. “What exactly am I missing here?”

It wasn’t about the collateral damage this time, she was sure of it. There was something else going on with Matt.

Caroline giggled – then smothered it under Bonnie’s glare. “Bonnie…”

“What did I say about you guys keeping secrets?”

“It’s not...” Stefan began, then stopped and looked pointedly at Matt.

“I have personal beef with Kai Parker_, alright!” Matt shouted.

Bonnie started. “What?”

“I hate the guy, OK? I can’t stand him.”

“Why? Since when?”

Matt sputtered. “Since when? Maybe since he stabbed the friend I’ve known since preschool and left her to die in his Prison World-”

“-that’s not-”

“-maybe since I heard he was a sociopath who murdered his siblings. Maybe since he totalled my bar that one time he beat up Damon and Enzo-”

Damon looked up. “Wait a minute, that’s not what-”

“-maybe since he did a memory spell on me against my consent. I don’t know, Bonnie! Maybe I’ll have to write a list.”

Bonnie gaped at him, thoughts whirling. “Matt,” she said slowly, “you don’t… you’re not…”

“-supposed to take this stuff personally?” he snapped.

“… making sense. You’ve worked with the bad guys before. We all have. The Mikaelsons? Trip? Damon?”

“Hey!”

“Maybe I don’t want to keep working with the bad guys anymore,” he muttered.

If her jaw dropped any further, it would hit the floor. “Matt, you dated Rebekah Mikaelson. And Nadia Petrova. At the same time.”

His ears reddened. “How did you… I only told Tyler.”

“Who told me, who told Bonnie,” Caroline sing-sang. “We don’t keep secrets in this group, Matt. It’s, like, a rule,” she rolled her eyes.

There was a tense silence.

Matt chuckled suddenly, his shoulders relaxing. Stefan snickered and then Damon laughed.

“You sound like an idiot, Care,” Matt said.

The blonde vampire gave him the finger.

Bonnie smiled uneasily, relieved that the acrimonious tension had dissipated, but still wary that it had risen in the first place.

Matt raised his hands in surrender. “Forget what I said. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? Let’s do this.”

Stefan cleared his throat. “So… back to the matter at hand. We all agree that taking out the heretics is our first priority, right? And we’ve, for all sorts of reasons, decided to do this on our own?” When everyone nodded, he continued. “So … do we have a plan? Bonnie?”

“You guys are hopeless,” she exclaimed, and rose to her feet.

“Bonnie?” Caroline cried, half-standing.

“Stay put, Care. I’m not walking out on you. As much I’d love to do that, but apparently I can’t, since you’re all going to die approximately twenty-four hours after I do.”

“I’ll have you know that we managed just fine last year without you-” Damon yelled but his voice vanished when she slammed the kitchen door shut.

In her off-campus flat, a trip to her room from the kitchen would have taken heartbeats. In the Lockwood mansion, where she had to literally go from one wing of the house to the other, it took minutes. It was a good thing she was in such good shape, Bonnie mused, as she made her way back to the kitchen. Although she would miss having someone clean up after her.

As she turned a corner to the kitchen, she slowed, an idea entering her head. She had left the room for minutes, hadn’t she? There was no way the others could have resisted talking about her behind her back and whatever it was going on with Matt. Because there was something going on with him and for some reason, she was on the outside of it.

Ordinarily, she’d have respect her friend’s privacy. It hurt, but if he chose not to confide in her, that was his call not hers. But heaven knows, her own personal life had suddenly become everyone’s business. Why did Matt get to keep secrets? And how many times in the past had the personal got entangled with the political? Matt might think … the others might think that they were keeping harmless little secrets. But what if, unknown to them, there was something more sinister at work?

Ok, you’re reaching, she told herself even as she twirled her fingers towards the door, the words of an eavesdropping spell at the tip of her tongue.

Yeah, but I’m still doing it.

And before she could talk herself out of it, she did.

The magic was instantaneous. The voices of her friends suddenly sounded beside her, as clear as if she was in the room right amongst them, and not at the end of the corridor, on the other side of the near-sound-proof door.

“‘I can’t stand him because he’s a Bad Man! He’s a Bad Man, Bonnie! Can’t you see he’s such a Bad, Bad, Bad Man?’” Caroline was saying, her voice deepened in an imitation of Matt’s.

“Ex-Bad Man,” Stefan corrected mildly.

“Nice save, Donovan,” Damon snickered.

“Shut up,” Matt muttered.

“Whose bright idea was it to tell Donovan about Bonnie and Harry Parker doing the nasty?” Damon continued.

“I believe that would be you,” Stefan deadpanned.

Bonnie felt her face flush. She hadn’t ever bothered trying to figure out when and how each member of their group had figured out what happened between her and Kai after Jo’s wedding. Truth be told, she tried not to think about what her friends knew about her and Kai. Sometimes, she even kidded herself that they didn’t really know anything. They might suspect something. So it was beyond mortifying to actually hear them talking about it, confirming that yeah, she really had no secrets where these clowns were concerned.

“I can’t believe Bonnie ever had anything to do with that tool,” Matt growled.

Bonnie felt her spine straighten. What the hell?

“Have you seen that tool?” Caroline replied. Beat. Then she and the other vampires burst into laughter at her own unintended innuendo. “Oh, we’re hopeless. This is so ridiculous! Matt… Come on… Just tell Bonnie, OK? Get it out of your chest before we all explode keeping it in for you.”

“Not a word to Bonnie, you guys,” Matt hissed. “Or I swear…”

Damon oooh-ed. “Guys, Deputy Donovan’s making threats. Everyone take cover.”

Who the heck does he think he is, judging me? Bonnie thought furiously. Hello, Mr. I-Kissed-Two-Evil-Vamps-And-Liked-It. She had half a mind to barge into the kitchen right now and throw his disapproval in his face.

She cut off the spell, having heard enough. Her best friend was a hypocritical square. As secrets and lies went, that was nothing.

She walked down the corridor, and barged through the large doors.

The others started, looking appropriately guilty.

Bonnie gave each of them a grim smile, sparing a particularly mean one for Matt who looked alarmed, and slammed her Grimoire on the counter.

“So… who’s up for killing heretics?”

May 2014

“OK, guys, I know we said we were going to blow up heretics, but I didn’t think you meant we were going to…”

“… literally blow up heretics?” Tyler said with a slightly maniacal grin.

Bonnie gulped.

The War Room – the affectionate nickname they had given the guest room turned armoury in the Salvatore’s boarding house – housed a fair share of dangerous arsenal. Crossbows, Molotov co*cktails, magical weapons of all variations, even guns and grenades all found a place in the stacks that reached near the roof. But this was the first – and Bonnie sincerely hoped, the last – time that it housed this particular brand of munition.

In the middle of the table sat a row of dynamite.

Bonnie did not think of herself as a fainting kind of girl – but the sight of all those explosives in close proximity to her very flesh-and-bone person almost made her pass out.

She gulped again.

“Relax Bonnie,” Matt said, laughing as he watched her face. “They’re not going to blow off until they’re set.”

“Are you sure? Isn’t the room too hot? Too damp? Am I the only one who’s feeling sick looking at these things?”

Tyler snickered as he grabbed the first brick, and started rolling up the line of dynamite like a very thick scroll and not something that could literally blow up in his face, taking Bonnie, everyone in the room and about fifty meters of real estate with it.

He pushed it into a large bag, zipped it up and grinned at her. “Sit back, relax and watch things go ka-boom!” he announced.

“Of course, this would be your idea, Tyler,” Caroline declared.

“Can you think of a better one?” he challenged. “As long as we’re sure of the location of their house, we’re good.”

“I’m sure of the general area,” Bonnie said.

“This baby’s going to take out that area times ten, believe me.” He and Matt gave each other high-fives.

“Scared, BB?” Matt teased, catching her worried glance.

She took a deep breath and ignored the question. Instead, she turned away from the dynamites, and towards Caroline. “Are you up for your part?”

“You mean the part where I’m charming and guileless and distract the heretics while Tyler and Stefan booby-trap their house? I can do that in my sleep. I am Miss Mystic Falls, after all.” Caroline tossed her hair.

“And I’m going to be by her side, all the way,” Matt added, “charming and distracting them with my All-American good looks while Tyler and Stefan place the explosives.”

Bonnie cracked a smile at that. Wary that the heretics might have recognised, or even already been aware of any of their group, she had spelled a glamour over the two going into enemy territory.

Months ago, when Lucy offered to teach her how to glamour, Bonnie had been surprised.

“I thought that was Gemini spell craft?

Lucy rolled her eyes. “When are you going to realise you’re a Bennett? No magic is off limits to us.”

Now, Caroline spotted a tan and an impressive cloud of curls and Matt wore glasses on his paler, more angular features. They were dressed in conservative chic and looked like something from a fashion spread from the United Colours of Benetton. Lucy would almost be impressed.

“Remind me again why we’re sending the bait in with the duffer?” A familiar accented voice declared.

The four friends turned as Enzo and Damon stepped into the room. Bonnie glanced worriedly at the bag that swung, oh-so-casually from Tyler’s shoulder. Was all this body heat in this small space really such a good idea? Sure Tyler said they needed to be set, and something about blasting caps, but still…

“I still think Caroline and I should go,” Enzo persisted. It wasn’t the first time he had suggested this.

Lord knew that Enzo wasn’t Bonnie’s first choice of an ally, but there was no questioning his loyalty to Caroline. It struck her then, suddenly, that to her knowledge, there was only one person that Enzo might ever hold above Caroline – and it was a good thing that she was gone. Or who knew where Enzo’s loyalty might lie in this conflict that had Lily’s biological but forsaken sons on one side, and her adopted and preferred children on the other? Bonnie hadn’t seen the point at the time, had chalked it up to Damon’s usual schemes, but now she agreed with Damon that Enzo finding out the truth about Lily Salvatore would have been more painful and harmful – to everyone – than it was worth.

“Uh-no. The heretics will hear one word from your poor man’s Pierce Brosnan’s voice and tear you into pieces,” Matt fired back.

“So you’re saying that they’d find my voice bloody fit? That you find my voice bloody fit?”

Damon and Tyler snickered as Matt opened and closed his mouth in outrage. Bonnie and Caroline locked gazes across the table and smiled.

“Ugh!” Damon shouted. “Mind out of the gutter, ladies!”

“Hey,” Bonnie said, laughing. “Since when can you read minds?”

“Because my mind’s always in the gutter, and now I’m feeling crowded.”

Everyone was laughing or snickering now, except poor Matt. “Guys, really?” he said, frowning. “Enzo?”

“I think you two will make a lovely couple,” Caroline managed to say between huge giggles.

Someone’s phone rang.

Bonnie almost fainted. “The explosives!”

Tyler shuddered. “OK, I’m leaving now because I know dynamites, and I know charges but I don’t know what your nerves and magic combined are going to do to these babies. Congratulations Bonnie, you’ve succeeded in freaking me out. See you guys.”

He left – to Bonnie’s eternal relief – as Damon pulled out his phone.

“He’s on his way.” He mouthed ‘Stefan’ to the others. “Not-Blond and Not-Blonder will be there in fifteen.” He switched off the phone. “You ready for this?”

The others nodded, and made varying agreeing sounds. Bonnie flexed her fingers and smiled at the rush of magic, then put her hands flat on the dynamite-free table.

“If every-thing goes according to plan,” she said softly, “Mystic Falls will be heretic-free in the next six hours.” And I’m off the hook once and for all from saving this f*cking town.

Matt put his hand over hers, threading her fingers slightly. “Hear hear, Bonnie.”

“Let’s not jinx this,” Damon said, but he still put his hand over Matt’s.

“Shouldn’t Tyler and Stefan be here…?” Caroline started, then yelped when Enzo yanked her hand, placing it over the others, then his on top.

Damon looked at all of them and nodded grimly. “Let’s go blow up some heretics.”

June 2014

Mystic Falls

In the hot evening, the War Room felt crowded and uncomfortable.

The vampires stood around the empty table. Matt had discovered an armchair under a pile of arrows, and Bonnie was sitting there now, while he leaned against her leg, exhausted. She almost pushed him off, still ticked with him from earlier, but pity swayed her kinder instincts.

The present discussion had been dragging for hours.

After their earlier pow-wow at the Lockwoods’ Mansion, they had gone their separate ways and reconvened a few hours’ later at the Salvatores’. Partly because it seemed fitting to plan with here since that was what they had been doing all along; but also because it was more convenient to keep this plan away from Tyler – and by extension, Liv and the rest of the Gemini – when they weren’t scheming in his house.

Bonnie felt a little guilty at that. She was breaking her own rules about keeping secrets. But this was too important.

They finally had a chance.

That is, if she could get Stefan Salvatore to budge.

“I don’t know how to make this any clearer,” she said now, trying to keep her voice level and not show her acute irritation at the entire conversation. “But I’m going with Caroline and Matt to New Orleans or I am not going at all.”

Caroline was the closest thing Bonnie had to a sister now that Elena was half-way around the world. And as for Matt, she might be slightly miffed at him for being such a hypocrite, but she knew she could trust him with her life.

The Salvatores were an entirely different matter.

“We’ve talked about this, Bonnie,” Stefan said through gritted teeth. “Klaus’ is away from New Orleans so Caroline doesn’t have to come. We’ll be dealing with Elijah, and three siblings. Matt can be there to work on Rebekah.”

“Er…” Matt said, shifting nervously on the floor. “About that…”

Bonnie rolled her eyes. Hypocrite.

“Save your romantic dilemma for another time, Donovan,” Damon snarked. “The lady specifically asked after you. You’re going to have to take one for the team.”

Beside her, Matt seemed to sink lower into the floor. Bonnie scoffed quietly.

“And Elijah specifically requested for Bonnie,” Stefan finished. “And I’m there for negotiations.”

“We’ve talked about it but you’re not listening,” she snapped.

“I can be there for negotiations, too,” Caroline countered, plopping down on Bonnie’s arm rest. She shouldn’t have really been physically exhausted. But maybe she too was spiritually fed up with this discussion. “If Bonnie wants me there, then I’ll be there. Let’s all four go along.”

“I am going with you and Matt only.”

“OK, Bonnie,” Stefan barked, losing some of his unflappability. “Out with it.”

“Out with what?”

“The real reason you don’t want me coming along to New Orleans.”

“Hey Stefan,” Matt snapped. “Bonnie doesn’t owe anyone an explan-”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, she does. Full disclosure right? Those were her rules. Now she has to stick to them.”

Matt could say nothing to that, but he leaned harder on Bonnie’s leg, as if in support.

Bonnie glared at Stefan for a moment, then fell back into the chair in defeat. “You asked for it, then.”

“Just tell us, Bonnie,” Stefan said.

“Oh, I will. So Elijah Mikaelson wants me to do something for him in exchange for compelling the heretics.”

It was such a simple plan, really, that when Bonnie finally laid it out to them, they all wondered the same thing – why didn’t any of them think of it before?

Bonnie had smarted a little at that. Because it was far more than just simple compulsion.

“For one thing, compulsion is risky,” she had explained. “It’s still magic. They can just siphon it out from their own minds but not if -”

“-they were compelled not to siphon it out,” Damon had finished. “Or were compelled not to remember that they were compelled. Or they were compelled to kill themselves quickly before they tried to siphon it out.”

Of course, Bonnie thought with a mixture of disgust and amusem*nt, Damon would be the first person to buy into this idea.

Caroline had wanted to know what would happen if the Original got daggered and the compulsion broke. “Remember how much Klaus loves keeping his family in boxes?”

“We aren’t compelling them for an eternity of good behaviour,” Bonnie had said brutally. “We’re compelling them to suicide-murder. There won’t be any time between them being compelled and them dying for Klaus, for any insane reason, to teleport to Mystic Falls and dagger his sibling.”

Ideally, Bonnie thought now. But if there was one thing magic had taught her, there was always a loop-hole.

So she had found a way to seal this one. A spell she herself had designed, based on one of the Gemini grimoire, so that when casted during the actual compulsion, it sustained the compulsion for a few days beyond the Original’s daggering or even death.

Bonnie had only described the spell to the others in broad hints. She had felt uncomfortable discussing it in detail because of its source: the report of a study by some Gemini mage of the elements of the sire bond. It had been a series of attempts to duplicate the sire bond, apparently developed by testing on some unfortunate vampire with the ability. He or she had been unsuccessful in duplicating the sire bond but his notes had proven useful to Bonnie.

Of course, bringing up Gemini using vampires as guinea pigs so soon after the quarrel with Matt; or vampires with the ability to sire-bond being used as guinea pigs in general considering Damon’s past with the Augustine Society…

Well, that was just tactless. Bonnie herself felt distinctly uncomfortable that she was even using magic based on such cold-bloodedness.

Of course, Klaus Mikaelson himself could not be daggered. If he could be persuaded to help them, Bonnie would never have to sully the few scruples she had left and use the spell.

But as it turned out, the Original Hybrid wasn’t available. Between leaving the Lockwood’s and re-assembling at the Salvatore’s, Stefan had got in touch with NOLA and he found out that Klaus Mikaelson was … indisposed.

Elijah Mikaelson however, was willing to help, but …

“Of course he wants something,” Bonnie exclaimed now, as a wave of bitterness hit her. “I mean him deciding to be a decent human… vampire for a change and do the right thing? No, that would have been the plot twist in this tale.”

Stefan sighed. “Well, we can’t say we’re surprised by this. I’m sorry, Bonnie that he’s making this demand of you. If there was any other thing we could have offered Elijah…”

“Save it. I’ve agreed to go, haven’t I? But this is my condition. As you well know, dealing with the Mikaelsons has never ended well for me.”

There was an awkward silence.

“But what does that have to do with Stefan?” Caroline asked.

Bonnie just gave her a look. She loved her best friend but sometimes Caroline was completely clueless.

“Let me clarify,” Bonnie said through gritted teeth as she stared at the Salvatore brothers who were doing their damnest not to look her in the eye right now. “Dealing with the Mikaelsons with a Salvatore at my back has never ended well for me.”

“Oh,” Caroline said softly.

“Oh indeed.”

“Bonbon,” Damon started.

“Don’t Bonbon me,” Bonnie snapped. “There’s nothing to discuss here. I’m going to New Orleans with my friends or I’m not going at all.”

“So we’re not friends?”

“My childhood friends if that makes you feel better.”

“No, Bonnie. It doesn’t.”

“Too bad.”

Stefan stepped in. “What if I don’t agree to this? You give up on fighting the heretics? Let them destroy Mystic Falls?” The challenge in his voice was clear.

“Watch it, Stefan,” Caroline warned.

“I’m talking to Bonnie,” Stefan snapped back, his tone making Caroline recoil.

“You don’t get to strong-arm her or anyone else here,” Matt interjected. “We’re all here of our own free will. No one’s going to be forced to do anything.”

“What world do you live in, Matty Blue Eyes?” Damon sneered.

“This is what I hate about you guys,” Matt exclaimed, jumping to his feet. “You feel you can bully anyone into doing anything you like. Well, I’m not going to let you-”

“Let us do what, exactly?” Stefan asked quietly, dangerously.

Voices rose angrily, everyone speaking over each other, and the first time Bonnie said it, no one heard.

Until she shouted it.

Stefan froze. As did everyone else in the room.

“What did you say?” he finally asked, his voice like ice.

Bonnie looked him straight in the eyes.

“The Cure. I write Elena and tell her we need the Cure.”

He blanched.

There was a long silence.

“The Cure is out of the question,” Stefan said slowly.

Matt cleared his throat. “Five students died not too far from here. Humans. Innocent bystanders. I’m sure if Elena realised…”

“I said, it’s out of the question.” Stefan didn’t raise his voice. Not by one decibel.

But the warning in it was clear.

“Why is that up to you?” Caroline asked at once.

The two locked gazes. Stefan’s was blank but implacable. Caroline’s was furious.

“It’s not,” Bonnie said, breaking the stalemate. “It’s up to Elena. And she’s Elena. She’s not going to say no. But on the off-chance she does, then I let Mystic Falls burn. I walked away from this town before. I can do it again.”

“You won’t dare,” he growled.

She crossed her arms. “Won’t I?”

The tension in the room was thick enough to stab through with a wooden stake.

Then Stefan pushed off from the table. “You win,” he said quietly and walked out.

Damon looked hard at Bonnie. “Witchy, one of these days, you and I are going to have to talk.”

Bonnie smiled thinly. “Can’t hardly wait.”

He rubbed his hand on his neck and seemed to be thinking about what to say. Then he shrugged and, unexpectedly, threw Caroline a commiserating smile. “Hang in there, Barbie.”

He followed his brother.

Tense silence followed as Bonnie and Matt tried not to look at Caroline.

Bonnie tampered down her feelings of guilt.

Because it wasn’t on her that she had to bring up dragging Elena back into Mystic Falls for this. It was a conversation that she knew would upset everyone. The Cure had always been an option – but none of them had ever brought it up for this precise reason. It had definitely upset Bonnie to suggest it. But Stefan hadn’t given her a choice.

And yet…

Bonnie hadn’t wanted to be dragged back into this mad world of theirs either. But she had had to do what she felt she needed to do.

So despite her own feelings on the subject, Stefan’s reaction also miffed her. Even Damon had been more reasonable about the suggestion, seeming more upset about Bonnie’s attitude towards his brother than the idea of Elena returning. He was doing that thing again, Bonnie realised, where he pretended to be uber-calm about things that would ordinarily upset him. He had put on the act for Liv that morning. And he had done the same thing for Bonnie when Enzo came up the day before.

Matt broke the silence with a loud sigh. He walked to the table and leaned against it, so that he was staring at Bonnie.

Bonnie glared at him. “What?”

“Wow, Bonnie,” Matt said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I mean, you’re right: Elena would definitely come back in a heartbeat if we told her we needed her help. I just… just didn’t expect you to-”

“To what, Matt? Not agree to walk into danger with my eyes closed? Not let the Salvatores and the Mikaelsons push me around like a chess-piece? Have a modicum of self-preservation? Why the hell do you think I stayed away from this place for a year?”

“Hey, Bonnie!” He raised his hands up. “I’m on your side here.”

Bonnie looked away. She was breathing hard, she realised suddenly, and she forced herself to calm down.

To Bonnie’s surprise, Caroline reached for her shoulder, rubbing it gently. Bonnie felt a surge of gratitude to her friend. She didn’t know what the hell was going on between Caroline and Stefan – and she wasn’t going to ask until Caroline was clearly ready to say – but only a fool could have missed what just happened now. Yet Caroline was reaching past her own embarrassment and pain to console her, and Bonnie had never loved her friend more.

She leaned into Caroline and twined her fingers with her friend’s.

Caroline laughed softly. “You know what’s funny? If Elena were here, we won’t need to go to NOLA at all. She’d guilt Elijah herself into coming here and doing this pro bono. He always had a soft spot for her.”

“Ironic, right?” Bonnie wondered. She nudged her friend. “I didn’t even ask if you were OK with coming to NOLA. I just assumed…”

“You kidding?” Caroline asked, although her smile was strained.

“Care…?”

“How do we keep this from Tyler?” Matt broke in, his voice heavy.

“With Livi-locks around? He probably won’t notice if the whole group went to South America for the week,” Caroline snipped.

Matt and Bonnie blinked at each other, both acknowledging – silently – the surprising tinge of venom in Caroline’s voice.

“Liv… is leaving Mystic Falls in a few days…” Matt said tentatively.

“Huh.” Caroline sniffed. “Well, there’s a full moon on Friday.”

She didn’t need to say anymore. They all knew that Tyler would go underground in the days leading to and after the night of his transformation. No need to keep him in the dark – he’d be the one deliberately withdrawing away from the group.

“So, Matt,” Caroline asked. “We’re going into Original territory with half our usual army. Is your Resurrection Ring up to scratch? I mean, I’ve never quite understood if it still worked with the Other Side down.”

Bonnie looked up at him as he looked down at her and despite recent differences, they shared a small, smug smile.

He nodded to Caroline. “Tested and trusted.”

May 2013

Whitmore

It was less than an hour before Jo’s wedding; and somewhere Caroline Forbes was waiting in vain for the floral arrangements that Bonnie and Matt should have returned with hours ago. If Bonnie hadn’t side-tracked Matt, they’d be at the wedding now, and not …

Here.

“Bonnie… Bonnie, wake up!”

She didn’t want to. She was tired. She was so tired. She had come to Kai Parker’s house to anticipate a vendetta that was all in her head. She had dragged her friend along for the ride and now he was dead. Drained to death by hungry heretics. Matt was dead and it was all her fault.

Again.

“Bonnie!”

The insistent voice faded away, and she was so glad because all she wanted to do was sleep and never have to wake-

But warm hands kept patting her hair, rubbing on her cheeks, and upper arms, with increasing insistence. “Bonnie… Bonnie… Bonnie!”

Slowly, reluctantly, her eyelids parted.

Then flew wide open. “Matt!”

“Shhh!” Matt’s blue eyes were wide, panicked. “They left one to stand guard. I got her by surprise. Shot her with my cross-bow while I was still down. I think I got her through the heart but I also shot the others and they-”

The rest of his words were cut off as Bonnie threw herself into his arms. “Oh my goodness, Matt! They told me you were dead!”

He returned her embrace with good measure. “I… I think I was.”

“So how?”

He raised his hand. She stared at the silver band on his finger – then at the matted blood on his throat – then back at the ring that she easily recognised from all the times she had seen it on Jeremy’s hand.

The Gilbert ring.

“I thought that the ring had stopped working when the Other Side was destroyed,” she breathed.

“I thought so, too,” he said soberly. There was a dazed look on his face. “I guess there was still some alternate dimension for my soul to fall into.”

Tears filled Bonnie’s eyes. “Oh god, Matt. If anything had happened to you…”

His hug turned fierce, almost cutting off her air. She yelped a little and he released her, his arms loosening slowly.

Bonnie stepped away. “OK, Matt. We can’t know how long she’s going to stay down. We have to move quickly.”

“I tried opening the doors before but they’ve been sealed with magic, I believe. Can you get us out?”

Bonnie worked fast. She helped herself once again to Kai’s magical supplies. Then tried every spell she knew to bring down the wards that had been placed around the flat. Fifteen minutes later, she was gasping over burning candles, a wad of tissue soaking up blood from her nose and they were no closer to breaking free.

“Bonnie,” Matt whispered worriedly.

She looked across to where he stood, barricading the guestroom, with his phone in hand. Earlier, he had dragged in there a ginger-headed body that Bonnie had barely glanced at.

“Call me crazy,” he muttered, “but I swear I got the other two in the heart and they still… Bonnie!”

She had almost keeled over, her head light with blood loss.

“Bonnie, stop! You’re hurting yourself!”

“Matt…”

“We need to get help!” he exclaimed. “But I’ve been calling Kai Parker since I got free, and he’s not answering. No one is. I think they’re all at the wedding now.”

They had both been out for hours and night had fallen.

“No help is coming and I can’t take down the wards,” Bonnie cried, her hands shaking as she casted again, futilely. “There’s too much power.” Never had she missed her Expression as she did at this moment. “I’m not strong enough.”

“Can you get some?” When Bonnie gave him a look, he shook his head. “I’m sorry. Stupid question…”

“No,” she breathed, “you’re brilliant.” She turned around slowly, her eyes weighing and calculating everything within sight. Syphon’s home. Magical sources.

It was a long shot. Siphoning Qetsiya’s magic had taken a huge toll. But she had to try.

She hobbled to Kai’s bedroom, rifled through every thing he owned – and wasn’t it perverse how even now in the height of panic, she still felt unnerved in his bedroom? – but she found nothing that indicated a source of power that could be drained or even merely channeled.

Channeled…

She doubled back until she was a hand’s span from Matt. He looked hopeful. “Found anything?”

Bonnie nodded. “You.” She lifted her palms, facing outwards, an inch away from his chest. “I can channel you.”

“Do it.”

His complete lack of hesitation threw her off balance. “Matt, are you sure?”

“I trust you,” he said, and he managed to sound both nervous and certain. “And we don’t have much time.”

“It won’t hurt,” she promised – him or herself – she couldn’t tell. The last time she had channeled someone, it had been another witch and they had channeled each other.

“I trust you,” Matt said, more firmly this time.

He was arranging the candles in a circle on the floor while she was chanting, preparing the casting that would turn a living, breathing person into a magical conduit. Then they were both standing in the ring of fire. His eyes closed as she placed her hands on his chest. Then she started calling on the magic that lay dormant inside him, and she felt it open up under her skin, felt it flow through her veins and mingle with her own power, restoring back her lost strength.

She heard him gasp but she couldn’t stop now. How strange, she thought coldly, even as she started spelling the wards down. When she and Kai had channeled each other, she had been completely lost in the magic, as much a conduit for him as he was for her. Now she felt the euphoria of casting, yes, but she was still in complete control. She could feel Matt’s discomfort, the physical trauma that this was causing his body, but it was a thing apart from herself, something that she could detach herself from.

It hadn’t been anything like that with Kai.

She heard the wards fall, a shudder against her aura, and it was over. She whispered the words to release Matt from her power, and the candles went off. She lifted her hands from him, stepping back.

His eyes were still shut. For a moment, he just stood there.

Then he collapsed.

Bonnie had been calling her people non-stop since she levitated Matt onto his truck bed, and got behind the wheel. Caroline’s line was constantly busy. Damon and Elena were not answering. Stefan’s and Tyler’s were switched off.

She drove like a mad woman to the general hospital. It was the safest place she could think of for Matt to stay while he recovered. Kai’s place was obviously out of the question and the bar was, literally, a bar. Anyone could walk in and finish what they started. She mentioned Jo’s name to the ER nurse and before she could finish, paramedics were at the truck and Matt was being whisked away in a trolley. He had started gaining consciousness towards the end, and Bonnie heard him asking for her as the trolley disappeared behind the hospital double doors.

As she rushed out of the hospital, she heard two doctors talking about ending their shift soon to make it to Jo’s wedding.

She had backed out of the hospital by the time she realised that she had forgotten to take Matt’s phone from him – the one with Kai Parker’s number in its contacts. She paused for ten precious seconds, debating whether to go back for it – then she decided against it. There were very good odds that he was already at the venue and if he wasn’t, the other Gemini were. Better to get to the venue as quickly as possible while trying to reach him through Caroline and the others.

She had driven into the street with one hand on the wheel and the other hand on the phone, calling Caroline without much hope this time – and nearly dropped her phone when she heard her friend’s voice on the speaker.

“Caroline? Oh my g-”

“Bonnie, why haven’t you returned my calls?”

“Care-”

“What is wrong with everybody? We are twenty minutes behind schedule and I can’t keep stalling.”

“Care-”

“Why do I have to do everything by myself? You know what? Just forget it. Where are you? Where are Damon and Elena? Where the hell are the flowers?!”

“Forget about the damn flowers, Caroline!” Bonnie screamed.

There was – finally – silence on the line and Bonnie used the chance to make a quick and dangerous lane change. Behind her, she could hear tyres skidding and horns blaring angrily.

“Bonnie?”

“Caroline, you have to listen carefully. Kai’s going to be at the wedding and-”

“Oh, are you worried about that? We’ve sorted it out already.”

Bonnie nearly ran into the SUV in front of her. What? “You have?”

“Yes, I have to admit things were looking really bad. I thought there’d be blood.”

Relief and disbelief made Bonnie’s hands shake, and Matt’s truck swerved. “What happened, Care?”

“Nothing. Both parties worked things out. It’s all one big happy Gemini coven family now.”

Bonnie felt the beginning of a headache as she tried to get out from behind the slow coach in front of her. But there were cars on the lanes on either side of her, trapping her. “Huh? Caroline, are we even talking about the same–”

“I told you, it’s settled, Bonnie. I mean, what difference does it make whether it’s her father or her older brother? It’s still some man walking a grown-ass woman down to hand her over like property to another man in the most antiquated, chauvinistic tradition of all time. Elena and I told Jo she should just walk down the bloody aisle herself rather than choose between two men who had tried to kill her. Recently. But did she listen to us? Noooo.”

“Care, please listen-”

“Men. Why do they always feel that the world surrounds them? All they ever do is cause trouble and not be there when you need them to be!”

“Caroline, please, listen to me…”

“Finally! There’s Elena and Damon. What the hell, you two?…” Her voice became muffled; two others seemed to join in as an indistinct conversation followed.

“Caroline…! Caroline…!”

But the line became even more muted, as if the phone’s mic, still on, had been obscured.

Caroline must have forgotten that she was in the middle of a phone call, and dropped the phone into her purse without switching off the call. Bonnie could still make out an indistinct murmur of voices. Then the sound of music. She recognised it at once. The wedding march, albeit a strangely haunting rendition of it.

The wedding had started.

Bonnie took a deep breath and forced herself to loosen her grip. Then she twisted the wheel, and slammed on the pedal, squeezing – barely – through a gap in the traffic and shooting out from behind the SUV. Once again, she could hear the chaos in her wake – honking horns, screeching tyres – but she didn’t care.

The wedding march was still playing. With one hand, Bonnie punched at her phone and put the call to Caroline on hold. Then she tried Tyler’s number again. Still switched off. Stefan’s was the same as well.

Red lights were up ahead and she slammed on the brakes, and the car screeched to a halt, its nose entering the intersection as Bonnie screamed in frustration. Then she took Caroline’s call off the hold. The green lights came on, and her car shot forward just as the music stopped. Someone – a minister, she reckoned – was speaking. The background was silent now and the voices sounded clearer. After the minister’s voice, she made out a male voice that she easily recognised as Alaric’s.

She put the call on hold again, and tried to call Elena and once again, to no avail. Heck, she thought to herself and even tried Damon’s. Still no answer.

The church wasn’t so far away, Bonnie told herself, wiping her forehead with her sleeve. In a few minutes, she’d be there and she could warn Kai and the Gemini in person.

She put Caroline off hold again. This time she could hear Jo Laughlin speaking – her voice was soft, tinged with laughter.

The church was up ahead. Bonnie drove right up to the front, legal parking be damned. She started coming out and something yanked her back into her seat. She struggled violently for a long, precious moments until she realised that it was her seatbelt that was cutting into her ribs. She laughed half-hysterically, and unbuckled it with shaky fingers.

She had made it. She was here on time…

Then Jo screamed.

Bonnie was close enough that she heard that blood-curdling scream twice – the first from through the church doors, the second echoing on her phone.

Then Alaric was shouting and above his voice was the sound of Damon’s yelling: “Elena!”

Bonnie jumped out of the truck so quickly that she stumbled, falling on her hands and her feet. Her heart was pounding in her throat, her legs shaking as she scrambled up the steps and burst through the doors.

Bonnie could feel magic gathering – so much magic concentrated within these four walls. It drenched over her skin like a downpour, a thick blanket of water that filled the air and cut off her breathing. She pushed back at it in panic – and it receded, barely, but enough for her to get control of her physical senses. And the first thing she saw was the altar raised on the dais above the hall and Kai Parker standing at the centre like some demonic priest in a tuxedo – one hand wielding a knife high above his sister, whom he held by the shoulder with his other hand – the sacrifice that he was about to slaughter.

Or, Bonnie thought with mounting horror, the sacrifice that he had already slaughtered.

Because there was blood all down the front of Jo’s dress, red drenching through the white. There were bodies on the floor beside Jo – Elena… Alaric… Damon… A huddle of red clothes that looked like the body of a man – the minister?

Whatever had happened had only just happened. Some people were still sitting down, confused. Others were rising or already on their feet, shouting, pointing.

Her eyes caught Kai’s. Even across the expanse, she knew he had seen her – knew when their gazes locked. She felt a lump rise in her throat.

Why? Why? The question kept screaming through her head, as she watched him, frozen, unable to move, or to look away.

Why did he do it? Why was she so –

– disappointed –

– shocked that he did?

His gaze on her was hard, cold, furious. Then suddenly – he smiled.

He raised the knife higher, and that’s when Bonnie noticed two things: it was the knife, the one she thought she had lost in 1903, Josette’s knife–

– that he had stabbed Bonnie with that she had stabbed Kai with –

– and the white of his tuxedo was also stained with blood. Then he was swinging Jo into the arms of Alaric – who had risen to his feet in time to grab his wife. Damon was standing too, Bonnie noticed, gathering Elena to his arms.

And suddenly, people were rushing to the altar. At the fore front was a grey haired elderly man, his hands out and Bonnie could feel the magic pouring out from him at Kai…

No, she thought, her brain still frozen and sluggish, still struggling to understand what her eyes were seeing, not at Kai.

At Them.

They had materialised on the altar. All six of them, stepping out of the thin air to surround Kai. Red-cloaked with the empty, zombie auras of the heretics.

Then powerful magic like she had never felt before rose through the air, prickling her skin, and drawing on something inside her, and she realised that it was coming from Kai, whose knife was raised high and who was…

No … No …

It exploded out of him, a force wave that hit through the hall, flattening everything in its path, the heretics and the others all falling before it. The sound of exploding glass and screams filled the hall.

Then silence.

And darkness.

June 2014

Portland, Oregon

It had been over a year, but the sound of glass exploding and people screaming, the sight of people – heretics, witches, and everyone else alike – falling flat on their faces was still chillingly familiar.

But that was only the beginning.

Alaric Saltzman braced himself, waiting for the carnage that would follow.

And… nothing.

The video ended, and skipped to the photos taken on his wedding day. Most of them were candids, not the formal wedding photos that they’d never got the chance to take. What with the massacre that ensued.

Technically, that day wasn’t really his and Jo’s actualwedding day. The heretics had arrived before they had finished their vows. They had exchanged vows in front of a notary a few days later, with only Jo’s brother and Elena as their witnesses. Jo had worn something blue, in keeping with tradition. Alaric had worn…

A sharp rap at the door pulled him out of his wool-gathering thoughts and he blinked up at the bespectacled face of the faculty secretary standing in his doorway.

“Judi’s at soccer practice,” the bright young man said. “Should I ask her to come in now or wait until later?”

“Later, please,” he said at once. No need to disrupt the girl’s day.

The man nodded. As he walked out, Alaric glimpsed the quiet office corridor behind him. It was the last week of high school and school had been out early. Only teachers who were bogged down with extra work, had an extra-curricular activity that day, or were stuck monitoring detention were still around.

Alaric was none of the above. On any other day, he’d have been rushing home to his family.

But he needed to do this before he could bring himself to face them. He needed to root out these poisonous suspicions before he infected his home with them. Suspicions that had been planted by an insidious conversation with his nanny and fertilised by chaos in his kitchen.

He scrolled back to the video and started watching the last minutes again, this time in slow-motion. So the wedding video had been edited, he mused. Who could have spared the time in the weeks of chaos that followed, between sorting out the usual post-catastrophe paperwork that was so common place in Mystic Falls and the Saltzmans move house across the country? Surely Jo hadn’t. Neither Alaric or his wife had expressed any interest in reliving that day; and these files had been buried in folders within folders of an old external drive for over a year. Maybe Matt or Tyler had? Or even Damon?

Alaric wished he knew if only to thank the person – and maybe complain a bit about not cutting it off earlier. Preferably before the nuptial ceremony morphed into a dance of death. Those few seconds when Alaric had looked up, dazed and confused, from the ground at his almost-brand-new wife and seen blood pouring down her dress and thought it had beenherswere easily the worst moments of his life.

And then the seconds that followed – when Kai handed over the shaken, but completely unharmed Jo to Alaric and Alaric had realised that it wasn’t Jo’s blood that was drenching her white wedding gown but herbrother’swho had taken the knife that had been meant for her… were easily the second best moments of his life.

The best being, of course, the night that Martha and Rachel had been borne.

So why am I doing this?Alaric asked himself suddenly.I have the perfect wife. The perfect kids. The perfect life. Why am I digging up things that should probably stay buried?

For a moment, his finger hovered over a frame, pausing the video as he gazed into the distance, at nothing in particular. He could just stop all this now. Tell Bonnie and Damon that he tried, but he came up short. Ignore Gab’s pointed comments and sharp bird-eyes.

Ignore the deep chasm of secrets and lies that was widening between him and his wife.

Only I did the same thing with Isobel, didn’t I? And in exchange for burying my head in the sand and refusing to rock the boat, I lost my wife … and my life as I knew it.

Resolute, he pulled his gaze from his inner thoughts to the screen in front of him. He was about to unpause the video, when he stopped, peering hard at the faces that the camera had zoomed in at that particular moment.

A pair of matronly old women sat side by side on the brides’s side of the pew. They were a study in contrasts – one pale-skinned with raven hair that probably came out of a bottle; the other dark-skinned with hair the colour of snow. Physically, they seemed nothing alike yet there was an uncanny resemblance in the way they looked – both sharp-eyed, stern, intimidating. They looked like headmistresses at a military school. But that was not what had caught his attention. He recognised the snow-haired one. He had a distinct memory of this woman haranguing he and Jo when she landed in Mystic Falls with Joshua Parker’s personal contingent, determined to take over the wedding. Josette had lamented about it but he, Alaric, had been completely unsympathetic. She had been the one, after all, who had caved and invited the Gemini when her father had agreed to foot the bill.

If the snow-haired woman had come as part of the Joshua’s personal contingent, that meant that she was a high-ranking Gemini: either a member of the Council, an Elder, an Envoy Chief or some combination of the three. Or, Alaric wondered with a frown,shehadbeen? There was a story there that he had either forgotten or never quite got in full from Jo.

What was important was that even though it had been over a year, he recognised her. And now he remembered her name.

He still took the time to open the wedding program beside him to confirm it. Confirm her name, and confirm the name of her grand-daughter who had been part of Jo’s bridal train.

Dame BethanyStewart.

Grandmother toJudiStewart.

One year later and all it had taken after thenanny’s pointed ramblings wereone fleeting image from their wedding video and a glance at the wedding program.

But meanwhile, his wife...

“Does the name Stewart ring a bell?”

“Nope. Should it?”

Alaric didn’t want to remember. But there was nothing he could do to stop the flow of memories. Memories of conversations with his wife.

Memories of Jo’s guileless voice.

Jo’s guilelessface.

“Hey, Jo, did you ever get a chance to look into that name I mentioned … Judith Stewart?”

“ …S-T-U-A-R-T … on-call nurse at the hospital …”

“Oh … Thanks for looking into it.”

“You’re welcome. What is this about anyway?”

Memories of his wife lying to him.

Butwhy?

Why would Jo lie about knowing Judith Stewart, an old witch murdered by heretics? Heretics who had shown up on Jo’s wedding day to kill her. Who had almost killed her, if not for her brother.

Why would Jo lie forthem? And for what end? What difference did it make? Though Alaric hadn’t immediately recalled Judith Stewart, surely the Gemini knew their own. Knew she had been murdered by heretics.

Was Jo lying to protect him, Alaric?

He remembered the conversation he had overheard the night before – the one that had planted these doubts into his head in the first place. Standing in the kitchen and listening to his wife’s voice through the baby monitor, snarling out threats and sounding completely unlike the woman he married.

Jo warning Gab.

JothreateningGab.

No. He didn’t know what Jo was doing, but whatever it was, it wasn’t because she was trying to protect him.

He reached into his drawer for a bottle of water and gulped it down thirstily, wishing he could get a proper drink.

There was a rap on the door.

“Come in,” he called hoarsely.

She was still wearing her soccer clothes, and Alaric immediately felt guilty for not letting her change. Tall, olive-skinned with dark red curls in a sensible plait, she looked vaguely familiar. She couldn’t have been in any of his classes though. He had mostly senior year and he had already checked from her file that she was a junior.

He would have liked to think that he recognised her from his wedding – she had been in Josette’s train, after all, but the truth was that apart from the standouts like Bethany Stewart and a few others, he had barely registered any of the Gemini witches that were not Josette’s immediate family.

“Mr. Saltzman, you asked to see me?” she asked, tentatively.

“Yes, please have a seat Miss Stewart.” He paused. “You remember me, don’t you?” He clarified. “I mean, you remember my wedding last year.”

Young Judi Stewart – undoubtedly named after her Great-AuntJudithStewart – gave a nervous laugh. “Yeah. You’re Josette Parker’s husband.”

Josette Parker.How odd. Alaric had never known his wife by that name. She had been Dr. Jo Laughlin all the time he knew her until they got married and she had chosen to take his own name.

Judi looked around nervously. “I don’t know if it’s OK to talk here about…” Her voice lowered. “… coven stuff?”

Alaric forced his face into a reassuring smile, and clamped down on thoughts about how little he really knew the woman he was married to. “I’m not really going to talk about that. I just wanted to ask you a few questions about your Great-Aunt Judith.”

New Orleans, Louisiana

Bonnie was nudged out of a fitful sleep by Caroline’s sharp elbow and her friend’s even sharper whisper.

“I remember Bethany Stewart,” Caroline hissed.

“W… what… where?”

“Pay attention, Bonnie. I said I remember Bethany Stewart. Not Judith, the one who’s dead. The other one. The last name on the list.” She flapped a copy of said list in front of Bonnie’s face.

Bonnie immediately snatched the list and slammed it face-down on her lap. “Put that down, Care.” Then she looked around her, blearily. Yes, she was still in the airplane. And yes, they were still thousands of miles in the air and her vampire friend, who didn’t need sleep, had chosen to yank Bonnie’s out of the little hours of RMS time she got.

“I… that’s really… why are you telling me this now, Care?” she finally asked, too tired to even be properly angry.

“Because I think it’s important,” Caroline said as if it should be obvious.

“Oh.”

Caroline went on at great length about Bethany Stewart. Mostly about how the woman had tried to hijack Jo’s and Alaric’s wedding from her, Caroline and how Caroline had fought back, giving the old witch as good as she got.

Bonnie supposed that Caroline was right in using the exact phrase ‘old witch’. But somehow, she didn’t think Caroline meant it in the literal, technical sense.

But she didn’t say a word to Caroline. Caroline didn’t really seem to need a response though. She had gone off on a rant about her experience that day, and all Bonnie had to do was nod at appropriate times. It was just Bonnie’s bad luck that she needed to be awake to do that. Also, unlike Matt who had been safely far away from the wedding venue, Bonnie had actually been there during Caroline’s face off with Bethany Stewart. So Matt got to sleep on the other side of the aisle while Bonnie got her ear talked out off.

She supposed that if her memories of Jo’s wedding had been limited to party-planning and getting out of Dodge the moment the heretics showed up, she too would have a vivid recollection of this apparently scarring encounter with the Gemini matron. But Bonnie had had all sorts of adventures that day and the highpoint of Caroline’s day was barely a blip on Bonnie’s memory radar. She didn’t even have a mental picture of the woman in question.

Caroline finally stopped talking. But only as the plane was taxing down at the runway. With a heavy sigh, Bonnie unbuckled out of her seat and reached for her overheard bag. Matt got there first, throwing it on his free shoulder, with a grin.

“Thanks,” she said, smiling up at him as she started walking down the aisle.

“Aw,” Caroline cooed, “Mattie can you help me-”

“Sorry, Care,” he snarked, brushing past her to follow Bonnie out the plane.

“You can’t see me but I’d like you to know I’m sticking my tongue at your back!” Care yelled, ignoring the amused looks of people passing her by.

She was still grumbling as they stepped into the sweltering New Orleans heat, and made their way through airport logistics to get their luggage and rent a car.

“You’d have thought that someone would have come to meet us,” Caroline said fretfully, from where she rode shotgun with Matt, glancing fretfully through her window.

Bonnie wondered what her vampire eyes could see, or expected to see on a Monday night in NOLA. It was already late evening when they off-boarded, and by the time they got into the car, it was dark. The lights of the French Quarter were on, but Bonnie could barely make anything out of her glass. Not that she was trying particularly hard. Plus, she was struggling with the sleep that Caroline had deprived her off during the flight.

“Why?” Matt asked, surprised. “We have the address. We’ve got GPS. It’s good we have our own ride. Keeps us free agents.”

“We already turned down the offer to stay at the Mikaelsons’s,” Caroline retorted. “We can’t get any freer than that. Or spend more money on fuel, accommodation and food.”

“You’re worried about money?” Matt sputtered. “Isn’t that my thing?”

“You’ve got a job, Matt. I’ve got student loans.”

“Care, what’s going on?”

In the backseat, Bonnie stifled a yawn, but when Caroline fell silent, Bonnie’s ears perked up. Now that Matt had asked the question, she realised that yes, Caroline was acting a little off. The extra-chattiness, the random bitching, the complaining. True, once in a while, her friend could be a bit… much, to put it nicely. But this was more than that. Something was up. And it had started back in Virginia, when the idea of this trip was brought up.

“Caroline, are you nervous about being here?” Bonnie asked.

“No!” After a pause, Caroline glanced over her shoulder. “Maybe a little. Aren’t you?”

Bonnie bit her lip, thinking. “No,” she said truthfully. “Not really. Mostly I just want this over and done with.”

She wasn’t looking forward to meeting the Mikaelsons, not in the least. She had suffered considerably at their hands. But that was the old Bonnie. The one who was the first to jump between her friends and fires they started. The one who cared more about everyone else than herself. The one who believed herself to be the strongest, and therefore the one to take the heaviest blow.

She was a different Bonnie. A Bonnie who had learnt the hard way that the first death might be seen as a heroic sacrifice but every death after became an expected duty. Her friends had shown her that they would – and they had – survive without her. And she wasn’t just thinking about the past year she’d stayed away from Mystic Falls. She was also thinking about all the times she had died, and their lives had moved on.

Yes_, it was a whole new Bonnie that was going to face the Originals. A Bonnie who only put out her own fires – and would do so without letting them burn her first.

She smirked softly. The Mikaelsons won’t know what hit them.

“I’m a little nervous,” Matt admitted softly.

“I’m a lot nervous,” Caroline said with a shaky laugh. “I mean… I know that Stefan said that… K-Klaus isn’t in NOLA now but … what if he is? What… how…?” Her voice trailed off.

Bonnie glanced at the backs of her two friends. She wondered if Matt was thinking of Rebekah. If that was the cause of his nervousness. She supposed it made sense. Of all their friends, she and Tyler had been the only ones who hadn’t had complicated relationships with the Mikaelsons. To Tyler, they would always represent the time he was enslaved to Klaus, the massacre of his pack, the murder of his mother, his exile from his home. To Bonnie, they would always be the evil family who had wrecked havoc in Mystic Falls, whose actions had led to the turning of her mother, and brought misery to her friends.

But to everyone else – Matt, Caroline, Elena, the Salvatores… The Originals were sometime allies, sometime besties, sometime lovers. They had reason to be nervous because they had both, at one point in time or the other, got into bed with the enemy. In the literal and figurative sense.

Bonnie hadn’t had that dubious privilege. Her relationship with the Originals was far simpler. And that was why she was lying back on the drive to their mansion, trying to catch some zzzzs so that when she faced Elijah, she’d be sharp and alert and ready to take him on.

“Maybe we should have brought Stefan-” Caroline started, then stopped when Bonnie smacked the back of her car seat. “Ow! I’m just saying…”

“It’s too late for that now,” Matt said firmly. “And we’ll be fine. Come on, Care. A witch, a vampire and a savvy licensed-to-shoot mundane? We’re an unbeatable team.”

“Actually, we just sound like the beginning of a bad bar joke,” Bonnie quipped.

Matt pretended to be hurt and Caroline snickered at that.

The three friends exchanged smiles, Matt and Bonnie locking eyes in the mirror before they each looked in turn at Caroline. A small bubble of happiness rose in Bonnie’s heart. They were fine. They would be fine. She had no regrets about not carrying along any of the Salvatores and their twisted brand of deal-making, that involved stabbing people in the back when it suited them. She was in NOLA with people she could trust and that was what counted.

Even if they did have an unfortunate habit of sleeping with the occasional super-villains. No one was perfect.

OK now_, who’s acting the hypocrite?

Bonnie blushed. Nope, she had relinquished any claim to that particular halo any more.

Completely, thoroughly, repeatedly, and vigorously relinquished that claim.

“Bonnie, you OK?” Matt called back. He was turning off the main street to a row of palatial hotels. “You sounded like if you were choking.”

“Groovy,” she yelped and buried herself into the seat, as she pushed back suddenly vivid thoughts of dark-haired, grey-eyed wizards with literally magical hands, and lips and – oh heavens, why now? – far into the back of her mind. The last thing she needed right was to get caught up with thoughts of him. If she was going to face the Mikaelsons and come out of this a winner, she needed to keep her head in the game.

They checked into their hotel first – a beautiful, colonial-style building with white pillars and luxurious furniture. Matt didn’t look too pleased when Caroline checked them all in with Stephan’s credit card, but Bonnie left the other two to bicker over that while she went ahead to revel in her beautiful room. It had panelled floors, exotic flowers on every flat surface, and a beautiful balcony that they had been told overlooked the Mississippi river. It was perfect and for the first time since they had started planning this trip, something more than weary resolve filled Bonnie. She felt the faint tendrils of excitement rise inside her. This was New Orleans after all. The Mecca of witches and magic in the Northern continent. Whatever reason brought her here didn’t matter.

She stood at the balcony, breathing in the salty, balmy air when there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” Bonnie called.

“You shouldn’t leave your door open,” Caroline cautioned, stepping in. “Oh, this is pretty. Mine doesn’t have as many flowers. We need to start going. The Mikaelsons are expecting us for dinner. Formal wear, Stefan said.”

Bonnie sighed, as some of the excitement seeped out of her. She stepped away from the balcony. “Give me a few minutes to shower and change.”

In a few minutes, the three friends were driving away from their hotel to the Mikaelsons’ home in the heart of the Quarter.

Maybe it was the slightly cold shower. Maybe it was the outfit that she was wearing. Knee-length and blue, with pushed back shoulders and strappy heels of the same colour. Matt’s eyes had widened and his ears had turned pink when she met him in the lobby. It should have flattered Bonnie but for some reason, it just made her nervous.

That was it, she realised with a pang of surprise. She had finally caught the nervous bug that she had thought herself immune to. Because there was no denying the fluttering in her stomach. Or the way her mouth continued to stay dry no matter how many times, she swallowed. Or that her hands were shaking a little around the clutch in her lap.

Why was she nervous? She asked herself.

The last time I saw these people, they were either trying to kill me or trying to kill my friends. Why won’t I be nervous?

But she hadn’t been nervous less than an hour ago. She had been weary and wary, but alert. What changed?

Maybe when you started thinking about falling in bed with…

“This is it,” Matt declared, as he drove up to a palatial-styled gate, and gave their names to the waiting steward.

Caroline peeped out her window, looking round. She let out a little nervous giggle. “Fancy.”

Bonnie smoothed her dampened palms on her skirt and schooled her thoughts firmly, as they drove into the compound. In the darkness, all she could make out was tall trees on sprawling grounds. In the distance, she thought she glimpsed the white of marble statues, reflected in the crescent moonlight, but then again, it was dark. And her mind was buzzing.

Face blank. Chin up.

Whatever the butterflies in her stomach said, she wasn’t going to show that she was off her game. She was walking into a den of predators. The worst thing she could do was show blood.

Matt drove up to the entrance canopy and got out, handing over the keys to the waiting valet.

The girls were helped out of the car by immaculately-uniformed, fashion magazine-gorgeous stewards. An elegant beauty in a red dress took Matt’s elbow. As one party, the three friends were led through the Mikaelsons’s home.

As they walked, Bonnie paid as much attention to her escort as she did to the hallways, and glimpses of rooms through doors left ajar. Later she would reflect on the antiquated style, the faded tapestry, portraits of the family that lined every passageway; even the magic felt aged – not just old in the sense of longevity but old in the sense of archaic, extinct. She felt like if she was stepping years into the past to a house that was frozen in time.

An appropriate dwelling place for fossils.

She side-eyed the handsome man leading her through the doors that opened into a wide courtyard, and wondered if he was a willing servant or a compelled slave.

Was it really nerves she felt? Bonnie wondered as she walked down the short steps that bridged the interior of the house to the open space and regarded the family of three waiting for her by the heavy-laden dining table.

Maybe it was simply rage.

“Bonnie Bennett, Caroline Forbes, Matthew Donovan, we are honoured to have you as our guests.”

Of course, Elijah Mikaelson did the honours. He stepped forward, the picture of elegance in the familiar navy blue suit that he probably slept in. He bowed before Bonnie with a flourish, and rose with a brush of his lips on the back of her palm.

A few years ago –

before her magic woke and his Original aura made her blood curdle; before he betrayed them all and let Jenna Sommers die for nothing; before he master-minded her mother’s death; before his family treated her like a pawn they could push around in their game of survival at all costs, the preservation of their unnatural longevity –

Bonnie might have found him charming.

Now, she smiled sweetly. “Thank you, Elijah, for having us.”

He blinked. Bonnie wondered if she had let some of the poison she felt towards him slip into her voice.

She hoped so.

But his face was blankly courteous as he went to greet Caroline, and Matthew in turn.

He walked back to his family. “And these are my sisters. Rebekah, you know-”

Rebekah Mikaelson came forward, dancing blue eyes, blonde hair swept into an elegant chiffon and dressed in something short and red. “Matt!” she squealed and jumped the former quarterback with a big, perfunctory kiss.

“Ooof!” he said, staggering a little as he caught her.

It took him a while to extricate himself from her, and when he did, his face was completely red. “Hey, Rebekah, hey…” He threw Bonnie a nervous look.

Bonnie replied with a quick warning glance. That was not how he was supposed to greet his former Eurotour partner.

The youngest Mikaelson was mercurial and unpredictable and not their first choice to deal with a problem as important and dangerous as the heretics. But she was their back-up in case Elijah for whatever reason decided to renege on their deal – or asked Bonnie for a price she was unwilling to pay. So Matt needed to show a bit more enthusiasm at seeing her in case that ever came to pass.

“Nice to see you’re as handsome and speechless as ever,” Rebekah said with a huge grin. She stroked his blushing cheeks, and giggled before walking to the girls.

1. Maybe Matt did know what he was doing.

“BB!” Rebekah yelled, and before Bonnie realised what was happening, she was being smothered by tall, blonde, eternally-seventeen-year-old Mikaelson.

“Er… Rebekah… hi.” She stared at Caroline and Matt in confusion over Rebekah’s shoulder. The others gaped, just as surprised. Bonnie and Rebekah might have had a grand total of two conversations in all the time they had known each other. Where did this warm welcome come from?

Rebekah pulled back. Her eyes were shining. “Sorry. I just… it’s nice to see you again. I’ve missed you … you guys.” She blushed a little, and smiled ruefully.

Bonnie returned the smile cautiously. “It’s nice…” No, for the life of her, Bonnie could not bring herself to lie and say that she missed Rebekah Mikaelson. “… to see you so happy here, Rebekah.”

That at least was true. Happy and here in New Orleans and far away from Mystic Falls. Bonnie was certainly glad to see that.

Rebekah’s smile didn’t waver, but it twisted a little, turned almost bittersweet as she kept peering at Bonnie. It was almost as if she was searching for something in Bonnie’s face, or trying to make Bonnie see something in hers.

“Hello, Rebekah,” Caroline said, breaking the unnerving moment.

The smile washed off Rebekah’s face. “Forbes.” Her voice was flat. Apparently her warm welcome did not extend to her on-again, off-again frenemy.

“Nice to see you, too,” Caroline said through gritted teeth.

“Rebekah, stop being uncouth and allow our sister to meet our guests.”

Bonnie stared in surprise as Elijah came forward with the other woman on his arm. He had said ‘sisters’ before, she realised. But Bonnie had mentally corrected that, thinking she had either misheard him or he misspoke. She had automatically assumed that the other woman, dressed in a floor-length elegant black and white gown, and short bob-cut blonde hair, was Elijah’s dinner date.

But as the woman stepped closer, her features became clearer and the resemblance was undeniable. She looked like both an older version of Rebekah, and a feminine version of Elijah. There was even a hint of their choleric brother, Klaus himself, around her eyes.

And… Bonnie realised with a thrill of shock as she felt the aura rippling out of her… this woman was a witch.

“May I present: my dear sister and oldest sibling.”

“Freya Mikaelson,” she said, her voice low and sombre. She took Bonnie’s hand and even though Bonnie had already expected it, it was still alarming to feel the wave of power that rippled out of the woman.

Not just a witch but an extremely powerful one. Her magic was refined, mature. The kind of magic that Bonnie usually felt from much, much older witches. But Freya Mikaelson couldn’t have been much older than Bonnie. She certainly didn’t look older than Elijah.

“Bonnie Bennett,” Bonnie replied with equal formality, shaking firmly.

“It’s a great honour to meet you, Bonnie Bennett. I knew your ancestor.”

While Bonnie’s head was still reeling, Freya greeted each of the others in turn. When she walked back to the table, Bonnie exchanged discreet glances with her friends.

Yep, they looked just as thrown as Bonnie felt.

Where the hell did the Mikaelsons get a witch sister from?

Had Stefan known? If he had, and he hadn’t told them…

“Can we eat already?” Rebekah moaned, swaying near the table. “I’m starving.”

“Please have your seats and forgive my sister’s ill manners,” Elijah said gravely as he led the Mystic Falls trio to the table. There were placeholders for eight seats. He helped Bonnie to the seat on the right of the head of the table, then Caroline on the same row, two spaces down. He turned to place Matt, but Rebekah had already plopped him across Caroline, and grabbed the seat beside him. Elijah shook his head in disapproval. To Bonnie’s surprise, he took the seat between her and Caroline, and not the one at the head of the table.

But first, he helped Freya Mikaelson into the large ornate chair that was clearly meant as the head seat.

Rebekah must have noticed the surprise on the faces of the Mystic Falls’s contingent because she said, laughing. “Freya sits on the big boss’s chair because she’s the oldest.”

Caroline grinned. “What does Klaus think of that? Pretty sure he was presiding over the table in your house at Mystic Falls, even when Elijah was present?”

Rebekah grinned and she took a swig of a glass that might have been red wine or might have been blood. “Why do you think Klaus isn’t here anymore?”

There was a sudden, uncomfortable silence as palpable tension seemed to run through the table.

“Rebekah,” Elijah warned.

“What?” she asked brightly but her eyes caught Freya’s blank gaze and she fell silent.

Bonnie felt her eyebrows disappearing into her head. She glanced over at her friends.

She could practically read the question on their faces.

What is going on?

Matt cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Er… who’re we waiting for?” He gestured at the empty space at the end of the table, and the one across from Bonnie.

Rebekah looked puzzled. “I thought we were only expecting one more?”

Elijah glanced at his watch. “At this point, it seems we’re expecting no more. Freya, dear, perhaps we should...”

“… wait for five more minutes, and then we’ll eat,” she said firmly.

Elijah fell silent.

Caroline’s eyes were almost falling out of her head. Bonnie suspected that she probably looked the same. She had never seen Elijah so differential to anyone, not even Klaus.

There was a short silence. In all the elaborate formality of their welcome and the seating, Bonnie had been too preoccupied to be nervous. But now that they just sat there, silent and waiting, her nerves returned with a vengeance. The butterflies had left, probably sucked through the gaping hole that had formed somewhere in her middle.

Freya turned towards Bonnie. “So, Ms Bennett—”

“What do you want?” Bonnie snapped.

The older woman raised her brows.

Bonnie hadn’t planned her outburst. Her nerves had got the better of her. “I mean,” she pressed, lifting her chin to brazen through her faux pas, “why am I here in New Orleans? What ‘favour’ does your family want from me in exchange for –”

“According to Stefan Salvatore, you expected the utmost discretion in this matter,” Elijah interjected, his voice reproving. “But if he was wrong and you’d rather start discussions here…”

“Of course not,” Bonnie said, now completely mortified. She could hardly plan a sneak attack against the heretics if the entire Mikaelson household, servants and guests alike, knew about this before they returned to Virginia. She should be reminding the Originals of this, not the other way around. She avoided Matt’s and Caroline’s gazes. She had been so confident when she was telling off the Salvatores, but she’d barely been here for five minutes and she was already fumbling.

Her mouth was dry again, and she took a sip of water discreetly. Her ears were ringing, she realised as she swallowed. It was like if a bell was being pulled somewhere far away, and yet in her head. What was wrong with her?

This wasn’t just nerves, she realised with alarm.

No. No way.

“Speaking of Mr. Salvatore, and correct me if I’m wrong on this Elijah” — the unspoken implication was that she was never wrong — “but during his short time with us, he indicated that he was romantically engaged with a woman I believe must be Miss Forbes,” Freya intoned, turning a skewering gaze at Caroline – and momentarily breaking the alarming turn of Bonnie’s thoughts.

“He… What?” Caroline asked, her voice going slightly high.

“However, I later discovered that you have also been romantically involved with my half-brother, Klaus.”

“I… I was?”

Elijah was steadfastly folding a handkerchief.

“Don’t be alarmed,” Freya continued, in extremely alarming tones. “I make it my business to know of the women in my brothers’ lives. Having been away from them for so long, I find I have a lot to catch up on. And a lot to correct.”

Caroline blanched.

“So enlighten me, Miss Forbes. Although, I have done considerable research into your character.”

“You’ve what?”

Rebekah coughed a laugh into her glass. Matt scowled. Elijah unfolded his handkerchief.

Bonnie barely noticed any of this. She tried to take a sip of wine but it spilled on the table cloth, her hands were shaking that badly. She twisted out a grateful smile at the steward that came near to mop it, and discreetly put her hands under the table, locking them together.

This isn’t happening.

It can’t.

She forced herself to concentrate on what Freya was saying.

“…nothing in great depth. Just the basics. Your family background, your personality, your ambitions, your romantic history. The last is unusually intricate, isn’t it? Even, I daresay, for a woman born in this century.”

“W-what?”

“Oh, thank goodness, he’s here!” Elijah exclaimed, rising to his feet.

Freya sighed and gave Caroline one last once-over before she deigned to let Elijah help her to her feet. “Miss Forbes, we shall continue our conversation later.”

“Er… I don’t think so,” Caroline muttered, but low, under her breath.

Freya clearly didn’t hear as she continued, “Dear guests, please remain seated. He was, after all, late. You’re not a guest, Rebekah.” The last was an order.

“Who is this person anyway?” Rebekah grumbled, getting to her feet with what seemed like a great deal of effort.

Bonnie could have told her. If her heart wasn’t running like a racehorse and her head wasn’t shouting the same phrase over and over again.

Oh no.

Slowly, reluctantly, she turned to see.

Did a double take.

“Regent, how good of you to come,” Freya Mikaelson said, walking with her arms outstretched to greet the tall, strikingly good-looking man that stood at the entrance of the courtyard. He wore an impeccable suit, the white shirt a crisp contrast to his dark skin and piercing gaze. When his eyes landed on Freya, his austere face softened into a smile.

“Freya. How are you?” he murmured, as they exchanged air kisses.

The acute disappointment that hit Bonnie almost dazed her.

“Bonnie?” Matt whispered.

She tilted her chin, and gave him a bright, sharp smile, furious with him for almost drawing attention to her agitation, but not as furious as she was for letting herself slip, lose her composure like that over…

Nothing.

My mind is playing tricks on me. Or my magic is off. I’m now imagining things. Oh no. Did I make a mistake? Should I have let Stefan come along?

Can I pull this off when I’m already falling apart?

Behind her, the newcomer was saying, “I’m so sorry for keeping you waiting,” he explained. “It was entirely due to-”

“Me, apparently. Sorry, I’m late. I didn’t want to come.”

Bonnie turned so fast that her neck cracked.

Kai was walking down the steps. His eyes were scanning the room, as if searching for something. When they met hers, he froze, his face a maelstrom of emotions.

Then his face cleared, so quickly and abruptly, it was like a slate board being swiped down by an invisible hand. He turned to his hosts with an easy smile on his face.

“But now that I’m here… What’s for dinner?”

Chapter 14: An Envoy of the Gemini Coven

Chapter Text

May 2013

It was getting harder to fight it – the drag, the thirst. His teeth hurt, canines protruding out of his gums. And the thirst… He was hungry. So hungry.

She shouldn’t be here.

I’m not going anywhere.

Did she say it out loud or just in his head? He could hear her voice chanting. The same spell over and over again. He had tried to explain it to her, when she caught him, kept him from smashing his head into the floor. Tried to warn her what it would mean. But he wasn’t sure he had got everything out. She seemed to know what to do though, pushing him onto the floor, finding his bag and arranging the candles just so, then sitting across from him, her hands clasped around his elbows.

Their foreheads touched now; try as he might not to put his entire weight on her, he couldn’t help it. It was all he could do not to collapse completely into her arms – or worse, give into the increasingly demanding urges that kept flashing through him in waves.

Ravenous. Hunger. They needed – he needed – he needed release.

Bonnie whimpered against him, and he felt his heart slam. They had to stop. He couldn’t bear it. He couldn’t do this with anyone. Especially her.

Her magic was too near, her blood was too near, and above underneath everything, his own basic wanting was ripping him into half. He couldn’t hold on. It was too much. She needed to leave.

I said I’m not going anywhere.

She sounded angry then, even though he still wasn’t sure whether he could hear her words or her thoughts. And finally, finally, he felt it – the black magic slipping out of him, not in chaotic splashes, but in a steady, flowing stream – and into her.

His vision cleared enough and he could see her face so near his own, furrowed brow, delicate features, her lashes fluttering against her cheeks as her bow-shaped mouth murmured out the words of the spell. A bead of sweat dripped to the edge of her chin and hovered. All he had to do was turn his head a little, flick out his tongue and he’d lick it off.

Enough! he cried, and his hands came to clasp hard at her elbows.

Her eyes flew open, red leaching into the green, and she snarled.

He needed to act quickly; or she would be too far gone. His hands slid from her elbows to her shoulders, pulling and pushing now so that they acted as one continuous conduit of dark and light. Above them, the two rings started spinning rapidly, gathering around each a thick ball of blackness.

The last thing he saw was one start slowing down, all but buried in its black cloud, before he passed out.

When he opened his eyes, he was staring into large green eyes, tinted with red. She was gaping over him, her veins throbbing with thirst.

He didn’t even need to think.

He tilted his neck back, offering. It was sheer instinct to yield to her. For a few heartbeats, he thought she would take – she leaned over him, her breath warm and wet against his skin and his whole body clenched in anticipation. If anyone had told him a few weeks ago that he would almost come from desperately wanting someone to rip through his throat…

But, with a cry, she scrambled to her feet and rushed to the other side of the room.

He leaned on his elbow and watched her.

Panic and horror filled her face. “Am I… Am I?”

“No, you’re not. It’s just their magic. It will pass,” he told her as gently as he could, feeling his heart throb in sympathy. He knew how it felt – that first surge of horror, the alien thirst, the unnaturalness of it all. He didn’t know how it felt for mundanes, but for a witch it would be horrifying. Not even the rush of power could make this worthwhile. It was almost enough to feel some sympathy for the heretics.

Almost.

His answer didn’t seem to relieve her. Her eyes were flying around her, moving rapidly. They hurt, he knew. There was too much light, too much sharpness. He watched and waited until they landed back on him. Saw her teeth start descending. Her fingers flew to her mouth and she whimpered.

“That would pass, too.”

“Why do I feel so hungry?” she whispered.

Ah. That might… need a little help.

He held out his wrist without hesitating. “Drink.”

For a long time afterwards, Kai would wonder how much had been real and how much of it had been part of the fevered dream that the heretics’s souls crashing through his own, had caused. He had been obsessed with her for so long, his feelings metamorphosing with his psyche, that it won’t have been so far off the imagination that in the throes of that dark ritual, his mind had conjured up that erotic scenario. As someone who had always self-identified as a witch – regardless of how often he had been reminded growing up that he wasn’t technically one – being a vampire had zero appeal to him. Logically, he could understand the advantages of being a heretic, but his encounters with that particular evolution of the supernatural had left him permanently repulsed.

But in those hours where he and Bonnie were wrapped around each other, canines buried into flesh, sharing blood and magic… it was hard not to see the allure.

If it had really happened, that is. When he woke up, she was already pulling away and he had watched her brush off the whole thing like if it had never happened. She had risked her life and her sanity to save his – a man that she repeatedly reminded anyone who cared to know that she loathed. And she had acted like it was nothing. Just like it was nothing to her, to return to 1903 and rescue him from half a dozen blood-and-magic-thirsty heretics. Just like it had been nothing to her to throw away her magic, and potentially her life, to keep him trapped in the 1994 prison world. All for the sake of his sisters and a coven that had done nothing for her.

So she woke up in the arms of her enemy after erotically blood-sharing with him for hours? No big deal. Pop into the shower, wash off the war-paint and she was good to go.

Just another day in the life of Bonnie Bennett.

“Are we done yet? Or do you want a show?”

He wondered what she’d have done, if he had said yes. Probably given him a show then still slammed the door on his panting face. Being surrounded by a dozen blood-thirsty maniacal heretics had not paralysed him half as much as the reality of Bonnie naked under running water, one oblique door away, and completely unattainable. He couldn’t decide if it was worse that she had known the effect on him and done it deliberately to hurt him… or that she just hadn’t cared.

He pushed the memory away. Thinking about it was dangerous for obvious physical reasons but also… it hurt. Bonnie might have looked vulnerable and comfortable and domesticated around him, but they both knew it wasn’t real. That was the point. She’d never truly drop her guard around him, and knowing all the ways he deserved that didn’t stop it from…

…hurting.

“So you’re saying that the merge cured your sociopathy? Like a humanity-off switch in reverse?”

Kai winced. Of course, she’d go for the hard questions first. No toe-dipping for Bonnie Bennett. Dive straight into the deep end of his fractured psyche.

He studied her where she sat primly on the sofa. She was a strange sort of psychiatrist with her barely touched can in one hand and her Miss Cuddles resting against her side. She was sweet and fresh from the shower…

(Don’t go there, Kai.)

… and in clean clothes were clean, thanks to him. His perfunctory dry-cleaning spell had taken out most of the filth; and he had even salvaged a makeshift t-shirt and pants from the sad scrapes of his monkey suit that, considering what went for fashion in this day and age, looked positively trendy.

He smirked a little now, remembering how her eyes had widened when he had whispered a few words and the remnants of their ritual – the candles, the exhausted rings, his sister’s knife – Bonnie’s eyes had tracked the knife, but to his surprise, she hadn’t challenged him for it – and chalk marks had all been swept into their appropriate compartments in the magic tool-bag of sorts he kept in the room’s closet.

For someone who had rightfully – if not tactfully – guessed that he would know domestic magic, Bonnie had seemed impressed, even though she had tried to hide it.

She wasn’t trying to hide her skepticism as she queried him now. Her eyes were narrowed, her whole body language radiating disbelief. Beside her, Miss Cuddles looked equally judgmental.

But Bonnie and the stupid bear were there.

Kai hadn’t really believed her when she said she wanted to hear his story. Had expected her to finish her drink, rescue her bear, laugh in his face, and flounce off. Yet she had remained. She was querying him, and not making her own disparaging conclusions. Her eyes might spark with suspicion but they were focused on him, waiting for him to answer.

Even now, he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

He was tired. He sat on the floor, back against the sofa, one leg stretched out while the other was bent so he could rest the arm swinging a beer can on it. His belly was full from two pizzas, and the sandwich she had barely touched, and all that glucose was making him sleepy. It was all he could do not to dip forward, rest his head. Or better yet, just roll over to his side and shut his eyes, give his body leave to succumb to utter exhaustion. He was still aching from being battered, broken and somewhat fixed, both magically and physically, in such a condensed period of time. Every now and then, a tremor would rip through him, and he’d lock his jaw against the moan of pain. She had helped him tear out the auras of the heretics from his soul, but he was a syphon. He could feel her essence now, pure and untainted; but the remnants of unnatural magic would go a few more rounds through him, each one feeling like the equivalent of getting his insides yanked out.

He was most definitely too tired for this conversation.

But if Bonnie Bennett was giving him the chance to tell his story, he wasn’t going to be the idiot that asked for a rain check.

“I was sixteen when I got my first diagnosis. My parents finally clued in that being a defective abomination of a syphon was just one of the many things wrong with me. They took me to a lot of fancy doctors who said the same thing. I have a paper that says approximately where on the antisocial personality disorder spectrum I lie.”

Reflexively, the hand holding his beer can twitched. “I was diagnosed late but with the right lifestyle adjustments, there was nothing stopping me from living a ‘fully functional life as a productive member of society’.” His voice drawled with mockery – mostly self-directed – as he repeated the words from memory.

Bonnie snorted. “Have you checked up on any of your old therapists since you got back? Someone could write a research topic on you. What Not To Do To Fix A Sociopath.”

He turned away from her taunting gaze. He was tempted to tell her that he had almost killed his mother before he was born – almost drained her to death while in the womb. He had been called an abomination for as long as he could remember, isolated from Jo, and the rest of his family until he got his powers under control.

His parents had started early to train him to siphon at will, but they were hopelessly at sea on what do with him. In the end, he had had to figure it out by trial and error. He shouldn’t have had to. None of them should have had to. If he and the rest of the syphons weren’t treated like dirty, little secrets, the coven would have figured, in its millennia of existence, a safe way of raising syphons. How much of his ASD was tied to his upbringing had never been something that bothered him in the past, but he thought of it more and more of late. It wasn’t exactly something he could ask a mundane psychologist, so he was left to his own brooding theories about that.

He didn’t say any of this to Bonnie, though. There was nothing he could tell her that would deserve her sympathy; rather, she’d probably think he was making excuses and despise him further.

Anyway, he didn’t need her to feel sorry for him. Why should she when he didn’t feel sorry for himself? He might not have had the most idyllic upbringing, but he had learnt early on to give as good as he got. His family had hated and feared him, and soon enough, he more than earned both.

So there was only the slightest bitterness in his voice when he said, “The therapy was sound. It’s improved a lot over the years, but even back then, they had some good ideas. The problem was with me. I wasn’t in the least interested in being a productive member of society.”

“Because your parents weren’t going to let you merge with Jo?”

“Mostly because I was a dick,” he said bluntly. Too bluntly, if her flinch was any indication. He shook his can nervously. “It took me a long time to figure out why they kept having kids, why Jo and I weren’t put on the leadership track – early training, foster-ship, Envoy-apprenticeship and all that jazz. I knew it had to do with the fact that I was – am – a syphon. But I stupidly believed that my parents just wanted that hidden until the Merge, where I’d either gain Jo’s powers or I’d die. I didn’t think they weren’t ever going to let us merge at all … until our twenty-second birthday came and went, the excuses stopped adding up, and I finally clued in.”

He closed his eyes, as a wave of memory assailed him. Children’s screams. Blood on the walls. His own hands swinging that bat anywhere and everywhere it could land on Joey, again and again and again.

A tremor ripped through him; unprepared, his back arched and he groaned low in his throat. The ceiling overhead swam red.

“Kai!”

It was gone as suddenly as it came. He collapsed against the footboard, blinking hard until his vision cleared. When he lifted his head, she was crouched beside him, her eyes large and worried. For him? Or for his coven? Or for herself, stuck here with him and the possibility that he might snap in more ways than one?

Her eyes were so green, he thought helplessly. So large and green. He wondered how it would feel to drown in them. Felt a wave of pain at the thought that he probably would always do just that -

Wonder.

“Are you OK?” she asked.

The words were uttered grudgingly, like if she resented being made to ask.

But she had asked.

His heart clenched with gratitude. He looked down before he made it even more f*cking obvious than it already was.

“I’m fine,” he said hoarsely.

“Look,” Bonnie fidgeted uncertainly; then she rocked backwards, “we’re both beat. We can do this some other…”

“No!” He looked up quickly, pulling himself back into position. His beer can had fallen, rolled away from him, droplets of alcohol staining the floor. He reached for it but she got to it first, handing it over to him. Their fingers barely brushed, a whisper of skin touching skin, but it was enough to make him freeze, a charge rocking through him.

The memory of her stepping out of the steam in the fluffy hotel robe rose in his head. Of being acutely, painfully aware that she was completely naked underneath it…

Her eyes widened and she jumped to her feet. “Kai…”

He pushed the memory away.

“Maybe I was wrong about my parents,” he said hastily, not meeting her eyes and deliberately making his voice brisk. She regarded him uncertainly but let him go on. “Maybe I’m not giving them the benefit of the doubt. They probably didn’t think I’d live long enough to be a candidate for the Merge. Most syphons die young anyway. Out of the few that make it to adulthood, a good number choose to slip away from the coven, disappear into the mundane world. When I was sixteen, my mom sat me down with one of her Envoy buds. Gave me a talk about options.” He chuckled. “Sort of like ‘The Talk’. But about syphons, not sex.”

He almost bit off his tongue. He could feel the red creeping up his face, flooding it all the way to the tips of his ears. That was not what he should be referring to, no matter obliquely, in the presence of post-shower Bonnie Bennett.

She had sat back in the sofa when he started talking, folding herself back into her formerly prim posture beside her bear, all the while watching him warily. Now she started, her eyes popping and her face flushing a soft, rosy pink.

“I…I mean…” he floundered. He was rarely ever at a loss for words. Usually, his problem was the opposite. But just as usually, when words did fail him – they tended to do so around her.

“That’s…” She cleared her throat “... an interesting metaphor.”

But when she stopped rolling her eyes, he noticed they were twinkling. Her mouth was twitching, too, as if she wanted to laugh.

Surprised, he grinned back tentatively.

Their eyes caught and held; and their smiles faded. Her eyes darkened and he felt his breath catch. Was she remembering earlier? Being so wrapped up in each other that they couldn’t tell where one began and the other ended? Feeling the barrier of their clothes like sandpaper between skin? Wanting to burn away everything that separated him from her? Wanting to bury more than teeth inside her? He would have. If he had been just a little more far gone, he would have.

And in her state, she would have let him. Hated him afterwards, he thought, his heart thumping. But it would have happened.

Her face closed like shutters. “What were your options?” she asked harshly.

Too late, he realised that his face was too open, his longing too obvious.

Ouch.

He ducked his head so she won’t see the grimace on his face. It was hard to decide what was more bitter – her clear rebuttal or the answer to her question.

“The usual,” he said finally. “Mundane college. Mundane jobs. They could cast a few spells. Pull a few strings. The coven doesn’t acknowledge the existence of syphons. We don’t even record them in our annals. But we don’t mind calling in a few favours now and then. There are always one or two syphons who’ve established themselves in the mundane world, that are all too eager to take in the fellow rejects.”

His mother hadn’t started out so directly. She had painted the rosy picture of non-magical existence in broad hints. When Kai had finally cut through all her bull, and made it clear that he wasn’t interested in any of those ‘options’, she had become more… direct. Her envoy buddy and Kai’s own Uncle Martin, had even outted out his own son, Jonas in their misguided attempt to convince Kai. Apparently, Jonas had taken the highway to Mundane Land and was doing well for himself there. Kai had had his suspicions about his distant cousin for a long time; more so, after Jonas vanished from most coven gatherings after his eighteenth birthday, but Kai hadn’t known until then that the older boy was a syphon.

It hadn’t made any difference to him.

“You could have at least gone to college. Tried out the mundane option for size.”

“I did go to college.” When her eyebrows shot up, he barked a laugh. “Keeping one foot in the mundane world hasn’t been optional for any witch since Salem. Seriously, what kind of nonsense did Liv tell you about our coven?”

“And just the one foot for you?”

He glared. “I guess it would sound easy enough to you.”

She was Bonnie Bennett. She had more power flowing through her body than most covens had in their entire congregation. How would she understand what it felt to be told all your life that you were nothing without magic, the one thing you weren’t born with? The only thing he had lived for was the day he either got his own magic, or he died trying. There were no other ‘options’ for him.

“Some syphons can’t give up on magic. They hunt for a cure, or for some eternal source of power they can draw from.” He laughed suddenly. “Looks like the heretics did find that eternal source of power. Hefty price tag, but dem’s the breaks. You know, until I met one, I would never have believed heretics were real? There’s nothing, not in rumours, in nursery rhymes, nothing that even hints at their existence. Which, I guess, was the whole point. The coven won’t want syphons looking to be turned and become indestructible killing monsters who eat magic. So chalk that up as one more reason why syphons are feared and loathed.”

“So because you were feared and loathed, and they didn’t let you become leader, you chose to be your worst self. Got it.”

His insides writhed at Bonnie’s brisk, matter-of-fact tone. But he deserved that. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Pretty much.”

“And now?” she prompted. “What’s changed? Since you merged with Luke and got his emotions…”

“I know I’ve got his empathy,” Kai corrected. “But where he starts and I begin…” He struggled to explain, not just to her, but to himself. “Every Praetor that’s written an account of the Merge has tried to explain this, and every one, without fail, has concluded with an ‘can’t put it into words; you’ve just gotta be there’. The first few days were insane. I could feel him rattling in my head. You know how you have a Jiminy Cricket in your head? Well, I had two – Luke’s and mine for a long time.”

“Luke became your conscience?”

He snorted. “Nothing that simple. That voice went after a few days. Or maybe I’ve become so used to it, I can’t tell the difference between his and mine.” He struggled again. “I have Luke’s magic, but it’s no longer his, it’s mine. It feels like mine and I should know, because I’ve lived all my life stealing other people’s magic. This one belongs to me. Yet… I’m still a syphon. No one usually gets to be both…”

He almost stopped here, embarrassed. His confusing thoughts were barely intelligible to him. Goodness knows what she’d make of his rantings. But when he snuck a glance at her, she was leaning forward, her eyes keen. So he went on.

“I have his empathy. But am I still a sociopath? Empathy isn’t magic. As a syphon, I could always borrow magic. Even for just a little while. As a sociopath, I couldn’t ‘borrow’ empathy. I learned how to read people, figured out how they ticked. Long before I got my diagnosis, I was already teaching myself to imitate normative social behaviour to ‘pass’. But it was just that – an imitation. An act. A performance. I despised people for falling for it. I despised people. Full stop.”

He sighed heavily. He didn’t fail to notice the way her hand clenched around her bear, the way her body tensed.

“Now… imagine being a mundane who suddenly gets magic. Your brain is still wired to be a mundane. When it gets dark, your first instinct is to flick a switch; then your next instinct is to look for matches; you have to actively process and reject those mundane knee-jerk responses, before you think of using magic to turn on the lights.”

“And that’s what you do now? You struggle against being a sociopath?”

“I struggle against apathy. Sometimes it’s just easier not to care, you know? To turn it off. I see someone rushing to the elevator, and I have to think and decide if I should hold it open, or just let it slam on his face.”

To his surprise, a tiny smile flickered across her face. “You and everyone else.”

He stared at her. “Really?”

“It’s called being a person, Kai. Everyone struggles against their selfish, petty instincts.”

“I thought that was just post-merge me.”

“That’s because you’ve never bothered struggling against your selfish, petty instinct before,” she explained icily. “You’ve just done whatever you wanted without thinking about how it affected other people.”

Ouch.

There was a terse moment as she turned her face away, and he watched her mouth working silently, as if she was biting back words.

When she finally spoke, her question was surprising. “If your father knew that this was going to happen, that the merge would change you, why didn’t he just let it? I mean, between Jo and Luke… Heaven rest his soul.” She floundered, confused.

“He’s not dead,” Kai offered, unhelpfully. He resisted the urge to laugh at her irritated look.

“What I mean is if Luke did this…” She waved her hand in his general direction “… to you, then Jo almost certainly would have, eighteen years ago. The soul-merging thing works every-time, doesn’t it? It worked for your father and his twin. Why didn’t he think it would work for you? I mean, you had nowhere to go but up, personality-wise. Why did he try so hard to prevent you from Merging?”

He gave her a side-ways glare for the sneaked in barb. She blinked back innocently.

‘Well?’ her gamine face dared. ‘I’m not wrong, am I?’

Kai conceded defeat with a shrug. “Who knows?”

He certainly didn’t. For weeks post-Merge, he had asked himself that question over and over again; but when he had finally got the chance to ask Joshua himself, that first time after he returned from 1903 and sought out his father, Kai had chickened out. He and Joshua had talked about the future of the coven, initiating Kai properly as Praetor, winning over the Elders, recalling the exiles, persuading the Council and the Envoys to swear allegiance to him.

They hadn’t spoken about the past.

Kai wasn’t sure anymore if he wanted to know the answer. Didn’t want to know how much of his parents’ decisions about his life were based on the coven’s prejudices against syphons and how much were based on Kai’s own abhorrent personality.

Even now, Kai wasn’t sure if Joshua believed he had changed, that he had good intentions for the Coven … or if his father was just biding his time to undermine him – or worse.

He could almost read the thoughts off Bonnie’s face. She was probably asking herself the same thing.

“One day, he’s ready to kill Jo to keep you in your prison world, and the next moment, he’s handing you the keys to the Kingdom.” She pointed out. “What changed? How did you win him over? How are you even sure you did?”

He chuckled involuntarily, startled. Even though he had already guessed where her thoughts were, this was too close by half. “No idea. But my guess is that since my life is tied permanently to the coven for the next twenty-two years at least, he accepted that he and I would need to at least coexist for the coven to survive.”

For Joshua Parker, the coven came before everything, after all. Even family. Even family that he hated.

She frowned. “Well, he can’t have any complaints. You’ve been rising to the occasion so far.” She set her jaw, didn’t quite meet his eyes; it couldn’t have been more obvious how unwillingly the words were coming out of her. “It couldn’t have been easy, fighting for the same coven that locked you up in the first place.”

Oh hell. That was high praise from Bonnie Bennett, delivered as grudgingly and angrily as it was. It must have been like pulling teeth for her to have said it. And the f*cking nuisance of the thing was that he couldn’t even enjoy it.

Instead when she squinted at him, he looked at the disapproving Miss Cuddles, his throat thick with the lump of guilt that threatened to choke him.

He swallowed hard. “Or maybe,” he said harshly, “just maybe, I hated the heretics more than I ever hated my coven. The heretics took what they needed from me to wake, then they took what they needed for me to get strong, then they took my magic because heck, that’s what we do. We’re syphons. We take. I could understand. A hundred years as a magic-starved, dried-up husk and I’d not have much table manners either. Then when they were back to their normal, creepy selves, they quickly figured out what I was – the Praetor of their beloved, prodigal Gemini coven. And that was when the fun really started.”

As if on cue, a tremor hit him then. He rode it through, shutting his eyes so that she won’t see the redness. In those few seconds where his world was black, he could almost imagine he was back in Winter 1903. He could almost taste the falling snow. Smell iron from his own blood. Even their faces, all six of them – Iceman, Cherokee, Medusa, Scarface, Gingerdum and Gingerdee – seemed to float above him, distorted little floating heads.

“Kai… Kai!”

He opened his eyes to stare into her stricken face. She was by his side again, her eyes filled with worry. “What is wrong with you? Didn’t the ritual…”

“I’m fine,” he said hastily.

“Are you… because what we did…” He watched, fascinated, as she swallowed hard, her face turning rosy. It was the first time she was verbally acknowledging what had happened between them. His eyes fell to her lips, watched with something like horror as she bit softly through the plump lower flesh. “… it was almost like dark magic.”

Can’t I get to kiss her, just once? He thought suddenly, almost violently, staring hungrily at her mouth. Perhaps if he did it very quickly, she might not even notice it had happened?

“Kai!” she said sharply.

And he started, staring guiltily at her. She had shifted back, her whole body wary.

He swallowed hard, his chest rising and falling. “I…”

“What’s wrong with you?” She asked again, less concern and more accusation.

“I’m fine,” he repeated, schooling his words, his thoughts, his errant feelings. “It wasn’t dark magic. It was just… intense. And it worked. You’re all right, aren’t you?”

She nodded slowly.

“And so am I. I’m just… taking a little trip down recent memory lane, circa 1903.” He grinned at her.

She shuddered, no doubt remembering her own ghastly experience of winter wonderland with heretics.

She had no idea.

Giving his torturers nicknames had been his attempt to assert some form of mental defiance to them. A means of exerting control over the living hell his life had become. But he knew that given time, they would have broken him. It had become a game to them, bringing the vaunted Praetor to his knees.

He glanced at Bonnie. She was sitting with her hands clenched in her lap, her eyes wide in her stricken face.

He glanced down. His eyes fell on Miss Cuddles whom had apparently got knocked to the floor when Bonnie moved, and now glared at him angrily. Kai sighed again.

“You’d think that we’d have all bonded as ex-rejects together, but they resented the fact that I got to be leader, got magic without sacrificing my humanity. You know two of them were from my direct lineage? First cousins to some great-grand-Parker. They might even have been Praetor if they had been born different. So they didn’t just punish me for being the new leader of the coven that treated them like dirt and imprisoned them. They punished me for basically being them, and getting a better hand at life. Oh, and for sh*ts and giggles. ”

When he lifted his gaze, Bonnie’s eyes were full.

“Stop it,” he said roughly.

Bonnie blinked, swallowed. “Stop what?”

It infuriated him – the mutinous guilt that she was practically radiating. He didn’t deserve it. Maybe he had once, but not anymore.

“Stop feeling sorry for me. That’s not what this is about. My coven punished me because I was a psychopath who murdered his brothers and sisters. I didn’t have to do it. I wanted Liv and Luke dead because they threatened me but the other four… I killed them out of spite, malice, rage, call it what you like. 18 years in solitary confinement was barely adequate punishment. Four victims. Four separate sentences. If they had given me to the mundane authorities, they’d have locked me up and thrown away the key. Heck, compared to 18 years in maximum security prison, my weeks with the heretics was practically a vacation,” he spat.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I want you to understand why I fought the heretics. Even with all that perspective, I still wanted to get even. I wanted to take each of their skulls between my palms, crush them until the blood and brains and magic flowed out, then suck out their souls until there was nothing left.”

He didn’t even realise he was demonstrating just how with his hands until she recoiled. He dropped his hands at once, glared at her defiantly. “Saving my coven was a fringe benefit. Plus I can’t be a King without a f*cking Kingdom, can I?”

Her gaze was disbelieving. “Are you trying to make me hate you?” She sounded angry; and that pesky guilt that had been written all over her earlier was mostly gone.

Good.

“I don’t need your f*cking pity.”

Bonnie almost choked over her laughter. “You aren’t ever going to get it.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.

She got to her feet, and he felt his heart slamming in his chest. What was wrong with him? He finally had her here, listening to him, giving him a chance, and he was what? Chasing her away?

It frightened him. She frightened him. She had so much power over him, she had no idea. It was one thing to pine over someone who hated him. It was another thing to have her treat him like some kind of pet project – someone to ‘understand’ and ‘forgive’ and ‘redeem’ and all that f*cking crap.

He wasn’t going to be her new Damon.

She grabbed her bear from the floor. He tried not to look, he really did, but her butt was just there and it was in tight jeans.

He sighed.

When she turned around to face him, he tried to rearrange his face but he must have failed, because her eyes narrowed. “What?”

“Nothing,” he said hastily.

“Mmm…” She didn’t look convinced, but she apparently decided to let it go. “Thanks for the food… and the rescue… I guess.”

“I rescued you. You rescued me right back. We’re even,” he said dully.

The corner of her lip curled. “And the food?”

“I’ll send you your half of the bill.”

Surprised laughter burst out of her, and he felt an answering grin cross his face. For a moment, they just stared at each, half-amused, half-confused.

f*cking hell, he wasn’t ready to watch Bonnie Bennett walk out on him.

“You owe me for the answers though,” he blurted out, desperately. It was the first thing that entered his head.

She co*cked an eyebrow. “I do?”

“Fair’s fair.”

She crossed her arms. “What do you want to know that you didn’t already find out eavesdropping on me and Damon in 1994?”

He choked back an incredulous laugh. Whatdidn’the want to know about Bonnie Bennett? It was a task to just figure out where to start. He settled on the first thing that came to mind:

“Y-you said that your life was on pause in freshman year because of the whole… Anchor … thing.”

Her face fell. He felt a sting of sympathy that he hadn’t felt when he had – as she rightfully accused – overheard her say this in 1994 in one of the rare occasions the self-absorbed Salvatore let her get in a word in between his soliloquies.

“Go on,” she said quietly.

He bit his lip. “You couldn’t decide a college major, or think about the future. Not when you felt being Anchor had an expiration date. Now, you’ve got a second chance at a fully, realised life. What are you going to do with it? What are your plans?”

She shrugged, leaned against a column. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m still figuring things out.”

“Why does ‘figuring things out’ sound so much like ‘I haven’t given this any thought’?”

She crinkled her nose at him. “It could also be a euphemism for ‘mind your own business’. Tough, isn’t it, not being able to sneak around and spy on people.”

He ignored the barb. How could he not when he was dumbstruck by her face? She was so cute, she had no idea.

“Can I go now?”

No. Not just because he loathed to see her leave – or thought it was vaguely unfair of her to dodge the mild question when he’d done more than his share of self-revelation. He wanted to pull at that thread until it unraveled. Her future mattered more to him than he cared to admit. Worse, he had a sneaking suspicion that it mattered more to him than it apparently did to her.

Which got him thinking about…

“How the heck did that even happen in the first place?” When she blinked at him, he elaborated. “You and a vampire in my Prison World. I mean, I know the timeline, the cause and effect. The Other Side collapsing. Your year as Anchor. Dying to bringJeremy Gilbertback to life.”

He did his best, he really did, but his teeth seemed to grind together of their own volition when he grated out the other guy’s name; and from Bonnie’s narrowed gaze, she noticed.

“I mean, granted, your b-boyfriend was willing to condemn himself to oblivion to save you on your birthday so it’s obviously you guys’ ‘thing’. Although I wonder at that. Isn’t that’s a bit too much commitment for high-school sweethearts? If y’all dying for each other now, how’re you ever going to top that a year into his fancy-smarty arts school? You’ve got to learn to pace these things-”

Her sigh, loud with irritation, cut him off. “I don’t hear a question, Kai.”

Probably because asking point-blank ‘are you still dating Jeremy Gilbert?’ didn’t sound as casual and disinterested as he’d like. He avoided her gaze.

The Hunter had left town shortly after his and Kai’s shared adventure on Bonnie’s birthday. There had been a time when Kai wondered if Bonnie won’t even return from 1994 to Mystic Falls, and just make a beeline to wherever Jeremy was. Or leave shortly after her arrival to reunite with him. But she had come back to Mystic Falls, and remained there. Jeremy Gilbert hadn’t returned either. Hadn’t showed up for his guardian’s wedding either.

“Kai…”

He gulped and backtracked to a safer topic. “I knowhowyou ended up in 1994. I just can’t figure outwhy. In my experience, while Bennetts are notorious for defying wicca convention in dealings withbestia nefundus- magical creatures,” he explained, noticing her puzzled frown, “your family cultivated a high sense of self-preservation. So I guess my question is: what the heck happened to make youyou.”

“What kind of question is that?” she asked quietly, sinisterly.

It was his turn to blink. “A valid one. One that you should answer to me, or to a shrink or a priest, now that I think about it.” Because seriously, had sheseenher life? “Seems like Abby upping and leaving while you were a kid caused some kind of trauma…”

“You’re the one with the f*cking medical condition, not me,” she snarled.

“Woah!” He started at the venom. “I was just ask-”

“Mind your business, Kai.” She pushed off the column, every indication that she was ready to barge out of there.

“Hold on a sec,” he stretched out his hand, not touching but enough to make her pause. “You get to delve into my childhood trauma but yours is off-bounds?”

“You think?” she snapped.

“Hey, that’s not fair!”

“It’s not tit for tat,” she retorted. “Welcome to the non-sociopathic existence where you don’t get your curiosity satisfied by barter system.”

Despite his genuine sense of outrage, he almost chuckled. “OK, now that’s just being petty.”

She glared.

“You’re really not going to answer any of my questions?” He pressed, still finding it hard to believe. “After I literally unburdened my entire life to you?”

She rolled her eyes. “Nope.” But her mouth twitched a little. Apparently, her earlier affront had given way to smugness.

“Bonnie…”

“Kai... Not happening. So are we done here? Because I don’t know about you but I’d like to wear something besides two days’s old clothes. No shade on your magical laundry skills but I need to get back to my place-”

He started, his thoughts spinning.

“You never told me what you were looking for in my apartment today.”

Her face froze. “Oh.”

“Oh?” Kai mocked, bellying his own far-from-composed thoughts. Her stray comment had yanked out that memory. He had kept it at the back of his mind all this while. It had been too much of a distraction. The thought of Bonnie in his bedroom had done things to him. It still did things to him. He didn’t have a chance, would never have a chance with her. But it hadn’t stopped him from… wanting. Against his will, against reason, he had wanted. God help him, he still wanted. Even now, after the morning. He wanted her without magic warping her head and his, without alien blood-lust pounding through their bodies. He wanted to know how it felt like to have her willing in his arms, her own magic mating with his own. He imagined her in that soft, fluffy robe and put it in his house, in his room, near his bed…

He clenched his fists, fought to get his stupid body under control. In the flimsy rags he was wearing, there was no hiding his physical reaction to her.

“I… I… er…”

He didn’t register the guilty way she stammered, the way she took a step back, fidgeted.

Instead, he brutally pushed through his miserably stupid, pointless thoughts, and kept asking. “Why were you there? If you were looking for me, you knew where to find me. So you wanted something that you knew you won’t get from just asking me. You’re not a thief, and even if you were, I’d be the last person you’d want to break into because you’ve run out of witchy-woo supplies… So what could Kai Parker, full-time Gemini Praetor, part-time persona non grata possibly have, that Bonnie Bennett needed to steal…”

Realisation dawned on him and his heart slammed in his chest, his mind racing hard. No. It couldn’t be. But it has to. It’s the only thing that makes sense.

His locks had been secure. They shouldn’t have been able to get out. Unless…

Unless…

He looked at her then. Really looked at her, and took in her fidgeting, her eyes that didn’t quite meet his own, the flush in her face.

Guilt.

“Bon, what exactly did you do in my apartment?”

“What did I do or what was I looking for?” she hedged.

“Just answer the question,” he said testily. She didn’t. She won’t have…

Why would she?

“What difference does it…” She blew out an exasperated breath, and finally stilled, straightening with defiance. “Fine. You want to know the truth? I was looking for the Ascendant.”

“Wait… what?” Of all the answers she could have given him, that was the least expected and he was yanked out of the alarming turn of his thoughts. “Why?”

“Why?” She took a step towards him, her eyes flashing with anger.

What the heck did she have to be angry about?

“Because Lily Salvatore had just tried to kill me, that’s why.”

“What does that have to do with…”

“I’d been having nightmares for weeks. About you and her attacking me. And then the night of Jo’s bachelorette party, Lily nearly killed me. I almost died.”

That rattled him. Badly. Because he remembered everything about that night. The ripper holding his sister’s throat. Bonnie’s lifeless body under his hands.

She hadn’t almost died that night. She had died that night. He had felt it. Known when her heart had stopped. That the vampire’s blood wasn’t working. And his sister hadn’t brought her back with medicine either.

Kai had ran out of that bar feeling like his heart was literally about to shatter out of his body, his head was heavy and he was going to explode with the sheer desolation that had wrecked through his body. And it was that pain, that hollowed out feeling that had sent him hunting down Lily Salvatore.

But even before Damon had deprived him of that, Kai had known that there was no point. Killing a thousand Lily Salvatores would not bring back one Bonnie Bennett. That was not the answer. She was dead, but she was also a witch. Death was not the end. If he had to spend his whole life, use every resource available to him as Praetor to bring her back, then he would. If he had to descend into the belly of the underground itself to drag her back, then he would.

Then Jo called to tell him that Bonnie was alive, awake. To this day, he didn’t fully understand how that happened. He was just grateful that it had.

His hands spasmed at his sides now, helpless with the irrational urge to reach out and hold her, run his hands down her skin, feel her warmth, and stupidly reassure himself that yes, she was alive. But she won’t welcome his touch, not now, not ever; and he curled his fingers into fists so tight his nails bit his palms.

“And I figured that if the Lily part of my dream came true, it was only a matter of time before you-” She paused.

“I would what, Bonnie?”

She muttered something under her breath.

“What?” he asked, incredulous. She did not say what he thought he heard her say.

“You’d send me back to the Prison World, Kai.”

He reeled.

For a moment, he just glared up at her furious face, then he – he couldn’t help it – he let out a half-hysterical bark of laughter. He grabbed a fistful of his hair and yelped with pain – the scar from last night was still fresh. She flinched, but he ignored her, jumping to his feet and walking to the other side of the room. Then he turned around and walked back to the bed, opened his mouth to speak, shut it, then did the same thing all over again. He yanked his hair again.

“Kai!” she cried.

He could barely find the words to speak. “Of course, you’d think that. It makes perfect sense. I’m the boogie-man, the monster under your bed, the biggest bad that has ever badded in your long career dealing with big bads.”

Bonnie inhaled sharply. “Not the biggest. Just the meanest.”

He rounded on her. “I. am. different. now! What the hell do I need to do to prove that to you?”

She raised her hand in a sharp, angry movement. “Enough with the injured victim act, Kai! You know damn well I had my reasons to be afraid of you. To think that you would come after me after I left you in 1903. The same way you stabbed me and left me to die in Portland to get back at me.”

“I know how to kill people, Bonnie,” he said through ground teeth. “I didn’t leave you to die. I left you to wake up and feel as completely abandoned as I did when I woke up after you killed me, and stole my Ascendant and my idea and planned to ditch me-”

She let out her breath in a low whistle. “Wow, that makes me feel so much better.”

He growled, pressing his fists into his forehead in frustration. “That’s not even – I said I was sorry. I said we were even. Did you remember that part? After you got me back from 1903? Did you remember me telling you what happened on your birthday?” He took a deep breath. “The guy who killed your mom and commits generational genocide gets a second chance. The f*cking Ripper of Montreal gets a second chance. Klaus f*cking Mikaelson gets a second chance!”

“I have never-”

“I mean, I helped you – against my better judgment – rescue Damon’s mother for the ‘greater good’. I saved your life and it doesn’t count.”

Her green eyes were all but spitting fire now. “I didn’t know that… You’re deliberately misunderstanding me.”

“Or wait a minute… it won’t count, would it? I saved your life, not the life of Elena, or Damon, or anyone of your vampire friends. Oh snap,” he paused dramatically, venom dripping from his voice. “I get it now. The Fast Track to getting on Bonnie Bennett’s good side. Doing you a solid is out of the question. What would really get me into your good graces is f*cking one of your best friends, won’t it?”

“Shut up!”

Her hand flashed out, hitting him so hard that his neck cracked. He turned back, with an angry smirk that he knew would infuriate her – and barely caught the second slap mid-air. “One’s the limit,” he hissed.

She snarled and her magic slammed into him, shoving him hard against the bed. She followed, her fists opening and closing at her sides as she glared down at him.

“Shut up, or I-”

He raised himself on his elbows at once. “You’ll what?”

She didn’t answer. Not with her mouth anyway, that she was all but shredding into pieces as she bit her lip, her jaw working furiously to hold back whatever insults she wanted to hurl at him. Perversely, he wished she would just yell at him, and stop doing… that.

It was as much in retaliation and as much in a desperate bid to distract himself from the almost hypnotic sight of her lip biting that he shot back, “Cat got your tongue? Because we both know that’s the magic formula, isn’t it? Your life and well-being is worthless to you…”

The Incendia actually singed his forehead before he shoved it off, then shoved off the bed to slam into her, pushing her against the wall. Her palms slammed against his chest, and he felt his bones meld.

He laughed maniacally, and gripped her wrists, pulling out the magic of the spell. “You’re going to have to be a hella lot faster to hurt me with magic,” he snarled. “Do you have any idea what you did when you barged into my-”

He bit back the words in the nick of time. But she didn’t notice, too caught up in her own fury.

“Get off me,” she yelled. She struggled to yank her hands away, kicking at him with increasing hysteria when he refused to let go. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly. Her eyes were widening, shining with unshed tears as fear leached into her face, mingling with her anger.

He dropped her hands as if they scalded. Like a switch, all his own anger evaporated, leaving only shame and self-disgust, and he took a step back.

She had been afraid of him siphoning her. So scared of it that she had practically had a panic attack in front of him.

He took another step back, then another, then another. She rubbed across her face in an angry gesture, her breath still choppy and uneven.

He turned away from her, knowing that she won’t want him to see her vulnerable. Knowing that the sight of her vulnerability undid him in ways he didn’t want her to see either. Just that glimpse already had his stomach twisting into knots, his heart aching behind his chest.

He had done that to her.

It took her a while to catch her breath. “I can’t believe I… I can’t believe you.”

Kai sighed heavily, rubbed his own face wearily. “I wasn’t going to siphon you. I will never take your magic from you, Bonnie.”

She laughed bitterly. “Sure. I’ll just take your word for it, then.”

He turned back to her. She was leaning against the wall, her arms folded across her chest, her stance defiant but composed. The panic attack of moments ago had passed. Or was deftly covered up with the artfulness of frequent practice.

“I’m sorry,” he said brokenly.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” she spat. “You were not even the first person that ever took my magic away from me. It’s not you… It’s just…” She sucked in a deep, shuddering breath. “It just reminded me of … everything.”

After almost two decades of living in a world with a population of one, figuring out how to navigate the noise and chaos of existing alongside seven billion people had been … challenging for him.

And he had been a sociopath.

Kai could only imagine the kind of trauma Bonnie must have felt – must still be feeling. And that was from the isolation alone, without considering every other crappy thing that had gone on in her life both before, during, and after 1994. Her time as Anchor, half-ghost, half-Ascendant? Or Silas who wore the face of Damon’s brother? How far back did ‘everything’ go?

How had she even brought herself to return to 1903? He wondered suddenly. The first time – her motivations were obvious: Damon f*cking Salvatore’s diabolical manipulation of her with him, Kai, as bait; and her own Saviour Syndrome to rescue Mystic Falls and her humanity-off vampire friends from their own bad judgment. But the second time? Had she really returned to 1903 alone, risking the heretics, risking him, simply because his sister, whom Bonnie barely knew, guilt-tripped her into saving a Coven that, barely a year ago, had tried to kill her friends?

Paradoxically, irrationally, Kai felt a flash of rage. At Damon, for obvious reasons. But also, perversely, at Jo, for asking Bonnie to go, even though without Bonnie’s rescue of him, he might have lost his life – he would certainly have lost his sanity.

But most of all, at Bonnie herself. For constantly throwing herself into the fire for other people. For ignoring her own hurt, her own injuries, her own healing, to save everyone.

He shook his head. He was filled with so much exasperation at the woman in front of her that it was all he could do not to walk up to her, grab her by the shoulders and shake the common sense that she sorely lacked, into her.

She watched him, with narrowed gaze, her suspicious brain misreading him. “Don’t you dare talk that way about my friends to me. Don’t you dare come near them. Don’t you-”

“I don’t give a f*ck about your friends, Bonnie,” he snapped. “I’m calling it as I see it. Side-effects of being a reformed sociopath – I can’t be bothered with the politeness of lies.”

“Yeah, you got that right. Because getting empathy overnight isn’t going to teach you how to think about anyone but yourself.”

“Let’s make a deal, shall we? I’ll take a page from your besties’ book – since they’ve been treating you so well – if you’ll take a page from mine and get a modicum of self-preservation?”

“And do what? Murder my friends the same way your murdered your siblings?”

Magic cackled dangerously between them, just waiting for a match to ignite it. “Touché,” he said, smiling without humour.

“I learnt from the best. You’re not the only one who changed, Kai.”

The burst of laughter was completely involuntary. He gaped at her, laughing more as she screwed up her face, with increasing aggravation. “You’ve changed? Really? Barely 24 hours ago, you were going to take on half a dozen heretics for a bunch of strangers from the West Coast. The same set of strangers that would have gladly left you to rot in 1994 with a not-reformed sociopath if it meant keeping me in. And you’re telling me that you’ve changed? How?”

She gasped, her eyes wounded.

Too late, he stopped himself. There was a long, charged silence.

Then she nodded, as if to herself, her jaw working. “I walked right into that one, didn’t I?”

“Bonnie…” he started, stopped when she raised a hand.

“Let me guess,” she said hoarsely. “Side effects of being a reformed sociopath, right? Let me put your mind at rest, Kai. That’s not being a sociopath, ex or not. That’s just being a jerk.”

He resisted the urge to flinch, worked his mouth into a smirk. “Well, you make friends with jerks all the time. So I guess that’s a good start for me.”

“And as you just kindly reminded me, I need to start making better friends.”

He did flinch then. How the f*ck did this happen?

There were a dozen things he wanted to tell her. Yes, she infuriated him. But he didn’t despise her. He despised everyone else in her life who found it so easy to take her for granted. It hurt that she had singled him out for unmitigated condemnation – but it would hurt less if she distributed that sense of self-preservation in every other aspect of her life, to the likes of Damon Salvatore, and Elena Gilbert and all the other vultures that used her. He had sat outside doors and windows, listening to her and Damon talk for months, and he knew her better than he probably liked, definitely better than she would ever like. She was stuck in a rut, in a vicious cycle, and she wasn’t going to pull herself out of it.

And he obviously wasn’t the one to do it. Not when they barely trusted each other. When the last few moments was a reminder of how close they always were to the kindling point. How there was a well of hurt and resentment between them. There was too much bad blood, too much bad faith, too much plain bad between them.

“When are you going back to Portland?” she asked abruptly.

His heart slammed painfully. “Why?” he asked, barely hiding the panic in his voice. “In a hurry to get rid of me?”

“You said something about having a Kingdom to rule, didn’t you? Mystic Falls is small potatoes to you. What could possibly keep you here?”

“You’re honestly telling me that you don’t know!”

What the f*ck what the f*ck what the f*ck what the f*ck…

The moment he spoke, he almost slammed his fists into his mouth to push the words back. But it was too late. He felt the blood rushing out of his face, and he might even have swayed, so close he was to fainting. What the f*ck had got into him?

But he knew what. Spurned on by the sight of her glaring at him like something that had died under her shoe, the words had been torn out of him.

At least, they got her to stop looking at him with such disgust. Now her narrowed eyes had widened, as she stared at him with gaping shock. She pushed away from the wall and stared harder. The blood was rushing back to his face now, over-compensating from the previous loss. He could actually feel how hot his cheeks were.

Bonnie made a sound – half exhale, half exasperated expletive, and rolled her eyes.

“Who… whatever it is, you’re w-waiting for…” Her voice trailed off on a disbelieving note, and she shook her head, like if she was checking her ears. “You’re wasting your time.”

Kai reminded himself to breathe.

Pain blossomed behind his ribs, spreading through his nerves and almost paralysing him where he stood. For a split-second, he wondered if he was having another tremor. Then he realised that no, it wasn’t physical or magical. It was just the sheer, f*cking hurt of Bonnie’s clear, unmitigated rejection.

What the f*ck had he expected? He knew – he had always known – that he never had a chance in hell with her.

So why the f*ck did it hurt?

But it did. f*cking hell, it hurt.

And it must have shown all over his face, because Bonnie looked away, refused to meet his gaze, as her own face reddened. “Have a nice life, Kai.”

And with that, she walked out of his life, the door slamming firmly and finally behind her.

June 2013

Mystic Falls

“Hello? Hello?”

“Kai. It’s Joshua.”

Silence.

“Kai?”

“Good for you.”

“The Council has… where are you?”

Kai lifted his head to stare blearily at the disapproving-looking blond bartender and the rows of bottles behind him. “Somewhere,” he said edgily.

‘Somewhere’ was the only semi-decent bar in this rustic Southern town which just so happened to be owned and ran by Matt Donovan, police cadet by day, bartender by night. The same Matt Donovan who was Bonnie’s friend from high school, middle school, elementary school, probably even potty-training school if there was such a thing. And if the beady eye he kept throwing at Kai was any indication, he hadn’t quite let go of that little incident where Kai knocked him out and did questionable magic with his memories.

Kai couldn’t catch a freaking break.

“It’s loud. Can you go somewhere quieter? I have something important to tell you.”

Kai tried to figure what the one thing had to do with the other. His brain was a bit foggy, through god knows how many bottles of alcohol that had dulled his synapses a bit. Finally, he settled on staying put.

“Since you’re making this call, I’m guessing the Council didn’t decide to lock me back up in a Prison World?”

How drunk was he that what sounded like disappointment seeped into his voice?

Joshua made a sound that sounded half-angry and half-impatient. “The Council doesn’t…” He sighed loudly. “I informed the Council that the heretics used the blood left behind accidentally by Sheila Bennett’s grand-daughter to escape; and you were unable to destroy the Ascendant in time to stop them. There will be a clusus[1] inquiry into the initial release of Lily Salvatore, of course, but nothing beyond that.”

Kai was silent, staring in front of him and seeing absolutely nothing.

“Kai?”

“Why?” he asked at last.

He didn’t need to elaborate the question.

“Because it was unnecessary. Because it would bring more instability to the coven at a time that we are recovering and rebuilding. Because I vouched for you and I won’t be made out as a fool.”

“Or because you want to hold it over my head? Do I divine some blackmail in my future, Dad?”

“Think as you wish, Malachai,” Joshua said, sounding absolutely disgusted. “But while you’re pondering over my motives, make sure you return to Portland immediately. No Praetor has taken this long to complete his Redimio[2]–”

“Whose fault is that?”

“-There are rites and teletourgias that only the Praetor can perform that will soon be long past arga. And unfortunately for us all, you are the Praetor.”

Kai’s hackles rose. “Yes, I am and I will return whenever I damn well feel…”

“Did you think that the position comes without obligations? That you’d get all that power and not have to actually do anything with it except indulge your whims?”

“How would I know since you didn’t bother to f*cking train me for the f*cking job?”

“Then return to Portland and we will begin your Disciplina.”

The phone went dead. The bastard had hung up on him. The old man wanted to die, Kai concluded with perfect clarity. Eighteen years in a prison world and all the abuse he had subjected on his son before that wasn’t enough. His big mouth and bad timing that fateful day had cost Kai… had cost Kai a lot and now he was arm-twisting him back to Portland.

He could go to Portland, Kai thought darkly. He could go there and murder his father. Why, if he wanted, he was powerful enough to port over to the family mansion right now, and rip Joshua’s spine out from his throat. Would be f*cking hard to convince the Council not to lock him up for that.

Instead, Kai dropped his phone into his glass and listened to it sizzling with satisfaction.

He shoved the glass aside and slammed his hand on the table. “Another, please. Bottle. Er… and a glass, too. But that’s not really necessary.”

Matt Donovan re-appeared with a glare. “I’m cutting you off.”

Kai blinked. “Excuse you?”

“You’re done here, pal. I’m calling a cab. It was a mistake even letting you in my bar in the first place.”

“The aspirin worked, didn’t it?” Kai asked with concern.

Donovan’s face turned thunderous. “I didn’t take it.”

Huh. That was unnecessarily paranoid. There were far less clumsy ways of poisoning someone than expecting them to administer the toxin themselves.

Anyway, the mundane’s headache from the Memoria spell should have long gone. No way he’d be working the bar with a head-splitter.