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Blood in the Water

Happy Holidays @leianaberrie from @edomeilair! Notes: I was instantly intimidated writing for you as you’re such an amazing author for this pairing, and this is oddly my first time writing Bonkai. I hope you like this story. Set in a semi-AU ‘verse in which things play out pretty much the same in Mystic Falls except for season 6. The history of the Gemini Coven has also been altered, their merging ritual is a thing of the past and they have figured out a different way to arrange succession, so Kai was never in a prison world and may have slight personality disorder markers but did not become a sociopath in the way he did on the show. I’ve also aged him down, so he’s around 33 and Bonnie’s about 28-30. It’s all clear in the story, hopefully. I thought this was going to be 3k smut and then this happened. Might continue it one day, I’ve no idea. Mistakes are my own, and not beta’d. Anyway, enough rambling. Please have a wonderful 2020 and may all your wishes come through in the New Year! Summary: In which Bonnie’s going through a dry spell, and Kai buys her a drink. Or, Bonnie’s gotten pretty good at running but she hasn’t had someone like Kai trying to pursue her. Word count: 9k | Rating: NC17 (smut)

“Heard the new guy’s some kind of hotshot high warlock—from the Germanic Coven or something like that?”

Bonnie grunted in response to Emma as she hefted one of the heavier grimoires from her latest treasure trawl, peering at the first page which was written in Ge’ez script, a mix of Amharic and maybe some Arabic as well. She’d found that one during her sabbatical. A few months off teaching at the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted to visit a little town in the Ogaden region, right along the border between Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. She’d traced at least one thin branch of her family’s tree there, and the part of her that still yearned for roots and connection to a bloodline that was all but lost had inspired her to take the trip. There weren’t any people called Bennett there, of course. There wouldn’t have been a thousand years ago before Amaya, one of the few ancestors she did know, was born. But there had been a fleeting, intangible sense of belonging.

Even then, it still wasn’t home.

So, she’d come back, just as she always did, to the only place that she could claim much as part of her didn’t want to. Mystic Falls. The town she’d grown up in, lived in and died in (three times).

She despised this town with every fibre of her being, but she could never let it go for long. And she’d damn well tried, too.

After the mess with Silas and then the Travellers, and then the Heretics and the sirens, and every other supernatural disaster that plagued this hellhole, she’d taken Enzo’s final request to heart. She’d packed up her bags and left Mystic Falls to live her own damn life.

More like ran so fast not even a vampire could catch her.

Lucy let her stay with her down in Reno for close to a year. Her cousin had landed up there after running from Katherine all those years ago (and she was very relieved to hear that the rumours of the vampire’s demise were true, and she was free of whatever bonded obligations she’d once held), and settled in to run a swanky little cocktail bar, The Witches’ Brew, with a couple of friends.

Being with her cousin had been a true gift after all the years of feeling alone, like she was constantly under siege and at war. And that’s what it had been in Mystic Falls—it was only after she left that she started to realise it and understand. She’d been fighting for her life, or, more honestly everyone else’s lives for so long that a part of her couldn’t recall what it meant to just be. To live. To exist in a way that didn’t mean losing everything and everyone she loved over and over again. And always losing herself.

Maybe Enzo should’ve given her tips with that request. But she’d tried. She’d had to learn how. She was still learning.

That journey of learning had taken her to California to finish up her undergrad in San Francisco, then across the Atlantic to pursue a masters’ and a doctorate in Occult History & Linguistics. Her area of study had come with adventures and travel, studying mystical objects from occultic traditions and covens all the way from Scotland to South Africa, China to Brazil. She’d expanded her magical practise all the while—never joining a coven or anything but meeting practitioners who made even her, who’d faced down Originals, ancestral spirits and sirens as old as time, and mostly survived, tremble in awe.

Eventually, though, she’d found her way back to Virginia. A call from Caroline begging her to consider taking up a teaching position at the school she’d inexplicably founded with Alaric of all people.

Apparently, Damon had bequeathed his half of the Salvatore estate to him on his death—which came with a considerable and surprising amount of money. Nobody thought Damon was the saving money type. Bonnie smiled wryly at the thought. He’d always been full of surprises.

But he and Stefan had died together under the Armory, along with Katherine, which was poetic or pathetic depending on how one looked at it. Stefan had left his share to Caroline and so she and their former history teacher had partnered in a special school for supernatural kids. As far as Bonnie knew, there wasn’t anything like it—most supernatural species tended to stick to themselves for self-preservation or reasons of ancient enmities no one could remember the cause of. To start a school in which different species could not only co-exist but thrive was unheard of. To do it in Mystic Falls of all places was potentially stupid.

But they’d done it anyway.

Bonnie’d resisted the plea for a few years, reluctant to come back to a place that held so much… that held too much. Because when she had been in Mystic Falls before, it had felt like the worst kind of prison. Like being right on the ass-crack of hell. And the thing was, she hadn’t liked the Bonnie she’d become in this place. And the thought of returning made her afraid that she’d devolve into that Bonnie again. Sacrificing, dying, losing. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The tipping point came unexpectedly in the form of one adorable, chubby-cheeked toddler who happened to be her god-daughter courtesy of Matt. He’d settled down, a wife and three kids, the whole suburban dream along with a shiny star badge as the town sheriff. When he’d sent a message to let her know his second daughter, Lily Catherine Donovan, had come into the world and that he’d named her godmother, Bonnie hadn’t been able to deny the invitation to the christening.

Five years later, she still hadn’t skipped town except for her short trips around the world. On most days, she didn’t even regret that choice.

“What’s a High Warlock gonna be doing teaching at a high school? Last I checked that’s a full-time job.”

“No idea.” Emma shrugged as she munched on a packet of Lays and sipped on sweet ginger tea (a bizarre combination) while she watched Bonnie unpack her findings onto the oak desk in her little office. “Apparently the way his coven’s run, he and his sister co-rule or something weird like that. I’ve heard rumours about patricide, a sadistic secretive ritual involving bloody duels and body possession—which is why he’s coming in to lead on Defence against the Dark Arts.”

“After Vardemus, I would think Alaric and Caroline would pick someone ‘safe’, right? An instructor who won’t incite the students to use dark magick and set up a mini-Hunger Games in the middle of Mystic Falls.”

Emma snorted in amusement. “Well, I bloody well hope so.” She sipped on her tea and continued, “This guy’s supposedly legit even if he may or may not have slaughtered his family to become the head of his coven or whatever the real story is. They’re apparently ancient and super-secretive, I’m shocked you haven’t heard of them either.”

“Hm,” Bonnie hummed. There were a handful of covens like that, ones she’d learned about in her studies. The kind that had gone millennia in secret and only allowed outsiders to learn the truth of their practises, and even their true name, on rare occasions. Having never been a part of a coven, she couldn’t quite relate to the fuss.

She bent down to unlock one of her storage cabinets so she could start packing things. The rich sandalwood shone in the afternoon light, and she could smell the mix of that and the musk of old books. She suddenly felt very appreciative to be back here.

Her office was situated in one of the newer extensions to the school’s grounds, the space was great. High dark-oak walls and arched windows that let the day’s light in and opened onto a small terrace, which led to her own private teacher’s apartment.

She’d created something of a little green haven that spilled out onto the pathway. Pot plants and flowers growing in profusion (with a little magical boost), bright pink and purple petunias mixed in with warm yellow daisies and sunflowers, cool white orchids under the shade of a tall birch, a little pepper tree with shiny red peppers hanging in the air like commas and a flourishing herb plot for her cooking and spell-work, a jasmine bush that scented the night air with sweetness. And then other plants that had more… practical uses. Sage bushes, fragrant lithops that she’d received as a gift from witch-doctor based in a small town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, yarrow to help staunch blood-flow and ease aches and pains, ginger root, belladonna and vervain, and so much more.

Tending to her plants was perhaps one thing that she truly missed when she was away on a trip. It reminded her of a simpler time when Grams was still alive, and she was newly-discovering the world of magick for herself, feeling the gravitational pull of the Earth and the power it held, infinite energy waiting for her to tug on it gently like tendrils and shape it to her purpose. Back when magick was about discovering a part of herself that had always been there, unknown and undetected. When it could make her smile from the simple joy of using it.

Times like that, she felt like she really did love Mystic Falls.

“So,” she said, picking up on what Emma had mentioned. “A murder-coven leader is coming to Mystic Falls, check. Sounds creepy and lowkey evil.”

“Yeah, well, with a first name like ‘Malachai’, I definitely agree.”

“Malachai?” That did sound kind of menacing. “You’ve met him?”

“Nope, Alaric, Caroline, Dorian and Cary and a few trustees did the interview, I just offered a thumbs up.”

“Hm,” Bonnie hummed noncommittally, placing the sceptre on the table along with a small pile of dusty books. She’d check them for any curses and hexes, and other latent magick and catalogue them in the archives over the next few days. “I think we’re about done.”

She’d come back to the school a few days before the end of Summer vacation to find out that Alaric had hired another witch on staff, which would make three of them. Emma’s work focused far more on guidance counselling and wellbeing of the student body in her role as Head of the Honour Council while Bonnie was the Head of Occult History & Arcane Studies. She also taught a senior seminar on Healing Magick for witches and Botany for all students—you never knew when you’d need to identify a random root or tree in the woods, one that could save your life.

In the light of the challenges they’d had with the Malivore the last few months, and the dark magick abuse disaster with Rupert Vardemus, Alaric and the Honour Council had deemed it urgent that the students get a better grasp on how to not only defend themselves against dark forces but how to harness offensive strategies, particularly with the student witches.

Bonnie probably had more experience than any witch this side of the country with fighting—or rather surviving the kinds of monsters the kids were facing every other week. But she’d declined when Alaric offered her the role.

She didn’t want any part of teaching young children, innocents, to go to war. Not in that way at least.

The New Guy could deal with it.

“So,” Emma said, stretching her arms over her head with a jaw-cracking yawn. “You and I, totally need to have a date at our favourite dive bar sometime soon, yeah? Give you a proper welcome back and catch up on all the good gossip.”

Bonnie smirked at how Emma’s British accent curled around the words, mischievous and with the hint of a chuckle. “Ooh, any updates with Dorian?”

“Oh, so many updates,” Emma replied with an expression that teetered somewhere between a grimace and a salacious grin. “But I’ll save that for your welcome drink because we’re going to bloody well need it.”

Dorian and Emma had been dancing around each other for what felt like years. But then there’d been the weird drama with hallucinogens and a kiss with Alaric, and they’d stalled.

“That sounds ominous. I, on the other hand, have no fun updates—I feel like I haven’t had sex since before Rihanna put out an album. And that was last decade.” Bonnie wasn’t a sex fiend by any means, but she was in a rut. A dry spell that was going onto a year now.

Her last serious long-term relationship had been Enzo, which was almost ten years ago. That sex had been great but always tinged with the tragedy of their circumstances. After he died, a string of random hook-ups throughout her time in Reno, then school and work. Two years ago, she’d been in a casual-something relationship with a witch two towns over, but that had ended when Nandi wanted to make things more official and suggested moving in together. Bonnie had high-tailed her way from that relationship so fast, she left tire-marks. A few months after, she found herself in Scotland on an excavation trip with one of her old doctoral programme friends, Domhnall, a warlock based outside of Glasgow. They’d tumbled into bed after some awkward flirting over the hallowed grave-site of one of his ancestors, which had been good fun for the three months she was there.

But after that, nada. No one. Zilch, zippo, zero on the sexual activities front.

Sure, a good conjuring spell and one of her vibrators did an okay job but there was nothing like having a warm, solid body on top of you or underneath. Nothing like tasting the salty-sweet of someone’s skin on your tongue, the sensation of tumbling over a cliff and having someone to catch you in that high. She clenched her thighs together as she tried to remember the last time someone even ate her out. That might as well have been in the last century it felt so long ago.

Bottomline was: she missed sex. Relationships, not so much. But the side-benefits? Hell, yeah.

Clearly, picking up on some of her internal suffering, Emma snickered and said, “You poor thing…. Well, you never know, maybe evil murder-coven leader Malachai will be hot, and you can hook up with him.”

Hell, no. Bonnie didn’t mix work with pleasure, especially while teaching at a school full of kids. She didn’t want any part of that kind of mess.

“Shut up, I know you’re laughing at me. You owe me an extra drink just for that.”

And she’d get one. Emma’s idea of a ‘proper welcome’ would involve the two of them, a bottle of tequila, bitching about their crappy exes and questionable dancing on whatever table-tops that could carry them.

“It’s definitely a date—maybe we can do next Friday? Tonight, I’m heading into town to see my god-daughter and catch a drink with Matty if I can tear him away from sheriffing, fathering and husbanding. Then I’ll turn in early and try get over this jetlag before the craziness of school starting up next week.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Kai hadn’t been in Mystic Falls more than ten minutes before he felt like he’d rather be anywhere else on the planet. Literally. Hell, he’d take one of his family’s awful prison worlds or a random hell dimension.

How had he gotten himself into this fix? He was the High Warlock of the Gemini Coven, one of them at least. Yet somehow, he still managed to lose a round of poker to his sister and with his defeat, came an absolute stinker of a punishment. He was the one who would have to accept the request to come to Saltzman’s backwater school for the gifted (seriously, did the guy think he was Professor X teaching a bunch of mutants or something) to fill in a teaching position for a couple months.

Normally, this sort of thing would be of no interest to the Gemini. But a mundane, running a school for supernaturals—an integrated school with witches, vampires, werewolves, apparently there was even a tri-brid and a phoenix, and the gods knew what else—in a town that was the closest thing to a real-life Buffy-esque Sunnydale hellmouth was cause for more than just interest. It was a blaring clarion call that required some sort of intervention. At the very least, a review of the operation.

As one of the oldest and most secretive covens in existence, the Gemini had always played a more… active role in maintaining Nature’s balance. All behind the scenes and under the table, of course. In the last century or so, that had diminished somewhat as other covens rose to the fore and the Gemini resolved all their messy internal power politics. But with the rise in supernatural fuck-ups over the last decade—a magically-created virus break-out in Atlanta, a tribe of vengeful succubi that had wreaked havoc all across California and down into New Mexico, the summoning of some really evil demons by a bunch of dumb mundanes with satanic aspirations, the Seelie up in Michigan attempting to cross over into this realm to establish a petty kingdom with humans as their slaves, necromancers in San Francisco, and so much more—it had become apparent that the coven needed to step up.

From the little he’d read of the file his sister prepped for him, shit was just as bad, if not worse here in Mystic Falls.

So, he and Jo had played poker to see who’d get sent to play teacher to a bunch of sniveling adolescents. And, he’d lost.

Disgusting. Josette would never let him live it down.

“Sir, can I get you something to drink?” a chirpy waitress offered, sliding the menu onto his table.

Kai gave her a wide smile, which had the woman blushing faintly and fingering the wavy locks of her bottle blonde hair, the way women tended to do in the face of his patented Parker charm. “You know, I’d like a beer and a burger. Make that two burgers. Are the fries any good? I hate a soggy French fry.”

“Everyone says we’ve got the best ones in town,” the waitress offered. The hair twirling was getting a little out of control. It was endearing if ineffective.

“I’m gonna choose to believe you. Hope you don’t disappoint me.”

One could only hope that even a spot as kitschy as this so-called Mystic Grill wouldn’t mess fries up.

“That’ll be coming right up, sir,” she said, simpering. “I’m Diedre, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, Diedre,” Kai said, but didn’t offer his own name. Best not to encourage anything. He wasn’t here to hook up or get his dick wet with the first available woman. He would do his job, and in a few months once his assessment of the school and its teachings was done, he would get the hell out of Dodge.

Diedre didn’t seem insulted by his reticence. Instead, she bit her lower lip and sent him a flirty wave over her shoulder as she went to ring in his order, an extra sashay to her shapely hips in the tacky green staff uniform.

All of it left him cold. It wasn’t that Kai didn’t have a functioning libido. He’d had lovers, and some of them had even been girlfriends. But none of them stuck. And, to be honest, he didn’t want them to. Why tie himself down to one woman like that? He had a coven to run and a world to safeguard, he didn’t have time for relationships and all the drama that came with them.

He’d done some exploring earlier in the day to get acclimated, dropping his bags off at the town’s best-rated guesthouse. He would stay there for a couple of days before checking in directly at the Salvatore School where Saltzman had staff apartments on the premises.

From his investigative walk around town, he already spotted at least twelve psychic ruptures, scars left behind on the land or in buildings that told a story of powerful, and incredibly dark magick here. Like, the kind of magick that tore entire dimensions apart. There had supposedly been some kind of ‘council’ that worked to combat the supernatural forces that plagued the town but that was now defunct. Unsurprising. A bunch of humans banding together to fight vampires and wolves and other things that went bump in the night was a recipe for disaster. Kai was almost baffled at how this place managed to stay standing this long.

This wasn’t even the first time he’d visited Mystic Falls. A long time ago when he was about eight, he’d come here with his mom to visit an old coven ally by the name of Sheila Bennett. He’d planned to renew the acquaintance, which wouldn’t be too weird after twenty-five years. Or at least say ‘hi’ to her but apparently, she’d passed on some years ago.

He couldn’t remember much about Sheila Bennett except that she’d had a warm smile, and her hands had held a warm current of magic that felt like the colour orange. And she hadn’t treated him like a weird baby demon just because he had siphoning abilities. Even then, at age eight, his family and the witches in the coven had acted like he was evil. Anathema. Abomination.

The only thing that probably saved him from being drowned in a tub like some runty feral cat was that he’d also been born with some innate magick of his own. It wasn’t as strong as Josette’s at the time, nor when they were growing up—their merging ritual as high warlocks had helped with that, strengthening both of their magical signatures—but he’d had some at least. It meant people only called him ‘freak’ in quiet whispers behind his back rather than right to his face.

On the plus side, a few decades ago, he wouldn’t even have been allowed to become high warlock. Before the 1920s, the Gemini leadership succession process had been nothing short of medieval—a brutal merging of twins when they came of age that killed one and left the other with the soul of their sibling rattling in their heads. It had driven more than a few high warlocks crazy.

Even worse, back then the life of the head of the coven was linked to every single member. So, if they went kaput, so would thousands of other people. Truly insane. Add a siphoner to the mix, and the coven would’ve gone extinct in no time.

Thankfully, the Gemini decided to join the rest of the world in the twentieth century and abolish the practice. His great aunt Esme and her brother, Edward, had established a co-leadership tenure where the twin heirs would only merge magick with each other, garnering more potency from the rest of the coven. Each leader would also receive a range of sigils, tattooed with ink made from a mix of white oak, unicorn blood and all sorts of yummy things, and special talismans to augment their strength and skills and enable them to lead with power and might. In other words, it enabled them to lay down the law with a hard fist whenever the coven-folk got too unruly.

So really, the way he’d grown up was lucky. In the olden days, he’d have been killed or tossed in a prison world without a second thought.

Sighing, Kai slurped on his ice water, and played with the grey watermark his glass had made on the table. It was hard to think of himself as lucky but if he thought any other way, he’d be a lot sadder. Probably.

Growing up, he had been separated from the rest, never allowed to touch or simply hug most of his siblings for fear that he’d steal their magick. His father had never really understood that Kai had figured out how to control his siphoning skills by the time he reached ten years of age. If it wasn’t for Jo, the one person he was truly close to, he might’ve broken completely. Gone certifiably insane by age twenty-two. Likely would’ve tried to off the lesser twins, Liz and Luke, who were a full twelve years younger than him and total brats.

“Here you go, sir,” Diedre said, her bright voice cutting through Kai’s dark memories. A welcome interruption. He thanked her and tucked in immediately.

The burger was okay, the beer passable, the chips pretty damn decent. But it was the dessert, a chocolate mousse and a strawberry jelly pot (he’d asked for the latter specifically, he’d always loved a good pot of jam) that really hit the spot. He was in the middle of dipping his finger into the jelly pot to clean out the last few bits of sweet, gooey goodness when the woman walked in.

Now Kai was no poet. Nor was he the kind of person who considered himself a romantic. It just wasn’t his thing. So, when she walked in, his first thought was that she was the prettiest woman he’d ever seen. All shoulder length curls, tawny skin and her wide lips open mid-laugh as she scanned the restaurant for a place to sit with her date. His second thought, as his eyes traced the way her jeans clung to her hips, the heeled boots and the plump curve of her breasts under the simple scoop-neck sweater that bared one of her dusky-gold shoulders was that he wanted her.

From zero to one hundred, just like that.

He studied her and her companion closely. He didn’t make a habit of horning in on taken women—too much drama. But he might be inspired to make an exception for her. They were giggling at some picture they were looking at as they settled in at the bar, and the guy, a blond beefcake who moved like a cop slapped her shoulder in a way that was decidedly platonic.

At least Kai hoped so.

They didn’t do any of the usual couple things like kiss or place hands on thighs for a quick grope, so he was probably right. Signalling Diedre, Kai made the snap decision to buy the beauty a drink.

Maybe Mystic Falls wouldn’t be such a miserable shithole after all.

“Deacon, could we get some drinks to go with our dessert?”

“Sure, sweet thing—the usual?”

Bonnie smiled at the wizened bartender with a nod. Deacon had been serving drinks at the Grill for as long as she could remember. She could recall seeing him with his lank shoulder-length steel grey hair, balding at the front, and his arms covered in fading wrinkled tattoos, a pair of spectacles perched on his nose all the way from her high school days. When Matt had come on staff as a waiter before he went off to police training, the old man had been tending the bar then, too.

As Deacon slid her tumbler of whiskey towards her, he waved off the card she was reaching for in her purse. “Your drink’s courtesy of the man by the jukebox over there.”

Surprised, Bonnie could only mumble a thanks as she shoved her credit card into her wallet.

Matt swivelled to see who he was referring to before turning back to hunch over the one nightcap beer he would allow himself before heading home to his family. “Looks like someone’s got an admirer,” he mumbled out of the corner of his mouth.

Bonnie glanced over at her new drink sponsor, and her breath caught in her throat. Even from this distance, she could tell he was gorgeous. The kind of man Caroline would describe as a tall drink of please rearrange my insides with your dick. And Caro was a vampire, it would take a lot to rearrange her innards. So, if she was begging for that kind of thing, you knew it was serious.

He wore a simple t-shirt, the arms of which bunched around almost absurdly muscular arms that bore a few inky-black tattoos. A heavy smattering of stubble covered his lower jaw and he was in the middle of finishing off what looked like… a pot of strawberry jelly? Which was, honestly, kind of odd but if the way he was licking his red-stained forefinger while he stared at her was anything to go by—it was something she could maybe get behind….

She gulped, her mouth suddenly dry.

“Oh god, please don’t do this right in front of me, Bon. I just ate dinner, and I’d like to keep it in my belly.”

Matt’s disgruntled voice pulled her away from the contemplation of the generous stranger. “What? I did nothing!”

“I’ve known you since we were kids, I think I can tell when you’re… hitting on some guy,” he said with a disgusted grimace. “It’s like watching my little sister trying to get some.”

“Go away, I was just observing my… benefactor.”

“I don’t know, the two of you kind of looked like you were both trying to take each other’s clothes off with your minds. Which, you could probably do, since you’re a witch. Again, a visual that I don’t need. Ever.”

Rolling her eyes at one of best friend’s dramatics, Bonnie turned away from eye-fucking the man across the room. “Why do I feel like you’ve gotten so much more dramatic as a father? You were never this melodramatic in high school, Matt.”

He chuckled. “Trust me, when you have three kids under the age of ten and another on the way, it’s almost impossible to not be dramatic.”

She couldn’t argue with that.

An hour later, in the wake of Matt’s departure, Bonnie decided to linger. She had nowhere to rush to, after all. And she liked the relative peace of enjoying her Bourbon alone. The tingling sensation of a heavy gaze from somewhere behind her had absolutely nothing to do with it. She straightened her back, stretching out the kinks, and crossed her legs, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

Just as she signalled the bartender for another refill, a tall body slid onto the stool beside her. Bonnie kept her gaze trained ahead but felt her lips curl in a half-smile. Still got it, apparently.

“I’ll still cover whatever the lady’s having. And another beer for me, thanks.” His voice was deep with a hint of gravel that slithered up her spine with just those few words.

“Well, thank you—,” she turned to face him with an expectant lift of her brow.

“Kai,” he said with a charming smirk. This close, Bonnie could see his eyes shimmer almost indigo blue and the strong cut of his jaw beneath the thick stubble. It’s like he was hand-crafted to appeal to so many of her personal tastes. “Does the lady have a name?”

“Bonnie,” she responded, reaching out to shake his hand in greeting. She noted absently that it was a good hand, firm with a few calluses, long fingers that made her have a few fleeting sinful thoughts. “Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” he said, tilting his head at her, his fingers tightening around hers as they held on, a shade too long.

Mid-shake, Bonnie froze as a psychic flash—just a glimpse—flickered in her mind. Two bodies intertwined against an oak-panelled wall, lights winking, naked and damp with sweat, her face thrown back mid-scream while the man in front of her thrust hard, his arms holding her up with ease and evidently doing the thing Caroline would definitely approve of.

Gasping, she blinked. She didn’t get premonitions often, and when they did come, they were mere flashes, often warnings of something shady on the horizon. But that one? If her magick was warning her about anything, then she’d like to thank it. Very much.

She shook her head, clearing her throat and tried to cover the awkward pause in conversation while Kai watched her with an intensity that made her feel oddly exposed. “You don’t sound like you’re from around here, Kai.”

He shook his head. “Recent transplant from Oregon, just for the next few months. Been on the grind with my work—it’s a family business. And figured I’d come and try something different from the other side of the country for a while.”

“You willingly opted to come to Mystic Falls to try ‘something different’?” Bonnie asked, a hint of incredulity in her voice. Despite being a magnet for every random supernatural with delusions of grandeur, Mystic Falls was just as bland and boring a small town as it had been in her youth. Steeped in dubious traditions, to boot. Not the kind of place for a hot mundane to find anything ‘new’, really.

He chuckled at that. “What can I say? It’s one of those unavoidable family obligations. Besides, these small towns can be surprising with the hidden treasures they have to offer. After all, before I came here, I had no idea I’d find someone as beautiful as you in this dinky little town. This was definitely a surprise.” He sent her a salute over the rim of his beer bottle, his lips slick and pink with the alcohol. He had nice lips, firm and just the right amount of pout. She’d always been a sucker for a man with a good mouth.

“Wonder what other delights Mystic Falls has for me to… try out.”

His gaze slid down to her feet and back up in a heated elevator sweep that made Bonnie shiver. Just a bit.

The line wasn’t great. It was plain terrible. But it made her smile anyway because she appreciated frank flirtation, and the even franker invitation in those midnight blue depths.

Taking a sip of her whiskey, Bonnie met his gaze from under her lashes, nibbling on her lower lip. She noted the way his eyes followed that movement, his pupils dilating, black crowding out the blue.

“Maybe I’ll have to help you find out.”

She was like lightning, struck him stupid-dumb with just one kiss. The honeyed tang from the whiskey she’d drank and a hint of dark chocolate, a sweetness that was addictive already. Had been from the second he’d licked into her mouth as their Uber drove off a few minutes before, kissing her as if his life depended on it.

Kai couldn’t get enough as he pushed her back into the nondescript-white door of his hotel room, one of her slender legs wrapped around the back of his, her boot-heel digging into his calf while he notched his hardening length between her thighs.

“Fuck,” he grunted as he kissed his way along her sharp jaw. His dick wanted in to the tell-tale heat he could feel even through her jeans. Wanted to bury itself so deep, he wouldn’t be able to find his way out for at least a decade. He grinded his groin against hers in a rhythm that made them both groan. He was an impatient man on the best of days. If he could spell their clothes away without rousing some questions, and fuck into her now, he totally would.

But that wouldn’t be enough with Bonnie. He’d just met her, and he wanted more than a quick fuck. No, he wanted to savour her. Take the time to do a little prospecting on this landscape of treasure standing in front of him. He wanted her screaming his name, and begging for it, for him. Only then would he fuck her.

For now, they needed to lose the clothes. Stat.

Bonnie tilted her head to the side to grant him access, whimpering when he clamped his teeth on her, rough just the way she loved. It would leave a mark. It had been far too long since anyone had marked her, and her pussy clenched in anticipation for the other bruises this man would give her by morning.

She skated her hands down his back, the bunched muscles there deserved to be explored without the leather jacket and t-shirt as barriers. She did just that, sneaking under his clothes to get at the warm, smooth skin underneath, scraping her fingernails along his spine.

He liked that, she could tell, a rumbling sound emanating from deep in his chest that she felt right down to the tips of her toes.

Every nerve-ending set ablaze as Kai did his best to nose his way through her sweater. Shoving him backwards, she reached down to shuck the thing off—tugging his head back so he could carry on. She was grateful she’d foregone a bra tonight because faster than she could blink, Kai’s tongue was swirling around her puckering nipples, suckling.

Arching into his hungry mouth, Bonnie moaned and then cried out as he let go. Before she could complain, he was moving lower, his lips fluttering along her belly, tongue dipping into her navel, an act that was vaguely ticklish and prompted a breathy snicker.

Within a minute, he was nudging her jeans down to her ankles, helping her kick off her boots and leaving her leaning against the door in nothing but a silky ivory thong. She parted her thighs instinctively, already dripping for him. She watched with hooded eyes as he threw his jacket aside and took off his shirt. His shoulders were broad and the tattoos she’d glimpsed earlier marked the left one with an ink that seemed to almost glow in the dark. Hot.

Kai paused then to look at her, and the glint in his eye had her pussy clenching. He looked the way he had earlier when she’d seen him sucking his fingers clean of that strawberry jelly. He’d been thorough then.

As he lifted her left leg to rest it on his shoulder, baring her to his gaze, and peeled her thong to the side so he could then lean up to nuzzle her, she had no doubts he’d be just as thorough now.

Bonnie hissed at the first touch of his mouth on her clit, a petal-soft kiss on the stiffening nub. Kai flattened his tongue against it and then swiped further down to her lower lips, moaning as he did it like he’d just discovered his favourite ice cream. Then he went in, spearing into her opening, licking inside her and stealing every drop of her arousal.

Bonnie yanked at his hair, uncaring whether she was hurting him or not, she just wanted him closer. Practically smothering him with her pussy, she could feel an orgasm rushing towards her already.

Fuck. She really had missed this.

When he entered her with one of those thick, elegant fingers and then another, curling them upwards as if to draw that orgasm out of her, she straight up quivered.

“Oh god,” she purred, head bumping back against the door, delirious. “Right there.”

“It’s Kai, actually,” he murmured right up against her clit.

Any other time, she would have said something snarky to meet that cockiness halfway.

But this time, she came with a shocked gasp, her wetness seeping out and making a mess out of Kai’s face. He drank it all down, not letting a single drop go to waste, his tongue curling at her nub as she rode his face through the high. When she grew too sensitive, she had to shove him away, her legs trembling so hard she thought she might collapse on the floor.

Kai reluctantly tumbled onto his ass when Bonnie pushed him away. Even now, he wanted to burrow his face in her cunt and keep eating her out, to drown himself in her essence like a glutton.

His dick had other ideas though, clamouring against the zipper of his jeans for relief. He cupped himself through the material, trying to calm himself down. But then Bonnie slapped his hands away and did it for him, massaging him before her fingers made quick work of freeing him.

When she started stroking him, from root to tip, learning the size and weight of him, Kai thought he’d come right there. Shoot like a fourteen-year-old boy watching porn for the first time. He dug his hands into the carpeted floor underneath him, canting his hips into her hands. Then she ducked down to swirl her tongue over the leaking crown of his cock, and he knocked his head back on the floor. He almost lost it when she took him into her mouth, doing her best to swallow all of him and falling just a couple inches short. What she couldn’t fit in her sweltering-hot mouth, she fisted with her hand.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Kai couldn’t help but mutter. The woman was driving him crazy.

She drew off then with a mischievous giggle, her hand still stroking him. “It’s Bonnie, remember?”

Before he could retort, she was crawling up his legs with a condom in hand—where she’d gotten that, Kai didn’t even know or care. He just wanted her to get the thing on and sit on his cock.

She didn’t need him to beg for it, although he would’ve been willing. Soon she had him covered up, and then she was rubbing his cock-head against the furrow of her entrance. When she started to lower herself, they both yelled.

She was tight. So tight, it almost felt like she was strangling his dick on her way down.

He watched her face, the concentrated way she bit on her lower lip as she took him in, inch by agonising inch. The slight wince as her pussy-lips flowered to accept his girth, the way her eyes rolled to the back of her head when he bottomed out—her tits, still dewy from his kisses, shimmered in the room’s dim lamp-light. He looked down at where they were joined, at the way his cock split her open, and how slick she was, her thighs and even his, shiny with it.

He committed the sight to memory.

She started riding him then, rocking in sinuous circles with a dancer’s grace and power. Kai gripped her hips, his fingers dug into her plump ass, fucking her with as much fervour as she did him.

Neither of them would last long this time, he knew. He didn’t give a shit.

Slipping one hand down between them to strum at her clit, he bent his knees so he could jackhammer upward.

“Oh god, oh god, oh yes—shit—Kai…. Mhm, yes, please…. More.”

Her voice rose in pitch with each word. And Kai spurred her on, his free hand drifting up her sternum to wrap loosely around her neck as she fucked herself on his dick like she’d been born for it.

“You feel so good, Bon. So tight. Fuck, baby—. You wanna come for me?” He was babbling, now. “Come on, for me, I want to see you come for me—”

She pressed one of her hands over his, making his fingers squeeze a little tighter against her jugular, the thrum of her pulse hitched under his palm as she sped up, her hips stuttering as they both hurtled to the edge.

He pinched her clit and that did it.

She wailed, so loud that the sound echoed around the room. Her inner muscles convulsed around his cock and he could feel the wet gush of her pleasure against his loins. That sensation set him off, his balls tightening up and then releasing come in heated spurts.

Kai growled with it, his hips jolting her on his lap as he kept coming until he wondered if the condom would hold it all.

She collapsed into him, and they both lay there on the floor, panting and spent and unable to move.

So maybe Bonnie did have the best sex of her life with a virtual stranger two nights ago. Just kind of sucked that she wouldn’t be having any of that again.

She’d snuck out of Kai’s hotel room at some point in the early hours of the morning. Not before they’d managed to fuck two more times—eventually making it to the bed. Kai’d also woken her at around 3AM with his face buried between her thighs, eating her out like she was his Last Supper. She’d nearly blacked out from that orgasm, only just managing to give him a sloppy hand-job until he came in a splooshy mess against her hip.

Clenching her thighs in remembered pleasure, she couldn’t help but wonder wistfully if she should’ve waited a couple of hours for a repeat. Maybe even hung around and exchanged numbers. After all, he was supposed to be in Mystic Falls on his family business for a few months, maybe they could’ve set up a regular thing.

But old instincts died hard. A part of her didn’t want to face the awkwardness those kinds of encounters tended to bring in the cold light of day.

And, truth was, she hadn’t been so… uncontrolled with anyone in a long time. Kai’d had her so feral with lust that she’d summoned a condom from a drugstore down the street, too desperate to hop on his dick to pause and ask him if he had one in his wallet. That sort of thing, flashing her powers in front of mundanes, was something she would never ordinarily risk. Clearly Kai and his magical penis were dangerous.

So, she’d cut and run. One of her best life skills apparently.

Sighing, she couldn’t help smirking to herself. That night would be one for the record books, for sure. At least she’d have plenty of inspiration when she rang the proverbial devil’s doorbell. She had a feeling she’d be bringing herself off to Kai’s memory for a long while.

And, she’d have something fun to update Emma with when they went out for drinks in a few days.

For now, she needed to pull herself together. “Stop thinking with your vagina, Bonnie Sheila Bennett,” she mumbled to her empty office.

It was nearly nine in the morning, and she was running late for the very first school assembly of the year. While it wasn’t compulsory for all staff to attend, she wanted to be there to greet the returning kids as well as the new ones. And of course, there was the new teacher coming in. It would be a bad look to miss it.

Her heels clacked on the old Salvatore teak-wood floors. For school days, unless she was on a field trip with the kids, she liked to keep her outfits semi-professional. At least for the first few weeks. By mid-terms, she’d be down to bare-minimum-effort jeans and boots. Today, she’d paired a high-necked, sleeveless black jersey dress that had a flouncy bow at the throat and tapered down to her knees with a wide brown belt that made her waist look tiny and ankle boots. Some of her favourite beaded bracelets and cold cuffs around her wrists added some colour.

The hallways were mostly deserted as she made her way to the hall, breaking into a light jog.

In her rush, she didn’t see the body stepping out in front of her from one of the staff offices until it was too late, smacking into a rather broad muscular back and nearly stumbling to the ground. The body—a man—grunted in pain. “What the he—?”

She would’ve fallen if it wasn’t for a pair of arms catching her just in time, holding her in place in a dip as though they were dancing.

Mortified, Bonnie started to apologise, slightly dizzy from having her centre of gravity knocked, she kept her eyes closed. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry—.”

“Bonnie?”

She froze. She knew that voice. Intimately. Had heard that voice call her name out, a little less incredulously and with a bit more lust and awe. And that scent, something that reminded her of long walks in the forest—she knew that one anywhere. No, no, no—this could not be happening—

She opened her eyes. Yeah, this was happening.

“Kai?” she said, her voice a high-pitched yelp.

“What are you doing here?” they both demanded at the same time.

All the while, Kai still held her in his arms like neither of them had anywhere to be. Bonnie tried to convince herself that she didn’t like the sensation of being held like this. But her eyes drifted down to his mouth, which was so close to her own in this position and lingered. She’d not forgotten how good that mouth felt on hers, on her throat, and everywhere else. The things this man could do with—

Giving herself a shake, Bonnie punched him in the shoulder. “Let me up, will you?”

He did as asked, and then looked at her, his indigo eyes wide and amazed as though he couldn’t quite decide if he was dreaming or not.

“Hi there,” he said, his gaze sliding over her form appreciatively.

Bonnie found herself getting caught up in it for a few seconds, a helpless fish snared in his trap, she smiled up at him. He looked good in a simple pale grey Henley and dark-wash jeans—good enough to eat, in fact.

The sound of a microphone squeaking brought her, abruptly, to her senses and she slapped his arm.

“Ow,” Kai complained. “You know if you told me you were into a little rough discipline and punishment play, I would’ve been happy to oblige you a couple nights ago.”

“Shut up,” Bonnie said, gritting her teeth as she dragged him through the nearest open door, shutting it behind her so she could confront him good and proper away from prying eyes. “Seriously, why the hell are you here? How did you even get on the grounds?”

“What do you mean ‘why the hell am I here’? Why are you here? Look, stalking is against the law and while I’m as big a fan of Fatal Attraction as the next guy, and I wouldn’t mind you following me around, I really don’t want to end up dead in a bathtub.”

The longer he yammered, the deeper Bonnie’s frown grew. What was he even going on about? She asked him as much.

“You know, Glenn Close, Michael Douglas, iconic movie, featuring a case of infidelity and then homicidal obsession in which a strong career woman is driven to—.”

“Not about Fatal Attraction, you idiot,” Bonnie snapped. “I meant—humph!”

Whatever she was about to say was swallowed by Kai’s mouth. The kiss started off hard, and a little cruel. Too much teeth and an obvious attempt to shut her up. She struggled for a few seconds before the gentle flick of his tongue against her lower lip made her gasp. He softened the contact to a slow, drugging melding of mouths. When he lapped at her, she did it back, suckling on his plump lower lip. She ran her hands up along his arms, testing the strength of his biceps before settling on his chest.

Kissing him was a bit like drowning, except she didn’t mind at all. They both had to draw back eventually, if only to breathe. They didn’t pull back too far, breath mingling as they stared at each other, equal parts confused by the other’s presence and captivated.

“What are you doing here, Kai?” she asked again, in a whisper.

“You’re a witch,” he said, this time his jaw slackened in wonder. “How did I not notice that you’re a witch?”

“I cloak myself when I’m out and about—safer that way.”

“Of course, I do the same.”

“You’re a witch? Wait.” Bonnie stepped back, the cold realisation sinking in the depths of her gut. And then took a couple more steps away from him so she wouldn’t be distracted by his biceps or his mouth. “You’re the murder-coven’s high warlock who’s coming to teach here? You’re Malachai?”

“Okay, first, we don’t do the murder thing anymore. The Gemini have evolved. Second, I prefer to go by Kai, thank you very much.” He moved towards her because he was finding that he liked it much better when he had her close by.

But Bonnie lurched back, holding out a hand to keep him at bay.

“Don’t. Please, don’t. We can’t do any of what we did here, okay? Or ever again.”

Any other time, Kai might have pressed the issue, but he heard the unsteady note in her voice. The panicky look in her eyes, and he made himself pause.

When he’d woken up in that hotel room a couple days ago, bereft of his bed partner and cuddling a cold, unsatisfying pillow, he’d been a little angry. Somewhere, the women to whom he’d done the exact same thing were crowing with laughter. The one time he wanted to wake up to a woman, specifically one with a pair of pretty jade-cut eyes, and she’d run off under cover of darkness without even saying goodbye or hanging around for a morning quickie. Or, at least another quickie—they’d gone for a fourth knockout round at around 3AM.

He’d resolved that he would never see her again, tamping down the urge to do something cheesy and disturbing like a locator spell to find her. He’d accepted it. Consigned himself to only seeing her again in his dreams and jerking off in (thirsty) memory of that one perfect night for the rest of his days.

And now, that wasn’t true anymore….

He grinned. From the way she side-eyed him, he knew it probably came off as a bit wolfish and predatory.

“Fine, Bon,” he said, keeping his voice calm and placating. He wondered what her last name was. He really needed to finish reading that file Jo prepped for him. “I’ll stop. For now. We should get going anyway, might catch the last few minutes of assembly.”

He could tell she wanted to argue about the ‘for now’, could see it in the stiff set of her shoulders and the way her stubborn jaw clenched. Before she could start, he swept the door open, gesturing for her to lead the way out. “Shall we?”

She didn’t thank him as she stomped passed. Kai shut his eyes as that heady scent of hers washed over him, vanilla and something floral with a hint of jasmine. He could get drunk just from the smell of her. He wanted to bury himself inside her until her scent steeped itself all over his body, became a part of him. Which was, admittedly, the kind of weird thing a stalker would say. He should probably keep that to himself.

He watched the sway of her hips as she stalked towards the assembly hall and remembered how good they felt in his hands. His palms itched.

“Oh, Bonnie—and Kai,” a surprised voice called out to them from the opposite end of the passage-way. Dorian, the deputy head of the school and its librarian ambled towards them, cup of coffee in-hand. “You guys have met, huh?”

Bonnie shot him a quelling glance, which was seriously unnecessary. Did she think he was going to give Dorian the filthy details of just how many times he’d made her come a couple nights ago? He had some boundaries.

“Yeah!” she said, her voice overly loud. “I—um, I noticed Kai wandering around, looking lost so I offered to show him to the hall, ha-ha. Great.”

As excuses go it was flimsy at best. The assembly hall was literally right in front of them. But she darted away as though someone had lit her panties on fire and disappeared into the hall before anyone could call her on it, leaving a bemused Kai and Dorian behind.

“Should we head in?” Dorian asked, his brow quirked in curiosity.

Kai simply nodded and followed him in, just in time for Alaric’s speech.

He settled in a row of seats at the back with Dorian and the werewolf elder on-staff, a stolid blond named Cary. Bonnie was all the way on the other side of the room, refusing to look in his direction.

Kai smirked, settling back in his chair to take a nap with his eyes open while all the boring speechifying was going on. And to do a little plotting.

It was cute that she thought she could run from him, from this thing between them. She didn’t know it yet, but that sort of action was like waving a red flag in front of a bull, like blood-soaked water to a shark. He’d wanted her before. Now that he’d had a taste, now that he knew her taste, he wouldn’t let anything prevent him from having her again.

She glanced at him over her shoulder, her gaze skittering away to look at some of the kids once she knew he’d caught her doing it.

Let the games begin

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