#bkss2019

Bonnie’s fists clenched. “Are you seriously taking his side in this?”

“Bonnie, I was there,” Liv said, forcing her voice to sound calm and reasonable and not utterly exasperated.

“Can you talk some sense into her?” Kai snapped.

“Arrgh! I’m not talking to either of you!” Bonnie yelled, clutching at her face. “I can’t stand it when you take his side!” She stormed out of the room.

“You can’t stand it when I’m right!” Kai shouted.

“She’s gone,” Liv informed him.

“Go after her!” Kai yelled.  

“Maybe the two of you can just take a time out before—”

“—and for your information,” Bonnie yelled, storming back into the hall. “I had back up. If anything had gone wrong, Damon would have pulled me out.”

Liv gave her a look just as Kai burst out into dark laughter. “Damon was your safety net. Now that’s reassuring!”

“Go to hell, Kai!” She stormed out again.

“I can’t! I’m too busy keeping you alive!”

“She’s left again,” Liv murmured.

“She’s infuriating! I can’t even talk to her right now!”

Liv sighed. “Okay. Bye.”

“Wait—”

“—and just so you know…” Bonnie’s voice trailed off when she noticed Liv putting the phone into her pocket. “Did he hang up on me?”

“I hung up on both of you. I’m not a telephone switchboard. You can yell at him with your own phone.”

“I’m not talking to him.”

“Well, that makes things simpler, doesn’t it?”

Bonnie opened her mouth and shut it, looking confused. Liv patted her on her arm. “I’ve gotta run. See you around.”

Her phone buzzed as she turned. Seriously? “Kai? Look, you need to—”

“Where are you?”

“At the Salvatore’s, but I don’t…”

The line cut. She was still blinking at the phone when there was a tiny pop and Kai appeared beside her.

His shirt was askew, his hair was frazzled, and he looked spitting mad. His eyes fell on Bonnie at once, and he rounded on her. Bonnie stood her ground, glaring daggers right back at him.

Bonnie threw up her hands in frustration. “I said I don’t want to talk to you!”

“Ditto,” he snapped. “The next time you get yourself entangled with a dark coven, don’t expect me to bail you out!”

“Can I have that in writing? Because I swear you said that the last time…”

“Yeah and what thanks did I get then?”

“I never asked for your help!”

“Of course not, because that would be the smart thing to do and we both know…”

Liv, who had been tiptoeing towards the door, paused with a wince when something crashed behind her. But the argument kept carrying on, without missing a beat, and she decided it was safer for everyone if she just left them to sort themselves out.

“What the fuck happened here?”

Damon stepped through the doors and gaped. It looked like if a maelstrom had hit the boarding house. There were vases and books thrown and smashed on the floor. A small fire had started and been doused in the corner, leaving a blackened wall and ash. And was that…a part of the wall caved in?

“I swear to God Kai, if you pull this again…”

There were loud voices coming from the other side of the caved in wall. Damon walked towards them, feeling like if he was stepping through a bad dream…

“You want me to stop ‘pulling this’? Then stop playing around with dangerous magic.”

“You’re not the boss of me!”

He was met with the unfortunate sight of Bonnie and Kai tangled on the floor. She was hopping on one leg, pulling on jeans under a shirt that was definitely too large to be her own, while Kai sat shirtless on the floor, casually lacing up his boots.

Damon groaned.

They stopped glaring at each other to glare at him.

“Do you mind?” Bonnie snapped.

“Do…I mind…?” Damon spluttered. “You’re in my house. You wrecked my house. You…What is he doing here?”

“I cannot deal with him now,” Kai muttered, and he snapped his fingers.

Damon could feel magic yanking the reality around him, like an invisible hand pushing him out of the room, the house, the street and he staggered to a halt with a violent shudder. After the long moment it took him to regain his bearings, he realized he was in the middle of an alley, slumped against a garbage tank, being stared at by a hobo. He groaned.

“So Damon made it home in one piece. Eventually.”

Bonnie rolled her eyes at the accusing tone in Elena’s voice. “That’s good to hear.”

“You’re not even a little sorry that your boyfriend nearly killed my fiancé?”

“Stop exaggerating, Elena. Kai just wanted Damon to give us some privacy.”

“Give you…” Words clearly failed Elena.

Something pleasant nibbled against Bonnie’s ear. “Can we talk about this later, Elena? I promise to fix the house.”

“Bonnie, don’t hang up on…Bonnie!”

“Bon, why is your mom offering to go engagement ring shopping with me?” Kai says suspiciously, a hint of accusation in his voice.

Bonnie covers the magazine over her face, slouching down on the sofa. “Uhh…because…um.” She dry chuckles. “It’s a funny story actually.”

“Bonnie.” He pushes the magazine down. “I’m not laughing.”

“I may have…sort of…answered the phone when we were drunk last night…”

“And…?”

“…Told my parents we were dating?”

“What?!”

“Okay! Hear me out here. They were ripping into me about school and the stupid statistics of how many people actually make it out of art school and I was drunk and I was angry and – I don’t know, okay? I was just feeling really shitty and arguing with them wasn’t helping.”

“So telling them we’re engaged did?”

“Well technically, I said we were dating.” 

Kai rolls his eyes, groaning heavily.

“They were talking about how I need to buckle down and be serious.” She sighs. “So obviously dating came up and since I’ve been noticeably and chronically vacant in that department – they arranged a date…” She pauses dramatically, trying to settle the disdain and disgust. “…with Jeremy Gilbert.”

“Wait – Miranda Gilbert’s son?”

“Yes.” She shudders.

He looks at her incredulously. “Your ex who used to eat glue?”

“Exactly! That is the level of desperation and concern they have for me. So I panicked – I couldn’t say no because there is no one else and you were the first name that popped into my head.”

He lets out a low groan, rubbing his hands down his face.

“Come on, Kai. We just have to pretend for like, ten days. You took an improv class…that one time.”

He flops on the sofa and covers his face with the throw pillow.

“No one’s gonna buy it – Liv and Luke will figure it out. They have that creepy twin ESPN thing.”

“It’s ESP, dummy.” She takes his hand and rests it on her cheek. “Malachai Joel Par –"

“Oh, so we’re doing government names?”

She swats his face with his own hand. “Don’t interrupt. Malachai Joel Parker. Will you pretend to be my fake boyfriend so my parents don’t marry me off to a crack dealer?”

They both burst into a bout of laughter.

Kai looks at the bright, tired and soft little face of his best friend. He sighs, shaking his head with a grin. What the hell?

“Bonnie Sheila Bennett. It would be my honour.”

 “Great!” She gets up and stretches. “Now everyone thinks we’re dating, they’ll forget to ask us if we’ve completely nose-dived our lives into the crapper. So, you know – you’re welcome.”

He was everywhere. In most of her classes. At lunch in the cafeteria. In the bleachers during cheerleading practice. In the Mystic Grill during her shifts. Alone. Watching. The only thing she knew about him was that his name was Kai Parker and that he was new in town and a senior. 

She also knew he had a very weird impact on her magic. He was like a magnet for her magic. He seemed to pull her magic towards him. Her magic seemed to try to reach out to him. It was confusing. It was disturbing. She had yet to really get full control of her magic. 

Him being around her all the time, at school, cheerleading practice and work, was distracting. But for all the watching he did, he had yet to approach her or even speak directly to her. 

She could not help but be intrigued, but a little bit alarmed at the same time. Her grandmother had warned her to keep her magic a secret. She had shown her best friend Elena a little of what she could do – easy stuff like lighting candles and floating feathers. She had worried a little about the reaction, but Elena was such a Potterhead that the only serious reaction she had was disappointment that the spell Bonnie had used for floating feathers was not Leviosa.

“Order’s up – table 7.” Bonnie grabbed the tray and fixed her eyes on table 7. There he was again. 

Best take the bull by the horns and introduce myself, Bonnie thought. After setting down the food and drink order on the table, she held out her hand in greeting and said, “Hi, I’m Bonnie.”

He looked at her hand and then into her eyes while he slowly took her hand, squeezed it slightly and shook it once up and down, not letting go. “Kai…” he murmured breathlessly.

Bonnie felt a warm tingly feeling as her magic flowed through her fingers into Kai, leaving her feeling slightly lightheaded and fatigued. Meanwhile Kai now had a slightly dazed and almost drugged look in his eyes. ¨This is weird, Bonnie thought to herself. She pulled her hand from his grasp. 

“What’s your coven?” he asked abruptly.

“What?!” she said, flabbergasted.

“I’m sorry,” came his swift reply.

“My coven?” Bonnie giggled trying to act the ditzy teenager. “I’m not a witch. I’m just a regular girl from Mystic Falls.”

“Cool,” was the one word reply from Kai who kept looking deeply into her eyes.

His next words startled her. “What’s your favorite insect?”

What kind of a question was that? The boy really was weird!¨

“I like butterflies, I guess…” she answered.

“Your earlobes are a real nice shape – really nicely shaped earlobes,” Kai went on to remark without missing a beat while staring intensely at her ears.

Okay…things were really getting weird now.

“Where did you say you were from?” Bonnie asked in an attempt to bring some normalcy back to the conversation. “I’ve never seen you before this year.” She saw Kai freeze up and swallow hard. “You’re not from Virginia?” His accent told her that much.

“Eh….uh…I was in this place… this place that I was in…” he rambled incoherently.

“A place – where?” Bonnie prodded.

“I got stuck in…” Kai started to say before cutting himself off. “Do you make cupcakes?” came his next question out of the blue.

“Sometimes, yeah,” Bonnie replied and could not help but smile. Kai had the same energy and attention span of a small child or excited puppy dog.

“Ding, ding. Order’s up, table 16.”

“‘Bout?”

She hesitated. Bright and cheery Elena surely didn’t want to hear about the dark thoughts that plagued her mind. Her childhood best friend seemed always so happy. Empty sometimes, but at least happy. If only Bonnie were so lucky.

The thing about Kol? Entirely untrue. It was a misplaced minor crush more than anything, and someone Bonnie hadn’t even considered since freshman year. However, Elena just couldn’t seem to let it drop, even if Bonnie hadn’t shown any real interest in three years.

“I just want you to have something good in your life, Bonnie. Something beautiful.”

Ah, that’s what she always said, wasn’t it? Something beautiful.

Life wasn’t though, certainly not high school. It was hell and Bonnie was just one bad joke or another bully causing trouble away from checking out the rest of the year.

“I just…” Bonnie bit her lip, trying to decide if she was going to tell Elena or not. Elena pulled her old clunker into a parking space and Bonnie sat back, watching the streams of people converging at the front steps. Friends hugged after a long summer break, girls gossiped, football boys checked out the incoming Freshman.

“We’ve known most of these kids all our life, right?” Bonnie finally said.

“Yeah.”

Mystic Falls wasn’t very big. It wasn’t even a flyover city, it was a city left off most maps. Most of the kids here had been born and would similarly die here, something that Bonnie would kill herself first if that was the case. She couldn’t wait to get out of here, go on, do something. She wasn’t sure if Elena understood this. Elena, who as kind as she was, always seemed complacent with her place.

“I just look around and wonder…what happened?”

Elena regarded Bonnie for a second. She grasped her book bag, snorting lightly.

“What do you mean?”

Bonnie stared at Elena’s face, unable to answer. Not truly, at least.

“Do you mean,” Elena started again, “how did time go by so fast? I mean, it felt like yesterday, we were like six!”

Bonnie’s laugh was rough. “Yeah, E. That’s it. That’s it.”

Elena kissed her cheeks. “Oh, Bonnie! I knew you were a mushy-hearted one somewhere. I’ll see you in English.”

Bonnie sighed. Better allow Elena to think that sentiment than what Bonnie really thought.

What she was really wondering is when everyone turned into such unmitigated assholes.

They’d all been young once, as Elena had so unaptly realized. Bonnie liked to imagine that everyone was good, somewhere. She held onto this belief like a life-line. If she thought everyone was unsavable, then what was the point of any of these jerks she had to spend eight hours a day with? How could any of them be redeemable people if Bonnie didn’t think there was a sliver of goodness left?

As she dodged people who literally found her invisible, she kept reminding herself this.

Elena hadn’t been too far off, she supposed. They’d all been young once. Pure, unblemished, simple. The star linebacker had eaten paste, like it was candy, and they’d all played stupid playground games. No one had cared who was who and the biggest issue was who was going to sleep where at nap time.

And then they’d grown up.

Most people? Into monsters.

Some may argue that it was hard to be a monster by the ripe age of eighteen. To those naysayers, Bonnie would argue they’d completely forgotten what it meant to be in high school or they’d been so fortunate to never attend.

Most people were some form of bad. Most people had changed from their care-free childhood days, and not at all for the better.

Bonnie, on the average, thought herself a good person. She knew there were some parts of her that were unsavory (the dreams of darkness that came most nights, sure, or her judgey personality…) but she considered herself higher up than the majority of these a-holes. But, try as she might, she hadn’t figured out what was the big difference between her change and the entirely different change of her contemporaries.

“Just one more year and then college, just one more year and then college, just one more year…” Bonnie whispered his mantra under her breath as she shouldered her way through the halls. She kept her head down, mostly curling herself into a ball, trying to be practically unseen. Unseen was better than ridiculed.

Someone came barreling into her side. She lost her balance for a second, turning to see a kid skittering across the ground.

“Hey, you okay?” she asked, offering her hand.

“Get away, weirdo,” The kid said, spitting at her offer. Which, was honestly? Not cool. If he was getting shoved to the ground, it wasn’t like he was in higher standings than her.

Though, ever since they, as in ‘T-H-E-Y’ decided they hadn’t liked Bonnie, life hadn’t been easy for her.

“Whatever, sorry,” Bonnie muttered.

As the kid scampered away with hopefully on some bruised ribs, Bonnie bit back a frustration. Life was so much bigger outside of these stupid four walls and wonderful things were happening every day. No, what had Elena said? Beautiful. Yes, beautiful things were a better way to describe it.

But Bonnie was stuck in here with people she feared would never, ever change.

However, the smallest part of her that was still someone who did care, hoped they may.

She managed to dig her way through the crowd of people to the locker of her best friend, Liv. While Elena may have been a friend for longer, no one understood things like Liv and her understood each other.

She was wearing what Liv always wore; something black, something fish-nety, something ripped. It was this mixture of gothic rebellion that landed her as the number one freak of Mystic High. Some kids were bullied because of their weight, or their hair. Liv was the biggest target because she was weird and dark and sharp on her sides. While lots of kids blended in, Liv stood out.

Which, to people with low-self confidence, was obviously an issue.

“Hey girl,” Bonnie greeted. “Is it sad it’s not even first period and I just want the school day to be over?”

“Nope,” Liv said, fixing her black lipstick in her locker mirror, “Hey, we on for movie night?”

“Of course, it’s a tradition,” Bonnie guffawed. The best way to fix the new-school-year-blues was with a movie night. Of course, now that they were older, it was more about bitching about their classmates and drinking wine, but it was still deeply cathartic.

“I got popcorn. You got a movie?”

“The Princess Bride, of course,” Liv said, pulling the DVD from her backpack. Bonnie smiled something watery at Liv.

“Even though we’ve seen it two million times?”

“Even then. I just like a happy ending,” She said.

Sometimes, Bonnie felt like she and Liv were two sides of the same coin. While Liv portrayed this idea of a deeply dark person, she was so unflappably light inside of her. She was someone who wanted to believe in the goodness, more so than Bonnie. Perhaps she needed it.

Bonnie was someone who, she thought in general, portrayed herself as an average person. It was only in the darkest parts of her mind did she allow the truly nasty things to shake loose. The doubts, the toxic whispers, the fantasies…things she wasn’t even sure she could tell Liv.

Liv closed her locker door. Her usual resting bitch face evaporated into something much softer, something deeply yearning. Bonnie didn’t even have to follow her line of sight to know where it landed.

“Liv,” She whined, “Seriously?”

Liv bit her lip, looking down, “What?” She bitched out, “I wasn’t looking at anything.”

A straight lie. She was making moon-eyes at Tyler Lockwood, star line-backer and complete dick. She’d had it bad for him since…since, basically forever. Tyler, of course, hardly gave her the time of day. Unless it was to make fun of her.

Bonnie supposed she clung to whatever it was, as weird as their interactions were. It was so obvious to Liv that she was wasting her time with this future gas station attendant, a guy who was going to peak in high school and never stop wearing his letterman jacket, but trying to convince Liv of this? Impossible.

“Oh god, he’s coming over,” Bonnie muttered, trying hard not to vomit, “With his little lap dog…” 

Tyler was one form of hatred, but his best friend Matt was a whole other. Mostly because Bonnie knew that Matt was much smarter than he let himself act like. That, if he stopped being like this, he might actually do something with his life. They’d been friends once, in the way that everyone had been friends as children. While Bonnie had never liked Tyler, she’d hoped Matt would be different.

Her mistake.

“Hey Satan’s whore, sacrificed any bodies today?” Tyler asked cruelly as he passed, slamming Bonnie into a locker as though she wasn’t even worth the effort to bully.

“Eat a dick, Lockwood,” Liv spat out, but she didn’t mean it. Bonnie only hoped Tyler would never see through her.

“Tell me,” Tyler said, closing in on her, “Is it true you bathe in blood?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know. Fuel your jerk off sessions for the whole year, eh?”

Tyler snorted, “As if.”

“Liv,” Bonnie snapped as the bell was ringing. “We have class.”

“My god, she talks,” Matt crooned. “I thought you’d forgotten how.”

“Shut up, Donovan,” Bonnie hissed, grasping Liv firmly and pulling her through the crowd, away from Tyler and Matt who were cackling like hyenas, “God, I just…you need to get over him.”

“I think if he remembered what we were like before, he’d be more interested,” Liv said earnestly, “He’s just acting like that for the sake of high school. We all gotta wear masks, you know?”

“Oh,” Bonnie sighed, feeling sort of sorry for her, “he’s just a jerk.”

Mystic Falls High was a small enough school that Bonnie, quite unfortunately, knew every single person who attended. Even most freshmen, she had a good idea of their identities, so mostly the waves of faces felt rather monotonous. As she tugged Liv into their homeroom, she was expecting to see the same bored faces she’d seen every day since she was five.

But there was a new one.

In the sea of color and Instagram worthy first-day outfits, there was an outlier. Someone wearing all black. Someone wearing heavy things, much too heavy for the heat of Mystic Falls in early August.

He was ignoring everything. It was like he existed outside of the realm of his current sweltering classroom, like the people who were being too loud next to him were little more than flies buzzing around.

Bonnie was staring.

She couldn’t help it. Maybe it was because he was a new face. Maybe it’s because his attitude was intriguing. Or maybe it was something else that at this time she could not quantify, but she was inexplicably drawn to him. It was as though, on some molecular level, she recognized a similarity between the pair of them, even if at this point in time, she did not know it.

Or maybe she did. Maybe she knew it from his eyes.

She’d look back on this moment, and when she really thought about it, she’d recall how his eyes were so flat. Like two discs, but with no information on it. How they were hard, unfeeling, uncaring. At the time, she’d perhaps wrongly assumed it was a simple disdain for high school.

“He’s…new…” Bonnie muttered, the words slipping out before she could stop herself.

As he turned, Bonnie felt her face flush. She was interested, and also rather, unfortunately, attracted.

It was her plan to ignore all things boys her entire time here, sans her unfortunate crush on Kol so long ago. Day one of senior year and already that was going down the drain.

“Oh, damn, right,” Liv said, smacking her head, “I forgot to tell you my cousin is transferring here. Who knows how long, but my mom thought it would be good for him to have ‘some stability’.”

“Your…cousin?” Bonnie echoed, brain firing to make the connections as Liv talked. “Him?”

She’d heard about Liv’s cousin once or twice in passing, but never more than a vague idea. She had no idea that it was a boy their age, where he’d lived previously, or even what he was called.

Instantly, she tried to shutter her desire for him.

“Yep. Offered to give him a ride today, said he’d rather walk. Weirdo. Didn’t know we had the same homeroom,” Liv said, completely uncaring.

Bonnie knew Liv wasn’t going to offer more up. She was dying for more information, but he was cloaked in mystery for right now, or so it seemed.

Bonnie’s name was always right upfront in terms of seating charts. As Mr. Tanner went through the list, Bonnie gave a wave of acknowledgment, though it wasn’t needed. She’d had Tanner for History all four years.

She could feel Liv’s cousin look at her. If only for a second, as he did with everyone. Or, so she thought. Maybe he was examining her longer because she was sitting next to Liv? She would likely never know.

She kept her head down, refusing to meet his gaze.

“Parker, Elizabeth?”

“Yep, here, here,” Liv raised a tired hand.

“Parker…” There was a pause. Mr. Tanner was squinting at the list.

“It’s pronounced Malachai,” Liv’s cousin said. His voice was silky, even, and dark. It sent a shiver up her back, “Pretty shitty name, wouldn’t you say? Dad’s been making my life miserable since day one.” His laughter was the only sound in the room as everyone sat, as though transfixed by him. There was something easy-going to his tone, though Bonnie saw right through it. He was the type that made friends easily but liked none of them. 

After what seemed like an eternity, there was a groan from inside the circle. Coven members dropped to their knees in gratitude that their prayers had been answered, some actually cried tears of joy. The nightmare that many had feared would not come to pass and they could breathe easy once more.

Until another sound was heard.

The sound was quiet at first, only a few huffs, but before long jubilant laughter could be heard throughout the clearing. Slowly, the robed members backed away from the circle, fear and horror etched in their faces.

“Impossible!”

“How can this be?”

“Joshua, explain this!”

The demands fell on deaf ears. The former leader was dumbstruck. All of his precautions, all of his scheming behind the scenes, all for nothing.  He watched in despair as his oldest child, his shining star, and the one he had been so sure of, rise to her feet. He watched as she ignored his presence in favor of her brother. Him. The abomination, the very reason he had secretly taught her how to all but guarantee a win. 

He watched as they could hardly stand for laughing so hard. A little too late, the veil lifted, and he was able to finally see her for what she really was.

A daughter that preyed on her fathers’ desperation.

A sibling more loyal to her womb-mate than the coven.

A leader that would share power with a siphon instead of sticking to tradition.

“What have you done?” The words came out as a broken whisper.

“What I’ve done,” she sneered, “is taken what’s rightfully ours.”

“It was only supposed to be yours!” His yell echoed across the clearing.

“Yeah, well,” he spoke then, “somebody learned to share along the way, didn’t you, sissy?” The two exchanged a look and cracked up again.

“I won’t let you ruin this coven,” the man threatened.

He was met with twin looks of derision. “Now, why would you think we want that?” she asked.

“We don’t want to ruin it, pops,” he agreed with his twin. “We only want to run it the way it should be run. Your time is over, yet ours is just beginning.”

“I’ll die before I let you —” The words had barely left his mouth before his neck was violently wrenched to the left.

“Anybody else have any objections?” She asked, nodding once when her question was met with silence. “Good, we have a lot to discuss before our coronation.” She turned to her brother who was simply staring at their father’s prone body on the ground. “You staying out here all night, or?”

He rolled his eyes. “So bossy.”

She linked her arm with his, the rest of the coven following obediently behind their new leaders. “And don’t you forget it, little brother.”

10 Years Later

Kai watched expressionlessly as his opponent writhed on the floor. He often wondered what it felt like when he siphoned somebody, if it really was as painful as it seemed. If the yells that were currently echoing around the studio were any indication, the person on the ground certainly seemed to think so.

“Kai!”

Sighing heavily, he relaxed his grip, “Yes, sissy?”

“Walk with me.” It wasn’t a question.

Kai waited until they cleared the exercise area, before he asked, “What can I do for you this fine morning?”

“Two things,” she started. “First, we’ve located the ascendant.”

Kai stopped walking and turned to his sister expectantly, “Point me in the right direction.”

She groans, “It’s in Mystic Falls.”

Kai’s sly smile was instantaneous. “Well, I guess I’m heading to Virginia.” His mind was instantly bombarded with memories of soft brown skin, beguiling green eyes, and a lush mouth that was made to be wrapped around his-

“For fuck’s sake, focus, you idiot.” Jo snapped him out of his reverie. “The goal is getting the ascendant, not getting your dick wet again.” She stepped closer. “Or do I need to remind you of what could happen if it falls into the wrong hands?”

“No, Josette,” Kai snapped, “You don’t need to remind me that our continued existence in this world and as coven leaders are tied to a hunk of metal that could send us both away.”

Jo shot him a saccharine smile, “Glad to hear it, don’t want you getting distracted and losing another Gemini artifact.” With that, she flounced off.

“Bitch.” Kai muttered.

“I heard that!” Jo yelled without turning around.

When Kai landed in Virginia, he’s met by a Gemini scout that had been tasked with making sure that Bonnie was still in the vicinity. Although at this point, he knew it was all for show. She would be there, waiting for him like she always was. He ignored the man’s nervous babbling as he drove them to the outskirts of Mystic Falls, choosing instead to focus on his upcoming reunion with the witch that had managed to somehow get under his skin.

The first time she had taken something from him, furious didn’t even come close to describing how he felt. His rage had shaken the walls of the Gemini stronghold. Compounded by Jo’s ‘I told you so’ smirk that was ever present. Kai knew his sister had taken a strong dislike to Bonnie from the beginning, hating the way Kai’s focus would pull from her over to the green-eyed girl. So when her deceit was discovered, he knew his sister would be happy to have him to herself once more.

Except that didn’t happen. Kai was angry, yes, but more than that he was intrigued. So much so that when it came to retrieving the artifact, he broke protocol and went by himself. He had been expecting to find her shaking in fear, after all, he and Jo had built up quite the fearsome reputation.

Instead what he found was a witch hopped up on Expression, a handful of vampires, a few hunters, not one but two originals, plus a Hybrid thrown in for good measure. He didn’t know what kind of menagerie she was running in Mystic Falls, but damn if he didn’t want to stick around and play for a bit.

So he did.

He spent a week in Mystic Falls and in that time he managed to incapacitate all the vampires and wound the hunters bad enough to leave him alone. Although he doubts he made a dent in the Hybrid and Originals, he did manage to retrieve what was stolen.

He also got to fuck Bonnie Bennett into the mattress, but that was neither here nor there.

Jo had assumed his smug demeanor was due to him successfully completing his task, and most of it was. But Kai could admit to himself that he couldn’t wait to see what Bonnie’s reaction would be when she discovered that he had stolen her Golden Daggers.  

Sure enough, one night upon returning home, he’d just barely cleared the door when he was thrown against the opposite wall. Despite his back screaming in pain, he chuckled, “Hey Bonster.”

“You have something of mine.” She emerged from the shadowy corner.

Kai put on a shocked face, “Shit, that wasn’t your first time, was it? I’m not usually in the habit of taking people’s virginities, but in your case—“

“That’s not what I mean, and you know it!” She stalked closer. “Where are my daggers?”

He pretended to think. “Daggers, daggers, nope. Doesn’t ring a bell.” A smile lit his face and he held his hands out. “You can search me if you want.”

Thus began a bi-coastal cat and mouse game of one stealing from the other, forcing the other to come “retrieve” what was stolen. They both insisted it was nothing more than the thrill of the chase, the knowledge that each one of them could let loose with the other in a way that was normally prohibited. Kai’s ability to wield magic as well as siphon was the perfect foil for Bonnie when she blended her ancestral magic with Expression. More often than not, every encounter left the two not only sporting a collection of scrapes and bruises, but also very satisfied smiles.

Kai jolted back to awareness when the car came to a forceful stop. “What the hell?”

“I’m sorry sir, we seem to have hit a barrier. It wasn’t there yesterday, otherwise I would have noticed—”

Kai held up a hand, bringing the man’s babbling to an abrupt stop. Bonnie must have had her own spies waiting for his arrival as well. He shrugged out of his coat and rolled up his shirt sleeves. It seemed Bonnie wanted to widen the playing area this time; he could work with that. He’d been in Mystic Falls more than a few times at this point, and could easily navigate his way to Bonnie’s place.

He stepped up to the barrier and knelt down, placing his hands in the dirt and began to siphon up enough magic in order to allow him entry.