"Do you think people ever get tired of A Christmas Story? Like, actually tired of it. Like so tired of it they're contemplating shooting their own eye out, but with a hunting rifle instead of a BB gun."
Bonnie grits her teeth. Damon has just barely started the movie and Kai already won't shut up.
The three of them are in Elena's house this time. It had turned out the Ascendant needed a full month of basking in the light of the Eclipse before it was fully ready for another portal jump, and because of that they'd been static for some time. If someone would've told Bonnie months ago that her freedom would depend on a magical witch battery that looked like a can opener, she probably wouldn't have believed it.
She still isn't sure what her plan of action is. She knows letting Malachai out isn't an option, but each and every day Damon looks at her with that pitiful hope in his eyes just makes it harder to justify her need to keep the siphon contained.
She wonders distantly if it's the right choice— to keep Damon from Elena and her from Jeremy.
Or, if not Jer, her old life. She wonders how the younger Gilbert would even look at her now, knowing what she's done. Knowing what the darkness in her chest and the aching loneliness had done to her.
Every time she looks at Kai, her stomach tightens and she knows. She knows what he is and there's this unmistakable driving force pushing every fiber of her being to stop him. To put an end to him.
To chase him to the ends of the Earth and back, as long as it means he never escapes.
"Y'know, Kai," Damon says with a flourish, pouring himself some more bourbon in his glass on the end table. It looks like he's using one from Miranda and Grayson's antique set. "I'm going to shoot your eye out with a hunting rifle and a BB gun if you don't stop talking." He gives a sour smile. "In fact, I'll do you one better. I'll shoot one eye out with the BB gun and the other with the hunting rifle. Everyone wins."
Kai sits back in the reclining seat and scoops a handful of popcorn into his mouth, fixing the vampire with an amused gaze. "Your temper's going to get you in trouble, Damon. What do you think, Bonnie? He looks exactly like the elf that pushes Ralphie down the slide. He's even got the whole grimace and tacky outfit thing down."
Damon's glare is withering, but it typically is. "Very funny, jackass. You're wearing cut off shorts and a Led Zeppelin top that looks like it came from Good Will."
"Can you both just stop?" Bonnie interjects, feeling her temper flare and quickly turn to exasperation. "I'd like to at least try and pretend I'm at Elena's actual house watching A Christmas Story and not stuck in supernatural purgatory with you two."
"Or— second option— I'll stop when the magic siphoning weasel stops endlessly yammering on," Damon argues pettily. He grips the glass in his hand like he's about to crush it with vampiric strength. "He's giving me high blood pressure, and vampires don't get high blood pressure, Bonnie."
"When he stops talking?" Bonnie asks incredulously. "And when is that? The end of the world as we know it?"
Kai just looks amused in the background. "Damon, you're sooo dramatic. Wanna know what I think?" he asks, and Damon gives an expression that conveys just how much he clearly does not, in fact, want to know. "I think you're so used to your own self-absorbed monologue-ing that you're upset someone else is talking for a change."
Bonnie thinks this is a fairly obvious conclusion to draw, but Kai looks smug all the same.
"So, when are we getting the hell out of here and as far away from this idiot as possible?" Damon asks, snatching the remote from Bonnie's arm rest and switching the TV off in one quick motion. "That witchy battery is done charging tonight, isn't it?"
"Darren, were you raised in a barn?" Kai asks inquisitively, sitting forward. "We weren't even halfway through the movie."
"The Ascendant should be finished charging by tomorrow, yes," Bonnie replies, ignoring Kai completely. "We'll be home on Christmas Eve." Anytime Bonnie thinks about her plans to somehow leave Kai in the prison world, she comes up short when she remembers the harsh, burning feeling of her magic being zapped from her veins. Of his fingers lighting up the surface of her skin.
"Great, and that's, uh, tomorrow," Kai says, clearly losing patience. "So, here's an idea: maybe don't interrupt the movie. What am I supposed to do instead? Listen to Damon recite his alphabet of favorite moments with Nephew Uncle Zac all up until he chomped down on his pregnant wife like a fruit snack?"
"Can you stop?" Bonnie says in disgust, lip curling at Kai's choice of vocabulary. "Damon, just turn the damn movie back on."
The vampire sneers, but complies all the same. He takes a big swig of bourbon. "Don't have to tell me twice. Anything to drown out the sound of this idiot's voice."
xxxx
The following day, it takes almost an hour of aligning the Ascendant before Kai finally instructs them where to dig.
It takes a few hours longer of Damon chipping away at the earth with the pickaxe before the surface of the ground breaks through and reveals the cave below— the place where the light of the eclipse (according to Kai) is to shine down and activate the Ascendant.
"Looks like I got back just in time," the siphon says, and she realizes he's right behind her, pulling his backpack off one arm. He'd left earlier when Damon had started digging— something about needing to gather important materials.
Damon shoots over to him in a blur, dropping the pickaxe and seizing the siphon's bag to peek into its contents.
"Zima," Damon declares almost boredly. "Grunge. Every Alex Rodriguez rookie card in demand and a.. pager? Really?"
Kai grins and makes eye contact with her over Damon's shoulder (almost sheepishly, Bonnie thinks). "555-Hi-Kai, no way I'm giving those digits up."
"These were the important supplies you had to get?"
"Look, the future sounds great, alright? I'm super excited about the internet. But 1994 has been my home for most of my life— I'd hate to get homesick. So, let's just get down there—"
"No," Bonnie says, and the objection is tumbling out of her mouth before she even realizes it. She's standing up now, pushing past Damon to reach Kai. "We are not going anywhere until you show me the spell."
"Ohhh-kay," he says, shoving his hands dramatically into his pockets and looking straight ahead.
Bonnie feels her annoyance only growing.
"Are we literally not going anywhere?" Damon asks, glare narrowing.
"Fine," Bonnie murmurs, shifting to look up at him with crossed arms. "If you don't want to show me the spell then you can do it yourself."
Kai looks amused at this, meeting her gaze evenly.
"You want my magic," Bonnie continues, stepping forward. The air between them feels heady with energy. She reaches her arm out, feeling almost naked as she does. "Take it."
"Uh-oh," Kai jokes. "She's being brave."
"I'm serious, Kai. This was your big threat, wasn't it? If I don't do the spell and let us out of here you'll just take my magic, leave me for dead and do the spell yourself. So go ahead. Take all of it."
There's a moment. A brief, split second where Bonnie can feel his warmth and can see, up close, the amused look on his face. She doesn't think he'll do it.
"Don't mind if I do," he says, and his hands are touching her. There's a searing hot fire blasting through her nerves, singeing her magic from inside out. She can't breathe— the feeling of being sucked dry is overwhelming. So painful it almost feels.. pleasurable?
"Bonnie," Damon cries out in alarm.
"It's okay," she grunts, glaring at Kai as she struggles against his touch. "He won't kill me."
"Doesn't look like that from here," Damon says argumentatively. "Hey, Bonnie," he chastises again as she lets out a cry of pain.
She feels his hand roaming up her shoulder, yanking her towards him. She writhes against his chest, somehow still raising her head enough to bare her teeth at him through the pain.
He's grinning. Actually grinning, she thinks— like this is a game.
She guesses maybe it is.
"Woah, hey, guys," Damon interjects, clearly growing only more panicked. "STOP."
Kai, grinning, pulls his hands back from her and watches her retract. She's breathing heavily, her chest rising and falling and her veins singing with residual pain and pleasure.
"He doesn't know the spell," she says, tilting her head. "Which means... we don't need him." His eyes are still smug. It only fuels her fire.
She does it without thinking— not truly, anyway. It's an act of desperation. Of passion, in a twisted way. Bonnie can't remember the last time someone's gotten under her skin like this, and she certainly wants to scrub the shame of seeing him and knowing she'd actually started off being attracted to someone like him. No— that she still is. The shame burns through her, so she raises one hand. "Motus."
The pickaxe Damon had been using to dig flies upwards, slinging towards Kai's chest and embedding itself in his heart. He chokes, his eyes growing only a little wider as he starts to fall.
Something stirs in her chest as he does.
"No, no... Bonnie!"
She stands still, trembling. She can feel her own heart pounding in her chest, and adrenaline like fire floods through her veins.
"Great work, Bonnie," Damon concedes, patting her shoulder.
xxxx
"I'm sure there are about a billion people you'd rather be here with."
"Not exactly."
It's maybe the only tender moment she's ever truly shared with Damon. She's sure it won't be the last, since she now has the Ascendant working and has found the truth— Kai had needed her to leave. Bennett blood had always been the key to escaping the Prison World.
She hardly has time to open her mouth and finish the spell when she feels it biting into her gut, throwing her backwards with such force she's suddenly being slammed against the cavern floor.
Her ribcage feels like its cracking and the biting pain in her gut rears its ugly head more.
Blood, blood, blood. It's an arrow. A crossbow arrow, in her side. The Ascendant has fallen, and Kai is standing at the mouth of the cavern.
"Forgetting someone?" Kai smirks, lowering the crossbow. "Did you really think I hadn't tried to kill myself before? Because I had. Lots of times.. lots of ways." He's loading another bolt into the crossbow, cocking it. He uses it to gesture to the Ascendant. "Grab that and the next arrow goes in her heart."
Damon stares at him for a long moment. Using his vampiric speed, he rushes over to Bonnie and grabs her, helping hoist her up a little.
"Damon..," she groans, but he ignores her, pulling the arrow from her gut. He bites his own wrist, poised to feed her vampire blood.
She sees Kai behind him, heading for the Ascendant.
"Damon, no," she panics, gesturing until he looks.
Damon wooshes back over to Kai, slamming him against the cavern wall. Without Damon's support, Bonnie drops a little, groaning as she hits the floor again.
She starts to crawl towards the Ascendant just as she hears Kai shove one of the arrows into Damon's chest. There's a sickly splintering sound as he drives it in, and the two are fighting for dominance as Kai manages to semi-stake him with a measly crossbow bolt.
"Bonnie, get out of here," Damon growls, fighting Kai off of him.
"I'm not gonna make it," she says, voice trembling. Tears sting her eyes and she hardly manages a smile. "But you are." She lunges for the Ascendant, fingers grasping the cool metal.
"Motus." Magic leaving her like an exhale, she watches as the spell sends Kai flying off of Damon. Bonnie twists her hand, pulling it towards her, and the magic follows, yanking Damon towards the light.
She throws the Ascendant and Damon just barely catches it.
"Don't," Kai shouts, lunging forward.
The Ascendant is already unfolding, and Damon looks at her in horror. "No," he says, as he realizes. "No!"
He's gone. Bonnie knows, as she sees him portal jump, that she's truly alone now.
The last thing she hears is the Ascendant shattering and Kai's scream of pure fury.
xxxx
When she finally stirs again, she's on the Salvatores' couch. She feels his presence before she even opens her eyes.
"Oh, look who's awake." He leans forward, clasping his hands together. "How do you feel?"
"Like you shot me with an arrow," she says incredulously, holding her side as she sits up. She feels something catch underneath her shirt and lifts it to find a bandage. The wound still hurts, but it seems like the Siphon had doctored it up. She wonders how much time out of his eighteen years in the Prison World had been spent learning medicine.
"Right. Anywho— I have no idea how you managed to shatter the Ascendant into a billion pieces, but we need to put it back together before the eclipse at 12:28. You wanna help?" He grins in spite of himself. "I know you're a puzzle person."
"I don't wanna help," Bonnie says as she stands. "You're a psychopath— this place is your prison. I'm not letting you out. Besides, you'd just kill me the minute we get out." Even as she says it, she wonders if it's entirely true.
Kai pauses for a moment, purses his lips and then stands up. Every inch he moves closer to her, she can feel it. Sense him, on some magical level— the magic-sucking void for her very own magic well.
"You've been through a trauma," he says, his words like silk. "Your memory is probably a little fuzzy right now, so you might be thinking that your magic will protect you." He's standing next to her now, his heat pouring off in waves. She tries to step back, but his hand snakes out and latches onto her wrist, holding her in place.
"But all I have to do is hold your hand and your magic suddenly becomes mine." His touch quickly becomes biting and the familiar warm sucking feeling cascades through her body.
She leans into him, gasping at the pain. His fingers are shifting from her wrist to her hand, pulling her even closer. He moves his mouth to her ear and Bonnie feels like she might die. "What was that?" he asks, and it's so raspy it comes out in a near whisper. His breath tickles her ear, and she can feel almost the entirety of his chest pressed against her. Her blood feels like it's boiling, and a flush overtakes her that she's instantly ashamed of. "You're gonna do the spell to finally get us home?"
She sobs weakly as his fingers tighten. It takes every ounce of her strength to move— to pull away from him and lunge for the ballpoint pen on the table. Stabbing it forcefully into his neck, she lets out a breath of instant relief as the siphon falls, clutching the spurting wound. Her magic stutters and pulses freely within her again, free of his touch.
Bonnie moves towards the Ascendant on the table as if on instinct, seizing the backpack from the chair.
Just before she pushes the entire thing into the bag, she pauses. Would it be too obvious and too futile to just snatch the entire Ascendant and run? She racks her brain for a moment, trying to think of some alternative.
She drops the backpack and scoops a tiny piece of the Ascendant into her jean pocket.
She heads for Sheila Bennett's house.
xxxx
Bonnie doesn't know what she's looking for. A linking spell? A destruction spell of some kind?
She's on her hands and knees in Sheila's bedroom closet, pulling dusty grimoires from the corner and flipping quickly through them. The pages smell old but familiar, and she recognizes some of the passages. The Ascendant piece feels like it's burning a hole in her pocket, but she continues searching anyway. How long until Kai resurrects? Until he finds her?
It's almost half an hour later when she finds it.
It's in the oldest book; a fat, black-leathered grimoire with pentacles engraved upon the front.
"A transfer spell," she whispers, laying the book flat. "To move the magic of a spelled object to either the user themselves or a new object entirely." She reads further, skimming to the bottom of the page. The spell seems to require a large pool of magic— a giant burst of it, that can be obtained in a few different ways.
Bonnie ponders this. Having only just gotten her magic back recently, she knows there are only so many spells she can feasibly pull off. Even just the first fire spell she'd used to threaten Kai had zapped a lot out of her.
Bonnie stands, closing the book. She knows what she has to do.
xxxx
It's the next day, December 25th, before she returns to the boarding house.
Before she crosses the Salvatores' threshold again, she uses the piece of the Ascendant to slice her finger and draw blood. Slipping it back inside of a locket of Sheila's that's hanging around her neck, she closes it tightly and steps inside.
The floorboards creak under her weight. The smell of cooking wafts through the air, making her salivate. As much as she hates to admit it, the siphon is a good cook. What she smells now is no less than a Christmas Day feast.
"Kai?" she calls, reaching the entrance to the den. The Salvatores' living room is decked out in Christmas decor. Red and green string lights cover the archway above her, and a white Christmas tree that looks like it came from Bell's is set up in the corner. There's Christmas music playing in the background as well, but it's all piano instrumental and doesn't have any singing.
"Do you like the, uh, music choice?" Kai asks, and she jumps when she realizes he's standing at the other entrance to the den. "You can thank me later for not playing any of the classics. My sister Jo used to be all about those." He gives an impish grin. "Jingle hop- more like jingle hop to your grave if you hear it one more time, amiright?"
Bonnie gives him a hard look. "What the hell is all of this?"
"Um, what does it look like? Bon, we were just watching a movie about Christmas. It's not like I siphoned your brains out or anything-"
"God, Kai, stop. I mean, why?"
He folds his arms. He's wearing an ugly Christmas sweater with minimalist reindeer heads decorating the front, and she finds herself wondering if it's some kind of joke. "Well, I knew you were going to come back for the Ascendant. I mean, no way in Hell you're planning on staying in here with me, right? It's Christmas in the real world, so. Might as well make the best of it, right?" Just when she thinks he's going to stop, he presses on. Suspicion builds in her gut. "The truth is, Bon.. I want to be more like you. I think spending all of this time together has made me realize that."
All of this smells like fresh bullshit to Bonnie, but she only cocks one eyebrow at him. "And I guess your big plan is feeding me Christmas Ham until I forget you murdered half your family, right?"
"Is there a better way to approach this? 'Cuz I'm all ears, baby. You just don't strike me as a flowers kinda girl."
Bonnie winces at the use of 'baby'. It's not even something Jer had ever called her. The idea of a sociopath she'd met in a magical Prison World calling her that with zero romantic history between them makes her screen crawl. "Call me that again and I'll melt your face off," she says coolly.
Kai raises his brows, laughing. "Oooh. I mean, if you're offering. I've always wanted to find out if turning my face into a gushing fountain of blood would still trigger a magical resurrection. Fingers crossed it doesn't." He nods his head toward the kitchen. "C'monn, Bonnie. If you're going to give me the third degree, at least do it over a Christmas feast?"
She gives him a long look before conceding. Her hand coming up to her neck to make sure her locket is safe underneath her shirt, she follows Kai as he enters the kitchen.
Bonnie is salivating as soon as she sees the food. On the island counter, there's a one-pound pork tenderloin coated in brown sugar topping laid out on a cutting board. Next to it are sides of sweet potatoes, stuffing and what looks like garlic-and-bacon green beans.
"Help yourself," Kai says, gesturing to the two plates he'd left on the counter. "Scout's honor it's not poisoned."
As much as she wants to, Bonnie knows she's going to lose her window of opportunity if she doesn't act soon.
"Do you think you're playing some kind of game? Luring me into a false sense of security by making me food and flirting with me again?" She takes a step toward him. Kai is leaned against the island counter, so he has nowhere to go. He just gives her a surprised look, his brows raising a bit as Bonnie stands not even two inches from him.
She can feel his body heat now. She wonders if she should feel sick for what she's about to do. She tries to imagine what Jer would think of her now.
Bonnie puts the thought away. No sense in dwelling now. It's her only way out of here. That's what she tells herself, anyway.
"Bon?" he asks, seeming genuinely confused. "Don't get me wrong. I'm all for this weird sexual tension thing, but— there's pork tenderloin—"
"Malachai. Stop."
She closes the distance between their mouths. Fire feels like it's engulfing her as her lips slide across his. He returns the gesture eagerly, his tongue meeting hers in a caress.
He's good at kissing, she thinks, and realizes she's probably lost her mind. She knows she isn't supposed to enjoy it, but her groin is searing with heat and every new swipe of his tongue makes her want to rip his clothes off.
She's lost, she realizes, as she undoes his fly and rips his shorts off. She's lost in an unfamiliar tide of desire.
He pulls her own pants off too, and she's surprised she doesn't fight him. Kai tries to move for her shirt as well, but she slaps his hand away, fear clenching her chest as she realizes he might see the locket.
He doesn't seem to notice.
The two of them stumble towards the kitchen table, and Bonnie's back hits the edge. He lifts her up, hoisting her onto it with ease and laying her flat. She still has her underwear on, so he lowers himself, using his long fingers to pull them slightly off.
Bonnie can feel the cool air on her genitals. She's so wet that she tries to remember the last time she'd had this kind of reaction just from making out with someone.
"Kai," she murmurs as he uses his tongue to lick a long strip between her labia. He does it once more but takes his time, lapping at her juices carefully as he works his way up.
The witch lets out a hiss, her hand clenching the table cloth and the decorative Christmas candles a foot away from her roaring to life with flames.
One of his long fingers strokes her, dipping into her wetness and sliding slightly into her opening. Just as he does this, he sucks her clit and she cries out. He rolls his tongue around, making a suckling motion that already starts to push her over the edge. Using two fingers, he fucks them in and out of her. Bonnie is all too aware of how sloppy and wet it sounds— she turns her head in shame, her eyes stinging with unshed tears as the siphon's tongue rolls over her clit again and again.
Magic trembles through her, rolling across her small frame just as the orgasm does. The locket is searing her skin for a brief moment, and she knows. She has the power to complete the spell.
xxxx
Kai's not a fool. At least, not most of the time. Not with matters that don't involve eating out Bonnie Sheila Bennett on the Salvatores' dining room table.
He'd noticed when the piece of the Ascendant was missing. Had he thought she'd hidden it so he couldn't escape? Yes. Did he have a plan to get it back from her? Also yes.
But what he hadn't expected was this.
He's circling her clit with his tongue, his erection making a tent out of his boxers. He can smell her. Taste her. He'd known the Christmas Feast would be good, but this? This was on another level.
He feels her trembling; hears her cry his name as she starts to orgasm. He uses a finger to play with her opening, adding a second digit to dip in further and fuck her in and out.
Kai is transfixed. Mesmerized. He's so busy working with his mouth that he doesn't realize she's starting to chant.
When he hears the Latin, he knows. Pulling away, he gives her an incredulous look. "What... have you done?" His throat bobs. "Bonnie."
She sits up. There's a grin forming on her features, but it's full of malice. "Your worst fear. Goodbye, Kai. Motus."
One of the cooking knives he'd left out flies from the edge of counter, lodging itself in the side of his neck. His long fingers grasp at the gushing wound, and he falls.
xxxx
Bonnie wonders in retrospect if maybe taking the Ascendant would have made more sense. She steps over Kai's body, the blood flowering out on the Salvatores' kitchen floor.
He probably would've come for her, if she had, though. It would've shown a full intention to escape without him.
Little does he know, she's doing that now anyway.
The Christmas music playing in the background is eerie, echoing throughout the boarding house and following her as she goes.
She returns to the cavern at 12:28 PM on the dot. She can finally leave— leave this Hell. Her own personal Underworld. Or maybe it's Kai's. The line had blurred long ago.
As she says the incantation, she can feel magic stirring in her veins. The Ascendant is useless. She is the object of power for the spell, and she can feel it in her bones. The spell feels like it's swirling around her, and she starts to feel the portal jump.
Bonnie tries to forget that haunted look on his face. She tries to forget that some part of her had even enjoyed it.
At least she'd be home for Christmas.