Tonight was hotter than all of the summer nights before it; ripe and muggy and claustrophobically warm — charged like the very air was anticipating something or like it was holding onto something that imbued everything — the trees, the sky, the dirt — with an awful excitement.

On campus Bonnie tossed and turned in bed, groaning in frustration, sweat prickling her forehead and upper lip and the bridge of her nose; she was trying to get comfortable, trying to find the right position so she could sleep. Except she was asleep. She was even dreaming.

It was just in flashes.

Strong hands. Seductive lips. Wicked eyes. An … experienced tongue. They were all over her body; teasing her breasts and thighs, forcing her to ache in the worst possible way, terrorizing her with lustful yearning. The owner of these eyes, those lips, that tongue, he wasn't fully visible; there was no complete face, no actual indication. But it all felt devastatingly familiar to Bonnie. It all felt like Kai.

In bed Bonnie slipped her hand beneath the covers, her fingers grazing her belly and slowly they made their way to her underwear; they brushed the lacey material and she whimpered out loud, already sensitive and wet and expectant. She eased her fingers in and groaned as they found her ache. That dreamed tongue, that dreamed experienced tongue found its way to her ache too and agitated it; twirling and flicking, licking and lapping, giving no quarter, showing no mercy. Bonnie's fingers mirrored the motions; the combined sensation making her squirm, making her body bow off the bed — she felt wrecked and light at the same time; faint and consumed like she was floating and drowning. She moaned aloud once more and those dreamed hands kneaded her nipples then moved down to her behind, caressing her skin, and holding in her place as the tongue increased its pressure at the apex of her thighs, compelling Bonnie to grind against the movement, tilting her pelvis up toward the mouth. Bonnie rubbed herself harder and faster, imitating the swivel of her hips and she bit down on her lip, feeling her body tremor within the dream and out of it.

She was close. On the edge. And she was conflicted between the desire to ride the feeling as long as she could or to let go and feel herself shatter from the power this orgasm was sure to bring. The night grew unbearably hot, she was covered in sweat and her pyjamas were sticking to her. She wanted to stop, she wanted to continue, she wanted to dream forever; she felt like she needed to get out of her skin, out of her own body, that the pleasure of it all would tear her apart if she didn't. This was it, surely this was it. The tongue was swirling faster and harder, pushing her even higher, all of her concentration was on that one spot and the build was giving way, everything was going to burst … … ….

And then abruptly the dream stopped.

Nothing but darkness.

Bonnie opened her eyes, muscles still clenched around her fingers, bothered and bereft. Her body was screaming for release, to be unwound; her skin was on fire. She almost didn't realize that she was levitating, hovering above the bed and just below the ceiling. She squeezed her eyes shut.

The hell?

Suddenly, she crashed back down onto her mattress and her eyes snapped open once again; the sun was just beginning to rise and a cool, steady breeze blew through the open windows. It wasn't hot. It wasn't even night. Did she dream those things too? It felt so real. It all felt so real.

"Bonnie?"

She jerked upright in bed and saw Caroline and Elena were sitting up in each of theirs too, their hair ruffled from a sound sleep.

"You OK? You were groaning in your sleep," said Elena.

"Again," added Caroline. "It's been like this for five weeks now. Are you sure you don't want me to compel you to just have a good night's sleep? At least once?"

Bonnie shook her head frantically. "Did either of you see that?"

"See what?"

"I just … never mind, if you saw it you'd know. Forget about it."

Bonnie put her head in her hands and then quickly removed them from her face; any touch her body suffered was uncomfortable now, almost painful. Everything was too sensitized and unfulfilled. She sighed to herself, slightly disturbed. She was levitating, though. That had been real. That had to have been real. Or was it just that what was threatening to happen for five weeks happened now and she'd finally lost her mind?

"Bonnie…"

"I'm taking a shower," she said tersely, flinging the sheets off of her bed, wincing as the material skimmed the inside of her leg as the blankets were thrown aside.

She made sure the water was freezing when she went into the girls' restrooms. It felt good to have the cold droplets thunder her body like bullets — her overheated skin needed rough and cruel treatment. She needed the aftershock of that dream, of the ache that dream spawned deep in her gut to be pounded out of her so she could spend the day focusing on school, on anything and not be aggravated with pent-up energy, thirsty and crazed with the begging wish to just … let go. But she knew that this shower wouldn't work. It never worked in the five weeks she'd taken them, in the five weeks she'd had the same dream, in the five weeks since Kai walked out on her.

Bonnie pressed her head against the wall of the shower, the cold water beating her back. Their last encounter echoed in her mind.

"Do not walk away from me!"

"After all of the times you've walked away from me?"

Since then she hadn't seen him. He didn't force his way into her room three or seven or twelve days after their fight, distraught and wild and desperate for her like he'd normally done. His absence caused Bonnie to seethe with confused emotion: loss and indignation and fear and resentment; all of it transformed into noise in her head, refusing her peace or rest or stillness. And all of it enraged her. She didn't ask for this, for him, for them; she had the right to walk away whenever she felt like it but he didn't. Not after everything he'd done to her, not after everything he brought out in her. She hated herself for the worry that tinged every thought she had, the worry that he wouldn't come back; it was a vague anxiety but it stayed with her, a consistent pester at the back of her mind.

She hated herself even more for missing him because it wasn't simply missing him, it was going mad with thoughts of him, with memories of them, together and entwined and breathless. Bonnie didn't sleep, she didn't listen in class, she did nothing but remember the delicious pain, the agonizing pleasure that would excite her the moment, the very instant his fangs penetrated her skin; she did nothing but fantasize about his body, hard and eager, against hers and when she lost focus in lectures or during lunch dates with Caroline and Elena and envisioned Kai buried in her, thrusting and gyrating, panting her name like a mantra or a prayer, it took every ounce of her self-control to keep from touching herself right then and there and to just let herself burn with the imagery of Kai above her, smug and aroused and concentrated. On her. Not that she could bring herself any relief anyway — it'd been five weeks since she'd been able to climax, five weeks of a constant building deep in her belly that only got more and more intense with each passing second, driving her wild with need, making the very act of living, of existing difficult, almost intolerable. She had never known lust to be like this. She had never known desire, any kind of desire, to be an excruciating sensation that overran her life; it had never felt this way with Jeremy or with Luka or with Jamie.

Seeing Kai, Bonnie knew, would be the only way to get what she so desperately craved but she refused to do it even though her refusal tormented her. Even though most days she hallucinated him around campus or in The Grill or even in her dorm, leaning against a wall or sipping coffee by a tree or else simply standing right in front of her, and then she'd blink and he'd be gone and she'd angrily lament her sanity, lament that Kai Parker was what was ripping it away from her. But she couldn't give him the satisfaction of admitting that her own satisfaction depended on him to the point that without it, she was falling apart. He didn't deserve to know that, not after leaving her the way he did. Anyway, wasn't she the one who nearly died? Where the hell did he get off being angry at her for nearly killing her? You did egg him on though … Bonnie thought to herself and then she told herself to shut up.

She turned toward the shower handle and extended her arm, muttering something in Latin. Nothing happened. Her magic hadn't returned. Bonnie groaned. This meant that her levitation had to have been a hallucination. Or that she'd still been dreaming. She decided to go with the second idea; it was easier to think that she hadn't woken up from a vivid almost nightmarish dream instead of admitting to finding another piece of evidence proving that she was going through a psychotic break. Over Kai.

Manually, she turned off the shower and stepped out into the washroom, wrapping a white towel around herself. She glanced up for a second and then flinched in surprise. She paused. A shirtless Kai was in front of her, surveying the length of her body with interest. Bonnie opened her mouth but then she blinked and he was gone; there was no one else in the room. She closed her eyes and inwardly screamed. She'd been thinking about him so much that she'd managed to dredge up another delusion.

"Get. It. Together."

Bonnie walked out of the restroom, down the hall and back toward her dorm. The door was slightly open and before she pushed through into the room, she heard Caroline speaking.

"I'm worried about her," she said. "She has been acting beyond strange for over a month now. She's…"

"Restless?" Elena offered.

"It's beyond that. It's like she's … crazed or something. Always distracted and dishevelled. She can't even sit still anymore. Like at all."

"I know what you mean," said Elena. "Maybe we can compel her to tell us what's going on with her?"

"I'd feel weird doing that," said Caroline. "And I'm not sure that would work anyway. Bonnie knows all of our tricks."

"What should we do then?"

"I don't know. I'm just saying, she's definitely not acting like herself. I mean there have been—" Caroline lowered her voice "— deaths all over Mystic Falls in the past month. Like an insane number of deaths that could only be supernatural, probably vampires, and it's like Bonnie doesn't even care. We used to have to tell her to stay out of this sort of thing and now…"

Bonnie's stomach squirmed guiltily and she lowered her eyes. The deaths weren't news to her, she'd known about them even before Caroline and Elena did because before there were deaths, there'd been disappearances and they started three days after she and Kai had their fight. A week after that, the disappearances had stopped and people were simply found dead where they'd been killed. Bonnie had spent nights on her laptop looking at pictures of the bodies, examining the tears, the near decapitations, the ligature marks, the charred flesh that could only be achieved through magic …

It was Kai. All of it. It had to be.

But she couldn't tell anyone that, there'd be too many awkward questions that demanded answers and as Damon didn't seem to have told anyone about his discovery, Bonnie didn't want to admit anything unless she absolutely had to. I guess dead bodies aren't enough of a reason then, huh? Bonnie felt her guilt deepen so that her throat was tight with the urge and resistance to cry. And if she was being honest it was more than not wanting to let anyone know it was Kai, it was that the smallest part of her, the part of her that stirred most whenever Kai was around to awaken it, hoped that he was responsible for all of the destruction because that would mean he was as crazed by her memory as she was of his and that he hadn't won. Shame crashed over Bonnie in waves and she could feel her eyes well with tears at how sick her logic had become but she blinked them back and opened the door fully to walk into the dorm; she wouldn't cry on top of feeling everything else.

"Hey," she said as she headed over to her bed. "What're you guys talking about?"

"Schrodinger's Cat," said Elena promptly.

Bonnie caught a glimpse of Caroline throwing Elena a that-was-so-stupid look and Elena shrugging in response.

"Right," said Bonnie, picking up a bottle of lotion.

"Well, we should hurry if we want breakfast before class starts," said Caroline. "Wait for us to be done with our showers, Bonnie?"

"Yeah sure."

Bonnie waited for an hour and a half before the others were ready to get breakfast. They were sitting at a table in the mess hall, three bowls of cereal and a pitcher of milk in front of them. Caroline was yammering about her audition for the Drama Department's musical while Elena managed to get a word or two in whenever Caroline stopped talking to take a breath. Bonnie started to say something in an effort to be engaged with the world around her and join in on the conversation, but then she felt a pulse, like she slammed into something hard and she was momentarily out of breath. A split second later, there was Kai. Beside her. Again. He was staring at her, a smirk on his face. Bonnie felt a mixture of panic and thrill.

In quick succession he yanked Bonnie up from her chair and kissed her, lifting her onto him. With his free hand he pushed the bowls of cereal off the table so that they crashed onto the floor with resounding clunks and ignoring the scandalized look on Elena's face and the outraged yell of, "What the hell?" from Caroline, he slammed Bonnie down onto the table, climbing on top of her. He pushed his pelvis hard into her groin over and over again, his jeans barely containing his erection, and he kissed Bonnie's neck, sucking the fleshy underside of her jaw, making her claw at his back, her nails hooking into the material of his shirt. She moaned loud and deep and Elena and Caroline jumped away from the table, yelling things Bonnie didn't care to discern; she was vaguely aware that the entire cafeteria was probably watching this display now, that she'd probably be expelled but God, none of that mattered. Kai brushed Bonnie's dress upward, his hands grazing her skin so that her stomach convulsed and she felt him reach forward; suddenly, the pitcher of milk was in his hand and he poured the liquid onto her midriff. Bonnie whimpered. It was cold. His lips were kissing her stomach and licking the milk from her body, his tongue trailing up to her breasts, his pelvis thrusting even harder into her, Bonnie slipped her hands into his waistband and pressed him into her, urging him to keep rocking into her as hard as he could. He pulled away from her.

"Bonnie…" he said.

There was something strange about his voice. It was garbled. And higher.

He said her name again. "Bonnie…"

Yeah, it was definitely higher. It was almost feminine.

"BONNIE."

Bonnie twitched violently and snapped her head to the side. Caroline and Elena were looking at her with expressions of alarm and annoyance. What? The usual morning clattering of the cafeteria sounded around them. Nothing was out of the ordinary. She'd been hallucinating. Again. Again. She'd been sucked into her own daydream. When would this stop?

"Bonnie, what's wrong? Are you going to be sick?"

Bonnie realized that she had her hand on her stomach and she moved it away quickly. "No, I'm not, I'm…" She couldn't concentrate on finding the right words, the right lies, her nerve endings were shot; her entire body was raw from this morning and from this most recent fantasy. "I just need to go."

As she pushed out her chair, she knocked into someone so that they fell over and their tray and books and breakfast fell with them.

"Oh my God, I am so sorry." Bonnie got up from her seat and bent down to help her victim.

"Don't worry about it, I'll live."

She glanced up and saw that who she knocked into was Terrence, a guy from her Art History class. He looked at her and smiled. It really was a stunning smile; maybe she'd have been dazzled by it if it were any other time.

"Well look at that, Bonnie Bennett lives. Haven't seen you in class lately."

"Yeah, I know," said Bonnie, picking up Terrence's textbooks so that the pages wouldn't sodden in the spilt milk. "I've just had a lot on my mind lately…"

"I've noticed."

Bonnie laughed. "Yeah."

"Well, finals are coming up, you're going to need notes. I take really good ones if you need any…"

"She would love that," said Caroline suddenly.

"Yes," said Elena, joining in. "She'd like them tonight if that works for you."

Terrence blinked at the two of them, bemused. Bonnie was too frenzied to be annoyed.

"Would she like to get dinner tonight at around eight and we can exchange notes then?" said Terrence to Elena and Caroline.

"That sounds great," said Elena.

"Yeah, she'll be there." Caroline looked at Bonnie. "Right, Bonnie?"

Bonnie began to respond but she was hit with a flash of images again; ringed fingers pinning her wrist, a bare back writhing between her legs, her eyes closed in sheer, unadulterated pleasure, a jerking headboard…

"No. I can't take this, I —" Bonnie stood up hastily and started heading toward the exit of the cafeteria. "I'm sorry, guys. Terrence. I just… I … no, I've gotta go. I have a thing. I … yeah. Bye." And she broke out into a fast walk, leaving the cafeteria, leaving campus itself.

The house Bonnie remembered Kai squatting in last had been a dilapidated mansion. The white stucco was browned and dirtied with time, the walls and columns were covered in vines, even the roof looked on the verge of collapse. As Bonnie stomped up the steps and rammed through the front door into the derelict foyer, she couldn't be too sure that the house wouldn't fall apart with all of the commotion she was making. But it was a risk she was damned well going to take.

She didn't bother announcing her presence; she knew Kai was there and she knew he'd already known she was coming from miles away. She stormed down the faded hallway, her heels clacking furiously on the floorboards, until she reached the last room — his bedroom. When she entered, she saw him sitting at the foot of his bed, his scruff neat and trimmed, his eyes casually expectant; he would've looked unbothered if his jaw wasn't clenched. Bonnie felt her body respond to his presence, her skin was almost humming — it was instinctual, she couldn't help or stop the way heat overtook her or how her lips swelled or how she moistened at the sight of him. Bonnie felt her breathing get shallow and took in his appearance and … wait, was that … he was in the same dark jeans and white T-shirt he was wearing during her fantasy. The anger was sudden and powerful and possessed her other feelings so that they fuelled her rage.

"Whatever you're doing to me, stop it. Now. Just stop it."

"You're going to have to be more specific," said Kai.

Bonnie took a step closer to the bed. "I am seeing you everywhere. I can't do anything without thinking about you, fantasizing about you, wanting you." Bonnie enunciated the word 'want' with such guttural disgust that Kai's eyebrows raised. "I know you did this, you cast a spell to torture me, there's no other explanation."

"Except the explanation where you miss me and just can't stop thinking about me."

"Mine is more likely than yours," said Bonnie harshly.

"Which is ironic since it's wrong. I didn't do this to you, Bonnie."

"Cut the crap, Kai."

"I'm not lying." Bonnie heard an edge to his voice, slightly disrupting the cool demeanour he'd been putting on. "Whatever you're feeling that's all you. If I've been on your mind everyday all day and it's driving you crazy, it's because you want me on your mind, I've kept my distance, I've been busy."

"Yeah that's right, you've been too preoccupied with killing people. All over my town. What the hell are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking what I've always been thinking. I kill people. That's no surprise."

"Not like this! Not this many."

"I need the bloodlust, Bonnie." Kai stood up from the bed now. "I need something to get you out of my head."

"And you needed to do it in Mystic Falls?"

"There are consequences to leaving me."

Bonnie gesticulated wildly and shouted. "You left me!"

"And you let me leave!" Kai took a step closer to Bonnie.

"Right, and you wouldn't want to punish me for that, huh?" said Bonnie angrily. "You wouldn't want to cast a spell for that?"

"I already told you that's not the spell I cast."

"Wait, 'the' spell? The spell? So you did cast a spell then!" Bonnie glared at him, her eyes narrowed as she thought about the last five weeks, trying to figure out what he could've done. "Oh my God…" she said, comprehension dawning her face. "You son of a bitch, you're the reason. You're the reason why I can't finish, aren't you? Aren't you?"

"Yes," said Kai, snarling. "I may not be with you right now but I sure as hell wasn't going to let you be with anyone else. Not satisfactorily anyway."

Bonnie screamed. "That's my body, Kai! You have no right to mess with that! You crossed a line!"

"You crossed a line five weeks ago when you did everything you could so that I almost lost control with you!"

"And yet again, that had to do with my body."

"And my sanity! For five weeks all I could think about is what would've happened if I couldn't stop myself, the guilt, the pain that would haunt me, an eternity of suffering, which you wanted me to feel! For five weeks all I could think about was Damon's lips on yours, you really think I could handle even the possibility of another guy making you come?"

"That's pathetic and insecure."

"I don't care!"

"No, you're lying," said Bonnie. "This has nothing to do with other men, you don't care about other men unless it's Damon and you already took care of that, no, this is about something else, this is about me."

"Of course it's about you," said Kai impatiently.

"And not being able to finish?" said Bonnie incredulously.

"It's the only way you'd understand how I feel whenever you decide you don't want this anymore," said Kai, the words bursting out loud and fragmented. "The way your body has been aching, the way you haven't been able to concentrate on anything at all, the way you think you'll go out of your mind with longing, now you know how I feel! Every time."

"I cannot believe this. You're sick."

"And you're cruel," Kai shot back. "And don't act like there haven't been other men, what about that guy this morning in the cafeteria?"

Bonnie stared at him for a few seconds before speaking, her voice deceptively soft. "How would you know about Terrence if you've kept your distance, Kai?" She didn't wait for him to respond. "All this time, all this time I thought I was hallucinating you and you've actually been there?"

"Not all the time just sometimes," said Kai. "Other times I cloaked myself and watched you hallucinate me. I just…" He gritted his teeth and growled in frustration. "I just, God, I just can't stay away from you. I never freaking could."

"But you let me think…" Bonnie tried to control her breathing. Her voice was shaking with barely suppressed fury. "You let me think I was going crazy?"

"You were going crazy," said Kai defiantly. "And yes I did because like I said you need to know what it's like to be so agitated and frustrated and desperate that you have to storm into my house just to see me."

"To make this stop!"

"How is that different from what I just said?" yelled Kai. "You need to know, Bonnie!"

Bonnie didn't say anything, her face contorted with rage, her body shaking with the urge to do something, hit something, throw something. Anything. And Bonnie headed straight for Kai; she could see him brace himself for a slap but instead of cuffing him, Bonnie put her hands on his chest and slammed him against the wall behind him.

"Don't move. Don't speak."

Roughly she started undoing his belt buckle, her eyes remaining on his, goading him. Her current anger and her five-week-old yearning had melded together, turning into a lustful must for vengeance, a carnal desire to own him. So she needed to know what it 'felt like' did she?

Kai reached up to touch her but Bonnie slapped his hand away so that it fell back to his side; the sound rang in the air.

"Ouch," he said in amused reproach.

"Shut up. I said don't speak."

Bonnie slid his belt out of his jeans' loops and made a whipping motion with her wrist as she threw it to the side. She unbuttoned his fly and then without hesitation thrust her hand in, feeling his manhood, making Kai close his eyes and groan. Bonnie took a quick minute to silently marvel at how hard he already was; rocklike even. It had to be almost painful to be pulsating with such readiness and the thought inflamed Bonnie with arousal. She squeezed, relishing the feel of him in her hand, and he groaned again, louder and desperately, raising his head so that it rested against the wall. Forcibly, she tugged his jeans and boxers down then dropped to her knees, taking him in her mouth. He cried out and the mirror in the bedroom shattered; he grabbed the back of Bonnie's head and started panting. She sucked hard, gripping his hips and she felt his knees tremble, heard his breathing turn into nonsensical mumbling, his hold on the back of her head getting tighter. Running her tongue along and over his tip, Bonnie started massaging his shaft and he pulled her hair.

"Shit." He swore through gritted teeth. His voice was hoarse and strangled and full of need and as Bonnie took him deeper in her mouth, he called out her name so that it echoed around the room; wind started rattling the windows, threatening to break through the glass. Bonnie peered up at him through her eyelashes, his mouth was open and his fangs were descended; deep green veins streaked his face and his eyes were red and blazing, his forehead was creased. He was coming undone. Completely undone. Bonnie swirled her tongue around again and again and heard him plead.

"Please … I… fuck."

The wind finally shattered the windowpanes and blew through the room, knocking over books, disturbing papers so that they flew around in the gust. Bonnie itched his tip with her tongue again and he flexed his hips to push deeper into her mouth, moaning so loudly that the noise shook the walls, the very foundation of the house. He was getting close, she could sense it, and she started sucking with more enthusiasm, bobbing her head so that his legs nearly buckled, his pelvis writhing with her motion.

"This feels … I can't … please…"

Bonnie felt it in her bones, felt his conflicted desires, the ones she suffered through earlier that morning, the want to crest the feeling for as long as he could because nothing nothing had ever felt this good, this exceptional and the reckless need to reach the climax of that exceptionality, to combust with pleasure.

"I'm close," Kai panted. "God, I'm … Bonnie, I'm going to … Bonnie."

Bonnie released Kai from her mouth and stood up, her defiant eyes piercing into his bewildered ones, his expression harried and devastated. Wordlessly, she turned on her heel and left the bedroom, walking determinedly down the hall to the front door. There, she thought viciously. He can see what it's like, he can be agitated and bothered and burning. He can feel what it's like to really go out of your mind. The jackass. She opened the front door but then suddenly it was slammed shut again and Bonnie saw Kai's hand on the stain glass in the centre. She looked beside her, glancing at him; his jeans were back on but they were unbuttoned and his eyes were … she'd never seen them this intense before; they were almost angry but not quite. No, it wasn't anger, it was resolution, like he had a point to make, like he was on a mission.

Kai grabbed Bonnie around the waist and using his speed, led them back to his room, stopping a few feet away from his bed. He pushed Bonnie so that she was flung onto the mattress, the springs bouncing from the force, and he followed her onto it. In one quick motion he tore her dress in half, making Bonnie gasp at how harsh and abrupt the action was and she lay, splayed, in nothing but her bra and underwear. Kai thrust his mouth onto hers, kissing her fiercely, ferociously, like he was about to die and kissing her was the last thing he'd ever do and Bonnie ran her fingers hurriedly through his hair, matching his savagery with her own, releasing some of the pent-up energy that had been frustrating her body into this embrace, her tongue massaging his, her nails now curled at the base of his head. Kai wrenched away from Bonnie and then slipped his hands behind her to her back, unhooking her bra and then he palmed her breasts, making her moan and squeeze her eyes shut, his fingers rubbing and tugging her nipples, making them harden. Bonnie started shifting on the bed to rid herself of some of the excess, gritting her teeth so she wouldn't cry out; she wouldn't do it, not yet. Suddenly, she didn't feel his hands anymore and her bra was completely gone from her body. She snapped her eyes open to see what he was doing. He was taking off the straps of her bra … what was he going to …

His eyes never leaving Bonnie's, Kai took her left wrist and held it up to the wrought iron headboard, tying it in place with one of her bra straps. Before he could reach for her right one, there was a vibrating coming from the floor beside the bed.

"Phone," said Bonnie.

Kai picked it up, reading the screen. "It's Caroline."

"Voicemail will get it."

Kai looked up from the cell back to Bonnie, his expression dangerous. "Answer it," he said.

"What? No."

"Answer it or I will."

"Fine." Bonnie held out her free hand but Kai shook his head and pressed the speaker button putting the phone down on the rotted wooden nightstand.

"Hello?" Caroline's voice rang out. "Hello, is anyone there?"

"Caroline, hi."

"Oh my God, Bonnie it's you. Elena, I've got Bonnie!"

"Yeah, hi, I…" Bonnie couldn't finish her sentence. Kai had taken her other wrist and tied it to the other end of the headboard, he leaned toward her, his lips at her ear. "No matter what, don't stop talking," he breathed, nibbling her earlobe. Bonnie quaked in response.

"Bonnie?" It was Elena now. "Are you OK?"

"Yes," said Bonnie. Her voice was too breathy. She cleared her throat, trying to sound normal. "Sorry I left like that, I just was feeling so uh, so—"

Kai put his hands between Bonnie's thighs, rubbing and squeezing her skin, and then pried her legs apart so he could kneel between them. He hovered above her and then ran his nails along her curves; it was just not painful and Bonnie felt the movement reverberate in her groin, making her arch her back — a moan half-suppressed at the base of her throat. He lowered his head, kissing her stomach, at first his parted lips skimmed her skin so that Bonnie erupted into shivers and then he nipped and sucked, making her pull against her restraints.

"Feeling so what?" said Caroline. "You didn't finish your sentence. You sound weird are you OK?"

"Yes, yes, yes, I'm fine," said Bonnie frantically. "Just sick. Needed to get out of there. Felt like, felt like…shit."

"What?" said Elena urgently. "What's wrong? Bonnie?"

Kai's mouth was on her breasts, nuzzling them with something more than enthusiasm … it was meant to be torturous not reverent and Bonnie felt it; felt it in the way his teeth gently tugged her right nipple while his left hand massaged and kneaded and grazed her left breast, making her entire body burn with want. His right hand stroked her inner thigh up and down and back again, slowly getting closer to her underwear, teasing her every time he reached the material, pressing down slightly so that her heart leapt and then moving back to her thigh.

"Bonnie, what's wrong?" Elena repeated.

"Nothing, I'm … it's … argh, Kai!" Bonnie cried out as Kai slipped a finger in her, shredding her underwear, leisurely stroking and circling, easing his finger in and out with agonizing slowness. He looked up at her, his eyes blistering, his expression almost punitive.

"Kai? Kai's with you? What's going on? Are you in trouble?"

"No, no trouble. No."

Kai eased a second finger in and Bonnie pulled hard against the straps, the small buckles cutting into her skin. She wanted to move forward, to grab Kai by the hand and increase the pressure of his fingers but she had no magic and her restraints were fastened tight, all she could do was watch him, feel him. She tilted her pelvis up to gyrate her hips to the motion Kai's fingers were making but he took his left hand and pressed her down onto the mattress, keeping her from shifting at all, and Bonnie groaned in response. His fingers continued their measured torture and Bonnie threw her head back, fully aware that he was watching her every reaction.

"Bonnie, what is going on? Why is Kai with you? Does he have you hostage?"

Kai grinned at those words and then quickly pulled what was left of Bonnie's underwear down her legs and put his mouth on her, making Bonnie mewl loudly and buck her hips, her arms throbbing from being tied. He swirled his tongue, his hands stretched out over her torso, rubbing her body down, his tongue lapping harder the faster Bonnie grinded against his mouth. She moaned loudly.

"Bonnie?" said Elena and Caroline together.

Bonnie couldn't respond, her thoughts were fragmented and scattered and nonsensical, this was going to shred her completely. She felt herself building, deep in her belly, and she moved her hips even harder, greedily urging Kai on, desperate for a release she'd been denied for five weeks and then Kai withdrew and blew on her instead.

She screamed. "Kai."

"Dammit, Bonnie," said Caroline. "Where the hell are you?"

Kai rose from between Bonnie's thighs and picked up the phone from the nightstand table. "Sorry, Caroline, Elena," he said. "But Bonnie's going to have to call you back." And he tossed the phone to the side so that it fell to the floor next to the bed.

He stretched over Bonnie, undoing one of her restraints. "I hate you," she groaned.

"Good," he said harshly, untying her other wrist. Bonnie didn't realize it before but his eyes had clouded to the darkest red she'd ever seen and his face was veined again. He was just as undone by his torture of her than she was; he stopped because he couldn't handle it anymore, he needed to be against her, inside her, he was hungering for her.

Bonnie reached forward and took off his shirt in haste but when she moved to undo his jeans further, Kai flipped her so that she was on her stomach, her face in a pillow. He widened her legs, sinking into her, both of them groaning in unison. He started flexing his hips, pounding at the ache he'd caused with his tongue, his stomach on her back, the material of his jeans rubbing against the back of Bonnie's legs. Bonnie clenched the sides of the pillow as Kai kept easing into her, his teeth biting her ear. He snaked his hand up Bonnie's chest, grabbing her throat and turned her head at her chin so that he could kiss her feverishly and Bonnie reached behind her, putting her hand on the nape of his neck, her behind grinding against him.

"This is all I've wanted for thirty-five days," he breathed, thrusting into her, his pace unhurried and deliberate. "Why, Bonnie. Why did you make me wait five weeks? Didn't you miss me?"

Bonnie groaned and gripped Kai's hair as he grazed his teeth — fangs?— along her jaw, pushing into her. "Didn't you?" he asked again, slipping a finger into her, circling around, making her whimper and swear, his finger's movements matching the flex of his hips. "Bonnie."

"Yes," she moaned. "Yes, I missed you. Don't…"

"Don't what?" he whispered, gyrating his hips, making Bonnie's eyes roll to the back of her head.

"Shit."

"Don't what?" he pressed.

"Leave," said Bonnie, gasping. "Don't do that again. I'll kill you if you do."

Kai groaned loudly and kissed her fervently again, holding her chin, keeping her head in place as he increased his speed, slamming into her, making Bonnie squeal into his mouth, the headboard banging against the wall, cracking the plaster. Sweat prickled Bonnie's body; she was inflamed with pleasure, ignited with amorous anticipation, reckless with abandon and she felt the muscles deep inside her clench and quiver around Kai, his harsh breathing and strangled murmurs incensing her skin. She felt herself roil and churn, Kai's movements making her quicken, but this build was different, intense, it was making her burn everywhere, she was raw and seething, she was losing track of where she started and where Kai began, he was making her skin hum again, it was like an electric current sparked throughout her body. Then abruptly his fangs pierced Bonnie's neck and she screamed, exploding into that release she so urgently craved for five weeks and then just as abruptly, the edges of the bed ignited into fire so that Kai and Bonnie were boxed in by flame. Kai didn't seem to notice or care and continued to guzzle from Bonnie's neck, circling his hips and finger, Bonnie closing her eyes and mewling, neither of them paying attention to the phone on the floor, the reflection of the flames on its screen.