Warnings for this chapter: Panic attacks and a mildly graphic depiction of infanticide - just a reminder, but this fic is rated mature/explicit for stuff other than just smut (which is, you know, still happening because it's me) and it's about demons, so you know what you're getting yourself into. There are likely going to be potential triggers, which I will address as tastefully as possible. So please don't try to shame me for your choice of reading anyway (no one has, but things are about to get darker, so this is my PSA).

Chapter Three: Please Give My Reflection a Break From the Face It's Seeing Now

"And there are never really endings, happy or otherwise. Things keep going on, they overlap and blur, your story is part of your sister's story is part of many other stories, and there is no telling where any of them may lead."

-Erin Morgenstern, writer and multimedia artist, excerpt from "The Night Circus"

-o0o-

Her mood is already in a bad spot from having woken up in creepy warehouse after getting her neck snapped, mere moments away from being placed in a body bag. Returning to the cabin only to find some grungy-looking, hobo-chic asshole doing his level best to shove Bonnie into the backseat of what is probably a stolen car makes the last tether on Caroline's temper snap.

She is out of the vehicle in a flash, before Stefan even manages to make it roll to a stop. The heathen goes flying from the backhand she delivers, briefly uncaring that he may not be supernatural, so pissed off that yet again someone is trying to take her best friend from her. Caroline is so over losing the people she loves.

The sound of Bonnie's surprised gasp echoes in her ear as Caroline looks her over. She can hear the creak of wood and the thud of impact and the aggrieved moaning that emanates from the unhygienic man behind her. A part of her is delighted by the sound of him coming to his feet, the boiling need to fight trembling under her skin. Needing to kick some ass to vanquish the failures of her day, Caroline turns away from the former witch - who is covered in blood, something that will promptly need to be avenged - to the man staggering to his feet.

He seems vaguely familiar but the blonde has no time to address that when he rushes her, vamp speed taking her by surprise. Her senses come alive as the two exchange blows, pupils wide and limbs aggressive. He doesn't seem invested in the impromptu fight though. He's more interested in getting back to Bonnie and the sense of disappointment that accompanies his indifference only angers her further.

"Leave her alone," she growls, kicking him in the gut. It puts some distance between him and the other woman, Caroline firmly between them. "Get in the cabin," she addresses Bonnie, hoping to separate them more. Her friend is stubborn though, and only backs up a little, her intent to not go anywhere clear. Caroline can feel her annoyance shift slightly, growing stronger.

The man lets out an aggravated snarl. "Get out of the way," he snaps and suddenly, Caroline feels like her brain is on fire. She clasps her head, glaring at the man as she fights not to fall to her knees.

He starts forward, but a blast of vervain water to his back knocks the man askew, making him stumble forward. The aneurism cuts off when he loses concentration and Caroline can stand straight rises from the back of the man's burned neck. Stefan can be seen behind his twisted form, water gun in hand as he continues to blast the assailant with vampire repellant.

Caroline uses the distraction to scoop up a fallen branch, raising it high with the intensions to stake the man.

"Wait!"

The blonde freezes and turns to Bonnie.

"Don't kill him! We need to question him!"

"Seriously?" Caroline scowls. But she slams the branch down over his head instead, knocking him down to his hands and knees. Then she delivers a sharp kick to his neck, hears the crunch when the cervical vertebrae crumble beneath her boot. Unlike some people, she actually listens to her friends.

Bonnie and Stefan come to her side once the shaggy looking mess of a vampire is collapsed. As they stand over his prone form, Caroline wonders where the hell this vampire - Heretic? - bum came from, why he couldn't compel himself a freaking shower or magically produce one, but then Bonnie speaks up.

"It's Kai," she utters and both vampires look at her in surprise. "He saved me from some...thing that attacked me. Then he started mumbling about some prophecy, said I needed to be kept safe."

The green-eyed woman shakes her head and hugged herself. "I don't know how he's here, but I need to know what he knows." She turns to them. "Help me out?"

Biting her lip skeptically, Caroline looks down at the man, disconcerted. What Bonnie described sounds like the ramblings of a mad man. The thought that maybe some cruel vampire turned a poor schizophrenic, homeless man for kicks crosses her mind, but as she stares down at his face, she realizes Bonnie is right - that is Kai.

Caroline stomps on his neck again for good measure.

Ignoring the looks from the other two, she sighs dramatically. "This is great. Denzo is out in the world pretending to be the Harpe brothers and now this," she gestures at the Heretic. She turns to Bonnie. "He saved you?" she questions. She needs to know. If he did anything to hurt Bonnie, she was going to kill him.

Bonnie nods. "Someone showed up to the cabin. I thought, I mean - he looked like Jeremy," she whispers. "So I let him in. But it was some monster and he attacked me and chased me out into the woods. Kai saved me from...," she trails off, eyes distant.

Caroline absorbs this information promptly, files it away to be examined later. When Bonnie doesn't seem so shaken, she's going to follow that line of questioning, concerned about the haunted look in her friend's eye.

"But he didn't hurt you?" Bonnie shakes her head at the question.

"What about that?" she indicates the still-open door on the other car.

At that, Bonnie scowls. "After he killed the monster, he said more were coming for me and that we had to leave. But it's Kai," she emphasizes. "And he wasn't making any sense at all, so I told him to go fuck himself. That's when he tried to kidnap me."

Caroline breaks the Heretic's healing neck once more.

Then she turns to Stefan. "Got any vervain rope?"

This is the second time he's come to tied up to a chair after meeting Bonnie, Kai thinks as he blinks awake. He wonders if the dragon in his head regrets picking him now that he's proven himself ineffective as a protector of the Bennett. It's all quiet in his mind. He wonders if the voice in his head is real at all and if he wasn't just resurrected by some fluke of his own magic and obsession.

"What the hell happened to Enzo's guitar?" he can hear the object of his thoughts grousing.

Her complaints remind him that she really was attacked. That he really did kill a demon, that nefaria sanguines were real things, that he really did spend the last three years having his soul tortured in hell, that he really was resurrected by something that wanted to keep Bonnie safe from the tenants of hell. His aggravated groan is as much to announce his discontent of his current situation to his captors as it is to display his general discontent for the bullshit his life - before and after his final death - turned out to be.

Besides that, he just felt gross. He really wanted to shower.

Bonnie goes quiet and he can feel her approach with his whole being, notes the other two behind her with his regular senses. Kai rolls his head back, trying to adjust to the feeling of waking up after having his neck snapped for the first time. He concludes that he doesn't like it all, the sensation being a little too familiar to rising from the grave after being beheaded.

Finally, opening his eyes, he faces the three amigos. "Well, good morning," he greets. There is some hesitance to his cavalier manner.

"Hi," the guy - Stefan, he tells himself - replies after the pause. "Wanna tell us why you're alive and why you were trying to run off with our friend?"

The direct nature of the question is pleasantly surprising. He remembers how he listened to Damon bitch and moan about how he was tired of being constantly compared to his younger brother in the prison world. He got tired of it so quickly - he wondered how Bonnie was able to remain so sympathetic. Personally, he thinks that Damon probably should have learned to measure his self-worth based on his love of himself rather than the love he garnered from other people. But whatever. Kai and love have never had a harmonious relationship.

Kai thinks he might prefer the younger Salvatore as well, but then, he's biased.

"Wellllll," he starts. "I can't exactly make sense of the alive part myself, so you'll have to wait for that. And as for Bonnie," he looks around the cabin. It's been cleaned up slightly, but there was still a couple of dents here and there and Bonnie was still clutching a smashed guitar.

"She did tell you she was attacked by a demon, right? I mean, that's why you're looking into hellmouths."

The two vampires seem confused, but Bonnie's eyes widen. "What do you know about that?"

He stares at her, taking time to really observe her for the first time. Her hair looks almost the same as it did in the prison, maybe a little sleeker and slightly longer, framing her pretty face in a way that makes her verdant eyes glow despite their dullness. She's lost some weight though and she looks haggard in the way that only comes from sleeplessness, which makes Kai worry about her health. How's she been holding up these past few years? Hasn't anyone been looking after her? Suddenly, he feels angry and is no longer in the mood to be compliant. He takes it out on her.

"What is it you told me earlier when I was trying to tell you we needed to go someplace safe before more of those freaks showed up? To go fuck myself? Well, you can do that, too," he snaps. Any congeniality he felt dissipated as he recalls how she once again spurned him.

She looks taken aback and Kai can admit that it's not really her fault. For her, it's been three years and it has been for him, too. But it's also only been an instant that felt as long as an eternity. He hasn't really had the chance to sort through his shiny new emotions, moods that are purely his. Maybe Kai can thank hell for curing his sociopathy in a way the merge never could, but mostly he is just so resentful of the fact that every second chance he's ever sought, every wrong of his that he tried to right, not only got him sent to the reject pile, but on a shitty economy class flight to eternal damnation. His anger focuses itself on her.

Kai can admit it's not really Bonnie's fault and that he's merely lashing out. None of Kai's shitty life choices or their outcomes are her fault.

But he was so happy when he thought she was giving him a second chance, just like she did everyone else. The sting of her rejection is still an open wound, despite the fact that he chose to live again for her sake. So yes, she can go fuck herself and use her holier-than-thou righteousness to do it. No wonder Damon was always calling her judgemental.

"Excuse me?" she gapes at him. A part of him is delighted by her attention, by the fact that she seems to have forgotten the other two in her focus. He tells that part of him to fuck itself as well.

"You're the one who tried to kidnap me," she snaps. "After you made it so I could never see my best friend again!"

"Yeah, well, I already paid for that, didn't I?" he harps right back, glaring at the Bennett girl. "Besides, it's not like being friends with the great Elena Gilbert was doing you any favors!"

She is incensed now and begins to go on a tirade about his crimes against humanity, but he tunes her out. Kai knows he's not a good person. He vaguely notes the other two cast awkward glances at each other behind Bonnie's back. Kai thinks they can fuck themselves too. Everyone and everything is full of shit, and it honestly isn't fair how he was never, ever given a chance, not by anyone except some disembodied voice that he can only connect to in his head, like he was a crazy person. An onslaught of emotion washes over him and he feels overwhelmed. To his mortification, he feels tears sting his eyes and he slams them shut.

His stomach is clenching and his head is spinning. There is loud buzzing noise in his ear. He thinks if he still had a living heart it would be running wild, pumping so hard that it pumped itself right out of his chest, right onto the floor at Bonnie's feet, like some fearful rabbit. She'd probably stomp all over. The image causes a choked hysterical noise to come out of him. He can't catch his breath.

What must he look like, some gross, dirty vampire covered in swamp mud and alligator shit and his own body's decay, having a panic attack? Probably fucking ugly. His mortification returns, jacked on steroids.

The buzzing in ear dies down when a straw is shoved in his mouth and he starts sucking on it immediately. He reaches up to grasp it, vaguely recognizes that he is no longer tied up. He's sucking on blood bag like it's a juice box. Stefan Salvatore is kneeling before him and patting his back, all crinkled forehead and soft, concerned eyes and wow, he's dreamy. Kai definitely prefers him to Damon.

Stefan continues to pat his back until Kai sucks the blood bag dry, then takes it from him standing up.

"I forgot that you were a baby vampire when you died," his voice is soft despite the bluntness of the statement. "Vampirism heightens emotions, makes them hard to deal with. It's worse to handle when you're hungry."

Bonnie scoffs softly in the background, but Stefan ignores her and passes Kai another blood bag. The resurrected Heretic tears into it.

"Maybe you should take a shower first," the Salvatore suggests. "I have some clothes you can borrow."

The women raise their voices in protest, but Stefan isn't cowed. Kai might be in love.

"So what, we just let him roam free? What if he tries to escape or attacks us?" Bonnie inquires impatiently.

"I won't," Kai speaks up for himself this time, his voice low. "I told you already, I came here to make sure you're safe. I'm not leaving until I know you are."

Bonnie says nothing, but she eyes him skeptically.

Stefan takes her silence as permission and gently pulls Kai to his feet, murmuring about how there is another bathroom he can use to shower. Kai ignores the way Bonnie puts as much distance between them as possible as when he passes, ignores how Caroline casually angled her body so that it was a buffer between the two former witches. He tells himself the rejection only hurts like it does because he's not used to it yet. He tells himself to accept the shitty lie.

The other man takes a long time in the bathroom, but once he steps out, clean-shaven and smelling heavily like ivory soap, Stefan can admit he probably needed all of the time. The borrowed sweats and t-shirt fit him well enough, since they had similar heights and builds. Kai's face is blank, not in the way that said he was hiding something, but in the way that indicated he was probably trying not to have another freak out.

Stefan is curious about the Heretic, about the man that stole Elena from his life, but then he would be since he never really got the chance to meet him. All he can remember of him is the crazed and unhinged man that crashed a wedding to turn it into a massacre. Still, he can't help but sympathize with him and so he offers to trim the man's hair as a way to delay the inevitable inquisition heading his way once he exits the guest bedroom.

Kai looks at him in surprise, but accepts the offer, watching him in the mirror as Stefan expertly snips and buzzes. He's tense and wary, but it doesn't offend the older vampire. The Salvatore notices that there is a mark on the back of Kai's neck; it looks like a cross between a henna tattoo and a scar, because it was slightly raised. It looks like a simple, geometric sun, a circle - an ouroboros, Stefan realizes - in the center of eight evenly spaced, even length lines. Unthinkingly, he runs his fingers over it, feeling the way it was warm and bumpy against the cool vampire skin. Kai jerks away from him, and Stefan shoots his glaring reflection a chagrined smile.

Twenty minutes later, the Heretic is presentable again and Stefan thinks he looks like kid, overwhelmed by life. But Stefan became a vampire at seventeen. He can't really judge.

The younger man helps him clean up the hair and then the two of them exit the bedroom, heading to where the storm awaits.

Just as Stefan helped clean up Kai, so have Bonnie and Caroline cleaned up the chaos of the kitchen and den. Bonnie is on the couch, trying to salvage the guitar and clearly irritated, but Caroline is making cookies, likely as a means to dispel nervous energy and as a backup in case Bonnie's temper flares again. The small woman had a sweet tooth. Stefan bites back a smile at the way the childhood friends handle each other.

Stefan goes to Caroline's side and after some hesitation, Kai settles down at the kitchen table. He drums his fingers against the table nervously and Stefan notices that he avoids looking at Bonnie, who is giving him a harsh, expectant glare. The Salvatore would probably wilt under that look too.

Kai takes a breath and begins to explain himself, talking about being in hell and how information about the "mortal coil" just sort of trickles in like a radio with spotty reception. He explains how he heard a voice and was resurrected once he agreed to protect Bonnie. He talks about how there is a Bennett prophecy and that the last living Bennett and the demon king, the mortem regis, are like two keys to a lock that will unleash something very bad onto the earth. He doesn't explain what that is, but he tells them that the Vault in the Armory was really a sealed away hellmouth and when it was opened, that allowed the demons inside, the ones who were followers of the mortem regis, to take it as an invitation to the mortal coil. Stefan doesn't miss the look of guilt that flashes on Bonnie's face before she lowers her head, falsely focused on the guitar in her lap. He tells himself to check in with her later.

Caroline prods Kai about what would happen to someone exposed to the demons and Kai replies that since the demons have a hard time staying manifested on the mortal coil for more than a few hours at most, then anyone exposed probably would have been possessed immediately. He explains that the stronger the vessel was, the longer the demons could wear them, that they had rules they had to follow and so the death of a vessel was a means of keeping them in line. They had to return to hell, to their own realm, not allowed to stay to affect the mortal coil for long.

The information fills Stefan with dread. He knows Kai is getting tired of talking from the way he shuffles. The Heretic stands and grabs at a few cookies Caroline had plated, making the blonde narrow her eyes at him.

"What happens to the people that are possessed? To their souls?" Stefan questions. Kai looks at him with something like pity. He swallows his cookie and answers.

"Humans usually die within a day or two and then they go to wherever they were gonna go anyway, I think," he pauses, considering. "It's too much for their bodies and minds. People who don't die immediately and get possessed for longer tend to end up catatonic once the demon leaves them. I have no idea what happens to their souls."

He must see the flash of pain across Stefan's face because he adds, "But that's just humans. I've never heard about supes getting possessed though, so maybe the magic in supernatural beings on the mortal coil can protect them."

Stefan can tell that he's holding something back. The Heretic is very bad at controlling the way he emotes. Stefan doesn't push it, wonders if he's being a coward or if Kai held it back because he didn't think it was important to share.

"What about you?" Bonnie suddenly speaks up. Kai tilts his head and shuffles slightly, but doesn't fully look at her. "The demon said you were new, called you 'baby boy'. What did he mean?"

Kai flinches slightly, but answers almost defiantly. "Nefaria sanguinem are born from souls that go to hell and deny rapture." He must realize the jargon is losing them, so he clarifies.

"If you die and go to hell, your soul is tortured. If you deny rapture, the faith in the chance that you could be redeemed once you've endured your punishment, then you become a nefaria sanguis, one with bad blood, a demon. They're like the foot soldiers of the major demons like mortem regis. The problem is, you don't really know how long your sentence is. So those that gave up," he falls quiet and shakes his head. "I don't blame them. That demon probably thought that I finally denied rapture."

The room is quiet after that, everyone absorbing this information. Stefan doesn't really know what to make of the new information, and his sympathy for the other man grows, as does the worry he has for his brother. He feels tired. He thinks they all are, to some extent. What will his brother be like when he gets him back? Will he be himself, if a little traumatized? Or will Damon be some mindless, immortal shell of who he once was? Bonnie speaks up again, interrupting Stefan's thoughts.

"This Bennett prophecy, what does that entail? Why did the demon say he was in trouble for making me bleed?"

Kai lets out a heavy breath. "I'm not sure." At her glare, he defends himself. "Look, this stuff is being relayed to me by a voice in my head. I don't know whose voice it is, although I like to call it Prof. Dragon, and Prof. Dragon doesn't tell me everything and definitely doesn't give a shit if I find that unfair.

"I know there's a book. A Necronomicon of sorts, if you want to call it something." Stefan smiles at the Lovecraft allusion. "It's a really old, really evil grimoire. Supposedly it is a possession of the mortem regis, something they had before becoming an ultimate boss-level monster in hell. This Necronomicon has the details of what the Bennett prophecy actually means and the ritual that you and the mortem regis need to complete to unleash this demon apocalypse, and yes, I think your blood is probably a potent ingredient."

He goes quiet. Stefan thinks Kai looks like he's listening to someone, but then he realizes that he is. It's an odd clash of the senses. The other man looks mildly angry, then surprised and slightly chagrined, and then irritated again. Finally, he snorts and addresses the other three.

"Prof. Dragon thinks it's a good idea to destroy the Necronomicon, but won't tell me why. I'm tired and I want to go to bed. If we get attack in the middle of the night, I'm blaming you for not coming with me when you had the chance," he points at Bonnie. Who flicks him off.

Stefan is mildly amused that Kai can address her properly now that he's not being overwhelmed by the hyperemotionality that comes with being a starved baby vamp. He wonders what it is that Bonnie made Kai feel that left the Heretic so flustered.

There is a shuffle as they all move about after Kai's obvious dismissal and stubborn refusal to continue for the night. With a start, Stefan realizes that it's almost three in the morning. Caroline's sidles over to him, murmurs in his ear that Bon will sleep in the guest bedroom with her and he takes the implied suggestion to volunteer to sleep in the living room with Kai. Luckily, there is a couch and a reclining armchair, although Stefan is not super excited to rest in either.

Bonnie, who looks exhausted (Stefan suspects her tired visage may have been what prompted Kai to declare a bedtime, because he certainly didn't look sleepy), allows Caroline to tug her away for bed. After Stefan grabs some extra bedding from the linen closet, he notices Kai staring intently at a dark corner. He looks as well, but doesn't see anything. Stefan glances back at Kai, who seems almost on the verge of attack.

"Kai?" he prods. The Heretic whips his head around, the intense glower on his face leveled at Stefan briefly before it softens. Stefan thinks the Heretic is kind of weird.

"S'up?"

Stefan displays the pile of pillows and blankets in his arms. "Couch or La-Z-Boy?"

"Oooh, La-Z-Boy, definitely." Stefan hands him a pillow and some blankets, and says nothing about the odd interlude. He notices Kai glance once more at the corner and after the other focuses on turning the recliner into a makeshift bed, he looks himself. He sees nothing, but he feels paranoid anyway. Making himself comfortable on the couch, Stefan pretends to sleep.

A wheezing inhale accompanies the return of the aura into his body, and Enzo comes out of his chance blearily. The early morning sunlight irritates his eyes. He feels euphoric and dazed, the way he always does after he casts an aura. It was exhausting sending part of your consciousness out into the world as an astral projection. The information gathered settles in his mind and he scowls, sitting up and fixing the reclined driver's seat in the car he borrowed somewhere when they were in Kansas.

He misses Kansas, misses the general mayhem of killing sprees. Consecrating the power of a little Kansas cemetery that humans believed to be a gateway to hell - which it wasn't, but they believed and that empowered the land - had been great fun. Starting a project is always great fun, but seeing it through sucks.

Enzo stretches, popping the bones of his spine back into place. Then he thinks, scanning the parking lot and trying to formulate a plan of attack.

Kai Parker. Interesting. He's never met the bloke, neither of him has, but he thinks the Heretic was a rather ingenious pick for a champion on the guardian's part. Damon will shit a brick when Enzo brings him back the head.

He frowns. He's not sure if he will be able to defeat the protector. Enzo is a strong nefaria sanguis, old and having accumulated enough power to completely absorb the soul of the vampire whose body was now his own, but protectors were difficult to kill when they were mere humans. He's never dealt with this level of supernatural shit before. The last time he roamed earth, witches and wolves and a few fish girls that are long gone now had been the only magic wielders on the mortal coil. None of this walking dead shit. Enzo has no idea how to handle a vampire protector, especially one who apparently had the ability to wield magic like a witch. The vampire body he inhabited has been able to contain him for a few months now, constantly healing itself of the damage his blood put it through. What kind of power does a vampire-witch protector wield?

Perhaps he should call Father?

The thought makes him mildly anxious. The mortem regis didn't like being bothered over dumb shit, but they also didn't tolerate failure. Enzo thinks on his options, watching a pretty young woman push a stroller his way on the sidewalk. He can hear her cooing at the chubby toddler kicking in the basket, narrating the things she saw. The two were the only humans out this early. His eyes land on the baby, then widen with an idea.

Exiting the car, he is before the woman in seconds. She starts.

"Pardon me, darling, but I'm about to be very rude to you. Don't scream" he compels. "Come with me. Bring the kid."

Once she has followed him to the car and loaded the baby into the back seat of the car - the stroller could be split into a carseat, inventions these days were neat - he drives them all to the little motel room he's compelled himself. He likes this body very much. It had all sorts of perks. He is amazed at how bad those bloodhound vamps are at using their abilities.

The mortem regis may punish him for the summoning, but then again, they may not. It all depends on what they thought when Enzo explained things.

The woman sits on the bed like he orders, but she cries and clutches her child, babbling at him about something or other. Enzo ignores her, pacing and trying to work out the mechanics of how he should proceed.

The mortem regis will need a strong body, but Enzo wants to stay on the mortal coil too. He wonders if he can turn the human woman into a vampire, if the vampire magic in his blood is enough to counteract the effects of nefaria sanguis, or if giving it to her will just kill her. He frowns. If that happens, he will have to give up his body and leave the mortal coil. He would just take her body as is, but a summoning takes three nights to complete. Her human body would completely burn out in one, she was so spiritually weak.

Maybe he should try to turn her anyway. If it works, he can give her to the mortem regis. He frowns harder. Fuck. He'd have to restrain her with force during the summoning then, and that poses many potential problems. He pouts, looking in the mirror. Dammit.

He likes his body, but it seems the time has come to depart.

"I lament. This is a sad day," Enzo murmurs to himself. The woman looks at him, petrified when his attention returns to her. She has long since gone quiet, realizing he was paying her no heed. He tells her to put set down the sleeping child. Then the possessed vampire bites into his wrist and shoves the bleeding appendage in her mouth.

"Drink up," he orders. The woman does, even when his blood obviously burns her, looking at him with glassy eyes. She starts to convulse and he pulls his wrist away and eyes the way her blistered face and neck open up. The smell of death greets him.

Disappointment washes over him. He'll have to return to hell once he relays his info then then. Enzo turns to the baby, cooing at him.

"Sorry I killed your mummy, mate. No hard feelings," he baby-talks, picking the boy up. Just as Enzo is about to start the summons, he catches the reflection in the mirror and turns back to the bed.

Her wounds have healed. The neck that had split open because of the acrid nature of his blood was now sealed shut. Curious, he goes to the window, pushing the curtain aside until sunlight fell on a slim bare ankle. The skin starts to hiss and crackle, so he shuts the curtain again. Immediately, it begins to heal. Joy overwhelms him, so Enzo does a quick naenae in celebration.

"I lied, mate. Your mum's not dead, she's going to be my new vessel."

He sets the kid on his mother's still chest and leans over them until his face hovers over hers. She wakes with a gasp and he is there to steal the breath with kiss. There is a dizzy, disorienting moment where his whole perspective of the world shifts in a way it shouldn't. His soul is in a transient state, sidling out of one body into another. Things dim out like a light switch is hit and then brightens back up immediately.

A thud sounds next to her and Gloria clutches Jason to her chest automatically as she sits up. She looks down at Enzo's prone form, eyes open and staring at nothing. He's catatonic without her there to animate him. Poor guy. She pouts. Gloria had really loved being Enzo too. Maybe she should swap back.

Gloria chides herself about being being so wishy-washy. It's too soon to give up this body. The original owner still resides. Besides, it's just a body.

Jason stirs in her arms, takes one look at her and settles down again. Warmth blooms in her chest. Her son is so cute. She nuzzles him and kisses his head. He smells yummy. Veins bloom under eyes. She could just eat him up.

Maybe a sip? She needs to fully transition anyway. Besides, he'll lose more than a little blood in the summoning. She rips the shoulder of his shirt and nuzzles him once more, planting a kiss there. Such an adorable boy. Fangs peeled back, Gloria sinks her them into to tender flesh. She ignores the screaming in her head, pushing it down.

His cry right in her ear makes her wince, but she drags the blood out harder. He quiets, crying softly, his heartbeat beginning to slow. Gloria releases from the grip of her maw, licks the blood off his little should tenderly. He smells like pee now.

Sighing blissfully, she pulls her face away, proud of her control. She has successfully transitioned into a real vampire - all on her own! Jason stares at her tearfully, hiccuping.

"Don't be like that, sweetie." She kisses his fat, wet cheek. "Let's call daddy home now."

With that, Gloria uses her new strength to crush her son's neck. She didn't want him to suffer. What kind of mom would she be?

-o0o-

Notes: Albion19 said something about hobo!Kai and the image stuck. Sorry guys. Thank you all so much for your reviews, fam, you're all so sweet and I'm glad you're enjoying the story. To Lula, I think that is probably one of nicest things anyone has ever said to me in a review, thank you.