Ch. 4
They were all parting ways, for now, Bonnie to go say good-bye properly to her dad, now that she was moving in with her grandmother, at her cottage in Mystic Falls.
Everyone else shared tense farewells, with the understanding that in a few short months, they would reunite for a more public and official sense of solidarity to show to their respective communities.
Esther pressed on Bonnie's hand, stroking her hair, and hugged her, regally, whispering, "Your ancestor was my dearest friend. She saved my life, and those of my children."
Then leaned back to gaze solemnly into Bonnie's face.
"We'll stay in touch. Your grandmother will have the arrangements and when you arrive, everything will be as it should. You'll meet other novices like yourself. So have no worries. Niklaus, take your proper leave of Bonnie."
He didn't even need to be told, was already there, the light of something certain in his gaze when he leaned in and brushed a soft kiss on her hand. She'd be lying if she didn't admit to a rush of pure appreciation, but it went hand in hand with curious urge to scrub her hands raw, and erase the parts of her skin infected by his touch.
Her shiny new magic didn't like Klaus.
"Take care, witchling."
When the doors closed behind them, the relief hit her so strongly, remaining with her for such a long time, that it kept her from realizing until too late that her grandmother was making a detour on the way to the airport.
At the hotel, they found the three Parkers, small duffels on their shoulders. Theo appeared most at ease, while Madeline spoke to him, Grams and her mother the entire way to the airport, in hushed tones. Giving the clear impression to Bonnie that she and Kai were on their own as far as entertaining themselves. Shut out of the grown-up talk, they sat in the third row of the SUV, with barely any legroom but a surplus of tension. Hard to pinpoint what caused it, since he spent most of the time gazing out the window and looking at his phone.
Here and there, she made use of the time to nap, letting fatigue wash over her. Her eyes never stayed closed for long. Along with the occasional jolt that was part and parcel of commuting along the pockmarked highways and service roads that led to the airport, there was also the matter of waking up to find Kai swiveling his head away from her direction. As if she'd caught the tail end of his silent assessment of something-her face? had she snored?-and he was intent on leaving it at that, and keeping the indifferent wall of cool between them.
The total opposite of Klaus.
She wasn't sure whose approach was more off putting.
So far, none of the Parker witches struck her as overly welcoming. Theo, maybe. Once he had his tea.
So she would find other witches to befriend. No great loss.
When Grams reached the departure lanes, all three hopped out of the car with barely a word of thanks. She thought Theo might have muttered something that approached it, but Madeline and her son headed towards the entrance without fanfare, without even waiting for Bonnie and her mom to extract their own luggage.
Just before the automatic doors swallowed them, Kai turned his whole body, catching Bonnie mid-stare. She didn't bother whipping her gaze away while he smirked, chewed the bottom of his lip and flicked a casual finger up and out, as if some invisible cigarette he'd been smoking had reached the end of its usefulness. He was yards away, but a stray breeze where she stood abruptly swept the strand of hair beside her cheek, grazing her mouth. Wherever he'd stolen it from, the magic he used was a teasing nudge against hers.
Parts of her went hot, other parts tingled, while all of her brain seized with caution: Do not disturb.
-X-x-X-x-X-
The Induction loomed close. The nearer it got, the greater her sense of suffocation, until finally Bonnie left the compound one night, well after the curfew Genevieve and Vincent had imposed.
The old abandoned theater well outside the French Quarter sat unobtrusively on the outskirts of the city, away from tourists and mobs of party-goers. It wasn't her first time sneaking out of the house, but it was her first where she had no clear idea where to go or what to do.
Wandering had brought her first to the pier that overlooked the bayou, taking in the murkiness. Here no brassy music or bright lights could distract from this part of the city, where a feeling of loss permeated. When she closed her eyes, it seeped under her lids, heavy and mournful, no faces attached, or even a specific place. It threatened to overwhelm her, the sense of being torn away from something or someone, before it should've happened, before something good could come of the union.
A bitter interruption, she realized. Someone's life. Not just one, but many.
She couldn't stay there, and soon found her way to another part of town touched distantly by the sounds of music and crowds.
The theatre offered a distraction, the crumbling facade and rusty marquee sign a testament to its broken secrets that nobody bothered delving into, in a city already saturated with history. Through broken windows, the outside light from distant streetlamps filtered in, highlighting pockets of dust in the dilapidated building. She picked her way through the decay inside and found a creaking seat that offered a view of a tattered, blank screen.
There, the quiet surrounding her was welcome. Restful.
"Uh-oh. Did we miss the previews?"
Shrieking, she bolted from her seat.
Liv's oldest brother sat in the seat behind her, slurping soda from a straw. Sloppy, smug, and amused. All three expressions that wiped clear off his face, when her hand on instinct went up. He sailed across the dusty space, crashing through the screen she'd just been contemplating in what she thought had been, for a second there, peaceful solitude.
"Ow."
Several pained groans later, magic surged from the hole he'd made. The remaining pieces of the screen burst, forming rubble that Kai stumbled through. He shook his head at her, the remnants of a pleased smile still half-formed along his mouth.
"Plucky," he said, wagging his finger at her. "I like."
The glare she sent could've melted his face, if her magic wasn't already threatening to do so. Behind him, heavy stained curtains began to smoke. But because she hadn't left the compound to attract trouble, she willed her anger to subside. It wouldn't work while she looked at him, so she turned on her heel to leave.
"Bonnie," he called. "Don't you wanna see the show?"
Frozen in place by his abrupt incantation, the room around her spun. Hazy forms cast a faint glow within the shadowed theater.
The forms grew sharp, until the faces looked familiar. Klaus. His siblings. His mother. And a host of strangers, mostly women. Witches. A series of random encounters and exchanges. No conversation or noise to hear, but their actions rang out loud and clear.
The Mikaelsons wore different hair and clothes each time, their environment just as changeable. A village, a city, dirt road, sprawling mansion, factory, boat. What stayed constant were the people around them. The collection of witches at their side. At Klaus's side. From ally to friend to lover to foe-the end result seemed to be the same.
The witches died. Either from protecting the Mikaelsons, or because they crossed them.
She watched Klaus and a pretty girl, their forms tangled in a darkened bedroom. Next it shifted to woods that appeared familiar. Mystic Falls. Klaus and the girl stood before a circle of magic. Mid-chant, the girl's features looked familiar. Bonnie tried to place why that was.
Then she saw her grandmother, stepping out from behind a tree, her hand up in attack. The young witch fought back. The duel didn't last long. Her grandmother was strong, seasoned. Blood pooled beneath the girl's nose. The magic surrounding her and Klaus dissipated. Someone-Damon Salvatore, she realized with shock-snuck up behind the girl and snapped her neck.
Bathed in gray light, Klaus sprinted across the theater, his mad grief palpable even now, in this ghostly image. Grams brought him to his knees. Clutching his head, his pained grimace displaying clearly the streak of tears on his face, Klaus reached towards his dead witch on the ground.
Then the room plunged back into shadows, broken only by scattered beams of dim light from outside.
Bonnie found her limbs responsive once more. Again it struck her, the difference in both men. Klaus when she faced him offered heat in his gaze and cold in his touch. Staring at Kai now, at his lifted brow, no cracks showed in his usual mask of coolness, as he returned the appraisal. She swallowed against the idle thought of his skin-knowing that unlike Klaus, he would be warm. Human, but with the current of magic pulsing in his blood. The thought grew more intriguing, the longer she studied him.
"Guess granny and mommy dearest left out those details?" he asked casually.
"That and lots of other things," she conceded in a mutter.
So her grandmother was involved in the death of Klaus's girlfriend. And somehow he and Esther both were interpreting Bonnie's presence here as-what, exactly? Reparation? Grams had already warned her to be polite but keep everyone at arms' length. Her mom had preached the same. No matter what the Mikaelsons thought, whoring out their young just was not in the Bennett repertoire. Bonnie wouldn't be the first exception to that rule.
Kai kept staring, inspiring something brittle and defensive to jump out. Not a normal reaction for her, when an attractive man looked her way.
"I'm not here to take that other witch's place." She even laughed, as if it made no difference. "Hello, there are a bunch of covens the Mikaelsons are friendly with. Tons of other women and-"
But now the thought struck her as distasteful.
"Does Klaus always have a witch in his pocket?"
Kai scoffed in reply. "Ask Genevieve. How do you think she got so comfy?"
She ignored that barb. Davina and Liv both had already brought up the history between their mentor and the Original. It was a source of tension in how Genevieve dealt with Bonnie specifically. Both competition and apprentice, in a way.
"This whole thing is..." 'Weird' felt lacking to say, so she left off. "Who was that girl, anyway?"
"Ask your buddy Luka."
"Quit telling me to ask other people. You followed me all the way here. Might as well be useful. Tell me."
He approached, dropping into a nearby seat and propping his legs up on the back of the chair in front of him, as another soda materialized in his hands that he, once more, slurped from.
The noise echoed around them, before he lifted his head to smile at her.
"Greta Martin. His sister."
Floored, her legs lacked the strength to keep upright and she too sank into a chair. It happened to be right next to Kai.
"Luka never mentioned a sister," she said, her voice feeble.
On this bizarre journey through magical training that was as far from Hogwarts as it could get, she'd begun to see Liv, Davina, and Luka as her battle mates. The ones to lean on in a crunch, her friends to trust in a foreign world that easily made her feel adrift and sometimes, inept. But now she knew better than to be so gullible.
"Trust no one," Kai said, waving his fingers playfully, his voice dropping deep but filled again with mockery.
She cut a glare his way, only to realize he was right. Of everyone at the lair, he was the only person so far who'd spared her the effort of fair warning. The vibe of expectancy that surrounded Klaus and his mother now made sense to her. But why would Kai of all people even bother with this warning?
"What's in it for you?" she asked. "What do you care?"
Naturally, he only shrugged at that. "I don't. Your Grams is one of a few people my family sorta kinda don't hate. Guess I'm just returning a favor."
"You owe her or something?"
"Oh, would you look at that?" he said, glancing at his wrist that held no watch. "Way past your bedtime. We seriously gotta get back."
Then magic enveloped both of them, but before the teleportation spell ended, he leaned forward to whisper in her ear, "See ya soon, Bonster."
Moments later, she was back at the compound, blinking into blackness that receded the longer she gazed around to reorient. The familiar corners of a bed and a dresser faced her.
What she'd learned of teleportation spells was this: the end result needed to be a place you'd either seen before or visited. Up along her spine trickled something creepy and a little bit of something else, when she wondered-
When the hell had Kai been to her room?