A/N - You guys are AWESOME. So many reviews. Thank you! I'm glad you're all still interested in this story! I've introduced some more characters and well, the chapter starts off with a BANG; everyone's favourite villain - Kai Parker!
Without further delay...
Part 2
Kai Parker was a complicated individual. He was a high functioning sociopath with a superiority complex. The family therapist, however, struggled to attribute his behaviour to any particular instance in his childhood. It appeared as if he had the perfect upbringing which in fact, was far from the truth. He grew up with 7 siblings due to his Father's constant dissatisfaction with his life and every aspect of it, including his children. Appearances were everything to Joshua Parker and nothing his children ever did would please him. Kai, being the oldest son in the family, would take the brunt of his Father's anger, whilst his mother settled for numbing her mind with pills. Joshua never resorted to being physical with any member of his family but as his kids would later find out, there was such a thing as emotional torture. Growing up under the microscopic, constantly judgemental eye of Joshua Parker triggered a penchant for violence in Kai and of course, when his parents found out, they were highly displeased. Kai then became the black sheep of his family and nothing he achieved would ever earn him his Father's approval, much less his love.
Thus began Malakai Parker's rebellion. He bided his time, appearing to be the golden boy of the family; ambitious, charming, and with a perfect 4.0 GPA. He was even studying pre med at Columbia and then one fine day he just disappeared. He had left a note to his parents to not look for him – he would visit himself, when he was ready. Then three years later his parents saw his face plastered on every news channel in the country. He was on trial for murder but before they could so much as arrange a visit, the Judge had dismissed the case and all charges were dropped.
Kai Parker was an incredibly successful business man but almost all his deals were ambiguous at best. Plenty of his opposition and even some of his partners in business mysteriously dropped dead before Cobra Inc. secured their business. Rumours began spreading but despite several attempts of the Police investigating him, not a single shred of evidence had been found against him. Kai Parker was a man of mystery indeed. No one could really trust him, except perhaps his Lawyer and older sister, Josette Parker.
The thwack of files against his oak desk stirred Kai out of his day dream.
"The autopsy report came back." A woman in her early thirties towered over his seated form, glaring unabashedly at him.
"Oh?" Kai blinked, his lips pursing till his cheekbones hollowed, "What does it say?"
"They found concentrated doses of glycoalkaloids and oxalic acid in his blood stream."
"So?" Kai stretched back in his chair, an amused smirk gracing his face.
"So, you and I both know he couldn't have ingested such a high dose from his dinner." She spat at him, crossing the table to stand over his relaxed form. It ticked her how nonchalant he was being.
"You've been experimenting in your lab again haven't you? We made a deal Kai."
"Josie, just calm down." He sang, finally getting up and holding his sister's shoulders. Guiding her to a couch in his office, he sat her down and crouched before her.
"Yes, we made a deal. Only bad guys can be my…test subjects. And Tristan D'Martel was bad, trust me. Didn't you see him get taken down by that chat show host? What's her name- Carol…Carrie…Cameron?"
"Caroline Forbes." Josette snapped, "But that's immaterial. There was no proof-"
"Ah ah!" Kai chided, "We both know bad men are still bad, whether there's proof against them or not." His smirk sent shivers down her spine. If she hadn't grown up with him, she'd have run for her life by now.
"I'd say Ivory smuggling was pretty bad – think of all the Elephants the poor guy had killed."
"Kai!" She was at her witt's end with her Brother's antics. They had a deal that she would protect him as long as his victims were criminals themselves. It was the only way she could justify still loving him but as of late, Kai's victims were less of the murderous variety and more of the white collar crime variety.
"He had appalling manners Josie, trust me, if you'd been there, you'd have done the same."
Her stone cold face indicated otherwise.
"Ok fine." He rolled his eyes and raised his hands in surrender, "but he just really ticked me off."
"You can't kill people because they tick you off." She slapped him across the face. Gritting his teeth, Kai turned to face her again. This time, his voice had a tinge of darkness in it, "Tristan D'Martel forced his sister to get an abortion, against her wishes. He then sent her to an insane asylum when she tried filing a police complaint against him." His dark eyes flashed dangerously and Josette found it difficult to breathe.
"No one who murdered their own nephew deserves to live." Kai then shot her a smile that made her skin crawl, "His company was just a bonus."
"Right." She stuttered, "I didn't know that."
Taking in a deep breath, Josette filed this encounter away in her mind. She'd deal with her conflicting emotions of guilt and concession at a later date. Over several glasses of bourbon.
"Are you planning on murdering anyone else in the next month?" She asked faintly as she watched Kai walk back to his desk.
"Mmm not that I can think of. Though I can never really tell when the mood will strike."
"Kai." She growled, "Just…can you please…not. For the next month. Please."
"Why?" He asked, a soft frown marring his pretty features.
"One of Alaric's daughters is getting married in a few weeks time and I just want a vacation from dealing with your ass." She spoke bluntly, making Kai laugh.
"Your boyfriend's daughter…so that'd make her my niece?! Well count me in!" He had a mischievous grin on his face. He looked like a kid in a candy store, full of excitable innocence. His shifts in moods never failed to disturb her. She knew from very early on that her brother was a sociopath but he had a protective streak about him. She first caught a glimpse of it when he beat up her first boyfriend who tried pressuring her into having sex with him. Josh had been a 6 ft 2 football player in High school, whilst Kai had been a skinny 12 year old. That hadn't stopped him from taking a baseball bat to Josh's face. The boy ended up in a coma and well, Josette had been covering for her younger brother ever since.
"Be on your best behaviour. It's a week long destination wedding in Bermuda."
"Perfect." Kai's teeth gleamed, "I need a nice break."
"Oh and I'm taking tomorrow afternoon off. I'm going cake tasting with Elena."
"Say 'hi' to my niece for me!" Kai cooed, "Oh they grow up so fast!" He mocked as he wiped false tears from his eyes.
Accustomed to his dramatics, Josette simply scoffed as she slammed his office door on her way out.
"So I've been thinking we should have peach petunias and red lilies for the centre pieces and the bouquet- Damon…Damon." Elena poked her fiancé in the ribs and he jolted in surprise.
"Centre pieces. Yeah." He tried to recover but a sharp look from Elena caused him to drop the act. Sighing, he pulled her in his arms and pressed a kiss to her head.
"Damon," she whined, "you were the one that insisted on being a part of the planning. You even insisted on a week long destination wedding but since I've started planning the flowers and the menu, you don't seem the least bit interested!"
Stuck for words, Damon furrowed his brows as he thought of how best to reply.
"Oh trust me Elena, all the grooms are this way." A woman in a cream dress and black suit jacket took a seat across the table from the couple.
"They start off so enthusiastic and then when they realise its hard work, they back off." She winked his way as she laughed and Elena appeared a little mollified.
"Why don't we just let him go? I've got some China piece samples I need you to take a look at and we still haven't decided on the colour palette for the wedding."
"As exciting as this all sounds, I've got a work call to take so I'll be ducking out now."
Before Elena could object, Damon pressed a quick kiss on her lips and was half way to the exit already. He heard laughter upon his exit and Elena say, "I don't know what's gotten into him lately, Hayley. He's been acting so odd."
Once outside, Damon Salvatore breathed a huge sigh of relief. It had felt claustrophobic in the tiny office with Elena and Hayley. He just felt like he needed to breathe without being under the watchful eye of that two faced bitch. Hayley Marshall had been the bane of Damon's existence as of late. She had blackmailed and forced him to have a ridiculous one week wedding and on top of that, to send out invites to people he had happily hoped to never see for the rest of his life. Her agenda, however, was unclear. Not a day passed by that Damon didn't wish he hadn't met her on that fateful afternoon, two months ago. Since the moment she had entered his life, Damon had been plastering fake smiles till his cheeks hurt and his heart grew heavy with weariness. Every interaction in his life felt deceitful, even his interactions with Elena. She was the love of his life and he had sworn to never keep secrets from her but this wasn't a secret he could share with her. It would ruin them. In fact, it would go beyond ruining just them; it would ruin a lot of lives. Damon Salvatore preferred to keep the past in the past and so he followed Hayley's every instruction, from inviting Kol Mikaelson to his wedding, to blackmailing Ester Mikaelson into preventing Caroline and Klaus from attending the wedding. He hadn't a clue why Hayley wanted him to do either of those things but he knew she wasn't working alone. There were times he'd catch her sending him pitying glances but they'd disappear into scowls just as quickly. Damon's mind spun every time he was in the same room as Hayley and Elena, especially when he saw how warm Hayley was towards Elena. He simply couldn't handle these fake interactions anymore.
Unable to muster the will to enter Hayley's office again, Damon sent a quick text to his fiancé.
"Work emergency came up. I'll see you at home later tonight babe x"
"You really think Ester's being blackmailed?" Caroline asked her fiancé as he came out of their ensuite shower with a towel wrapped low around his hips.
Running a hand through his damp hair, he answered her. "I honestly don't know."
"Finn sounded pretty convinced." Caroline mumbled as her eyes lingered on his bare torso. Klaus sighed deeply as he sat on the mattress with his back to Caroline. She knelt behind him and 'tsked' as she patted his hair with a dry towel.
"Finn's always been one to support Ester." Klaus grumbled bitterly.
Feeling how taught the muscles on his shoulders were, Caroline worked her fingers into them, loosening the knots and causing her husband to be to let out a soft sigh as he leant back into her.
"He's on your side on this one. He warned you against her didn't he?"
"I have a feeling he has another motive. He genuinely thinks Mother's being blackmailed. You heard how convinced he sounded. He probably just came here to get us to help him."
"But why would he need our help? It doesn't make much sense." Caroline huffed, her mind working a thousand miles per minute.
"Maybe he thinks someone we know is blackmailing her."
Caroline scoffed and dug her fingers into his muscles a little too deep.
"Easy love." He gasped.
"Sorry." She mumbled and kissed the top of his head, "But that's ridiculous. We haven't had any contact with her or Finn or Mikael in years. We don't know anyone they know; we live miles away in New York…it's simply ridiculous for Finn to think we're in any way involved in all this nonsense."
She eyed his smirk from the mirror in the corner of the room, "What are you smirking at?"
"I just love how worked up you get over my family." He was amused, "You look hot." He wriggled his eyebrows and she snorted.
"Nice try, but we're talking about it."
"It?" He pretended to not know what she was referring to as he turned to face her. His body loomed over her as he pushed her back on the mattress.
"It." She glared, "You know I'm talking about what Elijah suggested."
"I can't remember love." He lied, his lips pressing warm, wet, distracting kisses on her collarbones.
"Nik!" Caroline laughed, "Fine. If you want to play it that way." Wrapping her legs around his hips, she flipped them around and straddled him. Bending low at the waist, her lips trailed across his chest, her soft palms drifting up and down the firm muscles of his arms.
"Elijah said," She whispered in his ear, her teeth tugging at his ear lobe as she ground her hips on his.
"That we should go there early…all of us. You, me, 'Lijah, Bekah, Kol,"
"Can we not talk about my family when you're doing this to me?" He groaned, his hands grabbing her hips and pushing them down for more friction.
"Ah ah…" She smacked his hands away, "This only keeps going if we keep talking."
He huffed petulantly but didn't refuse her kisses on his abs.
"And what will we do by going to Virginia early?"
"Well for one, we'd be disobeying your mother." Caroline smirked slyly, "And I know how much you love to spite her."
He laughed, "Nice try love." He knelt up on his elbows, "but two can play this game."
In a single, fluid move, he flipped them around and caged her arms with one of his. Nuzzling her neck, his other hand grazed down her side teasingly. Rough finger pads and calloused palms stroked her stomach and had her wriggling under him.
"But think about it," Caroline gasped as she struggled to maintain focus, "There must be a reason she wants you to stay away from Mystic Falls. Aren't you curious?"
"Not really, love." Klaus grinned, his fingers now drifting to her breasts. She squealed and clenched her thighs around his hips.
"But Nik don't you want to know what her blackmailer has on her? What if it involves Mikael? What if..if.. she really is in danger? What if she really does want to leave your Father?"
Seeing as Caroline wasn't willing to let this go, Klaus sighed and dropped his head to her chest. Her arms, now free, wrapped delicately around his strong shoulders, her fingers raking through his hair soothingly.
"I know how important family is to you, Nik. I know how much you've missed spending time with Elijah, Finn, Kol…Can you just imagine what it could be like if we helped Finn and got to the bottom of this all? Finally convinced Ester to leave Mikael?"
Klaus remained silent as he let Caroline coax him into feeling better about Elijah's suggestion. He didn't argue with her but she could tell he still had his reservations.
"I want my Mother to know I'm engaged, Klaus. I want her to…accept you."
"And you think she will now?" He mumbled, his scruffy jaw tickling her somewhat.
"I have no doubt." Caroline beamed, "We're both successful, we have our own place, we didn't break up after the first hurdle like she predicted. We proved her wrong in every way possible. I want her to look at us…at you and I want her to admit she was wrong."
Klaus understood. She wanted a relationship with her parents, and while he couldn't relate too much to it now, he remembered how desperately he had wanted to impress his father, in his teenage years. He remembered how heart wrenching it had been to appear as a constant disappointment to Mikael and he didn't want that for Caroline.
Cupping her face in his palms, he gazed into eyes of frosty blue, filled with vulnerable innocence.
"This really means a lot to you hmm?"
She bit her lip and nodded, lines forming on the corners of her mouth. He kissed them away.
"Ok. We'll go early to Mystic Falls."
Her beam filled his heart with happiness.
"Have I told you how much I love you?" She asked softly as her lips pressed quick yet firm kisses against his.
"Hmm" He grumbled in low tones, "Not lately."
"I'll have to change that." She breathed into his skin before sliding her lips atop his and locking her legs around his hips once more.
"Enzo." Bonnie growled as she smacked a dish rag across his shoulder, "Can you please refrain from flirting with Mrs. Salvatore."
"Why love?" The 'British Hottie' – a term the teenage girls of Mystic Falls had coined for him – asked his boss tartly, "Are you jealous?"
His smirk annoyed her.
"If I wanted an STD then yeah, I'd be jealous." She huffed, "You're meant to be bussing those tables." She shoved him in said direction, "And again, please, refrain from flirting with the customers."
She shivered in distaste as he shot a wink towards Lilly Salvatore. Upon noticing Bonnie's gaze, the woman had the decency to flush and look away.
"You're still on probation, Enzo." She hissed at him, "If I find out you're sleeping with her-"
"You'll what? Fire me?" Enzo snorted.
"Darling you can't afford to fire me. We both know that. This place is going up in flames and I'm the only help you've got."
Sucking in a sharp breath, Bonnie swallowed her anger. Looking at him with pleading eyes, she spoke, "Look…just…don't get caught. Please. I don't need Damon Salvatore coming in here and and causing a scene. That's his mother."
Enzo laughed, his eyes sparkling, "Ohhh it's nothing like that. I'm new to town. Mrs. Salvatore is just being…welcoming."
Bonnie felt like she could retch in that moment.
"I don't want to know." She began shoving him towards the tables he needed to bus.
"I need to leave for an hour. I have a meeting with the Bank."
"Another one? How many times do you want to hear them reject your loan application?"
"I have a good feeling about this one." She snapped at him to which he simply shrugged and walked off.
Plastering on her best fake smile, Bonnie decided today was going to be her lucky day because it simply had to be. She was going to the Bank with her proposal for a business loan. She wanted to revive the dying Mystic Grill. It used to be a great place for teenagers to hang out in, when Bonnie was in school but now, as the owner of the place, she knew having only teenagers as customers wasn't good for business. She had to target a new audience; the over 21s, if she wanted to put that liquor licence to full use. Just as Bonnie left the restaurant, a man the definition of tall, dark and handsome stepped in. In fact he all but rammed into her. Bonnie, being tiny herself, struggled to remain on her feet and toppled over. Fully expecting to fall and smack her head on the ground, she squealed and raised her fists protectively over her head. Eyes shut, she waited for the inevitable pain. Instead, she simply heard a husky laugh.
"Really? That's how you protect yourself from a fall? By covering your face when you're about to whack your head?"
It took a moment for her hammering heart to calm down enough for her to open her eyes, never mind actually comprehending what this…rather stunning specimen was saying to her.
"Uhm.." She stuttered as he helped her upright. She didn't so much as notice his hands linger on her hips.
"Thanks," she laughed, a little breathless. "I thought I was for sure gonna die." Then she grumbled under her breath, "Atleast I'd get the insurance money to get me out of debt."
"It's not gonna be of much use if you're dead though." He replied and she shrugged automatically. Snapping her head towards him, her eyes widened in embarrassment.
"Uh…you weren't meant to hear that. I'm not suicidal. That's not-I'm just poor."
He snickered, his devlish smile causing a fluttering in her stomach.
"Can we start over?" Bonnie laughed, "I'm Bonnie Bennett. Girl without a death wish."
"Right. Gotcha." He winked, "I'm Marcel Gerrard. Guy that wants to buy you out. Then take you out…in whichever order you prefer."
A/N Shout out to all my reviewers, especially Laikaa and 555hikai - Thank you so much for your reviews and sticking with the story!
Laikaa there's a klaroline scene in here ;) They do become rather vital to the plot line in an unexpected way so watch out!
Ok guys, poll time. I've been thinking about this a lot...Who do I pair Kai with!? I feel like Mystic Fall's resident psycho deserves someone equally devious? Katherine?
Or do you guys want him to be paired with a good girl?
Let me know your thoughts on Marcel and Bonnie's dynamic too...I smell *trouble*, especially with Kol coming back to Mystic Falls
*dun dun dun*
