6.
Present
Bonnie wakes herself out of a nightmare. The corners of the bedroom materialize slowly and there's no one at her back to fear. April stirs beside her, but the air is warm, the ceiling fan spinning languidly, and there is nothing and no one to fight.
Sitting up, she rubs her eyes and feels for her phone from under her pillow. It's only five in the morning. Rolling her eyes, she lays back down and stares at the fan blades.
She dreamed of Kai. Specifically, she dreamed she and Kai were running away from something. The walls of her old high school slipped past but they could never seem to reach the end of the corridor. When whatever was chasing them advanced, she threw herself in front of Kai to shield him. But Caroline didn't seem to notice him there, instead sinking her teeth into Bonnie's neck like she was the intended prey.
Bonnie doesn't need her dream diary to sort that one out.
April rolls over, her body heavy from alcohol, and blinks. "You're up early."
"Jet lag."
"Don't think that's a thing when you travel the same time zone."
She scratches at her scalp. "Fine. I had a nightmare."
"No." April props herself up on her elbows. "Not Bonnie Bennett. You're not scared of anything. What could possibly be haunting your dreams?"
"Nothing I can't figure out myself. I'm worried my past will mess up my chances at a future." She turns her head to meet April's imploring gaze. "By way of Caroline vamping out, chasing me and Kai down the hallways of Mystic Falls High, and when I go to protect Kai from her, she bites me in the neck. Not the most metaphorical dream I've ever had, but..."
"You know Jeremy's right, right? Everything he said last night? What happened to Elena and Caroline sounds like the real nightmare, but if they can't admit you getting out was for the best, fuck 'em."
A smile slowly overtakes Bonnie's face. "You want to say that louder? I don't think your dad heard you."
"Fuck both of you," she grins and then groans, burying her face in her pillow. "I have to go to service this morning. He wanted me to do the whole shebang, Sunday school, service, and fellowship afterwards, but I whittled him down to just the one."
"Would it be too much to ask you to drive me to Whitmore? I'd ask Jeremy but he's probably hungover."
She smirks. "Hey Jer!" she shouts, to which she gets no response. Last they knew, April had given him a spare blanket and he'd laid down on the couch to sleep off the vodka he'd been drinking. "Yeah, I don't think he'd survive the motorcycle ride to and back. Plus, it gives me an excuse to leave church early. Bon, can you believe he rides a motorcycle?"
"Can you believe he's that buff? I don't know, I might've stayed around for hot Jeremy Gilbert."
"Perish the thought!" April falls to her back and squirms beside her. "Him and Matt..."
"Love him to pieces, but Matt never got rid of that kicked puppy dog look after Elena dumped him."
She bumps Bonnie's shoulder with her own. "Don't tell me you're looking at these townies when you've got a live-in option all to yourself."
"I don't even know him. And I can't say I'm looking forward to trying to either."
"I think dream Bonnie would disagree."
"Dream Bonnie gets herself in plenty of trouble. I wouldn't exactly trust her judgment."
April's hands go up in surrender before slapping back down on the down comforter. "You can stay another night if you want. Mi guest house es su guest house."
"No, I'm not going to let that weirdo keep me away from my own home."
x
Sheila's car is not in the driveway when April pulls to the curb, and Bonnie sinks a little in the passenger seat. Her anxiety has been building since they left Mystic Falls and the flickering lights of the radio panel and the music succumbing completely to static is proof of that. She's felt fear before, and this isn't that. This is...butterflies. No, nausea inducing, ugly moths taking up residence in her stomach and disturbing the residual alcohol her body hasn't completely digested.
April watches her best friend idle and knows if Bonnie asks to go back to Mystic Falls, she'll turn around no questions asked.
"This is ridiculous," Bonnie spits. She faces her friend, meets her crystal blue gaze, and smirks. "Why am I letting this guy scare me? I'm friends with vampires."
April cocks up an eyebrow and it disappears under her bangs.
"I'm kind of friends with vampires. I was friends with people who are now vampires. Whatever." She huffs. "A witch, I can handle."
"A witch who's been taught by your grandmother."
"Thanks for the pep talk, April," she says acerbically.
"I'm just saying... Looks can be deceiving. Everyone here thinks I'm meek little April Young, the girl whose mom died and whose father sent her off to boarding school. They have no idea I'm a hard drinking, profane, daughter of a vampire hunter."
"You sound like a comic book character."
"Maybe I should be." She grins. "You got this. Obviously. Just be careful."
With her chin defiant and shoulders braced and keys in her hand, she strides up the townhouse steps and reaches for the doorknob. Before she can get the key in the lock, the door swings open putting her face to face with Kai and the wind is knocked out of her. They both still, unflinching eye contact, waiting for the other to speak first.
"Sorry," comes out of his mouth, and it sounds robotic to Bonnie's ears but she has no way to gauge if it's inauthentic.
"Thanks," and it's clipped and he's moving back so she can enter and then the door closes and April's gone.
She walks in and looks around as if it's the first time in a long time. Nothing is out of place or transformed since yesterday afternoon, but the energy feels different. Heightened? But that could just be her.
"Sheila's at the grocery store. Again. Sunday dinner."
She spins to face him and is unnerved by his close proximity, but that's her fault because she hasn't moved that far into the house. He smells like patchouli, one of Sheila's favorite candle fragrances, and the faint scent of cedar. And has his scruff gotten thicker in only twenty some odd hours?
"You look like a caged cat," he remarks and she finally snaps out of it.
"Sorry, I drank a lot last night."
He clicks the deadbolt and moves away and out of her space. He left another book on the couch. "Did you have a nice time?"
She exhales heavily and chuckles to herself. "I guess?" When his lingering gaze feels scrutinizing, she continues. "It's been a long, long time since I saw my old friends. I dunno, maybe too much time has passed."
"Don't let Sheila hear you talk like that." He clears this throat. "She doesn't believe there's an expiration date on reconciliation."
"Oh, I think my Grams would make an exception on this group of people. She did drag me away from them in the first place."
"Touché."
Not knowing what to do with her hands, she hangs her keys on the rack and makes a beeline to her chair in the corner. It's enough of a distance away from Kai to feel awkward carrying on a conversation with him but far enough away she feels just out of reach of any surprises. It's not that she's threatened by his presence, but he's not something she prepared for.
"What'd you get up to yesterday?"
He holds up his book, paperback with a badly broken spine. Another true crime novel. "Reading."
"I moved in with two old people," Bonnie jokes, her laugh a cough. She can't remember the last time she had time to read for fun. Her last year of college hardly left time, space, or energy for anything of leisure. She's only a little bit jealous.
"Guilty as charged," he takes the jest in stride. "Hard to be spontaneous living with an academic."
"What about you? You do the college thing?"
"I didn't take advantage of it when I was younger, but I am now."
"Which field?"
"Engineering. You know what they say about idle hands..."
She hums. She doesn't want to dwell on his hands and how good he might be with them. "What's your last name?"
"Parker. Malachai Parker." He grants her a knowing smile. "I wondered when you'd come around for the basics."
"Grams never told me about you." She purses her dry lips. "Still hasn't."
"I know."
"So...talk," she says bluntly.
Setting his book down, he throws his ankle over his knee. He's dressed like maybe he's going out for the day, jeans and a white t-shirt, but the bottom of his socks are as white as the moment he pulled them on. "I'm from Portland, Oregon. I'm the leader of my coven. I have a twin sister, but you knew that already-"
"You're the leader of your coven? How..." She frowns. "I've never heard of something like that. Most covens I've heard about are more communities or council-led."
"Oh, we have a council of elders. It's a very long story and my coven is pretty hush-hush on, well, everything, but it's a tradition passed down through generations type of thing."
"So you're a king."
He laughs this time, hard. Equally amused and humorless. "Not even a little bit."
"I mean, you kind of are. If your coven operates like a monarch and your elders are like advisors... You're kind of a king."
"Flattery, Bonnie, will get you everywhere with me. I promise."
She tries hard to not blush under his attention. "How'd you meet my Grams?"
"Family friend to my father and coven. She used to visit Portland a lot when I was little."
"Ah. So, you got in a bad way and Grams was there to guide you through it? Get you back on the straight and narrow?"
"No," and he steels up. Not sure if he should tell her. How much to tell her. If she'll ever be able to look at him with those candied apple green eyes again. "The trouble happened and then came the punishment. Sheila's been the rehab."
She makes a face, feels partially unsatisfied. "That's all I get?"
That slippery smile comes back. "Gotta keep up the air of mystery." He then stands and unlocks the front door. He disappears for a long moment and returns with arms full of plastic bags. "I don't know why you don't let me do the grocery runs, Sheila."
"Someone had to be here when Bonnie got back," Sheila's voice carries into the house. She steps inside and her soft eyes find her granddaughter. "Plus, you always get the wrong brand of preserves, Malachai."
He shrugs. "I grew up on processed foods. Force of habit."
Refusing to be left out like the night she came home, Bonnie follows them both into the kitchen. Kai, as usual, puts up the groceries and Sheila lingers. She comes up to Bonnie, places her hands on both sides of her face, and kisses her forehead. She then turns away. "How was your get together?"
"Underwhelming and overload at the same time," she groans. "Apparently the vampire problem got worse after we left. Elena got the short end of the stick sounds like. And Caroline's been turned, too."
"I heard about the Forbes girl. She seems to have adjusted well, all things considered."
"You knew?"
"She did attend my university, Bonnie."
"Right."
"They're all well, then?"
Bonnie watches her grandmother. She hasn't made eye contact with her since bringing up her friends in Mystic Falls, instead busying herself with putting up groceries as if Kai needs the second pair of hands. Unless Bonnie has more to say, this is the button on that topic. "Yeah, they're fine."
"You're friends with vampires?" Kai inquires, throwing a look over his shoulder at her. Maybe Grams never gave him the Mystic Falls memo.
"Sort of. We're not as close as we used to be. Plus, Caroline wasn't a vampire when I knew her."
"Did you say Forbes? That's the blonde, right?" He looks to Sheila for clarification. She curtly nods.
Bonnie makes a face. "Of course. You've been here since they were enrolled at Whitmore."
"Had to see what the dating pool was like. Turns out, it was full of parasites." He winks before turning his back, goes back to rearranging cans in the cabinet. "Hey, Sheils, didn't she corner you that one time?"
"That would imply I was caught off guard," she chides and, conceding to her point, Kai shrugs. "No, she didn't corner me. She did, however, continually try to schedule office hours with me when she wasn't enrolled in any of my classes or program."
"What for?" Bonnie speaks up.
"She was curious if I knew anything about vampire dynamics."
"Did you?"
"I gave her a few occult books to read. She wanted to know about siring, which worried me but her business is none of mine." She waves a hand full of garish gold rings around. "I could do for a change of topic. This house has an invitation barrier intact, so let us add vampire discussion to that ban."
Kai puts his hands up with mock surrender, while Bonnie reaches in her back pocket for her cell phone. "Hey, what does sire mean?" she texts. She watches the text bubble march ellipses back and forth for a good minute before April's cherubic face pops up on the screen. Slipping out of the kitchen, Bonnie answers.
"Hey, sorry, it's a lot to type. But it's more or less ingrained loyalty to the vampire who makes a new vampire. It can be super, super innocuous, but it can also be a very creepy master/slave dynamic. When Caroline said she was sired to Stefan, it just blew my mind. I don't know him and Caroline seems adamant about not being taken advantage of, so maybe she's not sired sired to him, ya know."
"Right."
"But if she is... He could tell her to have a nice day, which is harmless, but now her thoughts are colored with having a nice day. Or he could tell her to kill someone and even if she's against it, she wouldn't necessarily be able to stop if the opportunity presented itself."
"So, brainwashing?"
"No, not exactly. She could completely oppose something he tells her. She could argue and fight it, but it's like a cell doing what its programmed to do."
"That's scary."
"Uh, yeah. Especially if she's secretly in love with him. It's actually a pretty rare occurrence in vampires. But vampirism amplifies whatever the person was like when they died, so..."
"Geez..."
"Why do you ask?"
"Oh, no reason. I wanted to clarify something, I guess. Thanks."
"Yeah, of course. How are things with the weirdo?"
"Surprisingly, less weird." She throws a glance towards the kitchen, where Kai is actively listening to Sheila talk with a carrot poking out between his lips. "But only slightly. Look, I've got to go. We're all making dinner."
"That sounds nice. My father's taking me to a buffet. Pray for me?"
The girls say their goodbyes, and she jumps noticing Kai's entrance into the living room. He keeps an even expression at her shock. "Was that your friend April?"
"Uh, yeah." She tucks her phone in her back pocket. "Her dad was a vampire hunter, so she was explaining something to me."
"Pastor Young fought the vamps, huh?"
"Do you know everyone in my life?" she bites and the harshness takes her aback.
Kai doesn't take offense, though. Impressed, he folds his arms across his broad chest. "You've got some sharp edges, don't you, Bon?"
The way his gray eyes drink her in when he says this makes her flush. He's entertained, enjoying himself, but Bonnie can't say the same. She just becomes increasing irritated, but she can't blame him for her frustrations. Instead, she smiles, gives him a hard stare that turn her eyes a cool jade. "Don't you have dinner to cook?"
Past
"She's not going to show."
"Have a little faith, Malachai."
"Faith is the one thing I've never had, Sheila. Seems like an odd time to start."
A car door being slammed forcefully echoes from outside and Kai shoots to his feet. He wants to flee. He wants to fight. He...
He looks at Sheila, who raises her eyebrow at him. "Aren't you going to get that?" she asks, full well knowing the answer. He exhales through his nose, nostrils flaring, and heads for the front door. When he swings it open, he's met by icy blue eyes filled with terror and a fist raised to knock.
They glare at each other for a long minute, but, when Kai shows no move to attack her, Jo swallows and composes her face into righteous anger. "You gonna let me in or are you just going to waste more of my time?"
He lets her inside and as he goes to shut the door, her hand juts out and slams it back open. Flashes him her hospital ID badge clipped to her burgundy blouse. "I've told my colleagues and a few friends where I am. If they don't hear from me in thirty minutes, they know to contact the authorities and send them to this exact address. Okay?" Her cold eyes bore into Kai before meeting Sheila's, who still rests in the arm chair in the corner. Their silence equals their compliance, so she drops her arm and steps into the townhouse. "Let's get this over with."
"Nice to see you, too, sissy," Kai grumbles and he doesn't miss Jo's glare because of course she heard that. They're twins. They grew up together. They shared a womb. As much as she'd like to bleach it out of her system, she's linked to him in ways she'll never understand and will never be able to duplicate.
Kai returns to his seat on the couch, and Sheila gestures to the loveseat for Jo. She scoffs. "I don't have time for a therapy session."
"You're going to want to sit for this, child." Sheila's voice while soft is just as commanding as ever, and Jo obediently sinks down onto the plush cushions.
She's closer to Kai than she is to the door, and she hates it. "I'm listening."
From behind her back, the Bennett witch reveals a large knife. It's covered in rust and dirt and dried blood, and though it's been close to twenty years since she last saw it Jo goes ashen. Kai stiffens at his sister's nervousness, but Sheila remains calm. "I didn't call you here to waste your time."
"No, absolutely not! Are you insane?" she jumps up and makes for the door.
"Sit down, Josette," is Sheila's response, and the doctor freezes in place. Magic does not keep her there nor does fear of what could happen to her. It's morbid curiosity.
For years after May 10th, 1994, she dreaded the moment Kai would leave his prison world. The council, her father never told her they gave Sheila Bennett the ascendant, but in her heart of hearts she knew he wouldn't stay there forever. Though, after some time, she fooled herself into thinking he'd be imprisoned for long enough. Long enough for her to go on with her life outside of Portland. Long enough for her to craft a new identity as a woman who wants to help people and never felt the cold embrace of trauma. Long enough for her to figure out what medical emergency better suited the scar on her abdomen, so she'd never have to reveal to a lover seeing her naked body for the first time that she'd been stabbed by her own twin brother. Long enough for her to forget. But sometimes she ruminated on what would happen when he got out and how he'd kill her. She always knew she'd die by his hand. Only this time, he has help.
Slowly turning on her heels, she licks her lips and goes back to the loveseat. "Like I said, thirty minutes or my friends call the cops."
"What. A. Drama queen," Kai laughs and it's to alleviate his nervousness, not hers. "We're not going to kill you, Josie. I want to, believe me. I really should for that stunt you pulled back in ninety-four, but Sheila has a better plan."
Pulling her attention away from the ghost of brothers past, she looks at Sheila. Her mentor. A woman she grew to love and trust, and she wonders what could be worse than death? "What are you going to do to me?"
"We're not going to do anything to you, Josette. I asked you to come here because I would like you to merge your magic with Kai."
"Merge?" So there is a fate worse than death. "You want me to merge with this psycho? After what he did? After me not having practiced in years and he's been living here for months sucking up whatever you've been teaching him? Sorry, Sheila, but with all due respect - there is no fucking way I'm dying today."
A thin eyebrow hitches, but Sheila grants Jo the profane admission. This isn't something one could ask over a telephone call, and because Jo would rather bury her past than embrace it so she can healthily move on it makes sense that she's terrified and feeling betrayed. But time has weathered Sheila's patience, so she sets the knife on her lap and folds her fingers together.
"I'm not asking you to do the soul merge, Josette. I've lost too many friends to your coven's way of doing things. I'm asking you to help your brother rehabilitate. As a siphon, he can hold magic but not for long. If you give him yours, because it's Gemini magic, perhaps we can fake the merge."
"Fake it? And if it doesn't work, then neither of us have magic."
"Like you ever liked being a witch." Kai groans, growing antsy in his seat. "She tweaked the spell. Jesus, Josie, have you no faith?"
"Not after what you did to our family, no."
He buttons his lips after that, returns to his sullen silence.
"I may have found a work-around. A way to give him self-sustaining magic and following original ritual without the soul merging." She extends the knife to the other woman. "But we can't do anything unless you want to. I can't make you take back your magic and I certainly can't force you to merge. That's always been a two-way street."
She takes the old relic, the scar on her stomach twinging, and affords the older witch a tight smile dripping in disdain. "If this will get him out of my life for good, then fine. Whatever you say, Sheils."
Author's Note: This one got a little longer than expected, but I initially forgot to write that last scene even though I promised tumblr this update, like, a month ago. It's important to me that Sheila isn't just some background, matchmaking character. Ol' girl has her own motives, too.
As always, thanks for reading and let me know what you think! I got a few really nice reviews on the last chapter that made me feel like maybe I have something here. And not just because it's an alternate universe I'm curious about.
