The Adventures of Bonnie and Kai
"Who were they? Those witches?"
His face darkened as he stared out the car window, watching the trees lining the highway fly past. Cincinnati was already far behind.
The plan was to go as far away from all their pursuers – his and hers – as possible. Bonnie didn't quite understand why he couldn't just 'port' them to their destination, like he did all those times during school – what now felt like a lifetime ago. He had tried explaining to her about portals, and magical physics but it had been too complicated. The spell alone looked more like something from a college-level Astrophysics thesis than like a magical formula.
There was still so much she needed to learn. Kai still had to cloak her every time she did magic.
"Kai?"
"Gemini."
She waited for him to explain and when he didn't, she let out an impatient laugh. "Kai, I have no idea what that means."
So he told her. About his family being the equivalent of royalty in a millennia-old coven. Their practice of leadership passing through a line of twins – the leader being the winner of a magical duel-to-the-death. He and his twin sister were firstborn, but he had been born with a defect – he was a magical leech and his father had locked him up in magic prison to stop him from getting his birth right. His father was the Joshua who had visited Sheila.
The idea of twins being made to murder each other over centuries disturbed her deeply and the matter-of-factly way Kai explained this part made it even more revolting.
A reminder of the dark side to this strange power of theirs.
"He locked you up just because he didn't want you to win? Why didn't he just send you away?"
Kai shrugged, his face fixed straight ahead.
"But you have magic. You use it all the time."
"I… got some. A pretty large supply of it. Saved a town from a curse. It's lasted longer than usual but it'll run out one day. It always does."
She snuck a glance at him. Why did she feel there was more to this story than met the eye? But still, "that wasn't fair but I'm glad you didn't merge with your sister."
His gaze flew at her, his eyebrows raised, his eyes filled with hurt.
Bonnie wished she wasn't driving so that she could hold his gaze with her own. Instead she reached over and grabbed his hand. He struggled at first, then relaxed, letting her hold on.
"What if you had lost?"
He let out a short bark of laughter. "I always win."
"But what if you had lost. I-I… couldn't bear it."
"Why? You'd never even have known me."
Bonnie swallowed against the sudden lump in her throat. "That only makes it worse."
He was silent for some time after that. Then she felt his hand squeeze her own.
After about an hour of driving, they stopped for gas and snacks and they were on the road again. This time, Kai took the wheel.
"There was a moment, maybe all of five seconds, when I thought you had drawn me out to trap me."
Bonnie gasped, looking up from fiddling with the radio to stare at him with hurt in her eyes.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly.
"How could you…? I would never… I can never…"
"I know." Kai grabbed her hand. She tried to pull away but he held it firmly, pulled it to his lips and kissed it fiercely. "I'm an idiot. You saved my life. Got your magic because of me."
He felt his heart tighten sharply, strange but not unpleasant emotions coursing through him as he glanced at the beautiful woman – girl, really – by his side. Oh, he was used to the desire – to own her, to consume her, possess her in every way one person could possibly possess another person. He was used to the longing that overwhelmed him when she was not right next to him, in his arms. He was used to so many emotions – most of them ones he had just felt for the first time – because of Bonnie.
But this tenderness, this crippling sense of gratitude, of … humility.
He swallowed, looking away from the way her eyes were shining softly at him.
"So now you have magic, you're going to take on some of the muscle. I might need to channel you once in a while. If the Gemini coven are tracking me down, then I can't use magic willy-nilly anymore."
She frowned, doubt clear on her face. "I don't know if I -"
He chuckled. "You just got your powers and you took out twelve Gemini. Then you tossed me around the room like a doll and had your wicked way with me." He laughed out loud as her face delightfully reddened. "You'll be fine. I told you that you were awesome, didn't I?"
And he was pleased to see the way her eyes brightened, eagerness rapidly replacing fear. "I can't wait to see you in action, Bonnie," he whispered.
The highway stretched ahead of them, wide and free as they passed the sign that said 'Goodbye from Virginia'.
"Are you still repeating the words of the spell in your head?"
Kai had drawn up a low table to the edge of the Madison motel bed, and she sat cross-legged in front of it. He was sitting behind her, his arms half-way around her, hands lightly resting on her wrists.
Bonnie nodded in reply to his question.
"Watch," he whispered, his lips brushing slightly against her ear and making her shiver.
But she kept her eyes peeled on the bowl of water, and left her arms loose in his grip, letting him guide her hands into a gesture that should have been complicated, but somehow seemed intuitive.
Like if a match had been thrown on gasoline, the top of the water caught fire.
Bonnie gasped, her eyes widening. "How did you do that?"
"Not me. You," he replied, his chest vibrating behind her back as he chuckled. He raised her hands higher and she watched the flames rise in tandem.
"Knock yourself out." His hands slipped out of her wrists.
Bonnie's hands shook and the fire shuddered. "What if I set something on fire?"
He chuckled again, something darker in his humor this time, as his arms wrapped around her waist. "I'm right here."
So she went to town, throwing the fire as high as she could, then sending it in an arc around the room. The first time something did catch and burn, she instinctively panicked, but he just lazily flicked his hand, murmuring something, and the smoke and the burn vanished, leaving only the pure flame.
When she got tired of it, they tried other spells – levitation, summoning, illuminating, unlocking, simple transformations…
"How do you learn all these stuff?" Bonnie asked, as she watched the shoes she had levitated knocking in the air. "I mean a lot of it seems to be by instinct but who teaches you how to do the rest? Did your family send you to Hogwarts or something?"
"What is Hogwarts?" he asked, his toes rubbing against the soles of her feet. He had been doing that for a few minutes now, and it certainly had her attention.
"You know… Harry Potter's school?" she managed to say, gasping a little.
"Who is-"
But she had turned around in his arms, and the rest of his words were swallowed by her mouth.
Doing magic did something to her, she realized, as she frantically tugged off his shirt and dived back in. He laughed, simply, happily, falling backwards as her mouth attacked his neck. His hand was wrapped through her curls, his other hand touching each of her clothes in turn as he vanished them.
She leaned back, partly to pull off his pants and partly to stare at his handiwork.
She pouted. "That's so not fair. You need to teach me that."
"One thing at a time," he retorted, touching his clothes and vanishing them, then grabbing her back to him. "You don't want to flay me now, do you?"
Her eyes danced with mischief and sin. "Maybe just one part." And she winked at him, slid down his body and took him in her mouth.
While Kai went to get food, Bonnie had a long, luxurious shower. They had driven almost four hours today before they stopped at the motel on the outskirts of Minneapolis, and she felt stiff all over.
She ran her hand over her stomach as the warm water poured down her body. It was still as flat as a board. Sometimes, she wondered if she was really pregnant or if her grandmother and mother had just been trying to scare her.
She still didn't feel pregnant. And even the nausea had stopped.
She bit her lip. She hadn't told Kai. Kept trying to in her head but there never seemed to be a good time, the words never seemed to come out.
She hated to admit it – but she was scared to tell him.
His devotion – obsession with her – was undeniable. She'd be a fool to doubt it at this point in time. But what would he feel about a baby?
What if he got mad? What if he agreed with her mother –
and her heart would clench and her hand would fall protectively over her non-existent bump –
– and asked her to get rid of it?
If it came down to Kai or her baby, Bonnie didn't know what she would choose.
So she stayed silent. She would tell him. Obviously, she could only keep it a secret for so long.
Just not right now.
Now, she wanted to revel in this adventure.
She changed the setting to slightly cool, and shook out her hair. Pregnancy angst aside, how OK she was with all this was almost scary. But as long as she had Kai, she could take on the world.
A warm hand touched her back and she smiled. She turned to see him standing by the door, his eyes dark and hungry, and his body wearing too many clothes.
"What are you waiting for?" she wondered.
"Can I come in?" he asked.
Bonnie laughed. "What are you, a vampire? You've never asked before," she reminded him, and her body tightened at the memory.
His was already ready, if the bulge in his jeans was any indication. She reached for him, hooking her fingers into his belt and pulling him into the shower, clothes and all.
He looked so good soaking wet with clothes on that it was almost a shame to take them off. Almost. Because she knew that without clothes, he looked delicious. Her fingers stumbled slightly over his buttons, his gaze burning through her head all the while. She pushed the wet, clingy material past his shoulders and just took a moment to enjoy the view, the dark hair clinging to the sides of his face, his facial hair from days of not shaving making him look so dangerously sexy, the droplets clinging to the muscles on his chest and stomach. Her hand reached for his belt and he grabbed it, shaking his head slightly. She looked at him, confused, but not for long when he fell to his knees, his hands reaching for her thighs to pull her to him.
Do you remember the first time I kissed you? he asked and the words didn't come in through her ears but echoed in her head. His hands were sliding into her core.
"Yes," she gasped, clutching his shoulders.
His hand stilled.
She frowned, then realization hit her.
It came as easily as thinking her own thoughts.
Yes.
He smiled, his hands continuing their ministrations, before being shortly followed by his mouth.
An empty dusty blue van was the only other vehicle on the highway gas station. Kai leaned against his own sleeker ride, and pumped gas, whistling under his breath, whistling under his breath as he watched Bonnie waltz into the store in those tight, short shorts. They had been on the run for five days now, and had made it halfway across the country. The plan was to go to Montana, which by his calculation was as far as the Traveler's Magic would let him, and then set up there, for as long as they could without the Gemini or her family finding them.
He thought ruefully as he felt the waves of her magic slithering out of the store that his plans were a far cry from the ones he had at the start of this weird little chapter of his life. Then his plans were filled with merging with his sister, winning his coven, then slaughtering most of its members.
Now… Now his goals were much simpler.
Maybe he had gotten soft. Maybe she made him soft. That made Kai smile as the doors opened, and Bonnie waltzed out, carrying a backpack she didn't have with her before, no doubt full of cash. She was taking off his edge and he had given her one. That sounded like a fair enough trade.
"How did it go?" he asked, taking in her smug little smile.
"The old pops will never know what happened," she said, still smiling and tossed the backpack to the backseat of the convertible. It vanished the moment it hit the leather. She wiped her hands together. "You ready?"
He yanked the pump out and closed the nozzle. "Yep."
They hopped into the car, Bonnie behind the wheel, and zoomed off, coating the blue van with a layer of exhaust fumes.
The door of bathroom to the side of the store that the renegade witch had just robbed inched open and a small girl with long dark hair, and old eyes stepped out. She slid behind the wheel of the blue van, and started moving, her gaze peeled on the car in front, barreling towards the horizon.
She smiled.
She's ready.
The image in the magazine was flawless – the hair woven in intricate two-stranded twists and then wrapped up at the top of the model's head in a simple-looking knot that was anything but. It was the kind of do that Bonnie would have saved all summer to go to a beauty salon in Whitmore to fix. Now she stared hard at the style, making sure she had committed every single braid and roll into memory, then she closed her eyes and lifted up her hands over her head, waving it around the top of her skull and letting her instincts follow the call of magic like Kai had taught her.
Finally – and it sure did take longer than she imagined – she felt the spell end, and she opened her eyes.
Her hair was exactly as the model's in the magazine – right down to the single streak of red that had been placed strategically for effect.
Squeeing with glee, she ran out of the bathroom and jumped on top of the sleeping man on the hotel bed. They had crossed the North Dakota border that morning and Kai insisted on celebrating by checking them into a ritzy place for a change.
"W-what?" Kai mumbled, sitting up straight and almost throwing her off.
She stayed put, straddling him as she turned her head for him to get a full view. "How do I look?"
"Wow," he muttered. "That's really…" His brow furrowed. "I really love your outfit."
She threw a pillow at him, and he fell back, laughing. "My hair, you dumbass!"
"Sorry. Couldn't resist."
"I did it with magic!" she yelled, still pummeling him with the pillow.
"I kind of figured that out," he snickered. "Unless, you've learnt how to freeze time."
"Yeah, right…" Then she stopped with the pillow-attack and leaned over him, seriously. "Can we do that?"
"Yep," he said. "With a little bit more skill. For you, that'll probably be by the end of summer."
"Wow," Bonnie gasped. She threw herself beside him, shifting until their sides were pressed into each other. He turned a little on his side, propping up his chin to stare down at her. "This is amazing." She let out a small, incredulous laugh. "We are amazing." She lifted up her head to run her hand over her now slightly-mushed hair and laughed again. "If I did this the normal way, I won't be able to sleep properly for a week, at least. I'd be so worried about getting it messed up. Now I can wear a different hair-do every hour."
"Some people who got powers would be thinking about robbing banks or taking over the world. You, Bonnie Bennett, are thinking of hair-dos."
"I think a life of no bad-hair days is a pretty mean feat," she retorted. Then a slightly sober look came to her face. "Some other people would be thinking of curing cancer or finding world peace."
"You're a witch," he said sternly, "not a god."
Bonnie gave him a sharp look, but bit her tongue against the obvious question.
He saw it in her eyes all the same and shrugged. "I don't have all the answers, Bonnie. No one on this side of life does."
"What is my coven?" she asked while they basked in the after-glow of Jacuzzi sex.
Kai shrugged. "You don't have one."
"I mean not me obviously. My mom, my grandmom."
"What I said. Bennetts don't do covens."
"Why? Your family does."
"Yep."
She poked him with her toe and he laughed, enjoying how he wound her up.
"It's like team sports versus solo games. For most witches – practically all witches – magic is a team sport. You stay in a coven and draw from the collective power of all the witches in the coven, living and dead. The bigger your coven, and the more powerful the individual witches, the stronger your magic."
"And my family?"
"The Bennetts," and he said her family's name with something akin to reverence, "are like a family of All-Star solo players. You don't need a coven. Covens are probably even a bad idea for Bennetts because you guys have too much damned power."
Bonnie shuddered, pulling away. "You make us sound like freaks."
He winked. "Bad-ass freaks."
She wasn't convinced and he kissed her until the worry seeped out of her head. "You come from a long line of bad-asses, Bonnie. Revel in it. I know I do."
They had made love on the Idaho grass under the stars, and the nearly full moon. Kai had placed a shield around them, screening them from prying eyes, more for Bonnie's sake than his own. It had been glorious, their magic unleashed and clashing together as their bodies rode through their passion, Bonnie's fire scorching the earth around them while his had started a storm, lightning striking the trees, then rain to wet the burning grass.
When they were sated, they lay on their sides, his arms and leg locked tightly around her, his face in her hair as he breathed her in. His hand cupped her left breast, and he could feel the drumming of her heart as it slowed to normal.
It was probably the happiest moment of his living memory.
There was something he wanted to say, but he had no idea how to form the words and they stuck at the back of the lump in his throat.
Bonnie's fingers linked with his own and squeezed. "I love you."
His breath caught, and he pushed his face into her neck, his heart hammering. "I…I…" He couldn't.
Her fingers squeezed harder. "I know," she whispered. She turned in his arms, the movement slow because of the iron-like hold he had on her but for once, it didn't instantly set him off again, his mind spinning too wildly for his body to react. He stared into Bonnie's beautiful face, those large green eyes and felt like hiding.
He didn't deserve this.
"I know, Kai," she murmured and placed her hands on the sides of his face and kissed him. She broke it off, panting, her eyes large and intense. "Kai, I-"
He kissed her again before she could tell him she loved him again. Before she could pierce through his heart with her words, rip his soul into shreds and piece it back in her image.
She mumbled against the kiss, trying to get out the words, but after a long moment of slow, drugging slide of lips against lips, tongue against tongue, breaths mingling and seizing, she gave in, moaning into his throat, as he rolled them round, his body pushing hers into the ground.
This time around, their magic mingled in a gentler way – no flames or lightning, just warm steam filling the air, creating a small monsoon over their little spot on the world.
They spent the whole day travelling, as eager to cover as much ground as possible, stopping only to eat and pump gas. But they finally threw in the towel by evening and checked into a motel off the I-94.
They lingered in the diner, and after their meal, Bonnie went to play at the pool table with a couple of college co-eds. She tried to make him follow, but he begged off. She had been strangely withdrawn all day, and he wondered if she missed home, missed her friends, missed this time of environment. He would never offer to take her back – he wasn't that far gone – but the least he could do was give her space, stay content just watching her.
Soon though, Kai noticed that he wasn't the only one that followed her short skirt with his eyes every time she lined up a shot. All the guys were looking. Heck, even some of the girls were.
Every once in a while, she looked over at him, beckoning him with her eyes. He spent half an hour struggling between the urge to rush over there and either strangle the voyeurs or push her against the wall and then himself into her.
He compromised by cloaking himself, crawling under the pool table and putting his mouth to good use under that short skirt.
Eight minutes later, they ported to their motel room and she was sitting on his face, screaming his name as he finished what he had started while the lights in the room blinked off and on.
Half hour later, he was half-asleep on the bed, listening to the sound of her breathing. For once, he wasn't spooning her, but instead, her head lay on his chest and he ran his fingers gently through her silky hair. By tomorrow, they'd be entering Montana and then they would be officially as far from Mystic Falls as they could go without straining his magic.
They'd been studying the grimoires and they had figured out how to build a ward that could practically keep them invisible to the Gemini. Then he, and Bonnie would be safe.
He was halfway into a dream about his future with Bonnie, when he heard his phone buzzing.
Shock rippled through him.
It had been silent for so long – his informant quiet – that for a moment, he didn't know what to do. Then he picked the call, as he mentally cast a silencing spell so as not to disturb Bonnie.
It was over in a few minutes but the message was clear.
Jo was back.
She had landed in LAX, and she would be flying across the country in a series of seminars for a few days until she reached Whitmore, Virginia.
Kai had the knife. He could go and grab his sister, force her to take her magic back, force her to merge.
It was what he had kept him sane for eighteen years of utter isolation. The belief that he would get out of that Prison World, make his twin pay, and get everything that had been stolen from him.
So what was he waiting for?
He looked down at the face of the girl in his arms.
If he merged with Jo, he would never have to run from the Gemini again.
If he tried and failed, he would be caught. This may even be another trap. No doubt his father would expect him to meet Jo and capture Kai.
But if Kai didn't try and Jo was put on her guard, she could disappear again and god knows to where. This might be his only chance to catch her.
Beside him, Bonnie stirred restlessly. She probably felt his heart pounding in his chest.
By tomorrow evening, they would be in Montana. If he lost Bonnie now, he'd never get her back. The Bennetts would put so many layers of magical protection on her that he would never find her again.
It finally came down to this. This choice. Risk losing Bonnie or risk losing everything else.
Kai ran slightly shaky fingers over Bonnie's face. Through the window, he could see the large moon looming.
A/N: LOL, in case it wasn't painfully obvious, the chapter title is a spin on "Bonnie and Clyde." Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing this story so far! I really appreciate it. :D Still... I can't help but notice a drop in the volume of reviews. Not to be greedy (lol! who am I kidding?) but it's always nice to get feedback, no matter how few the words or even if it's just "really liked it". I read somewhere that some fanfic readers feel that reviews are "disturbing" the writers? Well, rest assured that I do not feel that way at all! I can never get too many reviews. :D So go ahead and fill in that box. :D Cheers
