Together, they heaved Damon onto the couch. Tyler had borne most of the weight and even with his werewolf strength he was struggling, still weakened from transitioning. Kai placed a couch cushion under Damon's head as Tyler eased him down.

The blood on his shirt was darkening and drying. The tang of it filled the living room. Damon's eyes were closed, although they occasionally fluttered open - bright blue and unfocused like he was staring at something faraway. He had stopped mumbling but he still groaned uncomfortably.

Kai adjusted the couch cushion under Damon's head. He turned to Tyler, lowering his voice. "That rumour about vampires and werewolf bites…is it true?" Tyler didn't say anything but his silence answered Kai's question. The wound should have healed. Damon was a vampire. If his supernatural healing wasn't working, the rumour had to be true.

Kai perched on the edge of the couch. He held his hands over Damon's chest, letting them hover just above the wound. The bleeding had stopped and his shirt was stained a dark red almost purple colour. Whatever blood - Bonnie's blood - that still lingered in his body had been expelled. He was empty.

Some part of Kai had wanted this. Now Damon would know what it was like to suffer the way he had, to rot before he was even dead. It wasn't that long ago that Kai had been the one bleeding on the couch. Bonnie had been there to take care of him. He remembered his poisoned blood - black and cold - coating her nimble fingers. He had been so weak, so fragile, a doomed man. He had imagined his death then. It felt close enough for him to reach his hand out and touch it. Damon, in contrast, was a vampire in his prime, strong and invincible. He couldn't be the one to die first.

Still, Kai hesitated to do anything. It would be easy to let Damon die, to let the lycanthrope venom work its way through him. The thought felt like closing his fist around a sharp knife - cruelly tempting and immediately regrettable. Seeing Damon bleeding out on the couch, where they used to play video games and watch early morning cartoons together, sparked something in Kai - an ember of brotherly affection he didn't know he still had.

There was a sound like the front door banging shut that snapped him out of his thoughts. Bonnie had stayed at the school to help clean up after the play. Kai thought he would have more time to think of an explanation but he was out of time. Bonnie was going to walk in and see Damon, bloody and barely conscious.

When he didn't hear any footsteps or see Bonnie appear in the living room, he realised it must have been a gust of wind that had shaken the rickety old front door. It should have been a relief but he couldn't stop picturing Bonnie's shocked face. How would he explain everything to her or to Micah? As soon as he thought it, he wished he hadn't. He couldn't stop conjuring memories of his young nephew. Micah in his carrot costume, performing on stage while his parents proudly watched. Micah waking up in the middle of the night, restless and eagerly waiting for his father to return from Doveport.

Kai closed his eyes, blocking out the sight of Damon's bloody torso. He started to whisper the words of a healing spell. With his vampire healing, he had never had much use for healing spells before but he was thorough in his study of magic and he had learned them anyway. It wasn't as easy as cloaking himself with invisibility or creating fire. Those were common spells, so natural he didn't even need to say the words to enact them. The healing spell took more effort.

"What are you doing?" Tyler jostled his arm, breaking his concentration.

"Magic." Kai ground out in frustration. Focusing on the spell again, he almost didn't hear what Tyler said in response, although it sounded a lot like 'magic can't bring someone back from the dead.'

Kai's eyes flew open. "What would you do if it were Mason?"

"I'd stake him through the heart." Suddenly weary, Tyler sat down on the coffee table. He pulled Kai's coat tighter around his body. "The venom will drive him insane before it kills him."

Kai's hands trembled above Damon's wound. He hadn't realised how cold it was and he felt exposed without his coat.

Kai started the spell again. The last time he had used magic was when he had taken Tyler's car apart. It had drained all his energy, his body burning up and freezing at the same time. The memory felt distant but it couldn't have been more than a week ago. Back then he still had some leftover fragments of his supernatural abilities, enough to pull a prank on his werewolf nemesis. He was aware of Tyler still sitting on the coffee table and snarling at him. "It's not going to work."

Flexing his fingers, Kai muttered the words of the spell louder to drown out Tyler's voice. He focused his gaze on the wound - red and purple and sour-smelling like rotting fruit. He imagined the blood fading, torn skin knitting together, Damon opening his eyes and yelling at them for driving his precious Camaro.

"Nothing can heal him."

Kai shrugged his shoulders as if he could shake Tyler's words off. He kept his hands steady over Damon's chest as he finished the spell. If there was a drop of magic still left in him, he willed it into his fingertips.

The feeling blossomed inside him slowly, not the great surge of energy he was used to, but a gentle thrum of magic. He felt warm as if someone had wrapped his coat around him - warm and reassured. A manic chuckle burst from his lips. He couldn't help it. He didn't let it disrupt the spell, continuing to speak the words in hurried muttering. The magic he was using didn't come from some endless pool of energy. He could feel the strain on his body, draining him.

Then, his posture relaxed. A soothing ease washed over him like a cold shower. The warmth of magic faded away, along with the draining effect it seemed to have on his body, but he couldn't let it go before he finished the spell.

Trying to hold onto the prickle of magic was like trying to hold onto water. Whatever magic he had conjured fizzled out as quickly as it had bloomed, burning out and collapsing in on itself like a dying star.

Kai thrust his hands towards the wound, punctuating the final word of the spell.

He had done everything he could do. Damon would either heal and wake up, or he would stay exactly as he was - closed eyes, almost blue lips, as brittle and lifeless as the antique porcelain plates their father used to collect.

Kai lowered his hands, defeat and hopelessness washing over him. He turned his gaze away from Damon to Tyler.

Neither of them spoke. It was quiet except for the wind rattling old parts of the house. Sometime during the spell Tyler had stopped snarling discouragements, but Kai had been too focused to take notice of exactly when.

Tyler was leaning forward - elbows propped on his knees, chin propped on his hands - as he watched Damon with narrowed eyes.

The intent curiosity on his face struck something in Kai. Tyler had seemed certain about Damon's situation before but now he watched Damon almost expectantly as if waiting to see what would happen next.

Kai straightened, shifting on the edge of the couch. There was still a chance the spell might have worked. It was harder to look at Damon now, so Kai kept his eyes on Tyler. If he looked down and there was still a gaping, bloody hole in Damon's chest it would mean that he had failed. He had only imagined using magic. He would have to come up with some explanation for Bonnie. She would have to tell Micah that his father was gone and that he wasn't coming back.

As long as he focused on Tyler instead of Damon, he didn't have to think about that possibility. The tang of blood in the air had dissipated. He could hardly smell it anymore, or maybe he had just become accustomed to it. Maybe what he felt wasn't hope but an inclination for delaying disappointment.

Suddenly, Tyler bolted upright. His hands fell to his sides, pushing against the surface of the coffee table as if to steady himself. The movement was swift and jarring like the flick of a switchblade. Kai instinctively flinched and leaned backwards. Assuming that Tyler had grown uncomfortable with his staring, he prepared for some rage-induced reaction.

Then he realised that Tyler wasn't even looking at him. His eyes were wide and focused on something next to Kai.

With a sharp inhalation of breath, Kai let his eyes wander back to Damon. His gaze roved from the wound up to Damon's face.

He was awake and he was talking but it wasn't the feverish nonsense from before. Kai could understand what he was saying, except he couldn't really understand.

He slipped off the edge of the couch, landing in a crouched position beside Damon. He leaned closer to listen.

"What?"

Damon put a finger to his lips, then his hand limply fell to the side, hanging off the edge of the couch. "Go to bed before dad wakes up."

"Dad isn't here. What are you talking about?"

Damon grabbed a fistful of Kai's t-shirt and tugged on it. Kai didn't fight his feeble grip. He edged forward until his chin was brushing Damon's shoulder. He couldn't remember the last time they had been that close, almost uncomfortably close, to each other.

Damon's forehead was creased and beading with sweat. He tilted his head towards Kai, meeting his gaze. "I told him you were in your room studying for some test, but you know what will happen if he realises that you snuck out again." A drop of blood fell from the corner of his mouth and dripped onto the couch.

Kai felt a shiver of fear run through him. He had to remind himself that their father was dead and there was nothing to be afraid of. Clearly, Damon was having some kind of hallucination or reliving a memory.

Kai lifted his head from Damon's shoulder and managed a tight-lipped smile. He could only think of one thing to say. "Thank you for covering for me."

Surprisingly, Damon returned his smile. It wasn't his characteristic half-smirk but a big goofy smile. "What are big brothers for?" Kai didn't know if Tyler could hear what they were whispering about but it must have seemed odd that Damon was smiling. Tyler hadn't been very specific when he mentioned the effects of werewolf bites on vampires. Did he know that this would happen? Had he seen it happen before? Then there was the more pressing question: what happened next?

So far he had been taking whatever Tyler said as the truth but he was starting to reconsider. If Tyler was holding back on something, if he knew something that could help, Kai had to at least ask about it.

Just as he was about to turn around, Damon's fist tightened in the material of his t-shirt. The laughter that had lit Damon's face a moment ago faded to an expression of shock. His lips trembled in an almost childlike way. "I'm bleeding." He said it more like a question, as if he hadn't noticed the blood before.

"It looks worse than it is." Kai wasn't sure why he said it, except that it was a lie and lying had always been easier than the truth. "You just need to rest."

Damon's strained expression relaxed. He settled back against the couch and closed his eyes. His grip on Kai's t-shirt loosened. Before his hand could fall to his side, Kai caught hold of it and traced his thumb over his brother's cold fingers.

He knew Damon was dead the same way he had known that his father was dead. He had been nineteen and his vampire abilities were still new to him then. It had only taken a second to smash one of the kitchen chairs and thrust a pointed piece into his father's back. He had heard everything in excruciating clarity - the splintered wood tearing through his father's shirt, then his skin, then his flesh. It had felt like threading a needle through jelly.

The stillness that followed was the same now as it had been then. The only difference was this time Kai didn't run. He stayed beside Damon, still clutching his hand. He couldn't look away from Damon, couldn't stop noticing little things about him, things that he had never really payed attention to before: the arch of his dark eyebrows, the strand of black hair - now damp with sweat - that always seemed to hang over his face.

Kai let go of Damon's hand, letting his arm rest on the couch. With nothing to hold onto and exhaustion cresting over him, he toppled backwards until he hit the edge of the coffee table. Slowly, he picked himself up and sat down next to Tyler. He barely managed to fit on the corner of the table without falling off. Tyler was taking up most of the space with his legs spread to either side and it didn't seem like he was going to move.

They sat there for a while, side by side, quietly. There was still something imposing about Damon's body spread out on the couch and both of their gazes stayed fixed on it.

It felt like a long time before Tyler spoke. "What are you going to tell Bonnie?"

In that moment, Kai felt sorry for Bonnie. Somehow everybody in her life was involved in a secret supernatural world that she wasn't a part of. All of them - Damon, Tyler, Mason, Jo, and possibly others - were hiding things from Bonnie. Even Caroline, who Kai could tell was a bit of a blabbermouth, had managed to keep her knowledge of Tyler's and Damon's true natures a secret. Still, out of all of them, Damon was the most guilty. He hadn't just kept the truth from Bonnie. He had deliberately compelled her to forget it.

Kai's focus shifted from Damon on the couch to their unfinished chess game on the dining table. "I don't know." He said, answering Tyler's question at last. He didn't really feel like talking but something had been bothering him since they left the Mystic Grill. "It's not a full moon. Why did you turn?"

Tyler stiffened next to him. "It was those damn drinks. Whatever potion was in them - "

Then Tyler jumped up as if someone had spilled ice water down his back. Kai tore his eyes away from the chess set and towards the threshold of the living room. He knew what had startled Tyler without even having to ask. Tyler must have heard Bonnie's car in the driveway.

Kai didn't need heightened senses to hear what happened next. Bonnie's footsteps were loud and hurried, echoing through the hallway.

Bonnie stomped into the living room with a stormy look on her face. Micah wasn't with her, and Kai remembered that he was at a sleepover with some of the other vegetables from the play. At least the boy would still have a night of fun before his world came crashing down around him.

Tyler moved closer to the couch, widening his stance and broadening his shoulders as if to block the sight of Damon's body from Bonnie.

Her soft features were scrunched up in a scowl. She didn't look at any of them. Her gaze was fixed on the window at the far end of the room, unfocused as if she were looking through it and trying to see something that wasn't there. When she spoke, her voice was steady and even. "I keep remembering things. Impossible things. Damon with fangs." Her hand went to her collarbone. "So many memories."

The realisation hit Kai like a slap. He stood up, moving towards Bonnie, but she thrust her hands towards him. "Stay back." She fixed her impervious gaze on him and it was like they were meeting for the first time all over again.

Kai stopped moving. He mirrored her action and put his hands out, offering her his empty palms as if to prove he had done nothing wrong. "It's okay. You're -

She didn't let him finish. "I know what you did to your father." Her expression shattered, tempered rage softening to sorrow. "You killed him." Her voice wobbled and she lowered her hands, wrapping her arms around herself. "Damon told me everything, but I - " She paused, catching her bottom lip between her teeth and then letting it go. "I forgot."

Kai ran a hand through his hair, tugging at the ends until he felt pain. How had he not thought of it before? Of course Damon's compulsion would wear off after he died. Kai wondered who else Damon had compelled, who else was remembering impossible things like Bonnie was.

How was he supposed to make her understand? If she knew how his father had raised him like he was some kind of abomination - the isolation, the disgusted looks, the constant berating - she wouldn't feel any sympathy for Joshua, a man she hadn't even known, and he didn't deserve her sympathy.

Kai felt the flood of emotions rising up inside him but he forced it down. Although he kept his eyes on Bonnie, he was aware of Tyler confusedly looking between them. "What is going on?"

"Damon's compulsion is wearing off." He answered without looking away from Bonnie.

Tyler swore. He took a hesitant step towards her. "Bonnie, there's something we have to tell you about Damon."

Kai knew he should have followed Tyler's cue and tried to explain what had happened to Damon, but his attention was on something else. Whatever Damon had told Bonnie, it was his version of the truth. She still didn't know the whole story.

Kai wanted to rush forward, grab her by the shoulders, and tell her every terrible detail of his childhood. All he wanted was for Bonnie to understand.

Kai didn't move any closer to her. Bonnie already thought he was some monster who had carelessly killed his father. If he was too defensive or too aggressive, he would only drive her further away. He tried to keep his voice steady. "If you knew what my father was like, you would understand why I did it. Let me explain."

Bonnie wiped her hands over her face. When she looked at him again, her eyes were narrowed in a glare. "I don't want to hear your lies. I'm done being lied to."

"I can explain everything." He felt Tyler hit his arm, probably to remind him of the fact that they still hadn't told Bonnie what happened, but he ignored it. "Damon didn't tell you the whole truth."

"So you didn't kill your father?" Bonnie asked coolly. Everything soft and warm about her had hardened to ice.

When Kai didn't answer, she laughed - a hollow, broken sound - as if that was exactly what she had expected from him. "Get out." She looked between Kai and Tyler. "Both of you. Go. Now." Her tone was clipped and harsher than he had ever heard it, but her hands trembled at her sides.

Kai couldn't imagine what she had to be feeling. All the confusion, all the impossible memories.

Tyler shifted on his feet, almost nervously, unsure of what to do. He was probably a little unsettled by Bonnie. She wasn't acting anything like her usual sweet, genial self. There was something fearsome about the hard set of her mouth and the roughness of her voice.

Still, she was Bonnie and Kai knew her better than that. Beneath the firm exterior she was putting on, she had to be heartbroken and scared. Kai wasn't going to leave. He was going to stay and explain everything to her, if he could only find the right words.

Bonnie's biting tone cut through his thoughts. "Get out." Her hands clenched into fists.

"GET OUT."

The sound was almost like a roar. Waves of energy pulsed from Bonnie, knocking books off their shelves and rattling the paintings on the walls. The chess set fell from the dining table with a clatter and the rosewood pieces were scattered on the floor. Above them the chandelier shook, crystalline glass clinking together like raindrops against a window.

Kai stumbled backwards as an invisible wall slammed into him. The air was hot and crackling with electricity. The feeling was familiar, coming back to him like a reopened wound.

He remembered being in the kitchen with Bonnie, her hand around his wrist, the white-hot burn where their skin had connected. Her pink pendant had glowed brightly.

Kai looked over at Tyler, who had his hands over his head as if to shield himself. The necklace, along with its twin, was still in the pocket of the coat he was wearing. Maybe Bonnie didn't need to be touching the necklace to siphon magic from it.

Kai blinked as the air around him settled. The chandelier stopped swinging as if nothing had happened, but the books on the floor and the paintings hanging crookedly were undeniable reminders of Bonnie's magical outburst.

She unclenched her fists and wiped her palms on her cardigan, exhaling slowly. Her expression was weary as she looked around the living room.

Narrowing her eyes, she examined Tyler - clothed in Kai's coat and nothing else - as if she hadn't really noticed him before. Her gaze moved up to his face and then behind him to Damon on the couch. "Please just leave us alone." It was so soft and pleading, nothing at all like the voice that had shaken the chandelier and almost overturned the living room.

Us? Had she not figured it out yet? Did she not feel it hanging in the air, thick and palpable and threatening to choke them all? Damon was dead. It wasn't like one of his trips to Doveport or Wolfpine or wherever he told her he was going. This time he didn't leave a hastily scribbled note with some cute inside joke for her. He was gone and he wasn't coming back.

Tyler's face was a mixture of emotion, clearly trying to decide if he should do what Bonnie was asking or stay and comfort her. Eventually, his pinched expression softened. He started to leave the living room, pausing next to Bonnie. His hand hovered in the air as if he meant to pat her shoulder and his mouth opened to say something, but he changed his mind and did neither. Before he could continue past her, Bonnie grabbed the sleeve of his coat and then flicked her eyes towards Kai.

She didn't say anything but Kai understood the look that passed between her and Tyler.

He felt Tyler's hand curl around his arm and then he was being pulled towards the doorway. "Bonnie, let me explain."

She didn't meet his gaze, moving past them to kneel beside Damon on the couch.

Kai twisted in Tyler's grip. "Bonnie, please." He caught a glimpse of her over Tyler's shoulder. She pressed her fingers to Damon's neck, then lowered her head to his bloody chest. Was she starting to realise that she had never felt his pulse before?

"Bonnie." There were so many things he wanted to tell her but all he could do was call out her name over and over again as Tyler dragged him away from her. Kai felt like he was caught in a rip tide, a current tugging at him and he was letting it pull him further down. It was harder to breathe. His body sagged with resignation and he would have fallen if Tyler hadn't jerked him upright and urged him forward, as effortlessly as if he were handling a mischievous toddler.

Kai called Bonnie's name again and again, only pausing when he tripped on something and bit his tongue. The taste of blood filled his mouth. Tyler's bulk knocked into him as he stopped to see what he had stepped on. It was one of the chess pieces that Bonnie's magic had thrown into the hallway. He bent forward to pick it up, clutching it tightly in his fist. The air was sucked out of him. He thought of Damon polishing each chess piece with practiced care. It felt like only moments ago that they had been sitting at the dining table, playing chess, and talking. Kai remembered the day their father had brought the chess set home when they were little children. Despite being a gift for Damon, it had sparked Kai's love of antiques.

With the chess piece in his hand, Kai felt like he was still the same little boy - jealously fighting for something that he wanted, something that didn't belong to him. "Bonnnniiieee." Her name came out of him in a whine, desperate and pathetic. "Bon."

Tyler's hand tightened around his arm again, urging him forward. "Come on."

Kai clenched his fists, feeling the polished edges of the chess piece digging into his skin. He turned towards Tyler and shoved him in the chest.

Tyler's grip loosened before he took a few unsteady steps backward, his werewolf reflexes preventing him from falling. Kai wasn't sure where the strength came from. Tyler looked just as surprised.

Kai expected some kind of retaliation but Tyler just watched him expectantly, waiting to see what he would do.

Some part of Kai wanted to run back into the living room, to remind Bonnie of the good times - sitting on the roof together, folding paper flowers, their outing to get ice cream with Micah.

Being in that hallway brought back a memory that Kai hadn't thought of in a while. He had broken into his father's study. He couldn't remember what he had been looking for when he found it - a sketch of a magical device called an ascendant and an enchantment that would trap a witch in something called a prison world. Then later that day when he saw his father at the dining table, tinkering with the ascendant, something in him snapped. He was almost nineteen, still adjusting to his vampire powers and learning to balance them with his magic. He could remember the sound of the chair smashing into pieces and his father crying out as one of the pieces was plunged into him.

He imagined Damon's version - the version he had told Bonnie - of what happened was much different. Had she ever wondered why there were only five chairs at a table meant for six?

Kai unclenched his fists, letting the chess piece fall to the floor. He turned and walked out the front door. It was exactly what he had done when he was nineteen. Maybe he hadn't changed at all. Of course back then Tyler hadn't been there following him out the door and into the wintery night.

"I should go find Mason." He didn't look at Kai, instead gazing into the distance as if to sense his brother. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to Mist Haven." Kai answered without hesitation. He wasn't sure why but it seemed like the only option. There was nothing keeping him in Mystic Falls anymore.

"Here." Tyler tossed Damon's car keys to him.

Kai's response was delayed, fumbling before closing his hand around the keys. "Wait." He called before Tyler could run off after Mason.

He stuck his hand in one of Tyler's coat pockets and pulled out the tangled necklaces. When he reached into the inner pocket, he felt Tyler stiffen, his chest taut and sticky with cold sweat. Kai handled the picture of Gina and Rhys carefully as he slipped it out of the pocket.

Tyler didn't seem too concerned about the necklaces or the picture. Kai could have asked for the coat back but he wouldn't be needing it in Mist Haven, so he turned and walked towards the Camaro.

When he looked back at where Tyler had been standing, there was no one there. It felt like the most appropriate goodbye. He climbed into the front seat and spread the necklaces and picture across his lap. It was dark - except for the faint glow of moonlight and streetlight that filtered through the windows - but the jagged line running down the middle of the picture was more noticeable than ever. When he first taped the two pieces together, he had started to believe that there was still a chance of fulfilling the prophecy, but now that hope was fading. Bonnie would never forgive him. He ran his finger along the jagged line where someone had torn their doppelgängers apart. One half - Bonnie's half - had been with Cassandra and the other half - his own - had been in his mother's dictionary. As Kai untangled the necklaces, he tried to imagine how the picture of their doppelgängers had ended up where they had. There had to be something Cassandra wasn't telling him, something about her relationship with his mother.

Kai went over the words of the prophecy in his mind.

A secret uncovered in the place you were born,

between unlikely souls immortal love will form.

Sacrifice the one you hold dear,

and all your troubles will disappear.

Two hearts destined to beat as one,

even in death cannot be undone.

In every lifetime they are separated,

and then find each other as it is fated.

He had never written it down. The words were as familiar as the half of the picture Cassandra had given him. Although he knew the smiling woman with the heart-shaped face was actually Gina, he could only think of Bonnie every time he looked at it. All those nights he had fallen asleep with that picture under his pillow, her face in his dreams. The first time he had met Bonnie, he almost couldn't believe she was real. He had been so close but now it was all slipping away from him like a stone sinking through water.

Leaving Mystic Falls - the place he was born - seemed like he was getting farther away from fulfilling the prophecy, but Mist Haven was where his coven waited for their leader.

Jo had been a little hesitant when she gave him her phone number, as if she almost hoped he wouldn't use it, but Kai dialled her number anyway. Her voice was weary when she answered. She had obviously been asleep before he called. Their conversation was short, with Jo speaking in a clipped whisper, probably to avoid being overheard by her husband.

After the call ended, Kai tossed his phone into one of the cup holders, along with the necklaces and the picture. As he ran his hands along the steering wheel, Damon's absence hit him like a punch in the stomach. He could still imagine Damon in the front seat, one hand on the steering wheel and the other hand working the tricky gearshift with ease.

Kai slumped forward as if he really had been punched, pressing his face to the steering wheel. Was Damon a part of the prophecy, the one he held dear? When the smell of the worn leather became too unpleasant, he lifted his head and straightened in the seat. He turned the key in the ignition and flicked through the radio channels before settling on an old upbeat pop song that drowned out his thoughts.

x

So Damon…how is everyone feeling about that? This was always going to be a bonkai story and it had to happen. Thanks for reading and sticking with this story!