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"Bonnie."
The voice roused her from sleep, causing her to shift from her current position: hunched over a pile of books with her head turned and cheek pressed onto a page. Blue eyes peered down at her, concerned. Bonnie offered a small conciliatory smile as she lifted her head, swatting at the paper that threatened to stick to her skin.
"Care, stop looking at me like that, I'm fine." She stood to stretch and crack out the kinks.
Caroline followed and straightened from her previously bent position. "You were up all night, Bon. I mean, I know we're vampires, but you've been running yourself ragged the last few days. I think you need to ease up."
The hybrid chose not to answer. She, instead, made her way to the hotel fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. "You know what's hilarious about all this?" she asked, taking a swig of the cool liquid. "I have over a hundred years on him and he's so much more creative than I am regarding weaving spells together and making new ones." Letting out a lamenting sigh, she took another long drink. "I mean, I'm strong at all the spells I know - and I know a lot of them - but the way he's just able to twist the magic...makes me wish I'd had a full coven's knowledge in my arsenal the way he does, you know? It takes me so much longer to see the things he can see in mere minutes."
"Sure," Caroline agreed when, in fact, she did not know, but she wanted to be supportive nonetheless. "But Bon, maybe...maybe you shouldn't be trying so hard to do this. Even if you found a way to block your magical signature from Kai, he might have a way around that, too. You said it yourself, he's creative."
"And what do you suggest I do? Let him walk around without his humanity? He's a ticking bomb; it's only a matter of time he goes Klaus-level postal. I have to stop it."
"But-"
"His coven is in danger, Care." Her tone was sharp. "And I know he's a soulless asshole right now, but the Kai that's shut off, he needs me."
"Bon, the guy just staked you. Maybe don't worry about what he needs?"
Bonnie's hands moved over the spot in her abdomen where he'd stabbed her. While the physical wound was non-existent, the mental ramifications clung to her psyche like a vice. "That wasn't him. The Kai I know would never-"
"Okay, but the Kai you know doesn't exist anymore, does he?" the blonde prodded with a gentle interruption. "For all intents and purposes, he's gone. And you can't just assume you can get him to turn it back on."
The hybrid bristled at her words, at her friend's hypocrisy. "I'm surprised by this coming from you, Care. Would you want somebody telling you this about Stefan? Did you listen when they said he was a lost cause?"
"I'm not saying he's a lost cause, Bon. But a guy goes out of his way to shut his love for you off...it just feels like you might be doing more harm than good by trying to force his hand."
"He's impulsive, Care. He impulsively decided to trust me when he had no idea who I was and he impulsively decided to turn off his humanity because he can barely fathom pain. Couple that with his rudimentary understanding of emotions, emotions that he's only really started to feel for a few months, yeah, he's going to do stupid shit like this." Her words were snappy and loud, defensive.
Caroline's eyes widened as she pursed her lips together in a thin line, trying to find the best way to convey her next words. "First of all, take it down a notch. You're not mad at me and I'm only saying this to you because I care about you, Bon. Getting a vampire to flip their switch isn't easy and on somebody like Kai? Who usually prefers being a Big Bad? This might not play out the way you want it to."
"And how is that?" she bit back. "How do you think it'll play out?"
Caroline sighed loudly, clearly reigning in her temper, knowing that her friend was lashing out from fear and worry. "I think...that there's a possibility that you'll have to separate saving his coven and saving him."
She didn't want to hear this. "Caroline, how-"
"Bonnie, if it comes down to it, Kai might go nuclear and incinerate everybody in his path, regardless of their loyalties. That's the thing with having no humanity… It doesn't matter how people feel about you or if they're good to you. None of it matters. And then, what? You'll let him do what he wants to do on the off-chance you can still get him to turn it back on?"
The tell-tale lip quiver was coming back again and she grunted in annoyance, sucking in a breath. "I can't think like that today. Right now, I have to keep my focus on blocking my magical signature and cloaking you two as well, so he can't track us."
"Okay, and then, what?"
"And then we figure out step two. Okay? Care, get off my back. You and Stefan have been on top of me since I saw Kai. I'm not fragile, I won't break, so stop talking to me like I'm a kid who doesn't get it."
"We don't think you're going to break, Bon. We think you're doing the exact same thing you're so concerned Kai is doing."
"Why, because I'm choosing not to focus on the fact that you're telling me I might have to kill the man I love?" she barked, gesturing so violently that some water shot out from the neck of her bottle. Ignoring the mess, she slammed the plastic down and shook her hand of excess water. "I give you a stake and tell you to jab it into Stefan's chest, could you do it?"
"She would." Stefan took that moment to slink into the room, door shutting soundlessly behind him. Crossing his arms over his chest, he offered a half-quirked smile. "Sorry, your voice was carrying."
Caroline's face immediately scrunched at his words, looking as though she wanted to disagree. But he was proving her point, so she remained quiet.
"You're a vampire," Bonnie scoffed. "All voices carry."
"Yours rose above the rest…Look, Bon," he let out a breath, trying to find the best way to de-escalate, "We're not trying to undermine you. This is your thing and we're here to help. But you need to take a breath. We want this to end well for you, but we've been put into these types of situations before and sometimes...sometimes you need to make the hard choices."
Bonnie let out a non-committal noise, turning her attention back to the notes she had on the table. "I can fix this, guys. I know you think I'm being optimistic, but I can."
"Remember the conversation we had a while back?" Stefan asked softly as Caroline let him take over, hoping he'd be able to talk more sense into the witch. "You said that if Kai tried to hurt us or Damon, you'd take him down yourself."
Bonnie didn't turn around, but when her shoulders tensed, he knew she was listening.
"So, I think the same thing has to apply here, doesn't it?" he continued. "I know you care about him, but that doesn't change what he's capable of. Caroline and I are going to help you find the best conclusion for this. But I think, for your sake, you can't ignore the potentially bad outcome."
She felt like she was going to explode. The mere thought of having to hurt Kai made her brain short-circuit. Of course she knew that this could all end badly. But she just couldn't let herself concentrate on that. If she let herself spiral right now, she was going to completely lose it. And that was not something anybody could afford.
She sucked in a breath, ready to reply with scathing words. However, they were all saved by a whoosh that came from directly next to her. On the table, parallel to her right hand, a flame seemingly appeared out of nowhere, flaring brightly before disappearing completely. Left in its place was a piece of paper.
Relieved at the interruption, Bonnie grabbed the note and hastily unfolded it. She read quickly through the information before looking up to meet the other two's confused gazes.
"There's an apothecary in the Old Town Chinatown area. A bunch of Joseph's followers supposedly buy their things from there, so we're going to see if we can find any information. See? Step 2." Pocketing the paper, she shuffled to her trusty boots and slipped her feet in before zipping them up. When she turned to face her friends, she gave them both an expectant look, pointing them towards the door. When they didn't budge, she grumbled and moved past them to head out.
Still perplexed, Caroline briefly met Stefan's eyes before grabbing the other woman's arm to stop her. "Bon, no. We're not going anywhere until you explain."
"Liv's sending me information on the things Kai's currently working on. It'll allow us to scope out the places before he gets a chance to. I can feed any intel I find back to her, so that they have more to work with and he and the coven aren't going into things so blind."
"We're playing his lackeys?" the blonde scoffed, aghast. "No, we're not just going to take care of his legwork for him, Bon."
Decidedly trying to be more sensitive to the situation, Stefan lightly caressed Caroline's lower back to get her to calm a bit. "To be fair, Bonnie, when we agreed to help, we meant more in terms of tempering Kai, not running errands for his revenge plan."
"And you don't think this is helping to temper him?" Bonnie practically shrieked, yanking her arm back so hard, Caroline almost fell forward. "His followers, his innocent followers - who have no idea their leader is soulless - are being used by the head guy in charge as disposable soldiers." She sniffed slightly and lowered her voice before speaking again. "Look, I know it seems like I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off. And I'll be the first to admit that, yes, my vision is a little tunneled right now. But that doesn't mean I don't have some kind of formulated objective in my head."
Caroline's stance softened a bit. "Bonnie, we have to think through how we're going to approach this before we go trying to be heroes."
"I know that." The hybrid relaxed a bit as well. Her gaze became more subdued, beseeching. "The more we know, the more we can control. We have two fights to plan for: against Kai and against the rogue members. I asked Liv to send me everything she has, but it would be smart if we gathered our own info. This is a good place to start. If we can get a list of what they've been purchasing, it might give me an idea of what kind of magic they're working with. And maybe we can get some details regarding locations while we're at it."
Her seemingly calm demeanor seemed to placate her friends somewhat as they nodded in agreement. Without further argument, they all made their way out of the room.
The scene they were met with was gruesome and horrifying.
If the space was ever an apothecary, it bore no resemblance to one now. Bonnie's nostrils immediately flared as the stench of burnt flesh permeated the air around them. Stefan walked directly behind her, arms slightly spread back in a protective cocoon around Caroline. Every inch of the walls and floor were singed, dark grey soot practically embedded on all surfaces. Doors had been blasted off their hinges and the furniture looked like they'd been sent through a tornado.
The bodies were even more alarming. If you could even call them bodies. They were ripped to shreds and mutilated, the gore nauseating even the two seasoned, centuries-old vampires.
"What the fuck happened here?" Caroline whispered, dumbstruck by the chaos that surrounded them.
Bonnie had no words. What made this scene even worse is that one of the witches had spelled the outside to look completely normal. One would never have guessed at the terrifying sight that laid beneath the facade.
She shifted forward slowly, listening for any potential sounds of life. The pain in her gut told her who did this. There was only one man capable of creating such discord.
Wrapping her head around the fact that this was violence for the sake of violence, she was able to ascertain that everything had been at Kai's hand. The bodies were little more than black charred logs.
Her eyes picked through her surroundings as Caroline and Stefan decided to head to the back, hoping to find any kind of information that could be helpful.
Bonnie shuffled some strewn papers along the floor that had been saved from whatever flames had engulfed the area, but none of them held any information of value. She had just managed to pick open a safe when Stefan's voice called from the back.
"Bonnie, there's something you need to see." His usually calm voice was filled with a timbre that made her feel anxious. A part of her didn't want to know what they'd found, to remain ignorant. She forced herself forward, following in the direction of the voice.
When she got to what she assumed was the storage room, she saw the two standing in front of a body that was surprisingly preserved, considering the state of the building. It was odd. There wasn't a single bit of residue on the form, nothing was singed or blemished.
It took her a moment to absorb who she was looking at. The hair in twists, the slight form. The hazel eyes. Realizing who it was, the hybrid threw herself forward, falling quickly to her knees.
"Kayla?" she asked, a bit shrill and hysterical. The body looked so unmarred that she prayed that maybe the young girl was still alive.
But the woman was dead. Because of course she was.
Though she hadn't known her well, this absolutely decimated Bonnie. She was practically a child.
Bonnie's brain kept recalling the night of the gathering. Kayla's warm eyes, filled with an innocent hope and a deep admiration for the two hybrids. She'd been one of the most vocal supporters of Kai, so willing to see past the nightmare stories and darkness that had surrounded him.
Such loyalty to them. The unofficial king and queen of the Gemini Coven.
The tears that streaked her face were scorching hot and bitter. A lot of good that did the poor girl. She ran a gentle hand over the prone woman's eyes, closing them permanently to the horrors of this life.
Even in her state, she couldn't help but have the naive wish that maybe it wasn't him that did this. When she voiced it out loud, Stefan shook his head firmly in opposition. Squatting down to her level, he placed a placating hand on her shoulder.
"Bonnie, look up."
In her haze, it took her a minute to realize she'd missed the markings on the wall entirely.
What'd I tell you about following me?
The words were in blood. No doubt Kayla's blood. The queasiness in her increased tenfold. The perfectly preserved body. The identity of the person.
Kai's sick, twisted letter to her.
Message received. For the first time since everything had transpired, Bonnie was starting to question if Kai could even be saved.
It made her sick to admit that she couldn't be sure.