"As much as I would love for you to kill my dad, you're sort of a ghost," Lizzie said, looking at him as she rubbed a hand down her face.

His eyes narrowed. "What'd he do?"

"Got all pissy at me, Jo, and Hope for killing the dragon," She said, leaning back so her head rested against the wall.

"And how is that a problem?" He asked, brow pinching together in confusion.

"We used black magic to injure it," Lizzie said with a shrug.

Kai's eyes lit up with both pride and curiosity. "Black magic?" He repeated.

"Yep," She said as a grin pulled at her lip. "It was so fucking awesome. It shredded the dragon's wings causing it to fall."

"Interesting," He said, most likely trying to imagine it. "Did that kill it?"

"Nope, but it did cause it to turn back into its human form," Lizzie said, thinking back to the dragon lady and the desperation on their face.

Her uncle stood back up. "How'd it die then, Lizziebear?" He asked.

Lizzie fought the urge to roll her eyes at the stupid nickname. It was so dumb.

"I slashed its throat," She said, fighting the urge to smirk.

"Very nice," Kai said after he let out a little laugh. Then, he motioned to his face "I was wondering about the blood splatter."

Lizzie paused, feeling her face and realized there was dried blood all over it.

Oops. At least that explained the weird looks from earlier.

Kai raised an eyebrow at the reaction. "What you didn't notice?" He asked, sounding amused.

Lizzie fought the urge to cross her arms and pout. "I'll have you know I was too busy being chastised by my dad to notice."

Then, she stopped. "You know that's probably why my dad was so agitated, now that I think about it…"

At Kai's look, she gave in to the urge to cross her arms as she gave him a look to shut up. He snorted.

"Back to the story," He said, motioning for her to continue.

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "This is entertaining for you, isn't it?" She said, exasperated.

"Immensely. Now, continue."

Fighting the urge to stab him, she did. "Point is we got in trouble. Then, my dad basically said that I was evil, so I threw him into a wall."

"Wait, wait, wait. Backtrack. He said you were evil?" Kai said, looking both angry and surprised.

Lizzie thought back to what happened. "Well, not in so many words, but it was implied," She said.

Kai's hands formed into firsts and Lizzie felt a flicker of unease. It wasn't fear. She knew his wrath wasn't directed at her, but that didn't make the rage radiating from him any less unsettling.

"Where is he?" He said, calmly.

Yeah, he was in no way calm, which meant he was so fucking angry.

"Why?" Lizzie asked, slowly.

He gave her a sharp grin. "I'm going to kill him." It was said so cheerfully, but underneath it was a volcano about to erupt.

That was when Lizzie knew that in no uncertain terms her dad was a goner the second Kai had a chance.

"As fun as that would be to watch, you literally can't do that," She said, motioning to his astral form. "So, slow the roll Jack the Ripper."

Kai frowned as he realized he couldn't argue her point and Lizzie watched him take a few moments to calm down.

Although, she knew without a doubt that the rage was still there. Her uncle would likely be biding his time and Lizzie didn't know if she wanted to interfere.

After Kai took another breath, he turned to her. "You said you threw him into a wall?" He asked, tilting his head.

"Yeah, I said that," She said, nodding.

"You should have bashed his skull in," He said, simply.

Lizzie cracked a smile. "I'll be sure to take your feedback into consideration for next time."

She could see his eyes light up at the prospect and Lizzie shook her head in amusement. He was so predictable.

At least in this.

Normally, the thing that was predictable about him was his unpredictability.

"Ooh, I have other suggestions," He said with a grin.

Lizzie laughed. "You can tell me some other time, Uncle Kai. My bed is currently calling me."

Kai nodded as Lizzie pushed herself to her feet. She was so done for the day.

"Sleep tight, mini-me."

And Lizzie had no doubt he would be plotting a million ways to kill her dad while she slept.

By the time the next day came, Lizzie could feel the exhaustion that her outburst from yesterday had left on her body.

Although, it was mainly a killer headache.

With that in mind, she decided to waste away in bed, telling Josie to do the training with moppet head alone today.

It was almost perfect until Josie burst into their room to tell her that they were going to have to do community service tomorrow.

Lizzie knew she was going to be facing some sort of consequence for throwing her dad into a wall, but did it have to be that again.

She thought she avoided that with the whole dead Dana thing yet her dad seemed determined to ruin her day.

And her life.

Act like your psychotic uncle once and all of the sudden, you're evil incarnate.

Ironic, since she could have sworn that was Penelope.

Or Alyssa, if she was being considered future events.

Note to self: Get Alyssa on her side or get rid of her.

There could be no in between.

She would think about how to best achieve that later.

As the next day came, Lizzie tried to think of ways to get back at her dad without him knowing that she was doing anything.

At least she wouldn't be doing it alone, since both Hope and Josie were in trouble too, because of the black magic spell that the three did.

She found it funny that one of the few good things that she would likely be doing in the past was one of the things she was getting in trouble for.

It was total BS.

See if she helped next time a fire-breathing dragon came to the school.

Looking around her room, she contemplated what she needed for her day of helping the community. All while also contemplating a way to get out of it.

First, though, she had to deal with her pissed-off uncle, whose temper had not cooled in the last day or so.

If she didn't know any better, she would think he cared.

"You do realize that you can't interact with the real world, right?" She said, dryly.

He had been attempting to find a way to use magic to do things, but nothing seemed to work.

"Not for lack of trying," Kai said, under his breath.

The irritation on his face would normally be amusing, but strangely, it was heartwarming. Especially, after the shit with her dad.

Besides, she wouldn't be surprised if Kai found a way to either appear or interact with the world. He was crafty enough to make something work.

Of course, that was something Lizzie wasn't sure would end well, but what did she know.

Lizzie turned to look through her clothes. "As funny as it would be for you to beat the shit out of my dad, it would most likely be blamed on me, which wouldn't be ideal."

She could practically hear his pout. "You don't have to be anywhere near it though," He muttered.

Lizzie paused and turned. "What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, confused.

Then, she became even more confused as he gave her a little pleased smile.

"Let's just say that I haven't found a limit for how far away from you I have to be," He said.

Huh…

Well, that was good to know.

Lizzie eyed in for a moment. "That could be useful in the future," She mused.

Kai frowned as his eyes lit up with curiosity. "For what?"

"That's for me to know and you to wonder for eternity," She said, turning back to her close.

"Oh, come on. Tell me please," Kai said, walking around, so she could see him from the corner of her eyes.

Yeah, Lizzie didn't need another reminder that her uncle was practically a child. That thought gave her pause.

"Wait, Uncle Kevin," She said, turning to him, ignoring the offended look on his face. "How old are you?"

Kai stared at her. Then, he looked at the ground frowning.

After a moment, he looked back at her. "Do you mean physically or how long I've been alive?"

"Either I guess."

"Well, physically, 22."

Lizzie's eyes widened. Her uncle was only 7 years older than her current body. She knew he looked young, but that was not what she was expecting.

"And how long have you been alive?" She wondered.

"Well, I was born in 1972," He said, thinking. "But you have to take off around 5 years for the short period I was in hell…"

"You were in hell?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh-huh, but that's not important."

"Not important…" Lizzie repeated under her breath in disbelief. If that wasn't important, then what the hell did he consider important.

"Anyways it adds up to about 53," Kai said, finally after doing some counting on his fingers.

Yeah, that sounded about right.

"You are so old," She said, shaking her head.

"Am not," Kai said, indignantly.

Lizzie turned to him. "Are too."

"Am not," He said.

"Are to-" The door opened to reveal Josie staring at her in confusion.

"Lizzie, who are you talking to?" She said, looking around the room.

She froze briefly. "Uh, myself?"

Kai snorted off to the side.

Josie frowned. "Is that a statement or a question?" She asked, closing the door behind her.

Damn it, she really needed to be more aware of her surroundings.

"A statement," Lizzie said. "Is it a crime to talk to myself?"

"No…carry on, I guess," Josie said, after a moment.

"Well, I can't now," Lizzie said, rolling her eyes as she turned back to her clothes.

Fuck, she really needed new clothes. This was all old stuff that she had no desire to wear again. Finally, she grabbed a black shirt with the Salvatore crest on the back and one of her green plaid skirts. It would have to do.

Turning back to her sister, she noticed that Kai was gone again. Lizzie really needed to ask where he kept leaving to.

"When are we supposed to head to the buses?" Lizzie asked her twin, who was picking out her own outfit.

"Um," Josie checked her phone. "Soon, I would say."

"Fun," Lizzie said, making a face.

"Hey, cheer up, I heard some of the others agreed to volunteer, so it would go faster," Josie said, nudging her.

"Who would volunteer?" Lizzie said, confused.

No one in their right mind would volunteer to do work.

"MG, Landon, and Raf all volunteered, and MG convinced Kaleb," Josie replied.

Well, that explained it.

She signed. "And let me guess, we're not allowed to use our powers."

"Nope," Josie said, looking as annoyed as she felt.

"Great," Lizzie said with a huff.

She was so planning on cheating. If her memory was correct, which it always was, then her dad wouldn't be there.

An opportunity to do shit without eyes on her.

Josie shook her head. "Let's just get changed and get this over with."

Following her sister onto the bus, she looked around for a seat. At the very back, she spotted Landon sitting beside his brother.

Nudging her sister, she motioned over to them. With a shared look of agreement, the twins made their way to the back.

"Hey, flyboy, Rafael," She said as she sat down in front of them.

Josie gave a small wave as she sat beside her.

"Lizzie," Landon said, straightening upon seeing her as his brother greeted the both of them.

She narrowed her eyes at the birdbrain. "Why'd you volunteer?" She asked, suspiciously.

He gave an awkward cough. "Oh, you know," He said vaguely as he motioned weirdly with his hand.

"No, I don't," Lizzie turned to Rafael. "Why'd you guys volunteer?"

"Huh? Oh," Rafael blinked in surprise. "Landon heard you were being forced to do it."

Say what now?

Landon froze and shot a look at Rafael. "That's not true," He said quickly.

"Then, what is true, hobbit feet?" Lizzie said, narrowing her eyes.

"I did hear you two and Hope were getting punished for saving the school and I thought that was unfair. So, I wanted to help, so you would get it done faster," He blurted out.

Lizzie raised an eyebrow, making his face redden.

Josie nudged her and gave the boys a smile.

"That's really nice of you. We really appreciate it," Then, Josie looked at her pointedly. "Right?"

She nodded with a tight smile. "Right, really appreciate it."

Landon smiled. "It was the least I could do after everything you've done for me."

Damn right, Landon was in their debt.

Collecting favors was Lizzie's favorite pastime.

And murder.

But for some reason, that was unacceptable.

"Landon," Josie said, shaking her head and Lizzie had a bad feeling she wasn't going to like what she said. "You don't owe us anything."

Yes, he fucking did.

"We would've done it for anyone."

No, they fucking wouldn't of.

"We did it because we thought it was the right thing."

Yeah, Lizzie definitely didn't have any nefarious reasons for doing it.

"We don't want anything in return."

Speak for yourself, Jo.

"Right, Liz."

Of course, she was bringing her into it.

Forcing away her annoyance, she smiled. "As Josie said, you don't owe us anything." The lie was bitter on her tongue.

Both Landon and Rafael looked happy at their words. All the while, Lizzie was trying to remember the link for selling your twin.

Someone else could have her. She'd get another one that was not nice. Then, maybe her plans would work out.

Whatever happened to Josiemort? She was really missing her right about now.

Her thought process was cut off by the announcement that they were here. Sighing, Lizzie followed the others off the bus.

The group formed a circle as Dorian told them that they were all on trash duty.

Lizzie felt a brief moment of surprise before she remembered that with Dana dying the Mystic Falls High Student didn't graffiti the town.

Well, that was one less thing to do.

It also made it highly unlikely that they were going to bother them since they were in their mourning period.

As if Dana was someone to mourn.

Turning to Dorian, she tuned back in as he suggested that they form duos to work together, so it gets done faster.

Lizzie got paired with Kaleb, while the other duos were Hope and Rafael, Josie and MG with Landon as a third because there was no other person for him to pair with.

Kaleb turned to look at her. "Let's get this over with," He said, walking away.

He was clearly expecting her to follow, which she did after she sent her twin a quick wave.

The two got to work on their area fairly quickly.

"You know it was cool what you did," He said as he poked a few pieces of trash.

"What'd you mean?" Lizzie asked as she put some trash into her bag.

He turned to her, pointing the tip of the pole at her. "With the dragon. You killed it. It was sick," Kaleb said.

Lizzie smiled, briefly. "Thanks. Not everyone thinks that though."

"Screw everyone else. That thing needed to die. If anyone has a problem with it, they can shove it," He said scoffing.

"I'll keep that in mind," Lizzie said, biting the inside of her cheek. She had forgotten how Kaleb was about this sort of thing.

It was nice to know that he would likely be on her side for the majority of things in the future. He was a realist, which was rare in a world full of idealists.

"You're from Georgia, right?" Lizzie said, after a moment.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" He asked, turning to her.

"I'm the headmaster's daughter, I know everything," She said, shrugging. "I also know every hiding spot my dad has, so he can't keep anything from me, even if he wanted to."

"That's definitely not ominous at all," He muttered.

Lizzie smirked. "I mean it wasn't supposed to be, but I will admit that I have a ton of blackmail on basically everyone."

"Nice," He said with a whistle. "Have you had to use any before?"

"A few times," She said with a shrug as they continued cleaning up their section.

Kaleb shot her a curious look. "What happened?" He asked.

"Well, let's just say they don't go here anymore," She said, a grin playing on her lips.

"Damn, what type of blackmail did you get your hands on?" He said, his eyes wide.

Lizzie gave an innocent shrug. "The good kind," was her only answer.

Kaleb nodded in appreciation. Then, he gave the trash all over the ground an annoyed look.

"How much longer do you think this is going to take?" He said, looking ready to bail.

"Oh not much longer," Lizzie said, glancing around her, checking for anyone looking. Off in the distance was Dorian talking to Hope and Rafael.

Meaning it was go time.

Kaleb's brow furrowed at her action. "What do you mean?"

"My dad's not here," Lizzie said, turning to him.

"So? How does that help"

Lizzie had a mischievous grin. "He's not here and Mr. William isn't looking."

He stared at her in confusion, making her roll her eyes and hold out her hand. He slowly took it and Lizzie began siphoning. She could feel him jolt in surprise.

Releasing the hand once she had enough magic, she turned to their area.

"Hold open the bag," She said without looking at him.

"I hope you know what you're doing," He said off to her right.

"Vitae ac viverra," She said quietly.

All the trash in their area lifted suddenly and Lizzie directed it to the open bag. Once it was all in, she gave a quick look around.

There was no one looking their way.

She turned to Kaleb, who was staring at her in disbelief.

"What?" Lizzie said, cocking her head in confusion.

"Why the hell didn't you do that earlier?" He asked. "I did all that work when it could've been done with your wooshy spell."

"Wooshy spell?" She repeated, raising an eyebrow.

He coughed as if embarrassed. "The trash made a woosh sound when it flew into the bag." Then, he made a face. "Stop avoiding the question."

"I didn't do it before because my dad definitely told Mr. Williams to watch over me. If he saw us actually working for a while, he wouldn't have questioned us, once I did the spell," Lizzie said, crossing her arms.

"Oh," Kaleb blinked.

"Yeah, oh."

"Now, let's go before Mr. Williams tries to get us to do more work," She said, walking away.

"Don't have to tell me twice," Kaleb said from behind her as he ran to catch up with her.

After some use of vampire speed on Kaleb's part, they were back at the school, which Lizzie was immensely grateful for.

She knew Josie was going to chew her out for leaving, but Lizzie had just remembered the gargoyle monster.

Kaleb and Lizzie entered the school, but both paused when they heard shouting. Exchanging looks of confusion - one real and one fake - they followed the sound.

They quickly found Ms. Tig, who had created a shield in front of a group of children, to protect them as the gargoyle tried to attack them.

Well, would you look at that, the consequences of her actions.

"Holy shit," Kaleb said from beside her.

"You can say that again," She said as she considered their next move.

Except before that could happen, the gargoyle realized they were there. It turned to them.

"Uh, Saltzman?" Kaleb said, nudging her. "We should run."

Lizzie shook her head as it approached. "I can't run."

He shot her a look of disbelief. "I am fairly certain you have a pair of working legs. Use them."

They backed up as it came closer. It let out an inhumane sound. From behind it, Ms. Tig was motioning for them to run.

Kaleb's hand found its way around her wrist as he tried to get her to run.

Lizzie turned to him. "If we run, it will turn its attention on the kids, do you want that?" She asked, sharply.

He paused. Then, he looked past the gargoyle to the terrified kids. He sighed, turning back to her.

"Do you have a plan?" Kaleb asked simply.

"I do. I just need something to siphon from," She said and Kaleb held out his hand.

Lizzie began siphoning quickly as she turned to face the monster.

"Phasmatos inpulsa," She chanted aloud with her hand held out in its direction.

The magic hit the gargoyle, but it only made it pause.

"Phasmatos inpulsa," She said again, increasing the power. It stumbled and cracks appeared along the monster's body.

This was her chance.

"Phasmatos inpulsa," and that was it. The gargoyle exploded into a million pieces and the two were quick to shield their faces from the debris.

There was silence as everyone processed what happened. Then, all the children started cheering as Ms. Tig released the barrier spell.

Lizzie let out a breath as the only adult in the room ran over to them.

"Are you two okay?" She asked quickly, concern written all over her face.

"We're fine," Kaleb said for the two of them.

Ms. Tig let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad." Then, she gave a proud look. "Well done, the both of you."

Kaleb frowned. "I didn't do anything. This was all Lizzie," He said, looking confused.

"You didn't run," Lizzie spoke before Ms. Tig could. "If you had, I wouldn't have had enough magic to destroy it."

"Exactly," Ms. Tig said. "It was great teamwork. I'm very impressed. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to check on the children."

Both were silent as she walked away.

Kaleb turned to look at Lizzie. "So, if I hadn't been there, you would've been screwed?"

"Pretty much," She said, eyeing him.

He grinned. "So what you're saying is that I'm a hero."

"Yeah, yeah, don't let it go to your head," She said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, it already did," He said, looking way too pleased with himself.

Lizzie snorted, but before she could say anything, her dad was running into the room. She froze as he looked around the room, then at her.

This was going to be bad.

"Elizabeth, what the hell did you do?"

And she was right.

A/N: Thank you for reading. I would love to hear your thoughts on the chapter. I hope you enjoyed!

Also, a huge thanks to my new beta reader, digestive-cookie.