the council of the creepy-ass twin murdering coven
June 2014
Portland
"You look like you're going to throw up," Damon observed.
Bonnie pinched the bridge of her nose, and put her sunglasses firmly back in place. "I won't."
"Well, you look it. Are you coming down with something? Need a little blood?"
Bonnie stared at the outstretched wrist and felt like retching. She wound down the side glass, took a whiff of fresh air. "I'm fine, Damon. It's just the heat."
"Whatever you do, don't throw up in the car."
"I'll keep that in mind," she said dryly.
"You're not nervous, are you? The great Bonnie Bennett? Nervous about seeing this punk?"
"I said I'm fine."
"I mean, if I didn't know better, I'd say you dragged me all the way to Portland because you needed some moral support to meet this guy."
Bonnie bit back her words. The last thing she wanted was to get into another over-prolonged bickering session with Damon. It was the strangest thing. If anyone had asked her anytime since over a year – anytime since her second trip from 1903 to be precise – Bonnie would have described her relationship with Damon Salvatore as borderline estranged; but a month back in Mystic Falls and they'd fallen into a kind of groove – less than the friends she'd thought they had become in 1994, but more than the reluctant allies they had been for most of their acquaintance. A compromise that only time, and time apart, had enabled them to achieve.
It was comforting, in its own way. If she and Damon could reach an understanding despite all the blood and betrayal in their shared past, then maybe someday, she and him could…
She almost laughed out loud at the hopelessly naïve train of her thoughts.
Yeah, right, she thought bitterly.
Beside her, Damon droned on. "I mean, it was great to see Alaric and Jo all over again, don't get me wrong. I'm just wondering how much help a vampire is when you need to meet the great Gemini coven leader. Especially when you're meeting over another vampire problem."
"The operative word there being another," Bonnie couldn't help quipping. "You being an on-going case."
"Now, that's the Bonnie I know and fear," Damon crowed. "For a moment there, you got me worried."
She sighed.
May 2013
Mystic Falls, 1903
The red-clad figure was rising.
The headless heretic was standing. Stood.
Horror was a bottomless pit opening in Bonnie's stomach as the creature she had just decapitated five minutes ago, stretched out its hands and caught the head that flew into them.
It can't be.
When they were children, and the girls still played with dolls, all three of them – Bonnie, Elena, and Caroline – had one day got into a fight with Jeremy Gilbert and with some clever lying, put most of the blame for it on him. The next day after school, they had gone to Elena's house and seen their My Little Pony dolls lined up on the bed with their heads ripped off.
Watching the heretic carefully place his head back on his shoulders, the red sizzle of magic as it sealed seamlessly into place, the red coat of blood on its neck the only sign of what had happened before – was like a macabre call back to that day.
I took off its head!
'Suckers don't die easy.'
Yes, but not that they couldn't die at all!
The eyes blinked open, dark fathomless pools of swirling black magic, and Bonnie felt her brain breaking as she watched its lips part in a chant, a hand stretched out at her.
How do you kill something that can't die?
She was tensing to push back the hex – the only thing that she could manage to think of at the moment was to send its own magic back at it – when something slammed into her side and she went down, rolling across the floor in a tangle of legs and arms.
She came to a stop with her back on the floor and her attacker on top of her and for the second time that night, Kai Parker was in her face.
"What the hell are you still doing here?"
She was too dazed to answer. She pushed back at his shoulders but his whole body was locked around her own.
"Get off me," she managed, weakly.
"I told you to get out. I told my –" he breathed hard, then turned his head and cursed loudly.
Bonnie shifted, trying again to push him off her but it only seemed to make her fit into him some more. She shivered, and it must have been a mixture of her fury at him and the adrenaline running through her veins that made her feel so enflamed.
He turned back to her and his eyes were smouldering.
"Stop that," he said, his voice low and gravelly.
"Let me go, Kai," she said weakly.
"Oh, I will," he snarled.
She blinked and the chaos of the wedding hall vanished.
June 2014
Portland
Liv was waiting for them in front of the diner. She gave Bonnie's outfit the full up-and-down inspection, taking in her slick bun, her smart dark suit with the green camisole peeking out from underneath and her sensible shoes. She nodded approvingly.
"Nice. You dressed up. That's five points already with the Council."
Liv herself was wearing a pantsuit and a complicated braid that made her look like a completely different person.
She had fixed the zit, Bonnie noted with an inward smirk. The small observation broke her own bundle of nerves somewhat.
"I guess I'll be taking those five points back then," Damon drawled, hands in his jean pockets, leaning against the parked car. Bonnie wasn't sure, but she strongly suspected that he wore either the exact same black T-shirt every-day or he had an infinite number of black T-shirts in the same style.
"You can wear anything you like, Damon. You're not coming."
He straightened at that. "No way."
"Coven rules. No vampires allowed in the Council halls."
"Even if the coven leader vouches for me?"
"Especially when the Praetor does not vouch for you."
"The what now?"
"That's Gemini-speak for coven leader. Get used to it. And get used to not being included in the witchy stuff, vampire."
"What the-" Damon started, advancing at Liv.
Bonnie stepped between them. "It's OK. Bunch of bigots, right? We considered this." She took a deep breath. "I'll go in, meet him, get the spell and I'll be out in a jiffy."
Damon looked over her head at Liv. "You Geminis are freaks. I'm not letting Bonnie in there by herself and I'd like to see you try to stop me."
"Damon," Bonnie started.
"Oh, he's welcome to try," Liv said, her eyes dancing. "Just don't say I didn't warn you when for example, your daylight ring suddenly stops working."
Just like the witches' house back at Mystic Falls, Bonnie thought, and she could tell from Damon's face that he was remembering that, too. His powerlessness made him even more furious. She gave him a reassuring smile that belied her own nervousness.
"I'll be fine, Damon. He's a good guy now, remember?"
"The same good guy we stabbed in the back a year ago. You never know when these things come up again."
Bonnie looked away. "That's water under the bridge. We're even."
"We're even, Bonster."
She suppressed a shiver.
"You're actually meeting with the Council," Liv interjected.
They stared at her. "I thought I was meeting with K- your leader."
"You can't just waltz in here and get a one-on-one with the Praetor. There's a chain of command. You climb it."
"But-"
"Anyway, he sits on the council, too. As the head."
Bonnie thought about that, then faked a grin for Damon. "See, even better?"
"Better? That's the council of the creepy-ass twin-murdering coven, remember? They're probably the ones who came up with the twin-murdering rules," he retorted back but seemed to back down. "Make sure Judgy gets out of there in one piece, Liv," he warned. "Or you're answering to me."
Liv gave him the finger. He answered with a big smile, fangs and all. Outside the Saltzmans's house, his vampiric nature had free reign.
Bonnie shook her head at the both of them.
Liv opened the door to the diner with a big flourishing bow. Bonnie got a peek of its dim interior, before Liv stepped in behind her and the door closed.
Then the diner vanished.
In a flash of colour, they stood in a huge hallway, walls and floor made of shiny, polished marble. A spiral staircase rose up in front of them, reaching to a ceiling that was so high, Bonnie couldn't decipher the elaborate symbols etched into it.
"Portal through the diner door," Bonnie said curtly, hoping her voice did not betray how awestruck she felt. "Neat."
Liv threw her a look that told Bonnie she wasn't fooling anyone. Then she led her across the hall. There were two large doors on the east side and she pushed them open, standing to the side to let Bonnie through.
Bonnie curled her hands into fists, and walked inside with her head held high.
They stepped into a hall shaped in a half-circle. It was arranged like a church, with a half-dozen benches on either side of the aisle that Bonnie and Liv walked down. The far side of the hall, the curved area and where an altar would have been in a Catholic church, the floor was elevated about a foot from the rest of the hall and a high curved bench lined the wall. Behind the bench sat eleven men and women of varying ages and races, and from the prickling on her skin, Bonnie knew she was in the presence of very powerful witches.
Not a church, Bonnie realized as she and Liv sat down on the first row on the right side of the room.
More like a courtroom.
Was she on trial?
"Olivia Parker, you may approach the bench and state your prayer."
The person that spoke was an elderly, snow-bearded white man seated at the left-side of the bench, closest to the empty chair in the centre. Joshua Parker.
There were eleven people but the bench was clearly meant to be occupied by thirteen. Bonnie could tell because there were two empty spaces – one at the extreme left and one at the centre. Kai Parker was not here.
Bonnie bent down and stared hard at her hands, forcing down the relief and disappointment – mostly disappointment – that had risen inside her.
Olivia walked to the centre of the hall, looked up at the bench and started talking.
A lot of what she said went over Bonnie's head. It sounded like some complicated, legalistic formal form of greeting in a mixture of Greek and Latin during which Olivia acknowledged by name every person in the room. She barely even recognized her own name when Olivia mentioned her. And there seemed to be all kinds of magic constantly at work, the purposes of which Bonnie couldn't grasp but she could still feel the tingling sense of.
After a while, Olivia was done talking and silence settled in the room.
"Let Ms. Bennett give her own testimony," said an older, dark-skinned Latino woman that sat at the furthest seat to the left.
Bonnie stood up awkwardly. "Hello. I mean, good afternoon." She tried a smile. She didn't get one in return. Biting back a grimace, she continued, "Thank you for seeing me on such short-"
Liv cleared her throat noisily. Bonnie stared. Liv cleared her throat again, and made an awkward beckoning kind of gesture with her shoulder.
It took Bonnie a moment, then she blushed. "Er… excuse me. Sorry."
She walked out of her seat and came to stand beside Liv. Staring up at the non-smiling faces above her was even more disconcerting from this position.
"So, thanks again for seeing me. It all started-"
The woman cut right through her words. "What measures have been taken to contain the heretics in Mystic Falls?"
Bonnie blinked. Rude much, old lady? She thought but wisely, kept that to herself. "So far, vervain is the only thing that works. We're pumping it into the drinking water. It's a bit hard on the…"
The unsmiling faces were setting into harder lines and Bonnie quickly skipped over the part where she was about to say, "it's a bit hard on the non-heretic vampires in town but they manage."
"Wards don't hold up for long. The heretics just siphon out the magic from them. In fact, the best restraints right now are the old school bolts and bars, dosed with liquid vervain. Everything magical just ends up being more juice for their batteries, if you know what I mean." She cringed. Not the most formal of expressions but really the most apt.
"You confirm what Olivia stated, that the heretics reappeared in Mystic Falls exactly one month ago?" The question came from a slightly younger male wizard.
"Yes."
"And you are certain that these are of the group that we conquered during the Fourth Battle of Mystic Falls?"
"I recognized one of them. From the Battle," Bonnie replied. She supposed it was a battle of sorts. She had never thought of it that was before. She guessed she had been in so many of those high-powered confrontations of magic and violence that she took them for granted.
The Fourth? Left to Bonnie, she would have counted differently.
"You could not have recognized any of the heretics. They wore hoods and you were carted off with the rest of the children and the mundanes."
Bonnie's jaw dropped. "I was not-" she began furiously but Joshua Parker had already cut in.
"Ms Bennett fought in that battle. She saved the lives of Isaiah Long, Antonia Genova and Judi Stewart and even beheaded one of the heretics. It resurrected, of course, but she did not know then they couldn't be easily destroyed."
One or two others murmured in agreement and looked at her with slightly less unsmiling faces.
The man that spoke before still looked sceptical. "I do not recall her presence. I do recall that the majority of the Mystic Falls contingent left the moment the heretics attacked. Your," and she could literally hear the air quotes in his voice, "'vampires' abandoned us and eventually, so did you. Furthermore, these heretics were released as a result of your actions on behalf of these 'vampires' of yours."
She could hear the blood rushing through her ears and she started speaking when Liv grabbed her elbow. Bonnie turned at the other woman and saw the warning in Liv's eyes.
Her hand still firm on Bonnie, Liv spoke. "Inquiries into the release of the 1903 Prisoners were concluded during -" She rattled off the date in Latin[1]. "It is clusus to third parties, too."
"She is not a third party. She was implicates[2]," the man said belligerently. "The venia[3] came from the Praetor, against the council's recommendation. Her very testimony is suspect."
"She is Sheila Bennett's grand-daughter," another man said sharply.
"With no formal Praecantatio Disciplina[4]," the old lady, the first one that spoke, retorted. "She associates with vampires. Yes, members of our coven have entered short-term alliances with nefandus bestia[5], but her case is unprecedented. She has more loyalty to them than any witch of her acquaintance. We cannot in good faith place any value on her testimony without independent verification."
Liv's grip on her elbow was almost painful. Bonnie yanked herself away.
"People are dying in Mystic Falls," she said through gritted teeth. "Mundanes. Witches. Werewolves. Although you probably don't care about them or the vampires. But what about your own kind? What about the Gemini mandate to protect mundane existence?"
"You will speak in turn." Unsurprisingly, that was from the first young man – Mr. Asshat, Bonnie decided, mentally christening him.
"We are already aware of the casualties in question," Joshua Parker said.
Bonnie started. "Already aware? You mean, you've known all along about this? And you've done nothing?"
"You will speak-"
"Oh, shut up!" And it was satisfying to see all their stuffy faces bristle in outrage as one. Beside her, Liv covered her face with her hands. "The heretics have been on a rampage for a month and you've all been sitting on your collective asses while my so-called nefaria have been risking their lives for the town."
"The heretics are only a danger because you let them out! If you hadn't freed the ripper, none of this would have happened!"
And there it was.
Bonnie raised her hands. "I. am. sorry! OK? I did this. I know. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa." At least that much she knew. "But it's done. They got out. Two remain. I'd kill them myself if I knew how. Nothing works. Not fire. Not decapitation. Not a stake through the heart. They don't need an invitation. They can walk in daylight. These things are terrorising my town. Tell me what to do to end this and I'll be on my way."
The old lady eyed Bonnie with disapproval written all over her face. "You're here to present a prayer, young woman, not to make demands."
"Oh for heaven's sake, where's Kai Parker? I didn't come all the way here to judged and lectured by you jerks. Where's your blasted coven leader?"
Liv's hands were still covering her face and now she moaned a little.
The council erupted. They all seemed to be talking at once, a loud murmur of voices that increased in volume and intensity. Bonnie couldn't make out the words. A lot of it was in Latin. Most of it was punctuated by sharp glares and gestures at Bonnie.
After almost ten minutes of this, Joshua Parker raised his hands and they fell silent.
"The council will convene privately. Ms Bennett, you may take your leave. We will inform you through Olivia-"
It took everything in Bonnie not to launch herself at them. "Oh my god, are you even listening to me? Don't… fucking inform me. Just tell me what to do!"
Liv gave her another hard pinch. Bonnie turned on her, eyes flashing…
…and they were now standing in the doorway of the diner.
Liv pushed her outside.
"What just happened?" Bonnie asked, gasping.
"You heard my father. Council is meeting in private now. Nice job pissing them off, by the way."
Bonnie's words were cut short by Damon rushing up to them.
"What's going on? Did they cancel on you or what?"
She shook her head, blinking back the angry tears that were threatening to fall. "It's over. I don't know what they're deciding. This was just a waste of time." She started walking towards the car.
Damon grabbed her shoulder. "What? We came all the way here when they'd already made up their minds? Is Kai in there? Daylight ring or not, I'm going to kick his-!"
"He wasn't there. It won't have made any difference. Let's just go."
"No, we can't leave. They have to hear us out at least!"
"They did. I don't… I don't think it made any difference."
"What's going on? When did all this happen? You were in and out in like a second. I thought you left something in the car."
Bonnie stared at him. It was suddenly clear what the confusion was.
"Damon, I've been in there for almost half an hour."
He stared back. "Huh?"
Both of them turned to look at Liv, who had been leaning against the car watching their exchange.
She shook her head, smirking at Bonnie. "You really have no disciplina do you?"
Bonnie took a step forward and Liv backed away, her hands coming up in mock-surrender. "Sorry! You stepped through a portal to the Gemini headquarters and time works a little differently there. That's all." She looked at Damon. "She kind of lost her temper there, too. Which, for the record, is never a good idea when you're talking to eleven bad-ass witches. Anyone of them could have hexed you into a frog just by squinting. Let's not forget the fact that you came to them for a favour."
Bonnie scowled, feeling just a bit shamefaced.
"And if that wasn't bad enough," Liv continued, "she demanded to speak to Kai! Like he was a store manager and the customer service clerks were giving you a hard time," she shuddered. "I take back what I said last night. You didn't find your inner bitch, Bonnie. You found your inner T-Rex."
Damon guffawed and Bonnie kicked him until he stopped. "Ouch! You know you just proved her point?"
"Look," Liv finished, "the Council will decide when they decide. You can't rush these things."
"People are dying," Bonnie said miserably. "They've known about this for a month and they…" She was tired. She was just so tired.
She opened the passenger door and sat down heavily.
"Why can't they just tell me how to kill these things? What the hell is the point of keeping it a secret? What's the big deal?"
"You know, if any of you guys besides Tyler had stuck around during the battle, you'd have witnessed first-hand how to kill a heretic and probably realized why it's a big deal," Liv said mildly.
Damon at least, had the sense to look slightly guilty.
Bonnie glared. "I didn't stick around during the battle because-"
Kai.
Bonnie swallowed down the feelings of anger and disappointment and heartache that were consuming her.
She had dreaded seeing him today. But at least she would have seen him and had that done and over with. Now, the chance of an encounter loomed ahead of her – in some vague, uncertain future – and the anticipation exhausted her.
She was so tired.
She had given herself a clean break last year – or she had tried to. But somehow, she had still got dragged again into the middle of another supernatural battle.
She had been fighting one supernatural battle or another since she was a teenager.
When would it ever end?
"Can we just go back now? We'll stay a night and leave for Virginia in the morning. Whenever your Council make up their mind, they can reach me by magical email. They teach that in Praecantatio Disciplina, right?" she added nastily.
"Googlas 101," Liv deadpanned.
Bonnie gave her a cutting glare and Liv had the sense to stay silent for the rest of the ride.
She checked her phone when she remembered. No messages. Thank goodness for that at least.
No news was good news.
Liv dropped off a few block to the Saltzmans's home, claiming some vague errand. The rest of the drive home, Damon grumbled – while Bonnie silently agreed – that the blonde witch was skipping out on baby duty.
As he pulled up the driveway, they could already hear the clear sounds of babies wailing through the open window.
Alaric was still in school and one twin needed a diaper change, the other needed a nap and Jo almost wept with relief at the sight of both of them. She all but threw the cranky baby into Damon's arms then dragged Bonnie to the nursery to help with the other.
"What am I supposed to do?" Damon called after Jo over the baby's screams.
"Rock her, sing to her, cuddle her. You're almost two hundred years old, Damon. Figure it out."
In the nursery, Jo insisted on hearing everything that happened with the Council. Her eyes were sharp and attentive even as she changed her baby's diapers with robotic efficiency as Bonnie narrated the disappointing events of the day while handing over the required equipment.
"I came all the way here to be picked apart by a bunch of old snobs," Bonnie concluded with a scowl.
Jo gave her a sceptical look while with one hand, she flipped over her progeny with a briskness that made Bonnie's heart jump. "You shouldn't have lost your temper."
"That is so not what is important right now!"
"And then demanding to speak to the Praetor like that?" Jo tut-tutted. "Well, it's too late to fix that. The council's told you they'll come to a decision and they will. You just have to be patient." She beckoned to Bonnie to hold onto a waving arm while she pulled on the baby's clothes.
"Why is everything up to the council, anyway? What's the point of the coven leader then?"
Jo sat on the rocking chair with the now changed and freshly dressed child and threw Bonnie an amused glance. "You want Kai to play favourites for you?"
Bonnie felt the blood rush to her cheeks. "Of course not! I just want to understand how things work with you Gemini. I'm not a political major but isn't there a reason why the President calls the shots during a state of emergency?"
Jo snorted as she positioned her baby to nurse. "Bonnie, as we speak, there's a vampire infestation in Brooklyn, the dragon-worshipping cults have been on the rise since last Fall, rumours of the Augustine Society being revived, and there's the chance that one of the largest covens in the country is about to break their treaty with us."
Bonnie blinked. "What?"
"If any of those actualize, that would be a state of emergency. But two heretics in Mystic Falls? Seriously? If that were the case, the coven would have burnt down that town down years ago, and salted the ashes. Do you know how many times they considered that during your Klaus episodes… or your Silas episodes…? If all it takes are a couple of heretics, then just your sheer vampire population would be enough reason."
"It's not the same thing. They can't be killed."
"That you know of. You thought Klaus couldn't be killed … until he could. And Silas. And every other threat you've faced," she said calmly. She reached over and gave Bonnie a one-armed hug. "Hang in there, OK? Your town's weathered through a lot worse."
Bonnie bit her lip and looked away. "Could you…" she cleared her throat. "I don't suppose you could speak to K- to your brother about this?"
"The council will recommend their decision to the leader in due time…" she said and Bonnie groaned. Then Jo winked. "But if I give my twin brother a call and let him know how my day went, that's not anybody's business."
"Thanks," Bonnie said softly. She looked down at her fingers, which had automatically twisted in her lap at the new possibility of still meeting with him before her return to Virginia, and swallowed hard against the tension that threatened to rise within her.
"Now please go get something to eat and make sure Damon isn't snacking on my baby."
An hour later, Alaric was home from school, the babies were both asleep, and Liv strolled in, curls bouncing and completely oblivious to Damon's dirty looks.
"Any word from the Council?" Bonnie asked at once.
To her disappointment, Liv shook her head.
While Alaric and Jo were in the living room catching up, Liv dragged the others to the kitchen. Damon poured himself a glass of bourbon – ignoring Bonnie's glare – and listened as Liv informed them that sometime during her still vaguely defined assignment, she had come up with the idea of the trio doing babysitting duty while the Saltzmans got a much needed date night.
Damon gulped. "We didn't come here to-"
"We'll do it," Bonnie said at once. "I think it's a great idea." Despite everything, she could be generous to a friend. Besides, it won't be the first time they'd juggle life-and-death with the boring minutiae of day-to-day existence. Babysitting for a night was nothing compared to organizing the Homecoming Dance while mentally duelling with an immortal dark wizard.
Liv beamed at her and smirked at Damon.
Half an hour after Liv had gone to tell Jo, the older woman came to them with a face wreathed with smiles and gave her two guests big hugs.
"Thank you so much! Once in a while the older witches come around to lend a hand but never for the whole night. This night will be the second time I've had sex since the twins were born."
Damon, in the middle of a sip of bourbon, spat it out.
"TMI?" Jo asked. "Sorry. When you've been through a pregnancy and birth, you tend to lose all filters. If I had a dollar for every doctor, nurse, intern, janitor that put their fingers up my-"
"I will watch your kids for two nights if you stop talking now!" Damon shouted.
Jo smiled broadly and left, dragging the girls with her.
It was fun, helping her pack for her short stay. There was the question of appropriate nightwear. Jo had a few post-baby ones that she was a little self-conscious about trying out. Bonnie thought she should go for it. Liv countered that Alaric would be lucky enough to be getting any. He won't need any fancy wrapping.
That made Bonnie laugh so hard, she was in stitches for five minutes.
Alaric popped his head in just in time to see the gaggle of laughing women and took to his heels.
It was Damon that eventually came to fetch Jo.
"There's a dude downstairs, fairly good looking, borderline alcoholic, I think he's waiting for his date…?"
"I'll be down in five."
Liv called him back. "Remind him to stop for condoms."
Damon Salvatore opened his mouth, and for the first time Bonnie could remember, nothing came out.
"I don't think so. No way am I going through all this ever again."
Damon fled, chased away by malicious feminine laughter.
Jo finally made it down with, to her husband's great confusion, two overnight bags.
The twins were asleep but Alaric still left Jo in the car to rush into the house one last time and give them a once over. As they all but dragged him out of the nursery, he repeated all of Jo's instructions on feedings, changes and bedtimes with a few tips of his own.
"Rachel loves being held just so." He showed how to Damon who was clearly fighting a losing battle with his eyeballs.
"We'll be fine! Just go!" Liv said as she and Damon wrestled him into the car and slammed the door.
"Bye!" Bonnie called from the door.
"Have a good time, buddy," Damon said with a knowing smirk.
"Have great sex, Jo!" Liv cooed.
The Saltzmans finally made it out, the car pulling out the driveway to the cheers and hoots of the trio behind. The only things missing were a rope of cans dangling from the license plate and the Just Married sign.
Bonnie glanced at Liv, then Damon, and she knew they were all thinking the same thing.
This was the send-off they missed out on a year ago when the dream wedding turned into a nightmare. They hadn't even finished the ceremony. The first heretic had appeared in the middle of Jo's vows.
It was her brother that had saved her that night.
Frowning now, as unwanted thoughts filled her head, Bonnie led the way back into the Saltzmans's house.
May 2013
Mystic Falls
With a few hours left before the Saltzmans' wedding ceremony started, it wasn't a good sign that the wedding planner was freaking out more than the bride. Apparently, no one had done Caroline Forbes the courtesy of asking her approval of the last minute changes to the event. Jo had done her best to explain to the irate vampire that as the daughter of the former Praetor, sister of the current one, and likely mother of the future one, Josette Parker's wedding was the Gemini equivalent of a Royal Wedding. While she had been merely Jo Laughlin, estranged and prodigal daughter – and all the witches had been hiding from their new leader – the ceremony was entirely her affair, and it was going to be a simple event with Elena standing for her, and Damon standing for Alaric. But now the Gemini Coven had recently undergone some sort of reconciliation with their leader, and as a show of good faith, they had been given permission to essentially hijack his twin sister's wedding.
Caroline was having none of that.
Bonnie was walking slowly through the chaotic event hall, searching for her friend with all the foreboding of a bearer of bad news. The floral contractor had called and Caroline would not like what they had to say. It was just one more thing cutting it close on an event that, according to Caroline, was already threading the line between a success and a disaster. As Bonnie weaved through workmen carrying ladders and drills, and supervisors yelling at the top of their lungs, Bonnie feared that the odds were on disaster.
She slowed even more as she passed a cluster of dusty hunks surrounding a site where a large chandelier was being hoisted, and spotted Elena and Stefan Salvatore in the distance.
Elena was standing still with arms crossed; under her straight dark hair, her face was bowed and grave. In contrast, Stefan was uncharacteristically animated, pacing in a tight arc around her, arms gesticulating wildly as he talked quickly. Bonnie was too far to hear him but clearly, something was wrong and a few days ago, her curiosity might have been piqued enough to walk over.
Now she did an about-face and walked away, praying that she wasn't about to be dragged into cleaning up a new supernatural mess.
She searched, now more eagerly, for Caroline. Her friend was still nowhere in sight but Bonnie could see a trio of well-dressed women standing along the edge of the canopy that still lay on the open area. They were from a group of guests that had arrived early and that Jo had introduced to everyone earlier as 'family friends from Portland'. Bonnie didn't need that cryptic description to tell her what her own witch intuition had picked up first.
These were witches. Gemini witches.
And finally, Bonnie spotted Caroline – and in the nick of time, too! Her friend was striding at almost vamp-speed towards the trio, with a look on her face that made Bonnie believe that a vampire-witch war was about to be declared.
Bonnie all but ran to her friend's side, arriving at the start of a near-heated conversation.
"There's room for Liv to stand with her sister but that's it," Caroline was saying vehemently. "We can't add any more places to the bridal train."
"Unacceptable." The sharp word came from a petite, matron-type woman. Her magical aura was taut, competent, and Bonnie could tell that she wasn't someone to cross lightly. But even with that, from the steel in her gaze as she gazed condescendingly up at Caroline, it was evident that she was capable – and willing – to set the vampire on fire.
Behind her hovered two teenage girls – one dark-skinned, and slender with darkish red curls – and another white with straight black ponytails. Their auras hummed with magical proficiency that Bonnie envied to see in witches their ages. They looked about 15, 16 at most.
"I'm sorry," Caroline was saying in a tone that sounded the opposite of sorry, "but we've already rehearsed the stage arrangements. I hope," she gave the two girls a smile that made Curly flinch and Ponytails bristle, "you girls aren't too disappointed. You can be bridesmaids some other day."
"These girls are not to be mere bridesmaids," the woman retorted. "They are representations of the covenant between the coven and the Regium, portals in human form for ancestral invocation, essentials to the completion of the Nuptialem orationem that will be cast on the candidates this night."
Caroline blinked. "The what for the what in the what now?"
The woman looked ready to explode. "I cannot believe Joshua put me in this position, where I need to explain our rituals to a-a…suc-!"
Bonnie inhaled quickly, preparing for a quick intervention – Caroline looked like if she was about to vamp out – but the bride herself beat her to the punch.
"Dame Bethany!" Jo all but shouted, appearing as if by magic between the warring factions. "You forget that not everyone has your flair of being a master of protocol. It's really quite complex, even for me." She laughed merrily. "I am beyond honoured to have your input in this, especially with such short notice."
The older woman mellowed slightly. "Speak nothing of it. This duty usually falls to me and I always rise to the occasion. Which is why," she said, eyeing Caroline, "this… person … needs to step aside for m-"
Caroline took a menacing step forward. "Not on your-"
Her words ended in a muffled shriek when Bonnie daintily ran her heel into her best friend's foot.
"But we can't spare you. There're too many other things that need your attention," Jo said sweetly. "Leave Tonia and Judi with me. Of course, they're going to be in the ceremony." – Caroline gasped – "Will the boys also be included?" She smiled at the teenage girls who were staring at her with mingled awe and terror.
The older witch sniffed. "Of course, they will. I'll keep the children close, if you don't mind. Too many nefaria wondering around for my comfort." She eyed Caroline balefully. Then she seemed to check herself. "On consideration, you keep them. I don't want you or your father to swap them out of the ceremony at the last minute and give their places to some other family."
Jo gasped. "We would never-"
The woman sniffed again. "It's been done before. And bear you mind, Josette, the Stewart and the Genova families will not take the insult lightly." She turned to the girls. "Behave."
Once again, she had to stare up, but her face, her voice, and apparently her sheer personality was enough to make them look absolutely terrified at the idea of whatever would happen to them if they didn't behave.
With one last smile at Jo, and one last withering glare at Caroline, and a measuring glance at Bonnie, she left.
Jo smiled brightly at the girls who were now staring at her nervously. "Girls, could you go into my trailer, and try out your clothes?"
With a look of relief, the girls scampered off and the cheery mask on Jo's face slipped off to reveal the strain under it.
"Jo, you can't seriously…" Caroline started warningly.
"Uh oh, Caroline, not you, too." Jo groaned. "I have more than enough to deal with today with her as my matron of honour." She shuddered.
"Jo, are you OK?" Bonnie asked worriedly.
"No, I am not. I can't wait until this is over," Jo declared. Then she peered at Bonnie. "How are you holding up? I was coming over to check on you."
Caroline whirled on Bonnie. "Oh, Bonnie, I can't believe I forgot to ask. Are you OK? Do you need some blood? Shouldn't you take a seat or something?"
Bonnie tried not to flinch. It was not the first time that she had been drilled like this about her health that day. She supposed it made sense considering recent events – Lily Salvatore violently gate-crashing last night's bachelorette's party and Bonnie ending up waking up in the hospital – but she was simply not used to this degree of scrutiny and over-commiseration. Frankly, she was finding it unnerving.
Especially now as Caroline vamp-sped to grab a chair and forcibly pushed Bonnie into it.
"I'm fine," Bonnie said, trying to stand, only to be shoved back in. "Seriously, Care!"
Caroline scowled at her. "I don't know why you couldn't just take the day off to rest and show up in the evening. And if you have to be here, why aren't you even dressed?" She looked at Bonnie's jeans and shirt with distaste
Bonnie glared back. "If I hadn't shown up when I did, that old lady would have given you an aneurysm or worse!"
Caroline snorted. "Oh, please, I could take her." She whirled at Jo. "Who the hell was that old bitch anyway? And why's she suddenly the new wedding planner? I thought you asked me to run things when your old one cancelled?"
Bonnie and Jo shared a furtive glance. If memory served, what happened had less to do with anyoneasking Caroline – and more to do with Caroline showing up, seeing a vacancy – and putting herself in her favourite spot – in charge.
But now was not the time to split hairs.
"I explained to you about the Gemini being involved. Believe it or not, there was a lot of political manoeuvring that went on to get those girls in the ceremony. You just have to work around them, Caroline and… all the other changes."
"What other changes?" Caroline shrieked.
Jo waved her hand dismissively, panicking Caroline further. "Caroline, just roll with it, OK? Half of this stuff won't make sense to you anyway; if they want to change anything, let them. This ceremony is important for my father – and my brother." She glanced at Bonnie when she said the last.
Bonnie was suddenly grateful for the chair Caroline procured. She felt like if a thunderbolt had hit her. She had been so focused on throwing herself into Jo's wedding, a desperate effort to distract herself from everything that had been going on in her life recently that she had completely failed to realize what was now so stupidly obvious.
He was going to be here. How could he not be? It was his sister's wedding, a now-Gemini affair, of which he was leader. For the first time in the weeks since they returned from 1903, Bonnie was going to come face to face with Kai Parker.
In real life, at least. Because in her dreams – nightmares, he was always there.
"It's your wedding, Jo," Caroline said furiously but Bonnie could barely hear her; her friends' voices, and the sounds of the hustle and bustle around them drowned out completely by the storm in her own head, by his voice – from memory, from nightmare – mocking her in her head.
"You and I are even now."
"Do you think you could keep screwing people over and getting away with it?"
"Believe me, I've changed…"
"Your magic can't protect you from me."
I LIED.
The last wasn't a memory of anything he said, but of what he left her on his pager, the LED symbols flashing mockingly at her as she woke up, soaked in her blood and completely alone.
Bonnie could almost smell wet iron, almost hear the roar of silence that had been her constant companion for five months. She felt sweat pouring out of her skin, and told herself to snap out of it, but the bottomless pit of weeks of suppressed emotions was suddenly yawning open, threatening to swallow her …
"Bonnie."
The impeding panic attack receded as abruptly as it started, and Bonnie stared up at Elena's worried face – and a whole crowd of people. Stefan Salvatore, his face stark, Caroline and Jo, their faces anxious, were all peering at her. Bonnie blushed, embarrassed, especially when Stefan's eyes seemed to blaze at her; then he looked away, mumbled something and walked off. Caroline turned to watch him go.
Elena gave him a worried glance, but her eyes went back to Bonnie.
"Are you all right?" she asked, her newly warm aura shimmering with concern.
Bonnie nodded, squeezed out a smile. "Of course."
"I told you she should have stayed in the hospital," Jo said, as if Bonnie hadn't spoken.
"It's not too late," Caroline said, staring at Bonnie with a glint in her eye.
Hastily, Bonnie burst out the bad news she had previously been dreading to deliver. "The floral contractor's truck broke down. They can't promise to deliver the flowers on time!"
The effect was instantaneous. Caroline let out a scream, then she yanked out her phone and started punching it like if she was loading bullets into a revolver. Jo threw up her arms in the air and cursed. Elena started firing out alternatives. Caroline shushed both of them, all but shoving them away to give her space. As if on cue, one of the contractors that had apparently been hovering near all this while, approached Jo and after a few words, she and Elena walked away with her.
Elena threw Bonnie back one more anxious glance which Bonnie returned with a big toothy smile – that vanished the moment Elena turned her back.
Caroline was good, Bonnie thought from her own vantage point in her chair. In a few minutes, she had come up with a Plan B.
"Great. We'll pick them in 5. Do NOT screw up again or I will END you."
She shut off the call. Bonnie jumped to her feet. "You need someone to get the flowers? I'll go."
Caroline frowned. "I was going to ask Matt to do it, and I don't think you're up to –"
"Up to what? Leaning against the truck and pointing while Matt carries the bouquet? You know you can't send him alone. He won't have a clue what he's supposed to bring along and there's no time for any more screw-ups."
Caroline hesitated. "I should probably ask Elena."
"Care."
Bonnie's sudden grave voice clearly startled Caroline. The two girls locked gazes.
"I need to do something. Don't put me on timeout."
Caroline nodded slowly, understanding passing over her face. She of all people should get it. It was barely twenty-four hours that she had turned up from wherever she had been hiding out since her humanity came back, and Bonnie knew half of the reason that Caroline had thrown herself into organizing Jo's wedding wasn't just because she was a control freak.
It was in the moments of 'peace' that the demons inside shouted the loudest.
"OK," Caroline said with a sigh, then laughed when Bonnie hugged her. "One more thing, though." She fished out a small case from her purse. A groom's cravat. "Matt's over at Alaric's. Please make sure the blushing groom gets this. Apparently he forgot to pick it up yesterday."
Both girls sighed and rolled their eyes in tandem. Men.
"Make sure Matt toes the line. Er… also, don't tell Elena… She'll probably freak out if she finds out you've gone."
"Elena's probably doing a mini-rehearsal now with Liv Parker and the new bridesmaids."
"They're not bridesmaids," Caroline corrected dryly. "They are representations of the covenant between the coven and the Regium, portals in human form for hocus pocus mumbo jumbo."
Both of them laughed, and Bonnie felt her heart lightening. "See you around, Care. Try not to kill anybody from Jo's coven."
"I make no promises," Caroline said darkly.
But Bonnie was already punching her phone for Matt's number, walking away rapidly, and telling herself that after getting the flowers with Matt, she had every intention of coming back for the ceremony, every intention of actually standing in the same space with Kai Parker and spending all of it wondering when he was going to try to kill her again.
June 2014
Portland
Bonnie was in the kitchen, making a sandwich. One of the twins – Martha? Rachel? – was in her high chair, playing with a spoon. Bonnie had just fed her all by herself, which had gone on better than she had feared. Liv was having a shower. Damon had claimed he was going to have one – and disappeared just before the twin's meal – and reappeared just as conveniently after.
He was hunting for bourbon again as Bonnie sliced and diced when her phone buzzed. She smiled when she saw who was calling. "Hi Matt."
"Hey, Bon. How are you? How did it go with the Gemini council?"
Bonnie sighed. She glanced at Damon who had found his bourbon, and was clearly listening in. He gave her a commiserating look as she told Matt an abbreviated version of events.
"They've got some nerve," he declared when she finished. "You almost killed yourself trying to save their asses that day!"
He seemed more outraged by the personal attacks on Bonnie's character, than on the lack of a firm commitment to help.
"Well, they didn't see it that way," she said.
Matt muttered something that sounded suspiciously obscene under his breath. "So… are you going to stick around to hear from them? There's no rush. Things are under control here…"
"We're coming back tomorrow."
"Good," he said, sounding very relieved.
"Aren't you disappointed we're coming back empty?"
"I'm happier you're coming back soon. Screw the Gemini. Half the time, we can't tell whether they're supposed to be the good guys or the bad guys. At least if you're back in Mystic Falls, I won't have to worry about anything happening to you over there."
Her heart warmed. "We'll be home tomorrow."
"Good." He paused. "Hope you're keeping Damon in line?"
She snorted and Damon said loudly, "I can hear you, Donovan!"
"I know," Matt retorted then his voice went softer. "Bonnie, I hope you're not letting what those freaks said get to you?"
Had she been so transparent? Bonnie wondered. "I'm not," she lied.
"Mmmm… Come home soon, OK?"
Damon threw her a funny look as she put away her phone. "Donovan's keeping tabs on you."
"He's right to be wary, I guess. It wasn't really that long when Liv and Luke tried to kill off Stefan and Elena."
Which was one more reason to loathe this life, of fluid alliances and shifting loyalties, where one moment you could be fighting side by side and the next moment, you could fighting to the death with the same person.
"Or that Caroline snapped Luke's neck," Damon continued as he grinned around his mug. "Now that I think about it, the poor guy was doomed from the start."
"Damon."
"How does the whole merge thing work, anyway? Is he rattling somewhere in Kai's head? Can they hold a conversation?"
"Damon."
"Though I guess, Kai's head was already so filled with crazy, one more voice won't have made a difference. But that's not why," he said, abruptly, "Donovan is keeping tabs."
"Damon!"
She finally broke through to him. He boggled his eyes at her "Wha-" then did a double take at Liv, standing at the kitchen door and staring.
"Oops," he deadpanned.
A tense moment followed. Liv's face was blank, but her hands shook slightly where they rested against her sides. Damon held his mug with two hands, in a protective-like gesture, and shrugged. "I'm sorry?" he offered, his eyebrows waggling.
Bonnie nearly threw her knife at him.
But it seemed to do the trick. Liv pushed past them to the girl in the high chair – who had apparently fallen asleep without anyone noticing. "Damon, the day I let you get under my skin, is the day hell freezes over," she whispered loudly as she gently freed the baby from her restraints. She gathered up her niece and left the kitchen without a backward glance.
Damon turned to Bonnie with an exaggerated look of relief. "Wow," he breathed dramatically. "For a moment there, I was-"
"Congratulations," Bonnie hissed. "You just achieved a new low on the insensitivity scale."
"Oh come on, BonBon. You heard the girl. She's moved past it."
"And you would know this from all the people in your life you've lost, and moved past?"
He gave her a pained look. "I've lost my fair share, Bonnie."
"Really?" she snapped. "Like whom exactly, Damon? And it doesn't count if they came back."
He opened his mouth to speak, then seemed to think better of it, and shut it. "I think I'll go … stock up on diapers."
"You do that."
He shuffled off.
She turned back to her sandwich.
The twins were playing a new game – a 'take turns waking up and driving everyone batty' game. Barely a few moments after Bonnie finished her sandwich, a sharp cry emitted from the monitor.
She and Liv hurried to the nursery to retrieve the screaming child before she woke her sister. But it was already too late. The other girl was stirring when they left. And a few minutes later, Bonnie was struggling to pin down the wriggling, crying baby – Rachel or Martha, she really needed to know their names – while Liv fiddled with the diaper and tried to block the sound of the other twin's screams coming from the baby monitor.
"You're putting it the wrong way," Bonnie suggested.
"You want to do it yourself?"
"No."
"Then shut up!"
"It's upside down."
"Oh. Oh, I see."
The cries through the monitor increased in pitch.
"Where the hell is Damon?!" Liv screamed again.
Bonnie had no idea. But she knew this much – he was getting an aneurysm to end all aneurysms when he returned. She suspected the "stock up on diapers" was a ruse. They found the extra diapers – right where it made sense to have extra diapers, in the closet in the nursery. But by then, Damon had taken off and that was an hour ago.
"OK, I've got it. I've got you. Dear, dear, now. Auntie Liv's not completely useless," Liv said, now progressing from diaper to clothes. "I-I think I can manage now. Maybe you can check on Martha-"
Something like an internal bell rang inside Bonnie's head but before she could chase the meaning, the sound-activated monitor suddenly went silent.
Without the cries from the baby upstairs, the house felt deathly quiet.
Bonnie's heart stuttered. She stared at Liv over the baby between them. Liv had the same look on her face – more panic, than relief. Martha's sudden silence was more likely to be very bad, than very good.
Without a word, she was on her feet and half-way out the door and that when was the monitor came back on.
They could hear a baby cooing happily, then a lower, deeper-toned voice cooing back at it.
Her heart jumped and Bonnie took off. She thought she heard Liv shout something after her but she couldn't stop, panic rising in her as she rushed upstairs.
Half way there, she felt it or rather, she recognized it. That alarm that had rang in her head just before the baby stopped crying.
The realization almost sent her stumbling down the steps.
She got to the nursery, slowly, her feet dragging and she stopped at the closed door.
Her heart was pounding, she realized, and she swallowed hard against the lump that had risen in her throat.
Through the door, she could still hear him, talking softly to the baby, his voice so low it seemed to echo in her ribs. She froze where she stood, her hands pressed flat against the door as she braced herself against the two equally powerful urges that were ripping through her: the urge to flee, turn around and keep running until the space of the world was between her and that voice; and the urge to fling open this door and run towards it.
She did neither. Just stood there for as long as it took her to take a deep breath and count down from ten.
Then she pushed the door open.
He stood by the window with the baby over his shoulder. Martha lifted her head, the baby's eyes shining serenely.
Then he turned. And there was nowhere to look. Their eyes caught and Bonnie's chest clenched.
The last time she had seen him was over a year ago, just after the ordeal of Josette's wedding. All this while, she thought she'd never be able to forget his face – the deep-set, steely grey eyes, the sharp jaw, the mouth that could be both wickedly cruel and dangerously persuasive – in so many ways. But memory was nothing compared to reality. And reality was tall and broad and a powerful, punishing stare that stripped her bare. Reality was a man whose presence was the torch that could still enflame her with fury and grief and regret and ….
No. No. No.
She shut those thoughts down completely.
"Hello, Bonnie," he said, and at the sound of his voice, soft and low, her flesh broke out in goose-bumps again.
She swallowed. Twice. She had to before she could get the word past her throat.
"Kai."
[1] Pythonicus Percontatio duo milia et duodecim
[2] implicated in an inquiry
[3] pardon
[4] formal magical education, either by apprenticeship or academy-trained
[5] supernatural creature (that is not a witch)
A/N: Evil cliff-hanger! Do you like the flashbacks? Or are they too distracting? Thank you so much to my 2 betas thenameismaynard and magicsuckcr! You guys are the greatest!
And thanks so much to everyone who reviewed and left comments. I love getting reviews. I'm happy to get both praise and criticism because it all works towards improving the story - letting me know what's good, and what I should keep at and what's bad and I need to work on. Please keep them coming. And please, please, please keep the BonKai flag flying!
