i put a hex on you


May 2013

"You'll get it back. It may not look like it to your righteous mind but I'm doing you a favour. Consider this a freebie."

The morning after Jo's wedding, Bonnie woke with those words echoing in her head. It was warm but under the thick blankets, she had shivered through the night. She stared blankly at the chandelier above her, then at the large window across the room with fancy curtains. The mosaic floor was tastefully dotted with expensive furniture.

For a long moment, she had no idea where she was and panic immediately filled her. She was cold in a way that meant only one thing – she had lost her magic. The nightmare of 1994, and all the times she was vulnerable because she had no power, threatened to consume her.

Then the moment passed; her fright subsided as the memories came back, first slowly like a trickling stream then crashing like a waterfall. The heretics' ambush. The wedding. The fight. Kai Parker porting her out of it against her will.

Taking away her magic for 'her own good'.

Anger flared up inside Bonnie and she sprang up at once.

Last night, after being dumped semi-conscious in this hotel suite, Bonnie had barely given herself a moment to recover, before she had exhausted herself even more trying to find an exit. But every one – the window, the door opening out to the corridor and the connecting door leading to the other room in the suite – had been warded shut. The same spells that kept the doors and windows barricaded had also prevented her from finding a phone or any other form of communication. Of course, he had taken her phone from her, too.

The spells were still active as she quickly confirmed now, fury building up inside her.

He had kidnapped her. Again. He had stolen her magic. Again.

She was cold. Cold and mad. Mad and scared. Because it must have been all over by now – the fight – and she had no idea what had happened. Who had lived. Who had died. And there was only one person to blame for that.

Where the Hell was Kai Parker?

Bonnie was spoiling for a fight and if he were to appear before her right now, she wouldn't need magic to kill him. She'd just gut him with the first sharp thing she could lay her hands on.

She spun around to find one and that was when she saw it. Lying on the corner of her bed, an incongruous rose beside it, was – of all things – a familiar one-eyed teddy bear.

Glowing through its fur, visible through her witch vision, was a vibrant aura that she knew very well.

Tentatively, she touched Ms. Cuddles, wondering if this was a trap.

But it was Bonnie's magic alright, warm and smouldering out of the bear's fur. She had no way of telling, especially now with so little magic left inside her but the power in the bear felt intact, full and untapped.

Kai had kept his word.

Relief poured through her, sharp and unexpected; and her eyes filled with tears. She clutched the bear, cuddling it close and felt the heat from her power seep through her skin, chasing away the coldness that her magicless aura had tormented her with all night long.

It took Bonnie a moment to recollect the incantation; at first she struggled to say the words that she used to draw out her ancestor's magic from a rock in another world. But the second time they came easier, and with each repetition the words flowed faster, and she knew the moment the magic in the bear started pouring into her body.

It was nothing like drawing out magic from a long-dead ancestor. This was Bonnie's own magic and it filled her up like a flood filling up a crater. She cried out in half-pain, half-pleasure as her body lit up from within and through fading eyes, she could see her own veins glowing under her skin. The magic-infused blood seemed to fill up her vision until all that she could see was white.

Then nothing.

When she opened her eyes again, the shadows in the room had changed. She sat up slowly, and stared at her arms. There was still a faint glow through her skin, barely visible with normal sight but nothing a very thorough day at the beauty spa wouldn't have caused. She smiled.

Her body ached though, her joints stiff and painful, like if she hadn't moved in days not hours. The urge to close her eyes to sleep it off was so overwhelming that for a moment, she didn't care where she was or who had put her there.

Then she heard it again. Felt it again. What she now realised must have broken through her deep slumber and forced her to wake.

A shout of pain.

And the crackling in the air that was strong magic being invoked.

She got up at once, and immediately felt dizzy. She had to hold onto the headboard to steady herself. The sense of active magic was pressing down on her – thick and heavy in the air like black floating ropes. Powerful spellwork. And it was coming from close by. She closed her eyes and let her senses guide her, stumbling through the room as she dragged her still tired body along. Her nose bumped into something flat and hard and she opened her eyes.

She had walked across the room, and now she was standing in front of the suite's connecting door. It had been warded before but now it yielded to the press of her hand.

The door was already ajar when she checked herself.

What was she doing?

She had her magic back. Whatever wards were still up would be simple enough to break through. She could go – should go right away. Before, for whatever new inane, insane reason, Kai tried to stop her. Because even though she had only been exposed to his magic a few times, she recognized whose spellwork hung heavy in the air. It was his and he was on the other side of this door.

If Bonnie left now, she could get a phone to call a cab and her friends and find out what happened at Jo's wedding. If she stayed here and he caught her, heaven knows what would happen. He had given her back her magic but that meant nothing. Bonnie had learnt the hard way that having magic was no defence against a syphon.

She was turning on her heel when she heard it again. The sound of a muffled shout.

And now she could feel it as well. Pain. Enormous and consuming, mingled with the threads of magic.

She didn't hesitate. She pushed open the door.

And stopped in her tracks.

Kai was in the room, just as she had expected. What she hadn't expected was the sight of him. He looked like if he had been thrown out of a plane and then hit by a bus. He stood before what looked like a reading desk, his hands flat on the surface, and she could tell from the tension in his biceps that he was barely holding himself upright. All that was left of his wedding tuxedo were black pants that hung in shreds. His torso was streaked with blood, mud and – and she gagged a little – a cauterised stab wound on his lower torso and two still-open slashes across his stomach. Underneath all this, lines of black tattoos crisscrossed his skin, from his throat, across his chest and down his arms to the tips of his fingers. There were two streaks of caked blood from his temple to his chin, his hair was parted in an unusual manner and when he looked up at her as she stepped in, she could see his eyes.

His eyes were red, their hollows veined.

She backed away in horror.

"Why are you still here?" he asked. The words came out slowly, painfully like if they were torn out of him – or like if he was speaking with a mouth filled with fangs.

"I don't…" know, she wanted to say. Hovering in front of him were three rings, similar to the power rings he usually wore. They were rotating in mid-air, each in a different axis, their colours changing too rapidly for her to ascertain a pattern. A quick glance confirmed that, yes, three rings were missing from his fingers. The glance became longer when she noticed the familiar knife between his hands; its once-shiny blade was now black and shiny, making it almost invisible on the black desk. Then she really took in his hands and she gasped in shock.

What she had thought were tattoos were actually his veins, pulsing with the black blood that showed through his skin. They ran across his entire body, every part that she could see.

Not black blood, Bonnie realized, horror filling her. Black magic.

"What happened to you?" She whispered.

"Get. Out."

Kai's voice was strangled and even as she watched, he jerked his head sharply, involuntarily and bit back a groan.

She took a step forward, too shocked by what she was seeing to even remember her own tiredness.

His eyes turned back to her, and she could see the red recede to give way to the gray-blue. "Your magic. The bear," he croaked.

"I found it," she whispered and took another step forward. The pain rolling out of him was unbearable. She had no idea how he was still able to stand.

As if on cue, he let out another shout and collapsed on his knees.

"Kai!"

"Leave!"

But she had rushed forward and now she stood before him, the desk the only thing separating them. He was pulling himself slowly to his feet, the muscles in his shoulder bunching as the black veins throbbed furiously. She reached out to help him and he caught her hand, clamping around her wrist like a vice.

The angry magic rushed to his palm and she could feel it try to jump from his skin into hers. She could also feel the Herculean effort he was using to keep it leashed to him.

"I. Said. Get. Out." His eyes were red again, and the veined hollows had deepened.

She swallowed. "I can help you," and the words came out before she had made the decision in her head. But she didn't take them back. She had seen this before, recognised a bit of what was happening to him. She could help him.

And she wanted to.

His grip on her wrist tightened painfully, black magic stabbing greedily at her own aura, and his eyes were boring into her with an intensity that was just as painful.

"Leave," he roared, and his knees buckled again, her hand slipping out of his grip.

Bonnie was around the table in a flash, her hands reaching for but not quite touching him. She was looking straight down at his head and she almost cried out at what she saw. What she had thought was an odd part in his hair was actually a jagged line running from his crown to his nape where his hair had been ripped out to reveal the pulsing vein beneath. The strands of hair on either side of the line were clotted with blood. Even as she watched, fresh plasma started dripping out of the vein and down his face.

Her stomach churned and she quickly glanced away, her gaze landing on the rings suspended in front of him. One had stopped rotating and was hovering, a thick dark cloud gathering rapidly around it like a dirty ball of wool.

"Let me help you, Kai!" she shouted at him.

He raised his head up then, and looked at her. The trickle of blood had run down an eye, so it looked like he was weeping red tears. His eyes were changing from red to blue to red so rapidly that they appeared to have turned violet.

"Bonnie…" He whispered her name and something else.

She had to lean forward to hear him.

"Help me."

He collapsed.


June 2014

Portland

When Bonnie got to the door that led into the kitchen, she hesitated and did a quick once over at her outfit. Straight jeans and a sleeveless shirt she could throw a jacket over during the coming trip and change in weather. More practical than glamorous – the shirt didn't even have an interesting neckline. Her hand went to her hair and, quickly, before she could talk herself out of it, she pulled off her scrunchie and shook her head, letting her hair fall loose over her shoulders.

Then, putting a lid on the voice in her head that had started a scoffing tirade, she put her hand on the knob of the door and walked in.

Of course, her eyes went immediately to the man standing across the room.

He was dressed in a short black jacket, open over the white shirt and black jeans beneath. He had poured himself a glass of orange juice and stood by the window, drinking. His cuffs were turned up, and she could see his rings, and the leather strap on his left wrist. He looked like someone Bonnie would run into on campus, not the feared leader of an ancient coven.

Until you looked at his eyes, of course. Even in the Prison World, there had always been something about his eyes that gave him away and that put her on her guard right from the first.

He turned when she stepped in, and she caught a glimpse of stormy blues, then he turned fully, so that his back was to the window and his face was in shadow. He stood rigidly, his shoulders tight and his hand around the glass white-knuckled. She could still feel the weight of his gaze on her face. It felt angry.

Bonnie's heart skipped a beat. Something was wrong.

"My name is Quentin Parrish. I sit on the Council. It's an honour to meet you, Bonnie Bennett. Your family is held in great esteem."

The voice pulled her out of her stare and it was only then that she registered the other people in the room – Damon, leaning against the counter with his daily dose of bourbon, and a familiar fair-haired man standing beside her, vying for her attention.

Mr. Asshat from the Council.

Bonnie stared at him, then turned to Kai.

"What's going on? Have you changed your mind?" She asked, hopefully.

"If I may explain…" It was Mr Asshat – Quentin Parrish that spoke. Kai only stood silently by the window.

Bonnie dragged her attention, unwillingly to the man. It was then she noticed that he had offered her his hand.

She almost didn't take it. "We met yesterday. You didn't act like you were particularly honoured then."

Damon snorted into his bourbon.

Quentin Parrish shot him a cold glare, before turning back to Bonnie. "Yesterday, I was serving on the Council and if my attitude was a bit hostile, please understand that I was only doing my job." He spoke formally.

"A bit?" Bonnie echoed.

He gave her a stiff smile. "Please believe that I genuinely was not aware that you participated in the Battle. After the hearing, the P… former Praetor briefed me of some of your activities. There are many witches from great families who live off on the good name of their ancestors while applying nothing of themselves. I wrongfully assumed you to be of such a character. Allow me to now apologise and to express my sincere admiration for you, personally."

This time Damon guffawed out loud. Bonnie sneaked a glance at Kai but he still said nothing, only drilled holes into her face with his eyes.

By now Quentin was looking at Damon with open hostility. "Is there anything you would like to say to me, Vampire?"

Damon put down his glass, the mirth in his eyes morphing into something more sinister. "You tell me. Care to step outside for a little chat?"

"No," Bonnie snapped and gave him a warning frown. She turned back to Quentin. "Please why are you here?" The 'please' took some effort but she felt she needed it to counteract Damon's behaviour. "Will your coven help us then?" Her eyes sought out Kai again, wishing she could see his face well enough to read his expression.

Quentin stiffened as he faced her. "I will be coming to Mystic Falls to inspect your heretic dilemma. We will need to consult on occasion. I hope that we will be able to do so effectively." At the last sentence, he gave Damon a pointed glare.

Damon waggled his eyebrows and grinned back. Bonnie was sure that it was only the wards in the Saltzmans's house that stopped him from dropping his fangs.

"So … you are going to help us kill the heretics?" she persisted, confused. "I thought that only the Praetor," she glanced again at Kai and felt a stab of irritation at the man, "could do this." Why did he just stand there, silently watching and probably judging her?

"I can only inform you that our interests appear to have aligned. Beyond that, I have divulged all that I am at liberty to say. Here is my card."

Bonnie took it. It was ordinary-looking, with just his name and a phone number. Then she flipped the back, and saw the indentation of the Gemini symbol moving through the paper.

"Now, if you'll excuse me," he continued. "I need to organize my logistics. Praetor, will you be coming?"

"I have business with my family," Kai said, speaking for the first time since Bonnie entered the kitchen.

The sound of his voice, deep and low infuriated Bonnie in more ways than one.

"Extend my regards to Mr. and Mrs. Saltzman, and Ms. Parker. Once again, Ms. Bennett, it was an honour."

With a stiff nod to Damon, and a low bow to Bonnie, Quentin Parrish turned on his heel and briskly left the Saltzmans' house.

Damon poured himself another shot. "If that Witch Street stiff steps into my town, I will tie him up with a red bow and hand-deliver him to the heretics myself," he announced.

"Noted," Kai deadpanned, his gaze finally shifting from Bonnie. "I highlighted your tendencies to stab your allies in the back when I gave Quentin my Mystic Falls 101 cheat sheets."

Damon sneered. "Just so we're clear." He strode to Kai and waved his glass at his face. "What the heck are you up to, Kai?"

Bonnie tensed, ready to intervene. "Damon."

Kai said nothing, just looked at the other man with a bored expression on his face as he drained his glass.

"Last year, you lay down the law on Mystic Falls like some Clint Eastwood wannabe in an old B-rated Western, and the only reason why I don't rip your throat out for that is because hey, it's my town, too. I don't need some stuffed up prick from Portland of all places to tell me to protect it. Then now, the first time we ever come to you for backup, you can't move your ass to help."

Bonnie started. What was this about?

Damon poked Kai with an index finger. "And now this? One minute you're hanging us out to dry. Next you're sending your lackey to spy on us."

"First. Quentin doesn't like me. Don't call him my lackey to his face. It'll hurt his feelings. Second. Piece of advice: you're not supposed to introduce your spies to your intended targets. It sort of defeats the purpose. Third. The next time that finger touches me, you're going to lose it."

Damon growled and drew back his fist.

The glass in Kai's hand vibrated with the slightest, faintest tingle.

Bonnie was between them in an instant, her hand on Damon's wrist. "Stop it."

He yanked his fist back and glared at her.

"Remind me again why we needed this jerk's help?"

"Mmm…" Kai murmured and she realized with a slight shock, that he was near enough for her to feel his warmth on her back. "Let me see. The last time you faced a bunch of heretics, you hightailed it faster than a Bugs Bunny cartoon. If I were a betting man – actually, I am a betting man …"

Bonnie covered her face with her hands, pressing her palms into her eyes and groaned until he stopped talking.

"Damon, can you give us a moment please?" She asked quietly.

She dropped her hands to see Damon looking at her like if he thought she was insane.

"Er… let me think. No."

"Please, Damon," she hissed.

He glared at her with narrowed eyes. Then he shot Kai a final poisonous look. "Watch yourself around her." Then he gave Bonnie a slightly less menacing one. "Yell if you need help."

Kai snorted.

Damon growled and grabbed the whole bottle on his way out. The door slammed loudly behind him.

Bonnie whirled round to face Kai.

He was near, barely inches from her and she instinctively took a step back.

He raised an eyebrow at that, but said nothing. He had gone back to the same brooding, almost angry stance that he had worn when she first entered the kitchen. Once again, she was filled with the sense that something – she, to be exact – had ticked him off.

Still, there was something she needed to know first. "What did Damon mean about you laying down the law on Mystic Falls?"

He took his time answering. She was about to snap a repeat of the question, when he finally drawled, "That's between me and Damon, don't you think?"

"Really? That's your response."

This time, he didn't deign to reply.

Bonnie bristled. "Fine, then. What did Asshat mean when he said our interests have aligned? Why is he really coming to Mystic Falls?"

His mouth twitched. "Asshat?"

She shrugged. "Quentin Whathisname."

He smirked a little. "He is a bit of that, isn't he?"

"Answer my question, Kai."

His eyebrow went up even higher. "You do like ordering me around, don't you, Bonnie?" He brushed past her, his jacket rubbing against the bare skin of her arm and she stifled a gasp at the contact. "It was the Council's recommendation. Last night's casualty caused them to rethink their position."

He stopped at the counter, put down his glass, and turned to her. His eyes were fiery. "This is not some special favour I've done for you because you have me wrapped around your little finger."

Her mouth fell open. "What. No, I don-"

"Really?" he snarled. "Wasn't that the whole point of you waltzing in here to Portland and demanding to speak to the leader of the coven? Think you have me on some sort of leash?"

Bonnie felt her face burn and then her own anger flared up. "Where the Hell is this coming from? I asked for your help and you said no. You don't owe me anything, remember? You've made that abundantly clear."

A myriad of expressions flitted across his face, too fast for her to catch. It finally settled on a scowl as he muttered, "You and I both know that's not completely true."

Her ire left and bewilderment took its place. With the latter was also relief because at least she could begin to understand why he seemed so angry – or rather, angrier than usual. But just what the Hell did he mean by that? What was going on here? One minute he was yelling at her because of this non-existent hold she had on him and now he was saying…

What exactly was Kai saying?

That they were not even? That he owed her one favour?

Or that she did have him wrapped around her finger?

Bonnie stared at his brooding form.

Did she?

In her confusion, she could only manage to shoot back weakly, "Wanna tally?"

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence.

"I have-" he started just as she said, "I know-"

They both paused. Bonnie licked her lips nervously and his eyes went to her mouth at once. And stayed there.

Her own mouth went dry.

"You're better off talking to Kai yourself. Or maybe more than just talking"

"You first," he said slowly, his half-lidded eyes still on her mouth. The scowl remained on his face but there was something else there too.

Hunger.

Bonnie swallowed. She was still standing by the window and he was half way across the kitchen and the irrational thought gripped her that they were too far apart.

For what, exactly?

The voice in her head was Caroline's.

Without stopping to think, she walked across to him.

He stood still, his eyes not once lifting from her as she approached him. It struck her then that the first time she had come this close to him, had been in the 1994 prison world, when he had tricked or tested her – she still didn't know which – to find the Ascendant. She had placed her hand right on his jacket, a full hand span from the pocket where the device was, and felt the thrumming of his heart beneath; and she wasn't sure what had been the stronger force – the magic of the locator spell or her own desire to touch him.

She could have easily told him and Damon where the Ascendant was, and called Kai out on his trick.

But Bonnie had touched him because she had wanted to. Their eyes had locked, magic swirling around them and she had felt it for the first time – that dual sensation of attraction and repulsion. Wanting to be as close to him as possible. And wanting to be as far away from him as possible.

She had told Damon then that there was something not quite right about Kai Parker. But the truth had been – and still was – more complicated than that.

There was something not quite right about the way Kai Parker made her feel.

Now, she stopped right in his space; and just like that first time, she was close enough to stretch her hand and touch his chest. She stared at it, now, at its rapid rise and fall under his white T-shirt. Then she took a step even nearer.

"Bonnie," he said, his voice low and resonating with something deep inside her. It sounded like a warning, and like a plea.

She looked up at his face, and quickly looked away, her eyes stopping to rest on his tense jaw, unable to hold that burning, hungry gaze a moment longer.

She swallowed again. "I know how you killed the heretics," she said softly.

He started. Whatever he had been expecting her to say, it clearly wasn't that. "Do you now?" he returned quickly, guardedly.

"It was something someone… something I heard yesterday that tipped me off." Bonnie decided not to mention Liv for his sister's sake. "Then I remembered, your rings." She glanced at them now and because of what she was about to say next, she kept her eyes on them. "I remembered what happened the day after Jo's wedding, too."

She didn't think it was possible, but his body became even tenser than it already was.

It was a few seconds before Kai spoke. They felt like eons. "I thought we were supposed to be pretending that day never happened," he said and his voice was very, very low.

She licked her lips, feeling his gaze heavy on her and feeling like a coward because she couldn't bring herself to meet it.

"Yeah, I've been doing that a lot," she said and she swallowed back a sudden burst of inappropriate, slightly hysterical laughter. "And that's why it took me so long to figure it out. What happened that night."

"Which night, Bonnie? My sister's wedding? Or the one after?" Impossibly, his voice went even deeper. "Both of them were equally memorable."

Heat washed over her, from the top of her head, through her lungs, to settle somewhere in her core. He was deliberately trying to derail the conversation. But that didn't stop his words from affecting her.

She shook her head to clear the haze that had filled it and pressed on stubbornly. "They can't be killed as heretics because they can't cross-over as heretics. Part servant of nature and part abomination of nature, in the end, heretics are neither and nature will not… cannot let them cross over." Her lips twisted with wry bitterness. "You're talking to the resident expert of crossing overs. I should know." Another part of her life that she had spent the better part of the year putting behind her.

He stayed silent, but she heard the slightest shift in his breath. She bit back a smug grin; she was close.

"They couldn't be killed. Their very 'destruction' would release power that they would reabsorb, and rejuvenate with. Like using magic against them, it just made them stronger. So you consumed their necromancy, you unmade them, until they were syphons. Dead syphons."

"Too bad you used up the Cure, right?" he asked, dismissively. But when she glanced up, his dark eyes were glinting with something like – her heart fluttered–admiration.

"I don't think the Cure could work. It's still magic. It's still something they can feed on. But you…" She bit her lip; and watched as his eyes, almost black now, went to her mouth. "You're a syphon. Probably the only one alive right now who's not already a heretic. But Kai," she raised her chin, "I took Qetsiya's magic from that rock. If you can just teach me-"

She bit back a shriek as his hands clamped around her upper arms and yanked her forward, her hips hitting his own. Her hands fell on his chest reflexively. Bonnie's magic snapped to her fingers at once, ready to strike back but he just held her, glowering down at her, his jaw ticking furiously.

He spat out each word like bullets from a gun. "Qetsiya was your ancestor. Your blood and your magic come from her. Drawing from her magic compared to drawing from, say, Liv is like swimming in the kiddie pool compared to swimming in the deep end of an Olympic sized pool."

"I'm an excellent swimmer," Bonnie retorted, "and a trained lifeguard to boot."

His eyes narrowed and his rings dug into her bare skin as his grip tightened. He shook her, slightly but enough that her teeth rattled. "And comparing that to drawing from a heretic would be like swimming in the ocean. In the middle of a storm. With sharks."

Bonnie lifted her chin defiantly.

Kai laughed, an incredulous barking laughter. "You're crazy enough to try this." And he let her go. She stumbled back, grabbing onto the counter for support.

He looked away from her, then looked back, his hands raking down the sides of his face as he scoffed. "Bonnie…"

"Throw me a life jacket, Kai," she countered. "If you're so worried about me, come with me to Mystic Falls and we'll do it together. I can help you. Like the last time, but better-"

"…the last time…" he repeated, his hands falling as he looked at her.

Those three short words were loaded with forbidden memories. He wasn't making a statement. He was asking a question.

Bonnie licked her lips, saw his gaze go to her mouth again. It seemed like a kind of reflex of his. "Yes," she whispered and she was stepping into his space again. Oh god, was she really doing this? The urge to push him away and the urge to pull him to her… it was the latter that was winning now.

His Adam's apple bobbed jerkily. There was a desperate longing in his eyes that would have frightened her if she wasn't feeling the exact same thing right now.

"No."

It took a moment for her to understand what he said. Then she drew back sharply.

"W-what?"

He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, the longing was still there. But it was also mixed with fury. "You really think …" He bit off what he must have been about to say. "I said No, Bonnie. No. Non. Nada. Niente. NO. You can stop trying to manipulate me right now."

Blood rushed to her face. "I… I'm not," she lied.

Kai scoffed again, walked away from her in short angry steps, then turned and marched right up to her. She stepped back in alarm. He looked angry enough to bite.

"You regretted what happened. You made that oh so abundantly clear. A moment of madness, you said. But dangling yourself in front of me, using how I feel…?" He broke off, and his whole body was practically sparking with fury.

She wrapped her bare arms around her body, suddenly feeling vulnerable.

"And for what?" he continued, his voice lethal. "Why are you even involved in this? Weren't you supposed to have closed shop in that town?"

She stared. "How did you know…?"

"Oh, let me guess. Damon messed up his hair grappling with a heretic and he called 911 Paramagical – you. So you come rushing back to save the box of tools that you call friends? The same besties that ran off and left you behind at the first sign of trouble at my sister's wedding?"

Bonnie recoiled from the viciousness of his words. "They didn't even know I was there. If they had-"

"They'd what? Stay and fight? For you? Aren't these the same guys who couldn't take a timeout from their 90210 drama long enough to figure out a way to free you from prison?"

With each word he spoke, her hackles rose higher. By the time he was done, her fists were clenching and unclenching at her sides as she imagined using a hex to sew that spiteful mouth shut. "I'm not doing this for them. I'd have thought you of all people would realize that. But hey, I forgot who I was talking to. You don't feel even the iota of responsibility for this, do you?"

His eyes narrowed into slits. "Believe me, I do, Bonnie. I am full aware of the role I played in starting this. So if you're asking if I learnt the hard way not to throw away my good judgment for your sake, then the answer is yes."

Despite her own anger, she flinched. "So you're putting this all on me? How convenient," she asked hoarsely.

She had thought he couldn't get more furious; she was wrong. The pots hanging above rattled as his face darkened. "That. is. just. it. This has nothing to do with you! It never did. Lily Salvatore. The heretics. My coven. It was never your fight, Bonnie. I learnt my own lesson. When will you? How long are you going to keep throwing yourself into battles that aren't your own, to save people who won't do the same for you?"

Oh, that hit. That hit hard. Bile rose in her throat as her own angry magic added to his. "Shut your mouth! You don't know a damn thing about my friends or me."

"Oh yes, I forgot who I was talking to. Loyal Bonnie. Faithful to the end," he said, sneering. "Do you get off on sacrificing yourself, Bonnie?"

"Go to hell, Kai!" She shoved past him to walk out of the kitchen. There was absolutely zero reason for her to stand here and listen to him insulting her. But before she reached the door, he was there between it and her.

"You're not going to try to siphon magic from the heretics." It was an order.

Bonnie saw red. "Who the hell are you to tell me what I can or cannot do?" She yelled.

"The person who just did. The person who can take your magic away if he doesn't like what you do with it."

"You won't dare!" Real fear gripped her at that.

"Try me," he said grimly.

She took a deep breath, forced herself to stay calm and not give into the overpowering urge to launch herself at him and strangle him with her bare hands.

"You think I let my friends use me," she hissed. "Fine. You don't want to help me. Fine. But don't you dare get in my way, Kai."

"Not until you promise you won't do this."

Bonnie chuckled nastily at that. "All bets are off, remember?" She raised her hand and silently Motusedhim out of her way. He slid across the wall, and stumbled into Jo's dishwasher.

Her left hand was on the knob when he grabbed her by the arms and spun her towards him, and before she could blink, she was pinned between him and the door. Her hands went up at once, shoving against him with her magic but he was ready this time and deflected it without blinking, sending it fizzling into the space between them.

"What the hell, Kai?"

He cracked his neck and glared at her. She tried to shove past him, then tried to kick past him; after a few moments of struggling while he watched her, holding her almost effortlessly against the door with a bored expression on his face, she leaned back, gasping.

"You let me go now or I swear-"

"What's your dominant hand?"

Bonnie bit back on the curse she was about to hurl at him. "W-what?"

"Your dominant hand," he said slowly as if he was talking to a child. "The hand you use to cast and write."

The question was so mundane, his tone so patronizingly normal that she was thrown for a loop.

"I-I don't have one," Bonnie stammered. "I'm ambidextrous."

Incongruously, something like a smile flitted across his face. "Figures. I could never tell."

The meaning behind the words – that Kai had studied her and tried to know this – didn't escape her. It threw her even more off balance than she already was and that proved unfortunate for her.

His left hand – the one holding her right shoulder in place, unclenched a little, just enough for it to run down the length of her arm, his palm cupping around her limb and sending goosebumps in their wake until he was holding her right hand.

She gaped at him in confusion. What was he doing? She could probably have pushed him away then, without magic. But she was frozen at the spot, her heart pounding as he lifted their hands to chest level, lining their fingers up against each other, his rings pressing into the edges of her palm. Then he let go of her other arm so that he could use his free hand to untie the leather strap on his left wrist.

His skin underneath where the strap had lain looked distinctly paler than the skin beside it. It made his wrist look naked.

"What are you doing?" Bonnie asked.

Later she berated herself that she should have known what was going to happen next. But at the moment, she just stood stupidly as his long fingers quickly wrapped the band around her wrist and pulled the strings so tautly that she gasped.

"Hey!"

Kai gave her a stern look as he knotted the strings.

"Stop," she said and tried to pull her hand back but he held onto it firmly. His face was grim as she struggled, trying to use her other hand to pry his grip from her. "Let me go, Kai."

"Ideally, I'd ask you if you trusted me," he said coldly, finishing the knot with a bow, and she stopped struggling long enough to look at him. "But we both know the answer to that, right?"

His eyes glinted silver, and Bonnie felt a jolt of magic pour out from his hands into her wrist.

She cried out as the strap tightened so painfully that for a moment, she thought it was going to cut off her hand. Then the pain vanished, and with it the strap. It sank into her skin and disappeared. All that was left of it was a black band, roughly its shape, inked around her wrist like a tattoo.

She yanked her hand – he let her go – and clutched at her wrist, rapidly casting a string of spells. She could feel her magic work – which was a relief because there was a horrible split-second when she thought he really had somehow taken her magic from her – but nothing she did made any difference. The tattoo remained, the band irretrievably strapped around her.

"What the Hell did you just do to me?" she cried, looking up at him.

He smirked. "Maybe I put a hex on you."

Oh god, Bonnie thought furiously, her heart now pounding out of control. Why even now, when she was so furious and yes, slightly frightened of him, did she want to reach up and kiss that smirk off his face?

What the Hell was wrong with her?

Kai's eyes darkened then, the smirk slipping off, and she wondered, mortified, if her face had emoted her thoughts.

"Take it off," she whispered.

"No," he whispered back. But he took a step closer and for a moment, she thought, wildly, inappropriately, please just kiss me.

He didn't, just kept staring down at her with that half-angry, half-hungry look on his face that she knew so well.

The moment passed.

Bonnie slid past him, turned the knob of the door and fled.


a/n: Wow, thank you so much for all the lovely reviews! I adore each and every one of you that took the time to say that you liked it, what you liked, etc. I love feedback - in case I haven't made that clear - and welcome both good and bad. And to all the new readers that came in, thanks so much for giving this story a chance. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. Thank you Sorce for pointing out the discontinuity at the beginning of the first chapter. That's what happens when I edit without running it through my amazing beta keenan24 first. (By the way, y'all reading By and Down, right? Because I can't pimp that fic enough!) bonkaiaddict - I lol'd when I saw your review because your request for more Bonkai one-on-one interaction couldn't have come at a more appropriate time. To everyone else, thank you once again for your feedback. I promise to take the time to do individual replies during one of these updates. But I have a feeling you'd rather I just churn out the chapters faster! Now, I've stopped promising to update more regularly. That's a skill that only the likes of pennytree (omg did y'all read Charade 30? omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg!) have mastered! And now that September and classes are around the corner, I don't know. But I'll keep on plodding away at this any chance I get.

ETA (REWRITE): Special thanks to reviewers who've taken the time to review both versions of this story (old and new). JustStockton, I appreciate it so much and it's made me feel that this re-write was really worthwhile. And anyone else who wants to leave a second review, you can always leave one without logging in, and just sign off your name manually so I'll know who it's from. bonkai-dreams, I've really enjoyed reading your reviews and you've been hitting the mark on some of your insights (which of course, I won't confirm/deny) which.