can we go now?
April 2013
The heretics, the witch-vampire creatures that Jo described so graphically, were awake.
Bonnie knew this the moment she stumbled over the thin, pale creature huddled in a heap on the snow, a threadbare blanket thrown over his body. He was so still, so silent, his aura so dimmed. The tracking spell she had conjured with his twin's blood had led her to him. Otherwise Bonnie would have been sure he was dead.
"Kai… Kai… Kai!"
She struggled to turn him around to work the reviving spell. She barely recognised him. Under crudely hewn scruff, his face was worn and tired and the bulk he had picked up after the 1994 prison world had whittled away.
Then there were the bites. On his neck. His wrists between sleeves and gloves. Even his temple… Who knew where else?
So many bites.
She had found Kai Parker exactly as she had expected, exactly as she had hoped.
Bonnie had wanted to kill this man, to feel the satisfaction of twisting that knife through his chest and watching the life drain out of his eyes. Only then did she believe that she would ever know peace. The peace she had lost trapped in his prison, slowly losing her mind, as she succumbed to the ghosts and the voices that plagued her.
When he had escaped, she felt cheated.
But later when she had been chanting under the Northern Lights, with the other three beside her, she had looked up at the sound of his cry, seen the devastation in his face, and she had been glad that he didn't die.
It had been so much sweeter to abandon Kai Parker to suffer the same isolation he had condemned her to. To trap him in an empty world, with nothing but his own guilt and demons for company.
Before she vanished from 1903, Bonnie had watched Kai's face break with utter desolation and she had felt happier than she had ever felt in … many, many years.
It hadn't lasted.
That same night, Bonnie was told about Lily Salvatore's travelling companions, and she once again felt that her revenge had been thwarted. All she could think of was that a sociopathic witch and a band of evil vampires would go together like butter and jam. Fear creeped into Bonnie's heart at the thought of Kai escaping. Because he would come after her, she had no doubt about that. And he would be ruthless.
So she had to figure out how to keep him there forever. Already, Lily Salvatore was breathing down Bonnie's neck, demanding for the release of her family. Bonnie stalled as much as possible but she knew it was only a matter of time before the woman's polite insistence turned violent.
It was tempting to assume that all she needed to do was to destroy the Ascendant, and the passageway to the Prison World would be sealed away forever. But she had also assumed that the key ingredient to powering the Ascendant was Bennett magic, not Bennett blood. That hadn't turned out too well for her. For all Bonnie knew, the Ascendant was the seal to the Prison World and destroying it was the equivalent of detonating its door, letting the inmates free. To do this properly, she would need to consult with the architects of the Prison. She would need to talk to a Gemini witch.
Liv Parker and the rest of her coven had gone into hiding when Luke died, which left Josette Laughlin, formerly Parker, as Bonnie's only option. Bonnie paid a visit to Dr. Laughlin, informed her that her estranged brother had changed address, and asked her how to make that permanent.
That was how Bonnie learnt four things: first, that Josette had no idea that had brother had been trapped in a Prison World all this while; second, that the life of the leader of the Gemini Coven was tied to the lives of all the witches and wizards of the coven, from the oldest member to the youngest – even the unborn baby in Jo's womb; third, a new word - heretics.
Lastly, that she, Bonnie, rather than finding a way to lock Kai in the 1903 Prison World, would have to find a way to bring him back.
Bonnie hadn't wanted to believe it, had refused to take the word of her nemesis's twin sister at face value. She had done her own homework, digging into Sheila's old grimoires. Had even ended up sharing her plans with Damon, against her own judgment, if only to get access to the spell-books in the Salvatore library. After hours of research, she had finally found the obscure reference in one of Jonas Martin's grimoires that confirmed the truth of Jo's words.
Bonnie's revenge versus the lives of hundreds of innocent people.
It wasn't a choice.
He had barely been gone long enough for her to revel in her victory over him. The ghosts had not stopped plaguing her. The voices in her head had not stopped talking.
But just like that, she was robbed of any chance of peace.
At least, she took comfort from the thought of Kai suffering under the hands of merciless heretics. If Jo's story was true, then vampires with their own magic would not be so easy for the sociopath to make friends or bargain with. Bonnie hoped that he had somehow woken them up. A troop of hungry, desiccated vampires. And Kai the only living thing in sight.
She hoped that they had drained him to within an inch of his life.
Barely five minutes after she landed in that cold world, she found Kai Parker: a crumpled figure on the snow, suffering from acute anemia, exposure and multiple bite wounds. His magical essence was so depleted that it barely registered when she prodded it.
Drained within an inch of life.
Bonnie had found Kai exactly as she imagined. Exactly as she had hoped. This was supposed to make her happy. This was supposed to help her find peace.
The reality made her sick.
June 2014
Everything about the attack was brutal. The teeth tearing through her neck, the growling as her blood gushed into the heretic's mouth, the pull on her magic that drew it to her skin, pulsing hard in her veins…
… and staying there.
She could feel her heart slowing, her vision fading from blood loss but her magic still stayed within her.
With one fading gasp of energy, Bonnie drew on everything she had and threw a motus.
This time it hit. Too engrossed in her feeding, the heretic was caught off-guard and she went flying across the room. Bonnie held her neck with one hand, gasping and fighting against the coming blackness, and stretched out another hand to throw incendia after incendia at the creature.
She was already on her feet and flying towards Bonnie and each time it hit her, she paused, reeling as if to absorb the spell. It slowed her down, but it didn't hurt her, and it was probably already making her stronger.
In seconds, she had reached Bonnie and grabbed her by the shoulders, lifting her up and pinning her high on the wall. She had stopped siphoning and this close, Bonnie could see that her eyes were deep blue, there were jewellery shaped like little green birds in her ears, and her face was taut with utter bewilderment.
"By what means is your magic restrained?" she rasped.
Bonnie stared down at her, her head hurting, so weak that she couldn't even feel the pain from the heretic's grip. Could barely muster up a watery smile. "Won't you like to know?" she whispered.
With a snarl, the heretic pulled her forward and smashed her back into the wall. Bonnie's vision exploded with red stars.
"I demand your Expression. Yield it to me or face your demise."
Bonnie's head was almost lolling on her neck now, and the heretic's face was dimming into a pale blur surrounded by a red cloud.
"Y- you won't find it if I'm d-dead," she managed.
"You have no leverage to make demands of me."
"Not a demand. F-fact."
Its grip on her tightened so hard that Bonnie was certain that it really was going to make good on its threat and tear her apart.
Instead, it flung her to the bed, and the next thing Bonnie felt was magic being forced into her body.
A healing spell. Done by someone with obviously little experience performing one. Without the finesse of a practiced caster, it burnt through her body, hurting even worse than the biting had done. Bonnie moaned as her neck knitted closed and blood was forced out of her bones, leaving her weak and shaky.
"Enough." Bonnie gasped.
It was nothing like being healed by vampire blood. Her body ached all over, her heart racing, her lungs working overtime to compensate for the rapid healing that had taken as much a toll on her as the attack.
The heretic loomed over her, her oddly familiar face dark with determination. "You are sufficiently revived. Yield the Expression at once."
"So that you can kill me when I'm done?" Bonnie muttered. "I think I'll pass."
Fingers curled into her hair, yanking her head forward and making her yelp. "If it is required, I willdismember you and burrow through your remains until I possess it. I have knowledge of the means to prolong your life until you are begging for the mercy of its end."
"If you torture me, you'll just piss me off and I definitely won't help you," Bonnie gasped.
The heretic's grip in her hair loosened a bit. "You are the insolent witch that gypped the one dearest to me. It will immensely gratify me to destroy you."
Bonnie smiled slowly, her eyes catching the tiny blur of movement in the far corner of the room. "The feeling is mutual."
Then her fist smashed into the heretic's face. Or tried to. The woman let go off her hair to catch her hand, and that split-second of distraction was enough for the heretic to be caught off-guard when a stream of wooden bullets went pumping through her body.
She screamed, the force of the shots flinging her into the wall. Bonnie yanked her hand away, and rolled off the bed, landing painfully on the floor. She tried to crawl out of the way, but before she could shift further than an inch, a blur of blonde hair and flowers was at her side, swooping her up into strong arms.
Caroline.
"I am not done with you!" Georgiana's voice roared, shooting out a de-mobilizing spell on both of them. But Bonnie had anticipated it, and threw it right back at her. It wasn't enough to stop her but it sent her reeling.
And made her infuriated. She snarled, fangs cutting through her lips. "I care nothing for what was promised, you will suffer for that." Her hands rose up and pain exploded in Bonnie's head. She felt Caroline stagger, as well. Both girls fell to the floor.
Then Tyler came flying across the room with a stake in his grip and halted in the middle of it – his hands on his head, shouting in pain as Bonnie felt her own pain leave her, the heretic switching her focus away from them.
Two shots were fired and now, Matt was stepping forward, the gun in a two-handed grip as he shouted Bonnie's name. Georgiana merely rose a lazy hand, sent them flying back – he dodged the first, and the second one hit his stomach, the impact throwing him against the wall.
"You missed, young man."
"No, he didn't," Damon quipped from behind her.
She turned in time to receive the full blast of the blowtorch in his hands. She lit up like a firecracker, flaming from her shoes to the top of her fiery head. Then Stefan and Tyler were running forward, batons swinging, Bonnie was stretching out her hands and with magic and brute force, they shoved her at the window. It shattered under her weight, and she flew through, screaming all the way down until her voice went abruptly silent.
April 2013
About fifteen minutes after she found Kai Parker's body in the snow, Bonnie finally felt she had moved them to a place safe enough to stop. Even with magic, dragging along the dead weight of a six feet plus man through the snow was no joke. Keeping them camouflaged had also taken its toll. But she didn't know what to expect when she revived him and if he was going to attack her on instinct, she needed them to be in a place where they were less likely to both get caught; and she could, hopefully, talk him down from his rage.
She stretched out her senses now, enveloping everywhere within a mile. If anything stepped into that radius, she would know.
She stared down at the unconscious man in the snow, scowling. It would be so much easier if she could do this without having to wake him up. Heaving a huge sigh, she knelt down beside him, and placed her hands over his back.
He was still wearing the same clothes he had arrived in. She made out the rips in his jeans and coat where her knife had gone through.
Swallowing hard, she closed her eyes and chanted softly. The revival spell she used was the strongest one she knew, and she augmented it with Expression to be sure. It should send Kai to his feet with enough energy to burn through for hours. Enough for both of them to get to the designated spot, do the Ascension spell and kiss this prison world goodbye.
She felt the magic working, and stopped, taking her hands back. She placed her left hand flat on the snow, but kept a hex hovering at the tips of her gloved fingers; her right hand brushed against the hilt of the knife under her jacket. Any moment now, Kai was going to jump up like a jack in the box, take one look at her, and attack. She'd have to immobilise him, then explain her presence and give him the choice to either come along without violence or …
Well, she would think of something.
She heard him stir, and grew even tenser. But he just slowly rolled to his back, his breathing changing as he shivered. His lids finally opened, and a pair of grey eyes stared at her.
For a few moments, they just looked at each other. Kai's face remained blank, and his shattered aura barely stirred.
"Kai…" Bonnie asked finally, tentatively, half-worried, half-wary as she touched his chest gently. Worried because she feared he had been so badly sapped of blood and magic that even her spell, which was the magical equivalent of an adrenaline shot, hadn't been enough.
Wary because every single time that Bonnie Bennett and Kai Parker got physically close to each other, it always ended with one of them getting stabbed.
It was like a demented game of tag. And – what were the odds? – Bonnie was It.
After a few more moments of staring blankly at her, his face – thin, under weeks of unkempt facial hair – stretched into a smile she could only describe as idiotic.
"You're wearing far too many clothes, Bon."
Her jaw dropped.
But Kai helpfully elaborated, his voice hoarse but still managing to retain its annoyingly familiar singsong lilt. "I didn't just hit rock bottom. I kept going. I'm at the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean. No, further than that. I am practically in the Earth's core. I'm swimming in prehistoric magma right now. If magma was ice-cold, instead of hot."
"Kai…"
"The least the universe can do is deliver fantasies to my exact specifications, don't you think? Now the Bonnie I asked for was wearing a red bik-."
"I'm not some wet dream, you jerk," she shouted, horrified, yanking her hand back. He had been pushing ever so slightly against it. "Get up!" And for emphasis, she struck him with her open palm and a bolt of magic.
"Ow! Can everybody stop assuming I'm into kinky stuff? What the hell kind of fantasy is this?"
"Will you stop calling me that?"
He shook his head, rubbed his eyes with one hand, and glared at her. Then suddenly, he sat up with a yelp, his eyes bugging. "Bonnie?" he yelled. "Are you really here?"
"Yes, you prick. I'm here to rescue you," she snapped.
He blinked. Looked behind her. Looked over his shoulder. Looked up. Looked everywhere but at her. "No, you're not. You can't be," he said slowly. "They're playing with my head. They've done that before." He kept not looking at her, and she suddenly realized that he was talking – or trying to talk – to someone close by. "Whose idea was this? Iceman? Cherokee? Ginger-dee or Ginger-dum?"
"Kai…"
"Can't a man get a little privacy here? I'm not going to last long if you can't even let me escape into my own head…"
Bonnie slapped him, her gloved palm leaving a red print across his face.
He looked at her then, shock washing over his face. He raised his hand to touch his cheek. "That didn't feel like a vamp-dream," he said stupidly. "Why would they put a dream in my head of Bonnie Bennett slapping me? On second thoughts, don't answer that..."
"Get up, Kai!" she yelled. "We don't have all day. The Northern Lights are about to start and unless you want your new besties to tag along…"
He was breathing hard now and still staring hard at her, as if he dared not look away or she would disappear. She could see disbelief warring with hope on his face.
The hope was desperate, and painful to look at and she hated herself for feeling even one iota of pity for him. So she forced it down as she got to her feet. "Come on, Kai. Unless you're enjoying yourself here…?"
Kai swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing. "I swear if this is another twisted mind game, I don't care what it takes, but I will find out who came up with this fucked up idea and I will rip out their heart." And his voice was cold and cruel – and she was grateful to hear it because that was the voice of the man she hated beyond measure.
"Good to know." She leaned over and stretched out her hand. He hesitated for a fraction, then he took it. A frisson of something – magic, probably – passed from his hand to hers, even through the gloves and his eyes locked into her own, making her breath stutter. It took everything in her not to yank away. Instead, she broke that locked gaze and held on firmly. His weight almost dragged her down, and since she wasn't moving her hand from her knife, she had to work one-handed. But somehow she got them both upright. She let go off his hand the moment he was standing, shaking out the tingles that were climbing from her palm to her elbow.
They stood, staring at each other. Bonnie felt apprehension rising in her gut as she saw the light of realisation, then acceptance dawning in his eyes.
She took a deep breath, and spoke with as much venom as she could muster. "This is only going to work if we work together. My friends are waiting on the other side and if you dare try to kill me or trap me here, I promise you Gemini coven or no coven…"
"Now I know this isn't a dream," he said, his equally cold voice cutting through her speech as he stepped towards her. "Forgive me, Bonster. I know you have this big threatening speech all rehearsed for me but I'm going to take a rain-check because we need to start running now."
She glared up at him. "We need to find the Ascendant first, Kai."
His eyes glinted. "I already have it, Bonnie."
That gave her pause, then her suspicions came back. "Let me see it."
He laughed, tut-tutted. "So you can stab me with a pick-axe and take off?" He was near enough to glare down menacingly at her.
Her hand tightened on her knife. "I came back for you, you jerk."
His glanced at her hand, and scoffed. "OK, this probably sounds ridiculous, but where you're concerned, Bonnie, I have trust issues. Crazy, right?"
"Damn it, K-"
"Can we at least move this discussion to somewhere a bit safer?"
"I can sense anything from a mile away. Nothing's going to surprise me. Show me the Ascendant or I swear, Kai…"
"Fine. Let's do a locator spell." He was tugging at his glove. "Since you're so eager to feel up my chest a-"
And then she felt it step through her perimeter – it was cold and empty and made her think of black holes and vacuums. Made her think of Kai in his prison world every-time he unleashed his power at her. Only this was ten times worse.
And it was moving fast.
Bonnie's eyes locked with Kai's, and she saw the stark panic – fear even – in his face.
"Bonnie!"
She felt the air shift as the creature flew toward them – felt its breath almost on her neck.
And she went flying into the cold ground and only barely registered Kai's hands shoving her out of the way. She landed with an oomph, face down and eating snow. She turned quickly to see the two figures struggling in front of her. The heretic had landed on Kai instead; she could barely make out the creature's face or if it was even male or female, just silver-blond hair flying as it clung to Kai who was desperately trying to shake it off. Kai's magic set its coat aflame and it still clung, its teeth digging into his neck.
It yanked itself back with a scream as Bonnie's aneurysm struck it. It staggered away from Kai, and turned silver eyes to her where she stood with both hands outstretched.
Gold lights were swirling in them.
"Bonnie…! Stop…!" Kai was shouting.
She sent another aneurysm at it and now it laughed, the gold in its eyes glowing brighter. It was a man, tall and large, with sharp high cheekbones. He was beautiful, the way a black hole was beautiful. And he was coming towards her, glee stark on his face.
His hands clamped on her cheeks, rings burning on her cold face, and she felt the rush of magic violently pulled out of her body like a hook in her stomach violently tugging out her guts. Either she had forgotten how it felt when Kai siphoned her. Or this was a hundred times worse. Pain exploded in her head and she fell to her knees, screaming; the creature was falling with her, his hands tight on her face, gold swirling so rapidly in its eyes that it made her dizzy to look. His face was ecstatic.
"Bonnie!"
Her fear reached a crescendo and Expression exploded out of her like a supernova, the volatile power rising with her fear to protect her. The heretic's face was no longer joyful but suffused with something like fear; its eyes now glowing so brightly that she couldn't stare at them anymore. She felt his hands tugging from her – like if he was trying to let go but couldn't. His mouth opened wide in a silent shout.
Her head was still pounding, tears streaming down her face as magic gushed out of her body like her life's blood. Only infinitely worse.
Then the contact was broken. And she staggered, gasping, to see Kai behind the creature, throwing it into the snow.
It rolled and stopped, in a sitting position. Its mouth was still open, and the horror on its face had only increased with the horror that was now its face. The bright streaks of gold had ripped through eyeballs, and skin. Its veins were lit with gold, and they were bursting in front of Bonnie's eyes, leaking out magic like water from a puncture skein.
It finally screamed, but it wasn't words but magic that poured out of its mouth, almost blinding her. She wanted to look away, but she couldn't. Absentmindedly, she felt Kai near her, and she turned instinctively to hold on to him.
Finally, it imploded, its body collapsing into itself, leaving only a bright mushroom, golden and black, that hovered over it for a moment, then zoomed upwards into the atmosphere.
Bonnie watched it go, heart pounding. Then she turned to look at Kai Parker's shocked face.
He was so close, that she could see her breath mist over his skin, feel the warmth of his on her face. Both of them were gasping, from cold and shock. He was staring at her with wonder in his grey eyes.
"How did you…" He started, then laughed, looked away, stared back at her. Laughed again. Stared harder. "Bon…"
She could barely make out the words. "Can we go now, Kai?"
He laughed again. She wondered if he was losing it. She felt like if she was. "Thought you'd never ask."
June 2014
"Bonnie," Matt was groaning from where he laid shivering and bleeding on the ground. "Are you OK?"
Caroline put Bonnie down on the floor, placed one hand on her cheek and put the bleeding wrist of the other hand to Bonnie's lips.
Bonnie moaned gratefully as she gulped down the vampire blood, then she pushed her friend's hand away. "I'm fine… Matt… He got shot…"
Faster than Bonnie could blink, Caroline was by his side. When she held her wrist against his mouth, he grimaced – Bonnie knew Matt's reservations about vampire healing – but he was sensible this time, and swallowed.
Both humans healed, Care rested on her haunches and stared at them worriedly. "Will you guys be OK? I should go after Stefan and the others."
The vampire brothers and Tyler had rushed out of the room, ignoring the calls to come back.
"Stupid. That's how we lost Enzo," Matt mumbled as he pulled himself into a seating position.
"Go, Care," Bonnie said. "Those idiots will only-"
"Save your life with minimal damage to your cute little place and this is how you thank us?" Damon drawled, swinging the door open almost into Caroline's face if she hadn't edged away in the nick of time. He sauntered into the house, ahead of Tyler and Stefan, who Caroline rushed to in concern.
In response to Damon's remark, Bonnie stared pointedly at the blood-stains on the carpet, then in the direction of her room where there were scorch marks and a broken window. At least.
He shrugged. "Told you not to skimp on insurance."
April 2013
"Come on."
Bonnie was running as fast as she could through a snowy forest in 1903 Mystic Falls, feeling Expression running through her, lighting her bones like fire. The snow was falling fast now and she could barely make Kai out ahead of her, but she could feel his essence, pulsing brightly and streaked with hers – residue of the healing spell she had used to revive him what now felt like a lifetime ago.
Behind them, she could feel the aura of the heretic ebb as it stirred. She had sensed it a few minutes ago from the distance. But now it was gaining ground on them.
She could have used magic to give herself a boost of speed but that demonstration from that… creature…had made her wary, paranoid almost. She dared not release even a single spike of power that could be used against her. She glared balefully at Kai's back in front of her.
God, how she hated these syphons. Witches, vampires, the lot of them.
Perhaps it was the sheer fury of her thoughts that made her miss the raised root, and go sprawling into the snow.
"Bonnie!"
Pushing past her disorientation, she scrambled to her hands and feet, and tried to stand up. Then she felt a bolt of power and something large and fiery grabbed her, and shoved her back into the snow.
Hair and skin almost the color of ice and teeth that were just as sharp.
It was the same one.
And with a nauseating jolt, Bonnie remembered that death to a Prisoner of this World was meaningless.
"Pretty little witch," and now its voice was in her head, whispering like a snake's forked tongue, "You caught me unawares. My apologies. Now I am primed to indulge in that intoxicating magic you possess so abundantly."
She shoved with her hands and a Motus that ripped out of her instinctively but it only slid back a few feet, its ice eyes swirling with gold strands of her own power, a macabre smile on its face, then it bent its head and tore through her side.
Bonnie screamed. Her head slammed into the snow and she saw the stars blinking over her, her body on fire as her blood and her magic – brutal, merciless Expression – were sucked out of her wound.
Once again, she felt that wicked tug of power from her body. But this time with the blood, it was worse. How was that even possible?
Then the stars were blocked with something large and black and she felt the teeth ripping out of her flesh. Which made her scream some more.
She scrambled away, her hand already on her side as she chanted something to douse the throbbing. It was barely enough. Beside her, there were sounds of a scuffle, but she was disoriented from the pain and shock of losing both her blood and her magic.
Still, she forced herself to focus, to make out the two figures grappling in the stone. Kai was astride the heretic, his arm swinging repeatedly as he jabbed into the creature with a familiar, wicked-looking blade. But even as she watched, the heretic's hand shot up, grabbing him by the throat, and the flesh turned red where they touched.
"Ossux!" Bonnie screamed in her head, stretching out her hand and the wrist choking Kai snapped. The heretic hissed as Kai scrambled away.
Her second Ossux flew – right into the heretic's outstretched hand.
It grinned at her, eyes swirling. "You'll have my attention in a moment," it snarled as it splayed its fingers. Bonnie felt the Motus pull her off the ground like a noose around her neck. A tightening noose… The white world turned grey…
Then she was free, falling in a rough, but gentle heap to her feet. She stumbled, but refused to fall, blinking away the dark edges of her vision until she had found Kai's dark hair and his thin strong hands, burning red where they gripped the other's face, his thumbs hooked through the sockets, tugging at them. She scooped up a fist of snow in the ground, packed it into a ball, whispered under her breath then lobbed it at the fighting men.
She barely had the strength for a good throw but magic did the rest, sending the ball flying, then flaming and striking the heretic directly at its ear and through. For a moment, the creature was frozen, its hands locked on Kai's neck, choking him. Then Kai stepped back, pushing him away and the man fell sideways.
There was emptiness in the spaces where his eyes belonged. A few feet away, the ball of scorched blackness rolled to a stop, next to a mess of goo and eyes.
Kai limped to stand in front of her, bending over with his hands on his knees. "Good throw," he said hoarsely, then broke into a bout of coughing. "An inch off-aim and I'd be the one with snowballs. Get it?" His thin, unshaven face was streaked with mirth. He actually looked like if he was enjoying himself.
Of course, anything was an improvement from being eaten by a bunch of witch-vampires.
"That was the same one that attacked us before, wasn't it?" she asked him.
His cough sounded like a laugh. "PWR's a bitch, ain't it?"
"PWR?"
"Prison World Resuscitation. To make it worse, these suckers don't die easy." That was definitely a chuckle. "Suckers? Get it?"
She clenched her fists, felt Expression tingle against her knuckles. "I killed him the first time."
He scoffed. "You got lucky, caught him off-guard. You saw what happened now. He'll suck you up like a Slurpee. Better save those Bennett batteries to get us out of here."
Bonnie thought for a moment. "In 1994, the times you died-"
"-the times you murdered me-"
"It took you at least half a day to wake up. This guy was up and running in …what? A few minutes? Half an hour? How is that possible?"
"I've been a bit busy staying alive to make notes on 'heretics in their unnatural habitat' but if you want to stick around and observe" - he waved his hand expansively at the winter landscape - "by all means, be my guest."
She glared at him, furious that she couldn't argue the point. "Whatever. Let's just go." She got to her feet wearily.
"Gimme a moment. Took a little magic to fight that bastard. And I think your spell is wearing off."
That was inevitable. She had lost more magic in two short moments than she ever had before.
But they couldn't wait. Not for one moment. "We have to keep going. The others…"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. No worries. You'll keep me safe." He winked at her.
Anger and hate rushed through her. He was enjoying this. Her rescuing him. Her saving him. Her risking her life for his sake.
She walked up to him, right into his space and saw with satisfaction the way the mirth slid from his eyes, wariness filling its place. "We've put one down but the others will soon be at our heels." Her voice thickened with spite. "I think it's getting close to their meal-time. Wanna stick around when they get hungry and start looking for their snack?"
His face twisted with anger – his mood change as abrupt as it was familiar and she braced herself for it – the attack that she'd been expecting from the moment he opened his eyes after her spell had revived him.
Perhaps he had been too grateful at being rescued to care that it was Bonnie doing it. Or perhaps he was waiting until the rescue was over to turn on her.
But now looking up at his furious face, she knew he wasn't waiting any longer.
She actually felt relieved. Let's get this over with.
Her hand rushed to her belt where her knife…
Her knife was gone.
Immediately, her eyes flew to the spot in the snow where she had seen him stab the heretic –
– when did he take it? The first attack? The chase? How did I miss it? –
– She called it to her hand – but a shade too late. She watched in dismay as it landed in Kai's own magical grip.
He waved it nonchalantly in front of his face, his eyes glinting the same steel-blue as the blade. "Well, isn't this familiar?"
'All I need is Bennett blood…'
Standing by that tree stump, watching the light catch his sister's knife – this same knife – as he tossed it and smiled craftily.
Fear splintered through Bonnie and she shot to her feet, pushing out a motus strong enough to send him crashing into a tree.
Or meant to. His free hand caught both hers, and she felt the spell fizzle out. He was yelling something but she was still on attack, readying to push out an aneurysm with her mind… sensing his own magic rise defensively…
When she saw he was holding the knife at her, hilt-first.
She paused, halted magic cackling in the air between them, as she stared from the knife to the man who was all but cursing her with his eyes.
"Take the stupid knife, Bonnie!" He shoved it at her, and it poked her jacket.
She hesitated – what's the catch? – and he cocked his head, his mouth curling mockingly. "Unless you still want to play tag…"
The echo of her own thoughts not long ago rattled her; and Bonnie snatched her hands free, grabbed the knife, pushed it into its sheath in her belt. Trap or not, she'll figure it out while she had the advantage.
"I swear Kai, if you try anything, anything at all…"
"You'll… what? Stab me in the back? Serve me up to heretics?"
Her hands curled into fists. For a moment, she and Kai just glared at each other, breathing so hard and angrily that steam clouded between their faces.
He was the one that broke the impasse. "We don't have time for this," he snarled. Without another word, he picked her up, hissing as her hexed hands burned his coat, and flung her over his shoulder and started running. "You're slowing us down!"
Part of Bonnie's brain told her that this actually made sense – with her shorter legs, she was slowing him down and revived as he was, he had a boost of energy that they should put to good use. The other part of her, felt sick from hanging upside down, staring down at endless white, and being in close physical contact with Kai Parker – and that part kept screaming at him to put her down that instant.
He didn't though and in a few minutes, she stopped screaming for him to drop her and started screaming that he run faster. Because she felt them coming nearer.
They were more. And, curse her ill-timed joke, she was right.
They were hungry.
June 2014
"I said it," Damon was telling Stefan. "I knew Little Miss Organized here wouldn't have skipped on the pow-wow unless she was in mortal danger. And there you all were thinking she had overslept."
Bonnie nodded eagerly. This was not the time to tell them that actually, she had overslept. The heretic attack had come later.
"Did you find her?" Caroline asked. Although since the three men had returned without the crisped body of a red-headed heretic, Bonnie guessed the answer was no.
Tyler said, "She was gone by the time we got there. Must have regenerated and zapped off."
Matt shook his head. "Or just cloaked herself and lurked nearby, waiting for some sucker to walk into her trap and get eaten. It was stupid of you to chase after her. We stick together against these things."
"Save the lecture, Boy Scout," Damon snapped. "She attacked Bonnie. I wanted her blood."
Bonnie felt warmth suffuse through her.
"More like she'd have got some of ours. Matt's right," Stefan murmured.
"I care about Bonnie, too," Matt said quickly. "But we have to be practical."
Caroline's blood had kicked in and Bonnie felt stronger, recovered from both the heretic's violent attack and her equally violent healing. She started pulling herself from the floor to sit down on the lone armchair, and Matt rushed to help her. He had changed into a shirt that Caroline found – a shirt that looked suspiciously like Stefan's – an observation that Damon had made loudly and to everyone's amusement. Everyone, that is, except Stefan and Caroline.
"You know I'd have gone after that heretic if it had been the right call," Matt told Bonnie now, staring at her earnestly, as he perched on the armchair after settling her in. His arm was warm and comforting over the back of the chair.
She shoved him lightly. "Of course, I do, Matt." She peered at him in concern, and murmured, "You OK?"
"Good as new," he said wryly. "You?"
Out of habit, she checked her neck and felt the skin whole under the blood. Spotting that, Caroline passed her a wipe for her fingers and started dabbing at her neck with another one.
"What did she want, Bonnie?" she asked now.
Bonnie quickly narrated the conversation with the heretic.
Tyler whistled. "What the hell does she want with Expression?"
"I have no idea," Bonnie said.
"They're already super-powered, un-killable killing machines. What harm could they come up with a little more super-magic?" Damon drawled.
"We have to keep you safe, Bonnie," Caroline said. She squeezed into the seat with Bonnie, and put her arm around her, displacing Matt who landed with a thump on the floor. Both girls ignored the glare he sent up at them – or the way Tyler snickered. "They tried this once and they'll probably try it again."
"Why's that, I wonder?" Stefan asked.
Everyone turned to him.
"Why couldn't she drain out your magic? They've managed to do that for every other witch, vampire or supernatural so far. What's the difference with you, Bonnie?"
Tyler's smile turned to a scowl. Caroline inhaled sharply and glared at Stefan. Damon looked like if he was going to beat his brother up right there and then.
Matt's eyes on Stefan were hard and his voice was icy. "If I didn't know better, Stefan, I'd swear you're disappointed the heretic didn't kill Bonnie."
Stefan shrugged. "I'm just trying to figure out what's going on here."
"What's going on here is that Bonnie is lucky to be alive," Caroline snapped. "And you need to shut up if you can't say anything helpful."
Everyone started talking at once. Stefan was defending himself in calm, measured tones that were only making Damon, Caroline and Matt increasingly louder and angrier. Tyler started by playing peacemaker, and trying to get them back to neutral ground and talk strategy. Then after a while, he gave up and went to fetch a beer from the fridge.
That seemed to do the trick because the next moment, Matt, Damon and Stefan had helped themselves to cans too – which made Damon bitch about the girls not stocking up on bourbon – which set Caroline off on him as well.
Bonnie registered all this with half her attention. The other half was replaying Georgiana Parker's teeth tearing through her neck and her magic rushing to her skin and staying there.
Stefan's question, hurtful as it was poised, was a valid one.
Furtively, Bonnie stared at the black mark on her wrist.
Portland, Oregon
"Does the name Stewart ring a bell?"
It was mid-day. Alaric was at school, calling as he usually did to ask how all his girls were doing.
Jo assured him that they were all doing great. It was a full house that day with Gab and Liv both in. The conversation was drawing to a close, and Jo was in the middle of deciding how much was not too much ice cream to scoop into her bowl, when the unexpected question popped up, making her freeze mid-scoop. "Nope. Should it?"
"I don't know. It's the name of the woman that died in this Mystic Falls/ Heretics business. When Bonnie mentioned it, it rang a bell."
Jo shifted the phone on her shoulder and thought of a good reply. "Mmm… Now that I think of it, it does sound a little familiar. Want me to take a look into it?"
"You don't mind?"
"I'm a desperate housewife. It's in the job description to be nosy."
"You're not a desperate housewife. You're a wonderful mother who spends an incredible number of hours taking care of our children. And before that, you were an amazing doctor who spent an incredible number of decades taking care of lots of other people's children. There's nothing desperate about you, Jo Saltzman."
Before she had met Alaric Saltzman, Jo had thought of herself as quite an unsentimental woman. But now? "Someone is going to get lucky tonight," she promised.
He was still whooping when she ended the call.
She grinned as, finally deciding, she ditched the bowl and grabbed the entire tub. She passed the nursery where Gab was carrying one of the twins over her shoulder. Gab caught her eye and pressed a finger to her mouth and Jo nodded, moving on. She had persuaded the nanny to spend the night so she really was going to deliver on her promise to Alaric.
Her mind went back to her husband's question and her grin faded.
She moved along the corridor, almost walking by Liv's open door, but then she caught the tail end of a harsh whisper.
"Stop trying to screw me over!"
Jo hesitated, worried.
Liv was pacing the room in angry strides, her curly hair all but sparking with temper. She turned, starting a little when she saw Jo, then beckoned her sister over.
Jo stepped in, hesitantly.
Work. Liv whispered around the phone. Just hold a sec. Then she turned back to her call. "We had a contract. Clear terms and conditions. If you don't live up to your part of the bargain, I'm going to walk and you'll find out just how easy it is to get someone of my skillset."
She switched off her phone and let out a strangled scream.
Jo gaped. "Woah, what's that all about?"
Liv looked angry enough to explode. "Office bullshit." She ran her fingers through her curls, making them even wilder and messier than they already were. "My idiot co-workers think they can pull a fast one on me." She breathed hard, her eyes flashing.
Jo tut-tutted. She knew all too well from her own professional career how often freelance workers, like Liv, drew the short straw when it came to office politics. Your more ruthless colleagues saw you as an easy mark. Her stoic younger sister was not one to bring work drama home so for her to be so upset now, she was clearly having a hard time.
Jo may have missed out almost two decades of Liv's life, and a few months of cohabiting wasn't going to undo that. But there were certain things that hadn't changed.
For example, whenever Livvie-poo had a tantrum, there was usually one quick fix.
She held out the bowl.
"Ice cream?" Jo offered.
Moments later, and the Parker women were sitting on the floor of Liv's bedroom, tucking into the whole bowl. Liv was a bit hesitant at first – something about calories – until Jo promised to teach her a spell for that. "Not exactly orthodox," she warned. "And it helped that I had a Bennett BFF to spell it with. But maybe if you asked Bonnie, she could help you with that, too."
So Liv tucked in, and two spoons later, she was visibly calmer.
She looked over at Jo now, with raised eyebrows. "You knew Abby Bennett, didn't you?"
"She lived in Portland for some time. We went to grade school together. She was half the reason why I went to Virginia. The other half was her mother."
"Wasn't that a bit counterintuitive? I thought the whole idea of you running away was to get away from magic?" Liv asked, her voice suddenly sharp. She stared at her spoon intently.
Jo glanced at her sister, wondering how long that question had festered inside Liv. They had talked about family a lot, over this past year. Liv mostly asked about her mother whom she barely remembered. But this was the first time she had ever brought up Jo's decision to leave.
Jo chose her words carefully. "When I left the coven, I didn't want to be around anything that would draw me back to magic. Not even family." She gave her sister an intent look but Liv's face was steadfastly blank. "But if not for the Bennetts, I wouldn't have lasted three months in the real world before I went crawling back. I needed them." I didn't choose them over you, she added silently, hoping that the words she did say out loud had managed to convey that.
The silence that followed was loud with everything that went unsaid.
Liv broke it. "So did you ever meet Bonnie as a kid?" The question was asked matter-of-factly, her face relaxed. Whatever she thought of Jo's answer, it hadn't bothered her too much.
Jo chuckled. "I used to babysit her until she was three or so." After that, Abby had left her family and Rudy Hopkins had closed ranks on all things witchcraft.
But magic had not been the problem with that marriage, Jo thought sadly.
She reached for the tub and caught a strange – slightly nauseated – expression on Liv's face.
"What?" Jo asked, surprised.
"Nothing. Just… Thinking of something funny."
"Funny ha ha or funny weird?"
"You know what? I'm not so sure."
Jo shrugged. She wasn't one to pry. "So what did the guys at the firm do to make you so pissed, anyway?"
Liv's face clouded, getting mad all over again and making Jo sorry that she asked.
Liv swallowed her spoonful of cream, her jaw working furiously. When she finally answered, her voice shook slightly. "Tried to take out some of the work from my scope. After clearly telling me I was responsible for everything. Then they were going to short change me, too."
Jo scowled. "Is that even legal?"
"Technically it is. Ethically, it stinks and they know it." Her face darkened further. "I have half a mind to hex all of them until next Friday." She bit her lip then, and gave Jo a guilty glance. "I'm not going to, I promise."
Jo rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to snitch to Dad. Heck, if I had magic, I'd probably help you. No one screws with my little sister and gets away with it."
That made Liv smile, some of the anger fleeing from her face. "I was more worried about the great coven leader, actually."
"I'm not going to tell him either. Especially as I have no idea where he is."
Liv laughed. "Yeah, right."
Where did that come from? "Liv?"
Liv gave her a pointed look. "Dad's been calling me too. I tried calling Kai for what it's worth, but his phone's been switched off all day. Why don't you just tell Dad that Kai's gone to Virginia?"
"Has he? Do you know that for a fact?"
"Come off it, Jo."
"Seriously, Liv. I have no idea where Kai is. Like I told Dad, maybe he's in Brooklyn? Or in NOLA, negotiating with the Nine Covens? Which, by the way, is kind of important. If they're really being wooed by the Augustine Society, they're borderline violating our treaties."
"You know, that's never made any sense to me. The Augustine Society died with the last Whitmore heir."
"Rumour has it that it's been revived."
Liv shook her head, disbelieving. "I don't doubt that some mundane secret society is chatting up the Nine. I just doubt that it's Augustine."
"Well, you should know better than me." Jo shrugged. "If Kai's not in NOLA for the Nine, then he might be there to consult the Southern Court about the dragon pretenders."
Liv choked on her spoon. "Honestly, Jo? You mean, you're going to sit here and pretend that you don't know anything about whatever's happening between your twin and Bonnie Bennett?"
Jo grinned. "Now, I didn't say that."
Liv eyed her sister. "Well, I only found out when he showed up here the day after she arrived and they nearly set the smoke detectors off just talking. And suddenly a lot of stuff started making sense. Exactly how long has this been going on?"
"We really shouldn't be talking about the Praetor in such a disrespectful way," Jo said primly and Liv groaned, "but we're all family here and it's important we share these things!"
So naturally, she spilled everything she knew. Her first inkling had been her own bachelorette party turned nightmare when Lily Salvatore had almost killed Bonnie, and Jo had witnessed first-hand her brother's reaction to the possibility of losing Bonnie. Not pretty. After that, it was merely a matter of her having eyes and using them. Months later, when Alaric repeated what the conversation he had with her brother during Jo's false labor, it had been a mere confirmation of her own conclusions.
"Wow," Liv said at the end. She looked slightly dazed, her round eyes impossibly rounder. She shook her head. "You know that technically, Kai's old enough to be Bonnie's dad?"
Jo choked. "Oh my god, Liv!"
"But it's true. Abby was your age."
"Stop skeeving me out. He was in limbo for most of her life. It doesn't count. Besides her friends are dating vampires that could be their ancestors. Kai's practically a teen in contrast."
Liv still looked skeptical, and slightly nauseated; and Jo realized the reason for the 'funny' thought that had passed through her sister's head a while ago. But thankfully, Liv dropped that particular line of questioning and asked instead, "So I'm guessing you think they have a chance?"
"As much a chance as the rest of us. Two years ago, I thought I was going to be some old cat lady and now I'm married to a wonderful man, with two beautiful girls. Bonnie's friends hooked up with the Salvatore vampires, so there's a precedent there."
"And the moment the doppelganger turned human again, she gave her old man the boot so there's precedent there as well," Liv snarked.
Jo rolled her eyes.
"How's Gilbert, anyway?" Liv asked, her eyes glinting. "Are you guys still in touch?"
"She liked all the twins' new pictures on Facebook," Jo said with a smile. "But other than a few mails last Fall, we haven't really really connected. She's busy. She chose a crazy career for herself. Amazing, rewarding but demanding as hell." Pride fluttered in Jo's heart. She had bonded with Elena Gilbert long before she knew who the girl was, magically – and she had recognized a lot of herself in the younger woman. It gave Jo immense gratification that – also like her own self – Elena had risen above the tragedy and craziness that had plagued her early life and chosen to make a difference in the world.
She threw a guilty glance at her younger sister, suddenly sensitive to how Liv might feel about Jo's big-sisterly affection for yet another woman close to her own age.
But Liv merely looked speculative, not at all like if she was jealous or upset or trying to pretend she wasn't either.
"Well, Caroline is still with Stefan Salvatore," Jo said, changing the topic back. "That precedent still stands for Bonnie and Kai." Her thoughts became speculative. "And if our Praetor can snag a Bennett, after centuries of our coven courting them that would pretty much seal our coven and our family's ranks in the pecking order for centuries."
Liv's spoon was half-way to her mouth when Jo said that; and she stopped to give her sister a look of disgust. "Yeah, that's music to a girl's ears. 'Baby, your bloodline gets me all hot and bothered. Come make witchy babies with me. Forget the part where they'll eat each other when they turn twenty-two."
"Stop pretending to be a mundane for a few minutes, Olivia and imagine where the next generation of Parkers can go with Bennett lineage." Jo's head spun just contemplating the possibilities.
"Well, don't start printing out the wedding cards yet. That dream of yours will probably never come to pass. What with Bonnie being so anti-Kai at the moment."
"She'll get over it."
"Will he?"
"What do you mean?"
Liv smirked, her eyes shining with mischief. "She had a very interesting conversation with Alaric yesterday morning about Kai. Went on and on about how hooking up with him was a mistake. And she said all this in the kids' nursery. With the monitor switched on. Guess who was in the kitchen to hear the whole thing?"
Jo stared at her sister, eyes boggling. "No effing way."
"Yep. Kai was downstairs. He arrived shortly before Quentin Parrish. I was rounding up my presentation and I heard the whole thing." Her smirk broadened. "Should have seen his face, Jo. He turned as white as sheet. He looked like if he was going to pass out. Or cry." Liv sounded the opposite of sympathetic.
"Oh Kai," Jo whispered softly, her heart aching for her twin.
Liv snickered, and stuffed her face some more.
"They'll get past it," Jo said confidently.
"Will they?" Liv sounded doubtful. "Still think he's in Virginia?"
"You're the one who thinks he's in Virginia." Jo declared, frustrated. "Why are you so fixated on…?" And that was when it occurred to her. She peered hard at Liv. "You know I took psych during my residency."
Liv groaned. "That sentence never ends well, Jo."
Jo ignored her. "And all this harping on about Virginia and other people's love lives seems to me like a classic case of transference. Is someone feeling a little homesick? A little Lockwood-sick?"
Liv shrugged nonchalantly, but her cheeks went slightly pink.
"You know you can always hop over to Mystic Falls and help them out with their heretic problem," Jo suggested half-heartedly.
Jo always felt more than a little guilty about Liv's social life – or rather, her lack of one. After moving to Portland, Liv had gone clubbing, gone on regular dates with someone from her office, and even got her passport stamped a couple of times. But all that had ended after the twins had born. As much as Jo loved and trusted Gab, she hadn't shaken off the misgivings from early in the pregnancy when there had been talk in the coven of taking the twins from her. It was part of the reason why Jo wasn't in a hurry to go back to work. And it was the reason why Liv was more or less grounded since their birth. The parties, the sort-of-boyfriend and the holidays hadn't meshed with her new role as full-time Aunt.
"And leave you at the mercy of Gab?" Liv muttered, stirring her ice cream and turning it into slush, oblivious to how much worse her words were making her sister feel.
Jo was about to answer that when a phone rang. Both of them stared at Liv's immediately, until they realized it was coming from Jo's pocket. She picked it up and then groaned at the caller. "Dad."
Liv made a 'sucks to be you' face and pulled the bowl into her lap. For someone who had been so worried about calories, Jo thought with some temper, her baby sister was really helping herself to most of the ice cream.
Jo took the call in the corridor, and was already mentally preparing herself for the usual questions and her usual answers: "I don't know where Kai is, Dad. If he calls, I'll let him know you want to speak to him."
But Joshua Parker was calling about something different.
The conversation barely lasted ten minutes but by the end of it, Jo was filled with disquiet. She stood for a moment, thoughts running through her head. Was Kai behind this?
She turned to go back to Liv's room and nearly screamed. Gab was standing right in front of her, so close that Jo could see the tiny blue veins in her face.
"Gab," she said, still gasping. "You startled me."
Gab's blue eyes were glittering; and her face was undecipherable. "Did I, Josie?"
"Gab…?"
"Told Livvie to stop eating that crap." Jo realized with some dismay that Gab had confiscated the ice cream. Instinctively, Jo reached for the tub, then drew her hands back quickly when the agate rings on the old woman's gnarly fingers seemed to spark with outrage. "Girls are asleep. Come down and I'll get us all a proper dinner."
She trotted around Jo, and shuffled off.
Jo gaped after her. Then she went back to Liv's room, half-expecting to find Liv pissed as hell. She hoped that Liv hadn't given up their ice cream without a fight.
Instead, she found Liv crawling half-way under her bed.
"You won't find it there," Jo drawled.
Liv's head shot up, banging her head against the bed frame, and swearing. She crawled out to stare at her sister with narrowed eyes. "You know where it is?"
"Er… we're both talking about the mocha vanilla, right?"
"Oh, that." Liv scowled. "You need to do something about her. She's out of control." She got to her feet, and strode to her closet.
"She's mellowed," Jo retorted. "You should have met her thirty years ago. Even Kai was scared of her." She tilted her head, thinking. "Come to think of it, I think he still is."
Liv didn't chuckle, as Jo had expected. Although she probably hadn't heard Jo since she was intent on flinging out all the contents of her closet to the floor.
"What are you looking for?" Jo asked, alarmed.
Liv popped out her head, her hair springing at gravity-defying angles. "My… Never mind. It's nothing important."
"Really?" Jo asked, highly skeptical. It was a lot of effort looking for something not important.
Liv heaved an impatient sigh. "Fine. I loaned Bonnie Bennett some of our grimoires and I think she may have borrowed a couple."
"You think?" Jo squeaked.
Liv rolled her eyes. "Pretend you didn't hear that?"
"Olivia, if the council finds out…"
"They won't find out because you won't tell them." She gave Jo an irritated look. "Come on. It's Bonnie Bennett. The superhero. Not some random witch from a rival coven. The Grimoires are fine." But her eyes were worried and her brows were creasing. She turned back to her closet and started throwing her things back in.
"Olivia…"
"So what did Dad want anyway?" Liv said sharply, in an obvious attempt to change the topic.
Jo refused to be side-tracked. "Get those Grimoires back, before anyone realises they're gone. I mean it."
"Worried about Bonnie getting into trouble with the Council?" Liv asked lightly.
Too lightly.
"I'm worried about both of you," Jo said softly.
Liv's eyes flickered over her, gave her a small smile. "I'll keep us out of trouble, don't worry. Thank goodness, Kai's AWOL, right? What did you tell Dad this time?"
"He wasn't calling about Kai. Well, he asked about Kai, but this time there was something different." Jo grimaced, remembering.
Liv paused in the middle of her own idea of tidying up, to give her sister a puzzled look. "What's wrong, Jo?"
Jo sat down on the second bed heavily. "Not a single thing. It's actually good news." She looked up at her sister's worried face and schooled hers into a smile. "Remember the witches that left after Kai became Praetor? And how some still stayed back even after Dad joined the Council and vouched for him?"
Liv nodded.
"Well, during the past week, a handful have reached out to the coven. Today the Council got calls from over a dozen." She took a deep breath. "They're coming back, Liv."
Liv gaped. "That's… that's unbelievable. I was so sure… I thought…with Kai as Praetor… Some of those families swore never to return."
"Well, they have now. It looks like our Praetor has been busy for a while."
Liv's eyes were almost falling out of her head. "You think Kai's responsible for this?"
"I'm sure of it." Jo said with firmness she didn't feel. "Well, now we can't keep assuming that the Praetor's in Virginia."
"If he's not then someone else is. And whoever that person is, with influence over these witches, sending an influx of his allies back into the coven – that's bad, Jo."
"Well, we'll find out soon enough. The Council will be debriefing all of them in the next few days. They'll tell us what brought about this sudden change of heart. If it's someone up to no good or the Praetor himself." She grimaced. "But it would be so much simpler if Kai was already here."
Liv sighed heavily. "Where is he?"
A/N: Thanks a lot to my dear beta, keenan24, and to all the reviewers who left reviews, I really appreciated them. I have mid-terms so I'll be offline for a bit. Cheers everyone!
