Resurrection
Chapter 13
By V.C. Turner
A blood-curdling scream broke through the blackened room, jarring Kai awake and placing him in a panic-stricken state. Four rapid heartbeats thundered in his ears, the result of a terrified Bennett-Parker family.
The hair on his neck stood up as his skin vibrated at the sound. Bonnie tossed and turned next to him. Her violent thrashing stirred her magic and made the house quake on its foundation.
"Bonnie!" he yelled as she tried to shake her from her dream, but it was no use. Lost in some imagined torment, his new bride fought helplessly to wake up.
He turned on the lights, scanning the room in search of an intruder that might be casting a spell on her. He saw nothing other than pictures bouncing against the walls and candles toppling from their pedestals.
Tears trickled down Bonnie's face as Kai frantically sought a way to get her to open her eyes and free her from the darkness in her mind.
He placed a gentle kiss on her lips and her eyes – part of his usual morning routine - in order to wake her. Nothing.
He tried sprinkling cold water on her face. Again: nothing.
No conventional method worked, and he began to think that a magical force had trapped her in the nightmare – most likely his mother.
Fighting magic with magic could be dangerous, but Kai would do anything for Bonnie. He flipped through his Gemini grimoire as well as the Bennett spell book. Sweat beaded his forehead. His hands shook. His mouth went dry.
He pulled out a map of Virginia - one Bonnie had previously used to track down lost family members.
Only Kai wasn't searching for a Bennett this time.
He was looking for a Parker witch.
He sliced into his hand, letting the blood fall trickle onto the map as he chanted a locator spell in Latin. The droplets of blood pooled beneath his hand, but didn't move along the map to indicate a specific location.
Elizabeth couldn't be found. It was entirely possible that she'd cloaked herself in some manner, but the spell Bonnie cast around the property would have exposed her.
Kai finally decided the best way to help would be to try and enter her dream, see what she was seeing, and force her to wake up. He used dream jumping as his last resort because he felt she deserved her privacy, regardless of his own curiosity.
He wrapped his hands around hers and concentrated, slipping into her thoughts as the darkness cleared and he could focus on the images that terrified the woman he loved.
An eerie orange glow flooded his vision, followed by Bonnie's screaming. He turned toward the sound to see Bonnie tied to an altar, covered in blood and about to give birth their children.
He ran to her only to be stopped by a barrier of salt encircling the stone altar. She looked at him and called his name as an ache built up in his chest.
"Bonnie: listen to me. You need to wake up," he pleaded.
"Kai, I can't. Help me," Bonnie said, weeping uncontrollably out of his reach.
"I'm getting you out of here!" Kai shouted back.
He looked around the church for something to use to break the barrier when he heard a familiar voice behind him.
"You can't save her. You can't save any of them," Elizabeth said, her threat sending a chill down his spine.
Rage fueled in that moment. Without looking, he felt her presence in the room, and used his vampire speed to pin her against the far wall.
"I don't give a damn if you're real or not. You need to die," Kai threatened, remembering each word of venom she had ever spewed in his direction.
"If you think murdering me in a dream is going to keep you or them safe – believe me: it won't," Elizabeth said, "Give them to me willingly, Kai and Bonnie stays safe."
"You're killing her!" Kai yelled at his mother, a murderous look on his face as he pressed his fingers deeper into her neck. His vampire veins flashed under his eyes, which grew darker with each moment that he allowed her to breathe.
"I'm not the one killing her, son," Elizabeth said, straining to speak against her closing windpipe.
Kai noticed that her expression held a certain pity behind her obvious fear. Why would she feel sorry for him now after all those years of torment she lavished upon him? Why should she care about his spouse and children when she clearly never cared about her own?
"Elizabeth, this scene has played out before: you and Lily tying Bonnie to an alter, ready to murder her. You lost then. You're gonna lose now," he threatened, squeezing her throat tighter.
Short gasps emerged from her mouth as her eyes closed
"Are you sure I'm the one that's going to lose," she managed to whisper before her windpipe shattered beneath Kai's hand and she crumpled into a heap at his feet.
Kai breathed a sigh of relief as her lifeless body laid before him. A small part of him felt remorse at the thought of killing his own mother, but he pushed the feeling away.
Running to Bonnie's side, Kai untied her hands and feet, then scooped her up and took her out of the church.
Light flooded his vision again, only this time it came from their bedroom windows. He looked down and saw Bonnie lying in his arms; her glistening green eyes beginning to flicker open.
She reached up and touched his face.
"Kai?" she asked in a weak voice.
"Yeah, Bon?" he answered, stroking her hair.
"You saved me again," she said, a small smile playing across her lips as she slowly sat up, "I love the hero version of you."
"You know, more than one person is allowed to wear the cape in this family," he smirked at her, and then kissed her forehead.
Bonnie wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him tightly as he hugged her back with caution. Everything that ever mattered to him was encased in this tiny woman that now carried both his name and his children.
He'd fight for them. He'd die for them. And regardless of how much it bothered him to think of it: He would kill for them as well.
Kai's mind flashed back to the dream memory of killing his own mother to save Bonnie and the children. While he didn't regret the action, something else stirred deep within him. Possessing a conscience carried several strange burdens along with it. The killer he'd been in his youth was now being tempered by the killer he needed to become. Being half vampire only escalated his inner conflict.
The surge of power.
The thirst for blood.
The need for vengeance.
The fierce devotion to Bonnie and his unborn children.
He would go insane if he focused on it for too long.
He chose, instead, to focus on the other three heartbeats in the room; all of which had slowed since waking from the dream.
Bonnie broke Kai from his thoughts when she kissed his cheek. He turned to her, noting that her worry and fear had finally dissipated. His Bonnie had come out of the darkness once again.
"Are you okay?" she asked, stroking his cheek with her right hand.
"I'm fine," he lied, knowing she could tell.
Bonnie lifted his chin so he would look her in the eyes. She always saw through him.
"I love you, Kai. Even when you try to protect me with a lie: I love you," she told him, "But you're not in this alone, so why don't you help me fight with you."
Kai simply nodded, knowing that arguing with a Bennett was useless.
Standing outside in the sun, Bonnie rubbed the skin where Kai's bite had been. She'd never healed that quickly without needing to drink vampire blood. She could only assume that the babies must have had something to do with her new ability – if she could call it that. She could feel their power increasing steadily as the weeks went by.
She assured Kai that she would be fine, but she still felt better about him spending the day with her, practicing magic and getting stronger in both mind and body.
Kai stood behind her, his hands clasping firmly on Bonnie's waist as she stared intently at the line of six bottles perched on the railing of their back deck. She then looked at the wooden targets placed randomly in the back yard.
She breathed in and out slowly, preparing herself.
Bonnie needed to learn to defend herself – to focus her magic and also draw power from him for the coming battle against Elizabeth, Lily, and their band of merry-less heretics.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Yeah, think so," she said, shaking her hands at her sides.
"You focused?" he asked, stroking her arms, lightly.
"I will be when you stop doing that," she answered.
Kai did as she asked, giving her a quick kiss on the top of her head.
"Sorry – sort of," he added, "Now, breathe in slowly, then back out again. Feel the magic boil up from your chest, down your arms and out of our fingertips."
Bonnie inhaled, the magic rising within her and running down her arms and into her palms.
"Now!" he told her.
Kai used vamp speed to run into the yard and throw a target into the air. Bonnie used magic to launch a bottle at it – hitting it in the center with ease.
Kai ran to the next target, this time throwing it at her. She deflected the wooden board by knocking it away with the second bottle.
Bonnie hit target after target with relative ease, her magic feeling sharper than ever before. Rather than consumer her, it flowed within her like the Bennett blood coursing through her veins. It electrified her.
Kai ran back to her, pulling her into an unexpectedly passionate kiss before letting her go.
Bonnie blushed under his heated stare.
"Not bad, Parker," he pointed out.
"Bennett-Parker," she added, "And apparently magic gets you hot."
Kai smirked.
"Well, we could skip the rest of practice and I can show you just how hot it can make the both of us," Kai cajoled.
Bonnie, tempted by the idea, knew that practicing magic should come first.
"I tell you what: if you behave yourself for another half an hour, then we can misbehave for the rest of the day," she offered.
"Deal," Kai agreed, "Now close your eyes."
Bonnie smiled as he pulled her him. He kissed each of her eyelids before speaking again in a soft voice.
"I do love you, Bonnie," he said, unexpectedly.
"I love you too," she told him.
"Ready to try a Parker family trick?" he asked a few quiet moments passed between them.
Bonnie took in another deep breath.
"As ready as I'll ever be," said.
"Remember what I taught you: this is like any other game of hide and seek," he instructed, "You need to disappear and come back at will. It's going to help with fighting attackers that are much faster than you, okay."
Bonnie nodded.
"Good," he said as he kissed her cheek, "Now, do it."
"Invisique!" she said aloud, vanishing from his arms.
Kai smiled in appreciation at her success. She'd been working on the spell for the better part of a week, and he was proud she'd passed the test. Mastering it required a Latin incantation chanted in the mind, followed by the word "Invisique" spoken aloud. A witch was required to connect with the elements, allowing them to shield her from the sight of everyone else. Each element – air, earth, fire, and water – all played a role in the spell. And the spirits had to be willing.
After 15 seconds, Bonnie was supposed to reappear at the bottom of the steps.
She never did.
Kai waited.
Another minute passed. Bonnie was still gone.
Panic began to set in. He frowned, his breath picking up along with the afternoon breeze.
"Bonnie?" he said, looking from side, and pacing along the deck.
Over the past several weeks, they had learned to sense one another's magic.
Only now, he couldn't feel her presence.
Her magic called to him like a lighthouse beckoning a ship through the fog toward the shore.
Only now, he felt nothing.
Elizabeth had found them, he thought, but it didn't make sense. They'd been so careful, erecting a magic barrier along her property during a full moon. They told no one where they were going. They made sure to cast spells to cover their tracks when they traveled.
No. Elizabeth only appeared in Bonnie's dream. She couldn't have found a way inside their barrier.
Or could she?
Elizabeth's final words to him in the dream echoed in his head: "Are you sure I'm the one that's going to lose?"
"Bonnie!" the panicked scream erupted from his mouth. His magic ignited, charged with fear for Bonnie and hatred for his mother.
Kai ran into the yard, using his vampire senses to see if he could smell her blood, but he couldn't concentrate.
He was helpless. He couldn't lose her. Not this soon. He couldn't lose his family. Not again. God: It was his fault.
Kai bounded up the back steps and into the house. He needed help, but he could only think of one number to dial. Once he found the device, he leaned on the counter for support and scrolled through the contacts.
A warm breeze wafted through the house. Kai had left the sliding door open. She'd been gone less than five minutes, yet he was a wreck without her.
Bonnie and the babies were the only real family he had left.
Bonnie saw the panic in Kai's face, but could do nothing to ease his pain. She'd worked so hard on the spell. She couldn't understand why she wasn't able to reappear in front of him like they'd planned. She called his name several times, but he continued to act as if she wasn't there. For a brief moment, she thought he was playing a trick on her, but once Kai picked up the phone to dial for help, she knew he was serious.
She felt trapped, as if she were still a ghost haunting him in her own home.
A slight rustle disturbed her thoughts. A cold chill crept over her as she turned around. Her magic suddenly surged through her veins, igniting a fire in her that was reserved for only the deadliest of enemies.
"Hello, Bonnie," Elizabeth Parker said, looking past Bonnie's shoulder, "Oh, he can't see you by the way – not unless I allow it."
Bonnie's hands burst into flames as she chanted. She threw a fireball at Elizabeth's head.
The elder Parker witch dodged the blast, and stood smiling back into Bonnie's eyes.
"Now sweetheart, is that any way to treat family?" Elizabeth smirked.