"I'm going to put as much distance between myself and this place as possible," Bonnie answered scrupulously, unwavering, uncaring that he now deemed her a coward. Whether or not everyone else heeded the warning she had given Caroline and left as she had suggested – that was up to them.
For now—and from this moment in time—Bonnie's only true concern was Kai and her own safety.
"Don't get too comfortable," she said, gesturing around the makeshift cell, somewhat irked to see he was still in high spirits and that the blood loss hadn't gotten to him too much.
She needed a new spell, a new link, something that would prevent Kai from snacking on someone else and make sure he wouldn't be able to stray too far. If Bonnie was going to move, if she was going to force him to run with her, she was going to make sure he wouldn't be able to negate it, change up the plan and turn the whole thing over on its head.
"I'll be back." And with that, she started upstairs to face the music, convinced that Damon and Stefan were back by now and that they'd have a lot to say—or nothing—about Lily's appearance.
"We aren't going anywhere," she heard Damon announce, agitated and obstinate. "I don't care what Bonnie says right now, she's isn't thinking clearly."
"Keep your voice down!" Caroline ordered in a slight hush. "She's right behind me. Or she will be. And what does it matter if Bonnie's judgment is a bit askew. Have you forgotten she's been through a trauma?"
"Not to mention that she's been back less than two weeks," Stefan added.
"Trauma or no trauma, Bonnie needs to hear this," Damon iterated, still bitter—Bonnie guessed—about her inability to do anything for Elena. "We don't have time for a pity party fest or her unstable conscience."
Bonnie bit down the hurt at his words and walked into the parlor. All eyes turned toward her.
"Bonnie," Caroline greeted as if she hadn't been with her friend a couple of minutes ago and was checking to see how much of their conversation Bonnie had heard. "Everything okay? I mean with—"
"Peachy," Bonnie answered, cutting short the mention of the elephant in the room's name. She walked across the parlor, oblivious to Damon's glare. "Where's Jeremy?"
"Sleeping it off," he responded before Caroline could. "If you weren't so busy doing God only knows what with that lunatic downstairs – you'd know that."
"Is he okay?" she pressed on, staring Damon down, enticing him to further make a scene. He opened his mouth, preparing to spit something out, only to have Caroline cut him off this time.
"Little bruised, head and ego—but he'll live. I took him upstairs earlier—"
"And Alaric?" Bonnie asked.
"Oh, he—" Stefan began, taking the cue to ease into the conversation.
"—thinks that you're off your rocker," Damon finished, the glass he was finishing poised against his lower lip.
"Quit it," Stefan reprimanded, his face shifting from stunned to that of contained fury.
"And that someone or something else returned from nineteen-ninety-four in your place. At least that's what we listened to him rant about for well over two-and-a-half hours."
"And is that what you believe?" Bonnie asked before she could think that she was playing into his set-up, powerless to keep the hint of hurt and fury from her voice.
"I didn't. Not until last night, not until you started sheltering a sociopath in my basement, and not until Caroline came up here with budding ideas of leaving Mystic Falls. My mother is not the problem—"
"Maybe not for you," Bonnie sneered. "Lily has yet to attempt to kill you."
"And who hasn't attempted to kill you?" Damon retorted with a childish roll of his eyes.
"Stefan, Caroline," she supplied.
"Whoop Dee Doo! That's only because you were too consumed by your paranoia—"
Damon inhaled harshly and then grunted in agony when a sharp pain started behind his eyes and drove him to his knees.
Bonnie couldn't remember being this volatile. When they had been in the prison world, things had never gotten physical, never reached that point—however aggravating he could be—and yet, now that they were back, now that Bonnie was struggling with life, trying to fit in the society and put herself first – it all felt wrong somehow.
"Bonnie," Stefan refuted in that gentle I-can't-bear-to-see-my-brother-in-pain tone of his. She gazed at him.
"Bonnie," Caroline replicated, flanking Stefan's side and reaching out to take a hold of the witch's shoulder.
"No," Bonnie said, shaking her off, ignoring her friend's pain, ignoring the blood pooling from his nose as it had from hers so many times over the years. "Your mother would have killed me tonight or she will when she's done with me."
She ignored the way Stefan's mouth opened and closed in uncertainty. She knew he wanted to tell her he'd protect her, that he'd make sure that wouldn't happen. But there was only so much he could do—like in the very beginning, when he first came into town—Bonnie knew he only had a limited hold over his family. And unfortunately, Lily was too much like Damon to put Bonnie at ease.
"I'm taking Kai and I'm getting out of here. I'm leaving."
"Bonnie," Caroline gasped, her voice peppered with apprehension. "You can't mean that—I—"
"I do," Bonnie said, hating to see tears in her eyes. "I can't stay, Care. I can't wait for Damon to see past his angst or denial or whatever stage he is in right now and realize that his mother is about to bring hell on earth."
"I know you're scared, I know you think that we anticipate something from you and that you should have all the answers. But it isn't true."
Wasn't it? What of her earlier shock when Bonnie announced she had none?
"You're damn right I'm scared. And you should be, too. You saw what he is capable of."
Damon's grunts grew louder, his breathing shallower, harsher, until Bonnie was forced to look at him and concede. His blue eyes were narrowed and irate, a look of exhaustion marring his handsome face. Stefan made no move to go check on him. Caroline fell silent, unsure of how else to make Bonnie stay.
Bonnie finished her drink, set the glass down, and walked toward the entranceway. She wouldn't stay here tonight, she would grab her things and go. She didn't want to risk Lily making a round trip and returning in the middle of the night. And after Jo, after all the pain she underwent, and the warning she'd received the day before, it seemed natural.
"I'm not letting you leave," Damon said, appearing in front of her, cutting off her retreat, making no move to wipe the blood from his lips and mouth. He looked feral. "Not with him."
"I wasn't asking your permission," she said, staring him down unflinchingly, challenging him in the same way she had done for four months. There was a lot he let her get away with, a lot he let her do, but she could tell this wasn't one of those times.
"I know," he said and lunged, closing his hands around her forearms, hauling her against his chest to tuck into her neck. Bonnie gasped as his teeth broke through flesh and tore into her throat. There was a ruckus around her, and before she knew it, he was being ripped away from her and she was being cradled in someone's arms.
"Get me off me!" she could hear Damon yell, and a fleshy thump as someone's fist connected with his face.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!"
There was another resound slap and something breaking.
Damon hadn't managed to take a lot of blood, but he stunned her. Bonnie peered into two concerned emerald eyes, wincing as Stefan pressed a hand to her neck. He gave her a baffled look.
"Caroline's blood," Bonnie responded half-heartedly, uncertain if she lied. She brushed aside his hand and slowly sat up. Stefan said nothing in response and extended a hand to help her off the floor. She ignored it.
"Back off, Blondie banks!"
"Are you trying to kill her?" Caroline accused, looking as ferocious as she had when she thought Kai was trying to kill her friend. "Is this about Elena? Are you that fucking selfish?!"
"Of course not!" Damon sounded affronted as he coughed, fraught with the little vervain that had been in Bonnie's system. "I'm trying to weaken her! Can't you see she's in need of an intervention and downtime?"
"An intervention with your teeth? How backwards are you?!" Bonnie could hear that Caroline didn't believe him, that her fear of losing Bonnie had taken her too far. As had Stefan. He rushed toward her, circling an arm around her waist before she could think to throw herself at Damon again, and pulled her back against his chest. "Don't you fucking touch her again, you understand me?"
"I'm trying to do what's best for her," Damon argued, refusing to back down. "She needs help before he—" He hadn't gotten to finish voicing his plan of action when suddenly his head snapped to the left as though struck hard. He crumbled to the floor, both Caroline and Stefan abruptly stopping to stare at Bonnie.
"When he wakes up, tell him I'm sorry," she said, knowing that she was. She hadn't wanted their relationship to go this route. She pushed off the floor and stood. "For everything. For Elena, for the neck, for global warming."
"You know he cares about you," Stefan said as though he unexpectedly felt it necessary to make that clear, as if that had somehow gotten lost in translation after everything that happened the last day.
"I know," she said, glancing down at his unconscious figure, feeling that hollow pang once again take a hold of her heart and squeeze.
"Are you sure?" Stefan asked as she approached the archway.
"About leaving?"
He nodded.
"It's my best bet." And with that Bonnie started out, dashing across the foyer and upstairs to fetch her grimoire, her clothes bag, and to recast the linking spell. She would work out the finer details once she could.
The whole exchange upstairs had provided a great amount of entertainment as Kai took in the words and noises reaching his ears from the drama in the parlor as if he were on the first row watching the show on stage. Damon performed brilliantly, he had to give him that. Kai didn't expect it would click so well, every detail of the puzzle seemed to fit in ways even he couldn't have predicted. It was ironic how Damon helped most with something he fought so hard. Mother once told Kai, Whatever you resist the most is most likely to happen to you. Perhaps she was right, and Damon could relate to that little piece of wisdom had he known.
For a moment, Kai felt a subtle touch of uncertainty, like a whiff of icy air in the middle of a hot summer day. It seemed too easy. What if some higher power guiding their big game here in this world was coaxing him to relax to later yank the rug from under his feet? That shit happened too often. It was like a stamp. But if he thought about it, he couldn't quite state it went too easy for him. Not by a long shot, if Kai counted all of his misfortunes. So, maybe this time it was a legit luck turning on its brilliance to rain it upon him. He wouldn't mind. Nor would Bonnie, he suspected. Not for some time, at least.
"I should go with you," Caroline said after they threw Bonnie's bags into the back of Zach's Ford. Bonnie couldn't take Damon's car—that would be cruel—Caroline's was with Matt, and Stefan's was, well, adorable but unconventional for prison-convoy duty.
"No," Bonnie said, having been on this for fifteen minutes already.
"But what if he tries to kill you? What if this is somehow all part of his masterful plan?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I don't know." She looked sheepish as they approached the basement to collect Kai. She had a vervain gun in her hand, one fully equipped and ready to stun his ass for transport. "I just… maybe Damon's right—or at least… he would have been, if you'd let him finish."
She was starting to sound like brainwashed Jeremy.
"He's not. Trust me."
"I'm trying, Bonnie. But…"
"But what?"
"Do you even know what you're doing with this guy? Don't you think that maybe you're in a little too deep?" She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, weighing up what next to say without obviously trying to hurt Bonnie. "Redemption and reforming the bad guy was Elena's thing."
"Are you saying I'm trying to compensate?"
"Are you?"
"No," Bonnie shook her head, clearing it of the sudden confusion, and reaching to take the gun from her.
"I know losing Elena was hard on you—"
"I'm okay."
"I don't believe you," Caroline said, reaching to take a hold of her friend's arm, turning Bonnie to face her.
"I haven't lost her. She's there. And when I can, I'll do everything I can to find a way around this."
"And what if there is no way?"
Bonnie shrugged. "I keep trying."
"Bonnie, don't do this," she pleaded, worried about Bonnie's mental space and where things were headed. And more importantly: what if Damon was right? "Let me go with you."
"I'll be fine," Bonnie said, reassuring her for the umpteenth time. "I'll call you, on the hour, every hour." At least for the first little bit and until Bonnie knew where she was going. Caroline, unmindful of the gun, reached forward, pulling her into a hug, holding onto her as if she were afraid she would never see her again. Bonnie hugged her back. When they loosened their grip on one another, Caroline looked hesitant to let go, afraid of what might happen if she did.
"I don't have much time," Bonnie said, whirling away from her, stepping up to the doorway once more and peering inside to see where Kai was. She was going to have to make this quick. Damon would wake soon.
Their emotional talk with Caroline didn't bother Kai much, aside from the points where it confirmed that Bonnie was heading in the right direction.
He observed her with an attentive mien of an eager student when she stopped on the threshold of his cell, holding a gun. He raised his hands in mock display of surrender. "You better have some spare shirts and a shower to promise me if you're gonna shoot this thing."
"If you're lucky," Bonnie said, and squeezed the trigger. She couldn't risk Kai trying to screw around on their way out, by no means ready for a physical altercation between the two most important men in her life. Caroline caught Kai before he tumbled to the floor, not wanting to get herself bloodied up more than necessary.
"Not to be morbid and off-topic but um… what about Jo?"
"She's there when Alaric is ready to bury her. Just make sure he doesn't take weeks, months, or even years."
Bonnie lowered the gun and overlooked the echo of sadness in her eyes, checking to see if there were any rounds left in the cartridge as she went to examine the motionless figure in the second cell. Bonnie stepped inside, crouched, and pulled the blue mesh back away from the woman's once expressive and friendly face. Jo hadn't decayed, nothing that Bonnie could markedly see, no discoloration, and no smell, nothing you'd expect from a corpse. But she knew that wouldn't last forever – not all magic did, and this one had been more than a temporary fix.
"Bonnie?" Caroline called softly. "Are you coming?" Bonnie could tell she seemed hopeful her friend had changed her mind in the last few seconds. As if somehow Bonnie'd had an epiphany. "Should I go ahead and load him in so long?"
"He isn't luggage, Caroline," Bonnie chided with a hint of vexation, incapable of containing a small smile of implicit amusement when she walked back out into the corridor and saw how the blonde was carrying him.
"You could have fooled me," she replied. Kai was thrown over her right shoulder, her arm enfolded around his legs to keep him from falling off. Bonnie had doubled the dosage of the vervain, making sure he'd be out cold for a bit.
"How are you going to contain him, anyway?"
"Same way I did here. Plus, as he referred to it, a magical leash."
"You should keep that with you," she said, gesturing to the gun Bonnie was still holding. "It might come in handy if things get out of control. I mean…I won't be around to save you if um… things get out of control."
"They won't," Bonnie replied, sounding confident while being by no means sure of how things would go from here on out or if this was even a good idea. "Now let's go, vampires have an amazing rebound rate, as you well know, and chatty Kathy up there is going to be wanting to rage war when he wakes up. I don't want to be around for that."
Caroline walked ahead, bypassing the parlor where she knew Stefan was waiting for Damon to wake up in hopes of calming him down or serving him a drink to help with the pain in his neck. She loaded Kai into the backseat of the old Ford with Bonnie's help, mindful of his legs—at Bonnie's request—and her own care, making sure he appeared comfortable. Bonnie tossed the tranquilizer gun into the passenger's seat.
"What are you going to do about the sun?"
"Excuse me?"
"For him?" Caroline gestured down at Kai. That had completely escaped Bonnie's mind. "For Kai."
"I—" she began, peering around the garage for something she could stew across him.
"Give me a second. I'll be right back," Caroline said, disappearing from her line of vision, headed back inside the house to collect a large blanket, which she threw over him upon her return and tucked in as to make sure none of the afternoon deadly rays would singe him and cause a distraction. As much as she loathed the guy, she loved Bonnie more.
"What are you going to do for money?"
"I have a stash at home, about two hundred bucks that should get me around. I mean… it's not like I have to worry about feeding him." Bonnie looked down at the hybrid. "No real food anyway. All I have to concern myself with is a bed."
Caroline signed and peered at the floor, resisting the urge to ask her to stay, and then reached out to pull her into another hug. Bonnie hugged her back once more, dismayed that they hadn't gotten to reunite properly. She wished things were different – less murder and mayhem, and more of what they had imagined a year-and-a-half back.
"I better go," Bonnie said at long last, pulling back from her, offering a smile, ignoring the sheen of tears in their eyes as she climbed into the driver's seat, slipped on the seatbelt, and steadily pulled out from the driveway.
Bonnie was respectively quick to loot her grandmother and father's houses, taking chunks of change from their cookie jars, fireplaces and an old hollowed-out book her grandmother tucked into the bookshelf for emergency purposes. By the time she was making her way out of Mystic Falls, heading for the US-301 and James Madison Parkway crossing over into Maryland, she was a 1150 dollars richer.
She forwent the store, having found sea salt in her grandmother's kitchen, all of which she had stuffed into the trunk, along with a pillow, duvet, and a couple of the Martins' grimoires. Just because she was running—trying to find security—didn't mean that she was giving up or would be letting go of this heretic thing altogether. She couldn't. She was the reason they were here. But her hunt was devoid of pressure – at least for now.
She found a place to park outside the Thunderbird Motel under the shade of two trees, spending a good fifteen minutes listening to any sounds of Kai rousing in the backseat and hunting for the cheapest possible motel. There were two choices and only one that made the cut.
Damon blinked open his eyes and massaged his neck with a groan, waiting out the passing disorientation, a soft snarl bursting forth from his lips when he recollected what Bonnie had done to him.
"Where is she?" he said as his vision cleared and his brother came into view.
"Gone," Stefan replied, taking a sip of his whiskey. "She left thirty minutes ago."
"And you let her leave?"
"Did I have any other choice?"
"You should have knocked her out!"
"Damon—"
"Fuck you, Stefan!" Damon got to his feet within seconds, enraged. "I'm done with your principled 'let everyone think for themselves' bullshit!"
"You may be. But it'sherchoice," Stefan argued.
Damon felt a squelching need to punch him. "Choice? What choice?"
"Give it a rest," Stefan said with vexation.
Damon whirled around and headed for the front door.
"Where are you going?" Stefan called after him, moving around the bar to track after.
"To hunt her down before she does something stupider."
"Like what?" Stefan asked, trying to make sense of what Damon was trying tosaveher from.
"Him. Kai."
"Did you miss the part where Bonnie informed us of our mother's insistence to threaten her? Lily was here, Damon. She tried to hurt Jeremy. Shedidhurt Jeremy."
"What's your point?" Damon asked without looking back. He didn't stop walking, either.
"How do you think Elena would feel about that?"
Damon reacted straightaway, slamming Stefan into the wall, a hand wrapped around his throat. Stefan countered, grabbed a hold of his wrist, and twisted harshly. Damon grunted as the bone snapped and the pain nearly drove him to his knees. Stefan shoved him back, watching as Damon righted his wrist with an aggrieved snarl, his eyes bright with detestation as he glared at his brother.
"I am not in the mood for your Doctor Phil routine, Stefan."
"Bonnie has a legitimate reason to be scared, Damon."
"I know that," Damon retorted, turning away from him to head for the door again.
"Then why are you fixed on dragging her back here?"
Damon stopped short, peering back at Stefan, indeterminate of how to reply to that.
"Just let her have tonight. Let her get some sleep somewhere without feeling harassed."
"Fine," Damon answered.
Stefan narrowed his eyes disbelievingly, waiting for the other shoe to drop. "Fine?"
"Yes, fine. If you want to sit back and wait for Bonnie to waste time with her newfound need to redeem the irredeemable, then so be it. But I won't be hanging around to do the same."
And with those finishing words Damon was gone, the front door left wide open in his immediate retreat. Stefan walked toward it with a sigh, examining the driveway, trying to listen for where Damon might have headed.
"Everything okay?" Caroline asked, appearing behind him, cutting short his concentration. She gazed over his shoulder to see what he was looking for, rather concerned herself. "Where's Damon?"
"Witch hunting," Stefan replied.
Caroline moved around him and then stepped out onto the small porch.
"What if he catches up to her?" she asked, sounding as if she didn't want that to happen.
"Caroline—"
"No," Caroline held up a hand to silence Stefan. She didn't want to hear Damon's actions justified.
"He won't kill her," Stefan assured her instead, reaching out to take her hand.
Caroline stiffened. "But he'll hurt her" she withdrew her hand sharply, taking a step off the porch and onto the lush grass, looking fierce and protective.
"Then… call her, warn her."
"What?"
"Let Bonnie know that Damon is on the lookout and find out where she is."
"You don't think it's too soon?"
Stefan folded his arms, leaning against the doorframe, a knowing smile on his lips.
"Okay, so I already tried to call her once," Caroline admitted without a hint of guilt. "But… I wanted to make sure she was okay. Bonnie was so upset when she left. I just… I worry."
"Try again," Stefan encouraged, needing to know for himself, too. He'd sleep better knowing she wasn't getting herself into any more trouble. Caroline removed her phone, dialed her friend's number and waited.
Bonnie didn't answer.
"She's probably driving," Caroline mused after her second attempt, sounding anything but happy. "She's being responsible."
"As she is most of the time."
A grimace swept across Caroline face, one that belied her support of that particular remark.
"How is Jeremy?" Stefan asked, changing the subject, giving Caroline a little chance to calm down. Caroline had gone to check on him, to make sure Jeremy was still sleeping and that there were no lurkers. Stefan suspected she needed a space from Damon, given he'd driven her best friend away.
"Out cold," she said, still facing forward. Her mind was wandering.
Stefan nodded, deciding to give Caroline the space to adopt what she wanted to do next and to pour himself another drink. He downed it in one go and refilled his glass.
"I still can't get a hold of her," Caroline murmured when at last she glided into the parlor.
Stefan walked over to her, slipping the refilled glass into her hand. "Drink."
She sat down and did so without a word. Stefan smiled affectionately. Caroline thrived on control and things were unreasonably chaotic, far beyond anything she could think to comprehend.
"Give it thirty minutes and try again." He fished his cell phone out, flicking through his call logs.
"You think he'll pick up?" she asked with a touch of disdain and drank.
"No, I want to check on Ric. I left him with a nurse they recommended at the hospital earlier. Couldn't leave him there all alone."
"Oh," Caroline smiled softly, touched that he'd thought of such things, and finished her drink in slow sips while he made the call and conversed with the nurse he called Mrs. Whittle.
"Still asleep," he informed, toying with his phone and the idea of trying to call Damon despite knowing he would ignore. "He will be for a while."
"Maybe we should—"
"It's okay," he reasoned before she could assign herself a new task. "Get some sleep, read a book or paint your nails."
She didn't look enthused about tackling any of those things.
"That speed dry blue is in my bedside drawer," he added.
"What speed dry blue?"
Stefan shrugged. "I found it amongst my clothes when I moved back from your place."
"But that was months ago."
Stefan smiled a little wider. "I decided to hold onto it in case of a nails emergency."
"Whose? Yours or mine?"
He chuckled and held his arms out, "C'mere." A slow smile claimed her mouth, as though she resisted it at first thinking it might not be appropriate to smile when everything was so grim. She shifted into his embrace, and he wrapped his arms around her, making her sigh with the closest to comfort she could feel at the moment. "It's gonna be okay. We'll pull through. We always do."
"That's the thing," she murmured sadly. "What if this time it's too much to handle? We always pull through because Bonnie finds a way to help it. And now… now I don't even know where she is."
Stefan tightened his arms around her unconsciously, wary that she would cry. But she merely gave a deep, shaky sigh. "Bonnie's still a witch. She can handle herself," he reasoned. "Besides, Kai won't kill her – it'd do away with the spell he put on Elena which he probably means to keep working."
"No one can know what that psycho means," she scoffed, scowling as more worry washed through her. "I should've ripped his heart out when I had the chance."
Stefan opened his mouth to say something objective, and didn't.
"Um… what time is check out usually?"
"Noon. A minute later and you might as well stay the night," the man behind the reception desk said, eying the girl thoughtfully, as though he suspected she would try to push the limit.
Bonnie glanced back at the near on empty parking lot, save for five or six cars—aside from her own—parked here and there, one of which, she was sure, belonged to the manager. There wasn't much going on. Or, maybe, it was early? Perhaps it would pick up toward the evening and as people stopped to get some shuteye for the night. Either way, this place wasn't fantastic and regrettably happened to be self-serve. But where were you going to pay fifty dollars a night for lodging and food?Nowhere.
"Is there a store near here?" she asked, handing over the allotted money, and took the key.
"Hen Way Avenue," he replied, stabbing a stubby finger at the open page next to the information he'd scribbled down.
"Where?"
"Ten minutes north."
Bonnie signed and nodded her thanks, pocketing the change and the keys as she headed outside. She was going to need to fill up the tank of the car and buy some inexpensive necessities. She wasn't sure where she was headed or how far she intended to crawl into the Maryland state, but for now, this would tide her over for the night. Bonnie stared off into the distance at the oversized pool in the middle of nowhere. She could even fool herself into thinking that this was the road trip she was looking forward to upon her return – one devoid of loneliness and the urgency to escape some second-rate prison world. That reminded her, she had one promise to uphold before she could settle in. She removed her phone, pressed one on the device's console and patiently waited for the speed dial to kick in.
"Are things okay?" Eager and worried.
"I am stopping for the night."
"Where?" Caroline asked with obvious concern, not at all used to the idea of being left out of the loop.
Bonnie remained quiet, not wanting to share that piece of information with her, not wanting to put herself at risk.
"Bonnie?"
"I'm still here. I got to go. I don't have much airtime and wanted to check in."
"Okay, well, call me again later. Call collect!"
Bonnie didn't even think to ask about Damon, didn't hear him in the background or anyone else, for that matter.
"On the hour," she remarked and then hung up, knowing that if she didn't communicate with Caroline as promised, the blonde would make a point of hunting her down. It had been that way for years and well before their lives even integrated with that of the supernatural world—and for once, Caroline had the means with which to follow through.
Bonnie pocketed the cellphone and continued toward the car, intending to move it the short distance to the room she had asked to be at the very end of the semi-circled lot. She claimed she had a thesis to write and didn't want to deal with too much noise if things got crazy busy over the next few days. The guy hadn't queried further. Bonnie peered into the back out of habit, checking to make sure Kai was still unconscious and beneath the provided blanket. Not that she expected he wouldn't be—he needed to be if he planned to survive the daylight.
Only that didn't seem to be true.
She yanked open the back passenger door, glancing around wildly, and removed the blanket from inside with the other hand, purposely checking to make sure he wasn't around – as if he were playing with her.
He couldn't get very far—not with the link still in place. He had to be around here somewhere, but where?
"Kai," she called softly, wondering if it were the vervain that made him hazy and wild, if maybe he were stalking someone. She had seen what it does to vampires, seen the halogenic effect it could have if they were given too much. She only hoped that he was close and that her voice would inspire some kind of response. Bonnie glanced around, peering back at the reception not too far away, and stuffed the blanket inside before opting to move the car anyway, not wanting to alarm the man inside. Then she would search for her would-be prisoner.
He had to be close. She needed him to be close!
Kai woke up to unpleasant weakness lingering in his body and the stinging of vervain still assaulting his veins. He was on the backseat of a moving car, a plaid spread over him, making it hot and stuffy. Bonnie was driving – he could smell her and hear her quickened heartbeat signifying anxiety.
He held still as he was lying, deciding it was best to wait it out until they reached her destination. Besides, he had vervain to take care of. After some time of meditation, he eased his discomforts to bearable levels and felt the car coming to a stop. Bonnie pulled over for a short while, then started driving again. Next stop seemed to be final as she stepped out, and he listened to her footfalls walk away and fade before finally pushing the cover off and looking around. There wasn't much magic at his disposal due to Bonnie's earlier attempt to bleed him out and shooting him with what had to be an excessive dose of vervain, but Kai didn't need much for a cloaking spell to sneak out the car and survey the area.
Cadillac MOTEL read the sign sitting in front of a few low, long buildings of the living quarters. A wry smile creased his mouth. There was fun to commence.
Kai stared at his hands, holding them in front of him under the afternoon sun. Every now and then reddish patches would come through on his skin, pale away, and saturate again. He could sense the magic in him fighting to stand its ground despite vervain still keeping it tied up. The cloaking spell was drawing on it, and the sun felt scorching against every exposed area, from face to neck and hands. He looked up, thinking it couldn't continue much longer, and felt satisfied excitement at the sight of Bonnie heading back from the Reception. Weariness tugged at him, more so the longer he kept the cloaking spell running. He almost heard the clock ticking on it, but temptation had been too much to pass on.
He fully enjoyed her astonishment and panic when she saw he wasn't where she left him. She pulled the blanket out of the back, as if expecting to find him cowering somewhere under it, probably shrunk to the size of a shrimp to pull off something like that. Kai almost laughed out loud at how timid her voice came out when she called his name, looking around. He let her suffer for another few minutes as she circled the car, scanning the surroundings and giving in to more panic.
When he decided he had had enough of sunburns, he whispered, "Somnus," and collected her into his arms before she slumped to the ground, fast asleep. It yanked him right out of the magical hiding, but the sunlight got milder on him.
He fished the room key from her pocket and carried her in. The room was pleasant enough, despite how nasty the motel looked from the outside. The drawn dark yellow curtains provided a cozy lighting, turning the last rays of the afternoon sun into a dark gold to fill the room. The bedspread was the same color and looked clean. There was a TV across from the bed, a neat bathroom, and a clean closet.
Kai observed himself in the mirror that reflected the bed and Bonnie sleeping on it behind his back, and peeled the bloodstained shirt from his chest. The blood dried up around the shot holes. He thought longingly about the shower, but it wasn't the top priority yet.
A man in his late twenties was ramming his palm against the side of the wending machine a few doors down from them.
"You fucking piece of shit. You ate my change! Fucking rat hole."
In a moment, his back hit the front of it so hard, his potato chips pack slipped out and landed at his feet. He didn't notice, too startled at first. Before anger fully kicked in, Kai established the compulsion link and commanded to follow him.
In front of the bed where Bonnie slept, as peaceful as could be, Kai tucked into the guy's neck viciously, yet mindful of not letting him drip, and regarded Bonnie as he fed. While new blood coated his insides and did away with the vervain and weakness, Kai watched eagerly how Bonnie's face distorted into a grimace of distress and misery. The man he fed on wasn't allowed to make sounds, and it magnified his pain and terror, and thus the gruesome share Bonnie was getting through the link Kai put there in honor of the promise he made. Before the nameless guy started to faint, he withdrew, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and took a second to enjoy the hum of enforced magical energy coursing through his system. Kai was good to go for a few hours.
"Go to your room," he commanded, locking his eyes on the guy's dazed ones, "pick a decent, clean tee-shirt and bring it to me, then go pick up your chips at the wending machine and forget all what's happened in-between."
The guy nodded, a palm pressed to his aching and still bleeding neck, and went to do as he was told.
Kai looked back at Bonnie. He was done with his lunch, but she seemed far from done with the emotions it installed in her. He smiled and went out.
He met the guy at his door, took the shirt, and watched him bend for the chips pack and blink in bafflement as he straightened up. The guy felt for the wound and cursed under his breath, but there was more fright in it than aggravation – the fright and confusion a person would feel upon waking up with a wound he couldn't remember receiving.
The shower brought Kai more elation once hunger quitted being a problem. He enjoyed the streams of warm water, humming to himself as he smeared the motel's shower gel over the faint stains of blood caked on his torso from two days' imprisonment in the Boardinghouse. It was nice to wash it all off at last. He dried himself up, pulled on the jeans, and checked on Bonnie. Still out, a subtle wrinkle of a frown settled between her eyebrows. Kai left the old shirt next to her on the bed, put the guy's fresh one on the arm of a short couch under the window where he settled a moment later, overseeing the witch.
Bonnie began to stir slowly but surely, surprised to find herself—once she managed to open her eyes—in an unfamiliar bed. She peered around with alarm, disordered and frightened.
How did I get here? Where am I?
She pushed herself into an abrupt sitting position and withdrew her hand as it brushed against something unexpected. A shirt. She shuddered as an ill-omened chill rushed down her spine – like she was being watched. It was then, as she looked down at the crumpled shirt in the middle of the mattress, that Bonnie remembered the motel and that she had been searching for Kai. She intended to move the car the short distance to in front of their room and then, all she knew was blackness. Had he knocked her out? Bitten her? She checked her neck, as if to make sure there wasn't some physical reminder, not that she suspected there would be, she still had vampire blood in her system.
Thankfully, the room wasn't so big that it left space to wonder if she was alone or not. Bonnie pushed off the mattress and stood, certain she would find him in the shower. She glanced around, irritated that there wasn't anything at hand with which to defend herself and even more exasperated that she deemed it necessary. It was as she drew closer to the closed door that she remembered the stinging chill of death, that link that made her heart skip a beat during her lively dreams, fearful that he might have someone in there with him – which he killed while she was out.
"Look… if you're in there—you better be alone," she warned, hoping he might have made it easier on her. She pushed open the bathroom door with a foot and peered inside, astonished to find it empty. The small mirror that hung over the sink was steamed and the towel was damp, but that—and the single piece of clothing—was the only indication that he had been here.
Another thought occurred to her, one that came in violently and vibrantly, a sickening reminder that made her dash for the only other door in the room. She threw it open, breathing a sigh of relief when she took into account the car. It was still here. He hadn't left – not this time. Bonnie slid a hand into her pocket next, smiling to herself with relief when she felt the money brush her fingertips, along with her cellphone. He hadn't taken anything. He hadn't done anything. He had simply knocked her out and taken off.
"Now what?" she breathed aloud in a defeated tone, her momentary success turning into that of aggravation, unexpectedly comprehending how screwed she was and unsure of where to even start looking.
How'd he manage to break my link? Then again, how'd he manage to do anything?
"If you wanted my shirt off, all you had to do was say a word," Kai said, revealing himself lounging on the couch with his boots on the edge of the bed, ankles crossed. The fresh shirt still lay on the couch's arm next to him.
She whirled around, almost emitting a scream of surprise.
"Ah-ah!" he raised a hand, enclosing her in a magical hold as he thought she would dash for the door or produce a spell, and made a tsking sound. "I think it's quite fair for me to kinda get even in that department, don't you think?"
Waving a hand over his bare torso in a brisk hint, Kai murmured a spell and observed her top sport holes with black rims that were growing as if someone held a burning match under the fabric to form each of them. Within a couple of seconds, her shirt turned into a black snowfall of ashes that disappeared before reaching the carpet.
What was he even talking about? What was there to even out? Bonnie shuddered as an unexpected draft tickled her midsection, arms and then breasts. She peered down at her chest, amazed to find her sweater peeling away from her skin, deteriorating around her in clumps of substantial and useless blackish ash. It didn't hurt.
She stared at him in horror, and Kai grinned wider, doing away with her bra in the same manner.
Her mouth fell open, her eyes wide with horror, unable to raise her arms as her bra, too, disappeared, leaving her exposed and vulnerable. Shehatedthat feeling. She struggled against the enchanted hold—at least she convinced herself she was, only her muscles wouldn't cooperate.
When she was bare waist-up, he canted his head to one side, marveling at his work as if she were a famous statue in a museum he's always dreamt of seeing with his own eyes. The zing of arousal stirred within him as he drank her in. "Now that I call fair and square," he grinned with genuine mirth, and released her.
Bonnie stumbled slightly at the unexpected release, nearly landing on her face, her lips drawn into a thin line of displeasure. The view was fabulous, so was her embarrassment, and that shade of flush on her cheeks which made her look both fresh and unearthly, like a nymph spooked from the spring she has been bathing in.
"Veniat ad me," she murmured with a chastened snarl, extending a hand toward the bathroom, the used and marginally wet towel appearing in her right hand within a blink of an eye. She wrapped it around her torso, toying with the idea of throwing something at his head, giving him an aneurism or even snapping his spine.
She smiled instead, forcing herself to calm down and accept that maybe she deserved that. She had tortured him, after all, slit his wrists, played a bloodletting game, and dragged him across a state line.
The short but bloody battle within the witch over how she wanted him to pay for the prank didn't escape Kai's attention, however, instead of a painful blast in his brain he nearly expected, she granted him a smile. So calm and composed he didn't know whether it excited or infuriated him.
"And that's it?" she asked after a moment, pushing aside her rearing pride and the flush taking a hold of her cheeks to fix him with a rather neutral look. "We're even? You're done punishing me?"
Kai raised his eyebrows in an amused surprise. "Punishing? Oh, Bons, that wasn't punishment. It's fun. Lighthearted, genuine fun."
Lighthearted? Fun? Bonnie fought the impulse to strangle him, to bang his head against the wall and let him know just how much fun she had throughout his mistimed game of hide-n-seek.
He smiled, clasping his hands at the back of his head, and let his eyes stray down from her face as he did away with the towel much like with her top. "You took me out of the basement, delivered a room with a shower I wanted. Why would I punish you?"
"Maybe," she began snippily, not wanting to give him anymore of a show than he had already gifted himself, "it's because I vervained you and dragged you to a one-shop town in the middle of nowhere?" She patted at the pillow she grabbed to cover herself with a mock affection, fingering the cotton material for emphasis. "Then again, I am only wagering a guess in light of the fact that my list of sins—where you are concerned—is a long one."
She flashed him another smile, desiring to throw his couch over, wishing he wasn't posed so arrogantly, so comfortably and indisputably preventing such an impulsive retaliation.
The smile on her face seemed to Kai more vicious than anything friendly or neutral she tried to come up with. As much as her self-control tickled his excitement, it also irked him with the masks she tried to wear.
"You weren't comfortable?" she asked, ignoring her own discomposure. "I mean… I should at least get some kind of remuneration for not having you go up in literal smoke, right?"
He allowed a lenient smile and shrugged. "Good thinking, bad execution, but who cares. I'm good now, aside from being peckish, which is still your responsibility, unless you decided to let me hunt freely."
"It's funny you should say that," Bonnie said and inelegantly folded her arms across the pillow, briefly scanning the room to see if he'd brought in her bags or if all that was left to wear was the shirt upon the duvet cover. "Because while I was out of it, I was sure I felt something akin to you feeding." She scurried a glance at the carpeted floor, the bathroom, and then his smiling face. "On someone else."
She let that sink in, reading his expression, looking for a decided reaction. Kai gave none, regarding her with an inscrutable smile.
"Besides, as I seem to recall and from our last talk, I told you I'm not doing that anymore. Deal's off, remember? And since my life is constant jeopardy, I am in no mood to play how-weak."
Kai clicked his tongue in acknowledgment and slapped his knees resolutely as he got up. "Alrighty, free hunt it is." He grinned, winking at her, and strode to the door, snapping his fingers as he passed her. A quiet yelp as her pants burned off her body into nothing was the last sound before Kai closed their door behind him and dashed to his earlier victim's room.
"Son of a bitch," Bonnie cursed as the door swung closed behind him, swatting the burning fabric off sensitive areas, furiously rubbing her palms against her thighs to soothe the singeing sting.
As soon as the initial panic subsided, she hopped onto the mattress, yanked the bloodied shirt from the middle of the bed and pulled it on, cringing when the crusted body fluid brushed against her abdomen. Bonnie pulled it off within seconds, tossing it aside, exchanging it for the shirt Kai had left on the couch, and confident it would fall in such a way that it would cover her ass. It didn't – not completely.
"Fuck!" she cursed again, weighing up her pride versus some human's life for all of a second before sprinting out the door. The last time she had been naked in public – she had justbeen born.
The guy answered the door and frowned, intending to ask what Kai wanted, when Kai pushed him back into his apartment, entering after. The guy didn't have time to fully form a question or an outraged objection before Kai ripped the clumsy bandage from his sore neck and tucked into the red marks his teeth had left an hour ago. The guy gurgled, his hands propping into Kai futilely to push him away while he drank in large gulps, weakening him.
Bonnie drew to a standstill, rocked by the coldness that careened through her, nearly crippling her in the process. Tears welled in her eyes, emotion she forced aside so that she could concentrate on the parking lot, scanning everything and thankful that no one else appeared to be around. There was only a handful of cars and night was starting to roll in, even the overhead porch lights were coming on. She only hoped they stayed holed up in their rooms.
Bonnie ran along the rows and rows of rooms, testing each door as she went, making sure Kai hadn't vanished into one of them or that he hadn't tackled the man behind the reception desk. She knew she made a mistake as soon as the manager saw her. You didn't need to be a rocket scientist to know she wasn't wearing much under her shirt.
"What the hell are you doing?!" he hissed, his eyes widening, his face drawn into a look of blooming irritation. "There ain't no nudity allowed around here, this isn't one of them der' swingers places! Hey!" he called when she turned her back on him and dashed for the next room. "HEY!" he demanded, progressively louder, clambering out from around his desk to chase after her. "Don't make me call the police, lady!" Bonnie suspected he wouldn't – not right away.
Kai was nearing the end of it – the guy's heart had slowed down significantly and was going to give out those tantalizing, electrifying last beats that emanated more energy at that very last moment of a person's life than the whole torture and feeding altogether. Kai longed for that boost and its mighty charge of pleasure.
Instead of the expected, Bonnie busted through the door, yelling, "Motus!"
Her power smacked Kai into the wall, and the dying guy with him, since Kai was still holding his shoulders. They tumbled to the floor. Kai was back up next instant, caught a quick once-over of Bonnie in the shirt he had procured from the poor bastard at his feet. She looked furious and terrified at the same time, preparing for the next move but not knowing the exact one to pick. Kai could hear someone's hasty running feet thumping towards this room and a male voice crying about calling the police if she didn't stop her indecency right now.
Bonnie flinched as the wounded stranger also cracked into the wall. The layout of the bedroom was exactly the same as that of the one she had booked and left little space to maneuver. Kai got to his feet immediately, making her regret her impulsive action. She should have snapped Kai's spine while his back was turned to her!
Aware of the time ticking away for the guy he hadn't ended yet, Kai gave Bonnie a wry smile and made the only piece of clothing hanging on her disappear in a brisk but bright flash of magical flames, leaving her naked and flabbergasted at the exact moment when the motel manager let himself in, panting.
He scoped the scenery with a professionally sharp-on-details snapshot gaze that stopped on Bonnie; he gaped, choked, his eyebrows flicking up and back down to knead into a scowl of fury. "How dare you—" he started.
"Somnus," Kai said. The manager rolled his eyes and slumped with a bony thud. Bonnie's eyes snapped to Kai, but he had her in his power's grasp already. He was smiling at her with an impish admiration. "One ballsy witch you are, I give you that. But let me, in my turn, remind you what I said before: if it's not your blood, then it's someone else's. I'm not really fazed whose. And now, if you excuse me, I need to finish my lunch."
'Stop!' she screeched internally, watching as he hauled the man off the floor by his collar and tucked into his neck, filling her with a portentous rush of coldness she now and always would associate to death. Bonnie grimaced with regret as the man's body slid onto the mattress, no longer breathing and no longer speckled with healthy color. Tears gathered in her eyes but didn't fall. She couldn't, wouldn't make this about her.
Kai licked his lips while the pleasure settled, and looked at Bonnie.
Naked and dismayed, she had tears in her eyes, her face wincing.
He dipped his hand into the guy's bag, rummaged, and produced another shirt. He pulled it on and pointed at the manager at her feet. "You brought him on your tail, so I believe you can handle it with the same iron will you used when stating our deal was off." He gave the most enchanting smile, tipping his imaginary hat, and exited the room with a parting whisper that released Bonnie from her trap and rose the manager from his slumber. He stirred and groaned as Kai ghosted back to their room, leaving them alone.