Greetings, dear readers!
This story is officially back! We missed it.
We have reworked the amount of chapters - made each longer, so now it's 16 instead of the earlier 30. Nothing has been cut out of the story, we merely combined chapters differently and reposted. Tried to catch all the typos it still had.
The newest Chapter 17 is posted in early access on our Boosty (chestofstories).
It shall be posted here very soon. We merely want to see whether this story still has any dedicated readers.
If you're a fan of TVD gang and BonKai - please, let us hear you!
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See you on the pages! Stay tuned for Chapter 17! It's coming very soon.
"Welcome to Bel Air, Banzai," Kai announced, killing the engine, and stepped out.
Bonnie opened her eyes at the sound of Kai's enthusiastic voice, blinking furiously to rid herself of the mist of exhaustion that had overcome her while they drove. She hadn't even realized she fell asleep.
They had pulled up next to a three-store white SpringHill Suites Marriot. He opened the backdoor and pulled Bonnie's bag out. "Now, I bet this one's better than the rat hole you had in mind."
She stared at the stark white building ahead, taking in its pleasant look, noting that it looked nothing like the sordid pictures of the seedy horror movie motel she'd been intending to drive them to. Bonnie unlocked her door and stepped out, watching as Kai started for the entranceway, her bag in hand. She followed.
Registration didn't take long and ten minutes later they'd settled into their new room. It was quaint, something you'd expect from a home choice catalog.
Their room was on the second floor, neat and pleasant, with a wide bed in front of a TV. A painting with a blue flower Kai would never want in his house hung over the head of the bed. He dropped her bag at the door and closed it after she stepped inside, looking around. He shrugged the jacket off, dropped it in a chair and glanced out the window. It was dark, almost half past 10 PM. He was hungry and tired.
"They didn't have twin beds?" Bonnie asked once she took in the sight of the double bed, knowing he probably hadn't even bothered to ask them about that. She walked over to the small kitchenette, opening a few cupboards to check them, and found a couple sachets of coffee, sugar and a brochure for nearby fast food restaurants. Considering the time she wasn't sure they'd deliver or that the hotels kitchen was even open, but maybe she could head out and pick something up.
He chuckled. "Does it matter?" He dropped on the bed and stretched, yearning to dive under covers and sleep a day away. "You didn't mind being close to me earlier today. Which reminds me: we gotta get that race to finish line." He grinned at her and tapped a hand beside him, inviting.
"Seriously?" she asked, flushing slightly, recalling her earlier lapse of insanity. What the hell had she even been thinking when she proposed to follow through with his snark so literally? "You've just spent near on two hours saving our asses from the roast, camouflaging us, and a little blood has made you peppy?"
She didn't want to anger him, have him charge off and nibble on someone else to piss her off, or worse.
He was looking at her with an impish smile, saying nothing to disprove her statement.
"Sex is not going to solve anything right now. Besides—" she turned toward another door, one she assumed led to the en-suite bathroom, "—it's probably better we… focus on something else. Like sleep."
"Oh, Bonnie, Bonnie. Of course, sex's gonna solve things. Like, it might make me wanna help you further. Remember I said I wasn't here to make things easier for you? Well, I can be persuaded. To a point." He flashed her a both boyish and bawdy smile.
She stared at him with a mild sense of disgust, praying that whatever blackmail plans he suddenly conjured up were another of his many quirk filled attempts to get under her skin – and not literally.
"Fine, forget sleep." She waved the booklet of take-away places she found and walked over to the phone, hopeful that one might still be open and that it wasn't too late to order something in. "Let's focus on food. Would you like something to eat? Something that doesn't involve me or any other part of my anatomy?" she added before he could make some crass joke. She wanted to keep him on point.
Kai laughed and settled against the pillows, hands beneath the head, ankles crossed. "Honey, I'm a vampire. What other food aside from all things you can you interest me in?"
Bonnie rolled her eyes and picked up the receiver to make sure it had a dial tone. She wasn't in the mood to convince him of anything. She flipped through the booklet, it taking less than two minutes to decide what she wanted. Pizza Hut. She reset the phone and dialed the restaurant with an hour to spare. A chipper voice answered, asking for her cellphone number and what road she was in. Bonnie gave the hotel's address, the room number and telephone number from the neatly printed label in bold above the receiver. A shared laugh about hotel kitchens being closed and making the right decision and she'd relayed her order of a Meat Feast and extra cheese. She didn't bother to do the same for Kai. They'd share or he'd figure out something for himself.
She dropped the phone back onto its cradle lightly, easing around to study him, trying to digest everything that happened today and how awkward she'd made it. How unsettled. "Want first dibs on the shower?"
He studied her for a longer moment of silence, then said: "Have you been paying attention to yourself? Do you hear yourself when you speak? Excuses, reasons for escape, avoiding and denying… That's all you choose to be every damn time you get a chance to be something. Seems exhausting. You what, can't wait for more wrinkles and grey hair to pepper your rich experience of wasting precious years of youth and vigor? Have you ever considered that by holding back on your power, emotions, feelings and impulses, you're holding back on your life? And since karma's so quick with us, it's what always ends up stolen from you? Perhaps you're giving the universe a signal that you don't really want that sparkly life it offers you."
She stared at him, trying to understand what part of having impulsive roadside sex had been good. Wasn't it the fact that they were caught? Wasn't that she physically had to fight her way into her pants a clear sign of how bad it was? Also, not to mention that it was one of the many stupid things she'd done over the last year.
He gave her a hearty, compassionate look. "It's not a healthy signal to send out, Bonsy."
"And what do you know about healthy psychology?" she asked, her lips twitching at the audacity he had to incessantly judge her life choices and her apparent lack thereof. "You stabbed your sister, her babies and yourself all less than ninety-six hours ago and set the world ablaze. Or at least Mystic Falls. What do you know about denying and healthy impulse?"
"No, actually, from what I noticed, you're being the one with issues in grasping concepts about healthy impulses and psychology. Which I totally wasn't prepared to find in you – given I hold you in such high regards the way you truly deserve."
Bonnie pushed away from the desk she'd been leaning against, and slowly walked toward him, trying her best to avoid sitting on the bed—of giving him the impression that she was accepting his invitation to finish what they'd started—or running away to the kitchen and coming off like a coward. She knew he possessed some kind of affection or obsession for her—he'd admitted as much at the wedding massacre—but it felt surreal to even think that Bonnie affected him so deeply, that he'd left her taped up but killed Jo. And some part of him must have loved her? Why hadn't he returned the favor?
Kai gifted her with a brief version of the same compassionate look. "Why are you so stubbornly pretending to not be digging what I say? Or is it that you actually refuse to dig it in favor of your old and good-for-dying— sorry, good-for-nothing habits? All those wonderful things you listed that I did came from your deed, by the way. And, let me note here, I don't really blame your stabbing me in the back. I agree it wasn't too smart of you, given how it brought us to the mayhem at the wedding that could've totally been avoided, but in itself, it was a good way as any to let the venom out of you."
Was that his way of saying he forgave her? That he understood her reasoning? Bonnie wasn't sure, but a part of her feared feeling as though that was all she needed to hear. She hadn't been able to explain it herself – not properly.
"I'm good enough in psychology to figure how it all must've kept building inside you until you had to act," he continued. "I understand, and we're cool on that—those stabs. My point is all about how it felt." He grinned at her, a grin of a devil with small red sparks of humor in it. "Savvy? How. Did it. Feel?"
"Good," she said before she could think to stop herself. She met his eyes, not even a hint of humor in them. She was dead serious. "At least while the adrenaline was still pumping."
Going to bed that night, she allowed herself to believe that a weight had been lifted from her shoulders and that she'd healed of the horrors that had plagued her since her return. The nightmares started not long after. Kai would always return and do more damage, torturing her and setting Mystic Falls ablaze. Bonnie disregarded them, brushing the vivid nightmares off as guilt, as a way of subconsciously punishing herself and put on her make-the-best-of-it face. She'd gone to a few frat parties, took extra courses to catch up on what she'd missed throughout the year, and tried to have some semblance of a normal happy life.
Kai reacted with 'I knew as much' look.
"If you're trying to psychoanalyze me and tell me that I'm like you… then save it." She didn't need to hear that comparison and thinking about it was sickening enough. She didn't like parts of the person she'd become over the years and at times she couldn't even tell when she lost sight of who she was.
Was it when she died the first time? Was it when she lost her grandmother? Was it during Silas's manipulations? Had she ever recovered?
"And if you're telling me to use that feeling as some kind of party anthem motivator, don't bother. That isn't a particular emotion I like to revisit."
Again, he knew as much, and annoyance almost splashed overboard. Kai took a calming breath, keeping the smile intact as he looked at her. "It's not that you're like me – not much, given how different I am from what you're used to dealing with all your life. But there are some basic principles, mechanisms, if you like, that are alike in all living things. Stress, suppression of energy and emotions keep accumulating if one keeps holding them in, and at some point there comes explosion of great force. You know that by now, learned your lesson. And now you fear it will happen again, and instead of dealing with this problem in a new, more successful way, you keep doing the same – suppressing, locking it in, and it's a nuke ticking inside you, Bonnie. With powers like yours, like mine, it's really a nuke – I didn't use it for better image. It is exactly that. You need to learn to let the tension out every now and then if you don't wanna hurt anyone or yourself. Having fun, laughing, letting go when you can, having sex, lighting fires in controlled surroundings could be a better way than sulking until your adrenaline rushes out of you like volcano erupting over Pompeii."
He made sense, too much so and something about that frightened her. It was warped taking advice—and letting it sink in—by someone who'd turned her life upside down and continued to do so.
He remembered her phrase and chortled, shook his head.
"And it's not me trying to psychoanalyze you. It's me telling you things I feel no one has told you before regarding your power management." He caught her eyes and held them, no smile or jokes this time. "I'm just trying to help."
Worst of all, she was starting to believe him, starting to read into the sincerity in his eyes.
"Why?" she asked before she could tapper down her curiosity, knowing it was something she'd asked before and that she sounded naïve repeating the question. Bonnie couldn't wrap her head around it. "It doesn't make sense. I manipulated you and trapped you in that prison world with a bunch of hungry vampires who gnawed on you as if you were human kibble. Why are you trying to help me? Why'd you spare me but kill Jo? You certainly don't owe it to me to play therapist or to even take it easy on me." And he was, to some degree, far easier than she was to herself.
Kai narrowed his eyes a little as if giving her questions a thought while observing her.
"You know why people cheat in games?" he asked out of the blue with a pensive squint of a man ready to dive into a philosophical debate. "It ensures you win in the end and don't lose anything in the process. It's cool to make sure you don't lose, but in the end of the day it makes the game pretty boring. There's no challenge in it, just a steady race for the finish line where you get no gratification. Some cheaters – many of them – don't realize that latter fact until they get there. I know it and I hate boredom. It not just demeans me to cheat, but also robs me of all the thrill. It's the thrill that makes life interesting. Worth living. If I don't throw you a tip here and there, it's a heavy cheating on my part, Bonsy."
He slipped off the bed, shook the jacket off, threw it on a chair, toed his boots off.
She should have expected that he'd talk circles around that answer. She eased onto the edge of the bed as he stood, watching—for a time—as he shrugged out of his jacket and shoes. She flopped onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, her hands crossed over her lower abdomen, idly toying with the material of her shirt. She wasn't sure she understood what he was trying to tell her. He hadn't confessed anything yet—not since the barn—hadn't answered what she asked and didn't appear to want to put her out of misery. He was like the epitome of a human version of sudoku, only there were no handy answers printed to the back of any books to help her with it.
"I call dibs on the shower and while I'm at it, you might wanna order a feast of a dinner because you deserve it, and I need you to eat well to favor my own nutrition." He gave her a shiny smile, tossed his shirt on the chair to the jacket.
She averted her gaze from the ceiling, meeting his eyes again at the reminder that he needed to feed again. She only hoped her resolve wouldn't betray her.
"Way ahead of you," she uttered as he headed into the bathroom. Her pizza would be here soon.
Twenty minutes passed before a knock sounded on the door.
"Hi," Bonnie greeted after she tentatively opened the door, happy to see that it wasn't the cops or someone else. The more time passed, the more paranoid she was becoming about how well they'd done to get away. She didn't underestimate Damon's talents of getting what he wanted and she had no way in which to contact Lucy without calling her mom, but then they'd have to go through the whole rigmarole of Bonnie being alive—and she wasn't sure she was ready for that. Bonnie quickly found the money, made the exchange—tip included—and made herself comfortable on the bed again, hungrily tucking in, eating away her concerns and what she knew was waiting for them around the corner. She wished she ordered dessert, too.
By the time Kai walked out of the steamy bathroom with nothing but a white towel around his hips, Bonnie was finishing the second half of her pizza, seemingly consumed by some show on TV.
"That smells delicious. Got a cocktail or two to wash it down?" he smiled brightly as she looked at him.
"Unfortunately not," she responded. She was starting to feel full, like she might burst, and yet she kept eating, like each bite aided in deadening the treacherous snags they'd hit today. "Want a piece?" she asked, picking up another slice, dangling it upon her open palm like a greasy carrot, her eyes inadvertently skimming his toned abdomen and the towel synched around his hips. Immediately her cheeks reddened, a tickly hot flush sweeping through her body in reminder of how close they'd been to release, how much her body still craved it.
She shoved the pizza into her mouth before he could take it or supply her with an answer, killing the thought before it could fully manifest itself, and turned back to regard to the flickering TV screen.
Kai could sense her arousal as if it were coming off her in thick waves, and then the faintest scent of it reached him. He began to get hard, and smiled a wry smile, strolling towards her slowly, like a predator eliminating the distance to its prey not to spook it.
"Oh yeah, I do want a piece of you."
She sensed him coming toward her, her eyes skittishly darting from the TV. She didn't have to guess to know that he'd picked up on her perverse but brief musing. Freaking vampires and their heightened everything!
Before she voiced a protest that was about to fall from her lips, judging by the flicker of knowing alarm in her eyes, he undid the zipper of her jeans with a thought, and dexterously pulled them off her legs.
She was still chewing when she found herself on her back, her zipper yawning all by itself and her jeans snagged against her shoes, the objection sitting upon her tongue buried beneath extra cheese and mushroom.
Her shoes fell at his feet under the heap of denim as his lips kissed her waistline before he pulled her panties down with his teeth.
She dropped the unfinished slice onto the open pizza box by the time there was a distinct chill overlapping her flushed skin, hands skimming the top cover and then his shoulders to brace herself.
"This isn't a good idea," she remarked as blunted teeth brushed her hipbone, peeling the fabric away from her skin and gradually down her thighs.
She said that a lot, didn't she? As if it served some purpose or he'd listen to her. Bonnie wasn't even sure if she could convince herself anymore. She needed to try, though. They'd been caught once today, chased down a highway, and there was a knot in her stomach that instinctively let her know they weren't out of the woods just yet. They were simply taking a breather.
She placed a hand on top of his head, tugging upon his hair to get him to stop before he could manage to remove her underwear. Once that barrier was removed, she knew there would be no going back or point in talking anymore. "I think we need to slow things down. And off…"
"I think you should spare your efforts, Banzai, and enjoy the ride," he suggested, looking up at her, wily and up to no good smile gleaming on his face before he ducked back, his lips skimming up her inner thigh.
She relaxed her hand and removed it from his hair, fingers skimming her stomach to soothe the butterflies raging beneath as he smiled. Kai was up to no good and not going to let her escape this time. She should make him stop, use magic and knock him out or something, and yet she couldn't bring herself to do it.
She was wet, despite her protests, and the scent made him rock hard beneath the towel he still had on. Hauling one of her legs on his left shoulder, he proceeded placing light kisses higher and higher until there was nowhere else to go but for the main course.
She stiffened and gasped as he hauled her leg onto his shoulder, the kisses he'd placed along the inside of her inner thigh settling any misapprehensions she might have had about being exposed to a hungry gaze. She peered up at the ceiling as a means to distract herself a moment, to give herself a second to catch her breath before he expertly stole it from her.
Trembling with lust and hunger interlacing, Kai closed his eyes and put his open mouth on her, shivering as she gasped when his tongue slid inside, gathering her juices as if it were water in the desert. His right hand dived under the towel and wrapped around his stony erection, rubbing in steady motions as he worked her up with his tongue.
"Oh God," Bonnie whispered, unable to control her gasp of anticipation as the warmth of his mouth locked on her, her blunted teeth closing around her lower lip to stifle a moan in wake of his talented tongue. She rocked against him in search of friction and that mind-blowing end that had been stolen from them earlier, any and all reservations she'd had to stop—to think about this rationally—no longer an issue.
The sound of her gasp – and more so the meaning of that sound – stroked through his nerves in a pleasant comber, nearing his release as Kai worked himself up to the apex. His tongue explored her, tentatively one moment and demandingly the next, eliciting shiver after shiver from her almost surrendering body. And she was indeed surrendering, eagerly now that she resigned herself to the fate of pleasure. It reminded him of something he read in a book once, but he didn't want to dwell on it just yet.
Ripples of carnal delectation climbed up steadily inside him, almost in sync with those of Bonnie. Kai was so in tune with her through his mouth, his lust, and her finally genuine want, that he could sense orgasm coming as if there were two parallel lines, or it was twice as rich. It was strange, but intoxicatingly so. It made his head swim and he feared he could lose it.
Nevertheless, a small smile twitched his lips, almost involuntarily, as he was right at the top and ready to roll over it and ride the hell out of ecstasy. Before she was able to roll over hers, he detached from her hot wetness, turned his head and sunk his fangs in her inner thigh, with the same quick smooth move he'd executed on her every time before. He didn't think she realized at once what happened – her body was so distracted by nearing orgasm that she might as well take it for a bout of pleasure before any dull pain could seep through the built-up web of sexual sensations.
For Kai, it was an explosion of a tremendous force. Her tastes mixed in his mouth as her blood poured in, and it all went off in one searing, killer of an ecstasy. He was drunk at once and searing between worlds. All sounds gone out, leaving our frantic heartbeats to dance on a drum inside his head, like palms of a black shaman high on his herbs. He thought he heard a groan he couldn't keep in – it vibrated against her flesh that brought him higher on that wave. Kai was reluctant to come down, and it felt like an eternity before he did.
He licked his lips, slowly straightening up, pulling his hand from under the towel and wiping it on the fluffy material. Her leg slid off his shoulder as he did.
She blinked up at Kai numbly, her leg dropping back down onto the mattress as if it were a deadweight.
"That was divine," he smiled with sheer excitement at her. "You're incredible, Bonster. You're another of the world wonders. I'm lucky no one else knows about you."
Her lower body thrummed in anticipation of release. She had been so close, on the verge of falling over into bliss when an unacquainted sensation swept through her, temporarily knocking her off kilter. Before she familiarized the passing discomfort, it was over and she was being dismissed.
He tipped her a wink and waved his head towards the bathroom. "Go ahead and treat yourself with a nice hot shower."
Bonnie pushed herself up onto her elbows, legs feeling like wet noodles, resisting the urge to cup her sex as she sat up. Less than two strokes and she'd be singing. Or at least she would have been, but that mood was officially over and dampened. She wasn't fond of being used – not like this. She wanted to say something, to rage, but what would be the point? She already voiced her opinion on what they were doing or she assumed he wanted. And it wasn't positive. Maybe this was a good thing?
Bonnie reached for the towel since he was still standing in front of her, looking smugger than she would have liked, and ripped it from his hips, her free hand sending him reeling back against the wall without any physical contact.
Kai emitted a laugh as his back collided with the wall and his towel was swept off him.
"Thoughtful," she commented in response to his suggestion to shower, wrapping the towel around her naked waist, unperturbed by the wet warmth that brushed against her knee. The evidence that one of them got off. She walked toward the bathroom without looking back, slamming the door shut behind her.
He slipped into bed and stretched, enjoying the hum of the recent pleasure still present in his body.
You'll come around, Banzai. We've only just started.
Bonnie braced herself against the back of the locked door, counting back from twenty, inhaling and exhaling in turn until the ridiculous rage lessened.
You've no right to be upset, she meditated, staring at her subdued reflection. You showed him a hand, gave him power, what did you expect?
"Stupid," she uttered, undoing the towel as she approached the recently used shower stall. She slipped inside, sliding the glass panel closed behind her, and played with the taps in search of a pleasing heat. She soaped herself up and washed her hair with what remained in the tiny bottles provided by the hotel. She left the conditioner in for two minutes and then reached up on her toes to twist the shower head toward the wall, relaxing against the tiles, enjoying the feel of the water beating down on her back.
Images from today played through her mind. Jurassic Park, how close they were to getting arrested, what they'd been caught doing on the highway and what they'd been doing less than ten minutes ago. The latter lingered, effortlessly reigniting that spark and need.
She removed a hand from the tiles, sliding her cool palm down her abdomen, and finished what he'd started, satisfied that the water would wash away the evidence of her weakness.
She emerged from the bathroom after twenty minutes, more focused and feeling a little restored. She strode over to her bag, removing a clean pair of underwear and a tee-shirt, pulling the first on under the towel. She removed the towel and pulled on the shirt, kicking it aside on the way toward the bed, pilfering one more slice of pizza as she climbed in.
Kai met her with a subtle wily smile on his face, as if he knew her dirty little secret.
"Say, when you decided you still wanted that orgasm, did you tell your hand that it might be not a good idea to claim it? Or, more importantly: did your hand believe you?"
She cringed, cheeks flushed, the slice of pizza dangling from between her lips. He'd been listening? She should have expected as much. What else did he have to do?
The glare she gave him indicated he hit the bull's eye right in the center. Kai grinned.
She broke off a piece of pizza and spoke around it. "Perv."
"No, just a vampire hearing. If you didn't wanna get caught, you coulda done without all that puffing and panting, you know."
She finished off her last piece of food, and sunk down under the covers, rolling onto her side to hug the pillow to the side of her face. She needed sleep. They both did.
He scooted closer, tickling her ear with his breath.
"Don't pout now, Bonsy. I merely demonstrated you the wrongness of your manner of behavior whenever it comes to anything relating sexual pleasure. You do need that release, whether you admit it or not. Better admit it, though, next time, since you can't lie to me about your desires, anymore."
He lay down and turned the TV off, killing the sole source of light in their room. Sleep would be good right now.
The engine purred cozily as the grey Yaris Sedan rolled further away from Bel Air, Maryland. Neither of its passengers spoke, each consumed by the thoughts of what they left behind. The waking before the set alarm, which could considered to be lucky, given the mess that followed; the rushed escape, the small showdown in their room when there was not enough time to slip away unnoticed, the cloaking spell as they drove away, leaving another "resisting arrest" and "police officers assault" behind.
Neither Bonnie, nor Kai wanted to discuss and debate whose fault it was that they didn't go to Monroeville instead of Bel Air, or that they needed to spend the night at a public place such as a not the least popular hotel. Or how they failed to escape before the police found their room and Bonnie threw a fit forbidding Kai to knock them out (or outright kill them as he rather would, she suspected) in order to destroy all evidence of them sleeping there by setting the beds on fire with both used towels on them. Kai would love to blame her for such an epic-fail-getaway for the mature criminals they became, but to himself, he was ready to admit it was the case of neither and both being at fault simultaneously. Force majeure.
"We can't be sure whether they know what car we're driving," Kai said, breaking the silence after almost three hours. "I took care of the parking lot cameras, but who knows who might have seen us when we rolled in last night. Anywho, it doesn't really matter. Changing the car is no big deal if it comes to it again. We need to decide where we head next." He stole a glance at her to see if what he sensed in his skin was true and she was still sulking. "I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter, sidekick Bons."
Bonnie glanced at her official partner in crime, head reeling—in spite of the hours that had passed since the incident—from the morning wake up and the physicality she wished to volley on her supposed best friend.
"We have no other choice but to stop running."
Kai turned to look at her, astonishment ghosting across his face.
Bonnie didn't spare him a glance, her face set in a scowl as she stared forward. Caroline and Stefan, she knew, where out there somewhere, desperately looking to help her in some way while Damon was hell-bent on making the difficult task of mutual redemption an impossibility.
He couldn't stand the idea of losing, no matter who got hurt in the process.
"To surrender. At least in part—and on our terms." That way she could figure out what Damon wanted from her, set Caroline's mind at ease and attempt to keep this charade from spiraling and someone else unintentionally getting hurt.
"How exactly do you imagine we do that? Should I remind you how bad the idea of locking me up is? You know what happens to people trying to trap or put me away."
Light pain bloomed behind her eyes, headache that replicated a hangover and made her feel drowsy. She knew the task she undertook wouldn't be easy – but even this was beyond her imagination.
He licked his lips, observing the road while mulling it over quickly, then briefly shook his head. "Look, we get to a big city, and no one will ever find us. Hell, no one can find us if we don't want to, no matter where we are! We can disappear in plain sight. So why worry?"
Why worry? Maybe because Kai had forced her to roast someone? Maybe because Damon intended to drive her crazy? Frankly, the idea of giving the ex-warlock turned vampire the nod to an even bigger playing field while he was being temperamental, detached and bloodthirsty was cringe worthy. They were on the same side now, working together to remain one step ahead, but how long until that alliance crumbled a second time and someone else paid for her mistake?
"No," Bonnie said in a decided murmur. "I don't want to run anymore. I don't—I don't want anyone else getting pulled into Damon's next scheme or him getting any more creative." And given his past recreation of torment – if inclined, she knew he could be quite the showman. "We need to face our demons." Or at least one of them.
Kai stared at her incredulously, wavering on the precipice of annoyance. "And what then? Once you face that demon, and oh, let's not forget his mommy who's gonna be very happy to gnaw a few pieces off your screaming body. What then? What's the plan? I give them their heretics and you lie down and die wherever Damon prefers?"
Why did he have to answer everything with a question upon another question? Why couldn't it be 'Okay, Bonnie. Let's do things your way, you've dealt with him longer and know him better'?
"He knows how I feel about releasing the heretics." Also, Lily had tried to kill her once already and had almost succeeded. "Damon, for all his shit, in his roundabout way is trying to look out for me." Part of her believed he'd do as promised and ensure it never happened again. "All he wants … is to kill you." Kai knew that. "Clearly, distance isn't helping. Not if he's making up elaborate stories with the cops."
Kai caught himself letting on the kind of smile grown-ups would don when listening to a five-year-old explain aerodynamics. Bonnie still had no clue, whatsoever, or purely refused to get any. Her mind was stubbornly rigged in favor of Damon, whatever horrors he brought upon her and those she wanted to keep safe.
He shook his head slowly, returning his eyes to the road to drive around a car that had been slowing them down for a mile now.
"You think those stories he made up will win us a warm welcome whenever those cops find us? You betcha. Especially after I nuked their car and stole another, and we drove into the sunset leaving them out cold behind."
He placed himself into another lane, passing by another car.
"Tell me something: did he know how you felt about fetching his mom from nineteen-o-three? Did it make any difference in his decision and what you eventually did? Did he know how you felt about turning your mother into a bloodsucker? Did he step away and say, Sure, Bonbon, we gotta do it your way?"
Of course, Kai made many good points, some of which were more frustrating than the others. How did Kai know about her mother? Just how much had Damon and he talked in 1994 and beyond? She didn't care enough to ask, wrapped in what had happened and was currently still happening.
"Just drive," Bonnie instructed, snubbing his know-it-all expression and the indefinable agreement from her stomach. She rolled down her window, relaxed her head against the back of the chair and drew in deep meaningful breathes. It didn't take her long to distinguish that the nausea stemmed from hunger and anxiety. They'd been driven from their lodging before they managed breakfast.
Kai cast a gander at her, debating where she wanted him to drive. Wherever she meant, he knew where he wouldn't drive.
"How much fuel do we have?" Bonnie raised her head, tilting it slightly to get a look at the dashboard and complex panel. How far were they going to be able to make it before they were forced to stop?
Before Bonnie was forced to make a decision.
"Not too little, but we can benefit from more and getting some food into you, as well. Keep an eye out for a diner you'll want me to stop for."
Perhaps it would give him extra time and chance to talk some sense into her when she's not a starving, tired, grumpy witch. He didn't see himself giving in to human cops any time soon. She just needed to see the reason. And he needed a bucket of patience and then some to deliver it home for her.
"I don't think we should stop—" A diner didn't seem off the beaten path and with the cops out there, searching for them, who was to say where they would find them? "At least not anytime soon." Bonnie twisted in her seat, peering out the back window. There didn't appear to be any cars in the distance that she could see, nothing with red and blue looking headlights or even a siren. "Let's just drive until the car runs out of fuel and ditch it?" Paranoid that the cops might have seen them peeling out of the parking lot. What about the receptionist? He saw them roll in last night, why wouldn't he take account of their car?
He looked at her with the kind of smile one gives somebody who did something endearing.
"Don't crap your panties just yet, Bennett. We're fine. So far so good. Your food comes first now, so just please, watch out for a diner, will ya?"
Bonnie tore her gaze from the rearview mirror to dissect Kai. She'd come to the conclusion that she liked his smile and innate need to take control – to protect her. She wasn't quite sure what he got out of it just yet, why he let her take charge in some instances and kept her from falling on her face in others. She smiled back in spite of herself. Considering Kai had gotten her out of one other situation the day before with the fuzz, she should trust by now that he had a handle on this, too.
"My eyes are peeled," Bonnie announced, purposely twisting to face forward again, eyes glues on the road ahead and the passing scenery to her right.
Forty minutes passed before she spoke up again, directing him to a western-themed diner that shared a lot with a busy gas station. Good place, at least by her standard, to find another ride and melt into the crowd.
Two police vehicles were parked outside the SpringHill Suites Marriott. They had been there thirty minutes and counting. Two officers were holed away in B12 king suite collecting evidence and searching for clues, while the third took point in the reception area like a paid bouncer and the fourth spoke to the desk clerk and a handful of night owls that might have seen anything suspicious.
Enzo and Lily slid inside without being noticed – compliments of their superhuman speed.
Driven by scent Lily entered the hotel room, teeth clenched and hands curled into tight fists when she realized that her prey wasn't there. They'd been following every lead once they happened upon the disheartened group of the police officers assaulted by the young suspects earlier, going so far as to claim on of the vehicles—and a passenger—and listening to the scanners.
"I told you, love—they're gone."
The two officers appeared from the bathroom, spit balling back and forth, one holding a towel in a brown paper bag while the other jotted down a couple of notes about the print he'd found. They paused, dumbfounded by the presence of the two strangers and gauging whether or not they were a threat.
"This is an active crime scene, ma'am. You can't be in here."
As if acting as one, the first cop pawned off his evidence and stepped forward to usher them out.
Enzo reacted, flying across the room unseen in a frenzied blur, his right arm enclosing around the approaching human in an old wrestling inspired move, whirling him around like an ersatz lover before brutally sinking his teeth into his neck.
Lily did the same. But with less grace.
"Stop, Love," Enzo commanded in a gentle tone, speaking around his fangs and belying the monster he was. She didn't hear him, and without hesitation he released his victim. The fading man dropped to his knees and went face first to the carpeting. Enzo wrenched the second officer from Lily's murderous grip, using the other hand to detain her as she fought to feed. She was so savage in her desperation she reminded him of a lioness.
"You don't want to kill them," he contended in as reasonable a tone as he could.
A furious shuffle of menacing veins beneath her eyes said otherwise. In a blink of an eye, he drove her toward the wall, slamming her back against it—loathing the fact that he'd hurt her—but immediately pleased as she began to calm down.
It appeared, the longer they took to find Bonnie Bennett and the answers needed to free Lily's heretics, the harder and harder it was getting to control Lily's impulses and bloodlust. He gripped her tighter.
"Enzo," she murmured breathlessly, whispering his name in that way that made his groin twitch and his heart sing.
He immediately lessened his hold on her shoulders, battling the distinctive need to mold his lips to hers. Women weren't opposed to his charms and yet – this woman's sense of refinement had been for very many years.
"Sorry, Love," he countered, letting her go completely to busy himself with the dying men. He bit into his index finger and forced some blood into cop one's mouth, compelling him to remain quiet and to stay still before aiding cop two.
Lily was straightening up her clothes, wiping at her lips and savoring the fresh blood in her mouth as she walked toward the evidence. She plucked the brown paper bag off the floor, wrenching it open, removing the towel inside to register the dried substance left behind. She wrinkled her nose with disgust.
"Who would have thought Bonnie Bennett the type," Enzo said, a smirk curled on his mouth. He didn't know much about her, but the time spent harassing her to find a way to bring him back from the dead all those many months ago had certainly given him a touching perspective into her mind.
"What?" Lily asked, blinking, trying to find the helpfulness in his commentary.
There was none.
He didn't explain the gist of his thinking and instead reached out to take the towel, returning it to the brown paper bag, registering, the deeper in he went, that there was a dim smell of sex in the air. Especially on the sheets.
Walking toward the bed, he crouched and inhaled lightly, closing his eyes—imaging for a second what it would be like with Lily—once all this commotion was over and she was able to be her in-control self again.
Lily had not even an inkling of his desire and turned on one of the men at her feet, hoisting the helpless man off the floor by his throat. He made not a sound, gripping at her hand, surprised by her strength.
The fear was intoxicating.
"Where has Miss Bennett gone?"
The frightened man said nothing. She tightened her hand on his throat and hauled him up onto his toes.
"Where?"
Enzo appeared behind her, taking a hold of her wrist to forestall snapping the man's neck and feeling her stiffen as she took in the comprising position.
"He can't talk."
Lily let go of him immediately. Enzo—albeit reluctantly and hurt—gave her space. She nodded and stepped aside.
"Speak," Enzo demanded, turning his inner exasperation on the stranger.
"Who is Bennett?"
"That would be the female criminal you're after."
"They left."
Enzo resisted the urge to snap his neck, forcing a smile onto his lips. "That's obvious, friend. Where did they go?"
"Best we can tell? East. They were here, and next – gone."
Lily tipped her head back and Enzo could see she was seconds away from ripping someone's head off.
"How long ago did they leave?"
Without looking at his watch or phone the stranger estimated and answered half an hour, maybe less.
"They could still be in the area," Lily said hopefully, smiling to herself and collecting the brown paper bag. Without removing the contents, she inhaled deeply, taking in the mixture of scents. The one was distinctive and discarded, another smelled like soap, and two others were familiarized as those belonging to Kai and Bonnie. She'd been in their presence enough times to know.
She was out the door and headed toward the highway before Enzo even compelled the two men to forget that they'd found any evidence, told their follow up was phony and told to go back to start on another lead.
"Did you tell her that I was coming?" Stefan asked, pulling up the drive, following the dirt road, no longer plagued by the wretchedness he thought he might feel upon entering the gravel drive.
It didn't hold good connotations for him and was the very spot Elena solidified every insecure thought he'd ever harbored by telling him that she kissed Damon (without regret), it was also where he'd began to self-destruct amidst his attempts at destroying Klaus.
He was grateful those days of deep dark depressions were behind him. He felt freer for it – happier.
"She knows."
"Does she?"
"No," Caroline answered, giving his thigh a reassuring squeeze. He swallowed, pushed the break and drew the car to a gradual stop. He hadn't gone inside on his first visit, sticking to the barn and eavesdropping.
At the time, he didn't want to make a scene and was hopeful someone would drop something about Mikael.
How wrong had he been then?
He pulled up the hand break and turned off the ignition. Caroline got out before the engine cooled, practically running toward the stairs and slowed only as the door opened. They'd been waiting for her – watching.
"Jaime," she greeted automatically, surprised to see Abby's adopted son. His lips twitched into a small smile.
"Caroline."
Something passed between them, politeness that Stefan wished he could replicate, and twisted into weariness once the former teenager turned to acknowledge him. Jaime had grown up quite a bit over the last few years and had even packed on a bit of weight. Bulk Stefan could see was pure muscle.
"Is Abby here?" Caroline asked, barely giving Stefan time to string together an apology or awkward greeting.
"She is." Jaime took a step back, waving her ahead. "Caroline Forbes, I invite you in."
With everything that had happened after Klaus's attack, the many times their lives had been put at risk in the short period of time Bonnie's merry bang of murderers had come into their lives, as a unit they seemed to have gone out of their way to protect themselves.
Caroline smiled her thanks and crossed the threshold. She didn't move from the entranceway—not far—waiting for the process to be repeated with Stefan. And it was, albeit reluctantly.
They remained close to one another as he entered the living room and took a seat on the couch as per Jaime's insistence. Abby joined them a minute later, dusting her hands free of dirt, her hair tied away from her face in a way that made her look younger, beautiful and showcased a lot of where Bonnie got her looks, traits like these you didn't notice at first glance.
Caroline automatically stood. As did Stefan.
"I contacted a friend in Tulsa and sent over one of Bonnie's old sweaters. Have you heard from her?" She looked genuinely concerned about the state of her child's wellbeing.
"A day ago. We didn't speak very long."
"Why is she running?"
"After her death, the prison world—she kind of acquired a nemesis."
Caroline went on to explain, as only she could, about what had happened—how close Bonnie had come to dying again—and how she'd decided and made it her personal mission to try and save Kai.
Abby looked stricken, once again reminded of what a lousy parent she was and how she wished she could have been there for her daughter, to save her from herself and prevent these unspeakable horrors.
"So, why is Damon—" his name seemed to taste like venom on her tongue, "—why is he chasing her?"
"He says it's to protect her."
Neither woman believed that. Stefan wished there was a truth to it – he hoped.
"How long until we'll be given a location?"
Abby shrugged, looking forlorn as she dug dirt from under her nails, her eyes briefly meeting the youngest Salvatore's with a touch of resentment. If she hadn't been turned, she'd be able to do it herself.
"I've told her I need it down as soon as possible."
Unfortunately the witch was daytime broker and unable to drop everything and rush to her aid. That only happened in the movies, not in the real world where magic was hidden and accredited only in fantasy books.
"Thank you for doing this," Caroline said, registering the look of surprise and equal hurt on the woman's face.
"Of course. She's my daughter." Without giving it any thought, Caroline reached for her hand, taking a hold of it to give it a reassuring squeeze as if to let her know she was doing okay.
Stefan couldn't have loved her more.
"How are you doing, by the way?" Caroline asked. "How's the feeding?"
"Better," Abby supplied, removing her hand from Caroline's, fidgeting. Jaime stood, announcing he'd made everyone something to drink and headed off into the kitchen. "Jaime's on a daily diet of vervain."
Where had they even managed to find it? Klaus had it destroyed around Mystic Falls and as far as Stefan knew, there weren't too many other people who carried or harvested it anymore, aside from Alaric.
To distract themselves, she gestured for them to follow her, walking them outside around her garden where she appeared to be growing flowers. Caroline and Abby where still talking. The blonde doing the most, filling her in on every detail of Bonnie's life she'd missed thus far.
Abby's witch friend called two hours later, supplying them with directions and offering up more help if needed.
They filled the tank, then Kai picked a spot on the sidelines of the lot and followed Bonnie out. The smell of fried junk food was reaching out here, and Kai heard her stomach respond faintly, and smiled.
"Care for some fried onion loops?" he asked, gesturing for her to proceed to the diner. "Something tells me they might not have pizza here. Or overly pricey desserts. Or you might wanna learn that leprechaun trick I showed you earlier."
He winked at her and held the door, then went inside after her. It was smellier here, but luckily not too smoky. However, to Kai's nose, it was ten times worse – as if people were smoking around him, exhaling in his face. The intensity of smells caught him off-guard a bit, and he felt he would get something akin to a headache if he lingered for long. People's voices buzzed into his ears, sending parts of conversations through his brain like needles through flesh. It stung and distracted him from his own thoughts, and he realized it wasn't that easy to switch off the effect. He wondered if it was going to be that crazy forever now. He didn't think he could manage walking among people if it was. Damon and other vampires seemed to have no problem, so it had to get better.
Slightly dizzy, he followed Bonnie to the counter, restraining his face from wincing as every other second filled his ears with more sounds and talks, and his nostrils started to itch from all the smells flooding from the open kitchen. Quite peckish himself, he felt faintly sick.
Bonnie scanned the sea of bodies seated in various locations across the room, nerves teetering on a high wire. The cops were after them, Damon was after them and in spite of the temporary confidence instilled by their escape she felt overwhelmed.
What would happen once they caught up to them? Would she be able to stop things from escalating? Kai wouldn't go down without a fight and she had no sure way how to handle anything! This wasn't something she could teach herself or flip a coin to decide, this involved lives – one she'd already lost – and more in the making.
Frankly, she'd never been on this side of the law before. Not without someone there to help her. Sheriff Forbes, Matt, her father. She didn't like the feeling. She didn't like knowing that even if she hadn't played witness to the harm that couple endured, she had aided and gotten rid of another man, someone who'd been reduced to nothing in a bathtub and sat heavily on her conscience.
She deserved to be locked up.
Bonnie swallowed, forcing herself to relax and regarded Kai for a curious instant, taking in the mask of distaste that crossed his features. Could he read her thoughts?
"You okay?" she asked automatically, reaching for his hand, steering him to the table close to the restroom and out of the way of the windows and door. If the cops did come tumbling in, she didn't want to be the first or even second thing they saw. The irony didn't sit well with her even as she approached the table, registering the shadows provided by the poor lighting and it's out of the way setting. It was as if the sunlight couldn't quite reach it.
Her hand steering him through the aisle for a remote table grounded him a little, provided a focus that was slipping away from him under the pressure of all the sensors going into overdrive.
Belatedly, he realized she asked a question.
"Yeah, I'm…" He sat and cast a quick glance around, then looked at her, forced a smile and shook his head. "I'm fine. Just… all this vampire thing with smells and sounds is like standing at an amplifier or a punk rock concert while your face is stuck in a beer-soaked biker's armpit. Not quite the live-fast-die-never life your buddy Damon is a mascot to."
He painted quite the verbal picture. Bonnie wrinkled her nose at the thought, looking down at the table in consideration. Guiltily she hadn't even pondered how his new senses must be affecting him – not in the same way she usually would have.
There wasn't time.
He seemed to be adapting fine and for the most part, even his hunger was under control. There was no outbreak, no battle, no bloodlust or attempt to talk him down from the ledge. It had all been calculated.
At least that's what she'd believed.
He turned in his seat glancing back at the bar, then threw Bonnie an apologizing shrug.
"I don't think it's the type of place they bring you the menu and wine card and ask to accept the chef's special appetizers while you wait. You had to order before we sat."
Her eyes flicked to his face again, softening slightly, pushing aside the internal battle.
"Probably not," she agreed, stealing a look around.
There were many tables, many unfamiliar faces and a three TV's situated around the room. The first above the bar pointing toward booth at the entrance, another opposite them in the left corner and a third on the opposite side of the restaurant out of sight. All of them currently showed a baseball game and revolving updates on the weather and high priority news headlines.
"What would you like? A beer? Something to dull the senses?" She couldn't remember the last time he fed. "Something else?" Bonnie probed, refusing to say blood or vein and hopeful he could read the offer in her eyes.
Kai wrinkled his nose. "No beer, no nothing. Just get yourself some food, and we'll be on our way to a hopefully better place."
He scanned the hall until he caught the eye of a waitress – a tired woman in her late forties – and she started toward them with an expression of weary boredom on her face. She plopped the menus on the table in front of Bonnie, casting a glace between them.
"I'll come in five to get the order."
"Wait," Bonnie said, stopping the waitress before she could make her retreat and return to the kitchen.
She paused, hesitantly and slowly whirled around on the ball of her right foot to fix Bonnie with a look.
"I know what I want." Bonnie didn't want to waste time any unnecessary time. "I'll just take a mushroom and cheese burger with fries and a water. All to go." Bonnie extended the menu toward the waitress, reaching across the table to claim the one she'd given Kai and waited for her to take it.
"We don't have mushrooms. We need to make a trip into town."
"Do you have cheese?" Bonnie asked, leaning forward on her elbows as the woman took the menu, sliding Kai's on top.
She nodded.
"I'll take it." Bonnie avowed with a cheery smile, trying to broadcast positivity she didn't at all feel.
The woman turned toward the counter to hand in the order.
"Oh, um… how long will it take?"
She stopped, shoulders slightly tense, and smiled. "Fifteen minutes, sugar."
Bonnie nodded, sat back and watched her proceed on her way, her eyes immediately shifting to the windows, to the cars parked across the lot outside. "Do you think it's a good idea to keep travelling by car?" she asked in a whisper, knowing his vampire hearing would pick up on her question.
Kai chuckled. "You got any other suggestions? Perhaps I need to sprout bat wings and carry you around like a dragon would a stolen princess? I'm sure your friends would love the headlines."
Taking into consideration the fact that he'd revived a fossilized set of bones, although he was joking, she couldn't quite bring herself to laugh.
"I was thinking something less attention-grabby, say, walking—" Bonnie interjected while he took his turn to examine their surroundings. She was trying to be relaxed, to play things down and hope for the best but ever since Damon unleashed the cops on them, things were spiraling, and fast.
His gaze froze on the flickering TV screen over the bar where the truckers and travelers at the counter were staring. It was CNN news, and it was proudly demonstrating the red-blue police blinkers and ambulance vans crowding the National Mall in Washington, DC. The sound was low, but Kai had no trouble hearing the report of panic and disturbances at the Museum. Some witnesses relied their staggering stories of the T-Rex coming alive and inducing chaos in the place of pride and history of the United States.
Trying not to smile, Kai jerked his chin toward the bar for Bonnie to turn around and look. Right on time for the report about two criminals hunted by the police being seen in a restaurant not far from here where flashed their recognizable faces on camera in the hall. They said any possible connections between the assailants and the Mall Museum incident are currently being investigated. Then came the interview with one of the police officers that had tried to apprehend the suspects earlier and ended up knocked out and one police cruiser short. The said police cruiser had not been located, and the police suspect the modern Bonnie and Clyde were still traveling by it to throw off any suspicions on the road. The officer directed his tired eyes to the camera and pleaded the citizens to stay vigilant and report anything they might know on the case, for the suspects are extremely dangerous and possibly armed.
After the shots from the restaurant camera were displayed, Kai saw the barmen hold their waitress by the shoulder whispering something to her, and how she turned and looked at them with wary eyes.
Following his sign, Bonnie turned and spied the TV. The first thing she saw was an image from their time in the restaurant, clear as day and leaving little doubt to anyone who knew them or who'd come face to face with them of who that was. She watched the segment to its completion as if she were witnessing a burning wreck, her body humming with renewed life, her hands automatically falling to her side to make a grip for anything that was hers.
"It's time to go," Bonnie deliberated in a rush, already scrambling out the booth, refusing to wait around for the cops to show up again or for someone to sell them out.
Kai got up and followed her out without any resistance at all, though in the back of his mind, he regretted the meal she wasn't getting. But inside that diner made him sick, and he felt quite happy taking a fresher, cooler breath outside while keeping up with Bonnie's hasty pace. Anxiety nearing on panic coiled off her like smoke off censer.
He felt a little lightheaded – a reminder of how he didn't take a moment to drain the Bennett girl of a few swallows and how it didn't help to keep it together in smelly public places. Kai still smelled burnt onions dipped in cheap cigarettes smoke all over himself and was fighting back faint nausea. Bonnie's rapid heartbeat in his temples didn't help.
"We still need to get you some food," he remarked, reaching for the keys in his pocket as they approached the car.
"Let me take care of it."
Kai froze in place, keys dangling in his hand, and stared at Lily holding the witch girl to her by the throat. Her hand squeezed a little, making Bonnie's eyes bulge and her lips distort in a soundless cry for help. Kai's heart skipped a beat or two before he sensed something behind him. He started to turn, but it was too late, and Enzo jabbed a vervain syringe into his neck. Kai's vision swam as if he were about to cry, Lily's bloating face was sneering; Bonnie's mouth was widening its O of terror. Her heart was galloping deafeningly in his temples. The ground wobbled beneath Kai's feet. Enzo's arms wrapped around him, relieving his hand of the keys, and dragged. The twilight turned into black tar and crept over the world, killing it.
Lily's hand felt like a living python wrapped around her throat, threatening to crush her windpipe with a flex of her slender fingers. There was no sympathy in the vampire's eyes, no joy, and definitely no remorse, the look Bonnie was familiar with and had nearly cost her life before. This time was no different. She hauled Bonnie off her feet like an impish cat, threatening to snap her spine with flex of her slender fingers, providing the young witch with an unwitting view as Kai got his vervain shot. A gasp rushed forth from her mouth in alarm when he slumped down, and the pain that radiated up her back and rocketed into every corner of her body. Lily flashed a condescendingly triumphant smile and without warning rammed her head into the side of the cars door.
Blackness came immediately.
"Was that really necessary, Love?" Enzo asked, feeling a twinge of sympathy for the witch that had once saved him. They were by no means best friends or even allies, but he didn't have a particular wish to see her dead.
"No," Lily mused, her tone no longer possessed any of its usual regale politeness. She needed to feed and now.
"Let's load them in and grab a snack on the way, you look like you could do with another drink."
Lily said nothing, her eyes focused on the witches in turn. They had both betrayed her, both equally gone out of their way to ruin her life and that of her adopted children.
No more.
Enzo unlocked the doors the rest of the way, slid Kai into the backseat and buckled him up like a toddler. He didn't trust the kid, and although that syringe borrowed earlier from Jeremy's little mobile arsenal seemed big enough, he wanted a little warning before things erupted. Lily focused her full attention on Bonnie, reaching down to lift her off the ground, licking her lips as she did, picturing sinking her teeth into her neck.
"Climb into the backseat," Enzo suggested, taking the witch's unconscious body from her, practically prying her clothes from her sought for lover's lethal grip.
Lily did as he said with an insinuation of stiff hesitation, sliding into the back of the car. He closed the door for her in as gentlemanly a manner as he could muster, struggling with the passenger door before slipping Bonnie inside. He strapped her in, too. He looked around, grateful no one seemed to have taken in the commotion and moved around to the other side, removing the keys from the door and stuffing them into the ignition.
"Where to, Love?" he asked, already knowing the answer but wanting to keep her talking.
"Home," Lily murmured, almost sounding happy.