Kai Parker Fic

BRUISES

Part Five - Part four here

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They were safe, for now. Kai had transported them both to her house, since obviously his was not the safest place to be at the moment. He’d collapsed onto the plush red sofa, sinking back into the cushions and rubbing his bloodied face on the edge of his coat, which he peeled off as the girl started up a crackling fire, her hands shaking as she worked and frantically muttered to herself. Once the room had warmed up, she sunk slowly down on the carpet to face the amber flames, her head bent low. Kai spoke her name, but she didn’t respond for a while.

“I’m gonna kill him,” she said at last.

“What?”

“Your father, I’m gonna kill him,” she repeated.

“Well you already got him pretty good back there,” Kai tried nervously, “that was pretty cool, by the way.”

She stood suddenly, facing the heretic with her eyebrows narrowed, “are we not going to talk about the fact that you cloaked me?”

He chewed his lips, hoping it wouldn’t come up, “I was-” he started.

“Just trying to keep me safe,” she finished with a scoff.

He nodded, fidgeting anxiously with the hem of his black top.

“Clearly I’m not the one who needs to be kept safe,” she grumbled, heading over to the side table beside the couch and promptly filling a cup of bourbon.  Kai outstretched his his hand for the glass, watching in awe as the girl plopped beside him and downed  almost the whole thing herself, face scrunching as she drank the liquid.

“You don’t drink,” he pointed out.

“I do now,” she took another swig.

“Should I be worried?” Kai asked, confused as he watched his perfect girl trash her innocence. 

“Nope,” she said flatly, head pushed back as she nudged the glass into Kai’s hands.

He finished it off, setting the glass down and shifting so he could get a good look at the girl, her eyes closed, hair like a waterfall around her face, lips barely parted.

“You okay?” he whispered, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

She blinked her eyes open to look at the heretic’s sad blue ones, “no, you?”

“No,” he said, pulling her gently into his lap, and mindlessly running his slender fingers through her locks. He seemed nervous, new to this whole thing of physical contact. She curled onto her side, snuggling into his front and breathing in his scent, breath settling as she relaxed under his touch.

“Is he going to come after me?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“He’ll try.”

“Why?” she whimpered.

“He doesn’t know who you are. He just sees a girl I’m with, and makes any assumption. You could be a witch for all he knows. Or you could be any other magical entity that potentially poses a threat to our coven, even though I’m not trying to take it down, it’s what he’d assume,” Kai said, heart aching from seeing her so broken in his arms. “Or maybe he’s exactly right. Maybe he sees a girl, a normal, human girl, and the thought of seeing me even remotely happy makes him so sick that he wants to take that away.”

“Why?” she said again.

“My family thinks I’m an abomination, so, no doubt they’d infer that I’d hurt you, on purpose or not. In a way, I’m actually happy you’re human, or else they might be right.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, rolling on her back so she could look up at him.

“It means I can’t siphon from you, or hurt you by accident.”

“Yeah but I wouldn’t mind,” she shrugged.

Kai traced around her facial features, sighing, “You don’t understand. With my family it’s…it’s like I’m a drug addict or something. I’m always dying for a hit of magic, I need it, and I never want you to see that side of me. Because when I don’t have it I get bad, I do things I wouldn’t usually do. And I don’t mean to hurt them, I just…” he trailed off with a shake of his head.

The girl sat up now, lacing her fingers through Kai’s and leaning back in distress. “I’m sorry,” is all she managed. 

“I need to leave,” Kai said at last.

“I’m not sure that’s safe,” she started.

“Look, my dad is going to do a tracking spell to find me, which will lead him right to you. If I leave now, he won’t be able to find you. The spell requires someone’s possession, but he doesn’t own anything of yours, so as long as you’re away from me-”

“Don’t do that!” she exclaimed, standing and pacing with agitation, Kai rising from the couch.

“What?”

“That thing, where you try and push me away to keep me safe. It won’t work, Malachai. Did you learn nothing from back there in the forest?! I don’t want to let you out there alone knowing that what happened to you could-” she paused, choking on a sob, “could happen again.”

Flashes of Kai’s bloodied and lifeless form in the snow flashed back to her. The scars she saw in the bathtub burned in her memory. And those bruises, the ones she saw the first night with him, suddenly they were all flooding back. And it was too much for her, as she went sinking to the floor and collapsing into a wave of fresh tears. Her body shook with every sob, face buried in her knees as she felt a set of arms come slinking around her from behind, holding her body against his chest. Kai rest his lips atop her forehead, rocking her slowly in his arms and whispering lightly to her until she regained her ability to breathe. She blinked through her blurry vision, hand wrapping around Kai’s arms as she stared at the glowing flames in front of her, mind spinning.

“There’s something I need to tell you,” Kai whispered after a long silence. “My family, they’ve been on edge more than usual recently, because-” he paused and thought about a way to phrase his next words. “Remember when I told you about how the twins merge?”

She nodded and blinked up at his worried blue eyes.

“Well, it happens, when they come of age,” he gulped anxiously.

Red blood began dripping from Kai’s nose, and he looked completely unfazed as it spilled across his full lips and down his chin like a faucet.

“Kai!” she gasped, turning and grabbing his arms, “what’s happening!?”

Kai gave a weak laugh, blood still coming as he wiped it away on his sleeve with a lame chuckle.

“Kai!” she shook him with worry.

“Probably a birthday gift,” he said with a twitch of his lips.

“Birthday gift?”

“I probably should have told you,” he said, eyes flickering up to the clock that hung on the wall, striking just past midnight. “I’m twenty two now.”    

“Oh my god,” she breathed in denial, “that means-”

“They won’t let us do the merge,” he shook his head, suddenly releasing a groan of pain, hands coming flying to his head as he shrunk down in aguish.

“Malachai!?”

“I need-” he coughed out, “magic.”

She silently panicked, “I-I don’t know how to help!”

“Papa’s sending a warning,” Kai groaned, rolling to his backside on the carpet and panting out, vision going fuzzy.

She slid next to him, hands on either side of his face, “Kai, stay with me! Siphon from the vampire blood you gave me!” She fumbled for the vial around her neck, watching Kai’s eyes grow wide in shock.

He let out a scream of anguish before going still all at once, his eyes focusing back on her, chest rattling with each breath he gulped down. He sat up, rubbing at his temples, his eyes dark, lacking their usual glow. He growled, almost barely audibly, “where’s the necklace?”

Her eyebrows furrowed as she reached for her neck, grasping at nothing there and instantly feeling her heart sink.

“Where’s the stupid necklace?” he hissed, his nostrils flaring.

“I-I don’t know,” she said, “It must’ve fallen off earlier or something. I’m so-”

Kai’s hands flew to her mouth, muffling her shocked yelp, his eyes boring into her own, “he’s here.”