Chapter 7 ━━ Playing Fire With Fire

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Damon, Bonnie, Kai and Lorna are out in the yard, where Kai is using the Ascendant by looking at the sky with it through a small hole in the device.

"You're wandering around like a crazy man, why?" Damon asks him.

"Looking for the exact right spot. We need to find where the power of the eclipse is focused." Kai answers.

"You know you could have just shown us the Ascendant to begin with." Lorna says to him.

"Yeah, but I wanted to feel her hand on my chest." He gestures at Bo

nnie with a smirk and with an unknown reason, that causes the blonde to feel jealous. Something tells her that he did that to take any emotion out of her. And he succeeded.

Bonnie mutters. "There's something not right about him."

"You're just not used to guys hitting on you." Damon says to Bonnie.

"Or maybe he's flirting with everyone." Lorna's jealousy talks before her.

"You know, I can't wait to get out of here and talk to somebody else." Bonnie says.

"Same. I can't wait to see my boyfriend." Lorna says a little louder for Kai to hear. He does look at her with a jealous expression making her smirk to herself. 

"Can we just have a few lasting seconds of peace while this idiot uses that thing to get the stars to align?" Damon asks.

Bonnie notices one of the paper planes Damon made from newspaper earlier laying on the ground. She picks it up and unfolds it so she can read the article on the page.

"Hey, what's up with the nature walk?" Damon questions.

"I used the Ascendant to figure out where we need to be standing during the eclipse." Kai answers.

"Great. Let's do some magic and get the hell out of here." Damon says.

Bonnie whispers. "Oregon."

"What?" Damon and Lorna ask at the same time.

"I read this paper like a thousand times, and there's something in it about Oregon." Bonnie says.

"What about it?" Lorna asks rather interestingly.

"You know, Kai said he had all these brothers and sisters." Bonnie says.

"Mmhmm." 

Bonnie reads the paper aloud. "Family massacred in Portland. The only one missing was the oldest boy, a 22-year-old named Malachi."

"Who names a kid Malachai?" Kai asks, as if something about the current conversation brings boredom to him. "It's like they expected me to be evil."

"All these kids were murdered!" Bonnie gasps, making the blonde join Bonnie and read the paper.

"Hello! Not everyone died. I had a soft spot for one of my sisters. 'Cause otherwise, I would've cut her lungs out, and not just her spleen." Kai announces.

"What?" Lorna asks in horror.

"You can survive without a spleen." Kai shrugs.

"Something tells me you're not speaking hypothetically." Damon says.

Kai points at the photo on the front page. "Look, well, these two, I, uh, hung off a stairwell railing. Then I put a hunting knife in her abdomen, and him, I drowned in the pool. But, he kept fighting me. I was like, 'I saved you for last, you ungrateful little...' Anyway, that was that."

"You just killed your whole family?" Lorna asks Kai with horror.

"Coven, to be precise. Oh, you know, family of witches." Kai explains.

Damon looks annoyed. "You're making us jump through hoops, and you're a witch?

"Sort of, yeah. No powers, obviously. Oh, and of course, Gemini Coven did not take it too well when they heard what I did in Portland. It's why they banished me here." Kai tells.

"This place is a prison." Lorna says to Bonnie and Damon before she looks at Kai. "They created it for you."

"Yup. This place isn't your hell, Damon. It's mine." Kai says proudly.

"We're not letting him out of here, okay? He just said he's a serial killer." Bonnie tells, pointing at the man, who just spilled how he killed siblings to have no remorse, even to this point of his life.

"I don't care! I wanna get out of here." Damon says, throwing his hands in the air.

"How can you not care? Maybe because of the horrible things you have done? Maybe 'cause killing a bunch of kids is not a big deal to someone who's murdered a pregnant woman?" Bonnie questions and Damon looks hurt by Bonnie's words but she continues. "Am I wrong?" 

Stefan asks Zach. "Did you leave the door open?"

"No." Zach shakes his head. "Why?" 

Suddenly, they hear screaming and the sound of broken glass in the next room. Zach and Stefan rush into the room to find multiple bodies laying around the room. Damon has a scared Gail in a headlock.

"This eclipse party blows. I didn't see the sun at all when I crossed the yard!" Damon smirks.

Stefan and Zach stare at him in horror.

"I forgot how much stronger we are when we drink human blood." He adds.

Gail's scaredly call out. "Zach."

"Damon, please don't hurt her." Zach begs.

"I want my ring back, Stefan." Damon says making Stefan throw the ring to him. "Atta boy."

"I'm never gonna be rid of you, am I?" Stefan asks.

"No, you're not. 'Cause in 1912, I showed you who you were, Stefan. In 1942, I gave you your freedom, and in 1977 I almost killed your best friend because it should have been you there to help me, Stefan. You owe me, and it'll take you an eternity to pay me back." Damon feeds on Gail until she dies. "An eternity of misery, brother. Just like I promised."

He vamp-speeds out the door, and Zach falls to his knees to find Gail dead.

"Ouch. Poor nephew-uncle Zach." Kai fake cries.

"Stefan compelled Uncle Zach to forget about the girlfriend and the baby. But, he couldn't cover up all those murders. Founder's Council was restarted, and Stefan took off. Left Mystic Falls for about fifteen years. We both did. And when I saw Uncle Zach again, I couldn't look at him without remembering that I ruined everything. So it was a nice relief when I got to kill him. Okay, can we go back now?" Damon asks, not wanting to touch the subject anymore.

"Oh, come on, Bonnie. You wanna go home to your friends, I wanna go back and give the rest of the Gemini Coven an excruciating death. Win-win." Kai says in excitement like a child, who is just rewarded with candy.

"Look, Bonnie, I know this guy's not a model citizen, okay, but I gotta get back. Not just for Elena, but for my brother." Damon says.

Bonnie guilty says. "I'm sorry, Damon."

"Sorry, doesn't work for me." Kai is about to grab Bonnie when instead Damon grabs him.

"We may be having a bit of a disagreement, but don't ever lay a hand on her." Damon warns him.

"Kind of a non-issue now. We missed the day's eclipse. Raincheck for tomorrow?" Kai asks.

"No." Lorna says and leaves, fed up with losing hope to go home.

Later on, Damon walks into the kitchen and finds Bonnie and Lorna eating dinner at the table.

"Shame-eating?" Damon asks.

"Thinking about that pregnant lady. She had a thing for pancakes." Bonnie says. 

"That's what you remember?" Damon asks.

"You remember it, don't you? You make pancakes every day." Lorna asks him.

"Cause I'm bored." Damon shrugs.

"No. 'Cause you're punishing yourself. You call this place your hell, and it means you feel remorse. That makes you different from Kai." Bonnie gasps playfully. "Maybe there is hope for you."

Lorna smiles. "He always had hope even though he's faking that he doesn't." 

"Look, we can still get outta here. We can steal that 'Descendant' contraption, find out what Kai knows and we'll ditch him because he doesn't have any powers anyway." Damon explains his plan.

Kai suddenly appears at the door. "Actually, it's not that simple."

"You gotta stop doing that. It's creepy." Damon says.

"Here's the thing, I have a killer effect on magic. I can't generate it myself. But, I can consume it from others temporarily. My family called me an abomination. That hurt my feelings." Kai explains.

As he tries to grab Bonnie's wrist, Lorna pushes him to the wall with her vampire speed and squeezes his neck. "Do not touch her." 

He laughs through pain. "Protective cousin. I get it."

Lorna lets go of him and whispers to his ear, seductively. "Do not fight fire with fire because it will burn you."

He massages his neck with a smirk before he licks his lips and leans to her. "I know how to control fire without burning myself." His fingertips move from her shoulder to downwards and her breathing heightens.

His blue-grey eyes are looking down into hers as his hands slowly and smoothly rub circles on her skin. 

Suddenly, Bonnie and Damon start moaning in pain and the stove catches fire.

Lorna tries to take her eyes off him, but she can't. It's like he enchanted her.

"Okay, we get it!" Damon yells, making a smirk draw across Kai's face.

Kai stops what he's doing, making Lorna blink and look around confusedly. As she sees Bonnie rubbing her forehead and Damon looking at Kai with a killing glare, she realises what just happened. He did a spell on them.

"You can see why my coven and I didn't get along." Kai keeps his smirk still.

"I smell an ultimatum." Damon says.

"If I consume all of Bonnie's and Lorna's magic, I'm just gonna end up killing them. But, if we work together, we can all go home as friends. Or I can devour their magic, kill you guys, and go home alone. What's it gonna be?" Kai sits down at the table and starts eating the pancakes.