♡ 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲 ♡

𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 nine

silver springs.

─── ༺♥༻ ───

JOSETTE PARKER held her phone to her ear with an unsteady hand, smirking at the love language she and her boyfriend shared. Her white coat clung to her chest and her chestnut hair fell before two crows-feet eyes. 

"How much are you gonna wanna kill me if I raincheck tonight?" she tapped bare fingernails against the plastic phone case, Christmas lights reflecting in that and each piece of jewellery she wore. 

"Why? What happened?" Alaric mumbled.

"I have a possible 480 hit-and-run on campus, one DOA, 4 reds en route-"

"Have your previous boyfriends understood this language you speak?"

Josette chuckled softly, head tilted downwards to hide her blush from her co-workers. "I'm gonna miss dinner." She paused. "So you're my boyfriend now?"

Jo could hear the sharpness in his breath, the uneasy shuffling of his feet, and the embarrassing clear of his throat through the phone. It was a slip-up. The heart grew lips and spoke instead of the brain. A part of her wondered what else it would say. 

"There's no hospital code for awkward silence." She joked, hoping to ease some. "Give me two hours. Save me dinner."

With a click, Alaric's warm voice fizzled out and medical lingo filled her ears. As did the nonstop buzzing of wires and rattling of trolley wheels.

"-We have a female with abdominal wounds-"

"Put her in T-3. I need 10 milligrams of morphine. Mine's conscious." she muttered out to her subordinate, pushing a patient along with her. "See a lot of blood. No broken bones."

"Making any sense?"

"No, it's not. What happened to you? Were you hit by a car?" Josette flashed a light in her eyes, watching the irises widen and shrink with panic. 

"I can't breathe-" 

Jo swallowed thickly. Her knowledge in the medical field stretched for acres, but not this many. "It's okay. You can tell me what really happened," she muttered, trying to settle her thrashing. "Sweetheart, look at me."

From the corner of the patient's eye, doused in blood that made his blue eyes pop, Kai Parker gave a condescending smirk. He stumbled towards her as the lights behind him lit up his silhouette like a deranged angel, determined to take her to the beyond with him. A true angel of death.

"What happened to you?" Josette repeated, unaware of the man creeping up behind her and raising the goosebumps on her neck. 

A sharp pain etched in her skull and her hair was yanked backwards until his voice whispered in her ear. Kai purred, pricking her neck with a nearby needle. 

"I stabbed her."

He grinned. Ever so devilishly. 

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

Freya fiddled with the ornaments on Bonnie's tree, wincing at the amount of tinsel wrapped around it. It looked in pain, almost. Choking on glitter and squashed needles that tightened around its core. 

Bonnie chuckled at her grimace. "Don't tell me you're a Grinch."

"I'm not built for the cold. Or anything that involves being stuck on the top of a tree in doll form." She teased. 

Christmas wasn't a holiday she or Sam favoured. While Love and Death were scattered throughout, through mistletoes and the dying scent of pine, they had their respected ones to fathom instead.

"More of a Valentine's Day girl yourself?" Bonnie split a smile as she received a half-assed glare from the Angel. "What? The opportunity was there!"

"Surprisingly, I have a love-hate relationship with Halloween. Sam hates it. I love it cause he hates it. However, I'm aware I'm quite the popular costume." Freya scowled playfully. "Don't ask me where the giant baby with a bow schtick came from. I'm not that sensitive."

"Well, you'll love Christmas with me. I make a mean Pudding."

Freya forced out a chuckle. As nice as it sounded to spend the holiday doing something other than working, she wasn't here for pleasure - or pudding. She had to widdle her way into the heart of a man who enjoyed cutting out other people's.

"You really can't leave him?" 

Freya's eyes flickered upwards. The Bennett's cheery festive smile was replaced with something much colder. Much sadder. A frown on one of the happiest times of the year. 

"Think of it as an invisible string that's slowly choking the life out of me." She joked, though the tension never eased. "Every time he tugs, I feel it. Every time he breathes, I feel it. I know he has a heart because I can feel the echo of its beat in my own."

Bonnie's look soured a little. "Maybe that's just your body trying to heave."

Freya laughed. "A strong possibility."

Before she could register it, Damon flicked a bauble at her head, accompanied by both Elena and Alaric.  Something seemed off. Whether it was his tone, Elena's sympathetic glances, or the glares Ric shot at the back of her head, Freya knew it wasn't good

"Where's your sociopathic boy toy?"

She scowled, ruffling glitter out of her hair. "I don't know, I don't keep tabs."

"I asked around at the hospital. No one's seen Jo since last night at the ER." Elena spoke softly. Much softer than her Christmas ornament-swinging maniac boyfriend. "A bunch of stab victims came in.. and one of them is missing too." 

Alaric crossed his arms, still glaring. "It was Kai." he paused. "Jo knew he'd come after her, and he did."

Freya kept her stare on the tree, hoping the pine needles would stick away any guilt and responsibility she felt prick her skin. 

In simple terms, Kai was her responsibility. Down to his axe-swinging, kid-murdering core. 

"Not to give you boyfriend lessons or anything." Damon spoke up before Freya could even roll her eyes, "But if you knew Jo's wack-job brother was out on the loose and after her... don't you think keeping an eye on her would've been a smart move?"

Bonnie shared a look with her as Freya tried to keep her mouth shut -- a deadly trait. 

"And what would you have me do, Damon? Ask you to compel Jo to stay put?"

Alaric was being sarcastic, although, didn't expect the nod that came from the vampire. The arguments were getting tiring. Blame was often placed on each other instead of Kai. 

Freya didn't mind blaming everything on Kai. Her bad mood, her chipped nails, the scent of cologne that wasn't hers sticking to her clothes... all his fault entirely. She was riding the Kai hate train to each and every destination.

Which didn't explain the intense need to defend him. One that clawed its way up her throat like word vomit. 

"Guys, if Kai has Jo, we need a plan," Bonnie murmured, sharing a look of agreement with her other half, Freya. 

Damon shrugged. "Plan's easy. Find Kai, kill Kai."

Freya couldn't help but speak then. "Little, tiny, minuscule snag in that plan." she smiled sarcastically. "Unless I wanna be stuck in this homey little town with all the psychos and the murderers it harbours, maybe don't kill him and keep me latched onto a corpse for eternity because I failed to do the one thing I was assigned to. Just a thought."

"You're the little snag in that plan." He scowled playfully. "We're killing him. With the help of our own lil' Freya Valentine."

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

"Bottom line, we need to keep Kai alive." Tyler Lockwood paced in front of Liv and Luke, holding a little emergency meeting of his own. 

Luke scoffed. "You think I'm gonna protect the guy who chased us around the house with a baseball bat when we were four?" 

Liv nodded at her twin. "Luke's right, Tyler. You're on some serious crack."

"You two are stuck doing the twin merge for your coven. Okay? That means one lives, one dies. If we help Kai and he finds a way to merge with Jo, that's not your problem anymore-"

"Until Kai becomes the most powerful witch in our coven and goes on a killing spree. Something tells me that's gonna become our problem."

Liv shared a look between the two boys before standing, quirking a brow. She couldn't help but be intrigued. "What does he want us to do, exactly?"

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

"Well, Beavis and Butthead are on the lookout. Anyone else brimming with confidence?" Damon huffed, approaching the couch. Alaric was sitting on the end, still glaring. Elena was in the middle, still pouting. Freya on the end, now sulking. Bonnie didn't want any part in it.

"This doesn't make any sense." Ric huffed.

Freya nodded. None of it made sense, actually. Nothing much did anymore.

"What possibly could not make sense about two magical twins absorbing into one another?"

"Listen, Jo needs her magic for the merge to work and she got rid of that back in 1994."

Freya couldn't resist her big mouth again. "In a tree stump hidden under leaves? Real creative. Took Kai ten minutes to find it."

All eyes were on her again. Curse those cherry-tinted lips. 

"Well, he won't find it again. It's taken and hidden by yours truly." Damon promised. "Kai won't find it, Frey."

"Unless he does a locator spell." Alaric popped her comforting bubble. 

Damon and Elena shared a knowing look. "That's impossible." He stated rather confidently.

Alaric's eyes shifted between the two. "Why?"

"Kai was born without the ability to do magic. He can only siphon it from others." Freya murmured. "And after a while, he runs out. He needs a magic top-up or else he's just another psycho with an affinity for violence."

"So the only way to restore Jo's magic is to reunite her with that knife? Kai's gonna come for it."

Elena pursed her lips, her weight shifting from one foot to the other. "Ric's right. Even if Kai can't do the locator spell, he's gonna make it his mission to find it."

Damon's lips formed into another smug smile, fiddling with his daylight ring as his eyes wandered around the dimly lit room. "Kai finds it. Great. Love it."

Freya furrowed her brows. "Why aren't you more concerned, weirdo?"

"Because if Kai goes for the knife, I will kill him because the knife is right here where I hid it." He grabbed the photo frame from the wall and threw it carelessly across the room. "Tada!"

Unfortunately, no knife stood before them. Just empty, maroon-painted drywall causing the Angel to give an ill-timed snicker. 

"Real sneaky, Damon. You hid it so well even you can't find it."

His eyes widened. Shit.

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

Kai's face glimmered behind the knife, the knife in question twirling between his fingers. "I know I tried to kill you when you were toddlers... but I gotta say.. it sure is nice to be around family for the holidays." He grinned, an unconscious Josette at his feet.

Kai dragged the thin stick across the soil and ignored the strange looks that came from his twin siblings.

"What the hell is he doing?" Luke whispered to his sister. His arms were dropped to his lap and his breathing had become laboured. Luke Parker had never considered himself to be a nervous person, but Kai had a way of making everyone feel on edge.

Liv scoffed bitterly. Her fearless attitude was getting the better of her, she was no longer a toddler - she could protect herself. Unlike her unconscious sister who lay limp on the dirt.

 "Probably playing tic-tac-toe with himself like a crazy person."

Kai's head perked up. "This is the antimagic border. Jo can get her magic back over there while over here.." he trailed off, grinning as he watched Jo regain consciousness. "Sissy's up." He smirked as her immediate coughing caught their attention.

"What did you do to me?" she shrieked, her eyes landing on her mischievous twin brother. Luke tore his eyes away. He hated seeing his sister in such a state. Liv, however, stared down at her sister with pity. She felt a little bad for Jo, but knew she'd rather save her own life than hers.

"What the hell did you do to me?" Jo hissed again. Kai stuck out his bottom lip and faked a remorseful look.

"I haven't seen you in 18 years. You can't muster a hello?"

Jo panted helplessly, looking toward her younger siblings. "What did you guys do?" She gripped the soil that sat beneath her as her voice began to shake.

Liv watched emotionlessly, pushing any remorse down deep into her gut. "What you should have done 18 years ago."

Jo felt a sting in her heart. The betrayal hurt so much she could feel it ache in her bones. Not only was she being turned on by her own family - but for the person she tried to protect them from. Her world was crashing down and she could do nothing but watch.

"It's not gonna work Kai. I don't have my-"

"Magic?" He answered for her, "I recall. You stored it in this." He held up the rusted dagger smugly, twirling it between his fingers before striking her in the arm with it.

"Dude, What the hell?" Luke tried to push past Liv, but she grabbed his bicep and pulled him back with a warning look.

Jo cried out, feeling the blood trickle down her skin. "I'm trying to reunite Jo with her... magic." He struck her again, slashing the skin on her arms as she let out another cry. "It's not working.."

"Enough, man!" Luke forced his way past Liv. Kai turned his head, grabbing Luke by the throat and pinning him against the wall.

"I wanted to kill you when your brain was the size of an acorn. You don't think I'll do it now?" He snarled, the blade grazing the hairs on Luke's neck.

Kai scrunched up his nose, snickering at his brother's vulnerability. He lowered the dagger and pulled his hand from Luke's collar, opting to push him into the wall instead.

"Whatever. I'm not watching this." Luke's eyes switched towards his sister, disappointment and disgust glinting in them before storming out of the room.

The siphoner rolled his wide eyes, turning back to his sisters. "Oh, so dramatic. All right. Sissy... Let's try this again." He readjusted the knife so it sat in his hand in a slasher position as a sick grin rested on his lips.

Jo raised her hand, breathing heavily. "Stop!" She cried. "I put my magic in there by choice. Taking it back is also my choice unless I bleed to death, which will happen in the next thirty minutes." She watched as Kai clenched his jaw, a look of regret plaguing his face. "Heh, Wouldn't it be ironic if you accidentally killed me before the merge ceremony?"

Kai fumbled with the knife as he fell deep in thought.

"I'm going to find a bandage while you figure out how to put the magic in this knife into our sister." He turned to Liv as he passed her the large dagger.

"Make sure it's by the time I get back so I don't have to dull it by slitting your throat." He descended into the woods, turning to her with a sly grin. 

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

Jo fidgeted on the soil, hissing as the wind blustered through her open wound. She didn't even want to think about the infection that would arise if it wasn't cleaned soon.

"Hey. It'll be ok." She called out to Liv, "I just needed to get rid of Kai so you could free me." 

Jo sent her a warm smile, as warm as she could make it while having her skin torn open.

Liv didn't bother to look up at her sister and kept her eyes trained on the knife. "Look, Jo. You can't run away from this anymore. You've had 18 years of freedom. Now take your magic back and do this. You owe it to the coven."

Jo's warm smile quickly faded. "Is that what you think, that I've been shirking my responsibility to our family?"

"Luke's all I've got. If we merge and he dies... I may as well be dead, too." Liv choked out, finally mustering up the courage to meet her sister's pleading eyes.

The wind howled vigorously around them, the winter air making Jo shiver. "If Kai merges with me, he'll be more powerful than any of us."

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe you're strong enough to beat him? You were 22 the last time you went up against him. Since then, you've been a combat medic, you've saved hundreds of lives, and your hospital worships you." Liv pleaded, dropping the knife to the floor but still far enough from Jo in case she tried to escape.

"You're my sister, and I'm yours. Look how far you've come without magic. You didn't get here listening to people tell you you weren't strong enough." She placed her hand atop hers, staring down at the knife. "Maybe this was a bad idea."

The blonde attempted to grab it, but was roughly yanked back by Kai locked her against his chest and began to siphon all her magic.

"Kai, stop!" Jo pulled against the ropes, a tear slipping out of the corner of her eye as she helplessly watched.

"Isn't it gonna be funny when I kill her using her own magic? Wait. Is that funny or sad? I get my emotions mixed up." He grinned, his strength overpowering Liv's as she began to slip into unconsciousness. "What's the one for fire again? Incendia?"

"Kai, enough!" Jo grabbed the dagger, absorbing the magic within. Kai threw Liv to the floor and sucked in a large breath.

"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

Freya listened to the radio, humming along until Alaric pushed the off button hard enough for it to spark a little. She was one to notice these things. The glares, the side glances, the way he'd turn a corner too hard so she'd accidentally smack her shoulder against the car door.

"Okay, what's your problem with me?" she hissed, her head between the two seats and coincidentally, between Ric and Damon. "You've been treating me like the enemy all day."

"You're not the enemy, just sleeping with it."

Freya gasped. A dramatic one, she'd admit. 

While that was true, technically, it was wholesome amongst the cotton sheets and goose-feathered pillows. It was a soft wall of China that had fallen. It was a moment of weakness. Loneliness. The heart thinking instead of the head.

"Kai wants to ruin my girlfriend's life. Kill her and absorb her magic -- and you, what, wanna make him fall in love and find happiness?"

"I can only do what I'm told-"

"And here I thought angels were something worth believing in."

Those words stung. She never asked to be prayed to for guidance or a symbol of innocence. The colours they painted in didn't match her palette, and so, made her entire existence a muddy mess even she couldn't decipher.

These days Freya felt less like an Angel of Love and more like an Angel of War. One she fought with herself.

"I sometimes think the same about people." She murmured over the silence.

His knuckles gripped the steering wheel. He could resist believing in the Angel of Love, but he'd hear the echo of her voice in each 'I love you' he told her. Her scent in the roses he bought for Josette. Feel her presence in the warm moments. He hated how love brought him what he loved most, and protected what would take that away.

"You think I don't know Kai's my responsibility? I wouldn't have come with you if I didn't feel guilty, Alaric. But I never put him there. I didn't torment him from birth, I didn't pit him against his siblings and I certainly didn't make him the monster he chose to be. Pin it on me if it makes you feel any better, but that Coven was fucked years before Kai came along."

Freya was unsure who she was defending here. Him or herself. It was woven, like pink yarn and electric wire, muddled up into a mess that would burn the greatest fire. Freya often felt like she'd feel the heat first.

Silence overcame them. One the Valentine didn't intend to induce.  It made her skin itch and fists clench until her knuckles were as pink as freshly picked strawberries. The freckles became her seeds. The sharp nails digging into her palms the thornbush.

"He doesn't deserve it," Ric muttered. "Love."

"Who does?"

He spoke of it like a blessing, she a curse. Both were right.

She stumbled out of the car slightly. For a moment, she expected Kai's hand to help her. Even if it was an act of dominance, it was better than feeling nothing but the November chill.

"Stay close." Damon nodded to her like the same gust of wind could take her away. 

Sometimes she tried to remember what it was like to smell pine and not think of Kai.

It was hard not to think of him, especially when he was around. The invisible string got tighter. Her breaths matched his. Her blinks did too. The shortness in her lungs. The erraticness of her heartbeat. She became half a person and gave him the other piece to wear. 

Kai crouched down to Jo, resting his finger on the side of her face to wipe away a single teardrop before withdrawing his hand, and inspecting the unusual heat emitting from each fingertip. His whole body came to a slow boil that warmed him up from the inside out. 

Jo glared up at the boy, "All this because Dad didn't love you enough." She laughed. "You are an abomination, Kai. I'm going to win and finally rid this earth of you."

Kai's warmth faltered, a look of hatred glinting in his eyes. "You're lucky I need you for the merge, otherwise, your lungs would be the second thing I'd cut out of you." He chuckled darkly. "The first thing being your tongue."

He wanted to bask in that same warmth again. He stepped outside the Moseleum, eyes flickering around in a dazed manner from tree to tree until his back pressed sharply against one. 

"A cemetery? Really?" Damon snapped, Freya's eyes wide as his own met hers.

"Motus," Kai muttered, sending Damon flying into the line he drew. The vampire scrambled back up, throwing himself back over the line until his skin began to sizzle from the sun.

"Oh, whoops. Appears like you found the anti-magic border." He smirked, teasing devilishly. "Drew a line in the dirt for everyone's convenience. You're welcome."

Kai's smug grin quickly faded as he felt the barrel of a gun press up against his skull.

"Alaric, don't kill him!" Freya panted, leaning towards Alaric who had wrapped his remaining arm around the siphoner's neck. "Please."

Alaric pursed his lips, glaring at Damon. "If we kill him right now.. All our troubles would disappear."

She couldn't argue with that logic. No matter how enticing it seemed. However, a Kai-shaped hole in the ground would be the anchor tying her to the dirt. She often prayed for his silence, but never once did she wish it permanent. 

"Ric," Freya held his hands up in surrender. "Jo needs him. I need him. Don't do this."

Kai chuckled at the hysteria he had caused, his eyes focused on Freya and the way she spoke his name like a holy prayer. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to. He just split a wolfish grin and gazed at her from under sleepy eyelids. 

Damon noticed her pleads too. Each word spoken delicately. He tossed the Angel some chains, some that made her stomach churn with misplaced guilt. "Tie him up."

"Kinky." Kai hummed, the heavy weapon still aimed at his pretty little head. "You know, Alaric, you're pretty pathetic."

Ric's breathing increased and he gritted his teeth as he forced the gun deeper into his skull. "Shut up."

"No, I mean it. You're powerless." He manipulated, his attention turning as he heard the jingle of thick chains being drawn across the floor. 

Freya avoided his look. She knelt in front of him, locking them around his wrists. She tried to be gentle, as gentle as her hands would let her and tried to ignore the intense stare burning into her skin like two tiny suns scorching each piece of bare skin. 

"Don't look at me like that." 

Her words were soft. Softer than her touch, if possible. It was impossible not to look up at this point. His eyes almost dared her to, taking their gaze and twisting it into something destructive. 

"Why?" That was all he could say.

She perched her eyes upwards, hoping they wouldn't get stuck on his. "Hold still."

"Those need to be tighter." He muttered. "You're too afraid of hurting me."

She tightened them, ignoring his comment. "Tighter."

That's when she gave him a stern glare. "Stop moving."

He couldn't help it. She was too easily too rile up. Too good to look at. Too nice to feel. His head leaned against the tombstone while his hands gently brushed against hers. 

Kai remembered the sight of her in his clothes. In his bed. In his arms. Usually, he'd take those memories and sharpen the edges to torture her with. He didn't do that this time. Kai wanted to keep them, selfishly or not, it was a treasure he rarely kept but it was worth more than any dime. 

"You sleep with me once and suddenly you're all gentle-"

"Alright. That's it-" 

Alaric pulled the gun away from Kai's head, roughly slamming it into the rear of his head - knocking him out cold. She glanced up at the two disappointed men with eyes as wide as cherry pies. 

It totally wasn't what it sounded like. 

✧ 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 4,219. ✧

a/n: they're slowly evolving