Pernicious | Kai Parker

Chapter 20

Amelia's mind just about exploded.

"What do you mean?" she asked. "What do you mean the memories are gone?"

Kai seemed to forget Bonnie and Damon were there. "We're siphoners," he mentioned. "We— we express magic very differently, and because we have to take it in first, our brains are... altered. I can remember things from when I was a year old, and no one knows why. I know you would have been able to remember me if he hadn't taken your memories away."

"He? Who's he?"

"Meli," he said, holding out his hands as if motioning for her to slow down and let him talk. "It's okay, I'm going to tell you, little by little. Just be patient with me."

He was acting nicer than he had this entire past day. "Meli?" she asked. "Why are you calling me that?"

"That was my nickname for you," he said. "That's what I used to call you."

"You mean we knew each other?"

"Yes, we did. You were born on April 2nd, 1992, weren't you?"

Amelia felt like she'd been violated. "How the hell did you know that?"

"Because I went to see you the day you were born," he explained. "Your name isn't Amelia Torres. You were born Emilia Janette Hildegard-Torres. Your parents are members of the Gemini Coven. Your father— Emilio Hildegard, Portland born and raised, a childhood friend of my dad. Your mother— Janette Torres, the daughter of a Mexican woman and Italian man, with some French descendancy here and there. She and my mom got along well."

Bonnie and Damon didn't dare interrupt as he continued, "You were the first kid born after the last pair of Gemini twins, my youngest siblings Lucas and Olivia. They were a year older than you, and you didn't always get along. They pushed you around a lot, they teased you because you couldn't talk properly. You had the sweetest little baby voice, but you couldn't pronounce certain letters the right way. I used to sneak out to be away from my family, and I'd supervise you all from a distance. I'd see them push you around and make you cry.... One day, you wandered into the forest near the house, and you found me. You sat with me for hours, babbling away and playing with sticks— you had tons of dolls and stuffed animals and you had more fun making rock and mud castles for your sticks."

"Hiya," said Emilia, slipping through the trees and holding up a stick as she came up to Kai. "This for you."

"For me?" he asked, taking it from her. He watched her wiggle up to sit beside him, on a fallen tree branch. He tucked the beer he'd been drinking behind his back, but she saw it.

"Apple juice?" she asked, holding her hand out.

Kai laughed. "That's not apple juice, no. You're Emilia, right?"

She nodded, and clapped her hands. "Apple juice, please."

"It's not apple juice, Emilia."

"Name?"

"My name's Malachai, but you can call me Kai."

She patted her own chest. "Meli. Like melon."

Kai raised a brow. "Meli melon? You want that to be your nickname?"

"Meli," she repeated, as if to say she only wanted that. Then, she held out both hands. "Now, apple juice."

He pulled out the beer can. "You're not going to like it, it isn't apple juice. It's a big kid drink you can't have until you're older. I can't let you drink it just because you told me your nickname."