Pernicious | Kai Parker

Chapter 25

"Let's go to Portland."

They had been in New Orleans for a week, exploring the city, trying new recipes, and doing some physical training for Amelia to get the hang of the new siphoner abilities Kai had taught her about.

"Portland?" she repeated, confused. "Why do you want to go there?"

"Well, I have the dark objects to do magic with," Kai replied. "Remember how I told you that when I tried to Merge with Jo, her magic was gone? I'm figuring she must have put it away somewhere, and it has to have been somewhere on the property of the house I grew up in. You need magic, too, and you can take a little bit of that so you don't get hurt."

Amelia didn't question it too much. She packed her things, and they were on the road again by the evening, once they'd mapped the route and prepared more food than last time. This trip would be longer, and they'd have to take turns driving so that they wouldn't have to stop.

Kai had taken the first turn, driving while Amelia slept. Once he became tired, he woke her up, and she drove for several hours until the sun started coming up, and they switched places again so that she could rest.

"We'll be there by tomorrow morning," he said, checking the time on his watch. "Didn't expect the trip would take a day when there's no traffic to deal with, but Portland is pretty far from New Orleans."

She propped her head up on her fist as she munched on the fruit cups she'd made for them. "What's your preferred method of traveling?"

"Trains. I love trains. Planes are cool and all, but I get careless, and if I actually want to go someplace, I have to be checking stuff all the time, plus, turbulence is apparently still a thing in prison worlds. But trains have their specified tracks, and I can relax, pretend I'm in one of those old movies."

"Oh my god," said Amelia, sitting up. "I don't know why I was expecting you to say that you would pretend to be on the Hogwarts Express— you didn't get to read Harry Potter. That's a crime."

He raised an eyebrow. "Out of all the things I missed, reading some guy is a crime?"

"It's a book series about this wizard. They use wands to do magic though, only some wizards and witches can do hand magic."

"That sounds pretty fucking lame. What's your favorite form of transportation, broomsticks?"

"Also the train. Only rode it once, but I didn't get much motion sickness from it. Plus, there's a bathroom in them. That quickly made them my favorite."

Kai put his hand on her thigh. "You sure it's not because you like getting railed?"

Amelia's mouth dropped open. "You know that expression?"

"Uh, yeah, if the word 'fuck' in a sexual context has been around for centuries, don't you think that has, too?" He let his hand slide up her leg. "You ever had sex in a car?"

"I will not have sex with you when you're pushing a hundred. I can still die, remember?"

"Go big or go home, am I right? Name all the places where you've had sex."

Amelia wondered if he was being more sexual now that she'd slept beside him one night, or if it was the same amount of dirty comments, only they impacted her more now as her appreciation for him grew.

Kai was many things. He was power-hungry, he was deceitful, he was prone to violence and understandably bitter after being isolated, ostracized, and neglected. But he was also funny, he was tenacious when it came to making a point (which could be both a good and bad thing). He was clever, driven, and hard-working when he put his mind to something.