Nothing Dark Can Stay, Either

Chapter 55

All Beatrix could do was stare at him in shock.

"Too handsome to handle," teased Kai, holding up his phone in a selfie mode to capture both Beatrix and Damon in the picture. Damon covered his face, but Beatrix was frozen.

"I think her entire mental computer system is rebooting," Kai commented to a very annoyed Damon, who turned and looked apologetically at Beatrix.

She came forward slowly and grabbed his face, her touch gentle at first as she made sure he was real.

But then the next second, she slapped him across the face.

"Woah, what the fuck?" Kai snapped.

"What did you do to Freddie?" she growled.

"Jeez, I didn't do shit to the kid," said Kai, rolling his eyes. "I just compelled him to give me his Twitter password. His mom's not actually sick."

"What the fuck— why didn't you just message me from your account? Why— why did you feel the need to trick me?"

Kai rolled his eyes. "Come on, it was funny. I came back and after I found out I couldn't taste or feel anything, I went to the library and there was this kid with his laptop open and it said 'Dr. Beatrix La Salle' on the page, so I compelled him to tell me what he knew about you, and he did. He was writing a stupid essay about you for school and how you helped his mom and you're the reason he wants to be a doctor— blah, blah, blah. He's fine, his mom's fine, I compelled them to forget they met me. Just thought it'd be cool— like a surprise! I'm back!"

She slapped him again, ignoring the stares of the few people in the diner. "Do you have any idea what I went through after you died?" she hissed lowly. "I turned off my humanity because of how much pain I was in! And you didn't have the decency to approach me upfront and be honest about things?"

He caught her arm suddenly. Her sleeve had ridden up, and he saw the black veins etched on her arm. He frowned and tore the rest of the sleeve up. "So when you say you're dying... you meant that?"

"Yes, I meant that, you bastard, you think I'd lie?" she said. She hadn't realized she was crying. Seeing him again, knowing that he was here, combined with the constantly stirring negative emotions inside of her was a very volatile combination. It made her angry that he hadn't just told her he was back.

"I wasn't lying," said Kai, holding up a bloody napkin. "I actually need medical attention. Still can't taste or feel anything, but I've been coughing up blood."

As if to prove his point, he started to cough again, and Damon shoved another napkin against his mouth as he purged more blood. Beatrix gritted her teeth and yanked Kai off of his seat and towards a booth at the back of the diner, shoving him down.

"Thank you," he coughed as he leaned back.

The waitress approached them from behind. "You okay, sweetie?" she asked Kai.

"Uh, yeah," he managed. "Lactose intolerance."

"Can we just have some napkins, please?" asked Damon as he sat down on the opposite seat of the booth. "Thanks."

The waitress walked off, and Kai sat up enough for Beatrix to sit beside him. "Oh, it feels like I'm being dragged back to hell by my colon. Oh... I can't go back there. You're on fire all the time, and ghosts from your past come back to pull your skin off, and occasionally, on really bad days, you go face to face with Cade, who is basically torture incarnate. This is all metaphorical. Except for the fire, which is literal."

She held up her hands. "Are you going to tell me what the fuck is actually going on, or not?"

"I just did!" he said before coughing a bit again. "I'm half in hell, half here, or whatever. Takes a lot of concentration for me to use magic. Damon can probably tell you more— he worked with the devil."