Devil in Disguise (Kai Parker)

Chapter Nineteen: Try Again

‘There, there and there.’ Meg speedily clicked three pieces into place. Time had passed in comfortable silence, the only noises being murmured directions and the construction of the Ascendant. It was nearly done, and they had – she checked her watch – fifty-six minutes to spare. They had actually managed to do it.

Bonnie absent-mindedly reached for the next piece, but her hand closed on air. She turned to look at the table properly, eyes widening when she saw only the white wood. No piece in sight. ‘Where’s the next piece?’ she demanded desperately, pushing pads of paper and discarded pills to the floor.

Meg grabbed her bag and started groping around inside it. Please don’t say we missed the very last piece, that would be too cruel… she pleaded wildly, turning the backpack inside out looking for the last little mechanism that could mean the difference between life and death.

It was empty.

Growling in frustration, she threw the backpack away and looked at the witch. Bonnie had her head in her hands and was whispering, ‘This isn’t happening.’

She glared at the half-constructed Ascendant, quite useless without the final piece. God, that thing had hurt her so much. It was ridiculous how many times it had wrecked her life. Hardly surprising, really – Ascendants were the Gemini Coven’s favourite way to punish their enemies. It appealed to their self-righteousness – they, after all, weren’t killing them. They were just putting them in a painful purgatory for eternity.

There was a bang, and a rattling noise as the power shut down. One by one, the lights flickered out. Kai was awake. Bonnie stared down the deserted, darkened hallway, breathing remarkably steady, and then marched off to a side-door. Meg followed, feeling particularly vulnerable; she had no idea where they were going.

She looked around cautiously, stepping lightly and slowly. The air was thick with apprehension, and every line of her posture was tense. But Bonnie managed to remain calm, even as she watched for any sign of Kai. They rounded one more corner, and a voice made them shiver.

‘Looking for this?’ Kai held up the missing piece, smirking. Blood was drying around his neck and large bruises were blossoming around his collarbone, caused by Bonnie’s stunt with the pen. Meg exhaled sharply.

‘You stole the Ascendant.’ he said in a sing-song voice. ‘Naughty girl. You weren’t planning on using it and leaving me behind, were you?’

In all honesty, Meg didn’t know what she had been planning. She had tried hard not to think about it.

‘You left a trail of blood in the driveway,’ he explained, ‘and where else would you stop and play nurse?’

Bonnie’s face twisted with loathing and she shouted, ‘Vardos!’, raising her hand to face her palm in Kai’s direction. The effect was devastating. Like he had some weird gravitational pull, all the furniture started to converge on him, hiding Bonnie from his sight as the glass around him exploded. The shards fell on him like hailstones, but Bonnie didn’t wait for them to stop. Grabbing the horrified Meg’s hand, she started pulling her down another hallway and eventually into the open.

She ran to Damon’s old car and forced open the door, climbing into the driver’s seat. Meg was about to argue, saying Bonnie couldn’t possibly drive like this, but then she remembered her own injury. She had almost forgotten about it. Gritting her teeth, she opened the other door and piled herself in.

Bonnie turned the keys, it wouldn’t start. ‘Something must be wrong with the engine…’ she muttered as the car protested.

She saw something move in the mirror and barely had time to scream, ‘Bonnie, get out!’ before a pair of hands had her by the neck.