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"Wanna hold you till the moon shuts down, till the stars are on the ground"
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IF THERE'S ONE thing I've learned about Kai, is that he is a manipulator. Ever since our encounter with him yesterday I can't help but think about what the future holds for me. I can't tell if he was joking or not, if he actually did lift the curse he placed upon me. Or maybe he didn't remove it at all. Maybe it's still placed on Theo, or worse, the both of us. His words are engraved in my mind, distracting me from the big day ahead of us- the day Luke and Kai merge.
"You guys think you drained him enough?" Luke questions.
We sit in the study room of Whittmore, watching and helping Luke practice his magic in preparation for tonight. "Hopefully," James says, sitting beside me with Theo on his lap.
"Hopefully? You better be a little more than hopeful. This is my brother's life at stake here! My brother and no one else!" Liv growls, standing beside her own brother.
"If only that were true." I think to myself. In reality both Theo and my lives are at stake. Kai warned me that something would happen to me if he died, that his death would trigger something with the curse. Now I can only hope he removed the curse like I asked.
"What?" James's voice speaks in my mind, startling me. I look over at him in confusion, when I suddenly realize I did it again. I accidentally communicated my thoughts to James in our telepathic link without meaning to. Sometimes I get confused of the difference between my thoughts to our telepathic communication.
"Did not mean to send that thought into a message," I say awkwardly, looking away.
"Blair." I can hear him scolding me in my mind. "What aren't you telling me?"
"I'm not hearing any witch chanting," Damon says as he strolls into the room, allowing the conversation in our minds to take a pause. "You better be on your A-game tonight Parker or you're screwed," he says bluntly causing Liv to scowl.
"You better hope he wins or I'll personally see to it your life is a living hell," Liv threatens.
"Bite me." He rolls his eyes. "Not like I'm not going there some day. Might as well give me a taste of it now." He encourages, playing with her anger. Any other day I would be on the edge of my seat, interested to see where this is going but today I'm not in the mood.
"Alright, everybody calm down," Alaric announces, walking into the room. "This is Kai we're talking about. We need to be serious about taking him down."
"Serious as in 'let's watch You-tube tutorials of witch craft' or serious as in 'let's capture my sister and torture her in hopes of torturing Kai' serious?" Damon sneers, glaring at Alaric.
"Damon-" I try to stop him, knowing where this is going but he waves me off.
"What are you talking about?" Alaric questions him, standing cautiously away from my vampire brother.
"Don't play stupid with me Alaric. I mean, I know you're usually pretty good at it but today I'm gonna need you to take on the smart role for a change," Damon retorts, his tone growing furious.
Alaric sighs, giving in. He knows my brother won't back down. "Listen, it's not what you think," Alaric begins, but that's not good enough for Damon.
"Oh really? Because I think you captured my sister, locked her up and planned to torture her in hopes that the link between her and Kai would cause Kai pain too. Hell, maybe you even planned to kill her just to kill Kai! Two birds with one stone am I right?" Damon bellows, standing several feet from Alaric.
"Damon, it's okay-" I try to explain, but he cuts me off.
"No Blair it's not okay!" he yells, his icy blue eyes wild. As he turns to me, I'm able to actually see the pain in his eyes. It's electric, contagious, making me immediately feel the pain within his veins, as if it's some superstitious sibling link. I understand where he's coming from, and I know this is about more than the fact that Alaric hurt me; it's about the trust Damon shared with Alaric, the trust that is now broken.
"I trusted you, Ric! I thought you were on my side, that you understand how important she is to me. Never did I ever think you would put my sister in harms way in a gamble against taking down Kai," Damon says, his voice sounding almost hopeless. "I thought you were my friend."
"Jo, she means everything to me, and you don't know what it took in me to do what I did. But I did what I had to do," Alaric says.
The whole atmosphere of the room changes, everyone going still. That was probably the worst thing Alaric could've said in that exact moment.
Damon slowly turns around, everything seeming like it's from some horror movie. I'm positive this is a scene where the music would escalate and someone would die. Damon has a wild look in his eyes, a look I haven't seen in almost a hundred years.
"What did you just say?" Damon growls incredulously.
Alaric clenches his hands into fists, standing his ground. "I did what I had to do," he repeats. "Think about it Damon! If it came down to Blair and Elena, who would you choose!"
In this very moment, it's like a switch has flipped, as if Alaric's words have triggered such rage, such violence that I fear Damon is sitting on the fence between humanity and the switch. I don't even have time to blink as Damon vamp speeds over to Alaric, pinning him up against the wall by his throat.
I watch in terror as Damon raises his fist, punching Alaric square in the jaw once too many times. So many times I loose count. I'm frozen, so in shock that I don't even realize James has placed Theo in my lap, taking matters into his own hands to break up the fight before Luke and Liv resort to unneeded solutions.
"Damon, stop," James commands assertively, placing a firm hand on my brother's shoulder. It appears his touch isn't registering to Damon's brain, as he keeps punching as if programmed to preform the task on a repeating loop.
"That's it," Liv growls, storming over to my brother with her hand raised, ready to form some sort of spell on Damon.
Before she can get far I set Theo on the couch and sprint over to her, holding her up against the wall. "Yeah, I don't think so." I smirk, cocking my head to the side as I hold her hands against her back, pushing her against the wall to prevent her from doing any spells.
"Don't even think about it or so help me god I will break every bone in her hands," I say, glaring at Luke who stands there with wide eyes. He only nods, staying in place. I know he's the more understandable one; there's always that one sibling that's more understandable, and Stefan is ours. It just so happens he isn't exactly here right now.
"DAMON!" James yells more aggressively, yanking Damon from Alaric with his strength. Damon tries to fight against his grip, but James is much too older, much too powerful. "That's enough!" James shouts, standing in between an enraged Damon and a bloodied Alaric. Blood drips from the cuts on his lips, his eye swelling up.
"If it came down to Blair and Elena Ric, I would sacrifice myself," Damon says, answering Alaric's question. "I would choose both of them before me," Damon repeats, before walking out of the room.
James sends me a quick nod and I release Liv. "Thank you," Alaric says hoarsely, wiping the blood from his mouth.
"Don't thank me," James says. "You bloody deserved that. The only reason I haven't thrown you across this damn room is because you're human, and because we need you for tonight, so don't you dare thank me," James finishes, pointing an accusing finger at Alaric.
I haven't seen James this mad in a while, and although I feel slightly bad for Alaric, I can't help but feel a great amount of warmth within my stomach knowing these are people I can count on to have my back. Before he seemed calm about the whole Alaric incident, but I realize he was holding in his anger for the sake of me.
"Come on Blair, let's go," James says, reaching out for my hand.
I instinctively take it, letting him lead Theo and I out of the room. I couldn't be any thankful, as I don't want to stay in this school any longer. It's too stressful.
"I'm sorry," I mouth to Alaric as we pass. He only sends me a small nod, before turning to the twins, resuming the preparation for tonight.
∆ ∆ ∆
The sun set approximately two hours ago and the moon is high in the sky. Everyone is on their way to the merging site, which isn't any place fancy- just the centre of downtown Mystic Falls. I tried getting in touch with Caroline to see if she'd be willing to watch Theo, but I couldn't contact her. I couldn't get in touch with Stefan either. Nobody has any idea where they are, not even Damon. Apparently Elena is keeping quiet too, only raising my suspicion. I suspect something is wrong with Caroline, but as of right now our main priority is making sure this merge goes as planned.
"Whose idea was it to choose the centre of Mystic Falls to be the merge site?" I ask curiously as James, Theo, Damon and I walk towards the middle of town.
"Believe that was our soldier himself." Damon rolls his eyes, referring to Luke.
"What happens if he's not strong enough. What happens if Kai actually wins?" I ask, speaking the question that is on all our minds.
"He won't," Damon says confidently.
"What makes you so sure?" I raise my brow.
"I've got my ways," Damon smirks, causing me to smile.
"What did you do?" I ask, smacking him jokingly on the arm.
"I may have little Luke high on dark magic right now. You know, the kind of magic creepy professor Shane had Bonnie high on?" Damon smiles proudly.
"You did what?" James questions incredulously.
"Damon that's genius!" I praise him, clapping him on the back. I think back to all the magic Bonnie possessed so many years ago, the years when Silas was still walking on this Earth. The thought of Bonnie sends a jolt of sadness in my heart, but I know that after we're done here we can spend all our time on getting Bonnie back.
"It's dangerous," James says warily. "What if he can't control himself. You remember how bad Bonnie got?"
"He'll be fine, we'll detox the black magic out of him after. All that matters is that he wins tonight," Damon concludes.
Letting out a sigh, James nods but doesn't say anything more. We keep our stares ahead as we approach three figures already standing at the meeting spot. I feel both James and Damon grow tense as we realize one of those figures is Alaric. They don't say anything to greet him, but I can sense the coldness in their glares.
"Where's Kai?" I ask, staring at Alaric, Liv and Luke. They all shrug, the seven of us standing there awaiting the arrival of the other opponent.
"Did someone call for me?" Kai suddenly says, appearing out of thin air. He stands right beside me, scarring the living daylights out of me. "Oh sorry, did I frighten you?" He laughs, amused.
"I've been standing her, cloaked for the past few minutes. It's been quite entertaining," he chirps, causing all of us to scowl.
"Let's just get this over with," Luke says, stepping forwards.
"Somebody's acting confident," Kai whispers to me, nudging me in the arm. I roll my eyes before pushing him to the centre where Luke stands.
Together they slice their palms open, revealing blood for them to hold hands, standing a foot apart under the moonlight. I take in a deep breath as they begin chanting, the wind starting to pick up. They speak in a language I cannot understand, leaving Alaric, Damon, James and I standing there in awe, helpless against the event unfolding in front of us. It's all up to Luke now. All we can hope is that he's strong enough to take down Kai for good.
"Sanguinium, genaris. Sanguinium diminiss," they chant over and over, creating a massive wave of energy to fly everywhere. The middle of town has come to life, the wind roaring, the lights flickering.
"Is he winning?" I ask, my eyes glued to the two witches in front of us.
"Honestly I have no idea," Damon replies, his gaze still directed to the scene.
We all stand there, frightened. If this doesn't work, Kai lives. Kai will be unstoppable, the leader of the coven and capable of doing anything he pleases. I can't have that. I really can't. That's why the next few minutes are pure hell, the seconds appearing more like hours.
Everything intensifies, Luke and Kai shouting the spell louder and louder until suddenly Luke falls to his knees, his hands still gripping onto Kai's.
"No!" I yell, my hand instinctively flying to my mouth to conceal my shock. This can't be happening. This can't happen.
James grabs my hand, holding it tighter as we watch Luke and Kai battle with their magic, Luke still hanging on with everything he's got. Liv stands there with teary eyes while Alaric looks numb, his one eye swollen shut from Damon's encounter with him earlier.
All of a sudden the street lights burst, the whole park going dark. However, underneath the moonlight I'm able to witness Luke standing on his feet, both him and Kai's eyes glowing a clear white colour, their skin grey and veiny.
Liv lets out an ear piercing scream as the chanting stops, both Luke and Kai falling backwards. James races to catch Luke before he can smack his head against the pavement, instead lowering him to the ground slowly. Liv runs to his side, tears streaming down her face.
"LUKE!" she screams, nearly pushing James aside.
James backs away, returning by my side as we watch the two bodies lie so peacefully still. "Now what?" I whisper.
"Now we wait," Alaric speaks up.
"For what?" Damon snaps.
"For the winner to wake up."
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[completed & edited: 10/15/2021]