Devil in Disguise (Kai Parker)

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Trust

Kai was staring right at them. Meg was holding her breath, trying to make her heart slow down, out of fear that he might hear it. He raised the can of soda to his lips and started to step forward. For a moment, Meg thought he was going to grab her by the neck and drag her away…

But he did no such thing. The invisibility spell Jo was casting worked; they were safe. He looked right through them and walked to the end of the hall, where he dunked his empty soda can in the recycle bin. He may be a murderer, but he always recycled.

Then, he walked straight back down the hall, not even fluttering an eyelash. Meg let out her breath and kneaded her forehead. Having Kai look straight through her like that… No, she told herself sternly, don’t think like that. You’ll sound like a lovesick teenager, which you most certainly are not. You’re twenty-two.

“What d’you know?” Jo said, breathless with triumph and adrenaline. “It’s working.”

“I don’t like how surprised you sound,” Damon grumbled. Jo rolled her eyes, and they all started following Kai’s footsteps silently. The school was disturbingly dark, undoubtedly Kai’s attempts at making it a spookier setting. Shadows flitted across the floor from birds outside, making Jo jump. Damon smirked every time he saw that, but Meg could relate. After spending twenty years watching for your murderous brother and then walking into the same building as him, with your only cover being a precarious spell that could fall apart at any moment, it was understandable Jo would be a little nervous.

Damon came to a stop at a door, nearly making Meg walk into him. He didn’t seem to notice. His eyes were popping, fixed on something within the dark room. It wasn’t hard to guess what – or, more accurately, who.

He walked forwards purposefully, sitting just inches in front of Elena before realising she couldn’t see him. With an irritated expression on his face, he looked over his shoulder to demand Jo put the spell on Elena, but she was already on it. Meg watched out for Kai as she cast, but wherever he was, he didn’t seem able to hear her chants. Hopefully that was a good thing.

Elena let out a loud gasp as Damon blinked into existence right in front of her, and Meg instinctively looked around for Kai again. What was he doing? Surely his priority here was Elena? And yet, he had just left her here alone. It was worrying. “How are you here right now?” Elena asked amazedly, still too loud for Meg’s comfort.

“Jo’s invisibility spell.” Damon said in a conspicuously quieter voice. “If you can see us, that means you joined the party.”

“C’mon, we need to get outta here.” Jo said, and Meg’s eyes flicked to her. Her voice sounded a lot more breathless than it had a few seconds ago, more drawn, more exhausted. Jo pointedly ignored her gaze.

“My ring – it’s gone.” Elena started, but Meg couldn’t take it anymore.

“Do you mind being a little quieter? We’re trying to avoid Kai, not draw him to us.” she said in a polite a voice as possible.

Elena flushed, and started again, noticeably softer. “Kai melted it into nothing.”

“What?” Damon grabbed his girlfriend’s hand, letting out a growl when he saw the mass of melted silver clinging to her finger, the remains of her Daylight ring.

“Not to cut this reunion short, but…” Jo looked like she was about to pass out. “The meter’s running on this spell.”

“Well, there’s the, erm, the tunnels under the school?” Elena suggested, biting her lip.

“Good call. Water room, stat.” he helped Elena to her feet and Meg, simply because it would make their journey faster, held her other arm. Jo was the only one unmoving, and alarm bells started going off in Meg’s head.

“Jo…” she said, darting out from under Elena’s arm as the witch staggered. “You haven’t got enough magic for this.” she hissed in her ear.

“No, no. I can do it.” she nodded, screwing her eyes up in concentration. “I can do this… I can do this…” she sounded like she was trying to reassure herself.

“You can’t.” Meg informed her. “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think I could, either. You’ve got to let one of us go before it kills you.”

“No.” she said more firmly. “No, if I let one of you go, Kai will get you.” she fixed Meg with a suspicious glare. “You don’t want him to find us, do you?”

“Of course not.” she said indignantly. “And you forget, you’re not the only one with magic here.”

There was a silence, in which Damon and Elena seemed to notice their absence. The vampire doubled back and poked his head around the door, “You guys coming?”

Meg just kept staring at Jo, who gave a resigned sigh. “OK.”

She closed her eyes, and felt the magic fly off her. The sensation was peculiar, like all the heat had been sucked from her skin. The ordinary air felt cool without the faint tingle of magic enveloping her and she shivered. “What did you do?” Damon said, far too loud, and Meg interrupted before Jo could answer.

“You’re far too loud, Damon. If you want to get Elena out, go. Now. I’ll be fine, as long as you don’t give me away.”

“But you can’t see us anymore.” he ignored her orders. “And once you cast an invisibility spell, we won’t see you. How are you going to get to the tunnels?”

“Easy: I’m not. I’ll just go out the ordinary way and meet you by the Boarding House.” she said confidently, and was surprised when she was met with tense silence. “What?”

“How can we trust you not to run off with Kai?” Elena’s voice entered the conversation, and Meg shook her head.

“I chose a side! I chose you. Why would I go running back to him?”

“Because that’s what you did before.” Damon pointed out.

“Ugh!” Meg wanted to tear her hair out. “If you aren’t going to trust me, why make me choose at all? I am not going to betray you! Unless you want Jo to drop dead halfway through walking you to the tunnels, you’re gonna have to believe me.”

There was a ringing silence left behind after that first comment. It was quite a situation. Damon couldn’t leave Elena to check on Meg, Elena couldn’t go outside to follow Meg, and Jo was the only one that could cast a spell powerful enough to cover three people. They had no choice. “Fine.” Damon said grudgingly, and there was a shuffling of feet as he went to join Elena again. “But if we don’t see you at the Boarding House in half an hour…”

“You’ll hang, draw and quarter me, I get it.” she rolled her eyes. “Now go. We’ve been far too loud here, Kai’s probably on his way, and I am all too visible.”

“Thanks Meg.” Jo said, her voice still sounding a lot more exhausted than Meg would have liked. She nodded vaguely, already closing her eyes to cast her invisibility spell. By the time she opened her eyes again, their footsteps were long gone.

She let out a breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding. That spell had been a lot harder than it should have been. Her knees were wobbling, and the room was spinning. But she gritted her teeth and took a determined step forward. It would be enough to get her out of here. If it wasn’t… she didn’t want to think about that right now. Time to leave this frankly creepy school and get back to the Boarding House.

Her magic, it seemed, had other plans.

She felt it swoop outwards in a feeble wave, not much but enough to submerge something else in power. The exertion made her vision cloud over and she fought the desire to faint. A noise behind her, though, shocked her so much that fainting was quite impossible.

“Haven’t seen you in a while, Nut-Meg.”