Sweet Serial Killer → Kai Parker

Eclipse

ATHENA

Kai is dead.

"I can't believe this," I say, frowning at Kai's corpse. "Bonnie, how could you do that?"

"He was a sociopath," she simply says.

I gnaw on the inside of my bottom lip. Why do I care so much? "You shouldn't have done that," I argue.

"We're still going home," Damon contributes. He takes a swig of the bottle of Zima. "What does it matter?"

"He was my friend," I say through clenched teeth.

"He would've killed you the second we got over there," he says.

"That's not true," I refuse. I lean against the thick trunk of a tree next to me and ignore how uncomfortable it is.

Damon gives me a condescending look. He keeps his voice down. "Don't mistake this as me actually caring about your feelings," he says. "But I saw the way you looked at him. You're going to get hurt, Athena. He doesn't care about anyone."

I clench my jaw. "What about you and Elena, huh? Weren't you once upon a time the guy who didn't care about anything or anyone? But Elena gave you a chance and it paid off."

He opens his mouth to speak but Bonnie cuts him off. "Can you stop? I'm trying to concentrate." She holds the Ascendant in her hand and a grimoire is spread open on her lap.

"On the bright side, this stuff's not so bad," Damon says, taking a swig from the bottle. "It's fruity and fizzy." He pauses. "On the not so bright side is your intelligence because you took the only chance of us getting out of here and turned him into a giant douchekabob."

Bonnie ignores Damon's remark and looks to be deep in thought. "Think about it, Damon. What prison gives an inmate a key?"

"Is that a trick question, or is this stuff actually starting to kick in?" Damon says, gesturing to the bottle of alcohol in his hand.

Bonnie rolls her eyes. "I think the Gemini coven used a Bennett spell to create this place.
What if that's why my grams sent me here?"

"This is the face I make when I don't understand you." Damon crosses his eyes and pulls a confused expression. I roll my eyes at him.

"You know, the last thing my grams said to me was to stay strong. What if that was her way of telling me I have the power to get out? I have the ascendant, a massive celestial event to draw from, plus a burning desire to get away from you," Bonnie says. She studies the Ascendant in her hand before taking a deep breath to start chanting. "Sangina mearma, ascendarum cavea." The Ascendant's cogs shift and it opens up almost like a flower blooming. "That's why Kai wouldn't kill me. He needed a Bennett. I was his only way out of here."

"Whoa," I gush.

Bonnie spins on her heel and walks to the edge of the hole, peering down into it. "Where are you going?" Damon asks.

"Home. You coming?" Bonnie says, disappearing down the hole.

Damon looks at me before ducking down into the tunnel, easing himself down using a bulging rock as a foothold. I follow him down into the tunnel, lowering myself gingerly before my feet strike hard against the earthy red ground. I brush the red dust off of myself with the inside of my hands.

I slip my backpack off my shoulder and slump against the rock in the corner with Damon. He holds out the bottle, raising his eyebrows. I take the bottle of Zima and take a long gulp of the drink before handing it back to Damon. "Thanks, bud," I tell him.