Consumed » Kai Parker

Fifty

Kai's POV

The unmistakable rapping of knuckles against wood wakes me up in the most unpleasant way imaginable, jolting me awake with adrenaline activating my fight-or-flight instinct.

In my sleep-induced disorientation, it takes me a moment to register the walls surrounding me as my hotel room and recall the heavy events that led me here, with Charlie sleeping peacefully beside me. I glance down at her small frame against mine, eyes shut and light snores falling from her lips, while her fingers stay intertwined with my own against her stomach. Still asleep, oblivious to the noise that had harshly woken me up, and I intend to keep it that way.

With a peek outside the window, I find the sky still dark and the digital clock atop the nightstand confirms that it's only three in the morning, otherwise known as too fucking early for this shit.

Three more insistent knocks pound at the door.

"Can you fucking wait five seconds," I mutter under my breath, carefully unwinding my hand from Charlie's sturdy hold and lift my arm off her waist. She mumbles incoherently in her sleep as I make my way off the bed and I pause, waiting to make sure she doesn't wake. To my relief, she settles back into the mattress, her chest steadily rising and falling.

After tugging the covers over her bare body, I hurriedly cover my own with the pair of boxers and sweatpants that I'd carelessly discarded hours earlier. I snatch the key card off the nightstand, tucking it into my pocket.

Just as whatever moron decided to pay a visit at this hour is starting to hit the door with another series of harsher knocks, I yank it open, internally fuming further when I see who's responsible.

"Can't say I'm surprised," I remark flatly, upon seeing the raven-haired Salvatore with his fist raised mid-air. "What'd you do, compel the receptionist to give you my room?"

"Yep," he answers curtly.

I scrunch my face up distastefully. "That's borderline creepy."

His face hardens. "I was pretty bummed when Kol filled us in and I found out you weren't dead. But maybe it was for the better, because now I get to kill you instead."

"Stop talking so fucking loud," I hiss, my last nerve needing little pressure to be triggered right now given that I was woken up at three in the goddamned morning for this.

He clenches his fists at his sides. "I'd be real nice to me right now if I were you, because there's nothing stopping me from snapping your–"

"Shut up," I tell him tiredly, pinching the bridge of my noise between my fingers. "Just–" I let my hand fall, pointing an index finger at him in warning. "Shut it, be quiet for once in your life."

Seemingly shocked at my audacity, Damon blinks, outraged, and I take his rare silence as a chance to take a look inside the room. Charlie's still tucked underneath the covers, her back to the commotion. Letting out a quiet sigh, I step out into the hall and slowly pull the door shut behind me.

"Charlotte's in there?" He starts to move forward and I effectively block the door, narrowing my eyes at him.

"Yeah, and she's sleeping, so whatever you came to say, say it out here." I cross my arms over my torso in an impatient gesture. "And lower your voice, idiot, unless you wanted to wake up the whole damn hotel."

"I wanna know what game you're playing," Damon demands.

Leaning one shoulder against the doorframe, I arch a questioning eyebrow at him. "Okay, you just woke me up at three a.m., and I'm exhausted, so my brain's working at like, half its speed. I'm gonna need you to not be vague."