Devil in Disguise (Kai Parker)

Chapter One: The Plan

A/N Thank @LoveAtFirstPerdition for the awesome new cover :D

Meg leant against the wall as she watched Damon explain his plan. She took notes on what they were saying feverishly – if she missed something, it could prove to be her downfall.

The Other Side had been teetering on the edge of destruction for months now. She had first started worrying when all the tiles on her family house slid off all at once, after they had been stable for decades. Then, with the sand storm – in her living room. Deeply uneasy, she had started travelling the world, looking to see if it was just a local thing, or happening all over the mystical plane that was the Other Side. As supernatural things often do, she had made it to Mystic Falls. That was where she found her answers.

There was a group of people there that seemed devoted to figuring out the supernatural world. They were the only people who had a clue what was going on – actually, it was quite disturbing how much they knew – and so Meg had followed them obsessively. It was from them she learnt that her whole world was slowly being destroyed.

"The cemetery is outside of the 'no-magic' perimeter," Damon Salvatore pointed out, tracing a finger over a large red circle drawn on a map of Mystic Falls, "not many unpopulated areas other than that..."

Meg wrote 'CEMETARY = LOCATION' in large block letters on her notepad as a voice issued from Damon's phone, "Hey, Professor Salvatore, not all of us can see the map."

Another one piped up, "Yeah, don't forget about us."

Damon looked at the bulking blonde beside him. "Donovan," he said condescendingly, "you had one job."

She snorted, secure in the fact that none of them could hear her. Matt Donovan (aka, the bulking blonde) sighed and told the phone, "I'll send you a picture right now."

There was a click as he photographed the large map, and a cheery little beep as he sent it. A moment's silence, then the second voice from the phone yearned, "We should be there."

"No, you should not be." Damon replied immediately. "You are on witch duty, because without Crazy-Locks, no-one will be rising from the dead."

Meg scribbled down another note – 'LIV WILL BE DOING THE SPELL.' At least, she assumed it was Liv because she'd never seen anyone with crazier locks than that witch. "So – next order of buisness." Damon continued, rubbing his hands together and grinning. "Mass murder."

The blonde threw him a look that plainly said '...really?' as he passed, retrieving another sheet from right next to Meg's foot. It was disconcerting, having someone so close to you but unable to see you, but she was used to it. It had been her life for twenty years.

"Thank you," the sarcastic vampire said. Meg laughed quietly again. Damon was, by far, the most entertaining member of the group. He wasn't that bad to look at either, with raven hair and light blue eyes. "OK, I got these from the Sheriff. Apparently, there was some truth to her evacuation story. There's a major gas line," he traced the thickest line with his finger, 'that runs underneath the town and if it did leak, it could be deadly – as in, 'massive explosion' kinda deadly."

Meg had just scribbled 'TRAVALLER SACRAFICE – BLOW UP TOWN' on her notes when Matt protested, "We can't just blow up our home town!"

"Says one of the only people left in this group that could actually live there." Damon drawled. Meg looked at her notes regarding the anti-magic border again: The Travellers had put a metaphorical dome over Mystic Falls, restricting Spirit Magic inside its borders. Anyone changed using Spirit Magic – like vampires and hybrids – would be stripped of their magic upon entering the town. And, without magic, many of the people in this group would just be people that drowned, were shot, broke their necks or were suffocated. All witches, aside from Travellers, would also find that their spells won't work inside the town. It was a part of the Travellers' evil plan to wipe out any magic they didn't practise. Got it.

The second voice from the phone spoke again, "We're not blowing up our town. We just... need to lure the Travellers to one spot."

The first voice contradicted her, "How? We can't lure anyone anywhere if we're stuck out here."

"And that's where your mommy comes in." Damon said with a flourish. He continued (Meg scribbling out her last words as quickly as she could), "She'll convince them to gather somewhere inside. Meanwhile, these two geniuses," he pointed at Matt and a dark haired boy standing next to him, "at seven o'clock, will turn on the gas and let it leak for about ten minutes, before anyone can smell it, then clear out and boom! Travellers gone, resurrection spell starts, loved ones return. Good?"

Meg pressed her pad onto the table so she could write faster. God, couldn't he slow down? So – gas leaked at 7 o'clock, explosion went off at ten past. The spell started around about then, in the graveyard (because it needed to be just a little bit creepier), so she had to be there by then – actually, Liv was going to be doing it, and she didn't trust that witch, so she had better be there early if it was going to work.

She was going to hijack onto their spell so she didn't die when her world went boom.

"Class dismissed." Damon smirked.

Meg sighed in relief. She may as well have been in school, the extent of her notes. Eighteen pages, front and back. For the third time that day, she started looking through them. She was so distracted she didn't notice the dark haired boy – Jeremy Gilbert – coming right towards her. He stepped right through her and she let out a yelp of shock. Ugh, she hated it when that happened! Apparently Jeremy didn't appreciate it either, because he shuddered before walking on. Meg watched him go with a little bit of regret in her eyes. That boy was going to lose everything today, and he didn't even know it.

This spell Damon was talking about was only possible because of Bonnie Bennett, a brash, dark-haired witch and the girlfriend of Jeremy. Bonnie was the Anchor; the thing holding the two separate worlds together. People that died had to pass through her to get to the Other Side. Meg had seen it happen before; it looked excruciatingly painful. Anyway, the spell had already been done before by a legion of Travellers, to bring back their leader (a git called Markos). It required a mass Traveller sacrifice, something Damon was taking care of with Project 'Kaboom', so that the Anchor would be overwhelmed by the amount of dead people and allow the whole process to go backwards. Instead of spirits going through her to get to the Other Side, spirits would go through her to return to the living. The list of people clambering to come back to life was huge – Meg seriously doubted Bonnie's capability to survive the pain for so many. And, even if Bonnie did allow everyone to pass through, she was still the Anchor, and attached to the Other Side; when it went down, she went down too. Which left Jeremy without another of his loved ones.

Meg sighed, running her fingers through her hair. She thought she had the entire plan down, now. But she'd still have to follow those people in case something went wrong. It was a hard task – those people never slowed down – but Meg was almost glad for it. Twenty years on her own, watching other people go about their daily lives but being unable to do anything herself, had made her appreciate having something to do now. Even if she could die – again – if she failed. No pressure.