Visitation (Vampire Diaries) (Book Six)

Chapter 9__I Alone

When Stefan and Damon got back, we stood together in Alaric's office. 

I looked at Damon skeptically. "You compelled Alaric to get Jo drunk?" 

"No," Damon answered. "I compelled him to get the Ascendant from her, and to do whatever it takes, and considerin it is the key to her psycho brother's weird prison world, I'm sure it's gonna take her a few to open up about it."

I gave him a look.

~~~~~~

I poured alcohol from a flask into a coffee mug.

Stefan looked at Damon. "You realize he is gonna kill you when he finds out what you did to him."

"My relationship to ruin, thank you," Damon told him. "I didn't complain when you ruined yours with Caroline."

"I didn't ruin my--" Stefan started.

"Yeah," I said. "I'm sure she's fine. She's on vacation with her mom, eating ice cream out of the carton, convincing herself she never liked you in the first place." 

Stefan took the mug away from me. "You done?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I'm done."

"Now, why didn't you tell me that Caroline had feelings for me?" Stefan asked.

"Why didn't I tell you that one of my only friends had a crush on my distant uncle..." I trailed off sarcastically. "Hmm. I wonder." 

Stefan gave me a look.

Damon looked at me. "By the way, what happened to your phone? I tried to call you from Portland."

"I smashed it in my hand in the mausoleum because I was freaking out 'cause I had just killed my first human kill to save a boy with a werewolf gene from becoming a werewolf again, just before you appeared from an other-wordly prison thanks to our favorite witch," I answered. "And saying that sentence out loud while sober really creeps me out."

I took the mug back from Stefan, taking a drink.

"Careful, Nikki," Damon told me. "I know it may seem easy to be the big, bad Salvatore, but soon, you'll find yourself lying in the middle of the road, pouring your heart out to a stranger, having an existential crisis."

"Yeah, great," I said sarcastically.

"So, uh, when's this grand theft gonna happen?" Stefan asked.

"Assuming everything went well, it's already happened, which means..." Damon trailed off, waiting expectantly.

Alaric opened the door and walked into the room with the Ascendant. "Here it is."

Damon took it. "Thanks, buddy." He handed Alaric a tray with coffee and a bag presumably containing breakfast food. "There you go." He compelled him. "Go home to Jo, be a good boyfriend, forget this ever happened."

~~~~~~

At the Whitmore bar that Liv worked at, I sat at the bar, opening a box with a new phone.

Liv stood next to me. "You know, normal people set up their new phones at home."

A guy sat a few seats away from us at the bar. 

"Yeah, well, we both know that I am far from normal," I told her. Liv smirked. "Besides, I don't have a home. I have a house outside of the anti-magic border, which will never be my home unless I have lived there for my entire life. I needed to get out of that house because it was driving me crazy."

"Okay, then," Liv said awkwardly, smiling. 

"So did the spell work?" I asked. "Did you send Damon and Elena over to the prison world to get Bonnie back?" 

"Yep," Liv answered. "Where's Tyler?" 

"Helping Jeremy with something," I answered. "He didn't say what."

"Nicola, I heard Damon and Elena talking in the cemetery earlier," Liv told me. "They said that Matt wanted to talk to Stefan, but they didn't know for what."

"Really?" I asked. "No one told me."

"They said that, since you broke your phone, you never got Matt's call," Liv told me. 

"Oh," I said, looking at the phone in my hand. "Well, now that I have this, I can call Stefan and ask where he is so I can meet up with them."

"Good luck," Liv told me. "Take your crap with you." 

I smiled a small smile, grabbing my phone and the box, walking toward the exit, leaving.

~~~~~~

I only got so far when I realized that I had forgotten my jacket at the bar, groaning, turning around and going back. 

Inside, I heard a man's voice. "No. True story, but that's not the most interesting thing on that I.D. Here. Look again. Name, address..."

"Malakai Parker," Liv said. "Oh, my God." 

I heard Liv groan in pain.

Malakai Parker was Kai from the prison world.

I rushed toward the bar. 

"Last time I saw you..." Kai trailed off, making Liv groan in pain. "I was trying to kill you. Why don't we pick up where we left off?" 

"I don't think so," Liv told him.

"Life is so much easier with magic," Kai told her. "Feels kind of like cheating. I'm sad you didn't recognize me. That means Dad erased all trace of my existence. Family pictures, movies, little handprint turkey I made. What a dick."

"You stay the hell away from me," Liv told him.

I saw Kai and Liv up on the second story of the bar, seeing Liv use magic to drag tables in between them.

"You were always so bad at hide-and-seek," Kai told her. "I mean, you were two, but still, find a better hiding spot."

Kai used magic to push the tables away, stalking toward Liv.

I rushed up to them, pushing Kai over the balcony edge, making him break through the railing. "I think she did just fine."

"I thought you left," Liv told me.

"I forgot my jacket," I told her. I looked at her. "Let's get out of here." 

Liv nodded. 

~~~~~~

Liv had gone to the cemetery to bring Damon and Elena back from the prison world. 

Kai had destroyed the Ascendant.

Bonnie was stuck over there in the prison world without a way out.