ATHENA

"Wh — How did you get out?" I demand, staring him down.

"Relax," he says, strolling through the car park. I make a hasty jog to catch up to him. "I stabbed Bonnie." The grin stretching across his face is bordering on mocking.

I widen my eyes at him. "You stabbed Bonnie? You dick!"

"Speaking of, why do people wear skinny jeans these days? It seems wrong. I'm all bunched up."

I pinch the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger. "Look, I don't have time to deal with you today."

He furrows his brows. "What?" he says, his voice dripping in sarcasm. "I was expecting a welcome back kiss, at least."

"I have a class to get to," I hiss at him. "Get out of the way."

"Whoa, easy there, sweetheart," he says, holding his hand palm-out and tilting his head to the side slightly. "Remember that deal you made with me in the prison world?"

I grit my teeth. Yes. "No."

He smirks. "Really?" he presses on. "You're lying. You do this thing when you lie. Your eyebrow quirks up a little."

I give him a look. "Stop looking at my eyebrows."

"I don't think I can," he says. "What is it people say these days? Oh, yeah. They're on fleek."

"What is wrong with you?" I urge, squinting at him.

"Tragic childhood," he says, his voice a mix of sarcasm and underlying melancholy.

I gnaw on the inside of my lip. "Get out of my way. I need to get to class."

"You can miss this class. I need your help."

"I'm not —"

"You promised, Athena," he says. "And I can't be sure, but you seem like the type of person to uphold their end of a deal."

I study him. His dark blue eyes are alight with an eager hope, but also with an underlying sinisterness. "I'll help you."

He sighs, clearly relieved. "Oh, thank god," he says breathily. "Here. Let me help you." He takes the books out of my arms.

"Wow," I mutter. "You actually have a heart under there."

He laughs. "I'm guessing you've had a pretty shitty day."

"Damn right, I have. I'm half asleep, running on double espressos, and was running late to my first Egyptology class back. And then some idiot taxi decides to beep me! Like I could just plough over the cars in front of me!"

"Is your car a Chevy by any chance?" he asks, cocking his brow.

I narrow my eyes. "Yes. Why?"

"That was me," he says. "I told my taxi driver to, I quote, 'Honk at the old lady in front of us.' "

After discarding the books in my car, I trail after Kai through the winding streets surrounding Whitmore College. "Where are we going?" I demand as I kick a twig out of the way with an air of blasé.

"Liv," Kai says finally. "We're going to kill Liv."

When we finally find ourselves outside the Whitmore bar that Liv works at. "Ready?" he asks.

"One sec," I insist. "I need to look badass when I kick Liv's ass."

I flip my head upside down and back up, letting the loose waves cascade down my back. I push up my bra before looking back up and smiling. "There," I say. "Do I scream supernatural action heroine to you?"

He knits his brows together. "I guess," he says. "Come on."

He opens up the door and I follow him through to the bar, sinking into the seat next to him.

Liv finishes propping up glasses on the counter and comes over to us. She stares between Kai and me momentarily. "How can I help you?"

Kai leans over the counter slightly. "For my lovely lady friend a - uh -"

"Bourbon, please."

Kai smiles. "One Zima, please."

Liv rolls her eyes. "Hilarious," she says in a severe nonchalant tone. Kai has a smirk playing on his lips as he looks at his oblivious little sister. Are you going to order something or just gonna stare?" she demands with a stern look.

"Okay," he begins. "Uh, how about a soda Liv?" His eyes fall onto the name tag on her shirt before she walks away, seemingly as though she could not get away fast enough.

He lets out a light chuckle. "Liv," he murmurs. "Ironic."

I sigh. "Kai, are you an idiot?"

He straightens up. "Excuse me?"

"No one even sells Zimas anymore!"

He groans. "Why is everyone so boring nowadays?"

I study him carefully. "You're really struggling with the whole present-day thing, aren't you?"

He looks up, his eyelashes curtaining his eyes. "Yeah," he says softly. I feel his hand go for mine under the table and he gives it a squeeze.

I start feeling myself growing nervous, as if butterflies are fluttering around in my stomach. The feeling is short lived, though, because then I feel a spike of pain shoot up my arm.

"Ow!" I hiss.

"Shh," he says, grinning. "Don't get too excited, there. I just wanted your magic." He recoils his hand and leans over the bar as Liv starts towards us again, two glasses in her hands. She sets one in front of each of us and I take a sip of the bourbon.

"You on Twitter?" Kai asks. "Ah. I just signed up. You should follow me. Cobrakai1972." He laughs boisterously before looking at both of our blank looks. "Come on," he says, shrugging. "Like 'Karate Kid'? Did you know you can follow celebrities? They all Twitter the stupidest things. It's-it's hilarious."

Liv grimaces at Kai's awkwardness. "It's kind of dead. I think I'm gonna close up."

"Oh, hang on, hang on," Kai cuts in quickly. "I'm gonna get a real drink." He looks up at the wall of bottles, carefully studying each row. "No bourbon. I'm secure enough in my masculinity. Vodka's boring, rum's too tropical. Ooh, tequila. You do not want to see me on tequila. What about gin? Is that weird?" He looks up at his little sister.

"Not if you're a fifty year old, but seeing as you look nineteen, I'm gonna need to see some I.D."

Kai reaches into his pocket. "Oh. Of course, of course."

He hands her his I.D and her eyes sweep over it before she cracks a smile. "1972. Nice try."

"True story, but that's not the most interesting thing on that I.D." Kai slides the I.D card back over the bar to her. "Here, look again. Name, address."

She widens her eyes, her mouth agape. "Malachai Parker," she whispers. "Oh, my god."

He grabs her wrist and she doubles over. I flinch as she lets out deafening shrieks. Her eyes are clenched shut and her mouth is a wide circle as she screams. "Last time I saw you I was trying to kill you," Kai says, unbothered. "Why don't we pick up where we left off?"

She looks up at him, her eyes a mix of anger and pain. "I don't think so," she grunts.

I see the glint of a blade before she stabs Kai in the shoulder with it, his lips parting to produce a sharp groan.

She takes off, winding through chairs and tables towards the door. With a grunt, Kai tugs the knife out of his shoulder. Kai holds out his hand and slams it shut using the magic now in his possession. The girl gasps before starting towards another. "Life is so much easier with magic," he sighs as he slams the next door. "Feels kind of like cheating." Liv makes a dart towards the stairs and I get to my feet, slipping a blade out of my sleeve. I tread after Kai, keeping the blade balanced in my palm.

"I'm sad you didn't recognize me," Kai continues. "That means dad erased all trace of my existence — family pictures, movies, the little handprint turkey I made. What a dick."

"You stay the hell away from me," she says, backing up against a wall.

"You were always so bad at hide-and-seek," Kai taunts, a wild grin spreading the length of his face. "I mean, you were four, but still, find a better hiding spot."

And that's when I see it: barely a shadow flitting in the darkness. The movement is so subtle that I could've easily missed it. I make a move towards it. "Kai," I call.

He whips around just as Tyler Lockwood steps out from under the shadows. The werewolf's hands are poised in front of him, palm out. He's going to push Kai off. With a deep breath, I do possibly the stupidest thing I've ever done in my entire life.

I step between them.

Tyler looks down at me, a vein bulging at his forehead. "Get out of the way."

I fold my arms over my chest. "No."

"Come on, stop playing games. Get out of the way."

I roll my eyes. "Try me, bitch."

He narrows his eyes at me. "Excuse me?"

I need to get Kai out of here. I need him to run. I hold one hand behind my back and hold up three fingers, hoping Kai can see my hand. I feel him tense up, and I know he's ready. I put down one finger. Two.

"It's actually quite clever," I explain. One. "Seeing as you have the werewolf curse, it's a double insult pun. I'm a genius." I take the confused look on his face as an advantage.

Zero. I slip the short blade from under my jacket and stick it into Tyler's shoulder. "Kai, run!" I look behind me just in time to see Kai get away. All other sounds are drowned out by Tyler's ear-splitting grunts.

With one last wide-eyed look at Tyler, I make a run for it.

I bound down the steps, taking two at a time. I pull open the door and shrink away from the sunlight, holding a bloody hand over my face. As my eyes adjust, I take off my jacket and clean as much blood off of my hands as I can. I need to get to the car. I dart down the streets, ignoring the weird looks from people passing me.

When I finally find my way to the parking lot, I let out an exasperated string of swear words.

Because the motherfucker stole my car.

The walk home seems to go on forever. My legs are burning and I swear I can hear my pulse thrumming through every part of my body. About halfway through my walk home, when I start to consider hijacking a car, a grey Toyota pulls up next to me.

Enzo's face stares at me, grinning as if her finds some sort of hilarity in my pain. Bastard. "What do you want, Enzo?"

"You look to be in a bit of trouble there, love," he says. "Need a ride home?"

I lower my eyebrows at him, frowning at him with as much malevolence as I can muster. With a final groan, I go around the other side of the car and open the door, slumping into the passenger's seat. "Just for the record," I begin, "I'm only letting you drive me home because my legs hurt."

"Alright, gorgeous," he says. "Whatever you say." With fidgety fingers, I buckle up my seatbelt. "What's the blood on your hands from? I'm guessing it wasn't a blood nose."

I lean back into the chair and smile. "I stabbed Tyler Lockwood."

He doesn't seem surprised at all. He just raises his eyebrows as if he's impressed. "I'd expect nothing less," he mutters. "What happened this time?"

"Kai," I say finally. "Kai's out. And because of some stupid deal that I made with him in the prison world, I helped him try to kill Liv." Enzo opens his mouth to speak, but I cut him off with my rambling. "And, of course, he took my car. I'm an idiot, aren't I?"

He shrugs. "Not at all," he says. "You just have too much trust in people." He pauses. "And I know my opinion doesn't matter to you much anymore, but hear me out. There are two types of serial killers in the world: the ones who love too much, and the ones who don't love at all.

"And Kai Parker is the latter."

Ω Ω Ω

Hello, lovelies! I'm so sorry about the crappy chapter but I want to make up for the long time that I didn't update at all. I hope you enjoyed it well enough and, as always, tell me what you want to see more/less of.
Also, I just saw the new vampire diaries episode and [SPOILER] can we just talk about how unlucky the Salvatore brothers are? Like if I'm having a bad day, I just need to look to them and feel immediately better. I also think that people need to start appreciating Caroline more. She's been one of my favourites throughout the series and to see her handling the pregnancy with such raw emotion is so interesting to watch. In terms of main characters, I think Caroline is one of the more 'real' (idk if you guys get what I mean by that) characters and Candice Accola has done a great job acting her. We need more #carolineappreciation tbh

Until next time my loves, Georgina xx