Devil in Disguise (Kai Parker)

Chapter Forty-Four: A Moral Conscience

The tools were steadily set down on the pool table, rusting, yellow things that looked like they hadn't been touched in years. Honestly, they probably hadn't. Why would the Salvatore brothers need tools when they could just compel a handyman to do it for free?

Meg granted herself a small smirk, but it was muffled against the plush cushions of the Salvatore's couch. When Kai vacated his seat to sit on the pool table, she had given in and finally collapsed on the sofa. She had fallen on her face, hair everywhere, feet tangled in the most uncomfortably position known to man. It was two hours, thirty-three minutes later and she still hadn't moved.

"So, we know Jo stored her magic in a hunting knife," Elena listed for the thirty-second time. "Bonnie sent hers over with Miss Cuddles... What receptacle of magic am I not thinking of?"

"I'm gonna give you a hint: scorned lover," Damon said, as if that didn't apply to nearly everyone in the room.

"Katherine." Elena said immediately. Katherine was Elena's doppelganger, a nasty one that had once loved both Salvatore boys at once, not unlike Elena. She had died a few months ago.

"Older."

"Silas." Elena guessed. Silas was Stefan's doppelganger, the oldest vampire ever to exist. He had wanted nothing more than to be with his lost love Amara, another member of the Elena doppelganger club, and to do that, he had to die — which, incidentally, was the only thing he couldn't do.

"Hotter." Damon said immediately.

"I dunno, Silas was definitely hot." Elena speculated, and Damon pulled a face. Meg sympathised. Having your girlfriend say an exact look-a-like of your brother's — who was also her ex — couldn't be pleasant. An awkward silence was saved by Elena clicking her fingers and guessing, with an air of triumph, "Qetsiyah!"

Damon gave her a thumbs-up, and Meg idly searched through her brain for a memory of Qetsiyah. She was a witch that had come back from the dead a while back, before the Other Side dissolved but not when it was stable. Silas had been stuck between her and Amara, but had promised to marry Qetsiyah. Silas went back on his word, and Qetsiyah enacted her revenge by killing Amara and making it so Silas could never die unless he took a cure, and became a witch again. Being a witch again meant he'd go to the Other Side and be stuck there forever, away from Amara, a human, and therefore an instant reject of the Other Side. Meg allowed herself another smile. Considering she'd only been around for some of this drama, she was pretty good at remembering it.

"Qetsiyah's blood is on Silas's headtone," Elena went on, eyes widening. "It's filled with magic!"

"Yep. So, in Bonnie-land, that means in an island off Nova Scotia, there is a big magical battery waiting to be tapped. We just need to remind Bonnie of that."

"And what reminded you?" Elena asked, looking at her boyfriend quizzically.

Damon stuttered, not looking her in the eye, "I was just gonna — plan a trip there. Change of scenery, you know, there is only so much you can take of Mystic Falls on repeat."

Kai suddenly let out a conspicuously loud sigh, as if a humungous weight had just been lifted off his shoulders. Meg stirred for the first time in hours, and opened one eye to look at him. "Oh, thank god." he said, clearly relieved about something. "You two, together? Still totally revolting to me. Finally, a familiar feeling. Luke didn't take me over completely." he grinned.

Meg couldn't deny it; at his words, she felt a powerful surge of happiness and relief. She had been worried, at first seeing that new look in his eyes, that Kai might not be Kai anymore. And if that were true... well, it would be like he truly had died during the merge. But, so far, he seemed like himself. Minus the plotting.