Beastly | TVD & TO

4 - Pupwitch

It had been 9 weeks since Erith arrived in Mystic Falls, Virginia, and Bonnie was no closer to getting her magic back. Kai also hadn't deemed them worthy enough to show up, and Erith's locator spells weren't going through. Kai had likely used a strong cloaking spell or a spelled magical item to conceal his presence.

Erith found herself constantly looking over her shoulder. In the six weeks she had grown a friendship with Damon and Bonnie, she even moved into the Salvatore Boarding House, but not knowing where Kai was made her uneasy. Paranoia laced her every thought and only worsened over the weeks.

Music blared from the stereo when she walked downstairs in her pajamas, not caring if the witch or vampire saw her bedhead. Damon whistled along to the music as he flipped a pancake and Bonnie poured three cups of coffee. Erith moved to the cabinet with the dishes to get plates out for each of them, her unassigned-assigned breakfast task. Damon squirted whipped cream on the pancakes as a final touch, always vampire fangs for Bonnie and dog ears for Erith.

"Every day, I tell you I hate that," Bonnie stated, referring to the vampire fangs adorned on the smiley face pancakes.

"And every day I do it anyway, bon appetite!" Damon smirked.

"And every day I say, 'I love mine, woof!'" Erith chimed in while holding her plate up next to her face to show off the dog ears Damon had perfected over the weeks. She placed the plate back on the table and stabbed her fork into the fluffy pancakes to take a large bite.

"You're insufferable," Bonnie said while pointing at Damon and then moved her hand over to point at Erith to finish, "And you're disgusting!"

"Werewolves have feelings too Bonnie!" Erith defended. "Besides, I can't gain weight in this world because my body was frozen at eighteen so I might as well enjoy these fluffy pancakes! They get better every day. If it takes long enough for us to get out of here maybe Damon can upgrade to waffles." She suggested while shoveling another heaping forkful into her mouth.

Damon laughed, "Yeah Bon-Bon, be nice to the little pupwitch- ow!" Erith interrupted him by slapping the back of his head. She didn't appreciate any of the nicknames he had given her over the weeks. His boredom seemed to spur on stupider ideas by the day.

Bonnie took a deep breath and asked, "Erith, any news on Kai?"

"Not yet. He must still be waiting until you get your magic to make an appearance. I know I've said it before, but he's probably been watching us for a while now," Erith shrugged. "Not like he needs to; we all just want to get out of this stupid prison."

"What if we can get out without the ascendant?" Bonnie suggested.

"I have no idea how we would. I don't even know how with the ascendant, especially if you can't use your magic. If you come up with an idea, feel free to share, but I still think your priority should be mastering your magic," Erith argued. She had been studying different grimoires for 15 years and hadn't figured it out. She hadn't even found anything mentioning prison worlds or other worlds in general. The spell was seemingly exclusive to the Gemini Coven, who conveniently chose to not document most of their spells. 

"I've been trying-"

"And failing," Damon interrupted while taking a swig of his bourbon. Erith hadn't seen him pour the glass, so he must've been drinking for a while, like most mornings.

Erith smacked the vampire on the back of his head again, earning a yelp. She snarked, "That's not helpful, dumbass."

"Oh, like you've been much help. You know what Bon-Bon, maybe the pupwitch has no clue what she's talking about. Let's just kill her and then hunt down that cousin of hers," Damon suggested.

"Go ahead and kill me, Damon. I'll come back to life and siphon you until there's no magic left in your body and you're nothing more than a withered old human."

"Stop it! Both of you. We need to work together if we're gonna get out of here. Seriously, Damon, I would rather leave here with Erith than you," Bonnie defended her.

Damon glared at Erith, who smirked at him in return. The two spent most days bickering like children, but Erith was glad for the company. She would spend a century with Damon and Bonnie in the prison world rather than another 15 years running from Kai alone. Damon also didn't seem to hate her, or at least hadn't followed through on any of his threats yet, perhaps boredom was driving him to instigate fights with her. Something he did with Bonnie as well.

"Well, you two can hop to your little witchy lessons. I say if you don't see results by the end of the month then we force the pupwitch's cousin to come here and teach you instead," Damon suggested.

"That actually wouldn't be a bad idea if Kai was willing to help. He pages me with a new phone number every week, but when I call him, he doesn't answer or call back. I've told you countless times that he could be here in Mystic Falls or on the other side of the planet. Either way, he's not gonna help unless he wants to," Erith reminded. She had never been particularly close with Kai, but she knew enough to understand that he operated on his own. If he was moody enough, he could leave the three of them in the prison world or be motivated enough to kill them for real, and she did not want to set him off.

"I'll figure it out on my own! I don't need help from a murderer," Bonnie stated pointedly. She had expressed her disdain for Kai numerous times and hated that he had the device needed to bring them home. She likely hated him even more because she couldn't use her magic to track Kai down and steal the ascendant from him. Erith herself wasn't a fan of Kai but understood his anger toward Joshua and the Gemini Coven. However, she knew he was horrible for the way he attacked his siblings— they were just kids.

Erith held her hands up in surrender, "Okay, okay. I'm pretty sure we've all had some part in people dying before, even you Bonnie! You told me about the tomb vampires, the original vampires, and the travelers. You said that you and your friends worked together to stop them. Even if I agree that you guys were the good guys, you've done bad things too."

"It's different," Bonnie insisted, "You were protecting yourself and I've never harmed an innocent. You practically tremble anytime you even talk about Kai. He must be terrible for you to be so scared of him, especially because you're fine around Damon!"

Erith's eyes widened at Bonnie's statement. She had been living with Damon and Bonnie for weeks now, but she wasn't expecting them to learn her mannerisms and be able to read her so quickly. She had gotten rather comfortable with the two, but could they blame her? She was left completely alone in the world aside from a cousin who killed her for fun.

"Yeah, you're right. He's not a good person, but that doesn't mean we can't all work together to get out of here. Isn't it worth bringing along a little baggage to get back to the real world? I don't just want to hear you guys tell me what the world is like, I want to live in it! I don't care if you think I'm a bad person for that!"

Erith stood from the table, leaving her pancakes behind. She didn't understand why Bonnie was so insistent on not working with Kai when she was living with Damon, a vampire who had killed loads more people.

She walked away from the dining table and left the Salvatore house, slamming the door on the way out. A wetness on her cheeks was the only indication that she had let some tears slip. She had been so hopeful when she discovered that Bonnie was a witch, but her hopes diminished by the day while she watched Bonnie fail time and time again to use her magic. Erith just wanted to go home, and she didn't care what she did to do so. Bonnie had only been stuck in the prison world for 2 months, she didn't know how it felt to be alone for years with not even an animal to talk to.

Erith walked down the block with no destination in mind. If she hadn't been crying then she might've sensed the presence nearing her as she walked, but by the time she turned her teary eyes around she only had time to widen them in panic before Kai grabbed her.

She screamed in pain as Kai siphoned from her and used her wolf strength to kick him away from her.

"Kai, what the hell!" she exclaimed.

"Sorry Cuz, but I need to have some alone time with the newcomers," Kai stated and raised his hand, "Ad somnum."

Her eyes were heavy,and she felt hands catch her body before she was forced into a deep slumber.