Our Demons {Kai Parker Book 1}

chapter forty-five: In Which the Winds Whisper

David rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"You can't ground me."

"We both know she can" Denny grumbled under his breath, sending a look to his brother that begged him not to start another argument.

It was inevitable that Jean would win, she always did, and he hated being caught in the middle and being told to choose a side to favour. He loved his brother to death, but his sister was the smarter one.

"Man, there are two of us and one of her." David snapped in annoyance. "The least you could do is have my side."

"It's 2018, I'm pro-feminism."

"Motherfu-"

"Language."

"But no one can hear us!" David exclaimed, flailing his arms around. "We are literally the only people on earth."

"Um, this isn't really earth. It's a dual reality and I am almost one hundred percent certain that it's psychological."

"Like a bad dream?"

"One we can't wake up from."

"Isn't this just per-fucken-fect"

"David, language!"

The young witch made his eyes go cross as he pointed his hand in the shape of a gun to his head. "That's it, I'm going to kill myself."

"You have a flair for the dramatic."

Jean rolled her eyes and pulled Denny's sleeve, urging him to follow her and leave David to drive himself crazy, he'd eventually get tired and bored and find them. He always did.

But David really was growing tired. His brother and sister didn't understand because they adjusted well to the prison, knowing they were alone with no threat attempting to pursue them. Yet, he was the odd one out, the black sheep, because he wanted to live as a person should without fear.

He hated that they let the past define themselves, that they let the past control their futures.

"No, I'm done okay? I'm done, I hate it here. I want to leave. I want to taste greasy overpriced cheeseburgers and sit in restaurants with babies screaming. I want to push past people in crowded malls that I don't even buy anything from, I want to live a day that isn't Monday. I want out, I want to meet new people and talk to them and Holy shit who the hell is that?!"

Jean, who was lazily munching on an apple stood straight, letting an angry stare overtake her face. She already had a spell in her mind, inching its way onto her tongue when she caught sight of who David was referring to.

Her name they often heard in the winds. The person who saved them from being sacrificed by unstable practitioners. And here she was again.

"Your name is Ria," Jean called out. "You saved us from the Elysium Coven, putting an end to their ways."

"The Elysium Coven won't hurt any of you ever again," she promised. "I'm here to bring you back."

"Yes." David pushed past his siblings before they had a chance to form a response. "Yes, yes, hell-"

"Language!"

Ria laughed when the siblings fell into arguing and bickering. She snapped her fingers and a flash of light erupted from between them, making the three of them fall in silence.

"You're not a witch," Denny stuttered as he ran a hand through his hair. "How the hell did you manage that?"

David cleared his throat, "Excuse me, dictator Jean, but he gets to swear no problem? And it's like I shot an angel out of the sky every time I say something like that?"

Ignoring her brother, Jean took a step towards Ria and lifted her hand, muttering a spell to read her soul. She was human, nothing dark tainted her soul, so how?

"I have the powers of an Addonexus," Ria clarified. "I can control light and read energies. I'm not dangerous to you."

The brothers looked to their sister, waiting for her decision.

"Where's Macy?" Jean finally asked. "She was our guardian and-" she paused seeing Ria cast her eyes to the ground. There wasn't much she could hide behind those doe-eyes. "What happened to her?"

"When I killed the Elysium witches, the spell aimed for all the witches in the coven. I didn't know she was innocent or that she was formally still in the coven."

The silence confirmed their fear; Macy Doughty had died.

~~~

Ria drove to Mystic Falls where she would be able to bring everyone back. Denny and David sat in the back with Jean in shot-gun, listening to an old country song when Ria asked a burning question.

"I have to know," she stuttered, "who was Macy Doughty?"

All three of them remembered her long blonde hair that she refused to cut short. They remembered her blue eyes showing a constant paranoia and fear. They remembered her soft voice and how she lulled them to sleep on fearful nights.

"Macy fought for what she believed in. She didn't care if everyone else said yes- if her gut said no then she questioned everything until she was certain of what was right."

"She was easy to trust," Denny added. "Honest, caring, kind, understanding. She was patient and compassionate."

"Macy was someone I aspired to be like." Jean turned away as a tear rolled down her cheek. This emptiness she felt in her soul, the loss of someone more caring and loved than a mother. "She always saw the good in people."

David laughed from the back, "Like Kai. He was a fun guy. Hey, whatever happened to him?"

"Macy and Kai were friends?" Ria asked, hoping they would elaborate.

"Macy and Kai were definitely something. I never understood it though, Macy was always patient but Kai was erratic. She was gentle but he had an aggressiveness about him."

"He wasn't all bad," David pushed Denny with a roll of his eyes. "He taught us new spells to defend ourselves with. He let us stay up late and watch movies, telling us stories and legends about our ancestors."

Ria stopped the car, turning it off and climbing out. They had reached Mystic Falls and the three witches followed after her into the forest. They all had butterflies dancing in their stomachs, the anticipation and excitement of finally going home prevalent.

But for Ria, this was that same place where she lost Kai Parker and it had continued to lead from one disaster to another. It was here that he said it the first time.

"You stayed when others would have left, and you kept quiet when you had every right to yell. I don't know how you did what you did, but you've made me love you. Ria, I love you."

The first time when she knew that she felt it too.

His eyes stared into hers, holding her gaze and desperately begging for an answer. He was breathless but so was she.

This was also the same place where everything fell apart.

Where the liars and deceivers attacked her without warning, where they came to decide what was right and what was wrong, where they came to decide who got to live and who got to die.

He glared with even more hatred at Ria. His grip on Kai released but instead he ripped into his chest. Damon smashed his head against the ground and there was the sound of his skull cracking.

The first time she pushed him away.

"Is this is?" Jean asked.

Denny nodded his head and flipped a page from the grimoire in his arms. Ria handed the ascendant to David who helped his siblings prepare the device and find the spell.

This was where everything started, so it was only natural this is where it would end.