Title: i’m on fire (i’m rotting to the core)
Fandom: tvd
Rating: teen
Length: ~4k words
Author notes: canon au 4x13, title from david usher's black black heart, minor character deaths, tropes on tropes


Bonnie reads the passage four times before allowing herself to get excited. The solution- to Silas, to the Originals, to any violent vampires, to any possible supernatural problem- is right there.

Siphoners.

There’s two prison worlds with them. One has an entire coven in it, and there’s no way she’s risking that. (Worse still, one person has the Salvatore name, and heretics- which shouldn’t even be possible- and absolutely not.) But there is the other world with just a single soul, a Malachai Parker.

He went on a murderous spree, killing four of his siblings and gravely injuring another. It’s sickening, but he’s alone- and moreover, he has a far cleaner slate than any of the individual coven members. She simply needs to bind him, to make sure she isn’t setting a whole new evil loose on the world.

Besides, this was over fifteen years ago. Maybe he’s changed. A sociopath on the reform, like everyone else in this cursed place.

A manic giggle bubbles up her throat as she places her grandmother’s grimoire aside, turning to the library she got from the Martins. There are many different ways to limit a witch’s power, open grimoires all around her. A basic linking spell he could break, but a ritual should do it. She skips over all the ones that require consummation, skips over more that won’t give her enough power to stop him if he went to murder an innocent. There aren’t many left, only two in fact, and between slaughtering an animal in its shelter or skin contact- she’ll take the hand shake.

Ritual down, all she needs now is the key- some delicate thing called an ascendant- and a significant celestial event. Flipping through her calendar, the next feasible one is over a month away, and she can’t see that delay happening.

Fuck. Silas is going to get loose, probably come after them specifically because that’s their damn luck, and someone will wind up-

No, she can’t think like this. Step one, get the key, step two figure out the rest. Turning her phone off, Bonnie sits on the floor, candles in each cardinal direction. The flames spring to life, and she starts chanting. Holding the image of the ascendant firmly in mind, she chants louder, demanding it return to the bloodline that imbued it, to come to her side.

Bonnie feels it suddenly, and it doesn’t seem that far away, in a soft dark place and she calls it closer, into the light, fingers grasping the sharp edges and-

She knows no more, consciousness leaving her.

.

She wakes up on a beach and screams. It knocks the voice from her head telling her to take another step forward quietly, and she spots Shane instantly, his back stiffening.

“Bonnie, what’s wrong?” Elena asks, as the professor turns and starts to say, “Easy, Bonnie. Listen to me, you’re in control. You’re in-”

“Stop talking! You hypnotized me here-”

“-control, Bonnie you have to listen to me-”

“Shut up!”

Rebekah whacks the back of Shane’s head, knocking him unconscious.

“Thank you,” Bonnie breathes, massaging her temples as Elena says, “What the hell?”

“We need the witch in top shape, duh.”

“Rebekah,” Stefan warns, and she rolls her eyes.

The last thing Bonnie remembers is trying to summon the key, feels it in her jacket pocket. That’s something at least, almost feels too lucky.

“Professor Creepy is out, let’s get this done before dark,” Damon says, slinging Shane’s bag over his back.

“Are you okay?” Jeremy asks her.

“I’m fine, I just need to do a spell. You guys go ahead. Rebekah?”

The Original hangs back, arms crossed. “If this is some juvenile attempt to keep me from Stefan-”

“I need to visit a pocket world for a weapon. If I can channel you, we can be in and out within the hour.”

“And you need this because…?”

“Because I’m not getting the cure without some insurance policy if everything goes wrong.”

“Mhmm, and what does this weapon do? Perhaps it can be used against my brother as well.”

“It steals a witch’s magic,” Bonnie says flatly. “Is your brother a witch?”

“How do we know it won’t steal yours and trap us over there?”

“I’m binding it to me. Shall we?” Bonnie asks, extending one hand, the other clasping the ascendant.

Rebekah sighs, “Fine. Within the hour, I don’t trust that doppelganger tramp.”

Bonnie doesn’t bother with trying a chant, for this to work it will be pure expressionism. She focuses on the pull from Rebekah, fire pooling in her gut, overfull, and the ascendant, pouring everything into it.

She needs to be taken to Malachai Parker, the thought on repeat as she stuffs more and more magic into the key. The ascendant burns hotter and hotter, her hand aflame, and she grits her teeth- can feel how very close they are, yanking harder on Rebekah’s power.

There’s a loud crack, and everything goes brassy-orange, her stomach twisting at the movement.

Her vision clears, an older Mystic Falls coming into view. Dry heat rolls over her- there’s a house aflame. Her grandmother’s house she realizes with a pang. A dark haired man is watching it burn, and Bonnie knows in that moment that this is the right world.

“I dearly hope whatever you’re retrieving isn’t located inside that hovel,” Rebekah says dryly.

“It isn’t,” she murmurs, and Malachai turns to them.

His teeth glint against a reckless grin, “Look at that. The fire department finally shows up a decade late. You missed the return of the Chicago fire- much bigger than the one in the seventies.”

“Would you like to return to the real world?”

He walks closer, “I dunno, my mamma taught me not to trust pretty strangers with candy.”

Rebekah snorts, turning to her. “A siphoner, really. You should have told me, I know some on earth. There’s no need for… this one.”

He bristles and Bonnie keeps a smirk off her face, is pretty sure Rebekah’s setting him up. (She really hopes Rebekah is bluffing, or at least doesn’t know a siphoner’s full abilities. Surely she’d act differently if she did?)

“What do you need Bennett?” he spits out.

Her lips curl up, “I suppose if you consented to a binding ritual we can use you. If not...”

Rebekah doesn’t leave it hanging, saying, “Other siphoners in the sea.”

“Fine, ritual away.”

She waves her hand first at the almost-childhood home, flames instantly going out. It’s symbolic more than anything, empty probably given how they’ll be bonded. But she feels better, nodding towards the cemetery.

“We’ll do this in the woods.”

“So how tight a bond are we talking, mysterious Bennett?”

“Bonnie,” she says. “No unsanctioned murder.”

He gasps, slapping his chest. “You did research me, I’m touched.”

“Mhmm.”

“Then again, naming me Malachai- it’s like they expected me to be evil, y’know?”

“They weren’t wrong,” Bonnie mutters, biting her mouth shut.

But he doesn’t lash out, laughs loudly, “It’ll be good to see dear old pops again.”

“I won’t let you kill him.”

He grins, “You won’t need to doll. He’ll take one look at you and have a heart attack.”

“I- what?”

“It’s called flirting Bonnie, do keep up,” Rebekah says.

Her cheeks burn, and luckily they’ve reached a clearing. “Here.”

Bonnie crosses her wrists, extends her hands out. He hesitates before grabbing them, and she pushes down any thoughts of how very long he must have been without human contact.

He meets her eyes, “You should call me Kai.”

Bonnie ignores the insects flapping about her rib cage. “If Kai starts siphoning my magic, kill him Bekah.”

“My pleasure, I haven’t eaten since yesterday.”

Around his eyes crinkle up, “I’m not afraid of a little vampiric action. But what kind of impression would that leave on my new buddy for life?”

Rebekah huffs, and Bonnie says, “You should be. She’s an Original.”

His eyebrows pop up, gaze momentarily flicking over to the blonde. “You aren’t like any witch I’ve ever met.”

Bonnie closes her eyes, starts the Latin chant. It doesn’t feel like her family magic is working, doesn’t know if the spirits can even reach her in this world or if they’re still mad at her. It doesn’t matter, her expressionism is lapping at her skin, aches to be released. She holds the bond’s three main tenants in mind: to perform no unforgivable actions without consent from the other, to protect the other from all known harm, to never kill the other.

Releasing her magic, she sees it tear into Kai, sees the grimace on his face as black fire shoots up his veins. It burns dark for a flash before dissipating, and even if the ritual stopped now, she knows they would be linked forevermore.

And then she feels his gifts, how it draws magic from her to entangle them closer. The expressionism comes easily, but he keeps pulling until her family magic comes loose, spools of silver joining the fray. It takes her breath away, that she can keenly feel the Bennett magic again; that with the forging bond between them, she knows it will always be accessible.

Power is humming in her veins, so much that she doesn’t notice the ritual is done at first. Soaking in the warmth and power, there is no doubt that they can do anything.

“Oooh tingly,” he says.

A crazy impulse wants to try killing Rebekah, to test out their power against an Original. No one would ever have to know- even if they failed, they could abandon her here. Kai’s eyes are sparkling as if he’s had a similar thought, and that sobers her up instantly.

“What time is the solar eclipse?”

“Eleven, you missed today’s.”

“No matter,” Rebekah says. “We will return how we came.”

“That won’t work,” Bonnie says slowly. “Not with the bond.”

“Sure, that’s why,” she says, sarcasm thick.

Bonnie doesn’t argue it, can’t tell her she’s afraid of losing control and killing her.

“It’s more intense than she expected,” Kai purrs, and all the blood rushes to her face.

“Ew. I’m going to visit my childhood haunts. I’ll return before the eclipse.”

“Thank you Rebekah. For helping.”

She nods, eyeing Kai warily. “Let’s just pray the idiots back home didn’t raise Silas.”

Rebekah flashes away, and Kai’s expression is beyond gleeful. “You’re springing me free for a fairy tale monster?”

Bonnie sighs, “May he stay that way.”

Kai whistles as they head back into town. “Tell me, how is it a witch with your pedigree is involved-”

“My pedigree?”

He rolls his eyes, “Don’t make me do the spiel. I’m sure witch politics haven’t changed much in the past decade and change.”

She swallows, “I um, my grams kept witchcraft from me. I only recently discovered I’m a witch.”

“Bullshit.”

“I beg your pardon?” she asks, anger seeping into her tone.

“I felt your magic Bonbon. There was expression, that’s not newbie witch business.”

Her lips thin, “The spirits turned on me and I needed to keep my friends safe.”

“Not the other thirty-six people though, huh?”

“I didn’t kill them,” she snaps.

He laughs, a hollow sound. “But they were killed in your name. Or it wouldn’t have worked.”

Bonnie doesn’t have a response for that, April Young’s tear stricken face coming to mind with a fresh wave of guilt.

Kai kicks a rock, grinning. “Good to know murder isn’t totally off the table.”

“I won’t let you-”

“What about Silas?”

Bonnie crosses her arms, “Obviously Silas is an exception.”

“And anyone that tries to keep Silas alive?”

“If they’re endangering us, but otherwise-”

“And any other people that endanger your friends?”

“Shut up Kai.”

She wants to slap the smug grin off his face, and settles for walking towards the town grocery. “You’ve been here forever, what’s the best booze?”

“There’s one bottle of Dalmore 62 left in Scotland.”

“Dick. I mean here, in Mystic Falls.”

“There’s a few bangin’ wine cellars, some nice bottles of bourbon, what do you like?”

“Something to make me forget all my friends are in danger and I can’t do anything about it until tomorrow.” Bonnie winces, that was far more honesty than she intended to share.

“Tequila it is. So you channeled the vamp to get here?”

“Yes,” Bonnie answers, a cool blast of air as they enter the grocery store.

Kai smirks, “The cravings hit you then.”

“Excuse me?”

“The need to consume, it’s a siphon thing.”

“Awesome.”

“Allow me,” he says once they hit the liquor aisle, and Bonnie’s tempted to open the nearest bottle and chug half of it.

Kai literally rolls up his sleeves, hands dancing through the air as he does magic. The silver rings catch the light, and Bonnie wonders if they’re decorative or functional. A wicker couch from the outdoor section is summoned, turns to a plush leather. An end table on each side, and margaritas pouring themselves into frosted glasses. The store’s radio turns on as well, the Spin Doctors singing about princes through the speakers.

He exhales heavily, “Damn, that’s a hell of a rush. Totally worth it.”

Bonnie isn’t sure if he means being bonded to her, or the sacrifice that enabled her expressionism, either way, she sits and reaches for a margarita. Swallows half in one sip, the sweet tartness going down easy.

Kai sits beside her, folding his legs underneath him and grinning. “Let’s hear it then. The whole thing, the 411 of why the scion of the Bennetts turned to expression.”

“I’m not drunk enough for that,” Bonnie says, and a pair of wiggling fingers out of the corner of her eye, and her drink is refilled to the brim.

“I haven’t had company in over a decade. C’mon, regale me.”

Bonnie snorts, but finds herself organizing the story in her head. She’s blaming the bond for the early sharing- it isn’t that she trusts him, she definitively does not, but she wants to tell him, and there’s no harm in him knowing.

“It started with me bringing a friend back to life-”

“Necromancy. You did fuckin’ necromancy?” He pokes her arm, “Maybe you’re a hella vivid figment of my imagination.”

“Keep it up and you’ll be making cocktails all night, and we’ll never finish the story.”

“I’m down with that.”

(It turns out the rings are decorative and functional, cool metal bands knocking up against her.)

.

Bonnie wakes up on the wicker couch, the magic faded away, with a naked Kai wrapped around her. She glances towards the clock on the wall and, “Fuck! Wake up! Goddammit, fuck, shit we need to go.”

She hasn’t overslept in years, so of course the first night without an alarm clock and a morning deadline- Kai’s arms tighten around her stomach. “Mm, you smell good. Is that the future?”

Bonnie rolls her eyes, refuses to be charmed. “We have less than fifteen minutes. Let go.”

Kai yawns loudly, doesn’t budge, snuggling into her shoulder more. He mumbles into her skin she can’t hear, his mouth too warm and wet and distracting for this shit.

“Solar eclipse dumbass, get up.”

Kai pouts as she frees herself and gets dressed in yesterday’s clothes, “We could go back tomorrow.”

“Funny. No. If you’re not ready, we’ll leave without you.”

They both know it’s an empty threat, but Kai gets up slowly, stretching with another yawn. Bonnie can’t help eyeing him, still doesn’t understand how his body looks like that when all she’s seen him eat so far is pork rinds and jam.

“You sure I can’t interest you in one more day?” Kai asks, wiping his mouth in a way that should be ridiculous, not ridiculously hot. “I haven’t had so much fun in this place… ever.”

“Clothing. Now.”

“Bossy, bossy,” he mutters, magicking himself an outfit. “That can be kinda hot.”

There’s two minutes left when they reach the designated spot, Rebekah already there and buffing her nails.

“About time you two, I was beginning to think the newlywed status kept you.”

Bonnie chokes on nothing, “What?” Her mind races, remembering suddenly a line about two becoming one, and one becoming two- she thought it was empty flowery language.

“The binding- very old school. I suppose that only counts if you’ve consummated it though.” Rebekah pauses, crinkling her nose, and Bonnie’s ears are on fire.

“The ascendant,” she says, can’t process this right now.

Kai’s hands slap over his pockets, “Oh no, I think it’s in my other pants.”

“Kai I swear I will incinerate-”

“Oops, here it is,” he says, handing it over with a wink. “Incinerate me back home?”

Ignoring him, Bonnie slices her palm open, grabbing their hands and chanting, “Sangina mearma, ascendarum cavea. Sangina mearma, ascendarum cavea.”

They’re all in a cylinder of light, and then it’s over- a smooth trip back to the present day Mystic Falls.

“Well I am going to take a bath. Next time you need help, don’t call me,” Rebekah says, speeding away.

“It’s a good idea,” Kai says, and tension drips out of her shoulders. She’d been half-expecting him to break the bond somehow, kill her and wreck havoc on the world.

Her phone goes off before she can say anything, Elena’s name on the caller id.

“Bonnie? Bonnie are you okay?”

“Yeah I just got-”

“Thank god, Jeremy’s hurt bad. Can you come over?”

“I’ll be right there.”

Kai frowns as she pockets her phone. “She doesn’t sound very, how was it you described her, kind and compassionate?”

“Her brother’s hurt, c’mon let’s see what it is.”

.

Lucy and Jeremy are dead. Shane’s believed to be dead as well, but his body wasn’t brought back.

(‘Raise the dead once and they think you’re on call for it,’ Kai had joked into her ear. And introducing him was just fantastic, the asshole informing all of her friends that they’re technically married.)

No one really knows what happened down with Silas. All they know is Katherine showed up, the cure and Silas’s body disappeared, and Lucy and Jeremy’s bodies were left on the floor.

Kai has the tact, or perhaps the manipulation, to wait until they’re out of vampire hearing.

“They’ve been dead for too long. You know the power it takes to revive the dead grows logarithmic with seconds past. Even if we channeled an Original it wouldn’t-”

“I know,” Bonnie interrupts.

“You still want to try.”

“Of course I do! What kind of selfish person wouldn’t want to try? When they have this kind of power? They’re dead, fuck they’re really dead-”

Tears choke off her words, and it doesn’t matter. Her sociopathic boyfriend- husband, oh god he’s her husband- isn’t gonna get it. Besides she knows more about sacrificial magic than he ever will, if she dies for it, she knows the spirits will allow them to come back.

And Kai will die with her. Their living weapon against Silas, who is MIA. (Not to mention, their only real weapon for whenever Klaus inevitably comes knocking about his dead brother.)

It should make it an easier decision. It should make it feel more like a historical tragedy, and less like something she can prevent. Is shouldn’t hurt like this.

Sometimes, she hates magic.

.

Elena shuts off her emotions. Starts hurting people. She won’t listen to any of them, the only silver lining that the creepy sire bond isn’t effective any more.

Killing Silas is anticlimactic, the Stefan-lookalike walking into their trap. From there it was simply Kai’s hand on his shoulder, sucking up all of his magic until he was a very, very old mortal man.

Elena kills April Young, and Bonnie asks Kai if he can siphon a vampire. Asks what would happen if he slurped up all the vampire magic from someone.

Kai’s eyes are dancing, fingertips petting down her bare arm. “I don’t know. Who do you want to test it on?”

Damon is the answer.

Because she isn’t testing it out on an innocent, or on either of her friends first. (Once her friends were innocent, hell once she was. Maybe if they stop being vampires, everything will go back to normal.)

It works like the fabled cure, and Bonnie wonders if a siphon is what the cure was all along. A twisted weapon and solution needed to get to Silas quasi-safely. It doesn’t matter much, and Kai fixes the vampire problem in Mystic Falls for good, turning each one human. Klaus and Rebekah retreat to New Orleans, and Bonnie doesn’t care. Not right now anyways. There are many vampires in the world, they will all be cured, eventually.

(For the first time, the spirits rejoice with her. Nature itself blooms where they walk, like a pair of young gods.)

.

Elena and Stefan die in a car accident a month after turning human.

Bonnie knew it was a possibility of course, early deaths come often to Mystic Falls. But they’ve always been tied up with the supernatural, and she thought her friends would finally have the lives they deserved. Elena and Stefan were moving away together, finally getting out of this town and-

Bonnie can’t keep thinking about what ifs and might have beens, will tear herself to pieces. Caroline and Damon are angry, Damon angry enough to attack her. As if a mere human has a chance against the most powerful witches in the world.

He uses a gun he must not have touched since the war he ran away from, doesn’t stand a chance now either. And with his brother and ex-girlfriend gone, it’s obvious why he came.

“He wants to die,” Bonnie murmurs, knows it to be true.

Kai is more than happy to help, snapping his neck instantly- painlessly.

(She can’t even blame him, the bond would have stopped Kai if she really wanted him alive. God, they’ve- she’s become a whole new type of monster.)

.

They’re almost at Portland, when Bonnie finally asks the question that’s been nagging at her since Kai turned Damon back.

“You can siphon spells.”

“I can siphon anything Bonbon,” Kai says with a wink.

“Why didn’t you break the bond?”

“And become a divorcee before twenty-five? The horror!” Kai chuckles, “How else would I keep you?”

Bonnie licks her lips, “I could siphon it myself, couldn’t I?”

His knuckles tighten on the steering wheel, “We both know you’d come right back to me.”

“Because you’d start killing innocent people.”

“See? Do you really want us to go there? We work Bon-amie.”

“Yeah,” Bonnie breathes. There’s also the fact that her expressionism would take over without the bond, and once that wouldn’t have made her hesitate. (That she enjoys Kai’s company is something best not examined too closely, that he’s one of her few friends left, even more-so.)

Kai parks in front of a deserted field that tingles with magic. “C’mon, let’s go make sure I’m coven-free.”

They step over a line, the illusion dropping away and revealing the house. Maybe it’s because she already knows its history, but she instinctively doesn’t like it. The house is too big and bland looking, as if you didn’t actually want to see the other people living there. (And yup, okay, maybe she’s projecting her own family stuff now.)

“Wanna take bets on if we’re killing him?”

Bonnie purses her lips to avoid a smile, “We’re not killing your father.”

“Wait till you meet the man,” Kai sing-songs, ringing the doorbell. “Pops open up!”

Unsurprisingly, no one opens the door and Kai blasts it open with a wave of hostile magic.

There’s an older man, speaking quickly, “In the name of the Gemini coven, I expunge you from my house!”

Kai grins widely when nothing happens, “Ah, there it is. No more coven, excellent.”

“I already killed Jo. You won’t be merging with anyone,” the man says.

“Aw sissy’s gone? Too bad.”

“You won’t be taking over the coven!”

Kai shakes his head, a rueful smile on his lips. “My plans changed old man. Might I introduce my lovely wife, Bonnie Bennett?”

His father’s eyes widen as he looks at her, “No- no, that’s impossible. Sheila wouldn’t let- you can’t be.”

“We’re linked,” Kai continues with relish. “And I wouldn’t give up one drop of Bennett magic for what our coven thinks is power.”

“You fool girl! What have you done?”

Annoyance ticks in her cheek, but she knows Kai too well to be taken in by it. “Quit riling your father up. We’re done here.”

“Fine, we’ll go,” he says in a tone that means there’s going to be angry sex soon, a quiver darting down her spine.

Joshua’s eyes glitter dangerously, look eerily like Kai’s in that moment. “I cast a hex on my firstborn, may your blood turn-”

He starts choking on his words, magic draining from him, and she’s glad. She knows how that curse ends, one Kai had proposed using a modified version on his father. Excessively cruel, killing him would be kinder, and rage courses through her. That he dared to try and ruin what is hers. Kai is hers- to punish, to love, to hate- her possession in every way that matters.

Bonnie’s fists are clenched, power building in her. It clicks late that she is the one draining Joshua, and only the knowledge that the whole coven will fall if he does, steadies her pull.

“Try and touch him again, and I’ll send you to your own prison world.”

She walks outside, slamming the door shut behind them with magic.

“I think I love you,” Kai blurts out.

Bonnie giggles, drunk on power and mania. “Take me home lover boy.”