InsaneJournal

Who: Kai and Melissa to start. Then Faith and eventually Liv.
Where: The Carnival
When: Monday
What: Kai steals Melissa’s magic. Then he kidnaps Faith to get to Liv
Status: Complete
Warnings: Violence, blood. Minor derogatory term. Kai's a jerkface.



Kai was well aware that all the witches wanted him to burn at the stake because he stole precious magic from precious Caleb Danvers. Kai still remembered that night. Ah, memories. Only now it was haunting him. Caleb should have died, but he didn’t. Maybe Kai was giving him a chance, or maybe Caleb was just too stubborn. Kai had already moved on to really think about it anymore. Now his mind was on getting the magic of the ‘Dark Queen.’ Which technically, he didn’t need to touch her. But whatever spells she was casting, like say, protection spells? Then he could take that. Only problem was, Kai was a witch, not a bloodhound and whatever location spells that Bonnie was doing weren’t helping because the little bitch’s magic was just that much better. Oh, Kai was craving it.

Anyway.

The young witch had gotten more than he had bargained for the other night with his favorite witch in Portland. Maybe she got more than she bargained for too. Either way, it didn’t change anything. It couldn’t change anything because Kai didn’t care. At least none that he would admit and he had already moved onto something else. He always knew that his sister was in Portland. He had seen her on the little network. My, had she grown. But where was Luke? Where was Jo? After doing a little bit of detective work on his own, he realized that neither of them were in Portland and it was just Liv. And she was working at some magic shop. Oh, sister. He had come in a few times, looking around, but mainly he was watching her.

She looked so different, so grown up and ah, memories. The memory of her birthdays and little finger paint drawings came to mind. But of course it was the whole chasing her through the house with a baseball bat. Jo was able to protect them both, but Jo wasn’t here now. Then again, neither was Luke. Whatever purpose there was before, there wasn’t. Liv and Luke wouldn’t merge, just as Jo and Kai wouldn’t merge. So, being in Portland, his hometown, was once again like being stuck in his own snapshot of ‘94. Only this time with people. It was a little redundant at this point.

Oh, this was new. Kai had heard the parade that confidently and vivaciously crawled through the streets in Portland and it seemed to all land here. Kai looked up as he stood by the entrance, and then looked ahead. He didn’t mind a good carnival. The place seemed to have it all. He noticed on the network, that most were wary, but not Kai. He liked a good scare, it kept his heart pumping. He heard a now familiar voice and looked back, seeing his sister and her girlfriend walk past him. She didn’t even notice. Liv hadn’t noticed in the few weeks that he had been here. It was like she just blocked it from her memory. But after Damon’s warning to all witches, he didn’t put it past her that she had figured it out. He was about to walk after them when he noticed another face and he smiled a little. Lonely witch. Damn. Her luck wasn’t exactly lucky, but for Kai it was perfect. She was a little witch that was in a coven with other little witch’s. While Kai had been here, mostly to himself in Portland, he had learned to figure out a few of who’s who and she was definitely one. He could feel it as she walked by and he breathed her in unbeknownst to her.

His eyes narrowed as he watched her walk away and he paid for his ticket to get inside. He stayed back, mostly. It wasn’t as if he had to, he just did. She seemed upset, or maybe there was just a lot on her mind. Kai didn’t care either way but it would work as a tool to lure her in. And if that didn’t work, then he would just take her magic and run.

She sat down at one of the games. That stupid game, with the bottles and the rings and you can win a goldfish that’ll die in a week. Ringtoss. He sat down next to her and played a game beside her before she moved onto the next, and the next, and the next and Kai, as he sat down next to her, he had noticed that she hadn’t won any prizes. Kai won the game they were currently in and was asked what he wanted, but he turned to the young witch beside him. “Pick something,” he smiled. She had just been trying so hard and not winning.

Melissa gave Kai a polite smile. “No thank you.” If she wanted a prize bad enough she would cheat and use her magic to win something. She was just here to kill a little time while her friends were otherwise occupied. Something about the carnival had drawn her in. She knew it was a dangerous time to be out by herself now that there was something even worse than witch hunters out there. One of their own threatened to destroy them and frankly almost every guy at the carnival seemed to match Damon’s vague description of him. Tall, skinny, dark hair. That described most of the teenage boys that Melissa knew or had seen.

Faye was off with Jake somewhere and so Melissa had come to the carnival alone. Some part of her thought that maybe she could draw this guy out. She was alone and vulnerable or at least she seemed that way. This would have been an ideal time for The Circle to work together to trap this guy but The Circle didn’t work together or do anything together anymore. It was just Melissa and Melissa alone.

She couldn’t tell if the guy was trying to flirt with her or not but she wasn’t interested either way. She didn’t want to deal with a magic stealing witch and she also didn’t want to deal with some random guy who thought she was cute. Melissa was cute but her personality tended to err on the side of shyness. Back home she had made some bad choices and she had a penchant for bad boys just like Faye. The difference was that now Melissa was in love with someone else. She knew that Adam would never return her feelings. She wasn’t a Blackwell sister and Diana and Cassie had seemed to cast their spell so thoroughly over Melissa’s old friend. She hadn’t ever told Adam how she really felt about him and she probably never would. Some part of her wondered if she was crushing on him because he was unattainable. She couldn’t help but think it and it distracted her from the fact that Kai was following her.

Kai’s smile faded when she turned down the bear. Or the inflatable Spongebob. Who turned down Spongebob? What a weirdo. Kai looked ahead and played a few more games that were for the most part extremely boring until she eventually got up. Kai stayed where he was, but he watched her form walk away as he narrowed his eyes. She looked so sad, but Kai didn’t know why and he didn’t care. He just wanted her magic. There was going to be a family reunion today and it would be rude of him to not show up with anything special before he took Liv’s magic. It was all a game to him at this point, there was nothing else to it. He was bored, so, so bored that he had to find his own fun.

Finally, he got up from the little rounded stool and walked away even when the guy was yelling at him to pick a prize. He didn’t care about Spongebob either apparently, he was always a Scooby Doo fan.

He followed behind Melissa, moving his way through the crowd easily and never losing sight of her. When she was in line for a ride, he appeared behind her, but didn’t say anything. He almost wanted to wait for her to notice. Was something off little witch? Were you being followed? Just how good were those instincts?

“Man, I love this ride,” he said then, a little enthusiastic. The music was always loud, and you spun in a circle until you felt like you were going to vomit. Great times he remembered as a kid. They were few and far between. He smiled as she looked at him and he gave her a wink.

Melissa was startled when she turned and saw that Kai was standing in line right behind him to ride the fun slide. It was essentially a giant yellow side with a few bumps that you rode down by yourself or in pairs on a giant burlap sack. Melissa was just trying to kill some time but she suddenly felt very threatened. She looked around carefully for a moment to see if she recognized anyone, anyone at all that might be able to help her. She was pretty sure she knew who was following her now.

She put on the cutest fakest smile she could muster and turned around and gave him a flirty look. “Yeah, it’s fun, isn’t it? You want to go on it with me? Sorry about back there I was just embarrassed. I’m so bad at those games.” Melissa knew how to flirt with boys and she was doing her best to fool him into thinking she had no idea who he was. But the source had been Damon and Melissa didn’t think he was the kind of guy who knew how to keep his mouth shut. He had probably already bragged to this guy about how he had alerted all the witches in town to his presence. For right now, it was the best defense Melissa had until she could find a quick escape. She did have magic too, something he was lacking unless he stole it from her.

He opened his mouth to reply and mercifully Melissa’s phone began to chime. “Sorry,” she said apologetically as she fished her phone out of her jacket. It was Faye texting her. It was as if her best friend had some kind of extra senses or something. Melissa didn’t even read the text Faye had sent, she just quickly started texting. “My friend Faye is supposed to meet me but she’s running late as usual.” She gave Kai an annoyed look but frantically she texted Faye. Help. At the carnival. He’s here

She pushed her phone back into her jacket pocket and moved ahead in the line as it progressed forward. She was too aware of Kai standing behind her. What was she going to do? She had to get away from him somehow.

Kai wasn’t an idiot, but he could play games. He liked playing games, Bonnie knew that all too well. Oh, Bonnie. His mind wandered for a moment while the witch in front of him did her little texting thing. He was still getting the hang of it. The whole idea of a tablet blew his mind, but he had downloaded all the games he could. Even the supposed evil guy that stole magic got bored in Portland and he needed a few games to pass the time.

“She is huh? That’s a shame. I guess I’ll ride with you.” He smiled. The line moved and he kept his eyes on her, while looking around. She had probably alerted Damon, which - really? Kai couldn’t wait to get his hands on Damon, but there were other important things to consider. Like seeing his sister, but he just couldn’t show up empty handed.

He followed her up and a few flirtatious smiles later, Kai was sitting down behind her and his arms were wrapping around her tightly, but not too tight. He wasn’t desperate. He pulled her hair back and leaned forward. “It’s about to get good,” he promised and as expected, they flew down the huge slide, one bump after the other and Kai sighed as he held on. “You’ve heard about me, haven’t you?” He asked, but didn’t really expect an answer. More so, he was expecting her to lash out, but his hands touched her instead. He wanted her magic and as they slid down, he began stealing it from her.

“I figured. Damon doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut. Lucky for you though, I’ll make it quick. I have to get somewhere.”

He was too quick for her. She had meant to take off before he could get on the burlap sack with her but he had put his foot on the corner of it as if he expected that. And then it was too late and his arms were around her and she looked around again for Faye or for anybody while her hurried mind went through spell after spell to think of something she could use to protect herself. She’d had to think fast before but never this fast because suddenly he was stealing her magic. It hurt. She hadn’t expected it to hurt so badly that she couldn’t even use her own magic while he was taking it from her.

“Don’t do this!” She begged him but by the time they got to the bottom of the slide Melissa was drained. She stumbled off of the sack and away from the ride. When she turned she thought she saw Malachai smiling at her somewhere nearby. She launched herself dizzily at him and grabbed at his arm as if she could just take her magic back the same way he had stolen it. He was smiling, smug. Her anger radiated off of her. “Give it back! It’s not yours.” Her teeth were clenched as she held onto him. Her nails were dug in like claws because that was the only thing she had left now. She shouldn’t have been here alone. It was stupid.

She tried to conjure a spell but there was nothing let inside of her. She was just human. She let go of him. “What are you going to do?” Because she knew that he would use her magic for no good and right now that was the part that bothered her the most. She didn’t want to be responsible for whatever horrible thing he was about to do.

All around them the carnival continued on as normal. Kids chased after each other, clowns walked around making balloon animals. The smells of fried food and sugar filled the air and Melissa wasn’t a witch anymore. She was standing next to the evil one that had taken her powers away.

“Finders keepers little lady,” he smirked. They were his now. It would be a matter of until she got her own back, but for right now, he was going to put her magic to good use. But his smile faded as he looked at Melissa. Well, he didn’t need her around anymore. That part was over. The least she could have done was gotten Spongebob out of it, but she didn’t want the toy from the ring toss game. Oh well. At least one of them had gotten something out of this.

Kai looked her over, his eyes having grown darker over the course of his stare. “I’m going to go enjoy myself. You should get going, you never know what could happen.” He raised his hand and whipped it to the side and Melissa went flying into a booth. He looked around, most of the people around them went to her aid while he went the opposite way and deeper into the carnival.

Liv held onto Faith’s hand as they walked through. She knew her girlfriend was probably on high alert for any baddies or whatever, but Liv just liked spending time with her. Things were seriously fucked up in Portland. Her friends had gotten memories that she just hadn’t gotten yet, but she knew her brother was here. Damon had sent the witches after him and Bonnie was blaming her for keeping her on The Other Side. Liv just needed a break, as selfish as that was. She had taken her girlfriend out for her birthday yesterday, but this was just an added bonus.

They were at the fairgrounds for a couple of hours when Liv started to not feel good. It could have been the beer, or sugary treats that they were piling into their mouths. It could have been everything. “Hey, I’ll be back, okay. Don’t go far,” she said, giving her girlfriend a kiss before she walked away to ultimately receive her memories, she just didn’t know it yet.

And that was how Faith was found. Alone and in line to go into some little fright and scare. Kai watched, not seeing Olivia in sight. Hmm. It didn’t take him much time at all to appear behind her. Just like that. It was funny how that worked. He didn’t say much, just waited and watched her. He wouldn’t get to her until they were inside. He saw a few bulges that he could only assume were weapons and he smirked. Always prepared, wasn’t she? He didn’t know much about her. He didn’t know much about his own damn sister, but that was all going to change.

Faith was still high off of all of her birthday fun but round two wasn’t so bad at the carnival. Yesterday had been even better when her girlfriend had rented out the whole damn amusement park. She was spoiled, she didn’t deserve any of it and she knew it. Liv was something she never thought she would have. Her exes had never been this good to her which was a reason why they were now exes. She never had anyone that cared this much about her since The Prof and she was long dead. Which was why Faith was on high alert. She knew Liv’s psycho brother was wandering around and she wasn’t going to let anything happen to her. Not this time. This time Faith got to keep what was hers and some evil bitch wasn’t going to take it from her.

She was walking into the haunted house by herself for a few laughs. She loved this kind of stuff for the same reason she loved a good horror movie. They were all so damn fake. She wanted to see what they made Dracula look like. Faith had never met the real guy but Buffy had and she had heard all about it. He wasn’t really the way that the books had described. And yeah, Faith had read Dracula. It was one of the few reading assignments she had done in high school cause she thought it was way cooler than that Bronte shit they were always wanting her to read. And To Kill A Mockingbird? More like to kill herself so she didn’t have to read that boring shit.

She stuffed her hands into her new leather jacket, a present for her birthday. She was wearing a pair of low rise jean with a black top and her usual boots. Despite the form fitting clothing, she managed to be loaded to the teeth with knives and stakes and other weaponry.

Snickering she looked around the fake cemetery that had been set up to look extra fucking cheesy with smoke machines and everything. She didn’t pay any attention to the guy who was following her. She figured he was just another carnival goer. She was getting lonely for her girl though and planned to go find her after she got out of the haunted house. She walked through a circular tunnel that spun around in a circle easily with her sense of balance. The next room was a Frankenstein coming back to life with a volt of electricity. When Frankenstein sat up the first wave of dizziness hit Faith.

Kai followed behind closely, never taking her eyes off of the girl that had stolen Liv’s heart. Didn’t his little Olivia know that blood was thicker than water? She would learn, wouldn’t she? He couldn’t help but smile as Faith laughed at everything that the haunted house was throwing at her. It was a joke to him as well. Didn’t they know the real scare was something they couldn’t even comprehend to muster? Once they were deep in the house though, Kai whispered a little word or two and watched Faith as it started to take effect. She was becoming disoriented, dizzy. Probably wondering where she was and it wasn’t until she stumbled that Kai appeared.

“Are you okay? You should take it easy,” he whispered as he held onto her only to get pushed back. She could take care of herself, or so he assumed, but no, she really couldn’t.

Kai didn’t need the weaponry, his weaponry was in his mind. Olivia might not ever forgive him, but oh well, that was what family was for, wasn’t it?

“Come on, I’m just trying to help. You look like you need it.” Kai smirked as another wave of dizziness hit Faith and she stumbled back against a wall. The sounds were getting louder, all thanks to Kai. The smoke machine, the strobe lights, the music, it would soon get to Faith and Kai would collect. Suddenly, he was following behind her as she tried to make it out of the haunted house. He was just one step behind her, his face practically stoic. He didn’t care.

It wasn’t until he recited a little word that made her stop in her tracks, she was frozen and he moved around her. “I’m so sorry, I guess I should introduce myself. Where are my manners.” He smiled. “I’m Kai. Olivia’s older brother. You wouldn’t happen to know where she is right about now would you?” He asked and made himself at home with her jeans as he found a knife. He pulled it out and looked at it.

“No? Damn. I was really hoping to catch up,” he said as he pushed the blade into her skin like … butter, breaking the spell so she could move freely. “Come on, butch. You’re going to reunite me with my sister.”

As soon as the spell was broken she punched him in the face.

“You’re my girlfriend’s brother? Damn, dude. Looks like she got all the good genes in the family.” When he started to get up she kicked him in the face. She was bleeding but she would heal and she had taken worse. Obviously this fool needed to take a stabbing class from Buffy if he really wanted to hurt Faith. Then again, he was a witch. Faith was trying not to think about that as she took off running.

Liv’s psycho older brother was chasing her and she wanted to stop and text her and warn her but she didn’t have time. If he caught up to her, she would never give Liv up. He could go right ahead and kill her. And the only reason he wasn’t dead yet was because he was Liv’s brother. Then again, if he tried to kill her again she was going to have a real hard time not killing him back. But it was ultimately up to Liv what they did with her looney tunes brother.

Hiding wasn’t an option, she was bleeding all over the place and he could easily follow the trail if he didn’t use magic to cheat. She raced past a room filled with rubber skeletons hanging from the ceiling. Her blood smeared across one of them as she ran into it and hung on for a second to listen if he had followed her not. She had the feeling he was fucking with her, just playing with her. He had stolen somebody’s magic and magic always topped slayer in a game of supernatural rock paper scissors.

There was another strobe light and it immediately made her feel dizzy again. She walked as fast as she could towards the foam maze and then fell to her hands and knees behind one of the flimsy walls. She had no choice but to hide. She couldn’t stand, every time she tried she just wobbled around for a minute before falling back down to the ground. She was laying flat on her back when his feet were suddenly next to her.

“I’m not giving her up,” Faith breathed out painfully.

“Of course you’re not. Which means she’ll just find you won’t she?” He asked as he watched her from where he stood over her. He followed her through the maze of props and strobe lights again until another round of dizziness hit her and she just couldn’t stand. Tsk. Kai could taste his own blood, she had a pretty good punch, but that didn’t stop him.

He reached down and lifted her up, grabbing a fist full of hair and he dragged her throughout the haunted house. Even if Liv’s girlfriend wouldn’t squeal, that didn’t mean that Liv would come back from wherever she went to and freak out that Faith wasn’t around. It was only a matter of time until Liv found them. Kai kept his eyes ahead as he dragged the brunette who was only an obstacle. Really, he could just kill her and it wouldn’t even matter. He did kill his siblings violently. What was one more?

When she started fighting back, he let her go, letting her head hit the floor with a thud and he walked back, stepping on her leg with one boot and his other boot came crashing down on her ankle and he was satisfied when he heard a ‘pop’. “Can’t get far like that, can you?” He smiled as if it were genuine, but there was nothing genuine about him.

“So how long until you think she’ll come looking for you?” He asked. “How much does she really care? I haven’t seen her since she was four. Well, I did see her a few days ago in that shop she works in, but I didn’t have the nerve to talk to her. It was crazy, she didn’t even recognize me. It hurt a little bit.” He frowned at that.

“Anyway.” He waved his hand, lifting her up so she was standing and pushed his hand forward so she was stuck to the wall. “How’d you two crazy kids meet?”

“Strip club,” Faith said in a low raw voice. She tried to keep the pain hidden. She was used to being in pain, being a slayer. Sometimes Faith even liked pain. She told Liam once it was how she knew she was alive. It was true. Faith did like pain. Underneath that sadism ran a long streak of masochism. Faith liked hurting other things but she liked to hurt too. She just really didn’t like it when the one who was hurting her was her girlfriend’s psycho witch brother who was going to use Faith to lure Liv here to kill her.

It was true that they had met a strip club. Faith was the talent and Liv was a bartender and they had met that one night when Faith gave her a ride home. She had been attracted to Liv from the second she saw all that wild blonde hair and the surly stare. Whe she flirted with Liv that first night in front of The Red Rooms she hadn’t expected anything to come of it. She thought for sure Liv was just into guys but it turned out that she didn’t discriminate either. Then again her older brother apparently thought Faith was the butch in this relationship.

She was glued to the wall but she had managed to slide one of her knives free. She kept it hidden in her hand debating on what she would do with it. Ideally, she killed Kai with it. Nope. She didn’t give a crap whose brother he was. She could pay for that later with Liv. If Liv wanted to hurt her for it that was just fine but Faith wasn’t going to let Kai hurt Liv. That was just how it was going to be.

Her fingers curled around the knife, hoping that Kai wouldn’t notice. Ideally, she killed him with it. Not so ideally, she killed herself with it before Liv could use her own magic to track Faith down. Would she be able to track down a dead body? Faith wasn’t sure but she was willing to take the risk. Maybe some other version of her would show back up and kick Kai’s ass.

“Heard you got banished,” she said. “That means we got something in common.”

He was amused by her story, he couldn’t help that. Little sister working at a strip club? Or even hanging out at one. Wow, how things changed so fast once kids grew up. Kai would have never imagined it, but he doubted Faith really had any reason to lie. She seemed like the brutal truth type.

“You were banished too? Did your family turn their back on you? Call you an abomination, send you to a snapshot of the very day you were banished to live in for what I’ve come to realize was twenty years?” He narrowed his eyes. “Doubtful.”

He heard footsteps and he brought his finger to his mouth as he looked at Faith. Kai moved closer to her, not seeing that she was holding onto a knife. He had no idea and he stood beside her, pulling out the knife from his back pocket that he used to stab Faith with already. He saw a shot of blonde hair and smirked. Showtime indeed.

“MIght as well come out, sister. Your hair gave you aw-” He was cut off by his back slamming against the wall as Liv came into view.

As soon as Kai’s back slammed into the wall, Faith was released from the hold he had on her. It was tempting to face plant right on the floor. She wasn’t sure what he had hit when he stuck her with that knife but it was something vital because it hurt like hell and she was bleeding a lot. That was okay. Faith might have failed Biology in high school when she still had bothered going but she knew how to hurt others. She jammed the knife into his kidney and pulled it free so he couldn’t have it before she backed up towards Liv. “How’s that for butch?” she hissed at him.

“He has magic. He must have stolen it from somebody,” Faith warned her. She knew that in the middle of a witch fight wasn’t where she wanted to be but screw it, it was the choices she made. Being with Liv was worth dealing with witchcraft on the daily. It was the power that freaked Faith out the most because it was the power she least understood. She couldn’t understand it, she couldn’t use it and it was infinitely more powerful than she was. The Slayer had been created with magic so it existed somewhere inside of Faith. She just couldn’t wield it the way they did.
“He wants to whine about how mean his family was to him. Tried telling him you already get that from me and didn’t need somebody else to do it but he was insisting.” Faith was still struggling to stay upright but she would always stand at Liv’s side until she no longer had breath in her body and her heart ceased to beat. She would stand. If she was going to die in the middle of this witch battle, it would be on her feet.

She wanted to egg Liv on to kill him but she knew it was a fucked up situation. As an only child, Faith had no use for siblings and didn’t understand the bond between them. But she had seen enough of Buffy and Dawn to know that they were important and that this was a big deal to Liv. She was always going on about her twin brother Luke and how much she missed him. Why couldn’t he have shown up instead?

Liv and Kai didn’t have a bond. He practically ruined that when he went through the house, chasing after her and Luke with a baseball bat. If it wasn’t for Jo, Liv knew that she and Luke would be dead right about now. She should have known, this whole time. She thought she was coming down with something, but that something happened to be a few months of memories. She didn’t understand why Damon got them, or Bonnie and she hadn’t. They had known more about her brother and what he had been up to than she did, but now that she had seen her side of things with her own eyes … kinda sorta, she knew that Kai hadn’t changed and he probably never would.

She hadn’t known what had happened to him, not fully. She was so young, but now she knew everything she needed to know and she understood why Bonnie was questioning her.

“Now I’ll just insist you’re a bitch,” Kai snarled, his hand on his side. Even with all the magic that Melissa had given him so generously, it didn’t protect him from knives and he felt himself stumble slightly. No, this wasn’t happening now. Not when this was the first time that he was actually talking to Liv. Maybe he went about the wrong way, but was there really a right way in this situation? He thought not. Why not have a little fun while he was at it. Even if he was in pain, it was still thrilling. He looked at Liv, giving her a wink. “Long time, no see,” he greeted officially and started whispering low. A spell that would heal him, but as soon as he started speaking the words, he was being flown back against the wall.

“Come on, where’s the sisterly love?” He choked. “No warm hugs?” Kai paused. “Nothing?” He laughed, but it wasn’t full of joy, More manic than anything.

“Are you kidding me right now? You just tried to kill my girlfriend.” That wasn’t even the first of it, but Liv could smell blood and she knew it was coming from Faith too, not just Kai. The memories had gotten to her, realizing that Jo was her sister, that Kai was her brother, the merge that was supposed to happen with Luke and for so long she wanted her twin here, but now she was glad that he wasn’t here. It made her think about what was going on at home, but she couldn’t do anything about that. The only thing she could focus on was her brother … and he was hurting people by taking their magic.

“What’s your point, Kai?” She asked, taking a step further and then another and then another. “Jo isn’t here, you’re not stuck anymore and Luke’s not here. There is no ritual.” She was trying to see his side, but she was sure there wasn’t one. “Portland is so different, it’s not the same, the things that are going on back home, they’re not going on here.”

“Up to and including you tryin’ to kill everyone you’re related to,” Faith clarified. She didn’t want to see something happen to Liv all because her brother was some psychopath. She still wasn’t a hundred percent on the details because for Liv they had been fuzzy. She just knew that Kai was bad news and he had reinforced that idea by stabbing her. She hated having her girl fight her battles but this was really Liv’s battle anyway. It was her brother, her business. But damn, it hurt to be stabbed. He hadn’t hit any vital organs though. Buffy was better at this than he was.

“What are we gonna do about this guy? I doubt he’s just gonna be locked up in the basement like Hayley.” Even she had been a pain in the ass. Hayley had ultimately been a cooperative pain in the ass but a pain in the ass nonetheless. Kai had magic and Faith never did trust a witch. Liv was the exception but even then it sometimes freaked her out to know she was sharing a bed with somebody who was way more of a badass than she would ever be. Liv had real power. Faith was stuck in Candy Land.

His point was obviously to be annoying. Things were going way too well for Faith and Liv so this guy just had to show up and rain hell down on their relationship. It just figured, didn’t it? Nobody from Faith’s world ever showed up here but Liv knew a lot of people from back home in Virginia. Faith was lucky. She didn’t have any baggage walking through the door but she would have to deal with Liv’s.

Kai listened to Liv and the significant other. He rolled his eyes and watched them both. What were they going to do with him? That was a good question. Nothing, he supposed. It wasn’t as if he was going anywhere with them. No, Kai had plans, he just had to solidify them. Liv was right in saying that Jo wasn’t here. Nope, because that would be too easy. But Kai wanted his own powers, he didn’t want to keep stealing it from every witch in town. It was bad enough Damon had ratted him out to all the witches, but the more he stole, it was only a matter of time until all the little witches banded together to burn him at the stake.

"I just wanted to say hi." He gave a little wave, along with a smirk. Despite the pain that he was feeling, he could still feel Melissa's magic running through him. It was only a matter of time until it was all gone though and while Liv and Faith talked back and forth, he was slowly healing himself, which was taking a lot of magic.

"No, he can't come back with us. Even if he is locked up," Liv replied. She just didn't know what to do with him and for a second, just a second she took her eyes off of him to look at Faith. "Are you okay?" She asked and that's when she felt intense pain. She cried out and clutched at her chest.

"My point, Olivia is to gain my own power." Kai narrowed his eyes, but his expression wasn't angry. It was as if he were stating the obvious. Liv should already know. "And you're right. Jo isn't here. Luke isn't here ... which only leaves you." He eyed Faith. "Try it and I'll kill you right now." He had his arm out, his fingers tightening into a fist as he tried to milk magic from her. He couldn't though, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt. Liv fell to her knees and Kai was reluctant to release his hold on her.

He let out a breath. He was exhausted and exasperated. He knelt down in front of Liv. "I won't kill you, Olivia. You have so much going on for you here in Portland. It's like you just forgot your past. Lucky for you, I'm here." His smile was big, toothy and he touched the top of her head, scrunching her hair in a friendly gesture as he got up. "Obviously, I can't do it now. There has to be this whole ritual, the moon has to be right, blood." He looked at Faith. "Maybe a sacrifice." He released his hold on on Liv and she nearly fell over but Faith was right there to catch her before she could.

Faith was torn between wanting to hold Liv up and wanting to tear Kai’s throat out. The rage in her wanted to come roaring to the surface and once upon a time it would have. She would have gotten herself killed trying to beat Kai up. You couldn’t beat a witch up. Everyone knew that. You had to surprise them or find some other way to subdue them. She really wished that she carried a tranquilizer gun or even a real gun would do. She was no longer invested in letting Liv take care of this one on her own. She was only invested in killing Kai. She had no idea what he meant by the ritual but she knew it wouldn’t be good. She didn’t like the way he looked at her when he said there would be a sacrifice.

“You ever think you never got any powers of your own because you don’t deserve ‘em?” she asked him. “Or maybe it’s just cause you’re weak.”

Faith knew it was dangerous to taunt a witch like that but at the moment she only cared about getting Kai’s attention away from Liv. She didn’t want Liv getting hurt because of this jackass. They needed to retreat and regroup and plan how they were going to deal with him. Also, Faith was probably going to need stitches. She healed fast but she was starting to look even paler than usual because of the blood loss.

"Weak. Hmm." Kai tapped his lip with his finger as he thought about that one, but really, it didn't take him long. "Getting kind of pale there, Faith," he taunted, which seemed to only make her more angry. He liked it. "Might want to get that fixed. Or not. Whatever," he shrugged and looked at Liv who was now on her feet.

Liv felt the release of Kai's magic, or whoever's magic he took and she finally stood on her feet. Kai's plan was useless, there was no way. There couldn't be a way. That was wishful thinking, but the truth was, anything was possible and the fact that Kai wasn't interested in changing his ways, he was only interested in power and control told her all she needed to know. No, this wasn't Mystic Falls, the problems were different here than back at home and Kai was no different. Instead of merging with Jo, he wanted to outright take Liv's magic from her. It was all she was, she was a witch through and through and depending how it all played out, she would most likely die.

But she wasn't dying tonight.

She was worried about Faith, but right now, getting them out of here was important and then she could help Faith. She wanted that smirk gone, she wanted him gone, but even with everything, right now - all of it, she couldn't kill him. She wouldn't. Some part of her wanted to help him, even if she didn't know how to reach him right now. With a few whispered words, a line of fire burst in front of him, separating Kai from her and Faith. There was really nothing left to say and right now, she wanted to get Faith out of here.

"I can't deal with him right now," she admitted and looked at Faith. "We don't have much time, we need to get out of here." She moved her arm around Faith. She did look pale as hell and Liv was scared. She knew Faith was tough, but everyone had a breaking point, even a slayer and stab wounds could complicate a lot of things. Liv started with Faith, leaving Kai behind as they moved back up through the haunted house, but Liv felt herself pulled back.

"Come on. Fire?" Kai sighed, unimpressed and Liv's eyes darkened. "No worries, little sister. You can go and fix up your broad. She needs it, but just know I'll be seeing you soon." He caught her nose between his two fingers and she scrunched up, moving her head away.

"It was nice meeting you, Faith. Make sure you get that stitched. You look a little dazed," he frowned and raised his eyebrows before walking past and toward the front to leave the haunted house.

Liv watched him go and looked at Faith. Liv had totally paused, froze when she could have hurt him. She was powerful, she knew it, but this was just ... complicated. She didn't want Faith disappointed in her, but what was she supposed to do? Kill her brother? She wouldn't. Not right now anyway. She remembered what Kai did, he killed four of their siblings, he tried to kill her and Luke. He stabbed Faith tonight. Liv was delusional in thinking that he could change and maybe it wasn't even about that. Maybe they could find a way to take his ability to steal magic from him. They just had to figure out a way before he found some ritual to take hers.

“Motherfucker,” Faith grounded out between her teeth, gritted together. With her arm around Liv, she leaned into her girlfriend as they walked out of the haunted house. Kai was long gone by then but Faith knew he would be back for his ritual or whatever. It sounded like if he had a chance to perform said ritual then a lot of people were going to die, notably Liv and Faith just couldn’t let that happen.

She let Liv lead her out of the carnival, so dazed from the blood loss that she didn’t even notice Molly obsessively playing games nearby. All she do was smell Liv’s hair and the carnival was a blur as she hobbled them back to Liv’s car. She was just grateful that it was too cold for the bike and so they had taken Liv’s car to the carnival instead. She cringed when Liv let her drop heavily into the passenger seat and Faith painfully pulled her feet inside. She was smearing blood across the seat as Liv got into the driver’s side.

“We have to do something about him,” she said. “I know he’s your brother but he’s fucking crazy and he wants to hurt you.” If Liv wasn’t up for the job of killing Kai, Faith surely was. She knew she would have to be tricky but luckily for her Kai was impotent most of the time anyway. She just had to wait until all the witch juice just wore him right out. Cause he wasn’t taking Liv’s magic or anything else from her. Including Faith herself.

Mostly she was trying to steer conversation away from going to the hospital where Liv would undoubtedly want to take her. She probably did need stitches but she could do it herself if she had to.

Liv sat in the car and paused before starting it up. This was so fucking crazy and Liv’s mind was going a mile a minute. But Faith. She swallowed and looked at her. “I know. I know we have to do something. We have to stop him from finding, or doing the ritual. We need to find it ourselves to see what it entails but right now, I need to know you’re going to be okay.” The only thing that Liv could smell was Faith’s blood that was surrounding her. She knew that Faith wouldn’t want to go to the hospital, but right now, she didn’t have a choice. They’d be in an out, Liv would make sure of it.

She pulled out and headed to the hospital.

“I’m sorry. I should have been there, I … got my memories when I was gone.” She didn’t know how that worked. Her friends had gotten their memories already. It was like it was almost meant to happen and she felt a little sick to her stomach at everything that was going on back at home. There were things that she was doing that didn’t even pertain to Kai. She pushed it out of her mind, it didn’t matter. None of it mattered. Right now all that mattered was Faith.

Reaching over, she held onto her hand. “I know you’re not going to like this, but you’re going. No arguments. We’ll be in and out and after you’ve rested, we’ll come up with a plan,” she promised and looked at her as she drove to the hospital.

“What do you mean you got your memories back? What does that even mean?” Faith asked. Her hand was pressed to her side where Kai had stabbed her, trying to hold in whatever blood was left in her body. It hurt like hellfire shooting up and down the entire right side of her body.

Faith rolled her eyes but said nothing of being driven to the hospital against her will. She already knew that Liv would make her go. She had a habit of doing that any time Faith got into a particularly nasty scrape. Getting hurt was part of the job description of The Slayer. She didn’t know it was also a part of being Liv’s girlfriend. She thought if anybody was going to hurt her, it would be Liv cause Faith fucked something up. She didn’t know that Liv had a murderous evil brother lurking around.

“And don’t apologize for him. Don’t ever apologize for him. You are nothing like him and just because you got the bad luck of being related doesn’t mean you owe him anything.” Faith might not have siblings but she did have parents and both had abandoned her and let her down at every turn. While they hadn’t actively tried to kill her, they had their own ways of inflicting pain. Faith didn’t owe them anything. Liv didn’t owe Kai anything.

“But fine, we’ll talk about it later,” she grumbled as they pulled up outside of the emergency room entrance.