L. J. Smith: Vampire Diaries 04 - Dark Reunion
DARK REUNION
The Vampire Diaries Book 4
By
L. J. Smith

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES
Dark Reunion
Volume IV
L. J. Smith
HarperTorch
An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

BOOKS BY L. J. SMITH
BOOKS BY L. J. SMITH
Volume I: The Awakening
Volume II: The Struggle
Volume III: The Fury
Volume IV: Dark Reunion
THE SECRET CIRCLE TRILOGY
Volume I: The Initiation
Volume II: The Captive
Volume III: The Power
The Night of the Solstice
Heart of Valor

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of
the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.
Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead,
is entirely coincidental.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of
the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.
Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead,
is entirely coincidental.
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L. J. Smith: Vampire Diaries 04 - Dark Reunion
Copyright © 1992 by Daniel Weiss Associates, Inc. and Lisa Smith
Cover art copyright © 1992 by Daniel Weiss Associates, Inc.
ISBN: 0-06-105992-7
First HarperTorch paperback printing: October 2001 First HarperPrism printing:
April 1999
A mass market edition of this book was published in 1992 by HarperPaperbacks.
Produced by Daniel Weiss Associates, Inc., 33 West 17th Street, New York, NY
10011.
Printed in the United States of America
Visit HarperTorch on the World Wide Web at www.harpercollins.com

For John and Marianne Vrabec, with love.
And with thanks to Julie-again-for helping it get written.

Dark Reunion

One
"Things can be just like they were before," said Caroline warmly, reaching out to
squeeze Bonnie's hand.
But it wasn't true. Nothing could ever be the way it had been before Elena died.
Nothing. And Bonnie had serious misgivings about this party Caroline was trying to
set up. A vague nagging in the pit of her stomach told her that for some reason it
was a very, very bad idea.
"Meredith's birthday is already over," she pointed out. "It was last Saturday."
"But she didn't have a party, not a real party like this one. We've got all night; my
parents won't be back until Sunday morning. Come on, Bonnie-just think how
surprised she'll be."
Oh, she'll be surprised, all right, thought Bonnie. So surprised she just might kill
me afterward. "Look, Caroline, the reason Meredith didn't have a big party is that
she still doesn't feel much like celebrating. It seems-disrespectful, somehow-"
"But that's wrong. Elena would want us to have a good time, you know she
would. She loved parties. And she'd hate to see us sitting around and crying over her
six months after she's gone." Caroline leaned forward, her normally feline green eyes
earnest and compelling. There was no artifice in them now, none of Caroline's usual
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nasty manipulation. Bonnie could tell she really meant it.
"I want us to be friends again the way we used to be," Caroline said. "We always
used to celebrate our birthdays together, just the four of us, remember? And
remember how the guys would always try to crash our parties? I wonder if they'll try
this year."
Bonnie felt control of the situation slipping away from her. This is a bad idea, this
is a very bad idea, she thought. But Caroline was going on, looking dreamy and
almost romantic as she talked about the good old days. Bonnie didn't have the heart
to tell her that the good old days were as dead as disco.
"But there aren't even four of us anymore. Three doesn't make much of a party,"
she protested feebly when she could get a word in.
"I'm going to invite Sue Carson, too. Meredith gets along with her, doesn't she?"
Bonnie had to admit Meredith did; everyone got along with Sue. But even so,
Caroline had to understand that things couldn't be the way they had been before.
You couldn't just substitute Sue Carson for Elena and say, There, everything is fixed
now.
But how do I explain that to Caroline? Bonnie thought. Suddenly she knew.
"Let's invite Vickie Bennett," she said.

Caroline stared. "Vickie Bennett? You must be joking. Invite that bizarre little drip
who undressed in front of half the school? After everything that happened?"
Caroline stared. "Vickie Bennett? You must be joking. Invite that bizarre little drip
who undressed in front of half the school? After everything that happened?"
For a moment Caroline looked helplessly frustrated. Bonnie thrust her chin out,
put her hands on her hips, and waited. Finally Caroline sighed.
"All right; you win. I'll invite her. But you have to take care of getting Meredith to
my house Saturday night. And Bonnie-make sure she doesn't have any idea what's
going on. I really want this to be a surprise."
"Oh, it will be," Bonnie said grimly. She was unprepared for the sudden light in
Caroline's face or the impulsive warmth of Caroline's hug.
"I'm so glad you're seeing things my way," Caroline said. "And it'll be so good
for us all to be together again."
She doesn't understand a thing, Bonnie realized, dazed, as Caroline walked off.
What do I have to do to explain to her? Sock her?
And then: Oh, God, now I have to tell Meredith.
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But by the end of the day she decided that maybe Meredith didn't need to be told.
Caroline wanted Meredith surprised; well, maybe Bonnie should deliver Meredith
surprised. That way at least Meredith wouldn't have to worry about it beforehand.
Yes, Bonnie concluded, it was probably kindest to not tell Meredith anything.
And who knows, she wrote in her journal Friday night. Maybe I'm being too hard
on Caroline. Maybe she's really sorry about all the things she did to us, like trying
to humiliate Elena in front of the whole town and trying to get Stefan put away for
murder. Maybe Caroline's matured since then and learned to think about
somebody besides herself. Maybe we'll actually have a good time at her party.
And maybe aliens will kidnap me before tomorrow afternoon, she thought as she
closed the diary. She could only hope.
The diary was an inexpensive drugstore blank book, with a pattern of tiny flowers
on the cover. She'd only started keeping it since Elena had died, but she'd already
become slightly addicted to it. It was the one place she could say anything she
wanted without people looking shocked and saying, "Bonnie McCullough!" or "Oh,
Bonnie."
She was still thinking about Elena as she turned off the light and crawled under the
covers.
She was sitting on lush, manicured grass that spread as far as she could see in all
directions. The sky was a flawless blue, the air was warm and scented. Birds were
singing.

"I'm so glad you could come," Elena said.
"Oh-yes," said Bonnie. "Well, naturally, so am I. Of course." She looked
around again, then hastily back at Elena.
"More tea?"
There was a teacup in Bonnie's hand, thin and fragile as eggshell. "Oh-sure.
Thanks."
Elena was wearing an eighteenth-century dress of gauzy white muslin, which clung
to her, showing how slender she was. She poured the tea precisely, without spilling a
drop.
"Would you like a mouse?"
"A what?"
"I said, would you like a sandwich with your tea?"
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"Oh. A sandwich. Yeah. Great." It was thinly sliced cucumber with mayonnaise
on a dainty square of white bread. Without the crust.
The whole scene was as sparkly and beautiful as a picture by Seurat. Warm
Springs, that's where we are. The old picnic place, Bonnie thought. But surely we've
got more important things to discuss than tea.
"Who does your hair these days?" she asked. Elena never had been able to do it
herself.
"Do you like it?" Elena put a hand up to the silky, pale gold mass piled at the back
of her neck.
"It's perfect," said Bonnie, sounding for all the world like her mother at a
Daughters of the American Revolution dinner party.
"Well, hair is important, you know," Elena said. Her eyes glowed a deeper blue
than the sky, lapis lazuli blue. Bonnie touched her own springy red curls
self-consciously.
"Of course, blood is important too," Elena said.
"Blood? Oh-yes, of course," said Bonnie, flustered. She had no idea what Elena
was talking about, and she felt as if she were walking on a tightrope over alligators.
"Yes, blood's important, all right," she agreed weakly.
"Another sandwich?"
"Thanks." It was cheese and tomato. Elena selected one for herself and bit into it
delicately. Bonnie watched her, feeling uneasiness grow by the minute inside her, and
then-
And then she saw the mud oozing out of the edges of the sandwich.
"What-what's that?" Terror made her voice shrill. For the first time, the dream
seemed like a dream, and she found that she couldn't move, could only gasp and
stare. A thick glob of the brown stuff fell off Elena's sandwich onto the checkered

tablecloth. It was mud, all right. "Elena... Elena, what-"
tablecloth. It was mud, all right. "Elena... Elena, what-"
The air was no longer warm and scented; it was hot and sickly sweet with the
odor of rotting garbage. There were black pits in the green grass, which wasn't
manicured after all but wild and overgrown. This wasn't Warm Springs. She was in
the old graveyard; how could she not have realized that? Only these graves were
fresh.
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"Another mouse?" Elena said, and giggled obscenely.
Bonnie looked down at the half-eaten sandwich she was holding and screamed.
Dangling from one end was a ropy brown tail. She threw it as hard as she could
against a headstone, where it hit with a wet slap. Then she stood, stomach heaving,
scrubbing her fingers frantically against her jeans.
"You can't leave yet. The company is just arriving." Elena's face was changing;
she had already lost her hair, and her skin was turning gray and leathery. Things were
moving in the plate of sandwiches and the freshly dug pits. Bonnie didn't want to see
any of them; she thought she would go mad if she did.
"You're not Elena!" she screamed, and ran.
The wind blew her hair into her eyes and she couldn't see. Her pursuer was
behind her; she could feel it right behind her. Get to the bridge, she thought, and then
she ran into something.
"I've been waiting for you," said the thing in Elena's dress, the gray skeletal thing
with long, twisted teeth. "Listen to me, Bonnie." It held her with terrible strength.
"You're not Elena! You're not Elena!"
"Listen to me, Bonnie!"
It was Elena's voice, Elena's real voice, not obscenely amused nor thick and ugly,
but urgent. It came from somewhere behind Bonnie and it swept through the dream
like a fresh, cold wind. "Bonnie, listen quickly-"
Things were melting. The bony hands on Bonnie's arms, the crawling graveyard,
the rancid hot air. For a moment Elena's voice was clear, but it was broken up like a
bad long-dis-tance connection.
"... He's twisting things, changing them. I'm not as strong as he is..." Bonnie
missed some words. "... but this is important. You have to find... right now." Her
voice was fading.
"Elena, I can't hear you! Elena!"
"... an easy spell, only two ingredients, the ones I told you already..."
"Elena!"
Bonnie was still shouting as she sat bolt upright in bed.

Two
"And that's all I remember," Bonnie concluded as she and Meredith walked down
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Sunflower Street between the rows of tall Victorian houses.
"But it was definitely Elena?"
"Yes, and she was trying to tell me something at the end. But that's the part that
wasn't clear, except that it was important, terribly important. What do you think?"
"Mouse sandwiches and open graves?" Meredith arched an elegant eyebrow. "I
think you're getting Stephen King mixed up with Lewis Carroll."
Bonnie thought she was probably right. But the dream still bothered her; it had
bothered her all day, enough to put her earlier worries out of her mind. Now, as she
and Meredith approached Caroline's house, the old worries returned with a
vengeance.
She really should have told Meredith about this, she thought, casting an uneasy
sideways glance at the taller girl. She shouldn't let Meredith just walk in there
unprepared...
Meredith looked up at the lighted windows of the Queen Anne House with a sigh.
"Do you really need those earrings tonight?"
"Yes, I do; yes, absolutely." Too late now. Might as well make the best of it.
"You'll love them when you see them," she added, hearing the note of hopeful
desperation in her own voice.
Meredith paused and her keen dark eyes searched Bonnie's face curiously. Then
she knocked on the door. "I just hope Caroline's not staying home tonight. We
could end up stuck with her."
"Caroline staying home on a Saturday night? Don't be ridiculous." Bonnie had
been holding her breath too long; she was starting to feel lightheaded. Her tinkling
laughter came out brittle and false. "What a concept," she continued somewhat
hysterically as Meredith said, "I don't think anybody's home," and tried the knob.
Possessed by some crazy impulse Bonnie added, "Fiddle-dee-dee."
Hand on doorknob, Meredith stopped dead and turned to look at her.
"Bonnie," she said quietly, "have you gone completely through the ozone?"
"No." Deflated, Bonnie grabbed Meredith's arm and sought her eyes urgently.
The door was opening on its own. "Oh, God, Meredith, please don't kill me..."
"Surprise!" shouted three voices.
"Smile," Bonnie hissed, shoving the suddenly resistant body of her friend through
the door and into the bright room full of noise and showers of foil confetti. She
beamed wildly herself and spoke through clenched teeth. "Kill me later-I deserve it
-but for now just smile."

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There were balloons, the expensive Mylar kind, and a cluster of presents on the
coffee table. There was even a flower arrangement, although Bonnie noticed the
orchids in it matched Caroline's pale green scarf exactly. It was a Hermes silk with a
design of vines and leaves. She'll end up wearing one of those orchids in her hair, I'll
bet, Bonnie thought.
There were balloons, the expensive Mylar kind, and a cluster of presents on the
coffee table. There was even a flower arrangement, although Bonnie noticed the
orchids in it matched Caroline's pale green scarf exactly. It was a Hermes silk with a
design of vines and leaves. She'll end up wearing one of those orchids in her hair, I'll
bet, Bonnie thought.
"Nothing I can't break with an iron crowbar," Meredith replied. But she smiled
back with wry warmth and Bonnie relaxed. Sue had been a Homecoming Princess
on Elena's court, along with Bonnie, Meredith, and Caroline. She was the only girl at
school besides Bonnie and Meredith who'd stood by Elena when everyone else had
turned against her. At Elena's funeral she'd said that Elena would always be the real
queen of Robert E. Lee, and she'd given up her own nomination for Snow Queen in
Elena's memory. Nobody could hate Sue. The worst was over now, Bonnie thought.
"I want to get a picture of us all on the couch," Caroline said, positioning them
behind the flower arrangement. "Vickie, take it, will you?"
Vickie Bennett had been standing by quietly, unnoticed. Now she said, "Oh,
sure," and nervously flicked long, light brown hair out of her eyes as she picked up
the camera.
Just like she's some kind of servant, Bonnie thought, and then the flashbulb
blinded her.
As the Polaroid developed and Sue and Caroline laughed and talked around
Meredith's dry politeness, Bonnie noticed something else. It was a good picture;
Caroline looked stunning as ever with her auburn hair gleaming and the pale green
orchids in front of her. And there was Meredith, looking resigned and ironic and
darkly beautiful without even trying, and there she was herself, a head shorter than
the others, with her red curls tousled and a sheepish expression on her face. But the
strange thing was the figure beside her on the couch. It was Sue, of course it was
Sue, but for a moment the blond hair and blue eyes seemed to belong to someone
else. Someone looking at her urgently, on the verge of saying something important.
Bonnie frowned at the photo, blinking rapidly. The image swam in front of her, and a
chilling uneasiness ran up her spine.
No, it was just Sue in the picture. She must've gone crazy for a minute, or else she
was letting Caroline's desire for them "all to be together again" affect her.
"I'll take the next one," she said, springing up. "Sit down, Vickie, and lean in. No,
farther, farther-there!" All of Vickie's movements were quick and light and nervous.
When the flashbulb went off, she started like a scared animal ready to bolt.
Caroline scarcely glanced at this picture, getting up and heading for the kitchen
instead. "Guess what we're having instead of cake?" she said. "I'm making my own
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version of Death by Chocolate. Come on, you've got to help me melt the fudge."
Sue followed her, and after an uncertain pause, so did Vickie.

The last traces of Meredith's pleasant expression evaporated and she turned to
Bonnie. "You should have told me."
The last traces of Meredith's pleasant expression evaporated and she turned to
Bonnie. "You should have told me."
"And that makes it all worthwhile?"
"Well, it helps," Bonnie said, with an air of being reasonable. "And really, it
probably won't be so bad. Caroline's actually trying to be nice, and it's good for
Vickie to get out of the house for once..."
"It doesn't look like it's good for her," Meredith said bluntly. "It looks like she's
going to have a heart attack."
"Well, she's probably just nervous." In Bonnie's opinion, Vickie had good reason
to be nervous. She'd spent most of the previous fall in a trance, being slowly driven
out of her mind by a power she didn't understand. Nobody had expected her to
come out of it as well as she had.
Meredith was still looking bleak. "At least," Bonnie said consolingly, "it isn't your
real birthday."
Meredith picked up the camera and turned it over and over. Still looking down at
her hands, she said, "But it is."
"What?" Bonnie stared and then said louder, "What did you say?"
"I said, it is my real birthday. Caroline's mom must have told her; she and my
mom used to be friends a long time ago."
"Meredith, what are you talking about? Your birthday was last week, May 30."
"No, it wasn't. It's today, June 6. It's true; it's on my driver's license and
everything. My parents started celebrating it a week early because June 6 was too
upsetting for them. It was the day my grandfather was attacked and went crazy." As
Bonnie gasped, unable to speak, she added calmly, "He tried to kill my grandmother,
you know. He tried to kill me, too." Meredith put the camera down carefully in the
exact center of the coffee table. "We really should go in the kitchen," she said
quietly. "I smell chocolate."
Bonnie was still paralyzed, but her mind was beginning to work again. Vaguely,
she remembered Meredith speaking about this before, but she hadn't told her the full
truth then. And she hadn't said when it had happened.
"Attacked-you mean like Vickie was attacked," Bonnie got out. She couldn't say
the word vampire, but she knew Meredith understood.
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"Like Vickie was attacked," Meredith confirmed. "Come on," she added, even
more quietly. "They're waiting for us. I didn't mean to upset you."
Meredith doesn't want me to be upset, so I won't be upset, Bonnie thought,

pouring hot fudge over the chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream. Even though
we've been friends since first grade and she never told me this secret before.
pouring hot fudge over the chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream. Even though
we've been friends since first grade and she never told me this secret before.
Then Bonnie shook her head determinedly. She couldn't think about this right
now; she had a party to think about. And I'll make sure it's a good party and we all
get along somehow, she thought.
Strangely, it wasn't even that hard. Meredith and Vickie didn't talk much at first,
but Bonnie went out of her way to be nice to Vickie, and even Meredith couldn't
resist the pile of brightly wrapped presents on the coffee table. By the time she'd
opened the last one they were all talking and laughing. The mood of truce and
toleration continued as they moved up into Caroline's bedroom to examine her
clothes and CDs and photo albums. As it got near midnight they flopped on sleeping
bags, still talking.
"What's going on with Alaric these days?" Sue asked Meredith.
Alaric Saltzman was Meredith's boyfriend-sort of. He was a graduate student
from Duke University who'd majored in parapsychology and had been called to
Fell's Church last year when the vampire attacks began. Though he'd started out an
enemy, he'd ended up an ally-and a friend.
"He's in Russia," Meredith said. "Perestroika, you know? He's over there finding
out what they were doing with psychics during the Cold War."
"What are you going to tell him when he gets back?" asked Caroline.
It was a question Bonnie would have liked to ask Meredith herself. Because Alaric
was almost four years older, Meredith had told him to wait until after she graduated
to talk about their future. But now Meredith was eighteen-today, Bonnie reminded
herself-and graduation was in two weeks. What was going to happen after that?
"I haven't decided," Meredith said. "Alaric wants me to go to Duke, and I've been
accepted there, but I'm not sure. I have to think."
Bonnie was just as glad. She wanted Meredith to go to Boone Junior College with
her, not go off and get married, or even engaged. It was stupid to decide on one
guy so young. Bonnie herself was notorious for playing the field, going from boy to
boy as she pleased. She got crushes easily, and got over them just as easily.
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"I haven't seen the guy so far worth remaining faithful to," she said now.
Everyone looked at her quickly. Sue's chin was resting on her fists as she asked,
"Not even Stefan?"
Bonnie should have known. With the only light the dim bedside lamp and the only
sound the rustle of new leaves on the weeping willows outside, it was inevitable that
the conversation would turn to Stefan-and to Elena.

Stefan Salvatore and Elena Gilbert were already a sort of legend in the town, like
Romeo and Juliet. When Stefan had first come to Fell's Church, every girl had
wanted him. And Elena, the most beautiful, most popular, most unapproachable girl
at school, had wanted him too. It was only after she'd gotten him that she realized
the danger. Stefan wasn't what he seemed-he had a secret far darker than anyone
could have guessed. And he had a brother, Damon, even more mysterious and
dangerous than himself. Elena had been caught between the two brothers, loving
Stefan but drawn irresistibly to Damon's wildness. In the end she had died to save
them both, and to redeem their love.
Stefan Salvatore and Elena Gilbert were already a sort of legend in the town, like
Romeo and Juliet. When Stefan had first come to Fell's Church, every girl had
wanted him. And Elena, the most beautiful, most popular, most unapproachable girl
at school, had wanted him too. It was only after she'd gotten him that she realized
the danger. Stefan wasn't what he seemed-he had a secret far darker than anyone
could have guessed. And he had a brother, Damon, even more mysterious and
dangerous than himself. Elena had been caught between the two brothers, loving
Stefan but drawn irresistibly to Damon's wildness. In the end she had died to save
them both, and to redeem their love.
"I still can't believe she's gone," Sue said quietly, shaking her head and shutting
her eyes. "She was so much more alive than other people."
"Her flame burned brighter," said Meredith, gazing at the patterns the
rose-and-gold lamp made on the ceiling. Her voice was soft but intense, and it
seemed to Bonnie that those words described Elena better than anything she'd ever
heard.
"There were times when I hated her, but I could never ignore her," Caroline
admitted, her green eyes narrowed in memory. "She wasn't a person you could
ignore."
"One thing I learned from her death," Sue said, "is that it could happen to any of
us. You can't waste any of life because you never know how long you've got."
"It could be sixty years or sixty minutes," Vickie agreed in a low voice. "Any of
us could die tonight."
Bonnie wriggled, disturbed. But before she could say anything, Sue repeated, "I
still can't believe she's really gone. Sometimes I feel as if she's somewhere near."
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"Oh, so do I," said Bonnie, distracted. An image of Warm Springs flashed
through her mind, and for a moment it seemed more vivid than Caroline's dim room.
"Last night I dreamed about her, and I had the feeling it really was her and that she
was trying to tell me something. I still have that feeling," she said to Meredith.
The others gazed at her silently. Once, they would all have laughed if Bonnie
hinted at any-thing supernatural, but not now. Her psychic powers were undisputed,
awesome, and a little scary.
"Do you really?" breathed Vickie.
"What do you think she was trying to say?" asked Sue.
"I don't know. At the end she was trying so hard to stay in contact with me, but
she couldn't."
There was another silence. At last Sue said hesitantly, with the faintest catch in her
voice, "Do you think... do you think you could contact her?"

It was what they'd all been wondering. Bonnie looked toward Meredith. Earlier,
Meredith had dismissed the dream, but now she met Bonnie's eyes seriously.
It was what they'd all been wondering. Bonnie looked toward Meredith. Earlier,
Meredith had dismissed the dream, but now she met Bonnie's eyes seriously.
"Is that the only way to communicate with dead people? What about a Ouija
board or something?" Sue asked.
"My parents have a Ouija board," Caroline said a little too loudly. Suddenly the
hushed, low-key mood was broken and an indefinable tension filled the air. Everyone
sat up straighter and looked at each other with speculation. Even Vickie looked
intrigued on top of her scaredness.
"Would it work?" Meredith said to Bonnie.
"Should we?" Sue wondered aloud.
"Do we dare? That's really the question," Meredith said. Once again Bonnie found
everyone looking at her. She hesitated a final instant, and then shrugged. Excitement
was stirring in her stomach.
"Why not?" she said. "What have we got to lose?"
Caroline turned to Vickie. "Vickie, there's a closet at the bottom of the stairs. The
Ouija board should be inside, on the top shelf with a bunch of other games."
She didn't even say, "Please, will you get it?" Bonnie frowned and opened her
mouth, but Vickie was already out the door.
"You could be a little more gracious," Bonnie told Caroline. "What is this, your
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impression of Cinderella's evil stepmother?"
"Oh, come on, Bonnie," Caroline said impatiently. "She's lucky just to be invited.
She knows that."
"And here I thought she was just overcome by our collective splendor," Meredith
said dryly.
"And besides-" Bonnie started when she was interrupted. The noise was thin
and shrill and it fell off weakly at the end, but there was no mistaking it. It was a
scream. It was followed by dead silence and then suddenly peal after peal of piercing
shrieks.
For an instant the girls in the bedroom stood transfixed. Then they were all
running out into the hallway and down the stairs.
"Vickie!" Meredith, with her long legs, reached the bottom first. Vickie was
standing in front of the closet, arms outstretched as if to protect her face. She
clutched at Meredith, still screaming.
"Vickie, what is it?" Caroline demanded, sounding more angry than afraid. There
were game boxes scattered across the floor and Monopoly markers and Trivial
Pursuit cards strewn everywhere. "What are you yelling about?"

"It grabbed me! I was reaching up to the top shelf and something grabbed me
around the waist!"
"It grabbed me! I was reaching up to the top shelf and something grabbed me
around the waist!"
"No! From inside the closet."
Startled, Bonnie looked inside the open closet. Winter coats hung in an
impenetrable layer, some of them reaching the floor. Gently disengaging herself from
Vickie, Meredith picked up an umbrella and began poking the coats.
"Oh, don't-" Bonnie began involuntarily, but the umbrella encountered only the
resistance of cloth. Meredith used it to push the coats aside and reveal the bare
cedarwood of the closet wall.
"You see? Nobody there," she said lightly. "But you know what is there are these
coat sleeves. If you leaned in far enough between them, I'll bet it could feel like
somebody's arms closing around you."
Vickie stepped forward, touched a dangling sleeve, then looked up at the shelf.
She put her face in her hands, long silky hair falling forward to screen it. For an
awful moment Bonnie thought she was crying, then she heard the giggles.
"Oh, God! I really thought-oh, I'm so stupid! I'll clean it up," Vickie said.
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"Later," said Meredith firmly. "Let's go in the living room."
Bonnie threw one last look at the closet as they went.
When they were all gathered around the coffee table, with several lights turned off
for effect, Bonnie put her fingers lightly on the small plastic planchette. She'd never
actually used a Ouija board, but she knew how it was done. The planchette moved
to point at letters and spell out a message-if the spirits were willing to talk, that is.
"We all have to be touching it," she said, and then watched as the others obeyed.
Meredith's fingers were long and slender, Sue's slim and tapering with oval nails.
Caroline's nails were painted burnished copper. Vickie's were bitten.
"Now we close our eyes and concentrate," Bonnie said softly. There were little
hisses of anticipation as the girls obeyed; the atmosphere was getting to all of them.
"Think of Elena. Picture her. If she's out there, we want to draw her here."
The big room was silent. In the dark behind her closed lids Bonnie saw pale gold
hair and eyes like lapis lazuli.
"Come on, Elena," she whispered. "Talk to me."
The planchette began to move.
None of them could be guiding it; they were all applying pressure from different
points. Nevertheless, the little triangle of plastic was sliding smoothly, confidently.
Bonnie kept her eyes shut until it stopped and then looked. The planchette was
pointing to the word Yes.
Vickie gave something like a soft sob.

Bonnie looked at the others. Caroline was breathing fast, green eyes narrowed.
Sue, the only one of all of them, still had her eyes resolutely closed. Meredith looked
pale.
Bonnie looked at the others. Caroline was breathing fast, green eyes narrowed.
Sue, the only one of all of them, still had her eyes resolutely closed. Meredith looked
pale.
"Keep concentrating," Bonnie told them. She felt unready and a little stupid
addressing the empty air directly. But she was the expert; she had to do it.
"Is that you, Elena?" she said.
The planchette made a little circle and returned to Yes.
Suddenly Bonnie's heart was beating so hard she was afraid it would shake her
fingers. The plastic underneath her fingertips felt different, electrified almost, as if
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some supernatural energy was flowing through it. She no longer felt stupid. Tears
came to her eyes, and she could see that Meredith's eyes were glistening too.
Meredith nodded at her.
"How can we be sure?" Caroline was saying, loudly, suspiciously. Caroline
doesn't feel it, Bonnie realized; she doesn't sense anything I do. Psychically
speaking, she's a dud.
The planchette was moving again, touching letters now, so quickly that Meredith
barely had time to spell out the message. Even without punctuation it was clear.
CAROLINE DONT BE A JERK, it said. YOURE LUCKY IM TALKING TO
YOU AT ALL
"That's Elena, all right," Meredith said dryly.
"It sounds like her, but-"
"Oh, shut up, Caroline," Bonnie said. "Elena, I'm just so glad..." Her throat
locked up and she tried again.
BONNIE THERES NO TIME STOP SNIVELING AND GET DOWN TO
BUSINESS
And that was Elena too. Bonnie sniffed and went on. "I had a dream about you
last night."
TEA
"Yes." Bonnie's heart was thudding faster than ever. "I wanted to talk to you, but
things got weird and then we kept losing contact-"
BONNIE DONT TRANCE NO TRANCE NO TRANCE
"All right." That answered her question, and she was relieved to hear it.
CORRUPTING INFLUENCES DISTORTING OUR COMMUNICATION
THERE ARE BAD THINGS VERY BAD THINGS OUT HERE
"Like what?" Bonnie leaned closer to the board. "Like what?"
NO TIME!

The planchette seemed to add the exclamation point. It was jerking violently from
letter to letter as if Elena could barely contain her impatience.
The planchette seemed to add the exclamation point. It was jerking violently from
letter to letter as if Elena could barely contain her impatience.
"Danger?" Vickie repeated, looking as if she might jump off the chair and run.
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WAIT LISTEN FIRST THE WHOLE TOWN IS IN DANGER
"What do we do?" said Meredith instantly.
YOU NEED HELP HES OUT OF YOUR LEAGUE UNBELIEVABLY
STRONG NOW LISTEN AND FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS YOU HAVE TO DO
A SUMMONING SPELL AND THE FIRST INGREDIENT IS HWithout
warning, the planchette jerked away from the letters and flew around the
board wildly. It pointed at the stylized picture of the moon, then at the sun, then at
the words Parker Brothers, Inc.
"Elena!"
The planchette bobbed back to the letters.
ANOTHER MOUSE ANOTHER MOUSE ANOTHER MOUSE
"What's happening?" Sue cried, eyes wide open now.
Bonnie was frightened. The planchette was pulsing with energy, a dark and ugly
energy like boiling black tar that stung her fingers. But she could also feel the
quivering silver thread that was Elena's presence fighting it. "Don't let go!" she cried
desperately. "Don't take your hands off it!"
MOUSMUDKILLYOU, the board reeled off. BLOODBLOODBLOOD. And
then... BONNIE GET OUT RUN HES HERE RUN RUN RUThe
planchette jerked furiously, whipping out from under Bonnie's fingers and
beyond her reach, flying across the board and through the air as if someone had
thrown it. Vickie screamed. Meredith started to her feet.
And then all the lights went out, plunging the house into darkness.

Three
Vickie's screams went out of control. Bonnie could feel panic rising in her chest.
"Vickie, stop it! Come on; we've got to get out of here!" Meredith was shouting
to be heard. "It's your house, Caroline. Everybody grab hands and you lead us to
the front door."
"Okay," Caroline said. She didn't sound as frightened as everybody else. That
was the advantage to having no imagination, Bonnie thought. You couldn't picture
the terrible things that were going to happen to you.
She felt better with Meredith's narrow, cold hand grasping hers. She fumbled on
the other side and caught Caroline's, feeling the hardness of long fingernails.
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She could see nothing. Her eyes should be adjusting to the dark by now, but she
couldn't make out even a glimmer of light or shadow as Caroline started leading
them. There was no light coming through the windows from the street; the power
seemed to be out everywhere. Caroline cursed, running into some piece of furniture,
and Bonnie stumbled against her.
Vickie was whimpering softly from the back of the line. "Hang on," whispered
Sue. "Hang on, Vickie, we'll make it."
They made slow, shuffling progress in the dark. Then Bonnie felt tile under her
feet. "This is the front hall," Caroline said. "Stay here a minute while I find the door."
Her fingers slipped out of Bonnie's.
"Caroline! Don't let go-where are you? Caroline, give me your hand!" Bonnie
cried, groping frantically like a blind person.
Out of the darkness something large and moist closed around her fingers. It was a
hand. It wasn't Caroline's.
Bonnie screamed.
Vickie immediately picked it up, shrieking wildly. The hot, moist hand was
dragging Bonnie forward. She kicked out, struggling, but it made no difference.
Then she felt Meredith's arms around her waist, both arms, wrenching her back. Her
hand came free of the big one.
And then she was turning and running, just running, only dimly aware that
Meredith was be-side her. She wasn't at all aware that she was still screaming until
she slammed into a large armchair that stopped her progress, and she heard herself.
"Hush! Bonnie, hush, stop!" Meredith was shaking her. They had slid down the
back of the chair to the floor.
"Something had me! Something grabbed me, Meredith!"
"I know. Be quiet! It's still around," Meredith said. Bonnie jammed her face into
Meredith's shoulder to keep from screaming again. What if it was here in the room
with them?

Seconds crawled past, and the silence pooled around them. No matter how
Bonnie strained her ears, she could hear no sound except their own breathing and the
dull thudding of her heart.
Seconds crawled past, and the silence pooled around them. No matter how
Bonnie strained her ears, she could hear no sound except their own breathing and the
dull thudding of her heart.
Bonnie started to nod miserably, then abruptly lifted her head. "Where's Vickie?"
she whispered hoarsely.
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"I don't know. I had to let go of her hand to pull you away from that thing. Let's
move."
Bonnie held her back. "But why isn't she screaming?"
A shudder went through Meredith. "I don't know."
"Oh, God. Oh, God. We can't leave her, Meredith."
"We have to."
"We can't. Meredith, I made Caroline invite her. She wouldn't be here except for
me. We have to get her out."
There was a pause, and then Meredith hissed, "All right! But you pick the
strangest times to turn noble, Bonnie."
A door slammed, causing both of them to jump. Then there was a crashing, like
feet on stairs, Bonnie thought. And briefly, a voice was raised.
"Vickie, where are you? Don't-Vickie, no! No!"
"That was Sue," gasped Bonnie, jumping up. "From upstairs!"
"Why don't we have a flashlight?" Meredith was raging.
Bonnie knew what she meant. It was too dark to go running blindly around this
house; it was too frightening. There was a primitive panic hammering in her brain.
She needed light, any light.
She couldn't go fumbling into that darkness again, exposed on all sides. She
couldn't do it.
Nevertheless, she took one shaky step away from the chair.
"Come on," she gasped, and Meredith came with her, step by step, into the
blackness.
Bonnie kept expecting that moist, hot hand to reach out and grab her again. Every
inch of her skin tingled in anticipation of its touch, and especially her own hand,
which she had outstretched to feel her way.
Then she made the mistake of remembering the dream.
Instantly, the sickly sweet smell of garbage overwhelmed her. She imagined things
crawling out of the ground and then remembered Elena's face, gray and hairless, with
lips shriveled back from grinning teeth. If that thing grabbed hold of her...

I can't go any farther; I can't, I can't, she thought. I'm sorry for Vickie, but I can't
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go on. Please, just let me stop here.
I can't go any farther; I can't, I can't, she thought. I'm sorry for Vickie, but I can't
go on. Please, just let me stop here.
It was a whole series of sounds, actually, but they all came so close together that
they blended into one terrible swell of noise. First there was screaming, Sue's voice
screaming, "Vickie! Vickie! No!" Then a resonant crash, the sound of glass
shattering, as if a hundred windows were breaking at once. And over that a sustained
scream, on a note of pure, exquisite terror.
Then it all stopped.
"What was it? What happened, Meredith?"
"Something bad." Meredith's voice was taut and choked. "Something very bad.
Bonnie, let go. I'm going to see."
"Not alone, you're not," Bonnie said fiercely.
They found the staircase and made their way up it. When they reached the
landing, Bonnie could hear a strange and oddly sickening sound, the tinkle of glass
shards falling.
And then the lights went on.
It was too sudden; Bonnie screamed involuntarily. Turning to Meredith she almost
screamed again. Meredith's dark hair was disheveled and her cheekbones looked too
sharp; her face was pale and hollow with fear.
Tinkle, tinkle.
It was worse with the lights on. Meredith was walking toward the last door down
the hall, where the noise was coming from. Bonnie followed, but she knew suddenly,
with all her heart, that she didn't want to see inside that room.
Meredith pulled the door open. She froze for a minute in the doorway and then
lunged quickly inside. Bonnie started for the door.
"Oh, my God, don't come any farther!"
Bonnie didn't even pause. She plunged into the doorway and then pulled up short.
At first glance it looked as if the whole side of the house was gone. The French
windows that connected the master bedroom to the balcony seemed to have
exploded outward, the wood splintered, the glass shattered. Little pieces of glass
were hanging precariously here and there from the remnants of the wood frame.
They tinkled as they fell.
Diaphanous white curtains billowed in and out of the gaping hole in the house. In
front of them, in silhouette, Bonnie could see Vickie. She was standing with her
hands at her sides, as motionless as a block of stone.
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"Vickie, are you okay?" Bonnie was so relieved to see her alive that it was painful.
"Vickie?"

Vickie didn't turn, didn't answer. Bonnie maneuvered around her cautiously,
looking into her face. Vickie was staring straight ahead, her pupils pinpoints. She
was sucking in little whistling breaths, chest heaving.
Vickie didn't turn, didn't answer. Bonnie maneuvered around her cautiously,
looking into her face. Vickie was staring straight ahead, her pupils pinpoints. She
was sucking in little whistling breaths, chest heaving.
Shuddering, Bonnie reeled away. Meredith was on the balcony. She turned as
Bonnie reached the curtains and tried to block the way.
"Don't look. Don't look down there," she said.
Down where? Suddenly Bonnie understood. She shoved past Meredith, who
caught her arm to stop her on the edge of a dizzying drop. The balcony railing had
been blasted out like the French windows and Bonnie could see straight down to the
lighted yard below. On the ground there was a twisted figure like a broken doll, limbs
askew, neck bent at a grotesque angle, blond hair fanned on the dark soil of the
garden. It was Sue Carson.
And throughout all the confusion that raged afterward, two thoughts kept vying
for dominance in Bonnie's mind. One was that Caroline would never have her
foursome now. And the other was that it wasn't fair for this to happen on Meredith's
birthday. It just wasn't fair.
"I'm sorry, Meredith. I don't think she's up to it right now."
Bonnie heard her father's voice at the front door as she listlessly stirred sweetener
into a cup of chamomile tea. She put the spoon down at once. What she wasn't up
to was sitting in this kitchen one minute longer. She needed out.
"I'll be right there, Dad."
Meredith looked almost as bad as she had last night, face peaked, eyes
shadowed. Her mouth was set in a tight line.
"We'll just go out driving for a little while," Bonnie said to her father. "Maybe see
some of the kids. After all, you're the one who said it isn't dangerous, right?"
What could he say? Mr. McCullough looked down at his petite daughter, who
stuck out the stubborn chin she'd inherited from him and met his gaze squarely. He
lifted his hands.
"It's almost four o'clock now. Be back before dark," he said.
"They want it both ways," Bonnie said to Meredith on the way to Meredith's car.
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Once inside, both girls immediately locked their doors.
As Meredith put the car in gear she gave Bonnie a glance of grim understanding.
"Your parents didn't believe you, either."
"Oh, they believe everything I told them-except anything important. How can
they be so stupid?"
Meredith laughed shortly. "You've got to look at it from their point of view. They

find one dead body without a mark on it except those caused by the fall. They find
that the lights were off in the neighborhood because of a malfunction at Virginia
Electric. They find us, hysterical, giving answers to their questions that must have
seemed pretty weird. Who did it? Some monster with sweaty hands. How do we
know? Our dead friend Elena told us through a Ouija board. Is it any wonder they
have their doubts?"
find one dead body without a mark on it except those caused by the fall. They find
that the lights were off in the neighborhood because of a malfunction at Virginia
Electric. They find us, hysterical, giving answers to their questions that must have
seemed pretty weird. Who did it? Some monster with sweaty hands. How do we
know? Our dead friend Elena told us through a Ouija board. Is it any wonder they
have their doubts?"
"They're forgetting already," Meredith replied softly. "You predicted it yourself.
Life has gone back to normal, and everybody in Fell's Church feels safer that way.
They all feel like they've woken up from a bad dream, and the last thing they want is
to get sucked in again."
Bonnie just shook her head.
"And so it's easier to believe that a bunch of teenage girls got riled up playing with
a Ouija board, and that when the lights went out they just freaked and ran. And one
of them got so scared and confused she ran right out a window."
There was a silence and then Meredith added, "I wish Alaric were here."
Normally, Bonnie would have given her a dig in the ribs and answered, "So do I,"
in a lecherous voice. Alaric was one of the handsomest guys she'd ever seen, even if
he was a doddering twenty-two years old. Now, she just gave Meredith's arm a
disconsolate squeeze. "Can't you call him somehow?"
"In Russia? I don't even know where in Russia he is now."
Bonnie bit her lip.
Then she sat up. Meredith was driving down Lee Street, and in the high school
parking lot they could see a crowd.
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She and Meredith exchanged glances, and Meredith nodded. "We might as well,"
she said. "Let's see if they're any smarter than their parents."
Bonnie could see startled faces turning as the car cruised slowly into the lot.
When she and Meredith got out, people moved back, making a path for them to the
center of the crowd.
Caroline was there, clutching her elbows with her hands and shaking back her
auburn hair distractedly.
"We're not going to sleep in that house again until it's repaired," she was saying,
shivering in her white sweater. "Daddy says we'll take an apartment in Heron until it's
over."
"What difference does that make? He can follow you to Heron, I'm sure," said
Meredith.
Caroline turned, but her green cat's eyes wouldn't quite meet Meredith's. "Who?"
she said vaguely.

"Oh, Caroline, not you too!" Bonnie exploded.
"Oh, Caroline, not you too!" Bonnie exploded.
Her eyes came up and for an instant Bonnie saw how frightened she was. "I can't
take any more." As if she had to prove her words that minute, she pushed her way
through the crowd.
"Let her go, Bonnie," Meredith said. "It's no use."
"She's no use," said Bonnie furiously. If Caroline, who knew, was acting this way,
what about the other kids?
She saw the answer-in the faces around her. Everybody looked scared, as scared
as if she and Meredith had brought some loathsome disease with them. As if she and
Meredith were the problem.
"I don't believe this," Bonnie muttered.
"I don't believe it either," said Deanna Kennedy, a friend of Sue's. She was in the
front of the crowd, and she didn't look as uneasy as the others. "I talked with Sue
yesterday afternoon and she was so up, so happy. She can't be dead." Deanna
began to sob. Her boyfriend put an arm around her, and several other girls began to
cry. The guys in the crowd shifted, their faces rigid.
Bonnie felt a little surge of hope. "And she's not going to be the only one dead,"
she added. "Elena told us that the whole town is in danger. Elena said..." Despite
herself Bonnie heard her voice failing. She could see it in the way their eyes glazed
up when she mentioned Elena's name. Meredith was right; they'd put everything that
had happened last winter behind them. They didn't believe anymore.
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"What's wrong with you all?" she said helplessly, wanting to hit something. "You
don't really think Sue threw herself off that balcony!"
"People are saying-" Deanna's boyfriend started and then shrugged defensively.
"Well-you told the police Vickie Bennett was in the room, right? And now she's off
her head again. And just a little bit earlier you'd heard Sue shouting, 'No, Vickie,
no!'?"
Bonnie felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her. "You think that Vickieoh,
God, you're out of your mind! Listen to me. Something grabbed my hand in that
house, and it wasn't Vickie. And Vickie had nothing to do with throwing Sue off that
balcony."
"She's hardly strong enough, for one thing," Meredith said pointedly. "She weighs
about ninety-five pounds soaking wet."
Somebody from the back of the crowd muttered about insane people having
superhuman strength. "Vickie has a psychiatric record-"
"Elena told us it was a guy!" Bonnie almost shouted, losing her battle with
self-control. The faces tilted toward her were shuttered, unyielding. Then she saw
one that made her chest loosen. "Matt! Tell them you believe us."
Matt Honeycutt was standing on the fringe with his hands in his pockets and his

blond head bowed. Now he looked up, and what Bonnie saw in his blue eyes made
her draw in her breath. They weren't hard and shuttered like everyone else's, but they
were full of a flat despair that was just as bad. He shrugged without taking his hands
from his pockets.
blond head bowed. Now he looked up, and what Bonnie saw in his blue eyes made
her draw in her breath. They weren't hard and shuttered like everyone else's, but they
were full of a flat despair that was just as bad. He shrugged without taking his hands
from his pockets.
Bonnie, for one of the first times in her life, was speechless. Matt had been upset
ever since Elena died, but this...
"He does believe it, though," Meredith was saying quickly, capitalizing on the
moment. "Now what have we got to do to convince the rest of you?"
"Channel Elvis for us, maybe," said a voice that immediately set Bonnie's blood
boiling. Tyler. Tyler Smallwood. Grinning like an ape in his overexpensive Perry Ellis
sweater, showing a mouthful of strong white teeth.
"It's not as good as psychic e-mail from a dead Homecoming Queen, but it's a
start," Tyler added.
Matt always said that grin was asking for a punch in the nose. But Matt, the only
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guy in the crowd with close to Tyler's physique, was staring dully at the ground.
"Shut up, Tyler! You don't know what happened in that house," Bonnie said.
"Well, neither do you, apparently. Maybe if you hadn't been hiding in the living
room, you'd have seen what happened. Then somebody might believe you."
Bonnie's retort died on her tongue. She stared at Tyler, opened her mouth, and
then closed it. Tyler waited. When she didn't speak, he showed his teeth again.
"For my money, Vickie did it," he said, winking at Dick Carter, Vickie's
ex-boyfriend. "She's a strong little babe, right, Dick? She could have done it." He
turned and added deliberately over his shoulder, "Or else that Salvatore guy is back
in town."
"You creep!" shouted Bonnie. Even Meredith cried out in frustration. Because of
course at the very mention of Stefan pandemonium ensued, as Tyler must have
known it would. Everyone was turning to the person next to them and exclaiming in
alarm, horror, excitement. It was primarily the girls who were excited.
Effectively, it put an end to the gathering. People had been edging away
surreptitiously before, and now they broke up into twos and threes, arguing and
hastening off.
Bonnie gazed after them angrily.
"Supposing they did believe you. What did you want them to do, anyway?" Matt
said. She hadn't noticed him beside her.
"I don't know. Something besides just standing around waiting to be picked off."
She tried to look him in the face. "Matt, are you all right?"
"I don't know. Are you?"

Bonnie thought. "No. I mean, in one way I'm surprised I'm doing as well as I am,
because when Elena died, I just couldn't deal. At all. But then I wasn't as close to
Sue, and besides... I don't know!" She wanted to hit something again. "It's just all
too much!"
Bonnie thought. "No. I mean, in one way I'm surprised I'm doing as well as I am,
because when Elena died, I just couldn't deal. At all. But then I wasn't as close to
Sue, and besides... I don't know!" She wanted to hit something again. "It's just all
too much!"
"Yes, I'm mad." Suddenly Bonnie understood the feelings she'd been having all
day. "Killing Sue wasn't just wrong, it was evil. Truly evil. And whoever did it isn't
going to get away with it. That would be-if the world is like that, a place where that
can happen and go unpunished... if that's the truth..." She found she didn't have a
way to finish.
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"Then what? You don't want to live here anymore? What if the world is like that?"
His eyes were so lost, so bitter. Bonnie was shaken. But she said staunchly, "I
won't let it be that way. And you won't either."
He simply looked at her as if she were a kid insisting there was so a Santa Claus.
Meredith spoke up. "If we expect other people to take us seriously, we'd better
take ourselves seriously. Elena did communicate with us. She wanted us to do
something. Now if we really believe that, we'd better figure out what it is."
Matt's face had flexed at the mention of Elena. You poor guy, you're still as much
in love with her as ever, thought Bonnie. I wonder if anything could make you forget
her? She said, "Are you going to help us, Matt?"
"I'll help," Matt said quietly. "But I still don't know what it is you're doing."
"We're going to stop that murdering creep before he kills anybody else," said
Bonnie. It was the first time she'd fully realized herself that this was what she meant
to do.
"Alone? Because you are alone, you know."
"We are alone," Meredith corrected. "But that's what Elena was trying to tell us.
She said we had to do a summoning spell to call for help."
"An easy spell with only two ingredients," Bonnie remembered from her dream.
She was getting excited. "And she said she'd already told me the ingredients-but
she hadn't."
"Last night she said there were corrupting influences distorting her
communication," Meredith said. "Now to me that sounds like what was happening in
the dream. Do you think it really was Elena you were drinking tea with?"
"Yes," Bonnie said positively. "I mean, I know we weren't really having a mad tea
party at Warm Springs, but I think Elena was sending that message into my brain.
And then partway through something else took over and pushed her out. But she
fought, and for a minute at the end she got back control."
"Okay. Then that means we have to concentrate on the beginning of the dream,
when it was still Elena communicating with you. But if what she was saying was
already being distorted by other influences, then maybe it came out weird. Maybe it

wasn't something she actually said, maybe it was something she did..."
wasn't something she actually said, maybe it was something she did..."
"What?"
"Hair! I asked her who did hers, and we talked about it, and she said, 'Hair is very
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important.' And Meredith-when she was trying to tell us the ingredients last night,
the first letter of one of them was H!"
"That's it!" Meredith's dark eyes were flashing. "Now we just have to think of the
other one."
"But I know that too!" Bonnie's laughter bubbled up exuberantly. "She told me
right after we talked about hair, and I thought she was just being strange. She said,
'Blood is important too.' "
Meredith shut her eyes in realization. "And last night, the Ouija board said
'Bloodblood-blood.' I thought it was the other thing threatening us, but it wasn't,"
she said. She opened her eyes. "Bonnie, do you think that's really it? Are those the
ingredients, or do we have to start worrying about mud and sandwiches and mice
and tea?"
"Those are the ingredients," Bonnie said firmly. "They're the kind of ingredients
that make sense for a summoning spell. I'm sure I can find a ritual to do with them in
one of my Celtic magic books. We just have to figure out the person we're
supposed to summon..." Something struck her, and her voice trailed off in dismay.
"I was wondering when you'd notice," Matt said, speaking for the first time in a
long while. "You don't know who it is, do you?"

Four
Meredith tilted an ironic glance at Matt. "Hmm," she said. "Now, who do you
think Elena would call in time of trouble?"
Bonnie's grin gave way to a twinge of guilt at Matt's expression. It wasn't fair to
tease him about this. "Elena said that the killer is too strong for us and that's why we
need help," she told Matt. "And I can think of only one person Elena knows who
could fight off a psychic killer."
Slowly, Matt nodded. Bonnie couldn't tell what he was feeling. He and Stefan had
been best friends once, even after Elena had chosen Stefan over Matt. But that had
been before Matt found out what Stefan was, and what kind of violence he was
capable of. In his rage and grief over Elena's death Stefan had nearly killed Tyler
Smallwood and five other guys. Could Matt really forget that? Could he even deal
with Stefan coming back to Fell's Church?
Matt's square-jawed face gave no sign now, and Meredith was talking again. "So
all we need to do is let some blood and cut some hair. You won't miss a curl or two,
will you, Bonnie?"
Bonnie was so abstracted that she almost missed this. Then she shook her head.
"No, no, no. It isn't our blood and hair we need. We need it from the person we
want to summon."
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"What? But that's ridiculous. If we had Stefan's blood and hair we wouldn't need
to summon him, would we?"
"I didn't think of that," Bonnie admitted. "Usually with a summoning spell you get
the stuff beforehand and use it when you want to call a person back. What are we
going to do, Meredith? It's impossible."
Meredith's brows were drawn together. "Why would Elena ask it if it were
impossible?"
"Elena asked lots of impossible things," Bonnie said darkly. "Don't look like that,
Matt; you know she did. She wasn't a saint."
"Maybe, but this one isn't impossible," Matt said. "I can think of one place where
Stefan's blood has got to be, and if we're lucky some of his hair, too. In the crypt."
Bonnie flinched, but Meredith simply nodded.
"Of course," she said. "While Stefan was tied up there, he must have bled all over
the place. And in that kind of fight he might have lost some hair. If only everything
down there has been left undisturbed..."
"I don't think anybody's been down there since Elena died," Matt said. "The
police investigated and then left it. But there's only one way to find out."
I was wrong, Bonnie thought. I was worrying about whether Matt could deal with
Stefan coming back, and here he is doing everything he can to help us summon him.

"Matt, I could kiss you!" she said.
"Matt, I could kiss you!" she said.
"All the girls say that," he replied calmly at last, with a shrug of mock resignation.
It was as close as he'd gotten to lightheartedness all day.
Meredith, however, was serious. "Let's go. We've got a lot to do, and the last
thing we want is to get stuck in the crypt after dark."
The crypt was beneath the ruined church that stood on a hill in the cemetery. It's
only late afternoon, plenty of light left, Bonnie kept telling herself as they walked up
the hill, but goose-flesh broke out on her arms anyway. The modern cemetery on
one side was bad enough, but the old graveyard on the other side was downright
spooky even in daylight. There were so many crumbling headstones tilting crazily in
the overgrown grass, representing so many young men killed in the Civil War. You
didn't have to be psychic to feel their presence.
"Unquiet spirits," she muttered.
"Hmm?" said Meredith as she stepped over the pile of rubble that was one wall of
the ruined church. "Look, the lid of the tomb's still off. That's good news; I don't
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think we would have been able to lift it."
Bonnie's eyes lingered wistfully on the white marble statues carved on the
displaced lid. Hon-oria Fell lay there with her husband, hands folded on her breast,
looking as gentle and sad as ever. But Bonnie knew there would be no more help
from that quarter. Honoria's duties as protector of the town she'd founded were
done.
Leaving Elena holding the bag, Bonnie thought grimly, looking down into the
rectangular hole that led to the crypt. Iron rungs disappeared into darkness.
Even with the help of Meredith's flashlight it was hard to climb down into that
underground room. Inside, it was dank and silent, the walls faced with polished
stone. Bonnie tried not to shiver.
"Look," said Meredith quietly.
Matt had the flashlight trained on the iron gate that separated the anteroom of the
crypt from its main chamber. The stone below was stained black with blood in
several places. Looking at the puddles and rivulets of dried gore made Bonnie feel
dizzy.
"We know Damon was hurt the worst," Meredith said, moving forward. She
sounded calm, but Bonnie could hear the tight control in her voice. "So he must
have been on this side where there's the most blood. Stefan said Elena was in the
center. That means Stefan himself must have been... here." She bent down.
"I'll do it," Matt said gruffly. "You hold the light." With a plastic picnic knife from

Meredith's car he scraped at the encrusted stone. Bonnie swallowed, glad she'd had
only tea for lunch. Blood was all right in the abstract, but when you were actually
confronted with so much of it-especially when it was the blood of a friend who'd
been tortured...
Meredith's car he scraped at the encrusted stone. Bonnie swallowed, glad she'd had
only tea for lunch. Blood was all right in the abstract, but when you were actually
confronted with so much of it-especially when it was the blood of a friend who'd
been tortured...
And then, thought Bonnie, she faked her own death to get Stefan and Damon to
stop fighting over her. But it didn't work. They hated each other more than ever, and
she hated both of them for that. She'd gone back to the vampire who made her, and
over the years she'd turned as evil as he was. Until at last all she wanted to do was
destroy the brothers she had once loved. She'd lured them both to Fell's Church to
kill them, and this room was where she'd almost succeeded in doing it. Elena had
died stopping her.
"There," Matt said, and Bonnie blinked and came back to herself. Matt was
standing with a paper napkin that now held flakes of Stefan's blood in its folds.
"Now the hair," he said.
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They swept the floor with their fingers, finding dust and bits of leaves and
fragments of things Bonnie didn't want to identify. Among the detritus were long
strands of pale gold hair. Elena's-or Katherine's, Bonnie thought. They had looked
much alike. There were also shorter strands of dark hair, crisp with a slight wave.
Stefan's.
It was slow, finicky work sorting through it all and putting the right hairs in
another napkin.
Matt did most of it. When they were through, they were all tired and the light
sifting down through the rectangular opening in the ceiling was dim blue. But
Meredith smiled tigerishly.
"We've got it," she said. "Tyler wants Stefan back; well, we'll give him Stefan
back."
And Bonnie, who had been only half paying attention to what she was doing, still
lost in her own thoughts, froze.
She'd been thinking about other things entirely, nothing to do with Tyler, but at
the mention of his name something had winked on in her mind. Something she'd
realized in the parking lot and then forgotten afterward in the heat of arguing.
Meredith's words had triggered it and now it was suddenly all clear again. How had
he known! she wondered, heart racing.
"Bonnie? What's the matter?"
"Meredith," she said softly, "did you tell the police specifically that we were in the
living room when everything was going on upstairs with Sue?"

"No, I think I just said we were downstairs. Why?"
"No, I think I just said we were downstairs. Why?"
"Bonnie, if you're trying to suggest Tyler was the murderer, it just won't wash.
He's not smart enough to organize a killing spree, for one thing," Meredith said.
"But there's something else. Meredith, last year at the Junior Prom, Tyler touched
me on my bare shoulder. I'll never forget it. His hand was big, and meaty, and hot,
and damp." Bonnie shivered at the recollection. "Just like the hand that grabbed me
last night."
But Meredith was shaking her head, and even Matt looked unconvinced.
"Elena's sure wasting her time asking us to bring back Stefan, then," he said. "I
could take care of Tyler with a couple of right hooks."
"Think about it, Bonnie," Meredith added. "Does Tyler have the psychic power
to move a Ouija board or come into your dreams? Does he?"
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He didn't. Psychically speaking, Tyler was as much a dud as Caroline. Bonnie
couldn't deny it. But she couldn't deny her intuition, either. It didn't make sense, but
she still felt Tyler had been in the house last night.
"We'd better get moving," Meredith said. "It's dark, and your father's going to be
furious."
They were all silent on the ride home. Bonnie was still thinking about Tyler. Once
at her house they smuggled the napkins upstairs and began looking through Bonnie's
books on Druids and Celtic magic. Ever since she'd discovered that she was
descended from the ancient race of magic workers, Bonnie had been interested in the
Druids. And in one of the books she found a ritual for a summoning spell.
"We need to buy candles," she said. "And pure water-better get some bottled,"
she said to Meredith. "And chalk to draw a circle on the floor, and something to
make a small fire in. I can find those in the house. There's no hurry; the spell has to
be done at midnight."
Midnight was a long time coming. Meredith bought the necessary items at a
grocery store and brought them back. They ate dinner with Bonnie's family, though
no one had much of an appetite. By eleven o'clock Bonnie had the circle drawn on
the hardwood floor of her bedroom and all the other ingredients on a low bench
inside the circle. On the stroke of twelve she started.
With Matt and Meredith watching, she made a small fire in an earthenware bowl.
Three candles were burning behind the bowl; she stuck a pin halfway down the one
in the center. Then she unfolded a napkin and carefully stirred the dried flakes of
blood into a wineglass of water. It turned rusty pink.
She opened the other napkin. Three pinches of dark hair went into the fire,

sizzling with a terrible smell. Then three drops of the stained water, hissing.
sizzling with a terrible smell. Then three drops of the stained water, hissing.
Swift on the heel thou comest,
Thrice summoned by my spell,
Thrice troubled by my burning.
Come to me without delay.
She read the words aloud slowly, three times. Then she sat back on her heels.
The fire went on burning smokily. The candle flames danced.
"And now what?" Matt said.
"I don't know. It just says wait for the middle candle to burn down to the pin."
"And what then?"
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"I guess we'll find out when it happens."
In Florence, it was dawn.
Stefan watched the girl move down the stairway, one hand resting lightly on the
banister to keep her balance. Her movements were slow and slightly dreamlike, as if
she were floating.
Suddenly, she swayed and clutched at the banister more tightly. Stefan moved
quickly behind her and put a hand under her elbow.
"Are you all right?"
She looked up at him with the same dreaminess. She was very pretty. Her
expensive clothes were the latest fashion and her stylishly disarrayed hair was blond.
A tourist. He knew she was American before she spoke.
"Yes... I think..." Her brown eyes were unfocused.
"Do you have a way to get home? Where are you staying?"
"On Via dei Conti, near the Medici chapel. I'm with the Gonzaga in Florence
program."
Damn! Not a tourist, then; a student. And that meant she'd be carrying this story
back with her, telling her classmates about the handsome Italian guy she'd met last
night. The one with night-dark eyes. The one who took her back to his exclusive
place on Via Tornabuoni and wined her and dined her and then, in the moonlight,
maybe, in his room or out in the enclosed courtyard, leaned close to look into her
eyes and...
Stefan's gaze slid away from the girl's throat with its two reddened puncture
wounds. He'd seen marks like that so often-how could they still have the power to
disturb him? But they did; they sickened him and set a slow burning in his gut.
"What's your name?"
"Rachael. With an a." She spelled it.

"All right, Rachael. Look at me. You will go back to your pensione and you won't
remember anything about last night. You don't know where you went or who you
saw. And you've never seen me before, either. Repeat."
"All right, Rachael. Look at me. You will go back to your pensione and you won't
remember anything about last night. You don't know where you went or who you
saw. And you've never seen me before, either. Repeat."
"Good. Do you have money to get back? Here." Stefan pulled a fistful of
crumpled lire-mostly 50,000 and 100,000 notes-out of his pocket and led her
outside.
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When she was safely in a cab, he went back inside and made straight for Damon's
bedroom.
Damon was lounging near the window, peeling an orange, not even dressed yet.
He looked up, annoyed, as Stefan entered.
"It's customary to knock," he said.
"Where'd you meet her?" said Stefan. And then, when Damon turned a blank
stare on him, he added, "That girl. Rachael."
"Was that her name? I don't think I bothered to ask. At Bar Gilli. Or perhaps it
was Bar Mario. Why?"
Stefan struggled to contain his anger. "That's not the only thing you didn't bother
to do. You didn't bother to influence her to forget you, either. Do you want to get
caught, Damon?"
Damon's lips curved in a smile and he twisted off a curlicue of orange peel. "I am
never caught, little brother," he said.
"So what are you going to do when they come after you? When somebody
realizes, 'My God, there's a bloodsucking monster on Via Tornabuoni'? Kill them
all? Wait until they break down the front door and then melt away into darkness?"
Damon met his gaze directly, challengingly, that faint smile still clinging about his
lips.
"Why not?" he said.
"Damn you!" said Stefan. "Listen to me, Damon. This has got to stop."
"I'm touched at your concern for my safety."
"It isn't fair, Damon. To take an unwilling girl like that-"
"Oh, she was willing, brother. She was very, very willing."
"Did you tell her what you were going to do? Did you warn her about the
consequences of exchanging blood with a vampire? The nightmares, the psychic
visions? Was she willing for that?" Damon clearly wasn't going to reply, so he went
on. "You know it's wrong."
"As a matter of fact, I do." With that, Damon gave one of his sudden, unnerving

smiles, turning it on and off instantly.
smiles, turning it on and off instantly.
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Damon tossed away the orange. His tone was silky, persuasive. "Little brother,
the world is full of what you call 'wrong,' " he said. "Why not relax and join the
winning side? It's much more fun, I assure you."
Stefan felt himself go hot with anger. "How can you even say that?" he flashed
back. "Didn't you learn anything from Katherine? She chose 'the winning side.' "
"Katherine died too quickly," said Damon. He was smiling again, but his eyes
were cold.
"And now all you can think about is revenge." Looking at his brother, Stefan felt a
crushing weight settle on his own chest. "That and your own pleasure," he said.
"What else is there? Pleasure is the only reality, little brother-pleasure and
power. And you're a hunter by nature, just as much as I am," Damon said. He
added, "I don't remember inviting you to come to Florence with me, anyway. Since
you're not enjoying yourself, why don't you just leave?"
The weight in Stefan's chest tightened suddenly, unbearably, but his gaze, locked
with Damon's, did not waver. "You know why," he said quietly. And at last he had
the satisfaction of seeing Damon's eyes drop.
Stefan himself could hear Elena's words in his mind. She'd been dying then, and
her voice had been weak, but he'd heard her clearly. You have to take care of each
other. Stefan, will you promise? Promise to take care of each other? And he had
promised, and he would keep his word. No matter what.
"You know why I don't leave," he said again to Damon, who wouldn't look at
him. "You can pretend you don't care. You can fool the whole world. But I know
differently." It would have been kindest at this point to leave Damon alone, but
Stefan wasn't in a kind mood. "You know that girl you picked up, Rachael?" he
added. "The hair was all right, but her eyes were the wrong color. Elena's eyes were
blue."
With that he turned, meaning to leave Damon here to think it over-if Damon
would do anything so constructive, of course. But he never made it to the door.
"It's there!" said Meredith sharply, her eyes on the candle flame and the pin.
Bonnie sucked in her breath. Something was opening in front of her like a silver
thread, a silver tunnel of communication. She was rushing along it, with no way to
stop herself or check her speed. Oh, God, she thought, when I reach the end and hit
-
The flash in Stefan's head was soundless, lightless, and powerful as a
thunderclap. At the same time he felt a violent, wrenching tug. An urge to followsomething.
This was not like Katherine's sly subliminal nudging to go somewhere;

this was a psychic shout. A command that could not be disobeyed.
Inside the flash he sensed a presence, but he could scarcely believe who it was.
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this was a psychic shout. A command that could not be disobeyed.
Inside the flash he sensed a presence, but he could scarcely believe who it was.
?
Stefan! It's you! It worked!
Bonnie, what have you done?
Elena told me to. Honestly, Stefan, she did. We're in trouble and we need-
And that was it. The communication collapsed, caving in on itself, dwindling to a
pinpoint. It was gone, and in its aftermath the room vibrated with Power.
Stefan and his brother were left staring at each other.
Bonnie let out a long breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and opened her
eyes, though she didn't remember closing them. She was lying on her back. Matt and
Meredith were crouched over her, looking alarmed.
"What happened? Did it work?" Meredith demanded.
"It worked." She let them help her up. "I made contact with Stefan. I talked to
him. Now all we can do is wait and see if he's coming or not."
"Did you mention Elena?" Matt asked.
"Yes."
"Then he's coming."

Five
Monday, June 8, 11:15 p.m.
Dear Diary,
I don't seem to be sleeping very well tonight, so I might as well write you. All
day today I've been waiting for something to happen. You don't do a spell like that
and have it work like that and then have nothing happen.
But nothing has. I stayed home from school because Mom thought I should. She
was upset about Matt and Meredith staying so late Sunday night, and she said I
needed to get some rest. But every time I lie down I see Sue's face.
Sue's dad did the eulogy at Elena's funeral. I wonder who's going to do it for
Sue on Wednesday?
I've got to stop thinking about things like this.
Maybe I'll try to go to sleep again. Maybe if I lie down with my headphones on,
I won't see Sue.
Bonnie put the diary back in her nightstand drawer and took out her Walkman.
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She flipped through the channels as she stared at the ceiling with heavy eyes.
Through the crackle and sputter of static a D.J.'s voice sounded in her ear.
"And here's a golden oldie for all you fabulous fifties fans. 'Goodnight
Sweetheart' on the Vee Jay label by The Spaniels..."
Bonnie drifted away on the music.
The ice cream soda was strawberry, Bonnie's favorite. The jukebox was playing
'Goodnight Sweetheart' and the counter was squeaky clean. But Elena, Bonnie
decided, would never have really worn a poodle skirt.
"No poodles," she said, gesturing at it. Elena looked up from her hot fudge
sundae. Her blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail. "Who thinks of these things
anyway?" Bonnie asked.
"You do, silly. I'm only visiting."
"Oh." Bonnie took a pull at the soda. Dreams. There was a reason to be afraid of
dreams, but she couldn't think of it just now.
"I can't stay long," Elena said. "I think he already knows I'm here. I just came to
tell you..." She frowned.
Bonnie looked at her sympathetically. "Can't you remember either?" She drank
more soda. It tasted odd.
"I died too young, Bonnie. There was so much I was supposed to do, to

accomplish. And now I have to help you."
accomplish. And now I have to help you."
"This isn't easy, you know. I don't have that much power. It's hard getting
through, and it's hard keeping everything together."
"Gotta keep it together," Bonnie agreed, nodding. She was feeling strangely
lightheaded. What was in this soda?
"I don't have much control, and things turn out strange somehow. He's doing it, I
guess. He's always fighting me. He watches you. And every time we try to
communicate, he comes."
"Okay." The room was floating.
"Bonnie, are you listening to me? He can use your fear against you. It's the way he
gets in."
"Okay..."
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"But don't let him in. Tell everyone that. And tell Stefan..." Elena stopped and
put a hand to her mouth. Something fell onto the hot fudge sundae.
It was a tooth.
"He's here." Elena's voice was strange, indistinct. Bonnie stared at the tooth in
mesmerized horror. It was lying in the middle of the whipped cream, among the
slivered almonds. "Bonnie, tell Stefan..."
Another tooth plunked down, and another. Elena sobbed, both her hands at her
mouth now. Her eyes were terrified, helpless. "Bonnie, don't go..."
But Bonnie was stumbling back. Everything was whirling around. The soda was
bubbling out of the glass, but it wasn't soda; it was blood. Bright red and frothy, like
something you coughed up when you died. Bonnie's stomach convulsed.
"Tell Stefan I love him!" It was the voice of a toothless old woman, and it ended
in hysterical sobs. Bonnie was glad to fall into darkness and forget everything.
Bonnie nibbled at the end of her felt pen, her eyes on the clock, her mind on the
calendar. Eight and a half more days of school to survive. And it looked as if every
minute was going to be misery.
Some guy had said it outright, backing away from her on the stairs. "No offense,
but your friends keep turning up dead." Bonnie had gone into the bathroom and
cried.
But now all she wanted was to be out of school, away from the tragic faces and
accusing eyes-or worse, the pitying eyes. The principal had given a speech over
the P.A. about "this new misfortune" and "this terrible loss," and Bonnie had felt the
eyes on her back as if they were boring holes there.
When the bell rang, she was the first person out the door. But instead of going to
her next class she went to the bathroom again, where she waited for the next bell.

Then, once the halls were empty, she hurried toward the foreign language wing. She
passed bulletins and banners for end-of-the-year events without glancing at them.
What did SATs matter, what did graduation matter, what did anything matter
anymore? They might all be dead by the end of the month.
Then, once the halls were empty, she hurried toward the foreign language wing. She
passed bulletins and banners for end-of-the-year events without glancing at them.
What did SATs matter, what did graduation matter, what did anything matter
anymore? They might all be dead by the end of the month.
Oh, my God, I forgot how gorgeous he is, she thought. Elena, forgive me; I'm
going to grab him.
"Stefan!" she said.
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Then her mind wrenched her back into reality again and she cast a hunted look
around. No one was in eyeshot. She grabbed his arm.
"Are you crazy, showing up here? Are you nuts?"
"I had to find you. I thought it was urgent."
"It is, but-" He looked so incongruous, standing there in the high school
hallway. So exotic. Like a zebra in a flock of sheep. She started pushing him toward
a broom closet.
He wasn't going. And he was stronger than she was. "Bonnie, you said you'd
talked to-"
"You have to hide! I'll go get Matt and Meredith and bring them back here and
then we can talk. But if anybody sees you, you're probably going to get lynched.
There's been another murder."
Stefan's face changed, and he let her push him toward the closet. He started to
say something, then clearly decided not to.
"I'll wait," he said simply.
It took only a few minutes to find Matt in auto tech and Meredith in economics
class. They hurried back to the broom closet and bustled Stefan out of school as
inconspicuously as possible, which wasn't very.
Someone's bound to have seen us, Bonnie thought. It all depends on who, and
how much of a blab they are.
"We have to get him someplace safe-not to any of our houses," Meredith was
saying. They were all walking as fast as they could through the high school parking
lot.
"Fine, but where? Wait a minute, what about the boarding house... ?" Bonnie's
voice trailed off. There was a little black car in the parking slot in front of her. An
Italian car, sleek, svelte, and sexy looking. All the windows were tinted illegally dark;
you couldn't even see inside. Then Bonnie made out the stallion emblem on the
back.

"Oh, my God"
"Oh, my God"
Three sets of eyes turned to him in shock. "Damon's?" Bonnie said, hearing the
squeak in her own voice. She hoped Stefan meant Damon had just loaned it to him.
But the car window was rolling down to reveal black hair as sleek and liquidy as
the car's paint job, mirrored glasses, and a very white smile. "Buon giorno," said
Damon smoothly. "Anybody need a ride?"
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"Oh, my God," Bonnie said again, faintly. But she didn't back away.
Stefan was visibly impatient. "We'll head for the boarding house. You follow.
Park behind the barn so nobody sees your car."
Meredith had to lead Bonnie away from the Ferrari. It wasn't that Bonnie liked
Damon or that she was ever going to let him kiss her again as he had at Alaric's
party. She knew he was dangerous; not as bad as Katherine had been, maybe, but
bad. He'd killed wantonly, just for the fun of it. He'd killed Mr. Tanner, the history
teacher, at the Haunted House fund-raiser last Halloween. He might kill again at any
time. Maybe that was why Bonnie felt like a mouse staring at a shining black snake
when she looked at him.
In the privacy of Meredith's car Bonnie and Meredith exchanged glances.
"Stefan shouldn't have brought him," said Meredith.
"Maybe he just came," Bonnie offered. She didn't think Damon was the sort of
person who got brought anywhere.
"Why should he? Not to help us, that's for sure."
Matt said nothing. He didn't even seem to notice the tension in the car. He just
stared through the windshield, lost in himself.
The sky was clouding up.
"Matt?"
"Just leave it alone, Bonnie," said Meredith.
Wonderful, thought Bonnie, depression settling like a dark blanket over her. Matt
and Stefan and Damon, all together, all thinking about Elena.
They parked behind the old barn, next to the low black car. When they went
inside, Stefan was standing alone. He turned and Bonnie saw that he'd taken off his
sunglasses. The faintest chill went through her, just the lightest prickling of the hairs
on her arms and neck. Stefan wasn't like any other guy she'd ever met. His eyes were
so green; green as oak leaves in the spring. But just now they had shadows
underneath.
There was a moment of awkwardness; the three of them standing on one side and
looking at Stefan without a word. No one seemed to know what to say.
Then Meredith went over to him and took his hand. "You look tired," she said.

"I came as soon as I could." He put an arm around her in a brief, almost hesitant
hug. He never would have done that in the old days, Bonnie thought. He used to be
so reserved.
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"I came as soon as I could." He put an arm around her in a brief, almost hesitant
hug. He never would have done that in the old days, Bonnie thought. He used to be
so reserved.
Stefan and Matt were looking at each other. Here we go, thought Bonnie. It was
almost funny; the same expression was on both their faces. Hurt and tired, and trying
not to show it. No matter what, Elena would always be between them.
At last, Matt stuck out his hand and Stefan shook it. They both stepped back,
looking glad to have it over with.
"Where's Damon?" said Meredith.
"Poking around. I thought we might want a few minutes without him."
"We want a few decades without him," Bonnie said before she could stop herself,
and Meredith said, "He can't be trusted, Stefan."
"I think you're wrong," Stefan said quietly. "He can be a big help if he puts his
mind to it."
"In between killing a few of the locals every other night?" Meredith said, her
eyebrows up. "You shouldn't have brought him, Stefan."
"But he didn't." The voice came from behind Bonnie, behind and frighteningly
close. Bonnie jumped and made an instinctive lunge for Matt, who gripped her
shoulder.
Damon smiled briefly, just one corner of his mouth up. He'd taken off his
sunglasses, but his eyes weren't green. They were black as the spaces between the
stars. He's almost better looking than Stefan, Bonnie thought wildly, finding Matt's
fingers and hanging on to them.
"So she's yours now, is she?" Damon said to Matt casually.
"No," Matt said, but his grip on Bonnie didn't loosen.
"Stefan didn't bring you?" prompted Meredith from the other side. Of all of them,
she seemed least affected by Damon, least afraid of him, least susceptible to him.
"No," Damon said, still looking at Bonnie. He doesn't turn like other people, she
thought. He goes on looking at whatever he wants no matter who's talking. "You
did," he said.
"Me?" Bonnie shrank a little, uncertain who he meant.
"You. You did the spell, didn't you?"
"The..." Oh, hell. A picture blossomed in Bonnie's mind, of black hair on a white
napkin. Her eyes went to Damon's hair, finer and straighter than Stefan's but just as
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dark. Obviously Matt had made a mistake in the sorting.
dark. Obviously Matt had made a mistake in the sorting.
They took seats on the decaying bales of hay, all except Damon, who remained
standing. Stefan was leaning forward, hands on knees, looking at Bonnie.
"You told me-you said that Elena spoke to you." There was a perceptible pause
before he got the name out. His face was tense with control.
"Yes." She managed a smile for him. "I had this dream, Stefan, this very strange
dream..."
She told him about it, and about what had happened after. It took a long time.
Stefan listened intently, his green eyes flaring every time she mentioned Elena. When
she told about the end of Caroline's party and how they had found Sue's body in the
backyard, the blood drained from his face, but he said nothing.
"The police came and said she was dead, but we knew that already," Bonnie
finished. "And they took Vickie away-poor Vickie was just raving. They wouldn't
let us talk to her, and her mother hangs up if we call. Some people are even saying
Vickie did it, which is insane. But they won't believe that Elena talked to us, so they
won't believe anything she said."
"And what she said was 'he,' " Meredith interrupted. "Several times. It's a man;
someone with a lot of psychic power."
"And it was a man who grabbed my hand in the hallway," said Bonnie. She told
Stefan about her suspicion of Tyler, but as Meredith pointed out, Tyler didn't fit the
rest of the description.
He had neither the brains nor the psychic power to be the one Elena was warning
them about.
"What about Caroline?" Stefan asked. "Could she have seen anything?"
"She was out front," Meredith said. "She found the door and got out while we
were all running. She heard the screams, but she was too frightened to go back in the
house. And to be honest, I don't blame her."
"So nobody actually saw what happened except Vickie."
"No. And Vickie's not telling." Bonnie picked up the story where she had left off.
"Once we realized nobody would believe us, we remembered Elena's message about
the summoning spell. We figured it must have been you she wanted to summon,
because she thought you could do something to help. So... can you?"
"I can try," Stefan said. He got up and walked a little distance away, turning his
back on them. He stood like that in silence a while, unmoving. At last he turned back
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and looked Bonnie in the eyes. "Bonnie," he said, quiet but intense, "in your dreams
you actually spoke to Elena face to face. Do you think if you went into a trance you
could do it again?"
Bonnie was a little frightened by what she saw in his eyes. They were blazing

emerald green in his pale face. All at once it was as if she could see behind the mask
of control he wore. Underneath was so much pain, so much longing-so much of
that intensity that she could hardly bear to look at it.
emerald green in his pale face. All at once it was as if she could see behind the mask
of control he wore. Underneath was so much pain, so much longing-so much of
that intensity that she could hardly bear to look at it.
"Then we'll do it. Right here, right now. And we'll see if you can take me with
you." Those eyes were mesmerizing, not with any hidden Power, but with the sheer
force of his will. Bonnie wanted to do it for him-he made her want to do anything
for him. But the memory of that last dream was too much. She couldn't face that
horror again; she couldn't.
"Stefan, it's too dangerous. I could be opening myself up to anything-and I'm
scared. If that thing gets hold of my mind, I don't know what might happen. I can't,
Stefan. Please. Even with a Ouija board, it's just inviting him to come."
For a moment she thought he was going to try to make her do it. His mouth
tightened in an obstinate line, and his eyes blazed even brighter. But then, slowly, the
fire died out of them.
Bonnie felt her heart tear. "Stefan, I'm sorry," she whispered.
"We'll just have to do it on our own," he said. The mask was back on, but his
smile looked stiff, as if it hurt him. Then he spoke more briskly. "First we have to
find out who this killer is, what he wants here. All we know now is that something
evil has come to Fell's Church again."
"But why?" said Bonnie. "Why would anything evil just happen to pick here?
Haven't we been through enough?"
"It does seem a bit of a strange coincidence," Meredith said drolly. "Why should
we be so singularly blessed?"
"It's not coincidence," said Stefan. He got up and lifted his hands as if unsure
how to start. "There are some places on this earth that are... different," he said.
"That are full of psychic energy, either positive or negative, good or evil. Some of
them have always been that way, like the Bermuda Triangle and Salisbury Plain, the
place where they built Stonehenge. Others become that way, especially where a lot of
blood has been shed." He looked at Bonnie.
"Unquiet spirits," she whispered.
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"Yes. There was a battle here, wasn't there?"
"In the Civil War," Matt said. "That's how the church in the cemetery got ruined.
It was a slaughter on both sides. Nobody won, but almost everyone who fought got
killed. The woods are full of their graves."
"And the ground was soaked with blood. A place like that draws the supernatural
to it. It draws evil to it. That's why Katherine was attracted to Fell's Church in the
first place. I felt it too, when I first came here."
"And now something else has come," Meredith said, perfectly serious for once.
"But how are we supposed to fight it?"

"We have to know what we're fighting first. I think..." But before he could finish,
there was a creak and pale, dusty sunlight fell across the bales of hay. The barn door
had opened.
"We have to know what we're fighting first. I think..." But before he could finish,
there was a creak and pale, dusty sunlight fell across the bales of hay. The barn door
had opened.
Mrs. Flowers, who owned the boarding house, smiled at them, her little black
eyes crinkling into wrinkles. She was carrying a tray.
"I thought you children might like something to drink while you're talking," she
said comfortably.
Everyone exchanged disconcerted glances. How had she known they were out
here? And how could she be so calm about it?
"Here you go," Mrs. Flowers continued. "This is grape juice, made from my own
Concord grapes." She put a paper cup beside Meredith, then Matt, then Bonnie.
"And here are some gingersnap cookies. Fresh." She held the plate around. Bonnie
noticed she didn't offer any to Stefan or Damon.
"You two can come round to the cellar if you like and try some of my blackberry
wine," she said to them, with what Bonnie would swear was a wink.
Stefan took a deep, wary breath. "Uh, look, Mrs. Flowers..."
"And your old room's just like you left it. Nobody's been up there since you
went. You can use it when you want; it won't put me out a bit."
Stefan seemed at a loss for words. "Well-thank you. Thank you very much. But
-"
"If you're worried I'll say something to somebody, you can set your mind at ease.
I don't tend to run off at the mouth. Never have, never will. How's that grape juice?"
-turning suddenly on Bonnie.
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Bonnie hastily took a gulp. "Good," she said truthfully.
"When you finish, throw the cups in the trash. I like things kept tidy." Mrs.
Flowers cast a look about the barn, shaking her head and sighing. "Such a shame.
Such a pretty girl." She looked at Stefan piercingly with eyes like onyx beads.
"You've got your work cut out for you this time, boy," she said, and left, still
shaking her head.
"Well!" said Bonnie, staring after her, amazed. Everyone else just looked at each
other blankly.
" 'Such a pretty girl'-but which?" said Mere-dith at last. "Sue or Elena?" Elena
had actually spent a week or so in this very barn last winter-but Mrs. Flowers
wasn't supposed to know that. "Did you say something to her about us?" Meredith
asked Damon.
"Not a word." Damon seemed amused. "She's an old lady. She's batty."
"She's sharper than any of us gave her credit for," Matt said. "When I think of the

days we spent watching her potter around that basement-do you think she knew we
were watching?"
days we spent watching her potter around that basement-do you think she knew we
were watching?"
"And grape juice, don't forget that." Matt grinned at Stefan. "Want some?" He
proffered the leaky cup.
"Yeah, you can take your grape juice and..." But Stefan was almost smiling
himself. For an instant Bonnie saw the two of them the way they used to be, before
Elena had died. Friendly, warm, as comfortable together as she and Meredith were.
A pang went through her.
But Elena isn't dead, she thought. She's more here than ever. She's directing
everything we say and do.
Stefan had sobered again. "When Mrs. Flowers came in, I was about to say that
we'd better get started. And I think we should start with Vickie."
"She won't see us," Meredith replied instantly. "Her parents are keeping everyone
away."
"Then we'll just have to bypass her parents," Stefan said. "Are you coming with
us, Damon?"
"A visit to yet another pretty girl? I wouldn't miss it."
Bonnie turned to Stefan in alarm, but he spoke reassuringly as he guided her out
of the barn. "It'll be all right. I'll keep an eye on him."
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Bonnie hoped so.

Six
Vickie's house was on a corner, and they approached it from the side street. By
now the sky was filled with heavy purple clouds. The light had an almost underwater
quality.
"Looks like it's going to storm," Matt said.
Bonnie glanced at Damon. Neither he nor Stefan liked bright light. And she could
feel the Power emanating from him, like a low thrum just under the surface of his
skin. He smiled without looking at her and said, "How about snow in June?"
Bonnie clamped down on a shiver.
She had looked Damon's way once or twice in the barn and found him listening to
the story with an air of detached indifference. Unlike Stefan, his expression hadn't
changed in the slightest when she mentioned Elena-or when she told about Sue's
death. What did he really feel for Elena? He'd called up a snowstorm once and left
her to freeze in it. What was he feeling now? Did he even care about catching the
murderer?
"That's Vickie's bedroom," said Meredith. "The bay window in the back."
Stefan looked at Damon. "How many people in the house?"
"Two. Man and woman. The woman's drunk."
Poor Mrs. Bennett, thought Bonnie.
"I need them both asleep," Stefan said.
In spite of herself, Bonnie was fascinated by the surge of Power she felt from
Damon. Her psychic abilities had never been strong enough to sense its raw essence
before, but now they were. Now she could feel it as clearly as she could see the
fading violet light or smell the honeysuckle outside Vickie's window.
Damon shrugged. "They're asleep."
Stefan tapped lightly on the glass.
There was no response, or at least none Bonnie could see. But Stefan and Damon
looked at each other.
"She's half tranced already," Damon said.
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"She's scared. I'll do it; she knows me," said Stefan. He put his fingertips on the
window. "Vickie, it's Stefan Salvatore," he said. "I'm here to help you. Come let me
in."
His voice was quiet, nothing that should have been heard on the other side of the
glass. But after a moment the curtains stirred and a face appeared.
Bonnie gasped aloud.
Vickie's long, light brown hair was disheveled, and her skin was chalky. There

were huge black rings under her eyes. The eyes themselves were fixed and glassy.
Her lips were rough and chapped.
were huge black rings under her eyes. The eyes themselves were fixed and glassy.
Her lips were rough and chapped.
"She looks possessed," Bonnie whispered back, unnerved.
Stefan just said, "Vickie, open the window."
Mechanically, like a windup doll, Vickie cranked one of the side panels of the bay
window open, and Stefan said, "Can I come in?"
Vickie's glazed eyes swept over the group outside. For a moment Bonnie thought
she didn't recognize any of them. But then she blinked and said slowly, "Meredith...
Bonnie... Stefan? You're back. What are you doing here?"
"Ask me in, Vickie." Stefan's voice was hypnotic.
"Stefan..." There was a long pause and then: "Come in."
She stepped back as he put a hand on the sill and vaulted through. Matt followed
him, then
Meredith. Bonnie, who was wearing a mini, re-mained outside with Damon. She
wished she'd worn jeans to school today, but then she hadn't known she'd be going
on an expedition.
"You shouldn't be here," Vickie said to Stefan, almost calmly. "He's coming to
get me. He'll get you too."
Meredith put an arm around her. Stefan just said, "Who?"
"Him. He comes to me in my dreams. He killed Sue." Vickie's matter-of-fact tone
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was more frightening than any hysteria could have been.
"Vickie, we've come to help you," Meredith said gently. "Everything's going to be
all right now. We won't let him hurt you, I promise."
Vickie swung around to stare at her. She looked Meredith up and down as if
Meredith had suddenly changed into something unbelievable. Then she began to
laugh.
It was awful, a hoarse burst of mirth like a hacking cough. It went on and on until
Bonnie wanted to cover her ears. Finally Stefan said, "Vickie, stop it."
The laughter died into something like sobs, and when Vickie lifted her head again,
she looked less glassy eyed but more genuinely upset. "You're all going to die,
Stefan," she said, shaking her head. "No one can fight him and live."
"We need to know about him so we can fight him. We need your help," Stefan
said. "Tell me what he looks like."
"I can't see him in my dreams. He's just a shadow without a face." Vickie
whispered it, her shoulders hunching.
"But you saw him at Caroline's house," Stefan said insistently. "Vickie, listen to

me," he added as the girl turned away sharply. "I know you're frightened, but this is
important, more important than you can understand. We can't fight him unless we
know what we're up against, and you are the only one, the only one right now who
has the information we need. You have to help us."
me," he added as the girl turned away sharply. "I know you're frightened, but this is
important, more important than you can understand. We can't fight him unless we
know what we're up against, and you are the only one, the only one right now who
has the information we need. You have to help us."
Stefan's voice was unyielding. "I have a way to help you remember," he said.
"Will you let me try?"
Seconds crawled by, then Vickie gave a long, bubbling sigh, her body sagging.
"Do whatever you want," she said indifferently. "I don't care. It won't make any
difference."
"You're a brave girl. Now look at me, Vickie. I want you to relax. Just look at me
and relax." Stefan's voice dropped to a lulling murmur. It went on for a few minutes,
and then Vickie's eyes drooped shut.
"Sit down." Stefan guided her to sit on the bed. He sat beside her, looking into
her face.
"Vickie, you feel calm and relaxed now. Nothing you remember will hurt you," he
said, his voice soothing. "Now, I need you to go back to Saturday night. You're
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upstairs, in the master bedroom of Caroline's house. Sue Carson is with you, and
someone else. I need you to see-"
"No!" Vickie twisted back and forth as if trying to escape something. "No! I can't
-"
"Vickie, calm down. He won't hurt you. He can't see you, but you can see him.
Listen to me."
As Stefan spoke, Vickie's whimpers quieted. But she still thrashed and writhed.
"You need to see him, Vickie. Help us fight him. What does he look like?"
"He looks like the devil!"
It was almost a scream. Meredith sat on Vickie's other side and took her hand.
She looked out through the window at Bonnie, who looked back wide eyed and
shrugged slightly. Bonnie had no idea what Vickie was talking about.
"Tell me more," Stefan said evenly.
Vickie's mouth twisted. Her nostrils were flared as if she were smelling something
awful. When she spoke, she got out each word separately, as if they were making
her sick.
"He wears... an old raincoat. It flaps around his legs in the wind. He makes the
wind blow. His hair is blond. Almost white. It stands up all over his head. His eyes
are so blue-electric blue." Vickie licked her lips and swallowed, looking nauseated.
"Blue is the color of death."
Thunder rumbled and cracked in the sky. Damon glanced up quickly, then
frowned, eyes narrowed.

"He's tall. And he's laughing. He's reaching for me, laughing. But Sue screams
'No, no' and tries to pull me away. So he takes her instead. The window's broken,
and the balcony is right there. Sue's crying 'No, please.' And then I watch him-I
watch him throw her..." Vickie's breath was hitching, her voice rising hysterically.
"He's tall. And he's laughing. He's reaching for me, laughing. But Sue screams
'No, no' and tries to pull me away. So he takes her instead. The window's broken,
and the balcony is right there. Sue's crying 'No, please.' And then I watch him-I
watch him throw her..." Vickie's breath was hitching, her voice rising hysterically.
"Oh, please, no-Sue! Sue! Sue!"
"Vickie, stay with me. Listen. I need just one more thing. Look at him. Tell me if
he's wearing a blue jewel-"
But Vickie was whipping her head back and forth, sobbing, more hysterical each
second. "No! No! I'm next! I'm next!" Suddenly, her eyes sprang open as she came
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out of the trance by herself, choking and gasping. Then her head jerked around.
On the wall, a picture was rattling.
It was picked up by the bamboo-framed mirror, then by perfume bottles and
lipsticks on the dresser below. With a sound like popcorn, earrings began bursting
from an earring tree. The rattling got louder and louder. A straw hat fell off a hook.
Photos were showering down from the mirror. Tapes and CDs sprayed out of a rack
and onto the floor like playing cards being dealt.
Meredith was on her feet and so was Matt, fists clenched.
"Make it stop! Make it stop!" Vickie cried wildly.
But it didn't stop. Matt and Meredith looked around as new objects joined the
dance. Everything movable was shaking, jittering, swaying. It was as if the room
were caught in an earthquake.
"Stop! Stop!" shrieked Vickie, her hands over her ears.
Directly above the house thunder exploded.
Bonnie jumped violently as she saw the zigzag of lightning shoot across the sky.
Instinctively she grabbed for something to hang on to. As the lightning bolt flared a
poster on Vickie's wall tore diagonally as if slashed by a phantom knife. Bonnie
choked back a scream and clutched tighter.
Then, as quickly as if someone had flicked a power switch off, all the noise
stopped.
Vickie's room was still. The fringe on the bedside lamp swayed slightly. The
poster had curled up in two irregular pieces, top and bottom. Slowly, Vickie lowered
her hands from her ears.
Matt and Meredith looked around rather shakily.
Bonnie shut her eyes and murmured something like a prayer. It wasn't until she
opened them again that she realized what she had been hanging on to. It was the
supple coolness of a leather jacket. It was Damon's arm.
He hadn't moved away from her, though. He didn't move now. He was leaning
forward slightly, eyes narrowed, watching the room intently.

"Look at the mirror," he said.
"Look at the mirror," he said.
On the glass surface of the bamboo mirror two words were scrawled in Vickie's
hot coral lipstick.
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Goodnight, Sweetheart.
"Oh, God," Bonnie whispered.
Stefan turned from the mirror to Vickie. There was something different about him,
Bonnie thought-he was holding himself relaxed but poised, like a soldier who's just
gotten confirmation of a battle. It was as if he'd accepted a personal challenge of
some kind.
He took something out of his back pocket and unfolded it, revealing sprigs of a
plant with long green leaves and tiny lilac flowers.
"This is vervain, fresh vervain," he said quietly, his voice even and intense. "I
picked it outside Florence; it's blooming there now." He took Vickie's hand and
pressed the packet into it. "I want you to hold on to this and keep it. Put some in
every room of the house, and hide pieces somewhere in your parents' clothes if you
can, so they'll have it near them. As long as you have this with you, he can't take
over your mind. He can scare you, Vickie, but he can't make you do anything, like
open a window or door for him. And listen, Vickie, because this is important."
Vickie was shivering, her face crumpled. Stefan took both her hands and made
her look at him, speaking slowly and distinctly.
"If I'm right, Vickie, he can't get in unless you let him. So talk to your parents.
Tell them it's important that they don't ask any stranger inside the house. In fact, I
can have Damon put that suggestion in their mind right now." He glanced at Damon,
who shrugged slightly and nodded, looking as if his attention was somewhere else.
Self-consciously, Bonnie removed her hand from his jacket.
Vickie's head was bent over the vervain.
"He'll get in somehow," she said softly, with terrible certainty.
"No. Vickie, listen to me. From now on, we're going to watch your house; we're
going to be waiting for him."
"It doesn't matter," Vickie said. "You can't stop him." She began to laugh and
cry at the same time.
"We're going to try," Stefan said. He looked at Meredith and Matt, who nodded.
"Right. From this moment on, you will never be alone. There will always be one or
more of us outside watching you."
Vickie just shook her bent head. Meredith gave her arm a squeeze and stood as
Stefan tilted his head toward the window.
When she and Matt joined him there, Stefan spoke to all of them in a low voice. "I

don't want to leave her unguarded, but I can't stay myself right now. There's
something I have to do, and I need one of the girls with me. On the other hand, I
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don't want to leave either Bonnie or Meredith alone here." He turned to Matt. "Matt,
will you..."
don't want to leave her unguarded, but I can't stay myself right now. There's
something I have to do, and I need one of the girls with me. On the other hand, I
don't want to leave either Bonnie or Meredith alone here." He turned to Matt. "Matt,
will you..."
Everyone looked at him, startled.
"Well, it's the logical solution, isn't it?" Damon seemed amused. "After all, what
do you expect one of them to do against him anyway?"
"They can call for me. I can monitor their thoughts that far," Stefan said, not
giving one inch.
"Well," Damon said whimsically, "I can call for you too, little brother, if I get into
trouble. I'm getting bored with this investigation of yours anyway. I might as well
stay here as anywhere."
"Vickie needs to be protected, not abused," Stefan said.
Damon's smile was charming. "Her?" He nodded toward the girl who sat on the
bed, rocking over the vervain. From disheveled hair to bare feet, Vickie was not a
pretty picture. "Take my word for it, brother, I can do better than that." For just an
instant Bonnie thought those dark eyes flicked sideways toward her. "You're always
saying how you'd like to trust me, anyway," Damon added. "Here's your chance to
prove it."
Stefan looked as if he wanted to trust, as if he were tempted. He also looked
suspicious. Damon said nothing, merely smiled in that taunting, enigmatic way.
Practically asking to be mistrusted, Bonnie thought.
The two brothers stood looking at each other while the silence and the tension
stretched out between them. Just then Bonnie could see the family resemblance in
their faces, one serious and intense, the other bland and faintly mocking, but both
inhumanly beautiful.
Stefan let his breath out slowly. "All right," he said quietly at last. Bonnie and Matt
and Meredith were all staring at him, but he didn't seem to notice. He spoke to
Damon as if they were the only two people there. "You stay here, outside the house
where you won't be seen. I'll come back and take over when I'm finished with what
I'm doing."
Meredith's eyebrows were in her hair, but she made no comment. Neither did
Matt. Bonnie tried to quell her own feelings of unease. Stefan must know what he's
doing, she told herself. Anyway, he'd better.
"Don't take too long," Damon said dismissively.
And that was how they left it, with Damon blending in with the darkness in the
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shadow of the black walnut trees in Vickie's backyard and Vickie herself in her
room, rocking endlessly.
In the car, Meredith said, "Where next?"

"I need to test a theory," said Stefan briefly.
"That the killer is a vampire?" Matt said from the back, where he sat with Bonnie.
Stefan glanced at him sharply. "Yes."
"That's why you told Vickie not to invite anyone in," Meredith added, not to be
outdone in the reasoning department. Vampires, Bonnie remembered, couldn't enter
a place where humans lived and slept unless they were invited. "And that's why you
asked if the man was wearing a blue stone."
"An amulet against daylight," Stefan said, spreading his right hand. On the third
finger there was a silver ring set with lapis lazuli. "Without one of these, direct
exposure to the sun kills us. If the murderer is a vampire, he keeps a stone like this
somewhere on him." As if by instinct, Stefan reached up to briefly touch something
under his T-shirt. After a moment Bonnie realized what it must be.
Elena's ring. Stefan had given it to her in the first place, and after she died he'd
taken it to wear on a chain around his neck. So that part of her would be with him
always, he'd said.
When Bonnie looked at Matt beside her, she saw his eyes were closed.
"So how can we tell if he's a vampire?" Meredith asked.
"There's only one way I can think of, and it isn't very pleasant. But it's got to be
done."
Bonnie's heart sank. If Stefan thought it wasn't very pleasant, she was sure she
was going to find it even less so. "What is it?" she said unenthusiastically.
"I need to get a look at Sue's body."
There was dead silence. Even Meredith, normally so unflappable, looked
appalled. Matt turned away, leaning his forehead against the window glass.
"You've got to be kidding," Bonnie said.
"I wish I were."
"But-for God's sake, Stefan. We can't. They won't let us. I mean, what are we
going to say? 'Excuse me while I examine this corpse for holes'?"
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"Bonnie, stop it," Meredith said.
"I can't help it," Bonnie snapped back shakily. "It's an awful idea. And besides,
the police already checked her body. There wasn't a mark on it except the cuts she
got in the fall."
"The police don't know what to look for," Stefan said. His voice was steely.
Hearing it brought something home to Bonnie, something she tended to forget.
Stefan was one of them. One of the hunters. He'd seen dead people before. He
might even have killed some.
He drinks blood, she thought, and shuddered.
"Well?" said Stefan. "Are you still with me?"

Bonnie tried to make herself small in the backseat. Meredith's hands were tight on
the steering wheel. It was Matt who spoke, turning back from the window.
Bonnie tried to make herself small in the backseat. Meredith's hands were tight on
the steering wheel. It was Matt who spoke, turning back from the window.
"There's a viewing of the body from seven to ten at the funeral home," Meredith
added, her voice low.
"We'll have to wait until after the viewing, then. After they close the funeral home,
when we can be alone with her," said Stefan.
"This is the most gruesome thing I've ever had to do," Bonnie whispered
wretchedly. The funeral chapel was dark and cold. Stefan had sprung the locks on
the outside door with a thin piece of flexible metal.
The viewing room was thickly carpeted, its walls covered with somber oak
panels. It would have been a depressing place even with the lights on. In the dark it
seemed close and suffocating and crowded with grotesque shapes. It looked as if
someone might be crouching behind each of the many standing flower arrangements.
"I don't want to be here," Bonnie moaned.
"Let's just get it over with, okay?" Matt said through his teeth.
When he snapped the flashlight on, Bonnie looked anywhere but where it was
pointing. She didn't want to see the coffin, she didn't. She stared at the flowers, at a
heart made of pink roses. Outside, thunder grumbled like a sleeping animal.
"Let me get this open-here," Stefan was saying. In spite of her resolve not to,
Bonnie looked.
The casket was white, lined with pale pink satin. Sue's blond hair shone against it
like the hair of a sleeping princess in a fairy tale. But Sue didn't look as if she were
sleeping. She was too pale, too still. Like a waxwork.
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Bonnie crept closer, her eyes fixed on Sue's face.
That's why it's so cold in here, she told herself staunchly. To keep the wax from
melting. It helped a little.
Stefan reached down to touch Sue's high-necked pink blouse. He undid the top
button.
"For God's sake," Bonnie whispered, outraged.
"What do you think we're here for?" Stefan hissed back. But his fingers paused
on the second button.
Bonnie watched a minute and then made her decision. "Get out of the way," she
said, and when Stefan didn't move immediately, she gave him a shove. Meredith
drew up close to her and they formed a phalanx between Sue and the boys. Their
eyes met with understanding. If they had to actually remove the blouse, the guys
were going out.
Bonnie undid the small buttons while Meredith held the light. Sue's skin felt as

waxy as it looked, cool against her fingertips. Awkwardly, she folded the blouse
back to reveal a lacy white slip. Then she made herself push Sue's shining gold hair
off the pale neck. The hair was stiff with spray.
waxy as it looked, cool against her fingertips. Awkwardly, she folded the blouse
back to reveal a lacy white slip. Then she made herself push Sue's shining gold hair
off the pale neck. The hair was stiff with spray.
"No," said Stefan oddly. "But there's something else. Look at this." Gently, he
reached around Bonnie to point out a cut, pale and bloodless as the skin around it,
but visible as a faint line running from collarbone to breast. Over the heart. Stefan's
long finger traced the air above it and Bonnie stiffened, ready to smack the hand
away if he touched.
"What is it?" asked Meredith, puzzled.
"A mystery," Stefan said. His voice was still odd. "If I saw a mark like that on a
vampire, it would mean the vampire was giving blood to a human. That's how it's
done. Human teeth can't pierce our skin, so we cut ourselves if we want to share
blood. But Sue wasn't a vampire."
"She certainly wasn't!" said Bonnie. She tried to fight off the image her mind
wanted to show her, of Elena bending to a cut like that on Stefan's chest and
sucking, drinking...
She shuddered and realized her eyes were shut. "Is there anything else you need
to see?" she said, opening them.
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"No. That's all."
Bonnie did up the buttons. She rearranged Sue's hair. Then, while Meredith and
Stefan eased the lid of the casket back down, she walked quickly out of the viewing
room and to the outside door. She stood there, arms wrapped around herself.
A hand touched her elbow lightly. It was Matt.
"You're tougher than you look," he said.
"Yes, well..." She tried to shrug. And then suddenly she was crying, crying hard.
Matt put his arms around her.
"I know," he said. Just that. Not "Don't cry" or "Take it easy" or "Everything's
going to be all right." Just "I know." His voice was as desolate as she felt.
"They've got hair spray in her hair," she sobbed. "Sue never used hair spray. It's
awful." Somehow, just then, this seemed the worst thing of all.
He simply held her.
After a while Bonnie got her breath. She found she was holding on to Matt almost
painfully tightly and loosened her arms. "I got your shirt all wet," she said
apologetically, sniffling.
"It doesn't matter."
Something in his voice made her step back and look at him. He looked the way he
had in the high school parking lot. So lost, so... hopeless.

"Matt, what is it?" she whispered. "Please."
"Matt, what is it?" she whispered. "Please."
"I'm not so sure." Bonnie didn't even think she wanted to. It was too scary. But
she was overwhelmed by an urge to comfort him, to wipe that lost look from his
eyes. "Matt, I-"
"We're finished," Stefan said from behind them.
As Matt looked toward the voice the lost look seemed to intensify. "Sometimes I
think we're all finished," Matt said, moving away from Bonnie, but he didn't explain
what he meant by that. "Let's go."

Seven
Stefan approached the corner house reluctantly, almost afraid of what he might
find. He half expected that Damon would have abandoned his post by now. He'd
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probably been an idiot to rely on Damon in the first place.
But when he reached the backyard, there was a shimmer of motion among the
black walnut trees. His eyes, sharper than a human's because they were adapted for
hunting, made out the darker shadow leaning against a trunk.
"You took your time getting back."
"I had to see the others home safe. And I had to eat."
"Animal blood," Damon said contemptuously, eyes fixed on a tiny round stain on
Stefan's T-shirt. "Rabbit, from the smell of it. That seems appropriate somehow,
doesn't it?"
"Damon-I've given Bonnie and Meredith vervain too."
"A wise precaution," Damon said distinctly, and showed his teeth.
A familiar surge of irritation welled up in Stefan. Why did Damon always have to
be so difficult? Talking with him was like walking between land mines.
"I'll be going now," Damon continued, swinging his jacket over one shoulder.
"I've got business of my own to take care of." He tossed a devastating grin over his
shoulder. "Don't wait up."
"Damon." Damon half turned, not looking but listening. "The last thing we need is
some girl in this town screaming 'Vampire!' " Stefan said. "Or showing the signs,
either. These people have been through it before; they're not ignorant."
"I'll bear that in mind." It was said ironically, but it was the closest thing to a
promise Stefan had ever gotten from his brother in his life.
"And, Damon?"
"Now what?"
"Thank you."
It was too much. Damon whipped around, his eyes cold and uninviting, a
stranger's eyes.
"Don't expect anything of me, little brother," he said dangerously. "Because you'll
be wrong every time. And don't think you can manipulate me, either. Those three
humans may follow you, but I won't. I'm here for reasons of my own."
He was gone before Stefan could gather words for a reply. It wouldn't have
mattered anyway. Damon never listened to anything he said. Damon never even
called him by name. It was always the scornful "little brother."
And now Damon was off to prove how unreliable he was, Stefan thought.
Wonderful. He'd do something particularly vicious just to show Stefan he was
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capable of it.
capable of it.
It was no use. He couldn't keep his mind on the puzzle. He was tired and lonely
and in desperate need of comfort. And the stark truth was that there was no comfort
to be had.
Elena, he thought, you lied to me.
It was the one thing she'd insisted on, the one thing she'd always promised.
"Whatever happens, Stefan, I'll be with you. Tell me you believe that." And he had
answered, helpless in her spell, "Oh, Elena, I believe it. Whatever happens, we'll be
together."
But she had left him. Not by choice maybe, but what did that matter in the end?
She had left him and gone away.
There were times when all he wanted was to follow her.
Think about something else, anything else, he told himself, but it was too late.
Once unleashed, the images of Elena swirled around him, too painful to bear, too
beautiful to push away.
The first time he'd kissed her. The shock of dizzy sweetness when his mouth met
hers. And after that, shock after shock, but at some deeper level. As if she were
reaching down to the core of himself, a core he'd almost forgotten.
Frightened, he'd felt his defenses tear away. All his secrets, all his resistance, all
the tricks he used to keep other people at arm's length. Elena had ripped through
them all, exposing his vulnerability.
Exposing his soul.
And in the end, he found that it was what he wanted. He wanted Elena to see him
without defenses, without walls. He wanted her to know him for what he was.
Terrifying? Yes. When she'd discovered his secret at last, when she'd found him
feeding on that bird, he had cringed in shame. He was sure that she'd turn away from
the blood on his mouth in horror. In disgust.
But when he looked into her eyes that night, he saw understanding. Forgiveness.
Love.
Her love had healed him.
And that was when he knew they could never be apart.
Other memories surged up and Stefan held on to them, even though the pain tore
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into him like claws. Sensations. The feel of Elena against him, supple in his arms.
The brush of her hair on his cheek, light as a moth's wing. The curve of her lips, the

taste of them. The impossible midnight blue of her eyes.
taste of them. The impossible midnight blue of her eyes.
But Bonnie had reached Elena. Elena's spirit, her soul, was still somewhere near.
Of anyone, he should be able to summon it. He had Power at his command. And
he had more right than anyone to seek her.
He knew how it was done. Shut your eyes. Picture the person you want to draw
near. That was easy. He could see Elena, feel her, smell her. Then call them, let your
longing reach out into the emptiness. Open yourself and let your need be felt.
Easier still. He didn't give a damn about the danger. He gathered all his yearning,
all his pain, and sent it out searching like a prayer.
And felt... nothing.
Only void and his own loneliness. Only silence.
His Power wasn't the same as Bonnie's. He couldn't reach the one thing he loved
most, the one thing that mattered to him.
He had never felt so alone in his life.
"You want what?" Bonnie said.
"Some sort of records about the history of Fell's Church. Particularly about the
founders," Stefan said. They were all sitting in Meredith's car, which was parked a
discreet distance behind Vickie's house. It was dusk of the next day and they had
just returned from Sue's funeral-all but Stefan.
"This has something to do with Sue, doesn't it?" Meredith's dark eyes, always so
level and intelligent, probed Stefan's. "You think you've solved the mystery."
"Possibly," he admitted. He had spent the day thinking. He'd put the pain of last
night behind him, and once again he was in control. Although he could not reach
Elena, he could justify her faith in him-he could do what she wanted done. And
there was a comfort in work, in concentration. In keeping all emotion away. He
added, "I have an idea about what might have happened, but it's a long shot and I
don't want to talk about it until I'm sure."
"Why?" demanded Bonnie. Such a contrast to Meredith, Stefan thought. Hair as
red as fire and a spirit to go with it. That delicate heart-shaped face and fair,
translucent skin were deceptive, though. Bonnie was smart and resourceful-even if
she was only beginning to find that out herself.
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"Because if I'm wrong, an innocent person might get hurt. Look, at this point it's
just an idea. But I promise if I find any evidence tonight to back it up, I'll tell you all
about it."
"You could talk with Mrs. Grimesby," Meredith suggested. "She's the town
librarian, and she knows a lot about the founding of Fell's Church."
"Or there's always Honoria," Bonnie said. "I mean, she was one of the founders."

Stefan looked at her quickly. "I thought Honoria Fell had stopped communicating
with you," he said carefully.
Stefan looked at her quickly. "I thought Honoria Fell had stopped communicating
with you," he said carefully.
Stefan was surprised. He didn't entirely like the idea of Elena's journal on display.
But Honoria's records might be exactly what he was looking for. Honoria had not
just been a wise woman; she had been well versed in the supernatural. A witch.
"The library's closed by now, though," Meredith said.
"That's even better," said Stefan. "No one will know what information we're
interested in. Two of us can go down there and break in, and the other two can stay
here. Meredith, if you'll come with me-"
"I'd like to stay here, if you don't mind," she said. "I'm tired," she added in
explanation, seeing his expression. "And this way I can get my watch over with and
get home earlier. Why don't you and Matt go and Bonnie and I stay here?"
Stefan was still looking at her. "Okay," he said slowly. "Fine. If it's all right with
Matt." Matt shrugged. "That's it, then. It might take us a couple of hours or more.
You two stay in the car with the doors locked. You should be safe enough that
way." If he was right in his suspicions, there wouldn't be any more attacks for a
while-a few days at least. Bonnie and Meredith should be safe. But he couldn't help
wonder what was behind Meredith's suggestion. Not simple tiredness, he was sure.
"By the way, where's Damon?" Bonnie asked as he and Matt started to leave.
Stefan felt his stomach muscles tighten. "I don't know." He had been waiting for
someone to ask that. He hadn't seen his brother since last night, and he had no idea
what Damon might be doing.
"He'll show up eventually," he said, and closed the door on Meredith's, "That's
what I'm afraid of."
He and Matt walked to the library in silence, keeping to the shadows, skirting
areas of light. He couldn't afford to be seen. Stefan had come back to help Fell's
Church, but he felt sure Fell's Church didn't want his help. He was a stranger again,
an intruder here. They would hurt him if they caught him.
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The library lock was easy to pick, just a simple spring mechanism. And the
journals were right where Bonnie had said they would be.
Stefan forced his hand away from Elena's journal. Inside was the record of
Elena's last days, in her own handwriting. If he started thinking about that now...
He concentrated on the leather-bound book beside it. The faded ink on the
yellowing pages was hard to read, but after a few minutes his eyes got accustomed
to the dense, intricate writing with its elaborate curlicues.
It was the story of Honoria Fell and her husband, who with the Smallwoods and a
few other families had come to this place when it was still virgin wilderness. They

had faced not only the dangers of isolation and hunger but of native wildlife. Honoria
told the story of their battle to survive simply and clearly, without sentimentality.
had faced not only the dangers of isolation and hunger but of native wildlife. Honoria
told the story of their battle to survive simply and clearly, without sentimentality.
With a prickling at the back of his neck, he reread the entry carefully. At last he
leaned back and shut his eyes.
He'd been right. There was no longer any doubt in his mind. And that meant he
must also be right about what was going on in Fell's Church now. For an instant,
bright sickness washed over him, and an anger that made him want to rip and tear
and hurt something. Sue. Pretty Sue who had been Elena's friend had died for...
that. A blood ritual, an obscene initiation. It made him want to kill.
But then the rage faded, replaced by a fierce determination to stop what was
happening and set things right.
I promise you, he whispered to Elena in his own mind. I will stop it somehow.
No matter what.
He looked up to find Matt looking at him.
Elena's journal was in Matt's hand, closing itself over his thumb. Just then Matt's
eyes looked as dark a blue as Elena's. Too dark, full of turmoil and grief and
something like bitterness.
"You found it," Matt said. "And it's bad."
"Yes."
"It would be." Matt pushed Elena's journal back into the case and stood. There
was a ring almost of satisfaction in his voice. Like somebody who's just proved a
point.
"I could have saved you the trouble of coming here." Matt surveyed the darkened
library, jingling change in his pocket. A casual observer might have thought he was
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relaxed, but his voice betrayed him. It was raw with strain. "You just think of the
worst thing you can imagine and that's always the truth," he said.
"Matt..." Sudden concern stabbed at Stefan. He'd been too preoccupied since
coming back to Fell's Church to look at Matt properly. Now he realized that he'd
been unforgivably stupid. Something was terribly wrong. Matt's whole body was
rigid with tension lying just under the surface. And Stefan could sense the anguish,
the desperation in his mind.
"Matt, what is it?" he said quietly. He got up and crossed to the other boy. "Is it
something I did?"
"I'm fine."
"You're shaking." It was true. Fine tremors were running through the taut muscles.
"I said I'm fine!" Matt swung away from him, shoulders hunched defensively.
"Anyway, what could you have done to upset me? Besides taking my girl and getting
her killed, I mean?"

This stab was different, it was somewhere around Stefan's heart and it went
straight through. Like the blade that had killed him once upon a time. He tried to
breathe around it, not trusting himself to speak.
This stab was different, it was somewhere around Stefan's heart and it went
straight through. Like the blade that had killed him once upon a time. He tried to
breathe around it, not trusting himself to speak.
"It was the truth." Stefan waited a moment and then added, levelly, "But it's not
the whole problem, is it?"
Matt didn't answer. He stared at the floor, pushing something invisible with the
side of one shoe. Just when Stefan was about to give up, he turned with a question
of his own.
"What's the world really like?"
"What's... what?"
"The world. You've seen a lot of it, Stefan. You've got four or five centuries on
the rest of us, right? So what's the deal? I mean, is it basically the kind of place
worth saving or is it essentially a pile of crap?"
Stefan shut his eyes. "Oh."
"And what about people, huh, Stefan? The human race. Are we the disease or just
a symptom? I mean, you take somebody like-like Elena." Matt's voice shook
briefly, but he went on. "Elena died to keep the town safe for girls like Sue. And now
Sue's dead. And it's all happening again. It's never over. We can't win. So what does
that tell you?"
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"Matt."
"What I'm really asking is, what's the point? Is there some cosmic joke I'm not
getting? Or is the whole thing just one big freaking mistake? Do you understand what
I'm trying to say here?"
"I understand, Matt." Stefan sat down and ran his hands through his hair. "If
you'll shut up a minute, I'll try to answer you."
Matt drew up a chair and straddled it. "Great. Take your best shot." His eyes
were hard and challenging, but underneath Stefan saw the bewildered hurt that had
been festering there.
"I've seen a lot of evil, Matt, more than you can imagine," Stefan said. "I've even
lived it. It's always going to be a part of me, no matter how I fight it. Sometimes I
think the whole human race is evil, much less my kind. And sometimes I think that
enough of both our races is evil that it doesn't matter what happens to the rest.
"When you get down to it, though, I don't know any more than you do. I can't tell
you if there's a point or if things are ever going to turn out all right." Stefan looked
straight into Matt's eyes and spoke deliberately. "But I've got another question for
you. So what?"
Matt stared. "So what?"

"Yeah. So what."
"Yeah. So what."
"Yeah, so what?" Stefan leaned forward. "So what are you going to do, Matt
Honeycutt, if every bad thing you've said is true? What are you going to do
personally? Are you going to stop fighting and swim with the sharks?"
Matt was grasping the back of his chair. "What are you talking about?"
"You can do that, you know. Damon says so all the time. You can join up with
the evil side, the winning side. And nobody can really blame you, because if the
universe is that way, why shouldn't you be that way too?"
"Like hell!" Matt exploded. His blue eyes were searing and he had half risen from
his chair. "That's Damon's way, maybe! But just because it's hopeless doesn't mean
it's all right to stop fighting. Even if I knew it was hopeless, I'd still have to try. I
have to try, damn it!"
"I know." Stefan settled back and smiled faintly. It was a tired smile, but it
showed the kinship he felt right then with Matt. And in a moment he saw by Matt's
face that Matt understood.
"I know because I feel the same way," Stefan continued. "There's no excuse for
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giving up just because it looks like we're going to lose. We have to try-because the
other choice is to surrender."
"I'm not ready to surrender anything," Matt said through his teeth. He looked as
if he'd fought his way back to a fire inside him that had been burning all along.
"Ever," he said.
"Yeah, well, 'ever' is a long time," Stefan said. "But for what it's worth, I'm going
to try not to either. I don't know if it's possible, but I'm going to try."
"That's all anybody can do," Matt said. Slowly, he pushed himself off the chair
and stood straight. The tension was gone from his muscles, and his eyes were the
clear, almost piercing blue eyes Stefan remembered. "Okay," he said quietly. "If you
found what you came for, we'd better get back to the girls."
Stefan thought, his mind switching gears. "Matt, if I'm right about what's going
on, the girls should be okay for a while. But you go ahead and take over the watch
from them. As long as I'm here there's something I'd like to read up on-by a guy
named Gervase of Tilbury, who lived in the early 1200s."
"Even before your time, eh?" Matt said, and Stefan gave him the ghost of a smile.
They stood for a moment, looking at each other.
"All right. I guess I'll see you at Vickie's." Matt turned to the door, then hesitated.
Abruptly, he turned again and held out his hand. "Stefan-I'm glad you came back."
Stefan gripped it. "I'm glad to hear it" was all he said, but inside he felt a warmth
that took away the stabbing pain.
And some of the loneliness, too.

Eight
From where Bonnie and Meredith sat in the car, they could just see Vickie's
window. It would have been better to be closer, but then someone might have
discovered them.
Meredith poured the last of the coffee out of the thermos and drank it. Then she
yawned. She caught herself guiltily and looked at Bonnie.
"You having trouble sleeping at night too?"
"Yes. I can't imagine why," Meredith said.
"Do you think the guys are having a little talk?"
Meredith glanced at her quickly, obviously surprised, then smiled. Bonnie realized
Meredith hadn't expected her to catch on. "I hope so," Meredith said. "It might do
Matt some good."
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Bonnie nodded and relaxed back into the seat. Meredith's car had never seemed
so comfortable before.
When she looked at Meredith again, the dark-haired girl was asleep.
Oh, great. Terrific. Bonnie stared into the dregs of her coffee mug, making a face.
She didn't dare relax again; if they both fell asleep, it could be disastrous. She dug
her nails into her palms and stared at Vickie's lighted window.
When she found the image blurring and doubling on her, she knew something had
to be done.
Fresh air. That would help. Without bothering to be too quiet about it, she
unlocked the door and pulled the handle up. The door clicked open, but Meredith
went on breathing deeply.
She must really be tired, Bonnie thought, getting out. She shut the door more
gently, locking Meredith inside. It was only then that she realized she herself didn't
have a key.
Oh, well, she'd wake Meredith to let her back in. Meanwhile she'd go check on
Vickie. Vickie was probably still awake.
The sky was brooding and overcast, but the night was warm. Behind Vickie's
house the black walnut trees stirred very faintly. Crickets sang, but their monotonous
chirping only seemed like part of a larger silence.
The scent of honeysuckle filled Bonnie's nostrils. She tapped on Vickie's window
lightly with her fingernails, peering through the crack in the curtains.
No answer. On the bed she could make out a lump of blankets with unkempt
brown hair sticking out the top. Vickie was asleep too.
As Bonnie stood there, the silence seemed to thicken around her. The crickets
weren't singing anymore, and the trees were still. And yet it was as if she was

straining to hear something she knew was there.
straining to hear something she knew was there.
None of her ordinary senses told her this. But her sixth sense, the one that sent
chills up her arms and ice down her spine, the one that was newly awakened to the
presence of Power, was certain. There was... something... near. Something...
watching her.
She turned slowly, afraid to make a sound. If she didn't make any noise, maybe
whatever it was wouldn't get her. Maybe it wouldn't notice her.
The silence had become deadly, menacing. It hummed in her ears with the beat of
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her own blood. And she couldn't help imagining what might come screaming out of
it at any minute.
Something with hot, moist hands, she thought, staring into the darkness of the
backyard. Black on gray, black on black was all she could see. Every shape might
be anything, and all the shadows seemed to be moving. Something with hot, sweaty
hands and arms strong enough to crush her-
The snap of a twig exploded through her like gunfire.
She spun toward it, eyes and ears straining. But there was only darkness and
silence.
Fingers touched the back of her neck.
Bonnie whirled again, almost falling, almost fainting. She was too frightened to
scream. When she saw who it was, shock robbed all her senses and her muscles
collapsed. She would have ended up in a heap on the ground if he hadn't caught her
and held her straight.
"You look frightened," Damon said softly.
Bonnie shook her head. She didn't have any voice yet. She thought she still might
faint. But she tried to pull away just the same.
He didn't tighten his grip, but he didn't let go. And struggling did about as much
good as trying to break a brick wall with bare hands. She gave up and tried to calm
her breathing.
"Are you frightened of me?" Damon said. He smiled reprovingly, as if they shared
a secret. "You don't need to be."
How had Elena managed to deal with this? But Elena hadn't, of course, Bonnie
realized.
Elena had succumbed to Damon in the end. Damon had won and had his way.
He released one of her arms to trace, very lightly, the curve of her upper lip. "I
suppose I should go away," he said, "and not scare you anymore. Is that what you
want?"
Like a rabbit with a snake, Bonnie thought. This is how the rabbit feels. Only I
don't suppose he'll kill me. I might just die on my own, though. She felt as if her legs

might melt away at any minute, as if she might collapse. There was a warmth and a
trembling inside her.
might melt away at any minute, as if she might collapse. There was a warmth and a
trembling inside her.
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Elena wouldn't like it, she thought, just as his lips touched hers. Yes, that was it.
But the problem was, she didn't have the strength to say it. The warmth was
growing, rushing out to all parts of her, from her fingertips to the soles of her feet.
His lips were cool, like silk, but everything else was so warm. She didn't need to be
afraid; she could just let go and float on this. Sweetness rushed through her...
"What the hell is going on?"
The voice broke the silence, broke the spell. Bonnie started and found herself able
to turn her head. Matt was standing at the edge of the yard, his fists clenched, his
eyes like chips of blue ice. Ice so cold it burned.
"Get away from her," Matt said.
To Bonnie's surprise, the grip on her arms eased. She stepped back, straightening
her blouse, a little breathless. Her mind was working again.
"It's okay," she said to Matt, her voice almost normal. "I was just-"
"Go back to the car and stay there."
Now wait a minute, thought Bonnie. She was glad Matt had come; the
interruption had been very conveniently timed. But he was coming on a little heavy
with the protective older brother bit.
"Look, Matt-"
"Go on," he said, still staring at Damon.
Meredith wouldn't have let herself be ordered around this way. And Elena
certainly wouldn't. Bonnie opened her mouth to tell Matt to go sit in the car himself
when she suddenly realized something.
This was the first time in months she'd seen Matt really care about anything. The
light was back in those blue eyes-that cold flash of righteous anger that used to
make even Tyler Smallwood back down. Matt was alive right now, and full of
energy. He was himself again.
Bonnie bit her lip. For a moment she struggled with her pride. Then she
conquered it and lowered her eyes.
"Thanks for rescuing me," she murmured, and left the yard.
Matt was so angry he didn't dare move closer to Damon for fear he might take a
swing at him. And the chilling darkness in Damon's eyes told him that wouldn't be a
very good idea.
But Damon's voice was smooth, almost dispassionate. "My taste for blood isn't
just a whim, you know. It's a necessity you're interfering with here. I'm only doing

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what I have to."
what I have to."
Contemptuously he said, "Why don't you pick on somebody your own size,
then?"
Damon smiled and the air went colder. "Like you?"
Matt just stared at him. He could feel muscles clench in his jaw. After a moment
he said tightly, "You can try."
"I can do more than try, Matt." Damon took a single step toward him like a
stalking panther. Involuntarily, Matt thought of jungle cats, of their powerful spring
and their sharp, tearing teeth. He thought of what Tyler had looked like in the
Quonset hut last year when Stefan was through with him. Red meat. Just red meat
and blood.
"What was that history teacher's name?" Damon was saying silkily. He seemed
amused now, enjoying this. "Mr. Tanner, wasn't it? I did more than try with him."
"You're a murderer."
Damon nodded, unoffended, as if he'd just been introduced. "Of course, he stuck
a knife in me. I wasn't planning to drain him quite dry, but he annoyed me and I
changed my mind. You're annoying me now, Matt."
Matt had his knees locked to keep from running. It was more than the catlike
stalking grace, it was more than those unearthly black eyes fastened on his. There
was something inside Damon that whispered terror to the human brain. Some
menace that spoke directly to Matt's blood, telling him to do anything to get away.
But he wouldn't run. His conversation with Stefan was blurred in his mind right
now, but he knew one thing from it. Even if he died here, he wouldn't run.
"Don't be stupid," Damon said, as if he'd heard every word of Matt's thoughts.
"You've never had blood taken from you by force, have you? It hurts, Matt. It hurts
a lot."
Elena, Matt remembered. That first time when she'd taken his blood he'd been
scared, and the fear had been bad enough. But he'd been doing it of his own volition
then. What would it be like when he was unwilling?
I will not run. I will not look away.
Aloud he said, still looking straight at Damon, "If you're going to kill me, you'd
better stop talking and do it. Because maybe you can make me die, but that's all you
can make me do."
"You're even stupider than my brother," Damon said. With two steps he crossed
the distance to Matt. He grabbed Matt by his T-shirt, one hand on either side of the
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throat. "I guess I'll have to teach you the same way."

Everything was frozen. Matt could smell his own fear, but he wouldn't move. He
couldn't move now.
Everything was frozen. Matt could smell his own fear, but he wouldn't move. He
couldn't move now.
Damon's teeth were a white glitter in the dark. Sharp as carving knives. Matt could
almost feel the razor bite of them before they touched him.
I will not surrender anything, he thought, and closed his eyes.
The shove took him completely off balance. He stumbled and fell backward, his
eyes flying open. Damon had let go and pushed him away.
Expressionless, those black eyes looked down at him where he sat in the dirt.
"I'll try to put this in a way you can understand," Damon said. "You don't want to
mess with me, Matt. I am more dangerous than you can possibly imagine. Now get
out of here. It's my watch."
Silently, Matt got up. He rubbed at his shirt where Damon's hands had crumpled
it. And then he left, but he didn't run and he didn't flinch from Damon's eyes.
I won, he thought. I'm still alive, so I won.
And there had been a kind of grim respect in those black eyes in the end. It made
Matt wonder about some things. It really did.
Bonnie and Meredith were sitting in the car when he got back. They both looked
concerned.
"You were gone a long time," Bonnie said. "Are you okay?"
Matt wished people would stop asking him that. "I'm fine," he said, and then
added, "Really." After a moment's thought he decided there was something else he
should say. "Sorry if I yelled at you back there, Bonnie."
"That's all right," Bonnie said coolly. Then, thawing, she said, "You really do
look better, you know. More like your old self."
"Yeah?" He rubbed at his crumpled T-shirt again, looking around. "Well, tangling
with vampires is obviously a great warm-up exercise."
"What'd you guys do? Lower your heads and run at each other from opposite
sides of the yard?" asked Meredith.
"Something like that. He says he's going to watch Vickie now."
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"Do you think we can trust him?" Meredith said soberly.
Matt considered. "As a matter of fact, I do. It's weird, but I don't think he's going
to hurt her. And if the killer comes along, I think he's in for a surprise. Damon's
spoiling for a fight. We might as well go back to the library for Stefan."
Stefan wasn't visible outside the library, but when the car had cruised up and
down the street once or twice he materialized out of the darkness. He had a thick
book with him.

"Breaking and entering and grand theft, library book," Meredith remarked. "I
wonder what you get for that these days?"
"Breaking and entering and grand theft, library book," Meredith remarked. "I
wonder what you get for that these days?"
"You mean you found it? You figured it out? Then you can tell us everything, like
you promised," Bonnie said. "Let's go to the boarding house."
Stefan looked slightly surprised when he heard that Damon had turned up and
stationed himself at Vickie's, but he made no comment. Matt didn't tell him exactly
how Damon had turned up, and he noticed Bonnie didn't either.
"I'm almost positive about what's going on in Fell's Church. And I've got half the
puzzle solved, anyway," Stefan said once they were all settled in his room in the
boarding house attic. "But there's only one way to prove it, and only one way to
solve the other half. I need help, but it isn't something I'm going to ask lightly." He
was looking at Bonnie and Meredith as he said it.
They looked at each other, then back at him. "This guy killed one of our friends,"
said Meredith. "And he's driving another one crazy. If you need our help, you've got
it."
"Whatever it takes," Bonnie added.
"It's something dangerous, isn't it?" Matt demanded. He couldn't restrain himself.
As if Bonnie hadn't been through enough...
"It's dangerous, yes. But it's their fight too, you know."
"Darn right it is," said Bonnie. Meredith was obviously trying to repress a smile.
Finally she had to turn away and grin.
"Matt's back," she said when Stefan asked her what the joke was.
"We missed you," added Bonnie. Matt couldn't understand why they were all
smiling at him, and it made him feel hot and uncomfortable. He went over to stand
by the window.
"It is dangerous; I won't try to kid you about that," Stefan said to the girls. "But
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it's the only chance. The whole thing's a little complicated, and I'd better start at the
beginning. We have to go back to the founding of Fell's Church..."
He talked on late into the night.
Thursday, June 11, 7:00 a.m.
Dear Diary,
I couldn't write last night, because I got in too late. Mom was upset again.
She'd have been hysterical if she'd known what I was actually doing. Hanging out
with vampires and planning something that may get me killed. That may get us all
killed.
Stefan has a plan to trap the guy who murdered Sue. It reminds me of some of
Elena's plans-and that's what worries me. They always sounded wonderful, but

lots of the time they went wrong.
lots of the time they went wrong.
Anyway, we're going to do it after graduation. We're all in on it except Damon,
who'll be watching Vickie. It's strange, but we all trust him now. Even me. Despite
what he did to me last night, I don't think he'll let Vickie get hurt.
I haven't had any more dreams about Elena. I think if I do, I will go absolutely
screaming berserk. Or never go to sleep again. I just can't take any more of that.
All right. I'd better go. Hopefully, by Sunday we'll have the mystery solved and
die killer caught. I trust Stefan.
I just hope I can remember my part.

Nine
"... And so, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the class of '92!"
Bonnie threw her cap into the air along with everyone else. We made it, she
thought. Whatever happens tonight, Matt and Meredith and I made it to graduation.
There had been times this last school year when she had seriously doubted they
would.
Considering Sue's death, Bonnie had expected the graduation ceremony to be
listless or grim. Instead, there was a sort of frenzied excitement about it. As if
everyone was celebrating being alive-before it was too late.
It turned into rowdiness as parents surged forward and the senior class of Robert
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E. Lee fragmented in all directions, whooping and acting up. Bonnie retrieved her
cap and then looked up into her mother's camera lens.
Act normal, that's what's important, she told herself. She caught a glimpse of
Elena's aunt Judith and Robert Maxwell, the man Aunt Judith had recently married,
standing on the sidelines. Robert was holding Elena's little sister, Margaret, by the
hand. When they saw her, they smiled bravely, but she felt uncomfortable when they
came her way.
"Oh, Miss Gilbert-I mean, Mrs. Maxwell-you shouldn't have," she said as
Aunt Judith handed her a small bouquet of pink roses.
Aunt Judith smiled through the tears in her eyes. "This would have been a very
special day for Elena," she said. "I want it to be special for you and Meredith, too."
"Oh, Aunt Judith." Impulsively, Bonnie threw her arms around the older woman.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "You know how much."
"We all miss her," Aunt Judith said. Then she pulled back and smiled again and
the three of them left. Bonnie turned from looking at them with a lump in her throat
to look at the madly celebrating crowd.
There was Ray Hernandez, the boy she'd gone to Homecoming with, inviting
everybody to a party at his house that night. There was Tyler's friend Dick Carter,
making a fool of himself as usual. Tyler was smiling brazenly as his father took
picture after picture. Matt was listening, with an unimpressed look, to some football
recruiter from James Mason University. Meredith was standing nearby, holding a
bouquet of red roses and looking pensive.
Vickie wasn't there. Her parents had kept her home, saying she was in no state to
go out. Caroline wasn't there either. She was staying in the apartment in Heron. Her
mother had told Bonnie's mother she had the flu, but Bonnie knew the truth. Caroline
was scared.
And maybe she's right, Bonnie thought, moving toward Meredith. Caroline may
be the only one of us to make it through next week.
Look normal, act normal. She reached Meredith's group. Meredith was wrapping

the red-and-black tassel from her cap around the bouquet, twisting it between
elegant, nervous fingers.
the red-and-black tassel from her cap around the bouquet, twisting it between
elegant, nervous fingers.
"Be careful with that; you'll ruin it," she said aloud.
Meredith's look of thoughtful melancholy didn't change. She went on staring at
the tassel, kinking it up. "It doesn't seem fair," she said, "that we should get these
and Elena shouldn't. It's wrong."
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"I know; it's awful," Bonnie said. But she kept her tone light. "I wish there was
something we could do about it, but we can't."
"It's all wrong," Meredith went on, as if she hadn't heard. "Here we are out in the
sunlight, graduating, and there she is under that-stone."
"I know, I know," Bonnie said in a soothing tone. "Meredith, you're getting
yourself all upset. Why don't you try to think about something else? Look, after you
go out to dinner with your parents, do you want to go to Raymond's party? Even if
we're not invited, we can crash it."
"No!" Meredith said with startling vehemence. "I don't want to go to any party.
How can you even think of that, Bonnie? How can you be so shallow?"
"Well, we've got to do something ..."
"I'll tell you what I'm doing. I'm going up to the cemetery after dinner. I'm going
to put this on Elena's grave. She's the one who deserves it." Meredith's knuckles
were white as she shook the tassel in her hand.
"Meredith, don't be an idiot. You can't go up there, especially at night. That's
crazy. Matt would say the same thing."
"Well, I'm not asking Matt. I'm not asking anybody. I'm going by myself."
"You can't. God, Meredith, I always thought you had some brains-"
"And I always thought you had some sensitivity. But obviously you don't even
want to think about Elena. Or is it just because you want her old boyfriend for
yourself?"
Bonnie slapped her.
It was a good hard slap, with plenty of energy behind it. Meredith drew in a sharp
breath, one hand to her reddening cheek. Everyone around them was staring.
"That's it for you, Bonnie McCullough," Meredith said after a moment, in a voice
of deadly quiet. "I don't ever want to speak to you again." She turned on her heel
and walked away:
"Never would be too soon for me!" Bonnie shouted at her retreating back.
Eyes were hastily averted as Bonnie looked around her. But there was no question
that she and Meredith had been the center of attention for several minutes past.
Bonnie bit the inside of her cheek to keep a straight face and walked over to Matt,

who had lost the recruiter.
who had lost the recruiter.
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"Good."
"Do you think the slap was too much? We didn't really plan that; I was just sort
of going with the moment. Maybe it was too obvious..."
"It was fine, just fine." Matt was looking preoccupied. Not that dull, apathetic,
turned-in look of the last few months, but distinctly abstracted.
"What is it? Something wrong with the plan?" Bonnie said.
"No, no. Listen, Bonnie, I've been thinking. You were the one to discover Mr.
Tanner's body in the Haunted House last Halloween, right?"
Bonnie was startled. She gave an involuntary shiver of distaste. "Well, I was the
first one to know he was dead, really dead, instead of just playing his scene. Why on
earth do you want to talk about that now?"
"Because maybe you can answer this question. Could Mr. Tanner have got a
knife in Damon?"
"What?"
"Well, could he?"
"I..." Bonnie blinked and frowned. Then she shrugged. "I suppose so. Sure. It
was a Druid sacrifice scene, remember, and the knife we used was a real knife. We
talked about using a fake one, but since Mr. Tanner was going to be lying right there
beside it, we figured it was safe enough. As a matter of fact..." Bonnie's frown
deepened. "I think when I found the body, the knife was in a different place from
where we'd set it in the beginning. But then, some kid could have moved it. Matt,
why are you asking?"
"Just something Damon said to me," Matt said, staring off into the distance again.
"I wondered if it could be the truth."
"Oh." Bonnie waited for him to say more, but he didn't. "Well," she said finally,
"if it's all cleared up, can you come back to Earth, please? And don't you think you
should maybe put your arm around me? Just to show you're on my side and there's
no chance you're going to show up at Elena's grave tonight with Meredith?"
Matt snorted, but the faraway look disappeared from his eyes. For just a brief
instant he put his arm around her and squeezed.
Déjà vu, Meredith thought as she stood at the gate to the cemetery. The problem
was, she couldn't remember exactly which of her previous experiences in the
graveyard this night reminded her of. There had been so many.
In a way, it had all started here. It had been here that Elena had sworn not to rest
until Stefan belonged to her. She'd made Bonnie and Meredith swear to help her, too
-in blood. How suitable, Meredith thought now.
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And it had been here that Tyler had assaulted Elena the night of the Homecoming
dance. Stefan had come to the rescue, and that had been the beginning for them.
This graveyard had seen a lot.
And it had been here that Tyler had assaulted Elena the night of the Homecoming
dance. Stefan had come to the rescue, and that had been the beginning for them.
This graveyard had seen a lot.
This graveyard had been the beginning, and the end as well. And maybe there
would be another end tonight.
Meredith started walking.
I wish you were here now, Alaric, she thought. I could use your optimism and
your savvy about the supernatural-and I wouldn't mind your muscles, either.
Elena's headstone was in the new cemetery, of course, where the grass was still
tended and the graves marked with wreaths of flowers. The stone was very simple,
almost plain looking, with a brief inscription. Meredith bent down and placed her
bouquet of roses in front of it. Then, slowly, she added the red-and-black tassel
from her cap. In this dim light, both colors looked the same, like dried blood. She
knelt and folded her hands quietly. And she waited.
All around her the cemetery was still. It seemed to be waiting with her, breath held
in anticipation. The rows of white stones stretched on either side of her, shining
faintly. Meredith listened for any sound.
And then she heard one. Heavy footsteps.
With her head down, she stayed quiet, pretending she noticed nothing.
The footsteps sounded closer, not even bothering to be stealthy.
"Hi, Meredith."
Meredith looked around quickly. "Oh-Tyler," she said. "You scared me. I
thought you were-never mind."
"Yeah?" Tyler's lips skinned back in an unsettling grin. "Well, I'm sorry you're
disappointed. But it's me, just me and nobody else."
"What are you doing here, Tyler? No good parties?"
"I could ask you the same question." Tyler's eyes dropped to the headstone and
the tassel and his face darkened. "But I guess I already know the answer. You're
here for her. Elena Gilbert, A Light in Darkness," he read sarcastically.
"That's right," Meredith said evenly. " 'Elena' means light, you know. And she
was certainly surrounded by darkness. It almost beat her, but she won in the end."
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"Maybe," Tyler said, and worked his jaw meditatively, squinting. "But you know,
Meredith, it's a funny thing about darkness. There's always more of it waiting in the
wings."

"Like tonight," Meredith said, looking up at the sky. It was clear and dotted with
faint stars. "It's very dark tonight, Tyler. But sooner or later the sun will come up."
"Like tonight," Meredith said, looking up at the sky. It was clear and dotted with
faint stars. "It's very dark tonight, Tyler. But sooner or later the sun will come up."
Just like he showed Elena, Meredith thought. In a way she was enjoying this
verbal fencing, but she never lost sight of what she had come here for. Her cold
fingers dipped into her jacket pocket and found the tiny sprig of vervain there.
"That's all right, Tyler. I think I'd prefer to stay here."
"You sure about that? A cemetery's a dangerous place to be alone."
Unquiet spirits, Meredith thought. She looked right at him. "I know."
He was grinning again, displaying teeth like tombstones. "Anyway, you can see it
from here if you have good eyes. Look that way, toward the old graveyard. Now, do
you see something sort of shining red in the middle?"
"No." There was a pale luminosity over the trees in the east. Meredith kept her
eyes on it.
"Aw, come on, Meredith. You're not trying. Once the moon's up you'll see it
better."
"Tyler, I can't waste any more time here. I'm going."
"No, you're not," he said. And then, as her fingers tightened on the vervain,
encompassing it in her fist, he added in a wheedling voice, "I mean, you're not going
until I tell you the story of that headstone, are you? It's a great story. See, the
headstone is made of red marble, the only one of its kind in the whole graveyard.
And that ball on top-see it?-that must weigh about a ton. But it moves. It turns
whenever a Smallwood is going to die. My grandfather didn't believe that; he put a
scratch on it right down the front. He used to come out and check it every month or
so. Then one day he came and found the scratch in the rear. The ball had turned
completely backward. He did everything he could to turn it around, but he couldn't.
It was too heavy. And that night, in bed, he died. They buried him under it."
"He probably had a heart attack from overexertion," Meredith said caustically, but
her palms were tingling.
"You're funny, aren't you? Always so cool. Always so together. Takes a lot to
make you scream, doesn't it?"
"I'm leaving, Tyler. I've had enough."
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He let her walk a few paces, then said, "You screamed that night at Caroline's,
though, didn't you?"
Meredith turned back. "How do you know that?"
Tyler rolled his eyes. "Give me credit for a little intelligence, okay? I know a lot,
Meredith. For instance, I know what's in your pocket."

Meredith's fingers stilled. "What do you mean?"
Meredith's fingers stilled. "What do you mean?"
Meredith backed away a step.
"You think that's going to help you, don't you? But I'm going to tell you a secret."
Meredith's eyes measured the distance between herself and the path. She kept her
face calm, but a violent shaking was beginning inside her. She didn't know if she was
going to be able to pull this off.
"You're not going anywhere, babe," Tyler said, and a large hand clasped
Meredith's wrist. It was hot and damp where she could feel it below her jacket cuff.
"You're going to stay right here for your surprise." His body was hunched now, his
head thrust forward, and there was an exultant leer on his lips.
"Let me go, Tyler. You're hurting me!" Panic flashed down all Meredith's nerves
at the feel of Tyler's flesh against hers. But the hand only gripped harder, grinding
tendon against bone in her wrist.
"This is a secret, baby, that nobody else knows," Tyler said, pulling her close, his
breath hot in her face. "You came here all decked out against vampires. But I'm not a
vampire."
Meredith's heart was pounding. "Let go!"
"First I want you to look over there. You can see the headstone now," he said,
turning her so that she couldn't help but look. And he was right; she could see it, like
a red monument with a shining globe on top. Or-not a globe. That marble ball
looked like... it looked like...
"Now look east. What do you see there, Meredith?" Tyler went on, his voice
hoarse with excitement.
It was the full moon. It had risen while he'd been talking to her, and now it hung
above the hills, perfectly round and enormously distended, a huge and swollen red
ball.
And that was what the headstone looked like. Like a full moon dripping with
blood.
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"You came here protected against vampires, Meredith," Tyler said from behind
her, even more hoarsely. "But the Smallwoods aren't vampires at all. We're
something else."
And then he growled.
No human throat could have made the sound. It wasn't an imitation of an animal;
it was real. A vicious guttural snarl that went up and up, snapping Meredith's head
around to look at him, to stare in disbelief. What she was seeing was so horrible her

mind couldn't accept it...
mind couldn't accept it...
"I told you it was a surprise. How do you like it?" Tyler said. His voice was thick
with saliva, and his red tongue lolled among the rows of long canine teeth. His face
wasn't a face anymore. It jutted out grotesquely into a muzzle, and his eyes were
yellow, with slitlike pupils. His reddish-sandy hair had grown over his cheeks and
down the back of his neck. A pelt. "You can scream all you want up here and
nobody's going to hear you," he added.
Every muscle in Meredith's body was rigid, trying to get away from him. It was a
visceral reaction, one she couldn't have helped if she wanted to. His breath was so
hot, and it smelled feral, like an animal. The nails he was digging into her wrist were
stumpy blackened claws. She didn't have the strength to scream again.
"There's other things besides vampires with a taste for blood," Tyler said in his
new slurping voice. "And I want to taste yours. But first we're going to have some
fun."
Although he still stood on two feet, his body was humped and strangely distorted.
Meredith's struggles were feeble as he forced her to the ground. She was a strong
girl, but he was far stronger, his muscles bunching under his shirt as he pinned her.
"You've always been too good for me, haven't you? Well, now you're going to
find out what you've been missing."
I can't breathe, Meredith thought wildly. His arm was across her throat, blocking
her air. Gray waves rolled through her brain. If she passed out now...
"You're going to wish you died as fast as Sue." Tyler's face floated above her,
red as the moon, with that long tongue lolling. His other hand held her arms above
her head. "You ever hear the story of Little Red Riding Hood?"
The gray was turning into blackness, speckled with little lights. Like stars,
Meredith thought. I'm falling in the stars...
"Tyler, take your hands off her! Let go of her, now!" Matt's voice shouted.
Tyler's slavering snarl broke off into a surprised whine. The arm against
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Meredith's throat released pressure, and air rushed into her lungs.
Footsteps were pounding around her. "I've been waiting a long time to do this,
Tyler," Matt said, jerking the sandy-red head back by the hair. Then Matt's fist
smashed into Tyler's newly grown muzzle. Blood spurted from the wet animal nose.
The sound Tyler made froze Meredith's heart in her chest. He sprang at Matt,
twisting in midair, claws outstretched. Matt fell back under the assault and Meredith,
dizzy, tried to push herself up off the ground. She couldn't; all her muscles were
trembling uncontrollably. But someone else picked Tyler off Matt as if Tyler
weighed no more than a doll.
"Just like old times, Tyler," Stefan said, setting Tyler on his feet and facing him.
Tyler stared a minute, then tried to run.

He was fast, dodging with animal agility between the rows of graves. But Stefan
was faster and cut him off.
He was fast, dodging with animal agility between the rows of graves. But Stefan
was faster and cut him off.
Stefan was dragging Tyler back. "I always knew you were a jerk," he said,
shoving Tyler against a headstone, "but I didn't know you were this stupid. I'd have
thought you would have learned not to jump girls in graveyards, but no. And you
had to brag about what you did to Sue, too. That wasn't smart, Tyler."
Meredith looked at them as they faced each other. So different, she thought. Even
though they were both creatures of darkness in some way. Stefan was pale, his green
eyes blazing with anger and menace, but there was a dignity, almost a purity about
him. He was like some stern angel carved in unyielding marble. Tyler just looked like
a trapped animal. He was crouched, breathing hard, blood and saliva mingling on his
chest. Those yellow eyes glittered with hate and fear, and his fingers worked as if
he'd like to claw something. A low sound came out of his throat.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to beat you up this time," Stefan said. "Not unless
you try to get away. We're all going up to the church to have a little chat. You like to
tell stories, Tyler; well, you're going to tell me one now."
Tyler sprang at him, vaulting straight from the ground for Stefan's throat. But
Stefan was ready for him. Meredith suspected that both Stefan and Matt enjoyed the
next few minutes, working off their accumulated aggressions, but she didn't, so she
looked away.
In the end, Tyler was trussed up with nylon cord. He could walk, or shuffle at
least, and Stefan held the back of his shirt and guided him urgently up the path to the
church.
Inside, Stefan pushed Tyler onto the ground near the open tomb. "Now," he said,
"we are going to talk. And you're going to cooperate, Tyler, or you're going to be
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very, very sorry."

Ten
Meredith sat down on the knee-high wall of the ruined church. "You said it was
going to be dangerous, Stefan, but you didn't say you were going to let him strangle
me."
"I'm sorry. I was hoping he'd give some more information, especially after he
admitted to being there when Sue died. But I shouldn't have waited."
"I haven't admitted anything! You can't prove anything," Tyler said. The animal
whine was back in his voice, but on the walk up his face and body had returned to
normal. Or rather, they'd returned to human, Meredith thought. The swelling and
bruises and dried blood weren't normal.
"This isn't a court of law, Tyler," she said. "Your father can't help you now."
"But if it were, we'd have a pretty good case," Stefan added. "Enough to put you
away on conspiracy to commit murder, I think."
"That's if somebody doesn't melt down their grandma's teaspoons to make a
silver bullet," Matt put in.
Tyler looked from one to another of them. "I won't tell you anything."
"Tyler, you know what you are? You're a bully," Bonnie said. "And bullies always
talk."
"You don't mind pinning a girl down and threatening her," said Matt, "but when
her friends turn up, you're scared spitless."
Tyler just glared at all of them.
"Well, if you don't want to talk, I guess I'll have to," Stefan said. He leaned down
and picked up the thick book he'd gotten from the library. One foot on the lip of the
tomb, he rested the book on his knee and opened it. In that moment, Meredith
thought, he looked frighteningly like Damon.
"This is a book by Gervase of Tilbury, Tyler," he said. "It was written around the
year 1210 a.d. One of the things it talks about is werewolves."
"You can't prove anything! You don't have any evidence-"
"Shut up, Tyler!" Stefan looked at him. "I don't need to prove it. I can see it, even
now. Have you forgotten what I am?" There was a silence, and then Stefan went on.
"When I got here a few days ago, there was a mystery. A girl was dead. But who
killed her? And why? All the clues I could see seemed contradictory.
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"It wasn't an ordinary killing, not some human psycho off the street. I had the
word of somebody I trusted on that-and independent evidence, too. An ordinary
killer can't work a Ouija board by telekinesis. An ordinary killer can't cause fuses to
blow in a power plant hundreds of miles away.
"No, this was somebody with tremendous physical and psychic power. From

everything Vickie told me, it sounded like a vampire.
everything Vickie told me, it sounded like a vampire.
"And there was another thing. You were in that house, Tyler. You made the
mistake of grabbing Bonnie that night, and then you made the mistake of shooting
off your mouth the next day, saying things you couldn't have known unless you were
there.
"So what did we have? A seasoned vampire, a vicious killer with Power to spare?
Or a high school bully who couldn't organize a trip to the toilet without falling over
his own feet? Which? The evidence pointed both ways, and I couldn't make up my
mind.
"Then I went to see Sue's body myself. And there it was, the biggest mystery of
all. A cut here." Stefan's finger sketched a sharp line down from his collarbone.
"Typical, traditional cut-made by vampires to share their own blood. But Sue
wasn't a vampire, and she didn't make that cut herself. Someone made it for her as
she lay there dying on the ground."
Meredith shut her eyes, and she heard Bonnie swallow hard beside her. She put
out a hand and found Bonnie's and held tight, but she went on listening. Stefan had
not gone into this kind of detail in his explanation to them before.
"Vampires don't need to cut their victims like that; they use their teeth," Stefan
said. His upper lip lifted slightly to show his own teeth. "But if a vampire wanted to
draw blood for somebody else to drink, he might cut instead of biting. If a vampire
wanted to give someone else the first and only taste, he might do that.
"And that started me thinking about blood. Blood is important, you see. For
vampires, it gives life, Power. It's all we need for survival, and there are times when
needing it drives us crazy. But it's good for other things, too. For instance...
initiation.
"Initiation and Power. Now I was thinking about those two things, putting them
together with what I'd seen of you, Tyler, when I was in Fell's Church before. Little
things I hadn't really focused on. But I remembered something Elena had told me
about your family history, and I decided to check it out in Honoria Fell's journal."
Stefan lifted a piece of paper from between the pages of the book he held. "And
there it was, in Honoria's handwriting. I Xeroxed the page so I could read it to you.
The Smallwoods' little family secret-if you can read between the lines."
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Looking down at the paper, he read:
"November 12. Candles made, flax spun. We are short on cornmeal and salt,
but we will get through the winter. Last night an alarm; wolves attacked Jacob
Smallwood as he returned from the forest. I treated the wound with whortleberry
and sallow bark, but it is deep and I am afraid. After coming home I cast the

runes. I have told no one but Thomas the results.
runes. I have told no one but Thomas the results.
"December 20. Wolf trouble at the Smallwoods' again. We heard the screams a
few minutes ago, and Thomas said it was time. He made the bullets yesterday. He
has loaded his rifle and we will walk over. If we are spared, I will write again.
"December 21. Went over to Smallwoods' last night. Jacob sorely afflicted. Wolf
killed.
"We will bury Jacob in the little graveyard at the foot of the hill. May his soul
find peace in death.
"In the official history of Fell's Church," Stefan said, "that's been interpreted to
mean that Thomas Fell and his wife went over to the Smallwoods' to find Jacob
Smallwood being attacked by a wolf again, and that the wolf killed him. But that's
wrong. What it really says is not that the wolf killed Jacob Smallwood but that Jacob
Smallwood, the wolf, was killed."
Stefan shut the book. "He was a werewolf, your great-great-great-whatever
grandfather, Tyler. He got that way by being attacked by a werewolf himself. And he
passed his werewolf virus on to the son who was born eight and a half months after
he died. Just the way your father passed it on to you."
"I always knew there was something about you, Tyler," Bonnie said, and
Meredith opened her eyes. "I never could tell what it was, but at the back of my
mind something was telling me you were creepy."
"We used to make jokes about it," Meredith said, her voice still husky. "About
your 'animal magnetism and your big white teeth. We just never knew how close to
the mark we were."
"Sometimes psychics can sense that kind of thing," Stefan conceded.
"Sometimes even ordinary people can. I should have seen it, but I was preoccupied.
Still, that's no excuse. And obviously somebody else-the psychic killer-saw it
right away. Didn't he, Tyler? A man wearing an old raincoat came to you. He was
tall, with blond hair and blue eyes, and he made some kind of a deal with you. In
exchange for-something-he'd show you how to reclaim your heritage. How to
become a real werewolf.
"Because according to Gervase of Tilbury"-Stefan tapped the book on his knee
-"a werewolf who hasn't been bitten himself needs to be initiated. That means you
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can have the werewolf virus all your life but never even know it because it's never
activated. Generations of Smallwoods have lived and died, but the virus was
dormant in them because they didn't know the secret of waking it up. But the man in
the raincoat knew. He knew that you have to kill and taste fresh blood. After that, at
the first full moon you can change." Stefan glanced up, and Meredith followed his

gaze to the white disk of the moon in the sky. It looked clean and two dimensional
now, no longer a sullen red globe.
gaze to the white disk of the moon in the sky. It looked clean and two dimensional
now, no longer a sullen red globe.
"Very clever," said Meredith, and Matt said, "No kidding." Bonnie wet her finger
and marked an imaginary 1 on an invisible Scoreboard.
"I knew you wouldn't be able to resist following one of the girls here if you
thought she'd be alone," said Stefan. "You'd think that the graveyard was the perfect
place to kill; you'd have complete privacy. And I knew you wouldn't be able to resist
bragging about what you'd done. I was hoping you'd tell Meredith more about the
other killer, the one who actually threw Sue out the window, the one who cut her so
you could drink fresh blood. The vampire, Tyler. Who is he? Where is he hiding?"
Tyler's look of venomous hatred changed to a sneer. "You think I'd tell you that?
He's my friend."
"He is not your friend, Tyler. He's using you. And he's a murderer."
"Don't get in any deeper, Tyler," Matt added.
"You're already an accessory. Tonight you tried to kill Meredith. Pretty soon
you're not going to be able to go back even if you want to. Be smart and stop this
now. Tell us what you know."
Tyler bared his teeth. "I'm not telling you anything. How're you going to make
me?"
The others exchanged glances. The atmosphere changed, became charged with
tension as they all turned back to Tyler.
"You really don't understand, do you?" Meredith said quietly. "Tyler, you helped
kill Sue. She died for an obscene ritual so that you could change into that thing I
saw. You were planning to kill me, and Vickie and Bonnie too, I'm sure. Do you
think we have any pity for you? Do you think we brought you up here to be nice to
you?"
There was a silence. The sneer was fading from Tyler's lips. He looked from one
face to another.
They were all implacable. Even Bonnie's small face was unforgiving.
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"Gervase of Tilbury mentions one interesting thing," Stefan said, almost
pleasantly. "There's a cure for werewolves besides the traditional silver bullet.
Listen." By moonlight, he read from the book on his knee. "It is commonly reported
and held by grave and worthy doctors that if a werewolf be shorn of one of his
members, he shall surely recover his original body. Gervase goes on to tell the
story of Raimbaud of Auvergne, a werewolf who was cured when a carpenter cut
off one of his hind paws. Of course, that was probably hideously painful, but the
story goes that Raimbaud thanked the carpenter 'for ridding him forever of the
accursed and damnable form.' " Stefan raised his head. "Now, I'm thinking that if

Tyler won't help us with information, the least we can do is make sure he doesn't go
out and kill again. What do the rest of you say?"
Tyler won't help us with information, the least we can do is make sure he doesn't go
out and kill again. What do the rest of you say?"
"All we have to do is relieve him of one of his members," Bonnie agreed.
"I can think of one right off," Meredith said under her breath.
Tyler's eyes were starting to bulge. Under the dirt and blood his normally ruddy
face had gone pale. "You're bluffing!"
"Get the ax, Matt," said Stefan. "Meredith, you take off one of his shoes."
Tyler kicked when she did, aiming for her face. Matt came and got his head in a
hammer-lock. "Don't make it any worse on yourself, Tyler."
The bare foot Meredith exposed was big, the sole as sweaty as Tyler's palms.
Coarse hair sprouted from the toes. It made Meredith's skin crawl.
"Let's get this over with," she said.
"You're joking!" Tyler howled, thrashing so that Bonnie had to come and grab his
other leg and kneel on it. "You can't do this! You can't!"
"Keep him still," Stefan said. Working together, they stretched Tyler out, his head
locked in Matt's arm, his legs spread and pinned by the girls. Making sure Tyler
could see what he was doing, Stefan balanced a branch perhaps two inches thick on
the lip of the tomb. He raised the ax and then brought it down hard, severing the
stick with one blow.
"It's sharp enough," he said. "Meredith, roll his pants leg up. Then tie some of
that cord just above his ankle as tight as you can for a tourniquet. Otherwise he'll
bleed out."
"You can't do this!" Tyler was screaming. "You can't dooooooo this!"
"Scream all you want, Tyler. Up here, nobody's going to hear you, right?" Stefan
said.
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"You're no better than I am!" Tyler yelled in a spray of spittle. "You're a killer
too!"
"I know exactly what I am," Stefan said. "Believe me, Tyler. I know. Is
everybody ready? Good. Hold on to him; he's going to jump when I do it."
Tyler's screams weren't even words anymore.
Matt was holding him so that he could see Stefan kneel and take aim, hefting the
ax blade above Tyler's ankle to gauge force and distance.
"Now," said Stefan, raising the ax high.
"No! No! I'll talk to you! I'll talk!" shrieked Tyler.
Stefan glanced at him. "Too late," he said, and brought the ax down.
It rebounded off the stone floor with a clang and a spark, but the noise was

drowned by Tyler's screaming. It seemed to take Tyler several minutes to realize that
the blade hadn't touched his foot. He paused for breath only when he choked, and
turned wild, bulging eyes on Stefan.
drowned by Tyler's screaming. It seemed to take Tyler several minutes to realize that
the blade hadn't touched his foot. He paused for breath only when he choked, and
turned wild, bulging eyes on Stefan.
Little whimpers were coming from Tyler's throat and there was foam on his lips.
"I don't know his name," he gasped out. "But he looks like you said. And you're
right; he's a vampire, man! I saw him drain a ten-point buck while it was still kicking.
He lied to me," Tyler added, the whine creeping back into his voice. "He told me I'd
be stronger than anybody, as strong as him. He said I could have any girl I wanted,
any way I wanted. The creep lied."
"He told you that you could kill and get away with it," Stefan said.
"He said I could do Caroline that night. She had it coming after the way she
ditched me. I wanted to make her beg-but she got out of the house somehow. I
could have Caroline and Vickie, he said. All he wanted was Bonnie and Meredith."
"But you just tried to kill Meredith."
"That was now. Things are different now, stupid. He said it was all right."
"Why?" Meredith asked Stefan in an undertone.
"Maybe because you'd served your purpose," he said. "You'd brought me here."
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Then he went on, "All right, Tyler, show us you're cooperating. Tell us how we can
get this guy."
"Get him? You're nuts!" Tyler burst into ugly laughter, and Matt tightened the arm
around his throat. "Hey, choke me all you want; it's still the truth. He told me he's
one of the Old Ones, one of the Originals, whatever that means. He said he's been
making vampires since before the pyramids. He said he's made a bargain with the
devil. You could stick a stake in his heart and it wouldn't do anything. You can't kill
him." The laughter became uncontrolled.
"Where's he hiding, Tyler?" Stefan rapped out. "Every vampire needs a place to
sleep. Where is it?"
"He'd kill me if I told you that. He'd eat me, man. God, if I told you what he did
to that buck before it died..." Tyler's laughter was turning into something like sobs.
"Then you'd better help us destroy him before he can find you, hadn't you?
What's his weak point? How's he vulnerable?"
"God, that poor buck..." Tyler was blubbering.
"What about Sue? Did you cry over her?" Stefan said sharply. He picked up the
ax. "I think," he said, "that you're wasting our time."
The ax lifted.
"No! No! I'll talk to you; I'll tell you something. Look, there's one kind of wood
that can hurt him-not kill him, but hurt him. He admitted that but didn't tell me what
it was! I swear to you that's the truth!"

"Not good enough, Tyler," said Stefan.
"For God's sake-I'll tell you where he's going tonight. If you get over there fast
enough, maybe you can stop him."
"What do you mean, where he's going tonight? Talk fast, Tyler!"
"He's going to Vickie's, okay? He said tonight we get one each. That's helpful,
isn't it? If you hurry, maybe you can get there!"
Stefan had frozen, and Meredith felt her heart racing. Vickie. They hadn't even
thought about an attack on Vickie.
"Damon's guarding her," Matt said. "Right, Stefan? Right?"
"He's supposed to be," Stefan said. "I left him there at dusk. If something
happened, he should have called me..."
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"You guys," Bonnie whispered. Her eyes were big and her lips were trembling. "I
think we'd better get over there now."
They stared at her a moment and then everyone was moving. The ax clanged on
the floor as Stefan dropped it.
"Hey, you can't leave me like this! I can't drive! He's gonna come back for me!
Come back and untie my hands!" Tyler shrieked. None of them answered.
They ran all the way down the hill and piled into Meredith's car. Meredith took off
speeding, rounding corners dangerously fast and gliding through stop signs, but
there was a part of her that didn't want to get to Vickie's house. That wanted to turn
around and drive the other way.
I'm calm; I'm the one who's always calm, she thought. But that was on the
outside. Meredith knew very well how calm you could look on the outside when
inside everything was breaking up.
They rounded the last corner onto Birch Street and Meredith hit the brakes.
"Oh, God!" Bonnie cried from the backseat. "No! No!"
"Quick," Stefan said. "There may still be a chance." He wrenched open the door
and was out even before the car had stopped. But in back, Bonnie was sobbing.

Eleven
The car skidded in behind one of the police cars that was parked crookedly in the
street. There were lights everywhere, lights flashing blue and red and amber, lights
blazing from the Bennett house.
"Stay here," Matt snapped, and he plunged outside, following Stefan.
"No!" Bonnie's head jerked up; she wanted to grab him and drag him back. The
dizzy nausea she'd felt ever since Tyler had mentioned Vickie was overwhelming her.
It was too late; she'd known in the first instant that it was too late. Matt was only
going to get himself killed too.
"You stay, Bonnie-keep the doors locked. I'll go after them." That was
Meredith.
"No! I'm sick of having everybody tell me to stay!" Bonnie cried, struggling with
the seat belt, finally getting it unlocked. She was still crying, but she could see well
enough to get out of the car and start toward Vickie's house. She heard Meredith
right behind her.
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The activity all seemed concentrated at the front: people shouting, a woman
screaming, the crackling voices of police radios. Bonnie and Meredith headed
straight for the back, for Vickie's window. What is wrong with this picture? Bonnie
thought wildly as they approached. The wrongness of what she was looking at was
undeniable, yet hard to put a finger on. Vickie's window was open-but it couldn't
be open; the middle pane of a bay window never opens, Bonnie thought. But then
how could the curtains be fluttering out like shirttails?
Not open, broken. Glass was all over the gravel pathway, grinding underfoot.
There were shards like grinning teeth left in the bare frame. Vickie's house had been
broken into.
"She asked him in," Bonnie cried in agonized fury. "Why did she do that? Why?"
"Stay here," Meredith said, trying to moisten dry lips.
"Stop telling me that. I can take it, Meredith. I'm mad, that's all. I hate him." She
gripped Meredith's arm and went forward.
The gaping hole got closer and closer. The curtains rippled. There was enough
space between them to see inside.
At the last moment, Meredith pushed Bonnie away and looked through first
herself. It didn't matter. Bonnie's psychic senses were awake and already telling her
about this place. It was like the crater left in the ground after a meteor has hit and
exploded, or like the charred skeleton of a forest after a wildfire. Power and violence
were still thrumming in the air, but the main event was over. This place had been
violated.
Meredith spun away from the window, doubling over, retching. Clenching her
fists so that the nails bit into her palms, Bonnie leaned forward and looked in.

The smell was what struck her first. A wet smell, meaty and coppery. She could
almost taste it, and it tasted like an accidentally bitten tongue. The stereo was playing
something she couldn't hear over the screaming out front and the drumming-surf
sound in her own ears. Her eyes, adjusting from the darkness outside, could see only
red. Just red.
The smell was what struck her first. A wet smell, meaty and coppery. She could
almost taste it, and it tasted like an accidentally bitten tongue. The stereo was playing
something she couldn't hear over the screaming out front and the drumming-surf
sound in her own ears. Her eyes, adjusting from the darkness outside, could see only
red. Just red.
The record player clicked and the stylus swung back to the beginning. With a
shock, Bonnie recognized the song as it started over.
It was "Goodnight Sweetheart."
"You monster," Bonnie gasped. Pain shot through her stomach. Her hand gripped
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the window frame, tighter, tighter. "You monster, I hate you! I hate you!"
Meredith heard and straightened up, turning. She shakily pushed back her hair and
managed a few deep breaths, trying to look as if she could cope. "You're cutting
your hand," she said. "Here, let me see it."
Bonnie hadn't even realized she was gripping broken glass. She let Meredith take
the hand, but instead of letting her examine it, she turned it over and clasped
Meredith's own cold hand tightly. Meredith looked terrible: dark eyes glazed, lips
blue-white and shaking. But Meredith was still trying to take care of her, still trying to
keep it together.
"Go on," she said, looking at her friend intently. "Cry, Meredith. Scream if you
want to. But get it out somehow. You don't have to be cool now and keep it all
inside. You have every right to lose it today."
For a moment Meredith just stood there, trembling, but then she shook her head
with a ghastly attempt at a smile. "I can't. I'm just not made that way. Come on, let
me look at the hand."
Bonnie might have argued, but just then Matt came around the corner. He started
violently to see the girls standing there.
"What are you doing-?" he began. Then he saw the window.
"She's dead," Meredith said flatly.
"I know." Matt looked like a bad photograph of himself, an overexposed one.
"They told me up front. They're bringing out..." He stopped.
"We blew it. Even after we promised her..." Meredith stopped too. There was
nothing more to say.
"But the police will have to believe us now," Bonnie said, looking at Matt, then
Meredith, finding one thing to be grateful for. "They'll have to."
"No," Matt said, "they won't, Bonnie. Because they're saying it's a suicide."
"A suicide?. Have they seen that room? They call that a suicide?" Bonnie cried,

her voice rising.
her voice rising.
"Oh, my God," Meredith said, turning away.
"They think maybe she was feeling guilty for having killed Sue."
"Somebody broke into this house," Bonnie said fiercely. "They've got to admit
that!"
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"No." Meredith's voice was soft, as if she were very tired. "Look at the window
here. The glass is all outside. Somebody from the inside broke it." And that's the
rest of what's wrong with the picture, Bonnie thought.
"He probably did, getting out," Matt said. They looked at each other silently, in
defeat.
"Where's Stefan?" Meredith asked Matt quietly. "Is he out front where everyone
can see him?"
"No, once we found out she was dead he headed back this way. I was coming to
look for him. He must be around somewhere..."
"Sh!" said Bonnie. The shouting from the front had stopped. So had the woman's
screaming. In the relative stillness they could hear a faint voice from beyond the
black walnut trees in the back of the yard.
"-while you were supposed to be watching her!"
The tone made Bonnie's skin break out in gooseflesh. "That's him!" Matt said.
"And he's with Damon. Come on!"
Once they were among the trees Bonnie could hear Stefan's voice clearly. The
two brothers were facing each other in the moonlight.
"I trusted you, Damon. I trusted you!" Stefan was saying. Bonnie had never seen
him so angry, not even with Tyler in the graveyard. But it was more than anger.
"And you just let it happen," Stefan went on, without glancing at Bonnie and the
others as they appeared, without giving Damon a chance to reply. "Why didn't you
do something? If you were too much of a coward to fight him, you could at least
have called for me. But you just stood there!"
Damon's face was hard, closed. His black eyes glittered, and there was nothing
lazy or casual about his posture now. He looked as unbending and brittle as a pane
of glass. He opened his mouth, but Stefan interrupted.
"It's my own fault. I should have known better. I did know better. They all knew,
they warned me, but I wouldn't listen."
"Oh, did they?" Damon snapped a glance toward Bonnie on the sidelines. A chill
went through her.
"Stefan, wait," Matt said. "I think-"

"I should have listened!" Stefan was raging on. He didn't even seem to hear Matt.
"I should have stayed with her myself. I promised her she would be safe-and I lied!
She died thinking I betrayed her." Bonnie could see it in his face now, the guilt eating
into him like acid. "If I had stayed here-"
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"I should have listened!" Stefan was raging on. He didn't even seem to hear Matt.
"I should have stayed with her myself. I promised her she would be safe-and I lied!
She died thinking I betrayed her." Bonnie could see it in his face now, the guilt eating
into him like acid. "If I had stayed here-"
"And that would have been better!" Stefan cried. His chest was heaving. "I
would rather have died with her than stood by and watched it! What happened,
Damon?" He had gotten hold of himself now, and he was calm, too calm; his green
eyes were burning feverishly in his pale face, his voice vicious, poisonous, as he
spoke. "Were you too busy chasing some other girl through the bushes? Or just too
uninterested to interfere?"
Damon said nothing. He was just as pale as his brother, every muscle tense and
rigid. Waves of black fury were rising from him as he watched Stefan.
"Or maybe you enjoyed it," Stefan was continuing, moving another half step
forward so that he was right in Damon's face. "Yes, that was probably it; you liked
it, being with another killer. Was it good, Damon? Did he let you watch?"
Damon's fist jerked back and he hit Stefan.
It happened too fast for Bonnie's eye to follow. Stefan fell backward onto the soft
ground, long legs sprawling. Meredith cried out something, and Matt jumped in front
of Damon.
Brave, Bonnie thought dazedly, but stupid. The air was crackling with electricity.
Stefan raised a hand to his mouth and found blood, black in the moonlight. Bonnie
lurched over to his side and grabbed his arm.
Damon was coming after him again. Matt fell back before him, but not all the way.
He dropped to his knees beside Stefan, sitting on his heels, one hand upraised.
"Enough, you guys! Enough, all right?" he shouted.
Stefan was trying to get up. Bonnie held on to his arm more firmly. "No! Stefan,
don't! Don't!" she begged. Meredith grabbed his other arm.
"Damon, leave it alone! Just leave it!" Matt was saying sharply.
We're all crazy, getting in the middle of this, Bonnie thought. Trying to break up a
fight between two angry vampires. They're going to kill us just to shut us up.
Damon's going to swat Matt like a fly.
But Damon had stopped, with Matt blocking his way. For a long moment the
scene remained frozen, nobody moving, everybody rigid with strain. Then, slowly,
Damon's stance relaxed.
His hands lowered and unclenched. He drew a slow breath. Bonnie realized she'd
been holding her own breath, and she let it out.
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Damon's face was cold as a statue carved in ice. "All right, have it your way," he
said, and his voice was cold too. "But I'm through here. I'm leaving. And this time,

brother, if you follow me, I'll kill you. Promise or no promise."
brother, if you follow me, I'll kill you. Promise or no promise."
Damon hitched up his jacket, straightening it. With a glance at Bonnie that
scarcely seemed to see her, he turned to go. Then he turned back and spoke clearly
and precisely, each word an arrow aimed at Stefan.
"I warned you," he said. "About what I am, and about which side would win.
You should have listened to me, little brother. Maybe you'll learn something from
tonight."
"I've learned what trusting you is worth," Stefan said. "Get out of here, Damon. I
never want to see you again."
Without another word, Damon turned and walked away into the darkness.
Bonnie let go of Stefan's arm and put her head in her hands.
Stefan got up, shaking himself like a cat that had been held against its will. He
walked a little distance from the others, his face averted from them. Then he simply
stood there. The rage seemed to have left him as quickly as it had come.
What do we say now? Bonnie wondered, looking up. What can we say? Stefan
was right about one thing: they had warned him about Damon and he hadn't listened.
He'd truly seemed to believe that his brother could be trusted. And then they'd all
gotten careless, relying on Damon because it was easy and because they needed the
help. No one had argued against letting Damon watch Vickie tonight.
They were all to blame. But it was Stefan who would tear himself apart with guilt
over this. She knew that was behind his out-of-control fury at Damon: his own
shame and remorse. She wondered if Damon knew that, or cared. And she
wondered what had really happened tonight. Now that Damon had left, they would
probably never know.
No matter what, she thought, it was better he was gone.
Outside noises were reasserting themselves: cars being started in the street, the
short burst of a siren, doors slamming. They were safe in the little grove of trees for
the moment, but they couldn't stay here.
Meredith had one hand pressed to her forehead, her eyes shut. Bonnie looked
from her to Stefan, to the lights of Vickie's silent home beyond the trees. A wave of
sheer exhaustion passed through her body. All the adrenaline that had been
supporting her throughout this evening seemed to have drained away. She didn't
even feel angry anymore at Vickie's death; only depressed and sick and very, very
tired. She wished she could crawl into her bed at home and. pull the blankets over
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her head.
"Tyler," she said aloud. And when they all turned to look at her, she said, "We
left him in the ruined church. And he's our last hope now. We've got to make him
help us."

That roused everyone. Stefan turned around silently, not speaking and not
meeting anyone's eyes as he followed them back to the street. The police cars and
ambulance were gone, and they drove to the cemetery without incident.
That roused everyone. Stefan turned around silently, not speaking and not
meeting anyone's eyes as he followed them back to the street. The police cars and
ambulance were gone, and they drove to the cemetery without incident.
"We left his feet untied," Matt said heavily, with a grimace of self-disgust. "He
must have walked away since his car's still down there." Or he could have been
taken, Bonnie thought. There was no mark on the stone floor to show which.
Meredith went to the knee-high wall and sat down, one hand pinching the bridge
of her nose.
Bonnie sagged against the belfry.
They'd failed completely. That was the long and short of it tonight. They'd lost
and he had won. Everything they'd done today had ended in defeat.
And Stefan, she could tell, was taking the whole responsibility on his own
shoulders.
She glanced at the dark, bowed head in the front seat as they drove back to the
boarding house. Another thought occurred to her, one that sent thrills of alarm down
her nerves. Stefan was all they had to protect them now that Damon was gone. And
if Stefan himself was weak and exhausted...
Bonnie bit her lip as Meredith pulled up to the barn. An idea was forming in her
mind. It made her uneasy, even frightened, but another look at Stefan put steel in her
resolve.
The Ferrari was still parked behind the barn-apparently Damon had abandoned
it. Bonnie wondered how he planned to get about the countryside, and then thought
of wings. Velvety soft, strong black crow's wings that reflected rainbows in their
feathers. Damon didn't need a car.
They went into the boarding house just long enough for Bonnie to call her parents
and say she was spending the night at Meredith's. This was her idea. But after Stefan
had climbed the stairs to his attic room, Bonnie stopped Matt on the front porch.
"Matt? Can I ask you a favor?"
He swung around, blue eyes widening. "That's a loaded phrase. Every time Elena
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said those particular words..."
"No, no, this is nothing terrible. I just want you to take care of Meredith, see she's
okay once she gets home and all." She gestured toward the other girl, who was
already walking toward the car.
"But you're coming with us."
Bonnie glanced at the stairs through the open door. "No. I think I'll stay a few
minutes. Stefan can drive me home. I just want to talk to him about something."
Matt looked bewildered. "Talk to him about what?"
"Just something. I can't explain now. Will you, Matt?"

"But... oh, all right. I'm too tired to care. Do what you want. I'll see you
tomorrow." He walked off, seeming baffled and a little angry.
"But... oh, all right. I'm too tired to care. Do what you want. I'll see you
tomorrow." He walked off, seeming baffled and a little angry.
The bulb in the attic ceiling lamp was missing, and Stefan had lighted a candle. He
was lying haphazardly on the bed, one leg off and one leg on, his eyes shut. Maybe
asleep. Bonnie tiptoed up and fortified herself with a deep breath.
"Stefan?"
His eyes opened. "I thought you'd left."
"They did. I didn't." God, he's pale, thought Bonnie. Impulsively, she plunged
right in.
"Stefan, I've been thinking. With Damon gone, you're the only thing between us
and the killer. That means you've got to be strong, as strong as you can be. And,
well, it occurred to me that maybe... you know... you might need..." Her voice
faltered. Unconsciously she'd begun fiddling with the wad of tissues forming a
makeshift bandage on her palm. It was still bleeding sluggishly from where she'd cut
it on the glass.
His gaze followed hers down to it. Then his eyes lifted quickly to her face,
reading the confirmation there. There was a long moment of silence.
Then he shook his head.
"But why? Stefan, I don't want to get personal, but frankly you don't look so
good. You're not going to be much help to anybody if you collapse on us. And... I
don't mind, if you only take a little. I mean, I'm never going to miss it, right? And it
can't hurt all that much. And..." Once again her voice trailed off. He was just looking
at her, which was very disconcerting. "Well, why not?" she demanded, feeling
slightly let down.
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"Because," he said softly, "I made a promise. Maybe not in so many words, but
-a promise just the same. I won't take human blood as food, because that means
using a person, like livestock. And I won't exchange it with anyone, because that
means love, and-" This time he was the one who couldn't finish. But Bonnie
understood.
"There won't ever be anyone else, will there?" she said.
"No. Not for me." Stefan was so tired that his control was slipping and Bonnie
could see behind the mask. And again she saw that pain and need, so great that she
had to look away from him.
A strange little chill of premonition and dismay trickled through her heart. Before,
she had wondered if Matt would ever get over Elena, and he had, it seemed. But
Stefan-
Stefan, she realized, the chill deepening, was different. No matter how much time

passed, no matter what he did, he would never truly heal. Without Elena he would
always be half himself, only half alive.
passed, no matter what he did, he would never truly heal. Without Elena he would
always be half himself, only half alive.
She'd come up here to give Stefan a gift that he didn't want. But there was
something else he did want, she realized, and only she had the power to give it to
him.
Without looking at him, her voice husky, she said, "Would you like to see Elena?"
Dead silence from the bed. Bonnie sat, watching the shadows in the room sway
and flicker. At last, she chanced a look at him out of the corner of her eye.
He was breathing hard, eyes shut, body taut as a bowstring. Trying, Bonnie
diagnosed, to work up the strength to resist temptation.
And losing. Bonnie saw that.
Elena always had been too much for him.
When his eyes met hers again, they were grim, and his mouth was a tight line. His
skin wasn't pale anymore but flushed with color. His body was still trembling-taut
and keyed up with anticipation.
"You might get hurt, Bonnie."
"I know."
"You'd be opening yourself up to forces beyond your control. I can't guarantee
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that I can protect you from them."
"I know. How do you want to do it?"
Fiercely, he took her hand. "Thank you, Bonnie," he whispered.
She felt the blood rise to her face. "That's all right," she said. Good grief, he was
gorgeous. Those eyes... in a minute she was either going to jump him or melt into a
puddle on his bed. With a pleasurably agonizing feeling of virtue she removed her
hand from his and turned to the candle.
"How about if I go into a trance and try to reach her, and then, once I make
contact, try to find you and draw you in? Do you think that would work?"
"It might, if I'm reaching for you too," he said, withdrawing that intensity from her
and focusing it on the candle. "I can touch your mind... when you're ready, I'll feel
it."
"Right." The candle was white, its wax sides smooth and shining. The flame drew
itself up and then fell back. Bonnie stared until she became lost in it, until the rest of
the room blacked out around her. There was only the flame, herself and the flame.
She was going into the flame.
Unbearable brightness surrounded her. Then she passed through it into the dark.

The funeral home was cold. Bonnie glanced around uneasily, wondering how she
had gotten here, trying to gather her thoughts. She was all alone, and for some
reason that bothered her. Wasn't somebody else supposed to be here too? She was
looking for someone.
The funeral home was cold. Bonnie glanced around uneasily, wondering how she
had gotten here, trying to gather her thoughts. She was all alone, and for some
reason that bothered her. Wasn't somebody else supposed to be here too? She was
looking for someone.
Step by step, as if something were pulling her, Bonnie approached the casket. She
didn't want to look in. She had to. There was something in that coffin waiting for
her.
The whole room was suffused with the soft white light of the candles. It was like
floating in an island of radiance. But she didn't want to look...
Moving as if in slow motion, she reached the coffin, stared at the white satin lining
inside. It was empty.
Bonnie closed it and leaned against it, sighing.
Then she caught motion in her peripheral vision and whirled.
It was Elena.
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"Oh, God, you scared me," Bonnie said.
"I thought I told you not to come here," Elena answered.
This time her hair was loose, flowing over her shoulders and down her back, the
pale golden white of a flame. She was wearing a thin white dress that glowed softly
in the candlelight. She looked like a candle herself, luminous, radiant. Her feet were
bare.
"I came here to..." Bonnie floundered, some concept teasing around the edges of
her mind. This was her dream, her trance. She had to remember. "I came here to let
you see Stefan," she said.
Elena's eyes widened, her lips parting. Bonnie recognized the look of yearning, of
almost irresistible longing. Not fifteen minutes ago she'd seen it on Stefan's face.
"Oh," Elena whispered. She swallowed, her eyes clouding. "Oh, Bonnie... but I
can't."
"Why not?"
Tears were shining in Elena's eyes now, and her lips were trembling. "What if
things start to change? What if he comes, and..." She put a hand to her mouth and
Bonnie remembered the last dream, with teeth falling like rain. Bonnie met Elena's
eyes with understanding horror.
"Don't you see? I couldn't stand it if something like that happened," Elena
whispered. "If he saw me like that... And I can't control things here; I'm not strong

enough. Bonnie, please don't let him through. Tell him how sorry I am. Tell him-"
She shut her eyes, tears spilling.
enough. Bonnie, please don't let him through. Tell him how sorry I am. Tell him-"
She shut her eyes, tears spilling.
"Stefan, no! Elena says-" It didn't matter. His mind was stronger than hers, and
the instant she'd made contact he had taken over. He'd sensed the gist of her
conversation with Elena, but he wasn't going to take no for an answer. Helplessly,
Bonnie felt herself being overridden, felt his mind come closer, closer to the circle of
light formed by the candelabras. She felt his presence there, felt it taking shape. She
turned and saw him, dark hair, tense face, green eyes fierce as a falcon's. And then,
knowing there was nothing more she could do, she stepped back to allow them to be
alone.

Twelve
Stefan heard a voice whisper, soft with pain, "Oh, no."
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A voice that he'd never thought to hear again, that he would never forget. Ripples
of chills poured over his skin, and he could feel a shaking start inside him. He turned
toward the voice, his attention fixing instantly, his mind almost shutting down
because it couldn't cope with so many sudden driving emotions at once.
His eyes were blurred and could only discern a wash of radiance like a thousand
candles. But it didn't matter. He could feel her there. The same presence he had
sensed the very first day he'd come to Fell's Church, a golden white light that shone
into his consciousness. Full of cool beauty and searing passion and vibrant life.
Demanding that he move toward it, that he forget everything else.
Elena. It was really Elena.
Her presence pervaded him, filling him to his fingertips. All his hungry senses
were fixed on that wash of luminance, searching for her. Needing her.
Then she stepped out.
She moved slowly, hesitantly. As if she could barely make herself do it. Stefan
was caught in the same paralysis.
Elena.
He saw her every feature as if for the first time. The pale gold hair floating about
her face and shoulders like a halo. The fair, flawless skin. The slender, supple body
just now canted away from him, one hand raised in protest.
"Stefan," the whisper came, and it was her voice. Her voice saying his name. But
there was such pain in it that he wanted to run to her, hold her, promise her that
everything would be all right. "Stefan, please... I can't..."
He could see her eyes now. The dark blue of lapis lazuli, flecked in this light with
gold. Wide with pain and wet with unshed tears. It shredded his guts.
"You don't want to see me?" His voice was dry as dust.
"I don't want you to see me. Oh, Stefan, he can make anything happen. And he'll
find us. He'll come here..."
Relief and aching joy flooded through Stefan. He could scarcely concentrate on
her words, and it didn't matter. The way she said his name was enough. That "Oh,
Stefan" told him everything he cared about.
He moved toward her quietly, his own hand coming up to reach for hers. He saw
the protesting shake of her head, saw that her lips were parted with her quickening
breath. Up close, her skin had an inner glow, like a flame shining through translucent
candle wax. Droplets of wetness were caught on her eyelashes like diamonds.
Although she kept shaking her head, kept protesting, she did not move her hand
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away. Not even when his outspread fingers touched it, pressing against her cool
fingertips as if they were on opposite sides of a pane of glass.
away. Not even when his outspread fingers touched it, pressing against her cool
fingertips as if they were on opposite sides of a pane of glass.
He couldn't think. His heart was threatening to come through his chest. Nothing
mattered except that she was here, that they were here together. He didn't notice the
strange surroundings, didn't care who might be watching.
Slowly, so slowly, he closed his hand around hers, intertwining their fingers, the
way they were meant to be. His other hand lifted to her face.
Her eyes closed at the touch, her cheek leaning into it. He felt the moisture on his
fingers and a laugh caught in his throat. Dream tears. But they were real, she was
real. Elena.
Sweetness pierced him. A pleasure so sharp it was a pain, just to stroke the tears
away from her face with his thumb.
All the frustrated tenderness of the last six months, all the emotion he'd kept
locked in his heart that long, came cascading out, submerging him. Drowning both
of them. It took such a little movement and then he was holding her.
An angel in his arms, cool and thrilling with life and beauty. A being of flame and
air. She shivered in his embrace; then, eyes still shut, put up her lips.
There was nothing cool about the kiss. It struck sparks from Stefan's nerves,
melting and dissolving everything around it. He felt his control unraveling, the control
he'd worked so hard to preserve since he'd lost her. Everything inside him was being
jarred loose, all knots untied, all floodgates opened. He could feel his own tears as
he held her to him, trying to fuse them into one flesh, one body. So that nothing
could ever separate them again.
They were both crying without breaking the kiss. Elena's slender arms were
around his neck now, every inch of her fitting to him as if she had never belonged
anywhere else. He could taste the salt of her tears on his lips and it drenched him
with sweetness.
He knew, vaguely, that there was something else he should be thinking about. But
the first electric touch of her cool skin had driven reason from his mind. They were
in the center of a whirlwind of fire; the universe could explode or crumble or burn to
ashes for all he cared, as long as he could keep her safe.
But Elena was trembling.
Not just from emotion, from the intensity that was making him dizzy and drunk
with pleasure. From fear. He could feel it in her mind and he wanted to protect her,
to shield her and to cherish her and to kill anything that dared frighten her. With
something like a snarl he raised his face to look around.
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"What is it?" he said, hearing the predator's rasp in his own voice. "Anything that

tries to hurt you-"
tries to hurt you-"
"Ask me anything else and I'll do it," Stefan said. The killer would have to shred
him nerve from nerve, muscle from muscle, cell from cell to make him leave her.
"Stefan, it's only a dream," Elena said desperately, new tears falling. "We can't
really touch, we can't be together. It's not allowed."
Stefan didn't care. It didn't seem like a dream. It felt real. And even in a dream he
was not going to give up Elena, not for anyone. No force in heaven or hell could
make him...
"Wrong, sport. Surprise!" said a new voice, a voice Stefan had never heard. He
recognized it instinctively, though, as the voice of a killer. A hunter among hunters.
And when he turned, he remembered what Vickie, poor Vickie, had said.
He looks like the devil.
If the devil was handsome and blond.
He wore a threadbare raincoat, as Vickie had described. Dirty and tattered. He
looked like any street person from any big city, except that he was so tall and his
eyes were so clear and penetrating. Electric blue, like razor-frosted sky. His hair was
almost white, standing straight up as if blown by a blast of chilly wind. His wide
smile made Stefan feel sick.
"Salvatore, I presume," he said, scraping a bow. "And of course the beautiful
Elena. The beautiful dead Elena. Come to join her, Stefan? You two were just meant
to be together."
He looked young, older than Stefan, but still young. He wasn't.
"Stefan, leave now," Elena whispered. "He can't hurt me, but you're different. He
can make something happen that will follow you out of the dream."
Stefan's arm stayed locked around her.
"Bravo!" the man in the raincoat applauded, looking around as if to encourage an
invisible audience. He staggered slightly, and if he'd been human, Stefan would have
thought he was drunk.
"Stefan, please," Elena whispered.
"It would be rude to leave before we've even been properly introduced," the
blond man said. Hands in coat pockets, he strode a step or two closer. "Don't you
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want to know who I am?"
Elena shook her head, not in negation but in defeat, and dropped it to Stefan's
shoulder. He cupped a hand around her hair, wanting to shield every part of her from
this madman.

"I want to know," he said, looking at the blond man over her head.
"I want to know," he said, looking at the blond man over her head.
"How long?" said Stefan, unimpressed.
"A long time..." The blond man's gaze turned dreamy, as if looking back over the
years. "I was tearing pretty white throats when your ancestors were building the
Colosseum. I killed with Alexander's army. I fought in the Trojan War. I'm old,
Salvatore. I'm one of the Originals. In my earliest memories I carried a bronze ax."
Slowly, Stefan nodded.
He'd heard of the Old Ones. They were whispered about among vampires, but no
one Stefan had ever known had actually met one. Every vampire was made by
another vampire, changed by the exchange of blood. But somewhere, back in time,
had been the Originals, the ones who hadn't been made. They were where the line of
continuity stopped. No one knew how they'd gotten to be vampires themselves. But
their Powers were legendary.
"I helped bring the Roman Empire down," the blond man continued dreamily.
"They called us barbarians-they just didn't understand! War, Salvatore! There's
nothing like it. Europe was exciting then. I decided to stick around the countryside
and enjoy myself. Strange, you know, people never really seemed comfortable
around me. They used to run or hold up crosses." He shook his head. "But one
woman came and asked my help. She was a maid in a baron's household, and her
little mistress was sick. Dying, she said. She wanted me to do something about it.
And so..." The smile returned and broadened, getting wider and impossibly wider,
"I did. She was a pretty little thing."
Stefan had turned his body to hold Elena away from the blond man, and now, for
a moment, he turned his head away too. He should have known, should have
guessed. And so it all came back to him. Vickie's death, and Sue's, were ultimately
to be laid at his door. He had started the chain of events that ended here.
"Katherine," he said, lifting his head to look at the man. "You're the vampire who
changed Katherine."
"To save her life," the blond man said, as if Stefan were stupid at learning a
lesson. "Which your little sweetheart here took."
A name. Stefan was searching for a name in his mind, knowing that Katherine had
told it to him, just as she must have described this man to him once. He could hear
Katherine's words in his mind: I woke in the middle of the night and I saw the man
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that Gudren, my maid, had brought. I was frightened. His name was Klaus and
I'd heard the people in the village say he was evil ...
"Klaus," the blond man said mildly, as if agreeing with something. "That was what
she called me, anyway. She came back to me after two little Italian boys jilted her.
She'd done everything for them, changed them into vampires, given them eternal life,

but they were ungrateful and threw her out. Very strange."
but they were ungrateful and threw her out. Very strange."
"What was even stranger was that she never got over you, Salvatore. You
especially. She was always drawing unflattering comparisons between us. I tried to
beat some sense into her, but it never really worked. Maybe I should have just killed
her myself, I don't know. But by then I'd gotten used to having her around. She
never was the brightest. But she was good to look at, and she knew how to have fun.
I showed her that, how to enjoy the killing. Eventually her brain turned a little, but so
what? It wasn't her brains I was keeping her for."
There was no longer any vestige of love for Katherine in Stefan's heart, but he
found he could still hate the man who had made her what she was in the end.
"Me? Me, sport?" Klaus pointed to his own chest in unbelief. "You made
Katherine into what she is right now, or rather your little girlfriend did. Right now,
she's dust. Worm's meat. But your sweetie is just slightly beyond my reach at
present. Vibrating on a higher plane, isn't that what the mystics say, Elena? Why
don't you vibrate down here with the rest of us?"
"If only I could," whispered Elena, lifting her head and looking at him with hatred.
"Oh, well. Meanwhile I've got your friends. Sue was such a sweet girl, I hear." He
licked his lips. "And Vickie was delectable. Delicate but full bodied, with a nice
bouquet. More like a nineteen-year-old than seventeen."
Stefan lunged one step forward, but Elena caught him. "Stefan, don't! This is his
territory, and his mental powers are stronger than ours. He controls it."
"Precisely. This is my territory. Unreality." Klaus grinned his staring psychotic
grin again. "Where your wildest nightmares come true, free of charge. For instance,"
he said, looking at Stefan, "how'd you like to see what your sweetheart really looks
like right now? Without her makeup?"
Elena made a soft sound, almost a moan. Stefan held her tighter.
"It's been how long since she died? About six months? Do you know what
happens to a body once it's been in the ground six months?" Klaus licked his lips
again, like a dog.
Now Stefan understood. Elena shivered, head bent, and tried to move away from
him, but he locked his arms around her.
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"It's all right," he said to her softly. And to Klaus: "You're forgetting yourself. I'm
not a human who jumps at shadows and the sight of blood. I know about death,
Klaus. It doesn't frighten me."
"No, but does it thrill you?" Klaus's voice dropped, low, intoxicating. "Isn't it
exciting, the stench, the rot, the fluids of decomposing flesh? Isn't it a kick?"
"Stefan, let me go. Please." Elena was shaking, pushing at him with her hands, all
the time keeping her head twisted away so he couldn't see her face. Her voice
sounded close to tears. "Please."

"The only Power you have here is the power of illusion," Stefan said to Klaus. He
held Elena to him, cheek pressed to her hair. He could feel the changes in the body
he embraced. The hair under his cheek seemed to coarsen and Elena's form to shrink
on itself.
"The only Power you have here is the power of illusion," Stefan said to Klaus. He
held Elena to him, cheek pressed to her hair. He could feel the changes in the body
he embraced. The hair under his cheek seemed to coarsen and Elena's form to shrink
on itself.
"Stefan, I don't want you to look at me-"
Eyes on Klaus, Stefan gently pushed the coarsened white hair away and stroked
the side of Elena's face, ignoring the roughness against his fingertips.
"But of course most of the time it just decomposes. What a way to go. You lose
everything, skin, flesh, muscles, internal organs-all back into the ground..."
The body in Stefan's arms was dwindling. He shut his eyes and held tighter,
hatred for Klaus burning inside him. An illusion, it was all an illusion...
"Stefan..." It was a dry whisper, faint as the scratch of paper blown down a
sidewalk. It hung on the air a minute and then vanished, and Stefan found himself
holding a pile of bones.
"And finally it ends up like that, in over two hundred separate, easy-to-assemble
pieces. Comes with its own handy-dandy carrying case..." On the far side of the
circle of light there was a creaking sound. The white coffin there was opening by
itself, the lid lifting. "Why don't you do the honors, Salvatore? Go put Elena where
she belongs."
Stefan had dropped to his knees, shaking, looking at the slender white bones in
his hands. It was all an illusion-Klaus was merely controlling Bonnie's trance and
showing Stefan what he wanted Stefan to see. He hadn't really hurt Elena, but the
hot, protective fury inside Stefan wouldn't recognize that. Carefully, Stefan laid the
fragile bones on the ground and touched them once, gently. Then he looked up at
Klaus, lips curled with contempt.
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"That is not Elena," he said.
"Of course it is. I'd recognize her anywhere." Klaus spread his hands and
declaimed, " 'I knew a woman, lovely in her bones...' "
"No." Sweat was beading on Stefan's forehead. He shut out Klaus's voice and
concentrated, fists clenched, muscles cracking with effort. It was like pushing a
boulder uphill, fighting Klaus's influence. But where they lay, the delicate bones
began trembling, and a faint golden light shone around them.
'' 'A rag and a bone and a hank of hair... the fool he called them his lady fair...
' "
The light was shimmering, dancing, linking the bones together. Warm and golden
it folded about them, clothing them as they rose in the air. What stood there now
was a featureless form of soft radiance. Sweat ran into Stefan's eyes and he felt as if
his lungs would burst.

" 'Clay lies still, but blood's a rover...' "
" 'Clay lies still, but blood's a rover...' "
" 'And the crack in the teacup opens a lane to the land of the dead . . .' "
"No." Dizziness swept over Stefan as he felt the last surge of Power sigh out of
him. A breath lifted the figure's breast, and eyes blue as lapis lazuli opened.
Elena smiled, and he felt the blaze of her love arc to meet him. "Stefan." Her head
was high, proud as any queen's.
Stefan turned to Klaus, who had stopped speaking and was glaring mutely.
"This," Stefan said distinctly, "is Elena. Not whatever empty shell she's left
behind in the ground. This is Elena, and nothing you do can ever touch her."
He held out his hand, and Elena took it and stepped to him. When they touched,
he felt a jolt, and then felt her Powers flowing into him, sustaining him. They stood
together, side by side, facing the blond man. Stefan had never felt as fiercely
victorious in his life, or as strong.
Klaus stared at them for perhaps twenty seconds and then went berserk.
His face twisted in loathing. Stefan could feel waves of malignant Power battering
against him and Elena, and he used all his strength to resist it. The maelstrom of dark
fury was trying to tear them apart, howling through the room, destroying everything
in its path. Candles snuffed out and flew into the air as if caught in a tornado. The
dream was breaking up around them, shattering.
Stefan clung to Elena's other hand. The wind blew her hair, whipping it around her
face.
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"Stefan!" She was shouting, trying to make herself heard. Then he heard her voice
in his mind. "Stefan, listen to me! There is one thing you can do to stop him. You
need a victim, Stefan-find one of his victims. Only a victim will know-"
The noise level was unbearable, as if the very fabric of space and time was
tearing. Stefan felt Elena's hands ripped from his. With a cry of desperation, he
reached out for her again, but he could feel nothing. He was already drained by the
effort of fighting Klaus, and he couldn't hold on to consciousness. The darkness
took him spinning down with it.
Bonnie had seen everything.
It was strange, but once she stepped aside to let Stefan go to Elena, she seemed
to lose physical presence in the dream. It was as if she were no longer a player but
the stage the action was being played upon. She could watch, but she couldn't do
anything else.

In the end, she'd been afraid. She wasn't strong enough to hold the dream
together, and the whole thing finally exploded, throwing her out of the trance, back
into Stefan's room.
In the end, she'd been afraid. She wasn't strong enough to hold the dream
together, and the whole thing finally exploded, throwing her out of the trance, back
into Stefan's room.
"Stefan? Are you okay?"
He looked wildly around the room as if trying to find something. "Elena!" he said,
and then he stopped, memory clearly returning.
His face twisted. For one dreadful instant Bonnie thought he was going to cry, but
he only shut his eyes and dropped his head into his hands.
"Stefan?"
"I lost her. I couldn't hold on."
"I know." Bonnie watched him a moment, then, gathering her courage, knelt in
front of him, touching his shoulders. "I'm sorry."
His head lifted abruptly, his green eyes dry but so dilated they looked black. His
nostrils were flared, his lips drawn back from his teeth.
"Klaus!" He spat the name as if it were a curse. "Did you see him?"
"Yes," Bonnie said, pulling back. She gulped, her stomach churning. "He's crazy,
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isn't he, Stefan?"
"Yes." Stefan got up. "And he must be stopped."
"But how?" Since seeing Klaus, Bonnie was more frightened than ever, more
frightened and less confident. "What could stop him, Stefan? I've never felt anything
like that Power."
"But didn't you-?" Stefan turned to her quickly. "Bonnie, didn't you hear what
Elena said at the end?"
"No. What do you mean? I couldn't hear anything; there was a slight hurricane
going on at the time."
"Bonnie..." Stefan's eyes went distant with speculation and he spoke as if to
himself. "That means that he probably didn't hear it either. So he doesn't know, and
he won't try to stop us."
"From what? Stefan, what are you talking about?"
"From finding a victim. Listen, Bonnie, Elena told me that if we can find a
surviving victim of Klaus's, we can find a way to stop him."
Bonnie was in completely over her head. "But... why?"
"Because vampires and their donors-their prey-share minds briefly while the
blood is being exchanged. Sometimes the donor can learn things about the vampire
that way. Not always, but occasionally. That's what must have happened, and Elena

knows it."
knows it."
She expected Stefan to be deflated, but he wasn't. "A vampire," he said simply.
"A human Klaus made into a vampire would qualify as a victim. As long as they've
exchanged blood, they've touched minds."
"Oh. Oh. So... if we can find a vampire he's made... but where?"
"Maybe in Europe." Stefan began to pace around the room, his eyes narrowed.
"Klaus has a long history, and some of his vampires are bound to be there. I may
have to go and look for one."
Bonnie was utterly dismayed. "But Stefan, you can't leave us. You can't!"
Stefan stopped where he was, across the room, and stood very still. Then at last,
he turned to face her. "I don't want to," he said quietly. "And we'll try to think of
another solution first-maybe we can get hold of Tyler again. I'll wait a week, until
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next Saturday. But I may have to leave, Bonnie. You know that as well as I do."
There was a long, long silence between them.
Bonnie fought the heat in her eyes, determined to be grown up and mature. She
wasn't a baby and she would prove that now, once and for all. She caught Stefan's
gaze and slowly nodded.

Thirteen
June 19, Friday, 11:45 p.m. Dear Diary,
Oh, God, what are we going to do?
This has been the longest week of my life. Today was the last day of school and
tomorrow Stefan is leaving. He's going to Europe to search for a vampire who got
changed by Klaus. He says he doesn't want to leave us unprotected. But he's
going to go.
We can't find Tyler. His car disappeared from the cemetery, but he hasn't
turned up at school. He's missed every final this week. Not that the rest of us are
doing much better. I wish Robert E. Lee was like the schools that have all their
finals before graduation. I don't know whether I'm writing English or Swahili
these days.
I hate Klaus. From what I saw he's as crazy as Katherine-and even crueler.
What he did to Vickie-but I can't even talk about that or I'll start crying again.
He was just playing with us at Caroline's party, like a cat with a mouse. And to do
it on Meredith's birthday, too-although I suppose he couldn't have known that.
He seems to know a lot, though. He doesn't talk like a foreigner, not like Stefan did
when he first came to America, and he knows all about American things, even
songs from the fifties. Maybe he's been over here for a while...
Bonnie stopped writing. She thought desperately. All this time, they had been
thinking of victims in Europe, of vampires. But from the way Klaus talked, he had
obviously been in America a long time. He didn't sound foreign at all. And he'd
chosen to attack the girls on Meredith's birthday...
Bonnie got up, reached for the telephone, and called Meredith's number. A sleepy
male voice answered.
"Mr. Sulez, this is Bonnie. Can I speak to Meredith?"
"Bonnie! Don't you know what time it is?"
"Yes." Bonnie thought quickly. "But it's about-about a final we had today.
Please, I have to talk with her."
There was a long pause, then a heavy sigh. "Just a minute."
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Bonnie tapped her fingers impatiently as she waited. At last there was the click of
another phone being picked up.
"Bonnie?" came Meredith's voice. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I mean-" Bonnie was excruciatingly conscious of the open line, of the
fact that Meredith's father hadn't hung up. He might be listening. "It's about-that
German problem we've been working on. You remember. The one we couldn't figure
out for the final. You know how we've been looking for the one person who can

help us solve it? Well, I think I know who it is."
help us solve it? Well, I think I know who it is."
"No," Bonnie said, "it doesn't. It hits a lot closer to home, Meredith. A lot. In
fact, you could say it's right in your own backyard, hanging on your family tree."
The line was silent so long Bonnie wondered if Meredith was still there.
"Meredith?"
"I'm thinking. Does this solution have anything to do with coincidence?"
"Nope." Bonnie relaxed and smiled slightly, grimly. Meredith had it now. "Not a
thing to do with coincidence. It's more a case of history repeating itself. Deliberately
repeating itself, if you see what I mean."
"Yes," Meredith said. She sounded as if she were recovering from a shock, and
no wonder. "You know, I think you just may be right. But there's still the matter of
persuading-this person-to actually help us."
"You think that may be a problem?"
"I think it could. Sometimes people get very rattled-about a test. Sometimes
they even kind of lose their minds."
Bonnie's heart sank. This was something that hadn't occurred to her. What if he
couldn't tell them? What if he were that far gone?
"All we can do is try," she said, making her voice as optimistic as possible.
"Tomorrow we'll have to try."
"All right. I'll pick you up at noon. Good night, Bonnie."
"Night, Meredith." Bonnie added, "I'm sorry."
"No, I think it may be for the best. So that history doesn't continue to repeat itself
forever. Good-bye."
Bonnie pressed the disconnect button on the handset, clicking it off. Then she
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just sat for a few minutes, her finger on the button, staring at the wall. Finally she
replaced the handset in its cradle and picked up her diary again. She put a period on
the last sentence and added a new one.
We are going to see Meredith's grandfather tomorrow.
"I'm an idiot," Stefan said in Meredith's car the next day. They were going to
West Virginia, to the institution where Meredith's grandfather was a patient. It was
going to be a fairly long drive.
"We're all idiots. Except Bonnie," Matt said. Even in the midst of her anxiety
Bonnie felt a warm glow at that.
But Meredith was shaking her head, eyes on the road. "Stefan, you couldn't have
realized, so stop beating up on yourself. You didn't know that Klaus attacked

Caroline's party on the anniversary of the attack on my grandfather. And it didn't
occur to Matt or me that Klaus could have been in America for so long because we
never saw Klaus or heard him speak. We were thinking of people he could have
attacked in Europe. Really, Bonnie was the only one who could have put it all
together, because she had all the information."
Caroline's party on the anniversary of the attack on my grandfather. And it didn't
occur to Matt or me that Klaus could have been in America for so long because we
never saw Klaus or heard him speak. We were thinking of people he could have
attacked in Europe. Really, Bonnie was the only one who could have put it all
together, because she had all the information."
"I won't; modesty is one of my most charming qualities," Bonnie replied.
Matt snorted, but then he said, "I still think it was pretty smart," which started the
glow all over again.
The institution was a terrible place. Bonnie tried as hard as she could to conceal
her horror and disgust, but she knew Meredith could sense it. Meredith's shoulders
were stiff with defensive pride as she walked down the halls in front of them. Bonnie,
who had known her for so many years, could see the humiliation underneath that
pride. Meredith's parents considered her grandfather's condition such a blot that they
never allowed him to be mentioned to outsiders. It had been a shadow over the entire
family.
And now Meredith was showing that secret to strangers for the first time. Bonnie
felt a rush of love and admiration for her friend. It was so like Meredith to do it
without fuss, with dignity, letting nobody see what it cost her. But the institution was
still terrible.
It wasn't filthy or filled with raving maniacs or anything like that. The patients
looked clean and well cared for. But there was something about the sterile hospital
smells and the halls crowded with motionless wheelchairs and blank eyes that made
Bonnie want to run.
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It was like a building full of zombies. Bonnie saw one old woman, her pink scalp
showing through thin white hair, slumped with her head on the table next to a naked
plastic doll. When Bonnie reached out desperately, she found Matt's hand already
reaching for hers. They followed Meredith that way, holding on so hard it hurt.
"This is his room."
Inside was another zombie, this one with white hair that still showed an occasional
fleck of black like Meredith's. His face was a mass of wrinkles and lines, the eyes
rheumy and rimmed with scarlet. They stared vacantly.
"Granddad," Meredith said, kneeling in front of his wheelchair, "Granddad, it's
me, Meredith. I've come to visit you. I've got something important to ask you."
The old eyes never flickered.
"Sometimes he knows us," Meredith said quietly, without emotion. "But mostly
these days he doesn't."
The old man just went on staring.

Stefan dropped to his heels. "Let me try," he said. Looking into the wrinkled face
he began to speak, softly, soothingly, as he had to Vickie.
Stefan dropped to his heels. "Let me try," he said. Looking into the wrinkled face
he began to speak, softly, soothingly, as he had to Vickie.
And no matter what Meredith or Stefan did, that was all the response they could
elicit.
Eventually Bonnie tried, using her psychic powers. She could sense something in
the old man, some spark of life trapped in the imprisoning flesh. But she couldn't
reach it.
"I'm sorry," she said, sitting back and pushing hair out of her eyes. "It's no use. I
can't do anything."
"Maybe we can come another time," Matt said, but Bonnie knew it wasn't true.
Stefan was leaving tomorrow; there would never be another time. And it had seemed
like such a good idea... The glow that had warmed her earlier was ashes now, and
her heart felt like a lump of lead. She turned away to see Stefan already starting out
of the room.
Matt put a hand under her elbow to help her up and guide her out. And after
standing for a minute with her head bent in discouragement, Bonnie let him. It was
hard to summon up enough energy to put one foot in front of the other. She glanced
back dully to see whether Meredith was following-
And screamed. Meredith was standing in the center of the room, facing the door,
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discouragement written on her face. But behind her, the figure in the wheelchair had
stirred at last. In a silent explosion of movement, it had reared above her, the rheumy
old eyes open wide and the mouth open wider. Meredith's grandfather looked as if
he had been caught in the act of leaping-arms flung out, mouth forming a silent
howl. Bonnie's screams rang from the rafters.
Everything happened at once then. Stefan came charging back in, Meredith spun
around, Matt grabbed for her. But the old figure didn't leap. He stood towering
above all of them, staring over their heads, seeming to see something none of them
could. Sounds were coming from his mouth at last, sounds that formed one ululating
word.
"Vampire! Vampiire!"
Attendants were in the room, crowding Bonnie and the others away, restraining
the old man. Their shouts added to the pandemonium.
"Vampire! Vampire!" Meredith's grandfather caterwauled, as if warning the town.
Bonnie felt panicked-was he looking at Stefan? Was it an accusation?
"Please, you'll have to leave now. I'm sorry, but you'll have to go," a nurse was
saying. They were being whisked out. Meredith fought as she was forced out into
the hall.

"Granddaddy-!"
"Granddaddy-!"
And then: "White ash wood! Vampire! White ash wood-"
The door slammed shut.
Meredith gasped, fighting tears. Bonnie had her nails dug into Matt's arm. Stefan
turned to them, green eyes wide with shock.
"I said, you'll have to leave now," the harassed nurse was repeating impatiently.
The four of them ignored her. They were all looking at each other, stunned
confusion giving way to realization in their faces.
"Tyler said there was only one kind of wood that could hurt him-" Matt began.
"White ash wood," said Stefan.
"We'll have to find out where he's hiding," Stefan said on the way home. He was
driving, since Meredith had dropped the keys at the car door. "That's the first thing.
If we rush this, we could warn him off."
His green eyes were shining with a queer mixture of triumph and grim
determination, and he spoke in a clipped and rapid voice. They were all on the
ragged edge, Bonnie thought, as if they'd been gulping uppers all night. Their nerves
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were frayed so thin that anything could happen.
She had a sense, too, of impending cataclysm. As if everything were coming to a
head, all the events since Meredith's birthday party gathering to a conclusion.
Tonight, she thought. Tonight it all happens. It seemed strangely appropriate that
it should be the eve of the solstice.
"The eve of what?" Matt said.
She hadn't even realized she'd spoken aloud. "The eve of the solstice," she said.
"That's what today is. The day before the summer solstice."
"Don't tell me. Druids, right?"
"They celebrated it," Bonnie confirmed. "It's a day for magic, for marking the
change of the seasons. And..." she hesitated. "Well, it's like all other feast days, like
Halloween or the winter solstice. A day when the line between the visible world and
the invisible world is thin. When you can see ghosts, they used to say. When things
happen."
"Things," Stefan said, turning onto the main highway that headed back toward
Fell's Church, "are going to happen."
None of them realized how soon.
Mrs. Flowers was in the back garden. They had driven straight to the boarding
house to look for her. She was pruning rosebushes, and the smell of summer

surrounded her.
surrounded her.
"Slow down, slow down now," she said, peering at them from under the brim of
her straw hat. "What is it you want? White ash? There's one just down beyond those
oak trees in back. Now, wait a minute-" she added as they all scrambled off again.
Stefan ringed a branch of the tree with a jack-knife Matt produced from his
pocket. I wonder when he started carrying that? Bonnie thought. She also wondered
what Mrs. Flowers thought of them as they came back, the two boys carrying the
leafy six-foot bough between them on their shoulders.
But Mrs. Flowers just looked without saying anything. As they neared the house,
though, she called after them, "A package came for you, boy."
Stefan turned his head, the branch still on his shoulder. "For me?"
"It had your name on it. A package and a letter. I found them on the front porch
this afternoon. I put them upstairs in your room."
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Bonnie looked at Meredith, then at Matt and Stefan, meeting their bewildered,
suspicious gazes in turn. The anticipation in the air heightened suddenly, almost
unbearably.
"But who could it be from? Who could even know you're here-" she began as
they climbed the stairs to the attic. And then she stopped, dread fluttering between
her ribs. Premonition was buzzing around inside her like a nagging fly, but she
pushed it away. Not now, she thought, not now.
But there was no way to keep from seeing the package on Stefan's desk. The
boys propped the white ash branch against the wall and went to look at it, a longish,
flattish parcel wrapped in brown paper, with a creamy envelope on top.
On the front, in familiar crazy handwriting, was scrawled Stefan.
The handwriting from the mirror.
They all stood staring down at the package as if it were a scorpion.
"Watch out," Meredith said as Stefan slowly reached for it. Bonnie knew what
she meant. She felt as if the whole thing might explode or belch poisonous gas or
turn into something with teeth and claws.
The envelope Stefan picked up was square and sturdy, made of good paper with
a fine finish. Like a prince's invitation to the ball, Bonnie thought. But incongruously,
there were several dirty fingerprints on the surface and the edges were grimy. Well-
Klaus hadn't looked any too clean in the dream.
Stefan glanced at front and back and then tore the envelope open. He pulled out a
single piece of heavy stationery. The other three crowded around, looking over his
shoulder as he unfolded it. Then Matt gave an exclamation.
"What the... it's blank!"

It was. On both sides. Stefan turned it over and examined each. His face was
tense, shuttered. Everyone else relaxed, though, making noises of disgust. A stupid
practical joke. Meredith had reached for the package, which looked flat enough to be
empty as well, when Stefan suddenly stiffened, his breath hissing in. Bonnie glanced
quickly over and jumped. Meredith's hand froze on the package, and Matt swore.
It was. On both sides. Stefan turned it over and examined each. His face was
tense, shuttered. Everyone else relaxed, though, making noises of disgust. A stupid
practical joke. Meredith had reached for the package, which looked flat enough to be
empty as well, when Stefan suddenly stiffened, his breath hissing in. Bonnie glanced
quickly over and jumped. Meredith's hand froze on the package, and Matt swore.
Stefan-
Shall we try to solve this like gentlemen? I have the girl. Come to the old
farmhouse in the woods after dark and we'll talk, just the two of us. Come alone
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and I'll let her go. Bring anyone else and she dies.
There was no signature, but at the bottom the words appeared This is between
you and me.
"What girl?" Matt was demanding, looking from Bonnie to Meredith as if to make
sure they were still there. "What girl?"
With a sharp motion, Meredith's elegant fingers tore the package open and pulled
out what was inside. A pale green scarf with a pattern of vines and leaves. Bonnie
remembered it perfectly, and a vision came to her in a rush. Confetti and birthday
presents, orchids and chocolate.
"Caroline," she whispered, and shut her eyes.
These last two weeks had been so strange, so different from ordinary high school
life, that she had almost forgotten Caroline existed. Caroline had gone off to an
apartment in another town to escape, to be safe-but Meredith had said it to her in
the beginning. He can follow you to Heron, I'm sure.
"He was just playing with us again," Bonnie murmured. "He let us get this far,
even going to see your grandfather, Meredith, and then..."
"He must have known," Meredith agreed. "He must have known all along we were
looking for a victim. And now he's checkmated us. Unless-" Her dark eyes lit with
sudden hope. "Bonnie, you don't think Caroline could have dropped this scarf the
night of the party? And that he just picked it up?"
"No." The premonition was buzzing closer and Bonnie swatted at it, trying to
keep it away. She didn't want it, didn't want to know. But she felt certain of one
thing: this wasn't a bluff. Klaus had Caroline.
"What are we going to do?" she said softly.
"I know what we're not going to do, and that's listen to him," Matt said. " 'Try to
solve it like gentlemen'-he's scum, not a gentleman. It's a trap."
"Of course it's a trap," Meredith said impatiently. "He waited until we found out
how to hurt him and now he's trying to separate us. But it won't work!"

Bonnie had been watching Stefan's face with growing dismay. Because while Matt
and Meredith were indignantly talking, he had been quietly folding up the letter and
putting it back in its envelope. Now he stood gazing down at it, his face still,
untouched by anything that was going on around him. And the look in his green eyes
scared Bonnie.
Bonnie had been watching Stefan's face with growing dismay. Because while Matt
and Meredith were indignantly talking, he had been quietly folding up the letter and
putting it back in its envelope. Now he stood gazing down at it, his face still,
untouched by anything that was going on around him. And the look in his green eyes
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scared Bonnie.
"I think," said Stefan carefully, concentrating on each word, "that I am going out
to the woods after dark."
Matt nodded, and like the quarterback he was, began to chart out a plan. "Okay,
you go distract him. And meanwhile, the three of us-"
"The three of you," Stefan continued just as deliberately, looking right at him, "are
going home. To bed."
There was a pause that seemed endless to Bonnie's taut nerves. The others just
stared at Stefan.
At last Meredith said lightly, "Well, it's going to be hard to catch him while we're
in bed unless he's kind enough to come visiting."
That broke the tension and Matt said, drawing a long-suffering breath, "All right,
Stefan, I understand how you feel about this-" But Stefan interrupted.
"I'm dead serious, Matt. Klaus is right; this is between him and me. And he says
to come alone or he'll hurt Caroline. So I'm going alone. It's my decision."
"It's your funeral," Bonnie blurted out, almost hysterically. "Stefan, you're crazy.
You can't."
"Watch me."
"We won't let you-"
"Do you think," Stefan said, looking at her, "that you could stop me if you tried?"
This silence was acutely uncomfortable. Staring at him, Bonnie felt as if Stefan
had changed somehow before her eyes. His face seemed sharper, his posture
different, as if to remind her of the lithe, hard predator's muscles under his clothes.
All at once he seemed distant, alien. Frightening.
Bonnie looked away.
"Let's be reasonable about this," Matt was saying, changing tactics. "Let's just
stay calm and talk this over-"
"There's nothing to talk over. I'm going. You're not."
"You owe us more than that, Stefan," Meredith said, and Bonnie felt grateful for
her cool voice. "Okay, so you can tear us all limb from limb; fine, no argument. We
get the point. But after all we've been through together, we deserve more of a
thorough discussion before you go running off."
"You said it was the girls' fight too," Matt added. "When did you decide it
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wasn't?"
wasn't?"
"No, it isn't!" Bonnie cried. "Did you make Elena kill Katherine?"
"I made Katherine go back to Klaus! That's how this got started. And I got
Caroline involved; if it wasn't for me, she would never have hated Elena, never have
gotten in with Tyler. I have a responsibility toward her."
"You just want to believe that," Bonnie almost yelled. "Klaus hates all of us! Do
you really think he's going to let you walk out of there? Do you think he plans to
leave the rest of us alone?"
"No," Stefan said, and picked up the branch leaning against the wall. He took
Matt's knife out of his own pocket and began to strip the twigs off, making it into a
straight white spear.
"Oh, great, you're going off for single combat!" Matt said, furious. "Don't you
see how stupid that is? You're walking right into his trap!" He advanced a step on
Stefan. "You may not think that the three of us can stop you-"
"No, Matt." Meredith's low, level voice cut across the room. "It won't do any
good." Stefan looked at her, the muscles around his eyes hardening, but she just
looked back, her face set and calm. "So you're determined to meet Klaus face to
face, Stefan. All right. But before you go, at least be sure you have a fighting
chance." Coolly, she began to unbutton the neck of her tailored blouse.
Bonnie felt a jolt, even though she'd offered the same thing only a week earlier.
But that had been in private, for God's sake, she thought. Then she shrugged. Public
or private, what difference did it make?
She looked at Matt, whose face reflected his consternation. Then she saw Matt's
brow crease and the beginning of that stubborn, bullheaded expression that used to
terrify the coaches of op-posing football teams. His blue eyes turned to hers and she
nodded, thrusting out her chin. Without a word, she unzipped the light wind-breaker
she was wearing and Matt pulled off his T-shirt.
Stefan stared from one to another of the three people grimly disrobing in his
room, trying to conceal his own shock. But he shook his head, the white spear in
front of him like a weapon. "No."
"Don't be a jerk, Stefan," Matt snapped. Even in the confusion of this terrible
moment something inside Bonnie paused to admire his bare chest. "There's three of
us. You should be able to take plenty without hurting any one of us."
"I said, no! Not for revenge, and not to fight evil with evil! Not for any reason. I
thought you would understand that." Stefan's look at Matt was bitter.
"I understand that you're going to die out there!" Matt shouted.
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"He's right!" Bonnie pressed her knuckles against her lips. The premonition was
getting through her defenses. She didn't want to let it in, but she didn't have the

strength to resist anymore. With a shudder, she felt it stab through and heard the
words in her mind.
strength to resist anymore. With a shudder, she felt it stab through and heard the
words in her mind.
For a moment, just a moment, she thought he might listen to her. Then his face
went hard again and he spoke coldly.
"It isn't your problem. Let me worry about it."
"But if there's no way to win-" Matt began.
"That isn't what Bonnie said!" Stefan replied tersely.
"Yes, it is! What the hell are you talking about?" Matt shouted. It was hard to
make Matt lose his temper, but once lost it wasn't easily gotten back. "Stefan, I've
had enough-"
"And so have I!" Stefan shot back in a roar. In a tone Bonnie had never heard him
use before. "I'm sick of you all, sick of your bickering and your spinelessness-and
your premonitions, too! This is my problem."
"I thought we were a team-" Matt cried.
"We are not a team. You are a bunch of stupid humans! Even with everything
that's happened to you, deep down you just want to live your safe little lives in your
safe little houses until you go to your safe little graves! I'm nothing like you and I
don't want to be! I've put up with you this long because I had to, but this is the end."
He looked at each of them and spoke deliberately, emphasizing each word. "I don't
need any of you. I don't want you with me, and I don't want you following me.
You'll only spoil my strategy. Anyone who does follow me, I'll kill."
And with one last smoldering glance, he turned on his heel and walked out.

Fourteen
"He's gone round the bend," Matt said, staring at the empty doorway through
which Stefan had disappeared.
"No, he hasn't," said Meredith. Her voice was rueful and quiet, but there was a
kind of helpless laugh in it too. "Don't you see what he's doing, Matt?" she said
when he turned to her. "Yelling at us, making us hate him to try and chase us away.
Being as nasty as possible so we'll stay mad and let him do this alone." She glanced
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at the doorway and raised her eyebrows. " 'Anyone who does follow me, I'll kill'
was going a bit overboard, though."
Bonnie giggled suddenly, wildly, in spite of herself. "I think he borrowed it from
Damon. 'Get this straight, I don't need any of you!' "
" 'You bunch of stupid humans,' " Matt added.
"But I still don't understand. You just had a premonition, Bonnie, and Stefan
doesn't usually discount those. If there's no way to fight and win, what's the point of
going?"
"Bonnie didn't say there was no way to fight and win. She said there was no way
to fight and survive. Right, Bonnie?" Meredith looked at her.
The fit of giggles dissolved away. Startled herself, Bonnie tried to examine the
premonition, but she knew no more than the words that had sprung into her mind.
No one can fight him and live.
"You mean Stefan thinks-" Slow, thunderous outrage was smoldering in Matt's
eyes. "He thinks he's going to go and stop Klaus even though he gets killed himself?
Like some sacrificial lamb?"
"More like Elena," Meredith said soberly. "And maybe-so he can be with her."
"Huh-uh." Bonnie shook her head. She might not know more about the prophecy,
but this she knew. "He doesn't think that, I'm sure. Elena's special. She is what she is
because she died too young; she left so much unfinished in her own life, and-well,
she's a special case. But Stefan's been a vampire for five hundred years, and he
certainly wouldn't be dying young. There's no guarantee he'd end up with Elena. He
might go to another place or-or just go out. And he knows that. I'm sure he knows
that. I think he's just keeping his promise to her, to stop Klaus no matter what it
costs."
"To try, at least," Matt said softly, and it sounded as if he were quoting. "Even if
you know you're going to lose." He looked up at the girls suddenly. "I'm going after
him."
"Of course," said Meredith patiently.
Matt hesitated. "Uh-I don't suppose I could convince you two to stay here?"
"After all that inspiring talk about teamwork? Not a chance."

"I was afraid of that. So..."
"I was afraid of that. So..."
They gathered what weapons they could. Matt's pocketknife that Stefan had
dropped, the ivory-hilted dagger from Stefan's dresser, a carving knife from the
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kitchen.
Outside, there was no sign of Mrs. Flowers. The sky was pale purple, shading to
apricot in the west. Twilight of the solstice eve, Bonnie thought, and hairs on her
arms tried to lift.
"Klaus said the old farmhouse in the woods-that must mean the Francher
place," Matt said. "Where Katherine dumped Stefan in the abandoned well."
"That makes sense. He's probably been using Katherine's tunnel to get back and
forth under the river," Meredith said. "Unless Old Ones are so powerful they can
cross running water without harming themselves."
That's right, Bonnie remembered, evil things couldn't cross running water, and the
more evil you were, the harder it was. "But we don't know anything about the
Originals," she said aloud.
"No, and that means we've got to be careful," Matt said. "I know these woods
pretty well, and I know the path Stefan will probably use. I think we should take a
different one."
"So Stefan won't see us and kill us?"
"So Klaus won't see us, or not all of us. So maybe we'll have a chance of getting
to Caroline. Somehow or other we've got to get Caroline out of the equation; as long
as Klaus can threaten to hurt her he can make Stefan do anything he wants. And it's
always best to plan ahead, to get a jump on the enemy. Klaus said meet there after
dark; well, we'll be there before dark and maybe we can surprise him."
Bonnie was deeply impressed by this strategy. No wonder he's a quarterback, she
was thinking. I would have just rushed in, yelling.
Matt picked out an almost invisible path between the oak trees. The undergrowth
was especially lush this time of year, with mosses, grasses, flowering plants, and
ferns. Bonnie had to trust that Matt knew where he was going, because she certainly
didn't. Above, birds were giving one last burst of song before seeking out a roost
for the night.
It got dimmer. Moths and lacewings fluttered past Bonnie's face. After stumbling
through a patch of toadstools covered with feeding slugs, she was intensely grateful
that this time she'd worn jeans.
At last Matt stopped them. "We're getting close," he said, his voice low. "There's
a sort of bluff where we can look down and Klaus might not see us. Be quiet and
careful."
Bonnie had never taken so much trouble placing her feet before. Fortunately the

leaf litter was wet and not crackly. After a few minutes Matt dropped to his stomach
and gestured for them to follow. Bonnie kept telling herself, fiercely, that she didn't
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mind the centipedes and earthworms her sliding fingers dug up, that she had no
feelings one way or another about cobwebs in the face. This was life and death, and
she was competent. No dweeb, no baby, but competent.
leaf litter was wet and not crackly. After a few minutes Matt dropped to his stomach
and gestured for them to follow. Bonnie kept telling herself, fiercely, that she didn't
mind the centipedes and earthworms her sliding fingers dug up, that she had no
feelings one way or another about cobwebs in the face. This was life and death, and
she was competent. No dweeb, no baby, but competent.
They were gazing down on the Francher homestead-or what was left of it. It had
crumbled into the earth long ago, taken back by the forest. Now it was only a
foundation, building stones covered with flowering weeds and prickly brambles, and
one tall chimney like a lonely monument.
"There she is. Caroline," Meredith breathed in Bonnie's other ear.
Caroline was a dim figure sitting against the chimney. Her pale green dress
showed up in the gathering dark, but her auburn hair just looked black. Something
white shone across her face, and after a moment Bonnie realized it was a gag. Tape
or a bandage. From her strange posture-arms behind her, legs stretched straight
out in front-Bonnie also guessed she was tied.
Poor Caroline, she thought, forgiving the other girl all the nasty, petty, selfish
things she'd ever done, which was a pretty considerable amount when you got down
to it. But Bonnie couldn't imagine anything worse than being abducted by a psycho
vampire who'd already killed two of your classmates, dragged out here to the woods
and bound, and then left to wait, with your life depending on another vampire who
had fairly good reason to hate you. After all, Caroline had wanted Stefan in the
beginning, and had hated and tried to humiliate Elena for getting him. Stefan
Salvatore was the last person who should feel kindly toward Caroline Forbes.
"Look!" said Matt. "Is that him? Klaus?"
Bonnie had seen it too, a ripple of movement on the opposite side of the chimney.
As she strained her eyes he appeared, his light tan raincoat flapping ghostlike around
his legs. He glanced down at Caroline and she shrank from him, trying to lean away.
His laughter sounded so clearly in the quiet air that Bonnie flinched.
"That's him," she whispered, dropping down behind the screening ferns. "But
where's Stefan? It's almost dark now."
"Maybe he got smart and decided not to come," said Matt.
"No such luck," said Meredith. She was looking through the ferns to the south.
Bonnie glanced that way herself and started.
Stefan was standing at the edge of the clearing, having materialized there as if out
of thin air. Not even Klaus had seen him coming, Bonnie thought. He stood silently,
making no attempt to hide himself or the white ash spear he was carrying. There was
something in his stance and the way he looked over the scene before him that made
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Bonnie remember that in the fifteenth century he'd been an aristocrat, a member of
the nobility. He said nothing, waiting for Klaus to notice him, refusing to be rushed.

When Klaus did turn south he went still, and Bonnie got the feeling he was
surprised Stefan had sneaked up on him. But then he laughed and spread his arms.
When Klaus did turn south he went still, and Bonnie got the feeling he was
surprised Stefan had sneaked up on him. But then he laughed and spread his arms.
Slowly, Stefan looked Klaus up and down, from the tails of his tattered raincoat
to the top of his windblown head. What Stefan said was:
"You asked for me. I'm here. Let the girl go."
"Did I say that?" Looking genuinely surprised, Klaus pressed two hands to his
chest. Then he shook his head, chuckling. "I don't think so. Let's talk first."
Stefan nodded, as if Klaus had confirmed something bitter he'd been expecting.
He took the spear from his shoulder and held it in front of him, handling the
unwieldy length of wood deftly, easily. "I'm listening," he said.
"Not as dumb as he looks," Matt murmured from behind the ferns, a note of
respect in his voice. "And he's not as anxious to get killed as I thought," Matt added.
"He's being careful."
Klaus gestured toward Caroline, the tips of his fingers brushing her auburn hair.
"Why don't you come here so we don't have to shout?" But he didn't threaten to
hurt his prisoner, Bonnie noticed.
"I can hear you just fine," Stefan replied.
"Good," Matt whispered. "That's it, Stefan!"
Bonnie, though, was studying Caroline. The captive girl was struggling, tossing
her head back and forth as if she were frantic or in pain. But Bonnie got a strange
feeling about Caroline's movements, especially those violent jerks of the head, as if
the girl was straining to reach the sky. The sky... Bonnie's gaze lifted up to it, where
full darkness had fallen and a waning moon shone over the trees. That was why she
could see that Caroline's hair was auburn now: the moonlight, she thought. Then,
with a shock, her eyes dropped to the tree just above Stefan, whose branches were
rustling slightly in the absence of any wind. "Matt?" she whispered, alarmed.
Stefan was focused on Klaus, every sense, every muscle, every atom of his
Power honed and turned toward the Old One before him. But in that tree directly
above him...
All thoughts of strategy, of asking Matt what to do, fled from Bonnie's mind. She
bolted up from her place of concealment and shouted.
"Stefan! Above you! It's a trap!"
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Stefan leaped aside, neat as a cat, just as something plunged down on the exact
place he'd been standing an instant before. The moon lit the scene perfectly, enough
for Bonnie to see the white of Tyler's bared teeth.
And to see the white flash of Klaus's eyes as he whirled on her. For one stunned
instant she stared at him, and then lightning crackled.
From an empty sky.

It was only later that Bonnie would realize the strangeness-the fearsomeness-of
this. At the time she scarcely noted that the sky was clear and star swept and that the
jagged blue bolt that forked down struck the palm of Klaus's upraised hand. The
next sight she saw was so terrifying as to black everything else out: Klaus folding his
hand over that lightning, gathering it somehow, and throwing it at her.
It was only later that Bonnie would realize the strangeness-the fearsomeness-of
this. At the time she scarcely noted that the sky was clear and star swept and that the
jagged blue bolt that forked down struck the palm of Klaus's upraised hand. The
next sight she saw was so terrifying as to black everything else out: Klaus folding his
hand over that lightning, gathering it somehow, and throwing it at her.
"Stay here! Right here!" he shouted, and bounded away.
Those dreaded words. They catapulted Bonnie right up, and she was running
after him before she knew what she was doing.
And then the world turned into chaos.
Klaus had whirled back on Stefan, who was grappling with Tyler, beating him.
Tyler, in his wolf form, was making terrible sounds as Stefan threw him to the
ground.
Meredith was running toward Caroline, approaching from behind the chimney so
Klaus wouldn't spot her. Bonnie saw her reach Caroline and saw the flash of Stefan's
silver dagger as Meredith cut the cords around Caroline's wrists. Then Meredith was
half carrying, half dragging Caroline behind the chimney to work on her feet.
A sound like antlers clashing made Bonnie spin around. Klaus had come at Stefan
with a tall branch of his own-it must have been lying flat on the ground before. It
looked just as sharp as Stefan's, making it a serviceable lance. But Klaus and Stefan
weren't just stabbing at each other; they were using the sticks as quarterstaffs. Robin
Hood, Bonnie thought dazedly. Little John and Robin. That was what it looked like:
Klaus was that much taller and heavier boned than Stefan.
Then Bonnie saw something else and cried out wordlessly. Behind Stefan, Tyler
had gotten up again and was crouching, just as he had in the graveyard before
lunging for Stefan's throat. Stefan's back was to him. And Bonnie couldn't warn him
in time.
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But she'd forgotten about Matt. Head down, ignoring claws and fangs, he was
charging at Tyler, tackling him like a first-rate linebacker before he could leap. Tyler
went flying sideways, with Matt on top of him.
Bonnie was overwhelmed. So much was happening. Meredith was sawing through
Caroline's ankle cords; Matt was pummeling Tyler in a way that certainly would have
gotten him disqualified on the football field; Stefan was whirling that white ash staff
as if he'd been trained for it. Klaus was laughing deliriously, seeming exhilarated by
the exercise, as they traded blows with deadly speed and accuracy.
But Matt seemed to be in trouble now. Tyler was gripping him and snarling, trying
to get a hold on his throat. Wildly, Bonnie looked around for a weapon, entirely

forgetting the carving knife in her pocket. Her eye fell on a dead oak branch. She
picked it up and ran to where Tyler and Matt were struggling.
forgetting the carving knife in her pocket. Her eye fell on a dead oak branch. She
picked it up and ran to where Tyler and Matt were struggling.
Then Matt was on top of Tyler again, holding Tyler's head down, holding himself
clear. Bonnie saw her chance and aimed the stick. But Tyler saw her. With a burst of
supernatural strength, he gathered his legs and sent Matt soaring off him backward.
Matt's head struck a tree with a sound Bonnie would never forget. The dull sound of
a rotten melon bursting. He slid down the front of the tree and was still.
Bonnie was gasping, stunned. She might have started toward Matt, but Tyler was
there in front of her, breathing hard, bloody saliva running down his chin. He looked
even more like an animal than he had in the graveyard. As if in a dream, Bonnie
raised her stick, but she could feel it shaking in her hands. Matt was so still-was he
breathing? Bonnie could hear the sob in her own breath as she faced Tyler. This was
ridiculous; this was a boy from her own school. A boy she'd danced with last year at
the Junior Prom. How could he be keeping her away from Matt, how could he be
trying to hurt them all? How could he be doing this?
"Tyler, please-" she began, meaning to reason with him, to beg him...
"All alone in the woods, little girl?" he said, and his voice was a thick and guttural
growl, shaped at the last minute into words. In that instant Bonnie knew that this was
not the boy she'd gone to school with. This was an animal. Oh, God, he's ugly, she
thought. Ropes of red spit hung out of his mouth. And those yellow eyes with the
slitted pupils-in them she saw the cruelty of the shark, and the crocodile, and the
wasp that lays its eggs in a caterpillar's living body. All the cruelty of animal nature in
those two yellow eyes.
"Somebody should have warned you," Tyler said, dropping his jaw to laugh the
way a dog does. "Because if you go out in the woods alone, you might meet the Big
Bad-"
"Jerk!" a voice finished for him, and with a feeling of gratitude that bordered on
the religious, Bonnie saw Meredith beside her. Meredith, holding Stefan's dagger,
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which shone liquidly in the moonlight.
"Silver, Tyler," Meredith said, brandishing it. "I wonder what silver does to a
werewolf's members? Want to see?" All Meredith's elegance, her standoffishness,
her cool observer's dispassion were gone. This was the essential Meredith, a warrior
Meredith, and although she was smiling, she was mad.
"Yes!" shouted Bonnie gleefully, feeling power rush through her. Suddenly she
could move. She and Meredith, together, were strong. Meredith was stalking Tyler
from one side, Bonnie held her stick ready on the other. A longing she'd never felt
before shot through her, the longing to hit Tyler so hard his head would come flying
off. She could feel the strength to do it surging in her arm.
And Tyler, with his animal instinct, could sense it, could sense it from both of
them, closing in on either side. He recoiled, caught himself, and turned to try and get

away from them. They turned too. In a minute they were all three orbiting like a mini
solar system: Tyler turning around and around in the middle; Bonnie and Meredith
circling him, looking for a chance to attack.
away from them. They turned too. In a minute they were all three orbiting like a mini
solar system: Tyler turning around and around in the middle; Bonnie and Meredith
circling him, looking for a chance to attack.
"I did it! Yes. All right! Yes!" Bonnie shouted, flinging the stick away. Triumph
erupted from her in a primal shout. "We did it!" She grabbed the heavy body by the
back of the mane and pulled it off Meredith, where it had fallen. "We-"
Then she broke off, her words freezing in her throat. "Meredith!" she cried.
"It's all right," Meredith gasped, her voice tight with pain. And weakness, Bonnie
thought, chilled as if doused with ice water. Tyler had clawed her leg to the bone.
There were huge, gaping wounds in the thigh of Meredith's jeans and in the white
skin that showed clearly through the torn cloth. And to Bonnie's absolute horror, she
could see inside the skin too, could see flesh and muscle ripped and red blood
pouring out.
"Meredith-" she cried frantically. They had to get Meredith to a doctor.
Everyone had to stop now; everyone must understand that. They had an injury here;
they needed to get an ambulance, to call 911. "Meredith," she gasped, almost
weeping.
"Tie it up with something." Meredith's face was white. Shock. Going into shock.
And so much blood; so much blood coming out. Oh, God, thought Bonnie, please
help me. She looked for something to tie it up with, but there was nothing.
Something dropped on the ground beside her. A length of nylon cord like the
cord they'd used to tie up Tyler, with frayed edges. Bonnie looked up.
"Can you use that?" asked Caroline uncertainly, her teeth chattering.
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She was wearing the green dress, her auburn hair straggling and stuck to her face
with sweat and blood. Even as she spoke she swayed, and fell to her knees beside
Meredith.
"Are you hurt?" Bonnie gasped.
Caroline shook her head, but then she bent forward, racked with nausea, and
Bonnie saw the marks in her throat. But there was no time to worry about Caroline
now. Meredith was more important.
Bonnie tied the cord above Meredith's wounds, her mind running desperately over
things she'd learned from her sister Mary. Mary was a nurse. Mary said-a
tourniquet couldn't be too tight or left on too long or gangrene set in. But she had to
stop the gushing blood. Oh, Meredith.

"Bonnie-help Stefan," Meredith was gasping, her voice almost a whisper. "He's
going to need it..." She sagged backward, her breathing stertorous, her slitted eyes
looking up at the sky.
"Bonnie-help Stefan," Meredith was gasping, her voice almost a whisper. "He's
going to need it..." She sagged backward, her breathing stertorous, her slitted eyes
looking up at the sky.
Dazed, she turned to Caroline, who was shivering and retching, sweat beading her
face. Useless, Bonnie thought. But she had no other choice.
"Caroline, listen to me," she said. She picked up the largest piece of the stick
she'd used on Tyler and put it into Caroline's hands. "You stay with Matt and
Meredith. Loosen that tourniquet every twenty minutes or so. And if Tyler starts to
wake up, if he even twitches, you hit him as hard as you can with this. Understand?
Caroline," she added, "this is your big chance to prove you're good for something.
That you're not useless. All right?" She caught the furtive green eyes and repeated,
"All right?"
"But what are you going to do?"
Bonnie looked toward the clearing.
"No, Bonnie." Caroline's hand grasped her, and Bonnie noted with some part of
her mind the broken nails, the rope burns on the wrists. "Stay here where it's safe.
Don't go to them. There's nothing you can do-"
Bonnie shook her off and made for the clearing before she lost her resolve. In her
heart, she knew Caroline was right. There was nothing she could do. But something
Matt had said before they left was ringing in her mind. To try at least. She had to try.
Still, in those next few horrible minutes all she could do was look.
So far, Stefan and Klaus had been trading blows with such violence and accuracy
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that it had been like a beautiful, lethal dance. But it had been an equal, or almost
equal, match. Stefan had been holding his own.
Now she saw Stefan bearing down with his white ash lance, pressing Klaus to his
knees, forcing him backward, farther and farther back, like a limbo dancer seeing
how low he could go. And Bonnie could see Klaus's face now, mouth slightly open,
staring up at Stefan with what looked like astonishment and fear.
Then everything changed.
At the very bottom of his descent, when Klaus had bent back as far as he could
go, when it seemed that he must be about to collapse or break, something happened.
Klaus smiled.
And then he started pushing back.
Bonnie saw Stefan's muscles knot, saw his arms go rigid, trying to resist. But
Klaus, still grinning madly, eyes wide open, just kept coming. He unfolded like some
terrible jack-in-the-box, only slowly. Slowly. Inexorably. His grin getting wider until it
looked as if it would split his face. Like the Cheshire cat.

A cat, thought Bonnie.
A cat, thought Bonnie.
Now Stefan was the one grunting and straining, teeth clenched, trying to hold
Klaus off. But Klaus and his stick bore down, forcing Stefan backward, forcing him
to the ground.
Grinning all the time.
Until Stefan was lying on his back, his own stick pressing into his throat with the
weight of Klaus's lance across it. Klaus looked down at him and beamed. "I'm tired
of playing, little boy," he said, and he straightened and threw his own stick down.
"Now it's dying time."
He took Stefan's staff away from him as easily as if he were taking it from a child.
Picked it up with a flick of his wrist and broke it over his knee, showing how strong
he was, how strong he had always been. How cruelly he had been playing with
Stefan.
One of the halves of the white ash stick he tossed over his shoulder across the
clearing. The other he jabbed at Stefan. Using not the pointed end but the splintered
one, broken into a dozen tiny points. He jabbed down with a force that seemed
almost casual, but Stefan screamed. He did it again and again, eliciting a scream each
time.
Bonnie cried out, soundlessly.
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She had never heard Stefan scream before. She didn't need to be told what kind
of pain must have caused it. She didn't need to be told that white ash might be the
only wood deadly to Klaus, but that any wood was deadly to Stefan. That Stefan
was, if not dying now, about to die. That Klaus, with his hand now raised, was going
to finish it with one more plunging blow. Klaus's face was tilted to the moon in a grin
of obscene pleasure, showing that this was what he liked, where he got his thrills.
From killing.
And Bonnie couldn't move, couldn't even cry. The world swam around her. It
had all been a mistake, she wasn't competent; she was a baby after all. She didn't
want to see that final thrust, but she couldn't look away. And all this couldn't be
happening, but it was. It was.
Klaus flourished the splintered stake and with a smile of pure ecstasy started to
bring it down.
And a spear shot across the clearing and struck him in the middle of the back,
landing and quivering like a giant arrow, like half a giant arrow. It made Klaus's arms
fling out, dropping the stake; it shocked the ecstatic grin right off his face. He stood,
arms extended, for a second, and then turned, the white ash stick in his back
wobbling slightly.
Bonnie's eyes were too dazzled by waves of gray dots to see, but she heard the
voice clearly as it rang out, cold and arrogant and filled with absolute conviction.
Just five words, but they changed everything.

"Get away from my brother."

Fifteen
Klaus screamed, a scream that reminded Bonnie of ancient predators, of the
sabertooth cat and the bull mammoth. Blood frothed out of his mouth along with the
scream, turning that handsome face into a twisted mask of fury.
His hands scrabbled at his back, trying to get a grip on the white ash stake and
pull it out. But it was buried too deep. The throw had been a good one.
"Damon," Bonnie whispered.
He was standing at the edge of the clearing, framed by oak trees. As she watched,
he took a step toward Klaus, and then another; lithe stalking steps filled with deadly
purpose.
And he was angry. Bonnie would have run from the look on his face if her
muscles hadn't been frozen. She had never seen such menace so barely held in
check.
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"Get... away... from my brother," he said, almost breathing it, with his eyes never
leaving Klaus's as he took another step.
Klaus screamed again, but his hands stopped their frantic scrabbling. "You idiot!
We don't have to fight! I told you that at the house! We can ignore each other!"
Damon's voice was no louder than before. "Get away from my brother." Bonnie
could feel it inside him, a swell of Power like a tsunami. He continued, so softly that
Bonnie had to strain to hear him, "Before I tear your heart out."
Bonnie could move after all. She stepped backward.
"I told you!" screamed Klaus, frothing. Damon didn't acknowledge the words in
any way. His whole being seemed focused on Klaus's throat, on his chest, on the
beating heart inside that he was going to tear out.
Klaus picked up the unbroken lance and rushed him.
In spite of all the blood, the blond man seemed to have plenty of strength left.
The rush was sudden, violent, and almost inescapable. Bonnie saw him thrust the
lance at Damon and shut her eyes involuntarily, and then opened them an instant later
as she heard the flurry of wings.
Klaus had plunged right through the spot where Damon had been, and a black
crow was soaring upward while a single feather floated down. As Bonnie stared,
Klaus's rush took him into the darkness beyond the clearing and he disappeared.
Dead silence fell in the wood.
Bonnie's paralysis broke slowly, and she first stepped, and then ran to where
Stefan lay. He didn't open his eyes at her approach; he seemed unconscious. She
knelt beside him. And then she felt a sort of horrible calm creep over her, like
someone who has been swimming in ice water and at last feels the first undeniable
signs of hypothermia. If she hadn't had so many successive shocks already, she

might have fled screaming or dissolved into hysterics. But as it was, this was simply
the last step, the last little slide into unreality. Into a world that couldn't be, but was.
might have fled screaming or dissolved into hysterics. But as it was, this was simply
the last step, the last little slide into unreality. Into a world that couldn't be, but was.
She'd never seen anybody hurt like this. Not even Mr. Tanner, and he had died of
his wounds. Nothing Mary had ever said could help fix this. Even if they'd had
Stefan on a stretcher outside an operating room, it wouldn't have been enough.
In that state of dreadful calm she looked up to see a flutter of wings blur and
shimmer in the moonlight. Damon stood beside her, and she spoke quite collectedly
and rationally.
"Will giving him blood help?"
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He didn't seem to hear her. His eyes were all black, all pupil. That barely leashed
violence, that sense of ferocious energy held back, was gone. He knelt and touched
the dark head on the ground.
"Stefan?"
Bonnie shut her eyes.
Damon's scared, she thought. Damon's scared-Damon!-and oh, God, I don't
know what to do. There's nothing to do-and it's all over and we're all lost and
Damon is scared for Stefan. He isn't going to take care of things and he hasn't got a
solution and somebody's got to fix this. And oh, God, please help me because I'm
so frightened and Stefan's dying and Meredith and Matt are hurt and Klaus is going
to come back.
She opened her eyes to look at Damon. He was white, his face looking terrifyingly
young at that moment, with those dilated black eyes.
"Klaus is coming back," Bonnie said quietly. She wasn't afraid of him anymore.
They weren't a centuries-old hunter and a seventeen-year-old human girl, sitting here
at the edge of the world.
They were just two people, Damon and Bonnie, who had to do the best they
could.
"I know," Damon said. He was holding Stefan's hand, looking completely
unembarrassed about it, and it seemed quite logical and sensible. Bonnie could feel
him sending Power into Stefan, could also feel that it wasn't enough.
"Would blood help him?"
"Not much. A little, maybe."
"Anything that helps at all we've got to try."
Stefan whispered, "No."
Bonnie was surprised. She'd thought he was unconscious. But his eyes were open
now, open and alert and smoldering green. They were the only alive thing about him.
"Don't be stupid," Damon said, his voice hardening. He was gripping Stefan's
hand until his knuckles whitened. "You're badly hurt."

"I won't break my promise." That immovable stubbornness was in Stefan's voice,
in his pale face. And when Damon opened his mouth again, undoubtedly to say that
Stefan would break it and like it or Damon would break his neck, Stefan added,
"Especially when it won't do any good."
"I won't break my promise." That immovable stubbornness was in Stefan's voice,
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in his pale face. And when Damon opened his mouth again, undoubtedly to say that
Stefan would break it and like it or Damon would break his neck, Stefan added,
"Especially when it won't do any good."
Only the truth would do. And Stefan was telling the truth.
He was still looking at his brother, who was looking back, all that fierce, furious
attention focused on Stefan as it had been focused on Klaus earlier. As if somehow
that would help.
"I'm not badly hurt, I'm dead," Stefan said brutally, his eyes locked on Damon's.
Their last and greatest struggle of wills, Bonnie thought. "And you need to get
Bonnie and the others out of here."
"We won't leave you," Bonnie intervened. That was the truth; she could say that.
"You have to!" Stefan didn't glance aside, didn't look away from his brother.
"Damon, you know I'm right. Klaus will be here any minute. Don't throw your life
away. Don't throw their lives away."
"I don't give a damn about their lives," Damon hissed. The truth also, Bonnie
thought, curiously unoffended. There was only one life Damon cared about here,
and it wasn't his own.
"Yes, you do!" Stefan flared back. He was hanging on to Damon's hand with just
as fierce a grip, as if this was a contest and he could force Damon to concede that
way. "Elena had a last request; well, this is mine. You have Power, Damon. I want
you to use it to help them."
"Stefan..." Bonnie whispered helplessly.
"Promise me," Stefan said to Damon, and then a spasm of pain twisted his face.
For uncountable seconds Damon simply looked down at him. Then he said, "I
promise," quick and sharp as the stroke of a dagger. He let go of Stefan's hand and
stood, turning to Bonnie. "Come on."
"We can't leave him..."
"Yes, we can." There was nothing young about Damon's face now. Nothing
vulnerable. "You and your human friends are leaving here, permanently. I am coming
back."
Bonnie shook her head. She knew, dimly, that Damon wasn't betraying Stefan,
that it was some case of Damon putting Stefan's ideals above Stefan's life, but it was
all too abstruse and incomprehensible to her. She didn't understand it and she didn't
want to. All she knew was that Stefan couldn't be left lying there.
"You're coming now," Damon said, reaching for her, the steely ring back in his
voice. Bonnie prepared herself for a fight, and then something happened that made
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all their debating meaningless. There was a crack like a giant whip and a flash like
daylight, and Bonnie was blinded. When she could see through the afterimage, her
eyes flew to the flames that were licking up from a newly blackened hole at the base
of a tree.
all their debating meaningless. There was a crack like a giant whip and a flash like
daylight, and Bonnie was blinded. When she could see through the afterimage, her
eyes flew to the flames that were licking up from a newly blackened hole at the base
of a tree.
Bonnie's eye darted to him next, as the only other thing moving in the clearing. He
was waving the bloody white ash stake he'd pulled out of his own back like a gory
trophy.
Lightning rod, thought Bonnie illogically, and then there was another crash.
It stabbed down from an empty sky, in huge blue-white forks that lit everything
like the sun at noon. Bonnie watched as one tree and then another was hit, each one
closer than the last. Flames licked up like hungry red goblins among the leaves.
Two trees on either side of Bonnie exploded, with cracks so loud that she felt
rather than heard it, a piercing pain in her eardrums. Damon, whose eyes were more
sensitive, threw up a hand to protect them.
Then he shouted "Klaus!" and sprang toward the blond man. He wasn't stalking
now; this was the deadly race of attack. The burst of killing speed of the hunting cat
or the wolf.
Lightning caught him in midspring.
Bonnie screamed as she saw it, jumping to her feet. There was a blue flash of
superheated gases and a smell of burning, and then Damon was down, lying
motionless on his face. Bonnie could see tiny wisps of smoke rise from him, just as
they did from the trees.
Speechless with horror, she looked at Klaus.
He was swaggering through the clearing, holding his bloody stick like a golf club.
He bent down over Damon as he passed, and smiled. Bonnie wanted to scream
again, but she didn't have the breath. There didn't seem to be any air left to breathe.
"I'll deal with you later," Klaus told the unconscious Damon. Then his face tipped
up toward Bonnie.
"You," he said, "I'm going to deal with right now."
It was an instant before she realized he was looking at Stefan, and not her. Those
electric blue eyes were fixed on Stefan's face. They moved to Stefan's bloody
middle.
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"I'm going to eat you now, Salvatore."
Bonnie was all alone. The only one left standing. And she was afraid.
But she knew what she had to do.
She let her knees collapse again, dropping to the ground beside Stefan.
And this is how it ends, she thought. You kneel beside your knight and then you
face the enemy.

She looked at Klaus and moved so that she was shielding Stefan. He seemed to
notice her for the first time, and frowned as if he'd found a spider in his salad.
Firelight flickered orange-red on his face.
She looked at Klaus and moved so that she was shielding Stefan. He seemed to
notice her for the first time, and frowned as if he'd found a spider in his salad.
Firelight flickered orange-red on his face.
"No."
And this is how the ending starts. Like this, so simply, with one word, and you're
going to die on a summer night. A summer night when the moon and stars are
shining and bonfires burn like the flames the Druids used to summon the dead.
"Bonnie, go," Stefan said painfully. "Get out while you can."
"No," Bonnie said. I'm sorry, Elena, she thought. I can't save him. This is all I can
do.
"Get out of the way," Klaus said through his teeth.
"No." She could wait and let Stefan die this way, instead of with Klaus's teeth in
his throat. It might not seem like much of a difference, but it was the most she could
offer.
"Bonnie..." Stefan whispered.
"Don't you know who I am, girl? I've walked with the devil. If you move, I'll let
you die quickly."
Bonnie's voice had given out. She shook her head.
Klaus threw back his own head and laughed. A little more blood trickled out, too.
"All right," he said. "Have it your own way. Both of you go together."
Summer night, Bonnie thought. The solstice eve. When the line between worlds is
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so thin.
"Say good night, sweetheart."
No time to trance, no time for anything. Nothing except one desperate appeal.
"Elena!" Bonnie screamed. "Elena! Elena!"
Klaus recoiled.
For an instant, it seemed as if the name alone had the power to alarm him. Or as if
he expected something to respond to Bonnie's cry. He stood, listening.
Bonnie drew on her powers, putting everything she had into it, throwing her need
and her call out into the void.
And felt... nothing.
Nothing disturbed the summer night except the crackling sound of flames. Klaus
turned back to Bonnie and Stefan, and grinned.
Then Bonnie saw the mist creeping along the ground.
No-it couldn't be mist. It must be smoke from the fire. But it didn't behave like
either. It was swirling, rising in the air like a tiny whirlwind or dust devil. It was

gathering into a shape roughly the size of a man.
gathering into a shape roughly the size of a man.
Mist was flowing out of the ground, between the trees. Pools of it, each separate
and distinct. Bonnie, staring mutely, could see through each patch, could see the
flames, the oak trees, the bricks of the chimney. Klaus had stopped smiling, stopped
moving, and was watching too.
Bonnie turned to Stefan, unable to even frame the question.
"Unquiet spirits," he whispered huskily, his green eyes intent. "The solstice."
And then Bonnie understood.
They were coming. From across the river, where the old cemetery lay. From the
woods, where countless makeshift graves had been dug to dump bodies in before
they rotted. The unquiet spirits, the soldiers who had fought here and died during the
Civil War. A supernatural host answering the call for help.
They were forming all around. There were hundreds of them.
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Bonnie could actually see faces now. The misty outlines were filling in with pale
hues like so many runny watercolors. She saw a flash of blue, a glimmer of gray.
Both Union and Confederate troops. Bonnie glimpsed a pistol thrust into a belt, the
glint of an ornamented sword. Chevrons on a sleeve. A bushy dark beard; a long,
well-tended white one. A small figure, child size, with dark holes for eyes and a drum
hanging at thigh level.
"Oh, my God," she whispered. "Oh, God." It wasn't swearing. It was something
like a prayer.
Not that she wasn't frightened of them, because she was. It was every nightmare
she'd ever had about the cemetery come true. Like her first dream about Elena, when
things came crawling out of the black pits in the earth; only these things weren't
crawling, they were flying, skimming and floating until they swirled into human form.
Everything that Bonnie had ever felt about the old graveyard-that it was alive and
full of watching eyes, that there was some Power lurking behind its waiting stillness
-was proving true. The earth of Fell's Church was giving up its bloody memories.
The spirits of those who'd died here were walking again.
And Bonnie could feel their anger. It frightened her, but another emotion was
waking up inside her, making her catch her breath and clench tighter on Stefan's
hand. Because the misty army had a leader.
One figure was floating in front of the others, closest to the place where Klaus
stood. It had no shape or definition as yet, but it glowed and scintillated with the pale
golden light of a candle flame. Then, before Bonnie's eyes, it seemed to take on
substance from the air, shining brighter and brighter every minute with an unearthly
light. It was brighter than the circle of fire. It was so bright that Klaus leaned back
from it and Bonnie blinked, but when she turned at a low sound, she saw Stefan
staring straight into it, fearlessly, with wide-open eyes. And smiling, so faintly, as if

glad to have this be the last thing he saw.
glad to have this be the last thing he saw.
Klaus dropped the stake. He had turned away from Bonnie and Stefan to face the
being of light that hung in the clearing like an avenging angel. Golden hair streaming
back in an invisible wind, Elena looked down on him.
"She came," Bonnie whispered.
"You asked her to," Stefan murmured. His voice trailed off into a labored breath,
but he was still smiling. His eyes were serene.
"Stand away from them," Elena said, her voice coming simultaneously to Bonnie's
ears and her mind. It was like the chiming of dozens of bells, distant and close up at
once. "It's over now, Klaus."
But Klaus rallied quickly. Bonnie saw his shoulders swell with a breath, noticed
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for the first time the hole in the back of the tan raincoat where the white ash stake
had pierced him. It was stained dull red, and new blood was flowing now as Klaus
flung out his arms.
"You think I'm afraid of you?" he shouted. He spun around, laughing at all the
pallid forms. "You think I'm afraid of any of you? You're dead! Dust on the wind!
You can't touch me!"
"You're wrong," Elena said in her wind-chime voice.
"I'm one of the Old Ones! An Original! Do you know what that means?" Klaus
turned again, addressing all of them, his unnaturally blue eyes seeming to catch some
of the red glow of the fire. "I've never died. Every one of you has died, you gallery
of spooks! But not me. Death can't touch me. I am invincible!"
The last word came in a shout so loud it echoed among the trees. Invincible...
invincible... invincible. Bonnie heard it fading into the hungry sound of the fire.
Elena waited until the last echo had died. Then she said, very simply, "Not quite."
She turned to look at the misty shapes around her. "He wants to spill more blood
here."
A new voice spoke up, a hollow voice that ran like a trickle of cold water down
Bonnie's spine. "There's been enough killing, I say." It was a Union soldier with a
double row of buttons on his jacket.
"More than enough," said another voice, like the boom of a faraway drum. A
Confederate holding a bayonet.
"It's time somebody stopped it"-an old man in home-dyed butternut cloth.
"We can't let it go on"-the drummer boy with the black holes for eyes.
"No more blood spilled!" Several voices took it up at once. "No more killing!"
The cry passed from one to another, until the swell of sound was louder than the
roar of the fire. "No more blood!"
"You can't touch me! You can't kill me!"

"Let's take 'im, boys!"
"Let's take 'im, boys!"
"You can't kill me! I'm immortal!"
The tornado swept away into the darkness beyond Bonnie's sight. Following it
was a trail of ghosts like a comet's tail, shooting off into the night sky.
"Where are they taking him?" Bonnie didn't mean to say it aloud; she just blurted
it out before she thought. But Elena heard.
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"Where he won't do any harm," she said, and the look on her face stopped
Bonnie from asking any other questions.
There was a squealing, bleating sound from the other side of the clearing. Bonnie
turned and saw Tyler, in his terrible part-human, part-animal shape, on his feet. There
was no need for Caroline's club. He was staring at Elena and the few remaining
ghostly figures and gibbering.
"Don't let them take me! Don't let them take me too!"
Before Elena could speak, he had spun around. He regarded the fire, which was
higher than his own head, for an instant, then plunged right through it, crashing into
the forest beyond. Through a parting of the flames, Bonnie saw him drop to the
ground, beating out flames on himself, then rise and run again. Then the fire flared up
and she couldn't see anything more.
But she'd remembered something: Meredith-and Matt. Meredith was lying
propped up, her head in Caroline's lap, watching. Matt was still on his back. Hurt,
but not so badly hurt as Stefan.
"Elena," Bonnie said, catching the bright figure's attention, and then she simply
looked at him.
The brightness came closer. Stefan didn't blink. He looked into the heart of the
light and smiled. "He's been stopped now. Thanks to you."
"It was Bonnie who called us. And she couldn't have done it at the right place and
the right time without you and the others."
"I tried to keep my promise."
"I know, Stefan."
Bonnie didn't like the sound of this at all. It sounded too much like a farewell-a
permanent one. Her own words floated back to her: He might go to another place
or-or just go out. And she didn't want Stefan to go anywhere. Surely anyone who
looked that much like an angel...

"Elena," she said, "can't you-do something? Can't you help him?" Her voice
was shaking.
"Elena," she said, "can't you-do something? Can't you help him?" Her voice
was shaking.
"I can do something," she said. "But I don't know if it's the kind of help he
wants." She turned back to Stefan. "Stefan, I can cure what Klaus did. Tonight I
have that much Power. But I can't cure what Katherine did."
Bonnie's numbed brain struggled with this for a while. What Katherine did-but
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Stefan had recovered months ago from Katherine's torture in the crypt. Then she
understood. What Katherine had done was make Stefan a vampire.
"It's been too long," Stefan was saying to Elena. "If you did cure it, I'd be a pile
of dust."
"Yes." Elena didn't smile, just went on looking at him steadily. "Do you want my
help, Stefan?"
"To go on living in this world in the shadows..." Stefan's voice was a whisper
now, his green eyes distant. Bonnie wanted to shake him. Live, she thought to him,
but she didn't dare say it for fear she'd make him decide just the opposite. Then she
thought of something else.
"To go on trying," she said, and both of them looked at her. She looked back,
chin thrust out, and saw the beginning of a smile on Elena's bright lips. Elena turned
to Stefan, and that tiny hint of a smile passed to him.
"Yes," he said quietly, and then, to Elena, "I want your help."
She bent and kissed him.
Bonnie saw the brightness flow from her to Stefan, like a river of sparkling light
engulfing him. It flooded over him the way the dark mist had surrounded Klaus, like
a cascade of diamonds, until his entire body glowed like Elena's.
For an instant Bonnie imagined she could see the blood inside him turned molten,
flowing out to each vein, each capillary, healing everything it touched. Then the glow
faded to a golden aura, soaking back into Stefan's skin. His shirt was still
demolished, but underneath the flesh was smooth and firm. Bonnie, feeling her own
eyes wide with wonder, couldn't help reaching out to touch.
It felt just like any skin. The horrible wounds were gone.
She laughed aloud with sheer excitement, and then looked up, sobering. "Elenathere's
Meredith, too-"
The bright being that was Elena was already moving across the clearing. Meredith
looked up at her from Caroline's lap.
"Hello, Elena," she said, almost normally, except that her voice was so weak.

Elena bent and kissed her. The brightness flowed again, encompassing Meredith.
And when it faded, Meredith stood up on her own two feet.
Elena bent and kissed her. The brightness flowed again, encompassing Meredith.
And when it faded, Meredith stood up on her own two feet.
Then she went to Damon.
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He was still lying where he had fallen. The ghosts had passed over him, taking no
notice of him. Elena's brightness hovered over him, one shining hand reaching to
touch his hair. Then she bent and kissed the dark head on the ground.
As the sparkling light faded, Damon sat up and shook his head. He saw Elena and
went still, then, every movement careful and self-contained, stood up. He didn't say
anything, only looked as Elena turned back to Stefan.
He was silhouetted against the fire. Bonnie had scarcely noticed how the red glow
had grown so that it almost eclipsed Elena's gold. But now she saw it and felt a thrill
of alarm.
"My last gift to you," Elena said, and it began to rain.
Not a thunder-and-lightning storm, but a thorough pattering rain that soaked
everything-Bonnie included-and doused the fire. It was fresh and cool, and it
seemed to wash all the horror of the last hours away, cleansing the glade of
everything that had happened there. Bonnie tilted her face up to it, shutting her eyes,
wanting to stretch out her arms and embrace it. At last it slackened and she looked
again at Elena.
Elena was looking at Stefan, and there was no smile on her lips now. The
wordless sorrow was back in her face.
"It's midnight," she said. "And I have to go."
Bonnie knew instantly, at the sound of it, that "go" didn't just mean for the
moment. "Go" meant forever. Elena was going somewhere that no trance or dream
could reach.
And Stefan knew it too.
"Just a few more minutes," he said, reaching for her.
"I'm sorry-"
"Elena, wait-I need to tell you-"
"I can't!" For the first time the serenity of that bright face was destroyed, showing
not only gentle sadness but tearing grief. "Stefan, I can't wait. I'm so sorry." It was
as if she were being pulled backward, retreating from them into some dimension that
Bonnie could not see. Maybe the same place Honoria went when her task was
finished, Bonnie thought. To be at peace.
But Elena's eyes didn't look as if she were at peace. They clung to Stefan, and she
reached out her hand toward his, hopelessly. They didn't touch. Wherever Elena was
being pulled was too far away.

"Elena-please!" It was the voice Stefan had called her with in his room. As if his
heart was breaking.
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"Elena-please!" It was the voice Stefan had called her with in his room. As if his
heart was breaking.
"Stefan," Elena called again, but her voice came as if from a long distance. The
brightness was almost gone. Then, as Bonnie stared through helpless tears, it winked
out.
Leaving the clearing silent once again. They were all gone, the ghosts of Fell's
Church who had walked for one night to keep more blood from being spilled. The
bright spirit that had led them had vanished without a trace, and even the moon and
stars were covered by clouds.
Bonnie knew that the wetness on Stefan's face wasn't due to the rain that was still
splashing down.
He was standing, chest heaving, looking at the last place where Elena's brightness
had been seen. And all the longing and the pain Bonnie had glimpsed on his face at
times before was nothing to what she saw now.
"It isn't fair," she whispered. Then she shouted it to the sky, not caring who she
was addressing. "It isn't fair!"
Stefan had been breathing more and more quickly. Now he lifted his face too, not
in anger but in unbearable pain. His eyes were searching the clouds as if he might
find some last trace of golden light, some flicker of brightness there. He couldn't.
Bonnie saw the spasm go through him, like the agony of Klaus's stake. And the cry
that burst out of him was the most terrible thing she'd ever heard. "Elena!"

Sixteen
Bonnie never could quite remember how the next few seconds went. She heard
Stefan's cry that almost seemed to shake the earth beneath her. She saw Damon start
toward him. And then she saw the flash.
A flash like Klaus's lightning, only not blue-white. This one was gold.
And so bright Bonnie felt that the sun had exploded in front of her eyes. All she
could make out for several seconds were whirling colors. And then she saw
something in the middle of the clearing, near the chimney stack. Something white,
shaped like the ghosts, only more solid looking. Something small and huddled that
had to be anything but what her eyes were telling her it looked like.
Because it looked like a slender naked girl trembling on the forest floor. A girl
with golden hair.
It looked like Elena.
Not the glowing, candle-lit Elena of the spirit world and not the pale, inhumanly
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beautiful girl who had been Elena the vampire. This was an Elena whose creamy skin
was blotching pink and showing gooseflesh under the spatter of the rain. An Elena
who looked bewildered as she slowly raised her head and gazed around her, as if all
the familiar things in the clearing were unfamiliar to her.
It's an illusion. Either that or they gave her a few minutes to say good-bye. Bonnie
kept telling herself that, but she couldn't make herself believe it.
"Bonnie?" said a voice uncertainly. A voice that wasn't like wind chimes at all.
The voice of a frightened young girl.
Bonnie's knees gave out. A wild feeling was growing inside her. She tried to push
it away, not daring to even examine it yet. She just watched Elena.
Elena touched the grass in front of her. Hesitantly at first, then more and more
firmly, quicker and quicker. She picked up a leaf in fingers that seemed clumsy, put
it down, patted the ground. Snatched it up again. She grabbed a whole handful of
wet leaves, held them to her, smelled them. She looked up at Bonnie, the leaves
scattering away.
For a moment, they just knelt and stared at each other from the distance of a few
feet. Then, tremulously, Bonnie stretched out her hand. She couldn't breathe. The
feeling was growing and growing.
Elena's hand came up in turn. Reached toward Bonnie's. Their fingers touched.
Real fingers. In the real world. Where they both were.
Bonnie gave a kind of scream and threw herself on Elena.
In a minute she was patting her everywhere in a frenzy, with wild, disbelieving
delight. And Elena was solid. She was wet from the rain and she was shivering and
Bonnie's hands didn't go through her. Bits of damp leaf and crumbs of soil were

clinging to Elena's hair.
clinging to Elena's hair.
Elena gasped back, "I can touch you! I'm here!" She grabbed the leaves again. "I
can touch the ground!"
"I can see you touching it!" They might have kept this up indefinitely, but
Meredith interrupted. She was standing a few steps away, staring, her dark eyes
enormous, her face white. She made a choking sound.
"Meredith!" Elena turned to her and held out handfuls of leaves. She opened her
arms.
Meredith, who had been able to cope when Elena's body was found in the river,
when Elena had appeared at her window as a vampire, when Elena had materialized
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in the clearing like an angel, just stood there, shaking. She looked about to faint.
"Meredith, she's solid! You can touch her! See?" Bonnie pummeled Elena again
joyfully.
Meredith didn't move. She whispered, "It's impossible-"
"It's true! See? It's true!" Bonnie was getting hysterical. She knew she was, and
she didn't care. If anyone had a right to get hysterical, it was her. "It's true, it's true,"
she caroled. "Meredith, come see."
Meredith, who had been staring at Elena all this while, made another choked
sound. Then, with one motion, she flung herself down on Elena. She touched her,
found that her hand met the resistance of flesh. She looked into Elena's face. And
then she burst into uncontrollable tears.
She cried and cried, her head on Elena's naked shoulder.
Bonnie gleefully patted both of them.
"Don't you think she'd better put something on?" said a voice, and Bonnie looked
up to see Caroline taking off her dress. Caroline did it rather calmly, standing in her
beige polyester slip afterward as if she did this sort of thing all the time. No
imagination, Bonnie thought again, but without malice. Clearly there were times when
no imagination was an advantage.
Meredith and Bonnie pulled the dress over Elena's head. She looked small inside
it, wet and somehow unnatural, as if she wasn't used to clothing anymore. But it was
some protection from the elements, anyway.
Then Elena whispered, "Stefan."
She turned. He was standing there, with Damon and Matt, a little apart from the
girls. He was just watching her. As if not only his breath, but his life was held,
waiting.
Elena got up and took a tottery step to him, and then another and another. Slim
and newly fragile inside her borrowed dress, she wavered as she moved toward him.
Like the little mermaid learning how to use her legs, Bonnie thought.

He let her get almost all the way there, just staring, before he stumbled toward her.
They ended in a rush and then fell to the ground together, arms locked around each
other, each holding on as tightly as possible. Neither of them said a word.
He let her get almost all the way there, just staring, before he stumbled toward her.
They ended in a rush and then fell to the ground together, arms locked around each
other, each holding on as tightly as possible. Neither of them said a word.
Bonnie watched unabashedly, feeling some of the heady joy spill over into tears.
Her throat ached, but these were sweet tears, not the salt tears of pain, and she was
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still smiling. She was filthy, she was soaking wet, she had never been so happy in her
life. She felt as if she wanted to dance and sing and do all sorts of crazy things.
Some time later Elena looked up from Stefan to all of them, her face almost as
bright as when she'd floated in the clearing like an angel. Shining like starlight. No
one will ever call her Ice Princess again, Bonnie thought.
"My friends," Elena said. It was all she said, but it was enough, that and the queer
little sob she gave as she held out a hand to them. They were around her in a second,
swarming her, all trying to embrace at once. Even Caroline.
"Elena," Caroline said, "I'm sorry..."
"It's all forgotten now," Elena said, and hugged her as freely as anyone else. Then
she grasped a sturdy brown hand and held it briefly to her cheek. "Matt," she said,
and he smiled at her, blue eyes swimming. But not with misery at seeing her in
Stefan's arms, Bonnie thought. Just now Matt's face expressed only happiness.
A shadow fell over the little group, coming between them and the moonlight.
Elena looked up, and held out her hand again.
"Damon," she said.
The clear light and shining love in her face was irresistible. Or it should have been
irresistible, Bonnie thought. But Damon stepped forward unsmiling, his black eyes as
bottomless and unfathomable as ever. None of the starlight that shone from Elena
was reflected back from them.
Stefan looked up at him fearlessly, as he'd looked into the painful brilliance of
Elena's golden brightness. Then, never looking away, he held out his hand as well.
Damon stood gazing down at them, the two open, fearless faces, the mute offer
of their hands. The offer of connection, warmth, humanity. Nothing showed in his
own face, and he was utterly motionless himself.
"Come on, Damon," Matt said softly. Bonnie looked at him quickly, and saw that
the blue eyes were intent now as they looked at the shadowed hunter's face.
Damon spoke without moving. "I'm not like you."
"You're not as different from us as you want to think," Matt said. "Look," he
added, an odd note of challenge in his voice, "I know you killed Mr. Tanner in
self-defense, because you told me. And I know you didn't come here to Fell's

Church because Bonnie's spell dragged you here, because I sorted the hair and I
didn't make any mistakes. You're more like us than you admit, Damon. The only
thing I don't know is why you didn't go into Vickie's house to help her."
Church because Bonnie's spell dragged you here, because I sorted the hair and I
didn't make any mistakes. You're more like us than you admit, Damon. The only
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thing I don't know is why you didn't go into Vickie's house to help her."
Memory swept over Bonnie. Herself standing outside Vickie's house, Damon
standing beside her. Stefan's voice: Vickie, invite me in. But no one had invited
Damon.
"But how did Klaus get in, then-?" she began, following her own thoughts.
"That was Tyler's job, I'm sure," Damon said tersely. "What Tyler did for Klaus
in return for learning how to reclaim his heritage. And he must have invited Klaus in
before we ever started guarding the house-probably before Stefan and I came to
Fell's Church. Klaus was well prepared. That night he was in the house and the girl
was dead before I knew what was happening."
"Why didn't you call for Stefan?" Matt said. There was no accusation in his
voice. It was a simple question.
"Because there was nothing he could have done! I knew what you were dealing
with as soon as I saw it. An Old One. Stefan would only have gotten himself killedand
the girl was past caring, anyway."
Bonnie heard the thread of coldness in his voice, and when Damon turned back to
Stefan and Elena, his face had hardened. It was as if some decision had been made.
"You see, I'm not like you," he said.
"It doesn't matter." Stefan had still not withdrawn his hand. Neither had Elena.
"And sometimes the good guys do win," Matt said quietly, encouragingly.
"Damon-" Bonnie began. Slowly, almost reluctantly, he turned toward her. She
was thinking about that moment when they had been kneeling over Stefan and he had
looked so young. When they had been just Damon and Bonnie at the edge of the
world.
She thought, for just one instant, that she saw stars in those black eyes. And she
could sense in him something-some ferment of feelings like longing and confusion
and fear and anger all mixed. But then it was all smoothed over again and his shields
were back up and Bonnie's psychic senses told her nothing. And those black eyes
were simply opaque.
He turned back to the couple on the ground. Then he removed his jacket and
stepped behind Elena. He draped it over her shoulders without touching her.
"It's a cold night," he said. His eyes held Stefan's a moment as he settled the
black jacket around her.
And then he turned to walk into the darkness between the oak trees. In an instant
Bonnie heard the rush of wings.
Stefan and Elena wordlessly joined hands again, and Elena's golden head dropped
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to Stefan's shoulder. Over her hair Stefan's green eyes were turned toward the patch
of night where his brother had disappeared.
to Stefan's shoulder. Over her hair Stefan's green eyes were turned toward the patch
of night where his brother had disappeared.
"You wanted us all back together again!" Bonnie shouted at Caroline, and pulled
the scandalized girl into the dance. Meredith, her dignity forgotten, joined them too.
And for a long time in the clearing there was only rejoicing.
June 21, 7:30 a.m.
The Summer Solstice
Dear Diary,
Oh, it's all too much to explain and you wouldn't believe it anyway. I'm going
to bed.
Bonnie

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