"Do you know where Ethan is?" Zander asked in a low, calm voice, and it felt to Bonnie as if something, some invisible blast of Power, flew between them.
In a second, Beth's wary face emptied of all expression. "He's hiding in the safe house at the end of the tunnels," she said. Her voice sounded half-asleep, disconnected from her thoughts.
"Are there other vampires with him?" Zander asked, his eyes steady on hers.
"Yes," Beth said. "Everyone's staying there until the equinox, when all Ethan's hopes will be fulfilled."
Two days, Bonnie thought. The others had told her that Ethan had planned to resurrect Klaus, the Original vampire. She shivered at the thought. Klaus had been scary, one of the scariest things she'd ever seen. But could they really do it? Ethan hadn't gotten Stefan's and Damon's blood, and he couldn't do the resurrection spell without it. Could he?
"Ask her what their defenses are like," Meredith said, getting with the program.
"Is he well defended?" Zander asked.
Beth's head jerked into a stiff nod, as if an invisible puppeteer had pulled her strings. "No one can get to him," she said in that same sleepy monotone. "He's hidden, and every one of us would give our lives to protect him."
Meredith nodded, clearly weighing the words of her next question, but Matt broke in. "Can we save her?" he asked, and the pain in his voice made Bonnie flinch. "Maybe if she wasn't so hungry . . ."
Zander focused in even more strongly on Beth, and Bonnie again felt a wave of Power emanating from him. "Do you want to hurt people, Beth?" he asked quietly.
Beth chuckled, a rich, dark sound, although her face stayed blandly expressionless. That laugh was the first emotion she had shown since Zander had somehow charmed her into blankness and truth. "I don't want to hurt - I want to kill," she said, with a hard amusement in her tone. "I've never felt so alive."
Zander stepped back with a quick animal grace. At the same moment Meredith smoothly shot forward, shoving her stave through Beth's heart.
After the tearing noise of wood through flesh, Beth fell without a sound. Matt's gasp broke the silence, a startled, pained little noise. At Bonnie's knees, Beth's victim stirred, his head turning from one side to the other. Bonnie automatically patted him soothingly with the hand that wasn't keeping pressure on his neck wounds. "It's okay," she said quietly.
Meredith turned to Matt defiantly. "I had to," she said.
Matt bowed his head, his shoulders sagging. "I know," he answered. "Believe me, I know. It's just . . ." He shifted from one foot to the other. "She was a nice girl, before this happened to her."
"I'm sorry," Meredith said quietly, and Matt nodded, still looking at the ground. Then Meredith turned to Zander. "What was that?" she asked. "How did you get her to talk?"
Zander blushed a little. "Um. Well," he said, and shrugged one shoulder self-consciously. "There's this thing some of us Original werewolves can do, if we've practiced. We can make people tell the truth. It doesn't work on everyone, but I thought it was worth a try."
Bonnie stared up at him quizzically. "You didn't tell me that," she said.
Zander lowered himself down onto his knees and faced her across Beth's unconscious victim. His eyes were wide and sincere. "I'm sorry," he said. "I honestly didn't think about it. It's just one of the weird little things we can do."
The unconscious guy's bleeding seemed to have slowed, and Bonnie sat back on her heels. Zander raised his eyebrows at her, looking hopeful, and she smiled back at him. She'd have to find out what these other "little things" were, she guessed.
"Seems like that's something that could be pretty useful," she said, and watched Zander's face relax into a sunny, joyful grin.
Meredith cleared her throat. She was still watching Matt, her eyes full of sympathy, but her voice was dry. "We should get everyone together as soon as possible. If Ethan's still trying to resurrect Klaus, we need to come up with a plan now."
Klaus. The stone of the tunnel floor beneath Bonnie's knees was suddenly freezing. Klaus was darkness, violence, and fear. They had only defeated him back in Fell's Church by an extraordinary intervention, by Fell's Church's ghosts rising against him. That wasn't something they'd be able to recreate. What could they do now? Bonnie closed her eyes for a second, dizzy. She could picture, vividly, darkness rising up from below them, thick and choking, eager to consume them. Something evil was coming.
Chapter 3
Elena laced her fingers through Stefan's, thrilling at even this little touch. It felt like it had been so long since they had been alone together, so long since she'd even been close enough to Stefan to touch him. All this evening she'd found herself leaning against his side, brushing her thumb over his knuckles, wrapping her arm around his waist, tracing her finger along his collarbone: any little touch she could have. Anything to feel the simple, satisfying reality of Stefan, here with her at last.
It was a pleasantly warm night, and there was soft moss underfoot. A breeze rustled the leaves of the forest trees all around them, and through the trees' branches she could glimpse a sky full of stars. It had all the elements of a romantic stroll through the woods, except for the fact that they were searching for bloodthirsty vampires.
"I don't sense anything," Stefan said. His hand was reassuringly tight around hers, but his dark green eyes held a faraway look, and Elena knew he was using his Power to scan the forest. "No vampires and no one in pain or afraid, as far as I can tell. I don't think there's anyone around."