Everything went black for a moment. Red flowers bloomed and burst in the darkness, and Meredith realized muzzily that it was her brain sending out random signals as it began to shut down from lack of oxygen.
She was beginning to float, as if she was suspended in a black sea. It would be good to rest. She was so tired.
Then a voice snapped through the darkness in Meredith's mind, her father's voice. Meredith! it said. It was impatient, firm but not unkind, the exact tone that had gotten her out of bed to run laps before school, encouraged her to practice a tae kwon do form when all she wanted to do was go out with her friends. You're a Sulez, the voice said. You must fight!
With a nearly superhuman effort, Meredith opened her eyes. Everything was blurry and she felt so slow, as if she was trying to move underwater.
Cristian's hand had relaxed on the bar. He must have thought all the fight in her was gone.
Meredith took every bit of strength she had gathered and pushed the bar up and away from her, tumbling her unwary vampire brother over with the bar on top of him. She had one glimpse of Cristian's startled, infuriated face before she ran as fast as she could, legs weak, heart pounding, gasping for breath, straight out of the weight room, out of the gym, and onto the paths of campus.
She had to slow as she approached her dorm, her legs sore and her lungs burning now that that original surge of adrenaline had worn off. Meredith tried to push herself onward, but she was stumbling now. At any moment, Cristian might grab her. He could have caught her by now, of course.
Just outside the dorm, she gathered her courage and spun around. No one was there. He had intended to kill her alone and in secret, and he would no doubt try again. Meredith unlocked the door and staggered in, flopping down to sit on the bottom step of the staircase.
She was still gasping for breath, and she choked on a sob. Meredith had wanted to know her brother, but he was already gone; he was Klaus's family now.
As she rubbed at her strained muscles, Meredith realized dully what she was going to have to do. She was going to have to kill Cristian.
Chapter 33
Damon licked a trace of blood carefully from the back of his hand and smiled at Katherine. They'd come across a couple walking through the woods just after dawn and fed together, and now it was midmorning, sunlight streaming down through the trees and casting black and golden shadows on the path. Damon felt full and content, ready to go home and sleep away the brightest of the daylight hours. A slight unease crossed his mind as he remembered the expression of panic on his victim's face, and he pushed it away: he was a vampire; this was what he was supposed to do.
Dabbing delicately at the corners of her mouth, Katherine cocked her head at him, as dainty and quizzical as a little songbird. "Why didn't you kill yours?" she asked.
Shrugging defensively, Damon slipped his sunglasses out of his pocket and over his eyes. He wasn't, to be completely honest, sure why he hadn't killed the girl this morning, or why he hadn't killed any of his victims since the blond jogger he'd hunted down more than a week before. He could remember how good the kill had felt, the rush as her life passed into him, but he wasn't eager to repeat the experience, not when the lingering aftertaste was guilt. He didn't want to feel anything for them; he wanted to take the blood and go. If that meant letting them live, that was fine with Damon.
Shielded behind the sunglasses, he said none of this, but merely smirked at Katherine and asked, "Why didn't you?"
"Oh, we're all keeping a low profile. Too many deaths and this campus will panic again. Klaus wants to keep the humans happy and easy to hunt while he finishes off your girl and her friends." Katherine eyed Damon as she smoothed her long golden hair, and he kept his expression carefully blank. Whatever Katherine wanted from him, she wasn't going to get it by bringing up Elena.
"Of course," Damon said, and added, "You know, you came back from death much saner and more practical, my dear." Katherine dimpled at him, and mock-curtsied gracefully.
They walked peacefully together, listening to the chirps and calls of sparrows, finches, and robins overhead. The quick rattle of a woodpecker drilling a tree sounded a little way away, and Damon could hear the rustle and patter of small, furry creatures in the undergrowth. He stretched luxuriously, thinking of his bed.
"So," Katherine said, breaking the comfortable silence between them. "Elena." She said it again, stretching the syllables of the word out as if she was tasting them: "E-ley-na."
"What about her?" Damon asked. His voice was careless, but he felt an uncomfortable heat at the back of his neck.
Katherine fixed him knowingly with her jewel-blue gaze, and Damon frowned at her behind his sunglasses.
"Tell me about her," she said softly, her expression coaxing. "I want to know."
Damon stopped walking and pulled Katherine to face him. "I thought you weren't angry at Elena anymore," he said, deflecting the question. "You're supposed to leave her alone, Katherine."
Katherine shrugged gracefully. "I'm not angry at her," she said. "But Klaus is." Her eyes glittered. "I thought you didn't care about Elena anymore. You were quite clear about it, you know. Why won't you tell me anything?"
"I . . ." Damon's heart fluttered in his chest, quicker than its usual vampire-slow beat. "I just don't want to," he said finally.
Katherine laughed quietly, her beautiful bell-like laugh. "Oh, Damon," she said, and shook her head mockingly. "You might be wicked in theory, but your heart is so pure. What happened?"
Grimacing, Damon turned away from her, letting go of her hand. "My heart is not pure," he said pettishly.