Then Stefan sat down. He knew Elena would stand or sit or share a chair with Meredith, but whatever it was, she would be the one to decide.
Mrs. Flowers was gently stirring honey into her mug of tea and then passing the honey along to Stefan who gave it to Elena who put just the little bit that Meredith liked into Meredith's mug and stirred it gently, too.
The ordinary, civilized sounds of two spoons quietly clinking seemed to relax Meredith Stillfurther. She took the mug Elena gave her and sipped, then drank thirstily.
Elena could feel Stefan's mental sigh of relief as Meredith floated down another few levels. He politely sipped his own tea, which was hot but not burning hot and made from natural y sweet berries and herbs.
"It's good,"Meredith said. She was almost a human now.
"Thank you, Mrs. Flowers."
Elena felt lighter. She relaxed enough to pul over her own cup of tea and squeeze lots of honey in and stir it and take a gulp. Good! Calming down tea!
That's chamomile and cucumber, Stefan told her.
"Chamomile and cucumber,"Elena said, nodding wisely, "for calming down."And then she blushed, for Mrs. Flowers's bright smile had knowledge in it.
Elena hastily drank more tea and watched Meredith have more tea and everything began to feel almost al right.
Meredith was completely Meredith now, not some fierce animal. Elena squeezed her friend's hand tightly.
There was just one problem. Humans were less frightening than beasts but they could cry. Now Meredith, who never wept, was shaking and tears were dripping into the tea.
"You know what morcillo is, right?"she asked Elena at last.
Elena nodded hesitantly. "We had it sometimes in stew at your house?"she said. "And for tapas?"Elena had grown up with the blood sausage as a meal or a snack at her friend's house, and she was used to the bite-sized pieces as a delicious food only Mrs. Sulez made.
Elena felt Stefan's heart sinking. She looked back and forth from him to Meredith.
"It turns out my mother didn't always make it,"Meredith said, looking at Stefan now. "And my parents had a very good reason for changing my birthday."
"Just tel it al ,"Stefan suggested softly. And then Elena felt something she hadn't before. A surge, like a wave - a long gentle swell that spoke right into the center of Meredith's brain. It said: Just tell it and be calm. No anger. No fear.
But it wasn't telepathy. Meredith felt the thought in her blood and bones, but didn't hear it with her ears.
It was Influence. Before Elena could brain her beloved Stefan with her mug for using Influence on one of her friends, Stefan said, just to her, Meredith's hurting, feeling scared and angry. She has reason to, but she needs peace. I probably won't be able to hold her anyway, but I'll try.
Meredith wiped her eyes. "It turns out that nothing was like what I thought happened - that night when I was three."She described what her parents had told her, about everything that Klaus had done. Tel ing the story, even quietly, was undoing al the calming influences that had helped Meredith maintain herself. She was beginning to shake again. Before Elena could grab her, she was up and striding around the room. "He laughed and said that I'd need blood every week - animal blood - or I'd die. I didn't need much. Just a tablespoon or two. And my poor mother didn't want to lose another child. She did what he told her to. But what happens if I have more blood, Stefan? What happens if I drink yours?"
Stefan was thinking, desperately trying to see if in al his years of experience he'd come across anything like this.
Meanwhile he answered the easy part.
"If you drank enough of my blood you'd become a vampire.
But so would anyone. With you - Well, it might take less. So don't let any vampire trick you into blood exchange. Once might be enough."
"So I'm not a vampire? Now? Not any kind? Are there different kinds?"
Stefan answered seriously. "I've never heard of 'different kinds'of vampires in my life, except for Old Ones. I can tel you that you don't have a vampire's aura. What about your teeth? Can you make your canines sharp? Usual y it's best to test over human flesh. Not your own."
Elena promptly stuck out her arm, wrist vein-side up.
Meredith, eyes closed in concentration, made a great effort, which Elena felt through Stefan. Then Meredith opened her eyes, mouth also open for a dental inspection. Elena stared at her canines. They looked a little bit sharp, but so did anybody's, didn't they?
Careful y Elena reached a fingertip in. She touched one of Meredith's canines.
Tiny pinch.
Startled, Elena pul ed back. She stared at her finger where a very smal drop of blood was well ing up.
Everyone watched it, mesmerized. Then Elena's mouth said without pausing to consult her brain, "You have kitten teeth."
The next moment Meredith had brushed Elena aside and was pacing wildly al around the kitchen. "I won't be one! I won't be! I'm a hunter-slayer, not a vampire! I'l kill myself if I'm a vampire!"She was deadly serious. Elena felt Stefan feeling it, the quick thrust of the stave between her ribs and into the heart. She would go on the Internet to find the right area. Ironwood and white ash piercing her heart, Stilling it forever...sealing off the evil that was Meredith Sulez.
Be calm! Be calm! Stefan's Influence flooded into her.
Meredith was not calm.
"But before that I have to kil my brother."She flung down a photograph on Mrs. Flowers's kitchen table. "It turns out that Klaus or someone has been sending these since Cristian was four - on my real birthday. For years! And in every picture you could see his vampire teeth. Not 'kitten teeth.'And then they stopped coming when I was about ten.