Damon sighed again, wearily. "I didn't call to fight, little brother," he said. "I just want to know if you have any idea what's going on."
"Right. Sorry. I don't want to fight either. I know you're not hunting," Stefan apologized. It was true: Damon wouldn't take an unwilling victim, not with Elena so linked to him that she'd be able to tell. "Well, I don't know if this is related, but there's another Old One here in town. Solomon. And he's after Elena."
"After Elena?" Damon's voice got sharper, focused. A woman said something behind him-Katherine, Stefan realized-and he replied, his voice muffled, then came back on the line. "Is Elena in danger?"
"It'll be okay. I've hunted a lot of Old Ones since you left. And you know how strong Elena is," Stefan said. There was no point in making Damon worry; he couldn't do anything more than the rest of them could. Which seemed to be nothing at this point. "Andres just got here to help us track Solomon down."
"And then bing, boom, you'll take him out," Damon said lightly. "Nice to know you've got things under control. I don't see how this could be related, though. The vampires coming after us aren't Old Ones. If anything, they feel ... new."
"New like newly made?" Stefan said. "You should be able to handle them easily, then."
Damon laughed a short, dry laugh. "You'd think so," he said. "No, it's not that they feel newly made, exactly, they're just ... different, I suppose."
"You're not making a lot of sense, Damon," Stefan told him. The drugstore was almost empty, but the elderly cashier was peering at him from the other end of the aisle, her eyebrows raised. Stefan turned away from her, hunching his shoulders. He needed to keep his voice down. That was the problem with small towns: Someone was always watching you.
"When you've dealt with your little problem there, why don't you come out here?" Damon said. There was an artificial lightness to his voice as he added, "Come on, Stefan. It'll be fun. A little gambling, a little sailing, a little vampire killing. When was the last time you were in Monaco?"
"I can't," Stefan said automatically. "I need to be here to protect Elena."
There was another long pause, and Damon said, grimly, "I thought you said she was fine."
"She is, but ..." Stefan could hear his own voice rising in irritation, and he stopped himself. Damon was his brother, and he'd saved Stefan's life more than once.
And he knew that, if Damon suspected how bad things were, he would come rushing back to fight on their side. He was better off out of it.
"I'm sorry," Stefan said, his voice gentle. "Elena will be fine. And I know you and Katherine will survive. You always do."
"I hope so," Damon said. "But it sounds like you've made your choice, anyway." The line went dead. Stefan stared down at the phone in his hand for a moment, wondering if he should call Damon back. The cashier down at the end of the store was still watching him. He tucked the phone back into his pocket.
Damon's tone had been bitter at the end, and Stefan felt bad about it, he really did. His brother had called to ask him for help, something he rarely did, and Stefan had turned him down. Guilt ran sharp through his veins. He couldn't worry about Damon, he reminded himself. Damon would be fine. It was Elena who mattered.
"Marisol's amazing," Andres said happily. "We've been doing research in the rain forest, classifying plants no one knew about before, and we both love it. The life force there is so wonderful; even though she's not a Guardian, I think she feels it as much as I do."
Elena watched Andres's smile light up his face, his warm brown eyes shine. She remembered how much sorrow he'd carried with him when they first met, after the death of the man who'd raised him. It was good to see the joy shining through him now.
"I'm so happy for you," she said, squeezing her friend's hand. "Have you told her you're a Guardian?"
"Of course." Andres sounded surprised. "How could we love each other if she didn't know the truth about me?"
Elena thought of Matt's insistence on keeping the supernatural hidden from Jasmine, and shook her head. "I don't think you could, not forever," she agreed, feeling a pang of sorrow for Matt.
Stefan's key rattled in the lock, and Elena and Andres looked up, smiling in welcome. Stefan smiled back automatically, his eyes searching out Elena's as they always did. As he leaned over to kiss her hello, Elena noticed tight lines of tension around his mouth.
"Did something happen?" she asked.
"I talked to Damon," Stefan told her.
"You did?" Relief flooded through Elena, mixed with a slightly miffed feeling: Damon had called Stefan, but not her? After all the messages she had left him? "Is he okay? Where is he?"
"He's fine," Stefan said. "He's in Monaco."
Monaco. Glamorous, full of life. Sounded like Damon. But then, why the angry, anxious emotions that had streamed-were still streaming-through the connection between them? "Did he get my messages?" she asked hesitantly. "And the e-mails?"
"He didn't say," Stefan told her. "We didn't talk for very long."
Elena frowned. "Well, why-" But Stefan was avoiding her eyes, his face closed off tightly. There was something he didn't want to tell her. Elena bit her lip. Maybe she should let it rest for now. "I'm glad he's all right, anyway," she said. "And wait till you hear what we figured out."
Andres cleared his throat and broke into a grin, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "We were talking over the situation," he said, "and I thought of something that may help. Once, back when I first came into my Powers, I needed to trace an animal spirit who had been making trouble in town. The problem was, no one knew who the spirit was: She could have taken any kind of human disguise. My mentor, Javier, and I worked together and I learned how to do, er ..." He waved his hand impatiently, looking for the words. "I guess you'd call it a vision spell? I was able to channel my Power through something we knew the spirit had seen in the past and find my way back to what she was seeing in the present."