The others were mostly out patrolling the town and the woods, the Pack's sharp noses trying to root out any scent that might lead them to Trinity. Matt hadn't shown up yet. He was probably on his way from Jasmine's now.
This is what it's like to be a traveling hunter, Meredith thought, looking around. She and Stefan had traveled in search of Old Ones, of course, but only for a few days at a time. This room was different. Everything in it, from the hard-wearing, neutral-colored clothes to the neatly kept weapons, could be packed quickly and easily into one duffle bag. These were the possessions of a girl constantly on the road.
Meredith reached into the weapons bag and ran her thumb over the handle of Trinity's spare machete. The grip was worn with use.
"I don't think she's been back," Darlene said, rifling carefully through a bureau drawer. Her face was creased with concern. "All of her clothes are here."
"These papers just have to do with the hunt," Jack said from the desk. "Nothing I don't have. Would she have gone back to her family, do you think? Maybe if she was confused from the blood loss?"
Darlene shook her head, her eyes fixed on Trinity's meager possessions. "Her parents were killed in a vampire attack a couple of years back. There's no one else."
Stefan's hands paused for a moment in their careful examination of the space below Trinity's mattress, where he was feeling for anything hidden. It was the tiniest flinch, but Meredith saw it. She knew how much human deaths at the hands of other vampires bothered him, even now that he'd killed so many monsters, saved all of their lives so many times. Stefan, she thought, had never forgiven himself for what he was.
Elena laid a comforting hand on Stefan's shoulder and said idly to Jack, "I thought you'd all known one another all your lives."
"Not Jack," Darlene told her. "He recruited us for this hunt out of Atlanta about a year ago. We've been after Solomon ever since."
"We're all from hunter families, though," Jack said, "and that's a bond that crosses state lines." He grinned at Meredith, and something warm expanded in her chest at the acceptance in his eyes: She and Jack and Darlene, they were all hunters.
She stood and zipped Trinity's weapons bag back up. It didn't hold any clues. "If only Bonnie were here. She does a great tracing spell. I'll have Alaric call her, and she can talk him through it."
Stefan nodded. "That's probably our best option."
Darlene closed the bureau drawer. "Guess we should go," she said, but she hesitated, looking around the room one more time. Her face was tight with anxiety. "I just don't know where she could have gone," she said softly.
Zander cleared his throat. He and Shay were hovering in the kitchenette, and something in the way they were standing made the hairs suddenly stand up on the backs of Meredith's arms.
"Are we sure Solomon's dead?" Zander asked, sounding reluctant, rocking back on his heels.
Stefan and Meredith glanced at each other.
"We all saw him die," Meredith said, puzzled. "You saw, too. Stefan cut him in half."
"Wait, do you smell him?" Elena asked, horrified. One of her hands pulled back in front of her chest, as if to stave off a blow. "You said all the scents in here were old," she protested.
Shay shrugged. "In here, yeah."
Zander shifted from one foot to the other, looking uncomfortable and anxious. "The smells in here are old," he said, "but back at your apartment, Trinity didn't smell right. It's kind of hard to explain. Like, her scent and Solomon's scents were all wrapped up together. I didn't worry about it then, because we were all just focused on how hurt she was, but now ..."
He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, and Meredith suppressed a little flare of annoyance. Bonnie usually acted as a Zander translator for the rest of her friends. Meredith hadn't really noticed until Bonnie went away that the guy wasn't the best at communication.
"Of course Trinity smelled like Solomon," Meredith said, trying to sound patient. "He was touching her at the Plantation Museum. And when Stefan killed him, his blood went all over her."
"Not like that," Zander said, frowning. "His scent wasn't on top of hers; they were all mixed up together. That's not how it works." He looked at Shay and she gave him a little shrug, as if to say, this is your thing, not mine. Turning to Stefan, he said, "Is there any way he could have infected Trinity with something? Like, with some aspect of himself? Can Old Ones do that?"
Say no. Meredith looked at Stefan for reassurance, but he frowned, unsure. "The Old Ones have so many Powers that other vampires don't," he said slowly. "I never heard of anything like that, but it could be true."
Jack shook his head decidedly. "I've been hunting Old Ones for a while-longer than you, Stefan, no offense. None of them could do that."
A flicker of movement outside the window caught Meredith's eye. "Matt's here," she said. She opened the door, and Matt came in, red-eyed and unshaven.
"Are you okay?" Meredith asked. They were all tired and worried, but Matt looked even worse than the rest of them, shockingly pale and grim under his stubble, his face almost paper white.
"Fine," Matt said, but he sounded distracted. He looked at Stefan. "Listen, Jasmine said Trinity's eyes were yellow when she was treating her. I don't ... what do you think that means?"
Goose bumps crawled up Meredith's skin. "Possession?" she said, her voice sounding strangely high to her own ears. "With the eyes, and the scent? Even though Solomon's dead?"