"Stefan Salvatore!" Bonnie was scandalized and offended. "After all we've been through together, you think we'd blab?"
"Not blab," Stefan's voice came back over the mobile, gently. But Bonnie was going on.
"We've stuck together through rogue vampires and the town's ghost, and werewolves, and Old Ones, and secret crypts, and serial killings and - and - Damon - and have we ever told people about them?" Bonnie said.
"I'm sorry," Stefan said. "I just meant that Elena won't be safe if any of you tells even one person. It would be all over the newspapers right away:GIRL RETURNS TO LIFE . Andthen what do we do?"
"I understand about that," Meredith said briefly, leaning in so that Stefan could see her. "You don't need to worry. Every one of us will vow not to tellanyone ." Her dark eyes flicked momentarily toward Caroline and then away again.
"Ihave to ask you" - Stefan was making use of all his Renaissance training in politeness and chivalry, particularly considering that three of the four people watching him on the phone were female - "do you really have any way to enforce a vow?"
"Oh, I think so," Meredith said pleasantly, this time looking Caroline directly in the eyes. Caroline flushed, her bronzed cheeks and throat turning scarlet. "Let us work it out, and in the afternoon, we'll come over."
Bonnie, who was holding the phone, said, "Anybody have anything else to say?"
Matt had remained silent during most of the conversation. Now he shook his head, making his shock of fair hair fly. Then, as if he couldn't hold it back, he blurted, "Can we talk to Elena? Just to say hi? I mean - it's been a wholeweek ." His tanned skin burned with a sunset glow almost as brightly as Caroline's had.
"I think you'd better just come over. You'll see why when you get here." Stefan hung up.
They were at Meredith's house, sitting around an old patio table in the backyard. "Well, we can at least take them some food," Bonnie suggested, rocketing up from her seat. "God knows what Mrs. Flowers makes for them to eat - orif she does." She made waving motions to the others as if to raise them from their chairs by levitation.
Matt started to obey, but Meredith remained seated. She said quietly, "We just made a promise to Stefan. There's the matter of the vow first. And the consequences."
"I know you're thinking about me," Caroline said. "Why don't you just say so?"
"All right," Meredith said, "I'm thinking about you. Why are you suddenly interested in Elena again? How can we be sure that you won't go spreading the news of this all around Fell's Church?"
"Why would I want to?"
"Attention. You'd love to be at the center of a crowd, giving them every juicy detail."
"Or revenge," Bonnie added, suddenly sitting down again. "Or jealousy. Or boredom. Or - "
"Okay," Matt interrupted. "I think that's enough with the reasons."
"Just one more thing," Meredith said quietly. "Why do youcare so much about seeing her, Caroline? The two of you haven't gotten along in almost a year, ever since Stefan came to Fell's Church. We let you in on the call to Stefan, but after what he said - "
"If you really need a reason why I should care, after everything that happened a week ago, well...well, I would think you'd understand without being told!" Caroline fixed shining cat-green eyes on Meredith.
Meredith looked back with her best no-expression expression.
"All right!" Caroline said. "She killed him for me. Or had him called to Judgment, or whatever. That vampire, Klaus. And after being kidnapped and - and - and - used - like a toy - whenever Klaus wanted blood - or - " Her face twisted and her breathing hitched.
Bonnie felt sympathy, but she also was wary. Her intuition was aching, warning her. And she noticed that although Caroline spoke about Klaus, the vampire, she was strangely silent about her other kidnapper, Tyler Smallwood, the werewolf. Maybe because Tyler had been her boyfriend until he and Klaus had held her hostage.
"I'm sorry," Meredith said in a quiet voice thatdid sound sorry. "So you want to thank Elena."
"Yes. I want to thank her." Caroline was breathing hard. "And I want to make sure that she's okay."
"Okay. But this oath covers quite a bit of time," Meredith continued calmly. "You may change your mind tomorrow, next week, a month from now...we haven't even thought about consequences."
"Look, we can'tthreaten Caroline," Matt said. "Not physically."
"Or get other people to threaten her," Bonnie said wistfully.
"No, we can't," Meredith said. "But for the short term - you're a sorority pledge this coming fall, aren't you, Caroline? I can always tell your prospective sorority sisters that you broke your solemn vow about somebody who is helpless to hurt you - who I'm sure doesn'twant to hurt you. Somehow I don't think they'd care for you much after that."
Caroline's face flushed deeply again. "You wouldn't. You wouldn't go interfering with my college - "
Meredith cut her off with two words. "Try me."
Caroline seemed to wilt. "I never said I wouldn't take the vow, and I never said I wouldn't keep it. Just try me, why don't you? I - I've learned a few things this summer."
I should hope so.The words, although nobody said them aloud, seemed to hover over all of them. Caroline's hobby for the entire last year had been trying to find ways to hurt Stefan and Elena.
Bonnie shifted position. There was something - shadowed - behind what Caroline was saying. She didn't know how she knew; it was the sixth sense that she'd been born with. But maybe it just had to do with how much Caroline had changed, with what she had learned, Bonnie told herself.