Little whimpers were coming from Tyler's throat and there was foam on his lips. "I don't know his name," he gasped out. "But he looks like you said. And you're right; he's a vampire, man! I saw him drain a ten-point buck while it was still kicking. He lied to me," Tyler added, the whine creeping back into his voice. "He told me I'd be stronger than anybody, as strong as him. He said I could have any girl I wanted, any way I wanted. The creep lied."
"He told you that you could kill and get away with it," Stefan said.
"He said I could do Caroline that night. She had it coming after the way she ditched me. I wanted to make her beg-but she got out of the house somehow. I could have Caroline and Vickie, he said. All he wanted was Bonnie and Meredith." "But you just tried to kill Meredith."
"That was now. Things are different now, stupid. He said it was all right." "Why?" Meredith asked Stefan in an undertone.
"Maybe because you'd served your purpose," he said. "You'd brought me here."
Then he went on, "All right, Tyler, show us you're cooperating. Tell us how we can get this guy."
"Get him? You're nuts!" Tyler burst into ugly laughter, and Matt tightened the arm around his throat. "Hey, choke me all you want; it's still the truth. He told me he's one of the Old Ones, one of the Originals, whatever that means. He said he's been making vampires since before the pyramids. He said he's made a bargain with the devil. You could stick a stake in his heart and it wouldn't do anything. You can't kill him." The laughter became uncontrolled.
"Where's he hiding, Tyler?" Stefan rapped out. "Every vampire needs a place to sleep. Where is it?"
"He'd kill me if I told you that. He'd eat me, man. God, if I told you what he did to that buck before it died..." Tyler's laughter was turning into something like sobs.
"Then you'd better help us destroy him before he can find you, hadn't you? What's his weak point? How's he vulnerable?"
"God, that poor buck..." Tyler was blubbering.
"What about Sue? Did you cry over her?" Stefan said sharply. He picked up the ax. "I think," he said, "that you're wasting our time."
The ax lifted.
"No! No! I'll talk to you; I'll tell you something. Look, there's one kind of wood that can hurt him-not kill him, but hurt him. He admitted that but didn't tell me what it was! I swear to you that's the truth!"
"Not good enough, Tyler," said Stefan.
"For God's sake-I'll tell you where he's going tonight. If you get over there fast enough, maybe you can stop him."
"What do you mean, where he's going tonight? Talk fast, Tyler!"
"He's going to Vickie's, okay? He said tonight we get one each. That's helpful, isn't it? If you hurry, maybe you can get there!"
Stefan had frozen, and Meredith felt her heart racing. Vickie. They hadn't even thought about an attack on Vickie.
"Damon's guarding her," Matt said. "Right, Stefan? Right?"
"He's supposed to be," Stefan said. "I left him there at dusk. If something happened, he should have called me..."
"You guys," Bonnie whispered. Her eyes were big and her lips were trembling. "I think we'd better get over there now."
They stared at her a moment and then everyone was moving. The ax clanged on the floor as Stefan dropped it.
"Hey, you can't leave me like this! I can't drive! He's gonna come back for me! Come back and untie my hands!" Tyler shrieked. None of them answered.
They ran all the way down the hill and piled into Meredith's car. Meredith took off speeding, rounding corners dangerously fast and gliding through stop signs, but there was a part of her that didn't want to get to Vickie's house. That wanted to turn around and drive the other way.
I'm calm; I'm the one who's always calm, she thought. But that was on the outside. Meredith knew very well how calm you could look on the outside when inside everything was breaking up.
They rounded the last corner onto Birch Street and Meredith hit the brakes.
"Oh, God!" Bonnie cried from the backseat. "No! No!"
"Quick," Stefan said. "There may still be a chance." He wrenched open the door
and was out even before the car had stopped. But in back, Bonnie was sobbing.
Chapter Eleven
The car skidded in behind one of the police cars that was parked crookedly in the street. There were lights everywhere, lights flashing blue and red and amber, lights blazing from the Bennett house.
"Stay here," Matt snapped, and he plunged outside, following Stefan.
"No!" Bonnie's head jerked up; she wanted to grab him and drag him back. The dizzy nausea she'd felt ever since Tyler had mentioned Vickie was overwhelming her. It was too late; she'd known in the first instant that it was too late. Matt was only going to get himself killed too.
"You stay, Bonnie-keep the doors locked. I'll go after them." That was Meredith.
"No! I'm sick of having everybody tell me to stay!" Bonnie cried, struggling with the seat belt, finally getting it unlocked. She was still crying, but she could see well enough to get out of the car and start toward Vickie's house. She heard Meredith right behind her.
The activity all seemed concentrated at the front: people shouting, a woman screaming, the crackling voices of police radios. Bonnie and Meredith headed straight for the back, for Vickie's window. What is wrong with this picture? Bonnie thought wildly as they approached. The wrongness of what she was looking at was undeniable, yet hard to put a finger on. Vickie's window was open-but it couldn't be open; the middle pane of a bay window never opens, Bonnie thought. But then how could the curtains be fluttering out like shirttails?