Stefan had dropped to his knees, shaking, looking at the slender white bones in his hands. It was all an illusion-Klaus was merely controlling Bonnie's trance and showing Stefan what he wanted Stefan to see. He hadn't really hurt Elena, but the hot, protective fury inside Stefan wouldn't recognize that. Carefully, Stefan laid the fragile bones on the ground and touched them once, gently. Then he looked up at Klaus, lips curled with contempt.
"That is not Elena," he said.
"Of course it is. I'd recognize her anywhere." Klaus spread his hands and declaimed, " 'I knew a woman, lovely in her bones...' "
"No." Sweat was beading on Stefan's forehead. He shut out Klaus's voice and concentrated, fists clenched, muscles cracking with effort. It was like pushing a boulder uphill, fighting Klaus's influence. But where they lay, the delicate bones began trembling, and a faint golden light shone around them.
"'A rag and a bone and a hank of hair... the fool he called them his lady fair... ' "
The light was shimmering, dancing, linking the bones together. Warm and golden it folded about them, clothing them as they rose in the air. What stood there now was a featureless form of soft radiance. Sweat ran into Stefan's eyes and he felt as if his lungs would burst.
" 'Clay lies still, but blood's a rover...' "
" 'And the crack in the teacup opens a lane to the land of the dead . . .' "
"No." Dizziness swept over Stefan as he felt the last surge of Power sigh out of him. A breath lifted the figure's breast, and eyes blue as lapis lazuli opened.
Elena smiled, and he felt the blaze of her love arc to meet him. "Stefan." Her head was high, proud as any queen's.
Stefan turned to Klaus, who had stopped speaking and was glaring mutely.
"This," Stefan said distinctly, "is Elena. Not whatever empty shell she's left behind in the ground. This is Elena, and nothing you do can ever touch her."
He held out his hand, and Elena took it and stepped to him. When they touched, he felt a jolt, and then felt her Powers flowing into him, sustaining him. They stood together, side by side, facing the blond man. Stefan had never felt as fiercely victorious in his life, or as strong.
Klaus stared at them for perhaps twenty seconds and then went berserk.
His face twisted in loathing. Stefan could feel waves of malignant Power battering against him and Elena, and he used all his strength to resist it. The maelstrom of dark fury was trying to tear them apart, howling through the room, destroying everything in its path. Candles snuffed out and flew into the air as if caught in a tornado. The dream was breaking up around them, shattering.
Stefan clung to Elena's other hand. The wind blew her hair, whipping it around her face.
"Stefan!" She was shouting, trying to make herself heard. Then he heard her voice in his mind. "Stefan, listen to me! There is one thing you can do to stop him. You need a victim, Stefan-find one of his victims. Only a victim will know-"
The noise level was unbearable, as if the very fabric of space and time was tearing. Stefan felt Elena's hands ripped from his. With a cry of desperation, he reached out for her again, but he could feel nothing. He was already drained by the effort of fighting Klaus, and he couldn't hold on to consciousness. The darkness took him spinning down with it.
Bonnie had seen everything.
It was strange, but once she stepped aside to let Stefan go to Elena, she seemed to lose physical presence in the dream. It was as if she were no longer a player but the stage the action was being played upon. She could watch, but she couldn't do anything else.
In the end, she'd been afraid. She wasn't strong enough to hold the dream together, and the whole thing finally exploded, throwing her out of the trance, back into Stefan's room.
"Stefan? Are you okay?"
He looked wildly around the room as if trying to find something. "Elena!" he said, and then he stopped, memory clearly returning.
His face twisted. For one dreadful instant Bonnie thought he was going to cry, but
he only shut his eyes and dropped his head into his hands.
"Stefan?"
"I lost her. I couldn't hold on."
"I know." Bonnie watched him a moment, then, gathering her courage, knelt in
front of him, touching his shoulders. "I'm sorry." His head lifted abruptly, his green eyes dry but so dilated they looked black. His
nostrils were flared, his lips drawn back from his teeth.
"Klaus!" He spat the name as if it were a curse. "Did you see him?"
"Yes," Bonnie said, pulling back. She gulped, her stomach churning. "He's crazy, isn't he, Stefan?"
"Yes." Stefan got up. "And he must be stopped."
"But how?" Since seeing Klaus, Bonnie was more frightened than ever, more frightened and less confident. "What could stop him, Stefan? I've never felt anything like that Power."
"But didn't you-?" Stefan turned to her quickly. "Bonnie, didn't you hear what Elena said at the end?"
"No. What do you mean? I couldn't hear anything; there was a slight hurricane going on at the time."
"Bonnie..." Stefan's eyes went distant with speculation and he spoke as if to himself. "That means that he probably didn't hear it either. So he doesn't know, and he won't try to stop us."
"From what? Stefan, what are you talking about?"
"From finding a victim. Listen, Bonnie, Elena told me that if we can find a surviving victim of Klaus's, we can find a way to stop him."
Bonnie was in completely over her head. "But... why?"
"Because vampires and their donors-their prey-share minds briefly while the blood is being exchanged. Sometimes the donor can learn things about the vampire that way. Not always, but occasionally. That's what must have happened, and Elena knows it."