The Vampire Diaries #13: Unmasked (The Salvation #3)

Chapter 10

Ninety-seven. Ninety-eight. Elena brushed her hair with smooth, even strokes, watching herself in the elaborately framed Victorian mirror above her dresser. She met her own reflected gaze levely, her dark blue eyes as steady as her hand on the hairbrush. Her golden hair fanned out like silk across her shoulders.

It was odd, she thought, that she looked almost exactly the same here as she did in her own time. Her friends were younger, softer, but Elena’s appearance hadn’t changed since she had drunk the Water of Eternal Life and Youth back in her freshman year of college. When she had chosen to be with Stefan forever.

She was not going to think about Stefan.

Her hand slowed and her eyes dropped.

There was still that instant fire between them. The rest of the world melted away when she was with Stefan. It had felt so right, so perfect, to talk to him and touch him again.

But it didn’t matter. She had to stay away from Stefan. It didn’t matter how much she yearned to be with him. She couldn’t get caught in that trap. Giving in to her love for Stefan led, in the end, to death and despair. There was a reason she was here.

She put the brush down on top of her rosewood dresser, lining it up neatly between her jewelry box and her comb, and reached into the top shelf of the dresser for a lacy white nightgown. The house was silent. Aunt Judith and Margaret were already fast asleep, but Elena was buzzing with nervous energy. Still, she should try to rest.

Suddenly, there was a rap at the window, a sharp, cracking noise. Elena spun around. Outside, she could just make out a pale face in the darkness, hair and clothes as black as the night around him. Damon.

“Let me in.” The low, coaxing voice sent a shiver up Elena’s spine. She didn’t move. “Open the window, Elena. You want to let me inside.”

He was trying to compel her? A hot flush of anger ran over her. In two quick steps, she crossed the room and flung the window open.

Damon’s eyes widened a bit. She knew she wasn’t moving in the dreamy way a compelled person usually would, but the corners of his lush mouth tilted, and Elena could tell he’d decided to go with it. “Good,” he said, his tone soothing, “Now, invite me in, Princess.”

Elena folded her arms in front of her. “I don’t know if I should,” she said slowly. Her heart was pounding. Gratefully, she thought of the withered vervain in her pocket.

Cocking his head to one side, Damon eyed her thoughtfully. Sitting on a branch of the quince tree outside her window, one arm braced on the windowsill, he somehow managed to look as comfortable and graceful as ever. “You’ve got vervain,” he said.

“I do.” Elena didn’t offer anything else. If she wanted him intrigued by her, it was probably best to leave a little mystery.

Damon’s smile sharpened. “Didn’t you say you knew I would never hurt you?”

Elena’s mouth went dry, and then she swallowed hard and stepped back from the window. This was Damon. She was safe. “Come in, then, Damon,” she said.

Damon hesitated for just a moment, uncertainty flickering over his face, and then he was through the window smoothly and standing in front of her. “You know my name,” he said warily.

“Yes.” She didn’t try to explain. What could she say? All the things that might make Damon trust her were still in the future.

Damon moved closer. There was something hot and hungry in his gaze, and she had a sudden urge to raise her hand to cover where her pulse beat.

Elena was glad that she was still dressed in the clothes she’d worn to the woods, not the low-necked nightgown in her hand. It would have felt wrong, would have felt dangerous, if he had seen her like that right now, her throat so exposed.

“If you’re not afraid, come here,” he said coaxingly. “Let me taste you.” His irises were so dark that she could hardly make out his pupils.

For her Damon, the Damon she loved in her own time, Elena would have swept back her hair and bared her throat in an instant, eager for the sweet connection that came with the exchange of blood. Even now, she ached for that feeling.

But no, not yet. This Damon wasn’t ready to share with her as an equal: He just wanted to take.

Instead, she set her jaw firmly and stared back at him. “You won’t hurt me,” she said. “But I’m not ready for that.”

Again, Damon hesitated for a moment, his brow wrinkling. “You know my name and you have vervain,” he said. He took a step closer to her. “Someone’s been telling tales about me.”

He was very close to her now, near enough that Elena had to tilt her head back to look up at him, exposing the long lines of her throat. The fine hairs rose on the back of her neck, some small, primitive part of her brain recognizing: predator. His gaze was unfriendly. But Elena held her ground.

“No one’s told me a thing about you,” she said honestly. “I’m just a girl who happens to know a thing or two about vampires. And how to protect myself.”

“And my name?” Slowly, Damon raised his hand and ran a finger lightly along Elena’s jaw. His touch was gentle, but his gaze was cold, and Elena suppressed a shudder.

“I don’t mean you any harm, Damon,” she said, looking straight into his eyes. “I might know things, but I would never try to hurt you.” She could hear the sincerity in her own voice, and she thought Damon could too, because his hand dropped and he cocked his head, looking at her more closely.

“You look like someone I used to know,” he said. “But you’re not at all like her.”

Elena didn’t know what to say to that, so she said nothing. Damon smiled.

“So, you’re a girl who knows things,” he said, a faint mocking tone in his voice. “A girl who hangs out in graveyards at dusk and willingly invites vampires into her boudoir. Are you flirting with the darkness, Princess? Do you want to come with me into the night?”

He reached out for Elena and pulled her against him. His eyes were on her throat again, and his fingers dug into her upper arms.

“That’s not what I want at all,” Elena said, trying to pull away. Her voice sounded startlingly loud to her own ears, and she realized they had been speaking in hushed voices, almost whispering. Damon’s gaze flew from her throat to meet her eyes.

“You’re wrong,” she said, desperately. His fingers were holding her too tightly. “I don’t want the darkness. I want you to come into the light with me.”

Damon laughed, a sudden burst of laughter, and let her go. The laugh warmed his face, made him look more like her Damon, and less like the predator who’d been standing too close to her a moment before.

“What, are you a missionary come to save my soul?” he asked, smiling in what looked like honest delight.

“Maybe.” Elena could feel her cheeks turning pink, but she held her head high. “Things are better in the light. I could show you.”

Damon laughed again, a low, silky chuckle this time, and, before Elena realized what he was doing, he leaned toward her and brushed his cool, dry lips against hers, just for a second. “You’ll see me again, Princess,” he whispered, and then, faster than her eyes could follow, he was gone.

Alone in her bedroom, Elena touched her fingers against her lips, her heart pounding wildly.

He wasn’t her Damon, not at all. Not yet. He didn’t know her, didn’t care for her, and that made him dangerous. For her own safety, she would have to remember that.

Chapter 11

“Will you take me to the park tomorrow?” Margaret asked. She gazed at Elena across the kitchen table with wide blue eyes, her unbrushed dandelion-fluff hair sticking up in all directions. Behind her, Aunt Judith poured cereal into bowls.

“Sure, Meggie,” Elena said absently, picking at her toast. Margaret squealed and bounced in her seat. Elena smiled at her sister. They’d go Saturday morning, she decided, just the two of them, before she went dress shopping with Meredith and Bonnie.

Mornings like these were an unexpected blessing of her excursion into the past, Elena thought as she watched Margaret blow bubbles in her milk. She hadn’t known to treasure these mundane, everyday moments the first time alive, because she hadn’t known how quickly they would end. After this year, she’d never live at home with Margaret and Aunt Judith again. In one possible future—the first one, the one she couldn’t help thinking of as the real one—Elena would be dead before Christmas.

Aunt Judith set down a glass of orange juice in front of Margaret. “Stop blowing bubbles,” she told her firmly. “And, Elena, much as I like having you here for breakfast, you’re going to be late for school if you don’t get going.”

“Oh,” Elena said, looking up at the clock. She stood and reached for her backpack reluctantly. There was a quiver of nervousness deep in her stomach at the idea of seeing Stefan again. Until yesterday she’d almost forgotten the exact shade of Stefan’s green eyes. Now she thought she might have been better off forgetting when she couldn’t look into those eyes every day.

And then there was Damon. She could connect with him, she was sure of it. Damon would change for her. He had changed for her. Without Stefan between them, it would happen faster. She just didn’t know if it could happen in time. Halloween was coming soon, and she’d only managed two brief and enigmatic conversations with Damon.

“I don’t know if I’ll be back for dinner,” she said, dropping a kiss on Margaret’s head. “I might go to Bonnie’s house after school. Don’t wait for me.” Maybe if she went to the cemetery again this evening, Damon would come to her there.

Aunt Judith sighed and handed her an apple. “You hardly had any breakfast. Eat something healthy at lunch.”

Elena only nodded. She was thinking of Damon’s sharp, brilliant smile, and how quickly it faded. How rough his voice had been when he asked if she wanted to come into the darkness.

She opened the front door, and there, a dark figure against the bright colors of the day, was Damon, as if her thoughts had summoned him. Elena jerked back, her mouth dropping open.

The corners of Damon’s mouth tilted up at her surprise. “Hello, Princess,” he said lazily, his voice slow and easy. In one hand, he casually held a bouquet of white roses. “Here I am in the light, just like you wanted.” He held the roses out to her, his smile mocking.

“Thank you, they’re beautiful,” Elena said hesitantly.

She stepped back and headed for the kitchen. “You can come in,” she said over her shoulder. This was technically a different house than she’d invited him into last night. Her bedroom and the living room were the only remains of the original house, the one that had almost completely burned in the Civil War.

Perhaps, she thought, hearing his soft footsteps behind her, she should have kept him out. But he had never hurt Margaret or Aunt Judith. She had to show that she trusted Damon if she expected him to start trusting her.

In the kitchen, Elena reached into a high cupboard to take out a vase and began to fill it with water.

“Elena?” Aunt Judith asked. “You’ll be late—” She stopped in surprise as Damon came through the doorway.

“Look what Damon brought me,” Elena said lightly. Damon turned on his most brilliant smile and held out his hand.

“Damon Salvatore,” he said, introducing himself. “I’ll drive Elena to school today, make sure she gets there on time.”

Flustered, Aunt Judith reached up to smooth her hair before taking Damon’s hand. “Pleased to meet you,” she said, shooting Elena a look that said, as clearly as words, Who is this? What happened to Matt?

Elena plopped the flowers into the vase and took a few minutes to arrange them neatly, half listening to Damon and Aunt Judith’s conversation behind her.

“At university,” Damon was telling Aunt Judith. “I’m just here to visit family. Fell’s Church is lovely.” His voice was, if anything, a little too polite. And there was a familiar note in it, almost coaxing. Elena’s fingers stiffened on the rose stems. Was Damon using his Power on Aunt Judith? Aunt Judith and her fiancé, Robert, had always liked Damon. Was that because Damon had cheated? She hadn’t realized he would use his Power so casually. She swung around to stare at him. Damon met her eyes innocently, a bland smile on his lips.

Behind him, Margaret stared at Damon from the kitchen table. “Aunt Judith?” the little girl asked, her voice quavering. Perhaps she could sense Damon’s will working on Aunt Judith, compelling her to welcome him here.

“Let’s go,” Elena told Damon sharply.

“Certainly,” he said, still smiling. “You don’t want to be late to class.” He nodded politely to Aunt Judith.

Elena set the vase of roses down on the table, a little harder than she needed to, and kissed her aunt on the cheek. “See you later.”

Damon followed Elena to the front door. “Now that you’ve got the roses, perhaps you should leave those little flowering weeds in your pocket behind,” he said idly.

“Very funny,” Elena said, opening the door and turning to look at him. She was aware of the vervain nestled deep in her pocket, but it was interesting that Damon could sense it as well. Or perhaps he was only guessing. “The roses are gorgeous, though,” she added, and Damon’s lips curved into a smile.

The car parked outside was amazing: low, sleek, and clearly very expensive. Damon opened the door for her.

“Are you sure you want to go to school today, Princess?” he asked. “There’s a whole wide world out there. You could show me around Fell’s Church.”

“It’s tempting,” Elena admitted, and Damon’s smile widened. “But I should get to school. Aunt Judith will worry if she hears I cut.”

“I could make her forget,” Damon suggested, and held up a hand defensively when Elena glared at him. “Just teasing you, Princess. School it is.”

Elena settled back in the soft leather of the passenger seat, and Damon shut the door behind her and crossed to the driver’s side. She watched as he started the car and pulled out, admiring his strong, graceful hands on the wheel. When he shot her a sidelong smile, she grinned back. This was all so familiar. She knew the way he scanned the road, the way his long legs fit into the footwell of the car. This is Damon, she thought, with a sigh of satisfaction. When she was with him, she felt at home.

When they pulled into the parking lot at school, Caroline’s head shot up first. All around her, their friends turned as if drawn by a single, invisible thread. Damon parked and got out, coming around the car to open Elena’s door with a flourish.

“Who is that?” She heard Bonnie’s voice rise above the crowd. Meredith shushed her.

She smiled prettily up at Damon as he helped her out of the car, pretending not to notice the spreading whispers all around them.

“They’ll be talking about you all day,” Damon said, his voice low. Elena gave him a small, private grin in reply.

“I’ll see you later?” Elena asked him, squeezing his cool hand in her warmer one.

“Oh, I’ll be around,” he said, and bent his head to press his lips, lightly, against her cheek. Raising her hand to touch where he had kissed, Elena watched as Damon slid back into his car and drove away. A tendril of affection curled warmly inside her.

Once the black car had turned out of the high school parking lot, an excited babble of voices rose up behind Elena.

“Did you see that car?”

“There was a car? I was too busy looking at the guy.”

“No wonder Elena didn’t care about the new boy.”

Elena smirked a little. Then, turning, she came face to face with Matt. His lips were pursed tightly. Elena flinched. She had told him there wasn’t anyone else.

“Matt,” she said quickly, “it’s not what it looks like. When we talked, I didn’t …”

Tyler Smallwood and Dick Carter swaggered over. Tyler slapped Matt on the back, his big, red face openly amused. “So someone finally cracked the Ice Princess, huh? Too bad it wasn’t you, Honeycutt,” he said loudly. “You wasted a lot of time there.”

On Tyler’s other side, Dick Carter broke into rough laughter. His girlfriend, Vickie Bennett, clung to his arm and tittered uneasily.

Ignoring them, Elena reached out for Matt. “I wasn’t seeing Damon yet when we talked,” she said. “I wouldn’t lie to you.”

“It’s fine,” Matt said shortly, turning away from her and heading for the school doors.

“Matt—” Elena began. She tried to follow him, but Tyler blocked her path, taking a firm hold on her arm.

“Tell you what, gorgeous,” he said, baring his large white teeth in a smile. “Forget them both and come to Homecoming with me. We’ll show you a good time, won’t we, Dick? Vickie?”

Dick laughed, a big dumb har-de-har, and Elena squirmed away, pulling her arm out of Tyler’s hot grip. “Forget it,” she said briefly, but by the time she pushed past them, Matt was gone.

Tyler had always been a jerk, Elena thought dismissively. And then she felt her own eyes widen as what he had said hit her. Homecoming night.

Elena had been so angry that night. Angry at everyone: Stefan for snubbing her; Caroline for bringing Stefan to Homecoming; Bonnie and Meredith for thinking that perhaps she should give up on Stefan. And so she had drunk bourbon with Tyler and Dick and their friends, and gone with them to the cemetery.

Tyler had tried to rape Elena. Stefan had rescued her—that was the one moment that had torn down the barriers between them. It doesn’t matter, Elena thought, repressing a shudder. That wasn’t going to happen this time.

But Tyler and the others would probably still go to the cemetery. And Dick and Vickie had fooled around on Honoria Fell’s tomb. The tomb that hid the entrance to the catacombs in which Katherine was concealed. Offended, Katherine had tormented Vickie for months, nearly driving her over the edge of insanity.

Elena glanced back at Vickie, who was now crossing the parking lot toward the school, still arm in arm with Dick. Vickie’s pale brown hair flowed down her back as she tossed back her head to giggle up at Dick, her nose wrinkling as she laughed.

Elena had to try to protect her.

“Elena?” Bonnie’s voice jolted Elena out of her contemplation. She was staring across at Tyler, she realized, frozen. She shook her head quickly, as if to scatter the memories, and turned to her friend.

Meredith was beside Bonnie, looking at Tyler with an expression of disdain. “Don’t let him get to you, Elena,” she said. “He’s a creep.”

“But who was that guy, Elena?” Bonnie demanded, her eyes shining with curiosity. “He was so—and you—Is he what you’ve been acting so weird about?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Elena said absently, watching as Vickie twisted a lock of her pale brown hair around one finger.

“Oh, come on!” Bonnie groaned, tugging at Elena’s arm. “A beautiful guy like that? Tell me now!”

“I can’t,” Elena said, pulling away. “I promise I’ll tell you everything I can soon. But right now we have to go to class.” She would have to figure out something to tell them. Maybe she could pretend Damon was what he had told Aunt Judith, just a college student who Elena had happened to meet.

Bonnie huffed and rolled her eyes, but Meredith nodded. “Come on, then,” she said. “We’re going to be late.”

Elena followed her friends toward the school doors, but her steps slowed as she saw Stefan waiting just outside, his face as gray as a storm cloud.

“I have to talk to you,” he said, grabbing hold of her arm. Elena stared at him, and he let go, snatching his hand back. “Alone. Please.”

Elena hesitated, and Meredith eyed her carefully. “Do you want us to go ahead without you?” she asked, ignoring Stefan.

“It’s fine,” Elena said with a grateful glance. Meredith nodded and tugged Bonnie after her into the school.

“Wait,” Bonnie was saying, outraged. “I didn’t think she even knew Stefan.”

Elena watched her friends walk away before she looked up at Stefan, who had pulled off his sunglasses. His lips were drawn into a tight line.

“Elena,” he said abruptly. “What do you know about that guy who drove you here?”

She should have realized this would happen. Unthinkingly, Elena raised a hand to touch Stefan, but he flinched back from her. “It’s okay,” she said steadily. “I know what I’m doing.”

“I know you’ve got no reason to trust me,” he told her. His eyes were dark, insisting. “But he’s dangerous.” He stepped closer, taking hold of her arm again, and his touch sent a hot spark through her.

“He’s not dangerous to me,” Elena said slowly, holding Stefan’s eyes with her own.

“Do you remember me telling you that you reminded me of someone?” Stefan asked her. He was gripping Elena’s arm so hard that it ached, and she held her breath. “Well, that girl died. And it was Damon’s fault. Damon’s and mine. He destroys everything he touches, and he doesn’t care. You have to stay away from him.” Stefan was breathing hard.

If only Elena could take Stefan in her arms and hold onto him, shut out the world so she could do nothing but bring Stefan comfort.

“I’m sorry, Stefan,” she whispered, pulling her arm from his grip and brushing past him into the school. She could feel his eyes watching her. Elena didn’t look back.

Chapter 12

“But where did you even meet him?” Bonnie asked, rifling through a rack of dresses. “Ooh, pink. I think I might do pink for Homecoming this year.” She pulled a fluffy concoction of satin and chiffon off the rack and held it up to herself to admire in the mirror. “Adorable, right?”

“It’s cute,” Elena agreed. “You should try it on.” The three girls had headed right after school to one of their favorite boutiques to look for dresses for Homecoming.

Even as she flipped through the dresses, a little sore place deep in her chest kept reminding Elena that this might be the end. If she wasn’t successful—if she died, back in that future—she would never be with her best friends again. And so she wanted, just for one afternoon, to be frivolous and try on dresses and talk about hairstyles.

“Focus, Bonnie,” Meredith said, amused. “I’d like to know where Elena met him, too.”

“At the cemetery, actually,” Elena admitted, and Bonnie gasped, almost dropping the pink dress.

“You went back to the cemetery? Elena, they still haven’t found who attacked that old man. It’s not safe.”

“I haven’t been there since we promised Mary we’d stay away,” Elena said patiently. “I met Damon before that.”

Meredith’s eyes narrowed. “The day we found you there?” At Elena’s nod, she frowned. “So he was hanging out at the cemetery alone the day the old man was attacked?”

“So was I,” Elena said dryly. “Damon has family buried there.” She wasn’t exactly lying, she told herself. Katherine, who had turned Damon into a vampire, was a kind of “family.” And her lurking underground in the crypt could count as being “buried.”

Bonnie rolled her eyes. “I really don’t think Elena’s gorgeous rich new boyfriend is attacking homeless people in his spare time, Meredith.”

“Even gorgeous rich guys can be psychos,” Meredith pointed out, her voice light.

“That may be true, but Damon’s not one of them,” she said, shortly. She began flipping through the rack of dresses in front of her and hesitated on a long sweep of silver silk. “This would look great on you, Meredith.”

Meredith looked at it critically. “You don’t think it’s too plain? Or too long?”

“You can pull it off.” Elena was sure the color would bring out her cool gray eyes and olive skin, while her natural elegance could carry off the style.

“So, are you bringing this Damon to the dance?” Bonnie asked.

“I don’t think high school dances are really Damon’s thing,” Elena said. She had trouble imagining Damon slow dancing to pop songs and bringing her little cups of punch. And Stefan would be taking Caroline to the dance, she assumed. It was better for the Salvatore brothers not to be in the same room, especially not surrounded by humans.

“Who are you going to go with, then?” Bonnie asked, taking both the short pink dress and a blue green gown in a mermaid style off the rack to try on. “I’m sure Matt would still take you.”

Elena shrugged. “No one, I guess.”

Silently, Meredith and Bonnie turned to stare at Elena.

“What?” she asked, but she knew. The Elena who belonged here wouldn’t be caught dead without a date for a school dance. She hadn’t cared about any of those dates, either, not until Stefan.

“Are you actually going crazy?” Bonnie asked tartly, and then gasped as Meredith elbowed her in the side. “I mean, fine, great. Who needs a date anyway?”

“It’s not a bad idea,” Meredith said casually. “I was supposed to go with Ed Goff, but it might be more fun for us three to just go together. Not even bother with boys.” There was something tentative to her gaze, and Elena realized what it was. Meredith was worried about her.

“Are you both crazy?” Bonnie asked. “I want to go with a boy. I want to dance all night. I want romance.”

“With Raymond?” Meredith asked, arching an eyebrow. “There’s nothing wrong with Raymond, but you can’t pretend you’re all that interested in him.”

“I can pretend anything I want,” Bonnie said, crossing her arms, the dresses she held crumpling against her.

“Come on, Bonnie,” Elena said coaxingly. “If you go with us, you can dance with all the boys. And we’ll have more fun together, you know we will.”

“It’s our last Homecoming together,” Meredith said, laying her hand on Bonnie’s arm. “It should be the three of us.”

“Oh … oh … fine,” Bonnie said. “But there had better be lots of cute boys who want to dance with me.”

“Of course there will be,” Meredith said reassuringly, “because you’re going to look so great in one of these dresses.”

“Obviously,” said Bonnie with a suddenly teasing, crooked grin. She stuck her nose into the air and sailed off to the dressing room.

Meredith searched through the racks of dresses efficiently, pulling out a short jewel blue dress to add to the growing pile in her arms. Flicking past a green velvet minidress, Elena wished she could be so enthusiastic. Nothing seemed quite right.

“Here,” Meredith said, stopping. “This is perfect for you.”

The dress was gorgeous. Silk the color of crystallized violets, which would bring out the gold of her hair and the deep blue of her eyes. Elena would look magical in it, lit from within. Had looked magical.

It was what she had worn to the dance, the first time. Tyler had torn this dress. Stefan had fallen in love with her, finally taken her in his arms, while she was wearing it.

Elena stuffed her hands in her pockets, unwilling to touch it.

And then, she saw something on the other side of the room, just waiting for her. Yes. Elena brushed past Meredith and headed straight for it.

The iced-violet concoction was a beautiful dress. But this? This dress was a revelation.

It was red, the deep vibrant crimson of blood, and it would cling to Elena like a glove. Even hanging on the rack, it spoke of passion and intensity. It was a dress to fall in love in, or to stir up hate. If Damon were a dress, this was the one he would be.

“This is it,” Elena breathed.

Meredith’s eyebrows shot up. “Wow. It’s a statement, all right.”

They headed into the dressing room, Meredith with an armload of selections, Elena with only the crimson gown. Pulling it over her head, she called over the wall of the dressing room, “Want to get dressed for the dance at my place?”

“We always do,” Bonnie called back.

It had been a ritual of theirs from their earliest dances in junior high to get dressed together, gossiping and doing one another’s hair. Caroline had always been with them, but Elena didn’t think she was going to join this time.

Elena smoothed the dress down over her h*ps and admired herself in the mirror. It fit perfectly, and the weight of the material—some kind of satin—made her feel powerful and protected.

“This is it,” she said, stepping out of the fitting room. Meredith and Bonnie came out in dresses of their own.

“Wow,” Bonnie said, looking Elena over. “I wouldn’t have thought red was your color, but you look great. Older.” She was in the mermaid green dress. “I don’t love this one. I’m going to try on the gold.”

Meredith looked sleek and composed in a black-and-gold dress with a long slit up the side, but she frowned. “This itches. Next!”

Elena changed back into her own clothes, draping the red dress carefully over her arm. Caroline would have liked this dress, she thought.

“Who’s Caroline going with?” she asked. She couldn’t help it; she had to know if she was going with Stefan again.

“I don’t know,” Meredith said. “She’s been avoiding all of us.”

“She never tells me anything anymore,” Bonnie said. “If it weren’t for math and history, I wouldn’t see her at all.” She sounded forlorn, and Elena had a pang of regret for the lost friendship. Maybe, now that they weren’t competing over Stefan anymore, Caroline and Elena could be friends again, someday.

The fitting room doors opened again, and Elena stepped out to see the next set of dresses. An idea was kindling at the back of her mind. Why not replace Caroline in their little pre-dance group? It would be one way to keep the horrors of her first homecoming night from repeating. She thought of Vickie’s innocent face, the way she had giggled at everything Dick said. How the walls of her room had been coated with blood in the future Elena had lived through. Things had to be different.

“Why don’t we invite Vickie Bennett?” she said brightly. If Vickie was with them, she wouldn’t leave the dance with Dick and Tyler. She wouldn’t desecrate the tomb, wouldn’t incite Katherine’s anger.

Meredith, dressed in the long silver gown, and Bonnie, in black velvet, stared at her. “You want to invite Vickie Bennett?” Bonnie said slowly.

“Why not?” Elena asked. “What do you have against Vickie?”

Bonnie exchanged a glance with Meredith. Meredith cleared her throat. “Neither of us has a problem with Vickie, but you’ve never liked her.”

Nodding, Bonnie added. “You’ve always said she was a useless little drip.”

“Oh.” A little twist of self-disgust curdled inside her. “Well, I was wrong. Let’s bring her along.”

After careful comparisons, Meredith chose the long silver gown, which looked like moonlight on her. Bonnie modeled fourteen different dresses and finally settled on the pink chiffon. Elena, of course, bought the red dress.

Leaving the store, she held her head high, feeling like a warrior. Like a hero. Elena wasn’t just going to save Damon and herself. She would save everyone.

Chapter 13

The weather Friday evening couldn’t have been more perfect for the Homecoming game. Gold and pink from the setting sun striped the sky. On the field, the marching band stepped in precise formation for their pregame show, horns blaring and drums thumping. Cheerleaders cartwheeled in their red and black skirts, warming up the crowd for the game.

“The Homecoming game is a real American tradition,” Elena told Damon, leading him up the bleachers. “You owe it to yourself to experience it at least once. I can’t believe you’ve never been.”

“You’d be amazed at the number of real American traditions I’ve been able to avoid,” Damon said dryly.

“Well,” Elena said, sitting down and wrapping her jacket more closely around her, “I’m glad I get a chance to introduce you to something.”

Damon reached out and tucked a lock of Elena’s hair behind her ear. “You’re going to show me life in the light, right, Princess?” he asked, his voice low and teasing. “Football games and sock hops?”

“I don’t think sock hops are a thing anymore, Damon,” Elena told him, letting her voice take on a flirtatious edge. The brush of his fingers made her skin tingle. Sensing her reaction, Damon smiled and ran his hand down her arm, wrapping his fingers around hers.

This wasn’t her Damon, not yet, but he felt so familiar that she kept forgetting. The weight of his arm across her shoulders, the scent of his leather jacket, the cool skin of his wrist resting casually against her neck, the affection that shone through his mocking smile: It all belonged to her Damon, too.

Elena could feel eyes watching them from all around as they sat waiting for the game to begin. Elena Gilbert with a mysterious, shockingly handsome, older man. Gossip would center on this for days.

No one approached them, though. Elena saw Meredith and Bonnie climbing the bleachers, Bonnie’s face brightening as she saw them, and sent a silent plea to Meredith with her eyes. Meredith cocked one elegant eyebrow—message received—and shepherded Bonnie toward a group of laughing girls in another row of seats.

As the team ran out onto the field to claps and cheers, Damon tensed beside her, letting go of Elena’s hand. His jaw was tight, and his eyes followed one red-and-black jersey across the field. Stefan.

She was surprised to see Stefan on the team. Perhaps she should have realized that, even without her intercession, Matt would have invited Stefan to try out for the team.

“My appreciation for football is fading,” Damon said dryly, his eyes still fixed on Stefan. “Let’s go somewhere else, Princess. I can show you all kinds of things better than high school sports.” He turned toward her, his lips twitching up in a wicked smile, and took her hand again, starting to rise.

“No, wait, Damon,” Elena said quickly, tugging him back down. “I need a favor.”

Damon’s eyes narrowed. Slowly, he sat back in his seat and fixed her with a steady dark gaze. “So you didn’t just want to expand my horizons when you brought me here?” He leaned closer. “You’re quite devious, aren’t you, Elena?”

Pulling her eyes away from his, Elena looked back at the field. Their team had won the coin flip, and Matt, as quarterback and captain, chose to receive the kickoff. The teams were lining up, and Elena gripped Damon’s hand harder as she leaned forward to scan the backs of their jerseys. “See those two guys?” she said, pointing. “Carter and Smallwood.”

Damon glanced at them, his face taking on the thoughtful look she associated with him using his Power. “A couple of all-American meatheads,” he said dismissively. “Nothing special about them.”

“I know,” Elena said. “I need them to fight. It has to be bad enough to get them kicked off the team.”

Damon’s eyebrows rose. “You’re more bloodthirsty than I’d realized, Princess,” he said.

“I need them to get suspended. They can’t be at the dance tomorrow,” Elena told him. The kicker was moving back, his teammates lined up on either side. “Please, Damon,” she said.

Damon leaned back and smiled lazily at her. “Why should I?” His eyes were locked on hers, challenging her. “What will you give me?”

“Anything you want,” Elena said recklessly. “I trust you. Just do it.”

Damon’s smile widened, and he flicked his eyes back toward the field. The kicker’s foot made contact with the ball, and it flew in a high arc through the air.

With a shout of fury, Tyler Smallwood launched himself across the field and tackled Dick Carter to the ground.

The stands broke out in screaming excitement. Tyler was punching Dick in the stomach, avoiding his pads to reach the flesh beneath. Dick bucked and rolled, and Tyler hit the ground with a thud.

“Good enough?” Damon asked.

Down on the field, the referees were blowing hard on their whistles and running toward the fight. Both boys had pulled off their helmets, and, as Elena watched, Dick punched Tyler hard in the nose. Bright blood gushed out, drops spilling onto the grass of the football field.

“That should do it,” Elena said, feeling a little sick. But this was necessary. If Tyler and Dick went to the dance, if they left the dance and went to the graveyard, terrible things would happen.

This was the better option.

The coaches were shouting as the other players tried unsuccessfully to pull Dick and Tyler apart. Tyler lunged forward and sank his teeth into Dick’s arm. There was more blood, running over Tyler’s mouth. Damon was watching, his face lit with pleasure.

“Damon!” Elena said sharply. “That’s enough!”

“Killjoy,” Damon muttered, but he glared at the fighting boys, and they stilled, then pulled away from each other. Matt and one of the running backs were holding onto them, tugging them farther apart. Both boys looked dazed, and Tyler wiped at his mouth, smearing dark red blood across his face.

A chill spread through Elena. The pleasure Damon took in watching the guys fight was something she hadn’t seen in years. As comfortable as she felt with him, she still needed to be careful.

Down on the field, Stefan was paying no attention to the aftermath of the fight going on all around him. Instead, he was scanning the stands, his eyes narrowed. He must be looking for Damon, Elena realized. Of course Stefan would suspect Damon was behind the fight.

Before Stefan could spot them, the referees called the teams back into place. Two second-string players ran out to take Tyler and Dick’s places, and the game began at last.

Elena was surprised at how much she enjoyed it. She had been to football games before, of course she had. But usually, what was going on in the stands had interested her more than what might be happening on the field. Even when she was dating Matt, she hadn’t really watched him play.

He was really good. Matt and Stefan made an incredible team, but Stefan had the strength, speed, and reflexes of a vampire. Matt was managing on pure skill. Calm and confident, he called the plays, his eyes scanning the field. He ran like the wind, and when he passed the ball downfield, it was in a long spiraling arc that landed safely in Stefan’s hands. No wonder he had been—was going to be—offered football scholarships.

Damon watched the crowd far more than he did the game, although his eyes regularly flitted back to Stefan. When he looked at his brother, he wore an expression that Elena couldn’t quite decipher. Was this hostile face the one Damon had worn all those centuries, as he kept a distant eye on his little brother, his enemy?

At halftime, Damon bought Elena a cup of hot chocolate.

“Thank you,” she said, pleased at his thoughtfulness, and wrapped her fingers around the warmth of the cup. It was getting chilly. Fall had really set in now.

“May I?” Damon asked politely, after he’d watched her take a sip. She handed over the hot chocolate, and he drank slowly, savoring. “Very nice,” he said. “Sweet.” His fingers lingered on hers for a moment longer than necessary as he passed the cup back to her. Damon’s words were innocent enough, but there was something darkly teasing in his gaze. Attraction hummed between them. Maybe he wasn’t her Damon yet, but he would be.

When they got back to Elena’s house after the game, the driveway was empty.

“Aunt Judith must have taken Margaret somewhere,” Elena told Damon.

Damon tipped his head slightly to one side, clearly sending out his Power to search the house. “There’s no one home.”

“Mmmhmm.” Elena unlocked the door and stepped inside. Damon waited on the porch, his hands in his jacket pockets, casual and confident. Elena didn’t hesitate. If she wanted Damon to be trustworthy, first she had to trust him. “You can come in if you want,” she said. “The invitation still stands.”

“If you want me,” Damon said cooly, but there was a pleased tilt to his mouth as he followed her in.

Elena led Damon through the house. In the hall, he paused, running his fingers across the photographs on the side table. “Your mother?” he asked, picking one up to look at it more closely.

Elena nodded, her throat tight. Damon kept touching things as he followed her through the house, brushing his fingers over the furniture and opening drawers to look inside. Up in her room, he prowled like a cat, inspecting the books on Elena’s bookcase, rifling through the clothes in her closet, delicately rearranging the objects on her dresser. It was as if he was trying to figure her out.

Finally, he put down her silver comb and turned to look at her. “Why did you want them to fight?” he asked, his voice dry. “It’s not for love, is it?”

Elena laughed in spite of herself. “Tyler or Dick? Absolutely not.” Sobering, she added, “I know something terrible would have happened tomorrow if they hadn’t been suspended. I can’t explain any more. I’m sorry.”

Damon stepped closer and brought his hands up to frame her face. His eyes, so dark that she couldn’t distinguish the iris from the pupil, stared into hers. Electricity shot through her at the careful touch of Damon’s hands on her face. He was trying to use his Power to read her, she could tell.

“You’re not a witch,” he said, confidently. “Or a psychic.”

Elena reached up and took his cool hands in hers. “Like I told you, I’m just a girl who knows some things. I’m nothing special.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Damon said, turning his palm so that his fingers were interlaced with hers. His eyes followed the line of the vein in her neck, all the way down to the collar of her shirt. “You promised me anything I wanted,” he said.

He expected her to pull away, to be afraid, Elena knew. Instead, she brushed her hair back, cocking her head to expose the smooth line of her throat. “I trust you,” she said simply.

Damon stared for a moment, then pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her, and kissed her throat. Beneath the softness of his lips, his sharp canines pricked her, and she pressed closer still. Yes.

When his teeth slid smoothly beneath her skin, she could feel Damon with her at last: all his anger and loneliness, that lost child she knew hid beneath his cold façade. And, deeper still, passion. Love that never ended, a burning fire that could never be extinguished.

Their minds intertwined, and Elena stifled a sob of pure joy. Damon was hers again. They were both going to live.

Chapter 14

“They were both amazing,” Bonnie said from the window seat. She was already wearing her fluffy pink dress, her bouncy curls perfectly smooth.

“Who?” Elena murmured as Meredith twisted a long strand of her hair and secured it with a bobby pin.

“Matt and Stefan,” Bonnie said. “When Stefan caught that last pass, I thought I was going to faint. Or throw up.”

“Oh, please,” said Meredith.

Vickie Bennett, carefully ringing her eyes with liner in front of the mirror, giggled nervously. She’d been thrilled when Elena invited her to join them in getting ready for the dance, but she seemed hesitant and unsure now that she was there. As Elena watched, Vickie glanced quickly at her, then looked away, her free hand twisting the hem of her dress.

“And Matt—that boy is simply poetry in motion …” Bonnie wriggled around on the seat to fix a bright eye on Elena. “You could have gotten either of them to take you, you know. Matt’s still crazy about you. And he’s a sweetheart. Plus, I saw Stefan’s face after Damon brought you to school. He practically swallowed his tongue, he was so upset.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Elena said. “I’m with Damon.”

“Then why isn’t he bringing you to the dance?” Meredith asked, her talented fingers twining more of Elena’s hair into an elegant golden mass. “Even if he doesn’t like dances, he should have come if you wanted him to.”

“But I didn’t want him to,” Elena said, laughing and catching Meredith’s hand as she tweaked another strand of Elena’s hair into place. “I wanted to go with you guys.”

Bonnie sat up straighter, her small face growing serious. “I’m glad you did, Elena,” she said. “Remember how I saw in your palm that you had two loves? I think … I think something bad might happen if you aren’t careful.”

Meredith huffed out an exasperated breath. “Bonnie—”

“I just mean,” Bonnie said, “that if she wants Damon, it doesn’t matter that Matt and Stefan like her. That’s all. Two loves aren’t necessarily better than one. You need to be careful, Elena.”

“And you should leave some guys for the rest of us,” Meredith said lightly. Bonnie laughed and looked away, but Elena shifted uneasily under Meredith’s hands. How much of the future could Bonnie see? And which future was it?

It didn’t matter. Elena knew what would happen tonight. Caroline and Stefan would be at the dance together. Elena would leave them alone this time. She wouldn’t ask Stefan to dance. Caroline, Elena thought, would have a perfectly nice time. There wasn’t going to be a second love for Elena this time. Whatever Bonnie saw, it wasn’t going to happen.

“It’s fun to go with just girls, anyway,” Meredith said. “You were right, Elena.”

“Sure,” Bonnie said, rolling her eyes. “Guys: Who needs them?”

Vickie turned away from the mirror to face them and said, in an awkward rush, “Thanks for inviting me to come with you. I probably wouldn’t have gone at all otherwise.”

“What happened with Dick and Tyler, anyway?” Bonnie asked curiously. “Did Dick tell you what they were fighting about?”

Vickie spread her hands wide, shrugging in amazement. “All Dick is said was that suddenly he was so angry he couldn’t even see straight. The next thing he knew, everybody was pulling him and Tyler apart.”

Meredith frowned. “They don’t take steroids, do they?”

“No! I don’t think so.” Vickie was shaking her head, but a shadow of doubt crept into her voice.

Again, Elena felt a flicker of guilt. She remembered the way Dick’s head had snapped backward when Tyler punched him in the mouth, the dazed expressions on both their faces when the other players had finally pulled them apart.

But worse things would have happened if they had gone to the church that night. Stefan had almost killed Dick and Tyler after Elena drowned. Vickie had been gruesomely murdered. The memory of Vickie’s room, painted in blood, made Elena’s stomach turn over.

What were a few rumors or a suspension to that?

“There,” Meredith slid the last bobby pin into Elena’s hair. “Gorgeous.”

Elena stood and pulled her friends close so that they could all look in the mirror. Bonnie, her curls falling over her shoulders, was as sweet as candy in her shimmering pink taffeta. Meredith’s hair was swept up into an elegant chignon, and the long sweep of silver silk falling almost to her feet made her seem a thousand times more sophisticated than she’d ever seemed before. Even Vickie, in a soft green dress that came to her knees and ended in a puff of lace, looked fresh and delicate despite her nervousness.

As for herself, Elena thought, standing straight and tall in the crimson dress, she looked like a burning flame. She looked like she could set the world on fire.

They walked down the stairs together to where Aunt Judith and her fiancé, Robert, waited, along with pajama-clad Margaret. Margaret jumped to her feet and came to hug Elena around the waist. Elena bent down and kissed her little sister on the forehead.

Aunt Judith blinked when she saw Elena. “You girls all look lovely,” she said slowly. “That’s certainly a … dramatic dress, dear.”

“You’re pretty,” Margaret said, beaming up at Elena, and Elena gave her a squeeze.

“Runs in the family,” she whispered, and her little sister giggled.

Robert was staring at Elena, looking a little dazed.

“What’s the matter, Bob?” Aunt Judith asked.

“Oh.” He frowned and passed a hand across his forehead. “Actually, it just occurred to me that Elena is a form of the name Helen. And for some reason I was thinking of Helen of Troy.”

“Beautiful and doomed,” said Bonnie. Her eyes met Elena’s for a second, before she quickly looked away.

“Well, yes,” said Robert.

A chill went up Elena’s spine. She wasn’t doomed, she told herself fiercely. Not this time. There was nothing to worry about. “We have to go,” she said quickly, and kissed Aunt Judith good-bye. “Don’t wait up.”

They all rode to the dance together in Meredith’s car, Elena in the front passenger seat, Bonnie and Vickie in the back. Meredith and Vickie were laughing and chattering, and Elena tried to join in.

But Bonnie was oddly quiet, and when Elena looked into the backseat, the other girl’s brown eyes were fixed on her thoughtfully. Elena couldn’t escape the heavy, anxious feeling that something important, something terrible, was about to happen.

No, she told herself. It’s just a high school dance. I’m only afraid because of what happened the first time. Everything is different now. But the thoughts didn’t lighten the sickening feeling of dread at the bottom of Elena’s stomach.

She almost leaned over and asked Meredith to take her home. She could have given some excuse, said she felt ill—it wouldn’t even have been a lie. But she was Elena Gilbert, and she did not back down. She would hold her head high and enjoy this last dance. There was nothing to be afraid of.

Music spilled out the open doors of the auditorium as they arrived. Inside, the cavernous room was a swirling mass of people, laughter, and voices. The decoration committee had draped the walls in long swathes of sheer fabric that shone gently in the light, transforming the whole auditorium into something from a dream. In the center of everything, resplendent in gold, was Caroline.

“Look at that dress,” Bonnie said, softly. “What’s the front held on with? Superglue?”

The dazzling dress, made of gold lamé and fitting like a second skin, certainly showed a lot of Caroline. She looked beautiful and wild, her glossy auburn hair streaming down her back as she laughed. Her long limbs were smooth and tanned, and her cat-green eyes shone. Caroline was clearly having a wonderful time.

Elena looked for Stefan beside Caroline, but she couldn’t spot him. The crowd around Caroline was constantly shifting. People came up to speak to her briefly, admiringly, like courtiers to a queen, and then stepped back to make room for the next in line.

“Born to rule, apparently,” Meredith said, sounding amused.

Elena kept moving toward Caroline, scanning the changing crowd around her. Stefan had to be there somewhere. Elena wouldn’t speak to him, wouldn’t touch him, but she wanted to see him. She could have that at least, surely?

As a couple of cheerleaders stepped aside, Elena saw Caroline’s date at last and stopped short for a second in surprise.

Not Stefan at all. Matt. His hand was resting lightly on Caroline’s arm as he stood beside her, prince consort to the queen, but his eyes were fixed on Elena, his jaw set defiantly.

Elena held her head high and started walking toward them again, fixing a smile on her face. She didn’t own Matt. She’d prepared herself, she thought, to see Stefan with Caroline. She wasn’t ready, though, for the sharp sense of loss at seeing Matt with her instead. Elena hadn’t quite realized how much she thought of Matt as belonging to her, at least in this time. Beyond her feeling possessive of him, Caroline couldn’t possibly be good for Matt.

Vickie had wandered off toward the refreshment table, and Meredith and Bonnie, one after the other, were asked to dance and went off onto the dance floor.

“Hey, Elena. Want to dance?” It was her lab partner, a tall, gangly guy with a wicked sense of humor who normally she’d have enjoyed dancing with. But Elena just shook her head, barely glancing at him.

“Not yet,” she said shortly. “I need to talk to somebody. I’ll catch up with you later.”

As Elena reached the outskirts of the group around her, Caroline looked up and their eyes met. Elena smiled, but Caroline just gazed at her. And then she smiled, and, turning toward Matt, tipped her face up to his and kissed him, a long passionate kiss.

Elena felt her own face drawing into a scowl and consciously smoothed it over, fixing a neutral, almost bored expression in its place.

“Hello, Elena,” Caroline drawled, as soon as the kiss ended. “Don’t you look”—her eyes flicked over the crimson dress—“nice. It’s so original of you to wear that shade of red with your complexion. A lot of people would worry about looking washed out.”

Elena forced a smile. “Hello, Caroline. Hello, Matt.”

Up on the stage near them, the principal tapped his finger against the microphone, clearing his throat. “Can I get the Homecoming Court up on stage, please? It’s time to crown your queen!”

The crowd cheered, but Elena was hardly listening. Instead, she was looking beyond Caroline and Matt. She was positive that Stefan was here, somewhere in the crowd. Even if he hadn’t brought Caroline, surely he had come.

The crowd was shifting around her as the princesses, Bonnie and Meredith among them, climbed the steps to the stage. Elena turned her back on them for a minute, scanning the faces behind her for Stefan.

Then strong fingers, their pointed nails digging into her arm, dragged Elena back to attention. Caroline, eyes blazing, leaned in close as Elena pulled away.

“How does it feel, Elena?” she whispered, her voice hard. “How does it feel to know I’ve taken everything you wanted?” Almost stomping her feet, she swung around in a sweep of gold and auburn, and climbed the steps onto the stage, holding her head high.

Elena cocked a cynical eyebrow at Matt. “Caroline Forbes? Really?”

Matt’s cheeks reddened and he looked away. “You broke up with me, Elena. I’ll date who I want.”

“Oh, Matt,” Elena said, softening. She thought again of Jasmine, of the beautiful, smart, compassionate woman who would fall in love with Matt, who would hold on to him through all the dangers his life threw at them. “I know you can do better. Don’t waste yourself on someone who just wants you as a trophy.”

Matt sighed. “At least she wants me.”

The principal had finished introducing each girl. Now he tore open an envelope. “And your new Homecoming Queen is Caroline Forbes!” Around them, the crowd cheered.

Elena squeezed Matt’s hand. “I know you, Matt,” she said in a quick, fierce whisper. “You don’t take the easy route. You’re not going to be happy unless a relationship is real, unless it’s true. I’m sorry it’s not going to be with me, but you don’t have to settle. Promise me you’re going to be ready, when that great girl shows up. Don’t waste your time on the wrong people.”

The principal lifted the shiny, plastic crown and placed it carefully on Caroline’s head.

For the first time, Matt looked up and made real eye contact with Elena. There was a little bit of warmth in his eyes now, and his mouth turned up into a half smile. “Yeah, maybe,” he said. “One of these days.”

Caroline’s eyes were shining, and she gripped her plastic scepter as if it were made of pure gold. Elena leaned forward and hugged Matt.

And then, behind Matt, she finally saw Stefan. With a satisfying sense of something slotting into place at last, her eyes locked with his. This, she thought, all this time, I’ve been waiting for this.

They were in a crowd of people, and his eyes were only on her. Just for now, couldn’t she at least pretend he was hers?

Chapter 15

Stefan looked perfect. Under the dim auditorium lights, Stefan seemed so poised and handsome, his black blazer somehow better cut, more sophisticated than the other boys’. Elena couldn’t make out the color of his eyes, not from this far away, but she knew how green they were, and how, with his sunglasses finally stripped away, they must be broadcasting every emotion he felt.

Elena’s chest tightened as raw longing shot through her. She suddenly felt like she was suffocating, the noise and heat of people pressing in around her. She sucked in a desperate gasp of air.

Stefan’s eyes were fixed on hers as he began to make his way toward her through the crowd. Elena’s heart fluttered in her chest. No. She wasn’t even allowed to pretend. The connection between her and Stefan could kill them both.

“I have to go,” she muttered, and let go of Matt.

“Elena?” Matt called, but she was already turning on her heel and walking away, as fast as she could without actually running. Stay calm, she ordered herself, but she was panting, unable to catch her breath. She hit the swinging door hard and found herself out in the brightly lit, almost empty halls of the school.

Elena leaned against the cool metal of the row of lockers across from the door of the auditorium, and closed her eyes for a moment.

She was never going to have Stefan again. All those years together, all they’d been through, and she couldn’t even talk to him. All their history, wiped out. If she succeeded, it would never happen.

“Elena?” She knew that voice. Her eyes snapped open.

Stefan stood in front of her, his face soft with concern. “I heard what Caroline said to you,” he said. “Are you all right?”

Elena couldn’t help laughing, a short, almost-sob of a laugh. “You think I’m upset about Caroline?” she asked. It was so far-off it was as if Stefan didn’t know her at all. Well, he doesn’t, not now, she thought, and the thought cut off her laugh. Sobering, she snapped, “Whatever she thinks, I don’t want anything Caroline has.”

Stefan touched her cheek, gently drawing her gaze back to his, and a spark of electricity flew beneath Elena’s skin at his touch. “I know that,” he said. “I know you don’t care about all this. Popularity. Dances. I’ve watched you, Elena, and I can tell you’re not thinking about those things. But I also know that you’re sad.”

“Oh.” Tears stung the backs of Elena’s eyes, and she squeezed them tightly closed again, shaking her head. “Caroline’s wrong about—well, almost everything. But, even if I don’t want to be queen or date Matt, it’s true that I can’t have everything I want. And that hurts.”

“Maybe …” Stefan began, but his voice trailed off as Elena shook her head again, her mouth tight. She’d tried having everything, having both of the vampires she loved, more than once. It had taken her years to learn that trying to have both Damon and Stefan led to nothing but misery for all of them. She couldn’t start down that road again, no matter how much she wanted to.

Stefan’s oak-leaf green eyes were warm with sympathy, and his voice was soft. “I understand, Elena. I can’t have the thing I want most either.”

Elena couldn’t help it. She leaned into his body, just a little, and Stefan’s arms circled around her. Elena pressed her face against his shoulder. It was Stefan, Stefan who she’d missed so much.

Stefan let her cry, holding her while she shook for a few moments. Swallowing hard, Elena straightened up, her face back under control. Stefan’s arms were still around her, as if he didn’t want to let go.

“Sorry,” she said, sniffing. “You must think I’m a lunatic.”

“Not at all,” Stefan said. He stroked her back gently, and Elena arched into his touch. “Shall we dance?”

“What?” Elena blinked in surprise. Music was streaming softly through the closed door from the auditorium. Stefan slowly lifted Elena’s arms and twined them around his neck, then wrapped his own arms around her waist.

“We can’t have what we want,” he said with a note of longing in his voice. “But we could dance, just for now. It is a dance, after all.”

They began to sway in time to the music, and Elena leaned her head against the delicate fabric of Stefan’s blazer. His strong hands were holding her so tenderly, and she knew that he was looking down at her with painful, aching love shining through his face, now that he knew she couldn’t see him.

Stefan was drawn to her, had wanted and needed her from the very beginning. This was one thing Elena knew, one thing that had always been true between them. But he would let her go without a word, for her own good. To keep Elena safe.

Elena was swept up in a great wave of emotion, of love and pity and passion, all mixed together. This was Stefan. How could she turn away from him, even for Damon?

Winding her arms around Stefan’s neck, his soft brown curls brushing against her fingers, Elena pulled back a little and looked up into his face. His eyes were dilated with passion, the black expanding across the green.

What if Elena’s plan didn’t work? What if, no matter how she tried, Damon was fated to kill Mr. Tanner Halloween night? Or worse, what if she gave up Stefan, undid their love, for nothing?

Elena pulled him closer. Stefan’s lips parted in surprise, and then, with an anguished look of surrender, he bent his head to hers. “What are you?” he murmured against her lips. “What is it about you?”

As their lips met, heat rushed through Elena’s body. It felt so familiar, so right. Her Stefan. The rest of the world fell away.

Until a door burst open behind them.

“Elena?”

Chapter 16

Elena pulled out of Stefan’s arms in a panic, stumbling backward as she put distance between them. What had she been thinking?

“Damon,” she said as she turned to face him. Her heart was hammering hard, and she knew her voice sounded strained. “This isn’t what it looks like.”

Against the deadly pale of his skin, Damon’s eyes blazed like black stars. In an instant, his face smoothly fell back into its customary detached irony. If Elena hadn’t seen that momentary look of pain, she might have thought that there was a chance he’d listen to what she had to say.

Damon’s lips tightened. “Funnily enough, I think it’s exactly what it looks like, Elena,” he said cooly. “My little brother makes a habit of trespassing on my territory.” His eyes shifted, and then he was looking past Elena, as if she didn’t matter, straight at Stefan. Stefan glared back, his jaw set stubbornly.

“As for you? I’ll make you suffer,” Damon told him, his voice cold and clear, ringing through the deserted hallway. “I told you I would kill you one day, and I will, but first I’m going to destroy everything you care about. You’ll beg for death in the end.” He flashed a brilliant, scornful smile with no humor in it at all. Faster than Elena’s eye could follow, he was gone.

“Damon!” Elena tried to scream after him, but her voice was thin with shock, and it came out more a squeak than anything else.

She’d been such a fool, giving in to her emotions, and now she had ruined everything.

Elena forced herself still and took a deep gulp of air. Maybe there was time to salvage this. If she could find Damon, if she could explain … Elena peered down the hall toward the shadowy corridors leading to the rest of the school. Where would Damon have gone? With a pang, she realized that she didn’t know where he was living, had never known that sort of detail about this time in his life.

“Elena.” In her moment of panic, she’d almost forgotten about Stefan. He gripped her by the arm, his voice low and urgent. “You need to get out of here. Find your friends and go somewhere safe, a house where Damon’s never been. Take the flowers I gave you. If Damon comes to you, whatever you do, whatever he says, don’t let him in.”

Elena grabbed hold of Stefan’s hand. “I just need to talk to Damon.”

“It won’t help,” he said grimly. “Do what I told you, Elena, please.”

And, in the moments between one blink and another, he was gone, too.

Elena swore, slamming her hand against a locker. Stefan was the last person who should be going after Damon now, and he ought to know that. But maybe he didn’t care.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then another, trying to calm her pounding heart.

Maybe Damon would go to Stefan’s boardinghouse, looking for revenge. Or maybe she could figure out where he was staying. Damon liked luxury—she could check the nice hotel downtown and search for upscale, uninhabited houses. Inhabited ones, too. He had hidden her in an attic once, Elena remembered. She let out a long, frustrated sigh.

Damon could be anywhere. But maybe, just maybe … Elena looked up and down the halls at the banners cheering on the football team, the dented lockers. Damon had never been one to run away from conflict. He could still be in the school.

And if so, Elena needed to find him, fast.

Elena headed back into the auditorium, music and chatter swelling around her as she passed through the door. She waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness as she scanned the crowd, trying to spot her friends.

She saw Meredith first, on the dance floor with a boy whose name Elena didn’t know. Elena cut straight through the crowd toward them, putting her hand on Meredith’s shoulder.

“I need your help. Please,” she said.

Meredith took one glance at her and nodded. “I’ll be back,” she said to her partner with a smile, and tugged Elena to the side of the dance floor, whispering, “What? What’s happened?”

“Let me get Bonnie and Matt first, and then I’ll explain.” Elena had spotted Bonnie, deeper in the crowd on the dance floor. She was dancing with Raymond and getting into the music, her eyes closed and her hands up in the air above her head. Elena shouldered her way toward her, ignoring the grumbles as she shoved past people.

“Bonnie. Come with us.”

Bonnie opened her eyes and scowled. “I’m dancing,” she said, without stopping.

“This is important.” Elena tried to put all the anxiety she was feeling into her face.

Bonnie sighed and rolled her eyes at Raymond. “Girl stuff,” she said. “I’ll catch up with you later.”

“Seriously, what’s going on? It couldn’t wait?” she hissed at Elena as they reached the edge of the dance floor and the crowd thinned out a little.

Over at the refreshment table, Matt was pouring two cups of punch. Elena headed for him, Bonnie and Meredith trailing behind her. “I need help finding Damon,” Elena said. “He’s here, and he saw me kissing Stefan.”

Matt’s eyebrows shot up his forehead, and Bonnie and Meredith exchanged a confused glance.

“You were kissing Stefan?” Bonnie asked, in a tone midway between scandalized and intrigued.

“I’m not sure this qualifies as an emergency,” Meredith said dryly. “Maybe you should let him cool off and call him tomorrow.”

Matt remained quiet, not able to look Elena in the eye.

Elena felt sick. Of course they weren’t panicking. As far as the three of them were concerned, Damon was just a guy she was dating, and Stefan was a guy who went to their school. Good-looking, intense, mysterious guys, but, when you came right down to it, only human beings. They didn’t understand how dangerous Damon—this Damon, the Damon of now—could be.

“This isn’t going to be okay!” she said, hearing her own voice wobble wildly.

“Oh, Elena—” At her outburst, Bonnie’s eyes widened in sympathy, and she wrapped her arms around Elena. “We’ll help, whatever you need.” She looked fiercely at Meredith and Matt, as if daring them to disagree. Meredith nodded in agreement, but Matt hesitated.

“I just—Caroline’s waiting for me,” he said, gazing down at the two cups of punch he was still clutching.

“Go ahead and take them to her and then come help us,” Meredith said firmly.

“Caroline will get over it,” Bonnie added, a smirk playing around the edges of her mouth.

Matt looked torn for a moment, and then his face firmed, his mind made up. “I’ll be back,” he said grimly, and marched off.

The three girls watched as he crossed the auditorium to where Caroline stood. At first, she smiled at Matt and accepted the cup of punch gracefully, as poised as a princess. Matt dipped his head to speak in her ear and, as she listened, Caroline’s expression grew more and more thunderous. She snapped something back at him, and Matt replied. Then Caroline, clearly incandescent with rage, reared back and slapped Matt hard across the face.

“Oh my God,” Bonnie breathed.

Matt swung around and hurried back to them. “I guess that’s that” was all he said. There was a red mark high on his cheekbone where Caroline had slapped him.

Elena slipped her hand into his big, warm one and squeezed, just for a second. “Thank you.” She didn’t deserve him; she knew that.

As she let go, Matt looked down at her, shaking his head slightly from side to side. “I don’t know why I do the things I do for you, Elena Gilbert,” he said, but a rueful smile was beginning to tug at the corners of his mouth.

“Someday, I hope to return the favor,” Elena said, then turned to her other friends. “If we split up, we can search the school more quickly.” They pushed through the auditorium doors into the hall again. “But if you see Damon, just come get me, don’t try talking to him. He’s upset. If you see Stefan, try to get him to come back here.”

“So Stefan went after Damon?” Meredith asked, confused. “Why? Do they even know each other?”

“They’re brothers, but they don’t get along very well,” Elena told her.

She dug into the tiny lipstick-red purse she carried. It didn’t hold a lot—just essentials—but one thing in here might be crucial. “Here.” She pulled out the withered bunch of vervain, now looking more like a bunch of wilted, dead weeds than ever, and quickly divided it into four small portions, a few strands of vervain in each.

“Um, why are you giving us dead plants?” Bonnie asked, holding hers doubtfully between her thumb and forefinger, her nose wrinkling.

“They’re good luck,” Elena said, aware of how lame she sounded. “Damon’s very superstitious.”

They all stared at her but, with a shrug, Matt put his bunch into his suit jacket, and Meredith into her clutch. Bonnie, purseless, tucked them behind her ear.

They split up, Matt and Bonnie heading down the hall toward the cafeteria, Meredith and Elena going the other way toward the office. As they walked, Elena glanced into every dim classroom, checking for Damon or Stefan.

“Maybe you should just let Damon calm down on his own,” Meredith said hesitantly, but Elena shook her head.

“I have to find him.” The longer she and Meredith looked, the more urgently Elena felt that time was running out. She knew Damon was only getting angrier by the minute.

Unease spread inside Elena, the feeling that someone was watching her from the shadows. The skin on the back of her neck crawled. She stopped to listen.

In the distance, someone laughed, and quick footsteps ran down a nearby hallway. Probably just another student, someone ducking out of the dance. Elena took a deep breath and pushed open the next classroom door. No one.

“Do you really think—” Meredith began. She broke off as the fire alarm suddenly began to blare, a deafening screech. Despite herself, Elena jumped.

“Some kid always has to set it off and try to ruin everyone’s good time,” Meredith half shouted over the alarm, disgusted.

Elena shook her head. She could smell smoke, faint and faraway for now, but there. “I don’t think so,” she said. In the distance, she could hear frantic shouts, the principal’s voice rising over the loudspeakers, directing everyone out of the building.

It was a real fire, she was sure of it. She was also sure that Damon had started it. Elena looked around wildly, searching for some clue to his whereabouts.

“Over here,” she said, picking a direction and hurrying forward. They hadn’t looked in the theater yet, maybe Damon—or Stefan—was there.

The smoke grew thicker as they made their way deeper into the school. “Elena, stop!” Meredith called, her heels clicking against the floor as she ran after Elena.

“I’m sure he’s down here,” Elena called back. Damon would want to see the chaos he had created. She could picture him, flames reflected in his dark eyes.

Meredith caught up to her, grabbing hold of Elena’s arm with strong fingers. “It’s not safe,” she said. “We have to get out of here.”

Meredith dragged Elena around the corner, but they were faced with a searing wave of heat. Flames licked the ceiling, melting the lockers like they were made of candle wax. Both girls shrieked as the fire crackled and grew.

“I need to find him,” Elena said, sobs beginning to rise in her throat, her eyes stinging from the smoke.

But, as Meredith took began to pull her toward the fire exit, Elena felt suddenly, horrifyingly sure that she was too late. She’d lost Damon. She’d failed.

Chapter 17

The windows of the school glowed red as flames within climbed the walls, reaching for the upper floors. The bricks of its façade were cracking in the heat. As Elena and her friends watched from the parking lot, a window shattered.

“Oh my God,” Bonnie said softly. The reflected flames made her pale face rosy. Next to her, Meredith leaned her head on Matt’s shoulder, gazing wide-eyed into the flames.

It seemed like the teachers had gotten everyone out of the dance, smoke-smeared and disheveled in the remains of their formal clothes. Near Elena’s group, a girl sobbed hysterically, long streaks of soot crossing her face, while farther away, one of the football players hacked dryly, a casualty of the smoke.

Only a few minutes after Meredith and Elena had reached the parking lot, the fire trucks pulled in, sirens screaming. But by that time, the flames were already leaping high. Elena had heard Mr. Landon, the science teacher, muttering about the electrical wiring of the old building, saying it was a deathtrap, but Elena knew better. This had to be Damon’s work.

Elean jumped as another window shattered, this time under the blast of water from a fire hose. The firemen were putting up a good fight, dragging hoses across the parking lot, working together quickly and efficiently, and had at least contained the fire to only half of the school.

Elena looked around the circle of firelit faces. There was Caroline, her auburn head held high despite the flakes of black ash falling on the parking lot around her. Next to her, Sue Carson huddled under her boyfriend’s suit jacket that she had pulled over her thin dress. Vickie Bennett was with a group of jocks and cheerleaders, all quiet and subdued. Even among the kids who hated the school, there were no cheers, no laughter. Everyone was shocked into silence.

An ambulance pulled into the lot, its blue light revolving. One of the paramedics got out and jogged across the lot toward a group of firefighters, calling, “Everybody out?”

The firefighter called back in the affirmative, but Elena’s breath caught. She swung around, searching desperately.

“Do you see Stefan anywhere?” she asked the others. They looked around, too, their faces anxious.

Maybe he was gone before the fire started.

That didn’t make sense, though. Why would Damon start this fire, if Stefan hadn’t been here? That was who he wanted to hurt most.

“We’d better tell the fire chief.” Matt strode off in the direction of the fire trucks.

That won’t help.

Fire was one of the few things that could kill a vampire. There wasn’t time for the fire fighters to find Stefan. And if they did, it wouldn’t be safe, for them or for him.

Elena straightened up, squaring her shoulders. There was no way she was standing uselessly by while Stefan died. Not again.

She had to get past the fire fighters. They were grouped closest to the front of the building, where the fire was at its worst. Over at the side, the school was darker, deserted.

Elena shifted her feet, considering the best way to sneak around the building from where she stood.

“What are you doing?” Bonnie asked.

“I’m going to look for Stefan,” Elena told them.

“We’ll come with you,” Meredith said quickly.

“No,” Elena said. “You guys stay here and make sure Stefan isn’t outside. If you see him, keep him with you.”

“Um, what if we see Damon?” Bonnie asked uneasily. “Do you want us to tell him anything?”

Elena hesitated. Was there any message she could send through her friends that would lessen Damon’s anger? She didn’t think so. “If you see him, just stay out of his way, okay?” she asked. He was probably long gone, anyway.

She worked her way across the parking lot, sticking to the shadows. As she reached the edge of the lot, she walked between the trees on one side and the cars on the other, eyes on the corner of the school building.

“Get back, miss,” a fireman told her as he hurried past. She stepped away from the building, watching him until he had forgotten her and disappeared into the mass of men fighting the flames.

There was a puddle of water at her feet, left by one of the fire hoses. Elena knelt, fumbling at the hem of her dress. She felt a twinge of regret for her beautiful dress as she gripped the crimson silk with both hands and tore. A long strip of silk came off the bottom of the dress. She dipped it into the dirty water of the puddle, soaking the fabric thoroughly.

There was a crash from the far side of the building, something inside collapsing, and, in one motion, the crowd and the fire fighters turned in that direction.

Elena seized her chance and ran, cold water dripping over her hand from the torn piece of her dress. Close up, the fire was loud. The flames roared, and the dry wood of the school building snapped and popped as it burned.

Around the corner, it was darker. The flames hadn’t reached here yet. A fire exit gaped open, and Elena braced herself and stepped through.

The heat hit her like a wave. A haze of smoke hung in the air, and Elena pressed the wet silk over her nose and mouth to block it out. Her eyes began to water and ache.

Where would Damon have taken Stefan? Nowhere where the fire was burning yet, Elena thought. He would want Stefan’s suffering more drawn out than that, would want him to hear the crackle of the flames, smell the smoke, and know that the deadly fire—one of the few things that could kill Stefan—was getting closer and closer, and that he had no hope of escape. Damon had said he wanted Stefan to suffer.

Of course. She cocked her head to look up the staircase ahead of her. It still looked stable enough. He’d be somewhere high enough that the smoke and heat would rise around him, where he’d feel the flames rising to lick against the floor beneath him. Damon would have put Stefan in the bell tower.

Elena climbed. The silk at her mouth filtered out the worst of the smoke, but she still choked and gasped, each breath coming with more difficulty than the last. Heavy boots clumped through the halls on the other side of the building. Fire fighters, she supposed, but she saw no one, just the heavy haze of smoke.

From somewhere below came the crash of a falling support beam, and the floor underfoot shook. Elena grabbed at the banister to steady herself, then sped up. She wobbled, and her feet ached as she ran. High heels were no good for this, but bare feet would be worse, so she had to keep going.

On the third floor, the staircase ended. She peered around, trying to spot the entrance to the bell tower through the worsening smoke. Her eyes burned, and she coughed—the wet silk was drying, it wasn’t protecting her enough now.

There it was. She crossed the hall and laid her hand against the wood of the small door to the bell tower. It was cool still, no fire behind it. But the knob wouldn’t turn.

It was locked; of course it was locked. The school didn’t want the students messing around up here. Elena squeezed her eyes shut against the smoke. What was she going to do?

She tugged at the door again, and then began to throw herself against it. She had to get through. “Stefan!” she called. “Stefan! Can you hear me?”

There was no answer.

The door wasn’t made to withstand a continuous assault. Elena threw all her weight against it over and over, ignoring the bruises she could feel blossoming on her shoulder and side. At last, the flimsy lock broke, and the door burst open. She tumbled through and fell to her knees, gasping and coughing.

Elena scrambled back to her feet and up the narrow rickety staircase to the top of the tower. Beneath the heavy bronze bell, archways opened on all four sides, and at last she could breathe. She staggered to one of the arches and took a few deep breaths, looking out over the parking lot below. Police cars were pulling in now, their red and blue lights flashing.

Her head was spinning less now that she had taken a few gulps of air, and Elena turned back around to look at the inside of the bell tower.

There was a weak motion, down in the darkest corner of the cupola. A small sound, barely more than a whimper. Elena crossed toward it and fell to her knees. There was a huddled dark shape there, and he shifted to stare up at her. Stefan mumbled something, his voice thick and choked.

“It’s all right,” she said automatically, running her fingers soothingly through his hair. He was tied up, and there was a band of fabric across his mouth, pulled viciously tight.

He flinched under her hand, scrabbling back toward the wall. He didn’t seem to recognize her. She worked her hands beneath the gag, trying to untie its tight knot with her fingers. She couldn’t loosen it.

She fumbled around on the floor, feeling around in the dark for something sharp. The floor was hot beneath her hands and knees—the fire must be rising below them.

Her fingers closed around a sharp-edged stone, and she worked it against the gag, feeling the cloth’s fibers rip. Finally, it came loose and she pulled it away from Stefan’s mouth.

As she removed the gag, something else spilled over his lips. Elena leaned closer, bracing herself with one hand on the rough brickwork above Stefan’s head, squinting to see what was there.

Thin stalks of vervain sputtered out of Stefan’s mouth. He gagged and choked as he spit them out. Anger rushed through Elena, as hot and sudden as a bolt of lightning.

“How dare he?” she muttered. “How dare he?” Damon had stuffed his brother’s mouth with vervain, muting his powers and muddling his mind. And then he had left him to die, alone, confused, and in pain.

Heedless of Stefan’s sharp canines this time, she used two fingers to scoop out more of the vervain clogging his mouth. One tooth scraped her finger stingingly, but she barely noticed.

As his mouth emptied, she could hear Stefan breathing, long, ragged hoarse breaths. She pushed her forefinger in again, checking that she had gotten every piece.

Stefan’s tongue dragged slowly against her finger. Elena hesitated, and he latched on, sucking desperately at the cut on her finger.

After a moment, Stefan’s eyelashes fluttered and his eyes slowly opened. He stared at Elena for a second before recognition filtered into his gaze. Abruptly, he pulled away.

“Elena,” he said roughly, and panic flashed across his pale face. “I … don’t know how to explain this.”

The bricks beneath Elena’s knees were getting uncomfortably hot now. The fire must be climbing. “We have to get out of here,” she said, her pulse pounding.

Stefan’s eyes widened, and he strained visibly. The ropes around his wrists snapped first, and then the ones around his ankles. Without the vervain, they couldn’t hold him. He began, slowly, to climb to his feet. “Is the door blocked?” he asked.

“I-I think so,” Elena said. “The fire was spreading really fast.”

Stefan shook his head as if he was shaking off the last of the vervain’s effects. “Trust me,” he said. Drawing Elena up into his arms, Stefan climbed into the archway.

Holding her tightly, Stefan leaped into the night.

Chapter 18

“Who are you?” Stefan asked. “How did you find me tonight?” After their leap from the school, he’d brought her back to his room at Mrs. Flowers’ boardinghouse. He leaned against the wall by the window, his finely drawn features so pale they could have been carved out of marble.

Elena clasped her hands in her lap. “I knew that Damon must have started the fire, and, after what he said to you, I had a feeling that he wouldn’t have let you make it out,” she said slowly.

Stefan pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers, as if his head hurt. “And how do you know Damon?”

“I met him in the graveyard.” It seemed wise to stick to the simplest answer.

Coming a step closer, Stefan narrowed his eyes. “You knew what was going on with the vervain. It didn’t surprise you or scare you when we leaped from the bell tower, or when I fed from you. You know what Damon and I are.”

There was something threatening about Stefan now as he almost loomed above her. Elena raised her hands in surrender, doing her best to look harmless. “I’m not your enemy,” she said. “Yours or Damon’s. I only want to help.”

She hoped that her sincerity shone through. All she wanted to do was to save them both.

Stefan leaned back against the wall. Rubbing a hand across his face, he laughed, a miserable, rough laugh. “There’s nothing to help, Elena. Damon and I are monsters, and the sooner we get out of this town the better off everyone else will be. If I leave here, he’ll follow me. You’ll be safe.” Shaking his head, he added, “I should have known better than to try, to pretend to be human.”

“No, Stefan, please,” Elena was out of her chair without even thinking about it. Reaching out to take Stefan’s hands in her own, she squeezed them tightly. “It wasn’t a mistake.” He shook his head and started to pull away, and Elena stepped closer still, looking up into his eyes. “We can work together. We can keep Damon under control. You don’t have to be alone.”

Stefan eyes grew darker as he held Elena’s gaze. And then he bent his head to her lips. For a moment, it was as if the whole world was just the two of them, heat rushing through Elena’s body.

It was all so familiar. They were both filthy and stinking of smoke, but it could have been the night of their first Homecoming—when Stefan had rescued her from Tyler in the graveyard and brought her here. Maybe it was destiny after all. They were always going to end up here, tired and drained, secrets stretching the space between them.

At the thought, Elena pulled away, suddenly cold as she stepped out of Stefan’s arms.

“I’m sorry,” Elena stammered. “I didn’t mean … I can’t do this right now.” She felt as if the world was shifting under her feet.

Stefan turned away so she couldn’t quite see his face. “I apologize,” he said. “I’ll take you home.”

Elena followed him down the darkened stairway, brushing her fingers against her lips. This is all my fault, she thought, as she left the boardinghouse and crossed the dirt driveway to Stefan’s low, black Porsche. If she hadn’t kissed Stefan, if Damon hadn’t seen her, things between them wouldn’t be deteriorating. The school wouldn’t have burned down today.

Stefan’s car was just as smooth and luxurious a ride as Damon’s. The engine’s purr was the only sound in the car as Elena and Stefan sat silently, each wrapped in their own thoughts. Stefan’s eyes were fixed on the road, and his body was stiff with tension. Elena sighed and wrapped her arms around herself.

How could Stefan and Damon hate each other so much? Elena thought of the rueful affection she’d seen grow between the brothers over the past few years in her own life. They played pool together. They fenced and played cards, all the entertainments they’d both learned to pass the time over the centuries. They fought side by side, graceful and deadly.

The brothers always came back together when it mattered most. They’d saved each other’s lives more than once.

Elena remembered Damon’s fury after Stefan’s death. And more, she remembered the pure despair on his face, the way he had looked as he told her that now there was no one, no one at all, who remembered him when he was alive, when he was a human. He’d lost his past.

How had they gotten from here to there?

Then, as Stefan’s car purred around the corner onto Elena’s street, she finally got it. The loneliness in Stefan’s eyes, his room carefully designed for one monastic, solitary life. Damon’s vicious hatred for his little brother, paired with the fact that, wherever Stefan went, Damon watched him from afar. Even in tonight’s fire, Damon had left him far away from the flames. If Stefan hadn’t gotten away, would Damon have come back for him?

They always came back to each other.

Stefan and Damon were each other’s family, all they had left. And all their love and history might have gotten tangled up into one big ball of resentment and anger, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still there. She knew it was still there. She’d seen it in the future, as strong as ever.

Maybe it wasn’t Elena who had changed Damon, back in her own time. Mylea had said that love would save Damon, would save them all. But it wasn’t Elena’s love that would do it.

From now on, she realized with a blinding flash, she wasn’t going to try to make Damon fall in love with her.

Instead, she needed to fix Stefan and Damon. If they could just be brothers again, everything else would fall into place.

Stefan pulled up in front of Elena’s house and stopped. Her front door flew open, and Aunt Judith and Robert rushed out onto the lawn. No doubt they’d heard about the fire.

Before she opened the car door to reassure them, Elena turned to Stefan and laid her hand over his.

“I know what we have to do now. We can fix everything,” she told him, feeling strong and sure. “Tomorrow, we’re going to look for Damon.”

Chapter 19

Dear Diary,

I woke up this morning and I wished I were dead.

Not really, I suppose. If I meant it, I would just let things take their course. Grab at the chance of a brief happiness with Stefan, knowing that it will lead to so much suffering, to the destruction of all three of us.

But Damon was so full of anger. The way he looked at me when he found me in Stefan’s arms—he never looked at me that way before, even when things between us were at their worst. Like he hated me.

Elena glanced at the clock. She needed to leave for school soon. Downstairs, she could hear the familiar clatter of Aunt Judith making breakfast. It felt so much like the morning when Damon had driven her to school, when it had seemed like everything was falling into place. She began to write again.

I refuse to believe that I’ve ruined everything.

If I can just show Damon how much Stefan still loves him, how much they need each other, maybe things will turn out okay after all. I have to believe that. I can’t give up on us, not yet.

“One day off,” Bonnie fumed, flicking her red curls over her shoulder as the two girls crossed the parking lot together. “We go through a completely traumatizing event, and they can’t give us even one day off.”

“It’s amazing how quickly they pulled all this together, though,” Elena commented. In daylight, she could see that the school hadn’t entirely burned down.

One side of the building, where the office and most of the classrooms were, was charred and half-collapsed. Elena couldn’t suppress a shudder as she looked at the bell tower. The staircase she had climbed to find Stefan must be entirely gone. But the other side, where the auditorium and cafeteria were, looked mostly solid even though stained a dirty gray by the smoke. The heavy smell of ash hung over everything.

Behind the school now stood a row of temporary white trailers to be used as classrooms for the rest of the year, until the school could be rebuilt. All around the trailers, students gathered in groups, leaning eagerly toward each other to gossip. Harried administrators were trying to shepherd everyone into the right trailers. Everything seemed to be in only slightly controlled chaos.

“See you later,” Bonnie called as she veered off into chemistry, and Elena found the trailer where her trig class was. Meredith was already there, her homework laid out neatly in front of her.

As Elena settled into the desk beside her, Meredith looked up with a worried frown. “Have you heard the gossip?” she asked. “Everyone’s saying that Stefan started the fire.”

Elena remembered with a twinge of dismay the low, excited, I’ve-got-a-secret tone to the whispers before class.

They’d been here before. It might start at the high school, but the rumors would spread all over town. Adults would get upset. Stefan would be shunned.

“That’s ridiculous,” she said sharply.

Meredith bit her lip. “There’s no real evidence. Everyone used to think the way he keeps to himself was romantic, but now they’re saying it’s creepy. He disappeared from the dance right before the fire started.”

“So did we,” Elena objected.

“We were all together.” Meredith dipped her head, shuffling the papers around on her desk. “I don’t want to believe it, but it is strange how Stefan disappeared. When Matt told the fire fighters that Stefan wasn’t there, they started searching for him to make sure he wasn’t in the building. You said you didn’t see him when you looked either.”

Elena winced. It had seemed simpler when she got home just to call Bonnie and Meredith and tell them she had given up and decided to leave. Now it was too late to pretend to have run into Stefan.

“They found him back at his boardinghouse. When the police questioned him he was covered in smoke and ash.” Meredith raised her head, her gray eyes troubled. “I’m not saying Stefan did anything. And I promise not to tell anyone that Damon was there, either. But maybe you should stay away from both of them, Elena.”

“Anybody could have set that fire!” Elena said, her voice a little too loud. The teacher looked up from her desk inquiringly, and Elena lowered her voice. “It was probably somebody sneaking a cigarette.”

Meredith’s forehead creased in concern. “Elena, you don’t even know Stefan. You’ve been avoiding him since he started school. And then, suddenly, you’ve kissed him—once—and now you won’t hear anything against him? I thought you were with Damon.”

“I am, but—” Elena began.

“Okay, time to stop the chatter and review your homework assignments,” Ms. Halpern said, stepping up to the front of the room. With one more worried glance, Meredith turned away from Elena to face the teacher.

Elena chewed on her lip. This was worse than the first time she had been here. Then, everyone had started suspecting Stefan of being responsible for Mr. Tanner’s murder after Halloween. The gossip had spread until, despite the lack of any real evidence, everyone was convinced Stefan was the killer. Aunt Judith had banned Elena from seeing Stefan, and some of the adults in town—Tyler’s dad, especially—had been ready to form a lynch mob and attack him.

Now, because of Elena, all the suspicion and hatred for Stefan was starting earlier. And, that time, at least Meredith and Bonnie had been on her side. They hadn’t had any more proof of Stefan’s innocence then than they did now, but they had believed Elena when she swore he was innocent. They’d believed her because they knew she knew Stefan.

Elena wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly cold. If Fell’s Church turned against Stefan earlier, maybe it would all happen earlier. Was Elena doomed to drive off Wickery Bridge and drown, no matter what she did? She could almost feel that icy dark water rising around her.

Was it hopeless for her to try to fight fate? Was Stefan doomed to die? Would Elena end up back in that cold gray in-between place, heading for death?

The rest of the morning, Elena kept an eye out for Stefan whenever she moved from one trailer classroom to another, but she never saw him. Crowds of students gathered on the crumbling black asphalt between the trailers, talking in low, excited voices. Elena hoped Stefan had come to school today. Nothing would fan the flames of the rumor more than if it seemed that Stefan was hiding.

When she got to history class, Stefan’s seat was empty. Elena’s shoulders slumped. Mr. Tanner began to lecture about the English Civil War, and Elena stared down at her notebook, her eyes stinging.

“I see you’ve decided to grace us with your presence, Mr. Salvatore.” Mr. Tanner’s voice was whip-sharp. Elena lifted her head.

Stefan, grim-faced, hesitated in the doorway. Mr. Tanner waved an arm in an exaggerated gesture of courtesy. “Please, take a seat,” he said. “We’re all so glad you decided to wander in.”

Stefan sat down without glancing at Elena. He bent his head over his desk. His shoulders were stiffly set, betraying his awareness of the gossip and hatred buzzing around him. Elena sighed. He probably thought it was deserved, even though he hadn’t started the fire. Stefan, the Stefan of now, thought he was a monster and that people should fear and hate him.

Elena sat up straight and glared around the classroom. The girls beside Stefan, who had been nudging each other and whispering, exchanged a glance and turned back to their books with new interest.

Caroline, though, stared straight back at Elena, her lips turning up in a smirk. Tilting her head, she whispered something to the girl next to her, her eyes never leaving Elena’s, and her smile widened. She and the other girl both laughed.

At least Dick and Tyler’s desks were empty, since they were still suspended. It was Tyler who had whipped up a frenzy against Stefan last time. Tyler was a bully, he always had been. Elena sighed and pressed a hand against her forehead.

Was everything bound to slide toward the same ends, no matter what she did? Were some things inevitable?

No. She couldn’t believe that. She pulled back her shoulders and sat up straight, running a cold eye over Caroline, who was still smirking. When the other girl finally looked away, Elena felt a jolt of satisfaction. Elena was still the queen of the school after all.

When class finally ended, Elena shot out of her seat and grabbed Stefan’s arm, pulling him aside before he could leave the trailer classroom.

“You’re not afraid to be seen with me?” he asked softly, his head down, eyes fixed on the ugly gray carpeting of the trailer. “They’re right not to trust me, Elena.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she told him, meeting the hostile looks of the other students as they edged past. Bonnie hesitated in the doorway, eyeing Stefan, and Elena gave her a quick, reassuring smile.

“Call me later,” Bonnie said pleadingly as she left.

Once the trailer was empty, Elena turned back to Stefan. She was still gripping his jacketed arm, so tightly that her fingers ached, but he barely seemed to notice. “We don’t have much time,” she told him. “We need a game plan. We need to get Damon under control.”

Stefan huffed a short, bitter laugh. “Damon’s never under control.”

“Stefan, look at me.” Letting go of his sleeve, Elena reached up and framed Stefan’s face with her hands. His skin was cool, and his cheekbones were strong and wide beneath her fingers. She waited for him to bring his eyes up to meet hers, her heart beating hard as the connection between them slid into place, that sense of recognition and almost magnetic attraction. His face cradled in her hands, Stefan blinked as if he was seeing her for the first time.

“Don’t give up,” she said, trying to put the weight of all the secret knowledge she had—all the things she couldn’t tell him in words—behind what she said. “You’re the only one who can change things with your brother. I believe in you.”

Stefan gently pulled away from her hands, and Elena ached as their contact broke. His face was sorrowful. “I don’t think that Damon can change,” he said. “But I think I know where he is.”