Moonsong (31 page)

There were bodies littered across the floor, evidence of Meredith’s skil and Damon’s vicious rage. As Elena watched, Stefan tossed down the drained body of the vampire he had been fighting and looked around. Only Ethan and the three vampires surrounding Meredith remained on their feet.

Damon had Ethan on the run, backing nervously away as Damon stalked toward him, peppering him with sharp open-handed blows. “… my brother,” she heard Damon muttering. “Insolent pup. You think you know anything, child, you think you want power?” With a sudden, violent movement, he grabbed Ethan’s arm and jerked. Elena could hear the bone snap.

Stefan passed Elena, heading toward Meredith again, and paused for a moment. “Ethan was laying a trap for Damon,” he told her dryly. “I don’t know why I was worried.

Clearly, he didn’t know what he was trying to catch.” Elena nodded again, suppressing a grin. The idea of any brand-new vampire getting the better of Damon, with al his experience and cunning, seemed ridiculous.

Then the tide of the battle suddenly turned.

One of the vampires Meredith was fighting dodged her blow and, half bent over, flung itself at her, knocking the slender girl into the air. There was an endless moment where Meredith looked like she was flying, arms akimbo, and then she slammed headfirst into the heavy altarlike table at the front of the room.

The table wobbled and fel over with a heavy thud.

Meredith lay stil , her eyes closed, unconscious. Elena ran to her and knelt down, cradling her head in her lap.

The three vampires Meredith had been fighting were worse for the wear. One had blood steadily streaming down his face, another was limping, and the last was doubled over as if something had been injured inside her, but they could stil move fast. In an instant, they had surrounded Stefan.

As Damon growled and turned, shifting his stance to help his brother, Ethan saw his chance and launched himself at Damon. Faster than Elena’s eye could fol ow, his teeth were gouging at Damon’s throat, bright spurts of blood flying up. He had a knife in one hand and was trying to cut at Damon at the same time as he bit.

With a cry of pain and shock, Damon clawed at Ethan, trying to fling him away. Elena picked up her knife again and rushed toward them.

But two of the remaining vampires were on Damon in a split second, pul ing his arms back. One caught Damon’s midnight dark hair in his hand, yanking the older vampire’s head back to expose his throat more ful y to Ethan’s teeth.

Off balance, Damon staggered backward and for a moment caught Elena’s eye, his face soft with dismay.

Terrified, Elena grabbed at the back of one of the vampires, and it threw her to the floor without even looking at her. Stefan, meanwhile, was caught in a struggle with another vampire, desperate to get to his brother. Damon was a better and a more experienced warrior than any of the vampires attacking him. But if they pushed their momentary advantage, used their superior numbers, they might bring him down before he could recover.

She clutched her knife tighter and jumped to her feet again, knowing in her heart that she’d be too late to save him but that she needed to try.

A snarling blur shot past her, and Stefan, free of his adversary, slammed into Ethan, throwing him across the room, sending his knife flying. Without pausing, he ripped one of the other vampires from Damon’s arm and snapped his neck. By the time the body hit the floor, Damon had neatly dispatched the other one.

The brothers, both panting, exchanged a long look that seemed to carry a lot of unspoken communication. Damon wiped a smear of crimson blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.

Suddenly an arm was around Elena’s throat, and the knife was wrenched out of her hand. She was being dragged upward. Something sharp was poking her in the tender hol ow at the bottom of her neck.

“I can kil her before you could even get over here,” Ethan’s voice said, too loud by her ear. Elena flailed an arm backward, trying to grab at his hair or face, and he kicked viciously at her legs, knocking her off-balance, and pul ed her closer. “I could snap her neck with one arm. I could stab her with her own knife and let her bleed out. It would be fun.” He was holding her knife, Elena realized, pressed against her throat. His other arm hung loose, and curiously bent. Damon had broken it, Elena remembered.

Stefan and Damon froze and then very slowly turned toward Elena and Ethan, both their faces shuttered and wary. Then Damon’s broke into a rictus of rage.

“Let her go,” he snarled. “We’d kil you the second she hit the ground.”

Ethan laughed, a remarkably genuine laugh for someone in a life-or-death standoff. “She’l stil be dead, though, so I think it might be worth it. You’re not planning to let me leave here anyway, are you?” He turned to Stefan, his voice mocking. “You know, I heard all about the Salvatore brothers from some of Klaus’s other descendants. They said you were aristocratic and beautiful and terribly hot tempered. That Stefan was moral, and that Damon was remorseless. But they also said that you were both fools for love, always for love. It’s your fatal flaw. So, yeah, I think my chances are a lot better when I’ve got your girlfriend in my power. Whose girlfriend is she, actual y? I can’t tel .” Elena flinched.

“Wait a second, Ethan.” Stefan held out his hands placatingly. “Hold on. If you agree not to bring back Klaus and let Elena go safely, we’l give you whatever you want.

Get out of town, and we won’t come after you. You’l be safe. If you know about us, you know we’l keep our word.” Behind him, Damon nodded reluctantly, his eyes on Elena’s face.

Ethan laughed again. “I don’t think you have anything I want anymore, Stefan,” he said. “The rest of the Vitale Society, including our newest initiates, wil be coming back soon, and I think they’l tip the scales back in my favor.” He tightened his arm around Elena’s throat. “We’ve kil ed so many students on this campus. Surely one more won’t be missed.”

Damon hissed in rage and started forward, but Ethan cal ed out, “Stop right there, or—”

Suddenly, he jerked, and Elena felt a sharp, stinging pain in her throat. She squeaked in horror and grabbed at her own neck. But it was only a scratch from the knife.

As Stefan and Damon stood helpless and furious, Ethan’s arm loosened from around her throat. He made a hideous gurgling noise. Elena yanked away as soon as his grip weakened.

Blood was running in long thick rivulets from Ethan’s torso, and his mouth opened in shock as he clutched at himself and slowly fel forward, a round hole in his chest fil ing with blood.

Behind him, Meredith stood, hair flying, her usual y cool gray eyes burning like dark coals in her face. Her stave was coated in Ethan’s blood.

“I got him in the heart,” she said, her voice fierce.

“Thank you,” Elena murmured politely. She was feeling

… real y … very peculiar, and it wasn’t until she was actual y starting to fal that she thought, Oh no, I think I’m going to faint.

Blurrily, she saw both Damon and Stefan rushing forward to catch her, and when she came to a moment later, she was held tightly in two pairs of arms.

“I’m okay,” she said. “It was just … for a second, I was…” She felt one pair of arms pul her closer for a moment, and then they released her, shifting her weight over to the other set. When she looked up, Stefan was clutching her tightly to him. Damon stood a few feet away, his face unreadable.

“I knew you’d come to save me,” Stefan said, holding Elena but looking at Damon.

Damon’s lips twitched into a tiny, reluctant smile. “Of course I did, you idiot,” he said gruffly. “I’m your brother.” They looked at each other for a long moment, and then Damon’s eyes flicked to Elena, stil in Stefan’s arms, and away. “Let’s put out the torches and go,” he said briskly.

“We’ve stil got about fourteen vampires to find.” 41

It seemed like he and Bonnie had been waiting forever in the tiny back office of the library, Matt thought. They had strained to catch a sound, to try and learn anything at al about what was happening down there. Bonnie paced, wringing her hands and biting her lips, and he leaned against the wal , head lowered, and kept a good grip on Samantha’s stave. Just in case.

He knew about al the doors and passages and tunnels down there, many of which he had no idea where they led, but he didn’t realize the soundproofing was so good. They hadn’t heard a thing.

Then suddenly the trapdoor was pushing up, and Matt tensed, raising the stave, until he saw Elena’s face.

Meredith, Elena, Stefan, and Damon climbed out, covered in blood, but basical y fine, if the eager way Elena and Meredith were tel ing Bonnie what happened, their words tumbling over each other, was any indication.

“Ethan’s dead,” Stefan told Matt. “There were some other Vitales down there in the fight, but none of the pledges. He’d sent them out to hunt.”

Matt felt sick and weirdly happy at the same time. He’d pictured them dead at Damon and Stefan’s hands, Chloe, al his friends from pledging. But they weren’t. Not dead, not real y. But transformed, vampires now.

“You’re going to hunt them,” he said, aiming his words at Stefan and Damon, and at Meredith, too. She nodded, her face resolved, and Damon looked away.

“We have to,” Stefan told him. “You know that.” Matt stared hard at his shoes. “Yeah,” he said, “I know.

But, if you get a chance, maybe talk to some of them? If you can, if they’re reasonable and no one’s in danger? Maybe they could learn to live without kil ing people. If you showed them how, Stefan.” He rubbed at the back of his neck.

“Chloe was … special. And the other pledges, they were good people. They didn’t know what they were getting into.

They deserve a chance.”

Everyone was silent, and, after a moment, Matt looked up to find Stefan regarding him, his eyes dark green with sympathy, his mouth pul ed taut in lines of pain. “I’l do my best,” he said kindly. “I can promise you that. But new vampires—vampires in general, real y—can be unpredictable. We might not be able to save any of them, and our priority has to be the innocent. We will try, though.” Matt nodded. His mouth tasted sour and his eyes burned. He was beginning to realize just how tired he was.

“That’s about the best I can expect,” he said roughly. “Thank you.”

“So there’s a whole room ful of dead vampires down there?” Bonnie asked, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

“Pretty much,” said Elena. “We chained the doors closed again, but I wish we could close the chamber off more permanently. Someone’s going to go down there eventual y, and the last thing this campus needs is another murder investigation, or another gruesome legend.”

“Ta-da!” Bonnie said, grinning brightly and pul ing a little bag out of her pocket. “Final y something I can do.” She held the bag up. “Remember al the hours Mrs. Flowers made me spend studying herbs? Wel , I know spel s for locking and warding, and I’ve got the herbs to use right here. I thought they might come in handy, as soon as Matt told us we were going to a secret underground chamber.” She looked so pleased with herself that Matt had to smile a little despite the heaviness inside him at the thought of Chloe and the others somewhere out in the night. “They might not work for more than a day or two,” she added modestly, “but they’l definitely discourage people from investigating the trapdoor for that long.”

“You’re a wonder, Bonnie,” Elena said, and spontaneously hugged her.

Stefan nodded. “We can get rid of the bodies tomorrow,” he said. “It’s too close to dawn to do it now.” Bonnie got right to work, sprinkling dried plants across the trapdoor. “Hyssop, Solomon’s seal, and damiana leaves,” she said when she saw Matt watching her. “They’re for strengthening of locks, protection from evil, and general protection. Mrs. Flowers dril ed me on this stuff so much I final y got them al down. It’s too bad I didn’t have her helping me with my homework in high school. Maybe I would have learned some of those French verbs.” Damon was watching them, his eyes half hooded. “We should look for the new vampires, too,” he said. “You know vampires aren’t pack animals. They won’t hunt together for long. Once they split up, we can pick them off,” he told Stefan.

“I’m coming, too,” Meredith said. She looked at Damon chal engingly. “I’l just walk Matt home and then meet up with you both.”

Damon smiled, a peculiarly warm smile that Matt had never seen him direct at Meredith before. “I was talking to you, too, hunter,” he said. “You’ve gotten better.” After a second, she smiled back, a humorous twist of her lips, and Matt thought he saw something that might be the beginnings of friendship flickering between them.

“So the Vitales were definitely behind al the murders and disappearances?” Matt asked Stefan, feeling sick.

How could he have spent so much time with Ethan and not suspected that he was a murderer?

Bonnie’s face went so white that her few freckles showed like little dark dots on plain paper. And then her color came flooding back, her cheeks and ears turning a bright pink. She climbed unsteadily to her feet. “I should go see Zander,” she said.

“Hey,” Matt said, alarmed, and moved to block the door.

“There’s stil a whole bunch of vampires outside, Bonnie.

Wait for somebody to walk you over.”

“Not to mention that you have other commitments,” Damon said dryly, looking meaningful y at the herbs scattered across the trapdoor. “After you work your witchy mojo, then you can go see your pet.”

“We’re sorry, Bonnie,” Meredith said, shifting uncomfortably from one foot to another. “We should have trusted you to know a good guy when you saw one.”

“Right! Al is forgiven,” Bonnie said brightly, and plopped down in front of the trapdoor again. “I just need to say the spel .” She ran her hands through the herbs. “Existo signum,” she muttered. “Servo quis est intus.” As she scooped some of the herbs back into her bag, Bonnie kept smiling, and stopping, and staring into space, and then bouncing a little. Matt smiled at her tiredly. Good for Bonnie. Someone ought to have a happy ending.

He felt a strong, thin hand take his and turned to see Meredith beside him. She smiled sympathetical y at him.