by L. J. Smith
Chapter 25
Matt's feet dragged as he walked slowly toward the boathouse doors. In his hand, the sack he carried thrashed violently, the rabbit inside kicking and squirming. Chloe would be able to calm it with a touch of her Power.
Matt didn't like catching animals for her to feed on. He couldn't help feeling sorry for the poor things, so wide-eyed with terror. But he was responsible for Chloe. And she needed lots of blood to keep control; Stefan had warned them of that. It didn't help that seeing Klaus's army of vampires had terrified her. They were so much more powerful than she was, and she knew they would show no mercy to a vampire who fought against them. Worse, the excitement of the battle had stirred her urge to drink human blood. She didn't trust herself around the others, so she'd been sequestering herself in the boathouse ever since.
She would never hurt Matt, though; she assured him of that every night, holding him tightly, her cold body against his warmer one, her head pillowed on his shoulder in the darkness.
A board creaked under Matt's feet and he glanced down at the water lapping against the pilings beneath him. The dock creaked again, this time in the distance, as if someone else was walking across it.
Matt hesitated. There shouldn't be anyone else here. He stepped forward again, cautiously, and heard the echoing sound of another board creaking in the distance, just a second after his own footstep.
"Hello?" he called into the darkness, and then felt like an idiot. If his enemies were out there, the last thing he wanted to do was draw their attention.
He took a few steps closer to the entrance to the boathouse. The creaking didn't come again; instead, a small splash rose from the shallow lake. Maybe the noises had been an animal.
He broke into a run anyway, slamming through the boathouse doors. What if something had gotten to Chloe? Matt's eyes flew to the tableau in the center of the boathouse.
Klaus stood triumphantly in front of him, his skin lit silver by the moonlight coming through the holes in the roof. A battered raincoat covered his broad figure, and slumped in his arms was a bleeding girl, a stranger.
God. She was young, maybe a small freshman, maybe a high-school girl from the town, and her long, dark hair was matted with the blood streaming from the side of her neck. She wasn't struggling, but she gazed at Matt with a terrified look that reminded him nauseatingly of the rabbit's expression when he'd lifted it out of the trap.
He automatically dropped the sack, hearing it thud behind him, the rabbit scrabbling out and bolting for the door. He had to help the girl. Klaus flicked his eyes toward him for a split second and Matt froze, his muscles tensed helplessly against the force holding him in place.
"Hello, boy," Klaus said, flashing his mad smile. "Come to join the party? Your girlfriend and I have been waiting for you. "
Matt followed Klaus's gaze to Chloe, who was huddled in a corner as far from Klaus and the girl as possible, her knees pulled up to her chest. There was a bite mark on her neck, as if Klaus had already drunk from her, too, and she was extraordinarily pale. She needs to feed, Matt thought, as if he could just hand her the rabbit he'd had a moment ago. Chloe was clearly frightened, but there was something else showing in her face. Matt's stomach rolled unhappily as he identified it: hunger.
"Now, where were we?" Klaus turned back to Chloe. "Ah, yes. If you just let go, everything will be so easy. " His voice was soft and soothing. "Tell me everything. Tell me the secret these humans are hiding. How have the witches protected Elena from me? If you do, I'll let you join me. You won't be alone. You won't have to be afraid, or feel guilt, or anything anymore. " His face twisted with scorn as he said the word humans, and he went on, his voice dropping into a lower register. "Taste the girl," he said. "You can have her. I know you can smell the rich sweetness of her blood. This is no way for you to live, hidden away, ashamed, feeding on vermin. Come to me, Chloe," he said, commanding now.
Chloe uncurled slowly, climbing to her feet. Her eyes were fixed on Klaus and on the girl, who was sobbing quietly now in Klaus's arms. From the shift in Chloe's jaw, Matt could see that her canine teeth had lengthened. Klaus beckoned, and Chloe took one stumbling step forward.
Struggling to cry out, to stop Chloe somehow, Matt realized that his tongue was as frozen as the rest of him, held still by Klaus's Power. The best he could do was let out a small, stifled moan.
Chloe heard it, though. She licked her lips, then slowly dragged her eyes from the girl's throat and focused on Matt. She stared at him for a long moment, and then stepped back, pressing herself flat against the wall. The bones of her face looked sharp and the drying blood on her own throat cracked and flaked as she shook her head.
"No," she said in a tiny voice.
Klaus smiled again and held the girl out toward her. "Come on now," he urged. His victim whimpered and closed her eyes, her face crumpling in misery. Chloe stood still against the wall, seemingly riveted by the long stream of blood running down from the girl's throat to pool on the floor at her feet.
Klaus reached for Chloe and took her by the hand. "Tell me what I want to know, and you can have her. She tastes so good. " He tugged Chloe toward him. She gasped sharply, her nostrils flaring as she got closer to the scent of blood, and let herself be drawn closer and closer. Klaus let go of Chloe's hand and stroked her cheek. "There," he said, as if he were talking to a small child. "There we go. " Cupping his hand behind her head, he pushed her firmly down, brought her toward the throat of the girl he held.
Matt tried to struggle but he couldn't move, couldn't cry out to Chloe again. Her tongue flickered out quickly across her lips.
Then Chloe pushed away from Klaus, ducking out from under his hand. "No!" she repeated, louder this time.
Klaus snarled, a maddened sound, and with one quick twist, snapped the bleeding girl's neck, dropping her in a heap on the floor.
"Tell your friends they'll all be hearing from me soon," Klaus said, his voice level and cold. He sounded less insane than usual, and for some reason, that made Matt's heart clench with fear. "I will find the truth. I'll take them apart, one by one, until I get what I want. "
As he strode out the door, Klaus looked up, reaching one hand toward the sky, and with a crash of thunder, a bolt of lightning struck from the clear, cloudless sky, sparking the boathouse into flames.
Flipping over a page in her psychology textbook, Bonnie firmly pushed the thought of Zander away. She missed him - of course she did - but she would be fine.
Without looking up, Bonnie checked in on the other occupants of their dorm room. The gentle scritching sound of a pen came from Elena's bed, where she was writing in her journal. And on the floor, Meredith and Alaric murmured softly to each other, their hands entwined, for once not sharpening weapons or examining spell books, but just enjoying each other.
Except for the constant empty ache in Bonnie's heart, everything was fine.
Somebody pounded violently on the door, and they all looked up, tensing, ready to slip into fight mode. Meredith jumped to her feet and grabbed a knife from her desk, holding it out of sight as she cracked the door open.
Matt and Chloe, streaked with blood and covered in ash, tumbled through the door.
Meredith was the first to react, grabbing Chloe and turning her under the light to examine the bite on her neck. It looked raw and gruesome, and Chloe nearly collapsed in Meredith's arms before Alaric steered the young vampire into Bonnie's desk chair.
"What happened?" Bonnie exclaimed.
"Klaus," Matt gasped. "Klaus was in the boathouse. There's - oh, God - he left a body in there. And set the place on fire. She was dead, though. I'm sure she was already dead before she burned. "
Elena's fingers flew over her phone as she sent a quick text, and a moment later, Stefan was there, taking in the situation at a glance. He knelt in front of Chloe, examining her wound with careful fingers.
"Animal blood isn't enough to heal her right now," he said t
o Matt, who was watching with a tense, hunted expression, his lips tight and pale. "And a taste of human might send her over the edge. " He bit his own wrist and held it to Chloe's lips. "This isn't ideal, but it's the best of some bad options. "
Matt nodded tightly, and Stefan held Chloe's hand as the vampire girl gulped hungrily at his arm. "It's all right," he told her. "You're doing well. "
Once Chloe had drunk enough to begin healing from Klaus's bite, she and Matt explained what had happened.
"Klaus offered me the girl if I'd tell him what I knew about Elena and why he couldn't kill her with his dagger," she said. Her eyes dropped to the floor. "It was . . . " She paused. "I wanted to say yes. "
"She didn't, though," Matt told them. "Chloe did really well. She broke through Klaus's compulsion. "
"But he said he would come after us one by one until he got what he wanted?" Bonnie asked faintly. "This is bad. This is really very bad. " Her heart was pounding hard, drumming against her chest.
Elena sighed, tucking her hair behind her ears. "We knew that he would be coming after us," she pointed out.
"Yes," Bonnie said, her voice shaking, "but, Elena, he can get into my dreams. He did before, when he told us he was coming. " She hugged herself tightly and took a deep breath, trying to keep her voice steady. "I don't know if I can stop him from seeing things in my dreams. "
There was a nasty pause in the conversation. "I hadn't thought of that," Meredith admitted.
"I'm sorry, you guys," Elena said, her voice breaking. "He's coming after you because of me. I wish I could defend you. I need to get stronger. "
"You will," Meredith said firmly.
"And it's really not your fault," Bonnie said supportively, pushing her own panic down. "If the alternative was you dying, I'd rather he was coming after us. "
Elena smiled wanly. "I know, Bonnie," she said. "But even if I get more Power, I don't know how we can protect you in your dreams. "
"Are there ways she can protect her dreams herself?" Stefan asked, turning to Alaric, their research expert. "Conscious dreaming and that kind of thing?"
Alaric nodded thoughtfully. "It's a good idea," he said. "I'll look it up right away. " He smiled reassuringly at Bonnie. "We'll find something. We always do. "
"And we all will stick together," Stefan said, looking around, his leaf-green eyes confident. "Klaus can't break us. "
There was a murmur of agreement, and Bonnie automatically reached out, taking Meredith's and Matt's hands in hers. Soon, they were all holding hands, and Bonnie felt a thrum of Power, maybe from Elena, maybe from Stefan, maybe from herself, run around the circle. Perhaps it was from all of them.
But that sense of Power wasn't the only thing she felt. Everyone was nervous; everyone was scared. Klaus could come after any one of them next, and it was impossible to know what he might do.
