Jeremy shifts uncomfortably. “You shouldn’t just go barging into people’s rooms,” he says, as if he’s not quite sure how to back down from the stand he’s taken.
“Yeah, my ribs got the memo,” I say dryly.
Stefan steps inside and closes the door behind him, his laughing-at-my-expense face slowly transforming into his confused-about-what’s-going-on-and-trying-not-to-show-it face.
My eyes settle on the second bed in the room, the covers still tight and untouched which tells me I was right about what direction their “friendship” was headed. With a pang, I realize I’m going to be officially related to Jeremy soon. Well, might as well get a head start on our future love/hate relationship.
“We knew you before you showed up at the house with Jeremy on Augustine vampire barbecue night,” I tell Cali.
“Damon…” Stefan starts to protest, his shoulders snapping tight as he realizes what I’m about to do.
“We both danced with you, Stefan drank your blood and I kissed you.”
Jeremy flinches like I slapped him and I hold both palms up, waving casually mocking jazz hands.
“And this time, can we please skip the high school analysis of exactly what kind of kiss it was? I’ll save you some time and just say no, Jeremy, I don’t want your girlfriend. She’s plenty hot, I’m just not that into her.”
“What in the—” Cali starts, and I wag a finger at her.
“Ah-ah-ah. No interruptions. Not done yet. You tracked us down, shit got weird, Elena gave you vervain, long story short you cracked her skull open with a cutting board and spent three days in our dungeon before we could compel you to forget everything, though to be fair, Jeremy didn’t know we had a houseguest at the time. The good news is that—”
He’s fast, I’ll give him that. I didn’t see Jeremy start to move until his fist was most of the way to my face and yeah, maybe I could have caught it but his girl is watching and so I just let it plow knuckles-first into my jaw.
My head snaps to the side and I have to rock my weight quickly to keep from an ignominious stumble. When he winds up for another one, I hold up a single finger.
“Don’t,” I snap, and he freezes though his eyes are furious. “That was your freebie.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cali says slowly. “But I’ve never met you before this week.”
“Trust me,” I tell her. “We’re both about to wish that was true.”
“Why? Why did you do it?” Jeremy asks hoarsely, and his eyes are shining with tears I know he won’t want Cali to see. It’s going to take a minute to sink in for Cali, but Jeremy’s already there.
“Because we’re vampires, Jeremy.” I spread my hands. “We eat. It’s what we do.” And to be fair, he knew I was taking Stefan out to feed every night. I just don’t think he ever considered that our prey might end up a little close to home. I keep my eyes away from Cali when I lower my voice and tell him, man to man, “We didn’t hurt her.”
His hand flexes and crap, I really don’t know what I’m going to do if he tries to hit me again. I flick a glance at Cali and she’s just sitting there, one bare foot tucked underneath her and one knee bent up against her chest. Her hand is still clutching her sweater closed but it looks like she’s forgotten how to work her fingers, the fist sitting hollow and still like it’s carved from glass.
I look at my brother and jerk my head toward Cali.
He doesn’t move.
“Damon, of all the stupid things you’ve done,” he says in a low voice, “this is…” he shakes his head.
“Oh, get over yourself, Stefan,” I say impatiently. “We drank some blood, and it was a little extra complicated to compel her to forget. Big deal. You’re not the Unabomber and we didn’t know she was about to be part of our happy freaking road trip across America.” I glance at Jeremy. “Look, I know everybody’s going to get all whiny about it, but I’m the one who’s trying to be honest here. And if you weren’t so freaky about compulsion, I wouldn’t even think it was important enough to bring it back up.”
“Freaky?” Jeremy shouts, arms flexing hard at his sides. “Are you kidding me? You attacked her and erased her memory. How is that not important?”
I sigh. “This could have gone a completely different way, you know. We could have held hands, thanked each other for our integrity and openness, sang a little Kumbaya and played license plate poker for the rest of the night. Hey, if we got lucky, maybe we could even have had another fun and foggy car chase.”
Jeremy’s glaring at me and I recognize that look. If he were Elena, that’d be about three weeks of the silent treatment, no time off for good behavior or crossbow arrows in the back. Since it’s Jeremy…maybe more like four weeks.
It’s gonna be a looong road trip.
“Today, Stefan,” I prompt.
He starts reluctantly toward Cali and the movement jars her out of her shock. She leaps out of the chair and sucks in a breath.
“Don’t scream,” he says quickly, his eyes dilating. For a second, I consider not hating him.
She tries anyway, and seems surprised when no sound comes out. Jeremy’s in front of her in a second, his eyes wild.
“Don’t,” Jeremy warns Stefan, his hand held up between them and his whole body taut and coiled into a partial crouch, even though he’s unarmed. His eyes are darting back and forth between the two of us but he’s smart enough to look scared. Kid knows he wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Look, we’re not going to hurt anyone,” Stefan says, keeping his voice low and calm. “She’s not on vervain, so I can give her back her memories. That’s all.”
Cali darts across the room and snatches a can of bear mace out of her duffel bag, keeping it aimed at me as she edges past on her way to Jeremy’s side. I stuff my hands in my pockets and click my tongue at her disapprovingly.
“I bought that mace. Isn’t it rude to use weapons against the guy who paid for them? I ought to email Emily Post to add it to the next edition,” I snipe.
“I could tell you everything that happened,” Stefan says, his eyes following Cali intently. “But you wouldn’t really know, wouldn’t remember the way it happened unless I lifted the compulsion.”
She scoffs. “Right, because I can so obviously trust you.”
I stroll over and drop into the chair she vacated, kicking my feet up onto the other one and crossing my boots at the ankles. “We can’t compel Jeremy,” I say off-handedly. “He can tell you exactly what we say.”
She hesitates, the mace wavering in her hands. I note she hasn’t pulled the safety tab off the trigger yet, so I lace my hands behind my head and watch the ceiling, whistling casually through my teeth. They all need to calm the hell down. The least I can do is be a good example.
“It’s your choice,” I hear Jeremy say, low and sincere. “If you want your real memories back, I’ll be right here and I swear I won’t let them compel you to do anything you don’t want to do.”
“Can we hurry this up?” I ask. “I could seriously use at least a power nap before we hit the road again.”
There’s a second of silence that I assume is one or all of them giving me a dirty look, and then Cali says, with only the hint of a tremor under the uninflected words, “Fine. Do it.”
I sit back up. “No mace,” I order, and snap my fingers. She glares and chucks the can straight at my head. I catch it without blinking and set it on the table, giving her an artificial smile. “Thank you.”
She wraps her sweater more tightly around her and sits on the very edge of the bed, looking like she might bolt any second. Her eyes leap up to Jeremy and he takes a step closer so his leg almost touches hers, but he doesn’t sit down.
Stefan drops a knee to the floor so he’s on her level, and I start to whistle again, watching idly. Probably for the best that I wasn’t the one who compelled her the first time. Stef does non-threatening a hell of a lot better than I do.
Cali leans back away from him, just a little, and Je
remy rests a hand on her shoulder. “I’m right here.”
She swallows, fast like we won’t see it. “Just get it over with,” she tells Stefan.
He looks her in the eye, and I swear he looks closer to tears than she does. It makes me glad I’m doing this today instead of in a couple years. I knew everybody was going to get all melodramatic and now we’re all stuck out on the road together so they’ll have to pout and bicker and hopefully get over it that much faster.
“You’re going to remember everything I compelled you to forget,” Stefan says. “And you’re not going to tell anyone that vampires are real.”
My eyebrows bob up. About damn time somebody around here grew some pragmatism.
Cali blinks once, and looks around, her hands going to the edge of the bed for balance.
She looks at me and flushes, and then her eyes fall on Stefan and widen with something completely different. “I— You—”
“What’s wrong?” Jeremy demands, going pale. “Is there more?”
She swallows and looks away from Stefan, who rises slowly to his feet and takes a step back.
“Get,” she says, very quietly, “the hell out of my room.”
Jeremy’s hand falls numbly from her shoulder. “Wait, Cali, you have to know I didn’t have anything to do with this. I had no idea they had ever even met you.”
She looks at him and the depth of pain in her eyes almost makes me flinch. Shit, all we gave her back was the memory of a blood share and a few boring days in a cell. What is her malfunction?
I swing my legs out of the chair and head for the door. “We’re outta here in an hour and a half. Get some sleep and don’t miss the bus, kiddos.”
“Just go,” Cali whispers, and when Stefan and I head out, Jeremy’s right behind us. The door swings shut and we look at each other.
“Anybody up for donuts?” I say, and Stefan just stares at me. It’s not quite a glare, but it’s too still to be anything else.
Jeremy sags against the door and drops his butt to the ground, both hands digging into his hair as his elbows shove hard against his knees, the muscles in his arms standing out in stark relief.
“Maybe we had to tell her,” Stefan says in a low, terse voice. “But you didn’t have to tell her now, brother.” He shakes his head, snorting a soft breath of disgust out through his nose. “I guess I should have known when you got engaged that you would screw it up somehow. Some things never change.”
He turns, and walks away.
“Like how you’re a sanctimonious hypocrite who’d prefer to lie to himself and everyone around him?” I snap. “Yeah, never fucking changes.”
My hand curls closed and I fight the urge to hit the door that my fiancé’s brother is huddled against. Never fails. Once a century when I get the wild urge to play hero and do the right damn thing, everybody hates me for it.
If I was smart I’d march my ass back to my room and slide in next to Elena’s warm, naked body and enjoy the next couple hours before she wakes up and gets pissed off at me, too, for being man enough to bite the bullet even when it was inconvenient.
I hesitate, looking down at Jeremy.
He tips his head back and stares up at me with soft brown eyes gone dark with disgust. “How the hell could you keep a girl locked in our basement for three days and never tell me? Jesus, Damon.”
With a deadbolt and bad human hearing, simple as that.
The words are on my lips and my weight’s already rocking into my heels to turn toward the parking lot, my Camaro, and the heck away from all this drama. But just like Cali is not just some girl anymore, Jeremy’s not just some annoying teenager anymore.
I’m stuck with both of them. Probably for good.
I squat down in front of Jeremy and look him square in the eye. “I did tell you. As soon as I realized she was more than a dinner-and-a-movie-and-a-couple-of-bases-in-the-backseat kind of girlfriend. We feed on humans, Jeremy, and we do what we do to keep our secret.”
I don’t sugarcoat it for him, and if I really think about it, it’s been a long time since I’ve had to.
“We could have kept lying to both of you forever and it would have been a lot easier, so think about that before you go getting all angsty.” I narrow my eyes at him so I’m sure I’ve got his attention. “And Jeremy? Don’t do anything stupid. Not right now.”
When he speaks his voice is slow and deliberate and it seems like everything else around us goes quiet.
“I cannot believe earlier today I was actually proud my sister was going to marry you. That you were going to be part of our family.” He blows out a disgusted breath and looks away, shaking his head.
I push to my feet, my back so stiff it almost hurts, and I flare my eyes at him dangerously. “Yeah, well, we all make mistakes. Don’t be too hard on yourself, kid.”
Enough of this. I wanted to be honest, to let him start his little romance with a clean slate. What do I suddenly care if he doesn’t appreciate it?
This time, I’m the one who walks away, and when I do, it feels like the concrete should shatter under my every step.
* * *
JEREMY
I’m balled against the closed hotel room door, elbows braced against my knees and hands buried in my hair, clenching hard enough it hurts a little. I’m trying to convince myself not to go after Damon and punch him in the face.
He’d wreck me for it, but the only thing really stopping me is I can’t decide who I want to hit more: him for kissing Cali, or Stefan for feeding on her and compelling her. The way she looked at Stefan after she got her memories back...it was intimate, like she knew him, but horrified too. Whatever he did to create that combination, it makes me want to break his bones.
I remember what Stefan is like when he’s off the rails, his eyes lit from within like there’s nothing holding him back, nothing he’d be sorry for. He’s a nice enough guy when he’s in control, but once I saw what he was capable of, I’ve never trusted him again.
I knew Damon was taking his brother out to learn to feed on humans, and part of me worried Damon wouldn’t always be able to stop him in time. Even so, I didn’t say a thing about it. I figured it was better than just letting Stefan freak out every few months when he got a taste of human blood, and now I can’t believe I was so casual about it.
I dig my fingers into my scalp, each one pressing hard enough to leave a bruise.
They could have killed her.
The door opens behind me. I shoot to my feet and whirl around, my heart in my throat as I wait to see if Cali’s going to hit me or yell or just throw my duffel bag out the door.
Instead, she grabs me by the waistband of my pajama pants and pulls me back inside.
The door swings heavily shut with a clatter of the metal latch and her eyes drill into mine.
“Tell me you didn’t know.”
“I swear—” I start in a low voice, but her face is already changing before I can finish.
“Okay.” She lets out a long breath, her fingers loosening on my waistband. “Okay.”
“How are you?” I ask, my body feeling battered by the thought of what she must be feeling right now. Her eyes are red and a little swollen, like she was crying hard while I was stuck outside.
“Freaking confused,” she says, turning away from me and shoving both hands through her hair. “Your wouldn’t-hurt-a-squirrel sister…she kidnapped me. And when she came to take me away to that dungeon, I stabbed her in the neck. With a pen, Jeremy.”
She gives me a half-wild look and paces across the room.
“Do you know what that feels like to stab somebody, how it—” she breaks off, throwing her arms out. “And Ric, who I thought was this quiet gentlemanly loner, actually is batshit crazy and tried to attack me twice. And this whole time I’ve been feeling sorry for him because he seems so lonely and—”
She turns in a circle as if she’s looking for somewhere else to pace to in the tiny room. My fists clench helplessly at my sides. It is crazy for her, bec
ause she got to know all of them twice, in totally different situations and I can see how torn she is as she tries to sort it all out.
“And Damon—who, holy shit, is about to be your brother-in-law—kissed me like he knew me, like he was saying goodbye. Like he was sorry,” she almost whispers, and pain knifes through my chest, followed by anger. “And then he walked away as if he expected Stefan to kill me. He left me to die and he’s saved my life three times since then. What in the heck am I supposed to do with that, Jeremy?”
I just shake my head, because I can absolutely see it. Damon pretends he never feels bad about anything, and I know that’s bullshit. But I also know there’s not much he wouldn’t do if it helped his brother. There’s no way I can explain it to her, the way Damon is, the way he thinks. Why to him, that would make perfect sense.
The Vampire Diaries: Trust In Betrayal (Kindle Worlds) (In Time We Trust Trilogy Book 3) Page 15
