“More like sixty-two bucks,” I admit, and she snorts and shakes her head. “Hey, we’ll figure something out, okay?”
Cali pokes me in the side, laughing. “What are we going to do, Jeremy? Live on love alone?” My heart jumps involuntarily and I have to clear my throat to cover as she goes on. “Be street musicians? Homeless, starving artists?”
“Sure. You can draw chastity belts and I’ll play House of the Rising Sun for quarters.”
She smiles, her eyes twinkling with mischief, and opens her mouth to reply.
It happens so fast it must have been planned. A man steps out from the lines of buses, staring straight at us. He moves like a human but the way he watches us is eerily confident, like he’s not at all worried about how we might react.
A car screeches around the corner, lurching to a stop as people pour out all four doors and head straight for us. I grab Cali, shoving her ahead of me as we sprint for the front of the bus station.
And then they’re on us, two people’s hands closing around my upper arms so that when I see them take her, there’s nothing I can do.
* * *
DAMON
Fucking kids.
Jeremy and Cali are sitting on the bench out back of the bus station as the light fades ever closer to Vampire Thirty, chatting away like they're at a goddamn picnic. What I can't figure is if Jeremy did this to spite me because I told him not to do anything stupid, or if he really, honestly thinks that the Augustines won't find him as long as he's on foot.
I mean, what the hell is his working definition of "something stupid" if it's not running off to the nearest bus station with his girlfriend, a pouty sense of having been wronged, and no backup for the inevitable appearance of vampire super soldiers? That guitar case better be crammed with bear mace and crossbows or that boy and I are going to be having a long talk when I drag his under-prepared ass back to the hotel where his sister is still sleeping, oblivious to the growing disaster that is this day.
I should go out there and stuff both of them into the Camaro before whatever spy-vision the Augustines have been using to track us sends a message back to headquarters that the kiddies have come out to play, unsupervised. Instead I lean my back against the side of the parked bus and close my eyes, keeping half an ear on their conversation.
I keep thinking about what Stefan said, which pisses me off because if I was taking volunteers to tell me how to live my life, I sure as hell wouldn't pass the sign up sheet around to the mopey serial killer community. But another part of me is wondering why I picked tonight to tell Cali the truth. Yeah, I was feeling a little stupidly sentimental, drunk enough on soft brown eyes to want to support honesty and young love and all that other crap.
But Stefan may have been right that I could have picked a better time. I mean, Jeremy Gilbert's picture is probably up on Wikipedia under "Going off Half-Cocked" and his girlfriend's Taser and evil bludgeony cutting board are filed neatly under Exhibit B and C of the same page. There was no way they weren't going to freak out over this and if I had a teaspoon of blood left north of my belt buckle tonight I would have realized that.
Which is why I'm hiding behind a parked bus like a pedophile, giving them a chance to get all their bitching out on each other before I have to put up with it. And I'm not the only one, judging by the fast human heartbeat only a couple buses over from mine. It hasn't made a move, so I haven't bothered to check it out. Probably a bum taking advantage of a quiet spot to hang out for the day. I thought I heard the tap of fingers on a touchscreen when I first followed Jeremy here but I can't be sure. Whoever it is, they don't seem to be a threat, and if that changes, I'll kill them. Simple as that.
Cali’s low laugh wafts across the pavement and I listen to her teasing Jeremy about their lack of a plan.
I smile. Perfect. If I give them another couple minutes to get sheepish, I can pop out and offer them a ride home and maybe we can skip all the family drama after all. If I'm feeling magnanimous, I might even let Jeremy lay down an ultimatum or two about not compelling his girlfriend.
The sound of quick, sure footsteps reaches me and I frown and melt toward the front of the bus, watching. A human steps out into the open, his eyes squarely on Jeremy. I hear the growl of a car engine approaching, faster than it should be driving in a parking lot, and I know.
My curse gets lost in the rush of air as I go after the human tattletale. He barely has time to flinch before my fangs are ripping into the heat of his veins and I'm drinking him down, two big swallows and I want more, but already car doors are slamming and I hear Jeremy shout. I snap the human's neck and let him drop, already running but they're fast, holy hell they're fast.
Two Augustine vampires have Jeremy by the arms and a third grabs Cali. The fourth turns to face me and I catch him by his reaching hand and throw him before he can take hold of me, his body rattling the whole bus station as he slides limply down the siding. I look up to see Jeremy whip an arm free and punch a female vampire in the face. He wrenches loose from his second attacker, a man wearing a white button-down shirt, and goes after the one that holds Cali.
Office Shirt staggers back, and I can see him scent me. He turns, fangs snapping down as he leaps on me, carrying us both to the ground. Gravel shreds my shirt and rakes down my back but I hardly notice the pain as he bites into my neck, so eager that all his teeth rip through my skin, not just his canines. I bellow with pain and wrap my hands around his throat, clamping his esophagus closed so he can’t swallow even a taste of my blood. He falls back with a gargling protest and I ram my forehead into his nose, bone and cartilage crunching satisfyingly.
I throw Office Shirt off me and roll back to my feet. Jeremy's fighting the woman, and as I lunge forward, he catches her wrist in a hold I taught him and twists with a sharp crack that's lost under her scream. The last vampire, a skinny one in a Metallica tee shirt, has his arms around Cali but she knees him in the balls and his grip falters. Jeremy's right there, pulling the vampire’s hands away from Cali.
I catch the lady vamp before she can recover, one hand on her chin and one on the nape of her neck and one pop later, she's dead weight.
Metallica Shirt sees me and pushes Jeremy out of his way. He’s still a little bent over from the shot to his balls, but he doesn’t look like it’s slowing him down much.
I grab the keys out of my pocket and toss them over his head to Jeremy. "Camaro's around the corner, kid," I growl. "Shake a leg."
I crook a finger at the Augustine vampire, grinning in grim anticipation with human blood still fresh on my teeth.
Until I hear two sets of footsteps behind me: the vampires I failed to put out of the game on my first try.
My muscles tighten for the spin so I can face the greater threat, but they're on me before I can move, a vampire clamping down on each arm and the Metallica logo blurs as its owner pops up right in front of me. One hand grabs my chin and the other cups the back of my neck and shit, I've got about one second to get an arm free before—
Chapter 13: History Repeating
JEREMY
When I hear Damon's neck break, I know we're in trouble.
I shove the Camaro keys into Cali's hand and turn back, my heart exploding with adrenaline and pure, searing fear.
There's a blur of color, and then I'm smashing into the pavement, skin scraping off my chin on impact and pain erupting through my arms as they're wrenched behind my back.
I hear Cali curse and I heave upward, trying to throw the vampire off my back. I lose a little more skin when I wrench my head around, my jaw rasping across the asphalt.
When I see Cali, I wish I hadn't. There's a guy in a Metallica tee shirt kneeling astride her back and there’s fresh blood smeared across his mouth, though I don’t see any bite marks on Cali. She's fighting like crazy but his grip doesn't even falter.
I hate the sight of her helpless more than I have ever hated anything.
"Holy shit," a deep man's voice from beside me says. "Do you know who this is?
We nabbed Damon fucking Salvatore!"
"Lucky as hell,” my attacker agrees, though he sounds a little sick. "But I’m not surprised it’s him. Did you see what he did? He killed Avi. Just...not a word, nothing. Just murdered him. Avi's human, man. He's not coming back."
"What do you expect from the guy who slaughtered the whole society?" comes the disgusted reply. I wait, hoping to hear Damon make a sarcastic taunt in return, but there’s only silence from his direction.
How long does it take for a broken neck to heal?
"Hey!" I say, trying to speak up though it feels like the vampire pinning me is crushing my lungs along with my ribs. "We can make a deal. If you let us go, we'll help you." My mind races, trying to think of something we have to offer them that might buy us more time. Nothing. There's nothing. All they want is our lives and my family and I’m not going to give them either.
"Screw you," growls the voice from above me, his grip tightening until the bones in my wrists ache all the way down to the marrow.
"No, screw you, Noah," the gravelly voice from my right says. "Give me a second to load Salvatore into the car, and then we're turning these two loose."
Noah's grip squeezes tighter around my already wrenched arms and I have to bite the insides of my cheeks to keep from yelping in pain.
Cali's eyes find mine across the gritty expanse of parking lot and I try to look brave.
And then she draws in a breath and yells at the top of her lungs, "FIRE!"
Metallica Fan slams her once against the pavement like a warning and there’s a crunch as something in her arm gives way. Cali’s yell spikes into a scream and her captor switches both of her wrists to one hand, wringing another involuntary cry out of her before he claps a hand over her mouth.
“Damn it, let her go!” I bellow, surging upward.
Noah’s hands clamp down and I pit all my strength against them, sweat breaking out across my chest as my tendons strain to the breaking point. He knees me in the ribs and I try to twist my wrists out toward his thumbs but the only direction I can move is straight into the strength of his palms.
"Hey, be careful!” the voice booms from behind us and I blink in shock. Is their boss taking our side?
“It was an accident,” Metallica Fan mutters, but he doesn’t loosen his grip. Cali’s eyes are pressed closed, the rest of her face hidden behind his muffling palm. I feel sick, watching him caging her obviously injured wrist in an unyielding hand.
The leader’s next words seem directed at me. "Calm down, we're going to let you go. I didn't get into this to hurt humans, for Christ's sake."
"What, you volunteered to be a psycho?" I growl. "Congratulations, I hear most people have to be born into it."
"I volunteered," the guy says through a grunt of effort like he’s lifting something, "to hunt down murderers who prey on your kind. You're welcome."
No one has come in response to Cali's scream. Did the people inside the bus station not hear or just not care?
"I thought we were supposed to bring in anybody who was helping Salvatore," protests Metallica Fan. I memorize his face because I want to break his legs. I want to punch him until his nose is a smear.
"Not if they're human," their leader says impatiently.
There's the slam of a car door, or maybe a trunk. That must mean they've loaded the bodies: the guy who was hiding in the line of buses, the temporarily dead female vampire, and Damon. I bite my lip against the horror that creeps coldly through me at the thought of him lying helplessly limp inside their car like he’s no more than a body. I need more time because I don’t stand a chance without Damon’s help, but it looks like that’s not going to be an option.
The element of surprise is the most valuable tool in a fight. Ric told me that, and Damon demonstrated it every time he attacked me when I was off-guard when we were at the lake house. I got sick as shit of him slapping me in the face when I was eating pizza or pinning me from behind when Matt and I were playing video games. But he won, every time. Because he had the element of surprise.
I take stock, carefully shifting each piece of my body so I'll be ready to attack when they release me.
"What do you think is going to win us more points with the boss,” their leader says, “showing up with a couple of helpless humans, or popping the trunk to show her we’ve got Damon Salvatore inside?"
The trunk. That's going to make it harder. I'll have to get past them to steal the keys. If I can get the keys and Cali it might be faster to take the whole car because I don't know if I can incapacitate all three of them. Of course then we'll have a stolen car with a human corpse in it and an Augustine vampire who will wake up about the same time as Damon, but that's a problem for after I manage to steal the car.
Noah just grunts his agreement. “Let’s just get out of here before he wakes up. She was really adamant that we take him alive, and that’s going to be tough to do if we have to deal with him on the road.”
Take him alive? Uneasy goosebumps rake down my arms as I think about all the ominous motivations that could be lurking behind an order like that. But then the engine turns over and my throat tightens. Shit, what's going on? Are they going to drive off and get the guys pinning us later or—
The pressure on me is abruptly gone and I launch to my feet, fists coming up but there's no one there. Car doors slam and even as I start to run, my instincts still half a step ahead of my brain, they take off. I run faster, my eyes glued to the taillights, but then they're around the bus station and gone.
Damon.
“Fuck!” I roar, doubling over and bracing my hands on my knees, close to vomiting as every ounce of panic that I’ve been holding back comes roiling up through me all at once, leaving me lightheaded.
What am I going to tell Elena?
I blow out a breath, because I can’t think about that just yet. I can’t think about how I’m going to tell my sister that her boyfriend, her fiancé, had to come after me and Cali because we couldn’t stay under the radar for even an hour on our own and now he’s been taken by the same people he’s been trying so hard to protect us from. The ones that burned down his—our—house and will do despicable things to him once they get to wherever they’re going.
I can’t think about what’ll happen to us, to Elena, if we can’t get him back; how the last words I said to him were that I didn’t want him as part of my family.
I pull myself back upright even though it makes my head whirl sickeningly, because I need to get back to Cali, need to get her out of here before I put anyone else in danger.
When I round the back of the bus station, Cali’s rising stiffly to her knees. But as she goes to lift her arm, her hand stays lying on the pavement, the skin between kinking in a way that makes my stomach feel like it’s turning inside out.
Her breath comes in on a gasp that’s half a sob.
“That’s broken,” I say, blinking. “Really broken.”
I kneel down next to her, my hands hovering awkwardly as I try to figure out how best to help. Cali scoops her injured wrist into her lap and looks up, her eyes wide and echoing with the horror of everything that just happened.
"Are you—" I start to ask, but then she reaches for me, her good arm looping behind my neck as she pulls me into her. I throw a hand down to steady myself so I won’t accidentally bump her broken wrist and gravel digs heedlessly into my palm but I don’t even care because I can feel the strength in her one undamaged arm, her miraculously whole fingers, her slender shoulders. She hides her face beneath my jaw, my other hand coming up to cradle the back of her head and I squeeze my eyes shut with an unsteady gulp of air, thanking God with every thought that I'm not cursing Him with.
She’s still breathing, but Damon’s not, and it’s all my fault.
How stupid am I? How did I think we’d be safe just because it was still daylight, barely, when we left? I’m pretty sure the Augustines keep finding us because they’re patrolling the main roads, watching for the Camaro, but after the car chase
a few days ago, of course they’d be watching public transportation too, waiting for us to try to ditch the too-conspicuous vehicles we have. I wonder if they’ve figured out yet what is under the tarp in the back of Matt’s truck.
Cali makes a small sound and then pulls away, her eyes huge when she asks, “He’ll be okay, right? Your brother-in-law, that’s the way it works, he just…wakes back up even though they broke his neck?”
“He’ll wake up,” I reassure her, then the weight of what that means settles even more firmly onto my bones. “But the last time those people took him, they tortured him for five years.”
“Five years?” She blinks. “Like year years? As in hundreds of days put together?”
The Vampire Diaries: Trust In Betrayal (Kindle Worlds) (In Time We Trust Trilogy Book 3) Page 17
