The Vampire Diaries: The Salvation: Unseen

by L. J. Smith

  Andrés was slumped in a chair in the corner of the bedroom, completely asleep. Elena could sympathize. It sounded like he had channeled so much Power that he had burned himself out temporarily.

  “Everyone fought hard,” Meredith said with a brief smile, dried blood cracking on her face. “And we won.”

  Solomon was dead, Elena reminded herself. With all the worry over Trinity, she hadn’t really let it sink in. It didn’t feel like they’d won.

  Glimpsing her own reflection in the window, she saw a pale, large-eyed girl, one who looked like the victim in a dark fairy tale, not the happy princess. She was edgy and anxious, as if there was some kind of doom hanging over her head. As if there was something terrible still out there in the dark.

  Stefan had told Elena that Solomon was the same man who brushed past her outside the bar a while ago, with the yellow-green eyes. She shivered at the thought that he had touched her, and realized how close she could have been to death at that moment. I’m being ridiculous, she told herself. Everything will be all right, as long as Trinity survives.

  Trinity shifted in the bed and gave a soft whimper, and Elena forced her attention back to the wounded girl.

  The apartment was full, but it was very quiet, just the shuffle of feet in the hall as everyone—hunters, werewolves, Elena’s friends—stopped by, one after another, to gaze in at Trinity as she struggled for life. They were all injured in varying degrees, with limps, bruises, and cuts, but no one was hurt as badly as Trinity. Her hair spread out over the pillow, and her lashes were dark against the pallor of her face. She was breathing slowly and shallowly. Elena realized that she was breathing in time with Trinity, trying to make her friend’s breath get stronger by sheer force of will.

  But there was one person she hadn’t seen. “Where’s Matt?” she asked Meredith.

  “He said he had something to do,” Meredith reassured her. “I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”

  Elena nodded. Tension still hung over her, over all of them. Trinity was balanced between life and death now, they all knew it, and the only thing they could do was to wait.

  Matt scrubbed fiercely at the blood on his face with a wet wipe he’d found in the glove compartment of his car. He met his own gaze in the rearview mirror, confused and desperate, and looked away in frustration.

  If he went into the hospital with blood on his shirt and in his hair, they’d either arrest him or try to operate on him.

  Maybe there was something in his trunk. Hunching his shoulders so that no one in the hospital parking lot would realize he was covered in blood, he unearthed a dirty gray hoodie and pulled it over his head.

  The emergency room was lit so brightly lit that it hurt his eyes for a moment. He staggered, blinking his eyes rapidly to adjust, and looked around. Before he could make it to the nurse behind the desk, Jasmine’s voice spoke behind him. “Matt? What’s going on?”

  He turned to see her standing there, crisp and competent in her white coat, the complete opposite of everything he felt right now. When she saw his face, her eyes widened and she pulled him to the side of the room. “What is it?” she asked urgently. “What’s happened?”

  Matt licked his lips nervously. On the ride over, all he’d been able to think was: Get Jasmine. She can help Trinity. You need Jasmine. And she could help; he knew she could. But he didn’t know what to say now.

  “Please,” he managed, his voice cracking. “Please, we have to hurry.”

  Jasmine frowned and glanced toward the admitting desk, and Matt angled himself to block her view. “No,” he said. “We can’t do this here. There’ll be too many questions. You have to come with me now.”

  “Take a breath and tell me what’s going on,” Jasmine said calmly. Then she got a good look at him, and her eyes widened. “You have blood on your face.” She reached out to touch him, clearly worried. “Where are you hurt?”

  “It’s not mine.” Matt took a deep breath, feeling as if he was flinging himself off a high cliff over dark water. If he did this, there was no going back. But he had to. Trinity’s life was at stake. “Please, trust me. I’ll explain on the way. Vampires are real. Magic is real. A friend is hurt, and we can’t bring her here.”

  Jasmine’s eyes flew toward the admitting desk again, and the security guard beside it. “Please,” Matt said desperately. “I need your help.”

  He gazed pleadingly at Jasmine and reached for her hand, trying to throw all the love he felt for her into one look, trying to remind her of how she trusted him. It was a lot to ask. But even if she thought he was having a psychotic break, he didn’t mind, as long as he could get her to come help Trinity. She needed a doctor.

  Jasmine looked doubtfully between him and the security guard, then finally sighed, her eyes softening. “I’ll tell my supervisor I have to leave for personal reasons, and I’ll come,” she said. “But afterward, Matt, if I ask you to come back to the hospital with me, you’re coming.”

  Matt pulled her into a hug, clinging to her, breathing in the scent of her, the normality and sanity she meant to him. “I’ll wait for you out front,” he said. “Bring a medical kit if you can. And please hurry.”

  Nothing was killing these vampires.

  Damon grabbed one by the neck and sank a stake into his heart. His opponent fell, but instead of dying like he should have, he simply pulled the stake out of his chest, scrambled back to his feet, and lunged toward Damon again. What the—? Before the strange vampire could get close enough, Katherine grabbed him from behind and snapped his neck.

  The vampire fell like a stone, but by now Damon knew that was only temporary. Breaking their necks kept these vampires down for longer than anything else they’d tried, but it wasn’t permanent. Damon knew from experience that they had about half an hour before that vampire would be up and fighting again.

  He glared down at the circle of temporarily incapacitated vampires around him. “What the hell?” he growled, kicking at one of them. “Stakes don’t kill them, breaking their necks doesn’t kill them, it’s impossible to pull their heads off or their hearts out, they can walk in the daylight, and apparently they’re not affected by holy ground.” He gestured around at the baroque-style Russian Orthodox church they were standing in. Some older vampires still refused to go on holy ground, and it had been worth trying. “How are we supposed to kill them?”

  “We’ll find something,” Katherine said grimly. “Let’s search the bodies while they’re out.” She looked tired, Damon thought, her beautiful lapis lazuli eyes sunken and a slight grayish pallor to her skin. She wasn’t getting enough to eat, he knew, and she was still letting him feed from her.

  Damon used the toe of his extremely expensive—but now, to his dismay, badly scuffed—boot to flip over the vampire closest to him, an East Asian man with short dark hair. “Nothing worthwhile here,” he said, going through the fallen vampire’s pockets. “A few coins.”

  “This one’s pockets are empty,” Katherine reported, bending over another at the other end of the room.

  “This one looks like a peasant.” Damon glared haughtily down at the next unconscious vampire, who was dressed in ripped jeans and a stained T-shirt. “Terrible taste in clothes.” Starving and running for his life made him more irritable than usual.

  “We were more discerning when we turned people in the old days.” Katherine sniffed. “You and Stefan were the only ones I made for centuries.”

  “You made up for it these last few years, though, didn’t you?” Damon asked absently. Was there something in the peasant’s pocket? His fingers closed on a narrow rectangle of cardboard, and he pulled it out. A business card. There was no phone number or address or any information at all, really. Just a company name—Lifetime Solutions—and a stylized black-and-white figure eight. “An infinity symbol?” he asked aloud. “Katherine, this—”

  As he looked up, there was a sudden flurry of movement, and Katherine made a high, choking sound, her eyes startled wide open. There was a wooden stake buried i
n her chest.

  One of the vampires who should have still been unconscious had risen up behind her, utterly silent, and attacked Katherine from behind. Katherine stared at Damon for one long moment, her lips parted in surprise. And then she fell.

  Horrified, Damon flew across the room quickly enough to catch her before she hit the floor. Cradling Katherine carefully in the crook of one arm, he snapped the other vampire’s neck again before it could stake him, too. The strange vampire hit the floor with a thud as Damon turned his full attention to Katherine.

  “No, darling, stay with me,” he begged, the shock hitting him. He pulled the stake from her chest, but he could tell already that it was too late. Her beautiful blue eyes were glazing over as he watched. Time seemed to stretch out as Damon thought of the long roads they’d traveled together, him and Katherine. From his days as a human, when he’d loved her with all his heart, to now, when they had become companions, even friends. Sharp, spiteful, sometimes charming, never boring. His Katherine.

  “Damon,” she breathed, just a whisper of sound. His chest tight with sorrow, Damon watched as the life in Katherine’s eyes faded, and she went heavy and still in his arms.

  He held her close for a moment, then slowly lowered her to the ground, stroking her cheek in silent apology. His eyes felt hot. He’d loved Katherine, and then he’d hated her. He’d died and killed for her, and he’d watched her die once before. Lately, she’d been his friend. His mind kept coming back to that. He didn’t have many friends. He never had. “I’m sorry, Katherine,” he whispered to her.

  He kneeled, gazing down at her body, which looked painfully small and still on the floor of the church. She’d always loomed so large to him, his maker, his first love. “They’ll pay for this,” he swore solemnly. “I’ll find a way to kill them. I promise.”

  One of the vampires on the floor stirred, and Damon slammed the stake in his hand through its chest. It wouldn’t kill the vampire, Damon knew that, but it would keep him down a few minutes longer. They were recovering faster than they had the first few times he and Katherine had fought them. Wasn’t that a wonderful thing to realize, he thought bitterly, now that he was alone.

  Alone. Damon thought briefly of his brother, and anger whipped through him. Damon had asked Stefan to come. If he had been there, they wouldn’t have been quite so outnumbered, and maybe Katherine wouldn’t have died.

  It was time to go. Damon got to his feet and scooped Katherine up in his arms, cupping her head carefully with one hand to hold it against his shoulder, her hair soft under his fingers. She was as light as she’d been the first day he’d met her, when he had lifted her down from her father’s carriage. She’d looked shyly at him through dark lashes, and his human heart had sped up, filled with emotions he’d barely understood. They’d been such children then.

  He was going to take these strange, almost unkillable vampires down, no matter what. As Damon pushed his way through the front double doors, his footsteps echoing in the vast empty space of the church, he felt for the business card in his pocket. Lifetime Solutions. It was as good a place as any to start.

  #TVD11FarewellKatherine

  On the apartment’s balcony, Stefan closed his eyes for a moment. It was almost morning, and he was tired. Solomon was dead now, and Elena was safe. He wondered how long it would take for that to really hit him, for the gaping pit of anxiety he’d been carrying inside to heal.

  A cool dawn breeze brushed his cheek, and just for a moment, it felt almost like a hand. It carried a fresh scent with it, the smell of damask roses. Stefan frowned.

  Back at the beginning, when he’d been alive, Katherine had smelled like that. She used to bathe in rose water. It had been a long time since he’d smelled that scent—it wasn’t the kind of perfume modern women wore.

  Good-bye, Stefan. He didn’t know if he really heard the words, but suddenly they were there in his mind. Katherine’s voice. In a flash he knew what had happened, and his chest tightened with sorrow. Katherine was dead. She’d been his enemy those last times he’d seen her, but once upon a time he’d loved her.

  He pushed the thought away. I’m just tired and morbid, he told himself, but something in him felt that it was true. He needed to call Damon to make sure he was okay.

  Entering the living room from the balcony, Stefan almost ran into Jasmine, who flinched backward. “Sorry, oh, I’m sorry,” she said, breathlessly.

  Stefan stepped deliberately away from her, his hands held up in what he hoped was a nonthreatening gesture. “No, excuse me,” he said. Earlier, Matt had made Stefan show Jasmine his fangs and his speed to convince her that he was a vampire, and she’d coped with it all surprisingly well. Matt followed Jasmine in from the bedroom and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

  Elena, Jack, and Meredith, who had been talking quietly on the sofa, jumped to their feet at Jasmine’s arrival.

  “How is she?” Elena asked.

  Jasmine smiled wearily. “Trinity’s stable,” she said. “I set her up with some saline to keep her from getting dehydrated, and the tranexamic acid helped with the bleeding. I’m going to leave some antibiotics with you that she should take twice a day for the next week and a half, but I think she’ll be fine.” Her eyes flittered hesitantly back to Stefan. “The—what you gave her, the blood, really helped her heal. I don’t think she would be alive without it.”

  Jack clapped Stefan on the shoulder, and Elena threw her arms around Jasmine. “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you so much.” Matt grinned and hugged Jasmine, too, and then Meredith piled on, all four of them laughing now, loose with relief.

  Stefan smiled, keeping his distance, but a great wave of gratitude washed over him. If Trinity lived, if she recovered, then they would have come through this amazingly unscathed.

  After a little more talk, all of them promising to help with Trinity’s care, make sure she stayed in bed and took all her medications, Matt and Jasmine headed for the door. “Jasmine’s working the emergency room again tomorrow,” Matt said. “She’d better catch all the sleep she can. Meredith, do you want a ride?”

  Meredith nodded. “Just let me grab my stuff,” she said. “It’s in the bedroom.” She put a finger to her lips. “I won’t wake her, I promise. Hunters can be as quiet as cats.”

  Jasmine rested her head on Matt’s shoulder as they waited. Jack headed for the kitchen. “I’m going to tell the others,” he threw back over his shoulder.

  Alone for a moment, Stefan took the opportunity to pull Elena aside, to tell her about the strange moment out on the balcony. “When I was outside—” he began.

  But before he could continue, feet pounded down the hall and Meredith burst back into the living room, her olive skin unnaturally pale. “Trinity’s gone!”

  “We’ll find her. We will find her,” Matt said, pushing his foot down on the accelerator. He wasn’t sure whom he was trying to convince, Jasmine or himself, but even he could hear the uncertainty in his voice. How could anyone have gotten to Trinity? She’d only been unattended for a couple of minutes at most. There’d been no sign of violence in the room, just the covers pushed back, the saline drip making a wet patch on the empty bed.

  “I can’t understand how she could have walked away.” Jasmine shivered. “She was so sick. She just kept staring at me with those yellow eyes while I gave her the injections. I doubt she even saw me.”

  “I don’t think she left on her own,” Matt said tightly. The sun was just coming over the horizon, dazzling him, and he squinted hard at the road ahead. Then the other part of what Jasmine had said registered, and his hands jerked on the wheel.

  “Careful!” Jasmine yelped, and Matt swerved back into his own lane, his heart pounding.

  “What do you mean, yellow eyes?” he asked. “Trinity has blue eyes; I’m sure of it.”

  Shaking her head, Jasmine wrapped her arms around herself. “This is all too weird,” she muttered, and fell into silence for the rest of the ride home.

  When they got
to Jasmine’s building, Matt parked and walked Jasmine to her door. She turned to him, her key in her hand, and his heart sank. There was something unfamiliar in her face: a look of fear and doubt. I did this. I wanted to keep all this from her so she’d never have to look like that.

  “Trinity will be all right,” he said, babbling, desperate to take that look away. “We’ll find her tomorrow; everything will be fine. She can’t have gone far. And, you know, she’ll be all right because you saved her. I can’t—I’m so grateful to you, I can’t tell you how much—”

  But Jasmine was shaking her head back and forth in denial, a strong no no no. “Matt—” she said.

  “I love you,” Matt said quickly, talking over her. “It’s not always like this, I promise. And we can teach you to protect yourself.” Matt reached out a hand, trying to reassure her, but her arms were crossed over her chest.

  That was the wrong thing to say; he knew it as he said it. Jasmine’s lips twisted into a wry smile. “That’s supposed to make me feel better?”

  Matt’s vision blurred. “I love you,” he said again, hearing the flat note of despair in his voice. He always lost everything. Everyone.

  Jasmine’s eyes were shining with tears. She uncrossed her arms and reached out to take Matt’s hand. “I love you, too, Matt,” she said, steadily. “But this is too dangerous, for both of us.” She frowned. “Maybe I can finish my residency somewhere else. We could start fresh.”

  Matt stepped back. “I can’t just leave,” he said. “These are my friends. We have to find Trinity and figure out—” He broke off. Jasmine’s face was miserable with longing, but her mouth was a firm line.

  “I know,” she said, her fingers tightening on his as if she couldn’t bear to let him pull away. “You’re so loyal. I love that about you.”

  “So … is this the end?” he asked her, dreading what she would say next. He felt like he was drying up inside, withering.