The Vampire Diaries: Dark Reunion Chapter Fourteen

Hes g peerless calendar method the bend, mat give tongue to, staring at the empty admittance through which Stefan had disappe ard.No, he hasnt, utter Meredith. Her translator was rueful and secrecy, still in that location was a course of helpless laugh in it as well as. Dont you enamour what hes doing, Matt? she say when he turned to her. Yelling at us, f alterioning us hate him to subdue and chase us a mien of life. Being as nasty as affirmable so well stay mad and let him do this solo. She glanced at the doorway and increase her eyebrows. Anyone who does follow me, Ill kill was going a bit overboard, though. comely giggled suddenly, wildly, in regurgitatee of herself. I think he borrowed it from Damon. Get this straight, I dont h centenarian both of you You bunch of stupid humans, Matt added. tho I relieve dont understand. You just had a premonition, average, and Stefan doesnt usu tot totallyyy discount those. If t presents no way to labor and win, whats the point of going? fairish didnt say there was no way to fight and win. She said there was no way to fight and survive. Right, honest? Meredith looked at her.The fit of giggles dissolved away. Startled herself, Bonnie tried to turn up the premonition, notwithstanding she knew no more than the words that had sprung into her opinion. No one tin fight him and live.You mean Stefan thinks- Slow, thunderous come outrage was smoldering in Matts eyeball. He thinks hes going to go and s gratuity Klaus even though he gets killed himself? drop deadle few sacrificial lamb?More wish Elena, Meredith said soberly. And maybe-so he w ashstand be with her.Huh-uh. Bonnie shake her judgement. She might not bang more about the prophecy, but this she knew. He doesnt think that, Im sure. Elenas special. She is what she is because she died likewise novel she left so more than unfinished in her profess life, and-well, shes a special case. still Stefans been a vampire for quin hundred y ears, and he certainly wouldnt be dying young. in that locations no guarantee hed end up with Elena. He might go to different place or-or just go out. And he k suaves that. Im sure he k immediatelys that. I think hes just be desires his promise to her, to stop Klaus no matter what it costs.To canvass, at least, Matt said softly, and it deared as if he were quoting. Even if you know youre going to lose. He looked up at the misfires suddenly. Im going aft(prenominal) him.Of course, said Meredith patiently.Matt hesitated. Uh-I dont suppose I could convince you two to stay here?After all that exalt talk about teamwork? Not a endangerment.I was afraid of that. SoThey gathered what weapons they could. Matts pocketknife that Stefan had dropped, the ivory-hilted dagger from Stefans dresser, a carving knife from the kitchen.Outside, there was no sign of Mrs. Flowers. The cast out was pale purple, shading to apricot in the west. Twilight of the solstice eve, Bonnie thought, and ha irs on her arms tried to lift.Klaus said the old uttermostmhouse in the woods-that must mean the Francher place, Matt said. Where Katherine dumped Stefan in the abandoned well.That makes sense. Hes in all probabi light upy been using Katherines tunnel to get rachis and forth under the river, Meredith said. Unless pitch-darkened mavins are so powerful they can cross trail water system without harming themselves.Thats recompense, Bonnie bring forwarded, evil things couldnt cross running water, and the more evil you were, the harder it was. notwithstanding we dont know anything about the Originals, she said aloud.No, and that means weve got to be careful, Matt said. I know these woods pretty well, and I know the path Stefan exit probably use. I think we should take a different one.So Stefan wont see us and kill us?So Klaus wont see us, or not all of us. So maybe well ache a chance of getting to Caroline. Somehow or other weve got to get Caroline out of the equation as long as Klaus can threaten to loss her he can make Stefan do anything he wants. And its always best(p) to plan ahead, to get a jump on the enemy. Klaus said agree there after dark well, well be there before dark and maybe we can surprise him.Bonnie was deeply impressed by this strategy. No wonder hes a quarterback, she was thinking. I would choose just speed in, yelling.Matt picked out an close invisible path between the oak trees. The undergrowth was oddly lush this time of year, with mosses, grasses, flowering plants, and ferns. Bonnie had to institutionalize that Matt knew where he was going, because she certainly didnt. Above, birds were giving one last damp of song before seeking out a roost for the night.It got cuttingmer. Moths and lacewings fluttered past times Bonnies face. After stumbling through a patch of toadstools covered with feeding slugs, she was intensely grateful that this time shed worn jeans.At last Matt halt them. Were getting close, he said, his voice l ow. Theres a sort of bluff where we can look pop up and Klaus might not see us. Be quiet and careful.Bonnie had never taken so much trouble placing her feet before. fortuitously the leaf litter was wet and not crackly. After a a couple of(prenominal) minutes Matt dropped to his stomach and gestured for them to follow. Bonnie kept telling herself, fiercely, that she didnt mind the centipedes and earthworms her sliding fingers dug up, that she had no feelings one way or another about cobwebs in the face. This was life and death, and she was capable. No dweeb, no baby, but competent.They were gazing tear on the Francher homestead-or what was left of it. It had crumbled into the earth long ago, taken back by the forest. Now it was only a foundation, building stones covered with flowering weeds and prickly brambles, and one tall chimney same a solitary monument.There she is. Caroline, Meredith breathing roomed in Bonnies other ear.Caroline was a dim figure sitting against the ch imney. Her pale green dress showed up in the gathering dark, but her auburn hair just looked black. Something etiolated shone crossways her face, and after a moment Bonnie realized it was a gag. taping or a bandage. From her strange posture-arms behind her, legs stretched straight out in front-Bonnie also guessed she was tied.Poor Caroline, she thought, forgiving the other girl all the nasty, petty, egotistical things shed ever done, which was a pretty considerable amount when you got prevail over to it. solely Bonnie couldnt imagine anything worse than beingness abducted by a psycho vampire whod already killed two of your classmates, dragged out here to the woods and bound, and thus(prenominal) left to wait, with your life depending on another vampire who had fairly neat reason to hate you. After all, Caroline had wanted Stefan in the beginning, and had hate and tried to humiliate Elena for getting him. Stefan Salvatore was the last person who should feel harmonic towar d Caroline Forbes.Look said Matt. Is that him? Klaus?Bonnie had seen it too, a ripple of effect on the opposite side of the chimney. As she strained her eyeball he appeared, his light tan raincoat flapping ghostlike around his legs. He glanced graduate at Caroline and she shrank from him, trying to lean away. His laughter estimableed so intelligibly in the quiet air that Bonnie flinched.Thats him, she whispered, dropping down behind the screening ferns. But wheres Stefan? Its almost dark now.Maybe he got smart and decided not to come, said Matt.No such luck, said Meredith. She was looking through the ferns to the south. Bonnie glanced that way herself and started.Stefan was standing at the pass on of the clearing, having materialized there as if out of thin air. Not even Klaus had seen him coming, Bonnie thought. He stood silently, making no attempt to hide himself or the w checke ash spear he was carrying. There was something in his stance and the way he looked over the scene before him that do Bonnie remember that in the fifteenth century hed been an aristocrat, a member of the nobility. He said nothing, waiting for Klaus to notice him, refusing to be rushed.When Klaus did turn south he went still, and Bonnie got the feeling he was surprised Stefan had sneaked up on him. But then he laughed and spread his arms.Slowly, Stefan looked Klaus up and down, from the tails of his tattered raincoat to the top of his windblown head. What Stefan said wasYou asked for me. Im here. Let the girl go.Did I say that? smell genuinely surprised, Klaus pressed two hands to his chest. so he shook his head, chuckling. I dont think so. Lets talk first.Stefan nodded, as if Klaus had confirmed something bitter hed been expecting. He took the spear from his shoulder and held it in front of him, handling the unwieldy distance of wood deftly, slow. Im listening, he said.Not as dumb as he looks, Matt murmured from behind the ferns, a note of respect in his voice. And hes not as anxious to get killed as I thought, Matt added. Hes being careful.Klaus gestured toward Caroline, the tips of his fingers brushing her auburn hair. Why dont you come here so we dont remove to shout? But he didnt threaten to hurt his prisoner, Bonnie noticed.I can hear you just fine, Stefan replied.Good, Matt whispered. Thats it, StefanBonnie, though, was studying Caroline. The captive girl was struggling, tossing her head back and forth as if she were frantic or in pain. But Bonnie got a strange feeling about Carolines movements, especially those violent jerks of the head, as if the girl was straining to r distributively the sky. The sky Bonnies look lifted up to it, where full darkness had fallen and a lessen moon on shone over the trees. That was why she could see that Carolines hair was auburn now the moonlight, she thought. Then, with a shock, her eyes dropped to the tree just above Stefan, whose branches were rustling approximately in the absence of any wind. Matt? she whispered, alarmed.Stefan was focused on Klaus, separately sense, every muscle, every atom of his Power honed and turned toward the Old One before him. But in that tree directly above him exclusively thoughts of strategy, of asking Matt what to do, fled from Bonnies mind. She bolted up from her place of concealment and yelled.Stefan Above you Its a trapStefan leaped aside, neat as a cat, just as something plunged down on the exact place hed been standing an flash lamp before. The moon lit the scene perfectly, enough for Bonnie to see the snow-covered of Tylers bared teeth.And to see the vacuous flash of Klauss eyes as he whirled on her. For one stunned instant she stared at him, and then lightning crackled.From an empty sky.It was only later(prenominal) that Bonnie would realize the strangeness-the fearsomeness-of this. At the time she scarcely noted that the sky was clear and star swept and that the jagged blue bolt that ramous down struck the palm of Klauss upraised hand. T he next sight she cut was so terrifying as to black everything else out Klaus folding his hand over that lightning, gathering it somehow, and throwing it at her. stopover here Right here he shouted, and bounded away.Those dreaded words. They catapulted Bonnie right up, and she was running after him before she knew what she was doing.And then the world turned into chaos.Klaus had whirled back on Stefan, who was contend with Tyler, beating him. Tyler, in his wolf form, was making repelling sounds as Stefan threw him to the ground.Meredith was running toward Caroline, approaching from behind the chimney so Klaus wouldnt spot her. Bonnie dictum her reach Caroline and byword the flash of Stefans silver dagger as Meredith cut the stacks around Carolines wrists. Then Meredith was half carrying, half draw Caroline behind the chimney to work on her feet.A sound like antlers clashing made Bonnie spin around. Klaus had come at Stefan with a tall branch of his own-it must have been lyin g flat on the ground before. It looked just as sharp as Stefans, making it a serviceable lance. But Klaus and Stefan werent just stabbing at each other they were using the obligates as quarterstaffs. Robin Hood, Bonnie thought dazedly. diminutive John and Robin. That was what it looked like Klaus was that much taller and heavier boned than Stefan.Then Bonnie proverbing machine something else and cried out wordlessly. Behind Stefan, Tyler had gotten up again and was crouching, just as he had in the graveyard before lunging for Stefans throat. Stefans back was to him. And Bonnie couldnt warn him in time.But shed forgotten about Matt. Head down, ignoring claws and fangs, he was charging at Tyler, tackling him like a first-rate linebacker before he could leap. Tyler went flying sideways, with Matt on top of him.Bonnie was overwhelmed. So much was happening. Meredith was sawing through Carolines ankle cords Matt was pummeling Tyler in a way that certainly would have gotten him disqua lified on the football field Stefan was whirling that snow-white ash staff as if hed been trained for it. Klaus was laughing deliriously, seeming exhilarated by the exercise, as they traded blows with deadly speed and accuracy.But Matt seemed to be in trouble now. Tyler was gripping him and snarling, trying to get a hold on his throat. Wildly, Bonnie looked around for a weapon, entirely forgetting the carving knife in her pocket. Her eye fell on a dead oak branch. She picked it up and ran to where Tyler and Matt were struggling.Then Matt was on top of Tyler again, holding Tylers head down, holding himself clear. Bonnie saw her chance and aimed the stick. But Tyler saw her. With a burst of supernatural violence, he gathered his legs and sent Matt high-minded rack up him backward. Matts head struck a tree with a sound Bonnie would never forget. The dull sound of a rotten melon bursting. He slid down the front of the tree and was still.Bonnie was gasping, stunned. She might have started toward Matt, but Tyler was there in front of her, breathing hard, bloody expectoration running down his chin. He looked even more like an animate being than he had in the graveyard. As if in a dream, Bonnie raised her stick, but she could feel it shaking in her hands. Matt was so still-was he breathing? Bonnie could hear the sob in her own breath as she faced Tyler. This was ridiculous this was a boy from her own school. A boy shed danced with last year at the Junior Prom. How could he be keeping her away from Matt, how could he be trying to hurt them all? How could he be doing this?Tyler, please- she began, meaning to reason with him, to beg himAll alone in the woods, little girl? he said, and his voice was a compact and guttural growl, shaped at the last minute into words. In that instant Bonnie knew that this was not the boy shed gone to school with. This was an animal. Oh, God, hes ugly, she thought. Ropes of red spit hung out of his embouchure. And those yellow eyes with the slitted pupils-in them she saw the cruelty of the shark, and the crocodile, and the wasp that lays its nut in a caterpillars living body. All the cruelty of animal genius in those two yellow eyes.Somebody should have warned you, Tyler said, dropping his chat to laugh the way a dog does. Because if you go out in the woods alone, you might meet the Big Bad-Jerk a voice finished for him, and with a feeling of gratitude that bordered on the religious, Bonnie saw Meredith beside her. Meredith, holding Stefans dagger, which shone liquidly in the moonlight.Silver, Tyler, Meredith said, brandishing it. I wonder what silver does to a werewolfs members? lack to see? All Merediths elegance, her standoffishness, her cool observers dispassion were gone. This was the essential Meredith, a warrior Meredith, and although she was smiling, she was mad.Yes shouted Bonnie gleefully, feeling power rush through her. Suddenly she could move. She and Meredith, together, were unanimous. Mered ith was stalking Tyler from one side, Bonnie held her stick ready on the other. A longing shed never felt before shot through her, the longing to hit Tyler so hard his head would come flying off. She could feel the strength to do it surging in her arm.And Tyler, with his animal instinct, could sense it, could sense it from two of them, closing in on either side. He recoiled, caught himself, and turned to try and get away from them. They turned too. In a minute they were all three orbiting like a mini solar system Tyler turn around and around in the middle Bonnie and Meredith circling him, looking for a chance to attack.I did it Yes. All right Yes Bonnie shouted, flinging the stick away. prevail erupted from her in a primal shout. We did it She grabbed the heavy body by the back of the mane and pulled it off Meredith, where it had fallen. We-Then she broke off, her words freezing in her throat. Meredith she cried.Its all right, Meredith gasped, her voice tight with pain. And weak ness, Bonnie thought, chilled as if doused with ice water. Tyler had make her leg to the bone. There were huge, gaping wounds in the thigh of Merediths jeans and in the white skin that showed clearly through the torn cloth. And to Bonnies absolute horror, she could see intimate the skin too, could see flesh and muscle ripped and red blood gushy out.Meredith- she cried frantically. They had to get Meredith to a doctor. Everyone had to stop now everyone must understand that. They had an injury here they needed to get an ambulance, to call 911. Meredith, she gasped, almost weeping.Tie it up with something. Merediths face was white. Shock. Going into shock. And so much blood so much blood coming out. Oh, God, thought Bonnie, please help me. She looked for something to tie it up with, but there was nothing.Something dropped on the ground beside her. A length of nylon cord like the cord theyd used to tie up Tyler, with frayed edges. Bonnie looked up.Can you use that? asked Caroline un certainly, her teeth chattering.She was wearing the green dress, her auburn hair straggling and stuck to her face with sweat and blood. Even as she radius she swayed, and fell to her knees beside Meredith.Are you hurt? Bonnie gasped.Caroline shook her head, but then she bent forward, racked with nausea, and Bonnie saw the marks in her throat. But there was no time to worry about Caroline now. Meredith was more important.Bonnie tied the cord above Merediths wounds, her mind running urgently over things shed learned from her sister Mary. Mary was a nurse. Mary said-a tourniquet couldnt be too tight or left on too long or gangrene set in. But she had to stop the gushing blood. Oh, Meredith.Bonnie-help Stefan, Meredith was gasping, her voice almost a whisper. Hes going to need it She sagged backward, her breathing stertorous, her slitted eyes looking up at the sky.Dazed, she turned to Caroline, who was shivering and retching, sweat drop her face. Useless, Bonnie thought. But she had n o other choice.Caroline, listen to me, she said. She picked up the largest tack of the stick shed used on Tyler and put it into Carolines hands. You stay with Matt and Meredith. rally that tourniquet every twenty minutes or so. And if Tyler starts to wake up, if he even twitches, you hit him as hard as you can with this. take in? Caroline, she added, this is your big chance to prove youre good for something. That youre not useless. All right? She caught the furtive green eyes and repeated, All right?But what are you going to do?Bonnie looked toward the clearing.No, Bonnie. Carolines hand grasped her, and Bonnie noted with some part of her mind the befuddled nails, the rope burns on the wrists. Stay here where its safe. Dont go to them. Theres nothing you can do-Bonnie shook her off and made for the clearing before she lost her resolve. In her heart, she knew Caroline was right. There was nothing she could do. But something Matt had said before they left was ring in her mind. To try at least. She had to try.Still, in those next few grand minutes all she could do was look.So far, Stefan and Klaus had been trading blows with such hysteria and accuracy that it had been like a beautiful, lethal dance. But it had been an equal, or almost equal, match. Stefan had been holding his own.Now she saw Stefan bearing down with his white ash lance, pressing Klaus to his knees, forcing him backward, farther and farther back, like a limbo terpsichorean seeing how low he could go. And Bonnie could see Klauss face now, mouth slightly open, staring up at Stefan with what looked like astonishment and fear.Then everything changed.At the very bottom of his descent, when Klaus had bent back as far as he could go, when it seemed that he must be about to present or break, something happened.Klaus smiled.And then he started pushing back.Bonnie saw Stefans muscles knot, saw his arms go rigid, trying to resist. But Klaus, still smilening madly, eyes wide open, just kept coming. H e unfolded like some terrible jack-in-the-box, only slowly. Slowly. Inexorably. His grin getting wider until it looked as if it would split his face. Like the Cheshire cat.A cat, thought Bonnie.Now Stefan was the one grunting and straining, teeth clenched, trying to hold Klaus off. But Klaus and his stick bore down, forcing Stefan backward, forcing him to the ground.Grinning all the time.Until Stefan was lying on his back, his own stick pressing into his throat with the weight of Klauss lance crosswise it. Klaus looked down at him and beamed. Im tired of playing, little boy, he said, and he straightened and threw his own stick down. Now its dying time.He took Stefans staff away from him as easily as if he were taking it from a child. Picked it up with a riff of his wrist and broke it over his knee, showing how strong he was, how strong he had always been. How cruelly he had been playing with Stefan.One of the halves of the white ash stick he tossed over his shoulder across the clea ring. The other he jabbed at Stefan. Using not the pointed end but the splintered one, broken into a dozen tiny points. He jabbed down with a force that seemed almost casual, but Stefan screamed. He did it again and again, eliciting a scream each time.Bonnie cried out, soundlessly.She had never heard Stefan scream before. She didnt need to be told what loving of pain must have caused it. She didnt need to be told that white ash might be the only wood deadly to Klaus, but that any wood was deadly to Stefan. That Stefan was, if not dying now, about to die. That Klaus, with his hand now raised, was going to finish it with one more plunging blow. Klauss face was tilted to the moon in a grin of obscene pleasure, showing that this was what he liked, where he got his thrills. From killing.And Bonnie couldnt move, couldnt even cry. The world swam around her. It had all been a mistake, she wasnt competent she was a baby after all. She didnt want to see that final thrust, but she couldnt loo k away. And all this couldnt be happening, but it was. It was.Klaus flourished the splintered stake and with a smile of pure ecstasy started to bring it down.And a spear shot across the clearing and struck him in the middle of the back, landing and quivering like a giant arrow, like half a giant arrow. It made Klauss arms fling out, dropping the stake it shocked the ecstatic grin right off his face. He stood, arms extended, for a second, and then turned, the white ash stick in his back wobbling slightly.Bonnies eyes were too dazzled by waves of gray dots to see, but she heard the voice clearly as it rang out, cold and arrogant and filled with absolute conviction. Just five words, but they changed everything.Get away from my brother.