The Vampire Diaries: The Salvation: Unspoken (10 page)

“Thank God you’re here,” Elena said. “We really need a new tactic. Just attacking him isn’t doing anything.”

As they drew level with the cage, Matt took another look at the vampire Damon had caught. He seemed like some little high school punk, the kind who, when Matt had been in school, would have had a skateboard and worn a lot of black clothing. “He doesn’t look like he’d be hard to handle.”

Damon stiffened. “He’s stronger than he looks,” he said defensively, and Matt managed to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Damon was so
touchy
sometimes.

A slow, metallic tapping noise drew his attention back to the young vampire. The kid was staring at Jasmine, clinking his handcuffs steadily against the bars of his cage. As Matt watched, he inhaled deeply and his mouth opened a little, showing his canines, extended and slick with spit. His tongue licked over them briefly, pink against the white of his teeth, and his lips tilted into an unfriendly smile. Instinctively, Matt pulled Jasmine closer.

That reaction came from the part of him that would have kept his caveman ancestors crouching by the fire,
he thought,
the quick instinctive knowledge that there was something terrible out there in the dark.

“Hold on,” Damon told them. Almost faster than Matt’s eyes could follow, he whipped open the door of the cage and dashed inside. The young vampire snarled at him, and there was a brief vicious scuffle. It ended when
Damon grabbed his opponent’s head with both hands and twisted sharply. There was a loud cracking sound and the kid slumped and slid down the bars, dangling from one chained hand. Jasmine gasped.

“That should keep him down for a little while,” Damon told her. “Better hurry.”

“He’s not dead?” Jasmine asked, stunned.

“That wouldn’t even kill
me
, doctor,” Damon said, amused. “And he’s a lot harder to kill.”

Hesitantly, Jasmine came into the cage and knelt down by the young vampire’s side. She felt for a pulse and frowned. “His heart’s beating,” she said, and Damon nodded, backing out of the cage to give her room.

“It’ll do that,” Damon said.

Gaining confidence, Jasmine pulled a syringe from her bag and briskly felt for a vein in the vampire’s arm. She drew one vial of blood and started a second. Matt loved watching Jasmine work. Anything nervous or shy about her slipped away immediately. Her hands were deft and quick, her manner calm. It made him feel weirdly proud, that a girl this capable, this self-assured, wanted
him.

Jasmine gently moved the kid’s arm a bit to help the blood flow. Matt frowned, and took a step forward. Something wasn’t right—

With a sudden burst of movement, the vampire’s eyes shot open as he flung his arm around Jasmine’s neck and yanked
her down onto the floor with him. Jasmine screamed shrilly. The vampire wrapped his hand in her curly hair and yanked back her head. Throwing his body half over her, he sank his fangs into her throat, giving a soft sound of pleasure.

“No!” Matt shouted, and charged toward them, his fists clenched.

Damon, moving so fast he seemed like a blur, got there first, yanking the kid away from Jasmine with a snarl of fury. He slammed the young vampire to the ground and snapped his neck again. A trickle of blood ran from the kid’s mouth and dripped startlingly red against the dull gray of the concrete floor.

Lifting Jasmine into his arms, Damon dashed out of the cage and slammed the door behind them. She was limp, her head back against Damon’s shoulder, eyes closed. Her usually honey-tan skin was gray and drained.

“She’s all right,” Damon told them, lowering Jasmine to the floor. Matt reached out and helped, taking Jasmine’s weight in his arms. She was sobbing, he realized, her cheeks wet with tears.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. He knelt down and lowered her head into his lap, her long hair spilling across his thighs. Then he turned to Damon. “
All right
?” he said furiously. “How could you leave her in there with him?”

“His recovery time is getting faster,” Damon said, almost to himself. “I didn’t know.”

I brought her into this
, Matt thought, and cupped her cheek gently, feeling sick with guilt. “I shouldn’t have let her go in there,” he said, his voice choked.

Jasmine wiped away the tears, her hands shaking. “I’m okay,” she said, her voice rough, and tried to sit up.

“Stop!” Matt said, pulling her closer, trying to hold her tight. “You’re bleeding.”

“There are bandages in my bag,” Jasmine said, laying her head back in his lap. Her voice shook, and Matt could see her gritting her teeth, forcing herself to be calm. “Put pressure on it.”

Elena was already in motion, deftly pressing a cotton pad against Jasmine’s neck and wrapping gauze around it. “The bleeding’s almost stopped,” she said. “It’s not as bad as it looked.”

Now that he knew Jasmine would be okay, Matt felt like he was going to throw up. Everyone he had ever fallen in love with had
died
, even Elena, and he had just gone ahead and let Jasmine into his mess of a life.

“We’re going,” he said to her soothingly. “I’ll get you home.” He tried to pick her up again, but Jasmine twisted out of his arms.

“Wait,” she said, determined. “I want… I could use the blood of a natural vampire, for comparison.”

“Jasmine, you don’t have to…” Matt began, his heart aching.

She gave Damon a shaky smile. “Put out your arm for me? Please?”

Damon extended one arm, and Jasmine used a fresh hypodermic to draw a vial of blood. She worked efficiently, but, as she capped the vial, her hands shook and she dropped it, spilling more blood across the concrete floor. “Sorry, sorry,” she said, her hands fumbling in her bag, a flush stealing across her pale cheeks.

“My fault,” Damon murmured, holding out his arm and smiling reassuringly. “I’m so clumsy sometimes.”

Matt blinked. Damon Salvatore, gentle and kind with Matt’s girlfriend? Bothering to put someone other than Elena at ease?

Matt ran a hand down Jasmine’s back, reassuring himself that she was solid and real and not hurt. He was heavily aware of the unconscious vampire, his face turned toward them, soon to awake again.

“You’re not safe,” he murmured, almost to himself, and felt Damon’s eyes on him. “None of us are safe, not while Jack and his vampires are after us.”

Part of Matt wanted to rush Jasmine away. If none of them were safe here, wasn’t the solution to get away? Jack didn’t want Jasmine, didn’t want Matt. He was after Damon.

But Matt knew that Elena, whose dark blue eyes were fixed intently on Damon’s face, would never agree to leave
him. And he could tell just by looking at Jasmine, capable and strong once more, that she wouldn’t either.

“Not until we figure out a way to kill them,” Damon agreed. He nodded to Jasmine. “That’s where you come in.”

Something in Matt hardened. The only thing that mattered was protecting Jasmine.

“You have to keep experimenting on him,” he told Damon, looking at the young face of the vampire in the cage, slack in unconsciousness. “If we want this to end, we’ll have to finish them.”

“M
ore coffee, hon?” The waitress refilled Bonnie and Elena’s cups before moving on to the next table. The little diner halfway between their apartments was busy, bright, and cheerful, as it always was on a Sunday morning. They hadn’t been here in a while, but Bonnie thought bright and cheerful was exactly what Elena needed right now.

“Sounds like Jasmine’s tougher than I thought,” Bonnie said, swiping cream cheese across her bagel. Elena had been filling her in on the latest in the quest to discover the truth about the synthetic vampires. “Has Meredith found out anything from the hunters down in Atlanta?”

Elena sighed, resting her chin on her fist as she stared into her coffee. “She hasn’t returned any of my calls. I got a text saying she was okay, but that’s it.”

“Yeah, same. She’s probably busy,” Bonnie offered. Meredith was pretty good at looking after herself. Right now, Bonnie was more concerned about Elena.

Elena had been distant lately, caught up with Damon and with her new Guardian task. Bonnie was glad that she had something to focus on. Elena was still pale and solemn, but she didn’t seem as stunned with grief as she’d been right after Stefan’s death.

Bonnie ripped open a sugar packet and poured it into her coffee. Mostly to get the sad, distracted expression off Elena’s face, she asked, “How’s the search for Siobhan? Any luck?”

Elena scowled. “I haven’t had any leads on her since I lost her aura at that drive-in. I keep dreaming about her, but I can’t
find
her.”

Munching her bagel, Bonnie listened to Elena describe the dreams—a dark-haired woman in a cabin, a bloodred aura, nothing much happening, but a sense of dread overhanging everything—and tried to offer helpful suggestions. “Maybe she’s up in the hills? There’s a lot of hunting cabins up there.”

Elena leaned back in the booth, her shoulders slumping. “I thought of that. I tried walking through the hills, but I didn’t feel anything. My Guardian Powers are supposed to lead me to her, I guess I have to trust that they will when the time is right.”

The waitress slapped the check on their table as she walked by. Bonnie was reaching for it when Elena sat up straighter and frowned at her. “Anyway,” she said briskly, “we’ve talked about my problems, but what’s going on with you? You seem stressed.”

“I do?” Bonnie asked reluctantly. She’d been trying to act normal, to make Elena feel better. Elena nodded, and Bonnie rested her temple in her hand. “I guess… Zander’s been strange lately. He’s always on the phone with the rest of the Pack, but he never tells me what they’re talking about. It’s like he’s got secrets with them that he doesn’t want me knowing. He’s never been like that before. And then with how weird he was about the Pack not helping defend us all against Jack.” She glanced up at Elena, who nodded in confirmation. “I can’t help wondering—”

As she talked, she thought about how Zander had stayed out late the night before, long past when she had gone to bed, with no explanation, and she could hear her own voice getting higher and softer, like a little girl’s, “—wondering if Zander maybe doesn’t like me so much anymore.”

Elena laughed. “Listen, Bonnie, if there’s one thing I know, it’s that Zander’s crazy about you. Seriously. You two are perfect together.” Her smile faded, and Bonnie knew she was thinking about Stefan.

“Maybe,” Bonnie said doubtfully, poking her finger through the puddle of coffee left in her saucer. She couldn’t
really put what she was worrying about into words, and certainly she couldn’t explain to Elena, who had not just Stefan but even Damon eternally, endlessly, death-will-not-part-us in love with her. But people did fall out of love, all the time. There was something in Zander’s eyes when he looked at her—something sad, and faraway. It wasn’t the way he used to look at her. “I’ll see him later today, at least. We’re going to have lunch and catch a movie.”

“See?” Elena told her. “Talk to him, and you’ll work it out.”

“Maybe,” Bonnie said again. They paid the check and walked out into the bright glare of the sunny parking lot.

Elena hugged Bonnie hard before she got into her car. “It’ll be okay,” she said reassuringly.

Bonnie smiled and raised a hand in farewell as Elena pulled away. Just as she turned to head to her own car, her phone buzzed in her pocket. It was a text from Zander.

Sorry, can’t make it for lunch. Catch up with you later. XO

Glaring down at the phone, Bonnie felt her cheeks getting hot. Six years together, and he wouldn’t even tell her why he couldn’t meet her? He just blew her off?

It was so
frustrating.
The sunlight dimmed, and she wondered if she was the one doing it. She could feel her
Power gathering within her, ready for her to call on nature, work her will. She could ball this Power up and fire it off at Zander, find out once and for all what was going on with him.

Better yet, she could force her Power inside him, make Zander do what she wanted,
make
him be the sweet, easygoing, loving guy she was used to. She felt energy rising, swirling dark and expectant inside her.

Her heart was pounding like crazy. Bonnie stopped and pressed her hand against her chest, breathing deeply, until the dark energy started to dissipate. What was she thinking? She couldn’t use her Power on Zander. It would be using him, abusing him, and if she did that, then she was the one who would kill the love between them.

Stuffing her phone back into her pocket, Bonnie marched over toward her car. She just had to have faith. Whatever was going on, Zander would tell her in his own time.