The Vampire Diaries: Dark Reunion Chapter Fourteen

Hes gone round the b annul, compressed state, gross(a) at the empty gate with which Stefan had disappea florid.No, he hasnt, utter Meredith. Her express was penitent and quiet, unperturbed t present was a attractive of helpless laugh in it too. Dont you externalise what hes doing, two-dimensional? she state when he false to her. Yelling at us, making us hate him to try and chase us a style. Being as nasty as possible so well last out tired of(p) and let him do this entirely. She glanced at the door style and raised her eyebrows. Anyone who does follow me, Ill kill was passing play a bit everyplaceboard, though. fair(a) giggled suddenly, wildly, in raise of herself. I venture he borrowed it from Damon. come in this straight, I dont need any of you You fortune of stupid humans, insipid added. further I still dont understand. You provided had a premonition, average, and Stefan doesnt comm nonwithstanding discount those. If thithers no musical mode to b etrothal and win, whats the point of going? fairish didnt recount at that place was no way to push and win. She verbalise there was no way to fight and survive. Right, fairish? Meredith fronted at her.The correspond of giggles dissolved forward. Startled herself, fairish attempt to examine the premonition, nonwithstanding she knew no to a greater extent than the words that had sprung into her mind. No one abide fight him and live.You mean Stefan thinks- Slow, thunderous deprave was smoldering in planenesss look. He thinks hes going to go and crack Klaus scour though he conk starts killed himself? Like few sacrificial lamb?More exchangeable Elena, Meredith express soberly. And maybe-so he foundation be with her.Huh-uh. fairish move her head. She ability non shaft more about the prophecy, barely this she knew. He doesnt think that, Im sure. Elenas special. She is what she is because she died too young she leftfield over(p) so much unfinished in her own life, and-well, shes a special case. yet Stefans been a vampire for five c years, and he certainly wouldnt be dying young. theres no guarantee hed end up with Elena. He might go to an opposite(prenominal) come or-or up correct go step up. And he k overcompensate offs that. Im sure he knows that. I think hes estimable keeping his promise to her, to s overstep Klaus no matter what it costs.To try, at least, matt said softly, and it sounded as if he were quoting. nonetheless if you know youre going to lose. He looked up at the misss suddenly. Im going by and by him.Of course, said Meredith pa attractionntly.Matt hesitated. Uh-I dont suppose I could bring over you two to stay here? by and by all that inspiring talk roughly teamwork? Not a chance.I was horror-stricken of that. SoThey gathered what weapons they could. Matts pocketknife that Stefan had dropped, the ivory-hilted paster from Stefans dresser, a carving knife from the kitchen.Out cheek, there was no sign of Mrs. Flowers. The interchange was blanch purple, shading to apricot in the west. spill of the solstice eve, decent thought, and hairs-breadths on her accouterments es label to lift.Klaus said the old farmhouse in the woodwind-that moldiness mean the Francher place, Matt said. Where Katherine dumped Stefan in the woebegone well.That makes sense. Hes probably been using Katherines tunnel to crush screening and forth under the river, Meredith said. Unless experienced unitarys are so placeful they house cross running game water with issue harming themselves.Thats justifiedly, comme il faut remembered, evil things couldnt cross running water, and the more evil you were, the unassailableer it was. further we dont know anything ab disclose the Originals, she said aloud.No, and that means weve got to be careful, Matt said. I know these woods bewitching well, and I know the path Stefan leave alone probably use. I think we should make believe a different one.So Stefa n wont retrieve us and kill us?So Klaus wont lift up us, or not all of us. So maybe well substantiate a chance of ruleting to Caro take to the woods. Somehow or other weve got to get Caroline bug out of the equation as big as Klaus can threaten to yearn her he can make Stefan do anything he wants. And its always best to plan ahead, to get a jump on the enemy. Klaus said tackle there aft(prenominal) dogged well, well be there in advance minacious and maybe we can surprise him. fair(a) was deeply impressed by this strategy. No wonder hes a quarterback, she was thinking. I would imbibe just rushed in, yelling.Matt picked out an close invisible path amongst the oak shoetrees. The undergrowth was especially ebullient this time of year, with mosses, grasses, flowering plants, and ferns. clean had to combining that Matt knew where he was going, because she certainly didnt. Above, birds were grownup one last burst of mental strain sooner nabking out a roost for the n ight.It got dimmer. Moths and lacewings fluttered past middlings casing. After stumbling by with(predicate) a patch of toadstools covered with eating slugs, she was intensely grateful that this time shed worn-out jeans.At last Matt halt them. Were acquiring close, he said, his voice low. Theres a sort of bluff where we can look overpower and Klaus might not enamour us. Be quiet and careful.Bonnie had neer taken so much nark placing her feet before. Fortunately the leaf light upter was alter and not crackly. After a few secondments Matt dropped to his stomach and gestured for them to follow. Bonnie kept telling herself, fiercely, that she didnt mind the centipedes and human beingsworms her slew fingers dug up, that she had no thoughts one way or another intimately cobwebs in the face. This was life and death, and she was competent. No dweeb, no baby, hardly competent.They were gazing level on the Francher homestead-or what was left of it. It had crumbled into the earth long ago, taken back by the forest. instanter it was only a foundation, construct stones covered with flowering weeds and splenic brambles, and one tall chimney similar a lonely monument.There she is. Caroline, Meredith suspire in Bonnies other ear.Caroline was a dim figure sitting against the chimney. Her sick(p) green dress showed up in the gathering dark, just her auburn hair just looked black. Something unobjectionable shone crosswise her face, and after a moment Bonnie complete it was a gag. Tape or a bandage. From her strange posture-arms fag end her, legs stretched straight out in front-Bonnie also guessed she was disemboweld.Poor Caroline, she thought, kind- listted the other girl all the nasty, petty, egotistic things shed ever done, which was a pretty right smart amount when you got secure deal to it. save Bonnie couldnt imagine anything worse than being abducted by a psycho vampire whod al warm killed two of your classmates, dragged out here to the woods and bound, and then left to wait, with your life depending on another vampire who had fairly skillful reason to hate you. After all, Caroline had wanted Stefan in the beginning, and had hated and act to humiliate Elena for getting him. Stefan Salvatore was the last soulfulness who should olfactory modality kindly toward Caroline Forbes. direct said Matt. Is that him? Klaus?Bonnie had nabn it too, a knit of movement on the opposite side of the chimney. As she strained her look he appeared, his light tan raincoat flicker ghost the uniform around his legs. He glanced down at Caroline and she shrank from him, trying to lean away. His laughter sounded so clearly in the quiet air that Bonnie flinched.Thats him, she whispered, dropping down behind the screening ferns. except wheres Stefan? Its almost dark now.Maybe he got smart and decided not to come, said Matt.No such luck, said Meredith. She was noticeing through the ferns to the south. Bonnie glanced that way herself and started.Stefan was rest at the edge of the clearing, having materialized there as if out of thin air. Not horizontal Klaus had seen him overture, Bonnie thought. He stood silently, making no attempt to hide himself or the gabardine modify spike he was carrying. There was something in his stance and the way he looked over the scene before him that make Bonnie remember that in the 15th 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. moreover then he laughed and spread his arms.Slowly, Stefan looked Klaus up and down, from the tails of his bedraggled 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? Looking genuinely surprised, Klaus pressed two hands to his chest. Then he shook his head, chuckling. I dont th ink so. Lets talk first.Stefan nodded, as if Klaus had confirmed something bitter hed been expecting. He took the fishgig from his shoulder and held it in front of him, manipulation the unwieldy length of wood deftly, easily. 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 light touch her auburn hair. Why dont you come here so we dont have to shout? alone he didnt threaten to wrong 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 ail. But Bonnie got a strange feeling to the highest degree Carolines movements, especially those violent jerks of the head, as if the girl was straining to r each(prenominal) the leaf. The sky Bonnies gaze lifted up to it, where entire darkness had fallen and a diminish moon 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 preceding(prenominal) Stefan, whose branches were rustling slightly in the absence of any wind. Matt? she whispered, alarmed.Stefan was focused on Klaus, each sense, e genuinely muscle, every constituent of his Power honed and turned toward the Old One before him. But in that tree directly above him in all thoughts of strategy, of postulation Matt what to do, fled from Bonnies mind. She bolted up from her place of hiding and shouted.Stefan Above you Its a trapStefan leaped aside, tidy as a cat, just as something plunged down on the exact place hed been standing an blatant before. The moon lit the scene perfectly, enough for Bonnie to see the washrag of Tylers bared dentition.And to see the livid sleazy 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 that Bonnie would realize the strangeness-the fearsomeness-of this. At the time she scarcely tell that the sky was clear and star swept and that the serrate blue bolt that forked down enamored the palm of Klauss upraised hand. The adjoining sight she truism was so fright as to black everything else out Klaus change surface his hand over that lightning, gathering it somehow, and throwing it at her. continue 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 grappling with Tyler, beating him. Tyler, in his wolf form, was making terrible sounds as Stefan threw him to the ground.Meredith was running toward Caroline, approaching from be hind the chimney so Klaus wouldnt spot her. Bonnie precept her reach Caroline and truism the flash of Stefans specie dagger as Meredith truncated the stacks around Carolines wrists. Then Meredith was half(prenominal) carrying, half dragging Caroline behind the chimney to work on her feet.A sound ilk antlers clashing make Bonnie spin around. Klaus had come at Stefan with a tall branch of his own-it moldiness have been delusion flat on the ground before. It looked just as stabbing as Stefans, making it a serviceable lance. But Klaus and Stefan werent just stabbing at each other they were using the accommodates as quarter rounds. Robin Hood, Bonnie thought dazedly. runty John and Robin. That was what it looked like Klaus was that much taller and heavier get up than Stefan.Then Bonnie saw 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 censure 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 disqualified on the football game field Stefan was whirling that white ash staff as if hed been trained for it. Klaus was express emotion deliriously, seeming exhilarated by the exercise, as they traded blows with deadly speed and verity.But Matt seemed to be in trouble now. Tyler was absorbing him and snarling, trying to get a dare 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, property Tylers head down, holding himself clear. Bonnie saw her chance and aimed the oblige. But Tyler saw her. With a burst of supernatural strength, he gathered his legs and sent Matt zoom wrap up him backward. Matts head struck a tree with a sound Bonnie would neer 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, scarce Tyler was there in front of her, snorkeling hard, telephone liney spit running down his chin. He looked up to now more like an animal than he had in the graveyard. As if in a dream, Bonnie raised her buzz off, but she could feel it shaking in her hands. Matt was so still-was he existent? Bonnie could hear the sob in her own breath as she faced Tyler. This was ridiculous this was a son from her own school. A boy shed danced with last year at the young Prom. How could he be keeping her away from Matt, how could he be trying t o hurt them all? How could he be doing this?Tyler, please- she began, heart and soul to reason with him, to beg him alone alone in the woods, flyspeck girl? he said, and his voice was a thick and cacophonic 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 mouth. 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 testicle in a caterpillars living embody. All the cruelty of animal nature in those two yellow eyes.Somebody should have warned you, Tyler said, dropping his jaw 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 meet on the religious, Bonnie saw Meredith beside her. Meredith, holding Stefans dagger, which shone liq uidly in the moonlight.Silver, Tyler, Meredith said, brandishing it. I wonder what silver does to a werewolfs members? Want 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 strong. Meredith was stubble Tyler from one side, Bonnie held her ticktock 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 both of them, closing in on any 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 corpse Tyler turning around and arou nd 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. Triumph 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 affluent with pain. And weakness, Bonnie thought, chilled as if doused with ice water. Tyler had work her leg to the bone. There were huge, gaping wounds in the thigh of Merediths jeans and in the white cutis that showed clearly through the torn cloth. And to Bonnies unconditional horror, she could see inside the skin too, could see flesh and muscle ripped and red railway line pouring out.Meredith- she cried franti bellowy. They had to get Meredith to a doctor. Everyone had to nab now everyone must understand that. They had an distress 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. atomic number 50 you use that? asked Caroline uncertainly, her teeth chattering.She was habiliment the green dress, her auburn hair divert and stuck to her face with sweat and blood. Even as she spoke 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 tie the cord above Merediths wounds, her mind running desperately over things shed learned from her babe 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 bead her face. Useless, Bonnie thought. But she had no other choice.Caroline, listen to me, she said. She picked up the largest piece of the stick shed used on Tyler and put it into Carolines hands. You stay with Matt and Meredith. Loosen that tourniquet every twenty minutes or so. And if Tyler starts to wash up, if he even twitches, you hit him as hard as you can with this. get a line? Caroline, she added, this is your big chance to prove youre good for something. That youre not useless. All right? She caught the surreptitious green eyes and repeated, A ll 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 humiliated 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 make 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 ringing in her mind. To try at least. She had to try.Still, in those next few imposing minutes all she could do was look.So far, Stefan and Klaus had been trading blows with such violence 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, mechanical press Klaus to his knees, forcing him backward, farther and farther back, like a limbo professional dancer seeing h ow 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 flop or break, something happened.Klaus smiled.And then he started energy back.Bonnie saw Stefans muscles knot, saw his arms go rigid, trying to resist. But Klaus, still grinning madly, eyes wide open, just kept coming. He 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 across 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 flick of his wrist and broke it over his knee, covering 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 clearing. The other he jabbed at Stefan. Using not the pointed end but the splintered one, broken into a cardinal tiny points. He jabbed down with a force that seemed almost casual, but Stefan ejaculateed. 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 kind of pain must have caused it. She didnt need to be told that white ash might be the only wood deadly to Klaus, but tha t 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 mi embark, she wasnt competent she was a baby after all. She didnt want to see that final thrust, but she couldnt look away. And all this couldnt be happening, but it was. It was.Klaus flourished the splintered stake and with a smile of unalloyed ecstasy started to bring it down.And a spear shot across the clearing and struck him in the middle of the back, landing and vibration like a giant arrow, like half a giant arrow. It do 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 remote dots to see, but she heard the voice clearly as it rang out, cold and arrogant and modify with absolute conviction. Just five words, but they changed everything.Get away from my brother.