Ethan grabbed a torch from the wal behind him and eyed Stefan speculatively, absently licking at the blood on the back of his hand. "You had your chance, Stefan," he said, smiling.
Stefan stopped struggling and hung limp between the vampires holding his arms. "Wait," he said, looking up at Ethan. "You wanted me to join you. You begged me to join you. Do you stil want me?"
Ethan tilted his head thoughtful y, his golden eyes bright.
"I do," he said. "But what can you tel me that'l make me believe you want to join us?"
Stefan licked his lips. "Let Matt go. If you let him leave safely, I'l stay in his place." He paused. "On my honor."
"Done," Ethan said immediately. He flicked his fingers in the air without taking his eyes from Stefan, and Matt staggered, suddenly released from the compulsion that had held him in place.
Matt sucked in one long breath and then ran straight for the altar and Chloe. Maybe it wasn't too late. He could stil save her.
"Stop." Ethan's voice cracked commandingly across the room. Matt froze in place, once again unable to move.
Ethan glared at him. "You do not help. You do not fight," he said coldly. "You go."
Matt looked imploringly at Stefan. Surely he wasn't just supposed to leave, to abandon Chloe and Stefan and the others to the Vitale vampires. Stefan gazed back at him, his features rigid. "Sorry, Matt," he said flatly. "The one thing I've learned over the years is that sometimes you have to surrender. The best thing you can do now is just leave. I'l be okay."
And then, jarringly intrusive and sudden in Matt's head was Stefan's voice. Damon, he said fiercely. Get Damon.
Matt gulped and, as Ethan's compulsion released him once more, nodded slowly, trying to look defeated while stil signaling to Stefan with his eyes that his message had been received.
He couldn't look at the other pledges. No matter how much he hurried, some or al of them would die before he returned. Maybe Stefan would be able to save some of them. Maybe. Maybe he would be able to save Chloe.
His heart pounding with terror, his head spinning with fear, Matt ran for the exit and for help. He didn't look back.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Bonnie didn't have her keys. She knew exactly where they were, but that didn't do her much good: they were lying on the bedside table next to Zander's neat plain single bed.
She cursed and kicked at the door, tears running down her face. How was she going to get any of her stuff back?
Some guy opened the front door of the building for her.
"Jeez, relax," he said, but Bonnie had already pushed past him and was running up the stairs to her room.
Please let them be here, she thought, clinging to the banister, please. She had no doubt that Elena and Meredith would comfort her, would help her, no matter what she had said to them during their fight. They would help Bonnie figure out what to do.
But they might be out. And she'd have no idea where to find Meredith and Elena, no idea where they spent their free time these days.
How had she grown so far apart from her best friends?
Bonnie wondered, wiping her hands across her cheeks, smearing away her tears and snot. Why had she treated them so badly? They were just trying to protect her. And they were right about Zander; they were so right. She snuffled miserably.
When she reached the top of the stairs, Bonnie banged on their room door with her fist, hearing quick movement inside. They were home. Thank God.
"Bonnie?" Meredith said, startled, when she opened the door, and then, "Oh, Bonnie," as Bonnie threw herself, sobbing, into Meredith's arms. Meredith hugged her, tight and fierce, and, for the first time since she had jumped away from Zander and run for the fire escape, Bonnie felt safe.
"What's the matter, Bonnie? What happened?" Elena was behind Meredith, peering at her anxiously, and part of Bonnie noticed that Elena's own white and startled face was marked with tears. She was interrupting something, but Bonnie couldn't focus on that now.
Past Elena, she caught sight of herself in the mirror. Her hair stood out around her face in a wild red cloud, her eyes were glassy, and her pale face was smeared with dirt and tears. I look, Bonnie thought with a semihysterical silent laugh, like I was chased by werewolves.
"Werewolves," she wailed as Meredith pul ed her into the room. "They're al werewolves."
"What are you - " Meredith broke off. "Bonnie, do you mean Zander and his friends? They're werewolves?" Bonnie nodded furiously, burying her face against Meredith's shoulder. Meredith pushed her back and looked careful y into her eyes. "Are you sure, Bonnie?" she asked gently. She looked to Elena, and they both turned and glanced out the window at the sky. "Did you see them change? It's not the ful moon yet."
"No," Bonnie said. She tried to catch her breath, taking harsh sobbing gulps of air. "Zander told me. And then - oh, Meredith, it was so scary - I ran, and they chased me." She explained what happened, on the roof and on the lawns of the col ege.
Meredith and Elena looked at each other quizzical y, then back at Bonnie. "Why did he tel you?" Elena asked.
"He couldn't have thought you would have a good reaction to the news; it would have been easier to keep hiding it." Bonnie shook her head helplessly.
Meredith arched an ironic eyebrow at her. "Even monsters can fal in love," she said. "I thought you knew that, Elena." She glanced at her hunting stave, leaning against the foot of her bed. "When the ful moon comes, now I'l know what to look for."
Bonnie stared at her in horror. "You're not going to hunt them, are you?" It was a stupid question, she knew. If Zander and his friends real y were behind the murders and disappearances on campus, Meredith had to hunt them. It was her responsibility. Al of their responsibilities, real y, because if they were the only ones who knew the truth, they were the only ones who could keep everyone else safe.