The Struggle (15 page)

“Hey, Vickie, lighten up,” said Dick hastily, but he didn’t move any closer.

Vickie slid her two hands upwards, pushing Tyler’s jacket off his shoulders. He tried to shrug it back on without letting go of his books or seeming too concerned. He couldn’t. Vickie’s fingers crept under his shirt.

“Stop that. Stop her, will you?” said Tyler to Dick. He had backed up into the wall.

“Hey, Vickie, leggo. Don’t do that.” But Dick remained at a safe distance. Tyler shot him an enraged glare and tried to shove Vickie away.

A noise had begun. At first it seemed to be at a frequency almost too low for human hearing, but it grew louder and louder. A growl, eerily menacing, that sent ice down Elena’s spine. Tyler was looking pop-eyed with disbelief, and she soon realized why. The sound was coming from Vickie.

Then everything happened at once. Tyler
was on the ground with Vickie’s teeth snapping inches from his throat. Elena, all quarrels forgotten, was trying to help Dick pull her off. Tyler was howling. The history room door was open and Alaric was shouting.

“Don’t hurt her! Be careful! It’s epilepsy, we just need to get her lying down!”

Vickie’s teeth snapped again as he reached a helpful hand into the melee. The slender girl was stronger than all of them together, and they were losing control of her. They weren’t going to be able to hold her much longer. It was with intense relief that Elena heard a familiar voice at her shoulder.

“Vickie, calm down. It’s all right. Just relax now.”

With Stefan grasping Vickie’s arm and talking to her soothingly, Elena dared to slacken her own grip. And it seemed, at first, that Stefan’s strategy was working. Vickie’s clawing fingers loosened, and they were able to lift her off Tyler. As Stefan kept speaking to her, she went limp and her eyes shut.

“That’s good. You’re feeling tired now. It’s all right to go to sleep.”

But then, abruptly, it stopped working, and whatever Power Stefan had been exercising over her was broken. Vickie’s eyes flew open, and they bore no resemblance to the startled fawn’s eyes Elena had seen in the cafeteria. They were blazing with red fury. She snarled at Stefan and burst out fighting with fresh strength.

It took five or six of them to hold her down while somebody called the police. Elena stayed where she was, talking to Vickie, sometimes yelling at her, until the police got there. None of it did any good.

Then she stepped back and saw the crowd of onlookers for the first time. Bonnie was in the front row, staring open-mouthed. So was Caroline.

“What
happened
?” said Bonnie as the officials carried Vickie away.

Elena, panting gently, pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. “She went crazy and tried to undress Tyler.”

Bonnie pursed her lips. “Well, she’d have to be crazy to
want
to, wouldn’t she?” And she threw a smirk over her shoulder directly at Caroline.

Elena’s knees were rubbery and her hands were shaking. She felt an arm go around her, and she leaned against Stefan gratefully. Then she looked up at him.

“Epilepsy?” she said with disbelieving scorn.

He was gazing down the hall after Vickie. Alaric Saltzman, still shouting instructions, was apparently going with her. The group turned the corner.

“I think class was just dismissed,” Stefan said. “Let’s go.”

They walked toward the boarding house in silence, each lost in thought. Elena frowned, and several times glanced over at Stefan, but it wasn’t until they were alone in his room that she spoke.

“Stefan, what is all this? What’s happening to Vickie?”

“That’s what I’ve been wondering. There’s only one explanation I can think of, and it’s that she’s still under attack.”

“You mean Damon’s still—oh, my God! Oh, Stefan, I should have given her some of the
vervain. I should have realized….”

“It wouldn’t have made any difference. Believe me.” She had turned toward the door as if to go after Vickie that minute, but he pulled her gently back. “Some people are more easily influenced than others, Elena. Vickie’s will was never very strong. It belongs to him, now.”

Slowly, Elena sat down. “Then there’s nothing anyone can do? But, Stefan, will she become—like you and Damon?”

“It depends.” His tone was bleak. “It’s not just a matter of how much blood she loses. She needs his blood in her veins to make the change complete. Otherwise, she’ll just end up like Mr. Tanner. Drained, used up. Dead.”

Elena took a long breath. There was something else she wanted to ask him about, something she’d wanted to ask him for a long time. “Stefan, when you spoke to Vickie back there, I thought it was working. You were using your Powers on her, weren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“But then she just went crazy again. What I mean is … Stefan, you
are
okay, aren’t you? Your Powers have come back?”

He didn’t answer. But that was answer enough for her. “Stefan, why didn’t you tell me? What’s wrong?” She went around and knelt by him so that he had to look at her.

“It’s taking me a while to recover, that’s all. Don’t worry about it.”

“I
am
worried. Isn’t there anything we can do?”

“No,” he said. But his eyes dropped.

Comprehension swept through Elena.
“Oh,”
she whispered, sitting back. Then she reached for him again, trying to get hold of his hands. “Stefan, listen to me—”

“Elena,
no.
Don’t you see? It’s dangerous, dangerous for both of us, but especially for you. It could kill you, or worse.”

“Only if you lose control,” she said. “And you won’t. Kiss me.”

“No,”
said Stefan again. He added, less harshly, “I’ll go out hunting tonight as soon as it’s dark.”

“Is that the same?” she said. She knew it wasn’t. It was human blood that gave Power. “Oh, Stefan, please; don’t you see I want to? Don’t
you
want to?”

“That isn’t fair,” he said, his eyes tortured. “You know it isn’t, Elena. You know how much—” He turned away from her again, his hands clenched into fists.

“Then why not? Stefan, I need …” She couldn’t finish. She couldn’t explain to him what she needed; it was a need for connection to him, for closeness. She needed to remember what it was like with him, to wipe out the memory of dancing in her dream and of Damon’s arms locked around her. “I need us to be together again,” she whispered.

Stefan was still turned away, and he shook his head.

“All right,” Elena whispered, but she felt a wash of grief and fear as defeat seeped into her bones. Most of the fear was for Stefan, who was vulnerable without his Powers, vulnerable enough that he might be hurt by the ordinary citizens of Fell’s Church. But some of it was for herself.

A voice spoke as Elena reached for a can on the store shelf.

“Cranberry sauce already?”

Elena looked up. “Hi, Matt. Yes, Aunt Judith likes to do a preview the Sunday before Thanksgiving, remember? If she practices, there’s less chance she’ll do something terrible.”

“Like forgetting to buy the cranberry sauce until fifteen minutes before dinner?”

“Until five minutes before dinner,” said Elena, consulting her watch, and Matt laughed. It was a good sound, and one Elena hadn’t heard for too long. She moved on toward the check-out stand, but after she’d paid for her purchase she hesitated, looking back. Matt was standing by the magazine rack, apparently absorbed, but there was something about the slope of his shoulders that made her want to go to him.

She poked a finger at his magazine. “What
are
you
doing for dinner?” she said. When he glanced uncertainly toward the front of the store, she added, “Bonnie’s waiting out in the car; she’ll be there. Other than that it’s just the family. And Robert, of course; he should be there by now.” She meant that Stefan wasn’t coming. She still wasn’t sure how things were between Matt and Stefan these days. At least they spoke to each other.

“I’m fending for myself tonight; Mom’s not feeling so hot,” he said. But then, as if to change the subject, he went on, “Where’s Meredith?”

“With her family, visiting some relatives or something.” Elena was vague because Meredith had been vague herself; she seldom talked about her family. “So what do you think? Want to take a chance on Aunt Judith’s cooking?”

“For old times’ sake?”

“For old
friends’
sake,” said Elena after a moment’s hesitation, and smiled at him.

He blinked and looked away. “How can I refuse an invitation like that?” he said in an oddly muted voice. But when he put the magazine back and followed her out he was smiling, too.

Bonnie greeted him cheerfully, and when they got home Aunt Judith looked pleased to see him come into the kitchen.

“Dinner’s almost ready,” she said, taking the grocery bag from Elena. “Robert got here a few minutes ago. Why don’t you go straight on back to the dining room? Oh, and get another chair, Elena. Matt makes seven.”

“Six, Aunt Judith,” said Elena, amused. “You and Robert, me and Margaret, Matt and Bonnie.”

“Yes, dear, but Robert’s brought a guest, too. They’re already sitting down.”

Elena registered the words just as she stepped through the dining room door, but there was an instant’s delay before her mind reacted to them. Even so, she
knew
; stepping through that door, she somehow knew what was waiting for her.

Robert was standing there, fiddling with a bottle of white wine and looking jovial. And sitting at the table, on the far side of the autumn centerpiece and the tall lighted candles, was Damon.

Elena realized she’d stopped moving when Bonnie ran into her from behind. Then she
forced her legs into action. Her mind wasn’t as obedient; it remained frozen.

“Ah, Elena,” Robert said, holding out a hand. “This is Elena, the girl I was telling you about,” he said to Damon. “Elena, this is Damon … ah …”

“Smith,” said Damon.

“Oh, yes. He’s from my alma mater, William and Mary, and I just ran into him outside the drugstore. Since he was looking for some place to eat, I invited him along here for a home-cooked meal. Damon, these are some friends of Elena’s, Matt and Bonnie.”

“Hi,” said Matt. Bonnie just stared; then, she swung enormous eyes on Elena.

Elena was trying to get a grip on herself. She didn’t know whether to shriek, march out of the room, or throw the glass of wine Robert was pouring in Damon’s face. She was too angry, for the moment, to be frightened.

Matt went to bring in a chair from the living room. Elena wondered at his casual acceptance of Damon, and then realized he hadn’t been at Alaric’s party. He wouldn’t know what had
happened there between Stefan and the “visitor from college.”

Bonnie, though, looked ready to panic. She was gazing at Elena imploringly. Damon had risen and was holding out a chair for her.

Before Elena could come up with a response, she heard Margaret’s high little voice in the doorway. “Matt, do you want to see my kitty? Aunt Judith says I can keep her. I’m going to call her Snowball.”

Elena turned, fired with an idea.

“She’s cute,” Matt was saying obligingly, bending over the little mound of white fur in Margaret’s arms. He looked startled as Elena unceremoniously grabbed the kitten from under his nose.

“Here, Margaret, let’s show your kitty to Robert’s friend,” she said, and thrust the fluffy bundle into Damon’s face, all but throwing it at him.

Pandemonium ensued. Snowball swelled to twice her normal size as her fur stood on end. She made a noise like water dropped on a red-hot griddle and then she was a snarling, spitting
cyclone that clawed Elena, swiped at Damon, and ricocheted off the walls before tearing out of the room.

For an instant, Elena had the satisfaction of seeing Damon’s night black eyes slightly wider than usual. Then the lids drooped down, hooding them again, and Elena turned to face the reaction of the other occupants of the room.

Margaret was just opening her mouth for a steam engine wail. Robert was trying to forestall it, hustling her off to find the cat. Bonnie had her back pressed flat against the wall, looking desperate. Matt and Aunt Judith, who was peering in from the kitchen, just looked appalled.

“I guess you don’t have a way with animals,” she said to Damon, and took her seat at the table. She nodded to Bonnie who reluctantly peeled herself off the wall and scuttled for her own seat before Damon could touch the chair. Bonnie’s brown eyes slid around to follow him as he sat down in turn.

After a few minutes, Robert reappeared with a tear-stained Margaret and frowned sternly at Elena. Matt pushed his own chair in silently
although his eyebrows were in his hair.

As Aunt Judith arrived and the meal began Elena looked up and down the table. A bright haze seemed to lie over everything, and she had a feeling of unreality, but the scene itself looked almost unbelievably wholesome, like something out of a commercial. Just your average family sitting down to eat turkey, she thought. One slightly flustered maiden aunt, worried that the peas will be mushy and the rolls burnt, one comfortable uncle-to-be, one golden-haired teenage niece and her tow-headed baby sister. One blue-eyed boy-next-door type, one spritely girlfriend, one gorgeous vampire passing the candied yams. A typical American household.

Bonnie spent the first half of the meal telegraphing “What do I do?” messages to Elena with her eyes. But when all Elena telegraphed back was “Nothing,” she apparently decided to abandon herself to her fate. She began to eat.

Elena had no idea what to do. To be trapped like this was an insult, a humiliation, and Damon knew it. He had Aunt Judith and Robert dazzled, though, with compliments about the meal and light chat about William and Mary. Even
Margaret was smiling at him now, and soon enough Bonnie would go under.

“Fell’s Church is having its Founders’ Day celebration next week,” Aunt Judith informed Damon, her thin cheeks faintly pink. “It would be so nice if you could come back for that.”

“I’d like to,” said Damon affably.

Aunt Judith looked pleased. “And this year Elena has a big part in it. She’s been chosen to represent the Spirit of Fell’s Church.”