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“So…” Meredith put a hand up to feel the same place on the back of her own head.
“If we are stabbed in that exact spot, we die,” Jack said flatly. “That’s the only real danger to us I know of. ”
Meredith clamped down on the hot flare of excitement rising inside her. She couldn’t let Jack sense how she felt. But this was it. This was how they’d avenge Stefan, how they’d take on the latest threat. She had to let Damon know as soon as she could.
“I’ll be careful,” she said.
Jack ran a cold finger down the back of her arm, and Meredith shivered. “I know you will,” he told her, his eyes intent on hers. His fingers suddenly encircled her wrist, and Meredith barely kept herself from flinching away. She needed him to trust her, to keep trusting her. Instead, she smiled, thinking of the worshipful way Sa
die and the others looked at Jack, and trying to keep the same look on her own face.
“Let’s go back and see how the sparring’s going, shall we?” he asked. “I don’t trust Nick not to slack off if we leave them alone too long. ” Meredith nodded, and they turned toward the warehouse.
But Jack hung back for a moment, his hand strong around Meredith’s wrist. “You’re getting stronger and stronger,” he told her. “If you stay loyal—if you trust me, the future will belong to us. ”
Meredith nodded again stiffly, the smile fixed on her face. Jack was watching her with something close to affection in his eyes, and she felt suddenly, dizzyingly sick.
This had all gone on too long, her time here with Jack and his vampires. She was disgusted by the blood and the killing and by pretending to have turned against her husband and friends and given up on her own humanity. Now it was finally going to end. Meredith couldn’t wait to betray him.
Chapter 17
The kid banged his fist against the bars of his cage, froth forming at the corners of his mouth, his eyes wild. His long black bangs flopped into his eyes and he shook them aside. “You can’t keep me here forever,” he snarled, his voice low and savage. “Locked up like this. Better to be dead. ”
“Today’s your lucky day, then. ” Starvation didn’t seem to be killing the kid, Damon thought, but he didn’t look good. His already skinny face was gaunt, his cheeks hollow and his bones sharp.
The young manmade vampire swiped suddenly at Damon through the bars, hands twisted into claws, and Damon dodged out of the way. Hunger didn’t seem to be making the kid any slower or weaker.
But now they knew how to kill him. Damon felt like he was fizzing with excitement. When he looked at the kid, he didn’t see just another vampire. He saw the synthetic vampires who had hunted him through Europe, who had killed Katherine. He saw Stefan’s murderer.
Nothing Damon had done, none of the staking and burning and starving had helped defuse his fury.
But now, finally, he was going to get to kill him. And, after him, the rest of them. Damon realized his mouth was watering in anticipation.
He could hear the others on the basement stairs. When Meredith had called Damon to tell him about the fake vampires’ vulnerable spot, he had told Elena, and of course she had called the others to join them. They’d try it out on the kid, and then they’d kill Jack.
Damon’s heart filled with fierce happiness. Finally, Stefan would be avenged.
They filed in: Elena, Bonnie, and Meredith, their arms linked, followed closely by Jasmine and Matt, hand in hand.
“He’s looking a little skinny, Damon,” Meredith commented lightly. She was clearly buzzing with excitement, too—and why not? What she’d been working for, spying on Jack for, was finally happening.
“It doesn’t matter now,” he replied, and watched the kid’s eyes widen as he looked back and forth between them, picking up on something different from Damon’s usual taunting. Did the young synthetic vampire know Jack’s secret? Damon thought probably not, and he shot the kid a private, vicious smile.
He turned his attention back to Meredith. “How did you happen to discover how to kill them, anyway?” He knew, of course, but he wondered what Meredith had told the others.
“One of the hunters down in Atlanta accidentally hit the right spot in a fight,” she answered smoothly. “Even Jack’s luck had to run out sometime. ”
“I hope it works,” Bonnie said. “But even more, I’m just glad you’re home, Meredith. ” She squeezed Meredith’s arm, her small face glowing with affection.
The others joined in, exclaiming about how they’d missed Meredith, and Damon took the opportunity to murmur, too low for any human to hear, “How’d you get away?”
Meredith glanced at him over Bonnie’s head with a wry smile. “I’m supposed to be looking for you,” she murmured back. “Killing you is pretty high on Jack’s list. ”
Wonderful. Damon had been hoping Jack had other things on his mind.
The young vampire was watching them, frowning in confusion. He could hear them, and he could tell Meredith was like him, of course he could. No doubt he was wondering if she’d really turned against Jack. It seemed like Jack’s vampires were, on the whole, insanely loyal.
All the more reason to kill this one, so he never got a chance to report back to Jack.
