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She’d been such a fool, giving in to her emotions, and now she had ruined everything.
Elena forced herself still and took a deep gulp of air. Maybe there was time to salvage this. If she could find Damon, if she could explain … Elena peered down the hall toward the shadowy corridors leading to the rest of the school. Where would Damon have gone? With a pang, she realized that she didn’t know where he was living, had never known that sort of detail about this time in his life.
“Elena.” In her moment of panic, she’d almost forgotten about Stefan. He gripped her by the arm, his voice low and urgent. “You need to get out of here. Find your friends and go somewhere safe, a house where Damon’s never been. Take the flowers I gave you. If Damon comes to you, whatever you do, whatever he says, don’t let him in.”
Elena grabbed hold of Stefan’s hand. “I just need to talk to Damon.”
“It won’t help,” he said grimly. “Do what I told you, Elena, please.”
And, in the moments between one blink and another, he was gone, too.
Elena swore, slamming her hand against a locker. Stefan was the last person who should be going after Damon now, and he ought to know that. But maybe he didn’t care.
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then another, trying to calm her pounding heart.
Maybe Damon would go to Stefan’s boardinghouse, looking for revenge. Or maybe she could figure out where he was staying. Damon liked luxury—she could check the nice hotel downtown and search for upscale, uninhabited houses. Inhabited ones, too. He had hidden her in an attic once, Elena remembered. She let out a long, frustrated sigh.
Damon could be anywhere. But maybe, just maybe … Elena looked up and down the halls at the banners cheering on the football team, the dented lockers. Damon had never been one to run away from conflict. He could still be in the school.
And if so, Elena needed to find him, fast.
Elena headed back into the auditorium, music and chatter swelling around her as she passed through the door. She waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness as she scanned the crowd, trying to spot her friends.
She saw Meredith first, on the dance floor with a boy whose name Elena didn’t know. Elena cut straight through the crowd toward them, putting her hand on Meredith’s shoulder.
“I need your help. Please,” she said.
Meredith took one glance at her and nodded. “I’ll be back,” she said to her partner with a smile, and tugged Elena to the side of the dance floor, whispering, “What? What’s happened?”
“Let me get Bonnie and Matt first, and then I’ll explain.” Elena had spotted Bonnie, deeper in the crowd on the dance floor. She was dancing with Raymond and getting into the music, her eyes closed and her hands up in the air above her head. Elena shouldered her way toward her, ignoring the grumbles as she shoved past people.
“Bonnie. Come with us.”
Bonnie opened her eyes and scowled. “I’m dancing,” she said, without stopping.
“This is important.” Elena tried to put all the anxiety she was feeling into her face.
Bonnie sighed and rolled her eyes at Raymond. “Girl stuff,” she said. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Seriously, what’s going on? It couldn’t wait?” she hissed at Elena as they reached the edge of the dance floor and the crowd thinned out a little.
Over at the refreshment table, Matt was pouring two cups of punch. Elena headed for him, Bonnie and Meredith trailing behind her. “I need help finding Damon,” Elena said. “He’s here, and he saw me kissing Stefan.”
Matt’s eyebrows shot up his forehead, and Bonnie and Meredith exchanged a confused glance.
“You were kissing Stefan?” Bonnie asked, in a tone midway between scandalized and intrigued.
“I’m not sure this qualifies as an emergency,” Meredith said dryly. “Maybe you should let him cool off and call him tomorrow.”
Matt remained quiet, not able to look Elena in the eye.
Elena felt sick. Of course they weren’t panicking. As far as the three of them were concerned, Damon was just a guy she was dating, and Stefan was a guy who went to their school. Good-looking, intense, mysterious guys, but, when you came right down to it, only human beings. They didn’t understand how dangerous Damon—this Damon, the Damon of now—could be.
“This isn’t going to be okay!” she said, hearing her own voice wobble wildly.
“Oh, Elena—” At her outburst, Bonnie’s eyes widened in sympathy, and she wrapped her arms around Elena. “We’ll help, whatever you need.” She looked fiercely at Meredith and Matt, as if daring them to disagree. Meredith nodded in agreement, but Matt hesitated.
“I just—Caroline’s waiting for me,” he said, gazing down at the two cups of punch he was still clutching.
