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dith said uneasily, rubbing the side of her neck.
“I don’t know. Like a shadow, I guess.”
Elena felt sick. Damon could get to them easily here if he wanted to. Was she putting Bonnie and Meredith in danger by staying here?
The other girls picked up on Elena’s change in mood, and after only a little while, Bonnie stretched and said, with forced brightness, “Well, I’m wiped out.”
“We should get to bed,” Meredith agreed. “I’ve got a French test tomorrow.”
Bonnie shared Meredith’s double bed, and the loveseat in the corner of the bedroom unfolded into a narrow single bed for Elena. After they had all climbed into bed and Meredith had switched out the light, Elena thought of something.
“Hey,” she called softly across the divide between their beds. “Do you still have the vervain I gave you?”
“The what?” Bonnie asked sleepily.
“The vervain. The plants I gave you after Homecoming. Do you still have them?”
“The weeds?” Bonnie’s voice was puzzled. “I don’t know what happened to them. They probably fell out of my hair. There was a fire going on, remember?”
“Meredith?”
“No,” Meredith said, sounding exasperated. She sat up and turned on the light. “I don’t remember what happened to the dried-out weeds you gave me at Homecoming.”
For a moment, Elena thought of telling them everything. They were her friends. And they were smart and brave; they’d been her allies through thick and thin. If they knew what was going on, they could help her. And they would be better able to protect themselves.
She licked her suddenly dry lips and took a quick breath. But it was that knowledge that had ruined their lives. She couldn’t do that to them, not again.
“I … I’m sorry, you guys,” she said. “I know I’m acting weird. Just promise me you’ll be careful.” She would have to get more vervain and give it to them, hide it in their rooms and backpacks.
There was usually almost no physical resemblance between tiny, pale, redheaded Bonnie and tall, olive-skinned, raven-haired Meredith, but at that moment, the suspicious, exasperated, yet affectionate expressions on their faces were almost identical.
“We promise we’ll be careful,” Meredith said gently, and Bonnie nodded. “But we’re worried about you.”
“I know,” Elena said in a small voice. Silence stretched out between them and finally Meredith turned the light out again.
“We’re here for you,” Bonnie said in the darkness. “When you’re ready.”
“I know,” Elena whispered again.
As she lay in the dark and listened to her friends’ breathing gradually even out into the sounds of sleep, Elena turned and twisted from one side to the other, unable to get comfortable.
In Elena’s own time, Meredith was miserable. She tried to cope, and she had Alaric helping her, and she almost never complained. But that didn’t change the fact that Meredith had become a vampire, the one thing she never wanted to be.
Elena had to keep her out of this. Meredith deserved a chance at a normal life.
Knowing she had made the right decision, Elena finally dozed off into an uneasy sleep. When she woke, sunlight was shining brightly in the windows, and Meredith was standing at the foot of Elena’s bed.
“Come on, sleepyhead,” Meredith said lightly, jingling her car keys. “We’ve got to get to school.”
“Okay, okay,” Elena grumbled, sitting up and rubbing at her eyes. “I hardly slept, I couldn’t—” She broke off in dismay, her words drying up.
Around her neck, Meredith was wearing the same deep red scarf she had worn last night. But something had changed while Elena slept. Below the scarf, she could see the edge of a deep purple-blue bruise. Elena knew exactly what it was, she had seen enough of them: a vampire bite.
Damon Influenced her, once we were all asleep, she thought, feeling dazed and nauseous. Nowhere is safe.
“We have to stop him,” Elena insisted. “He’s hurting the people I care about.” She could hear her own voice rising hysterically, and she took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to calm down. The seemingly endless school day was finally over, but there were plenty of students still milling around. Enough people at their school already thought Stefan was an arsonist, no need to feed the rumors by making it sound like he was fighting with the queen of the school.
The former queen of the school, Elena amended mentally, noting another pair of eyes sliding over her suspiciously as two girls from her chemistry class walked by, heading between the trailers toward the parking lot. Everyone had noticed how different Elena was this year, and being seen arguing intensely in corners with Stefan was only pounding the nails in the coffin of her popularity.
