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He stayed where he was, watching Elena calmly as she hurried toward him. She almost slipped in the grass, catching herself against a tombstone, and heat rose in her cheeks. She didn’t want to seem vulnerable in front of Damon. Whatever game he was playing, she would need all the advantages she could get.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she snapped when she reached him, slightly out of breath.
Damon flashed her a bright, insincere smile. “I came when you called, Princess,” he said. “I could ask you the same thing. Everything’s wonderful.” He hissed the words, his lips curling into a cruel smile, the same words he’d primed Matt and Caroline and probably Meredith with, and her anger flared up, hot inside her. Elena’s hand flew out and she slapped Damon hard across the face.
Her hand stung with the force of the blow, and Damon’s cheek reddened, but he was still smiling. “Don’t push me too hard, Elena,” he said softly. “I’ve been kinder than you deserve.”
“You’ve been feeding on my friends,” she said, her voice shaking.
Damon’s eyes glittered, so black she couldn’t tell the iris from the pupil. “Not just feeding on them, Elena. I’ve got big plans.”
Elena went cold inside. “What do you mean?”
Damon’s smile disappeared. “The way I fell for you so quickly … It made me realize how lonely I must be.”
Elena’s heart thumped hard. Damon didn’t do vulnerable, didn’t admit to having emotions. Could this be a good thing?
But Damon went on, lightly. “And so, I decided what I needed were some protégés.”
“You can’t do that,” Elena said. Damon had never turned anyone into a vampire, never, to her knowledge, even offered to turn anyone except Elena herself. He wasn’t looking for companionship; this was pure spite.
“Oh, I can,” Damon said. “I think Halloween will be an appropriate day to do it, don’t you? It’s a very American holiday, of course, but I’ve always liked costumes. Ghosts and ghasts and all sorts of ghoulies.”
“Damon,” Elena said. “Don’t.”
She could hear the pleading tone in her own voice, and so could Damon. His smile reappeared, flashing sharp and bright and quickly disappearing again.
“They’ll thank me,” he said softly, “when they realize they’ll be young and beautiful forever.” His eyes ran over her, pausing on the bite mark Stefan had left low on her throat. When he spoke again, his voice was laced with bitterness. “I’d invite you to join us, Elena, but you’ll have Stefan for that.”
Elena stepped closer. “I’m not with Stefan,” she said, her words tumbling over one another. “I was never with Stefan, Damon. We kissed once, that’s it, and that was a mistake. The only reason he fed on me was so that we could get out of the tomb you locked us into.”
Damon’s mouth tightened. He looked as disturbingly handsome as ever, but there was something bitter and distrustful in his face. “I’ll see you on Halloween, Elena,” he said, and then he was gone.
Elena stood alone in the cemetery, surrounded by strangers’ graves.
She swallowed once, hard, and pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes for a moment.
Damon wanted to change Matt, Meredith, and Caroline—and who knew who else—into vampires on Halloween. Elena had to stop him. And she needed to stop him from killing Mr. Tanner that same night. She didn’t know how she was going to do it alone.
Stefan was clever and strong. If he drank her blood, he’d have more Power, maybe enough to stop Damon.
But no. Elena discarded the idea as swiftly as it had come to her. Stefan had been so angry at Damon when he realized Damon had stolen his treasures. All the conflict, all the resentment that had lain between the brothers since the days of Katherine, 500 years before, had simmered behind Stefan’s green eyes, ready to boil over. If she brought him up against Damon now, Stefan might lose his head and attack. And then there was a good chance that Damon might kill him.
But thinking of the brothers’ shared past had given Elena an idea. Straightening her sweater and squaring her shoulders, she turned and began walking back toward school, leaves crunching beneath her feet.
She needed magic.
Despite all that had happened since she left the cafeteria, Elena was only a few minutes late for history class. Murmuring an apology to the teacher, she ignored the curious gazes of her classmates. Pulling a sheet of loose-leaf paper out of her backpack, she bent her head over her desk and wrote a note.
SOS. I need your help. Meet me at your house after school. TELL NO ONE!!!
Folding the note and passing it to a girl to her right, Elena jerked her head toward Bonnie’s front-row seat, and the girl obediently passed it forward. Elena watched as Bonnie glanced up to make sure Mr. Tanner’s eyes were elsewhere, unfolded the note, read it, and then scribbled a reply.
When it came back to Elena, Bonnie’s rounded handwriting read,
Can’t! We have to go to the warehouse to plan the Haunted House, remember? Meredith would kill us!!!
Mr. Tanner’s attention was fixed on a boy answering a question on the other side of the room, and Elena took the chance to grimace appealingly at Bonnie, trying to express urgency in her face. Bonnie, twisted around in her seat, shook her head.
