The Struggle Read online

  Gratefully, she spotted Bonnie sitting with Meredith and Ed Goff on a loveseat in the corner. She and Stefan settled on a large ottoman opposite them, and she heard conversations start to pick up again around the room.

  By tacit agreement, no one mentioned the awkwardness of Elena and Stefan’s arrival. Elena was determined to pretend that everything was as usual.

  And Bonnie and Meredith were backing her. “You look great,” said Bonnie warmly. “I just love that red sweater.”

  “She does look nice. Doesn’t she, Ed?” said Meredith, and Ed, looking vaguely startled, agreed.

  “So your class was invited to this, too,” Elena said to Meredith. “I thought maybe it was just seventh period.”

  “I don’t know if invited is the word,” replied Meredith dryly. “Considering that participation is half our grade.”

  “Do you think he was serious about that? He couldn’t be serious,” put in Ed.

  Elena shrugged. “He sounded serious to me. Where’s Ray?” she asked Bonnie.

  “Ray? Oh, Ray. I don’t know, around somewhere, I suppose. There’s a lot of people here.”

  That was true. The Ramsey living room was packed, and from what Elena could see the crowd flowed into the dining room, the front parlor, and probably the kitchen as well. Elbows kept brushing Elena’s hair as people circulated behind her.

  “What did Saltzman want with you after class?” Stefan was saying.

  “Alaric,” Bonnie corrected primly. “He wants us to call him Alaric. Oh, he was just being nice. He felt awful for making me relive such an agonizing experience. He didn’t know exactly how Mr. Tanner died, and he hadn’t realized I was so sensitive. Of course, he’s incredibly sensitive himself, so he understands what it’s like. He’s an Aquarius.”

  “With a moon rising in pickup lines,” said Meredith under her breath. “Bonnie, you don’t believe that garbage, do you? He’s a teacher; he shouldn’t be trying that out on students.”

  “He wasn’t trying anything out! He said exactly the same thing to Tyler and Sue Carson. He said we should form a support group for each other or write an essay about that night to get our feelings out. He said teenagers are all very impressionable and he didn’t want the tragedy to have a lasting impact on our lives.”

  “Oh, brother,” said Ed, and Stefan turned a laugh into a cough. He wasn’t amused, though, and his question to Bonnie hadn’t been just idle curiosity. Elena could tell; she could feel it radiating from him. Stefan felt about Alaric Saltzman the way that most of the people in this room felt about Stefan. Wary and mistrustful.

  “It was strange, him acting as if the party was a spontaneous idea in our class,” she said, responding unconsciously to Stefan’s unspoken words, “when obviously it had been planned.”

  “What’s even stranger is the idea that the school would hire a teacher without telling him how the previous teacher died,” said Stefan. “Everyone was talking about it; it must have been in the papers.”

  “But not all the details,” said Bonnie firmly. “In fact, there are things the police still haven’t let out because they think it might help them catch the killer. For instance”—she dropped her voice—“do you know what Mary said? Dr. Feinberg was talking to the guy who did the autopsy, the medical examiner. And he said that there was no blood left in the body at all. Not a drop.”

  Elena felt an icy wind blow through her, as if she stood once again in the graveyard. She couldn’t speak. But Ed said, “Where’d it go?”

  “Well, all over the floor, I suppose,” said Bonnie calmly. “All over the altar and everything. That’s what the police are investigating now. But it’s unusual for a corpse not to have any blood left; usually there’s some that settles down on the underside of the body. Postmortem lividity, it’s called. It looks like big purple bruises. What’s wrong?”

  “Your incredible sensitivity has me ready to throw up,” said Meredith in a strangled voice. “Could we possibly talk about something else?”

  “You weren’t the one with blood all over you,” Bonnie began, but Stefan interrupted her.

  “Have the investigators come to any conclusions from what they’ve learned? Are they any closer to finding the killer?”

  “I don’t know,” said Bonnie, and then she brightened. “That’s right, Elena, you said you knew—”

  “Shut up, Bonnie,” said Elena desperately. If there ever were a place not to discuss this, it was in a crowded room surrounded by people who hated Stefan. Bonnie’s eyes widened, and then she nodded, subsiding.

  Elena could not relax, though. Stefan hadn’t killed Mr. Tanner, and yet the same evidence that would lead to Damon could as easily lead to him. And would lead to him, because no one but she and Stefan knew of Damon’s existence. He was out there, somewhere, in the shadows. Waiting for his next victim. Maybe waiting for Stefan—or for her.

  “I’m hot,” she said abruptly. “I think I’ll go see what kinds of refreshments Alaric has provided.”

  Stefan started to rise, but Elena waved him back down. He wouldn’t have any use for potato chips and punch. And she wanted to be alone for a few minutes, to be moving instead of sitting, to calm herself.

  Being with Meredith and Bonnie had given her a false sense of security. Leaving them, she was once again confronted by sidelong glances and suddenly turned backs. This time it made her angry. She moved through the crowd with deliberate insolence, holding any eye she accidentally caught. I’m already notorious, she thought. I might as well be brazen, too.

  She was hungry. In the Ramsey dining room someone had set up an assortment of finger foods that looked surprisingly good. Elena took a paper plate and dropped a few carrot sticks on it, ignoring the people around the bleached oak table. She wasn’t going to speak to them unless they spoke first. She gave her full attention to the refreshments, leaning past people to select cheese wedges and Ritz crackers, reaching in front of them to pluck grapes, ostentatiously looking up and down the whole array to see if there was anything she’d missed.

  She’d succeeded in riveting everyone’s attention, something she knew without raising her eyes. She bit delicately down on a bread stick, holding it between her teeth like a pencil, and turned from the table.

  “Mind if I have a bite?”

  Shock snapped her eyes wide open and froze her breath. Her mind jammed, refusing to acknowledge what was going on, and leaving her helpless, vulnerable, in the face of it. But though rational thought had disappeared, her senses went right on recording mercilessly: dark eyes dominating her field of vision, a whiff of some kind of cologne in her nostrils, two long fingers tilting her chin up. Damon leaned in, and, neatly and precisely, bit off the other end of the bread stick.

  In that moment, their lips were only inches apart. He was leaning in for a second bite before Elena’s wits revived enough to throw her backward, her hand grabbing the bit of crisp bread and tossing it away. He caught it in midair, a virtuoso display of reflex.

  His eyes were still on hers. Elena got in a breath at last and opened her mouth; she wasn’t sure what for. To scream, probably. To warn all these people to run out into the night. Her heart was pounding like a trip-hammer, her vision blurred.

  “Easy, easy.” He took the plate from her and then somehow got hold of her wrist. He was holding it lightly, the way Mary had felt for Stefan’s pulse. As she continued to stare and gasp, he stroked it with his thumb, as if comforting her. “Easy. It’s all right.”

  What are you doing here? she thought. The scene around her seemed eerily bright and unnatural. It was like one of those nightmares when everything is ordinary, just like waking life; and then suddenly something grotesque happens. He was going to kill them all.

  “Elena? Are you okay?” Sue Carson was talking to her, gripping her shoulder.

  “I think she choked on something,” Damon said, releasing Elena’s wrist. “But she’s all right now. Why don’t you introduce us?”

  He was going to kill them all….

&
nbsp; “Elena, this is Damon, um …” Sue spread an apologetic hand, and Damon finished for her.

  “Smith.” He lifted a paper cup toward Elena. “La vita.”

  “What are you doing here?” she whispered.

  “He’s a college student,” Sue volunteered, when it became apparent that Damon wasn’t going to answer. “From—University of Virginia, was it? William and Mary?”

  “Among other places,” Damon said, still looking at Elena. He hadn’t glanced at Sue once. “I like to travel.”

  The world had snapped into place again around Elena, but it was a chilling world. There were people on every side, watching this exchange with fascination, keeping her from speaking freely. But they were also keeping her safe. For whatever reason, Damon was playing a game, pretending to be one of them. And while the masquerade went on, he wouldn’t do anything to her in front of a crowd … she hoped.

  A game. But he was making up the rules. He was standing here in the Ramseys’ dining room playing with her.

  “He’s just down for a few days,” Sue was continuing helpfully. “Visiting—friends, did you say? Or relatives?”

  “Yes,” said Damon.

  “You’re lucky to be able to take off whenever you want,” Elena said. She didn’t know what was possessing her, to make her try and unmask him.

  “Luck has very little to do with it,” said Damon. “Do you like dancing?”

  “What’s your major?”

  He smiled at her. “American folklore. Did you know, for instance, that a mole on the neck means you’ll be wealthy? Do you mind if I check?”

  “I mind.” The voice came from behind Elena. It was clear and cold and quiet. Elena had heard Stefan speak in that tone only once: when he had found Tyler trying to assault her in the graveyard. Damon’s fingers stilled on her throat, and, released from his spell, she stepped back.

  “But do you matter?” he said.

  The two of them faced each other under the faintly flickering yellow light of the brass chandelier.

  Elena was aware of layers of her own thoughts, like a parfait. Everyone’s staring; this must be better than the movies…. I didn’t realize Stefan was taller…. There’s Bonnie and Meredith wondering what’s going on…. Stefan’s angry but he’s still weak, still hurting…. If he goes for Damon now, he’ll lose….

  And in front of all these people. Her thoughts came to a clattering halt as everything fell into place. That was what Damon was here for, to make Stefan attack him, apparently unprovoked. No matter what happened after that, he won. If Stefan drove him away, it would just be more proof of Stefan’s “tendency toward violence.” More evidence for Stefan’s accusers. And if Stefan lost the fight …

  It would mean his life, thought Elena. Oh, Stefan, he’s so much stronger right now; please don’t do it. Don’t play into his hands. He wants to kill you; he’s just looking for a chance.

  She made her limbs move, though they were stiff and awkward as a marionette’s. “Stefan,” she said, taking his cold hand in hers, “let’s go home.”

  She could feel the tension in his body, like an electric current running underneath his skin. At this moment, he was completely focused on Damon, and the light in his eyes was like fire reflecting off a dagger blade. She didn’t recognize him in this mood, didn’t know him. He frightened her.

  “Stefan,” she said, calling to him as if she were lost in fog and couldn’t find him. “Stefan, please.”

  And slowly, slowly, she felt him respond. She heard him breathe and felt his body go off alert, clicking down to some lower energy level. The deadly concentration of his mind was diverted and he looked at her, and saw her.

  “All right,” he said softly, looking into her eyes. “Let’s go.”

  She kept her hands on him as they turned away, one clasping his hand, the other tucked inside his arm. By sheer force of will, she managed not to look over her shoulder as they walked away, but the skin on her back tingled and crawled as if expecting the stab of a knife.

  Instead, she heard Damon’s low ironical voice: “And have you heard that kissing a red-haired girl cures fever blisters?” And then Bonnie’s outrageous, flattered laughter.

  On the way out, they finally ran into their host.

  “Leaving so soon?” Alaric said. “But I haven’t even had a chance to talk to you yet.”

  He looked both eager and reproachful, like a dog that knows perfectly well it’s not going to be taken on a walk but wags anyway. Elena felt worry blossom in her stomach for him and everyone else in the house. She and Stefan were leaving them to Damon.

  She’d just have to hope her earlier assessment was right and he wanted to continue the masquerade. Right now she had enough to do getting Stefan out of here before he changed his mind.

  “I’m not feeling very well,” she said as she picked up her purse where it lay by the ottoman. “Sorry.” She increased the pressure on Stefan’s arm. It would take very little to get him to turn back and head for the dining room right now.

  “I’m sorry,” said Alaric. “Good-bye.”

  They were on the threshold before she saw the little slip of violet paper stuck into the side pocket of her purse. She pulled it out and unfolded it almost by reflex, her mind on other things.

  There was writing on it, plain and bold and unfamiliar. Just three lines. She read them and felt the world rock. This was too much; she couldn’t deal with anything more.

  “What is it?” said Stefan.

  “Nothing.” She thrust the bit of paper back into the side pocket, pushing it down with her fingers. “It’s nothing, Stefan. Let’s get outside.”

  They stepped out into driving needles of rain.

  7

  “Next time,” Stefan said quietly, “I won’t leave.”

  Elena knew he meant it, and it terrified her. But just now her emotions were quietly coasting in neutral, and she didn’t want to argue.

  “He was there,” she said. “Inside an ordinary house full of ordinary people, just as if he had every right to be. I wouldn’t have thought he would dare.”

  “Why not?” Stefan said briefly, bitterly. “I was there in an ordinary house full of ordinary people, just as if I had every right to be.”

  “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. It’s just that the only other time I’ve seen him in public was at the Haunted House when he was wearing a mask and costume, and it was dark. Before that it was always somewhere deserted, like the gym that night I was there alone, or the graveyard….”

  She knew as soon as she said that last part that it was a mistake. She still hadn’t told Stefan about going to find Damon three days ago. In the driver’s seat, he stiffened.

  “Or the graveyard?”

  “Yes … I meant that day Bonnie and Meredith and I got chased out. I’m assuming it must have been Damon who chased us. And the place was deserted except for the three of us.”

  Why was she lying to him? Because, a small voice in her head answered grimly, otherwise he might snap. Knowing what Damon had said to her, what he had promised was in store, might be all that was needed to send Stefan over the edge.

  I can never tell him, she realized with a sick jolt. Not about that time or about anything Damon does in the future. If he fights Damon, he dies.

  Then he’ll never know, she promised herself. No matter what I have to do, I’ll keep them from fighting each other over me. No matter what.

  For a moment apprehension chilled her. Five hundred years ago, Katherine had tried to keep them from fighting, and had succeeded only in forcing them into a death match. But she wouldn’t make the same mistake, Elena told herself fiercely. Katherine’s methods had been stupid and childish. Who else but a stupid child would kill herself in the hope that the two rivals for her hand would become friends? It had been the worst mistake of the whole sorry affair. Because of it, the rivalry between Stefan and Damon had turned into implacable hatred. And what’s more, Stefan had lived with the guilt of it ever since; he blamed himself fo
r Katherine’s stupidity and weakness.

  Groping for another subject, she said, “Do you think someone invited him in?”

  “Obviously, since he was in.”

  “Then it’s true about—people like you. You have to be invited in. But Damon got into the gym without an invitation.”

  “That’s because the gym isn’t a dwelling place for the living. That’s the one criterion. It doesn’t matter if it’s a house or a tent or an apartment above a store. If living humans eat and sleep there, we need to be invited inside.”

  “But I didn’t invite you into my house.”

  “Yes, you did. That first night, when I drove you home, you pushed the door open and nodded to me. It doesn’t have to be a verbal invitation. If the intent is there, that’s enough. And the person inviting you doesn’t have to be someone who actually lives in the house. Any human will do.”

  Elena was thinking. “What about a houseboat?”

  “Same thing. Although running water can be a barrier in itself. For some of us, it’s almost impossible to cross.”

  Elena had a sudden vision of herself and Meredith and Bonnie racing for Wickery Bridge. Because somehow she had known that if they got to the other side of the river they’d be safe from whatever was after them.

  “So that’s why,” she whispered. It still didn’t explain how she’d known, though. It was as if the knowledge had been put into her head from some outside source. Then she realized something else.

  “You took me across the bridge. You can cross running water.”

  “That’s because I’m weak.” It was said flatly, with no emotion behind it. “It’s ironic, but the stronger your Powers are, the more you’re affected by certain limitations. The more you belong to the dark, the more the rules of the dark bind you.”

  “What other rules are there?” said Elena. She was beginning to see the glimmer of a plan. Or at least of the hope of a plan.

  Stefan looked at her. “Yes,” he said, “I think it’s time you knew. The more you know about Damon, the more chance you’ll have of protecting yourself.”