take more than a few obstacle courses and group problem-solving exercises to do it.
“And now it is time to at last discover your purpose,” Ethan continued. “Time to complete the final stage in your transformation from ordinary students into true avatars of power.” He took a clean and shining silver cup from the altar and dipped it into the deep stone bowl in front of him.
“With every step forward in evolution, there must be some sacrifice. I regret any pain this wil cause you. Be comforted by the knowledge that al suffering is temporary. Anna, step forward.”
There was a slight uneasy stirring among the pledges.
This talk of suffering and sacrifice was different than Ethan’s usual emphasis on honor and power. Matt frowned.
Something was wrong here.
But Anna, looking tiny in her long robe, walked without hesitation up to the altar and pushed back her hood.
“Drink of me,” Ethan said, handing her the silver cup.
Anna blinked uncertainly and then, her eyes on Ethan, tipped back her head and drained the cup. As she handed it back to Ethan, she licked her lips automatical y, and Matt tried to peer more closely at her. In the flickering candlelight, her lips looked unnatural y red and slick.
Then Ethan led her around the side of the altar and into his arms. He smiled, and his face twisted, his eyes dilating and his lips pul ing back in a snarl. His teeth looked so long, so sharp. Matt tried to shout a warning but realized with horror that he couldn’t move his lips, couldn’t draw the breath to cal out.
He knew, suddenly, that he had been a fool.
Ethan sank his fangs deep into Anna’s neck. Matt strained, trying to run toward them, to attack Ethan and throw him away from Anna. But he couldn’t move at al . He must be under some kind of compulsion. Or perhaps something in the drink, some magic ingredient, had made them al docile and stil . He watched helplessly as Anna struggled for a few moments, then went limp, her eyes rol ing back in her head.
Unceremoniously, Ethan let her body drop to the ground. “Don’t be afraid,” he said kindly, gazing around at the horrified, frozen pledges. “Al of us”—he gestured toward the silent, masked Vitale behind him—“went through this initiation recently. You must brace yourself to suffer what is only a smal , temporary death, and then you wil be one of us, a true Vitale. Never growing old, never dying.
Powerful forever.”
Sharp white teeth and golden eyes shining in the candlelight, Ethan reached out toward the next pledge as Matt struggled again to shout, to fight. Ethan continued,
“Stuart, step forward.”
Elena smel ed so good, rich and sweet like an exotic ripe fruit. Damon wanted to simply bury his head in the soft skin at the crook of her neck and just inhale her for a decade or two. Snaking his arm through hers, he pul ed her closer.
“You can’t come in with me,” she told him for the second time. “I might be able to get James to talk to me because it’s a question about my parents, but I don’t think he’l tel me anything if someone else is there. Whatever the truth is about the Vitale Society and my parents, I think he’s embarrassed about it. Or afraid, or … something.” Without paying attention to what she was doing, Elena shifted her grip and held on to Damon’s arm more firmly.
“Fine,” Damon said stubbornly. “I’l wait outside. I won’t let him see me. But you’re not to walk across campus at night by yourself. It’s not safe.”
“Yes, Damon,” Elena said in a convincing imitation of meekness, and rested her head on his shoulder. The lemony scent of her shampoo mixed with the more essential Elena smel of her. Damon sighed with contentment.
She cared for him, he knew that, and Stefan had taken himself out of the picture. She was stil young, his princess, and a human heart could heal. Maybe, with Stefan gone, she would final y see how much closer she was, mind and soul, to Damon, how perfectly they fit together.
In any case, she was his for now. He lifted his free hand and stroked her head, her silky hair pliant beneath his fingers, and smiled.
The professor’s house was barely off campus, just across the street from the gilded entrance gates. They’d almost reached the edge of campus when a familiar presence that had been lurking nearby at last came very close.
Damon wheeled to scan the shadows, pul ing Elena with him.
“What is it?” Elena said, alarmed.
Come out, Damon thought with exasperation, sending his silent message toward the thickest shadows at the base of a crowd of oak trees. You know you can’t hide from me.
One dark shadow detached itself from the rest, stepping forward on the path. Stefan simply gazed at the ground, shoulders slumped, his hands loose and open by his sides. Elena gasped, a smal hurt sound.
Stefan looked terrible, Damon thought, not without sympathy. His face seemed hol ow and strained, his cheekbones more prominent than usual, and Damon would have bet that he wasn’t feeding properly. Damon felt a twinge of disquiet. He didn’t take pleasure in causing his brother pain. Not anymore.
“Wel ?” Damon said, raising his eyebrows.
Stefan glanced up at him. I don’t want to fight with you, Damon, he said silently.
So don’t, Damon shot back at him, and Stefan’s mouth twitched in a half smile of acknowledgment.
“Stefan,” Elena said suddenly, sounding like the word had been jerked out of her. “Please, Stefan.” Stefan stared down at the path under his feet, not meeting her eyes. “I sensed you were nearby, Elena, and I felt your anxiety,” he said wearily. “I thought you might have been in trouble. I’m sorry, I was mistaken. I shouldn’t have
