Katherine stared at me, a desperate, pleading expression in her eyes. But what could I do? She was lost to me now.
I turned down the stairs and ran.
I ran out onto the lawn. Fire was everywhere, and I noticed that the servants’ quarters had burst into flames. Right now, the main house looked safe, but who knew how long that would last? I saw glimpses of flames in the woods, and a large group converged around the police wagon. But all I cared about was finding Damon. Finally, I spotted a figure wearing a blue coat, sprinting toward the pond. I turned on my heel and followed him through the field. “Stefan!” I heard my name and stopped, looking about wildly. “Over here!” I turned and saw Jonathan Gilbert, his eyes wild, standing at the edge of the forest, a bow and arrow in one hand, his compass in the other. Jonathan looked down at his invention almost in disbelief. “There’s a vampire in the forest. My compass is pointing, but I need help with a lookout.”
“Jonathan!” I yelled, panting. “I can’t … I have to find …”
Suddenly, I saw a flash of white from the forest.
Jonathan turned and raised his bow to his shoulder. “Who goes there?” he called, his voice ringing like a clarion bell. Instantly, he released the arrow. I saw the beginning of its arc as it flung into the darkness. Then we heard a scream, followed by a thud.
Jonathan ran into the forest, and I heard a long, low moan. “Jonathan!” I called wildly, then stopped short. I saw Jonathan kneeling over a prone figure.
He turned up to me, his eyes shining with tears.
“It’s Pearl,” he said dully.
There was an arrow stuck under her shoulder.
She moaned, and her eyes fluttered under her lids.
“Pearl!” Jonathan said, angrily this time, as he roughly yanked out the arrow. I turned in horror, not wanting to watch.
Instead, I ran with all my might toward the pond, hoping against hope that Damon was still there.
“Damon?” I called tentatively, as I picked my way around tree roots. My eyes took a moment to adjust to the wooded darkness and relative quiet of the forest. I saw a figure perched on a felled tree branch. “Damon?” I called quietly.
The figure turned around, and I gasped.
Damon’s face was white, and his dark hair was sticking to his forehead. The gash at his temple was bordered by crusted blood, and the whites of his eyes were cloudy.
“You coward,” he hissed, drawing his knife from his pocket.
“No.” I held my hands up and took a step back.
“Don’t hurt me.”
“Don’t hurt me!” he mocked in a high-pitched voice. “I knew you’d tell Father eventually. I just don’t know why Katherine trusted you with her secret. Why she believed you wouldn’t turn her in.
Why she loved you.” His voice broke on the word love, and he dropped the knife. His face crumpled in anguish, and he didn’t look dangerous or hateful. He looked broken.
“Damon, no. No. No.” I kept repeating the word as my mind whirled. Had Katherine loved me? I remembered the moments she’d stare at me, her hands on my shoulders. You must love me, Stefan. Tell me we’ll be together forever. You have my heart. I’d always felt the same woozy, heady sensation running through my limbs and up to my brain, wanting to do anything for her. But now, when I thought of her true nature, all I could do was shudder. “She didn’t love me,” I said finally.
She’d compelled me, and she made me hurt everyone I loved. I felt hatred rise up from the depth of my soul, and I wanted to lead the charge against Katherine.
Until I looked at my brother.
Damon rested his head in his hands, staring at the ground. It was then that I realized: Damon loved Katherine. He loved her despite, or maybe because of, her dark side. When I’d seen Katherine lying bound on the floor, foaming at the mouth, I’d felt a stomach-turning revulsion. But Damon’s love for Katherine transcended her current state. Damon loved Katherine so much that he’d accept the vampire side of her, instead of pretending it didn’t exist. And in order to be truly happy, Damon needed to be with her. Now I understood. I needed to save Katherine to save Damon.
In the distance, wails and cries filled the gunpowder-scented air. “Damon. Damon.” I repeated his name, each time with an increasing urgency. He looked up, and I saw tears in his eyes, threatening to spill out. Not since Mother died had I seen Damon cry.
“I’ll help you save her. I know you love her. I will help.” I kept repeating the word help, as if it were some sort of charm. Please, I pleaded in my mind as I looked at Damon’s eyes. There was a moment of silence. Finally, Damon offered an almost imperceptible nod.
“Okay,” he said in a ragged voice, clasping my wrist and dragging me to the edge of the forest.
“We need to act now,” Damon said when we reached the line of trees next to the field. The forest floor was slick with leaves, and there was no sound, not even of animals.
I’d spent the last minutes desperately racking my brain, trying to think of some way to save Katherine. But I couldn’t. Our only hope was to enter the fray, say a prayer for Pearl and Anna, then focus on freeing Katherine. It would be incredibly dangerous. But there was no other way.
“Yes,” I replied with an authority I did not feel.
“Are you ready?” Without waiting for an answer, I deftly moved toward the forest border, guided by the faint sound of angry shouting. I could see the outline of the estate. Damon crept by my side.
Suddenly I saw a large burst of flames erupt from the carriage house. I gasped, but Damon simply glared at me.
Just then, I heard the strident voice of Jonathan Gilbert. “Found another one!”
I crept closer to the edge of the forest, until I had a full view of Jonathan slamming Henry from the tavern against the back of the police wagon.
Noah held one of his arms, while another guard I didn’t recognize held the other one. Jonathan held out his compass, frowning.
“Stake him!” he said. The guard drew his bayonet back and thrust it into the center of Henry’s chest. Blood spurted as Henry shrieked into the night air. Henry slumped to his knees, his eyes wide and staring down at the bayonet lodged in his body. I turned toward Damon, both of us realizing that we didn’t have any time to waste.
Damon bit his lip, and I knew we were in this together. Even though we often acted differently, when it counted we thought the same way. Maybe that—the shorthand communication we had as brothers—would be what would save us, and would save Katherine.
“Vampires!” I yelled from the depths of the forest.
“We found one! Help!” Damon called.
Instantly, Noah and the other guard released their grip on Henry and ran toward us, their bayonets raised.
“Over there!” Damon panted, pointing deep into the forest as the two guards stepped closer.
“There was a man. We only saw a dark shadow, but he tried to attack my brother.” As if to illustrate his point, Damon traced the sticky path of blood that had pooled onto my collarbone from my neck.
I reached my own hand to that spot in surprise. I’d forgotten that Katherine had bitten me. It seemed like a lifetime ago.
The two guards looked at each other and nodded tersely. “You boys shouldn’t be out here without weapons. We’ve got some in the wagon,” Noah called, before charging into the forest.
“Good,” Damon said, almost under his breath.
“Let’s go. And if you let me down, I’ll kill you,” he said, breaking away toward the wagon. I followed him, moving wholly by adrenaline.
We reached the unguarded wagon. Low moans came from the inside. Damon kicked the back of the wagon open and leapt up to the platform. I followed, gagging when I entered. The scent of the wagon was acrid, a
