Dark Reunion

and a half months after he died. Just the way your father passed it on to you.'

'I always knew there was something about you, Tyler,' Bonnie said, and Meredith opened her eyes. 'I never could tell what it was, but at the back of my mind something was telling me you were creepy.'

'We used to make jokes about it,' Meredith said, her voice still husky. 'About your 'animal magnetism and your big white teeth. We just never knew how close to the mark we were.'

'Sometimes psychics can sense that kind of thing,' Stefan conceded. 'Sometimes even ordinary people can. I should have seen it, but I was preoccupied. Still, that's no excuse. And obviously somebody else—the psychic killer—saw it right away. Didn't he, Tyler? A man wearing an old raincoat came to you. He was tall, with blond hair and blue eyes, and he made some kind of a deal with you. In exchange for—something— he'd show you how to reclaim your heritage. How to become a real werewolf.

'Because according to Gervase of Tilbury'—Stefan tapped the book on his knee—'a werewolf who hasn't been bitten himself needs to be initiated. That means you can have the werewolf virus all your life but never even know it because it's never activated. Generations of Smallwoods have lived and died, but the virus was dormant in them because they didn't know the secret of waking it up. But the man in the raincoat knew. He knew that you have to kill and taste fresh blood. After that, at the first full moon you can change.' Stefan glanced up, and Meredith followed his gaze to the white disk of the moon in the sky. It looked clean and two dimensional now, no longer a sullen red globe.

A look of suspicion passed over Tyler's fleshy features, and then a look of renewed fury. 'You tricked me! You planned this!'

'Very clever,' said Meredith, and Matt said, 'No kidding.' Bonnie wet her finger and marked an imaginary 1 on an invisible Scoreboard.

'I knew you wouldn't be able to resist following one of the girls here if you thought she'd be alone,' said Stefan. 'You'd think that the graveyard was the perfect place to kill; you'd have complete privacy. And I knew you wouldn't be able to resist bragging about what you'd done. I was hoping you'd tell Meredith more about the other killer, the one who actually threw Sue out the window, the one who cut her so you could drink fresh blood. The vampire, Tyler. Who is he? Where is he hiding?'

Tyler's look of venomous hatred changed to a sneer. 'You think I'd tell you that? He's my friend.'

'He is not your friend, Tyler. He's using you. And he's a murderer.'

'Don't get in any deeper, Tyler,' Matt added.

'You're already an accessory. Tonight you tried to kill Meredith. Pretty soon you're not going to be able to go back even if you want to. Be smart and stop this now. Tell us what you know.'

Tyler bared his teeth. 'I'm not telling you anything. How're you going to make me?'

The others exchanged glances. The atmosphere changed, became charged with tension as they all turned back to Tyler.

'You really don't understand, do you?' Meredith said quietly. 'Tyler, you helped kill Sue. She died for an obscene ritual so that you could change into that thing I saw. You were planning to kill me, and Vickie and Bonnie too, I'm sure. Do you think we have any pity for you? Do you think we brought you up here to be nice to you?'

There was a silence. The sneer was fading from Tyler's lips. He looked from one face to another.

They were all implacable. Even Bonnie's small face was unforgiving.

'Gervase of Tilbury mentions one interesting thing,' Stefan said, almost pleasantly. 'There's a cure for werewolves besides the traditional silver bullet. Listen.' By moonlight, he read from the book on his knee. 'It is commonly reported and held by grave and worthy doctors that if a werewolf be shorn of one of his members, he shall surely recover his original body. Gervase goes on to tell the story of Raimbaud of Auvergne, a werewolf who was cured when a carpenter cut off one of his hind paws. Of course, that was probably hideously painful, but the story goes that Raimbaud thanked the carpenter 'for ridding him forever of the accursed and damnable form.' ' Stefan raised his head. 'Now, I'm thinking that if Tyler won't help us with information, the least we can do is make sure he doesn't go out and kill again. What do the rest of you say?'

Matt spoke up. 'I think it's our duty to cure him.'

'All we have to do is relieve him of one of his members,' Bonnie agreed.

'I can think of one right off,' Meredith said under her breath.

Tyler's eyes were starting to bulge. Under the dirt and blood his normally ruddy face had gone pale. 'You're bluffing!'

'Get the ax, Matt,' said Stefan. 'Meredith, you take off one of his shoes.'

Tyler kicked when she did, aiming for her face. Matt came and got his head in a hammer-lock. 'Don't make it any worse on yourself, Tyler.'

The bare foot Meredith exposed was big, the sole as sweaty as Tyler's palms. Coarse hair sprouted from the toes. It made Meredith's skin crawl.

'Let's get this over with,' she said.

'You're joking!' Tyler howled, thrashing so that Bonnie had to come and grab his other leg and kneel on it. 'You can't do this! You can't!'

'Keep him still,' Stefan said. Working together, they stretched Tyler out, his head locked in Matt's arm, his legs spread and pinned by the girls. Making sure Tyler could see what he was doing, Stefan balanced a branch perhaps two inches thick on the lip of the tomb. He raised the ax and then brought it down hard, severing the stick with one blow.

'It's sharp enough,' he said. 'Meredith, roll his pants leg up. Then tie some of that cord just above his ankle as tight as you can for a tourniquet. Otherwise he'll bleed out.'

'You can't do this!' Tyler was screaming. 'You can't dooooooo this!'

'Scream all you want, Tyler. Up here, nobody's going to hear you, right?' Stefan said.

'You're no better than I am!' Tyler yelled in a spray of spittle. 'You're a killer too!'

'I know exactly what I am,' Stefan said. 'Believe me, Tyler. I know. Is everybody ready? Good. Hold on to him; he's going to jump when I do it.'

Tyler's screams weren't even words anymore.

Matt was holding him so that he could see Stefan kneel and take aim, hefting the ax blade above Tyler's ankle to gauge force and distance.

'Now,' said Stefan, raising the ax high.

'No! No! I'll talk to you! I'll talk!' shrieked Tyler.

Stefan glanced at him. 'Too late,' he said, and brought the ax down.

It rebounded off the stone floor with a clang and a spark, but the noise was drowned by Tyler's screaming. It seemed to take Tyler several minutes to realize that the blade hadn't touched his foot. He paused for breath only when he choked, and turned wild, bulging eyes on Stefan.

'Start talking,' Stefan said, his voice wintry, remorseless.

Little whimpers were coming from Tyler's throat and there was foam on his lips. 'I don't know his name,' he gasped out. 'But he looks like you said. And you're right; he's a vampire, man! I saw him drain a ten-point buck while it was still kicking. He lied to me,' Tyler added, the whine creeping back into his voice. 'He told me I'd be stronger than anybody, as strong as him. He said I could have any girl I wanted, any way I wanted. The creep lied.'

'He told you that you could kill and get away with it,' Stefan said.

'He said I could do Caroline that night. She had it coming after the way she ditched me. I wanted to make her beg—but she got out of the house somehow. I could have Caroline and Vickie, he said. All he wanted was Bonnie and Meredith.'

'But you just tried to kill Meredith.'

'That was now. Things are different now, stupid. He said it was all right.'

'Why?' Meredith asked Stefan in an undertone.

'Maybe because you'd served your purpose,' he said. 'You'd brought me here.' Then he went on, 'All right, Tyler, show us you're cooperating. Tell us how we can get this guy.'

'Get him? You're nuts!' Tyler burst into ugly laughter, and Matt tightened the arm around his throat. 'Hey, choke me all you want; it's still the truth. He told me he's one of the Old Ones, one of the