“Oh,hell,” said Caroline. Black trails of mascara ran down her face, making her look like something not quite human. She looked at Stefan with unconcealed hatred. He looked back soberly — no,sternly.
“Don’t call on Hell,” he said in a very low voice. “Not here. Not now. Because Hell might hear and call back.”
“As if it already hadn’t,” Caroline said, and in that moment, she was pitiful — broken and pathetic. As if she had started something she didn’t know how to stop.
“Caroline, what are you saying?” Stefan knelt. “Are you saying that you’ve already — made some bargain —?”
“Ouch,” Bonnie said, suddenly and involuntarily, shattering the ominous mood in Stefan’s room. One of Caroline’s broken nails had left a trail of blood on the floor. Caroline had knelt in it, too, making things pretty messy. Bonnie felt a sympathetic throb of pain in her own fingers until Caroline waved her bloody hand at Stefan. Then Bonnie’s sympathy turned to nausea.
“Want a lick?” she said. Her voice and face had changed entirely, and she wasn’t even trying to hide it. “Oh, come on, Stefan,” she went on mockingly, “you do drink human blood these days, don’t you? Human or — whatever she is, whatever she’s become. You two fly like bats together now, do you?”
“Caroline,” Bonnie whispered, “didn’t you see them? Her wings—”
“Just like a bat — or another vampire already. Stefan’s made her—”
“I saw them too,” Matt said flatly, behind Bonnie. “They weren’t bat wings.”
“Doesn’t anybody have eyes?” Meredith said from where she stood by the lamp. “Look here.” She bent. When she stood again she was holding a long white feather. It shone in the light.
“Maybe she’s a white crow, then,” Caroline said. “That would be appropriate. And I can’t believe how you’re all — all — fawning on her as if she were some sort of princess. Always everybody’s little darling, aren’t you, Elena?”
“Stop it,” Stefan said.
“Everybody’s, that’s the key word,” Caroline spat.
“Stop it.”
“The way you were kissing people one after another.” She gave a theatrical shudder. “Everyone seems to have forgotten, but that was more like—”
“Stop, Caroline.”
“The real Elena.” Caroline’s voice had become pretend-prissy, but she couldn’t keep the venom out, Bonnie thought. “Because anyone who knows you knows what youreally were before Stefan blessed us with his irresistible presence. You were—”
“Caroline, stop right there—”
“A slut! That’s all! Just a cheap, anybody’s slut!”
There was a sort of universal gasp. Stefan went white, his compressed lips showing in a tight line. Bonnie felt as if she were choking on words, on explanations, on recriminations about Caroline’s own behavior. Elena may have had as many boyfriends as the stars in the sky, but in the end she had given all that up — because she fell in love — not that Caroline would know anything about that.
“Don’t have anything to say now?” Caroline was taunting. “Can’t find any cute answer? Bat got your tongue?” She began to laugh, but it was forced, glassy laughter, and then words were spilling out of her almost as if uncontrollably, all words that weren’t supposed to be spoken in public. Bonnie had said most of them at one time or another, but here, and now, they formed a stream of venomous power. Caroline’s words were building up to some kind of crescendo — something was going to happen — this kind of force couldn’t be contained. Reverberations, Bonnie thought as the sound waves began building up….
Glass,her intuition told her.Get away from glass.
Stefan just had time to whirl to Meredith and shout,“Get rid of the lamp.”
And Meredith, who was not only quick on the uptake but also a baseball pitcher with a 1.75 ERA, snatched it up and threw it at — no, through— an explosion as the porcelain lamp shattered— the open window.
There was a similar shattering in the bathroom. The mirror had exploded behind the closed door.
Then Caroline slapped Elena across the face.
It left a bloody smear, which Elena patted tentatively. It also left a white handprint, turning to red. Elena’s expression was one to wring tears from a stone.
And then Stefan did what Bonnie considered the most astonishing thing of all. He very gently put Elena down on the floor, kissed her upturned face, and turned to Caroline.
He put his hands on her shoulders, not shaking, only holding her still, forcing her to look at him.
“Caroline,” he said, “stop it.Come back. For the sake of your old friends who care for you, come back. For the sake of the family that loves you, come back. For the sake of your own immortal soul,come back. Come back to us!”
Caroline just eyed him belligerently.
Stefan half turned aside, toward Meredith, grimacing. “I’m not really cut out to do this,” he said wryly. “It’s not any vampire’s forte.”
Then he turned toward Elena, his voice tender. “Love, can you help? Can you help your old friend again?”
Already Elena was trying to help, trying to get to Stefan. She had pulled herself up very shakily, first by the rocking chair and then by Bonnie, who tried to help her under the burden of gravity. Elena was as wobbly as a newborn giraffe in roller skates, and Bonnie — almost half a head shorter — was finding her hard to handle.
Stefan made a motion as if to help, but Matt was already there, steadying Elena on the other side.
Then Stefan had Caroline turned around, and he was holding her, not letting her dart away, forcing her to face Elena fully.
Elena, while being held at the waist so that her hands were free, made some curious motions, seeming to draw designs more and more quickly in the air in front of Caroline’s face, at the same time clasping and unclasping her hands with the fingers in different positions. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing. Caroline’s eyes followed the movements of Elena’s hands as if compelled, but it was clear from her snarling that she hated it.
Magic, Bonnie thought, fascinated. White Magic. She’s calling on angels, just as surely as Caroline was calling demons. But is she strong enough to pull Caroline out of the darkness?
And at last, as if to complete the ceremony, Elena leaned forward and kissed Caroline chastely on the lips.
All hell broke loose. Caroline somehow squirmed out of Stefan’s grip and tried to claw Elena’s face with her nails. Objects in the room went sailing through the air, propelled by no human force. Matt tried to grab Caroline’s arm and got a punch in the stomach that doubled him over, followed by a chop to the back of the neck.
Stefan let go of Caroline to scoop up Elena and get her and Bonnie out of harm’s way. He seemed to assume that Meredith could take care of herself — and he was right. Caroline swung at Meredith, but Meredith was ready. She grabbed Caroline’s fist and helped her in the direction of the swing. Caroline landed on the bed, twisted, and then rushed Meredith again, this time getting a grip on her hair. Meredith pulled free, leaving a tuft of hair in Caroline’s fingers. Then Meredith got under Caroline’s guard and hit her squarely on the jaw. Caroline collapsed.
Bonnie cheered and refused to feel guilty about it. Then, for the first time, as Caroline lay still, Bonnie noticed that Caroline’s fingernails were all there again — long, strong, curved, and perfect, not one of them chipped or broken.
Elena’s Power? It must be. What else could have done it? With just a few motions and a kiss, Elena had healed Caroline’s hand.
Meredith was massaging her own hand. “I never realized it hurt so much to knock people out,” she said. “They never show it in movies. Is it the same for guys?”
Matt flushed. “I…uh, I’ve never actually…”
“It’s the same for everyone, even vampires,” Stefan said briefly. “Are you all right, Meredith? I mean, Elena could…”
