“Bonnie and Damon sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage; Then there comes a vampire in a baby carriage.”
Meredith paused in the hallway. “Caroline, you know that that isn’t going to help matters. Come out—” The bed went into a frenzy, bucking and heaving. Bonnie turned and ran, and she knew Meredith was right behind her. They still didn’t manage to out pace the singsong words:
“You’re not my friends; you’re the whore’s friends. Just you wait! Just you wait!”
Bonnie and Meredith grabbed their purses and left the house.
“What time is it?” Bonnie asked, when they were safely in Meredith’s car.
“Almost five.”
“It seemed like so much longer!”
“I know, but we’ve got hours of daylight left. And, come to that, I have a text message from Elena.”
“About Tami?”
“I’ll tell you about it. But first—” It was one of the few times Bonnie had seen Meredith look awkward. Finally she blurted, “How was it?”
“How was what?”
“Kissing Damon, you nitwit!”
“Ohhhh.” Bonnie melted back into the bucket seat. “It was like…kapow! Zap! Zowie! Like…fireworks.”
“You’re smirking.”
“I am not smirking,” Bonnie said with dignity. “I am smiling in fond remembrance. Besides—”
“Besides, if you hadn’t Called him, we’d still be stuck in that horror of a room. Thank you, Bonnie. You saved us.” Abruptly Meredith was at her most serious and sincere.
“I guess Elena was maybe right when she said he didn’t hate all humans,” Bonnie said slowly. “But, you know, I just realized. I couldn’t see his aura at all. All I could see was black: smooth hard black, like a shell around him.”
“Maybe that’s how he protects himself. He makes a shell so no one can see inside.”
“Maybe,” Bonnie said, but there was worried note in her voice. “And what about that message from Elena?”
“It says that Tami Bryce is definitely acting strangely and that she and Matt are going out to check out the Old Wood.”
“Maybe that’s who they’re going to meet — Damon, I mean. At 4:44, like he said. Too bad we can’t call her.”
“I know,” Meredith said grimly. Everyone in Fell’s Church knew that there was no reception in the Old Wood or the cemetery area. “But go ahead and try anyway.”
Bonnie did, and as usual got a no-service message. She shook her head. “No good. They must already be in the woods.”
“Well, what she wants is for us to go ahead and get a look at Isobel Saitou — you know, because she’s Jim Bryce’s girlfriend.” Meredith made a turn. “That reminds me, Bonnie: did you get a look at Caroline’s aura? Do you think she has one of those things — inside her?”
“I guess so. I saw her aura, and yuck, I never want to see it again. She used to be a kind of deep bronzy- green, but now she’s muddy brown with black lightning zigzagging all through. I don’t know if that means one of those things was inside her, but she sure didn’t mind cuddling up to them!” Bonnie shuddered.
“Okay,” Meredith said soothingly. “I know what I would say if I had to make a guess — and if you’re going to be sick, I’ll stop.”
Bonnie gulped. “I’m all right. But we’re seriously going to Isobel Saitou’s house?”
“We’re very seriously going there. As a matter of fact, we’re almost there. Let’s just brush our hair, take a few deep breaths, and get it over with. How well do you know her?”
“Well, she’s smart. We didn’t have any classes together. But we both got out of athletics at the same time — she had a jumpy heart or something, and I used to get that terrible asthma….”
“From any exertion except dancing, which you could keep up all night,” Meredith said dryly. “I don’t know her very well at all. What’s she like?”
“Well, nice. Looks a bit like you, except Asian. Shorter than you — Elena’s height, but skinnier. Sort of pretty. A little shy — the quiet type, you know. Sort of hard to get to know. And…nice.”
“Shy and quiet and nice sounds good to me.”
“Me, too,” Bonnie said, pressing her sweaty hands together between her knees. What sounded even better, she thought, was for Isobel to be not at home.
However, there were several cars parked in front of the Saitou house. Bonnie and Meredith knocked on the door hesitantly, mindful of what had happened the last time they had done this.
It was Jim Bryce who answered, a tall, lanky boy who hadn’t filled out yet and stooped a bit. What Bonnie found amazing was the change in his face as he recognized Meredith.
When he’d answered he’d looked awful; his face white under a medium tan, his body somehow crumpled. When he saw Meredith, some of the color came to his cheeks and he seemed to…well, to smooth out like a piece of paper. He stood taller.
Meredith didn’t say a word. She just stepped forward and put her arms around him. He clutched at her as if he was afraid she’d run away, and buried his face in her dark hair.
“Meredith.”
“Just breathe, Jim. Breathe.”
“You don’t know what it’s been like. My parents left because my great-grandpa’s really sick — I think he’s dying. And then Tami — Tami—”
“Tell me slowly. And keep breathing.”
“She threw knives, Meredith. Butcher knives. She got me in the leg here.” Jim plucked at his jeans to show a small slit of a hole in the fabric over the lower part of one thigh.
“Have you had a tetanus shot recently?” Meredith was at her most efficient.
“No, but it’s not really a big cut. It’s a puncture wound, mainly.”
“Those are exactly the kind that are most dangerous. You need to call Dr. Alpert right away.” Old Dr. Alpert was an institution in Fell’s Church: a doctor who even made house calls, in a country where carrying around a little black bag and stethoscope was pretty much unheard-of behavior.
“I can’t. I can’t leave….” Jim jerked his head backward toward the interior of the house as if he couldn’t bring himself to say a name.
Bonnie tugged at Meredith’s sleeve. “I have a very bad feeling about this,” she hissed.
Meredith turned back to Jim. “You mean Isobel? Where are her parents?”
“Isa-chan, I mean Isobel, I just call her Isa-chan, you know…”
“It’s all right,” said Meredith. “Just say what comes naturally. Go on.”
“Well, Isa-chan only has her grandma, and Grandma Saitou doesn’t even come downstairs much. I made her lunch a while ago and she thought I was — Isobel’s father. She gets…confused.”
Meredith glanced at Bonnie, and said, “And Isobel? Is she confused, too?”
Jim shut his eyes, looking utterly miserable. “I wish you’d go in and, well, just talk to her.”
Bonnie’s bad feeling was only getting worse. She really couldn’t stand another scare like the one at Caroline’s house — and she certainly didn’t have the strength to Call again, even if Damon weren’t in a hurry to get somewhere.
But Meredith knew all this, and Meredith was giving her the sort of look that couldn’t be denied. It also promised that Meredith would protect Bonnie, no matter what.
“Is she hurting anybody? Isobel?” Bonnie heard herself ask as they crossed through the kitchen and toward a bedroom at the end of the hallway.
She could hardly hear Jim’s whispered, “Yeah.”
And then, as Bonnie groaned internally, he added, “Herself.”
Isobel’s room was just what you’d expect from a quiet and studious girl. At least one side was. The other
