by L. J. Smith
"Okay, to start off, why don't we put all these desks in a circle?"
Elena's attention snapped back to the stranger at the front of the room. He was still smiling.
"Come on, let's do it. That way we can all see each other's faces when we talk," he said.
Silently, the students obeyed. The stranger didn't sit at Mr. Tanner's desk; instead, he pulled a chair to the circle and straddled it backward.
"Now," he said. "I know you all must be curious about me. My name's on the board: Alaric K. Saltzman. But I want you to call me Alaric. I'll tell you a little more about me later, but first I want to give you a chance to talk.
"Today's probably a difficult day for most of you. Someone you cared about is gone, and that must hurt. I want to give you a chance to open up and share those feelings with me and with your classmates. I want you to try to get in touch with the pain. Then we can start to build our own relationship on trust. Now who would like to go first?"
They stared at him. No one so much as moved an eyelash.
"Well, let's see… what about you?" Still smiling, he gestured encouragingly to a pretty, fair-haired girl. "Tell us your name and how you feel about what's happened."
Flustered, the girl stood. "My name's Sue Carson, and, uh…" She took a deep breath and went doggedly on. "And I feel scared. Because whoever this maniac is, he's still loose. And next time it could be me." She sat down.
"Thank you, Sue. I'm sure a lot of your classmates share your concern. Now, do I understand that some of you were actually there when this tragedy occurred?"
Desks creaked as students shifted uneasily.
But Tyler Smallwood stood up, his lips drawing back from strong white teeth in a smile.
"Most of us were there," he said, and his eyes flickered toward Stefan. Elena could see other people following his gaze. "I got there right after Bonnie discovered the body. And what I feel is concern for the community. There's a dangerous killer on the streets, and so far nobody's done anything to stop him. And—" He broke off. Elena wasn't sure how, but she felt Caroline had signaled him to do it. Caroline tossed back gleaming auburn hair and recrossed her long legs as Tyler took his seat again.
"Okay, thank you. So most of you were there. That makes it doubly hard. Can we hear from the person who actually found the body? Is Bonnie here?" He looked around.
Bonnie raised her hand slowly, then stood. "I guess I discovered the body," she said. "I mean, I was the first person who knew that he was really dead, and not just faking."
Alaric Saltzman looked slightly startled. "Not just faking? Did he often fake being dead?" There were titters, and he flashed that boyish smile again. Elena turned and glanced at Stefan, who was frowning.
"No—no," said Bonnie. "You see, he was a sacrifice. At the Haunted House. So he was covered with blood anyway, only it was fake blood. And that was partly my fault, because he didn't want to put it on, and I told him he had to do it. He was supposed to be a Bloody Corpse. But he kept saying it was too messy, and it wasn't until Stefan came and argued with him—" She stopped. "I mean, we talked to him and he finally agreed to do it, and then the Haunted House started. And a little while later I noticed that he wasn't sitting up and scaring the kids like he was supposed to, and I went over and asked him what was wrong. And he didn't answer. He just—he just kept staring at the ceiling. And then I touched him and he—it was terrible. His head just sort of flopped …" Bonnie's voice wavered and gave out. She gulped.
Elena was standing up, and so were Stefan and Matt and a few other people. Elena reached over to Bonnie.
"Bonnie, it's okay. Bonnie, don't; it's okay."
"And blood got all over my hands. There was blood everywhere, so much blood…" She sniffed hysterically.
"Okay, time out," Alaric Saltzman said. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to distress you so much. But I think you need to work through these feelings sometime in the future. It's clear that this has been a pretty devastating experience."
He stood up and paced around the center of the circle, his hands opening and shutting nervously. Bonnie was still sniffling softly.
"I know," he said, the boyish smile coming back full force. "I'd like to get our student-teacher relationship off to a good start, away from this whole atmosphere. How about if you all come around to my place this evening, and we can all talk informally? Maybe just get to know each other, maybe talk about what happened. You can even bring a friend if you want. How about it?"
There was another thirty seconds or so of staring. Then someone said, "Your place?"
"Yes… oh, I'm forgetting. Stupid of me. I'm staying at the Ramsey house, on Magnolia Avenue." He wrote the address on the board. "The Ramseys are friends of mine, and they loaned me the house while they're on vacation. I come from Charlottesville, and your principal called me Friday to ask me if I could take over here. I jumped at the chance. This is my first real teaching job."
"Oh, that explains it," said Elena under her breath.
"Does it?" said Stefan.
"Anyway, what do you think? Is it a plan?" Alaric Saltzman looked around at them.
No one had the heart to refuse. There were scattered "yeses" and "sures."
"Great, then it's settled. I'll provide the refreshments, and we'll all get to know each other. Oh, by the way…" He opened a grade book and scanned it. "In this class, participation makes up half your final grade." He glanced up and smiled. "You can go now."
"The nerve of him," somebody muttered as Elena went out the door. Bonnie was behind her, but Alaric Saltzman's voice called her back.
"Would the students who shared with us please stay behind for a minute?"
Stefan had to leave, too. "I'd better go check about football practice," he said. "It's probably canceled, but I'd better make sure."
Elena was concerned. "If it's not canceled, do you think you're feeling up to it?"
"I'll be fine," he said evasively. But she noticed that his face still looked drawn, and he moved as if he were in pain. "Meet you at your locker," he said.
She nodded. When she got to her locker, she saw Caroline nearby talking to two other girls. Three pairs of eyes followed Elena's every move as she put away her books, but when Elena glanced up, two of them suddenly looked away. Only Caroline remained staring at her, head slightly cocked as she whispered something to the other girls.
Elena had had enough. Slamming her locker, she walked straight toward the group. "Hello, Becky; hello, Sheila," she said. Then, with heavy emphasis: "Hello, Caroline."
Becky and Sheila mumbled "hello" and added something about having to leave. Elena didn't even turn to watch them slink away. She kept her eyes on Caroline's.
"What's going on?" she demanded.
"Going on?" Caroline was obviously enjoying this, trying to draw it out as long as possible. "Going on with who?"
"With you, Caroline. With everybody. Don't pretend you're not up to something, because I know you are. People have been avoiding me all day as if I had the plague, and you look like you just won the lottery. What have you done?"
Caroline's expression of innocent inquiry slipped, and she smiled a feline smile. "I told you when school started that things were going to be different this year, Elena," she said. "I warned you your time on the throne might be running out. But it isn't my doing. What's happening is simply natural selection. The law of the jungle."
"And just what is happening?"
"Well, let's just say that going out with a murderer can put a cramp in your social life."
Elena's chest tightened as if Caroline had hit her. For a moment, the desire to hit Caroline back was almost irresistible. Then, with the blood pounding in her ears, she said through clenched teeth, "That isn't true. Stefan hasn't done anything. The police questioned him, and he was cleared."
Caroline shrugged. Her smile now was patronizing. "Elena, I've known you since kindergarten," she said, "so I'll give you some advice for old times' sake: drop Stefan. If you do it right now you might just avoid being a complete social
leper. Otherwise you might as well buy yourself a little bell to ring in the street."
Rage held Elena hostage as Caroline turned and walked away, her auburn hair moving like liquid under the lights. Then Elena found her tongue.
"Caroline." The other girl turned back. "Are you going to go to that party at the Ramsey house tonight?"
"I suppose so. Why?"
"Because I'll be there. With Stefan. See you in the jungle." This time Elena was the one to turn away.
The dignity of her exit was slightly marred when she saw a slim, shadowed figure at the far end of the hallway. Her step faltered for an instant, but as she drew closer she recognized Stefan.
She knew the smile she gave him looked forced, and he glanced back toward the lockers as they walked side by side out of the school.
"So football practice was canceled?" she said.
He nodded. "What was that all about?" he said quietly.
"Nothing. I asked Caroline if she was going to the party tonight." Elena tilted back her head to look at the gray and dismal sky.
"And that's what you were talking about?"
She remembered what he had told her in his room. He could see better than a human, and hear better, too. Well enough to catch words spoken down forty feet of corridor?
"Yes," she said defiantly, still inspecting the clouds.
"And that's what made you so angry?"
"Yes," she said again, in the same tone.
She could feel his eyes on her. "Elena, that's not true."
"Well, if you can read my mind, you don't need to ask me questions, do you?"
They were facing each other now. Stefan was tense, his mouth set in a grim line. "You know I wouldn't do that. But I thought you were the one who was so big on honesty in relationships."
"All right. Caroline was being her usual bitchy self and shooting her mouth off about the murder. So what? Why do you care?"
"Because," said Stefan simply, brutally, "she might be right. Not about the murder but about you. About you and me. I should have realized this would happen. It's not just her, is it? I've been sensing hostility and fear all day, but I was too tired to try and analyze it. They think I'm the killer and they're taking it out on you."
"What they think doesn't matter! They're wrong, and they'll realize that eventually. Then everything will be the way it was again."
A wistful smile tugged at the corner of Stefan's mouth. "You really believe that, don't you?" He looked away, and his face hardened. "And what if they don't? What if it only gets worse?"
"What are you saying?"
"It might be better…" Stefan took a deep breath and continued, carefully. "It might be better if we didn't see each other for a while. If they think we're not together, they'll leave you alone."
She stared at him. "And you think you could do that? Not see me or talk to me for however long?"
"If it's necessary—yes. We could pretend we've broken up." His jaw was set.
Elena stared another moment. Then she circled him and moved in closer, so close that they were almost touching. He had to look down at her, his eyes only a few inches from her own.
"There is," she said, "only one way I'm going to announce to the rest of the school that we've broken up. And that's if you tell me that you don't love me and you don't want to see me. Tell me that, Stefan, right now. Tell me that you don't want to be with me any more."
He'd stopped breathing. He stared down at her, those green eyes striated like a cat's in shades of emerald and malachite and holly green.
"Say it," she told him. "Tell me how you can get along without me, Stefan. Tell me—"
She never got to finish the sentence. It was cut off as his mouth descended on hers.
Six
Stefan sat in the Gilbert living room, agreeing politely with whatever it was Aunt Judith was saying. The older woman was uncomfortable having him here; you didn't need to be a mind reader to know that. But she was trying, and so Stefan was trying, too. He wanted Elena to be happy.
Elena. Even when he wasn't looking at her, he was aware of her more than of anything else in the room. Her living presence beat against his skin like sunlight against closed eyelids. When he actually let himself turn to face her, it was a sweet shock to all his senses.
He loved her so much. He never saw her as Katherine any more; he had almost forgotten how much she looked like the dead girl. In any case, there were so many differences. Elena had the same pale gold hair and creamy skin, the same delicate features as Katherine, but there the resemblance ended. Her eyes, looking violet in the firelight just now but normally a blue as dark as lapis lazuli, were neither timid nor childlike as Katherine's had been. On the contrary, they were windows to her soul, which shone like an eager flame behind them. Elena was Elena, and her image had replaced Katherine's gentle ghost in his heart.
But her very strength made their love dangerous. He hadn't been able to resist her last week when she'd offered him her blood. Granted, he might have died without it, but it had been far too soon for Elena's own safety. For the hundredth time, his eyes moved over Elena's face, searching for the telltale signs of change. Was that creamy skin a little paler? Was her expression slightly more remote?
They would have to be careful from now on. He would have to be more careful. Make sure to feed often, satisfy himself with animals, so he wouldn't be tempted. Never let the need get too strong. Now that he thought of it, he was hungry right now. The dry ache, the burning, was spreading along his upper jaw, whispering through his veins and capillaries. He should be out in the woods—senses alert to catch the slightest crackle of dry twigs, muscles ready for the chase—not here by a fire watching the tracery of pale blue veins in Elena's throat.
That slim throat turned as Elena looked at him.
"Do you want to go to that party tonight? We can take Aunt Judith's car," she said.
"But you ought to stay for dinner first," said Aunt Judith quickly.
"We can pick up something on the way." Elena meant they could pick up something for her, Stefan thought. He himself could chew and swallow ordinary food if he had to, though it did him no good, and he had long since lost any taste for it. No, his… appetites… were more particular now, he thought. And if they went to this party, it would mean hours more before he could feed. But he nodded agreement to Elena.
"If you want to," he said.
She did want to; she was set on it. He'd seen that from the beginning. "All right then, I'd better change."
He followed her to the base of the stairway. "Wear something with a high neck. A sweater," he told her in a voice too low to carry.
She glanced through the doorway, to the empty living room, and said, "It's all right. They're almost healed already. See?" She tugged her lacy collar down, twisting her head to one side.
Stefan stared, mesmerized, at the two round marks on the fine-grained skin. They were a very light, translucent burgundy color, like much-watered wine. He set his teeth and forced his eyes away. Looking much longer at that would drive him crazy.
"That wasn't what I meant," he said brusquely.
The shining veil of her hair fell over the marks again, hiding them. "Oh."
"Come in!"
As they did, walking into the room, conversations stopped. Elena looked at the faces turned toward them, at the curious, furtive eyes and the wary expressions. Not the kind of looks she was used to getting when she made an entrance.
It was another student who'd opened the door for them; Alaric Saltzman was nowhere in sight. But Caroline was, seated on a bar stool, which showed off her legs to their best advantage. She gave Elena a mocking look and then made some remark to a boy on her right. He laughed.
Elena could feel her smile start to go painful, while a flush crept up toward her face. Then a familiar voice came to her.
"Elena, Stefan! Over here."
Gratefully, she spotted Bonnie sitting with Meredith and Ed Goff on a loveseat in the corner. She and Stefan settled on a large ottoman
opposite them, and she heard conversations start to pick up again around the room.
By tacit agreement, no one mentioned the awkwardness of Elena and Stefan's arrival. Elena was determined to pretend that everything was as usual.
And Bonnie and Meredith were backing her. "You look great," said Bonnie warmly. "I just love that red sweater."
"She does look nice. Doesn't she, Ed?" said Meredith, and Ed, looking vaguely startled, agreed.
"So your class was invited to this, too," Elena said to Meredith. "I thought maybe it was just seventh period."
"I don't know if invited is the word." replied Meredith dryly. "Considering that participation is half our grade."
"Do you think he was serious about that? He couldn't be serious," put in Ed.
Elena shrugged. "He sounded serious to me. Where's Ray?" she asked Bonnie.
"Ray? Oh, Ray. I don't know, around somewhere, I suppose. There's a lot of people here."
That was true. The Ramsey living room was packed, and from what Elena could see the crowd flowed into the dining room, the front parlor, and probably the kitchen as well. Elbows kept brushing Elena's hair as people circulated behind her.
"What did Saltzman want with you after class?" Stefan was saying.
"Alaric," Bonnie corrected primly. "He wants us to call him Alaric. Oh, he was just being nice. He felt awful for making me relive such an agonizing experience. He didn't know exactly how Mr. Tanner died, and he hadn't realized I was so sensitive. Of course, he's incredibly sensitive himself, so he understands what it's like. He's an Aquarius."
"With a moon rising in pickup lines," said Meredith under her breath. "Bonnie you don't believe that garbage, do you? He's a teacher; he shouldn't be trying that out on students."
"He wasn't trying anything out! He said exactly the same thing to Tyler and Sue Carson. He said we should form a support group for each other or write an essay about that night to get our feelings out. He said teenagers are all very impressionable and he didn't want the tragedy to have a lasting impact on our lives."
"Oh, brother," said Ed, and Stefan turned a laugh into a cough. He wasn't amused, though, and his question to Bonnie hadn't been just idle curiosity. Elena could tell; she could feel it radiating from him. Stefan felt about Alaric Saltzman the way that most of the people in this room felt about Stefan. Wary and mistrustful.