The Vampire Diaries: Evensong: Paradise Lost

by L. J. Smith

  “They think she was pregnant and miscarried,” Elena said, in a brittle, precise voice. Her face was pale. “That’s what they kept insisting on with me. They kept asking if I’d lost a baby. And there must be something strange going on with her because that newswoman said it was a cryptic case and a mysterious exsanguination. So . . . it’s another case exactly like mine.”

  But it couldn’t be, Damon thought giddily. There had to be some kind of mistake. Unless it was some kind of copycat criminal who had admired Stefan’s work and wanted to challenge him.

  He liked the sound of that. Copycat criminal. He had no idea why imitators were called copycats instead of copy-monkeys or something more rational, but copycat crimes were well-known throughout the world these days. Someone—some vampire—had heard about Elena’s case, and hadn’t been able to resist trying out their own version.

  But . . . upon a student from the same school that Stefan and Elena had attended? a little voice in his head seemed to say. And, further, why hadn’t Damon already sensed a foreign vampire on his own territory? He had wards all over this area that should have warned him. Being dead—or mostly—for as long as he had under the ash in the Nether World had given him new ideas of how safe he was in an area like Fell’s Church where crossing ley lines attracted all sorts of rabble.

  Now, standing still and silent in Elena’s dorm room, he sent out a probe of Power in all directions to see what he could see. After five separate probes, he was even more bewildered than he had been when he started. There was no sign of a new vampire, so if one was around it had to be clever enough to fool him. The werewolves showed up in every city within an hour’s distance as the crow flew, but he couldn’t sense any particular agitation among them—smug bastards that they were. He could feel the glow of Mrs. Flowers’ kitchen witchcraft on the edge of Fell’s Church, and he could strongly sense Bonnie’s powers in the dorm room beside him.

  But none of that mattered. There was something heading toward Dalcrest College that put everything else out of his mind. A psychic signature that was familiar but distorted, thrumming with raw Power as he had only seen it two or three times before.

  It was Stefan. Still in the area and with an aura that no vampire got from drinking the blood of animals. Stefan, blazing with Power, was headed this way in his Porsche.

  How the devil had Stefan come by so much eldritch energy? And why was he advertising an aura like that?

  To keep away small-fry, brother, a voice in Damon’s head replied. It wasn’t his own inner voice; it was Stefan’s. Stefan had deftly caught and tracked his probe and was now sending on a tight channel just to Damon.

  Twenty minutes, Stefan’s telepathic message ran. My dorm room. Be there, Damon.

  Half an hour, Damon bargained automatically. But—

  Just one word more, Stefan sent, and tension was crackling in his mental voice. Is Elena all right? Is she in another hospital?

  She’s fine. She’s standing right here. We all are. We just saw on the news—

  Half an hour, in my dorm room, Stefan cut in brusquely. Then we can talk.

  As suddenly as it had come, the voice was gone from Damon’s mind. He refocused on what was happening in the physical world around him.

  “What on earth is going on?” Caroline was saying, when a soft, hollow, and terrifying whisper suddenly answered her.

  “It is a sacrifice. A sacrifice of humans.”

  “Bonnie—no!” Meredith exclaimed, and Matt groaned, “Not again.”

  While Damon had been talking to Stefan, Bonnie had found her way into the corner opposite him and had her hands over her face.

  “Listen to her,” he said sharply. “But don’t touch her, anyone. I promise not to use shock treatment.” He was probing once again, trying to classify what Bonnie looked like in this state and what she might be connected to. His probes were coming back fuzzy, blurred with feedback interference. “Look, we need to find out where she’s getting these ideas. Keep her talking!”

  “Bonnie.” Elena’s voice unsteady but her tone was demanding. “We don’t understand you. What kind of sacrifice?”

  “Blood sacrifice,” Bonnie answered in a glutinous voice that made the hairs on Damon’s arms lift. “This is the second, but more is needed from Elena.”

  Elena was closer to Bonnie than anyone else in the room. She looked doubtful, wetting her lips. But she kept her head, Damon noticed, as he continued to probe around Bonnie, trying to find whatever was feeding her this slop.

  “Why should anyone need more from me?” Elena said in a careful, coaxing tone. “What could anyone want?”

  “Blood and death.” The horrific answer came back in a maddeningly matter-of-fact tone. “That is the purpose of sacrifice. There will be more sacrifices soon.”

  Meredith opened her mouth, but Elena, without even glancing back, waved a quelling hand at her. “I still don’t understand, Bonnie,” she said, moving stealthily until she was just behind the petite girl. “What do you think anyone would need blood sacrifices for? Or death?”

  Even Damon, who was busy examining his little redbird to see exactly who was holding the strings of this ghastly marionette show, couldn’t have predicted what would happen next.

  Bonnie whirled in her corner, hands flying down, and looked directly at Elena. Her face was distorted into a hideous leer, her small mouth twisted and grinning like a panting dog’s.

  “FOR FUN!” she shouted in a hoarse voice not at all like her own light one.

  Elena fell back as if she had been struck. Meredith darted to prop her up, then sat her on the bed and lunged forward again as Caroline shrilled a cry and Bonnie collapsed. Meredith wasn’t able to get to Bonnie quickly enough and there was a dull thud as Bonnie’s head hit the wall.

  As if to echo it, there were four loud knocks at the door.

  Everyone jumped, but no one said a word. Frightened glances were exchanged. Damon, frustrated in his attempt to trace any energy signature to Bonnie, strode forward to meet whatever new danger lay outside.

  He grabbed the doorknob and nearly wrenched the door off its hinges in opening it.

  “Who the hell are you?” he demanded of the figure in the hallway.

  “Uh . . . I’m from Amici’s?” A freckled delivery girl stepped forward hesitantly. “Someone ordered four large pizzas with everything?”

  Damon deflated, hearing sighs behind him. “I suppose someone did,” he admitted and pulled a hundred dollar bill off his silver money clip. “Keep the change,” he said briefly, and shut the door on the girl’s astonished face. He dumped the four hot, square, greasy boxes on the nearest flat surface and turned to look at the queen-size bed.

  Meredith had put the unconscious Bonnie on one side. Matt was talking to Elena, his arm around her shoulders, as she sat at the foot. Caroline had struggled up out of the lounge chair and was regarding the entire scene with an introspective frown.

  “Get some ice out of the fridge,” Damon ordered her, and he went to check on his girls. “Then put it in a paper towel or something.”

  “Are you all right?” he asked Elena. He pulled out his hipflask and made her drink a little Black Magic, ignoring Matt’s raised eyebrows.

  The Black Magic helped. A hint of color showed in Elena’s drawn face and her body relaxed a bit.

  “She—startled me, that’s all,” Elena said briefly. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

  “Who was?” Matt muttered. He looked pleadingly at Damon. “What’s happening to Bonnie? Can you tell? Why is she saying all this crazy—stuff?”

  Damon had to look away from his trusting young face. “I don’t know what’s going on,” he said harshly. “But I’m going to find out, you can bet on that. Matt, in a few minutes I’m going outside. I have to—well, do something that might help Bonnie and Elena. I can’t explain now, but will you watch Elena while I’m gone? Promise not to leave her alone even for a minute?”

  “Of course,” Matt said instantly. His eyes were questioning,
but his voice was steady. As if I were Stefan, Damon thought sardonically.

  He pushed his way by so that he could stand beside Meredith, who was bent over Bonnie. “What’s going on?”

  “She went into another . . . psychogenic trance thing,” Meredith said, apparently thinking he might have missed it.

  “How is she now, though?” Damon accepted the ice pack that Caroline slid across the bed.

  “I don’t know. She seems a little feverish, but—well, frankly, I have no idea at all what’s going on!”

  “I’m trying to figure it out, too,” Damon said sincerely. “But I have no clue as to what the problem is. Here, put this on her head where she bumped it. Did you hear what I asked Matt to do for Elena?”

  “It would have been hard not to.”

  “Will you do the same for Bonnie? Not leave her alone tonight, even for a few minutes?”

  “Of course,” Meredith said, sounding indignant. “I’d do it whether you asked me or not. But I think I’ll take her back to our room if she wakes up.”

  “Fine, but don’t try to force her awake. I have a feeling that it could be dangerous. And when she wakes up naturally, don’t ask too many questions.”

  Damon! The telepathic voice was unmistakable. I’m waiting in my dorm room for you. And I don’t even sense you moving.

  Sense this, Damon sent back rudely, and he added a few crude epithets in Italian. We’re having a slight crisis here, but I’ll be there in ten minutes, he added.

  Five minutes. There was a lot of Power behind the message.

  Whatever, Damon replied, trying to sound nonchalant. But once outside Elena’s room, he broke into a distance-eating run.

  He was almost on time. He would have been closer, except that he spent a minute or two outside Soto Hall strafing probes randomly in all directions. He still couldn’t believe it when he came up with no vampire other than Stefan.

  Stefan opened the door of his room looking angry and accusing. Damon reflexively fell back into his most bland and leisurely expression and lounged his way inside.

  “What the hell is going on?” Stefan demanded. “If Elena is here, who were they talking about on the radio?”

  “And hello to you, too,” Damon said languidly. “I’m fine, thanks for asking.”

  “I don’t care how you are. When did—did Elena get released? You said she was with you.”

  The slight stutter made Damon glance up sharply. He realized that if one looked closely enough, Stefan’s bravado was just that: bravado. Underneath, he was desperately worried.

  Damon felt the upper hand slide smoothly onto his fist. He sat down on the bed in the spartan room.

  “Elena was released from Mercy Havenwick this afternoon,” he said expressionlessly. “She’s in her room now, watching TV—or at least she was.”

  “Then she’s really all right.”

  “She’s better than all right; she’s been chafing at the bit to get out of that hospital since this morning. She was cured by the time you left her. But are you certain you’re all right, little brother?”—very solicitously.

  Stefan froze over. “Oh, yes, I’m just fine. It’s always been my vocation in life to erase my existence from the world.”

  “So you’ve finished, then?”

  “I finished—last night.” Again the audible hesitation. Damon’s little brother had something on his mind.

  “You got the diaries?”

  “I did everything. Everything to everyone,” Stefan said impatiently.

  Damon stretched, catlike. “Sounds like fun,” he murmured, but the next second he added, “Then what are you doing still on campus?”

  “I just drove back to collect Meredith’s fighting stave. I hid it in the forest here.”

  “And I see,” Damon commented genially, “that you’ve been taking my advice for once.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You’ve discovered that you need human blood for survival.”

  Stefan, who had been a tensely pacing young man, became a tensely leaping blur as he sprang and got his hands around Damon’s throat. Damon, caught by surprise, could only get a mirror hold on Stefan’s throat and try to choke him into unconsciousness.

  “Take it back!” Stefan shouted. “Take it back or I swear I’ll break your playacting neck!”

  Damon, too smart to use up Power-enhancing air by speaking, sent telepathically: I can take it back if you like, but it isn’t going to change the facts. You’ve fed on a human today.

  I have not! Stefan replied passionately. I took down a twelve-point buck! Ever since I left Dalcrest I’ve had only animal blood—animal! That and Black Magic!

  Damon tried to think while being throttled. He supposed it was just possible that Stefan was telling the truth. Sometimes a particularly large and experienced animal could boost Power in a marvelous way. A handsome stag at the height of its autumn strength, ready to fight and full of mating hormones, might have the kind of blood that mimicked a human’s. Certainly Stefan believed what he was saying.

  All right, Damon said strategically. I’ll take it back. You’re still an animal-lover and I’m just a humanitarian.

  The moment Stefan’s grip on him slackened, Damon moved fast, getting Stefan into a half-Nelson and holding him still.

  “But I’m afraid,” he said out loud, “that I could be pretty easily convinced to kill you right now. I don’t normally forgive being attacked for no reason. Is that understood, little brother?”

  Kill me if you want to. I’d consider it a favor at this point. You have Elena; you might as well have my life, too.

  “Tch, tch. Always so dramatic,” Damon murmured. “I have Elena because you wrote me into her brain—without my permission. And I already have your life, because you wrote me into your place in everyone’s brains—as a human—again without my permission. I’m not feeling overly tolerant this evening for some reason.”

  Stefan made no attempt to free himself. I said it before. Kill me if you like.

  Damon hesitated a long moment and then let his brother go. Stefan sat up and rubbed the back of his neck.

  “What’s she doing right now?” he asked, getting out each word separately, reluctantly. “Is she really healthy?”

  “I don’t know what she’s doing right now,” Damon said flatly, “but what she was watching on TV a little while ago was the local news.”

  Stefan froze over again and refused to speak. That alone told Damon volumes.

  “Look,” he said, working hard to keep animosity out of his voice, “so there’s another girl who lost most of her bloodstream today. What else is going on in your fuzzy little head?”

  Stefan’s voice was dull. “I had to make sure that it wasn’t Elena they were talking about on the radio. There weren’t many details, but they said she was in serious condition. And I wanted to talk to you.”

  Damon touched his throat. “Pithy way of talking.”

  Stefan’s eyes blazed suddenly. “You have no idea how exhausting it was, taking away memory after memory. Yes, I was tempted to drink from lots of the humans I Influenced. But I decided I would rather die.”

  “Each to his own,” Damon murmured. Out loud he said, “Have you found the other vampire?”

  “What other vampire?”

  “The one who did the copycat thing, putting that new girl in the hospital with Elena’s symptoms,” Damon said impatiently.

  “Copycat?” Stefan said blankly. Despite the amount of Power in his aura, he didn’t look either sharp or stable to Damon.

  “Think,” Damon suggested. “First, you almost drain Elena while you’re . . . well, merging souls or whatever. Her condition must have made the news. So, now, some copycat vampire has done something similar to a second girl—although I doubt the two of them did a lot of soul-merging. It probably was a straight-out draining job.”

  Stefan blinked. “Then you don’t think it was me?”

  Damon blinked in turn. “What the hell are you talking a
bout?”

  “I thought—when I heard about the girl on the radio I thought at first that they must mean Elena. But then, the more I wondered about it—well, you’re right, drinking animal blood doesn’t usually give so much Power. I thought that maybe, while I was out Influencing people, I might have gone overboard and bit someone. There were times when I was almost blacking out, especially when I had to walk back to the Old Wood to get my car.”

  Damon leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. “Sometimes I really think you’re insane,” he said confidentially.

  “Sometimes I almost believe you might not be,” was the bitter reply.

  “Stefan, if you had drained a girl while you were Influencing her, you’d remember. Besides, you wouldn’t have been blacking out at the end. You’d have had more than enough Power to get to your car. Therefore, it was someone else.”

  “Who?”

  “I don’t suppose you’ve been scanning or probing for a Power signature that would fit a new vampire,” Damon said thoughtfully.

  “No. It never occurred to me.”

  “Well, it occurred to me, and I’ve been doing it since I saw the news story. I haven’t found anything.”

  “Which means that somehow I still could have done it. Although, after the buck I wasn’t hungry at all, only tired to death.”

  “Where did you hunt this magical buck?”

  “Where do you think? In the Old Woods. First I found a doe, then I slept, but I woke up hungry again. I tracked this gorgeous buck and—I killed him. I hated to do it, but he was full of energy.”

  “A shape-changer?” Damon wondered aloud.

  “No, no. It was just a beautiful reddish-brown buck with an incredible aura. After that I slept through the day. And then, just as I told you, I was driving back to pick up Meredith’s fighting stave when I heard the news on the radio.” Stefan shrugged. “I can scan the area now.”

  Damon let him. He wasn’t surprised when Stefan came up with no results. But they were over half an hour away from Fell’s Church, and even farther from Heron. The girl had presumably been attacked either where she lived or where she’d been hospitalized. Someone that far away might be able to hide among the werewolves that inevitably showed up on any scan.