Part 15 (1/2)
”Klaus!”He spat the name as if it were a curse. ”Did you see him?” ”Yes,” Bonnie said, pulling back. She gulped, her stomach churning. ”He's crazy, isn't he, Stefan?” ”Yes.” Stefan got up. ”And he must be stopped.” ”But how?”Since seeing Klaus, Bonnie was more frightened than ever, more frightened and less confident. ”What could stop him, Stefan? I've never felt anything like that Power.” ”But didn't you-?” Stefan turned to her quickly. ”Bonnie, didn't you hear what Elena said at the end?” ”No. What do you mean? I couldn't hear anything; there was a slight hurricane going on at the time.” ”Bonnie...” Stefan's eyes went distant with speculation and he spoke as if to himself. ”That means thathe probably didn't hear it either. So he doesn't know, and he won't try to stop us.” ”From what?Stefan, what are you talking about?” ”From finding a victim.Listen, Bonnie, Elena told me that if we can find a surviving victim of Klaus's, we can find a way to stop him.”
Bonnie was in completely over her head. ”But... why?”
”Because vampires and their donors-their prey-share minds briefly while the blood is being
exchanged. Sometimes the donor can learn things about the vampire that way. Not always, but
occasionally. That's what must have happened, and Elena knows it.” ”That's all very well and good-except for one small thing,” Bonnie said tartly. ”Will you please tell me who onearth could have survived an attack by Klaus?”
She expected Stefan to be deflated, but he wasn't. ”A vampire,” he said simply. ”A human Klaus made into a vampire would qualify as a victim. As long as they've exchanged blood, they've touched minds.”
”Oh. Oh. So... if we can find a vampire he's made... butwhere?” ”Maybe inEurope .”Stefan began to pace around the room, his eyes narrowed. ”Klaus has a long history,and some of his vampires are bound to be there. I may have to go and look for one.”
Bonnie was utterly dismayed. ”But Stefan, you can't leaveus . You can't!” Stefan stopped where he was, across the room, and stood very still. Then at last, he turned to face her.”I don't want to,” he said quietly. ”And we'll try to think of another solution first-maybe we can get hold ofTyler again. I'll wait a week, until next Sat.u.r.day. But I may have to leave, Bonnie. You know that aswell as I do .” There was a long, long silence between them. Bonnie fought the heat in her eyes, determined to be grown up and mature. She wasn't a baby and she would prove that now, once and for all. She caught Stefan's gaze and slowly nodded.
Thirteen
June 19, Friday, 11:45 p.m.Dear Diary, Oh, G.o.d, what are we going to do?
This has been the longest week of my life. Today was the last day of school and tomorrow Stefan is leaving. He's going toEurope to search for a vampire who got changed by Klaus. He says he doesn't want to leave us unprotected. But he's going to go.
We can't findTyler . His car disappeared from the cemetery, but he hasn't turned up at school. He's missed every final this week. Not that the rest of us are doing much better. I wish Robert E. Lee was like the schools that have all their finals before graduation. I don't know whether I'm writing English or Swahili these days.
I hate Klaus. From what I saw he's as crazy as Katherine-and even crueler. What he did to Vickie -but I can't even talk about that or I'll start crying again. He was just playing with us at Caroline's party, like a cat with a mouse. And to do it on Meredith's birthday, too-although I suppose he couldn't have known that. He seems to know a lot, though. He doesn't talk like a foreigner, not like Stefan did when he first came toAmerica , and he knows all about American things, even songs from the fifties. Maybe he's been over here for a while...
Bonnie stopped writing. She thought desperately. All this time, they had been thinking of victims inEurope , of vampires. But from the way Klaus talked, he had obviously been inAmerica a long time. He didn't sound foreign at all. And he'd chosen to attack the girls on Meredith's birthday...
Bonnie got up, reached for the telephone, and called Meredith's number. A sleepy male voice answered.
”Mr. Sulez , this is Bonnie. Can I speak to Meredith?”
”Bonnie! Don't you know what time it is?”
”Yes.” Bonnie thought quickly. ”But it's about-about a final we had today. Please, I have to talk with her.”
There was a long pause, then a heavy sigh. ”Just a minute.”
Bonnie tapped her fingers impatiently as she waited. At last there was the click of another phone being picked up.
”Bonnie?” came Meredith's voice. ”What's wrong?”
”Nothing.I mean-” Bonnie was excruciatingly conscious of the open line, of the fact that Meredith's father hadn't hung up. He might be listening. ”It's about-that German problem we've been working on. You remember. The one we couldn't figure out for the final. You know how we've been looking for the one person who can help us solve it? Well, I think I know who it is.”
”You do?” Bonnie could sense Meredith scrambling for the right words. ”Well-who is it? Does it involve any long-distance calls?”
”No,” Bonnie said, ”it doesn't. It hits a lot closer to home, Meredith. A lot. In fact, you could say it's right in your own backyard, hanging on your family tree.”
The line was silent so long Bonnie wondered if Meredith was still there. ”Meredith?”
”I'm thinking. Does this solution have anything to do with coincidence?”
”Nope.”Bonnie relaxed and smiled slightly, grimly. Meredith had it now. ”Not a thing to do with coincidence. It's more a case of history repeating itself. Deliberately repeating itself , if you see what I mean.”
”Yes,” Meredith said. She sounded as if she were recovering from a shock, and no wonder. ”You know, I think you just may be right. But there's still the matter of persuading-this person-to actually help us.”
”You think that may be a problem?”
”I think it could. Sometimes people get very rattled-about a test. Sometimes they even kind of lose their minds.”
Bonnie'sheart sank. This was something that hadn't occurred to her. What if hecouldn't tell them? What if he were that far gone?
”All we can do is try ,” she said, making her voice as optimistic as possible. ”Tomorrow we'll have to try.”
”All right.I'll pick you up at noon. Good night, Bonnie.”
”Night, Meredith.” Bonnie added, ”I'm sorry.”
”No, I think it may be for the best. So that history doesn't continue to repeat itself forever. Good-bye.”
Bonnie pressed the disconnect b.u.t.ton on the handset, clicking it off. Then she just sat for a few minutes, her finger on the b.u.t.ton, staring at the wall. Finally she replaced the handset in its cradle and picked up her diary again. She put a period on the last sentence and added a new one.
We are going to see Meredith's grandfather tomorrow.
”I'm an idiot,” Stefan said in Meredith's car the next day. They were going toWest Virginia , to the inst.i.tution where Meredith's grandfather was a patient. It was going to be a fairly long drive.
”We're all idiots. Except Bonnie,” Matt said. Even in the midst of her anxiety Bonnie felt a warm glow at that.
But Meredith was shaking her head, eyes on the road. ”Stefan, you couldn't have realized, so stop beating up on yourself. You didn't know that Klaus attacked Caroline's party on the anniversary of the attack on my grandfather. And it didn't occur to Matt or me that Klaus could have been inAmerica for so long because we never saw Klaus or heard him speak. We were thinking of people he could have attacked inEurope . Really, Bonnie was the only one whocould have put it all together, because she had all the information.”
Bonnie stuck out her tongue. Meredith caught it in the rearview mirror and arched an eyebrow. ”Just don't want you getting too c.o.c.ky,” she said.
”I won't; modesty is one of my most charming qualities,” Bonnie replied.
Matt snorted, but then he said, ”I still think it was pretty smart,” which started the glow all over again.
The inst.i.tution was a terrible place. Bonnie tried as hard as she could to conceal her horror and disgust, but she knew Meredith could sense it. Meredith's shoulders were stiff with defensive pride as she walked down the halls in front of them. Bonnie, who had known her for so many years, could see the humiliation underneath that pride. Meredith's parents considered her grandfather's condition such a blot that they never allowed him to be mentioned to outsiders. It had been a shadow over the entire family.
And now Meredith was showing that secret to strangers for the first time. Bonnie felt a rush of love and admiration for her friend. It was so like Meredith to do it without fuss, with dignity, letting n.o.body see what it cost her. But the inst.i.tution was still terrible.
It wasn't filthy or filled with raving maniacs or anything like that. The patients looked clean and well cared for. But there was something about the sterile hospital smells and the halls crowded with motionless wheelchairs and blank eyes that made Bonnie want to run.
It was like a building full of zombies. Bonnie saw one old woman, her pink scalp showing through thin white hair, slumped with her head on the table next to a naked plastic doll. When Bonnie reached out desperately, she found Matt's hand already reaching for hers. They followed Meredith that way, holding on so hard it hurt.
”This is his room.”