The Vampire Diaries: The Salvation, Unspoken(18)

“Excellent,” Damon said, and Elena felt another flare of excitement from him. “There’s something I want to try.”





Meredith dug her nails into the palms of her hands and tried not to breathe. The vampire—the young vampire, he looked like a high school kid—was watching her, leaning against the bars of his cage. Beneath his shaggy black bangs, his dark eyes shone with hate as he looked at the group staring at him. Both of his wrists were chained to the steel bars of one of the dorm’s basement storage cages, and he twisted his wrists against them unceasingly, testing the handcuffs for weakness. Damon must have found a way to weaken him, so the chains were enough to hold him.

Damon tapped the bars between them, poking at the vampire’s face, and the kid lunged, snapping at him with sharp teeth. Damon pulled his hand back with a laugh. “You see, he’s fast, but no faster than I am,” he explained. Meredith, Alaric, Bonnie, Matt, Jasmine, and Elena had all gathered to see Damon’s latest development. “I wanted to show him to you all, because I want your help in figuring out how Jack made him, and how to kill him.”

The trapped vampire was growling, softly but steadily, like a savage animal. The sound grated on Meredith’s nerves, and when Alaric’s hand brushed against her arm, she jerked away.

“Are you okay?” he asked her quietly, and she nodded, not looking at him.

“I’m fine.” She had to keep her distance from Alaric. She felt sick, thinking about it, but she could still smell the tantalizing, salty scent of his blood.

“It’s so creepy, the way he’s just staring at us,” Bonnie said. Her small face was wrinkled with disgust, and she clung to Zander’s arm. With a jolt, Meredith realized she was the only one who could hear the vampire’s growling.

Meredith felt dizzy. She was just like this kid huddled against the bars. What would Elena say if she knew what Meredith was now? Or Bonnie? Would they want to chain her up the same way?

Damon knew about her, but Damon was practical: He thought Meredith was his best route to finding Jack. Not to mention that he’d given his word, and Meredith knew that once he gave it, Damon never broke his word. Besides, she’d find a cure before anyone else found out the truth, she promised herself, stuffing her hands into her pockets so no one could see them shake.

Behind her, Jasmine pressed her back against the wall, as far from the imprisoned vampire as she could get. She was holding tightly to Matt’s hand, and Meredith could hear her quick, panicked little breaths. This was Jasmine’s first face-to-face encounter with an unfriendly vampire, Meredith realized. Matt was stroking her hair with his other hand, comforting, his attention on Jasmine. The vampire thrashed and kicked, straining against his bonds, the handcuffs clanging against the bars of his cage, and Jasmine yelped, burying her face in Matt’s shoulder.

“Let me try something,” Damon said, and picked up a stake from the floor. The vampire in the cage stopped twisting at his handcuffs and stood very still, his eyes narrowed.

“We know that won’t kill him,” Elena said, her voice even. She and Damon glanced at each other, clearly in perfect accord. They were strangely alike, Meredith thought.

“It’ll hurt, though,” Damon said cheerfully. Turning, he slammed the stake between the bars and into the vampire’s chest. The kid gasped, a long rattling breath, and his eyes flew wide open. Damon pulled the stake out. A bright bubble of blood swelled out of the wound and trickled down the vampire’s chest, but Meredith could already see the hole closing up, leaving the vampire’s chest unmarked.

“You see how quickly he heals,” Damon told them.

Meredith flinched. The kid probably hadn’t asked for this to happen to him, either. That was true of most vampires, she supposed. They’d all been victims once. It wasn’t something she’d worried about, until now.

She pulled her hand from her pocket and rubbed at her forehead. It was too much—the noise and the smells of her friends’ blood, all of them crowded together down here—and she was so hungry. She hadn’t had any blood since that shameful night Damon had found her.

“Want to tell us where Jack’s hiding?” Damon said, his voice friendly. Meredith glanced between Damon and Elena. Elena was nibbling on her lip, her eyes bright. This was about Stefan, of course. It wasn’t just a vampire hunt. If they couldn’t take vengeance on Jack directly, torturing one of his creations would help.

The vampire bared his teeth at Damon. “I don’t need to tell you,” he said. He sounded sulky, like the human teenager he had been probably only a month or two before. “Jack’ll find you, and then you’ll be sorry. I hope he lets me help kill you.”