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right,Tyler , show us you're cooperating. Tell us how we can get this guy."
"Gethim? You're nuts!"Tyler burst into ugly laughter, and Matt tightened the arm around his throat. "Hey,
choke me all you want; it's still the truth. He told me he's one of the Old Ones, one of the Originals,
whatever that means. He said he's been making vampires since before the pyramids. He said he's made a
bargain with the devil. You could stick a stake in his heart and it wouldn't doanything . You can't kill
him." The laughter became uncontrolled.
"Where's he hiding,Tyler ?" Stefan rapped out. "Every vampire needs a place to sleep. Where is it?"
"He'd kill me if I told you that. He'deat me, man. God, if I told you what he did to that buck before it
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died& "Tyler 's laughter was turning into something like sobs.
"Then you'd better help us destroy him before he can find you, hadn't you? What's his weak point?
How's he vulnerable?"
" God, thatpoor buck& "Tyler was blubbering.
"What about Sue? Did you cry overher ?" Stefan said sharply. He picked up the ax. "I think," he said,
"that you're wasting our time."
The ax lifted.
"No! No! I'll talk to you; I'll tell you something. Look, there's one kind of wood that can hurt him not
kill him, but hurt him. He admitted that but didn't tell me what it was! I swear to you that's the truth!"
"Not good enough, Tyler," said Stefan.
"For God's sake I'll tell you where he's going tonight. If you get over there fast enough, maybe you can
stop him."
"What do you mean, where he's going tonight? Talk fast,Tyler !"
"He's going to Vickie's, okay? He said tonight we get one each. That's helpful, isn't it? If you hurry,
maybe you can get there!"
Stefan had frozen, and Meredith felt her heart racing. Vickie. They hadn't even thought about an attack
on Vickie.
"Damon's guarding her," Matt said. "Right, Stefan? Right?"
"He's supposed to be," Stefan said. "I left him there at dusk. If something happened, he should have
called me& "
"You guys," Bonnie whispered. Her eyes were big and her lips were trembling. "I think we'd better get
over therenow ."
They stared at her a moment and then everyone was moving. The ax clanged on the floor as Stefan
dropped it.
"Hey, you can't leave me like this! I can't drive! He's gonna come back for me! Come back and untie
my hands!"Tyler shrieked. None of them answered.
They ran all the way down the hill and piled into Meredith's car. Meredith took off speeding, rounding
corners dangerously fast and gliding through stop signs, but there was a part of her that didn't want to get
to Vickie's house. That wanted to turn around and drive the other way.
I'm calm; I'm the one who's always calm, she thought. But that was on the outside. Meredith knew very
well how calm you could look on the outside when inside everything was breaking up.
They rounded the last corner ontoBirch Street and Meredith hit the brakes.
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"Oh, God!"Bonnie cried from the backseat. "No! No!"
"Quick," Stefan said. "There may still be a chance." He wrenched open the door and was out even
before the car had stopped. But in back, Bonnie was sobbing.
Eleven
The car skidded in behind one of the police cars that was parked crookedly in the street. There were
lights everywhere, lights flashing blue and red and amber, lights blazing from the Bennett house.
"Stay here," Matt snapped, and he plunged outside, following Stefan.
"No!" Bonnie's head jerked up; she wanted to grab him and drag him back. The dizzy nausea she'd felt
ever sinceTyler had mentioned Vickie was overwhelming her. It was too late; she'd known in the first
instant that it was too late. Matt was only going to get himself killed too.
"You stay, Bonnie keep the doors locked. I'll go after them." That was Meredith.
"No! I'm sick of having everybody tell me tostay!" Bonnie cried, struggling with the seat belt, finally
getting it unlocked. She was still crying, but she could see well enough to get out of the car and start
toward Vickie's house. She heard Meredith right behind her.
The activity all seemed concentrated at the front: people shouting, a woman screaming, the crackling
voices of police radios. Bonnie and Meredith headed straight for the back, for Vickie's window. What is
wrong with this picture? Bonnie thought wildly as they approached. The wrongness of what she was
looking at was undeniable, yet hard to put a finger on. Vickie's window was open but itcouldn't be
open; the middle pane of a bay window never opens, Bonnie thought. But then how could the curtains be
fluttering out like shirttails?
Not open, broken. Glass was all over the gravel pathway, grinding underfoot. There were shards like
grinning teeth left in the bare frame. Vickie's house had been broken into.
"She asked himin ," Bonnie cried in agonized fury. "Why did shedo that? Why?"
"Stay here," Meredith said, trying to moisten dry lips.
"Stop telling me that. I can take it, Meredith. I'mmad , that's all. Ihate him." She gripped Meredith's
arm and went forward.
The gaping hole got closer and closer. The curtains rippled. There was enough space between them to
see inside.
At the last moment, Meredith pushed Bonnie away and looked through first herself. It didn't matter.
Bonnie's psychic senses were awake and already telling her about this place. It was like the crater left in
the ground after a meteor has hit and exploded, or like the charred skeleton of a forest after a wildfire.
Power and violence were still thrumming in the air, but the main event was over. This place had been
violated.
Meredith spun away from the window, doubling over, retching. Clenching her fists so that the nails bit
into her palms, Bonnie leaned forward and looked in.
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