Elena watched him go, feeling her own eyebrows going up in surprise. James knew more than he was saying, that was for sure. If he wouldn’t tel her—and she wasn’t giving up on him just yet—she’d find out somewhere else. Those pins were significant, his reaction proved that.
What kind of mystery could be tied to a pin? Had James said something about secret societies?
“After my parents died,” Samantha told Meredith, “I went to live with my aunt. She came from a hunter family, too, but she didn’t know anything about it. She didn’t seem to want to know. I kept on doing martial arts and everything I could learn by myself, but I didn’t have anyone to train me.” Meredith shone her flashlight into the dark bushes over by the music building and waved the beam around. Nothing to see except plants.
“You did a good job teaching yourself,” she told Samantha. “You’re smart and strong and careful. You just need to keep trusting your instincts.” It had been Samantha’s idea to patrol the campus together after sundown, to check out the places where the missing girl, Courtney, had been spotted last night, to see if they could find anything.
Meredith had felt powerful at the beginning of the evening, poised to fight, with her sister hunter beside her.
But now, even though it was interesting to patrol with Samantha, to see the hunter life through her eyes, it was starting to feel like they were just wandering around at random.
“The police found her sweater somewhere over here,” Samantha said. “We should look around for clues.”
“Okay.” Meredith restrained herself from saying that the police had already been through here with dogs, looking for clues themselves, and there was a good chance they had found anything there was to find. She scanned the flashlight over the grass and path. “Maybe we’d be better off doing this during the day, when we can see better.”
“I guess you’re right,” Samantha said, flicking her own flashlight on and off. “It’s good that we’re out here at night, though, don’t you think? If we’re patrol ing, we can protect people. Keep things from getting out of control. We walked Bonnie home last night and kept her safe.” Meredith felt a flicker of anxiety. What if they hadn’t come along? Could Bonnie have been the one who disappeared, instead of Courtney?
Samantha looked at Meredith, a little smile curling up the corners of her mouth. “It’s our destiny, right? What we were born for.”
Meredith grinned back at her, forgetting her momentary anxiety. She loved Samantha’s enthusiasm for the hunt, her constant striving to get better, to fight the darkness. “Our destiny,” she agreed.
Off across the quad, someone screamed.
Snapping into action without even thinking about it, Meredith began running. Samantha was a few steps behind her, already struggling to keep up. She needs to work on her speed, cool y commented the part of Meredith that was always taking notes.
The scream, shril and frightened, came again, a bit to the left. Meredith changed direction and sped toward it.
Where? She was close now, but she couldn’t see anything. She scanned her flashlight over the ground, searching.
There. On the ground nearby, two dark figures lay, one pinning the other to the ground.
Everyone froze for a moment, and then Meredith was racing toward them, shouting “Stop it! Get off! Get off!” and a second later, the figure that had been pinning the other down was up and running into the darkness.
Black hoodie, black jeans, the note taker said calmly.
Can’t tell if it’s a guy or a girl.
The person who’d been pinned was a girl, and she flinched and screamed as Meredith ran past her, but Meredith couldn’t stop. Samantha was behind her so she could help the girl. Meredith had to catch the fleeing figure.
Her long strides ate up the ground, but she wasn’t fast enough.
Even though she was going as fast as she could, the person in black was faster. There was a glimpse of paleness as the person looked back at her and then melted into the darkness. Meredith ran on, searching, but there was nothing to be found.
Final y, she halted. Panting, trying to catch her breath, she swept the beam of the flashlight over the ground, looking for some clue. She couldn’t believe she had failed, that she had let the attacker get away.
Nothing. No trace. They had gotten so close, and stil , al she knew was that the person who attacked this girl owned black clothes and was an insanely fast runner. Meredith swore and kicked at the ground, then pul ed herself back together.
Approximating calmness, she headed back toward the victim. While Meredith was chasing the attacker, Samantha had helped the girl to her feet, and now the girl was huddled close to Samantha’s side, wiping her eyes with a tissue.
Shaking her head at Meredith, Samantha said, “She didn’t see anything. She thinks it was a man, but she didn’t see his face.”
Meredith clenched her fists. “Dammit. I didn’t see anything either. He was so fast…” Her voice trailed off as a thought struck her.
“What is it?” Samantha asked.
“Nothing,” Meredith said. “He got away.” In her mind, she replayed that momentary glimpse of pale hair she had seen as the attacker looked back at her. That shade of pale
—she had seen it somewhere very recently.
She remembered Zander, his face turned toward Bonnie’s. His white-blond hair was that same unusual shade. It wasn’t enough to go on, not enough to tel anyone.
A momentary impression of a color didn’t mean anything.
Meredith pushed the thought away, but, as she gazed off into the darkness again, she wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly cold.
19
Nobody was going to lie to Elena Gilbert and get away with it.
Elena marched along the path to the library, indignation keeping her head high and her steps sharp. So James thought he could pretend he didn’t remember anything about those V-shaped pins? The way his eyes had skipped away from hers, the faint flush of pink in his plump cheeks, everything about him had shouted that there was something there, some secret about him and her parents that he didn’t want to tel her.
If he wasn’t going to tel her, she would find out for herself. The library seemed like a logical place to start.
“Elena,” a voice cal ed, and she stopped. She had been so focused on her mission that she had almost walked right by Damon, leaning against a tree outside the library. He smiled up at her with an innocently inquiring expression, his long legs stretched in front of him.
“What are you doing here?” she said abruptly. It was so weird, just seeing him here in the daylight on campus, like he was part of one picture superimposed upon another. He didn’t belong in this part of her life, not unless she brought him in herself.
“Enjoying the sunshine,” Damon said dryly. “And the scenery.” The wave of his hand encompassed the trees and buildings of the campus as wel as a flock of pretty girls giggling on the other side of the path. “What are you doing here?”
“I go to this school,” Elena said. “So it’s not weird for me to be hanging around the library. See my point?” Damon laughed. “You’ve discovered my secret, Elena,” he said, getting to his feet. “I was here hoping to see you.
Or one of your little friends. I get so lonely, you know, even your Mutt would be a welcome distraction.”
“Real y?” she asked.
He shot her a look, his dark eyes amused. “Of course I always want to see you, princess. But I’m here for another reason. I’m supposed to be looking into the disappearances, remember? So I have to spend some time on the campus.”