Chapter Twenty-One
Jeremy stared out the window as Tyler pulled the truck up in front of his house. They hadn't talked much the rest of the night and when Tyler suggested they put a different game in the Xbox, Jeremy asked him to take him home instead. The ride over was saved from heavy silence from the radio. Jeremy jacked it up, not caring that he hated every song that came on. It was one of Tyler's preset stations. Jeremy didn't like the radio in general. It was all the same recycled songs on repeat, but it was better than trying to talk. Right now, he wanted to be in his own room figuring out how he felt about Tyler's decision to push back his coming out.
"I'll come over tomorrow and check on you." Tyler told him, rolling the volume down on the radio.
"Don't worry about it." Jeremy dissuaded him. "You're probably right. I should rest. I'll text you and see you Monday at school."
"Okay." Tyler acquiesced uncertainly. "Let me help you inside."
"I got it." Jeremy opened the door to get out on his own.
"Okay…" As Jeremy moved to get out, Tyler reached over and grabbed his arm. "Hey." As Jeremy turned back Tyler leaned over and kissed him gently on the lips. "I love you."
"You too." Jeremy murmured and climbed out of the truck without looking back.
He really did feel excessively tired. Jenna advised against the trip to Tyler's house, but he had insisted that he was fine. He thought she might have been right, though, as he made his way slowly to the front door. He was closing it behind him when Tyler started the truck up and pulled away.
He felt bad for wanting Tyler to be ready if he wasn't and felt bad for feeling bad because he thought he sort of had a right at this point to feel a little indignant. He had hoped things would be different, open and better. He didn't want to spend his life hiding.
Following noises in the living room, he walked over and peered inside. The mess was gone. The glass was cleared out and everything was put back into position and righted. Where their coffee table was, a new one was sitting along with a new vase and side lamp. Jeremy eyed the room in surprise and slumped down into an armchair across from Elena and Caroline on the couch.
"Hey, you okay?" Elena asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. What happened here?" He beckoned around.
Elena looked at the perfectly neat room with some satisfaction. "Tyler got rid of the glass and cleaned up this morning while you were asleep, and Damon brought in the new stuff an hour ago. Back to normal."
Jeremy looked at the new coffee table. It was made of wood instead of glass like their old one and looked far more expensive. It would be easier to clean, so Jeremy didn't ask questions.
"Yeah, I guess." He agreed. So much for Tyler paying for the damages. It was just as well. Damon was as responsible for the broken pieces of furniture as he was.
Jeremy was still glancing around when his eyes passed over the window, revealing a large hunkering figure standing directly outside looking in. His heart skipped in shock. He yelled out, jumping back in his seat.
"Oh shit!" He exclaimed.
Elena jumped. "What?"
Jeremy glanced at her and back, but the figure was gone. The sneering face was lodged into memory, though, and he shot to his feet.
"The fucking vampire from last night! He was right outside the window!" He pointed to the area and Elena immediately reached into her pocket.
She pressed a number on her speed dial, getting to her feet and waving Jeremy toward her. He wandered toward the window with Caroline instead. "I'm calling Damon. Are you sure?"
"I swear to God." Jeremy's pulse quickened the closer he got to the window. He couldn't believe it. He was thinking about furniture one moment and being stared at by a psychopathic vampire the next.
Caroline was there first and pulled the curtains all the way back. She looked out and around, taking a moment before pointing at something outside. Her fingernail tapped the glass. "There! Do you see?"
It took Jeremy's human eyes a moment longer to make out the vampire's tall figure in the dark, but he was definitely there. Across the street, just outside of any light, the husky vampire stood still on the sidewalk and stared at the Gilbert home. The eerie stillness in his stance sent chills down Jeremy's spine. His hand went to his neck instinctively.
"Oh my God…" Caroline murmured under her breath as Elena came up behind them and shoved the curtains back into place, hiding them from view of the vampire. "That's the vamp that attacked you guys?"
"Yeah." Jeremy watched her carefully. A burgeoning guilt built over her face, and he got a sinking feeling in his stomach. "What…?"
Elena hung up the phone and tucked it back in her pocket after leaving a quick message for Damon. She turned to Caroline at the sound of unease from Jeremy. "Her face went slack with foreboding. "Caroline, what?"
Caroline looked like someone who would rather be doing anything but talking, and that look on her of all people pushed a brick of dread in the pit of Jeremy's stomach. She pointed toward the street, now blocked from view by the curtains.
"That's the vamp I met the other day. The one I went running with in the woods. He seemed so nice. He was a new vampire like me and seemed really interested in everything about me. He was a really good listener…"
Elena's eyes were growing steadily larger. "Caroline, what did you do?"
Caroline looked on the brink of tears. "He asked about my friends, and I mentioned you went to the local university and how you were taking a couple evening classes. That must have been how he knew where you would be and decided when to make his move. Elena, I am so sorry! He seemed like such a nice guy, and when I ran into him again this morning…"
Ice ran through Jeremy and threatened to stop his heart.
"Caroline, what did you do?" Elena demanded more adamantly.
"We decided to go for lunch but I forgot my phone here last night. Jenna was here when we stopped by. I introduced him as an old friend of mine." Caroline's face went pale, and for once she looked as undead as she was. "Elena, she invited him in… He can come inside the house."
Elena's mouth fell open and Jeremy seemed to hear the words at a great distance. He was frozen still and disconnected, jerked back to the present at the sound of the front door being splintered open. The girls screamed and Jeremy instinctively cowered, ducking his head down protectively. Jeremy didn't see so much as a blur of movement before he felt a devastatingly strong hand close around his throat. He and Elena were lifted in a stranglehold and rammed backward against the wall. Caroline made a move for them and the vampire squeezed.
"I'll break their necks." He growled in warning and Caroline froze, caught between intervening and the fear of consequences. "Meadows wants Damon to know that they know he went looking for them today, that he showed up at their homes with naughty intentions. If he doesn't back off and go away, they'll come for him. And I will come for you." He hissed in Elena's face.
The area around the bite was throbbing, and Jeremy was beginning to see cloudy spots from lack of oxygen. His fingers fumbled against the wall until he found Elena's hand. Struggling not to drop it, he pulled his ring off and pushed it over her thumb. Elena's eyes went wide as she turned them in his direction, choking.
"You!" He shook Jeremy. "They didn't say anything about you. I could eat you and no one would care."
"No!" Elena shouted raggedly and reached manically for Jeremy's hand but he pulled it away as his fingers began to flex desperately for air.
The vampire growled. "Sounds like a nice warning."
He drew his lips back but as he struck, the new coffee table came down on his head with enough power behind the blow to crack it in half. His grip loosened automatically and Jeremy fell to the floor with Elena gasping and sputtering. Caroline dropped one of the halves, widening her handle on the remaining piece and reeling it up with a scream. The vampire's jaw snapped up with a teeth cracking whip.
"Get out of here!" Caroline yelled at them, discarding her broken weapon and changing to her fists instead. She punched the vampire twice repeatedly before throwing all her weight into her right hook. The vamp careened backward and dropped.
Jeremy grabbed Elena's arm and they struggled to their feet, leaning into each other as they forced themselves into a sloppy run. The front door was smashed, ripped from its hinges and toppled inward in broken slabs. Jeremy grabbed his keys from the bowl on the table beside the coatrack and stumbled over the caved in doorway.
"We can't just leave her!" Elena began to slow outside.
"We stay, we die!" Jeremy pulled Elena forward and nearly shoved her into the passenger side of the Jeep. He thanked God that Alaric went with Jenna that morning to pick it up from the side of the road and drive it home. Elena might be wearing his invincibility ring, but that wouldn't protect her from torture. His mind flickered over what the insane vampire tried to do to her while he was human, and he moved even faster. "We'll call Stefan and Damon from the road. She'll be fine, she's older."
"Barely!" Elena yelled, but he put the car in reverse and peeled out of the driveway without hesitation. He twisted loudly onto the road and kicked down on the gas for all the Wrangler was worth.
Elena pulled her phone from her pocket with shaky hands and speed dialed the first person on her list. Jeremy checked the rear and side mirror as they sped away down the street. No sign of the vampire but no sign of Caroline either. His heart pounded a million beats per minute and he stepped harder on the gas.
Jeremy drove straight to Alaric's apartment and Jenna let them in shocked. Damon went straight to their house when he got the message on his voicemail and called Elena after finding the house empty. He reported a lot of property damage. The living room was all but destroyed, the banister was crushed in places and the kitchen was badly trashed with broken dishes scattered across the floor. The upstairs looked untouched, but neither the vicious vampire or Caroline were anywhere to be seen.
Stefan tracked her scent for several miles but the trail went dead on the outskirts of town. He went to the apartment, alternately calling Caroline and having everyone check their phones for messages, pacing tensely around the living room the entire time. Jeremy tried calling Tyler but it went to voicemail and he hung up without leaving a message. It wasn't something someone should hear about from a prerecorded source in case he couldn't get through to him directly after hearing it. Jeremy didn't want him to worry.
Stefan went over to Damon on the couch and slapped his shoulder. Damon locked eyes with his brother in silent understanding. They got up to take off for Meadows when a knock on the door got everyone's attention. Stefan looked up and sniffed the air. His face shifted in recognition.
"Caroline." He became a blur of movement. The door swept inward, tossing a rush of air inside from the speed of it being pulled open. It was a wonder it was able to stay on its hinges.
Caroline was in the doorway, but Jeremy didn't get a look at her at all. The door was closed and then Stefan was hugging her and only her curly blonde head could be seen over his shoulder. Elena shot to her feet in relief and Jeremy dropped back against Alaric's stiff couch feeling like the world's greatest weight was lifted off of him. If something had happened to her after they left her there alone he never would have been able to live with himself.
"What happened?" Elena asked.
Caroline stepped back from Stefan but he didn't take his eyes off her, gently pushing her hair back. Whether it was to sooth her or himself was uncertain. She took a large breath and stepped into the apartment.
"I kicked his ass. And then he kind of kicked mine." She conceded.
Jeremy hoped never to have the look of white fury in Stefan's eyes pointed at him. The vampire didn't so much as move an inch, but the rigid restraint in his expression was undeniable. As Caroline stepped farther into the room, Jeremy could see why. Her clothes looked like they were put in a blender with mud and debris. The right side of her face was beat up so badly Jeremy figured even a vampire would be bruised for a few days. Her left jacket sleeve was torn off and a long scratch ran all the way down to her wrist. Caroline went through the ringer and as bad as she looked, Jeremy knew they made the right decision to flee. Without backup, with the two of them to worry about, something told him they would all be much worse off right now.
"Is he dead?" Stefan asked, and there was a note of something in his voice, detectable despite his low, even voice. Hope that Caroline killed him and maybe a little hope that she had not. If the job of taking him down was still up for grabs, Jeremy didn't see anyone else in the room with more outright eagerness to step up. Like everything with Stefan, the emotion was right below the surface, coolly controlled behind a careful façade, but Jeremy read him easily enough. After the vampire attacked his sister and tried to kill him twice, he was sharing a lot of those same feelings.
Caroline walked to an armchair and sank down into it heavily. "No." Shame eased over her face through the swelling. "I ran." She confessed. "He was fast. It took a while to lose him and double back."
Stefan sat on the armrest beside her and squeezed her shoulder.
"Caroline, I'm so sorry." Elena sat on the couch cushion closest to her and leaned forward, touching her knee.
Caroline rubbed her face tiredly, bringing delicate fingers to touch the sore areas experimentally. She looked at Elena in confusion. "For what?"
Elena looked surprised. "For leaving you there."
"Yeah, Caroline." Jeremy tried to portray all the gratitude he felt in his voice. "You saved our lives."
She rolled her eyes flippantly and shook her head. "You wouldn't even have been in danger if I hadn't been so stupid."
"Damn right." Damon shot her a nasty look.
"I'm the one who invited him in." Jenna came back into the room, handing Caroline a glass of water.
Caroline sat up straighter, happy to push responsibility for the attack on someone else if it was in Jenna's defense. "Damon's the one who went back to Meadows and stirred up more trouble. The deal was dead, and he clearly exaggerated how well the negotiations were going. You couldn't have just let it go, could you?" She shot him a snappy look.
"That vampire assaulted Elena. I planned on slaughtering him and everyone who sent him. Now I have to do it all double, and it will hurt more." He considered. "Stefan and I will head to Meadows tonight and won't come back until we find and kill them all." He looked at his brother for compliance and Stefan nodded. "In the meantime, no going back to the house and don't go out after dark. They don't have rings so they're bound by the night, but that doesn't mean you should be careless during the day." He wandered over to Elena and gave her a quick kiss. "Stef, you ready?"
Stefan stared down at Caroline and when he looked up his eyes were dark and his fangs slid down. "Ready."