Chapter Nine

Elena opened her eyes slowly and blinked to regain focus. She looked around, and realised that she was lying on the sofa, a blanket over her. I must have fallen asleep, she realised, as she remembered the events of the previous night. Damon must have covered me with the blanket.

Suddenly, she sat up with a jolt.

Damon.

Where was he? She scanned the room, breathing heavily. He wasn't there. He can't have gone, she thought, panicking. He said he wouldn't leave.

Just as she was about to venture outside to find him the door opened and closed quietly. As Elena's eyes flicked over to see who was there, Damon entered, and stopped when he saw she was awake.

She looked at him. "Where were you?"

He regarded her curiously. "I had to hunt."

Her breathing was still quick. "You said you wouldn't leave!"

Damon frowned. "Would you rather I quenched my thirst with the blood of your friends?"

She didn't answer.

"I thought not," he replied smoothly, and moved to sit down on the chair.

Elena was looking away from him. "Damon," she said suddenly.

He said nothing, but raised his eyebrows.

"How do we find these people?" She looked back to him. "I want to find them. Now." There was a fierce urgency in her voice as she spoke.

A corner of his upper lip turned upwards in a smirk. "So, you've come round to my way of thinking at last. I'm glad."

"I'm serious, Damon. I want to know who these people are and I want to find them. Not soon, not tomorrow, now."

He met her eyes for a moment. "And your friends? Where do they fit in to this? Are they coming along for the ride, or shall I just persuade the ladies to leave as well as that useless boy?"

Elena shook her head. "I don't want them to leave. I want them here, I just… I don't know what to say to them. They'll have questions, and I can't answer them at the minute, I just can't."

Damon shrugged. "Easily solved. We gag them and stick them in the boot of the car."

She frowned. "Damon, stop it."

He smiled in response. "It'd make things a lot easier."

She chose not to answer him. "So where do we start?"
He lounged back in the chair. "We don't. Not yet."

Elena stared at him. "What?"

"I said we don't. We have absolutely no information about these people. We can't track them down until we know something about them. And for us to know something about them, we have to wait until they make another move."

Elena had a look of disbelief and shock on her face. "Damon, the next move they make could be killing one of us!"

His face had its usual calmness about it. "We can't do anything yet."

"But—"

"Do you know their names?" he interrupted her suddenly.

She hesitated. "No."

"Were they there when you found Stefan?"

"No."

"Could you give me a detailed description of what they look like? Where they moved from?"

"No, but…."

"Then we wait."

She was looking intensely at him. "But I'm tired of waiting, Damon. I want these people—these monsters—to pay. And I can't just sit around, waiting until they kill me or my friends off one by one. I have to do something, or I'll—I'll go crazy."

He wasn't listening to her. "You say they weren't there when you found Stefan?"

She paused, a little thrown by his sudden change of topic. "No."

"And nobody got to him before you? Not Bonnie or Meredith?"

"No. Damon, why are you—"

"Nothing." He cut her off sharply, but his face was thoughtful, and Elena could tell he had got an idea about something, but she didn't pursue it. She knew what Damon was like when he didn't want to elaborate on something. She knew she'd never get it out of him unless he decided to tell her.

He got up from the chair. "I'm going to have a little talk with these friends of yours. Make sure they understand their place in all this." Elena was about to say something, but once more he cut her off. "Stay here, and wait. You want these guys, I'll get them for you, but if you don't do as I say you're going to get yourself into trouble. I'll be back soon." With that, he turned and left the room before Elena could speak again.

He found Meredith and Bonnie in the kitchen, sitting and talking over two cups of steaming tea. They broke off when Damon entered the room, and looked up at him.

"How is she?" Bonnie asked quietly.

He didn't look at her, but kept his eyes fixed on Meredith, who was staring into her mug. "Fine," he answered shortly. "I need to talk to you," he added, not bothering to mention a name. He guessed that Bonnie would realise he meant Meredith by the way he was waiting for her to look at him.

She did so, surprised. "Me? What for?"

"It doesn't matter. I just need to talk to you, now. Alone," he added, hoping that Bonnie would get the message.

Bonnie glanced up at him. "Do you want me to go outside then?"

He finally looked back at her. "No. We will. You stay here and watch Elena. And whatever you do, don't leave her in the house on her own. If you need me, I'm at the front of the house." He turned back to Meredith. "Are you coming?" he asked coldly.

She got up, a bit puzzled by his tone. "I guess so."

"Good." He turned and strode out of the kitchen, towards the front door. Meredith glanced at Bonnie, who shrugged, and then followed Damon outside.

He was waiting with a grim look on his face.

"Damon, what's—"

"How did you know?"

She sighed. "What?" She hated the way he asked questions so suddenly and expected people to know the answers straight away.

"When you told me about the two new people who had come to town, you said you only knew they were vampire hunters after they attacked Stefan. But how did you know they were the ones that had attacked him?"

She still looked confused. "Damon, what are you talking about?"

"Both you and Elena said that Elena got to Stefan first. Nobody found him before her. And she also said that the two men were not there when she found him. So nobody could have seen who actually attacked him except for Stefan himself. And since Stefan is dead, how did you know it was those men that had attacked him?" Damon's eyes were almost as dark as ebony as he waited for her answer.

She looked worried suddenly, and her voice was quiet as she answered him. "I don't know… I just… I guessed it was them; I mean, they seemed like the type who would do something like that."

"But you told me they never caused any trouble and kept themselves to themselves." Damon's eyes were shining now as he continued relentlessly. "Doesn't seem like the type of people who would actively go looking for a vampire to kill, now, does it?"

"Well, it had to be them; there was no one else who would have done it."

In one step, Damon moved forward and grabbed the girl by the shoulders, causing her to give a little cry of fear.

"How about you start telling me the truth, Meredith? What do you know about what happened to Stefan? And what do you know about these people?" He shook her as he spoke, and she cried out again.

"Nothing, I swear, I haven't got any idea who they are."

Damon lost his patience, and his face shifted. His teeth grew longer, and he felt a snarl rise in his throat. He shook the girl once more.

"You have a single heartbeat to tell me what's going on here, before I rip your heart out."

She looked at him in fear, and nodded her head quickly. "Okay, okay, I'll tell you, just let me go."
His face slipped back to normal, but he kept his grip on her arms. Meredith swallowed, and spoke quietly.

"I swear, I had no idea what these guys were going to do. If I had, I would have warned Stefan and Elena." She glanced up at Damon. "But I did know them."

She paused, and he snarled again.

"Go on," he said dangerously.

"Do you remember I told you that Alaric had gone travelling?" He nodded once, impatiently. "Well, before he left he introduced me to two old colleagues of his, back from when he was doing his research on vampires. They were Russian, and had come to America to find Alaric, because they thought he was still interested in all that stuff. But whereas Alaric just wanted to get information on vampires, these guys wanted to wipe them out. Kill every vampire they could find. I told Alaric he'd be stupid to keep in contact with them, but he said that they would have gained much more information about vampires and parapsychology than he could have done in a lifetime. He was really interested in what they had to say. I tried to stop him, but he went back with them to Russia to work on some more research." She paused and looked at Damon, who still had a tight hold on her arms and was waiting for her to go on. "I haven't seen Alaric since, but when these two guys showed up here a few weeks ago, I remembered them straight away. I didn't think they knew anything about Stefan being a vampire, so I didn't take much notice of them. If I'd have known, I swear, I would have said something, Damon, I promise." She looked distressed. "And then… as soon as we found Stefan, I knew it was them. But I thought if I said anything, Elena would blame it on me, for not saying anything before. So I kept it to myself. But that's all I know, honestly, Damon."

He was looking so angry now that Meredith was almost too scared to look at him.

"You stupid girl!" he growled. He was about to speak again, but he was cut off by a loud crash from inside the house, and a scream that he knew, instinctively, was Elena's.

Author's Note: Okay, I tried to make that all suspenseful and twisty, but something's nagging in the back of my mind that there's a problem here somewhere. So if I've missed anything, or something doesn't make sense, could you let me know? And then I'll try and fix it. Sometimes I get ideas really quickly and then don't think them through properly, so I'd be grateful for any help you guys can give. Thanks! Oh, and as always, please review!