L. Smith - Moonsong

“That’s about the best I can expect,” he said roughly. “Thank you.”

“So there’s a whole room ful of dead vampires down there?” Bonnie asked, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

“Pretty much,” said Elena. “We chained the doors closed again, but I wish we could close the chamber off more permanently. Someone’s going to go down there eventual y, and the last thing this campus needs is another murder investigation, or another gruesome legend.”

“Ta-da!” Bonnie said, grinning brightly and pul ing a little bag out of her pocket. “Final y something I can do.” She held the bag up. “Remember al the hours Mrs. Flowers made me spend studying herbs? Wel , I know spel s for locking and warding, and I’ve got the herbs to use right here. I thought they might come in handy, as soon as Matt told us we were going to a secret underground chamber.” She looked so pleased with herself that Matt had to smile a little despite the heaviness inside him at the thought of Chloe and the others somewhere out in the night. “They might not work for more than a day or two,” she added modestly, “but they’l definitely discourage people from investigating the trapdoor for that long.”

“You’re a wonder, Bonnie,” Elena said, and spontaneously hugged her.

Stefan nodded. “We can get rid of the bodies tomorrow,” he said. “It’s too close to dawn to do it now.” Bonnie got right to work, sprinkling dried plants across the trapdoor. “Hyssop, Solomon’s seal, and damiana leaves,” she said when she saw Matt watching her. “They’re for strengthening of locks, protection from evil, and general protection. Mrs. Flowers dril ed me on this stuff so much I final y got them al down. It’s too bad I didn’t have her helping me with my homework in high school. Maybe I would have learned some of those French verbs.” Damon was watching them, his eyes half hooded. “We should look for the new vampires, too,” he said. “You know vampires aren’t pack animals. They won’t hunt together for long. Once they split up, we can pick them off,” he told Stefan.

“I’m coming, too,” Meredith said. She looked at Damon chal engingly. “I’l just walk Matt home and then meet up with you both.”

Damon smiled, a peculiarly warm smile that Matt had never seen him direct at Meredith before. “I was talking to you, too, hunter,” he said. “You’ve gotten better.” After a second, she smiled back, a humorous twist of her lips, and Matt thought he saw something that might be the beginnings of friendship flickering between them.

“So the Vitales were definitely behind al the murders and disappearances?” Matt asked Stefan, feeling sick.

How could he have spent so much time with Ethan and not suspected that he was a murderer?

Bonnie’s face went so white that her few freckles showed like little dark dots on plain paper. And then her color came flooding back, her cheeks and ears turning a bright pink. She climbed unsteadily to her feet. “I should go see Zander,” she said.

“Hey,” Matt said, alarmed, and moved to block the door.

“There’s stil a whole bunch of vampires outside, Bonnie.

Wait for somebody to walk you over.”

“Not to mention that you have other commitments,” Damon said dryly, looking meaningful y at the herbs scattered across the trapdoor. “After you work your witchy mojo, then you can go see your pet.”

“We’re sorry, Bonnie,” Meredith said, shifting uncomfortably from one foot to another. “We should have trusted you to know a good guy when you saw one.”

“Right! Al is forgiven,” Bonnie said brightly, and plopped down in front of the trapdoor again. “I just need to say the spel .” She ran her hands through the herbs. “Existo signum,” she muttered. “Servo quis est intus.” As she scooped some of the herbs back into her bag, Bonnie kept smiling, and stopping, and staring into space, and then bouncing a little. Matt smiled at her tiredly. Good for Bonnie. Someone ought to have a happy ending.

He felt a strong, thin hand take his and turned to see Meredith beside him. She smiled sympathetical y at him.

Nearby, Elena laid her hand tentatively on Stefan’s arm, and they both had their eyes on Bonnie. Damon stood stil , watching them al with an almost fond expression.

Matt leaned against Meredith, comforted. No matter what happened, at least they were together. His true friends were with him; he had come home to them at last.

The sun was low in the east when Bonnie climbed up the fire escape, her feet clanging on each step. As she came over the side of the building, she saw Zander sitting with his back against the rough concrete wal at the edge of the roof. He turned to stare at her as she came toward him.

“Hi,” she said. She’d been so excited to see him on her way over here, enough so that Elena and Meredith got over their guilt and started to laugh at her, but now she felt weird and uncomfortable, like her head was too big. It was, she realized, total y possible that he wouldn’t want to talk to her.

After al , she’d accused him of being a murderer, which was a pretty big mistake for a girlfriend to make.

“Hi,” he said slowly. There was a long pause, and then he patted the concrete next to him. “Want to sit down?” he asked. “I’m just watching the sky.” He hesitated. “Ful moon in a couple of days.”

Mentioning the ful moon felt like a chal enge, and Bonnie settled next to him, then squeezed her hands together and jumped right in. “I’m sorry I cal ed you a kil er,” she said. “I know now that I was wrong to accuse you of being responsible for the deaths on campus. I should have trusted you more. Please accept my apology,” she finished in a little rush. “Because I miss you.”

“I miss you, too,” Zander said. “And I understand it was a shock.”

“Seriously, though, Zander,” Bonnie said, and shoved him a little with her hip. “You just tel me you’re a werewolf?

Did you get bitten when you were a kid or something?

Because I know getting bitten is the only way to become a werewolf without kil ing someone. And, okay, I know you’re not the kil er now, but Meredith saw you with a girl who’d just been attacked. And … and you had bruises, real y bad bruises everywhere. I think I had every right to think something was hinky with you.”

“Hinky?” Zander laughed a little, but there was an edge of sadness to it, Bonnie thought. “I guess it’s kind of hinky, if you want to put it that way.”

“Can you explain?” Bonnie asked.

“Okay, I’l try,” Zander said thoughtful y. He reached down and took her hand, turning it over in his and playing with her fingers, pul ing them lightly. “As you apparently know, most werewolves are created either by being bitten, or by having the werewolf virus in their family and activating it by kil ing someone in a special ritual. So, either a terrible attack, which usual y screws the victim up, or a deliberate act of evil to grab the power of the wolf.” He grimaced. “It kind of explains why werewolves have such a bad reputation. But there’s another kind of werewolf.” He glanced at Bonnie with a sort of shy pride. “I come from the Original pack of werewolves.” Original. Bonnie’s mind raced. Immortal, she thought, and remembered Klaus, who had never been a human. “So

… you’re real y old, then?” she asked hesitantly.

It was fine, she guessed, for Elena to date guys who had seen centuries go by. Romantic, even. Sort of.

Despite the crush she’d had on Damon, though, Bonnie always pictured dating someone close to her own age.

Even Meredith’s cute, smart Alaric seemed kind of old to her, and he was only in his twenties.

Zander snorted with sudden laughter and squeezed her hand tight. “No!” he said. “I just turned twenty last month!